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discocritic · 5 years ago

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putting this under a cut because this bitch got long.

first, let me welcome you to the fandom. since we’re a pretty small one, it’s always exciting to hear more people are joining!

my advice for you is just basically what i wish i knew when first joining the fandom a couple years ago. the danger days album, comics, and twitters are the three main pieces of media that the universe is made up of, and some of those can be a challenge to navigate (because i was sure as hell confused when i started trying to figure everything out), so i'll outline some things you might want to know!

i'm assuming you've listened to the main danger days: true lives of the fabulous killjoys album, but there are a couple of bonus songs such as "zero percent" and "we don't need another song about california." those aren't on spotify, as far as i know, but you can find multiple audio/lyric videos on youtube.

there's also a 3-track EP called the mad gear and missile kid that includes the songs "f.t.w.w.w.," "mastas of ravenkroft," and "black dragon fighting society." tmgamk is described in an interview by mcr as a band that the killjoys would listen to. these are also not on spotify but, like the other songs, can be found on youtube.

if you don't want to buy the comics but still want to read them, i know of two (legal) ways to do that. this youtube playlist has videos that show each page of the comics, and this post has pictures of each page.

there are two danger days wikis (with comic spoilers! so beware), but one of them is way more useful and people don't tamper with the information in it.

there's also another little extra comic thing called "dead satellites" that was released for free comic book day a few years ago. it doesn't really have anything to do with the main storyline of the actual comics, but it does offer a glimpse of battery city life and zone bands, which is cool.

there are character twitter accounts for dr. death-defying, party poison, dj hot chimp, newsagogo, agent cherri cola, and gary levko (i may be missing some; i don’t really pay attention to the twitters lmao). here’s a link to dr. d’s and you should be able to find links to the rest through his tweets.

i would also suggest checking out the danger days side of tumblr! (although you sent this ask to me so i'm assuming you've started this step already.) starting a danger days blog is a great way to get to know other members in the fandom while creating content of your own, and if you send asks to any of the blogs i'm about to mention, i'm sure they'll be glad to interact with you!

@killjoyhistory is a goddamn lifesaver. everything you could ever want to know about the danger days world is collected and archived at this blog, whether it's behind-the-scenes content from the music videos to interviews with the band where they mention danger days to forgotten concepts from the first drafts of the comics!

@graffitibible writes the most in-depth danger days fics with the best characterization and plots i have ever read. and they've come up with some super cool explanations for things in the DD universe. definitely check them out.

@neon-rat posts tons of great headcanons and has an ongoing fic series called How To Navigate and Contemplate (and i'm promo-ing this because i cannot fucking wait for the next chapter to come out!). Although you should probably read her first fic, How Time Decides, on ao3 for the current one to make sense!

speaking of fics, @enby-partypoison has multiple different DD AUs! with everything from superheroes to ghosts to modern-day, aer ao3 will have something for you! i also had the privilege of working with aer to organize a holiday gift exchange the past december, so ae gets bonus points for that :)

if it's worldbuilding you want, @ruination-formation has tons of headcanons about places and people in both the zones and the city. she also writes tons of fics on her ao3 that you should check out as well.

@tapefish, @funkobraofficial, and @ravenxbones make amazing killjoy art! sometimes i just have to sit down and scroll through their art tags because everything they create is absolutely fantastic.

there are so many other amazing blogs i could mention, but these are a few that happened to come to mind when i was typing this out. but seriously, fire an ask towards any blog and i'm sure they'll be more than willing to answer it!

anyway, i’m going to end this now, because most of this was drafted as i sat in a drive-through for half an hour and lost track of its length, but i hope at least some of this has helped! and of course feel free to drop by my inbox again if you have any questions.

#long post #danger days #advice #ref #asks

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thedoctornumber11 · 4 years ago

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Munday post

I figured maybe this week I’d do a different type of Munday. Most of my long time roleplay partners already know me quite a bit and I also try to introduce myself to newer partners as well, however I figured this could be a good chance for everyone to really get to know me. I’m including everything under a read more not because long post and also because I know not everyone likes seeing this type of thing. It’s just a bunch of random facts about me and my favorite things along with a munday pic under the cut. I didn’t want to just throw out a munday picture like most would do. I’ve done that plenty of times before and there’s nothing wrong with it, I just felt like doing something a bit more unique and different this time that might really give people a chance to get to know me :D

So long post under the cut.

So, first off, my name is Derek. I’m the mun. I just recently turned 30 and I’m from Indiana. I work in a preschool, essentially as a glorified baby sitter. I help the teachers get their breaks.

I’ve been interacting on here since November of 2013 and I’ve had this exact blog with this exact URL the entire time. I wanted something really generic and not just a quote or something like that. I first tried TheEleventhDoctor, but obviously that was taken so this ended up being what I went with. As for the theme, it too was made a VERY long time ago. The TARDIS theme with the opening doors on the TARDIS actually used to be quite popular when I first started interacting on here, particularly with the Doctor Who RP fandom. Although I’m the only one I see with it these days, if you go looking for older Doctor Who blogs that have gone inactive you are actually likely to find a few other blogs with it. As for the background picture, I found that one myself except for the part with Matt Smith/The Eleventh Doctor edited on. That part was done by someone I used to interact with who just surprised me with it one day and unfortunately isn’t on Tumblr anymore :( Having been on this platform for so long I’ve obviously seen a lot of blogs come and go and I miss every single last one of them :( However I also enjoy everyone I currently interact with and would recommend almost any of them. Seriously, if anyone is looking for new people to interact with, let me know you are looking for people and what fandoms you enjoy and I can probably recommend a few blogs!

Outside of Tumblr RP, I enjoy video games, yugioh, reading comics, general super hero related stuff, watching movies, playing Pokemon Go (I help run the local PoGo community) general board games, watching my shows, figure collecting, and cosplay, most of which I’m sure is stuff many of you also enjoy. My fandoms include Doctor Who (obviously), DC, Star Wars, The Legend of Korra/ATLA (I’m one of the few that likes LoK more than ATLA), Marvel, Star Trek, Firefly, Power Rangers, The Walking Dead, Yugioh, Pokemon, Sherlock, general Nintendo fandom, Digimon and Harry Potter.

Here’s a few things about me in list form.

My favorite musician is Weird Al Yankovic.

My favorite book is Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robbison. As someone who’s been diagnosed with aspergers syndrome myself, this book really spoke to me in my original read through and since then I’ve purchased it multiple times. I own at least three or four different copies of this book, partially because I kept loaning it out to people.

My favorite book series is the Harry Potter series. Don’t ask me for a favorite book in the series, I love them all about equally.

As for comics, right now my favorite thing I’m reading is the Power Rangers series that Boom is putting out. Some of my favorites of all time include Power Ranger Soul of the Dragon, the Star Trek TNG/Doctor Who crossover, the Power Rangers/Justice League Crossover, the original Spider-Gwen series, Poison Ivy Cycle of Life and Death, The Dark Knight Returns (I know anything Frank Miller related is a bit controversial but I enjoy it for what it is) and Batman: Hush.

Favorite movies include UHF, Scott Pilgrim VS the World, Captain America The Winter Soldier, Captain America the First Avenger, Avengers End Game, the Justice League movie, anything and everything DC animated, anything and everything Spider-Man related (yes, I even like Spider-Man 3 although it wasn’t as good as the others), anything Star Wars related although I’d say Force Awakens is my favorite one, the 2017 Power Rangers movie, Serenity, The Lego movie and it’s sequel, Yugioh Bonds Beyond Time, Mystery Men, Galaxy Quest, all the Star Trek movies, the corny 90′s Mario movie, the Doctor Who movie, and Detective Pikachu. Really, any of the Marvel and DC movies could probably make this list as well, I’m not super picky when it comes to movies.

Favorite TV shows is something I am a bit pickier about. Doctor Who is obviously on the list, and I’ve watched and enjoyed most of the Marvel and DC live action stuff although I have a huge preference for the arrowverse and 70′s Wonder Woman. Animated stuff tends to vary but a lot of the older stuff from the early and mid 90′s seems to be best for that. Power Rangers is obviously on the list as well, along with The Walking Dead, Digimon, Avatar the Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Sherlock, Yugioh, Firefly, and off the top of my head that’s about it. Everyone always assumes I’m huge into anime as well, but I’m not actually that into it. Just not my thing.

Now video games has potential to be my longest list as it’s easily my favorite medium of story telling due to the interactivity. First off, Nintendo and Playstation are my general consoles of choice. Nothing against Xbox, I have a lot of respect for the brand but I can’t really afford to have three consoles (even though I wish I could) and Nintendo and Sony have more offerings for me personally. I also do dabble on PC a bit, but I don’t really have a high end PC and it’s mostly just for Sims. That being said, my favorite games and game series include Watch_Dogs, The Sims, Mario (mostly the “main series,” 3D games and 2D platformers but I do enjoy some of the off series stuff like Mario Kart and Mario Party as well) , Pokemon, Super Smash Brothers, The Force Unleashed series, Injustice, most of the Spider-Man games, The Last of Us, Tomb Raider, most of the Batman games, Wario Ware, The Last of Us (still haven’t played the sequel yet. Waiting to get it for cheap after seeing reviews), Days Gone, Control, Horizon Zero Dawn, No Man’s Sky, 51 Worldwide Classics for Switch, No Man’s Sky, the Tony Hawk Games (still haven’t played the new one yet), Time Splitters, The Movies, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Zombies Ate My Neighbhors, Kirby, The Legend of Korra game (the 3d one, not the really bad one for 3DS), Donkey Kong, Street Fighter 2, Punch Out, Metal Gear Solid 5 the Phantom Pain, Sonic Heroes, and the list could go on and on.

My favorite drink is root beer or chocolate milkshakes if that counts

My favorite alcoholic drink is probably just a basic screwdriver tbh

My favorite food is Cheeseburgers, although Chicken Pot Pie is also a top contender tbh

My favorite color is green

My favorite Doctor is Eleventh obviously, but Thirteen, Two and Twelve are tied for second

Favorite companions are Amy, River (if she counts), and Donna

Favorite New Who episode is The Eleventh Hour

Favorite Classic Who story is Genesis of the Daleks

Since I’ve mentioned super heroes a lot, my favorites are Batman, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man, although Supergirl, Batgirl, Captain America, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow are also pretty high on the list.

Favorite game in the Pokemon series is X and Y

Dragonite is my favorite Pokemon

Favorite 3D Mario game is Odyssey although Sunshine would be next up on the list.

This is my only Tumblr RP blog. I also have an ask meme blog and I used to have a personal but I haven’t logged onto it in years.

I’m on discord and I do add people from Tumblr on there, but I mostly only use it for Pokemon Go tbh

I spend every Wednesday and Sunday at the local comic book shop playing Yugioh

For anyone wondering in relation to that last fact, my current competitive deck Barrier Stun. Some of my favorite casual decks that I play or have played in the past are Lightsworn, Blue-Eyes, E-Heroes, Greed, Sacred Beasts, Penguins and Six Samurai.

In the last decade I’ve moved about 3 times

I own pets! I have one dog and one cat currently, but a few years back when we lived in a more country like setting, we owned 7 cats and 2 dogs at maximum. Most of them died of old age over the last few years.

Before my current job I used to work at Walmart. Long time followers of the blog may remember that I hated it there.

I don’t have a whole lot of writing experience outside of Tumblr tbh. While I do enjoy writing on here, it’s the interactions itself that makes it fun for me and while I’ve tried to write a few things myself, it’s just not the same as roleplay.

Anyway, I just sort of wanted to do something different for munday besides just posting pictures of myself so I hope anyone who read this enjoyed it. Here’s a pic of the mun to go with it.

#munday #ooc #long post #Honestly I just felt like writing this all out for some reason

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oftripps · 6 years ago

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“ –– wow. ” it’s not so much a critique as it is a g-rated expletive. tripp forces a smile mid-chew and blinks. “ my tastebuds are screaming. gah–– uh, singing. singing. ” he avoids swallowing and as ring-decorated fingers snag a napkin, wide eyes drifting to the tabletop as a small jingle breezes past tensed lips. “ ~ allergic to mushrooms ~ ”

or, alternatively: this is somethin’ new! the caspar slide pt. 2 !! & this time, it’s ‘bout to get funky !! so i’m linc and this is tripp and he’s........ a trip, honestly, so let’s just... yeet on into this ––

( joe keery + 22 + muse 12 ) isn’t that phillip joel “tripp” goodman over there? i heard he joined faction: one after they got back to west ham. it’s funny, ‘cause they were only on the service trip because HIS BANDMATES DUPED HIM INTO THINKING THE SIGN-UP WAS FOR A WOODS-THEMED OPEN MIC GIG. hopefully they fit in there – they’re JAUNTY but also OUTRÉ. oh, i’m sure they’ll be fine.

out the door ! ( tripp goodman: a roadmap )

look up townie family in the dictionary and you’ll find a portrait of the goodmans directly beside. these folks have a looooong flippin’ legacy here in lil’ ole west ham, kansas. it all started with montgomery goodman, a good man, who helped west ham’s founders break ground on this midwestern charmer several centuries ago. and now, the goodmans still live on the same property –– a refurbished farmhouse ( now closer to mcmansion ) surrounded by five acres of roooooollin’ hills. once upon a time, they were farming folk. now, theresa and joel goodman run the town’s one and only veterinary clinic.

honestly, growing up? tripp was a problematic kid. he’d take in frogs from the woods and start his own frog hotels. he’d sneak pets from the clinic to school who “ needed help learning their numbers ”. in class, he’d flick sunflower seeds at the backs of his peers’ heads and, when threatened with discipline, claim he simply “ wanted to see if they’d grow ” . so no, to answer your question–– tripp never really saw the real wrath warranted by his rulebreaking.

in fourth grade, he chose the saxophone as his required instrument. he caused such a commotion in his house, that his parents asked his teachers to suggest something quieter. the viola. the flute. the clarinet. the piano. instruments came and went,;instruments were quickly mastered and abandoned. because dear lord, how many times could they listen to the spongebob theme song played on woodwind ?! on strings ?! once middle school rolled around, little phillip joel knew his way around a whopping total of six instruments, a tally that would only grow in the coming years. eventually, his parents caved and allowed him to keep playing, so long as he respected instrument curfews. they gave song requests to avoid hearing the same pieces on repeat: the goodman household was probably the only one blessed with an oboe-and-beatbox rendition of under the sea. young phillip joel’s take on the issue was simple: not all heroes wore capes.

( tw: domestic unrest, mentions of violence ) theresa and joel split when tripp was 9. just seven months later, tripp’s mother moved in with her girlfriend: tripp’s guitar teacher, ms. lillith. tripp didn’t mind ms. lillith. she was chill. he came to find out she could knock back a chocolate milk almost as fast as he could, and she liked her grilled cheeses with swiss only. his best friend became a thirty-six year old woman who happened to be his mother’s girlfriend. and that was fine. he could dig it. but joel goodman? oh no. his family name was tarnished. the scandal was too much to bear. joel sued for full custody and nearly made it, thanks to hometown politics and loyalties. but then he made one fatal mistake: he crossed his own son.

at 10 years old, fifth grade phillip joel returned home to his father’s after school with three fingernails painted effervescent blue. sidney frasier made me so cool, he gushed as he put his colored nails on proud display. dad, aren’t i so cool? the next day, his dad enrolled him in the town’s peewee football program. he returned home from his first practice with a black eye and a split lip. from a ball, the coach insisted. hit the poor fella square in the face, real strong. phillip joel put up a fight against football; it wasn’t for him. it conflicted with music practice. couldn’t he just play music with ms. lillith instead?

the custody battle persisted. they settled on a parenting schedule. joel contested, consistently, months later. and so the cycle persisted up until phillip joel’s 12th year, when he was knocked out cold on the football field. the broken ribs came from hefty tackles. bruises from the fall. concussion from the impact. but theresa spun it to her advantage: joel had since started coaching the middle school team. this was an instance of parental neglect. and, when the courts didn’t comply, she instructed her son to jump down the stairs. one broken ankle later, and joel goodman was accused of child abuse. his word against his injured son’s. the maneuver won theresa full custody. phillip joel has yet to forgive himself.

after the custody battle’s conclusion, joel stayed in town: but phillip joel didn’t want a thing to do with sharing his name. his mother still scolds him as phillip joel, but to everyone else, he became tripp –– inspired by his knack for, you guessed it!, tumbling over his own two feet.

in high school, tripp was the class clown. always smirking, always grinning, always ready to catch someone off guard. he became a pivotal part of west ham high’s jazz band, and even formed a small group with a few buds: face. they played some school events: homecoming, pep rallies, prom. garage-baked young rock, their songs often preached meetings under bleachers and high school never ending.

in senior year, the band saw a reboot: and after assuming a more indie, spacey sound and a nifty new name –– 1757. –– they saw a rise in local celebrity. coffee shops commissioned them for jam nights. they played on the local radio. so they collectively decided to stick around and see how far they could ride this west ham fame train. with tripp as their frontman, they always leave a memorable impression: he’s not exactly the most run-of-the-mill performer.

1757.’s sound is reminiscent of LANY: i’ve reblogged a few tunes onto tripp’s blog for reference. he’s v much a paul klein / matty healy vibe. big into music. big into losing himself in it.

so what was he up to before the service trip? playin’ tunes. working part-time as a waiter. and brainstorming ways to get out of going on this trip, as soon as he realized his stupid bandmates lied about the form he signed. an open mic in the woods ! pah ! he should have known. but the concept sounded pretty flippin’ cool.

wear our shades on our nose, 'cause we're cool like that ( tripp goodman: the man, the myth, the ledge )

oh god, he’s w e i r d . he believes in goblins and ghosts and aliens ( oh my )!

still VERY VERY close with his mother. v broken up about not being able to get through to her, because it was about to be his parents’ wedding anniversary and they were going to anti-celebrate it with big slices of oreo cheesecake and setting things on fire.

how he feels about coming home to west ham: post apocalyptic version.

uhhhh... can he please get a waffle? specifically a cinnamon raisin waffle with extra cinnamon and a shit ton of syrup? actually. syrup with a side of waffles?

why he was banned from his personal twitter.

“ do you even lift, bruv? ” * proceeds to pick up a teacup & lift his pinkie like a true knock-off british monarch, shitty accent included *

listens to wham! and glam rock. unironically.bluetooth speaker mounted on his bike. no helmet! like an absolute boss. he knows!! wild!! shades on. it’s 2am. it’s dark. but true swag obeys no clock.

catch him biking everywhere stranger things style, actually. his bike’s name is milo because he can roll on for miles. mess with milo and he’ll fuck u up. aka find out if you’re lactose intolerant and slip heavy cream into your meal.

has a strong vendetta against blue doritos. which might take root in some horrific experiences involving cheez wiz, cool ranch, weed, and the new york subway system at 4am on a tuesday. spring break freshman year of college. oof.

he has a lil drawwwwl. tease him about it. he’ll probably blush.

stress-hums chili’s babyback ribs without realizing. catch him singin’ that about to be murdered.

weapon of choice: kindness.

actual weapon of choice: baseball bat.

he will write little jingles to keep morale up. “ so we’re trapped / cash us inside / how bou’ dat ? ”

has a passion for introspective literary quotes. but... has somehow managed to learn each and every one wrong.

friggin’ loves superheroes even though he can’t be bothered to watch the films? he just… always used to get made fun of for liking comic books even though he never read them? “ arachnid man is uh... heh. he’s pretty dope, huh? ” he embraces the falsehood. someone call him on it.

9/10 times if he’s in the gym, it’s just to eat his donut and watch pay-per-view movies on the bike for free.

apple pie can absolutely be breakfast if you try hard enough. jeez. get with the times, man!

he had a legitimate pet rock before going on this service trip. but has no idea where that bugger’s gone. probably got fed up with tripp serenading him with “ we will rock you ” at all hours of the night.

lawful good. will wave other drivers on forever.

got into an accident on his bike once. bitch broke his arm and he just kept on smiling. “ no you have a nice day! and uh.... hey. mind if we like... call an ambulance? ”

low key feels like he’s the reason his parents’ marriage crumbled. low key guilty about it. low key wonders if maybe he lived up to his father’s expectations, he might have saved them a lot of grief.

give benny goodman by saint motel a listen and tell me that’s not his soul in audio form.

known for slightly hyperbolic storytelling.

pansexual as heck. falls in love. hard. it’s a mess. he can’t hide it. hence the shades.

he has brilliant hair. and it’s immortalized in his high school yearbook.

is hellbent on being a source of positivity in this terrible situation. can he interest you in a meme in these trying times? how ‘bout a granola bar? maybe a good ole game of mash?

he’s convinced this is an elaborate prank. or a social experiment. maybe aliens. but let’s not question it too much, let’s just.... have a good time? hakuna matata? no worries? lol where the twizzlers at?!

leaves a voicemail for his mother every morning and every night. maybe he cries. maybe.

he has one ear pierced because like.......... senior year of high school, he wanted to feel more cool.

allergic to mushrooms, shellfish, eggs, and harbingers of doom.

he truly boggles minds. just.... v out there? v spacey. he closes his eyes and drifts about on stage, fingers dancing on the keys, body moving in eclectic ways. he says “groovy” and fuckin’ means it. he dresses in prints inspired by grandma’s carpet. lots of half-buttoned flowy shirts, boots, tailored statement pants, dangly necklaces. he’s got his hands full of rings –– they symbolize milestones. and some are just, like... pretty. and one’s his mother’s old wedding band.

where the hell are my friends ! ( wanted connectz. )

i was gonna do a whole section on this and got lazy but like.... anything. all the things. good, bad, ugly, beautiful. hurt him. make him suffer. but also support him a bit.

i imagine he’s got a solid squad goin’. he’s in faction one too, so... hmu for those.

i feel like he’d be pretty chill with the greeks? yeah bro, he parties. he’ll chill. he’ll crack open a cold one and pretend to understand what those letters on your jacket mean! pie-apple-fate-uh? cool stuff !

ride or dies. pls.

he needs someone to like....... melt his heart. maybe someone unexpected.

thisssss got long & disorganized but yes! let’s plot! let’s do this thang! #hype!!

#apogeeintro #✰ mother trucker dude; that hurt like a buttcheek on a stick ! isms.#if u cannot tell...... he is a gay ass MEME

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pixelgrotto · 6 years ago

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D&D With My Bro: The Case of the Grandmotherly Ghost

Last weekend my brother and I concluded our second homebrew Dungeons & Dragons campaign starring Lester LeFoe and Claudia Copperhoof, two private detectives from Tartec, a setting that my bro created for his fantasy series The Thirteenth Hour. I called it The Case of the Grandmotherly Ghost, and it was quite different in scope from its predecessor, The Case of the Almost Assassination. That first adventure was based entirely within a city and focused on our heroes preventing a political assassination, and it was much more of a Holmesian urban investigation inspired by the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney games. In contrast, the theme of this second campaign was “the great outdoors,” and I wanted to create something that gave me an excuse to use a more traditional D&D framework - that of adventurers going to a quiet village and solving problems for townsfolk. You can watch the whole adventure on YouTube here (along with our first), and I’ll highlight a few of my influences in this post, since I think it might be an interesting thought process for anyone working on their own campaign.

The hook getting Lester and Claudia to leave the capital city was the titular “grandmotherly ghost” haunting Aquaria, a small farming community. It turned out that the ghost was actually the former headmistress of the town orphanage, and she was simply trying to warn residents that the new orphanage master was a shady fellow with magic at his disposal who had secretly been brainwashing children and selling them to the barbarians of the Wild Lands, an uncharted grasslands region full of deadly beasts. And despite their seeming acceptance of slavery, the barbarians weren’t exactly bad guys either - they were more like a disenfranchised minority trying to maintain a tenuous peace with the Tartec king while fighting against a vicious sea serpent named Ungar who had recently invaded their turf. The only reason they needed the kids was to power an old steampunk robot known as the Clockwork Dragon which was the only thing capable of killing Ungar, and this gizmo had been created by a quirky wizard who loved children and made constructs that could only be used by orphans.

So in other words, there were a whole lot of twists in the plot, which started as a ghost hunt in a village but quickly ballooned into a full-out exploration of the Wild Lands and the uncovering of a conspiracy. I’ve always felt that small, so-called “idyllic” towns actually hide a lot of creepy secrets behind an illusion of peace, and my character, Claudia, even comments on this at one point, talking about how cities are places where people are more likely to stab you in the open, but little villages are places where people are more likely to stab you in your sleep. Stephen King, one of my favorite authors, also subscribes to this notion, which is why he sets most of his works in weird Maine suburbs rather than cities. In interviews for Salem’s Lot, his book about vampires infesting a town, he actually mentions that if Dracula came back in this day and age and tried to take over New York City, he’d probably get run over by a car before making it very far. But a sleepy village in the middle of nowhere? He’d conquer that sort of place slowly but surely, and that’s the reasoning I kept remembering while designing both the town of Aquaria and Albertus Alright, the new orphanage master and probably the only real “villain” in our campaign, aside from Ungar the sea serpent herself.

Speaking of villains, I mentioned earlier that the barbarians who play such a large role in this story weren’t exactly bad guys. This was an important thing that I wanted to develop, because real life rarely has the mustache-twirling baddies of fiction - just people who are often radically intent on accomplishing their goals. Around the time when I was brainstorming this adventure, I was reading Scalped, which is a great comic series by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra about life on a South Dakota Native American reservation. It highlights the crime, corruption, poverty and preservation of cultural identity that many of these reservations grapple with, and I found this to be inspiring stuff when designing the barbarians and their Wild Land home. I basically tried to portray them as natives who’d been abused and quarantined off in a tiny area by a larger, more powerful government, which is frankly what’s happened to most aboriginal peoples across the globe, not just in the United States. Within the fantasy setting of the campaign, the big government power was the Tartec empire of King Darian IV, and there was a small segment of the barbarians - the Clawrunner tribe - who resented this oppression and ended up getting their hands on the Clockwork Dragon, a weapon that could’ve given them the upper hand against the Tartec forces if they’d wanted to use it in such a way. Luckily, they were more focused on killing the sea serpent razing their homeland, and Lester and Claudia essentially served as neutral go-betweens, encouraging them to not engage in terrorism or cause a war that would’ve quickly gotten out of hand. If only real life could have such quick ‘n easy resolutions!

On the topic of sea serpents and mecha dragons, one of the other main tropes of traditional D&D that I wanted to inject into this quest was that of the monster. Aside from a crocodile and some snakes in the sewers, the last campaign I’d played through with my brother had mostly featured human enemies, simply because there aren’t many deadly creatures to be found within a city. (Though you could probably argue that humans are the worst monsters of all!) Venturing into the wilderness gave me the excuse to go through the Monster Manual and pull out some of the beasties that make tabletop RPGs fun, though since my brother’s world isn’t the sort of place that has humanoids like orcs, goblinkin or mind flayers, I decided to focus on the more animal-esque D&D creatures that are naturally found in forests and grasslands - stuff like the owlbear (one of my faves), the griffon, the bulette and a few mutated, more powerful versions of mammals found in our world, like rhinos and wolves. When I was designing the Wild Lands section of the adventure I also became aware of the Baby Bestiary - a wonderful series of third party D&D supplements by Metal Weave Games that provides details on younger versions of classic creatures - and I was so enamored of the concept that I wrote a turning point where Lester and Claudia can choose to adopt either an infant griffon or an infant owlbear. My brother went with the griffon, naming it Sparky, and it’ll hopefully grown to be a strong companion (Pokemon style) in future adventures.

I had one more thing I wanted to pull off with monsters in this campaign - a throwdown in the finale between the Clockwork Dragon, which could be powered by Lester, Claudia and the orphans like a medieval Voltron, and the sea serpent Ungar. This was inspired by a phase I went through about two years ago where I watched nearly all of the Godzilla movies in a row. When I finished, I kept trying to figure out how to implement kaiju battles into a tabletop RPG, because surprisingly nobody’s really done this successfully yet, though board games like King of Tokyo have come close. I finally decided that the best way to do it would be to give relatively low level playable characters temporary control of a giant beast with high level stats. So Lester and Claudia, two seventh level characters, got to choose from abilities meant for a Challenge Rating 14 dragon, giving them access to stuff like Legendary Actions and rechargeable fire breath. Their opponent was also a high level dragon with similar capabilities, and the resulting combat went better than I expected and communicated (as best as you can in a tabletop RPG, anyway) the scale and power that comes with the best big monster fights. I’ll probably end up recycling the idea again for another D&D group - in this one DM + one player game, it was just my brother controlling all of the Clockwork Dragon’s actions, but I think it would be fun with a larger group to have one player control the movement, one control the attacks, one the Legendary Actions, etc.

All in all, The Case of the Grandmotherly Ghost took about 11 sessions and 24 hours to complete, which is roughly on par with The Case of the Almost Assassination. 20-30 hours seems to be the amount of content that I subconsciously end up creating when I design a campaign, which is interesting, because about four years ago on this blog I wrote (in a poorly written fashion, I now find) a post about how 30-ish hours is probably my ideal length for a gaming experience. The next adventure my bro and I will be embarking upon with Lester and Claudia - The Case of the Troubled Territory - might end up hitting that mark as well, though I do plan to experiment and hopefully make it more open-ended than this past one, which checked off most of my bullet points but was slightly too linear at moments.

At any rate, now that we’ve conquered the great outdoors, the theme for the next quest will be “Arabian Nights!” Who knows what future rolls lie in store for our heroes? Expect another campaign deconstruction in…five or six months time, hopefully!

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multsicorn · 6 years ago

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pretending this is still a blog

1. I’m only online between 8pm and 10am anymore! And not most of that time - I’m sleeping most of that time, of course - and also doing other things IRL - so I’m on the internet for maybe 2-4 hours a day, all told, in the evening and in the morning when I’m waking up.

I’ve been trying and failing and trying again to impose some sort of structure and limits on spending time on shitty websites I don’t enjoy basically as long as I’ve had the internet, and for the first time ever I am succeeding.... (it’s the end of week two, I’ve followed my schedule every day), so... THIS IS GREAT. I am and feel 2000% more in control of my life.

2. Probably about 90% of that online time I am spending reading Yuri on Ice fic. And watching vids, and reading discussion, but mostly fic. (My favorite thing is ‘Victor and Yuuri work their shit out,’ my favorite fic so far is shysweetthing’s collected works, and especially “Call Everything on the Ice.”) (Cause anyone cared.)

3. I kinda wanna write meta cause, well, I’m me, but I get the feeling everything’s already been said. #a year late with no starbucks. I might do it anyway? Especially re: Yuuri’s anxiety, cause I have zillions feelings, and I keep doing it in my own head, but... eh. Can’t do everything, so who knows. (It fucks him up enough to make him break up with Victor, but doesn’t keep him from breaking a world record! Both these things at the very same time! Not calling people cause you think you disappointed them is literally the most relatable character flaw ever! And then just everything that’s not about getting better, but about knowing and continuing to work to find more ways to deal with this thing that is a condition of life; it’s not infinite, and not going away.)

4. I am, anyway, definitely writing fic. (I don’t stop writing fic for a week, it’s funny to me if no one else, I go straight from one fandom to the next not missing a beat.) Haven’t been finishing any of it (obviously), but - hm.

[At this point I went on a now redacted several page long tangent.]

Because I decided several weeks ago now to stop trying to make myself just finish things, just post things, etc. - not that I’d been having success with that, clearly. And just try to focus on enjoying the process of writing, cause I ‘wanted to write’ all these stories in theory but never wanted to really sit down and write... and that’s been an interesting qualified success!

But has also left me quite frustrated with feeling like I’m working on trying to improve things that I don’t know how to improve, while at the same time never getting a ‘chance’ to move on to other stories.

So! I remembered that old tumblr post about making clay pots and just finishing something, even if it’s not any good, put it out there and make the next one - I was thinking of this post, but this one by ursualvernon might’ve got in there too - and, so, well, Imma try that experimentally. Just finish the scene! Don’t go back to it at all! .. we’ll see how that experiment works.

5. I still have not read any of the Year Four Check Please comics after the first mini one. It’s a pity, cause I have all the best places to talk about it, I made place(s) to complain if that’s what I wanna do, and, after all, reading a comic only takes a few minutes, but... I just don’t wanna read it. That’s where my fannish involvement after x months mostly on anon ended up, with me feeling that way, and if there’s one thing dumber than not reading it, it’s feeling like I ~should.~ Fandoms are transient; it’s fine.

6. I do still wanna get around to reading/catching up with definitely @coyotesuspect‘s fic though, and some of the rest of the pimms and maybe Kent/OMC content that’s been produced in the past month or two. But I wanna do a lot of things! Most of which I can’t fit in; I guess who knows when or if.

7. Some other things I have been doing, while being Not On The Internet: writing ~2 hours a day, wow, go me. Learning Russian, (hopefully it’ll take this time, but I’m working through proper college textbooks), reading books, cleaning my house, (a slow but steady process), taking walks, learning to cook new things. Art Projects that I’ve been telling myself ‘maybe someday’ about for how-many-years, finally, the time is now. (Even if the time’s only 45 minutes a day. And one at a time, not all at once. It is still amazing.)

8. What is becoming of this blog, who knows. I’m gonna refill the queue with the same mix of random stuff, and pics of Yuuri Katsuki, cause <3. And hope sometime in maybe not too long I join/fall in love with an ongoing fandom again? Cause I do like liking things ;D.

9. But right now, I mostly check in and catch up for ~10 min once or twice a day. It’s not bad, and I still love you all, I just mostly love you from elsewhere right now. (She says. But who knows. Maybe I’ll be insufferably spammy after I post this ‘quiet now’ post!)

#pretending this is a blog #fandom how does it work #i have also Spared you all from a list of my current fic wips #oh and like unfollow me if you want if you were following for omgcp....#not that you need my permission! to unfollow anytime etc #but i'm...... pretty much done with that fandom..... i am pretty 100% sure #even tho i never wrote some of the fics i most wanted to write WOE #it was the same in the last fandom i left before that! SUCH IS LIFE

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killfaeh · 4 years ago

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TGCM Comics

Hi everybody! A few months ago I announced that I was starting to develop an online platform for publishing and reading webcomics and webtoons named TGCM Comics. So I give you here some news about the progress of the project.

The development blog

To start, note that I've opened a development blog that I update as often as possible (in French). It is accessible at this address: https://tgcm-comics.blogspot.com. My schedule being very busy, I won't be able to put all these news on Tipeee and Patreon with all the translation work involved, so feel free to have a look at this blog from time to time to keep you informed about the progress of the project. Note that it has a suggestion box, so if you have suggestions to make in terms of features or ergonomics, do not hesitate to share them in the comments of this section, this does not require any registration.

Reminder about the concept

The last time I mentioned it in news I made a very brief presentation of the project. I'll give you a more complete briefing here. The idea is to propose a platform that takes the opposite of what currently exists, in particular 2 flaws that make the despair of independent webcomic authors. Popularity rankings: they are based on the number of cumulative views per page, the number of comments, the number of likes and mathematically favor the authors who arrived first on the platform and/or who post in large quantities and this at the expense of the quality. In addition, about half of the Internet traffic is due to bots and not real visitors, so these statistics are skewed by default. Icing on the cake. Such a system is easy to hack from both inside and outside. So, it's unfair in more than one way and it creates an unhealthy competitive atmosphere. This kind of mechanism will therefore not exist on TGCM Comics and will be replaced by the random playlist principle in order to guarantee an equal rate of visibility for all comics and leave the reader the real choice to read/discover what he or she wants. Most creators/developers of webcomic platforms try to make a living out of it and create a business project around it. The problem is that webcomics, especially in the French-speaking world, are not profitable, therefore to try to make ends meet, these platforms sometimes use questionable methods of financing and obviously to the disadvantage of the authors and which cost them more money than their art brings them (paying to appear on the front page of the site, paying to be able to display links to crowdfunding pages and other support systems). For my part, I'm developing TGCM Comics on a volunteer basis and I'll take care of the financing of the hosting. I have enough means with my dayjob for that. At the very least, I might place a small rectangle of ads to try to amortize the cost just for the principle, but that's all. The income will surely be derisory, let's be realistic. The objective is not to make the platform financially profitable but to allow authors who are struggling to build an audience elsewhere to do so while publishing their comics at their own pace, without stress. I would like it to be a small garden for them and for them to feel good there. If this goal is achieved then that's where the victory will be. :) In addition to these 2 main problematic points there are often ergonomic points that are lacking and a general tendency to weigh down the web interface with lots of useless Javascript modules which consumes the bandwidth and electricity of the users and sometimes forces them to change computer just to have the latest browser. So I want to develop an interface as pleasant and efficient as possible for everyone, take care of accessibility and also make a platform as eco-responsible as possible by choosing a green hoster and optimizing my code so that it consumes as little energy as possible and does not load unnecessary data to your browser. So, the idea is to offer a platform where both authors and readers will feel at home.

Progress of the project

Now that you know what it's all about, I'll give you some news about the progress of the project.

Blog and author details

I started with the spaces that will allow the authors to express themselves and give their news. Each author will have a presentation sheet which will contain a short biography, the list of the publications on the platform as well as all the external links.

Each author will also have a blog where he will be able to enter his news either with the good old BB code from the 2000's or by using an WYSIWYG interface. His external links will be recalled in small at the top of the blog.

Private messages and friend system

As I'm going to need it to contact the authors to let them know when their comics will be validated I also developed the private message system that will look like this.

It comes with a system of friends. Far from me wanting to imitate social networks (I hate these platforms) this system will be used mainly to choose who you allow to send you private messages. Only members of the site with whom you will be friends and the administrators will be able to send you private messages. In short, it is an anti-spam and anti-harassment security system.

Submit a comic

I don't expect to be very demanding about the level of quality required to post a comic, but I don't want TGCM Comics to become hyper-saturated either. To submit your comic book, you will have to go through this form which, once sent, will notify me by email. Don't worry, I won't ask you to be the new Alan Moore or the new Jim Lee. If the art is correct, the layout is clear and the text readable (and interpretable by the machine translation system) it will do the job. :)

The list of genres is currently not complete. It will be enriched by the time the first version of the site is online.

The comic settings

Once your comic is approved, you will automatically get the author status and you can edit various settings at your convenience. One of the setup screens allows you to change some of the information that you have already entered in the submit form.

The following will allow you to indicate if you want the publication to be automatic or not and if yes, to set the days and hours of publication of your pages.

Then you have the translation settings. On this screen, you will be able to translate the title as well as the synopsis of your webcomic and also ask for your pages to be translated automatically or not. The automatic translation will not start at the same time depending on whether you send pages with text or empty pages.

And finally, I also developed the chapter manager for a series. If you chose to publish a one-shot or an extract, a single chapter will be created and instead of the chapter list the pages manager will be displayed directly.

So, everything I have just presented to you is already developed. Currently I'm working on the pages manager and this is the biggest piece of the whole project at least the most complex one. That's all for today! I still have a lot of things to show and tell you, so we'll meet again very soon! Have a nice week! :D Suisei

P.S. If you want miss no news and if you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to the newsletter here : https://www.suiseipark.com/User/SubscribeNewsletter/language/english/

Source : https://www.suiseipark.com/News/Entry/id/300/

#webcomic #Webtoon

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shelfnovel12-blog · 5 years ago

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Dirty Chai Tapioca Pudding with Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Crumble

Dirty chai tapioca pudding is topped with gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookie crumble and makes a deliciously aromatic and decadent dessert.

P-U-D-D-I-N-G!!

Lover or a hater? I feel like people are pretty opinionated on pudding. I love the stuff. That said, I love it on it’s own. I don’t love it in a pie. No, pies are for fruit, not creamy fillings. Nope, nope, nope.

Throw things like rice and tapioca in there and people get even more worked up about it. I truly don’t get the tapioca haters. That texture is just FUN! At least I think so. Guess that’s probably why I love chia pudding too (pumpkin chocolate chia pudding or pumpkin pie chia pudding parfaits anyone?).

*This post is sponsored by Udi’s Gluten Free, a 2017 partner of Running to the Kitchen.

Basically, the more texture, the merrier in my eyes. Or mouth.

My mother-in-law is the rice pudding queen. I’ve made it before but don’t do so often (this creamy orange spiked wheatberry pudding is the closest thing to it on here) because hers is really just the best.

Except for that one time she made it with salt instead of sugar. It was years ago when we lived in Florida, my brother was visiting and she was so excited to have another mouth to feed. He and Ulysses took the first spoonful and watching my brother’s face transform into disgust while he tried to disguise it for politeness sake was one of the most comical moments of my life. I, thankfully, hadn’t tried my serving yet.

She’s redeemed herself since then but that my friends, is why you keep food items in (appropriately) labeled containers.

I’ve purchased some obscure ingredients doing this thing called food blogging for the last 6+ years but weirdly, tapioca pearls were never one of them up until recently. With a half opened box of them though this dirty chai tapioca pudding came to be.

I feel like this isn’t something I should admit but I had no clue what dirty chai meant up until a few weeks ago. Julie made these brownies and it was like the angels started singing and the heavens opened up. Espresso AND chai combined? Um, yes.

I want that combination in drink form, in brownie form, in pudding form and basically any other form it wants to take because YUM.

I decided I wanted to take the texture thing even further with this dirty chai tapioca pudding and crumble my favorite Udi’s Gluten Free soft baked cookie on top – oatmeal raisin.

Remember these maple cashew chocolate chip cookie milkshakes from back in the summer? Well, I do love those Udi’s cookies too but if you ever give me a choice when it comes to cookies between traditional and soft baked, I’m going soft baked all the way, always.

They bring even more fun to each bite of this dirty chai tapioca pudding. It’s equal parts aromatic, coffee buzzed and sweet (it’s also dairy free!) and I think all you pudding lovers (minus the texture weirdos) will love it.

Dirty chai tapioca pudding is topped with gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookie crumble and makes a deliciously aromatic and decadent dessert.

Prep Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup tapioca pearls

3/4 cup brewed espresso

1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond/coconut milk

1 1/2 teaspoon chai tea

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons maple syrup

pinch kosher salt

4 Udi's Gluten Free Soft Baked Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, crumbled

Instructions

Place tapioca pearls in a small bowl, cover with cold water and let soak for at least 1 hour.

Drain tapioca and set aside.

Place almond/coconut milk in a small pot over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Place chai tea in an infuser and let steep in the pot with the milk over low heat for 5 minutes.

Remove tea infuser and discard. Add the brewed espresso, vanilla, maple syrup and salt to the pot, whisk to combine.

Add the tapioca pearls, increase heat to medium and stir frequently over a low simmer until pudding thickens and tapioca turns from white to clear, about 20-25 minutes.

Pour the pudding mixture into 4 containers. Top each with the cookie crumbles and serve. Alternatively, refrigerate pudding to serve chilled and top with the cookie crumbles before serving.

Source: https://www.runningtothekitchen.com/dirty-chai-tapioca-pudding/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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erwinsalive · 8 years ago

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hey im new in the eruri fandom and have seen many of your adorable and cute drawings while browsing through the eruri tags. they're so amazing and i really wanted to let you know how much i love them. the way you draw the eruris is so cute. my favorite is the ikea comic. please never stop drawing! can you recommend me some great eruri artblogs to follow?

Hi there dear anon and welcome to the fandom! I hope you are prepared for some amazing people and the madness they provide xD

asdfghjkl…What is this? I spent 5 solid minutes squealing about the nice stuff you said. Thank you so much for this ask, this motivates me so much to create more weird content :* Oh and the IKEA-diaries will probably at least contain two more adventures for Dorkwin and Levi thanks to inspiration by @valisi-clark and @lostcauses-noregrets hehe :)

Of course I can recommend you some great artists to follow, this fandom is so full of talented people, it’s crazy :D

This is gonna be a long long list:

35grams: High-quality fanart that might be able to rip out your heart (and they’re a great writer too)

acrknowyou: amazing style and very funny and cute eruris

aileine: The Eruri-goddess, nothing more to add

autiacora: very talented and creative artist

babushka-hi-hi: I love their style! They also do some very cute stuff like Eruri on Ice or Owl!Eruris

bluecrownedbird: Melli is so talented, when I see the detailed stuff she creates i want to scream with joy

cheekysmiletoo: Ajun creates the most adorable kid!eruris you can imagine

cherrymoya: Contains some very hot nsfw :>

cup-of-coco: If you don’t know smol&tol yet you should definitely check this out :D

erurilicious: Again: High-quality fanart and high-quality reblogs of other fanart :)

erurixpr3ss: She started drawing like 5 months ago and it’s a delight to watch her amazing progress! Also the Eruri-pick-up-lines are hilarious.

februeruri: Another Eruri-legend :)

gouguruheddo: Relatively new but crazyly talented :) Check out Bubble-butt-Erwin!

HrHase: Currently on SemiHiatus but their Eruris and other Vets are so beautiful

ichigoreiyo: Their works are so detailed and they can talk about erwin’s dong for hours :*

idrawr16yt: Their style is so unique and their eruris so full of love

knight-enchxnter: I think Paula has an additional art-blog too, but I’m not quite sure. She made some funny and amazing eruri-art though :)

Nangnuk: Super cute and funny chibi-Eruris :)

Pandanoi: Their Eruris were one of the first I ever saw and they’re beautiful

peach-oniisan: Their artwork looks like…paintings. I cant describe it.

Prosotankutu: Another very unique and beautiful style

rsn258: I don’t know how they do it but their art always touches my heart

seitsensarvi: Marie’s art is…hearbreakingly beautiful and full of emotion

sennfann: I just love her style, it all looks sooo smooth!

shtarka: I wish I could do what they do with watercolors…

survey-corps-rookie: Their actors-AU is one of the best things to ever happen to me!!!

unhlyghst: I have just one word: Beautiful!

varrix: I couldn’t believe what they did with colour the first time I saw a fanart by them o.o

waytooemily: They made one of my favourite eruri-comics ever :)

wolsi: Their art is so amazing and everytime I see their icon I have to smile.

xyuwa: I don’t think that they’re still active but pls check out their gallery

zedsdead1001: The Eruri-Porn-goddess, nothing more to add ;)

Some blogs that don’t do art but are funny/cute/amazing writers:

alwaysbesassy: Mad skills in photoshop ;)

ask-commander-eyebrows: The best and cutest Cosplay-blog I know

birbwin: Great writer, beautiful man is amazing

erwiiiin: They belong to the #niledokdefensesquad and make some hilariously funny posts (though Im not sure if they don't have an artblog o.o)

goddamnchou: A legend, author of great fics like sugar or in full bloom

hedera-helixwriteseruri: Have you read Dresden? This person wrote it and broke my heart

HerrKirschbaum: Author of Lend me your Summer, totally well researched Jane-Austen-like-Eruris :)

lostcauses-noregrets: A blog full of good meta and great fics

valisi-clark: Cute as someone can be and writer of the great ongoing fanfic Smash

There are so many more great artists and blogs out there, but these are…uhm…a few I could think of. Go check them out, you won’t regret.

And if you want come chat me up off-anon so i can thank you properly and maybe talk a bit eruri ;) Thank you for the ask!

#ask #anonymous #thank you so much #this was one of the nicest asks i ever got #this fandom is so nice and amazing and talented #i sometimes can believe it #and this list is just a rough summary #theres so much more!#artist rec #author rec #this post took forever #forever #especially since my laptop deleted the half-typed ask two times #eruri #erwin smith #levi ackerman

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daniellethamasa · 5 years ago

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Hey all, Dani here.

How are you all doing today? We’ve made it to the middle of the week already, which is pretty fantastic…though it does remind me that I need to do some work and planning for D&D this weekend. Yeah, I need to do that soon. Anyway, welcome back to my weekly blog series where I talk about what I’ve done, watched, played, tried, and read in the past week, as well as a glimpse into what I’m hoping to read next. We are officially at a whole year of this post under the name Weekly Wrap-Up and two years of the blog series in general. That’s pretty impressive to me.

Okay, so watches are up first. Well, Damian and I went and saw the new “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie for Valentine’s Day, and it was rather fantastic, actually. And, with the way it ends, I’m really hoping for a sequel, because I want Tails and Knuckles and the rest of the gang to be introduced. I’ve also been continuing my “Arrow” re-watch, and I’m in the middle of the Invasion crossover event right now, but I’m enjoying this return visit to the show that started the DC Berlantiverse, you know, what the studio calls the Arrowverse. Oh! I also have watched the first two episodes of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” and if you like quirky contemporary musical shows, then definitely check it out. The first two episodes are available for free on YouTube or through the NBC web site.

I guess I should also talk about gaming a little bit, because I did pick up my Switch again a few days ago…only managed to play for an hour before I got the low battery alert and decided it was time to go to bed. But I have started playing Witcher 3. I think it’s a bit too early to tell if I’m liking it or not. I’m still figuring out controls and everything, so we’ll see what happens, but I’m definitely in a Witcher mood/obsession right now.

Speaking of obsessions, I finally got around to buying a Wicked Saints t-shirt from Blissfully Bookish, and I can’t wait to do a shirt/book photo shoot.

Anyway, I guess it’s time to move on to the reading portion of this post…because sadly I don’t really have much of a writing update for you guys. The writing is going very slowly. Actually most of the writing is going on in my head and not on the page. That’s still technically progress, but it’s not an easily quantifiable or visible progress.

Next up is everything I’ve read in the past week. It’s been a pretty decent reading week overall, so that’s cool. I still wish I had actually read more books that are on my TBR, but at least I’m still reading fantasy, mostly. Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove, Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin, Snug: A Collection of Comics about Dating Your Best Friend by Catana Chetwynd, Looking for Group Omnibus Vol 1-3 by Ryan Sohmer and Lar Desouza, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? Vol 4 by Kuneida and Fujino Omori, How to Treat Magical Beasts Vol 4 by Kaziya, Prince Freya by Keiko Ishihara, and The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin, and Critical Role Vox Machina Origins II Issue #5 by Matthew Mercer, Jody Houser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher.

I think I’m in sort of a reading ADHD mood right now. Like I’ll plan to read a book, pick it up and read like 50 pages or so, and then I’ll get pulled away to another book. So I’m not making the kind of progress that I’d like. I think two of these books have been on this currently reading section for a couple weeks already. And the third one…is a NetGalley ARC for a book that doesn’t come out until August. Usually I try to wait until a little closer to the release day to read most books, but I don’t know, I just wanted to pick this one up. So I guess when I finish I’ll write up the review and schedule it for a few months from now. It’ll all work out eventually.

I want to pick up the next volume of Fruits Basket, and I discovered that my local library has volumes 5-12, so I could easily finish the whole series…but I’m not going to let myself go to the library until I’ve written up the reviews for volumes 1-4. If I’m going to binge the series then I’d rather not get the events all jumbled up in my head. I think that sounds like a reasonable restriction to give myself. And I want to read Sky Without Stars again because I was granted access on NetGalley to the sequel, and I’d like to read it before it’s released next month, but I feel like I need a refresher of the events in the first book. I also can’t resist picking up the conclusion to Julie Kagawa’s latest series, especially since I get to be on the blog tour for it. I’m so excited to get more kitsune tricks and awesome fights with demonic entities. It should be pretty cool.

Also, I’m getting ready for Middle Grade March, where I try and focus on reading, reviewing, and talking about MG books. I’ve already picked out a pretty good TBR, and I’ll talk about a couple of those books in next week’s post, and then even more in my Feb Wrap Up and March TBR post.

So yeah, that’s it for me for today. What are you reading right now? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.

Weekly Wrap-Up (52) Hey all, Dani here. How are you all doing today? We've made it to the middle of the week already, which is pretty fantastic...though it does remind me that I need to do some work and planning for D&D this weekend.

#Anime #ARC #Blog Tour #Book Releases #Books!#Dungeons & Dragons #Manga #Middle Grade #Middle Grade March #Movies #Reading #Review #Tabletop Games #TBR #Video Game #Writing

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ciathyzareposts · 6 years ago

Text

Game 330: House of Usher (1980)

House of Usher

United States

Crystalware (developer and publisher)

Released in 1980 for Apple II and Atari 800

Date Started: 27 May 2019

Date Finished: 27 May 2019

Total Hours: 5 Difficulty: Moderate (3/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

A few months ago, commenter Dungy alerted me to a little-known 1980s developer called Crystalware. Around the same time, their catalog of games, all dating from 1980 to 1982, went up on MobyGames. House of Usher was listed as an RPG when it first went up, but it has since been revised to “action/adventure.” I played it anyway because I found it hard to categorize. It’s one of the oddest and most original games I’ve played since starting this blog, although that doesn’t mean that it was “good.” I’m really not sure how I feel about it.

The game is based loosely on Poe’s famous 1839 short story, and it begins with an appropriately gothic tone. A few strains of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” appear behind the title screen, which swiftly dissolves into an image of a mansion in a thunderstorm. Lightning bolts flash across the screen with accompanying sound effects–all impressive for a 1980 title. After about 30 seconds of loading, your character appears on the front walkway of the titular House of Usher, and the game begins.

A briefly animated introduction is unusual for 1980.

The player starts with a stamina of 999, no courage, an offense score of 25, a defense score of 50, no wealth, 150 pounds in weight, and a gun with several dozen bullets (or a bow with arrows; the game and manual are inconsistent).

Beginning in the front yard.

It is 18:00 when the game starts; you must achieve one of three winning conditions by 06:00 or you lose. This only takes about five minutes in real-time. Your stamina also decreases rapidly during this period, but unless you over-burden yourself, it stays behind the timer.

Running out of time is a common way for the game to end.

Your task is made all the more difficult by a routine that ensures items, treasures, and monsters appear in randomized locations, although the layout of the mansion remains fixed. There are only 7 commands to the game: four directions of movement (using, unintuitively, the 1-4 keys), fire your weapon in the direction you last moved (5), use a carried item (6), and drop a carried item (7).

Doing a little inventory management.

The three winning conditions, any one of which brings up a winning screen, are:

Collect 1,000 wealth points

Increase courage to 1,000

Solve the mystery

It’s worth a quick review of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which I’ve always liked least among Poe’s work. An unnamed narrator goes and stays at the dilapidated mansion of his friend, Roderick Usher. Roderick’s sister, Madeline, also inhabits the house. Neither is doing very well, mentally or physically. Madeline is suffering from some kind of paralytic catatonia, and Roderick as a consequence is a pale, nervous wreck. After a few days, Roderick announces that Madeline has died, and gains his friend’s help in interring her in the family tomb in the basement. For the next few days and nights, the men are plagued by noises, visual hallucinations, insomnia, and a general worsening vexation. At last, they come to the realization that they in fact buried Madeline alive–an epiphany accompanied by Madeline herself, bloody and emaciated, having crawled out of her living tomb, suddenly appearing at the door and falling into her brother’s arms. The siblings collapse on the floor, both dead, Madeline apparently from the effort of her ordeal and Roderick from terror. The horrified narrator flees the house just before it splits in two (along a crack that the narrator previously noted) and sinks into an adjacent lake.

There are lots of interpretations of the story. Depending on how you read it, you can see Roderick and Madeline as incestuous, or vampires, or ghosts, or whatever. However you interpret it, it seems a strange source material for a video game, but not only did it produce this House of Usher but also a 1984 platformer.

The game adds some lore elements. There’s no “Virginia” in Poe’s story.

In this game, the player can visit around 40 rooms, although you’ll never hit even half that in a single session. Some of the rooms are drawn from the book, like the crypt and the guest room. Others are simply imagined from such an estate. The layout is complete chaos, as my Trizbort map shows:

The layout of the House of Usher (click to enlarge).

Partly responsible for the chaos are a handful of “maze rooms,” including the “secret passages,” two “catacombs,” and a “cell block,” all of which connect rooms quite far apart and in somewhat random directions. All of these special rooms have borders on the rooms’ interiors that draw randomly every time you enter, sometimes allowing passage through the room, sometimes blocking it.

Trying to navigate the “cell block” is mostly a waste of time.

Many of the rooms have pieces of furniture or other objects represented by large grey squares. Bumping into these items produces random results. Sometimes you get a message or bit of lore about the house. Other times, there’s some positive or negative consequence. For instance, bumping into a grave in the graveyard can result in a message about a heavy breathing heard nearby, the player falling into a grave and finding treasure, the player falling into the grave and getting seriously wounded, or a hand grasping at the player’s leg and causing a loss in courage. Bumping up against the piano in the conservatory might cause it to play (and put you to sleep for an hour) or snap shut on your fingers.

A bad outcome from bumping into a grave marker.

Smaller grey squares are randomly scattered throughout the rooms, representing items. These might be treasures of various values and weight (e.g., pouches of gold or silver, pocket watches, statues, copper kettle), melee weapons that increase offensive skill, or items of armor that increase defensive skill. Occasionally, you find nutrients or potions that you can use later to restore stamina. They might also be harmful items like spider’s nests, ghosts, or human heads which do various bad things to your statistics.

A helpful item.

Finally, monsters occasionally appear, including mummies, corpses, slimes, scorpions, and “hatchet men.” The game gives you a few seconds’ warning when you enter a room with a monster, and you have that long to try to line up shots. Most creatures take several hits or shots to kill. If they manage to get within melee range, they usually deplete your stamina too fast to defend.

A giant scorpion appears in the wine cellar.

I couldn’t quite catch the shot in-flight in my combat with this mummy.

For all their limited graphics, I find the rooms a lot of fun with their different configurations and fixtures, suggesting possibilities perhaps too advanced for a 1980 title, yet intriguing and evocative all the same. One room, the “room of death,” actually shrinks slowly after you enter it, squishing you between the walls if you’re not fast enough. Why didn’t Poe put one of those in “Usher”? That would have livened up a dreary story.

I have to get to that top doorway to escape the Room of Death.

The easiest way to win is to get courage to 1,000. It only takes two or three enemies. You just have to find them. On one play, I had them in the first two rooms and won with many hours to spare. Winning by finding treasure is harder because you have to carry it. As your encumbrance goes up, your stamina depletion also increases. After a few hundred pounds, it runs faster than the clock.

The hardest way–at least until you figure it out–is by solving the mystery. It’s also perhaps the only satisfying way. I haven’t done it yet, though I feel like I’m on the right track. Here is “The Mystery” as given by the game manual:

Part 1

Son coeur est un luth suspendu;

Sitot qu’on le touche il résonne.

Part 2

While, like a rapid ghastly river,

Through the pale door

A hideous throng rush out forever

And laugh–but smile no more.

Ververt et Chartreuse Belphegor

Directorium Inquisitorium

Part 3

. . . there did stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of Lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes and the evidence of some bitter struggle on every portion of her emaciated frame . . .

The two lines of “Part 1” are the epigraph of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” presented before the text. They mean, “His heart is a lute suspended / As soon as one touches it, it resonates.”

The lines of the first part of “Part 2” are from Poe’s “The Haunted Palace.” “Ververt et Chartreuse” refer to two separate 1734 poems by Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset: “Vert-Vert” and “La Chartreuse.” “Vert-Vert” is a comic poem about a parrot; I have no idea what “Chartreuse” is about other than it’s a liqueur. Both poems are mentioned as existing in Roderick’s library in “Usher.” So are Machiavelli’s Belphegor (1549), about a demonic prince coming to Earth to find a mate, and Nicholas Eymerich’s Directorium Inquisitorum (1376), a manual to help inquisitors investigate and prosecute witchcraft.

“Part 3” is a direct quote from the conclusion of “Usher.”

The best I can figure is that they’re instructions for a specific order of rooms, probably starting with the conservatory, where you can nudge the piano into playing a tune. The haunted lines that begin “Part 2” may refer to the graveyard or crypt, both of which are a short distance from the conservatory. One move away from the graveyard is the “summer house” and various plants, which might have something to do with the “green-green” of vert-vert. One screen away from the summer house is the vineyards; chartreuse isn’t a wine, but the authors would have had to work with the allusions they could find. From the vineyards, it’s only a short distance to the “seance room,” which could have connections to either demonology or fighting it. (There’s no library, or else I would have assumed that all of the books might be associated with it.) Touching the table in the seance room has a chance of sending you through a “vortex” to a random location in the house.

Unfortunately, if my logic hasn’t fallen apart by then, it does afterwards, as I can find no good location to conclude the path. In the book, the quoted scene takes place in the guest room, but I’ve tried that (it’s pretty far from the seance room, unless you’re lucky with the vortex) to no avail. I’ve also tried ending in the other various bedrooms. One potentially-promising room is the “red room,” which has a humanoid figure on one of the items of furniture, but I can’t get anything to happen there.

I feel like there must be something to do in this “red room,” with its figure on a bed (?).

I fiddled with other potential paths. Another goes conservatory (Part 1), graveyard (Part 2 first), garden paths (vert-vert), wine cellar (chartreuse), seance room (Belphegor), chapel (inquisitorium), and then to any of the possible end rooms. This is a lot harder because the rooms are spaced farther apart and you can barely make it in time. Another possibility, of course, is that you’re supposed to get things to happen in each of the rooms (or some of them), but no I can’t figure out the combination no matter what. The game manual promised a $100 prize to the first person to solve the mystery. I assume someone did. Until the solution comes to light, I’ll just have to be happy with my courage-based win.

Not the most satisfying of the ways to win, but a win nonetheless.

It’s best not to belabor the GIMLET on this one, since it’s not really much of an RPG. It gets a 14, doing best in “gameplay” (4: quick, replayable, challenging) and “quests” (3: multiple ways to win), but scoring 0 on the important “character development” category, since all development is by inventory. Even the inventory-based “development” is questionable because the game is over so fast you’re more likely to time out than to actually employ that chain mail against a mummy.

The manual had decent production values, and of course the promise of a $100 prize.

If Crystalware’s first outing is notable for its originality, it would definitely continue in that tradition. Between 1980 and 1982, the developer put out games set in ancient Sumeria, modern Egypt, the Iran-Iraq War, Arthurian Britain, a Westworld-style fantasy land, and several science fiction settings. MobyGames currently tags seven of them as RPGs: Beneath the Pyramids (1980), Escape from Vulcan’s Isle (1981), King Arthur’s Heir (1981), Fantasyland 2041 A.D. (1981), Sands of Mars (1981), Crypt of the Undead (1982), and The Haunted Palace (1982). These are all tentatively on my list pending confirmation of their RPG elements.

The titles are mostly credited to Crystalware owners John and Patty Bell, although Mike Potter is credited on the Atari 800 translations. Crystalware apparently started as Crystal Computer, a physical store in Sunnyvale, California, that transitioned into game development and publishing.

After its brief heyday, the company seems to have taken some odd turns. My Google searches turn up John Bell now associated with “Crystalware Defense and Nanotechnology” in West Virginia, although he seems to have returned to gaming with a virtual reality title called World of Twine scheduled for a 2019 release. As I work through the load of Crystalware titles dumped onto the list, I’ll try to contact Mr. Bell and find more about the inspiration for these unusual settings.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-330-house-of-usher-1980/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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