#also u can talk to me about bg3 i played

[imaginefe]

my good friend rio posting on imaginesforfe again and I missed it (becuse I was playing baldurs gate). Hi hi!! How are you!!! I have covid right now :p

ARE YOU WINNING SYD

[stinkrascal]

sometimes you post about sucking at a video game on tumblr and you get the most encouraging msgs imaginable from complete strangers who are just really into whatever game u talked about and wanna see u thrive and its so wholesome. and sometimes you post about sucking at a video game on tumblr and randos who you have never talked to in your entire life will write comments on your text post from august of last year about how you're dumb as shit for struggling on this level, not realizing that i posted that text post in august of last frickin year. pardon ive actually beaten this game 3 times since then but thank you for being mean to me and calling me naive for no reason??? 😭

[snoopyviktor]

ooo thank u @joyful-soul-collector for the tag <3

Get to know your mutuals!

What's the origin of your blog title? i love snoopy and viktor and i think they'd be best buddies in another universe

OTP(s) + Shipname: currently i loveeee jayvik!!! but im also a massive fan of zelink (zelda + link). and loumand hehe

Favorite color: baby blue!

i'll put the rest of the questions under this so this post is not too long!

Favorite game: any zelda game!! it's my favourite game series of all time. i also love bg3 / DnD, twd telltale series, outer wilds, minecraft, acnh, and i'm currently playing RDR2 for first time and enjoying it!

Song stuck in your head: which witch by florence & the machine

Weirdest habit/trait? i have hypermobile/double jointed hands, as well as shoulders and hips. so i'm always popping out my shoulders, hips, and touching my thumbs to my wrist lol.

Hobbies: writing, figure skating, swimming, i also do casual ballet classes and i'm learning violin :)

If you work, what's your profession? studying to become a phlebotomist for now but in the future i'm wanting to go into medical imaging!

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? my dream job is a cardiac sonographer. hopefully in about a decade i will be one

Something you're good at: figure skating, i like to think writing (but that's maybe debatable lol), and tetris. yea. the game

Something you're bad at: quite a lot of things, and thats ok

Something you love: role playing/story based games!!!.

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: my special interests - zelda, post-apocalypse media with a focus on zombie genre and skating (especially yuzuru!)

Something you hate: leather. it's a sensory thing

Something you collect: azura blind boxes, fruit stickers and cute tags from clothes

Something you forget: where i last put an item

What's your love language? physical touch and gift giving

Favorite movie/show: currently arcane! but i also love the walking dead (up until about season 6), iwtv, james cameron's avatar, Coraline, wallace and gromit, and spirited away.

Favorite food: braised beef noodle soup

Favorite animal: bears and whale sharks

What were you like as a child? incredibly autistic lmfao . i used to stack things together and organise canned food into colours

Favorite subject at school? history, it was my best subject and i had an amazing teacher who encouraged us to think critically. i'm still in touch with her even 7yrs after graduating

Least favorite subject: general sciences. i love biology, but i found general science to be boring because i'm not that good at physics or chemistry.

What's your best character trait? well, my self identity is all over the place on most days, so i'm not really sure lol. maybe it's that i'm kind? haha

What's your worst character trait? i can get quickly overwhelmed / overstimulated and then i'm not the greatest person to be around. it's a lot better now that i'm older, though

If you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be? i would like to feel safe :')

If you could travel in time, who would you like to meet? ooooo... is this meant to be about historical figures? because my answer would be my great grandmother when she was younger. it's been six years since she passed away and i miss her so deeply. the kindest woman i've ever known! <3

Tag as as many mutuals as you want!! omg ok. here's me trying to remember who all my mutuals are . @arkaniske @cheriekos @voxconcordia @awretchedthing @juuzousmom @softandslow @ttwwiiissttyy @oraccles @patheticjayce @maniiix @itsfheang @mementokore @cloudrcs @decayingstarchild @j1mmycreat3s @mothgardens @rams0up + anyone else who wants to do it :p

[pythoria]

started playing dragon age origins (only played for like 15 minutes aside from character creation cause my laptop died) and just. wow. i cannot believe just how robbed i was not knowing this existed until the bg3 community told me about it. someone told be to beware bc it's an old game and the graphics are bad but like what are you talking about the graphics are better than dos2 (no shade! great game). hell, i am just gobsmacked at how pretty and HD the character models are, that there's cinematic angles, for a game released in 2008 it's nuts. i mean to be fair i'm not playing the original release of the game so it's undoubtedly better than what it was in 2008 but you can't build greatness on a bad foundation. this game is Great. the control scheme might be an all time favourite. the fact that you can hold both left and right click and move seamlessly like with wasd blew me away. i started as a mage elf so the starting area is that withered place and GOD it looks cool as hell. i feel ROBBED how has this existed for FIFTEEN YEARS without me giving it a go. the character creation was also a delight, better than something like skyrim that came out years later. and after bg1's mess of a combat system i was wary for a second when i saw this was real time with pause but it works incredibly well. it's simplified compared to bg1&2 a Lot so i got the hang of it rlly fast and i love that i can just pause so i don't get overwhelmed. it's rlly late so i can't play more rn but the first 15 minutes of this game already exceeded every expectation (and i went in with high expectations considering the praise i saw for it online). thank u to everyone who recommended i play this it was love at first sight!

[ravel-puzzlewell]

Hi! Do you mind elaborating on what you meant by "tiefling politics" on that wotr vs bg3 post? Just curious, ignore if you want

its about the fact that bg3 has a lot of tiefling characters, somehow more than wotr, and huge theme of like hells and connections to demons\devils and somehow manages to say absolutely nothing interesting about it.

in wotr we have examination of tieflings fitting into human society, ostracization and (literal) demonization of them, where even if some of them would want to help in war against hell, they are scared (frex, group of tieflings thieves you save which you can ask to help u and they are like are u kidding me, crusaders will torch us). woljif in particular is a deconstruction of selfish chaotic neutral tielfling rogue archetype, his story both exploring how both he was pushed into being a criminal bc he had no other options, but also interplay with how he then himself tends to dismiss his own agency in being able to decide for himself and choose better, forever excusing himself with "well this is a crappy hand dealt to me", his survivalist attitude of everyone for themselves vs desire for community, how when given a smidge of stability and access to decision making in council, he tries to awkwardly, but eagerly advocate for societal improvement for all tieflings, and this is one of his most sincere moments - and gets laughed at immediately, etc etc. and speaking of community, v interesting intersection between "good" and "bad" marginalized groups of mongrels vs tieflings, with Lann being self-righteous about both his moral superiority and how mongrels "have it worse", while ignoring that mongrels - and he himself specifically - are mistreated literally bc they are mistaken for tieflings.

btw if anyone wants me to talk more about mongrels vs tieflings thing, hit me up, i think there was a interesting stuff, even if not properly dramatized

meanwhile in bg3 being tiefling largely means nothing? like the refugees would sometimes like drop a line out loud about how tieflings should stick together bc humans won't help them, but like that's it. the refugees could literally be humans running from war or blue cat ppl from avatar running from capitalism and nothing in the plot or characters would need to be changed. tieflings is just cosmetics for them, like idk its cool to have colorful NPCs with fire eyes and sexy horns. And even companions wise, you know I love Karlach and tried to romance her, but being tiefling is just looks for her, its not meaningful. It doesn't matter for her backstory, she could have been a strong human from poor background who was sold out to idk, underdark. like it sucked bc she was forced to do violence and everyne was an asshole and she couldn't see sun, but otherwise it being Blood War specifically doesn't come into play. and like. Blood War has famously huge effects on ppl with hell heritage! I'm not saying she should have been Valen Shadowbreath with entire plotline about struggling with blood war calling, but like. idk, something?

my point is that tieflings and hell has a lot of lore and like, FLAVOUR in this setting, which were not explored at all. these are just ppl with horns and generic Bad Place.

and then like. devil essentialism. bg3 has central motive of how evil races are not ontologically evil, but like, devils are. sdfghjk. apparentely mind flayers can fight actual mind control if they are V Special, but all devils/demons are evil with no exceptions. karlach was in hell for 10 years and never met a single sympathetic devil. the closest one he had mocks IS Evil when we meet her in game. and I actually liked Raphael (transition could've saved her), but there is nothing particularily interesting about him, he's also straighforwardly evil. this severely limits how interesting interactions with hell are. in wotr there is a wide range from reformed succubus to most evil sadists, with every shade in between, which allows for complex stories, like that that fucked up love between that betrayer dwarf and demoness who seduced him. she's legit evil, but she also has actual twisted affection for him, and he knows she uses him, but he was pushed too far by humans and chooses her anyway. this background story is honestly has more depth than wyll's and mizora relationship, where shes just evil and he's straighforwardly martyr. when mizora offered to have fun wink wink, i immediately knew she's gonna Evil It. and she did. and she didn't even get anything out of it! it was just staining your soul to be evil:3 like ok, but boring tbh.

and like yeah war with hell is central plot of wotr, obviously it has a lot more to say and explore about it, but like. bg3 didn't HAVE to have to include so many tieflings and have us follow their stories through all acts. it didn't have to include hell in "no race essentialism" game if it didn't want to talk about it. it chose to, and when game has big chuncks of content about smth connected by a theme, i expect it to say smth about it? anything interesting? eh.

btw, this is not to say i think wotr's writing is perfect, far from it, i can talk for ages of my problems with that game's writing, but this initial phrase was from shitposts specifically comparng things in wotr to bg3, so

[reineyday]

Ten people I'd like to know better!

tagged by: @robinticism which, hello!! i love ur fanfiction sm and i hope u know this 😭🙏💖

last song: i am currently listening to patd's cover of the greatest show haha my playlist is on shuffle. when i hit post on this, the song playing is america's suitehearts by fall out boy. everyone please check out manofbeskar's mishanks band au fic, bc it got me listening to fob's folie à deux album for literally three months straight. tho i've loved america's suitehearts since it came out in 2009ish, i've only come to appreciate the rest of the album this year 'cuz of manofbeskar so thank you. 🙏

(i lied, i typed that but then spent so long triple-checking my answers the playlist's moved onto asymptotic by louie zong. what's this, rei? u have a fic rec for this song too? here's a haikyuu!! matsuhana math team au i love dearly. the fic reminds me of the song, except ofc it's a happy ending, unlike in the song aha.)

favorite color: red & golden yellow :) i'm a warm colour palette typea gal. i even prefer my cool colours warm-toned lol. they feel richer to me when they're warmer.

last book: i'm somewhat ashamed to say it's been a VERY long time since i read a real book. i tackled a short french YA one like, last year? 'cuz i borrowed it from my friend and i'd wanted to to return it. i can rec u an ongoing 300+k bloodweave fic i just finished that i can't stop thinkin' about tho.

last movie: i watched the wild robot w my dad recently. super cute! another movie in the list of movies that tell me to my face that i will always fall in love with sly and charming rogue types that deep down only want to be loved. 🥺💕

last tv show: been watching the ravening war dimension 20 dnd campaign! if that doesn't count, i've also been watching dandadan every week (last week's episode tho!!! SO good omg).

sweet/spicy/savory: savoury most of the time, but also sometimes sweet. very rarely spicy, but not unheard of.

relationship status: single ✌️ i'm a mess and probably demi lmao.

last thing I googled: SPOILERS FOR NYT CONNECTIONS but i was googling crab types. comb crab? not a thing. ❌️ fiddler crabs, however! ✅️

current obsession: oh god, uh. astarion. it's astarion ancunín from bg3. my camera roll is filling up and it used to be so i could draw mihawk in his outfits but now it's just 'cuz astarion's hair is stupid pretty. please see also: my previous answer about rogue types who only want to be loved.

ah, also been getting more into dnd in general--(re)started bc of watching neil newbon (astarion's voice actor; i know, i know, but HE'S SO GOOD AT HIS JOB) doing an actual play one shot as astarion with sam béart who voices karlach (yes, okay, i am like every other bisexual and fell for the pretty rogue vampire and the big red barbarian with biceps for days okay), but also brennan lee mulligan and aabria iyengar, both of whom i love. and then i graduated to watching the bg3 cast's other APs and also mismag s2 and now the ravening war. it's a slippery slope. and my cousin wants to run a one-shot campaign so now i've got a guy too! his name is lysander and he's a dragonborn fighter. 🐲⚔️🔥

(here's the one-shot i'm talking about btw! aabria is the gm, and the table is neil and sam playing astarion and karlach, and then brennan lee mulligan and anjali bhimani who play some really great pc's! neil & sam refer to the story in the halloween one-shot they do with the va's of wyll and lae'zel later on, too. it's cute!)

looking forward to: mmh the aforementioned campaign, i suppose. here's hoping lysander makes some friends!

no pressure ofc but tagging @ofkingsandlionhearts @16th-of-a-twigg @andaniellight @albifrons @eyesonstars-feetonground @giurochedadomani @starlightbelle @incalamity @conartisthaiji @spikyiwaizumi

[lapislazuligirl]

Hiya I'm Mil!! You can call me with cute nicknames like baby too ~🎀~

19 | She/her | Argentina | Sub | Femme4all, but I'm a fool with the masc or butch

This is a side blog, so I can't follow or like posts, srysry

DNI: cis men, minors, racists, homophobes, xenophobic and terfs, STAY AWAY!!

I also block ageless bios or anyone I get bad vibes from.

Feel free to ask me or share anything you want in my asks (respectfully) if you vibe with my posts. I love chatting, so don't be shy!! I want anons

Really, you can talk to me about anything: just be nice and you can flirt too if u want. Anons are free to share all their dirty thoughts!

*ૢ ❀ Tags:

#lapis.answers for my asks

#lapis.writing for my poems

*ૢ ❀ My anons:

#🌸anon (23) #🪱anon (he/they 20)

*ૢ ❀ A bit about me:

I'm bi, but on this blog, I'm showing all my love for the girls.

I'm sub (I can switch sometimes), so please I want domme girls in my asks, I need it! ~♡

Here you'll find horny posts, but I also like to share other stuff abt me, like my writing, songs, and thoughts.

I'm into Arcane, TLOU, Uncharted, Sims4, D&D and BG3 (Sevika, Abby and Karlach are my crushes)

My favorite music includes Soda Stereo, Airbag, Slipknot, Black Sabbath, MCR and Megadeth

I'm also really like literature, my favorite books are Dracula and Salem's Lot

My native language is spanish, so please be patient with my english!! 🤗

*ૢ ❀ Likes: mommy kink; ending/orgasm control/overstimulating; sweet pet names/nicknames; soft degrading; domme4sub, oral; straps/toys; nipples play

*ૢ ❀ Don't like: gore; scar; rape; vomit; pet play; race play; age play; cis men; minors, feet; anything feca; anything illegal; violence and blood; etc. (something similar)

• I'll edit this post in the future

[majorasnightmare]

Your OC's Personality

@tacticalgrandma @hootshooch yall enabling me to talk about blorbo 💜💜💜 thank yall FOREVERRRR. also this has been in my drafts since @arach-tinilith also enabled me skdjsndb

My favorite homunculus made in a lab 💜 (the lab is my heart and also the bg3 character creator. and also picrew)

How would you describe their personality?

Dirge is a simple guy stuck in a complicated backstory and more complicated plot. He's unempathetic, apathetic, and entirely self motivated. He pack bonded to a handful of people and extends his self interest to them, but everyone else in the world can get fucked.

What brings your character joy?

In general, petty acts of defying or debasing authority (of ANY kind, divinities included), indulging sadism where consequence is minor or nonexistant, satisfying his curiosity in some manner. More specifically, spending time with Minthara, taking actions that further her goals and schemes, making progress on acquiring power+removing an obstacle+handling an enemy, and getting to hang out with his other loved ones

What does your character strongly dislike?

Being talked down to like he's stupid, and being spoken to with the expectation he'll immediately bow to their authority. Don't just assume he doesn't know something unless he gives you reason to think that, and don't just stride into a conversation and start giving him orders. Introductions to authority are all well and good, he'll pay respects to a monarch and all, but if you assume hes just an average citizen and that because your some guard captain he has to ask how high just because you said jump, it doesn't matter if you have a good reason, he'll be soooo pissed about it. As long as you do him the basic courtesy of explaining yourself beforehand, even clipped, he's more likely to take it in stride, (ie introducing yourself with whatever authority position youre claiming, giving some indication as to why dirge should give a shit about it + prefacing WHY your assuming he wont know what your talking about) but if you go into the interaction assuming you have something he DOESN'T, hes going to seethe about it

Is your OC scared of anything?

Dirge is terrified of being made into someone different against his will. He's terrified of Bhaal's influence over him as a result of being his spawn, and hes terrified of Bhaal compelling him to action where he's incapable of resisting. The nighttime killing of Alfira, his blackout episode after refusing to kill Isobel, Bhaal stopping his heart at the church, all genuine nightmare fuel for Dirge.

Besides that, Dirge isn't really scared of anything.

What is their alignment?

Dirge is Neutral Evil! He's incredibly selfish and self serving and only really cares about Law and Chaos as much as they can serve him and what he wants. Bhaal's domain, the Throne of Blood, is SUPPOSED to be within Gehenna, which itself is the Neutral Evil Outer Plane, and despite pulling away from his father's influence, you can still pretty clearly see the effects of his quote-unquote "home plane" on his personality. I doubt anyone who gets to genuinely know Dirge in any capacity would be surprised to learn that lmao. Thinking on it he'd get on great with a Rakshasa 🤔

Gimme them OC deets: @trappedinafantasy37 @w-low @theannoyingurge @mogruith

👀 bringin this to yalls attention so you can also play touys on the internet (if u want hehe)

[divorcedwife]

What rpgs have u liked/played and how did u like them? :) i saw that your fave is pillars 1 and i love the setting n story so much (i just loooooathe real time with pause combat unfortunately. This also has soured da origins to me a lot. Do action pls or even better turn based but not that) also u have a lot of amazing anders art <3

pillars 1 my beloved!! maybe you already know but i must mention it just in case - did you see that pillars 2 deadfire has turn by turn combat? i don't think it's as good as the first in terms of writing, but when they introduced turn by turn, it became one of my favorites just for that. it made me so violent because combat went from a necessary evil to my favorite part of the game, so i was just going around the world looking for people to fight. and it really has its moments, i loved serafen and the first quest with the pirates, and it is a game where you can actually roleplay and cause real harm without intending to if you just listen to your companions all the time. they're not all good people.......

and bg3 also has combat that i really loved :-) i played it as a bard and as a rogue and i really loved both. i loved playing a support character and not feeling like the main character so much, and as dark urge, i thought rogue combat played with the idea of the urge very beautifully because i was so good at killing that i tended to skip dialogues and just kill.... i just wish i could reverse the clock and talk the devs out of constantly rewriting it ship of theseus style. the companions to me already had an issue of being too friendly and too innocent in their sufferings in a way i didn't find compelling, so making them even more into fandom versions of themselves is just evil

but i think that's all for RPGs where i really like the combat, all my other favorite games have real-time strategy and i just do my best. kotor 1 & 2 have it, although i enjoy it more when i unlock fucked up evil force powers. i still do love dragon age origins & 2, and have some fondness for dai because i really like the characters. and dao was largely improved for me by playing a mage instead of an archer ; if i can say anything nice about datv, it's that they've made archery good for the first time ever in dragon age. being an archer in dai is especially sad, you have a range of like two meters

i also tried the first baldur's gate game but i got too scared and confused with the companions management and the way the story progresses - like i strayed from the main quest and that locked me out of meeting jaheira, so i had to restart and redo all of that and it was painful. i think i could play it if i had some guide to follow or something, i just don't have the 1990s gamer disposition. but i really liked xan, i made him leader of the party so i could hear him complain all the time

& i think that's kind of it...! im not a huge gamer in that i don't try tons of different games, i just mostly obsess and replay the same ones over and over again. there's some others i could mention - like i played outer worlds and i liked it ok, i played fallout new vegas but it wasn't really my style and i didn't finish, and oh wait i just remembered i played all three mass effect games! well, i liked the first game and hated 2 and 3, which may be my most controversial hill to die on but i must be true

[bg3sinbin]

Alright so I told myself I wouldn't post anything about it... but I still can't stop thinking about the A!Astarion kisses, Tav/Durge's face during it, and the stupid blow up around it. So here we go

Warnings: This is long and rambly and contains all kinds of spoilers. I am an A!Astarion lover. I will not be responding to discourse on this post. I do not care if you disagree. Make your own vent post.

OKAY so the brunt of the arguments I keep trying to ignore seeing surrounding this are how the expressions are "immersion breaking" for A!A fans, and everyone else clowning on them (sometimes rightfully so tho, ngl) because "the game gives the player expressions all the time! why are u mad now? do u just want ur Tav/Durge to be a blank slate?? lmao idiot" which ??? okay it feels like ur purposefully missing the point.

Yeah, actually sometimes this game gives my Durge some really ooc reactions. And it does, in fact, bother me. That being said, that is to be expected when u take an oc u had for like ten years and try to stick them in a pre-programmed video game. Things are gonna get ooc sometimes.

It also though, is usually smaller moments. Or things that happen Once and then u move on. Conversations where I go "hmmm. he wouldn't say any of these. oh well." or moments where he reacts negatively to terrible things that this evil bastard would normally laugh at. OH. WELL.

Now here's where my frustration actually come in. This game does a really good job, probably a better job than anything else I've played, at letting u play an interesting evil char. Something more than just "I am Rude, Aggressive, and A Dick To Everyone" and thus being punished for it gameplay wise.

I can play The Dark Urge, literal child of the god of murder, a canon necrophiliac, cannibalistic, gore freak that was going to flatten the entire world. There is a whole ass plot line and ending (multiple achievements included!) surrounding doing just that. There's all kinds of nasty interactions/plot options programmed in.

Yet, to the best of my memory, my Durge doesn't look horrified when we choose to slaughter the grove. He doesn't look horrified when we choose to kill the Dame Aylin, or Isobel. He isn't Obviously Distraught when we choose to help Astarion complete the ritual, or when we kill Shadowheart's parents, or become an Unholy Assassin of Bhaal.

To my knowledge, the player character isn't made to look afraid when kissing Dark Justiciar!Shadowheart, nor when they are literally poisoned by kissing Minthara. Sure, u CAN be offended about it in the convo with her after, but its still ur choice as the player.

I mean shit, they even patched in (in that very same patch) a positive, supportive reaction from ur evil partners at the end when u take over the nether brain! (at least for A!Astarion, and Minthara) so now when u do the evil thing that u and ur evil partner have been talking about all game, they don't suddenly change their opinion the second u actually do it.

And I really appreciate that about bg3. I can make evil choices and get interesting outcomes rather than the game just locking me out of all content actually made for that quest. Like ffs u can only get Minthara's romance scene if u slaughter dozens of innocents.

THIS GAME REWARDS U FOR DOING THE BAD THING. And like the evil options do usually have drawbacks and/or are less fleshed out than the good ones, but there are whole ass plots arcs u will never see if u only play good chars. This game makes playing an evil character interesting.

So why is it that I can do all that, and make/have my Durge react (mostly) accordingly, yet the moment the partner I chose acts controlling, now is when my characters feelings are being decided for me?

I can spend the whole game hearing Astarion talk about how spawn are controlled, how all vampires want is power, and I can say to his face "yes! this character wants that! turn me!" and yet somehow... what? the creators think I didn't know?

It just genuinely doesn't make sense to me. Like I can choose, through dialogue, that my Durge is power hungry, and very into the idea of being Astarion's pretty little lap dog. He knew what he was signing up for! And yet he looks terrified when his vampire bf (who has been feeding on him all game) bites his lip?? really?

Idk I just have some really weird feelings on some of the ways they try to Really Emphasize that u made the wrong choice for Astarion specifically, and this just exemplifies that.

Either do the rest of ur characters this service, make all of them (make every choice in the game) a moral lesson for the player to learn, where u hold their hand and say "u didn't listen to what they actually needed :c u could have done the good thing but u didn't :c"

Or let me play my evil bastard. And let me revel in it.

[thelikesoffinn]

been thinking about it lately and Ascended Astarion = Dead Dove content and I'm not sure that's really understood, even by the writers. when I finally got around to the character I decided to ascend him with, I was SUPREMELY disappointed by the conversations options following it. it seemed like the dialogue choices were trying to push the narrative on my character that they made this choice w/o considering the consequences and they are bound to regret it. the closest I could get to answering his question of "why did u let me go thru w it?" was "I wanted u to be powerful".

but with that character? my accept Bhaal durge? that isn't the reasoning. at all. (related: "what do u want as a reward?" "ur body" was the closest answer my character could give. otherwise I'd've answered "murder :))")

for context, this run was born of a conversation w my friend discussing supposed content no one had seen bc "no one's that evil". we thought, what's more evil than killing literally every npc? I failed the conceit of the challenge immediately bc I can't handle senseless animal cruelty in my games. killing children? fine (u need a mod to do this in BG3, but I am thankfully plenty delighted to use mods), killing a neutral animal npc? no can do.

so I started this durge (they are the only character that can come close to "killing" Gale with that first interaction) run with the intention of killing everyone except Shadowheart (only a cleric of Shar can truly kill Aylin) and Astarion (bc I need to smooch him). (and there is a mod for playing an origin character as durge, which would have meant playing as Shadowheart, but I MUST smooch Astarion and I don't tend to do het or female romances, unless I'm forced to (*sighs dreamily* oh, Garrus Vakarian). I'm just not interested in that set of equipment in that way, so may as well just make a durge dude.) somehow something went wonky and Halsin ended up joining us and I was so perplexed I just allowed him to stay. (he's meant to attack if u destroy the grove but free him anyway, but instead he just showed up that night and went straight into his Moonrise spiel. is it bc the wolf Silver never aggro'd me and thus survived???) so I fixed the Shadow Curse all while killing every single humanoid and hostile animal in acts 1 & 2. including Thaniel, which makes Halsin's talks later in act 3 of getting news from Thaniel and the Grove hysterical. idk what I did but I sure as hell broke this poor man.

(on a related note, Halsin will give out to u when u accept Bhaal, but will still give u the "u have exceeding my expectations, also we should bang" in the same conversation. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID BUT IT'S DARKLY FUNNY.)

in the conversation when Astarion is expressing surprise that u let him go thru w it, my durge is just like, yes my motivation is that I like to kill ppl :))). it's not a sex thing for him (that is separate from the murder!), but he's still fine w the outcome. yes, Astarion looks down on him, but that's fine! he's allowed to be wrong about that, durge doesn't care. so long as Astarion lets him kill ppl he genuinely just does not give a shit.

(I actually had the idea that if Halsin were to ever rediscover his morals and tried to leave he'd ask Astarion to turn him so Halsin would not have a choice. as I said, this durge *does not fucking care*.)

this is probably the only character I will play that would let Astarion ascend bc I enjoy dead dove SOMETIMES, but not always or in large doses, but I get so few dialogue options that convey that in an rp sense! I don't think the writers/devs REALLY took that into consideration, sometimes. like, yeah, there are going to be ppl making fucked up choices but surely no one would go THIS far! for THIS reason! honey, u need to look up the Dead Dove tag on AO3, there are absolutely ppl making choices for those fucked up reasons.

(and I understand the whole "this confirms to Astarion about sex yadda yadda". even if that's not Tav/Durge motivation, that's how ASTARION would *interpret* it.)

(oh yes, and also, don't let Orin abduct Yenna. it doesn't matter whether u find out in camp or the sewers, Grub will not survive. I was devastated. if I'd known, I would have made sure Halsin was available for her, but she won't abduct a party member or someone ur romancing.)

long story short, I want to play a durge that even ascended Astarion finds unsettling. that's the dream.

Hello there, duck!

Your run sounds delightfully evil! I wish I could play one of those, haha, but I'm too soft hearted. My one evil run with my durge Salira was ended before even entering the grove because I felt horrible after getting rid of Gales hand! Seriously, I can barely take killing the squirrel as durge, and I always save Alfira because I feel horrendous otherwise!

(Fun fact, on all five runs I've done Yenna just vanished at some point and grubs was left standing in my camp, which was like...eh?)

And yes, Halsin is always somewhat of an issue, isn't he? He's just running around, causing mayhem in peoples games because he seems slightly bugged out, haha. I had one run, where he wouldn't go to the spot where we save Thaniel because he joined the fight against Marcus at Last Light and somehow got stuck, for some reason. Same run, none of his vocals would play, which was also very interesting. Everybody would make noise when they climbed or got hurt but Halsin was always silent and just there! And in another run the dude really straight up hated me - he was so mean and snappy, I swear to god he wanted my Durge dead - and then he suddenly went: "Hey you're super cool and strong and I just want to gently fuck you beneath the moonlight if you'll let me" and I was like: Say what.

Regarding the dead Dove: I've talked to people of Discord before, and some of them mentioned something similar a couple of times, but personally, I do think the writers actually knew what they were doing here!

Of course, I do agree that it relies heavily on the regret notion and that it somewhat shoehorns you into a certain narrative corner, I noticed that too when I was ascending him for research - I hated doing that, but all for the asks, haha - but I thought it was really fitting for what it is!

The bad ending, that is. I know we all somewhat forget that because of how people view him as a character, but ascension is the bad ending. Even on an evil run, where your character may have considered all options, it is very likely that Tav hasn't accounted for one very important part of being a true vampire.

The obsession.

It's still somewhat mild in the game, though definitely there, but it will only get stronger as time goes on, and it will probably get to the point that the only escape is death. Either his or Tav's. So, in the end, ascension will come with an armload of regret and the writers were making sure we know that.

And, on top of that, even if we let him ascend in a pursuit for power - or in in your durge's special case: murder :) - we still cast spawn Astarion aside because he doesn't fit our needs, thus making it very clear to him that who he is isn't enough and his behaviour is the price we now pay.

It's pretty much the same with all the other companions as well - justiciar Shadowheart and ascended Lae'zel, for example. However, it doesn't bother us as much, because we have different expectations towards ascended Astarion than, for example, dark justiciar Shadowheart. We don't expect a positive narrative here, a narrative where becoming shady-shar's loyal subject isn't an objectively dumb decision to make, so we don't mind the dead dove as much. It's exactly what we've been expecting - and Aylin even warned us how Shadowheart would change upon becoming a dark justiciar - so yepp. This went exactly how we thought it would and this is what we wanted.

Astarion, however, is a somewhat special case, because his bad ending is, by far, the one that gets the most romanticised. He's so heavily romanticised by so many, that the bad parts nearly start to fade, even with those who don't like the ascended ending. It becomes just 'the other ending', if you will.

And yet, it's still the bad ending.

Ascension is the bad ending for a character that we've somewhat given up on. That we misunderstood so deeply, mayhaps, that we traded his entire being for power and, quite frankly, beauty. We showed him that he isn't enough, we let the boy run and hide the only way he knew how and now we're faced with the consequences and yes, it's really dead dove but...what did we expect?

[animentality]

hey big thank u for being gender neutral about durges <3 I check the tag often and it always hits when people gender durge when it is not something specific to their own durge but just general durge stuff. I know that canon durge is a big male storm sorc dragonborn but it is still nice when people use gender neutral language. like I can only play masc characters and most people here seem to make fem durges and default to she/her

Well that's why I do it!

The canon dark urge is a male dragonborn. But most people on this site who have a fondness for BG3 make female Durges.

So I always call them they/them (with the occasional exception, like when I'm talking about the canon dark urge specifically).

I do like to call them Gortash's wife or husband every now and again, but to me, it's in a gender neutral, jocular way.

Kind of like babygirl and girlboss have become gender neutral, if not male coded entirely. Or to refer to them as murder husbands, just for the Hannibal reference, but with the understanding, it's still gender neutral to me.

I just think it's more inclusive, plus I actually love all Durges.

I read durgetash fanfics with male, female, nonbinary, and trans Durges.

But i feel you on the masc Durge though!

My own personal Durges are always male cuz I'm a he/they and I simply prefer that. I like writing gay/bisexual Durge, and also trans male Durge.

but I do not begrudge anyone their gender identity.

this is a roleplaying game!

Durge is whatever you identify them as.

all Durges are created equal.

and Gortash wants to fuck them ALL because he's whorish like that.

thanks for the ask :)

[capillaryspice]

Unpopular opinion rant incoming:

I did not enjoy Baldurs Gate 3

Before anything else I will admit I am biased, as strategy turn based games aren't something I'm usually into to begin with. I mostly ended up playing it because my partners and a friend are SUPER into the game and wanted to do a 4 player run. I do have 30 hours on a solo run I tried to get used to the game with, so I have a decent bit of experience with how it's supposed to run as a single player but I'm not judging companion stories or anything because I haven't completed them.

I do understand why people like BG3, and I don't wanna rain on anyone's parade for a very critically acclaimed game, but I do have some thoughts that I just need to get out of my head, so if you like the game and don't wanna hear me complain about it just scroll on ahead. If you do want to hear me complain, I'd love to hear if anyone else has had the same thoughts, because genuinely I've not really had anyone to talk to that hasn't been head-over-heels for it. (Actual thoughts under the cut)

-----------------

With that out of the way, for starters BG3 is a very impressive game. From a technical perspective, from a voice acting quality perspective, the sheer amount of tiny tiny details, etc... it is IMPRESSIVE. Too impressive, I'd almost have to say. Because, despite being impressed by it, I did not have FUN playing the game. For all its details it doesn't draw me in. For all the technical marvel, it's just too janky. It's all of the rules of DND and none of the immersion or fun

I would love to have had a functioning camera position that didn't give me whiplash whenever a new character in the combat of 20+ NPCs decides to do so much as shuffle to the left. It feels like pulling teeth when trying to select/interact with anything, god forbid a reaction happens while you're trying to attack and you just completely lose the action bc the interruption to movement pauses everything and screws u up. I'd love to be able to jump without going through two menu screens and a map to just hop over a gap(I'm never complaining about the Dark Souls jump being too complicated ever again). Also everything moves so slow, I would kill for a fucking Sprint button.

I would have liked anything approaching a streamlined combat system that didn't take a long ass time to set up a move that takes six seconds to play out, and then wait for ten minutes literally doing nothing while the rest of the NPCs in initiative whip the viewpoint around and get it stuck in walls and corpses so I can't even see what's happening while I can't do anything for the rest of the round

A lesser gripe, but just a bizarre choice to not do: Id like to hear the character voice I chose in character creation for cutscenes, instead of just background ambient lines. Like, if the last dragon age game (from 2014 mind you) can have a voiced main character with multiple voice options, this new game that has unique voice lines for every goddamn squirrel on the map and ALREADY PAID VOICE ACTORS TO VOICE THE MAIN CHARACTER TO BEGIN WITH can probably afford to do so. Hell, I'd like some background music that isn't just the tenth rendition of Down By The River in a different key. The bard music is all gorgeous, why couldn't they have reused some of those compositions as ambient music for different locations?

This is a MASSIVE game, and what they've put into it is definitely admirable, but like. Not in the ways that make a game breathable or immersive? The choices in where they've decided to dedicate the anal level of detail seems misguided from a just general player standpoint; There's some gorgeous settings in the game, but I was distracted every time by getting frustrated that I couldn't even get a more-than-vague look at any of the scenery I actually enjoyed because the camera is so limited in its angles. So I can't take a good look around what should be a beautiful temple that I'd love to see closer, but I can individually inspect every moldy apple and tax form on a random dinner table instead. It's a vast open world, but the character models have very clearly defined paths they have to stay within. The amount of unique NPCs is insane, but the mechanics themselves TREAT them as NPCs(i.e., resurrection rules), and they don't react to PCs unless ur doing Violence or Crimes (even og skyrim had NPCs have comments on if u weren't like wearing clothes, for instance). Every shelf and bag and nook and cranny are searchable, but that gets overwhelming very quickly as you have to choose between taking like an hour of real time to clear a cluttered area and possibly find something important but more likely just end up with a bajillion rotten carrots, or move on but have the anxiety of knowing you've possibly missed something vital. There's a million options you can take at any moment with any object or character, but there's rarely anything indicating what will be vital later for general world stuff. But then with the main plot (the Emperor, Raphael, the crèche) it felt very railroaded in the sense that TECHNICALLY you could try and choose between outcomes, but your choices don't actually matter because you die if you choose The Wrong Option (or end up in effectively death sentence combat) and will end up where they want you to go regardless.

BG3 isn't a game I want to spend time playing; it's not a world I can wander around and appreciate the beauty of and get lost in the soundtrack or the environments. The whole combat system is incredibly frustrating to manage, and just feels like Hurry Up And Wait. I'm not gonna knock the romance parts of the game, I've heard good things and haven't gotten far enough in any of em to have an educated opinion on, so really the only thing the game has to offer in spades OTHER than romance is replayability. Which normally I would say is a good thing, but for how long of a game it is and how non immersive the gameplay and world feel, it really just ends up being a game of fucking around and seeing how many things you can get an alternate dialogue for or create new stats around. Like, this is great for completionist folks who love collecting achievements and making the most busted crunchy math-based builds possible, but Baldurs Gate 3 to me just isn't a game I can sit down and have Fun(TM) relaxing and playing.

It's a game that I feel absolutely missed the forest for the trees.

So anyways, essay complete. I've only slept like 6 hours total in the last three days so a lot of this may or may not even make sense. But on so much sleep deprivation finishing this game and realizing I was just frustrated with it instead of actually feeling accomplished for having finished it, it was the final straw and I just needed to get the thoughts down somewhere

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

[shokuheshi]

a very long bg3 rant about the poor mask victims in auntie ethel's horror basement + how frustrated i was the game wouldn't let me save them all

im so unreasonably upset that theres no way to save all the people with the masks on in auntie ethel’s basement. i killed auntie ethel before she got to her basement (thanks to sneaking around, all party members being level 5, and volo's eye) so i avoided having to fight the masked servants but only 1 of them was able to have any sense to take her mask off when we saw them and she herself said the others were as good as dead bc they were too far gone 😭 i wanted to save the cute drow + tiefling girls i tried so hard to.

LET ME SAVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

i cast friends, nothing. i cast charm person, nothing, i tried to fight them anyways to non lethal attack to take their masks and the halfling girl who already was saved and already spoke to us is forced to fight as well and dies every time despite not even being controlled anymore OR EVEN WEARING HER DANG MASK!? why was she fighting me we had a nice convo before about how she wants to go kill hags in the future! the game even gave me an inspiration for that. and i didnt want her dead because i read she appears in a later act of the game if u save her.

sneaking around and pickpocketing the others causes a fight to start with the same outcome and also there is no way to pickpocket the mask off them u can only loot it when theyre down AUGHHH

^ in a last desperate measure i had my handy bard astarion play a lil tune to see if thatd get them to leave auntie ethel's basement of horrors and funny enough they do like listening to music and threw gold at us and they liked it so much they didnt want to talk while he was playing! but directly after went back to yelling at us to go away and leave them alone/not believing auntie ethel was dead 🥲

mask of servitude girl i wanna give you your life back!!!!!! stop it!! oh well at least i gave her a nice tune to listen to before i left them all to their doomed trapped fate :( i left their gold on the ground if they ever break away from this hell they can use it. i feel terrible about all this and like i know if this was REAL dnd game i could ask the dm if i could grab the mask off their face and have to roll a dexterity or athletic or slight of hand check or something or hell have karlach grab them and carry them out i know shes strong enough to. they could use fresh air at least I KNOW I WASNT SUPPOSED TO BECOME FIXATED ON THIS i just hate that u cant save them

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

fang can u explain bg3 to me bc i want to know more abt the gameplay.. also when you talk abt the sex scenes is there like.. an actually scene? :o 🙊

bg3 is a DND based turned based rpg!!!

the general gist is that you get kidnapped and someone puts a lil worm into your brain. a mindflayer parasite, which if not removed fast enough, will turn u into a mindflayer (evil squid creature)

u wake up on the ship basically have to go on a quest to find a way to get rid of ur brain parasite but it's weird bc the parasite isn't doing what it normally does.

the game itself is techincally turned based but in a way that it is a little different to other turn based games. it mostly adapts stuff from DND 5e with a few things ommitted or shifted for smoother play.

you get to choose a class and race, and each class and race have unique qualities. the actual gameplay has your character roll an automatic initiative and that determines the order you get to make moves in.

when its your turn, you have an action and a bonus action. what actions and bonus actions are available to u will change based on your class!! depending on your race and class also will be your weapon proficiency, how much movement you can make, and some other more minor things!!

it is sorted mostly as a spectrum from full magic to full meleee. spell casters have a limited amount of slots they can use to cast them but infinite uses on something called cantrips. full spellcasting classes can use melee weapons but typically lack proficiency in them lol

melee classes are straight forward!! they are attack classes. they normally have more skill with weapons of all kinds and do a lot of head on attacking

many classes are also a mix of these two and have subclasses that alter or change the of from being pure melee or pure magic. subclasses can get really technical so i wouldn't worry about them until you've played through the game once

the game allows you to respec or change these classes with a little in game coin - so if you find yourself not liking something, you are always welcome to go up to withers (an npc in game who stays at ur camp) and change as many times as you like

if you'd like some more in depth information about the gameplay specifics please let me know but this is the gist!! hope this helps you

EDIT: I REAIZE MY DWEEBING OUT MISSED UR QUESTION

yes there is sex scenes but theyre not SUPER explicit at least not all of them!! it depends on the character but tbh!! some of them are just alluding to sex where as some are very Horny. but like…it’s enough to make a whore like me blush so

[okthatsgreat]

which of your ocs do you think you'd get along with irl? which do you think you absolutely would not be able to get along with, or who wouldn't like you?

GHBFSGBDFJH hiiiii whoever this is. i love u...................................................................................<3

im gonna do this list in order from MOST LIKELY to get along with to LEAST LIKELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! theyll be ranked on if i were to meet them in a relaxed environment which means NO killing game and NO dnd plot making their lives hell YAY!

sae: removed from a killing game scenario its reaaaaalllyyy hard to get her to not like you and also shes chill as fuck. she isnt my age but she'd give awesome advice and also i would definitely be texting her just to get back the most random bullshit from her brick phone. no notes here i have GOT to sit on a dock at night and talk shit with him

ryobe: so despite being the antagonist of his season outside of killing game stuff he is genuinely a very very fun person to be around!!!! also VERY easy to make laugh i think i could get along with this guy. now he is the greatest person to like idk Be Emotional to? not really but id have a great time taking him to go bowling. killing game scenario he'd be a lottttt lower

erin: you'll notice im splitting erin and pippy here because the answer is going to be very different LMFAO but erin and i would get alonggg :] she's real goofy and i need to introduce her to dnd i think she'd thrive there. also she's australian so if these people were real she'd have the best shot of being nearby. BONUS!

yoshito: he's just a nice guy :) but he's genuine about it like youre gonna notice a few of these ocs are nice but they tend to be rather surface level..... yoshito is for real a compassionate guy LMFAO. probably wouldnt share the EXACTTT same sense of humor as him and he's definitely one to pry a little into your personal business if he catches anything off about your behavior. which yknow sometimes is uncool but ultimately he's a good person so i cant imagine not liking him

naomi: heavy emphasis on this being a RELAXED scenario but i think we would be chill :) she's very awkward at first but i would think all her jokes are funny on account of being very easy to make laugh . we'd go play video games together. the dream. i do think our combined lack of ability to text people back will eventually kill us though GHFDHG

ruth: again not exactly my age and clearly busy being a mom but she's the type of woman who would have just absolutely fascinating stories to tell you at a family gathering before she slips away into oblivion again LMAO. but shes still pretty reserved and while i dont think i have any traits thats gonna make her hate my ass she also isnt gonna be super open with me so i cant see a super close relationship or anything LMAO. in my dream blunt rotation however. gotta get her on that dock with saeunn

mika: we're both average so she won't have a complex about anything, i can't imagine we'd be reaaallyyyyy close friends just because she doesnt have a very good sense of humour and she can be a bit blunt lmao. but we'd manage to get along if we were put in a group project or something

olli: MY FIRST DND OC TO MAKE IT HERE LMFAO i lovveeee making dnd/bg3 characters that would be terrible to hang out with in real life. olli is cool though id think they were funny. ill be very honest in saying that we arent gonna be lifelong pals or anything on account of how completely different our personalities are but they would be fascinating to spend a few days with. cant imagine theyd find anything about me they deem deplorable if anything they see my weak ass and vow to "shield me from thy wicked enemies" or something

billie: we'd be fine??? don't think we'd actively be making plans together on account of her being fifteen years old and really awkward

rie: we'd also get along but it's very surface level. she doesn't have much of a sense of humor unfortunately and we share very little interests!!! she's very lovely and all but there isn't much to connect over

andi: this is like. the true neutral point here because she truly is just siri

pippy: this is a character that is SUPPOSED to be really annoying to anybody that isn't an actual child and i do think i'd find that high energy difficult to keep up with lmaooo, also pippy wouldnt be making a huge effort to get to know me or anything! she's lots of fun though and definitely sweet

null: this one was hard ghfjgsdfkg. null is objectively very well-spoken, but this is often through blunt, unexpressive speech. not to mention they are very unnerving like i can not lie to you i would find them really off-putting at first. but the thing is they are up this high because i think they have longevity yknow.................. if im kind to it and give it a nice wave they will eventually mimic that wave back at me. i cant even explain it but i think we could get along. or maybe i am severely overestimating my abilities to talk to a cleric of a murder god but its whatever

sadie: okay so sadie is extremely charming. unfortunately she is extremely charming it's part of her character she is good at talking to people and i am not immune to this. i think sadie would be a lovely person to talk to a few times but hanging out with her for too long is eventually going to get me involved in some ungodly drama LMFAO. without a killing game level scenario to humble her she is going to get very annoying very quickly, and she VERYYY likely sees me as somebody easily manipulated

finnea: similar to sadie she is extremely charming, only put a knob lower due to how quick she is to disappear. would make little effort to truly get to know me and wouldn't make an effort to reveal anything about herself either, would kinda just make playful flirty comments that leave me going "oh yeah she seemed nice i guess"

nowhere: there's a bit of a jump here between finnea and nowhere i reckon because now we're getting into "i would probably dislike them initially" territory........ nowhere at the beginning of her story is like. an asshole LMFAO or at least she's just really loud and kinda abrasive and really doesn't make any effort to get to know people or help them. honestly most likely scenario is we both just say a blunt hi and then go our separate ways

elese: sigghhhhh it makes me so sad to say this it really does. but elese and i would not get along HGFKGSDJHJFKD shes dead last because i can say without a doubt we would both not like each other at first glance....... she would think she's of a much higher rank than me and i would find her very pretentious and cocky............... and if i was to be a little kind and say that this is POST character development elese we still dont have a whole ton in common unfortunately!! besides maybe music but even then she is very very classically trained... love her to death but it would not be fun meeting her in real life and that is why shes awesome <3