The authors of the following Dungeons & Dragons fics rolled natural 20s on their Perform (Fanfiction Writing) checks.
These are recommendations made by Tropers for Fan Fics, all of which have been signed. After a few samples, you will be able to judge whether you might be interested in the 'fic, based on who recommended it. No-name recommendations will be zapped. Nobody would back up the rec. Discussion of the recommendation is welcome on the discussion page. As such discussion is important, do remember to add the discussion page to the watchlist, if need be.
Do warn when a fanfic may head into sexual or non-canon territory. Some people just don't like it, and as we all know, Shipping is Serious Business.
Authors, and Websites
N. L. Rummi
- Recommended by ladyofthelibrary
- This author writes fics for the cartoon. The fics don't really have an organized time-line but do seem to have a bit of an overarching stream. Props are due for giving Eric an obvious heart of gold and demonstrating all the relationships between the kids.
- Recommended by YeOldeLuke
- Author of the Vow of Nudity and Curse of Nudity series. As the titles suggest, her stories heavily involve combat nudity and NSFW story elements, but the imagination behind the fight setups and storylines really rise beyond that. She loves building encounters that make use of niche D&D rulesets like underwater/aerial/vehicle combat, and the nudity is largely used simply to put her protagonists at a tactical disadvantage, forcing them to use critical thinking and environmental awareness to even the odds. The protagonists are also very fleshed-out and every aspect of their character sheet, even down to things like tool proficiencies and languages, are explained and justified through frequent flashbacks to their backstories. In many ways, her stories are a giant love letter to D&D and every tiny element of its massive fiddly ruleset, and IMO there's a lot to enjoy here even if you're not interested in the sex scenes.
Adventuring for Dummies by Dennis N. Santana
- Recommended by FLCNPNCH
- Status: Dead
- Synopsis: Adventuring for Dummies can be summed up as the bastard child of DnD and One Piece. That's the only way to describe it, really.
- Comments: It lovingly makes fun of how unbalanced the 3.5 rules are, and everybody frequently breaks the fourth wall and is genre savvy, to the point where the government creates a law enforcement group made up solely of adventurers.
Fire and Dust by James Gardener
- Recommended by Snoof, Glidergun
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: After a number of terrorist bombings in Sigil, city at centre of the multiverse, Britlin Cavendish, professional artistic hack and Sensate, finds himself part of a multi-Faction investigative team attempting to track down those responsible.
- Comments: Set in D&D 2nd Ed's Planescape multiverse, this is a long and spectacularly well-written story with a cast of intriguing characters which uses the setting to great effect.
- Glidergun: Seconded with extreme prejudice.
The Tale of Solaron by Solaron Has its own page that needs more love.
- Recommended by Timberwolf Actual
- Status: Dormant
- Synopsis: Solaron is a naive young man who sets out from home to find adventure and excitement and to become a bard. However, Solaron faces difficulties in his quest due to him being a Yuan Ti, a snake person. Too naive to understand the problems this presents, and too enthusiastic to care, Solaron sets off to lands unknown for adventure, encountering danger and excitement, and no small amount of humor.
One Round by Kar-Vermin
- Recommended by: Grumman
- Status: Complete
- Summary: Never, EVER, play cards in the D&D universe.
- Comments: A 3,000 word short story with a great punchline. Read it.
Return of Ramat by Rattraveler
- Recommended by Two Gun Angel
- Status: Complete
- Summary: An old-school dungeon crawl in written form, focusing on six adventurers and their quest to cleanse the evil from the temple of a nearly-forgotten god.
- Comments: A quite enjoyable read based on a module for a D&D retroclone by the name of Labyrinth Lord.
- Recommended by: Igornerd
- Status: Complete.
- Summary: 11 people find themselves stranded in a fantasy world.
- Comments: Written in a journal format, it's very long and it's better than it sounds.
War Stories, Story Hours, or Actual Plays
Sameo by 4chan
- Recommended by FLCNPNCH
- Summary: The final adventure of Sameo, 7th level Paladin. Worthy. Of everything.
- Comments: Really, the bit at the top of the page sums it up real well: "Out of all the articles of this wiki, this one stands alone, comrade. For the month of September 2008 it was chosen by a popular vote to be a shining example of all that is right about /tg/. Ergo, this article is awesome."
- Recommended by FLCNPNCH
- Summary: You know those examples of play from the sourcebooks? Yeah. These examples are like those. But more realistic.
- Comments: Gameplay Derailment. The players interrupt the flow of the game with inane questions, break character and suspension of disbelief, and generally spoil the fun of the DM and the few sincere role-players.
Noh by 4chan
- Recommended by FLCNPNCH
- Summary: Noh is an adorable young girl with a magical rapier and chainmail shirt. The character originates from a story from a DM about how his players approached a puzzling challenge in a rather unorthodox manner, and found so much resonance with /tg/ that much visual artistry was inspired and many fa/tg/uys include references to or variations on the character in their own games. She is named for one of her catchphrases, which is simply "No."
- Comments: Just read the damn thing. You won't regret it. (Warning: One of the images at the bottom is NSFW.)
Paladin Story Part II Part III
- Recommended by FLCNPNCH
- Summary: An epic paladin story about two sisters, pacts with demons and a journey into hell.
- Comments: Link is to sup/tg/. sup/tg/ archives threads directly from 4chan. You have been warned.
- Recommended by FLCNPNCH
- Summary: The continued adventures of Alicia the Epic Paladin.
- Comments: Link is to sup/tg/. sup/tg/ archives threads directly from 4chan. You have been warned.
The SilverClawShift Campaign Archives
- Recommended by Ghost Lad, Thebazilly, and Master Metallix
- Summary: There are two finished stories here. Army of Commoners starts with a party of six level 6 characters and a whole bunch of NPCs fighting and winning against two massive armies of eldritch abominations and only gets more awesome from there. Crystal Cantrips is a well-plotted campaign that starts with the equivalent of killing rats in a basement, and eventually leads to a dramatic world-destroying plot based around those same 'rats'.
- Comments: The players are highly creative and come up with brilliant tactics against a DM who doesn't pull any punches. The second story becomes best midway through, when the apocalyptic plot is revealed AND goes into motion, making things very desperate very quickly.
- Thebazilly - I spent several hours reading the notes of the first campaign in the same thread and was absolutely blown away. I heartily second this recommendation.
- Recommended by Icarael
- Synopsis: During a game, one character takes on the role of a Paladin and shows a cultist the truth: Paladins don't fear falling. They look forward to it.
- Comments: Now this is how you play a Paladin.
- Holy hell! I would have loved to have this guy in my 4E group to balance out all the Munchkins.
The Big One Campaign Log by Kaveman26
- Recommended by The Mysterious Troper and Master Metallix
- Summary: An IRL multi-year campaign featuring a handful of longtime players taking their party from first level to the mid-teens, facing one End of the World scenario after another with judicious planning and hare-brained mechanics. The Plague, A God Am I, and Kill the Gods are heavily featured. The last few entries imply they might also have accidentally unleashed an Eldritch Abomination in the form of a crusty, old, treasure-finding parrot... The adventure continues in Little Big One.
- Comments: The author and his friends find more and more creative ways to take on ridiculous opposition and roll with their DM's punches on a level that can only be considered professional. And the character roleplaying is damn near suicidal at times. A great read and something like a master class in high level play. Often compared to the above-mentioned SilverClawShift campaigns.
Multiple other campaigns by Kaveman26
- Recommended by Master Metallix
- Summaries:
- An Adversarial Process: The DM told the players, "My goal is to kill your characters. If I do that I win. If you stay alive you win."
- The CalimShaw-Shank Redemption: The players are gladiators enslaved by a mid-to-high-level half-drow wizard and human monk and must fight in the arena to survive day-to-day.
- Chaotic Goodfellas: The players are thieves and con men trying to make it big in the city.
- City State of the Enigmatic Overgnome: The players are villains muscling in on a city's crime boss and playing his underlings (and the other players) against each other.
- Cattle Driving Necromancers: In a campaign centered around a dungeon that only opens once a month for one hour at a time, the players are a group of necromancers, undead, and allied evil characters who explore and exploit the dungeon's contents (including its denizens and other explorers) for their own profit and power.
- Making Cambodia Look Like Kansas: The world was destroyed 99 years, 9 months, and 9 days ago, except for one island protected from the outside world by a barrier. The barrier will fail at the end of the century unless the players retrieve a focusing gemstone to renew the barrier for another hundred years.
- An Adversarial Process
- Comments: From Kaveman26, the same player/DM involved in The Big One and Little Big One campaigns mentioned above, and featuring the same level of immersive role-play.
Tale of an Industrious Rogue, Parts I, II, and III by DM Kroft. Has its own page, though it could use a bit more time and attention
- Recommended by Master Metallix
- Synopsis: Tale of an Industrious Rogue is the story of how a simple dungeon feature and a party's thirst for gold combine to create a roller coaster ride of greed, ingenuity, and global economic meltdown.
- Context Notes: This all took place during a Pathfinder campaign set in the city-state of Katapesh, part of the game's official setting Golarion. The campaign lasted between 2009 and 2012.
Of Orcs and Men by gladiusone
- Recommended by Ack Sed
- Status: Dormant
- Synopsis: Ilneval, patron deity of orcs, is tired of their status as the backward, violent mooks of every story. So he rips the soul out of a random nerd and, after some 'persuading', sticks it in Huruk, tribe leader of the Stonegrinders. There's going to be some changes around here...
- Comments: So yeah, this is a self-insert, but it's less 'superior human' and more 'how much of me is orc and how much is human?'. Excellent worldbuilding and original characters.
Eberron: The Rising Mists and Welcome to the Jungle by OKShark (femmeslash, coarse language)
- Recommended by Grumman, GM_ace
- Status:
- The Rising Mists: Complete
- Welcome to the Jungle: Dead
- Pairing: female OC/female OC
- Synopsis: Set at the end of The Last War, the story follows the crew of two ships from the Cyran navy who survived the destruction of their country. Neana, a half-elf, and Sam, a changeling, are two of these crew members, and are the main characters of the story.
- Comments: Grumman: The story has a good mix of traditional Dungeons & Dragons adventuring with the relationship between the two main characters.
- GM_ace: Seconded. For fans of the Eberron setting in particular The Rising Mists does a fantastic job of showing the immediate effects of the Day of Mourning, and Welcome to the Jungle does I dare say a better job exploring Q'Barra and the religous/mythological aspects of the setting, including some of the racial tensions of the world (warforged have not been emancipated yet, for instance, and Neana's hatred of Valenar elves is a major plot point). If you like Eberron at all, this is a must-read.
and also here by Gladiator- Recommended by: Jean-Claude Van Damme
- Status: Incomplete, however it's almost finished with only two remaining chapters.
- Crossovers: Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Berserk, Warhammer 40K (yes, really)
- Synopsis:The Knight Commander, known as Arlan Vorlesh, did not die that day when he hurled himself into The Worldwound. Instead he finds himself in another plane. A world ruled by demons, and he owes a great debt to The Black Swordsman. One he intends to repay. This marks the beginning of another crusade. The Godhand would die. They would be put to the flame, and he would become the herald. The champion who would save Guts. He would save them all. Whether his death was a consequence? It did not matter to him. Only the crusade did. Only war. War everlasting.
- Tags: Tragedy, Literal Metaphors, Thematic Parallels, El Puck, Belt of Discipline, Holy Crap That Is A Lot of War, The Knight Commander Protects
Add ReviewHarry Potter and the Natural 20 by Sir Poley
- Recommended by Robinton
- Status: Dormant
- Synopsis: "Milo, a genre-savvy D&D Wizard and Adventurer Extraordinaire is forced to attend Hogwarts, and soon finds himself plunged into a new adventure of magic, mad old Wizards, metagaming, misunderstandings, and munchkinry."
- Comments: Generally agreed to be only moderately amusing for a Terry Pratchett novel. That is to say, absolutely hilarious, truly awesome, and still heartwarming. Extremely recommended.
Finishing the Fight by Aratech
- Recommended by: SAMAS, Psalm of Fire, Silverwind 91
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: A massive fireball crashes to Earth in the northern part of Toril, just before the Time of Troubles begins. But this is no meteor, it's the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn, containing not only the Master Chief, but also the Arbiter, Sergeant Johnson, and Commander Miranda Keyes.
- Psalm of Fire: Very bloody, but the approach and ability to portray wonder really snagged me into it.
- Comartemis: Seconded. As far as I care, this is Halo 3's canon ending.
- kknd2: Third. It sounds like a recipe for a disastrous, short and idiotic fic. Then you read it, and it seems to be edging in that direction, then the Drow take the kid gloves off and sheer awesome ensues.
- Comartemis: Seconded. As far as I care, this is Halo 3's canon ending.
The Land Of Dragons and Dungeons by Celyn Brum
- Recommended by Mcnickel
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: The halls of the Gods are empty, echoing with unheard prayers. The forces of corruption and decay are growing in power. Soon they shall sweep across the world like an unholy plague. From the deep caverns beneath the majestic Dragonshard Mountains, across the mighty Greenweald Forest, to the fair city of Porthaven on the storm-wracked coast, there are fourteen people with the mark of a divine ruler on their skin. They do not know it, but they and only they can save the world from apocalypse and ruin. So naturally, they're going to spend as long as possible arsing about slaying monsters and looting ancient temples. 'Cos, you know, adventurers.
- Notes: A Homestuck crossover in an astoundingly well worldbuilt setting, run in the original MSPA style- reader suggestions control the plot. Complete at over 600k words.
Ye Old Black Magic by The Last Hunter
- Recommended by: Mariic
- Crossover with: The DCU
- Synopsis: A self-proclaimed Min-Maxing bastard awakens to find himself as a Tiefling Warlock in Gotham City circa 1976. After making a name for himself in the city's underworld (and taking care of Count Strahd), Simon Blackwood finds himself as the champion of Death.
