I’m aware of ludonarrative and ludonarrative dissonance, and use these terms a lot when discussing games. I really like rules design where the rules themselves support the narrative of the game. If you want a really great example, I would recommend the board game Galaxy Trucker by Vlaada Chvatil. Guy’s a master of this.

Another device that is commonly invoked in my group is something called “the abstraction layer.” - Basically, while roleplaying, the details of an interaction either matter to your narrative and game or they don’t. If something is consequential, it’s “above the abstraction layer” and if it’s not, it’s “below the abstraction layer.” Anything below the abstraction layer you just assume the characters accomplish in the abstract.

The abstraction layer moves as your characters progress and the scope of your story changes. Imagine you’re a starting level 1 wizard on your first adventure and you want to cast Find Familiar. The spell claims it requires “10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier” as a component.

Per the rules, this is a costed component, so it’s not in your reagent pouch, and you can’t replace the requirement with a casting focus, so your character actually has to source these components, and use of a brass brazier, in order to cast the spell. As a level 1 wizard, there might be some interesting narrative the DM wishes to insert here, where you meet and talk with proprietors of various magic reagent stores, or you have to visit your school or academy to buy some from the stores, or any number of other options.

However, consider a level 15 wizard who’s plane-hopping to race a cabal of Bane cultists to the pieces of an ancient artifact to activate a time-lost monoloth to wrest control over the heavens from the gods. Does your story still care about this 10gp of incense that you need to cast the spell? Or can you just assume that the wizard is capable enough to solve this problem off-camera? Do you even bother to mark down the 10gp cost on your character sheets when your party is rocking 150k of gold and art objects?

The important lesson is that the story you’re telling should focus on the details that matter to your characters, and to the narrative itself. Players who take the time to think about the details, and insert flavour will often tell more immersive and interesting stories, and the rules provide opportunities to delve into narrative, but also consider whether the details you’re bringing are pertinent and relative to the current narrative. It’s good to focus on where the details you’re adding provide context and support for your character and the narrative they’re involved in.

I shall fix

Honestly, it’s CR1. The guy has 18hp meaning you probably murk him in a round at any level. The most dangerous thing is the pit trap.

Bonus Konsi?

If you know what the Carabiner means, you know.

A classic.

This one caused me so much trouble! I went into it thinking “this will be easy” but it’s surprisingly hard to get right.

I don’t think I 100% got it, her body proportions are too human (Konsi is 4ft tall) - but it was a lot of fun to try. Daily drawing challenges aren’t about being perfect, they’re about just getting the thing done and learning from it.

This was part of my october drawing prompts, the prompt was “meme pose”

Artist circles on Twitter (although now it’s blue sky) have a bunch of “meme” drawing challenges. Most commonly “outfit” challenges where you have to draw your character wearing a specific outfit. These challenges are like artist “memes”, seeing other people do them causes them to spread. Pose memes are less common, but there are a few.

This pose is the “cammy stretch” meme pose: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cammy-stretch

A long time ago I did spend a few months experimenting with ratios to make my own cookie recipe, it makes really good chocolate chip cookies. Not very christmassy though.

But, if we’re going to get into DM advice, the way I’d recommend stopping “anything could be a mimic” from getting old is to have it constrained to a themed side-adventure, or a one-shot. For example: A wizard tower where the guy’s one weird hobby was breeding and training mimics. In such an adventure, you want to start fairly tame, but towards the end, the more outlandish and ridiculous the better.

As for the constraints on mimic forms, most of my DnD based jokes use 5e as their basis, as that’s what the majority of my audience are likely using.

Honestly, the system you run for new players should depend on who those players are, their preferences, and comfort levels with related things you can use to judge their preferences. A group of hardcore eurogame boardgamers are going to be a lot more comfortable learning a complex rule system than my in-laws.

Closest I have is this:

Bonus Konsi?

I suppose you can have some extra hair

Did someone say “Bonus Konsi”?

I think it was something like 10d8, plus poisoned condition until removed.

You could absolutely just put 25 gold pieces in a pile and cast the spell, but Konsi’s such a tryhard…

I think this largely comes from being a protagonist in a DnD campaign for a long time, especially a roleplay heavy one. DnD characters naturally build a portfolio of exploits that any NPC character would think insane to accomplish.

If you want the true gigachad energy though, the spell she used to contact Talona was Divination, which requires a sacrifice to the deity in question, worth at least 25gp.

Konsi thinks it’s good etiquette to make your sacrifice something the deity would approve of. For example, when she contacted Selune, she crafted some art-piece quality functional navigational tools out of silver and used those as the component in the spell.

As Talona is the goddess of poison and decay, Konsi decided that a suitable “sacrifice” would be a bottle of lethal, slow acting poison. She spent a few days gathering appropriate herbs and mushrooms, made the poison, then promptly drank it to sacrifice it.

I took a bit of a break from comics over October, so there wasn’t updates then. (Although this is where the bonus Konsis are coming from)

Here’s your bonus Konsi.