#i want to make more characters as well!!! there's a good few character creator options i'd like to try...

[diceroulette]

OH yeah i finally caved and played FFXIV (or well. its free trial, unfortunately i am a teenager with no income RIP) a few days ago, it's REALLY fun so far!!! :0 i have no lore whatsoever for my character but i love him so much . his name is Azure Carmine and just. LOOK AT HIM I LOVE HIM SO DEARLY 🥺😭

[phoenixyfriend]

I wrote another email to colourpop. (Explanation of the situation as of about a week ago)

Feel free to change a few things up and send one yourself:

Hello again.

This is my third time emailing about this, though I endeavor to remain professional and polite. You never did respond to my first email, and your response to my second on the topic was very rote, even canned. I'm hoping to get something more this time.

By this point, I'm sure you've heard more than enough on the morality and ethics that are at play here. After all, people have been asking you to address it for a year. Even with the announcement of the first collection, there were people telling you that you needed to make a statement, that you needed to at least ACKNOWLEDGE something they were concerned about. You have continuously refused to do so.

We are asking for you to donate a portion of the proceeds from the New Moon collection to the Quileute Move to Higher Ground fund, and if you can't, to tell us WHY. You have ignored endless numbers of comments over the past year on multiple platforms, and have recently even been deleting comments (polite ones, I saw) and shadow-blocking people on Instagram. Maybe it was a slip of the finger. Maybe it was Instagram's automoderator. Either way, it's not a good look.

There are five options I see:

You are planning to donate, and are currently working behind the scenes to put together a plan due to the continued support for the fundraiser. This is my favorite option. (Perhaps you already HAVE contributed somehow, and were keeping it a surprise. If that's the case, it's not an amazing plan, because I'd like to buy the collection NOW, and not when products have started going out of stock.)

You contacted mthg with an offer to donate, but they refused, not wanting any Twilight money. I find this unlikely, but I could respect it. I'd still ask that you make a statement, because if you DID, it would mean I could actually buy the collection.

You cannot afford it for some reason. I think this is unlikely as well, given that you have reported yearly sales in the eight figures, but I'll admit that it's possible the LA fires have had a major impact on your supply lines, or you're expanding the factory and have new mortgage payments. Sad, and I wouldn't buy the collection, but it would be nice to know so I could stop putting hours of my week into trying to get you to understand.

Your contract with Stephenie Meyer in particular, and the Twilight franchise more generally, prevents you from speaking publicly on this topic. It could be that you are legally unable to mention the Quileute people, as it could draw unfavorable attention to the Twilight brand. I'd consider it a bad look that you even signed the contract, then, much like with the Harry Potter collection (which sends money into transphobic lobbying), but it would at least make sense, you know? Maybe you could work around it, donating to a more general native charity, or working with an indigenous creator, to make up for the mistake you are now contributing to without breaking your contract.

Greed. You are earning money, and if you don't talk about it where people can see, then the people who don't care won't LEARN about the conflict, and the people who DO care won't have made so much noise that you had to give some of your cash away. I dislike this.

We want to know which of the five it is.

The last few weeks, you've spent a lot of time advertising your Pretty Fresh Tinted Foundation Balm. It's a good product, with a wide and flexible shade range. People have responded positively, and you clearly care about inclusivity… but doesn't that include native peoples? Does that not include the people whose culture you are using as advertising? The New Moon collection rests so heavily on Quileute characters, on individuals built to be of a culture that was used for years by Stephenie and never saw compensation despite being a cornerstone of the franchise. You are using them for marketing, also without compensation, and it spits in the face of the diversity you want to claim you champion.

In a political situation such as this, in a country where things like "DEI" are being disassembled in the name of fascism, a place where your own record on such things is shaky, why make things WORSE for marginalized groups? Why make things harder for people who are already struggling? You have the power to help in a profound way, and you aren't.

I am… very frustrated, at this point. Can we please just know why? Can we please just be TOLD what it is that you're doing, and why? Reasons one through five are up there, just tell me which one it is, because I am tired.

Just not tired enough to stop campaigning for a cause I truly believe in.

Thank you for your time.

[jelloapocalypse]

Hi! I guess it’s ask time? Just wanted to say I think you’re one of the funniest people on YouTube; I have a playlist called ‘Emergency Funny’ and like half of it is just your videos.

I’m wondering, when you’re cold-reading a line, like in those streams of voice acting a video game while playing it, what are the small details, if any, that you look to to figure out how to read the line? I’m continually amazed how you manage to have near perfect delivery while never having read the line before. Sorry if this is worded confusingly I legit don’t know how to phrase it

This was sent months ago, but it's actually a very good question and talking about this might help people who like to voice games on stream get better at doing that.

For context, this is about our "fully-voiced" game playthroughs where we cold read an entire video game out loud.

One small thing I try to do that helps is pressing the "advance dialogue button" when the person speaking is about 65-70% of the way through their line. That way, if the next line is from the same character the actor has a chance to read it smoothly as though the lines were not separated at all.

If it turns out to be a different actor's line, this gives the new actor more time to skim the words as well as extra time for them to realize they're about to be speaking so they don't get caught off guard.

Doing this is actually kind of hard because every actor we work with reads at a different pace and the person actually playing the game has to keep that in mind. Oz, Vixen, Arim, and I can sight read most lines almost instantly. I've seen Oz and Vixen in particular read entire text boxes that were only onscreen for a couple frames. But, obviously, not everyone is that fast, so everyone gets different "advance the dialogue" speeds.

Ideally, if a game is well-written and the characters you're playing have a strong voice, you'll slowly fade into the character as you read them. You begin to feel the things they're saying rather than just reading words on a page. Once you hit that flow state, it becomes easier to process what they might logically say next. If you notice one of us make 2-3 errors in the span of just a few lines, it means we're probably not in that flow state.

Some games are also much easier to scan than others, usually because of their character poses.

A game like In Stars and Time has such incredible character portraits that you can usually tell the tone of the accompanying line within a few frames of a portrait change.

Loop (above) is an extremely suspicious and weird character, but voicing them was so much fun because I could always rely on the portraits and the font changes in the text to give me direction on how to play them accurately, even though I didn't actually know what their deal was until about halfway through our playthrough.

Coffee Talk also has very strong portraits that react in real time to the lines of dialogue. The framing can push characters smaller or larger in focus depending on how upset or meek they are, so it's very easy to react on sight and adjust accordingly.

Every time a game developer takes the time to painstakingly add portraits that match every single line, every time they add SFX to accentuate certain words, every time a font wiggles to tell you someone is speaking in a sing-songy way, that's all direction that the game's creators are giving you.

Another thing that helps is just media literacy. I think everyone on the channel is pretty good at that because, speaking frankly, I don't like hanging out with people who have bad media literacy, lmao.

The more media you consume, the easier it becomes to know how a story is going to go. Even a really well-written mystery usually has only 3-5 real options for an ending, and while you're reading games aloud it's a good practice to consider all of them equally so your reads make sense no matter what. You'll notice it's pretty rare something takes us entirely by surprise in a read-through.

Also, of note, it's much easier to notice specific foreshadowing and word choice in dialogue when you're reading it aloud as opposed to silently skimming.

A solid example is our fully-voiced playthrough of Trails From Zero, which actually happened on SurpriseRoundRPG a few years back and not my own Twitch or YouTube.

Minor spoilers, but the character above, Ernest, has some antagonistic interactions with your main party over the course of this game. He wants Ellie, the white-haired party member, to quit the police force (that's your group) and go back to working with him in the Mayor's office.

When Arim played this game solo he didn't really think much of this guy. However, when he played the game for us and we read it out loud, having lines like the one pictured above spoken aloud makes it kind of impossible not to notice that this man is a freak. Mo, his VA, ended up playing him as a manosphere incel weirdo because that's the vibe he was putting out, and, lo and behold, that's pretty much exactly the character he turned out to be.

There's a running theme on our channel where commenters are often surprised to see the game "play into our bits" and how we "accidentally predict things".

What's really happening is the reverse.

It's very, very rare that we decide to make up a bit from absolutely nothing. It's not a hard and fast rule, but I find we only make jokes and play up aspects of characters based on things that are already there. Hence that one time in Miles is a Robot when I said something awful and sexual as Ray Shields, Oz groaned, and I said "Hey man, I'll give him a different joke when the game gives me somethin' else to work with!" I didn't choose to make Ray awful and sexual all the time. That's just how he is, so that's the well we pulled bits from.

Because we only extrapolate from existing content and our "silly" versions of the characters onscreen are just exaggerated versions of what's really there, whenever the game gives us more info about them, the new stuff tends to be very in-line with the bits we've already been doing. It's not us being psychic. It's us being consistent!

It also helps that almost all the regulars on my channel have done professional voice work and have been doing some version of this for literally 10+ years. Practice makes perfect!

[anim-ttrpgs]

Cover your eyes! Announcing the Gorgon Initiative for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

(promotional art by @theblackwarden, one of our team artists)

Okay so, we had a bunch of stretch goals in the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Kickstarter, and we actually did hit more of them than expected, but there was one of them we didn’t hit, the playable gorgon.

The gorgon being a playable monster type was stuck at the very back of the stretch goal list, mainly because we thought of it way later than all the other stretch goals, but honestly it was one of the possibilities that I was most excited for, and apparently, so were a whole lot of our fans. The gorgon monster type would perfectly round out Eureka’s roster of playable supernatural creatures, and we would really like to make it happen, despite not really having the budget for it since we didn’t hit the stretch goal.

Here are a few of what the gorgon’s key features would have been:

>Anyone who makes direct eye-contact with the gorgon turns to stone.

>A venomous bite, making them gorgon the second playable monster type to be able to inflict a poison effect.

>Cold-blooded. Won’t feel great in low temperature environments, but won’t show up on thermal sensors either.

>Scaly skin.

>Snake hair optional.

>Claws.

>Eating people like a snake.

And all this wrapped up in Eureka’s unique humanity-focused approach to monsters. How will your PC cope with their power to instantly kill anyone who looks at them wrong, whether they want to or not? That’s the kind of character development you can look forward to with a gorgon in the party.

So here is what we are going to do to make it happen despite the budget not accounting for it. It’s going to be a patreon initiative.

(promotional art by @qsycomplainsalot, one of our team artists)

If we can get up to 50 total paid patreon subscribers by the end of June, we will put the gorgon in the game. Currently, we have 33, so if y'all can manage to make that climb to 50 by July 1st, we will promise to make time and budget to add the gorgon in to the rulebook before final release. Ultimately, even 20-ish more patreon subscribers is less money than the stretch goal would have been, but we feel that it would be a good enough addition to the game to justify, especially because it's what the fans want, and because long-term patreon support is very valuable. You get regular Eureka rulebook PDFs as a part of the patreon, and even though there is also a free demo, the more more-updates copies or Eureka floating around, the better. We want people actually playing this game, and playing better and better versions of it. We’d release it all for free if we didn’t need the money to “earn a living.”

Supporting us on patreon isn’t pure charity either. At the $3 tier, you get access to our patreon discord server where our team discusses development of the game and gets feedback from fans, as well in a vote on which projects we tackle next.

At the $5 tier and beyond, you get that, plus regular PDFs of the most current and up-to-date version of our projects. In addition to a version of the Eureka rulebook with many more features than the current free version, there’s stuff you currently can’t get anywhere else, like Eureka adventure modules, short stories, and even a novella, all unreleased anywhere else.

So, sign up to our patreon, it’s only a few dollars a month, and help out with the gorgon initiative. At the time of writing this, we have 33/50 paid subscribers, and I’ll update the goal as we go.

And below the cut, I’ll show you the current changelog for the Eureka rulebook, so you can see what all $5+ patreon subscribers are going to get in the next big patreon update coming Thursday, June 6th. This changelog isn’t even fully conclusive, as work will continue on the rulebook throughout the week to make it even better before Thursday. That's a whole lot for just $5! I will also post the rough notes that exist for the gorgon mechanics as they appear right now.

(A new version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy will be coming to $5+ patreon subscribers on the first Thursday of the month every month until final release, and after that you'll start getting the beta versions of whatever our next project turns out to be.)

CHANGELOG

CHAPTER 1

Have started working on replacing the examples of play with updated ones that actually fit the current and slightly more stable version of the rules. These will be found in various chapters. You can see them in the table of contents.

Added a Foreword, a section on other media to offer you inspiration when playing eureka, and a section on some of the subtler themes of eureka

Copy-edited Foreword

A few minor clarifications in the Making Rolls section

Added a chart explaining the percentage chances of failures, partial successes, and full successes for modifiers from -7 to +7. 

Added Heat optional rule. A whole new set of mechanics for tracking how much police attention the investigators may be drawing, as well as how law enforcement will respond. Currently a work-in-progress, but mostly functional already.

CHAPTER 2

Added the Forgery skill to write-in skills

Many new snoops have been added. 

Removed the “Seating” stat for vehicles, you know how many people can safely fit in a car

Removed the placeholder boat entries from the item list because we did not hit that kickstarter stretch goal

Added Skateboard to item list. 

Added four-wheeler to item list. 

Added Acceleration values to all vehicles in the vehicle list. Acceleration is a new stat used with the new way that Speed is calculated for Chases.

Adjusted the Driving bonus of motorcycles and dirtbikes.

Changed Large Mansion cost to 25 Wealth Points in character creation.

Started copy-editing this chapter.

CHAPTER 3

Added vehicle crashes to irregular forms of damage section

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

Completely revamped the way that Speed is calculated. 

Added a mechanic to determine how many nodes ahead a fleeing character starts.

Added an optional rule for bringing an end to chases 

Added vehicle attack rules for use during car chases

Added more guidelines for how to make your own obstacles

Added recommended numbers of nodes for chases and recommended distance between obstacles 

Added the work-in-progress random obstacle tables

On-Foot Urban Chase Obstacles table is finished but not edited

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

Increased capacity of an unfurled thing from beyond’s ‘stomach’ from three to fourteen.

Thing from beyond can now more easily attempt to engulf more victims after already containing one or more. This now prompts an escape attempt by victims inside rather than automatic escape.

Thing from beyond can now get a bonus to mimicry attempts by consuming a sample of the intended mimicry target’s DNA. 

Thing from beyond can now attempt to mimic a person they have never seen or heard by consuming a sample of their DNA, but narrator makes a hidden roll about it, so accuracy of mimicry will be unknown.

Gave acceleration value to witch’s brooms and other flying transportation

Gave Acceleration of +6 to Superhuman Speed trait

Gave vampire small bat manifestation +2 Acceleration

Gave vampire wolf manifestation +4 Acceleration 

Gave vampire massive bat beast manifestation +4 Acceleration

Gave wolfman wolf form +4 Acceleration

Gave lycanthrope wolf form +4 Acceleration

Added ability to resist curses to fairy and witch

Added ability for fairy to transfer curses to different names as a means of protecting themselves from curses. This gives them more of an incentive to collect names. 

Added a tiny bit about the fairy world

Added Monsters Eating Monsters section to provide rulings for some edge cases where monsters might eat other monsters and what would happen if they did

ROUGH GORGON DESIGN NOTES

[Notes: Turn people to stone by looking them in the eye. Definitely not a power that the Gorgon can turn on and off, they will have to cover their eyes somehow, such as dark sunglasses or a veil, to prevent it happening to everyone they make eye contact with. Also works the other way around so you could protect yourself by wearing dark sunglasses. Still works even if the Gorgon is dead, like in the legends. Does not work through cameras, reflections, images, etc. Turning to stone is permanent, basically instant kill? Works like the witch curse except with infinite duration unless a witch undoes it like a curse. If there is no eye protection, could be a reflex roll on the gorgon’s part or on an aware victim’s part to break eye-contact quickly enough for the curse not to take effect. Also, they could have some kind of bonus to Threaten because all the legends say that they look particularly frightening.

Have claws and maybe scaly skin or scales in patches, maybe snake-like eyes and snake tongue that can taste air? Sharp teeth and maybe venomous snake fangs? People will really really want their gorgons to have snake hair even though in the legends, it was only Medusa herself that had snake hair. Compromise by making it an optional rule agreed upon by narrator and player that they have snake hair. Snakes may have venomous bite attack but the trade off is that it makes it way harder to conceal the gorgon’s identity as a Gorgon.

Gorgons do not regain composure points from turning people to stone, all other monsters regain composure points by *consuming* their victims in some way, except for fairies who regain composure from playing mean pranks because it makes them happy. Keeping with the rule of monsters eating people and also the fact that the legends always describe gorgons as having snake-like trait, maybe they swallow victims whole like a snake? Great horror concept but takes a long time. Could mechanically work very very similar to thing from beyond’s composure restoration where they gain 1 composure point each day for however many days. Could advise loose and bulky clothing to cover this up. Cannot really decide how to codify this because the most obvious way would make it pretty impossible to hide for a very long time. Could probably make multiple optional rules that regain composure at different rates and digest victims at different rates. One option that gets a lot more composure over time from a single victim like the thing from beyond but is very conspicuous that entire time. Other option that digests the whole victim extremely fast so they are only conspicious for a short time but ultimately less composure from a single kill. No option to regain composure from victim without killing them, like thing from beyond. No composure restoration from normal food but can eat it to stay alive, like the thing from beyond?

Do they have proper weaknesses besides just the normal things that everybody is weak to, like sharp objects? Probably should not have the Unkillable trait, but need to come up with at least one weakness that does not stray too far from the legends. Maybe they are cold-blooded, following the snake theme? Makes them very vulnerable to cold temperatures, and jackets and blankets don’t help because they don’t produce their own body heat. Big Physical skill penalties when they are in cold environments?

What is their second mandatory monster trait? They don’t *need* one but every other monster has their powers split across two monster traits.] 

Actually it would be pretty good if they had to make a Monster(fear) Composure check if they saw their face in the mirror

Their blood is either healing or poisonous depending on if it is from the left or right side. left side kills, right side heals. Make it  veinous vs arterial blood.....  But this would have no effect on vampires 

We have GOT to get the gorgon in if we have time, it’s such a good idea

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[olenvasynyt]

I know my fellow artists and creators have been frustrated with the rise of AI on Pinterest and Google.  Many of us find it difficult to serch for good references, tips, and general inspiration for art.  So I want to share my collection of good, free websites for artists, designers, film makers, and creators so we can create without ugly AI images staring in our faces 🙌

Sketchfab

An incredible source for references.  Has a huge collection of 3D animals, architecture, interior rooms, vehicles, food, objects, furniture, nature, memes, characters, etc etc etc. You can literally find several insanely detailed 3D models of the Notre Dame (this one is insane) Models can rotated at any angle as well as zoomed in and out.  You can also change the view of the model to be matcap with flat, colorless planes, wireframe, or base color as opposed to fully rendered.  

Cons: there are many uploads that are random and incredibly specific, which overwhelms the search.  Can be excellent for game designers who want to download models but for artists looking for drawing references, you might have to dig a bit for what you want.  Can be so fun for playing around and using crazy fun references for practicing.

Designspiration

As a photographer and graphic designer and someone who can doomscroll on pinterest forever, this is my favorite for finding inspiration for everything: typography, logos, product mockups, illustration, photography, web design, etc.  Has an amazing feature where you can search for art with specific hex codes!  Probably the coolest feature I’ve seen in search engines, and by far superior to google's color search. This site is mostly for design inspiration, but I feel like if you are super into moodboards, then this is the site for you too especially with the beautiful selection of photography.

Cons: I have no cons, I love this website so much and I used to be addicted to pinterest (still am actually😬) but this is easily my new favorite

Public Works by Cosmos 

Thousands of artworks enter the public domain every year, and this website is a search engine for other 100,000 of those copyright free works.  All of these works are free to edit, use, and sell with few restrictions.

Cons: I personally find the layout for the search feed a bit frustrating to look around in sometimes, because it’s not the typical "scroll up and down" website. But is very dynamic and overall fun to explore.

Same.energy 

This is a good visual search engine that’s a good replacement for Google images and Pinterest.  The minimal words makes it simple and easy, and clicking on an image you like to filter the feed to find similar images.

Cons: this is in beta so it still have some kinks to work out. It seems to struggle with specific searches and some of the images brought up in the search can be repetitive or not relevant.  

Reference Angle

A website for finding face references in any specific angle and any expression for any gender and age.

Cons: I would love this website more if it gave you the ability to customize the light source, but sadly is not an option.  I also feel like there is not a lot of racial diversity in the photos, and some of the images do not match the specific angle. But it is overall a great source for face references

Virtual Lighting Studio by zvork

A good source for light studies.  You can change the source, direction, color, and brightness as well stacking several light sources on top of each other.  

Cons: there isn’t a way to angle the face or change the expression, so it is permanently in portrait mode.  There are four different models and I’m not the biggest fan of some of them…I like the black guy the best because he looks at me kindly instead staring into my soul like the two white guys. The ads are also a bit obnoxious and for the love of god DO NOT USE IN MOBILE!!!  The ads are impossible to get rid of.

Film Grab

An archive of stills from a huge list of movies.  Good for film makers, photographers, art studies, moodboards, inspiration, etc. Has a huge selection of movies and you can search by movie, director, costume designer, aspect ratio, year, genre, and country. You can also hit random post and it'll give you a random movie, which I think is really fun.

Cons: I do not recommend mobile. The mobile does not have the option to search for a specific movie, so you're forced to scroll through the giant A-Z list of directors or films to find the specific film you were looking for.  Another con that I just discovered: a big-ass ad on the top of the website that occasionally advertises AI websites 🤢 (not shown on the screenshots I shared because ew)

Unsplash

Another image search website that has the feeling of Pinterest

Cons: some images are locked for premium only, and the feed is a bit frustrating to scroll through on mobile since they show the images one at a time instead of as a nice collage like pinterest.  Some images can also be irrelevant to the search.

Sending lots of love to my fellow artists and creative peeps out there. AI sucks and it feels like it's overwhelming the creative space. But I promise there is a way to avoid it! Keep creating 💕

[strangerthingsfemslash]

Stranger Things Femslash offerings on for this year’s Fandom Trumps Hate auction

@fandomtrumpshate is an annual fundraiser in which fan authors and artists auction off custom fanworks as gifts for people who donate to organizations on the Fandom Trumps Hate list. The bidding period will begin on 2/25, and there are some great Stranger Things Femslash offerings this year! Many of these creators are offering non-femslash options and other fandoms as well, but due to the scope of this blog, I am specifically listing the Stranger Things femslash offerings available. To see the full auction page, follow the link associate with their post:

galwithalibrarycard is offering Beta Reading for Stranger Things F/F fics with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $5, with a length of 10k-20k words.

Characters/pairings of interest: For Stranger Things, any ships with Nancy, Robin, Steve, Eddie, Jonathan, Barb, etc. Other notes: I will copyedit and provide character and plot notes. You can send me your whole fic at once or send it chapter by chapter. You can reach out to me to clarify/ask questions about my notes and suggestions too. You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

ArtaxLivs is offering fanfiction of Chrissy/Robin with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $5, with a length of 5k-10k words.

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: I love a good soulmate trope but I'm pretty open to most themes and tropes. Ask! Other notes: Please feel free to email me with questions! I wrote a pairing that I didn't offer last year and a trio I hadn't mentioned. The bidders emailed and I hadn't thought of those but I was game and we had fun! You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

Koko is offering fanfiction of Chrissy/Robin and/or Carol/Barb, with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $5, with a length of 10k-20k words.

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: Especially Interested In: hurt/comfort, different first meetings, shared trauma, and misunderstandings, but I'm willing to give anything not on my No's list a shot! Other notes: Notes: I'm willing to work with whatever you're comfortable with! If you want to throw a few tropes and a pairing at me, I can work perfectly well with that, but if there's something extremely specific you'd like to see, hit me with it! You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

MelancholyMorningstar is offering podfic for Max/Eleven/Lucas, Max/Eleven, Robin/Nancy, and/or Robin/Chrissy, with a maximum rating of Teen, a minimum bid of $15, with a length of 5-10k words.

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: I would love to make you some podfic featuring crack, fluff, character study about gender and/or sexuality, outsiders POV, asexual themes, found family, fix-it, characters playing Dungeons and Dragons, queerplatonic relationships and/or banter/flirting! I am on a one woman adventure trying to get more femslash podfic made, so feel free to help me on my quest or drag me away from it for a good cause. I'm open to suggestions, as long as they don't stumble over my DNWs. Other notes: I intend to create one podfic with a cover art, but with no soundscaping or music. Ideally you would pick 3 fanfics between 0-10k words length (with permission statememts), and I would decide which one I'm most excited to make a podfic for. Then you would describe the tone you imagine the podfic to be (humerous, serious, slow, silly, etc) and I would record it attempting to match that tone (to the best of my abilities). I'm not offering directorial input in my podfic creation aside from initial discussions about what you liked about the fic. You would tell me the fics you want, I would pick one and then tell you which I picked, and then I would gift you a complete podfic! You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

DystopianRebel is offering fanfiction of Nancy/Robin, with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $5, with a length of 10k-20k words.

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest (complete list on full post): Angst with a Happy Ending Family Drama Found Family Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies (at least, nobody important! ) Fluff / Tooth-Rotting Fluff Crack / Crack Treated Seriously Angst and Drama and Romance Falling in Love Meet Cute | Good First Impression or Meet Ugly | Bad First Impression Meet The Parents Season 2 or 3 Canon Divergence AUs insert chracter Has Powers AUs Time Travel & Time Travel Fix-its Soulmates AUs BAMF Nancy Wheeler Protective Nancy Wheeler Other notes: I like to think I’m pretty easy going with fics, so as long as they’re falling in line with what I absolutely will not do then I’m willing to do my best to try living up to what they’ve envisioned for their gifted fanfiction. Even if it happens to centre around a ship I’ve never really delved into before and wouldn’t necessarily be interested in on my own. The more detailed prompts the better, if you have something specific in mind. You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

Glorious_Spoon is offering fanfiction of Nancy/Robin, with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $5, with a length of 5k-10k words.

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: I enjoy writing hurt/comfort, action/adventure, character studies, interesting AUs (space? fantasy? zombie apocalypse? sign me up!), smut, angst, horror, feelings/sexuality realizations, friends to lovers, ambiguously romantic intimacy, platonic cuddling and intimacy. I have a great fondness for classic fic tropes like sex pollen/accidentally psychic/accidental marriage/fuck-or-die/time loops. I like exploring how characters handle canonical trauma. I'm willing to write basically any tropes I've written for in the past, and I'm happy to work with my bidder for something different if they like. Other notes: I'm generally fine with whatever level of detail you want to give for a prompt, and I'm happy to work with my bidder to make sure I'm making something they'll like. You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

yarrow geddyqueer-prufrocks is offering fanfiction of Robin/Chrissy and/or Max/Eleven, with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $5, and a length of 5k-10k words.

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: I like to write weird things! If you have any doubts about your prompts or requests, feel free to message me on tumblr before you bid. Other notes: Specific prompts are great, but I appreciate having the freedom to interpret your prompt a little. I'm happy to keep a dialog going on tumblr or via email. For the best example of what I write, take a gander through my AO3 pseuds (music RPF is on the j_alfreds pseud, everything else is on prufrocks). If you'd like a specific AU or setting, feel free to message me about it before you bid. You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

ReformedTsunderePodfics is offering a podfic of Robin/Chrissy, with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $5, and a length of up to 5k words, or more with higher bids.

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: Alternate Universe [Assume any/all AUs are loved and desired], Pining/Mutual Pining, One-Sided Enemies to Lovers, Happy Endings, Co-Dependency/Obsessive Character, Didn't Know They Were Dating, Developing Relationship/Getting Together Other notes: If you are requesting a podfic for a fic you are unable to secure permission for your requested fic (provided it is approved) can still be podded, however it will not/cannot be publicly posted, and not securing permissions means you agree to not publicly sharing this podfic. Your allotted word count does not need to be all-in-one, you are free to spread it out across multiple fics so long as they do not total more than your winning bid amount. All podfics will be sent to you (the auction winner) for first listen/approval and minimal changes to pacing or dialogue are accepted. I will work with you to ensure that this podfic is what you imagined the story to sound like. Minimal sound effects/or an introduction song can be discussed for inclusion but no major sound scaping will be offered. You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

Neuronary is offering fanfiction of Robin/Chrissy, with a maximum rating of Mature, a minimum bid of $5, and a length of 5k-10k words.

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: Stranger Things - Key Themes and Subjects: The Existential Horror of Living in Hawkins, Indiana; Domestic Violence; Unrealistic Beauty Standards With Regards To Chrissy Cunningham. General Key Themes: Queer Friendships; Found Family; Sexism/Misogyny; Exploring Oppression Through Fictional Characters/Worlds; Outsider POV. Other notes: I can write gore and/or whump BUT I have to be in a healthy enough mindset for it, so if you're dead set on that I would recommend seeking out someone else because I can't guarantee I'll be able to do it.. If whump/gore is an optional bonus for you, get in touch and I'll see what I can do. You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

monstrous-femme is offering fanfiction of any ST femslash pairing, with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $15, and a length of 5k words (or more with higher bids)

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: Vegas AU and fake or secret dating have always been faves of mine, but in general I'm interested in any tropes that let me play with the characters in interesting ways. I wrote the Riot Grrl ronance AU and loved writing it. (I've written many more tropes and encourage you to check out my ao3 for specifics!) I am also poly irl and happy to write poly fics that go beyond just fluff and smut and into the actual complex emotions of polyamory. Other notes: I have 1-5k listed for wordcount, but will go up to 5-10k if the bidding reaches $35, 10-15k if the bidding reaches $50, and up to 20k for bids above $100. You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

bri is offering fanfiction of Robin/Nancy and/or Robin/Chrissy, with a maximum rating of Explicit, a minimum bid of $5, and a length of 5k-10k words

Subjects/theme/tropes of interest: Particular themes/tropes are found family, slow burn, soulmates, hurt/comfort, supernatural/fantasy elements, and angst with a happy ending, but I'm happy to write anything that isn't on my nos! I enjoy both lighter and darker themes and am happy to explore both. Other notes: I'm comfortable with both highly specific prompts and more general prompts! I'm also happy to write a fic with multiple pairings, or one pairing with side pairings. I don't always work from an outline and will generally take a prompt and run with it, with check ins around how the fic is forming, what scenes are planned, and if specific characters/side pairings/themes are working okay. You can find the full details here, check the bidding spreadsheet for the current high bid here, and fill out the bidding form here.

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Update 22/March/2024

So, I decided where Chapter One is going to end! It should leave people very excited for what’s to come in the rest of the book (and later demo releases), hehe! ;D

I think it does give a very good clue at what might be the source of the problem for the love interests and the MC throughout Book Four, too…

It’s gonna get exciting, guys! :D

Knowing where the demo is going to leave off, I also started looking back at the character creator. After actually playing through what I had a while back, I realized I really wasn’t so keen on what I do normally, and it really needs streamlining.

And I think (hopefully!) I have a plan for how to do that now.

I will try to see if I can get some screenshots or a video of it and post it up so you can get a hint of what it looks like after my redo so far, if my internet ever wants to play ball again!

With only one option per page being possible, I need to make sure people can get through the character creator as fast as possible so they can get playing! And I think putting in big descriptions of what each choice is or means is where some of the flow is coming from. Definitely need to scrap those.

Also realised what I was doing wrong in the previous ‘character creator’ screens for the personality/skill stats and why they weren’t high enough when you picked that they were, in fact, the highest! So, I’ve fixed that for this one, and I will do it for the other books when I can get the time to go back to my spruce up of the previous books too.

Obviously when Book Four releases people will be able to import their character—and I also had a thought on that as well!

With the villain romance being an option, I figure as a player I might already have a character I’ve played through past books with that would work, but I might already be on a romance path (the villain romance only being available on the non-romance ‘friend’ route) so can’t pursue the villain’s storyline.

So I’m thinking of adding in an option where you can modify an imported character with a few choices (such as romance choice). The game will play out as though the character has always had the new options though, so I need to make sure that’s clear. But it’s definitely something I think could work as an option for those that wanted it.

It was definitely a more code-focused week this week, which makes my brain a bit mushy, lol! So I’m very excited to dive back into writing, as well as get the first demo section ready to be sent to the editor and readers…the first time people apart from me will actually see the start of Book Four, hehe!

Hope you all have an incredible weekend! We'll be offline as usual, so I'll update you all again next week! <3

[theresattrpgforthat]

i want to go treasure hunting with maps n traps. any recs?

THEME: Maps, Traps & Treasure.

Hello friend, you seem to be in the market for a dungeon game. I have good news for you: there are many dungeon games!

For most OSR games, the book might come with some rules on how to make your own dungeon, rather than coming with pre-written maps. If you don’t want to create your own dungeon, there are oodles of pre-written dungeons that should be pretty easily convertible for whatever OSR game you choose to play. I’ll list a few below!

Dungeoneering, by Grinning Rat.

DUNGEONEERING is a quick-and-dirty tabletop role-playing game where players explore dungeons, gather treasure, and fight monsters. Game Masters are encouraged to use the sample dungeon within, or generate their own with the creation tools, to facilitate these dangerous delves.

Dungeoneering feels like a quick one-shot type experience about gathering as much loot as you can inside a dungeon run. The amount of treasure you gather is also a measure of how well you did - a “score”, if you will. The game states that it is best built for exactly 4 players, each with a different character class and skill-set. For the dungeon master, the game has instructions on how to build a dungeon, complete with roll-tables for dungeon types and layout. You’ll probably do well enough with a grid map and some markers, although the creators of the game have a few supplements available: Catalysts, which expands character options and Wanderers which not only provide two new roles, but also gives you more dungeon options and loot.

Errant, by Kill Jester.

You have no home. You have no job. You have no friends. You have no family. You have no prospects.

What you do have are a handful of pennies, a blithe disregard for your own life, and a particular set of skills. The kind of skills that make respectable folks avoid you. 

Out there, beyond civilization, lies danger: monsters and magic and  ancient ruins pregnant with treasure. Death is likely, but what did you  have to live for anyway? At least out there is the chance to make  something of yourself, and maybe even get back at those who wronged you. This is no life for decent folk, but you’re not decent folk. You are an Errant.

What is Errant? Errant is a classic fantasy role-playing game in the vein of the first few editions of that role-playing game and its many imitators and descendants such as Knave, Into the Odd, and The Black Hack. It is freely compatible with material for all those games as well as the newest edition of that role-playing game, with conversion guides provided within.

With over 200 pages of rules, Errant provides detailed instructions for all kinds of things that could happen in play: travel, magic retainers, exploration, combat, and more. The players will create a map as they play, filling it in according to what they understand - and importantly, not necessarily accurately. The GM’s map may have many more secrets or truths that the characters will likely have to work to discover.

Errant happens over the course of different kinds of turns, which have a different procedure depending on what is happening in the game. There is a process for Exploration, for Combat, and for Downtime, which might provide you with the structure to move from one part of the story to the next… but it also might be a bit slower than the kind of game you’re looking for.

If you want content for Errant, it’s certainly out there! Kill Jester has an adventure called Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier, as well as a module called The Curse of the Ganshogger, to get you started.

Crowns, by Ward Against Evil.

Humanity hides in sheltered villages. Monsters prowl the wilderness.  You are the few foolish enough to leave safety. Find your fortunes in the dungeon. And try not to die.

Crowns is a simple enough dungeon system with advancement tied to the amount of gold you acquire - so I think it meets the treasure requirement for sure! There are very specific rules for line of sight, doors, lighting, and creating your own openings in the cracks and nooks of the dungeon, which can help make the dungeon feel alive and exciting - although definitely not safe.

As is typical in the OSR style, you won’t find a fully fleshed out dungeon in the rules, although you will find rules on how to make your own. If you want some extra bits to play with, Crowns does have some interesting supplements, such as Season of Crows, a war-based expansion event, and Armies of Man, a bestiary that looks like it works rather well with Season of Crows.

Crawlr: Basic, by BLK Feather Press.

From the Black Sludge seeping from the lip of the Primordial Cauldron crawls the descendants of dead men. YOU are born from that sludge, and when you die, you shall return to the sludge.

CRAWLR is a table-top role-playing game where you and your friends take on the role of adventurers, cutthroats, profiteers, and even heroes all in the collective imagination of your minds. All you need is pen, paper, and 2d6.

Crawlr: Basic is rather lightweight, but it has rules for changing the dungeon as you go, and a neat little mechanic for timing how long a torch lasts, which might heighten the danger of the dungeon. It also has a table for creatures’ reactions upon stumbling upon you, and a d66 table for useful items that you might pick up. When it comes to traps, I think you might have to get ideas from other modules, but the creator looks like they might be releasing an “Advanced” version in the future.

You can also get blank monster cards and character sheets for free!

.dungeon remastered, by snow.

Welcome to the ruins of Annwn. The once populated hills of this massively multiplayer online game are now void. They call it a Dead MMO. A polygonal mess of PS1-era graphics, empty plains, and dungeons that grow and grow and grow from the inside of the planet's wounds. Up above, the eye of the sad god glares its chromatic light down upon the remaining players, while its tormented hand contorts into magical shapes, rarely crossing paths in their messy orbit. When they do, the shadow magic that powers the game explodes with its ancient might.

In .dungeon, you play through character creation as if it was a game of its own, with each step formatted like the room of a dungeon. You generate the world using dice rolls, while the game itself is played using a hex map. You can run an adventure like a hex crawl, which generates interesting encounters and scenery every time your characters move to a new hex. You can use elements from the book to generate a hex crawl, but it looks like there’s also a “tutorial” level that your characters will encounter directly after character creation.

.dungeon is also fantasy-ish: it takes place in a video game, so your adventurers are likely to run into a few places or things that have something a bit more sci-fi in nature. I think that overall, the layout of this book makes the game easier for the group to learn how to all play at the same time, which might be good for a GM who wants to spread the responsibility of game knowledge a bit more evenly. I’m not entirely sure how a hex-crawl would map onto a dungeon, but I think that a lot of the vibes carry across.

Slash Hex, by Danielaurence

Slash Hex is an adventure role-playing game in which players will use their creativity and imaginations to explore a wild and dangerous world, hunting for treasure, defeating monsters, and engaging in other mostly heroic exploits.

This game is heavily inspired by giants that have come before, most notably in name by the /X side of the original B/X books, but also Basic Fantasy, Knave, White Box, and The Black Hack.

While it is inspired by the aforementioned games, Slash Hex has morphed into something that has a footprint of its own, while still remaining largely compatible with classic modules.

What I think Slash/Hex has going for it is the list of fantasy monsters - typical monsters, but there’s a lot of them - as well as the well-detailed list of magic items that you can pick up and use while exploring a dungeon. Most of the focus of this game is on character abilities, so if you want a more unique character, you might like this game. The downside is that the game as it is has little to no advice on how to create a dungeon; I’m thinking that perhaps the creator is relying on you to find other established dungeon modules and use their rules to run through those.

Dungeon Crawl Classics, by Goodman Games.

You’re no hero. You’re an adventurer: a reaver, a cutpurse, a heathen-slayer, a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets. You seek gold and glory, winning it with sword and spell, caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished. There are treasures to be won deep underneath, and you shall have them. 

Return to the glory days of fantasy with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role-Playing Game. Adventure as 1974 intended, with modern rules grounded in the origins of sword & sorcery. Fast play, cryptic secrets, and a mysterious past await you: turn the page…

DCC RPG is a fast-paced, open-feeling rules set allowing for epic game experiences without unnecessary tethers. It uses modern game-play while paying homage to the origins of role-playing and the fun that it inspired.

Dungeon Crawl Classics is one of the largest, most popular OSR titles, with more than just fantasy up its sleeve. You can find the same rule-set in its sister products, such as Mutant Crawl Classics (post-apocalyptic), or X Crawl Classics (dystopian fantasy). There’s also oodles of content built for this rule-set, which will give you a story or adventure ready to run right out of the box. This is traditional dungeon-crawling, complete with treasure as a reward, and plenty of puzzles and traps to work through.

You can get the free Quickstart rules here, and I’ve heard that the fanbase and creative community is also very supportive!

Some dungeon modules to consider include:

White Scales, by 1pagedungeons, which introduces a low-level dragon.

The Valley of Flowers, by Phantom Mill, which was Ennie-nominated this year!

Trouble in the Gladden Brook Reservoir, by AoSmiles, a short tri-fold adventure about a body of water that refines crude magic.

Candleberry Jam by GLASS/CUTTER, a murder mystery on a sleepy island!

Other Notes….

You might also like Cairn, by Yochai Gal, which has a 1st and a 2nd edition, both of which are free. There are many many supplements for this game, and it often matches well with Into the Odd adventures as well.

I’ve also talked about Sojourn in the past, as a dungeon-crawling game with some solid high-ranking reviews.

You can also give me a tip by donating to my Ko-fi!

[fletchingbrilliant]

🌙some wildly cheap commissions!🌙

🙃 for some even wilder reasons 🙃

hey y'all. long post thingie but it's got cute pictures so please check it out

TRANSCRIPT OF POST

hey frens got something kinda somber to talk about. most of you are very aware of the existence of my beautiful fiance and co-creator of basically everything i do. zae and i are getting handfasted (marriage for pagans) in october, and have been living together for about 10 years. in 2021, zae got really fucking sick, and after a few false starts, was diagnosed with a rare for of vasculitis called granulomatosis with polyangiitis, GPA for short. it’s an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in blood vessels and other tissues, ultimately stopping blood from getting to the parts of the body that need it, affecting many areas, but primarily the respiratory system. while the cause isn’t known, it usually presents in people in their 50’s or 60’s, but complications from a third bout of covid-19 appears to have made it emerge way earlier for our boy. at least, that’s what we think. his case is extremely aggressive, advancing faster than anyone could have expected. in zae’s case, it actually attacked his kidneys first, and then went after his lungs, causing both to threaten shutting down for good. he was extremely anemic and needed a ton of transfusions, narrowly avoiding dialysis, and we spent weeks in the hospital keeping him alive. he was placed on two different kinds of chemotherapy to combat the disorder. he lost his hair, went through even more fatigue and pain on top of what the disease had already put him through, and had to accept a plethora of changes to his life that will last forever. a lot of you out there have harrowing experiences of your own when it comes to chronic and potentially terminal conditions, too, I’m certain. “it’s not fun” is an understatement. though there were a couple of really fucking close calls, zae’s GPA went into remission. his hair grew back fuller and more luscious than it had ever been before. (i later learned these are affectionately referred to as “chemo curls.”) remission for gpa is usually expected to last at least 5 years, potentially up to 20, before any symptoms resurface. but zae’s case was particularly aggressive, so of course he’s not so lucky. he’s relapsing now. his symptoms have been slowly returning, and it’s been decided that he’s going back on chemo. it’s no surprise that this shit is expensive, even with insurance. we’re still paying off the care he received last time because ‘murca. being disabled myself, work has been… let’s call it inconsistent, yeah? yeah, that’s a nice and comfortable thing to call it. no one’s doing well financially these days, so we of course have to get creative. long story short(er), i’m doing a commission special! for the next MONTH, i am offering fast commissions at crazy-low prices to try and help us create a cushion to keep us afloat and relatively comfortable while we begin the chemo process again. there’s several options for a variety of budgets, because i really hate the idea of seeking something for nothing, and i absolutely abhor having to reach out in this way. it makes me feel vulnerable and icky and… i’m sure you all understand that, too. i can’t thank you all enough just for following me, and engaging with mine and zae’s work. it may sound trite, but that really makes a difference to us, especially when we’re dealing with something so painful. so if you can’t or don’t want to partake of the sale, please know that you are still a huge help to us, and we seriously appreciate each and every one of you. like, so fucking much. thanks y’all love, fletch

END TRANSCRIPT

Commission Options:

Flash Sketches: $5USD/character

Comics: $5USD/panel - flat color

Comics: $10USD/panel - shaded color

Screenshot Redraws - $15USD/character (complex bgs, add $20)

all of this is posted with @zaebeecee's knowledge and blessing

please DM me if you're interested in something, and thank you again

more Hungry Games, fic fanart, and Persona stuff coming soon too

[felassan]

Article: 'Veilguard Unveiled: An Hour with the Next Dragon Age'

This article is from a few weeks ago, it is another article from a media attendee of the hands-off demo of DA:TV, writing about what they saw. I’m posting it now as I don’t remember coming across it before today. :>

Excerpts:

"perhaps the most thoughtful character creator I’ve ever seen, aligning with Bioware’s key game pillar of “be who you want to be.” [...]" "with the option to customize their appearance extensively or select from detailed presets [...]" "I even spied a larynx customizer (an industry first?). [...]" "Clear effort was put into a diverse selection of detailed hairstyles, emphasizing that commitment to player expression. [...]" "In a thoughtful touch, players may preview their character in various lighting scenarios and outfits before finalizing their creation, reducing the likelihood of wanting to re-roll the first time they see how they look in a dimly-lit tavern. With all the effort that’s gone into making sure your character looks exactly how you’d like them to, I was pleased to learn that the game includes a “hide helmet” option for cutscenes; let me see that much-fussed-over mug in every situation, thank you. [...]" "the Shadow Dragons, a group of rebel mages [...]" "While it’s natural to expect visual improvements in a series last seen a decade ago, I couldn’t help but marvel at just how good it looks. The city’s visual design is captivating, featuring a floating panopticon monitoring the city in an oppressive manner, reminiscent of Sauron’s gaze. [...]" "Before long, chaos erupts as Solas attempts to unravel the Veil, the mystical barrier separating the physical world from the more ethereal Fade, and our journey to Guard said Veil begins in earnest. [...]" "I challenged demo driver Mr. Epler to parry attacks great and small, which he did with aplomb via the LB button, also making use of melee attacks and a regenerating source of rogue’s arrows. As our Rogue unlocked his first ability, Static Strikes [...] this powerful wave attack highlighted the importance of positioning – well-aimed Static Strikes can tear through multiple enemies at once [...]" "abilities can be triggered immediately without entering the ability wheel [...] You’ll also use this wheel to direct your companions’ powers and target selection. [...]"

[source]

[calibratemehard]

Alrighty folks I finished the game. I will put non-spoiler thoughts here and then put my spoiler thoughts under the cut. Again, these are MY OPINIONS. I am happy to hear your thoughts but I'm not arguing with you because you won't change my mind.

* holy shit this is a big game

* Mournwatch is the best faction in my opinion. Idk they're just cool and not problematic lol

* there is some retconning of established facts, but I take it this way: it's been a long time since the original trilogy's events. Origins was canonically sometime almost 20 years before Veilguard - think of life 20 years ago, it was very different. A lot can change and gods coming back changes a lot. Factions grow and change and become something different. Also this is NORTHERN Thedas, an area we've never played in. With few exceptions we've always had companions from the south and learned information about the north second hand. I think that's important to keep in mind when people complain about things not staying the same or 'lore accurate.'

* I still recommend picking the same faction as your projected romantic interest

* The cameos are ... Fine. Again, it's been a long time in game. Are you the same person you were 10 years ago? 20 years? I think Morrigan is the most disappointing but my headcanon is that motherhood has really suited her, also a decision she made off screen that is explained to you during the course of the game also made her personality make a little more sense

* I think I liked this game because I went in with an open mind. I have always loved Bioware games for the writing and the companions and this game has those in spades. I loved how fleshed out the characters were though it doesn't approach the levels that say, Baldur's Gate 3 reaches. But overall it was an enjoyable experience, around 65 hours for me to finish just about everything. Though maybe shave off about 5 hours for the character creator, which was great.

Okay so now for the spoilers. DO NOT OPEN IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!

* I maxed out all of my companions and factions and nearly 100% every area. There was no quest undone. I think that's why I got a good ending, namely Solas agreeing to bind himself to the Veil, sharing a big kiss with Lavellan, and walking into the Fade together. I did lose one member, Harding, and that fucking sucked. I haven't looked into spoilers so I don't know if switching her and Davrin would have made a difference cause Davrin is a Warden and would have fared better against the blight idk. I'll have to look into it. Overall I was happy though.

* I ... Should have seen the Varric twist but I wasn't looking for it so it just passed over me. I was devastated, but I think that it was well done and well earned. Still sad though. That was the second time I cried during the finale, after Harding.

* This felt like a Bioware game to me. It felt big, it felt complex, and the humor was always there. The QoL improvements and expansion of classes and abilities made this so much fun.

* I felt the romances were lacking a bit in content, though Emmrich had suuuuch a sweet and gentle romance. I loved it so much. They banged in a graveyard in what I assume is a coffin. A+ love him, love Manfred. I just wish I had kiss options a la BG3. I got spoiled. 😅

* I'll play this again. And again. That's how my brain works. I think they need to patch a sort of 'golden nug' option into the game and a new game plus to make things better. If there are DLC, I'll happily play them.

[alanaartdream]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alana Felicity Bochmann (@alanaartdream)

#drawing #sketches attempts at ideas on what older #fairlyoddparents #timmyturner #dannyphantom #dannyfenton we got off of butch with maybe my own ideas mix in; with Timmy there are still quite a few options that are up in the air with him; but with Danny butch made a few drawing videos on what’s happening with Danny Sam and Tucker in their futures (( apparently Danny and Sam get married and have 2 kids who inherited Danny’s ghost powers but one can teleport and the other can open portals and go wherever she pleases with these ghost portals of hers)) and Danny Phantom along with Sam and Tucker run a very good ghost hunting business and Tucker becomes Mayor of the tow/city they live in );; funnily Butch seems to like turning his protagonist’s into beef cakes and I normally don’t draw beef cakes kinda characters so this was a challenge to try to draw them

💀🧚‍♀️🧚🦄🍄‍🟫🍄🍀🐈‍⬛🐱✏️🌈🖍️🎨✍️🐾💕✨⭐️

Not joking here with his 1st 3 cartoon series he came up for nick he did designs where the protagonist gets a lot of muscle 💪

Fairly odd parents - Timmy has a few older versions of him where he gets tall and beefy (heck there was a teenager version of him that got mistaken for a teenage super model in one episode)

Danny Phantom- episode he had a beefy muscle evil version of himself show up and there is two YouTube videos by Butch himself has said being as Danny is fighting with ghosts so much he becomes super fit by age of 25 and right into his adult years so kinda makes cents Danny have alot of muscles

And then Tuff puppy the dog was draw super beefy as well

So in conclusion even though Butch isn’t running the show fairly odd parents a new wish anymore the people will have to take in SOME advice from Butch on how adult Timmy gonna be

And if they choose to do more with Danny Phantom they’ll have to get Butch’s input on where that show will go being as Danny phantom & fairly odd parents were his ideas

So where does this leave Timmy Turner? Well we have a couple of choices to go with him we can

We can have him getting adopted by Wanda Cosmo so become a fairy and grow up with peri poof

Of he grows up becoming a lawyer/ someone who works in child services so whatever happens to him as a kid doesn’t get as bad as it did for him / maybe writes books/comics being as he was quite the creative imagination and gets to keep his memory and helps fairyworld on the side while being married to toothie being as Unless Trixie learns to stop worrying about how others see her and just be herself I don’t really see a romantic relationship working out with her and Timmy; best they might become friends as teenagers being as they share interests in manga / comics and toothie will probably calm down with her affections towards Timmy but being as she’s only one who’s liked him even when he was ignored neglected abuse kid I see Timmy learning to appreciate that as he has the chance to grow; I’d see Timmy getting away from his parents as he gets older being as they’re kinda crazy dumb and a little totic ALSO helping Toothie get away from her sister Vicky being as they were both abused by Vicky as kids (and the adults in their lives did nothing to stop it; I mean I get Toothie’s parents were scared of Vicky but they couldn’t even protect their other child from her?)

Maybe Jimmy Timmy could still be friends and Jimmy and Cindy end up an item not sure

In my au I went with Timmy becoming a fairy and gets to hang out with nicktoons unite gang as a fairy and Danny and Jimmy do well for themselves in their own universes

Now with nicktoons

Danny met Jimmy and Tommy with they were both 10 years old and he was 14; and with SpongeBob he’s already a adult (although SpongeBob is a weird sea creature so not sure how sea sponges age at all not don’t think he changes as much as Jimmy Timmy and Danny do as they get older)

So trying to work with their ages is also something ones gotta work with as well as where the creators of their shows wanted to take their shows

Also in the nicktoons unite games they started adding in Danny’s friends Sam and Tucker as well as a few of SpongeBob’s friends; with Timmy though they only ever had was Wanda & Cosmo

If they were gonna make more games they’d have added poof/peri but don’t think they’d add more being as not many liked that dog and Cole

But far be it from me to stop anyone from shipping who they like but not comfortable with Danny being shipped with a sponge and then a super hero character who’s supposedly the same ages as Timmy and Jimmy were in their shows OR I could be wrong about El Tgrey show it’s been awhile from few episodes I got to see of that show (( not sure even how the sponge got shipped with Danny in the first place the age gap with those two is pretty big but then people use to ship bald with Danny so I guess people will ship anything;;; I’m just not comfortable with enther ship honestly more so being as Danny kinda ends with with Sam at the end of the original Danny phantom series so can’t see Danny with anyone else after that) )

Also with the nicktoons unite game el Tgrey never made it as a playable character in those games being as the show didn’t get to be as popular as Danny phantom Jimmy neutron Fairly odd parents and SpongeBob did but funnily enough Invader Zim did so Zim and Dib ended up joining the nicktoons unite games grated only in one game then they switch anther series main character to join the gang if the nicktoons unite games were to do anther huge crossover game I believe they’d add my teenage robot life kj9 Jenny as the next playable character being as like in today’s world people are complaining there isn’t enough female characters to play in games and being as the fandom for my teenage robot life is still going strong it feels more likely they’d add her; they’d most likely add in Sam tucker and that squirrel that SpongeBob likes into games again as well being as they did add them before

So will most likely have them in my au for Fairy Timmy and the nicktoons unite gang (also Jimmy Timmy becoming a thing in my au being a Cindy will mostly become good friends with Timmy and a reluctant friend of Jimmy)

[insane-control-room]

Some things are meant to be remembered; for the right reasons.

i've posted this review on steam, but i think that i want to say it here, too.

Here is my review of the 'promotional' material (according to steam) Secrets of the Machine

What I liked: the art appeared to be a true return to form; the style had its original charm with updated lighting techniques and slightly better optimization than previous games in the Bendy series. The audio design was also nice, with good ambiance and nice composition.

And now, the jank.

The game handles reasonably well; but it is clearly slapdashed together and is missing important components. There is no starting menu. There are no loading screens; and it is very jarring. There are no options in the game menu - you cannot minimize the game, you cannot brighten the game, you cannot make the game run any better on your computer, and it is incredibly laggy. If you have a potato laptop? Nah, get out. No game for you. There are no subtitles that you can enable, and voices are very muffled. Additionally, the game is very dark, and as mentioned, you cannot adjust that in the settings of the game, nor in steam settings. You have to do so from your computer.

Controls are extremely janky, as you cannot run, you cannot jump, and there is no indication for interaction with any objects. There are no control settings for remapping, and you cannot even see which keys do what.

Puzzles are boring and confusing; with no guidance. There were no hints, no rhyme or reason. There was more puzzle in the BATIM chapter 1 demo release. This thing is very confusing, especially when you cannot see anything at all. You will spend a long time walking back and forth between two rooms, wondering how you can progress, because you've done everything you could: you smashed cutouts; you hit targets; you opened and closed hands; you found posters for future games, but nothing that could move forward the one you were playing at the time. If you look at the community page, you will see that most people simply spent their time clicking on the soup can dispenser to see how many cans they could get.

If you have epilepsy, nah get out. Oh? I didn't mention the flashing lights? Well the developers did not either. Not only did they not mention the flashing lights, not in the game nor in steam, but they included TWO car crashes without warning - one audio based, and another that was directed at players. This is not only rude, but it is dangerous. Warnings exist so that people can make educated choices whether or not to interact with content that may be sensitive to them. Warn people appropriately. This 'game' did not take any measure to protect its players. There are many instances of sudden loud noises, flashing lights, and jarring location switches (not to mention the car crashes).

The story was lacking, and has nothing to do with the puzzles that a player is faced with. It feels like three disjointed tracks, and none of them align, all of them crashing together in a discordant, unsatisfying, confusing mess. It brought in more new characters that had nothing to do with the original story nor interested players, and had content that went against previously established material. It was (as you can tell, from a writer's perspective) a bad story.

It was less of a demo, less of a playable trailer, more like a tech demo with a few morsels for fans to pick apart and wish there was more of, wish there was more effort put into, wish there was more love and care for them, the players who arguably were the foundation of this game. There were teasers for games that, honestly, lacked the soul that the very first game had, and here's a point to prove it: there was an easter egg that if you clicked something 414 times (very funny.) it would rise in the air and then fall down without further ado. In the game files, the name for that sound effect? Sting. Yeah. It did. Games are a collaborative work; between the creators and the players. Blatant disregard and flippancy towards half of the collaboration is not acceptable behavior. This is a development team that mocks those who once loved them most, those who poured over their coding and carefully crafted world to marvel at what they had made, and coaxed in others with the rich promise of a delightful story that anyone could engage with on any level. The spite the creators have shown for the individuals who, essentially, had given rise to their stature in the first place, is painful.

Finally, by the time that I got a chance to sit down and actually play the game- I personally could not. The developers, by constantly updating a clearly unfinished game, had made their final update - that of a wood board blocking the actual place where gameplay takes place. You cannot go to any of the places shown in the screenshots, because the game is locked on the opening area. I've seen many people complaining of it; hoping that they can play the game.

Now, in the fashion we've seen common of JDS, they have rescinded their terrible design choice - but without notifying players that it is now possible to play the game; without telling players that this was purposeful; without telling players anything aside from a big old screw you. It is entirely possible that the only reason they put the game back into a playable state was the torrent of negative reviews that spawned after their. interesting. choice. regardless, those who care about their playerbase would have informed those who complained that it was a temporary gesture for storytelling reasons. They, however, did not, and there are a multitude of reviews marking the game as unplayable.

No matter what, the bottom line is this: This is not okay.

I'm not sure how much more eloquently I can put the fact that I'm heartbroken. This game, unlike any other, shows how much scorn that a developer can have for their own fans and playerbase. I am glad that there are people who enjoyed it, but I wonder - what did you really like about it?

Is it the memories?

[shmisky]

What if Ford had not ignored the warnings and decided to not summon Bill, what do you think would his life be like? Ford would try to contact Stan without the risk of the world ending existing? And what about Stan, what would would his life be like? And what would happen to him? Stan would eventually get the courage to contact his brother and actually say something to him on the phone?

Very interesting to think about... I believe we should decide first if the plot is moving the characters or if the characters are moving the plot.

In Gravity Falls, the plot many times moves the characters. Of course Stan and Ford would end up together, one way or another, because the god and creator of that world—Alex Hirsch—wanted them to. In this sense, they’re like Barbie dolls. To achieve this perfect ending, Alex threw in their paths things that would make it happen. This also happens with fanfics, because the authors have full control of what is happening and will happen to the characters. Their every choice means something—even though a bad outcome could be chalked up to random chance or a strange solution to a certain problem could be attributed to pure necessity in real life, that doesn’t happen in fiction. A few tropes that exemplify what I’m talking about: cuddling for warmth, sex polen, “there’s only one bed,” etc. You’re the author, you decide what’s happening, and you’re responsible for the situations you put your blorbos in.

So Stan and Ford, as fictional characters, are inserted in a narrative about the importance of family. They would end up together anyway. If they were real people, though, and you removed that plot armor and protection, I think the most likely and realistic option is that things would end up badly.

My knee-jerk reaction to your question was “they would be too stubborn to ever contact each other” but I decided to consult my friends first. I talked with @cantgetworsethanthistbh and she said she couldn’t see Ford contacting Stan because Stan himself had made it very clear that he didn’t need anyone when he was kicked out (his exact words: “Fine! I can make it on my own! I don’t need you! I don’t need anyone! I'll make millions and you’ll rue the day you turned your back on me!”) and Ford reaching out was an act of pure desperation (that much is certainly true). She couldn’t see the contrary happening, either—Stan contacting Ford—especially considering Stan’s tendency to hide his homelessness in front of the kids in his retelling of his life in AToTS; he only briefly mentioned it to Ford back in the 80s out of impulsive anger, and as such contacting Ford to ask him for help wouldn’t even be an option in his mind. Stan would’ve stuck to the conning business and either make it really big eventually or just go down a much worse path until his past caught up with him and his mob “friends” ended up killing him, in which case Ford would be devastated.

If that’s too morbid for you to consider, anon, my friend @piningstans suggested a more optimistic alternative. I’ll let her explain it herself!

One of the things she said and I thought was a very good point is that Ford considered calling Stan after seeing his scam commercial on TV and was convinced not to call by Bill himself, so Bill’s absence in this AU could result in Ford actually calling. I just don’t know if this would result in a reconciliation, since Ford has a tendency to put a foot in his mouth and say the most condescending and entitled bullshit even when he means well. I think Ford would call because he misses Stan, but since Stan can’t read Ford’s mind and Ford would attempt to hide that, it could end up with Stan angrily hanging up on him.

I 100% agree with her that (fully sober) Ford reaching out would be way more likely than (fully sober) Stan reaching out, though. Even if Stan managed to tame his pride (which could perhaps be even more difficult than it was for Ford in canon, since in canon the fate of the whole world was at stake, not just Ford’s life), he had too low self-esteem and wouldn’t want to be a burden and ride on his brother’s coattails, like their father put it. Ford, on the other hand, was (sometimes condescendingly) protective of Stan even through his anger. To be the one needed would be way easier for Ford to stomach and way more comfortable than to be the one needing someone. He’d much prefer to be the one helping Stan than to be helped by Stan, if he could choose.

Ultimately, to me the most realistic option would be that they don’t make up—they’re so, so stubborn—but “most realistic” doesn’t necessarily mean superior, since Stan and Ford are fictional characters. They are inserted in a narrative. I think that if left completely alone, they would end up separated. The law of inertia in physics: an object at rest will remain at rest. There are, however, a number of little things that could happen to them to result in an encounter. Perhaps Fiddleford finds the picture in Ford’s coat. Perhaps Stan gets really, really drunk before calling Ford as ends up spilling a lot of stuff about his life. Perhaps an enemy of Stan figures out Stan’s true identity and threatens Ford. Perhaps homeless Stan ends up in a hospital and they somehow manage to find and call Ford as his next of kin. Many random butterfly effect situations and possibilities that could shove them in that direction.

It’s very interesting to me to consider old Ford reaching the conclusion (perhaps correct, perhaps false) that Stan would likely have died if he hadn’t sent that postcard, and then being glad for the whole Bill drama—even despite the torture and abuse Bill put him through—if only because it ensured his brother, whom he loves more than himself, stayed alive.

[rom-e-o]

Proposal to work Emmerich and Belisma into the modern Scroogeverses:

The Twins and Emmerich went to university together and were roommates. While they were in business and finance, he was in mortuary sciences, but they all got on quite well together. (Side detail: Twins also worked for Fezziwig through uni.)

Fast forward a few decades, they all meet up again at a class reunion, each bringing their prospective wifeys. The Twins are successful, billionaire businessmen, Emmerich is a well-known professor of mortuary science at a prestigious school. (He also has a side-hobby of studying the prospect of the supernatural: ghosts, spirits, etc.). Cue them all seated at a table, all the girls chatting animatedly, getting on famously, and all these distinguished silver-foxes just... exchange besotted and fascinated looks. Imagine: all three of them finding love later in life with equally lovely, wonderful, and vibrant women. (Probably all foreign? For some reason, I imagine Belisma probably wouldn't be English?) Apparently, good things really do come to those who wait. (And endure traumatic spiritual time travel to save their souls.😅)

OH MY GOSH. 🥹

This is so cute and honestly incredibly perfect for them! And it lines up with timelines, and the details in their backstories, perfectly.

Emmrich is canonically in his early fifties (51-55) so he and the twins would all be in college around the same time, especially for their more advanced degrees.

All of them were also poor growing up (Emmrich before AND after was orphaned when parents died in a building collapse) so I can see them bonding from that as well, surrounded by all these trust-fund kids in their prestigious classes. They share drinks and complain about it.

Life pulls them apart, and time passes.

Him being a professor is perfect, but with a heavy side-hustle studying spirits and ghosts. (Oh, he would LOVE to hear about the Twins experience - he’d actually believe them without any hesitation or judgement! Many intrigued questions await.)

They meet up again decades later, and I imagine they’re all pleasantly surprised that each of them has found love. The only past paramour Emmrich will reveal in-game is a woman who left him because (it’s heavily implied) that she didn’t want to commit. And we know what happened to the Twins too. 🥲

So when they all show up with ladies on their arm? Fascinating, indeed!

“My goodness, you two have changed. Smiles, and pleasant company on your arms? I thought I’d seen it all.”

“You’re looking pretty chipper yourself, professor.”

Belisma would not be English, you’re correct, haha. It’s funny you should mention nationality, haha.

She and Emmrich are technically both from the in-game country of Nevarra, but BioWare/EA could never decide on a canon accent, so everyone sounds completely different, lmao. In the Character Creator, Belisma uses the upper-pitch “American Female” (Erika Ishii) voice option.

Belisma was also orphaned as a baby (the game gave her that backstory, I promise I’m not making all my OCs orphans on purpose lmaooo) so she was found in Nevarra, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where she’s from.

In the modernverse, I’d say she’s actually from the U.S. (LA) since that’s the accent her voice has. Connie and Orin have New Yorkers as voice claims, after all, lmao.

So, another Yankee. These poor men, lmao. 😂

Belisma would get along with the girls splendidly! They can reminisce about life back home. She is a bookish woman, and definitely introverted. She’s not a social butterfly and comes across as a little over-eager and awkward with a morbid sense of humor sometimes, but she genuinely warms up easily when she sees Connie and Bess are kind and supportive. Also, they all have (ahem) similar tastes in men~

“Do you ladies like thrifting by any chance?”

“You know, um … My other friends made such a fuss about the 20-year gap between Emmrich and I. They’re supportive, but I can tell they don’t fully understand it. It’s nice to be with people who do and aren’t judgmental.”

“Oh my gosh, those blooms are gorgeous! Bess, would you ever consider offering gardening lessons? My husband adores flowers, but everything I touch just seems to die. I know I’m doing something wrong.”

“So, Connie, your family is into philanthropy too, yes? For unhoused children and families? That’s … nice to hear. I’m glad more resources are being created.”

“So, both your husbands are the CEOs of S&C? I’m dreadful with numbers and business sense, so I have no clue if this is helpful, but I’m working with the university to create more internship options for students who want to learn mortuary sciences, physics, chemistry and biology. I’m sure we could provide some financial aid if you have any programs in the works.”

[utilitycaster]

Voting sticker was sent via DMs because it's shaped like the state I live in lmao. Also, if someone reading this is in Fly Free or Die by some minuscule chance, please look away now; there be spoilers ahead.

The character I'll tell you about is RH-1/Istra Gryffis/Cassiopeia Wulfren/Stellasa Drith, a Human Replica Droid in an SW5e campaign. Originally an Imperial Agent, she was sniffed out by the scientist she was monitoring on her very first assignment, subdued by him, had her programming jailbroken and a teleportation device installed in her chest, and was then just turned loose on the galaxy to make her own way.

She still believed herself a tool of the Empire, but a broken one, who failed in her mission, and couldn't bring herself to go back to her handler/creator/mentor so spent a few years just roaming the galaxy aimlessly doing small time security work.

Eventually, a smuggler she was contracting with (one of her party members) got into a Situation with a crime syndicate, and the pair had to run off into corporate bureaucratic hell to escape their eyes--or rather, the smuggler did; she suggested that specific approach because the last she knew the scientist who jailbroke her had been planning to go work for that corporation. With danger pushing her toward decisive action for the first time in years, she took that as a sign to go and hunt him down to bring him back to the Empire and get back in its good graces. And, perhaps, demand to know why he shoved a unique piece of tech into her chassis then just left her to do what she wanted with no guidance whatsoever.

Regardless, working for this corporation put her and her smuggler buddy into the party, working shipping as contractors for a major corporation. The details of our current, first arc are, while interesting, also mostly unimportant to what I want to talk about regarding party dynamics/info.

Essentially, the party (who don't know she's a droid) includes her, the smuggler (always getting himself into situations), a clone (hates droids), two droid-specialist engineers (one who just unreservedly loves droids and the other who isn't exactly pro droid rights but wants to rehabilitate their image), and a (secret) Jedi. Various dynamics:

The smuggler is someone Cassioepia's decided she's responsible for the well-being of, because she develops strong loyalties very quickly (great trait for a spy).

Thus far, there have been multiple arguments over droids and how much they matter (she comes down on the side of "just tools, and unreliable ones" like the clone does, if less adamantly).

The clone appears to be coordinating at least a few small rebel groups, and is very anti-Empire, as well as looking to her as essentially his second-in-command.

The clone and one of the engineers are on opposite sides of idealism-cynicism, and she's had to mediate a couple times now.

Finally, in the most recent session, the Jedi used Sense Force (equivalent to Detect Magic) on her. Said Jedi sensed nothing from her since she's a droid, EXCEPT the teleportation device in her chest, which sucked the Jedi's perception in, knocked her out, gave Cassiopeia a heart attack essentially, and knocked her out (also granting her, a droid, Sense Force as well) and that's where Cassiopeia left off.

Word count (after the 1st paragraph since that's unrelated): 518

(Quick note: if you're reading this, yes, DM-ing me the sticker/proof is an option if the sticker reveals more about your location than you wish to share (whether it's that you don't want to share your state, or whether you have a county or city-specific sticker, or what); I will not tell people where you live.

so I do NOT know a ton about SW5e (I saw Starstruck Odyssey and I have seen. the original trilogy and like. 4 other Star Wars movies, none comprising a full other trilogy?) but I love when a character has complicated and conflicting loyalties and a strong sense of duty, which she clearly has, and that is a GREAT cliffhanger that seems primed to absolutely blow your party's collective mind and reveal a whole lot of messy truths, and that's really the best possible thing you can hope for in a TTRPG!