#coc game 2

[unbroken-teacup]

i swear to god if arthur and john don’t run into petra and jan while they’re on the quest to find the black stone i will be a little disappointed (i just finished CoC game 2)

[creekschaoscorner]

This theme is continued in the CoC games as well. You mentioned Roland and Amanda- we never see anything of Roland that portrays him as anything less than a loving father, but we see the cruelty that love pushes him to. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her back, willing to blackmail and coerce and organize the death of an innocent woman. It’s through this he serves as a foil for Henry. Henry who loves his daughter more than anything else in the world, who considers her his moral compass, his guiding light. Henry who fails her frequently. He’s not there for Emily, gets swept up in his gambling and drinking. His debt puts her in danger. He’s willing to do anything to keep his little girl safe, but it’s his irresponsibleness that put her at risk in the first place. Roland is everything as a father Henry isn’t- a good relationship with Amanda’s mother, a stable job, a nice little house in the suburbs, meals on the table, a family pet- but he’s also everything Henry could be.

There’s also Antoine. We see first hand how much he loves the Stanczyk children. Children who might not be his, but who he loves like they are. He takes Erik in, he raises him like a son. He molds him like clay into a monster. Takes the distraught little boy killing another child in cold blood and tells him that cruelty is okay, that it’s expected, to release himself from inhibitions like morality and kindness. He is objectively a terrible father but he is never anything but a loving one. His revenge on the ones who kill his son is slow and calculated and serves a greater plan but it is still revenge. He tells Henry himself. “You know how much one will do for the ones they love”. And then- Anna. He says himself that she was like a daughter to him. Anna who he lays out on an alter, who he intends to sacrifice to be a host to a god and he calls it an honor. Don’t we all want to honor our children? Does Arthur not express the same desire? Antoine’s version of honor is warped and twisted and cruel and yet- and yet- it comes from love

Anna’s relationship with her biological father is no less complicated. Konrad starts as a family man and ends a raving lunatic. Anna watches as her father becomes dangerous, becomes a threat to her family, watches as he boards up her mother in her bedroom and leaves her to starve. Anna flees. Her father loses himself to forces outside of his control. Still in the depths of his madness he burns the remains of his infant son’s crib. Did some part of him know what he had lost?

(And when in CoC2 Nyarlathotep, in the guise of Konrad, starts a cult his followers call him Father)

We see fatherhood in many more forms than this in the CoC games. In Winslow’s doting on Petra, in Jarrett’s need for approval from Henry and Frank, even a twisted form in Senator Christian’s abuse of Mary Laval and the way he uses “fatherhood” as guise to keep her controlled

I’m not sure what my point here is aside from yeah. It’s very much a theme

It’s so fascinating to me about how much of Malevolent centers around bad or misguided fathers.

We spend ample amounts of time with Arthur’s grief and his faults, his fear of fatherhood, his failings of Faroe and the ensuing spiral afterwards. We hear of Bella’s strict upbringing, of Daniel’s controlling nature, the desire to shape his daughter into what he expected her to be, and even admitting to Arthur’s face that he intended to mold him as well, into what he thought his daughter’s husband should be. We learn of Larson’s betrayals, the sacrifices of his children: the monsters he made of those he should’ve loved, all in the pursuit of power and legacy. There’s an argument to be made even, of fragments and reflections and daughter and sons, that the King - that initial version of him now dead in all respects - was a sort of father, with John and Yellow as his residuals, his sons, his heirs, in a way. Finding their own identities now, free from the shadow of a predecessor, free to chose their own destinies, wether that is to separate themselves entirely, to scream defiantly of humanity and hope and self, or to try and reshape the visage of that dead malevolent god in desperate pursuit of love that wasn’t given, driven by a hate that was shared. What other analogy so seamlessly fits with the relationship between Arthur and Yellow than that of a neglectful father? The one who was supposed to be patient, be caring, be kind, the one who was supposed to teach this new being, this new child, about what life could be like? What love and kindness it could hold? But Arthur was too unsteady then. Too unstable to give Yellow the upbringing that he deserved. His nature was shared with John, and we’ve seen the depths of love he’s embraced. Yellow was simply nurtured wrong, encouraged down that spiral by a foster father who embraced and even venerated his rage. And similarly, in the basement in New York, we are reminded of nature and nurture, of animals and babes. Briefly, quick as a glance, we learn of the Butcher’s father, both a seething livewire and a subtle undercurrent in his motivations, manifested, perhaps, in his tumultuous relationship with failure, his self inflicted violence. Roland and Amanda receive less of the spotlight, but the foundations of everything are built upon their relationship. And now, with the Unclean, we know more of Arthur’s own father—who’s fate is known and the same as his mother’s—and his envy towards his friend, his childish jealousy and vindictive actions, of which he now condemns, having learned better, having known better. Every aspect of the narrative is seeped in fatherhood, in parenting, in children. Malam says as much by the fire: “They are our betters, our futures, our learned mistakes.” Malevolent is, at its core, about parents and children and hope.

And now, Arthur and John are on the run from a mother, on a mission given to them by a father, who’s daughter is largely a mystery, or perhaps, more familiar than we might think.

[creekschaoscorner]

And now for an audience of maybe two people: the Game 1 boys, Sammy Wiley, and Sammy and Petra at the end of Game 2

[little-flame-prince]

"You can't tell a story of personal horror and have it explore worldbuilding with complex lore and mythology at the same time"

well not with that attitude

[anim-ttrpgs]

The skill point allocation system in Eureka is very elegant.

Is the principle of evening out to 0 something that has often been used in ttrpg design? If so, can you name other games that inspired Eureka in that regard? Or did you come up with it for Eureka?

"All skills can be -n to +n with a cumulative total of 0" seems too usefull, too elegant, as to never been utilized before the year 2024.

I came up with it independently and have literally never seen it anywhere else. I have thought the same way about the Eureka! Point mechanic, though similar things have been done before in other RPGs, just never applied to mystery investigation gameplay. Why hasn't anyone done this yet?

I feel like it must have been used somewhere else at some point in the 50 years of TTRPGs that have been made, I've just never seen it. i agree it feels like too good of an idea to not, like, practically be industry standard, but then again, TTRPGs are not a very innovative industry. It's very stagnant. Most TTRPGs that have come out in the past 50 years have just been D&D clones to some degree or another, and most "innovation" I see has just been "what if we unknowingly reinvented the wheel except this time we made it hexagonal instead of octagonal," total Tesla cybertruck style innovation.

The industry is kind of uniquely set up for that. It's one of the most monopoly-dominated industries/artforms in existence, with one game (of greatly varying quality and thoughtful design between editions) completely dominating it for all 50 years of its existence and being allowed to basically fully define what a "TTRPG" is. The biggest alternative to D&D for the past 20 years has been Pathfinder, which is just like D&D but a little better designed, and before that its biggest competitor was World of Darkness, which, if you actually read their rulebooks, are also designed pretty much like D&D except for some text at the beginning which basically says "you can ignore these extremely dungeon-crawl-y rules to focus more on narrative, don't be like those dumb dungeon crawl players," which if you have been following this blog you know is a load of crap.

Call of Cthuhlu, another big veteran contender for the industry that is still going pretty strong, has been the standard for "investigation" gameplay for nearly 50 years, but it's just a Lovecraft hack of RuneQuest, which was designed for, you guessed it, fantasy dungeon crawling. That's why even though CoC adventure modules do tend to play pretty well with Eureka, most of them are still structured as a short line of like 1 or 2 clues to follow to get the PCs into a spooky scary enclosed dungeon-like monster-filled location as quickly as possible, and you have advice like (uncharitable hyperbole) "if the PCs get stuck, make evidence fall from the sky and land at their feet."

Plus, you have big "actual play" podcasts who really really champion the whole "ignore the rules when they get in the way of your pre-planned three-act-structure plot" and the mega-monopolgy with marketing money making it a selling point that if you ignore the rules enough "D&D5e can do anything."

TTRPGs are also a relatively young artform without a ton of mainstream attention until pretty recently (which, as I mentioned, has been eaten up by D&D5e, Pathfinder, and big "actual plays"), and they are a hard one to participate in because playing a single TTRPG requires a ton of time investment compared to most other popular art forms like books, video games, music, and movies.

All this results in many, many people who play and even design TTRPGs literally never having played anything that wasn't WotC-era D&D, barely one or two degrees of separation from WotC-era D&D, or "it's not important if it's WotC-era D&D or not if you just ignore the rules!" Oh and PbtA and BitD players and designers, you're not immune to this! Those are just the "D&D5e can do anything!" of the indie scene and no they really really are not the best framework/engine for every single game ever!

For all the talent, study, effort, and respect for the artform across the A.N.I.M. team, not even we are immune to this. I haven't played nearly as many TTRPGs as I would like to have before calling myself a "learned" TTRPG designer. There might be some obscure game from 2004 I've never heard of that does some of Eureka's stuff already, that if I had read, I could have made Eureka even better by improving upon and learning from the mistakes of others rather than working in uncharted territory.

So, in conclusion, to use the film industry as an analogy, it's like if, during the past 10 years of every fucking mainstream movie being about superheroes, aspiring film makers, who have watched between 0 and 1 movies that weren't about superheroes, are having the "novel" idea of "what if.. a movie wasn't about superheroes!" and then trying to make a movie not about superheroes with no non-superhero experience or study. And Eureka: The Movie is good and innovative because A.N.I.M. Studios watched a measly 10 different non-superhero movies and studied film theory before making it.

[creekschaoscorner]

HELLO. ALL CANON INFORMATION ABOUT ANNA STANCZYK, YOU SAY? BOY DO I HAVE THE LOREDUMP PREPARED FOR YOU

(This is a full summary of Anna Stanczyk’s backstory. It’s long. I apologize for nothing and am completely willing to answer any followup questions you may have)

In the late spring of 1889, Konrad Stanczyk, his wife, and their pre teen daughter Anna immigrated to America from their home in Poland. Mrs. Stanczyk had recently suffered some sort of accident that left her without the use of her legs, and the whole family was still adjusting to her wheelchair. That December baby Erik was born, and Anna was gifted a diary for Christmas, a diary that would later become very important. Her maiden aunt Beatrice Coldwell visited for the new year and left again- she lived in the nearby city of Arkham, where she was quite the socialite.

1890 began, and Konrad’s behavior started becoming quite odd. He had been on edge before the new year, but he began to become dangerous, lashing out at his family, refusing to aid his wife in getting up and down the stairs. In turn, his wife fell ill, her health slowly declining. Anna took to sleep in an abandoned house she found in the woods. It was one night, out in this house, that she heard something coming from the nearby dilapidated church. She took a lantern and investigated the sound, and it brought her to the undercroft of the church- where she found a dug up grave, and a headstone reading “Neitsh Walder”. A voice whispered into her ear the words: “The Three Soldiers”.

It was soon after that she discovered her father nailing boards over the door of her mother’s room, and made the decision to flee. She bundled up her baby brother and a few of her belongings, and left in the night. She hitchhiked her way to Arkham. Anna was alone, frightened, and didn’t know where to turn. She made the choice to leave Erik on the steps of Arkham Orphanage- a choice she would forever regret. She went to go live with her Aunt Beatrice, lying and telling her aunt that her parents were aware of her location and that she was in contact with them via letter. It was while she was staying with her aunt that she met one Antoine De Foile, Beatrice’s butler, and they developed an almost father-daughter like relationship.

Over the course of the summer of 1890, Anna dedicated herself to research. She checked out a book from the Miskatonic Library on the final resting place of the Three Soldiers, and discovered the existence of an entity known as the Black Goat- an entity she began to see. She started to fear for her own safety. Her dreams were strange, frightening- she woke to find scratches on her arms and legs, that she was missing a nail. Her aunt started to grow worried about Anna’s increasingly odd behavior, and eventually discovered her diary. Beatrice believed Anna had gone mad. In a decision that caused her an immense amount of shame, she admitted Anna to Arkham Sanitarium, and wiped her hands of the whole affair.

Anna’s dreams did not stop once she was admitted into the Sanitarium. If anything, they intensified- she dreamed of the true entity behind this, Shub’niggurath. She saw her. The Woods of a Thousand Young. She dreamed of the ritual to come, and in her dreams met a man dressed all in black- a man who told her that the events she saw did not have to play out in that way. Together they devised a plan to put a stop to the ritual, for good. Anna recorded all of these details down in her diary- but the staff of the sanitarium attempted to take it away from her. In a panic, she sent it to the only family she had left. She sent it to her little brother.

Anna would remain in Arkham Sanitarium for 31 years. Over those years her mind slowly left her as she was continuously haunted by the Black Goat. It wasn’t until summer of 1921, when the moon turned red and the sky writhed, and madness overtook the streets. She was chased by a swarm of black crows through the halls onto the roof, where they coalesced into the shape of a man with glowing red eyes. The very events of a dream she had all those years ago, the night she ventured into the church undercroft. Anna said the same words she did then: “There is nothing you can say that will convince me you are here to help.”

But unlike in her dream- she did not turn and fall to her death. No, a young man with glasses perched on her face, who she hadn’t noticed before- held out pages of her diary to her, told her his name was Jarrett, and pleaded for her help. Slowly, she came back to herself, through the fog that had overtaken her mind. The man with glowing red eyes was not as she had seen him- no, he was only one Henry MacFarland. Anna, through tears, confessed that the answers to stop what was coming lay in her diary. Her diary, which was with her brother.

Henry, Frank, and Jarrett brought her down from the roof, and they rode together back to Frank’s apartment. There they encountered Antoine, and Anna and Antoine had a tearful reunion. Anna went off to sleep and was left in Antoine’s care, as the trio left to investigate what became of Erik Stanczyk.

The next time Anna awoke, it was on a slab in a cavern below 58 Pelican Lane, as she was being lifted by the tendrils of Shub’niggurath through the portal that had been opened. Antoine had been the leader of the cult she worked so desperately to stop all along. He intended for her to be the host of Shub’niggurath. An honor, in his eyes, but no different than a sacrifice. Henry flashed a coin and was taken as the host instead, Jarrett and Antoine fought, Jarrett’s throat was slit- Shub’niggurath was erased. Something else came through the portal instead. Something that wore yellow. Anna shut the portal on it and bound what remained to a book. She left that basement hand in hand with the young Sarah Cummings, and was found by the police wandering Pelican Lane

hey :) hope youre doing good!

I REALLY enjoy your noel design, and I noticed you draw him with a lot of scars (100% here for it). In your last Noel/Oscar art you drew him with scars around his wrists. Do you have thoughts on how he got those? I'm thinking either in the dreamlands or he got kidnapped during a case and was handcuffed or smth for a While

Anyway let me hear your thoughts !!

Definitely from his time in the dreamlands, he was bond at the wrists for a pretttyyyy long time (by like ropes or organic freaky tentacles or what have you) because that man was the most unruly prisoner the KiY had in the pits for sure

[blackberrysummerblog]

Hi all! I’m just out here being three weeks late with my 2024 Writing Round-Up, and thank you so much to @monbons, @forabeatofadrum, @confused-bi-queer, @rimeswithpurple, @nausikaaa, @prettygoododds, @ileadacharmedlife, @artsyunderstudy, @best--dress, @j-nipper-95, @roomwithanopenfire, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @imagineacoolusername, @mooncello, and @thewholelemon for tagging me! I hope I didn’t miss anyone, and thank you as well to everyone who’s been tagging me for Six Sentence Sunday and WIP Wednesday this month. Without getting too much into it, I am BURNT. OUT, and it’s making me retreat from even the things I enjoy the most, like writing and catching up on everyone’s beautiful fandom works.

But, I’m determined to make this round-up post, even if it takes me a couple of days to put together. There’s a lot here! Almost all of it was from COC, which I was hellbent on finishing this year, and did! Here’s the list, in chronological order, of all published writing for 2024:

The Field Trap, 1/2 (5272, M) This has been sitting unfinished for a bit, but I do anticipate it being completed. I discovered a real love for Watford-era fics toward the end of the past year, but it probably all began for me two years ago when I wrote Field Trip of Dreams, the prequel to Field Trap. At any rate, I haven’t forgotten the fic, and Field Trap may end up with an E rating in the second chapter.

Time Will Lie Down and Be Still (26,201, M) This is the fic I’m most proud of this year. It’s the result of my COBB collab with @rimeswithpurple, and it’s been such an inspiration to work with Arianna! I highly recommend the experience :D This fic has 3/5 chapters published so far, and I’m getting there with the 4th. I’ll share that Arianna finished the art for Chapter 4 the other day and it is STUNNING, so I need to get my part done! For anyone who doesn’t know, the fic is a retelling of the movie Practical Magic (I’ve never been able to get very far in the book, for whatever reason, so I wouldn’t count on the fic lining up with it). This one is close to my heart for many reasons, but I’ve especially enjoyed building Dev’s character and his relationship with Baz.

Absolutely everything else I published was for COC, and I’ll put it below a cut due to length. Thanks to everyone who read my work this year! As always, the output of this fandom is just incredible, and I’ve enjoyed being able to take it in as well as contribute a little myself. Happy New Year, everyone!

Something Old (1146, T) Simon finds something unexpected while clearing out space in the wardrobe.

Chosen (880, G) Agatha and Simon have just begun dating and Philippa attempts to engage her in a little friendly roommate squee. Agatha isn’t quite so sure.

I Hate You, Never Leave Me (2339, M) Simon and Baz have found a new and better way to settle their differences, by getting each other off all over campus. Will it evolve into anything more, however? (I love this one, honestly. Might have to someday write a more extensive version)

Greek (1565, T) Simon has to keep a very close eye on Baz in Greek class, for reasons.

Let Me See You (1205, T) Simon is the one to find Baz draining a deer in the forest instead of Agatha. His reaction is not what either of them was expecting.

Truth or Dare (2608, T) Does what it says on the tin—the gang play a game of Truth or Dare, and the dares reveal a little more truth than anyone expected. (Definitely not a groundbreaking take on the prompt, but I never really tire of reading truth or dare fics, and hoped readers would feel the same :P)

Gently, Gently (668, M) Simon and Baz spend the morning in bed, skiving off class and not regretting it at all. (I came to realize that an embarrassing number of fics I write either start out with the boys waking up in bed or that is the entire premise of the fic. “Waking up” is a weird fetish to have, but OK me, I guess)

Looking for Knives, Looking for You (1181, T) Baz reflects on all the wounds he and Simon have given each other over the years. (Despite the vicious sounding title and depressing summary, this one was meant to be sort of cute and sweet)

Hold You Safe (1015, G) At the start of Eighth Year, Dev and Niall’s relationship is still very new as they get some bad news from home.

Dinner (Guess Who’s Coming) (3525, T) It’s half term, and Baz’s parents want to take him to dinner. They invite him to bring a friend, but unfortunately for Malcolm, he pisses Baz off first, and Baz decides his guest will be Simon—the Mage’s heir, his family’s mortal enemy, and Baz’s undying secret crush. (As with nearly all my COC offerings this year, this fic was knocked out during my lunch break the day of, and it shows. It really could have stood to be longer and more developed, so maybe I’ll revisit it one day, since I did like the premise)

Stay with Me (878, T) It’s Eighth Year and Simon gets home late and injured from a mission. Baz arrives at a resolution. (I was a little baffled to get a comment about the Mage already being dead, since this fic takes place during the school year and makes mention of a very much alive Mage in multiple places. It was more of a statement than a criticism though, I think.)

A Charmed Life (1449, E) Baz and Simon have an utterly normal morning getting frisky in bed. (Again. Huh.)

A Horse Named Jane (736, T) Simon has that song stuck in his head again. The one Baz can’t stand. They work out a (sort of) compromise.

Sour and Sweet (3060, G) It’s Baz’s birthday and Agatha has just given Simon his walking papers. Oh no :P However, the breakup does little to lift Baz’s spirits. (This one has two chapters and filled two prompts, sour and sweet, natch. Chapter two’s summary is: Simon decides he needs to make something sweet for Baz’s birthday, even though he’s two days late and doesn’t know how to bake. Well, he’s got magic at his disposal, so things are sure to turn out just fine. :P)

Punk (828, T) Baz is making Simon join him for lunch with Fiona again, but Simon figures he’ll debut a new look & attitude. Will they actually make it to the restaurant? (I really enjoyed writing this one. Simon being frustrated with Fiona’s behavior and still being silly with Baz about it was just a happy place for me)

Surprise (733, M) Simon and Baz are engaging in one of their classic Mummers’ House tiffs. What will happen? :P (I did write a little surprise into this one, but it was very much in keeping with some of my favorite themes)

Cast in Fire (791, G) Simon comes to Watford and learns about how his roommate will be chosen.

Fluff and Nonsense (1627, T) The prompt is ‘fluff’ and did I once again take the opportunity to write a light-on-plot secret relationship fic about Watford-era Simon and Baz being cozy and silly in bed? Yeah, I might have. Simon is going home with Baz over the Christmas break. Not a lot going on here, they’re just really comfy and in love.

Pieces of Me (1557, M) Baz has been having nightmares. Simon comforts him and encourages him to open up.

The World Was Open (956, T) Agatha and Niamh attend Simon and Baz’s wedding, and Agatha overhears another guest making a snide remark.

Find Me (2374, M) Eighth year at Watford was unremarkable, and Simon and Baz last saw each other when they graduated. Seven months later, Dev and Niall drag a pining and protesting Baz out to a club for a night of drinking and dancing, but there’s a familiar face behind the bar. Simon Snow is serving drinks, and worse, he’s flirting with a Baz lookalike. What will happen :P (This was yet another fic that could have been developed a little more, but I was still happy with the result overall)

Warm Spell (1795, M) Goatherd Simon has been almost-encountering a beautiful stranger for several weeks now, but one hot summer day, they finally meet.

Lost and Found (575, G) The boys go shopping together and Baz temporarily loses Simon, but it’s all pretty plot-free :P

Truce (1101, M) Simon pesters Baz while he’s trying to study, and needs to learn a lesson. Will they be able to call a truce? (This one was where the trouble began—I changed my settings to allow comments from unregistered users, because I like to fuck around and find out, I suppose. And find out I did! Luckily, the rude comment I received took aim at some writing element that didn’t even make sense for this particular fic, and I quickly realized it was a bot. Not long after, I started getting comments on other fics as well, all very nonspecific to the fandom, characters, and genre. I’m so sorry because I know it upset a few readers who were very kind to clap back and reassure me, and I changed my settings back so that it wouldn’t happen again.)

Savour (1189, T) Simon has been away on one of his missions for the Mage, and Baz has been awaiting his return by leaving out plates of food in their room every night. (Bot’s review: “the worst fic in the fandom”. It’s not even the worst fic in my own oeuvre, so joke’s on you, guy XD)

We Were Always Together (2239, T) During cotillion class, Simon is forced to dance with Baz. The horror! (I flipping loved writing this. Full on had a blast and Would Write Again)

Let It Snow (925, M) It’s almost time for Christmas break at Watford, and it may not turn out as the boys planned. However, thanks to a spell gone wrong (or very right) it may yet work out for the best :P

Always (551, G) It’s Christmas Eve and Baz has just finished putting the kids to bed. Simon is putting the finishing touches on the Christmas tree.

Something New (990, T) Simon and Baz have a little tiff near the end of eighth year, but it’s not fated to last long. I’ve written a lot of secret!relationship Watford era fics for COC this year, some that could go together and some that were in separate universes. It’s been so much fun to write about the boys sneaking around, but this is…something new. :P (In which I was very pleased with myself for how I wrapped things up in accordance with the prompt. I really, really enjoyed COC this year :D)

Thanks for reading! I’m sure most everyone has already made their own round-up posts, but consider these no-pressure tags and hellos: @valeffelees @stardustasincocaine @bookish-bogwitch @facewithoutheart @c0nsumemy5oul @jasonfunderberkerthefrogexists @tender-ministrations @basiltonbutliketheherb @ghostpepperworld @larkral @letraspal @cows4247 @fiend-for-culture @palimpsessed @hushed-chorus @shrekgogurt @raenestee @cutestkilla @drowninginships @youarenevertooold @iamamythologicalcreature @beastmonstertitan @ic3-que3n @supercutedinosaurs @stitchy-queerista @alexalexinii @asocialpessimist @shutup-andletme-go @prettygoododds @ivelovedhimthroughworse @j-nipper-95 @wellbelesbian @bookishbroadwayandblind @orange-peony @papierhaikuphoto @martsonmars

[moodcrab]

Looks like we'll be getting jyggy with it...

Fixing Skyrim's Daedric Quests

Part III Jyggalag

Even on my second or third ever play through of Skyrim NEARLY FIFTEEN YEARS AGO I still fully expected to find a Jyggalag quest hidden somewhere in the world. His absence was something of an anticlimax for many, as The Shivering Isle was the highlight of Oblivion for a lot of players. Jyggalag being missing from the world in the 200 years since his separation from Sheogorath makes little sense, and Jyggalag doesn't do things that aren't perfectly logical. Either he was overlooked by Bethesda, which is sloppy, or there's an implication that the events of Shivering Isle had no real lasting effect other than the odd cheeky remark from Sheogorath hinting at being the CoC, which is underwhelming to say the least.

But, it does give me a completely blank canvas to write this post, as we are going to be completely ignoring the Creation Club addition. Anniversary Addition is not cannon. I would no more consider a mod to be canon than CC, which isn't a fair comparison as the average mod is more lore friendly than the best CC content, which not only broke lore and established canon but, on occasion, broke the plotlines to whole games. Better games. And it did so for the shallow reason of selling Skyrim AGAIN. I repeat, Anniversary Edition is not canon. Expect Scout Armour. That shit is fire.

Who is Jyggalag?

Jyggalag wasn't in Skyrim and was barely in Oblivion, so let's get to know him before we attempt to write a quest that might get into some heavy metaphysics.

Jyggalag is the Daedric Prince of Order in the sense of pure logical and statistical probability, not to be confused with Peryite whose realm is the Natural Order (you get sick, you die), in fact he has more areas of overlap with Jhunal, the Nordic god of mathematics, another unacceptably absent god in Skyrim. Jyggalag is the denial of both determined fate AND free will, everything that is fated and every decision freely made was already accurately and precisely predicted.

Your fate is 3+1

Your free will is 2+2

Either way, you are 4

That's who Jyggalag is. Cold hard numbers. Humourless, colourless, immensely powerful. The implication is that Jyggalag knew that his power would invite betrayal from his fellow Princes but would not deviate despite hating living as Sheogorath, that he knew full well that every Greymarch he'd do for millennia would inevitably be undone, but did them anyway, which must have been hell for him as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" is the definition of insanity. His own nature would have him both foreseeing this AND refusing to alter it, so we can add incredibly patient and relentlessly unyielding to his character breakdown.

*He is also, in my opinion, an aspect of Lorkhan, his mind to be specific, but as this is just a theory I shall leave this to one side for this quest, but if you're interested I have a blog about it that I'll link in the comments.*

Setting the Scene

In case you haven't read the rest of my "Fixing Skyrim" series, the game is now set only 64 years after Oblivion, not the vanilla 200+ years. So it hasn't been that long since Jyggalag was freed and it's somewhat more believable that he hasn't gathered a significant following on Tamriel yet. Also, Silus Visuius, the Imperial who runs the Mythic Dawn museum in Dawnstar, is no longer a man having a mid life crisis who got really into family history, he is the child of actual Mythic Dawn cultists who was indoctrinated and traumatized during childhood. This will be relevant later.

Quest: Restoring Order

After attaining a reasonably high level, if you happen to be walking around one of the following locations; The Library at the College of Winterhold, The Dwemmer Museum at Markarth or the class rooms of The Bard's College, you will find an area unlocked that wasn't previously there. If you wander inside you will find a library, and amongst its stacked corridors, a priestly, unassuming looking man in plain grey robes, sat at a table with an empty chair, presumably for you. Why these locations? Well they have a thematic link to logic and knowledge, but also they are areas you are unlikely to return to once completing their associated quests, which will probably be completed at a lower level, so the quest is somewhat hidden.

The man, you discover, is Dyus of Mytheria, the Chamberlain of Jyggalag. You sit and he explains who he is and the situation with Jyggalag, that he has recently been liberated and requires a new Mytheria, his Realm of Oblivion. It just so happens that a pocket realm of oblivion has recently been "vacated", Gaia Alatar, aka Mankar Camoran's Paradise. Well, "recently" if you're immortal, of course. The pocket realm has been rapidly dissolving into the endless sea of Oblivion, but has not fully collapsed yet, and there is still one from its glory days that lives. He directs you to Silus at the Mythic Dawn Museum.

Silus, who insists his museum is purely in the interests of history, is upset that everyone finds it to be in bad taste, so he's pretty eager to show you around. It's not difficult to get him to overshare, but you'll need a high speech level to get him to spill the beans on his fucked up family history, but he was indeed the child of Mythic Dawn Cultists and was the youngest member as a child. If you gain his trust he will show you a secret artifact that is usually off limits to the public because he had to do some dangerous and very illegal things to acquire them: The Bands of the Chosen, an item the CoC used when he destroyed Paradise, but lost them inside. There are two approaches to enlisting him. Using the information you learn from him and what is available in his museum/house, you can either convince him to that you are also a Mythic Dawn remnant so he will trust you, or threaten him with information that he is a secret Dagon worshiper.

You take him and the Bands of the Chosen to Dyus, who explains that as a devotee of Dagon and follower of Cameron, Silus's soul is still technically destined to go to Paradise when he dies. You have the choice of killing Silus and using a unique soul trap spell to piggy back his soul to what remains of Paradise, or, as he is now begging for his life, spare him and let him open a portal using his Mythic Dawn magics (which is how he got the Bands in the first place). Either way it only works if you wear the bands. Dyus will also give you a conjure Knight of Order spell.

You enter Gaia Alatar, which will be a bizarre half world, with bits of Ayleid like architecture floating around a black sea. You must fight your way past a unique enemy, the tortured souls of the Mythic Dawn, to a throne. Once there you must conjure and kill a Knight of Order, and place its crystal heart on the throne. The destroyed and chaotic world will transform around you into a white crystalline solid state, and Jyggalag himself will finally arrive. He will explain that the Knights and their hearts are his own creation, and therefore worked as "chaotic creatia" (an aspect of a Daedric Prince that can be used to mold a Plane of Oblivion in their image. The Plane is small now, but will soon thrive and overtake the infinite seas of Oblivion. He rewards you by transforming the Bands of the Chosen into white crystal gauntlets called The Hands of Order, which gives the wearer a chance of doing non elemental "crystal" damage when striking, a shard of crystal shall strike the opponent. This works even with hand to hand.

And that's it. Don't worry about Silus, I had no intentions of using him in my Dagon fix. I'll be honest I'm a little disappointed with how this one turned out, I've been coming back to work on it for a while and just wanted to get it posted. I did attempt to write actual dialogue for Dyus, Silus and Jyggalag but it wasn't great, so here it is and I hope you like it.

[ttrpgcafe]

Heya! TTRPG trick or treat, please! 🎃👻

This one's got a backstory, so stick with me.

When I first got into TTRPGs, I learned about the big 6: D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, Cyberpunk, WoD, and Shadowrun. Of those, I've still, to this day, only played 5, and Shadowrun has remained the odd man out, despite having probably my favorite setting of all of them after Pathfinder. Part of this is its reputation for being a really crunchy game, keeping me from getting players, and part of it was that it's a very crunchy game that explains its rules SO POORLY (in recent editions at least, I'm told 3rd is the best in this department) that I couldn't even really convince my friends to get over the hump because it's hard for ME to grok the rules.

For well over a decade, Shadowrun has been my white whale, always on my shelf, never my table. So I did what any other well meaning TTRPG player does when they have a setting they like but a system for that setting they hate: I looked at every hack on the planet for every other system.

So here's your treat: every Shadowrun hack I've found!

Up first, Runners in the Shadows by Mark Cleveland:

This is a Forged in the Dark hack for the Shadowrun setting that is probably one of the better ones for emulating the "crew going on heists and doing cool shit" vibes that Shadowrun tries really hard to say is its core. I'm a sucker for FitD games in general, I think the system is *so* elegant, and I struggle to find a system more suited for the setting (SR's own rules included) than Blades, so this one has to go at the top.

With that said, there are still plenty more!

I'm going to give 2 PbtA games a shout out here, the first I've played, the second I haven't, but have heard plenty about.

Up first: City of Mist!

"But that's not a shadowrun hack!" I hear you saying behind your screen, and you're almost right, it technically isn't, BUT it's asymptote certainly approaches shadowrun, for my math nerds out there. This is a game about the (literal) power of stories, about struggles against an unseen and unknowable force trying desperately to remove every semblance of magic from your life, and about the yearning to keep your mundane life despite, or maybe in spite of, your magical adventures. City of Mist proper is a fantastic gritty noir urban fantasy game that works wonderfully as the framework for an early 6th world setting with minor tweaks, but it's sequel: Metro Otherscape, leans into the Shadowrun of it all, adding a 3rd axis along which your character can struggle, being "noise". In Otherscape, you're balancing a mundane, magical, technological life, and trying not to let any of those three overwhelm your being. A lot of cyberpunk games try to say that cybernetics reduce your humanity in one way or another, but I think Otherscape does the best job at embodying that balance in a way that isn't deeply ableist in its messaging. It's ALSO the only PbtA game I actually LIKE.

Hot take: I can't stand Moves, they annoy me to no end, and needlessly complicate an otherwise brilliant system. I might make a follow up post if anyone wants to hear my deeply bad take, but for now, just know that I'm a ttrpg heretic, and we can move on.

Otherscape completely does away with moves, and instead just lets the MC and the players decide whatever is most relevant to the action being attempted! It solves almost every problem I've ever had with PbtA games, AND kicks ass as a shadowrun stand-in, so this also deserves a place at or near the top.

Second PbtA game: Shadowrun in The Sprawl. This one is a hack of The Sprawl, a PbtA cyberpunk game in its own right, SRiTS adds the setting and magic of SR to its formula, and that's all I know about either system, due to my aforementioned PbtA-phobia. I've included this one for thoroughness, not because I have any stake in it.

Most of the other hacks I've seen use generic systems like Fate, Savage World, Cypher system, Genesys, and a hero system hack I've heard a bit about but can't find anywhere. All of this is to say that there is a wealth of options for generic systems that try to emulate SR, and most of them are fine. The last game I'm going to talk about though uses its own system, its own setting, and manages to be completely, utterly unique while capturing the vibes of SR so well that I'm still a little in awe at how well it does all of the above. I'm also not 100% certain it's a particularly good game, but the fact that I'm unsure about it should tell you that it's definitely still better than SR proper, because I KNOW that system is bad.

Without further ado: NewEdo

NewEdo is fascinating to me in that it feels like the same jump from Shadowrun that 3rd edition D&D made from 2e, or even the same kind of jump from 3rd to 4th, where you can clearly see the spine of the game it's evolving, but almost every other part of the system has been changed and improved in new, interesting ways that can still be used to tell VERY similar stories, but has its own identity at the same time. I mentioned that City of Mist is Asymptotic to SR earlier, and I stand by that assessment, but I'd say that NewEdo is closer to a parallel line, or a tangent from SR's line, if we're using the same terminology. To get into the nitty gritty, NE uses a system the author describes as "Crunchy lite easily managed", which amounts to a priority system during character creation very similar to the one SR uses, but with each tier you can select having pretty impactful ramifications for your character going forward. The easiest example is the modifications priority, at its top tier, you basically make a mythical creature into robo cop for your character's ancestry, but at its absolute lowest tier, your body actively rejects any and all implants, such that your character will NEVER have implants. On the same note, cyberware is handled REALLY well, with your body only being able to handle so much at a time, but otherwise the only ramification is a "biofeedback" line on your fate card, which I'll get to right now!

Almost every option your character picks gets added to a little personalized random d100 table on your character sheet called the fate card. This includes your character's crit rate, the possibility of a deity intervening on your behalf, or the aforementioned biofeedback line, which briefly fucks you up as you cyberware malfunctions. You get new lines on your fate card through picking certain character options, making impactful decisions during the story, and otherwise fulfilling the express goals of your character. The entire system kind of hinges on the fate card as a mechanic, which is weird, because I don't think I super love it, as it adds additional rolling to an already pretty dice heavy system.

Which brings me to the dice! New edo uses a d10 as its primary die for dice pools when rolling your characteristics like strength, speed, etc, but the rest of the polyhedral family for your skills. (D20 excluded) The skill system is a little funky, but I like it. Basically, each skill has a rank, which indicates how many dice it has, but each rank is assigned a die, each having a different cost associated with it. So my swordsmanship could be rank 4, but what that really means is that I've got 1d6, 2d4, and a d8 that I get to add to my strength rolls every time I attack with a sword. As far as resolution, you total all of your dice together to try and hit a target number. I don't have the table handy, but it's something like 15 for a moderately challenging task, and up to 40 for a nearly impossible task. I dislike addition in this context because math at the table usually slows things down, but it looks like you're probably only rolling 2-5 dice at a time at the beginning, which isn't *that* bad.

You'll notice that the two major mechanics I've mentioned so far have received pretty luke-warm responses from me, and that sounds like I hate the system, but those aren't that makes me like (\love?) this system is the back end, the choices that happen during character creation, and the things that those choices let you do. Every skill is attached to feats that unlock at different skills, magic is a skill, and its feats unlock better relationships with the Kami in your repertoire (magic is up next, I promise) and your class (path, they call it) doubles as a way to tie your character to the world, with each being associated with an in world faction which gives your character an immediate stake in the world and their community. It's a lot, but it all comes together to make something greater than the sum of its parts.

The last thing I want to talk about is the magic system, because I found it deeply interesting, as it's one of the very few skill based magic systems I've interacted with, and one of my favorites on a narrative level. Instead of spells or spell schools, your character instead develops relationships with Kami, and each new "order" or "type" of Kami your character gets access to represents them finding out how to supplicate, make an offering, or otherwise convince a given Kami to do a certain effect. If you have a relationship with the fire Kami (that's plural, not singular), then your character has learned that their local fire Kami really like a certain type of hot bun, so they offer them that hot bun after a scene where they invoked those kami, to maintain their relationship. Mechanically, this works instantaneously, you simply make a roll on your "Shinpi" skill, invoke whatever "rote" you want to use, and the relationship building is left for the GM and player to work out at the table.

(That's the last I have to say on the game itself, but I would ask anyone who has read the game and is more intimately familiar with Japanese culture to tell me if the game feels respectful to that culture, because I truly don't know, and the book doesn't list any sensitivity consultants. The author is Canadian, but spent many years sailing to and from Japan as a professional sailor, so idk. )

I guess the moral to this post, if there is one, is to acknowledge when a system or setting has faults, but learn from them, and don't ignore the good or cool stuff that's there! It might inspire you to make some amazing shit like City of Mist, Metro Otherscape, or New Edo, all of which, their relationship to Shadowrun aside, are fantastic games in their own right! (NewEdo is still up in the air, but it has its teeth in me, and that has to count for something)

That ends my trick or treat, thanks for asking!

[otherpeoplesheartachept-2]

Year in Review

Thank you @stitchyqueer @ileadacharmedlife and @nausikaaa for the tags <33

It was nice to reflect on the year, I've been feeling shit lately and a bit like I didn't do anything for the past 12 months, but going back through my camera roll and stuff was a nice reminder that I actually did exist this year! yay

this post ended up being quite long so I'll put it under a cut

January: that all being said, January was pretty unremarkable lol

Febuary: this month is my gfs and my sister's birthdays :) I made the shirt for my sister and the Rauisuchus tiradentes for my girlfriend.

March: In March my girlfriend and I got two ferrets Dolchii (on the left) and Gluppii (on the right)!!!

My gf had been wanting more ferrets for a while (she already had one) so we got some! These guys are so sweet and silly and hyper. I love them so much. I also spend SO MUCH TIME playing Stardew Valley because of the update. (And not to brag, but on the new game file I started for the update, I completed the community center in the 1st year and unlocked ginger island in the 2nd year, and then essentially stopped playing for the rest of the year lol)

April: I wrote Stink Bug for the Carry On Sapphic Week. The rest of this month was sad, as my girlfriend's ferret Scooby passed. He was quite old for a ferret, and we kind of knew his time was coming, but my gf and Scooby had been best friends for eight years so it was a really hard time for her. He was such a good pet and friend and he's missed deeply

May: This month was not a whole lot better. Of course we were still mourning Scooby. And I spent most of May having the worst asthma attacks of my life. It was very stressful and added on top of all that, we had to move out of our apartment the next month, but because my lungs were so bad, I could barely pack anything.

June: Asthma was still doing its best to ruin my life, and we had to move!!! This move was genuinely so awful. So much went wrong, I spent like three days straight carrying boxes and furniture up 2 flights of stairs, I couldn't breathe, I was broke, and there are still some things I have not found since unpacking so I fear they are lost forever. on the upside, Dolchii and Gluppii very much enjoyed running around an empty apartment lol

July: July is usually busy but fun, it's my birthday, my nieces birthday, and my anniversary, but this year I got covid for the first time, so no birthday or anniversary celebration for me. Surprisingly and thankfully (with my lungs being as they are) I wasn't too affected by covid, it was just like a flu for me. So I made a lot of pixel art with nothing else to do while quarantining. I made this art of the main CO gang, the tiny mall wizard, the Smiling Friends gang that I never posted, and a rolly polly animation

August: this month was chill. The highlight was when I went camping at the coast and saw a weevil irl for the first time ever!!! I love bugs so much

September: My family and I went to an aquarium, a raptor center, and I found this really cool rock shop on the coast that I'd never been to before. I bought this tiny trilobite there. I also started playing Fields of Mistria which I quite enjoy.

October: HALLOWEEN!!!! my gf had the idea of us being like dnd characters for Halloween, so we got to work. My sister and I spend ages sewing a really sick cloak for my gf to be a wizard (and I'm realizing I have no picture of said cloak, but you have to believe me, it's cool lol) and i made some foam armor and painted myself green to be an orc. Unfortunately my girlfriend was sick on Halloween so we didn't get to wear our costumes together:( my sister got this lovely pic of me in mine tho. I also drew Egg Guy this month lol

November: I spent November prepping for the carry on countdown, posting Something Borrowed, Daydreaming, and If I were Him, if He were Me, and of course, being a mod for this event!!!

December: I managed to work on the coc and make people Christmas gifts this month! I made my sister a banana slug patch, and fixed the gar I gave her last year that she broke lol, I embroidered a little teacup for my mom, and made some felt casts and band aids for my niece to play doctor/vet with her stuffed animals. and I posted Lamb art, Are They Even?, Simon as a vessel, Teeth art, Brobelove Stardew au art, and a Carry On cross stitch. I think my favorite from the coc was my Lamb art, but the cross-stitch is a close second.

I feel like I spent a lot of this year just surviving, and I'm trying to remind myself that that is okay. and I am proud of myself for the art I did manage to make.

Going in to the new year, I want to be more consistent with journaling; I made 4 entries in my 2024 journal. I also want to continue working on pixel art and to get back in to embroidery more.

I hope you all are well and have a good 2025 :)

tags and hellos:

@that-disabled-princess @srirachafilledbees @dreamingkc @carryonmylovelies @jasonfunderberkerthefrogexists @the-beard-of-edward-teach @sillyunicorn @martsonmars @shemakesmeforget @witch-of-the-sands @thewholelemon @excalisbury @facewithoutheart and anyone else who'd like to participate or I have forgotten your username!

[rainyraisin]

you should rant about your non tmnt related characters/OCs (if you got any) :3

You say this as if I have developed any of my OCs since I got into TMNT/j

I do actually have a decent amount of characters I've been working on for like over a year now but the really annoying thing is they're for a game @aaronymous999 and I are making 😭😭 so whilst I could talk about them it would be very very boring bc I can probably say about 5 non-spoilery things about each of the characters I'm allowed to talk about lmao- but!!! May as well :3 (cutting this bc this is gonna be hella long)

One of the two protagonists you can pick from is Èmile Dion! He's 27 and a bi cis male (ew cis people/j). He's also French Canadian, and he is a lil bit of a con artist. He made a living off of it whilst he was on his own. Silly little street rat man. He's a little naive when it comes to people he trusts or loves, which is ultimately his down-fall (theres so many endings where this cooks him lol and its the whole reason his route happens), but otherwise he's pretty street smart. He's a lil cutie patootie and I love him 💖 We haven't decided on the character relationship chart yet since not all the characters are fully developed but I think he'd get along with Esi (team TEO), Eun-Jae (team TEO), and Renata (team COC). He'd only really be around Renata most of the time though as he's COC, and both she and Eun-Jae are pretty hard to get through to lmao, he's not really one for giving in though.

(Please excuse the old art throughout this post, only Eun-Jae and Heaven have had recent art, even though almost all of them have been designed for ages)

Talking about Heaven next bc even tho it would make more sense to talk about the participants and then him or him then the participants. Uh. This is my post.

Heaven is one of the hosts! He's 17, mixed race (Filipino, Chilean, Taiwanise) and a pan ace cis male. He works for COC and has been with them a very long time. I can't say too much past that bc spoilers but he's very energetic, a silly guy! He's prone to mood shifts and kinda has anger issues but you wouldn't know it by looking at him. He knows when to be serious despite his naivety and general demeanour.

Renata is 26, Hispanic (havent decided where shes from yet), and a lesbian cis woman. I cant really talk about Renata much bc she just. Doesnt have that much planned for her yet but she's neat!!!!!! Scene girl!!! She was actually the first character I designed out of all the participants, as her design was meant to be used for something else in the game but I loved it so much she became one of the main characters lmao- honestly she probably does have lore I can talk about but I keep forgetting to write stuff that Aaron and I talk about on call down 😭😭 the only stuff that I could talk about is spoilers... cries. I can mention that she's morally grey ig? Each team has 2 characters that are morally grey, morally good and morally bad however this doesn't fully dictate their actions, it's just kind of a template for their character. Characters who we put under morally good can still do fucked up shit and the reverse is also true, its just that the morally grey ones are more of a toss up than the others.

Anyway look at my daughter

Zedekiah is the last of the COC participants I made!!!! He again doesn't have much planned for him, but look at how neat he is!!! Honestly he might get redesigned. Again. But this is him for now!!! His hair is fun to draw :3

EUN-JAE IS NEXT!!!!!! TEO TIME!!!! She's very silly (I say despite her being one of the more serious characters). She's 23 and Korean! Her identity isn't really something she's thought over, and if she has well, she isn't going to tell anyone anyway. I wish I could yap about her mode but spoilers... cries...

AMMON HATCH!!!!! HE'S 20, GREEK AND RELIGIOUSLY TRAUMATISED AS HELL!!!!! PROBABLY QUEER IDK WAIT TILL THE GAME COMES OUT. WHAT A CREATURE <3 killing him. I don't rlly like this drawing of him icl so have his original sketch too

AND ESI GRACE!!!!! SHES 19, GHANAN AND A CREATURE AS WELL <3 She and Ammon are definetly friends I think they'd stick together and try their best to drag Eun-Jae into their silliness. If Esi wasn't around TEO would rip each other apart (well, earlier at least. They'll probably do it anyway despite her presence).

I dont like her digital drawing so have her original sketch <3

Talking about this guy last bc I havent drawn him in a year and I hate the one piece of art of him I have- River! He's 24, British and Japanese, and pan :3 He's sort of an assistant to Heaven ig? He helps with all the simpler stuff along with TEO's assistant, Malachi, mostly stuff regarding the participants and not the big things that Heaven and Ophelia have to worry about. He sees Heaven as more of a little brother than anything, which makes the power dynamic kinda goofy, but he deals with it. I'll redraw him soon but have this god awful sketch for now-

That's all the characters that I'm allowed to talk about 😭😭😭 there are MANY more but their simple existence is massive spoilers so. You'll see them one day. THANK YOU FOR THE ASK DIB‼️‼️‼️🥺🥺🥺💖💖🌸🌸🌸

[snowthornes]

hi i kinda understood where u were coming from with this whole mess before that most recent ask but now i'd like advise you to get out of this server because you seem decent ? i was in a circle just like this one for a different online game and it was just a circlejerk of the most negative people and opinions and a toxic place and i don't look back on that time fondly at all! actually it kind of weighs on me and this is presumptuous of me because you're a stranger but you seem like a nice person. i fully recognize this is weird of me and i hope i'm not out of line but all of this writing and tumblr stuff is far less important than being kind 2 people and not making fun of their mental illnesses or whatever they're going through

Hi! First off, I'd like to say that I appreciate your concern, as well as the courtesy you've extended through your ask! I'd like to set the record straight, though: if you're talking about the hate server that the anon mentioned in the CoC ask, I genuinely have no idea what that is about. I've never heard of it, have never had contact with it, and certainly have no plans of joining this elusive server.

I weighed in on the discussion because I felt it was important that this plagiarism issue, no matter how 'small' or 'insignificant' it may seem, wasn't allowed to just slip by unnoticed. The IF community is something that many people hold dear, and plagiarism is just not something that should be allowed to infiltrate its circle unchecked just for the reason of 'being kind'.

Respect and kindness is important, but so is lending voice to the gaze of good faith. As an audience, we have the right to speak up when we feel that something as big and ethically damning as 'plagiarism' is being committed, and it is the duty of the creator to address and settle these concerns with logic and rationale.

The lines between audience and creator can vastly blur on tumblr, especially in the interactive fiction community, but I do hope that people will be able to voice their concerns without having to fear others personally attacking them or tearing them down.

As for the issue of making fun of someone's mental illness: I truly regret that ever happened. That crossed a personal line, and I apologize that it ever happened — I would have much preferred that things stayed civil.

Thank you for reaching out. I hope you have a good day.

[zapperman26]

Player's 8-Step Guide to Character Creation and Roleplaying

Being a player in any Tabletop role-playing game (TTRRG) comes with an immediate hurdle: making your character! Choosing your character options and rolling up stats is easy; Deciding on the type of person, attitude, goals, backstory, etc., and how all that will play out when role-playing is more challenging. Coming up with a unique character in which you intend to roleplay, most likely for extended durations, is never easy and can leave one wondering where to start. To help new and old role-playing game players, here is a ten-step guide to help craft your characters into purposeful, meaningful, and enjoyable additions to any campaign!

Step 1: Understand What Kind of Game You Are Playing

An excellent place to start is understanding the game and campaign you are making a character (or Importing an existing one) about!

At the most basic level, understanding and reading up on the TTRPG system you will be playing should be your starting point. It allows you to understand the options to craft your character(s) and grasp how the game will be viewed and played.

 For example, Dungeons and Dragons, even in campaigns where combat is less the focus, is constructed with it in mind down to its very bones; every class features extensive combat abilities and utilities  (even the most support-focused like Bard or Artificer), and that, naturally, would steer players to design their characters with that expectation in mind: battle. 

In contrast, Call of Cthulhu, a horror RPG system based on the HP Lovecraft Mythos, is built around social interaction, research, and the player's insignificance in the face of the unknown. Most player options are more specific and modern, with skills like accounting, psychology, and occultism that point more towards a game of investigation, attempting to outwit, outrun, and outlive the Lovecraftian horrors, with combat only as a last resort. 

A character made for one system, like D&D, will, most likely, be very different than a character created in another, like CoC, due to what said systems focus on as a game, one being more combat-focused and the other more roleplaying-focused. 

That is not to say a person can’t make a character that goes against or actively breaks the mold of the system present, but intentionality is vital. To intentionally break the rules in a way that works requires a firm understanding of what got broken in the first place. Such as playing a Warlock in D&D with Intelligence as their casting ability instead of Charisma or having Cthulhu Mythos skill points at a starting level in Call of Cthulhu. With all that in mind, establishing a firm grasp of the system you intend to play allows the character(s) you make to have the most options available and provides a better experience of how it fits (or breaks) within the game’s system. 

Once you know how to play the game(s), what the Game Master (GM) intends for you in the campaign comes next!

Step 2: Collaborate with Your Game Master and Players

Knowing the system of the game you are playing is the first hurdle; after that, knowing what kind of campaign your Game Master has in mind for you all and how your fellow players intend to interact with it is what you should learn next.

A campaign, in its length, in-house rules, setting, themes, worldbuilding, etc., is as essential to consider when constructing your character as the system rules. Every GM will have varying levels of customized elements for their campaign, no matter how inflexible the game system is. They could use a custom gameplay mechanic, setting, or even rules, so getting a good grasp of those changes and the base game (as discussed earlier) is the recipe for success when making your character at the most foundational level. It also never hurts to allow your GM to give feedback on your character to help fit into the campaign as best you can.

The relationship between GM and player(s) should always be open and receptive to what all parties can get from the games they play together. An excellent way to make that happen is collaborating with the GM during the process of coming up with and creating your character. You can make sure your ideas are both acceptable and fit in with the campaign, but also give your GM feedback on story ideas for your character and try to weave your backstory into the narrative they plan. Whatever a GM decides to help you with during character creation, your working together should ideally enhance your involvement in the campaign with your fellow players. Players whom you should also work alongside when making your characters.

Your fellow players are undoubtedly in the same boat as you, trying to develop a fun character as best they can, so why not work together? Your mileage will vary on how far you can take potential collaboration: it can be as simple as all mutually choosing unique character options and roles for a more balanced group of PCs or go as far as all to create backstories that feature each other somehow! In any case, working with your fellow players can offer much extra value for your mutual enjoyment of the game!

Naturally, this step works best for a campaign with friends or family who are easy to approach and collaborate with. Plenty of campaigns you might play will be with total strangers, but that should not stop you from trying to understand the GM's expectations (and how to meet them) going in or even trying to bounce an idea or two off a fellow player(s). 

Where do you go from here, now that you know the rules and have insights from the GM and fellow Players? It is finally time to roll your character up! 

Step 3: Roll Up Your Character!

Past all those rules, collaborations, and planning, it's time to roll up the stats and write down your character's abilities!

When and how you go about this will vary depending on how your GM wants it done. Sometimes, it's okay to roll up your character independently; some prefer to do it in a Session Zero or even a private  one-on-one, but you need to roll up your character to play!

It might seem like a know-brainer step that does not require a guide to tell, which is not wrong, but what choices and options you take should be done with seriousness. At its core, it is a game, and you should always pick what you want to play, but it is also the basis of your character. 

The stats, skills, powers, etc., you give your character will be the basis on which you interact with the game and express your PC. The following steps will go over not just how to make the best of your choices when you first roll them up but also how to make the best of what you don’t have available to you and when it's best to leave intentional gaps in your character. 

The first place to start is to see how your stats and skills can inform how you write and express your character in roleplaying. 

Step 4: Play Into Your Strengths, Embrace Your Weaknesses

Most Tabletop roleplaying games come with a collection of statistics, abilities, and skills (be they random or actively decided on), and those choices will make up the foundation of your characters in some way or another, so lean into it during roleplay.

 A typical example of character statistics is the classic six RPG attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma, with one or more thrown in depending on the game (if not the names changed around), but these are relatively ubiquitous and easy to translate into your character’s backstory and how they roleplay. 

For example, suppose you're playing a Fighter in D&D who leans heavily into physical attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution) but lacks the remaining mental attributes. In that case, you can easily write them and roleplay them as a “brain over brown” dullard with little going on in their heads. The inverse of that example, the stat block could be a Wizard, a scrawny intellectual with a big personality, but could get knocked over by a hamster if they got in a fistfight. These are two examples on the extreme ends of the spectrum, but they represent how you can express yourself by how your character’s stats ended up. 

Your stats (and how you play them in roleplaying) also roll into the class/profession/role(s) you pick for your character, be them fantasy classics (wizard, paladin, bard), more modern professions (investigator, artist, athlete), or futuristic roles (starship pilot, mad scientist, cyborg), you can then add your stats into the equation to make something exceptional!

 You could make a good-natured musician with little brains but a charismatic presence and strong body, an anti-social investigator with a sharp mind and mean right hook, or a brilliant mad scientist with incredible stage presence but little athletic talent. The statistics and the class you pick go hand in hand, so make something fun with them!

There also exist plenty of systems that don’t use the attributes mentioned above or express them way differently (EX: Slayers, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk Red, etc.), but depending on how the statistics and player options operate, the above advice should still be just as applicable despite the differences. 

In short, using the statistics and skills you are best and worst at to their fullest, in conjunction with The type of character role you are playing, is a surefire way to make a unique and fun character! 

Of course, when coming up with something “unique,” it never hurts to get inspired, especially from your favorite media!

Step 5: Don’t Be Afraid To Be Inspired

Nothing is 100% original, and you should not place the expectation on yourself that your character(s) have to be either! A crucial part of the creative process is taking what you like most from other art/media and slowly evolving it into something that fits your style, and your characters should also be something like that. 

Do you have a favorite protagonist in a fantasy series, like Harry Potter or Geralt of Rivia, that you like and want to try and make your spin on for your character in D&D? Go for it! Make a wizard who is the chosen one of a prophecy from a wizard school or a blood hunter with sorted affairs with sorceresses! Do you want a tragic backstory where your father is secretly the evil enforcer of an evil space empire, like Star Wars? Go for it! It might seem like stealing or unoriginal, but realistically, none of these character ideas or story beats will be 100% replicable and change almost immediately when put into practice. No matter how derivative, these concepts you place upon your character(s) will get filtered through your tastes, roleplaying sensibilities, and the campaign setting, then swiftly morph into something wholly new and, ideally, you as a result!

Inspiration is always the starting point for any great idea. Never feel bad or fake for trying to make something just because it resembles something that came before. You can always do whatever you can to make the details that matter, big and small, something different until it becomes something new. 

You do not need to fill in every little detail or use every possible change at the onset; sometimes, it is better to leave some gaps open so you and your character can grow as you play the game. 

Step 6: Allow For Improv and Intentionality in Roleplaying

Improv is one of the core elements of all roleplaying games, so lean into it! Any player can relate to having to come up with some stray character detail, quirk, or backstory element on the fly, and, quite frankly, it is something you should aim for when making your character(s). 

A roleplaying character is not the same as a main character in a novel; it does not require complete intentionality of actions and a slew of backstories to back that up. What matters most is enough details to make your roleplaying meaningful and engaging in the campaign. 

The amount of detail can range from (contradicting what was said above) a long-winded backstory you put countless hours into or half a page of bullet points you fill in the blanks for as you play. It varies from person to person what they feel constitutes a backstory worth using for proper roleplay, and there is no wrong answer, but what matters is the ability to be flexible with it and allow for improvisation. No backstory, no matter how well thought out and intricate, will have covered everything that might come up (EX: You wrote a 30-page backstory for your warrior where his family died and he was drafted to be a child soldier but did not write down what his favorite kind of pastry was when you encounter a baker who asks), and that is okay! Make it up! Live in the moment of roleplaying!! That is exactly how these games are meant to be played and, quite often, allow for organic expansions on the characters, making them even more fun to play!

Conversely, having details thought up for your character that you actively seek to use with intentionality never hurts. A character that is, frankly, just a pile of statistics and items with no backstory that you play with at the whims of what is directly in front of you is not a roleplaying character. That description would be the best fit for an storyless avatar in a video game like World of Warcraft, tacitly involved in an overarching narrative but not truly a participant in a meaningful capacity. Stats are not enough. It takes some measure of personal connection, stakes, and investment in the conflict(s), world, and NPCs to make a roleplaying character something that is both real and active in the campaign. 

Circling back to “just write the exact amount of backstory you feel is most comfortable,” at least some elements you can navigate your character would be the play. The backstory elements can be as simple as, for example, when a mad scientist character got their start in their profession, some friends and enemies they have (described in single sentence blurbs), and an assortment of topics they are interested in and have opinions on which they prattle on when prompted. That is not a lot, but it is enough to have some connection to how the campaign unfolds, as the GM, ideally, can either use those details to make the character feel involved in the plot or at least collaborate with you to make it work for how the campaign is unfolding.

Improvisation and intentionality, as it pertains to a Roleplaying character in a TTRPG, is a tightrope walk. You need to keep a good balance on just enough details to make the path more meaningful and structured but enough slack to have fun with it as you move forward. 

You are, ultimately, playing someone you want to keep moving forward and have fun with matters most for your character. So, make a character you want to play above all else!

Step 7: Make A Character You Want to Play and Be Played With

In a game, you, shocker, want to play something you enjoy! It is the same for a TTRPG character, in their gameplay elements, story, and how you interact with fellow players and vice versa. You should always be conscious of that fact from the moment you roll up a character to the end of a campaign.

At the most basic level, selecting your character’s classes/professions/skills, whatever the game may allow you to choose, you should go for something you would personally enjoy. You might not know if the choices you made to play with were a good fit, so try to change them if you can! Any good GM will allow some wiggle room to change or even replace your character if given a good enough reason. Do not be afraid to communicate your needs in the gameplay of a TTRPG. The gameplay is half the battle; the story is the next, and you can also have some say. 

No matter what sort of system or campaign you are in, you (as your character) still engage with it and should steer things in the direction you enjoy most. It is not uncommon for a campaign to go in a direction or two you might not like, for example, an NPC from your character’s backstory represented in a way you don’t like or NSFW elements becoming more commonplace, and in those instances do not be afraid to speak up! Talk with your GM and fellow players and either make sure the game going forward steers clear of the things you might not have been okay with or at least tone it down to help your overall enjoyment. Roleplaying games are a group activity, and everyone’s thoughts and opinions should have weight when deciding how things play out. A fact that you should also be cognizant of with how you play.

While championing sticking up for what you enjoy and avoiding what you don’t, the above paragraph is not a license to disregard what your fellow players and GM like. Remember, it is a group game, and EVERYONE has a valid voice in the proceedings; ergo, you must consider how you present yourself through your actions. Suppose you are roleplaying or making decisions actively detracting from everyone else's fun or bringing forth elements (like the ones in the previous example). In that case, you should be open to hearing them out and changing your approach to playing, just like how you’d want them to do the same.

In short, TTRPGs are about having fun, and you must do what you can to facilitate that and not hinder your fellow player’s fun in the process. 

Step 8: Have Fun!

As we just went over, playing a TTRPG is all about fun, and, for a player, that starts with the character you play. These steps and tricks aim to make creating a player character and roleplaying them much more straightforward and ( ideally) fun by giving you some good tips and tricks to clarify the process.

Conceiving a roleplaying character, one you intend to put your heart and soul into, takes time and effort. It requires a firm grasp of the rules you intend to play and some help from your GM and fellow players. You also need to embrace what you have and make the best of what you don’t, using what you are passionate about to give it life and being sure to behave like you’d want your fellow players to act. All of which, while daunting, can be done after using this guide!

Ideally, by reading this guide, the creation and execution of your roleplaying game characters will be all the more manageable, and your TTRPG experiences will be all the more memorable for it!

[rottenshotgungames]

Alright, let’s talk about what everyone’s here for: cool powers

Footfall Devlog 2

This Devlog will be covering the basics of what Footfall is and the challenges of making a game so heavily inspired by immersive sims.

So, without further ado:

What Is Footfall?

Footfall is an occult-industrial stealth-action rpg inspired by Dishonored, Mistborn, and Bloodborne. It aims to emulate the systemic ecosystem and emergent gameplay of immersive sims, particularly the fast, creative, movement-centric gameplay of Dishonored.

You play as Gifted of the Watchman, the god of stories and action. You are functional demigods, arcane in nature and forever part of a great cosmic play of chaos and change.

Some basics about how the game is played before going forward:

You get 3 Action Points at the beginning of your turn, each action point representing a period of 2 seconds.

If you do something cool, succeed on a check by 1 or less, or arrive to a dangerous Encounter fashionably late, you can get a point of Adrenaline. Adrenaline allows you to take an extra Action—even on another creature’s turn—or increase the size of the die you roll on a Check. You can only have up to 3 Adrenaline at a time.

Movement is measured in ~3 foot increments labeled "Strides." These are about the average length of a walking stride, and tend to be measured with one's arm.

There’s an interactive, yet digestible, physics engine at play. More about that can be found here.

The Question

The first question one must ask when creating a TTRPG about movement, and probably the easiest to answer, is how to make it interesting. When I say easy, I more-so mean that this is something you’re probably thinking about before you’ve even started writing anything down. This is a question you probably both asked and answered as part of the “I have a cool idea!” phase; at least, that’s what happened with me.

My answer was

Arcane Locomotion

During conceptualization, I decided a traditional class structure was right out. Instead I leaned toward a VtM-style power-centered progression system, with the various “Disciplines” (here called Gifts) covering individual forms of otherworldly movement. Because the spell system is the core of the game—something presumably every player character will be using—I decided that cost-based casting limitation (spell slots in D&D, sanity in CoC) would’ve been an exceptionally poor fit, and randomization limitation (disciplines in VtM, psychic powers in Traveller) has never sat well with me; I ultimately landed on a style of consequence-limitation using heat-management gameplay:

Entropy Quick Reference - Gained by taking the Power action. Cleared by taking an action without gaining Entropy. Once you have 3 or more, you take 2 damage and cannot use any powers for 2 rounds.

As for the powers themselves: First I’m going to provide an overview of the steps of conceptualization and implementation, then I’m going to walk you through the process of applying those steps to one of the Gifts, and finally I’ll show you the current state of each Gift (with some designer’s notes).

The process used is as follows:

Assign a unique form of supernatural movement, or an otherworldly ability that allows for unique interactions with one’s environment.

Identify the core niche of that ability, in what situations does it shine brightest? (i.e. Combat, Stealth, Support)

Create a base power (this one comes with your Xbox) that provides a type of mobility (e.g. social, hidden, group) within the established niche.

Create additional powers that support the Gift’s niche.

Playtest and identify weakpoints in powers and interesting additions to their capabilities.

Create Addendums that modify powers with those weaknesses and possible additions in mind.

Playtest again.

Design Note: A goal of this system is to create interactivity between powers—I want people to figure out cool and unique solutions to the problems they are presented, it’s a core aspect of the design ethos. That means that, during playtesting, a power doing something unexpected shouldn’t be flagged as a problem, it should be flagged as a success.

The Gift of Passage

1. Teleportation. This is gonna be our baseline power set, teleportation is what people think of when they hear “supernatural movement.”

2. Stealth. Teleportation, beyond getting people places quickly (or to places they normally can’t reach), is particularly suited for moving unnoticed.

3. Three aspects factored heavily into the design of this base power: 1.) Teleportation as a baseline. To represent this, this power resets your Momentum and Fall Height to 0. 2.) Teleportation as stealth. To represent this, not only does this power move you unseen, it actively degenerates enemy awareness. 3.) Teleportation as breaking rules. This one was pretty simple—you can teleport to a location without line of sight, so doors and walls can’t block your movement.

4. Two of the three additional powers are, at their base level of conception, just different forms of teleportation. One of them (Sharp Displace) allows you to swap places with another creature or object, and the other (Prepared Recall) is a normal teleport that reverts you back to your original position at the end of your turn. Both of these powers have stealth capabilities beyond Radio Motion’s removal of Notice, particularly Sharp Displace, which contains the following statement: “If you swap places with a conscious creature, make a Stealth check. On a success, the creature comes up with some sort of excuse as to why it isn’t where it was a second ago.” The exception to both of these rules is Flash Step, which act as a parry-and-riposte in short-teleport form (almost every Gift has one of these).

5.

6. During preliminary playtesting, one of the playtesters asked if “swapping positions with Sharp Displace also meant swapping momentums.” I immediately said, “No, obviously not,” but we both agreed that it would be incredibly cool and fun . . . so I added an Addendum that makes it so you can do that exact thing (Momentous Swap). This was the basic process for creating many of the Addendums.

7. Further playtesting has (so far) not revealed any problems. The Gift of Passage is strong in its niche, and sets itself apart from similar power sets (e.g. Gift of Doors).

Here’s the final product:

The Gift of Reaching

Supernatural Movement: Body extension

Niche: Combat, enemy positioning.

Design Note: This was one of two Gifts that had to undergo complete overhauls after testing (the other being Tempo).

The Gift of Pushing

Supernatural Movement: Kinetic projection

Niche: Combat, crowd control.

Design Note: This Gift is the most aggressive and directly combative. It also hasn’t been revisited in a while.

The Gift of Tempo

Supernatural Movement: Time manipulation

Niche: Assault, self-buffs and enemy denial.

Design Note: This Gift is one of two to be actively designed to limit its interactivity with other Gifts (the other being Possession). Time powers are REALLY difficult to balance.

The Gift of Doors

Supernatural Movement: Portals

Niche: Support, group and object movement.

Design Note: This is the gift that most heavily engages with the physics engine, and everyone who picks it up has an ungodly amount of fun (they also tend to be STEM majors).

The Gift of Shadows

Supernatural Movement: Shadow form and manipulation

Niche: Stealth, remaining hidden while acting upon one’s environment.

Design Note: This one is inspired by an old forum RP superhero character I had. It was also kinda lacking up until the recent light update—note to all would-be shadow-ability designers, they work better with light sources.

The Gift of Possession

Supernatural Movement: Entering and manipulating living creatures

Niche: Stealth, social. Hide in plain sight.

Design Note: Up until this point, every iteration of Dancing Puppet has been too powerful in combat and too weak out of combat. Adding the “No direct harm” clause has balanced it out quite a bit, but I’m still not happy with it. Gonna ask a player in the next playtest to take it in hopes that they might inspire some innovation.

The Gift of Mirrors

Supernatural Movement: Self duplication

Niche: Support

Design Note: Matthew Mercer made my favorite 5e subclass and I shall forever live in shame. I haven’t played D&D 5e in years, and I still love Echo Knight.

Conclusion:

There are two big lessons that I want to leave you with today:

Weaponize Playtesting.

Have your cake and eat it too.

When people think of playtesting, they often see it as solely a means to find flaws within their game or to reaffirm design decisions that they’ve made. If we extrapolate that idea—expand its scope—what we come to understand is that playtesting is a means of gauging which aspects of your game that players find engaging or frustrating, and if we look at it from that perspective then we can use playtesting data to determine how to make engaging additions. Sure, players don’t always know what they want, but even if we just look at how they’re playing we can see how they’re attempting to interact with the game and thereby deduce what additions to the formula might make the game more fun for them. This process is what I mean by Weaponizing Playtesting, using playtesting data to help plan how you want your game to develop in the future.

As for having your cake and eating it too, I have a sincere preference for classless games (I never really liked PbTA style Playbooks all that much either), but I understand the appeal of class based games. Classes give you structure, they give you a basic plan to follow in terms of how your character will develop all united under a connective theme. For new and experienced players alike starting with a class then building a character around it can be incredibly helpful, perhaps even inspiring; however, classes are ultimately restrictive, they require you to play within their rules—your understanding of your character’s capabilities will always be, by necessity, grounded in the abilities of their chosen class. Ultimately, I wanted the structural inspiration that classes can provide and the freedom of choice that comes with classless play—the Gifts were my solution, and I think they’ve done a stellar job of providing both.

Self Promotion:

Hey y’all, sorry for the short hiatus. Work has been killing me recently.

If you wanna check out my other games, and get updated when the Footfall free playtest goes live, follow me on Itch.io! If you want more devlogs, and more rpg design talk, follow me here or on twitter.

Either way, I hope you have a great night and a great day.

[a-crawling-chaos]

i have very vague knowledge of the harlanverse or whatever the coc games + malevolent are called (read: summaries on discord bc i was asking about the lighter, which is a whole other can of worms)

but basically is the tmagp universe kinda like coc game 2? an alternate universe where for some reason, because of some choice made, there's something fundamental missing. something that influenced all of the characters in the "original" world.

so it's just the same characters, on a different pathway? with different Horrors?

[rimeswithpurple]

Thank you for the tag @bookish-bogwitch & @ic3-que3n!

Good news! I finally designed my Christmas card! Bad news is I now have to carve it 😩 I’ve been block printing my family’s Christmas card for the last 7 years because I’ve become more sentimental about the holidays since becoming a parent and I can’t stop myself from being so goddamn extra. I even go so far at to mark the edition of my print run. A few of my friends and family get really excited for them and I like the idea that my loved ones receive a piece of my art every year. Designing it in procreate instead of layers of tracing paper was such a game changer! So, this is the finalized design:

Snickerdoodles are the first cookie we make during the Christmas season since I have all of the ingredients already in my pantry and it's super quick and easy.

I’m only doing a 2 layer reduction print because I really don’t have time this year.

I just finished my first test print:

Hopefully, I can knock these out by the end of the week and I can get back to COC! 🤞🤞🤞

Tags under the cut!

@valeffelees @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @youarenevertooold @iamamythologicalcreature @theimpossibledemon @theotherhufflepuff @thewholelemon @artsyunderstudy @alexalexinii @prettygoododds @fatalfangirl @facewithoutheart @stardustasincocaine @nightimedreamersworld @hushed-chorus @orange-peony @best--dress @leithillustration