DnD concerns
May. 25th, 2022 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicofthepiperSince getting into Goblin Slayer, I've been more and more aware of Dungeon and Dragons. I'm almost tempted to create DnD friendly original characters. Of course, I am probably prone to be a Kumo Kagyu effect, just as one whose introduction to DnD is Critical Role will likely be suspect to the Matt Mercer effect. Being a Goblin Slayer fan alone will probably get me kicked from sessions, but as long as I adhere to the results of monster knowledge checks; I don't expect every goblin encountered to behave like a Tucker's Kobold; or expect the DM to strictly adhere an entire species to a certain alignment or acknowledge that they may allow nurture to supersede an individual's nature: I should be fine.
However, a growing concern of mine is DnD players have the tendency to steal characters for their roleplay sessions. Often, this is simply a single "found" image as a face claim, but it could be that they collect all the art of an existing character and use them rather liberally.
Perhaps, I shouldn't concern myself with it at all. After all, Kumo Kagyu used existing popular characters as placeholders as part of his creative process. And part of the fun of the series are the references that are homebrewed into his TTRPG fantasy world, such as, Goblin Slayer's mentor being homebrewed Bilbo Baggins but corrupted by the ring's influence.
I think because of Goblin Slayer, my own personal attitude will probably be lightened on fanart. I previously have been rather at ease with the idea of a role-player using my fanart as long as they were role playing that character, with LiveJournal and Tumblr styles of roleplaying in mind. I was absolutely against the use of my art for a roleplay OC. But I understand homebrewing now, and I think I will lighten up on my art being used in campaigns with a homebrew version of the character, which might be slightly off-brand to compensate for that the way chance affects the character behavior. For example, Hamel the Violinist of Hameln might be homebrewed into Gamel the Fiddler of the Tavern. And honestly, the fanart I aspire to make would probably be better for a homebrew version.
But I'm still really uncomfortable with my art being distributed devoid of its context. For example, I have no intention of making an Instagram account, so I don't mind a dedicated fan gallery reposting my, let's say, Saint Sieya fanart to a Los Caballeros del Zodiaco dedication account as long as credit is maintained. I appreciate the work of curators, and I see this as an opportunity to reach my intended target demographic without myself going through the trouble of have to manage an account on every single social media outlet. But I don't want random art galleries to distribute my art. I'm already rather uncomfortable that dA does this on Pinterest, but since I have agreed to dA's Terms of Service they technically already have my permission. It feels too much like exploiting my work for content farming.
Creating a DnD OC and subsequent art of them places the character in an ill-defined fantasy setting. They're more likely to be stolen since there is no established trademark to protect the character. I'm not quite sure what I can do to protect my character and art in this type of situation, and even if I should bother worrying about it.
I'm also a bit confused about what is the etiquette for using my own DnD OC. Can I play around with them as much as I want, or do I keep them away from situations that might lead to character depth and growth, as that is to be saved for the actual session?
Like one example is this DM trying to appease a player whose character is a Lizardfolk that is obsessed with becoming a dragon. (I strongly suspect this player might be a Goblin Slayer light novel fan because this precedent only seems to be normalized in Kumo Kagyu's version of DnD.) The DM seems to have a lot of control in how to go about this player's desire without breaking the game. If I was this player and had already chosen a final form for this character, would I be out of bounds of proper player etiquette?
Or something that is a bit more me, if I create a druid character and give them and animal companion in my concept art, am I already overstepping my role as player, since a DM would have to approve of my companion to begin with? And if the animal companion is allowed, am I allowed to imagine how the companion behaves? It seems like technically an animal companion is an NPC and therefore its actions and behaviors would be under the control of the DM. Like, I really like the idea of being a druid with a deer companion as a steed, but this goes against many DnD class restrictions, and so I would have to gain a lot of approval to bend to rules to make this happen during a session.
So then, is most DnD art really supposed to be limited to cool character designs and illustrating what happened during previous sessions?
However, a growing concern of mine is DnD players have the tendency to steal characters for their roleplay sessions. Often, this is simply a single "found" image as a face claim, but it could be that they collect all the art of an existing character and use them rather liberally.
Perhaps, I shouldn't concern myself with it at all. After all, Kumo Kagyu used existing popular characters as placeholders as part of his creative process. And part of the fun of the series are the references that are homebrewed into his TTRPG fantasy world, such as, Goblin Slayer's mentor being homebrewed Bilbo Baggins but corrupted by the ring's influence.
I think because of Goblin Slayer, my own personal attitude will probably be lightened on fanart. I previously have been rather at ease with the idea of a role-player using my fanart as long as they were role playing that character, with LiveJournal and Tumblr styles of roleplaying in mind. I was absolutely against the use of my art for a roleplay OC. But I understand homebrewing now, and I think I will lighten up on my art being used in campaigns with a homebrew version of the character, which might be slightly off-brand to compensate for that the way chance affects the character behavior. For example, Hamel the Violinist of Hameln might be homebrewed into Gamel the Fiddler of the Tavern. And honestly, the fanart I aspire to make would probably be better for a homebrew version.
But I'm still really uncomfortable with my art being distributed devoid of its context. For example, I have no intention of making an Instagram account, so I don't mind a dedicated fan gallery reposting my, let's say, Saint Sieya fanart to a Los Caballeros del Zodiaco dedication account as long as credit is maintained. I appreciate the work of curators, and I see this as an opportunity to reach my intended target demographic without myself going through the trouble of have to manage an account on every single social media outlet. But I don't want random art galleries to distribute my art. I'm already rather uncomfortable that dA does this on Pinterest, but since I have agreed to dA's Terms of Service they technically already have my permission. It feels too much like exploiting my work for content farming.
Creating a DnD OC and subsequent art of them places the character in an ill-defined fantasy setting. They're more likely to be stolen since there is no established trademark to protect the character. I'm not quite sure what I can do to protect my character and art in this type of situation, and even if I should bother worrying about it.
I'm also a bit confused about what is the etiquette for using my own DnD OC. Can I play around with them as much as I want, or do I keep them away from situations that might lead to character depth and growth, as that is to be saved for the actual session?
Like one example is this DM trying to appease a player whose character is a Lizardfolk that is obsessed with becoming a dragon. (I strongly suspect this player might be a Goblin Slayer light novel fan because this precedent only seems to be normalized in Kumo Kagyu's version of DnD.) The DM seems to have a lot of control in how to go about this player's desire without breaking the game. If I was this player and had already chosen a final form for this character, would I be out of bounds of proper player etiquette?
Or something that is a bit more me, if I create a druid character and give them and animal companion in my concept art, am I already overstepping my role as player, since a DM would have to approve of my companion to begin with? And if the animal companion is allowed, am I allowed to imagine how the companion behaves? It seems like technically an animal companion is an NPC and therefore its actions and behaviors would be under the control of the DM. Like, I really like the idea of being a druid with a deer companion as a steed, but this goes against many DnD class restrictions, and so I would have to gain a lot of approval to bend to rules to make this happen during a session.
So then, is most DnD art really supposed to be limited to cool character designs and illustrating what happened during previous sessions?
