#i want a rpg group so badly now

[huggingtentacles]

I just wanted to ask why you think Summons are *inherently* cheese, exactly? It's... like it's just a part of the game. You don't have to use it, but people who use it aren't cheesing the game -- the game is unfair, by design, and it expects you to get every edge you can. Like, you not liking summons is fine, but by the exact same token, people that use summons are also fine?? and judging them for using a game mechanic you don't to enjoy the game is... like, kinda not cool actually. No respect for the summon gankers that dogpile invaders tho. those guys suck.

I explained in a big post about summons I'm a bit too lazy to find it now here are the points from it quickly. I wanna preface this by saying that the game isn't actually unfair. There are literally like 1 unreactable attack in the entire game, and a couple bosses are badly designed with poor visibility, but those are exceptions that prove the rule, those are mistakes the devs made.

1. Summons break the combat fundamentally due to the fact that no boss in the game, not even the ones intended to be fought in a group like Radahn, have the capacity to fight 2 different targets at the same time. The whole game is fundamentally dodging and hitting: finding openings to attack a boss and learning timings to avoid damage. With summons you can remove that entirely by controlling the aggro of a boss.

2. Spirit summons specifically lower the multiplayer activity. Fromsoft removed solo invasions and spirit summons are much easier to use than finding a real player, so there is less coop happening and less invasions. The game became less social as a result.

3. The playerbase is fractured because of how fundamentally different the game is for those who use summons. When someone beats a boss and posts about it on Tumblr my first question always is "Did you use summons?" because if they didn't, only then I know that they actually learned the boss or found an interesting strategy. "Oh but huggingtentacles isn't that kinda mean, why aren't you just happy for everyone who beats a boss?" because I'm tired of keeping congratulating their mimic tear. Someone even made a funny comic way back in the day about how it's actually the mimic tear who deserves to become Elden Lord lol. "But the player themselves also participated in the fight" Maybe they did, but they didn't have to.

4. Spirit summons have 0 trade-off. It's only benefits and zero drawbacks. Back in the day you had to spend some minor resource for it that was semi-valuable in other fromsoft games, but in Elden Ring there is no cost to summoning, making them always the optimal strategy for every fight. It's the definition of overpowered. It's badly balanced compared to the rest of the game. With regular summons it's only kinda true. They're still overpowered but at least bosses get higher resistances, health and stance. Doesn't affect the rest of the game tho.

I don't judge anyone using spirit summons or summons in general. I dislike the mechanic for my personal reasons, but the people who use it are fine. Maybe they just don't want to engage with the combat in a combat centred action RPG. Let's be real, Elden Ring is just a dress-up game with combat.

I just think having a mechanic like that diminishes the experience of Fromsoft games and takes away a lot from the gameplay and the whole "overcoming adversity for a satisfying victory" thing. They could make it better, improve the enemy AI, add a real cost to summoning. It's not fundamentally a bad idea it's just badly executed.

[quohotos]

Unprompted ideas for Underland Chronicles video games

Well, if the god damn hunger games never got a video game adaptation then underland chronicles never will either, but I can daydream about this.

First: The ones that actually engage with the themes of the story, the faithful adaptations:

The Underland Chronciles: a Telltale series:

Like it says on the tin, a classic Telltale games style story driven narrative adventure game with light slight branching based around your choices. Play as Gregor in a retelling of the five books' events, but with some choices thrown in. In the jungle do you give the shrimp and creamsauce to the kids, or do you give it to Ripred? Ripred will remember that. "Why do you walk two blocks to the laundromat, it's the same price, I checked"

[|||||||||||||| ]

Y) ...

X) the washers are bigger there?

B) Mind your own business!

A) I dunno, it's just what mom says to do

And of course, the final decision:

[||||||||||||||||||||| ]

Y) ...

X) Side with Luxa

B) Side with Ripred

A) Refuse to chose, "kill" the warrior

Disco Underland:

Disco Elysium, but set in the underland instead. A narrative RPG where your skills are not combat, but rhetoric and empathy and intellect and stuff. Navigate the tense cyclical trauma of an underland in between wars. Someone in regalia died, and it's your job to figure out who was responsible. All evidence points to a ganwer doing it, and that's what everone wants to believe. Do you tell them the truth, or tell them what they want to hear. If you prove the gnawers innocence will it matter? Perhaps a gnawer did do it, and that's the truth, but telling the truth will lead to a war. Is it worth it to lie and deny justice and closure to the family if it averts something worse? idk, there's legs there

The Underland Trail:

You and your band of diverse underland inhabitants need to get from point a to point b. Encounter random events and manage dwindling resources in an endlessly replayable Oregon Trail style game. Half way to the deadlands and oh no, your only human falls and cuts himself badly. No one else in the group has opposable thumbs. Maybe the spinners can treat him but do you want to take that risk?

Next, we have the neutral adaptations, the ones that make good use of the source material but don't really do anything with the themes

Batball Online:

A sports game where you can play whatever game they were in the middle of before Gregor shows up. Play as either a human or flyer to play different roles, party up with your bond and work together to score goals and climb the ranks against other players in ranked online lobbies. Obviously it's gonna have a detailed character creator and battle pass so you can deck out your human and bat with all manner of (tasteful) cosmetics.

[This would also work as just a mini game side mode in a different game]

Uncharted (lands):

An uncharted style modern 3rd person action adventure game. You could go full playstation exclusive and make it a blue tinted third person action game with themes of fatherhood where you can contextually climb on things. You and your bond are lost in the uncharted land and need to work together to survive. Gameplay is split between on the ground traversal/ exploration, puzzle solving, and tense flying sections. It'd be really cool if you could even play co-op with one player being the human and one player being the bat

Okay, now we've got to the unfaithful adaptations. These ones sure are underland games, and I bet they'd be super fun as well, but they definitely would be in poor taste for what is an anti-violence anti-war story. Suzanne would probably not approve...

Uncharted (Lands)... But you kill people in it:

Basically the idea from above, but with fighting mechanics and lots of combat encounters. Lots of in depth mechanics that utilize both bond's unique abilities and fighting styles. Utilize cool named combo moves like "the coiler". Stealth is interesting too, flying is fast but climbing on walls is quieter. Echo location tells you about the environment but reveals your location.... there's cool game design options there

Underland: Total War:

A 4x-ish grand strategy game in the vein of the total war series. Multiple different factions all with their own play-style, macro objectives, and available units. Engage in diplomacy, try to get unaligned factions to join your cause, and when war breaks out zoom in to intense RTS battles with hundreds of units that you can micro manage in massive subterranean three dimensional environments. Humans are great damage dealers but need light, Gnawers are deadly and easy to micro but have little in the way of tech and specialization, Flyers are mobile and great scouts but are fragile in a fight, Crawlers don't deal great damage but can hold a choke point like no one else... you get the picture. Don't even get me started on Rager Hero Units and prophecies. Play as Solovet and unlock new technology like "Fire arrows" and "The curse of the warmbloods", play as Gorger be sure to keep your overland prisoners healthy while they work on inventing guns for you, or play as Ripred and play both sides until the time is right to betray them both!

Dynasty Ragers:

Ripred tends to crack at 400 to 1? Wanna put that to the test? Play as everyone's favorite war criminal hearthrob and/or father figure as you slaughter hoards uppon hoards of enemies with his trademark spin attack in mindless hack-and-slash dynasty warriors style gameplay. Oh and of course we have to give him a dedicated emote/quip wheel. Is this what the Underland chronicles is about? Not at all! Would it be awesome? I mean yeah probably, but I'd feel really guilty playing it.

Yeah those were my ideas, thought I'd write them down. Feel free to add your own in the reblogs and the comments.

[actofgrxce]

So, OFMD is my all time favorite show and I am in love with every single character and have been wanting to try and join the fandom as Stede Bonnet, but I am SO nervous. Only because you, and several others, are just so incredible and I am intimidated but ahhh, I want to do badly write as my pirate princess. Any advice? Or just go for it? I’ve been writing for years, but graphics/theme making are not my forte.

Hey, friend!! Thanks for the kind words!!

I would just GO for it, with the understanding that there's a learning curve to the "rp etiquette" of Tumblr (and some users, as is the way with social media, will be more forgiving and flexible with "mistakes" than others). I would introduce yourself, as you have done here, to people who seem fun and chill, and express your interest in interacting with them IC. 1) Tell them you would be writing Stede. 2) Read their rules page (usually there is a pinned post at the top of a writer's blog offering a mobile-friendly link to their rules, which is basically how they prefer to interact with other writers, how often, in what format, what the writer's or "mun's" triggers are, etc) and tell them that you have: this seems to be a real sign of good faith around here. 3) Collect a small list of people (maybe 4 or 5) to start with, and follow them. If your rp blog is a "sideblog" to a main account, also let them know that, so that when a non-rp blog (you) follows them, they know who the heck it is! I cannot underscore enough how important it is to find people with whom you jive ooc, as yourselves. It simply will not be fun if you don't. So take your time with this part! 4) Make your blog. Customize your theme as much or little as you like, but a good rule of thumb is to at least make an "About the Muse" page (muse's story), a "Rules" (do's and don't's of interacting with you) page, and a "Verses" (discrete story timelines, usually grouped by how much you adhere to canon or by romantic "ships") page. Your muse is a "canon" muse: that is, a muse that already exists in the official fandom universe. 5) If you don't have it already, GET XKIT REWRITTEN (a browser extension that lets you alter Tumblr's increasingly perplexing and user-unfriendly interface, lol. There are versions for both Chrome and Firefox. 6) Start writing. You rp on Tumblr by reblogging a person's IC (in-character) post to your blog, and adding a text reply. They then reblog you. And so on and so forth. Here is where you consult their rules page to know things like: are they okay if I trim posts? Are they okay with me dm'ing them to ask for replies? What's the most courteous way to use tags in order to easily find past writing or filter my blog? How explicit can writing with this partner get re violence or s*xual themes? Etc. Everyone is different.

Re making your blog fancy: You do NOT need to be well-versed in Photoshop, themes and coding in order to run a blog. A lot of people now rp on Tumblr Mobile, where theme graphics don't show up anyway. Those who still use graphics vary, but most of us really don't care if our writing partners use them as long as we can continue to do so.

However, if you're still anxious, I've got a couple graphics and rpg sources right off the bat that can help you tremendously:

@poohsources (your one stop shop for EVERYTHING theme, icon, rp etiquette, formatting, etc related. A very kind soul) @octomoosey (best free blog theme coder on Tumblr!)

and if you're willing to pay for codes and graphics, I can also recommend a few good friends.

Also, if you have further questions, come to me. My anonynous ask option is usually on. <3

(Anyone reading this, feel free to add on your suggestions!)

[haus-mom]

pinned post

hello and welcome to guidingThulite's blog for reblogs!

my name is alma (i also go by amaya!) and i'm 18+. not the blog, even though tumblr flagged it as mature?????? i rarely post nsfw and if i do it's mostly jokes, but whatevs. someday i'll go rogue and post female presenting nipples so they flag me for a reason

oh also here's my strawpage!!! send me something fun!

about my frequent tags and some more info below!

you want to commission me? here!

you just want to give me money? very much appreciated! here, too!

generally, for miscellaneous memes and stuff that i don't post about as often so i feel there's no need for a tag, i use #misc!

if i like a post a lot, i'll tag it as #fav!

if i go off in the tags, i usually add #alma rambles. it's also the tag i use for asks! though sometimes i forget and i use #alma answers instead. and sometimes i forget to use #alma rambles altogether

though me rambling on the tags is the norm but still

i also have a tag for those cheesy and often badly photoshopped valentine cards. just because.

my fandom tags!

right now i'm hyperfixating on project sekai, so that's what you'll see the most of in the blog. the tag is #proseka. i mostly post about tsukasa, but kanade and minori are my other two favs!!! mmj is my fav group! i am also a big defender of rarepairs so you'll see like. a lot lmao.

i wrote an akks fanfic that i treat like my child. updates VERY sporadically but i talk about it often. because it's my child

it's probably because i've been a vocaloid fan ever since the dawn of time (2011). the tag is #vocaloid! i'd talk about my fav producers but it's honestly a p big list hehe

i also really like kagerou project. the tag is #kagepro! i'm a big harutaka enthusiast. yuukei yesterday makes me cry. also a shintaka truther. poly yuukei quartet in general.

if there's something you should know about me is that i have a very-not-healthy-very-not-normal obsession with anything created by game dev #parun. i played re:kinder when i was like 13 and it genuinely changed me as a person. the tag's not organized like at all but someday it will. maybe. click for me rambling about how much me playing re:kinder changed the timeline or whatever. i've also played heisei pistol show and gone through gote to handa and if! gote to handa made me experience shrimp emotions. BIG DISCLAIMER OR WARNING OR SOMETHING. EITHER WAY, PLEASE READ: this has happened to me before, so if you want to play re:kinder because i don't stop talking about it or anything like that, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE look up the trigger warnings or ask me, i don't mind providing them. it's a VERY HEAVY game and i don't recommend you play it if you aren't feeling well mentally. let's ignore that's what i did when i was 13 but hey! i was 13!

i'm a big nintendo as in the franchises fan, so i post a lot about it! i usually use the tag #nintendo for smash bros-related content and some misc nintendo franchises that i reblog less often

i have been posting a lot about super mario lately.the tag is #mario. mostly misc stuff but sometimes i'll get into A Mood and it'll be either super paper mario or the mario & luigi rpgs (esp superstarsaga, peasley my beloved)

the mother trilogy is my most beloved and mother 3 is my favorite game ever so yeah. the tag is #earthbound!

there's also kirby! who doesn't love kirby? i love that li'l guy. the tag is #kirby. i pretend i understand the lore but every day i grow more confused.

now, as for regrettable decissions: the pokemon tag is just #pokemon even though i post about mainline, mystery dungeon and other spin offs often. everything is mixed. oh god. explorers is my beloved and, as you can see, hau is my son. sinnoh has my heart.

speaking of confusing storylines! i am, regrettably, a homestuck fan. the #homestuck tag could be completely replaced with a johnkat tag though. it's either johnkat or classpecting with next to no inbetween. i complain about canon a lot too lol

i'm a big ace attorney fan, i've played all the games! though i left the crossover midway and never played again. someday, i guess. the tag is #ace attorney! i also have a separate tag for dai gyakuten saiban, or the great ace attorney, #dgs spoilers are tagged for the latter two as "dgs spoilers" and "dgs2 spoilers"

i am also a jojo's bizarre adventure fan! i've seen parts 1-6 and i mostly post about narancia. i love that funky little dude. the tag is #jjba!

speaking about mafia-related animes, i also enjoy bungou stray dogs! when i say i enjoy bsd i mean i post ranpo and only ranpo. ok that's not true. i post ranpoe and ada found family too :> the tag is #bsd!

now, for something completely different, osomatsu-san! i can't say i have something i post more than anything but i really, really like beni and i'm always talking about how they're my brother and i frfr. i don't post blm-tsu. the tag is #ososan!

i post about the disastrous life of saiki k. the tag is #tdlosk and i am very normal about akechi. i promise.

speaking of akechis! #persona is also a thing. 4 is my favorite but anything with hamuko on it is an instant reblog from me. i lied though. my fav persona game is q2. but only 3 people including me played it in the west. it's okay. that means i'm hikari's number 1 fan!

i used to be the biggest inazuma eleven nut back in 2018 and sometimes i miss it so i reblog spree until i'm normal again. the tag is #inaele! the fandom was really small so i just reblogged whatever i liked, but i have a really soft spot for hamano, hayami and kurama, aka inago's second year trio!

i also like yokai watch a lot! the tag is #yokai watch. i would die for hailey and USApyon. my fav game is 3! you might see this red-haired catboy fucker around too. he's my son. regrettably.

things i don't really post about that often but they have a tag so might as well put it here:

#kingdom hearts

#twewy

#sonic

#warioware

#danganronpa

#parappa the rapper

#sam and max (slowly BUT SURELY getting into it)

#disney (doubles as an epic mickey tag ig)

#phineas and ferb and #milo murphy's law

#steven universe

#captain underpants

#hxh

#dragon ball

#rhythm heaven

#genshin impact

#puyopuyo

#haikyuu

#keroro gunso. or sgt frog. idk. frog alien man :)

#your turn to die

#rpg maker games

#wander over yonder

#undertale (doubles as a deltarune tag)

#owari no seraph

#lisa trilogy (the first, the painful, the joyful, you know the works)

#ffix (like a couple of posts or so)

#dungeon meshi

#bugsnax

#ocposting (self-explanatory. i'm open to questions about my oc's if you have any!)

#miraculous ladybug

there's probably more i'm forgetting but i'll add them as i remember!

[greenestcoat]

just had a little mini vacation for my birthday in an airbnb ten minutes from home, all by myself. taking care of toddlers full time and also dealing with a bunch of physical and mental health issues has really been doing a number on me so a rest was badly needed. i feel a little better now!

- took a walk in the river valley in the snow and took some not great nature photos, but the thing i like is that taking them made me look closer at my surroundings

- did yoga without anyone climbing on me!

- played a LOT of Baldur's Gate 3, which was also a birthday present! i rolled my halfling cleric Dafina from the Curse of Strahd campaign we did years ago. she was my first D&D character and i love her. Dafina is dealing with a bunch of trauma from pre-BG3, trying her best to cope with literal brain worms, and not quite sure who made her the leader of the group. i am having a wonderful time. feels exactly like d&d again.

- slept as much as i wanted to

- did some cooking! onion bread and wild rice soup. i wanted my food to be kinda rpg-themed, so i had bread and cheese, mead, moose jerky, and soup. very satisfying, highly recommend a weekend of skyrim dinners!

-also painted my fingernails, which i haven't done in years but i kept eyeing that green colour in my neglected makeup basket and hankering for it so i did. i usually end up disliking the feeling and taking it off within a couple days but so far, feels good and i do love the green. will take any colour i can get this time of year, tbh.

[mackeralsauce]

☆ Put this star into the inbox of your favorite blogs. It's time to spread positivity!

Owo can we some more of your ocs???

WAAAAA-

also yes absolutely! i do not have any puppet OCs (yet) other than my puppetsona, so my other OCs shall have to do! this will be a bit long so i'm going to put this under a read more:

we'll start with some more fandom-related OCs! here's Miiko, a Moomins OC of mine:

Miiko is a half-moomin/moomintroll (similar to how Snufkin is half-mumrik). He's in an OC x Canon poly relationship with the Joxter/Joxaren and the Mymble! His whole thing is that they're an astronomer who writes the constellations upon maps, and he also dabbles in a bit of theatre.

I also have an MHA/BNHA OC, although I am not part of the fandom/never got deeply involved into it. I still keep her because I made her when I was going through a rough friend group and so she brings me a lot of comfort as writing and re-developing her after the events helped ease the pain I was recovering from.

She is depicted to the right (on the left is @soda-sparkss OC Miasma Bakugou), and her name is Inako Saito! She was raised by the Neo-League (a recreation of the LOV in her universe) and was experimented on quite a bit as a child. This resulted in her having an unstable quirk that constantly changes, called Quirk Shift.

This isn't really a fandom necessarily, but I have a D&D character I have yet to get a chance to use yet, but I love them to bits!

(Image by goemon on Toyhou.se / diesaur on Instagram)

This here is Kiwal! He's an avian monk who was raised by sailors upon a ship known as The Lindwurm. They very much believe in the power of friendship(tm) and they're an all around great guy! His voiceclaim is Tidus from Final Fantasy X and his themeclaim is any of Maxi's themes from the Soul Calibur series.

Moving on from fandom OCs.... onto Story/Project OCs! I'll start with a guy I haven't used in a long time:

I don't really have a reference for this version of him, but this is Bass! He started off as a Friday Night Funkin' OC a long while ago but then I changed him into an OC for a Tactics RPG Project I had in mind (similar to old Fire Emblem games or Final Fantasy Tactics). He's the Fellaen prince of an empire that worships the dragon Ouroboros. He's one of the two main characters of his story, the other being the vessel of the divine and fell dragon, Luka (whom I have 0 image references for- sorry-).

Now for an OC very close to my heart, because @soda-sparkss made him!:

(Art by @soda-sparkss, character on the right belongs to him! That is Tobias)

Keanan (depicted on the left) is a human with a love for programming, the technical side of spaceships, etc. who was stuck being a janitor on a human fleet because the higher-ups felt he was too pacifistic. One day the ship he was on got attacked by an alien fleet (specifically, a species known as Nephorites) and was taken aboard their vessel by their captain, Tobias. He ended up getting hired there >:)

Now for a character from a project you will hopefully one day see...:

This here is Lucrum Von-Aconitum, a Nephilion (species from one of my bigger projects). He's the current head of the Von-Aconitum bloodline and thus is the Grand Judge of Terrahydrus, the Underground Canal City. He is in fact a father figure and also is very corrupt (accepts bribes and whatnot in his courtroom). We love him though <3 He is part of a very, very big RPG project I plan on making one day... it will likely change a lot once I start working on it, because the story needs a very heavy revamp (really, really badly- it sucks to me as of now).

I don't want to list any of my other story OCs from that story since I need to redesign them + rewrite the plot heavily, so I'm going to show one last silly, non-story OC:

This is Kweh-Kweh. He was originally a Modern D&D OC (grung DJ bard) but now he's just a cool OC. Peep the shinji chair on his kneepads.

[jinniebit]

hahaha yeah, i think i would need 2 popcorns or at keast the biggest possible option to MAYBE last me through the movie 😂

yeaaahh i had quite a few close calls to kpop only having a phase but....the only phase i had during these years is smaller phases for groups hdjdjsj. my wallet wishes it was only a phase, and my mom does too DHSKJS you should see the face she makes when she learns that i ordered albums again.

i think listening to music does count! ^^ OOOOO i've also been watching rpg and gaming streams for a while :o i regularly watch a few streamers on twitch, and i've been pretty obsessed with critical role and some other dnd campaigns for the past year or so. been obsessed with critical role so badly i've finished campaign 1 and 2 in about 14 months...🤕 also i like playing video games! i would want to play a lot more if my computer could handle the games😭 i usually play with the sims, stardew valley, darkest dungeon or dorfromantik <3 also this year i picked up crocheting!!! im not very good at it haha but im trying my best! im currently restarting a beanie project because halfway through i realized its going to be too smal :// also the final goal of this is creating replicas of kpop group plushies😂

do you have any exciting plans for today? ^^ im going to decorate the christmas tree and bake gingerbread!!! im so very excited haha, gingerbread is one of ny favorite things in the world - 🎄 santa anon

My mom don’t make faces anymore because as she says is my money but she did get a lil surprised when I said I bought the seasons greetings 🫢

I used to be a bigger fan of video games when I was younger.. I had a Nintendo wii, I think the first one that came out?, and I used to play all the time! But then the console stopped working and I was never a big pc gamer so now I’m stuck at watching game streamers haha

Omg crochet stuffed animals are so cuute I 100% support you on this goal! I’m sure everyone would fall in love with it!

I spent the whole day at home doing nothing haha yesterday we had our end of the year party at my department and let’s just say we did a lot o drinking games and I was just not having it jdhsmdh but now we are going to another city to see their Christmas lights! They have a whole ceremony for it and it’s usually pretty cool so I’m excited! I hope you had a great day! Gingerbread does sound really good!

[todayimgonnaplay]

Today I'm Gonna Play: Mega Man X: Command Mission (Gamecube ver.)

My first introduction to the Mega Man series wasn't from the games but rather one of the anime series: NT Warrior. I remember thinking the character designs looked really cool, and I loved sci-fi/robotic characters at the time too. (Robotboy on Cartoon Network anyone?) I did get into a few games on the GBA and PSP but I sucked badly. So I thought, if I can't get into one of their mainline games, maybe I can try a spin-off? (Apart from Battle Network) And that's how I found this. Never thought they had a proper turn based RPG so I thought to check it out and emulate it.

Right off the bat, I want to commend the character designs. I always felt like that was the series' strong point, but everyone looks great here. Zero is my favourite character in the entire franchise but this is one of the few times where X looks amazing, and maybe even moreso than Zero himself. I just cannot stop staring at his model with awe, it's just SO cool with the red and yellow accents, the use of sharp yet rounded shapes, and this red energy scarf emitting from his back. Another character's design I love is Marino. I usually don't pay much attention to the female characters (although Ciel, and some renditions of Roll are very pretty and cute!), but I'm absolutely in love with Marino's design where a female character looks cool for once. I think the only other character I can think of is Aile from Mega Man ZX, which I haven't played yet. If Marino appears in other games I would totally love to play them!

Overall gameplay loop is simple. Get into random encounters and go through doors or elevators to proceed, fight a boss and repeat. But I have to say that this game now has my favourite RPG combat system, beating Final Fantasy X. That's because it has similar features, such as being able to switch your party members at any time, as well as showing your turns. There are also some elements of the weapons and sub weapons having different attributes although they have stats too, so you can switch around a bit. Although the game doesn't have a nodal system like the sphere grid in FFX, it has something called a Force Metal which are kind of like stat boosters, except you can only hold a couple of them, and some party members can have even more limited slots, for some reason. The reason that this system is my favourite is that it has what I like about FFX, but also doesn't use a menu like traditional JRPGs to input your commands, and instead has 4 simple button presses: Attack, 2 smaller attacks using the sub-weapon, an ultimate attack powered by a gauge, and a menu shortcut to access items or to defend and flee. This makes the usual turn-based combat go a lot faster than having to wait for the animations to play out and repeat.

The music is also pretty catchy for the most part. Lots of electronic beats that still hold up to today. The ending song is also really neat yet very eerie too, which was very unexpected.

The story is alright. I'm not knowledgeable about Mega Man lore in general, but from my understanding there's a group of bad guys that were after mining sources of Force Metal and it's up to X and the others to track them down. Not a lot of groundbreaking narratives going on although it had some interesting twists, but it's okay enough to just follow along with it without focusing on it too much, even though it won't be something I would remember in the future.

I do have some drawbacks though. Since it's an old game and an RPG too, it suffers from random encounters or more specifically TOO many random encounters. Some segments had puzzle sections and I could take two steps and get an encounter! Understandably, this feature existed for technical reasons at the time. But if a game were to release today with random encounters included for any reason (such as the Pokémon franchise), it's crucial to keep a balance on the encounter rate because too much of it frustratingly breaks the flow of the game. I had to take multiple breaks from playing just from getting exhausted with the amount of enemies I was encountering. What's worse, is that the EXP rate is so low that it makes grinding an absolute pain to go through.

The level designs aren't too great either. Because the game mostly uses corridors to navigate, a lot of it is just going straight with some occasional turns. The second half tries to include some puzzles and a lot of backtracking, but the map design felt a bit awkward to navigate around. I mostly had an issue with 1 chapter, but the rest were okay to go through. I think it's hard to make corridor style levels interesting, save one game from what little I've played which was Persona 5 Royal (It is something I'll properly play in the future). A mix of puzzles, exploration, and not making areas too narrow would do well.

Overall, I think this game has a lot of potential that's being held down by its own weaknesses and can definitely be improved upon if it were to get a sequel, or at least a remaster to be ported to modern consoles.

[moodymakeshifter]

I attended Terrificon in Connecticut this past Friday.

It was a delight. What a wonderful bombardment of fans and creatives rocking the Nerd Card. A veritable sea of comics and rpg paraphernalia. I got two tiny d20s. Seeing them made me giddy. They're so cute. Had to snag a couple. >u<

I also met the writer and artist of Seven Years in Darkness, Joseph Schmalke.

Now listen, ever since I came across the first issue of Seven Years in Darkness, I've been on the hunt for new issues as they're released. The art style impresses upon you a great weight, perhaps the enormity of the stakes involved, and the concept beckons like an old jewelry box with secret notes hidden inside.

But for some reason, when Mr Schmalke asked me for my take on the series so far, I went ahead and said, "A little slow, but..." That is not the entirety of what I had to say. I wanted to talk about the mandatory and desperate dedication of the characters and the perverse attraction of the school and its traditions. But, under pressure, I folded like a napkin. I think I may have insulted the guy, which was not my intention.

Still, I bought another one of his works, a graphic novel called The Infernal Pact. Mr Schmalke even signed it. For free. So maybe I didn't insult him too badly. XD He said that he doesn't charge for signatures, that if he ever did start charging for signatures, it would be because he ran out of new ideas.

The Infernal Pact is about a biker gang who made an intentional deal with the devil, and a group of meth addicts who unwittingly made a deal with a lord of Hell called Belphegor. Some grisly deaths later, and the biker gang has it out for the cursed meth addicts, but the meth addicts have bigger concerns; they want to get out from under their deal somehow. It's a gory, irreverent story in which the choices are do or die. So far, I'm very much enjoying it. :)

[tolstirades]

An Old RPG Oddity: Dungeons & Dragons First Quest

(This is a post from my old blogspot, dated May 29th, 2022.)

I played my first ever game of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition recently. I'm fairly experienced on the matter of RPGs in general but had never touched the original "Advanced" line of D&D; barring the plethora of CRPGs that were released under the editions' rulesets.

I had picked up a few books and oddities from the era; the Players Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, a few Complete Handbooks and an odd starter's box set called First Quest. First Quest came with a CD. That's right. A CD. As soon as I read that I knew I had to run whatever goofy, cheesy stuff that was contained within that box; and so far, I'm certainly not left disappointed. The voice acting was goofy, the music cheesy, and it was wonderful. First time I've ever ran a session with a CD holding the reigns sometimes that's for sure.

The party consisted of strange characters straight off the bat. I let the players have all the freedom they wanted to make characters because it was just a session to learn the system; not to mention the high likelyhood they'd just end up dead anyways. We had a Drow Wizard modeled after The Elder Scrolls' very own Dagoth Ur, a Halfling Cleric of whom was the only normal one in the party, and finally a Fremlin Assassin; which from the race choice alone already made him my most loathed of the bunch. I mean seriously look at these horrible things:

The story was simple. An old but powerful wizard sent an experienced mercenary off to an old, ruined tomb to stop an Ogre from getting his hands on the Orb of Dragonkind - a magical artefact that could turn the wielder into a full on dragon! Issue was that the guy never came back, and so a group needed hiring to see if the poor fella was still alive; and so the ragtag group of odd characters was formed, and they set off to the Tomb of Demara.

Orc tracks and signs of combat paved the path towards the old ruins, and after walking for around half an hour, they finally stood before the great gates of the ruined temple. After the strenuous task of lifting up the metal gate (acted out on the CD, of course), the group made their way into the first room - a rather empty entrance hall lit up with torches still spitting embers to this day. Someone's been here recently.

The first door is opened, and the party is greeted to a pair of Gnolls. They growl, and demand the party ahead of them surrender right away. The party have other plans. In a beautiful display of the lack of experience with the strange initiative system within AD&D (You say what you're going to do, then roll initiative as a group); the group made rather small decisions and inadvertently invited a free strike from one of the hyaenid humanoids, taking the cleric down to half health in one slash - and it could've been much worse. Eventually the system's quirks had imprinted into the newfound playstyle of the party, and they started to fight back. The Fremlin flew around one enemy shortly after tricking them with a fake surrender, backstabbing him for massive damage. The cleric shuffled up near some debris on the floor, planning on shoving a creature into it - but before he had a chance, the Gnoll was hit in the back of the head with a sling bullet from the wizard hiding behind the door, knocking him straight into the pit of debris. The odds were in the party's favour now, and eventually after taking time to learn some new mechanics mid-combat, they struck down their enemies and felt stronger because of it.

Beautiful, badly worn Tapestries etched into leather adorned the walls, and were swiftly taken by the party. This would eventually lead to a lot of experience and gold - as treasures give both in this edition. The Gnolls had nothing but heavily rusted weaponry and hide armour that was both in horrible condition and certainly too large for any party members to wear. A large structural beam that had fallen into the debris was removed and held by the Drow; of whom was certainly planning something to do with that item. 

The party then made their way down to the southern-most unopened door in the room - and inside lay a strange sight. Small, humanoid rat-dog creatures with scales beneath their scraggy fur, they chattered about, fighting one another until eventually noticing the odd group outside their door, completely oblivious to the sounds of combat in the room next door. Their eyes met the party's own - Kobolds, the very old-school design of them anyways. Much like the late, and much larger Gnolls that greeted the party in the first room, the kobolds brought their own rusted weaponry up into the air, pointed towards the party, shouting for them to surrender in their high-pitched, rather unhinged voices. The party however decided that these creatures seemed a little on the easily-manipulated side - and so they spoke. 

After a short conversation, the kobolds unveiled that they're much more afraid of the big "odor" by the name of "Bonegnasher", a huge creature somewhere in this temple. They offer another way out, some gold or some ale to satiate themselves. Maybe, just maybe, they'll let the party slip past if they did. The fremlin, however, one-upped the offer by speaking of his very own "Magic Sand". The small, magical and rather gross pixie-esque creature lifted the lid of a small chest he carried, revealing it to be completely full of glittering, golden sand. The halfling, surprised, reprimanded the fremlin, stating that it could be useful to them and advising not to waste it on the kobolds. Though many of the creatures eyes lit up and tails wagged - the leader slapped the overly-excited rat-dogs. "What does it even do? You think we're stupid enough to fall for that?" he snarls, acting as tough as he could despite his tail wagging; equally as excited to have whatever it is as the other kobolds. 

"When consumed, this magical sand can make you turn completely invisible to all big 'Odor' creatures named 'Bonegnasher'." the fremlin spoke as disappointment painted itself across the halfling's face. "That sounds like it'd be really useful for us, you know?" the halfling spoke, a little frustrated with this decision. "You can get some too, don't worry." the fremlin whispered back. This extremely specific magical item description lifted the dust from the stone floor from the speed of each tail wagging. The kobolds decided to gather together and discuss, and after about 5 seconds passed, the not-so-bright creatures accepted the deal. Within an instant they were fighting over the tiny handfuls of sand they were given and rushing into the corners of the room to swallow down the sand. The adventurers used this as an opportunity to take some items from the room unnoticed whilst the halfling forcibly swallowed his own handful of sand he was given, withholding the urge to cough it up. After that, the adventurers quietly closed the door - and the structural plank of wood was placed in front of it to bar the kobolds inside before they realise that all they've done is dehydrate themselves by eating entire handfuls of completely normal, coarse and grainy sand - completely unaware that it would have no effect, the only way to find out is to test it out. The halfling, still choking slightly, needed to be informed after the fact - the fremlin's mischieviousness most certainly unveiling itself.

After a brief period of listening to the awe-inspiring sounds of a halfling coughing up sand, the party decided it was time to advance a bit more into the temple, opening up the door to the East, unveiling a run down yet clearly once-beautiful chapel within. Something hissed towards the party. In front of the alter stood a lizard on his hind legs, wearing nothing but loose leather rags. In it's raspy, sibilance-heavy voice performed in a wonderfully cheesy way on the CD, it spoke, threatening the party before moving in without hesitation, aiming to kill. Weapons at the ready, the party sought a plan out. The halfling closed the door and moved, the Wizard prepared to fire a stone towards the creature as soon as it unveiled itself, and the fremlin stood up front, ready to juke and get a back stab - knowing full well of it's own immunity to non-magical weapons (yes, the fremlin race is completely immune to non-magical weapons). The lizard barged in and was met with a barrage of attacks, but before the halfling could attempt anything, the creature whispered terrifying words into the room's damp air, and his body couldn't do anything but run for it's life. After a few more hits were thrown, the hissing lizardman turned to his backstabber and placed a hand upon him, sending pain throughout his body. Despite his immunities, the fremlin with 6 health was met with 5 damage, nearly killing him. As luck would have it, the next turn the party would win initiative oncemore and manage to beat down the shaman once and for all before he could do any more damage. A quick battle for sure, but a deadly one nonetheless. The party scoured the room, taking another tapestry from the walls happily like the loot fiends they were, and the fremlin checked around the alter, finding a chest hidden behind it. He swiftly checked for traps - finding nothing of the sort. He attempted to pick the lock, but as soon as he got close a needle shot out and pricked his finger - but luckily for him, it didn't push deep enough into the flesh to properly secrete the poison it was laced with into his wound. Panicked, he flew up atop the alter and sat down. A great divine light started to emanate from beneath his rather overly bare bottom, as the alter shone with power, and the fremlin was healed of all ailments. The light flickered and faded as quickly as it came, however. What a stroke of luck.

The group placed their ear upon the southern door, as sounds seemed to echo from behind it. Oncemore the CD brought a wonderfully acted atmosphere and soundscape depicting multiple deep-voiced creatures torturing a man - someone who refused to give up any information to them about the Orb of Dragonkind and how to use it. The players instantly knew this was the man they were looking for and prepared for a fight - but this time; they'd have the upper hand. The party prepared a trap, the fremlin held a jar of Greek Fire (a very flammable oil) up above the doorframe, whilst the halfling held a torch in his hand,all whilst the wizard stayed back, a net held in his hands. The halfling slammed open the door and yelled before running back into the room, unveiling a group of hobgoblins still wielding their torture equipment; a whip, a blazing hot metal poker and a metal rod, equally as hot on the tip. Embering coals were sat in a bucket in the centre of the room, whilst a very injured and broken Elf lay limp inside a cage in the corner of the room.

The hobgoblins, completely oblivious to the small fremlin atop the door frame, rushed towards the torture-interrupting party. How dare they ruin a hobgoblin's favourite pass-time? The first rushes through and is instantly covered in oil, then set alight with the torch as soon as he's close - but not before he gets a hit off with his whip, hurting the already injured Cleric more before being set ablaze and falling flat upon the carpet, lighting it up beneath him. The second hobgoblin ran in, tripped over his comrades corpse and set his own body alight, spending his turn trying to pat it out. The third wielded the poker and rushed the side of the Cleric, getting a hit off with ease, leaving him near death - but this was where the Wizard came in: he threw the net, perfectly wrapping it around the hobgoblins ankles and knocking him prone - head slamming directly upon the burning corpse of his compatriot behind him. The harmonies that came from the screams of the burning creatures reverberated rather satisfyingly against the flat, hard stone walls of the chapel. A few final blows were thrown by the group, and the hobgoblins were no more - serving as complete disappointments to their viciously militarised race. 

The party then pushed into the torture chamber and spoke to the elf - and indeed this was the man they were looking for. He was horribly weakened, and was of no use to them, but he did call for 100 gold pieces if they brought him back to the great wizard, so they aided him in limping back to town. The wizard and the mercenary reunited, and the party were paid for their amazing effort, surprising the whole town with their reappearance. The fremlin thief even levelled up thanks to the treasure he snagged. Bonegnasher, however, was still a looming threat - and though the mercenary needed time to recover, the party needed to stop the great ogre from getting his hands upon the Orb of Dragonkind; as with it, Bonegnasher would turn into a dragon, and that would spell a terrible fate for many.

There was where we ended, only 4 rooms explored in the dungeon, but lots of fun had within it. The CD was cheesy and very entertaining, the concept felt old-school and charming, and man; the fights, though quick, felt tense and deadly as all hell, and I was very surprised they got this far without a death - I even made them prep a backup character alongside some pregens I made just in case. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition was a lot of fun, I loved how quickly combat was done and over with in comparison to the WoTC editions' initiative queue system - it was a nice change up and characters were nearly dead after a round or two. It was scary! Can't wait to continue it.

In the meantime, most of First Quest's CD audio is available on youtube thanks to Robert Green; if you'd like to listen to it. Check it out!

[akindredskillet]

i ran out of tags so i guess im making a whole addition here.. sorry this is so long lmao <3

first of all THEY CALLED HIM SUNNY!! is that our first namedrop outside of the naming screen? i’m not entirely sure tbh but either way im so excited for extra canon sunny :)

secondly. i AM torn ..

i like the art!! it's well done and it's cool to see some of the scenes you normally only see in pixel art as you know. full scenes with movement and backgrounds. i especially love the panel where you see omori in the knife blade, i think that was my favorite. and the first page of course. i love seeing their expressions and the silly little manga gags and to an extent i think it's fun to see sunny so miserable and tortured. putting your blorbos in a blender is a thing for a reason

BUUUUUT. i think taking away his expressionless-ness does a huge disservice to his character. the whole point is that he's dissociating really badly right. to the point of even seeing headspace characters irl? i love the part in the rw day 1 bathroom scene where basil asks sunny why he looks so scared but then in the mirror he looks the same as always, because it implies they are/were really close, enough for basil to be able to pick up on the tiny changes in his expression. and besides that sunny is just. Like That. idk it's such a major part of his character for me. one of my friends mentioned that it could have been cool for them to still have the exaggerated expressions, so that sunny could be that much more neutral in contrast, and i think that could have worked better !!

on that note, i think adding anime level drama to it all does a disservice to the real world sections. they always had that feeling of mundanity and painful realism that really stuck with me… it's fun to see and it Looks Good but i think it doesn't capture the same feeling

idk if they're planning on aubrey having the same mini redemption arc but idk if that's even possible now that you know. she fully hit him w her nail bat!! personally i believed in the whole 'it was just for intimidation' thing considering she doesn't actually use it in battle. but that's out the window i guess! why? for... drama points?? extra heightened stakes? it admittedly looks cooler but. cmon. people already find her arc rushed when it was just VERBAL bullying (and being a bystander to physical stuff)

i do get that the headspace prologue can be a little tedious but by cutting it out entirely you lose that entire sense of 'somethings wrong but i can't quite place What'. and the reveal from headspace to rw, seeing how much his friends changed! if i was a new fan i wouldn't care that their friend group was split up at this point because i wouldnt have seen their dynamic together yet

i was skeptical to begin with because omori uses its medium as a game So Well… like omocat was going to make it a graphic novel to begin with right. and that would have been easier. but she CHOSE to make it an rpg, even teaching herself coding and stuff, for a reason. one of the first examples i always think of is how mari is tied to the save point and how, not knowing where each save point is on a first playthrough, you’re as relieved to see her as sunny/omori is. it does a really good job of tying the player’s stakes to the characters’ stakes, and that makes you care about her

ofc not all of that can be translated into this format and i fully expected that, but some things could and they just didn’t. like the reversal of being familiar with the headspace characters first like i already mentioned, and being “reintroduced” to them the same time sunny is! pretty much any time the player / audience is made to feel something parallel to the characters

i will be cautiously optimistic, because it’s only the first chapter and i don’t want to be too harsh.. but i can’t see them doing the same story well. maybe if it’s canon divergent? i’ll be happy to see the art either way, and maybe we’ll get some good small crumbs of previously vague details! hints about things like whether his parents knew, generally anything that happened in the time period between the incident & sunny stopping going to school. but then again… i’m not even sure id entirely Want that? i love how vague and speculative it can be, especially a lot of the details in the hiki route that are up to interpretation

i’m really curious about the sunny omori dynamic, since it seems like that will be explored a little differently / possibly in more detail, so i think that’s what i’m most looking forward to at this point

logistically, im also curious as to how they’ll even continue pacing the story since. well our headspace visits are already off by one (unless sunny wakes back up rw day 1 and then the second headspace visit is still that night i guess?). but even besides that. we already cut out like 6 hours of prologue content. not to mention, battles that i imagine wont be illustrated in detail, any grinding, figuring out puzzles like in the sweetheart and humphrey dungeons. how much of it are they actually going to adapt?

i guess we’ll have to wait and see!

Anyone and everyone who sees this post, gimme your honest options on the first manga chapter!

I don’t care if you loved it or hated it, your options are so valid and I want to hear from you!

Dump all your thoughts in the tags, whether that be excited ramblings, angry grumblings, or something in between!

I’m trying to gain as many perspectives on the chapter as possible because I am so torn lol

[captaintiny]

genuinely curious. can i ask why you don't fw cr anymore? i haven't gotten into the new campaign much.

DISCLAIMER: i don't care if you like crit role and this is not an attack on anyone that does. if you enjoy it, great, im super happy for you. please do not take this personally.

campaign 1 got me through some really tough times. i truly don't think i would be alive without campaign 1. i wanted so badly to like campaign 2 when it started. i was so, so excited and i felt let down and disappointed at every turn. i thought the episodes were too long and directionless, i didn't like any of the characters, and i couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to buy into the idea that any of them would stay together as a cohesive group. i only managed to watch about 20 sessions before i gave up, and everything new i learned from friends only made me angrier and more jaded. i have specific beef with one of the characters and their player, which only got worse as the campaign progressed.

during c1 i was already watching/listening to a few other RPG shows, especially non-d&d ones, but it was during the run of c2 that people started to find their own niches for content (as opposed to trying to just emulate cr) and i found content and ways of running games/telling stories that i vastly preferred to matt's.

i now no longer engage with the content at all. partly because even the friends i had that were still trying to find enjoyment in c2 were so disappointed by the end that they also no longer engage with it, but partly because i would much rather dedicate my time and energy to consuming and lifting up content i enjoy, rather than being negative about something i don't. i have absolutely no idea what is happening with campaign 3, and i am much happier for it.

p.s. if you like cyberpunk and cool sci-fi stories, i highly recommend watching Callisto 6 on Youtube. It ran on Geek and Sundry before the site shut down, and is a beautiful tale of hope in the face of adversity. Plus a guest appearance from Mark Meer! The full series is available here, there are 24 episodes total, each under 3 hours. It's a perfect example of incredible, non-d&d actual play, and the things I think are cr's biggest weaknesses are executed much better in it.

[caeloservare]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN

— BASICS

NAME: Herami. Sometimes I go by Kira. Ofc both are nicknames.

PRONOUNS: she/her

ZODIAC: Leo 

SINGLE / TAKEN: single af

— THREE FACTS

001. I feel mentally very old sometimes. But also very odd, not really fitting in like most of groups of people around me. I guess it makes sense then, that I’m drawn to characters that more or less struggle with their own humanity and relationships.

002.  I don’t know. I spend too much time in my own head. Telling stories was always my way to at least keep it interesting, hence RPGs, fandoms, all that jazz. Still, I tend to think too much and not nearly enough where it’s actually needed. 

003. Uhh... My eyes are in hard to define color. So far no one managed to define it any way that would make sense as a color. It’s a mix of grays, greens and blues that can be best simplified as gray. I used to dislike it, now I find it a tad annoying but also love it.

— EXPERIENCE

001. I’ve roleplayed on tumblr since 2017. Had only one blog before this one though (Genji from Overwatch. I think I’ve locked out most of possible interactions, so idk if you’d be able to find it anymore, but it was @.metal-sparrow (added -archives to url once stopped using it). I have also blog for Qrow now, but I sadly have not enough time (or rather motivation) to get it going. I want to quite badly, but I can’t even catch up here nor get icons for him.

002. Used to plan far ahead what my muses would do depending on replies (old Game Master habits, I guess) and it was really exciting to see my plans thrown off with the reply and figure out new ways. It was upsetting when threads died though, so I just stopped doing that. 

003. My roleplay experience started looong ago on a roleplay summer camp. It was awesome. Then I didn’t want to stop, so despite I miss greatly sitting with people at the table with candles and music, I’ve started roleplaying online. Chats, forums, one-shots sessions at cons and now tumblr.

— MUSE PREFERENCE

I guess I can sum it up as various flavours of disasters and I lean heavily to writing males. And, as I mentioned, I like my muses to be able to go on journey of self-discovery, of growth and searching their own peace and happiness. I really like to dig deep into the character and discover all the “why”s on who and how they are and act.

Also I love them flawed. All of them, no exception. Flaws are fun to play with, can make a good drama, angst, are a good gateway for growth and simply are just fun. On mentioned summer camp I RPed an analphabet warrior girl. Her tries to explain to the guards where she lived was funniest shit ever, because she couldn’t name the street nor the house number. Seriously, don’t be afraid of flaws! Do it! Make your characters flawed! This can be tons of fun! Look how stiff and petty Jimbo can be and tell me I’m wrong about it ;)

— SUB-GENRES

FLUFF: Yes. Only fluff would be boring, but it’s very important to get that sweet and silly ingredient into the writen topics balance. I’m gonna shove all the comfort themes here too, and let me tell you that can be best thing to read or write on some days.

SMUT: Nope. Not gonna happen. Can plot, but without much details. I suppose that for writing my limit is more or less when touching goes into taking clothes off. I do have some headcanons more or less in this topic, I don’t think I’ll have a chance to share, since memes are either not interesting to me or too far out of my comfort zone. 

ANGST: YESS! I love me some good angst. Ofc best combined with some comfort later, with attempts from muse to solve whatever was the issue and move on. Angst is perfect for cracking muse’s outerior and seeing what’s inside them, what they don’t want to show.

IN GENERAL: Relationships. The most interesting thing to write for me are relationships and not only romantic ones. Let the muses meet, run, clash, hurt, forgive and get to know each other better. Let them care for each other but also argue, get angry and lost on their way. It’s not the end goal, it’s the way towards it that matters.

— PLOTS vs MEMES

Mix of both. Sometimes I have no idea how to respond to memes and usually I don’t have any plot ideas, unless I’d be given a starting point. I like memes, these are nice and fun. I like plotting, even if it doesn’t make it to be a thread, I’ll still consider it part of our muses history. So both. Mostly just random screaming random ideas, preferably both ways, because I tend to feel like I’m too much when I go off about some random scene I thought ;u;

 — TAGGED:  @virmireisms thanks <3

 — TAGGING: @storyspun @eiiskonigin @aettangr @h0ldit

[natsukitakama]

Hey you <3 I just wanted to request a headcanon for the 104th cadets, please : how do they act while playing co-op games (you know, the kind you have to resolve some kind of enigmas, like pressing two buttons at the same time, etc) with their s/o ? Thanks a lot !

Author note : hi there ❤️ thank you for your request hope you’ll enjoy this ♡ Somehow I described them as a gamer ? Hope you’re fine with that, I actually really enjoy this 

i do not own those gifs credit to the owner(s)

Warning : rage quit / eren is litteraly me / Modern AU cause the canon-verse suck Lmao / I based this on my own experience 

Masterlist

Eren Jaeger - impulsive 

How did you not end up dumping him ? The man is DANGEROUS 

You think that he is all screaming and yelling like all the FUCKING time ? 

Play a game with him 

Spoiler : it’s worst 

I mean at first he saw this as a challenge and just getting the possibility to do play a game with you ? 

He couldn’t say no to that 

The thing he just took this way to personally, so he had to finish this with the best score getting the things you had to unlock during a game. 

He had to 

Doesn’t mean you want to.

The whole idea of co-op game is to play together in order to finish the game

But he didn’t hear that : he wants to do everything by himself 

And when he can’t do it he would ask some help.

Don’t expect him to be good with synchro-enigma he can’t he is either too quick or too late. 

I’m sorry to say that but he might complain about your game (while he was the one who is losing all the heart because he can’t read an enigma properly) 

And you see me coming but if can’t resolve an enigma and if you can’t help him he would just stop and won’t play at this game until he feels like he can do it 

Oh and he sucks at game like Overcooked you know those kind of things were you’re supposed to work at the same Time as his partners he is either too slow either too quick (but always pretend he isn’t his fault) 

Don’t think I mentioned that but he cursed a lot, he complained a lot (to my fellow frenchie he is like Sardoche in real life I don’t make the rule here) 

7/10 because it’s funny to see him being angry at a game 

Mikasa - skilful

i wanted to say that if you’re not eren she won’t play with you LMAO 

But if she is dating you, she would do it because she wants to please you and spend some good quality time with you (she is not a fan of video game but she can tolerate some RPG) 

She tends to be quiet while playing and only speaks when she got an idea about how to solve enigma or difficult game who implies being coordinate. 

You didn’t have to anything in such mission she will synchronise her game with you don’t question her. I don’t know how she is doing it but she can no matter if you tend to push way to quickly every button or if you’re a slow one. One look from her and she does it 

She is really god any games it piss me off

When you struggle at an enigma that you decided to resolve on your own she will either give you tiny tips or just ask you to just stop right now get some tea and try again later when you’ll be more relax 

The only problem with her is she wants to help so much that she might do everything on her own especially if one of your mission imply fighting (like kill a boss together to unlock another level) she would quickly get over it without questioning you and you end up getting so many xp and items while you didn’t ever touch anything 

She wants to help you so much poor thing ♡ 

Also if you’re hurt during a game or if you life are pretty low she would stop everything in order to heal you. Even if it’s very cute from her, it piss you off cause now you have to start again because both of you died together. 

9/10 she is the best she cooks cookie prepare some tea for you. 

Armin - strategic 

i love him I really do 

But you can’t play with him 

He needs to make a plan on every mission, Like sweetie just relax you need to chill a little bit. 

Although he tends to overthink everytime He is very good when your goal is to kill a boss, cause he will do two jobs : healing and helping you to kill him. Give him 5 min and he will give you a whole tactics so you can fight the boss easily and earn even more xp. He won’t be afraid to go and heal you too if you’re in need and would never judge you if you’re struggling (even if he guides you during the game) he understand that the game is pretty difficult. 

He is good to with enigma like it’s just sound quite easy for him. All he has to do is read the thing and BANG he got the solution how can you do that ?

He will even explain the whole thing so you could also resolve enigma with him 

The problem is he is way too slow, if your level implies being coordinate it would take you forever until being able to finish the game. Especially because he is not comfortable with a joystick like they got way too many button and he is not good with coordination so he ends up being confused with the button 

When it came to videotgameswhere all of you have to work in coordination, he is always slow. He really tries but he is always way too slow, but he counterbalances his lack of skills with his minds so after you’ll lose because he couldn’t manage to do something within 30s he’ll find a solution to win 

It’s really funny to play a cop-game with him on Fortnite cause he’s like « y/n why would you play at such a game ? What’s the point of killing people ? » and he is the one who is throwing a grenade and shoot at the same time so a lot of people can dies with one shot or planing a trap so a lot of people might die at the same time. He is very dangerous when he wants to just saying. 

8/10 because sometimes mind isn’t enough and you need skill to win 

Jean - Skill and minds 

Do not let him play with Eren 

I swear don’t do it otherwise they would spend the whole game yelling at each other « you should come quicker Horse face ! » « Oh yeah ? Who’s the one who though that would be wise to attack the boss without getting heal first uh ? Such an idiot bastard » 

It’s not comfortable if you’re playing while being on the phone but it’s so funny to see him getting angry because Eren (as usual) run without thinking about a plan

Like Armin he tends to be very good when it came to resolve enigma or find an enemy’s weakness : all he has to do is to let Eren, Connie and Sasha run at first so he could analyze the boss’ behavior (yeah he totally uses them as guinea pig and he doesn’t regret that especially when he hears Eren getting Angry or Connie complaining it’s so funny) 

Unlike Armin he is pretty food with a controller so he can actually being very efficient as long as Mikasa isn’t around 

He tends to be close to you EVERYTIME and he would even protect you, heal you everytime you got hurt because you protects Connie, Eren or Armin, it’s cute at first but very annoying then because he only focus on you and isn’t into the game anymore. When he turns like that, someone need to tease him about not being good like Eren and he will scream a little bit (how dare you as if he could even be worst than that suicidal bastard) but then he is on it. 

Watch him beating the shit out of the boss 

BUT when it came to games like overcooked when you have to share task he is bad. Not because he isn’t skillful but because he wants to be the chief so badly and of course Eren thought he could be the leader while everyone knows he isn’t coordinate enough to do that. So most of the time Armin is the leader in such a game 

Just give him a task where he has to be quick and he’ll be fine but don’t let him in the same group as Eren, they would argue about who should to this and you’ll end up losing because they argue. 

Also if you’re playing something like a RPG with him he gave you SO MANY things like everytime he drop something this is for you, at this point he doesn’t care about his character (he does but he can’t just not give you something) 

You didn’t ask it but I’m just say it, if you play animal crossing with him he would spoil the shit out of you, can’t blame him he just wants to help so badly. He’ll text you about his plan, the stuff he got he would even help you with flowers. 

8/10 because he tends to flirt with you or argue with Eren so you’ll lose precious time for the mission 

Connie & Sasha - Funny 

I put them together because 1) they tends to play everytime together 2) because they play the same way 3) they share one braincell (meaning either you’re dating connie or Sasha you’ll have to play together) 

One word : a mess 

Always questionnaire why we’re doing this or why we shouldn’t do this, this way 

BUT they’re like very synchronized, it’s like seeing someone and his reflection (sometimes you’re even jealous cause you can’t do that)

They tends to be very effective when you need to coordinate something 

They’re pretty skilled too 

But they can’t make a plan even to save their life 

The number of life you’ll lose because them and Eren decided to run into the boss’ lair without asking permission 

It should be illegal to run that easily anyway 

If Connie is really dumb when It came to enigma 

Sasha is very good to notice tiny elements that actually was the key to resolve the problem 

She tends to be super good to drop every tiny things that was hide behind a tree too a really hunt (but won’t share her things with you if you’re not giving her puppy eyes I’m sorry) 

But Connie is your best allies to fight couple of ennemie at the same time, like you were walking and boom you’re surrounded by NPC and he will come to save you. 

Connie is a protector 

I mean Sasha is too but she more into prevention, safety than protection but if during a game you might be in danger of course she’ll run after you (ask you extra cookies for that) 

Dont expect any of them to be good at enigma or games like overcooked, I mean Sasha might spend her whole call luring about foods while Connie might try to do everything on his own since he is incredible (he says it) 

If you’re calling one of them during a game, it’s actually more entertaining than the game, I can’t explain they’re just super funny

If you’re playing in a RPG that might have a huge map you’ll definitely lose them at some point during your game, they don’t have any sense of direction and since they can’t read a map (that’s me don’t bully me I’m trying) well they get lost and will send you a picture of their screen so you could help them  

6/10 because they’re trying to their best but since they share one brain cell well it’s always more complicated than it should be 

Bonus : Marco Bott - Motivating 

My cute sweetheart 

He is doing is best everytime you call him for a game 

He is so good at overcooked than I’m jealous of him 

Kinda good with Enigma but he is really good when game imply strategic (he also loves how focused you are and how he could motivate you with his plan) 

He doesn’t play at any games that involve war or anything so don’t ask him about a fortnite game he won’t do it 

He really love role-play (not put intended lmao), he is actually a good narrator and is so good at at owning xp : his character might not be the greatest when it came to strength but he is very balanced character 

Playing with him it’s actually relaxing, he never raise his voice and seemed to always find a way to relax anyone that might be too into it. 

Especially good when It came to help Eren and Jean to just shut up and play the game without yelling : don’t ask me how he does that the man is a genius 

If he teams up with Armin during game like Among us you loose any chance to win (I mean if you’re the traitor he would never say it but he noticed so does Armin but won’t say anything about it) the man knows everything, and is able to make you confess it’s really fun to watch but bother you when you’re loosing yourself in your explanation 

When it’s just you two playing a game together and somehow you struggle to resolve an enigma or a level, don’t worry your boyfriend Marco he is

The best cheerleader in the whole univers fight me on this 

+100 ego boost for Y/N 

In the end your resolve that damn enigma 

10/10 yeah I’m not impartial but I love him 

[helenarasmussen87]

Reading Update

It's going to be a long one since I've been voraciously working through my reading pile and I'm taking a leave so this is what I've been focused on other than writing and trying to get back to drawing like I used to.

Here we go:

Books that pissed me the fuck off:

-The Miniaturist, The Ladies of Cheateau Lafitte, Through a Glass Darkly: These books quite frankly pissed the fuck out of me due to using the LGBQTIA+ characters as plot devices rather than their own. Not to mention that it felt VERY stereotypical and badly handled.

It really irked me in "The Miniaturist" due to the people who the book was based on were real people and you could easily find their story and there were so many gross liberties taken with these people's lives that it was jaw droppingly appalling.

-The Maiden: An old series and the writing style clearly shows this. It was just intrigue, vague, incest, the Highland Uprising, and cousins destroying each other. Not very good, tbh.

-Tales of London: I was expecting straight up ghost stories, but those were minimal to the rest of the stories that felt like sociology and urban geography majors wrote ghost stories about the city itself. Not really what I wanted.

"Through a Glass Darkly" I understand the use of the gay husband trope more here due to the book written in 1987. Chateau used a slight lesbian angle which went nowhere and didn't add anything to the characters and this along with the Miniaturist irked me due to them being written pretty recently.

Now Books/Series that I was surprised at how much I enjoyed:

-Colourless Tzusuki Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage: A re read from 2015, but still holds up. I get it more now and the reveal is still as shocking as it was back when I first read it. I'm also convinced that this is like a spiritual sequel of Norwegian Woods.

-Before the Coffee Gets Cold-It was a slice of life with magical realism touches and it was sweet, short, and cute. Like a feel good vibe here.

-Heaven's Official Blessing series: I honestly am impressed at how the story keeps going because I am always surprised. Same with Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. I'm eagerly waiting for volumes 5 and 4 to arrive soon.

-The Scum Villain series: I didn't think I was going to enjoy it was much as I did. I'm not in RPG type stuff, but this series doesn't take itself super seriously and that makes it work when the character interacts with the system while he navigates the story.

-Blade of the Immortal: I'm revisiting this series because I LOVED them in my early 20's. My ex and some other people really put me off of reading manga/watching anime because they felt it was childish of me to read it. There's a reason why I don't have these people in my life now. The best way I can describe this series is that it is the Japanese equivalent of a Western themed revenger quest with GREAT pencil work.

I made it through the first omnibus and the story and the pencilwork still slap.

-Tokyo Revengers: Typical gang focus but with time hopping back and forth for love and for saving people from their own futures and selves. I've read four of the volumes and I am eager for more.

-Chainsaw Man: Not for me. I love the concept of Demons and hunting demons and Pochita (The chainsaw demon dog) but it's too nihilistic for me. Also how Denji is treated is questionable.

-A Man and His Cat: I love it as a slice of life story about a widowed concert pianist learning to live again after he gets Fukumaru, who is a very sweet kitty who was sure he'd never be picked. It's just great to see them both grow by being together and reconnect with the world and friends. It's a feel good series for sure.

-The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again: Another feel good series with a young office worker and her cat who is the perfect housewife. A feel good series for sure.

-Golden Kamuy: I am kind of annoyed at myself as to why I didn't pick this one up earlier. It's basically a Western set in Hokkaido while different groups search for a mythical gold treasure. The main guy fought in the Russo-Japanese War and his companion is an Ainu girl. The other players are an insane, but charismatic villain who wants the gold to push Japan into a hyper Martial state, the Ainu themselves, and others just wanting it for their own purposes.

It's like hitting all of my interest areas of Japan, the Ainu, and an obscure historical settings. I can count on one hand how many times I've come across media focusing on the Ainu. Not to mention the Russo-Japanese war.

It can be pretty gory at times, but the author knows to intersperse it with humour, cultural information, and some slice of life moments. The injuries are a bit out there at times, but the story is compelling. Good looking men too. I'm on volume 2 and so far, it's got my attention.

So that's it for the reading for now.

[kunosoura]

alright michael, lightning round

@officialhelljumper

Both are owned by microsoft now! unfortunately I doubt there are many people high enough up in microsoft that care enough to use company clout for that, so I'd say it remains about as likely as before. Maybe even less, Obsidian seems to mostly be interested in growing its own stable of IPs nowadays given that they're putting more into Outer Worlds.

I think it was one of the dev team's biggest regrets that they had to cut so much Legion content from the final product due to time crunch. I guess if you're not gonna have time to fully develop them, it's better to err on the side of narratively making it clear what's wrong with them than it is to just write them as a 'morally grey' option and leave a legacy of dudes defending them forever because the game was too subtle with its satire.

Also, I don't think any of the casinos in game are based off of real casinos; it would probably get legally sticky to have the actual Caesar's palace in the game.

NCR is interesting to me because a lot of their writing is built on inertia from the first two games. Like, at least from my perspective, there isn't a whole lot of reason to support them unless you care about them before the game itself, and that'll only be the case if you played the first two games. Otherwise (and even if you did play 1&2) they're so transparently imperialist and badly managed that it's hard to gravitate towards them naturally. Most of their early interactions are the bureaucracy getting in your way.

If you're after offbeat horror RPGs (where RPG doesn't just mean "made in RPG maker", check out World of Horror if you haven't already. Fun little game in early access and genuinely freaky at times.

It's a little disheartening to me to see Bethesda!fallout slide increasingly into a weird reified relationship with the American founding myth. Like, it kind of worked in Fallout 3 - the Capital Wasteland is genuinely unable to grow and rebuild (even if logistically the reasons for that are kind of nonsense), meaning they get stuck in the shadows of the civilization that was there before; the final conflict is between the Enclave, a remnant of that old world that promises to restore that civilization and its promises to the people of the wasteland (while mostly just inflicting its violence on them), and the Eastern Brotherhood, an organization that grew where their west coast predecessors ossified by engaging with the world around them and working to improve it. Literally a group that has steeped and concentrated its reactionary ideology for centuries vs. a group that actively chose to reject theirs to grow and change with the world around them

Like, the final battle is the Brotherhood repurposing a weapon of that old world and its violence to throw their order back in its face - it's an anticommunist weapon of ridiculous destructive potential being turned against the remnants of the U.S. Government who are trying to control a vital resource by a group of people who want that resource to be freely available to everyone. For all its specific narrative flaws, I think the broader strokes of Fallout 3 Weren't Actually That Bad. At least, until Fallout 4 comes along and reveals that actually the American prewar nostalgia actually was the only arrow in Bethesda's quiver.