#finally doing something of value with this blog. Everyone Play Slow Damage

[ryusaidate]

just started playing slow damage after seeing your posts about it and i already feel a sickening need to toss towa down a well. pathetic beast

have fun <3

[aetterra]

Oh hey right, this is a thing.

So I decided to do a blog. I don’t know why, maybe because expressing myself on Facebook is too much of a hassle, I don’t know. My thoughts tend to bounce around so I guess this will serve as a place to set them down publicly.

For today’s post, I’m going to express my frustration with creating a card game, and my perfectionist tendencies. I’ve been trying to come up with something viable for some time now - over a dozen iterations and I can’t seem to settle. I tend to start simple, things get complicated, so I hack it back down and restart with what I ended up left over with. This results in, well, no results.

I want to make something simple enough that you don’t need a huge rulebook but complex enough to add depth of play. Striking that balance seems to elude me. I’ve studied a number of mechanics and played quite a few games over the years, all the way back to good old 1st ed. MtG back in my high school days before feature creep and bloat murdered the hell out of it (IMO anyway). Here are some of the basics that I am having trouble hammering down.

Setting(s): The primary setting is fantasy-punk, less serious but not silly. Tongue in cheek art, serious game play with some puns here and there in names and flavor text. I’ve got a pair of alternate games - one of piloted robot dinosaurs (because mechs are cool but dino mechs are cooler) and one with starships slugging it out in space.

Card Stats: I’ve got this pretty locked in for my desired outcome. Pretty much everyone uses similar variants of Attack, Defense, and/or Health. Some boil it all down all combat to a single number (Hearthstone) while others have an Attack and Defense. Some have Health and Defense separate, others lump them together (MtG). I like keeping them separate and/or including damage reduction and specifying if special abilities apply to offense or defense. Starships use a simple HP and R/P/S attacks and defenses for guns/armor, energy weapons/shields, and missiles/e.c.m. Finally there’s card cost, and I’m a fan of “spend cards from your hand as resources” to avoid the slow start games like Magic end up with.

The Health Problem: Keeping track of health is a problem with card games. In the games I’m making, the player has no health, the cards do. However in most games an attack has to kill a card outright; this is done for simplicity. But the use of such a method removes the utility of healers, a central component in my game. At best it turns healers in buffers, adding health instead of restoring lost health to a fixed maximum - an important distinction. I loathe the kill-outright system, as I find it overly simplistic, but I can’t seem to find a way around it that doesn’t include dice or piles of tokens for HP tracking.

Special Abilities: This shit. This is where I keep getting hung up. I tend to start simple and it gets bloated so fast, and the next thing I know I’ve got a list of 600 cards and a ton of text on them all. I try and pare it down and the loop begins again. With my main fantasy-punk inspired game, this is a huge problem. The rest, not so much.

Combat: Keeping this under control has been a challenge. I like the idea of using value+die roll for card combat; it’s uncommon and adds just enough randomness to give weaker combatants a chance at success. This I’ve stripped down to either “Roll 1d6+stat” or “Roll card-specific die+stat vs. 1d6+defense”. Adding in status conditions (like poison), buffs, and debuffs further complicate things.

PvE and/or PvP: Player vs. Player is common and easy enough; last one standing wins. Player vs. Environment is harder; it adds complexity. I like the idea of fixed decks or deckbuilding, with the implementation of both systems combined. Two players have a small team of adventurers and they either try and slaughter each other, or compete to clear a deck that acts as a dungeon or some such - not unlike Sentinels of the Multiverse, if one were to combine the Environment and Boss decks into one whole thing.

In point of fact, this whole thing started inspired by making fantasy characters for a SotM game or analogue, and evolved from there. This is all, of course, for physical play, and not as an app. Making an app would remove some of the issues I’ve discussed since the computer does all the heavy lifting; I’ve played several good online card games that solve these problems with these advantages. However, I’m not even slightly capable as a programmer - every attempt to learn to program I’ve ever made has ended in catastrophic, frustrated failure.

So that’s my frustrated rant for now. Comments appreciated.

[hhemeraa-a]

shipping meme !

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR MUSE SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPPING WORKS ON YOUR BLOG. REPOST. DON’T REBLOG.

tagged by:  @shelterinsilence tagging:  oh boy

WHAT’S YOUR OTP FOR YOUR MUSE?:

         Last time I answered this meme, I said that I didn’t have an OTP for Myles and I still semi-abide by that, however if I were to pick favorites...          @corpusdxlicti because I just love them so much, it’s so good, their interests line up so nicely and oh my gosh, Myles low key loves him so much and the two of them will probably take years to say it to each other, but that’s ok because they don’t need words sjghskdjg           @etlascivus  👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀  because Asmo breaks a lot of rules and he’s the 1% that Myles lets get away with it. Talk about a beautiful accident, it’s rare that Myles feels possessive or needy over someone and yet here he is very quietly demanding Asmo’s attention. Due to recent events, he’s going to become a lot more chaotic about it so I’m excited ;;w;;

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RP WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING?:

       ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   anything. Like.... literally anything.           What won’t I RP is a shorter list, but because of how…. emotionally difficult Myles is, a majority of any ship needs to be plotted to some extent or else you are at his mercy which means that any ship success rate goes down to about 2% unless the planets are perfectly aligned. With that said, I’m pretty open to all the genres, even those taboo ones you don’t think I’d be into but I am. 👀 👀 👀 👀  

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?:  

        I refuse to (romantically) ship with anyone under 18 (muns or muses) and Myles very rarely will ever be interested in anyone between 18 - 21. With that, so long as everyone is a consenting adult, age ain’t nothing but a number. Plus Myles likes ‘em older. He won’t make age an issue if your muse doesn’t make age an issue.           Some of you have muses that are hundreds and thousands of years old, so? It’s a non-issue.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?:

       Myles? Hell yes. Considering his emotional damage...        I said prior, but Myles is extremely difficult to ship with unless it’s plotted and there’s chemistry involved. 90% of the time, he is playing to emotions that benefit him in a situation, but doesn’t actually feel romantic inclinations towards someone.  He can be friendly and have one night stands, but if someone asked to be his boyfriend, he’d mean laugh in their face and walk away.           But to answer this question - yes, I am. Only because it takes a lot for Myles become attached and actually have feelings that aren’t just surface value. If he’s gotten to this point (unless it’s the rare 1% where he just instantly clicks), we’ve probably RP’d or plotted a lot and I’m starting to get real fuckin annoyed when people drop the muse or disappear right after all the work we’ve done. I’m tired of it, Myles is tried of it, and [we] I’ve become much more weary about being the one to commit when someone else hasn’t.

          OF COURSE!! that isn’t to say you shouldn’t approach me about one!  I love shipping and some times it won’t work out and that’s ok, but never be afraid to throw an idea at me or ask me if I think it’ll work.  ;;w;;

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY’RE CONSIDERED NSFW?:

        Idk, usually if there’s a peen out, I’m pretty sure that counts as nsfw. I’m bad at tagging things and 50% of the time my written nsfw isn’t tagged, but that’s only because           1) my blog is tagged as nsfw so browse at your discretion           2) all images will always be tagged with nsfw           3) this thread isn’t for you, so why are you reading it lol (I’m half joking, half not)           4) I’m pretty sure my partner knows that it is nsfw.           Unless my partner wants things under a read more or has specific things they want, Isin proudly and openly.

WHO ARE OTHER MUSES YOU SHIP YOUR MUSE WITH?:

I’m going to keep this list short because last time I wrote like a huge thing, but not all of these are romantic, some are just platonic/friendships.

@rosaceaes  -  👀 👀 👀 👀 @kashiings - strained friendship @catastrophicur - friendship on a leash @svagefaith - soulmates from hell but also best friend who eats all my food @portalipsis - cutie with the booty @etlascivus -  👀 👀 👀 👀 @corpusdxlicti -  👀 👀 👀 👀 @inionnaforaoise -  👀  complicated friends @dcsidcrium - sister that he’s probably shot more times than necessary  @demonisch - demon dad next door @fourridersandaking - low key old man crush and beta fish bud and probably a bunch of others sO IM SORRY IF I MISSED YOUR NAME

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?:

        Yes, although if we have a thread going/there’s chemistry, I’m sure we’ll both reach out to each other about it naturally.            But I encourage this?? Even though my son is hard to get to know and ship with in general  ;;w;;

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP?:

        I love it!  But shipping isn’t the end all be all of my blog. I really enjoy complicated plots and things that have nothing to do with relationships. I made Myles to be the sort of anti-ship muse, BUT LOOK WHERE THAT GOT ME. Nothin’ but pain and tears. 

ARE YOU MULTISHIP?:  

        Yes! And multi-verse unless it’s discussed.

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?:

       Meh - romantic things are nice, but like I’ve been saying, this is completely up to Myles and he’s not inclined for romance. So I’m a ‘more or less’ kind of person. If I really like a ship we have going, I’ll be very obsessed and try to keep it low key cause I don’t wanna scare you off.  ;;w;;

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?:

        Fandom? Don’t know her.           HA. ok. Um…. Deimos and happiness. I love Deimos so much, I just want him to be so happy but not with Cain, he can be happy with anyone else. 

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?:

       My favorite ships always start as an accident - either though starters where we just see something click, or an ask where something funny happens.  Just write with me or approach me about it!  Chances are if you want to ship, you’re going to know something about Myles’ personality that you/your muse likes. If you come to me in hopes to finding a ship without any prior knowledge of him, you might have a bad time.           It’s really easy for things with Myles to get toxic fast, so unless you’re prepared for a slow burn, idk if this is the right place? But again! Just reach out, I absolutely love discussing relationships and plotting, it keeps me alive in my waking hours.

[briangroth27]

Power Rangers (2017): Go, Go See This!

This is my 100th original blog post! Fitting that it’s about the modernization of one of my favorite things from childhood!

I was seven when Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers premiered on FOX Kids in 1993 and I still vividly recall watching the pilot in my parents’ living room. As soon as that Saturday’s morning cartoons ended, I immediately watched my newly-recorded VHS copy of “Day of the Dumpster” again: the adventures of five “teenagers with attitude” had hooked me instantly! Along with Superman, Batman, the Flash, and TMNT, the Power Rangers were some of the first live-action superheroes I ever saw, and they definitely left an impression. The giant robots (based on dinosaurs, another childhood obsession thanks to the recent release of my still-favorite movie, Jurassic Park) and monsters blew my mind. Amy Jo Johnson was my first celebrity crush. I took Tae Kwan Do for a few years solely because of Power Rangers. I still have all the original action figures, the Morpher & Power Coins, the Blade Blaster, the Megazord, and the Sega Genesis video game. I fell out of the Ranger fandom after Zeo ended, but I’ve always fondly remembered the originals. I went into the new movie just hoping it would be fun and proud of its roots; things like the R-rated Power/Rangers by Adi Shankar are cool and all, but the real Power Rangers don’t need to be grim and gritty. I left the theater humming the theme song with a huge smile; this movie is great!

If you were a fan of the show, you’ll love the new movie for taking the characters deeper than the original series did and for the clear love it has for its source material. If you thought the show was too cheesy, you’ll probably appreciate the modernized themes and issues the teens face here. The movie makes you wait for most of the action, but the characters were fun and compelling enough (and the actors strong enough) that it never felt slow. When the action does arrive, it’s earned and very well-tied to the characters’ arcs! That connection, striking at the core of the Rangers mythos, also makes for an important message about teamwork and understanding.

I didn’t think the Rangers needed to have powers when not morphed, but it didn’t hurt the story to introduce that aspect either (though it does remove an easy path to drama if they’re attacked and can’t morph). The Putties were formidable even with super-strength, so not having powers would’ve led to the unmorphed Rangers’ immediate deaths in this film (a rare case of the movies scaling the villains up to meet the standards of the heroes, something I wish Superman films would do with everyone not named Zod). I thought the suits were a little over-designed and bulky, preferring the ones from 1995’s film, but I didn’t hate them. Similarly, I prefer the simplicity of the original zord and Megazord designs, but these are good too. Jason gets his Power Sword during the fight with the Putty Patrol, but I wish everyone else had gotten their Ranger-specific weapons too (Zack’s ax, Billy’s lance, Kim’s bow, and Trini’s daggers). The final showdown didn’t feel rushed; I totally felt that it was worth the wait. That the team visibly showed fear during the final battle also humanized them and helped sell the idea that they were still teens and not at all polished superheroes, despite their mighty powers. 

Though the film looks a little washed out in terms of its color palette, there’s a great energy running through it. The effects were solid and felt realistic. I loved all the nods to the original series, such as the movie’s MacGuffin (the Zeo Crystal), what seemed like a shout-out to one of Rita’s best henchman (Scorpina), and an outstanding, iconic scene during the final battle. While there is a definite sequel teased in the mid-credits scene, this is a complete movie and I loved that it didn’t just feel like a stepping stone to bigger things.  

Absolutely see this!

Full Spoilers… 

My absolute favorite aspect of the movie was its focus on friendship and the need for the Rangers to harmonize in order for their powers to fully work. Like their Megazord, the Power Rangers are a team that’s stronger together than they are individually, and their literal inability to morph until after they’ve opened up and bonded with each other was portrayed perfectly. This was an excellent bridge between their character arcs (which felt like real things modern teens go through) and the superhero side of the story. There’s an important metaphor in your friends giving you the power to become a supercharged version of yourself capable of fighting your demons, and to paraphrase Zordon’s catchphrase from the series, that power protects these kids (and hopefully, the kids in the audience who see the value of connection and teamwork). Given the realistic diversity of this cast, it’s also easy to see this as a broader metaphor that the only way to survive and harness our true potential is to understand each other and work together.

Always believing the teens’ “attitude” meant good attitudes, I was initially skeptical when the trailer cast the Rangers-to-be as juvenile delinquents rather than the show’s socially conscious do-gooders, but the trailer was misleading. Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (Naomi Scott), and Billy (RJ Cyler) meet in detention and Zack (Ludi Lin) skips school a lot, but none of them are terrible people needing epic redemption arcs. Instead, they’ve made mistakes (Jason’s in trouble for a prank gone very awry and Billy for an innocent experiment with explosives), but are still generally good kids. 

Kimberly did the worst thing—forwarding a scandalous picture of one of her ex-friends—but it didn’t mar her character as much as I feared it would (I was spoiled on that plot point). She and the movie acknowledge this as the awful thing it is and I was impressed that she immediately shot down Jason’s well-intended suggestion that she forgive herself because there are “lots of pictures out there.” Instead, she correctly points out that it changes nothing about the picture she sent or the effect it had on her former friend. “Everyone else does it” doesn’t comfort her or excuse her actions and the fact that she knows how bad it was and has clearly grown softened this change from the show’s Kimberly for me. Scott’s Kim isn’t the valley girl Johnson was, but you can definitely see hints that she used to be a similar popular girl. Despite the darker backstory, Scott channels the corresponding original actor more than anyone else in the film, crafting a performance that’s her own but includes strong shades of Amy Jo Johnson (as well as a dash of Buffy season 1-Sarah Michelle Gellar). She probably has the most personal growth in the film and, along with Billy, was my favorite character.

Billy’s still the brains of the team and sets their ascent to Rangerhood into motion. Though Cyler brought a different energy to Billy than David Yost did, he was still most definitely “Billy.” While Scott channeled her predecessor most, Cyler channels the essence of the original character most. Everyone deserves to see themselves as heroes, so I loved that the film delivered an autistic hero in Billy, something I don’t think any other superhero movie or TV show has done yet. To the film’s credit, his being on the Spectrum is never portrayed as something to overcome or a handicap he’s “so brave” to live with; it’s merely a fact of his life and doesn’t hamper his superheroics in any way. Cyler brought an instant likability to Billy that pulled me into the Rangers’ circle and played perfectly against his hidden pain over to the loss of his father. Because he’s so personable, Billy’s death hit me hard (even though I didn’t think it’d be permanent) and the other Rangers’ reactions felt realistic and believable—though they’re only together a week, the team’s bonding feels real.

Jason’s prank causes property damage so he isn’t initially the Boy Scout from the show (though he is a jock), but I really liked that his movie arc takes that idea and shows us how he might’ve gotten there, molding him into the upstanding (and understanding) father figure he craves as he takes on leadership of the Power Rangers. While he does have a father (David Denman) in the movie, there’s clearly a distance between them. What exactly caused it isn’t revealed beyond his dad not understanding him and perhaps having goals and expectations Jason doesn’t want for himself, so Jason’s issues felt the most routine and well-trodden in terms of movies and TV. However, his relationship with the Rangers is more important than with his parents, so I was satisfied that Jason’s parental issues were resolved by Zordon standing in for his dad, particularly when Jason found out why the Rangers morphing was so important to Zordon's plans. I liked that even though he was chosen to be the leader by virtue of being the Red Ranger, he wasn’t a natural and it felt like he had to earn that position, both in Zordon’s eyes and in terms of motivating the team. As familiar as Jason’s issues were (perhaps they were delivered in shorthand precisely because they're so universal), Montgomery never came off as boring or bland and he was a good lead.

Zack was fun and I liked that his up-for-anything bravado (an update of show Zack’s charisma, party-guy attitude, and jokester persona) was a cover for the knowledge that he’d probably very soon lose his mom (Fiona Fu) to her illness. While he and Trini (Becky G) could’ve definitely used more screentime to match the arcs Jason, Kimberly, and Billy had, I think Zack gets enough for Lin to display the fears just under the surface of his cool guy façade. He also gets to have some serious fun joyriding in his zord and physicalizes the tension and pressure the team’s under to become perfect superheroes in a week when he comes to blows with Jason. So, even though he wasn’t as big a focus as he should’ve been, he contributed to the personality mix in unique ways. Trini absolutely needed more material—her and Zack’s reduced screentime compared to everyone else is my one big negative note about the film—but what she got worked well. MMPR’s Trini was soft-spoken and polite, which here translated into a disaffected loner persona, owing to being moved around a lot and her parents’ (Erica Cerra, Patrick Sabongui) inability to accept her as anything other than the normal daughter they wanted. I liked that they made her the first LGBTQ movie superhero (Mystique and Harley Quinn are bi in the comics, but the X-films and Suicide Squad haven’t had that onscreen yet) and didn’t mind that this amounted to one conversation: none of the other Rangers have love lives explored here either. While Trini is guarded for a good portion of the film and her limited screentime gives her the hardest time when it comes to connecting with the others, I thought Becky G pulled the arc off. I bought her reasons for not talking sooner and her growing friendship with/trust in the others, particularly Kimberly, felt genuine. Not giving Trini more to do was a missed opportunity for what could’ve been a fun sequence of her using her superpowers to evade her helicopter parents to go train. Speaking of her parents, it’s odd they didn’t hear her room being trashed by Rita. She could’ve written the damage off as (extremely localized) effects of Goldar’s attack later on, but someone should’ve heard walls being dented. That could’ve been an opportunity to employ a classic “superhero has to explain extraordinary problems to keep their identity secret” moment. Given Becky G’s sardonic delivery when questioned about where she’d been spending her nights, she could’ve told her parents exactly what happened, comically upending those superhero tropes.

One of the film’s biggest surprises was that Zordon (Bryan Cranston) has an actual arc, making him far more interesting than the show’s version. I’d heard there was a prologue focusing on his history with Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks), but feared a focus on Zordon and Rita might overshadow the Rangers themselves. That prologue is only a couple of minutes long, but Zordon’s desire to have a physical body again was still unexpectedly touching. His tension with the Rangers over this point provided some good conflict I didn’t see coming. Alpha 5 (Bill Hader) was another big improvement over the original version, who I always found annoying. Banks was entirely over the top as Rita, but that’s exactly who Rita is supposed to be! Like the Joker, I really don’t have an interest in an entirely serious version of Rita Repulsa. In fact, Banks’ casting—along with the tag line “Go Go”—was the first thing that convinced me this wasn’t going to be the super-serious mess it could’ve been in our current “gritty is automatically superior” pop culture mindset. Rita’s full-on insane and she fit in without breaking the tone of the movie, even against the grounded Rangers. I never felt she wasn’t a deadly serious threat (she kills several Rangers in this movie alone!).

It was cool that Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank (my favorite original Rangers) got cameos here! I wish David Yost, Austin St. John, and Walter Jones also appeared; maybe next time. Jason Narvy and Paul Schrier really should get cameos too; as the original series’ Bulk and Skull, they were the longest-running characters in the show’s history. With that in mind, I was surprised a new Bulk and Skull didn’t make an appearance here…Jason’s prank buddy Damo (Matt Shively), possibly feeling rejected after Jason finds new friends, and the “Bully of Detention” (Wesley MacInnes) could’ve easily been them.

The post-credit scene lays out the arrival of Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger, though I wouldn’t have minded one more film with just the original five Rangers. With five more films planned, there’s more than enough time to explore the dynamic between these kids before throwing Tommy into the mix. Still, I’m definitely excited for the prospect of a traitor Ranger, especially with this film’s emphasis on the team’s need for unity and trust to morph. Someone who can get past their defenses, earn their trust, and then stab them in the back will be a perfect, devastating adversary!

I love that we’re getting something of a Ranger renaissance now (to say nothing of the fact that 24 years and several iterations later, the show is still going). Not only did this movie come out (along with a tie-in sequel comic), but there’s an excellent ongoing Boom! Studios comic book featuring the original team! It’s set right after MMPR’s “Green With Evil” saga and deals with the Rangers learning to trust Tommy, and whether or not he can trust himself to be free of Rita’s influence. There’s also a fun Kimberly-focused 6-issue miniseries (“Pink”), set after she left the team, a crossover with the Justice League, and a brand new ongoing series set right after “Day of the Dumpster,” Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers, coming soon! While it’s at the other end of the tonal spectrum, Adi Shankar is trying to put together a gritty, adult-focused animated series about Power Rangers too. And of course, Saban & Lionsgate are planning at least five more films in the rebooted series, one of which may be a prequel focusing on Zordon and Rita’s team. With the film taking a series of hits at the box office after a strong opening, I think these plans might be pared down, but I really hope we get to see these Rangers’ adventures continue. Rather than rushing to create an entire universe at once, focus on making an excellent sequel to this one’s already superb foundation and then build from there!