#isthisanything — Public Fediverse posts

Is This Anything?

A D&D One-Shot that plays out like a Hallmark Christmas Movie.

In the town of Wickhollow, the wreaths go up a week before Solstice. The winter baking competition has been running since before anyone can remember. The mayor wears a sash. The candle in the window of the oldest house on the main road has been lit every Longest Night for several generations.

Someone in your party has been here before. They lived here, they loved here, they lost here. They left. They swore they'd never come back. But the town has welcomed them back with open arms.

Something is wrong this year. It's not a problem that can be solved by hitting it, but it is certainly the type of problem that will absolutely ruin the Longest Night celebrations if nobody does anything.

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This is the idea of a one-shot that needs player and DM input to fully flesh it out.

What's wrong could be a family feud nobody will say aloud. It could be a recent loss that the town hasn't fully grieved yet. It could be a ritual nobody remembers how to perform. It could be the reason the hometown hero left in the first place, a wrong done to them that still sits unaddressed in the room.

One in the party is the "hometown hero" of sorts. They've returned to the town for the first time in years. Why they've returned could be a recent death in the family. It could be an old love to rekindle. It could be a letter with no return address that somehow found them anyway. It could just be that they were passing through; they swear they were only passing through.

The rest of the party are the quirky and lovable townsfolk. A chimneysweep, always covered in soot. A stablehand who can't escape the smell. An innkeeper who reserved the last room just for the "hero". The child who still believes all of it, completely, without irony.

The climax of the story is not driven by combat, but by a speech, a performance, a small act of community that the "hometown hero" could not have managed at session zero.

And it must start snowing right at the end. That is not a suggestion. The DM does not get a vote on this. It must start snowing.

#iTA #isThisAnything #DnD #OneShot #LongestNight #WinterSolstice #Hallmark

Is This Anything?

A fantasy city like Venice, but instead of sinking under rising water, it sits atop a powerful magical leyline. The leyline makes the city famous and prosperous, but over time it destabilizes reality itself, slowly dragging the city "under" in a far stranger way than water ever could.

And “under” doesn’t just have to mean water. It could be under time (slipping out of sync), under dreams (becoming surreal), under shadow (fading into a dark reflection), under memory (vanishing from minds), under silence (losing sound itself), under magic (mutating uncontrollably), or something stranger still.

#iTA #isThisAnything #worldbuilding #fantasycity #magicalrealism #urbanfantasy #storyidea #writingprompt #venicevibes #fantasylore

Naming your second-born child "Lorem Ipsum"

#iTA #isThisAnything #loremipsum #names #secondborn #placeholdername #wordplay #parentinghumor #absurdity #namingconventions #modernproblems

Naming your second-born child "Lorem Ipsum"

#iTA #isThisAnything #loremipsum #names #secondborn #placeholdername #wordplay #parentinghumor #absurdity #namingconventions #modernproblems

Naming your second-born child "Lorem Ipsum"

#iTA #isThisAnything #loremipsum #names #secondborn #placeholdername #wordplay #parentinghumor #absurdity #namingconventions #modernproblems

A TV reality show like Pimp My Ride but it's called Blur My Background. People who aren't capable of clicking the "Blur My Background" option in Zoom are visited by zany, somewhat dramatic experts who spend a day and $50,000 to physically blur the space behind the person on Zoom calls. They might paint the person's stuff, set up elaborate diffusion lenses on tripods, place translucent film in strategic locations, or maybe just dab microdoses of vaseline on the person's webcam.

Pretty sure this would be a huge hit.

#TV #badideas #stupidideas #isthisanything #realityTV #payme #yourewelcome