A Torrent of Consciousness

I have a couple of things on my mind tonight, so you're going to hear about them. I don't like the way 5th Edition D&D utilizes Barbarians as a class. D&D 5e is essentially about resource management, and the Rage ability comes with a number of usages for a character in a given day. However, I feel it's completely against character to use your Rage as a resource, essentially turning it into a stronger state you access sometimes. It's an ascension rather than a regression. The image and the descriptions of the class want to sell you the idea of being this unstoppable titan that answers to nothing, but that's not the class you actually play.

This has bled into other games; in Pathfinder, which is where I am looking to potentially (I never commit until the game starts, I like making new guys too much) play a Barbarian. But my character fears her rage, fears the demonic corruption that has seized her body. Yet the game in no way allows me to represent that in the Rage mechanic, outside of deliberately setting apart the mechanics and the narrative of the game. I prefer not to do that; I like when both can influence each other. A character who relies on their own emotional control is every bit as dramatic as a sorcerer who has conjured spirits to control. In both cases they appeal to forces most people don't have a perfect mastery of, and they both can go wrong in such fun, messy ways.

It's a minor point, but it annoys me. It feels like a blemish on the character that something so central to the character's identity is entirely applied in a layer on top of the game. It's not even that I would refuse to play this character, but rather that it feels like I could have such a stronger character if I find a different build that harmonizes better between what's on the sheet and what's in the playing.

Tonight Autumn & I watched Double Indemnity. It was a decent flick! That man is maybe the most cartoonishly horny man I've ever seen in a movie, I gotta say. Sometimes the pussy really isn't worth dying for, actually. But I had a good time! It really had a nice pace to it.

Recently I have been shipping my ocs with each other in my head at work. It's a lot of fun, and I recommend you try it. This week's ship has been the Raven Prince (My first d&d 3.5e character) and Mina, a new character I have who I haven't actually played but who is substantial enough in my mind to just rotate and think about.

The Raven Prince used to be a mortal man, Kaze, who I played for a few years about a decade ago. He's since become associated with his goddess, the Raven Queen, goddess of death, and is now known as the Raven Prince, as he is her envoy and agent across the multiverse. He was once a part of an organization of vampire hunters called the Bloodmark, and he bears the eponymous mark on his neck. It's a ward against vampires, and typically appears on the neck to thwart bites.

Mina, on the other hand, is a humble farm girl. A vampire takes up residence in the nearby town and begins hunting its people. Mina was attacked, bitten, and drained by this vampire, and was taken away to be his thrall. However, in that vampire's dungeon as the vampiric transformation gripped her, a mysterious mark appears on her neck. Its protections halt the transformation, leaving her stranded halfway between life and undeath. The mark is, naturally, the Bloodmark, shared from the Raven Prince to Mina.

Mina has been chosen by the Raven Prince because he recognizes her drive to seize revenge on the vampire who attacked her. He met with a similar fate himself, a thousand years before. Mina is a warlock bound to Kaze and inheriting some of his psionic abilities. She also has her pact weapon, which is the Raven Prince's own sword; when she draws that sword she draws it not from herself, but reaches through the planes to draw the blade from its sheathe on Kaze's back. Such is the faith he's come to place in her in the years since he became her mentor.

So obviously they fuck, right? It feels like it's screaming from the page! He's mysterious and a little tragic, having lived on as this immortal reaper figure while his mortal wife and companions are long gone. True he does regularly see his old adventuring party in the afterlife (being associated with the place, after all), but he only sees those who rose with him to be heroes of a caliber that their names echoed through history like a note on a string. They are not gods, but they are legends kept alive by memories of memories. Everyone else they knew, though? Gone.

Meanwhile she's determined to pursue this vengeance, and he is helping her track this vampire while they train and she does jobs for him. She's headstrong and belligerent, while he's aloof and condescending. They would clash a lot, but ultimately nurture a deep respect for each other. I eat it up.

I think it's neat when two people are closed off from each other but fall in love and open up...especially if they're both huge bitches about it...I didn't expect this to be so much about Mina & Kaze, but I'll allow it. I do love my blorbos, and I have so many to post about on here.