𝕋𝕋ℝℙ𝔾 𝔽𝕠𝕝𝕜𝕝𝕠𝕣𝕖

This blog was made in the hopes of collecting, and archiving ttrpg stories- your campaigns, the deed of your heroic PCs, the villainy of your terrible BBGs.

My name is Bix. I have a degree in both writing and literature and am a folklore enthusiast. A thought dawned on me one day. A terrible notion that shook me to my bones- one day we're all gonna die (that wasn't the notion) and, if they haven't been properly recorded, our ttrpg stories are going to go with us (that's it).

Not all of us are Matthew Mercer, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar or any number of well known role play professionals that have the time and set up to record and edit beautiful audio recordings of our sessions. Some of us (because of the kind of games we play) can't be that.

Some of us don't want to be that.

However, it still makes me sad at the prospect that so many stories could be lost- stories that speak to the time and place that we occupy. Stories that can be academically studied. Stories that can inspire.

Send me those stories.

Gush about them to me in my ask box. Send me an email. Send me art. Send me a shitty audio recording if you have it.

I'm sure there are other projects like this, but what's one more- Help me to archive this work we are all doing. I genuinely think it's important it survives.

Email: [email protected]

Important:

Character Snap Shots: Commiting to the Bit-

Hello! Looking for submissions from all you wonderful dice rollers out there!

This week's call is asking:

Was there ever a time you played a particular character and completely committed to the tropes of their class? Were you the horny bard? The broody rogue? The tree hugging druid? What compelled you to play them that way?

Campaign name: Runterra: The Sound of Violence

Party title: The Nexus of Fate

System: Pathfinder 2e

Country of origin: Players/GM are all USAmerican

Campaign start: March 2023-ongoing

Segment

There was a festival in Xiao'le. Everyone was supposed to be celebrating. Koeda was glad to see his hometown in high spirits. This strange, foreign, metal girl who sometimes spoke with another voice was certainly drawing attention- including that of the bird-Vastayan fortune teller, and the bear-Vastayan who, honestly, was barely discernibly from an actual bear. Both Vastayan seemed mute, communicating mainly in their sign language or with gestures and facial expressions to those who didn't understand their signing. How the bird, Xanrei, was telling fortunes this way is a mystery.

There was an awkward round of introductions, considering the signing necessary. The metal girl with the blue lights was called Nia, and the other voice, which turned the lights green, was called Ezi. Meanwhile, the bear seemed to think his name was simply "Aaaaa". Moments after the exchange of names, a scream rang out.

A ship was fast approaching the docks. Really fast. It wasn't going to stop- in fact, it crashed right up into the streets, splintering on the grounds. Noxian convicts poured out of the boat, brandishing weapons and immediately setting to cause as much damage and chaos as they could. The group that would become known as the Nexus of Fate truly came together in that moment when they all took up arms against the invasion.

As they cleared the streets, they kept encountering people fleeing, looking for refuge. The Nexus gathered them up, trying to escort them all to safety in the temple in the center of town. After one skirmish, they took one of the convicts alive and began questioning him. As soon as he started to explain that there was a plan, someone was behind this, a gunshot rang out. A bullet pierced through the glass of the windowpane and into the man's skull, a golden flower blossoming from the wound.

The group felt their hearts drop as most of them recognized the carnage before them. The flowers blooming from death wounds was a sure sign of the Golden Demon. Nia suddenly became desperate to reach the temple.

When they arrived, Aaaaa and Xanrei went inside to carry and tend to wounded, while Nia and Koeda pursued ideas of their own. Koeda took to the roofs, tracking down a stranger watching the temple and chasing him away. Nia, however, promptly ran back into the temple and urged them to evacuate in light of what she saw.

Bombs. Lots of them.

In a frantic flurry, the group loaded up those who couldn't walk into a cart, and herded the others out of the town gates, while Aaaaa pulled the cart to safety. Bare seconds after they passed the gates, they were thrown to their feet as the ground was rocked by a massive explosion, followed by a chain of smaller bursts. A veritable bouquet of those signature blossoms burst into the sky- 15 circling the town, and in the center, one massive bloom visible for miles.

I'm really excited to leaf through it all and to put some of it on here. I have a lot of ideas that I think will be fun.

I am just sort of waiting until yuletide is over 😅

Never say you have reached the end,

Though grey skies a dark future portends.

Soon the silver hour arrives.

Our marching steps thunder "We Survive."

From forest and peaks white with snow

We will march, whip in hand, for Kintargo!

Everywhere they spill our blood,

Watch it soak into the earth,

They will draw our courage out and see our spirit blooming forth.

Soon the morning sun will rise

Setting our new day aglow.

Quickly evil yesterdays will vanish soundly with our foe.

But if time is long till dawn,

Long before the sun appears,

Then let this song carry forth, like a signal through the years.

This song was written with our blood,

Chronicled in lines of red,

Its not just a cause or a raven overhead.

It is the people on the silver riverbanks

Singing this song of ours in files and in ranks.

Never day you've reached the end,

Though grey skies a dark future portends.

Soon the silver hour arrives.

Our marching steps thunder "We Survive!"

Soon the silver hour arrives.

Our marching steps thunder "We survive."

It was set to John Dreamer True Strength.

This ended up being a pivotal moment when it could have just been glossed over and it was such a fun session.

Submitted: 11/26/2023

Submission Type: Segment

Campaign Name: Hell's Rebels

System: Pathfinder

Files: Poetry/Music/PC Interactions/Victories/Milestones

----

As Oak leaves before Winter

Those, mournfully, were Scattered

Took root, drank deep, and splintered.

Until the silent Name be shattered

The blood of man made soil

by night and magic blessed

Bound by old root’s gnarled coil

Shall the Blood remain Possessed.

Submitted: 11/25/2023

Submission Type: Fragment

Files: Prophecy/Poetry/Lore/Worldbuilding

----

This is beautiful! I love this!

I'm happy that you got to have that time together. Both my partners played dnd with me before we got together- it was one of those things that just made us that much closer.

In the spirit of Beginnings, and the birth of this blog, I ask those in the TTRPG community to send me stories of how your party met. How did your campaign begin? Where and why did it begin? Who are your PCs and what bound them together?

2. Also congrats on being the 4000th blog I have followed on this tumblr account 🎉

Thank you!

I actually kinda got the idea for this because I'm a forever DM, but realized one of my players takes better notes than me and if anything were to happen the preservation of three years worth of work would fall on her. It made me realize the impermanence of this kind of thing.

Thought I'd make a post detailing how one may go about submitting their ttrpg stories on here in a way that would personally help me archive them.

These aren't hard rules, and if you submit without adhering to them I will simply organize it myself.

If you do adhere to this, however, that's one less step I have to worry about:

1) When submitting your work, please start by telling me the "title" or "name" your party calls this particular campaign or themselves. Following with the system you are using (D&D, Pathfinder, etc.)

Please also include your country of origin and the time frame in which you were/are playing this campaign.

2) When submitting your work please header it as one of the following:

Lore: Lore is the background or world building of your TTRPG.

Character Profiles: Character Profiles are in depth descriptions of PCs or NPCs.

Fragments: Fragments are notes, drawings, maps, memes, bits of audio recordings or video that don't have a larger context and are submitted as is.

Segments: Segments are Stories (writing, drawings or recordings) that have taken place within a larger campaign or narrative, and may or may not have any in depth lore or background explanation to tell me, the archiver, why exactly this event is transpiring- but to record that it did transpire.

Exposition Dump: An Exposition Dump is a long piece of writing, audio recording, or other media that goes into detail about a campaign or the world of your ttrpg. Despite the tongue and cheek name, I want Exposition Dumps. Feel free to send them, though the best place would probably be my email. In the event you send a Dump to my email, I may post segments of it here on the blog with your permission.

Once I get some submissions, I'll try to figure out what the cataloging and archiving set up will be.

Please keep in mind, though I do love hearing comedic stories about your characters and their hijinks (being able to laugh at yourself and with your friends is part of what makes ttrpg fun) this blog was made in service of preserving stories that come from ttrpg sessions- I want to hear about the funny, but I also want to hear about the sad and devastating. The terrifying and bone chilling. The heroic and triumphant.

I want details. Even if you don't think those details will make sense to me or the reader. Write down the name of the cities and towns these events took place in. Mention the name of the BBG, even if that name means nothing to an outsider. Write about a character as if we should already know who they are.

If you send in enough submissions- things will eventually click (particularly if you send in "Lore").

And if you don't? Well, that's sometimes just the nature of folklore. Sometimes we don't have all the pieces.

"These are the stories of my group's Dark Heresy campaign. So far it has been about a bunch of guardsmen who's regiment gets eaten by nids then sign up with the Inquisition as discount labor for newbie Interrogators."

Thanks for this. I personally had never heard of it. Seems like they've done a pretty good job of archiving much of their own work and I really like the idea of writing from the PC's perspective.