#i make a terrible gm lmao

[simplysanders]

This was the opening little cinematic kinda thing I gave my players for the pathfinder 2e campgain Ive been running. Nearly been an entire year now, quite nostalgic to look back at.

[inkdemonapologist]

A buncha scribbles from session 15 of the BatIM Cthulhu game! including:

Prophet swapped Sammy in for a brief moment of awareness before the final ritual to release the muses, in which he was relieved to see Susie okay and Susie was glad to see him... back to normal! Oh geez. Sammy doesn't actually know what Prophet's interactions with Susie were, but he's sure he probably regrets them

Susie hummed a little bit of a new version of one of the Bendy songs Sammy had been working on and oH YEAH THATS RIGHT SHE'S STILL KIND OF POSSESSED,

Back when the Coney Island ride they were underneath was flooding, I specified that Prophet was going to climb up the stairs "on all fours" to minimise chances of slipping and falling and I just wanted to try to draw this lmao. i forgot he was wearing a vest here

with Joey exhausted, Allison was the only one who could conduct the final ritual, and Sammy ended up calling out Prophet to keep an eye on her. i was just way too amused by the idea of sammy just TAKING A SWIG OF INK WITHOUT BREAKING EYE CONTACT TO DO THIS

also in addition to me drawing just so many scribbles of sammy lawrence i DO have some out-of-context quotes for you!!

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[GM] It kind of jolts, and turns – assumedly – towards you, [Sammy] *laughs* YOU CAN’T TELL which direction it’s looking in, just, IT HAS MOVED

[GM] And some tentacles are gonna come at you guys! Like they do. [Jack] #JustTentacleThings

[Joey] This IS Joey’s arm, which means if it does get destroyed by the circle, Joey’s going to be missing an arm…! [Jack] I can fix it, it’s fine, [GM] It’s fine! Yeah! [Sammy] How many limbs would you like to be made of ink, Joey Drew?! [Joey] I dunno if he’s gonna have a CHOICE! [Sammy] You’re going to have fewer working limbs than Moonlight.

[Sammy] These guys might all be those goop people, who are harder to fight than humans – [Henry] I don’t think Henry’s thinking about that. I think Henry just heard Bendy and Joey scream and is in Go Mode. [Sammy] Well-- [Henry] I mean, it’s a smart thought! I don’t think Henry’s having it right now.

[Sammy] Leon, if you want to surprise us all and do something really heroic, PLEASE go for it [Jack] I thought you were going to say “please DON’T” [GM] “Don’t be a hero!!” [Sammy] No no, I think it’s fine, if he wants to be a hero, I think he should do it. [Joey] I mean, if he wants to grab Colette and RUN, that would be great, [Sammy] Yeah, nobody can DRAIN INK out of HIM! [Jack] Unless we’re about to learn something,

[Sammy] No, wait, that was Colette’s parents. I can keep all my minor NPCs straight! [Jack] Straight? In this campaign?! [Sammy] *startled laugh* [GM] Tell me about it…! [Sammy] We can’t keep ANY of our NPCs straight! We’re fundamentally terrible at it.

[Jack] I’m imagining it like, you know when you try to use an item in the wrong place in pokemon? [Joey] THE MASKED MESSENGER SAYS: IT ISN’T THE TIME TO USE THAT!

[Joey] Hold on. I was going between two normal ideas, and then I had a really weird one, so I need to check something. [GM] Joey? Making bad decisions in the finale of a scenario? What a thought! [Joey] hIS SANITY IS NINETEEN, SO!!!!

[Joey] Okay. I have an idea. >:3 [Sammy] Oh NO. [Henry] Oh no. Have you got a Joey Plan™? [Joey] *cackling* [Sammy] *muttering under breath* We really should’ve just… waited for Henry…

[Joey] Joey is going to realise the ink is being siphoned from them for use in whatever this guy is trying to do, and he’s not pleased about that, [Sammy] Yeah, neither am I. So far we’re on the same page – [Joey] It’s HIS ink–! [Sammy] It, it’s not – okay. [Joey] So, remember when Joey was visited by the Masked Messenger, and they had the little battle over ink possession? Joey is going to take over the Ink in the circle -- [Sammy] OKAY! This SURE is a Joey Drew™ Plan, [Joey] -- and reclaim it for himself, and take over the magic! [Sammy] Well, the LAST time we had a circle dedicated to doing something with the Yellow King, and Joey switched it to be himself instead, that went SO well, why WOULDN’T you do the same thing again!! [Joey] Listen, he has 19 sanity, I don’t know what you’re expecting from him. *rolls* …….He has 18 sanity, I don’t know what you’re expecting from him!

[Henry] Henry is going to shove the blade of his axe against this guy’s throat and tell him if he does anything fishy, he’ll kill him. [Joey] (This includes turning into a fish.) [Joey] (No more tentacle monsters, no more fish monsters, none of that!)

[Henry] 32, which is a hard success. [Sammy] …What’s your intimidate skill?!? [GM] Oh, y’know, :) [Henry] 85. [Sammy] *nervous laughter???* [Jack] Normal amount. [Henry] Normal amount! [Sammy] YEAH, the same number as Sammy’s musical skill??? OKAY COOL!!!

[Sammy] Does Sammy look like his mascara is running? I just want to know.

[Joey] Can I… *quietly* ...grab Colette and toss her out of the circle? [Sammy] … YEET HER? [Joey] yEAH,,, [Henry] Can’t be more damage than falling over a fence. *everyone giggles except for Sammy* [Sammy] …Okay.

[Sammy] I can’t believe Joey is stealing Prophet’s nemesis. Rude. [GM] I mean, Joey DID stab Moonlight. They can share! [Joey] …I don’t know if they can share. They’ve been doing very bad at sharing.

[Jack] Also she’s not an ink creature, so, big win for you, Leon!

[Sammy] It grabbed me in the leg, right? [GM] Yeah! This is the cool leg scar. [GM] Not to be confused with the not-cool leg scar, [Jack] He’s just never going to live that down, huh. [Sammy] He COULD, if everyone would stop bringing it up! [GM] Sammy wakes up and hopes dearly that Prophet tripped over a fence so at least it’s both of them, but no…

[Joey] So – hold on, let me see if a thing existed back then. [GM] Oh boy…? [Joey] 18th century. Great! Okay, so I’m going to drain the rest of my magic points, to do a new toon action – you know those, circular saw blades? [GM] BUZZSAWS???

[Henry] Henry’s gonna do something suuuuuper risky,,, [Henry] He’s going to drop the axe and summon the scythe. [Sammy] ….OKAY, [Joey] Okay…! I’m very curious what’s going to happen if Henry uses the scythe on the mirror. [Henry] Oh, I wasn’t thinking that. [Sammy] UM, [GM] This is fine, this is great! [Sammy] Nervous chuckle, I’m in danger, [Henry] Henry is going to say “Sammy, duck!” and, swing the scythe [Sammy] OH, OKAY, I WILL DO THAT, [GM] Make a dodge roll! [Sammy] OhhhHHH THAT’S NOT GOOD… THAT’S NICE, BUT IT’S NOT GOOD,,,, My dodge is 55 and I rolled a 69, [Joey] Nice [GM] Nice! [Henry] And since it’s in close quarters, I’m guessing it’ll go through both of them. [GM] Yeah! Roll damage! [Sammy] CAN I,,,, PUSH THAT ROLL MAYBE,,, [GM] [GM] No. :) [Henry] *cackles*

[Jack] THAT’S trauma for future Sammy!!

[Jack] He’s gonna see if Sammy’s okay! See what’s going on. [Sammy] Sammy still looks pretty shaken up, and will tell him, “Stay back my sheep – I will join you soon.” [Henry] “I’m not going to hurt him!” [Sammy] jUST GIVES HENRY A LOOK,

[Sammy] So that’s seven damage! [GM] Okay! You see that the shadowy figure on the other side is ALSO trying to hit the mirror. [Sammy] Huh. Can I tell anything about the shadowy figure, now that I’m right up next to the mirror? [GM] Yeah! :) Uh, looks kinda familiar. It’s maybe somebody you’ve seen before. [Jack] yEAH I thought it might be,,, [Sammy] …wait, what? [GM] Maybe somebody… last scenario… [Jack] Who’s in Carcosa… and wants to break the mirror… [GM] Yeah, someone like that maybe! [Sammy] ………….. Is it… is it Moonlight…? [GM] Yeah! Yeah it is! ...Anyway, the mirror breaks. :)

*successful dexterity check to avoid getting knocked over* [GM] Okay, you keep your feet! [Sammy] Thanks, I like my feet.

[Joey] Joey is going to start scanning for his people, who LEFT HIM while he was being thrown around by tentacles, [Sammy] You were a great distraction, thank you. [Jack] You’ve gotta keep a better eye on your people, one of them just stabbed another! [Joey] EVERYONE ABANDONED ME! [Sammy] I TOLD YOU WHAT I WAS DOING! [Joey] Oh, yeah, no, Prophet gets a pass. Everyone else ran off, and – [Henry] YOU LEFT HENRY! [Joey] ….eh, ‘strue. [Joey] …Left Henry with others! [GM] Bendy’s still there! [Joey] Yeah. Bendy’s got me. [Sammy] Joey, any time he’s trying to leave by himself: “No, I’m never alone, I’m with Bendy!” Joey, as soon as we figure he’s fine, because he’s with Bendy: “HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME ALL ALONE?!” [Jack] Betrayed, Abandoned,

[Joey] And the water is coming in fast, [Henry] These people are going to have SUCH a mold problem when we’re done…

[Joey] Does Bendy have any magic points…? [Sammy] “I spent all of mine turning my arms into buzzsaws!” [Jack] As you do!

[Sammy] Poor Leon. I’m so sorry. You’re going to have to go straight into an asylum.

[GM] You’re pretty sure you’re not in Carcosa. [Jack] Okay, good. I needed to know if Jack would be panicking about things… [GM] He’s got plenty to panic about, but that one is currently good!

[GM] I wonder if Sammy… from Sammy’s point of view, Jack was driving when he lost consciousness, and then he’s still driving when he comes back! Like… he doesn’t even know they went to Coney Island, I don’t think? [Sammy] No, I guess not! Joey was just like “I know where they’re taking Colette” [Sammy] And now we’re going back to the Studio so it’s like, I guess we got Colette! And got wet, for some reason! [Jack] At least he didn’t end up seeing The Great Bertrum Piedmont. [Sammy] There are SO many things it’s good that he didn’t end up seeing.

[GM] Bendy is going to chime in that it was busy, but they went to an amusement park! [Joey] Joey’s going to correct him that they did NOT go to an amusement park. That was not what that is. [GM, as Bendy] “That’s what you said it was last time we went!” [Joey] “Was it like last time we went?!” [GM] He’ll think about that, go quiet for a minute, and then be like, “No, I guess not, huh!” [Joey] “EXACTLY.” [GM, as Bendy] “Yeah, he’s right, we didn’t!” [Sammy] Hm. Hmmmm. Sammy’s squinting at you both.

[Sammy] He might still cough up blood, just not embarrassingly so. Just, in a cool way!

[Henry] Henry will… “pull” is too strong of a word? But Henry will… physically encourage Joey to step back from the circle.

[Sammy] Ehhhhh, I don’t have a lot of hitpoints… [Joey] Who needs hitpoints? [Sammy] I do, I need them!!

[GM] *rolls* …hm. *mumbling to self* What do I do with that…? [Sammy] Troubling reaction! [GM] ….huh…. [Joey] Not getting less troubling!

[Henry] I don’t want to keep using the scythe spell, but it keeps presenting itself as the best option! [Joey] DO YOU HAVE, ANY OTHER OPTIONS,, FIRST???? [Henry] These things have a bajillion HP! [Sammy] I mean, you COULD do the scythe thing, but maybe don’t hit anybody else with it! [Jack] I think you should hit Sammy with it again. [Sammy] NO I DON’T THINK YOU SHOULD

[Henry] Well, my strength is higher… oh no, it’s not, I’ve been doing too much mAGIC, [Sammy] That’s what happens when you do the scythe spell constantly!!! [Henry] Uggghhhhhhh... [Sammy] “Been doing too much scythe spell, better do some more scythe spell!”

[Joey] Do we have any bonus dice left? [Sammy] *sarcastically* Well! If we end up at the hotel, I DID scout it out ahead of time!

[GM] And Joey is feeling all the way better, except for all the ways that he is not!

[Henry] I just want to say, I did not expect Weird Henry to go on for FOUR SESSIONS. [Sammy] He went out with a bang, too, sliced a scythe RIGHT THROUGH THE PROPHET, [Henry] Yeah, everything has been working out so great!

[diabeticgirl4]

Brief taz gn review, spoilers afoot!

Djfhskfjdkgjf I'm so emotional over all of it. Ofc they cut some things, but I think one of the things that bummed me out most was taako not having to lose his beauty. Like that was Such a big deal to the fandom, imo it added so much depth to taako's character (surface level: haha yeah he's a vain elf ofc that's a terrible thing for him/ deeper level: now he won't match his twin that he doesn't realize he have;;;;;;) but eh I get it wasn't fully impactful to the overall plot so I get it I guess. Still bummed.

Another thing that irked me for a beyond stupid reason but why did they use the higher E for the first E in egg babe. In the music (specifically Voidfish(plural)) it's the lower E. Both Es are the same. Why the high E. That just sounds weird. Idk. That bugged me for the dumbest reason.

Still not the biggest fan of Edward/Lydia's designs but eh I'll let it slide.

Literally everything else was so wonderful tho aaaaaaaaaa

The whole slicer of t'peir weir isles bit was AMAZING. Everything I could've wanted. Bless lmao.

The bad luck. Chefs kiss. Mwah. The angst goblin in me was so satisfied in how it was portrayed lmao. It always bugged me in the podcast how they kinda joked and forgot the major damage taako took (granted I get it's more of a comedy podcast so fine I get it), but like it's hard to hide/brush past that in a visual aspect and idk I appreciated it lol.

Also when taako Blinked and the hunger's eyes everywhere watching them. Mwah. And no healing in wonderland!! Aaagh I just rly love how the emotional aspect of these moments were portrayed. Wonderland's fricked up yo.

I forgot about Barry using thieves cant to talk w magnus, that was so excellent. And Dupree!!!!! Bless Dupree. <3

Gosh the arms outstretched scene was so so good. I was listening to the soundtrack song and just. Chills. And Kravitz!!!!! My boy!!!!! Taako having to make a choice and trying to go for both but watching Krav get sucked back in..... weh that was rough. Emotionally wonderful lmao.

Oh!!!!! That moment when griffin basically disappeared from them??? I loved that omg. Such an ohsh- meta way of showing how frickt up things are getting. The gm can't save you now. (Also I was curious if that was referencing how they switched from dnd for stolen century and griffin wasn't the same gm in the same sense. Huh)

Barry Bluejeans my beloved <3 gosh all the the flashbacks were incredible. I'm so hecking hyped for stolen century. Ahh!!

Also every time Lup taakos umbrella jumped to Barry that was so cute <3

LUP!!!!!!! Filling her in all of taako's staticked memories, we still don't get a clear look of her face until the final portrait reveal, but lup!!!! Her!!!!! I'm emotional!!!! And so is taako lmao!!!! Just. That single panel of her blowing up the fantasy dmv on her best day ever. I want that framed on my wall it's so beautiful.

Just. Gosh. It's all coming together. Everybody getting inoculated(x2) and getting memories back, davenport!!!!! Boy howdy lest ppl forget his sin was wrath in that one year. His face when he said "what have you done?" Chills absolute chills.

Just. Baawww the whole thing was amazing. It's all coming together!!! The adventure concludes(!!) in Story and Song!!!! AaaaaaaaAa

I'm emotional. So good. 10/10. Aaaaaa

[nochi-quinn]

candela obscura chapter 3 episode 1: oh god everybody's fucked up

I'm here, I fell asleep and missed the start but I'm here

lmao the immediate note-taking

ur really committing to that voice huh liam

marisha made an older character and liam said hold my dentures

STEAMPUNK JAZZY

heyyyy someone else makes the joke I picked up from a stargate episode 20 years ago

liam what was that look

absolutely love ashly's wig

sam looking like he got hit with a cattle prod

what's a sam reigel

why are we getting oscar's CV

"are they hot"

listen I saw the trailer he 100% uses that chain to beat people with

"no one calls you carey, oscar"

oh no he's hot

oh he's kotallo, that's why

the flat cap does look good on sam, I can't lie

y'all that's gay

I like cordelia's little halo

eloise best character

(maybe that's the look liam was giving ashly, eloise vs elsie)

elsie's a werewolf calling it

yesss the old people guilt trip

liam

oscar: I'm gonna punch a ghost

"you're wearing a ball gown. it's the morning."

the maw??

haha it took me until literally this moment to remember ashly is aloy, my ship is reunited

"I'm using my bullshit detector" did you get that cleared with the gm

I like the term "blood and guts doctor"

I've been watching S1G play Slay the Princess and the more they describe her the more she sounds like a Princess variant

oh no lights

liam you did that on purpose

oh Aadtika (?) is a very pretty name

"lung, heart" liver, nerves

"you have an extra house?" "you don't?"

rajan

"you slick son of a bitch"

he IS a slick son of a bitch

oh sam's being THAT character

prepared to spend three episodes threatening to punch oscar in the head and throw him in the pool

("nochi nobody read your free! livetweets" well maybe they should have)

sam doesn't watch the product

liam always wants to roleplay fish and chips

[picks elsie and raj up and shakes them until backstory falls out]

"I'll be as subtle as I can be" smash cut to him beating someone to death with a chain

the docks seems like a terrible place to play baseball

sam

did they do a dndbeyond for candela?

they did!

sam forgot he was short

"high stakes not for harm" but bc it's funny

rajan: oh I am NOT involved, you made that VERY clear

"don't waste that on me" "I agree"

I'm being gaslit bc I've always pronounced "copse" like "cope" with an "s" in it

shades of the old man at my previous psych office yelling about obama's secret weather machine

"I help by SCREAMING"

grandpa's making a wheel for it

[mabel pines voice] grappling hook!

the way sam rolls dice STILL kills me

oh good, everyone else also thinks they should fuck

"why can't we just be friends? oh right, because I don't like you."

what the fuck's a flashlight

"yeah! temperature play! :D" aabria

"do you go down my little hole" "of course!" aren't y'all divorced

oh no an ot3

don't say degloved that means something else

oh I dig that

werewolf!

lights!

were….thing!

oh no aabria's doing the voice

everything goes black, and you die

l…lights?

breathing?

how could crcw not have prepared me for this

immortal asshole oscar grimm

EXCUSE

oh he's an asshole because he gave up the non-asshole bits to bargain with death

hey sam what the fuck

oh hey ashly. ow.

thump thumps? why?

loud??

imagine if oscar coming back just freaked elsie right back into beast mode

there's another hour left of this wtf happens

yessssss "I'd take a bullet for him but I wouldn't go drinking with him" my beloved

local woman realizing that everyone around her is an absolute freak

liam's startled old man noise

"ohhh I'm not good at that"

ACTION GLASSES

wait I don't understand what he just did

oh he did a drug

little bird ;-;

his WHAT

chairsword!

it glows blue when there are nuns nearby

where's that one digital devil saga monster

I desperately need an artist's rendition of this orca-mantis-thing

excuse me

I keep missing the spelling of his sister's name

"oh god everybody's fucked up"

A WHAT built in his WHAT

augh eye stuff no quiero

is noshir lefthanded?

I kind of half-called that

"that felt like twenty. that was a season."

BEEKEEPER

"do you know you're covered in bees?"

I like my women like I like my coffee

"because yours is super chill"

liam you can uncommit to the voice

(he will not)

"drop the skincare routine"

[intertexts]

HI ROS !!!!!! coming into ur inbox this lovely afternoon with a random question bc i like your taste in things. I need a new work podcast bc im caught up with most of my other ones. I've got TWO saved because of you so I thought I'd get ur opinion: which one first. hello from the hallowoods or skyjacks :] ik u like them both (and I DO plan to get thru them both eventually but I need 2 do them one at a time or else I'll explode)

OH GOD. INSANELY HARD QUESTION!!!!!!!! FUCKED UP!!!!!!! umm. ok. ok. they're both still currently ongoing, hfth has 160 episodes so far & skyjacks has something like 230. hfth has a sort of anthology structure with many different key characters and protagonists and plot threads that all get woven together through vignettes, skyjacks is just one overarching narrative. that's the quick comparison.

-hfth: good if ur still the kind of guy who gets really emotional over casual trans & queer rep in the year of our lord 2024 despite it being "everywhere now" and "not a big deal." (me LMAO) it's not like, a podcast About That, & it's kind of reductive to say that as the first thing about it, but like. it is deeply and fundamentally and lovingly a gaytrans show. it's horror, but like, the horror equivalent of spiced tea before bedtime, more strange and warped and delightful surrealism than much else. doesn't leave u with the Residue (neutral!!! feeling awful after u finish a horror thing is like frequently part of the appeal!!) that heavier horror does. anthology with overarching plot & it's really really fun to figure out the way all the pieces fit together. there are very endearing terrifying eldritch gods and gay sad little demons and ghost boys and older butches and sentient skulls inside a weird tank body. many very resonant themes and motifs. tons of really great character work, i can think of off the top of my head at least five or so characters u will love, very fun show. makes me miss living in the woods!!!!

skyjacks: okay man. you KNOW this is my favorite ttrpg show of all time. c'mon. okay. yeah despite the insane way pd has taken over my brain (& it is a REALLY good n fun show i think) & the way im constantly talking about friends at the table as a seminal actual play show that does some of The best writing in any of the space & is easily the Best, etc. skyjacks is so fucking good. james d'amato is an incredible gm, the sound design is really lovely, the worldbuilding is. my favorite. sometimes i just sit and kick my feet around giggling and smiling and thinking about spéir. its so fucking sick it feels like folklore and fairy tales and historical romances. there are huge birds u can fly on instead of horses. the sea is angry and has spit you out. the gods are dead and the stars have fallen out of the sky. pirate story, also, btw. u will fall in love with the uhuru. maybe partially why i haven't started riptide bc skyjacks is already The pirate campaign to me. i also already know Exactly which pc u will latch onto. honestly the pcs & their dynamics are also all really compelling, nobody at the table fucking misses.

anyway. TERRIBLE answer to this question ummm i would listen 2 the pilot of both of them n then choose! they're both two of my all time faves!!! enjoy!!! :3333

[ostrichmonkey-games]

DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE Design Dive

Wow this has been sitting in my drafts, mostly finished for ages now. Anyways, time to release it to the wilds.

A few weeks ago I released a new game (editor's note: it has now been more than a few weeks), DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE for the Together We Go Jam over on itch. Together We Go is a design guide/SRD based on Down We Go, which itself is under the often nebulous umbrella of "OSR" gaming. In this case, it's the snappy mechanics, emphasis on anti-canon, relatively high lethality, and emphasis on the table's creativity is what puts it under that umbrella, imo. I'd consider it part of the maybe post-osr or N(ew)SR but that's a discussion for another time and for people who understand that scene better than me. I was drawn to TWG b/c it's a pretty simple framework with a cool twist on the typical OSR style of classes.

Rather than picking a class, you invest levels into multiple classes as you progress, with each class having its own set of cool abilities and more importantly, bonuses. One class might give you a bonus to hit things, another increases your defense. Stuff like that. It's pretty fun! A full breakdown on DWG/TWG could be fun sometime.

Now, time for the DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE stuff beneath the cut! It's long!

WRITING AND DESIGN

Anyway, DGMS. Originally I had the brain-blast of a title for the eventual game; Hyperpop Megastructure. Which honestly, could be very fun to revisit, but I scrapped that angle because I didn't want to do too much on the layout/graphic design side of things (editor's note; he did in fact do too much on the layout/graphic design side of things) and a hyperpop inspired game should have a wild layout. Also I'm just not familiar enough with the genre to really do it service -lmao.

I stuck with the Megastructure part for the time being and started brainstorming the potential classes (since those make the mechanical core of the game). Below are the early versions straight from my notes;

These were the initial outlines for the classes (a 4th was added later) and really set the tone for the rest of the game (and it marks the first appearance of the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE). By that point, I knew I wanted to do something inspired by BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei. Its the first thing I always think of when the word "megastructure" comes up. Honestly, it's a very formative piece of sci-fi for me.

I wanted to push DGMS weirder. Just go all out on the nonsense. Together We Go games don't rely on a lot of setting exposition. The information of the world is found within the mechanics, random tables, gear, and factions that are presented.

This is what forms the central idea of an "anti-canon". You (the writer) give just enough info on the world and setting for the table to get started, but the details, the lore and truths about that world emerge at the table as the Referee/GM and players explore and interact with what is on the paper.

The FRACTALDEATHMACHINE is the biggest example of this anti-canon in practice. All the table gets is a brief description of a few general things. The FDM is hungry, it is ancient, and it is always pursuing the TOWER. A few other places in the text provide more spaces for the table to explore by prompting the players and GM to come up with "terrible truths" about the nature of the FDM.

What is this insight? Why is it considered terrible? Go find out!

For DGMS I wrote a relatively short bit relaying the premise of the game to readers; you play as POST_human remnants within the ancient megastructure the TOWER which is constantly under threat by the ravenous FRACTALDEATHMACHINE.

Side note, I absolutely went bananas with funky proper nouns and formatting. Small things like that can really help convey the tone of the game!

And that's really about it for the setting assumptions. More details are tucked into descriptions of the factions, gear, classes, and locations you get to explore, but there aren't any answers out there. Its all up to the table to find those answers for themselves! What is the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE, why is it devouring the TOWER, can you stop it? Who knows!

Go find out!

MECHANICS

The core game mechanics fit onto a single page, and aren't really changed too much from the base TWG system. In general, its a straightforward "roll over a difficulty value" using a d20.

Three of the four classes give a special bonus either to hit things, defense, or "hacking" - the undefined "magic" of the game. The fourth class, the DLVR, gets a special situational bonus that implies something about their place in the world - a special bonus against ARCHITECT relics - something which furthers the potential for the table to explore the anti-canon. What exactly is their link to the ARCHITECTS?

Outside of the core mechanics and classes, there are two major parts of the game (and two slightly more minor-ish parts). The LAYERS of the TOWER and the CTY_enclave. LAYERS are effectively unmapped "dungeons". They are dangerous sections of the world where the "outside" adventures happen.

DWG uses mapped dungeons as its, well, dungeons. I've never been hugely into running or playing through mapped dungeons (though I appreciate a well thought out dungeon!) And also I'm lazy. So unmapped it is. LAYERS are essentially a compact list of hazards, hostiles, and interesting tid-bits for the referee to use to whip up something fun and dangerous.

TWG games have a punchy, fast-paced, high-lethality action, so in DGMS, I was far more concerned with providing refs a general template and list of Interesting Things, than complex maps or complicated enemies. The ref does far more responding to player actions than they do planning out complicated encounters. It is perfectly easy, in this sort of game, to just toss something at the players and see what happens!

Couple that with mechanics such as "reaction rolls" (randomly determining how NPCs react to players) and the ref's job starts to become plugging a few random variables into a mechanical procedure, seeing what gets spit out, and then asking players what they do next, and then continuing the whole loop! I love procedural gameplay, and could, and probably will, write more on that another time.

Aside from being the places where most of the adventures happen, LAYERS are also another way to package Interesting World bits. One of my favorite parts about writing for/designing this style of game, is that you rarely need justification for putting something in. I can say that in one LAYER, players will face a "MACHINE!!GOD blastula". And that's it! Everything about the nature of that thing is going to emerge at the table, and will almost always be way cooler than whatever deep lore I could have written for it! (Now, this doesn't mean that I don't enjoy writing some Dense Exposition, but time and place and all that).

The other half to the LAYERS is the CTY_enclave; the players homebase and secondary adventure site. I whipped up a quick mapping procedure for creating your CTY_enclave, and it shifts every time the players return to it from their adventures. There are different modules within the CTY. In some you can buy stuff, others you can get information and recover health. Some hide valuable resources but also equally hidden danger.

Just like LAYERS, I wanted to embed story-potential, that delicious anti-canon, into the CTY. Little nuggets of Ideas like, Conduit Riders in the middle of a death race, machine monks transporting a metal sarcophagus (that has a small chance of containing a copy of one player!), or gaining the ability to commune with the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE itself, are breadcrumbs that could turn into larger story beats and adventures if the players and table invest their own interpretation and meaning into them!

Aside from that, the main Design Bit I did for the CTY is the mapping method. A hub location is part of the TWG vibe, but I felt that one, mapping using dice is fun, and two, a constantly, randomly shifting hub really suited the tone and setting of the game.

The last two main parts of the game are the gear and hostile lists. Again, they have surface purposes - cool stuff to Get, cool stuff to Fight (and get killed by) - but also help provide more of that anti-canon scaffolding (I am really going to need to do a whole thing on anti-canon at some point).

LAYOUT AND GRAPHIC DESIGN

And here's where my hubris caught up with me. What initially was going to be a nice, simple, streamlined layout, ended up being over the top. But it was super fun to make, so no need for me to learn any lessons here.

When designing layout, I tend to start with some cover ideas and mockups. Since BLAME! was such a large thematic inspiration, I also looked at its covers (specifically the Master Edition versions). I love the brutalist inspired graphic design, and wanted to carry that into DGMS, and then add a layer of grunge and wear and tear to it as well.

I played around a lot with masks and textures (there's literally a picture of concrete that I turned into a texture) before eventually landing on the looks you can see on the cover. Then it was also a matter of perusing fonts for text, headers, etc, etc.

For the interior, I made heavy use of Lone Archivist's Graphic Archive asset packs. They rule. Buy them here.

I made my life infinitely more difficult by making every single page different and unique, but it was also a fun art project, so I don't regret that. I didn't spend too much time on typesetting, because this was technically a game jam entry (though I did clean it up later when the game ended up getting printed).

And honestly, that takes us to the end. My process was kind of all over the place for making the final version, a lot of jumping between the text and layout. But it ended up being a very fun project with one of my favorite final results.

If you're interested in picking up the game yourself, you can snag the digital version off my itch page HERE (there's currently a handful of free community copies if you wanna try before you buy) and if you're interested in print copies, Plus One EXP has you covered over HERE.

Spencer of Gila RPGs also made a fantastic 5-minute overview of the game you can watch;

And! Tony hosted a stream that I GMed if you want to see how the game is in action;

But yeah, DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE. It's one of my favorite games I've made!

[a-clowns-words]

BNHA class 1-A boys and their texting styles:

Bakugou: *CAPS LOCK*, "Fuck, shit, mf, etc.", *excessive swearing*, "?!?!", "BAHAHAHAHA, PFFFT" "🖕" (only emoji he ever uses), proper grammar and punctuation most of the time and always spells everything right, will leave people on read out of pure spite almost every time, nicknames for everyone and constantly comes up with new ones, gets kicked out of the class group chat a lot- mostly for kicking Deku though the lovesick fool is always the one to add his blond bitch boy back

Deku: "???", daily "gm!, hru, wyd?, u good?, gnnn!", "i-"/"-"'s a lot, ":D, :), >:), :(, -_-, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, etc.", "loll, hehe, HA", "😊✨💗" (only positive emojis except when he's talking to Bakugou then maybe a possible 🙄), texts back as soon as he can and apologizes excessively when it takes a while, uses mostly lowercase letters and no punctuation but spells everything right with good grammar, sometimes swears but censors

Kirishima: "BROOOO, LETS GOOO, NO WAY MAN!" "Dude, bro, man, my guyyy" ":DDD, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯", "LMAO, PFFFT" "😎😅❤️👍", almost no punctuation ever besides a ! after almost everything-, needs autosuggest to spell right but it betrays him a lot, responds immediately no matter what he's doing, only low-key swears and never at someone like "damn, shit, etc."

Todoroki: "...", *no emojis or emoticons ever*, propper punctuation and grammar as well as perfect spelling every time, got very annoyed at autosuggest so he turned it off, turned off the emoji keyboard as well, took him forever to understand abbreviations and slang.. still doesn't really get it and swore to himself he'd never use it in his life, responds when he feels like it but won't leave someone on read unless it's his father or by accident, never swears

Iida: "!!!", "tHis iS nOt aN aPPrOpRiaTe tOpiC!!!", "😠‼️ 👍👎", constantly getting kicked out of the class group chat (usually by bakusquad members) for being too controlling- even leaving by himself sometimes, has great grammar and punctuation and all but autosuggest also hates him and he gets laughed at a lot for his terrible typos, dose not swear and scolds others for doing so, responds to people quickly occasionally leaving them on read if it's nothing important or he forgets

Denki: "Ooooo~", ":D, >:D, :), :(, etc." "😉😋🤠", "Bro, sis, dude, girl", *inappropriate jokes intensify* (though he always apologizes), "im not stupid im just gAy, lol im dying", "LMAOOO, XD, AHAHAHA", doesn't even bother trying to spell anymore or use any type of proper grammar, gets some weird autocorrects but just rolls with it and concerns everyone, is a dumbass 24/7 and literally almost no one understands what he texts, would never leave someone on read and responds quick

Sero: a mix of Kirishima and Denki, doesn't talk a lot though and when he does it's usually just to ask for homework help or to annoy Bakugou, forgets to respond a lot so he leaves people on read by accident.

Tokoyami: *dry*, "I'm dead inside.", *big words that make Denki's brain hurt*, rarely talks, only types maybe up to three words max in a text, perfect grammar and punctuation, also turned off autosuggest so he had perfect spelling as well, leaves everyone on read for a long while before responding

Aoyama: "✨✨✨" ...that's literally it- he just sends sparkles with every text and rarely comes on to chat anyways, will leave someone on read because he doesn't like them

Ojiro, Kouda, and Satou: Want to text people but always think they'll be annoying, go on the group chat sometimes to talk but usually see chaos and just spectate instead, would never leave someone on read except for maybe Kouda and only because he's shy or doesn't know how to respond- or both, calm texting, no swearing and usually good grammar and spelling except sometimes Satou who has pretty terrible spelling and makes a lot of typos

Shouji: No one even knows he's in the group chat, barely anyone remembers he actually has a phone and if someone does text him he usually only gives quick one or two word responses

Mineta: *censored*, got kicked from the group chat after about 15 minutes by Bakugou when he came on and saw he was added, no one protested

Shinsou: got added by Denki before he joined class 1-a, "mhm, mk, whatever", "-_-", *also pretty dry*, leaves everyone on read unless they bug him a lot because he hates people but still doesn't want to be rude, has average spelling and grammar but again he almost never talks so it's not very apparent

[oversimplify-it]

Story Process Tag by @herpixels​

I was tagged by @dynastiasimss​ - Thank you so much for tagging me!! 😊💖💗 This will most definitely get a bit wordy because I’m terrible at explaining things concisely! 😂 Also, I’ll mostly be talking about my process for 2.B.A Grandmaster but I’ll touch on my process for Erin in San Myshuno too!

I’m also going to get tags out of the way up here so that no one has to scroll all the way through this ... absolute novel that is under the cut LMAO so I tag: @cyansimblr  @x-simss @matchacake and any other simblrs who wanna do this!! and feel free to skip if you want!

1. Your writing process My writing process is very, very chaotic, and changes with the wind... Erin in San Myshuno doesn’t really have a process, I just play the game and then put in some dialogue based on the events. None of it is guided by my hand at all though! 2.B.A Grandmaster on the other hand is written in part based on what happens in game and in part by my own creative vision. Most of the time, I let stuff happen, and then fill in the blanks in between events. I go in game, play Sims as I normally would (skill build, take care of needs, go out to venues, etc.) and then watch what weird and interesting things happen. For example, Augusta’s meeting with Xavier in the beginning was completely the game’s doing! He was the only one to show up for the Welcome Wagon event, so I rolled with that. Scenes like Kaitlin’s meeting with Maverick and those sort of things are planned by me, as they’re necessary to create a more full narrative! It’s like collaborative storytelling, but my “partner” is a game that is weird and random and crazy. 😂 After stuff happens in game and I get screenshots, I then actually write for it. I chose to write novel style for the series because - as some of my long-term followers may remember - I had another story that was just screenshots with dialogue on them? And it was very hard, LOL, it didn’t suit my workflow very well and I ended up dropping it after a month or so. I wanted 2.B.A Grandmaster to be something I could post consistently, and so I opted for a style that I was more familiar and experienced with!

2. Scene building For the most part, I just work with what sims gives me, but as I mentioned above, some scenes I actually go to the trouble of setting up. For those, I still use the sims animations mostly (I’ve used poses about 3 times in 2.B.A Grandmaster so far) but I do usher my sims around the "set” as I see fit. I build a lot of my own lots and locations for 2.B.A GM because I tend to get a vision in my mind of what I want and refuse to settle for less. 😂 One such case is the scene where Maverick meets up with Octavia--

I made the alleyway we see here - it’s two entirely empty buildings sandwiched side by side on an otherwise empty lot in Oasis Springs. The only part I bothered to decorate was the alley itself because I knew I wasn’t going to use the rest of the area, but maybe we’ll revisit it sometime and I’ll finish the two buildings! I actually loved making this set and like how it turned out, LOL~

Then I just have whatever sims are involved in a scene interact with each other for ages until I feel like I have enough screenshots to make a scene. I usually have a vague idea of what’s going to be said in any given scene - especially the ones I actually planned out beforehand - but I get some excess screenshots to be safe. I try lots of different interactions and pause like every few frames to get interesting expressions and stuff, LOL. Lots of “Complain about Cold Weather” and “Give fake bad news” ...

3. CC/Pose making I don’t actually make my own CC for 2.B.A GM specifically (I’ve made a couple eyeshadows but I don’t use them super frequently) but there is a scene coming up in the future that I plan to make poses for. I have a very clear image in my mind that includes a lot of subtle expressions and very specific things that I doubt I could find poses for, so I’m gonna have to brave the terrifying landscape of blender in order to make it a reality. 😧

4. Getting in the zone I don’t have any sort of “ok, show time” ritual like some people do but I wish I did, because my motivation waxes and wanes so unpredictably. Some days I just don’t feel like doing anything, and other days I edit and write for 5 posts in a row! I am always listening to something though, usually music, every once in a blue moon a video with lots of talking. 5. Screenshot folder

UGH... 

6. Captions I don’t do captions on 2.B.A GM posts, but for my city living gameplay I do! I keep them simple, because I don’t want to make it too much work for myself. Erin in San Myshuno’s style of editing is 100% based around ease, because I wanted something to post often that didn’t put too much of a strain on me. Verdana in white, typically 35-40 px, with a gradient border. Each sim we encounter has a different gradient color, usually based on their outfit or just the ~vibe~ I get from them. Erin’s gradient is Hot pink to ... gee, what would you call it. Sonic the Hedgehog Blue LMAO-- I chose that gradient because that’s the color of the overlay, which I’ll talk more about in the next section!

7. Editing My two ‘series’ - and I use that term loosely LMAO - have different editing processes, so I’ll try to summarize them both. Basically, for 2.B.A Grandmaster, I touch up the saturation and brightness depending on the scene. If it’s evening in the shots, I usually won’t touch brightness, and if it’s night, I might even lower it a bit for more accurate lighting! Once that’s done, I blur everything but relevant elements of a scene, usually the character we’re following or who is speaking. I have to select the character from the background manually which takes a bit, but other than that it’s very minimal.

My shots aren’t super glamorous, but I prefer simple screenshots and actually being able to keep up with a story schedule as opposed to what happened with my last story. 😬 As for Erin in San Myshuno, barring captions which I only do when I feel it’s necessary, it’s literally just an overlay on otherwise untouched screenshots. 😭 I would do more, but again, it’s supposed to be an easy downtime sort of series for me so~

This goes over top all screenshots on the “Add” setting at 20% opacity. It brightens things up and softens them, as well as making the colors slightly more harmonious! If anyone wants me to go more in depth on editing, or maybe captions, please let me know! I’m happy to talk about it if it’ll help anyone, and I know that a lot of tutorials cover how to do stuff in Photoshop, whereas I use FireAlpaca (which is 100% free btw! It’s more of an art program, but not bad for editing) 8. Throwback!

Oh boy, so this is one of my first posts on simblr. For starters, I didn’t know about camera mode at the time, so that’s the first thing I would change obviously LOL. 😬 The framing I did at the time was ... cute, but it makes the pictures feel kind of cramped and small in my opinion, so I did away with that for all of my later stories. Also, Amy and Gemma aren’t very well centered in this picture! Other than that, this isn’t actually terrible I don’t think, so aside from maybe blurring the background as I do on 2.B.A GM now, I wouldn’t change too much! Thankfully, I had observed other people’s stories before making my own on here for a little bit, so I wasn’t starting with absolutely no idea what to do, but I still think I’ve improved since I made these. 😊

This was a ton of fun!! If anyone has questions or wants more info on anything I covered in here, absolutely feel free to ask, and thank you so much if you actually read through all of this - I know I rambled for quite a while!! 🙏

[lichfucker]

9, 16, 22, 30 for ingot, and 2, 6, 8, 15 for andy!

9.  where does your character look when they're the only one walking down a road?

everywhere, but mostly forward. they’re slowly getting used to looking back to make sure they’re not being followed, but their instinct is to make sure nothing’s coming up ahead

16.  what does getting flustered look like for your character?

ingot’s got terrible foot-in-mouth syndrome lmfao. they get stiff and uncomfortable and say the exact wrong thing in any given situation. if they’re really upset they’ll just straight-up leave sldkfsd

22.  what's your character's ideal way to wake up? what usually wakes them up?

I think I’ve mentioned before that I think of ingot as a very disciplined sleeper, esp since he always had such rigid schedules. he’s the kind of person whose internal clock just wakes him up at the same time every day. it’s nice to wake up with the sunrise, though. it would also be nice to wake up with z’ress but since z’ress only needs to trance for four hours they’re usually already gone by the time ingot wakes up :/

30.  how has your character's first impressions of their party members changed since they met them? have they stayed the same?

hooo okay

saube: ingot’s first impression of saube was “you are Like Me but backwards, you are everything I’m not,” and I think that’s still true but it feels different now? ingot also thought that saube was too hesitant and naive and out of their depth, and it’s been really nice to watch saube become more strong and self-assured and decisive

whitlock: well right away whitlock was ingot’s favorite and that hasn’t changed lmfao. they thought that whitlock was very grounded and practical and not afraid to get his hands dirty, and all of that is still true, but whitlock is also far more relaxed and easygoing and FUN than ingot initially assumed

rae: ingot thought that rae was. a lot. and she is. sldkfsd ingot also thought that rae was very frivolous and kind of just there to have a good time, but it turns out that rae actually is very thoughtful and passionate and cares very deeply about justice in a way that ingot definitely wouldn’t have guessed

eun ha: I don’t think ingot knew what to make of eun ha at first. in the very beginning she was just “somebody who’s also here now, I guess.” this is not to say that I think ingot understands eun ha very well, because he doesn’t, he knows her the least well out of anyone, but I almost feel like at this point ingot wishes he understood eun ha LESS, because ingot is very comfortable disagreeing with people (especially with people who are relatively new), and it was... easier to disagree with eun ha in the beginning. I feel like I’m not explaining this well hhh :/

thank you for asking about andy  🥺 🥺 I love you

2.  would your character carry around a tiny bath and body works hand sanitizer? if yes, would it have a specific scent?

they wouldn’t, because a) they don’t want to leave behind any identifiable scent that could be traced back to them while they’re doing Shady Things, and b) they’re of the “I wash my hands, that’s clean enough, fuck you, I’ll never get sick” mindset re: hand sanitizer lmfao

6.  what parts of your character's voice/manner of speaking are distinct, if any?

andy’s got a THICK new york accent (which is FUN considering the game takes place in texas). they also tend to slur their words a bit, like they don’t enunciate very clearly, and they say “fuck” maybe ten times per sentence. I literally said to jd the other day “the word ‘fuck’ is like breathing” sdlkfsd

8.  how did your character feel when they left home for the first time?

bad lmao. they moved from nyc to rural texas right before their senior year of high school and have been extremely bitter about it ever since. they’re a freshman in college now and they’re going somewhere that’s only like two towns away from where they moved to w their dad, and it kind of sucks in a number of different ways, bc in an ideal world they’d have gone back to ny, but they wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford it, plus they couldn’t in good conscience go that far away from their dad, and even this is a weird distance that feels... too close to feel like they’re actually Away At College, and close enough that if they could drive they probably would be still living at home and just commuting to school, but since they ARE living on-campus they feel detached enough to like worry about what their dad is up to without them sflkd

15.  have you ever said something as your character that stuck with you for a while after? what was it?

it’s early enough in the campaign that we really haven’t had any like big emotionally poignant moments yet (and esp since I played a different character for the first couple sessions before andy came in), so I don’t really have any Dope Quotes to drop, but I will say that after the last session the gm told me that we basically speedran the module and are currently at a part of the story that was supposed to come way way later bc andy and lorelei specifically figured shit out way sooner than we were supposed to lmfao. no quotes yet but “the duckduckgo search that broke the campaign” definitely stuck with me sldkfs

if you wanna pick your own favorite andy quote, listen to ravens roost radio ;) ;) ;) (andy shows up in episode 6)

[reformedmercymain]

Sorry to vent to you about that but I have no-one else to talk when it comes to OW. A few months (maybe one year?) ago, a famous GM/T500 M*rcy OTP, well known in the NA servers, started to vague about me in a series of tweets after I agreed (in a very polite way?) with a friend of mine about the state of the game, saying I was a nobody and how my opinion was irrelevant because my T500 peak was probably fake since she never heard about me or had me in her games. I exclusively play in EU.

Oh my godddd that sounds so fucking annoying like. For one, I can’t fucking stand vagueing. Either keep it to yourself or between you and a friend or stop being a coward and fucking say it LMAO. And??? “Never heard about me or had me in her games” like BRO???? THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE T500 LADDER(s) THAT I’VE LITERALLY NEVER SEEN BEFORE LIKE.. if she thinks you’re some nobody how tf would she remember “ah yeah, someone i played with in GM once, i 100% remember every person I’ve played with in the last half year. This person is named goblin42″ let alone the assumption that like, every t500 is... “heard of” like bitch that is everything I RIDE on. I remain entirely fucking anonymous on ladder???? No one has *heard* of me???? And I’ve been there for a longass time so what kind of argument even would that be. 

Talk about a fucking ego, thinking you need to “know” of someone for them to have peaked in t500????? Not everyone is a streamer, pro, or otherwise “known” personality??? I’m just. Amazed. I’m terrible with memorization, I want to have her mind, all 1500 in top 500 rotating through... oh don’t forget t500 “combined” or whatever. Gotta figure out how she remembers each person as they rise and fall through the ranks... that’s pretty nutty if you ask me. Not to mention the other regions, like you said, fucking EU and not NA? So if there’s 2k t500 per region, she’s out here constantly mentally updating all SIX THOUSAND OF US, pretty 5head from a mercy main in my opinion.  Seriously like that’s soooo fucking stupid in general. “I don’t agree but your rank supposedly is as high as mine so it’s fake actually! Since I’ve never heard of this one fucking person in a pool of the shit tons who’ve hit t500! I Am Very Smart.™” Some people need to just accept that they’ll never agree with everyone on the state of the game.............................especially when they’re a mercy onetrick talking about the state of the game

Anyways I think I’m making a mercy edit of 5head because this famous mercy onetrick needs to have full respect given for having an Enlightened Understanding Of The Game And Ability To Sus Out People Who Fake Their Rank (what would even be the point of putting a fake SR in a description?? I don’t think that comes with much “clout” or whatever? To be fair mine is in my tumblr desc but it’s so that people will just chill a bit about what I say and stop treating me like I’m bronze when I have Hot Takes™ LMAO)  I wish I saw this before my internet went out for eight fucking hours today because the mental image is just so fucking funny for me. Having your ego hurt so badly because someone and their friend feel different about the game than you do that you vaguepost about them making accusations of them being a liar?? Like. What a fucking loser. It’s always the “gm” mercy mains with the most fragile egos, feeling like if they’re not “always right” it’s their proof of what they know to be true - that they don’t deserve gm/t500/whatever. 

[diondecarnate]

!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im literaly so excited right now!!!!!!! This is my current ttrpg character Saku Karuka (they/them) drawn just perfectly by the amazing, incredible, talented @goody-goody-gunshots he did such an incredible job please go check him out!!! 

Im currently playing Spire which is a fantasy-punk RPG about rebellion, brutality and oppression. This is a world where centuries ago the high elves came and took over Spire, the towering city and home of the dark elves. Dark elves such as Saku now must constantly fight against this oppressive regime just to survive. I highly recommend Spire, I'm having a ton of fun with it, but be warned that its a pretty dark game. Saku is a deeply violent and pretty terrible person tbh, though not without reason, Ill put their backstory n such below the cut.

In Spire dark elves have to spend four years of their lives in indentured servitude to a high elf, in this case Saku was a Duelist, fighting in festivals for their high elves enjoyment. They learned to enjoy killing during this time. 

Once their “employment” was done with, they ran to the lower levels, joining the cult of the Bound. The Bound worship the small gods that live in their equipment, tools, and weapons. You protect them as they protect you. It was here that they were gifted their god-axe, Theolene. 

Saku took these gifts and the violence that they now held within and pointed it in a direction, towards justice. But justice is such a slippery thing, hard to pin down or put a form to, and its so easy to convince yourself that everyone deserves punishment. Its especially easy in Spire, where most people really do.

Not to mention that there are so many uses for a dead body in Spire, whether its given to Pho, their Carrion Priest party member, so that she can give them their last rights, feeding their head and heart to her ever-hungry hyena Harley. Or to their NPC acquaintance Dyan, who’s always looking for fresh meat to sell to the hungry people passing by his cart. 

Their other party member, Karsevak, is weirdly squeamish for one who traverses the non-euclidian tunnels that worm their way throughout the entirety of the city, crushing and cooking the minds of those who attempt to use the shortcuts without preparing first. He tends to turn down Saku’s generous offers of mangled limbs and only slightly squished organs, no matter what excuse Saku’s come up with this time. (”they tried to pickpocket me!!” “Saku, it was a crowded market and they just happened to brush up against you, they even said sorry” “Yeah, just like a thief would to try and cover their tracks!! Besides, they didn't even sound very sincere when they said it, and when I pulled Theolene on them they pulled out a knife!! Extremely suspicious.”) 

Saku is currently pretty happy to hang around their band of idiots, doing whatever their cult asks of them, as long as it aligns with their very very ridgid, absolutely unmovable, not even a bit flexible morals. Which, luckily for them, the jobs always do! They’re currently on the hunt for someone called Merchant-Of-The-Teeth, who’s a high elf, so they're obviously guilty and absolutely murderable. 

So yeah! Spire is a really fantastic game but the list of trigger warnings my GM read out at the beginning of the campaign was extensive to say the least, everything from insects to cannibalism. But my game group is currently feeling the uh, stress of the current condition of the world, and getting to play in a world that is actualy a bit worse than our reality, and being able to make changes in that world (and also murder people who annoy us) is really very cathartic right now. At least for me lmao. 

[kazoo-goddess]

1,10, and 19?

Yay! I’ll answer number 1 last so I can put it under a cut~

10. what got you into dnd?

I was always fascinated by the concept--I’d played D&D once when I was in high school, and while the campaigns didn’t pan out there, I stayed interested and finally ended up joining my first campaigns when my very-cool boyfriend invited me to his online one, and when I joined my dear friend Suna’s Curse of Strahd run! I had such a wildly good time that I haven’t been able to stop, and have since played in many many MANY games and oneshots, and have begun running some campaigns of my own (two finished, two in progress!)

I really love roleplaying both in person and over text, and it delights me both to play and to GM. I want to do even more of it!!! So hey, if you’re looking for someone to tell all about your super cool D&D worlds and characters, feel free to hmu >w>

19. when has inspiration saved your ass?

Ohohoho. The one that immediately comes to mind is when Shenzi, my beautiful, idiot, buff barbarian orc babe of a daughter, tore a tree up from the ground with a strength roll, mostly for fun--and then had to hide when some evil goblins or something started coming down the trail. The rest of the party is hiding in a cave, sleeping because they’re all VERY low on health, and Shenzi was very much supposed to be keeping night watch and NOT tearing up trees, so this is Bad. She rolls a 1 to try and hide, because of course Stealth is not her forte, and I decided to use my Inspiration to try again. Shenzi rolls FAR better, and this time just. Plants the tree she tore up in front of the cave where the party is hiding, and then hides behind it. And it WORKED. B) Thank fuck bc I don’t think they would have woken up in time lmao.

nat 1. most memorable crit fail?

Okay I know it said player but I have a GREAT one for this as a GM, please strap in for the story of: Lukas and the Neverending Night of Bad Rolls.

So, I’m the GM of a little campaign that I like to call Songhaven--which is a very music-based campaign where most fight scenarios can be solved via clever thinking and puzzle-solving rather than actual combat. The general goal is to leave everyone’s lives better than you found them! Most people are nice, but...

Enter Lukas Rademacher--or, as he’s known by his codename, Rath the Capable. A member of the Court of the Frozen heart, Lukas works as a spy for the queen of his nation and spends the majority of time deceiving people to get information from them. He’s cold, standoffish, and very rude to people who he thinks are beneath him, but the queen keeps him around because he’s still an incredibly intelligent and capable man, surviving lethal encounters on a near daily basis with nothing more than the use of his wits. 

Lukas also has a reputation for rolling RIDICULOUSLY well on every check he makes despite having almost no bonuses to almost anything:

(Text: LUKAS: rolling 1d20 to tell horrible things about all of you to the queen and ruin your lives indefinitely because I’ve persuaded the people of my nation to have a terrible bias against you indefinitely.

(Rolled a 19.)

(LUKAS: ...that’s about right, yeah.)

In time, Lukas became a close friend to the party and started to become a better, more compassionate person, in part because his beloved girlfriend was traveling with them and Lukas would do ANYTHING for her... 

So one day, due to Tragic Circumstances, the party ended up in a situation where they had to fight Lukas--he violently attacked them and repeatedly kept trying to convey something to them without outright saying it:

"I'm trying to tell you," Lukas says, clearly frustrated. "The pillars do not come down until you die..." He pauses, meeting Revel's eyes. "Or I do. Take a hint, you idiots..."

He was attempting to hold out through being fully possessed until he could communicate to the party that, yes, he wanted them to kill him because he was dying anyway due to being possessed by an evil entity! And he wanted them to stop him before he no longer had control of himself and actually significantly injured him. So, hey, you’d think that Lukas--with his history of incredible rolls--would be able to roll well during this very significant moment, yes?

No. Not at all.

So on top of Lukas not being able to roll well enough to hit a single person or convey his message to the party, his bad streaked cursed the entire party, who continued to trip over themselves and fail to understand his words SO BADLY that this very emotional moment became an absolute festival of clowns for, like, an HOUR.

(hid the name of one player who was messaging with real name displayed)

Now, a good GM probably would have found a way to twist this to be emotional, but. I was laughing too fucking hard to think my way out of it, so I just let the chaos continue.

Shenanigans thereafter included Lukas lifting someone’s level of Exhaustion (they were at 3) only for the player to roll so badly on their next check that they gained the level of Exhaustion right back, and another player rolling so badly that they failed to hit an inanimate object. All of these things led to Lukas becoming more and more frustrated, and me cackling like a madwoman.

Eventually things DID get solved, but not after an incredible amount of clowning was had.

Somehow, Revel swings entirely clear of the ice despite standing right next to it. His grip on the dagger fumbles a bit, and he accidentally drops it.

"Are you kidding me." Lukas looks absolutely dumbfounded.

PLAYER: "I've never used this!" 

"Neither have I, and I could still swing a dagger at a non moving object!" Lukas retorts.

And that’s the story of Lukas Rademacher and his Neverending Night of Bad Rolls. B)

[fratboykate]

What's your favorite Gourmet Makes episode? Or just BA episode in general.

I don't know that I could pick a GM episode that is my absolute favorite because I've watched all of them more than once. Literally love them all.

My favorite episode of BA overall on the other hand is SO EASY. Don't even have to think about it. The Season Finale of Making Perfect Season 2 when they go to Claire's house in the cape is LEGITIMATELY a cinematic masterpiece. I truly wish that was 48 hours long because I'd watch literally every single second of that weekend and find new things to laugh at every time I watch it. That episode is priceless from the instant it starts to the moment it finishes. It gets extra bonus points for introducing my favorite supporting character/cryptid Sauci Saffitz lmao.

I've watched that episode so many times that I could probably write a paper about it. The editor deserves all the praises because the way they strung the absolute fucking comedy of this whole thing is masterful. I fucking LOSE MY MIND every time they're all in the kitchen like "Chris and Rick are outside having a terrible time!" and in the most effortlessly comedic shit in the world the editor cuts to outside where Chris and Rick are literally like "THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!!!". Or when Claire is like "Brad are you fucking watching the turkey?" and Brad SO CONFIDENTLY goes "Yeah totally. For sure. Uhum." and not TWO SECONDS LATER he is back to staring at his phone. Or when Claire is basically like "HOW ARE WE LATE WE STARTED ON TIME WHAT HAPPENED?!" and everyone is like "WHO KNOWS?! AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING MYSTERY. NEVER TO BE SOLVED." as if they didn't all fucking leave to go to the bay like five minutes after they got there, took seventeen drinking breaks, made snacks, and did pretty much everything but cook for most of the day. I could keep going but *chef's kiss* favorite thing on YouTube. Hands down.

[yueqqi-main]

Tagged by @masterdork, thanks!

Post 6 facts about yourself

1. I have 3 cats, all of whom were rescued. My youngest one is black, super soft, and I found her the Friday before Halloween 2 years ago when she was 2 months old. She still looks barely 8 months old because she’s a picky eater and her mother was malnourished before leaving her kittens behind...

2. Lmao, I guess we both have bad joints, Cami. My knees frequently dislocate and my arthritis is all around just terrible so I die when I have to bend down to work. I also get vasodilatory migraines and have started getting symptoms for hemeplegic migraines which sucks since seizures and stroke symptoms aren’t fun.

3. Apparently I’ve gone 20 years of my life without realizing that I was autistic until I was talking to a friend about how he experienced autism and he literally described every single thing that I’ve experienced

4. I GM for a Persona server and was extra as fuck in making a whole new dice rolling system.

5. I have at least 25 WIPs sitting in my Google Drive, and at least 200 OCs...for the Persona server alone, I have like 40 characters.

6. I have two major scars on my hands, one from me being an idiot and trying to crack a walnut with a knife, and the other from splitting my thumb open on a metal lightsaber

Tagging @scythiannomad, @phainon, @ifrainbowsweredark, @skeleton-rings, holy shit I haven’t been in this site very much in awhile

[veliseraptor]

1/One Wrong Turn is evil, I loved it. the gm terrified me fr, most of the time i get that he's a terrible, terrible creature, but in this one it was so... direct. and our poor boys! they need some comfort asap. do u think they'd ever talk about it again when they're back on earth? will they ever speak about it w anyone else?

2/i'm guessing that loki (being loki) Would Never, but like, would steve try to seek support in bucky, sam or thor? or will the others notice that somethings off about them? i mean, i doubt their relationship will be the same. idk, i'd like to hear ur thoughts if u don't mind. anyway! another amazing story by ur own hand, one more angsty rtc au for me to obsess over lmao

do you know who’s tempted to write a continuation of this fic? me, it’s me (I’m the worst influence on myself.)

but since I’m trying to not do that (two thumbs and doesn’t need any more wips) - headcanons! 

yeah, they’re both...complete and utter messes. and my headcanon here is that both Sif and Thor are fine - Thor is actually on Sakaar, and actually what I imagine happened was that the Grandmaster noticed some weird magic on Thor and was like “what’s that? eh, who knows, let’s get rid of it” which...caused the spell to malfunction. hence. 

so they would eventually escape with everyone but...things are pretty fucked. Steve is basically constantly freaking out and has no idea what to do and is kind of drowning a little, and Loki is simultaneously desperate for comfort and withdrawing completely into himself, extremely touch averse and also desperate for contact that is actually, you know, wanted. and ofc they’re both blaming themselves - Steve for not stopping it from happening (and in some ways for Loki collapsing to begin with, because if he’d been there, and yeah logically it’s not something he could’ve helped but Steve’s not really feeling that), and Loki for...basically everything. so by the time Thor and Sif come back to that there’s this big rift that’s...neither of them knows how to bridge it, or what to say, or what to do. 

(also the thing is that if Val is in the mix, and she would be because Val, she’d probably know that Loki was getting screwed (in both senses!) by the Grandmaster if not maybe the details of anything else, though I think she’d keep that to herself.) 

and yeah, Loki’s not about to say anything to anyone, he’s barely saying anything to Steve (and Steve isn’t sure if he should be trying to get Loki to say things or leave it alone, and how he’d say anything without fucking things up more, because again, his fault), and obviously Thor’s going to immediately be like “!!!! *alarm bells*” because he can tell something is badly wrong and no one is saying anything, and I feel like he’d probably try to corner one or both of them separately (maybe Steve first?) to see if he can get them to tell him what. 

I feel like Steve would waver but ultimately be like “it’s up to Loki” and Loki’s like “HARD NOPE” and if Thor kept pushing he would...legitimately get vicious to drive him away. which...helpful, obviously. especially because on some level I think he would like to talk to someone (not Steve) but just...can’t. make himself. 

there is like. a 75% chance that as soon as they got back to Earth and Loki made sure that Steve was “safely” in company of other people he would bolt. probably not off Earth, just...somewhere else where he can ““safely”” implode without anyone seeing even though he knows that’s...not fair to Steve, that he should be doing something but he honestly doesn’t know what. which of course would just...further fuck Steve up because he doesn’t know what Loki’s going to do, how he’s going to self-destruct this time, and a part of him is angry too because what does Loki think he’s doing, how can he do this now, but also should he try to find him or is this a “needs space” thing, he just doesn’t know.

I feel like eventually he does crack and tell someone - I think either Thor or Sam, let’s go with Thor - because he can’t just keep not saying, and Thor just about explodes which is not...necessarily helpful. and the whole mess kind of pours out from there, at least from Steve’s perspective, because Loki is still...gone, and Steve is kind of folding but trying really hard not to show it (because Steve).

I don’t have a lot past that except that everyone’s a whole mess of trauma and at some point I’d probably want to start to work them past that but not sure how to actually get them there. Because getting Loki or Steve to really process trauma is (still) kind of like pulling teeth. 

can tell you one thing: sex would be off the table for a long, long, time. which is a thing I think Loki at a certain point would try to push (because that’s what he does) but he’s not the only one who’d have fun brand new sex related triggers. 

[sleepymarmot]

COUNTER/Weight liveblog, part 2

Episodes 23-40

Keith hasn't listened to the previous episode and Austin & Ali are cackling like “You got a big storm coming” lmao

…Look I understand the idea of making Tea an ally after the players and audience got to know her in the Kingdom game but the excuse is really thin

“A gift for his little brother” You guys are really bad at this gender neutrality thing huh

AuDy talking to Orth makes my head spin a bit now

Oh so Addax is the leader of the Angels? The person who has been watching the Chime from the shadows = the group that has been spying on them? Okay, I now feel dumb for not putting this together myself.

Wait I lost track again. Who were Jacq & Jill working for initially that gave them access to those immortality tanks? Iirc it was Odamas who had that technology and then gave Horizon access to it while imposing strict rules on them during the merge? So why does Jacqui get less fun assignments now if she was a part of the winning faction, not the losing one?

Oh cool, so Jamil wanted to hand over the virus to the Angels because they're both just from the Rapid Evening?

“A bard notices their enemy's heart isn't in the fight, so they stop fighting, fall in love” is such a specific thing. How the hell did it happen twice on the same show. Is this the new big gay trope now

Heeeey could you stop punching me in the stomach with intros

So, Jacqui was working for Horizon, which in turn was given this job by Petrichor? Still doesn't answer my question…

Do I have to mentally rewrite the entire holiday special so that in every scene on the Kingdom Come everyone is floating in zero gravity all the time?! I'm sorry but this makes no fucking sense!

The doppelganger thing started really creepy but now it just makes my head spin! Please stop it with the names, I'm too easily confused, especially with a show that has a record of passing characters back and forth between the GM and the players!

Re: that whole thing: aaaaAAAAA???

I don't understand what Austin and Jack are doing but it's pretty magical

God, the Aria/Jacqui scene is so… tender? Idk. Austin's gentle “PC's love interest” voice has murdered me again. I'm not sold on Jacqui by herself as a character but on the feelings between the two? Definitely. (Though I still wonder about Aria’s heroism vs Jacqui’s disregard for life. That’s a biiig value clash)

Okay, this was all very unsettling and I still understand so little

I really love that Sokrates' refusal to make that one nameless person take the fall, which seemed (at least to me) kinda stubborn and shortsighted, turned into a key moment, both because it demonstrates integrity, and now because that person becomes an actual NPC as an important asset in their faction

I love how the idea of moving Rigour to September comes up and everyone starts screaming and I do too! They sure love leaving horrifying surprises for the ground team to stumble upon lol

Is it too callous and unwise of me to react to Ibex overthrowing the Hands of Grace as “good riddance”?

Maryland's letter has strong Alyosha/Arrell vibes

I love the “reluctant alliance with an antagonist” trope and was hoping it'd happen with Ibex so I'm happy! Also in one of the early episodes Austin mentioned the Anders-Justice storyline and I'm glad to hear him finally deliver. (There was stuff about the pilot/Candidate->Divine influence with Order, but not about the other way around or fusion, like with Vengeance)

Okay thankfully things are clearer now (I'm reeeally glad I wasn't spoiled on this) but I still have so many questions. How were LD made in the first place? Why and how did they hide in/turn themselves into a simple robot? What are they – just software, like Righteousness, or is there some Divine hardware core inside the normal Automated Dynamics unit that nobody has noticed somehow, or is the hardware in a remote location they access through the mesh? Did Ibex know AuDy was LD the whole time – he didn't act very surprised? Why didn't Ibex rescue his brother, did he die really quickly? How will Mako be able to fog without Righteousness? Shouldn't AuDy be gamebreakingly powerful now? How and why do LD count as two Divines but have a single consciousness, are they like Garnet?

Lazer Ted feels like a fucking TAZ character lmao

The comic relief was welcome but at the same time I'm continuously like “What is AuDy thinking and feeling. Why are they acting like nothing happened. Where's the existential crisis. How do you realize you're a pair of ancient gods and just proceed with your life? Are they so impenetrable on purpose because they're a robot”. Like, it was chilling when they were suddenly chatting with Ibex like old friends, and now it's chilling that they're acting just in the early episodes.

I'm glad the robot incident made everyone realize it might be unwise to put the two charming extraverts in the same half of the party lol

Looks like they decided to permanently switch back to “he” for Cass… Probably for the best.

Jack keeps excitedly jumping at every opportunity for creepiness™. God, AuDy makes so much more sense as his character now after the Reveal

Is September just fucking Solaris now?

I think this is the first time I'm not excited to hear a faction game episode because I really didn't expect it at this point in the story. My reaction was “Wait what? Are you telling me everyone gets stuck on September waiting out that storm for a whole month?! I wanted to hear what that cliffhanger led to!” Idk, the September arc was generally kind of a let down after the intensity of the episodes leading up to it, and this further deflates the tension.

Speaking of tension and letdowns, I just have to complain… It's really disappointing when the show sets up really big dramatic hooks and then does practically nothing with them! I complained about Addax and Cass in the previous post and that point still stands. Case two: Mako and Righteousness/Voice. It's set up in a faction episode, and in the immediately following arc Mako indeed is in danger from something inside his own head, but it's a completely unrelated thing! At the end of the arc he finally finds out, but the threat immediately gets nullified with no consequences – no self-doubt or identity crisis, no diminished abilities in terms of game mechanics. Case three: Ibex himself. Out of the reasons the Kingdom game is what it is, the excuse for it happening in-universe was to give more details on Ibex, and at least half of it featured a collective effort to make him as central to the story and as threatening as possible. But as soon as that flashback ends, so, counterintuitively, does the role of Ibex as an active antagonist to the Chime -- the role which was literally just supposed to begin in earnest. So by this point I can barely recall why we were all so intimidated by this guy in the first place. I'm more like “This is a useful ally to have”. This is what I don't like about the world-ending threats like Rigor: all other interesting conflicts fade in their face.

Dang, I thought Isurus was a cooler name than Enhydra!

Sokrates, forced to shake Ibex's hand: *clenched fist meme*

Wait, I missed something, why is Rigor deep underground and has to dig itself out?

Okay, after the lore episode I'm also confused how Rigor ended up underground on Ionias after it was blown up 20000 years ago in a completely different place

I'm very distressed by the idea of Hieron as a future popular franchise!! No, it's supposed to be real when these people are talking about it!! Oh wait a fucking second, does this mean Jace's Panther was a deliberate reference in-universe?? Like you're fighting in a real serious terrible war and you model a giant war machine after, like, a thestral from the fucking Harry Potter and just call it “Thestral”??!

No, no, wait, do tell me who Cass and AuDy would cosplay!

Oh no, Rigour wants to talk to Voice(?), great

Hey Cass, your Hadrian is showing??

Speaking of Hadrian, I was caught off guard by description of Tower as a “hot young Hadrian”, for some reason Hadrian never struck me as a character who's supposed to be exceptionally attractive. But then again, I imagined him as very young until that letter to Hella, and then I imagined Cass as a young adult until I did the math, so I might just be bad at visualising Art's characters lol.

Austin is so generous and unsubtle about throwing hot gay NPCs right at the players. Too bad Mako doesn't sound as interested as Aria did.

I expected they'd find a room with one copy of everyone plugged into the mesh, that'd be even creepier. What's with the false memories though? This doesn't explain them.

So, how does this whole clone system work? How does time work? Why don't the real students like Tower or Maxine notice that there's a new guy who looks just like their friend, but doesn't know them – or, for that matter, why don't the other clones notice? Oh, maybe that's the purpose of the fake memory aura? So that Maritime-4 could continue right from where Maritime-3 left off?

When Cass saw Apokine's face I thought it meant that the humans had genetically engineered the Apostolosians and that's what “we made them look like us” meant, which would be two of my long-standing questions answering each other. And then it was just another giant mech.. :/

Wait, does Orth calling Cass “Apokine” mean that he pilots the mech now or that Sokrates died and Cass inherited his position?! I'm worried now…

I'm even more worried about Mako, because at first I of course reacted to the question about being in two places at once as “hah, Larry”, but it's probably the other thing, and on one hand that must mean that the rescue of clones was successful, but also that means that our Mako might be dead and the one in the intro is one of the clones… Considering that in the Winter post-mortem I caught Keith saying how emotional the C/w finale was for him before I started fast-forwarding in fear of spoilers, do I need to start mentally preparing to bury Mako already or what?

Speaking of spoilers… The farther I go, the less I understand the advice to skip Autumn. I thought that at least for C/w it wouldn't matter, given it's a whole different universe, but they keep referencing it, and then casually dropping major spoilers, and then referencing it again in a story-relevant way. (The Ordennan ships arrive on the screen as Rigor does, and the next episode is named “The Storm over September” and quotes Lem's poem in the description. That's really cool but I somehow feel vaguely irritated on behalf of my potential alternate self who skipped season 1.) I really hope they've grown more careful about this by now, because I'll probably not even begin Twilight Mirage by the time the next season starts, and I would really like to stay in the dark about the intense events they're all vague-tweeting about at the moment!

Why was AuDy alarmed by Voice's presence as “a” Divine accompanying Maxine? Shouldn't they be familiar with it already because of Mako? (And I don't want to even ask about the ontological difference/border between Righteousness and Voice. I'm tired and feel like a nitpicker. But just for the record, this still isn't clear.)

Well that's a sadder family reunion than I hoped for!

So AuDy does have a split personality to some degree?

Oh well. AuDy's got a fate worse than death: Liberty and Discovery, imprisoned indefinitely. Or devoured I guess, I didn't really get it. Great. Thanks. Fucking RIP I guess. Out of all ways I expected them to go, this wasn't one.

(By the way I still don't understand how the portal works. Where is this portal to? Why can't L&D fly out and take the slow way home, and why can't Rigor?)

There's still about ten minutes left in the episode and I don't understand how it isn't the finale. What's there to do for three more episodes now.

“With Rigor defeated so easily, so permanently, she thought” *Rigor screech*

Yeah, fuck Grace btw

Sounds like cultivating saplings is not a priority anymore for a certain someone… (Wait, btw, what happened to that patch/seed they left? Will it ever come back into play?)

“...Why they would put themselves into a body like yours? And I think, maybe, it's that they were curious about what it would be like for four years to feel like a long time” AAAAAA

Okay, things are better on September than it sounded initially, but still… Wtf's going to happen? Rigor repairs itself, takes over the survivors, takes off again? But what's the timeline on that? I genuinely have no idea wtf the finale is going to be about after this.

Oh, what happened to the clones btw? Did Larry manage to get them off the planet in time, despite the Minerva ships in orbit and, more importantly, Rigor? Or are they stuck on September, unable to continue reenacting the plot of Orphan Black?

From how it's been described in this episode, feels as if Liberty and Discovery are a candidate of AuDy… They didn't want a candidate but were curious to learn how it feels for the other side?

Paisley's dead-eyed, Tower's gone, and even Ibex, who is barely holding on himself, loses his ex… Everyone's love life takes a nosedive: the episode. At least Jacqui's okay… (And because of Jacqui, it was doubly sad and surprising to hear Aria still has feelings for Paisley…)