#do you think ANY of the new cast know that the games channel used to do something called “GAME BANG”?

[tame-a-messenger]

Do you remember the video that made you a Smosh fan? For me it was definitely that one Nintendo rap Ian and Anthony did back in 2015 (I don’t remember when exactly I watched it but it was within a year of its release). I used to play that song all the time along with the classic assassin’s creed and Zelda. Idk if I watched their sketches first but it’s for sure my earliest memories.

Ok. So,

back when I first started watching Smosh I was much younger than I am now, and didn't try and keep track of time AT ALL. Which means I don't have a totally concrete answer...

BUT, I do know it was and back when they used to do the "TOP 5" stuff on the Games Channel, which I went and looked and the videos I REMEMBER seeing at time of release are 11 yrs old... god.... ANYwAY- but even some older videos I remember watching I just don't know if I went back to watch them or watched them as they came out. So I can't pinpoint EXACTLY WHEN I started. Just a rough estimate.

For Smosh Main it's even harder to pinpoint... Because when I get obsessed with something, I go back and watch all the old videos (which, as you can see makes this pretty fricken hard..) but I think I remember watching PARANORMAL EASY BAKE OVEN! around when it came out, so that's-oh.......13....yrs........damn....I'm old......

But when I became a fan? I've on-and-off been a fan of Smosh for something like 13+ yrs I guess?

For a fun tidbit! The first EVER song I bought was THE Assassins creed song + THE Legend of Zelda RAP and I still have them!

[windvexer]

Crafts of the Witch Useful to Learn

Welcome to December 25th, here's some stuff about witchcraft to think about because you're on your phone looking for a distraction :)

So anyway here's stuff that's really useful to learn how to do before you actually need it because putting it all together for the first time on game day is stressful.

Creation and Desecration of a Poppet

A poppet is a deeply sympathetic representation of someone or something (usually another person).

According to the law of sympathy, whatever you do to the poppet will happen to the person it represents. You could cleanse and bless it, or smite it.

Poppets can be made in a wide variety of ways, from paper dolls, to clay figurines, to crocheted stuffies - anything you like. They also must be worked over magically to link them to their target.

The most ideal poppet is decorated to look very similar to the thing it represents, and is imbued with a taglock (such as hair, nail clippings, footprint dust, etc).

Learning Prompts:

The handicraft of creating the poppet - start with any arts and crafts you're interested in and see if they'll work for you

Practice making several poppets - you do not need to consecrate them. How easy is it for you to decorate it just like the real person? How easy is it for you to include taglocks?

Find a disposal plan. ""Voodoo dolls"" are steeped in public awareness; will it be safe for you to throw away the poppet in the trash when you're done with it?

Consecration or enlivening poppet as target. Find or develop a ritual to fill the poppet with magical life so that it becomes the target. Practice this once or twice (perhaps on a poppet of yourself, to cast blessings or prosperity magic on yourself)

Desecration or severing link. Find or develop a ritual to end the sympathetic link between the poppet and its target. Practice this once or twice.

Storage and tending of enlivened poppets. They are alive and they act like it. If you intend to have poppets sitting around for long-term spells or to use as-needed, you will need a system of storing them so that they "go to sleep" and remain undisturbed until you need them.

Consecration, In General

Here I mean "consecration" to be an act of magic which anoints an object as sacred unto a purpose, and therefore primed for magical use. In crude terms: you're making an object magical and giving it a purpose at the same time.

Consecration is a very useful thing to know how to do. In and of itself it can form a kind of minor enchantment (I consecrate this mug of oolong tea to be a potion of survival +1), but it can also prepare the way for powerful enchantments (I consecrate this ring to become a divine protector, ready to receive the powerful enchantment I soon cast upon it).

Learning Prompts:

Find or create a minor consecration spell which can be cast in under a minute. Strive to obtain one which is covert and can be done even in the presence of others. (Perhaps we could call this a 'cantrip'). Such a spell tends to be suitable for moving fate a few degrees over, or to dig a shallow pool in the tides of reality.

Find or create a hefty consecration spell. Consider what abilities or access you have that allows you to redefine the fate and purpose of an object. Contemplation of this spell can provide great insight into one's own belief and path. Such a spell may completely reorient fate, and carve new channels into the waterways of reality.

Practice minor consecrations on 5 different types of objects. Consecrating the tea, that's easy - stir it a few times. But how to consecrate a hairbrush? How to consecrate a mirror?

Practice major consecration twice, unto two very different domains. Perhaps a pepper oil of fiery smiting, and a crystal bracelet of deep soothing. This is an opportunity to compare and contrast the powers you raise when you work within different domains.

Desecration, In General; and Spell Reversal

To make profane; as in, to remove the magic from something and make it no more than a lump of physical matter, or a meaningless event like scattered dust on the winds of fate.

In my opinion, all witches should learn this - "don't raise up what you can't put down" also includes "don't enchant shit if you don't know how to undo enchantments."

To know how to nullify magic also means you can nullify unwanted and harmful things around you, and take the force and energy out of them.

Learning Prompts:

Find or create a minor desecration spell, one that you can cast on the fly and without tools or ingredients. Such a spell may be like a slapping a broom on a dusty rug; it will shake free things not tightly held.

Find or create a major desecration spell. Such a spell is like steam cleaning and shampooing a rug; it must remove every particle of magic and leave nothing behind but stripped fibers.

Practice minor desecrations 5 times in day-to-day life, targeting stank vibes and irritating situations that do not serve you.

Practice minor consecrations and desecrations 5 times by consecrating a stone, candle, etc., unto a magical purpose, and then removing the consecration.

Find an opportunity to cast a major desecration, which you may find the opportunity to do the next time the need for banishment comes up; or when sorting through old magical tools you no longer need, etc.

Find or create a solid spell reversal, one that you can use without having to have physical spell remnants on hand. Note that reverse to sender is not the same as nullifying your own magic.

Binding Divination Tools to Veracity, and Sundry Divination Management

Or if you like, binding veracity to divination tools. Binding is not baneful magic. Binding means to attach one thing to another thing, or to prevent something from being ways.

You can cast a binding on your divination tools to constrain them to only tell the truth, to truly peer beyond the veil, and only deliver what it can see; and never reflect your personal whims.

There's plenty of magic you can cast for your divinatory tools to make your life easier.

Prepare a binding spell to constrain a divination tool to only reflect the kind of truth you want. Do you want a tarot deck to only show your true state of mind? Do you want a set of runes to only read the will of the gods? Do you want your charm set to only read on the future, and not the past?

Find or create a protection spell to stop undue influence on a divination tool. This does not mean "evil spirits are manipulating your reading." Undue influence also means the strong emotions of querents, random psychic garbage, and the like; but it can also have an impact on the way you phrase questions and work with the tool itself.

Find or create a spell to enchant your tool as a magical seer/oracle. You can use a tarot deck out of the box, of course. You can also enchant it to be a magical object that obtains truth from mystical sources. Try it and see if you like the difference.

Find or create a charging ritual to revitalize your divination tools. This is a good opportunity to examine elemental energies; what kinds of energies are best suited to the purposes of divination and seeing beyond? The full moon is classically used for such purposes. Challenge yourself to recharge your divination tools once a month for 3 months, and see if you like the difference.

Blessing, In General

You have the power to generate and coalesce benevolent and helpful energies, and to distribute them into the world around you. You can bless anything you like, and perhaps the more the merrier; it's a very fine way to transform a space, and put love into the world.

Try considering blessings to have 2 parts; the first is to evoke a desirable force, and the second is to apply the force in a certain way: You could evoke the winter dawn as a blessing power, and then ask it to do something specific (provide a calm day, to make wise choices, to avoid bad traffic, etc).

Write your own minor blessing spell that you can perform in a minute or less. Try centering this blessing around a wonderful and benevolent force, whether it be a certain god, mushrooms, unconditional love, and so forth.

Write a separate minor blessing spell using a very different focus. Try the deep blue calming waters of the deep ocean, or the sprightly breezes of alpine hills, or the feeling of the first sip of a perfect bowl of soup; but make it have really different vibes from the first blessing.

Practice both minor blessings and see the difference. Challenge yourself to use each blessing cantrip 5 times. Try clustering the blessings to fill a space with that kind of energy (such as five items on desk blessed under the alpine breeze, and five items in the bathroom blessed under the deep ocean). Can you feel a difference in the spaces as you move in and out of them?

Write a major blessing using the various benevolent and lovely powers of your practice. This is another good opportunity to explore your practice. When you are in need of love, kindness, grace, and softness, what part of your path rises to meet your needs?

The Big Practice

Consecrate a poppet unto yourself. Bind and enchant a divination tool to be a powerful oracle of truth, and read on the most helpful equipment the poppet needs (RPG style: weapon, armor, familiar, potion?).

Whatever the answer, make a tiny container spell which serves the purpose. Consecrate it to be the tool that the poppet (you) needs.

Give the enchanted container spell to the poppet and cast a blessing on it, to be empowered with the new tool it has been granted in life.

Carefully store the poppet and its tool.

Periodically, perhaps between 1 to 6 times a year, recharge your divination tool and discern what new tools the poppet might need. Desecrate the old tool if you need to (or let them stack up), and consecrate new tools.

Keep the poppet and its tools for as long as you like, carefully severing the link between yourself and it when you're done with it.

[tritoch]

i know a lot of people (very understandably) dislike the paladin job quests in ffxiv, particularly HW, but i do think it's fun that, now that the pre-ShB MSQ revamp is complete, paladins now have a very cool and thematic in-game storyline that happens without a word being spoken: the development of passage of arms.

none of the below is directly stated in the script, but imo it's a fairly obvious gloss on what the game presents, if you assume a paladin warrior of light. spoilers for all expansions through the end of 6.X.

in the new version of steps of faith, as vishap breaks through each ward protecting ishgard from attack, lucia mounts a final desperate effort to hold him back, with a very familiar looking animation:

but even lucia can't hold back vishap's flame alone, so the temple knights surge forward to assist her. their efforts make the shield visually more powerful and larger. the temple knights here band together in defense of ishgard, and their knightly resolve to protect their home is the difference between victory and defeat.

lucia and the knights do ultimately succeed in defending the last ward, as you have to defeat vishap before their shield falls or you lose.

later in heavensward, obviously, we will get ffxiv's most famous (failed) attempt at blocking something with a shield.

this moment can be read as fairly impactful on the warrior of light's development; as i've noted elsewhere, after the trauma of watching haurchefant bleed out in their arms at level 57, at level 58 paladins learn to channel their magic into healing (and it's called "clemency," or mercy. mercy for whom? who was guilty?), and as someone pointed out on that post, at level 58 dark knights used to get "sole survivor", letting them heal in response to a marked target's death.

for a time, you literally carry haurchefant's shield with you, and 3.3 very much literalizes in genre fashion the idea that even when you are standing alone, your fallen friends stand with you. you don't need to call any allies to stand at your side and raise their shields with you because they are already there, in spirit.

stormblood marks a pretty important turning point in the warrior of light as a combatant, in my opinion, and the text makes this clear in several ways. first, in pretty much all your jobs, you've now far exceeded your trainers and are pioneering new techniques. this is no less true of paladin, which for 60-70 abandons any trainers at all for you to show off your peerless skills in a tournament.

second, stormblood is straight up a story about you getting stronger. at level 61, zenos kicks your ass. at level 70, you kick his ass. why? because you fought and got stronger and developed incredible new techniques and became a one-man army.

for a lot of classes, this story lines up nicely with the big rotation changes or flashy new finishers on the way from 60 to 70. SMN is now busting out bahamut and casting akh morn; RDM gets verflare and verholy; DRG starts harnessing nidhogg's power directly through dragon sight and nastrond.

the tanks are divided in two: warriors and gunbreakers get huge damaging upgrades at 70 in the form of inner release and continuation, each of which lets them hit the same button many times for lots of damage and satisfying animations. paladin and dark knight get more protective abilities; dark knight gets the blackest night, and there's been plenty said about that already by pretty much everyone.

paladins get passage of arms. instead of a relentless new attack (and you get requiescat at 68, which is a way bigger deal for your dps rotation), your big reveal at 70 for zenos in your fight in ala mhigo is a superior way to protect your party, a shield that lets you stand for your allies so they never have to fall for you again. it's lucia's same shield, except you need no allies' shields to reinforce you, proof of your martial prowess and your ability to transcend limits, and perhaps in truth a reminder that you never really stand alone.

in many respects passage of arms should really feel like a paladin signature move to you now if you are playing it at this point, because you should be popping it in pretty much every fight (you are using your mits, right...?). basically every FFXIV fight has at least one big AOE with downtime that warrants passage of arms usage, usually after the mid-fight add phase with slowly filling bar. since that AOE usually drops during downtime, there's no reason not to pop passage of arms (which otherwise restricts your movement and actions), and even on normal, sometimes every little bit counts on a damage check even if it means dropping DPS (thinking here of harrowing hell P10N on release, which was...less consistent for a lot of roulette parties than you might hope).

so from 70 onward, passage of arms is in a sense a paladin warrior of light's signature move, and certainly the one a player gets to most actually enjoy (since if you're using it, you're by necessity not doing anything besides moving your camera and admiring your sick animation). it doesn't have any competition in terms of spectacle until confiteor, and those you're usually throwing out in the middle of movement.

it's such a signature, in fact, that the only other person shown using your one-person version of passage of arms is your greatest admirer, who studied your legend for over a century.

and it's when he fails (should've popped arm's length, bud) that the warrior of light decides they can't let their friends fall for them, and sends them away with the transporter beacon. this is all wrong: you were meant to die for them, not the other way around. yours is the shield that stands between your allies and defeat. it is you who will win this passage of arms and break your opponents lance. and you do.

and then later, when they need to quickly establish zero's domain as a place of fallen grandeur, the home of someone who once believed in heroes but is now a cool and cynical vampire hunter d, what do they use? a decayed statue of someone in the paladin endwalker gear doing the passage of arms animation, of course.

from a visible instantiation of knighthood as a joint effort to defend what is sacred, to a tribute to the fallen friends whose memories stand by you and animate you, to a symbol of the wol's power as emulated by their allies or darkly mirrored in other shards.

not bad for a mit button you hit once per fight and otherwise never think about!

[open-hearth-rpg]

“Why Do Your Actual Play Videos Look Like Ass?”

ROUGH BUT FAIR

I got asked this, albeit indirectly, back in January. At the New Year’s Open Hearth Community meeting someone relayed they’d heard this comment about our Actual Play videos. This referred to not just my channel, but our community collection of actual plays built up over eight+ years. 

It’s a lot of sessions. A lot of games. My stuff alone is over 1000 sessions over dozens of systems. 

And it’s a fair question. They might stumbled on to one of our video roundups or seen a session shared. I can understand their reaction, especially if they’ve watched heavily produced and edited videos like those from Critical Role or Dimension20. Or even if they’ve followed one of the many talented teams who stream on Twitch or elsewhere with seasons, transitions, and nice visual templates. They’re all great watches– especially streams featuring indie games and diverse casts.

So what’s up with us?

Answering that question takes a little bit of set up and explanation. 

The short answer: You know that reliable YouTube repair video recorded on a phone by someone in their garage? That’s us. 

The long answer…

WHAT THE WHAT IS OPEN HEARTH?

We’re an online tabletop rpg community. We’ve been around in some form since 2016. Game facilitators post series and sessions on our calendar and people can sign up there. Every game’s run under our code of conduct and has to use a layered set of safety tools. Our GMs teach any rules and while we lean into indie and storygames, we also have folks who love OSR and more trad-leaning games (like my runs of 2d20, GUMSHOE, Imperium Maledictum, 13th Age, and the like). 

We have a patreon which gives backers a 48 hour window to sign up for sessions before they’re open generally. But we also have folks running games specifically for new players which set that aside. We’re always looking for ways to get new folks into sessions– like the open gaming events we do a couple of times each year. After folks have played with us a couple of times, they’re welcome to post their own sessions and series. We also do irregular “Game Facilitator Camps” to help people learn and polish their online GMing skills. 

Since the beginning some of our GMs have videos of our sessions and collecting those on our YouTube channel. Game facilitators mention in their event description if they plan to record. Not all sessions are recorded and posted. It’s not a requirement. In most cases, players can say they’d rather not be recorded– and in all cases a GM needs to confirm before posting any session publicly. For example a couple of times I’ve had folks ask for me to trim out personal info or emotionally fraught moments from a session. 

All of these recordings are rough. They’re the raw play of the session: unedited and wysiwyg. I’m recording from Zoom, some folks use Streamyard, and a small group of the more technically savvy use OBS+. On occasion I remember to pause the recording over breaks or during character creation when everyone’s tooling away on their sheets. But generally it’s like sitting in the room while someone’s running a home game. They’re messy, mostly on topic, trying to get to grips with the rules, figuring things out together. 

And I love it for that. They’re not polished. A comment made in connection with that “why do your APs look terrible?” question suggested we were some kind of ‘elite gaming association.’ I fear that impression might come from my posting a lot of game thinking, history, and analysis in our social media feeds. 

The truth is that I post those things in a desperate bid to have content. In our community we mostly talk about what games we’re playing and what games we want to play.

Bottom line: we’re a bunch of folks getting together to play our elf-games, make silly voices, and try to tell fun stories together. We’re trying to do that in a way that’s inclusive, takes safety seriously, and evolves over time. 

So why post actual play videos in such a state? I have some answers, in order from most important or probably least important…

FIVE REASONS

First, these videos shows how a particular game actually works at the table. Our community plays a lot of different games– I’d argue one of the largest collections of different systems. It serves as a great resource if you’re curious about a game, setting, or system. Most of us who record include our session zero as well as play sessions. So you get to see what’s involved with that, how to manage set up, and the kinds of collaboration which happens. You also see, warts and all, the rough patches and stumbling blocks. 

For example, I love Hearts of Wulin, but building Entanglements takes a lot of work during character creation. Don’t get me wrong: it's also the most important. Entanglements up the conflicts and plots you’re going to explore. But it requires you to both do some heavy creative work and listen to the other players at the same time. Sometimes I manage that phase really well– sometimes I forget that it has a higher cognitive load. Then I have to lean in and help folks navigate creating those. 

In a similar way, our AP illustrate the flow of play. What does resolution involve? How long does combat take? Where do folks get bogged down? That’s useful and can tell you if this is a game you’d be comfortable playing or running. Beyond that you get to see how much people seem to be enjoying and engaging with it. We present the naked truth of the game. All the rough edges remain and I think that’s great. It’s not for everyone— especially if you like a more polished presentation.

Second, you get to see safety tools in action. If you want to know how GMs carefully present a layered set of safety tools, watch a couple of session zeros. Different game facilitators will approach this in different ways, but we stress that GMs explain and actually implement a couple of tools. In my case I use Lines & Veils as a baseline, the X-Card as a reactive tool for resetting & calibration, and Open Door so folks know they aren’t trapped in a game. You can see how these tools don’t present a burden, don’t get in the way, and do enhance play. It reduces some of the worry people may have about joining a group of strangers online. It isn’t perfect, but these tools offer a baseline. I’m a white dude with all the privilege that brings, but I wouldn’t join in a random online game unless I knew tools like those were in place. 

Third, like other online streaming games: curated, edited, or otherwise, you get to see good GMs and players in action. It’s a great way to learn and pick things up. Not necessarily the full-on art of theater and improvisational acting, but what good play looks like. How you move the spotlight around. How you work to bring others into your scenes. How you collaborate to build a setting and vibe. How you handle end of session debriefs and feedback. That’s useful and, I think, confidence building. 

Fourth, and more selfishly, these videos are a decent advertisement for our community. It’s a decent and cheap way for us to keep our name out there. Beyond the videos, as I mentioned above, people can listen to these sessions as podcasts now. It’s also a way for us to boost the work of designers. It’s not a review, comment, or five stars but it does show how much we’ve enjoyed a particular game. I always dig it when I see designers resharing sessions, I hope it helps them increase their audience. 

Fifth, I like having those videos out there because they celebrate our GMs. They’re the engine of our community: folks who enjoy running games and put in the effort to entertain and engage a group of folks. We have amazing game facilitators and what strikes me is how different their approaches can be. I learn something new whenever I play with another GM here.

But on a related note, I will admit that I like having cover for my vanity. By placing my sessions alongside others, I manage to conceal how much my posting these sessions is an act of ego. I’m more than a little vain about my GMing.  

STARS AND WISHES

Overall we hope to be a useful and accessible resource for folks playing ttrpgs online. We hope folks will find their place in this hobby. If someone comes and plays with us, that’s great, but we’re more interested in just getting people to play anywhere. 

If you want to check out our collection of Actual Play Sessions, like and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

If you’re interested in just listening to sessions, you can subscribe to our podcast.

If you want to see the Playabl calendar app we use for organizing

If you want to find out more about our community, see here. 

We have Discord we’re working to do more with.

[hyohaehyuk]

KTLA 5 - Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid preview Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire Season 2

Unfortunately the one that is on their official channel on yt is not completely but someone uploaded the full version on yt

KTLA 5 - AMC's 'Interview with the Vampire' returns for 'guts out' second season

Interview:

KTLA: How would you describe this season compared to the first? Jacob Anderson: It is a very felt season. Everything is heart, guts out, tears in your eyes. Extreme emotion. Sam Reid: And it’s a bigger season, too. It’s just bigger. It’s more vampires, it’s like the world has opened. You saw a little crack of it last season and this season, this is the world and it only gets bigger.

KTLA: Jacob, who is Louis this season compared to last? Anderson: I think in this season Louis is reckoning with who he really is, what is his nature. I think in season one it’s very much about coming to terms with how is he gonna hold onto his human nature in the face of becoming a monster or a vampire. And this season is about him coming to terms with… the other side of his nature and figuring out how to do that on his own terms. But it’s quite a trial to get there, if he gets there. Yeah. A lot of things are bubbling up.

KTLA: You welcomed a new actor into your cast right at the meaty crux, this tender point in their journey. What was it like working with Delainey Hayles, who brings this fierce and tender Claudia to life? What was that transition like? Anderson: It’s kind of remarkable. She just fits like a glove and was incredibly—from day one—was just game to do [and] try whatever. Amazing. She’s amazing. We’re very lucky to have her. Reid: It was a great gift we were given that Delainey joined us. She’s so, so phenomenal. We’re really lucky. Anderson: She will break your heart and terrify you at the same time.

KTLA: Sam, the last time we saw Lestat, he was in the dump, munching rats. What do you think his takeaway is at this point? Has he learned from that experience? Reid: Well, I think you will find that out. I feel like it would kind of be a mistake to explain it at this point, but I think, somewhere deep down, Lestat knew that he had to die. And I would say definitely he was proud of Claudia. I think he spent a lot of time thinking about what happened, but I think he and Claudia are a lot more similar than either of them would like to admit. I think he spent a lot of time being very proud of Claudia [and] ashamed as well.

KTLA: We’ve been told that memory is to be questioned and that the Lestat that we’re seeing is maybe not a full picture. As an actor, how do you make choices knowing you may be playing different versions of this guy? Reid: With great pleasure. (laughs) It’s very fun, you know. That’s one of the great joys of this character. I don’t have to stick to any form of continuity, so I feel like I can change things up. Particularly when you get some new perspectives coming in, which we have this season, a whole other point of view. I can go, “Well, what’s that version? What’s that guy like? What is it like to be his ex? What’s he like there?” So it’s a very fun thing to do. And also the majority of the season he’s a vision through Louis’ imagination… Anderson: That was giving Jeff Goldblum. Reid: (laughs) …Louis’ imagination. I’m also playing Louis, as well. They’re so intertwined. Lestat can also be a part of Louis, because he is a part of Lestat. So yeah, it’s a great joy.

KTLA: I read that you once wanted to study clowning in Paris, and we see a bit of Lestat’s history as a stage actor. Was this your showrunner Rolin Jones’ Parisian clown school? What was it like playing this Commedia-style, period actor? Reid: I actually always treat Lestat like a clown. When I did study acting, clowning was one of my favorite things. And I do see Lestat like a clown. I see him like an auguste clown, which is like a clown that’s kind of high status… Anderson: (laughing) Reid: (laughing) I think he’s funny, I think he’s… Anderson: I can never hear you talk about clowning and not think of, like, clowns… (laughing progressively harder as Reid earnestly explains theatrical clowning) Reid: Yeah, so… it was kind of funny. It was fun for him to do that scene as a clown. But you know, the fun thing about it as well is that he’s playing Harlequin, he’s not playing Lelio. So why is he playing that clown and who’s put him in that clown costume? That’s kind of the joy…. Anderson: (laughing) KTLA: It’s been a long day, I can tell. Anderson: No, I just find the idea of clowns hilarious. [To Reid] It’s not what you’re saying. Reid: Jacob has a fear of clowns. Anderson: I don’t. I’m not afraid of clowns. Reid: He can’t actually say the word without… Anderson: I find serious clowns very funny. Like, the idea of earnest clowns. Anyway… no disrespect to the clown community.

KTLA: We’ve met Armand (Assad Zaman) and we know he’s a powerful character. Who are Lestat and Armand to each other? Reid: They have a really wildly complex relationship and I think one cares more than the other. I think if Lestat had a choice, he would never see him again and would be very happy to have no interaction with him whatsoever. And doesn’t think much of him. But he’s one of those characters that just, because he’s so old and so entwined with all of vampire life, keeps turning back up. So they’re like foes—foes, is that the word? Yeah, but I can imagine that when Lestat found out Louis and Armand were together, I can imagine that he would have been pissed but not surprised in the slightest.

KTLA: Louis and Armand’s relationship in this season was very potent and surprising, and it’s complicated in a juicy way. Jacob, how did you and Assad carve out this distinct relationship when both the characters and the audience are in the shadow of a relationship from season one? Anderson: I don’t think we really thought about it that much. We didn’t really talk about it. Before we started shooting, we just said the one thing that’s really important about their relationship is to not try and replicate Louis and Lestat’s relationship. The minute you try and do that, it fails. They have such a different dynamic from each other and it’s based on such different factors. Those characters are in such different places compared to where Louis and Lestat are when they meet each other. There was just never any point in comparing. In terms of how people who watch the show think of Louis and Lestat, and Armand and Louis, I genuinely don’t think too much about that, because I think then you can sort of try to play up to things too much that don’t really serve the story. You want to tell the story that you’re telling and not try and play up to anything else. So we didn’t really talk about it so much, we just tried different things. They have quite a gentle relationship in the beginning. Or certainly it seems that way.

KTLA: What do you enjoy most about playing these characters? Reid: The show asks a lot. It gives us the opportunity to do a lot. It’s very rare when you get a role where you get to do all of the things that we get to do in the show. It’s so much fun— Anderson: Every day you’re like, “What? Is this my job? Is this what we’re doing today?” Reid: Obviously it’s a lot of drama, beautiful dialogue, you’re going through the 500 degrees of every emotion. And it’s also funny and it’s also lots of action and we’ve got blood and we’ve got crazy contacts in. It’s fantasy and it’s raunchy. It’s just like, wow, it’s a bit of everything. It’s a mixed bag, you never know what you’re gonna get. It’s a joy. Anderson: I feel like that as well about, specifically, playing Louis. He is so many different people. I don’t just mean the difference between 1910s Louis and modern-day Louis, [or] 1945 [Louis]. I just mean Louis’ brain is a storm and sometimes you get to go to the different stages of that storm within a few minutes and that’s very fun. And he’s not clean. He’s not a clean-cut character. He’s not easy to pin down. He’s complex. And he behaves in ways that I don’t love sometimes. And he also does things that, you know, he… I love Louis. Although it’s heartbreaking.

[houndsofbalthazar]

I like high concept reality gameshows. Watching a new one called The Underdog: Josh Must Win, which is a bog standard voting popularity contest type reality show, but the twist here is that it's two games in one - the game the contestants are playing, and then there is a celebrity panel trying to manipulate the show from behind the scenes to ensure the "underdog" wins. If they can get the underdog voted to be the most popular at the end of the show without anyone suspecting that it's rigged, all the contestants win a share of prize money.

It's a fun idea, you get this very clear look at the sorts of massaging of challenges and framing to persuade players to vote one way that I imagine goes on behind the scenes of any reality gameshow to make it more interesting. The celebrity panel is the "real" game, but they are also subject to the same sorts of twists that regular reality shows are, and I feel like the show is trying to have its cake and eat it; it's offering us this backstage glimpse, saying that we all get that these things are massaged, wouldn't it be fun if you actually got to watch the people doing the manipulating and their decision process? And it's right, it's a great idea, but it's also being manipulated behind the scenes with some of the same techniques so that we can still have our tense dramatic reality gameshow and watch people without perfect knowledge, and it just feels a bit fake, you know?

I'm also not really sure that I buy into the idea of the eponymous Josh being an underdog. The entire panel seemed to really like him from just his introduction video, he seems quite sweet, and he's a professional wrestler. I spent the whole first episode saying that there's no need to manipulate things anymore because they obviously cast the most interesting and broadly likeable person to be their underdog! I was not totally correct in this assessment because he did lose the first vote, but I think he's an obvious pick for a long term winner.

Overall, I am enjoying it as an entertainment piece, and I like the meta nature of the game, even if it is cheapened a bit by the extra twists. As usual, Channel 4 is at the top of the game when it comes to reality gameshows pushing the format.

[blazingstaro]

Big changes on the horizon! DotS updates and more!

Happy New Year!! With a new year in front of us, there's new opportunities awaiting us all! This year I've decided to finally go for it, and chase a dream I've been running away from for years!

I'm finally going to launch a YouTube channel sometime this year alongside dusting off my poor old Twitch account! Right now I've got a lot to prep, but this is something I've been wanting to do for a very long time, and never thought myself prepared or good enough for it. Well, last year was all about taking big leaps and just gunning for it, so that's exactly what I'm doing

The channel will (unsurprisingly) be about games, and bringing a new method of reviewing games based on multiple factors. Throughout the next few months, I'll actually be reaching out to gaming communities and asking you all various questions to help me identify different types of gamers! I'm creating a gamer spectrum and multiple profiles to help gamers find their matches.

No more confusing numbers and biased reviews! Finally asking the most important question at the core of every game: is it fun? Visuals, style, narrative (or the lack there of) can be easily cast aside if the core of the game is just fun! That's what a game should always be at base 💖

It's a huge ambition, aiming to shake up the reviewing world, but it's something I'm passionate about! I hope it'll take off, and inspire more people to give the system a shot. I don't plan to do it forever, and eventually move on to new things or just focusing on let's-plays (which I intend to do in addition to reviews, clips from Twitch streams and the like).

This is basically gonna be my day job that I'll juggle alongside my comic, and since I won't be under time constraints or physically exhausted, it shouldn't affect my comic any!

So how's DotS:MMM going to look like going forward?

My posting schedule for DotS:MMM is going to likely be 1 page a month for the time being until I can really make headway on pages! Frankly I've been stuck on one page in particular, since I've needed to remake it entirely, and it's been bugging me for months. I believe I've gotten something down finally, so with the Holidays finally behind us, I should finally have a bit more time to work on pages. My mobile tablet setup helps so much with my art away from my computer!!

My drawing energy has been really low in past months since it was so busy, but I'm getting the itch again as I'm shaking off the holiday glaze! You guys will know I'm back in action when a page suddenly appears, hehehee!

In conclusion—

The comic won't stop anytime soon, just pages are gonna be slow for a while! I have loads of graphics to make for my new channel, and I'm also making a Live2D model to accompany. My reasons for this is simply that I don't like putting my real face on the internet, and prefer my privacy, so I'm creating a cartoon avatar that represents me— much like Saberspark has, with still images in various poses, and of course an actual live model to represent my face on both videos and livestreaming. It's a lot to learn and program, so I've got a bunch of work ahead of me!

I'll do my best to involve you guys in the future of this channel, asking questions and what you all think I should name things for the channel!! You all have been with me for so long, it only feels right, y'know?

Anyhow, thank you so much for reading!! I hope you've had a wonderful New Year, and that great things await you on the horizon!💖

[adelarsims]

Hi XD

I actually do wanna learn more ab them! And I have a few specific questions if you don't mind!

How old are they really?

They seem a bit obsessed with looking young, is there a reason for that?

Why don't they use a wand if it helps keep their hands looking younger?

What changed them from a snob to a slightly more uhm personable person?

What do they teach?

Also here is your excuse to ramble about world building and magic cus I love this stuff

Another more vague one, you mentioned their childhood was rough, can you talk more ab that?

Finally because I feel like I'm overstaying my welcome, how did they discover they have feelings for Caleb?

1. let’s just say over a hundred. caleb once told cassie that 100+ years old feels better than 97 or something, because there's something romantic about being 'over a hundred', like straight out of a fairy tale, while 97 is just a really old grandpa :D

2. when they imagine looking in the mirror and seeing their hair grey and face wrinkled, they're terrified. it’s not a simple vanity - many spellcasters share this fear, when you don't see the constant flow of time when you look in the mirror, your image of yourself freezes like a fly in the amber - and going back into that flow gets more and more terrifying because it feels like suddenly the end nears faster. not all spellcasters choose to prolong their life, but those who do find it hard to stop. as for the youthful look... i think Morgyn just craves to feel at their peak, being the perfect image of themselves in everything. they were deprived of feeling worthy in their early years, so they keep proving and proving otherwise. especially after some discoveries about themselves that upended their understanding of who they are and thrown them into a deep identity crisis – they would grasp at all perfection that is still within their power to maintain. well... maybe it's also a bit of vanity, too.

3. it’s just more natural for them to cast with their hands and gives them access to much stronger magic. a wand doesn’t hold any magic itself, it’s like a laser pointer for magical energy, helps you focus and direct it. spellcasters need wands, innate mages don’t, though they of course can use them too. hand magic is raw, it’s more powerful but requires mastery and precision, and allows to weave spells that aren’t accessible to wand users, because wand is a single-channel magic focus, so to speak, and hand magic allows multi-channeling it (so basically, there's a limit that former humans who learned magic can do, and for innate mages this limit is very far, if existing at all)

4. oh no, don’t mistake a snob for an insufferable asshole. they were always personable. they’re likeable, cheeky, warm and affectionate to those they’re close with, especially those who appreciate and accept them, even though their position as a grand sage and academia headmaster naturally made them more reserved. and they’re still snobbish about magic, they know no one will do it better than them when it comes to spells, tend to nitpick mistakes in others' spellcasting, and get annoyed when someone is being lazy or unreasonably cocky with their magic. they just were hot-headed about people doubting their prowess as a student, but they have matured a lot and have good self control now.

5. mostly advanced elemental magic, and a few arcane disciplines i’ve yet to find names for. magic schools in my morgynverse are quite different from what they are in the game, for example, practical school isn’t about cleaning dishes. it covers healing, herbalism and potions, enchanting equipment, crafting amulets, like that. the new jewery creating pack will work so damn good for my story, i can’t wait!

6. i already gave bits and pieces here and there on this post. i can tell you a couple minor things if you want. there’s a plant that is used in potions, it’s called cyclop’s brain, it has huge leaves and massive seed pods, and tiny tiny seeds. also, every four years, on 29th of february, “the day that does not exist”, the academia holds a huge event called Masquerade of Mysteries, it’s grand and magical and everyone is allowed to go all out with enchantments and costumes, every student and teacher is looking forward to it.

7. i’m not sure how much i should say considering that i hope to start telling my story one day and it’s a spoiler, but let’s just say they weren’t really accepted for who they are and were considered dangerous even though they never gave anyone any reason to be afraid of their magic (it’s not simply about them being a mage, that wouldn’t be as much of a problem as their origin)

8. slowly. eventually. they were physically attracted to Caleb from the beginning, but it’s doing right by one another that truly brings people together. Caleb was there for Morgyn when they needed it most.

[insertdisc5]

Devlog #13: Achievements and Q&A (one more time)

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, which is also the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!).  You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!! 

LET’S GET TO IT. This month has Steam achievements news, and a third round of Q&As!

I’m very happy to announce… THAT STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED!!! That’s right, the true Gamers(™) among you will get to have fun trying to 100% the game. 

But let me tell you, trying to make steam achievements work for RPGmaker was hell. I must’ve spent 3 months trying to make the (admittedly, somewhat easy) code work. Most plugins for it just use the magic sentence “refer to [someone’s plugin] for instructions on how to do it”, and guess what? SOMEONE’S PLUGIN ISN’T ONLINE ANYMORE. So I had to figure out how to make it work with the few crumbs I found on forums. And I still couldn’t make it work!!!

Thankfully, In Stars and Time’s programmer extraordinaire Isabella Ava took one look at it and figured it out instantly. And I tried it out. And it worked. And I yelled very loudly. Thanks Isabella for saving me again!!!

(pictured above: ISAT’s testing room, and steam achievements unlocking for the first time. Yes I took a screenshot and I was so happy the screenshot is a little cropped. Adds to the experience)

There’s currently 40ish achievements that can be unlocked in In Stars and Time, I hope you will have fun getting them all!!!

Overall, development is going well, from QA to localization to porting, and many things are in the works! Like, MANY things. I hope I get to share more with everyone soon because I am so excited for everyone to see what’s in store!!! Thank you for your patience!!! 

…What? That’s it for this month? Well, no. Once again, it’s Q&A time! I asked the lovely people in In Stars And Time’s discord to send me some questions! So let’s get going! (Side note, you should join the discord channel teehee) ((Everyone is anonymous this time because it’s discord. Discord names are a very private thing.))

What's everyone's favorite food/animal/both? Which character do you like or relate to the most?

I answered food some time ago, so you get favorite animals! Siffrin likes cats because of course. Isabeau might actually prefers cats over dogs but its a close one. Mirabelle is a dog person. Odile is cats all the way. Bonnie is right in the middle. Wait, that’s just cats and dogs!!!!!!

As for which character I relate to the most: Siffrin :) Closely followed by Odile!

does anyone in the main cast know magic tricks/sleight of hand stuff? if so, what kind of tricks do they do? where did they learn them?

Siffrin for sure knows some coin tricks and maybe some sleight of hand, which they’d probably learn while traveling… Being a traveler means you gotta know some of those right??? It’s part of the mystique???

I also think Mirabelle and Isabeau would know some basic sleight of hand as well, just because I can easily imagine the House of Change having this as a class… 

How do you write the name of the island east of Vaugarde? The map from devlog #10 makes it seem like it's M Wudu? (Similarly, how do you pronounce it?)

Mwudu! And as for pronunciation, hm… Maybe with a soft oo sound for the U letters in there? I wonder… (<- never pronounces things out loud)

Q: Does Odile have a massive collection of books back home? Are there certain books that she took with her on her travels, or had to leave behind? Same for Mira, if she has any books outside of her collection in the House.

I actually don’t imagine Odile having a massive collection of books, just because I imagine Ka Bue as having libraries that are easy to access… Like she definitely owns books, but not a massive collection or anything. She brought the one book with her (her weapon!) but it’s more of a notebook than a book. But also if you ask me in a month I might go "she obviously has 300 books at home"

As for Mirabelle, her room is her home, so she doesn’t have anywhere else to put her books!

are there any deaths that are random chance? if so how would that be programmed?

also. what ARE the gang's favorite books

No, not really! Mostly because it would be very fun from a story perspective, but hellish from a gameplay perspective. Dying for reasons that are just Numbers Said So and this can happen at any time is not very fun as a player! What about my sense of control!!! So, when you die in ISAT, you will know why. HOWEVER, a bunch of events are random chance <3

And Mirabelle’s favorite book is a book series called The Cursing of Château Castle. I’m freestyling for the rest of these: Isabeau would say it's some book like “How To Get Bigger Muscles For Dummies'', somehow I’m certain Siffrin’s favorite book is a memoir of some kind or a poetry book, and Bonnie’s favorite book is the current most popular comic book for kids in Vaugarde. Odile’s is a secret <3

Q: Are there any bugs you've made into features?

alternative Q: What do the characters think about freeze tag?

YES!!!!! YOUR QUESTION IS SO GOOD IM MAD I CAN’T SPECIFY HOW… PLEASE ASK ME AGAIN WHEN THE GAME COMES OUT <3 Without giving away too much, there’s a couple events in the game that are here because of a bug that I thought added a lot to the atmosphere <3

Most of the gang are adults so they do not think about children’s games. However I imagine that for most kids in Vaugarde, freeze tag is the new fun game to play. Maybe they’d call it King instead. Who’s the King? Don’t get tagged by the King or you’re gonna be frozen!!! (Bonnie doesn’t want to play tag anymore.)

what & when was your first exposure where you went: "time to make a game"? im just wondering what got you started 

would there be an official subreddit for the isat community? i dont really use reddit much anymore but its something that croessed my mind a while back and by that i mean would there be official support for it or would it just be supported by fans? 

whats your favorite track from the prologue? 

A lot of things made me start making the prologue and then ISAT, but really: boredom from the pandemic teehee.

A subreddit… That’s a neat idea!!! If enough people are into it, that’s definitely something we’d consider, so if you want that you should make some noise :3

As for tracks, I genuinely think every single track Studio Thumpy Puppy has made is a 10/10, but the King’s battle theme holds a special spot in my heart… And Long Journey too ;w; And that’s not counting the tracks from ISAT which are just All Bangers All The Time (pst go get the prologue’s soundtrack here)

1. What’s something about working on the game or the prologue that was more difficult than you thought it would be? 

The… scope… I truly intended to have both the prologue and ISAT to be very short experiences, and they became way bigger than I envisioned! I did know they were going to be bigger than I thought, but They Sure Are Bigger Than I Thought. For example, I intended the prologue to be a 30mn experience… And it ended up being a couple hours long teehee

with a scale from 1 to 10 how much will the poor guy suffer in the game

Aiming for 11 baby

You got to the bottom of this devlog! Have a Silly Little Picture, which I sent as payment to everyone on discord who sent in a question

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

[yullalightk]

Mario teaches parenting🐾👨‍👨‍👦

Okay, today's review post will be similar to my older stuff with words and only a small amount of pictures.

I did download all of the screen shots but, It didn't make it to my computer and my phone has a system where it doesn't work after 9PM.

Anyways- I really did love this new episode, it was heartwarming and glad to see more episodes focusing on the rest of the smg4 casts.

So, let's start with the review!

I just wanted to say Karen is such a relatable and enjoyable character. And by "relatable" I mean, I relate to how she's busy with work and trying hard to provide for her kids but neglecting them in the process.

I kinda do something similar:

Busy with school work

Being busy that I ignore my family members and always spend most of my time by myself.

And, I was surprised how Mario did know the way of parenting!

At least, in his own "Spaghetti Jesus" way😂🍝 Which makes me think: Since Mario knows some bases of parenting, maybe if he and Puzzles EVER dated, Mario could be the funny and less seriously parent while Puzzles being the serious and overthinking parent👨‍👨‍👦

Anyhow, I'm getting distracted, overall I appreciated Karen trying her best to spend time with her kids and seeing her realize how talented and wonderfully creative her kids are just made me tear up a little.

I think we need more episodes focusing on side characters a lot more 'cause we have soo many episodes with the smg4 main casts being the main focus and the side characters being added in, and not having a lot of episodes surrounding them, I think it's a nice change of pace for the channel. And I hope it'll stay that way for the long run.

And here's the screenshot of my favorite scene:

I enjoyed making Karen in gl2 since It made me explore some parts of character design in this game!

I also tweaked her design a bit 'cause I mean who doesn't love a turtleneck!

And I also wanted to say something:

I'm not making smg4 episode reviews

I'm not kidding. This is probably disappointing to some of you all since the majority of you guys follow me and stayed because of it.

I mean, I understand but it's just something I don't really enjoy making anymore.. I'll make a few? but won't necessary be "Review episodes" just me talking abt what I liked and there will mostly be some theories.

I'll make other Mr. Puzzles AUs I'm working on so don't lose hope in that yet! I just think it's a good idea to cut the cord of connecting myself onto something I don't find any fun in making like I used to.

Still, I am very sorry for doing this but hope some of you all understand. And I don't mind the followers lowering because of this choice.

I'm still excited for the new episode though, don't get me wrong!

But, I want to make other stuff from other fandoms 'cause I made so many insert ocs of mine and want to show them to you all✨

[wyked-ao3]

most likely to tag game

game was started by @paeliae-occasionally

Rules: answer with which of your OCs would be the most likely to do the statement, then give new statements for the next person.

I was tagged by @fortunatetragedy here

Some i have answered before but I'm going to have fun elaborating.

My wip TPKODR cast and crew

Most likely to arrive ridiculously early.

Amon always arrives early, he is a seer and a trouble maker (I'm not sure why he is always early yet but he is) I theories it's to get the outcome that he wants but he refuses to answer... *Can I feed him to the fishys yet?* (Please ignore my sanity as I threaten my characters)

Most likely to be in a relationship for less than a week

Oscar he's not on the ship long but he's a playboy and an absolute idiot..with a good heart kinda (not a fan of him)

Most likely to secretly be really good at music, but just not tell anyone.

Adoh plays the drums it is how his grandmother taught him rhythm for his blacksmithing. He doesn't share that with just anyone.. Daimhín and Galen might know but they have not told me lol

Most likely to burn something while cooking

Daimhín he is not allowed to cook after heather saw his attempt at making bread...they were later used in the canon efficiently....(Not in story yet but on my list if possible mentions)

Most likely to stop a robbery if they see it taking place.

Oisìn he doesn't like robbery...but if he's going to commit it he commits 0_o (yes I did a scene and the brat decided to take over they were after 1 set if items and did they leave with just that no they didn't) *unimpressed author glaring at oc*

Most likely to not tell people they’re sick until they really need the help.

Oisìn, Daimhín and Jade would take the cake for this one. Jade and Oisìn don't like to show weakness so it'll have them on death's doors or passing out before they admit to being sick...let alone needing help. Daimhín just doesn't want the crew mother Henning him

Apologize first.

Depending on the situation but most likely Heather Heather is a very caring character.

Survive on a desert island.

Oisìn he would actually probably enjoy the vacation and hopes everyone forgets that island exist

Break up a fight.

Galen and Adoh usually break up any fights Galen can make them clean the latrines so they tend to stop when he says enough Adoh's method is they can't fight if they can't lift their arms for a month.....(That means he has assistant's for blacksmithing....) He will also knock them out so there's that...

Most likely to own a cat.

Technically the cat belongs to the ship but is often found in Adoh's workspace or harassing Daimhín... the crew claims the cat but Daimhín and Adoh have been claimed by the cat... Oisìn will be soon as well ;)

Most likely to swim across a large river/channel without getting fatigued.

Adoh has the muscles for it but I think the answer would be princess Anne 😂 she's of the merfolk

Most likely to not be a morning person and hates getting woken up too early.

Jade if he is woken up early it's usually not going to be a good day for him. Taz is not for being woke up early unless it's an emergency either...which a few pirates are about to find out... 0_o

Most likely to use magic tricks.

Amon or Morana although does it count if they have magic of sorts?

Most likely to start with just one drink and get blasted.

Amon as a full blooded fae has the worst resistance to getting shit faced.... As he will soon find out the hard way

Most likely to fall asleep wherever the place.

Braith although she will have a dagger to your throat before you know it if you wander in while she's asleep....she sleeps lightly

Most likely to lose their phone/wallet/other very important and period appropriate item. .

Amon the maps he's in charge if navigation and always setting down the maps 0_o

Most likely to hold a grudge over something minor.

Braith ....not necessarily a good thing for whoever the grudge is against

Most likely to try an unfamiliar food.

Jade as a prince he has tried some interesting things. He is usually willing to try anything, even when he hates it he will eat it if in a public setting.

Most likely to get stage fright.

I'm not sure that any of them would.

Most likely to crash a wedding.

0_o don't give them ideas but Death would definitely crash a wedding so would his wife Nyx Along with Rob 😇

Most likely to cheat on a test.

Rob 🤣 (not explaining this one)

Most likely to faint.

Oscar (he's the most likely but I'm not sure why.)

Most likely to enjoy art.

Adoh especially metal work of any kind.

Most likely to hate sports.

Oisìn it's connected to some bad memories and he doesn't understand why anyone would participate in sports

I'll add 3 but feel free to answer any

Most likely to get stomped on by a horse

Most likely to shoot a rifle

Most likely to hide their emotions

No pressure Tagging

@the-golden-comet @gioiaalbanoart @sableglass

@aintgonnatakethis @saturnine-saturneight @willtheweaver @jev-urisk @sunglasses-in-the-bentley @theaistired +open tag

Tag list

@thatuselesshuman @lychhiker @goth-automaton

@thecomfywriter @evilwriter37 @saebasanart

@mauannacreates @kind-lion @alinacapellabooks

@kuebiko-writing @kaeru483 @differentnighttale

@theink-stainedfolk @unstableunicornsofasgard

@mysticstarlightduck

[utilitycaster]

@villadiodatis replied to your post “I know it's Nein lockdown but in practice for me...”:

I’ve been really hostile to the daggerheart c4 idea because it’s mostly come from the same people who fearmonger about how “c3’s got the lowest viewing numbers ever” but the magic shifting thing does make me wonder—it could also be a justification for the changes in 5e 2024, and my prediction remains 5e c4 with a daggerheart campaign in the current candela slot with some of the new regular guests, but we’ll see!

​Moving this out of the replies because this is a very valid point. To be honest a lot of the Daggerheart C4 people of that nature have apparently stopped believing it because somehow it hinged on the gods definitely being killed off (as opposed to the current state where it's been made pretty clear Bells Hells gets to decide what happens and it is not a foregone conclusion) and also it being a d20 system specifically (no idea why) but yeah. I will say: I don't see any specific reason to switch to 5e's changes/OneD&D. I mean, they could if they want to, but people played D&D 3.5e throughout the entire existence of D&D 4e; there are still people out there who stick with AD&D. A lot of the people claiming C3 has lower viewership than ever also kind of hated Campaign 2 and really have hated everything since Campaign 1. Right now they're blaming D&D but earlier they blamed the switch to pre-taping or the "meandering plot" and like, in the end, I'm pretty sure a lot of them were ultimately just fans of Vox Machina and of the cast being more accessible to a small fandom and they will never be happy with Critical Role again.

I will freely admit: I do not know if a campaign 4 is guaranteed to happen at all. It's a massive commitment and it's not out of the question that after this campaign Critical Role won't shift into EXU and various miniseries alone. During Campaign 2, Campaign 3 wasn't a guarantee either. But if there is another long-form campaign in the channel's immediate future, I feel like Daggerheart makes it more likely, and to be honest I think what you mentioned seems really unlikely:

A smart way to avoid the loss of audience when switching out of D&D (the recognizable brand) is to keep all the other things the same. Keep the setting of Exandria; keep the main cast; hope that people will stick around for Matt's GM-ing and the main cast and the world even if the mechanics change. There's plenty of reasons why I think Candela has a lower viewership including that horror is a totally different genre and a harder sell, but I also can't help but think that some people are specifically not checking it out because their favorite cast member or favorite cast dynamic isn't present.

Daggerheart is explicitly intended to support long-form play with level progressions, and I think they'd want to showcase that. Running two long-form games concurrently on the channel is really tough to the point that if they did both a 5e/OneD&D campaign and a Daggerheart Campaign, I think they'd probably have to have none of the original cast members in that as main PCs simply for reasons of time commitments and would definitely lose viewers if they did that. Candela is arc-based and can be presented sufficiently in 3-episode chapters in a way that I think Daggerheart cannot.

Again: fully speculative; but if I were say, in Marisha's shoes, and the cast had decided to do another long-form campaign after C3 I'd go with Daggerheart, still using D&D 5e for any EXU games set in the past, and keep Candela as a mini-series on the off weeks.

[yubel198]

got another SMG4 theory to discuss

you guys notice how lately on SMG4's channel, after the Puzzlevision arc, it feels like SMG4 is slowly losing his mind again, not counting the remasters, but some vids have had their names changed after being uploaded.

To those that remember what Puzzles said back in Mario the Exploro, he wants to transform the channel into his own.

Since we're also nearing the 1 year anniversary of Western Spaghetti in a couple of weeks, I have this theory.

It seems to me that Puzzles and SMG4 are fighting for control of the channel. It would explain why SMG4's acting more erratic lately, he's trying to make sure Puzzles doesn't take over.

Puzzles has been an issue on the channel since "It's Gotta Be Perfect" then showing up again in "We Interrupt This Broadcast" with hints of his existence in that episode, along with "Ready to Ride?" and "Western Spaghetti" we didn't deal with him again until WotFI, when he finally revealed himself to us. After that, silence until "No TV Makes Mario No Okie-Dokie" where he finally made his move and captured Mario, Luigi, SMG3 and 4, Bob, Boopkins, Tari and Meggy (even though Boopkins wasn't in that episode)

what strikes me as weird is that, Puzzles is possibly playing the long game, using SMG4 to help rebuild the Showgrounds currently, as we saw in "Meme Hunters" SMG4's building a new attraction for the Showgrounds.

This does make sense as the last building we got was Three's cafe, and that was in November, so it makes sense to add something to help his friends' business out.

Despite that, there's still so much we don't know regarding the Showgrounds, Puzzles main motive, because I feel his original motive in the movie was a lie.

Seriously, kidnapping the crew of another series, just to try and take control of their lives?

...

Okay maybe Opossol was onto something when she made the Creative Control animatic, as that's kinda what he wants to do to the SMG4 crew: take control of the show, and, by extent, them.

it's insane when you think about it.

though, are Puzzles and SMG4 currently fighting for control of the channel? what's the new attraction gonna be? I also have, two other questions, that we still don't have answers to.

The secret door, and Clench.

Back in the new castle's debut, there was a boarded up room which, not even SMG4 knows what's in there. Same for the upstairs not being done. What is in that room? it's been almost a year since we got the new castle, so, when will we see what it is?

as for Clench, while he's only appeared four times, three in the main show, once in the SMG4 Crew episodes (speaking of why haven't we gotten any new ones?) the dude just showed up out of nowhere and seems to appear periodically for no reason. yet, back when Puzzles was making his move, Clench was active around Meggy, but immediately deactivated around SMG4. People were theorizing that Clench would help save the crew in the movie, but he didn't even show up.

Why?

What's his purpose?

Ever since Boopkins debut back in 2016, each of the original characters have had some form of usefulness on the show. Some... more than others. looking at you Meggy. Outside of the dead characters, some have been permanently cast as side characters, or written out of the channel altogether. I'm not counting the recolors as that makes sense as to why they were written out of the channel, but characters like Jeeves and Wheeler barely show up, and Wheeler makes for a good villain. Belle hardly if ever shows up, same for Whimpu, Rob, SMG1 and 2, Shroomy, Kaizo, even Saiko and Melony are hardly in the show anymore, Chris too as Swag seems to be more prominent.

Yet, they all still at least served a purpose.

Clench... is an enigma

more so than the inner machinations of Patrick Star's mind

(points if you get the reference)

*sighs* we may never get answers as to what's going on or what direction the channel's going... but I wanna know what's going on, who agrees?

[misteria247]

*somewhere off screen April O'Neil's voice talking to Casey Jones and Cassandra Jones*

(Is the camera on?)

(Yep! All ready to roll news girl!)

(Great! Cass! Sound mic working?)

(Yes, it's working.)

(Alright! Hey Red get in position!)

(We'll be rolling in 5, 4, 3, 2-)

*the camera flashes on revealing April O'Neil of the Rise verse and April O'Neil of the 12 verse. The younger April is holding a microphone while the older one a tape recorder and notepad*

April (Rise): Hello everyone and welcome to-!!! The O'Neil News Broadcasting Channel-!!! I'm your favorite new reporter April, recording live the day before the Tmnt AU Competitions!!! Joining me here today is none other than your favorite blogger and one of my besties April O'Neil!!!

April (12): Glad to be here April, I consider it an honor to join you on this awesome adventure!

April (Rise): I'm glad that you're here too! Joining us also is our favorite cameraman Casey Jones! And our lovely fellow camerawoman Cassandra Jones!

*off screen Casey and Cass let out somewhat violent but enthusiastic "Sups????"*

April (Rise): So what are we gonna do today April????

April (12): Well April, today we're gonna be interviewing the cast of Universal Collision! As well as perhaps even get some words from the writer! So strap in folks and join us on this adventure!!!

*cue April and April smiling at the camera, and Casey and Cassandra giving thumbs up from the side of the shot before it cuts to black*

*sometime later the camera comes back on the image showing a large gymnasium full of various different turtles, sitting on the bleachers is Michelangelo and Mikey the two beaming brightly*

April (Rise) holding her microphone out towards them: So tell us boys! How are we feeling about this competition that's coming up?

Mikey bouncing slightly in his seat: Ohmigosh excited!!! This is absolutely insane that we're really apart of something so big!!!

Michelangelo chiming in: Shell yeah lil dude!! There's so many radical aus here!!! And the games going on have been entertaining!!!

April (12) holding out her recorder: That's great guys! Have any last words for the viewers at home before we go find your brothers?

Michelangelo: Don't forget to vote for Universal Collision dudes!

Mikey: And good luck to the rest of the contestants! We believe in you guys and we'll be rooting for you!

Michelangelo: Heh! Cowabunga lil dude!!

*Michelangelo and Mikey give each other a high three faces bright with excitement for tomorrow*

*the camera cuts to black once more for a brief moment before it comes back, now in the two orange turtles place is Donnie and Donatello*

April (12): Thanks for joining us today boys! Can you tell us how you're feeling now that the competition is tomorrow?

Donatello nervously: Well to be honest I'm feeling a little bit nauseous. There's just so many cool turtles to compete against, it's kinda hard not to feel imitated.

Donnie nonchalantly: Scoff, yee have little faith my ingenious friend. We've got this in the bag either way, whether we win or lose. So there's no need to feel nervous.

April (Rise): Oh? Someone's confident Dee, you seem pretty sure that Universal Collision will win.

Donnie: Oh I'm not sure, I know we will. We'll win whether we make through this round tomorrow or not.

April (Rise) slightly suspicious: And why's that Donathan?

*Donatello gives Donnie a look while Donnie just smirks*

Donnie: Let's just say that me and Don here are gonna be the winners whether we lose or not.

April (12) now herself getting suspicious: Boys........did you......please tell me that you didn't-

Donatello nonchalantly: Possibly got our hands on some money and ordered some things for future experiments?

Donnie not missing a beat: No. We didn't, tch to think that our own best friends would doubt us in this manner. Anyways vote for Universal Collision tomorrow.

*the two girls stare at them unimpressed while Casey snorts in the background*

*the camera cuts to black before flashing back to life, the purple turtles now gone and instead Raph and Raphael are there*

April (Rise): It's nice to have you here with us Big Red and Little Red! Got anything to add to this interview?? Like how you're feeling?

Raph with a determined smile: To be honest Raph's just ready to kick some shell. I've been waiting to get into the ring and now that it's coming up I'm gonna give it my all.

Raphael shrugging: As long as I can bust some heads in then I honestly don't really care.

April (12): Haha you do realize that you can't bust people's heads in right Raph?

Raphael:.........

April (12): Raph.

Raphael simply: I could if you let me.

Raph leery: You know that we can't do that it's not a brawl it's a voting system.

Raphael not missing a beat: And it can be a voting system for who can kick ass the best! Come on Raph! You can not tell me that you're not curious about the other variants of us and they'd do in a fight you're literally me!

*Casey and Cassandra wheezing in the background while Raph just stares at his smaller counterpart already tired but not denying it*

Raph: I won't let him or Don get too far. That's a promise. Also Raph and little me gonna kick shell tomorrow! So cheer for Universal Collision gang! You won't regret it.

*camera cuts to black once more before coming back to life, the red turtles no where to be seen, instead Leo and Leonardo are in their place*

April (Rise): Our final interview here live right now! Now tell us boys! How you feeling before the big day???

April (12) adding on: Have any personal thoughts to add on???

Leo smirking: Only that we're gonna rock this thing! I mean come on, we've got the coolest, most badass group around! We'll do great!

Leonardo softly: As to how we're feeling, I think I can speak for me and Leon here that we're fairly confident that things will work out in the end. And we're honored to be apart of this event.

Leo leaning on Leonardo's back slightly: Exactly! So to all our adoring fans! Thank you for having us here and we can't wait to see y'all tomorrow in the competition!

Leonardo with a small smile: We'll do our best tomorrow and we hope that you all at home will help us.

April (Rise) pulling her microphone back to her: And that concludes the interviews! Thank you all so much for joining us today on this adventure!

April (12) putting her recorder away: And please don't forget to cast your votes for your favorite aus! We're looking forward to seeing all your lovely faces tomorrow! Till next time-!!

*the camera transitions from the two girls smiling at it to a shot of the whole group smiling and giving the viewers of the O'Neil News Broadcasting Channel thumbs up*

*then the screen fades to black for the final time*

Jokes aside please vote for Universal Collision tomorrow and good luck to everyone!!! I'll be rooting for you!!!!

[magnumpihq]

Ratings and articles about ratings.

Here’s a longer guide to ratings, what they mean and why we shouldn’t panic about them as well as the articles.

During the save campaign a media outlet has reported that renewal will come down to ratings and Magnum P.I. gathering new viewers and better ratings. That statement is a bid of a double-edged sword.

The show has gathered new viewers, mainly seen on social media as new friends slide into the new warm and fuzzy blanket that is the comfort show called Magnum P.I. We also left some viewers behind on CBS, which is perfectly natural. CBS is known to be a ratings giant, in large part to the general audience CBS gathers that simply turns CBS on no matter what is on. Think background music that consist of explosions and gunshots. These viewers are the ones we haven’t managed to bring over to NBC and we weren’t going to be able to bring them over anyway.

But let’s look at some things in more detail.

What are ratings?

Ratings are a measuring system, by which networks gage the audiences interest in their shows. Based on ratings advertisers also decide what ads to place and potentially how much they pay for it, which is income for the networks. The sales demographic (18-49) is specifically interesting to those. Networks as well as the companies have access to far more data than the simple sales

Are our ratings bad?

Simply said, no. For a Sunday show on NBC in our timeslot our ratings are solid. Even the recent ‘drop’ in numbers is just a reflection of the competition currently on. Sundays are some of the weaker days in terms of ratings. At the moment Sundays generally don’t gather stellar ratings across the board. Every show and network suffers from this downturn (Hello streamer competition, anyone?)

Why did we suffer a drop in ratings in the recent weeks?

Simply said: Competition and natural viewing behavior.

March Madness is an event people watch live (as are Oscars, but March Madness much more so). These people record their shows instead of missing the game. March Madness also consistently ran overtime a little. People don’t just switch to other channels to catch half an episode. If they haven’t set a recording they will watch on Peacock.

It’s also somewhat natural for shows to lose a few viewers along the way. The reasons are as many as you can possibly imagine. Some lose interest, some have a different working schedule, lose access to NBC, aren’t in the right mindset to watch, have to go to the hospital, stubbed their toe, die (yeah, people annoyingly do that in which case their rating isn’t counted).

Where is everyone who saved the show and why aren’t they watching?

It’s a frequent complain and one that is perhaps the most stinging to the fans that have become active to try and save the show. It’s also an unfair question. A little over 14000 people signed the petition, only a fraction of those have donated to the fund, a handful have organized initiatives (billboard, anyone). You will have to subtract international viewers here, who have made up a large portion of that number. As you can see those specific fans are around – if they can. The international fans have no way of contributing to ratings other than social media engagement.

What ratings do we need to get renewed?

Impossible for us to tell. Ratings are only one factor in a large grid of data that NBC has access to and we don’t. We like having control, I know, but in this case we don’t have any.

Data we don’t have but that factors into renewal decisions:

Production cost (including rent for stages, compensation for cast, crew and so on)

How much money the ads actually make

How much money product placement in the show brings in

Number of people streaming

Contract requirements for the ads

Social media engagement (beyond the cold numbers) and the value they put into it

Projected ratings and expectations

To make it simple: A show that has high production cost and high ratings can still be canceled if the income the show brings doesn’t match the cost of producing it. Shows with lower ratings can still be renewed if there’s a solid profit.

Why do ratings look so different on a Sunday than a Friday?

Viewer behavior and circumstance. Friday is the beginning of the weekend, a lot more people have time to just kick back and watch TV, whereas Sundays people prepare for the new work week, maybe go to bed early. The reasons are endless, but it comes down to this: Sunday ratings and Friday ratings are wildly different overall. More people watch Friday in general, so our numbers would be higher there, too, but our Sunday ratings do reflect the higher ratings we would have on a Friday, translated to the circumstances on a Sunday.

We would have better ratings on a Friday, why doesn’t NBC put us back on a Friday?

It comes back to the data we don’t have. Yes, we performed well on a Friday, but NBC has analysts who thought it would be most beneficial to have Magnum P.I. on a Sunday. They had a reason to put it there. Also we would have likely experienced a rating drop on Fridays, too. Mainly because, as pointed out, the people who habitually watch CBS, wouldn’t watch NBC now.

CBS has a much higher rating than we do. Should we be worried?

No. NBC won’t make renewal decisions based on what CBS does. NBC makes decisions based on how their own shows do. Ultimately the shows that bring (and are projected to continue to bring) good profit, not ratings, are likely the ones that will be renewed. So don’t look to other networks, we’re not in direct competition with them for a timeslot at NBC, we’re in competition with other NBC shows. And among them we’re far from the worst performer. (And again, we have very little data in order to gage profitability)

Why are articles reporting so negatively about the shows ratings?

It’s simple journalism. Similar to shows, articles have a bit of a rating system behind them: Clicks. Highly clicked articles = more income.

Now as yourself which headline are you more likely to click and which article are you more likely to read through:

Magnum P.I. plummets to a new all-time low.

Or

Magnum P.I. has 0.5mil viewers less this week than last week.

You’re more likely to click the first one, because it tickles your emotions, in this case in a negative way. The same way the content does. This type of language grabs you more, which increases click rates and the chance that you read the entire thing through, which is what they want.

Ultimately they pick the language to manipulate you into a reaction, not because it reflects their opinion or the meaning of the ratings. The content is the same, though: The ratings dropped.

Matt, who almost writes daily articles about Magnum P.I., is a great example for it. I am sure we all remember when he had headlines during the save announcing statements by a star of the show only to click the article and realize it was just talking about a recent social media post by a cast member which we had already seen. The objective here is, like with every other website: Gather clicks. In this case by tickling your curiosity. It’s nothing more, nothing less.

The reason why the articles sound negative is simply to get you to react. They in no way reflect NBCs opinions, nor are they able to tap into more data than we do, which is the ratings. All they have is a bit of experience with previous shows, but when it comes down to that, they consistently point out that Mangum P.I.s ratings are a win for NBCs Sunday line-up.

Why aren’t streaming numbers released?

Internal decision, but maybe this quiets your mind: Procedurals like Magnum P.I. are known to have great streaming numbers. They’re one of the best performing genres on streaming platforms. One of the reasons for that is how easy one can get into the plot at any point due to the stories contained within an episode. Magnum P.I. and all the other procedurals are a show where you can watch an episode without context of previous seasons and still enjoy it due to the mystery of the day. From there maybe the serialized aspect makes viewers go back. Or they continue to watch. But our streaming numbers could very well be good.

Does the drop mean it looks bad for renewal?

No. Right now what you want to look at is context: Magnum P.I. brought NBC the strongest Sunday ratings in years. Our decline is happening within the context of a sport event/natural decline and NBC will have expected it. Other than that our ratings are stable.

We also consistently adjust upward from the preliminary ratings we get on a Monday to the final ones we get the week after. That means something.

Ultimately we will not be able to judge our renewal chances on the ratings alone, due to the multitude of factors (and there could be more) I already mentioned.

There is no point in getting overly worried about ratings. We can’t control them! No matter how much we want to.

What we can control is this: If we can watch it and have our view counted, do. Engaged with the official accounts on social media and enjoy the show. There’s really nothing more we can do.

[solaflaire]

Starham: Q and A (Second set of 50 Questions)

Link for questions: 500 Good Questions to Ask - Find the perfect question (conversationstartersworld.com)

What was the most unsettling film you’ve seen? • 9, directed by Shane Acker (Shane Acker - IMDb) and starring Elijah Wood (Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) / X (twitter.com))

What unethical experiment would have the biggest positive impact on society as a whole? • The experiment that made Captain America, Captain America.

When was the last time you were snooping, and found something you wish you hadn’t? • When I was a kid. I was snooping in my mother’s room and found my Christmas presents in her cupboard.

Which celebrity or band has the worst fan base? • Chris Brown or Blink182.

What are you interested in that most people aren’t? • Stationery

If you were given a PhD degree, but had no more knowledge of the subject of the degree besides what you have now, what degree would you want to be given to you? • Statistics.

What smartphone feature would you actually be excited for a company to implement? • iMessage

What’s something people don’t worry about but really should? • The difficulty graduates are facing trying to get a job.

What movie quotes do you use on a regular basis? • “No Cuts No Buts No Coconuts” from Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph

Do you think that children born today will have better or worse lives than their parents? • Better

What’s the funniest joke you know by heart? • What do we say when a factory makes just enough? Satisfactory.

When was the last time you felt you had a new lease on life? • After figuring out what I wanted to study: Mathematics.

What’s the funniest actual name you’ve heard of someone having? • Question. In South Africa, there are attendants who fill your vehicle with petrol. The attendant that was assisting my friend has Question on his name tag.

Which charity or charitable cause is most deserving of money? • Animals

What TV show character would it be the most fun to change places with for a week? • The host of Total Drama Island.

What was cool when you were young but isn’t cool now? • Cartoons

If you were moving to another country, but could only pack one carry-on sized bag, what would you pack? • My travelling documents and electronics to keep myself occupied for the flight. Anything else I would thrift or get at a discount store.

What’s the most ironic thing you’ve seen happen? • Body builders getting called out for “boosting”.

If magic was real, what spell would you try to learn first? • Expecto Patronum

If you were a ghost and could possess people, what would you make them do? • I don’t know. Possibilities are endless though.

What goal do you think humanity is not focused enough on achieving? • Innovation

What problem are you currently grappling with? • Eating less chocolates/food😂

What character in a movie could have been great, but the actor they cast didn’t fit the role? • Steward Little should have been voice acted by someone with an English Accent. That would have made him mysterious.

What game have you spent the most hours playing?

What’s the most comfortable bed or chair you’ve ever been in? • I have a YouTube Channel where I play games: Starham. Favorite game: Horizon Zero Dawn on PlayStation 4.

What’s the craziest conversation you’ve overheard? • The FBI conversation on the mafia. I am kidding. My mom on the phone ordering my gift on the phone.

What’s the hardest you’ve ever worked? • My projects at university.

What movie, picture, or video always makes you laugh no matter how often you watch it? • Any YouTube video of this guy: JobbytheHong - YouTube

What artist or band do you always recommend when someone asks for a music recommendation? • Glass Animals

If you could have an all-expenses paid trip to see any famous world monument, which monument would you choose? • The Pyramids

If animals could talk, which animal would be the most annoying? • The monkey

What’s the most addicted to a game you’ve ever been? • Pokémon Emerald. Replayed the game so many times.

What’s the coldest you’ve ever been? • Right now.

Which protagonist from a book or movie would make the worst roommate? • Pikachu from Pokémon

Do you eat food that’s past its expiration date if it still smells and looks fine? • No

What’s the most ridiculous thing you have bought? • Haven’t been making any purchases but I am interested in buying an iPhone Pro Max/Samsung Galaxy or Huawei Mate to use as a camera for my YouTube channel.

What’s the funniest comedy skit you’ve seen? • Go on YouTube and just watch anything from the channel: Comedy Central. Please be of age when you go there. Also, PewDiePie, prior to his break from daily uploads.

What’s the most depressing meal you’ve eaten? • I was eating cereal and watching TV one Saturday morning and then Pikachu lost to Raichu. Yeah, I was not the same after that.

What tips or tricks have you picked up from your job / jobs? • Stay away from people who tell you what they plan on achieving in the workplace.

What outdoor activity haven’t you tried, but would like to? • Hiking

What songs hit you with a wave of nostalgia every time you hear them? • Glass Animals – Heat Waves

What’s the worst backhanded compliment you could give someone? • I never thought that dress would fit you.

What’s the most interesting documentary you’ve ever watched? • Anything about animals. Primarily marine life.

What was the last song you sang along to? • Post Malone - Wow

What’s the funniest thing you’ve done or had happened while your mind was wandering? • I walked into a girl I had a crush on.

When was the last time you face palmed? • When I thought I had money but was at the counter and then only realized I spent it the day before.

If you were given five million dollars to open a small museum, what kind of museum would you create? • Toys and memorabilia

Which of your vices or bad habits would be the hardest to give up? • Honestly, watching YouTube.

What really needs to be modernized? • In my country, it would be trains.

When was the last time you slept more than nine hours? • Many years ago