So, as you can tell from my profile, I'm somewhat far from an experienced player/DM, but I'm not asking for tips, there are plenty already. What I'm asking is a guidance of some sort. You see, I wondered, what would be a fine way to attach different worlds and universes to each other, and I came up with a creature that would be a DM representation or so. What I want to have in a campaign is a celestial creature of great power, which would guide the party throug various places and centuries with portals or so. To cut it short, I want to have a Doctor Who/ G-Man-like character, and I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of that. I was thinking about a golden dragon or a Flumph, but maybe there's something better I'm missing. Anyways, thank you for reading this and I'm hoping for your advice!
What you are describing is Dungeon Master (of D&D Cartoon fame).
And sure, there's nothing stopping you from exercising this trope in your games. It can actually be a nice way for the DM to get more hands-on as long as it doesn't overshadow the players too much.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I know, I was expecting to use this character in case of a TPK, or when one of the sessions is over, or I want to drastically change the setting. But what might it be? What race would it apply to?
There's a thousand ways to do this, and if it's essentially the avatar of the DM there really isn't a wrong answer. It can be shapeless, change form, show up as a god, disguise itself as a commoner, whatever. What effect any form would have depends on your group and their suspension of disbelief (not to mention the seriousness of your campaign).
One thing that it makes me think of is a homebrew for a warlock patron that is actually the DM. Even though I've never seen it/heard of it being used, I like the thought of the DM being some Great Old One esque entity that has been forgotten to time. The few that bend magic and physics enough to sense it's nature often go past madness well before the relization that the world is but a story that will end, so them telling everyone that fate doesn't exist and everything is a simple roll of the dice doesn't shake the world around them.
I've gone as far as making a character to embody this myself. A lich who, while living, worried he'd never know enough about the world to sate his thirst for knowledge turned to undeath to gain more time to study. Though not evil, even after turning to lichdom, he dealt with all manner of creatures, fiends, and magic to try to find the secrets of who made the gods and keeps the multiverse intact. When he found the answer, that his world was made by me, he gave up studying and researching everything and resigned himself to quiet nihilism, angry that his world is essentially run by nerds. Since he knows the truth of his existence, he keeps being put in the paths of inquisitive heroes that seek him for fights, information, or their own existential questioning. He hates it. He wants to story to just be over so he can cease existing with the truth on his mind, but doesn't want to fight heroes because that just keeps the story going, deating the purpose. When found, he more or less messes around with magic and tries to give stuff away so he can be left alone. He has a Steve Lichman vibe to him, combined with a bit of Randal Graves. I can't wait until my party is a high enough level to warrant meeting him.
It doesn't have to be any race. It could just be some bygone avatar. Think of it like a wise old Yoda character. At no point in any of the Star Wars movies does anyone mention or care about what race Yoda is (we only know because of the billions of extra materials printed after the fact). Knowing what it is wouldn't add anything to the story. So is your DM-insert a dragon? Those can even shape-change to look humanoid. Is it some formless avatar or deity that looks however it wants? Maybe. Could it be some ancient fey creature that looks cool and otherworldly but still basically humanoid? That'd be cool. Is it just a talking animal? It's been done before by others.
For the most part you are overthinking this. It's a DM-insert character. It can be whatever you want it to be at any time with very little explanation.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Hello everyone!
So, as you can tell from my profile, I'm somewhat far from an experienced player/DM, but I'm not asking for tips, there are plenty already. What I'm asking is a guidance of some sort. You see, I wondered, what would be a fine way to attach different worlds and universes to each other, and I came up with a creature that would be a DM representation or so. What I want to have in a campaign is a celestial creature of great power, which would guide the party throug various places and centuries with portals or so.
To cut it short, I want to have a Doctor Who/ G-Man-like character, and I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of that. I was thinking about a golden dragon or a Flumph, but maybe there's something better I'm missing. Anyways, thank you for reading this and I'm hoping for your advice!
What you are describing is Dungeon Master (of D&D Cartoon fame).
And sure, there's nothing stopping you from exercising this trope in your games. It can actually be a nice way for the DM to get more hands-on as long as it doesn't overshadow the players too much.
I know, I was expecting to use this character in case of a TPK, or when one of the sessions is over, or I want to drastically change the setting. But what might it be? What race would it apply to?
There's a thousand ways to do this, and if it's essentially the avatar of the DM there really isn't a wrong answer. It can be shapeless, change form, show up as a god, disguise itself as a commoner, whatever. What effect any form would have depends on your group and their suspension of disbelief (not to mention the seriousness of your campaign).
One thing that it makes me think of is a homebrew for a warlock patron that is actually the DM. Even though I've never seen it/heard of it being used, I like the thought of the DM being some Great Old One esque entity that has been forgotten to time. The few that bend magic and physics enough to sense it's nature often go past madness well before the relization that the world is but a story that will end, so them telling everyone that fate doesn't exist and everything is a simple roll of the dice doesn't shake the world around them.
I've gone as far as making a character to embody this myself. A lich who, while living, worried he'd never know enough about the world to sate his thirst for knowledge turned to undeath to gain more time to study. Though not evil, even after turning to lichdom, he dealt with all manner of creatures, fiends, and magic to try to find the secrets of who made the gods and keeps the multiverse intact. When he found the answer, that his world was made by me, he gave up studying and researching everything and resigned himself to quiet nihilism, angry that his world is essentially run by nerds. Since he knows the truth of his existence, he keeps being put in the paths of inquisitive heroes that seek him for fights, information, or their own existential questioning. He hates it. He wants to story to just be over so he can cease existing with the truth on his mind, but doesn't want to fight heroes because that just keeps the story going, deating the purpose. When found, he more or less messes around with magic and tries to give stuff away so he can be left alone. He has a Steve Lichman vibe to him, combined with a bit of Randal Graves. I can't wait until my party is a high enough level to warrant meeting him.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
It doesn't have to be any race. It could just be some bygone avatar. Think of it like a wise old Yoda character. At no point in any of the Star Wars movies does anyone mention or care about what race Yoda is (we only know because of the billions of extra materials printed after the fact). Knowing what it is wouldn't add anything to the story. So is your DM-insert a dragon? Those can even shape-change to look humanoid. Is it some formless avatar or deity that looks however it wants? Maybe. Could it be some ancient fey creature that looks cool and otherworldly but still basically humanoid? That'd be cool. Is it just a talking animal? It's been done before by others.
For the most part you are overthinking this. It's a DM-insert character. It can be whatever you want it to be at any time with very little explanation.
Thank you all for your advice, you really helped me out!