"Hey there, folks and fiends!"
JessJackdaw is an artist, youtuber and storyteller known for doing artwork and telling stories about Dungeons & Dragons. Jess mostly does speedpaints, telling stories about his D&D-games and monsters he creates for the game, but has also animated some of his stories.
Jess also does a lot of homebrewing, creating new races and monsters for dungeons and dragons. He has uploaded some races and characters on reddit, and frequently does speedpaints of his homebrewed creations on his channel.
Jess' youtube channel can be found here
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- Adaptational Attractiveness: In a crossover QnA with Puffin Forest and Dingo Doodles, they were tasked with drawing each other's character. Jess draws Captain Morgan as a rather attractive elf, whereas Ben's usual artstyle is far more cartoonish and comedic.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Grae enjoys Halt's friendship, but isn't really interested the way he is in her. Same goes for Hisseem.
- All There in the Manual: The "Seducing Monstrosities" stories are from Jess' Tomb of Annihilation campaign. Reading the sourcebook can give some insight into the events going on.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: In a comic Jess made before creating his channel, Grae reads Halt's mind to check if he's seriously flirting with her. He is.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: As a response to a transphobe refusing to accept his preferred pronouns, Jess drew himself along with an anthropomorphic representation of (at the time) 1 month of hormone repacement therapy. It later appeared (this time representing 3 months) consoling Jess over the many comments mistaking his deeper voice for him being sick.
- Appropriated Appellation: Jess' Curse of Strahd character was Wretchette Abunination, a malformed dragonborn. She took her name from what people called her note , since she didn't understand that it was an insult.
- Bait-and-Switch: At the start of the fourth pokemon fusion video, where Jess revealed he was trans, he says he has been busy transitioning... into a new art program. And then he coughs up a pride flag.
- Body Horror: In the second D&D/SCP Fusion video, Jess manages to combine the Chitine, a pretty horrific example of this on its own, with the Body Horror SCP; SCP-610. The Flesh that Hates.
- Composite Character: With a dash of Mix-and-Match Critters. In Jess' Pokémon Fusion series, he combines random Pokémon with random D&D monsters.
- Crossover: Jess has done several QnA/speedpaints with other D&D youtubers, namely Adán, Puffin Forest and Dingo Doodles.
- Crossplayer: Jess uses female pronouns when referring to his character Grae, while he himself is a man.
- Cthulhumanoid: One of Jess' homebrew character concepts, Corona Burgen, was unfortunate enough to go through ceremorphosis.
- Deadpan Snarker: Jorah, after Grae's true form is revealed in "Seducing Monstrosities:"Grae: Oh no! It's not what it looks like!
Jorah: Yes, that's the problem. Isn't it? - Evil All Along: Hisseem in "Seducing Monstrosities" secretely worshipped Vecna, the Lich-God.
- Golem: The "Seducing Monstrosities" part encountered a stone golem atop Ataaz Muhahah, which forced them to retreat on account of being a giant walking statue capable of crushing creatures with one hand.
- Has a Type: Hisseem likes bards, Halt likes halflings. Grae is (apparently) a halfling bard.
- Impostor Forgot One Detail: The "detail" Grae forgot is that she doesn't know a single thing about halflings, resulting in her weaving a tale about how she comes from "halflingtown, where the halflings live deep in the underdark, feasting on the unwitting adventurers that stray therein".
- Indian Burial Ground: Played for laughs when Jess ponders if the party had defiled an ancient polyhedron burial ground to get the cursed rolls they got in Nangalore.
- Interspecies Romance: The focus of the "Seducing Monstrosities" series is Halt, a dwarf ranger who falls in love with Grae, a doppelganger-disguised-as-halfling.
- Oculothorax: Jess' avatar on his channel is a Spectator, a lesser relative of the iconic D&D Beholder. When his sister cameo'd, she was drawn as a normal (for a given value of "normal") beholder.
- Oh, Crap!: When Jess rolled a Mimikyu in his Pokemon Fusions speedpaint, he d'awwed over its cuteness for a while. Then he rolled a Cadaver Collector for the D&D monster, and his reaction was this.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The Dreading Bell (Pun on "Wedding Bells") is a bell that was used by a noble woman to call her handmaid whom she was in a relationship with. Until the maiden died prematurely, that is. Now, the bell stalks the halls of the castle, haunted by the lady's ghost, ringing the bell and seeking her beloved. The Bell itself is the monster, animated by the noble's spirit, which is why it's a Construct, and not an Undead. Stat-wise, it deals no direct damage, but it can build up the Exhaustion Status Effect and summon headless specters to protect it.
- Our Hydras Are Different: In one of his Pokemon Fusions was a combination of the D&D hydra and Hydreigon. The result was the Drachimera, a failed attempt at resurrecting Tiamat.
- Skewed Priorities: In a video by Puffin Forest, Jess, Dingo and Logan went on a mission with an NPC named captain Morgan. When Morgan was captured, Jess rushed in and Ben assumed he was going to rescue Morgan. Instead, Jess picked up the cocaine Morgan dropped on the ground.
- This Was Her True Form: Somewhat less lethal than most uses of this trope. After Grae is knocked out by a plant, she reverts to her true form.
- Viewer Gender Confusion: In the first video where Jess revealed that he is trans, a lot of the comments were people uncertain about what pronouns he preferred. Jess clarified that he identifies as male and uses he/him pronouns.
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: Grae the (homebrewed) Doppelganger usually takes on the form of a halfling girl, but can shapeshift her limbs as weapons.
