#for the purpose of this post those are just simplified examples

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I was actually wondering if you all could do a really in-depth post specifically on canes versus forearm crutches. I’ve noticed a couple of the recent asks pertain to it, and I think I myself still have one in the queue related to it, but in all of the posts y’all link us too in your answers to those asks, I have found the information is still very sparse and doesn’t directly compare the two in a lot of detail. I would really really love to see a specific dedicated post that breaks down the differences Between them directly, and goes into a lot more detail about what kind of person might prefer a cane and what kind of person might prefer forearm crutches. Differences in conditions, pain levels, fatigue levels, location of issue on their body, other symptoms, examples of disabilities that might more commonly default to one over the other, all that stuff. I’ve looked through basically all your posts on the subject I can find, and still feel like it’s really only scratching the surface, so if there’s a way y’all would be willing to do one big post on this topic specifically, I know at least I would really love it and I think others would as well! Most of the existing posts are a little too broad and surface level, and while I have found them super helpful as a starting point, I would love to see one that zooms in just on these two mobility aids rather than a broad overview of all types of mobility aids being compared like most of the existing resources y’all have. Seriously love what you all do and I would be extremely grateful for this!

Hey anon, just for you:

On Writing Characters Using Canes vs Crutches

[large text: On Writing Characters Using Canes vs Crutches]

This is a writing advice post that doesn't cover every single possibility because that's too impossible to try and do. It's simplified to be coherent for writers who have little to no experience with these sorts of mobility aids, and I encourage anyone who wants to write a character using either of these to treat this post as a small part of a larger research process. This post will contain generalizations for the purpose of me wanting to actually finish it. This is writing advice, not medical information, nor something you should be applying to real life.

Please keep in mind that a lot of the disability examples will only be shown in a single category because otherwise this would be a comical block of text. So yes, I know that a ton of conditions outside the "chronic pain" category also come with chronic pain, but I want this list to be actually easy to look through.

This will compare the cane (singular stick) to crutches (two sticks). Differences between a singular crutch and two canes will be at the end.

Canes

[large text: Canes]

The most primitive mobility aid that's out there. A wrist-height stick with a handle. An incredible invention. You hold it in your hand (at a rather natural angle) and that's mostly it - it's meant to follow a standard (left leg forward, right arm forward) gait and be a support meant for generally milder mobility issues. A cane can take up to 25% of body weight, so like half of what a leg does.

As a TLDR, here's what they could be:

One leg unable to bear the entire weight (but not completely unable) - this could be a result of a problem anywhere from the bottom of the foot all the way to the hip.

Milder balance problems - largely neurological, so either a condition that affects the brain, the spinal cord, or the nerves in the leg. There are also some autoimmune, respiratory, and cardiovascular causes as well, plus a few more.

Back/trunk problems, most commonly pain.

To use a cane you need two legs, most people who use canes for leg reasons will have a “good leg” and a “bad leg”. If this is the case, you'd typically hold the cane on the good leg side, as that redistributes the weight - and pain - between the bad leg and the cane.

The good leg needs to be able to bear the whole weight comfortably, the bad leg needs to be able to bear, at the very least, half of the weight. If the disability affects legs to the point where either:

both have problems weight-bearing;

one can't bear weight at all (e.g., amputation, flaccid paralysis, pain too severe);

then two crutches (or other mobility aid, like a wheelchair) would be the move. The cane doesn't replace an entire leg and is meant to be a minor support.

Examples of what would cause someone to use a cane:

Monoplegia or hemiplegia that is spastic (rigid) in the leg. This could be a result of stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, nerve damage, Brown-Séquard syndrome, polio, encephalitis, transverse myelitis, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, alternating hemiplegia of childhood, hemiplegic migraines, or being a hemispherectomy survivor. And many more things.

Chronic pain; arthritis, hypermobility spectrum disorders, chronic patellar instability, h-EDS, neuropathy, peripheral artery disease, past injuries (e.g., broken foot that healed incorrectly), systemic lupus erythematosus, joint replacement, chronic bursitis, and a lot more.

Relatively minor fatigue - most fatigue disorders will be on a wide spectrum, and people's symptoms often vary a lot. But a cane could help with fibromyalgia, Charcot Marie Tooth disease, POTS, scoliosis, severe kyphosis/lordosis, COPD (and other respiratory conditions), or milder forms of CFS/ME. Someone undergoing chemotherapy (or taking some other fatigue-causing medication) could also use one.

Muscle conditions, which are an even bigger spectrum. Spinal muscular atrophy type 3 and 4, early Limb-Girdle muscular dystrophy, tibial MD, Becker MD, or early myotonic dystrophy type 2 can all be reasons to use a cane. Keep in mind that these have drastically different presentations from person to person, and it's not entirely unusual for two people with the same kind of muscular dystrophy to use very different mobility aids (e.g., a tilt-in-space powerchair vs ...no aid at all). These are just the ones where I'm aware of a person who 1) has it, 2) uses a cane, even if it's not the most common aid.

Prosthetic leg on one side; usually below knee (high level amputees will more often go for crutches, even if they use a prosthetic).

The second biggest reason why people use a cane is balance. For this the cane can be held in either hand; some people have a preference, generally for the non-dominant hand for convenience - although many people with balance problems will also have a coordination disorder that might make using their non-dominant hand too difficult. Some people will switch the side they hold it on.

For a lot of people with balance problems, a cane might be the aid they use at home, and use a rollator or a wheelchair outside.

A good cane for balance purposes is a quad cane - it has four legs at the bottom and offer more stability than the single point equivalent. However, the larger base might also mean that for some people it can be easier to hit it with their foot, which ranges from annoying to dangerous.

Examples of disabilities that affect balance;

Many of the things included in the first section - primarily those that directly affect the brain or nerves.

Conditions that cause vertigo - again, many of the same things as before because a lot of them tend to originate in the brain. So other than aforementioned meningitis or stroke and the like: Ramsay Hunt syndrome, migraines, basically any sort of brain damage, POTS, Meniere's disease, labyrinthitis.

Respiratory problems, like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, severe asthma, or lupus.

Coordination disorders - again, a lot of overlap with aforementioned disabilities, so I'll skip to things I haven't mentioned yet. Ataxia could be caused by a lot of things; some include the Chiari malformation, ataxia-telangiectasia, Friedrich's ataxia, Parkinson's, brain tumors, or Niemann-Pick disease. Dystonia is usually a primary condition rather than being caused by other things (although it can be). Dyspraxia is also a coordination disorder generally milder than ataxia, and canes can be potentially helpful for it as well.

As mentioned before, some coordination disorders will affect the upper limbs as well, and it might be too difficult to use a cane. For disabilities like Huntington’s disease, or ataxia that significantly affects the hands, rollators and wheelchairs tend to be more helpful.

Anything that causes the person to fall. Fall risk is the primary reason people use canes.

A cane can also be used for back/trunk issues. One can lift off some weight of the body from above the Problem by putting the weight on the arm instead. I have really severe kyphosis as well as (partial) trunk muscle atrophy/coordination problems and quite literally can't straighten my back for more than a few minutes at most - my cane allows me to do that more easily and without needing to think about it as much.

Examples of some conditions that cause that include;

sciatica;

degenerative disk disease;

past spine injury;

scoliosis or severe kyphosis/lordosis.

In my experience, you need fairly good arm strength to use a cane comfortably. For people with more significant weakness in upper limbs, rollators tend to work better.

Grip strength is also important; there are canes designed to mitigate this (the platform cane/crutch comes to mind) but they're not the most common because often (not always) when someone has this issue they already require a larger mobility aid.

Canes are often a "starting" mobility aid, i.e., a person starts using it at first but later transitions to using something else as their disability progresses (or they realize that it wasn't adequate in the first place, it mostly happens with slowly progressive conditions - when they decide to get a cane, it's often just too late). A cane can be useful at the very start of an onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but it's basically worthless beyond that.

Similarly (kind of), a cane can be the "smaller" mobility aid for someone who uses multiple of them at the same time. Someone dealing with fatigue could use a cane at home, but need a rollator for going out, or a wheelchair for longer trips. Another person could use a cane when going out with a prosthetic leg on, but use a wheelchair or crutches at home when not wearing the prosthetic.

Crutches

[large text: Crutches]

These are more complex and provide more help. Crutches directly affect your gait depending on the exact disability, and take away both hands. They can potentially take up to 100% of body weight for parts of the walking cycle if you have good upper body strength and balance, and 50% otherwise (so, one good or two half-good legs still required).

Crutches are used for a lot of things (realistically too many to cover here) so I'll just go with the main categories that encompass most of them.

A) Both legs can't fully bear weight;

The same things as in the cane section, but present on both sides rather than one.

Hypotonia; can be caused by thousands of things. Some include Down syndrome, Tay-Sachs syndrome, achondroplasia, being born prematurely, brain damage, and congenital hypothyroidism.

Paraplegia that's low-level and/or incomplete, or quadriplegia that's incomplete. Quadriplegia is a huge spectrum as well, and it will depend on the amount of strength and flexibility that the individual person has in their arms and hands.

Bilateral amputation with prosthetics. (Someone who can bear weight no problem but has a milder balance problem could use a cane instead.)

B) One leg can't bear any or a lot of weight;

The same things as in the cane section, they're basically all on a spectrum, so some people choose a cane and others choose crutches.

Unilateral amputation, or congenital limb difference.

Limb length discrepancy where it doesn't touch the ground or barely does so.

C) Significant balance issues;

Same things as for canes, but either more severe or just someone's personal preference.

D) Back/trunk pain;

Same as C).

Additional note based on things I have seen: you can't use crutches if you have no legs and no prosthetics. You can't walk literally just on crutches. You need at least a single leg or prosthetic.

(Yeah I'm aware that there's probably a guy somewhere who does tricks where he does exactly that for a short video. That's Crutches Georg and he should not be counted because 99.9% of crutches users won't be doing that ever.)

Crutches will provide much more stability and relieve more pressure than a cane, but there is a wide range of the amount of support depending on how they are utilized.

What the disability is can actually present itself in the person's gait - there are a few main ones that are associated with crutches;

Four-point. The two legs and two crutches work as four different points of support, and three of them are in contact with the ground at any time. A lot (not all) of people who use it will use crutches full-time and/or not be able to stand without them. The most stable and the slowest out of all of these.

Three-point. Probably the one most people have in mind when thinking crutches. The crutches both move at the same time, along with the bad leg, then the good leg follows. This is the "broken leg in a cast" way of walking.

Two-point. The closest to how non-crutch users generally walk. It's like having a cane on each side; left crutch forward, right leg forward. Fairly fast.

Step-to. The crutches work as one point of contact, and the legs as the other - both of each will move forward at the same time. In the step-to, a person puts their feet at the crutches' height. Fairly fast as well.

and step-through. I'd say the most difficult, least stable, providing the least amount of support. The same as in step-to, both crutches go forward before both legs, however here the legs get swung through them while the person is only holding up on crutches. This is the fastest that it gets, and can definitely be faster than an abled person walking. You can run quickly like this.

If you have issues visualizing them, there are a lot of great demonstrations on YouTube that you can look up for clarification.

There are a lot of subtle differences in which one people end up using, but as a rule of thumb, the more balance they lack, the more points of support they need. To provide some examples;

a person with quadriplegic cerebral palsy might lack balance and coordination, so they might use a four-point gait.

A person with one-sided tarsal tunnel syndrome can walk with a three-point gait, as it can be used to mitigate weight-bearing fully or partially - if the pain gets worse, they can just not touch the ground with that leg.

A person with incomplete thoracic spinal cord injury could also work with a three point gait, though they would put both legs on the ground. If someone has good strength in the arms and trunk, they can get both crutches in the front along with one leg, then try to get the second one to go forward as well. This is how a lot of crutch users with a disability affecting two legs, but with decent balance and upper body strength, walk.

A person who had a traumatic brain injury and now experiences balance problems but not as much leg issues could opt for a two-point gait. It does help with weight redistribution, but primarily provides a lot of balance.

Both step-to and step-through are primarily used by single-leg problem havers (like unilateral amputees) in my experience, but I've seen people with diplegia or incomplete low-level spastic paraplegia use it too. You need very good balance and good upper body strength. I've seen dudes do backflips and ride skateboards on crutches like this. You can run as well and be way faster than you think.

The same as canes, crutches require arm strength. The more you're looking to take away from the legs, the more will go to the shoulders. If someone doesn't have the needed arm strength, a rollator will be more helpful. Walkers not so much as they still require some strength to turn.

More Direct Comparisons

[large text: More Direct Comparisons]

The differences between pain and fatigue levels might be somewhat evident from comparing the sections above - to generalize the subject as much as possible: the bigger the pain or the fatigue, the higher possibility of using crutches over a cane is. They provide more relief for both, as well as providing more balance.

Now, there's always exceptions. Someone might not be able to use two sticks, because of a disability affecting one of the arms - hemiplegia is a common example. In this case, the person could prefer to use a single crutch rather than two. They could opt for platform crutches, which don't require as secure of a grip. They might need a rollator instead. They might have a powerchair that they operate with their good arm.

Another thing is that some people will use crutches even if a cane would work just as well. Some people like the grip more, or find them easier to use. They could also like that crutches are seen as more medical than a cane, which could be seen as a fashion accessory. Maybe they can be faster on crutches than with a cane (e.g., if their disability is limited to a single leg, getting it out of the walk cycle might be more convenient) and that matters to them.

And to go with this, some people just don't like crutches. I personally don't like the forearm cuff because I tend to swing my wrist around with my cane rather than hold it perfectly straight, so the cuff seems annoying. For someone else that could be more than a preference, e.g. if they have a limb difference that affects the length of their forearms to be much shorter - a person like this could prefer two canes.

As to what mobility aids are better for which disabilities, it's highly individualized, but to heavily generalize again: canes tend to be more helpful for relatively milder disabilities, and crutches for relatively more significant ones based on the amount of support they provide. But that's an oversimplification so simple that it's not really useful.

Someone with neuropathy in parts of their foot might find a cane completely sufficient, but it wouldn't be as useful for someone with nerve damage that caused flaccid paralysis from the hip down; they would probably prefer crutches. But then again, someone with mild vertigo could use crutches because they prefer them (even if a cane would work just fine) while someone else might have incomplete C6 quadriplegia and use a cane with leg braces over crutches because they enjoy having a free hand.

For more similarities between the two; overuse injuries can happen to both cane and crutch users, generally in the shoulder(s). They're not very common unless you're putting more weight on them than you're supposed to. They're very annoying because it drastically tanks your mobility until they get better (unless you can walk without them just as much that is), but they're treatable with physical therapy.

Now for the two canes and a singular crutch. Let's start with the fact that the latter is infinitely more popular than the former. It's basically the same as a single cane but more supportive; it's good for people who need more balance than a cane provides but can't use both hands. Two canes is very rare and I can't tell you what the actual pattern of choosing them over other options is outside of personal preference because I have no idea.

The general conclusion of the post is that crutches and canes really aren't that different, and are more of a spectrum of usable sticks by the amount of support they provide to the user. That's why often you'll see canes and crutches listed as the same thing when it comes to "management of XYZ disability" type resources - for a lot of them they're rather similar in practice, especially when compared to rollators, walkers, scooters, or wheelchairs.

I hope this was more in depth and therefore more helpful, if this still leaves you with some unanswered question feel free to reach out again.

mod Sasza

[avelera]

Ugh, sorry, one last political point because it’s the day for it and this is bugging me.

Democrats and people on the left in the US have got to knock it off with this whole, “All Trump voters are obviously stupid” thing.

I’m sure it’s satisfying to believe, but it is simply not true, and making assumptions about your opponents that aren’t true is how you lose elections.

Half of the voting population of this country is not stupid and it is ludicrous to insist on believing that. Trump voters include doctors, lawyers, business owners, people with PhDs and graduate degrees, and people who attend college courses for fun. They are, unfortunately for many of us including yours truly, our parents and relatives and I at least know for a fact in those cases that they are well educated, well traveled people.

Assuming these people are just stupid and uninformed is, in fact, stupid. It a simplistic view of the world that is going to make your platforms lose if you embrace it and refuse to look deeper.

In practice, people engage in politics because they want the greatest happiness and prosperity for the largest number of people that they care about.

Everything after that is just haggling over price.

For example, the Left/Democrats might believe that the great amount of happiness and prosperity is brought to the largest number of people they care about when an advanced degree is available to everyone without leaving them in crippling debt, when people can age with social services that allow them dignity, when billionaires and companies cannot exploit their workers, and when peace and just causes are allowed to flourish around the world, including the education and enfranchisement of women, and the long term health of our planet. I personally believe that brings long term prosperity to us all.

Left and Right wing voters right now both probably agree that everyone is happier and more prosperous if they can afford a house and have a job that covers their needs and then some. How to get to that is the sticking point that they disagree on.

Right wing voters also want prosperity for themselves and those they care for and what they disagree on with the Left is how to achieve that. I’m not going to go into their platforms here because the whole point of this post is not assuming things about your opponents.

Now in order to persuade people to hold more Left leaning views, you need to make the case for why what you care about is a thing that they should care about and, more importantly, how it enhances the happiness and prosperity of them and those they care about.

Otherwise, you are asking them to vote against their own interests, which no one engages in politics to do, at least not on purpose (even if it is the ultimate outcome in many cases).

If you don’t care about making this argument to opposite side, then fine, you’ve already lost and you deserve to keep losing elections.

You deserve to lose because you’re not making a case for why anyone should support your causes in order to gain happiness and prosperity for themselves and those they care about, including expanding the field of people they care about, and it is ludicrous to expect people to do that without being persuaded either intellectually or emotionally.

This is what finding common ground and building coalitions is about, even if you don’t agree on every point. And if you self isolate and stick to your purity, you deserve to lose because politics is about how we govern large groups of people towards a common goal that, ultimately, is best simplified as the goal of their greatest happiness and prosperity.

Good faith politics is negotiating over what that means. Because resources are finite we can’t all get everything we want all at once. And not everyone agrees on everything so you need to prioritize the best possible allotment of happiness and prosperity for the short and long term, and that’s when we get into the nitty gritty of all the horse trading that happens in politics etc etc.

And you get into things like billionaires having outsized ability to enact their own happiness and prosperity but here’s the thing, many people especially on the right go along with those views because they believe (rightfully or not) that those goals will increase their own happiness and prosperity as well and if you don’t agree you’ve got to explain to them intellectually or emotionally why that is and provide and alternate platform or path for them to gain it that is more effective by at least some measure of that value.

Anyway, at the risk of this becoming a political science thesis from someone who isn’t a political scientist, just an amateur academic, tl;dr please knock it off with assuming everyone who disagrees with you is stupid, it is a losing proposition and it doesn’t get us anywhere near the goals we want to achieve politically, ie, the greatest happiness and long term prosperity of the people we care about.

[meraki-sunset]

so your crow strider au gave me inspiration for my own au, but i've built up the idea in my brain so much that now im scared to try to put it to paper (oops) did you ever deal with this while making crow strider? (and if you did, how you got over it would be much appreciated thanks fhdjks) also your art is cool :]

Hi, sure, i encountered a few blocks when writing CSAU and other projects. I think my method comes down to a couple rules

You need to know how the story ends from the start, so everything in the story leads to the end. Things can change about the contents of the story as you write it and you change your mind about the events that will transpire in it, but you need an end goal you can build your story towards. Most importantly, this is what allows you to add foreshadowing for said ending and structure the narrative in a clear direction. Otherwise, you might come up with a cool ending too late and regret some choices from past chapters that now don’t help this new ending you want

On that same note (and i’ll proceed to copy and paste from an old post) You need to have a Word document with a rough timeline of the events from start to finish. You need to know how it ends from the beginning and how they get there. It can be really, really vague, but it has to be there. It can go like

. They start the game, the trolls bother them.

.both games go to hell

.scratch

.trip, develop relationships

.new set of kids/teen drama

.old kids they get there

.to hell again

.John retcons everything

.new timeline

.they win

And that's homestuck simplified, Those are your Acts. With them, you will know where you're going and if you need to change something earlier. Everything will be constantly up to change of course, but you will be going from point A to point Z more easily.

From there, you go to every point in that list and create a Word document for all of them. I have them in different folders to have every act separated and in order.

A folder for each Doc for every Act, Numbered, and in each one make more lists like that one telling what happens, for example

WordDoc1 - ACT 1 "They start the game, the trolls bother them"=

.John needs to get his game

.introduce Rose

.introduce the trolls on pester chats

. John gets the game

.introduce Dave

.etc

And those are your chapters. Now you can know the extent of what you want to do and if it makes any sense.

I addition to that, every Folder can contain not only the Word document for the Act but also relevant texts and art that are connected to the Act, so evey folder is all about that specific act and any inspiration for it.

Another piece of advice I can give you is to hint at anything important. That's a rule of comedy; actually, the comedian usually closes the show with something related to the first things they said.

That works for everything, and makes people go, "Oh the thing! The meaningless thing they said earlier, it was a clue all along!"

Interconnect it like a web, and that web will stop the story from falling

Homestuck is so ridiculously interconnected that you lose track of the stuff and objects that repeat that have no way to be where they got to be, songs and people and events that are too similar to not be connected but nobody addresses, things like that make it feel like you're dealing with a universe and not just a line of events.

3. Yet another thing, it's something I'm still trying to assimilate, and is that less is more, sometimes things don't need to be said, specialy not bluntly, and an expression, a gesture, a flinch can summarize them. Backgrounds can be reduced, and ideas can be conveyed.

one example is, In homestuck, it's never said that Dave was raised with lack of food. He never sais it, but it's shown in how happy he was to find a warm bottle of juice in his closet, how there is only weapons on the kitchen and no sign of food, how he later sais he never learned what the purpose of a fridge was until he saw it on tv. If someone is lacking something, don't have them say, "i grew up without X thing" show what filled that space in the absence of X thing.

Instead of some character saying, "My dad was never there for christmas" have them say how they thrited for presents at the local goodwill, payed with their lawn mowing money and put the presents under the tree themselves for their siblings and mom.

4. Something that I always have in mind when writing the dialogs and sketching the scenes, is

"I have an idea; what's the easiest way for someone to get the idea, to get the feelings i want to transmit from the idea?" I made the art something I could handle drawing hundreds of times, simplified the coloring, the aspect symbols, the way I draw backgrounds, the way I write dialogs, etc.

That will save you time and work and could prevent you from getting stuck with a project too big to handle

5. This is the most important one: The first draft’s only purpose is to exist.

Writing is like playing darts sometimes; you only get closer to hitting the center by missing it and learning what not to do. That’s an actual rule on animation and a motto on the Disney office. “Get it wrong as quick as you can,” because when you learn what you’re doing wrong is when you start learnign what doing it right means.

If it helps, title your first draft “the dumb version,” because that’s what it is—the version to get the idea out of your head, and then you built over it.

On the same note, once you write "the dumb version" don’t correct it. Rewrite it. It’s annoying, I know, i know, but fixing and fixing a text only carries the mistakes from the first draft, and everything looks kind of disconnected, because it ends up being a Frankenstein text of all the versions of the story mixed together.

This also applies to art; that’s how I handle both writing and drawing; if it’s not working, hold onto the core idea, new page, restart.

Rewriting it puts it in perspective; it feels like a text of its own, with a clear intent in mind.

I think that’s all I have. Making a story is mostly about managing your strengths and weaknesses, organizing and not being scared of it not being perfect.

Hope this helps.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Public Release May 29th 2025 Update and Financial Status Update

Well, we did it, another rising monthly quota hit, we stay in business.

We ended May with $2,520.72/$2,321.74, (definitely started out in a slump, but the fans really pulled through for us in the second half) and are currently beginning June with $106.57/$2,898.83.

Luckily, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy just hit #1 on itchio’s Most Popular for TTRPGs, so that should help us out. If you like Eureka and want to help us out more, go give it a 5-star rating on itchio. (It’s one of those stupid algorithms where anything less than 5 stars will tank ratings.) We are currently around #65 on the Top Rated tab and if we got a hundred more 5-star ratings we would be around #35. Two-hundred more and we would be all the way in the top 20!

Oh any in case anyone missed it, all Eureka content on itchio has just been updated. The Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy changelog is under the cut below. The changelogs for Adventure Modules Vol. 1, The Fanservice Files, and The XXX-Files will get their own posts.

Here’s a summary of the changelog. This is a big one. There’s tons of tweaks and major improvements all over the book, we finally fixed the chapter titles, tons of new art, improvements to the mystery writing guide, and we FINALLY made it to the paranormal stuff in copy-editing. A bunch of the beginning quarter of the paranormal chapter has been rewritten to be cleaner, more legible, and to better articulate both the lore and themes and of Eureka. Oh also the cops in Eureka are more racist now.

CHANGE LOG 

WHOLE BOOK

Copy-editing Progress: Thoroughly copy-edited up to p. 436. (Was 302 in last public release.)

We also released Eureka adventure modules “The Eye of Neptune” and “FORIVA: The Angel Game” into free beta on itch.io. Scroll up to find the link!

We also just released a small expansion for Eureka that was intended to just be an April Fools thing but spiraled into an actual full expansion, check out Eureka: The Fanservice Files here! https://anim-ttrpg.itch.io/eureka-the-fanservice-files 

And another mini-expansion!

And a short-story set in the world of Eureka!

Added a bunch more art and made a lot of it smaller - this has resulted in some snoops looking a little crunchy with the lines aliasing a little, but that will be fixed in the final release - we just need to convert them all to vectors.

CHAPTER ONE 

Alright alright we’ll put the examples of play back in at some point but we will need to simplify and rewrite them a bit.

Many small clarifications and typo fixes.

Fixed typo in Buying Food.

Clarified only one exacerbating factor applies at a time. 

Added sidebar to “Composure” explaining that the system doesn’t simulate ordinary life, it tracks mental state during adventures (which are high-pressure and stressful).

Clarified the purpose of the Quick Terms section

Moved the Heat section to Chapter One.

Made racism of cops in Eureka more mechanicized. 

Generally clarified and cleaned up the Heat section.

Specified that Heat passively decreases at the end of each day.

Added a sidebar clarifying things about advanced prosthetics 

Clarified that when an investigator is paying for medical treatment, any resulting Financial Stress Composure roll happens after their treatment concludes.

Clarified injured and incapacitated statuses 

Wrote what happens if a character fails two of the same type of injury rolls

Fixed oversight so that incapacitation does not affect Wealth rolls.

Clarified how to make a roll and its equivalent in Quick Terms.

Added damaged snoop

Added Split the Party art

Added Maggie example investigator

Added Elia example investigator 

CHAPTER TWO

Many small clarifications and typo fixes

Made Kleptomaniac Trait also give a bonus to Pickpocketing

Clarified Real Capybara Hours and Wicked Traits, that they don’t apply a modifier in situations where the character is unconscious or something like that.

Fixed a typo in the Forgery write-in skill.

Clarified when rolls apply for Femme Fatale. 

Adjusted Property Modifiers of just about everything. In general, vehicles now have lower PMs and stationary residences have higher PMs.

Added PMs to “Other Property.”

Added bags (portable items with their own PM) to “Miscellaneous” 

Added new possibility for Partial Successes to Wealth rolls to obtain items.

Changed how the Burnout Trait works. It is now an ability that can be activated each time the investigator earns a Eureka! Point, and lasts until they take Penetrative Damage as a result of the Trait.

Temporarily took out the Ask Questions Later Trait.

Moved Inhuman NPCs and Custom Traits to Chapter Two. 

Gave boats, planes, and helicopters a very basic set of acceleration values. Won’t be more detailed because they don’t come up as much and also because we didn’t hit that stretch goal in the kickstarter. 

Added a sidebar about taxis 

Added much more guidance on how interpersonal skills should be called for and rolled.

Changed the “Poverty” Fear in “Tiers of Fear” to “Financial Stress” because some people thought that it was supposed to be a fear of poor people and not a fear of the effects of becoming poor. Yes people really read it that way. 

Added a reminder under the Wealth skill to modifiers for buying food. 

Added “Car Crashes” to optional Fears

Made Comfort Item Trait have a +/-2 instead of a +/-1. 

Made it so Real Capybara Hours doesn’t provide a bonus to Composure rolls for the individual who has the trait.

Completely redid the Ask Questions Later Trait and added it back in. 

Added “Six Days from Retirement” Trait 

Added “Disrespect” to the Mandatory Fears.

Clarified that I’m Okay, You’re Okay can only be used once per scene.

Clarified that what skill rating is “average” varies from skill to skill

Clarified Threaten even more.

Made it so the Perfectionist trait ability cannot be used with Composure rolls nor with rolls from Elementary! or Woo-woo.

Reworded Gangway Trait so it is more compatible with certain paranormal Traits

Fixed Close Combat Skill snoop

Fixed None of My Business Trait snoop

CHAPTER THREE 

CHANGED THIS FROM CHAPTER 2.5 TO CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER FOUR

Many small clarifications and typo fixes

Fixed one of the entries on the obstacle tables saying “light cover” instead of “heavy cover”

Fixed a sentence that didn’t have an ending in Turns, Rounds, and Movement.

Added a reminder that taking damage prompts an appropriate Composure roll or morale loss. 

Updated some examples in Chapter Three and also added more art

Clarified that Composure does apply a cap to Weight Class

Removed a special thanks credit per that person’s request

Added a note that Eureka really works best with 3 or fewer players and you really should not go beyond 4. 

Changed this chapter from chapter 3 to chapter 4

Also changed chapter 2.5 to chapter 3. 

Added snoops demonstrating different types of cover

Added Investigator vs Investigator snoop

CHAPTER FIVE

Heavy copy-editing on the first few sections

Removed certain things like “spotlighting” and other basic Narrator principles for review and rewrites. Some of this is probably going back in once we re-evaluate it.

Removed “How We Play Eureka.” Playing by the rules in the book should already outline the intended experience, and many options given in that section are just RAW now.

Changed “Jumpscares” from an optional rule to a normal rule. It is still used at discretion. 

Tweaked the way jumpscares work. Jumping characters must have their actions declared before the “something” is revealed.

Moved the “Heat” section to Chapter One

Tweaked and clarified the entire module writing guide

Added a new section under writing Truths, “Nested Truths (A.K.A. Two Kinds of Cookies).

Clarified reasons for setting restrictions

Took out “Designing Areas for Shootouts.” 

Moved Inhuman NPCs and Custom Traits to Chapter Two. 

Took out Writing Custom Monster Traits. We will probably rewrite it later. 

Completely rewrote many entire sections of Chapter Five. 

Like a bunch of sections

Got rid of the “Bad Guys” section. 

Changed this chapter from chapter 7 to chapter 5.

Added “No Time Travel” section.

Added “No Masquerade” section

Added explicit guidance to the module writing guide about module writers being allowed to ban certain traits if they think that are not a fit for the scenario they have written 

Added conversion snoop

CHAPTER SIX

Changed vampire sunlight composure roll from +5 to +7, it was still way too intense even at +5

Added another fan-submitted hunting table entry (those are still open, contact us at anim.contactus@gmail.com if you want to submit your own.)

Gave gorgons an additional small bonus to their second Swallowing Hold when swallowing live prey.

Clarified a sentence in the “The Gentry” section of the Fairy rules. 

Added some new snoops to the mage powers.

Added a temporary author’s note about the vampires and Christianity.

Edited a fan submitted hunting table entry at her request. 

Since bags are now usable by all investigators, fixed the text regarding those for Fairies. They also get a bit better PM modifier with bags than with homes and vehicles.

Added several more fan-submitted hunting table entries.

Changed this from chapter 8 to chapter 6. 

Added two new fan-submitted hunting table entries.

FINALLY got to doing some real copy-editing on this chapter

Rewrote the introduction to the chapter 

Rewrote “No Masquerade” 

Removed People as Prey section

Gave gorgons the option for a tail, based mechanically off of the succubus tail from The XXX-Files.

Changed how the Psychic Detective Mage Power works. 

Added another fan submission hunting table entry.

Changed the name of the Monster Essay section to “Takers” and rewrote it a little.

Rewrote the section “The Less You Know the Better” and renamed it to “Mysteries and the Inexplicable”

Rewrote “Believable Skepticism” section.

Fixed some typos

Added some author’s notes as quick patches for stuff we haven’t properly got to in editing yet

Made more clear that the paranormal stuff does not have to be used if your group wants to do mundane mysteries with an all-mundane party, we designed Eureka to be able to do mundane or paranormal mysteries well.

Partially rewrote “Monsters are ‘Overpowered’ by Design” and changed its name to “Stop Worrying About “Balance’”

Better codified the composure roll that is made when using paranormal powers and keyworded it. 

Added Gorgon Trait snoop

Added Living Doll Trait example investigator

Added Living Doll Trait art

[cherryfennec]

Okay I love your most recent art work of Mario and Mr. L!!! I’m just curious how on earth did you draw their hats so well?? Especially the brim of their hats?! Hats are the one thing I struggle with when drawing them! I can’t make it look believable!

Hi! First of all thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you like the art! Now as for hats (more specifically Mario and Luigis type) there can be different ways you might go about drawing them.

(I should probably mention at the beginning that I am not an expert and sometimes struggle myself as well. Despite this I'll try my best to explain how I usually approach it.)

Let's start with brims because they seem the most problematic (as I see it.)

What I'm going to talk about might already be intuitive for a lot of people, including myself, however I thought it'd be a good idea to break down the mindset so everyone is on the same page and those who have trouble seeing it can hopefully understand stuff better.

First it's obviously the idea. No real details, just the general idea. With it we'll be able to establish the basic rules for what you're drawing, most importantly the angle and perspective.

Now this is going to be pretty self explanatory but: if I'm drawing a character looking up I know that the bottom of the brim will be visible, if the characters looking down it won't and etc. An easy way to check which parts of the brim will be visible from a specific view point is to imagine it as a slab.

Now this isn't anything mind blowing, I know, but saying this out loud can be handy and save you some overthinking.

Alright, let's talk about the hat itself now!

In most of the pictures I could find of the bros hats they're divided into two parts: the front, which is taller and slightly spiked up, and the back, which is noticeably shorter. Now this kinda goes back to the idea of simplifying shapes:

At some point it unfortunately becomes rather difficult to explain why some stuff is drawn the way it is because it's kinda justified by: "that's how the real life counterparts act". Above everything I highly recommend references, both irl and ingame ones. It's not embarrassing to use them, trust me, no one will criticise you and they'll help!

Now that we got the brim and the hat, let's put the two together!

There isn't really a strict order of how you should draw things, everyone has different preferences and processes which should be taken into consideration. For example, I personally like to draw the entire head before I touch on the cap:

(I added the hair and colours for the sole purpose of this post, this process is usually done during rough sketching.)

This way I have a point of reference where the brim ends (right before the ear for me) and where I should place the middle line on the cap (it's a bit of a stylistic choice than anything but it also lets me know where the fold will be). You can find your own way and make your own rules and with time the process will get much easier! I hope this somewhat helps.

Just practice, have patience, experiment and most importantly: have fun!

[rin-and-jade]

We're In This Together: A Post of Pairs & Connection in Alters

This topic's not commonly talked about, since we always thought that alters have to be different in order to be a valid experience as a system. I've come here to show you another perspective to tackle that Status Quo:

Alter's are connected with each other--sometimes obvious like in pairs, sometimes subtle ways on how they communicate to other groups better.

It'll be an interesting subject today--I'll Show ya!

Fast Pass: TLDR Section Is Available!

Alright, Im Listenin'

We've had many discussions within the community on why parts are compartmentalized, became distinct personalities, or able to hold different memories/symptoms/skills. Now, that's one view systems often focus on,, this's the time to talk about what's been keeping your innerworld and parts functional in real life despite the chaos.

Do you often think to yourself why parts come in pairs or many at once instead of one by one in a gradual timeline?

While there's no single factor that helps make sense of this, there ARE some primary ones:

Low Dissociation It's what helps them understand each other's thoughts without saying them out loud, since they vibe with similar frequencies.

Low Emotional Amnesia This helps them understand what the other is feeling, no matter how small, its like some integrated empathy that's mutually shared.

Splitting from the same Source (alter) While it's true that the essence were distributed away, some retain the original part, which often makes those separated alters gravitate towards each other again. Sometimes they also remember where or who they belonged to, retaining past memories is absolutely possible.

Arriving from similar origins They can appear one after the other (in short time span) or alternatively, appear together in a group. This can be caused by changes in the environment/daily life, which brings forth newer equipped alters if existing parts fail to integrate/download the updates.

Is this,, Normal?

It sure is, and there's reasons to back those up.

Similarities can be shared across alters due to how amnesia and dissociative barriers affect each alters differently, this can be compared with two extreme spectrums:

The OSDD 1a is subtype where amnesia and barriers are still prominent, yet the lack of distinction brings us some hints that alters do not have to be different in order to be separate.

And the Polyfrag can have multiple variations of a single alter, contrasting with OSDD's less distinct but separate parts. This suggests different forms of interconnection--meaning, alters are linked through shared origins, functions, or retained traits rather than always being fully different personalities.

Those with DID or other CDD's can also experience this, just in less obvious forms outside of my examples. Depending on what type of system you are, this experience will manifest differently for everyone, and is not universal or comparable.

If you're still confused why an alter split or formed here and there, then it might be harder to understand why groups can appear--In this case, i'll explain the basics to help you understand why.

Tell Me Why?

It's possible to split or form alters that have similar skills, traits, or purposes since the brain do not possess an innate sorting system based on aesthetics or clear organization to box each parts differently.

When you think about it, the brain is geared for survival and producing resources based on what obstacles it had encountered--think about how sharing workload provides better stress resilience when compared to a single part handling all the burden, a big contrast isn't it?

An alter who forms or splits from, is the cause of stress from uncertainty or any complex issues it cannot navigate/solve. It's much easier to simplify solutions to black and white, leaving the grey areas untouched,, this helps them perform actions immediately without overthinking any other perspectives.

Now, if they came in groups, it got the same reason why one appeared,, but now a level above it. There could be multiple stress at once which produces a batch in a similar time frame.

What does their Arrival mean?

If there's an ongoing theme or when the majority have one or multiple traits or issues it's dealing with (e.g, most of your headmates struggles with trust) , that could be a BIG hint that something is up.

You can also call it a reoccurring problem that's desperate to be solved, something that you're uncomfortable to face--yet crucial to heal from.

And, from the alters you've gained throughout your journey, it reflects what stress or trauma that needs to be overcame one day. So.. instead of dreading why you've gained new members, try using a different mindset and ask what do you need in order to cope,, assuming new ones arrived to help you get through life.

How's this related to our topic--

It does relate for today's main subject, because of how some alters talk, and often create their own social groups based on how well they connect with each other.

See for instance, holders can have better access to other holder's memories or how ANP's can talk better with their own similarities compared to talking to EP's groups. Depending on what the alter's dissociated away from, the less distinct, the better they're related to each other.

E.g, A and B are both anger holders, despite having different memories to why they adapted an explosive behavior, the dissociation between them aren't high due to holding the same emotion--Anger. This main similarity between them is what creates better inner communication.

So, its true that alters are all different, although because they belong to the same mind--it's bound to collide and create similar variations from external environment or stimulus.

Okay, i understand! (Takeaway)

That's great, because even if CDD's are made to separate stressful memories or traumas, it does not stop from parts being able to communicate due to their own connected origins which bypass the general amnesia and barriers all systems struggle with!

At the end, to simply explain why connection exists within dissociation, its definitely because of one word: Relation.

Dissociation and amnesia makes it hard to be aware of your own parts or their purpose, but if you got some common grounds to start a conversation--it'll serve as a realization that you're not as separated from everyone else as you'd thought.

Have i challenged the Status Quo? If this made you rethink how alters connect, you might find subsystems even more interesting, here's the link to it!

- c

TLDR SECTION

Alters don’t always exist as completely distinct individuals—many are interconnected in ways that challenge the common perception of system dynamics.

Some alters form in pairs or groups, sharing traits, emotions, or origins. This happens due to factors like low dissociation, low emotional amnesia, splitting from the same source, or arriving from similar life circumstances.

Polyfragmented systems can have multiple variations of a single alter, contrasting with OSDD’s less distinct but still separate parts. This suggests that alters can be linked through shared origins, functions, or retained traits rather than always being fully different personalities.

Alters arriving in groups often reflect recurring stress or trauma, signaling unresolved issues that need attention. Instead of seeing new alters as a setback, they can be understood as adaptations meant to help the system navigate challenges.

Key takeaway: Despite dissociation and amnesia, alters are often connected in ways that make inner communication and cooperation possible. Recognizing this can help systems better understand and communicate with themselves.

[rottenteeth]

It's been awhile let's talk about dissociation.

Dissociation is the act of disconnecting from ones body and or surroundings (on purpose or subconsciously). Some people are predisposed to use dissociation as a coping mechanism either due to their brain or environmental factors.

Some amount of dissociation is normal and some forms of dissociation are good to an extent.

Chronic dissociation comes into play when someone experiences an event or series of events that they do not have the ability to process. This may be due to needing to function and seem "normal", an avoidance to accepting what happened to oneself, or simply because someone does not possess other options of coping.

When a child experiences chronic dissociation ALONG with the idea that they themselves are not experiencing a trauma, their caretakers are loving most of the time, the inability to process that they are not evil, and many other forms of instability and lack of connection to trauma events they become increasingly more likely to develop dissociative identity disorder.

DID is not as complex as people make it out to be (it is complex but not incomprehensibly so). It is a way for the brain to comparmentalize many different traumas, the instability of life, and what is required of them in different situations. It is a post traumatic stress disorder with dissociation being the only coping mechanism alongside early childhood trauma.

What you as an adult/older teen consider trauma is much different than what a 5 year old considers trauma.

When your mom yells at you and says she doesn't love you sometimes and you're 5 you have no concept of what could have caused her to say that other than you are evil and horrible. As an adult maybe you see she just got a speeding ticket or her boss yelled at her or any other reason she may have lost her temper. While in no situation is this an appropriate response to stress, a child has no concept of other people's life experiences.

When you are five and you see you are not getting your needs met, you think you are evil or you are not good enough. When you are being abused it is because you think you're bad. So the brain needs to change who you are sometimes.

When moms cooking dinner don't get in her way or ask questions or she'll yell at you because you're evil = submissive depressed alter. (If you remember when mom is nice to you it might make you too comfortable so you must not remember her kindness while she's cooking)

When Mom takes you out for ice cream you need to be happy and enthusiastic or she'll yell at you = happy social alter (if you remember the trauma she gives you you can't be happy so you only have happy memories in this state)

When mom demeans your entire being you can't take that to school or your teacher will be upset you're not doing your work = school alter and a self hating alter (if you remember that you're a bad stupid child you can't function at school, those two states must be separated)

These are fairly simplified examples of why an alter may form, your memories still exist from other states. DID is NOT an encoding issue, dissociation might make it hard to encode some memories but if an alter holds memories they have been encoded and it is physically possible for every part of the brain to remember them.

Sometimes your brain doesn't want you to have access to memories that aren't important to the current situation so they must be put into a different part of the brain only to be accessed when a trigger happens.

You feel like different people because you literally do not have access to one coherent life. The memories each part holds makes up the way they act, if they mainly hold trauma they won't feel happy like an alter who holds few or no trauma memories. The world is evil to one part and loving to the next.

[octosan]

Working on one of the videos for my drinking game series and I got mad and wrote a whole rant that I realized was a little too much for a drinking game post.

I just hate this script so much you guys. I hate SO MUCH how much they simplified the dialogue, the worldbuilding, the puzzle solving in this game.

I've seen a lot of complaints about fans being illiterate towards the story and to that I say of course they are! The game doesn't ask them to think! Rather than throwing up your hands saying "maybe they had a good reason to dumb down the dialogue and spoonfeed you this stuff"

consider that critical thinking is a muscle

and players do not exercise it when the game is afraid you will forget the core premises of the game, or individual missions, and so repeat them constantly.

When your companions all get along and share the same basic principles beyond bland culture differences, and their principles are all ones deemed acceptable to "modern" audiences, so you never have to think about what life experiences might have led them to feel that way.

When you have your companions constantly patting you and the other companions on the back and saying "nice job!!" in combat as if we wouldn't understand that they are friends otherwise.

When you constantly have characters make juvenile comments like "this is evil, even for the venatori!" or "they did that just for power?/greed?" or "man this makes me hate the venatori even more!" (even more?? these are fantasy nazis!!! you didn't hate them already??) and then don't give the evil factions any nuance because they're afraid you won't get that these factions are eeeeeevil. (The Venatori were never very nuanced outside Calpernia but at least there was lip service that they were a symptom of broader issues, not the convenient cause.)

When you're constantly explaining to the player how many blight pustules they still need to pop, how many crystals you have left, and oh!! the gate's open now! go through the gate! or look! there are darkspawn there where your camera is already pointed! Even late in the game they were doing this! Even at the end of Bellara's questline she was explaining that laser mechanic to me!

When they present you with lore reveals that have been highly anticipated for decades, as well as multiple memories which are meant to add to our interpretation of a core character, and they literally just tell you what to think about them and how to interpret them, at length, in that godawful regret questline. (And tbh even Solas' memories in the Crossroads did not tell me anything I did not already know)

And then Mythal saying "hey those murals are not 100% reliable memories" in a single missable dialogue option that we don't address any further, rendering even that agonizing bit of handholding pointless. Like okay what does it MATTER that they are not 100% reliable? because the redemption ending relies on your interpretations of it being 100% correct!! what purpose does that line serve except to give the writers deniability?

When you don't even bother to GIVE new worldbuilding details when they could absolutely be relevant at the time, except when it makes the writers' job easier like "turlum" or Bellara's clan's funeral practices being indistinguishable from ancient elven ones even though that's literally not what we were told about Dalish practices in the past, guess the Emerald Graves don't exist anymore-. Like just as one example that has stuck in my head, Elgy and Ghilly use terms like The Blight, Archdemons, Darkspawn, the Crossroads, etc. despite being from time periods that predate those terms and presumably having their own words for those same concepts. You can't tell me that Ghilly honestly thinks of her beloved hell children as "darkspawn", or that she would tolerate other people calling them that. You can't tell me that Elgy would agree to call his instrument of reshaping the world, which he is trying to convince people is a good thing, the Blight.

When the game actively punishes people who are familiar with the prior materials with their worldbuilding, punishes people who are reading the codex entries and looking for minor throwaway lines that acknowledge previous shit like the fact that Crows are literally tortured as part of their training and killed if they fail contracts, by having it not be remotely relevant to the story and make it much harder to have the appropriate reaction to what's happening in it (like Rook has no choice but to be happy Jacobus is taking in more orphan crows??) This is low-hanging fruit but it's so illustrative of what I mean.

What other outcome is this all going to have but players who do not look further than the surface? Who miss and ignore little details they have been trained to think do not matter and largely do not inform the broader story and characters? Players who are easily stumped on puzzles because they were not allowed to figure anything else out by themselves?

Are you going to claim that the Orzammar questline in Origins didn't teach anybody a lesson about paying close attention to the social structures and culture of a society when you pick the person who's going to rule it, as opposed to picking the guy who the narrative frames as wise and kind and the other guy framed as a power hungry third child? Are you going to claim that the Archon choice teaches anything remotely as useful?

Like!!!!

GOD

Inquisition had plenty of this stupid handholding too btw. You can argue all of the games had it by degrees. but it wasn't even remotely this bad.

[supahstarrr]

rambling.

Hu's case is interesting to me because the objects associated with her (butterflies) seem to imply that her character revolves around changing & rebirth due to its symbolism, and she herself finally has the strength to speak about her secret while implying she wanted to put the secret "behind her."

This along with the chapter's themes around change/regression could hint to her "change" already happening before the killing game, similarly to Levi. Although at first I thought it would be least satisfying thing for her to be the murderer due to the symbolism and potential of her character, this "change" of hers already happening before the series taking place mean there's a more likely chance that her being the culprit can be executed in a satisfying way since the murder could act as her arc due to it being the "regression" to her "change."

This is more of an interpretation of mines, but I feel like the this regression arc of hers is more likely to happen because the series has been deconstructing that this "change" Hu implies is partially or even entirely false and struggling to occur. Her emphasis on life being fulfilling if she has a purpose (or feel useful) fuels her constant need to repress her emotions to reduce her humanity into a person who lives only to serve for others.

Thus in the process she reduces other people's humanity, speaks over them and is the negative fuel to her dynamics (Hu/Nico) & (Hu/Ace) [this example is more complex as of course Ace also the one who negativity fuels their dynamic, she surely does add to it by simplifying him as a villain than a human]. These are things that increase the unlikeness of getting outside support she needs, helping her become stuck in her chambers even more.

Her pushing aside the secret with a "putting it behind me" is although understandable due to the nature of it and her depression, the wording could be interpreted as not truly addressing her issues and the severity of her depression. I could see if she wanted to brush aside her secret if she acknowledges that it could trigger regression to recovery. Problem is that her actions so far has shown poor attempts, or hardly any attempts at all, at addressing her mental health, especially with her fixation on being useful and repressing her humanity. It doesn't seem as if she focus on recovery but more on superficial change. In a way, she constantly isolates herself from others and even herself. In way she's just developed another way to harm herself.

We genuinely cant forget that what makes her even more isolated is her preferably getting emotional connections through her idealizations of people, instead of deconstructing those standards herself. She approaches herself and others in such a shallow way. She only see people (including herself) as ideas more than genuine people, and her ideals being broken constantly isn't helping either.

There can be depth to her being the culprit other than her suicidal tendencies. She could risk being the culprit if it meant to she would go out in "glory" because she was "useful" when it came to taking Arei out. I can't pinpoint why she specifically would want to kill Arei, other than Hu desire to target her being rooted in a negative interpretation of Arei (her being the "trouble of the group"), because she wasn't there when Arei blatantly said she wanted to change.

Maybe Arei came during the wrong place wrong time, thus the murder at first was accidental before the culprit and possible accomplices decided to take the steps to make the murder seemed "planned" or "suicide." Or maybe Arei was the planned target yet the murder and planned still managed to fuck up somehow. I don't know man Okay lol. I can't explain how I feel about the murder scene, but it feels unusually sloppy yet planned at once, as if there was a sudden transition to motivates or plans or something.

The main point of this post is to see how her being a culprit could make sense for the story and her story, not really as an attempt to entirely decide that she's the culprit. I'm trying to keep my options open. Problem with deciding that she's immediately the culprit is that her words during the trial (episode 12) specifically gave an emphasis on living. Which could still mean she's involved in the murder case, but more of a planner than the one doing the killing.

Can I just go back to the symbolism for a minute. Why does she cover herself in butterflies, other than their association with femininity that she embraces in? Perhaps she admires the idea of change, but can't find the true methods to change. Maybe her covering herself in butterflies is an attempt to "force" the association with her, as a shallow attempt to say she's change without actually doing the recovery behind the change. With this "change" actually happening before the killing game, the symbolism could really be seen in a different perspective...

Semi-related but another post out there admitted that they were scared for the story, and to be honest I do too. I'm feeling too conflicted about how the story is going so far although I'm not willing to say there are writing issues yet.. im just conflicted about stuff. Okay. Okay. Okay bye im done talking.

Also, I am a little disappointed that most of the predictions of Hu being the culprit doesn't really come out of concern for her character and story, but because they don't like her. I really do feel like she's so severely misunderstood, it sucks imo.

[autisticvelo]

🧡 VELO

• 25 years old.

• it / its pronouns.

• white swede.

• professionally diagnosed level 2 autism.

• moderate support needs.

• no / low masking.

• visibly autistic + visibly disabled.

• demi-verbal plus regularly complete verbal shutdown, part time AAC user.

• trans & queer.

• physically disabled.

• rollator & wheelchair user.

• DID system.

• i also have ADHD combined type and dyscalculia.

🧡 SPECIAL INTERESTS

> current ;

• supernatural (the tv show) 🪽

• medicine & healthcare 🏥🩺

• plushies 🧸

> inactive ;

• bones (the tv show) 🦴

• commercial aviation ✈️

🧡 BYF

• i support autism levels and support needs labels.

• non verbal, semi verbal and nonspeaking are long lasting / permanent things, not episodic; use verbal shutdown or other more appropriate labels if you have episodes of not being able to speak.

• uplifting level 2 and level 3 + msn & hsn autistics is important and doing so does not invalidate level 1 + lsn autistics. this also goes for uplifting people with intellectual disability too.

• i support educated self diagnosis.

• people with intellectual disability have repeatedly stated that the r-slur is not reclaimable, and that they do not want to see it used, “reclaimed” or not. listen to them.

• i will absolutely try to put IDs on any images i post or reblog, my memory is really bad so i might forget sometimes (im happy to be reminded).

• being a system affects how i talk / type / act, so you might see different parts having different opinions or writing patterns etc. i also go between using i / me & we / us randomly, it depends on which part is fronting & what they prefer. we also have different opinions on non traumagenic systems but have decided any system can interact with this blog as its focus is on autism, not systems. it is also always safe to refer to us by singular it / its or plural they / them pronouns, as those are our collective pronouns.

• i have a hard time understanding a lot of things and might not understand politics as an example, but i am always happy to at least try to learn, i just need more explanations.

• i have autism (duh. autism blog) and two personality disorders that all make me struggle with understanding empathy and showing sympathy. i am not ‘un-caring’ on purpose, i can’t control it. i always try to be mindful though, so if i come off as mean or rude, please let me know because it’s not guaranteed i noticed or understood i was mean or rude. please assume i am acting in good faith, but i am always open to being told that i have done something wrong.

• if i’ve said something wrong or offensive, please let me know so i can learn to do better & get better understanding because not always guaranteed i understand issue, others experience or what was upsetting.

🧡 PSA

• link to the picrew in my profile picture

• if you need anything i’ve written simplified, please let me know & i will do my best to reformulate myself.

• sometimes i write “properly” but it takes a long time and a lot of energy, so you will often see me writing shorter sentences with “bad” grammar, please don’t comment on how i type, i am aware of it and i am already frustrated about not being able to communicate properly all the time so i don’t need people pointing it out.

• likes & follows comes from @strange-autism , that is my main blog.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Do you have any advice on how to go about designing monsters and animals and the like? I like the idea of creating those kinds of things but I always blank on how to go about it, like I know little facts like Allen's Rule but I don't know how to find out about something like that intentionally or even think of it for my thing. (me when I have no idea how to explain that I have no idea how to research smth lol)

first I've heard of Allen's Rule, so that probably says a lot about the fact that I'm mostly self taught lol.

here's the wikipedia page about it for anyone else who didn't know.

to sum up, it is a rule stating that animals in cold climates tend to have shorter/thicker appendages while animals in hot climates tend to have longer/thinner ones. Arctic hare vs desert hare, as an example.

the first thing to do when you want to design anything is to do a lot of studies. just in general. look up images of any animal or insect and draw sketches studying how they're built. do it for people too! you'll always be better at making new designs if you have a basic understanding of how real things are shaped and how they function.

study from videos by sketching fast gesture poses as you watch the creatures in motion! I have also done this while attending sports and dance performances. studying bodies in motion by watching olympic athletes or videos of people trying and failing to do a sport. just study the heck out of everything you can! it's as simple as putting down some lines and shapes to show the main body forms. heavier detail studies are also useful! tracing images in order to study the details is not wrong. I do it all the time, as you can see in a lot of the advice posts I make! I frequently provide traced images of the creature references I've found in order to show my process of breaking down the simplified body shapes.

my actual sketch process often looks like this:

(image description: multiple layers of very loose scribbly sketches in different colors. visible notes on two layers of sketches read "aerial silks dance" and "flying birds". the clearest and topmost layer of sketch is a humanoid figure with wings, performing a dance.

as you might be able to see if you can even begin to parse the mess that is all my study sketching, the final pose sketch I made here for my bird dude Morianon doing a little dance does not even match the poses I sketched from reference videos! This is because gesture sketch studies like these are more based on vibes than accuracy! They're a good way to warm up and practice making really fast gestural doodles that just show the form and motion more than anything well proportioned. It also frees you of the pressure to draw anything perfect! this is messy on purpose! you gotta be messy, it's how learning works.

and then once you're more confident with speed studies, you can get more specific with detail studies. all of this is essential if you want to be able to design creatures. it's all about artistic confidence and developing the skills to notice details. and then you get better at applying those details.

I have two posts on how to study and use references! one over here focused on humans. and another one here about non humans.

this is getting longer than I expected lol. I have other posts on my to-do list that will also be helpful to you I think, and you can explore the links on my pinned post to find more advice on a lot of topics! I might have to make a post on the more general topic of "how do I even get started on designing a creature?" because it is kind of the whole premise of this blog, huh? I have a lot of advice for people who already have a solid idea and just need some advice to overcome a few obstacles along the way, but I don't think I've made a proper advice post for what to do when you don't even have a starting idea.

the tldr version of creature creation is this:

pick a niche (mountain people, flying predator, burrowing creature)

study real life creatures in similar niches

start throwing ideas at your page until something sticks and then take the things that stick and build on them until it feels good

refine your design

[atthecenterofeverything]

been thinking about tell me i'm worthless by alison rumfitt a lot lately (this post will contain mild spoilers). i agree with a lot of the criticism regarding its broad treatment of themes - its lack of trust in the reader, its determination to overexplain every motif and not leave space for interpretation, its absence of subtlety. however i do think that this tone actually succeeds in a lot of key moments in a way that (inadvertently or not) parallels the suffocating violence that the author is trying to convey. when its prose is good it's really good, and the endless-running-sentence style is something that is hard to pull off for me. it's the kind of book that lends itself well to being read in one setting: once you have taken for granted some of the premises, and let the narrative lead you by the hand, a lot of its stylistic choices work a lot better.

my main issue with it would be that it's at its best when it's not trying to politically analyze the material workings of fascism. the guattari and eco quotes at the beginning kind of set the tone: this is a book about the superstructural manifestations of fascism, a sort of fascism-spirit said to be haunting (literally) the united kingdom. however in moments where the author tries to get more into detail about, for example, the colonial resource extraction of the british empire, everything kind of falls flat. ultimately the material reasons that lead people to espouse anti-immigration politics or institutional transmisogyny are mostly absent from the book. which could have worked as an intentional omission if they were completely absent. but we get just enough of a glimpse into it that we're then kind of left wondering how fascism works in this altogether parallel universe. the house is said (simplifying here) to be driving people to fascism; the author probably noticed that this leads to some uncomfortable implications, so she takes care in several moments to specify that actually, they still made their choice, and the house was not forcing them. so where did their choice come from, then? how do those political choices, in very practical, altogether non-haunting terms, serve segments of the population, beyond superficial platitudes about the ruling classes attempting to divide the people to better assert their authority?

read more for legibility

ultimately fascism is presented in the book as a specter haunting liberalism, a disease infecting democracy. self-identified left liberal people with a map of the british empire on their wall are said to not really be left-liberal at all. there is no questioning here of what liberalism means, and how it is constructed. fascism in the book stands for the worst system, the most violent. one moment particularly stood out to me regarding this: Ila is said, as a mixed Pakistani and Ashkenazi woman, to be always expected to have a strong opinion on "israel" and Palestine, "because she can be brown or jewish but not both". british colonization in the subcontinent is somehow analogous to fascism in the book; "israeli" colonization in Palestine is not. people make political choices because they belong to x or y identity. and this is why, to me, ultimately, communism as an ideology is pretty much straightforwardly absent from the book. not only because a materialist analysis of fascism and colonization would give a completely separate meaning to the House, but also because it offers ways of resistance against fascism that are very different from the main option offered in the book: police-registered protests. the only act of direct political violence that is depicted is a young far-right man detonating a bomb at a pride parade. it's easy to see then how the author could see "israel" and Palestine as a jewish vs muslim issue, or in any case a complicated one: violence in the book is always blind, always hateful, always rhetorically associated with fascism. it does not exist to serve a material purpose and is not part of a broader political plan with specific ideological investments, whether left- or right-wing.

again all of this would have been a very different issue if the book had been set on a different discursive level. I don't straightforwardly think that the haunted house as a metaphor for fascism is set to fail. I just think it failed to follow through on a lot of implications while also being a little too convinced of its own radicality. I haven't read anything else by her so I'm not sure how much of it is present in the rest of her work. I just know that a review on the back of the book calls it "punk in every sense of the word", which sums it up better than I ever could

[spotsupstuff]

Questions about the recent art post!

1. You said the first karma/natural urge glyph relates to the Anemons’ chitin skeletons— how so? I can see it as a pictograph of a few different things, but it’s so simplified that the connection ain’t obvious- at least to me.

3. Why were the lower caste kept intentionally stressed? That seems particularly spiteful.. though of course real life class- and casteism is just as arbitrarily cruel.

2. What role did the CitID drones play in population control? Was it primarily as a surveillance tool, and thus an implicit threat? Or were they like, literally designed to kill people

The relation is in the question of ,,Why would the very first prohibition/warning be related to violence?" and the answer of ,,Most likely because they indulged a lot in it at some point. It says not to do indulge in something, so the opposite had to be true beforehand to a meaningful degree." A religion spawns out of a prompt from physical reality, so what real events inspired pieces of their religion? It's related to my ideas about their "technological" development. Rather than evolving their abilities likes us through machines, they went through the biological aspects (getting to those purposed organisms not out of sadism, but because that is how they knew how to do elaborate complicated things). To know biology, they had to do a lot of research and, with the "respawn" mechanic real to them, they could have had the means to "ethically" brutalize each other (and animals) for the sake of researching how things work, what the limits are, how can they be used and augmented. Mentioning they are of chitin, not of bone, is a reassurance that they are not wearing the remains of their own species.

It's related to the idea of the Caste system, but also to keep them more vigilant since they are down there with all the animals (you could say the High castes can allow themselves the pleasure to be calm and slow about things) and then the fact that stress does cause physical issues and kills. This is a major wip currently that I'm trying to figure out: they could be biologically immortal, what with sea anemones sharing phylum with such things as the Hydra and the Immortal Jellyfish. They have incredible regenerative ability, one of the traits defining the Cnidaria phylum. They have the Small Cycle, which is the respawn mechanic from the game explained in-world (though might be changed around yet for better definition). But I'm a writer and I want my characters to die, have to confront it as a fate and as on-lookers (Sparrows dying is important for Caper's character, for example), I want them to have different past lives that could plague them, that they would need to reflect on. There needs to be some kind of stake in the story to make it interesting. There's also no explanation for how they don't overpopulate the planet (just Sparrows is one of 13 children from one pair of parents), from sociological outlook immortal people who remember things are also disadvantegous to manipulators with political power. So I'm trying to figure out limits for their abilities, what *could* kill them enough to result in a reincarnation we are familiar with, what they should be afraid of, give good reasons that make sense. Stressing out the Low castes to make them die and therefore have them in a sort of monstrous rotation and in somewhat controllable numbers would be beneficial for the Elites, while they get to live on for as long as they want. Nineteen Spades, Endless Reflections I imagine was over 900 when he took the Void way out. Sparrows dies in her 110s, some of her siblings in their 70s-90s. Still a wip though, needs troubleshooting and confirming it doesn't poke holes Somewhere in the logic and if things feel right.

Surveillance tool, yes. Secretly keeping track of the citizens' indulgence and location next to the public knowledge of being helpful tools for things like navigation and circumventing karma gates.

[talenlee]

Game Pile: Ra

This year, I bought myself some games that were meant to be prestige gifts to myself. Things I really wanted and was very confident I’d love, based on a long-term interest. If I found myself watching videos of people playing a board game two or three times a month then maybe I wanted to play the game myself. One of those games I bough was Ra.

Ra is an auction game in its purest form. There is nothing you do in the game that is not building a lot for auctioning, or bidding on that auction. You have a total of three units of currency to bid with, and their value is public; there’s no making change here. If you have a 3, 7 and 12, anyone knows that you’re going to lose against the player with 13, if they want it hard enough. Every round, you choose whether you’re going to add a tile to the auction lot and put it into one of the limited number of slots, or, you choose to start an auction. Adding a tile to the collection means there’s stuff in the lot to bid on, and it’s the only way you get anything in there. If you start the auction, you get to be the last person to bid on it, which means you’ll see how everyone else lodges their bids before you do.

That’s the game. Add to a lot or start the action.

That’s it.

I watched four people lose their minds at this tonight.

Now, I am simplifying the game process a little. Specifically, in the bag of good stuff you want, there are also red tiles, that are also marked with the god Ra, and when those fire off, an auction starts and the timer that the game runs on advances a stage. Each round of the game is ten ticks of this timer, and there are thirty of that tile in the bag. No matter what you want to do with your turn, you may just pull a tile and force an auction. The result is a game where you are making one decision at a time and that decision is either to push your luck or cut and run, and the only catch-up mechanism you have access to is greed.

Oh, lore, uh, story, fiction. Uh, the point of Ra is that you’re all playing different multi-generational epochs of Egyptian royal families, which you represent by randomly collecting assortments of things through a series of auctions. This is a classic Knizia-style painted-on theme that doesn’t actually do anything to inform the game system. It doesn’t do nothing, though, because the game’s tension cycle is finely tuned and you wind up hoping another player pulls a Ra Tile. You pray to Ra, to make bad things happen.

Board games are an ancient practice. The earliest board games we have records of date back to ancient Babylon. Chess existed before English did. Most card games we play these days were being played before my country existed. There is an oldness available to board games that digital games cannot touch. The category of ‘modern’ board games, the space in which I play, with card games and board games and draft games and kind of the post-Catan, post-Dungeons & Dragons, post-internet board game, is a space where ‘old’ takes on a different cast.

It’s kind of hard to call a board game an old game when The Game of Life was being played during the American Civil War, for example.

Ra, though, of this modern time of board games, of this current and previous generation of internet-enabled, internationally distributed ‘niche’ board games, Ra is old. Ra was made in 1999 by this up-and-coming board game designer, who’d just quit his job at a bank and started in board games, a guy called Reiner Knizia.

Boardgamegeek, the all-purpose omni-list website for board game collectors, numbers games based on when they get added to their database. Pandemic, a 2008 board game is entry 30,549. Pandemic Legacy Season 1, its evolution in 2015, 7 years later, is entry 161,936.

Ra‘s Boardgamegeek archive number is 12.

What I played is not Ra (1999). Nor am I playing Ra (2016 reprint). I got to play, and now my collection holds, Ra (2024), the 25th anniversary edition. This version of the game is a prestige product; instead of being printed on indented cardboard, or on rough-cut chits, this game is made up of some of the nicest pieces of interface design I’ve ever handled in a game of its caliber. The main thing the players use to express agency in the game, the bidding tokens, are large, wooden, carved, and laminated and painted. The tiles are drawn from a large, heavy bag, which is robust and has a nice texture to it. It’s coloured with a specific pattern, not just a standard piece with something screen-printed on it. This edition of Ra is an item that is meant to be nothing but Ra and everything about it is meant to signal that it is well made Ra.

I am writing this after finally, finally, finally getting to play my fancy, expensive version of Ra. I bought this copy for myself because I knew I would like it and I knew I would like it after watching people play it, and seeing the kind of strategies that spilled out around that. I have been keyed up on this game for two years.

I did so badly that the player who won could subtract any other players’ score from hers and she’d still have beaten me. I was routed. That player does not cruise for this kind of game, she is not big on competitive games, and she did not know this game ahead of time. Every single thing in her strategy was a result of playing this game the first time and making plans and prioritising things within those plans as she played the game. It wasn’t even a fixed strategy, of working out one thing early on and doing it over and over until she won. It was dynamic, with a strategy in one part of the game giving rise to a strategy in another part of the game.

The most fascinating thing to me is the way this game kicks you in the pants for being passive. You have to be very mindful of the people around you and the game is under constant pressure to not waste your time. You can bail on a round fast and accept that it won’t be amazing for you, but in that process you might wind up seeing the rest of the players drive a clown car off a cliff, just crashing into one another because they’re in a position to make nothing but bad choices.

Ra is a game where the mastery depth is so shallow, the game gets you playing so fast, and then, once you are playing, you still have complex choices and meaningful decisions but on your third turn, you already know most of what the game is going to throw at you and someone who’s played the game twenty times and you are pretty much on an even footing.

Fascinating game. Absolutely incredible.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[inventors-fair]

Common-Typal Commentary: Matter over Mind

What did I want with this contest, really? Flavorful purpose. Communication of niche. Some weird stuff. I don't actually know what I wanted; perhaps there's this inner frustration that came out with how Bloomburrow drafts were treating me, and I wanted to express a world where typal didn't matter as heavily, where a world could run on its own merits. As I write this, I'm just finishing a draft of Lost Caverns, where I got some awesome artifact synergies going with splashes from other archetypes in the mix. That felt good! There wasn't the typal wonders, but there were pieces in between that folks used, little bits of revelatory connections. I wish it was easier to do typal. And it's not. On a week where the prompt was "typal that didn't care about typal as a theme," it becomes... Well, let's just say that the mess was justified.

There were some messy things that I want to call attention to, though. Firstly, please read and reread the prompt, because three separate people submitted uncommons. Secondly, when you're designing for common, keep complexity and power level in mind. Thirdly... There is no third point, and maybe that itself is the third point: that sometimes, I can only say what I know, and my communication should meet you halfway. If I ain't getting there, then that ain't nobody else's fault but my own. Simplify, revise, correct, and you know what, point four: your first idea isn't gonna be your best one 99% of the time. Reiterate upon yourself and you'll be taken to the stars.

I've got a few Judge Picks I wanted to point out, as you'll see, but this week was a little light so there might only be a couple. I'll go over everything in post. Speaking of post, here's what we have for commentary, posted below:

@bergdg — Aspect of Ruthlessness

From a Tarkir-oriented perspective, I think the flavor of having snakes add to their ruthless qualities with a bit of poison is pretty reasonable. Flashing it in seems a little...off? Hear me out, because this card's totally fine, but flash-deathtouch is one of those really cool combat tricks that Green's been out of for a while (see the whole Ambush Viper debate-thing that happened some time ago, I forget where/when), and if it's not granting that, then a three-mana +1/+1 feels pretty weak even with the surveil.

Flash as a keyword provides both timing-oriented tricks for responses and proactive EOT additions for turn advantage. The advantage here feels minimal on one side and maximal on the other for snakes. And maybe that answers the prompt just fine, yeah, but I still find myself asking: if I'm not playing snakes, would I play with this card at all? Honestly, no—having some snakes would be fine and having no snakes makes this card pretty dead in the water. Looking at the Step Through example, a double-Unsummon is still decent in a pinch, and the Wizardcycling makes it better just in case. I don't see the "just in case" side of this aura right now.

~

@bowtochris — Necrosis

I think that I can see some of the BTS of this card with "creatures" instead of "creature" there in the first sentence. Regardless... In a set that has incidental Zombies, this card would be totally fine, and a lot of sets and worlds do. Honestly the amount of sets that I remember as having more Zombies than they actually do is fairly high! But you can see how popular they are and how a necromancy/grave-style play system that has incidental zombies could use this as a removal spell with upside for sure. Pretty much the only place that it wouldn't fit the contest would be Innistrad, heh.

With that said, is there anything more to this card than that? Not that it doesn't work, but I feel that the type is kinda indicative of this card's lack of polish. What world is it supposed to be from? What does this flesh-eating disease/condition have to do with the Zombies' hunger contextually? I feel that this card is unfinished in a lot of ways and it's hard to commentate fully on it when there's not much given in that regard.

~

@bread-into-toast — Gift of Wings (JUDGE PICK)

I honestly thought this was a card already and I'm kinda gobsmacked that this name hasn't been used. As far as cards in general go, yeah, we're in a good spot. I see you're still using "enters the battlefield" instead of the shorthand, and lemme tell you, I'll be doing the same thing for a while as well. But all the same, yeah, mounts with evasion add to an aggressive deck and make a target for you. I like how 99% of mounts are of a higher-ish mana value, and so this card being cheap allows for more answers to follow.

Mounts are an interesting one. How many Mounts in a set, would there be mMounts with vehicles, would Mounts be brought back as small batches...? Lots of questions being asked here. But I could tell even by the art that this would be a Theros set before double-checking your prompt, and I'm down for it. If this was before or after a more Mount-heavy set, I could see a few Mounts especially as legendary horses and/or their offspring. Pegasi, too! When they attack, they carry another creature with them. You know what, I'm not gonna lie—I almost wish this had been Horse instead of Mount, but I get why you chose to go this route. There are far more Pegasus creatures on Theros than Horses, and they already have flying. Maybe there are other possibilities, but you know what, this route works just fine. I'll hash out a more comprehensive thought process if you want later.

~

@dimestoretajic — Rockface Staff

This card falls right back into the Bloomburrow trap, I'm afraid. While Bloomburrow's color overlap was a pretty no-brainer design choice, that's really not what this contest was looking for, and as such I don't necessarily know how to judge it. Is the expectation that these creatures wouldn't be major parts in the set? I mean, I could, but what world is this on if not Bloomburrow? I don't want to make any assumptions here. I also don't think that this card was intended to be on different plane than the one where this type-batching has already been precedent.

This is the extent that I can give commentary on this card's application to the contest prompt. As an equipment in general, it's fine, and I get the hybrid cost down there is intended to be an every-color-but-best-here suggestion. But that's as far as I can go. There's just no way to interpret the typing otherwise.

~

@grornt — Smothering Spores (JUDGE PICK)

There were only about ten cards in Dominaria that cared about Saprolings, and that was quite an archetype, but my personal first introduction to them was in the Alara block, where only six cards across the whole block produced them—and looking back at DMU, there were only two. So how many Saprolings does it take to screw in a good draft common? Honestly, I'd say if there were...4-5 across a set, then this card could go from just plain decent to really funny really fast.

Saprolings are meant to be as expendable as they are delicious, and while regulating a token subtype to a cheeky one-off is a little questionable, I'm down for this being a good enough card. It's totally okay to have a derived card like this get a flavorful little twist, right? Depending on the sacrifice archetype (hint: probably B/G), you could have instances where you lean more into black, or you could have an overlap where there's enchantments on one side and Saprolings on the other, right? Maybe if there was a random rare that pumped out uncommons... But that's just extra brainstorming, because the thought of a fungal infection being made deadly via Saproling is good enough for me. Solid and thoughtful.

~

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Lights in the Sky

I'm so sorry that I didn't get a chance to message you beforehand and remind you that this is a common contest. I'll read this card on its merits, but you're not the only one to submit an uncommon at first, so hey, that's all good.

The other thing is that I may just not be the right audience for this card as it stands. The only Aliens we've had so far are the ones from Unfinity and the Doctor Who—will there be any in the Death Race set? I forget. Anyway, there's currently no metric for what that might look like in an in-universe set, and the implications are...very sci-fi in a way that I can't critique in good faith. The card is fine, the mechanics are fine, and it could be a real painful beater in limited. You might want to put "this permanent" instead of "this enchantment," but I'm not sure. I'll be honest, comrade, I got nothin'. If MTG has a single sci-fi hater among them, it's me on top of this hill, dying from an alien death ray. We'll shoot for the stars next time.

~

@lich-of-the-golgari — A Good Boy's Rest

Let's back up for a second and talk about what this card is doing. From a purely flavorful perspective, this card makes sense. Pragmatically, it's asking for Shrines at common, perhaps additional shrines, legendary enchantments at common, and a new kind of role token, and a multicolor theme at common as well, and on an ambiguous world. Do you see where I might have some issues with this card design-wise?

Time and time again, I want to tell folks that unless we're asking for out-of-this-world weirdness, you don't have to reinvent the wheel for these contests. Most of the time, it's detrimental to good design sense. This prompt in particular is looking for starting keystones and the base beginnings for some designs that would suggest small pieces of an overarching set in a way that aren't main themes. In my opinion, this card goes against pretty much every one of those notions. Simplify, simplify, simplify. I know it's tempting to stick with an idea that resonates internally, but it's more important to learn when to go back to the drawing board.

~

@melancholia-ennui — Haunted Crypt

It's really, really hard not to see this card as a derivative of Step Through. The only question is whether or not the role it would have in the set would be that of a cycle or that of a one-off. As a one-off, it would be one of the more powerful ones, presumably, if there are any half-decent Spirits in this set at all. Never underestimate the power of landcycling. The reason that Step Through could be at common is because it's a steepish cost for a half-decent effect, and the discarding (even with no Wizard) was part of the possible pieced-together archetypes. What would the archetypes be here?

This card highly suggests something to do with discarding or BW graveyard shenanigans, but also with the typal component; a reasonable player would assume that this draft archetype would be a BW spirit typal shell. Do you see what I mean? It's hard to get away from that specifically because it's a land. Now, if there was a typal archetype, then this card would be bananas, and I think that it's certainly well-designed as it is. For this contest, it's a little too specific for what we were looking for. I'll still commend the general chops, even if, like I said, it's a bit on-the-nose given our examples.

~

@piccadilly-blue — Sonorous Hum

NB: "Deck is 22 cards, all major arcana, not magic cards (in the same way that a d20 is not a magic card), no rules text. // You choose whether or not you run a tarot deck as the game begins. If you don't, you ignore all instructions relating to the tarot deck. // If you're using a tarot deck, after all mulligans have been taken, you shuffle your tarot deck and then the top three cards are turned face-up as your spread."

When you submit a card like this, not only are you asking us to evaluate the card in its relation to the contest, but also evaluating a new mechanic with a series of highly complex rules interactions. And you're also asking us to evaluate a deck with card that each would have a series of as-of-yet unknown rules interactions that have not, to our knowledge, been designed or submitted. So with that said? I can't evaluate this card. I literally, actually cannot, because it's asking knowledge of me that doesn't exist.

I want to love it, of course, and not in the way that I want to love all submissions. I want to be able to love what you've done. I do not have the means or the tools to give you the feedback I want to give in this position, and that's because of the choices you've made by submitting this kind of card. There's nothing wrong with going off the beaten path, but in order for us to judge properly, we gotta use the tools of the collective. I don't have those tools at the moment and I don't really have the time/energy that this idea would both require and deserve. One of my partners does love him some tarot, so just imagine we're giving this a thumbs-up in an alternate universe.

~

@wildcardgamez — Tuskeran Axe (JUDGE PICK)

Berserker is a heavily underutilized creature type, in my opinion. On Kaldheim, there were all those zombie berserker thingies, IIRC, but also a few in the general BR shell. Still, what if you wanted warrior/equipment blends, or you wanted a Giant Berserker to go out there? This card, upon reflection, is a sheepish reminder for me of how I should've made this contest out to be. I'm writing this before I get to the grand reflection, but seeing this card as a unique and funky draft-archetype hybrid is certainly interesting on a design scale, but it's not exactly "weird." It's good! Don't get me wrong, it's quite good.

Was I looking for that weirdness more so than cohesion? It's possible. World flavor is a strange thing. Sometimes, everyone is a berserker. Sometimes the colorless-ness matters, especially for equipment, like that artificer example from earlier. Actually, what I like about this card is that it assumes you're playing red if you're playing berserkers, but if you manage a mono-black berserker deck or whatever, then you're just getting some cool color advantages. I dunno, this card's pushing all the right buttons for me. Am I just jaded with myself, or is this closer to the prompt than I imagined? This is good self-reflection but probably not the best critique. Well, you've already got a seal of approval, so I'll axe the rest of this before I start rambling even more.

~

@xenobladexfan — Death's Finality

When making this prompt, I feel that there was more of a typal-payoff kinda vibe than a draft-answer kinda vibe. As we have it here, Thraben Exorcism is already a card that exists, and this card more or less goes a little farther than that. I want to say that there's nothing wrong with that—and in a vacuum, there isn't. But when there's already such a specific card, and when that card itself wouldn't be what the prompt is after, it makes this kind of judgment a little more difficult than it would be otherwise.

Whether or not you saw Thraben Exorcism before this, well, I have no idea. Exiling zombies and cards from graveyards is also a little beyond the initial scope, so there's that. The similarity is just too much for me to buckle down and say that this card stands on its own merits. If nothing else, though, I hope that this is some kind of learning experience. One, it's a good idea to double-check your cards to see if some maniac at WotC has printed the effect before. Two, feel free to lean into the more proactive side of payoffs rather than answers; answers come to the board when they need to. Right now is the time for asking questions.

Tomorrow's another day. Be well! @abelzumi

[imjustania]

How to nail 💅your Essays

No matter if you’re in university or school, you will need to write a research paper. Now this post will be dedicated to a normal essay structure, if you need to write an essay based assignment on medical, biological, chemical, or any other science, you need to be more specific, as writing a lab report has a couple extra steps.

Now, you have an essay due in two weeks? A week? Tonight? I’ve been there and I share your pain. I am currently in my last year in university studying for bachelor degree in Marketing, and oh boy let me tell you, the amount of essays I had to write was unreal. Therefore, let me share with you some of my essays skills, to help your speed run your own assignment.

Step 1: OUTLINE IT!?

Ok i think so many of you out there are missing this step. You cant expect yourself to sit in front of the computer and start typing away your essay? No you cant do that. You need to spend a good amount of time sitting down and outlining your essay. Figure out what goes where, and what sources to use for each section. Luckily for you, you have me here to tell you the basic outline structure of every essay. It consists of the:

Table of content (depends on how professional your essay is asked for)

Introduction

Main body

Conclusion

… THATS IT! Only 4 sections (and a half) to write your essay. However of course there is more to write then just that. Lets break down those sections

1) Introduction: When writing the introduction for your essay, it's important to start off with a bang! You want to give your readers a glimpse of what's to come and hook their attention right from the beginning. Make sure to include a strong thesis statement that clearly states the main argument or purpose of your essay. To make it even more engaging, you can provide some background information about the topic and give a brief outline of the main points you'll be discussing in your essay. Therefore, every introduction should have an hook, explanation what you’re writing, what you think will be the result or what is the point you’re writing your essay, and outline all the points of the main body (but simplify them)

2) Main body: In each section of your essay, it's important to provide a detailed analysis and offer supporting evidence for the points you introduced at the beginning. Take each paragraph as a chance to present a single main idea or argument and support it with enough evidence, examples, or citations to back up your claim. To make sure your ideas flow smoothly, use clear and logical transitions between paragraphs. Lastly, remember to give credit to your sources and include proper references for any external information you include in your essay. Here are some side tips for you

Try to have at least a minimum of 3 main body paragraphs . Each paragraph should have one point which helps support your main hypothesis or reasons or this essay.

Each essay will have different main bodies, depending on the subject. Sometimes your main bodies will be dedicated to presenting information about your topic. So for example, as a marketer, I had to write many reports. Most reports written will always include a main analysis of the company (so SWOT, PESTEL, Stakeholder analysis, mission and vision of the company, etc). Depending on what the essay require you to do, you should consider to present your points in that order.

Even your main body should have a proper structure of introduction, main points, and the conclusion.

Don’t forget to have a proper in-text citations depending on which format you use.

3) Conclusion: A conclusion is a chance to wrap up your essay by summarizing the main points and restating the thesis statement. Remember not to introduce any new information here; instead, provide a concise summary of the arguments you've made throughout your essay. Furthermore, this is your chance to leave a lasting impression on your reader by offering insights, implications, or recommendations related to the topic. A well-written conclusion should leave your reader with a sense of closure and a clear understanding of the importance of your essay's content.

4) References: The references section of your essay is where you list all the sources you have cited or referenced. It's important because it helps readers find and verify the credibility of the sources you used. When writing the references section, make sure to follow the specific citation style required by your institution or professor, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago style. Include the author's name, publication year (if there is no publication year, then the article must not be reliable. It must always have a year), title of the source, publication information, and any other required details. Arrange the references alphabetically by the author's last name or by the title if there is no author (if there is no author try using the organisation or the website that published the text). Don't forget to double-check the formatting and punctuation for accuracy and consistency throughout the references section.

After your essay was outlines and you know exactly what you’re supposed to write… write it dude? Like you have the format, you have the sources, and you know your points. Just start writing… if you are having trouble getting started, then give a click to another one of my blogs on how to actually get started on studying.

If you want to go the extra mile, and also make the essay more professional here are some of my personal tips to accomplish that:

size 12 for normal text and size 14 for title (titles can be only bold)

Use text Times New Roman (ROMAN EMPIREEEEEEEEEE)

Double space of all essay

Have a cover page! You can find templates in the insert section of the word tabs.

Have numbers tag the foot of the page

And thats all for today folks! Hope this is actually useful to you, and if you are struggling with anything specific, then do let me know in the comment section or send me a question through the tumblr! Now thank you for reading, and leaving likes <3 don't forget to smile, because you’re beautiful.