#gridmark

[theoutcastrogue]

Rogues in fantasy TTRPGs that aren't Dungeons & Dragons

Sometimes it's called Rogue, sometimes it's called Thief. It can be a class, or a template, or a sample build for a classless system. It can be pigeonholed to a couple of roles and specialties, or wide open to interpretations and extensive customisation.

But any self-respecting fantasy game, chock-full as it may be with mighty warriors and powerful wizards, needs a disreputable little shit: the rogue, the thief, the scoundrel, the one who strays. And it's a truly universal archetype. The people in the margins are the salt of the earth, and a setting without them is just… unseasoned.

"The thief gives us a chance to play someone closer to heart, someone who's not strong or possessed of magical talents, someone who has to rely on wit and stealth to survive. Someone, we can imagine, who might very well be just like us. And in being more like us, it's clear that the thief is not just a column of percentile chances to pick locks and disarm traps; she is blessed with as many different skills and appearances as there are crimes to be committed. And that's quite a lot." [x]

So here's a sneak peek at the Thief/Rogue in:

Shadowdark (2023) - gridmark and rules-light dungeoncrawl

Tales of the Valiant (2024) - a D&D 5e variant

Rolemaster Unified (2022) - famously crunchy and customisable

GURPS 4e Dungeon Fantasy (2007) - classic classless system

Ars Magica 5th Edition (2004) - the historically grounded one (in Europe 1200 AD), very customisable

Four Against Darkness (2017) - solo dungeoncrawl

Blades in the Dark (2017) - where everyone's a rogue!

Pathfinder 2e (2024) - a million rules and it's all 3.5's fault

Lankhmar: City of Thieves (2015) - the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser setting, with the Savage Worlds system

[false-cowboy]

i fear i may be the first person in the world to Ever compare lighthearted fantasy romp Good Guys and grimy dark urban fantasy the Dresden Files, but there is something here to be poked at Perchance.

They both have a core theme of community, of Dresden learning how to stop being a brooding sad lonely little wizard freak and actually form a community. learns how to rely on and trust the people around him as well as allowing himself comfort with them. And of Montana building his little miracle dukedom with nothing but a grouchy solider and a bunch of refugees. its Montana learning how to be a leader; to be independent, and Dresden learning how to be in a support system; to be reliant. certainly not the same goals as people, execpt another key detail is that both of these stories contain fantasy.

Good Guys being a full fantasy and the Dresden Files being urban fantasy, the way they treat people from this side of things is where they differ.

quick preface with the note that i understand these are in a large part genre differences, i am more so talking through the lense of the stories themselves; yes the Dresden Files being more gridmark means it will be more depressing and conflicted about everything, but yes i will be talking about how that differs from attitudes in the Good Guys.

In the Dresden Files it is Dresden keeping his humanity; a good comendable thing. but to do it he contrasts himself against the Monsters. Dresden is a good human not because he is a good person but because he is not a Monster. Because he does not differ from the status quo but rather upholds it. he does not have green scales, or gnashing teeth, or red eyes, his appearence is that of the most average Tall Guy you could possibly imagine. He is good because he is not one of them, one of the bad folk. the bad folk of course meaning anything not abiding by his standards of normalcy. obviously there are exceptions every now and then and he gets better about it as the books progress, but for a wizard he sure does hate anyone not enough like him. The Dresden Files is about exclusionary community; everyone allowed in so long as. the fae and the vamps and the other folk going bump in the night are, whatever the fantasy equivelent of humanized is, yet they still get lumped in as the bad evil monsters as a whole. you're allowed to like them when theyre normal like me, but when theyre weird thats when you can kill them. Again, he gets better about acceptence later in the series but there is still such a brick wall of limitation on who is allowed to be seen as good. so what i'm trying to say is 'Gentleman' Johnny Marcone did nothing wro-

On the other hand, the Good Guys is almost detrimentally inclusive. Montana, despite his big scary apperence and fuck off kill count, genuinely tries to understand and be kind to everyone; bandits and monsters and races deemed somehow lesser or below others are immediately loved overwhelmingly. he takes the time to understand the Monsters not so he can better kill them, but so he can show them customs and courtisies he feels they should be given. time and time again he finds himself faced with something the world has deemed to be dangerous and uneeded and he tries a shot at kindness. he has been betrayed, bitten, had a few limbs torn off, melted into nothing but black bones, inside a wyrm, there was that time he was like half bathed in the blood of children? point is, the world is cruel and mean and ugly, but he will not let that happen to him too. he's seen as naieve and innocent by his right hand Nikolai, and this is, not necissarily disproven, but, countered by the idea that it is not ignorance which makes Montana so accepting; but just straight up openmindedness and an urge to learn. he sees a beast with big gnashing teeth and asks if they hurt it's gums before he is eaten.

Dresden, when given strength, uses it to lash out in defense against the Monsters. every step towards them is unwilling and terrible.; Montana, when given strength, uses it to build a better home for the Monsters so they no longer feel the need to encroach on his home. something about their attitudes; the way in both worlds there are entire communities and societies outside of humans: terrifying, dangerous, beautiful, and the way they decide to either uphold or break common ideas.

i swear there was a point in here somewhere. sorry folks I got derailed posts cancelled

[hakuna-machete]

So, with the live action avatar trailer out a lot of people are saying they’re really hoping it’s not just another gridmark remake, and that there is still the humor and whimsy that the cartoon had. And while I absolutely agree, we can’t forget that, even though Avatar the Last Airbender is a cartoon made for children it’s a pretty brutal show. And because it’s a cartoon, the characters’ ages are not really salient, but in a live action, we can see how obviously young all of the characters are. And that throughout the series these are all child soldiers actively fighting in a very brutal conflict.

I thought I had saved the post, but I couldn’t find it, and it was a post about how when Katara was fighting Pakku in the northern water tribe he was shocked when he had to doge ice discs that would’ve decapitated him when he thought they were just sparring.  And it was because Katara had never been in a fight that wasn’t a fight to the death. Even if the Gaang managed to escape before it got to that point, they were all fighting just to stay alive every time. Sokka, who is 16, matter-of-factly tells Aang, who is 12, that he has to kill another person for the good of the world because the inescapable fate of fighting and killing in a war is the reality that Sokka has lived in his entire life. 

There is so much fun and humor in the show, and it would be a serious loss and disservice if that was taken out. It’s a show with central themes of hope and resistance and redemption and family and love and acceptance. But it’s also about war and imperialism and genocide and our main hero is 12 years old and now in the live action remake really looks 12 years old. Even if they just did a one to one exactly as it was in the cartoon remake just because we can now see that these are 12-year-olds and 14 year olds and 16-year-olds waging war and fighting these battles and going through all of the things that these characters went through in the animated series, it would still make it seem darker.

Just my thoughts, I am looking forward to it, regardless of what happens. Yip yip!

[cliveguy]

this is insane. but for literal years i thought people were saying gridmark and it was some technical term for dark / edgy media... but it isn't. it's grimdark.

[hackercult]

girls the armor is losing integrity im being overmatched constantly please drop smoke gridmark F 6 9 8

[words-cannot-describe-this-blog]

gridmarked:

fyeahspectravision:

nerdmeetworld:

plumsandapocketwatch:

merlinstolethetardisfrombakerst:

I always thought this.

Mordor.

The Wizard of Mordor!

ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY FOLLOW THE RED BRICK ROAD INTO MORDOR

akjxhfkdsjhgfmg

[mahougender]

✨💖🦹‍♀️?

✨ - Favorite magical girl series?

It’s really difficult to choose, but I think I’ll go with Princess Tutu

💖 - Favorite magical girl?

Another difficult question! Cure Peace probably!

🦹‍♀️ - Are you a fan of grimdark magical girls? If so, which ones?

I haven’t watched many gridmark magical girl series, but the ones I have I wasn’t really into. It’s not because they’re gridmark, it’s moreso because they’re poorly written. The magical girl genre has always had dark elements anyways, so I don’t really see what the point of making an “edgy” magical girl series is

Ask game

[red-winters]

Is it just me or is Goodreads actually making me NOT want to read books

[thesmollestsnek]

Eye spy the Sanders Sides 👀

[theoutcastrogue]

I'm solving this like the Gordian Knot: I simply refuse to use the term "gridmark". At all, ever. It doesn't mean anything any more. It was made completely useless by the sheer amount of people who define it as "anything that's not 100% wholesome and uwu".

[thebibliosphere]

I got into a “debate” with someone over how “it’s impossible to complete Frostpunk without it turning into a dictatorship and that’s why the game sucks because gridmark is boring” so then because I have appropriately zero chill I went out of my way to beat the game with zero authoritarian rules in place (including no emergency shifts), and get the “golden path” achievement, just to show that you can.

It’s only the last 15 minutes of the scenario cause that shit is long, and it’s a bit potato in terms of quality cause I was having to use my left hand to play and also had none of my usual recording software set up, but for anyone that’s interested, you can absolutely beat the game without having to resort to religious zealotry/fascist regime measures. It just takes a little more forward planning and perspective. You can’t stumble from crisis to crisis and expect the “good” ending. You need to build with the intent to thrive and outlive the storm, no matter how slim those odds may seem. If you’re only ever doing the bare minimum to keep yourself in power, it’s not enough. You need to invest in more sustainable resources rather than the quick fixes, invest in infrastructure, technology rather than child labor, and also invest heavily in hope and community, which ultimately means making sure everyone has adequate housing, access to food, schools for the children to keep them out the cold during the day, medical care, and even enough wiggle room to survive a bunch of refugees showing up on your doorstep because hell is freezing over and the alternative is too horrifying to imagine. You can, of course, turn them away. You can leave them to die in the frozen tundra. That’s your choice to make. But Frostpunk is not a game intended to be played solely as a dictatorship.

It gives you the choice, it gives you the means by which you may survive in such a world. But it also gives you the choice to find another way. It’s harder, sure, but it is doable.

[flatstarcarcosa]

i don’t normally do callout posts but like :\

@dadbodsandbots is a bad influence bc this bitch got me thinkin’ bout vanilla ass soft uwu scenarios and it’s ruining my brand :\ 

[atheistj]

No offense but Game of Thrones is literally the opposite of everything Star Wars is supposed to be. Why would anyone think hiring those writers is a good idea?

[matthewjamesartist]

Marvel Family Villains! I like this little sketchbook. The paper feels nice (and it's pretty thick). Plus it has gridmarks. I got it at wm. #marvelfamily #captainmarvel #shazam #mrmind #mratom #blackadam #sabbac #ibac #sivana #fawcettcomics #dccomics #ink #sketch #sketchbook #cartoonist #cartoon #instatoon #instaart #instaartist #matthewjamescartoonist https://www.instagram.com/p/Cki8YFMvuLE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[grimmssnarl]

grimmsnarl gets stabbed, his blood looks a bit like milky water. just kinda makes his hair shine. throws the fairy hunter hard into a tree, 

ooohhh imagines a fairy hunter with a net laced with iron(/silver/steel) 

reminds me of the predators nets, and how they slice through their opponents yknow.  IMAGINES A GRIMMSNARL WITH A GRIDMARK FROM IT . very cool. 

im thinking a lot about stupid action movie shots and fighting scenes, but also just fairy hunters in general. maybe when the poke-romans invadded what became galar they took the gaels knowledge of the fae and wanted to dominate them rather than coexist and defend themselves.

although im sure there are plenty of fairy hunters who are such becuase fairies are simply assholes

[tsaagan]

I just found out that the name of that one genre is grimdark. I always read it as ‘’gridmark’’ and wondered why it’s called that. But English is not my first language so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯