#ga’hoole wolf

[izzycats06]

Hi! For the character suggestion thing - humbly suggesting Namara mcNamara, from The Coming of Hoole. There's not enough fanart of her (also, welcome to the hellsite, I recognised you from the GoG discord server)

did NOT remember what Narma mcNarma looked like, had to look up her appearance on the wiki haha. Definitely a neat character! The coming of hoole was fun, need to reread it still. Apologies for dying for a few days before posting again, I’m on the last two days of school 💥

[keithtreason]

29 songs - so many sources of footage

Tattoo | The Dragon Prince Promare Raya and the Last Dragon Arcane Nimona Demon Slayer How to Train Your Dragon Pokémon: Twilight Wings Naruto How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Weathering with You Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Cha Cha Cha | Jujutsu Kaisen Chainsaw Man

Unicorn | The Rising of the Shield Hero Tower of God Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia Beyond the Boundary The Case Study of Vanitas One-Punch Man Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

Due Vite | BlackWolfsspirit Liz and the Blue Bird Your Name A Silent Voice Weathering with You

Queen of the Kings | Balto The Lion King Raya and the Last Dragon The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride Corpse Bride Kung Fu Panda Lady and the Tramp The Rescuers Down Under Tarzan Brave Wolfwalkers Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Oliver & Company Onward Turning Red

Heart of Steel | The Bad Guys Zootopia Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Gorillaz (Silent Running, Cracker Island) Because of You | Fellerya An Extremely Goofy Movie Raya and the Last Dragon Spirit Untamed Sing Tangled Hazbin Hotel - Addict

Bridges | The Legend of Korra Nimona Arcane Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Dragon Age: Absolution Revolutionary Girl Utena Wolfwalkers Over the Moon Vinland Saga Mulan Princess Tutu

Promise | Aleu the Husky Ice Age: Continental Drift The Lion King Kung Fu Panda 2 Wolfwalkers Bolt Balto Cool World Raya and the Last Dragon Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole Kung Fu panda Tarzan Puss in Boots: The Last Wish The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride Wolf Children Pokémon Journeys: The Series Oliver & Company The Croods: A New Age

My Sister’s Crown | Cirera Pocahontas Mulan Aladdin Anastasia The Hunchback of Notre Dame Atlantis: The Lost Empire Beauty and the Beast The Little Mermaid Hercules

Stay | zuckarr Destiny of the Shrine Maiden No.6 Terror in Resonance Devilman Crybaby Sasaki to Miyano Tales of Zestiria the X Violet Evergarden Tsurune Seraph of the End Free!

Mama ŠČ! | Freak Kitchen The Aristocats Mulan The Emperor’s New Groove Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Nimona The Super Mario Bros.

Who The Hell Is Edgar? | The Hunchback of Notre Dame We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story Black Tulip (1988) Anastasia The Little Mermaid Rock and Rule Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas The Pagemaster The BFG (1989) The Princess and the Pea (2002) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs FernGully: The Last Rainforest The Black Cauldron

Evidemment | K/DA Frozen 2 How to Train Your Dragon Raya and the Last Dragon Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - More Fighters Kiriko - Overwatch 2 Animated Short Komi Can’t Communicate Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel III. spring song Chainsaw Man My Little Pony: The Movie Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken The Mitchells vs. the Machines Encanto Demon Slayer Lilo and Stitch Turning Red Appleseed Helluva Boss Big Hero 6 Wishing Dead - Rainimator KonoSuba Fire Force Nikki and the God of Dreams | A New Nikki Story JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Genshin Impact

Eaea | The Prince of Egypt The Hunchback of Notre Dame La Reine Soleil Zarafa

Soarele și Luna | Centaurworld Primal (2019) Corpse Bride Mune: Guardian of the Moon Wakfu Kirikou and the Sorceress The Dragon Prince The Princess and the frog The Prince of Egypt Birdboy: The Forgotten Children Sahara

Solo | Blueangelj Rosario + Vampire K-On! Sk8 the Infinity Golden Time My Little Monster Uta no Prince-Sama Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card Bungo Stray Dogs Sasaki and Miyano Clannad Given the Movie Given: Uragawa no Sonzai

Watergun | MovieEdyt Ferdinand Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole How to Train Your Dragon 2 Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Raya and the Last Dragon The Lion King Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio Ice Age Luca White Fang (2018) Disney’s Dinosaur

Carpe Diem | btloov Bambi The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride The Fox and the Hound Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure Oliver & Company The Aristocats The Lion King Bambi II

Duje | Encanto The Lion King Bambi 2 The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure

Ai Coração | Gepardzia Animash 101 Dalmatians My Little Pony: The Movie Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Bolt Isle of Dogs Tarzan Zootopia The Lion King Scarborough Fair Don't Starve Together: Disconnected [WX-78 Animated Short] How to Train Your Dragon 2 Beauty and the Beast My Little Pony: A New Generation The Boxtrolls The Road to El Dorado Puss in Boots

Samo mi se spava | How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse How to Train Your Dragon 2 How to Train Your Dragon Trollhunters Wizards (Tales of Arcadia) Atlantis: The Lost Empire Rise of the Guardians Mune: Guardian of the Moon Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

Blood & Glitter | Persona 5 Launch Trailer Seraph of the End No. 6 Persona 5: The Animation

Echo | Star Wars: Visions (Screecher's Reach, The Spy Dancer, The Village Bride, Lop & Ochō) The Tale of the Princess Kaguya Wolfwalkers Amphibia Assassination Classroom The Owl House Infinity Train Monkie Kid Arcane Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Kaguya-sama: Love Is War—The First Kiss That Never Ends Nimona Tear Along the Dotted Line Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio Centaurworld Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Breaking My Heart | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Miraculous Ladybug Roadside Romeo Arcane Laputa: Castle in the Sky Princess Mononoke Kiki’s Delivery Service The Wind Rises She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Helluva Boss The Bad Guys Beastars Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole Naruto Wolfwalkers Violet Evergarden

What They Say | Ranking of Kings Spirited Away The Ancient Magus’ Bride The Legend of Korra To Your Eternity Mushishi A Silent Voice Hotarubi no Mori e Hunter x Hunter Heaven Official’s Blessing Banana Fish Violet Evergarden Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Bungo Stray Dogs

Like An Animal | Toy Story Cars Bolt Zambezia Turbo

We Are One | Zootopia Tangled Rio Brother Bear The Aristocats Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure Oliver & Company Puss in Boots: The Last Wish The Lion King The Fox and the Hound Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked An Extremely Goofy Movie Aladdin Beauty and the beast Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Tell Me More | The Cat Returns From Up On Poppy Hill Kiki’s Delivery Service Howl’s Moving Castle Spirited Away The Secret World of Arrietty When Marnie Was There Whisper of the Heart My Neighbor Totoro Ocean Waves The Wind Rises Tales from Earthsea Princess Mononoke Ponyo Porco Rosso Laputa: Castle in the Sky Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

[modifiedyincision]

Tagged by @feralgecko ! All of my answers make me sound like I sit around in the attic all day staring at walls. Oops. Rules: tag some people you want to know better and/or catch up with, then answer the questions below!

Last song: Wolf Like Me - TV On The Radio (I was feeling nostalgic, alright?)

Three ships: Oh god. Hannibal x Will, FriendsOCs x CanonCharacter, and... hm. I thought this would be easy, but I’m not really in any fandoms with anything TO ship. Ashfur x Scourge, because it’s a classic, and the only correct Warrior Cats ship.

Currently reading: Nothing. Haven’t been to the library recently and I have yet to try looking online for new stuff. Thinking about re-reading Guardians of Ga’hoole or Warriors or similar books.

Last movie: One of the Resi films -- my parents were shocked I hadn’t seen them, and I am always up for Bad Film Fun. Tagging: @whiz0biz @6robotmonster6 @salandersan @doradotcom @dogboykennedy And anyone else who wants to do it <3

[inact-ice]

Saw a couple people curious about the whole world exploding thing so I’m gonna explain.

In like the second last wolves of the beyond book, there’s a giant earthquake that shakes what we can assume to be the entire planet. The ring of volcanoes the wolves guard collapses and there’s a brief mention of the great Ga’hoole tree collapsing and all the owls in guardians of ga’hoole dying. Every single wolf of the beyond is dead except for a handful of survivors who all travel to a place that might be either Canada or the Arctic..

So, saying that the world exploded is dramatic but also basically what happened. Like everything and everyone is gone and collapsed and destroyed due to the massive earthquake.

I need people to start talking about Kathryn Lasky’s books because that woman is insane.

She asked “what if owls were put into concentration camps?” And then also “what if owls were nazis?” And then also “what if wolves practiced eugenics?” And then also “what if the only way to fight an oppressive system is through building community and educating ourselves and the people in our lives that we form relationships with?” “What if by refusing to make academia accessible, we allow nazism?” And then she targeted all of that to 8 year olds and I ate it up, at the end of her series the world fucking explodes no joke, all of the characters I got to know and love died and she just wrote that into her wolf eugenics book like it wasn’t a big deal.

Children’s dystopia is so good man

[klowse]

i love the fucking owl movie who else loves the fucking owl movie

[beyondthenextbeyond]

Children of Morag

[the-golden-dragoness]

I never finished wolves of the beyond because I didn’t have spirit wolf to complete the collection but I really want to reread guardians of ga’hoole and then finish wolves of the beyond!

I still read books meant for elementary school kids any you want to know why? Because they are fucking good and meaningful and I also don’t think people realize how dark children’s books actually are? Just go read some of your childhood novels to jog your memory because Jesus Christmas just because it’s a children’s book does not mean it does not have heavy themes.

If you make fun of me for reading children’s novels let me tell you I will pummel you to the ground with every reason I enjoy children’s books and you will be left a pile of ash on the floor because I will burn you to the ground

[tendervulture]

Of caverns cursed and old,

Many tales were told, 

Of the vyrrwolf and the lives she stole,

Bloody, Bloody, Brygdyllla...

Two versions because I couldn’t pick between the two + design .pngs + rantings under the cut. 

No one ever talks about Brygdylla enough. Not even the author. She was only mentioned once, and we never heard from her again. She was the one who introduced the vyrrwolf corruption to the MacHeaths, and it is my personal headcanon that she was the one who killed Cody. Also, the reason I think the reason she was never mentioned again was because both the characters and the author considered her too horrible to ever speak of again. But dark stories have ways of surviving, especially in unstable places like the Beyond, and so the story of Bloody Brygdylla sprung up around Gadderheal fires throughout the Beyond, first in the MacHeaths, and then in other clans.

[strunmahalok]

So I was sitting and thinking about the weird things we do and don’t consider child appropriate. And I was also wondering if I ever read anything as weird as Animorphs apparently was and yeah actually I think I did.

Do y’all remember “The Guardians of Ga’Hoole” by Kathryn Lasky? Those random owl books that were apparently popular enough to make into a movie? I read all 16 of those and they got wild. Spoilers btw

The series starts with our protagonist, Soren, who is a baby. He wants to practice flying, his parents tell him he’s still too young he doesn’t have the right feathers yet. They leave to go hunting and Soren sits at the edge of the nest, fantasizing, thinking about trying it anyway, before he decides he slips and falls to the ground. So he tries to hide and wait for his parents to come save him, but he gets kidnapped by a group of owls called St, Aggie’s Orphanage. Who take children and brainwash them. These kids are forced to be active and doing stuff during they day (they are owls) and then at night instead of sleeping their forced to march in circles in a special chamber until they get “moon sickness” Eventually, Soren and three other kids teach themselves how to fly and escape searching legendary Guardians of Ga’Hoole to help them take down the evil orphanage. And that’s literally just the first book.

speedrunning the rest of the books, Soren is reunited with his old house keeper, a blind snake named Mrs. Plithiver, who tells him his parents have been murdered by an owl eugenics cult and his older brother and younger sister are missing. I am not kidding when I say eugenics. They were called The Pure Ones. They had an entire cast system built around around the tyto owl genus, with barn owls being the most “pure” and every other speices being increasingly dehumanized (deowlfied?) and if you weren’t tyoto at all you basically had to die, So any way, Soren finds he didn’t fall, he was push by his brother as an intiatian into the pure ones and rises through the ranks to become their leader. The pure ones and the orphanage decide to team up, the Ga’hoole go undercover, and in book six both organizations are basically reduced to nothing. Also somewhere in there there is something about iron filament putting off enough magnetism to mess with how their brains work in it’s very not good. But finally Soren gets to retire to be a dad.

Book seven we get a new protagonist. Coryn, the kid who was being groomed to be the heir of the now defunct eugenics cult. Despite them being basically nothing anymore his Mom is still raising him like the pure one can make a come back (think Kovu from the lion king 2). But something happens that Coryn decides that this is not for him, and he runs away to find out what the world is actually like. Okay, so these next bits I had to read the wiki to figure out. Coryn has the ability to see the future when staring into fire, he decides he needs to catch a special kind of coal from an active volcano, which he does, and then he takes it to Ga’Hoole to become their king. Also he kills his mom by shoving her into the path of a rabid wolf. There’s a lot happening their the the wiki is not jogging my memory enough to put any of that into context.

books 9-11 are a prequal arc about how  coal catching became a thing, the developemnt of back smithing in owl society (those two things have been happening the entire i just haven’t felt the need to bring them up) and how  Ga’Hoole was founded to fight Hagsfied, magic demon owl/crow hybrids. And some  worldbuilding on how dire wolf society works, That has also been in the background the entire time. Note sure when it was introduced but was really important in Coryn’s section I guess

Back into the present Coryn and the original four owls we followed go looking for a magic book used by an Arch-hagsfied, Meanwhile back at Ga’Hoole, owls start worshiping the special ember Coryn caught like it’s a golden calf. They make  up increasingly elaborate rituals and they built a prison overnight for anyone who is blasphemous towards it. The Band + Coryn come home, are horrified tear everything down and the special coal is thrown into a pile of less cool coals but nobody seems to beable to tell the difference and grab it out.

Book 13 a secret owl kingdom is discovered. The band, Coryn, and another owl named Otulissa are guided there for a visit by a blue owl  called “The Striga”. Turns out all of the owls there are blue, but some of them have weird long feathers and can’t fly without the assistance of kites. The last remnants of the pure ones apparently stalked our protags to the new kingdom. Striga kills one of them which is a big no no, so he gets banished and our heroes take him home with them.

Ah, from there on out things become very, there is “no war in Ba Sing Se” As Striga gains influence over Coryn. The Band is banished and mass book burning are instituted. The Band tries to figure out how to fix this and discover the hagsfied are not gone, Striga is one of them. And the blue owls from the secret kingdom lived very specific lifestyles to keep the hags from remembering there were evil. It’s why to no bloodshed rule was important, it maybe woke his magic? IDK the wiki is really bad for this book, some of these discoveries were maybe made in the previuos one? And the next book in the wiki is hyper detailed and I tl:dr-ed it because it’s 1am.

Anyway, anything that comes from the secret kingdom is bad new. Coryn’s mother is actually not dead and teams up with them. I guess there’s another war. The Ga’Hoole recruit a bunch of other species to help them fight the combined forces of the hag owls and the pure ones, and some where in that Coryn drops the sacred ember back into the volcano they got he it from.

And the last book is a prequel about Ezylryb. A famous in universe blacksmith.

This post was not supposed to be this long. It was supposed to be a"wow adults let me read a 16 book war series about way eugenics is bad actually and it wasn’t considered to dark for children?” But I ended up summarizing the whole series ‘cause it’s even weirder than I remember. And now this post is too long and I don’t want to get started on the spin-off series “Wolves of the Beyond” which is a six book series about why ableism is bad actually. Wolf society in these books is very ableist even in the owl-centric books it comes up decently often.

So yeah, this was one of my favorite series when I was kid and I think I started reading them when I was seven. I eagerly awaited the next book coming out and I legitimately don’t think my Mom ever checked what they were about. They were just the owl books I liked.

[nyroc]

i have a running theory that hunter was at least a little genuinely inspired by coryn, because not only do they both

have face scars

have a complicated past that involves being cruelly raised by a major villain and lied to their whole life

try desperately to earn nonexistent love from said villain, then gradually start to seek freedom and the truth about their situation/existence instead

experience real caring & kindness from others which ultimately helps them to switch sides and find their true family

remain haunted/chased by their awful family even so

have a barn owl motif (coryn is self-explanatory, hunter’s golden guard mask and casual color palette as a whole all read very barn owl-y to me)

have something to do with wolves (please look at hunter in the wolf shirt if you haven’t already)

but then we have the fact toh already referenced ga’hoole once before. scientists explain

[karnaxa]

Wasn’t a horse girl wasn’t a wolf girl and wasn’t truly a warrior cats girl but I was a guardians of ga’hoole girlie

[carriagelamp]

April l was apparently the month for me to revisit some children’s authors who are steeped in controversy at the moment. So here’s my hot (well, lukewarm) takes on issues that absolutely do not need a single other person talking about them. Also some actual good books that I read this month!

Badger in the Basement

The Animal Ark books are a childhood classic — though I recently found out that apparently there’s a difference between American and British publications, and the American versions didn’t include a lot of actual COOL animals which is… bizarre. As a Canadian stuck in the middle of this, this nonsense drives me nuts. This one was about the main character, the daughter of pair of vets, trying to protect a local badger sett from men wanting to participate in badger digging and baiting. These books are always feel-good, and it was a nice single-day-read while I waited for a library book to come in.

Chi’s Sweet Home

The cutest manga series about the misadventures of a little kitten, Chi, who has been adopted by a loving family. I’ve never bothered to read them in order, but apparently this time I stumbled across the last in the series -- whoops! Still, stood on it’s own pretty easily, and it was a fun read! Things get tense when the family realize that they may have found Chi’s original home… and may have to give up Chi forever.

Earth Before Us: Dinosaur Empire!

This was an odd graphic novel, I feel like I’m not sure who the target audience was exactly. It was a nonfiction comic done in a Magic School Bus style, with the purpose of teaching current, up-to-date facts about the animals that lived in the Mesozoic Era. If you’re into dinosaurs, you’ll probably enjoy this! The art is absolutely adorable, I love the dinosaur illustrations, and I learnt some really neat facts. That being said, the pages are really dense, and there’s a lot of info crammed in… some of it will probably go way over a child’s head without specific additional teaching or a very strong personal interest. But that being said, a dinosaur obsessed kid is still probably going to really dig this… as would a dinosaur obsessed adult. It wasn’t my cup of tea exactly but I’m sure it is someone’s.

assorted Dr Seuss Books

I love these types of controversies because it means getting to listen to every moron who has never had an opinion on Dr Seuss ever start generating a mile of them out of the aether. So many people are so mad about the six books that are getting retired and I bet most of them haven’t even read them. These are not the friggin Cat In The Hat or The Lorax or even the likes of Yertle The Turtle. I was raised by a grade one teacher, was a voracious reader who loved Dr Seuss, and wrote my university thesis on children’s literature, and I still only knew two of the six books on that list. So by all means, if you want to write an essay explaining why those specific books are worth clinging to, feel free, but if you haven’t even heard of them maybe it’s not a big deal. *grumble*

Anyway, my grousing aside, it gave me the urge to reread a bunch of Seuss books, including the two retiring books I personally knew: McElligot’s Pool and To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street. I do still enjoy both, especially McElligot’s Pool which always sparked my imagination, but it’s obvious why they’re being retired and I personally think it’s the right choice. There’s so much good kidlit out there, we can survive without these.

Goodbye, My Rose Garden

A f/f romance manga, fairly standard fair though cute if you’re looking for some historical angst, pretty dresses, and mutual pining. A young Japanese woman moves to England in the hopes of meeting a writer (Mr Frank) who she has long admired. Along the way she is employed by an enigmatic woman with plenty of money, rumours, and melancholy following her. I’ll be honest, uncut romance isn’t really my genre, but I’ll probably still try to the second book to see if the story picks up.

From The Holocaust to Hogan’s Heroes: The Autobiography of Robert Clary

It’s no secret that I’ve been on a Hogan’s Heroes kick. This is the autobiography of Roberty Clary, who plays my favourite character in the show, Louis Lebeau. And holy shit what a life this man has had. He was a Jew growing up in France before the start of the war, and who was one of many children taken away from his family and sent off to the concentration camps in Germany. This was an amazing, intense, inspiring, and heartbreaking read… it has Clary’s voice all over it, and it tells everything from the charming childhood he had, to the horrors of the concentration camps, the brutality of survival, and then about his exciting journey into the entertainment industry afterwards. It’s an experience, would recommend if you’re a fan of the show.

The Ickabog

The second controversial author I read this month. Originally I was going to give Rowling’s new book a miss, given everything that’s been going on over the past few years, but in the end my curiosity got the better of me. Politics aside, it was a fun read! Not groundbreaking, but enjoyable enough and written in an interesting style. It didn’t read the same as a lot of modern kidlit, it felt more like a cross between a classic fairytale and a Dahl book. Perhaps a bit like Despereaux. It tells the tale of how an idyllic country gradually falls into ruin through the ignorance, inaction, and greed, and how a supposedly fictional monster hides the very real, human monsters at the heart of the country. It was cute and pleasant and I’m glad I decided to get it from the library, though for anyone who is choosing not to engage for political reasons: you aren’t missing anything major.

Franklin In The Dark

A Canadian classic. I don’t think there’s a single person my age who hasn’t read or been read a pile of these books, and the nostalgia is so comforting. I found this on Youtube and listened to someone read it to me, and honestly 10/10 would recommend for a calm evening.

The big reason I decided to seek this one out though, was because I finally got to the M*A*S*H episode that inspired this entire series! In the episode C*A*V*E, in which Hawkeye is freaking out over his claustrophia while the camp is forced to take shelter in a nearby cave during some intense shelling, he mentions that if he had been born a turtle he would have been afraid of his own shell, and that the other turtles would make fun of him cause he’d be forced to walk around in his underwear. And so this first story about a young turtle who’s afraid to sleep in his own shell and drags it around behind him. So if you were ever curious, Franklin the Turtle is in fact named after Dr Benjamin Franklin Pierce. (this is also why the French version is named Benjamin!)

Wolves of the Beyond: Lone Wolf

I loved the Guardians of Ga’Hoole books as a kid but I never read the Wolves of the Beyond series. This first book was an interesting read, Lasky does a great job creating worlds and societies for the animals that inhabit them. Lone Wolf is about a deformed wolf cub who was abandoned in the wilderness to die. And he would have, if a desperate mother bear, who had recently had her only cub killed, hadn’t stumbled across him and saved him, vowing to raise him as her own...

Petals

A “silent” graphic novel. It has beautiful artwork and is told entirely through pictures, no text at all. It’s loves and heart-wrenching, though it left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied… I felt like there should have been more. Still, a neat story.

The Southern Book Club‘s Guide To Slaying Vampires

What a banger of a novel!! I can’t recommend this one enough. It’s about a group of suburban mothers in the ‘80s who form a book club out of a shared need for community and a love of grisly true crime novels. But when a strange drifter appears in town and starts setting down roots… and when children begin disappearing… these women need to band together to confront the horrors that have invaded their neighbourhood, and face down not only a terrifying monster among them but the patriarchal system that allows it to flourish. To quote the preface:

“Because vampires are the original serial killers, stripped of everything that makes us human — they have no friends, no family, no roots, no children. All they have is hunger. They eat and eat but they’re never full. With this book, I wanted to pit a man freed from all responsibilities but his appetites against women whose lives are shaped by their endless responsibilities. I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom.    As you’ll see, it’s not a fair fight.“

The Weirn Books: Be Wary of the Silent Woods

I love Chmakova’s graphic novels, though I’ve only ever read her slice-of-life middle grade series before. This one is pure fantasy and very fun. It’s about two cousin “weirns” — witches with demon familiars — who attend the local night school. Things get strange though when an ominous figure appears outside the old, abandoned school house deep in the Silent Woods, and begins tempting children down its path…

I’m very much looking forward to word of a second book and was honestly kind of surprised that I haven’t heard more about this book given how popular her other series is. This has all the same charm and quirks but for those of us who prefer stories based in fantasy rather than reality.

And A Bonus...

For some masochistic reason I got a Garfield book out of the library. Jeez, if I didn’t love these as a kid, I found them absolutely laugh out loud hilarious, and now I just don’t see it anymore. But here I will share the one strip in the book that actually made me laugh

[rubykgrant]

I made a slightly condensed version of my Spooky Ref list; it still has a heck ton of movies and books, but now I combined certain categories, eliminated a few, and removed some of the titles that don’t quite fit. If you are looking for things to watch or read so you can get into the Halloween mood (or of you just like some creepy content), here you go!

Movies and Books for October

These range from children’s media to adult content, so be sure to check the ratings/reviews, this way you’ll find ones that are suitable for the right viewers. The dates of movies and names of authors for books are included to make searches easier

(a * symbol is for when a title is in both sections, a book that got made into a movie, ect)

Halloween and Ghosts

Movies- Hocus Pocus (1993), *the Halloween Tree (1993), the Nightmare before Christmas (1993), Trick r Treat (2007), Monster House (2006), Halloweentown (1998), the Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949), Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular (2003), Poltergeist (1982), the Haunting (1999), Casper (1995), Ghostbusters (1984), the Haunted Mansion (2003), Thirteen Ghosts (2001), the Others (2001)

Books- How to Drive Your Family Crazy on Halloween by Dean Marney,*the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, the Haunted Mask (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, Stonewords a Ghost Story by Pam Conrad, Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn, Ghost Beach (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn, the Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein, Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

 Witch/ESP/Mental Powers

Movies- *Practical Magic (1998), *the Wizard of Oz (1939), *the Witches (1990), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost (1999) *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), the Craft (1996), the Witches of Eastwick (1987), *Carrie (1976), *Firstarter (1984), *Matilda (1996), the Last Mimzy (2007)

Books- *Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, *the Witches by Roald Dahl, Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling, *the Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum, T*Witches by HB Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld, the Worst Witch by Jill Murphy, *Carrie by Stephen King, *Firestarter by Stephen King, *Matilda by Roald Dahl, Scorpion Shards (Star Shards Chronicles) by Neal Shusterman, the Witch’s Boy by Michael Gruber

 Vampire and Werewolf

Movies- Blade (1998), the Little Vampire (2000), Hellboy Blood and Iron (2007), *Hotel Transylvania (2012), Fright Night (2011), What We Do in the Shadows (2014), Alvin and the Chipmunks meet The Wolfman (2000), Ginger Snaps (2000), Van Helsing (2004) Wolf Children (2012), the Wolfman (1941)

Books- Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe, Dracula by Bram Stoker, ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, Red Rider’s Hood by Neal Shusterman, the Werewolf of Fever Swamp (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp (Bailey School Kids) by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Jones, Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause, Night of the Werepoodle by Constance Hiser

 Zombies and Slasher/Gore

Movies- Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998), ParaNorman (2012), Night of the Living Dead (1968), *Pet Sematary (1989), Zombieland (2009), Resident Evil (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004) Scream (1996), a Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), *I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Kill Bill (2003), Happy Death Day (2017), the Hills Have Eyes (2006), US (2019), Friday the 13th (1980), the Thing (1982), *the Girl with all the Gifts (2016)

Books- *Pet Sematary by Stephen King, the Haunting of Derek Stone by Tony Abott, Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, *I know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan, the Dark Half by Stephen King, The Dead Girlfriend (Point Horror) by RL Stine, Another by Yukito Ayatsuji, the Prom Queen (Fear Street) by RL Stine, *the Girl with all the Gifts by MR Carey

 Demons/Possession/Afterlife

Movies- the Omen (1976), Insidious (2010), the Exorcist (1973), *Christine (1983), City of Angels (1998), All Dogs go to Heaven (1989), Fallen (1998), *Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Bedazzled (2000), What Dreams May Come (1998), the Book of Life (2014), Flatliners (2017), *the Lovely Bones (2009), Coco (2017), Jennifer’s Body (2009), the Mummy (1999)

Books- *Christine by Stephen King, Needful Things by Stephen King, HECK where the bad kids go by Dale E Bayse,* Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Paradise Lost by John Milton, Inferno by Dante Alighieri, *the Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

 Monsters/Mythology/Dangerous Animals

Movies- Monsters Inc (2001), Godzilla (1998), *a Monster Calls (2016), *Jurassic Park (1993), King Kong (1933), Doug’s 1st Movie (1999), Darkness Falls (2003), Atlantis the lost empire (2001), Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), *the Last Unicorn (1982), Urban Legend (1998), *How to Train Your Dragon (2010), the Flight of Dragons (1982), Shrek (2001), *the Hobbit (1977), Quest for Camelot (1998), Ferngully the last rainforest (1992), Lake Placid (1999), Jaws (1975), *Cujo (1983), Deep Blue Sea (1999), Anaconda (1997)

Books- *a Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, *Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, Sasquatch by Roland Smith, *the Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle, the Moorchild by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, the Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by Rick Riordan, the Boggart by Susan Cooper, *How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, *the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, *Cujo by Stephen King, Cat in the Crypt (Animal Ark Hauntings) by Ben M Baglio, Congo by Michael Crichton, Watership Down by Richard Adams, the Dark Pond by Joseph Bruchac

 Dolls and Toys, Circus/Carnival/Clowns, Comedy Horror

Movies- *Coraline (2009), the Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), Child’s Play (1988), Toy Story (1995), 9 (2009), We’re Back a dinosaur’s story (1993), the Care Bears Movie (1985), Little Nemo adventures in Slumberland (1989), *Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), *Big Top Scooby-Doo (2012), Killer Klowns from Outer Space, *IT (2017), *Beetlejuice (1988), Army of Darkness (1992), Gremlins (1984), Arachnophobia (1990), Jawbreaker (1999), Tremors (1990), the Frighteners (1996), Twilight Zone the Movie (1983), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Eight Legged Freaks (2002), the Goonies (1985)

Books- Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell, *Coraline by Neil Gaiman, No Flying in the House by Betty Brock, Doll Bones by Holly Black, Joyland by Stephen King, *Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, *IT by Stephen King, the Cuckoo Clock of Doom (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, a Dirty Job by Christopher Moore jr, Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Treasury) by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell, JTHM (Director’s Cut) by Jhonen Vasquez

 Gothic/Dark Fantasy, Curse/Transformation

Movies- *the Addams Family (1991), Rebecca (1940), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mama (2013), the Phantom of the Opera (2004), Crimson Peak (2010), Legend (1985), the Dark Crystal (1982), Labyrinth (1986), *the Neverending Story (1984), *the Secret of NIMH (1982), Anastasia (1997), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Willow (1988), *the Last Unicorn (1982), the Princess Bride (1987), *Legend of the Guardians the Owls of Ga'Hoole, Beauty and the Beast (1991), the Princess and the Frog (2009), the Swan Princess (1994), the Thing (1982), the Mask (1994), Freaky Friday (2003), Song of the Sea (2014), Pirates of the Caribbean the Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Books- the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, the Shining by Stephen King, Remember Me by Mary Higgins Clark, a Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Well Witched (Verdigris Deep) by Frances Hardinge, Poison by Chris Wooding, *the Neverending Story by Michael Ende, *Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien, a Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz, the Dark Portal by Robin Jarvis, Zel by Donna Jo Napoli, *the Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle, *Guardians of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Lasky, Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl

 Mystery/Thriller/Psychological/Suspense

Movies- Clue (1985), *Holes (2003), Get Out (2017), Hot Fuzz (2007), Minority Report (2002), Kidnap (2017), Saw (2004), Wind River (2017), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), the Great Mouse Detective (1986), Eve’s Bayou (1997), Breaking In (2018), Cube (1997), *Secret Window (2004), Silent Hill (2006), the Sixth Sense (1999), the Good Son (1993), Psycho (1960), Donnie Darko (2001), Fargo (1996), the Game (1997), the Invisible Man (2020), Breaking In (2018)

Books- *Holes by Louis Sachar, the Lost (the Outer Limits) by John Peel, We’ll Meet Again by Mary Higgins Clark, When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman, *Secret Window Secret Garden (Four Past Midnight) by Stephen King, House of Stairs by William Sleator, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King, Tangerine by Edward Bloor, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the Girl who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

 Sci-Fi/Space Aliens, Robots and Technology

Movies- I Robot (2004), the Iron Giant (1999), the Terminator (1984), AI artificial intelligence (2001), the Stepford Wives (2004), Wall-E (2008), *Screamers (1995), *Sphere (1998), *Blade Runner (1982), *2001 a Space Odyssey (1968), MIB (1997), Mission to Mars (2000), Galaxy Quest (1999), Alien (1979), ET the extra terrestrial (1982), Independence Day (1996), Spaced Invaders (1990), Buzz Lightyear of Star Command the Adventure Begins (2000), Chicken Little (2005), *War of the Worlds (1953), *Contact (1997), Signs (2002), Treasure Planet (2002), Frequency (2000), Back to the Future (1985), the Time Machine (1960), Planet of the Apes (1968), Lost in Space (1998)

Books- the Terminal Man by Michael Crichton, Feed by Matthew Tobin Anderson, *Second Variety (Screamers) by Phillip K Dick, *I Robot by Isaac Asimov, Cell by Stephen King, *Sphere by Michael Crichton, *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner) by Philip K Dick , *2001 a Space Odyssey by  Arthur C Clarke, a Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, the Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman, *War of the Worlds by HG Wells, *Contact by Carl Sagan, Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke, Aliens Don’t Wear Braces (the Baily School Kids) by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Jones, the Invasion (Animorphs) by KA Applegate

 Dystopia/Disaster, Other Worlds

Movies- Waterworld (1995), the Matrix (1999), Escape from New York (1981), *Demolition Man (1993), the Day After Tomorrow (2004), Volcano (1997), the Fifth Element (1997), Titan AE (2000), Armageddon (1998), Twister (1996), the Birds (1963), the Book of Eli, (2010) Spirited Away (2001), *Alice in Wonderland (1951), Pleasantville (1998), *the Phantom Tollbooth (1970), *the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), *Hook (1991), the Pagemaster (1994), *James and the Giant Peach (1996)

Books- Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, the Road by Cormac McCarthy, the House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, 1984 by George Orwell, Armageddon Summer by Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen, the Giver by Lois Lowry, the City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, *Brave New World (Demolition Man) by Aldous Huxley, Malice by Chris Wooding, * the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the Golden Compass (His Dark Materials) by Philip Pullman, *The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (the Chronicles of Narnia) by CS Lewis, *James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

 Anime/Manga and J-Horror

Movies- Akira (1988), Perfect Blue (1997), Ring (1998), Dark Water (2002), Ghost in the Shell (1995), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Cat Soup (2001), *Cowboy Bebop the Movie (2001), Blood the Last Vampire (2000), Pokemon the First Movie (1998), Sailor Moon R Promise of the Rose (1993), DBZ the World’s Strongest (1990), Digimon the Movie (2000), Ju-On (2000)

Manga- Claymore by Norihiro Yagi, Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, *Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi, *Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa, *Blue Exorcist by Kazue Katō, *Soul Eater by Atsushi Ōkubo, *Inuyasha by Rumiko Takahashi,

Anime- *Yu Yu Hakusho, *Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, *Soul Eater, *Blue Exorcist, *Inuyasha, *Cowboy Bebop, Mob Psycho 100, .hack//SIGN , the Promised Neverland, Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Ghoul, Hellsing Ultimate

 Super Hero

Movies- Hellboy (2004), Ghost Rider (2007), the Incredibles (2004), Batman Beyond return of the Joker (2000), TMNT (2007), Logan (2017), Black Panther (2018), Sky High (2005), Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse (2018), Justice League Crisis on Two Earths (2010), Batman Under the Red Hood (2010)

Comics- Animal Man (New 52, 2011) DC Comics, Swamp Thing (New 52, 2011) DC Comics, BPRD Dark Waters (2012) Dark Horse Comics, Nextwave (Agents of HATE, 2006) Marvel Comics

Animated Series- Batman the Animated Series, X-Men Evolution, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Darkwing Duck, the Powerpuff Girls, Teen Titans (2005), Static Shock, Green Lantern the Animated Series

 Cartoons and TV shows

Over the Garden Wall, The Simpsons (Treehouse of Horrors), Regular Show (Terror Tales of the Park), Adventure Time (Stakes), Scooby-Doo Where Are You/What’s New Scooby-Doo,  El Tigre the Adventures of Manny Rivera, Phineas and Ferb (Night of the Living Pharmacists), Gravity Falls, Good Omens, Miracle Workers, Grimm, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, What We Do In the Shadows, Hotel Transylvania the series, Wolf’s Rain, Danny Phantom, Aaahh Real Monsters, the Munsters, So Weird, Tutenstein, Gargoyles, Xena Warrior Princess, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Tales from the Crypt, Goosebumps, Samurai Jack, Metalocalypse, Super Jail, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Futurama, the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, *Beetlejuice (animated series), Sabrina the Animated Series, the Owl House, Bewitched, Growing Up Creepy, the Addams Family (animated series), a Series of Unfortunate Events, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Star VS the Forces of Evil, Amphibia, Infinity Train, Penn Zero Part-Time Hero, Murder She Wrote, the Venture Bros, Avatar the Last Airbender, Invader ZIM, People of Earth, Star Trek Next Gen, Rick and Morty, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

[drabbles-of-writing]

Quick question that might’ve already been asked in the past, but what are some of your favorite or most inspirational books that you’ve read?

aaaaaaaaa god there’s a lot I’ll give the ones that I remember being apart of my younger years/books I read now

--Dreadnought: My current favorite. Danny, a trans lesbian girl, inherits superpowers and now has to deal with that + being accepted as trans. Right from the get-go it’s clear this book wasn’t made to ‘ease you in’ to the lgbt themes, it just hits you RIGHT with it head-on. It’s part of an ongoing series with 2 books in it so far, would HIGHLY reccomend.

--Wings of Fire: I’m not really into it anymore, but the series is basically about a bunch of young dragons in prophecies, with 3 arcs so far. It has a very interesting concept and the dragons are all different species and I remember really liking to see how they were made. Course, it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty interesting. Also there’s some lesbian dragons in it but we only get hints at the end of arc 2 n we don’t get main character lesbian till like the 3rd book in arc 3.

--Story Thieves: Very complicated, but interesting read. Imagine if you had the powers to jump into any book n just. Vibe there. That’s the premise only they gotta like also make sure this Bad Guy doesn’t ruin the books or somethin and kill this one girl who is half book-character half human. Very confusing but I swear it makes sense once you read it. Also there are 2 main characters of opposite genders and they don’t fall in love!! they remain friends (from what I remember)!!!!! hell yeah

--Wolves of the Beyond: edgy. really edgy but still fun. wolf pup gets fuckin DITCHED n is raised by a bear, then gotta Find His Own Path. in the same universe as the Guardians of Ga’hoole owl series so you know your in for a fun time.

--HTTYD (book series): I,,,,,really liked it as a kid, and I also loved (most) of the movies and shows,,,,so I may be biased. But the books are WAY different than the movies but still have their own charm to them. Toothless is a little SHIT and I love him.

--Percy Jackson: Need I say more??? Demigods dealing with Some Shit??? Sliding in with that lgbt rep later on???? we already know whats happenin

--Lumberjanes: Technically a comic book series but I digress. Lumberjanes is like if you rolled Gravity Falls, less existential Night in the Woods, and Camp Camp all in one and slapped on lgbt rights. Most of the characters are girls n it said RIGHTS. Two of the main girls are lesbians, another one is trans, later on in the series we get a non-binary kid who I ADORE, some asexual REP babey, and its just a whole lot of fun. Love all my girls. Plus, it’s ending soon and getting that show I talked about a while back.

Now those were the ones I could think of that have/are inspired me in some of my works, course there are plenty others out there, and books I haven’t read that I want to try out. Hope this helps my Lads

[rpgsandbox]

                                            Introductory Fiction

                         Download the Root Quickstart Materials Here!

Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is a game of woodland creatures fighting for money, justice, and freedom from powers far greater than them. Based on the Root: A Game of Woodland Might & Right board game and officially licensed by Leder Games, Root: The TTRPG brings the tales of the Woodland to your RPG table!

In Root, you play vagabonds, outcasts from the normal society of the woodlands who have come to live in the spaces between, whether that's in the forests themselves or on the fringes of society. You are competent and skilled—you have to be to survive as vagabonds—and you aren’t tied down to any particular place or faction. You might be a badger arbiter, serving many sides in resolving conflicts and defending their interests. You might be a cat scoundrel, sliding on your mask before you sneak out into the darkness to cause mischief and mayhem. You might be a wolf ranger, at home in the wilds and the untamed places of the woodland.

Root is based on the Powered by the Apocalypse system used by tabletop RPGs like Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, and many of Magpie Games’s own games like Masks: A New Generation, Urban Shadows, and Zombie World. It uses the core framework of that system and provides a strong, simple way to tell your own stories of adventure in the woodland. You’ll create a character using one of several vagabond archetypes, and then you’ll take action, rolling two six-sided dice to resolve the outcomes of desperate situations.

Root creates stories like those you’d find in Redwall, Watership Down, Mouse Guard, The Warriors, and The Guardians of Ga’Hoole.

The Woodland is, first and foremost, a deep forest. It hides dark deeds, ancient ruins, and dangerous creatures. The land is not tame—the trees and those who live in them are not safe.

The closest a denizen will come to safety in the Woodland are the confines of the clearings, areas either natural or paw-made where the trees thinned out and the denizens of the Woodland built lives. They set up homes and shops and forges, and they found safety in each other’s company.

Of course, it took no time at all for others to try to take power over these clearings. The Eyrie Dynasties were the first, and oldest—the birds built their homes in the trees above the rest of the denizens, and soon enough believed themselves to be above those denizens in power and status, too. The Eyrie took control of clearing after clearing, until it was the reigning institution in all of the Woodland.

But the Eyrie's nobles and petty tyrants squabbled with each other over control and rulership. Until eventually, in the Grand Civil War (only "Grand" because it's the most recent), the Eyrie Dynasties tore themselves apart. They were left without enough support, armies, or resources to hold control over much of anything at all. And for a time, the Woodland denizens took charge of their own clearings.

Until the cats arrived.

Armies from the far away Feline Empire swept into the now uncontrolled and undefended Woodland. Some denizens of the Woodland fought back, but the invaders were well-trained, well-equipped, and too much for any civilian militia to turn back. The valuable resources of the Woodland would feed the bellies of the Feline Empire. Soon enough, the Marquise de Cat, dispatched by the Empire’s bureaucratic overlords, arrived to take control of the new colony, and the Woodland denizens found themselves under the paw of a new aristocracy.

As the cats were consolidating their rule and establishing new industrial buildings to tap the Woodland’s resources, the newly reunited and resurgent Eyrie Dynasties returned to the Woodland, seizing power from the Marquise’s forces to reestablish their hegemonic ascendancy. They rebuilt roosts in the treetops of the Woodland clearings, and opened up full war against the Marquise’s soldiers.

In the midst of the blooming conflict, the denizens of the Woodland began sharing secrets and new words in the shadows. Foxes began stockpiling weapons, and mice began stealing communications between officers on all sides of the war. Meetings in root cellars called to a war for freedom, and the fires of rebellion began to smolder. The name of “the Woodland Alliance” was whispered across the clearings.

The vagabonds have been a part of the Woodland for as long as anyone can remember. Outsiders and outcasts, criminals and ideologues, exiles and mercenaries—those who didn’t fit into the quieter lives of the clearings, who were hardy enough to survive in the spaces the other denizens avoided. Some dwelt in the forests themselves, completely eschewing the taboos against living in those most dangerous of places.

In times of peace, the vagabonds did what others would not, for a price of course. In times of war, the vagabonds found ample opportunity to fill their purses, from scavenging to sellsword work to straight-up thievery. In all cases, they would do what it took to survive, each one finding their own niche of safety and damn the rest.

But now, in the midst of this great war that threatens the whole of the Woodland, even the normally solitary vagabonds are finding it more and more difficult to survive by their lonesome. They are banding together, protecting each other, and forming into groups potent enough that even the great powers of the Eyrie and the Marquisate are taking notice...

The thick woods of the Woodland keep the denizens contained to the pathways and the clearings. To venture out beyond that safety is to risk running afoul of bandits, foul weather and rough terrain, and terrible things like bears. Fortunately, those paths between clearings are well-worn and patrolled by merchants and armed forces.

The clearings play home to many, many different kinds of denizen, from wolves to badgers to squirrels to opossums. But the primary inhabitants of the Woodland are the birds, foxes, mice, and rabbits. The birds spread themselves out among all the clearings, but most clearings are dominated by a majority of one kind of denizen.

Some clearings will be open and friendly to any kind of Woodland denizen, from those who dominate their clearing to those who are from far away; other clearings will fear any strangers who come by.

As vagabonds, you can navigate the Woodland both on its paths, and by venturing into its forests, braving the dangers that no others will face.

In Root, you will travel from clearing to clearing, and you will take on jobs and missions from diverse sources, and in so doing you will reshape the Woodland as you change the course of the war between those who would rule it.

To do all that, the game uses the Powered by the Apocalypse framework to resolve interesting moments of uncertainty. The game has a set of moves, bits of mechanics that by and large say: “When you do [x], [y] happens.” Each move trigger—the “When you do [x]” part—is designed to help point at moments of uncertainty, when neither the players nor the GM know exactly what happens next. Some examples of such moments include:

When you swing your sword at a towering buzzard Eyrie soldier.

When you try to sneak past a group of bandits to plunder their secret stash.

When you plead with the rabbit mayor to evacuate her clearing in advance of a major battle.

When you try to trick a Marquisate guard post into giving you the food and supplies you desperately need.

And so on. When you trigger a move—when you perform the action described in the move’s trigger—then the rest of the move kicks into effect, most of the time requiring some kind of die roll. You’ll roll 2d6 (two six-sided dice) and add in one of your stats to find out what happens.

Every vagabond has five stats:

Each one is ranked between -2 and +3. You’ll add your stat to some rolls when you trigger certain moves. For example, when you clash sword-to-sword with a foe, you’ll roll 2d6 + Might.

On most moves, if you get a 10 or higher (10+), things will go your way! If you get a 7-9, you’ll get what you were after, but usually with some cost or complication. If you get a 6 or lower, that’s called a miss, and the GM gets to tell you what happens next—and you can bet your tail it won’t be good.

The Root RPG will have basic moves for all of the different common activities that the vagabonds are likely to get up to, along with special moves for traveling and battle.

Beyond those basic mechanics, the Root TTRPG features a slew of specific and carefully designed systems for some of the important, unique elements of the Woodland.

The Woodland is a big place with many different clearings. The paths between the clearings are safer than the woods themselves, but they’re certainly far from safe. And even though the vagabonds are brave enough to travel the width and breadth of the Woodland, it’s not any safer for them than for anyone else. It might even be more dangerous.

Your adventures across the Woodland will take you from clearing to clearing, using the paths or slipping through the forests in ways that only the vagabonds can. Every clearing has its own problems, after all, and that means every clearing is a bed of lucrative opportunities for enterprising vagabonds like yourselves.

To handle all that travel, the Root RPG features a set of moves designed to allow the vagabonds to move between clearings with ease at a player level, but with interesting complications and concerns at a character level. Will the vagabonds sacrifice their exhaustion to travel more safely along the paths? Will they spend more supplies and degrade their equipment to travel quickly through the forests? Or will they chance being waylaid by the many dangers of the Woodland—anything from bandits to squads of soldiers to BEARS?

Vagabonds are all very skilled and capable individuals—after all, they have to be in order to survive! To represent their capabilities, every vagabond has access to all the basic moves, their own special playbook moves, and weapon moves.

Weapon moves are the skills that the vagabonds use in combat to wield their weapons with unmatched prowess. Each vagabond will have access to a portion of the overall weapon moves, and as long as they have the right weaponry to then use those moves, they can perform incredible feats, from smashing through heavy armor with a single blow, to bouncing arrows off walls to reach an unreachable target, to taking out unsuspecting foes instantly.

In Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game, each vagabond has three tracks representing their wellbeing. Their exhaustion track represents how tired they are, how much energy they have left to give. Their decay track represents how much of their supplies they’ve used up. And their injury track represents how many major blows they’ve taken.

Using the three different tracks lets the Root RPG land consequences in different ways, pushing the vagabonds to take different actions to deal with those consequences. A band of vagabonds with all their decay boxes marked will need to seek more supplies or the aid of a blacksmith, and soon, while a band with all their exhaustion boxes marked needs to find a safe place to hunker down and rest. Filling in these boxes will ultimately lead to more stories as the vagabonds move from clearing to clearing to resupply and recover.

Root: A Game of Woodland Might & Right, the original Root board game, featured a Woodland at war, caught in a struggle between different, powerful factions. The Marquise de Cat and her industrializing armies; the Eyrie Dynasties and their bureaucratic structure; the Woodland Alliance and its insurgent revolts. The Vagabond was one of the factions in the original game, but its role was often of a single adventurer, slipping in and out of greater conflicts, helping one side, hurting another, all the while ready to tip the scales in favor of one group or another.

In Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game, that idea of a living backdrop for the adventures of the vagabond is crucial. Clearings will not sit, static and unchanging, while the vagabonds go on adventures. They will be taken or lost in the wars between the factions. Sometimes those factions might actually improve the clearings. Other times those factions will destroy buildings, take advantage of the populace, and take hold of any valuable resources.

And amid this ongoing war between the factions for control of the Woodland, the vagabonds will adventure and tip the balance. They will have reputations with different factions, allowing them to borrow resources or even lead forces from friendly factions, and leading to constant conflict with opposing factions. Their decisions will change the Woodland.

Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game will be a 6” x 9” hardcover full-color book of about 240 pages. The book will feature Kyle Ferrin’s extraordinary art throughout, along with matte pages and all the playbook and basic moves materials you need to play. The book will feature full color end papers. Inside the book you will find:

6 vagabond playbooks—the Arbiter, the Ranger, the Scoundrel, the Thief, the Tinker, and the Vagrant

All the core rules for the game

3 factions—the Marquisate, the Eyrie Dynasties, and the Woodland Alliance

A map creation system to procedurally generate your own Woodland

Additional tables and randomized generators to make running the game even easier

Root: Travelers & Outsiders is a 6” x 9” hardcover full-color book of about 240 pages. This book will contain:

6 new vagabond playbooks—the Adventurer, the Champion, the Chronicler, the Envoy, the Harrier, and the Raider

4 new factions—the Riverfolk Company, the Lizard Cult, the Grand Duchy, and the Corvid Conspiracy

More weapon moves, map mechanics, and Woodland details

Example clearings for quick and easy play

Additional rules on how you can integrate the board game into your campaign of the role playing game

Kickstarter campaign ends: Sun, October 20 2019 7:00 PM BST

Website: [Magpie Games] [facebook] [twitter]

[skygemspeaks]

some things from books i read in my childhood that have left their mark on me, long after i have forgotten almost everything else from the series:

in guardians of ga’hoole how they have this one library where every owl who lives there dedicates all their time to memorizing a single book, word for word, so that if anything ever happens to the physical copy of the book the knowledge is not lost to them, and the library is alive with the sound of countless scholars constantly reciting books

how in the dragon slippers the main character, creel’s, family lets her be kidnapped by a dragon so that she can be saved by the prince and marry into royalty and her family can live without worries for the rest of their lives. instead, creel makes a deal with the dragon and ends up becoming friends with him (and later becomes the godmother to his hatchlings) and convinces him to let her go, and then runs away from her town to live her own life and starts her own business, long before the prince arrives to save her from the dragon.

that one volume of magic tree house where jack and annie go back to the wild west and end up befriending a cowboy and gaining his respect, and then when they go back to their own time, they find out that the book that had been their guide to the era had in fact been written by their cowboy friend and that he had dedicated it to them

how in warrior cats firestar struggles for a long time with the unfair resentment he feels towards brambleclaw because he was so traumatized by tigerstar, but he recognizes that none of that is brambleclaw’s fault and actively works to treat him like any other member of the clan and in the end the two of them are able to move past it and their relationship is all the stronger for it

in chronicles of ancient darkness how, even though torak was 12 (i think?) and had just lost his father and was all alone in the world and was starving and hungry and scared, but when he came across wolf, he couldn’t bring himself to kill wolf for food. and no matter what the world threw at them after that, the two of them always found their way back to each other, no matter how many times they were separated.