#the type of campaign will also have an effect on who we will be able to romance

[p1nkcanoe]

I’ve officially started my swiss ghoul baldur’s gate 3 campaign and I’m here to ask you all for guidance:

I’ll be posting all of my bg3 swiss content using the tag #bg3 swiss so you can choose to block it or not if you don’t care to follow along with the story. I do not plan to post major spoilers for the game in case any of you desire to play the game, but will post in-game screenshots and minor spoilers based off of what’s going on, but nothing that could ruin the game.

#the type of campaign will also have an effect on who we will be able to romance #bg3 swiss #swiss ghoul #bg3 #baldur's gate 3

[crudely-drawn-ben]

Introducing Trilogy

Yesterday I released Trilogy, a new tabletop RPG crafted to support you in having grand adventures in worlds of your own making.

There are several reasons I started writing Trilogy, but the biggest one is that I ran a Dungeon World podcast called Crudely Drawn Swords for seven years and that was a lot of time to think about what we were playing. To a degree Trilogy is the game I wish that we could have had to run the podcast.

Starting from the question "what would a purely PbtA game for epic fantasy look like?" I started thinking more widely - what do I want from a fantasy game? And the truth is that I want a game that supports the structure of characters and their interactions but doesn't tie itself to a specific setting.

Trilogy begins with The Appendices - conventionally in epic fantasy these are at the end and document information about the wider world that might not have made it into the story, but here it is where you sit down as a group and decide what tone you want your game to have, and your world looks like. What kind of place is it? What magic is there? What is religion like? What are the major cultures where the story begins? How would it feel to be in this world? Trilogy doesn't tell you any of these things, it gives you the tools to think through how you want your world to look.

This creates a secondary challenge - without knowing what the world looks like, how could I design character classes for this type of game? Trilogy answers this by going back to the fundamentals - instead of a conventional character class, the playbooks in Trilogy represent a narrative arc. Some of them, like The Fighter, The Priest, or The Magus, look like familiar classes. Others, such as The Volunteer, The Mentor, The Weapon, or The Defeated, are a little different. Character arcs have a set of turning points, story beats that allow you to advance along your arc after you have collected a certain amount of experience. Some are positive and others negative, you choose which ones you want to hit and when, but every character's story has its highs and lows and to get the most from the game you need to lean into both. A character can pass through three arcs as they grow and change, like the three volumes of a trilogy.

The aim of the game is to create a slower but satisfying sense of progression - instead of hit points characters take Stress and Harm like in other Powered by the Apocalypse games that can have both mechanical and narrative effects. That makes combat feel dangerous, but the game also offers more ways to solve problems without getting into combat - I have played games where the player characters never got into a fight, instead resolving confrontations through an ingenious selection of alternative strategies including "lying" and "vomiting magic ink all over the floor." I'm genuinely enthusiastic about this game - I think I would be as excited about it if somebody else had written it. It leans hard into the joy of discovery and the excitement of adventure - you can play it as spooky and whimsical or gritty and hard-edged and anywhere in between.

Because I was writing it I even got to make most of the examples of play roll out as the story of someone's game, something I always appreciate when I read it. It also contains every technique I use as a GM in the hope that even before people get the chance to play it (heaven forbid any TTRPG afficionado have books we haven't got around to playing yet!) people who read it will still be able to use that advice in their other games. So that's Trilogy, the game I've been working on for the last few years. I think it's pretty great and I hope you will too:

Obviously it's a full-priced game and that's a big gamble from an unfamiliar creator - if you want an idea of what it's like in practice we've got the CDS team back together and we're starting a streamed campaign so you have a chance to see it in action. You can find that over on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxpXacko9Nc

The first episode includes me notably failing to use OBS at both the beginning and end, and I can't make any promises things will improve in that regard, but it should be a good opportunity to see how the game shapes up from this start and with this crew I know it's going to be funny and take some wild swings. If you're interested in reviewing Trilogy or you really want to give it a try but you can't afford it, drop me a message

#ttrpgs #indie ttrpg #pbta #epic fantasy #fantasy

[anim-ttrpgs]

It was mentioned that EUREKA would be the easiest DM-able system ever. From a newcomer's perspective, how is it so?

Well, firstly, it strongly encourages the use of prewritten adventure modules, which just already take a lot of work off the GM's shoulders, and maybe others can elaborate on how much of a burden that is lifting, but it isn't exactly very unique to Eureka.

What Eureka does do however is have rules and play advice which enourages, or even necessitates, players and player-characters taking initiative and driving the story themselves with their own deliberate actions, rather than sitting back and asking the GM "okay where are our characters going next?" The game in general both encourages and facilitates a very hands-off GM approach where the GM's main job is to be a referee for the rules and a voice for the NPCs, not a novelist that inserts the names of the PCs into their plot. There's a lot of similarity here between this approach and a lot of OSR type games' "situations, not plots" approach. This makes feel more like playing a game than being a full-time job.

None of the character abilities in Eureka necessitate that a certain NPC exist for them to work, meaning the GM will never have to come up with a whole character on the fly that has a whole believable relationship with the PCs. In fact, there is an optional system in Eureka by which the players are the ones who come up with NPCs their PCs know, using a series of questions to formulate their relationship to one-another and then handing that over to the GM.

Many things that are traditionally up to the GM in many other RPGs or RPG-groups such as note-taking and in-game time-keeping are instead explicitly assigned to a player.

The system just also has a lot of rules for helping GMs make calls in many different situations, rather than having to arbitrate a bunch of mechanical effects on the fly, and has very simple and easy-to-work-with NPC stat-lines.

All of these things and more add up to a lighter workload for the GM, so that instead of the effort investment in a 1-GM-4-player group being split 80-5-5-5-5% like in D&D5e and many other popular systems, in Eureka it's split more like 40-15-15-15-15%.

Check out our Kickstarter page for the best accumulation of info on what Eureka: investigative Urban Fantasy even is! The Kickstarter campaign launches April 10th 2024!

Check out our Patreon to get the whole prerelease rulebook + multiple adventure modules and pieces of short fiction for a subscription of only $5!

If you wanna try before you buy, check out our website for more information on Eureka as well as a download link to the free demo version!

Interested in actually playing this game, and many others, with the developers? Check out A.N.I.M.'s TTRPG Book Club, a club of nearly 100 members at the time of writing this where we regularly nominate, vote on, and then play indie TTRPGs! At the time of writing this, we are playing Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, and sign-ups are closed for actually playing it, but you can still join in to pick up a PDF club copy of the rulebook to read and follow along with discussion, and sit in on and observe sessions! There is no schedule obligation for joining this club, as we keep things very flexible by assigning multiple GMs with different timeslots each round, to try and accomodate everyone! This round, we had over thirty people sign up, and were able to fit in all but one! Here is the invite link! See you there!

#monsters #eureka #eureka: investigative urban fantasy #ttrpg #rpg #roleplaying #coc #tabletop #DMing #DM #dungeon master #game master #GM #indie game #indie #indie games #indiegames #ttrpg design #ttrpg tumblr #indie ttrpg #ttrpg community #ttrpg character #dungeons and dragons #pathfinder #dnd

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Chauncey Devega

As I have previously explored in a series of conversations with cult and mind control expert Steven Hassan, Donald Trump meets most if not all the characteristics of a cult leader. Trump holds extreme power over his followers, who subsume their own identities and will to him. He persuades them to reject their own perceptions of reality and to trust only him and his approved messengers. To a large degree, they have lost the ability to engage in what psychologists describe as "reality testing."

Trump's mug shot, taken at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta last Thursday, is as an image of murderous rage and a bottomless lust for revenge. Trump has already used it to raise yet more campaign cash. In all probability, Trump's upcoming criminal trials will only make him more popular and powerful among his core followers, not less.

Like other cult movements, the MAGA phenomenon is rooted in manipulation and psychological abuse. Trump effectively exploits the death anxieties and other existential fears of his followers, presenting himself as their only protector and savior. The MAGA cult is authoritarian, preying on lonely, socially isolated and otherwise vulnerable people and providing them with a sense of order, meaning, community and destiny.

A poll conducted from Aug. 16 to 18 by CBS News/YouGov demonstrates just how firm Trump's power over his followers continues to be. A large majority of Republican voters view Trump as "honest and trustworthy," which would be hilarious if it were not deeply alarming. Furthermore, "Trump's voters hold him as a source of true information, even more so than other sources, including conservative media figures, religious leaders, and even their own friends and family." When asked who they believe tells them the truth, 71% of Trump voters picked him, more than picked friends and family members (63%), right-wing media commentators (56%) and religious leaders (only 42%).

Beyond the numbers, mental health expert Dr. Justin Frank, author of the bestseller "Trump on the Couch," perceives a tragic and pathetic human dimension to the CBS News poll, as he told me by email:

“What this poll doesn't measure or explain is the cause and effect of the profound loyalty of Trump's core supporters. It's this factor that continues to baffle pundits and call into question everything we thought we knew about American politics and the future of democracy. How did these startling figures come to be?

Trump taps into specific needs certain people have to love and to feel loved in return. People who feel they have been lied to — whether as children or adults — yearn for a person or group to trust, in which to place unwavering faith. While I think this type of blind loyalty to Trump is a delusion, it's also a common human experience. In some people it overwhelms an otherwise healthy emotional state in which most of us simultaneously understand that authority figures can be both admirable and disappointing. Televangelists are able to captivate and exploit their vulnerable audiences for this reason. It's also why cash (from many who can ill afford it) pours into Trump's coffers each time he's indicted for a new crime.

As I wrote in 'Trump on the Couch,' Donald Trump himself felt lied to by his parents, which binds him and his fan base even closer. Trump provides the kind of love they crave because he instinctively meets those unconscious needs, in part because he shares them unconsciously himself.”

Frank further suggests that Trump "invites maternal love" from many of his followers, who "are touched at a deep level by their awareness of his neediness, which endears them to him":

“In his rallies he repeats 'believe me' the way a child does when telling a lie or feeling unloved. He is quick to ... paint himself as a maligned victim. He becomes someone they want to protect from assault ... [by] sharing his sense of betrayal with his audience and psychologically merging with their own histories of having been disappointed. What evolves is an inability to differentiate oneself from the idolized other that results in an emotional bond that is deep and thrilling to share. To those outside the mystical Trump romance, this unconditional love makes no sense. We call that kind of love a cult. How can such an overt liar and accused criminal can be so admired?”

What we don't remember when we see such a cult in operation, Frank says, is that all children seek to protect "the image of their loved parents from the inevitable disbeliefs and hurts that even the best parents create":

“They do this by splitting their early experiences into good and bad, black and white. What evolves is a yearning for comfort, aided by binary thinking, from a figure who is only good, despite any evidence to the contrary.

So, here we are as a nation, confused and divided in the darkness of our deepest fears and needs. Trump offers his devoted flock a shared sense of purpose and meaning. They've been groomed to look outside for someone to safeguard their best interests and provide shared faith and support. I think it may not be possible for those diehard Trump adherents to discover that this a dangerous illusion.”

I also asked Jen Senko, director of the documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad," about what insights she could share on the findings of the CBS News poll regarding Trump's hold over his followers. She said she found it "stupid, and maddening, that many on television 'news' seem shocked" by the poll's findings:

“Have they been living under a rock? More likely they've been living in denial because it's a lot easier than accepting the truth. ... Though many of us understand this now, too little emphasis has been put on how millions of Americans lost their minds and became right-wing zombies. It's the media, stupid! ... As someone who saw the writing on the wall decades ago and made a documentary about it in 2016, it's particularly frustrating. Too many people laughed at Rush Limbaugh. Too many people thought Fox News was a legitimate 'conservative' alternative to the 'liberal media.' Too many people didn't question the barrage of email propaganda (often put out by think tanks and disguised as homespun bits of wisdom) emphasizing over and over: Democrats bad, Democrats evil. Democrats not real Americans. Republicans are all that is good and holy.

Limbaugh was allowed to get on the Armed Forces Network. Fox News is still on it, and became the go-to news station for bus stations, airports, restaurants, bars, doctors' offices. When humans immerse themselves in false information that gets repeated, it stands to reason that millions of them become "cultified" right-wing zombies. What can be done about it, I leave to the experts. When will America acknowledge that we are in an information war? That's what worries me every day.”

Former right-wing pundit Rich Logis was immersed in TrumpWorld and the MAGA movement for years, but managed to escape. He said it was an "irrefutable fact" that MAGA had a cultlike ethos:

“I know this because I was once quite deep in the MAGA rabbit hole. Had Trump won in 2020, I probably would have gone deeper into it, with the odds of escaping close to zero.

There are two prevailing ties that bind the MAGA cult. The first is that Trump is an omniscient, omnipotent, martyred savior of America; some believe him to be sent by God. (Note that Ron DeSantis poached this heresy last year, in his re-election campaign.) Martyrdom is the final stage of cult leadership, and to those in a cult, it is the outside world who are deceived. Those in this first category are willing to see through the cult to its fiery end. The second is among those who are ... politically traumatized by their hyper-partisan, paralytic, paranoid worldview that Democrats, socialists, communists and Marxists have long conspired to tyrannically infringe upon their rights and freedoms. I knew some who fell into one, or both, categories.”

Logis suggests that Trump's voters should not be dehumanized "and had some valid motivations for supporting Trump, even though he exploited those concerns and fears":

“We must, as a nation, build a broad consensus that electing Trump was one of the most egregious mistakes in our history. Admitting when we're wrong is an unnatural act, but it is possible — and liberating. When I look back at my MAGA time, I remain stunned at the level of political trauma I put upon myself; my hope is that others will begin to recognize their own trauma, which has been, to some extent, self-inflicted.”

The only real hope for awakening or deprogramming MAGA cult members, Logis said, will come from "resounding losses of MAGA candidates next year, up and down the ballot. Though such losses will probably not 'save' most MAGA voters, it will, likely, save some — and 'some' equals millions of Americans."

Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, now a leading never-Trumper conservative and democracy advocate, described the CBS News polls findings as "the least surprising thing ever." I conclude here with his words of warning:

“Three and a half years ago, while campaigning in Des Moines against Trump, I asked 40 people in line to enter a Trump rally if Donald Trump had ever told a lie. All 40 Trump supporters said no, Donald Trump had never told a lie. I knew then and there that my primary challenge against Trump was hopeless, but I also knew then and there that my soon-to-be-former political party was hopelessly gone too. I knew then and there what I'd sensed for the past six years: The Republican Party is a cult, an authoritarian-embracing, truth-denying cult. So what do we do about it? Well, we all come together in 2024 to defeat this anti-democracy cult. Again. That's job No. 1. But my other job is to continue to try to rescue members of the Trump cult. That's not a job for everyone, but as someone who helped create the cult and then escaped from the cult, it's my job. It's my penance.”

#us politics #republicans #conservatives #news #salon #donald trump #gop #op eds #Chauncey Devega #Steven Hassan #trump supporters #maga #cult #Dr. Justin Frank #Trump on the Couch #Jen Senko #The Brainwashing of My Dad #Rich Logis #Joe Walsh #2024 elections #2024 presidential race #polling #polls #cbs news #yougov #2023

[emblazonet]

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD!! It's so good! This is 100% my favourite Pern book so far. The characters are all great. The setting felt alive and interesting. The stakes were fucking high. I knew Moreta was going to die, in the way you know Vanyel is going to die in The Last Herald-Mage trilogy, because we're going back in time to explore the life of a characters from an in-universe ballad, and it made me love her more.

It's also about a pandemic, but in a soothing way? Honestly it was SUCH a relief to read a story about people just fucking doing the work of Dealing With A Contagious Flu without much of the bullshittery we've all had to live through these past three years.

This got long, so more under the cut!

There are no psycho anti-vax cults in Pern. The small population scattered over a continent that's constantly being besieged by Thread does not, generally, have the luxury of either the greed we've gotten to witness IRL nor the misinformation campaigns. Characters that hoard are stolen from; characters who try to prevent vaccination are villains in the narrative and the good guys go into their territory to vaccinate—that's Moreta's final heroic moment! She dies, not from the disease but from exhaustion, to ensure everyone gets vaccinated to PREVENT A SECOND WAVE.

I expected to feel re-traumatized by the pandemic conflict. Instead, it felt healing to read about these characters. It felt affirming. It made me feel better about my choice to continue wearing a mask in public. It felt invigorating: ok, so my world isn't as sensible as Pern's, but it's still worth it to fight disease, to fight the depression and apathy—in short, it did exactly what a fantasy book is supposed to do. Inspire. I don't know that this will be everyone's take away, but it was mine.

This book gets so much right, I can't even believe this is the same author who wrote all those other Pern books I've read so far. (How did we jump from the crap of The White Dragon into this? HOW?) All these things:

Despite there being SO MANY characters, the book largely juggles its cast well, and while I often forgot names, the context usually helped me out. Every character actually felt unique and distinct and like they had different lives they were living.

Moreta and Alessan's relationship was so well done. You know it's not a romance that will go anywhere, so it feels precious when they snatch some time together. Also, Alessan is just an attractive dude character? Unlike any other of the male leads in a Pern book, Alessan appeals to me.

The relationship between Moreta and the older queen rider, Leri—UGH MY HEART. At the beginning of the book I was worried Moreta would have the 'not like other girls' vibe... I needn't worried. Leri as mentor, accomplice and friend is everything I could have asked for in a female friendship. And Moreta has other relationships and positive experiences with women, and it's so good, but what she has with Leri is so special.

The way the book builds this yearning for Moreta to be able to fly Orlith again, and then at the end she's with Leri's exhausted Holth, and they die away from their partners in the line of duty—I CRIED OK. It was so much. It was so good.

Only small bits of time travel, smart avoidance of paradoxes, thank you.

I was super invested in Moreta's healing of the Thread-damaged dragon wings. The whole process of healing dragons was super interesting!

Loved that Threadfall kept on happening throughout, it made the stakes even higher in the best way possible.

There were things I think could have been better:

I didn't enjoy Moreta's introduction and it made me feel like the book was gonna suck lol, she was arguing with Nesso and then talking about her body in a way that just felt dated and weird.

Everyone on Pern must have the same blood type I guess? Because they're just using extracted blood to make the vaccine, and the vaccine appears to have no ill effect. Honestly, the book had so much going on I'm pretty grateful it didn't go into Accurate Medical Science, but it did feel incredibly oversimplified.

Telgar Weyr's Weyrleader just sort of like decides everyone's not allowed into his territory and fuck you guys but I didn't really get a feel for that character at all or where he was coming from? So it undermined Moreta's end sacrifice a bit, because the ending felt rushed.

I really wanted Sh'gall to do something so egregiously annoying that someone yelled at him. Sh'gall was basically the comic relief though, I generally enjoyed how useless he was lol.

Overall? 11/10 and I REALLY hope the rest of the Pern books are this good! I'm going to pick back up in January with Nerilka's Story.

#Amber reads Pern #Dragonriders of Pern #Moreta #straight up I enjoyed this one even more than Dragonsong #wish we'd globally handled the pandemic like they did on Pern #still losing my mind that runnerbeasts are just horses #ffs #I'm gonna have to design a weird equine for pern

[ideahat-universe]

TimTams

So I've been playing emulated games for a few years now. Loving it honestly. My pattern is playing a Pokemon Romhack and then a RPG that is not Pokemon.

Sometimes it's another monster tamer/collector but not always.

What it is, is constantly exciting and fun and there's no shortage of games to play. But that doesn't mean I'm not interested in adding more to the queue. One of these days I'll be able to afford the Steamdeck and when that happens I'll be playing some Monster Tamer games that Steam has on offer.

So I went shopping. I found the ones people mentioned during the Palworld toss up, Nexomon, Coromon, Monster Sanctuary.

I get to Temtem, and I see this.

What the heck happened???

I thought this game was good? A better alternative to play than Palworld which was a cheap knockoff that didn't deserve our time and attention?

Did any of that sound familiar?

Those seem familiar too.

It almost seems like people make Monster Catcher games and if it's mildly popular it gets compared to Pokemon and is called a "Pokemon Clone" and after the hype dies down everyone goes back to playing the latest Pokemon game, they don't even bother playing any other Monster Catcher game unless some Youtuber asshole makes a video about it with the label "it's Pokemon but better!"

I made that article where I said Palworld was mask off Pokemon and I stand by it and I can stand by it because Palworld is basically everything Pokemon doesn't really want to be, but secretly was for the years the devs couldn't figure out just what should and shouldn't be canonical in the Pokemon world.

But I just want to make the PSA that you shouldn't call things the X killer. Because that basically never happens. Franchises kill themselves. They don't typically get killed by a competitor.

A competing brand does something that the standard is lacking but the leading brand is also delivering a low quality product that people are discontent with and willing to move on.

Not to get political but the Bud Light effect that conservatives wear on themselves as a badge of honor is really more about how beer sales in general have been on the decline

Don't believe me? Here's an article from 2019 that more or less says that Domestic Beer sales were starting to slip.

People still drink beer though. In doing this research I noticed a rise in Craft beers so what's really happening is that leading beer brands that were the face of cheap, shitty beer that everyone drank because it was ubiquitous were now being reconsidered and the end result was that Bud Light was already a beer that people didn't like, they just used the boycott as an excuse to stop drinking beer, drink different leading beers (and liking it more than Bud Light!), or indulging in craft or different types of alcohol altogether.

So if we circle back to the beginning where we talked about "Pokemon Killers" the reality is that Pokemon can only kill itself and it will kill itself once there are poor sales resulting from being the face of mediocrity that everyone is willing to jump ship from.

The problem being is that even with Pokemon being mediocre it's not bad enough for people to rebel from the brand.

Look at the people in the comment section of that video. Does that look like an audience of people who are ready to stop drinking Bud Light?

I don't think so!

Really think about that trailer, no game play so it's worthless beyond telling us what the setting will be, Mega evolution will probably return but Mega Evolution is a controversial power up given that depending on the Pokemon, you could be subjecting them to an immense amount of pain just to win a fight (and competitively only a couple of Mega Evolutions really matter and you never need Mega Evolutions to win a fight in the campaign).

And lets be honest. If its just the same turn based system with very little else added on the side for flavor, you won't be getting out of this new game that you wouldn't get from a Pokemon Romhack (That includes Mega Evolutions).

Except, ya know. The Romhack is free. If you're a poke-maniac you own physical copies of gen 1-5 so you have the legal right to dump your game and patch it however you like.

You can do that or maybe even buy Palworld, or Nexomon, or Digimon, or TemT- Wait. Maybe not TemTem.

I mean that Magnakamen video does a decent job at explaining why a poke-maniac will never abandon Bud Light, but how about me?

What do I think?

Well, I don't play MMOs and given that this game came out as an MMO at around 2020 is ridiculous, because by 2020 it was already evident that MMO is a reaper genre. Most games in that genre die, forever.

Hey, you came up with a really cool idea for a Four Swords style game. You made it an MMO? DEAD FOREVER.

Hey, you came up with a really cool idea for a snowboarding game. You made it an MMO? DEAD FOREVER.

Hey, you came up with a really cool RPG that is like WoW but with a bunch of quality of life stuff in it. Wait, it's a WoW killer? DEAD FOREVER.

When you make an always online game that needs to have other people playing it for it to be fun you are asking for the game to die forever someday.

Ross Scott is going to court over this but that's a subject for another time, but the fact that the Temtem devs made a Monster Tamer MMO is actually quite dumb.

I get why they wanted to do that though they wanted to make a balanced competitive scene. Competitive Pokemon but not rife with cheaters and overburdened with hundreds of Pokemon that are unplayable in anything above RU, but making a game that is designed with competitive players primarily in mind is like making healthy cereal.

Just eat an apple forehead.

If you make a game with competent AI or possibly AI that can be modified by the player to suit their tastes, you don't need strong competition from some stranger who hacked their team together. You would play competitive for fun. You'd get your favorite creatures and then you'd pit them against your friend and his favorite creatures. Not a stranger, someone you know. When you play a competitive game with friends that's when those games are fun.

When you play competitive games with strangers. You become Tyler1.

That looks like fun right? Just sweating profusely over every little thing someone is doing in a competitive match and just ranting about the game balance and how the game is being ruined by the players, the devs, or both? And then if we aren't having this eternal struggle about how the game is being balanced the game is just dead?

Yeah, that's what really did TemTem in. Not the semantic bullshit that Mangakamen was complaining about that only someone who isn't ready to give up drinking Bud Light would come up.

What really killed TemTem was that making an MMO is a bad idea and making a game based around fostering a competitive environment is also bad.

It's okay though! TemTem is also becoming Vampire Survivors with TemTem Swarm. Not making a good single player TemTem, just making a spinoff TemTem.

Hm, we won't be adding TemTem to the queue.

#fandom #controversy #pokemon #rpgs #temtem #Youtube

[smokeybrandreviews]

Faerie Tales

I am in full Fate/Grand Order mode right now and it's paying off nicely. I think. It's an odd thing to juggle three mobile titles (FGO, Azur Lane, and Ever Crisis), Baldur's gate 3, Persona 3 Reload, and my millionth run at Mass Effect Legendary. I got too many games on my plate right now. I feel like i should pull back on something but, at the same time, nah? Like, P3R is my sh*t and i am absolutely in love with BG3. I dunno, maybe I'll reassess eventually but my crippling gaming addiction has only a nebulous effect on my choice to continue grinding through the admittedly frustrating and horrifically pay-walled world of the Grand Orders. I do it because i shill hard for Nasu and have for actual decades. Plus, some of the stories are really cool. F*cking Avalon le Fae was peak Type Moon and i cannot wait until the Dragon Slayer money runs out so they have UFOtable animate that sh*t. Interestingly enough, the Faeries are kind of why I'm even writing this update.

Yo, i popped Barghest! Tam Lin Gawain is easily my favorite of the Faerie Knights. I mean, Melusine is but Barghest is definitely right there with her. Of the newer Servants released since i lost my first account, She ranks right up there in the top ten. Actually, i think she was number nine. Albion was number one, but making it into that top ten is a feat in of itself. Dozens of dope ass servants were added in my years long hiatus and the Black Dog made it to the top of the top. It just kind of blows she's a Saber. I'm lousy with Sabers. A good portion of my Five-Stars are Sabers. Like, i already have Mordred, she will NEVER leave my party, and Artoria. They are powerhouses in their own right but i also have Okita and Altera as back up. That's four Five-Star Sabers. Where the f*ck does my Hellhound even fit? Still, i am mad hype to pop her off the Artoria Caster Banner, because i did it with some bullsh*t Summon Tickets! Pretty sure i got Artoria doing that, too, but that's not why I'm happy.

You see, that Caster Banner is part of the Twenty Million Downloads campaign. Also [art of that, are two special summon tickets, one for a Four-Star Craft Essence and the other for a Four-Star Servant. I was going to use that ticket on Barghest, even though i already have a ton of Sabers. That's how much i like the character. Popping her off that banner allows me to choose a different Servant now, one that i actually need. I have one Avenger and it's Hessian Lobo. That guy sucks. I mean, it's fine, but it ain't Demon Nobu. However, there is another Four-Star Avenger who i had on my old account. An Avenger that happens to be a Medusaface, and we all know how much of a sucker i am for Medusa. Not only did i get a Barghest on one of the most improbable ways possible, but i was able to outright choose Gorgon! I was able to secure a much need Avenger option AND the Black Dog I've wanted since Avalon was released! Honestly, I wish I had one more of those free tickets. I'm set on Gorgon, for sure, but Lancer Artoria Alter is an option, too, and she's kind of my favorite Artoria. There's just something about an Alter which really does it for me.

I'm actually really very pleased with this account right now. Sucks I'm still missing a ton of Servants that i want, but progress is being made. I mentioned in my last update i was able to finally acquire Anastasia but, since then, I've also added Ivan the Terrible, Anne Bonny and Marie Reed, Assassin Okita, and Lakshmibai. These are all solid additions, even though they aren't necessarily Servants i would personally choose for myself. I mean, Ivan is, that gigantic motherf*cker is a powerhouse, but considering i don't run at FGO Banners like i do Azur Lane ones, the fact that i have any Five-Stars is kind of a blessing. Obviously, my Mordred is coming along nicely. I've been able to both unlock and max out her second Append Skill, while grinding away at the monumental task of getting that eleventh Bond Level. Right now, that's the current quest. Oh, somehow, i was able to naturally roll a second Mordred so she's got a level two Noble Phantasm now. Just three to go! I'm just chipping away, man. Slowly but surely, I'll have my max Mordred.

#Fate #Fate/Grand Order #Type Moon #Barghest #Gorgon

[lunarbard]

I realize this is influenced by it being one of my favorite media series, but I have a firm belief that most Metroid games have a lot of design elements to look to for inspiration when designing an adventure-oriented ttrpg campaign, especially one with anything resembling a dungeon in structure.

While scenario design that facilitates exploration is vital for those types of games, I also think that Metroid has another gameplay element in the upgrades for some of its games that offers an avenue of solution to a problem in specifically D&D 5e campaigns: beam stacking.

Metroid: Zero Mission & Super Metroid especially are generally designed in such a way that once you get a strong enough beam upgrade (especially the plasma beam), they make back tracking easier because you can just sprint down a hallway firing away and you'll deal with any enemies before they can hurt you. It makes backtracking easier & rewarding.

AM2R easily has the best take on this with how it gives you the ice beam last and made it the super weapon of the game for clearing out corridors as you move about. Prime 3 is a close 2nd with how the x-ray visor + nova beam explicitly let you one-shot certain enemies.

Metroid Dread is the antithesis of this, since the main damage upgrades you get for your arm cannon are immediately followed by every enemy in the environment getting buffed. Dread also has the problem of sucking to backtrack in since enemies are designed to be killed by countering (requiring you to have to wait to bait out their counter-able attack), rather than just the "run down with your arm cannon pointing up and kill everything" style of a game like ZM. (I enjoy Dread, but Mercury Steam seems to really struggle with the exploration element of Metroid).

Before we apply this to D&D though, a disclaimer: I do not hold any of my encounters or monsters as precious; I do not hang my sessions on a single combat for how "cool" I think it will be. Combat is just one procedure for overcoming an obstacle, and a risky one at that; it is more often than not the fail state of the party's primary plan going awry.

In a lot of D&D games & off shoots, the game incentivizes a power treadmill as players go from killing goblins at level 1 to dragons at level 10. Throw those same goblins at a level 10 5e party though, and your barbarians, fighters, rangers, and paladins will feel like shit as in 10 levels, while their wizard friend can fireball a horde 8 times before needing a back up plan, they have barely doubled in their effective ability to reduce the enemy's numbers. Throw something bigger, like a bugbear, and it might only be an improvement to 2 turns instead of 3 needed to slay it.

So, beam stacking: as the party explores the world, they can improve their weapons (and implements) to more effectively deal with previously troublesome enemies. Vital to this element is that foes are components of a recurring faction, rather than one-off fights. This has no effect if the party never fights the same type of foe and so never sees how much more effective they are against them.

For my current campaign, the general structure I have in place is that magic weapon enhancement ranges from +1 to +5. At each even number (+2, +4) the weapon gains an additional die of damage (so a +2 mace deals 2d6 damage, instead of 1d6). The heroes' weapons will also improve when they accomplish legendary deeds, increasing the renown of the tools they carry (and thus the power of those tools).

A weapon can bind a number of additional special properties up to 1 + its enhancement bonus. Properties can be granted by obscure magic or by an arcane smith forging special materials into the weapon.

Monsters have a lot of tags - see an Eternal Ogre, which is a mutant brute in the army of demon-magic soldiers in this campaign:

fiendish & monstrous apply for a ranger's favored foe, while the miasmic and metamorph tags indicate its type for vulnerabilities.

Metamorph creatures are those who have been wholly mutated by magic. Weapons infused with lunarium are twice as effective against them.

Miasmic foes are those who have been infused with or made of dark energy, such as demons & undead. Radiant damage is twice as effective against them, and weapons infused with Celestine are thrice as effective against them (the radiant component a paladin's smite with a celestine weapon would deal x4 of its normal damage).

The party has been skirmishing with eternals a fair bit in the area they're currently solving, and after fighting some eternals, including an ogre, they managed to get some of their weapons infused with lunarium. The next time they faced eternals, they required fewer resources to deal with the ogres (which was good, since they needed those resources to deal with the hellhounds & Eternal Elites in the fray).

Eternal soldiers are the occupying force of the dark lord in this campaign, so the party will be dealing with the many soldiers of their ranks throughout the campaign. As the heroes become legends and find ancient magic & materials to improve their equipment, they'll have a progressively easier time cleaving through the forces of evil.

#ttrpg #campaign design #metroid #tabletop roleplaying #d&d #d&d 5e

[logelitepvtltd]

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#ads #advertising #advertiement #ad #adsense #advertise #usa #services

[rotationalsymmetry]

I think a lot of it comes down to: how do you feel about the political action you take, regardless of type? What affect does it have on your life?

Some people get chewed up and spit out by electoral campaigning. Some people get chewed up and spit out, and perhaps dealing with quite a bit of prison time, from direct action. Some people get chewed up and spit out from nonprofit work. And there is potential in all three to find meaning, purpose, satisfaction, fulfillment.

I’m not saying that “how does this affect your life” should be the only concern, “I feel good when I do this” isn’t the same as “this actually makes things better” after all, but it should be a factor. Because different people get burnt out by different things, and sometimes doing the same thing but with different people is the difference between wrecking your health and being able to keep things up like this for years or decades.

One reason I used to do Food Not Bombs a lot is because I figured if I wanted an alternative to the capitalist wage-slavery economic system, there would need to be some way to feed people, so I figured FNB was one part of building a world based on mutual aid, not on coercion. Another reason was because I really like cooking. And as it turns out, specifically doing work in an all-volunteer environment where there’s nobody who really doesn’t want to be there and no competition for promotions and pay raises and so on, feels really good to me. I love it. The lack of health insurance etc wasn’t great, but god damn working without a boss is the best thing ever.

I’ve also done election stuff and I’ve done canvassing and you know, I did my best to look for silver linings. But I hate canvassing. You’re going around bothering people who don’t really want to interact with you and if they don’t do enough of what you want them to (give you money) you get fired. It sucks. But that’s me, I’m an introvert and I got no social skills, some people don’t hate canvassing, I think.

Anyways what I mean is you need both: doing a thing you think is effective and worthwhile, and doing something that doesn’t make you hate your life. Or perhaps even something you’d enjoy doing even if you didn’t think it had to be done, you know?

And electoral stuff for me can be either one, some of the things I’ve done haven’t been good for me and I ended up feeling like a wrung out sponge, sometimes it’s been worth doing even when we lost.

[gargoylepuke999]

STRANGER THINGS 5: A NEW EVIL

DISCLAIMER: i am not a THEORY GUY. i am a FAN who is CHRONICALLY ONLINE and TOTALLY NORMAL about this show. this is just me SAYING SHIT.

Hear me out…So apparently after the first season, people were theorizing how the thessalhydra could make an appearance in season 2. Obviously, that never happened—it ended up being the mind flayer instead right? I guess, eventually, people forgot about it, which is fair considering it was only mentioned like, 5 times. But, because im a fucking nerd i and read too much into everything, i realized that the thessalhydra, or any other monster alike to it, was never mentioned again. Of course, it could just be a slip up or inconsistency or fuckin any other excuse they conjure up, but i dont like that way. Heres a different reason i like better

THEORY: THE THESSALHYDRA, OR SOME MONSTER LIKE IT, WILL BE A NEW VILLAIN IN SEASON 5

Wills painting depicted a dragon of some sort with several heads--the thessalhydra also has several heads

There are other theories of Wills art foreshadowing the future. In season 2 when he was possessed he draw a map of the town, purely from his subconscious.

Because he is still tethered to the upside down and/or vecna, hes still able to foresee the future—even if he doesnt know it—specifically the painting he gave to mike in season four. Its of the partys d&d characters facing a dragon type creature wearing three heads. To be fair, the thessalhydra can have up to 9, but the fact that they both have over 1 i count as a similarity.

Alot of people think theres gonna be a dragon next season—personally i dont think it makes sense, just a fucking dragon comin outa nowhere. The GA wouldnt clock it unless it looked exactly like it, or there was some flashback to the painting, or something. Idk, i just think itd be tricky. But the thessalhydra could work for several reasons: 1. its been mentioned verbally in the past, so it would be easier for the audience to remember it. 2. it could make as a sort of realization that their d&d games are having an effect on the real world.

Mike, will, even dustin or lucas would be the first to have that epiphany. I feel like that would give the main party a reason to stick together as they go over everything that happened in their campaigns, try n think of what the fuck is gonna happen next so they can be prepared.

Alternatively; they could be tryin to figure out what campaign could happen next, and before they do the thessalhydra jumps out and theyre like “shit, how did we not realize? it was so long ago…” etcetera etcetera

When vecna shows nancy "the future", she described what she saw to be "a giant creature with a gaping mouth"

The first reason could easily be explained as just a coincidence, but this part kinda sold me ngl. In season four nancy described what she saw in her vision: the town up in flames, dead soldiers, a dark cloud looming over the city, the four gates, but also a another monster. I watched her vision in .25x speed n there was no fucking monster. She goes onto say there were more—a whole ass army of em (probably demodogs).

Anyway, she described the creature as one weve never seen before (unless the mind flayer has another form or sum). I think it looks a lot like the thessalhydra. And these things are like…huge

And so far, everything vecnas showed her has come true

D&D games in stranger things have a record of predicting the future--in the finale of season 1, the party's faced with the thessalhydra. Will defeats it with his fireball (to which he rolled a 14 to cast but thats just the delusional in me 💀)

Ion got a picture for this one but most of yall will know what im talkin about. this is actually another theory thats popular among the fandom. There are tons of variations of it, but ill judt be talkin about the main theme

So whenever a game of d&d is played, it reflects onto real life events (re: season 1 with the demogorgon, season 4 with vecna). Just think of jumanji. Almost all games that have been played in hawkins have had an impact on the town itself— almost all.

The only ones weve seen that have never been referenced again is the one at the end of season 1 (where they defeat the thessalhydra) and in season 3 (where mike sacrifices himself for the town, but uh, ill save that for another post cuz that shit is lowkey concerning ngl)

Anyways—and im reaching with my whole ass torso—the “hoard of juju zombies” could be foreshadowing the “army of monsters” that nancy saw. the thessalhydra could show up with them <- and im talking about this like its endgame material, which it is. heres how i think it could go

Pre time skip, shit happens—i bet the army of monsters nancy spoke of will emerge from the gates. The soldiers will do everything in their power to stop them, but they dont understand whats going on, so they dont defeat them. More shit happens, the town is fled by most, then the time skip.

Its sort of post apocalyptic yk, they dont do much—just try their best to survive. there isnt much they can do. theyre mostly inside, and when theyre not they wear gas masks because of the spores in the air. theyre lives go on, but its not normal. its nowhere near normal.

Anyway, the main conflict ensues, but near the end (probably episode 7 or so) is when that monster that theyve been silently waiting for finally shows up. i think dustin, cuz hes always making the fucking connections to the ud and d&d, coins the monsters name with the analogy that fits it best—the thessalhydra. with this comes a sort of epiphany that maybe these arent just analogies for the sake of it; maybe theyre real.

so dustin tries to contact mike and will (theyre stuck in the upside down right now) to warn them of whats happening. maybe once they all reunite and are brainstorming how to defeat it, they could be like “well how did we defeat him in the game?” silence “a fireball” and will realizes he needs to help defeat it. (protective mike moment)

Yeah this post as all over the fucking place. Seriously im just spitballing. sorry if this is like, incomprehensible 💀 ight bye

#stranger things #stranger things 5 #st5 #stranger things season 5 #st s5 #will byers #will byers has powers #stranger things theory #st5 theory #jay on crack theories

[sparkbird-jewelry]

It took me thirty years to start looking into what really might be wrong with me, or different about my brain. Therapists and doctors seem to avoid getting into actual diagnosis. I’ve taken every medication there is, nothing worked. Diagnosed with side effects like depression, anxiety, aDD. Misdiagnosed by my mother who seemed to know it all. She knows jack about mental health. I’ve suffered years substance abuse, prison lost people to overdose and one after another volatile relationships. After a million videos and lectures on mental health disorders I realized that I meet all the criteria for bpd. You only have to have five of nine. I meet nine. I also meet overlapping criteria for the different types of bpd. So I’m pretty certain I have it. It took the discovery of actual self reflection to realize my emotional reactivity was problematic, not only for myself, but for those closest to me. This search was out of my desire to save one of the best partners I had ever found in my life. This person saved me and he does know it, because I have told him. He supports me in literally every way you could hope a person would. This is somewhat new feeling for me.

While my self exploration started with me, it led to a LOT of problematic issues with other people in my life as well. I ended up stopping contact with my elderly parents. Not for the fact that I don’t love them. But the reactive abuse had become too much. They began to verbally attack my terminally Ill sister as well now, and they had put her health at risk for no real reason other than to make her feel bad, emotionally.

My sister has since moved away again and I lost her all over again. The first time I lost her was when she ran away at 18 to escape the home my parents built. A home of guilt, shame and “misbehaved” daughters “from hell”. My parents always pitted us against each other and we realized this at 45. It’s heart breaking. She is my idol. She was always the literal coolest person to me. I looked up to her secretly and I want her to know how much I admire her for so many reasons. I don’t know how to tell her a lot of these things. But I hope I get the courage someday and I hope I get a chance.

I cut my mom off because I’m angry. I’m tired of feeling like her biggest “problem”. She never made me feel loved or cared for. She stigmatized me for my mental health, my substance abuse, my relationship issues. Forced me onto dangerous medications at eleven and yeah.. I was a Prozac kid. Lucky I didn’t end up in prison for life. She started this nightmare by having us, but that does not mean she gets to end it. I do this time. I love my family, but the pain my mother has caused us all, is sick. I have to watch her abuse my dad daily. My sister, my aunts, uncles, cousins and even close friends. She destroyed everything. Like a narcissistic hurricane. She fat shamed me and then put me on anti depressants but would never admit to being the actual cause of that depression. And worst of all I lost YEARS with my family members that she isolated us from. She chases my family members off and I’m left feeling isolated after her smear campaigns. I’m just done.

Now I have to work on me. I fixed my substance issues. Eleventy years clean now. I still have ocd, control issues, low self esteem, trust and abandonment issues, addiction to tobacco and weed. I still have emotional problems. I still have eating disorders and insomnia. But I’m able now to start fixing those things. I’m not completely alone. I’ve got my favorite person, and my kids. I have my sister to talk to. Some family left that still talks to us a little. I can definitely seek therapy, yet again, and be more direct this time. Looking is hard. These days they don’t even answer the phone when you call in. I have more knowledge and that’s a start. However I’m not going to run off to apologize to my mother for the abuse she put on us. She gets nothing from me. She can go stew about how she’s the victim and I’m the abuser. Let her think what she wants. I’ve seen the rage in her eyes forty years and I’m sorry to let her down, but that rage is not meant for, and should not be directed towards me. And not my sister either. Not today, not ever. She doesn’t get to hurt us anymore. We stand together against the reactive abuse, the how could you’s and the after all I’ve done for you’s. And the why don’t you appreciate me’s. No. You’ve done nothing but damage. How could we possibly appreciate that?

#bpd stuff #siblings #toxic behavior #toxic mother #healing is hard

[leam1983]

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners - Quickie

There's something to the tone of this CD Projekt RED-produced and Studio TRIGGER-developed offshoot of a troubled AAA game that's an even better representation of the original Cyberpunk 2020 tone than V's own adventures could ever hope to be.

The first five episodes are tone-setters, and the last five are stake-builders, to the point where you don't really need to have played Cyberpunk 2077 to be able to follow along. The format may be a bit disorienting, as characters frequently exchange plot details through visually-projected conference calls (similar to 2077's, minus the animated vignettes), but it at least has the merit of laying everything out clearly. You're effectively infodumped, but provided you can keep up, the pace quickly ends up feeling natural.

What absolutely is going to be a bit odd to some is the weird juxtaposition of Mike Pondsmith's Glasgow Smile-sporting rendition of terminal Capitalism, rendered as is the case in-game with a generous dose of Californian umber tones and plenty of pink neon framing; and character designs and movement studies that are, well, effectively ripped out of Kill La Kill or Gurren Lagann. Car chases that would normally be rendered in teeth-clenching seriousness either in the game or in the pen-and-paper system here turn into automotive ping-pong, with the Anime's designers playing extremely fast and delightfully loose with the various guns' power levels.

That's without mentioning the final piece of ordnance the final two episodes introduce, which sort of rips a chuckle out of you. There is definitely a point where the script for the miniseries turns into loose bylines that basically say "do whatever the Hell you want with these characters, Pondsmith's usually-prescribed tone suggests nobody's going to make it out alive, anyway."

Not that everyone actually dies, but it's clear that TRIGGER thought that past a certain point, they were free to more or less grab the characters like a child does random action figures and then smash them together while making Mouth Explosion noises. That might seem like a bad thing, but in-context; it's absolutely fine.

So, what's the plot? Well, we open to the dreary routine of one David Martinez, seventeen years old, enrolled in Arasaka Corporation's private academy. His mother is the Santo Domingo Salt-of-the-Earth type, a Night City Medical paramedic who didn't quite make the cut for Trauma Team but who's working shift after shift in order to cover her son's exorbitant tuition and equipment-related fees. Martinez himself is the type to play it fast and loose with his program's requirements, mostly to save his mom a buck or two. It works for a while, but a mixture of his own hubris and of the academy's festering elitism sees him kicked out. Before long, you're shown that even washing machine cycles running on private laundry setups are paid-for, and that Megabuildings are mostly a place for people to squat in, as opposed to thriving in.

As you can expect, Karma deals the Martinezes an excessively crummy hand, and David soon finds himself alone. Not only alone, but also expelled from school, denied housing - and with no obvious employment opportunities. None, that is, except Edgerunning.

As a term, Edgerunning's always struck me as, well, being needlessly edgy, at the risk of feeling facile. What Pondsmith's referring to is a string of high-risk, high-reward criminal entreprises, within the scope of which a brush with death is a constant possibility. Traditionally, anyone who runs a Cyberpunk pen-and-paper campaign has to provide that extreme sense of tension, something you'd find in Dungeons & Dragons if you over-leveled your mobs or that's inherent to more masochistic game systems along the lines of Zweihander. A Cyberpunk should, canonically, always be on the run from someone, running towards something, and be led along a high-stakes tale that's less about crushing the System, and more about setting the stage so you can die trying.

In that respect, the Anime's work is flawless. What starts as Transhuman pickpocketing gigs devolves into a series of individually-small mistakes, said mishaps setting the stage for a proper settling of Cyberpsychosis as a concept. TRIGGER's tone goes from the usual bursts of jovial eccentricity you know them for and then takes a hard-left into personal trauma and all-consuming drives - and of what happens when your ambitions ultimately consume you. I'm especially surprised by the visual tells they've designed for Cyberpsychos, typically beginning as eerily fluid eye-jitters in the middle of the usual expanse of TV-grade low-FPS rendering, and then devolving into blink-and-you'll-miss-it stylistic changes and warped proportions that really sell the notion of what a proper case of psychosis is - which is a variably clean break from reality.

The pacing, however, is all over the place. The first episodes feel lovingly crafted, comfortably stretching out to let the source material breathe, while the second half spiders off into a handful of side-plots that don't all consistently lead somewhere. Some characters disappear without much fanfare and appear without much more consideration. All that's missing is one of YouTube's signature comedians known for their loud and random insertions to barge in and yell "ELLIPSIS!" during a scene change.

"ELLIPSIS! DAVID IS SHREDDED NOW, DON'T ASK QUESTIONS! ELLIPSIS! THEY HAVE A FIXER NOW, AND GIANCARLO ESPOSITO IS HAMMING IT UP FOR A PAYCHECK! ELLIPSIS! MARTINEZ IS HAVING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES!"

On the plus-side, one of these weird jump-cuts is a rather obvious callback to the game's notorious bugginess upon release, with Martinez phasing through an oncoming car just before a sudden and jarringly hilarious four-lane car T-Bone-a-ganza occurs and sends Night City's big and chunky Chevillons flying across the screens like pool balls bouncing around.

The series acts like the viewer's just going to pick things up as they go without much lag, and expects them to pick up on concepts mentioned once and never properly framed. That leads to a situation where the preferrable watching experience is Ye Olde Netflix Binge Watch, seeing as everything can remain consistently fresh. If you watch one episode per day or week, you might find yourself asking "Who's that guy again? Why does he have four eyes? Why the Hell is Arasaka Counterintel getting involved, again? Why do people repeat words all the time?"

There's a missable bit in 2077's prologue where, after being poked about his spotless Innocent Schoolboy impersonation, Jackie Welles half-jokingly and half-defensively replies "I'm always never not nice!" That last sentence's concept - inverting values to sort of elongate a structure - becomes oddly prevalent after Episode 6, as if it had been elected as part of the lingo at the same level as preem, choom, nova and so on. It's cute the first few times, but soon becomes annoying.

Otherwise, if you've gone through multiple playthroughs of 2077 like I have, you'll realize that a lot of the Anime's set designs are faithful renditions of certain early-game locations. It's fun, but you'd figure not every Megabuilding apartment has to look exactly like V's, and that not every Scavenger den has to look like where we're tasked to save Sandra Dorsett. It's less of a problem as the series opens up, but the early episodes do feel like the producers had a field day referencing in-engine stills.

So, is it max nova, or should you ghost on it? Well, choombhatta; I'd say it depends. If you're expecting true-blue CD Projekt RED grit, you'll be left scratching your head. If you wondered what Night City would look like if the highs were so high as to turn cartoony, and so low as to make V's own sojourn feel sobering in contrast, you'll get some sense of it here.

#cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk edgerunners #cdprojekt red #studio trigger #netflix #video games #anime #kill la kill #tengen toppa gurren lagann #review

[marketingweapons]

Use Short Videos to Boost Your Brand with Traffic and Sales

Everything is going quicker in today's environment. People are no longer interested in long-form material and want short, digestible videos, preferably under 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

Adopting a video marketing plan centered on short video content not only allows you to offer your audience what they want, but it also allows you to communicate with them more effectively.

But what makes short video material superior to long-form content? Assume you have a fantastic blog article on your website about a certain service or product that you provide.

Even if a specific segment of your audience is piqued by the article's content, they may not read it all the way through. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including short attention spans, a lack of time, and so on.

The truth is that the content you meticulously generated is not being digested by a segment of your intended audience. However, if the same content is summarized in a short video, the audience is more likely to watch the entire video, improving engagement.

What options are available for posting short videos?

Short video content has become a visual marketing trend that has captured the interest of all major social media platforms in recent years. Almost every social networking site worth its salt allows you to produce and share short films. Some platforms are more difficult to set up than others, and some will offer you with greater exposure to your target market than others.

How Can Short Videos Help Businesses Increase Traffic and Sales?

With platforms vying for short video content, organic impressions and engagement for individuals who choose to submit short video content are at an all-time high. Brands may use this to increase traffic and sales for their businesses.

Let's go through some techniques for using short video content to bring more traffic and sales to your business.

Run advertisements, Posts in social media with short video content.

Using short video adverts to attract people to your website is an amazing strategy to increase traffic. There are several advantages to paying for traffic, and video performs an outstanding job of attracting people' attention.

In comparison to static photo material, short video content provides you more opportunities to attract an audience's attention. This may be achieved by employing a captivating hook, delivering a clear message, and selecting the appropriate short video ad style.

There are three types of short video ad formats:

 skippable video advertisements, interactive video ads, and in-stream video commercials. By selecting the appropriate video ad format for your business, you will be able to build an effective video ad and measure how effective your video is in converting viewers into buyers. If you are confused and wondering how to go forward, we can suggest you to go with - Marketing Weapons, Hyderabad. The experts in video marketing.

But, the most critical piece of advice we can provide is to produce an ad that is both intriguing and relevant to your company. If your ad lacks one of these characteristics, it will not receive many views or clicks. Natural content tends to perform best these days, so don't strive too hard to promote your goods. Instead, let the thing sell itself by displaying it.

Share your short video content on various social media platforms.

There is no benefit to producing something and then doing nothing with it. Use all the social media platforms around Facebook, Instagram to LinkedIn and YouTube. Our return on investment will only increase if we can get more mileage out of the pricey material we develop. That's right: reusing your material will boost the overall ROI of your video marketing campaign.

And another trick is to - Repost. It is a wasteful technique to publish a piece of short video material and then not redistribute it. It's like buying an expensive piece of clothes and just wearing it once before discarding it. Repurposing material is an important aspect of content development.

Conclusion

Including short ads/videos in your video marketing plan is a great approach to boost traffic and engagement across your social media networks.

The many strategies described above demonstrate that there is no singular method for exploiting short video content to bring more visitors to your organization. Rather, there are several techniques that may help bring your short video content in front of more people, and by iterating and adding new strategies on a regular basis, you can make this a successful channel for your brand either by an experienced team or a good digital marketing solution. Choice is yours.

#Marketingweapons #digitalmarketing #onlinepresence #onlineadvertising #marketing #socialmediamarketing #googleads #smm #onlinemarketing #business #seo #branding #contentmarketing #paidmarketing #influencermarketing #online #growbusiness #contentstrategy #brandawareness

[chroniclesofnellieann]

Ways to Create an Effective Email Marketing Automation Strategy

One of the earliest and most trustworthy mobile marketing techniques is email marketing. Emails have the potential to be your most effective marketing tool if you have the right components in place. But wait, what exactly is email marketing automation?

Email marketing automation is the process of automatically distributing email campaigns based on the categories, segments, schedules, and automation workflows you define and create. It’s no longer necessary for you to manually type and send 100 emails each day — this takes a lot of time! As an alternative, you can organize and schedule a series of messages for a specific audience using automation.

Effective Email Marketing Automation Techniques can:

Increase customer engagement throughout the customer journey

Boost sales

Boost performance

Are you already giddy? Now that you’ve thought about it, you might be asking, “How can I develop a successful email marketing automation strategy?”

There are numerous approaches to doing this, but we are here to provide you with the best.

Here are steps you can take to ensure success:

1. Segment your Prospective Customers.

When attempting to automate their email marketing, this is a very common error people make. I’m able to send several messages each day, so why not put everyone on one list and send them all at once? I’ll get more responses, right? Wrong.

Instead, divide your email lists into groups or classify your clients according to the actions they’ve taken, how they found your product or service, what they bought, etc.

Keep in mind that this is not the standard “thank you for ordering” or “thanks for signing up” email. You must write and segment these emails strategically because they are marketing emails. Consider a group of your customers who have bought a specific product. You can email them and state:

This list of products that are similar to the V1000 battery is provided in the message, “Hope you are enjoying the V1000 battery.”

Establish a targeted list to enhance your segments. In all honesty, a large portion of subscribers never return to your website. You can identify your AOC (area of concentration) more precisely with a targeted list.

2. Choose a Marketing Automation Tool.

To start, you must pick a top-notch platform on which to develop your email marketing campaign and implement the most effective techniques. It must also consider the needs of your potential customers.

Be sure to choose a platform that maintains its professionalism over time and has proven to be trustworthy. If you did anything else, your emails would end up in spam, have a low conversion rate, and almost no one would open them.

3.Ensure Your Design Is Mobile-Friendly

What annoys you the most? Opening specific emails on your mobile device. Emails can be accessed on both laptops and smartphones (or desktops), but their setups differ significantly. The email must therefore be modified so that it displays properly on all devices.

A mobile-friendly email design is absolutely necessary given the rising 68% mobile open rate. Below are a few suggestions:

Provide links with enough room to click

Your emails should be brief.

Construct enticing subject lines

If you want a high-quality, sophisticated template design that enables you to quickly drag and drop content, finding the right email service provider is essential.

4. Result Analysis

We all grew up singing the rhyme, “Try, try, try again, even if you don’t succeed, just try, try, try again,” but we never really understood it. There is no assurance that your initial effort will be successful, but that doesn’t mean you should start over right away.

Split testing is what you should use on your first try. Split testing involves splitting up your contact list and experimenting with various templates. Following that, when the outcomes are available, make sure to check these crucial lead generation metrics:

View percentage

Open percentage

Clickthrough rate

Rate of conversion

5. Make your Message and Call to Action more Specific.

In 2021, there were more than 319 billion emails sent and received daily from both businesses and consumers. You must, of course, make yours distinctive. We’re not talking about the typical personalization of “Dear [First Name]” either.

The fact that you have records of who purchased what, how they registered, and other information at this point makes your segments crucial. With the help of this information, you can add to and adjust your email marketing strategy to make it work perfectly.

The best way to capture subscribers’ attention and establish a stronger relationship with them is to personalize your message. Each recipient feels less like a needle in a haystack as a result, which enhances the quality of your customer service.

#areteautomation #business #marketing #automation #software

[algocentric-digital-blog]

When developing a B2b marketing strategy, one should start with the basics first. They also involve the terms like inbound and outbound marketing and the distinction between demand generation vs lead generation. Although the same in that way, these two procedures are distinct. Having that in mind, you can develop efficient methods to address your target market and later grow your ROI. The main purpose of both strategies is to generate quality leads. And by combining them, you will be able to get higher results and increase conversions for your company. Demand Generation Definition Demand creation consists of steps aimed to create awareness about the product for the targeted customers who will consume it. These tactics consist of content marketing, social media, email campaigns, website optimization, and advertising. With the help of these activities we get the goal of brand awareness, engagement and conversion. Lead Generation Definition Lead generation is the process of identifying and focusing on people who have shown interest in your product. The goal is to guide and channel these prospects through the sales funnel. Then end up with customers paying for your product or service. This type of strategy can be implemented through intent data or by dividing audiences to give them personalized content, webinars, etc., to achieve the best ROI possible. Benefits of Demand Generation and Lead Generation Demand generation and lead generation are marketing strategies that businesses of all sizes can employ. Putting both systems in place will enable the enterprise to bring in consistent top-of-funnel prospects. That will guarantee brand recognition, generate qualified leads, and build lasting customer loyalty. In reality, most B2C and B2B marketers borrow tools from each technique to enhance their digital marketing performance. Putting both systems in place will enable the enterprise to bring in consistent top-of-funnel prospects. Besides having a positive impact on a company’s bottom line, demand generation and lead generation provide a range of other benefits, such as: Automation marketing eliminates mundane and repetitive marketing tasks, enabling deep research and more strategic undertakings. Powerful data analysis tools that study customer behavior are used to draw conclusions, tweak campaigns, and customize messages. The efficiency and accuracy of automation processes generate scalability and growth. Content optimization focuses on content that is relevant to a particular audience or buyer persona. Increased customer loyalty due to the provision of a more personalized customer experience. An in-depth knowledge of customer buying patterns makes the way to conducting better targeting as well as customer segmentation. The key to success in demand generation and lead generation is to have a plan. The plan should consider the context of the particular company, services, and customers it serves. The triumph of the marketing and sales goals of businesses shall be an outcome of their ability to apply demand generation and lead generation strategies. Crafting Lead Generation Strategy Lead generation is the backbone of any well-designed marketing and sales tactics. Through the smart application of lead generation techniques companies can expand their audience, capture the attention of potential consumers. And turn the prospective customers into paying clients. To accomplish this, it is crucial to know which tactics are the most effective. Then plan on how to carry them out effectively. Find Target Audience: The first stage of the application of lead generation tactics is audience targeting. Who are your present and prospective consumers? In which places do they spend their time on the Internet? What content do they prefer? When you know the target audience’s demographics, you can devise more successful marketing campaigns that use lead-generation techniques. Create Engaging Posts: This is the reason to go on developing the content that corresponds to your audience.

All the components ought to be personalized according to the users. They should also be written so that they are educative and entertaining. If possible, take advantage of visual aids like pictures or videos to make the content more appealing. Important too is the optimization of content for search engines to give it a chance to be found by the leads that are more likely to convert. Find Best Promotional Channels: When your content is complete, research the different channels for its distribution. Give this a shot on your website, blog, and social networks as well. On the other hand, paid advertising will help you to see your message as more visible. It will also give you the chance to reach a bigger audience. After you distribute your content, the next stage is to monitor the results and utilize the data to improve future content. Through identifying the needs of your targets, generating content and selecting means of distribution, your B2b lead generation efforts will be efficient. The pick of the right strategy will let your company have the upper hand both in lead generation and ROI.  Crafting Demand Generation Strategy The lead generation strategy should be good as it is necessary for having more sales. The key to success is to create awareness among customers and to build ties with customers mainly. It’s not enough to come up with a personalized and humanized experience that appeals to the individual’s taste, emotions, and personal goals. For an effective demand generation strategy, you not only need to take into account different factors. Such as the target audience, the offer, the goals of the company, the channels and platforms used, and the budget. Find Ideal Users: The foremost action needed to create an effective demand-generation marketing campaign is to define your target audience. This entails identifying your audience’s needs, interests, and goals. On the one hand, a B2C or a B2B demand generation tactic and any lead generation tactic have similarities. Analyze Product Features and Competitors: Once you know your target audience, the next step will be to determine the sort of product  you are selling. It is crucial that you determine the product’s distinct features and advantages. Besides its competitive advantage. In addition, you need to know what your customers’ problems and pain points are. This will help you customize your message and content to address these. Determine Goals: After that, you should decide on the business's objectives. Do you want to get more leads? Build brand awareness? Increase sales? Once you have set goals, you can develop a strategy that includes what you need to do to reach these goals. Find Optimal Marketing Channels: Next, you have to choose the platforms and channels that you are going to use to engage with your target audience. For instance, will you be using email marketing, social media, or ads? It’s essential to understand how each platform functions and what platform would be the best for lead generation. Determine Budget: You will need to determine your budget. How much of your budget should you allocate to your demand generation campaign? Will you be able to outsource some tasks, or will you need to hire more staff? It’s vital to spend your funds to maximize value for money. Through these factors and considering demand generation strategy you will be able to improve brand awareness. You will also strengthen the ties with the future customers and get the value for money. Implementing Growth Marketing and Content Marketing Demand gen and lead gen can be accomplished through growth marketing and content marketing. Both tactics require a 360 customer view that embraces the customer journey from awareness to post-conversion engagement. Hence, we apply both lead and demand generation procedures to multiple tactics. From social media marketing to search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. Demand gen and lead gen can be accomplished through growth marketing and content marketing.

Growth Marketing Growth marketing emphasizes on fine-tuning all the touch points in the customer life cycle. This implies developing interactions that assure customers are involved and driven to move through the funnel. With the use of A/B testing and data analysis, marketers can keep refining and improving their growth marketing strategies. This will help them achieve more conversions and grow revenue. Content Marketing Lead generation content marketing is about knowing what customers are looking for. Then developing articles that cater the answers they are looking for. Thus, providing useful and valuable materials brands can be seen as trustworthy and credible within their target markets. Combining Two Strategies A good growth marketing and content marketing strategy can be used to attain both consumer and business marketing objectives together. These strategies are combined to create a strong base for both brand building and revenue generation. Leveraging Inbound Marketing Tactics for Demand Generation Inbound marketing is an essential part of an efficient demand generation process. This is a technique that brings people to you and allows them to discover your content. Hence, it can be used for lead generation, conversion rate improvements, and even long-term brand building. Here are the best tricks for generating demand with inbound marketing: Create Unique Posts: Inbound marketing objectives that will be used for content generation should be to make sure the content is compelling and original. This can be done through the use of SEO optimization. It includes blog writing, webinars, and podcasting, as well as social media campaigns targeting particular audiences. Fulfilling Users' Needs with Content: One of the fundamental elements of inbound marketing is to develop content that is directed at meeting the particular needs of your target customer. Ponder what information clients seek and determine how you can deliver it in a form that will appeal to them. Your content has to be top-notch, captivating, and relevant to your specific audience. Rely on Search Engine Optimization: SEO should be considered during the process of writing the content for demand generation. SEO applications will enable you to pull ahead of the competition and boost natural traffic to your site. Make sure the keywords you choose are related to your business. Afterwards employ techniques like meta tags, header tags, image optimization, and internal links for higher rank in search engines. Introduce Social Media: Thus these channels are the capable tools of demand creation if they are used correctly. Use social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn to attract leads, build brand awareness and find the right target clients. Measure performance: Paying attention and analyzing your inbound marketing activities is crucial to your lead-generation campaigns. Analyze your metrics. This includes website visitors, click-through rate, time spent on page and conversion rate to see what tactics work better. By having this information, you can fine tune and improve your campaigns. It will help achieve the most optimal settings for lead generation. By getting to know this way of thinking, your team of marketing and sales reps will feel more confident and able to execute accordingly. Utilizing Social Media for Brand Awareness and Lead Generation Do you want to harness social media to boost your brand visibility and bring you new prospects?  If yes, then you’ve landed at the right place. In this section, we will teach you how to harness the power of social media to connect with your audience and convert followers into potential customers. This is how to get the most from this promotional effort: The first thing you must do when using social media for demand generation is to identify where your target audience is active. Besides conspicuous ones like Facebook and Twitter, there are also platforms that are worth considering, such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Evaluate whether the platform you’re considering helps you achieve your marketing objectives or not. Such as, even though Pinterest may be used by most of your target audience, if you are looking for potential lead generation, it might not be the suitable one. Once you have established your platform, it is time to develop quality content that will resonate with your defined audience. Focus on making paintings which are relevant, appealing and gripping. This will not only grip their attention but will also make them curious to know more. Begin creating content that encourages interaction in the form of polls, surveys, and contests. These will ultimately lead to more followers’ involvement. Apart from content marketing, try paid ads too. Through paid advertising, you can expand the reach of your audience and potentially raise awareness of your brand. When designing an ad, make sure it is well-made and directed towards the customer you want to reach. Utilize influencers to extend your reach. Working with influencers who are active in your target market will enable you to connect with new consumers. They will also help increase your product's exposure. Ensure that you choose the influencers who share your brand values and mission and give them detailed expectations and tasks. Social media is a powerful approach to creating leads and increasing brand awareness. Using the strategies outlined, you will increase your social media marketing success and achieve your SaaS marketing goals. Analyzing Potential Customers and Identifying Their Intent Demand generation and lead generation can be performed only after you assess the probable customers and know their intent. Knowing your audience and their likes and dislikes helps in crafting specific messages. This message will attract them and lead to a response. Analyze Ideal Buyers: To kick off you should study customers you are planning to target so that you know them well. What is their demographic? What do they enjoy? What entertains them? This enables you to produce marketing campaigns that are based on what they can benefit from and react to. Discover Search Intent: Once you know who the target audience is, the following step is to pinpoint what is their intent. This requires awareness of their interests in relation to your products or services. And what they are trying to achieve on the Internet. This can vary from looking for information on a particular theme to actually searching for the ways to solve a problem. Introduce Marketing Automation and Analytics: Third-party tools can be utilized for gathering data for building a picture of your possible customers. They give information about what kind of content people are interested in and the keywords they are searching for. Analyze Behavioral and Demographic Data: Furthermore, you can evaluate the behavior of your existing customer base as well. What content are they linked to, what are their conversion rates and how does your sales team relate to them? Customer insights collected from clients could enable you to identify patterns and trends.  And through them, you could craft a message that resonates with prospective customers. Knowing your audience and what their intent is enables you to develop a more personalized message. It will also help deliver highly targeted content which appeals to customer needs directly. It assists in achieving higher engagement, conversions, and ROI. Utilizing Account-Based Marketing Strategies ABM (Account Based Marketing) is an approach that focuses on the key decision makers in a targeted business to acquire leads. It works by designing specific campaigns. The marketing programs could be tailored according to a given business. As opposed to the traditional mass communication method of talking and approaching many people. ABM can be useful for enterprises that seek to get the highest marketing output from their investments. Focus on Several Targets The very first step in building an ABM campaign is to specify and make a list of target accounts and prospects.

It is important to have a deep knowledge of the firm’s target market, the decision-makers, and how to reach them. Find Means to Engage Leads After determining who your target accounts are, research the best strategy for the decision-makers. This includes knowing their Achilles heel, building personal ties, and writing content tailored to their specific needs. Execute Your Plan If a strategy was developed, it is now time to put it into practice. You can do this by engaging in personalized emailing and social media to create brand awareness and marketing automation for efficiency. Finally, it is necessary to observe the efficiency of the campaign and constantly measure the results. This will help you to be sure you are achieving your goals. Account-based marketing is a great way to find out and connect with a potential customer and increase conversion rate. Through the development of custom campaigns that match needs of each business, maximal ROI can be achieved. To implement ABM strategies it would be good to find a reliable marketing team or try building an in-house marketing department. Focusing on Quality Leads and Generating Maximum ROI One of the primary objectives of demand generation and lead generation is developing good quality leads that will go through your sales funnel. Quality leads are a priceless resource for any company.  They naturally deliver the highest ROI from the marketing campaign. For a successful lead generation, you must grasp your target audience, create quality content consistently, and keep in touch with the potential buyers. Define Target Audience: Highly qualified leads can be generated by pinpointing the target market first. Exploring prospects' habits, attributes, interests, as well as aspects will allow you to know what kind of content and messaging works. Qualitative methods of data collection like surveys and customer conversations may be employed. For they will help you figure out the nature of buyers who are most likely to buy your products/services. Create Customized Content: Now that you have done the analysis of your target audience, you are in a better place to create content that will address their needs. Such should be exciting, educative and aim at grabbing their attention. Via the development of meaningful blog posts, you will be able to build real ties with your prospective customers. From there, you will be able to utilize email campaigns, social media engagement, and lead magnets to take the qualified lead one step forward into the sales pipeline. Create a Connection With Leads: One should also verify whether the leads are followed up with. If they have demonstrated interest in engaging with your content, you should contact them and continue the conversation. In addition, you also have to monitor the behaviors of the audiences you want to reach and the content they are consuming. This will assist you in developing our strategy  Use the provided tips to increase your lead generation and demand generation efforts with a focus on the quality of leads. This way, ROI can be effectively leveraged via using correct prospect targeting and proper content delivery.