#honestly i have LOTS of thoughts about D20 bc a lot of fans of it have been super weird about longform

[utilitycaster]

Hi, I'm the anon who wrote to you a few days ago about feeling conflicted about Beau and Caleb's involvement, and while I would probably prefer a story closer to M9 you are right that this isn't where we are now. However, once C3 is over I think it would be interesting to compare the pacing and plot structure in all 3 campaigns, not to decide who is better, but to see what the strengths and weaknesses are for each.

Hey anon! Thanks, and for what it's worth this was not really in response to you and more about some stuff I'd seen floating around elsewhere (and to be honest the fact that I'd said similar things during the Whitestone stuff); I think you voiced your feelings in a way that was respectful and understandable! And I share your feelings that I do prefer a Nein-style campaign, and this is me talking about the story in Ebert "is it achieving what it sets out to do" terms.

I agree it would be interesting to compare across campaigns! I do think a lot of this all comes down to personal preference; I also think that audience expectations have been a major factor (ie, people expecting a VM-style plot were disappointed in the Nein; people such as myself who enjoyed the style of the Nein campaign taking quite some time to come around to the very different structure of Bells Hells). And, more generally, I think this kind of comparison is good to think about regarding actual play at large; so many discussions about the "correct" type of campaign miss that. I've been thinking about it a lot in relation to Worlds Beyond Number, given that everyone in it is a D20 veteran and D20's contained, shorter style vs. WBN's intended long-form campaign style are often considered to be at odds, rather than different but valid choices.

[mothsgotghosts]

This is for such a niche audience I'm sure but GUYS. D20 and MK1 Fans. Please. I hope you all find this. NEVER STOP BLOWING UP AU. okay. Okay hear me out. I'm gonna yap about this idea bc I have no friends who like mortal kombat. Probably nobody will find this but OH WELL. Nsbu spoilers for sure btw

Ok so this is like a. No outworld au I guess. Idk how else to describe it tbh. So like, Raiden, Kung Lao, Johnny, Kenshi, Tomas, and Syzoth all work at a video rental store that is going out of business. Its owned by like. Shang Tsung I guess. I haven't fully thought that part through tbh-

Anyway they have their little going out of business party after calling some guy to come like pay his late fees for this video tape. The guy shows up and it's Liu Kang yayyy. Then he like yk. Rewinds the tape and they all get sucked in‼️

Raiden ends up as the Kingskin character

Kung Lao is the Vic Ethenol

Johnny is the Jennifer Drips

Tomas is the Jack Manhattan

Syzoth is the G13

And Kenshi is actually. Not a Greg Stocks character, but instead an FBI agent. Also he's a girl too j cuz

Shang Tsung is unfortunately the president j like Dave

And Lui Kang is like. Kinda similar to Damien Bane but not really

I should warn you all I am. A johnshi shipper and that's gonna be obvious in this so if u don't like them u should go 😔. I also ship railao and symas but as of rn those aren't nearly as prevalent to the plot.

ANYWAY. The storylines of the nsbu chatacters they reflect are different from the actual show bc I'm not copying the characters exactly, but the movie plot is relatively the same

I don't have much in the way of an actual plot but here's some silly little ideas I have yayyy:

Syzoth does get hacked by his character similar to Usha, they DO bring him back thankfully but it's WILD

Syzoth is also the G13 character bc he's the only one of the six who in canon is not from Earthrealm and I thought it'd be funny if this guy is just Bad at technology for literally no reason

I chose the six people that I did bc four of them are the champions of Earthrealm and the other two are just silly billies. That's my main reasoning tbh

Liu Kang is not as. Unhinged? As Barsimion for the record, he's a lot chiller and acts like himself if he was just like. A tiny bit crazy and full of whimsy

Johnny and Kenshi's characters plots are intertwined I think. A spy and an FBI agent constantly at each other throats, it's also Super Gay (just like them 😁)

Raiden is the Kingskin character because I truly feel like someone should tell this man he's allowed to be selfish sometimes. Someone please let him know that occasionally he can be a bit selfish.

Tomas is the Jack Manhattan because I feel like he would act a lot like Paula does at times. Just like freaking out and saying insane shit. That's the main reason. ALSO BC HIM BEING A GRIZZLED LOOSE CANON DETECTIVE WOULD BE FUNNY

Johnny was definitely a little jealous of Tomas bc he got to be the detective guy, he learns to like his character tho I swear

Kung Lao is the Vic Ethenol bc like. Honestly Vibes.

Shang Tsung is literally gonna explode the world and start so many wars just like Dave bro cannot be chill

And that's all I got yayyy. I love you if you read this whole thing and if u have more ideas PLEASE lmk. Okay byeee

[artcanary]

1-50

oh my god dude 

im gonna put this under a cut bc this is a lot. this is a ride, have fun i guess

1. Your first OC ever?god. its got to be Super Kitty. when i was like … an incredibly small child I used to draw comic strips about this feline caped crusader, who was friends with everyone in the city, and the comics always involved him stopping an evil banana man from stealing money from the local bank. He was paid with donuts for his service to the city. i still remember how to draw him. 

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?i’d get arrested if I didn’t answer this with Bronze, probably… but really, they’re very important to me

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?man, i cant remember! i really dont think i have… P:

4. A character you rarely talk about?there’s loads of characters ive never even posted a single picture of on tumblr, i wouldnt even know where to start asdf

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? bronze is the easy answer, but… i guess that could also go to Servant or Westrin. Servant has a comic project in the works that basically stars him, sort of a series of one-shots about the things he’s experienced, i feel like that would be a good thing to take off and run with. Westrin’s just fun as hell, i love the guy.

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?real talk now… there’s at least five different characters that i refer to as a whole as “bronze-tangential”, who started out as, “what would bronze be like if they were in this world?” and then becoming their own thing within said world because i just get stupid attached 

its an epidemic

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?nearly all of them, actually. that’s the main reason i make characters, after all! too many to really go into specifics here, again P: 

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here!not often, but i think Bronze and Westrin are the most common ones. unless playing a character in dnd, or running an npc in dnd counts… then a whole lot more hahaha

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?it depends on the circumstances. i don’t really like the idea, though. 

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? Westrin’s old getup is a pain to draw, and there was one other design i did that I cant find anywhere… whichever way, i dont often tend to draw super complicated things often 

a couple fakemon ive designed though… heheh those can get pretty finicky

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? hmmmmmmmm my immediate thought was Eric Silverdale from a comic i was working on a few years ago. hes a darling, i want him to be my friend irl

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lothow could you do this to me i love each and every one of all my friends ocs GOD the first one who comes to mind is @d20-official‘s Smith, whos Bronze’s friend… everyone in that DND party actually

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? Rated on a scale from “harmless” to “honestly somewhat frightening”: -Baromet (charming and quite friendly but definitely a kleptomaniac),-Westrin (demigod of bards and travelers), -XEN09 (a nonsense hacker), -Conny (needlessly contrarian and dumb as HELL), -Enza Colie (long fucking story but hes a good-for-nothing), -Hemlocke (mad scientist, chaotic evil), -Iris (AI and hacker, VERY bad), -The Terminus (glitch-in-the-matrix demon, chaotic evil), -and Sydd (the Queen of the Faeries, hopefully the danger there needs no explaining :’D)

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory Mmm… there’s a few of them, most obviously Lent (whose background I did a short comic about). Basically his entire town got eaten by ghosts and turned into zombies, he only barely survived with a sliver of his soul left. 

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?yes, i often discuss storylines and such with friends

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? Probably Bronze’s dad! I don’t talk about him much, but his name’s Devon Reed, and he was a biotech developer specialising in android design. 

I often describe him as being something of a reverse Arthur Weasley - a very fatherly scientist fascinated to the moon and back with the concept of magic. 

17. Any OC OTPs? having trouble thinking of a lot of them right now, but there’s Eric + Lent & Naiadine + Tailias from Emerald Sigil, Avken + Baromet from my space campaign world, Sydd + Wyvv from my unnamed campaign world, and I’ve been considering Westrin + Servant as an interesting dynamic in Servant’s story

18. Any OC crackships? My character Bismuth and @autistictimeknight​‘s oc Eros. Theyre so fucking in love, I love it. Its been awhile but I do still think about them sometimes.

As I recall, Eros is an empath, she can read other people’s emotions. But Bismuth is a robot, and Eros can’t read her. Because of this Eros can let go of her fear of unintentionally manipulating the emotions of her date, which would hold her back from most other relationships. 

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)Hey, meet Bronze! I definitely do not talk about them every five minutes, why would you say that. 

Bronze was with me through two of the hardest years of my life so far, and being a DND character they grew with me, both as a fighter and as a person. They were non-binary before I started using those pronouns, they were the first character or person or anything who I fought someone about using the right pronouns for, they make a great icebreaker for if I want to see how someone reacts to non-binary pronouns … 

One funny anecdote about Bronze is that when I first made them, their “gimmick” was that they would sometimes glitch out and mess up their speech, mostly because I wanted an excuse not to engage in the roleplaying (which I was very bad at). The interesting thing is that as I got better at interacting with the group, we both grew out of needing it very quickly. 

I’m very proud of Bronze. 

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?Westrin is a bard! His singing voice sounds like Bill Wurtz and these are his theme songs.

21. Your most artistic OCProbably Westrin again, he writes a lot of songs… and Hallux is a game designer?

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? I honestly dont know… no-one talks to me about them, haha! 

people use all manner of pronouns for bronze, though. 

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?I’m gonna go with Enza for this one. Enza Colie was originally written entirely because I wanted an antagonist for a short starring his sister, Jane Colie. But the more I fleshed out his reasonings for acting how he did and explored his character, the more I realised he’d make an even more interesting character if allowed to have a redemption arc, too. 

I just want to state for the record that I was very reluctant to the idea, and he basically dragged his way out of the villain pit entirely of his own accord. I am dubiously proud of him, and also a bit scared. 

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?Probably either Eric (Big Man, Best Friend), Crocus (Mother figure), Reed (Father Figure), Westrin (hed just make a good friend u kno??), or Bismuth (she makes good conversation!)

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)probably the homestuck fan-troll Hallux, but that’s mostly because they were based on a troll-sona I made awhile ago. They’re a hope/prospit game designer who is small and full of rage and love

oh, and there’s dave! dave’s a superhero speedster, existing in a modern-day superhero version of seattle. theyre idiot, just like me,

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? this is an interesting one… i don’t think ive ever had something Bad in a design ive done called to my attention by someone, but I did create my character Servant at around the same time I was first really expanding the diversity of my casts. (since i don’t talk about him often, a little context: he’s a magic spirit creature bound to human form to serve the royal family of the land and follow their orders.) 

somehow, younger-and-more-stupid me managed to have the revelation that making this “eternal slave” character literally anything other than a white man, especially as a white author, would be Pretty Not Good. im … thats really, really not something i should pat myself on the back for, but i do consider it one of the biggest bullets dodged in my artistic career so far that i realised that not all representation is good representation so quickly, before i could make that incredibly, incurably stupid mistake. 

after that, trying to make sure my characters and their presentations don’t harm anyone pretty much has become a paranoia. i don’t seem to have stepped on any toes yet, but when it inevitably happens, please let me know - i didnt know, and i want to fix it! 

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? None that I can think of, actually! I don’t really do that often. 

28. Your most dangerous OC? god damn it i have no idea!!! is it the terminus? glitch in the matrix god of chaos motherfucker?is it sarle? terrifying calculating scientist with the power of the soul at her fingertips ??? is it ares??? is it athena????? is it petra?????? the gatekeeper???? 

… actually, the gatekeeper might be it, if “dangerous” just refers to “the amount of raw power it can wield”. the Gatekeeper is a titanic entity that exists in interdimensional multiverse space, and its implied to have the ability to create and destroy entire universe bubbles at will. for what cosmic purpose, no-one knows. 

at a more personal scale, though, literally all of the aforementioned characters are pretty bad to run into too. 

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?god. Mina or Tawn. Tawn is the Indiana Jonesy type and probably dumb enough, but also competent enough not to get into too much trouble there. Mina would probably drag her friends along. 

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? XEN09. No-one knows, because no-one knows xir personal identity. Xe absolutely does, though. It’s less of a secret if you know xir in person, but good luck finding out about it otherwise. 

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)dave just reblogs memes all the time tbh. they like to keep tabs on the ridiculous superhero news going on, and they show human jokes and cat videos to their alien gf. they dont really post or add to posts, but they talk in tags a lot. 

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? i want to say tawn because i literally just realised ive been imagining their voice as sounding like luigi this entire fucking time and i never realised until this exact instant

33. Your shyest OC?probably baromet. they prefer to keep to themself in their hideout, with their collection of shiny things. they don’t really enjoy trying to communicate much, mostly because they expect to get yelled at. 

34. Do you have any twin characters?Yes! At least two sets; 

- Crocus and Sarle. (x) (x) They don’t exactly have a very well-developed relationship, but they are both quite important to the plot of my campaign world, and they are both very interesting. Crocus is a motherly figure who just exudes friendliness, while Sarle is .. very much not that, a researcher studying very gruesome things and pushing the boundaries of reality. 

- Jane and Enza Colie. I haven’t talked a whole lot about either of them here, but I���d rather leave their story to do the talking whenever I get around to it. Essentially, the both of them were intended to do the dirty work for their crime boss family, but Jane ditched to study medicine. Most of the conflict between the two of them comes out of Enza not understanding why she made the choice she did, and coming to understand how he’s been manipulated. 

35. Any sibling characters? I can’t really think of any off the top of my head, I should … I should really work on that. 

I can talk about Westrin, though. Westrin (a demigod of many things, but namely bards, travel, travelers, and people who are lost) often becomes close friends with mortals, sometimes practically adopting them. These people who consider him family, and people who have received his blessing, are able to use his surname, Brilanta, as their own if they choose. So I guess all of the Brilantas are siblings, at least in spirit. 

Oh, and XEN09 has like, seven siblings. Xe is the second-oldest, and least remarkable. 

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? I already talked about Eros and Bismuth up there a ways in question 18, but I’ll talk about another relationship here. @autistictimeknight​‘s character, Nova the Alchemist, is mentor and adopted parental figure to my character Munna. Munna … Munna isn’t a very good apprentice. She tries very hard. 

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human That’s most of them, I’m not quite sure what to say here. Bronze is an android? Bronze again? Westrin? All the aliens ?? 

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? man. uh. westrin or jean. or perhaps valencia. 

39. Introduce any character you want ??? uhhhHHHhhHHH Lord Brillium is the reigning deity of the Cloud Kingdoms in the other campaign setting I’m working on. They represent light and the quest for knowledge, and spend most of their days in the Cathedral Observatory watching the stars. 

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!one time bronze flew a hover-bike through the stained glass window in a cathedral blaring all star by smash mouth on their iguana

also one time bronze rickrolled a rakshasa demon and then pulled updog on it like, two minutes later

another time bronze scared off an entire army by pretending to be an automated security system 

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)ive got a whole little folder on here from all you blessed people !!!! right now ive got a drawing quinn did of one o fmy characters as my lockscreen

but i think the one i’ll really never ever get over is this piece of Jane, by @rabendraws​ / @owoltron​: 

(i bet you thought i forgot about this, dude. dude. think again.) 

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? this is kind of a weird question, m, I feel like Bismuth would find learning about the mythos utterly fascinating, as would Tawn. 

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confesshaha. uh. i might. 

aside from the entire “bronze-tangential characters” thing i mentioned awhile back, I tend to really like designing characters with hair color lighter than their skin color. it just looks so cool man. i love drawing freckles but dont put them on enough characters. i like really curly hair, but also really long and flowy hair. i like drawing triangular body types, and pointy/prominent noses. 

44. Something you like about your OCs in generaluhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is a really vague question. m. m. 

45. A character you no longer use?there’s old versions of characters, but a lot of my older ones have been somehow repurposed. I guess there’s Turien, my first-ever DND character, who’s just kind of sitting dead now. Haven’t really done anything with him other than a pretty recent tangential character. 

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?Not that I can think of.

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? Im certain it’s happened, but I can’t remember any specific instances. 

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pureSpring. spring knows nothing of th dangers of the world who is letting them into fights someon eneeds to stop this

(spring roll, hehe.) 

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memesim not sure what this question is asking since many of my ocs actively enjoy memes including but not limited to westrin, dave, bronze, xen09, iris, and doctor archersen

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you wanti think. i think im going to pass on this one. i gave you the good old oc talk. your damn turn, yall: 

if you have any questions about any of these guys feel free to shoot one at me!

thats all from me im tired and its one am. techskylander you absolute madman 

[utilitycaster]

I saw the same post you kind of, alleged? (Unsure if it's the correct word) and man oh man, the way it was written felt extremely accusatory for no reason. Like, i have my own opinions about the bigotry in the CR fandom, but it is in no way more or less present than almost any other fandom

Im paraphrasing but it felt like they were saying "hey critters, just so you know this story has PoC and it's very important to PoC (not me of course cause im white) so be cautious and respectful" like ok? And?? (I'm aware that this is ofc how i interpreted the post, and may not be the true intentions of OP)

Sorry im rambling to your askbox, but it just, felt wrong to read lmao

No worries (and the word would probably be alluded to, or honestly you can just say “vagued” here, let’s not beat around the bush).

Yeah it’s…something. Like, I am also white and so I don’t feel comfortable actually going on OP’s post to say “uh what the fuck,” but like, racism in actual play fandom is a very valid topic to explore, but “not watching the original series for a miniseries in which there were black characters” is an entirely neutral choice, particularly if the miniseries has twice as many actors of color (and twice as many black actors) in it as the original.

Anyway it fucking sucks. It co-opts social justice language/the concept of anti-racism but makes it about the white OP's apprehension about a different DM coming into a world they like. I also find that D20 fans have been pretty fucking obnoxious about "I just wonder if CR fans/fans of Matt will understand the rich lore" while not actually providing any tools to understand that lore other than watching A Crown of Candy. Like...obviously I have my biases as a CR wiki editor but the D20 wiki is in shambles. I've gone there to get Neverafter summaries because I'm still struggling to get through that season but do want to know what happens, and there's nothing. If all this whiny, hostile handwringing about how CR fans won't know the lore were replaced by a few hours of cleaning up D20 fan-made resources so they could learn the lore? That would do a thousand times more good. But it's not about that; it's pure snobbery. And here's the thing: it doesn't matter if people do know the lore. It's none of anyone's fucking business what other people watch, and to throw this into the CR main tag acting like people who are fans of CR can't pick up on lore is laughably stupid and incredibly obnoxious but also, if they can't? Why the fuck should that bother an existing D20 fan?

I love ACOC! I do think that if you have the time to watch it, it's a great watch and I highly recommend it! But presumably Brennan and Matt have worked together to set the scene for new viewers. And most importantly, it is not actually problematic for people to come in to the series cold, and it's immensely gross of a white person to act like it is when this is really entirely about their own feelings.

[This is a tangent but I have many thoughts about how to be a welcoming fan to new fans, mostly boiling down to "shut the fuck up and let them enjoy themselves without trying to meddle in the business of strangers simply because they like what you like." Anyway it's interesting bc I find CR fans err in the other direction of trying to be too welcoming in a way I find offputting, and glossing over the fact that yeah actually there is a lot of lore floating around that might be worth checking out if you are so inclined; both approaches suck.]