#I've already been having a ton of fun playing her in rp but this was her first combat

[elfcow]

LMAO Kadri had a 39 dmg turn as a lvl 1 character without even landing a crit. Everyone was like wtf is wrong with you. Yes girl. I think I'm gonna have fun playing her :3

[cephalonserotonin]

Koumei & The 5 Fates Update Thoughts

(I've only been playing around with this update for a few hours, so of course my opinions may change in the future)

The new mission type (Shrine Defense) is nice; despite the name, it's more like a mini Interception (though without a timer, which is greatly appreciated as I play solo so Interception is a pain in the ass for me) hybridized with Plague Star (the infested enemies, the tanky final boss, the fact that you'll have to do it enough times to get sick of it, and that Vay Hek is there). The randomized buffs from Koumei offer a nice bit of variation.

The music that plays during the mission is also lovely

When I saw we'd be picking up this mission from Saya, I was happy to see her return to the story and agency a bit, since her introduction in the Saya's Vigil quest sees her operating entirely as a plot device for the two men who are in love with her. Then I saw that, by "talking to Saya," the game actually meant talking to Konzu, and selecting the Saya option. Once again this poor woman is an extension of men. Don't love that!

The fortunetelling minigame is cute, though, and I deeply respect Warframe's commitment to expanding the world with new mechanics and little minigames when they feel like it, AAA-shooter-brain be damned.

Koumei, like Voruna before her, has her special resource (fate pearls in this case) used both to get her blueprints and as an ingredient in them, a mechanic I find annoying and confusing and which I'm displeased to see return. Voruna at least had a chance for parts to drop during her missions, which Koumei doesn't (ironic, that random drops don't come into play when trying to build the warframe themed around randomness...). edit: this isn't true per community response, thank goodness! Per the wiki, you need ~330 pearls to buy the blueprints, and then 330 102 (edit: wiki was wrong yesterday) more as components, for a total of 102-432 pearls to craft, and 14-18 drop per mission...

When I realized this I got so grouchy I left Cetus 😅

I'm not used to the new arsenal UI yet, but it'll happen

As a Caliban Enjoyer, I have mixed but mostly positive feelings on the Caliban rework (much like the Hydroid one before it, as I had hundreds of hours logged on Hydroid even before they made him SP-Viable (TM)):

I actually preferred the old Razor Gyre, wonky and ineffective as it was... hear me out. The new and improved Razor Gyre is almost exactly the same move as Reave: a fast short-range traversal that heals when interacting with enemies. Which is fine (it's a good ability!) but Reave is Revenant's Helminth ability, so I already could put Reave on Caliban if I wanted to. What I can't do, now, is heal by spinning in a silly little circle and ragdolling enemies continuously. I miss that. It was also the most Sentient-enemy-flavoured of Caliban's abilities, which was always fun for me from an RP perspective; something I loved about earlier Warframe content that it seems to be sadly moving away from is the joy of, after seeing an enemy use an ability (or weapon) to kill you, unlocking the ability yourself to use on them with a vengeance.

The 2 Feels the same, but buffed, which is nice, because it's an excellent and underrated CC ability.

The new Summon Caliban Babies utterly slaps, no notes. I love the tactical choice of 3 different baby types to use, and the Summolyst just feels immensely cool in general.

The 4 was a giant fuckoff laser, and is still a giant fuckoff laser. 😎👍

The companion changes are much too large in scope for me to have grasped them enough to form an opinion yet.

I will say, though, all these new mods are going to take a ton of endo to grind, and I would have preferred an endo gift as a sign-in instead of 5 forma (which I probably won't need to use on the new content anyway?).

And most importantly:

Mid-Shrine-Defense I heard an Ostron child yell "I believe in you, Tenno!" and 🥺🥺🥺 the synchronicity of childhood belief, dreams, fate, and the power of stories... I need to lie down

[legendaryvermin]

I don't want to rehash a bunch of discussions I had on Twitter the other day, but I've been thinking about something recently that I wanted to jot down. Basically, oftentimes in trpg

Rules are Scaffolding

I saw a prominent ttrpg designer post a partial blog post (that requires some kinda membership so I probably won't read it) where they asked the following question:

"[What do rules do for me that can't be achieved thru freeform rp]?"

Maybe this question is a good one on their part, answered thoughtfully. To me, it smacks of expert's bias.

For some background, I play predominantly in 2 kinds of games: a home game of half a dozen local folks where I am, and a bunch of Actual Play live shows where I'm usually a player. My home group is made up almost entirely of people who have been playing ttrpgs only in the last decade, and who are there not because they love storytelling and strive to get better at it, but because we are pals and it's a good way to have fun on a Saturday afternoon when yr in yr 30's. The AP scene- which regularly co-mingles with the design scene- is full of people who have played a lot of characters, have tons of experience telling stories, making and characterizing their PC's, and generally making me cheer and breaking my heart as they do so. My home group has a player who, bless her, doesn't really have a personality for her characters that isn't just her in a hat.

I bring this up because I have played APs of games with lots of different degrees of structure for players, and truly, I can see how someone gets to the question "what does a game do that playing pretend doesn't" when they are only in environments where people are already very accomplished pretend-players. It seems like a legitimate question when the outcome of any ruleset with the folks you play with is more or less the same, just with a different aesthetic setting.

*But the validity of the question goes out the window when I'm playing with people who don't do this shit all the time.*

Here's a short list of things that I have seen my close friends struggle with in low-structure games:

Sharing the spotlight

Creating a central conflict

Having character relationships that change

Knowing when to end a scene

Knowing when to let time pass

Doing the thing instead of meticulously planning it

Focusing on one idea rather than chasing every butterfly

Creating interesting consequences

I could go on.

I have learned that my friends enjoy themselves way more when a game meets them halfway, because they aren't all professional pretend-makers. When a game uses rules to help tell a player what their character can or can't do, when it illustrates the consequences, when it gives them numbers that change how they interact with the world, they are much more dynamic players, and they enjoy the stories they tell that much more. Not every group needs that scaffolding, and some groups need it more in one place than another. Some scaffolding (combat, most often ime) takes the place of the kinds of roleplay and pretend making that people would otherwise enjoy, and sometimes the scaffolding brings the players, rather than the characters, into conflict.

Put another way, rules shape play the same way a playground does.

Some kids are happy to have nothing but an empty lot and their imaginations.

Some kids don't know what to do with their bodies until they see the monkey bars.

[guardian-rocket]

Who are your top 10 favorite muns to write with and why? If a mun is a multimuse also tell which are your favorite characters to write with and why?

(The order in which you list the people doesn't matter unless you want to assign them specific places.)

Question Master

Top 10, here we go... @antvnger Puppy-Mun is the first I am putting on this list first because of all the threads and ideas I've ever had on here the thread I've been doing with them (Space Heist) is the largest single run I've had so far. We actually had an entire 4 part mission and went to Knowhere. I feel like Rocket and Scott made some real progress in becoming friends and I love that. Every post they make is gold. They're nice to their anons and I generally enjoy interacting with them OOC and hijacking their random posts. They're also genuinely funny, which I feel is very important for someone portraying Scott. I already loved Ant-Man but Puppy-Mun makes me adore him even more! They also often tag me and I love that 💕

@byondtheveil Rei-Mun (Birb-Queen) is #1 OC in Rocket's world and my Rocket muse simply adores her. I always look forward to reading her replies and she's a great person to talk to and shoot the breeze OOC. We both love thrifting IRL so it's fun to just spam her DMs about my latest finds. Her character Rei is literally one of the most endearing original characters I've ever come across. She's well thought out and has connected with Rocket in a way most muses can't do. With her I have been able to explore Rocket's comfortability just popping on and off Earth and get some much deserved down time. @papetoonfox Papetoonfox was a RP partner I had many years ago. We haven't interacted much on tumblr but we got a RP going on Discord that I am fully engrossed in. Our conversations OOC often puts me in stitches and we have so much common interest it's so easy to just get lost in our own little nostalgic world of Y2K aesthetics and retrowave vibes. They're also very encouraging with me about my art and they produce some of the coolest music I've heard from anyone I know. I love their portrayal of Fox and so does my muse.

@stripesofbrooklyn They were one of the first to interact with me OOC when I started getting more active again and I feel we check in on eachother both ways pretty regularly I am confident to call them a friend. Our muses have great chemistry together and Rocket always loves hearing from them no matter what strange shenanigan they might be getting into. Rocket fully admires and trusts their Steve and is someone Rocket would go out of his way for.

@spidermanxnoir / @jeff-the-gnome-king First they get super points just for playing my favorite version of Spider-Man (Noir) and our thread which started off without any plotting has turned into one of the most epic adventures my Rocket has ever had. I think Rocket's gotten pretty attached to him as they've gone along and genuinely think he's cool. Looking forward to them retaining an ongoing friendship. Being able to tie or franchises together has been a ton of fun and I think we write beautifully together. Also they're super chill OOC and I love bugging them with my latest ideas. @the-mjolnir-owner This Thor is one of my best friends on Tumblr. They are often sending me posts in my DMs to see about Rocket and Thor and I just love their characterization. We also have a lot of fun discussions about Thor and the Guardians and I feel they capture Thor very well in their writing. Just in general they're an absolute joy.

@butwithmoreme I know our thread is fairly new/short but I literally hear Tony's voice in their writing, it's so damn good. As Rocket's mun I will hold a special place in my heart for anyone who doesn't just write him off for being a little shit. The fact they're being science bros together makes me so happy. @spideymn A big stand-out as a great writer. Sounding repetitive here, but I hear Tom Holland in their dialog and they feel very in character. A shining standout, and my muse likes him because he's a helpful kiddo. Happy to see them interacting together. @beatfreesmysoul They're my #1 music buddy right now, and I enjoy dropping into their DMs to be annoying lol. It's so great to have someone here to talk tunes with because I genuinely am a big music nerd. I love that they send me memes/tag me for that stuff too. As a Rocket RPer I often feel a bit sidelined so they make me feel included on things which I super appreciate. Our thread taking place earlier in the storyline is great too, kinda fun to undo all my muse's character development and let him have 'issues' he needs to work through and I love that we can explore or character's developing friendship.

@gctbusydying I am pretty sure they're my first Kitty Pryde and honestly, worth the wait. Interacting with them feels like we're jumping right out of the comics. I think that Kitty is canonly one of Rocket's favorite ladies and their friendship is important to me. I know I MOSTLY adhere to MCU canon but I've read the comics too (albeit a long time ago) but when it comes to Kitty I'm like -slams fist on desk- FRIENDS. I know we haven't had a TON of interaction but I hope it keeps going.

[nobleburn]

✨ 👉👈

hahaha you have fallen into my trap now you can only sit there and take it as I drop compliments and praise upon you, you can do nothing to stop me, the uno reverse card is entirely disabled

When I started writing Lilli on tumblr, I was worried that she was going to be too abrasive for most people, or that people would dislike her. I really poured years of my life into playing her in D&D and I try not to be TOO precious with my OCs, but Lilli, uniquely, means more to me than any other OC probably ever could, for a lot of reasons. I was so afraid that people wouldn't like her or be interested in her, or that they would only like her if I changed her or made her different, and from the start, I remember being so excited and so thankful that you seemed to like her as she was and think she was cool.

Even before we talked more, even before Eira and Nikolette and anything after, I was just so grateful that you liked Lilli enough to write Wylan opposite her. I don't know if I ever told you that, how close I came to shutting her blog down and taking her away from Tumblr because it felt like I just couldn't make her work here, and maybe I just wasn't a good fit for writing on this site anymore, and what ultimately changed my mind and made me want to keep trying was writing with you. I don't think I could ever thank you enough for that.

And then from there, your writing was so good and it felt like we clicked in a way that I've only clicked with a handful of writers that quickly and that easily, like it felt like there was an immediate mutual understanding of what the dynamic was, and what we were going for, and how things could progress, to the point where even when I was struggling to feel creative or make writing happen, and even when things took forever on my end, I really wanted to get it right in our thread.

I was already primed to be in awe of Wylan, how comfortable you seemed to be writing him, your ability to put him in so many different AUs and crossovers in a way that made him fit in, but also preserved what was uniquely his, and then you hit me with a multi-muse? With like a dozen characters that were all so different and unique? Different canons, different personalities, different genres, and somehow you were pulling them all off so well? Boy, I was floored. There were a handful of characters I was semi-familiar with (Samus, Armstrong, Mizuki) and then characters I'd never heard of at all (Raguna, Dogi, the OCs), but it felt like you had a vision for all of them in the same way you did Wylan, like you knew what they were about, you knew how they could fit into tons of different settings, and you knew how to make them work as RP characters.

That's actually the most impressive thing to me, like, it's one thing to be just a technically good writer. Lots of people are. It's another thing to be so clear on like, not just how to write something that is nice to read or shows a strong command of language, but that is easy and clear and FUN for someone else to write alongside. Lots of people have a story inside them and can write by themself, but I've always always always been impressed by your ability to write great stuff that somehow has the perfect mix of getting across your own character, leaving space and development potential for the opposite character, and also moving things forward into a plot or a story.

You are an absolute joy to write with, I have a ton of fun thinking about plots and threads and memes with you and your characters, I would literally perish for Eira. You're super easy to plot with, you're great at coming up with ideas and you also bring great energy to my ideas, to the point where it feels to me that so much of what we figure out together feels like real collaboration. I'm always in the position of both loving the things we're writing, and being extremely excited for what might come next.

Anyway yeah, you're fucking awesome and I'm so glad that I get to write with you as often as I do.