#but sci fi is a lot more fun to do than fantasy imo

[lanaevyssmoved]

do u have any game recommendations that have character creation? besides bg3 ofc

gonna be real i wouldnt recommend bg3 for a character creation game because you can only use preset faces ...... bro but if you mean it in an oc way......

i would recommend.............

heavily modded skyrim, if you don't wanna do it yourself use wabbajack, some of the modlists on there are designed for graphics or high end systems and have very pretty characters. there's also ones not like that with rougher characters or more vanilla characters. lots of choice! do not get into the community though, this is a warning

following on from that, any elder scrolls game - morrowind is the best and one of my all time favourite games

you can follow on from that with fallout if you like the setting. i recommend fallout 1 and 2 the most as i'm not the hugest fan of bethesdas fallout but that is not a common opinion that be a hot take

heavily modded final fantasy xiv, you can fully mod on the free trial version as far as i know - be warned this is an extremely slippery slope because it has a modding community to rival skyrim and many customisation mods are paid for however there are ways around that. anyway you can get mods from here, here and here as well as the nexus

elden ring, dark souls 3 - the other dark souls but those character creations look like dogshit ass but still fun to make ocs in imo.. demon souls if you own a ps5....... i do not

pillars of eternity, tyranny, while visually quite limiting the character creators are still very neat from a roleplay pov - tyrannys has a lil "post character creation" game you get to play where you make "post game" choices and i uh, used to play that all the time for fun without intent to keep playing.....

a good follow up to that would be dragon age, all three of them but specially origins, i used to play the origins and not continue the rest of the game for fun! now be warned all of these games suck terrible dick in terms of modding because it's awkward and annoying and easily broken! i recently replayed dao and dai and so much of that time was spent troubleshooting...... joyous

have to kind of mention mass effect after? but ur kind of always making the same character..... ive always struggled with mass effect personally. maybe its the setting?

you can also look at starfield since that's got actually a pretty decent cc but i did find it quite limiting. but i've not really played it for more than an hour cuz bg3 exists so i can't say much

back to crpgs, the two pathfinder games! again limiting on the character side but roleplay side very very strong. i've not played wotr but i have mutuals who act like it is gods gift to gaming and i believe them. i really liked the first!

the outer worlds could be a good choice, i really like that games aesthetic but it's another space game and i think we're seeing a pattern that i'm just not that into those. hm. it was bethesda style gaming in space before starfield exists with the personality of fallout, kind of ?

this ones going far out there but crusader kings iii has an insane character creation and my favourite ruler ever was this old witch woman cannibal who slowly but surely turned her whole corner of the globe into a witch worshipping cannibal cult. i miss her

age of wonders 4 has a really cool cc, you can even make dragons with the dlc like Actual dragons.... i have made so many characters in there and gave them their funny little lores.. age of wonders has real cool lore and it is Completely ignored by tumblr afaik and that sucks

encased is a really cool rpg it's another sci-fi-y one.. it isn't as polished as you might expect cuz it's a very ambitious game but a small indie studio but i would say if you enjoy fallout 1 + 2 you will enjoy encased

dragons dogma! you get to make two people in this just like in bg3! i made a lil girl and her big brother and i was so fucking emotional over them that i was crying constantly even when nothing was going on. i played dragons dogma to fucking death on the ps3 and i think its interesting and rich enough to sink ur teeth into

i have to mention greedfall as the owner of the greedfall url.... greedfall is very interesting as its a double A title akin to a dragon age game.. it might make one feel a tad uncomfortable because it comes across as colonialism the rpg but it does get very interesting and it has neat as hell characters and magic and big monsters who fuck hard

wasteland 3! kinda again has the fallout type of vibe it is violent and full of dark themes and twisted themes but its also extremely comical its true black humour at times and you get to make two characters again and you can even make TWO MORE CHARACTERS so i had a bunch of custom characters.. u can get really wild in the cc as well and builds are SUPER fun....... v good game

spellforce 3!!!!! i love this game, the cc is again like another crpg one but spellforce 3 has very deep lore spanning many games .. its not typical crpg in that its also like a strategy war game too but i think it does the mixture very well and i LOVEEEEEEEE the lore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

uh i forgot to mention divinity original sin 1/2 because .. bg3 should lead you right there but uh. play them both! the first is so good in coop i feel cuz of the natural banter between the protagonists. if you don't have friend the second is very good single player just. be warned i don't think it has good endings but the ride is worth it!! and divinity lore fucks hard. i also recommend divinity dragon commander because its so much fun

can i say stardew valley? mayhaps sun haven too? if ur crazy like me you can turn these into prime oc generators. also mods

oh, monster hunter world and by extension wild hearts. monster hunter world lets you make a cat and while ur character themselves doesn't get to do much story wise i did get very obsessed with my character and wanting them fight cool monsters. wild hearts is similar though your character does feel a bit more special- be warned this game is known for running like ass on most systems, its pretty good for me but be warned all the same

TEEHEES.... KENSHI!!!!!!!!!!!! i was holding back on mentioning kenshi but i can't. you can make a whole fucked up lil squad if u want. u got weird alien races. u got a billion fucking mods. u can have ur buddies limps removed and give them robot ones. u can make an army of weirdos. bro i got so invested in my kenshi squad i was writing FANFIC. i was dreaming of them. i was unable to sleep about them. i miss them so fucking much dude!! kenshi doesnt really have a story beyond what u make it. that shit is a SANDBOX.. and i love it so much. everyone should play kenshi. its kinda like rimworld if u want a comparison. i think its Perfect. the best game to exist ever (lie) its so wonderful....... man........its also broken as shit cuz its the most ambitious game to exist ever and it was made by 1 dude so

oh if u like anime games i have to mention code vein (souls like) and god eater (monster hunter like ?) they have very good ccs and i know people super into the lore and stuff. i only played code vein and i liked it a lot honestly

uhhh i mentioned 1 mmo so i should probably mention guild wars 2, the cc is very good, the whole games end game is about fashion and looking amazing. the lore is also super duper neat! i haven't played it for a long time now but i did play it on launch and i had a blast for a few years

if you like d&d i would recommend solasta! it has a very good cc i think honestly and it feels the most like this is d&d in a video game out of every game i've ever played, and it translates the system very and faithfully (as opposed to say bg3 who changed things for game reasons). solasta is also best with friends because its so in that vibe of this is a silly lil d&d party. its much fun

lol i got the block text limit popup

kotor 1 and 2, it might be hard to get into the lore and characters if you're not into star wars but i found it pretty ok to as not a huge star wars fan. i also think they deserve to be played despite that as well because they are fantastic rpgs and some of the best bioware ever made

vampire the masquerade bloodlines!!! i am not a vampire fan really, a small one, but this game captivated me.... very easy to get into making a character i feel and ur given enough to make characters that align different ways easily. the combat did not age well..... but the story and roleplay absolutely did

ok.. im gonna stop here.. but i will say give games like icewind dale and arcanum a chance.. look at old as hell crpgs and try them. this includes bg1+2 which i still need to play myself but will be soon! they are classics because their stories are fantastic, and shouldn't be missed out on!!!!!

#ask #Anonymous #THIS GETS REALLY LONG AND WORDY BTW.. #i wanted to actually talk about games not just list off some #i hope this is helpful dlfgkdfgd

[necrolord-prime-camilla-hect]

Okay I have Thoughts about Muir’s use of language, and I’m going to ramble about it a little bit. This is going to be Long, and I don’t have any especially profound points, I’m just kind of getting some thoughts out.

I found myself noticing Muir's use of obscure, often archaic vocabulary a lot more on my re-read than I did on my first time reading through, and I think the effects it has on worldbuilding and characterization are interesting.

In terms of worldbuilding, it's an interesting dichotomy with the casual vernacular that is also used, especially the modern cultural references throughout. Those references create a through-line to a point of familiarity for the audience and implies that This World Came From Ours. And the contrast between the aggressively modern, casual language and the academic or archaic language is really striking; the use of that obscure language is establishing that This World Is Not Like Ours. It's been 10,000 years, language is used a little bit differently. The use of words that are probably not very familiar or intuitive to most of the audience is a little bit alienating - and it’s supposed to be. It’s a way of establishing distance between the audience and the world of the story, and imo it’s a much more graceful way of doing so than by making up new sci-fi/fantasy words. The use of more archaic language also adds a little bit more to the fantasy side of things; these people may be discussing space travel, but some of their words choices sound like medieval monks and also they can do bone magic. It’s a whole tonal mash-up (just like everything else about the books).

In terms of characterization... I don’t have quite as solid thoughts about this. I will say that I noticed more of the archaic/academic/very formal language in Harrow than in Gideon, but (at least in the Mithraeum scenes) that isn’t entirely attributable to a pov difference. And even in Gideon, the narration absolutely still includes obscure vocabulary. So I think it may be more of a Ninth thing than a character-specific thing. It’s not just that Harrow is a little nerdy nun who reads ancient books about bones for fun instead of talking to people her age and her vocabulary reflects that (although it absolutely does).  This kind of language doesn’t crop up as much (as far as I remember, please feel free to correct me) in dialogue from other characters, except for when discussing very technical aspects of necromancy. So because it shows up both from Gideon and Harrow, in their internal narration and a bit in their dialogue, I think the effect is establishing a little bit more how cut off the Ninth is from the rest of the Houses. They’re culturally isolated; the language and vernacular of the other Houses has moved on, but they haven’t. (Thematically, this also complements the obvious Ninth worship of something ancient and dead; just overall Ninth vibes, I guess.)

I also think it’s a fun detail to note the difference between how the Lyctors talk and how the other characters talk. It’s so noticeable from John “none Houses with left grief” that it’s almost not worth pointing out, but it seems that the Lyctors talk in a more familiar and casual manner, to our modern sensibilities, than Harrow and Gideon do. This is a notable divergence from the typical fantasy trope of immortal characters talking more formally/archaically, and it ties back in to the worldbuilding point above, about how This World Came From Ours. The older characters have more of a connection to the world that we think of as modern, and the other characters have moved away from it.

I guess my overall point is just this: the very deliberate word choice throughout these books is a fantastic degree of attention to detail, and it adds a lot tonally and thematically to the books.

#if anyone reads this whole thing i am handing you a cookie. thanks #also if anyone has further thoughts on this. would love to hear them. #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #harrow the ninth spoilers #jester rambles

[r-18g]

Any recommendations for fucked up stories?

it depends on what kind of fucked up you mean! i haven’t read as much this year as i would like, but some authors/books that come to mind—

t. kingfisher has been a fave for horror of late…

leech by hiron ennes was also Extremely fun! i read it earlier this year, and imo it’s the most fun if you go into it not knowing anything about it, aside from the fact that it’s a somewhat sci-fi gothic horror novel.

house of hunger by alexis henderson is another gothic horror novel that i found pretty fun! it veers more fantasy than sci-fi imo? it could kind of be classified as a romance, in some ways, but uh. i would not personally label it as such. (i do wish the end had been different, but that’s just a personal taste thing! it was not an unenjoyable read or anything.)

THE LUMINOUS DEAD BY CAITLIN STARLING. VERY INTENSELY CREEPY BOOK. WOULD RECOMMEND IT IF YOU LIKE PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR AND UNRELIABLE NARRATORS AND UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS BROUGHT IN BY HORRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCE. AND IF YOU LIKE WOMEN WHO ARE SO FUCKED UP.

a darker shade of magic is a series i really desperately need to reread. it’s not a horror series but there is some pretty fucked up shit in it, and i enjoy v. e. schwab’s writing a lot…

i fucking. need to finish sister, maiden, monster by lucy a. snyder. it is eldrich and strange and horrifying and queer and i should read the rest of it, but just from the first part alone i think it deserves to be on this list.

edit: NINTH HOUSE BY LEIGH BARDUGO. I GOTTA REREAD IT AND READ THE SECOND BOOK.

i could definitely list more, and also none of these veer too heavily into like. erotica? if that is what you are looking for, kushiel’s dart by jacqueline carey is enjoyable, as is the sleeping beauty series by a. n. roquelaure*, and then for something even more graphically pornographic, various titles by daniel may are very fun… princess has forcefemming and crazy levels of coersive dubcon/noncon, and his “taste of ink” series is pretty fantastic if you like very poor decisions (cheating) that resolve into surprisingly healthy polyamory**. (he’s also got a lot of other books out, and i should really read more of them! it’s been a while since i last something he released.)

(*pen-name of anne rice.)

(**this is not what would happen in reality, but the mc is such an endearing idiot who only thinks with his dick that it turns out okay. i love him. i love all three of them, honestly. i should reread this series soon…)

#v speaks! #ask #akihatohnoofficial #THIS GOT LONG. SORRY.

[lumikinetic]

I can’t speak for everyone but I just hate Bruce and think steph’s role as spoiler was really cool & there’s a lot of unexplored ideas that could go along w her identity as spoiler (plus I love the spoiler outfit way more than her batgirl outfit I mean the black shadowy face the hood the belt.. it had it all) Though batgirl 2009 was amazing I just think it’d be cool if she called out Bruce for being a hypocrite and goes back to being spoiler/an independent vigilante. Think there needs to be more independent vigilantes around Gotham anyway like why does every hero need to be connected to Batman

I'm gonna derail onto a soapbox with this first one cause it is literally my number one all time biggest grievance with the way I see people interact with comics nowadays but my sincere and honestly held belief is that there are very very few characters in all of comics you can fully, thoroughly hate with justification. You can say "this character isn't for me" and that's fine whatever it happens, sometimes a concept doesn't make you feel that feeling when experiencing great media and this is why people naturally gravitate towards sci-fi over fantasy or slice of life over high octane action but I truly believe you can't hate most characters. Especially the biggest ones who have been running for 50+ years cause the odds that there is that one run out there that will make you finally Get It™ are astronomically high, and increase with each new writer and THAT is what comics are really about. I'm gonna be upfront w/you, I'm so so worn down by Bruce slander these days, even when I'm not trying to be hostile (like now for instance, I promise) it still comes off as that but god. It really is the lamest, most boring, hivemind-esque stance to take. "I prefer [character] to Batman" yeah sure that's valid I do too, a whole bunch of them, even Batman himself prefers Superman, but when people say "I don't like Batman, at all" all I hear is "I'm not willing to put the work in and actually do the reading". Bruce is cool as fuck as a character as it is, but if you let yourself just enjoy the rule of cool he elevates to 1000. Zdarsky's run has lost the sauce a little bit imo but Failsafe and chasing Joker to the end of existence is still great stuff, and that's just what's happening right now. Great thing about being the guy who oversaturates the DC market: Decades upon decades of top shelf content out there. BUT. The content won't come to you. You gotta go looking.

Anyway Spoiler is cool, yes

The full face mask is cool, yes

I have no preference for the spoiler/stephgirl split. Both identities are good for me she can use whatever. But it doesn't take a whole lot of attention to notice that at the end of the day, it's just a recycled and watered down version of "Laura Kinney is X-23 not Wolverine" or "Miles Morales isn't Spider-Man" and just like those ones, it bothers me. Who cares if both use it at the same time? At best, it adds something new and interesting to the world and offers a dual perspective on what an identity could be. At worst, it's just something inconsequential but in a way that is fun and doesn't detract anything from the story being told. If one Batgirl is preoccupied, maybe in a ghostly magic realm for example, we still got another to do normal Gotham stuff.

Historically, every "Batman-related" character got tired of being Batman-related (or they exploded, sorry Jason) and decided to take the batsymbol and make it their own (or the writers forced it on them, sorry Jason). Batgirl is not connected to Batman. Batgirl is connected to Barbara Gordon. Bette Kane if you wanna get really technical about it. Babs' whole thing is about how she didn't become Batgirl to appease Batman or whatever, she did it because she wanted to and the bat was a convenient symbol that already had some weight to it. Also don't let the internet fool you, Babs' time as Batgirl really wasn't as impactful and iconic as everyone thinks it is and the '66 TV show makes everyone believe. She was in the cape for a comparatively short time before going straight into Oracle. It holds much more meaning to both Steph and Cass, so even then, it's not even connected to Babs, it's connected to Cass more than anything, and only because she was the one who got it first.

I would say Helena B cause she was before Cass but she had it for like five seconds, so. Lol.

#ask #dc comics #batgirl #batman #barbara gordon #cassandra cain #stephanie brown

[agoddamn]

The sci fi of Naruto was already inevitable with Kishimoto treating some filler as canon to Naruto, one filler episode even had Mecha Naruto from the games!

Anon asked: The weirdest bit is that Naruto really does seem to suggest it’s a Post-Apocalypse world of some kind, long before Kaguya arrived, and that’s where all the weird advanced tech comes from.

Nart's magitech is honestly fun! That Final Fantasy 6 level of technology where you can plausibly have lightbulbs and washing machines but still fight with swords--that's the excellent shit. Fun as hell.

IMO, post-apocalyptic--true post-apo, not just a wink or two--is really hard to do. A lot of post-apocalyptic fiction either puts way too much weight on the mystery, to the point where any solution to the mystery box is unsatisfying (I'm thinking Wheel of Time somewhat, but also The Dark Tower) or just...gives you too much detail, to the point where all you want is fix-it fics where everyone just lived in modern times.

I'm honestly ok with it if Nart's greater history is such that Kaguya's rule/dynasty led to big fancy tech that crashed when she was sealed. That's cool! I like the idea that Nart tech was decently advanced (let's say 1930s switchboard type?) but the sheer level of division and continental infighting kept things from advancing further (ie "we totally have the technology for trains but we don't have more than 20 miles of territory so it's not fucking worth it to try and build trains"). It's a cool hypothetical civilization point, you know? There's a huge amount of our current civilization that we only got to develop because of resources we had because of peace.

#nart opinions #which isn't to say that war doesn't ALSO drive technology #but peace also drives certain kinds of tech that you would never get the chance to develop in a warring society #sociopolitical naruto bullshit

[sophrosyneadrift]

1, 3, 34 for the book asks 👀

💜💜 Books books books!! Okay:

1. what is the best book you have ever read?

😭😭 I’m not good with superlatives. But I’ll try. I’ve talked about Sunshine in another answer — which imo has continued to be incredible even across time and space and different iterations of the self, which is a great marker of bestness in a book I think!!

But the best books I’ve read LATELY have been the Murderbot series, by Martha Wells, which made me laugh and cry and got me through a solid chunk of a terrible time in my life! They’re amazing. I can’t recommend them enough.

3. what is your preferred genre?

Sci fi & fantasy!! I also really, really like anything genre-bending with elements of sci fi & fantasy m — it’s like I can have a little dragon in this historical drama!! As a treat.

34. do you read more than one book at a time?

Lol. Oh yes, yes I do. Currently I think I’m in the midst of about…six?? In various stages. It takes me forever to read now, and my attention span’s shot by The Horrors, so the more I’m reading the more likely I am to stay focused and actually finish them, if that makes sense??

Also I have a system for juggling my multiple reads, which probably no one is interested in but me but I’m going to describe here in detail anyway:

2+ paper books: these keep me company almost wherever I go. I have one or more books that are a Fun Romp and one that is a Project, and I flip between them — like, last summer I went through several romp books before I actually finished the Silmarillion. But I did finish the Silmarillion!! Which was awesome.

2 audiobooks: historically one for my commute, although I’m spending a lot less time on the road now so it’s really for when I’m doing housework and other mindless projects, and one as a re-listen while I’m falling asleep. The re-listen is almost always a Tamora Pierce book. Or murderbot, nowadays.

Anyway thank you sm for asking!!! And btw, I woke up to the notification for a new Bizarre Love Triangle chapter and read it while eating breakfast and it was AMAZING, as usual :)

[gellavonhamster]

monthly media recap: july 2023

read:

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater - a very sweet and kind Regency fantasy romance. One of the reviews on the cover calls it "the definition of a comfort read", and I couldn't agree more. Since this is Tumblr, I feel like I need to add preemptively that maybe don't judge the way the fairy curse in the novel is written (that is, in a way that resembles and, imo, should be read as neurodivergence) before you've learned how it ends

Angélique: The Road to Versailles, Angélique and the King, Angélique and the Sultan, Angélique in Revolt, Angélique in Love, The Countess Angélique, The Temptation of Angélique by Anne Golon - books 2-8 in the Angélique series of historical fiction novels that... didn't age quite well, in my opinion, I'd say a 20th century author could do better even with the caveat that the 17th century people are not by any means supposed to act like modern people. But the plot is so gripping that I can't put these books down, and then there's also this motif of people helping each other even in the bleakest circumstances running through the entire story that makes it worth the occasional cringe for me. However, my cringe level is built on a lot of classic novels that are very much Product of Their Time so idk if I'd recommend these books to anyone. I am having a lot of fun with them, though

I guess it doesn't really count as a book, but it made me spend some time with the French dictionary to read the comics, so - I ordered one of these Three Musketeers zines, the Cavalier Jaune one, and it's a gem (and clearly made with such love for these books) and I'm really glad I got it <3

+ currently reading the next Angélique book

watched:

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) - very cool and creative and heartfelt, loved it!

Д'Артаньян и три мушкетёра / D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978), Мушкетёры двадцать лет спустя / Musketeers Twenty Years After (1992), Тайна королевы Анны, или Мушкетёры тридцать лет спустя / The Secret of Queen Anne or Musketeers Thirty Years After (1993) - finally watched all three of these adaptations of the d'Artagnan romances, I've only seen the first one before in bits and pieces. The first one is delightful and has so much funny stuff I totally forgot about, such as Constance biting her assailants and Rochefort & Milady singing to Richelieu an offensive song the people of Paris wrote about him. The second one is mostly fine, even despite the ridiculously clumsy attempts to retcon the book stuff that wasn't in the first movie (yeah, right, d'Artagnan sacrificed the ring that the queen gave him to try to save Buckingham, and Lord Winter has met the Musketeers before, this was totally included in part one). I didn't like the changed ending, though - I think it's important that it is Athos who kills Mordaunt, what with the possibility of Mordaunt being his son. The third part might be the stupidest attempt at an everybody lives!AU ever, but it gets like 2/5 points for the cast and the okay-ish first episode

Strange Days (1995) - cyberpunk noir, very cool, Angela Bassett as Mace is amazing

Vai viegli būt jaunam? / Is It Easy to Be Young? (1986) - the famous Latvian documentary about the life of Soviet youth, addressing topics from the punk subculture to the war in Afghanistan. A very interesting reflection of a generation; I think some parts are gonna haunt me

Stand by Me (1986) - summer, childhood in all its cruelty, and friendship that changes you forever. I might or might not have cried

Attack the Block (2011) - really enjoyed this one. Good social commentary? In my sci-fi comedy horror about an alien invasion? It's more likely than you think

L'Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close (2011) - beautiful and tragic. One of those films that feel like nothing really happens when in truth a lot happens. Also, women are my favourite guy (c)

#talk talk talk #monthly media recap

[wri0thesley]

Omg, a monthly date night! That’s such a good idea, I really hope things work out so you’re able to do that together! Please send Haz my well wishes too!

And 🤔 maybe I’ll set my goal to 150 as well. I’m also a fairly fast reader and I know I can knock out a few good sized novels every month, but burn out is my big concern with that. However, I’d really like to get back into writing again after a year of mentally struggling and I want to kind of relearn some things, so I’d like to read as many different kinds of stories as possible. Different authors, different genres, different perspectives and themes! I took a peek at your wishlist and some of those books looked really good! Tbh I’m STRONGLY eyeballing this one for myself

Sadly, I’m an old lady 👵 and I don’t really know how these Amazon wishlists work. Do you update them when you’ve obtained the item so you don’t get doubles? If I buy you something off it does it just go straight to you? Please let me know, because I want both of us to have this book. 😂 The cover alone is worth it imo.

i hope so! i love the cinema and we both love the theatre and we've been thinking about ways to make more physical dates (haz wants to go bowling, we love arcades, we've done escape rooms in the past!) a little more manageable for them, so fingers crossed!

i love short story collections and i always find them really good for burn-out, honestly! but changing genre and theme and style will probably also help a lot; my picks tend to vacillate between fantasy (though i like fairytale style fantasy more than high fantasy), historical, horror and sci-fi, which gives me a pretty broad scope! gothic horror and this kind of mannered gaslamp fantasy being currently popular means i've got a breadth of content to read fgbkjnjnk. i also don't mind young adult which gives me a HUGE amount more to enjoy too (there's also something to be said about how easily anything fantasy written by a woman is shelved under young adult even when it's not, but . . .).

yes!!! i LOVE that cover. so spooky. so atmospheric. the book i took into 2023 is by one of the contributing writers for that one, and i have another book by one of the other writers in my tbr pile. i find anthologies are also really fun for finding writers whose voice you vibe with too! i recently fell into the trap of looking at all those subscription boxes that send like, beautiful special editions of books and oh so many of them are so so pretty . . .

i am PRETTY sure once something has been purchased from an amazon wishlist it either says that it has been purchased or it is taken off the list, haz bought me some with a giftcard earlier this month and they were automatically removed! i also think they automatically go to the registered wishlist address (it made me pick it, so i hope so!). but please do not feel obligated, the thought means a lot to me! ;w;.

#nat.txt #really hankering for the dress this girl on the cover is wearing tbh fnkjgbjnkgf

[gideonisms]

okay having finished time war book I definitely did misjudge it. I expected it to be kind of vapid but actually, the central metaphor cohered really well and I think the stylistic choices ended up working in its favor less as Epic Truths About Life more as characterization for two immortal characters plagued by ennui and you know Brain Problems. Like they are this dramatic because they are feeling something for themselves/breaking away from their societies for the first time. In some ways this might have worked better as fantasy because a lot of the sci fi concepts were super vague and had the quality of like? Spellwork rather than science if that makes sense? like just say you're doing blood rituals if that's what you're doing imo. And there was a more fairy tale bit at the end that felt very natural. But at the same time I did like the device of using early metaphors to pave the way for later events and no matter how vague I cannot resist a fun sci fi concept so? u know what I forgive it for being a bit overwrought in places because it worked for the characters to communicate their distance from the world and their ability to speak each other's weird dramatic language. This was really enjoyable like a chocolate pie with good crust. Kind of a lot but like that's what you're there for when you eat chocolate pie

#anyway who wants to fall slowly in love with me from a distance #the distance part is crucial i'm just going to do awkward things with my hands and tone in person #okay also? i'd been avoiding this book because of quotes out of context that like. very much do work better in context #i was kinda rolling my eyes re: some of this stuff presented as like top quotes about love when really #they are more. top quotes about love if you've spent ur life learning 2 live in a society & u just met the 1st gay person compatible with u #hate that i had to shorten all those words to get it in the tag but there you go #like they talk this way because they've spent their life copying other people and they're in love for the first time

[supercantaloupe]

hello! would you be willing to talk about the flaws in d20? what did you mean by structural/cultural flaws?

sure. disclaimer up front that these are just my own opinions and that i don't want them being taken as fact or being taken up with the creators of d20 directly by anyone on my behalf.

i found that the longer d20 went on/the more seasons they produce that the structure and (some of) the content get less and less appealing to me. content wise this is really very subjective; for example i'm not interested in dating sim-type stories, so Shriek Week was never going to be my thing. but even seasons with premises/gimmicks that i like on paper (like anthro characters in Mice & Murder and space sci fi in Starstruck Odyssey) i found to lose my attention as they went on. love the concepts, but the execution was lacking a little bit for me.

but i think my issues with the show structurally are my larger criticisms, and i don't think my personal taste issues with the content are entirely divorced from the structural elements. anyway, what initially hooked me to d20 with fantasy high is the fact that, unlike any other actual play show i'd come across at that point, it had several structural elements in place that grabbed my attention and held it: 1. the episodes were relatively short (between 1-2 hours); 2. the seasons were relatively short (18 episodes or fewer); and 3. the visual aspects of sets and minis were engaging and helped sort out the action but were not NECESSARY to following along. i don't have the free time or attention span to get invested in an audio-only 100-episode campaign where every episode is like 4 hours long; d20's earliest seasons were very attractive to me for this reason (plus the inventive-for-the-actual-play-genre settings and plots, but this is one thing at least that i do not think d20 has faltered in with its later seasons. the creativity and originality is still great in this regard).

so it became an issue for me, starting around Crown of Candy, when episodes started creeping longer and longer. and then seasons crept longer and longer, like The Seven (sidequests used to be an easily digestible 6 episodes and i liked that). even worse than episodes consistently being over 2.5 hours long i think was that episodes were not a consistent length: the last two episodes of Starstruck Odyssey are under 1.5 and over 3 hours respectively. i understand that a lot of this has to do with the loose and unscripted nature of the storytelling medium, and the cast/editors don't want to break up the flow of the show in inconvenient places. but from my perspective as a viewer, it's kind of exhausting not knowing week to week how much time and energy in advance i'm going to need to dedicate to a new episode of my favorite dnd show to relax and rewind. i'm someone who just does not have the patience to dedicate to anything that long without forewarning, nor do i have the schedule to accommodate that without advanced budgeting of my time and workload. and since one of d20's existing strengths imo is its serialized weekly episode release (increasingly rare in this age of streaming and bingewatching), part of the fun of d20 is watching the brand new episode when it drops every week and reacting to it with everyone else doing the same thing at the same time. when a 3 hour episode drops on a wedesnday night and i have too much shit to do to watch it, and thus i have to wait til the weekend or later to catch up, i can see exactly what i'm missing out on when i watch all my friends on discord or tumblr or whatever watching and reacting to it without me.

i also really miss the structure of the rp-battle-rp-battle episode format, particularly for the mainquest seasons. i think this was an even bigger loss for the show due to covid than the physical minis and sets (which i missed, certainly, during the pandemic seasons, but i think they worked around their absence well enough that it didn't bother me). i'm sure also the more freeform nature of Sophomore Year contributed to this change too but since that was the only full season thus far that was ACTUALLY improvised live to an audience as opposed to being completely shot and edited prior to release, i don't hold it to the same standards of scrutiny as i do the other seasons. anyway, i once again think it comes down largely to a predictability thing for me: you knew, when there was such a pattern to the episodes, exactly what you were getting into in any given week, whether it'd be battle or roleplay. moreover, you knew that each episode was going to wrap itself up in a satisfying way (not necessarily a complete way, but in a satisfying way) that prepped for the next week's episode, which also promised to have a different tone and goal. that variety was important to me, and the predictability. battles and roleplay both get exhausting and difficult to follow (or worse, boring) after too long without the other to break it up. i miss the structure of this pattern (i think started to depart from this format with TUC2 iirc, which is also the first season i watched as it was airing and got the feeling that it was becoming a bit of a slog to watch all the way through).

all of this is criticism, of course, pretty ironic considering that Sophomore Year is still probably my favorite season. but again, livestreamed. they still (mostly) kept their episode length consistent around 2-2.5 hours (finales notwithstanding lol), there was more internal variety within episodes (one 2.5 hour episode wasn't necessarily 2.5 hours straight of just rp or just battle), the gang got split up a lot more which allowed for more variety in storytelling within an episode or an arc, etc. and on top of it, i think that plotwise, they followed up Fantasy High extremely well, introducing/continuing/expanding lore without it feeling out-of-place or retcon-y. i think it having been made still mostly pre-pandemic before a lot of these changes i've been complaining about were fully implemented does link it more closely still with the style of the early seasons i liked so much, but regardless i think Sophomore Year does demonstrate that some of these traits that i don't like about newer seasons, on their own, are not bad. i just don't think they're implemented very well in recent seasons, or at least not well enough to hold my attention and excitement anymore. long episodes aren't inherently bad, but inconsistently long episodes are hard to work around in my life. a lack of a regular rp-battle episode pattern isn't inherently bad, but there needs to be more internal variety to each episode and a satisfying wrap-up to each episode (which may mean simply wrapping up each episode sooner, or it may not).

none of this is even to get into the execution of content in each season. obviously ymmv with personal taste for whether you like any given season's premise or plot beats or whatever, but i remember the many (valid) criticisms emerging surrounding unbalanced character focus and especially racial insensitivity (from the show and from the fans) with certain seasons like TUC2 and Misfits & Magic. not even to mention my own problems with the inclusion of judaism (or lack thereof)/antisemitism in the show, but i have to get to class soon, and don't have time to elaborate on that right now. this post is long enough already, and my issues with the structural elements of the show are just as strong as my criticisms of its representation issues or whatever, plus i think structural elements are easier to understand if you haven't watched every single season because they apply broadly to many seasons, while issues of representation or bad plot/character balance or whatever are only relevant to specific seasons.

#i mean if someone wanted me to elaborate on more plot/character/season/culturally specific criticisms i could #but like. in another post. if someone asked for it #and another time. cause. i have things to do today #sasha speaks #sasha reviews #dimension 20

[mermaidsirennikita]

Are there any romance series that follows the same couple throughout all the books? It doesn't have to be HR. Not really looking for recommendations more so curious. I feel like when I do come across them It's always not purely a romance series? Like It's an erotic romance, it's technically new adult or it does follow a couple but it's also urban fantasy or sci-fi, stuff like that.

Yes, but by and large I haven't read them. There's a lot of debate about this, because you honestly can't maintain a book's HEA if the couple's story isn't done in the end. So it's not really a romance novel so much as it is a romance novel SERIES. In the end, as long as there's an HEA I think you're fine... But it's tricky.

The only series that I've read that really follows the one couple through the series is 50 Shades, and like... I think that says it all lol.

Now, I do think that some older series are a bit less standalone than many of them today, and there is more of an overarching plot that unites couples more through the series. This doesn't mean that one couple gets followed throughout the series, but rather that there are multiple couples whose journeys sort of continue through the series. Like, as a comparison--you could read any Hathaway book by Lisa Kleypas and they would stand alone pretty well, imo.

In comparison, take Nora Roberts's Circle Trilogy. That's an urban fantasy series in which there's this overarching plot of the three couples fighting this evil vampire queen in a parallel dimension (it's... great). Because that overarching plot isn't resolved until the final book, you do resolve the first two couples ROMANTICALLY in their books, but they're followed heavily and their true HEA is not guaranteed until the resolution of the series. I wouldn't call any of those books true standalones, even though the love stories are.

For reference, btw--

Morrigan's Cross--The adventure begins, we have a 1,000 year old time traveling Celtic warlock falling in love with a modern day healer/witch.

Dance of the Gods--We move from our world to the parallel Magical Ireland kingdom, our modern day vampire slayer badass babe falls in love with a fun love shapeshifter guy. He is a dragon sometimes. She rides him. Both as a dragon and as a man.

Valley of Silence--Culmination of the big war, 1,000 formerly evil vampire guy (twin brother of the warlock dude) falls in love with the virgin librarian queen of the alternate Magical Kingdom. It Saved Me In Every Way A Person Can Be Saved.

I'm currently reading Elizabeth Lowell's medieval trilogy, and it functions similarly. Best read in order, and each couple gets their HEA as their book ends but there is still a lot of drama surrounding land disputes in each book.

#romance novel blogging #book recs

[mrmallard]

I'm gonna preface this by saying that #lightningposting is the tag I use to talk about the FF13 games, so if these long-ass rants aren't your cup of tea, you can blacklist that tag so you don't have to see them. I try to pick and choose what I tag with main tags, but some long posts like this might occasionally make it into the main tag. #lightningposting is a surefire way to filter posts like this out of your Tumblr experience.

---

So I made a post earlier about how I had jumped the gun in how I had described Final Fantasy 13-2. I can't describe the impetus for that initial post without spoiling it, but I will say that it had the main villain being a massive hypocrite and it really got on my nerves.

Tonight, I hit a story beat that was not only awesome, but which explained why the main villain reacted the way they did in that instance. And it's not exactly Shakespeare, but it worked for that story arc and to further build an air of mystery that the game wants the main villain to have.

So I'm gonna say something a little less definitive, and just let this opinion ride until I have something else to say about the game.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is kind of like a shonen manga.

It's cheesy and hammy, the characterisation and storytelling is very on-the-nose and there's a lot of filler. But the filler is usually a pretty good distraction from the main story - like the flan subplot I posted about earlier, which was just a silly little diversion where you got to track down some ugly-cute flan monsters - the game is pouring a lot of time and effort into Serah and Noel's relationship and individual characterisation, which goes a long way, and the obligatory boss fights tend to feel creative, over the top and/or fun to varying degrees. Not every boss is created equal, but a lot of the main storyline ones are very good.

I've described the game as being like a TV show - there's even a recap montage that plays whenever you load up your save file to get you back up to speed, just like TV shows back in the day. Every new level (which is actually a new location with a series of different time periods for you to jump back and forth between) either serves the main arc of the game, occasionally spreading the same plotline across multiple locations/time periods; chain together into a loose subplot based on a similar puzzle or task spread throughout them; or function as a one-and-done standalone episode with some additional goodies for you to find in other levels. Every "episode" or "level", as it were, gives you something new.

You could read maybe a hundred chapters of InuYasha, understand the skeleton of the plot and the character motivations of all the major players and stuff, see InuYasha upgrade the Tetsusaiga/Tessaiga to make it stronger and then finally beat the bad guy or whatever - but that manga has hundreds of chapters, and as much of that story is out-and-out filler, there are funny chapters and really tense action-filled chapters and engaging sideplots and arcs and recurring characters etc. that are entertaining whether they advance the main plot or not.

FF13-2 is kind of like that - but with enough fat to add flavour, not so much that you're choking on it. You're not looking at a 600 chapter epic, you're looking at a 50+ hour game with a lot of gameplay freedom and variety - especially compared to the game that came before it.

You can ignore all the side content and do the bare minimum to slog through 13-2's main story - which IMO is a pretty interesting time travel story. It's rooted far more in fantasy, prophecies, mythology and magic than sci-fi. But whether you go for that main story or not, the appeal for me is in the lush selection of different time periods and locations for me to explore, and the stories told within each of them.

You're always doing something. You're always pushing a plot point forward, or uncovering a character moment, or goofing off in a blatant filler level. It's a rich tapestry of different experiences that paint a robust and enjoyable journey for Serah and Noel, like a time-travelling road trip. If you enjoy how the game plays and you're invested in the characters, it can be hard to put the game down.

It can get a little samey, and the dialogue can be a bit flat. But it's such a fun game.

#final fantasy xiii-2 #lightningposting #long post

[crehador]

ive looked through your 2023 watched stuff but ive been wondering if youve said anywhere what your favourite animes of all time are ? just curious cus i want more reccs

ooh good question! i am so indecisive and so full of love for so many series that it's always been a bit of a struggle to pick out just a few absolute faves, but here are the first few that come to mind

(i'll try to keep to shorter series here)

and standard disclaimer that everything here is my opinion and my opinion only

best anime of all time: shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu, and for me nothing even comes close

the story is told over the course of two seasons (the second being shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu: sukeroku futabi-hen; 25 episodes total) and it is imo just an absolute masterpiece. it's a somber tale, but executed in such a masterful way. the show is centered around rakugo and rakugo performers, and felt to me like not only an incredible story but an incredible performance of the art of storytelling

i don't rewatch this one very often because it makes me so sad, but i think it's a beautiful and worthwhile sort of sadness to experience

best sports anime of all time: kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru (23 episodes), and once again nothing even comes close. which means a lot coming from me because i love sports anime i will watch any sports anime i love good ones i love bad ones i love them unconditionally i'm like sports anime georg so 'best sports anime' is maybe even a more significant crown than 'best anime' coming from me lmao

ahem anyway in terms of objective quality there's just nothing that beats kazetsuyo, and i highly recommend it even as a character-centric piece for people who aren't generally into sports anime. it's just that good

side note 1: while i would call kazetsuyo the 'best' sports anime, my personal favorite is eternally kurobas (though it is on the longer side)

side note 2: honorary mention to megalo box, another of my all-time favorites. it's sports + sci-fi so i typically don't count it solely as a sports anime, but i love it to bits. there is a second season that i haven't even seen yet! i've always heard the second season is even better than the first, so i've been saving it for a special day (also i'm a bit scared of it because i was so happy with the ending of the first season that i'm kinda like resistant to change lol)

best anime i can't tell you anything about: so generally i'm of the belief that spoilers don't ruin much for me, if something is done well then it's done well even if i know it's coming. that said, there are a handful of series where i am so glad i went in knowing nothing, so that every twist and turn caught me completely unawares

and the top two i would recommend in this category are samurai flamenco (22 episodes) and sarazanmai (11 episodes)

definitely do look up trigger warnings if you've a need for them! but otherwise, going in knowing nothing really heightened the experience of these for me

they are... strange, and amazing

this is getting long so i'll just dump a bunch of favorites in a list below (some are Great, some are decidedly Not Great but Very Fun and beloved to me lol, and all are 25 episodes or less)

feel free to ask for details if you'd like to hear more about any of these, or if you'd like recs in any specific genres!

acca: 13-ku kansatsu-ka, appare-ranman!, baccano!, barakamon, cool doji danshi, dorohedoro, fantasy bishoujo juniku oji-san to, gankutsuou, gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun, houseki no kuni, ikebukuro west gate park, kimi to boku, kuragehime, paripi koumei, sabikui bisco, tiger & bunny (and its distant cousin double decker! doug & kirill), uchouten kazoku, wotaku ni koi wa muzukashii, yojuhan shinwa taikei, yuru camp

side note 3: just realized tiger & bunny is actually no longer under 25 episodes because we got a second season after like ten years lmao BUT i couldn't bring myself to remove it because it is phenomenal

#asks #long post #sorry this got super rambly lmao #i am always talking too much about anime orz #tried to keep to shorter series here but for longer ones (over 25 eps) some favorites are: #natsume yuujinchou; 3-gatsu no lion; psycho-pass; kurobas; boueibu; jjba; gintama; idolish7; and probably more that i'm forgetting lol #basically the tl;dr of what i would rec is 1) rakugo 2) kazetsuyo 3) depends on what genres you're interested in #thank you for the ask!!

[r-18g]

You've mentioned CoC2 and TITs (lol) a couple of times, what are those things full names? Last time I took a game recommendation from your blog (DoL) I became obsessed.

coc2 is corruption of champions 2, and tits is trials in tainted space!

they both fall into the category of primarily text-based erotic/porn games, with coc2 being in the fantasy genre, and tits being sci-fi. they're both quite fun, imo, and like dol, they're being actively developed — i've followed their progress for quite a while!

i would say that some of the writing in them can be kind of hit or miss for me, and it seems to depend on the writer, since they're made by a whole little team of people, so ymmv on whether you find each specific scene to be hot? but that being said, i do find them to be very fun to play!

the kinks/fetishes in them tend to be more fantastical than the ones featured in dol (there's a lot of wild transformation kink in them) so again, ymmv, but i think the amount of customization you can do to your playable character — and sometimes to certain npcs — is very very neat!

#ask #thesphericalbeanbag #coc2 #trials in tainted space #v speaks! #faq #(because i think i've had a similar ask or two before!!)

[huntunderironskies]

2. BEASTS - Who is your favourite OC?

21. FLESH - Which OC would you most like to look like?

43. SPACE - Do you prefer Sci-Fi or Fantasy?

2. BEASTS

Tough one. I waffled for a while on whether or not character voice is going to be the tiebreaker (in which case, absolutely Samael, in a main cast full of weird little religious guys they're the most weird little religious guy) or just how well I think I pulled off their subplot (No-Name has the best one IMO) which by proxy also makes writing all the foreshadowing more fun. Kind of a cop-out but I'm going to give both of them a mention, then.

Above mononyms are because everyone is effectively going by a callsign, to summarize things as briefly as possible. Pics mandatory, these will look familiar to some people who have known me for a while, don't worry about it.

21. FLESH

Kohaku. They have it all. Drop-dead androgynously handsome, long hair with great hair health, muscle, body mods, fangs and claws for self-defense,

(Pictured below! I have way less art of them than I do my other characters in the VN so if anyone wants to exchange art of a fox fae for money, let me know.)

43. SPACE

Not a strong preference, but I guess sci-fi by a hair. I think with fantasy I just bounce hard off most D&D-alikes but those are getting less common now as people get more adventurous. My monster befriending isekai mentioned in the tags is more of a fantasy but it's post-Industrial Revolution and draws a lot from Russian history so I've been having a good time with it.

#doing the dating sim and not the digimon-alike monster befriending isekai #unfortunately all my braincells went straight into designing the ecosystems and how societies would develop around monsters #so i only have like #two and a half developed characters

[oscararcane]

hey! i sometimes get an itch to try another interactive novel but i don't know much abt what's available out there so if you have a moment to share your recommendations that would be awesome!

Hiii! I would love to share some recommendations! Was just waiting for someone to ask my opinion lmao.

Altho tbh I haven't read that many finished interactive novels, but I have a lot of WIPs to recommend. Lately reading finished stories has been a bit difficult for me, I put a lot of my energy into writing my own story so following WIPs is a bit easier for me.

With that in mind, here are a couple of finished stories I did read and enjoyed:

- Blood Money, by @hpowellsmith. It's a mafia story, but a fantasy one, which I found very interesting! I love the premise and the world-building.

- Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road. It's the first one of the three VTM interactive stories they planned to make. I think the second one came out some time ago? But I've only read this one. I enjoyed it, I liked the story and the characters but the game mechanics were not my favorite. They get a bit in the way of the narration, imo. But in the end, I did like it.

And now for the WIPs, lol:

- Diaspora, by @diasporatheblog. A big favorite of mine! And even tho it's a WIP, it's getting pretty close to being finished so there's a lot of content to read! It's a fantasy adventure/political intrigue and it's very immersive and fun and the characters are really cool. I really love this one and can't recommend it enough!

- The Golden Rose, by @anathemafiction. This one is also fantasy but set in an alternative medieval Europe. It's very interesting and immersive! The first book is actually finished and I think it is planned to be released in April next year?

- Wayfarer, by @idrellegames. Another fantasy adventure! I guess I do love those, lmao. Another very immersive one! The game mechanics are really cool too. It really feels like playing a text version of a c-rpg!

- A Tale of Crowns, by @ataleofcrowns. Another fantasy story, but more of a romance/political intrigue. It's set in a fantasy world based on Kurdish culture. I really like the world and the characters — including the MC who can be very fun!

- The Northern Passage, by @northern-passage. A gripping fantasy horror story, with a vividly described world and great characters! It's darker than my usual but it's very well written and I love it! For now, the demo is using ChoiceScript, but the author is working on a Twine version, so the demo will move to itch.io at some point.

- When it Hungers, by @roast-ifs. It's another horror fantasy story, but for this one, the setting is inspired by the 1910s and I really love that! You also play as a 'monster' so to speak which is very fun. The story is also going to move from ChoiceScript to Twine and the demo is going through some rewrites at the moment, but the current demo is still great imo! (The demo still has its old title: Smoke & Velvet)

- The Nameless, by @parkerlyn. Another big favorite of mine. Another fantasy story, oops. In this one, you play as a Sheevra, who are inspired by the fey among other things. The dynamics between Sheevra and humans are very interesting and I'm very excited to see where the story is going. The world is also very vibrant and I get a Ghibli vibe when I read it, which I love so much!

- Virtue's End, by @crimsiswrites. Another fantasy horror, also going through some changes and rewrites. The premise is really cool and there's a large cast of very cool characters! I love it a lot and look forward to seeing how it will evolve.

- Project Hadea, by @nyehilismwriting. This one is a sci-fi story, I swear I read other things than fantasy, lol! It's a found family story, but in space, so I'm all about it. The writing is great and the characters are *chef's kiss*. And the MC is a lovable dumbass.

- Attollo, by @attollogame. This is a cyberpunk horror/mystery story with a very unique and interesting setting! The vibes are impeccable and there's a large cast of fascinating characters.

- Body Count, by @bodycountgame. It's very different than most of what I read, but god is it fun! At first, it's a love island type of game, where you take part in a dating reality show, but then murder happens and it's great. ❤️ The demo is also going to move from ChoiceScript to Twine.

- Exiled From Court, by @beeanca-writing. It's a court intrigue story, set in a fictional country inspired by 19th century Brazil. I really love the choice of setting and the very flawed MC, who is very fun to play as!

And I'm gonna stop there for now because it got longer than I expected, lol. I could recommend a couple more but those are a great start I think.

Oh damn, I forgot to plug my own story, lmao.

It's The Eight Years Revolution, for those who haven't seen it already. The blog is @eight-years-revolution.

#long post #interactive fiction #IF recs #there's definitely more stories out there which deserve a shoutout but I'm unfortunately just one human 😔