#& i used to have so many fleshed out sims just by the magic of playing with them and my silly little brain

[valenthario]

feeling sooo stuck with my content rn🤪🤪‼️

[existentialterror]

ARG notes: ZampanioSim, part 2

Hey guys. catfishAnabasis (Light) here, continuing my… uh, ZampanioSim Let’s Play? That’s dumb. My investigation into the Homestuck/Magnus Archives/House of Leaves-inspired alternate reality game ZampanioSim. Read Part 1 first.

Now we have the bare minimum on Zampanio Sim’s format. Actually, we don’t know much and it’s constantly changing, but we at least have an idea of what we’re in for. Cool.

What is the story unfolding within Zampanio Sim?

So we know from the Classpect Menu game, the one that “is” ZampanioSim, that this was an effort to simulate a now-deleted game from the 1970s called Zampanio, based on a now-lost* FAQ on how to play it. At some point, possibly just search engines, I have learned that Eyedol Games is the company that makes Zampanio. Let’s take that going in.

*dubious

A lot of the “routes” off the house at the start of ZampanioSim – see the diagram – are procedurally generated places to explore or are otherwise collections of content. But other have a more directly obvious narrative to them. I have marked these places here.

Let’s go. We'll start... Uh...

…

(Okay, so there’s a recurring meme in ZampanioSim about whether personality-typing you based on whether you traverse labyrinths clockwise or counterclockwise.

But I’m confused about which one that means – like if I’m looking at a drawing of a labyrinth top-down, and I go from the entrance to the right passage, I guess I’m going counterclockwise. But if I were standing in a physical maze, the clockways framing wouldn’t occur to me – I mean, they’re both chiral processes, but like, the hand of a clock moves to the right, so which reference am I taking?

Maybe I’m not cut out for labyrinths. When I’m caving in minecraft I go to the right, so if I’m coming back into the house through the north door, then... I guess:)

We’ll start with the non-existent West Route (accessible by clicking on the west side of the house, where you’d expect a door to be.)

AdventureSimWest

AdventureSimWest is an audience-participation adventure game that, like Problem Sleuth or Early Homestuck, takes suggested commands from an audience that guide a character, and the author tells a story around it. This one has been running for quite some time, so there’s a lot of backlogged material!

AdventureSimWest gives us a lot of info right away. It’s about a character named Peewee, who is hired by Eyedol Games. Peewee and the staff of Eyedol Games are trapped inside a Space Loop. A Space Loop is like a Time Loop except that once you die, physical space (within the loop) and many of the circumstances reset, but its point in time is… not fixed. Peewee is a snakelike alien called a lamia. He first appeared in a different SBURBlike game on FarragoFiction.com called Farragnarok, which he remembers but which I don’t know anything about. He is a COOL GAMER who has lived various other lives including through the destruction of his home planet, Segundia. Keep in mind that he is from a SBURBlike.

Oh, hey, according to an offhand exchange in AdventureSimWest, solving mazes by following the righthand wall means you’re going counterclockwise. Everyone jot that down. We can bootstrap this. We can do this.

I read up through the “JR Rambles about Spoilers” interlude. And it was fun! It’s Peewee’s quirky, haphazard series of adventures in a quirky, sharp universe. The style is fun, self-aware and whimsical. I don’t know how much about the AdventureSimWest lore applies to mainstream Zampanio, especially given the multilayered narrative Zampanio serves up to us like a delicious but concerningly non-Euclidean cake, but some of the characters and concepts appear in other places, and so the worldbuilding might too. Here are some things we learn about the world of AdventureSimWest:

Peewee arrived here from his old universe by jumping into a giant, spiky, magical wall of flesh called an Echidna. He’s actually one of the set of gods who created this universe, but seems to be the only one left.

People central to the space loop remember the space loop exists.

Eyedol Games may have caused or be causing the space loop, but does not appear to be completely in control of it.

The space loop started in 1971 and is spiraling towards the end of the world in 2022.

Eyedol has other employees, including:

Wanda, the “CEBro” and “Lord of Space” (homestuck classpect). She’s tremendously rad and maybe a shapeshifter.

The Intern, a college-aged dude from Ohio, who Wanda is always trying to find and who seems unexpectedly critical to the existence of Eyedol Games. (I might apply a little homestuck logic and guess that he’s the “Muse of Time”, but this is my own speculation.)

The Closer, an aggressive businesslady in a suit and cape

Someone called the Eye Killer, who, like, lives in Eyedol’s basement and kills people.

Flower Chick, some kind of identity-stealing fae, who keeps a copy of Peewee’s skull on her desk.

Quotidians, which are another alien species – these ones are shapeshifting crows and are a hivemind. Many of them are named Tom.

Parker, a “waste”, who has made his business out of learning glitches, hacking, etc, in reality itself.

There are also just two other teams of people who don’t work at Eyedol Games, who both got ejected into some kind of infinite labyrinth around the same time. They have kind of SCP energy. I don’t know what their deal is. Yet.

What about that FAQ?

The mysterious lost ZampanioFAQ actually exists, more or less.

When I found it, it felt like natural game progression: I beat the Classpect Menu game, then there got a link to the official Discord. Then buried in one of the Discord channels, one of the pinned links goes to – yes – THE Zampanio FAQ.

But then it turned out the thing I’d found a link to was a fan-made transcript (by @verbosebabbler) of a different “official” ZampanioFAQ PDF. And through various link-hopping, most of which I now forget, I also found the original PDF on a different website by JR. So I don’t know if I got there the way I was “supposed to” or where else I might otherwise have found the FAQ. But we’re here now!

(The official discord, by the way, does not have talk permissions open in any channel. They are all frozen conversations from years ago, with only a spare few used threads acting as the actual usable channels. So the discord is its own labyrinth too. ITS A-MAZE-ING)

Okay. The ZampanioFAQ. In the frontnote to the FAQ, JR describes this finding a printout of fic they'd read long ago, and sharing it as evidence that they did not invent Zampanio – that this is a sburbsim/glitchFAQ (we’ll get to that, hang tight) crossover fanfic by someone else that they read once, lost, and recently re-found - and that it has a couple indications that it’s referencing Zampanio.

Mostly, contentwise, this FAQ is sort of a interuniversal document about how to play SBURB (the universe-creation game that the characters in Homestuck play), written by a group of players. The Zampanio FAQ has, unfortunately, been heavily redacted by interdimensional forces, perhaps SBURB itself.

It’s like it’s written by a new set of characters who are playing their own game of Sburb. They’re learning about it as they experience it! Haha, that’s a cute gimmick.

Oh, the skull? Yeah, don’t worry about that. Hah, no, I get how it looks. But it's actually totally fine.

The redacted words in the ZampanioFAQ seem mostly to do with certain details of SBURB itself, like SBURB is trying to keep its players from spoilers.

Drawing from VerboseBabbler’s transcript and partial de-redaction of the FAQ, I gave my hand at making what sense I could out of the original PDF.

Excerpt. You may not like it, but this is peak ARG performance: multiple collaborative layers of nested PDF annotation.

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

Trying to fill in these blanks made me appreciate the potential of the fan-ARG.

Homestuck is a story that both rewards a lot of knowledge about its worldbuilding and also often doesn't explain itself – I think that’s why it has such intense fanwork, because it implies so much but leaves you to fill in the gaps.

Like, okay, classpects, alright? Fans make a big deal about classpecting and it’s cool but it’s also kind of nothing, like, we get some gestures about what it means but not much. (Quick, what does a mage do?) There’s so much fanon trying to make sense of it that even the wiki explanation is based on fanon. But fanon can be dope and people have done some really, really neat stuff bouncing off of the gaps in canon.

ZampanioSim is about nested realities and missing information, and it's heavily based on specific fanworks of homestuck. And filling in missing information on this document, I could use my knowledge of Homestuck to make inferences about this related-but-separate storyline and worldbuilding. That’s so cool!

In the same way that the best fanfiction draws from and interacts repeatedly with canon, the fan-ARG can act as a commentary on or a dialogue with its sources - a story made stronger by connection to another.

There have been other fan ARGs and this is really my first experience with the genre (well - does EverymanHYBRID count as a fanwork? discuss), but like, holy shit, I get it now.

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

Okay, let’s regroup. So the FAQ is a bunch of advice written collaboratively by a group of people playing SBURB. The FAQ is about a kind of SBURB that is very similar to the one in Homestuck – but it’s even more similar to another game on the FarragoFiction website, SBURBsim, which is “is a fanmade browser simulation” of SBURB.

In SBURBsim, you can throw in a randomly-generated or customized set of characters into their own session, and SBURBsim will invent plotlines, fights, character progression, romance, alchemy, time travel shenanigans, and more, eventually telling you a story about how that session might go. It is mind-bogglingly ornate and cool, check it out.

Okay, anyway, so the game described in the FAQ is mostly Sburb-y but has some clear Farrago/SburbSIM elements in the form of the fan-classes – wastes, graces, smiths, and more. But it has some stuff that feels more Homestuck-classic-SBURB, like in the FAQ [EDIT: SBURBsim] there’s a convention where all the randomly generated player-usernames have the same initials as their classpects, so like the session’s Bard of Time might have the username belugaTrainer or belligerentTriangle or whatever, which isn’t a thing in Homestuck nor in the FAQ. It also adds a few elements all its own, like that there’s a recognized pantheon of gods who have sway over the rules of the universe, with their own usernames and classpects.

(Hey, synthesizing that with some background Homestuck knowledge + what we’ve learned from AdventureSimWest, I think the ‘gods’ are the players whose Sburb session created the ones that the FAQ authors were born into. Elegant!)

Oh yeah, as JR mentions, the Zampanio FAQ also takes heavy and pseudo-explicit inspiration from a fanfiction called the Sburb Glitch FAQ, a sprawling fanwork I haven’t read that’s sort of a game guide and technical manual to SBURB. Maybe more of this is references to that, I don’t know.

(Sidenote, Rose’s GameFAQ was one of my favorite plot points in Homestuck. I’m only sorry it wasn’t used more. So I’m delighted to see all these fanworks that took inspiration from it.)

So okay whether the FAQ players are more playing OG-SBURB, or SBURBsim, or a game that has aspects of both – well, they’re all pretty similar, I don’t’ think we need to split hairs. This document is an in-universe survival guide for a SBURBlike.

You know what it’s not particularly like? ZampanioSim, the game it supposedly inspired!

This is so fun to me. SBURBsim existed long before ZampanioSim. If you were going to make a simulator game based on the Zampanio FAQ, that game would be SBURBsim. But SBURBsim was already a thing! JR knows this – they worked on SBURBsim! Their sburbsona is on the about page!

They mention this in the introduction to the “found scanned printout” of the FAQ - they initially read it deeply to figure out, through the redaction, if it was a fanwork for their own project (SBURBsim). They write:

this is obvs JUST the faq, not any of the like, description or author name or all that shit that eventually lead me down the rabbit hole. like, you could find the missing sections in this weird ...not arg? I don't THINK? and they started talking about things like the achievement system and shit, stuff that stuck with me a lot more if what i chose to focus on in zampaniosim is any indication. still. having a record of the START of this branch is better than nothing

So, okay, the FAQ itself is not explicitly Zampanio. We’re missing the description and whatever else that’s supposedly out there somewhere, as lost media. I tried to find some reason to think the fic was supposedly out of time, like that it would have been from before SBURBsim was made, but there isn't any - everything lines up with what JR said in the forward.

So I think maybe reading so far into the FAQ without that other supposed metadata was a great time and, yes, sold me on a new art form, but it wasn’t that productive in terms of the broader Zampanio story.

... Or was it?

I've connected the dots

There was a reference somewhere – I think in the South route, though I can’t swear to it – that was pretty outright something like “JR added Magnus Archives elements to Zampanio because of an at-the-time obsession with the Spiral from TMA.” Now, some stuff like the south route is less in-character than in other places, so I don’t want to necessarily say that everything like that will “carry through” to the rest of canon, if that makes sense. But it helps put those pieces together, so here’s my running theory:

In the story, Zampanio is a memeplex that moves and spreads between dimensions - very diverse multiple dimensions, including different fictional worlds. (Think the Big Bad in There Is No Antimemetics Division - effecting "universes which embed ours as fiction".) Sort of a psychic prion that goes around twisting orderly systems and punching its way between meta-layers. The core of it stays similar between - it has a predilection for spirals, mazes, meta bullshit, and games - but some of the specifics change from instance to instance.

Zampanio probably spread rampant among this constellation of Sburb universes, perhaps because Zampanio is affiliated with games and Sburb universe is a game. (Or at least uses a game to reproduce.) It’s a great carrier. From there, Zampanio rode into our universe on the back of the FAQ. (Game FAQs being a known way to throw information between Sburb dimensions, in Homestuck.)

JR took the seed that came with the FAQ and instantiated Zampanio in this universe, and added their own compatible TMA-spiral flavoring to it.

(This also lines up with another cool aspect of Zampanio, which is that if you make your own fan-work or fan-story about Zampanio, that’s canon too. It is impossible to gamejack this. Thus far I’m focusing on JR’s ZampanioSim canon, but there are other people out there putting their own spins on it, which are also canon.)

Questions I have now, if that theory is true:

What other aspects of ZampanioSim carry on between versions?

Is Eyedol necessarily associated with the Zampanio memeplex? Does or did it actually create ZampanioSim in some causal way?

Does the Space Loop that occurs in AdventureSimWest have ramifications or equivalents in other instances of Zampanio?

Why does Zampanio like games so much? (Is it because interactive games are a convenient way to punch through from one dimension to the fictional dimension within it?)

There are comments about someone, maybe Eyedol, trying to scrub the ZampanioFAQ from the internet (in our dimension). Why would they want that?

What’s the other missing metadata that would have associated the ZampanioFAQ with Zampanio?

Who wrote the ZampanioFAQ? Was it written (...IC) as a fanwork of SBURBsim or did it “come from a SBURB universe”? Who censored it?

Aw man. And there's still so much I haven't even gotten into.

Like, okay, do you guys know gopher? It’s an early alternative to HTTP as a way of organizing the internet that was mostly sidelined, but a few servers are still around.

Apparently there’s a bunch more Zampanio stuff only accessible via Gopher and I’m going to have to figure out how to use it.

Thanks, JR, YOU MAD SORCERER.

So, that's where I'm at vis a vis ZampanioSim. I gotta get back to my own stuff for right now, but thank you ZampanioSim discord for helping blaze trails and mostly to JR for weaving such a wonderful weird mystery.

If you have questions or comments you want me to talk about in a future one of these, my ask box is open.* Also, if you get into ZampanioSim yourself, feel free to say hi on the discord.**

*(okay I know people have been involved in this for years and I’m still mostly trying to formulate my own opinions about what’s going on, so if you know something that’s like “an actual answer” and want to share, then consider phrasing it as an ominous clue instead of telling me outright – but I’m under the strong impression that this is an ARG where there’s not gonna be like a canonical underlying “answer” to a lot of things so, you know, do what brings you joy.)

**Your first challenge is to find the discord. I wanna be cryptic too!

[eaterofdice]

What the dnd class you main says about what kind of dm you are

My opinion but I’m frequently right

Edit: I’ve been called out for forgetting to include paladins so I’ve added them very sorry! Also please tag what dm you are and if I’m right I love to read them ❤️

Barbarian- not always a rules lawyer but you know every goddamn combat stat. What weapon hit die? Got it. Spell radius? Got it. Modifiers and prone rules? Got it all babey who needs a players handbook with you around

Bard- your npcs have really in-depth fleshed out backstories that you really love! You might be ok with it if your party makes this campaign a dating sim. Also, you’re the most likely to allow joke characters

Cleric- you like to give your party a travel buddy! A companion npc to help out, fill out the party and provide some banter. You know these npcs are your best chance at steering your idiot players in the right direction and probably aren’t secretly evil

Druid- your settings and maps are PHENOMENAL! Listening to you describe the playing field sounds like the beginning of an ancient epic. You probably home brew a lot as well, and are pretty ok with mounts and familiars (many DMs aren’t!)

Paladin- you’re a slut for minis and the classic table set up, even if you dont typically play that way. Most likely to use actual battle strategies in combat. also the story you build is the most important thing to you, you’ll let players get away with weird asks in the name of a dope ass tale

Fighter- theres nothing is sexier to you than a complex villain. Your favorite part of DMing is the villain, dropping hints about who they are, tossing in some minions. The drama babey

Monk- WORLDBUILDING! Whether it’s the 5e material or homespun, the planes and the worlds are so fun. This makes for really overarching stories that are really fun! You’re in it for the long-con but it’s so worth it

Ranger- your maps are amazing and boy oh boy do you love a forest setting. You’re overall balanced in terms of getting to combat, quests and Rp!

Rogue- calm down edgelord not every backstory needs to be tragic. You LOVE tormenting your players. BBEG reveal BOOM! That friendly NPC betrayed you BOOM! You live for the drama. who said DND couldn’t be a soap opera?

Sorcerer- does the least session prep but can improv like a legend so nobody can tell. You like to roll random dice and go “hm. Interesting” just to freak your players out and home brew your own monsters

Warlocks- dream sequences sure are fun, huh? You love to give your players ultimatums, magical or not. The most likely to turn their players against one another for the fun of it.

Wizard- you own every dnd book, and also might be a bit of a rules lawyer. You know absolutely everything about magic but always have to look and see what weapon uses which dice. However, you love to make physical copies of in-game letters and props to give your players at the table which is really sexy of you.

[pagesofkenna]

Heads up, today is Creator Day on Itch.io, meaning Itch is waiving their service fee for the day and giving 100% of profits to creators! A bunch of people have put bundles together, including a bunch of indie TTRPG folks! Here's some of my tabletop and video game recommendations:

Tabletop:

Blades in the Dark - This is a very well known title in the TTRPG community, and one of my FAVORITE games of all time. You and your friends play a gang of scoundrels - thieves, murderers for hire, cultists, whatever you want to be - trying to survive in the seedy underbelly of a city plunged into eternal night. Very reminiscent of Dishonored, Bloodbourne, Peaky Blinders, and Crimson Peak.

Golden Sky Stories - THIS IS SUCH A CUTE GAME. You and your friends play animal spirits in a quiet, rural Japanese town. You can transform from forms that look like human children to foxes, birds, tanuki, and so on. There's no combat mechanic (not that I remember) because the purpose of the game is to help out the humans in the town, or the great spirits in the forest. I wish this was more well known!

Superstition - This is the game I did a writeup of on my portfolio blog a few weeks ago, written by a friend so you should check it out! It's a solo storytelling game where you play a fake seer making up rituals.

The One - A tabletop dating sim! I actually helped beta test this a little. It's another solo game, you draw cards and roll dice to try to maintain a successful relationship in a weird fantasy city. I ended up dating and breaking up with at least ten different monsters and spirits.

Take Root - Tabletop farming sim! Like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley? Play it with dice! Can be played solo or in a group. I haven't personally played this one yet, but I'm planning to play it soon and do a writeup for my portfolio blog.

Alone on a Journey - A collection of solo games, some of which you can pick up for free if you just want to try them out. Sort of a meditative worldbuilding exercise - you draw cards to get prompts, then write out what you discover about the world around you based on those prompts.

Thursday - A diceless, GMless 2+ player game about time loops - like Groundhogs Day! I haven't actually played this one yet (*eyes emoji*) but I've been watching it for a while and it looks fantastic.

Delve - A solo dungeon mapping game. You control a kingdom of dwarves who are digging further and further into the ground, trying to unearth riches without unleashing an elder evil. The first time I played this I... sorta got my whole kingdom killed....

Monster Mix - A 2-player game, both players create a monster character and then create a music playlist for that character. Then you each listen to the other's playlist, and try to see how many questions you can answer about the other's character. It's a cool experiment in character creation AND playlist making, which I love.

Artefact - Another solo game, but instead of playing a character you play a magical artefact, a cool sword or magic ring or whatever you want to create. Over the course of the game you tell the story of this item, how it was created and what great events it's seen, over the long, long arc of history.

(Note on Solo games for people new to them: They're a lot like guided writing prompts, but I love to use them to create backstories for OCs, or flesh out a setting for writing projects or DND games. You can journal as much or as little as you like.)

Video Games:

Oxenfree - (In last year's Itch megabundle) A 2D sidescrolling horror game about teenagers stuck overnight on an island with angry ghosts. Listen I don't love horror as a genre but this got me SO good, its creepy and unsettling and ghosty, and the music is amazing, and it's an indie fan favorite.

A Short Hike - (In last year's Itch megabundle) A cutesy short exploration game - also stuck on an island, you play a bird-person who sets off on a hike to the top of the mountain.

Arcade Spirits - Nerdy visual novel/dating sim! I think this also may have been in that megabundle. In an alternate world where arcades never went out of style, you try to hold down your job at a floundering mom-and-pop arcade, fight the capitalist megacorp, and maybe find love (but only if you want)!

A Normal Lost Phone - The entire game takes place in a phone you've apparently found on the ground. You have to snoop through the owner's texts, email, and apps to figure out how to turn on the wifi and unlock more parts of the phone, discovering the story of the person who 'lost' it. I don't wanna spoil anything but it was a very touching game.

Feel free to share some of your own recommendations!

[amintyworld]

Why I Love Dream SMP:

A long long time ago when I was just starting to get into the gaming side of YouTube, I gradually began to love and enjoy seeing content for Minecraft, as it had become pretty mainstream during that time - DanTDM, LDShadowlady, Smallishbeans, TheOrionSound, Laurenzside- they became some of the first YouTube Creators I’ve ever been fans of and watched constantly. Even today I still have a fond appreciation for them as creators, though I don’t watch them as much as I used to. I learned about my love of Let’s Play content from them and grew to enjoy other types of videos and just loved the creators in general. I’d never really even ever played Minecraft up to that point, and only ever heard of it from brief conversation with friends, but the more I watched the more I learned to love the game as well, and eventually after a few years I even got a copy of the game to play. Also, fun fact - Lauren’s Sim Series made me fall in love with the Sims 4, a game I still play to this day. Thx Lauren. <3

But then, one day scrolling through my recommended page I come across what looks to be a episode of some kind - something called “Emerald Secret” by this creator named Aphmau. Curiosity won and I clicked on the video, almost instantly getting pulled in to the dramatic scenes, sounds, characters and story. Suddenly I had watched all the episodes so far, and craving more content, binged the other two seasons of the show. This was so so much different than the content I was used to - no facecams or silly quips. There was a solid story - heroes, villains, magic, werewolves - and I liked it. I really, really liked it. Aphmau’s MyStreet series made me realize my love of stories like that - stories that were original and real, were the characters felt fleshed out and there were real threats - this wasn’t a mainstream show, so it was always unpredictable. You don’t know what’s going to happen next, where the story’s going to lead - one moment people are joking about tacos the next someone’s kidnapped or dead or on the run. It made me fall in love with these characters and this world - that series made me want to become a creative writer, one of the reasons I even started this tumblr blog for my work. Jason and Jess and the whole voice actor crew, thanks so so much for a wonderful series that made me creative again, and made me write again. Just thanks. <3

Of course, like always, my interests began to change in a year or so as Aphmau’s MyStreet series finally ended and her content began to shift with how YouTube began to change during that time - her channel became more and more kid-friendly and I didn’t feel like it really fit with me anymore, so I searched for more mature content. Soon I found Creators like Markipiler, Crankgameplays, Jackscepticeye - I turned away from Minecraft content with the idea that it was doomed to only make kid-friendly content to fit with YouTube’s standards, so with a heavy heart I left and didn’t really look back on the community for a while.

Then, animatics began to flood my recommended. Jack and Mark had begun to play Minecraft and I couldn’t have been happier, and now I was getting shown videos from the server Dream SMP. As with Aphmau, one look at the story and I quite literally hopped on the bandwagon. I was always a sucker for a good story and good writing and this seemed to have it all - an entire Independence WAR?! Hamilton References?! The biggest thing came as a shock to me was that the content seemed more mature and more heavy - not as held back as I was used to - and it ignited my love for a good story all over again.

I feel like Minecraft has finally evolved over time - the kids who have grown up with the game and the creators who are now teens and adults can now still have a love for the game and for the content that’s fitting for them. Minecraft isn’t just a game for the kids anymore. It’s a game for everyone, and finally the internet has realized this fact with the rising popularity of Dream SMP and the content creators within it. People like me are finding their love of the game again, and honestly that’s pretty damn cool for a SMP server to accomplish a new renaissance for the game and for the Minecraft Content Creator community, with a story bursting with creativity and characters that the creators get to write themselves.

I’m thankful for all those before - without them I don’t think the game would have ever reached the popularity and reach it did - but I’m also thankful for newer creators who helped bring back the game from so many of our childhoods and giving it new life. :)

Anyway, that’s all - thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[mystech-master]

BBTAG Alt Voice Actor Powers

Something dumb I have been doing is looking at the various voice actors of the characters in the BBTAG franchises and imagining "What if these characters had powers/abilities/skills/aesthetics from other characters that their VAs have "portrayed?

Here are some examples, using both English and Japanese VAs using the 4 main protags of the first 4 fates

Ragna the Bloodedge, English VA: Patrick Seitz, Japanese VA: Tomokazu Sugita

A lot of good choices for Ragna, for his English VA there is Scorpion from Mortal Kombat and Endeavor from MHA if you want to Fire to give him the opposing element to Jin's Ice. He is also Cursed Arm Hassan from Fate if you want to lean into his evil arm. Him having Crow's Branch of Sin: Crow Claw from Deadman Wonderland did seem like a cool blade-based power as well. Griamore's Wall magic from Seven Deadly Sins would be a good idea for more defense/variety, and many others are just a lot more but those are the ones that stand out to me.

For his Japanese VA. The best one I can think of is Kensei Muguruma from Bleach one of the Visoreds. His Bankai really sticks out to me as getting bladed knuckles with explosive punches. Ragna does go pretty hand to hand in gameplay but I do feel like whenever we see him fighting in anything animated he just fights like Ichigo just without being able to fly).

Yu Narukami, English VA: Johnny Yong Bosch, Japanese VA: Daisuke Namikawa

His English VA has plenty of other protagonists in his repertoire. Ichigo from Bleach and Nero from Devil May Cry, Guren Nash from Tenkai Knights I would probably only take the wolf motif from. Lio Fotia from Promare if only because of the cool armor the Burnish have in that movie.

For his Japanese VA, there is Eustass Kid from One piece who has the Magnet Magnet Devil Fruit and I did have the idea of if Yu got an EXS ability or Semblance it'd be Electromagnetism (due to his ability to "attract and bond with" many people. Jellal Fernandes from Fairy Tail's Heavenly Body Magic would also be interesting. I have seen someone make a joke about him sharing a VA with Waver Velvet/Lord El-Melloi II/Anime Snape from the Fate series as well, but the powers he'd get from here would probably be Zhuge Liang's abilities from Fate/Grand Order. Momoshiki Otsutsuki from Boruto I would only look at if you just want to go full OP. His Japanese Va also voiced Matt Ishida in the new Digimon Adventure Reboot and I just think that him voicing the one wielding the Crest of Friendship is very fitting.

Hyde Kido, English VA: Kyle McCarley, Japanese VA: Ryohei Kimura

This is the hardest one to do because every other series has had a few games to their name to flesh out a character and their motifs and powers, so I am kind of working with nothing here.

For the English VA, With how cursed the Void Powers are I partially lean towards Sir Percedal from Wakfu (at least in Season 3) for the most part. For his Japanese VA, there really isn't much I can single out here due to how little UNIB's story has progressed, but to throw some of them out there: Wonder-Red from Wonderful 101, Eugene Sims from inFAMOUS Second Son, Sorey from Tales of Zestria, and Howzer from Seven Deadly Sins.

Ruby Rose, English VA: Lindsay Jones, Japanese VA: Saori Hayami

RWBY characters have half the problem that UNIB characters have in that a lot of the English cast haven't done anything outside of RWBY, there are exceptions but for the most part, you look up their IMDB pages and you'll mostly get Rooster Teeth stuff.

The only other two roles Lindsay has played are Imina from Overlord and Venessa Kimball from Red vs Blue.

For her Japanese VA, we have Anya Hepburn from Soul Eater NOT and her Halberd skills, Himawari Uzumaki from Boruto also has a unique eye power in the form of the Byakugan, Atalanta from Fate and her Archery skills translated into Ruby's sniping might be fitting and she IS known in her legend for being a fast runner (fitting with Ruby's speed), Yamato from One Piece has the Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Okuchi no Makami (Eng: Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Okuchi-no-Makami) which gives her the form of a Divine Wolf and Ruby does have a motif with wolves sometimes.

This isn't something important or big, just a fun topic of discussion. If you could see a character from one of the franchises in BBTAG using a power/weapon/ability/skill from another role their VA (English and Japanese) have played, what would you give to who?

[samwisethewitch]

a real witch reviews the arcana (aka that phone game based on tarot cards that keeps showing up on your explore page)

I’ve been seeing The Arcana all over Tumblr and Instagram for several months now, and since I am a Genuine Real Life Witch™️ and have been reading tarot for several years now, I thought it would be fun to play the game and review it both from a gamer perspective and a witch/tarot reader perspective. 

Spoiler: I really, really like it.

Please note that I have done virtually no research into the developer or development history of this game. This review is based purely on my experience from my playthroughs. 

So what is The Arcana?

The Arcana is a fantasy/romance visual novel created by Nix Hydra Games. A visual novel is an interactive, text-based story with static visuals, so it’s almost more like an interactive graphic novel than a video game. Honestly, visual novels remind me of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books that were really popular in the 1980s and 1990s more than anything else. 

(Note: I recently learned that a visual novel is NOT the same thing as a dating sim, although the two genres are similar and do sometimes overlap. Dating sims... simulate dating. That’s really all there is to them. Visual novels typically have a more plot-focused story, and may have other stuff going on besides the romance.)

The story of The Arcana follows the player character, a magician’s apprentice living in the fictional city-state of Vesuvia, who is enlisted to track down a suspected murderer. Where the story goes from there depends on which route you choose to play. There are currently six routes, each with a different love interest. Each route has its own unique story, although obviously there are some overlapping elements.

Sam the Gamer’s Review

Like I mentioned, The Arcana is essentially an interactive novel, so I’m reviewing it the way I’d review a book. So, let’s just run down some of the typical book review questions, shall we?

Is the content good? Yes. It has gotta be difficult to juggle six parallel storylines and make all of them equally compelling, but this game pulls it off. There were parts that genuinely had me in suspense, other parts that had me giggling at my phone, and some parts that were (intentionally) frustrating. I’m really impressed with how each route is totally different from the others -- not just in content, but even in tone. For example, Portia’s route comes across as much more lighthearted and fluffy, whereas Julian and Muriel both have a lot of angst in their respective stories. It’s really well done.

Are the characters well-rounded and realistic? Again, yes. Okay, “realistic” may be a bit of a stretch in some cases Vlastomil but all six of the main romanceable characters have fleshed out personalities that feel natural within the story world. The side characters in this game are also really interesting, although I do wish some of them had bigger roles in the story.

What about the technical stuff (dialogue, grammar, etc.)? For the most part, it’s pretty good. The dialogue flows naturally, and different characters have different speaking styles, which is a little thing that makes SUCH a big difference. I noticed a couple of typos, but nothing too crazy.

The gameplay was pretty good. The only real mechanic is choosing one of two or three dialogue options at certain points in the game. There are a couple of places in each route where these choices are timed, but other than that it’s a very stress-free gaming experience.

Another thing that impresses me from both a writing and a gameplay angle is the multiple ending mechanic. Your choices matter in this game. Each of the routes has an “upright” ending and a “reversed” ending. I’m not exactly sure which choices affect the ending you get, but I’ve only managed to get “upright” endings so far, and I didn’t have to do anything special to unlock them.

Sam the Witch/Tarot Reader’s Review

Honestly, I did not expect this game to be as accurate with its depiction of magick and the Tarot as it was. 

Each character is based on one of the Major Arcana, and I feel like they did a really good job of matching their personalities to their cards. Nadia is based on the High Priestess so she’s very intuitive and intelligent but tends to be distant and hard to read, Julian is based on the Hanged Man so he feels the need to sacrifice himself for others (with lots of gallows humor along the way), Lucio is based on the Devil so he’s a fucking bitch all about power and excess, etc. 

I reeeeaaalllyy like the use of “upright” and “reversed” endings instead of the typical good vs. bad endings -- based on upright vs. reversed meanings of Tarot cards, of course. I also really love that the reversed endings aren’t 100% negative, just like how reversed cards in readings aren’t necessarily negative.

I don’t wanna spoil anything, but I also really like how the upright endings deal with the upright traits of that character’s Major Arcana card, while the reversed endings deal with the reversed traits of that card.

This game also includes some pretty realistic depictions of witchcraft and magick. Obviously because it’s a fantasy world there is fantasy magic involved, but astral travel is a major theme in pretty much every route, and the way it’s depicted in the game is very similar to my real life experiences with it. 

There’s one character who is a kitchen witch and makes homemade enchanted food with magickal herbs, which made me feel warm and fuzzy because it reminded me of all the times I’ve used kitchen magick to make charmed food for myself and my loved ones.

Tarot readings are obviously a big deal within the story world, but there’s also a character who uses runestones! Which I think is neat!!

They mention some real-life magickal plants. Myrrh being used for protection comes up a lot, which, in case anyone was curious, is actually one of the common uses for myrrh in spellcraft.

They clearly did their research and honestly I’m thrilled.

Other Cool Stuff About This Game

It’s probably the most queer-inclusive video game I’ve ever played. Right off the bat, you’re given the choice to choose between he/him, she/her, or they/them pronouns for your character. The pronouns you pick do not affect the story in any way.

All six love interests are romanceable no matter what gender you play as. Which means this is canonically a universe in which everyone is queer. Hell yeah.

Two of the six current romanceable characters are women, and one is nonbinary. The routes for these characters are just as well written and romantic, with just as many wink-wink-nudge-nudge innuendos, as the men’s. There are also multiple nonbinary side characters.

Also! Racial and ethnic diversity in the main cast! And the main characters all have different body types, which is another nice touch.

This is nerdy as hell but I love how the different cultures and ethnic groups in the game are based on real-life cultures? It’s just one of those little things that makes my heart happy.

The art style is pretty as fuck.

In conclusion: I feel like this review is overwhelmingly positive but I just genuinely can’t think of any major criticisms of this game. It’s fun, it’s free, there was clearly a lot of thought put into it. I was really pleasantly surprised. Everybody go download it and play it. You’ll have a good time, and afterwards you’ll understand all the memes.

P.S. I know people are gonna ask so: I chose Julian for my first playthrough because he’s tall and goth and has messy hair and that’s honestly all I look for in a man. Now that I’ve played all six routes, Portia’s is probably my favorite because it’s so cute and wholesome and I just really want a soft bookworm girlfriend, please. Lucio’s route is a close second because after seeing him as an antagonist in everyone else’s routes it’s actually really interesting to see his story told from a sympathetic angle! But like I said, I’ve played all six routes.

[inkabelledesigns]

A Demonic Romance?

So um...I did something kind of self indulgent last night on the Sims, something I wouldn’t normally do. In fact, this may be the first time I’ve done something like this. ^^’’’’ I don’t know if any of you remember this, but I wrote this one-shot fanfic last year called Don’t Take it for Granted. Not a lot of people read it, but that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about it a lot, because it gave characterization to a character I never expected to work with: Grant Cohen. See, I don’t have this burning desire to work with Grant as a character. He’s got one tape that’s clearly his, and his office is a scary sight, but otherwise, there’s not much to be invested in. If we had to pick a side character outside of our bigger names to focus on, I’d probably choose to write about Jack (something to keep in mind for the future). But when I wrote this fic and fleshed out Grant, some cool stuff happened that I wasn’t expecting. 

And now I’m playing with it in the Sims. This is the first time I’ve done an OC X Canon pairing. But danggit, they’re really cute together!

So for anyone who hasn’t read my fics (or it’s just been a while), let me get you up to speed. On the right, we have Grant Cohen, but on the left, we have my demon. This is Belphene Farah. In my story, Searching the Depths: The Heart of the Studio, she’s the demon that Joey contracted to give the ink its magical properties. She wasn’t intended to be anything major, but the more I get into her head, the more I want to flesh her out. She’s actually shown up in three of my fics now, as she’s also pretty important to Too Many Eyes, which is a crossover fic. She’s a bit complicated in terms of morality, sometimes loving to torture mortals, and sometimes taking pity on them. Grant is one such case. Grant’s life hasn’t been anything special. He has no family, his only friends (if he can call them that) are at the studio, he’s constantly stressed and overworked, and he’s been convinced that he’s unworthy of love. 

So when Belphene scoops him up for another sacrifice, he’s more afraid for the people that she’s going after next than he is himself. And that strikes a chord with her. She’s also been hurt many times over. She also doesn’t believe she’s worthy of love, and that’s part of why she’s delighted in messing with mortals for so long, to distract herself from her longing for someone to care. One thing I haven’t covered within the story itself is WHY she agreed to a contract with Joey. Part of it is because Belphene’s pretty young for a demon. She was still figuring out contracts, and there was something intriguing about his that would’ve made a difference to how other demons see her. She felt if she could prove herself, people would take her seriously, she’d finally be worthy of having respect and adoration. But of course, you and I know that’s not how it really works, not in a healthy relationship at least. The more I dive into who they are, the more I realize that they have a lot in common. So much so that I kind of started to ship the two, and that lead to my making a separate sim of Grant just so I could have the two try and date.  Now, they’re dating, and it’s kind of cute. I can’t make demons in the Sims, so Belphene is a vampire, and it actually gave me an option, once Grant took interest in her vampirism, for him to ask to be turned. I’m not gonna lie, this kind of intrigues me. Maybe it’s just because I’ve seen a demon Grant before (he’s the Sin of Greed in a shared AU my gal pals and I have), but I can totally see him as a demon in the future. They’d work together, she’d show him all the ropes, and he’d use his legal expertise (he’s big on following rules as well as bending them) to make sure they don’t have a bad contract again. They both go from feeling like lesser as people to getting the love they craved all along. I can see them both becoming better people too, kinder, gentler, maybe a bit more mischievous on Grant’s end. What do you think? Depths as a story is all about healing, and it’s not just for our protagonists. I want to help as many people as possible, because danggit these characters deserve to feel better, to have a better life after all they’ve been through.

Whatever comes next, I’m glad I got to try things with these two, and I’m excited to continue experimenting. 

[lightdeficient]

PROBLEMS with TS4: Realm of Magic

So this was the pack for The Sims 4 so far that I’ve been the most excited about. I am gonna say it again but I prepared a savefile dedicated to witches with over 400 sims that have unique backstories, are fleshed out with traits, careers, relationships, clubs, skills, custom builds, and heck even phone cases! I was so sure they were gonna NAIL this pack like they did with Vampires, and although many parts of the Vampire Pack were a bit ‘excessive’ in my opinion, that’s a great problem to have because it’s usually the other way around.

So with TS4: Realm of Magic we get the new world Glimmerbrook, which looks very similar to Granite Falls (TS4: Outdoor Retreat), but is a bit more magical and has its unique quirks. I like this world a lot and I think it’s drop-dead gorgeous and was hoping they would recycle some Granite Falls assets for this pack since it takes a lot of their budget to create a new world with new plants and objects, and I would rather have that part of the budget go to spellcasting, which is what the pack is actually about. Glimmerbrook is awesome, with the exception of their non-functional messed up houses that are missing doors and have weird missing textures that if you’re anything like me, you will need to fix to be able to play in, which is annoying when you have to do that for every new save you start. We should just be able to throw ourselves into the game and not have to fix things before we get to the fun stuff... Not everyone likes renovating houses for hours like Lilsimsie, and even she’s mad, so.

Then we also get the magical realm, which looks really cool and has a fascinating story behind it, but to be honest I don’t know if I’ll use it that much because it kinda kills the story behind it when you see regular old townies walking around in the realm and using magic like they’re part of that secret world, like no. Just no. This renders that world essentially useless for me and a lot of other players.

The Create-A-Sim items are kinda lackluster, but the ones we do get look awesome and I like that they tackle different styles of spellcasters with their gothic, preppy, shady and hermit kind of clothes. I have so much CC I don’t necessarily yearn for more CAS content, but it is fun to get new meshes to see what CC creators will do with them! I’ll take it!

The Build items look phenomenal and I just want to praise EA for giving us a brand new style of content and also A FULL SET of objects (Except missing cupboards for the new kitchen, damn this is getting old), but it does kind of become less versatile when some objects have magical effects attached to them, like the desk for example. It’s cute and all, I get it, but I might want to use that desk in a normal house and now that house will have a complete set except for the desk because it’s too magical for the story I’m telling with them. I wish they just removed the magical effect completely or at least made two versions. Or I just use another desk, it’s not too big of a deal.

Now to the Gameplay... HERE WE GO RANT TIME

Okay so, first of all, I think the spells and potions we get are pretty lame as they don’t really add anything new to the game. They don’t add any new gameplay features or mechanics like if you remember Genies from TS3, they had an ability to control sims which temporarily added them to your household with a cool effect where you could literally have full control over them like your own sims and make them behave pretty much however you want. Why didn’t they add any mechanics like this? They basically only recycled vampire powers, made base game cheats into spells, or stole the SimRay ‘Freeze’ interaction from TS4: Get To Work, and they don’t add basically any new animations aside from the ones the spellcaster uses, which is also like two, one for casting on others and one for casting on self, so it looks super repetitive when they cast spells frequently. And to rub salt in the wound, we don’t even get any new spells when we have other packs like TS4: Seasons, which is such a missed opportunity on making weather spells, or vampire and witch fights with TS4: Vampires? Why do these start feeling more and more like independent games instead of packs meant to EXPAND our game? 

Also, spellcasting is just so glitchy, I mean the spellcaster doesn’t even face the target of their spell, so it just kind of breaks that feeling of “Oh my sim is doing this!” and feels more like a “My sim is doing.. something? OH the sink is fixed!” you know? And when they’re really close to the sim they’re casting on their animation will clip through them like, oh the quality... And I’m not gonna lie, I was kind of hoping for less whimsical and magical glitter effects in this pack than we had in previous games because I view magic as a hidden force and not as glitter flying everywhere, but damn this pack has like NO EFFECTS, when you cast ‘Strangeify’ on a sim, they literally BOOP (Shoutout to Romeo) into their green and witchy face. I get it’s not easy to do a transition, but come on, add a smoke effect to cover up that hard transition AT LEAST? And just the utter lack of reaction from the person being cast on totally breaks it even more. They just stand there like completely unaware their face was just messed up, or when you make two sims fight or kiss, they just walk there and do it immediately with so little notice like it’s a cheat, and it’s even hard to even find the sims that are being cast on because it just looks so ordinary. Isn’t this a magic pack? We could get the “vampire mesmerize effect” at least to show that the sims are commanded?

Even if spellcasting weren’t glitchy, it’s still way too overpowered in my opinion. Sure we have curses to mess things up for us, but you can just make a Curse Cleansing potion, Copypasto it infinite times and never have any problems. I also wish that there was a potion for setting your sims age back by just one day instead of “BECOME IMMORTAL” or “FREEZE AGE”. It would give us reason to keep making potions and trying to keep our sim alive, giving us actual gameplay and story. 

The Familiars, in my opinion, are just so silly. You know how Kids Room Stuff added Voidcritters which are the sims equivalent of Pokémon? Well now you can have them as a witch familiar, so apparently, spellcasters are actually Pokémon trainers? Why would you even put those things in here like they are not supposed to exist? And we only got a Raven as our only normal familiar. I will probably only use those ravens and I wish they could sit on your shoulder or something like in previous games but no, they just flap around endlessly behind you like some seagull on the beach facing a strong wind. I know technically we only got one Voidcritter but the other ones are just weird too. I can understand some phoenix, fairy, dragon or Sixam owl being in the game but the rest are literally Pokémons.

Final breath is normal sims that drink potions can’t get cursed... Why?! This would have been a perfect way to mess up sims lives?! And now normal sims can only get positive things from drinking potions? That’s so lame and so overpowered.

I am beyond disappointed in the game pack and this has been a horrible year for the sims with Strangerville and um, Island Living, which both lacked in depth and gameplay. Unfortunately, not even a fraction of this will be fixed by EA, so I pray that some talented modder fixes this game pack because let’s face it, modders continue to do it better. I adore this franchise and can’t help but sit here and rant about this mess, and don’t think I’m bashing EA or anything but damn they need to step up their game because they’re throwing dirt on their whole fanbase.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[fyrapartnersearch]

Hello~! My name is Fuu! I find myself returning here in search of partners or interest persons! My hobbies include writing, cooking, reading, cosplay, crying over fictional characters, crying in general, video games, drawing, and talking to my cats. I work part time at a library. I am 21+. I’m about as intimidating as a pink butterfly stuck on a marshmallow. I’m an absolute chatter box, if I go on a tangent, just reel me back in. 

☆○o。RP Preferences 。o○☆ ✦Writing I write in 3rd person format, multi-para. I’m not asking for a novella per reply, but I do like a lovely helping of quality/quantity that keeps the scene moving. Good grammar and spelling are desired! ✦Replies I am able to reply frequently and I prefer to write with people that can do the same. I won’t rush or badger anyone to reply. Take your time! Just not like a month, without warning. I lose muse/forget threads if they’re left untouched for 2+ weeks. ✦Communication I enjoy making friends of my rp partners. It really helps me throw ideas/build ships/build stories if we’re compatible. My discord is available for OOC discussion if needed! ✦Plotting Please expect this to happen before we start writing anything, and most likely during the RP itself. I am a casual/slowburn plotter. I’m a sucker for slice of life, but other concepts like action and angst are also welcome. I discovered that talking ooc about scenarios is just as fun and developing as writing? It’s nice to throw ideas around and it helps get a feel for character interaction.  Plots don’t have to be fully fleshed out, either. I can do long term and short term ideas, or ideas that eventually connect together. Skip introductions, write introductions, having an entire thread dedicated to them going grocery shopping… Sometimes slice of life is literally pressing play on a sims game and watching them function enough to cause a fire making mac and cheese (I have made the following oc in the sims and yes she did set the house on fire.. making mac n cheese). ✦Shipping Romantic and Platonic, I’m up for either! Preference is mxf. The specific character I play is a lady. I’ve read before how some others complain that there’s too many ‘soft bois uwu’ in the RPC and I’m just ‘where they at.’ Send them my way, my girl will love them. Send them all over here. So for strictly shipping things that is her general .. preference, but really if a ship happens it happens!. If anything spicy happens beyond fluff, it must be kept to strictly 18+ rpers!

Friendships are also great! Give me boy or girl friendships, she needs friends!! ✦Limits I am very squeamish, I can’t handle things regarding gore, excessive swearing, excessive vulgarity, etc. very well. As long as it’s tagged then I’m a-okay! It just won’t happen in our threads.

☆○o。What Am I Looking For 。o○☆

Well, this time I’m here looking to bring attention to a specific blog. It’s a fandomless OC - which is a first for me - so I have no idea how to actually get people to look at it, or what tags to go delving into. That’s why I’m here! Because it’s a blog, there’s isn’t a real mold I can fit it into in regards to what I’m looking for. 

My blurb for her character is basically “Do you like pretty ladies? Do you like tall pretty ladies? Do you like tall, pretty ladies that can crush a pumpkin with their thighs while maintaining the look of a walking fashion ad? Do you like pretty ladies who would gladly let someone sit on their lap for a change? On such a level of beauty that a Greek God would have her turned into a newt out of sheer envy? Then I may have the OC for you! Meet Sofia, a girl living in a large city just trying to pay her rent on time. Oh, she’s also part unicorn so there’s that.”  

Genres I have set for her are: Roommate A/U Medieval Fantasy Modern Fantasy Space Adventures/Cyberpunk?? Cirque du Freak Beauty and the Beast Heiress to a grand estate in the 1800′s Madam of a Parlor House in the 1800′s But a lot of the time genres are tailored to the person I’m writing with. Maybe we can find something new!

So you might be wondering ‘wait did I read unicorn??’ Yes. You did. She started as a Cirque du Freak character and has gone through some updates in the time since the books came out. So now that’s part of her actual history and now she’s just trying to live in a big city - which is exactly where unicorns aren’t supposed to go. She lives in a modest flat with a big fluffy dog and way too many potted plants. She’s tall, can run in stilettos, can and has kicked in a door (wearing said stilettos), and her aesthetics include water color pastels a la Sailor Moon/Retro Anime backgrounds and 80’s Japanese music.

As far as Settings go ‘modern city’ is my usual go to with layerings of magic and fantasy thrown in, because she herself is the epitome of magic and fantasy. 

I don’t know if I made any sense I’m not used to these kinds of ads, but if this character struck your fancy then you can find her over on her blog!  whiterosemilktea. Should we be compatible then my discord is also available for chatting purposes! Thank you!

[sophygurl]

So I think we’ll title this one “What I WATCHED on my summer vacation” lol

Okay, first off. When I play Sims, I like to have shows on in the background that aren’t serious drama shows that I need to really focus on. My go-to’s are comedies and daytime soaps and shows I don’t care about as much. But I played so much Sims I needed to branch out a bit, so I had me some Netflix time and watched and re-watched and caught up on a buncha stuff.

For one thing, I got all caught up on my Netflix Marvel series. I was really behind on that, so I had to watch The Defenders, The Punisher, Jessica Jones 2, and Luke Cage 2. So now (I guess) I’m ready for Iron Fist 2, but only because they’ll likely put some of the other good characters in there. *mumbles about stupid Iron Fist*

(I still need to get around to watching Runaways tho)

I also got caught up on my DCTV. I had started Arrow back in the day, but I didn’t love it, so I quit it and then never started The Flash because it was a spin-off but then DID watch Legends because I love so many of the actors and of course DID watch Supergirl, so all those cross-overs got confusing. So anyway, yea, now I have gone back and watched all of Arrow and Flash and am set to watch all 4 series this fall. 

Then, since I was on a roll, I also watched all of Gotham. Another series I had initially started and then stopped, but figured - why not? So I’ll likely keep up with that now too.

Branching out from comic book shows - I picked up two series that I never watched but had wanted to, especially after seeing all of the tumblr posts raving about them - and am all set to keep up with both Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend now. JTV I adore. Crazy Ex - I am -ish on, but I do love me some musical comedy so.

Also really enjoyed the Lost in Space reboot on Netflix. 

Back on regular network TV, I am hilariously loving this really awful new show on the CW - The Outpost?!? Is anyone else watching this? What are the feels about it? I ... can’t understand why I love it so much because it is cheeseball as hell, but it’s also a completely developed new fantasy world that isn’t based on a book series or comic or game or anything as far as I can tell? It’s just this fully fleshed out world with different magical species and global politics and shit? But, like, the settings and costumes and stuff look like they come right out of my middle school drama department?! IDK, but I love it and hope it doesn’t get cancelled and can keep being a summer TV joy.

Other new summer shows I got into: Burden of Truth, Carter, Castaways, Cloak and Dagger (still behind on a couple eps), Dietland, Pose, Reverie, Succession, and Take Two.

Returning summer shows that I kept on enjoying included: The 100, Animal Kingdom, Claws, Elementary, Fear the Walking Dead (though I have dropped the Talking Dead now Fuck Off Chris Hardwick - really wish they’d have fired him and brought Ivette Nicole Brown or someone else on), Killjoys, Wynonna Earp, and Younger.

Two new series started tonight that I’m excited about catching on the ole DVR - the SoA spin-off Mayans MC and The Purge. 

There aren’t a ton of new fall shows that I’m excited about other than the Charmed reboot and perhaps Manifest? But I’m also planning to check out All American, Cool Kids, The Kids Are Alright, Legacies (because I am a glutton for punishment apparently), A Million Little Things, Single Parents,and oh lol The Conners because now that they Valerie Harper’d Roseanne this solves all of my ethical quandaries about enjoying this show from my youth returning to me and tbh I love and respect a lot of the rest of the cast and crew so woo! Speaking of reboots of comedies from my youth - I will also probably be watching Murphy Brown, even though I was a more casual watcher back in the day of that one. 

Also Tell Me A Story on CBSAA looks like it could be really fascinating and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix, as well. 

Returning fall shows I’m most excited about? Black Lightning, Dynasty, Empire, The Good Place, How to Get Away With Murder, Madam Secretary, Speechless, Supergirl, This is Us, and The Walking Dead.

Am I missing something good here?

[plumbobpost]

Fanfic Friday: Spotlight on Skell’s Fortune & Romance

Sul sul!

Today Week of Woohoo continues with a very special twist. I have had the opportunity to ask Skell a few questions as part of a new series of posts about storytelling in The Sims community.

Skell’s Fortune & Romance serves as a prequel to the Pleasantview and Strangetown storylines in The Sims 2 from the perspectives of the Caliente sisters, hence the title which references their aspirations. Her story takes place in the time period between the first and second games and fills in the gaps between the contradicting timelines of The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3. Although the story is largely from Dina’s perspective, it features most of the iconic The Sims 2 characters ranging from Olive Specter to the Tricous to Bella and Mortimer Goth, establishing its own vivid mythology in the process.

In addition to writing, Skell has also created beautiful Maxis-Match content for The Sims 2 and is a frequent contributor to the Totally Maxis Tumblr and the fansite Garden of Shadows.

Without further ado, I’ll let Skell speak for herself.

You’ve said in the past that Fortune & Romance started out as your attempt to make sense of Maxis canon for the premade characters of Neighborhood 1, Pleasantview, and Sunset Valley. How did this evolve from your personal headcanons into a full-fledged story?

“I had played TS2 off and on for years before I was part of the fandom, mostly just goofing around but I had a lot of fun taking pictures and experimenting with posing. One day I discovered Strangetomato’s “Strangetown Here We Come” on TVtropes and was amazed at the way she fleshed out the premade stories from the game. Through her comment section, I discovered the whole fandom and started paying better attention to the premades. Eventually I came up with a backstory for Dina that I really wanted to write and share.”

Why did you choose Nina and Dina Caliente to be your protagonists? Did you ever consider different lead characters?

“It was always gonna be Dina because I was intrigued her backstory with the mysteriously inconsistent Michael Bachelor and the fact that she’s part alien. I wasn’t as interested in Nina until I noticed that she was shy (like me in RL) and also autonomously beating people up all the time. That’s when I realized she was gonna be a co-star and balance to Dina’s antics.”

Instead of ignoring Maxis’ characterization of Dina as a gold digger, you embraced it and made it a focal point of her character. Similarly, you fully acknowledge Nina’s romance aspiration while not making her a heartbreaker. How did you find a balance between their implied “villainy” in The Sims 2 and making them more sympathetic characters?

“I enjoy classic movies where Marilyn Monroe or Thoroughly Modern Millie is like “teehee I’m gonna marry a millionaire,” and it’s quirky rather than villainous. In those stories, she usually falls for a poor guy and chooses love over money (and often he turns out to be secretly rich.) Since Michael didn’t give her a “married a rich sim” memory, I wanted to write Dina the gold-digger as a modern version of that kind of story.”

“Maxis kind of setup Romance sims for “villainy” by not allowing for casual or open relationships, but of course that can be fixed with mods. With Nina, it’s interesting that she doesn’t really fit the “outgoing party girl” type. I think of her as a quiet person with a very intense energy. She needs lots of exercise and woohoo so that she doesn’t explode.”

There are a lot of unconventional relationships in your story. Nina and Servo. Olive and Ichabod. The Tricous. Even Dina and Michael. That being said, there is very definitely a theme of “love conquers all.” What motivated your approach to these relationships? How does that relate back to your attempts at reconciling Maxis canon throughout different games?

“I have a thing for mixed supernatural relationships. Dina and Mike bonding over their hidden supernatural heritages was always key once I figured Michael had a magic side. I knew I wanted to have Nina be intimate with a servo because that’s HAWT, but I didn’t foresee how intimate things would get until I figured out Servo’s character. The Tricous’ happy polyamory was my explanation for all the weirdness going on with their relationships and family tree. And I wanted Olive, Ichabod, and DJ make up this very loving and weirdly “normal” Unholy Family.”

Speaking of reconciling Maxis canon, you created your own version of Michael Bachelor in order to match his appearance in The Sims better and to create a resemblance between him and his famous sister, Bella Goth. Why do you think Michael was depicted so differently throughout the first three games? What did you draw inspiration from in creating “The Ultimate Michael Bachelor?”

“I think it mostly comes down to them wanting to use a familiar name for Bella’s brother/Dina’s husband in TS2, and carrying that forward. In TS3, I saw a boy who had his life all planned out for him by his father. In my headcanon, he screwed that all up and became the graduate of TS1 who had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. His relationship to Bella is the reason why he’s still single by the time he reconnects with Dina, who helps him find direction.”

There is an abundance of strong female characters in F&R, some of which were not originally portrayed that way. Why did you feel that it was important to write them as such?

“Well, because I’m a proud “SJW,” of course! But seriously, it’s less about being strong and more about seeing them as people?”

^Best answer that I could have asked for.

A large portion of Fortune & Romance is dedicated to the mythology of The Sims universe(s) and to supernatural sims. How did you go about the process of world building? Did you draw inspiration from different games in the series and/or from outside sources?

“My biggest worldbuilding is the explanation of where the supernaturals came from. The fairies are sort of fallen angel types who each have an animal form, and their magic rubbed off on human sims to create the supernatural life states.”

“I try to base the worldbuilding off things in game or aspects of game play. The fairy backstory was heavily inspired by fairy tales, in the way they morally test humans for punishment or guidance.”

Aside from premade supernatural sims such as the Smiths, Calientes, and Summerdreams, how did you go about deciding which premade sims were supernatural and which weren’t? How did you decide what life state they were?

“Bella has that awesome bio about being descended from “occultists, decadents, and mystics,” but then in TS3 the Bachelor family is uber-normal, so it eventually became that Jocasta is a squirellier version of Samantha from Betwitched.”

How has Fortune & Romance evolved since you started? Are there things you would do differently if you were to restart it?

“I was such a younger, different person when I started it, and yes there are many things I would do differently. (Michael’s skintone, for example. I tried to split difference between games with a custom skintone in between S2 and S3, but everyone assumes he was whitewashed to S2.)”

“When recreating families for TS4 I came up with a backstory for Dulcinea and Nestor’s relationship as well as a backstory for Don that explains how he got to be the way he is. I still can incorporate these things, but it would have been nice to bring them in earlier.”

With your story having reached a climax, many readers are wondering whether or not F&R will come to an end sooner rather than later. Not to spoil anything, but will the story continue after the party and if so, do you intend for it to last until the events of The Sims 2?

“I never intended for it to last until the events of TS2 because then it would be really depressing. There is more stuff planned for after the party though!”

Aside from writing Fortune & Romance, you have also created a variety of Maxis-match custom content. Why do you prefer working in this aesthetic? How do you feel it complements your writing?

“The game is cartoony, and I like to use that style to tell the story. I prefer to keep things heightened and silly rather than realistic, which very much fits into The Sims aesthetic.”

Speaking of Maxis-match, you have been working on a project for The Sims 2 that involves adapting Maxis-based custom content to blend in better with the game files. Would you mind elaborating a bit on The Maxis Match Repository Project?

“The TS2 repository project is made up of conversions/separates/or otherwise adapted Maxis which pull their textures from the ones that are already in your game, rather than creating new ones. This makes the files much much tinier. I also wanted to create a catalog where you can easily find it all in one place rather than hunt all over the internet. Check it out and don’t miss out on the gems in the back of your catalog!”

You’ve played every main game in The Sims franchise, and you’ve even made some very popular 2t4 recreations of the Calientes and Michael Bachelor. Do you have a favorite game for playing? Creating sims? Making Content? Building?

“I enjoy a lot of things about TS4. The game looks great and CAS and Build Mode are the best of any game. My favorite aspect is making sims, especially that you can share sims with traits/careers/skills so they have their own little story packaged with them. However, it is much more difficult for storytelling since there’s not even a way to pick up sims and move them around.”

“TS2 is still the best as far as premade sims go, and it’s the only one I make content for. I’m a bit of a control freak with my sims, and TS2 has been mastered by fans at this point where you can have ultimate control.”

Why do you continue to play The Sims? Do you feel that the games provide a creative outlet?

“I always loved playing with Barbies as a kid and The Sims really is the ultimate dollhouse. The first time I ever heard about TS1 I knew I HAD to have it. My aunt bought it for me while I was on vacation, but I couldn’t play it until we got home! During the car ride back home and I read that manual from cover to cover multiple times, so many ideas buzzing in my head.”

Any parting comments, teasers, spoilers, public service announcements, etc.?

“I’ve been on hiatus a long while and am just now getting back into the swing of things. I’m currently working on finishing up the chapter I started posting on Tumblr but never finished. It was FreddyAirmail who got me back in the TS2 spirit by asking me to help out with the Crystal Springs neighborhood project. It’s a community hood with houses based on each of the Stuff Packs, and I made the families for Teen Style and Family Fun!”

Thanks again to Skell for answering my questions. To those of you out there who aren’t familiar with her work, go check out her Tumblr and make sure to catch up on Fortune & Romance.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to visit my ask box. If you are interested, give Plumbob Post a follow, and reblog for anyone else who you think would enjoy this blog. Stay tuned for upcoming posts!

Dag dag!

 *Photo Credits go to Skell*

[theinvisiblesims]

Seasons Tag 🎄🎉

Thanks to @fieryspaghetti for informally tagging everybody!

 I’m fairly new to the simblr universe but have seen this everywhere and wanted to fill it out as well 😁

🍂 Which season are you going to play first?

I think summer! Most of my sims are in summer gear already and I really want my sims to use their pools for a change. I’m sick of building them one and then they only go in for like a minute of their lifetime lol. Plus it’ll be an easy season to test the waters of the new expansion. Like I said i’ve never had a seasons EP before so I have no idea what to expect.

🍂 From what you’ve seen in the trailer, what are you most excited about?

mmm a lot! but mainly the expansion of functionality for the already existing objects/game play. I feel like the whole Sims 4 has been leading up to this moment and only now will the game really be what it was always supposed to be. There’s going to be so many new facets of entertainment, tying in basically all existing packs, i’m ecstatic 

🍂  What’s your favorite season IRL?

It’s always been summer, but as I’m getting older I’m kinda leaning more towards spring where it’s 70-80 with plenty of rain. Summer can get too damn hot. Though i’d still rather sweat than freeze 😋

🍂 What’s your favorite flower/plant?

Honestly... I don’t really have one. I have no affinity towards plants, with my black thumb and all, they don’t tend to live long. But in terms of usefulness i’d say Valerian Root for sure. I can’t get by without my extra sleepytime tea (it’s freakin amazing- Valerian is one of the best natural anxiety relievers)  

🍂 Are you going to create a new sim/family or are you going to keep your current household?

Well, I just started the Not So Berry Challenge, so i’ll def be keeping that one. I’ll prob delete all my other saves though and start a new seasons themed family!! 

🍂 What would you like to see in this new add-on that we haven’t seen yet?

New emotions and game play.. basically just SUBSTANCE instead of weird pointless crap. I also want it to be a little more out there, I like playing the sims to escape RL, so for it to be mundane like doing laundry drives me crazy. I don’t even like doing my own laundry damn lol. Stuff like getting struck by lightning and using a weather machine.. that’s going to be fun to watch.

🍂 How do you feel about not having a new neighborhood?

i’m HAPPY ABOUT IT, YEAH! haha I know people are salty but i’m so glad. I barely play all the worlds I currently have. It doesn’t really add that much more to the game for me. UNLESS they were to add like a beach vaca spot where you get tanned or burnt etc. I’ll settle for them putting more time into the content tho

🍂 Snow, rain, sun or wind?

Sun! with rain! Sun showers are the best

🍂 Favorite refreshing drink in summer?

Definitely smoothies, i’ve been making those like crazy. Praise be to whoever invented those frozen combo packs you just dump in the blender. yum

🍂 Favorite hot drink in winter?

Coffee in the AM and tea at night

🍂 Walk through the forest or by the beach?

Forest! i love trees and green 🌳

🍂 Swimming pool or ocean?

swimming pool, so much more refreshing plus no questionable things brushing against your legs

🍂 Where would you like to travel if you could leave right now for a week?

I’d go back to England, it was so beautiful there. I know i’d enjoy it more alone. In a cottage. In the middle of nowhere.

🍂  What new traits would you like to see in the new add-on?

mmm maybe traits to tie in with new careers? i know there’s botanists so maybe green thumb trait? idk, i’d rather wait for a diff pack for traits. 

🍂 Do you like to play with supernatural creatures like vampires and aliens? and if so, would you like to have witches/fairies/elves?

I do play with vampires and aliens sometimes.. vamps are really fleshed out which i love but i get bored easily. I’d soooo rather have witches. That’s prob the pack I wanted more than seasons

🍂 What is your favorite thing to do during winter?

netflix and reading

🍂 …during spring?

reading outside for sure. not too hot or cold

🍂 …during summer?

go to the beach or stay inside where there’s AC. I still read outside a lot though

🍂 …during autumn?

Lament the passing of summer because it’s about to get too cold. Only good thing is sweatshirts

🍂 Have you already pre-ordered seasons? and if you haven’t, are you going to pre-order it or wait until it comes out?

lmao yes. first game i’ve ever pre ordered, I was just too happy

🍂 In which neighborhood are you going to play first with seasons?

I have no idea.. hm probably Newcrest that way I can go crazy with the new buy/build mode objects and build a new town specifically for seasons

🍂 Do you listen to music while playing? and if so, what are your favourite songs to play to?

Nope, I usually have something on tv though as background noise

🍂 What’s your favorite thing to do in the sims? Creating sims, building, etc.?

Definitely creating sims. That usually takes a good couple hours, sometimes I go all out building but not as often. So creating and then playing, especially when there’s new content to explore

🍂 What’s your favorite kit/pack/add-on?

maybe parenthood and cats and dogs? For some reason I end up doing a lot of family focused playing and that pack helped add on to that. So far seasons and cats and dogs have been the ones i was most excited about

🍂 And finally, what add-on/pack would you like to see next?

Witches, after experiencing the vampire pack, I really want to see the dimensions they could add with Magic. It’s my favorite occult by far and hope it gets introduced. Like a bunch of others I also really want some frickin spiral staircases.. these chunky ones that take up half your house are killin me.

ahh 19 days!

[murfeelee]

Autumnal Asks - Nasir

I saw at least three people reblog this post on my dash, and since I'm feeling all festive I decided to join in on the holiday cheer with my fave sim, Nasir ibn Hema! <3

lantern - how did you meet your best friend? What were your first impressions of each other?

Nasir, Pietros, and Naevia were all classmates in med school. They got paired up together for a lab project, and immediately hit it off. Naevia’s like a big sister, as she’s so sweet and nurturing to the boys who never had a strong female presence in their lives. Pietros and Nasir like playing harmless pranks and being naughty, urging prep-schoolgirl Naevia to loosen up a bit. The three of them feel like long lost siblings, and they love each other dearly.

crow - which school subject do you wish you had an aptitude for? / cobweb - (if you’ve graduated) do you miss high school?

Nasir was actually a brilliant student -- when he wasn’t cutting class to smoke weed on the rooftop. His entire family pushed him from an early age to go into medicine, since that was where the money and prestige was. But Nasir’s always loved arts & crafts; creating things with his hands and expressing himself artistically.

maple - is there a hobby/skill you’ve always wanted to try but never did?

Basketball. (Lmfao!) But alas, the Little Man’s such a smol bean~! :3

harvest - what fictional character do you most identify with? Why? / jack-o-lantern - if you could look like any celebrity, who would you choose?

Gods, there’s this precious little Syrian on some show Nasir saw once; I swear he looks just like him.... :P

I love Pana in a man-bun.

fireside - if you had your dream wardrobe, what would it look like?

Nasir’s pretty much a Hot Topic reject, tbh. He likes the grunge/punk styles, and dresses like a little thuglet. Growing up on the streets, he needed a way to look tougher and more intimidating, when people would underestimate him because of his height and his cute face.

cocoa - if you could have any type of hair, what colour/cut would you have?

If he wasn’t so vain about his hair (and if Agron hadn’t threatened jokingly of course to dump him if he ever cut it), Nasir would totally rock a buzzcut!

cranberry - what’s one physical feature that you get complimented on?

Nasir’s been growing his hair out since childhood, as Nazeem once told him that his hair was very soft and pretty. By growing it, he feels closer to his brother. (Plus it doesn’t hurt that he looks so darn good with it!)

fog - how well do you think you’d do in a zombie apocalypse scenario?

Oh god. >_> Well, for any of you who remember that In the Flesh inspired Zombie Apocalypse AU I never finished, it left off with Nasir meeting the mysterious Agent Laeta, who had information on his MIA military brother, Nazeem. She took him to her HQ in Twinbrook/Nightmare Valley (one of the quarantined areas where The Risings first devastated the area), but Nasir was perfectly safe with the military escort she had. 

amber - share an unpopular opinion that you may have.

Nasir thinks the government should totally legalize weed! He’s tired of stealing from Gannicus’ stash.

orchard - share one thing that you’d like to happen this autumn. 

Nasir is really looking forward to the Halloween Oktoberfest party Uncle Lugo is throwing! ^0^ He got his costume ready months ago. He can’t wait to see Agron’s face when he sees it~~! ;)

spice - have you ever encountered a house that you believed to be haunted?

Thinking won’t be necessary -- that mofo was DEFINITELY haunted.

cider - a food that you disliked as a child but now enjoy?

Western food. Growing up in a traditional Al Simharan family, Nasir had never had things like pizza and cheeseburgers. It was only after Nazeem moved them to Starlit Shores that Nasir was introduced to the world of fast food. Mmmm...diabetus. :P

quilt - how do you take your tea (or coffee)?

Nasir loves Turkish Coffee with biscuits and a spot of milk!

bonfire - describe your dream house.

Modern!Nasir’s been living in a gorgeous apartment Nazeem picked out for them. (I first show it off in this post. It was made by @pralinesims​, and I just added a few changes here and there.) GoatFarm!AU Nasir has been living in the Rhineland with Agron and his family at the Zeigenfarm Homestead.

moonlit - are you a neat or messy person? Is your room / house orderly?

Nasir is a wee bit of a neat freak. He likes pretty things, and always keep his stuff kept nice and smelling good.

cinnamon - if you had to live in a time period different than the present, which would you choose and where?

Nazeem used to tuck Nasir in with stories from 1001 Nights. Nasir loved the tales of adventure and magic, and his favorite cartoon was Disney’s Aladdin. He’d love to go back in time and see what Al Simhara was like thousands of years ago.

pumpkin - do you think that humans are inherently good or bad?

Nasir grew used to expecting the absolute least from others, especially when it came to him. He was exposed to real scum growing up. It was only after gaining the friendship of Pietros and Naevia, and then finding love with Agron, and being welcomed/adopted by all of their friends and family, that Nasir started believing in the goodness of mankind.

(I will never get over Uncle Lugo picking Nasir up. <3 )

flannel - have you ever gone on a bad date?

Nasir never really dated before Agron, just mostly had hook ups. But his earliest dates with Agron were...complicated, to say the least. (Scroll down to “Who remembers things / anniversaries.”)

maize - the weirdest encounter you’ve had with a stranger on the street.

Nasir was scouted by so many gay porn agents in Starlit Shores. He’s got that dirty twink charm about him, that certainly helped during his brief and lurid career as a gogo dancer before getting into med school.

ghost - is there someone that you miss having in your life?

Nasir barely remembers his parents enough to deeply miss them. It’s his big brother Nazeem that Nasir really longs for. Mostly Nasir wishes he could apologize, for giving his brother such a hard time when he was busy being young and dumb, while Nazeem was just struggling to do the best he could to take care of them. Nasir resented Nazeem for always being gone (working odd jobs and crazy shifts just to keep the lights on), and then for joining the military -- both times leaving Nasir to pretty much fend for himself. But now he understands that Nazeem just wanted the best for his baby brother.

(I’m just spamming y’all with unreleased pics/spoilers from the Zombie AU chapters I never finished. Sorry for never following through with anything. U_U)

frost - if you could give some advice to your younger self, what would you say?

One of Nasir’s favorite songs is P!nk’s Conversations With My 13 Year Old Self. That’s pretty much exactly what he would say. Nasir had a very hard childhood, as he and his older brother Nazeem were orphaned during the political turmoil in Al Simhara. The barely 18 Nazeem tried raising little Nasir on his own, but Nasir was left alone a lot and hung with the wrong crowds; getting into trouble. Angry and rebellious, Nasir could have done well with an uplifting song like P!nk’s while growing up.

Wow, this post got sorta heavy here and there. :\

[laneybug926]

I wrote this blog a while ago on my wordpress site. However, considering our period of quarantine, I figured this would be fun to share here. Please do not take offense if you happen to disagree with my thoughts for they are only my opinion and what do I know🤷🏼‍♀️.

The Sims Evolution

Disclaimer: Originally I was planning on sharing my thoughts on worthiness and some pretty emotional things. However, I chose to write about something kind of silly this week and share my thoughts on the evolution of my most favorite game. I hope you enjoy! Also I do not own the Sims franchise or any of these pictures/characters/names of games. All copyright goes to The Sims©.

It happened one day while out shopping with my family. Before the days of product keys, instant downloads, and torrents, many stores had rows and rows of computer games. Stuffed into boxes with colorful graphics of game play, they usually contained a disk(or several) and a lengthy user manual on how to install/play the game. As little me browsed the different titles, my eyes fell upon a very unique looking game. A game where you more or less played God creating families, houses, and controlled how they went about their lives. As a young aspiring storyteller, I knew this would be the perfect game for me and thus my obsession with The Sims began.

The Sims 1: The beginning of a new era.

The Sims 1 has a very special place in my heart. Not only was it the catalyst to some of the best and sometimes worst decisions of my life, it was unique and had a lot of charm to it. I remember the days when it was like roulette trying to get it to work on my old desktop 'games' computer. Due to all of the space it took to work, very often it'd load and then freeze. Occasionally when it did decide to work, you felt like we cheated the Gods of gaming and played very carefully.

Looking back, perhaps the graphics aren't great, but for the time it was amazing. Where else could you customize people and build houses? Where else could you 'try for baby' just by kissing? Where else did you miss the carpool to work and ended up getting fired? Where else could Mort Goth be a secret agent and be living with his assassin of a wife Bella? And this all happened before expansion packs came out and added more dimension to it. I used to love taking my couples to town using 'Hot Date' and being able to creepily micromanage their date by going into the restaurant with them. I used to love turning my ex into a frog via 'Makin Magic'. And who could forget when Drew Carey would crash super epic parties via 'House Party'. Sims 1 was very new to it's kind and while basic, it laid the foundation for the next 20 years to come.

Sims 2- My sister's favorite

I feel horrible saying this, but of the four games, I remember playing this one the least. I do remember playing it occasionally, but far less than my little sister. By the time we bought it, my little sister was old enough to start playing and take up precious computer time. Even though I didn't play it much, I do remember that it was far superior compared to it's predecessor. The overall graphics and customization of sims and lots was awe-aspiring. The sims actually had personalities, turn ons/turn offs, and could actually age. This set the scene for some legendary Dynasties. In addition, we received expansion pack after expansion pack and occasionally stuff packs to flesh out our game playing. I do remember having University, Seasons, and Pets, but that's about it. It was a lot of fun to play with cars, jobs, hobbies, pets, survival items and changing weather. Some faithful Simmers even insist that this was the best version of Sims of all time. Would you agree? Let me know.

Sims 3- Bigger could be better

As a writer and 'simmer', the one thing I didn't like about Sims 2 was the lack of hair customization. I'd often like to make likenesses of my story characters and sadly I was stuck with the five(or six) 'normal' hair colors. I guess the Gods of Games listened to my prayers, because Sims 3 fixed all of that. You want to make a character with pink and purple hair? Go ahead. You want a character who only wears leopard print EVERYTHING? It's done. One would think that having a big brother like Sims 2 would be kind of intimidating. Nope. Sims 3, in my opinion, was the best in it's ability to customize literally everything using a color wheel, patterns, and even stamps on dogs(if you're into that). You could micromanage and customize everything. This was not only the case with the sims creation, but the whole world opened up and you could creepily follow your sims everywhere. This game robbed me of my hard earned teenage/early adulthood money due to all of it's great expansions and exciting game play. Want to make a faerie witch who turns the world into zombies? Want to take it easy and ride a house boat around the sim world? Want to climb the celebrity ladder and play for millions? Want to exchange a kiss under the mistletoe with your next door neighbor crush? You can do all of that in the Sims 3 and far more. Most of, if not all, some of my great story ideas and characters came from this game right here. I have some of the best memories playing this game such as my Greyer dynasty that literally took over the neighborhood and/or telling stories via the capture the moment feature. Yes it had it's glitches and at times it would take 20 minutes to load a saved game, but it was worth it. I wasted so much time living vicariously through the lives of little digital people that I woke up and I'm suddenly 30 years old. Just kidding, as easy as it was to get hooked, I'd like to think I had a healthy work/life/play balance. You'd think they'd keep making expansions or even stop after the success of Sims 3. Nope, within a blink of an eye the sims team announced that they were creating Sims 4. What more could they possibly bring?

Sims 4-

I’m sure you've heard the saying 'quit while you're ahead'. Unfortunately the sim team didn't and we were given the Sims 4. With promises of multi-tasking and emotions, fans of the game, such as myself, had high expectations and sadly we were very disappointed. I do remember when the demo came out that I installed it, played around, and uninstalled it with a disappointed groan. In retrospect, I might have been a bit too harsh and have since given it a chance. Maybe it's due to me being older and not having as much time to waste, but it's nice to play in low doses. Unlike Sims 3, it's frustratingly difficult to create dynasties, you cannot create at least a family by family picture story, no open worlds to explore, and there is no more color wheel/customization. The good things...well there are less 'rabbit hole' locations, with mods I can make it more exciting, I do like the sims interactions with each other, and I guess multitasking. Seriously, the best thing about Sims 4 is all of the mods and custom content that has corrupted my game in the greatest way. I do like to play this game for silliness purposes and usually don't expect to have meaningful game play. On a side note Sims Discover University expansion just came out and it's been proclaimed by sims experts that it's by far the best Sims 4 expansion. Perhaps they will continue moving in that direction and learn from their successes.

In conclusion, the Sims franchise acted as a intricate part of my childhood and has lasted far into my adulthood to inspire new characters and stories. Seriously folks, at least 60% of my story ideas have started out with just a simple PC game. Moral of the story; not all video and computer games are harmful and useless. Everything in moderation, drink lots of water, remember self care, and you'll be just fine kids.

[hauntinghilarity]

SLRP Lore: The Wendigo

I had a grand ole time skulking about as my Wendigo. I made the avatar in second life, and if curious of the parts, I have this photo on my flickr with the item list.  I plan to rewrite the descriptions in the Flickr album so they relate to my character Curro, the photojournalist who I write as on my second life flickr albums, but for now what is pasted below is a placeholder. 

As with the Lickyface event, this is an event I created for the players of a roleplay sim. I was quite pleased with it, so I kept it. Here we are. 

The text is written in a gentle script before being magically replicated. Someone seems to be leaving a half-hearted attempt at a warning. Instead of telling anyone, he appears to have simply left his notes around. The top of the page was signed ‘Doc Boots’. It also had a page number. As most normal books do not have page numbers in the thousands, it is safe to say he ripped this from his personal, obviously magical, journal. Why he decided to leave it around is anyone’s guess.

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“     The forest has been in an uproar lately. Something happened recently to turn the tide from general anger to talks of violence. They whisper of a darkness coming. What is particularly concerning, however, is that it appears that the forest does not speak of this growing beast with malice or fear. The forest seems uncertain to their stance, regardless, but the words they whisper are not lost on me. I have yet to learn whether it is one lone spirit or the work of a species, but regardless the word still fills me with equal parts of dread and wonder. Anything taught to me by the same being who was a master of skinwalking was always something to be dealt with with worry.      The Wendigo. The winter always seems to stir the spirit. An accidental ritual seems to bring it to life. It always starts with some group of people who are traveling. Lost in a forest, stuck in a blizzard, locked in a cave, the cause of their being stranded is inconsequential, though winter blizzards do seem to be the most common. I feel I know why. At first, they always try to survive the ‘moral’ way. They wouldn’t dream of eating their own kind, such things are taboo among the humanoids. Eventually, the conditionings of civilization bleed away. Eventually, your buddy begins to look like nothing more than a piece of meat. Like your lone chance to survive.

    I surmise that the reason the winter blizzards cause a higher rate of their creation due to the preservation of corpses. Should a friend die from exposure, or possibly other reasons, you are stuck staring at a perfectly good piece of meat. It might have your friends face, but as it lies there stiff and perfectly preserved... Your reservations bleed away.

   This first chunk of humanity stripped away causes the whole dam to break.

   It starts with just a finger.

   Then the entire arm.

   Soon enough, your whole family has become nothing more than a horrified collection of bones. Ones you have attempted to pose, because madness is beginning to set in.

   This means it is too late.

   Obviously.

   Your spirit has been infected. Your mind will rot, but it is not like it matters. The whispers of the Wendigo are the only purpose you’ll follow.

   Searching for more food.

   DEMANDING for more food.

   The taste of human can be quite addicting after all, not sure about body-warpingly good though.

   The previous host will be nothing but a memory.

 Their body stretching out.

 Sadly, no matter how many poor sods they eat, the Wendigo’s host will never seem to gain any weight.

 In fact, they just seem to become progressively skinnier until they look like nothing more than a skeleton wearing leathers.

 I have even seen one somewhere that had their own vertebrae rub through their skin until it poked out. This is not something that seemed to merit concern from the Wendigo.

What is most fascinating is what happens to their head. It takes a number of forms. Some a wolf, some a deer, but the most common as well my personal favorite involved a deer skull. Some merely find, decorate, and place one on their head. Possibly due to a remnant of humility, and what the spiritual infection does to the face is quite grotesque. My favorite method, I believe, is reserved to those most faithful to their corruptive spirit. They tear at their head, seemingly crushing and pulling at their own skin. The same magic warping their frame seems to give them material to work with. In my eyes though, it looked like it was stretching the upper portion of its own skull. Tearing and fussing with it like a sculptor with clay.

It would do this until the signature deer skull was formed. The area below, almost always hidden thanks to the deer skull itself, nothing would remain of the humanoid they once more minus the gaping mouth of a predator. The petals of flesh he tore away didn’t get removed either. Instead, they just seemed to collect along the edges of the skull. Instead of falling away like the world often dictates, it instead just collected. Until strands of this meaty substance hung from its skull like braids.”

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Doc was about to leave, only for him to stop and think a moment. Did he trust the meat bodied cityfolk to actually find the book? If he was closer to the Mage’s guild maybe. This far from the forests? They might just pass the book by without even a gander! Though, he supposed if he left it in the forest something would just eat the damned thing. Right, he had a fix for all of this.

So, instead of a note, Doc did a complex ritual to create a new familiar. This living book would hover and rotate, mumbling and repeating the contents of the note to itself, until someone passes. The moment this book sees a target, the book would let out a loud noise, before loudly reciting the contents of the note as it magically copies it, before rapidly spitting these copies at its poor target. It will do this, getting louder in its recitation, until they take the note and place it somewhere the book deems proper. Their pocket, their pants, their cleavage, whatever makes the book believe that the person has properly taken it.

Do not let the book see you throw the note away. DO NOT.

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Doc’s containment Ritual

I made a backup plan in case the players didn't figure out a way to contain it forever, or in case I wanted to bring it back. Sadly, the sim (Crest of Vrek'mar) has gone inactive last I heard, and they found a means of taking the Wendigo out.

Doc made it a little pointlessly complicated. They chopped down the tree of life though, deserved some damn difficulty.

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   To prepare for the ritual, a smoke must be burned using a mixture of sulfur and minerals. As these materials burn, a special mixture of herbs (particularly sage, sweetgrass, and jasmine) soaked in humanoid blood before being dried is to be sprinkled over just before the ritual itself begins. One participant must play a hypnotic tune using a specially prepared gemshorn carved out of the horn of a musically inclined Satyr. Two more participants must perform a dance that satirizes the movements of the Wendigo, they are to both stand on opposite sides of the circle, always moving at the same speed so that continue to stand perfectly opposite each other. They are to keep this up until the ritual has completed. This portion of the ritual is to ease the natural spirits and prevent them from interfering with the ritual. As with all parts of a ritual this vast, this is highly important.

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    The ritual will begin by drawing a large sigil into the dirt. The sigil itself will be made in the image of the Guardians of the Eldrich symbol, only with a complex series of shapes and runes within the tree. Placed in the space centered between the roots at the bottom of the tree drawn in the sigil, the heart of the first victim the Wendigo Spirit has possessed within a given cycle. Opposite the heart placed in the space centered between the branches, a piece of the host’s former life must be placed. As the tree of life the sigil called to has been destroyed, the branch of a mythical tree given willingly or a portion of a Dryads body, also willingly given, will be required to draw the required energy into the circle.

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    On one of the roots at the bottom of the sigil a white quartz is to be placed, while on the top of the sigil, a smokey quartz is to be placed opposite of the location of the white Quartz. This will help conduct and regulate the energy coming into the sigil from one and escaping it, transformed, from another. Regents will continue to be placed in pairs. On at the bottom of the sigil on a root, the other on the top on a branch.

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   The skinned flesh of a convicted and executed serial cannibal is to be draped over the heart while covering the two roots that are on either side of it. Draped over the reagent that represents the Wendigo’s former life will be the skin of a Stag (One that ISN’T a supernatural messenger or otherwise wildly important to the spirits and inhabitants of the forest) that had been honorably hunted using no weapons beside’s the hunter’s own bare hands. The meat of the Stag is to be prepared and given away before the ritual begins, while the rest of its remains are not to be wasted. Failing to do so may very well corrupt the spirit of THAT stag, and we’ll just have more problems to deal with. This shall represent the transformation of the Wendigo, and assist in releasing the souls that it has captured in this cycle.

    On the final root, the grave dust of a cannibal who has laid in its grave for at least a decade and never paid for their crimes. Opposite of this on the final branch, the placenta cord of a loving mother who has not known the feeling of malice or hatred. This is to represent the natural cycle, which the Wendigo stands in opposition of.

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    A large quantity of Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Sulfur is to be CAREFULLY poured in separate circles surrounding the outside of the sigil, the dancers must make certain not to disturb this circle. Given everything that has been done to the forest lately, you need to, put bluntly, essentially bribe the forest itself with some of the nutrients it desires. Giving it to the forest in large quantities and in its most natural state MIGHT just help.

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    Finally, a human skull specially carved with runes and soulstones embedded in its eye sockets is to be placed in the center of the sigil. The one who is going to recite the incantation will slice their finger and let enough blood drop onto the skull so it may dribble off over the side and touch the dirt. Care MUST be taken not to allow your blood to touch either of the soul stones. This is Doc’s main way of containing curses, but this particular evil spirit is a special case. The skull itself must be taken from a human with divine roots. A cleric would be the best. The contributor does not have to be murdered for the skull to be obtained, it may be obtained from a corpse.

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    Should the preparations be performed to a T, the ritual will force the spirit of the Wendigo into the skull, but it is unlikely to do so calmly. It is recommended that magic users or warriors capable of harming spirits are at the ready once the incantation begins. Should the skull be broken, the spirit of the Wendigo will be able to wander the forests once more.

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-Wendigo Heart-

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    After removal, the heart will continue to give a faint, labored beat. The torn veins that once transported blood will, at first, splurt out a horribly putrid substance. A mixture of all the rot and decay that has accumulated in the horrid beast. Not long afterward, necrophagous blowflies will begin to swarm from inside the heart with each small pulse. The heart will not stop beating, and the swarm of flies will not stop naturally.

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   To obtain this reagent, the Wendigo will have to be fought and subdued (Beaten) before the heart is removed. The Wendigo will be incapacitated, but the spirit that possesses it will be determined to obtain it.