#she is my favorite backstory npc of all time i think about her every single day

[poisonder]

woman who will! kill you

#Theodosia Marsoldia #theodosia #art #oc #npc #hobgoblin #she is my favorite backstory npc of all time i think about her every single day #dnd #dungeons and dragons #hobgoblins are everything 2 me n i wanted to give her a more hobgoblin look so! new art

[sycamorre]

Can I please get the whole girl gang with Ori, Mela, Vaela, and Riven!

[send me a character]

Oh boy you're making me do my homework over here!

Oriana —

Favorite thing about them: I'm going to be incredibly non-specific and say that her growth as a character was my favorite part of playing her. She started out as this uptight, dutiful monk who was scared to show her own face too much for fear of making people mildly uncomfortable (and honestly to avoid invasive questions) to someone who was finally getting comfortable with who they were was such a blast. I love her newly-acquired confidence and the dynamic it brings to her post-campaign. She's far from perfect, and never will be, but she's maturing and making a new purpose for herself other than being someone's errand girl.

Least favorite thing about them: She is the worst pessimist in the world and sometimes her logic is so quick to jump to the worst conclusions that she literally puts her foot in her mouth. And it hurts for me to write that every single time due to secondhand embarrassment but I have to commit.

Favorite line: "She loved you! She still loves you!" at the Prince during the final fight while she's trying to distract him (or something like that). Or Ori's first jab at Damak "Maybe you would see more of it if you stepped out of the shadows" since it still makes me chuckle.

brOTP: Even though the Ori/Damak ship didn't sail, I still think they probably stay pretty close and end up working together on jobs in the future. They absolutely still push each other's buttons, but that's just how they are and they don't question it.

OTP: I am so mad at myself retroactively for not giving into the OriRanna feels by the conclusion of the campaign but I do not regret bringing it up afterwards and getting to enjoy it now at least.

nOTP: Ori and Cobalt are forever divorced and they barely know each other, this is just canon.

Random Headcanon: Ori has a hard time accepting the fact that Sharaea is basically keeping her distance after the Prince's defeat. In part because she does feel that connection still and worries that Sharaea is hurting, and partially because it is such a strange sensation to her to be without the dreams for so long after such a major revelation. It takes her a long time to get used to it, but she still wishes that there was more she could do.

Unpopular Opinion: I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion among our little group, but I never had intentions of making Oriana some kind of fated hero. I never had thoughts of making her tied to a major NPC or giving her any kind of serious destiny, I just wanted to play a radiant energy bomb with the aasimar/monk combo because I thought it would be funny once I pitched the idea to Sam and he told me about Damak who was basically her foil. But I do adore how her story developed and how well it ended up narratively.

Song I associate with them: So many... "Like the Dawn" by The Oh Hellos, "Warrior" by AURORA, and "Drumming Song" by Florence + The Machine to name a few.

Favorite picture of them: I like a lot but honestly one of my favs is the one I made of Chibs trying to hit on her, partly because it's Chibs and partly because I did really like how Ori's outfit came out in this one.

Mela —

Favorite thing about them: Literally the most wholesome member of the group. Not a bad bone or crystal in her body. I am so sorry for all that we put her though.

Least favorite thing about them: Only that I didn't get enough time to learn more about her and her backstory. Sigh.

Favorite line: "Real neighbors. Real family. Not just people that make you feel like you can pretend it doesn't exist."

brOTP: Mela and Halion. Druid buddies that deserve the world.

OTP: Mela is an independent Genasi who don't need no one... though I could be swayed about a certain fae...

nOTP: Literally anyone who would try to be mean to her in a relationship will meet a swift end by my hand.

Random Headcanon: 100% think that Mela's magic is flavored to look like the crystals on her body. If she wildshapes and doesn't specifically want to look a certain way, the animal she changes into will have things like crystal horns/claws, the flame sword she summons has the appearance of a crystal blade, etc.

Unpopular Opinion: I do wish she had gotten a chance to use wild shape more. I think Mela being a cute little critter sneaking around would have been amazing.

Song I associate with them: "Come Out and Play" by Billie Eilish

Favorite picture of them: That dang sketch I never colored, rip

Vaela —

Favorite thing about them: Drinking game QUEEN. Also just the fact that she doesn't take any shit while still having a lot of heart and empathy to those who earn it. Something about that balance between the two just made her all the more lovable.

Least favorite thing about them: she can out-drink my high constituion monk I do think I missed out on really getting to know her during the campaign, and I regret that a lot.

Favorite line: Not a specific line but I think back to Vaela's talks with Erosen when he was ready and willing to be her stand-in dad before Vaela was ready to reach back out to her family and i can't help but smile.

brOTP: Vaela, Riven, and Mela is the real brot3 and nothing can change my mine

OTP: I mean... I definitely have a certain paladin that turns a lovely shade of pink when someone talks about her because she sure is pretty and really cool to boot~

nOTP: Zaresh and his memory is not allowed to ever hurt Vaela again. If Damak didn't do it, Ori would have definitely put him out of his misery.

Random Headcanon: Very little thing, but I could see her gathering small, light trinkets that remind her of her friends and tie them to her bow, possibly for good luck, and possibly as a way to to tell which direction the wind is blowing when she's aiming.

Unpopular Opinion: I still think it would have been cool for her to pull an Erosen and punch Zaresh in the face. Just once.

Song I associate with them: "Dear Fellow Traveler" by Sea Wolf

Favorite picture of them: So fun fact: I never finished them but I started making emojis of the party members for kicks and here's the one I started of Vaela:

Riven —

Favorite thing about them: Riven's sassiness and perfect comedic timing always leaves me in stitches. She really felt like the heart of the party in that way.

Least favorite thing about them: This is the hardest thing and most of my "least favorite" things are mostly the things Oriana keeps fretting about when she thinks about Riven being in such a high position so I'm gonna go with not much at this time to be honest.

Favorite line: Not a line again, but specifically the scene between Ori and Riven where Riv dressed her up while Ori reassured her that she didn't think any less of Riven after they all found out about her half-drow heritage. That always felt like a major point in their friendship and I hold onto it fondly.

brOTP: I wanna say Riven and Halion just because I think their friendship was so neat, and it hurts a bit when I think about their falling out post-campaign. But there's also Riv and Damak's sibling-ish dynamic that I love a lot, too.

OTP: As much as he pushes Ori's nerves, I do think Riv and Delethil are on the same wavelength as each other and fit very well together, even with Eravin in the mix.

nOTP: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Random Headcanon: On the occasions where Oriana comes up to Aerenth on business (either with Ranna for her research or at the request of various Tyados officials who think she's got some kind of in with them because she's friends with Riven), Ori always makes a point to find Riven and any of the other girls that might be there with them after all the formalities are done and run off into the woods to find a clearing to just hang out in like they did before.

Unpopular Opinion: As much as I understand the reason why she and Del made the choice to execute Vasion, I still disagree that it was the best decision.

Song I associate with them: "Savage Daughter" by Sarah Hester mostly because of the rebellious vibes

Favorite picture of them: I mean... I think it's obvious (also bonus Vaela).

#editoress #dnd: last resort movers #dnd!riven #dnd!vaela #dnd!oriana #dnd!mela

[cerastes]

Dreamer, whatever opinion I had about Kal’tsit before, she instantly became my favorite character the moment I pulled her and she started carrying me thru the most bullshit of stages.

I don’t know who’s idea it was to give monster the single highest attack and hp of any friendly unit, fast redeploy, 3 block, and motherfucking true damage, but I’d like to shake their hand. I will never complain about how much she talks if that’s what the price I have to pay to sit back and watch as her spine turbofucks the strongest of enemies.

Also almost by pure coincidence there ended up being an NPC in the dnd campaign I run who basically has the same premise as Kal for his backstory. Granted, the players often accuse him of saying too little instead of too much, but his defense to that is, verbatim, “I’ve lived so long and seen so much that I commit a thousand lies of omission every time I speak, it’s not something I can just avoid, there is a limit to how much information it’s possible to convey at once.”

If you think Kal'tsit is ridiculous right now -- and she is, she's VERY strong in gameplay -- you should've seen her in the beta. Mon3tr was even stronger and had a stupid fucking large attack range. You know how Mon3tr shoots lasers and fire in cutscenes? Ok that used to be its regular attack. Notably, Mon3tr could NOT be healed at all in beta, not even Kal'tsit, unless you were using S3, which gave it Splash Caster-style AoE attacks and allowing Kal to heal it. Also you could deploy it outside of Kal'tsit's range without a DEF penalty. It Was Fucking Broken beyond belief, hilariously so. Having to completely retool her is part of the reason she took so long to become playable (2nd anniversary) even though she was playable in the beta.

#xcal1bur25 #grats on the pull! #arknights #kal'tsit

[alexissara]

My Favorite NPCs

We're at it again talking about my OCs. We've talked about Current OCs and my favorite OCs who never really got to see play so today we're talking NPCS. I GM a lot, more than I play. So of course, over that time I've made some characters whom I just love so much and have become some of my favorite OCs despite them never really being PCs or only being PCs very briefly. Honorable Mention to Jillian Owlnight whom I have already wrote about when I wrote about The Iconic Matriarch from TSL.

Grifta Scamsly

System: Anyone I can fit them in

[ https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/296093 ]

Grifta Scamsly first appeared as a one off joke NPC who was intended to divert the players in my Fellowship campaign just a little. However, Griffta Scasmsly, They/Them, as in THEY got THEM deals but seriously please use the right pronouns was a big hit with the players. Since they were well liked I had them show up in little bit roles again and fleshed out a backstory from jokes I told during appearances that actually lead to them being a big part near the end of the campaign establishing firmly The Scamaly and their backstory of being part of a group of Orphans who were abused by the adults running the orphanage and managed to take over the joint and get all of them out of their lives by conning everyone they could in an elaborate scream proudly taking on the Scamsly name they formed for themselves.

Griftta would appear in multiple worlds since then with the consistent beats, They/them, is from a found family of orphans and actually a very helpful friend who just also happens to be a con artist. They even went on to inspire me to make the playbook for Thirsty Sword Lesbians The Swindler which also started as a joke that I could make the Griffta playbook since they didn't fit any of the playbooks perfectly.

Celeste

System: Fellowship

[ https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/332600 ]

In the same campaign that Griffta appeared we had our Overlord Celeste. A chaotic being who altered areas to make them strange, fun and weird wishing to alter the whole world to her amusement altering reality wherever she went. In truth the woman was possessed by an evil force who simply wished to ruin the world and had attempted to burn the world before and was sealed away in a Crystal the girl found. She was a weirdo who just had her crush and best friend in a very uptight community of light mages. She wanted to make the world break through all the norms and everything for her beloved taking it too far.

She was really fun to play because she had a very fun voice to do and a very strange manner of thinking and doing things while being rooted in one of the PCs in a positive way and in a negative way with the other two. Celeste was a house of mysteries for the players to crack and a force of chaos that was hard to get pinned down. Then getting to play a touch of her without the force inside of her at the very end was very rewarding and her being united with her mutual crush and them getting together was just very sweet. It was overall really great to have this very recurring villain that the game itself put under protection and the effects of could be felt every single step of their adventure.

Altia

System: Thirsty Sword Lesbians and King Is Dead

[ https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/227881 ]

Altia was "Her Holiness" the voice of the goddess of The Pure Light was another villain that was just an utter blast to chew up as a GM. She is really special becuase she was really fun on multiple layers. There was her while she was possessed by the Pure Light both as mostly herself but swayef and more of a direct take over. Then there was her post being free of The Holy Lady fully herself but trying to make up for past wrong doing. Then her more exploring herself phase but equally fun was showing the counter balance to her. Altia always posed herself as a reformer, progressive, to The genocidal churches left and improving monster relationships. Since her personality was mostly involved in most choices she really had made some strong reforms and having The Holy Lady move to her more conservative counter part and war errupting right away and policies shifitng to further fash then the existing bad fash was fun and only had the impact because Altia set up varying degrees of awful for us.

It was fun to have this religious and political agent, the ways she changed the world when she was evil and the ways she wanted to actually change the world, the ways she was twisted and the ways she resisted. Altia was just a really fun character and as a shared NPC in a CO-GM campaign she was really fun to build on with others and go through varying twists I'd never have made myself but loved.

Queen Azure

System: Masks: A New Generation

Art by Littleinksheep

Another Villain and this time one that didn't get to see too much spotlight but even found herself in lore in a future campaign so one I have a ton of fondness for. This NPC was a little bit different in that it was an NPC I designed from a PC perspective with the Masks Playbook, The Innocent. The playbook has you make a future version of yourself that is a big time baddy or otherwise messed up and have that be the main focus of conflict for you.

Azure was the princess of a Fire Emblem land on Earth that was taken from earth and into a space collector of abnormally magical and powerful places to "protect the universe". When this tech was being used to move it Azure was hit between a pivotal moment in time and space duplicating herself one being shot through time far into the future 1418 years into the future and the other, Queen Azure remaining in her place in time but in a new universe captured by the man.

Her farther killed before her and her people and culture being wiped out while she was captured by him to remain part of his "preservation of history" lead to her getting angrier and more aggressive, she had fought in a war before always with the power of friendship and with hope to reach every opponent, now she wanted death for her enemy no path to redemption or understanding. Azure managed to lead other captured cultures that hadn't resisted and therefore still had numbers left to rise up against the man who captured them and kill him and sized his operation. With his tech she took her old castle and turned into into an intergalactic spaceship and reality traveling ship. Azure then went to start conquering worlds with the intention of using her domain over them to protect them from a force as powerful as that man and threats that might grow to his level gathering the strongest warriors to work under her directly.

Over time Azure also learned the dark secrets of her own culture and embraced all sides of her abilities to become more powerful in order to protect the multiverse. After so many years she finally found her home reality and home world returning to find her first and truest love was still alive and had become a vampire in her absence but rejected the path she had taken and fought back against her. I GMed the first encounter session as a set up for my character coming into the campaign as I switched characters and I was in tears as she fought her beloved and they reached that moment of impasse where she realized the only thing left from what she knew, the woman she loved most, all of that were no longer compatible with her but refusing to let go of her role as the protector of The Multiverse and Queen of The Arondite Kingdoms.

I can't help myself but ramble about her as you just saw, I got so much more to say but she is such a tragic villain who isn't like mind controlled or corrupted just brought to a radical position by radical trauma but genuinely doing her best and what she thinks is the kindest option. She worked really well as a natives foil to Princess Azure and this looming threat of the kind of person she could become, she would become if she saw what she saw. Azure doesn't deny that if she suffered the same trauma she would have been different, she knows they are the same exact person she is simply a younger version of her but she wants to remind her of why she fought, why what they fought for matters but she also had to come to terms with the reality her life was fucked up too and that part of what was going on with Azure started well before "that man".

Mona

System: "Masks: A New Generation"

[ https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/86774 ]

Mona was from my very first dedicated TTRPG campaign that actually had consistent games. There was a session I made specifically to present a bunch of hot NPCs to the players and attempt to get them to hook up with someone. Our Alien Stoner Pizza Delivery girl fell head over heels for one of the most silly of my silly sexy characters Mona. She has a magic staff that can do anything but it's totally random and triggers off her saying magic. One day Mona found it on the ground, she brought it to The Lost And Found and they ended up returning it to her when no one claimed it. Since then she has used it and her super power to jump really high [above average] to work as a part time gig hero on apps.

This bisexual dork fell head over heels for the cute alien girl being mutually considered fuck ups but both seeing only the amazing things about one another. Over time they stood up for each other and fought for each other and time and time again despite how wild, scary or out of this world things got Mona was there to provide magic.

I had a really funny little voice I did for her and to this day randomly I'll just say "Magic!" in her voice and get a giggle out of my fiancé or my girlfriends who were in the campaign.

Sapphire Riches

System: Masks: A New Generation/Thirsty Sword Lesbians

[ https://meiker.io/play/11994/online.html ]

Sapphire Riches actually started out as PC in a Thirsty Sword Lesbians One Shot I did on stream. I started a Masks Campaign shortly after that stream and in the first session of the shared GM campaign I ran I decided to put Sapphire in as a bit NPC still in her rich bitch era with none of the introspection I gave her for the TSL game. She was a rich girl super hero using tech she mostly just bought along with maybe a few of her own mods added in and part of a corporations super hero department. She ended up with a romance with one of the PCs and she did in fact manage to fix her, mostly, kinda, she improved a lot.

I really enjoy playing a terrible rich girl but typically those characters can not be fun to have around long term but here everyone knew where I was taking her so it was even more fun to be able to lean into it and show that development. She remained a fairly minor character even after the time skip where we switched to Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Sapphire is just one of those really fun characters to have show up and be a little cute or sassy or out of touch and remained a high light any time I brought her in. Most recently I used her in a private RP as a main character but leaning more into the toxic elements for spice and that was a really fun take too.

If you enjoyed hearing about my OCs then you can support me on Patreon or Ko-fi or you can just tell me you liked them. Sharing this stuff probably helps in theory someone hire me to GM something so rebloging helps a lot too.

#OCs #Fellowship #Fellowship TTRPG #Villians #TTRPG Villains #TTRPG NPCs #NPCs #thirsty sword lesbians #masks: a new generation #TTRPG OCs #OC #Grifta Scamsly #Sapphire Riches #Mona #Queen Azure #Altia #Celeste

[pass1onepr1ncess]

I've mentioned Genshin on this blog and posted an art piece a bit ago about Furina for 4.2 but here's my first actual Genshin text post.

I have a lot of mixed feelings on Sumeru. When I first saw the characters, I was extremely disappointed. The designs are pretty cool in terms of clothing and shape and such, but the skin colors are so pale for a nation based on SWANA and Egyptian cultures. Not to say that either of these groups can't be pale or light-skinned, but like. When your darkest characters are Cyno and Candace and they're still BARELY dark at all? It just rubs me the wrong way. Not only that, but Nahida- the Archon of said nation- being nearly PAPER white is just. Hm. Idk. But the stories and personalities of these characters are really good! I think other than Fontaine, the Sumeru characters are some of my favorites in terms of backstory! Plus, as we get more nations and Hoyo actually starts to know what they're doing, the cast of each nation has intertwining relationships and dynamics and it's wonderful!! Cyno, Tighnari, and Collei are such a sweet found family dynamic, Kaveh and Alhaitham are so so chewable whether you ship them or not, Candace and Dehya being the girl's girls of the desert while still being strong fighters and warriors is lovely!! And I could talk about Nahida and Wanderer all day, don't even get me started. Or Nilou, Dehya, and Dunyarzad! The fact that even an NPC was so well done!!

And the stories of Sumeru are good, don't get me wrong. The Archon Quest was a wild ride and it was extremely captivating, but here's the thing. Every single Sumeru quest feels like I have to spend three months to get them done.They have good stories to tell and they're genuinely really interesting, but because doing the actual quests takes for-fucking-ever, I lose interest and start skipping dialogue and such. And listen, I'm a lore-player. I play Genshin specifically for the lore, and I just cannot sit through this fucking Aranara quest. Everytime it tells me to go do another side quest, my love for Sumeru drops a little bit more and more.

Sumeru isn't my least favorite nation. Well, it just barely misses that mark. Inazuma is at the bottom of the list solely because the way they did the Archon Quest has the exact opposite problem of Sumeru: It felt rushed and ended so abruptly, and I felt like I didn't have time to connect to any of the main characters in the quest. I think this could be solved at least a little bit by having Ei's story quest be part of the Archon Quest where we go and battle Raiden Shogun. And the reason I say this isn't even necessarily to make the Archon Quest longer but because I feel like without it, the Archon Quest isn't complete.

The whole reason Ei and Raiden put Inazuma in a lockdown was because of two factors: the Fatui's manipulation and Ei's grief for Makoto. We solved the Fatui issues in the Archon Quest, but that was only part of it. The reason Ei and Raiden were able to be tricked by the Fatui in the first place was because of her grief, because she doesn't want anything in Inazuma to change after Makoto's death and she's willing to go to extreme measures to keep it that way because she's grieving for Makoto and doesn't want to- or rather can't- let go of the past. We hardly touch on that in the Archon Quest, so it feels like we only solve part of the problem. Ei still isolates herself in her Plane of Euthymia and meditates, still dwelling on the past and letting her grief consume her.

But in her story quest, we see her start to heal and let go and we see her grief start to lessen. It doesn't go away right away, of course, that's not how grief works, but we see her make progress and realize that she has to move on in order to help both herself and her nation. And that is what makes the whole story of Inazuma complete. The source of the Sakoku Decree to keep Inazuma the same was because she wanted to keep everything as it was when Makoto was the Electro Archon, like how a parent will keep their kid's bedroom untouched even after that kid grows up and moves away. It was because of that mindset of holding on to Makoto that she didn't see how the Fatui were pulling the strings and hurting her people. But because of the events in her story quest, she's able to see past her pain and past Makoto and realize that her people need her.

But again, because that was in her story quest and not the Archon Quest, it feels unfished and rushed. And then with Sumeru, it just feels like they stretch it out too far and fill their quests with a lot of unnecessary details and small side quests. It drags it out too long and I start to lose interest in the actual important parts of the story. It kinda feels like Sumeru is a big run-on sentence, if that makes sense? I've spent so fucking long on this Aranara quest and I'm STILL not done, it's insane.

In a way, especially with Sumeru being released directly after Inazuma, it was like they reazlied Inazuma was so rushed and went "Well, we gotta make the next one longer!" and then turned the dial WAY too far to the other side.

Anyway, that's all I really had to say! Like I said, they're getting better at handling these issues as we get more nations and they listen to the players. Fontaine was absolutely wonderful! Not too short, not too long, and the characters and dynamics were great!! I'm a little scared for Natlan since Hoyo has such a shit reputation for handling any culture that's not European or East Asian, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up just to be disappointed, but here's to hoping that at least the stories will be good!

#genshin impact #sumeru #genshin #inazuma #trish rambles

[loopy777]

RE: WIPs game: do I even want to know what Dicebenders is is it another scam how many times are the Gaang gonna get arrested for scamming

No, this time it's me scamming people. XD The dice in question are the RPG Dungeons & Dragons kind.

For a while I was doing a screencap webcomic in the style of "DM of the Rings" and "Darths & Droids" with another creative fan named Captain Boomerang. I was the scriptwriter and selected the screenshots for each panel, and Capt-BA would assemble the comics and improve my scripts (a process that did frustrate me a little, as I felt locked out of the revision process, but I did like the results. I just felt like I wasn't holding up my end of the partnership a bit). I wrote a story bible explaining the characters and storytelling rules, planned out the adaptation of the entire AtLA premiere, and had less detailed plans for the rest of the series, but we only got 6 comics in before Capt-BA went on a trip and never returned to the internet. I did manage to re-establish contact with her long enough to get permission to continue the comic, but the problem is that I have no image-editing skills whatsoever.

If I could find comic-making software that I know would do what I want and be easy to use, I wouldn't mind dropping some money on it, but everything I've looked at is trying to do lots of things I don't need. I only want a way to import existing pictures into comic grids, and then easily add dialogue bubbles. That's it. But the stuff I've found is more about image-editing than comic assembly, and it takes me an hour to put together a dialogue bubble that looks good. So I have 3 scripts that were never produced, which along with the planning docs are what's in that WIP folder, and I don't ever see myself going beyond that.

Besides, someone else already managed to complete something like this, and while I'm not a fan, I don't need to be. At this point, Dicebenders is dead. I'm glad I tried it, and it's a shame it didn't work out, but I'm happy with the other projects I've done instead.

I am squatting on an empty Tumblr for it, though.

Anyway, to share something new, here's the first section of the Story Bible I wrote to make sure Capt-BA and I were on the same page in terms of characterization. The rest of the bible details the plotlines for full series.

AVATAR: THE LAST DICEBENDER

BIBLE

Premise- A small group of players attempt to run a fantasy martial arts RPG that winds up essentially becoming the Avatar saga, or something very close. The main point of the series is comedy, based mostly on ridiculous links between Avatar and RPG's. Sometimes the humor will be in the vast difference between what happens in the comic, and what happens in the cartoon with the same screenshots. Other times, the funny will come from the unexpected ways they converge.

SPIRITUAL PREDECESSORS

DM of the Rings- The original, and my personal favorite. It's a good showcase of how to run a single quest together, while using narrative jumps to skip to the good bits.

Darths & Droids- A similar project, this stands out from its predecessor in two main ways. The players and GM are more friendly with each other, and are more or less having fun with each other. There is also a running, coherent storyline in both the game and in the lives of the players.

Benders & Brawlers- This is actually an existing attempt to do Darths & Droids with Avatar. This is helpful as an example of what we DON'T want to do, retell the Avatar story in a completely straightforward manner, with RPG players behind the characters.

CHARACTERS

None of the characters will be given real names. The players shall always be referred to by their character names, although this can be done in a teasing, ironic manner. When the characters are speaking, their dialogue bubble must always be attached to an image of the character.

The Gamemaster- The GM is a female in her early teens. She is a geek, and a bit of a social outcast for it. Nevertheless, she's trying to make that work for her, although she's not quite mature enough to make it happen yet. She has just discovered RPG's, and in her enthusiasm has gone all out in starting her own campaign. The only problem is that she doesn't know how to recruit players, so she ropes her best friend and little brother into playing with her. This is the GM's first campaign, so she'll a little in over her head. She knows the mechanics of play, and what she's supposed to be doing as GM, but doesn't have the fine skill in crafting an engaging RPG experience. Still, she wants to do her best, is willing to learn, and has a positive attitude about the whole thing. The GM has a strong crush on the Sokka player, but the only way she can express it is by having all the female NPC's flirt with the Sokka character.

Katara- Female in early teens, and the GM's best friend. Katara's player was friends with the GM from when they were both in grammar school, so while they have grown up into wildly different personality types, they are fully loyal to each other. Katara is popular, and outgoing, and doesn't care or know about geek stuff at all. She's only playing the game because the GM begged her to. At first, Katara is clueless about RPG's, and frequently questions or ridicules the mechanics of the game. She never quite gets into the idea of role-playing, but quickly takes to the idea of meta-gaming. She'll have her character act like a righteous do-gooder, because completing missions and fighting bad guys earns XP. She hoards items that will boost her stats. She'll advocate abandoning a mission/plot if it doesn't pay out enough rewards. Katara's player also can tend towards trying to Mary Sue her character, but this is inconsistent and usually shot down by everyone else.

Aang- Male in junior high, and the GM's little brother. He plays simply because his sister has cajoled him into it, and there are hints that he's getting some kind of reward or payment for it. He abuses his position by forcing the GM to give him what he wants in the game, even if it breaks the rules- access to the restricted Airbender class, the ability to bend all four elements, overloaded stats, an Avatar State that protects him from dying, a magic super flying cow ride, etc. However, it's important to note that Aang's player isn't a jerk. He's just immature, and like all kids, just always goes for what he wants via the easiest path, and doesn't realize that he may be causing trouble or hurting feelings. He's enthusiastic about trying out this RPG thing, but he has trouble coming up with any action beyond attacking or retreating. He's also hyper aware that the GM and Katara are girls. He is too old for cootie concerns, but thinks that girls are fundamentally different creatures with their own incomprehensible concerns. Having a big sister, he doesn't find this a big deal, just part of life. Aang's player is too young to be a geek. He likes cartoons and sports and fantasy and school-dramas. He also tends to follow whatever his sister likes.

Sokka- Male in late teens. This guy is your quintessential RPG player. He has is own top-quality dice, he's played campaigns and systems of all kinds, and knows the tropes of the hobby cold. He's a huge geek for all things geeky, but roleplay is easily his favorite. He's a social outcast, but he's made friends among his fellow geeks, and thinks life is just fine. Sokka's player joins when he meets the GM at the comic/games shop they both frequent. The GM was buying some sourcebooks and material to support the fantasy martial arts game she's running, and Sokka noticed, asked about it, liked what he heard, and got permission to join the game. What Sokka doesn't realize, because he is a geek and neither has experience with it or realizes it's even possible, is that the GM is sweet on him. This manifests in the character Sokka's canon luck with the ladies, only kicked up a notch. *Every single* female NPC flirts with him, whether it's appropriate or not. Sometimes player Sokka notices and tries to roleplay it, and sometimes he's just plain confused. Sokka has a few quirks. His best set of dice are his Lucky Red Dice, which always roll high when he needs it, but have been tested and proven to be fair dice. He also mandates that every character he plays use a boomerang; he was turned into a geek by the first video game he ever played, a Legend of Zelda title, and his favorite weapon from those games are the boomerang. Each of his characters has a unique, named boomerang.

Zuko- The GM's favorite NPC. She created him to be a compelling, dramatic character, with a complicated back story, moral struggles, badass loner personality, angst about his existence, a darkly noble quality, and a cool scar. The GM intended Katara to get to know Zuko, for her to try to woo him away from the side of evil, and perhaps to even have a romance with him. The PC's, however, couldn't care less about him. To them, he's just another mini-boss, and the fact that most of his character development is happening "off screen" means they don't realize that he's recruitable. A frequent gag is Zuko delivering a stirring monologue while no one pays attention.

Iroh- Background NPC. The GM tries to use him to give (ignored) hints to the players.

Toph- (tentative) A male munchkin gamer who picked a long list of weaknesses in order to get superbending. Toph's player is a friend of Sokka's player, brought in after an "incident" with his old group, and causes some initial resentment in the group when tries to show the n00bs how its done. Cowing Toph's player is a major victory for the GM.

Momo- NPC, but maybe make him a talking sidekick who gives the players hints when the GM is really exasperated?

Azula- the GM's best favorite villain. Azula is the GM unleashed, letting her take out frustrations on the players in both combat and harsh taunting. Eventually the GM comes to like the character so much, she retcons mental health issues into the character's backstory, and has her pet NPC, Zuko, spare her.

#dicbender #avatarpg

[lynndoublelegacy]

just a cool dnd meme i saw

Yook so it’s less a meme and more like. a big ol questionare but hey, might as well do it. originally saw it on @/probablyottrpgideas, go check them out

1. Game Master, Player, or both? Why?

Ok so technically I’ve DMed twice but I really don’t find it fun? and don’t ever want to do it again. so. Player. I like building characters and their connections with fellow PCs more than building worlds

2. When did you start roleplaying? How old were you?

oh god, if we’re talking about roleplaying in general? I’ve been doing it basically as long as I can remember. As a kid I would play House, and then once I got older in like 5th grade I actually started making characters and playing out their stories with friends. Google+ is what made me realize this was actually like, a THING, though, and I got into some roleplaying groups there, then on DevaintArt. Dungeons and Dragons is a newer development? I got into it in late 2018 when my sister’s friend invited us to a one-shot, and... well, yea, I got hooked lol

3. What was the first roleplaying book you ever owned?

dude, bold of you to assume I really own any. I don’t have that kind of money and literally only own the Guide to Wildemount, and that was a gift

4. Describe the first game you ever ran or played in.

I mean... it’s not a game but ima describe the one shot, bc my first campaign was a hot mess without a true storyline and I used the same character for it anyway. I played a tiefling bard called Aisling Kai (I didn’t know this was a cliche combo at this point, and I honestly played her like a rogue with a music motif but Whatever) and we were a little group tasked to figure out why the hell anyone who goes into this cave never comes out. So we go in, make our way through the dungeon, fight some frog people (I made one of their ears bleed just by getting a nat 20 on a performance check to play a high f# on flute, that was fun, FWEET), and turns out yep, theres a hill giant down here. We kicked his ass and collapsed the cave on top of us (dw I think we were fine but my memory is a little screwy)

5. What system did you grow up with? / 6. Which system do you play now?

i learned on and currently play dnd 5e. I don’t really know anything else, but I’m debating checking out Vampire of the Masquerade.

7. Longest campaign you’ve run or played in?

That would be my Tal’Dorei campaign group, aka The Fatefallen! Started in the Fall of 2019 and still going to this day, just played our 45th session last week. I play Ilia Liadon, the drow grave cleric, and the only member of our party who has been there for every single session since the beginning.

8. Where did you meet your current gaming group?

...well first I feel the need to mention that I have 3 different groups (2 of them are on hiatus now for pandemic related reasons but! we’re still groups). My first group (with Aisling) was formed slowly over time as friends adopted friends into the group, I think it started as a school club? but that didn’t last long. The other two started from a different school club as well, though one has since branched out into other people as well. 

9. Strategic combat or dramatic plotlines?

I am a roleplayer first and a gamer second. Give me all of the backstories and dramatic plotlines. Don’t get me wrong, I still like combat, but story takes precedent for me.

10. Favorite RPG genre?

I don’t tend to define myself by genre? But I tend to fall into more of a fantasy, at most arcanapunk style. Give me all of the magic, and magic powered tech.

11. Your first character.

I got into her a little bit earlier, but my first character was Aisling, aka Calypso Kai. She was a homebrew subclass bard with a criminal background, who honestly? should’ve been a rogue. I’ve since rebuilt her into an Assassin Rogue/College of Eloguence Bard multiclasser, but this iteration was like. Baby her, baby me new to dnd, I did not know what I was doing. She tried to be edgy, but my mom energy came through HARD and she just. Never really had a set characterization. She deserves better and I plan on playing her better sometime in the future.

12. Your favorite character.

You are making me choose between my children. BUT, if I had to pick, either Ilia Liadon, or! Ashe Wednesday, a protector aasimar drunken master monk and my profile picture. Ashe also deserved a lot better from their campaign, so I have a massive soft spot for them, they were made during a really tough time in my life (as was Ilia) and was going through an equally rough time in-game, since I made them for a Curse of Strahd campaign without understanding what I was getting into. They’re my little rebellious asshole and I love them dearly, someone get this kid therapy. Ilia, on the other hand, is just... she’s a comfort character for me at this point. mostly soft edges, such a mom- while Ashe was me yelling “come at me” at the world while crying, Ilia was just... embracing it. Making it better. basically, if they actually existed, I would die for both of them.

13. Your most ridiculous character.

I don’t usually play super ridiculous characters, but! I would say Keothi “Bookfinder” Vaimeil counts. She was basically me looking all of the goliath barbarian stereotypes in the eye, and going “nah. she’s a nerd.” She’s literally a massive puppy dog, just the sweetest big old thing, sitting in her house and reading all the books she can get her hands on in order to make up for her amnesia. Oh, and did I mention that she’s a zombie? ...yea. She’s wacky, but I love her.

14. The best in-character line you’ve ever had.

“I need sleep. I don’t even sleep and I need sleep.”

~Ilia, after a particularly tough fight and an emotionally draining day

15. Your most epic death.

Ok so... none of my characters in game have ever actually died during the storyline? Keothi obviously has in her backstory, and Ilia might have in hers as well, it was never explicitly stated, but during the game? Nope. Ashe got stupid close, but nope. Since Keothi is my only death period, and her death was pretty epic, I’m just gonna describe that. Her parents and siblings in her Goliath tribe had all fallen ill, so she decided to go searching for a possible cure, and ended up getting conned into helping this cult, since they said they would cure her family. Turns out, yea, they were lying, they just needed a goliath willing to sacrifice themselves with a cursed sword. They made the mistake of revealing this before Keothi was actually dead, so as she was dying, she brought the entire goddamn cultist temple down to the bottom of the sea and took the cultists with her. The sword was why she was undead, in the Shadowfell, and couldn’t remember anything.

16. Your most disappointing death. 

As mentioned, I’ve never died in campaign, but I feel like I have to mention this one that happened to our party in Curse of Strahd. We were in the death house, all 5 of us, still level 1, and our barbarian falls into a pit trap with spikes. None of us realize she’s actually dead, so we send out paladin down to get her... with the monk, the bard, and the warlock holding the rope. ....yea both of them died.

17. Something that shouldn’t have worked, but it did.

I’m stuck between two options for this one. First one was the time our water genasi paladin/rogue bloodbended our gnome cleric into a bridge to keep her from falling all the way down a ravine. The second time was when our party managed to defend a small seaside town from a pirate raid with just an NPC with Control Water, a ballista, ourselves, and some explosives. Neither should’ve worked, but both did. Having a triton in your party can really come in clutch in a seaside campaign.

18. Something that went hilariously awry.

I have one that’s hilarious and one that’s horrifying. Hilarious one: in my first ever campaign, someone from Aisling’s backstory popped up and our sorcerer went “that’s shady” (to be fair, he was) and then went to investigate BY HIMSELF. He obviously got kidnapped by the mafia, and then we went all stealth mission to break him out. Stealth was immediately abandoned after our other bard used a SCREAMING SWORD to break open the locks, then we proceeded to go out the way we came, setting everything on fire on the way out, and with our bard lying their way out the front door (with the rest of us in tow as “prisoners”) by pretending to be a fellow mafia member. It was great. Horrifying one: Ilia tries to Send to a member of the party who left in order to let him know that a fellow party member had died. Forgot that he left bc his mind was invaded by a previously dead, very evil old god, and ends up trapped there with him for a while. Ended up with all of our main spellcasters trapped in their own heads while the barbarian paced around worriedly and the rogue decided he was going to get smashed instead of worrying himself silly.

19. Your most memorable in-character moment.

There are a LOT in Ilia’s campaign, but! If I had to pick one, it would actually be a pretty recent one involving Ilia and our party’s wizard, Liara. They’re basically the embodiment of head vs heart? Anyway, Liara is currently suffering from something called magic corruption, though idk if suffering is the right word. Anyway! It basically resulted in her getting... possessed? by her own magic during the night during Ilia’s watch, and they had a really, really interesting conversation regarding guilt, death, and grief, and yea basically I love them. Honorable mention to our druid’s death (he’s back and better now, but that was my first long-time death in a game, we didn’t know he was coming back) and also the moment that Ilia realized that her childhood bff/crush had been revived in a new body and that this NPC was her best friend. That was a trip.

20. The coolest item you ever got and how you came to possess it.

I got this item in the revamp of my first ever campaign and nothing has topped it since which is Sad but hey. Anyway! I got this really cool, possibly cursed dagger after I threw a knife at an absolutely eldritch being and it got stuck in him as he transformed. It looked really badass, and allowed me to cast Inflict Wounds on occasion when I stabbed someone with it. So yea, we love that. Honorable mention to my paladin/bloodhunter’s Helm of the Aberrant Gladiator which allows you to basically do a bunch of fear based affects and psychic stuff.

Numbers 21 through 30 don’t apply to me but. yea. enjoy this summary of my dnd history I guess

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #d&d 5e #dnd meme #i would like to apologize to Vail and Zohros #they deserved better than to be briefly mentioned but their campaigns are also on hiatus #so they're not overly relevant rn #vail is the paladin/bloodhunter #zohros is the triton #he's a rogue

[lenezdansleruisseau]

Since i think you're dming, can i ask 69 for the dnd ask meme? :D

I am dming yeah ahah I rebloged more out of force of habit, but this question will very fun to answer so thank you!

I found that my opinion of the members of my party changes a lot depending on which npc I'm interpreting at the moment, but, trying to remain as out of character as I can:

Hài, who is our water genasi warlock, is a teacher pet who discovered that her favorite teacher might be embezzling school founds and she's grappling with what she thinks she should do. This has made her very aggressive lately. Which is mostly my fault, so I can't really complain

Harry Batteri, gnome druid, is the wild card. He will eat, smoke and drink anything which means I will mess with him as much as I can. He's kind of the crazy uncle of the party and menages to be loved by the others with different degrees of success

Finnan Nowhere, Tiefling rogue, was sent by the gods to kill me specifically. He will mess up all my planning while stealing every single object that I mentioned even in passing. He has the classic tragic and dark backstory, but he's 100% surprised by it when other characters comment on it.

Otiluke Kree, Aarakocra wizard, is the most socially awkward person I've ever seen. She was an outlander for most of her life so she's excused, mostly. She will sidetrack every session by putting her foot in her mouth talking with any npc and had been kidnapped three times already. She's also very insistent that communication and honesty are the two most important things a party should work on, she has yet to say one single thing about her past though, or even her real name

I love all of them very much, they're great and make every session a joy for me to dm.

#not les mis #d&d #asks #m-siecle

[senpai-no-lie]

Cindered Shadows DLC

After completing my first playthrough of 3H, I decided it would be a good idea to play through the sidestory so I could collect the DLC supports in a timely manner. I’ll outline my general-ish thought about the sidestory and the DLC characters and then if I have more that pops into my mind, I’ll put it under the read more. 

Overall: 

I had assumed, based on the price, and general idea in my mind that each chapter equates to about an hour or so of gameplay, I figured the DLC would be around 9 to 10 chapters; I had no preconceptions about the plot. And well, for my money’s sake, I’m disappointed the sidestory was only 7 chapters, but for my engagement level, I’m glad it was only 7 chapters lol. As I said in a previous post, the plot felt fairly cookie-cutter, and outside of the uptick in difficulty (I played it on normal/casual because I am a casual and don’t like being frustrated for fun, in general), and maybe getting to know the new DLC characters, there wasn’t as much as I was expecting to enjoy. I would’ve preferred maps to expand existing routes, to be frank, or even further fanbase pandering by bringing back previous games’ characters, even as NPCs. (Also that Awakening pandering tho with the DLC classes)

Characters: 

Yuri: He wasn’t as much of a Leon-copycat as I had assumed. Still not nuts about his character design, but I liked his personality and his English VA did great. I thought he played off all the other characters well, especially Ashe, and it’s a shame he and Ashe don’t have a support chain. 

Balthus: He was my favorite, which came as a surprise to me! I knew I’d like him since he’s a brawns over brain milf-lover, but he’s a funny guy and I enjoy his backstory with Hilda. I am a big fan of the stupid-looking punching relic.

Constance: She was the character I was expecting to like the most, but I loathed her split-personality shtick. I don’t know if there’s some in-support explanation why she’s like that, but it sort of ruined her character for me. I had assumed she’d be more like Owain/Odin, high theatrics and bravado but a good person all-around, but she’s actually a reverse Noire? I would of much preferred if her sunlight personality was less self-depreciating and more shy, if they really had to go with that angle. I’ve always liked the Dark Flier class, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with her performance. 

Hapi: She just felt there the duration of the DLC. I didn’t get a good read of her personality, outside of sighing spawns beasts and she’s a bit of a dry person. I usually am all about magic users and mounted units, but Hapi legit never pulled her weight for me; her speed left something to be desired, and she was always getting nuked. Personally, I think instead of having her as a Valkierye (which inherently seems very similar to Dark Knight to me, outside of access to black magic, I guess, when faith/reason can be used by any unit with magical abilities) was a so-so decision; I think it would have been more interesting to bring back the Witch class for her. Giving her the warp ability but lock Witch class out of faith magic, perhaps. 

A Bulleted Assortment of My Thoughts

Ugh, Edelgard as a Fortress Knight To be frank, I do not like that class (I have no room in my heart for units who can’t double and will crumple like a paper bag against magical attacks) on top of my lukewarm feelings for Edelgard. Low movement and low speed meant I didn’t really use her much until the final chapter 

Fuck Yeah, Dimitri on a Horse As I love horse-mounted units, I was very excited to have Dimitri on a horse. He did great; he and Ashe were consistently my MVPs

I like who they included in the roster for the DLC; the three house leaders were to be expected, but opting for Linhardt and Ashe was cool instead of doing the retainer trio too. I think Lin was a good choice for lore-dumping and he can breezily ignore Edelgard’s quips against him 

I knew Alferic was Bad Because He Was Ugly There is a general theme to FE that they’ll introduce seemingly pious/good characters (males) that are older/not conventionally attractive and surprise surprise they’re evil. So I called it immediately with Alferic because they were hamming up how good he was so much and I looked at him and thought “hmm, ugly”  

When Balthus punched Yuri after finishing chapter 7... nice. I always like “Lemme see you grit those teeth” moments a la Gurren Lagann 

God it is So Obvious Every Cutscene is Characters Standing in A Circle. I noticed this in the main story, but it just felt most obvious and obnoxious in the DLC because there’s not a single animation sequence. I liked the still art they used, but it would’ve been nice if I didn’t have to stare at Hapi “talking” with her mouth not moving quite so much

I really hate sunlight Constance Who does that appeal to? Do people find her berating herself funny?

The final chapter took me two tries, until I figured out how to use gambits (Googled strategies for the chapter lol) an then I blew through it in 5 turns. 

#fire emblem #fire emblem three house #fe 3h #fire emblem 3h #fire emblem dlc #fire emblem three houses dlc #fire emblem cindered shadows #my opinions about fire emblem

[metalgearkong]

The Last of Us Part II - Review (PS4)

8/14/20 ***SPOILERS***

Developed by Naughty Dog, released June 19th, 2020

The Last of Us was a game I wasn’t originally a huge fan of when it came out in 2013. Despite it receiving astronomical praise by fans and critics, it took me a couple times completing the game before I fell in love with it. What truly made The Last of Us special was not necessarily its concept or gameplay, but its storytelling and characters. The depth of the interpersonal drama and raw emotion on screen was the true core of the game, with the stealth-action, zombies, and other aspects more like icing on the cake. The Last of Us ended up being one of my favorite games of all time strictly based on execution, even if the game as a whole still isn’t perfect. 

The Last of Us Part II was my most highly anticipated game of 2020, and it feels strange to be on the other side of it finally. This game has been polarizing for fans, and as it turns out, I feel conflicted on the game as well. I finished it a month or so ago, but only now getting my thoughts written out. While some aspects are daring, jaw dropping, and gorgeous, other aspects detract from what is an unexpected story not quite living up to its potential. I respect this game more than I love it, and while I do think critics have been too kind in review scores, the exceptionally low user reviews have been far more incorrect. This is a solid, epic, deep, beautiful, emotional campaign which will deliver its money’s worth, but many contentious points will dictate how much you enjoy this blockbuster of a video game.

One of the aspects I like the most about this game is how similar the gameplay is to the original. Many people I suppose would want more change or innovation in the 7 years since The Last of Us, but personally I’ve always been a fan of sequels that retain what I like about a series. If it changes too much, it becomes too detached from what I enjoyed or got used to. Changes Part II makes are subtle, but natural for the genre and world. The player can duck and go prone in waist-high grass to conceal themselves, a dodge button has also been added, and a huge addition to combat and stealth is the addition of attack dogs who patrol with their owners. Dogs can pick up your scent until you distract it, adding to a lot of tension anytime enemy K9s are around. And yes, I found it difficult to shoot the first couple of dogs I encountered as they yelp out in pain when they get hurt or die.

Part II picks up I believe 5 years after the original. Ellie and Joel live in Jackson, the town they town the become a part of at the end of The Last of Us, and seem to be thriving in a community with food, power, and systems in place for relative safety from the outside world. The story is told in a much more chopped up chronology which I found to be detrimental to the pacing. The first game had a straightforward narrative and it worked very well, and this game has to dice up its story to make it seem more complex, but just comes off as pretentious. For example, by the end of the prologue (about a hour and a half) you play as three different characters. This leads into the strange structure of this game’s story, aside from having the linearity chopped up at times. 

The most controversial moment of the game is the moment of Joel’s death and how it occurred. While this event was not unexpected for myself and others, the manner of which he died is what’s justifiably pissing people off. A brand new character is introduced named Abby (and one of the three characters we briefly play as shortly before) and without any background or indication of who she is, brutally tortures and executes Joel in front of Ellie’s eyes. It’s not difficult to see director Neil Druckmann cackling with satisfaction of his subversion of expectations. It’s simply toying with the emotions of fans, and he has to expect and stand by any criticism he’s gotten for how this scene went down. However, this moment does make more sense as the story unfolds, but its no less a heavy handed and manipulative move for the sake of auteur video game storytelling.

Ever since I witnessed the brutal death of one of my favorite video game characters of all time, my only though was “they better justify this.” It was never “this is horrible and irredeemable, and “Naughty Dog is off its rocker,” like many people seem to have reacted. It was gut wrenching, but I knew Naughty Dog has a pension for organic characters, and in the back of my mind I knew I had to give this game its fair shot, and see if and/or how Naughty Dog justified a scene liable to piss off virtually every single fan of the original game. This is a poor spot of the game, but the structure of the game itself is, for me, the biggest issue of Part II. In the end, I don’t mind Joel’s death as much seeing the context surrounding it, although it still should have been handled entirely differently. 

Neil Druckmann proudly pulls a Metal Gear Solid 2 move, and entirely switches protagonists for a huge portion of the game (about 45%). Abby turns out to be the main character once the halfway point of the game hits. Following Joel’s death is about 9-11 hours playing as Ellie on her revenge quest to find Abby and kill her. The motivation is justified, being in the room with Ellie as she watched her father figure die in agony in front of her. Ellie’s portion of the campaign makes sense, Abby’s makes less. The structure of the story comes to a high point mid way through, where Abby and Ellie finally meet to clash. After all this build up, and around the same time of the game where the first game had its conclusion, everything halts and resets. 

We are suddenly dropped into the Abby story, showing her side of things, and why she would want to kill Joel. I do think the story directly surrounding her motivation is well done, but the problem is, a large portion of Abby’s story has literally nothing to do with Joel or Ellie. We effectively see why Abby would want revenge on Joel, but then we have to tag along on a major side journey while Abby helps a trans kid and his sister escape the cult they grew up in. I get that it helps develop more empathy for Abby as a character, but Abby’s story should have been at least cut in half to keep the overall story more focused and flowing. Many times while deep into Abby’s story I honestly forgot what the point of what I was doing is, and was getting confused on which events had happened and which hadn’t. 

Abby herself is a good character, and after all has been said and done, she is the third best character in this series so far. It’s a shame though that so much of her story is a direct waste of time, despite more of an excuse for more of the same great gameplay and set-piece moments. Empathy and perspective are the two big themes of this game. The best thing I can say about Part II is it convinced me of something I thought was near inconvincible: it made me like and root for Abby after the scene of Joel’s death. However, while the theme of the game is “all of your enemies have their own backstory,” Par II doesn’t teach us anything new whatsoever. Abby’s father was the surgeon Joel killed upon saving Ellie from the Fireflies at the climax of Part I. But Joel (and Ellie) killed a lot of random enemies in the first game, most of them players won’t even remember specifically. 

The fact that we have an entire video game showing us the perspective of one single person who wants revenge on Joel is a story that doesn’t need to be told. Any NPC we killed in the first game had family or friends who would also want revenge on Joel as well. We don’t learn anything new. This whole series is just marauder against marauder. Joel has never been a good guy, and that’s never been a secret. Joel is shown as an anti-hero even before the conclusion of the first game. It’s partially what makes him such a cool character. We only rooted for Joel because we were seeing things from his perspective. If the first game was entirely about Abby and Joel was framed as the bad guy, the results would have been the same: Abby would be our point-of-view “hero” character, while Joel was clearly the villain. Part II is not the epiphany Neil Drukmann likely wanted his audience to experience.

As anyone can see, the graphics and performances of Part II are incredible. While the story and structure are nothing too special (because it ruins its great moments by long drawn out heavy handed moments), at least the game itself is engaging to play and is gorgeous to look at. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest myself, and the game mainly taking place in Seattle, I enjoyed being totally waterlogged throughout the entire experience. If the story isn’t depressing enough on its own, the weather will certainly get to you. The core characters themselves are portrayed extremely well via motion capture and voice acting as well. I’m wondering why Neil Druckmann didn’t just make a Netflix series beings he is clearly so focused on the character’s interpersonal relationships. This is especially true for Joel and Ellie once again. Side characters are well acted, but have less of an effect on the core story, which is a huge tragedy when so much effort was clearly put into bringing them to life.

There’s no doubt Naughty Dog accomplished their specific goal in making you as depressed as possible. To be honest, it reminded me of some of my favorite books about stories of conflicting emotions and ending on depressing notes. Even though Part II is far from perfect, it’s still a juggernaut of a single-player game with amazing graphics, acting, responsive gameplay. I like the ways it proved me wrong on stuff I thought was unchangeable, and for that, it has my deep respect. It may not be for everyone, not even fans of the first, but if you come at it with an honest open mind and let yourself drop your ego enough to take in this entire story, I think it’s a daring piece of media that might age very well in time.

7/10

#the last of us part ii #naughty dog #ellie #abby #video games #review #ps4 #playstation 4

[riddlerosehearts]

okay, so. i’ve now officially finished the postgame story of swsh and that means i’ve done it all.

and honestly i’m frustrated because i’ve seen a few people say swsh has the best writing they’ve seen in a pokemon game and i just... i mean, i can see that in several of the character arcs and in the potential the story had to be great, but to me the writing is just... it’s full of extremely wasted potential. bede, hop, and sonia had pretty nice character arcs imo but we still could’ve seen a lot more of them if the story had been a better length, and i have to say i was expecting marnie to be a much more prominent character. i mean, she showed up like 3 or 4 times and i feel like i know more about piers than about her? i feel like i can’t describe her personality very well at all but she was supposed to be one of my rivals? there also wasn’t enough time to expand on team yell and what was happening in spikemuth, so i didn’t get attached to them like i did to team skull. i just found them annoying and that was all.

i also don’t even like... fully understand what oleana and the chairman’s deal was, i mean i thought oleana was puppeting everything but then she says you have to help because rose has gone nuts and even then i thought she was lying. i thought rose was just some asshat who didn’t care about bede at all because he seemed to not remember who bede was at the beginning, but then he’s like “oh i’m so sad i adopted you because i saw myself in you and now you’ve disappointed me :((” and i can’t even tell if he was being honest then or not, because he never ever gave me the vibe that he gave a single shit about bede, but it just wasn’t explored enough and tbh i really wanted bede to confront him and/or oleana at some point. i also still feel confused about what they were even doing in the first place and i wanted things to be explained better but they weren’t. i don’t even fully get what the darkest day was or why the day/night cycle only begins in the post-game and i just feel stupid. i had a theory that the darkest day and the day/night cycle and everything would relate to pollution and climate change somehow but it was just... something something eternatus something something dynamaxing, i think??

and speaking of bede being an orphan, i feel like i should not have had to learn that from a card and that it should’ve been a bigger part of the story tbh, i mean i love the league cards for non-plot relevant npcs like the gym leaders because i always wanted more info on the gym leaders of each region, but... having to learn that bede is an orphan who never got along with anyone so basically has no family or friends via reading it on a league card (which i feel the need to add, is optional to even read in the first place) is just making me imagine if in black and white n came up to you and handed you his entire traumatic backstory on a card, which would feel lazy and rushed just as it does to me here.

also like... the idea of the adults helping handle things and not putting it all on a kid is excellent until you realize all it’s doing is pushing you out of the action. even if you as the player might possibly be a kid like your character, you yourself are not in any danger and you want to have fun with things because this is a video game. the gym challenge is nice and all but every single time leon or sonia tells me to just continue my gym challenge and not worry about it i wanna say “fuck no let me join you and get in on the adventure and action just like every single other pokemon game lets me do.” every time sonia told me more cool info about the darkest day i got super excited and interested and then every time i didn’t get to do anything about it i was like “okay, well, maybe the action will pick up more after the next gym” and it just didn’t, until the VERY end and even that wasn’t long enough and overall the whole thing was just so incredibly oddly paced.

there’s also just... not enough to explore?? i mean, the wild area is pretty neat, but it doesn’t have dark caves and vast oceans and winding forests, and the region itself hardly has any of that either. there are only 10 routes and they’re short. i never got lost in galar mine or anything and it was the first time i actually missed getting lost in a video game, which i usually do constantly because i have an even worse sense of direction than leon. the cities are beautifully designed imo and there are a few where i went “holy shit this is gorgeous” when i walked in, but the whole region is just too small and i was pretty disappointed when ballonlea, despite having the prettiest design in the game along with glimwood tangle imo, was so tiny with hardly anything in it. i realize this part is a tangent and not related to the story but it just adds to the frustration i had with everything!

anyway, this post is already too long and too incoherent and i’m not trying to be overly negative because i truly did enjoy some things about swsh and am glad i bought it to be able to play with my friends and shiny hunt and collect all the new pokemon regardless of my issues with it, so i’ll try wrapping it up here. basically i guess i just feel like the plot was too incredibly oddly paced, not nearly explained well enough, and the characters weren’t expanded on enough at all despite several of them having very fun and interesting personalities and arcs and every one of them being likable to me. the lore of galar has very interesting concepts in it but none of them are used to their fullest potential in this game and i so desperately wish they were! i wish the world was bigger and that i got to be a bigger part of the action and that i had a better understanding of the game i just played (and hey, maybe i’ll understand all of it a little better once i replay/see my dad get to the story parts that puzzled me, but i feel like i should NOT be so utterly lost right now), but none of that was to be. it feels rushed and unsatisfying and i know it’s because the devs didn’t have enough time to make swsh as great as it could be, but i just wish they could’ve been given the time it needed! because these issues i have, along with other ones such as the bizarre removal of features like mega evolutions and the ability to pet your pokemon or the removal of such a high amount of pokemon, and the world itself having so little to really explore, just.... keep me from being able to enjoy it nearly as much as i wanted to.

i think i have to give the game a 6/10 or maaaaybe 6.5, which is lowered from the original 7/10 i was going to give it while i was still optimistic the plot would pick up more than it did. so, decent for me and much better than any of my least favorite mainline pokemon games (i haven’t replayed through xy since forever or really touched it to do anything other than shiny hunting in ages, for example), but not really great imo and i’m sad about it.

#sorry for this negativity and for such a long post. nobody has to read it i just wanted to get it out. #being so confused about what the fuck was going on during basically any of the later parts of the story is also making me feel bad tbh #because it makes me feel like 'what if this was all really simplistic and easy to get and i'm just fucking stupid' #but yeah idk i just... nothing was what i expected and it was all badly paced and underwhelming and i'm mad because THE POTENTIAL IS THERE #swsh spoilers #pokemon swsh spoilers #long post #starlight plays swsh #swsh negativity #in case anyone needs to blacklist that ig because i know i hated seeing so much negativity before the game came out #and would've hate hate HATED seeing a post like this before i finished it #i was gonna make a '6.8/10 not enough water' joke but i'm not in a good enough mood to joke about it right now :/

[ghosty-schnibibit]

finally found time to listen to the first ep of graduation and holy shit!!! i love it so much!!!!! liveblog below ^u^

so i’ve stayed off tumblr for the last five days to avoid any spoilers and damn it was both hard and worth the wait, i am so hype for the rest of this season!!! i think this may be the longest liveblog i’ve ever done so apologies in advance to mobile users if the readmore doesn’t work.

oh dang! starting off with narration!

newa? oh cool we're not in faerun

“a blessing of unicorns” travis i am in love with your world already

loving the spookiness of the place names

trav i love it but this is so much lore so quickly bud i've had to pause to take notes like three times

"and our deaths become all but inevitable" jesus travis

i am so excited, this is going to be so much fun

this music is giving me such dreamworks vibes

AND A CAT :D

SPECTRAL CAT :O

and here's the other three boys!

griffin is getting out years of dm saltiness and i love it

a handsome half elf boy, neat

agro keen! nice name clint

his voice is like griffin put artemis sterling and indrid in a blender

sir fitzroy maplecourt, i love him already

clint no, i am too a ace for this

water genasi, that sounds fun

i cannot wait to see the fanart of this dude, he sounds so pretty

"you had me until the mustashe" same griffy, same

JUSTIN THIS CANNOT BE THE VOICE YOU USE FOR THE WHOLE CAMPAIGN, JUSTIN W H Y

clint started off vaguely crunchy and veered right into ned

this is untenable justin

just throwing this out there, just purely based on the voices, i think fitzroy is my fave so far

oh fun! like caduceus 

"that's an absolute unit!" mood

i need art of this dude so bad

... so the same name you gave the nitpicker lol

GARY THE GARGOYLE

fitzroy you precious baby boy

oh god this is bringing back memories

"what is a bunked bed?" says griffin 'every fantasy world i create contains elevators' mcelroy

"there is no shame in this" what does that mean justin

fitzroy is my sweet boy and i love him so much, my wee aristocratic dipshit

nice! 17 for the first roll of the campaign!

huh, nice! i like this mechanic

clint ilu

you mentioned maps in the ttazz trav, give me the maps

loving the verb usage lol

oh god its hagrid

i'm loving bud more and more each time he talks

"that's groundsy's place" that's where groundsy hides the bodies of students who displease him

ARGO WTF ARE YOU DOING

"both in different ways" dang

barn and battleground side... this sounds fun

does fitzroy want to be a knight? i love this

love the use of the word smooshed

hippocamp? oooooh horse mermaid, fun

BABY :D

nice, that sounds cool as hell

TRAVIS HOW HAVE YOU MADE ME CRY, THIS IS LITERALLY THE FIRST EP AND I'M LITERALLY IN TEARS OVER THIS BABY

y'know what, his voice has grown on me

justin you are crushing this entire scene and i love it

we're already getting some foreshadowing here and i am loving it

oh this music is so choice

YEAAAH first competent woman of the arc! :D

nice, go argo

"oooh, you're sir fitzroy" why does my boy have a reputation already

did my boy get kicked out of the hero tract without knowing it???

is he crying?????

"i had my feelings hurt by a strong man" b a b y  b o y

who's the asshole?

argo my sweet sarcastic boy

oh fun, new npc buddies :D

i'm getting some wicked malfoy vibes from this guy

argo is being a dick but in a very deserved way

travis was not kidding about the sheer volume of npcs, holy shit, i'm only about 45 minutes in and i think that's seven different npcs with names and distinct personalities

oh fun! fantasy wheelchair 0u0

make that ten named npcs

his full name is argonaut, cool!

i am so excited for her holy shit, i need to draw every single pc and npc but i want to draw her the most, i love her so much

fitzroy is a dipshit and i love him

ooooh i get it now, so it's almost more like an acting school, i am digging this setting so much trav

damn that is confident

... are they the only ones clapping?

higglemis is such a mood

justin ilu holy shit

i love leon so much already, he's so soft spoken and sweet

"you would not survive that" fair call lol

griffin no you're going to destroy me with second hand embarrassment

what are you doing fitzroy my dumb dumb boy

"i'm in heck" g r i f f i n

oh my sweet summer child. oh my poor baby :(

yes, what is your class my sweet failure boy

so he's a wizard boy, love it

thank you for trying bud ilu

f i t z r o y  2

druid boy!

rouge buddies :D

so we've got a druid, a wizard, and a rouge, nice balance, a little heavy to magic users but so was balance lol

... i am terrified to know what this squirrel thing is

never mind that is actually freakin adorable, and i love her so much

oh goody malfoy's back

... it's hazing. he's going to haze them.

trav’s doing a really good job of giving npcs with similar pitches of voice different cadences to their speech

the fuck griffin

"that would put me right off lemons" a r g o

oh he has a cape... i know i kept thinking of him as a sort of malfoy character but now i can't stop picturing eridan

i am genuinely loving all the hp digs, this is so good

SNEAKERY

oh nice! birdy teacher :D

griffin what owl character are you referring to??????

i love how mundane this is, no joke, it makes it feel really grounded

good to know since they don't really have a healer

they have a dedicated party class, i love this

are they actual skeletons??? holy shit travis i love this so much

he's such a nervous baby, awww

DAMN GRIFFIN NICE

i love how supportive these boys are

how did you manage that trav, dang

HE'S A WHAT GRIFFIN??? I'VE BEEN PICTURING HIM AS A LIL NERD BOY THE WHOLE TIME, HE'S A BARBARIAN????? H O W

"we don't talk about it" i love this

is that a spell? i need to look that up

i love this skeleton friend so much

clint's tradition of naming his weapons continues and i love it

clint what are you d o i n g

NICE! go argo :D

"fuck life lessons!" jesus fitzroy

so it's more of like... a vocational school, size-wise, which aligns with a lot of the background info trav's given us. nice, easy to mentally picture

blame taking???

"you're the one whose magic came and ruined everything!" i am so eager to know this magic barbarian boy's backstory

agro's going for a more errol flynn aesthetic lol

puppy :D

"we feel settled on bud" i just realized this is the second character justin's playing that we don't know the real name of lol

i am so eager to learn what the heck this is and i just know it's going to end in a cliffhanger with only 11 minutes left in the ep

"does a plant cry out? it is plant!" i love this sweet firbolg boy

awww, ranier is a sweety, i love her so much, she's my favorite npc so far

bud’s giving himself some larry bird boots lol

everyone but bud are dumb dumbs lol

this music is so good

i am so intrigued travis holy shit this is so good

a credit to trav, this is the first npc that's made me think of magnus in terms of vocal cadence and tone

oh groundsy

poor fitzroy lmao

I AM SO READY FOR THIS

in conclusion: i am so incredibly hype for the new season!!! i know this ep was mostly setup but i’m already super interested in everyone’s characters and the mystery of whatever’s going on in the spooky forest, and i’m loving the direction travis is taking with the world and how he’s combining the magical with the mundane to make a grounded yet fantastical setting! i can’t wait for the next ep and for all the great things to come this season with everyone ^u^

#taz #taz graduation #the adventure zone #ghosty liveblogs taz #taz spoilers #sorry this is so incredibly late holy shit #but the last week has been so busy #and i wanted to set aside a good amount of time to listen when i knew i wouldn't be interrupted and that time didn't come for half a week fm #i'm so freaking excited!!! #and also so proud of trav!!! #this was so good!!!!!

[savrenim]

I gotta say I think my favorite part of Jeremy as a DM is that he takes the stupid half-jokes that I make offscreen and just. turns them into things for me. that also fit perfectly into the plot and the story seamlessly but feel special 

like I was making goddamn jokes about “okay but. but I want a bloodsword. we do blood magic. please. Jeremy. Jeremy what if I could make my blood into a sword. b l o o d s w o r d. I could go to parties and never be unarmed because mY BLOOD IS A SWORD. YOU CAN’T DISARM ME YOU WOULDN’T PART AN OLD ELF FROM HER BLOOD WOULD YOU, SO LONG AS I HAVE BLOOD I HAVE SWORD.” and then, like. because it was only half a joke and I got attached to the aesthetic I actively started planning on how to make one of my own, which was pretty much going to be that there are some shadow weapon spells either on the cleric/oracle or witch lists and I was just going to take one of those as I was leveling up in Caedic magic and request that because it’s blood magic can we please flavor it descriptively as being made of my blood and not of shadows like, just as a cool aesthetic piece, and I’d have my bloodsword. 

and then halfway through Book 4 Galen fucking Torus out of nowhere makes a really fucking rad bloodsword from his own blood and hands it to me and I kill a bunch of enemies of the Empire and feel hella cool and I go “c a n  y o u  t e a c h  m e” with starry eyes the next day and he goes “okay sure” and starts teaching me how to make a bloodsword and there are cool bloodsword mechanics and just. Iria Strell got a bloodsword. after I spent six months joking about it. this is an actual legitimate bloodsword not a cheap knockoff made from a flavored shadow spell, real genuine Caedic blood magic here.

and, like, there are a couple of other obvious things (I spent a while being excited about a Feat tree that I’ve now totally forgotten because I think I was looking for some weird way to add Int to attacks and there was something similar to feinting you used bluff for a round and I’ve forgotten about it because it became irrelevant because Iria has developed mechanical combat spurs that give her a pretty similar option, not a “sooo then in five levels I’ll be able to do this!”) I guess another one was joking for months okay not joking about how much in love I was with Arcadia Dominus and holy shit she liked me back and the “gay murder elf bachelorette” bit actually becoming a part of the campaign, this campaign got literally infinitely more gay because I made a dumb joke and then Jeremy went “okay” and followed up on it, we went from no gay to one of the longest running and at least emotionally important plotlines is “oh no Iria is so gay you utter disaster fire of a lesbian how are you going to mess everything up now because Pretty Girl”

but, like

the one that is hitting me really really strongly now-now is that I have been half-jokingly complaining for months and months that I regret So Much Iria Strell’s background as a minor noble because it limits the fanciness and quantity of dresses that I can get for her and goddamnit I want to put her in all the shiny things all of them and how Painful it is to pass all these cool costumes that I Want To Pull just in fashion posts and stuff but uuurgh I can’t because Iria Strell isn’t the sort of noble who would wear all those and she kind of isn’t allowed and that just goddamnit I need to make a character next game who whatever the context wears Cool Clothes so that I would get to actually do a shit-ton of character design and costume design 

and I am 1000% sure that this didn’t change from the original plans, like, the outlines have been in place for months well before I got obsessed with noble costuming, but the big objective of this book is Iria is investigating a maybe heresy/conspiracy that maybe involves nobles, and to do so, she has to go to a bunch of noble parties, and Galen Torus gave her an unlimited credit card and went “material resources are no worry go ham request whatever you want” and what her wardrobe is actively affects all the interactions she has with people and how well she can gather the information she needs to

which means that OOC I get the chance to design a full and changing wardrobe for Iria Strell to look cool as it is now her job as the secret leader of an investigation to actually do noble business and look pretty sometimes and talk to a bunch of nobles and go to parties but just. I’m limited in interesting ways by what is tasteful, but I have been given the full resources and an active in-character reason to utterly go ham on costuming, which makes me so excited as a person

and it’s just. super tiny details like this that idk make the games feel....more than just special? or maybe it’s that I’m not used to being listened to? like. the game is so good. I’m having so much fun. we have gotten to book 5 and it is once again the coolest fucking thing I could imagine. and so was book 4, and book 3, and book 2, and book 1. it is completely unnecessary to throw in tiny things like the bloodsword in order to make me happy and it is all done so....seamlessly? like. if one of my hunches is correct. the bloodsword and a ritual that Galen Torus performed telling Iria it would make her better at the bloodsword wHICH IT DID BUT THAT WAS NOT THE MAIN POINT OF THE RITUAL, THE MAIN POINT OF THE GODDAMN RITUAL WAS TO CONSECRATE PRIESTS AND PRIESTS HAVE MORE ACCESS TO BLOOD MAGIC SO A SIDE EFFECT IS BETTER THAN A BLOODSWORD BUT A CONSECRATED PRIEST IS A SUPER HIGH RANK AND THIS MAKES HER A CONSECRATED PRIEST AT AGE EIGHTEEN WHICH IS VERY VERY VERY UPSETTING TO HER AND POSSIBLY UNPRECEDENTED EARLY 30S IS CONSIDERED RIDICULOUSLY EARLY TO BE A CONSECRATED PRIEST FOR INCREDIBLY TALENTED AND FAST-CLIMBING CAREER-FOCUED NOBLES NOT A MINOR DISGRACED KIND OF EXILED LESBIAN DUMPSTER FIRE LIKE SHE IS

but consecrated priest thing aside and that being one way or another a major plot point and that coming so seamlessly and so perfectly a surprise from the fact that she asked an Exarch if he’d teach her how to make a bloodsword

again I’m pretty sure “Book 5 is noble politics book” was always going to be a thing so it’s not “oh Jeremy wrote it into the plot that I get to be ridiculous and pick out every single dress and everyday wear and hair and makeup for my character all the time multiple times a session and have that matter” because it was always abstractly going to matter as that matters as a part of being a Caedic noble but just 

here and is everything I wanted and was everything that I was totally joking about for months except no joke I just. get to do it. which I’m just actively so excited about. I guess it just...feels weird to me because I’m... sometimes used to making my own fun? or just, like, making things happen in my own life? there have been way too many “well if you want to survive it’s only you that you can rely on” situations not even in a bad sense of my life is horrible like. I could go on a rant about how I....not don’t trust people as people but don’t trust people to be 100% reliable and so always make a backup plan so that if a person falls through I can still get what I need done to be done and it’s just more pleasant for everyone involved if I don’t pin pressure on people or things? but in a different way I do the same thing for the games that I’m involved in, I will find things to make me have Feelings and will make my own fun and write letters and befriend NPCs and insist on staying in touch and, like...I dunno I guess I’m not used to trusting any world, be it fantasy or real, to give me what I want, if I want a thing I have to carefully plan and invest time and energy to earn and take it and be prepared to fail and just because Jeremy’s my friend and I goddamn narrate everything jokes or not of how I/my characters feel and “okay but here is the 1000th picture of a cool dress that I’m sending you and because Iria Strell doesn’t get to wear cool dresses we’ll say it’s the Gothicus Maximus Spring 2019 collection” and just

I guess I’m really not used to a world that cares about what I want

and, like, is sometimes fucking brutal Iria is dealing with slowly losing her mobility and ability to fight to an injury that was her fault and she is descending into a lot of really fun mental health places that push fun buttons and Marian is spelljammer and is Marian don’t even get me started on Marian’s family suddenly reappearing or just. characters from the thousands upon thousands of words of backstory showing up but just idk it feels like even when things are really brutal to the characters......the world is still kind to me? it’s aware of what I care about and it cares about me?

and I’m just so not used to the world being kind

I don’t need the world to be kind to love it. I love this world even with how fucked up and hard it is, and I love the games that I play and the stories that I get to be a part of without them caring about me at all, I don’t need them to care about me, that’s not why I’m playing

maybe I’m just hella tired and the move has been awful my old housemate gave me a deadline less than 12 hours before when there was never a deadline in our original conversations and then she and her mother were also going through my room and my stuff I guess to try to determine how quickly I’d get out of there but, like, I do not like it when people go through my stuff and there was a scare about the landlord selling the new place and the new landlord would have to honor the lease for a year but then maybe not wanting me to have my cats so suddenly for two days even my new living place was up in the air and I was already jet lagged and stressed and barely slept to try to finish a week’s worth of work that I was under the full impression I had a week to do in a day and a half and definitely sprained my ankle but got to keep walking on it and internet took forever to set up and trying to fix my furniture and all my stuff is in boxes and I’m still walking around on a twisted ankle because it’s just me there’s no one here to help me, if I want things to be okay and to get done I have to make them be done myself and these boxes need to be unpacked by Saturday morning because the landlord wants to fix the floor and just. I’m stressed and emotional so maybe I’m hella overreacting to “oh you like costumes? well an aspect of this book is noble interactions and parties so sure I’ll let you pick out literally every dress that you’re wearing” but it just

it matters so much to me

Jeremy is really really good at the DnD thing

#have a long rant about my feelings and partially about dnd #I'm real tired #my life #gay murder elf bachelorette #I guess #this game is so fun and it keeps surprising me

[serkonans]

i would legit love to know ur answer to all of those dnd questions tbh

so many gfsljgf thank you antonia i love ask memesputting #13 up here for the anon who requested it and the rest below the cut!13. Introduce your current party.I currently DM a few games! School is hectic and I don’t get to play very often but all the characters are GoodI have one group campaign titled “When the River Bleeds Red” (which is probably news to you, Antonia, and everyone else who plays, idt I ever mentioned that slkfjglfskj) that has a blacksmith (half-elven cleric, @the-idiot-who-stood-still​) named Brigitte Faestrum, a pumpkin farmer (halfling druid, @beesgnees​) named Cathal Headrig, a former stage performer (fire genasi sorcerer, @merrigold​) named Emelia Sparks, and a former mercenary (gnome fighter, @jacqmutiny​) named Nyx!I also DM one-on-one campaigns for @merrigold​ (who plays an aasimar druid named senua tasked with undertaking journeys on behalf of the gods in “The Glacial Erratic”) and @fictitiousbees​ (who plays a kenku wizard named scribbles called to the service of a high dragon in “Luck of the Draw”)Everything else below the cut!

1. A favorite character you have played.

I’ve only played two characters! One was Carran Warset, who is my Son and like the bulk of the reason I know I’m trans, and one was Chim from your one-on-one campaign. I rly like both of them tbh but Carran is my child gkjlsfgjs

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.

Excluding anything I’ve DMed, Sivarna by @pluviance!

3. Your favorite side quest.

In the group campaign we played in together, there was one session that idr if you were able to be there for but we like,,, went into a forest and bought a really ugly belt from a stoner for zero plot reasons and I count it as a side quest in my heart

4. Your current campaign.

Well, you know everything about all my current campaigns that you’re allowed to know rn, but for anyone who might be reading who isn’t in them:

The group campaign is being used as scapegoats in the brutal murder of an ambassador’s daughter and is fleeing a city through secret tunnels -- we last left off at Cathal becoming a giant badger and burrowing upward

In the solo campaign with Senua, she’s attempting to deliver a large, magical object from the goddess of earth deep inside a mountain, and she’s facing down a basilisk with three NPCs

And in the solo campaign with Scribbles, he’s just played a card game that was really more of an interrogation, where he found out a high dragon has taken interest in him, and he is, in unrelated news, taking a package to the local apothecary

5. Favorite NPC.

Of someone else’s, I love Lucy from the Chim campaign!

Of mine, I will never stop loving Mr. Kretever Tatell. Kret is a goddamn idiot but he’s my goddamn idiot

6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc).

Carran once killed an evil poison merchant by seducing her in an enemy king’s bedroom and stabbing her when he went in for the kiss gkfsljgfsj. Then he and Sivarna wound up hiding with her corpse under a bed discussing the concept of threesomes in whispers while the king wandered around his room. Not as like, a possibility. Just because the topic came up

7. Your favorite downtime activity.

S,,,hop,,,,,,, money tiem $

8. Your favorite fight/encounter.

I liked the fight where I balanced the combat correctly lkgsflkjskljg, the one with guards in the tunnels

9. Your favorite thing about D&D.

Storytelling!

10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most.

Homebrew enemies are coolest imo but hard to balance; the giant gemstone ant I had you fight would’ve been my favorite if it’d been able to get more than like two attacks in gskjgksj

And insect swarms are very annoying to fight

11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play?

How often I play is whenever every single one of the stars align and ideally I would play like every other day fksjglskfjg

12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.

God the current ones haven’t gone long enough for those yet really and I’m blanking on most from the group player campaign

I do remember Carran was 1000% convinced basil was poison at one point and his pet rat killed an evil, powerful sorcerer by chewing his ear

14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed.

Just the group player campaign with Carran, which didn’t get to the heavy plot stuff before it ended tbh, and then the solo one you ran with Chim in what was rly a Very cool world concept of like hellish Las Vegas that I’d like to steal at some point

And then you ofc know this but for anyone reading who doesn’t, I’m going DM a maybe-oneshot, maybe-a few more than oneshot post-apocalyptic campaign for you and @fictitiousbees​, set in a world that’s been destroyed by fast growing invasive fungi which is like. only The sexiest apocalypse scenario

15. Do you have snacks during game times?

Yes, religiously. Game time snack time

16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer?

I’ve never played in person other than a single test game for new players! I prefer online tho; you can look things up and type if you’re shy

17. What are some house rules that your group has?

I have a rule about only two players being able to try the same sort of check, but that’s it for us so far that I can think of

18. Does your party keep any pets?

Not yet! Cathal has a way with animals though

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions?

I Do

20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing?

I got into it bc Critical Role made it look super super fun, and I’ve been playing off and on for two years now

21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done?

I’ve regretted everything any character I’ve controlled has done I think that’s just dnd

Realistically tho, big yes for a lot of what Carran did, most notably snooping on another player character who had cast Alarm on her room

22. What color was your first dragon?

Haven’t had one yet!

23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns?

100% original babey

24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game?

3% planning 97% “oh fuck I need to have an idea Now” babey

For DMs

25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?

Everything, it’s why I never know what I’m doing

I never expected Cathal to become a large badger and dig out of the underground, how do you prepare for someone to, in all seriousness, tell you they’re going to become a badger and scrabble to the surface

26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters.

I really tend to enjoy the one-on-one scenes; I think my favorite was having you roll that insane wild magic surge and detailing What Happened At The Theatre

27. Do you allow homebrew content?

Yes if it can go in DND Beyond

28. How often do you use NPCs in a party?

In group campaigns, not often, although we have two with us right now. In solo campaigns, if you want combat you’re getting an NPC party, at least for a bit

29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions?

Personally I love RP heavy sessions; combat is fun but I crave Story

30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos?

I think mostly diplomatic with a dash of murder hobo

For Players

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?

I’m so so so boring but I love humans gksfjgsk

Humans, elves, and half-elves are my favorite

And then I Would Die For Every Rogue, it’s hands down my favorite class

32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?)

Rogue role

Lemme stealth and steal and stab

33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory?

For Carran it was,, A Whole Process

I came up with a basic idea, then journaled as him several times and wrote and rewrote until I had what felt Right, and then I kept toying with it and adding more details throughout the campaign -- I love playing and would really like to again but the obsession with expanding upon his story made me realize I need the freedom of worldbuilding that goes along with DMing; I don’t think I could be a player without DMing a separate campaign bc I just try to take over

34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor?

Both!

35. How much roleplay do you like to do?

So much, I usually use old acting techniques and get fully into character

thank you again antonia!!! these were fun

#fox speaks #long post #in case the cut doesn't work bc tumblr bad #merrigold

[retrogamingelin]

zelda

so, i was playing it the other day and i needed to wake up the sleeping man by the caslte. i had played this once before but didn’t remember. so when i first climbed the vines, there was no girl there. second time, she was there, but only said something about her dad. then i didn’t know what to do, so i looked it up, which i hate doing. and apperently she was supposed to give you a chicken. i didn’t get no darn chicken???! so i talked to her a third time and then she gave me the egg. was it a glitch? 

it’s like you have to talk to every single NPC in the game. and over all, the game is quite slow. walking back and forth is more of a pain than in a link to the past. in a link to the past, there is something to be discovered in every screen. in ocarina of time, it’s walking up that darn hill that doesn’t even have enemies except when it’s night. i didn’t want to explore the world. i just didn’t get that feeling. 

i shoulnd’t complain too much since i’ve only gotten to the forest temple, but really, IN MY OPINION: such an overrated game. in MY opinion. 

a link to the past, however, is the perfect video game. 

i love exploring, though not too big worlds. this world is perfect – it’s small, but so much stuff to do! make that double, since you have two worlds, the dark world and the light world. i love getting abilities – swimming, the gauntlet, pegasus boots or any of the items, so i can go back to places and use them to get secrets. that’s a thing i love in games.

and oh boy, the puzzles. i enjoy puzzle games so much, when you have to stop and think. when i headed to the town for the first time i went in the mossy house and downstairs. a puzzle! i just looked at it for a long time, trying to figure out how to get all the chests. i didn’t succeed. i’m stupid. one kind of puzzle element i don’t like though, are mazes. i go crazy.

i just love the story,  the twist that agahnim was ganon all along – he who we’ve heard about throughout the game. and i love the backstory, the creation of hyrule and the triforce. the god of power brought fire and mountains in to the land, the god of wisdom made magic and nature and the god of courage made the warriors – i love when games have their own ”religion” and genesis. i also like the little side stories, like the two brothers fighting and flute boy.

the bosses are so fun, mostly, and almost always are defeated with the item you get in the dungeon. i remember my favorite boss being the squid one, where you take your hookshot on the little cottonballs and kill them until they’re all gone and you can attack the big squid. 

the many landscapes – desert, mountain, land… the sprites are amazing too, i’ve made some perler bead things from link to the past because i just love them. unlike early 3D games, these visuals are timeless. the 16 bit era is probably my favorite when it comes to that. and the music is fantastic. when you get out of the sanctuary and hear ”dun dun… du du du du dunnnn” for the first time!! it’s epic, and it’s what gave me the ultimate nostalgia factor even though i didn’t remember the game so well when i beat it the first time.

back to OoT, why did that get all the glory when the GBC games were better? oracle of ages and seasons were so fun to play. it’s a lot of thinking, and the puzzles are fun. it’s not “shoot this eye to open a door” or whatever. it’s a lot more fun than that. i get that it’s a nostalgia factor for many people, and maybe if i would have played it when i was a kid i would be head over heels too, but i’m not. it hasn’t aged as good as 2D zelda games, 

IN. MY. OPINION. 

i recently did a poll on which of the two were people’s favorite. link to the past or ocarina of time. link to the past won, but not with much. it was so close. 

for the record, i know i’m complaining a lot on OoT, but it’s not a bad game. i’m just comparing it to the greatest game of all time, but OoT is good fun. 

#long post

[varjopeura]

For the D&D Ask Meme - 4, 8, 13 and 34! (And I'm SO curious about the backstory-bomb referenced in your tags, so if I can make a bonus question be, 'what happened???' then also that!)

Hoo boy, this one took a while! Also this got super long so under the cut it goes:

4. Your current campaign.

Our current campaign is also my first! We’re playing on Tal'Dorei setting with a mostly homemade storyline (as far as I know? it occurs to me I’ve never really asked). We’re only six sessions in at this point, the party is still just a bunch of nobodies stumbling around figuring out this adventuring stuff and getting to know each other.

8. Your favorite fight/encounter.

I think my favourite fight so far was the time we got our asses handed to us pretty thoroughly by a bunch of ghosts. It was terrible and delightful and something about properly losing a fight made the whole world just seem so much more real and intense. Like we are just babies when it comes to adventuring, and going ghost-hunting into a crypt that’s widely known to be cursed and deathly dangerous might not be the best idea at that point in time. Especially if your magic users have already pretty much emptied out their spell slots before going in.

But, in we went anyway! We knew to expect ghosts since we had already slain a couple on our way there, and had comprised a Genius Plan to take out the rest of them one at a time. Except the plan didn’t really work, the ghosts didn’t come at us one at a time, and they were a lot stronger than the ones we had previously encountered.

We managed to barely scratch the ghosts (the horrendous things were resistant to everything we had), half of our party was too afraid to do anything useful, and Glimmer had to carry two of her unconscious teammates out of there before we managed to flee. It was a mess, and a very stressful situation, but hey, we survived! And it felt so good to be alive afterwards!

In retrospect, the five or six times our friendly NPC informant told us the ghost are absolutely going to kill us oh-so-very-dead might have been a hint from the DM…

13. Introduce your current party.

Let’s start with the easiest one, my tiefling cleric Glimmer! She is definitely the party mom and sort of their moral compass too, constantly worrying about the safety of the others. She worries about a lot of stuff, actually, and the fact that she knows very little of the world outside of her home temple doesn’t exactly help. Though she does believe in the goodness of people and has a tendency to blindly trust anyone who looks like they know what they’re doing. For such a soft and gentle person she has a surprisingly short temper when something rubs her the wrong way, and she gets all fiery and dramatic when she’s upset.

Then there’s our human fighter Gabriel, a young man of noble origin seeking for his share of honor and glory, mainly in the form of slaying various magnificent beasts and monsters. He is highly charismatic, VERY easy to love, has exactly zero impulse control and, to be quite honest, not a lot of brains to him either. So practically he’s an over-excited golden retriever with a sword and an ability to speak in a fancy way. A good boy.

The elven rogue Varis (fun fact: his name is the finnish word for crow) is a typical thief character, a penniless city boy that’s concerned about his own survival before anything else. And, like, I’m definitely not picking favorites here, but this one’s a GOOD boy that I love. A lot. A fountain of endless curiosity, he’s quaranteed to stick his nose in every single place it doesn’t belong to, and probably steal a little bit of something interesting on his way there. Somehow his personality also works as the glue that keeps the rest of the party together - it’s pretty hard to travel alone on your own path when this one gets all up in your personal space and wants to learn about alllll of your stuff.

The gnome ranger Nuna is pretty amiable for a person who has started several conversations with the phrase “I want to destroy the civilization”. From what I’ve gathered, she seems to be on some sort of personal crusade against all kinds of mechanical constructs and just has a pretty worrisome way of wording it. She does NOT enjoy crowded cities, though finding taverns full of ale seems to alleviate her stress a bit. I’m certain she’s got some daaaaark secrets too, I can’t wait until we find out a bit more about her story.

I’d probably call our elven wizard Volyris the other Sensible Adult in the party, if he wasn’t so horribly useless when it comes to keeping the chaotic ones in control. He just gets way too much joy out of wandering around behind Gabriel and Varis and observing all the dumb shit they manage to do. Clings to his secrets like his life depended on them, even after a couple of rounds of interrogation we have learned next to nothing about him. He just… wants to know more about stuff? For no apparent reason? Because that’s what wizards do?? I’m still not quite sure if he’s to be trusted.

34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor?

Mostly I try to find some sort of balance between the two?Though tbh in Glimmer’s case, being a light domain cleric and a tiefling is already a combo packed with so much character flavor that I barely have to do anything to add to it :D Every single bit of Glimmer’s spells and abilities is infused with fire and light, and who knows if the flames she so easily channels originate from a divine source or from her infernal bloodline! She certainly doesn’t! (Also, I can’t wait until we reach level 5 and she learns to cast Darkness as a tief ability. Being able to both bring light around her and to take it away as she wishes is going to be such a fun twist to the basic light cleric archetype.)

—

And, for the bonus question, I miiiiight have exaggerated a little bit? Specifically on the “your entire past is a lie” part. Only a small part of her past turned out to be a lie, so that makes it completely fine, right? :DSo, basically, what I knew about Glim’s backstory was that she was abandoned to a temple’s doorstep as an infant, and that it was unclear who had left her there and why. Not knowing what else to do, the temple clerics took the child in and raised her as their own. (well that’s the relevant part, let’s leave the backstory at that because this post is already way too long)

But! In the last session the party went back to her home temple, met the old priestess who was the closest thing to a mother Glimmer ever had, and had a conversation with her. And it turns out she actually knows about Glimmer’s birth mom! She was just made to promise that she’d never reveal Glimmer’s origin to anyone, and up until this point she had kept the secret to herself. We were given a name (one that Glimmer recognized instantly; she used to be the high priestess of Glim’s home temple before she was born, and now apparently her mother too? Years ago, she had abruptly left her position as the high priestess, never coming back, and there was some sort of a scandal surrounding the event, but Glim couldn’t remember any details about it.)

So instead of a mystery, Glimmer’s origin is a well-kept secret, and according to her adoptive mother the person who knows the most about this secret lives right next door to them. As it was getting kind of late at night and barging into someone’s home asking questions about missing people in the middle of the night didn’t seem like the most polite thing to do, Glim decided to leave further questions to the next morning.

And did we reach the next morning during this session? Of course we didn’t! So now I’m full of questions and theories and have to sit on them for a few weeks because of our horrible Human Adult Schedules not lining up before the end of the month. (And while Glimmer was learning about her hidden past, our rogue was preparing to go on a heist. Alone. Without even telling about his plans to the rest of the party. And his target? The captain of the fucking town guard. Like dammit Varis, if I have to spend the next session busting you out of jail instead of trying to find my long lost mother I’m gonna kick your ass So Hard.)

((And like of course I should have expected something like this coming up with Glimmer’s backstory, ‘mysterious missing parents’ is like free plot food for the DM. Glim was just so busy worrying about literally everything else that it never even crossed my mind that we might hit some pieces of her backstory in her home town :D ))

#d&d tag #sussitalk #parad0xymoron