#i also require a drawing of this STAT

[zesstie]

klance but it's "i don't dance" from hsm2. u know whos who (obvi lance is ryan and keith is chad) but like, cmon. pls tell me someone has this written bc if not i might just take on the responsibility myself

[pallases]

the way that my affirmations rn are literally just “you only need to get a 40% to pass the class 💆🏼‍♀️”

[drenched-in-sunlight]

random math moment but two-handing a weapon will multiply STR stat by 1.5, Marika hammer requires 20 STR, 12 DEX and 19 FTH.

Marika has to hold it in two hands in order to wield it which means girlie’s base stat is probably just 14 STR, 12 DEX and 70 FTH (Minor Erdtree incantation) 💀

like… im wheezing cuz yeah i still draw her with muscles and all, but all that is just for show. This woman puts all her points into faith !!! [Faith build is viable joke here]

Also if it’s Radagon he can hold the hammer with one hand. (“Here i abandon my STR and DEX build”)

And the thing is, faith build is actually viable in Elden Ring! when it’s her kids! (Miquella, Malenia, Messmer, Godwyn’s faith-scaling spells are all offensive spells), and Radagon who is INT-FTH hybrid (i have a lore rant about how one of the reasons he married into Carian line is to integrate offensive spells into power of Gold)

[tainbocuailnge]

post where I argue for the use of some less popular free units (you don't need me to tell you gladiia and lumen are cracked)

vigil

this guy has a combination of qualities from both his subclass and his specific summon that make him really convenient to use because he's able to do a lot of jobs decently: he's a vanguard that often doesn't need a healer because his constantly refreshing wolves are doing the blocking and drawing ranged aggro while you use the dp on other units, he can hit air, the wolves deal multiple hits and have some def ignore which allows them to easily shred most trash to midweight enemies, all combined meaning he can handle a lot of map demands on his own. in terms of stats and utility you're essentially deploying a 4* sniper, guard, and vanguard at once, packaged as a single 14dp unit

he interacts well with a ton of event mechanics too, for example the wolves can block the spread of burning reeds even while inactive, and they block line of sight from the lucent arrowhead enemies and don't care about taking machinegun fire because they have 3 refreshing hp bars, and those bugs from originum dust that reduce aspd when blocked don't affect vigil himself because it's the wolves doing the blocking, and the wolves deal hits equal to their amount of heads so they deal well with hitcount-based mechanics too especially if vigil is on s3. those 3 hp bars and the speed at which they refresh with s1 also makes vigil good at stalling enemies, particularly ones that deal strong but slow hits like mudrock colossi, but also just stuff like heavy defender type enemies. compared to other tactician vanguards vigil is much easier in general use because he requires minimal management, his summon blocks multiple enemies and with s1 constantly refreshes its hp without external input so you just put him down and he either handles it or he doesn't.

his s3 has pretty high damage potential and you see it a lot in vanguard only clears but in my experience it's gimped in more general use by having no buffs to his comparatively low atk + a lot of the damage being contingent on the summon blocking an enemy while giving up on the increased survivability from the other skills + the fact that unless you're in a particular challenge niche there's no reason for him to be the one doing the damage. I find s1 is the way to go the vast majority of the time because it makes the best use of his summon's unique qualities. s2 is theoretically some of the fastest dp printing in the game but only if there's a steady stream of enemies to allow it to actually be used so in practise its a pretty bad skill, you'd only use it over s1 if you're using vigil to block a stream of enemies that can't meaningfully hurt the wolves but might not get killed fast enough with s1 (i saw one vanguard clear where they put him on s2 just so the sp from siege's talent wouldn't go to him lol)

puzzle

puzzle's main claim to fame is that with s1, if he's able to continuously attack a target, he prints dp faster than a flag vanguard. ines s1 has the same dp printing speed (2dp per 4 seconds compared to puzzle's 3dp per 6 seconds) but ines does so much other shit there's still reason to have puzzle on hand to stand there printing dp while ines does her other shit. puzzle also has the upper hand on ines on this particular front in that if there's an event gimmick where you can attack some kind of device, like the orbs in lonetrail or the vents in jessica's event, since those things are technically at max hp every time he hits them he procs his talent (2 extra sp when attacking a target with full hp) on every hit and speeds up to an insane 3 dp per 3 seconds.

the OTHER notable thing puzzle has is a giant poison debuff on his s2 (up to 150% of his atk arts damage per second for 16 seconds), which is good for all the hitcount-related things poison is good for as well as just being a good amount of damage that he can deliver in a comparatively very small window of time as a fast-redeploy unit that also prints dp. I'm not sure whether the 16 seconds counts from first or last application but with a max level puzzle you're looking at a minimum of around 14k arts damage. it makes him really good at wearing down enemies that stand there menacingly in spots that are annoying to reach for regular assassin-type units, as well as contributing damage from behind another unit. I think this video gives a pretty good image of what puzzle s2 can do, look at him melt the power armor and dor-bionics.

jieyun

her first deployment has reduced cost and gives her a hefty boost to her already high artilleryman attack (she reaches 1k atk once deployed before module) and her s2 is a huge splash area with 50% slow + a damage modifier that doesn't clash with her talent so she just shreds everything that isn't really high def, and anything that is still gets significantly slowed while your arts damage units kill it.

since s2 always goes to a specific tile in her range it can also be used to make her prioritise certain targets, and since it's a whole 15 seconds of high per-second splash damage she's a good counter to bosses that spawn a bunch of other weaker enemies like essence of evolution or ya, or just huge amounts of closely grouped enemies like RA raids. it's also only 8 offensive sp at m3 (down from 12 at lv7) which is basically nothing already and even less when combined with common IS collectibles or RA food and support items. she shreds all those annoying flying cunts in collapsals afternoon the moment they come out of their box. she's genuinely just a really good unit for very straightforward reasons and very beautiful also.

breeze

do not be mistaken there is zero gameplay reason to invest in breeze over any other aoe medic because the others have every utility ever while breeze only has raw healing numbers but when it comes to healing multiple units at once her numbers are legit huge so she's very useable. i also find her very cute and charming, you should check out her english dub it's really good.

her talent is so conditional it might as well not exist however if you combine her mod3 talent (medics and supporters gain 15% max hp when breeze's skill is active) with silence alter's mod3 talent (operators in range gain 10% max hp) and honeyberry's talent (ranged operators in range gain 10% max hp) you could probably make silence take the manfred cannon which is funny.

czerny

the whole arts protector subclass is in kind of a weird spot where they've got good stats (defender level bulk with guard level attack, some res) and good traits (3 block melee unit with arts damage) and their skills and talents do some cool and unique things, but you rarely actually need or look for what they specifically can do so most people only end up using them when they just like them a lot or they happen to fit their particular niche.

czerny's unique niche is reflecting arts damage on his talent which leads to some really funny clears whenever it's his time to shine because enemies will just kill themselves. some enemies that czerny's reflect is particularly good for are dublin flamethrowers (each tick of the flamethrower gets reflected), londinium mobile artillery (the barrage is arts damage that he can take more easily with the increased hp from s2), crossroads units from lonetrail, those really long range sandcastle casters from ideal city who just stand there blasting you from fucking narnia, but really any enemy that deals arts damage will slowly kill themselves while blocked by czerny.

i find that in practise if you want to use czerny just to use him, his arts reflect talent and s2 explosion are secondary to the fact that he has really high innate res (25 thanks to his talent) with an s1 that doubles it, making him arguably the best anti-arts blocker in the game right now, and during s2 he can punch people for up to 2k arts damage per hit over a very respectable 20 seconds for 30sp. and his english dub is really really good.

shalem

I like him :)

shalem s2 hits air with a big forward range and since it's random shots it's unaffected by enemy taunt level, but conversely since it's random with a pretty big range you can't guarantee he'll hit the targets you want and it becomes less effective the more enemies there are. it's also kinda sicko damage (like 45k arts damage total/2.2k dps before res + effective guarantee of proccing his res debuff talent thanks to high hitcount) but it's hard to capitalise on when it's defensive recovery and guaranteed to kill him without someone healing him. in victoriaknights they tend to pair him with hibiscus or reed alter to stack arts debuffs and in defenderknights they often combo with saria s3 not just for the debuffs and heals but also because she can feed him sp to actually use the skill.

s1 is way easier to use and incredibly solid so that's what you go with when simply taking shalem to locations. it improves a lot with m3 (-35% attack interval to -45%) so if you end up raising him and find s1 lacks a bit of oomph that's why. like czerny shalem's got the arts protector problem where it's hard to argue why you should use him specifically since "melee arts damage" or "defender that kills" isn't really hard to come by these days, but that doesn't mean a defender with multitarget arts damage who can hit air isn't still a really good unit.

lessing

this guy has the problem of his subclass having middling base traits that his colleagues compensate for by being an abyssal hunter and having true damage respectively, and he does some things that nobody else does, except for lee who does it better in nearly all cases, lol. if you DON'T have lee available though or are in a situation where lee is simply eating too much dp to be viable then lessing suddenly kicks ass through the power of being the only other guy who can't be stunned, which is a gimmick that enemies throw out often enough to make it worth investing in having a hard counter like this. lessing's s3 modifier also stacks multiplicatively with external buffs so he scales really hard with those and can bonk enemies for some really funny numbers with the right backup.

however EVEN if you don't think you'll ever deploy him I think he's still worth the e2 for his base skill alone, he has a fixed 3 morale cost for all elite material recipes and an 80% byproduct rate increase which means he can cook big piles of high tier materials with a much higher byproduct rate than operators with comparable morale cost reductions.

tuye

tuye s1 can actually solo heal things that other medics would need backup for but you need to really micromanage her for that so nobody wants to fucking bother normally. if you're ever doing a stall strat where enemies are beating your ass in between your healers attack interval then tuye is the one you need, either s1 or s2 and with or without backup, she's the queen of finicky high damage healing.

her RA2 exclusive token is also insanely fucking good, everyone in tuye's range restores hp worth 6% of tuye's atk every second which works on enmity units, you put some atk food in tuye and suddenly everyone in her range has that abyssal regen on top of her healing them regularly. if you play RA2 with any regularity tuye is super worth investing in for this alone

folinic

read my folinic post

astgenne

read my astgenne post

[tragedynoir]

— introducing 003: PLAYER ONE + [ link ]

a semi-mobile friendly google doc template inspired by retro nintendo gameboys and 1 bit platformer games. this template is super versatile and perfect not just for gamer muses, but also sci-fi rps or tabletop games like d&d. it can also double up as an rp information document, or even an app form for rps, as the template has been made to be flexible for the inclusion of extremely long writing! this premium template and a page-by-page preview can be found in the link above or in the source link.

features:

10 unique 11" x 8.5" pages with plenty of space for writing; some quotes, multiple short sections and special long text and connection sections that make them flexible to fit your needs

duplication of specific pages that will allow many connections or writing as long as you require in the document while maintaining aesthetic cohesion!

pages that can all be easily duplicated, deleted and rearranged to your liking, with some google doc knowledge

all elements that are fully customizable within google docs & google drawings — including stats and health bar

terms of use:

you may edit to your heart’s desire. Change the colours, replace, add or remove elements and images etc.

you may remix pages with pages from my other templates.

you may not remove the credit from the templates.

you may not copy, sell or redistribute my templates whether wholesale, in part (i.e. taking out certain pages) or remixed (i.e. modified).

you will also receive an additional guide with images on how to use and edit google doc templates! if you have any problems or issues, feel free to leave an ask or join our discord server.

this is definitely my favourite template so far, and I'm so excited to be sharing this with all of you. it's just so versatile, practical and easy to edit. I hope you enjoy this template as much as I do, and as always, likes + reblogs are always appreciated. ♡

[honeydewandcake]

I'm actually crying omg youre so kind

(Tumblr fricking closed on me when I was almost done and I had to write this all over again AAAAAAH)

Uhhhh I guess I'll start with some game mechanics and info about my first OC:

"Twist" the Mobile

Name: Twist(Called Twisty by her friend Meta)

Gender: Female

Age: 20

Stats(Playing):

Health:

♡♡♡

Skill Check:

☆☆

Movement Speed:

☆☆☆☆

Stamina:

☆☆☆

Stealth:

☆

Extraction Speed:

☆☆☆☆☆

This is Twist. She's a mobile.(You know, the ones for kids? She's a planet mobile.)

She has a very close relationship with her chldhood friend named Meta,(who I'll ramble on about later)practically inseparable from her. Who knows what would happen if Meta were to just disappear…

Here are her game mechanics, both Twisted and Playing. Rest of the stuff will come after cause this is too long. Keep an eye out for bits of lore scattered in...

Game Mechanics(Twisted):

Rare

(Due to her song's hypnotising ability)

Speed: Average

Mechanic: Has a song that will temporarily hypnotise the player into going towards them.(More details below)

Attention Span: High

Detection Range: Low

Half of the planets that normally would circle around her head have been dipped in ichor, and the other half have pieces broken off of them. The once pure white hoop that holds all the planets has also been splattered with ichor. ...You can see smudges if you look closely.

Has a recording made for children to help them calm down that will eerily play once in a while. It’s become staticy and quiet since she was turned into a Twisted, and so is somehow hypnotising. If she's spotted you and the tune plays, you'll walk towards her for 1.5 seconds.(Keep in mind: walk, not run.) This event purely depends on if you have bad timing and how far away from her you are. If you happen to be playing the character Meta, you'll be drawn to her until she takes one heart of damage from you.(Lore?)

When she pauses in her walking(like Tisha), she'll stare at one of her planets and reach up to tug it. It's a habit(caused by stress) she's kept through becoming Twisted.

Game Mechanics(Playing):

Her skill, "Glow Stars" lights up the room a bit, making it easier to see. Doesn't light up you, only the room you used it in, so if you walk out of the room, it'll be dark again. Is permanent, but you can only use it once. Be wise with it. Especially handy for blackouts.

When paired with a another player who's using Meta, she'll get a speed buff of 10%. If there's a Twisted Meta on the floor, she'll get a -10% speed debuff. The player and Twisted(if on the same floor) cancel each other's abilities out.

Requirements to buy:

3000 Ichor

100% Research on Twisted Meta

Walk 120000 meters

I might draw her later but for now everything else. God this takes so long but I'm really excited to see people's reactions...will continue later. It's 1:49 am and I need to get a snack/drink.

-A

Wait I love this idea!! A mobile. . . Omg I would have never thought of that!! And the gameplay is cool too!! Oh, I want to see her design so bad!! :00

This is so awesome!!!

[magicwithclass]

Homarid Shaman is unplayable. It costs too much mana, has terrible stats, has an extremely niche ability and the ability requires additional mana. What is the point of talking about cards like these? Even newer players would likely realize that this card is jank. There are many reason why even cards like this one deserve a discussion. First, this is still a reserved list card. It is part of the history of the game that can never be reprinted so it is easy to forget. If you don't take a look even at unplayable cards then you might forget that recurring nightmare is on the reserved list too! Next, not everyone knows that this card shouldn't see play in any deck. Newer players may need to see a card like this too understand costs and what to expect for the amount of mana you pay. Third, you never know what card can come along that can break a card in half. They could make a card that draws ten cards when a play creature taps down a green creaure and then we would all have egg on our face when homarid shaman is 100 dollars. Never say never. Furthermore, you can use cards like these to talk about the living history of the game. Right now many creature types are being chaged to match the animal they are based on. For example, viashino became lizard and Cephalid became octopus. There is mixed reaction in the community if this is a positive change but change is usually met with some resistance. In 5 years this may all be forgotten and people may not realize why some of the lizard cards used to have creature type viashino. It could also hint at a subtle shift in mtg as a whole from an intellectual property trying to carve out an identity to a big business seeking conformity to appeal to a majority. After all, isn't one of the stated reasons behind universes beyond is to attract a broader audience? Even some mtg fans may not know what a cephalid is but everyone knows a lizard. The point of bringing this up is that homarids survived this creature type update. Homarid fans rejoice! Homarid remains homarid! However, that is merely because the creature type is not used very much. There is a very real chance that homarid becomes crab. What does everyone think about this? Do you want to see this change? What do you think about these latest creature type updates? Did you like this way of capturing living history in the discussion of a reserved list card where there is not much to say? If you must play homarid shaman in a deck I would suggest Hylda icy queen or any other commander with a tap theme. Most 4 person games should have some green creatures you can tap.

[vikingschism]

Thoughts on the Stormlight TTRPG

This will be a fairly lengthy post detailing my impressions of the Stormlight Archives TTRPG by Brotherwise Games based on a session played with some other fans of Sanderson's works. Some general details of the scenario are discussed as well as the details of the pre-generated character I played, but is otherwise spoiler-free.

Background

I like Brandon Sanderson's books well enough so I was naturally interested in an RPG set in his most epic series (The Stormlight Archives). My tastes in TTRPGs generally tend towards the more narrative focused games - I enjoy PBTA, FitD and Resistance Engine games - so seeing that it was going to be a D20 system with a D&D 5e style character sheet had me a bit worried. I have enjoyed tactical combat before with systems like Draw Steel (having tried it out in a playtest - looking forward to another session soon) or even Pathfinder 2E (even if I find that system to be a bit much in other places), so there was still some hope.

I decided to take part as a player in an adventure making use of a prepared scenario using the freely available beta rules. This scenario was intended to show off the game and get new players, possibly new to TTRPGs as a whole, going. The basic premise is that the players are on an expedition towards some ancient ruins

The Character

There were multiple pre-generated characters available so I elected to play as Vedd - a disgraced Alethi soldier serving in the bridge crews. This was essentially the basic warrior class which suited me well enough, though in a full campaign there would be the option to have the character become a Radiant which would definitely give more opportunity to express the character through the powers selected. The character notes gave some good hooks to get the player into character; in the case of Vedd it was his connections to his bridge crew, his grizzled nature as one of the longest serving Bridgemen, and that he has attracted the attention of a spren who appears as a streak of light when he takes heroic or self sacrificing action.

The character sheet was serviceable, though it was sometimes hard to locate the skills I was looking for when making a test due to the amount present, so the organisation maybe could've been better. There's also just a lot of derived stats on the sheet - do we really need a carrying capacity for example? That seems a bit more simulationist than this game needs. I do like the idea of having Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual defences and them being placed between the two stats that determine the value is nice. It's also nice that the stats are just the bonus rather than needing to derive the bonus like in 5e. Skill modifiers also made sense since you just add the points in that skill to the relevant stat to calculate the modifier.

In the scenario my character's skills were mostly in athletics, perception, and heavy weaponry. The social skills weren't too high, although intimidation was definitely on the table. This spread of skills suggested a character who was taciturn in social settings but excelled when it came time to put himself into the thick of the action.

Combat

Overall it felt good to play, the combat system allowed for a lot of flexibility and I appreciated its action economy. Players can choose to take a fast or slow turn - a fast turn grants 2 actions, a slow turn grants 3. Fast players go first, then fast enemies, then slow players, then slow enemies - within each category there is no set initiative order, players can work it out themselves). On a turn you have a number of actions you can take, and some will cost more action points (for example a recovery costs two points - however you may want to do this on a fast turn if you think an enemy will attack first). This draws on both Pathfinder 2e (with the action point system) and Shadow of the Demon Lord with the fast/slow turns.

In each round everyone gets a single reaction too. Most of these reactions require spending a point of focus, but they give good options for mitigating damage or assisting in the fight (for example Reactive Strike is the Opportunity Attack equivalent, however it requires a focus point to use - these are limited and can be recovered or are regained fully on a long rest). In our fights in the session I didn't remember that I could use the reaction to dodge which would've given the enemy disadvantage on their strike, leading to me taking a large amount of damage. Another reaction involves assisting an ally when they attempt a test in combat in order to grant them advantage on the roll. This combos quite nicely with an action that allows the player to attempt a skill test to gain advantage on their next roll.

The abilities that my character had weren't too flashy, though I should've remembered to enter vigilant stance at the start of combat - this grants advantage on perception, increases deflect, and causes enemies to require 2 actions to attack allies. Combat training also meant I could graze (upon missing, deal the value of the damage dice with no modifier) a single enemy per round for free - normally grazing would cost a focus point.

Exploration

Outside of combat I had more mixed opinions - mainly related to the plot die. This is intended to add more narrative twists to skill tests - the intention is that this is rolled for tests that are more high stakes (the process of asking for it to be rolled is called "raising the stakes"). This is a d6 (although a proprietary die with symbols is available), and rolling a 5 or 6 grants an Opportunity while a 1 or 2 imposes a Complication as well as granting a bonus of double the value on the die face to the roll (which could be enough to push a bad roll into a success). A result of 3 or 4 does nothing, and rolling a 20 or 1 on any test grants an Opportunity and a Complication respectively (this does mean they can stack when rolling the die).

Opportunities can be spent to regain a focus point, grant advantage to an ally on their next test, turn a hit into a critical hit (on attack tests in combat), or on a beneficial narrative event (which the GM must rubber stamp) - some abilities also interact with these. Complications are imposed by the GM and can essentially do the opposite of what an Opportunity can do.

So what's my issue with it? I personally found that having a null result on the die (3 and 4) meant that Opportunities and Complications felt a little rarer than I would've liked - if the roll matters enough to use the plot die then I feel like it should really have one result or the other.

This system also interacts with Events - these are similar to clocks in games like Blades in the Dark where they signal an impending event. These are ticked, depending on whether the event is positive or negative with an Opportunity or a Complication. This never came up in the scenario, however I think this is another reason I'd prefer the plot die to always produce an Opportunity or Complication; as is Opportunities and Complications just don't come up that often, so it might make Events a bit harder to use. In a system like Blades the clocks are constantly being ticked which really contributes to the sense of impending danger, or gives players a focus on an objective in the scene (eg: escaping from something chasing them).

Skill tests otherwise were straightforward, and advantage is a standard roll 2 dice and pick the higher result (although interestingly advantage can stack and be applied to multiple dice in the roll - which does mean you can give the plot die advantage as well as the d20 if you have two advantages on a roll).

The Scenario

I don't want to spoil the scenario, however I will say it was decently put together. There was a fair amount of railroading, however since we were all there for that adventure I think that was ok. There wasn't anything that stood at as being too egregious and there was some nice artwork along the way to help picture the events. It also gave some good opportunities to play into the pregen characters. All of the players came out being fairly satisfied with the adventure; it will be interesting to see how the game plays once Radiant powers are involved.

Conclusion

Overall I feel the game was competently put together and will be a fun way to explore the worlds of Sanderson. I don't think it's going to be replacing any of my favourite narrative systems, however, and some areas (like the plot die) left something to be desired. The combat was fun and will likely only get more fun once characters have access to Radiant powers, so I wouldn't be against playing again. I likely would not want to GM however, as there is a bit more crunch than I prefer in my systems. It does also remain to be seen how the game will adapt other worlds such as Scadrial from Mistborn given the different tone and nature of the world.

For those who have read all of this, thank you - I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on the Stormlight TTRPG and I'm curious to know what other people think of it so far.

[lorbanery]

UM

EXCUSE ME

DID FMA 03 USE A DESCRIPTION OF A DND SOURCEBOOK AS FLAVOR TEXT FOR AN ALCHEMY TEXT BOOK?????

Transcription of the main text:

[...] also the DM [...] improvement [...] here or on other sites) [...] woodsy tome, with a leaf, leather [...] motif. The pages are thick and durable, [...] size is very good and text density is exception- [...] Artwork is good throughout, and all in full color. Border art is very attractive and also includes section headers for easy navigation. dozens of interesting NPC's (with however only race, class and sex as stats). a beautiful full-color rendition/map of the school [...] finer points of alchemy [...] a good chance of meeting the requirements for some of the special Prestige Classes. The school is described in great detail, populated with [ ...]

OH

OH WAIT THERE IT IS, THE CAPTION UNDERNEATH THE TRANSMUTATION CIRCLE ILLUSTRATION

Bastion Press: Alchemy & Herbalists by Jeff Ibach

Now, Jeff Ibach, while apparently a writer for sourcebooks, appears to not actually be the author of this sourcebook. As near as I can tell, the text actually seems to come, at least in part, from a review. I can't find the review, it's entirely probable that the site the review was posted on no longer exists, given how long ago the first version of Alchemy & Herbalists had to have come out for an anime released 20 years ago to have pulled the text from a review of it. But I do see endorsement quotes on all of the listings for the book, and there is one from Ibach. So that's probably why his name got pasted there instead of the actual author, Steven Schend.

Anyway, here it is! The book that taught Edward and Alphonse Elric how to perform alchemy!

[betterbooktitles]

Guillermo del Toro owns a second home that only has his stuff in it. Though the 59-year-old filmmaker is married with children, he keeps an entire second house to himself and fills it with frightening sculptures, inspiring pieces of art, toys, books, and movies, all of it his own curation. There are no kid’s drawings on the fridge, no side tables picked out by his spouse. It’s his personal playroom. He does most of the upkeep himself after a housecleaner broke the finger off one of his statues. He refers to it as a “man cave” or the “Bleak House” and often spends time alone writing there. Del Toro claims his wife likes it and has always supported his childhood dream house. She also prefers that his horrifying decorations don’t impede the aesthetic taste of the home they share as a family.

Having an entire home as a creative man cave that I am entirely in charge of would sound perfect to me if it weren’t for the fact that owning one home has become a nightmare even the best horror director could not fully capture on film.

I know I am lucky. The stats on Millennials owning their own homes are (if you will) bleak. But whatever I thought was irritating me in the city wasn’t nearly as bad as the physical and mental work required to live in a house. It drains bank accounts and my will to do more than one thing per day. When I was young and lived in New York, I scheduled my days like a CEO or politician: meetings, lunches, podcasts, and stand-up shows all crammed together to the minute as if I could teleport between venues. Now, if Wednesday morning includes a Home Depot run and a painting project, realistically, I’m not doing anything after that until Saturday. The laundry list of what needs to be fixed or maintained in the house grows every day. In the winter, there are rooms I simply don’t use because of a draft I can’t fix. In the summers, the yard becomes something we have to actively fight against lest new trees and mushrooms and 6-foot tall weeds that resemble stalks of asparagus take over everything. The current issue is a dead tree blocking a path to the backyard because wisteria vines are pulling it to the ground. It’s the fastest I’ve ever seen a plant move outside of Evil Dead.

Though we struggle to keep up with our checklists, my wife and I have ambitions for the house outside of general maintenance. We’d like a bigger kitchen, a functional garden, and a fence that looks like a stiff breeze wouldn’t knock it over. The house is fine without these physical flourishes, but the fantasy is always there, nagging whispers in the brain of how nice it could be given unlimited time and resources. That nagging gets into my head about a whole house devoted to my creative dreams.

When I fantasize about what I’d like most if money and time were no object, I find myself thinking about a home theater. Unfortunately, money is an object, and the “fun budget” was consumed by the “necessities budget” a year ago. We already replaced the furnace and AC, dug up tiles in the den, painted nearly every room, replaced doors, one of which was rotting the wood at the edges because it hadn’t been replaced since 1986, the year I was born. Still, the list grows. A dedicated line to the kitchen needs to be added by an electrician so the fuse doesn’t blow whenever I use the toaster and the electric kettle at the same time. The fence and what it nominally protects behind the house needs to be reworked before bunnies consume everything that isn’t a weed. The ancient carpeting needs to be ripped up, bathrooms need to be redone by professionals so my body can actually fit comfortably inside one. Walls need to come down to make living spaces seem less like hallways, and the bay window on the second floor that appears to be melting toward the ground needs to be addressed by a professional architect before the wind rips it off the bedroom wall like a giant scab. After all of that is finished, I’d still need to move into a newer, much bigger house if I want to have a home theater. 

Where did the yearning for a private theater come from? Unlike Del Toro’s childhood fantasy of having a house all his own, my wish for this extravagance came much later. I was 30, and I remember exactly how the seed was planted: Zillow. I spent hours on the site, letting the mortgage/insurance calculator tell me what I could afford for the same amount I paid in rent in Brooklyn. On my phone’s screen, I saw a $400,000 mansion in my wife’s hometown outside of Pittsburgh that was the most beautiful house I’d ever seen. It had high wood ceilings and multiple fireplaces to make the whole giant house feel like a cabin. I had 8 bedrooms and a home theater. Imagine, I thought, how good a movie must be in a theater in your own home. Imagine the parties with friends. Imagine movie nights where you force your kids to watch Back to the Future for the first time in a close approximation to the space where you saw it. Playing an old cartoon and a few YouTube’d trailers from the 80s. A little popcorn machine in the corner. Speakers that are way too loud. The dream.

I’ve realized recently, however, how silly the longing for a home theater is for me specifically. I don’t like watching sports at home. I need the atmosphere of screaming people either in the arena itself or in a bar. I need the game to be live. I need to be out among strangers or friends. I feel the same way about movies. I need other people with me, laughing, crying, gasping, clapping. 

Read the rest here.

[forlorn-plushie]

Would You Like To Play A Game? A Tapletop Role-playing Game?

Inspired by this post over here, I thought I'd put my own Nothing To It game together right here in our very own Tumblr Text Editor, for anyone who has no patience for learning rules. It's a bit more than the other one, though still very small.

How to play: Talk about your characters' adventures. Whenever you want to, focus on a scene and figure out how it plays out using Checks

How to make a Check: roll one Stat Die and the highest relevant Asset Die. If both matches or beats the DC, you do it. If only one matches or beats the DC, you still do it - but something bad happens, related or otherwise - a cost, a worse situation, an imperfect success, or a cutaway to the villains progressing their schemes. If neither die is high enough, you fail and something else bad happens.

Difficult Classes are about as follows. The vast majority of rolls should be in the 4-8 range.

DC 3 is "wouldn't it be funny if you messed up though"

DC 4 is an easy task where failure would be interesting

DC 5 is a typical task some random anybody could maybe manage

DC 6 is a task which requires some level of skill or talent

DC 7 is a tough task for which expertise is required

DC 8 is beyond most professionals

DC 9 is firmly in the realm of masters

DC 10 is the highest you should see.

Your stats are Grace, Face, Force, Wits, and Wise. Assign 1d4 to one, 1d8 to two, and 1d6 to the others. These are your Stat Dice. Rename these if you want for your theme/setting.

Also pick a Background, Specialty, Quirk, and Thing for your character, plus another of any of the four types. Assign 1d10 to one, 1d8 to two, and 1d6 to the others. These are your Asset Dice.

Give yourself 3 abilities, of any of the following sorts

When you use [one of your Assets] in [more specific way], DC -1

You have [some sort of power]. To use it, spend Resource.

You have [some sort of passive]. When you spend Resource while using it, you can reroll two times.

You have a [new asset]. Its Asset Die is 1d8.

One of your Stat Die is one size larger, up to 1d12

One of your Asset Die is one size larger, up to 1d12

Draw four circles, and label them Damage, Stress, Resource, and Experience. Split the Experience circle into 8 segments, and the others into 4, 6, and 8 in any order.

When something strains your character, mark a segment of Stress. When something hurts your character, mark a segment of Damage. When you overcome adversity, mark Experience. Mark all segments of Resource, and spend them to reroll any die. Clear half of Health and Stress and fill half of Resource when you get a good rest.

When Damage is full, you are defeated. Maybe you die. When Stress is full, you can't take it anymore. Freak out, pass out, whatever seems interesting. When Experience is full, you have a revelation. Gain a new ability, from the same list as above.

When you start playing, pick three questions of the form "Did you [do what we want the game to be about]?". At the end of a session of play, mark a segment of Experience for each Yes.

[lesvegas]

My Beginner/Newbie Guide to Neopets

Never used the site before in your life but wanna check it out? Just logged into your old account and wanna get back into it? Saw my promo and wanna take advantage of it? Wanna make loads of neopoints? As someone with about 20mil in the bank I can't guarantee following my advice will make you MEGA rich but I can get you pretty close with pretty minimal effort.

TL;DR do your dailies and invest in stocks (it's way easier than it sounds, idk shit about real life stocks)

(And before I hear any "isnt neopets run by scientologists" the answer is no, it never was, neopets.com once fell into a company that was run by a scientologist for about a year back in the early 2000s)

Guide below the cut!

THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE TO TAKE FROM THIS GUIDE:

Spin Trudy's Surprise wheel every day (link here)

Invest in stocks (guide here)

Do whatever dailies you want (link here)

Use Jellyneo's item database to search/price anything (link here)

This guide assumes you've already made an account, a pet, and have about 2000np (given to every new account) to spend, and that you're currently logged in (you'll need to be for most of these links).

Confused by the site layout? No idea where to go? No worries, I'll link just about everything you need here.

DISCLAIMER: There's a lot of stuff I DON'T do, but if there's something that interests you, go ahead and try it!! I just do the bare minimum when it comes to dailies lol

~~Dailies~~

If you clicked on this link, you're probably already overwhelmed by the sheer number of dailies your expected to do. The good news is, I don't do at least half of these. Most of these aren't worth your time or points and I only really do easy 1-click dailies that net me free shit. I'll show you exactly which ones those are.

Let's start with the Classics-

I've already gone ahead and erased the ones a new account will never have to worry about.

These are the priority freebie dailies you should be doing each day when you can. Lemme explain what each one does:

Soup Kitchen: Until you have 3000np, you can feed your pets here for free!

Free Jelly: One free jelly (worth 2 meals) each day

Giant Omelette: One free omelette (worth 3 meals) each day

Interest @ Bank: You can collect interest on your bank account each day (you need a bank account, I'll explain later)

Money Tree: Free stuff people throw away, guide further down

Trudy's Surprise: Free neopoints daily

Monthly Freebies: Once a month, not daily, free 2000np and food

Obsidian Quarry: One free piece of obsidian daily. I just sell them for 1np a piece to get people coming to my shop

Apple Bobbing: Free item daily (small chance to lose an item or nps)

Anchor Management: Free item daily

Mysterious Negg Cave: Solve a puzzle for a free item (solver here)

Grave Danger: Petpet required. Send it down into the catacombs daily to find items.

These are all the easiest of the dailies. Next up we have

The Wheels-

Yes, just these wheels, because none of the scratchcards are worth trying to me. I've never won anything good from them. These wheels are all relatively low-cost, but if you only wanted to pick ONE, do the Wheel of Mediocrity. I've found it has the highest return for the cost.

Also, the Wheel of Monotony can go for literal hours. I tend to let it go in a muted tab and do other stuff in the meantime. Anyway, next is

Win NPs, Items, Stats-

I've erased anything that takes too much time, doesn't work cause flash, can only be accessed at certain times, or isn't newbie accessible. I'll elaborate on the rest;

Tombola: Draw a ticket and win a prize (free)

Deserted Tomb: Go into a tomb and potentially find treasure (may hurt your neopet)

Fruit Machine: One free spin per day for fruit

Coltzan's Shrine: One of the best dailies. Potentially increases stats, gives NP or items

Kreludor Meteor: Free items when it works

TDMBGPOP: Free items (usually plushies) or NPs

Underwater Fishing: Free fish or fishing-related items

Forgotten Shore: Requires treasure map (guide here)

Healing Springs: Heals your pets or gives you an item. Can be done every 30mins. I recommend coming here last to heal pets after some dangerous dailies. You can also come here every 30mins if your pet is sick until they're cured.

These are also good, easy freebies I recommend doing daily. Personally I also use the Battledome but that's because I've actually trained one of my pets to fight. Now for the

Pay NPs and Win-

No, really, that's it.

Okay, I also personally do Cheeseroller, and I used to do more carnival games when they worked, but these are the only ones you really need to worry about in this section.

Faerie Caverns, Test Your Strength, and Pick Your Own are simple games where you can win NPs and items.

Garage Sale is a shop where most items are sold below market value. Great for reselling.

Bargain stocks are cheaper than regular stocks and are only for poor/new users.

And what about

Other Neopets Stuff To Do-

A lot less intimidating now, huh?

Most things in this section are just... things to do. Things that aren't all that profitable. These four are the only ones you should bother with if your priority is getting NPs.

Symol Hole requires a PetPet. You can win items, but this is rare.

Stock Portfolio... I'll get into that soon. But this is important.

Trading Post is where you go to offload tons of junk, get tons of junk, buy/sell anything worth more than 999999np, and find good deals

Employment Agency is where you take jobs that involve finding and buying a certain number of a particular item in a certain timeframe. I only recommend this if you've become familiar with Jellyneo's item data base and the Shop Wizard.

Now what about the next sections, Quests, Competitions, and Games?

Don't worry about 'em.

When you're financially better off, you can try doing some daily Faerie quests if you want, but I don't recommend getting into them right away. Contests are cool and all, but not my thing personally, so I can't tell you much about them. As for games... most of them are still broken.

But the game Fashion Fever is an easy free 900np a day. Just wait 10 seconds before finishing the game, then send score.

Wait, how does the Stock Market work?

Great question!

The stock market is the easiest way to rack up neopoints. I can't comment on bargain stocks because I haven't done them, but I can tell you all about the regular stock market.

(You could also uh, watch this 5 minute guide here, which is how I originally learned how the stock market works)

Conceptually, you buy stocks while they're cheap, then wait until their value goes up and sell them at a high price. You can easily turn 15000np into 45000np by simply waiting.

Also, I really recommend you have 15000np before buying any stocks. Do other dailies until you have that much at least.

Your stock portfolio is here. Read the scrolling stocks at the top of the page:

Until you find a stock valued at 15np (circled above). Once you have the stock name (this one is SWNC), go to 'Buy' (right under the scrolling stocks in blue),

And buy them! Buy 1000 at a time.

15np is the LOWEST a stock can go before it's unbuyable, and you can only buy a total of 1000np per day.

Now, we just have to wait for the value to go up.

I only sell stocks once the value is +300%. SWNC is currently at 0.00% because it's worth the value I originally bought it at (15np).

Check your portfolio daily, buy new stocks when you can, sell when they're high, and sooner or later you'll be raking in hundreds of thousands of neopoints per sale!

Does Trudy's Surprise really guarantee thousands of free NPs?

Yes. No, seriously, yes.

The first time you spin the wheel, you'll probably only get about 1000np. Come back the next day, spin it again, maybe you'll get 2000np. By the end of the first week, probably 6000np.

And on day 25? 100000np. Guaranteed. Then the cycle resets to day 1, and it's back to about 1000np.

With Trudy's Surprise, you can very easily obtain around 200000np a month.

BUT. You need to spin the wheel once EVERY DAY or the counter resets and you're back to day 1 again.

There are days where I really don't feel like doing my dailies at all, but I always try to make sure I get this one in. It's absolutely worth logging it.

You mentioned a Bank Account?

If you haven't opened a bank account (for neopoints, not actual money), do so now!!

A bank will hold onto your neopoints for you so you don't lose them during random events, and you can collect interest every day. There's a cost to open and upgrade an account, but no fees besides that. The more nps in your account, the more interest you can collect! I collect about 6000np a day just from my nps sitting in my account.

Okay, I did my dailies and now I have all this stuff sitting in my inventory. Now what?

Well, you have a few options:

Use them. Food feeds your pet, books educate them, toys entertain them... before doing anything else with some items, consider if you want to use them on your pet.

Donate them. If you're completely at a loss or don't want to bother selling them, you can always donate or discard them to free up space.

Store them in your Safety Deposit Box. Got items that you think you'll use later that are currently taking up space? Store them in your SDB or Closet for now.

Trade them. Go to the trading post, browse new trades, and use these items as fodder for getting good deals. Alternatively, put them up for trade and see what people offer.

Sell them. If you haven't opened a shop yet, I highly recommend you do so. You can put items in the shop, but they won't be displayed until you've set a price. Don't know what to charge? Search the item in the Jellyneo item database to find out how much it's worth!

Why even do any of this?

Honestly, that's up to you to decide.

Neopets is a weird site. People came for the pets, but the only ones that stayed have remained for the economy. You either find it fun or you don't, and I know it's harder when you're a beginner.

What really got me into neopets again was finding a goal. If you want to get rich, that's the one thing you need most: a goal. It could be a static number, a dream pet, a dream gallery, w/e. My first main goal was a gold paintbrush for a pet I don't even have anymore, and my current goal is 25mil in my account. After that, I think my next goal will be to access the lab ray.

If you're just starting out and don't know what you want your goal to be, I'd suggest finding that old dream pet or picking a new one here: This site shows every pet in every colour. Find one that speaks to you, find out how much the paintbrush or morphing potion or whatever method costs, and work for that.

I'm still confused/have questions.

Please feel free to DM me!! I love neopets and am trying to get more people (especially my friends) into it. I don't know everything but the least I can do is point you to a guide that can help. Don't hesitate to reach out to me!

You can also neomail me if you want <3

[sakarrie-creates]

It’s that time of year! Here’s my 2023 art summary! After two years of having to include non-colored pieces, I finally did enough ‘full’ pieces to fill my art summary template! I did have to get a bit creative with the months since I was able to draw a LOT more during the summer, but I’ll take it! Sorry it's a bit blurry. I'm not sure if that's just for the preview or not, but it was a smaller file than normal and since these reflections are 99% for my own interest, I decided it wasn't worth trying to change.

As usual, I got rambly so reflection questions are answered under the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to make their own! My fic summary will be coming in a week or so, so stay tuned for the stats and round-up there. :)

What events did you participate in (with art)? Player Appreciation Week, Fandom Trumps Hate, Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), Weird People (Editing), SPN Comfortably Queer Zine (dropped), and lots of zine applications for page artist, merch artist, comic artist, and spot artist roles!

What was your biggest challenge this year? While time, like last year, was still a challenge, I think my biggest challenge was a mix of low motivation and an intense perfectionistic mindset. At the start of the year, I got super into TOH and was super hyped about all the zines with apps opening. I really REALLY wanted to get into them and figured I should apply for art too just cause it would increase my overall chances of getting in. After the finale, I did a screenshot redraw that ended up being absolutely fantastic for where my skill level is. I went deeper into rendering than ever before, and somehow it worked for me. 

That probably was the start of my unreasonably high expectations, and I got it into my head that maybe if I could make a whole portfolio of artwork at that quality level, I actually stood a chance at getting into a zine as an artist. From then on, I was hardcore crash-coursing perspective, rendering techniques, and generally trying to improve without allowing room for mistakes. While I do think it helped me grow a lot, it burnt me out so I struggled to work on stuff past summary (when all the zine apps were) and even dropped from the SPN Comfortably Queer Zine cause my imposter syndrome was so strong. (Though that was also partially because it was a ‘sign-up and you’re in’ zine, so they never saw my art during the application process and had no way of knowing if I was good enough.

What was something you were surprised by? I’m pretty sure I discovered the perspective tool is CSP this year! CSP has so many tools I’m not aware of (despite watching tons of tutorials and guides), so it wasn’t super surprising but it was nice. I have to say, they’re a serious hassle to work with and require a higher understanding of vanishing points and such than I currently have, but I could see it being very useful for future scene art pieces.

Did you try anything new this year?

Yes! This year I kicked down the door to the merch world and have been collecting and designing throughout the year. Though the designs have mostly just been for zine app portfolio’s, everything has worked out really well for me and I hope to produce charms for my collection as I improve my skills. Where do you think you most improved? Definitely my confidence in rendering! And probably my rendering itself too. I did a ton more pieces with it this year and it’s definitely a favorite part of the art process for me. I think I’ll have a lot more fun with it this year too, since I’m trying to keep it lower pressure, so I can experiment more to find out what brushes and styles I like most. What are you most proud of? I think I’m most proud of how ambitious I was with my zine apps. Though I didn’t get into any for art and it burned me out a fair bit, I did a lot of hard work and made pieces I can be mostly happy with. As for specific pieces, I’m very proud of my animatic clip for the Dear Fellow Traveler MAP (which is what the Belos art from the summary is from). My portion was about 5 seconds with 24 fully colored and shaded frames. A few of those were moving frames too, so the end result is the closest thing to actual animation I’ve done. I also really like the rendering on the Huntlow Epilogue art and generally how the Steve&Matt hug turned out.

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals? I honestly couldn’t remember what my goals were, but all things considered, I didn’t do too bad! Thankfully past-Sakarrie was wise and made it a bullet list so I can just check things off. Met: -Player Appreciation Week -Add to zine portfolio -Apply to at least one zine as an artist (fine if don’t get accepted) -Keep experimenting with backgrounds and shading -Pull out some old WIPs -Build more consistency of style

The checked off ones I definitely met, so good for me! This was a very zine-focused year, so I way exceeded those goals. The last two I did do, but they’re a bit subjective. Specifically, I think the ‘WIPs’ I was referring to were old sketches, but most of the old WIPs I revisited were already colored and I was either adding rendered or cleaning them up for zine usage. As for style, I’m REALLY bad at telling haha. That said, my characters seem reasonably similar when I draw them, so I’m going to tentatively count it. Kinda: -One fully colored piece per month

I’m gonna give myself a half check on this one. I didn’t have a fully colored piece every month, but I did have over 12 fully rendered pieces in the end, several of which had backgrounds. So while I didn’t meet the letter of the goal, I feel like I met the spirit of it.

Did Not Meet: -Finish Huntlow comic -30 minutes animatic digitalize rough draft -Maybe make some fanart of my favorite fics

These don’t shock me. They’re all personal projects and this was a very external-goal-driven year for me. The Huntlow comic is a big love of mine but it’s definitely ambitious for where my skill is. I’ve got the whole thing messy-sketched and most of it has been clean sketched, but the jump from that to lineart is gonna be hard, and I have no idea what I’d be doing with color since the panels don’t have a background. That said, I do feel like it’s some solid work and I adore the angst vibe of it, so maybe I’ll get it done one day. I could also see myself posting it as a messy lineart comic so that others could enjoy the concept being executed in case it never gets finished.

As for the 30 Minutes animatic, I still 100% intend to complete it eventually. I love the way it fits to the music and I’m so proud of the thumbnails. Even if it never becomes a full animatic, I want to digitize the frames and line it up with music so I can share the concept I see in my mind with others. My brain was somewhat overtaken suddenly by TOH this year, so now that that’s settled and I’m hoping to follow my muse more this year, maybe this will be something I can get excited about again.

The fanart for favorite fics is no surprise since it’s kinda the tack on. With low motivation and projects with deadlines that needed my focus, personal art like this was buried way below other priorities. It’s a nice though for sure though.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! Oh goodness, I really don’t know what to expect of myself. I definitely am going to try to allow for more personal projects with lower pressure, but I do still have some goals. Hopefully most can be accomplished without applying big pressure though.

2024 Goals:

-Number One Priority: Create for my and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items Overall, how’d the year go? I think I did well! I didn’t meet all my goals and I pushed myself too far, but I learned and improved a LOT this year. All things considered, I made pieces that last year me would be blown away by, so I think that’s an automatic win. I’m pretty uncertain on how this next year will go (even more so than last year, which is surprising since I was changing schools last year), but I’m hoping to enjoy what I do and create art semi-regularly. Here’s to 2024!

[gal-vanized]

eh, i'll still work on the ds2 bow revisions a bit. that bow thing'll be a separate post. i'll just premptively ramble about a bow revision i've grown attached to.

one idea i had for bows was to revamp the Bow Of Want completely to have it capable of casting miracles, which is not that crazy considering the bow itself has a bell chime on it after all.

BUT... the catch would be that instead of just having a generic casting animation, nocking the arrow would begin to cast the miracle, with the spell being cast as soon as the arrow is fired.

there have to be drawbacks of course. it'd have steep stat requirements, slow casting for a chime and slow drawing speed for a bow, and low physical damage scaling. also certain miracles like sunlight blade, lightning stake, etc would not be able to be cast.

but it'd be neat.

[malsfefanfics]

OC Profile: Medee

Art by la-horrorosa, edited to icon size by me.

"I've only known Lady Medee for a short time. But she is incredibly intelligent, and a devoted member of the Vestra family. Though as I get to know her, some of her children's more interesting quirks have suddenly made much more sense. She seems to know things just before they happen, and can tell who is right behind her without even looking. Also, Sylvain seems to avoid her like the plague." --Edelgard, about Medee.

Full name: Medee von Vestra (Formerly Medee von Anavros) Nicknames: Witch (by her enemies) Birthday: 14th Day of the Great Tree Moon, 11XX Age: Unknown Crest: None Family: Iason von Vestra (Husband, deceased), Hubert (Eldest Son), Rosamund (Daughter), Tancred (Youngest Son), Absyrtus (Younger Brother, deceased), Chalciope (Younger Sister, deceased) Nationality: Adrestia Titles: Soaring Faith Scholar, Healing Matriarch, Mother of Faithology Voice Claim: Coleen Clinkenbeard (Yuko Ichihara in xxxholic)

Interests: Faith study, Magic Experimentation, Science, Alchemy, Autopsy Likes: Science/Magic, Flying, her children, Pretty Rocks Dislikes: Her husband, Nobility, The Church, Tomatoes

Favorite Meals: Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Bourgeois Pike, Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Vegetable Pasta Salad Liked Meals: Sautéed Jerky, Cheesy Verona Stew, Peach Sorbet, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Grilled Herring, Small Fish Skewers, Fried Crayfish Disliked Meals: Gautier Cheese Gratin, Daphnel Stew, Notes: In meals with Tomatoes, she picks them out. Do not ask her why she dislikes them.

Tea Preferences: Crescent-Moon Tea, Bergamot, Four-Spice Blend, Chamomile, Almyran Pine Needles

Liked Gifts: Any flower, Arithmetic Textbook, Blue Cheese, Coffee Beans, Tea Leaves, Riding Boots, Ceremonial Sword Disliked Gifts: Goddess Statuette, Landscape Painting, Legends of Chivalry Notes: Gifting her "Legends of Chivalry" will cause her motivation to go down and for her to vanish for the rest of the day.

Lost Items:

Silver Scalpel: A tool meant for carving into things. Looks well cared for and belongs to a set. There's a mark of an old Adrestian family on the handle.

Silver Masquerade Mask: A full-faced mask meant for festivals and feasts. Looks refined and elegant, yet it is very unsettling.

Quilted Children's Blanket: A blanket specially sewn for newborns, meant to last for decades. It has the names of many relatives on every square.

Starting Class: Noble Preferred Class Path: Noble –> Monk/Soldier/Myrmidon –> Mage/Preist/Pegasus Knight –> Warlock/Bishop –> Gremory/Dark Flyer Strength: White Magic, Black Magic, Dark Magic Weakness: Axe Budding Talent: Sword Personal Skill: Spoon Full of Sugar - Restores 5HP to any Magic Unit within one square of her if their HP is at less than half at the start of your turn.

Weapons Starting Levels:

Sword: C Lance: D Axe: E Bow: E Brawling: E+ Reason: B Faith: B Authority: E+ Heavy Armor: E Riding: CFlying: B

Base Stats: (At Recruitment)

HP: 35 Str: 13 Mag: 29 Dex: 17 Spd: 16 Lck: 11 Def: 10 Res: 19 Cha: 14

Learned Faith Spells: Heal, Nosferatu, Rescue, Silence, Abraxas Learned Reason Spells: Miasma Δ, Bolganone, Luna Λ, Meteor, Agnea’s Arrow

Recruit Requirements: Crimson Flower Exclusive - Must have all three Vestra Siblings

Potential Supports:

Byleth

Edelgard

Hubert

Rosamund

Tancred

Constance

Lysithea

Sylvain

Felix

Seteth

Flayn

Manuela

Alois

Hanneman

Shamir

Crit Quotes:

Silence!

You need a time out!

Let's test that hypothesis!

You'll need a doctor.

Bedtime for you.

DO NOT SPEAK HER NAME! (Against any Kingdom Commander)

Mother's here, darling!

I will not pray for you!

Defeat Quotes:

That experiment failed. Best return to the drawing board.

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I must withdraw.

That was....very unfortunate...…

My dear children....I'm afraid.... your mother won't be coming home.....

Chalciope....I'll see you soon, sister.....

And so.....House Anavros truly ends with me.... (if her children all died in battle)

Skill Level Increase Quotes:

This should help my experiments.

This will impress Tancred.

Rosamund will enjoy this.

I shall make use of this for Her Majesty.

Oh, I know Hubert will find this delightful.

Hmh. Interesting.

Even an old crone can learn something.

Level Up Quotes:

Every day, a little life.

The Anavros Standard.

I suppose I'm still rusty.

You'd be impressed what age can do.

Eventually we learn all we can.

Gift Quotes:

Liked Gifts: Oh, sweetheart. You're far too kind to an old lady like myself.

Neutral Gifts: How thoughtful. Thank you, darling.

Disliked Gifts: Well, I was in need of something to test this new potion on.

[aroaceleovaldez]

hi, i was wondering what all of your autistic headcanons were for all of the main riordanverse characters (as in, which characters do you believe to be autistic/coded?) you’ve spoken a lot in the past about nico and leo but do you have any others?

A slight clarification (not directed at you, Anon, I’ve just seen this in my notes lots and it’s related): Headcanons and characters being coded as something are different! For Nico and Leo I specifically refer to them as being autistic-coded, not headcanons (though i do also have more specific autism-related hcs for them!). The difference primarily being autistic-coded characters are wholly determined as such through textual analysis of the canon and/or authorial intention. Headcanons do not require a basis in anything.

That being said! Riordanverse characters I believe are autistic-coded:

Nico & Leo, definitely.

Arguments can be made for Annabeth and Magnus but I don’t feel as strongly about those.

And then my autistic Riordanverse headcanons:

Jasonnnnn!! Jason Grace is autistic. His proprioception is absolute garbage and his body language skills/reading is near non-existent. He has absolutely zero idea how to hold himself at any given moment.

Both the Kane siblings. I give Sadie Kane a little kiss on the forehead. In Rick making so many “I’m not like other girls” characters he made it so easy to hc them as autistic.

Yknow how everyone draws Reyna as extremely stoic 24/7? Autistic!Reyna. What’s a facial expression? That’s none of her business. Also she totally wears her armor & praetor cloak as often as possible for sensory reasons. Who needs a weighted blanket when you have a magic cloak?

Going back to Nico & Leo for more specifics - Nico’s primary special interest at any given time jumps all over the place usually for a couple years at a time (though they never fade. One just takes center stage for a bit. He knows so many pirate/mythology facts and mythomagic stats) but Leo’s is pretty consistently machinery/technology/engineering. They are both in a constant loop of tying literally everything back to those topics in their brains.

Also Nico’s stuff tends to lean more heavily towards sensory while Leo’s tends to lean a lot more social, but they both have pretty strong aspects of both. Leo misses his coat with the bunch of pockets so much. If he’s not wearing at least two layers and some kind of suspenders/belt/etc he will cease to function. He’s also learned a variety of social scripts over the years but the minute things stray from it he will begin attempting to flee the situation.

Nico feels extremely conflicted about social situations cause on the one hand he is 100% an extrovert and if he doesn’t talk to people he’ll perish, but also he has the WORST time trying to pick up on what social cues people are putting down. He’s dying, squirtle. He absolutely uses ghosts to just secretly interpret social cues for him. Also. if Nico does not have an oversized coat (or at the very least some kind of second layer) or his ring he will Also Begin Ceasing To Function.