#outside of the main cast there are basically only 1-5 charms of each other character left!

[daftpatience]

finally took pics of the dunmeshi charms!!!! preorder leftovers are gonna be in stock as soon as the clock hits march 10th!! there are VERY LIMITED numbers of the less popular characters so if you're hoping for someone specific you better keep an eye on the store!!!

#dunmeshi #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #outside of the main cast there are basically only 1-5 charms of each other character left!

[thebooksaidthat]

5 Fantasy Book Recommendations with WLW relationships!

Here are five of my favorite books which have FF centered pairings! Thought I would share them so you guys can expand your TBR’s with some sapphic goodness :) They’re not arranged in any particular order because they’re all equally enjoyable for me. I hope this post might help you in any way and I might do another one but for contemporary reads instead soon so stay tuned   

1. Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29774026-the-priory-of-the-orange-tree

Synopsis: 

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

--> The book is written in multiple perspectives, switching between Ead, Tane and Niclays. I found the story extremely engrossing and the FF couple was just a really nice added bonus! Seriously though, Ead and Sabran’s relationship was fairly slow burn but extremely rewarding to read. Would recommend this wholeheartedly to those who enjoy fantasy and dragons. Did I mention DRAGONS? 

2. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34433755-girls-of-paper-and-fire

Synopsis:  Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for...and the most demeaning. This year, there's a ninth. And instead of paper, she's made of fire. In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after -- the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king's interest. Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, she does the unthinkable -- she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.  --> Girls of Paper and Fire is a great example of how YA fantasy books should be. The story felt original and the diversity is great too. The characters here are interesting to read about and this was again, another book which I wanted to read on and on just to know what was going to happen. Lei, a girl who like several others were chosen to become the King’s personal concubines. Yes, there are certain parts that might be uncomfortable to read about (rape, sexual assault, abuse) but I think the topic was mostly handled well by the author. It was really nice to read about how the two unlikely concubines of the King slowly find themselves attracted to each other and how their relationship develops with the main plot. The third book from the series will be released on 2021 and I can’t wait to see how the author ties everything up!  3. Breaking Legacies by Zoe Reed Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30242712-breaking-legacies

Synopsis:  In a land impoverished by a war that started before she was born, Kiena has provided for her mother and brother by becoming one of the best hunters in the kingdom. But when a lifelong friend with connections recommends her to the king to track down a runaway princess, her life gets turned upside down. Finding the princess is easy. Deciding what to do in a conflicting mess of politics and emotions… not so much.  --> Now, I know the synopsis does not do a whole lot of justice for the book but trust me, this is one that you want to read. Without going into much details, this was a very fun adventure-ish read where you follow Kiena, the main character of the book, who is asked to look for the princess of the kingdom who ran off to god-knows-where. From blue orbs to finding long lost friends of her father to falling in love with the princess, there’s something that’s always holding your attention. 4. Crier’s War by Nina Varela  Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41951626-crier-s-war

Synopsis:  Impossible love between two girls —one human, one Made. A love that could birth a revolution. After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, Designed to be the playthings of royals, took over the estates of their owners and bent the human race to their will. Now, Ayla, a human servant rising the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging the death of her family… by killing the Sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier. Crier, who was Made to be beautiful, to be flawless. And to take over the work of her father. Crier had been preparing to do just that—to inherit her father’s rule over the land. But that was before she was betrothed to Scyre Kinok, who seems to have a thousand secrets. That was before she discovered her father isn’t as benevolent as she thought. That was before she met Ayla. Set in a richly-imagined fantasy world, Nina Varela’s debut novel is a sweepingly romantic tale of love, loss and revenge, that challenges what it really means to be human. --> A stunning fantasy//science-fiction debut which hooked me from the start. The romance aspect was done well but I enjoyed the world building that the author did with this and I found myself curious about how the system worked. This is basically an enemies-to-lovers trope type of romance which progressed nicely although it’s not completely resolved as it ended in quite a cliff hanger, though the next book will be releasing on September!  5. Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust  Link to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51182650-girl-serpent-thorn

Synopsis:  There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it’s not just a story. As the day of her twin brother’s wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn’t afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison. Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming...human or demon. Princess or monster. --> Another enemies-to-lovers fantasy to sooth your gay heart! Here’s a fairy-tale like YA which has a bisexual, person of colour protagonist! In short words, it’s about how a girl who is cursed causing her to be unable to touch anyone without killing them and her journey to saving her brother and ultimately, finding herself. 

#august 2020 #queer fiction #fantasy #priory of the orange tree #samantha shannon #breaking legacies #zoe reed #melissa bashardoust #girl serpent thorn #natasha ngan #girls of paper and fire #crier's war #nina varela #female authors #recommendations #tbr #books #literature #lgbtq #pride 2020 #wlw #sapphic books

[sideburndanny]

Batman Movie Villains Ranked from Worst to Best

Recently, a YouTuber I follow by the name of Mr. Rogues released a list of Batman villains ranked from worst to best. I have nothing but the utmost of respect for Mr. Rogues as a content creator, but I took issue with his list because his long-standing biases were often the deciding factor in many of his rankings. So, I decided to do a list of my own.

I’ll be going over every Batman villain to appear in the movies, briefly analyzing their portrayals and ranking them on a scale of 1 to 5. To prevent the list from being too cluttered, I’ll be separating the villains by which movie series they’re part of. Here we go!

Burton/Schumacher Tetralogy

Bane: Perhaps the only villain in this series I’d call “bad.” The calculating tactician of the comics is nowhere to be found here; instead, he’s reduced to a monosyllabic, brain-dead stooge for the other villains. Overall, he does nothing that couldn’t be done by a random henchman. 1/5

Two-Face: A deeply layered villain in the comics, Two-Face sadly gets upstaged by the other major rogue in the movie, but that’s not to say he doesn’t leave an impression. Tommy Lee Jones gives him a manic and mercurial demeanor that, combined with his colorful design, wouldn’t be out of place in the Adam West series. The size and scope of his criminal organization make him a genuine threat, and there’s something darkly fitting about Batman’s former ally being responsible for the creation of Robin. 3/5

Poison Ivy: Mr. Rogues for some reason ranked her as the worst Batman movie villain of all time, and frankly, I don’t see why. Like Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, Uma Thurman gives this character a delightfully over-the-top demeanor that combines with a colorful, comic-booky ensemble to make for another great “what-if-this-character-appeared-in-the-Adam-West-series” take. She does a good job juggling the differing facets of Ivy’s character: she’s the put-upon cynic, the craven opportunist, the radical eco-terrorist, and the suave seductress all in one package. 3.5/5

The Penguin: Fuck the Razzies. Danny DeVito made this role his own and set the stage for the character for years to come. He’s a bit of a departure, but a welcome one: far from the refined gentleman of crime Burgess Meredith portrayed, this Penguin is an animalistic thug warped by a lifetime of anger and hatred of the society who rejected him due to his deformities. His signature wardrobe, trick umbrellas, and Penguin gimmick are all there, but DeVito sells the role by showing amazing versatility: he can go from a comical and pitiable weirdo to a terrifying sociopath at the drop of a stovepipe hat. 4/5

Mr. Freeze: I honestly can’t say much about this character that my mutual @wonderfulworldofmichaelford hasn’t already. Arnold Schwarzenegger perfectly encapsulates both popular versions of this character: the flamboyant, pun-loving criminal genius from the Adam West series and the Animated Series’ traumatized scientist desperate to cure his loving wife of her terminal illness. Sure, the puns and hammy one-liners are what this version character is known for, but Ahnold definitely knows when to apply the brakes and give a greatly emotional performance as he tries desperately to cure his wife. 4.5/5

Max Shreck: Probably the only time you’ll see a movie-exclusive character on this list, and deservedly so. Corrupt businessmen are dime-a-dozen in Batman stories, and most of them have little personality outside of being greedy scumbags who either get defeated by the hero or betrayed by the other villains. Shreck, however, is different. Not only does he have an eye-catching fashion sense on par with any of Batman’s famous rogues, but Christopher Walken brings his signature manic intensity to the role, creating a character that’s as wicked and sinister as he is cool and stylish. You totally buy that the general public sees him as the good guy. His warm relationship with his son is also a delight to watch. 4.5/5

Catwoman: Michelle Pfeiffer does a lot to really make the character her own. She gets a lot of genuinely badass moments, but underneath all of her coolness lies the undercurrent that she’s a broken, traumatized character lashing out at the people who abused her and took her for granted. Even when she takes these ideals to unreasonable extremes, you never stop feeling like the retribution she brings on her enemies is at least a little warranted. Also, she has amazing romantic chemistry with Batman and her costume is fucking metal. 5/5

The Ridder: It’s Jim Carrey. 5/5

The Joker: This role is perhaps the one that set the standard for future Jokers to follow: Jack Nicholson’s humorous yet unnerving performance signaled to audiences early on that this would not be the goofy trickster of the Silver Age, but a different beast entirely. This Joker is a film noir gangster on crack: a disfigured mob hitman who quickly takes the entire criminal underworld by storm and unleashes his special brand of chaos and destruction across Gotham. He’s an artist, a showman, a charismatic leader, and the man responsible for ruining Bruce Wayne’s life. 5/5

Christopher Nolan Trilogy

Talia al Ghul: You know that recent trend in Disney movies where a side character we thought was harmless and inconsequential turned out to have been the villain all along in a twist with no buildup or foreshadowing with the reveal happening too late in the movie for this character to really do anything cool or impressive before being unceremoniously defeated? That’s Talia. DKR is the weakest of the three Nolan films, and I feel like it would’ve been much better received without this twist villain contrivedly shoehorned in. Also, while I could kinda forgive the trilogy’s whitewashing of other villains like Ra’s al Ghul and Bane due to the talent their actors display, Marion Cotillard doesn’t get a pass because she just doesn’t have the charisma or screen presence needed to pull it off. 1/5

Victor Zsasz: While the idea of redefining Zsasz as an over enthusiastic mob hitman instead of a serial killer is very interesting, it’s ruined by the fact that he barely even appears in the movie and doesn’t really do or say much of anything despite the buildup he gets. 1.5/5

Two-Face: Aaron Eckhart portrays Harvey Dent as a character of tragedy in a slightly different way than other tragic villains in superhero movies: he’s lashing out at a society he feels wronged him, but instead of being a lifelong outcast or put-upon loser, he was a handsome, successful crusader for the common good who lost everything he once held dear all in one fell swoop. You really feel for him even as he does horrible things. If I had to nitpick, though, I am slightly bothered by the fact that he plays some comic book movie cliches straight (i.e. they never call him by his alias and he dies at the end,) but it’s a solid performance overall. 3/5

Scarecrow: I’ll be upfront and admit that I’m more than a little annoyed that certain facets of the character had been changed in the name of “realism” — once again, they never call him by his villain name and he never wears a comic-accurate costume — but other than that, I can’t complain. Cillian Murphy plays the character with a smarmy, eerie charm that really makes his scenes stand out, his willingness to ally himself with other villains suits his character well, and the fact that he appears in three consecutive films with a different evil scheme in each really helps tie the movies together. 3.5/5

Catwoman: Much like other secondary villains in this trilogy, she really doesn’t get a chance to shine compared to the main antagonist — and, once again, it pisses me off a little that they do the whole “never refer to her as Catwoman but vaguely hint at it” thing — but she’s everything a modern Catwoman should be. She’s sly, manipulative, really holds her own in a fight, has great chemistry with Bruce Wayne... it’s all there. It’s also great to see Anne Hathaway break away from her usual type casting to play a role this dynamic. 4/5

Ra’s al Ghul: He’s a character that was in desperate need of mainstream exposure, and by God that’s what he got. Making him Bruce Wayne’s mentor adds a layer of personal tragedy to the climax where our hero has to stop the man who made him who he is from destroying Gotham with his admittedly brilliant plan. Add in a strong, captivating performance from Liam Neeson before we found out he was a racist asshole, and we’ve got one hell of an overarching villain. 4.5/5

The Joker: Everybody’s already discussed this version of the character to hell and back and likely will for years to come, so I’ll keep it very brief. He’s funny, he’s badass, he’s terrifying, he has great dialogue, it sucks that Heath Ledger didn’t live to see his performance reach the audience it got, and he basically makes the entire film. 5/5

Bane: Mr. Rogues actually ranked Bane higher than Joker on his list, and keeping it 100, I actually agree with him here. Finally, after decades of being dumbed down and misrepresented outside of comics, Bane is finally portrayed as the tactical genius from the comics. Tom Hardy plays Bane to perfection, being very believable as the peak of human physical and mental achievement, the man who broke Batman physically and emotionally. His design is iconic, his every line is quotable, his voice is weirdly fitting, and the memes are funny. 5/5

DC Extended Universe

KGBeast: Another point where I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Rogues. He is absolutely wasted in BVS, being nothing but a generic henchman for Lex Luthor. He doesn’t wear his costume from the comics, he’s never referred to by his alias, he doesn’t have his signature cybernetic enhancements, and he never does or says anything noteworthy. 1/5

The Joker: Ugh. I don’t know what’s worst: the tacky clothes, the stupid tattoos, the weird Richard Nixon impression that passes as his voice, the fact that promotional material hyped him up as a “beautiful tragedy” of a character even though he’s only in the movie for like 10 minutes and barely does anything, Jared Leto’s toxic edgelord behavior on set done with the flimsy pretense of “getting into character,” or the fact that he’s just trying to copy Heath Ledger instead of making the role his own. 1/5

Victor Zsasz: Chris Messina proves undoubtedly that Zsasz CAN work as a secondary villain in a Batman movie. He’s once again a mob assassin who enjoys his job a little too much, but unlike Batman Begins, he really gets time to shine. He’s just as sadistic and depraved as in the comics, but he also has this disarming, casual demeanor about him like he’s just indulging a hobby instead of slicing innocent people’s faces off. His close friendship with his boss Black Mask adds some depth to the character as well. 3/5

Killer Croc: Sadly, he doesn’t get much time in the spotlight, but he’s pretty cool nonetheless. The makeup and prosthetics used to create him look amazing, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s deep voice and imposing body language make him really stand out as an intimidating presence. He’s often in the background, which fits his role as an outcast by choice and a man of few words, but whenever he does get focus, he has everyone’s attention. It really would be a shame if this character’s only appearance was in a mediocre schlock action movie, but he makes the most of what he has. 3.5/5

Deadshot: Another highlight of what would otherwise be a forgettable film, Deadshot is just as cool and competent as he’s always been in other media, but this portrayal stands out for one simple reason. Will Smith was a very odd choice to play the role, but it worked out for the best here because you get the sense he truly understands the characters. He’s ruthless and pragmatic, but has just as enough charm and depth to make him likable. 4/5

Black Mask: I, like many, was skeptical when I saw early trailers depicting Roman Sionis as a foppish weirdo who doesn’t wear his signature mask, but upon seeing the final movie, I really feel like he has the high ground over other DCEU villains. Ewan McGregor is endlessly captivating in the role, portraying him as a swaggering dandy who is nevertheless dangerous due to his boundless narcissism and explosive temper. Sure, those who deal in absolutes would be put off from the differences with his comic counterpart — who is far more cold and humorless — but from a certain point of view, this flamboyant take on the character isn’t so much a departure as it is an addition to make him stand out while keeping his role the same. Black Mask has always been a middleman between the traditional mobsters of yesteryear and the colorful rogues that plague Gotham today, and this portrayal perfectly encapsulates that. He works in the shadows, but isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty; he flies off the handle and gets reckless at times, but there’s no question that the whole operation was his idea. 5/5

Harley Quinn: Margot Robbie owns this role. She’s unbelievably dazzling as a badass, funny, sexy antihero who deals greatly with tragedy and proves that there’s always been more to her than her initial role as the Joker’s sidekick. Again, not much to say, but she’s almost perfect. 5/5

#dc villains #batman #batman villains #dark knight #dc extended universe #batman movie

[creativerogues]

Making Cool Magic Items For A Barbarian...

After my last post about making some cool magic items, I started coming up with ideas for making magic items specific to each class.

Like when you see “Requires Attunement by a Cleric or Paladin” on a Magic Item...

Now these are just ideas, so interpret them as you may, but I’ve added my own little notes on the side to walk you through why I think the idea could be a cool thing for a magic item to have...

...Be it a random property for some legendary item or artifact, or just a new property or feature your Barbarian discovers through whatever story elements you put them through...

Anyways... ENJOY!

Barbarian

You can rage while in heavy armor.

Not entirely useful considering most Barbarians are going butt naked 99.999% of the time, but still useful if your Barbarian somehow has a low Armor Class.

1 Additional Use of Barbarian Rage per Rest

Great for low or even mid level barbarians...

Rage Damage increases by +1. 

For example, a Level 20 Barbarian would now have a Rage Damage Bonus of +5 instead of +4, it’s a very small bonus, but it makes a character feel so much more powerful...

Your Rage Feature now applies to weapon attacks that use Dexterity.

I see this so often, homebrew subclasses or feats or something just so a Barbarian can use a Bow. I mean when your Barbarian is level 20 and has killed dragons with their bare hands, you just try to give a good reason why they can’t angrily operate a crossbow...

Your Rage now lasts 10 minutes instead of 1 minute.

Again, not entirely useful for higher level barbarians, but definitely useful in those low to mid levels of play. And besides, it’s not like combat is going to last more than 10 minutes anyways, but reading “I CAN RAGE 10 TIMES LONGER THAN BEFORE!” makes the character seem more powerful without actually ever being more powerful...

As a Reaction when Initiative is rolled, you can enter a Rage.

Another thing I see so very often is the Barbarian using their first turn to go into a Rage and charge into combat. This neat little magical property lets the Barbarian actually use their bonus action on their first turn of combat for something other than flying into a bloodthirsty rage...

You have advantage on all constitution saving throws while raging.

Again, I like to make my Players think they’re more power than any normal person, and while advantage on Con Saves could be seen as overpowered, the amount of times Con Saves are used outside of making a save against a spell and maybe the odd Barbarian Class Feature isn’t much... 

If you are able to cast spells, you can now cast them while raging.

If you’re allowing your Barbarian to cast spells while Raging, I suggest something like “If you cast a spell that requires concentration while raging, you have disadvantage on any concentration checks related to that spell”. Just so that the Barbarian isn’t casting super powerful buffs on themselves...

Instead of your Rage only ending early if you are knocked unconscious, your Rage only ends early if you fail 2 Death Saving Throws.

Yes, while the concept of a raging unconscious body may seem hilarious to you, this is also a common thing I see in combat. The Barbarian takes a bunch of damage, goes unconscious, and their rage ends, but then they get all healed up and spend their next bonus action or even their entire next turn to rage again and get back up and close to the enemy. 

So maybe a raging unconscious barbarian may not sound great, but if you don’t like this idea, don’t use it, it’s fine with me, I won’t be offended... much...

When using your Reckless Attack Feature, doing so does not cause attack rolls against you to be rolled with advantage.

Now hold on there! Yes, this is an EXTREMELY powerful ability to give to a Barbarian and almost certainly guarantees that they’ll be attacking recklessly whenever they get the chance, but maybe you want to put a restriction on this feature, maybe only enemies within a certain range of the Barbarian no longer gain advantage, allowing the Barbarian to get the upper hand on melee attackers but struggle with ranged enemies.

Or maybe this only works for attacks made with weapons, leaving the Barbarian open to spellcasters. Or maybe only attacks made with non-magical weapons no longer gain advantage...

Whatever way you want to flavor this, just remember that this is a powerful property to give a Barbarian, so don’t be afraid to hide it away from them until they reach those higher levels of play...

Your Movement Speed increases by +10ft.

Again, Barbarians like to charge in, and when they kill that first Goblin, they’ll want to move onto the next one, then the next one, then the next one and so on. So giving them that teeny little boost to speed helps, even if its only an extra +5ft to movement instead of +10ft. (Yes I know about Fast Movement for the Barbarian but sometimes you just wanna run 100+ feet a round okay?!)

You gain 1 additional Brutal Critical Die.

So at level 20, you can roll not 3, but 4 additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack, because of course your Barbarian needs even more unnecessary damage to dish out...

When you use your Relentless Rage, you drop to 5 hit points instead of 1 when you succeed on your constitution saving throw.

This is another problem, the barbarian drops to 1 hit point, but it turns out the creature has multi-attack and then the 2nd hit still knocks the Barbarian unconscious. 

With this property (and assuming your Barbarian is raging, because why wouldn’t they be?), then that enemy has to deal at least 10 points of damage with a weapon attack...

Now a few of you may say that dropping to 5 HP instead of 1 is still not enough, in which case I’d say flavor it to your Player or Character, maybe it’s 10 HP, maybe its 1d6 + your Barbarian’s Constitution Modifier. Whatever suits you!

Path of the Ancestral Guardian

When the target of your Ancestral Protectors hits a creature other than you with an attack, you can use your reaction to grant that creature immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage dealt by the attack.

You don’t see immunities to damage come up very much in 5e, so the chance to say “Haha! NOPE!” to all that damage from something like a critical hit on the healer is a lot of fun to use... 

The Die of your Spirit Shield feature become d8′s instead of d6′s.

Not too much of a boost, but yet again, just enough to tip the Barbarian over the edge and make the Barbarian feel just a little bit more powerful.

When you use your Spirit Shield to reduce the damage of an attack, the attacker takes an amount of force damage equal to twice the damage that your Spirit Shield prevents.

Getting to double the damage of something isn’t uncommon when it comes to certain magic items, but when it comes to it in combat, those few extra points of damage can be crucial. Plus it’s a chance for the Barbarian to deal even more damage on their turn... so...

Path of the Battlerager

When you use Reckless Attack while raging, you also gain temporary hit points equal to twice your Constitution modifier (minimum of 2).

This is pretty much the only thing I could think of that could help a Battlerager, and I didn’t want to leave it out of the list, so here ya go battleragers, enjoy it!

Path of the Berserker

When you end a Frenzied Rage, you no longer gain a level of exhaustion.

As if I need to explain this one, I mean you could take this one property and turn it into a Legendary Item and no Berserker would ever complain...

You can't be charmed, frightened, grappled, poisoned or knocked prone while raging. If you are charmed, frightened or poisoned when you enter your rage, the effect is suspended for the duration of the rage. If you are grappled when you enter your rage, you can immediately attempt to break the grapple.

This effect could even expand into the ability to never be Blinded, Deafened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Stunned and more, feel free to change, edit or add to this to suit your Barbarian.

When using your Intimidating Presence Feature, if the creature succeeds on its saving throw, you can't use this feature on that creature again for 8 hours instead of 24 hours.

Again, a Feature that makes a Barbarian feel powerful, but in terms of game mechanics there’s no real visible difference, unless you’re fighting the big bad again exactly 8 hours and 1 second after you last fought them...

When you critically hit a creature with an attack using your Retaliation feature, you regain the use of your Reaction at the end of your turn. 

ATTACK OF OPPORTUNITY!!!!! But seriously though, this is another feature that basically just allows them to make a single melee attack against a creature for free, which in game terms isn’t a sizable difference in damage when the condition they have to meet in the first place is scoring a crit, but if you think this is still too powerful, just change it to suit your game!

Path of the Storm Herald

Your Storm Aura extends by +5ft, to 15 feet.

Your Storm Aura now extends to 30 feet from you in every direction.

Your Storm Aura now goes through total cover.

I’m just gonna wrap these three features into 1 little note. Storm Aura is the main thing a Storm Herald has, so increasing its range, even if it only increases from 10 feet to 15 feet, or increasing it all the way from 10 feet to 30 feet, still doesn’t really make it overpowered when you’re dealing (or healing) a very little number of points.

Also the idea of your storm aura not passing through total cover seemed really weird to me. Wind, Cold and Heat can all go around corners... right? And yes, an enemy may be hidden inside a house or behind a wall, but with these kind of powers, who would dare try to escape the storm’s wrath...?

You can change your environment choice for your storm aura whenever you finish a long rest.

Ok, I’m willing to admit something here, I kinda based this off the Blessing of Corellon from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (wow, I hope I’m spelling that right...)

But I’ve seen it so many now, a storm herald decides “you know what, now that I’ve leveled up, I’ll change my storm aura” and then they immediately regret changing it, but now they’re stuck with it until they level up again, which could be in just a few sessions or months...

This little property makes it easier for the storm herald to change and shift states, you know, like an actual storm...

If your aura's effects require a saving throw, the DC now equals 10 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.

Hey look! It’s basically a +2 to a spell save DC! Wow!

Each creature of your choice gains immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage type you gained from the Storm Soul feature while the creature is in your Storm Aura.

Again, a storm herald’s bread and butter is their storm aura, if you want to make them feel more powerful, then upgrade their storm aura just a little bit.

Plus this property is great for a tundra storm barbarian or a desert storm barbarian, since tundra storm barbarians are very much about protecting their allies, and for the desert storm barbarian, who can do damage to all creatures in their aura, this stops them from accidentally damaging allies in their storm aura...

Your Storm Soul Feature now grants you immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage type described.

For example, at Level 6, a Desert Storm Herald gains Fire Resistance, but with this magical property on a magic item, they gain immunity to Fire Damage instead!

Path of the Totem Warrior

Once per day, you can cast Polymorph. You can target only yourself and transform into the beast you chose as your Totem Spirit.

For example, once per day a Bear Totem Barbarian can polymorph into a bear (which type of bear will probably be up to the DM). 

And yes, you can still rage while in this form, since you’ll still retain the benefit of any features from your class and can use them so long as your new form is physically capable of going into a rage.

Bear: While raging, once per seven days, you can choose to have immunity to all damage except psychic damage.  When the rage ends you gain one level of exhaustion.

Eagle: While raging, you gain a permanent flying speed of 10 feet, as spectral giant eagle wings carry your weight across the battlefield.

Wolf: While you're raging, your friends have advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature within 10 feet of you that is hostile to you.

Elk: While raging, when you knock a creature prone, you can immediately use your reaction to make a single melee weapon attack against the prone creature.

Tiger: While raging, if you move at least 10 feet in a straight line toward a Huge or Smaller target right before making a melee weapon attack against it, you can use a bonus action to make an additional melee weapon attack against it.

As a note, if you don’t like these ideas, simply increase the size category for the target from size large or smaller to size huge or smaller. That way things like the Wolf Totem, Elk Totem and Tiger Totem feel just a little bit better than what they used to be... Plus body-slamming a giant is cool... 

Path of the Zealot

Divine Fury Upgrade: While raging, the first creature you hit on each of your turns with a weapon attack takes extra damage equal to 1d8 + your barbarian level, instead of 1d6 + half your barbarian level.

Fanatical Focus Upgrade: If you fail a saving throw while you're raging, you can reroll it, and you choose which of the results is used for the saving throw.

Think of it as a sorta okay Lucky Feat... Except with more anger and blood...

As a reaction to failing a saving throw against death, you can choose to automatically succeed the saving throw instead. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

This essentially lets the Zealot survive 4 death save fails before they finally die, which I think is a cool mechanic and is very reminiscent of the barbarian features of older editions of D&D where you would just... you know... never die... ever!

While unconscious, attack rolls against you do not have advantage unless the attacker is within 5 feet of you.

Again, mostly fluff for your Barbarian to make them sound cool, because we all know that as soon as that Barbarian drops to 0 HP, that horde of enemies is gonna close in fast!

If you are critically hit by a hostile creature’s weapon attack while unconscious, you fail only one saving throw against death, instead of two.

This one is simply to stop the Barbarian from immediately dying, because creatures within 5 feet already score a critical hit against you if you’re unconscious, which in normal terms means you immediately fail 2 death saves. 

And so if that creature is within 5 feet of your unconscious body and ALSO has extra attack or multi-attack, then you’re almost definitely saying goodbye to your little Barbarian friend. This magical property here, this stops that from happening...

#barbarian #barbarian paths #dnd #DnD 5e #dnd 5e homebrew #d&d #d&d 5e #D&D 5e homebrew #homebrew #magic items #creativerogues #community

[wistfulcynic]

Another Brick In The Wall, Chapter 5

a/n: No secret quite yet, but more clues! Plus Brothers Jones and Emma. I have to give special thanks to @darkcolinodonorgasm for giving me a new perspective on Liam, who I’ve never particularly liked as a character. I hope you like him here! 

New, serious-this-time-summary: Emma Swan, sheriff’s daughter, mayor’s niece, quarterback’s girlfriend, is the undisputed princess of Storybrooke High. She is smart and confident and used to getting what she wants. What she wants is Killian Jones, the new boy in school. But Killian is not easily manipulated, and reluctant to allow the dark secrets in his past to touch the girl he is rapidly falling in love with.

Rating: T+

Read it on AO3: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

Tags for: @jennjenn615 and @resident-of-storybrooke

Chapter 5: 

It was astounding and rather disturbing to Killian how different his life at Storybrooke High became after Emma’s party. Where before he had been largely able to repel his classmates by hiding behind his laptop and headphones, turning Neal’s attempted frame job around on him seemed to have garnered Killian something of a reputation. Suddenly everyone was interested in knowing him better. People he didn’t think he’d ever even seen before were now greeting him by name in the halls, and the giggling girls who were so fascinated by hearing him pronounce simple words had unaccountably multiplied. He took to hiding out in a quiet corner of the library at lunchtime, just to get some peace. Fortunately the library was a bridge too far for most of his newfound fans, and only Emma managed to hunt him down there. 

He didn’t mind that so much. 

“I was worried people would be mad when Neal got suspended from the football team and blame you,” Emma confessed to him one Friday lunchtime in November, about three weeks after her party. “But it turns out everyone pretty much hated him and only put up with his crap because he won football games. And it helps that August has really come through. He’s a junior, and never had much chance to play until now because Neal hogged all the game time, but I really think he’s got more talent than Neal. He’s better at calling plays and doesn’t throw so many dumb interceptions because he’s trying to make a big play to make himself look good. And our running game has gotten way better because Neal always wanted to run passing plays, even on third and short yardage. It was seriously annoying sometimes.”

“Swan,” said Killian in exasperation, “You do know that I only understand about one out of every three of those words, and no one has yet been able satisfactorily to explain to me why a you call this game ‘football’ when only one player’s foot ever even touches the ball. Can we talk about something else, please?”

Emma laughed. “Sure. You doing anything this weekend?”

Killian flushed pink. “I’m going sailing with my brother, then we’re cooking dinner together.” 

“That sounds great,” said Emma, wondering why he looked so embarrassed. “Any special occasion?”

Killian scratched behind his ear. “It’s my birthday,” he mumbled, almost inaudibly. 

“What?!” 

“It’s my birthday, okay? Today, actually. But of course I have school and Liam has work, so we’re celebrating tomorrow.” He noted with alarm her wide eyes and excited face. “Emma, no,” he begged. “Please don’t make a big deal about this.”

“But it’s your birthday!” 

“And I just want it to be a low-key day, no big celebration, no stress.” 

She tried not to feel deflated. “Just you and your brother.” 

“Unless you’d care to come along?” Killian tried not to sound too hopeful, tried not to be too hopeful, though the idea of spending a whole Saturday with Emma, even with Liam along as well, was just about the best birthday gift he could imagine. 

“Could I?” asked Emma, not troubling to hide her own hopefulness. 

“Um, do you want to?”

“Well… yeah, actually. It sounds really fun. I haven’t been sailing in ages, and I’d kinda like to meet your brother. You talk about him so much I feel like I know him already.” 

“Funny, he says the same about you,” said Killian without thinking. 

“You talk to your brother about me?”

She had that look in her eyes again, the one she’d had at her party right before she kissed him. The one that said she wanted to kiss him again. The one that made him want to let her. Killian gave himself a mental slap. Damn it, no! “Well, you are basically my only friend, Swan, who else would I talk about?” he said, attempting to cover his slip. 

“Maybe I was your only friend, but you seem to have acquired quite a few little admirers lately.” She sounded disgruntled, and he felt absurdly pleased. 

“You’re still my only friend,” he assured her. “And I would be honoured to have you accompany Liam and me on my birthday sailing trip. And to dinner too, if you like.” 

“Didn’t you say you’re cooking together?” she said hesitantly. “I’m not much of a cook.” 

“No, nor I, but Liam is a master of the barbecue, so we’re going to do steaks.” 

“What, outside?” He nodded. “In November? In Maine?”

“We’re from England, love, if we let a little miserable weather deter us from barbecuing we’d never get steak.”

“All right,” she laughed. In that case, I’d love to.” 

His answering smile was radiant, sending the familiar butterflies dancing through her belly, this time in a sophisticated cha-cha-cha. She wanted to kiss him so badly when he looked like this that resisting the urge took a physical effort. 

“We’re scheduled to cast off at ten, so why don’t you meet us at the marina at nine forty-five?” he said. 

“Okay,” she agreed, just as the bell rang signalling the end of lunchtime. They gathered their things and walked to their history class together, not holding hands but both definitely thinking about it, wishing they could, their arms hanging loose at their sides, hands as close as they could get without actually touching. Upon arrival they went to their desks at opposite sides of the classroom, their history teacher having assigned seats at the beginning of the semester. Emma scowled slightly as she watched Killian take his seat between Aurora and Tina, two juniors who had always giggled to each other over him but whose flirting had reached new hights of coquetry In the weeks since the party. She watched as they peppered him with questions and he smiled and charmed them with his replies, and she couldn’t believe they didn’t see how tense he was beneath the charm and how he visibly relaxed when the teacher stood up and started the class, drawing their attention away from him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So what time is your girlfriend getting here?” shouted Liam, loud enough to wake the dead. 

Killian sighed. He knew that Liam was just trying to lighten the mood with his teasing but really wished he wouldn’t. His brother knew perfectly well that Emma wasn’t Killian’s girlfriend. What he didn’t know is how the knowledge that she could be tormented Killian, and how any teasing on that point just drove the knife point deeper into his heart. Knowing that he could have her, her smiles and her kisses and her hand in his as they walked through the halls at school, that all that and more was within his reach if he could only forget about all the reasons why he couldn’t take it ate away at him. If he could just bring himself not to care about the consequences, to be a heartless bastard who didn’t give a damn about anyone else, then he could have what he wanted more than he’d ever wanted anything before in his life. 

But he couldn’t. No matter how much he longed for Emma, he couldn’t do it. 

Liam was thrilled he’d made a friend, and that the friend was a girl. He thought it meant that Killian was forgetting, moving on, and that Emma actually becoming his girlfriend was only a matter of time. 

But Liam didn’t know the worst of it, the full weight of the burden Killian carried, bearing it alone because he didn’t dare share it. As much as he wished to tell Liam or Dr Hopper or Emma or anyone —really, anyone, as long as it wouldn’t be his alone to carry anymore— he was too scared of what they might do, of the potential consequences of people bumbling in trying to fix what they didn’t understand. He would fix it, when he got back to England. It had to be him. 

It had been four months. Another five to go. Nearly eight until the AP exam results would be released. Killian felt panic rising in him at the thought of that three month gap, but he swallowed it back. It would be okay. He forced himself to breathe deeply, calmly. It would be okay. He would fix it. 

Before he could answer Liam’s question, Emma’s yellow bug swung into a parking space right near where their boat was moored. She hopped out, smiling brightly, and Killian’s heart leapt and tumbled in his chest. She was so impossibly beautiful, he thought, so beautiful and bright and pure and good, and just everything he could ever wish for in a girl. Everything he could have had if he hadn’t made made such terrible mistakes, hadn’t completely fucked up his life before it had even really begun. But he pushed those thoughts away. She was here now, to celebrate his birthday with him, and he intended to enjoy what time he had with her. He grinned foolishly as she approached, keeping his hands stuffed deep in his coat pockets to stop himself reaching for her. 

She was dressed in chinos and deck shoes and a bright red woollen coat, with a beanie on her head and a large scarf wrapped around her neck. She laughed. “It’s freaking freezing out here, Jones,” she said. “And it’ll be even colder on the water. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“It’s not cold, Swan, it’s bracing,” he said firmly, and she laughed again. He was so caught up in the delightful sound of it that he didn’t notice Liam appearing at his elbow until his brother loudly cleared his throat. Killian glanced over, grimacing at Liam’s appraising look and raised eyebrow. 

“Um, Emma, this is my brother Liam,” he said grudgingly.  

“Mr Jones,” said Emma, flushing slightly and looking suddenly nervous. 

Liam’s smile widened. “Call me Liam, I beg you,” he said. “There must be no undue formality between the only two people in the world able to stomach the company of my little brother.” 

He elbowed Killian, who rolled his eyes. “Younger brother,” he muttered, not quite under his breath. 

Liam chuckled and gestured for Emma to follow him onto the boat. “So, Emma, what sort of sailing experience do you have?”

“Well, my dad has a boat.” 

“Ah, yes, Sheriff Swan. He’s been down here a few times.” 

“Yeah, when I was little we used to go sailing quite a lot, but for the past couple of years it seems like we never have the time.” 

“Your father mentioned you were busy with cheerleading and college applications.”

“Yeah, that’s mostly it.” 

“Where are you planning to study?”

“I’m hoping for Columbia, or else NYU or Boston University.” 

“Any ideas about your major?”

Killian scowled as his brother drew Emma away, busying her with pre-sailing tasks as they chatted. How the hell did Liam know so much about American universities all of a sudden, he wondered crossly. He’d only just learned what a major was himself. 

“I’d like to do psychology, maybe with a criminal justice minor. I’m thinking of being a forensic psychologist.” 

Killian’s scowl deepened. She’d never told him that. Of course, they’d never really discussed their plans for the future aside from his intention to return to England. Suddenly he felt desperately sad, realising that he’d likely never know if Emma achieved her goals. 

Though he had little doubt that she would. She was brilliant and determined, there wouldn’t be much she couldn’t do. If only he could be there to see her succeed. 

“Ahoy there, Killian, don’t just stand there like a lump!” shouted Liam. “Come and help us prepare to set sail. You check the sheets while Emma tells us what exactly a forensic psychologist does.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They sailed out to the edge of Storybrooke’s cape then around the harbour before heading back to their mooring. It was just as cold as Emma had feared, the icy wind whipping her hair into a frenzy and turning the tips of Killian’s ears so red that she worried he’d get frostbite. Pulling her beanie off her head, she thrust it at him. “Put this on,” she commanded. 

“What?”

“Put the hat on, idiot, before your ears fall off.” 

“And what about your ears, Swan?”

“I’ve got my scarf. See?” She wrapped the scarf over her head and around her neck, securing it underneath the collar of her coat. “It’s actually better like this because it holds my hair down. Now put on the damn hat.” 

“Such language, princess,” he teased, pulling the hat on over his ears, where it looked just ridiculously cute. “I’ve never heard you curse so fluently. Is it the influence of us rough seamen?” He waggled his eyebrows and she laughed, throwing back her head and shoving him playfully in the chest. 

Liam watched their byplay, not bothering to hide his delighted grin. It warmed his heart to see his brother smiling like that again, and after meeting Emma he had no qualms about encouraging their relationship. They were both so obviously smitten, the looks they gave each other so positively brimming with teenage angst and longing that Liam felt it could only be a matter of time before Killian finally gave in and asked her out properly. He had clung far longer than Liam had expected to this obligation he seemed to feel towards Milah Gold, but that was firmly in the past now, and Liam had no intention of letting his brother stumble down a similar path ever again. Killian was seeing Dr Hopper regularly and making good progress, according to the psychiatrist’s reports. He was getting good marks in school, seemed to enjoy playing his music again, and now he had a pretty girl his age who was clearly crazy about him. The tight knot of anxiety that had taken up residence in Liam’s chest the previous summer and had been his constant companion ever since eased slightly. The decision to move Killian to America despite his vehement protests had been the right one, Liam was more sure of that now than ever. His little brother was healing, slowly, but he would get there. Soon he would be his old self again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was well past eleven when Emma finally dragged herself away from the Jones house after one of the single best days she could remember, sailing and grilling and eating steak and loaded baked potatoes and birthday cake until she couldn’t eat any more. Killian had played his guitar and Liam had sung along; even she had joined in after considerable coaxing and teasing from both of them. She didn’t think she’d ever laughed so hard in her life. Resolutely, she ignored the plaintive voice in her head urging her to stay just a few minutes longer, knowing that she needed time to drive slowly through the icy streets in order to make it home for her midnight curfew. 

Killian walked her to her car. “Thanks for coming today, Emma,” he said softly, taking the beanie from his pocket and pulling it down onto her head, letting his fingertips brush through her hair as he did. “It was the best birthday I’ve had in a while.” 

“I had a great time,” she replied. He dropped his hands from her hair but she caught them and placed them on her hips, stepping closer and leaning her head against his shoulder, smiling as she heard him catch his breath. She let go of his hands and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding her own breath for an anxious few seconds until he finally pulled her close, his arms enclosing her tightly. Sighing, she melted into the hug. “Happy birthday, Killian,” she whispered.  

They stood like that for as long as Emma dared, until finally she knew she had to get going. As she started to pull back Killian’s arms tightened around her almost reflexively, as if not wishing to let her go. She looked up at him, their faces so close there was barely a breath between them, and willed him to kiss her. 

She knew it had to be his move. She’d made the last one, now it was up to him. 

He swayed towards her, his eyes fixed on her lips as his own parted slightly, and she fisted her hands in his coat, forcing herself to wait. She could almost feel the conflict within him as he struggled against his attraction to her, and against whatever he was holding inside that wouldn’t allow him to act on it. The tension stretched her nerves tight and the butterflies performed an energetic jitterbug in her belly until Killian seemed to pull himself out of a trance, blinking rapidly and shaking himself and then abruptly his arms were gone and he was stepping away. 

“Drive safely, love,” he said hoarsely. 

Emma hid her disappointment behind a bright smile. “See you at fencing club tomorrow?” she asked, her own voice lower than normal. 

“I’ll be there.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outside the door of Dr Hopper’s office, Neal waited. This time of year darkness fell quite early in Maine, and the sun had long since set by the time the psychiatrist went home for the day, whistling as he went. The office door closed behind him with a decisive click and he followed an eager Pongo to the exit, not noticing the boy hidden in the deep shadows of the darkened hallway. 

Once he was sure he was alone Neal knelt in front of the door, withdrawing a set of lock picks from his pocket and quickly jimmying the door open. No security at all, he thought scornfully. You’d think the man guarding Storybrooke’s darkest secrets would have a sturdier lock. He hurried to the filing cabinet, picking that lock just as easily, and soon he had in his hands the thick manila file bearing the name of Killian Jones. Placing it on the coffee table, he made himself comfortable on the sofa and flipped the file open, illuminating its contents with the flashlight from his phone. 

Several minutes later he sat back, feeling gleeful and exhilarated, and thoroughly pleased with himself. This was fucking huge and with it he could annihilate Killian, not just at school but also with Emma. There was no way she would forgive him. Not a prissy little prude like her. Not for this. 

Grinning smugly, he snapped a few pictures with his phone then returned the file to the cabinet and locked everything behind him as he left. For the first time in his life, he couldn't wait to get back to school

(We’ll get the secret in the next chapter, I promise!)

#cs ff au #high school au #captain duckling #profdanglaisstuff #another brick in the wall

[arethereanyoriginalusernames]

Character Spotlight 1, P1

DAMIAN BEELZY

DISCLAIMER BECAUSE YES,

I do not own zoophobia. Zoophobia would belong to the lovely Vivian Medrano (I believe that's how her last name is spelt? Meh, I'll check later), otherwise known as Vivziepop

Also, while yes, this is a series where I am going to be critical of the source material, this is NOT a critique of vivziepop herself, as zoophobia is...2, 3 years old? It'd be unfair to judge her and her writing skills based on something she did a while ago.

I'm not doing this because I hate the source material either. On the contrary, I love Zoophobia. The reason I'm doing this is because I believe that if we find flaws in media we enjoy, we could all learn something valuable from it, and apply it to our own work.

If you disagree with something stated here, that's alright. Feel free to tell me what you think and ask questions. I'm not telling you what to think. I simply hope you enjoy.

I apologize for wasting your time.

-ATOUN

-----------------------'---------------

......So, I'm back.

I've already talked about Dame before in my favorite zp characters list. I've already stated why I like him. For anyone who might not have seen that list, let me give you a spicy recap. I found Dame to be one of the more entertaining characters throughout the comic and he was one of the better written characters during the 5-ish chapters we got from this series. I've already stated what I like about him, so let's just get into some things I don't like.

Oh come on, let's be honest. We all know why we're here. We all can see how much attention my least favorite character list got compared to my favorite list (even if admittedly some of that attention was me thanking people, which btw is something I should really do more often ). You're all here because you want me to tear a hole in this series. It's the same reason most people watch car racing. We don't wanna see who wins. We wanna see some epic car crashes.

Still, I want to start with critiques towards this character I don't agree with.

-----------------------------------

1. Damian is a bad main character because he only has negative character traits

A character having only bad character traits does not in itself mean a character is bad. If that character is poorly written, then it's a bad character. Also, I'd advise you read chapters 3 and 5 where Dame is shown to have some good traits about him. (Ex. Chapter 5 where he expresses concern for Addi )

2. Damian's design is too bland compared to other characters

While I agree with this to some extent, something I want to say here is that Dame is not unique in this regard. You could apply this to Spam, Vanex, Jackie, and Kayla as well. This is more aimed at those who single Damian out as the only one with this problem.

3. Damian is a bad villain

Damian is not meant to be the antagonist. He has been confirmed to be apart of the main cast, and you'll notice that in all of Vivz's villain line ups, he is not present. At most, he may a rival or adversary to either zill or Jack.

4. He is unoriginal as a character.

.....and any other characters in media today are? It's very rare in this day and age to come across anything 100 % original. It's even been proposed that there are no longer any original ideas left. Besides, a character being bad does not mean the character itself is bad. At most, it's a reflection on the writers laziness.

5. He's too edgy.

Ah yes, a commonly used complaint you'll hear spouted by angsty 13 year olds who think (despite the fact "edgy" characters are often fan favorites since they often turn out to be the most interesting / relatable characters ) that edginess = bad, and that anything bad happening to a character like, I dunno, EMOTIONAL ISSUES THAT REAL PEOPLE DEAL WITH makes that character edgy by default. Edginess can be done wrong, but not every edgy character is bad. Shut your pie hole, and hustle your buns out of my Italian styled soup kitchen, you cotton headed ninny mugginses. *cue air horns*

Also, hunny, if you hate edgy characters, oh boy, you do NOT wanna read ANY of my stories.

----------------------------------------

There. Now onto the main event. The butchering of a popular character. Let's get ready to break the hearts of fan girls everywhere! MUAH-HAHAHA!

Actually, I wasn't really able to find too much wrong with a character save for a) something completely subjective, b) something related more to a problem a have with zp's pacing as opposed to the character and c) a concern about how the character is written.

A) Damian being too much of a jerk. I disagree with this, but I didn't mention this above because. ...yeah, some people can feel that Dame is too much of a jerk, and I get why. It's more subjective as this attributes more to a subjective opinion on the character.

B) Damian's freak out in chapter 3. It's just the pacing in that scene that gets to me. It feels as though Dame goes from 0 to 6 in only a few frames and that entire segment where he's slowly becoming angrier and angrier feels rushed. According to Dame's character sheet (shown above ) Damian is supposed to be good at hiding his more demonic tendencies, but you would've never guessed that from this scene. This is something that kind of happens throughout zoophobia where the pacing with be slow, then all of a sudden, we just speed through an entire scene. For instance, the start of chapter 5 is pretty slow. However, we speed through the scene with Tom so fast, his appearance doesn't really do much or become really memorable. This more of a story problem and less of a character problem.

Now.... onto c.

First of all, by concern, I'm referring to something that might be a problem depending on how the rest of zoophobia turns out. The problem with both critiquing and defending Zoophobia is that we only have 5 chapters to go off of to determine its quality. This is something more like the tangent I had about Addison in my least favorite character list. I suggest for this, you grab a spoonful of salt and force it slowly down your throat as you read this as my concerns could easily be proven wrong here.

So what problem could I possibly foresee? Well, for an example of what I'm about to discuss, let me take you to a dark corner of the internet. The RWBY fandom. Specifically, let me introduce you to one of it's main cast

Blake Belladonna.

For anyone outside the loop, Blake is (currently ) one of the most hated characters in the series. There are many reasons why, but for this, I'm going to lock in on one problem in particular. Throughout Volumes 1-5, Blake was notorious for being an inconsistent character. Granted, in volumes 1 and 2, this was not a problem unique to Blake as the writers were still trying to figure out how to write her and the rest of the characters. They couldn't decide weather they wanted Blake to be the introverted, bookworm, straight man character, or to be silly. In later volumes, however, the problem just got worse. While all the other characters were sorted out and had settled on their own personalities, Blake's character seemed to change whenever she was in a new scene. While it's not bad for a character to have multiple sides to them, this is not how you want to do it. One scene, Blake was a bitch who wanted nothing more than to be left alone. Next scene, she was an emotionally mature figure helping her gay chameleon friend with issues. Next scene, she was a trauma victim. Next scene, she was a freedom fighter fighting oppression. Next scene, she was a badass haunted by her past. Next scene, back to bitch.

You see the problem?

This made Blake a hard character to fully connect with, and eventually, the fandom ended up agreeing that Blake is better whenever the scene isn't focused on her.

So what does this have to do with Damian? Well, one thing I noticed with him when I first dipped my toe into this fandom was the three main interpretations of Damian's character there seemed to be. One, a flirty, yet cartoon villainy jerk; two, a misunderstood, rebellious boi who was somewhat mischievous; or three, an overposessive, yet tolerable brat who hated not getting his way. Just to clarify, I'm referring to fans who had only read the comic and had not seen any posts about him from Vivz.

I pondered why during the third zoophobia rewrite, and I eventually came to this conclusion : the type of Damian fans seemed to remember depended on WHICH Dame they remembered best, Ch2, Ch3, or Ch5. Why? Well, it basically wolloped me upside the head after reading a post where Dame's personality was described as "diverse". Because yeah.... It's diverse alright.

Let's put Dame under a microscope for a second and go through each of his appearences, and his character sheet which (someone correct me if I'm wrong ) came out between ch. 2 and ch.3.

His character sheet lists the following about his personality : he ranges from mischievous to a downright brat, he loves entertaining and messing with others and making them laugh, he's flirty, he's open, he can be spoiled or arrogant at times, he gets bored easily, and he is secretly lonely but hard to impress and has an enormous heart. He also has a dark side he's good at hiding

CH 1. Appears to be that one kid who enjoys messing with others, acts slightly flirty towards Kayla, and doesn't seem to take much very seriously.

Ch 2. I've often described this Dame as sociopathic, because honestly, he kinda is. He doesn't care about anyone here but himself. He acts flirty towards Kayla, and torments both Zill and Jack just to further his goal of charming a girl he supposedly knows will "give into temptation eventually " and he's outright manipulative here. He even finds Zill's pain amusing to some extent and mocks him and Jack while aggressively leaning on his cousin (probably to assert dominance (can aggressively leaning be the new t-posing? Please? ))

CH 3. Dame still has some lack of empathy, finding the idea of his cousin being burned alive funny, however this seems to be limited to just Jack. He's a lot more fun loving here, as seen in him running around town with his friends. He darker side makes an appearance. We see him entertaining others at the beginning, and oddly enough, he's more self conscious here. He gets embarrassed by Tenta, is bothered when he is teased about his nanny, and is triggered by the priest spouting that tasty religious bull shit. His conversation with his parents also makes him seem like he needs his daddy's approval, and may have daddy issues.

CH 5. Here, he's more of a brat. He's possessive of Addi, and at the beginning, he's more flirty and care free.

Thus far, Vivz seems to switch between various sides of dame depending on what she needs him to be for a certain scene. As scene with Blake, this isn't something that really works out well. And it's not like Vivz can't write characters with different sides to them. We see her do this with Jack, Kayla, and Cameron. In one chapter, these characters can show more then one side to them. In Damian's case, he's like play-doh. He just molds into whatever Vivz needs instead of just being his own character.

Like I said before though, this is a concern. Future chapters can easily prove me wrong here. This is just the sad ramblings of a Canadian who is obsessed with covering themselves in glitter. Tell me what you guys think and if you enjoyed!

Now to wait for zoophobiapika to either message me or reblog this, quoting a line from it.....

#zoophobia #zoophobia damian

[kelmcdonald]

Writer Notes Fame and Misfortune Part 1

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Writer Notes Fame and Misfortune Part 1

Fame and Misfortune was a book I went into with several goals. I wanted to get better at writing and drawing action. I wanted the cast to be mostly female. I wanted to improve my black and white only art. And I wanted it to work as a decent intro to The City Between series, though at the time I didn’t have a name for the series. I tried to keep the supernatural fairly limited and straight forward because I also wanted the reader to get a feel for the mundane world.

page 1-3

I started with this opening because I wanted to set up the contrast of Rebecca’s thoughts to what is going on around her. She is fairly quiet as a main character and I wanted to make it clear how she differs from the humans around her. Her caption boxes are supposed to show that through out the story. Then Mistress Lala’s interview is also supposed to get info about regular human’s relationship with werewolves out. Everyone knows werewolves are real, but they are so rare that an individual is highly unlikely to encounter them. Rebecca is really hired as an actually bodyguard, she is hired to be an oddity.

Mistress Lala’s dress went through a few revisions. Mostly it was because I wanted the average person’s clothes to be different from our everyday, but at the same time Mistress Lala needed to be more out there. The bow at the back of her dress is also supposed to make fairy wings to start her gimmick of having fairies as a branding thing. I wanted to start small and make that more and more obvious until the end.

Rebecca’s reveal visually is to give her center stage and not compete with Mistress Lala. Also her towering over the reporter.

Sometimes heightened senses can be hard to convey visually. Rebecca’s captions pointing to folk are supposed to be a combination of her senses and learning to be more aware while working as a bodyguard. It’s also how she mostly interacts with the world. There is the 4th panel wide shot on page 3 to show off all the stuff she is constantly picking up.

Also, I tried to put as much stuff going on in the background as I could. Like in Page 3 panel 1 you can see Mistress Lala getting mad at the camera man for paying attention to Rebecca rather than her, before she swoops in front of the camera in panel 2. Then in panel 5 Fatima is taking photos before she is introduced properly.

page 4-7

Action time. Like I said I wanted to get better at drawing action. I tried to make sure things were fairly clear.

When Rebecca pushes Mistress Lala out of the way, originally Mistress Lala was nastier. But I softened it because Jay Edidin who edited the script for me, asked if I wanted people to route for Mistress Lala’s death right away. Basically, she was too harsh too soon.

Rebecca’s outfit was something I planned out based on the fact that she goes back and forth from wolf to human on the job. So the big coat is long enough to cover her while she looks for the rest of her clothing. Then the halter top is supposed to be removable by just untying two notes. It’s also a shirt that is more feminine in cut than someone would expect from someone as butch as Rebecca.

This chase scene is something I wanted to stick with sorta the same angle to keep things clear. I think I maybe could do this better and make all the thrown obstacles clearer now. I also think I should have put more people on the street in general. It would make Marnie getting pushed into the line of the LR more understandable.

Rebecca’s wolf design is a little hard. I was trying to avoid the halo thing when black stuff is next to one another. Her fire helps clear up her form though.

page 8-10

Some of the text in this page is a little crowded. After Fame and Misfortune, I realized I can afford to make my lettering a little bit smaller. Connor’s uniform is something I wanted to nail down so I could use it again and again. I have a bigger version of the patch on his jacket. It’s the S.N.O.W.I. logo. In theory each cop would have a different patch where Connor has his. This is the first place I used the thought caption covers what another person is talking about.

page 11-12

I was trying to so that Fatima and Rebecca don’t like each other, aren’t great people, and both treat Rebecca’s client as a means of making money. Rebecca is aware she is usually a prop for her clients so why not sell them out to the paparazzi for cash.

page 13-15

The first panel of page 13 I wanted to make sure there is a good view of what most of the city looks like. The idea is there are outside way walks every 5 stories. The piles are both support beams, plumbing pipes, and the streetlights. So everyone mostly walks or they take outdoor elevators to the top level which has the LR on it.

Marnie and her friend chatting are again to drive home how rare werewolves are. I also wanted to establish that Marnie’s friend Janelle is a big fan of Mistress Lala. So when it comes up later, it’s their before.

Rebecca and Marnie’s first interaction doesn’t go over the best. Showing Rebecca’s social modes with humans are awkward, annoyed, and scary. But just as important Rebecca backs up a little when Marnie tells her not to lean over her.

page 16-18

Marnie is taking werewolf news, she freaks out a little. And her lack of knowledge about werewolves is matched by Rebecca’s lack of knowledge about humans. Then when Connor fills in the gaps, he is much nicer/more charming to Marnie than he was to Rebecca.

Also, I kept Rebecca’s coat off in this scene because I wanted to show off her guns. Lady character don’t get to show off arm muscles much in shows.

page 19-23

Second chase scene. I said earlier that Rebecca doesn’t talk much. At least not saying what she is thinking. So her attention is Connor but she doesn’t give Marnie any sign of that. Again I probably should have put more people on a street. But I like her jumping over someone. But she keeps up the not pay attention to Marnie while figuring out what to do.

#The City Between #Writer Notes

[brain-leakage-blog]

Running Castlevania with Old School D&D, Part 5

This is part of a continuing series. For part one, click here. For part two, click here. For part three, click here. And for part four, click here.

While the previous posts in this series have mainly been concerned with showing how to adapt Lamentations of the Flame Princess' various character classes to Castlevania-appropriate archetypes, this post will handle the setting of Transylvania itself. And while I dipped into Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Symphony of the Night to build a D&D style adventuring party with, neither game really offers much in the way of setting material outside the castle.

For that, I'm going to go back a little farther into the franchise's history, to the much-maligned proto-Metroidvania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.    

Please, hold all torches and pitchforks until the end.

Just a brief side note: If I really were to run a Castlevania-themed campaign for a group of PC's, I'd probably lean heavily on Simon's Quest to do it with. While the 8-bit NES wasn't quite up to the developers' ambitions, the game has some good bones to build off of. 

I would probably have the players roll up original characters, with at least one being the next heir to the Belmont line. I'd have the game take place a few years after one of the "major" Dracula battles outlined in the main series, and have the Belmont player character's relative be suffering from the same curse Simon did: The wounds taken in his battle against Dracula are not healing. He is slowly dying. As his condition worsens, he has visions of becoming a creature of the night. A fortune-teller reveals the truth. If he dies before the next full moon, he will become a vessel for Dracula to be re-born, stronger than ever. The only way to lift the curse is to bring Dracula's spirit back into its previous body. But Dracula's minions have scattered his remains, to ensure that his curse will run its course. 

Honestly, the only major difference in the set-up would be that the "cursed" Belmont wouldn't be accompanying the PCs. I'd hole him up in the basement of a church, surrounded by garlic and crosses, with monks praying over him day and night. It would then be up to the group of relatively green and inexperienced adventurers to run a desperate race against the clock, with only minimal guidance from their mentor. 

(I'd also make sure that the enemy kidnapped the cursed Belmont as the night of the full moon approached, giving the PC's one more thing to worry about. But that's just me...)

Anyway, there are a few resources I'd recommend using here. First and foremost is A Guide to Transylvania, which I mentioned back in my Alucard post. The PDF is available on DriveThruRPG for about eight bucks. The crunch inside is AD&D 2e specific, but everything else is system agnostic. This book details everything from Transylvanian history, to peasant superstitions, to secret societies. No other supplement will help you fill in the details of the Transylvanian countryside as well as this one.

The second (more expensive) resource is the current D&D 5e Curse of Strahd campaign book, which is an update and expansion of the original Ravenloft module. Why this one instead of the (many) older ones? First, it's widely available in hardcopy. And while I'm not completely in love with what I've seen of 5e's rules, you just can't deny that Wizards of the Coast puts out a high quality product these days. This thing will survive some wear and tear at the table. Second (and more importantly), it maps out and expands the land of Barovia far beyond what the older editions did. 

The third (completely free) resource is the Transylvania map that appeared in the old NES Game Atlas. A high-quality scan is available here at castlevaniadungeon.net.  

The simplest, easiest way to take care of mapping the Transylvania countryside is just to use the foldout map that comes with Curse of Strahd and swap out the names. For example, swap out the starting village of Jova from Simon's Quest with the Village of Barovia from Curse of Strahd. Swap out Yomi—the nearly-abandoned town just outside Castlevania—with the destroyed village of Berez.

While this won't be 100% faithful to the geography on the Castlevania map, enough of the landmarks in Simon's Quest have a rough Barovian equivalent to make it work. Below are some suggestions, with corresponding map and page references.

Castlevania Location / Barovia Location / Curse of Strahd Foldout Map Location / Curse of Strahd Page Reference

Town of Jova (Area 1) / Village of Barovia / Location E / Page 40 - 48

Town of Aljiba (Area 16) / Village of Valliki / Location N / Page 95 - 124

Yuba Lake (Area 14) / Lake Zarovich / Location L / Page 38

Town of Veros (Area 6) / Village of Krezk / Location S / Page 143 - 156

Town of Yomi (Area 48) / Ruins of Berez / Location U / Page 161 - 166

Laruba Mansion (Area 36) / Wachterhaus / N/A (Located in Vallaki) / Page 110 - 115

Brahm Mansion (Area 21) / Argynvostholt / Location Q / Page 129 - 142

That should be enough to get the idea. That said, I'd probably also swap out some of the obviously non-European names with some real-world Transylvanian ones. Targoviste for Aljiba, for example.

One pro to this approach is that it requires relatively little prep time, especially for an inexperienced DM. Curse of Strahd has plenty of fleshed-out NPCs, side-quests, and description boxes for just about every building and room, if you decide to use them. You can use the encounters, too. Stat conversions from 5e to LotFP are simple: Just use the closest equivalent monster from the free Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, and add two to the creature's Armor Class. Don't sweat the other details. 

Me? I probably wouldn't go that far. I'd probably just use the maps, crib or ad-lib all of the descriptions from the Transylvania Guide, and wing it with the NPCs and encounters. Similarities aside, Castlevania and Ravenloft are two different properties, with two entirely different feels to them. Relying too heavily on the published material just means you're playing Curse of Strahd. Which is okay. But it isn't Castlevania.

Which, of course, leaves open the question of Castlevania itself. 

The Castle Ravenloft layout in Curse of Strahd is unchanged from the original I:6 Ravenloft module. It makes a perfectly serviceable stand-in for Dracula's Castle, provided you're taking your inspiration from the first couple of games. But if you want something closer to the sprawling, changing, living embodiment of Chaos featured in Symphony of the Night and most of the later games, you'd be better off creating your own funhouse-style Mega-dungeon. As with anything, which you choose will depend heavily on your group, their preferences, and their play style. 

Before I close this installment out—and since I'm already mining Castlevania II for ideas—I'm going to give some sample stats for that game's two Boss monsters. For Carmilla, I used the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game version of the Vampire, with almost no modifications. For Death, I re-skinned the BFRPG Lich, added a bunch of Hit Dice, and swapped out his spell casting for a handful of specific, spell-like abilities.

If neither one seems challenging enough, both are easy enough to scale up in power. After all, when it comes to "end game" content, you're bound to have a pretty high level party. Watching them effortlessly steamroll the final bosses would be sort of anticlimactic. If that's a concern, my personal preference is to creatively choose the location for the encounter.

Instead of meeting Carmilla in her vampire lair right away, why not have the PC's encounter her at a masquerade ball, using the powers of her enchanted mask to appear as one of the living? Force them to use roleplaying and guile to maneuver her to a place they can fight her without harming innocents. What about having the PC's run into Death on the grounds of an old battlefield or cemetery? He could raise dozens of allies among the dead, forcing even the most powerful group of PCs into a pitched battle for survival.  

Granted, if you're planning to use Castlevania II as your template, you could always just let the PC's walk right by them with no consequence...

(Note: the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rules assume ascending armor class and a base, unarmored AC of 12. If using these creatures with a system that has a base AC of 10, simply subtract 2.)  

CARMILLA

Alignment: Chaotic

Armor Class: 21

Hit Dice: 9 (attack bonus +8)

No. of Attacks: 1 weapon or special

Damage: 1d8, or by weapon, or special

Movement: 40' or 60' (fly)

No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)

Save as: Lvl 9 Fighter

Morale: 11

Treasure Type: Special

XP: 1,225

Beautiful, vain, and cruel, the aristocratic vampire Carmilla is one of Dracula's most ambitious servants. Famous for her inventive and sadistic tortures, she is best known for bathing in the blood of young women. She possesses Carmilla's Mask, a powerful, cursed artifact.

Like all vampires, Carmilla casts no shadow and no reflection. She cannot cross running water, and may not enter another's home unless invited. She cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic, and will recoil from a mirror or from a cross presented with conviction (for more information on these weaknesses, see the Vampire, p. 124 of the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game). 

Carmilla is immune to Sleep, Charm, and Hold spells. If unarmed, she will treat her hands like claws, raking her target for 1d8 damage. When armed, her vampiric strength gives her an additional +3 to damage when using melee weapons. Her bite (though seldom used in combat) inflicts 1d3 damage, and drains one level of energy from her target for each round she continues to feed. Feeding places her in a vulnerable position, and she suffers a -5 to her Armor Class.

Victims reduced to 0 hit points by Carmilla's feeding die, and they will rise as vampires during the next sunset. These new vampires are permanently under Carmilla's control, and always act as if under a Charm spell.  

Carmilla can command common nocturnal creatures. Once per day, she can summon 10d10 rats, 5d4 giant rats, 10d10 bats, 3d6 giant bats, or 3d6 wolves. The creatures must be nearby to be summoned. Once called, they arrive in 2d6 rounds and obey her commands for 1 hour.  If she chooses, Carmilla can also assume the form of a giant bat or a giant wolf at will.

In addition to the above abilities, Carmilla also shares the common vampire's Charm gaze, which her victims can save vs Spell to resist. Unlike her more common brethren, Carmilla's charm is exceptionally powerful, imposing a -3 penalty rather than the standard -2. 

Carmilla cannot be harmed by non-magical weapons. Exposing her to direct sunlight for more than 1 round destroys her, and submerging her in running water causes her to lose 1/3 of her Hit Points per round for three rounds, with death occurring on the third round. Any other method of reducing her HP to 0 merely incapacitates her, causing her to fall into an apparently death-like state. But if her body is not exposed to sunlight, submerged in running water, or burned, she will begin to regenerate 1d8 hours later, at a rate of 1 hp per turn.

Carmilla's Mask (Artifact)

This artifact is a smooth, silver mask, closely resembling the kind commonly worn during masquerade balls. When the mask is placed onto a human or a dhampir, dozens of hollow, silver spikes appear in the inside, causing it to latch onto the victim's face, and inflicting 1d3 damage. Each round the victim is prevented from removing the mask, it drains 1 energy level, feeding as a vampire, until the victim is reduced to 0 Hit Points. Once dead, the victims do not rise as vampires.

If the mask is freshly fed, bloody tears will pool in the corner of its eyes, and for the next 1d12 hours it will convey several abilities on any vampire that wears it. While wearing the mask, the vampire casts both a shadow and a reflection. Garlic, holy symbols, and holy water have no effect. The vampire may enter any home with no invitation, cross running water, and even walk in the sunlight—although this last will still be uncomfortable. 

Additionally, victims of the vampire's Charm gaze suffer a further -2 penalty to their saving throw.  

DEATH

Alignment: Chaotic

Armor Class: 26

Hit Dice: 15 (attack bonus +10)

No. of Attacks: 1 touch, weapon.

Damage: 1d8 touch+drain, by weapon.

Movement: 30' or 60' (fly)

No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)

Save as: Lvl 15 Magic User or Cleric (use lower)

Morale: 11

Treasure Type: Special

XP: 3,150

Death is Dracula's top lieutenant. Fiercely loyal to his master, Death will fight to protect him at all costs. Death's actual nature is unknown, although he is believed to be an evil manifestation of pure Chaos. His physical form resembles that of the classical "Grim Reaper," a skeletal body wrapped in a tattered cloak. He carries Death's Scythe, an artifact-level magical weapon.

Upon first encountering Death, all intelligent, living creatures must save vs Spell or flee in terror for 2d6 rounds. Even on subsequent encounters, Death's gaze is terrifying. All creatures that meet it must make a save vs. Spell or be paralyzed with fright for 2d4 rounds. Dhampirs, due to their half-undead nature, get a +2 bonus to this check.

Death prefers to attack with his scythe when possible. If forced to make a physical attack, his touch causes 1d8 points of damage and drains 1d4 points of Constitution, while simultaneously healing him for the equivalent amount.

The Constitution loss is permanent. It can only be healed by the casting of a Restoration spell, at a rate of 1 point per casting. If a character's Constitution score falls to 0, he or she immediately dies, and rises the following round as a lesser wight. This creature is identical to the wight described on p. 126 of the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, except its attack causes 1d4 points of damage and 1 point of Constitution loss. All characters killed and transformed into wights are considered permanently dead, and cannot be Raised. They may still be Reincarnated. 

Death is able to cast Speak With Dead, Animate Dead, and Raise Dead at will. And while he rarely feels the need to disguise himself, he is able to do so with the aid of Polymorph Self. Additionally, Death is always treated as having an active True Seeing spell cast on his person. For purposes of spell duration and saving throws, Death's caster level is 20. 

Death is immune to all non-magical weapons. Like all skeletons, Death only takes half damage from bladed weapons, and only one point from arrows, bolts, or sling stones (plus any applicable magical bonus). Additionally, he is immune to Sleep, Charm, and Hold spells. Death cannot be turned by the cleric's Turn Undead spell.

Death cannot be permanently killed. When reduced to 0 Hit Points, Death's physical form is destroyed, and his spirit re-joins the primordial Chaos outside the world. After 1d10 months, Death will Reincarnate on the physical plane, although in a weakened form equivalent to a wraith (see Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, p. 127). He must then drain the equivalent life force of 2x his normal Hit Dice (a combined 30 levels) in order to regain his full strength and powers.    

Death's Scythe (+3 Great Weapon)

Like Death himself, Death's Scythe is believed to be an evil manifestation of Chaos. In combat, Death's Scythe delivers 1d10 damage, with an additional +3 magical damage bonus. On any natural attack roll of 18 or better, the target must save vs Magical Device or die instantly. Any mortal being who attempts to touch the handle of Death's Scythe must make the same saving throw, but at a -4 penalty.

3 times per day, Death's Scythe can create 1d3 Phantom Sickles. These are smaller, ghostly sickles that spin out towards their intended victim. The sickles last for 1d4 rounds, continuously attacking, and causing 1d6+1 damage per successful hit.

Creatures killed with Death's Scythe may not be Raised, but they may still be Reincarnated.

#brain leakage blog #Castlevania #ravenloft #curse of strahd #dnd #dungeons and dragons #OSR #basic fantasy roleplaying game #d&d #carmilla #death #gothic #horror #lamentations of the flame princess

[ramajmedia]

Star Trek: 10 Hidden Details About The Main Characters of DS9

Widely regarded as one of the most gritty and multi-faceted spin-offs in the Star Trek franchise, Deep Space Nine was the last Star Trek show still running when the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation took to films and Star Trek: Voyager finally reached its journeys end. It's known for departing from the traditional episodic nature of the franchise and transitioning to a serialized format, which allowed for over-arching storylines and the ramifications to be felt from previous episodes.

RELATED: Star Trek: 10 DS9 Storylines That Were Never Resolved

In this way, a series about the various inhabitants of a space station orbiting a wormhole could still be one of exploration, it just dealt with traversing interpersonal relationships rather than deep space. With the psychological analysis of so many fascinating inhabitants of Deep Space 9, came rumors that the cast of main characters was one of the most fractious. There's more to know about them than just what we saw on the screen. Below are ten of their hidden details.

10 ALEXANDER SIDDIQ TANKED BASHIR'S PERFORMANCE

If you're paying attention to Doctor Bashir in the last few seasons of the show, you may notice a change in his demeanor. This is intentional; Alexander Siddiq wasn't happy with the alterations being made to his character, particularly the decision to make Bashir an "augmented" human, illegally altered to be gifted by his parents.

Later, he disliked being turned into a possible Dominion spy. This resulted in him tanking his performance, hoping it would affect ratings and force the writing team to change his character back to its original archetype. Among Star Trek fans of Deep Space Nine, Siddiq is regarded as the problem child of the cast.

9 MICHAEL DORN ALTERED WORF'S ACTING

The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation is well known for being chummy. The cast regularly saw each other outside of working hours, and continue to be the best of friends. Coming from that environment to DS9, where everyone was committed to a deeply professional work environment affected Michael Dorn's acting style.

Worf was always a serious character, but due to the stiff nature on the set of DS9, where he was surrounded by theatrically trained actors (in the vein of Patrick Stewart), he had to make a conscious decision not to undue all of the progress Worf's character had made while on the Enterprise (i.e., become friendlier as the series progressed).

8 MARC ALAIMO WAS BASICALLY DUKAT

If you peruse the Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion, a hefty coffee table book dedicated to details about the series, you'll find plenty of interviews and anecdotes with the main cast about the characters they play. Everything from their perspective on the character's psychology to what it was like getting into their prosthetics and makeup is included.

RELATED: Star Trek: The 10 Deadliest Villains The Crew Has Ever Faced

Marc Alaimo, known for playing the charming yet unscrupulous Cardassian warlord Gul Dukat, had such a hand in shaping Dukat that he became known for being as arrogant, petulant, and entitled as his character, inspiring ridicule and derision from his cast mates.

7 ODO IS BASED ON JAMES DEAN AND CLINT EASTWOOD

The lovable, grouchy constable aboard Deep Space Nine went through a few iterations before producers settled on the personality and demeanor they wanted Odo to have. They envisioned him as a combination between two loner-types, Clint Eastwood and James Dean.

Clint Eastwood because they wanted him to be reminiscent of a clench-teethed sheriff of the Old West, and James Dean because they wanted him to be moody due to an overwhelming sense of not belonging. Rene Auberjonois did his best approximation of the two, though they chose to not make him as good looking as either of those two actors.

6 SISKO INITIALLY COULDN'T SHAVE HIS HEAD

There have been many reasons why characters on Star Trek series have to look the way they do; originally Patrick Stewart was made to wear a toupee because of his hairline before TNG started filming, but that was soon scrapped for looking ridiculous and his baldness was embraced.

Meanwhile, Commander Sisko (Benjamin Brooks) wasn't allowed to shave his head for the first several seasons because the actor would look to similar to roles he'd previously played in films. By the fourth season he was permitted to do so after audiences became used to the character - he could even grow a beard.

5 JADZIA DAX WENT THROUGH SEVERAL CHANGES

The Trill species were first introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but looked much different from Jadzia Dax, the main Trill host in DS9. In TNG, the Trill had ridges on their heads and no discernible "spots", but makeup artist Michael Westmore desired to streamline their appearance.

RELATED: Star Trek: 10 Geordi Logic Memes That Are True And Hilarious

Jadzia Dax was also intended originally to be a character that was born on a planet with little gravity, requiring her to use a wheel chair when she was aboard Deep Space Nine. She could also "fly" only in her quarters when gravity controls were adjusted. This idea was scrapped, but given to a guest character in Season 2.

4 O'BRIEN'S UNIFORM WAS DIFFERENT THAN THE REST OF THE CREW

Colm Meaney originally had some trepidation about returning to the role of Miles O'Brien on DS9. He liked the freedom he had on Star Trek: The Next Generation as a reoccurring character, but not a part of the regular cast. However, his salary upgrade made him reconsider.

When he was fitted for his uniform, he requested two key changes as a non-commissioned officer; he wanted it to be cut with the ability for him to roll up his sleeves as a working man taking care of the ship, and he wanted it to have pockets for his tool.

3 NANA VISITOR WAS ACTUALLY PREGNANT AS KIRA

Whenever female cast members get pregnant during the course of a television show, adjustments need to be made in the storyline they're involved in to account for their changing bodies. One of the ways this was accomplished when Nana Visitor became pregnant in real life was to have Major Kira become pregnant as well.

Kira isn't made to be pregnant with her own child, but rather become the surrogate for the new baby of Miles and Keiko O'Brien. Nana Visitor was actually pregnant with her and Alexander Saddiq's (who played Doctor Bashir) baby, which she gave birth to during Season 5.

2 MAJOR KIRA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE RO LAREN

Originally the character of the Bajoran militia member and terrorist turned military leader of a liberated society wasn't Major Kira. It was going to be Ro Laren, the memorably hot-tempered Bajoran introduced on Star Trek: The Next Generation. That actress didn't want to do a Star Trek series again, and so the character of Kira was created.

At first Nana Visitor was skeptical of taking the part, especially at a time when doing episodic science fiction for television wasn't a prestige assignment. But she was convinced by the script, and the fact that Major Kira wasn't a helpmate female Star Trek character assisting the male leads, like Counselor Troi, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and Lieutenant Uhura.

1 JADZIA DAX WAS PREMATURELY KILLED OFF

A favorite character on the series, Jadzia Daz's untimely demise in Season 6 came as much of a shock to fans as to actress Terry Farrell who played her. Farrell had requested more time off, and to become a recurring character to allow her an easier schedule, but producers wouldn't go for it and decided to kill Dax instead.

The Dax Trill symbiant she carried would be transferred to a new host body (Ezri), who fans weren't particularly fond of. Especially since Jadzia had so recently married Worf, a union of two favorite characters. Her death also didn't offer any way for Farrell to return to the part for guest appearances on any other Star Trek series.

NEXT: Star Trek TNG: 10 Hidden Details About The Main Characters Everyone Missed

source https://screenrant.com/star-trek-deep-space-nine-hidden-character-details/

#screenrant

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasListens: The Adventure Zone

The Adventure Zone was a tough sell to me, despite (and possibly because of) seeing it pop up as various artists I respect began getting into the podcast.

First off, despite my love of the hobby, I have a rather low tolerance for second hand accounts. Short stories focusing on a singular, amusing event is great. Multi-part text narratives are a no go. Likewise, I’ve always had difficulty getting into actual play podcasts, since most that I encounter don’t really put a lot of weight on actual entertainment over, you know, just putting a recorder in the middle of the table during the usual game night. So I listen to very few Actual Plays.

And by ‘few Actual Plays’, I mean One Shot (Which does a good job of rotating content and keeping the separate narratives relatively short and self-contained) and Campaign (Which started with good production quality, and already had my loyalty due to being a One Shot spinoff show.) I don’t even listen to rest of their network.

I’d made a couple attempts at Critical Role, but since it’s a continuation of the cast’s ongoing campaign (thus continuity lockout) and was confined to YouTube for years (thus I couldn’t really listen while driving, running errands, or doing chores), I just couldn’t force myself to be invested. And it’s cast is a bunch of Voice Actors! I love voice actors!

Basically, a bunch of the usual complaints I have about media accessibility.

Further, as Adventure Zone’s popularity began exploding, I admit there was a degree of resentment on my part. I’ve longed harbored a desire to have my own Actual Play show, and if the genre’s exploding now, while I’ve still got no concrete plans, chances are, once I do have my act together,[1] I’ll again be starting during the twilight period of the genre.[2]

Dang it, McElroys! Don’t you burn the fuel before I even board!

Still, it was becoming a talking point, and was a downloadable podcast, so it wouldn’t hurt to try. Probably drop it after an episode or two.

The first couple of episodes were not promising. Players were mostly newbies, with a lot of rules talk; they were running the adventure that comes prepackaged in the Starter Set, which means I had to sit through the session that I’ve literally either tried to run or play several times. And it never gets past the freaking bugbear.

So, of course, after completing that specific portion, the McElroys promptly leave the rails, lightly skip past Phandalin, so I didn’t even get to finally see what’s supposed to happen after the lengthy mechanic and battle tutorial!

However, that’s also the point Griffin began making the story his own, so I might as well keep listening as I eat my slice of pre-work CostCo Pizza.

That’s what the series mostly was. Background noise as I prepared for work. The first couple arcs were okay. Not amazing, but okay. The performers were good comedically, and they seemed to be having fun, so it was alright.

I was intrigued by the premise of the second arc. Train-based mystery, huh? Sure. I’m always game for playing with tropes. Griffin, and the players, were beginning to explore character voices, and the NPCs were getting livelier. I admit, I was a quick sell on Angus. The precocious boy detective being placed in the middle of a train mystery, perpetrated by a serial killer, with a rather maimed body is just the right balance of darkly inappropriate.

Especially since Angus was there to solve the mystery in case the Boys were too incompetent.

Still, wasn’t too absorbed. I began swapping between TAZ Arcs and One Shot series. If I got too bored, I’d just drop TAZ, since podcasts are one of the few mediums I’m able to do so, since I can only will myself to consume them in limited circumstances (basically, while in transit, or some other activity that is physically busy but mentally void).[3]

Combat, however, remained a time for Canvas’s eyes to glaze over, and nothing of value to remain.

The Lunar Interludes were fun! Building comradery with a small community is what I’m about. Especially with their bunkmate, Pringles! Even though Griffin clearly didn’t want anything more to do with Pringles.

Poor Pringles.

Petals to the Metal is marked by many as the real turning point. I… liked it a little less than Rockport Limited? It started strong while the Boys were infiltrating a bank, and Taako has a semi-hypocritical moment I recognized from my favorite Pathfinder character, where this kleptomaniac wizard objected to Merle and Magnus taking time to rob the bank while supposedly saving it.[5]

However, this was followed by a sequence explaining the Mad Max race and infiltration to steal parts which… was actually kind of dull. The dialogue with the guards was great, but then it was long stretch of explaining a compound we’d never see again, and a large fight. Then there was a charming sequence where The Boys selected their animal motifs, with Taako getting an actually pretty nice (if meta) serious moment regarding his Mongoose mask.

Then the race itself was… a giant combat. Interesting enemy concepts. Still a giant combat.

The ending of the race, while exciting, didn’t carry much weight because I’d lost the thread due to not paying attention.

Then there was the final boss fight.

Petals to the Metal had a lot of combat, okay? I don’t enjoy combat!

However, music was beginning to be introduced, and it was pretty good. I was beginning to feel it.

Then the Crystal Kingdom knocked it up just enough notches for me to go ‘Huh. The finale’s coming soon? Better catch up.’ and gently set One Shot aside,[6] lean my head forward, and marathon with purpose!

The sound design continued to improve, to the point of being used to foreshadow the events of the arc. The events also helped highlight how the show creators were paying attention to and heeding the words of their audience. In a positive aspect, Griffin began reading out the lyrics of the song. And, in a bit of hilarious and spiteful worldbuilding, explains the origins of what were (apparently) the much discussed elevators.[7]

In retrospect, a lot of plot stuff happened in the lab. Weird.

It was a good arc for callbacks and call forwards.

Eleventh Hour, however, is my favorite arc. For some reason, I’m just a sucker for Groundhog Day loops.[9] Compounding this, Eleventh Hour was set in a small community of new characters, there was a mystery element, plenty of space for shenanigans, puzzles, ominous prophecy, and a well done tragic villain. Also, backstory for the three leads.

Oh boy, the backstory for the three leads.

I was a Taako fan until this arc. He clearly was the best character. However, as it turns out, Travis really did devise a solid backstory. A few quick early life scenes, then we’re shown he found happiness, won a happy ending already, and had it stolen.

Then Magnus showed his true strength of character, and I was sold. Magnus was my new boy. He’s great.

Anyways, episodes with ‘Finale’ in the title were showing up in the feed, and I wanted to stop spoiling myself, so I really had to buckle down.

Luckily, work kept putting me in the garden center as the season was in its death throes, so I had plenty of time to sit in a small hut with my phone and a pair of headphones. I’d begun actively looking for opportunities to listen to more, take longer errand runs to have an excuse to get through Eleventh Hour and more episodes.

It was a good time.

The Suffering Games however, was less good. Not because it was designed to be a miserable experience, which I naturally love. The sequence of events had a lot good character work, especially for Magnus. The Wheel of Sacrifice is an amazing concept once your players are high enough level, and Griffin does a good job narrating and describing what each sacrifice does.

Especially the loss of memories. Each one stung. And Griffin did a great job of making a few of the choices hurt in surprising ways; in particular, Merl giving up his unused Axe proficiency. What was originally a cop out, Griffin expertly weaved into a solid loss. Then Magnus was given a surprisingly insidious choice: losing the memory of who he had sworn revenge on.

Also a mercy, considering losing Julia might’ve been worse. However, narratively, that would’ve removed Magnus’s main drive and significant portion of his character. Remember, GMs, carefully consider how the threads are weaved before cutting them!

Plus, we also got a good demonstration of how close The Boys were when Taako and Merle agreed to take over the vengeance quest without further details. It’s important to Magnus, and now someone else needs to do it.[10]

Taako got off really light, as the only narrative sacrifice was his beauty, which Taako quickly rendered moot via magic.[11] Because we learned a lot about the other two, I wish Taako could’ve loss more.

However, the non-wheel of sacrifice parts were… well, they fell flat, and since there wasn’t space for any significant character interaction with someone outside of the party (even Cam got put into Magnus’s pocket), it was just gimmicky encounter after gimmicky encounter. It turned repetitive.[12] Prisoner Dilemma's don’t work if those on the other side aren’t emotionally significant.

Sure, looking back and examining it, a lot of interesting things happened. But sitting in the garden center, waiting for customers, it felt tedious. Not sad and emotionally devastating, just… eh.

Were I to replicate it, I’d probably combine the prisoner's dilemma and Wheel of Sacrifice, and make the players compete against one another. If you both spare the other, then you’re both given a choice between two sacrifices. If you’re forsaken by someone you spared, then you take both. And if you both forsake… I guess the GM just gets to decide which one you take?

If you want to up the ante in later rounds, offer to return something lost in later rounds if you forsake your partner. And if you want to twist the knife, have those spared choose the sacrifice for those they betrayed.[13]

Sorry, slipping into SepiaDice for a moment. Back to the review.

Reunion Tour was a good trip into the apocalypse, and final check in with a lot of the minor characters as everyone bugged out. Bad things are coming, and Madame Lucretia Director has a lot of secrets to be found.

Stolen century was... I don't know how I feel about it? There was a lot of backstory that needed to be conveyed suddenly, yes, but after the arc was concluded, I didn't feel like I'd learn much new about anything substantial. Nothing new about the world, since the places visited came and went so fast, that few left an impression.[14]

There were four characters for us and the players to get to know, but... Well, that didn't pan out too well. Of course, focus had to remain on the players, but ended up giving little room for Davenport, Barry, and Lucretia to develop. So, while it was an arc of vignettes, which is usually my jam, in this case, the vignettes were too small and delayed the plot so long, that I was just waiting for them to get on with it.

(Though, it probably didn't help that I was ill during the latter half of Stolen Century and the first two parts of the finale, making it kind of a blur.)

How to possibly improve it? Well, let's put the SepiaDice hat back on, I guess.[15]

First off, I wouldn't have changed systems, and not just because I hear about Powered by the Apocalypse so often I've become burnt out without ever playing it. Staying with 5e would've maintained a level of consistency with the rest of the series, and let the players use their experience to act the part of the well traveled people they are in the arc.[16]

Second, instead of a bunch of ten minute scenes for a handful of worlds, spend an episode on a world and do a one shot. Show them preparing to leave their homeworld, then the first world. Then do sessions covering the rest of the details that need to be conveyed.

Finally, integrate the other four crewmembers into these adventures. There's two viable methods: rotate through them as a sort of 'Guest NPC' (or Guest PC if they want to bring on temporary cast members). Or, let the players run two characters (Give Lup to Justin, Davenport to Clint, and probably Barry over to Travis) while Young Lucretia can be mission control until it's time to toughen her up.

So... that's Stolen Century, I guess? I'm having a hard time remembering specifics.

Story and Song was a good finale.

I don't get to play many endings. In fact, I’ve played only the one, and... it wasn't a good campaign to begin with, so it is what it was.

The Adventure Zone, meanwhile, did what every good narrative should do: give a cameo to everyone they practically can, tying up any fraying that may have occurred. That way, the audience gets a chance to see their favorite character at least one more time.

Then, for the players, they were split up, and given an epic scene that contributed to the final conclusion, and closed their character arcs (even if that closure involves an old running gag.)[17]

Afterwards, into the breech for a fancy final battle.

Finally, the epilogue. I don't want to spoil it, but I do wish to speak on the framework. Griffin handled the epilogue perfectly. First, he asked the players to describe where the characters are a year later, then pitched what he (Griffin) would like to have happened while making it clear the player got final say, before both were happy with where we leave Taako, Merle, and Magnus.

That's how you finish a game.

Suffice it to say, I may have started with a lot of reservations, but I learned a lot, and hope to apply it to my own games and projects.

If you enjoyed this... whatever I just wrote... maybe poke around my blog. I have other reviews and essays. Maybe I wrote something else you like. If you'd like to support me and my creative endeavors, I have a patreon! I like money.

Thanks for reading.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Heh, wordplay. [2] Though, to be fair, I kinda knew Sprite Comics were ignoble going into Nintendo Acres. Still, it had its charm. [3] This is foreshadowing to the fact that I ended up making a conscious effort to listen to the show while hanging out at home.[4] [4] I was also sick with a stomach bug at the time, though. [5] In my case, Trix was happy to loot a corpse the party found on the side of the road, but not the crypt they were dungeon delving. In my defense, the road corpse had his things by accident, while the items in the crypt were deliberately interred. It’s a respectability thing. [6] I’ll be back soon, don’t worry. [7] As someone who had a player try and call out a clock as anachronistic, I can understand how that could be irritating.[8] I solved it by just saying ‘this isn’t Earth, and there’s a wall clock.’ But different strokes, I suppose. [8] There was also an ongoing debate about whether sandwiches existed. I was in the ‘Sandwich like things likely existed before the Earl of Sandwich’ camp, but I never got around to dredging up the Good Eats segment. [9] Fair warning: if I figure out how to replicate Endless Eight on my actual play show, I’m doing it. Same session, on repeat. And you’ll have to sit through it. [10] This better come up during a live show! [11] It’s always annoying when a player does that. [12] You may ask, ‘Canvas, you hated the repetitive feeling, yet you want to emulate Endless Eight?’ Well, you see, I also deeply love meta jokes on the audience. And I’m just a little Chaotic-Aligned. [13] Obviously, you’ll need a mature game group to do this, and an emotionally satisfying conclusion. [14] One was the world of TAZ Nights, but since I find participating in the Max Fun Drive off-putting for unknowable reasons, I had no context to care. [15] Which is probably a giant paper mache D12 mask. [16] But mostly I'm just sick of Fate and ApocalypseWorld. [17] Especially if it delivers on that running gag's punchline.

#CanvasReviews #the adventure zone #taz #D&D #podcasts #SepiaDice

[zaggitz]

My Top Ten Video Games of 2018

Well, here were are again, my friends. After the non stop roller coaster thrillride of VIDEO GAMES 2017, can 2018 live up to the hype??? I’m gonna go ahead and say no right off the bat, but while every single week wasn’t filled with a new incredible genre defining experience like last year, we still had some genuine certified bangers in the mix, many of which I think will remain important to me as the years go by. It should be noted this is the first year since 2014 where a Trails game hasn’t hit the market, so for the first time ever since I started writing these lists, a Trails game will not reign victorious at the end. Scandalous! Impossible!! Shit year tbh, but we’ll get by.

Outside of games this year is maybe the best year of my entire life?? I got out of a years long slump, started an actual genuine career path, and then somehow managed to fenegle falling in love into the whole mix. These lists have always come from some greater sense of yearning to reach out and communicating how I feel about things I love to anyone who will listen, but right now all I can think of is about how happy and lucky I am for my life to have taken the turns it did this year. 2019 is gonna have to try real hard to break my stride.

If you’d like to read my previous rambly lists, here they are:

2015

2016

2017

Anyway without further ado, here’s ten games that aren’t Trails of Cold Steel 3(WHEN??):

10. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

This one is only at the bottom of the list because I didn’t have time to finish it. I loved getting to jump into the world of the witcher again. The world is dark and gritty and the choice are morally grey and the writing is impeccable and gwent is even more fun to play as a main mechanic than it was in the Witcher 3 as a minigame. I can’t wait to dive back into this one come the new year.

9. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

One of the most well written and executed time-travel-based JRPGs I’ve ever played. It’s a story about trying to fix mistakes, about different perspectives trying to understand each other instead of fighting over differences.

It’s got an overall theme of realizing how important you can be to the world around you despite seeming insignificant that really resonated with me, an amazing cast of characters and it also just happens?? To be really fun to play??

8. The House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence

That I didn’t play the first game the year it came out is a damn crime, this series of gothic tragedies has such special, meaningful and important themes of redemption and sacrifice and finding the people who will survive the world with you no matter what. It tackles mental illness, lgbt topics with an immense amount of respect and tells some of the most heart wrenchingly real and gutting stories, but it all culminates in the most viscerally satisfying way.

This sequel delves into one of the most unspoken parts of the original while also offering promising and hopeful glimpses into the future. It’s absolutely a must play if you in anyway liked the original.

7. Wandersong

Now here’s one that came absolutely out of nowhere. This game just oozes joy out of every pore. You play as a dandy bard who can only interact with the world via music trying to save it from being destroyed. Heavy themes of pacifism and the internal struggle of doing your best when you know for a fact your best won’t be good enough cover this thing like sprinkles on the most delicious and colorful donut.

Another thing I love is how every single chapter of this game plays differently, one will be a pirate adventure where you steer a ship with pirate shanties, the other will be a Majora's Mask still town sim, it goes on like this, and it never once gets boring. This game will make you smile the biggest smile from start to finish.

6. God of War

Remember Kratos?? He’s back, in open world action-RPG form. I sort of grew up with the original GoW trilogy and am of the opinion that they aged about as well as I did(which is fuckin not gracefully, teenager me was a fuckin mess). God of War is out of its edgy teenager phase now, and just barely squeaking out of its holier than thou college student phase into a game that actually has a few things to say, fun characters, an amazing world, and a paternal relationship that is kind of actually a joy to watch unfold despite everyone making fun of the game for it.

This game is like twice, maybe three times as long as the original trilogy which hilariously kind of makes those games feel like a prologue to this one. I suppose the real ironic thing is they kind of are?? They were shallow angry games with nothing to say but their existence created a character that, under the right light, under THIS light, could actually be extremely compelling and fun to watch grow alongside his boy. This series went from one I was glad to see gone to one I can’t wait to get more of.

5. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life/Yakuza Kiwami 2

It’s absolutely insane that Yakuza is popular now. I got into this series 10 years ago and at the time every single new yakuza release was a blessing and a curse; blessed because holy shit they actually put out a new Yakuza game and cursed because oh god it sold like shit and they probably won’t localize the next one why did they localize the zombie spin-off it almost killed the series nooooo don’t localize that give us the samurai games instead.

So anyway, this year I finally finished my journey playing through all 7 mainline Yakuza games. The journey of Kiryu Kazuma has come to an end and I have seen every step he’s taken. Yakuza 6 itself had kind of a really rough new engine that Kiwami 2 ended up refining, and from a gameplay perspective these games are basically the same, for the most part(Kiwami 2 is just better). Neither of these games come close to touching the masterful highs of Yakuza 0 but from a story perspective I think the respect and love this series has for its protagonist is unmatched, and while I was sad to see him go, I will never forget that big good crime boy and his whacky antics.

Ganbare, Kiryu-san...sayonara!!!!

4. The Messenger

This game fucking rules, I really don’t know how to do it justice, I played it on a whim and fell in love with it for the time it took me to beat it in a way that I haven’t done with a game in a long time. The gameplay is fluid and fun, the writing is charming and legit hilarious at times and the soundtrack, oh baby the soundtrack, if this wasn’t a year where Celeste came out this game would win every single award for OST of the year, I would fight anyone who disagreed.

The main gimmick of this game once you reach the halfway point is being able to shift between the 8 bit past and the 16 bit future, and every time you do the music will warp to fit those aesthetics and the game does this so freaking seamlessly, it’s amazing. The final level in particular meshed the music so well with the narrative that I was like fist pumping the whole way through the final sequence of the game.

It rules extremely hard, play it. Yes, you, you reading this right now, play this game so these people will make more for me. Please?

3. La-Mulana 2: The 0th Body, The 9th Spirit

Chalk this one up for game of 2018 I most can’t wait to replay and do a bunch of quick runs of. The original La Mulana is one of my favorite games of all time and this sequel delivers more of all the stuff I love while streamlining a lot of the more obscure and obtuse solutions. The music, the bosses, the world, all of the best things about the first game were all just as on point in this one.

The game evokes a sense of mystery you can only really achieve in a sequel to a game like the original La Mulana by constantly making you question the lore you already knew from the original. This all culminates in a sidequest that for a game as inscrutable as opaque as LM2, I still ended up getting really really emotionally invested in.

I don’t think there will ever be a La Mulana 3, and if that’s the case I’ll be able to leave this series happy, these two games complete each other in such a huge way, and will remain some of my favorites for years to come.

2. Celeste

I swear to god, this game was my Game of the Year for 9 whole months. I have never in my life played a game with this much precision perfect game design. This is maybe the tightest most consistent feeling platformer of all time. It’s like basically perfect on a gameplay level. That it meshes it’s gameplay with it’s themes so well is what truly makes it stand out and transforms it into not only a viscerally satisfying, tough but fair game, but an emotionally resonant masterpiece that will stick with me for years to come.

Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain. Celeste is a game about overcoming depression and anxiety and learning to cope and better yourself. These things are not interchangeable, the challenges you face as a player in this game all tie in perfectly to the main character, Madeline’s struggle to just fight through her self doubt and self loathing. It’s an extremely real tale, despite how fantastical the visuals are. It’s a game about fighting and screaming and clawing at that fucking Mountain to give you a way to have your heart again, and it’s absolutely wonderful.

The game is difficult, but every personal triumph accompanies one in game, and it lets you truly feel the feelings the game is trying to evoke alongside it. This is the kind of game that only comes once or twice a decade. I’d be extremely surprised to see anything hit this level any time soon.

1. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

This is the gold standard for all JRPGs now as far as I'm concerned. There are series that go deeper, that go harder, that go all the way in with their music but no game out there exists that is so confidently just the classic all encompassing idea of a JRPG like this one. This game is pure comfort food, it knows exactly what it is and what it is is a fun heartwarming and charming classic JRPG “chosen one gets the cool sword and fights the dark lord” tale and damn it if it hasn’t been a while since we had just a good one of those.

Haha, just kidding.

A third of the way through, this game takes a dramatic shift and flips everything on its head in a way that hasn’t been really seen or executed this well since FF6. Suddenly the comfortable is taken away, the world is scary, bleak, and the themes you missed, that were simmering in the background since the start of the game start to boil over to the surface. The world is darker but the people in it are warmer, they hold themselves together until the day comes, and the game will find ways to make you cry you would never expect from a series this traditional. These themes all culminate in a super satisfying finale that, while not entirely happy, at least leaves the world in a better place than it was before, with it’s people that much closer.

Now what if I just didn’t write any of that and told you why I really love the game.

Credits roll, and the post game, that is to say, the final third of the game, begins. What if the shift never came, how would the world be different? How would these characters acrs resolved? Who would live? Who would die instead? What does this happening mean to the world? What does this new future hold?

In one simple moment, you answer all of those questions, and Dragon Quest XI becomes a prequel to Dragon Quest III (which was a prequel to DQ1 but that’s less important).

All of a sudden this entire series has lore, everything is connected in a way it had never been for 30 years, and it fits so seamlessly and perfectly that it could only have happened in a series like Dragon Quest, which has had the same writer across all 11 games. As a fan who had played all the available english games this was such an insane rewarding moment. I struggle to really compare it to anything else outside of maybe like…

Oh shit.

OH SHIT.

Outside of goddamn Trails.

Ya’ll know what that means right?

That’s right, Trails wins game of the year once again. STILL THE KING BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

#game of the year

[terryblount]

Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Review

20.. err, 21, years ago, Spyro The Dragon was released on the original Playstation. The 3D platformer later became an icon, alongside Crash Bandicoot, as the co-mascots of the PS1 era. Crash received a faithful remake of the trilogy of games in 2017. Thus, Spyro got its due in 2018 with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. It includes Spyro The Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage and Spyro 3: Year Of The Dragon, completely remade to look and sound like how you remembered it.

My childhood was filled with times playing Spyro. I loved discovering Spyro 1 in a PAL demo disc, playing the game in black and white. Spyro 2 is the first ever game I completed 100%. And I never got around to finishing Spyro 3 because all the bootleg versions I found are intentionally broken thanks to DRM.

So of course I have to check it out and see if it lives up to my nostalgia.

Presentation

Developers Toys For Bob reversed engineered the original Spyro trilogy. The Reignited Trilogy runs on Unreal 4 engine targeting 30fps. The developers also get some leeway in adding extra details and art to them too. I love the bright pastel colours that have been preserved in the updated visuals. Spyro’s charming, cartoony aesthetic is looking better than ever.

The first Spyro game, which is filled with flat, barren landscapes by today’s standards, got the biggest of the art overhauls and it looks amazing now. The dragons you rescue are not just palette swaps, but unique realised characters. However the Gnorcs, your main goons, look less goofy but nastier- something I find personally bothered by. The rest of the casts as seen in the latter two games are okay in my book though.

There are a few more aesthetic changes that I find odd. You don’t get to see the gems you collected physically tallied during loading transitions from levels. Orbs in Spyro 2 don’t have the satisfying bouncing animation when you are awarded them. Spyro’s animations got some tweaks, his walking cycle and hover animation is different which messed a bit on my muscle memory.

But these are minor quibbles and won’t affect any new players. That’s not saying there are not any.

Some gameplay loses its clarity, obscured by the new graphics. Gems that are usually easy to spot lying on the ground can very well be hidden in the new lush grasses. Walls or surfaces that can be broken by Spyro are easy to miss. Projectile attacks that are telegraphed by use of lights and shadows are hard to see. Some of these issues are a by-product of the evolved gaming standards today, where unique textures, shadows, and lights are not as prominently used outside of making games look good.

Besides that, the use of motion blur might not be the best decision. The camera usually hangs close to the back of Spyro and you have a small, limited field of view. There are many instances where you need to navigate through tight, blind corners either while airborne during time attacks or charging after a thief. Thanks to the motion blur, you can easily lose track of what you are seeing when making sharp turns, makes for many bad screenshots or worse, can make you sick.

That’s not all, the whole subtitle debacle is unfortunate. Spyro 1 has no subtitles (just like the original) while the other two have cut-scenes without subtitles, though there are text boxes for the many character interaction. On the note of lacking accessibility, the game allows you to invert both axis options for the camera, but some mini-games do not invert the aim as you expect it should be.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy features a new dynamic soundtrack rearranged from the original soundtrack by Stewart Copeland. Don’t worry, you can switch between the new and old soundtrack in the pause menu. I kept flipping between the two scores and I’m glad to say the Reignited tracks are ever so faithful to the original with slight twists.

The original soundtrack still has this distinctive, unique sound that is lovely to hear and holds up 21 years on. And it does indeed bring a lot of nostalgia if you’ve played the original games before.

Gameplay

Hopping back to the first world in Spyro The Dragon left me smiling in delight. It takes some adjustments, those new animations threw me off at first, but controlling the little, nude purple dragon feels just like the original games. Or how similar to how I remember them at least.

For the uninitiated, in each game, Spyro has to defeat a villain. To progress, you have to collect enough collectibles (Dragons in Spyro 1, Talismans and Orbs for Spyro 2 and Dragons Eggs for Spyro 3). The little purple dragon has a simple move set. You can jump and glide (and starting Spyro 2, a hover) to get across chasms and platforms.

Enemies come in a ton of variety but your basic attack comes from your flame breath and charging them with your horns. Some enemies can be defeated by either attack or only either one or through powerups or stage gimmicks.

You have a companion, Sparx the Dragonfly, that helps you collect gems and also your health indicator. You heal up by defeating small fodder creatures which will produce butterflies that Sparx can eat. It’s a cool thing to see back in 1998 because, for the most part, the HUD is non-existent during gameplay. And it’s still cool today.

Each game is structured where you begin in a hub world, which holds a few levels. Gain enough collectibles and you can progress to the next level or hub world or boss fight.

If you are turned off from playing a collect-a-thon after playing too many modern AAA open world games, don’t worry. These Spyro games know how to make collect collectibles enjoyable. Grabbing those gems, either by your own or Sparx picking them up, will give you a good ding, a nice number pop-up and a slight rumble on the controller. The gems encourage you to scour every bit of geometry as every bit of traversable land is filled with secrets.

It’s interesting to see how the original developers Insomniac Games managed to iterate their design for each subsequent game. Spyro The Dragon has very simple level layouts but requires your utmost confidence in your platforming abilities to pull off. To the point that some hard section will have a collectible for this game, a Dragon, congratulating you for doing so. It can be difficult, but rewarding.

For Spyro 2, the game is easier in the first few levels and has a better tutorial to help you master the platforming. Levels are more linear, each with a unique objective that technically still is just reach the end of the level. The world is more fleshed out with more characters other than just dragons or Gnorcs.

Additionally, Spyro gets a ton of new moves and there is now some level gating Metroidvania style to finish 100% in some levels. Spyro 2 also introduces elaborate mini-games. From playing hockey to escort mission (sigh) and also some simple puzzles, each is unique and fun for a few minutes you have to play it.

Spyro 3 is peak Spyro, amalgamating the interesting new ideas in Spyro 2 with the difficulty ramp of Spyro 1, which does not take long to ramp up. The side content gets even more elaborate, some homages to other games of the era like Doom, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, and Time Crisis. Instead of Spyro getting new moves, you get to play as more characters in certain sections of the levels.

The new moves and additions add more variety of the usual collect-a-thon main loop. And as ever, exploration in the latter two games are highly rewarded with these fun mini-games. Though I have to warn you, that some of them are infuriatingly annoying. It’s not hard because it’s easy to understand and do. But infuriating, because some of them require trial-and-error (the whack-a-mole in Spyro 3), some will have you fight against the small field of view and motion blur (the double dragon fight in Spyro 3) and some have oddly bad controls just like the original (the minecarts in Spyro 2).

I also like to point out that I feel like Spyro 2 and Spyro 3 feels a bit less polished in some of its later levels. There are some collision issues I found. And there is one skateboard race in Spyro 3 that don’t seem to register the boost gained from doing tricks until I repeatedly retry the event. There are even bad audio and video stutters while loading in the two latter games. The game got delayed for two months as it was near release, I can’t imagine what state it was before that.

Content & Longevity

Each of the games is not that long compared to what you expect of games today. As a trilogy, it’s of okay length if you are going for full completion.

I completed 120% of Spyro 1 in 5 hours, 100% of Spyro 2 in 8 and 117% of Spyro 3 in 12. That’s at most 25 hours, or shorter if you plow through the critical path.

The latter two games have plenty of mini-games, some requiring you to backtrack to past levels. But it’s okay, the level layouts are short- you can reach the end of each level in a minute or two.

It certainly rewards the completionist. So I encourage you to collect all the collectibles for some cool bonuses at the end of each game. Though some of the side content can be annoying, it won’t take that long to complete them all.

Verdict

Personally, playing through Spyro Reignited Trilogy rekindled my love for the series. The three Spyro games were standout 3D platformers back in its day and this remake does them justice.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy faithfully recreated the three games and smartly updated it with thoughtful quality of life changes. But it stumbles in providing expected accessibility options. The new art for the world and characters are all welcome additions. Though some of the choices negatively affect the core gameplay.

The gameplay has aged well, except for some optional content which is annoyingly tricky, even back then.

Should you have any nostalgia of the first three Spyro games, Spyro Reignited Trilogy will rekindle that old flame again. If not, it’s still a solid 3D platformer in 2019 that should spark new interest and love for this genre.

Review based on the PS4 version played on a base PS4. Review copy purchased by the reviewer

Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Ambition 4/7: Defining

What’s a defining single-element card for each element? While M:tG eventually banned...I think 3 of them, at least temporarily? - When Richard Garfield first put that game together each color had a card that did something that defined the color. Blue’s drew cards, red’s dealt damage, white’s healed, and so on.

Fire: I’ve actually done a pretty substantial number of Fire-element cards. But hey, what’s one more?

120) Blazing Aura: If you are Burning, lose the status and heal for that amount. Anyone who begins and ends their turn adjacent to you begins Burning.

Water: This also encompasses Ice magic. A lot of the definition here is slipperiness, enabling movement for allies and hindering movement for enemies.

119) Frozen Ground: Enemies in area are knocked down. Enemies who were already knocked down take double damage. Note: The 2 time loss from Knockdown is taken off of the 5 time you’re allowed to spend on movement before your turn.

Thunder: Thunder tends to be high-range, Accurate (impossible to Dodge), and/or cause Daze (exhaust and discard a random card for the enemy). The lightning might also be imbued inward, allowing the user to Teleport. I’ve already done a LOT of these.

118) Strike Twice: Moderate damage at range. After Delay, lightning strikes the same space again, this time Accurate and inflicting Daze.

Dark: This element has three things going on. It’s heavy on weird negative statuses (Charm, for instance) and specific curse effects, it’s one of the two main Summon elements (the other being Earth - basically Necromancer and Druid), and it has more of the self-cost effects to increase its own output.

117) Soul Bind: 50% chance to Charm the target. Create a summoned copy of an enemy, with random copies of 4 of their cards. In addition to its usual limits, the copy vanishes if the original dies.

Light: The most obvious thing this element has is healing and power against Dark and Death elements. Another common theme is Strength - the “Your attacks deal bonus damage” blessing - but I think I’d like to change it up a little more. First of all, I think Light is just as likely to use Charm as Dark. Second, I think its blessings should be as varied as Dark’s curses.

116) Comrade’s Blessing: When this effect ends in 10 time, allies within range 2 gain Strength. Heal self and allies within 2 spaces and if an ally is within 1 space this ability is cast again on a random one of those allies with no time cost.

Martial: This is the most basic of “spend time points, do damage in melee range” elements. It is aimed at tanky front-line characters like knights and barbarians, so it also has the most Block, Armor, and Health effects on its cards.

115) Mountain Smash: Armor Piercing. If the target is knocked down, triple the normal damage. Knockdown is more difficult to exploit than most statuses, because it ends on the target’s next turn, which is usually less than 10 time down the line. This attack is still really nasty, because a knocked-down character already can’t dodge or evade.

Snipe: The most fundamental aspect of this is single targeting and high range. The magical elements have lots of range but can also get close (usually for area bursts) and typically deal in ranged blast effects over single-target.

114) Aimed Shot: Delay, high time cost, massive damage. If the target becomes invalid, recover the remaining time (move your initiative to the current time) and return this card to your hand. Target becoming invalid includes moving out of range, moving behind cover, entering stealth, or dying.

Focus: This is a mix of ritual magic and melee combo stuff. Various mystical stances tend to give Focus, which is basically a lesser version of the Strength status (Strength adds 3 to your damage, Focus adds 1). Various melee and ranged powers then expend Focus - ending the effect early (after gaining the 1 damage bonus themselves) - to do some extra power.

113) Rites of Chaos: Deal damage to a random enemy in range. Expend Focus to target multiple extra targets (can include the original target, but repeat shots against the same target are at 70% damage each). This is definitely not the “pure” Focus I described when laying out this exercise, but I like the idea of Focus being a mix of what amounts to “kung fu magic” - kind of like Kiho from the L5R system - and straight-up ritual power that can empower Arcane magic. I’m actually tempted to do away with Focus as its own element, and say that Focus is just the defining feature of the Arcane element - that Dragon Fist is Arcane/Fire, and a magic-powered “monk” in my setting IS an Arcane character. Yup. I’m doing that. That’s a thing now.

Wild: This element is defined by stuff wild animals do: Pounce, grab, and slam. Its main “status” stuff and special abilities are thus minor movement bonuses before attacks, the Grapple status, and attacks that push enemies or inflict Knockdown (or both). Like Martial, this is also defined by being almost exclusively Range 1. It’s rare monsters will spit as a real attack, and when they do you’re generally dipping into the Toxic element (see below).

112) Pounce: Medium move in a line, ignoring Threat and Rough Terrain. Target at the end of that line is knocked down and Grappled. Target takes 1/2 damage again if grapple is not broken.

Toxic: The defining features are the application of the Poison and Vulnerable statuses, which inflict bonus damage after time passes and increase damage taken by the target, respectively. Generally an even mix of range, melee, and area. Often Armor Piercing - not literally “piercing,” but armor or “blocking” such attacks is often useless.

111) Choking Cloud: Area deals damage and Poison to enemies who start their turn within, Armor Piercing. Damage - and poison statuses - are cumulative. You REALLY don’t want to spend multiple turns inside the cloud. It’s not heavy damage but it adds up quick.

Death: Would an undead monster do it? This element includes health drain, self-revival, fear effects, and turning incorporeal to move through blocking terrain.

110) Ghost Touch: Heal self for 1/2 damage to target. Gain Incorporeal. Incorporeal allows movement into blocking terrain. It also reduces damage from Wild, Martial, and Snipe cards by 1/2, both to and FROM the target.

Arcane: As stated above, this element generates Focus with arcane rites and stances, and uses powerful attacks that expend Focus to explosive effect.

109) Mystic Blade: Armor Piercing. If you have Focus this attack’s range is 3 instead of melee. I like the idea of some mid-level attacks that get a small boost from Focus but don’t expend it - essentially the middle strike of the combo as opposed to the finisher.

Shadow: This was nearly named the “Cloak” element. It’s defined by stealth, the laying of traps, and dagger attacks. As a typical rogue’s arsenal it’s also heavy on Dodge and Evasion defensive cards.

108) Sneak Attack: Low damage. Bonus damage if attacking from behind. Bonus damage if attacking from in Stealth. Gain Evasion if this attack gets either of these bonuses.

Earth: “Green Magic” - that is, magic of rocks, plants, and the summoning of wild animals. Basically druid stuff. Its area abilities tend to create rough terrain.

107) Wolf Spirit: Turns into Wolf Flank, which lets the spirit move 1 and do damage, with bonus damage if its target is adjacent to other allies. The wolf itself has 3 Bite cards.

106) Opportunity Strike: Counter. +50% damage and +50% odds of Counter if enemy has Obvious card in hand.

105) Skin of Stone: Ally gains Armor and Spell Shield.

104) Blessing of Lightning: For 20 time, target may Teleport 1 at the start of each turn. If target has a Thunder card in hand at the start of turn, it is discarded and target gains Evasion and draws a card. Only the oldest Thunder card is discarded this way.

103) Counterstrike: Minor melee damage. For 10 time, all of this unit’s Martial, Wild, and Shadow cards have Counter.

102) Bear Form: Target ally becomes a Bear summon, with two Claws, a Bite, and a Bear Hug. When the Bear is defeated the ally returns to their previous form with no extra damage. Honestly I feel like this is extraneous. Aside from the danger of players using such forms as a giant pile of bonus hp, which summons already are, there’s a sense that in my game world most people are already sort of natural shapeshifters. Characters can use monsters’ “tentacle” or “slashing claw” attacks, just by putting the card in their deck.

101) Blessing of Solitude: Ally gains Stealth. On exiting Stealth, heals for each Time spent in Stealth.

100) Curse of Domination: Damage and Charm (50%). Charm chance modified by difference between caster and target’s hp percentages. (If caster is at 50% and target is at 90%, the charm chance is only 10%. If caster is at 100% and target is at 80%, chance is 70%. And so on)

99) Vital Stance: Damage, gain Focus. Health There’ll probably be at least one “Vital” card in every element, to give everyone a bonus Health card or two. Martial and Wild have the most, but there are a few in other places, even if they tend to be less exciting than other cards.

98) Banishment: Area damage. Enemies in range are teleported to random empty spaces outside the range. Expend Focus to gain large Spell Shield.

97) Hobbling Trap: Place a hidden trap in melee range. Enemies stepping on it take damage and become Hobbled. Hobbled units cost +1 time/space to move, including movement granted by cards.

96) Rune of Madness: Place a hidden trap in melee range. Enemies stepping on it take damage and stop moving and may become Charmed (50%)

95) Acid Burst: Area burst around caster, Armor Piercing, Parting Shot.

94) Defensive Scratch: Damage, then move away from target. Counter.

93) Ghoulish Slash: Damage and inflict Vulnerable. Rise Again.

92) Radiance: Large area burst. Enemies in Stealth take extra damage. Allies in area gain Time.

91) Pressing Advance: Attack, push 1, move 1, and attack again. Second attack deals bonus damage if you have Armor.

#game design