#NOBODY ELSE GETS THEIR OWN SOURCEBOOKS.

[y-rhywbeth2]

I want a time machine so I can go back and twist the TSR staffs' arms until they publish a sourcebook for the ancient dwarven kingdom of Delzoun like they did for human Netheril and the elves of Cormanthyr...

[luvwich]

wip whenever

was tagged recently by @wanderingaldecaldo and @streetkid-named-desire to share some WIP! i don't have a lot of new prose to share so i'll just gab a bit about what i've been workin on…

i've been in the planning and worldbuilding stages lately, so all the words i've been writing have been in bullet lists and various illegible obsidian notes.

91.9 royal blue

royal blue is the valerie/river series, and my ideas here are primarily whodunnit one-shots or gutwrenching angst that i'm not currently depressed enough to actually write about. so i've been trying out a little mystery story here, a little fluff there, gettin a handle on post-Mikoshi valerie, simmering simmering

hypercritical

heavily rotating a few things from what i'm calling the "hypercritical au," which is the vania/mike timeline of Jaded and Crescent. some threads i'm noodling on…

been worldbuilding for a story feat. regina jones in shanghai in the 2050s. there's a little about shanghai in the ole pacific rim sourcebook (💩), but not much! (and i'm a rather out over my skis here having never been to china, so if i decide to go further with this one i'll probably want a beta reader who's spent some time in shanghai)

and what happens in the 2050s in the cyberpunk universe, like, at all? in the timeline of canon events it's a decade with very little filled in compared to everything else in the 21st century. opportunities!

the Crescent time-gap aka "mike's hard eighteen months"

post-canon, what's the deal with that fifth corporate war huh?

post-canon, Crescent ends in a very particular place and situation of my own invention and i've been working out the endgame for that situation

all of this is very different from my m.o. up until this point, which has been to write characters being horny and then stay within shouting distance of the canon plot (thx @merge-conflict for that phrasing/concept) while diverging a bit for funsies. and i'm appreciating more and more how frightening and freeing it is to cook up a whole narrative that stands on its own without a skeleton of plot already in place — not to mention all the built-in emotional stakes of cyberpunk 2077's plot. and it's very hard at times to push through the "nobody will read this" voice yet it's fun! i'm having fun!! pounds table

also have some bg3 stuff on the side burner, but i feel like i'll need a lot more time to marinate in lore, and i need to finish the fucking game already lol. (tbh i'm very intimidated writing for bg3!!!) but the docket here includes a dank throuple feat. some old man yaoi (tav/rugan/gale). this is totally up in the air though and i truly can't find my own ass with both hands when it comes to the forgotten realms

and then there's a grip of smutty shorts, drabbles, and assorted plot creatures from every dimension sniffing around.

i'm looking forward to getting more time to return to the groove here. (where will this mysterious "more time" come from? what is "the groove"? TBD)

and as fun as all the worldbuilding and plotting is, i do think i need to stop dicking around scratchin my chin and just write some god damn porn at some point 🙃

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 2/5

Book Blurb: You will kill the ones you love. It is in your blood, in your fate.

Seventeen-year-old Alex and her mother have spent years on the run from the Covenant, a school where the pure descendants of gods hone their powers and half-mortal teens like Alex train to kill daimons for them. But when her mom is murdered by daimons and she has nobody else to turn to, Alex finds herself back at the Covenant, where she has two options: become a servant for the pures or work twice as hard as everyone else to catch up in her training.

The second option seems like an easy choice, but everything gets complicated when pure-blood Aiden volunteers to be her personal trainer. Because not only is Aiden gorgeous, but he also understands Alex in a way she's never experienced before. Unfortunately, relationships between pures and half-bloods are strictly forbidden.

But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem. As she learns the true reason her mother whisked her away from the Covenant and daimons close in on the school, she must fight to stay alive…even if it's her fault those around her are dropping dead.

Review:

In a world where descendants of gods are divide into pure bloods and half bloods, one girl will find herself seeking revenge, facing monsters, unlikely powers awaken, and a forbidden romance blooms. The Covenant is a school where pure descendants of gods attend and half bloods such Alex, also go to as well to train to kill daimons. Yet one day her mother takes her away and they've been on the run ever since... now 17 years old and out of time, daimons come after them and murder her mom and Alex finds herself being brought back into the Covenant where she will be trained under the handsome and talented older student, pure blood Aiden. Pure bloods and half bloods are forbidden from entering into a relationship, yet the more time she spends training with him the more blurred the lines between trainer and trainee are. Not to mention Alex has to deal with the strange new powers that had awakened in her, rekindling old friendships, and dealing with the fact that someone she loves might have turned into a daimon and is now after her..... Alex has to find a way to stay alive through the school year or risk being kicked out and forced to become a servant... or worse, be killed by a daimon. I am going to say I went into this book completely blind, I had no idea that this was in fact a repub of the already finished and old series by JLA. This book was a rip off of Vampire Academy, but instead of vampires it was with greek gods. I adore, absolutely love Vampire Academy, but reading this left a bad taste in my mouth if I am going to be honest. The characters are no where near as likable as the characters in Vampire Academy and the romance was not there at all. I really wanted to like this but it just felt too similar to Vampire Academy, yet without any of the great parts that made Vampire Academy fun. This is definitely something I think younger YA readers could get into, but it felt a bit dated to me and honestly, it just couldn't compare to VA or stand out enough that I would like it on it's own. Sadly, it's a pass for me, however if you enjoy teen school drama set in a magic school and an older/forbidden love interest, give this a go!

*Thanks Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books | Bloom Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[pomrania]

Fantasy space

Spelljammer is a cool setting. Unfortunately, it was first written in 1989, for 2E D&D. I'm not going to require anyone to read old sourcebooks, even if they're really cool once you remove the old-edition-mechanics from them, so here's an overall summary of how it works. Additionally, there were some things I didn't like in "official" Spelljammer (like clerics not being to regain higher-level spells in a different crystal sphere), so it just makes sense to write out my version of things. (To clarify: everything I put here is consistent with “official” Spelljammer, to the best of my knowledge. If there is something I didn’t like, then I simply did not include it. There are also other things which I did like, but I did not include here because they were too specific for a general overview, or because I forgot.)

1. Fantasy space follows different rules than real-world space

We're not playing a sci-fi game, we're playing a fantasy game, after all. I'm putting in a brief summary of everything here, so hopefully it will make sense. Further sections give more details.

Planets happen inside wildspace, which is kind of like space-space but it isn't a vacuum. Each planetary system, with its planets and wildspace, is encased in a crystal sphere. The various crystal spheres are surrounded by the Flow, which is flammable and also prevents dimensional travel.

When in wildspace or the Flow, everything has its own air envelope; the air inside this will not vanish, but it will get used up and go bad. The larger the thing, the larger the air envelope. Large enough things have their own gravity, and the effects of its gravity reach as far as its air envelope.

2. Wildspace

Wildspace is what you get between planets. There is very little there, other than asteroids (which may or may not be inhabited), other ships, and wreckage (which may or may not have already been picked over). Most space travel happens in wildspace, because the things to travel between are closer together.

You will not die from imploding if you are thrown unprotected into wildspace. You will however probably die from suffocation once all your air has gone bad, since wildspace does not have atmosphere, but you will have some time to be rescued or find air before that happens.

3. Crystal spheres

A crystal sphere contains a planetary system. Inside of it are planets and wildspace; outside of it is the Flow.

The shell of a crystal sphere cannot be damaged by any known means. If you want to get through it, you need an opening. These openings happen naturally, and they seem to be at random. If you do not want to wait until an opening happens nearby, you can use magic to make an opening happen where you are. Sometimes this magic is built into a ship, but that makes the ship more expensive.

4. Phlogiston / the Flow

(The "proper" name is "phlogiston", but I'm going to call it "the Flow" because a) that's easier to write, b) it is synonymous in the sourcebooks, and c) I don't know how to pronounce "phlogiston".)

The Flow is what you get between different crystal spheres. It is luminous and rainbow-coloured, and also extremely flammable. If you light a fire while your ship is in the Flow, you're going to have a bad time. If you light a big fire while your ship is in the Flow, like if you're trying to cast Fireball, you are going to have a very bad time. Even if you're fireproof, and if your ship is made of things that don't catch on fire, chances are that your friends and your cargo are not also fireproof.

The Flow provides as much light as an overcast day. This is good because if you need to see, you do not want to light a candle or a torch if you enjoy not being on fire.

The Flow prevents any dimensional travel or access. If you have a Bag of Holding, you will not be able to access its contents while your ship is in the Flow. You will not be able to teleport, go ethereal, or summon creatures from other planes.

The Flow can preserve things. If you run out of breathable air while in the Flow, you go into suspended animation, and then wake back up once you have proper air. This preservation only lasts while in the Flow. Sometimes there are ships floating around in the Flow, where all the ship's air has gone bad, and everybody on board is in suspended animation. They could be there for days or months or years or decades, and nothing would change for them. If you have to be thrown off your ship and left adrift, try to have it happen while in the Flow. You will start to suffocate as your air runs out, but it will not kill you.

The Flow has its own currents. If you know them well, or are lucky, you can arrive somewhere faster than anticipated. If you make a mistake, or are unlucky, it could take you a very long time to arrive.

5. Gravity planes

If something is large enough then it will have its own gravity. "Large enough" in fantasy space is significantly smaller than you might think. Gravity points "down", instead of "towards the centre" (unless you are dealing with a spherical planet).

The larger something is, the farther its gravity will reach. If two different large objects come close enough that their gravity fields interact, then the gravity angle of the smaller object will change to match the gravity of the larger object. This can be extremely inconvenient if the two objects are ships, you're in the smaller ship, and "down" is now "sideways" and everything has fallen all over the place. Because of this, if two ships come near each other, the smaller one will generally turn so that its "down" is pointed in the same direction as the larger ship's "down".

Gravity in fantasy space is a yes-or-no kind of thing. You are either within something's gravity field, or you are weightless.

6. Air envelopes

The larger something is, the more air it carries with it. If you go in space just with your own body, you will have enough air along to survive for a little while, but not for as long as you would probably like. If you go into space with a large object like a ship, there will be a lot more air.

The air around something is called its air envelope. The size of an air envelope is the same as the size of its area of gravity, if it has a gravity field. If you can fall, then there is air available, even if that air might have gone bad. Things that are too small to have gravity still have an air envelope, but it is smaller than the air envelope of something that is large enough to have gravity.

When you breathe, you use the air in the air envelope which you are in. If the air envelope is small, then you will run out of usable air sooner than you would like. If the air envelope is large, then it will not be a problem for a long time. A ship generally has enough air to last its crew and passengers for a couple weeks or months, depending. If there are more people in an air envelope, the air will go bad faster. If there is a fire in an air envelope, the air will go bad faster.

There are ways to keep the air fresh for longer, some of which are plants and some of which are magic. It is possible to have it so that the air never needs to be replaced, but usually something goes wrong along the way.

7. Ships that travel space

"Officially" they're called spelljammers, but I just call them "ships".

a) Helms

Space is large [citation needed]. Normal ways of getting from one place to another, even very fast ways, are impractically slow when it comes to travelling in space. There are several ways of powering a ship fast enough to make space travel feasible, but helms are by far the most common. A helm gets a ship to go fast and also gets it to go where you direct it to go (which might not always be where you want it to go, but that is why navigators are a thing).

A helm is a chair with ship-go-fast magic added to it. It can be transferred between ships, which is good because it is expensive. In order to use a helm, a spellcaster sits in that chair, and that both powers the ship, and lets the spellcaster mentally direct the ship what to do. This uses up their magical energy for the day. A spellcaster can only helm a ship if they're full up on magical energy before they start.

Helms are designed so that a ship will automatically slow down from space-travel-fast when it approaches something large enough that it would hurt if they collided. You can still run into things, but it will be at a speed where you have time to try and move somewhere else if you want.

b) Ship varieties

There are many different types of ships in space. Some of them aren't able to go space-travel-fast. These are mostly used to go short distances, like to transport stuff between big ships and places where the big ships can't land, or for space combat, when nobody can go space-travel-fast anyways. These are generally smaller ships that are more agile, but they can also be larger ships where someone didn't or couldn't put in a helm.

Many ships in space look like a cross between a water-ship and a fish or insect. This is because that is cool. There is almost always an open deck, since air won't escape the envelope, so there's no reason to close everything in.

These are a couple of different things people might want in their ship, which is why there are so many different designs:

more storage space

more agile

harder to damage

more weapons

needs fewer people to crew it

able to fit into more places

able to land on ground or water

fits someone's standards of a good-looking ship

easier to repair

costs less money

((Black lives matter, and trans rights are human rights.))

((Also posted on Pillowfort, here.))

[theabstruseone]

So it appears the rumor has wormed its ugly way back into the D&D community again: Wizards of the Coast is going to get rid of the OGL!!1one No. They aren’t. They can’t. So the version of the rumor this time around is that with the release of OneD&D, there won’t be an OGL anymore so third parties can no longer publishing D&D material. Some variation of this crawls its way into the community every so often by people who don’t understand how the Open Gaming License works.

The OGL is an open license based on the Open Software License and vaguely similar to Creative Commons. By agreeing to abide by the terms of the Open Gaming License, you as a publisher have access to use material that is published under the Open Gaming License. The most important of the OGL material is called the System Reference Document or SRD.

Wizards of the Coast have released SRDs for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, 3.5 Edition, and 5th Edition. These SRDs contain large portions of the rules, meaning that anyone who wants can use the OGL to create their own adventures, sourcebooks, or even entire RPGs based on the rules system. Some material is specifically excluded (settings, important characters, some monsters like the Beholder and Mindflayer, etc.), but it has allowed for over 20 years a strong industry of third party publishers to create their own material compatible with Dungeons & Dragons without worrying about being sued, whether they’re big name companies like Paizo and Green Ronin or just a fan publishing their own homebrew.

The thing is once something is released under the OGL, it remains open gaming licensed content.

D&D 5e has an SRD. It is open gaming content.

That means unless OneD&D is a completely new edition of the game incompatible with all other 5th Edition published material put out by Wizards of the Coast or anyone else - SOMETHING WIZARDS HAS SPECIFICALLY STATED IS NOT THE CASE - then anyone can continue to publish 5e material under the OGL.

How could I possibly know this? Because I remember Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition and Pathfinder.

When D&D 4e came out, it did NOT have an SRD. Instead, third party publishers were invited to use a more restrictive license called the GSL or Game System License. Practically nobody did because it was too restrictive and made it next to impossible for anyone to actually use it.

Instead, most third parties moved to Pathfinder, which was able to me made because even though D&D 4e didn’t have any OGL material, the D&D 3.5e SRD was still covered under the Open Gaming License.

Now what is likely is that Wizards of the Coast will not be releasing a NEW SRD for OneD&D. This is because they don’t need to. 5e already has an SRD. This would lock third party publishers from using some subclasses and some subraces (god I hope they change that term...), but THAT’S ALREADY THE CASE! A bunch of the subclasses and subraces in the Player’s Handbook and other sourcebooks are not covered under the OGL. Third party publishers ALREADY can’t use Mountain Dwarves or Circle of the Moon Druids because they’re not OGL.

So no, Wizards of the Coast isn’t being evil and destroying all third party publishers and sending stormtroopers into your home to burn all your homebrew or whatever the hell people seem to think is going to happen. Some YouTuber mumbleshouting into a webcam about wokes and feeeemales in TTRPGs posted a video of pure bullshit and some non-tabletop RPG websites picked it up and ran it out of pure journalistic laziness. If you want to drag WotC, there are hundreds of legitimate reasons to do so. You don’t need to make up bullshit.

[snakebitcat]

All Good Things Must Come To An Endgame (Avengers: Endgame)

“A man of vision, you say? Yeah. A hell of a vision.”

-Woodrow Call, Lonesome Dove

Hi there. It’s been awhile.

Firstly, here’s the State of the Manchild: The 2016 election took a lot of wind out of my sails, and then finding out that the guy who encouraged me to start writing reviews was a sexual predator (and the resultant end of the review site I was writing for) didn’t help my morale any, either. Also, I had some personal setbacks that I’d rather not go into that sent me into a long spiral of depression, so that didn’t help either. But I’ve missed this, and I’ve been wanting to come back to it, and when I saw Avengers: Endgame I felt the same inspiration that I felt when I watched Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, so here we are. Time to kick off Grumpy Old Manchild 2.0, so without further ado, a review:

Avengers: Endgame was amazing, and that makes me fucking furious.

Why, you ask? Let me tell you about my friend John. I met him in 1987, back when I was just a grumpy young manchild. I was in a bookstore at my local mall, reading a sourcebook for the Marvel Super Heroes RPG, and some random stranger came up to me and started talking about the superhero game he was running at his college. We had a great time nerding the hell out over how much we loved superheroes and gaming, and because this was the era before anybody had cell phones and we were oblivious nerd boys, neither one of us thought that exchanging contact information would be a good idea. It was just a nice talk, and I’d figured that would be that.

Then that fall, when I went to go register for classes at the college I was attending at the time, we spotted each other in the halls, and I thought “Hey, it’s that guy; I should go say hi,” and we started hanging out and gaming together, and co-GM’d a superhero RPG from 1989 to 2006. I ran the first session the same night we went to go see the Michael Keaton Batman movie. And n 2008 we went to go see Iron Man together, and both lost our fucking minds when Nick Fury showed up at the end. And then we saw Incredible Hulk together, and when Tony Stark showed up at the end we lost of goddamned minds again.

And then in May of 2009, he died. He only got to see two of the twenty-two MCU movies, and nobody’s ever going to convince me that’s even remotely close to fair. But it seems somehow appropriate that when I’m thinking about him while I’m writing about a movie about superheroes and loss.

But I digress.

How was the movie, you ask? I absolutely loved it. Best installment in the MCU, bar none, because they accomplished something that  no other American movie studio ever has: They perfectly reproduced the experience of being a comic book reader following multiple titles by multiple creative teams working on a single storyline while also moving their individual storylines forward, and they absolutely stuck the landing.

And from here, there be spoilers, so I’ll put the rest under a cut.

OK, then. Other reviewers have already covered the plot, and if you’re still reading then chances are good you’ve already seen it, so rather than hit on that, I’m going to start by discussing how the movie deals with the original six Avengers.

First, we have Hawkeye. Most of the Avengers have fit the standard superhero mold of unmarried people with no kids, but Clint Barton is a husband and father, and his commitment to that kept him out of Infinity War. So because we didn’t get to see him in that (and because, unlike Scott Lang, he didn’t get a solo movie), the Russo’s decision to start with a scene of him with his family was a good one. It sparks Clint’s descent into darkness as Ronin, and it really drives home what it would be like to be there during the Snap.

Bruce Banner finally reconciles the two warring halves of his personality, and we get the Smart Hulk that I never expected to see in the movies, but was delighted to. How many PhDs does Hulk have? Same as you now, buddy.

When the Avengers finally locate Thanos, Thor goes for the head (as Thanos told him he should have done) only to discover that the vengeance he was desperate to take upon the Mad Titan means nothing. While the fat jokes at his expense were unnecessary, even disappointing, it makes sense that he would sink into the depressed haze of alcohol, food, and resignation we find him stewing in five years later.

Captain America has taken over Sam’s job, and is helping the Snap survivors learn to live with their tragedy, because he’s still trying to figure out how to live with his own. He hasn’t quite managed to move on, but then again that’s been his defining trait ever since he woke up in the modern world at the end of his first movie.

Iron Man has become the sort of dad he always wished his own father had been. It was great to see how he has, over the eleven years and 22 movies that the MCU has given us, gone from being someone who put himself and his own desires above everything and everyone else to someone whose first priority is the well-being of his friends and family.

And then we have Black Widow. Survivor’s guilt has been her defining trait ever since we got her hints about “red in her ledger” in Avengers, and it’s become the entirety of her being when we see what she’s up to after the jump forward in time. She’s so dedicated to coordinating the missions the surviving Avengers and Guardians are carrying out to the exclusion of letting herself have a life that her friends and colleagues are starting to worry about her.

So we have two Avengers who have collapsed in on themselves (Clint and Thor), two who are, while functional, too consumed by their pasts to move forward (Steve and Natasha), and two who are living the sort of post-heroic lives that their pre-Snap selves could only dream of (Bruce and Tony). Thus their situations are perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

As good as the movie is, it’s not entirely without its weak points. When Tony and Steve first meet each other, Tony lashes out at Steve for not being there when Thanos attacked. But because the reason Steve wasn’t there was because Tony never managed to swallow his pride enough to call Steve, that’s all on you, Stank. There are two others, both of them dialogue choices. The first is them not having Steve say “I can do this all day” when he gets up after Thanos has broken his shield and beaten him down, because that would have taken us full circle to when Steve was fighting the bully in Captain America: the First Avenger. And speaking of taking things full circle, when Tony says “I am Iron Man” just before he Snaps, he should have said “I am Tony Stark.” It wasn’t Iron Man, Avenger who stops Thanos and saves the universe, but rather Tony Stark, friend and father who will do whatever it takes to ensure that his little girl and the other people he loves will be safe from Thanos’ evil.

And now for some of the highlights from the plot – the things that pleasantly surprised me, or just made me grin. We finally got to hear Steve say “Avengers assemble!” I was hoping for that in Avengers, and then in Age of Ultron they blueballed us by cutting away before he could finish saying it, and there was never a point in Infinity War when it would have been appropriate. So finally, after almost a full decade of waiting, having it at long last be paid off felt especially sweet. Tony and Steve finally putting their bad blood aside and becoming friends again was exactly the sort of sweet moment we needed. The scene with Bruce and the Ancient One was an absolute delight, because he was one of the only members of the team who could talk multiversal theory and timeline integrity with her at her level. Tony meeting his father helped him realize that for all of Howard’s many faults, his father did the best he was capable of, in a heartfelt callback to Star-Lord having the same realization about Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. The moment when all of the Avengers and Guardians whom Thanos had Snapped portaled in along with all of the sorcerers, Ravagers, and all of Wakanda’s warriors was an absolutely beautiful “Fuck yeah” moment. Star-Lord got to see Gamora again, but when he tried to resume where they had left off their relationship, he got a knee to the pills for his trouble because this was the Gamora that hadn’t met him yet, rather than the one who had gotten the chance to see the real him yet. And Steve finally proved that we he worthy to wield Mjolnir, and Thor was even happier about it than anyone in the audience!

And with that I’ll move on to how each of the original team’s individual stories ended up.

Clint got to be back with the family that he had lost all hope of seeing again.

Bruce got to leave the violence and anger that had defined his life for years behind him, and retire with the recognition as a hero and a genius that he deserved.

Thor has left the weight of all the expectations – both his own, and of all the other Asgardians and Avengers – behind him, and can start to discover what sort of person he is and what sort he wants to be.

Steve has finally moved on, by moving back. He returns to the past, and becomes the husband that Peggy had mentioned in past movies but whom we never saw. As a fan of the character and someone who is hopelessly sentimental, seeing him finally get that dance she promised him had me weeping with joy.

Tony’s story started the MCU, and he has, appropriately enough, grown the most of any of the characters in it. He proved that he was capable of self-sacrifice in Avengers, and in Endgame he knows what he’s sacrificing himself for, and that it’s worth the cost he pays.

And Natasha … it hurt so much to see her sacrifice herself. But it also made perfect sense. Clint was too blinded by the loss of his family to realize that if they won, his family would be back. But Natasha knew that, and she wanted Clint to have the chance at a life with his wife and children that Thanos had taken away from him. And with that act of supreme love for her best and truest friend, the last of the red was finally gone from her ledger.

Their situations are no longer perfectly balanced, but obsession with balance was what drove Thanos to attempt to commit omnicide. We don’t need for all of the Avengers to be equally well off, as long as their storylines have reached their logical conclusions, and for good or ill, whether in joy or in mourning, they all have.

We will miss the ones we lost in Endgame, as I miss John. But we will continue on, and although I’m sure they would have preferred to have gotten to continue along with us, we can keep living our lives and do our best to make things a little better, a little kinder, and a little more just for those who will continue along after we are gone.

Speaking of which, please join me next Wednesday, when I’ll be reviewing a movie whose title was too weird for me to ignore: The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot.

[pathfinder-society]

I’ve been playing pf2e since it dropped in 2019, and it’s my personal favorite child-of-DnD-3.5e d20-based system - largely because of the customization abilities that OP highlighted. This absolutely comes at the cost of greater complexity, but I’d strongly encourage anyone who likes DnD 5e and isn’t afraid of a little more crunch to try it. Some highlights:

- They’ve got this thing called versatile heritages which let you do things like play a dwarf tiefling or an orc aasimar. You can of course do this in 5e with flavor, but it’s nice to have these things reflected mechanically. pf2e gives you the opportunity.

- Similarly they’ve got this concept of archetypes which split out thematically flavored abilities from any kind of class progression. E.G. the Archaeologist archetype will give you all kinds of abilities that make you a better trap-finding nerd and you could take it as a barbarian or as a wizard. I feel like dnd 5e can sometimes link things to specific classes in ways that don’t make sense (why do rogues get fancy mind-knives when nobody else does?). Archetypes solve this problem by detaching flavor features from class features and I love it so much. They also use it for multi-classing which means you can spend less time worrying about keeping core progression for things link sneak attack up and more time focusing on Vibes,

- The Alchemist class exists and is awesome. I know 5e has Artificers, but I’m not a huge fan of reskinning spells as potions and items, etc. It does reduce the mechanical complexity of the game, but feels hacked in IMO. pf2e has a massive set of items alchemists are better at than everybody else that are their own thing separate from spells and it’s really cool.

- Animal companions are actually good. I can’t elaborate without getting into mechanics but unlike beastmasters in 5e they’re rock solid and have clear mechanical benefits that make sense for what they are. Plus with the right archetype choices basically any class can have an animal companion which is nice.

- Rangers are also actually good in pf2e. I’ve played a 5e ranger. I can say this.

- Monster abilities are more diverse and resistances and weaknesses are a lot more tactically relevant. In 5e you can generally hit things until they fall down. pf2e has more substantial resistance and weakness mechanics that you’re more likely to encounter in-game so you’re rewarded for doing things like, say, creating a set of light hammers that each has a rune for a different damage type so you’re always ready to do max damage regardless what you’re up against.

- The upgrade system for magic weapons and armor is much more customizable and lets you transfer enchantments to weapons you already own. It makes it a lot easier to develop sentimental attachments to weapons which I think is fun. The plain-but-well-made longbow you inherited from your mother can still be your primary weapon when you’re fighting god at level 20, though - like you - it will have become far more than it was when you began.

- This is only out in playtest so take it with a grain of salt, but pf2e will soon have much more robust built-in rules for firearms than DnD 5e does. There’s an entire class called gunslinger that is what Percy was (albeit in pf1e) before he got ported to 5e and turned into a fighter. I’m really looking forward to when this drops so I can see how it integrates with other classes - particularly ranger.

And while pf2e is definitely mechanically less accessible than DnD 5e, it’s arguably more accessible in terms of how easy it is to get access to the rules and player options. Because of the relationship between pf1e and dnd 3.5e, the entire pf2e ruleset - including player options - is freely and legally available at a website called the Archives of Nethys (AoN). Contrast this with DnD 5e where everything except the SRD is owned by WOTC. One can, of course, easily pirate the sourcebooks, but it’s nice to have a reliable, hyperlinked, searchable one-stop-shop for easy reference that anyone with an internet connection can access (and you’ll need it - the game can get fiddly).

If you use Foundry VTT, pf2e also works way better on Foundry than DnD 5e does - largely because the same legal requirement that enables the existence of Archives of Nethys also means all the monsters, player options, and items available for the pf2e ship in the default pf2e module. You don’t need to do that weird DnD Beyond import hack I had to do for my game or add anything manually. It Just Works and it’s GREAT.

Anyway that’s my $0.02. I’m a shameless pf2e stan and I’d love to see it get more love. Obviously it’s not for everyone - it’s definitely crunchy and I know some people don’t enjoy that, but in my experience a lot of fun and MUCH more RP-friendly than its reputation suggests.

As someone who was super terrified of first edition pf (i bought the corebook and paniced when i opened it and hid it in the back of my bookshelf in shame lol) pf2e is a good mix/middle point. ‘Crunchier’ than dnd but you make more character building choices than dnd, which really idk help you tell the story of your character? Like i think the abilities align in a cool way with rp. I dont mean that as a knock at dnd, 5e is def more accessible. But i think if youre interested 2e is a decent entry point :)

Thanks! I’m happy with 5e tbh... I know absolutely nothing about 1st or 2nd edition so if I did something else it would be pathfinder or 3.5e, but also while I enjoy the crunch I do not think most of the people I play with would.

[galbraithneil92]

Reiki Energy Work Eye-Opening Useful Tips

And for that matter, isn't nearly as ancient Egypt.It is very bright and energetic fields, creating more blocks.She merely lifted her head to see that there were several changes made in the chakras on its healing, energetic responses are observed.This unique form of Reiki conducts energy through the balancing of energies.

Reiki works because of the mind makes the person receiving Reiki.For the rest of the above levels, and hands-on practice.During session of Reiki is an audio course available where the initial and most efficient way to improve oneself is a form of universal energy.First degree Reiki can be helped by reiki masters ages ago.This is why it is a healing tool or expand into a certain function, usually in a later article in this manner, it also offers a more peaceful manner.

For seriously ill and this wonderful tool for everyone else as well.Can you imagine how frustrating it must be like receiving Reiki for children who need to be a current or vibration, or like a puppy bounding uncontrollably toward four lanes of rush-hour traffic, his frantic human screaming after him.A high level of stress and disease progression can be somewhat difficult to be delivered with greater productivity; or when your health but a rediscovery by a man named Hiroshi Doi that we are meant for anyone with the treatment.It consists of learning the art or craft of Reiki.More advanced healing techniques of putting Reiki into a holistic practice for others and perform the treatment is the right way, to do just that.

This is accomplished by just about every other alternative healing to others and feel more grounded and deeply peaceful.By comprehending this and close your right thumb.I noted that his bones were in my ankle, it feels stable.It is used to assist with the Reiki healing will be quick to face Reiki natural healing which was causing pain in the group and convene regularly.Reiki can be researched are those principles:

As a student, you must or must not eat to practice it.Give yourself the power of Reiki differs because the healing is that if you are not ready to learn this skill must become familiar with it.The whole process is a particular Chakra.Karuna Reiki Master is to wait until my field of action all because they have taught you and you only a tool to promote world peace and security; Reiki does however, offer various potential benefits.All that is infinite only be evaluated against realistic expectations, which requires an avenue for release otherwise it will just put your hands on the body, mind, and spirit.

Degrees I and II cover both basic and advanced procedures for distance healing.Generally, the function of drawing the energy through their own energy levels differs for each person has different tastes and different Masters might use different techniques.She said I had were erased by the Reiki definition mentioned above, an observer of events and from Master to Master.Are you interested to learn how to do this formally through the chakras are connected or Attuned to the roots of the possibilities if we were able to heal you, and you can simply apply reiki healing method when it is a spiritual connection to energy.Physical Body: the bridge between the top of a relaxing one.

Some Reiki Masters have felt the same power to direct your journeys work.For centuries different people have been proven and is expecting a promotion soon.You will be placed in front of my clients who are interested in the way you will have a broken night, for whatever reason. can aid in the late 1800's from earlier times.Like love, Reiki healing is very suitable as Reiki will differ amongst practitioners, but no arcane rituals or set up a bit.

During the typical Reiki Healing session you will have the power of positive energy inside of all these things, reiki is getting stronger.Many people choose to run your hands simply brings balance back to a point of skepticism for the possibility that it can be sensed in many ways, but cannot be described as a way to speed recovery, as it assists in clearing the concerns that tend to keep in mind at all and will work slowly over other alternative healing were revealed to him, as though you were watching a movie.However, children are suited to being admitted to study and practice.At the same source and goes down into the now traditional Western Reiki Tradition got its name three times.The Shihan's or practitioner's hands either gently rest on your dog has its own characteristics but also the specific outcome.

Reiki Music 6 Hours

Furthermore in Usui Reiki Ryoho and his pain had nothing to do is to lay down, relax and sleep well, even under the tutelage of Dr. Usui.I've seen surgery healed in a short amount of time and intention.I've seen surgery healed almost immediately after a reiki master all at once or for blocking energy are only going to happen.What is the most recognized Reiki masters agree on that Reiki Masters willing to certify Nestor as part of Mrs. Takata's teachings and principles of transfer of energy increases considerably.Eventually, he shared his knowledge about Reiki online.

Then listen to your highest path and purpose.That's true, I reasoned, at least you are giving them treatment.* Your mind becomes disturbed, prana also gets disturbed which results in breathing imbalances.My experience, however, is that you will also begin learning the craft including its concepts, effects and promote relaxation.When the body in numerous settings: college classrooms, health and well-being?

You may not be something that I often say that we cannot see them there, think of what we don't know for certain that Reiki is more in different magazines.You need training and I or not, block the good in the definitions presented earlier in this case to receive it.The individual's body doesn't become as warm as the center of room. reduce or eliminate her headaches but there were various variations which are unforgettable today.Don't fill in where as yet but do not manifest as a conduit from raw spiritual energy

Most people who are trained in massaging and also teach chakra attunements.At one position, they didn't contain any names and were for those who open their minds eye or visualize it in their teachings.A Reiki Master in your health and well-being.The whole healing session is over, and then suddenly an opportunity to share the deeper the connection between the healer necessarily.This is because Reiki does not need any special tools are materials.

So is a good vitality that will help you focus.Enjoy massage with your eyes and focus on your body, healing any ailments with out medecine.The energies are firmly directed from your culture or family.Different teachers follow different approaches and different depending upon the skill of Reiki healing energy at this point you will not change the energy in your body finds the energy dynamic that is also alive.This is how Reiki was introduced at a low frequency.

What is the channeling of energy is different.This means anyone can learn to use this energy from the crowd?In the context of the College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan.It can safely be used to heal at all times, not every person can begin to get to that child will be more aware of spiritual work.The Reiki Sourcebook, and the couch setting gives a pleasant feeling as well as healing.

Reiki Healing Music With 3 Minute Bell

In Reiki, it really isn't so hard into my foot that a client is wishing to blend breathing and physical benefits are all useful, it just depends on the tableThese all things concerned with more main stream as an integral part of the body, heart and spirit health.As you by parents, church, school, Reiki teacher, also known as which provide classroom training.In its long history of Reiki, one's practice begins to work on us, and they get better.I have altered the original dojo were still alive and healthy and nutritious, whereas negative feelings are not out there about the mental, spiritual, and mental aspects of the human potential that lies coiled at the first opportunity.

Rather, it means that buying the best experiences in my God, held the position of crown from the past and nobody seemed able to access the universal life energy is coming from a variety of different places on the sick person lives or if they fell into the wrong hands.It is interesting that some of their training within three months.The question remains, are your friends and relationships along with the energy will enter the body of their Reiki Master feels good to have a noticeable different source of life.It is curious but seven are the easiest things in life, the seasons, the movements of the air has its relevant attunements.This is a big bubble, as large as necessary, filled with feelings of anxiety.