#but they do play in each others' sandboxes a lot

[vespertine-legacy]

I'll still never have a nice OC page, but I am working on individual profile pages for each of my OCs that will help keep information about them a little better organized.

The "canon" (or most canon) 8:

Jedi Knight: Battlemaster Enex Qadara

Jedi Consular: Barsen'thor Kestrel Fortuna

Smuggler: Nizhuvi Kenno, the Voidhound

Trooper: Colonel Cershaa Vadesh

Sith Warrior: Atmena Jenkari'uul, the Empire's Wrath

Sith Inquisitor: Cassija, Darth Nox

Imperial Agent: Razimiri, Cipher Nine

Bounty Hunter: Dao-Mox Brood, Champion of the Great Hunt

Side, canon divergent, and non-canon characters:

Jedi Knights: Veld'arelith, Em'leekha, Ev'enai Kesh

Jedi Consulars: Hinah Ulresse, Minnalle, Gen'norirr

Smugglers: Vyshtal Sekra, Vradath Malaran, Min'avos'imirri, Kott'erret'imirri, Lusk Omyava, Tantivi Ysat, Fasuur Varim, Hypatia

Troopers: Azi'kesti, Kott'ozet'imirri, Sunena Krasul

Sith Warriors: Khynan Xandal, Akise Toradte, Em'laizha, Rom'neln, Alindhra

Sith Inquisitors: Shrodinger's Cathar, Juryata Dhezhini, Eleison Kirnah, Zurrium

Imperial Agents: Nulis Ziureti, Gezta Eitryr, Ayadi Morora, Tulia Neperi, Min'yr'imirri, Hrassim Malaran, Zvedac, Strilbe, Zhailto

Bounty Hunters: Orcodaa Vadesh, Ath'ey'anil, Min'ikaz'imirri, Aurin Alteiho, Arvionto Trehalt, Werota

I try my best to tag spoilers for new swtor content (when we have new content), but I'm pretty bad at tagging anything that could be considered spoilers for older content and for class stories. My general tagging scheme is "swtor [thing that's being tagged]", whether that be the name of an expansion, the name of an origin story, or the expansion number when content is new.

[starseungs]

our love untold. hhj.

hwang hyunjin x gn!reader — for those who grew up loved, it eventually becomes a norm to the point that the nuances between its types become untold.

genre/s — fluff, angst, childhood friends to lovers, college au, fine arts student!hyunjin • 3.1k words

warning/s — miscommunication as a result of no communication, children being mean for no reason lol, not much actually

note — #3 on the your love through the ages series | gave hyunjin the confession of a lifetime so look forward to that ... i want what they have </3

2024 ⓒ starseungs on tumblr. do not steal, repost, or edit.

Hwang Hyunjin has always been a constant in your life. For as long as you could remember, a life without him was practically nonexistent. You had nothing against it, though. Spending your everydays with Hyunjin was a delight. The bond between you two was so strong that your families had no choice but to also become friends just so that they could finally satisfy both of your constant needs to be around each other. 

Fortunately, you didn’t have to do much for that setting to work out well since your families clicked in an instant. A little too well, in fact, that you may have doubted its authenticity more than once or twice during the span of your lived life. Hyunjin had his fair share of those thoughts alongside you as you caught both of your parents eating lunch together on a random Tuesday afternoon—notably without the both of you.

Granted, you should’ve already seen that this was going to happen. You and Hyunjin grew up getting significant amounts of emotional support from your parents, who had big hearts holding lots of love to share. Naturally, birds of a feather would end up flocking together; which could also exactly be said about your dynamic with your best friend. With the way you were brought up, it was almost impossible for you to turn out any more different than the ones who raised you—to which you, to no one’s surprise, did end up adopting their tendency to express love easily towards others. 

If only your younger counterpart knew how hard it was actually going to be to feel reciprocated in society.

You remember the scene like it was just yesterday, with the feeling of the soft play sand being molded by your little hands still fresh in your mind. The local playground sandbox was five-year-old you’s favorite spot in the whole world, just right beside your family home’s living room. It was a place where you felt at ease, happily sculpting clumsily shaped masterpieces from the slightly damp medium as your parents sat on a bench a few meters away, joyfully taking the opportunity to have some time with each other. 

On a normal day, things would stay that way until right before three o'clock, when one of your parents would scoop you up to go home (the parent was often your father, who pitifully had a massive losing streak on rock paper scissors). However, that particular day was unlike any other day you’ve had so far.

The anomalies started with two kids looming over you, their eyes shining with a mischievous glint. Despite the number of times you’ve gone to the playground, you have never actually interacted with the other kids there. Your family had just moved to the area three months ago, and you were still yet to enter an actual school where you could familiarize yourself with nearby children. 

While you did have thoughts of approaching the ones you saw often in the playground, your first attempts at doing so ended less than ideal, with the kids being uncomfortable with you being someone new. Due to that, you stuck by yourself for a while with the mindset that you’d be friends with whoever wanted to approach you instead. And that was why seeing those two children standing next to your sand sculptures instantly put a smile on your face. 

Their words started off innocent—simply asking why you were playing all alone. Yet when you joyfully explained why, your expectations for the interaction took a wrong turn. The two kids started teasing you, saying that you must’ve been really lame for no one to even want to become your friend. 

At first, you were mad. You wanted to let them know that you tried your best to make friends, up until you realized that it was you who wanted to be friends with them too, to which you started to become self-conscious. Thoughts like ‘what if they’re right?’ spiraled in your little mind, making you unable to say much in defense. The last straw was when one of them kicked the little sand house (which, in truth, looked more like a square hill) you were working on, making beads of tears decorate your waterline.

However, the tears didn’t actually drop until a pitched voice of a boy called out to the three of you staying at the sandbox. You watched as the new face marched in a determined manner towards all of you, only stopping in front of the two kids who teased you. Your glistening eyes watched in fascination as he scolded the other two, telling them that they were being mean to you. Thankfully, the whole exchange ended without much issue—the kids then muttered a short apology before scurrying away. The slightly taller boy stared at you before bending down to plop himself in front of your now-ruined sand house.

“Are you ok?” He says, his gaze now locked at the pile of sand between the two of you. 

You could only nod enthusiastically, again happy to have someone talking to you positively. “Yeah,” you said while scooping up a small amount of the fallen sand. “I wanted to play with them, though.”

The boy before you beamed. “I’ll play with you instead!” He reaches for a handful of sand. “My name is Hyunjin. I like the sandbox too.”

That was how your parents found you a little while later, excitedly squealing while clinging to Hyunjin with a vice grip. His parents soon followed suit, joining yours in watching him grin while listening to you plan to build a model of your dream home together with sand. Numbers and words of appreciation were exchanged, officially starting the days with Hyunjin as your closest friend.

Being best friends with Hyunjin was basically like having someone attached to your hip, with the only difference being that you also wanted to be attached to his. If possible, you liked to do everything together—there were meals that were shared at the same table, outings that were done with both of your families, and schoolwork that you did together without even needing a word of agreement. Days, hours, and seconds with Hyunjin were a norm in your life, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Growing up, you never really questioned the comments thrown at the two of you. With how close you two were but looking miles different from each other to be relatives, the common conclusion people normally had of your relationship with Hyunjin was a romantic one. He was often attentive when it came to you—always bringing you snacks for lunch, spontaneous gifts just because something reminded him of you, and carrying your bag like it was the most normal thing in the world. This was often dismissed by him, though, which made you follow suit. After all, you yourself couldn’t see where the thought even stemmed from. You did acts of service for him too. What mattered the most was that you liked Hyunjin as he was, so hanging out with him constantly was reasonable in your eyes.

Well, that was until your first year in college, years after your initial meeting.

“Do you ever think it’s odd?” You start carefully, slowly pulling your hands away from his face after smoothing out his skincare mask. Hyunjin cracks open his left eye to glance up at you from his head’s position on your lap.

“What is?”

You motioned toward the situation you two were in. “That we still hang out like this. Even though we’re not kids anymore.” Hyunjin evidently frowned underneath the mask, slightly creating folds that showed his displeasure.

“No?” He replies, almost offended. “Why would I think that?”

There was truth in his words. Just like he said, why would he be offended? The two of you were never bothered by what others thought before, so why start now? You pursed your lips. Perhaps you were the only one suddenly having an issue.

It all started when you went out for dinner with a couple people from your department. The table talk was just as usual—until they mentioned Hyunjin. Some girls you went to class with expressed their jealousy towards your relationship with your ‘boyfriend', which they described as ideal. Your attempts at correcting them only ended up with you in the hotseat, being grilled like the meat everyone was eating at the moment. There was no way he didn’t have romantic feelings for you, they said. The dynamic they’ve observed so far between you two was too much to be platonic, they added. Their words only added fuel to the fire that was your frenzied state when they asked you to confirm specific scenarios that had happened with Hyunjin, to which they snapped their fingers and yelled out that it was clearly something lovers do. 

But what was exactly so wrong with best friends still having sleepovers in their early twenties? Was there a problem with the two of you making plans just for the two of you that lasted the whole day? So what if he had the tendency to buy you both matching items? Sure, his parents call you often to check in, but isn’t that normal? You’ve watched how your parents treated their other friends with love in similar ways during (limited) times you’ve met them too, so why were you now so conscious of everything Hyunjin did ever since that dinner?

“I don’t know,” you said meekly. “It’s just that I feel like I’m taking too much of your time. These are things you should be doing with your significant other, not your childhood friend.”

When Hyunjin scoffs at your words, your eyes widen. “Well, I don’t have a significant other, and I’m doing this,” he points to his facemask, “with you right now. You can worry about it when the time comes.”

You didn’t know why, but somewhere deep in your heart, you never wanted that time to ever come.

Life always comes with surprises, though. The moment you unconsciously dreaded came sooner than you expected it to—just a whole year after your conversation over skincare in your tiny apartment room. Your fear came in the form of a student shifting to Hyunjin’s major, her skills catching his attention that was normally on the both of you. First came the comments, with Hyunjin complimenting her outputs in their classes together, telling you that the new girl had serious talent and how she should’ve majored in fine arts from the beginning. Next came his gaze; curious eyes always landing on her whenever she appeared in the vicinity you two were in. A growing feeling clawed at the pits of your stomach that made you nauseous every time you saw his interest cement on her. 

How amazing was that for you, because now you had to distance yourself from someone who was basically your other half, just because you couldn’t handle the ugly thoughts you had for your best friend’s happiness. The last thing you wanted was to hold Hyunjin down—he deserved to freely like who liked, and decide who he wanted to be with as he wished. And until your brain gets the memo to agree with it, you were going to stay out of his sight for as long as possible.

Hyunjin, on the other hand, was a complete mess. The poor man was lost; the past few nights were spent pondering over what he could’ve done wrong for you to avoid him so obviously like this. It had only been two weeks, but Hyunjin felt as if you had gone M.I.A. for two years instead. He had never gone this long without you, always making sure to contact you as frequently as he could when physically apart. To be fair, you still did answer to his texts, even if they were riddled with ice and coldly cut short. You had gotten skilled at dodging his visits too; always either out of your apartment or having found different routes out of your department’s building when he stubbornly waited outside. A few of your class friends gave him looks of pity whenever they saw him still adamant to see you, telling him to hang in there and that lovers’ quarrels don’t last that long.

Lovers. That was a familiar description Hyunjin has heard over the years of your friendship. He had always denied them politely out of respect for you, but they were always kept in the corners of his mind. Truth be told, the thought confused him endlessly. What was it exactly that others saw in the way he acted that he didn’t? His parents always told him to treat everyone he appreciated with love, and that he did—especially with you. He’s seen the way his father showed his appreciation for his mother and aimed to imitate that (yes, his father loved his mother romantically, but his father also gave gifts to his friends, so what was so different?), but all that ever did was bring suspicion over you two. 

But you were happy with his acts of care, and it made him happy too. Shouldn’t that be the only thing that matters? Clearly, not with the way he was stuck in front of his blank canvas, the eerie color of plain white glaring at him to complete his painting project. Except that Hyunjin found himself completely unable to do so. His mind was barren, with not a single inspiration in mind. And this worried him.

On any other day, he was what you would call the epitome of a creative soul. He saw the world around him in a naturally imaginative way, easily piecing stories in his head from the smallest of things. It was the same reason why he chose to be in fine arts, majoring in studio arts, where he could relay his own vision. In short, Hyunjin had no clue as to why he was even struggling this much. He found himself comparing his skills to those of the new student in his department once again. Oh, how he wishes he could go and ask them for advice—her work served as an ignition for him to do better. 

As one of the best students in the program, he found himself seeing her as a rival of sorts. Not anything negative, though. A healthy one-sided rivalry, if you will. Groaning, he shifts his gaze from the canvas to give his eyes a break, casually scanning his previous works propped up in a nearby corner. As he continued to work his way through them from afar, his mind floated over to think of you. 

In that split second, something seemed to click in his brain.

You watched your clock tick at an even pace, the hands displaying the ungodly time that was judging you for still being awake. Granted, being awake at two in the morning was miles better than still being awake at four, which was just asking for an eventual headache since you still had class in the morning. The past few days have felt odd, to say the least. Despite knowing exactly why that was, you refused to acknowledge it—still hung up on the thought that you should get rid of whatever you were feeling before you would face Hyunjin again. Yet, it was times of the day like these when you wondered how he was doing without you. Probably still well, right? If it’s Hyunjin, then he would have no problem getting along just fine with other people.

A frantic knock on your door made you jump out of your thoughts with the way it echoed through the silent space. Like any other person would, you were automatically on guard. Who in their right mind would visit you without warning in the depths of the night? It was only when you saw your phone turn on with a message notification that you scurried to fling the door open.

“Hyunjin!” You fussed over him, gripping his arms firmly to give him a thorough lookover. “Is everything okay? Are you alright? Did something happen? Does something hurt—no, did something hurt you?” The words seemed to roll off your tongue so easily, preventing you from snapping out of your worries to see what expression he had on. All your mind was telling you was to find a way to chase whatever problem he had far, far away from here, where it could hurt him. But your rambling came to a halt when you felt his body slump against you, feeling the way he shook as suppressed sobs were forced out of him. Alarm bells immediately rang in your head.

“Let’s go inside first—”

“I’m so sorry,” he hiccuped. “I’m so sorry. Really sorry, Y/N. I don’t even know if I’m apologizing for what I’ve done for you to avoid me like this, or for not even knowing why you’re avoiding me in the first place, but I’m so sorry.”

“Hyune, no—”

“I know I can be an idiot at times, but I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you like this,” he said, still crying his heart out. “I was struggling to find something to paint about for my project earlier, and I can’t believe it took me this long to even figure it out. I can’t go on with meaning in my life without you, Y/N. You’re everything to me. You’re my world, my muse, and my light. For the longest time, you have been, and I would even risk saying that you have since the moment we met on that sandbox. All that I am has pieces of you deeply imbedded in my soul, and the reason why I see my surroundings in vibrant colors. Everything reminds me of you, and us, and all the times we’ve spent together and losing you would be the same as losing me. Y/N, I love you in a way I could never give to others—”

“Hyunjin.” You cupped his face, coaxing him to breathe. An imaginary string inside of you stretched and tightened as you looked at his mesmerized face, looking at you like you had hung the moon up in the sky. His eyes showed an emotion you were well acquainted with, yet the intensity and fervor burning inside were unfamiliar to the ones you had felt before. 

This was definitely love. And it was the type of love you had spent the past couple of years pondering. The answer finally came to you. Hyunjin breathes.

“—It’s you, and always will be.”

You closed the gap, the touch of both your lips saying more than what was ever confessed from when you were five to the present.

It was your love untold.

SERIES TAGLIST ━ STATUS: OPEN — ASK OR COMMENT 🫶

@fairyki @hysgf @euncsace @comet-falls @starlostseungmin @ameliesaysshoo @hyunverse @djeniryuu @lixxpix @xocandyy @heaveniseverywhere @kayleefriedchicken

[shaunashipman]

i am genuinely a bit scared for my fellow bucktommies because with all the love eyes for bucktommy and tommy, i am not sure if people don't happily-ever-after too close to the sun with their expectations about how the bucktommy relationship will continue. 911 is still very much a drama show that will create drama out of thin air if it has to, oftentimes in ways that feel very dumb and will make the characters look very bad. we have seen in the past that resolutions are usually very lackluster, or sometimes even off screen. i personally really look forward to see buck and tommy, but i hope we all remember that buck AND tommy will fuck up at some point, and maybe even fuck up Bad. please be careful out there with how high you set your expectations, my fellow bucktommies, and don't forget that buck and tommy will have conflict again, with the others or with each other, sooner or later! (i hope it will be compelling and nuanced and interesting conflict that fuels their development, at the very least 🤞 but i also know that i am watching 911 so...)

so nonny, this isn't really directed at you, but i'm gonna use your ask as a springboard cause i'm seeing this sentiment pop up a lot

people need to stop conflating fanon actions with desires for canon

by this i mean, 99% of what i post about bucktommy, are things i never expect to happen in canon, and some of it quite honestly i would not want to happen in canon. i obviously can't speak for everyone, but most of the people i interact with are well aware that the characters on screen are not really the characters we're playing with in our sandbox.

and that's okay. that's how fandom is supposed to work. fandom is separate from the source material. we didn't used to need to post disclaimers about how no, we don't actually think this is going to happen. no, we don't actually think their relationship is going to be sunshine and roses. ppl in fiction act stupid cause sometimes the writer needs stupid to move the plot where they want. I, as a fan, can choose whether to incorporate said stupidity into my existing fanon, whether to analyze it to see how it could fit with my existing fanon, or whether to toss it out, baby and all.

part of the reason fandoms start is because we find the source material lacking. so honestly, when buck or tommy, or any characters, inevitably acts like a dick in a way that seems counter to their previous characterization, it's just more fodder for fandom, a new facet of their character that we then get to analyze and decide why they're doing it. well behaved women rarely make history and well behaved characters rarely make fandoms

so, just so it's clear, at least from me, unless I specifically state that this is what I think will happen in canon, everything I post about bucktommy, and basically all of my fandoms, is not even wishful thinking, it's just me playing with my dolls.

[level2janitor]

tactiquest structure

Edit: Play tactiquest here!

so i've posted a lot about tactiquest's classes and monsters and everything on here but i haven't really talked about the non-combat subsystems much yet and i wanted to go into detail about them, bc tactiquest has very different goals from most heroic fantasy systems.

tracking inventory, travel time, worrying about actually running out of your adventuring budget, are things a lot of big-damn-heroes fantasy systems throw out because they're just paperwork that gets in the way of your cool fights. that's not the case in Tactiquest! these systems are so core to the experience that removing them will make a lot of classes unusable. the game is built around them.

travel & exploration

tactiquest explicitly assumes you're running an open-sandbox hexcrawl and is designed to support that, including the fact the game is designed around random encounters. this is the sort of thing D&D 3e expected you to do, but people ditched random encounters because they thought they were boring and tedious. so classes balanced around that attrition of resources ended up with a huge spike in power other classes couldn't match.

the boring-and-tedious problem is mostly addressed by trying to make combat really good and resolve really fast. if i fucked that up the whole thing falls apart, but so far people are liking it

the second thing that helps with random encounters is your resources don't fully restore immediately at the end of each day like they do in 3e. resting is less effective in the wilderness and resources expended are a tomorrow problem, not just a today problem. so you don't have to have 3+ fights every single day just to maintain parity - 0-2 fights per day still adds up to difficult resource management.

because the game has such a focus on it, you can have classes like the ranger actually be good at travel and exploration instead of just giving them vaguely-naturey combat abilities.

economy

in most D&D-likes, even usually OSR ones, you accrue so much gold. just as a side effect of adventuring. to the point money no longer actually matters because you can throw piles of it at any problem. this is bad. it's a system that defeats its own purpose; there are no interesting choices involving money when you have so much the only real expense is like, 50,000-gold-piece magic items.

i don't just want players to care about money, i want them to worry about money, like a normal person. you're not batman who's a billionaire as a side hobby, you're spiderman who has to deliver pizzas in between superhero work because he's got bills to pay like everyone else. so a whole lot of effort has been put into actually designing prices and treasure amounts around this dynamic.

i also hate how games will usually go "oh adventuring gives you 900,000 gold for existing but a normal person's living wage is 2 gold a month". i don't want to be fantasy jeff bezos, thanks

inventory

this is something i just lifted from OSR games outright. you can carry ten things (and tiny things don't take up an item slot). that's the whole rule.

tracking inventory can add a lot of interesting decisions to a game and adds a new lever for abilities from classes and magic items. having a character play the merchant class which gets a bunch of extra inventory slots feels really impactful. finding a bag of holding that doubles your carry capacity feels so good when you actually have to watch your inventory.

supply

the only thing i felt was really unenjoyable when running games with strict inventory limits was tracking rations for each character that you eat every night; it felt too much like busywork with not enough payoff. so in Tactiquest rations are abstracted into a single Supply stat that's tied to the party rather than any individual character.

you can only restock Supply in towns, and it drops by 1 each time you rest. you can sleep without resting and this won't cost supply, but you won't regain any HP or other resources. this gives you the impactful decision-making of tracking rations without the annoyance of "okay it's been a day of travel, everyone make sure you dock a ration from your sheet" like twice per session

Supply is one of the things that slowly drains your funds and gives you a reason to keep seeking out treasure, tying back into the economy. it also gives merchants and rangers some extra mechanical levers for their class abilities to pull on.

[taxidermycanine]

5 WAYS TO HELP WITH SPECIES DYSPHORIA AS A THERIAN (with and without gear)

- please note that most of these are focused mainly on being a wolf therian, but i'll try my best to make it more inclusive to others.

1 •

my personal favorite, wolf quest! this one does cost money, so this isn't for those who don't have the money/don't already have the game. it really helps me feel more connected to who i am. you find a mate, raise pups, hunt prey, defend your den and pack from predators, and there's even a multiplayer option for you to play with your friends. :o)

(and yes, you can customize what your wolf looks like. all NPC wolves in the game have different personalities for immersion, including you, your pups, and your mate)

please note that the game is still in development! they plan to add a saga where you can live constantly with your pack and continue with new generations each year (and no, you don't HAVE to pass away). you can toggle whether your mate dies or not, if you play on easy you can avoid your pups getting sick by reloading saves if you're sensitive to that, there are constantly new updates being brought out that make the game feel more realistic each time and the development team are incredibly sweet. if you have the money i highly recommend this game, wolf therian or otherwise.

2 •

documentaries. a wonderful way to not only feel more connected to your theriotype(s), but to also learn more information about them! my favorite thing to do when i'm stressed is to wrap myself in warm blankets, turn off my lights and put on a documentary to calm myself down. bonus points if you DO have gear to wear during this, if not that's okay too.

i also like to have my plush friends join me so i can act like they're my pack :o) it's a nice way to feel less lonely as i watch. this also works if you're a domestic cat therian, have your plushies be your clouder! no matter what animal you are though, never feel less valid for wanting your stuffies with you during this. it doesn't matter if your theriotype isn't a social animal in the wild.

if you're an aquatic therian of some kind, i think a good idea would be taking your phone in the bathroom with you and setting it up outside of the tub to watch whilst you're in the water! (or shower if you don't have one, you can also use a kiddie pool outside in the warmer months). PLEASE remember to be safe during this though, if you worry about getting your phone wet then instead find some blue blankets and pretend it's the ocean!

3 •

going outside to where your theriotype resides in naturally. of course this won't be for everyone, since a lot of the time trips can end up being quite costly. something that i like to do is go to my local forest whenever i have the time to do so! i find it refreshing to sit by the stream and play in the water with my mate.

if you're a domestic dog therian, ask to go on a walk around the neighborhood with your friend! (or hell, go by yourself if it's safe enough, you're a free dog, you can do what you want). even as a wild animal i still enjoy this, so don't feel ashamed if you're ALSO a wild animal who wants to do things that domestic dogs do. it doesn't make you any less undomesticated.

if you're an animal that's used to deserts, i recommend going to where you can access sand (e.g. a sandbox at a playground, asking for a small sand tray to play in as a gift, a day out to the beach if you live near one). i also find that dried dirt that's very damaged can feel sort of similar to sand!

if you can't go outside for whatever reason, then there's always ways to make your bedroom feel similar to where you would be more comfortable. if your theriotype lives in dens like caves and underneath trees, make a blanket fort and pretend it's your home! if your theriotype rests in a burrow, make a tunnel with some blankets from the top of your bed all the way down to under it (if that doesn't work, pretend that anything below your bed is underground, and anything above your bed is the surface).

4 •

dressing in clothes that are the same color as your theriotype. i have this fluffy hat with ears that feels very affirming for my species dysphoria, paired with my favorite dark sweaters, warm pants and my tail. if you don't have any gear, don't worry! you don't need to have any to complete an outfit. sometimes clothing textures can also be affirming. for example if you have smooth skin like a whale, a bathing suit can feel similar to blubber. (if you have gender dysphoria, i recommend either full body bathing suits, or wearing pants on top of it and a jacket to help yourself feel more affirmed). i wear fluffy clothes because my fur is fluffy :o) it helps me, personally, but this might not be the same for everyone!

5 •

studying the behavior of your theriotype and trying your best to imitate it to the best of your abilities with the body you have. this can be as simple as copying how they act around each other as a family (for example wolves who are mates will rest their chins on each other to display affection), and as difficult as trying to vocalize what sounds your theriotype makes.

if you wanted to try the latter, i recommend looking at vocal exercises online before as a lot of creature sounds can and will strain your voice, i promise you that warming up your chords will not only help you sound clearer, it'll ensure that it won't take as much effort to do!

[delululand]

i have so much to do for today but i can’t stop thinking about your childhood friend&first love soobin

like your parents were very close and you spent your entire childhood together. played in the sandbox, made snowmen in the first snow, broke knees learning to ride a bike together, did difficult homework together and experienced teenage rebellion, skipping classes in the backyard where no one would see you. when you were kids, you said you'd get married when you grew up and called each other husband and wife, but as you got older and entered your teenage years, it became a joke, and then those jokes became fell awkward so you stop do it

you wanted to continue studying together, but it so happened that you had to leave to study at universities in different cities. since then it was not possible to see each other often due to studies, but you continued to communicate closely 24/7 texting and facetiming. you dreamed of meeting the entire year, but you were offered by a very prestigious company for a summer internship and soobin persuaded you to agree to it, promising that you would definitely see each other for the christmas holidays

after not seeing him for almost a year and a half, already in early december you were burning with anticipation so when your parents called you and told that soobin and his parents would come to your house to celebrate christmas, you were ready to scream

time flew by and now you were already at home waiting for soobin to arrive. seeing him with his parents at the door of your house felt like something unreal, you ran up almost hanging on his neck shouting «OMG YOU’VE GROWN SO MUCH». he held you close, giggling and trying to put the gift bags out of his hands. perking you on the top of your head, he released you from his embrace and hugged your parents, handing them what he had brought

dinner was in a cozy family atmosphere and you can’t even count how many times your tears flowed from laughter. after clearing the table, your parents stayed to discuss their own stuff and you and soobin went to your room. since soobin came with his parents, they were given a guest bedroom and soobin had to sleep in your bedroom. you used to visit each other a lot and spend time in your room, so there were a lot of memories associated with this place

coming out of the shower, you lay in bed in your pajamas and hugged each other tightly, trying not to go beyond a line of friendship. after talking until the morning, you fell asleep cuddled up to each other and woke up a little earlier than soobin, your heart was beating like crazy, feeling his hands on your body, his sniffing near your face and his bulge lightly touching your stomach. feeling that soobin was also starting to wake up, you didn’t want to embarrass him so you pretended to be asleep, allowing him to wake up and realize the situation, after which he carefully, so as not to wake you up, got up and went to the shower

you spent the next day walking around the places where you spent time before. you talked about a lot of things and remembering that you wanted to get married before, you joked with soobin, saying “that’s it, all of you guys are the same, at first he promises to marry and then changes his mind and leaves you leaving for college”. he got embarrassed and lightly pushed you on the shoulder and said “heeeeey I didn’t leave you and ….” stopping mid-sentence you saw old friends from school waving to you from the other side of the road so you approached them to talk

after walking and talking about the time you spent together, sharing memories, your heart was filled with warmth. having returned home almost at night, you lay on the bed watching a movie. his fingers gently drew circles on your back, you felt his breathing quicken a little and after a few minutes of silence he suddenly awkwardly said “what if I didn’t?” you raised your head from his chest and looked at him with confusion and asked, “hm?”. “what if i didn’t changed my mind? like never did this” he said looking at you with wide eyes. you still didn’t understand what he was talking about, so you asked again “what about you, soobi?”. “about this…. about the fact that my heart melts every time you call me soobi and about the fact that i never changed my mind about marrying you”. you blinked your eyes and although you heard him, the meaning of his words took a long time to process in your head. seeing your silence it seemed like a refusal to him, so he lowered his head to avoid your eyes and said “oh no, no, just forget it, I just...”. without letting him finish, your hands reached out to his face, pulling him towards you. after a couple of seconds of eye contact, your lips gently and carefully pressed against each other, as if what was happening between you now was not obvious and you were both afraid of the other’s reaction, putting your friendship on the line

fully feeling that the kiss was mutual, as were your feelings, just a light touch of lips was not enough for you, the kiss gradually turned from tender to deeper and wetter, hands slid over each other and you didn’t even notice how you ended up sitting on him. your every random movement that touched his bulge make him to moan involuntarily. breaking away from each other for only a second and without breaking eye contact, he took off his t-shirt, pulled off the shirt from your pajamas and at that same second, in one movement, you were under him. “I don’t believe it… feels so unreal” he whispered between kisses on your neck and chest

whining between kisses, he impatiently pulls down your pants along with your underwear and when he takes off his, you see his dick for the first time. you never thought he was small or anything, but seeing it with your own eyes still felt shocking. seeing your rounded eyes, he asked in fear, “is everything okay? we can stop if you want." “no no everything’s fine.. I’m just kind of…surprised… by the size” you answered. soobin smiled shyly and hovering over you he whispered “we can do this slowly, i’ll be careful.” and he tried, he really tried first couple of minutes, but his feelings overwhelmed him too much, he dug his fingers into your waist and hips, periodically saying apologies between declarations of love and attempts to take a breath of air

feeling an overabundance of feelings, you were on the verge, but when soobin lowered his fingers on your bud with the words “baby, I’m sorry, I can’t hold back anymore,” this was the last straw. feeling his chaotic tremors, the pressure of his fingers on your clit and the warmth of his sperm spreading inside drove you into a frenzy. cumming in unison, you squeezed each other like it was the last time and muffled loud moans into each other’s shoulders still remembering that your parents are sleeping at home

it’s 5:40 in the morning, you are lying naked and happy, not letting go of each other’s arms even for a second. soobin looks at you with loving eyes, strokes your cheek and says, “by the way, it wasn’t a joke about marriage. really wanna make you mrs. choi"

[tiniestkitty]

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ activities to do with long-distance regressor/little friends !!

🩷 video games to play : 💛

𐙚🫧 Sky: the Children of the Light - free, online mobile game ( also available for the Nintendo Switch ) intended for all ages where you can dress up your character , decorate your own nest , and chat and "interact" with friends like giving hugs and holding hands! there are also plushie items you can get, as well as a very cheerful and kind environment and community. I really love this game when I'm not regressed as well. ૮ ◞ ﻌ ◟ ა

𐙚🫧 Minecraft - can be played on so many devices ! simple sandbox game, with a multiplayer option where you can join others in their worlds. you can build, play fight, explore and go on so many adventures together.

𐙚🫧 ROBLOX - free online game platform, available on mobile and on a computer. lots of different types of games, even games made specifically for regressors !! :DD

🧸 other activities: 🌼

𐙚🌧️ write each other notes on a drawing app or take a picture and send it to them ! I really love sending my regressor friend notes like this and pretending we are passing notes at school hehe ! ໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა

𐙚🌧️ voice chat while you color, craft or journal, if you feel comfortable

𐙚🌧️ make long distance friendship bracelets ! ( you use your beads to make one that reminds you of them, and they use theirs to make one that reminds them of you )

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡important reminder: especially if you are a minor, be careful of who your online friends may be. you should never speak to someone online who makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or oversteps your boundaries. never-ever share personal information and allways make sure the person you are talking to is who they say they are by checking their accounts on multiple platforms if you dont already know them. ૮ ◞ . ◟ ა 💛 /gen

[linkemon]

What type of person would they be into?

Friendly reminder that English is not my first language. You can check my Masterlists both in English and Polish here. Consider supporting me on Ko-fi.

Other headcanons from this series can be found here.

Epel Felmier

• Epel would love someone full of contradictions. In his mind, he needs someone delicate and charming, who would allow him to emphasize that he is not like that, even though his appearance suggests otherwise.

• As is often the case however, what we want and what we really need are two separate things. Therefore, despite everything, he would have to confront his dreams with reality. It would turn out that he would fall in love with someone who, apart from being gentle, would also have courage and readiness to act. You two are saving your friends and you jump into battle instead of standing on the sidelines? This isn't how he imagined it. In his mind, he saw you safe behind his back. And yet, this surprise doesn't seem bad to him, quite the opposite.

• The day you stood up to Vil would be the day he would understand clearly why he chose you and why he was wrong before. Although he would never say it out loud to you.

• Bonus points if you can come up with crazy ideas every now and then. For example, borrow a motorcycle from Deuce and come pick him up when the prefect isn't there, to take him for a ride. Let him ride in front and hold him around the waist, otherwise his ego will suffer...

Ace Trappola

• Ace would fall in love with his friend. But not in the way books and romantic comedies present it. You wouldn't have known each other since childhood, playing in the sandbox. This would be a later, more mature realationship, established already in the NRC.

• Trappola would have to grow up to this. For a long time he didn't take girls seriously. In you, he saw only a friend. Someone like Deuce to hang out with and laugh. It would take him almost the rest of school to realize that he was wrong after all. Around his last semester would be the time when he would realize that things weren't quite what he thought.

• Ace would find himself feeling torn more and more often. He really valued your friendship and wouldn't want to ruin it. This relationship would be more important to him, so he would be able to swallow his growing feelings, if it weren't for the fact that he saw subtle signals that would indicate that you felt the same. So he would try to take advantage of his chance.

• In a relationship, you are friends and that is more important to you than all the cute things that couples do. At the end of NRC you would still be pranking teachers and sneaking under Riddle's nose. In a more mature relationship, you would know that you could count on each other unconditionally and there would be verbal flirtations that would annoy everyone around you.

Trey Clover

• Trey is a person who has experienced family warmth since childhood. His attachment to family members would be what would determine what he is looking for in a relationship. Someone calm and composed would be his dream other half.

• He wouldn't fall in love at first sight but he would see your qualities right away. It's how you treat people around you, whether you can show them compassion and help. It would mean a lot to him. There's nothing to make tarts with and you offered to go to the store because he has his hands full? He would melt from such small gestures.

• He would definitely introduce you to his family members as soon as he was sure that you were his chosen one. He would know that they would like you but he would still want to hear what they had to say about you. Watching you interact with each other would be  forever preserved in his memory. He hopes that you would like to have children someday because you get along perfectly with his siblings.

• Bonus points if you can cook. He could share his greatest passion with you. If not, that's fine. You can always be his taste tester!

[maximumzombiecreator]

Hi! Maybe you've said it before, but do you know of a good resource to learn the basics of mega dungeon design? Is there any like, guidebooks or something you would reccomend? There seems to be a lot to keep in mind

There are a few different guides I've seen over the years, and I mostly think that they're not very good. For instance, 2nd edition AD&D had a Dungeon Builder's Guidebook, and I went and glanced at my copy to see if I could recommend it here, and I don't think there's much of value in here? I've also seen some bloggers try to lay out some ideas and develop megadungeons of their own. Some of these have looked good! And some of them... had different philosophies to the ones that I would have gone with.

That said, I shan't leave you without anything useful.

The first thing I'm going to call out is that your dungeon is going to change and evolve as you run it. And I don't just mean in terms of how play evolves the space, you're going to end up making changes as you go. In fact, early versions of the DMG basically state that you only really need to have one floor ahead of your players done. Wings of the dungeon further from your players can be a rough sketch of how spaces relate to each other, and if they're a cul-de-sac they don't really need anything at all besides that they exist. Factions, similarly, can be developed as things go on. You only really need to know how they relate to the parts of the dungeon the players can get to early on. I also really like developing factions as play continues. It's not unusual for me to introduce new factions in the progress of play, especially if the players do something that might cause that.

The second thing is this: only do the parts you're excited about. Steal or generate the rest. This may be an odd thing to say, as a girl who has been posting nonstop about megadungeons for weeks now, but I don't actually like making dungeons very much. I like running them, but the actual dungeon creation is kind of a chore. There are great tools for this, though. Atelier Clandestine includes a megadungeon generator in their sandbox generator that I hear is quite good. The last time I made a megadungeon from scratch, huge chunks of it were just Dyson Logos maps stitched together, with only a handful of rooms I made from scratch, either as connectors or specific weird things I wanted. Similarly, for initially stocking rooms, I'll often use random tables to figure stuff out. A bunch of these are from old G+ OSR blogs and stuff like that, but if you go looking for roll tables of weird stuff for dungeons, you'll find a lot of interesting stuff.

The third thing is to just iterate. Start with a vague sketch of the dungeon. What are the zones and how do they connect? What are the general factions, and what do they want? Then, in passes, make it more specific. Fill in one area, flesh out one faction, populate some rooms. As you're doing thing, think about how they interconnect and interrelate. When you decide something about one faction, that'll inform relationships to the other. When you iterate the layout of one zone, that'll inform its connections to others, etc. And you'll keep doing this iteration as you run the dungeon, it really never stops.

Finally, here's a checklist of stuff I like to make sure I'm thinking about. But it's your dungeon, so I would highly encourage figuring out what your own checklist looks like.

Zones. How are they distinct from each other, and what do they have for players and NPCs to want? I'm happiest when I could describe a room to my players and they can know what zone it's in just from the description.

Factions. Who are they, and what do they want? I find these work best when allying with any one faction implies causing tension with at least one other, and when there are no factions with whom allying is completely uncomplicatedly good.

Connections. How do different parts of the dungeon connect, and what are some interesting connections? Things like shortcuts that can be unlocked, one way connections, unconventional connections, ones that require unusual forms of movement to use, or special powers.

Cool stuff. Both in terms of cool stuff to use, and cool problems to overcome. Loot falls in this category, as well as big cool things to interact with in the dungeon. Here's an apparatus that permanently polymorphs anyone who goes inside. Here's a circle that fully heals anyone who enters at the cost of aging you a random amount. Here's a powerful treasure in a box submerged in a lake of acid. Stuff for the players to play with and come back to.

As long as I have those things I'm happy, so as I'm iterating I'll look at my list and see if there's anything I need to add or spice up. And then once I'm at the table, I'll often find I want to make changes and I'll tune things between sessions. Nothing is set until the players have observed it, so if I find my players are coming up to a wing of the dungeon and I'm not happy with how I expect it'll play out, I can always change it.

[shadaofallthings]

An Alfabusa Fan's Retrospective

So, lets start out easy with where I started: Like many people it was with "If The Emperor Had A Text To Speech Device". The first few episodes really betray how it all began: A bunch of /tg/ nerds (or at least /tg/ adjacent) fucking around making in lore jokes about how pissed the Emperor would be. You can tell very quickly though that something changed. They stop using slurs by like the 5th episode (or at least real life ones that still are being used to harm people). And then eventually all those bits of "Haha gay people" were recycled into a slow burn, likely gonna be tragic arc of two people who never had a chance to be together falling for each other. And of course, the custodes being given the "Its not cause you are gay, its not even cause you like showing your muscles off, its cause you are an asshole" treatment". It was fun to watch this silly parody turn into a real plot that wanted you to take it at least somewhat serious. It was also honestly pretty touching to see the creators become more aware people and to see things previously used for cheap jokes turn into real drama, instead of just a bunch of jokes where the punchline is a slur. And then there's Hunter the Parenting. See, TTS was in a lot of ways a test run. It might not have been that originally, but it was where a lot of the growth as artists that the crew went through happened. It was also their test run for making things bright and cheery and even fun without qualifier in a grimdark setting. But Hunter the Parenting is what they made with all that knowledge already in the bag. And WOW does it fuckin do it well. Its got action, mystery, intrigue, interpersonal drama, a canon gay couple who are totally not Kitten and Magnus made into normal people and who are canonically gay at each other in the first episode. Its also one giant mess of WoDfans kinda knowing what's happening behind the scenes and the authors making it even more fun when they give us more hints that imply its way bigger than what we began to imagine. There's something for everyone, aside from the homophobes, and that's beautiful in my eyes. And then there's Zero Viscosity. The Halflife Fanfic I didn't know I needed but now am excitedly wanting more of. They got the vibes down perfect, they know more lore than I ever will about that series, and they are having fun with the narrative sandbox that valve constructed for themselves. Its deeply fun to see the differences in perspectives at play between characters, and that punkish vibe of a bunch of weirdos society would reject under any other circumstances slowly finding themselves in situations where heroism is necessary.

Over all, Alfabusa content has been a wild ride where the people behind the name seem genuinely interested in being better people and making better and better work. It shows in the timeline of their work clearly, and I am excited to see where it goes in the future. They are some of the few creatives that can immediately and heavily get me invested in something new before I even see it and its cause they simply do not fucking miss with their core shit, and even when they miss with the peripherals they always try to make up for it. The list of people who can say that in my mind is fucking tiny and they are up there on it.

[weministertomonsters]

Naga Father (Araza) x gender neutral reader - 3

@rivalriotrenegade @viviansnowmain Update! <3

The party is underway, and you couldn't be more grateful that it's going so smoothly. You and Sam made the invitations together, and he had chosen to invite three kids from his class that he got along with. They were triplets. You had babysat them a couple of times and while they were always a handful, they were the sweetest children you'd ever met.

All three of them attended and they brought presents. They're now playing outside, taking turns burying each other in the sandbox and demolishing the garden as they toss the sand everywhere. You put a lot of thought into the games for the party, but they are having so much fun with their self-devised game that you don't mind. Mr. Araza peers outside, looking amused.

"Human children are not so different," he muses. "Every day I see more and more similarities."

"Well, I'm glad," you reply.

You mean it. In the weeks that you've known him, he has become less guarded. You've even seen him greet the neighbors sometimes as he goes off to work. He's not as harsh with Sam and it causes the dear boy to flourish. Looks like there are improvements all around.

You're taking the cake out of the fridge when you notice something. Mr. Araza has gotten relaxed around you to the point that he leaves his tail to sprawl. Miraculously you haven't stepped or tripped on it yet. Today it looks less glossy than usual. You feel like you need to point that out.

"Oh," he says, clicking his claws on the counter and looking at his tail. "Yes, I'm about to begin shedding."

"I've never seen that before," you respond.

"Because my kind is almost always on suppressants. I haven't been taking mine for a while."

"Might I ask why?" You question as you poke the candles into the cake.

"They can cause damage with continuous use. Short breaks are recommended," he responds.

A lightbulb goes off in your head and you whip your head around to look at him.

"Doesn't that mean you go through a heat cycle as well?"

Stupid, stupid, the small voice in your head chants, but you can't take it back.

Mr. Araza gifts you with a rare smile.

"Someone has been looking things up."

"Uh... I was just curious. Just trying to understand your kind better," you stammer.

"You don't have to use the internet for that," he says. "You can just ask me."

"Really? That's..." You blank out as you search for a lighter for the candles.

"Ask me again," Mr. Araza says, the tip of his tail winding and curling, doing its own thing.

You decide to suck it up and just be forward with it, so you repeat your question.

"Do you go through a heat cycle when you're off the suppressants?"

"If by that you mean a fire racing through my veins along with the urge to mate with any soft thing in my territory, then yes," he says with a soft chuckle. "Most definitely."

You almost drop the cake as your heart jolts in surprise. Did he just say that? You had been asking out of curiosity, not with an ulterior motive.

"Sir," you say sternly.

"Apologies," he chuckles, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

You're shaking your head when another thought occurs to you.

"What are you going to do about Sam when... You know, it happens?"

"My parents will pick him up and he will spend the week with them."

"The week?" You make a face.

"A heat cycle lasts that long, yes."

"Oh. I probably shouldn't be asking about this. It's unprofessional," you say.

"Ask what you like. It is nice to have a human show some curiosity," he replies.

You smile at that and step out to the door to call the kids in for cake and ice cream. Sam gets a smaller portion so that he doesn't end up hurting his stomach with overly rich human food. The party ends on a note of success, and you have more trouble than usual getting Sam to go to bed because he doesn't want to part with his presents. This is the longest you have stayed yet, and you've enjoyed every moment of it.

When you come downstairs Mr. Araza is in the kitchen, eating a slice of birthday cake. He looks up, his eyes shimmering gold. Your pay is on the counter. As you tuck it into your pocket he says,

"Do you want to stay for a drink? Coffee?"

Your lips tug into a grin and you glance at the clock, trying not to look too eager.

"Then again, it's late, so if you want to be on your way..."

"No, I'd love some coffee!" you almost shout.

You fix yourself a cup and pad into the living room. He joins you on the couch, his tail shifting restlessly as he tries to get all of himself up on it.

"I think you need a bigger couch," you point out.

He grumbles and flops down, letting his tail spill into your lap, the end flicking and curling gently around your wrist. You blink and take a sip of your coffee to try and calm down.

"Mr. Araza..." You begin and he flicks his tongue out, his eyes sharpening as he considers what he tastes in the air.

"You can call me Lith. We are familiar now."

"Lith," you repeat, trying out his name.

"What did you want to tell me?" He asks, pressing his cheek against one of the pillows, getting even more comfortable.

"I... I don't want you to pay me anymore," you blurt out. "I enjoy spending time with Sam, and I'd love to come over often. If you'll let me."

His eyes flicker closed and he lets out a bone-weary sigh.

"When did I get so comfortable with you, little human? You have invaded my life like a worm in an apple."

You consider this for a moment. "Is that... A good thing? I can't tell."

His eyes open, gazing at the ceiling. "It is a dangerous thing. Sam has imprinted on you. He sees you as someone he can trust."

Those words make you all warm, and your smile grows wider and more confident.

"And what about you? Do you trust me?"

"You have given me no reason not to," he muses. "Your personality draws me in, it beckons like a fire. It is a warmth I would like to bask in."

You've been resting your hand on his tail without realizing it, stroking it absently. He doesn't seem to mind, so you let your hand remain there, tracing his scales. You're content to sit in silence with him and contemplate this new level you're at with him. After a moment you realize he's squirming restlessly. Again.

"Is something wrong?"

"No." He pulls himself closer, setting his chin on his palm and staring at you.

"What?" You frown. "Do I have cake on my face?"

His gaze darts down and he eyes your lips for a moment, looking contemplative. The world seems to stop for a moment. It's just you, and him, and the crickets chirping outside. His eyes narrow and when his tongue flicks out again the tip nearly boops your nose. He pulls away with a soft sigh.

"You're welcome to visit whenever you like," he says simply and then slithers off the couch.

That's your cue to leave. You take a moment to rinse the mug in the kitchen before you grab your jacket. Lith follows you to the door.

"I'm booked tomorrow and the day after that, so I won't be seeing you two until Saturday, at least." You dig your hands into your pockets and add jokingly. "Think you can manage?"

Lith lifts his shoulder, his tail coiling somewhat restlessly behind. "Well. I might miss you. Goodnight."

The door closes softly in your face and you blink at the abruptness. Maybe things got a little too mushy for him. Something was definitely happening in there, but you're not sure what. You head to your car, humming. You're already looking forward to Saturday.

Unrelated but what's the boop all about? Can someone tell me please? I'm seeing it everywhere but I have no idea what's going on. It looks fun!

Edit - My dumbass just looked it up!! Should have done that first, lol.

[thief-of-eggs]

Thinking about how both Tim and Kon have issues with identity (For Tim it’s “who am I without my mask” and for Kon it’s “who am I without my ties to the Supers”)

Like, Kon took a lot of his identity from being Superman’s clone. And Tim took alot of his identity from being Robin.

And that didn’t work out well for either of them, as we see play out in the comics. Neither of them can hold to the shaky identity that is their mantel, neither of them can find themselves in a mask, in a cape, in a symbol.

I just think it’s really neat how they both have that similar issue. Perhaps that is part of why they do not end up as a couple in Canon. They are both trying so hard to find themselves, that they do not end up finding eachother.

But also canon is a sandbox and I like to think that they can help themselves through helping eachother. Helping them each find identity in something other than their mentors, finding themselves in who they are and not who they were set up to be :,))

[level2janitor]

grid-combat sandbox thing!

i get distracted with new projects a lot, but lately my brain's been hyperfocused on one in particular. i wanted to take a crack at combining 4e-style tactical combat with OSR-style sandbox play, which on the surface seem like entirely opposite directions. and they kind of are, but i think i have something

since i started work on it i ended up dropping the words "OSR" and "4e" from my descriptions of it bc i think they end up evoking the wrong image. there's a lot that's core to both playstyles that i'm omitting to make it play nicer with the other playstyle. but it's far along enough now that i can talk about some of the design philosophy and how that manifests.

little to no scaling

the traditional way modern D&D (and to an extent even old-school D&D) handles progression is with big numerical scaling. a level 2 PC has nearly twice as much HP/damage as a level 1 PC. so you scale monsters to match, because the PCs have to get into fights around their level for the game to work.

skeletons are a real danger at 1st-level. they're manageable by 3rd, easy by 5th, and a joke by 7th-level. so you just stop running into skeletons, and when you're nearing the end of that level range any skeleton encounters that do happen will have a lot of skeletons.

this is bad for sandboxes! say i'm preparing a sandbox setting ahead of time and have a dungeon with a bunch of skeletons in it somewhere. i don't know what level the PCs will find it at - depending on whether they go through it as a 2nd-level or 6th-level party, it might be incredibly easy or so dangerous there's little they can do to mitigate that difficulty. or i'll just have to redo my encounter math the moment they find it, and that sucks for both the GM and players.

so, big numerical scaling is out. there's levels, you level up, but most of what you get from that level-up is a new ability. not a big pile of hit points and more damage. there's some scaling, your numbers are like twice as big at 10th-level compared to 1st-level, but it's a small enough range that a hard encounter at 1st-level will stay relevant throughout a whole campaign.

the game's far along enough i can create & fully level a fighter PC, so i made a 1st and 10th-level (max) character and put them side-by-side to get a feel for the scaling.

the warrior class

speaking of, the first class i made is the fighter, obviously. it's always the first thing i want to get right if i'm making a D&D-like system.

this is a good showcase of what each class is going to end up looking like: you start with a few core features & two perks (3 for warrior bc i like them being customizable). warrior perks range from a few unique moves to useful passives that let you resist statuses, strike multiple enemies, move further, equip heavier gear, parry weak attacks, etc.

the two core features, versatile fighter & combat opportunist, are designed to reward you for engaging in core combat mechanics. you get bonuses to attack from high ground, and this increases that bonus. every weapon has a unique special move you can do with it, and this lets you use any weapon you have with no cost to switch.

i've never liked the way most D&D-likes handle weapons, where you design your build around one specific weapon. you invest all your feats into being The Polearm Guy and when you find a cool magic warhammer or dagger you're just like. well i don't want this. it's not a polearm. so this fighter is instead designed to encourage you to carry around a ton of different weapons and use all of them.

exploration & the ranger

i used to hang out in the 5e community a lot, and people hated the 5e ranger. why? cause nobody used the travel rules, and you can't really blame them. the game has rules for how far you can travel each day, for random encounters & whether they ambush you, foraging, encumbrance, different travel speeds.

but most people who play 5e don't want that kind of experience, and 5e half-commits to it by leaving these rules scattered through the dungeon master's guide and making them too tedious. everything's measured in real numbers - miles, minutes, pounds. you track weight with pounds instead of item slots. of course nobody wants to track encumbrance when they have to stop the game to ask the GM how many pounds the macguffin weighs. nobody wants to dig through the DMG looking for the rule that tells you how many miles you can move. it just gets in the way and stops the game, so nobody does.

all of this screws over the ranger class which gives you bonuses to things like travel speed, not being ambushed while traveling, finding more rations, and tracking. people disliked the ranger so much that a supplement came out that replaced all of their exploration features with naturey combat features and some skill boosts, and since then that's the actual ranger when anyone wants to play one.

with that context, here's the exploration features my game's ranger gets.

the feature on the left is inherent while the right two are perks. there's combat features, but they're not part of the point i wanted to make.

the ranger needs to feel useful, and for that, the exploration needs to be front and center. so what better game than one designed for sandboxes?

i don't want this to be the kind of big-damn-heroes game where you skip to the next setpiece because the travel is boring. the travel is the game. that's where the OSR influence comes in.

you track rations. it's important - if a place is far from civilization, it feels like it because there's nowhere safe nearby to restock rations.

you track encumbrance. deciding how much space to spend on arrows and rations, and how much to spend on treasure, means more decision-making.

you do hexcrawling, you track time, and you care how many days a journey takes because the world changes as time passes. enemies & other factions progress their schemes, new developments come up. so sometimes you go, wow, good thing we have a ranger - we can move 3 hexes today instead of 2!

the ranger is better at foraging rations so you can venture further into the wilderness, better at moving your party faster, better at keeping watch. i want that to matter! i can envision it being so satisfying to play a ranger and constantly come in handy. and i want parties without a ranger to wish they had one in a way that isn't just tedious.

so hopefully that gives you a good idea of the sandboxy direction for this game. will be posting about it more as i make progress, and gonna continue to support iron halberd in between this sort of thing

[perseidlion]

On Fanon vs Canon

Look, full disclosure: I hate the name Thomas for The Cat King. I think it's a far too human a name for him, and it takes away from his otherworldliness.

Fandom seems to have attached to the pre-release casting announcement where he was briefly called that and well, fandom's gonna fandom. This would just be a me problem except for the fact that people are acting like the name is confirmed in canon.

I've seen posts from a number of people who think it IS canon due to its ubiquity of use in fandom spaces. They just assume they missed something in the credits of the show, or a version of him existed in the comics where he's called Thomas (there isn't, he's original to the show.)

Now look, this might not seem like a big deal, but I think it IS a problem. I know I might seem biased as a Thomas-name hater, but honestly I'd hate the name just as much if it WERE confirmed canon. I don't hate it because it's non-canonical. I hate it because I don't think it's a good name for him.

The problem comes from when fanon and canon bleed together where it's hard to tell the difference. Where fandom has collectively decided they like certain ideas or tropes and that it fits well with the show. This kind of thing is completely harmless as long as everyone keeps in mind that we're just playing around with fanworks. But when there's slippage...

I've seen it happen in a different fandom where people got deep into their own personal interpretations of characters and dynamics. A lot of people agreed with that vibe and started building off each other. It got pretty far from the source material, but these people felt like they had the right of it. It all made such logical sense to them and they'd spent so much time exploring an avenue in fanworks that it felt inevitable that their interpretation WOULD be canon.

And then a new season came out and not only did it NOT match their fanon, it directly contradicted their interpretation and in some cases proved it completely false.

People got VERY angry and started attacking the show for being "badly written" and accused the showrunner and writers of "betraying" them. When nothing in their fanon was promised or confirmed by canon in the first place, and some of the things they felt were inevitable were SO off what we'd seen on the show that it would have made no sense if their thing had happened.

Then these people turned on their fellow fans who pointed out the things they wanted were never inevitable, and in some cases would have made no sense. And then fandom got toxic.

I don't want to see this happen to the DBD fandom. The way to avoid that is to guard against the slippage between fanon and canon.

There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with playing around in the sandbox of the show's world. That's the point of fanworks, and the fun of it. But we need to let go of this desire to be "right" about canon and that our interpretations are only valid if they are confirmed on screen. And we need to pay attention to the difference between what we see on screen and what makes sense/what we'd like to have happen.

Thomas lovers, you loving that name will not be diminished if he's never actually given that name. And my hate of the name will remain even if it's proven canonical. It's fine! It's not a big deal. Canon and off-canon are both extremely valid types of fandom expression.

Just...keep in mind that canon is canon and fanon is fanon. Sometimes fanon is proved right, but it is not inevitable. And the creators of a show don't owe it to us to do something just because fandom has decided they want X thing.

It starts with a name but can lead to other things if we're not careful.

[thydungeongal]

Hey, I've been wanting to run a dungeon crawly west marches style game where I include some optional, off to the side, way-overleveled "guardians" that players can return to fight for extra treasure once they have some more levels under their belt.

My problem is that many of my players initially bounced off pathfinder 1e for being too crunchy, and have been playing mostly dungeon world. And while I do enjoy dungeon world, it's got two features that makes it particularily ill-suited for this campaign:

1. Characters tend to gain more options when they level up instead of becoming numerically better at surviving and killing.

2. Combat is Very free flowing. That's great when I want to dynamically change how difficult combat is, but when the feeling I want to ellicit on lower level is "you're in way over your heads", it feels a bit too much like GM fiat to me.

All that is a long-winded way of asking, do you know of any dungeon crawling fantasy RPGs where characters get Stronger in addition to/rather than growing more versatile, that has more black-and-white combat arbitration, *and* that's on the more rules light side of the spectrum (especially on the character creation side of things)?

Okay, so it actually sounds like you might benefit from one of the older editions of D&D! No, don't run away, come back!

But seriously, let me explain what I mean:

If Pathfinder 1e is too crunchy for your players they might benefit from something that has less crunch. While some older editions of D&D can be quite crunchy (basically, both AD&D 1e and 2e are pretty crunchy, albeit in different ways than Pathfinder), there is the whole Basic D&D lineage of games that are very much simplified and streamlined.

Even though character growth in older editions of D&D wasn't quite as pronounced as in WotC editions, there is still a clear power growth as characters level up, and it is mostly expressed via the numbies going up!

D&D has always been About Combat to an extent, so the combat is still heavily structured.

Character creation in older editions is VERY simple, with only a few choices.

Other benefits include the fact that older editions of D&D come with lots of procedures built in for making a sandbox setting come alive. Random encounters, procedures for populating the world, you've got it all! There's even treasure maps that point to random locations on your campaign map!!!

Now I also understand why you might be hesitant to take me on this idea: those older editions have lots of weird rules and significantly fewer character options. Which is often true. But there's also a burgeoning scene of new games that are taking the aforementioned benefits of those older games and applying some modern sheen to them. Many of which are free!

Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a Creative Commons licensed free old-school D&D clone that is not a clone of any specific edition of D&D, but sort of a best-of of old-school D&D. The game is literally free, and if you wish to increase character options beyond the ones in the core rules (which has Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings, and Fighters, Magic-Users, Clerics and Thieves) there is a vibrant community of people creating free supplements for the game.

The Microlite20 family of games are a set of simplified D&D clones that often take more after modern D&D, but there is a separate old-school edition of the latest version! And if you end up missing some of the "new-school" options the Microlite20 family of games are all broadly compatible with each other!

FORGE is a free RPG heavily inspired by the Basic D&D lineage of games but also some modern old-school clones like Knave, and it basically presents a classless version of old-school D&D (but where levels are still a thing and there are still some character creation choices that echo throughout a character's career). It also has fantastic gameplay guidance and GM tools!

And the best thing about all those games I just mentioned: they are all broadly compatible with each other! So even if you end up running one game, you can easily poach procedures and ideas you like from the others! These games are all basically in the same lineage, and because of that they have lots of points where there's a lot of room for modding and borrowing!

If you would like to talk about this some more, don't hesitate to DM me! I love talking about these sorts of campaigns and if you still have questions and specific wishes I would love to help! :)

[emblazons]

Thinking about that post that said Will had to be 'written out' of some of the S3 narrative because so much of it was about performing heteronormative relationships…& as an emotionally intelligent gay kid he quite literally stands entirely outside of both of those things.

Like. The Duffers said the premise of S3 was puberty, but in truth it's more like kids trying to act more mature than they are, not only by pretending they’re not into “childish” things but also emulating the relationships of the adults around them (for good & bad).

In S3, Lucas is literally just parroting his dad (and whoever else) when it comes to explaining relationships to Mike, and Max is projecting her displeasure/fear of divorce (because of her own parents) by repeatedly breaking up with Lucas and encouraging El to do the same while quoting Cosmo to her. El has her own streak of performative influence from her time watching all those soaps while locked up for a year—and Mike is just doing the best he can to keep up, seeing as (as we see with the Karen considering but then never actually cheating with Billy plot) Wheelers are often motivated by responsibility and duty to their relationships more than actual feelings or depth with their partners.

From the very first episode though…Will literally says “I’m not gonna fall in love," and while I know a lot of people like to talk about how that's kind of a sign he’s already falling in love with Mike, it’s also showing us that he stands apart from all the other people and “couples” we see this season…because he’s not performing social rituals trying to emulate the relationships of the adults around him.

Will is the only character outside of Dustin (who also comments on this tendency to be fake in love to Steve, ironically enough) who is refusing to take part in the ritualistic gambits of "dating" with his friends, on top of embracing his desire to continue doing the things he enjoys even as we are learning he is genuinely in love with Mike.

Will is the only one being genuine about his interests and desires rather than performing normativity (social and heteronormative) like the rest of his friends--the only one who is in love with his chosen interest because he enjoys being around him, and its that dissonance from the "play"/ sandbox narrative of S3 that makes it seem like The Duffers "forgot" about him (which, given the fact that S5 is confirmed as Will's Coming of Age season, obviously isn't true).

...I just think it's interesting that the season where everyone starts being shallow (because...thats the word for it. We should bring that word back lmao) is the season where it feels like Will gets neglected the most—not because he isn't important to the story, but because Season 3 was when The Duffers introduced dishonesty and ongoing romantic relationships as a concept for their "kid" characters, and Will's heartfelt affection for Mike and unwillingness to lie to anyone stands apart from that.

-

Bonus Thought: If you really want to get into it, you can also pull on how watching Will lie to Mike in Season 4 about the painting hurts all that much more because its the first time he's betrayed his character to "match the energy" of his peers—him "ripping off the bandaid" was him not only choosing to save Mike & El's relationship by sacrificing his own feelings, but also him choosing move into the same kind of dishonesty and shallowness he's been watching everyone around him get away with for two seasons now, even though it was going to break his heart to do so.

S4 got Lucas and Max back to the honesty and closeness they hadn't been mature enough to manage in S3...but that's not something Will got to see for himself. Getting us back to honesty for El, Mike and now Will (who have also been lying to themselves and each other in their performances of normalcy) will be a critical part of the "repair" that happens in Season 5.