#BONUS POINTS if the ruin is a result of character driven conflict

[patrice-bergerons]

Man, I LOVE power of love endings. When you are in the last act of a tragedy that will - should - end in ruin, except there is that one person, or a few people, who simply love the character too much to allow it to happen. Who stare certain doom in the eye and say no, and through this stubborn unreasonable all encompassing love singlehandedly change the ending (and sometimes rip the universe apart in the process.)

[rpgsandbox]

Interbellum is a tabletop roleplaying game that allows players to take the roles of soldiers, adventurers, deserters or even spies in a world of conflict and the symbiosis of magic and technology. The setting takes inspiration from the aesthetics of the First World War and interwar period.

The system is designed to capture a sense of close combat in trenches, ruins or even whole cities swept away by the total war. Be a small cog in the war machine, survive in military operations with tens of thousands of losses a day. Face the horrors of modern mechanized war, deadly, never-before-seen tanks, the airborne terror of biplanes, the experimental weapons of the future of warfare, forged in constant conflict.

However, this is not the world you know - It is a world of myth and magic, progressed to the diesel age. In other words, your squad can be composed of different fantasy races, where your sergeant can be a formerly enslaved orc or your comrade can be a cursed goblin marauder. In search of a means to break the stalemate of trench warfare, science returned magic from oblivion and tamed it. It changed everything.

The last line of defense trying to stop the dreadful technomagically driven flying fortress.

The game locations are not limited to trenches on the frontline, this setting allows many types of adventures: be deserters and treasure hunters in the colonies, fight in city ruins or the shadow of tanks the size of a mountain, wage “rat war” in sewage networks and subways, or even be the hero of your assault squad in a suicide mission to destroy enemy secret weapons. Your fate is yours to decide: try to survive in war zones, on the frontline or behind enemy lines.

Interbellum uses a proprietary d6 based system, clearly separating the narrative and combat component of the game and encourages teamwork between sqaudmates.

Character creation resembles that of the classic computer-based RPG’s of the late 90's. The choice of main attributes (Agility, Charisma, Intelligence, Perception, Strength, Vitality) and traits - is all familiar. But the choice of race and faction affects a lot - it determines the attitude of NPCs of other factions and races towards you, and can also give bonuses or penalties. The world is still struggling against slavery, for freedom and equality, therefore the influence of xenophobia and prejudice plays a big role in team building and gameplay.

Early sketches of Army Boy mascot in different roles to illustrate attributes.

Another important aspect in creating a character is the choice of his class, his profession. The range of choice is quite broad: Officer, Rifleman, Medic, Mage, Technician, Wild Card and others. Each class gives unique perks and the ability to develop class skills. During character creation you can distribute the starting skill points as you like, but during the game it will be limited only to class skills and only they can be developed to the maximum. Of course, there are also will be workarounds for developing skills and changing your class that depend on the narrative and your game master. Also, your selected class gives you a starting free kit of equipment. Depending on the circumstances, you can purchase additional equipment for bonus points. Levelcap limits the development of the character, so you should consider what the character will specialize in.

Having created the character and built your own squad with your friends, you will now choose one of the pre-prepared missions or one created by your game master. Since the game takes place in an era of rapid technological advance the time period of the mission significantly affects the complexity, the opponents encountered, and the available equipment. Do not forget - this is the era of the arms race, when every year the war brought new items to the arsenal. If you choose Great War - you can start with bolt action rifles in your hands, and finish commanding airborne tanks on airships. In your hands lies the choice of the battlefield: you can participate in another insane attempt to capture an enemy underground fort like Verdun, or try an adventure in the style of Lawrence of Arabia.

Each scenario has a map with the main locations. Moving between them, your squad will run into random encounters - some of them will be harmless, others carry danger or even an opponent. The use of technology provides you with a sense of security and fullness, but this is a very controversial pleasure. On the front line this technology is the hope of your detachment, but the first tanks are capricious, unreliable and very slow. Nevertheless, if your mission and the theater of operations allow, you can take a breezy ride on an armored car, which will support you. Combat uses typical turn-based game mechanics that are a bit similar to skirmish wargames.

Killing enemies and completing missions gives you experience points that allow your character to move to the next level. Each time the player gains a level, he receives several skill points to develop his class skills, and every three levels you can choose a perk. Perks provide an opportunity to further sharpen your character for a certain role in your squad or even acquire magical abilities.

Andre Lagran - famed Death Brigade veteran, fighting for the Alliance faction. He was one of the last defenders of the Border Line.

Specifically, each action and every step in your character’s progress will be very important, the d6 was chosen because of our desire to follow the number 6 in the numerical parameters of attributes, skills, and so on.

An important nuance that brings an element of uncertainty into a conventional war is magic and its manifestations. At a camp deep in the rear lines near the forest, you can battle a gang of vampires, unconquered, and ghosts near the mass graves in place of the old battleground - all this is just the beginning. The select few who own the Gift can use the Words of Power, that is, spells. They are dangerous opponents, but their spells depend entirely on their intelligence and the benevolence of the Higher Powers. Much worse is meeting one of the Touched - a poor fellow who has touched by breath of chthonic chaos from outside of this world. These magicians are literally bursting from the eldritch energy boiling inside them, their bodies can mutate, and they themselves do not use spells, they directly try to control the flows of magical energy with random side effects. Where technology falls, magic creates incredible things.

Interbellum is a fantasy dieselpunk setting. or rather technomagic. What if the usual fantasy world met the era of the first mechanized wars? A world where magic was forgotten for hundreds of years, rediscovered and used to break the positional stalemate, this led to an arms race that spawned 1000-ton steel beasts on land and in the air, make fortresses airborne or devastate whole cities with a few bombs. A world that replaced typical Evil Lords with dictators, knights with armored vehicles, and guilds with corporations. In this world fears of a trench war can materialize, your neighbors can be werewolf infiltrators, and the ghosts of your fallen comrades in no-man's land terrorize the enemy.

Istalian Bastion-class landship. 100 tons of perfect engineering.

Unlike other similar settings, here dieselpunk is dominant, but the fantasy elements serve to deconstruct stereotypes. Of course, magic can be used to create fireballs, teleport and other cool stuff, but the main difference is that magic is used for creating new technologies and machines. In fact, magic used as justification for the typical attributes of a dieselpunk - weird tech, giant vehicles, mutants, etc.

On Jule 7, in the year 1404, the Great War began. Beginning for trivial reasons as a conflict between the two superpowers and their satellites, in 9 years of hellish warfare it grew into a global slaughter between four geopolitical blocs. Hundreds of millions of people were involved, many of them died.

While the three superpowers were competing in the race for technical advancement, the fourth superpower collected magical knowledge bit by bit and united them with its own. From the very beginning of the war, the Sidhean Empire was able to surprise everyone by putting hundreds of combat mages on the battlefield. What was considered lost forever, had returned.

After centuries of oblivion, magic and many other fragments of the Old World rose again. Technology tamed the magic and this created a new leap in scientific and technological development, making the previously impossible now possible.

The playable period in setting will cover almost 30 years, including the Great War for lovers of epic conflict, and local wars in the post-war period. Your character can begin his story as cannon fodder in a world war, and after it become a revolutionary or a mercenary, if he survives on the battlefield.

Factions:

Coalition - a bloc created by one of the oldest and largest human states in the Interbellum world, called the Ecumenical Empire. The imperial interests lie in the domination of Hearthland and creating more satellites. The most industrially advanced faction of the setting, at the expense of the environment, resulting in decaying forests around their smoke-filled megacities. The rigid rule of law and severe punishments are combined with imperial chauvinism, which is a blight on the Empire’s diplomacy, but creates protectionism for their inner policy and trade. The Empire is dominated by materialism and atheism because of the old doctrine that "all gods are evil, and their priests are tyrants”. After the Great War, the Empire was mired in the civil war and disintegrated into several states during the revolution, but the Coalition remained. The Galrian Republic preserved most of the heritage of the Empire, but brought more freedom at the cost of devastation, bureaucracy, the political demagogy and corruption.

Alliance - a union of conservative monarchical states clinging to domination in the central region of the world. A forced union of former rivals against a common enemy, compensates for its technological backwardness with a development balance between agriculture and industry. Having lost almost a quarter of its population in the Great War, in the post-war period it was almost split from within by crumbling empires and national liberation movements. Constant riots, insurrections and civil wars, mass poverty amid the luxury and wealth of untouchable despotic aristocrats all cast challenges on the young Alliance, which consists entirely of contradictions.

Northern League - a self-isolated and mystic bloc of races, nations and countries, united as satellites around the totalitarian elven state, the oldest known race. Forged by constant conflicts with mankind and remembrance of old grudges, northern elves spent more than a thousand years studying artifacts and restoring the knowledge of the Forerunner race, multiplying their magical skills while in the rest of the world technology supplanted the magic. This is the most fantastical and magic-heavy faction of the setting, almost exclusively having full access to fancy magic stuff. Their lag in industrial strength is balanced out by enchanted weapons and technomagic devices, for example, they can raise old fortresses in the air. Dragon-bombers? Check. Trolls with hand cannons? Check. Troopers with magic rayguns? Check. Machines made of living metal, fueled by the dying person imprisoned in them? Oh, boy…

Albian Commonwealth - a bloc of formally independent satellites ruled by the Albian Empire. It is an island-based colonial power, ruling the seas and controlling a large portion of international trade, as well as the development and exploitation of Aborigines in the colonies. Slavery, class and racial segregation are also flourishing in the Commonwealth. However, if you were born a free person in the Commonwealth, then you have many ways to find your place in life. Once in the past, Albia was just a distant province of the Ecumenical Empire, splitting from it during the Dark Ages. Separatists formed a political system around the union of guilds, traders, mercenaries and pirates, which allowed them to capitalize on their advantageous geographical position and control the main oceanic trade routes. They also started a era of great geographical discoveries.

You can also read parts of the lore on our Patreon page.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Thu, June 7 2018 12:22 AM BST

Website: Patreon

[myassbrokethefall]

I'm pretty sure CC knew the hand holding in Babylon is not the final resolution because he mentioned its only the thawing the ice and having them warming up to each other in an interview. In another interview he said that if there's season 11, maybe they're back in each others arms again *evil laugh*. So no, he knew its not resolution but hes baiting us with resolution in season 11 which at that time was still so uncertain and to be honest? He can go fuck himself.

That’s good to hear, I guess? I’ll take what I can get at this point, man. Like, I’m no longer expecting a magical post-The Truth world where Mulder and Scully are FINALLY together and they will never let themselves be driven apart again, by god, and they will fight the future by each other’s sides. I thought we would get that starting in IWTB, and then I thought we just had to endure just that oooooone more bit of “conflict” while we set up Mulder getting back into the FBI, but THEN we were done and ready to roll for real, and when Season 10 came along it would be good old Mulder and Scully, back in the saddle, the necessary-because-of-casting-issues separations of S8 and 9 a distant memory now that both David and Gillian were back full time, partnering up and solving crimes together and also, finally, resolved as an established couple, and we would all see that it didn’t “ruin the show” after all, because everything was the same as before anyway, except now they might kiss once in a while, which makes sense since they had a baby together! We sure had to wait a long time for it but at last, they had exhausted every possible plausible scenario that allowed for dragging out the resolution of Mulder and Scully’s “sexual tension” (a term I laugh at since it expired in the mid-’90s sometime), so we would no longer have to worry about that being an issue and move right along to what adventures they would have next and be able to, FINALLY, as we had been teased about for so long, enjoy them being close and together and, bonus, allow David and Gillian to take the relationship to a different level and find new layers to explore in the relationship between these characters that had grown and changed so much. 

I’m no longer expecting that world, because, of course, they found a way to screw with it again, hitting the reset button for no purpose, resulting in nothing but the people who were most excited about the show coming back being disappointed and having all of their enjoyment drained away. So, I will take “evil laugh” and “maybe” at this point. But if anyone wonders why I’m not as excited about S11 as I was about S10, that would be why. 

[pangkatze]

general thoughts and notes on vld s7

yeah im no expert man, i aint no storyteller either. im just writing down the thoughts and fix-it notes me and my friend thought up after watching everything within 5 hours.

some episodes are untouched tho, mostly from ep 6 onwards, but you can see for yourself under keep reading.

okay sO,

EPISODE 1: a little adventure

we can probably agree it was a mess? shiro was on the verge of possibly dying again, and we got this weird and unnecessary side skit with coran, hunk, lance, romelle and pidge looking for,,, whatever it was actually. them having this thumbelina like adventure was so out of place???? i mean, we got a dying man here folks, why was that a thing. the flashbacks from keith were appreciated though. i just really got a lot of whiplash from the conflicting story of side a and b in this ep.

EPISODE 2: the road home

i dont have much of an impression of this ep, which is better than a bad one i guess? the whole passenger bit was a little funny, and we got to see these odd dynamics. when things got more serious the transition didnt give me a headache either, so thats a bonus. (theres a little ‘chekhovs gun’ scene i liked where lance mentions elephants to the alteans and, lo and behold, you see elephants in episode 8 when galran fleets enter earths atmosphere) (im sure there were more things like this that i spotted, but im too tired to look for them)

EPISODE 3: the way forward

coran, coran, my gorgeous man, what the fuck did they do to you? you went from eccentric but seemingly capable to,,,, whatever the fuck you were in this ep. what happened to s1 coran that defended the princess with a fucking ladle and food goo, or the coran from s6 where he was able to temporarily fix the castles issue with a fuckin alien molotov cocktail. whatever happened, it ended up fucking over coran and made him into this, which is a huge shame honestly.

ezor and zethrid serving up unexpected sapphic vibes came from left field though. i love it. keep going, you funky evil lesbians. on the other hand, axca also got to serve something content-wise, and pointing out the fact she seemed to unconsciously orbit keith after he saved her was something i wanted pinned out and solved but not like this, honestly. i mean, the whole ‘true love’ joke was a step to far, really. either way, at least she explained her motives. but where did she go afterwards? (another note: its kinda weird that, with the time skip, in a sense keith was the least affected, since hes 20 and all that. its not a bad thing though, personally.)

EPISODE 4: the feud!

yeah, uhhhhhhh, fuck this episode????

almost absolutely nothing spared me from hating this episode besides keiths drawing efforts, and maybe the final round confessions, but good GOD thats all it had for itself. the only joy i felt in this episode besides that too was seeing pidge pull a front and murk bob from his bootleg scooby-doo doughnut floatie. 

fuck bob in particular

i mean, i know it was a filler episode, but dammit it couldve been something else entirely if it ended with pidges scene. you can call me biased with this idea since i avoid shows like family feud for the sake of saving myself from second-hand embarrassment, or maybe from the fact that i used to relate to an aspect of lance (that personally think got too blown up), but maybe if they got out sooner (possibly as a result of katie decking shitstain floaty-pants off his high ground) theyd follow the linear part of waking up in their lions and finding out,with courtesy from coran, that instead of some omnipotent asshole judge of ancient heroes, it was some deep-space intergalactic sentient-miasma or something that does weird mind games with heroic prey, and chose the paladins specifically for one reason or another. better than making him seem like an ally when all i wanna do when i see is face is shank him.

and with the time thats left in the ep after, our non-paladin passengers are updated by the team of this weird ass incident , before keith notices lance seems less responsive. (i was personally thinking shiro at first but then i realized hes in pidges lion, and it might not work for this next sequence) after opening a private connection to the red lion and asking whats the sitch, lance reluctantly admits to being a bit more hurt with that whole ”idiot” shtick in the feud sequence than he let on. recalling the moment from s3 with lance willing to step down for the sake of the team, keith, (albeit awkwardly, remember his and hunks talk this season) assures lance of his place and value in the team as a paladin and friend, which gets further bolstered by hunk, pidge and allura dragging both of them back into the conversation, maybe with light teasing and an (seemingly unnecessary) apology from allura for her ’rudeness’ from earlier. seems like a sweeter deal right? idk.

i just really hate bob dont mind me.

EPISODE 5: the ruins

[ill be breaking my streak of complaints for this small section of compliments so here it is.]

oh man, i actually enjoyed the beginning part of this ep, for once. i forget how big the lions actually are, so this was a pleasant reminder. the training sequence krolia made had, in a way, also eased me into the more battle driven part of the episode too so, while most likely unintentional, i liked it. hunk and kosmo interacting was really cool too and im so glad that was a thing, holy shit. and finding out kosmo wasnt even kosmo until now, and that keith didnt name him until the others did it for him seemed, pretty in character, actually.

now, the whole planet sequence wasnt as bad either i guess. kosmo couldve zapped away with more than one person (as shown before) , so why only keith? why not krolia too, if i recall, since she seemed to be next to him too, but i can be sure. side-boss diversion trope was a thing here with that druid ngl. allura’s deus-ex-machina powers dont get explained, just like a lot of other things she does, which im sad over, and think its too convenient sometimes. actually, now that i think of it, maybe im forgetting crucial info about her powers that have been stated before, cant be sure. (but hey it saved shiro and the other many times though, so i try not to be fed up with it much.) 

yes, i did in fact cry over krolia and keith separating, with the hefty L word, even, thank you for asking.

and thats about it. the rest of the episodes speak for themselves, though i do have to pick on the whole adam situation before ending this since, honestly im rather upset at that. a lot of people are. hell, i guess almost a good chunk of the fandom just done and dropped the series after that. i mean. it was so.... empty?we didnt learn jack shit about him, or his relationship to shiro. he just up and went.

 so. how about another restructure?

so base defenses are getting culled, not looking great. we know adam was the last one to die, so maybe in an attempt to save his own skin, he retreats. (maybe he does it in remembering the fact that shiro is alive and somewhere out there, that makes him change his mind. in the end he wants to see him again.) whether he gets back to the base, but gets seized for defying admirals orders, or whether he hides out and somehow survives long enough to be part of the small resistance, i have yet to think through. but either way, he doesnt get chewed out as badly thanks to commander holt, whos aware of his relationship to our (re)tired space dad. this is where sam and adam talk about the situation, then shiro. (this would be an opportune time to do flashbacks of them, from adams view.) 

then shiro comes back with the others, and things play out the same with the exception that they both are alive and talking, instead of shiro facing a slap of wall dedicated to those who've passed. this is where the end results in them either breaking up amicably or reconciling their relationship, and they part either permanently or not, since shiro joins the debriefing and adam would do other things depending on him either being part of the resistance or a part of the garrison.

see? not perfect, but better than  being dead, id imagine.

i guess that about as much thoughts as i can regurgitate tonight. if you read everything, ill give you kudos for reading a strangers ramblings over a show.

but, honestly i wouldnt give too much grief to dreamworks for this. they tried, and it wasnt a purposeful offense, i hope, not to mention we’re a season away from closing this story. and im losing my train of thought so ill stop it here, but feel free to keep talking to me abt anything i missed either here, my ask or privately.