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What if: Shadow Dragon Fenris

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Some shots from The Veilguard's final mission.

This fucking egg is smirking.

Last close-up of my Rook because I love her look.

Synchronized. The blood magic influence was strong, I guess.

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I am a shell of a woman.

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Got an achievement that only 0.96% of Xbox players have gotten. Guys, take it slow, smell the flowers, notice the details! (Though it's still early days, so that's probably why)

Achievement under the cut. No details, but I can share in the comments if asked.

Hint: Hossberg

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I am truly in love with these Talons.

Do you know the Antivan Crow leaders? Then you're probably fine to look under the cut.

Sorry for not having proper edits.

I love them. I love them. I love them. I love them.

Teia has him wrapped around her little finger.

And Viago isn't even the biggest "wife guy" in this game.

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Some Veilguard shots in photo mode featuring a handsome antaam. Putting under the cut in case of spoilers (I think if you're at least 60% of the way through, you're good).

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Re: The Veilguard worldstate and prior choices.

I know that we don't all have to have opinions about every little thing, nor do we have to share them but I just wanted to add one more voice in case others feel the same.

We haven't played the game. We don't know what the story is, not really. All of the marketing and communication from devs so far seem intent on stressing that the game will be about found family and your companions. I can see a case being made for characters being very focused on the task at hand. Harding might have opinions and stories all about every event in Inquisition, but will the events of The Veilguard present her with a situation where she would want to mention the Chargers? Would the narrative be served by it?

How much will we be interacting with Morrigan? Is she in a position where she would feel comfortable or want to mention having or not having a son when the gods are unleashing chaos? Will we get to really know her as Rook or will we interact once and then the rest of the time she shows up is just us observing her?

Will Rook even get to interact directly with the Inquisitor? Or will we only see them in Solas's memories?

What story are they really aiming to tell here? People who have gotten to play it say that it has more impactful choices and branching situations based on those choices than any other Dragon Age game. Did this branching mean that they couldn't incorporate prior decisions, or did they find that the story they wanted to tell didn't require input of previous decisions?

I'm disappointed, yes. But I'm not angry and I can think of potential reasons why they would go this route. My prior choices still matter to me and to my experience and personal narrative when playing the previous games.

My long-winded point is that we don't know. Play the game, don't play the game. Like it, don't like it. It is okay to be upset and to feel let down. I'm sure I will have some criticisms, but I can't criticize what I haven't played yet.

And for those who feel greatly affected by this, please remember that this is not a direct attack on you. The writers are telling the story that they want to tell, we get to consume it. Maybe we'll send it back to the kitchen, maybe we'll get some mods and add some salt and pepper if it's not to your taste, but please don't threaten or attack the chefs. This is not a waffle house.

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I may have swayed his attention with the concept art today.

I was showing my friend some of The Veilguard companions and he was immediately hooked on Davrin. (Yes, I know it should be "who's". I wasn't about to interrupt the interest)

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I was showing my friend some of The Veilguard companions and he was immediately hooked on Davrin. (Yes, I know it should be "who's". I wasn't about to interrupt the interest)

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Anyone else suddenly seeing a lot of hard right posts suggested to them? On Tumblr, of all places??

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Holy hell this is good

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I'm not saying I'm obsessed with Baldur's Gate 3. It's just that they did an amazing job with the soundtrack.

Though I know I'd be in good company if I were obsessed. If.

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D is Devexian/Charlie from campaign 3, right?

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These Days - An Introduction!

Hi everyone! I’m going to try something new on this ol’ Tumblr.   Welcome to These Days, a blog series on the PBS Digital Studios Tumblr. I’m Leslie, the PBSDS Tumblr person (among many things), and once in a while I’m going to ask those in front and behind the cameras of our PBSDS shows “What are you into these days?” Here we go!

ANNA ROTHSCHILD Host, Writer, Animator, Editor of Gross Science (@grossscience)

For all the science nerds like me out there, I would highly recommend Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons series.

The books take place just before the industrial revolution in a world very much like our own, with one major difference: dragons exist. The narrator is a famous woman scientist recording her lifetime of adventures studying dragons. So far, there are three books in the series, and I just started the last one. I’m typically much more of a science fiction fan than a fantasy fan, but this series reads more like swashbuckling historical fiction than fantasy.

And, if you can’t get enough dragons, check out the tabletop game Dragoon. You are a dragon competing against other dragons to amass the most gold. Dianna (i.e. PhysicsGirl) and I played the other day and had a blast.

MIKE RUGNETTA (@mikerugnetta) Host, Writer of PBS Idea Channel Somehow I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons (or Dungeons and Dragons-like things) for nearly most of my life, and yet a last week ago was the first I’d heard of Gygaxian Unnaturalism.  It was in a piece by Matthew Neagley over at Gnome Stew and it’s had me thinking ever since. 

But first, necessary background! Gygaxian Unnaturalism is named after Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax. It describes the weird, arguably unnatural characteristics of tabletop game worlds: bizarrely laid out caves, vicious beasts unreachable by reason and hell bent on tearing you (the player) but not each other to shreds, confusingly fickle magic and machinery, and so on. 

On Gnome Stew, Neagley points out that in the earlier days of D&D, these characteristics were accepted without question, but that of course players would eventually want some explanation for the strange state of the world they’re spending so much time in. His post offers three such in-universe explanations for the unnaturalism of fantasy worlds.

I can’t help but ponder other, related fictional tropes: are there in universe explanations for why bad guys congregate at abandoned construction sites? Maybe dug up construction sites are the mook spawning point for a Live Earth’s antibodies. Or maybe there’s a newsletter: “Tough Lots Today”.

The other thing is Neagley’s implication that as time goes on, audiences need more explanation. Anecdotally, at least, I can dig it - looking back on older Hollywood films, the Continuity Error and the Unexplained Motivation don’t strike me as such significant faux pas as they do in modern films. If this is a trend, and the trend continues, what does Unnaturalism Accounting look like in the year 2175?

NICOLE SWEENEY (@sweeneysays) Post Production Supervisor of Crash Course (@thecrashcourse)

My recent obsession is the game Twilight Struggle except by “recent” I mean “for all of 2016.“ 

I loved this game initially because of a weird obsession with Cold War History (see also: The Americans, best show on TV, except just kidding, don’t watch TV! Just watch YouTube videos) and this game’s fidelity to its theme is just wonderful. 

The scoreboard is a straight up tug-of-war in which each gain is countered by a loss and so on and so forth. The feeling of the game is incredibly tense, which might not be everybody’s jam, but is thematically ON POINT. That tension is something which is very difficult to properly convey in a history book, but which the experiential nature of a (well designed) game demonstrates very effectively. Everything from the game mechanics to the text on the cards is both thematically excellent and also really informative and educational. 

The fact that the board is literally a world map is such a brilliant depiction of the ways in which the entire world was sucked into an ostensibly two-sided conflict. Plus, most of my other favorite board games lose a lot of their appeal with only 2 players.

That’s it for now! Next time you’ll hear from 3 more PBSDSers on what they’re into these days. Now it’s your turn. What are YOU into these days?

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The Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is a tree with way to much armor for any living leaf browsers. According to one theory, it grew spines to protect it from mammals that are now extinct!

Learn more about these and other ghosts of evolution with this video from It’s Okay To Be Smart.

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Glamorous green