#alternative systems

[ultrakeencollectionbreadfan]

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about the leaked draft of Dungeons & Dragons' new OGL 1.1. It seems some people never seem to learn from their mistakes, but I digress. If this ultimately goes through, it could certainly mean some changes for some Actual Play systems. Critical Role is probably going to be okay, since they have a deal with Wizards of the Coast. It's Dimension 20 I'm really worried about. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can certainly say that Brennan Lee Mulligan and his crew should've invested in other systems besides the D&D system for their RPs. So, let me ask you this:

Which systems could the D20 crew have used besides D&D for each of their seasons?

[engravedlives]

misc music stamps

[feeshu09]

pov: you're listening to your shixiong ramble about something called a "poke...mon" (??)

[maybe-a-bit-emo]

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Just saw an svsss fic tagged “kiss kiss fall in love” and now I can’t stop thinking of an svsss ouran high au where Luo Binghe put together a host club made of Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge, Mobei-Jun, Shang Qinghua, Tianlang-jun, Zhuzhi-lang, and honor student, Shen Yuan (who’s older brother, Shen Jiu, might murder the lot of them), who stumbled into music room 3 one day and is now their errand boy that Luo Binghe is obsessed with.

[90s-2000s-barbie]

System of A Down - B.Y.O.B. (2005)

[starchbean]

The reason I'm diving so headlong into the SVSSS fandom when I also love TGCF (I haven't yet read MDZS) but haven't delved NEARLY as deep into the fandom is thus:

Fanfic for TGCF... well, it FEELS like fanfic. That isn't bad. I LOVE fanfic. But the story of TGCF is self-contained. The /real/ Xie Lian and Hua Cheng etc are them as portrayed by MXTX. They had the trials they will have, and now these poor old men get to rest in each others' arms, which is beautiful.

AND ACROSS THE ROOM

Scum Villain fic does NOT feel like fanfic, because IT IS REAL! It happened! It ALL happened! Thanks to the Bing-ge extra, the persistent existence of multiverse and multiple instances of Binghes and Shens etc is evidence that there is definitely more out there the original MXTX story doesn't touch on. And the best part is, it doesn't matter how wacky it is, it's STILL REAL!

Terminally ill Shen Yuan finds his way to a catgirl cafe where femboy catboy transmigrator Binghe is trying to work his way out of poverty? Mobei Jun kidnaps Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky and forces him to rewrite PIDW so that HE becomes the demon emperor because Binghe is real fuckin unstable and it's a headache--and every written change alters their world immediately after Airplane writes it? It's out there somewhere in the multiverse, surely!

And of COURSE they'd act slightly differently between iterations, BE slightly different--it's not OOC, it's multidimensional variation. No matter how hard you meme, it doesn't feel fake at all, and that's INCREDIBLE! It lends itself to being a superfandom!

I'M COMPLETELY NORMAL ABOUT THIS! ABSOLUTELY HINGED! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

[e11asurfz]

i luv band magazine covers!!!

[dethkrypt]

⟡ system of a down × hypnotize & mesmerize - disc scans .

[flickering-nightfall]

fun fact: (spearmaster) moon’s system failures don’t happen when the player isn’t there, (aka on safari). This is probably just code, but it’s cute to think she isn’t afraid to let ‘em happen with someone in the room.

there are no iterator collapses in ba sing safari mode

[blue-mood-blue]

I have been thinking about the blackening (as one does)…

…and it’s so interesting to me, the penalty Shen Qingqiu is faced with should he not decide to yeet his disciple into hell.

Account termination. Instant death. Sent directly home to his already-long-dead body, and that’s it for the villain of the piece who outright refuses his villainy. The protagonist needs a blackening for the story to continue, and Shen Qingqiu is going to provide it or get written out of the narrative. Either way, Luo Binghe is going to lose him. Either way, this is a turning point.

I wouldn’t claim that this is the intent of the penalty, but it fascinates me that the System has, potentially, backed the plotline into a corner - because Binghe still stands to be blackened even if Shen Qingqiu took the other choice.

Think about what that would look like, to him. He’s at the Immortal Alliance Conference, and everything is going wrong. He’s been outed as a demon, and not just a demon - the top tier of demon, as bad as it gets from the perspective of a righteous cultivator. His beloved teacher, the person who has been kindest to him and opened his home and heart to him, is standing there with his sword in hand, deciding what he’s going to do about what must look, to him, like a horrific betrayal. Binghe is apologizing. Binghe is begging for his life.

Shen Qingqiu hears him. Maybe it shows on his face, or in his voice, that he already knew; maybe there’s no hint at all, but Shen Qingqiu is suddenly talking quickly with an abrupt sense of urgency that Luo Binghe is having a hard time keeping up with. Telling him he’ll be wonderful - telling him he’s the best. Telling him the world will be his, with emotions cracking through that aloof mask that Binghe has never seen on Shizun’s face before, and it’s terrifying for reasons that Binghe cannot identify.

(He will, later. When he has time to think, he’ll realize it sounded like a goodbye.)

And then Shen Qingqiu is bleeding. And then Shen Qingqiu is on the ground. And then Shen Qingqiu is dead. There’s no countdown for Binghe - there’s no System, there’s no warning, there’s no answers.

Luo Binghe is a heavenly demon in the middle of a conference sabotaged by demons. Luo Binghe is alone. His fellow competing disciples are scattered, some dead or injured. The Peak Lord of Qing Jing Peak, the second in command of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, maybe the only person he loved and who loved him back, is dead at his feet. No one will believe him if he says it isn’t his fault.

(He can’t believe it isn’t his fault.)

What choice does he have but to run? The last heavenly demon the cultivation world went up against has been sealed under a mountain for years, and one of the people responsible for that is probably looking for Shen Qingqiu already. They’ll be looking for him, too. There isn’t anywhere to hide; there isn’t any time to mourn.

There isn’t even enough time to ask why. Why again.

There is no closure waiting for him, because there is nothing to explain what happened. It just is.

It would be a different kind of blackening, certainly - less intense, probably, less of a warping, desperate thing. But how many times can one person have all the love and safety in their world torn out from under them before it starts to show? Before they just don’t allow things like love and safety to touch them, because that’s the better option?

Interesting to consider that, simply by offering the choices it did, the System rigged the story to guarantee that Luo Binghe would end up in hell (deliberate or not).

Interesting to consider that, even if Shen Qingqiu made what might have seemed like a kinder choice, there was every chance it wouldn’t have been.

[lost-sheep]

Be as harsh as you want I won't believe a word you say

[witchrealms]

(x)

[747rabbit]

slipknot promoting their second album, iowa in 2001

[nibbelraz]

Like Father like Son

[90s-2000s-barbie]

System of A Down - Lonely Day (2005)