#i adjusted it to look as accurate to irl as possible but its still a bit off

[freaky-flawless]

Finally got a Venus's core doll! Got curious, and put her in Music Festival Venus's shirt, and aside from the arms being tight, it fits shockingly well.

[faenemy]

Another Sillie had been added :D

process thoughts below cut- (WARNING- they long lol)

Has this barely changed from the wip I posted earlier????

not really but i need to talk about character design for I am FERAL so L moment i guess

SO my personal favorite brand of character design has been, for as long as i remember, drawing more complex designs from simplified mediums. Think Minecraft or roblox skins, and some chibi avatars. Hand me something that is blurry and up to interpretation and i will simply go buck-wild. Mark is of course the only character to truly appear on camera. We see both his drawing of himself and his [puppet?] form. Now you only ever see donovan and cupcake monster as drawings, which leaves their appearance more up to interpretation.

When i first translated Marks design, i tried to stay as accurate as possible. The second iteration is more of my own twist on it, elongating the body, trimming down the fluff for a clearer shape,and adjusting facial proportions slightly. Note: this isn't to throw shade at marks original design. He's a puppet irl and he looks like one, i just suck at making puppets look like they have any life behind their eyes, so design tweaks it is. Mark is adorable and its a me problem that i struggle to recreate that.

Now my Mark design is obviously based off of the puppet, (his actual self,) as opposed to the way Mark draws himself. In the drawing, there is a bit less fluff on his body, compared to the real thing. This is important as it affects some of the decisions I made for Donovan.

Donovan caused a few hurdles when i tried to work on a design for him. First, I'm working with very little information, so creative license time. Since I don't have much to go off of, I started with a real simple drawing, similar to the one from the drawing in the show, just to try and capture the vibe. The most notable things about Donovan from this first doodle, was that he had a slightly smaller nose than Mark and that it was triangular and that his eyes were slanted. This gives me two prominent facial features to work with.

Following this, i started on a more detailed design. I began by plotting his proportions out similar to marks. To make him more cat like, I tried to make him a little taller and thinner[better for slipping out of cages], so that he had an elongated appearance, and to capture that sly you-cant-contain-me- cat energy that meow meows have. I wasn't sure how cat i wanted to go originally, but then i gave him paws....

I went full anthro cat on Donovan, adding in whiskers and a tail [still questioning that decision] even though they weren't present in my reference. Now is a good time to note that all these designs are pre-Billy, so no scars or anything. I bring this up because I gave Donovan claws, and I image Billy would have at least tried to declaw Donovan.

The next problem came with Donovans eye. So Donovans eyes are two slanted lines, very simple. Since these are one of Donovans few unique canon features, I wanted to keep them. I wasn't sure how to keep them simple yet still allow emotion. Playing around with this idea, i felt i could effectively convey emotion just by changing the relative direction of the eyes. However, I changed the eyes to be more tear-drop shape as well, partially to add more interest to the face, but also so i could add more detail to the iris of the eye if desired.

Finally, all my Mark and Friends designs have the characters wearing clothes, because I work at a clothing store and see too many damn clothes every day. [everything i know about fashion is against my own will] So since this canonically takes place in 1997, my designs are based roughly off of children's clothes at the time. For the monsters clothes, I want them to all have a somewhat fun shape, flare outs, wrinkles, cuffed sleeves and pants etc.

This is where i really struggled. Not so much with the actual design of the clothes, but with colors. As you can probably tell my this illustration as compared to the reference image, I am allergic to bright colors [they hurt my eyes :,(] So i shifted most characters to a more muted/pastel pallette. Now i really wanted each of the three friends, Mark, Donovan, and Cupcake Monster, to have the others "colors" per see, present in their outfits. Mark is obviously Green coded (lol), Donovan is orang, but outlined in red, so my boy gets a red association cause primaries of light. This leaves Cupcake Monster with Blue, the color they are outlined in.

I really wanted three designs to flow together, and though i haven't finished Cupcake Monster yet, I think the first two go nicely together. By giving each character a main color, I let them stand out from each other, but by adding bits of those colors back into the others outfits, it lets them flow together better in group images and keeps anyone character's pallette from feeling out of place.

Marks outfit is mostly cream, but with accents of Blue, and Red. Donovan's is about 1/3 cream 1/3 blue and a 1/3 blue. I struggled with the color distribution on donovan, as the reddish orange and blueish green i had chosen contrasted a lot more than i wanted. The light blue and cream worked as a nice base though, and making only the stripes green [the shirt is specifically cream with green stripes] it lets the green not overpower Donovan, which was another problem I was facing.

But yeah, this are my current designs for the sillies, if you read all this thank you! have some pie :]

[cavefairy]

✔️🎵🌛😊

for dca au ask!!!?

mwuahwuahwuahwuahhwhwh

how dare you ask me so many useful questions /lh /j SD- Shattered Dreams BJ- Blacklight Jesters ✔️ - random fact abt any character SD: Solra will get attached easily. he sees a cute pet in someone's home and it sniffs him for .5 seconds ? instant friend. xe might cry when Lumin makes xem leave it. Lumin, by contrast, doesn't care much for animals. he doesn't hate them, just doesn't love them the way Sol does. BJ: Storm is very competitive, but only with kids/adults over the age of like. 12. any kid under that age range ? they will go easier on them. Scatter tries to play fair for everyone, but if it's just him and Storm, neither holds back :3 🎵 - playlist/song associated ? SD: i have a couple songs, but they're for characters that haven't been fully worked out yet. don't wanna spoil any surprises ehehe BJ: playlist here (rn its just music that would play in the laser tag arena or has the General Vibe of the workplace. but i plan on making Scatter and Storm their own playlists soon) 🌛 - biblically accurate or blorboified ? SD: that one's up to you, dearest artist-of-this-au :3 idm either way. but you've been the one drawing them, so this is really your choice :D BJ: i would like it to stay as close as possible to biblically accurate. my designs are really specific, but small alterations are okay (drawing robots. isn't my strong suit. so they look a lil goofy. but theyre still mine, and i love em) 😊 - most fun abt creating the au ? SD: doing it with my best friend !!! i love being able to message you any time of night and you'll be there like 'YES AU THING WHATCHA GOT' and we can brainstorm this thing together <3333 BJ: basing it off my irl work and gathering fun stories from my laser tag shifts. i mean. this is literally JUST my work but adding the pizzaplex animatronics, with minor adjustments. its so fun to go to work and be like 'yeah. yeah this is good for my au. this would be a good situation to put the sillie guys into.' i can also adjust whatever i want abt my workplace for the au and no one will know but me (and i guess. whoever i tell that ive changed smthn. but NO ONE ELSE)

[avpdpunpun]

i disappeared for 3/4ths a year here’s an update?

its been 4 months since my queue ran out and way longer since i wrote an actual post. 8 months about? i think i last posted when i impulse quit a job that was bad for my mental health and just kept getting worse.

sometimes i wonder when ppl who blog about mental illness disappear if they’ve died. there was a big user i used to follow who did, and i still occasionally think about it sometimes, so i figure its nice to post updates sometimes. and being able to look back on posts ive written and reflect on them/what state of mind i was in can be helpful even if it can be embarrassing/dangerous because its so easy to fall back into those thinking habits 

after quitting my job i did basically nothing for 6 months haha. at some point i managed to clean out my room which i had done the bare minimum on for years because of depression, took out more built up trash than i thought was possible to fit into my small space. its disgusting but the only thing i struggle to keep up with now at least is vacuuming and putting clothes away so my space is a lot cleaner and it makes me happier. your living space can really have an effect on your mood bless you marie kondo

after my post about having an anxiety attack taking my test i got my drivers license in march. i saw the same lady again after going somewhere else and i think she just let me pass because she felt bad haha. i never finished drivers ed and i still get anxiety about driving unfamiliar routes but my skills and confidence have improved a lot. i managed to drive 2 hours to a big city to visit a friend! i literally didnt have a choice in getting my license, but its still something i can be proud of. like, when i have to explain it to people, it feels extremely shitty that i didnt get it until i was 20, and only about 5 months ago too but... for someone who struggles as much as me, i have to be proud of it my small accomplishments or i’ll have nothing.

at some point something in my brain just snapped and i literally havent been able to cry? for a long time in those 6 months i felt like i was right on the edge of breaking down mentally but never actually crossing that line and it was honestly one of the weirdest things ive experienced. i almost wanted to have a breakdown again just to get rid of the feeling and reach a catharsis like... i used to be a fucking crybaby almost but i. cant. anymore. but i think ive mostly moved away from this point... still feel kinda weird tho.

i didnt end up signing up to a local school fo gen eds. its still on my mind for the vague future because there’s topics i want to learn about (psychology, natural resources, languages...) and maybe try to pursue for a career but really i just wanted a way to get out of my toxic house, even if it meant going into debt to live in a shitty dorm. 

in the last 30 days though life has been moving extremely quickly for me. i dont think i couldve lived with myself much longer being a useless adult basically living in my basement bedroom of my parents house, especially with my younger siblings getting nearer to adult milestones, plus my savings were starting to run out.

so literally next weekend, i’m moving out! and i make enough money right now that with the rough budget i have established, if its accurate, i’ll have a decent amount of wiggle room and hopefully wont be ruining my mental health just trying to make ends meet.

it took a long time of searching but i managed to find a job that hasnt made me suicidal and has slightly more than the MIT living wage for my area lol. im a janitor now! we’ll see how long it lasts but a lot of the factors from my last two jobs that contributed to my failing mental health are gone. i rarely have to interact with other people, and if i do its my coworkers, of who i tend to only see for minutes per day, or the other people working in the building i clean who at most i have to say hi and have a nice night to lol. i get to listen to music and podcasts for 8 hours and its very routine heavy. i have to clock out after the 8 hours is up so i literally cant be forced into overtime. a lot of people dont respect cleaning jobs like this but honestly who gives a fuck, its something i can handle mentally and support myself with. its still hard adjusting to 40 hours. i know its the standard, but the standard is rly tough for me, but i think i can do it long term.

all of this has been achieved through sheer self hatred and impulse alone, and im very nervous about moving in with 3 other people even if 1 of them ive known for 8 years, and i dont think its even properly hit me yet. literally cant register that i have to fend 100% for myself but also ill be away from my toxic family! i can bring my cat with me, who before this i got to see at MOST once a week!

a dude ive known online for two or more years is moving to my area too for college and he’s so sweet and kind, i feel better talking to him than i have 99% of people in my life and im so lucky to know him. ive been forced to talk about personal things i was kind of dreading (not his fault, just a result of our relationship going to go from online -> irl and things id have to address beforehand) and honestly i didnt even mind it that much when i just got it over with and talked about it to him! vulnerability is literally the thing i struggle with the most in interpersonal relationships and is a huge block for me in every way and in even the most mundane life situations but like... he’s honestly the best and im getting emotional writing this and its weird af because i straight up dont GET emotional about other people. ive absolutely developed a stupid fucking crush on him recently and i THINK hes been receptive to flirting and i cant tell if he flirts back because we already say i love you and are wholesome af but honestly no clue if he’s into (trans) dudes but honestly? even if it doesnt work out im so happy to be friends with him and im so excited to finally meet him!! i really think knowing him has helped me improve myself 

i’ve always thought that if i could literally just achieve the bare minimum in life that things would naturally get better. like i’m still mentally ill and get paranoid about peoples intentions and i think if my boss yelled at me id have an anxiety attack on the spot. im still depressed and hate that i have low energy and that it’s still rly hard doing basic chores. 

but like a huge part of my problem was that i felt like i literally couldn’t TRY to connect with people if i couldn’t face having to tell them bare info about myself, like “oh i cant drive” or “i dont have a job” or that i was living with my parents but not even making PROGRESS on getting out. like how could i make friends or go on dates if i literally couldnt contribute shit or admit these things i was so ashamed of? a lot of my self image was shaped by this because my entire life i havent been mentally well enough to do as well as i should have.

but like. i feel like im finally doing these basic things!! i dont have to hate myself so much anymore! i dont look badly on other mentally ill ppl who are less lucky than i/havent been able to do those things yet/might not ever and are still in the same situation i was 2 months ago but the self hatred is strong pls understand.

i dont know yet if i could afford twice yearly drs visits for meds or anything and probably not therapy. i dont even know what my insurance is yet haha. but i’ll see

i need to figure out at what point in my life im going to be able to never contact a single person in my family ever again, considering i’ll be a 20 min drive away and they will know the precise location of where i live, and if i’ll ever feel safe enough in society to start hrt but :^) you know :^) i can at least present more masculinely in the meantime!

i dont rly know how to conclude this... i’m not trying to brag either im just very nervous and excited about where my life might be going for the first time ever? maybe? in my entire life? i have no clue what to pursue after moving out, but i can figure it out. and just... that there’s hope even if youre as fucked up and mentally ill as i am lmao!

[pomrania]

Setting people on fire in D&D

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT SET SOMEONE ON FIRE IRL WITH THIS ADVICE; IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT, I DO NOT WANT TO BE LEGALLY ASSOCIATED WITH YOU. Also, I don't have much of a background in chemistry; if I've gotten something wrong, forgive me and point it out so I can correct it.

This post is brought to you by @fuck-the-fairies, who asked for rules about being on fire; my ignorance on that subject and the possibly-tangent my mind leapt to; and @eyeloch, who is working on a chemistry degree (albeit not in the field of fire) and looked over some bits of this for me.

Now, despite what childhood edutainment implied, humans are not very flammable. Our bodies are mostly water, after all; and I'm going to be using that as a baseline for any other character race, because doing otherwise invites madness. Therefore, if you want to light someone on fire, you have to do something unusual.

People aren't very flammable, but sometimes they're covered in flammable things. Barring the presence of a massive fire source, I think that's the only likely way you're going to set someone on fire, without magic. The victim has to either be wearing ridiculously flammable clothing -- not even paper catches like that, I mean something on the level of guncotton -- or they've been doused in a flammable liquid.

The PHB (page 152) gives rules for splashing oil on someone, and says that if the target takes any fire damage before it dries, then it takes an extra 5 fire damage. That's okay, I guess, but it's boring.

First off, let's adjust the "takes any fire damage" so that it also allows for very small fires, that in themselves wouldn't deal any damage, to also trigger this. Like a lit match. Very minor change, but it plugs what I think is a loophole.

Second, would it ALWAYS require a ranged attack roll to pour oil on someone? In combat, probably. However, if the target is incapacitated or restrained or otherwise unable to dodge, I'd say you can just walk up and pour it on them. If you're upending a whole barrel of stuff onto a group of people from above, that's probably something that would require a Dexterity save on their part.

Now I'm not an arsonist, but I've read a lot of mystery novels. I know that accelerants are a thing that exist, and I also know that fire comes in different intensities. The stuff in the PHB, that's just standard lantern or cooking oil I assume. What if we used a different chemical compound to prepare the target? Same rules would apply for getting it on them, as with any liquid, but the effects are different.

Here's the variables we can change: how noticeable the liquid is, how long the liquid is flammable, what it takes to set a fire, how long a fire lasts, how much it takes to put the fire out, and what damage the fire does.

Let's start with the last one. There's how MUCH damage it does, obviously -- how hot the fire burns -- but you can also have stuff other than fire damage. Poison damage springs to mind, as a lot of substances emit toxic fumes when aflame. You could make a good case for radiant damage as well, although that'd likely be more mystical than physical. Psychic damage? Sure why not, if it's described as excruciatingly painful and attacking one's very sense of self. Extra damage types might or might not have an additional save associated with them.

Continuing with the reverse order, how much it takes to put the fire out. The standard rule, throughout effects which set someone on fire, is that it takes an action, by anyone who can reach the person on fire (including the person on fire). But what if it's sticky? Maybe it takes two actions. What if it can't be put out with an action by the person who's on fire, and it needs someone else? What if the helper takes fire damage from putting out the fire? Common sense would say that being submerged in water would put out the fire, but even without magic, common sense fails to take white phosphorus into account, which has its own oxygen supply and keeps burning underwater. You might need to remove anything that came into contact with the flammable liquid; let's hope the character was wearing a shirt.

I was talking with a friend who knows stuff about chemistry, and they mentioned the possibility of burning sulfur. Quote: "the combustion of the sulphur will form sulphur dioxide" and "this gas, upon dissolving in water, make sulphuric acid". I asked for clarification, and here's something REALLY nasty that's also backed up by science: if you use water to put out this fire, the person who was on fire is now NOT on fire, but they take acid damage. This is best paired with other things about putting out the fire, for maximum fun. (Also, apparently the flame would be bright blue so that's awesome.)

How long the fire lasts. As a general rule, intense fires tend to burn out more quickly, everything else being equal, I assume. If nobody does anything to put out the fire, and the character doesn't die, what happens? Unless you have some serious legendary magic with this, they shouldn't keep burning for eternity. Anything longer than a few minutes seems unlikely to my non-expert self. This is unlikely to be too much of a deal, but it's good to get down ahead of time because you never know.

What it takes to get the fire started. "Any fire damage" is a logical choice. But maybe something needs a lot of heat energy to ignite, and it only blazes up when the target takes a certain amount of fire damage from a single source. Maybe some things can or can't be ignited from just a match. 

How long the liquid is flammable. In the PHB for oil, it says that it dries after a minute. Some liquids would evaporate quickly, which apparently is called high volatility in science-speak; if you don't apply flame within the next round, then it's wasted. Some could be there, and a potential danger, until the target has finished a short or long rest. Anything longer than that is probably unfair and/or broken.

There was a really great bit in that one Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr, where a guy was set on fire and he hadn't noticed that he was covered in flammable stuff, because it was raining while he was sprayed with it. That's relevant to how noticeable the liquid is, and I suppose also how distinct and recognizable. In most cases, the target would notice that someone put a liquid on them. However, what happens next? Is it something that the target can rationally assume happened to be harmless to them, or do they realize "I'm about to be set on fire"? Is there an obvious smell? What about how it feels, is it greasy or like water, does it soak in or stay on the surface? Is it easily visible? Basically, is this a viable choice for stealthily assassinating someone with, because that situation WILL come up.

...I just realized that I forgot to talk about actually lighting the fire. Well, anything that deals fire damage, that’s obvious. But for just touching a match to something that’ll ignite with it.... 5E doesn’t have touch attacks, which is overall a very good decision to simplify things, but unfortunately that’s exactly what this would be, so I have to describe it. The most accurate way to put it would be like, melee attack using Dexterity as the ability modifier, and the target doesn’t add an armour bonus to their AC (but shields still apply). This might be too complicated for actual play, but it gives a place to start. It’s definitely a melee action though.

Outside of a combat situation, if you succeed in a Stealth check opposed by the target’s Perception, you’re all good and don’t need to roll, they don’t see anything unusual and you can set them on fire without making an attack. If they do notice, make an attack roll, possibly with advantage depending on how unsuspecting the target is.

Unless your group is mostly composed of people with a background in chemistry or noxious substances, it'll be the characters who have to figure out how to make or acquire those "enhanced ignition" fluids. This is most likely the province of alchemy, being the closest analogue to IRL materials science, and also canonically working with unpleasant and dangerous chemicals. Thus, any character with proficiency in alchemist's kit. (Wizards also feel associated with this stuff, but the wizard can damn well learn alchemy if they want it.) It'd be safe to tell them that such things exist -- hell, "alchemist's fire" is an item in the PHB, you're not going to break the game by going "alchemists have fun and exciting ways to set things on fire" -- but acquiring substances, preparing them safely, and identifying the properties of an unknown flammable liquid, that all would require some checks.

To say nothing of the fact that those substances are probably expensive and/or legally restricted. Unless "assassination by induced quote-spontaneous-unquote combustion" is common in your setting, that could be fun too.  

[flickwatches]

Off Week Takes

We won't be diving too often into APAC (even though its a great region for overwatch). But when I have time I want to talk a little bit about what's happening in APAC OWL, also the Dallas Fuel and Sp9rk1e, and the overall derailment of the French super team Rogue.

APAC

So lets get started by talking about the Guangzhou Charge. A team some "experts" (Custa) are calling possibly the worst team in APAC. At first I thought this was the worst take possble but than I remembered that APAC has less teams than NA and that the Valiant aren't looking that bad (will get into that more later). Mandu and Kariv are still good. Jihun/Rio and Crong are still good. If I had to pick a point of struggle I would pick Coaching and the DPS. Even though Choisehwan is playing out of his mind on Tracer he is not the best Tracer on the team. Eileen is godly on Tracer and I can only assume he is benched because of hero pool and scrim results. Charge are starting the most inexperienced DPS duo in APAC. Technically Krystal for Valiant isn't a rookie and NYXL hasn't played yet but they can still play Ivy (a veteran). This is becoming long and drawn out but the coaching decisions on the Charge and lack of DPS experience seems to be hurting them a lot this meta.

Another reason I would say the Charge are being rated so low is because the Valiant are being rated so high. High as in people are pulling them out of the trash and readding them to there power rankings. While the Charge are slightly underperforming the Valiant are overperforming at a large scale in comparison to there expectations. I personally left the Valiant out of my power rankings altogether. So I feel like the views of these teams are slanted a little based on expectations and results. Even though both teams haven't won a game yet.

The Chengdu Zone. You Chengdu it. Etc etc etc. Everyone is raving about the former one trick team 3-0ing the Shanghai Dragons. I want to talk about the one thing slightly overlooked about the Hunters hot start. The support line, Mmonk and Nisha. This team has never looked more stable (or stable altogether) than they have now. And its very apparent the support line has a lot to do about it. They provide a pillar of strength for a team known for making extreme decisions. Stable backline, good ult economy. I feel like there allowing to the Hunters to point the "use everything kill everything" gun not just accurately but efficiently. I don't mean this as an insult to Ga9a but I feel like the support line is so strong right now that they could be getting the same value with Ameng starting at Main Tank. And Ameng is real downgrade in comparison to Ga9a. Watch out for the Hunters as the season continues. These supports mite actually guide players like Leave, Jinmu, and Elsa to the promise land.

Dallas Fuel

I believe the general opinion of Sp9rk1e has not been very accurate since last season. He does excel on heroes like Doomfist and Genji but he also players heroes like Pharah, Tracer, and Echo. A lot of problems the Paris Eternal had toward the end of the season revolved around Sp9rk1e being the Tracer and the Echo player during a Tracer and Echo meta which meant Xzi had to fill next to him and it didn't go very well for that meta. Now that the meta has changed slightly and the coachings are adjusting around Doha next to him it looks like Sp9k1e has more room to express his dominance as a DPS. Any value and positives the Fuel are gaining so far this season are from Sp9k1e playing the DPS role at a disadvantage vs other teams. Last season the Eternal tried to have Sp9k1e mirror warpath Zarya god Decay on an elimination map to no prevail. But this season I don't believe Sp9k1e will let another match get that far out of his grasp while he's alive on a DPS hero.

Being Old and A Pro Overwatch Player

What happens when you've played a few years of OWL and your worth has naturally gone up? What happens when at the same time teams are trying to cut cost and sign cheaper players? You sit at home, lie about do the streamer grind, and watch minimum rookies underperform at the highest level of Overwatch. Agilies took a pay cut to go back to the Valiant only for the Valiant to move to China. No way Linkzr took more than league minimum to play on Vancouver. China mite be paying out more then NA but players like Kai and Shax had to have taken no other offers available discounts. Only team that made any kind of splash for veterans was the Shock by signing Nero, Glister, and FDgod. They also signed Twilight last year. The difference is they sign at the minimum with the expectations of higher payouts from tournament winnings. Soon was cut from Boston for Visa issues instead of being held onto until he was ready. Players are in desperate need of more protection. Many players are moving over to Riot owned Valorant for strictly the career safety net it provides. CSGO and League careers have traditionally been much longer on average than Overwatch careers. Valorant is a CSGO like game owned by the makers of League of Legends. A combination of 2 of the longest running esports. One of the biggest things holding OWL back is the backhanded business model of spending less money to make more instead of winning to make more. If you know anything about IRL sports basically the majority of OWL are just the Florida Marlins, or Philadelphia 76ers, or Jacksonville Jaguars. Purposely putting out poor rosters and making money off of existing in there leagues.

Rogue Going Rogue

One of the greatest overall career disappointments in pre OWL Overwatch history. This team was one of the dominate teams of the pre OWL era. Korea had Lunatic-Hai and Runaway. NA had Envyus (a famously EU team). And EU had Rogue. Runaway was the underdog, Lunatic-Hai was the king, Envyus was the king slayer, but Rogue was the triple DPS ego maniacs of what Overwatch could of been. OWL gave us goats. Rogue tried to give us Tracer, Genji, and Soldier 76 at the same time. Winz (the Lucio player for Rogue) would famously screenshot and tweet from the payload during official matches. Nicogdh (gdh stands for god hand) would swap between Genji and Dva. AKM player Soldier 76, Pharah, and Dva up until he refused to play Dva and forced Nicogdh to play Dva. Soon played the Tracer, the Tracer, and sometimes the Tracer. This team also had Unkoe on Zen.

Unkoe

Winz

Nicogdh

I can't believe and OWL org didn't want this group of players to represent them....

Nicogdh has famously just talked, talked too honestly, and too much. I personally like Nicogdh as a person but he does talk, a lot. Or the fact someone added gdh to end of there player name and well Nicogdh and people around him went a little crazy about it in a negative way. Honestly that has to be one most respectful things you can do. His gdh is the godliness standard for mechanics. People have harassed him in the past, he has been knocked for that, but the dude also harasses others and assumes its equivalent. This man is extremely hard to attach to a brand with sponsors. Or just to a team altogether and still have his teammates trust him.

Unkue is honestly known to be a little trolly and toxic in match making. He had some "strong" opinions in OWL and toward the end of his OWL career but he wasn't too problematic. He always seemed like he had a negative mindset.

Winz was just aggressive in a good way at first but it started to become negative when Rogue started losing and stopped being able to play pro. The payload tweets became attacks on teams and other players. One could say these players cared about each other so much they refused to let others talk badly about them. But they have notoriously been negative publicly and showed there ass a majority of the time in many situations.

Which brings me to Soon and AKM. The founders of the "no talk can't be problematic" club. They paved the way for future generations of DPS talents to have viable career options because they learned to never talk shit, never get involved in drama, and separate there private life from there careers. Its very easy to sign players like Soon and AKM and not have problems. Honestly the only problem is the baggage of ex teammates.

Conclusion

Sorry this is kind of off the wall, not very concise, and not in a format I prefer. I need to start proof reading things and building easier to read article like stuff. I just got inspired with teams topics tonight and wanted to kick them out in my limited free time. Sorry I couldn't bring up more research for the Rogue stuff. but Nicogdh does have a long list of just random statements and comments. I do understand right now that the French community is being harassed right now and I do want to stress a bit of self defense of those players who speak publicly about it. Not everything comes out right all the time there just trying to express how they feel during this trying time for them and there fellow community members. They just want people to stop harassing them in game, online, and in life.

[eydisian]

Motivation behind the setting

i hate the stock standard “medieval fantasy” british/west europe castles n forests garbage. it’s fine, and i can tolerate it i guess, but it just fails to excite my imagination as much as i’d like. maybe it’s a side effect of boring DMs and bad authors, but traditional medieval settings are just not interesting enough, to me. plus i know them like the back of my hand already, there’s nothing new about the setting that could jump out at me in a game.

so Eydís, and the surrounding countryside, are heavily based on turkish islamic and hindu architecture & culture. as a white person, much of my understanding is incredibly limited but by choosing a culture i’m unfamiliar with, i’m forced to research and learn! this has honestly been the most exciting part of it for me, looking up culturally and historically accurate fashions, learning more about monuments and historical buildings, figuring out what the core social values and etiquette are, and so on.

adapting that to a homebrew setting with particular adjustments to account for the really white-centric bullshit that D&D itself was built upon has been... interesting. because a lot of the adjustments i’ve made to eliminate racist and sexist allegories (back in 2e and again in 5e), such as removing drow as a “race” entirely and adapting them as a strange mythology, have been easy enough of a call to make, but others are not. a lot of the more “monstrous” races like hobgoblins and orcs have always carried a lot of physical traits that are undeniably there because of anti-black racism.

drow had the “black skin” and “violent feminist matriarchy” two-for-one whammy, hence removing them from my setting entirely, because there’s no easy way to adapt them to a more modern, less sexist, less racist interpretation. (if, in the future, i come up with a decent answer, i already have a plot that will allow for their future inclusion... just not right now). either they’re literally dark-skinned “black” elves and thus its a “the black people are evil” trope, or they’re black-colored white-people elves which is blackface, and in either case they’ve got that “kill all men” and “women are above all others” thing which, in a trans-inclusive setting, gets messy real quick even without the obvious anti-feminist bullshit going on.

orcs and hobgoblins, of course, have the broad-face, broad-nose, kinky hair texture thing which is clearly description of black americans and others of african descent. so what do you do with the “all hobgoblins are evil green/grey people” thing? i don’t know. make them more inhumanly monstrous, i suppose, to remove any traces of connection to a human race? i’m tentatively trying that out. but orcs, and specifically half-orcs, are a playable race with a negative intelligence stat adjustment. what that says is “black people are less intelligent than the other races, that is to say, white people.”

so i’m going to impress upon my players that intelligence is not IQ or education. a low-intelligence character is not stupid, but possibly had less access to certain kinds of education compared to more intelligent characters. by shifting intelligence from a raw, born-into-being ability, (and by extension all stats being earned rather than given), it says more about the character’s history and upbringing than about the entire race. so perhaps those of orcish descent are not simply less intelligent by nature, but have trouble being accommodated in primarily human-sized classrooms.

maybe they just really hate math and science but are still competent readers who enjoy a good piece of literature. maybe it’s the reverse. maybe they have poor memory skills, despite a wonderful and enriching education. maybe its a reflection of a cognitive difficulty not related to knowledge, but more like trouble focusing or studying. all of these things would absolutely explain why a “low-intelligence” character would have done poorly trying to be a wizard (which requires extensive study) or has a spell-casting penalty (you need to focus and remember proper order of steps).

i really, really enjoy the incorporation of ability statistics into character backstory, because people often take for granted the numbers as “my character was born naturally talented this way.” none of us were born with an intelligence score of 18. but the people who went on to grad school have an 18 (or higher!). body builders and the olympic strongmen (and women) weren’t born with an 18 in their strength score. they had to work hard for it, and keep training to maintain that strength. think about that.

and now we come to gender and sexuality and all that jazz.

so, clearly if i’m having everyone randomize their skin color (all races have the full spectrum of human skin tones... so a dark-skinned blonde elf might be colloquially called a drow elf), gender itself should be open to interpretation as well. in Eydís, gender and sex have a roughly three-way equal split. 33% of the population is cis male, 33% of the population is cis female, and 33% is everything else: intersex, transgender, nonbinary, etc. while yeah, that does mean there’s a 2/3rds majority to cis people, a 2/3rds majority seems to fit a lot better than the very vast (apparent) majority of the real world. that said, other countries may have varying amounts of gender diversity just like they may have varying amounts of racial diversity. Eydís itself is a cultural megahub, and it makes more sense to have a larger and more equally distributed mix of people (including those we consider minorities irl).

enough about the people of Eydís at large. let’s get into the technical crap.

Eydís is the capital city of the country of Adylae, an arid to semi-arid south-eastern country. Eydís itself resides on the eastern coast, settled on top of a cliffside peninsula. the city is the seat of the royal family, though most of the workings of the city itself are run by a parliament of council members elected by their respective guilds. these guilds in turn are run and populated by the tradesfolk of the city. the royal family and their advisory table take care of national and international concerns, entrusting the capital to the parliament. the division of rule in this way allows for ease of function for both parties, and it is only during times of great duress that either group involves themselves with the business of the other.

the largest monument in Eydís is the Hall of All Gods, a multi-theistic centre that predates the city by a good 100 years. it was built with the intent to end a centuries-long religious war that shook the continent by providing a place where all gods were represented equally. in truth, “evil” religions are not allowed a space of worship within the Hall because it contradicts the doctrines of all the others (those considered “good” or “neutral” by mechanical standards). anyone of faith who is not currently represented in the hall may approach and request an altar space to set up. many religions share rooms, as their significant natural symbols are the same (sunlight, trees, water, moonlight, fire, etc) and while it is meant to be a place of peace and equality, there is often tension and dissent, particularly where religion spills over into the realm of politics.

Eydís itself is surrounded by a thick wall with three western gates allowing entrance into the city. the wall itself is approximately 150m high and between 50 and 100 ft thick. the city proper is actually elevated above two previous levels of construction, as space within the walls is limited. most middle-class residents live in the central residential district, though there are also apartments and homes outside of that. the eastern district is where the estates of noble and notable families reside, along with the palace itself. the main entrance to this district is through the Hall square, and other entrances are gated and guarded.

below the main level is the undercity, where most of the poor live and work. very little sunlight reaches this level except through wells and skylights. some of this level, and the sublevel below it, are flooded to provide a sewer and waterway system to the city at large.