#3E-Showing Off

[thydungeongal]

Off anon this time. I sent the “player as product” ask. i want to minimize discourse on my blog lol but I am sauntering in. Like you said, the D&D player is the product. Hasbro/WotC’s goal, as you’ve stated, is to sell D&D products. In order to sell the products, you have to have someone to sell too. Unlike other things—food and clothes, for example, as well as toys like dolls—D&D requires its consumer to be primed. You can’t start consuming D&D they want you to without prior knowledge. You can buy pretty dice and do whatever you want, because they’re open-ended toys, but you can’t buy the Monster Manual and “play” with it because it’s a specialized “toy” for a specific sort of play.

I started with 3e. Back when I first got into D&D, it was through word of mouth (literally, new kid in school said I should play) and my prior exposure was looking at the cool pictures in the books at Barnes and Noble in the big towns (grew up buttfuck nowhere). There was minimal marketing in the mainstream. Compare with now: TV shows and actual plays and Critical Role romance novels and children’s books. Hasbro wants to saturate us with D&D, so it is easier for us to buy their shit. I went home a couple of years back, and I was floored that Walmart had D&D books and dice.

However, as I joined the ranks of 3e players, I also learned about and was exposed to other games. I was a lil Lovecraft fan and now I understood that Call of Cthulhu existed and scratched my itch since I had the prior knowledge to do so. Some biker dude ran RIFTS at my college. D&D didn’t have to be the only entry into RPGs, either. You meet folks who started with VtM, RIFTS (!!!), Star Wars, all kinds of stuff.

Now, D&D is considered the entry point AND the end point. Hasbro wants it to be our measuring stick. Not even old editions of D&D either, just its current milieu. It’s done that by using consumers as products, much like Amazon and Google has. That’s my thesis, because that’s the tea, sis.

Definitely agree with this as someone who started roleplaying around the same time and for whom 3e was her entrypoint into D&D (albeit not RPGs in general).

[beansprean]

Oh, y'all thought the fight had started already?

My Familiar’s Ghost part 51

Masterpost

New pages on Patreon!

(ID in alt and under cut)

ID: 1a. Close up of bat Nandor from Guillermo’s POV, crushed into a wall and held there by Guillermo’s hand. One of Guillermo’s claws has pierced the membrane of his wing and Nandor is clutching at his fingers in terror, staring up with wide, panicked eyes. 1b. Reverse shot of vampire Guillermo from Nandor’s POV, holding him down with his left hand as his right rears back, claws bared in preparation to strike. He is grinning maliciously, relishing in a new kill. 1c. Wide shot from the side as there is a sudden screech of tires and crash of metal. Guillermo and Nandor freeze in place and whip their heads toward the viewer and the front windows of the Panera.

2a. Wide shot from outside, on a roadway running up a hill and parallel to the Panera. A blue hatchback car with a license plate that says ‘whoops’ and a bumper sticker that says ‘how’s my driving? 1-800-KISS-IT’ has crashed into a pole with a yellow traffic light and is smoking, front end crumpled and passenger window shattered. The pole is slowly falling sideways, towards the Panera parking lot below. 2b. Close up as the traffic light, yellow light still lit, smashes into the asphalt, cracking the green lens and ripping the blinders off the red lens. 2c. Repeat. The traffic light settles on its side, mostly intact, and flips to red. Unfocused without the blinders, red light pours freely across the ground. Nearly invisible red text behind reads “stop stop stop stop”. 2d. Repeat of 2c, Guillermo and Nandor still frozen in place but now bathed in red light. Guillermo is narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the scene outside and Nandor nervously flicks his eyes over to him, assessing.

3a. The entire Panera is now flooded in red. Shot from behind the pillar Nandor is pinned to as his leg, now human shaped again, kicks forcefully upward, sending Guillermo flying backward into the opposite wall, demolishing the sheetrock and destroying a wooden chair in the process. Debris flies everywhere. 3b. Waist up of Nandor, back in human form, as he stands himself up, his inner arm bleeding. He snarls angrily and points an accusing finger at Guillermo, saying ‘You want to fight? Fine! The truth is, I have been upset with you, too!’ 3c. Reverse shot of Guillermo struggling out of the ass-sized hole he made in the wall, fangs bared and deadly gaze focused on Nandor. Nandor continues from offscreen: ‘You get so angry when I don’t know things about you but then you don’t tell me anything!’ 3d. Close up on Guillermo’s hand closing around a broken wooden chair leg. 3e. Close up on Nandor’s hand closing around a wooden chair leg as he accuses, ‘You keep secrets!’

4a. Full body of Guillermo lifting himself from a crouch in the debris left by the wall, a long stake with a shattered pointy end clutched in his left hand. His eyes, like a predator, never leave Nandor. Nandor keeps talking: ‘You assume to know what I am thinking and how I will react to things and what I will say - well you don’t.’ 4b. Knees up of Nandor as he steps away from the crushed pillar to a more strategic place against the light, holding his own long stake point-up like a readied sword in front of him. He stares seriously at Guillermo and says, ‘You hear, but you never listen, Guillermo.’ 4c. Extreme close up on Nandor’s glaring eyes trailing a slash of red light as he makes a quick turn, shouting, ‘Well you will listen to me now!’ 4d. Full body wide shot on an orange and yellow starburst background as Guillermo, both hands on his makeshift sword, takes a backswing at Nandor. Nandor’s sword meets him in the middle as he swings it down single-handed in perfect form. Their eyes never leave the other’s; they’re both in the fight now. /end ID

[caption]

Bonus ID: shot through the shattered front windshield of the crashed car to show Laszlo in the passenger seat and Colin behind the wheel, both covered in broken glass and peeking out from behind inflated airbags. Colin asks, glasses askew on his face and grinning in his usual unflappable way, ‘How was that, Lazzo?’ Laszlo smiles patiently over at Colin and asks, ‘Marvelous work, my boy! Now, what possessed you to aim for this particular traffic signal?’ Colin replies, ‘I dunno, just had a feeling. Can we go for that Escalade next? I really want to see how sensitive that pedestrian detection feature is.’ The engine continues to smoke, and there are a few wisps of familiar blue light trailing away. /end ID

[rayshippouuchiha]

Okay but in the fem tsuna that accidentally becomes a assassin with class 3e

That would be such a great crossover au!

Also would her guardians change, would she have multiple for each element? Takeshi would probably learn more off of her lol.

But! Does Tsuna do the same thing that nagisa does? Is it a snake or lioness? Or lion?

I do think she'd end up with different guardians for the simple fact that by the time Reborn shows up she's not only been through everything with E Class but she's become the class baby/princess. So you best believe that these gremlins she spent that year with (who spent the year learning and growing in the dim, flickering light of her sealed flames that eventually became an inferno) have kept her tucked close in their lives.

I could possibly see her ending up with multiples for each element, with E Class being a bit older and having their own lives too before canon catches up to Tsuna.

I do think she'd be more aligned to Nagisa's snake style than anything lion-related by the end, just given the nature of their training and what she's been through. Or maybe she is something cat-like but more subtle in nature than canon.

[ladiemars]

I love Nor and her giant sad puppy eyes, I would love to know more about her

thank you!! have a hastily drawn nor ft. her giant sad sopping wet puppy eyes:

+ a giant nor lore dump below the cut જ⁀➴

➸ her whole character was inspired by that one textpost that’s like, “characters with both the abject terror and desperation of an animal that knows it is cornered and destined to be eaten. you just can't get that kind of angst out a successful hunter” and this quote by james harriet: “if having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”

➸ she’s is the product of a union between a drow woman and a deep imaskari man. for those who don’t know, the deep imaskari are a human subrace (from 3e) that have stone-like skin and hair that’s white or black. because that’s nor’s human half, most people assume she’s completely drow upon meeting her, since did not inherit any features from her father that would make her look less like her drow mother.

➸ the deep imaskari live longer than other humans—up to 550 years—so nor ages at a rate more akin to drow and elves than half-elves or humans. nor believes she’s currently around seventy years old, though she could be off by a decade or two. she’s not sure when she was born and has long periods without human contact. she really isn’t sure how much time has passed.

➸ she has no given name, but eventually ended up going by the name ratcatcher, which is what the locals in baldur’s gate called her. halsin is the one who names her nor shortly after they meet, which is the elven word for “passion” and also “run.”

➸ this excerpt from one of my fics sums up her urchin/orphan to urban ranger/beastmaster pipeline pretty well:

➸ around the age of twenty, nor grew to resent humanity so much that she decided to leave baldur’s gate and live in the forest with only animals for company for half a century. (this is when she lost track of time completely.) in the forest, she became an expert in survival, attuning her ears to the slightest twitch in the air, to every noise and smell. she lived in a cave and slept curled up beside velvet on a bed of willow leaves. the events of baldur’s gate 3 is the first time in decades that she’s had social interaction.. and it shows.

➸ she has a little wolfdog companion named velvet. (i’ve drawn him and her and halsin and scratch here). he was another half-breed who didn’t quite being anywhere, so they bonded very deeply. (fun fact: velvet killed the elder brain in my first playthrough as nor. he’s a legend in faerun now.)

➸ laezel is her bestie. they are ride or die. neither of them understand a damn thing about faerun or its inhabitants. but that also means they don’t judge each other for anything, cause they both just kind of assume what the other is doing is normal

➸ a big part of her character is her dynamic with the emperor. she gets manipulated by him so bad because he tells her everything a forgotten, unloved creature wants to hear: i need you, i’ll protect you, you’re not like other people, we’re a team, you can trust me, i want you to join me, you aren’t alone. it’s not until he begins to pressure and compel her to become illithid against her will she starts to fear him and his power over her, and after certain revelations she realizes he was using her and turns on him altogether.

➸ obviously she romances halsin. i love the dynamic of beastmaster/druid. they’re extremely well suited because they’re both such inherently good people and they bond a lot over their love for nature. they are also the only two people who can really understand each other’s animalistic quirks.

i’ve written some fics with her that you can read here if you’re interested. >:3c

[vivi-the-goblin]

*pants* usually I take like 2 and a half weeks when working on an episode, 3 and a half at most. 6 weeks while actively working at every possible time is a new one, but holy shit have things been crazy. HOWEVER!~ I've got 13 PF2e statblocks (10 being conversions) and 14 D&D 5e stats (11 conversions) to show for it! Including an animal companion in pathfinder and a very customizable one for both! Odd for me to only have one conversion from older editions but there was way too much to talk about even in current editions. I'll reply to this post in a second with the 5e ones for easier viewing. For PF2e

Deadbark Dryad/Queen (Dryads who failed to protect the forest, in hindsight I should've made this a template/adjustment)

Flytrap Leshy Graftling (Mine, ones who fused together for good)

Flytrap Leshy Thicket (Mine, Dozens fusing together in a last stand)

Living Topiary (3e/PF1e monster, like a shapeshifting hedge with a BUNCH of extra options)

Living Subshrub (Living Topiary animal companion, uses shapeshifting to distract and demoralize)

Maize Leshy (Mine, little buddy that shoots kernels and makes maize mazes)

Twig Blight (Weak little blind creatures grown from a staked vampire)

Needle Blight (Twig blights but bigger and with range)

Vine Blight (Like the other but with grappling vines)

Astral Blight (Like Vine, but glowing and stronger)

Razorvine Blight (Like Vine, but drains blood)

Tree Blight (Angry ambushing grappling tree creature)

Wood Woad (Regenerating shielded protector thing made from a gruesome ritual. Regeneration turns off by lifting it!)

[cupidbread]

DEVOTED

ANAKIN SKYWALKER X DROID! FEMALE! READER

Warnings: Smut. Sub! Anakin. Master kink. Droid!Reader.

ANAKIN has been keeping something from Obi Wan. The feeling of loneliness and desire that calls to him every night, but as a Jedi he is prohibited from acting on those urges. Which is why he came up with a solution, Anakin has always had a knack for repairing and creating droids since he was little, this skill is of great use in this situation.

He hissed in pain as a wire lightly electrocuted his pinky. After some hard work and sweat, he twists the screwdriver one last time and switches the droid on impatiently.

"Commencing project R0-3E" the droid comes to life and blinks.

"Whoa..." he lets out a gasp of disbelief.

"Assessing... Anakin Skywalker. Booting completed. What would you like me to do, master?" That sent a rush of blood straight to his cock. Master, huh.

"You've programmed me to be anything and do anything you want, Master. Say the word and I am a slave at your feet." She whispered seductively. His skills truly are impressive if she learns this quickly, he thinks.

"Undress. Get onto the bed for me." He commanded, loving the fact that he was in charge for once, not Obi Wan or the Council.

"As you wish sir." R0-3E purred. She crawls onto the plush bed, showing off her round ass with such fatness, you wouldn't guess she was a droid. He unbuckles his pants like a desperate teenager and crawls in behind her.

"Fuck... I've had dreams of you, sweetheart. No one can take you from me now, no one will have to know. You're mine and mine only aren't you?" He breathes stroking his thick cock from behind her.

"Yes Master..." He groans.

"Master, I like the sound of that, I'm gonna make u scream it tonight, until you're too dumb to do anything but bounce on my cock, yeah?" R0-3E whimpers in pleasure of his words.

The automated lube inside her is released at the sense of lust in the air, making her cunt wet.

"This might hurt baby, just hold on for a bit huh" He muttered, drunk on lust. Brain fogging up making up unable to think of anything but her... He quickly shoves his thickness into her, whimpering at the sudden warmth and wetness.

The Jedi thrusts deeper into her, hands gripping her hips, as he uses her moans and mewls as fuel to go faster.

Anakin feels pathetic, desperately rubbing himself into her, mumbling nonsense while the room fills with moans from her and him. Bodies tangling with sloppy thrusts.

"M'gonna cum, m'gonna..." His eyes roll back as he falls onto the bed, thrusts never stopping, pulling the woman droid onto him.

"That fast? I never took you for such a pathetic desperate man, unable to even satisfy a droid, thank heavens you've never encountered a real woman interested in you." R0-3E smirks, finding his lust and stamina increase at her words.

"S-stop it. I'm in charge." He struggles out while she rides him like it's the last thing she'll ever do.

"Oh yeah? Is that why you're laying under me, as if you're nothing but a toy for my pleasure? You want to be used like this. You've always craved it, you're just a disgusting man in need of some attention you never got." She chuckles, knowing he is so close to tipping over the edge.

"P-please... I c-cant-" He shoots out ropes inside of her mechanized body. Tears are falling down his face due to the overwhelming pleasure he's never experienced before.

The droid comes to a stop and strokes his hair while he overcomes his pleasure.

"Aren't you pretty when you cry..." she whispers, a mind full of an unknown feeling her processors can't recognize.

His eyes snap to hers in pure vulnerability, "Can we just lay here a bit?" He trembled.

"Oh of course, Master. Anything you want." R0-3E lays next to him, his head moves onto her artificial breasts.

He traces her droid number, tattooed into her waist. "R0-3E sounds rather complicated, don't you think?" he sighs.

Before she gets to respond, "I think I'm gonna call you Rose. Goodnight Rose."

Just like that, he dozed off peacefully. Which was pretty funny to Rose, humans are strange like that she concluded, but rather lovely.

This was my first time writing and I KNOW IT SHOWS but please do interact sweethearts, it would mean the world to me.

My first post being a smut fic for Anakin Skywalker was not what I expected HAHA

Thank you,

Cupid xx 💋

[shunin-gumis]

As Master Joe Wishes - Track 04

Seasonal Team Event - L4mps

My parts are coming up! Thank you TLWard for letting me work with you!

Location:  HAMA House - Lesson Room

Ryui: (I don’t give a shit if that damn bear is getting targeted. I don’t, but…) 

(Whatever Toi wants is what I want. I’ll grant any of his wishes, even if I have to go through hell and back for it…!)

Sakujiro: Ryui-san, you’re not bowing low enough! The most respectful bow is at a precise 45 degree angle, you must bend until you can see your feet clearly! 

Ryui: Ugh… 

Sakujiro: Keep going! 56, 57… 

Netaro: I can’t do this anymooore~

Toi: Me neither~

Nagi:  My lower back is already waving a white flag because Ryui won’t recite the commandments…. 

Ryui: Aaaaaahhh!! Fuck!! 

Sakujiro: Oh dear… I suppose I can offer you a short respite from your little “bowing” punishment. 

Nagi: Oof… 

Chief: I see now… So that’s why Sakujiro-san is giving you special training on servitude? 

Toi: I have a feeling this is gonna lead up to a dramatic and heartfelt scenario!

Netaro: Perhaps the Suspension Bridge effect will give birth to many many new couples! 

Netaro and Toi: Ooh~~~~! 

Nagi: Chief, this might get dangerous, so it’s best if you don’t get involved. This kinda work that involves the 3Es is better suited for someone like me… 

Yodaka: I believe they were, “𝓔mbrace without” looking out of place, “𝓔xposure to danger is OK”, and “𝓔asily counted on.”

Chief: Oh… To be honest, I’m extremely worried about you guys, but unfortunately, Kafka called me in earlier… I’ll need to leave for an overseas business trip tomorrow. 

Ryui: (He probably figured this was gonna be a dangerous job… I’d do the same if I could.)

Yodaka: Not only do we have the police, we even have Danny, the brawn of HAMA Tours, on our side. I’m sure it will be fine.

Daniel: You can bet I’m gonna apply for that worker’s insurance and paid leave after this.

Ryui: —There’s something I just don’t get.

Ryui: We were only asked to escort her, I don’t see why we gotta dress up as maids or butlers and blend in as the manor’s staff. 

Sakujiro: I must disagree.

Ryui: … Go on.

Sakujiro: It would be quite unnatural to have multiple unknown faces wandering about the manor out of the blue. 

Nagi: Um, then why can’t we act as security guards instead?

Sakujiro: We must not give away that Joe-sama is the treasure. Introducing security into the picture would only bring unwanted attention.

Netaro: Indeed… Having guards around would only rouse suspicion. 

Ryui: Tch… 

Sakujiro: I’m certain you understand the necessity of your roles. Now then, let us take a short recess. We shall continue your punishment from the 58th bow.

~~~

Sakujiro: I apologize for disturbing you all during your break time, but I have something that requires your attention.

Nagi: ? Sakujiro-san, you look pretty excited?

Sakujiro: Fufufu… Was I perhaps too obvious? Please, take a look at these.

Toi: Wow…! It’s a sketch of butler and maid uniforms! 

Sakujiro: The moment I heard that you would all be working at a manor for your next assignment, inspiration welled up within me. Should you find these designs acceptable, it would be an honor to sew them up for you. 

Yodaka: These iterations honor the classic designs of old. I think they’re splendid.

Toi: But, I’m a maid? Not a butler?

Sakujiro: I believe being a maid would suit you better.

Ryui: You got that right. But… The hell you putting me and Hachinoya in dresses for too…? 

Sakujiro: I believe being a maid would suit you better.

Netaro: Lookie!! Daa’s gonna be a maid too!

Nagi: Woah, I feel like that’s gonna show up in my dreams, somehow.

Daniel: Whatever… I’d rather wear a maid dress than have to bow down one more time… 

Ryui: An old man like you should know how to stand your fucking ground! There’s no way in HELL I’m wearing a dress! I’d rather bite my tongue and let it fucking bleed out!

Toi: Ah, if Ani-sama is biting his tongue off then I will too…!

Netaro: Count me in~

Nagi: That’s a lot of “Tongue-cut Sparrows”… *

Yodaka: With this response… I’m sorry to say, but we should probably shelve that idea… 

Sakujiro: Understood… Boohoo… 

~~~

Sakujiro: Good work, everyone. Please keep in mind what you learned today. I expect you to become the absolute most perfect servants.

Location: HAMA House 2nd floor

Ryui: (Ugh… My back’s stiff as a board…) 

Sakujiro: Ryui-san, a moment, please.

Ryui: What? I ain’t doing any more bows.

Sakujiro: No, I didn’t stop you for such a reason… I have something I need to share about Joe-sama.

Sakujiro: As I recall, Joe-sama was actually a present that the late madam Brunhild had received from her father at a tender age. 

Sakujiro: She must have been treasured greatly as a close companion.

Ryui: …..

Sakujiro: When a person senses that they are not being valued, that is when they experience true anger. The duty of a servant is to find the true meaning hidden within their master’s demands, and act accordingly.

Ryui: And? What’s your point?

Sakujiro: Please keep in mind that if you perform insincerely, the other person will know.

Ryui: Yeah yeah, thanks for the warning, or whatever. 

Sakujiro: ….. 

~~~

Location: Manor - Large Parlor

Hiramei: Good morning everyone! We’re counting on you all for this mission! 

Hiramei: Please try to act natural! Samejima-san and I will be checking in on you guys every once in a while!

Ryui: ( –Is what that guy said, but… )

Location:  Manor - Bedroom

Ryui: What was next again, making the bed? How’s it even getting messed up when there’s only a plushie in here… 

Ryui: –The fuck! The heck you loungin’ around for, old man?

Daniel: My back… it hurts… It’s as stiff as a board… Give me a break already… 

Ryui: That’s what you said last time when you were lazin’ about on the sofa! For fuck’s sake, you’re a lost cause—

*loud tumbling noises*

Ryui: … Who messed up this time… 

Location: Manor - Large Parlor

Joe: My goodness! What in the world happened for the room to get to this state!

Toi: Wha- The laundry room and corridor are totally covered in foam...!

Nagi: I’m sorry… It’s my first time using a washing machine like this, so I put in a random amount of detergent and clicked some random buttons, and this is how it ended up… 

Ryui: Ah… Hachinoya’s technology impairment rears its ugly head… 

Yodaka: Joe-sama, pardon us. We’ll clean this up right away, so please overlook this. Nagi, could you bring in the cleaning supplies?

Nagi: Joe-sama…I apologize for my carelessness… 

*loud tumbling noises*

Joe: W-What in the world is it this time!?

Location: Manor

Netaro: Hmm. I thought I could grow some fresh veggies for dinner, but I seem to have injected a cell-positive agent instead of a growth promotant… 

Tomato Monster: GRRR—!

Toi: Wah! There’s a cluster of man-eating tomatoes with fangs surrounding us!

Joe: The manner in which they gnash their sharp fangs is giving me a fright! I-I fear for my life!

Yodaka: Pardon us, we will promptly harvest them. Netaro, please bring a shovel and a trowel.

Netaro: Roger that! Joe-sama, sorry about this!

Ryui: (Damn, can’t believe Natsume could clean up this mess so fast… Glad we have him around.)

Ryui: By the way, why’s Joe been on Toi’s back this entire time? You’ve even got him using a baby sling… 

Toi: Hehe, I’m Joe’s nanny right now! Joe-sama, are you comfortable on my back?

Joe: As expected of my “nursemaid.” I am feeling quite comfortable indeed!

Toi: Ehehe~ I’m glad to hear that.

Ryui: (Well, it’s all good if Toi’s happy with it.)

Ryui: Joe, you better not work Toi too hard, got it?

Joe: …..

Joe: My, whyever could it be that you are the only one to show me such disrespect… 

Note:

Nagi is referring to an old Japanese fable "Shita-kiri Suzume" or "The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue"

[paperanddice]

Just a random off the cuff from going over a bunch of previous edition D&D monster books, but 4e had probably the best expanded monster manual devils. There's usually lots of passable to good demons people come up with, but devils seem to be a more difficult prospect. Just going through some examples we get:

3.0 Monster Manual 2: 8 demons, 3 devils. I'd argue that the demons are mostly so-so, the abyssal maw is pretty good and probably the only one to be carried over to future books, but at least the jovoc and palrethee have some interesting ideas, and most of the others at least aren't bad. Meanwhile, two of the devils are just awful. At least the malebranche made its way into 4e.

3.5 Monster Manual 3: 2 demons, no devils. The arrow demon feels like a devil in design, it's so weird to have a mid tier demon who's identity revolves around wielding weapons and strict military combat strategy.

3.5 Monster Manual 4: 4 demons and the demonhive as an extended Abyssal stat block, again no devils. Not the most beloved batch again, none of these ones carried forward as far as I know, but at least the demons are getting more stat blocks at all.

3.5 Monster Manual 5: 5 demons, 3 devils. At least the devils get some stat blocks this time, but the demons absolutely won in terms of quality. The adaru, draudnu, and solamith all have some solid designs, and solamith have made some appearances since. Meanwhile the gulthir is just kind of horrendous, and the stitched devil isn't actually a proper devil type and is just the creation of night hags.

4e Monster Manual 2: 15 demons, 7 devils. Numbers are still much more in the demon's favor, but design wise I think the devils are overall superior. One demon and one devil are just members of the main batches for each type that didn't show up in the first book (dretch and erinyes), but the demons get stuff like two runespiral demons, one just a higher level version of the other, it has to fill in with the nycademon, which was usually a yugoloth but they just lumped yugoloths into the demons for 4e, and overall most of the demons are less interesting than the devils. Though they do get the pod demon, so lots of points for that, love that one.

4e Monster Manual 4: 7 demons, 8 devils. First time in a suppliment monster manual we've had more devils than demons, how wild. Plus, the demons have to be filled in with the babau, nalfeshni, quasit, and the ultrodaemon (last one is a yugoloth). The maw demon makes its return from 3.0 though, so that was nice. Technically there's 2 maw demons, but one is just a leveled up version of the other (okay, fine, one extra action as well), so I'm not counting it as unique. And if I did, I'd probably have to count the 6 minions for the corruption devil, the upleveled version of the corruption devil, and both hellwasp devils, which would just put the devils further ahead. This also brings in two of my favorite devils from 4e, the rage devil and the vizier devil. Just overall a great showing for devils.

There isn't a real point to this rant, it's just kind of interesting how the design space of 4e was so much better for devils than 3.0/3.5. Stat blocks being more condensed and focused probably helped, but they could have padded out so many of the 3e era books with way more devils and demons (and they absolutely did with some of the other supplements, stuff like the Fiendish Codex books and the infinite monsters in Sandstorm, Frostburn, and all the other random books. I'm not going to go over every single book from these two eras to compare every single demon and devil, but I just find the contrast in the main monster books very interesting.

[alpaca-clouds]

The thing that bugs me about Cazador

Allow me to ramble about a thing that really bugs me about Cazador and his character design.

Let me start out with the fact, that it is super iffy that Cazador is the one recognizable east asian character in the entire game. At least from what I came across. And, you know. It is iffy if you take a minority and make their only representation the "sadistic vampire who wants to sacrifice 7000 mostly white people to become a god". I hope I don't have to explain that.

And yes, technically speaking... yeah, Karlach is technically also East Asian. With just one problem: Her being red-skinned and having the make-up very much hides this fact. Like, I did not realize this until I saw the mod that removed the make-up from the companions.

But outside of the basic issue with the trope... Well, look. I do not think that the folks Larian were like: "Hehe, we will use this character to show how evil the Asians are!" or something like this. But the game very much shows that there was a lot of internalized biases. And be it just in the fact, that we barely come across non-white characters in the entire fucking game. All non-white characters are basically tokens.

And before someone comes in with: "Faerûn is based on medieval Europe!" First off: "Shut up." Second: Going by official DnD Lore Faerûn is a super diverse place, where you will find all sorts of Asian, Arab, and Black people. I mean, just look at the DnD movie, where they made an effort to have half of the cast be non-white. Like, the Faerûn that Larian depicts is basically the Faerûn of 3e, not 5e.

And then... Well, when it comes to Cazador, then there is the Early Access design.

Now, this is actually where WotC stepped in and was like: "Yeah, you cannot do this." Officially by explaining that elves do not have facial hair. But I do imagine that someone at WotC actually looked at this design and was like: "... Do they realize that this is Fu Manchu?"

Because yeah, this design is simply just Fu Manchu. And for those who are not aware: Fu Manchu is a character popular in pulp fiction of the early 20th century, that arose mostly from Yellow Peril stereotypes.

He was a Chinese magician, who was up to all sorts of evil schemes, which suspiciously often involved sacrificing white people (mostly white women) to evil gods or demons. He made appearances in all sorts of media back then, including movies (where he obviously was portrayed by white actors in yellowface) and some off-brand Sherlock Holmes novels that were not written by Doyle but other writers.

Fu Manchu was also what the original Mandarin in the Marvel Comics was based on.

This is one of the Renditions of Fu Manchu in one of those off-brand Sherlock Holmes stories.

And here is the earlier Mandarin design:

And, like, I am sorry. But that stuff leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Again, I do not really think that this stuff was done on purpose. My best guess is, that Cazador was either based on the Mandarin, or on some of the other "Chinese Magician" villains that some American Kung Fu movies put into their media in the 70s and 80s.

But I also think there was nobody at Larian who did any sort of sensitivity consulting when it came to the inclusion of non-white characters.

[featherwurm]

How to Karlach's and Tav's tail lengths and width compare? Are they the same, if one shorter/longer, is one thicker/thinner, do they have any scars etc :)

They both have pretty average tails overall - the length of their outseam plus about a foot or so - which for both of them is quite long. While I know Karlach shares the in-game model height with the tall fem tief of about 6', in my heart (and drawings) she is the same as her character brief of 7' (putting Zatavia at 6'9".) Tav's tail is a little longer than Karlach's, tapering to a thinner tip because she doesn't have the same skin webbing that Karlach does, and she just has a lighter build overall. Karlach's tail tip is more typical in shape - although Tav's tail isn't unusual in that regard - it's like having an attached or detached earlobe.

How I, personally, think BG3 tief tails work, with the caveat that I'm of the opinion that tiefs should still be able to be weird as hell despite Hasbro standardizing them a lot for marketability (compare 3e to 5e). You'll sometimes see cartilage on both sides (for a more classic devil 'point') and more variation on proportion of skin, making for heart or club shaped tail tips too. Similarly you might more rarely see bifurcation, or multiple cartilage ridges. I think of their tails as being about as dexterous and strong as a pinky finger - able to wrap around things and hold them, but not strong enough to pick up heavy things, hold their whole body, wield a weapon, or do fine, detailed work unless specifically trained for. With minimal fat distribution the tail tends to be the one of the last places on the body to show significant weight gain or loss.

Karlach's tail has scars in similar proportion to the rest of her body - lots of old, well-healed cuts and scratches, but nothing exceptional. Some probably have stories attached, others are just in the milieu of 'was fighting in hell for 10 years straight after being a bodyguard and a rambunctious kid.' Nothing particularly stands out as exceptionally bad.

Tav is similar, though less scarred overall, with markers of 25 years traveling as a wandering monk after 10 years of monastery training and a similarly active childhood. The one significant one is that she's missing the very tip of the hook of her tail - which she accidentally bit off as a toddler. She had gotten into a fight with it, as kids do, and the tail lost. Her poor mum came home to a bloody kitchen, husband, and daughter, although Tav was easily soothed after the initial shock and flailing. There was a surprisingly large amount of cleanup - tail wounds bleed like a bitch.

I know I draw them all over the place but this is because I operate on a principle called vibes, but that's my personal feelings on size and shape and such!

[talenlee]

The Nemuranai System

Alright, in Oriental Adventures‘ expanded 3e books –

Wait wait wait don’t go, hang on.

Content Warning: This is going to discuss some books that are, very simply, quite Orientalist, in the classical Edward Said sense. Not nakedly racist in a slursy way, just racist in how it simplifies cultures in the names of telling a particular form of story. If you don’t wanna mess around with that, y’know, probably want to avoid it.

Anyway, there’s this system in the Rokugan books for handling gear. Specifically, the idea is that as a character in the Rokugan setting levels up and accumulates experience, rather than going to a magic store and picking up new swords and armours that are part of an ongoing escalation of gear in a marketplace that is constantly creating an increased demand, rather that player characters themselves, by dint of being powerful and cool and renowned, start to affect the gear they’ve been travelling with the whole time. The spirits of their equipment awaken and become powerful in response to the person who owns them being powerful.

This also is transitive – if someone powerful gives you their sword with its awakened spirits, it can be a powerful item thanks to them conferring it, but not as powerful as if they had it, or if you take something off someone that was powerful, it won’t work for you and will just be a sword. This association, this effective transformation of gear into a social improvement, where you have to convince spirits in the equipment that you’re worthy of how cool they are, is interesting in that it both serves as a way to disincentivize theft and looting, but also means that player characters are going to get equipment that’s explicitly coded to them as they level up and fitting the way they want to do things.

This system for the ‘spirits of the item’ was known as the Nemuranai system, based on the word ‘nemuranai’ which I think translates to ‘not sleeping.’ I don’t know if this is a full-blown hilarious translation mistake in an early guidebook way, but it might be and I’d leave it to someone who knows Japanese properly to ask.

The number of books that were put out for 3.5 really is hard to hold in the mind. In a time when ebooks were just starting as a market, in a time when we didn’t have the same obvious massive front-end surfaces like DriveThruRPG and its subordinate DM’s Guild. The OGL came along at just the right time, in the same vein as other Web 2.0 stalwarts, to be a thing that resulted in a lot of people creating a lot of material the whole time.

Like me!

Anyway, that meant that not only were you getting unique lines for D20 like Warcraft and BESM but we also saw the rise of D20-ified existing games, like D20 Rokugan. I’ve talked in the past about how great Rokugan was because its creators didn’t give a stuff about Wizard Supremacy (even if they didn’t appreciate the scale of the problem). The D20 Rokugan books included books about handling magical spells and items, in a setting that didn’t really have a lot of those things.

And make no mistake, I do not have any illusions about what real Samurai or real Asian adventures in the same vein as the Dungeons & Dragons ouvre are. This is not really about Actual Asian Adventures, this is about the vision of Samurai adventure media made and distributed and remembered and replicated in the west. There, people aren’t questing and finding ancient swords (which is ironic because of all sorts of things to do with palingenesis), but instead, it’s about inheriting old swords. Notably, nobody kills people and takes the sword off them unless they’re someone bad.

This is what Nemuranai was trying to address.

I really can’t underscore how important your equipment was to your character in 3rd edition. Gear was so important to how a character functioned that when you built a character higher than level 1, there was a table that showed the appropriate amount of magical gear you started with. There were functions of how a character works in 3rd edition, like your access to weaponry with an appropriate set of bonuses, your ability to absorb or escape damage, and even your ability to engage on multiple platforms. Around level 9, everyone flies, and if you don’t pick up a way to fly around that level, even for a little bit, you are going to be in trouble as encounters are sculpted assuming you can handle an enemy just flying away and pelting you with ranged attacks.

What’s more, gear is so important that if you level up manually, and follow the tables that generate treasure and gear — distinct categories, make no mistake! — then you wind up with a character whose budget is larger than these characters who were made at a higher level, because you were expected to lose some money through the course of operations by things like selling gear or consumables, like potions and wands and scrolls or stuff you crafted for yourself (oh hi, Wizard problems, why are you here)?

Looting is a big part of the game, in that there’s a big pile of tables for it, but it’s also a meaningless part of the game in that as long as the DM is doling out rewards appropriate to the table. What this meant in my experience was players constructing wish-lists, hoping for particular items, or the DM using that level-by-level budget to construct a chain of items to give to the players. It’s there, I did run the game using the loot tables sometimes, but it wasn’t an interesting tool to use and it relied heavily on preloading, adding an accountancy element to the interesting thing (designing meaningful combat encounters).

And then you throw this game into a different thematic space, where ostensibly, ‘people don’t loot.’ Which doesn’t break the game, because the looting and the loot tables aren’t… that… important. The gear is, but the way you get the gear, it turns out, isn’t.

Look, Dungeons & Dragons, in every edition, is a modular game system of exclusions. There’s a body of opinion about D&D that thinks the idea that players don’t have an exhaustive, comprehensive vision of the rules, is a sign of a problem in the game, which is completely unhinged. The nature of a class system is to make it so that there’s ways the game can sequester operations. Don’t have a Barbarian in the party? Then nobody needs to track Barbarians. You’re not using the encumbrance rules for anyone? Then nobody needs to worry about them. If you are using them, they interact across all people.

There’s a vision of how this is a sign that there’s something wrong, or broken in how D&D works, as opposed to literally structural to the entire design methodology. If a thing is not present in the game, its operations aren’t necessary, and therefore, any new thing can bring its own operations with it. Now this is a design approach that is volume-heavy. There’s a reason you can print a dozen monster books and still not really have a reasonably varied ecology for a real world scale, because every one of those monsters is a discrete module that lets you pull it in and out. There’s a reason that building real estate is in a bonus supplementary book and the core rule book has optional content like ‘the fighter.’

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[kakita-shisumo]

In which I sound off for much too long about PF2 (and why I like it better than D&D 5E)

So, let me begin with a disclaimer here. I don’t hate 5E and I deeply despise edition warring. I like 5E, I enjoy playing it, and more, I think it’s an incredibly well-designed game, given what its design mandates were. This probably goes without saying but I wanted it on the record. While I will be comparing PF2 to D&D 5E in what follows and I’ve pretty much already spoiled the ending by the post title (that is, PF2 is going to come out ahead in these comparisons most of the time), I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding about my position or intention. My opinions do not constitute an attack on anybody. For that matter, things I might list as weaknesses in 5E or strengths of PF2 might be the exact opposite for other people, depending on what they want from their RPG experience.

As I said before, 5E is an exceedingly well-designed game that does an exceptional job of meeting its design goals. It just so happens that those design goals aren’t quite to my taste.

# A Brief History of the d20 RPG Universe #

I’m going to indulge myself in a little history for a second; some of it might even be relevant later, but for the most part, I just want to cover a little ground about how we got here. By the time the late ‘90s rolled around TSR and its flagship product, Dungeons and Dragons, were in trouble. D&D was well over two decades old by that point and showing its age. New ideas about what RPGs could and even should be had taken over the industry; TSR had finally lost its spot as best-selling RPG publisher to comparative upstart White Wolf and their World of Darkness games; the company even declared bankruptcy in 1997. Times were grim.

That, however, was when another comparative newcomer, Wizards of the Coast, popped up and bought TSR outright. Flush with MtG and Pokemon cash, they were excited to try to revitalize the D&D brand and began development on a new edition of D&D: third edition, releasing in August 2000.

Third edition was an almost literal revolution in D&D’s design, throwing a lot of “sacred cows” out and streamlining everywhere: getting rid of THAC0 and standardizing three kinds of base attack bonus progressions instead; cutting down to three, much more intuitive kinds of saving throws and standardizing them into two kinds of progression; integrating skills and feats into the core rules; creating the concept of prestige classes and expanding the core class selection. And of course, just making it so rolls were standardized as well, using a d20 for basically everything and making it so higher numbers are basically always better.

At the same time, WotC also developed the concept of the Open Gaming License (OGL), based on Open Source coding philosophies. The idea was that the core rules elements of the game could be offered with a free, open license to allow third-parties develop more content for the game than WotC would have the resources to do on their own. That would encourage more sales of the base game and other materials WotC released as well, creating a virtuous cycle of development and growing the industry for everyone.

Well, long story short (too late!), it worked like fucking gangbusters. 3E was explosive. It sold beyond anyone’s expectations, and the OGL fostered a massive cottage industry of third-party developers throwing out adventures, rules material, and even entire new game lines on the backs of the d20 system. A couple years later, 3.5 edition released, updating and streamlining further, and it was even more of a success than 3rd ed was.

At this point, we need turn for a moment to a small magazine publishing company called Paizo Publishing, staffed almost exclusively by former WotC writers and developers who had formed their own company to publish Dungeon and Dragon, the two officially-licensed monthly magazines (remember those?) for D&D. Dungeon focused on rules content, deep dives into new sourcebooks, etc., while Dragon was basically a monthly adventure drop. Both sold well and Paizo was a reasonably profitable company. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

Except. In 1999, WotC themselves were bought by board game heavyweight Hasbro, who wanted all that sweet, sweet Magic: the Gathering and Pokemon money. D&D was a tiny part of WotC at the time and the brand was moribund, so Hasbro’s execs hadn’t really cared if the weirdos in the RPG division wanted to mess around with Open Source licensing. It wasn’t like D&D was actually making money anyway… until it was. A lot of money. And suddenly Hasbro saw “their” money walking out the door to other publishers. So in 2007, WotC announced D&D 4th Ed, and unlike 3rd, it would not be released under an open license. Instead, it would be released under a much more restrictive, much more isolationist Gaming System License, which, among other things, prevented any licensee from publishing under the OGL and the GSL at the same time. They also canceled the licenses for Dungeon and Dragon, leaving Paizo Publishing without anything to, well, publish.

At first, Paizo opted to just pivot to adventure publishing under the OGL. Dungeon Magazine had found great success with a series of adventures over several issues that took PCs from 1st all the way to 20th level, something they were calling “Adventure Paths,” so Paizo said, “Well, we can just start publishing those! We’re good at it, the market’s there, it will be great!” And then, roughly four months after Paizo debuted its “Pathfinder Adventure Paths” line, WotC announced 4th Ed and the switch to the GSL. Paizo suddenly had a problem.

4th Ed wasn’t as big a change from 3rd Ed as 3rd Ed had been from AD&D, but it was still a major change, and a lot of 3rd Ed fans were decidedly unimpressed. Paizo’s own developers weren’t too keen on it either. So they made a fateful decision: they were going to use the OGL to essentially rewrite and update D&D 3.5 into an RPG line they owned: the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. It was unprecedented. It was a huge freaking gamble. And it paid off more than anybody ever expected. Within two years Paizo was the second-largest RPG publisher in the industry, only behind WotC itself, and for one quarter late in 4E’s life, even managed to outsell D&D, however briefly. Ten years of gangbuster sales and rules releases followed, including 6 different monster books and something over 30 base classes when it was all said and done. It was good stuff and I played it loyally the whole time.

Eventually, though, time moves on and things have to change. The first thing that changed was 4E was replaced by D&D 5E in 2014, which was deliberately designed to walk back many of the changes in 4E that were so poorly received, keep a few of the better ones that weren’t, and in general make the game much more accessible to new players. It was a phenomenal success, buoyed by a resurgence of D&D in pop culture generally (Stranger Things and Critical Role both having large parts to play), and its dominance in the RPG arena hasn’t been meaningfully challenged since. It also returned to the use of the OGL, and a second boom of third-party publishers appeared and thrived for most of a decade.

The second thing was that PF1 was, itself, showing its age. RPGs have a pretty typical life cycle of editions and Pathfinder was reaching the end of one. It wasn’t much of a surprise, then, when, in 2018, Paizo announced Pathfinder 2nd Ed, which released in 2019 and will serve as the focus of the remainder of this post (yes, it’s taken me 1300 words to actually start doing the thing the post is supposed to be about, sue me).

There’s a coda to all of this in the form of the OGL debacle but I don’t intend to rehash any of it here - it was just like six months ago, come on - beyond what it specifically means for the future of PF2. That will come back up at the very end.

# Pathfinder 2E Basics #

So what, exactly, makes PF2 different from what has come before? There are, in my opinion, four fundamental answers to that question.

First: Unified math and proficiency progression. This piece is likely the part most familiar to 5E players, because 5E proficiency and PF2 proficiency both serve the same purpose, which is to tighten up the math of the game and make it so broken accumulations of bonuses aren’t really a thing. In contrast to 5E’s very limited proficiency, though, which just runs from +2 to +6 over the entire 20 levels of the game, Pathfinder’s scales from +0 to +28. Proficiency isn’t a binary yes/no, the way it is in 5E. PF2’s proficiency comes in five varieties: Untrained, Trained, Expert, Master, and Legendary. Your proficiency bonus is either +0 (Untrained) or your level + 2(Trained), +4 (Expert), +6 (Master) or +8 (Legendary). So if you were level five and Expert at something, your proficiency bonus would be level (5) plus Expert bonus (4) = +9.

Proficiency applies to everything in PF2, really - even more than 5E, if you can believe it, because it also goes into your Armor Class calculation. You can be Untrained, Trained, Expert, Master, or Legendary in various types of armor (or unarmored defense, especially relevant for many casters and monks), and your AC is calculated by your proficiency bonus + your Dex modifier + the armor’s own AC bonus, so AC scales just as attack rolls do. Once you get a handle on PF2 proficiency, you’ve grasped 95% of how any game statistic is calculated, including attacks, saves, skill checks, and AC.

Second: Three-Action Economy. Previous editions of D&D, including 5E, have used a “tiered” action system in combat, like 5E’s division between actions, moves, and bonus actions. PF2 has largely done away with that. At the start of your turn, you get three actions and a reaction, period (barring haste or slow or similar temporary effects). It takes one action to do one basic thing. “Attack” is an action. “Move your speed” is an action. “Ready a weapon” is an action. Searching for a hidden enemy is an action. Taking a guarded step is an action. Etc. The point being, you can do any of those as often as you have the actions for them. You can move three times, attack three times, move twice and attack once, whatever. Yes, this does mean you can attack three times in one turn at 1st level if you really want to (though there are reasons why you might not want to).

Some special abilities and most spells take more than one action to accomplish, so it’s not completely one-to-one, but it’s extremely easy to grasp and quite flexible at the same time. It’s probably my favorite of the innovations PF2 brought to the table.

Third: Deep Character Customization. So here’s where I am going to legitimately complain just a bit about 5E. I struggle with how little mechanical control I, as a player, have over how my character advances in 5E.

Consider an example. It’s common in a lot of 5E games to begin play at 3rd level, since you have a subclass by then, as well as a decent amount of hit points and access to 2nd level spells if you’re a caster. Let’s say you’re playing a fighter in a campaign that begins at 3rd level and is expected to run to 11th. That’s 8+ levels of play, a decent-length campaign by just about anyone’s standards. During that entire stretch of play, which would be a year or more depending on how often your group meets, your fighter will make exactly two (2) meaningful mechanical choices as part of their level-up process: the two points at 4th and 8th levels where you can boost a couple stats or get a feat. That’s it. Everything else is on rails, decided for you the moment you picked your subclass.

Contrast that with PF2. In that same level range, you would get to select: 4 class feats, 4 skill feats, two ancestry feats, two general feats, and four skill increases. At every level, a PF2 player gets to choose at least two things, in addition to whatever automatic bonuses they get from their class. These allow me to tailor my build quite tightly to whatever my idea for my character is and give me cool new things to play with every time I level up. This is true across character classes, casters and martials alike.

PF2 also handles multiclassing and the space that used to be occupied by prestige classes with its “pile o’ feats” approach. You can spend class feats from class A to get some features of class B, but it’s impossible for a multiclass build to just “steal” everything that makes a single class cool. A wizard/fighter will never be as good a fighter as a regular fighter is, and a fighter/wizard will never be the wizard’s match with magic.

Fourth: Four Degrees of Success. 5E applies its nat 20, nat 1, critical hits, etc. rules in a very haphazard fashion. PF2 standardizes this as well, in a way that makes your actual skill with whatever you’re doing matter for how well you do it. Any check in PF2 can produce one of four results: a critical success, a regular success, a regular failure, or a critical failure. In order to get a critical success on a roll, you have to exceed your target DC by 10 or more; in order to get a critical failure, you have to roll 10 or more less than the DC. Where do nat 20s and nat 1s come in? They respectively increase or decrease the level of success you rolled by one step. In practice, it works out a lot like you’re used to with a 5E game, but, for instance, if you have a +30 modifier and are rolling against a DC 18, rolling a nat 1 nets you a total of 31, exceeding the DC by more than 10 and earning you a critical success, which is then reduced to just a normal success by the fact of it being a nat 1. Conversely, rolling against a DC 40 with a +9 modifier can never succeed, because even a nat 20 only earns a 29, more than 10 below the DC and normally a crit failure, only increased to a regular failure by the nat 20.

Now, not every roll will make use of critical successes and critical failures. Attack rolls, for instance, don’t make any inherent distinction between failure and critical failure. (Though there are special abilities that do - try not to critically fail a melee attack against a swashbuckler. The results may be painful.) Skill rolls, however, often do, as do many spells with saving throws. Most spells that allow saves are only completely resisted if the target rolls a critical success. Even on a regular success, there is usually some effect, even on non-damaging rolls. That means that casters very rarely waste their turn on spells that get resisted and accomplish nothing at all. It also doubles the effect of any mechanical bonuses or penalties to a roll, because now there are two spots on a die per +1 or -1 that affect the outcome; a +1 might not only convert a failure to a success but might also convert a success to a crit success, or a crit fail to a regular fail.

# What About Everything Else? #

There is a lot more to it, of course. As a GM I find PF2 incredibly easy to run, even at the highest levels of game play, as compared to other d20 systems. The challenge level calculations work, meaning you can have a solo boss without having to resort to special boss monster rules to provide good challenges. I find the shift from “races” to “ancestries” much less problematic. PF2 has rules for how to handle non-combat time in the dungeon in ways that standardize common rules problems like “Well, you didn’t say you were looking for traps!” Everything using one proficiency calculation lets the game do weird things like having skill checks that target saves, or saves that target skill-based DCs. Inter-class balance, with some very specific exceptions, is beautifully tailored. Perception, always the uber-skill, isn’t a skill at all anymore: everyone is at least Trained in it, and every class reaches at least Expert in it by early double-digit levels. Opportunity Attacks (PF2 still uses the 3rd Ed “Attack of Opportunity” - but will soon be switching over to "Reactive Strike") isn’t an inherent ability of every character and monster, encouraging mobility during combats, and skill actions in combat can lower ACs, saves, attacks, and more, so there are more things to do for more kinds of characters. And so on.

Experiencing all of that is easiest just by playing the game, of course, but suffice it to say PF2 has a lot of QoL improvements for players and GMs alike in addition to the bigger, core-level mechanical differences.

# The OGL Thing #

Last thing, then. In the wake of the OGL shit in January, Paizo announced that it would no longer be releasing Pathfinder material under the OGL, opting instead to work with an intellectual property law firm to develop the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License that would do what the OGL could no longer be trusted to do: remain perpetually free and untouchable for anyone who wanted to publish under it. The ORC isn’t limited specifically to Paizo or to Pathfinder 2E or even to d20 games; any company can release any ruleset under it and allow third-party companies to develop and publish content for it.

Shifting away from the OGL, though, required making some changes to scrub out legacy material. A lot of the basic work was done when they shifted to 2E, but there are still a lot of concepts, terminologies, and potentially infringing ideas seeded throughout the system. These had to go.

Since this meant having to rewrite a lot of their core rules anyway, Paizo opted to not fight destiny and announced “Pathfinder 2nd Edition Remastered” in April. This is a kind of “2.25” edition, with a lot of small changes around the edges and a couple of larger ones to incorporate what they’ve learned since the game first launched four years ago. A couple classes are getting major updates, a ton of spells are either getting renamed or swapped out for non-OGL equivalents, and a couple big things: no more alignment and no more schools of magic.

The first book of the Remaster, Player Core 1, comes out in November, along with the GM Core. Next spring will see Monster Core and next summer will give us Player Core 2. That will complete the Remaster books; everything else is, according to Paizo, going to be compatible enough it won’t need but a few minor tweaks that can be handled via errata. So if you’re thinking about getting into PF2, I’d give serious thought to waiting until November at least, and maybe next summer if you want the whole Remastered package.

And that’s it. That’s my essay on PF2 and what I think makes it cool. The floor is open for questions and I am both very grateful and deeply apologetic to anyone who made it this far.

[beevean]

Dracula in the games

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/3/30/CoD_Dracula.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20230709013849

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/6/68/Artbook15.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081116072626

Dracula in the show

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/3/3e/DeLWBtXV4AEg_Nu.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180815144137

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/castlevania/images/1/1b/Tumblr_p1ylqlubSD1rs9hhio1_1280.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180801035105

They drained him of all his otherworldly charm 💔

Alright, so

Dracula is one of the best redesigns in the show IMO, nowhere near the atrocities that are Alucard and Isaac, and to be very honest I really dig the black hair for a younger Drac. I think he looks great with it, it matches the largely black attire, and I can headcanon that it went white either out of grief or after the botched resurrection in CoD. But that still doesn't make this design great.

First thing first: why is he small.

How dare you come into my house and put my giant DILF in the washing machine.

He is not just a tall man! He is a monster! He's big and intimidating and he's supposed to make you feel small and powerless!

But alright, fine, animation simplification. His clothes are... eh? I don't understand what they were going for. What is that vest? Is that a militaristic look? Because he doesn't look like a noble (SoTN) nor like a sorcerer (CV3/CoD). I guess it makes sense, since N!Dracula was introduced as being nothing more than a rabid hermit... but man, what a disservice.

Then there is, of course, his general personality. Usually you give a cloak to make a character stand wider, make them look more dignified or, again, intimidating. Look at that shot of Dracula in OoE, how the cloak makes him look even bigger.

But since in S2 he's a poor depressed old man, in the show he keeps the cloak closed off to his body. He, somehow, manages to look smaller. Again, it fits the character they were going for, but why.

bruh. why is the lord of all vampires making a :( face.

And that, overall, contributes to him losing all possible charisma, while poor Graham McTavish has to work double duty to give any sort to credibility to the character.

And then there's that scene where he out of nowhere becomes horny.

ohhhhh i'm so turned on look how cool and hot he looks during this flashback that takes place as he in the present he's feeling sorry for himself, but who caaaaares he's getting a boner for all the killing he's doinggggg

in the meantime

daddy? sorry, daddy? sorry, daddy? sorry, daddy? sorry,

^ this is why Isaac is just like me fr fr lol

anyway i reject your failed tragic villain that is just a giant careless idiot with terrible drip and a thousand Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness upon you

[theuncrucified]

Exalted Art Challenge 2024 Topic - Player Character / Fave Caste

I was finally able to get around to my own entry for the Exalted Art Challenge happening this month! I'm slow this week, so have a WIP for now.

I've always admired Eclipse Castes for their potential to change the world via hearts, minds, and good biz (and in my gal's case, judicious use of Righteous Devil shenanigans, failing those things).

Here's what my Eclipse, Kalara, might look like on the 3e core rulebook cover, with a little pose help from the folks at @theposearchives.

Kalara's getting a little redesign along the way because her old anime spike mullet was always very difficult for me to draw at different angles and I think this new hair helps show off those earrings of hers better.

Sharing the covers from the core and Lunars rulebooks I'm referring to because they're some of my fave pieces of official art.

[nagisasstunningpersonality]

Comprehensive Guide For Assassination Classroom Content

Because it's pretty hard to find a straight up list of it all. Please note that whilst I believe this is accurate, I was not involved in the fandom whilst the series was active and so could reasonably miss something.

Core Content

Assassination Classroom manga as serialised in Shounen Jump. If you buy the physical volumes, there's a bit of additional content between chapters, most notably introductory character profiles.

Assassination Classroom anime (some count seasons 1 and 2 as separate entities)

Assassination Classroom Meeting Time - an animated short featuring Korosensei and Karasuma's first meeting.

Assassination Classroom Extra Curricular Lessons - adaptations of a couple of manga chapters that weren't in the show itself. I'll just link a playlist here. Fun fact this is where Nagisa gets hit by a chair (lowkey he deserved it)

Additional Content

365 Days Movie. This isn't 'canon' as it's an anime original thing. There's no official English release that I know of. Honestly the movie is mostly a series recap, and only features Karma and Nagisa in new scenes. It's only really worth watching if you especially ship them as there's only maybe 10 minutes of actual content (and most of that is just montage, you can get the gist with this)

Roll Call Book - this was published mid manga run. It's mostly just a bunch of bonus content particularly character based. No official English translation exists, but snippets are easy enough to find online.

Graduation Album - as the name implies, it accompanies the end of the manga. About half of it is an art book, but there's extra character information especially about their post graduation lives. Crucially it includes a few manga shorts which extend past the actual canon ending.

Korotan A, B, C, and D plus Korosuu. They're mostly just Assassination Classroom themed text books (Seriously. My actual university book store sold them.) Korotans are for English vocabulary, Korosuu is for maths. Notably each book also contains a light novel (sometimes these are just referred to as 'the light novels'). It is debatable how canon these are as Matsui didn't write them, but he was involved through illustrating and overseeing the writing. Korotan D is especially debated because it's post canon content set when 3E are 18, but there's a small 'it was all a dream' implication right at the end of the book. Personally speaking I take them as full canon.

Official Spin Offs

The live action movies (part one and two). They change a lot of plot so I place them more in the spin off area. Easily skippable.

Korosensei Quest Manga (otherwise known as Koro Q) - a spin off gag manga set in a fantasy/video game inspired universe. This is not canon (unfortunately) and as far as I understand Matsui isn't involved in it. There's an implication of the idea it's Fuwa's own manga creation. Overall there are four volumes but there's no official English version (though fan scans aren't hard to find).

Korosensei Quest Anime - lightly based on the Koro Q manga. This is only a short 10 episode series though, and was complete long before the original, as such only the first few episodes are actual adaptations and it starts doing its own thing. All voice cast return so that's neat.

The OVA - basically an early adaptation of the Kyoto arc. Link here. It was released in 2013 so predates the actual anime, and a lot of the voice cast are different.

White day shorts featuring Karma, Maehara, and Nagisa - posted on official website as an otome game parody for promotion. Included because they're voice acted.

The 3DS games. They're region locked as far as I understand, and there's no translation of them. You can find it dumped if you know what you're doing with emulators, I've only played a few minutes of it myself.

The app game - no longer available. It was a gatcha tie in game featuring a variety of character illustrations.

Various merch lines and related illustrations. There are far too many to list and new ones still come out sometimes.

As I said, I hope I covered everything but there's a good possibility something slipped my mind.