So I got a bit caught up with the Transformers Tabletop RPG game and the NPC/player characters, especially Breakout because her name is Breakout and she's a red sports car.
And since she had no canon design, I had to give her one. Designing what I think a canon character looks like was a lot of fun, though.
So like, of course in my head she's Breakdown and Knock Out's kid just like Wildbreak. Breakdown did not expect the sparkling he was carrying to be as tiny as she ended up being, but she takes after Knock Out a lot more with a few hints in there of Breakdown. In my head, she's the older sibling, even though Wildbreak is bigger (and takes after Breakdown's OG frame, because I am a Breakdown-got-the-big-frame-remod truther). They're different kinds of cars. She's a sports car, he's more of a muscle car. I fashioned her design after the Acura NSX.
She doesn't have a visible bot badge because her parents stressed to her that it's better to keep that hidden rather than making it obvious. Doesn't matter which side you're on. She is cautious and plans things out, tries to be friendly/good teammate even though she lacks her creators' more natural charisma, and really looks up to Bumblebee. Her parents were very supportive, even if they were concerned when she wanted to side with the Bots instead of the Cons. She has a very strong sense of justice and right and wrong and Doing The Right Thing Even When It's Hard and her creators have no idea where that came from haha.
I ship her with the other TFRPG character Chemtrail, because of course I'm shipping her with the impulsive, reckless, baby seeker who is always trying to showboat and trash talks all the time (it just hit me that she's basically like ES Nova Storm but hates bots more damn).
“Finally, our first real quest! I can’t wait to slay some monsters,” Allizdog the orc announced as she brandished her new iron battleaxe, her reward for completing the fighter tutorial. Her companion, Reuben the human, nodded along as he plucked at the string on his trapper tutorial reward - a heavy crossbow.
The orc looked over at her friend’s character card, “Still can’t believe you just used your real name for your character, man.”
“We can’t all be as original as godzilla backwards, Alice.” “Hey, at least I put the effort in! It’s a fantasy world, we need to be fantastic! C’mon, immerse yourself a bit.”
Reuben shrugged as he surveyed the forest path they were on, “It’s just a placeholder, you know naming a character is always the hardest part for me. This was just so I could actually get to playing with you instead of spending another five hours in character creation. I’ll change it later if I come up with something better. But, yeah, I have to admit, this game really is pretty darn immersive. Almost lifelike, even. Maybe I could stand to lose myself a bit. Hell, I can barely even notice my headset anymore.” “That’s the spirit!”
Reuben’s character was roughly 6’ tall, had a somewhat lanky build, and short unkempt hair. His face was sharp and angular, drawn to a point that was emphasized by a goatee. He wore a heavy set of hardened leather armor, lined around the edges with thematically appropriate furs. Alice’s character stood an intimidating 7’2” tall, with an athletic build and a shaved head. She wore a battered and low quality iron set of armor, but left her upper arms exposed to ‘show off the guns.’
The trapper felt a twinge of panic as his <Danger Sense> ability activated for the first time, alerting him to the failed stealth attempt of a distant creature. Caught off-guard, Reuben walked straight into a tree as he read the info box explaining the ability. -1 HP. Alli burst into a fit of laughter, her muscular form hunched over as she held her sides, “Careful there, ace!”
“No, no, shush! There’s something out there!” He ignored the sensation of pain he felt, the slight taste of blood in his mouth, as he focused on trying to locate the source of the alert. He readied his crossbow, knocking back a bolt as he caught sight of a kobold with bright yellow scales a hundred or so yards away. <Trapper Lore> activated a small info panel about the biology of kobolds and the history of their matriarchal societies but he instinctively closed out of it to keep his eye on the target. He made a mental note to adjust his pop-up settings back to the more subtle default later. Before Alli could collect herself he had already fired a bolt that sailed through the foliage and impacted on a tree behind the target. The kobold had long since gotten out of range by the time Reuben reloaded, no doubt fleeing back to its lair to warn the others.
He cursed under his breath and kicked some leaves as Alli gave him a firm pat on the back, “Nice shot, Robin Hood. You’ll get ‘em next time. Unless I reach them first, that is.”
---------
As the duo approached the location of the kobolds’ cave on their map, Alli started practicing her axe swings on some nearby trees. “Loooook! Look how reactive this is! You see the wood splintering? I’ve never seen a game with this much detail before, this is crazy.”
Reuben nodded, “This game is insane. Speaking of, you’ve heard about how advanced the NPCs are right? Rumor is that some even pass the Turing test, but I couldn’t find any actual sources to back that up… But hey, let’s test it!”
Alli dislodged her axe from the tree, “Test it how?”
Her human friend continued, “This is a standard ‘clear the dungeon, slay the monsters’ quest right? But it says here our goal is just to stop the attacks on the village. What if we try diplomacy?”
The orc swung her axe into yet another tree, “Diplomacy? With kobolds?”
“Sure! Why not? They use the same code as any other NPC, right?” “Yeah, but they’re just… kobolds, man. They don’t know anything but eat, steal, kill. Can they even talk in this game?”
“Yeah, draconic! One of the languages I took.”
Alli gave her old friend a knowing look, with an eyebrow raised. He sighed, “Yes, I took it to try and romance a dragon NPC. Don’t judge me, I’ve seen the art you commission.”
She snorted a laugh as she forcefully yanked her axe from the last tree, “Okay, fair. So, you wanna talk to the little lizards? Could be funny. You do you, I’ll be there to pull your butt out of the fire after they turn on you.”
Reuben faked a laugh as he opened his menus and went through the pop-up settings again. There was a 'full immersion' setting that hid non-urgent ones entirely unless he opened the UI, maybe that was worth a try.
---------
A single kobold was visible guarding the cave entrance, his dull red scales making him stand out like a sore thumb. His canine-like snout drooped downward as he leaned against his makeshift pike. A bit of drool had caused a dark spot on his tunic.
Reuben blinked. "Is he… sleeping? The guard is sleeping. Did the one I shot at… not come back and warn them?"
"Don't tell me you're surprised by kobold cowardice. They're tier 1 mobs, this is our first real quest, it's not exactly supposed to be difficult yet. It probably just ran off."
"Yeah, but… I thought they were supposed to be at least a little clever. That's a bummer. Alright, let's go wake him up. Put on your best RP voice."
The pair stepped confidently out of their hiding spot in the hedges as Reuban loudly began, "Greetings, mighty kobolds! We come in peace, please take us to your leader!"
Alli stifled a laugh as the human continued, "We mean you no harm, we wish to resolve the ongoing conflict between you and the village as diplomatically as possible."
There was no response. Reuben reached out to touch the guard's shoulder only to have his hand phase directly through it and dispel the illusion. Before either party member could react, a rope net burst up from beneath the fallen leaves and ensnared them both. A squad of kobolds dressed similarly to the illusory guard jogged out of the dark cave and encircled the net, the bright yellow kobold from the woods among them.
The boss, recognizable by his garish cap and the fact that he held the only metal weapon, barked orders at the squad in draconic. Alli whispered to her net-mate, "What's he saying?"
"I, uh… I'm not sure."
"You said you took draconic."
"Only at half proficiency, it was expensive. I think he just said the word for diplomacy?"
The boss kobold began speaking in slightly broken common, "You! Adventurers. You want talks? Not slay? Adventurers always pick slay. Tell me why you not pick slay."
Reuban raised his hands, empty and open with palms facing out, through the netting. "We, uh… we're not like most adventurers. We want to help."
The boss lowered his weapon slightly, looking confused, "You help us raid?"
Reuben shook his head, "No, I—"
The iron spear raised again, angled right at Reuben's throat. Alli spoke up confidently, "We're here to stop your raids and protect the village.” “So you here to slay?!”
Reuben interjected, “Nonono! We want to stop the raids without any slaying. We want to find a solution where nobody gets hurt.”
The boss reluctantly lowered his weapon a second time, “Kobolds need foods. Village has foods. Without leader to guide kobolds… kobolds not have many options.”
The indignation faded from Alli’s tone, “What happened to your leader?”
“Never had. Kobolds here always been alone, no leader. Kobolds supposed to have leader.”
Alli eyed the boss curiously, “Aren’t you in charge?”
“Tsk, no! I lead stabbers, not tribe. I know stabbing, not food. Not true kobold leader.” He sighed, “Kobolds no slay you, adventurers, if you no slay kobolds. But kobolds must raid. No options.”
The boss jabbed his spear forward, causing Reuben to flinch as the knot holding the net together was cut loose and the two hapless heroes spilled out onto the ground. The pair clambered to their feet, seeing only now just how much shorter the kobolds really were. The tallest among them barely reached the height of Reuben’s hips, most were shorter than a halfling. A light shined in Reuben’s eyes as an idea struck him, “What if I led you?”
Draconic murmurings came from every direction as each kobold weighed in at once, before the boss held up a hand to silence them, “Human would do this? Would become kobold leader? What you want in return?”
Reuben smirked, “Please, I require no reward. It is the right thing to do. I would humbly accept the position if it meant peace for the village, together we could find a way to coexist.”
The murmurings spread through the circle of kobolds again. The boss heard them out this time, seeming to think it over. He nodded, “Yes. You come inside. Orc stay out here.”
Alli shook her head, “What? Why?”
“Only kobolds can see kobold home.”
“How come he gets to go in?”
“Leader of kobolds is always kobold. Is simple.”
Alli turned to her friend with a sigh as she opened her menus, “Well, you heard the little man. Off you go, honorary kobold. I think I’m gonna log out for the night anyway. I gotta get up early for finals tomorrow, but after that maybe we can finally fight something.” And with a blink, Allizdog the orc vanished into thin air.
The new kobold leader was led into the cave.
---------
Reuben was led through the natural cave entrance and down into the kobold-dug tunnels and burrows branching out from it, where he often found himself having to hunch — or even crawl in one of the smaller tunnels — to avoid smacking his head into the rocky ceiling. Eventually they reached a particularly spacious room deep within the burrows, appointed with numerous soft looking pillows and cushions strewn about the floor.
The head kobold, who had introduced himself as Jrinn on the journey down, sat Reuben down on one of the larger cushions. Reuben thanked him in broken Draconic, ["I am thanking to you. I am much impress by your dirt house."]
Jrinn chirped excitedly in response, ["Oh, you speak the scaled tongue? Delightful, why didn't you say so! This will make things so much easier for us, matriarch."]
Reuben blinked. He responded in common, "I'm sorry, I only caught some of that… Did you say matriarch?"
"Mattera- mattry- I not know this word. I called you leader, yes? Anyways, we get crown and changes for you, one moment."
"... Changes?"
["A change of clothes, something more fitting for your new role and stature."]
"Oh! Yes, uh, very good, fancy clothes to go with the crown. Right. Thank you. Do you know if it has any stat improvements or abilities?"
Jrinn nodded eagerly, "Yes yes! Powerful magics."
The yellow kobold from earlier entered the chamber, carrying some nicely folded robes and a small bronze tiara. The robes looked like they were for someone a bit bigger than a kobold, but still far smaller than Reuben. Before he could say anything, the bright yellow kobold scuttled over and placed the tiara atop his head. A small window appeared before Reuben, notifying him that he had bound himself to a powerful magic item and that his stats would be readjusted accordingly. “Wait,” Reuben said, “I’m getting some kind of respec? It’s not just bonuses?”
The yellow kobold scuttled back out of the room as the boss answered, “Yes yes yes! Powerful magics, very powerful!”
The changes were as sudden as they were jarring. Reuben yelped as he lost three feet of height in less than a second, it felt like the ground was hurtling up toward him before everything went dark as his head slipped within the confines of his rigid leather armor. The darkness was overwhelming, and he almost instinctively opened the game’s UI just to have something he could focus on. Several notifications were blinking on the character sheet tab, which he hurriedly opened in a search for answers. He could already see some things that definitely weren’t there when he made the character earlier today. He hardly noticed as the color and texture of his skin flicked from a warm and mammalian olive to a cold and scaled cerulean, although he definitely felt the downy white fur sprouting up and down his neck, limbs, and back. The species field had changed from <Human> to <Frost Kobold>, and the height had been adjusted to only… two foot eleven?!
Reuben’s eyes frantically scanned for other changes. A swelling sensation overcame her chest and hips as she noticed the gender field had been switched to <Female>, and the feeling quickly became overwhelming as her new breasts billowed outward into the darkness to fill the available space. Her formerly mediocre Constitution score had maxed out at 20, as her Strength drained down to a measly 8. She was now securely wedged into the layered leather breastplate that once protected her as if it were a sausage casing, and an uncomfortable tightness pushed in as it felt like she wasn’t quite done expanding. Her chest grew tighter as it pressed more urgently against the leather, filling every nook and cranny of available space. A similar feeling swelled in her rear, as she found herself unable to wiggle her hips or thighs in the slightest. And there was something else, an odd and alien sensation like some kind of extra limb had been added and thickened as well, uncomfortably pressed against the back of her legs. Her tail, she realized, as she inadvertently flicked the end of it.
Her Dexterity was thankfully unaffected, remaining at a high 17. Charisma and Wisdom likewise remained untouched, at 16 and 12 respectively. A series of kobold traits had replaced her carefully selected human ones, but her Trapper abilities remained. Her languages had been altered as well, she had gained full proficiency in <Draconic> but was now only at half proficiency in <Common>? A small flash near the name field on her sheet indicated she had unlocked a new vanity title, Matriarch. Matriarch Reuben. She shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts, only to smack her nose into the front of the armor. No, not her nose, her snout. She realized all too late the odd sensations she had felt around her face were the forming of her new mouth, and the filling of it with jagged little teeth. She leaned her head back in an effort to avoid smacking her nose again, only to find it didn’t go as far back as she thought it would. It caught on two large horns, comparatively speaking, which propped her head up forward.
She closed the character sheet with a blink, and was left alone in the darkness. She threw her considerable new weight around as best she could with a side-swing of her head, but all she accomplished was knocking the breastplate on its side as she landed with another yelp. She had felt her feet slide right out of her boots as she toppled over.
Suddenly there was light again. Jrinn had unbuckled the leather breastplate, causing it to swing open dramatically as Reuben’s new width expanded out to its natural dimensions. She didn’t want to look down yet, instead she simply took Jrinn’s hand as he helped her to her feet. She noted how different her hand looked; blue-scaled and lined with white fluff, the hand only held three fingers and a thumb. Each of which were tipped with a raptor-like claw. Jrinn had seemed so small and almost insignificant before, but now he was almost an equal. Reuben stood a little taller than the red kobold, and a lot wider, but it was an entirely new and alarming perspective. He smiled, revealing a number of jagged little teeth, as he brushed Reuben’s long white hair with his claws and began to fix it into a neat braid. The room was silent for a few beats.
Until Reuben finally spoke up, in her tiny yet husky new voice, “Reuben didn’t see that coming.” She paused, “Reuben… not meaning to speak this way. Talking hard. Words are feeling… different to her?” She reached for her throat, accidentally brushing her arm against a large and hard-to-avoid breast on the way up, “What happen? Explain. Explain! Reuben is dumb now? You break Reuben’s brain too?!”
Jrinn shook his head, his smile fading as he stepped back, [“No, dear Matriarch. The crown has no effect on your intelligence, or any facet of your personality. Otherwise your leadership abilities may have been compromised. It merely gave you the full gift of our language. Ordinarily you might have lost the ability to speak common altogether, but it seems your former and partial grasp of the scaled tongue has transferred over to the common tongue. You should count yourself lucky, that is quite a feat! If it pleases your highness, we have also brought these new clothes for your new stature, but if you’d rather remain nude…”]
Only now did it click that Reuben was not only a curvy little kobold woman, but she was stark naked and standing atop the ruined remains of her boots and pants. One arm shot over to cover her chest to the best of her ability, as her other shot down to conceal her nether region by pulling up what remained of her pants. “OUT! GET OUT! LEAVE REUBEN, AND LEAVE CLOTHES! AAAAAAAAAAAA!”
---------
Allizdog logged back in as the orc fighter blinked back into existence late next afternoon just outside the kobolds’ cave. She stretched and yawned in her room, which translated directly into her in-game avatar’s movements. She opened her friends list to find its previous sole occupant, Reuben (Trapper), had been replaced by Ruby (Trapper). Finally changed names, apparently, but that’s… not the direction she expected her friend to go with. Judging by hours online, it seemed like her friend hadn’t logged out since last night. She shrugged as she opened the private chat, sending a quick DM.
ALLIZDOG: u good man? u didnt answer your phone, did u rly pull an all nighter? or did u just fell asleep w/ ur headset on lol
Five minutes without a response. The orc sighed. Alice was genuinely worried about her friend, it wasn’t like him to go radio silent no matter how invested in a new game he got.
ALLIZDOG: cmon man i gotta be back at uni in an hour, u ded?
RUBY: promise not to freak out
ALLIZDOG: ??? wtf why whats wrong
RUBY: promise. ALLIZDOG: sure man i promise whats going on are u ok RUBY: you know those urban legends about people getting stuck in this game? think that might have happened to me. might explain some things from yesterday.
ALLIZDOG: not funny
RUBY: not joking
Alice closed the chat window and paced around the woodland clearing. She nervously ran her hands through her hair, which looked quite odd when translated to the shaved head of her orcish avatar. She opened the chat window again.
ALLIZDOG: prove it
RUBY: first theres something else too you gotta know
ALLIZDOG: …?
It took a while for Ruby to type the following message, which didn’t help with Alice’s anxiety.
RUBY: kobolds gave me a respec, im a kobold now. and a girl. and kinda thicc. i’ll be outside in a sec. dont laugh or ill stab you i stg.
ALLIZDOG: wut
---------
Twenty minutes had passed. Allizdog sat on a rock outside the cave, idly browsing some menus. Ruby finally worked up the courage to shuffle her way out of the dark and into the sunlight. Her silvery robes draped her rubenesque figure in a very complimentary fashion, much to her dismay, and between the involuntary sway of her hips and tail and the jiggle of her chest walking was still a very new sensation. Not to mention how much bigger everything around her felt, the trees seemed impossibly tall now and her orcish friend seemed like a giant. A giant that lunged to its feet and stomped toward her at incredible speed, waving its arms and shouting, “HOLY SHIT! You’re so small! And STACKED! What the hell?!”
Ruby couldn’t help but recoil, holding her arms up defensively. Alli stopped in her tracks, and even took a few steps back, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But seriously, man. Holy shit. I don’t think the sliders in character creation even went that far, did they? Damn. Like, seriously, damn. You look like something that you’d normally be commissioning art of.” Ruby brought up her chat window again, typing out another message on the virtual keyboard. She forced an awkward smile as she typed, looking up at her friend as she pressed send.
RUBY: i know right? lol imagine seeing this in the mirror tho. might take some getting used to.
The orc cocked her head to the side, “Ha, yeah… But, uh, why are you typing this out when you’re standing right here with me?”
Ruby considered opening her keyboard again, but decided to risk it. This was her best friend, after all. They’d known eachother since kindergarten. Her small, deep, feminine voice escaped her muzzle, “Ruby… talks different now, yes? Kobolds change things. Swap talkings, swap for dragon talkings. Only speak little common now. Is embarrassing.”
The orc burst out laughing, snorting uncontrollably and having to hold her sides. Ruby glowered and stomped her little foot, sending a wave of reverberations through the rest of her, “NOT! FUNNY!”
“No, haha-”, Alli struggled to regain her composure, “heh, no, definitely not funny. I’m sorry. This is serious. Even if you sound like–” The small, fluffy kobold frowned. “Okay, okay, fine. Sorry. This is gonna take some getting used to. I’ll try not to–” she snorted, “I’ll try not to laugh. Really. I promise.”
“Hrmph,” the little kobold stomped again. It wasn’t easy for Alli to take her seriously when she looked like this.
“So how’d this happen, exactly? Was it, like, some kind of potion? Or spell?”
Ruby shook her head, “No, no,” she pointed to the bronze tiara resting between her horns, “Magic crown. Ruby thought it make hi-... make her strong, but it change instead.”
“Have you tried just, like… taking it off?”
[“Of course I’ve tried taking it off, what kind of moron do you take me for?! You really think if it were that easy to fix I wouldn’t have just FIXED it already?!”] the little kobold snapped at her friend in a series of reptilian hisses and strange words. She ripped the tiara off her head in a huff and chucked it into the dirt with no effect.
“Look, I have… no idea what you just said, but it sounded super angry, and honestly this took a little longer than I expected. I just logged in to check on you real quick, and I’ll be back tonight, but I’ve actually got another class that—”
“No! Wait, no! Please!” Ruby scurried over to her friend as quickly as she could, and wrapped her arms around the orc’s knees in a tight hug. “Ruby is sorry.” It sounded like she had started to cry as she meeped out a quiet, muffled, “Ruby is really scared.”
Alli froze, a million things ran through her mind at once. As she took a moment to think, Ruby squeezed tighter. The orcish avatar awkwardly bent down to hug her friend back, “... I can reschedule.”
Hey TFcon attendees, come play a TF themed RPG with us in the bar/lobby! Time is TBA depending on attendance and scheduling, so please like/pm/reblog if you’re interested so we can let you know when! OCs & canon welcome! Newbies encouraged to join! Dice are provided, but feel free to bring your own! The game is super easy to learn, a custom story written and DMed by yours truly! The story will be taking on the theme of horror, just in time for halloween! It will be the same plot from TFcon CA, so if you were there last time, feel free to join again or spectate!
are you okay with fanfic set in your world of Tales of Lore? the setting interests me and i want to write about it.
That's really exciting!
And a good reminder to us to upload more stories and pictures to this account, haha!
For the moment, it's a probably yes, but we'd like to make a setting document of the big broad core truths of the concept, to keep things on a vaguely similar page. Expect to see that soon!
Honestly the best part about DMing an experimental DnD style rpg game at TFcon is that I get players every single time who are so godamn creative in such different ways. People come into this with ZERO rpg experience what so ever, and they get so into it so quickly, and do SO well with the role playing part, it blows my mind. I have more fun seeing what crazy, creative, unexpected things that they come up with than I do actually running the game. It’s amazing. It’s like watching art being born right before my very eyes. When I set up the final boss’s chamber, I NEVER expected to have G1 Skywarp decide to childishly shove G1 Soundwave in through the door like the actual turd he is. When I created that monster that was completely blind and would only track characters who made noise, I NEVER expected TFP Soundwave to use the soap he took from the washracks to lather up the floor so that TFP Ratchet could silently slide from one end of the room to the other. I’m just.. so blown away every time I host a game. This is the kind of thing that restores my faith in this fandom. Thanks so much for all your support guys. I’m going to spend the next few months buffing out the kinks in the mechanics, and working on a brand new campaign to introduce to TFcon Canada next year. It’s possible that we might try to host it as an actual panel instead of the after hours event, but I’ll keep you posted on it. If you have any thoughts or ideas that you’d like to offer on it, please send me a message, I’m really eager to include any feedback in the changes for the next big time around so that it becomes even better than before.
Finally going through the TF RPG books I got in the Humble Bundle last year and seeing the NPCs and Player Characters, they are so interesting and give you good information if you wanted to build OCs based on them, but THEN. THEN.
Now I have to ship them together, you know that right? Like Cautious, eager baby scout speedster and Reckless, brash baby seeker??? Of course I must ship them!!!! There's no art of Breakout but look at this design for Chemtrail.
