#The GM Has Logged Into Another World

[christiansorrell]

RPG Read-through: .dungeon//remastered

For a while on Twitter, I've been doing read-through threads where I post my thoughts as I'm reading through a game for the first time. I recently did the same with Snow's .dungeon//remastered, a TTRPG where you are players logging in to a dead/dying MMO and exploring the digital fantasy world. I'm adapting those thoughts here for a proper Tumblr post! Enjoy!

First up, credits! Good folks who do good work in my experience. Also, we get the first of what seems to be a common through-line here that I enjoy: an online fandom bent to this all being a sort of GameFAQ style guide for an in-universe game.

My initial impression from most of the interior spreads I've seen just flipping through it is that I really love the style and layout. I think black and white layouts are underrated generally, but it really pops here with the pixelated text/symbols and the old school GUIs.

It's interesting to have these kind of "no bigotry" rules you see in many games couched within an in-universe framing. I think this more personal angle actually makes them land better for me than they typically do in games.

Of course, the author is still powerless to stop the players (just like with any instance of these rules, and all game rules in general tbh) BUT this is worldbuilding too, and it gives me a greater sense for the kind of in-universe fandom that's risen up around .dungeon.

Similarly, here's the game's unique version of safety tools - an in-game help menu that reworks things like lines/veils, x-card and more into the game world itself. I really like this.

Once again, the art in this is just great. I love the Fez-like runes/symbols. My ARG brain wants to know if there's a hidden message here.

I was surprised it was jumping right into the starter adventure, Tutorial Town, but I quickly found out that this is character creation AND a starting area/adventure all wrapped into one, video game-style, and that's so cool.

Each room of the starting area introduces a step of character creation. It's interesting that stats are based on real-world (not you the player at the table real-world but your PC at the "real-world" computer playing the game) ability. Your game knowledge, response time, etc.

As a long time Dota player, I also just really enjoy that the saving throw-like stat here is TILT. I have tilted many times and known many of my teammates to tilt regularly. Just fun to see that phrasing in a TTRPG.

There's more of the in-universe real-world player here than I expected coming in. Definitely has some really intriguing potential. I do wonder though if the intent is to be playing a "real-world" level character or if you are "playing" as yourself at that layer. Both would work.

Monster statblocks. Easy to parse and straightforward to run as the GM (tho at time the layout does have one two many things laid on top of one another that can make them hard to read at first glance - like where "GOBLIN" is here):

Health here is SYNC, and it's shared across the whole party - I'm interested to see how that full mechanic plays out and how it may affect play.

Reaction rolls. I'm surprised to see them given the video game setting, cus mobs in MMOs just always attack you. I've gone back and forth on it with my video game-inspired TTRPG. Don't think it's a bad choice, just one that means the game world is more than a usual video game.

So you have your real-world level Job (based on your characters' out of game job) and your in-game "Role" which follow the classic "holy trinity" of MMO design:

PCs and monsters can team up to attack and can forego damage for stunts - potentially fun/interesting moments happening from that. Monsters deal dmg to SYNC but only per type is interesting, means a crowd of one-enemy is more a long trickle of damage than an overwhelming burst.

Not knowing the ramifications of SYNC damage yet, I'm not sure what the Risk v Reward looks like for Respawns but it's intriguing. Letting your avatar die to keep the party in a stronger position overall (but being able to re-join after a fight) is definitely unique.

This is another fun room (and I like that other than saying late 90s/early 2000s it leaves appearance options open). I am not sure where to find the starting origins tho (they aren't on this spread and there's no page reference). Sadly, the PDF isn't bookmarked either, it seems.

This feels like a smart roadblock to place in player's paths early on. It's unlikely they'll have a lockpick at this point so really, it's about getting players into that creative mindset. What is in the room for you to exploit? What gear do you have you can use in a new way?

Might seem basic, especially to the OSR-experienced out there, but you'd be surprised how many players don't have experience with thinking more freeformly about the game in this way. No fault to them, most trad games condition you to use your PC's abilities/skills as a menu.

Another cool interaction between the layers of the game here (tho I do wish they all played more off of something more than just the tarot card being in the real-world layer). Still wondering if most folks play as themselves or as a real-world level PC.

This is interesting. I wonder if there is going to be a real-world layer to play or if this is meant to be the amount your party can heal between sessions of play (like when the actual real you stops playing in actual real life - this meta layer stuff is tricky to communicate).

I like this - a very short and sweet travel system.

I continue to love this art. Also, this tease here around dual-wielding requiring the discovery of new Roles out in the game world somewhere first is really enticing (I added the highlighter there btw).

This is fun - there are both in-game NPCs and PUGs which are other real-world players' in-game avatars. That extra layer to those types of NPCs is really fun and them running the gamut of fully out-of-character chatting to being hardcore RPers is fun to consider.

Whenever it leans into the digital world aspects, I'm super into it. Very much my kinda thing. I do wonder though how often players can swap their Roles. I don't believe I've seen that said yet - my inclination would be once on the fly (like Final Fantasy's Job systems).

And if these various layers weren't enough, .dungeon also features in-game collectible cards that are sort of enchantments and buffs. I wonder if my real-world level character can spend real money to buy Bytes to buy more packs from a merchant in town? lol

I won't spoil/detail too many more of these but these kind of fun (and common to video games but rarely seen when thinking of the world of a game or the intended way to play) moments are really appealing. Also, this game has Goons in it. Oh no.

Now I'm thinking the intention is the "real-world" level of play should be the real actual you, the person playing .dungeon the TTRPG (as opposed to a real-world level character still within the fiction of the game) since stuff like this would be tricky to track. Cool item!

Tutorial Island is cool, a good blend of char creation, intro to what the game is, and just a fun adventure with a session or more of play to it. I'd have to run/play this to really see but I find the Sync being tied to essentially your real-world session length interesting.

This stuff is cool and leans into that meta/fan-level play that only comes out of these big community-driven games, both MMOs but also things like Dark Souls.

A lot of these kind of possible secrets come as comments in the text, possibly just to inspire the GM and to get players interested in ways that the table can build out on their own over time. So far, I don't see some of the more esoteric secrets to be laid out (which I like).

The rest of the book, as far as I've seen, is lots of resources, gear tables, monsters, etc. to build out the game after player's leave Tutorial Island. The game world here has that anything goes Final Fantasy bent to it. There's swords & wagons, but laser guns & skateboards too.

The setting here is also explicitly queer (mostly seen so far in the "real-world" PUGs) and includes things like sex workers and other elements that it maybe could not have had but that would certainly lessen the richness of its world, the fandom presented throughout, etc.

The spellcasting uses the in-game money as mana points essentially. That's a cool way to limit spellcasting and motivate player's, especially spellcasters, to get out there and make some $$$.

Okay, here's the real-world explanation I was waiting for (after the in-game gear lists and such). This is cool - it's fun to have a real-life layer to this and to have the game's world support that sort of dropping in and out, doing things outside of a full party session, etc.

I know a lot of folks do this with ongoing campaigns anyway, but this is one of those fun things to include here to build that in as an expectation in play. You have your raid nights with friends and you have your little solo sessions after work where you sell your loot.

Now, the rest is a nice collection of random dungeon, NPC, settlement, hexfill tables and more. Everything you'd expect from an OSR-like ruleset but occasionally with some fun added meta-layers.

Players getting a quest from an in-game Moderator and then being able to become a Mod themselves is a really fun idea and something I could envision becoming a long-term goal for one or more players at a table. The threat of encountering an Admin is scary as well!

To finish it up, we've got a cool AASCII-style character sheet, complete with MingLiU-ExtB font (my beloved)!

And that's .dungeon//remastered! I really enjoyed reading this, and I think it has a strong core that's really enhanced by its real-world interaction layer. Gonna put this on "Play Soon" list. There are some smart rules in particular I'll likely steal for a future project.

.dungeon//remastered is available digitally NOW with, I believe, physical copies coming soon. I backed the Kickstarter to get this digital version. CHECK IT OUT HERE!

[dailycharacteroption]

Needler (Rogue Archetype)

(art by MagicalKaleidoscope on DeviantArt)

Poison and rogues go together like biscuits and gravy, like pinapple and ham in a slow cooker, and more food pairing analogies. Perhaps the only class that has a stronger association with poison would be the alchemist, due to their skill at making and improving them.

However, while the rogue class has plenty of talents and archetypes geared towards using poison to the best of their ability, today’s subject is among the more creative, and I mean that in-universe. I mean, let’s face it, in a lot of games most poisons that a rogue would use are injury poisons, and not used very subtly. It’s kinda hard to be subtle with a knife or arrow in someone’s back, even if nobody hears or sees it.

However, poisons are not just injury-based. There are plenty that are poisonous fumes, toxic food additives, or simply are so toxic that not even skin is a barrier against them.

With these delivery methods, a rogue can do some truly nasty things, such as adding a log laced with poison to a campfire and gassing those sitting around it, or coating the Macguffiin the villain tries to steal from the party in poison to give them a nasty surprise when they think they’ve succeeded.

Today’s archetype is a master of such poisons, and delivering them subtly so that none are truly aware of where the poison came from. An ingested poison coating a wax coating on their lips, a hidden needle that scratches the target when they embrace them. (“Oh sorry, I have a rough edge on my cufflinks”), and so on. Even when they are overt, the roundabout types of poisons they use are sure to throw those investigating for a loop.

These poisoners have especially deft and well-practiced hands, especially with their poisoned weapons, concealing them and drawing them with ease.

Normally contact and ingested poisons are only really good for the appropriate application method, but these poisoners can use such poisons with their weapons in a pinch either to make use of their unique properties or throw off poison experts with the delivery method. However, such uses are weaker and tend to evaporate quickly.

They can also add poison to their weaponry at a faster rate, subtly adding toxins on the fly.

The real power of this archetype, however, comes when they learn to use subtle methods to deliver any poison to their target at close range. A dab of toxic vapor on the neck during an embrace, a poisonous kiss, and so on. However, such clandestine methods also make the poison unstable or precarious, meaning they must use it quickly or lose it.

A fun option for characters that want to use poison in such a way that their prey doesn’t even realize they’re poisoned until it’s too late, this archetype could see a lot of good use in an intrigue game. That being said, it is worth noting that it does not on it’s own grant poison use, so you’ll have to take a talent or another class with the ability to avoid poisoning yourself on accident. With that said, I recommend a bluff and sleight of hand build so as to be able to gain the confidence of others and envenom them without them ever suspecting.

Because poison in RPGs is typically used in combat, it can be sometimes hard to remember that in the real world, it can actually be hard to tell initially that one has been poisoned. Not every toxin has an obvious source, and not all of them are painful. There is sudden awareness of being envenomed as if one had a dialogue box or icon above their head indicating they’ve been afflicted. If you want to realistically depict a lot of venoms as a GM, I’d consider doing a little bit of research into toxicology and symptoms.

The champion of the local arena hasn’t lost in a long time, and certainly he looks like a truly powerful man. However, rumor abound how his challengers always seem to undergo bouts of weakness before or during the match, and one has to wonder if his skills lie in combat, or more dishonorable paths to victory.

The adaro are a warrior people that revel in combat and the wildness of nature. However, a nearby tribe has suddenly begun attacking merchant vessels without any of their normal enthusiasm. In truth, their leader was usurped by one of their own, a black sheep who has subtly been lacing the water around their home with poisons to weaken those who dare question their rule, turning them into petty pirates to their shame and chagrin.

Heeding whispers in the dark, a local apothecary has begun seeding chaos by providing and applying his poisons to sow discord and strife around the city, all to chase the vague promise of power the voice offers. In truth, it is a xacabra, who has no intention of making good on their promise, but will likely share some of it’s fiendish poison with the apothecary next.

[r-rook-studio]

Cross posted from the R. Rook Studio blog.

So over the course of July, I’ve gotten material from me (yay!), Noora Rose, and Bendi Barrett, and forwarded all of that over to Jared Sinclair, the official editor of Roseville Beach (and really, all of Rose Island). I don’t brag much about my own skills, but I get to work with some of the most thoughtful and skilled people in tabletop RPGs. Jared wrapped up his developmental comments on this first round of documents late last week, so we’re ready to start making some previews.

Dim All the Lights (Announcement List | Kickstarter Pre-launch) is coming together, and to celebrate, we’re making some early-release zines!

Dim All the Lights 1: New Characters on Roseville Beach

While I call Dim All the Lights a “Mystery Book,” it includes new tools and toys for players as well as GMs. The first of these is a set of origin stories:

The Veteran has spent most of their adult life hunting monsters and studying the occult in the employ of the wealthy and powerful. Now you’ve come here to Roseville Beach to use your skills to keep a community safe. You’ve forgotten more than most people will ever know. Each session, you choose a background and during the session pick three skills you want to use as you need them. You also have a Go Bag from which you can make your own new Supply Checks for equipment others wouldn’t thave access to.

The Changeling was once a normal kid in the terrestrial world but were taken away to another. You’ve since grown up and returned, only to discover someone else has been living your life. Your time among non-humans has give you a deep understanding of what others are thinking and taught you a few supernatural tricks (that are more routine but easier than working magic with sorcery and words of power).

The Rose Island Regular has a job like everyone else, but they’ve had more Rose Island jobs than almost anyone else. Instead of a separate set of skills and backgrounds, the Regular takes a current job and two former jobs. They’ve also got a reputation around town, and know a lot of Roseville Beach gossip.

The Mainland Renegade came out to Roseville Beach for a short getaway. It was supposed to be a few days. And then you stayed. The Renegade is a slightly more mature version of The Fresh Face from the core book, and was inspired by Mary Ann Singleton from Maupin’s Tales of the City.

The book also includes a few more jobs around Roseville Beach (like fire fighter, drag king/queen, and bookstore clerk) and Rose Island (like an admin for the park department), and the option of being self-employed as a band member, writer, swim coach, or repairperson.

Dim All the Lights 2: Entities of Roseville Beach

Inspired by The X Files, SCP, and The Magus Archives, Noora Rose wrote five new “Entities of Roseville Beach.” Moonlight on Roseville Beach doesn’t have opponent, antagonist, creature, NPC, or monster stats: If you can figure out how to hurt something, it has up to 3 hit points. Instead, Noora took things in a new direction and focused instead on the entity’s victims and the evidence they leave behind.

Noora, who wrote the strange events generator of Moonlight on Roseville Beach, where ever die roll is a small, eerie fragment of a horrifying story, tackled this section, and I spoke after reading an early draft of her work back in June, but now Noora’s expanded the section, adding more detail and some GM notes.

Instead of focusing on the entities, Noora focuses on their victims, looking at what witnesses saw and what the victims recorded in their own journals and logs. Her work not only introduces the entities but creates clues and player handouts. I’ve mocked up a couple of layouts here.

Here, Dr. Jo Norris is logging her observations on a mysterious sea slug that she’ll soon learn can take the form of anything it’s near.

Here, we take a look at the diary of Nicole Wolf, a young woman who went missing after starting to date a singer named whose waterlogged diary was found at the beach.

Noora also added a bunch of GM notes on using the entities, and I've created a short mystery generator using the entities in Roseville Beach.

[sevilemar]

Hello, hope you're going well! You introduced me to dimension20 and I love it so thank you!!

What advice would you give to a first-time DM?

Thanks in advance and have a wonderful week!

That's so awesome! I'm so glad you found D20, I love them so much! <3 What are you watching at the moment? I'm into Neverafter, as you probably know 😉, but my absolute favourite is Misfits and Magic. It's just four episodes, but everyone is absolutely killing it, it's so much fun!

Are you thinking about taking the plunge and go see what the gras looks like from the other side of the screen? That's really awesome! Ok, here's what I know (I've only GMed a couple of sessions yet, so it's all very new for me, too^^):

- I think there's a few things you probably should decide in advance, with your players or alone: what genre and tone you wanna hit, and if you wanna homebrew your world completely, play in a campaign setting like Eberron or Wildemount, or play a module with a storyline. Essentially, the question is how much of a world builder and overarching story crafter are you?

- When we decided on a campaign setting, it was important for me to let my players know that it's my Eberron, and that things will probably be different from the books. It gave me the freedom to improvise, which I absolutely needed.

- Have a session zero, it's really important. You need to make sure you and your players are on the same page about genre and tone. Also, you need to communicate any limitations on character creation. I told them they all have to find a reason to work at this one newspaper. Another thing is establishing lines and veils, and other safety tools. Google them, they're important. I think it's best to keep an open document somewhere everyone has access to, so it can be added on by everyone. Also, talk about logistics (when, where, how often, how do you handle food, etc.). You can also make your characters together, maybe they'll find the first touching points (two characters already know each other, etc.)

- Character creation is a process, I find. I love being involved in it, it helps me get to know the characters before we play, and it can be a very creative process for both you and your player.

- I don't think of it as 'writing a story', because that's really not what I'm doing. I'm 'yes, and'-ing my players with story. I'm putting stuff in front of my PCs and see what they do with it. Then I take their reactions and make up new stuff based on what they did. And by stuff I mean plot beats, world building details, monsters, puzzles, etc. And sometimes I do it on the spot at the table, and sometimes I do it at home in preparation. Both are equally valid.

- I think of my 'story' as layered storybeats. I know the overall layer: what happened in the past, and what different factions and sometimes my PCs want to happen in the future. Everyone at the table knows the present, and I have planned stuff for the near future. But the near future can change based on what's happening at the table. And sometimes, those changes mean the overall layer of the story also needs to change, past and future.

- It's only canon if you said it at the table. It was very important for me to realise, because it gave me the freedom to shape what's happening into a good story. And if I have to change a past my PCs don't know about yet to make it fit the story we're currently telling, of course I'll change it. I don't tell my players, though. For me as GM, both past and future is to be decided; for my players, the past needs to be fixed to be discovered, and the future theirs to influence.

- Take notes. Lots of notes. Details, people you made up, things to come back to, things that affect other things, consequences, etc. I haven't found a good way to organise them yet, but I keep a detailed session log, and also files on places and the people/organisations associated with them.

- I reskin monsters all the time. Making them look different, or taking a more dangerous monster and nerf some of its abilities, etc. I feel it serves me better that way.

- Encounter building is difficult in general, so I started small. I used kobold fight club for the first three encounters, but for the bbeg I made a character sheet and just went to town. I also adjust at the table, both how many monsters there are, and sometimes their abilities.

- Don't plan more than your next session. Maybe some shops and stuff like that, but I find it easy to improvise these things at the table. Remembering them after is the more interesting task here^^

- What you need is a good understanding of the setting and the world, but you don't really need to know every detail. Think about the mechanics of things, and details will follow logically. For example, the main communication device in my Eberron are crystals, so newspapers are also distributed by it. Which means there are big crystal screens in every city and town for the public, and also private news crystals for the wealthy. My newspaper also has a squad of low-level magic users who send news articles in a chanting ritual every Tuesday and Friday morning to these crystals. The rest of the time they use divination magic to check facts, establish timelines and connections, etc.

- Make a list of names, it'll come in really handy.

- I don't really concern myself with my player's character sheets. I sometimes ask for clarification, and sometimes my players do and I make a ruling, but overall, I trust them to know their shit, especially in a fight where I'm busy running everything else.

- I was so fucking jittery before my first session. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, and my nerves kept me on adrenaline the whole day. If you have this too, practice your first sentences, it helps. And tell your players, they will be very understanding.

- There is a lot more out of game communication involved than you'll think. Depending on the type of campaign you're running, you'll need check ins and aftercare and sometimes just talking and shooting the shit together. I think of it like a BDSM session, because it can be just as emotionally intense sometimes. And even if it's just a lighthearted thing, make sure everyone is alright after a session, even if it's just a quick check in the next day.

- Give yourself some grace. A lot of it, actually. You're new to this, and it is a lot. Something Aabria once said helped me so much. She said something like: 'But see me in six months'. And it's true. I learned so much with every session, and I'm still learning. I put a lot of it down in my 'dming' tag, so you can see for yourself and follow my progress if you like.

It's a lot of work, nonny, and it's a lot of fun. I'm not sure if I like it better than being a player, but it certainly has made me into a much better player, even after a few sessions. Try it out for yourself, and let me know what you think.

Edit: I got a lot of this stuff from Adventuring Academy, or the GMs of Exandria Round Table, or Matthew Colville.

[ljaesch]

J-Novel Club's Announcements at Anime Expo 2022

J-Novel Club’s Announcements at Anime Expo 2022

J-Novel Club announced during its panel at Anime Expo 2022 that it has licensed the following light novels: Re:RE — Reincarnator Executioner Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta Yashiro-kun’s Guide to Going Solo The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Trusted Companions Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to the Gift of an…

[niche-drama]

Chess Drama: The PIPI Saga

Part 1: Setting the Stage

It’s September of 2020, half a year into the pandemic. It’ll be months before there’ll be vaccines for COVID-19, and all the “normal”, “respectable” chess tournaments have been on hiatus, because they dare not meet IRL and they’re too set in their ways to go virtual.

Online chess events with less clout but bigger prize pools have stepped forward to fill this gap, including the “PRO Chess League” (PRO being an acronym for Professional Rapid Online), a team-format championship where teams from different places compete against each other for a title.

This year, the winners of the tournament are a shock: the Armenia Eagles, a lesser-known team even in this lesser-known format for pro-level chess. Their all-star for the tournament is GM Tigran Petrosian (no, not the former World Chess Champion by that name, but another guy whose dad named him after the former champion), who won three of the four games he played and tied the fourth - an almost unbelievably good result at the top level of chess.

In fact, it was so unbelievable that even one of the other players in the tournament started to imply that he didn’t believe it.

GM Wesley So (a top-10-in-the-world grandmaster who was playing for the St Louis Archbishops in this tournament, who won 2nd place) commented on the chess.com article announcing the Eagles’ win with this:

The “secret gin” was a reaction to Petrosian’s joking interview comment that he’d achieved his results in this tournament because he’d had a glass of gin to drink as he played.

The second part of the comment, though, is a deeper cut. On chess.com, often instead of publicly banning titled players who’ve been found to cheat, they’ll just contact those players and ban them privately.  Basically “your account won’t show that you’re banned, but never log in again if you want it to stay that way”. In other words, Wesley was implying that:

Andriasian and Sargsyan had been cheating in a previous event and were quietly told to leave town, and

Petrosian had possibly achieved this result by committing the same sin.

Part 2: Wait, cheating at chess?

Yes, it’s possible. To oversimplify... it’s like copying the answer to a hard test question off your genius deskmate, except the “deskmate” is your desktop computer. Chess programs have been better at chess than humans for decades now; in theory, all you need to do to beat a human is enter the game into Stockfish and see what it thinks is the best move.

In practice, it’s much harder than that. Try logging into a chess website and rocketing up the ranks by copying the computer’s homework, and you’ll be banned pretty quickly. It turns out that computer moves don’t look like human moves, and people playing computer moves don’t behave like people playing their own moves either; the big chess websites all have secret sauce to try to detect cheaters, or to investigate games where they think cheating has occurred.

Of course, in an officially organized, professional event, the most straightforward way is just for the players to be watched while playing, so that it’s clear whether or not they have Droidfish open on their phones - whether by a live tournament rep in the player’s house, or just by setting up enough cameras that the judges can see what’s going on. That’s the “proctoring” that Wesley mentions in his followup comment to the thread:

The PRO Chess League finals, despite being an online-native event, only requires the players to set up a single facecam - not the multi-camera setup that would be necessary to see what the contestants are actually doing. And the “single facecam” video from the event does show Petrosian repeatedly glancing down at... something... during the tensest moments of his games.

Part 3: Classics of Post

Early the next morning, Tigran Petrosian catches wind of the conversation going on in the article comments, and decides to reply to Wesley’s accusations. But the way he chooses to do it, well... take a look for yourself.

This pretty much instantly ascended to copypasta status in the chess fandom. The /r/chess subreddit had to install an automod to remove reposts of it. Meanwhile, /r/AnarchyChess installed a bot to automatically post it whenever any of the main characters or catchphrases of this story were mentioned.

Wesley accepts the offer for an IRL money match, with a final snide remark: “You are clearly the king of online chess, man. But I will dare fight you over-the-board.”

Unfortunately, the “PIPI Invitational”, as GM Hikaru Nakamura called it in a Twitch stream, ends up not happening. Later that day, chess.com and the Pro Chess League make a joint announcement that, after conducting an investigation, they determined that Tigran Petrosian was, in fact, cheating in the semifinals and finals of the tournament. Petrosian is banned from the PCL for life, the Eagles get tempbanned, and the prizes get redistributed... thereby proving Petrosian right that, one way or another, “liers will kicked off”.

[jeeperso]

D&D Quotes Without Context

Ravenloft edition, Barovia arc, part 1

OOC1: Tonight on Ravenloft: Strahd buys an air fryer. OOC2: Jonni has a name, you know. Gorbash: "Remember Jonni we've established, pretty thoroughly that we DO NOT want to pick a fight here." Jonni: "Can he read thoughts?" Gorbash: "I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he's used to having people thinking about making him explode." Sergei comes over to Jonni, "You know the deal, if you don't get us killed, you can have you pick of any lady in the caravan." Several pretty young lady give you a thumbs up from the side. Gorbash: "...Sometimes I think that life would be better if I didn't try to be reasonable so much of the time. Nobody offers to bribe me with beautiful women." Jonni: “I am insulted. Both that I need permission and the implication that I’d ravish anyone remotely unwilling. And when I say ravish, I mean they may not be capable of conscious thought for the next 24 hours I will be so thorough.” In the distance, through the mist, you see a carriage, pulled by skeletal horses. Jonni: “If I’m good I want one of those. But on fire.” Gorbash: "They'd probably a nightmare to stable." Strahd smiles and holds up the pot "I made a goulash." Jonni: “See, this is the kind of dread overlord I can respect.” Nyx: "Oh, things in boxes aren't that bad. It is the things in ancient urns or sealed in statues that you really have to worry about." Jonni: “See, more dread overlords should be polite so I don’t have to set them on fire.” "So you two know each other?" "Yeah: we robbed a mad wizard together." "Having been to Hazlan I can say that Mad Wizards suck and generally deserve to have their stuff taken." "I arrested Blackrazor." "That just raises further questions!" Gorbash: "Well we'll get that story another time." GM: And for the record Strahd's goulash slaps. "Yog-sothoth is my grandpa. But pretty much everything with an unpronounceable name is related somehow." GM: Marshal, Edmund, you hear a scream come from the edge of the caravan. Jonni: If Jonni’s on that side, that’s normal. "Die monsters! You don't belong in this world" Vampire: "Oh like we haven't heard that one before." "You think we give a shit about that piece of shit Strahd?" “Didn’t the Vistani say Strahd turned the last guy fucked with the Vistani inside out?” "We are VLAD: the Vampire Legion of Anarchy and Disestablishmentarianism." "Our cause is just, and our balls are huge." "I don't know who named them, either: what monster names their kid 'Kevin'?" "Rich white humans." "SILENCE! FEAR THE WILL OF MIGHTY KEVIN!" OOC: Dropping slow and Polymorphing Kevin into a giant snail. GM OOC: And he got a nat 1. On the plus side he's not longer taking radiant damage each turn. Shitbeard looks around. "OH NO, SHE TURNED THE BOSS INTO A SNAIL WITH HER ENEMY STAND. NO ONE LOOK AT ANY RAINBOWS." Piotr just facepalms "Goddammit Shitbeard." Jonni: “What the shit are you on, and where can I get some.” Poom looks at the finger she pointed with. "Weak-ass performance. May need pills." OOC: Brb, bathroom. Also, taffee. "Darn it! Next time go with small and fuzzy instead of slimy, Jonni." "Last remarks logged and noted." "Jonni, how long does that polymorph last?" “Like, an hour if we don’t slap him around.” "As a paladin, it is against my vows to strike down the helpless, even an abomination like that. It's all yours, everyone." OOC: If our last domain taught us anything its Do Not Open Spooky Boxes. There is NEVER anything good inside.

[dragonologist-phd]

tagged by @yanara126, thank you! I’ll tag @lunarowena, @antivan-beau, @undyingembers, and anyone else who has an AO3 account and hasn’t been tagged!

How many works do you have on AO3.

103 (although a lot of them are short prompt fills less than 500 words, so I wouldn’t exactly call them full fics. more like a bunch of little ficlets lol)

What’s your total AO3 words count?

426,595 (drive up quite a bit by the logs of our pillars ttrpg!)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1) After, And After That: Critical Role, post-epilogue one-shot centered on Grog/Keyleth:

“So you’re here with Keyleth?” “Yeah,” Grog replied, not thinking much of the question until he noticed the way Vex was looking at him. “What?” “I mean… you’re here with Keyleth?” she pressed, raising an eyebrow. Oh.

A collection of moments after the epilogue, as two members of Vox Machina grieve and heal and grow, and eventually find something neither ever could have expected.  

2) Critical Role Relationship Week 2018: Critical Role, a collection of drabbles done for a fic event week (my favorite of which, btw, is  Day 5: The Rules of Courtship):

CR Relationship Week 2018! A week's worth of one-shots focused on the relationship between 2 random characters.

Day 1- The Vicious Truth: (Fjord & Mollymauk) Day 2- Kittens Are Cute (And So Are You): (Grog/Keyleth) Day 3- Page Turner: (Caleb & Taryon) Day 4- A Comma After Dearest (Jester/Calianna) Day 5- The Rules Of Courtship: (Pike & Kaylie) Day 6- Late Nights and Bloody Knuckles: (Grog & Yasha) Day 7- Give And Take: (Jester & Nott)

3) Please, Be Enough: Critical Role, one-shot, Vex-centric character study:

For so much of her life, Vex'ahlia has tried to be enough.

4) Beautiful Things: Mass Effect Andromeda, collection of drabbles written as I played through the game with Rebecca Ryder and which I’m currently trying to re-write now that I’ve expanded on my headcanons a bit more:

 It's an entirely new horizon, after all, and anything is possible. There are infinite breakthroughs yet to be made, and Becca is in the perfect position to make them.

A collection of one-shots centering around the Pathfinder career of Rebecca Ryder.  

5) The Greatest Friend Ever: Critical Role, one-shot focused on Jester and The Traveler:

 Jester laughs in delighted surprise, and for a moment it feels like someone is laughing alongside her.

A look into the past of Jester and the god who became her best friend.  

(the moral of the story is that CR is by far the most active fandom I’ve been in!)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Absolutely! Usually just a short ‘thank you’, but I still try to respond to anything I get!

What’s the fic with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, a lot of my fics fall into the ‘angst with a happy ending’ category, so that’s a bit hard to say... best fit for this would probably be To The Bride (Dragon Age, F!Cousland/Anora)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Again, hard to say! I have a lot of short fics that sweet & simple endings.  Coffee And Honey Cake (Pillars Coffeshop!AU) is probably the fluffiest all the way through, since that’s kind of my apology to Nona for her canon-verse being so angsty XD

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

Not really...I do quite a bit of AU’s, but that’s not really the same. Closest I’ve come is with The Dunryd Archives, my Pillars MagnusArchives!AU

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope!

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

lol no...even if I wanted to, I feel like the secondhand embarrassment would be unbearable

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Another nope!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

That one’s a yes! Queen's Best Friend (Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Baroness/Kanerah) was translated into Russian- I guess in a fandom so small, we need to share the rarepairs as much as we can!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Technically yes!  Prepare For The Dawn is a log of the Pillars ttrpg between me, @lunarowena @rannadylin and @serenbach86, with Bazylia_de_Grean on AO3 as the gm!

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

*shrug*? I never really had a favorite ship, since my fav ships vary depending on my mood and what I’m into at the moment

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I will finish all my WIPs! I cannot be stopped! (Although I admit  Prodigy has been on the back burner for a good while, but still. It will be finished!)

What are your writing strengths?

I think do pretty good characterization, especially with inner dialogue, and character relationships- I have been told I write good banter, which feels like a fantastic compliment XD

What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot, my goodness. I admire people who write original plots so much- I can make OC’s and world-build in my head, but I almost never have a plot to go with it

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don’t really have any? Obviously it works best if the author is actually fluent in the language and doesn’t just use Google Translate, but I don’t care much one way or the other

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter, which is probably like...the basic bitch of fandoms, lol, but middle school me loved it!

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Ooh, that’s really tough! I like a lot of my fics for very different reasons. Of Diamonds And Dust (Dragon Age Origins novelization with Aeducan & Brosca) is the one I’ve been working on the longest, and I’m always going to be very fond of it. I think Divinity (Pillars, Goddess!Nona AU) has some of my best writing. And With Grace In Your Heart (Pillars, Desta character study) will always have a very special place in my heart because it was the first fic I wrote for Pillars and was when I really established Desta’s character.

So there’s 3 to choose from!

[thedungeondoctor]

More Than the Adventure!

Alright, you've got your adventurers traveling across a kingdom of your creation fighting bad guys, earning treasure, exploring dangerous ruins. What more could you ask for? While the adventure is the main goal and doing that well is a big achievement, have you considered what fun could be had outside of the main adventure?

It can be easy to get nervous as a GM and think that if your players doing quest related action all the time that people won't have as much fun, but you might be surprised at the simple things your players can enjoy role playing. Now maybe you stick very closely to action scenes because you and your group are not very comfortable or practiced in role playing. That's totally fine. I want to suggest some simple ways that you spend some time outside of the main adventure and still have fun. Whether you've created a world the PCs have known all their lives or if you've taken them to a new land of wonder, remember that these environments should have activities to offer and culture to be shared. Let me share a short example:

After your defense of the temple, the monks and priestesses ask you to join them in a celebration ceremony to honor their deity and good fortune. You are welcomed into a large room with marble floors and beautiful streaming silks hanging on the walls. You take seats on plush floor pillows and watch a well-practiced prayer ceremony. Afterwards, everyone leads you into another room with a large pool and boards fixed over the water. They inform you that their ceremonial dance takes place on these beams and if you fall in then you will have given all the effort you can to honor their god. They tell you that the dance will become increasingly complex as the music continues before asking you to change into robes. Okay, everyone, so we are going to roleplay your characters trying to follow this dance and make a series of Dex and Athletics rolls to see how long you last.

Have some fun! Play up the embarrassment, make it a competition, take a priest down in the water with you. Small activities like this can be a big hit with your players, and they also make your fantasy world more immersive. It gives players a chance to play into their character's personalities and really get in that head space.

Here's a list of things you could do (this certainly is not everything):

Culturally significant activities like above

Carnival games

Non-combat challenges (such as: log rolling, boulder tossing, or obstacle courses.)

Card or board games. Look up some authentic medieval card games and let the characters play a hand while they meet with a contact in the tavern.

Taking part in a play or doing something artistic

Let your bard perform at the tavern

Spellcasters can put on a show for kids

Spend some time roleplaying a party

Drinking games

The list could go on and on, there is no limit to the possibilities. If you're running a full campaign for your group, then I highly suggest mixing in activities like this often. At least give players the option. I'm writing a professional campaign right now, and I'm starting off with all social interaction and activities, and not just "you meet in a tavern." Try to be as creative with your social environments and activities as you are with your adventures.

If you or your group are not so comfortable with role playing, then here are some suggestions on how to change this. First, you should open up a dialogue with your group about role playing. Ask people how much experience they've had and what they're comfortable with. This will determine how much real role playing you'll do in your game. Start slow and don't put people on the spot. If everyone agrees that they want to build comfort and skill, then you can promote more in-depth roleplay. Try this: agree to have one role play practice interaction with each player each session. This is 2-3 minutes where a player has a conversation or interaction with an NPC. The rules are that all dialogue must be spoken in your character's voice, only actions are described in third person, and imagery or emotion is encouraged. Try to have one of these with each character in a session and encourage players to play like this as often as possible. Most importantly, remember to always have fun! Nothing is more important that!

As usual, you can contact me if you have any further questions or if you'd like to see me write a post on a specific topic. I am now writing general TTRPG supplements and creating maps. You can find them on my Ko-Fi page! 

You can find me on Twitter @flayer85

Facebook: Dungeon Doctor | Facebook

Main Blog: https://dungeondoctor.blogspot.com/

[itsbenedict]

Two-Faced Jewel: Session 3

A half-elf conwoman (and the moth tasked with keeping her out of trouble) travel the Jewel in search of, uh, whatever a fashionable accessory is pointing them at. [Campaign log]

Saelhen and Looseleaf, having acquired a band of allies to keep them safe on their entirely bogus quest to fulfill "Lady Noeru's" succession rite on behalf of the college, set out on Suika Highway towards the jungles of Thunderbrush. On the road, they face two extremely deadly combat encounters.

After checking in on the writhing hellpit they opened in Yoshimimoto Plaza (it's under control, they threw some nets over it), the party heads out onto the highway. Customs by the overland roads couldn't give less of a damn what they're bringing out of the city, so there's no scrutiny and they're well on their way.

A good thirty miles or so into the grassland, and the party has to make a perception check. Looseleaf is the one to nail it- her antennae pick up on a suspicious rustling in the tall grass by the side of the road. And even those with slightly worse rolls notice...

There's a green dragon circling lazily in the sky above them. This is bad, because dragons are... well, chromatic dragons like this green one are malevolent and extremely deadly giant monsters, is the main reason, but the other reason is that dragons are... cursed, is what the common understanding is.

To speak with a dragon is to be condemned to some sort of great misfortune, brought about by your own hand. You know the Simurgh from Worm? Listen to its song for too long, and you become sort of a sleeper agent of self-destructive carnage? It's like a diet version of that. Whatever path your conversation with the dragon puts you on, it's invariably bad for you, somehow. The metallic dragons, who're ostensibly "good", will still ruin your life in some way just by talking to you, even if your immolation does some good for the world on the way out. Nobody wants to talk to a dragon.

Luckily, they don't have to- this one seems content to circle way up in the sky, not saying a word to them. Instead, they just get attacked by a direwolf and several horrible monsters.

The whole party botches their Arcana rolls to determine what the heck these things are.

Benedict I. (GM): None of you have any idea what these things are. They're small, roughly humanoid, and... they look sort of like they're made of mud and tangled grass. They're wielding knives, some multiple knives to a hand, and they look vaguely ethereal, not quite real- possibly animated by something. The dire wolf is, of course, charging you- and the other monsters are following suit. They screech and hiss with obvious hostile intent. Roll initiative!

The party dismounts from their giraffes, since they're not trained for combat and the party isn't trained in mounted combat.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Ruffians," she mutters, with the approximate tone a non-elf might use to say "fuckers."

The party's two new melee combatants take up position in the front, while Vayen... stands behind the giraffes, doing nothing. The direwolf lunges, closes in, and... misses entirely, as Oyobi dodges gracefully out of the way. Razzafrazzin' elves...

Then it's Orluthe's turn, and he...

Benedict I. (GM): Orluthe looks around nervously- not at the wolves, but at the party. "Don't... tell anyone about this," he says, and pulls something from his pack. It's a warball helmet. Custom-forged. Looseleaf: Uh. Okay? Is what Looseleaf thinks, in response to this. Benedict I. (GM): I... don't think either of you two would have the context to know what this means, but Oyobi's jaw is on the floor. Looseleaf:Didn't realize that playing warball was apparently something to be ashamed of! Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Your weird secret is safe with me," whispers Saelhen, in the bushes. Benedict I. (GM): Orluthe dons the helmet, and as he does so, he seems to grow larger. There's a shift in his stance, and you hear a growl from beneath the helmet. He howls- and Zero, you're in control of his combat actions here. So what's he do?

Hm.

Orluthe(?) goes ahead and attacks with his halberd, and- being a paladin- opts to SMITE. He impales the thing and burns its wound with divine magic for more than half its health- and then Oyobi's turn comes up and she slices the thing open with her longsword. The party's choice of allies specialized in melee fight seems to be paying off!

Of course, now the other monsters get to take their turn, being unfortunately still alive. One charges at Orluthe and whiffs, but the other... uses some sort of crude slingshot, and hurls some sort of crackling ball of energy at Looseleaf.

Benedict I. (GM): Being hit by this thing suddenly makes you seize up. You remember... Looseleaf, tell me about a time you wanted some physical object very very badly, but didn't get it. Something it hurt you to not have. Looseleaf: Once, when Looseleaf was young, there was a traveling caravan that brought into town a collection of what looked like books for sale. Looseleaf being herself, she of course wanted to buy some of them- but nobody in town would let her go near the vendor! Something about 'inappropriate for young childrens' eyes' and 'mature content warnings'. To this day she's still more than a bit resentful of that, and also she has no idea that the traveling caravan vendor was actually selling basically porn mags. Her memories are interspliced with imaginary counterfactual ideas of what might have been in those books, which are almost certainly not at all what the books actually contained. Benedict I. (GM):You remember that incident, vividly. All that emotional pain, compressed into a single instant of agonizing desire. It leaves you momentarily short of breath, and you take three psychic damage.

Looseleaf attempts to retaliate, but scores, um... a critical failure.

Luckily, that's the last thing these monsters have go right for them- the next few turns are a barrage of successful attacks and AoOs from the party's heavy hitters. Orluthe cuts one in half, provoking a disturbingly human-sounding ghostly wail as it dies. Saelhen throws a dagger from her hiding place in the grass, and...

Benedict I. (GM): Nice! The second dagger takes off this thing's head. It hits the ground with a squelch, and there's another human cry of agony. farnham: "HAH," goes what must be a very large and triumphant and majestic bird in the brush.

As soon as the combat is over, Orluthe returns to normal, and the dragon circling overhead... just flies away, apparently losing interest. Wonder what that's about.

Looseleaf attempts to Soul Read the corpses to learn more about why they were attacked, but unfortunately... the wolf corpse doesn't remember anything unusual that stood out to the spirits of its decaying body parts, and the spirits of the mud and grass left behind by the other monsters only recall being uprooted from the ground and forced to attack people- the spirits animating them seem to be gone.

They are able to figure out what those things were, though- they were Greed Echoes- some sort of evil spirits that echo strong emotions they encountered, and form homunculus bodies with which to act on those emotions. Greed Echoes like these were probably leftover from highwaymen and bandits who've attacked travelers on this road before- playing out their ugliest intentions.

It's weird, though- these are the grasslands, not the mountains. Monsters like these tend to come up out from below mountains, so it's not too common to see so many of them this far from where they spawn.

-

Moving on, the party reaches a point where the wild grasses suddenly stop, replaced by a uniform tall green grass- corn, apparently. Cornfields mean farmers, and farmers mean civilization.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "How delightfully rustic." Benedict I. (GM): It's not much longer before you see buildings down the road- it looks like the center of a farming village. There's a sign, as you enter the town- "WELCOME TO CORN". Saelhen du Fishercrown: "...how rustic."

They roll into town and notice not much of interest- it's a pretty standard farming village, with a Temple of Diamode (the hypertraditionalist family-values goddess Orluthe claims to be a cleric of), an inn (apparently very busy, with a lot of people going between it and the temple), and a branch of the Deathseekers' Guild (the adventurers' guild, which is very up-front about how dangerous it is to fight monsters as a career).

Orluthe looks a little nervous around the temple, so they head first to the inn. They enter, and they're immediately met with a riot of colors. The inn is packed with halflings in fancy outfits. Not like, rich people fancy, but down-home farmer fancy. Lots of flower patterns and the like. There's a band playing music in the back, and a bunch of halflings dancing while others chug whiskey and hoot and holler. The human innkeeper is struggling to keep up with all the mugs that need washing.

Discounts are in the cards, though- the bearded guy with the whiskey steins is happy to see out-of-towners joining the celebrations- a very proud father, he is, as his son Merrick was just married. This is the wedding reception, and in his mind, the more the merrier.

He puts forth something of a challenge: his son claims that city folk can't dance, see, and he, a dissenting opinion, wants to demonstrate otherwise. So, if the party can defeat his son and daughter-in-law in a dance-off... he'll pay for the night's stay!

How does a dance-fight work? Exactly the same as a normal combat, except the hit points are made up and the actual stats don't matter. You substitute your performance modifier on your rolls! Maybe you have a battleaxe, so you roll to attack with your battleaxe, and what that really means is you're doing a wild swinging dance move that really wows the crowd.

Enemies, meanwhile, know different "dance styles", inspired by CR-appropriate monsters I picked out of the monster manual to non-literally fight in a nonlethal dance battle. The happy couple are a pair of Duergar warriors, squaring off against the party's two squishies.

(3:06)

The combat is- well, there's not much to it, just a bunch of back-and-forth attack rolls, ultimately decided by clever use of flanking and attacks of opportunity. Looseleaf tries her best, but her Performance modifier isn't nearly as high as Saelhen's, as she's not the daughter of Kanzentokai's Dance Emperor. She does do a cool thing where she leaps into the air and does a wing-assisted pirouette thing, but all that accomplishes is taking her out of the fight for a bit- and concentrating fire on Saelhen.

Their rolls are pretty bad for a while, but things turn around once they outmaneuver their foes and pull off some attacks of opportunity.

Benedict I. (GM): So, you two- describe your combo dance move that totally floors these two. With musical accompaniment, s'il vous plait Looseleaf: okay you know how in ballet there's a move that's, like, one dancer picks up the other dancer and hoists them in the air turns out that move is a lot more effective if the lifting dancer literally has wings. Saelhen du Fishercrown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRoWiTcO7dk Saelhen gladly lifts Looseleaf, and for good measure gives her a little acrobatic toss and flips her in midair, catching her on the drop. Looseleaf: just to add insult to injury, looseleaf uses a whole conjunction of her fancy-schmancy special effects spells- minor illusion to create the effect of golden butterflies flapping around themselves, druidcraft alongside her wingbeat to scatter a bunch of her seeds and have them bloom into flower instantly Saelhen du Fishercrown: She's breathing heavily but... actually enjoying herself, despite the obvious competitive streak motivating all this. Looseleaf: it's a lot of visual spectacle on top of the move itself, and that's what puts the icing on the cake. Benedict I. (GM): There's raucous applause from the audience, and Aridrey is beginning to flag. She laughs, and- it's all she can do to keep up with Merrick, who's himself starting to have trouble keeping up.

(Meaning, while she's still his dance partner, she's "out", and no longer a battlefield presence.) Merrick, wifeless, tries to counterattack, and...

...makes the mistake of trying to copy their moves.

Benedict I. (GM): He hoists Aridrey above his head, and tries to spin her around the same way, and... they've been dancing all day, they're tired, and this is their first real attempt to improvise. "Wh- Merrick, wait-" Saelhen du Fishercrown: MERRICK I'M SO SORRY Benedict I. (GM): And she collapses on top of him, to laughter from everyone, particularly his dad. Saelhen du Fishercrown: (saelhen stifles giggles extremely well because a noble lady would never)

The battle seems more or less over, but Merrick is determined to see this through- breaking into a furious solo jig that puts the floor in grave danger of scuffing. None of his efforts land attacks, though- ultimately, Saelhen finishes the fight by delivering the ultimate humiliation- successfully copying his moves, a storm of fancy footwork. When the dust clears, the jig... is up.

Benedict I. (GM): His father laughs. "What'd I tell you, son? Don't get a big head, aye?" He slaps five gold pieces down on the counter. "Get 'em some rooms, Jonnem!" Merrick... he's been thoroughly humiliated, and doesn't take Saelhen's hand at first. Then Aridrey comes over and pulls him to his feet. "C'mon, honey. Grace, right?" Merrick vibrates for a moment, then lets out a sigh. He goes to shake your hand. "...Ffffffffine dancing," he says. Looseleaf: "That was a lot of fun!" Looseleaf is vibrating like crazy. Just hopping all over the place, like she hasn't quite gotten the dance bug out of her system yet.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: ("For what it's worth, man," she whispers, letting her gracious victor's smile collapse into a slightly shit-eating kind of grin. "That could've gone either way.") Benedict I. (GM): Meanwhile, Oyobi and Orluthe... I was going to say the outcome of their match would match yours, and I guess I'll stick to that, but Orluthe does not know how to dance, and Oyobi is drunk as hell. Orluthe may not know how to dance, but he knows how to hold on for dear life, and keep Oyobi vaguely upright as she flails around wildly. It's probably for the best that Saelhen's attention was elsewhere, because she would not have been able to keep a straight face at Oyobi's scandalous dance moves. Whatever's going on over there, the crowd is loving it- so all together, that's another 400 XP divided four ways.

With that victory, the party gets to stay the night for free. The next morning, they report the Greed Echo encounter and the dragon to the local Deathseekers' Guild (getting 10gp for their trouble, and turning a profit on this pit stop.) And with that... it's back on the road to Thunderbrush, next time!

[spineofdeathwing]

My Final rebuttal/Testimony to Shadowtusk Clan.

So, on 2/17/21, I made a testimony over the Shadowtusk Clan guild in response to their growing presence on Twitter: https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srje97 which is the Twitlonger I posted here. It holds my personal views towards Bazu's Twitter @Batzu, and my experiences. On this same day, their GM made a reply to my Testimony (https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srjefm), and I just wanted to address it here- all the lies, all the speculation. We're gonna start with his first point of when we met. This is semantics. We did meet at an event but didn't actually have a full conversation until he came to falsely accuse me of metagaming with little to no actual evidence. His log is correct but misrepresents the actual context with his own speculations.

Next up: Apologizing for someone being a dick to me OOC when they spam me with crap about wanting to kill my character and then going, 'IC isn't OOC' doesn't compute. Pick a fucking side Bazu. 

Here's the first misrepresentation: his remarks about IC racism. I didn't take issue with the existence of it itself. In fact, my quote was, 'the IC racism that was so venomous in nature that I almost thought they hated me for playing Di OOCly- I realized I had few friends very quickly.' My issue was how fucking hard your guild plays into that, not that it did to begin with. That's like responding to someone complaining about a flood with, 'BUT WE ALL NEED WATER TO SURVIVE'.  Next up was actually an issue I forgot, that being Bazu's ableism. 

 Now, the context was people were fighting over something I said in guild chat. We had a safeword, and I was overstimulated and having an anxiety attack. Bazu, I don't know if you let your agenda make you forget, but I'm fucking Autistic you caustic slime puddle. Conflict and shit can make me get overstimulated- your GM, Zu'daba knew I was autistic to start, as did you as I mentioned that in voice chat. I'm glad you apologized in your Twitlonger, but I'm gonna give the story here for the sake of the transparency YOU forgot. Onto the Zu'daba and Kyr'gal shit. The screens are correct, but there's a misrepresentation of fact. Zujia's advice in that screenshot was over my general concern over Kyr'gal- not over the incident that made me leave. For that, Tezuli advised me as shown here: https://imgur.com/a/mO6UI3G Zu'daba did use Tezuli's advice and guiding to me to admonish me. Blame was initially put onto me from this, Bazu- your screenshots and personal statement even support my argument.  So, what about Di being shamed? Bazu claims I was eager for it, and liked that! It'd sure be a shame if I had screenshots that show that my consent to this was dubious at best to an outsider looking in. Oops!: https://imgur.com/a/tmx1nfU Turns out, I have receipts of me talking to one of your core where I very clearly was Not Okay With That. 

The Gay Baby Jail incident WAS addressed- that still doesn't excuse that your officer was wrongly calling me homophobic in private when I myself am very openly LGBTQ...including being Bi- including my constant advocacy for LGBTQ rights. Including my huge fucking track record of improving when I even do something slightly to offend. What about me with Zea'lani? The source of that tension was me using a transphobic word in an ERP context without the realization that it was transphobic over 4-5 months ago at this point. When I realized what I said was wrong, I immediately addressed it publicly on Twitter, and left that community. I'd later return to it to ensure that message was deleted, and left again because that wasn't something I wanted in the world. While I am trans myself, that doesn't excuse my slipup. However, when your officer actively supports transphobic game devs and tries to 'expose me' for something I handled way before she even saw that, I'm gonna take issue. Especially when she tries to expose me when I am opening up about someone being transphobic and objectifying to me- alongside being racist to black people. Your attempt to get me to fucking repeat the big ass mistake I made to be 'transparent' Bazu, is noted.

Onto the stalking claims. The person who stalked me literally confessed to it Bazu. When you confess to something, you take fucking ownership of that. Which Eztli did: https://imgur.com/a/3A7rKH3 as shown here. I've called Eztli my friend for ages before this drama, Bazu. Your attempt to claim I fish for sympathy when I actually am just being consistent on how I saw someone. Perhaps projecting onto me is a bad idea.

To tie that up, yes. Your recount of the events addressing Lani's behavior is right. You saw blatant harassment, agreed that it wasn't okay, and excused it anyhow. I only posted when you were done talking- and for good reason. When you get someone's friend to backstab someone, and make a bunch of lies and having people stalk them- that person's gonna go public. I urge you to cope, Bazu. So, cultural appropriation. I think this is my biggest issue here. He gives the impression that no one came to him about him appropriating Black Culture and African Religion. Lemme fix that: https://imgur.com/a/uPhAzGq The video I link refers to Hatian Zombies, Bokors and the history of Voodoo/Vodou- with heavy input made from practitioners of Voodoo and Vodou, as well as even having a Bokor speak on the issue and sacred nature of their title. As you can see, he acknowledges seeing this.  However, lemme point out the racism here: 'If any member of the various animistic faiths that inspire Blizzard's depiction of "Voodoo" would like to ask me to stop or offer direction in how to portray these practices more respectfully, I would be open to that. If my limited amateur research on the acceptable uses of the title of "Bokor" have misled me, I'm happy to apologize and to strike it from our record.' You were given a certifiable and primary source as to why your behavior is wrong. A basic fucking google search tells you why you are wrong. But you demand that Black people of this faith, who has suffered countless times at the hands of White Supremacy, baby your ass on this. It's not cute. It's not funny. It's incredibly fucking racist, and shows you have no desire to fix your appropriation. The art theft stuff is true. Now, what about harassment, racism, all that?  Another misrepresented point. If we look at my Twitlonger, I mentioned that they've had a past of it. This isn't hidden fact, Shadowtusk on this blog alone has been exposed countless times for homophobia, racism, pedophilia- the list goes on. As it is misrepresented, I'm not addressing that further. It's a joke. What I will say is that for OOC racism not being tolerated, Bazu, you sure are hella eager to appropriate and steal from Black Culture more than even Blizzard does for the sake of your own immersion- even when you are given more than enough of means to educate yourself.  That's my final rebuttal. If you want all the screens that show every instance of bullshittery I had with STC: Here ya go.  And Bazu? I understand you are a spineless fucking coward, and you have Indicinis backing you on your lies regardless of the truth. The Troll RP community deserves more and better than your filth. I'd pray for you to grow as a person but given the sheer amount of your delusion? You aren't worth that. And PPS? Me including the creation of my guild for the sake of giving an accurate portrayal of chronological events and explaining my reasoning for it, isn't a plug. Keep that insecurity to yourself. https://imgur.com/gallery/1eR9N5p https://imgur.com/gallery/0UhtYd8 https://imgur.com/gallery/9ljDdRG

[dailycharacteroption]

Weretouched (Shifter Archetype)

 One of the most iconic figures that comes up when thinking of shapeshifting is the various types of lycanthropes, cursed to turn into fearsome predatory beasts in response to the full moon.

However, typically being a natural or afflicted lycanthrope has its own sort of baggage, either being incapable of controlling their actions, or suffering from obligatory alignment changes if your GM focuses on rule text over flavor.

What if someone were to find a way to master the curse? Certainly, we’ve seen other archetypes do this, such as mooncursed barbarians.

Perhaps those who have truly mastered the curse are those that have combined it with another shapeshifting skillset. Such shifters are known as weretouched, and master a singular form tied to one of the variants of therianthropy.

Whether they are natural lycanthropes that devoted themselves to mastering the beast within, or the afflicted that achieved a miracle of self-discipline, this archetype represents those who have mastered the beast, rather than being its victim.

 As suggested above, these shifters only ever gain one animal aspect, tied to the version of the curse that they carry. Almost every version of lycanthropy (and entothropy, if you want to go that route) that is found in official pathfinder materials has an aspect that is associated with it, with the exception of weresharks, but that can be achieved with some homebrewing. In place of gaining new aspects, however, these warriors instead gain the infamous resilience associated with the curse, which can be pierced only by silver or sufficient magic, and they are immune to truly contracting lycanthropy (or entothropy) in it’s virulent, uncontrolled form.

Their limitation also extends to what animals they share a kinship with, being only the animals of that general type.

Additionally, when using their power to fully transform, they can choose to instead take on a hybrid form like a true lycanthrope, gaining strength and attacking power while retaining hands.

If you’re only interested in one shifter aspect and/or you want to play up a were-beast connection with some extra durability, this archetype may be for you. You could choose a more combat-focused form and be able to choose when you want to go fully beast or just hybrid for the advantages of each, or you could choose a form of lycanthropy that is maybe not so good at combat and have the option for a more combat-ready hybrid form, such as the mouse aspect and falcon aspects for wererat and wereraptors respectively. Regardless, you have plenty of options for builds with this archetype. It’s worth noting that nothing in the rules text technically demands that you pick an aspect that has a canon curse of lycanthropy to it, but given the flavor I’d imagine that GM fiat is required to step outside of that particular box.

 Shifters already are sometimes mistaken for lycanthropes due to the nature of their powers, but even those familiar with the discipline may hesitate when they learn that a shifter is a weretouched. This is especially relevant if your setting has specific lore for how the curse came about. If it is tied to nature, others may view your power as dubious and risking a loss of control. However, if lycanthropy is an evil thing, a curse empowering or punishing the wicked, then it may be even more reviled.

  Hivehome, a city built into the colossal fallen log of the felled World Tree, is a place famous for its crawling things, including several entothropes and weretouched, that guard it’s city walls with giant bombardier beetles trained as living siege weapons.

 Plying boats through the reeds, the lizardfolk that live in the delta recognize the live-giving properties of the river, but also it’s dangers, including those of their kind, as well as humans, that can take on the form of mighty saltwater crocodiles, their reputation making exploitation a deadly prospect.

 Though the moon does not hold sway over her like it once did, Lady Mara does enjoy sneaking out on nights of the full moon and embracing her lycanthropic form, that of a fearsome weretiger, not to hunt, but to bask in the beauty of the moonlit wilds.

[gray-morality]

LFRP Partner

Decided to make this a little bit different, for my in game availability makes it hard to really connect with people, as I often have to log out when the ‘fun begins’ in most rp I’m in. Thus I’m trying to find that elusive RP partner [and bonus if also a gaming partner because I love me some PVE ].

Time zone: EST Play time: Weekday | 6pm to 10pm Weekend | Varies, I have more free time on Sundays usually Server: Mateus [Crystal data center] RP Style: Paragraph rper Main Themes: Dark, mature, criminal, syndicate, Far-Eastern Lore adherence: High - I’m always open to creativity if it fits the game’s lore or goes into the gray areas, as long as there was some thoughts put into it and it all makes sense. [And it doesn’t make your character overpowered.] About the mun: 41 years old, work full-time M-F, draws stuff once in a blue moon because what is free time, has GM experience.

Characters

Katsuro Wakahisa [Main] He’s the one I still wish to play mostly and for whom I’d like to find a RP partner. Age: 40 | Race: Hyur Midlander | Ethnicity: Far-Eastern | Marital status: TBD Alignment: Lawful Neutral | Occupation: Shinobi | Orientation: Demi-Bisexual /// Carrd /// Website

Yuu Fujimoto [Most played Alt] Yuu is currently the alt I play the most because of some plot story he’s in.  Age: 45 | Race: Hyur Midlander | Ethnicity: Far-Eastern | Marital status: Married Alignment: Neutral Good | Occupation: Irezumi master | Orientation: Bisexual /// Carrd

Sun Hyeon [ Alt] This is my oldest character and though I don’t rp him much lately, I still love the old man bunches. He’s more of a character I turn to when I need some lighter rp or when someone needs his words of wisdom. Age: 66 | Race: Hyur Midlander | Ethnicity: Far-Eastern Alignment: Neutral Good | Occupation: Massage therapist Orientation: Heterosexual | Marital status: Widowed /// Carrd 

Thanos lux Caius [Alt] My only non Far-Eastern character xD And he’s pure blood Garlean to boot. He’s a deserter (not a defector as he never joined any resistance movement against Garlemald) and found employment in a Hingan crime syndicate. He’s weird like that but at least he’s a hella good doctor.  Age: 48 | Race: Pureblood Garlean | Alignment: Chaotic Good Occupation: Doctor & Surgeon | Orientation: Bisexual | Marital status: Single /// Carrd 

Tao Wei Jun [Alt] The youngest of the lot, as I tend to play older characters. He was made for a precise purpose, though I don’t mind roleplaying him outside of it. His life story is rather plain which can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. He’s obviously off-limit for any rp sexual in nature. Age: 17 | Race: Hyur Midlander | Ethnicity: Far-Eastern Alignment: Neutral Good | Occupation: Rice farmer Orientation: He's not sure... | Marital status: Single /// Carrd

As mentioned before, Katsuro is the one I’m aiming for here but I put my other characters in there if one strikes your fancy :p  Kuro comes with a LOT of baggage, as the rather long page on his backstory can attest. I’ve been roleplaying him for 3 years in FFXIV but for another 3 years in the game of his birth, The Secret World. That being said, it only means his personality is second nature to me but his background was made from scratch to fit the FFXIV lore.  He’s a morally gray character, can be annoyingly direct and often has a stick up his ass; I love him a lot lol What you should know of him right off the bat is that he’s a serial killer, an assassin / shinobi and he serves his master with unwavering devotion [Ujitoshi Hagane, kumicho of Hagane-kai syndicate]. On the other side though, he’s a loving father and will protect those he cherish until his last breath. He’s the type of villain you kind of empathize with, as he follows a sort of code of honor and he’s the result of mere survival.

Anyway, if you read all the way to here, thank you! I don’t want to make this post super long so if anyone is interested, just poke me here or on Discord at  Kuro#6868  I really just want someone who’s available when I am and has interest in my sort of RP [and PVE woot! xD]. ♥

[aire101]

Ferrum Chapter 1

His first moment of awareness struck him like a tidal wave of sensory input—the sound of thousands of voices chattering; an alien smell of dust and ozone, as if someone wasn’t quite sure what air should smell like; the feel of a breeze caught in a wind tunnel, and the warmth of hundreds of bodies standing together.  

And then Tony opened his eyes.

All around him were thousands of people in various fantasy garb, some with swords hanging from their waist, others eyeing daggers, rapiers and axes at stalls along the side streets. People shouted to one another, smiled and fist pumped in fits of elation.  The whole city plaza was filled with an energy of excitement and anticipation.  

Tony had no idea where the hell he was, or what was going on.

The last thing he remembered was… a meeting.  With that Argus Head Developer, Kayaba.  But the harder he tried to focus on the details, the more he felt them slip away…

“Holy Shit!  Your avatar looks just like Iron Man!” said a man who Tony was pretty sure had not been standing next to him a couple seconds ago.  “How did you manage that?  I know the character creation module is super detailed but that would have taken forever to work out.  Does that mean you were you in the beta test?”

“Uhh…” Tony said, scrambling to make sense of the jargon he had just heard.

Avatar… character creation… beta test…

“Anyway, excellent work on it!  I’m an Iron Man fan too, though I guess most people are these days.  See ya ‘round, mate!” And with that the man left, leaving Tony still scrambling to comprehend.

As he stood there, he listened in on nearby conversations for more context clues.

“Oh my god this is amazing!  The visuals are so gorgeous!”

“You can feel the breeze!  The amount of sensory input just to achieve that—”

“Do you smell that?  It smells like fresh baked bread.  I heard that the taste and smell sensory was the hardest part in the coding development.”

Visuals… sensory input… coding development…

“That’s it, Full Dive has won me over completely.  I’m going to sell all my other games starting tomorrow.”

Holy.  Fucking.  Shit.

The meeting with Argus and Kayaba.  It was over his consultation on their new Full Dive gaming technology and their AI systems.  But it was still years away from completion.  And besides, there was no way in hell he would ever consent to having his brain plugged in to someone else’s technology.  That was in fact exactly what he had told them in that meeting, and the primary hold up on developments on his end.  

But this was way past pre-alpha or even the alpha phase… if he understood this right, this was a stable release event.

Which meant he was currently plugged into the Sword Art Online servers, and had lost years off his memory.

His chest tightened as his breaths started to come in shallow gasps.  His vision began to gray around the edges.  

In spite of his situation, he had to give Argus an applause for their work— this panic attack felt exactly like one in the real world, only less physically painful.  

Just as he felt his knees hit the ground, someone came up beside him.

“Hey, I don’t know what’s wrong, but its going to be ok,” said a voice.  They sounded young.  “Take deep breaths with me.  After every number I count, we’ll breath together, ok?  So… one,” the kid took a deep breath and slowly released.  Tony tried to breath along with them, but didn’t quite manage it.  “That’s ok, we have plenty more you can do.  So here we go.  Two…”

Breath in, breath out…

“Three…”

This reminded him of that time he’d missed a week of meds during a mission.  Peter had been over to do some necessary maintenance after he had gotten back, and next thing he knew the kid was walking him through the storm.  Apparently his aunt had some problems after his uncle had died.

“Ok, you backslid a bit there on four, lets try again.  Five…”

Peter… the kid had been so excited about this game concept.

“That’s great, you’re doing great.  Six…”

Was he out there in the crowd somewhere?

“Seven…”

He needed to find out what was going on.  He needed to get in touch with game support.  He needed to log out.

“Eight…”

His breaths were coming deeper and the tightness was releasing.  Now with a plan of action, he felt marginally more in control.

“Nine…”

He could do this.  Memories or no memories, his mind was still his own.

“Ten… You look like you’re doing good there.  How are you feeling?”

Tony finally took a moment to look at the one who had helped him.  Given that what he was seeing was an avatar, there was no telling the real age or gender of the person.  But the character depicted was a young man with long blond hair, blue eyes and built like a wall.  He looked strangely like what Tony imagined a young Thor would have looked like.

“I’m alright.  Thanks for hanging around through that.  You didn’t have to, so I appreciate it,” said Tony, slowly getting to his feet.  He couldn’t help but notice (and appreciate) the lack of pain in his knees from either the fall or the standing.  

Yay for silver linings.

“It��s no problem.  I had… have… family that needed that kind of support,” the boy said, with a glance at his face before he looked away.

“I’m sorry, that sucks.  Not that you have them, but that they have it too.  It sucks,” said Tony, fumbling through his words awkwardly.

The guy smiled and nodded, “I get what you mean.  And yeah, it does.  You doing alright now though?  Do you need me to call a GM or something?”

“Maybe.  I’m probably just going to try and log out though.  You wouldn’t happen to know how to do that would you?” asked Tony.

“I think so.  I read about the mechanics of it at least,” said the boy. “What you need to do is open up your User Interface.  Just swipe down with your hand in front of yourself.”

The boy swiped his hand down and an interface screen popped up like a hologram.

Tony followed his example, bringing up his own interface.

“Thanks kid… Have a name I can call you?”

“I’m going by Tor in the game.”

Tony looked over his interface with a raised eyebrow, “A Thor fan I take it.”

“Like you’re in any position to criticize,” the kid grumbled, with a look up and down.  “Even your robes are his colors.  How did you get robes, anyway?  The default is trousers, tunic and vest.  I haven’t seen anyone run around in a set of robes.  Was it a beta thing?”

Tony looked down at himself.  Sure enough, he was in a set of red robes with gold trim.  That also made him realize… this body was only an avatar, but apparently it looked like himself.

Whatever, him making his avatar look exactly like himself sounded pretty on brand, honestly.

“Would you believe me if I said I honestly have no idea,” said Tony, scrolling through his interface.

“I mean, it’d be weird but considering how confused you look I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt,” Tor said with a shrug.

Meanwhile Tony found two separate settings menus.  One opened up an entire other menu system, and the other at the bottom of the main menu opened a box with three buttons— Options, Help, and a grayed out logout symbol.

“Huh, that’s weird,” mumbled Tor, looking through his own settings menu.  “Talk about a terrible bug to have on opening day.  You’d think that would be the one thing they had working before opening to the public.  As far as I know there weren’t any logout problems during the beta.”

“I guess we’re calling a GM then,” said Tony.

Peter pressed the Help button, prompting a ‘Calling GM’ box to pop up with a picture of an old man in red and gold robes.

“Hey, those robes look like—” Tor was saying.

“Oh shit,” said Tony, wide eyed.  A communication bubble had come up on his menu as soon as Tor had pressed his button, it read ‘Incoming GM Help call from Tor (Player 8476).’

“Uhhh…” said Tor, staring at the window with wide eyes as well.  “Well then, that’s a problem.”

Tony continued to stare at the screen dumbfounded, mouth open and closing like a fish.

As he did, another call request window opened up.  Then another.  Then another…

Tony’s confusion quickly morphed into horror.  

“Dude, how in the world did you accidentally end up with a GM account?” asked Tor.

“I don’t know, but I can’t help these people.  How do I shut it off?!”

“See if there’s a ghost mode or something,” said Tor.

Quickly Tony tapped into the other options menu he had only briefly glanced at before.  Sure enough, the menu was titled ‘Game Master Settings.’

“This is ridiculous,” muttered Tony as he scrolled and tapped through various options.

“About as ridiculous as your facial hair,” said Tor, with a grin.

“Excuse you, everything about my face is a work of art,” said Tony.

“Abstract art, maybe.”

“You know what, kid—”

“Could you maybe not call me that?  Please?” Tor asked, his face suddenly tight.

“Uh, sure… sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry.  It just makes me a bit uncomfortable,” said Tor, looking like he regretted even saying anything.

“No problem.”

Finally, Tony found the GM communication settings.  Currently the mode was set to ‘Available,’ but after clicking on it he found an ‘Unavailable’ setting, with the option to send calls to a voice mail for later listening.

Quickly he switched the modes, and the flurry of call boxes ceased.

“Well, that’s one problem down,” said Tony, scrolling through the rest of the GM settings.  While he heartily approved of the colors, the robes made him stand out like a sore thumb amongst the masses of beige and brown.

But if he really was a GM, he should be able to generate something different…

With a flash of blue static light, Tony generated a red tunic under an average looking breast plate, paired with the usual leather trousers.  

“You just had to make the tunic red, huh?” said Tor with a thin laugh.

“Eh, it’s my thing,” Tony said with a shrug.  

Tor pursed his lips but didn’t comment further.

“Anyway, thanks for your help.  I’m sure whatever bug this is will be figured out pretty quick.  I don’t want to hog your game time though,” said Tony, trying to disengage as kindly as possible and without hinting at just how concerning the current situation really was.  Tor had been helpful, but the person on the other side of that avatar could be fourteen or forty.  Either way, they didn’t need to be saddled with Tony’s issues.

“I don’t mind.  I don’t usually play MMO’s anyway, so I’m not really sure what to do now,” said Tor.  “I have a few hours before I’m supposed to trade off with my friend, but I had only really planned to hang around for a couple of them to check things out.  With the logout bugged though, I might be here for a while.”

“I’ve never played RPG’s at all, so I’m probably even more clueless than you are,” said Tony.  “That being said, the first thing you do is probably to stock up on equipment and supplies.  Do you have any currency right off the bat?”

“We start with 50 Cor, but I’m not really sure what that translates to within the economy.”

“I would say as a GM I could generate more, but if I’m remembering correctly the system was specifically designed to control inflation and it may not like that,” said Tony, flicking through his interface.

“I mean, I guess that would be one way to get someone’s attention,” shrugged Tor.

“Considering I apparently have my brain plugged into someone else’s tech, I would really rather avoid that particular flavor of attention,” said Tony.

“I hadn’t thought about it that way… They wouldn’t do something too awful to a player though would they?  That wouldn’t really be good press for them.  I would think that the worst they would do is boot you out of the game,” said Tor, looking concerned.

“I wish I had the kind of faith in people you do.  As it is, I’d rather not chance it.  That being said, it looks like one of the things I can freely generate are base level swords and armor.  Its not much, but it’ll get you started.”

“Since we’re both stuck here, how about we party up for a while?  Not much else to do to spend the time.  My friend downloaded a text file with some starter tips from the Beta players, so we could go give it a shot,” said Tor.

Tony let out a breath, running his hand through his hair.  He really should be trying to figure out a solution to his predicament, but if the GM call failure was any indicator, the situation may be a lot worse than he wanted this kid to realize.  And at this point he was pretty sure the person on the other side of Tor’s avatar was in fact a kid, perhaps a relatively mature teenager, but not an adult.

And apparently they were attaching themselves to Tony, for whatever reason.  And Tony couldn’t bring himself to kick an obviously anxious kid to the curb.

“Sure, that sounds like a good plan. Send me a copy of the text file and we’ll discuss it while we head out of town.”

. . .

“Ferrum Vir… did you seriously name yourself ‘Iron Man’ in Latin?”

“Pot meet kettle there, Tor.”

[wolfie407]

A Statement

Hello everyone!

You may have come here in curiosity of what I posted on the Moon Guard Secrets Tumblr in regards to Niklos Adamant and “my involvement” with the horrific situation that has been brought to light recently.  First and foremost, as you can see, I generally do not use Tumblr so please so forgive my formatting.  Secondly, I must express that I am saddened, angry, frustrated, and just about every negative emotion in the book every time I think of this story.  To have me tied into it makes it all the worse.

As I said on the MGS post, I am Nevari, though I have been also known as Redmayne (whom Niklos has named me as being involved and yet again, not a shroud of evidence backing such claims) but more importantly, Janessa, the former GM of the guild, Whispers of Windrunner.  These current days I am pretty much off playing other games or being involved with different communities because of the results I suffered from the malicious slander I have endured from Niklos along with several other people.  This post is to simply back my own words up and well, hope that the community finally realize how scummy these people are.

Now, I will state this situation was about 2-3 years ago to my recollection.  Around that time, I was playing my death knight, Redmayne who unfortunately was a part of the Remnants of Lordaeron guild.  Ultimately, the guild was not a fit for me and I wasn’t in it for very long at all.  The situation that is currently being discussed at hand, well, I wasn’t even around for that.  In fact, I did not even hear about situation until my guild was targeted and sabotaged last year.

As Janessa, I was the GM, creator, etc of Whispers of Windrunner the day that void elves were released.  I took it as an opportunity to build something great for the community while giving myself a fresh start, looking forward to the RP to come.  I built and practically slaved over my guild from the ground up almost entirely on my own.  I did not expect to have my guild immensely popular and in demand right out the gates and I wasn’t prepared for it at all.  

While the numbers and popularity of Whispers grew rapidly, I knew I needed help and sought out officers who were willing to take on officer responsibilities.  Among them were a couple whom I thought I could trust and whom I felt I related to.  This couple is known to be Elysiae and Shandor/Mordren.  I never knew them, never heard anything about them, and I really enjoyed their company.  They supported me and showed they wanted the guild to succeed and throughout some of the growing pains, Elysiae gained my confidence.

This was short lived however.

Not long after I decided to make her my Co-GM, she had caused a LOT of drama with other members of my guild on ooc spectrums. I also over time lost faith in my officers because they suddenly became inactive or not around as much without notice.  I was literally slaving over the guild, prepping guild events, making a website, talking with other people to get RP going, etc etc.  When I am being pulled 16 different ways at once, it’s taxing and there were some days, I just wanted to do an RP away from everyone else as a break.  Apparently that isn’t allowed.

Anyways, an IC situation had happened with my own character against Baldassar who is known to be a member of SLP.  It later escalated where Maxen was involved along with many other people.  Everything that was happening was completely IC and I had even messaged Maxen during the heated RP if he was ok OOCly because I am constantly worried about OOC/IC crossing.  All seemed well and was fine.

Apparently not.

The next day, Elysiae and Shandor get Galmone involved, saying that I should step down as a GM because of the RP and the fact that I am, Nevari, and despite all the work I’ve done, me being GM isn’t good for the guild.  I believe the term they used was a “GM Wash.”  I dunno, this was a year ago.  Anyways,  I was absolutely outraged by this and said flat out it wasn’t going to happen.  No sooner did I end my Discord call with them, they went to undermine me and sought out to degrade me in unspeakable ways.

I have a recording of them doing this in the act.

Immediately Shandor/Mordren says that I was kicked out of Remnants of Lordaeron because I rp’ed raping a 12 year old to death.  At this time, it had been 1-2 years since I had even been a part of that guild... but neither here nor there needless to say this allegation was beyond shocking and hurtful to me.  Upon investigation where Shandor had heard this from, it was found out by my partner at the time it stemmed from Rennali.  

It doesn’t end there.

The recording had circulated.  This was my biggest mistake.  At the time, I felt I needed to defend myself by circulating it to show the extent people will go to bring someone down.  It backfired because people didn’t look at the context of my guild’s situation but the context of the rumor itself.  

With this allegation looming and the recording now spread, it of course reached “big boy” ears.  I adamantly fought the allegations, proclaiming my innocence to no avail to Maxen about all of this yet I was still punished for something I had no involvement with.  I was removed from all of the RP groups because of this even though there is not a single screenshot in the world that can even remotely link me to this incident.  Of course after Shandor and Elysiae’s antics, I immediately removed them from the guild.

I was punished because of the testimony which came from Berenal and Niklos.  Berenal came to Niklos asking about the situation and Niklos gave damning testimony which was 100% false and complete slander.

See following screenshot:

All of this caused huge rifts in my guild.  My friendships were torn apart, people left because of the controversy, my Rp partner at the time gave up on it and left.  After all of that emotional trauma I endured, I couldn’t move on and I relinquished the guild to a worthy member who offered to take the reigns.  I was beyond devastated and hurt in ways beyond imagining.  To be frank, I ended up having to go to therapy over this.

I do have regrets on how I handled the situation but I can’t exactly change the past.  What was done is done. 

Now, as far as the actual situation goes.  Supposedly Rennali heard this rumor from someone named Hranu but I have 0 clue about that side of the story.  Regardless, without a shroud of evidence to the claim, she chose to continue to spread the lie by talking to other people who ask about it “because she was told this therefore she can talk about it.”  Though this isn’t a post about my conversation with her afterwards, this is more about Niklos.

Niklos knew I wasn’t involved 100% and he took it upon himself to come up with a narrative to damn me.  Just recently, he posted yet again I am STILL involved with this situation yet I have multiple statements from various witnesses and people involved that I had no hand in it whatsoever.  

I also would like to point out the following discussion with Niklos.  Please note the following things:  1.  He approached me out of the blue because we had a mutual discord server.  2.  This conversation was during the hectic time and before my conversation with Rennali.  I put this in an imgur because I wasn’t sure how Tumblr would format it.

https://imgur.com/a/t3BjU4c

Anyways, why this didn’t come out about his enabling and defending of these individuals back when I was being wrongfully persecuted is beyond me but I am glad that there is a sense of justice in all of this.  I haven’t even been around much these days but what I find hilarious is that I logged on a character he knows me for and within literally 5 minutes, he was talking ill about me to a friend of mine, another screenshot I have mind you.

Though yes, I am glad to have Brady and others clear my name and I do hope Niklos gets everything that’s coming to him.  If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask me on my Discord Wolfie#0156.  I seldom check this and felt that this needed to be said so I have my own peace of mind.  

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 5 - FLA - Weird Win

The Florida Panthers thought they would be the Carolina Hurricanes by this point: the hot, young club meteorically rising to the top of their division. The Hurricanes seemed like they were a goaltender away for half a decade and patched that up enough last year to make the Eastern Conference Final. They’ve added a lot from coaching to forwards and they’ve only built the beast bigger this season. Florida similarly has pulled all the stops to turn their corner. With two playoff appearances since 2000 that organization has been long hungering for something compelling on the banks of the Everglades. When it comes to Panthers v Sabres there’s little to no history to speak of. None of the Buffalo News’ top 50 Sabres games of all time involve the Florida Panthers. Most Sabres fans of my generation associate them with the Eichel Draft occurring in their arena, the Mark Pysyk trade and… well that’s about it. Neither of those moments are games. To my parents’ generation I suppose the Panthers represent a fun Sabres away game side trip while visiting their retired parents in South Florida. I solicited Sabres twitter for Greatest Game Against the Panthers for Buffalo. Understandably you guys had just as much trouble as me finding anything notable about the 100 matchups these two teams have had over the years. Somehow I ended up getting four games notable enough for them to memorable to some people. Don’t worry, there are three other games against Florida this season. The other three games will get in here as well. The Greatest Game Against for today’s matchup however was submitted by @t31mcgraw. It’s the January 19th, 2001 matchup that saw aging Dominik Hasek defeat young gun Roberto Luongo in a matchup for the ages. It was 0-0 until the last ten seconds of regulation when Sabres forward Denis Hamel blocked a shot and returned it to the Panthers zone to win it. That’s a throwback right there. Now let’s talk about tonight’s game.

This game could have been as contentious as the Habs game Wednesday night. If it was then both teams had a weird way of showing it. This one was a weird one from the start as the first 30 minutes of this game was more or less two drunk men just throwing haymakers at each other in the words of @d4rkbuffalo. Confession: I missed those first thirty minutes due to a work event. I turned this game on confused. 0-0 halfway through the game? Beyond 5 on 5 expected goals most every advanced stats category was dead even through that first period. The Sabres were getting outshot but looking back on this game you really don’t notice it until the overtime period, but we’ll get there. I’m tempted to say the gangbusters powerplay Buffalo has had through the first four games finally hit a wall and that’s why it was so dull but there was only one powerplay opportunity in the first. All five of the other powerplays between both teams were inconsequential. The powerplay didn’t click but it was symptomatic of these two teams just whacking each other will limp pool noodles. Breaking through in this game would take someone or some players making mistakes. And so this one became a game of mistakes. You know who cleans up a game of mistakes? The goalies. Linus Ullmark versus Sergei Bobrovsky is not a matchup you’re expecting to be a spectacular duel, at least not from the Ullmark side. I’m the biggest Linus Ullmark fan not married to him in North America. Even I will say I don’t expect him to win a pure goalie duel against Sergei Bobrovsky but once again: this was a weird game all the way around.

A Sabres powerplay had just ended when Kyle Okposo and Johan Larsson came streaming into the Panthers’ zone in the last minute of the second period. This line has transcended being just a cliché checking line. These three veterans, all dudes we were begging to see shipped out over the summer have had a great start to the season. They’ve played a stout game defensively, frustrating their matchups and even getting the puck entrenched in the offensive zone against better competition. Call it the roaring twenties line or call it the LOG, its making hay out of dirt whatever you call it. Kyle Okposo covered by two defenders gets the puck over to Johan Larsson who shoots over the outstretched Bobrovsky and gets the Sabres out to a 1-0 lead. He falls over Bob like Bobby Orr. Okay. Sure! That’s a lead. I’ll take it no matter which guy wearing a bison on their jersey does it. That goal-less dynamo line finally gets rewarded! Moreover Marco Scandella saved a puck from the goal line in heroic fashion. It was certainly a weird one. Through that second intermission your thinking: okay, scoring effects alone have to even the score in this game, the most weirdly even-uneven game we’ve seen in a while. Then two minutes into the third period the LOG gets right back to work as Zemgus Girgensons skates in, drops it to Kyle Okposo, who drops it to Marco Scandella… yikes not him… *eyes widen* …did he just… score!? Yes, believe it or not, Marco Scandella just tapped it in past Bob like he was an Allstar or something. Did someone drug me at my work party? What is this? This can’t be Sabres hockey, even the new version doesn’t feature Scandella dingers. What’s going on? They reminded us who we were watching, don’t worry.

The Florida Panthers got a new coach over the offseason in addition to the Sergei Bobrovsky. The one and only Joel Quenneville. Three-time Cup winner with the dynastic Chicago Blackhawks. I don’t need to tell you who he is. Evidently the rough start for the Cats got him upset. He was bag-skating dudes in practice this week. Do you think the likes of Mike Hoffman and Aaron Ekblad are taking well to that? You think Eichel is tired of losing? Imagine being Ekblad and not even living in a place that knows you exist! They were not going to lay down and die after a couple scrubs scored on them. This Ullmark fan is going to be honest here: Linus was a little far out of the crease when Evgeni Dadonov came in and snuck it around him. They call him daddy in Miami. He sparked the Panthers comeback and comeback they did. The Cats got up and began shelling for the equalizer. And this is when the first and foremost flaw in Ralph Krueger’s coaching becomes clear. He moved Jimmy Vesey up to Victor Olofsson’s spot next to Jack Eichel and gee, I don’t know. I want Greasy Vesey to get going I just don’t know how to trigger him. Maybe when you’re clinging to a one goal lead late in the third against a divisional opponent isn’t the time. Just a thought. Krueger is still figuring out who to trust in these tight situations and hopefully he soon figures out the Scandella-Ristolainen pairing probably ain’t it. Hell, what do I know after this game? At this rate Scandella scores a hatty against Dallas on Monday, what a weird world! Anyway, after the shelling reached it’s fever pitch in the dying minutes of the regulation Mike Hoffman sunk a tight 4-hole shot and it was even with less than 15 seconds left! Yeah, that was a hair-puller. But it got worse.

I was certain, almost beyond convincing that they were going to lose the game in overtime. It doesn’t take a savant to tell you possession is everything in 3 on 3 overtime. It’s golden goal and its over so the dude who has the puck is making his team multiple times more likely to win the game just by having the puck! The Sabres had maybe a minute of possession the whole five-minute overtime. It’s a low-grade miracle the Panthers didn’t take two points in OT. They didn’t and so we went to the first shootout of the season. This is where the goalies matter most. Linus Ullmark was 2-2 in shootouts coming into this but well over .800 in shots taken on him in those shootouts. He’s a good goalie and the shootout is damn good evidence. No Panther got a puck past him and Jack Eichel and Casey Mittelstadt both had their fancy finishes. The Buffalo Sabres took away the two points and the 3-2 win from this one and successfully completed a two-game overpowering of two big Atlantic Division wildcard opponents. I’ll say this: letting each of these games go past regulation, giving both of Montreal and Florida a point in the standings is not ideal. There is a lot more hockey left, 77 games in this regular season in fact, so let’s see where it goes. I think it’s a safe bet that come next month we’re not talking about the Quenneville Panthers getting bag-skated in practice. They’ll turn it on and so will the Canadiens. The question remains: will the Sabres be a good team in November, December, January, February, March and yes, April? Or do we have another team here that will burn bright early and fade? I don’t know but I really hope we have fun, meaningful hockey in the spring. We’ll have to see, it’s not even winter yet, eh.

You might be reading this on Saturday. If you are tonight is the night! If you’re not… well tomorrow is the day! Tomorrow is the Third Annual Buffalo Pod-a-Thon downtown at Buffalo Riverworks! Doors open at 5:30 and most of the proceeds go to BB&G Charities. That’s $25 at the door and you get dinner with that, so I think it’s a good deal. Once you’re in you get me and about two dozen other Western New York Sports personalities to enjoy. I’ll be the one wearing a Rochester Americans Linus Ullmark jersey. I’m awfully proud I get to wear it the day after a performance like that! I know it will be fun and even if you’re not my biggest fan you’ll find something there you’re into. There’s even going to be a game show I hear! I hope you’ll come on down and come back here Monday night after the Dallas Stars come to town to take on the… wait for it… the 4-0-1 Buffalo Sabres! They haven’t started this well since the Ryan Miller era! Like, comment and share this blog with a friend. Hopefully I see you tomorrow!

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. I want to join the pile-on Alex Nylander. He got a few games on the Toews and Kane line in Chicago and now he’s scratched. That sounds like the guy I remember! I still cannot believe we got Henri Jokiharju for that guy!