#blaseball fic rec ask game

[shardssystem]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let's spread the self-love 💞

Luckily, I have written at least five things! <sigh of relief>

In no particular order:

Once Was Lost - The start of it all. I still “enjoy” the feeling that the inevitable approach to the gallows gives.

To Tame A Tiger - We are all miss Blaseball, RIV, and all that. I wasn’t as active as I would’ve liked, but I’m still proud of this piece, and how it gives a bit of character to an underrepresented player.

Future Past - While Once Was Lost is the start of things, this is where a little of the meat of the story starts coming into play.

Pulling Loose The Threads - Escalation is the name of the game here, and shows a solid link to the established canon, which I’m always wary about doing.

Holiday In Eorzea - Not just a Dead Kennedys reference! This is easily the most ambitious thing I’ve written to date, and it’s far from over. The sad thing in my mind is that it comes after a lot of other parts that are yet to be written. But sometimes, stories have their time and demand it.

Thanks for the ask, @brasideios! I’ll leave the floor open for anyone else who would like, but I’d like to hear from @kosmosxipo , @mossy-kit, and @cyndakip - Talk some Spit!

[leonstamatis]

hello leon stamatis (my favorite stamatis)! i do not know anything about the state of blaseball right now, i think it was a randomly generated baseball-like a while back? my understanding was that most of the content was fan generated to begin with, being what it was and all that. is it too late to get into it? if not, i would love to hear some starter recs

what a coincidence, he is also my favorite stamatis! and blaseball is one of my favorite things. this, however, is a complicated question, so i'm gonna go ahead and apologize for what will surely be a much longer answer than you anticipated by asking this. sorry!

we're gonna start from the beginning. what is blaseball?

well, you're right. it's a randomly-generated baseball simulator. that's the general idea of it. there were 20-24 teams (sometimes more, depending on what else was happening), and they played games against each other. while it initially started as a basic baseball game -- with some absurd names and very simple mechanics -- it later evolved to include more complex mechanics, including player death, modifications to the stadiums, and other statuses that could impact and change gameplay at random (or under specific and nonsensical conditions).

blaseball started in late 2020 and had a sort of on/off cycle. during an on cycle, there would be games every hour on the hour for 99 hours over a week. then there would be a post-season to determine a champion, and the season would end. these on cycles were often divided into eras, and had larger plots and storylines forming connective tissue through the elections and special events.

during an off cycle, also known as a siesta, the devs would take some time to patch bugs, develop new features, and plan for the future. some of these siestas were a week or two; some were several months or over a year.

the unfortunate news here is that blaseball just recently... ended. the games won't be happening anymore, the site isn't active, and there's no new content coming down the pipe. the devs said it wasn't sustainable to keep doing it -- a thing that makes a lot of sense, because one thing blaseball certainly could be was overwhelming and time-consuming. and that's coming from me, as a fan who didn't have to actually do any of the coding or community maintenance.

however. onto the second part of your question. can you still get into blaseball even now that it's over?

[takes a deep breath.] YES. please do, in fact!

it's fair to say most of the content was fan-generated, i think, depending on what you define as "content." the games and the website were fairly minimalist; they gave us major events, but the characters were just names and a few lines of stats, so it's not like you're missing out on key character moments or quotes or anything with blaseball being done. all the identifying characteristics, the personality and appearance and emotional response? that's fans, baby!

this is one of the things that's cool about blaseball. i've heard it said that writing for the fandom is more in line with original fiction because so much of it is created by and dependent on the individual, as opposed to a centralized canon. which means a lot of the time, there's more effort in a fic to introduce you to someone -- something fanfic doesn't typically do! and because so much was happening in blaseball all the time, people do make an effort to explain events and canon occurrences either in author notes or in the story itself.

(unless, that is, it's a major event everyone was largely aware of. these were few and far between, but they were such a big deal that they make up a lot of the fic content. if you have questions about any of those events, i would recommend the blaseball wiki, where election results, modifications to specific players, and other significant canon events are recorded. there's lore there, too, but i can pretty much guarantee that whatever lore is there won't match up directly with any of the fic you read; blb authors tend to take the wiki and widely-accepted fanon lore more as a suggestion than as a rule.)

the long and the short of it is, you can absolutely still get involved. there are just under 3,000 fics, last time i checked, so it's not big enough that you'll be drowning. my honest recommendation is to pick a team based on who you vibe with -- the blaseball wiki has team overview pages, too -- and then see who is writing for that team. there are collections for a lot of them, and they'll focus on a specific set of characters most of the time depending on who had the most significance on the roster.

(my actual recommendation is to start with the earlier fics. the discipline era -- the first eleven seasons -- was a very tightly told story without a lot of bells and whistles. players had a normal season in season one, and then in season two everyone started dying, and then in season seven the fans messed with the mechanics and did a necromancy and the necromanced player started murdering people until we all banded together to defeat the god that was giving them the ability to do that. that's pretty easy to follow, especially compared to later eras when the entire point was adding as many new mechanics as possible or testing out new features. it got confusing, even for people keeping a close eye on all of it.)

if you find something that confuses you, that's okay! it might take some effort/research to understand these storylines, but the wiki is pretty good at explaining mechanics and events. just look up whatever is getting you and it should make some more sense. or you can use Before, an archival tool that lets you watch old games and fandom events in real time. (and if it still doesn't make sense... well. that's blaseball, baby! you kind of get used to rolling with nonsense, honestly.)

okay. that's all very long-winded, because of course it is. sorry, again. but... recommendations!

i think, often, that blaseball fic would be aided by the inclusion of a sort of "Weeb Ass Shit" scale. some of it is going to be very embedded in the nonsense of blaseball and hard to get through, especially if you're new to the team, specific player, or even blaseball in general.

hen fourteenfifteen and i had some friends who had never engaged with blaseball read a few fics of ours a couple months back as an experiment, and it shocked me to learn that the concept of an incineration -- a player being set on fire and killed by a "rogue" umpire, one of the earliest and most basic mechanics in the game -- was unfamiliar and a stopping point for the readers, because they'd never heard about that happening. and certainly not in such a nonchalant way. these kinds of terms are everywhere in blaseball fic, but if you can find the ones that focus more on a character than a game or a modification, then you've got a starting point and you can build out from there.

that being said, there's always going to be blaseball, so there are definitely still going to be moments where you end up scratching your head. it is simply impossible not to. if you're cool with that, here's a brief collection of some blaseball fics i would say have a lower blaseball-ass shit rating:

when winter turns to spring by waveridden, a love story between two co-captains from around season seven to season eight. (also, it's one of my favorite ships and it's my team. go flowers.) honestly, hayden does an excellent job of explaining everything in very simple and understandable ways. so if you want to just poke around on their page, you'll have an excellent time. there's a whole run of things from mid-2021 that is literally just character studies written for other people, and they're all great.

the things we take off for each other by bloodsweatspit is less about blaseball itself and more about one of the teams, the canada moist talkers. it looks at a handful of the key dynamics and is, in my opinion, one of the best fics for providing insight into a team and the people on it -- especially in so few words.

speaking of the moist talkers. it's hard to recommend just one of cyndakip's fics, but they all tend to exist in a similar timeline and universe and there's a lot of continuity that makes it easy to follow once you've gotten started. if you're looking for some very well-done, very lengthy character work, cynda does great things.

there's this fun trend that hit during the first lengthy break in blaseball colloquially known as the 12x100, or twelve scenes of 100 words. the idea is to give a series of short scenes that highlight a character or storyline without committing to a whole lengthy thing. i'd recommend checking out the 12x100 tag and clicking through a few to see what characters you like. (more specifically, babytriumphant's chicago, in brief series is a bunch of them specifically focused on the chicago firefighters team, and they're all lovely!)

another flowers fic. i'm not sorry. oxicleanmoron's it's my own damn fault is more recent, and set in the late expansion era. but it's not about blaseball. it's about a road trip. so you're in good hands if you want some fun character dynamics and minimal blaseball.

lift your head (and look out the window) by baliset is a nice little window into the baltimore crabs. marn also is one who does a really good job of explaining things from the beginning, so there are a few fics of hers i would recommend. but start with this one, and then maybe check out your sinking ship (is big enough for two) if you want to meet some more of her beloved little guys.

another sort of love story without the focus on game mechanics: you're at the party (you're not invited) by impernia. this one i include in part because i think it leans into some of the stranger aspects of blaseball lore without getting into the game itself; a lot of characters are strange or unusual in some way, and this fic conveys that beautifully.

take the bullet by waltztangocache is a great example of something you'll find a lot in this fandom, which is... character death stories! if there's one thing blaseball gave us a lot of fodder for, it's people dying and people grieving. if that's your thing, wonderful! you've found your people! hen does a great job showing the ripple effects that i would say are common in fanon lore -- esp on the firefighters -- regarding incinerations. i love this fic. it pains me.

i have written a lot of blaseball fic in my time, but i tend to think i fall pretty high on the blaseball-ass shit scale. there are others like me. however, if you do not mind me shilling for just a moment, i would recommend to you inside your blinding light. it's not about blaseball, as much. it's about a carpenter and a tree, and they fall in love. welcome to blaseball lore! it's fun here.

i... hope you were not overwhelmed by all of this. thank you for asking about this, and for being willing to dig deeper into this fandom and what it has to offer! i'm barely scratching the surface here, but all of the authors i've listed have plenty of fics worth reading, and there are tons of authors i love who i didn't have a specific pull from for this list but who i would nevertheless recommend once you're a little more familiar with how this fandom writes.

blaseball is over, but the fic's still around. and it's pretty fucking good fic, i'd say. <3

[leonstamatis]

hiya! the blaseball fic scene is pretty quiet as of late, but a lot of writers have collections of their “greatest hits” of sorts, if you want somewhere to start.

not to be that guy, but I’ll link to a few authors i enjoy here, just because you asked and i love to do it lol. i’ll say which team they write for as much as possible; you’ll see that some are more popular than others, but that shouldn’t discourage you from checking any other teams out.

waveridden — jaz was one of the first blb fic writers, ever, and has since written something about almost every team. it’s all incredible. I can’t recommend anything in particular except I can and it’s good grief, the lenny marijuana story, and where the light won’t find you, about hewitt best and the vault. and also everything else they’ve ever done.

cyndakip — cynda is the head of the polkadot patterson fanclub. a lot of very in depth and insanely detailed fics about the moist talkers across various seasons and eras, as well as some mechs sprinkled in.

baliset — marn has a lot of very fun and creative approaches to storytelling, most of which is on display with her crabs fics. i have a few personal favorites, but marn actually does have a collection of her own greatest hits, so start there. she has some garages fics too, which absolutely should not be slept on.

awesome_sauce432 — olive is the president of the nagomi nava fanclub and the fics here are loving, heartfelt, and provide a lot of depth to one of the longest-surviving players in the game. i’m biased because i too love ms. nava, but i had to shout olive out because they’re great. + additional sunbeams content!!

moondragon8 — sonder does this lovely sort of atmospheric and exploratory fiction that i just love. primarily works about the mills, but there are a few other teams brought up. i’m partial to uhhh literally everything sonder has done about or related to the boston flowers, but truly, everything is good.

waltztangocache — hen 💖💖💖💖 hen is a ffs fan first, but xe has also done PLENTY of other teams, so even if the ffs aren’t for you there’s other stuff to read. but also. the ffs stuff hits. top ten for “a 2k fic has me crying on the couch”

paopuleaf — atticus has done works about so many teams — garages, crabs, and flowers come to mind first, but that’s not all of them. the tot/luis voicemail series is a favorite of mine off the top of my head, but honestly, everything atti does is a favorite.

oxicleanmoron — i love when iggy writes the flowers. but mostly. iggy is a crabs writer. actually that’s not true it is a Bertie and Brock writer more than anything. BUT. those two teams get a lot of focus.

babytriumphant — more ffs!! the firefighters writers go brrr. robbie has an excellent series of 12x100s to help you get to know the team, but also plenty beyond that which is well worth reading.

novelsinourheads — stara! another ffs writer who did a lot of 12x100s, but there’s some really great work with the philly pies in here, too, if you want to look into that corner of the world.

kosmoxipo — pretty sure i saw kosmo reblog this post with recs already, but i’m gonna second that and just say the moist talker fics live in my head rent free to this day.

bloodsweatspit — speaking of talkers!! some of the fics here are in my bookmarks as absolute favorites, and i love them dearly. talkers have so many enthusiastic writers. goodness.

aaaand a humble little self plug to say if you’re interested in the flowers, I’ve done a lot. but also I wrote about plenty of other teams and I did put together a little greatest hits thing if you’re interested.

if you want to explore more team-based fics, there were a TON of fic exchanges between expansion and coronation era, so that’s a good place to look if you want to focus on any one particular group. a winter blb swap also just wrapped up, which is multi-team and has more small fic to poke through. my recommendation is to click around on the blaseball collections page and see what you find.

(back when the blb wiki was still maintained, some mods and contributors would link to works about a character on their page. this is also a good place to look for specific people you want to read more about. also, for a while there, I was tagging a lot of posts as “#blb fic recs” here on tumblr, so there should be more in that tag. unless I remembered it wrong. distinctly possible.)

anyway. sorry, but also, kind of not. enjoy your time in the blao3 dimension!

reading that fic made me HUNGRY FOR MORE. ive read like four blaseball fics ever and i loved them so much but theres so many i dont even know where to start. if you see this and you want to plug your own fic or one you like Please Do. do not be modest i want to hear about The character

[burningcrab]

11 and 21!

11. a fic that wasn't about my team but i read it anyway and fell in love

hey cynda! oh i have one for this. now idk if youve heard of this thing called The Salt—

ok but full serious i love the salt. it is always salt saturday in my heart. simply one of the coolest things to come out of this fandom ever

21. a fic about a little-known player

okay i am going to be extremely biased and say sonder’s shuffle au drabbles because it is so extremely niche and yet so extremely cool to me personally. awful teen ruffian applesauce irm my beloved

[lenasai]

blaseball fic rec asks-- 10, 11, 15?

10. a fic about my team

it may not be about the beta garages, but love for your friends, love for your home, love for everything still unknown (about the gamma 2 garages) is so good. your honor they love each other ;A;

11. a fic that wasn’t about my team but i read it anyway and fell in love

i love the character exploration in written in the leaves. steaks :)

15. my favorite fic about feedback

oh it's gotta be won't let you go alone in the feedback

s15d37 my fucking BELOATHED, FUCK THAT GAME FOREVER

...but the fic is good :)

[ghosttown-mp3]

1 and 11!

1  What are 4 tabs that you have open on your browser right now? - because you asked and i have a tendency to go overboard, so um heres an overview of the 317 tabs i have open only on google chrome

gmail

13 various ao3 tabs

school email

google calendar

tumblr

three tumblr blogs i am working up the courage to send asks to

191 pages of destiel fic on ao3

two tumblr pages i ues to format my record blog posts

another random tumblr page

8 pages of tumblr fic recs

the chilliad

3 pages on dreamwidth 

23 more assorted ao3 tabs

6 assorted livejournal tabs

my immortal

31 more assorted ao3 tabs

sor match my sound

blaseball

the track listing for the brobecks album goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow

arcade carpet designs

liminal space arcade pics

a random ao3 search tab

the track listing for the brobeck’s happiest nuclear winter

the track listing for the brobeck’s understanding the brobecks

the game monster breeder by neil cicierega

the peorgia plague script

a list of avant pop artists

netflix

tropical eyeshadow palette color themes

the lyrics to pleasure ryland

finally, polygons twitch stream

11-  Something you like that other people generally do not like? - i gotta say i spend way too much time looking into local lore, cryptids, supernatural beings / occurences, and like wierd medical deaths so um probably one of those

thanks for the ask maxx!!!

[leonstamatis]

Requesting fic recs for quiet tragedies and intimate character studies. Preferably minimal focus on romance. I quite enjoy studies of mechanics as they correlate to narrative.

(send me a vibe and i’ll give you a blaseball fic reading list!)

all right. so i spent quite a bit of time on this one, but it is in no way comprehensive. there are tons of character studies in this fandom, and heaps of tragedies. also not usually a huge focus on romance in blaseball, especially post-discipline, although it’s certainly out there.

i tried to keep the characters varied and limit it to just one per author, but with most of these, if you like the one i’ve linked i can vouch for there being many more from the same person worth checking out. let’s get going.

“Agency” by kfrunt is what I would call quiet, although less of a tragedy or game mechanics. This is a Fall Ball-era fic looking at Wyatt Mason IV (Ivy) and Conditional Yuniesky, both of whom are struggling with their new worlds in different ways. It’s a good introduction to Conditional Yuniesky, and Ivy is a good introduction to the Wyatts as a whole, if you’re into that. They’re a whole little pocket of Blaseball fic that has plenty to comb through.

“dead mans party” by impernia is a look at how players mourn their lost teammates, particularly the Seattle Garages. It’s also a good look at the kind of person Arturo Huerta is, and from there, impern has a number of fics about both the Garages and their dead that hit this same vibe.

“F. All of the Above” by QueenEevee is certainly a tragic character study, looking at Hiroto Wilcox following Ruby Tuesday. It’s noteworthy less because of subject matter — if you want Ruby Tuesday content, there’s no shortage — but more because of the formatting. The way this fic approaches the loss knocks the wind out of me. A quick read, but a memorable one.

“the first dream” by swordfall is a look at Lottie Ceilingfan’s meteoric rise to fame and subsequent Ego status. If you don’t know Lottie, it’s a great introduction to her. It’s also a great introduction to what it was like on the Hades Tigers during the Expansion Era. A little less on the tragedy side, but there’s some mechanics and some creeping horror at the awareness of what’s to come.

“for agony i’d rather know” by novelsinourheads is a fantastic example of a character study that leans into the inherent weirdness of blaseball without getting too wacky with it. I’m a known Gerund Pantheocide liker and supporter, so it’s unsurprising to me that this one sticks in my brain, but Stara has dozens more character studies — many of which have an interesting and haunting approach to loss and tragedy, and all of which are well worth looking at.

“forever in a day” by paopuleaf is another Wyatt fic, but it’s also about the Vault, but it’s also about hauntings and ghosts and what it means to exist when you shouldn’t anymore. Atti is excellent at writing fics with a melancholy and lost sort of air, and this one is no exception.

“growing pains” by waveridden is a personal favorite of mine. it’s a little longer than a lot of the options on this list, but it’s worth the time and the effort. The fic as a whole is about a lot of things, mainly Gloria Bugsnax and xyr attempt to learn both humanity and family, and it makes me cry every time. There’s some game mechanics, because Hayden always includes those, but mostly it’s a look at Gloria and all the people xe loves.

“I thought i heard your laughter” by cedardivine is a fun one, honestly. Megan Ito exists in a lot of variations and I think everyone has a different take on them and who and how they are, but I like the idea that New Megan is just lurking around behind them. A character study with tragedy and game mechanics just off to the side, and a quick read besides.

“A Quick Guide to Unscattering in 8 Easy Steps” by Moondragon8 hits, I think, just about every note you’ve asked for. An interesting take on scattered players and their recovery, a look at Schneider Bendie as a character and what happens when you’re traded to a new team, and a creeping awareness that things aren’t as they should be. If you can’t tell, I love this one dearly.

“sequels” by waltztangocache similarly approaches a mechanic by way of an impacted player. I love the way Hen writes about the Ambush, and this look at Tom Kirby and what his life is like after revival. There’s a series of fics connected to this one, so if you like it, there’s more. I will admit I like Kirby best — but everything here is a great time.

“The Short (But Not Insignificant) ILB Career of Kiki Familia” by cyndakip is one that I think gets passed around a ton? But that’s because it’s good. Kiki wasn’t here for long at all, but you can tell from this that she was immediately loved by her team and the fans of said team, and her death is in fact a tragedy by its very nature. This is Discipline Era lore, so you know it hurts (positive).

“spend my days in gray” by birdlord5000 is like. THE Donia Bailey fic, to me? I didn’t know much about the player lore beforehand, but this fic cemented Donia as a deeply beloved of mine. It’s quiet, it’s a character study, it’s about what it’s like to be shadowed for years and years before being stolen by a Thieves Guild, and it’s honestly a lot of fun. Not a tragedy, but damn good.

“strange to be shaped by such strange men” by baliset is… agh. Remember when York Silk was incinerated, and the entire fandom ground to a halt as we tried to grapple with that? I do! It was a lot! And Marn captured the feelings of the moment to a T. It’s set in the Hall and features a lot of beloved dead guys, and I love how York is characterized here. Marn has tons of great fics worth reading; this is up there as one of my favorite ones, though.

“the sun selecting targets” by indigostohelit is the only Jaylen and Mike fic i am going to recommend to you. But. There are so many. It’s just that the narration in this one is incredible, and I think about it often. It’s got a lot about the original necromancy and the shadowing of Mike Townsend, which I know we’ve all heard about by now and et cetera, but. God it’s so good.

“there beneath” by haunthouse! Another Wyatt fic! This one is about Wyatt Mason VI, or Violet. I will admit to being biased toward this one because it includes the Boston Flowers, my team of choice for almost the entirety of Blaseball’s run. But like. If you want tragedy, and you want game mechanics, the Wyatts tend to be a good starting place. They often die at the end.

“there’s no weather at all” by mantisqueer is a sleeper fave that I was delighted to rediscover today. Nothing like a Neerie McCloud fic to make you sad about players doomed from the very start. Moth does a really good job here at characterizing being Elsewhere; it’s one of my favorite interps, although I would encourage you to mind the CWs.

and that’s what I have! there are plenty more I would direct you to, but most of them are by someone(s) already listed here. so if one of the ones i’ve listed stands out, i would encourage you to check the author’s page and see what else they have. have fun!!!

[burningcrab]

10 11 and NUMBER FOURTEEEEEN!

10. a fic about my team

hi. orion’s belt asterism. you agree. no like seriously this is just a baller twine about precog and s24 and the horrible tragedy that is being oliver mueller and i need everyone to read it immediately. it is formatted like a STAGE PLAY it has DRAMATIC IRONY it made me actually literally cry like holy shit the ending

11. a fic that wasn’t about my team but i read it anyway and fell in love

don’t forget them when they’re gone. as the nawball refrain goes: ivy ivy ivy ivy ivy! steaks and georgias and just. ivy mason my beloved little guy. ivy getting a whole team of parents and not even exploding is truly the best ending to their expansion era we could have asked for

14. my favorite fic about elsewhere

runner’s high is hella good i love neerie. do you want to feel emotion of neerie? now you can! the elsewhere waffle house is truly one of the funniest pieces of community lore and thank you to everyone doing the invaluable service of making that place creepy as fuck

[burningcrab]

16

16. my favorite fic about alternation

in space no one can hear you dream (flower emoji edition) is so good it is everything to me. kansas city clone gang and none of them are clones in the same way. alto my friend alto (the alternate in question) and pdz my beloved! ft moral support from twooney even

[burningcrab]

all the 5s!!!

5. a fic that i’ve reread more than once

i’m just black licorice absolutely falls into this. it kills me dead every time. just fuckin gutwrenching every time. unrequited love leaves me on the floor and short circuits guys are my beloveds

15. my favorite fic about feedback

this your first time? was fun as hell i love time loops and bad coping mechanisms and especially those two things in combination. honestly the reality flickers zine was just a banger overall

25. my favorite fic about the hall

going, going, gone is vv cool. remember when i said i love short circuits guys? i love short circuits guys. i especially love our weird little catboy astronaut who died and then undied and then died again

[burningcrab]

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Number.

(14, if you haven’t answered it already)

14. my favorite fic about elsewhere

what’s lost and what we find again (are two different things) which oops i need to leave kudos on aka haha wow season 19 sure happened! MaX being the messenger about sparks dying is such a horribly sad concept and this really just. ough. you know? ough