#...i feel like i should mention this is a dnd thing. there's a specific reason i pretend to be the devil for fun

[queeraang]

I have been RPing the christian devil with a vague texabamassipi accent for five gregorian years now which is great, but it means that when I try to write a character from somewhere else the dialect is a fucking nightmare to wrangle because i backslide into satan out of habit

[meanbossart]

Oh boy, VaM is kind of a trial and error experience LOL I couldn't really show you how to use the interface and stuff without a whole video or something, but it's not THAT difficult to get a hang of if you just give yourself a day or two to play around, not to mention the number of tutorials you find out there. Luckily, if you only want to use it as a reference software that makes the process far easier (to this day I have no idea how to animate on that thing, since that's not what I use it for)

As for how I use it, it's pretty self explanatory - if there's a complicated pose I want to draw but I'm either having trouble with it, or just want to double-check angles/anatomy, I will use it as a resource! I use for most of my "proper" pieces (y'know, the nicer looking ones) and every once in a while for my silly comics if I'm having trouble with a pose.

Lets use this drawing for example (the character on top of DU drow belongs to @namespara )

I don't draw a lot of mud-wrestling (shocking, I know) but I had an idea of the kind of pose I wanted them to be in. So the very first thing I did was make a rough sketch of what I was envisioning:

I often do a rough sketch first, even If I know I'm going to be pulling the program up because A) It's less tedious than adjusting the models over and over again until I pick a pose and B) because sometimes I'll decide I don't need the reference, after all, and so that's 30 minutes I'll have spared myself of playing around on the software.

Now, this is a pretty complicated pose! It's in a weird angle and the bodies are making contact in ways I'm not used to depicting, so I did choose to whip out VaM for this one. I went into the program and after some messing around, I flopped my little dolls together like this:

Now something really cool about VaM is that you can completely customize your models, and if you have the patience, I would definitely encourage you to do so! Obviously, you don't have to make picture perfect replicas of every single character you have, but as you can see here I have made a DU drow "decoy" to help me better understand some of his features when I draw him: he has a strong brow, a short nose, a square jawline - these are all going to look a very specific way from certain angles, and I might not always be sure of how to draw it right! So it's useful to have models that bear SOME semblance to the character so you can better understand how different viewpoints will affect their bone structure and mass.

Also thank fucking god for the elf-ear slider. Figuring out how to draw those shits from certain angles was a huge pain in the ass when I started drawing DnD races.

So, with the reference in hand, I go over the sketch again:

Now you may notice that I don't stick to the reference 100%. There's three reasons for this:

posing on VaM is tedious as hell. You can get something incredibly natural looking and picture-perfect to reference from if you wish, but it's going to take you hours to do. So, for the most part I just slap guys together until the results are "close enough" and use that.

In my opinion, you should always aim to ENHANCE your reference material, not replicate it exactly!

While VaM is a PRETTY DANG GOOD source of anatomical reference, it isn't perfect, I often supplement it with further reference from real life resources or make tweaks based on my own knowledge where I catch it falling short (and, antithetical to what I just said, I sometimes fuck the anatomy up further on purpose if I think it looks better that way LOL it's all jazz baby).

Then lines, color, yada yada. I don't have a tutorial on that and I don't think I could make one, because my process is chaotic as hell, but I do at times use Virt-a-mate as loose reference for lighting too when coloring - waaaaayyyy less so however, because that process is even more tedious and I feel like I often get better results by just winging it. It is a feature of the program though, and I'm sure it would be helpful for someone who has a difficult time visualizing lights and shadows. I only started using this program a few months ago, so I happened to already have a pretty good understanding of that kind of thing and just don't personally feel like I get much out of that particular mechanic.

Here's a few other examples of pieces that I made reference for (WARNING: Suggestive)

Now, for the question many of you may want to ask:

"Can I trace this junk?"

And to that, I say: Buddy, you can do whatever the hell you want with the reference material you created.

However,

If your goal is to learn and improve your art, and to recreate realistic proportions and anatomy from memory, tracing won't help you.

Developing your own style, your muscle memory, and personal technique will all be hindered by choosing to trace instead of drawing from observation, so I would encourage against it. Hell - even when tracing is employed as a technique, it's usually by high-skill realism & concept artists who are looking to either cut some corners, save time, or just double-check their own proportions in order to improve further - if you try tracing as a beginner, you will most definitely find the result to still look stiff and "off".

So trust me, there is so much more to be gained from drawing from observation. Make note of tangents, compare proportions, use all the elements of the picture to dictate where and how things should go - it will be a far more rewarding experience.

Hopefully this has been helpful! VaM is a really cheap program (you get it on the guys' patreon for I think 8 dollars, just google it!) and it's definitely been worth my money as an artist since I found it. Learning to use it can be a little intimidating at first glance, but as I said above you only really need a day plus one or two tutorials to get a hang of the interface.

A fair warning though, IT IS A SOFTWARE MADE FOR VIRTUAL SEX/ADULT ANIMATION So when looking it up expect to see a some spicy content.

[squirrelno2]

weirdly specific oc questions— my dnd character named dex, tiefling rogue, they/them and acespec

1. “i’m fine”

6. pulp fiction/ trashy adventure novels

impersonated/doppelganger (i forget the #): mention their family and watch reaction (expect negative reaction if its actually them)

Oooohhhh, not gonna lie I see the words "tiefling rogue" and immediately fall a little in love

I am shaking hands with Dex over the "i'm fine" lie, is that not everyone's favourite? also i love the implications of a dnd character liking trashy adventure novels. more people should live in their favourite genres, i say, knowing full well i would hate to live in an epic fantasy. (also to be fair. i have no idea what your campaign is like. but i feel like dnd campaigns and that kind of novel are often shaking hands?) I'm so curious about the family thing too, like sure i usually assume negative reaction means anger or hurt, especially given the context of being about family, but that could be for so many reasons!

(do you post about dex at all/have anything i could see to find out more about them? they sound very intriguing!!!)

[dualityvn]

Hey pretty boy <3 I know many people have already asked but I wanna make extra sure you’re okay after all that, but don’t worry, I won’t let either of you die anytime soon.

Gosh, I nerded out with Keith so it’s only fair I do it with you too, but you can’t make fun of me for this!!!

(My username is the biggest lie)

I’ve already mentioned how much I love fantasy, but I haven’t gotten into the details of it, it’s probably one of the reasons I wasn’t scared of you when we first met, I absolutely adore monsters and the likes.

I specifically really love Nagas and anything snakelike, along with anything dragon like! Oh and things like eldritch horrors or any obscure cryptid!! But my all time favorite monster would have to be you <3

Oh! And I do really think we should play FFXIV together, I’ve mentioned it before (as a joke 💀)

It does have a class you can play where you can use guns, but you could also play a class that uses knives, bows, or axes if you’d like! I play a white mage (Healer) so no matter what you choose I’d have your back. I wonder how long it would take you to catch up to my level though, I’m pretty far along.

Oh!! And how do you feel about Oreos? Because my aunt makes this one Oreo desert that I’ve been meaning to recreate, the top layer is a mixture of whipped cream, the frosting from the Oreos and a few of the crushed oreo cookies, followed by a very thin layer of more of the crushed cookie, then a layer of chocolate pudding, and one last layer of the cookies.

I usually don’t like such overly sweet treats but it’s actually pretty good!!

I’m usually not all that good at making sweets aside from some breakfast foods, but this doesn’t require actual baking so I’m sure I won’t fuck it up too bad, and maybe you could lend a hand in making it <3

Maybe we could star gaze together too? I used to really love the stars and astronomy and such, but I never really seem to pay attention to them anymore. I used to really like making my own constellations and giving them their own stories.

I wanna hear you ramble so bad, I love it when you talk, but it’s okay if you don’t wanna <3

Do you have any games you’ve tried that you really don’t like?

Also would you maybe… maybe wanna try playing DND?

I love you dumbass!

"Damn, it's gonna take a while for me to get used to being called "pretty boy". I'm okay, sort of. Just glad to still be here. And kinda pissed, but I'm trying to keep it together.

Reptiles are your favorite, huh? Well, I do have a- Wait, I'm your all time favorite? Heh, thanks...

V-video games, right. I'll take a gun or bow, since I kinda like aiming at stuff. Also oreos are good. That sounds delicious, you have to make that for me now. I'll help if I can, but I feel like I'd accidentally ruin something.

Ah, stars... We can do that. But maybe not anytime soon. I'd rather calm down more first.

I've heard of D&D before. I could give it a try, though I don't know how good I am at stuff like that.

You're a dork. I love you too." - Tenebris

[emblazons]

Listen I like Duffers and I don't doubt that they are successful writers, but I have to be honest here that some of the writing choices they made were poor. Like I get the 'reason' behind them, to an extent, but if those overall writing choices resulted in poor takes and when pretty much more than half of your audience doesn't get the message? I think it kinda shows that the message was not delivered well.

Like people still thinking to this day that Will was being childish for wanting to play DND and that he should just grow up...? The message clearly wasn't delivered lmao. And I get that you can say the audience ''doesn't get it'', but isn't part of the writing making the audience get that, to portray your narrative so it tracks with the show. It's not always the audience's fault. Ofc the majority of the audience is not going to think Will is an important character when he receives the least screentime/focus each season and he's painfully sidelined in the narrative, this also is connected to LGBT characters and narratives on the show because they're given minimum care at best and that's also partly why people think Byler won't become canon. These are all connected and I just wish we can criticize them more because it ultimately put a hindrance on the narrative, ultimately. Yeah, they are still fixable to an extent and the writing in S5 can make up for it, but there is also the issue that these takes would not have been there in the first place if the buildup/narrative writing was different.

I mean I can agree with you to a point, but…I feel like I won’t be able to say “you did a bad job because the audience doesn’t understand” or even “you could have done xyz better” until the story is finished, and it’s because they’ve literally told you up front that it isn’t done—and with this show, recontextualization is key.

I think the real problem isn’t that people don’t understand, or aren’t capable of understanding—it’s that they are under the impression that the seasons stand alone, and that the duffers aren’t leading to a specific point. When you look at stranger things as a series of independent seasons—seasons they made up as they went, just exploring the characters and finding a random monster, as most people believe the show is—it’s easy to misunderstand intent, believe a character has been sidelined, and that “they don’t know what they’re doing…” because it’s not interconnected.

I can't say I agree that they "should have done it better" because a lot of the audience didn't catch it either, because in truth a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of even this nebulous "GA" people talk about did—down to my 60 year old relatives, who saw clearly what was happening with mlvn v byler and didn't bat an eye at it, because it's actually not even remotely subtle...unless you insist on looking at things through a heteronormative or even homophobic lens. Not to mention (when it comes to the DnD point) lot of people don't agree that "you should take your nerdiest interests into adulthood" as a message is true in real life—which is why I'm not surprised they missed the point they're leading to in the show lmao.

Still, to your point about "the writing choices being poor," I don't agree—not yet, and especially not about why they 'sidelined' Will or the leadup to byler, given the build-up to byler is literally the same exact sort of build up they've done for "Henry/One/Vecna" being The Main Villain—something that there have been hints of across seasons, that came to a clear !!!! moment of question in S4, and will be finished in S5. People were smart enough to back-connect how the Demogorgon and MindFlayer could fit into that storyline (and even some of its foreshadowing) despite us not yet being done with the show...and no one bats an eye at it despite it being just as subtle as byler because it wasn't challenging their heteronormative or "everybody needs to grow up & out of their 'childish' interests" value system in any way.

In my opinion, Byler's writing being just as subtle as their other plots is a feature and asset, not a loss solely because people don't see it (especially given that they do—literally not one soul I've met whose seen Stranger Things isn't aware there's at least something happening in "The Byler Corner" even without a single moment spent in this fandom). The problem isn't the writing's subtlety, but rather that people don't want to acknowledge the upending of classic expectations for nerds winning over "adulting" as much as they don't want to see the clear build up of a queer relationship over the heterosexual one, which means they're going to try to interpret the events of the show through a value system entirely different than The Duffers...solely because the show is popular.

Essentially: Most of the "the audience is missing the point" comes from a value system difference, not a skill one on the part of The Duffers...which goes back to that whole "Stranger Things was made for a specific audience and expanded past that" thing I've talked about a million times over now. If you like your shows more blatant, I'm sure that would be irritating—but for someone like me, that's almost the entire appeal.

I can accept and fully agree with criticism that maybe The Duffers took a deep dive transition with S3 that was rather dramatic given the previous tone of the show. That's just a fact, and the tone change really did put people off of understanding what their primary themes were hard enough that S5 will require some really blatant and potentially heavy-handed "smack you over the head" moments to make its point. That's probably why they say they regret indulging fan service and maybe even giving "The Netflix Look" to their show, even—and why they say they're not doing that for the final season. That, to me, is a very valid criticism.

That said...I would rather have a chance to dig and think about my media here than have something that just tells me everything I need to know to get the point on first viewing, or that didn't require me revisiting it to understand the point it was trying to make. To me, that's boring, weak storytelling, even if it makes sense to "the majority" of the audience...and I'm almost positive the Duffers would view it the same way. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Thanks for the ask!

[writingforevren]

Hi folks, woah it’s a new WIP! I know crazy right? Recently my dnd character who I’d been playing with several months faced a tragic end and I wanted to write something to honor him. Also who doesn’t love a good pirate story? Not to mention a chaotic bisexual pirate who’s secretly a genius artificer has got to be one of the most fun characters I’ve ever played/written. This is more of a fun project I wanted to write for myself. So without further ado here’s an excerpt from that.

{ A Couple Things About It }

Genre - Pirate Fantasy

Themes & Tropes - Pirates | Adventure | Slowburn Romance | Found Family | LGBTQ+ Characters | D&D Inspired

Content Warnings - Swearing | Blood | Violence 

Excerpt Length - 1,570 Words

{ Thorne -  Tea  & Rum  } 

His breathes were shallow as he held his chest where a sword had recently been driven through. His insides felt like they could’ve fallen out, but the bandage seemed to be preventing that from happening; Though he did feel a bit off, the pain caused his thoughts to be muddled and his body felt ready to shut down. He wasn’t ready to die yet, not this time. He looked up as he heard a knock on the door.

“Fuck me” He spoke quietly and sank into his bed, even the smallest movement causing him pain.

He waited a moment and there was another knock “Crow are you alright?” It was Reid’s voice and he seemed like he genuinely cared.

Crow sighed, he never much liked people but for some odd reason he felt like he should let him in. “Come in” he grumbled.

The door squeaked and he heard the footsteps coming closer, he didn’t bother looking over but still in visioned those big black boots of Reid’s as they moved closer, instead he stared out the porthole window and the laps of the sea. He’d often forget to appreciate its beauty but… fuck it was beautiful, it was rare he’d miss land but he knew the moment he stepped on to land he’d miss the feeling the sea gave him. He belonged there, from the first moment he set sail he felt himself for the first time.

“How’re you feeling?” Reid spoke, breaking through his thoughts.

“Like I just got stabbed” Crow tore his gaze away from the sea. He smiled, it was- kind of funny how many times he’d almost died, it was like for some odd reason the world just wasn’t ready for him to go. Heck the only long term damage he’d faced were a few lost teeth and a singular metal plate in his arm which he could only feel if he moved it in a very specific way, and if he did it felt sort of like someone hitting you in the funny bone. This time he had the suspicion that there might be a broken rib involved which was the perfect opportunity to invent something. 

Reid chuckled “haha very funny, no, I mean how do you feel?” he spoke slower and sat down on the end of the bed, the various blades on him clanging together. A smile crept through his dark beard which had various little braids in it from fidgeting.

Crow took a moment, how did he feel? Disappointed? relieved? weird? well yes of course he felt weird he was just stabbed- again. At this point it seemed like everyone wanted a piece of Crow Thorne. Literally. “I suppose I feel a bit uh… Well I feel like everyone’s got it out for me, especially since I shot that guy.”

“Which guy?” Right- there was more than one guy- what was it now? quite a few though he wasn’t sure how many actually died, most of the time he went for non kill shots and they stood down before he actually killed them; but then again when you shoot someone whether they die or not it’s probably gonna leave a mark on them- and you if they’re the revenge type.

“All of them?” Crow watched as he tipped liquid from a teapot into a cup, he’d never been that big of a fan tea.“What’s that?”

“Tea,” Reid replied simply and poured in a splash of liquid from his flash “And rum.” he handed the cup to Crow. “Drink up.”

“And who are you to tell your captain what to do?” Crow smelled the concoction which had the warm spicy scent of rum mixed with the bitter scent of earl grey. He sipped it and it was surprisingly good, but that might’ve just been because of his love of rum.

“Mm you do realize that we could easily overthrow you right? You may be captain right now but that could change at any moment.” He stood and began to pace the room, he had a smirk on his face which made Crow begin to question his agenda.

“If you were gonna overthrow me you would’ve thrown me off the ship when I was down instead of bandaging me up.” Crow downed the rest of the cup of- tea rum- tum- rea? tea with rum added and set it to the side. He moved his legs to get up but the moment he started to stand he felt immense pain in his ribs and whatever muscles surrounded them. He let out a small groan of pain and a swear.

“Hey, hey stay down you’re not allowed up yet” Reid grabbed his shoulders and sat him back down. Maybe he was trying to help, but he ended up being more of an annoyance than anything.

“Get outta my way I’m fine.” Crow stood and pushed him out of the way and immediately let out a wince of pain. “Fuck,” he swore and grabbed the wall for support.

“Ah completely ‘fine’ are ya” The man was really starting to piss him off, one moment he gave a shit the next he was mocking him.

“Fuck. you.” He steadied his breath, trying his best to ignore the pain and the overwhelming sense of nausea that had just hit him.

“Feisty-” He stopped after seeing the glare on Crow’s face “Okay but on a serious note you really should rest.”

Crow put his hands on Reids shoulders. “No, Shut up I’m fine.” His words came out slurred and it almost felt drunken. “Hypothetically though if I wasn’t would uh- would the world feel spinny?”

“For fuck sakes Crow you’re not okay” His voice sounded a bit fuzzy and faint as Crow’s vision began to fade. 

“That’s… Captain Thorne to you.” The world went dark.

Next thing he knew he was waking up in his bed again, once again in pain, it felt like a weird time loop or something but this time he wasn’t alone. “Not this again…” he muttered.

“You’re a fucking idiot” The man with honey skin spoke but there was a smile across his face. “At least you’re alive though- you know it’s been over night”

“Fuck really?” he paused to think for a moment. “I dunno if I can do this anymore…” Crow spoke and stared at the docked ceiling. He barely remembered how he got there and wasn’t sure if the whole killing and almost being killed thing was working.

“What? People almost killing you? No I don’t think I can do that anymore either, you know how many times we’ve had to sew you up? you’re gonna turn into a fucking patchwork doll eventually.”

Crow shook his head. “Nah mate… the pirating thing… Also yes it does have a little bit to do with the whole murder attempt thing.”

Reid laughed. “Very funny okay yeah ‘the mad lad thorne’ is gonna quit pirating.”

“Nah… I’m serious, I fucking love the sea don’t get me wrong but… I dunno I kinda wanna try something new.” He found himself imagining the things he could experience on land, actually seeing real animals, exploring towns, meeting people who weren’t either scared of him or wanted him dead.

“We can’t leave, Crow.” 

“You wouldn’t come with me… You’d stay here, take over as captain, y’know?” He cautiously sat up as to not re-injure himself. It still hurt, just not quite as much.

“So… you’re just gonna leave us then?…” He seemed disappointed. Crow wasn’t sure what he had expected but at the very least he’d thought Reid would be excited to be captain.

“Not forever… just for a trip, a month, maybe a few, I’m not sure, I’ll come back though and better bet your ass I’ll come back a way better captain.”

“But uh- what about that thing you promised you’d make me?” 

“Thing?…” He didn’t recall but maybe his head was still just foggy.

“The ehm- Fire sword! yeah that one.” Now that he said it, yeah he had promised he’d make a fire sword, after all how hard could it be? he’d made his own firearm so a flaming sword should be easy but at this point it felt like Reid was just trying to find an excuse for him to stay.

“You can’t make me stay y’know, it’s my choice.”

“But you’re meant to be a pirate, you’re meant to be at sea, you’re meant to stay with your crew-” Meant to, why the fuck did everything have to have a meaning? Why couldn’t he just be who he wanted and live as himself? Why did people ruin everything?

“Yeah and when I was younger I used to be told I was meant to go to a nice school, I was meant to be a good kid, I was meant to meet a beautiful girl, I was meant to carry on a stupid legacy I want nothing to do with. You know what? Fuck you, I’m going to think and I don’t give a shit how much it hurts” He stood, with a little bit of trouble and stumbled out as Reid spoke

“Oh come Crow you know I didn’t mean it like that!”

“That’s Captain Thorne to you!” He snapped before leaving the room and walking up the stairs to the main deck. He wasn’t sure why he had reacted that way.

{ General Writing Taglist } 

@weirdfishy | @wannabeauthorzofija | @annlillyjose | @radiomacbeth | @opes-magnas | ask to be +/- 

{ Thorne Taglist }

ooh this one’s new so the taglist is empty but if you’re interested you can request to be added either by a little reblog or an ask

[officialauthorofanotherworld]

random name origin fun time discussion:

Also pronunciations :D (I’ll edit this later and add those) (added as of 5:45 PM 6-12-24)

some new stuff added as of 6-26-24 cuz @jev-urisk tagged me :p

(my god, this post is such a poorly formatted mess. help me)

Taka (originally Aka, red, inspired by Karma Akabane)

edit 6/20/24: um wth was i talking about here? When I played Taka for the first time 5 years ago in my first dnd campaign ever (which was a very bad campaign btw, for reasons i might talk about in another note) I had "Aka" down for like 5 seconds (yes, it was based on Karma, tho) before i was like "if i add a T it sounds good" not knowing that Taka was an actual name. (or maybe subconsciously i did, but iirc it was just a "that sounds neat" decision that ended up being actually integral to him as a person, as all names should be :'D)

Pronounced: tah-kuh

low "a" like "aww"

so no, its not "TACKA" like some english speakers would probably mispronounce it. Tahkuh. Tawkuh. Taaaahhhhhkaaaaaaa

ok im sorry

idk, go watch a japanese person say "taka" thats how you say it, idk how to write pronounciations ok???

Fun fact: Taka is the Japanese word for Falcon/Hawk. Fits perfectly with his personality, his obsession with the sky, and his sheer wanderlust/desire to be “free”

Obligatory: no not Eren Jaeger “free”

Beriyl (Beryl)

pronounced: Barrel

He was my friends mage. He was very racist and a bastard person. (old, old beriyl). Beriyl and Arthur and Taka now are so very different from when I first learned about them, their original inceptions (being, well, dnd in a bad campaign) were just very different.

Ecirr (random dnd aarakocra name generator, I think I merged two names to get his full one, and changed the spelling a bit. Ecirr Roarark/Rorrark)

I played Ecirr when Qlul died in a campaign I played in like, 2020(?) I cant really remember when I added him and Qlul but they've been integral parts of my book for so long now I can't recall when I first started writing them in.

Qlul died fighting a nothic, and so I played Ecirr in an attempt to save him. I wanted to save Qlul because I felt bad for him, and my party members wanted to just leave his corpse to rot. I hated that, so I decided to play Ecirr, his childhood friend he'd been "roommates" with at the university. (I say roommates as a joke, they weren't, though they did attend a prestigious school together. The roommates joke is the "they were just roommates" gay sex joke. cuz they're dating)

Pronounced: e-sear (hard e, like eek)

Qlul Klilaark (same as Ecirr)

Pronounced: Qlol Klil ark

like, lull + q, qlull, so qlol?

"aark" is just "arc"

Klil, like "quill" with a k, and no u.

if you say it fast, kind of sounds like "qlul kalark" or "qlul klark" or "qlul quill-ark" idfk ok im bad with explaining these things

"qlul kluhark" i guess kinda another way to try and explain it XD

Ecirr was originally a DnD character who I liked alot and ended up putting into my book. He, like all of them-- both the members of Lucky Seven and Twin Feathers, have come really far.

Eirairr Eirainn

Pronounced: yer rair, yer rain

Same as Ecirr and Qlul.

I’d do my BBEGs but their names feel like spoilers to me despite them being the most interesting to me :c

(Ok fine, click if you don’t mind the villains names being revealed. One of them is probably obvious since he’s mentioned really early but the other two aren’t for a while)

Eirairr was a ranger I played in DnD. He, Qlul, and Ecirr's names were from random name generators. Specifically, the dnd random name generator. I mixed some of the names around to give it my own flair, changed a few letters, and bam.

Like Sargantas was the Sargatanas server in FFXIV, but I always misread it as Sargantas.

Pronounced: Sar-gawn-tiss

sar: like "sardines"

gawn - like gown but with an A, kind of like "dawn" with a G i guess

tiss - like "badum-tiss" for lack of a better example

Zersetsung is a German word for “power” (or was it “control”), and he’s a immortal vampire.

pronounced: (as far as i am aware...)

zur-zet-sung

with a "low" e,

uh..

ok, hold on.

Zur: like "Dur" but with a Z

Zet like "Jet" but with a Z

Sung - obvious, like how you say the word "sung" when talking about the past-tense of singing

Vitsmunir is Russian (I’m pretty sure) but I can’t remember for what

pronounced:

vits (veets)

mu (hard u, like the one at the end of the word "you")

near (like how nier is pronounced, or y'know... near from death note XD)

Fun fact: Sargantas’ soul is sheer black, Vitsmunir’s pure white, and Zersetsung golden!

[mumms-the-word]

This is AMAZING thank you for highlighting all of these spells!!

Personally, I like to think that the reason Gale can cast these 6th and 7th level spells early in the game (as in, before he’s actually a level 11 or 12 wizard specifically) is probably because of/is a sign of his former prowess as an archmage.

The programmed image that is summoned upon his death was probably something he worked HARD at accomplishing back in Waterdeep, days and days of trying to gather together scraps of his former power in order to cast this spell (or scribe a scroll to cast the spell) which, at one time, would have been as easy as breathing. But once it was cast, all it needed then was a trigger. So that’s that spell done, well before you ever meet him.

While traveling with you, casting gets easier. Sure, the game forces him to go through a standard level progression so that when he’s casting Mirage Arcane, he should only be about level 6 or 7 and only have access to 4th level spells at best. But as you said, OP, the game is going to make things seem less tedious and opt for cinematic/narrative value here.

He does also say, in the Mirage Arcane scene with the stars, that this isn’t a spell he can cast often.

Gale: Indeed. The curse is still present of course - just veiled and at arm's length for now. Not a trick I can repeat often, but tonight? Tonight is different.

So my thinking is that there is simply some magic Gale can cast given enough time and preparation, perhaps by scribing scrolls ahead of time or perhaps by secretly maintaining his magical energy enough to cast the spells (because we can’t rely on spell slots here, since Act 2 Gale shouldn’t even have access to 6th and 7th level spell slots). I do, personally, think that Gale would know how to scribe spell scrolls and probably did work on a scroll for the Mirage Arcane spell in Act 2, ignoring, of course, that it would still be beyond his in-game wizard level to scribe the spell.

Listen, maybe Gale is just that good. I definitely think the fact that the game shows him casting higher-level spells is a reference to just how powerful he was as a former Chosen of Mystra.

(But it could also be a hint or nod toward the sorcerer-turned-wizard theory and that he's drawing on natural talent to cast, but that sort of ignores dnd rules too.)

Either way, I can see Gale planning his use of these higher-level spells carefully. He doesn’t send a projected image to you every day, and he doesn’t conjure complex illusions for you all the time. He saves these for special occasions. The night before he expects to die, for example, or in a romance, the night he wants to present his most ambitious idea yet and invite you to join him in it.

As an aside, I think both the astral projection sex scene (AP being the not-technically-correct term of course, now that we know AP has silver tethers and stuff) and the Act 3 boat scene are illusion spells. Gale makes reference to illusion magic the morning after you opt for astral sex with him (though I couldn't get this to trigger in my game so it might be bugged).

Player: You flatter me. As I recall, you did all the hard work. Gale: Well, generosity is a noble virtue - whether it be in the streets, at the charity box, or betwixt the sheets. We are all sensual vessels. Illusory magic lets us sail farther, and feel more deeply.

(Incidentally, this makes Gale’s copy of The Art of the Night a spell tome, not just a Kama Sutra that Gale uses as a prop, but this isn't new information. It does suggest, however, that Gale keeps up with multiple spellbooks, not just the one we can mess around with in the game.)

As for the boat scene, his vocal component suggests it’s probably a homebrew illusion spell. Or, just as likely, an illusion spell that Gale himself invented, altering a Mirage Arcane to reflect the Outer Planes. Who are we to assume Gale is incapable of inventing spells?

If you get the version of that scene where he isn’t planning to ascend, he mentions that he used to cast this spell often while secluded in his tower. If Mirage Arcane is a 7th level spell, I imagine this specific version might be around the same, so again, it speaks to Gale’s power as a wizard even when he’s been nerfed by the orb.

Gale: I conjured this illusion often during my confinement in Waterdeep. An escape for the mind, where there was none for the body.

He casts it easily with a vocal component (Astra Navigamus) and no scroll, but often by this time he's about level 11 or 12 anyway (at least in my game he was, because I held off doing his quest for a bit). So casting a 7th level spell here isn't that shocking. It's slightly more shocking that he is able to cast it frequently when he's just emerging from post-orb-nerfdom. But I digress.

TLDR; I think Gale is capable of scribing scrolls for higher-level spells that he can't yet cast (which ignores dnd rules but suggests he is/was a SUPER powerful wizard) and that the two romance scenes are examples of high-level illusion magics.

TLDR the Second: Gale is more powerful than the game mechanically can show, so they show it in cutscenes instead.

⋆⋅☆ Gale's illusions ☆⋅⋆

I've been wanting for some time to make a list identifying the spells that Gale uses during his cutscenes.

There are two spells in this list that most players will be familiar with, Minor Illusion and Mirror Image, because some of the spellcaster can learn them in the game, but most of them are things that Larian didn't include and you won't know about them unless you check D&D spells.

Long post under the cut.

───── Minor Illusion ─────

- Level: cantrip - Casting time: 1 action - Range/Area: 30 ft / 5 ft cube - Components: S M (A bit of fleece) - Duration: 1 minute - School: Illusion - Available for: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard You create a sound or an image of an object within range that lasts for the duration. The illusion also ends if you dismiss it as an action or cast this spell again. If you create a sound, its volume can range from a whisper to a scream. It can be your voice, someone else’s voice, a lion’s roar, a beating of drums, or any other sound you choose. The sound continues unabated throughout the duration, or you can make discrete sounds at different times before the spell ends. If you create an image of an object—such as a chair, muddy footprints, or a small chest—it must be no larger than a 5-foot cube. The image can’t create sound, light, smell, or any other sensory effect. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

This one is easy to guess. A small image that doesn't move or make sounds, no point in wasting a spell slot when you can just achieve the same result with a cantrip.

───── Mirror Image ─────

- Level: 2nd - Casting Time: 1 action - Range/Area: Self - Components: V S - Duration: 1 minute - Available for: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard Three illusory duplicates of yourself appear in your space. Until the spell ends, the duplicates move with you and mimic your actions, shifting position so it’s impossible to track which image is real. You can use your action to dismiss the illusory duplicates. Each time a creature targets you with an attack during the spell’s duration, roll a d20 to determine whether the attack instead targets one of your duplicates. If you have three duplicates, you must roll a 6 or higher to change the attack’s target to a duplicate. With two duplicates, you must roll an 8 or higher. With one duplicate, you must roll an 11 or higher. A duplicate’s AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier. If an attack hits a duplicate, the duplicate is destroyed. A duplicate can be destroyed only by an attack that hits it. It ignores all other damage and effects. The spell ends when all three duplicates are destroyed. A creature is unaffected by this spell if it can’t see, if it relies on senses other than sight, such as blindsight, or if it can perceive illusions as false, as with truesight.

An illusion that looks and acts like the caster and stands close to them. The spell creates 3 copies initially, but they can be dismissed.

─── Programmed Illusion ───

- Level: 6th - Casting time: 1 action - Range/Area: 120 ft / 30 ft - Components: V S M (A bit of fleece and jade dust worth at least 25 GP) - Duration: Until dispelled - School: Illusion - Available for: Bard, Wizard You create an illusion of an object, a creature, or some other visible phenomenon within range that activates when a specific condition occurs. The illusion is imperceptible until then. It must be no larger than a 30-foot cube, and you decide when you cast the spell how the illusion behaves and what sounds it makes. This scripted performance can last up to 5 minutes. When the condition you specify occurs, the illusion springs into existence and performs in the manner you described. Once the illusion finishes performing, it disappears and remains dormant for 10 minutes. After this time, the illusion can be activated again. The triggering condition can be as general or as detailed as you like, though it must be based on visual or audible conditions that occur within 30 feet of the area. For example, you could create an illusion of yourself to appear and warn off others who attempt to open a trapped door, or you could set the illusion to trigger only when a creature says the correct word or phrase. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. A creature that uses its action to examine the image can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the creature can see through the image, and any noise it makes sounds hollow to the creature.

The famous spectral messenger that appears the 1st time Gale dies in act 1 or in the epilogue if he sacrificed himself. A spell with a condition to trigger on his death, casted while he was still alive.

───── Project Image ─────

- Level: 7th - Casting Time: 1 action - Range/Area: 500 miles - Target: Any location within range that you have seen before - Components: V S M (A small replica of you made from materials worth at least 5 gp) - Duration: Up to 1 day - Concentration - Available for: Bard, Wizard You create an illusory copy of yourself that lasts for the duration. The copy can appear at any location within range that you have seen before, regardless of intervening obstacles. The illusion looks and sounds like you but is intangible. If the illusion takes any damage, it disappears, and the spell ends. You can use your action to move this illusion up to twice your speed, and make it gesture, speak, and behave in whatever way you choose. It mimics your mannerisms perfectly. You can see through its eyes and hear through its ears as if you were in its space. On your turn as a bonus action, you can switch from using its senses to using your own, or back again. While you are using its senses, you are blinded and deafened in regard to your own surroundings. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. A creature that uses its action to examine the image can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the creature can see through the image, and any noise it makes sounds hollow to the creature.

The illusory Gale that guides you to his act 2 main scene. It could be another Programmed Illusion, but I've chosen Project Image instead because this one's eyes don't glow like the other's, which makes me think they were created with different spells. Also because the copies of Lorroakan and Rolan in Sorcerous Sundries are confirmed Projected Images and they look and act similar to Gale's.

I know it's labeled as "Gale's Mirror Image", but it can't be a Mirror Image because illusions made with that spell stay close to the caster and imitate them, but this one is standing there on its own and having a full conversation with the player while Gale prepares the next spell on this list.

───── Mirage Arcane ─────

- Level: 7th - Casting time: 10 minutes - Range/Area: Sight / 1 mile - Components: V S - Duration: 10 days - Available for: Bard, Druid, Wizard You make terrain in an area up to 1 mile square look, sound, smell, and even feel like some other sort of terrain. The terrain’s general shape remains the same, however. Open fields or a road could be made to resemble a swamp, hill, crevasse, or some other difficult or impassable terrain. A pond can be made to seem like a grassy meadow, a precipice like a gentle slope, or a rock-strewn gully like a wide and smooth road. Similarly, you can alter the appearance of structures, or add them where none are present. The spell doesn’t disguise, conceal, or add creatures. The illusion includes audible, visual, tactile, and olfactory elements, so it can turn clear ground into difficult terrain (or vice versa) or otherwise impede movement through the area. Any piece of the illusory terrain (such as a rock or stick) that is removed from the spell’s area disappears immediately. Creatures with truesight can see through the illusion to the terrain’s true form; however, all other elements of the illusion remain, so while the creature is aware of the illusion’s presence, the creature can still physically interact with the illusion.

In his act 2 main scene Gale veils the shadow-cursed sky with an aurora borealis.

The Waterdeep scene that follows in the astral variant of the romance path could also be part of this spell if we bend the rules a bit and let him have the Malleable Illusions feature that only Wizards from the School of Illusion get.

Malleable Illusions: starting at 6th level, when you cast an illusion spell that has a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can use your action to change the nature of that illusion (using the spell's normal parameters for the illusion), provided that you can see the illusion.

As for the Astral sex part and the boat scene, I think those are something else. The closest I've found is the next spell, from the School of Necromancy.

──── Astral Projection ? ────

- Level: 9th - Casting Time: 1 hour - Range/Area: 10 feet - Target: You and up to eight willing creatures within range - Components: V S M (For each creature you affect with this spell, you must provide one jacinth worth at least 1,000 gp and one ornately carved bar of silver worth at least 100 gp, all of which the spell consumes) - Duration: Special - Available for: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard You and up to eight willing creatures within range project your astral bodies into the Astral Plane (the spell fails and the casting is wasted if you are already on that plane). The material body you leave behind is unconscious and in a state of suspended animation; it doesn’t need food or air and doesn’t age. Your astral body resembles your mortal form in almost every way, replicating your game statistics and possessions. The principal difference is the addition of a silvery cord that extends from between your shoulder blades and trails behind you, fading to invisibility after 1 foot. This cord is your tether to your material body. As long as the tether remains intact, you can find your way home. If the cord is cut—something that can happen only when an effect specifically states that it does—your soul and body are separated, killing you instantly. Your astral form can freely travel through the Astral Plane and can pass through portals there leading to any other plane. If you enter a new plane or return to the plane you were on when casting this spell, your body and possessions are transported along the silver cord, allowing you to re-enter your body as you enter the new plane. Your astral form is a separate incarnation. Any damage or other effects that apply to it have no effect on your physical body, nor do they persist when you return to it. The spell ends for you and your companions when you use your action to dismiss it. When the spell ends, the affected creature returns to its physical body, and it awakens. The spell might also end early for you or one of your companions. A successful dispel magic spell used against an astral or physical body ends the spell for that creature. If a creature’s original body or its astral form drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends for that creature. If the spell ends and the silver cord is intact, the cord pulls the creature’s astral form back to its body, ending its state of suspended animation. If you are returned to your body prematurely, your companions remain in their astral forms and must find their own way back to their bodies, usually by dropping to 0 hit points.

I'm not sure about this one for many things: the absence of the silver cord, the hight cost (2200 gp total), the 9th level (max spell level, learned at 17th+ character level), the ability to go anywhere in the Astral Plane and even use portals... I don't know, seems a little too much.

Also the two scenes are different from one another despite both sharing the Astral Plane scenery:

On the Astral sex scene Gale and the PC are ethereal figures and there's no verbal component, the glyph in the book seems to be what activates it.

On the Astral sea scene only the boat is ethereal and there's a verbal component, "Astra Navigamus" (we sail the stars). We also know from Gale's words that it requires to maintain concentration, but Astral Projection doesn't.

Gale: Find me later, and I will show you something truly divine. I will show you what a crown like this could mean for both of us. PC: Can't you just tell me now? Gale: Afraid not. What I have to show you requires us to be its only witness, and our minds to share in the most exquisite concentration.

Maybe there's no real equivalent and they're simply homebrew creations.

────── Simulacrum ──────

- Casting Time: 12 hours - Range/Area: Touch - Target: One beast or humanoid that is within range for the entire casting time of the spell - Components: V S M (Snow or ice in quantities sufficient to made a life-size copy of the duplicated creature; some hair, fingernail clippings, or other piece of that creature’s body placed inside the snow or ice; and powdered ruby worth 1,500 gp, sprinkled over the duplicate and consumed by the spell) - Duration: Until dispelled - Available for: Wizard You shape an illusory duplicate of one beast or humanoid that is within range for the entire casting time of the spell. The duplicate is a creature, partially real and formed from ice or snow, and it can take actions and otherwise be affected as a normal creature. It appears to be the same as the original, but it has half the creature’s hit point maximum and is formed without any equipment. Otherwise, the illusion uses all the statistics of the creature it duplicates. The simulacrum is friendly to you and creatures you designate. It obeys your spoken commands, moving and acting in accordance with your wishes and acting on your turn in combat. The simulacrum lacks the ability to learn or become more powerful, so it never increases its level or other abilities, nor can it regain expended spell slots. If the simulacrum is damaged, you can repair it in an alchemical laboratory, using rare herbs and minerals worth 100 gp per hit point it regains. The simulacrum lasts until it drops to 0 hit points, at which point it reverts to snow and melts instantly. If you cast this spell again, any currently active duplicates you created with this spell are instantly destroyed.

Despite popular belief, none of the Gale duplicates that we see in the game is a Simulacrum, they don't fit the criteria:

They are translucent and their voice sounds hollow, as if there had been an invisible successful investigation check.

When you destroy them they disappear with puff of magic lights instead of transforming back into ice/snow and melt.

Notice that Simulacra clones are tangible, unlike the others from before. They are basically glamoured and animated life size ice/snowmen. They're also quite expensive and elaborate, not something you'd want to cast for a short single use (unless you're super rich I suppose).

That doesn't mean that there isn't any use of this spell in the game, there's in fact one example:

That's right, the Elminster we encounter isn't the real one, but a construct made with Simulacrum. All that complaining about a long and extenuous journey, worn boots, and hunger is an act, an imitation of the real Elminster's mannerism. Makes you wonder what happened to all that cheese and wine that he "ate"...

───────────────────

Bear in mind that the devs have taken some creative liberties and there are lore inconsistencies. More than half of these spells are a higher level than what's possible to learn at that point, most aren't even in Gale's spellbook and, by the Wizard class rules, he' s only allowed to cast the spells that are written on his book and memorized during a long rest. So unless he secretly has with him the spellbook that he used when he was an Archmage or a scroll version of them, it shouldn't be possible to use most of these.

Oh well, sometimes is necessary to change things a bit because they don't translate well to videogame mechanics and it would make things more tedious and not as enjoyable.

And that's it. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading!

[ot3]

sorry about ppl being weird about the dnd/oc thing I think people are taking it personally because they love their ocs so they don't realise no one is obligated to care or listen to someone speak about something unimportant at length that they never indicated they wanted to hear about

Apparently some people also don't know how to ignore opinions they disagree with without coming to you and being like "oh so you condone cringe culture? You condone bullying? It's my god given right to go up to strangers and start talking about myself and my ocs and if they don't react positively then they hate fun and should not be trusted. Have some basic respect, why do you love bullying???? You're evil. what do you mean "boundaries"????"

here's the thing i really just straight up think people aren't getting the reason why i put ocs/dnd characters specifically on there, instead of just saying 'dont engage people on subjects they're not interested in/don't infodump'. because the thing about ocs and dnd characters specifically is that they are uniquely difficult to respond to. the really key distinction is that someone's oc/dnd character isn't a relatively neutral topic like, say, explaining the history of slide whistles or whatever because i have a slide whistle hyperfocus. people's OCs are their creative projects, and often creative projects that people put a LOT of emotional stock in

it's honestly i think mostly a problem for artists, i don't see a lot of unprompted oc dumping on people that aren't artists, and so i think people who aren't artists or who have never had a large following just don't have a frame of reference for how uncomfortable it is to be Pitched To by someone or don't understand that it's common enough to be worth mentioning. like. the kind of people who try and talk to random internet artists about their ocs are doing this because they want external validation for their creative work and ideas but don't really understand the socially appropriate avenues to go about doing that yet. often times these people are pretty young. they're also extremely likely to be REALLY sensitive.

so basically your choice is

reply with some sort of tepid generic approval/feigned interest, which will almost always result in this type of person believing you have a Rapport now and trying to push further communications with you

ignore them, and hope this isn't the kind of person who will send follow up, or who will get upset at being ignored and assume malicious intent from that. this is probably your safest response

be frank and tell them outright that this isn't something you're interested in discussing. this is probably the worst response, because as you can tell from the discussion being had on this blog, people tend to think it is extremely rude to say this. basically if you outright shoot down someone who is trying to pitch their own creative work that they're both deeply invested in and insecure about, it's not going to go over well.

and when the best possible response to a topic is to ignore it, i think i can safely say that makes it a bad opener. so like it's not just a situation where person A is telling person B about something B is uninterested in. It's a situation where person A is asking for person B to validate the worth of their creative endeavor and B having to essentially decide between sort of 'leading someone on' and shutting them down in a way very likely to upset them.

i know this seems pretty ridiculous to lay it out in these terms when really, it's not super deep, it's just kind of annoying at the end of the day. but like I Have Autism and being put in a situation where I know that if i speak openly/truthfully, almost no matter how politely i do it, someone's feelings are going to get hurt? That's the nightmare scenario. I hate it so much. so yeah this is less about 'dont put people in situations where they need to feign interest on a topic' and more about 'don't put strangers in a position where they need to feign interest to avoid slighting the quality/value of someone's creative work."

[rabdoidal]

ok idm public but its like, A Lot so here goes: Im a pretty new DM, ive only ever done little homebrew things with a few people at a time that havent gone anywhere. Currently, ive taken over as DM from a long running game involving 3 of my friends and my older sister/brother in law (im 22 theyre about 26) and im running The Witch Beyond The Wildlight (a very lighthearted offical dnd adventure). my brother in law was the DM of last campaign and the tone was pretty Brutal (like fighting dragons, surprise gorey moments, bad things happening to good people for no reason ect) i started this adventure off specifally mentioning saftey tools in the frist session because things like excess gore specifically really Dont Do It for me, to which Bro-in-law kind of makes light of the saftey tools (EG. "can we just skip part of the adventure if im uncomfortable with it") generally BiL is pretty chill/not a bad guy or anything but this irked me when i was trying to be serious about this and he was trying to poke holes in the logic of people wanting to not touch on certain topics? (1/2)

(2/2) we've completed chapter 1 which was just a safe sandbox area but now in chapter 2 we get our first fight (weenie enemies bc its lvl 2) and afterwards hes gone in detail wanting ME to describe how he can basically defile the corpses of the highwaymen he killed (theyre rabbit people. but he wanted skin/bones/teeth). which really yucked me out and i tried to set a hard boundary but i dont know if he really gets me there. This whole situation of him not really listening to me as a DM, and then him acting upset when i have to tell him No has made me really frustrated because i feel like he is just fully not on the same page as me on what this campaign is about and doesnt really respect my ruling as DM (arguing with me this session that a bird familar should be able to sign a warlock contract, dumb things like that?) TLDR: He is my brother in law, and i want to be able to play with him and my sister, but i cant get through to him, and he thinks my escapism fairytale campaign is darksouls. do you have any advice?

Sounds like a real bummer, I'm sorry to hear that! I have experience with voiding tone boundaries on both sides, though both more incidental and because of unclear communication - I've definitely pulled back from gorey descriptions in fights because players were uncomfortable, and I've had to tell players to tone it down because it was inappropriate. It's hard especially when the genre of the campaign is different to the last and there are different expectations of violence - I hope the more they explore the feywild the more he understands the tone for the genre.

If you want to go outside the boundaries of the pre-made module, creating non-violent combat encounters can help curb the more gorey aspects of battles - but if you are more comfortable sticking with the written encounters (which is fair when using pre-made modules), I think you just have to be firm with him. It sounds like an annoying situation, where you don't want to kick him out but he also wants to be a kinda shitty player - I really hope he cares enough to listen to you and continue the game without continuing to be a nuisance.

In the example you used especially - if he tries to pull another teeth pulling thing, I think saying in no uncertain terms "I don't want to hear you describe that." or even "I'm uncomfortable with that action so I won't allow it." might be the best way to go - you're the DM and its your world, don't let him dictate how things operate. A slightly less upfront approach could be redirecting the energy: I know that particular module is set in the Feywild, so maybe if he tries to yank teeth, you can describe the bodies turning into light or poofing away into magic dust before he has a chance. You could even have it so that dying for NPCs/enemies isn't a mechanic in the feywild - people disappear or reincarnate or turn into trees or are simply knocked unconscious - or they run away!

My tl;dr is don't let him run the campaign for you - players should contribute to the world and the narrative, but ultimately you are the one running the session. If he won't listen to either your feelings or your alternative narration, he might not be a great suit for the party.

If it helps at all, I usually get players to fill in a checklist (X) to make it clear what's okay and what isn't for everyone at the table. If he still argues about the importance of consent checklists, thats a red flag in and of itself. I hope this helped!

[supercantaloupe]

okay yeah actually, i’ll bite. i’ve got some of my own thoughts about the unsleeping city and cultural representation and i’m gonna make a post about them now, i guess. i’ll put it under a cut though because this post is gonna be long.

i wanna start by saying i love dimension 20 and i really really enjoy the unsleeping city. i look forward to watching new episodes every week, and getting hooked on d20 as a whole last summer really helped pull me out of a pandemic depression, and i’m grateful to have this cool show to be excited about and interested in and to have met so many cool people to talk about it with.

that being said, however, i think there is a risk run in representing any group of people/their culture when you have the kind of setting that tuc has. by which i mean, tuc is set in a real world with real people and real human cultures in it. unlike fantasy high or a crown of candy where everything is made up (even if rooted in real-world cultures), tuc is explicitly rooted in reality, and all of its diversity -- both the ups and downs that go with it. and especially set in new york of all places, one of the most densely, diversely populated cities on earth. the cast is 7 people; it’s great that those 7 people come from a variety of backgrounds and identities and all bring their own unique perspectives to the table, and it’s great that those people and the entire crew are generally conscious of themselves and desire to tell stories/represent perspectives ethically. but you simply cannot authentically represent every culture or every perspective in the world (or even just in a city) when your cast is 7 people. it’s an impossible task. this is inherent to the setting, and acknowledged by the cast, and by brennan especially, who has been on record saying how one of the exciting aspects of doing a campaign set in nyc is its diversity, the fact that no two new yorkers have the same perspective of new york. i think that’s a good thing -- but it does have its challenges too, clearly.

i’m not going to go into detail on the question of whether or not tuc’s presentation of asian and asian american culture is appropriative/offensive or not. first of all, i don’t feel like it’s 100% fair to judge the show completely yet, since it’s a prerecorded season and currently airing midseason, so i don’t yet know how things wrap up. secondly, i’m not asian or asian american. i can have my own opinions on that content in the show, but i think it’s worth more to hear actual asian and asian american voices on this specific aspect of the show. having an asian american cast member doesn’t automatically absolve the show of any criticisms with regard to asian american cultural representation/appropriation, whether those criticisms are made by dozens of viewers or only a handful of them. regardless, i don’t think it’s my place as someone who is not asian to speak with any authority on that issue, and i know for a fact that there are asian american viewers sharing their own opinions. their thoughts in this instance hold more water than mine, i think.

what i will comment on in more depth, though, is a personal frustration with tuc. i’m jewish; i’ve never really been shy about that fact on my page here. i’m not from new york, but i visit a few times a year (or i did before covid anyway, lol), and i have some family from nyc. nyc, to me, is a jewish city. and for good reason, since it’s home to one of the largest jewish populations of the country, and even the world, and aspects of jewish culture (including culinary, like bagels and pastrami, and linguistic, like the common use of yiddish words and phrases in english colloquial speech) are prevalent and celebrated among jews and goyim alike. when i think of nyc, i think of a jewish city; that’s not everybody’s new york, but that’s my new york, and thats plenty of other people’s new york too. so i do find myself slightly disappointed or frustrated in tuc for its, in my opinion, rather stark lack of jewish representation.

now, i’m not saying that one of the PCs should have been jewish, full stop. i love to headcanon iga as jewish even though canon does not support that interpretation, and i’m fine with that. she’s not my character. it’s possible that simply no one thought of playing a jewish character, i dunno. but also, and i can’t be sure about this, i’m willing to bet that none of the players really wanted to play a jewish character because they didn’t want to play a character of a marginalized culture they dont belong to in the interest of avoiding stereotyping or offensive representation/cultural appropriation. (i don’t know if any of the cast members are jewish, but i’m assuming not.) and the concern there is certainly appreciated; there’s not a ton of mainstream jewish rep out there, and often what we get is either “unlikeable overly conservative hassidic jew” or “jokes about their bar mitzvah/one-off joke about hanukkah and then their jewishness is never mentioned ever again,” which sucks. it would be really cool to see some more good casual jewish rep in a well-rounded, three-dimensional character in the main cast of a show! even if there are a couple of stumbles along the way -- nobody is perfect and no two jews have the same level of knowledge, dedication, and adherence to their culture.

but at the same time, i look at characters like iga and i really do long for a jewish character to be there. siobhan isn’t polish, yet she’s playing a characters whose identity as a polish immigrant to new york is very central to her story and arc. and part of me wonders why we can’t have the same for a jewish character. if not a PC, then why not an NPC? again, i’m jewish, and i am not native, but in my opinion i think the inclusion of jj is wonderful -- i think there are even fewer native main characters in mainstream media than there are jewish ones, and it’s great to see a native character who is both in touch with their culture as well as not being defined solely by their native-ness. to what extent does it count as ‘appropriative’ because brennan is a white dude? i dunno, but i’m like 99% sure they talked to sensitivity consultants to make sure the representation was as ethical as they could get it, and anyway, i can’t personally see and glaring missteps so far. but again, i’m not native, and if there are native viewers with their own opinions on jj, i’d be really interested in hearing them.

but getting back to the relative lack of jewish representation. it just...disappoints me that jewishness in new york is hardly ever even really mentioned? again, i know we’re only just over halfway through season 2, but also, we had a whole first season too. and it’s definitely not all bad. for example: willy! gd, i love willy so much. him being a golem of williamsburg makes me really really happy -- a jewish mythological creature animated from clay/mud (in this case bricks) to protect a jewish community (like that of williamsburg, a center for many of nyc’s jews) from threat. golem have so often been taken out of their original context and turned into evil monsters in fantasy settings, especially including dnd. (even within other seasons of d20! crush in fh being referred to as a “pavement golem” always rubbed me the wrong way, and i had hoped they’d learned better after tuc but in acoc they refer to another monster as a “corn golem” which just disappointed me all over again.) so the fact that tuc gets golems right makes my jewish heart very happy.

and yet...he doesn’t show up that much? sure, in s1, he’s very helpful when he does, but in s2 so far he shows up once and really does not say or do much of anything. he speaks with a lot more yiddish-influenced language than other characters, but if you didn’t know those words were specifically yiddish/jewish, you might not be able to otherwise clock the fact that willy is jewish. and while willy is a jewish mythological creature who is jewish in canon, he isn’t human. there are no other direct references to judaism, jewish characters, or jewish culture in the unsleeping city beyond him.

there are, in fact, two other canon jewish characters in tuc. but...here’s where i feel the most frustration, i think. the two canon jewish humans in tuc are stephen sondheim and robert moses. both of whom are real actual people, so it’s not like we can just pick and choose what their cultural backgrounds are. as much as i love stephen sondheim, i think there are inherent issues with including real world people as characters in a fictional setting, especially if they are from living/recent memory (sondheim is literally still alive), but anyway, sondheim and moses are both actual jewish people. from watching tuc alone you probably would not be able to guess that sondheim is jewish -- nothing from his character except name suggests it, and i wouldn’t even fault you for not thinking ‘sondheim’ is a jewish-sounding surname (and i dislike the idea/attitude/belief that you can tell who is or isn’t jewish by the sound of their name). and yeah, i’m not going to sit here and be like “brennan should have made sondheim more visibly jewish in canon!” because, like, he’s a real human being and it’s fucking weird to portray him in a way that isn’t as close to how he publicly presents himself, which is not in fact very identifiably jewish? i don’t know, this is what i mean by it’s inherently weird and arguably problematic to portray real living people as characters in a fictional setting, but i digress. sondheim’s jewish, even if you wouldn’t know it; not exactly a representation win.

and then there’s bob moses. you might be able to guess that he’s jewish from canon, actually. there’s the name, of course. but more insidious to me are the specifics of his villainy. greedy and powerhungry, a moneyman, a lich whose power is stored in a phylactery...it does kind of all add up to a Yikes from me. (in the stock market fight there’s a one-off line asking if he has green skin; it’s never really directly acknowledged or answered, but it made me really uncomfortable to hear at first and it’s stuck with me since viewing for the first time.) the issue for me here is that the most obviously jewish human character is the season’s bbeg, and his villainy is rooted in very antisemitic tropes and stereotypes.

i know this isn’t all brennan’s fault -- robert moses was a real ass person and he was in fact jewish, a powerhungry and greedy moneyman, a big giant racist asshole, etc. i’m not saying that jewish characters can’t be evil, and i’m not saying brennan should have tried to be like “this is my NPC robert christian he’s just like bob moses but instead he’s a goy so it’s okay” because...that would be fuckin weird bro. and bob moses was a real person who was jewish and really did do some heinous shit with his municipal power. i’m not necessarily saying brennan should have picked/created a different character to be the villain. i’m not even saying that he shouldn’t have made bob moses a lich (although, again, it doesn’t 100% sit right with me). but my point here is that bob moses is one of a grand total of three canon jewish characters in tuc, of which only two humans, of whom he is the one you’d most easily guess would be jewish and is the most influenced by antisemitic stereotypes/tropes. had there been more jewish representation in the show at all, even just some neutral jewish NPCs, this would not be as much of a problem as it is to me. but halfway through season 2, so far, this is literally all we get. and that bums me out.

listen, i really like tuc. i love d20. but the fact that it is set in a real world place with real world people does inherently raise challenges when it comes to ethical cultural representation. especially when the medium of the show is a game whose creatures, lore, and mechanics have been historically rooted in some questionable racial/cultural views. and dnd is making progress to correct some of those misguided views of older sourcebooks by updating them to more equitably reflect real world racial/cultural sensitivities; that’s a good thing! but these seasons, of course, were recorded before that. the game itself has some questionable cultural stuff baked into it, and that is (almost necessarily) going to be brought to the table in a campaign set in a real-world place filled with real-world people of diverse real-world cultures. the cast can have sensitivity consultants and empathy and the best intentions in the world, and they’ll still fuck up from time to time, that’s okay. your mileage may vary on whether or not it’s still worth sticking around with the show (or the fandom) through that. for me, it does not yet outweigh all the things i like about the show, and i’m gonna continue watching it. but it’s still very worth acknowledging that the cast is 7 people who cannot possibly hope to authentically or gracefully represent every culture in nyc. it’s an unfortunate limitation of the medium. yet it’s also still worthwhile to acknowledge and discuss the cultural representation as it is in the show -- both the goods and the bads, the ethically solid and the questionably appropriative -- and even to hold the creators accountable. (decently, though. i’m definitely not advocating anybody cyberbully brennan on twitter or whatever.) the show and its representation is far from perfect, but i also don’t think it ever could be. still, though, it could always be better, and there’s a worthwhile discussion to be had in the wheres, hows, and whys of that.

[dhampiravidi]

in--somnium​:​

As badly as Cassia had hoped for a chance to study with Caleb, she didn’t want to seem like she was trying too hard or something to get close to him. Yes, he was handsome. And, yes, he seemed sweet. But she wasn’t here specifically for him, she was here to hang out with the group. They were, after all, kind of the first friends she’d started making outside of her DnD group with Tyler. It’s not that she wasn’t good at making friends it was just that she had a tendency to stick to herself unless, like this, she had someone to kind of lead her. And while Tyler was definitely not a leading type, for now, he was her link in and she had a tendency to kind of stick to his side.  She stole a glance at Reid’s notebook as he tried to write down what she’d said. Honestly, he was surprisingly close. She pointed out a spelling error on that last word and a missed accent on the “i” in “así” , but otherwise he’d gotten it. Now it was just a matter of breaking the sentence down, “I promise I won’t speak Spanish at you the whole time. When you’re ready, just let me know what you’re learning and what you need help with. Especially if it’s conjugation, because that can be a bitch to remember.” There were some basic rules, but with certain words and usages it switched up enough to get agitating.

At Caleb’s words, Cass smiled, “It’ll be an easier A with your help, I’m sure.”  Tyler wanted to question how it was that these two could make talking about a psych class sound like flirting. It was less the actual words, though, and more the way they were spoken. And he had known Caleb long enough to immediately understand the way he was looking at Cassia. Tyler thought, then, that maybe he should pull Caleb aside and ask him if he was actually interested or if it was just some playful flirtations. He wanted to think that he knew his friend enough to know that, if he was interested in Cass, he wouldn’t just leave it at a one night stand- that ran the risk of ruining Tyler’s friendship with her. She seemed more like the relationship type. But if Caleb was actually interested… well, Tyler would put in a good word. 

The conversation between Cass and Caleb, however, was unfortunately short lived, because Cass was being unintentionally pulled into a different conversation at Pogue’s mention of her name. Pogue didn’t want to intrude on Jayn’s space when she seemed to still have an issue with him, but maybe this would be a good start at mending whatever he’d fucked up? He really hoped so, because he was sure that this was the last thing Caleb needed to add to his already long list of shit he was dealing with. But, as the leader of their long held friend group, Caleb would undoubtedly feel like it was his place to patch things up between them. So, if he could let Cass be a mediator for the moment instead of Caleb, then at least it would pull a bit of the pressure off of his friend for a few minutes, “Cool.” Pogue answered, giving a genuine smile, “Let me know when you girls are good to go.” He was in no rush. In fact, he felt a bit nervous about it for some stupid reason. He really did like Jayn, after all, and he didn’t want to make their situation worse with some dumb slip up or by making himself sound like an idiot. Similarly, Cassia was kind of nervous about the whole three person history group because, while she was good at defusing situations, there was clearly a bad kind of tension between Jayn and Pogue. Though she had a feeling it was kind of one sided. She wondered if this was about the Dracula conversation from before. After all, Pogue had seemed a little uncomfortable about the topic. It hadn’t struck Cass as him being homophobic, but maybe Jayn had interpreted his discomfort differently? And, honestly, maybe she was even right. Or, perhaps, there was something deeper going on there. Though she wanted to ask Tyler about it, she wasn’t sure if that would be crossing a line or something. Pogue’s business was his own, right?

So, once Jayn had agreed to let Pogue join them, Cassia turned her attention back to Reid (though she couldn’t help but spare one more glance in Caleb’s direction- seriously, how could a guy be that hot? It just didn’t seem fair!).  Tyler, in turn, placed his attention fully on Jayn and her calculus. Luckily for her, he was a math whiz, and she wasn’t the first person he’d helped with calc homework. He just hoped that, next semester, when he needed help with his history class, she’d be happy to return the favor.

As for Pogue, he decided that it felt a little awkward with him and Caleb being the only two not partnered up, so he dug out some flash cards he’d made for his chemistry class, and dropped them on Caleb’s lap, “I know I’m gonna ace this but… quiz me anyway. Then I’ll quiz you on some of your notes, or something. Deal?” It was less of an actual question, though, and more of an “I’ve decided this is happening, just nod and go along with it” kind of situation.

Reid was surprised by how kind and patient Cassia was. He had gone to tutors in the past (all recommended by his parents, of course), but she, thankfully, wasn’t like any of them. She didn’t hiss at him when he started losing focus, nor did she roll her eyes when he misunderstood something she said. She went at his pace and taught him ways to memorize stuff quickly. If she was more his type (which he liked to describe as “a nicer Regina George”, he’d totally go for her. Instead, when Reid was pretty much done with his Spanish homework and was sure he wouldn’t fail the upcoming test, he loudly said, “Hey, Caleb! I approve, dude, congrats!”, smiling widely. His excitement was only toned down once his older friend gave him the signal to shut up. “Thanks, Cassia,” Reid told her genuinely. He was definitely buying the food the next time book club met up.

Cassia’s smile had been printed into Caleb’s mind. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen it before--the six of them had had plenty of fun since the girls had joined their friend group--but today’s smile had been all for him, and he knew it. The Virgo in him whispered that there was always the chance she smiled like that for everyone, but his happy little heart couldn’t stop tapdancing. He was already looking forward to next semester, just so he could help her with her psychology class. But for the moment, he needed to help Pogue instead. It was a bit difficult, forcing himself to focus on flashing cards and studying when he could hear Cassia’s voice not that far behind him (and fuck, he hoped she kept tutoring Reid, because her Spanish accent was really hot). Thankfully, Pogue didn’t seem to notice his wandering thoughts. Caleb wondered if his friend’s own mind was wandering at all, because when Pogue had flashed Jayn a thankful smile, she’d actually smiled back.

“Oof, thank you so much,” Jayn groaned, giving Tyler a high five. They’d finally finished her Calculus homework, and she finally understood what the hell the lesson had been talking about. As a liberal arts girl, she only understood what she could explain in words, so numbers were...icky. “So...mini break! Then History, if everyone’s done with their first group...?”

“Muy bien, senorita!” Reid cried with a grin, hurrying off to use the bathroom. Jayn bit back a laugh, not wanting to ruin the blond’s sudden bilingualism.

Caleb saw an opportunity and started grabbing some of the empty bottles and trash that was lying around. “Hey, Ty: mind helping me take some of this stuff to the kitchen?” He was getting impatient (which was rare for him). If he and Pogue had read things right, Tyler didn’t have a crush on Cassia anyway, but Caleb needed to make sure.

“I’m gonna order a pizza! Is everyone OK with extra cheese? I figure that way we’re all happy,” Jayn explained, pulling out her phone and going to Google on her laptop. “Pogue, where d’you get pizza from here?” She was still wary of him (and nervous about their upcoming study group), but damn, she wanted pizza. And maybe he had a cute smile.

@in--somnium​

[jq37]

The Case File – Mice and Murder Ep 4

The Case of the Puzzling Painting 

Welcome back to Loam Hall where our Sylvan Sleuths are still hanging out in a room with a dead body. When we left off, Gangie had been snooping into Sly’s conversation about Fletcher Cottonbottom and now, he uses his Criminal Contacts feature to see what he knows, if anything, about a recent return. With a 26 he knows that his family used to be well respected but after the whole business with the insurance fraud and Sly busting it, the family kind of fell out of favor. So Fletcher was in a weird position where he was rich and a part of high society and had enough dirt on everyone to get them to do things for him but couldn’t actually show his face because he was disgraced. Gangie also knows that it’s rumored that Fletcher’s weapons running scheme was actually a front for moving art. 

With regard to more recent news about Fletcher, Gangie was never in direct contact with him but he knows that 3-4 years ago, his most trusted henchmen started going missing--people attributed it to some kind of “Cottonbottom Curse” and that rumor is part of why Gangie decided to get out of dodge in the first place.

Buck does an insight check on the rest of the PCs and, with an 18, doesn’t clock anyone there as especially suspicious (Lars isn’t there but like..it’s Lars). Ian tries to give Squire Badger his last rites but ends up pulling the knife out, putting it back in, flapping blood everywhere with his feathers, and sending Constance into a badger rage. Buck tries to help smooth over things, claiming his big screw up was a new style of avant garde church ritual (Ian appreciates the support--who ministers to the ministers, you know?) and in the process sees his knife for the first time. Which, you know. He obviously suspected before but never nice to see.

While this is going on, Daisy sneaks off to try and check on the secret door and everyone sees her do it/eventually follows her but we’ll get back to her once we check in with Lars who is en route to the kitchen. Once in the hallway, they do a perception check and, on a 15, there are 3 doors and Ally gets to pick one. There’s a kitchen where Gilfoyle is talking to a group, a door where someone is crying behind it, and a door where they can hear nothing. Ally, the galaxy brained genius, goes for the quiet door. That’s the money door and with their ears pressed against the door, they can hear Edwina and Carolyn--the two mice maids that overheard Buck’s conversation with the Badger--whispering about what happened there and wondering if they should pay back the money they were paid to by Buck.

Gilfoyle walks out and sees Lars snooping but on a Nat 20 deception check, Lars is able to play dumb and skate by suspiciousness. Also, with a dirty 20 perception check, when the mice maids leave, Lars sees that they’ve been stealing silverware. 

OK, back to Daisy who is getting to the séance room as quickly as possible. She has two rounds before people catch up to her so she’s trying to make the most of it by Investigating the painting she noticed was bolted to the wall earlier. She first rolls an 11, getting no new information. This is so frustrating to her. She’s good at this dammit! But being around Sly is rattling her terribly. She has feelings for him--strong ones. But she isn’t herself around him. How can she be with him if he makes her so unlike herself? Her introspection is enough to earn her advantage from Brennan on her second roll and boom! 25! Daisy is back. 

With that roll, she notices that the eyes in the painting actually move and can be used as a spying post on the other side. Then Sly runs in and they start bickering immediately. Daisy throws a crystal ball at him and absolutely brains him on a nat 20--the first combat roll of this very RP oriented season. 

Buck and Ian are still in the room with the body for the moment and Buck asks Ian about the first few names on the list Gangie gave him. There were a bunch of members of the Burrows family--a working class family that all died of a consumptive illness. And then the Diggories who died in a carriage accident. The connecting thread? All badgers. Buck then zooms away to follow Daisy, Ian follows, and Lars, seeing them as they leave the kitchens, also follows. 

So all the PCs are in the séance room now and they kinda have the sense of, “OK y’all, we’re all screwed but we’re al screwed together so we better throw our lot in with each other and start working together so we don’t die because no one else here is on our side.” Buck proposes an alliance and they all agree to share info. Sly asks about Buck’s knife and Buck admits it’s his but says he didn’t do it. Sly believes him--not because he wouldn’t do it but because he has no motive (that he knows about anyway. Buck doesn’t spill about the contract). 

Gangie shares the list of names from before with the whole group.It’s like half badgers and then some other critters (full list here). Sly doesn’t share any of his secret info Grant got texted. Daisy and Buck don’t share about the key (though Sly you’ll remember sat her steal it). Buck does however mention his suspicion about the fact that Gilfoyle wasn’t around when Squire Badger gave his speech and Daisy does the same about the fact that he said he would call the cops but the cops haven’t arrived yet. Lar’s remembers that Jez’s husband is gunning for at seat in parliament and wonders if this is related somehow. Daisy mentions the eyes in the painting and everyone is like way to bury the lede dude! Especially when they’ve just all spilled their secrets. Everyone checks on the painting and with a 25 Gangie can intuit that this is probably used to spy on rich people when they’re mid-séance and vulnerable and spilling secrets (which he doesn’t share but Daisy comes to a similar conclusion on her own). Buck on a 23 can smell ledgers (idk how but the DM said so and I’m reporting it) and guesses that that’s where the Squire’s real office is which means that’s probably where the contract he needs to find and destroy is too. 

 The group makes a list of their loose ends which are what’s on the other side of the painting, what’s up with Fletcher, and the smell of ozone. Plus Ian remembers that the date on the bust in the study is wrong and shares with the class. 

Lars tries to get to the other side of the room by ripping the painting off the hinges with a very impressive 26 but there is fully a wall behind it and the noise brings Gilfoyle, Harding, and the Badger kids running. Lars notes that in the stone behind the painting it says “⅓”  and then hurriedly puts the painting back. Daisy thinks that might refer to a secret third floor or basement accessible by the elevator (but my first thought was that there were 2 other spying paintings in the house somewhere).

Everyone in the room hears the Gilfoyle and co. coming and try to act natural. There is a group stealth check that they all tank so heavily that all the suspicious staff and kids need to do to suss them out is roll above a 5.

AND THEY ROLL A TWO. 

With that, Lucretia appears, totally buys that they’re doing very important spiritual work in there, and in fact guards the door for them. They use the privacy bought by their very vigilant sentry to plan their next steps. Sly, Daisy, and Ian will check out the study while they rest of them check out the elevator. As they exit, Lucretia asks if they got the answers they needed out of the spirits.

Oh yes, says Daisy, echoing Lucretia’s nonsense prediction from last episode. Either something good or bad might happen. Either way, I’m excited! 

Case Notes

How baller of a player move is it to say a line so poignant that the DM is forced to let you roll with advantage? I have been on the other side of that as the DM and it’s so great. MAD respect to Rekha for that. AND THEN THE DICE COOPERATED. You simply love to see it. 

The other best Rekha line is Daisy to Sly upon being called out about stealing the key in his normal, coy, quippy way: You saw me bitch.

Shout out to Grant also for being constantly on as Sly. The guy is on point always. Impeccable.

I am SO SO SO happy Daisy and Sly are on the same mission team. If I was friends with either of them I’d be like, “This is a toxic relationship, they make you too crazy.” But as an outside viewer I want them to be within crystal ball throwing distance always.  

The question I’m sure we’re all asking: Is Brennan enough of a minx to invoke the butler did it trope? I know everyone at the table is thinking it even if none of them have said it outright. I figured the reason the cops haven’t showed up yet was the storm but who knows?

Two pieces of housekeeping, only Buck and Gangie know what the room behind the painting is with their high rolls and, after the bit of passing it back and forth with Buck, Daisy has the key. 

I really can’t do the bit about Gangie’s mom justice. I wish there was a comedy Emmy for actual play DnD shows so D20 could get the accolades it deserves just for that bit. 

Brennan indicated that the conversation between the mice maids was the most interesting info (Gilfoyle convo to staff was too public to be juicy/they could get the info from one of the many gathered staff people and crying is info on its own--though I am curious about who the crying person was) but I’m wondering what he meant by that. Because the fact that Buck paid them might be interesting if Buck did it. But we know he didn’t. Is it the fact that they were in the room at all? Again, info that the party knows if not Lars specifically.  The fact that they were stealing silverware? What’s Brennan’s game here?

[major-fukkup]

Fandoms I'm In!

Hello! Today I'm going to be sharing a list of fandoms I'm in!

Before we get started, I feel like I should mention that I am not actually in the mainstream part of any of these, though for some I would like to be - I just don't really know where to start or how to get involved, especially since I work two jobs and don't have a lot of time for art or fic-writing, or anything else either for that matter.

Nevertheless, time to get on with the list!

These will be listed in no particular order, though my current obsessions will be in their own category at the top.

The last thing I will say before putting the list is, this is subject to updates at any time, so if you're curious to know what I'm into at any given time, check back frequently!

Current Obsessions!

(I'm leaving these on the next list because I don't feel like removing them fight me)

ATLA (Zukka lmao)

Other Fandoms and Media I Enjoy

MacGyver - Seriously, this has been my favorite show since I was a kid. My mom bought the box set and I could quote the whole episode guide and didn't have to consult it to know which disc to put in the DVD player when someone wanted to watch a specific episode.

Supernatural

The Witcher

Skyrim (inspired my main DnD PC, Ezian)

Destiny 2

Metal Gear Solid

The Loud House

The Land Before Time (THIS IS MY COMFORT SERIES)

Jurassic Park

Pirates of the Caribbean

Indiana Jones (guess I'll put it here since I do enjoy the movies even though I've surprisingly never done anything remotely fandom-related concerning it) (aside from making LEGO stop-motion videos with the sets I had)

Marvel (Avengers specifically) (Thor FTW even tho I haven't actually seen any of the Thor movies YET - I HAVE watched many clips from them)

Gargoyles (Disney show)

Mega Man (my very second fandom, chronologically! The first being Mario of course)

Sonic the Hedgehog

Detroit Become Human (the reason I first started wanting a PS4 back in 2018)

Horizon Zero Dawn (don't play it often enough to remember what's going on but Aloy is really cute and also very pretty)

Splatoon

Animal Crossing

Legend of Zelda (the fandom that spawned my biggest, most developed work that is now original and contains no copyrighted content)

Ghostbusters (the fandom that spawned my second-biggest, second-most-developed work that is now original and contains no copyrighted content)

The Last Of Us

Cyberpunk 2077 (looked forward to it ever since it was first announced, preordered it and picked it up as soon as GameStop called me to let me know they had my copy, and then played it all of one time for about 9 hours straight and apparently my roomies were trying to talk to me??) (Pretty sure I played it more than once TBH) (Spoiler alert, Jackie shouldn't have fucking died)

Fortnite (my brother got me back into it but I got him into it first) (yes this is why I put those passive-aggressive notes) (no I'm not one of those toxic players)

Uncharted (finished 1, started 2, and own 3 and 4 but haven't played them)

Just Cause 4 (haven't played the others)

Fallout 4 (and Shelter haha)

DOOM

Borderlands

Burnout Paradise (I just got it because DJ Atomika, but it turned out to be fun! I'm spoiled when it comes to street-racing games because Need For Speed World was my favorite and the servers shut down)

The Crew 2

4x4 Evolution 2 (funny how it's often the second game in a series that ends up being my favorite) (I have many, many happy memories associated with this game)

SSX (specifically 3) (more happy memories)

Naruto

Death Note

Demon Slayer

The Fairly OddParents

The Owl House

The Band Ghost

ATLA

[shakks]

I’ve mentioned in the past that I play Path of Exile. Not too frequently, every other league or so. I don’t go out of my way to make character builds, my goal is to get to the end and beat the bad guy. There was a thing that happened recently that got me thinking about the different reasons people enjoy the game.

Something I’ve been aware of that I’ve never really thought about is how degenerate this game’s design is. I’d like to go into more detail but then this post would be ten times longer than I intend for it to be. My main point is that the devs refuse to compromise on their vision of the game as a spiritual successor to Diablo 2, which is admirable, but the growth of the game’s identity is now stunted. This is reflected in both the players and the developers actions:

- Players are desensitized to the point where anything that is not clicking on monsters and then clicking on loot is rejected by the hardcore player base. The game’s campaign is nothing more than a footnote that a player must rush through when making a new character. Any pretense or context is dropped, with players getting incredibly angry if the devs ever take away something that they used.

- The developers will go out of their way to make an experience worse if it does not coincide with their vision. Their biggest stance is related to the accessibility of trading between players. The developers have identified that trading should be possible, but that it should also be difficult. In the specific instance linked above, rather than find a solution to prevent players from joining an unofficial third-party discord server, they’ve made the items being traded worse in the hopes that this would discourage people from trading at all.

Again, the desire to keep the game pure is admirable. The original creators of Diablo were keeping the generic tabletop RPG in mind when they made the game. However, your DND game is usually at a table with five of your friends, not with hundreds of thousands of players, with people streaming it as a livelihood and others trying to sell in-game items for cash.

The developers of Path of Exile are like... Fallen paladins, or something. I‘m positive there’s a trope for it, but the name escapes me. It’s where your belief becomes too strong that it harms those around you.

...Anyway. The reason I’m talking about this is that in the heat of the moment, a few people have said that Path of Exile’s crafting system is more akin to gambling, or Cookie Clicker. This isn’t untrue, as what you normally do is use specific items on your equipment that will randomize its stats in different ways. It is very much a lottery, one that you are forced to take part in if you don’t want to participate in trading.

That particular comment though, about Path of Exile being comparable to Cookie Clicker... Would it even be possible to make something like that? A game that takes Path of Exile’s “crafting” system, and fuses it with Cookie Clicker’s “gameplay”? I’m really curious to see how that would work, and if it’d be possible to recreate that feeling of crafting without the waste of time required to get there. I could write up a small prototype in JavaScript when I’ve got a moment.

I could set it in Waterworks’ universe, as well. It might be an opportunity to expand a little bit on the world.

[safety-net-did]

Why do so many people act as though any choice they personally wouldn't make is therefore inherently the wrong choice?

Why is it so hard for them to understand differences in opinion, experience, belief, etc. exist? You don't have to understand the reasoning behind a choice/way of being/preference etc. to respect that it is??

This got long so my rant is under the cut.

This is sparked by watching the pushback against accessibility in DnD/TTRPGs, but I see it all over, for things both innocuous and damaging.

Someone mentioned how if they were paralyzed in a magical world, why wouldn't they go for the "better(imo)" options than a wheelchair. Like getting healed, or prosthetic limbs.

But even though they added the "(imo)" they really don't seem to realise that it really is just their opinion. That for others a wheelchair is the better option, in their opinion.

And really don't seem to see how saying that being a non wheelchair user is better than being a wheelchair user just exposes that they hold the fundamental belief that wheelchair users are lesser.

That's as in depth to that specific issue as I can go, because I'm not a wheelchair user.

But it was just an example of an over-arching behaviour pattern that irks me.

A much more innocuous example is my he-partner's behaviour toward vegan foods.

I was vegan for several years, and still really enjoy vegan food. I would still be a dietary vegan if my mental health allowed, because the physical benefits I got from eating that way were numerous.

My he-partner doesn't eat vegan foods because, to quote, he "doesn't like them". To the point that if he eats something, then you mention that it is vegan, he'll back-track and start talking about how he didn't like it.

His enjoyment of the food is tied to the concept of what it is. Telling him that Oreos (in Canada) are vegan was interesting, because he felt the need to start justifying that, since they are accidentally vegan it doesn’t count, they didn’t intend to make a vegan product so it’s not really “vegan”...he had to justify his enjoyment of them in order to keep enjoying them. 

Which, to me, sounds exhausting. Some folk are like that about queer people/media too. Double exhausting.

If he kept it to himself, however, and just... didn’t partake in those things because he doesn’t like them (despite the fact that saying you point-blank dislike a very broad category is... incorrect (and even imo morally wrong when it is things that matter, like saying you “aren’t attracted to trans folk” or “all Black people are criminals” etc.)) If he kept it confined to himself, it wouldn’t be an issue!

It’s the fact that when I say I like vegan food, he feels the need to speak up and tell me how gross that food is. To imply, even jokingly, that I’m lesser or wrong for that preference. That’s the shit that pisses me off. 

Putting your experience as the gold-standard, top-tier, best to be emulated experience, to which others should be trying to bring themselves around to... that’s so gross.