#also god NPCs are hard

[foxespsu]

It takes Grant a moment to register Wymack's presence. When he does, it's at the same instant Wymack's inserting himself between them, calling out orders to cut it out.

For his part, Mateo obeys. He might roll his eyes, but he stalks off anyway. Grant files that away—Mateo will fight, but not in front of their supposed authority figure. Grant, in comparison, crosses his arms. Wymack hasn't earned anything from him. Not Grant's respect, and not Grant's fear either.

"Or what?" Grant says. This is the man who let Grant punch him, and still offered him a contract afterwards. Wymack recruits players who revel in red cards, players fresh off suspension for doping. Wherever Wymack draws the line, Grant would rather know it sooner rather than later. "I thought I got as many second chances as I want."

Wymack sighs. When he speaks, he doesn't sound surprised or upset. "How many do you think you'll need? Just so I can be prepared."

Grant scowls. Still, unlike Mateo, he doesn't leave. "This is my room, right? Do you have to be here?"

Wymack throws up his hands. Grant can't tell if it's in exasperation or surrender. Grant's other roommates have yet to show up though, and Mateo's God knows where. Wymack must feel the situation is diffused enough, even with Grant's attitude, because he backs towards the exit.

"No more fighting," Wymack says, on his way out. An empty threat, clearly, despite his pointed tone. "And when Mateo gets back, tell him you'll both have extra laps at our first practice."

Along with the stinging in his cheek, Mateo's knuckles ache when he actually makes contact with Grant's jaw. That'll definitely bruise later, but it's worth it to get a hit in. Fights aren't meant to be clean.

He barely has time to recover or make his next move before Grant uses his weight against Mateo and shoves him back, causing him to stumble hard enough that he can't block the next punch that sends him colliding into a desk.

All the air leaves Mateo lungs from the hit, and he wheezes pitifully as he clings to the desk. It's probably a sign he should give up, but he's already pushing off the desk to try again. He doesn't get too far when their coach appears in the doorway and steps between them. Wymack throws out a hand to stop Mateo mid-lunge.

"What the hell is this? Day one? Cut it out!" Wymack orders, shoving Mateo further back from Grant but not hard enough to make him fall. "Don't let me catch you two trying that again."

Mateo doesn't bother making any promises or apologies. He merely rolls his eyes at Wymack and steps around him to get out of the room. He needs some fucking ice.

[shorthaltsjester]

every bells hells interaction with keyleth being a bullying (affectionate) interrogation — usually about things they have already interrogated her about — versus their interactions with vex being like 3 of the hells at any given time Will be distracted by her hotness and the rest will be just going yes ma’am whatever you say . extremely extremely real of them . i have to imagine after every interaction keyleth is like WHY do they keep doing this to me and vex is like idk darling maybe your vibes are just off

but also i just need them to carry some of the our old pcs are bugs were poking under a microscope energy to vex i need to know what her takes on vaxorb and the gods are right now . do i think vex is as likely to be open with bells hells as keyleth is? doubtful. but i still want them to try

[yoakenouta]

ive been playing this super niche jpn trpg and im considering on rping some of the NPCs but their entire existences are like dead dove as in theyre all legit horribly people and mentally insane LMFAO

[in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene]

I do think Withers has a really subtle background character arc in bg3. Because at the start it is really clear he doesn't want to be here and he's being forced to clean up his mess by Helm and probably Ao. He doesn't really care either. Everything ends so nothing really matters, he'd like to go back to his paperwork now please.

Except he's stuck babysitting a bunch of traumatized dumbasses as they stumble into dealing with the most recent bad idea of his three fuck-up disappointments. So he brings them back when they die for a pittance, lets them pay for some vengeful ghosts to come back as flesh and blood to wreak bloody vengeance on the Absolute, and starts to... comment, on what's going on, as he follows them on their adventure.

Next thing you know Withers is like, doing things unprompted. He refuses to bring back Alfira (or Quil) but that's an act of compassion, keeping the poor girl from the Urge and letting her rest, his actual duty as a god of death. He tells Arabella to follow her destiny and does that thing to make her grief go away which honestly freaks me out but seems to be him trying to help her. He shows up at Moonrise and prompts us to consider why the Dead Three would want a bunch of soulless illithids that would give them no power, getting us to think of the big picture.

And by the end (especially if you do a resist!Durge playthrough) Withers is actively interfering and seems genuinely invested! He brings Durge back from the dead, free of their father! He encourages us before the final fight with the Netherbrain! He's real fucking smug that the Dead Three lost when he never seemed to care about the destruction they caused before! He throws a reunion party and many of his lines are genuinely touching or kind! Especially if a companion died permanently! He has tea with Gale's mom and Tara! He's like, socializing and shit! Yes, everything is temporary and we all die, but there's great beauty in fighting for that precious time and living it to the fullest!

Basically Wither's character arc is this meme, all because Helm made him go outside and touch grass.

[karokawwo]

im still not over how...... neat. the sons of calydon look 😭. this women look TOO polite. especially considering that they live in some sort of wastelands full of stuff from the old civilization?? you're telling me they don't also scrap clothes together just like they do machines??? they just look so lame 😭😭

[asleepinawell]

every time i overhead smash something with my giant hammer i imagine it's this pop up

[brainrotzora]

these things are always happening to the ones i like :////////

anyways the lighting in this dungeon is so nice

didn't get any good pics bc i was too busy dungeoning but so pretty...best dungeon music so far goes to snowcloak though btw

[absentmoon]

lrb SO ive been thinking about fah and. im currently going with the idea of having two inserts with two stories OR one insert with a time loop au

[lexicals]

Just finished I think literally the hardest combat session I've ever played in any ttrpg jesus christ. It's 3am

[potatoesandsunshine]

the fucked up de rolo sibling relationship is something that can actually be so personal....

[spamton]

i accidentally napped and had a dream (nightmare?) where a new update for stardew valley released where everything was the same except on a random day in year 3 Evelyn would just straight up die. There was a whole cutscene that started in her house where she collapsed, and then transitioned over to the hospital where Harvey gave George and Alex the worst news of their lives. However, they got to speak to her where she said something along the lines of "Yoba will protect me, and I am sure he will let me watch over you."

Alex and George would not talk to the player for more than a few words for a full season after this event. George would spend most of his time in the bedroom, so if you had less than 2 hearts with him, you could barely ever speak to him.

And Alex... oh my god, poor Alex. If you were married to him during this event, he just stayed in bed all day. Otherwise, if single, he would just stand on the beach most of the time, staring off into the ocean. If you tried to interact with him, it would just say "Alex is grieving... Better leave him be."

There was also other NPC dialogue like mayor Lewis saying "I haven't seen the community in this state of mourning since your grandfather passed..."

there was also a glitch where you could make Evelyn live forever and there were entire guides for the "immortal Evelyn glitch" that got patched out in the next update. If you tried to perform the glitch after the patch, mr. Qi would tell you that "hey, it happens to all of us. We can't prevent it, and neither can you, no matter how hard you try."

[deathbyworm]

honestly WHAT is the point of ttrpgs if not to excitedly tell your mum all about it as soon as you finish

[shrimp1y]

"wrio isn't a cop hes a king"

Can someone with brains please please PLEASE talk about the disgusting portrayal of cops, crime, court proceedings, justice system and prison incarceration in genshin impact's fontaine update because I cannot SIT HERE and see people completely destroy their brain cells just so they could play a mediocre game and make some fictional men fuck in their mind

I'm deadass surprised there isn't more people talking about it??? I'm honestly so ??? It's literally presenting prison labour as a good thing. Wriothesley, the prison administrator, got rich off of making his inmates build police robots for the state AND HE'S PRAISED FOR IT. AND THEY'RE PAID IN COUPONS THAT CAN ONLY BE USED IN JAIL. HE WAS REWARDED FOR IT WITH HIS DUKE STATUS.

The fact that the fucking MC's mascot was like "oh the prisoners get one free meal a day? you're making life too good down here what if no one wants to leave :(" what in the bullshit. What in the. There's also a fighting ring in the prison, by the way, and you can bet on it with your coupons you just can't bet on both fighters.

The. This is a scene people think is hot. "But that's a bad guy!" THAT'S HOW THE NARRATIVE IS WRITTEN. THEY ARE ALWAYS THE BAD GUY IN FICTION. THAT'S HOW COPAGANDA WORKS, they make you think people in power can just beat the shit outta anyone and of course the person deserves it because they are clearly always the bad guys! And the people in power are always right! This is sarcasm btw.

Neuvillette and the magic judgement machine are literally seen as undeniable justice ordained by magic and NO ONE KNOWS HOW IT WORKS. NEUVILLETTE HIMSELF HAS NO CLUE WHAT HE'S DOING HE'S ACTIVELY FIGURING SHIT OUT AS WE SPEAK. And yet it's what sends people to The Worst Most Dangerous Super Scary Prison Ever Where There's No Laws [but 1 meal a day's great /s].

"But he feels bad!" Genshin has repeatedly chosen to highlight the pains and troubles of the oppressors [Eula] [Ei/Shogun] and there's literally never any repercussions for them aside from when they portray The Haterz clearly as villains or they turn it around and say "Well it was a misunderstanding all along! No one's to blame here!"

I'm not smart enough to go into details I'm just saying. This. needs to be talked about. I'm not telling you to stop the game bc Hyperfixations not really smth that can be controlled or whatever I get It I Got Back into the game when the first trailer dropped I drew neuvillette fanart and then everything just went downhill since then and I'm like why the fuck did I expect anything better than racist, pro cop dogshit from Mihoyo It needs to be talked about ESPECIALLY by people who still cares about it to critically. assess what the fuck you are absorbing because this shit isn't okay. This is literally paw patrol for weebs they just didn't call anyone a "cop"

PLEASE. TALK ABOUT IT.

[dirthenera]

Ok I need to get this out with the news about devs being fired dropping.

There will be spoilers for Veilguard here so proceed with caution.

EA fucked the game, and the more I think about it, the more angry I am with them.

It all starts with one choice- the devs wanted the veil to come down in that opening, and EA told them no. Told them they couldn’t bring the veil down at all.

It was never going to be a player choice- it couldn’t, it would create two entirely different worlds leading forward, so it would have to be something outside player control, and they were told no.

The veil coming down was outside forces and the veil staying up was Rook’s choice. And had to be Rook’s choice.

Because of that, our Rook could never see the veil coming down as a worthwhile option. Which means we could never engage with it as a reality. We could never ask what that would look like, or question the morality of the veil, either practically, or as a thought experiment. No companions will bring up what it might be like in any positive way or even just as an “I wonder.”

We only get to see veil =bad so Rook must be right.

They cut Solas’ elven followers because having even *one* npc on his side for noble reasons would make us question too much, and we were not allowed to have an opinion other than veil =good, because the devs were hamstringed by it.

No companions ever discuss what it could be like without the veil, and they *should*. Can you imagine Emmrich and Bellara debating it? Emmrich absolutely fascinated by how it would impact spirits and they wouldn’t need to possess anyone or anything, Bellara leery after seeing so much wild magic in Arlathan but wondering if uninterrupted etheric flows would create more stable magic over time. Taash surprising the party by being way more cool with it than expected due to their Rivaini upbringing, and more open to that than necromancy.

Lucanis and Harding being firmly against it to the point it causes some friction in the team, Davrin just staying out of it because he doesn’t get it and doesn’t want to. Harding has a moment of questioning at a weak point after reminiscing about Cole, and wonders how many like him there could be if the veil did come down.

Neve feeling extremely mixed about it, between it possibly allowing a reshuffle of power in Tevinter, removing the ability for mages to make deals with demons, but also upset at the potential raw chaos.

But we never even get to look at that. Because there was no option there. Even if each character landed on veil=good, we never even got to have the discussion, because we couldn’t do anything with it.

And we can see how that spirals out and created a much less morally complex game than we’ve previously gotten. Rook is the good guy because they said so, Solas is the bad guy who, despite being beyond willing to talk to anyone who will listen to him, refuses to expand on what the veil coming down looks like. Because he can’t. Because then we might agree with him.

We’re only allowed Varric’s point of view, which makes sense for the beginning, but there was never an option to expand it. There is one single dialogue option where we can tell Solas “whoops didn’t know that.” But that’s the beginning and end of that train of thought.

They even set us up as this FANTASTIC foil to Solas, having meddled in a ritual we didn’t understand and unleashing multiple blights and elven gods, essentially destroying the south, blighting most of the north, partially destroying a city, and a countless death toll. But taking actual responsibility with that isn’t allowed- because we may sympathize too much with Solas. Because we clearly did the right thing because the veil is still up. It’s not even addressed in the regret prison! Solas tells you thousands would still have died if he took down the veil, but thousands did die as a direct result of Rook meddling. And nowhere can you acknowledge that.

[nickmarini]

Hey! First of all, I just wanna say that I absolutely adored your performance as Ayden/The Dawnfather during Downfall. He’s always been one of my favourite deities in the Exandrian Pantheon and your take on him was incredible to watch.

I especially loved how complicated he was in that he felt wise but naive, loving but stern, and genuine but also confused. It was all really fascinating and I’ve loved digging into it, as well as everything else about these characters, relationships, and this arc overall.

Given all of that, I wanted to ask how much, if any, of Matt’s performances as the NPC version of Pelor or just any campaign information or interactions regarding him influenced how you approached your characterisation of him over the course of downfall (as Ayden, and as the fully realised Dawnfather, and whatever in-between there was)?

I think the Pelor that we have seen so far throughout the campaigns is quite a contrast to what we see in Downfall, but I can also so clearly believe that they are the same being, just in different circumstances, so I was also wondering how you view the “present day” Pelor in regards to what he experienced/did in Downfall?

Thanks so much, so kind of you. I absolutely watched as much as I could of the Dawnfather's appearances in CR. There is a lot to look at and certainly a lot presented about him. Downfall is our first real glimpse of him on Exandria (I think Calamity appearance is open to interpretation as The Lord of the Nine Hells is influencing the vision) I wanted to show a different side of the Dawnfather but also his journey to something more familiar. We mostly know him on the other side of the Divine Gate. I think that distance is a hard one to breach for a god used to showing up consistently each and every day. He is a doer and a protector, his domains are hands on, and to be forced to leave the world he tended is a tough pill to swallow.

One of my favorite quotes is, "Don't let your shield become a cage." This was sort of a guiding light to me for the Dawnfather and something I think he struggles with. It's part of why I wanted Ayden to have a shield and part of why I think its so hard for him to leave Exandria. He has to reconcile his desire to defend Exandria with the consequences of his presence on it, I think part of his perceived distance as the "present day" Dawnfather stems from the pain of this decision and his certainty that something must be done, alongside the painful truth that he can no longer be the one to do it.

[mythalism]

The lore drop that bothers me the most with how it's glossed over is that ancient elves were actually spirits and how, without delving more into what spirits actually are, it ends up diminishing them as a people & undercutting their complexity. Even Solas says they reflect the world, a pure embodiment of an emotion, but then what does that say of their society, of their goals and aspirations, hell, even of their war crimes? I'm not trying to argue they're not people, it's just sad that the best exploration of it remains in Awakening with Justice and the only one who argues for their personhood is this game's chosen antagonist. That this is the direction they chose for the people they heavily coded as indigenous makes it all the more egregious that they're relegated to set-dressing (Crossroads, Hall of Valor) or a couple of examples to show some of them are Good (I miss how in Inq, Compassion is said to be a rare spirit and easy to corrupt, Cole is terrified by what he almost became and could become, and in VG u find 2 who are mostly fine, if a bit rattled. Harding even compares them to a mabari puppy??but I digress). Ofc they couldn't humanize the spirits more bc then we'd have to contend with how we're supposed to want them to stay fenced in for all eternity for the safety of the status quo. All the while, their earthly descendants have been invisibilised or killed off-screen, with the exception of a small group u can save and that's used as an opportunity to showcase Solas's growth and how bad the Venatori are. Ancient elves don't exist, city elves are functionally the same as any other npc, and the Dalish have been replaced by the Veil Jumpers, who are totally cool with anyone plundering - I mean, exploring their ruins and seem mostly concerned with isolating dangerous artifacts and shoving them in a museum, hmm... Honestly, I gave up when Irelin said it was easy to forget about the halla. Thank fuck Merrill isn't in this cus she'd be Cyrian. Others have pointed out how nonsensical it is they're all fine with their gods being fake, but also real and evil (yet still invoke the Creators & Mythal and wear vallaslin), so I'll move on to the real horror for me: that none of them knew. There's a banter between Bellara & Emmrich that turned my stomach where he says that elves originally being spirits was a working theory some of them had (oh, to be a fly on the wall during THAT racist debate!), once again placing humans as the natural custodians of elven history and it's all so cruel that it's world-breaking for me. It's awful that elves were abandoned not only by their 'gods', but by what it turns out are their brethren. Am I supposed to believe that for millennia they prayed to their gods, but they only ever spoke to Tevinter magisters? That spirits never shared anything about their common past with the elves? Why did Mythal keep them in the dark? The Dalish have taken great pains to ensure every scrap of history is preserved and shared, despite the genocides, but I guess oral history doesn't count (and they never thought to use spirits? ig they weren't interesting enough to be reflected by spirits either, otherwise they could've found out even more from that) and most of their books and artifacts got stolen/destroyed by humans, too bad the ancient elves never felt any kinship to them, they could've used the lore boost.

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