#and if the rp environment is what stops me

[wwaheoh]

“Your Hot Furry Boyfriend Takes You on a Date But Then Ethereal Horrors Beyond Your Understanding Interrupt [ASMR]” Von Lycaon x gnReader (Romantic)

a/n: was listening to an actual asmr rp video and realized how down bad i am

The cold night breeze whistled through the streets, a coat lended to you by your boyfriend, Von Lycaon, stopping you from feeling it in its entirety. There weren’t many others on the street, only a couple others milling about. Shops were beginning to be closed, street lamps buzzing to life, owls and cicadas beginning to sing as the Sun began to dip itself under the horizon.

Snuggling closely to your boyfriend, he wrapped his arm around you, the warmth of his fur and the solid feeling of his toned body provided were comforts of steady warmth. Smiling, the two of you continued on to your shared apartment, basking in each other's presence.

Then there was a boom.

Shattering the serenity of the evening, a dark pulsating sphere burst out in the middle of the area they were in. Screams rang out as people began to run away from the ever-growing ball. A newly formed Hollow was emerging.

Lycaon moved quickly, taking his phone out and dialing his colleague, “Rina, there’s a Hollow forming on Fifth Street.” He held you firmly, beginning to basically carry you as he moved to get you as far as possible from the emerging Hollow. “You know what to do.” Hanging up from his phone before pocketing it, he turned to you. “Let’s go Dear.”

Only a few steps before the Hollow burst, enclosing the entirety of the surrounding area in its new space-warping environment.

“Faster than expected…” He murmured to himself, a sense of worry building in him- though not outwardly exposing it, mannerisms learned from his years as part of Victoria Housekeeping. Without a Proxy, there was no way they could get out without getting lost within the Hollow themselves. All they could do was,

“Wait for Miss Rina.” Lycaon held you tight, knowing that your Ether Aptitude was way less than his. A safe estimation would be that you had twenty-three minutes until your time ran out. That would not happen.

As the two of you ventured throughout the Hollow, aiming to either encounter Public Security or be located by Phaethon- either way, being sitting ducks was not an option. At your behest, the both of you searched for survivors. It seemed most people followed protocols, encouraged to learn it by heart from a young age. You couldn’t not know what to do in case of a sudden Hollow appearing when living in New Eridu after all.

Just as you were looking through some windows, searching for the elderly or those unable to escape, Lycaon rushed forward in a blur of white being trailed by a cool blue. An Ethereal. It had just rounded the corner before being split into two and ultimately disintegrating back into the Unknown Substance of the Hollow. You rushed to be closer to him, before he raised his hand.

His ears rotated before his fur stood up. A break in his characteristic cool composure. Quickly, he grabbed you before you could even react and rushed the two of you behind an alley. Just as you were about to speak, he covered you mouth. You moved to shoot him a look of indignation before getting a good look at the expression he wore. Worried.

A shadow passed through the streets. It was large, about the size of a firetruck. Looking up, the two of you became petrified at the sight of the Ethereal. Bigger than any ever recorded, squid-like in it’s appearance. It flowed through the skies like water, a dead gaze as it searched for… something.

“Psst!”

The two of you jumped, Lycaon nearly punting the pint-sized newcomer before stopping himself midway through, the now recognized-Bangboo raising its small arms in surrender. “Wait! Miss Rina sent me!”

“Ah, Master Proxy. I apologize.”

“It’s fine! That weird squid Ethereal is something I’d expect to see at the Outpost! But forget that, let’s get you out of here.”

“Please, I think we have about thirteen minutes left.”

“Isn’t your Aptitude high?”

Lyacon motioned to you, with you waving as the Bangboo waved back.

The Bangboo turned back to the wolf-Thiren.

“Is that your…?”

“Significant other? Yes.”

“Wow! For some reason I both did and didn’t expect that…” The Bangboo muttered to themselves before turning back to lead them. Then they stopped before quickly motioning for everyone to hide.

The shadow of the titan-sized Ethereal passed by once more, now seemingly closer to touching down onto the ground than before.

“Alright let’s go!” The Bangboo whisper-yelled, waving for them to follow. As they passed and rounded a few more corners, the Bangboo seemed to have gotten a premonition, “Ethereals!” Lyacon burst forward to protect the team as mentioned Etherals burst out of the woodwork, black charcoal bodies with green oozing out from their underbody.

He stepped forward before bursting into motion, leaving a small crater where he used the ground as a starter block. Quickly disposing of the enemies in a professional matter, none of the Ethereals could even hope to land an attack as he fought, decimating their numbers with practiced ease.

Taking out his watch as you and the Bangboo caught up with him, you noticed a furrow in his brow. Questioning it, he replied, “Eight more minutes. Phatheon, we must hurry.”

“Right!” The Bangboo replied, scurrying forward to lead the group out once more. Passing through a few portals. The tell-tale sound of Public Security vehicles and Rescue Bangboo becoming more audible as your group began to reach the exit.

“EEEAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

A screech that could be heard from all throughout the Hollow, turning back, all three of you watched as the Ethereal noticed your group, having sacrificed hiding for efficiency in haste to get out. The being began to approach with frightening haste, unnatural in how something so big could move so fast.

Breaking out of his stupor fast, Lycaon hoisted you and the Bangboo up with his arms and began to sprint in the direction Phaethon pointed them in before being disrupted.

“Where to Master Phaethon?”

“Left!”

“Now take a right!”

“One more- oh jeez it’s catching up!”

Lyacon used every ounce of strength in each push his legs gave, pushing through stray smaller Ethereals, not wanting to give the monstrosity chasing them a chance to catch up. After a few more blocks, it had gotten so close that you could hear the squelching of it’s tendrils, with it only being stopped by the buildings. Just as it seemed that it would begin to make a grab at Lyacon, gunfire rang out.

Public Security, with this particular group headed by Zhu Yuan and Qingyi, with backup from neighboring departments as well as their very own, laid down gunfire on the Ethereal. Forcing it to evade to avoid taking the brunt of the firepower being let out on it.

“Phatheon!”

“One more right!”

He barreled forward, just as a wave of nausea hit you. Two more minutes.

Sprinting forward, he fell into one final tear in reality, arriving in a space in front of the Hollow.

Setting you and the Bangboo down, he let you catch your breath as he reconvend with Phaethon.

“I am in your debt, Master Proxy. Money will be forward-”

“I- It’s fine Sir!”

“Pardon?”

“Just for this once! Take it as a token of good faith.”

Lyacon smiled, nodding as he turned his attention back to you, leaving the Bangboo to return back home.

“Are you okay?” “‘m fine… just tired.” “Of course, let's have you checked then we can return home, okay?” “Mm…”

You nodded off to sleep as he lifted you in his arms, taking you over to the doctor to get checked. Waking you up only for a little bit before falling right back to sleep after all the tests were done. You were cleared- only being exhausted from prolonged exposure to the Hollow.

Setting you softly onto the shared bed, Lycaon softly caressed the top of your head. Thankful for having been able to get you out with minimal roadblocks. Had the two of you been even a little slower…

Best not to think about it.

Later, the Hollow would be contained once more through the combined efforts of Public Security and the military sector based in Scott Outpost. Only a few casualties- a testimony to the effectiveness of their efficiency.

[loveapologist]

We have had this conversation many times before, but I think it's worth repeating and stressing out:

Cringe culture is dead, embrace what you love making and do it unapologetically.

Speaking as an artist, I've found myself assaulted many times by the dichotomy of making art that is acceptable vs the art I want to make. By acceptable I don't mean void of controversy (art is all about sharing your own voice and sometimes that is controversial!) but art that I know it's gonna be well received by the internet.

Take fanart for example; it's not only that fanart is gonna be more popular and well received than original art (duh) but also fanart from certain media will garner more attention. A fanart from a different media will have less tracking and that is all well and understood; I'm not taking about popularity here, I'm talking about guilt.

Guilt about making something from a fandom and have people construct an idea about you, guilt about putting work and time into something that is not gonna interest the people that follow you and may drive them away. We have to get rid of that; how many stories are not being told due to guilt? How many niche fandoms are missing out on amazing artists?

I've found myself unsure about posting art of different stuff and even creating it. Getting stuck into this X fandom I may like and it's popular and well received and not being brave enough to share other things that are dear to my heart, due to this guilt. No one will care, they will think I'm this way or that, I will be an annoyance on people's feeds.

And that is so fucked up.

For example, at the start of the year I took the hard decision to stop being a freelance artist and change careers (for several reasons, I won't go into it now). It was incredibly painful and I could not bring myself to pick up a pencil again and create for months. I got into Harry Potter rolplaying in a very private environment and I didn't share it with anyone because I felt guilt for liking that fandom too- I've tried to move forward, grow out of it, but I just can't. I'm gonna be thirty soon and I've come to realize it's my special interest, it fills me in ways that other things can't. It's comfort, it's home.

The thing that got me out of a very toxic moment with art? Drawing my Harry Potter OC I use for rolplay. I love him so much, it's very dear to me and I would love to share the rich history I've built around him but again- even after all this time, I found myself feeling guilty. About liking Harry Potter, about having a cringey rp OC, about not posting art for the other fandoms I've been into.

And you know what? I'm tired of it. This fills me with a creative passion I hadn't felt in years, it makes me want to draw again even if no one really cares. I'm tired of feeling guilty and I won't let myself be reigned by it no longer.

Who cares if it's a rp oc, if it's a self insert in some ways, if it's cringe or overdone. I do have a creative voice, stories to tell, things that I love and it's that love I want to share.

Life is too short to stop yourself from creating and sharing something you love. Create the thing, share the thing. At the end of the day there is no one else but yourself to be accountable for the things you have or haven't done.

[darkleloog]

NO.

OK THAT'S ALL, WHAT THE HELL, I DON'T INSULT ANYONE NOR DO I INTEND TO DO IT, IT'S RP, SEND THAT BUNCH OF TEXT IN A COPY PASTE OF THE FIRST RESULT THAT APPEARED I THOUGHT "hehe, Alex will very upset with Darkle, Darkle wants to win that position as Alex's enemy." AND I TOOK A RANDOM PIECE OF ALL THE LOTS OF TEXT THAT WAS PUT THERE. I don't understand it, I didn't want to offend anyone.

THEN IT'S MISUNDERSTOOD AND THEY SAY: "oh, this guy is an INCREDIBLE idiot" And I try to tell them calmly: "ahem, no. This is just rp, I would never do that."

(This is a completely idiotic topic and taken in an immature way by me) Oh, and you'll think: "nah, nah, nah, he's just trying to defend himself from what this monster really is."

NO.

STOP. WTH, NO.

Darkle: GCBC DID YOU BLOCK ME?? Thank you, I love you too.

UUUHHHHG, THIS TEXT LOOKS SO WEIRD WITH ALL CAPS-

Well, whatever. THE CREATION OF THIS ACCOUNT WAS TO CREATE HATE TOWARDS DARKLE, HE IS THE ANTAGONIST

While I was writing all this I was thinking: "this text looks so bad, it's going to look like I'm EXCUSING myself" NO, NO, NO.

What a shame all this is

OH YEAH, I BLOCKED GCBC FOR A LITTLE WHILE IN THE FORM OF: "no, now, stop, I don't want to get in trouble, I don't want to have to do THIS TEXT." And it only got worse, bad choice. MY FAULT, my fault, ik, it's my fault, I'm sorry.

At the end of that pile of text I put " /j " because I didn't want that to be misunderstood, and you will say: "why didn't you put in small print that it is not serious to insult? IT LOOKED BAD, FROM MY POINT OF VIEW IT LOST GRACE, RATHER, GRACE FROM DARKLE'S POINT OF VIEW, I really wanted to make it look like Darkle was the one who wrote it, NOT ME.

Ok, this is already a lot to read, GCBC, sorry to tell you so late, but, do you remember that time I made an Alex bot and you told me:

" AI is theft, and also a HORRIBLE resource guzzler. If you care at all about the hard work that *real people* put into honing their crafts, or the environment, you'll stay well away from this nonsense. "

(Yes, I copied the text)

Again, SORRY!! AI is crap if you ask me, but I really wanted to do something different. I didn't dare tell you.

Finally the text ends here.

Postscript: This blog is the blog of an antagonist. I thought: "an antagonist is needed in an rp"

I've put humor here because I don't even like reading things written with so much "Capital letters? Seriousness?"

That's it, it doesn't matter. IT'S OVER, RIGHT?

[chunkpupk1dd0]

˚₊⋅─── /ᐠ - ˕ -マ ───⋅ ˚₊

Taboo/Hard kinks

[18+, MDNI, NMIK]

[Ageless & minros will be blocked]

˚₊⋅─── /ᐠ - ˕ -マ ───⋅ ˚₊

‼️DNI‼️

[Minors, Ageless, Kink Purists, Kink shamers, Agere/petre, Bully's, under 19, Pedos/Maps, Zoophiles]

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

About me~♡

♡This is a (R.A.C.K) & (S.S.C) page♡

☆Hello!! I'm Koda, I'm a 19 year old kiddo puppy exploring my kinky side! I adore interacting with other kinksters & will most definitely be interacting ALOT.

☆I enjoy a range of kinks & fetishes, such as~

Kinks: AgePlay, PetPlay, CNC, BDSM, ImpactPlay, GunPlay, KnifePlay, RestrictionPlay, AsphyxiationPlay, Dark RP's like being Kidnapped/abused, BloodPlay, IntoxPlay, ForcedIntoxPlay, Fuaxcest, DDLB, Somnophilia, Dacryphilia, Me as a plushy, Exhibitionism, Oral, EdgePlay, OrgasmDenial, Fantasy Snuff films, Torture, Masochism, Military, AgeGaps, OlderMen, Monsters

☆Now, please know, I don't support the real life acts of Abusers, if you are struggling with abuse, please seek help. My Kinks are practiced in a safe, controlled environment where I & my partner/s can stop the scene at any moment.

Fetishes: Masks, Uniforms, Hands, Mouths, Teeth, Uncut & cutt cock, BDSM gear, Cat/dog ears & tails, fake toe beans

☆My limits:

Hard: Feet, Scat, Cheating IRL & RP.

Soft: Anal-must have extensive prep & foreplay, VomitPlay-Only if it happens when you gag/choke me,

☆Aftercare is a must, I prefer soft reassuring words while cleaning up in a bath or shower, eating snacks, then sleeping. I will gladly indulge in Aftercare for my partners, I will reassure you & discuss what we enjoyed & what we didn't.

☆Names I'm ok with _____ calling me;

Strangers: Pup, Koda, Little one

Mutuals: Puppy, Baby Boy, KodaPup, Lil boy

Play partners: All of the above + Snuff star, SexToy, Victim.

[rphelperblog]

Outer Banks Rp Meme

inspired by @multistoty @etherealrps @kierras @kookbled @pogueframed @cfknights @jaymaybnk and @sulsurfer

“Don’t worry, I will sugar mama you.” 

"You might end up in the lions den, but you don't go there on purpose."

"You know what I was thinking, let's get married."

"I'd rather die than be without you."

You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning wondering."

"Here is a fun fact. Everyone you know will die."

"Its a good thing we are on a secret mission. We shouldn't even be using our real names."

"Momma's mad."

"I'd rather die than go to jail."

"Didn't you play baseball?"

"UntilI see a body, I won't give up."

"That was a good, dad joke."

"You want to make our own incriminating evidence? Is that what your talking about?"

"Denial's underrated. You should try it some time."

"It's only denial if your wrong."

“Not much of a hugger, man.”

"He's got the survival instincts of a cockroach."

"You hang out with trash, you get dirty."

Mild kelptomanic, future tax cheat."

They always, always win."

"Stupid things have good outcomes all the time."

"I can't pretend either."

"I'd for sure put his skull in the ground, but I am not like a jealous guy, so I don't care."

"This is your captain speaking."

"You love being seen with me, but you don't love me."

"When people get close to me, i feel trapped. I bail and I blame them for it."

Definitely, the weirdest summer of my life. But its not the end, its the beginning."

"I can't let you take the blame for something I did. You have too much to lose."

"I was on the math team."

"Love is five minutes of pleasure for a lifetime of pain."

"You aren't gonna just walk away like nothing happened?"

"You're so careful."

"Wars have been started for less."

"I'm stuck. You are gonna rip me."

"I'll be so safe."

"I'll pay you back."

"Your secret is safe with me."

"I look like I got kicked out of a barbershop quartet."

"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie."

"We have one earth. We should give it 100 percent bare minimum."

The thing about hell is there is always another one below."

"Hey, do you remember when you kissed me?"

"Mold is good for you. It's a natural organism."

"This is war. They hit us. We hit them."

"What if I am not okay?"

"Why are you so weird?"

“Look, love just walked in, okay.”

"I already am who I am."

"Be safe."

"Back in the friend zone."

the WiFi’s not working. I can’t post anything.”

"I got a jet going straight to my butt right now."

"Dude, did you just yeet over that chain?"

"You look like I have never seen a boy in underwear before."

"I have a brother. Get your head out of the gutter."

"It might be storming now, but it can't rain forever."

Life is all fun and nothing not."

"Pentagon- we have safety clearance."

"I can't give up the hunt man."

"Oh my god, have you seen this shirt? Its 190 dollars."

"Stop barking at the snakes."

"And to quote the hobbit , 'down down to goblin town, you go, my lad."

Keep running you mouth and I'll come knock our J crew looking ass out."

"Its a little toosie roll."

"Buck? Whats a buck?"

"yeah, you have a death compass."

You listen to me alright. I'm coming for you."

Biggest pet peeves? Easy, giving one percent to the environment."

"Imagine if you get really old and your nipples and your boobs get really saggy and you have their eyes there and you can see if your shoe is untied."

"You powerpuff girls have a lot of fun."

"Not all of us can afford the unlimited plan."

"One last mission and I am out of this dirty dirty game."

[anonymous-dentist]

I wonder how many of the admins have experience with ttrpgs and other role-playing mediums. Because a good GM will attempt to avoid a player death if it is not wanted by the players. I think we should still have egg lives, because it does lead to some really good rp moments, but the way that they are treated should be different, Instead of forcing a death to happen to push some sort of plot forward, They should be treated more like how player deaths are treated.

ALSO

death messages were turned off for the eggs and created unnecessary confusion. Plus the server has been lagging all night. It's wild that pepito didn't get a nightmare

Idk I just feel like there are way too many finicky external factors that makes it difficult to make an egg death seem fair on the current system

This one’s just a rumor, but I saw someone last night say that egg death messages have been turned off for good as part of the new rule set. Combine that with the fact that eggs are allowed totems now but the eggs themselves didn’t know that (Empanada only found out last week) and the fact that parents only find out about egg rules when they get onto the server and they’re told, and it’s like. What do you mean the eggs don’t know their own rules???

But anyway, I’ve been playing ttrpgs for over half a decade now, and I’m the type of player to actively encourage the dm to take the opportunity to kill my character if it makes sense in the moment because that’s fun for me. But with my current group, the others all were like “nooooo don’t kill him” and they weren’t having fun with me constantly teasing it, so, guess what? I followed the mood and stopped encouraging it.

It’s all about reading and following the mood of the group. And, when your players actively dislike something and write multiple tickets to you trying to get some part of the game removed, it’s the gm’s job to listen to those critiques to provide a safe and enjoyable game environment. That’s Just How It Is

[utilitycaster]

I feel like something so many ppl just don’t get is it’s improv. I’ll see ppl be like “I hate this arc” or “this dragged on” I’m like?? If you want to watch a curated tight fantasy story with a normal beginning middle and end maybe don’t watch long form improv media? Also maybe I’m just fundamentally misunderstanding what ur post is about. I’ll constantly think and say “it’s their game” not as a “they’re above criticism” way but more in a “cmon it’s not like this is a script that’s being poured over by ten ppl sitting in a room debating whether this 30 seconds drags or not”. Like I love Play it By Ear from Dropout but I’d never hold it to the same standard as like Six the musical or whatever. Improv/normal media requires a completely different rule set for criticism imo

Hey anon,

So here's the thing - I agree with this in terms of formal, published criticism (Ebert's Law, if you will) where you are, to an extent, grading on a scale; you should be judging on what the work is trying to achieve and not some abstract ideal that applies equally to all works regardless of provenance.

However, for personal discussion (including your own personal Tumblr blog)? This is totally irrelevant. You're allowed to dislike things, whether it's a 30 minute improvised musical or whether it's the Marriage of Figaro, for any reason. It is 100% valid for someone to look at the Mona Lisa and say "eh, doesn't do it for me," and, moreover, it's just as valid for them to say "it doesn't do it for me because I don't care for representative art and prefer abstract, modern works, but Da Vinci's sfumato technique is indeed masterful" as to say "It doesn't do it for me because it's fucking weird to me that she doesn't have eyebrows." People's enjoyment of a work is not necessarily reliant on effort put in or how much the artist cares about - it should be based on how much the art appeals to them.

It's fine if people hate an arc. If they hate it so much that they aren't able to enjoy watching, then I think they should probably stop watching...but that's a choice for them to make, and as someone who loves complaining, I've talked about arcs dragging and had it interpreted by total strangers as "you clearly seem to hate this" when really it was just a case of me...not liking some aspects of a larger whole, and choosing to talk about that because I had things to say. Like, I do think the early Campaign 3 pacing was deeply frustrating, and I do think that this wouldn't be the case if it weren't improv, but there have been many improv actual plays that I felt had great pacing, and also it was still frustrating to me and I wanted to express that.

In fact, what I was getting at in my post is that if you're trying to provide a counterpoint to other people's criticism, you need to focus on the points they're making; and if you're trying to defend something in general, you need to be talking about what you find good that is specific to that thing, rather than making excuses like "the cast likes it" or "it's improv".

To give an example: I love the Aeor arc, which was, to an extent, divisive. Here's two responses I could have:

"I think the Aeor arc built up to a satisfying and emotionally charged final boss fight that was thematically resonant with the Mighty Nein as a group. I think the path there had a good balance of adventure, combat, and RP scenes, especially given its position as the final arc of the campaign and the one in which many of the character romances were realized. Eiselcross was a fun and well-crafted environment that was challenging for a party of their level, and Aeor provided new insight into the Calamity, which at the time had not been explored in depth, while also providing a lot of opportunities to tie into the arcs of the various individual characters, notably Caleb and Caduceus. I also personally am a big fan of exploring fallen technologically advanced civilizations in a fantasy setting as a trope."

2. "Well, it's the cast's table, and it's improvised."

Both are true, but the first one lets people know what I see in that arc and why I love it. The second one ends the conversation, is true of almost everything Critical Role does, probably doesn't address anyone else's complaints, and doesn't even explain why I like it. And for what it's worth I don't think meta needs to address anyone's complaints - you're allowed to look at the Aeor arc and say "cool, I think it took too long and dragged and was too stressful" and we can part ways knowing we are different people with different tastes. But if I were, hypothetically, passionately trying to defend the Aeor arc and were openly resentful towards people who disliked it, the first option is obviously superior to the second option, which makes me look like someone who cannot come up with a single specific reason why this thing I allegedly love is good, and who is whining because I lack the maturity to accept that my opinions are not universally shared by all.

[munasnook]

Upcoming Projects:

There’s so many stories I’ve been wanting to write and projects I want to work on but I have a huge creative block that’s been stopping me for almost 5 years now. I need to stop thinking about only the end result and stop being such a perfectionist, but it’s so hard. I’m making a list to motivate me, and give any tips, advice, or suggestions for creative block if you feel inclined! Thanks so much!

These aren’t ranked in any particular order, but I’m only adding projects that I’m less intimated by onto this list so I can actually start working on them, have a finished product, and not be miserable if it doesn’t turn out the exact way I imagined it.

Fun, Dark Magic D&D Campaign:

Building a stronger D&D 5E campaign for my players. This is my first time playing as well as being a DM, and this is all of their first times playing too. The campaign started in a city full of dark magic, and the characters are currently being pursued by dark wizards for a special item and following one of the characters. I’m working on my improvisation and I’m pretty awkward when it comes to RP/voicing characters, and I want to keep this in mind as I build but also improve on it. (Just don’t want to stall the players or take us out of the game because I can’t think fast/clearly enough!)

What I want to accomplish:

- Making a name for the campaign, first of all. It’s just been going by the group chat name…

- Having a driving goal for the party, as well as a stronger sense of the world they’re in and why.

- Writing sessions more loosely with more options for players, and also finding ways to create concrete events without forcing players into too much exposition/lack of choice

- Tailoring the campaign to the rest of the party’s skills

- Creating more areas and events for the party to explore without being overbearing/overwhelming

- Finding a balance of everything above to make a loose outline of a campaign so I don’t get so lost as a first time DM

Cthulu Session:

I just started reading some Lovecraft for the first time (overdue!) and it was pretty inspiring to me, as I’ve been trying to come up with some ideas for a fun Halloween type campaign for my players.

What I want to accomplish:

- A session that’s memorable and feels very Halloween like.

- A chance to improve on my descriptions of the environment to my players, as well as the effect they have on the environment.

- Give the players a chance to jump more into character and feel like they can RP more comfortably.

- Fun, creepy vibes session that still ties into the story.

Fantasy Novel:

There’s been this idea (only a mood, so far) of a fantasy story I’d like to write. I still don’t know anything about the characters, but I’m starting to notice things about the environment. I’m hoping that by building the environment first (which I’ve never done before) will give me a new challenge, perspective, and process to writing a story. I’m hoping eventually characters will come along the way, and if it doesn’t work out, I’m happy to turn it into a video game or somehow tie it into my D&D campaign.

What I want to accomplish:

- Have a full script of something I’m proud of.

- Learn how to create a strong environment, work on showing/not telling, and successfully immerse the reader in a new land though writing.

- Start and finish a writing project all the way through, even if I don’t feel my soul in it like I do with my bigger projects. (Something to get me going!)

Romance Webcomic

It’s been a small dream of mine lately to make a cute WLW webcomic to get myself used to scripting, drawing, and sharing my content. It’s very different from anything else I’d be writing, but it would really challenge me to rely on dialogue (which I’m horrible at writing) and learn how to do pacing before I start on my longer, more complicated comics.

What I want to accomplish:

- Create something (start to finish) that warms me up on how to write dialogue.

- Learn how to pace comics and chapters.

- Post my work online.

- Draw/translate written script into image, and get faster at drawing comics instead of obsessing over smaller details.

- Learn how to write, draw, and publish with a schedule.

- Build up something to get me going, something I can be proud of, even if it isn’t my ultimate ambition.

- Find the fun in writing and drawing again!

Well, hopefully I have more pressure to start working on this stuff now. I’ll be posting some of it just so I remember I’m staying true to my word, it’s so easy for me to look over and choose to do something else, but if I make tumblr a space to write and learn/encourage other writers, I’ll feel much more excited to write than when I’m sitting at home alone with BG3 and Elden Ring calling my name…

Hoping to make this page a journal and documentation of some kind as I reignite my creating journey. It’s been almost 5 years of avoiding creating work, and it’s starting to really ache. Better to start now than later!

[lightburnsyou]

respond to the following prompts out of character, then tag others you'd like to get to know a little bit better.

roleplayer name: sky!

roleplayer pronouns: she/her

muse name: anakin skywalker

preferred communication: tumblr dms or discord!

experience: over fifteen years! i started on neopets (doing "gifted vs government" rps if you remember those. it was basically just x-men ocs lmao) and started on tumblr doing groups when i was about 14? discovered indie rp around a year or so later. moved to discord and wrote 1x1s sometime during lockdown. rped exclusively with one friend for like three years. (still write the same two rp threads w her!) recently came back to tumblr with this blog! have been in many many fandoms.

preferred roleplay type: as long as there's something to work with, i am content. i'm very story focused. i don't care much for threads where it's just two characters chatting about nothing, unless it's giving us juicy character exploration. i prefer threads with some kind of conflict, whether it be internal, between two characters, or a third party/impending doom/secret/whatever. it doesn't have to be action based, but i think all stories do need something going on. as long as there's something, i'm happy. i'm not very good at this, but i also really like threads with strong environments! i suck at remembering to describe places, but i like a nice setting. i think it makes it more fun and vivid, and you can do cool symbolism and metaphors with a good setting. trying to get better at this bc sometimes i feel like i write characters in a void rather than a solid, grounded place. so if my partner is good at establishing setting, it makes me happy bc i feel like i'm learning lmao

pet peeves & dealbreakers: ooc dramaaaa. it is my biggest dealbreaker. also this is a minor pet peeve and hasn't really come up here, but i must warn you all that i am not a hayden simp. please don't assume i am just bc i write anakin. love him as anakin! great actor! but idrk him and i don't want to talk for hours about how hot he is. i'm a lesbian, and i'm just not interested in talking about the hotness of men really at all, let alone in excess. i won't stop you from talking about it, but i just can't sometimes. a boundary i have. i'll talk about my love for anakin all day any day tho.

plot or memes: both! i will say that memes can sometimes get the ball rolling faster, especially if the characters have an established dynamic or common setting! that being said, i do love plotting just as much! never feel scared to reach out to me to discuss a plot or dynamic! i'm down. and unless otherwise specified, you're more than welcome to continue any meme without asking! i try to write them with potential continuation in mind

long replies or short replies: i don't really mind length, but i do gravitate to multi-para. one-liners are great starting points, but i naturally expand. i don't vibe with blabbing just for the sake of matching length, though. anakin is a talker, so a lot of my replies do have a bit of dialogue! however, whatever i feel the reply needs is what the reply gets, and i hope my partners do the same! there's no pressure to match length, as long as there's something to work with, yk?

best time to write: it really depends! my work schedule fluctuates quite a bit. for me, as long as im (a) not tired, (b) have a quiet environment, and (c) am in a somewhat good mood, i can write something. the thing that hinders my writing most frequently is stress or sleepiness.

are you like your muse?: i think we all are in some ways. there is a reason we chose to write or create the characters we did. my writing is obviously rooted in how i see the world, and through that, how i see ani. there will always be a part of me in the way i write anakin. we have very different life experiences, reactions, and perspectives on things, but i love that boy.

tagged: @petitsdieu

tagging: anyone who sees this and wishes to fill it out! tag me! it's good to get to know one another

[greywoodrpg]

Good Day Greywood Residents:

We'd like to thank everyone for their creative input in building up this world, you've really fleshed things out and made this little group feel like a real township. So much history has already been made since it's creation and we want to take a moment to appreciate that and you (the writers) for your efforts. At this time, it is with some sadness that we (the mods) are going to be putting Greywood on a mod-related hiatus. Due to personal reasons, both of the mods sadly no longer have the capacity to moderate this group at this time. We do not want to discourage anyone from writing and continuing their stories that they've established, so feel free to continue writing between each other here, for as long as you like and at your own creative leisure. Do not feel like this is a request to stop using the dash because of this announcement, it will remain a home and open to your existing characters for as long as you like!

What this means for the group is no new applications will be reviewed and accepted, there will be no updates, events and no activity checks for the time being.

We hope you all can understand and thank you all.

Mod Kim & Sandra

***

After the formal announcement above, from here on is a little elaboration on why I personally (Sandra) had come to this decision. Although I love Greywood dearly, I have found myself feeling it not give back as much as I believe I gave to it. Despite attempting to do what I believe was my best to create an enriching roleplay writing environment for myself and others to enjoy, it seems as though a number of people lately had found it difficult to fit their characters in or keep up their muse, and this resulted in seeking a better place for that upon leaving Greywood. It was a bit puzzling to me why this happened, as at some point we as a group grew exceptionally and had over 70 OCs available and quite a number of writers to connect with as well.

It is understandable to look to other options when muse does not thrive in a certain enviroment but unfortunantely it was also discouraging for me to see this as a mod of this group. As a result, I will admit that modding had become a stressful and somewhat disappointing experience for me lately. I do not mean to share this to make anyone feel bad, I just personally feel that some clarity and honesty goes a long way and can perhaps lead to a better understanding.

All the above being said, this does not mean that I will not maybe return to Greywood some day, when I feel ready to pick it up again as a mod. But I would also like to call upon my right as a writer to explore other options too. Perhaps Greywood will experience a revamp or I may in the future offer up another setting for a group RP that I will be more capable to creatively invest in and that will hopefully keep people's interest for longer. This is TBD.

In the meanwhile, thank you for listening to my rant and please continue to enjoy your stay here, even though Greywood will be silent for the time being. Discord group will also remain open and please know that you are always free to reach out to me through there as well. This is also my invitation to any and all who would like to provide their feedback, suggestions, advice, share grievances or experiences, or anything at all. Listening to what you might want to share will be a valuable advice to me for the future.

Once again, thank you for reading through and thank you for being a part of Greywood and I hope that whatever the future brings, we keep finding ways to create stories together.

As always, happy writing!

Sandra

***

This is not goodbye, rather a see you next time ~ ❤️

[quietlyblooms]

loss as a motivator is a constant in chiyo's narrative, though it isn't always a positive motivator. in her main verse, it's definitely negative bc as she loses friendships, she pushes herself to become untouchable. no one can hurt her if they cannot touch her heart. fear of loss continues to motivate her to remain distant from the world, a singular person in a vast garden that she can't hope to maintain all on her own. loss changes her, makes her stronger in some ways, but it ultimately hurts her.

in verses such as her b.nha and j.jk verses, experiencing the loss of people close to her motivates chiyo to become better, stronger, more proactive in her communities. she wants to help the youth who are going through what she did. she wants to stop students from experiencing the same hardships. she wants to break the cycles she was apart of, once upon a time. it's a very different experience, though some of her same faults still exist in these au's.

i really, really love this aspect of rp, though :' )) and it's also why i love writing chiyo bc her development is heavily affected by her environment and peers. it's not that she has a malleable personality, but it's that she's someone who needs people. in her main verse, she doesn't have a community/support system outside of her family, really. b.nha and j.jk are different bc she's in a network of heroes/teachers/sorcerers/etc. who need each other to make it. even if she struggles to be vulnerable and reach out, she still has people around her. and it makes me so!!!!! excited thinking about these differences and parallels okay :' )))

[caeloservare]

Semi hiatus

To be fair, I don't really feel safe to write nor share my thoughts here anymore, but I need to say this.

I don't enjoy rwby anymore. I'm honest and open about it. I despise directions show took with many topics, especially about mental health and suicide. I won't change my mind about it. I won't stop you from still having fun with the show either, that'd be asshole move of me. However, blaming criticism and different opinions on ignorance or malevolence is hardly fair. Different points of view come from many factors. Attitude of "any criticism (or rwde)= hate or stupidity" is a harmful oversimplification. By now it borders with censorship and policing other people's blogs. Even more so when you add to the mix people who demand what and how others can or should write. The attitude of only one "valid" interpretation is hardly fair to anyone as well. And these combined make a seriously toxic environment for any fan activity.

You have all the rights to protect yourself from things you don't want to see. You have all the rights to have content tagged for blocking purposes. To have fun everyone needs a safe space, so make sure you're doing good and protecting yourself from trigger exposure. But also check with yourself above problems. Everyone is more or less toxic in some aspects, myself included. That can and needs to be worked on though. For a small community that is supposed to be inclusive fun after hours, these issues are killing the joy and driving people away. Myself included again.

I have no will to write here. All my favourite characters got butchered, killed off or both. Imagine how it feels to have a fave that the creators take regular shit on, openly hate on and the rest of the fandom cheers along, despite nothing ever hinted this direction in early stages. And then getting accused of being hateful and ignorant for not liking the plot twist that ruined it and very clearly not wanted around.

I still check the dash out of reflex. I'm hoping to be able to rp and have fun again, but as for now, I can't promise anything nor make any final decision.

tl;dr: be fucking kinder to one another, would you. And to me too, I didn't come here to deal with this hateful "moral high ground" kind of bullshit

[behindthewox]

The smut debate - a progressive view

[Obligatory content warning: this post is a about sex]

Most of what I've posted in the Smut Debate so far has been other people's opinions and arguements against smut. I'm aiming for a variety of views and opinions and I often post anon submissions that I don't agree with.

My personal opinion on smut might differ from most, because of how I was raised and the fact that I've been fortunate not to have any negative sexual experiences unless you count badly written smut.

I was raised in a progressive culture and environment where sexual education is valued and promoted openly, and my parents never treated sex as a taboo subject or made any fuss over protecting me from it. It was, and is, a neutral subject that's neither encouraged nor discouraged.

If progressive and sex-positive attitudes disturb you, save yourself the unnecessary stress on your heart and soul and consider this sentence the end of this post. Unless you're really into deliberately reading stuff that upset you so you can be upset about it, then go ahead.

There's a lot of sexual content that shouldn't be available to minors, but there's also sexual content that should be available to teens who are exploring their sexuality through online media. Vanilla content, keeping it traditional and non-problematic, is pretty harmless and allows for exploration within safe boundaries. Most teens will explore their sexuality in one way or another and I'd much rather see a teenager find what they're looking for at WoX, moderated and strictly within reasonable boundaries, than see them continue their search elsewhere and ending up on the wrong end of the spectrum.

Yes, there is danger to minors being exposed to sexual content online. A lot of sexual content is problematic in one way or another. Porn videos will normalise all sorts of things that are neither normal nor safe, and if you get your sex ed from pornhub you'll likely miss out on the basic safety and biology aspects. Not to mention, your expectations and understanding of sex will be based on staged porn videos with actors rather than human beings finding and providing pleasure in each other. There's also a high risk of misinformation which can cause all sorts of problems, but I'd argue that's a problem in society in general and not unique to the internet.

But exposure to positive and realistic depictions of sex isn't a bad thing. It's overall a good thing if you ask me. Teens will go looking for sexual content in their exploration, and the best way to stop them from ending up on pornhub (or wherever the problematic stuff is) is to provide an alternative that satisfies the curiosity and interest in a safe way. WoX is moderated and has rules in place to keep the unwanted content out, allowing us to be one of those places where teens can explore their sexuality within acceptable boundaries, without being exposed to the darker and dangerous stuff*. We could even take it one step further and provide older users with some guidelines and encourage safe sex content to educate the younger users in what's right and what's wrong, what to expect and how to pleasure a partner (all in the shape of RP smut). Maybe I'm being too progressive here, but I'd argue that the internet needs more content like that.

A kid who is well informed about sex is usually better off than a kid who isn't; you need to know what the risks are in order to avoid them, you need to know what's fair game and not in order to identify bad play, and the more you know the less you need to figure out through trial and error on your own.

*footnote: for this we need good and experienced teams of moderators though, something that many sites struggle with. If there aren't resources to do it well and safely, it shouldn't be done at all.

[cobaltsoulsearcher]

Hello Arlen! A while ago I thought I saw your tags saying that you have OCs, but I can't find the tags so if I'm wrong that's my bad 😅

Do you have OCs and any fun facts you want to share about them?

I do have OCs but I don’t think I’ve talked about them here 😅 I’m not gonna ramble toooo much but um aside from OCs from my old novella (Qehnaylaht/Nahdeyna/Gaealena/etc), current rp OCs (I love Paulie and Catrina Chester so damn much you guys but I would not stop rambling, as well as Aliana María Alliyma from another rp), a bunch of characters I never got to play, and Clara & Ella (my OCs for Firefly fanfic and now their own original sci-fi world), there’s these three?

Wendell — an NPC I made for D&D that now lives rent free in my head. He’s a warlock who has no clue what his actual patron is, because sometimes things get crazy with trickster deities. He uses a custom wheelchair that has a few little fae spells on it (mostly just to make it so no one else dares to touch it or try to move him) and lives inside a mimic.

Morgan — created her for a pirates roleplay but that ended (I don’t know why but I probably messed up somehow since the other writer blocked me?). Scrappy smart Caribbean girl who sometimes passes as a man and is apprenticed to a doctor.

Char — short for Charcoal (their birth name is Charlotte but no one gets to call them that), Char is a mostly home bound artist who may or may not be from the fae realm. She started as a sort of vent OC I could give some of my problems but ended up in a really fascinating space. Whenever I write her, I make it very unclear whether or not she is actually magical or not. If she is, she is part-djinn and who knows what else and descendent of men and women who traded themselves or were stolen away by the fae—if she isn’t, she grew up in a very limiting environment and developed pretty extreme maladaptive tendencies.

I also have OCs for a lot of universes I would like to roleplay in buttttt no one ever dies cause the fandoms more or less don’t exist (Broken Earth, Invisible Library, etc). Oh, and the characters in the musical im writing! They’re very fun but I’ve typed enough and don’t want to bore you too much 😅

What about you? 👁️ have anyone you wanna talk about today?



[northwest-cryptid]

You know I've spent a year as part of a few indie vtuber teams and my experiences were awful so here's a bit of random things I learned:

1. They're not friends; they're coworkers who aren't getting paid. It creates a weirdly hostile work environment because everyone is expected to "pull their weight" by which they mean you need to bring in views so that if they collab with you they actually get something out of it. However since none of us are getting paid for this so I can't take up time I'd otherwise spend with my partner/at work/living my own life to be there for "meetings" and such to discuss upcoming collabs and the like.

2. The Vtuber identities are not created for the team rather they join into the team; and what this means is that you could be in a "gen" with people who do not at all remotely fit your aesthetic and vice versa, and that would be fine but half of them take the RP element super seriously and the other half, like myself; see ourselves as streamers with a virtual webcam so you get this awful back and forth where someone in RP asks you a character question when you're just trying to vibe and you don't know how to respond and then you recognize that your humor doesn't line up because they start poking fun at you for not being able to just improv on the spot even though that's not your thing and you didn't know you'd be asked of it. Then you never want to collab with them again.

3. They have this obsession with growth to the point they will insist on getting "gen 2" streamers involved because they know bigger teams = bigger reach = bigger audience. So even though your team has no footing and absolutely no one is even aware you guys are a team or what that even means, you're already trying to bring in others. This means you are now expected to get along with every single new member even if they're not the sort of person you'd like to spend time around, because go back to point 1. You're not friends, you're co-workers. So if your gen mates decide to bring on some random person who literally says "to be honest I just see you as a man" you're just expected to put up with that because if you put your foot down you're told that you were hostile for even saying "hey I don't feel comfortable with this" Because they don't want to say "we don't want you around if you're going to potentially stop us from bringing in a bigger audience" since that sounds bad.

4. They all try to be Hololive or Nijisanji but they don't fundamentally understand why those groups are successful so they burnout in a month when they learn they don't immediately have 50,000 followers and tons of money.

I have a lot of thoughts about this sort of thing because I think Vtuber teams are really cool in concept but bad in execution because of how they're typically executed, if you're curious about my opinion on this at all it's all below the cut including an example of what I think a good team would look like:

The concept behind a Vtuber team works, and seems cool but only if they are done right. Let's assume for a moment that this is not a paid thing, you're just part of a team being put together from scratch, brand new streamers with no history, no company backing, and no funding. How do you do it so that you can ensure success? Well it's actually really easy, you decide right off the bat if you want being a team to be a fundamental part of your identity.

If the answer is NO then do not form a "team" or "group" instead I strongly urge you to just collab with one another and hype each other up while going about your own streams and the like.

If the answer is YES you need to solidify what it means to be a "team" in your mind. To me a team is the following: A group of individuals who stream under the same label in which they connect with one another and often stream with each other. However I'd argue to take it a step further, a team is themed.

This might not be the case for you but if you want to succeed you need 2 big things: 1 you need to ensure that "being a team" does actually mean something more than "I'm streaming with friends" because if that's the case look back at "NO" and take into account how you lose nothing by not being a team. If you think "being a team is part of our identity as streamers" or "being a team is part of our theme" or "being a team means I'll put time aside to readily collab with my peers" or whatever, then carry on. The other big thing is, 2. You need to be friends. I cannot stress this enough, I mean FRIENDS. People who know each other, people who can spend more than 3 hours in a room with each other, REGULARLY. I knew a lot of people who called me their friend and then neglected to respect my gender identity, I knew people who called me a friend and then literally raised their voice at me because I simply told them I disagreed with them on a subject. I knew people who called me a friend and then tried to cancel me for disagreeing with them even after they told me I had a good point and should bring it up with the group. MAKE SURE YOU ARE ACTUALLY FRIENDS.

Okay so you want to be a team, you have some friends; and you know you want a theme and all that. Cool alright now we get onto character design. You know one of the big reasons Hololive works so well? I'll tell you it's very simple, themes are easy to "market" HoloCouncil is a great example of that. The group aren't just people who collab together, they're each "the warden/guardian/keeper of [something]" be it time, nature, civilization, chaos, space, etc. This is why Irys can so easily be marketed as part of Council, because she's this angel/devil of hope and all that. If you want your group to be easily marketable as a group instead of as individuals (which is important mind you since you'll be primarily growing at an accelerated pace due to being in a group which I'll get to in a bit.) You need to have some kind of central theme. I literally do not care if you want to be a group of magical girls, power ranger parody, or even a generic RPG party (which I actually think would be really cool but I've never seen done before) it can be as super generic as you want because at the end of the day it doesn't actually matter. Funny that.

Your theme is going to determine 2 things, your aesthetics looks wise, and what you stream. Yeah I know seeing that you probably think "hold up fam I'm not letting my aesthetic dictate what I stream!" You're right, that's not what I mean though. If you're thinking that, you've got it backwards.

For example let's roll with the RPG Party concept right? So let's say you have 5 streamers, we'll call them:

Philip - Optimistic, Upbeat, Energetic, Friendly Roland - Stoic, Quiet, Artistic, Calm Walter - Uptight, Smart, Matter of fact, Logical Julia - Happy, Kind, Calm, Empathetic and Yuna - Calculated, Relaxed, Confident, Loyal I pulled these names and generalized personalities out of thin air shush. Let's quickly assess each person's real life (we're not talking characters here) personalities and preferences, we're looking for some overlap here.

So we know that Philip is upbeat and energetic and we know Julia has these kind of happy but calm vibes that's great we can make them collab partners since their general audiences will likely mesh with each other.

Roland, and Yuna are both calm / relaxed and the confident / stoic nature might play off each other well, their audiences will likely get along well and enjoy each other's personalities given the similarities.

I think Walter being smart and matter of fact means he's a good fit to collab with Yuna's calculated and confident personality traits while being uptight and logical almost makes him a great collab partner for Roland's more stoic and quiet personality.

Knowing what we know here we can see that at least in some regards we have a good spread of collabs here, but we're only looking at personality. It's also important to note that BEING ACTUAL FRIENDS any of these people should be able to collab with each other when they want. Since their personality features we're highlighting here aren't exclusively their only traits.

So let's look at what kind of games/activities they like to stream. Again we're looking for overlap in some places, just not everywhere.

Philip = FPS games, action games, and beat em ups/fighters Roland = Management games, cooking streams, art streams Walter = Puzzle games, strategy games, card games Julia = VR Hang outs, action games, farming/life sims Yuna = Card/Strategy games, MOBAs, Action RPGs

okay cool I think I've got it...

Philip is the party's Paladin, he's this upbeat confident personality who "leads them courageously to their next adventure" meanwhile Roland is the group's bard who records the party's adventures via art and cooks for everyone. Walter is the group's old sorcerer who studies magic strictly and effectively knowing more spells than most of his peers due to his years of dedication to the craft. Julia is the team Cleric who's never without a bright smile, even when she's smashing goblins and skeletons under her giant mace, she loves her team but doesn't actually know any healing magic because she cares so much about her party that she just fights anything that dares to hurt them. Lastly Yuna is the team Rogue who's always being a goblin under her hood secretly housing a few trick card decks, loaded dice, and in case of emergency a dagger under her cloak. Her confidence may be genuine or it might just be that she knows she's already rigged the game.

TA DA YOU HAVE A TEAM, YOU HAVE A THEME, YOU HAVE AESTHETICS, AND GUESS WHAT YOUR CHARACTERS FIT THE GAME STYLE YOU'RE LIKELY GOING TO BE STREAMING ANYWAYS.

Now let's review real quick because I know some people may have got lost in the weeds here with all the specifics.

Why does our team example here work while none of the teams I joined via twitter did? For the sake of explanation the example team I've proposed here will be referred to as the RPG Team while other REAL teams will be referred to as Twitter Teams.

RPG Team:

Are all actually friends who can get along and respect one another's time and effort without pushing each other for their own gain.

Designed characters and aesthetics around their own personal interests and worked out possible collab partners.

Has enough outreach in different places that they will be seen by many audiences from the art side of things to FPS games to farming sims to strategy games to Mobas, and they have enough in common that when they collab the viewers who are coming from one of their streams will likely actually enjoy the content and personality of the other members enough to watch them as well.

Can easily advertise as a group since their designs mesh well together and give a clear indication that they're a team.

Twitter Teams:

Constantly push other members to stream more, advertise more, brand more, market yourself more, gain more followers; not for your own growth but because otherwise they won't get anything from collaborating with you.

Were all designed independently without any interest in possibly even remotely working out a common theme among them, no one knows anyone here so we have no idea who will mesh well with others and what kind of audience they have.

We all found each other through the same game, which meant we didn't have outreach beyond those few games, meaning that we all shared a common audience instead of bringing in viewers from various corners of twitch.

People had no idea we were in a team when we didn't have some kind of branding/logo/team name obnoxiously front and center that meant nothing to people who didn't realize what a team was to begin with. So there was no point in being a "team" to begin with because it didn't add anything to our characters.

We weren't all on the same page as to how in character someone should be during collabs which resulted in a lot of awkward conversations.

We were more like co-workers than friends so if someone decided to be a transphobe I had to essentially bring it up with HR, except HR was a panel of peers who basically looked at who had more followers.

You might be saying "okay so if I want to make a team you're saying I need to only do this with my closest close friends and we have to make entirely new characters and start over?"

No but that would probably be way easier :P

If you vibe with someone, talk to them about it; and try to figure out who all you know well enough to make something like a team work. You don't have to enter into a team right away, you could all stream separately at first and collab here and there to see how you all vibe, and if you decide you guys think becoming a team sounds cool here's what you do...

Try to create a central theme from all your characters. It needs to be from ALL your characters though, and don't be afraid to get create with it just make sure it's cohesive. Like if you're all wildly different characters just saying "it's like in smash bros where everyone is from different things" isn't likely going to be seen as "creative" so much as a cop out. I'd argue it's better to create an entire universe around your group of characters than try to say they all come from a multiverse or something.

Once you have some kind of central theme, figure out what each person is going to "be" and then figure out how in or out of character you care to be. At one point I was part of a team in which I had a whole intro and such but I never cared to be in character so I'd still just give my little intro and then move on and just be me and everyone who watched me was chill with that.

Now all of you keep your own shit going on, you have your own characters, you have your own streams, the whole nine yards; but you're also now bound to a central narrative/theme/concept/aesthetic and ta da your team is a TEAM.

Now get out there and collab over things you like and make sure that you promote the whole team when you promote yourself, because if everyone does that it'll boost your exposure organically to people who likely already vibe with your style of content.

[feralkobold]

So WoW is my main competitive game and I take it seriously. But FFXIV has always been my main game like, period. And as much as I love WoW for the reasons that I play it (namely, mythic raiding/parsing and RP) every time I play FFXIV I can't help but feel extremely bitter towards WoW.

WoW has:

A more competitive environment and culture around pushing numbers (this is a positive to me)

Difficult fast paced raiding scene with an amount of prestige generally not found in other MMOs

A fleshed out, active RP community on my server (moonguard)

An open world that feels more alive due to the lack of loading screens between zones

FFXIV has:

Better fashion

More developer support for RP through extensive emotes etc (more on this later)

A better community as a whole

A better story

A better gearing system by the numbers, ie. This weapon is this and that's it, there's no variable. The reward structure is another topic though

BETTER RAIDS, I'M SORRY BUT IT'S TRUE. (Also more on this later)

Have I mentioned how much better the fashion is?

In regards to emotes, not only are there extensively more of them, they're variable based on things like height etc and they aren't race locked. I am so sick and tired of WoW players saying they can't let, for example, my nelf use the undead dance because they're on different skeletons. Yeah, and??? Idk what to tell you, put in the effort? They're on different skeletons in FF too but every race can use all 20 or whatever dances in that game. Stop making excuses for a company that makes billions of dollars a year.

And WoW combat is fucked, point blank end of story. Sure it's faster with a quicker GCD and it IS satisfying, otherwise I wouldn't be playing it competitively. But the fights are on two ends of the spectrum. TO THIS DAY we still have tank and spank bosses, even in end game dungeons. This is unacceptable. And on the other end of the spectrum you have fights like mythic fyrakk that are virtually impossible without extensive use of weak auras for player assignment during mechanics, DBM/big wigs for callouts etc. This is also unacceptable. They've gotten a little better with telegraphing mechanics but it's still like looking at a toddler try to cram a square peg into a round hole compared to ffxiv. It is so PATHETIC that I can run a low level dungeon in ffxiv and have a more engaging boss fight at level 60 than I'll find doing M+ at max level in WoW, and it's laughably bad at normal mode dungeons or god forbid anything pre max level.

The fact that the developers have said that they design fights around players using add-ons just makes me so angry. They need to disable and ban every single addon. Every combat addon, every cosmetic addon, ui addons, even TRP. Just get rid of all of them. Because only then will the developers have to actually do their EFFING JOB. They have gotten lazy and apathetic and it's no wonder their fucking game is dying, they have no heart in it anymore.

Design better fights! Fix your UI! And for fucks sake give us better looking fashion and let my nelf rock out with the undead dance!