#i've been playing darkest dungeon recently

[haru-spectre]

wait hiii i totally forgot i can post my sketches here lmao??

[iaus]

okay. i'm going to start with a little background before i get into the wild ass session my party just had.

the premise of this campaign (which i am mostly writing on my own) is based on the game darkest dungeon. all you really need to know about that is that you play as the heir of a cursed estate. you receive a letter from your ancestor asking you to cleanse the estate for the good of your family's legacy. however, as you delve into the estate and its surrounding land you learn more about its origin AND your ancestor who tasked you with this.

this is the hamlet the party is currently at

now. we get to my homebrew aspects. i'm going to copy/paste the premise i gave my players as a guideline for creating their characters:

In 1817, a strange phenomenon began to start in all major cities of Faerûn. As the Church of Light began to surge in violence and boldness, most adventurers found themselves called away from adventuring life and were implored to take to participating in mercenary armies to oppose the Church. Adventuring jobs came to a halt and were replaced with enlistment pleas and propaganda from both the Church and those who opposed them. However, next to these were posts calling for adventurers—promising fame, fortune, a new life, and even protection from the horrible realities of the war. All adventurers were welcome: New, old, veteran, retired… no matter how many times the advertisements were ripped down more appeared. These calls persisted throughout the wars, they could not be stifled no matter how bloody and vicious the Light Crusade became. Due to the nature of the crusade, none can say how many answered the call of these advertisements. But many saw them as an ill omen. Something only the most desperate or greedy would answer. Even now, in the year 1882, you have found one of these missives—new, freshly stamped, and signed so recently the ink still seems wet. Lord de Vaux is still seeking adventurers of all skill sets and experience to help them clear their treasure-filled estate. Coin, housing, and community available to any adventurer who is will claim it. Fame, fortune, and a new life await any brave enough to show this missive to the conductor at the nearest train station. From there, you will find yourself where you need to be.

i'm not going to summarize the ENTIRE campaign as i've run it so far but so far my party (who i will give blurbs about shortly) have accomplished the following:

stopped a necromancer from ascending and merging his soul with his dead lover to help an extremist cult of light worshipers.

rescued children from being sacrificed to help open a gateway to something called the nameless god... while accidentally completing the ritual the cultists were trying to complete. (this part of the journey was taken from an adventure book i bought based off of dark dice, the only part that i have not personally written and EXTREMELY FUN i would love to run it again).

kidnapped/rescued/recruited a child cultist named cal umbar who was trying to complete aforementioned ritual.

entered the haunted estate to rescue their kidnapped benefactor lord kolyah de vaux from her imprisonment within the estate. she has now joined their party. she does not have her memories.

currently, the party is dealing with a band of brigands who have taken over the hamlet in their absence. (this is where my clusterfuck summary will pick up.)

now. just to give you an idea of the party itself we have:

alula a tiefling cleric/warlock who was recently reunited with their estranged child, cal. she has been doing her best to try and bridge the distance between herself and cal to varying degrees of success.

clementine a dhampir wizard who has ended up in an unfortunate love triangle that she really doesn't want to be in. she recently found and adopted a baby gold wyrmling and often ends up speaking with ghosts.

remaria a human druid/warlock who entered in a pact with a beautiful hag named satine during the party's time in the weald. they now have a third stone eye embedded in their forehead and a bag of seeds their patron tells them to plant in varying locations for unknown reasons.

these are all played by the friends i'm running the session for i adore them. they're all in saw traps.

party NPC wise we have:

kolyah de vaux the reborn estate heir who is now a barbarian. she lost all of her magic and memories after being trapped by the estate. according to rumors she cannot die.

cal umbar a 15 yr old tiefling cultist sorcerer who looks exactly like alula. the combination of their upbringing and other factors make them a little unnerving to others. the party learned this session that cal does not appear to sleep but to trance which is weird because they're not an elf!

chiara noi a satyr cleric who came to the estate to make maps. her tragic backstory is that she has a rival map-maker that she can never seem to outmatch. early on in the campaign one of our old party members did a history check..... they remembered chiara's rival's work.... not chiara's. chiara was cal's primary caretaker while the party was trapped in the estate (time dilation weirdness) and joined the current occupying brigands so she would be able to care for cal easier. she just got kidnapped by the brigands after being caught lying.

other notable NPCs:

lord de vaux (kolyah does get two): the heir to the estate and the one who sent out the missives requesting adventurers. lord de vaux is generally my most hated npc. she is rich, throws money at her problems, and seems to have some responsibility for her brother's death and arguably caused the necromancer issue. she and the party had a very tense relationship.

satine: the witch of the weald who has a pact with remaria. no one is quite sure of her intentions. she seems to have taken a liking to remaria and has a tendency to be a little cruel to them. (she made remaria hallucinate that she was being attacked by the forest the last time remaria went to seek satine out for help.) she seems extremely powerful and resentful of kolyah and the entire estate/hamlet.

now. there's some base information. there's stuff i definitely missed. but i'm gonna write a session summary in another post. but. welcome. to my cluterfuck of a saw trap campaign.

[thydungeongal]

for the tarot ask game -

The Emperor — Do you have a process you follow with your design work? OR How important is mechanical complexity to you?

The Star — Talk about a game you’re working on and what excites you about it.

You can actually get a glimpse of my process in this post I made recently outlining how I'm currently approaching design:

Basically, I first got a huge stew of ingredients together and then threw them in and then started thinking about the game in terms of what types of scenes I want it to produce, what I want the characters to be like, and what type of progress the game will generally follow. I've also been helped in this process by my friend @ashweather who's been extremely helpful in forcing me to think how the various ingredients I've chosen interlock and intersect! For an example, she forced me to think about how the idea of Keys from The Shadow of Yesterday could intersect with Lifepaths and, folks, we're cooking. Also, yeah, this has very much turned into a collaboration between me and ash, and I'm really thankful for all the ideas and insights she's provided.

And that also, in part, answers the second question. I'm really excited about this project of ours, this untitled dark fantasy role-playing game. Heavily inspired by Berserk, Dark Souls, and Darkest Dungeon, the core gameplay is largely going to follow adventurers in a dark fantasy world where something has happened which has made the world Fucked Up and the simple act of traveling between cities and in the wilderness has become dangerous. We are leaning very heavily on Keys as a core mechanic to help create powerfully driven characters to make for largely character driven play in a sandbox/powderkeg style setting.

And yeah, part of what excited me about it is getting to think about systems and how they interact, but I'm also extremely excited about seeing how I can pull off my design goal of making GM prep actually gamified and enjoyable, but also I'm just excited about this stew of ingredients that is equal parts trad and indie.

[bells-of-black-sunday]

𝑺𝒑𝒖𝒌'𝒔 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒔

Comfort food(s): Poptarts, hearty soups, seafood, bread. Probably the entirety of "Hometown Buffet" it was a place in town I'd always go to with my Grandparents after church on Sunday even though modernly I don't care for buffet places.

Comfort drink(s): Earl grey tea, green tea, strawberry Boba tea. The boba is because me and my friends always get it every time we hang out in person and it's always a nice time even if it's getting rarer.

Comfort movie(s): The Nightmare Before Christmas, Halloween, Sharkansas Women's Prison Masscare. Look... hear me out. I enjoy a really bad shark movie as long as they have charm, Sharkansas is so fucking funny and it never goes the way you'd expect it to. How'd the sharks end up in a women's prison? Well that'd be a spoiler—

Comfort show(s): My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Gravity Falls, Midnight Mass. Quite a strange combination, but yeah I could talk for hours about any of them.

Comfort clothing: Big oversized sweaters, nice fitting button-ups, over sized t-shirts. I still dress like an edgy teenager, so it's all black and like band or horror tees.

Comfort song(s): Too many to list, but I listen to a lot of Red Vox in general, since they've been a favorite of mine since I really started for form an opinion on music beyond what my parents listened to.

Comfort book(s): Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, uhhh... I don't read as often as I should. Blame bad highschool teachers and a bad depression during that period.

Comfort game(s): I play a lot of "cozy games" for comfort, mostly because I can put a podcast or something on in the bg. I've been playing a lot of Ranch of Rivershine, Dreamlight Valley, and Paleo Pines, but RoR is all I can really recommend out of those 3. Dreamlight's devs do not keep their promises and you basically have to pay 70$ for a full game and Paleo does not feel finished at all and needs a lot of work, it's not worth 40$ I got it on sale and still felt like I bought an early access game. I've been enjoying a lot of Darkest Dungeon 2 recently though, but four people go into that dungeon and five come out mad, so it's hit or miss for comfort.

Tagged by: @mxlevolence (thank you!!)

Tagging: Uhhh idk who hasn't been tagged, just steal it from me

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

I've been craving a Roguelike recently, so I tried playing Darkest Dungeon and bounced right off it--partially because I didn't like the control scheme, but mostly because it was really grim. Then, on my partner's recommendation, I tried out Dead Cells and have been playing it obsessively ever since. It's really funny how that happened, because on the surface I feel like they're both very similar, these really difficult Rogelikes set in ruined fantasy worlds. Then I thought about it more and figured out that it's because of their distinct difference in attitude. Darkest Dungeon is aesthetically striking, but everything about it is deliberately very harsh and cruel and sad. It looks at you and says, "This world sucks, and you the player character suck too because of the ways in which you're complicit in its sucking." Dead Cells, on the other hand, has a grim story but is often very beautiful despite that, and the Prisoner is a delightful character. "This world sucks, but what if, hear me out, you were the world's funkiest little gesticulating fuck-up, and also sometimes there are flowers?"

[losthavenart]

Random Dungeon

So the TTRPG I'm designing Abbadon has a number of tools. Random magical affixes for items which I've had plenty of time to play around with. I recently redrafted my random dungeon guidelines and tables for the game and gave it a go last night with a test play. It went pretty well to the point where I'm much happier with this version of the tools as written. It provides a good set of building blocks that can easily be tweaked and added to or run as is on the fly.

This isn't a super in depth map like you'd maybe find in D&D but it serves the purpose and feels more like a simplified Darkest Dungeon map with the corridors and random encounters there in removed and only focused on the rooms. Deciding which directions to branch from are up the GM or players if you're generating the dungeon collaboratively (Which I've also tried in test plays for a lot of fun)

No hazards were generated such as traps or environmental hazards but you can see that 2 non combat encounters were generated which have mechanical things players can interact with, 3 combat encounters where generated one being an ambush and one being an easy encounter. The book has streamlined rules for balancing encounters that's based on the spent experience of the party and party size.

Some sizable loot without needing a fight as well as a really good hidden piece of treasure were generated as well (Sadly the party didn't find the amulet it would have been a nice addition to the Faithful or Stalker most likely)

[automatisma]

Discovered the allure of Topsters & made a chart of the games that significantly influenced my tastes. Not really a top 25 although I believe most of the games of the list are good. Ramblings under the cut.

TLOZ: Twilight Princess was my first Zelda as a child & while not a particularly interesting Zelda gameplay-wise it cemented my fascination with that kind of dark and decadent aesthetic.

Persona 3 is again the first Persona I've ever played. Not the best & with many larger-than-life sterotypical characters but it does have a lovely apocalyptic atmosphere and the sexiest dungeon concept bar none (sorry persona 4 tv world you were not It)

Hexcells is my favourite puzzle game. Perfect difficulty curve, minimal & functional aesthetic, little spatiality sense required to finish it. The whole trilogy is honestly brilliant.

Disco Elysium literally what is there to say about DE that hasn't already been said. Masterful dialogues and characters, deeply political while being smart and complex about it, it has one of the most interesting fantasy worldbuildings of recent memory.

Final Fantasy X was my first FF. Bizarre & unique if nonsensical world, great party interactions and often dumb but really really rich with overarching thematical meanings so

We Know The Devil I believe it's up to personal taste in the end whether you'll like this or Heaven Will be Mine more, but to me the minimal religious setup & the very realistic teenage dialogue take the cake. Also Saturn is #so me #releatable #girlsbeinggirls

Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 I bet everyone's sick of seeing it on their dash but what can I say I adore its day-to-day routine and the character subplots and its sound design and the beetle battles and

The House in Fata Morgana is maybe my favourite visual novel of all time. Often cheesy, frequently melodramatic, the epic highs and lows of its writing did not stop me from loving its intricate fantasy plot and multifacted characters.

Valhalla cyberpunk ok too long of a name. The bartending part was fun, the fauxanime thing is well MY thing and the #quiet cyberpunk adult disillusionment of its dialogues stuck with me in some way. Not great but really solid & it worked a lot for me for reasons I am not entirely sure of to this day.

Danganronpa is a terrible and complicated horror b-movie with cartoon characters and stupid but captivating mysteries. I genuinely believe the trials are absolutely cool and adrenaline inducing though & I would love more of this except better I guess

Darkest Dungeon a game in which every inch of its systems and aesthetic choices works in perfect synch to convey the hopelessness of this brand of lovecraftian horror. Also the turn-based combat is soooo fucking good

Final Fantasy VII THE final fantasy ecc ecc what can I say. One of the few games I played when the stereotypical version of the characters I saw in popular culture was so much less interesting than the actual story beats and the direction the plot went in. Packed with genre-defining moments and lovingly mystic at times.

Pyre is probably my favourite Supergiant game even though Hades is far superior in gameplay terms. The peculiar worldbuilding and the choices you make are really something unique to this one and they very much stick with you during your playthrough and even after that.

The World Ends with You when I played it Neku and Joshua were on my mind 24/7 I was on that fujoshi grindset which is quite peculiar for me. Weird and fun gameplay too but to me the main thing was the killer premise, its characters and its commitment to peculiarity in the JRPG landscape at every turn.

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria weird ass sequel of a game I didn't play that spawned my love for this kind of combat. Perfect blend of tactical and reaction-based that's usually a mess but here it works and its glorious. The story was whatever but frankly who cares

Black Closet is probably the most obscure game on this list & I love it. I adore the setting, the writing of some of the subplots, the tight mechanics and even its wonky UI designs. Try it and be captivated by the playful eroticism of mystery and power NOW

Ib foundational as everyone knows. Kind of tied with Yume Nikki in my mind but in the end I played Ib more and I was in awe of its finale systems and the genuinely anxiety inducing gameplay moments. Epitome of you're a kid and something fucked up happens.

Analogue: A Hate Story my favourite Love game even though it's only vaguely sci-fi. Funniest thing about it it's probably that its title works even if it's a silly pun on her previous game

999 I like Danganronpa so this one was a given since it's even less stupid. Puzzles are ok but I was here for the characters & plot because I am a mystery junkie at heart.

Lisa: The Painful managed to work with the legacy of Earthbound without making a lol so random uninspired clone. Profoundly different in its subject matter while incorporating a lot of the bizarre & offbeat humor of its inspiration. It also deals with its themes in a quite brutal and blunt if not at all tactful way which i really respect.

The Stanley Parable is one of the first things I've played as a returned prodigal PC gamer and it blew me away at the time. Full of neat little secrets & mysteries and with a lot to say about the relationship between the player, the game and the narrative frameworks we encase our lives in.

Earthbound is my love and joy and nothing else will ever come close to recreate what I experienced playing it, which is why I never played Mother 3.

Digital Devil Saga yeah I've never played an SMT to the end but I played this duology and I was deeply impressed by its combat system and its weirdass apocalyptic world and even my party of broken people. I was on board for that Gainax ending baby

Dragon Age: Origins was the only good DA actually. I am also the only person who hasn't played it for the worldbuilding and the lore because I'll be frank it's run of the mill fantasy stuff except for some things but I adored my party and the choices I could make and some plot moments so yeah. Still a fan of the saga despite everything

Opus Magnum is the only Zachtronics game I've played but I'll have to play Hackers one of these days. I still have all the gifs saved and I am NOT a minmaxing person irl but this one sinked its claws into my skin and for thirty hours I was an engineer

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

what are your influences/inspirations for your art!! like, stylistically or thematically!

visual art, stylistically:

the Borderlands artstyle obviously. cel shading and outlines my fucking beloved. I am so fucking sad that gbx themselves is kinda toning down on it and that they didn't implement the crosshatch shader they put in teasers for bl3. come the fuck on

the Psychonauts artstyle. even if I do no longer draw in the hyperdeformed style I took from that game I still often deform characters and exagerrate their main features in order to make them more distinct. it also kinda made me addicted to shape language lolmao

Team Fortress 2. I am fucking serious btw. blame that one youtube video on its artstyle. it's been a formative experience for me when I watched it and it stuck itself in my brain. it made me appreciate blockiness/solidity/stockiness in art, as well as teaching me how to limit color palettes and how to draw attention to the important parts of the character by using color contrast.

as for actual artists and not. Video Games. I have been eyeing cubists and futurists recently (even went to a gallery with some of Picasso's earlier works) but it's nothing too substantial as of rn

visual art, thematically:

most of what I draw is characters & fanart so. yeah .

however one thing I've been enjoying recently is redrawing paintings or old photos. usually replacing the ppl in them with my fave old man yaoi. maybe it's cringe but they are a very "love in every time" sort of couple to me so :shrug:

literary art, stylistically:

positivist writing, particularly Lalka by Bolesław Prus. perhaps it's because I consider myself academically inclined, perhaps it's because naturalistic descriptions pander to my Biology Autism, perhaps it's bc of smth else idk

impressionism except not really bc im autistic and thus sensory descriptions come to me naturally

Terry. Pratchett. comparisons in my fics are often snappy(tm) as all fuck because they're, well, Borderlands fics, and to me a Borderlands novel should be Discworld-like. also because Discworld itself slaps

the work of Alexis Kennedy: the guy who wrote a lot of Fallen London, Cultist Simulator and also the Horizon Signal dlc for Stellaris. which is all shit im into. and good lird . its hard to describe you have to read this stuff for yourself

literary art, thematically:

again see the visual art section but largely my fics if they aren't self indulgent fluff are just. taken from my brain tee em because I cover topics or angles that the rest of the fandom wouldn't even think of

Alexis Kennedy again bc he writes gothic/cosmic horror. especially the latter. hoo doggy

other things that in general inspire me:

Darkest Dungeon. both the artstyle and the story have been big influences on me even tho I only played the game once and know everything abt it by watching youtube and bingereading wikis

the legacy of H. P. "Racist" Lovecraft. I guess. what can I say I am a sucker (haha) for those tentacles. except I do everything he ever did sexier and cooler and also he can go roll in his grave

legends, folklore, mythology and occultism. Hellenic of course since that's a big part of Borderlands symbolism but I ain't a coward I throw all that shit in there. slavic (creator bias lollll), norse, japanese, a bit of voudoun, biblical tradition, alchemy, tarot, et cetera. of course I usually don't talk about all the symbols that go into my Everything bc there's a crapton and everyone is entitled to their own interpretations but. yknow! and thats not even accounting for my love of assigning complex motifs to things

[sleepyskunk]

List of Movies / 2023 Movie Trailer Mashup

* * *  PART I - I WOULD STILL FOLLOW YOU  * * *

0:00 - Barbie (double shot)

0:04 - Peter Pan and Wendy

0:06 - The Iron Claw

0:08 - River (double shot)

0:11 - Second tour

0:13 - Barbie

0:19 - Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

0:21 - Canary

0:22 - Soudain Seuls

0:24 - Killers of the Flower Moon

0:26 - When You Finish Saving the World

 « Why did you look for me? I just wanted to see you one more time. Because you left so suddenly. » - Past Lives

0:26 - The Magic Flute (triple shot)

0:32 - Past Lives

0:35 - A Thousand and One

0:36 - King Coal

0:37 - Les Enfants des Autres

0:39 - The Velveteen Rabbit (double shot)

 « I still think about what would've happened if you hadn't left. I've been kind of wondering the same thing recently. » - Somebody I Used to Know

0:41 - Somebody I Used to Know (double shot)

0:44 - What Happens Later (double shot)

0:45 - Love at First Sight

0:47 - Earth Mama (double shot)

« Is it better to have had a good thing and lost it, or never to have had it. » - Love at First Sight

0:49 - The Other Zoey (double shot)

0:51 - Love Again (double shot)

0:52 - Scrapper (double shot)

0:54 - Oppenheimer

0:56 - Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3

0:57 - Amerikatsi

0:58 - The Last Voyage of the Demeter (double shot)

1:00 - Pravednik

1:02 - Lord of the Wind

1:03 - The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (double shot)

1:05 - Society of the Snow (double shot)

1:08 - Lord of the Wind

1:09 - The Creator (double shot)

1:11 - Sitting in Bars with Cakes

« Even if you chose the saddest, darkest, coldest town, all I knew is that I’d follow you. Because you just... see the spark in everything. » - Sitting in Bars with Cake

1:12 - Elemental (triple shot)

1:15 - The Boy and the Heron

1:16 - Wish (double shot)

1:19 - The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (double shot)

1:21 - NYAD

1:22 - Knights of the Zodiac

1:23 - Migration

1:26 - The Little Mermaid

« Just remember, the thing you're running from is almost always the thing you're running towards. » - Carmen

1:28 - Poor Things

1:30 - Peter Pan & Wendy

1:32 - The Eight Mountains

1:33 - Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

1:34 - Trolls: Band Together

1:35 - 65

1:36 - The Mission

« But this... this is the place to be. » - Mending the Line

1:38 - Jesus Revolution

1:39 - Knock at the Cabin

1:41 - Mending the Line

1:42 - The Unknown Country

1:43 - The Color Purple

1:44 - The Royal Hotel (double shot)

* * *  PART II - BITCH I GOT 'EM GOIN' CRAZY  * * *

1:46 - Skinamarink (double shot)

1:53 - Cobweb (triple shot)

« Don't be scared. I just wanna talk. It seems to be that you could use a friend. I know I could. But if you don't want one, I'll just leave. » - Cobweb

2:01 - The Boogeyman (quadruple shot)

2:09 - M3GAN (septuple shot)

2:19 - The Wrath of Becky (quadruple shot)

2:21 - Bottoms (triple shot)

2:24 - Theater Camp

2:25 - Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (quadruple shot)

2:28 - Evil Dead Rise (double shot)

2:29 - The Seven Faces of Jane

2:30 - 80 for Brady (double shot)

2:32 - Millie Lies Low

2:33 - Flora and Son (double shot)

2:34 - House Party

2:35 - Anyone But You (double shot)

2:36 - Dicks: The Musical

2:37 - Next Goal Wins

2:37 - Magic Mike's Last Dance

2:38 - Joy Ride

2:40 - Juniper

2:44 - House Party (double shot)

2:45 - Fair Play (double shot)

2:46 - Dumb Money (double shot)

2:48 - The Beanie Bubble (double shot)

2:49 - Flamin' Hot

« Nobody ever got rich without doing no crime. » - Your Lucky Day

2:50 - Your Lucky Day

2:50 - Eileen

2:51 - Priscilla (double shot)

2:52 - The Outlaw Johnny Black

2:54 - Barbie (double shot)

2:57 - No Hard Feelings (double shot)

2:58 - Joy Ride (quadruple shot)

« You're drug dealers now, bitches! » - Joy Ride

3:03 - Talk to Me

3:04 - birth/rebirth

3:05 - Venus

3:05 - Amanda

3:06 - Silent Night

3:07 - Thanksgiving

3:08 - The Killer

3:09 - Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken

3:10 - Til Death Do Us Part

3:11 - The Blackening

3:12 - Blue Beetle

3:13 - John Wick Chapter 4 (double shot)

3:15 - Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (triple shot)

3:18 - Shazam: Fury of the Gods

3:19 - Godzilla Minus One

3:20 - A Brighter Tomorrow (triple shot)

3:21 - Second Tour (double shot)

« I just want you to know one thing. I'm not a monster. » - Anatomy of a Fall

3:22 - Mafia Mamma

3:23 - The Equalizer 3

3:24 - Fast X

3:25 - The Marsh King's Daughter

3:26 - Plane

3:26 - Anatomy of a Fall

3:28 - Hypnotic

« You don't look so good, mom... Open up now! » - Evil Dead Rise

3:29 - The Pope's Exorcist

3:30 - Unwelcome (double shot)

3:31 - Evil Dead Rise

3:32 - It Lives Inside

3:34 - House Party (double shot)

« That is the craziest thing I've ever seen, and I'm Dennis Quaid and Dennis Quaid has seen some shit. » - Strays

3:36 - Strays

3:41 - Infinity Pool

3:42 - Scream VI (double shot)

« You f*ckin nutjob! » - Sanctuary

3:43 - Sanctuary (double shot)

« Let's decimate this mother! » - Polite Society

3:45 - Polite Society (triple shot)

3:48 - Miss Marvel

« There was a bear. It was f*cked! Hey, that's inappropriate. » - Cocaine Bear

3:50 - Cocaine Bear (sixtuple shot)

3:59 - Five Nights at Freddy's (triple shot)

4:01 - No One Will Save You (quadruple shot)

« And now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds. » - Oppenheimer

4:06 - Hidden Blade

4:07 - The Flash

4:09 - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

4:10 - Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

4:11 - The Creator

* * *  PART III - ART FROM A TRUTHFUL PLACE  * * *

4:14 - Oppenheimer (double shot)

4:18 - The Wish of Fairy Fish

« History is not simply a study of the past, it is an explanation of the present. » - The Holdovers

4:19 - The Holdovers (double shot)

4:21 - Emily (double shot)

4:22 - Hilma

4:24 - Paint

« In Japanese culture, the belief is that the cracks, the breaks... become an intrinsic part of the life of an object. An object becomes more beautiful because it's been broken. » - Rare Objects

4:25 - Rare Objects (double shot)

4:28 - The Zone of Interest

4:29 - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

4:31 - Oppenheimer

4:33 - Cats in the Museum

4:34 - Insidious: The Red Door

4:35 - Inside

4:36 - Revoir Paris

4:37 - Air (double shot)

4:39 - Tetris (double shot)

4:42 - Blackberry (triple shot)

4:45 - La Chimera

4:47 - A Million Miles Away

4:48 - American Fiction (double shot)

« What's the image tucked away in your brain, that makes your heart ache and your soul feels like it's going to burst? » - Paint

4:50 - Paint

4:52 - The Nun II

4:53 - Dream Scenario

4:54 - Bird Box: Barcelona

4:56 - El Conde

4:57 - Beau is Afraid

4:59 - The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

5:00 - Poor Things

5:01 - Asteroid City

« When you make art from a truthful place, people find out something about you. » - The Kill Room

5:03 - Carmen

5:07 - A Haunting in Venice

5:08 - The Nun II (double shot)

5:11 - Maestro

5:13 - Oppenheimer

5:14 - Gods of Mexico

5:15 - Killers of the Flower Moon

« Ideas live forever, but humans only have one ending. » - Barbie

5:16 - Wonka (double shot)

5:18 - The Forger

5:19 - L'Immensità

5:20 - All of Us Strangers

5:22 - A Good Person

« You can't have it all, kid. » - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

5:23 - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

5:26 - Bones of Crows

« Nobody dies! Now we have to stop. Sometimes you just have to let go. » - The Flash

5:27 - The Flash (double shot)

5:30 - Napoleon (double shot)

5:31 - Haunted Mansion (double shot)

5:33 - Beau is Afraid

5:35 - 65

5:36 - Evil Dead Rise

5:37 - Oppenheimer

5:38 - The Animal Kingdom

5:39 - Ferrari

« Cats die. Music fades. But art... is for keeps. » - Inside

5:40 - The Exorcist: Believer

5:40 - Foe

5:41 - Gods of Mexico

5:42 - Peter Pan & Wendy

5:44 - Spinning Gold (double shot)

5:45 - The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

5:46 - Landscape with Invisible Hand (double shot)

5:48 - Hilma

5:49 - Inside

5:50 - Chile '76

5:51 - Hidden Blade

5:51 - Divinity

5:52 - Oppenheimer

5:53 - The Super Mario Bros Movie

5:53 - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (double shot)

5:54 - The Boy and the Heron

5:55 - Chevalier

5:55 - The Beast

[lumeha]

8 and 12?

8 - Game of the Year ?

... Look it's gonna have to be Splatoon 3. I can't lie. Did I play games I got absolute brainworms about during this year ? I mean yes I'm still thinking about Persona 4 and finishing up 5, I've thought way too much about Darkest Dungeon too, and I've marathoned all three Danganronpa games and I'm thinking sO much about them bUT

Here

Look

Splatoon 3 has me. I am nothing but ink and salmons now

(but Dangaronpa is an excellent series of game and I can't believe I didn't play them until this year, shout out to Dev who gifted them to me)

12 - Talk about a new friend you made this year

Me, slowly contemplating the fact that I have no idea how time works in my brain and memories : uh, hm, well

... does it count if I've recently started talking to a mutual on tumblr ? Because. I've recently started talking to a mutual on tumblr a lot more. Thanks to them. And it's been absolutely a blast, especially realising how some of our past experiences have been similar regarding tarot and tarot collection and it's always so fun to have that moment of "OH YOU TOO"

[elgringo300]

Link to the page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thedreadofnight/the-dread-of-night/

So I've backed this TTRPG, and I really wanna see it happen, so I'm humbly asking the group of people who follow me if they will give this a look and back it as well.

The game is a dark fantasy world, similar to Berserk or Dark Souls or the Witcher. The world has recently been beset by some kind of apocalypse which has unleashed terrible monsters everywhere. The party is a group of Hunters, tasked with hunting down said monsters. The idea is each monster is a big enough threat to last several sessions, including investigations and things.

Most of the classes are based off of some beloved video character, like Guts, Mr.Dark Souls, the demon slayers from Demon Slayer, etc. Actually I'll just post the class list to let you see them all.

The Accursed Ember: Fromsoft's Dark Souls series

 The Commoner: Original 

 The Condemned: Kentaro Miura's Berserk 

 The Enchanting Witch: CDPR's The Witcher franchise, and numerous folktales

 The Exorcist: Konami's Castlevania franchise

 The Folk Hero: Original, with inspiration from numerous folktales

 The Magus: J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series

 The Monster Slayer: CDPR's The Witcher franchise

 The Plague Doctor: Red Hook Studios' Darkest Dungeon 

 The Rune Haunter: Contingent99's Wizard of Legend 

 The Spectral Guardian: Original

 The Spell Sword: Koyoharu Gotouge's Kimetsu No Yaiba  

 The Wanderer: Team Ico's Shadow of the Colossus 

Please back it. There's only 11 days left in the campaign, and $15,000 to go. I really want to play this with my friends. Thank you very much.

[iaus]

Hi Bambi! Please tell me all about Iaus I want to know the lore!!

Okay. So. There is this dnd podcast that's a fantastic mix of actual play/audio drama called dark dice. And the first season/campaign is about this town called ilmater's hope where one night all the children in the village go missing.

It's a fantastic campaign and fool & scholar (the people who make the podcast) released a book of it called domain of the nameless god!! I ran it with my darkest dungeon DND group and it's so fun.

Anyway. Iaus is a tiefling rogue who owns the inn in ilmater's hope and not only is he an NPC that module but he's also a character in dark dice season 1. (So I've actually played iaus in a game eheheh.)

But anyway.

Iaus is a former assassin for a dwarven family (can't remember their name rn) who captured and tortured him. He has a lot of past trauma and he's very distrustful. I cannot remember all the details of his escape because it's been about a year since I relistened to dark dice (I usually do a relisten in October eheh), but he does eventually escape and steals a dwarven baby named barrin.

He uses barrin to lie low while he's escaping but eventually comes to care for barrin and see him as his own son. He has a line I think early on where he's like. "Yea he's not mine but he is mine" so I love him. Single father dedicated to keeping his son safe no matter what.

He also like. Kills and steals valuable loot from certain people who stay at his inn in ilmater's hope. I don't remember his criteria for the looting and stealing. But he's complicated ❤️

But... when all the kids go missing... Well of course iaus is going to be out there in the messed up fucked up woods looking for barrin. Even when he has to work with someone who is from the dwarven family who raised and molded him into a killer.

Also he has these weird moments with his party member Soren that KILL me.

Like they have to feed a door that will only open with blood (because. Horror eheh) and iaus has been recently injured so Soren is like. "Hey iaus can you come sensually gyrate your wound over here" and that is almost a direct quote.

But yea!! So he's a main character in dark dice season 1 (is not back in season 2 unfortunately but Soren is which delights me) and! An NPC from my favorite campaign to run <3

I love him. He's my favorite. Thank you for letting me ramble about him he is so much he's so funny.

He gets stabbed by his own shadow.

[astragato]

Heheee you were one of the chosen ones! Ask chain be upon youu! No pressure tho :3

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers.

Omg hiii :3 Thank you for the ask! <3

Drawing! I'm getting back into drawing after a months-long rut and it feels great to be drawing again :]

Started playing World of Horror and really enjoying it so far! Generally been trying to catch up on my Steam library games like Darkest Dungeon (which I just bought recently), SIGNALIS and Wolf Quest, plus a little Minecraft too.

I'm almost done my first year of university - just gotta get through my exams, but I'm pretty excited to finish!

I've been slowly catching up with the Limbus story after having dropped ProjMoon for a while. It's been nice to get back into it a little, even if I'm unlikely to ever return to my frequent ProjMoon posting - but I've been having fun with my friend Sinclair talking about recent updates again!

My OC Félix has been on my mind a lot - he's my specialest little boy please look at him :]

First two images are my own art and the last two are commissions drawn by moonpaw and AG3NT-SH4RK respectively! I also recently commissioned my friend sunnyshoress for some art of him as well! He's just my little mail guy :3

[videobun-gameblog]

33 (oh no) Games I'm looking forward to in 2023 and beyond, including 2022 (and a few earlier) games that I missed

Games Releasing in 2023 onward I'm looking forward to most:

Oh my god, there's way too many.

Darkest Dungeon II: I need to play the first still, a game I know I'll like, I just haven't because I know once I do It'll take over my life for the month.

Nine Sols: Incredible souls-y sidescroller with a boss demo that instantly made me know I NEED this game. Very stylish, pretty, dark, and just sorta my jam wrt its aesthetics on top of its gameplay being pretty darn good.

Momodora: Moonlit Farewell: I assume this is coming out in 2023, though you never know with these indie projects. This is supposed to be the last game in the series, so this is a fairly big release!

Returnal (PC): Finally, I'll be able to play it. I no longer want a PS5 :x

Hollow Knight: Silksong: For all we know this could be another couple years out, but I'm holding out hope that 2023 is the year. The first game is extremely good.

Endless Dungeon: I've been playing the open dev betas and I'm liking how this game is shaping up, even if it's got some divisive changes from Dungeon of the Endless. That said, I'm hopeful it'll still be a fun multiplayer game for a couple months.

Wildfrost: Cool card game demo I tried out during a Steam Next Fest event, I think it'll be a good time.

Another Crab's Treasure: From the developer of Going Under, It's supposed to be a souls-y experience, so I'm hoping it can deliver on that, I liked their previous game even if it wasn't to all of my friends' taste.

Gunbrella: Another Next Fest demo I tried out, it's REALLY fun, the movement is extremely good and has high potential to go ridiculously hard if the level designers have the guts to go all out in the final release.

UFO 50: I have no clue if 2023 is going to be the year for this collection, but It's in the hands of Derek Yu and a handful of other very good indie devs, a collection of 50 dang games that's been in development for quite a while now.

Animal Well: A really stylish pixel metroidvania that I'm very interested in.

Hades II: I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is actually going to hit in 2024 (unless it's confirmed for 2023, I didn't pay attention) but I really enjoyed the first, Supergiant really never misses imho.

Skate Story: I'm not super big on skating games but I absolutely can't get over how good the aesthetic of this game is, it's, as the kids might put it, "a vibe".

Remnant II: The first Remnant wasn't really anything too special, but it was a fun low double digit hour multiplayer romp that I'd happily do again with some improvements, which is what I'm hoping this ends up being. It looks promising.

Enchain: ANOTHER Next Fest demo entry, this FPS has some of the most satisfying movement I've ever played around with in recent memory, with so much cool tech innately available to you that only gets revealed every few minutes, it's ripe for sequence breaking and speedruns. Absolutely keeping an eye out on this, even though I expect it to be done after 2023.

Lone Ruin: This will likely be one of the first games I'll get to in 2023, Next Fest really introduced me to a ton if interesting games, and this one is no exception. Isometric action roguelike twin stick shooter sorta thing with a cool look and a wave mode to boot, it's addicting, I know I'm going to like this.

Lies of P: Just a truly bizarre souls inspired game that, despite my skepticism, I can't help but be intrigued. The concept is goofy as hell, but I just have to know if it's good or not.

Replaced: I'll be honest I don't know enough about this game to be sure I'll be into it, but the Game Awards trailer caught my eye.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: Look, as little as I care about Star Wars as a whole, I really enjoyed the first game, so I'm 100% on board for this sequel.

Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon: I hate to admit it, but I'm a bit of an Armored Core fan poser; I haven't really played any other Armored Core outside of dabbling in what I retroactively recognize as Armored Core at a friend's house ages ago, it's that kind of game for me. Still, I've loved everything Fromsoft has put out lately, I'm a budding mecha fan getting into all sorts of mecha media lately, it's time I really sink my teeth into one of these; honestly, I might play some of the older games before this releases to get a taste.

Earthblade: This is supposedly coming out in 2024, and it doesn't seem like a really intense platformer along the lines of Celeste, but I like the dev, I'm curious. I'm sure it will be interesting.

The Lords of the Fallen: Lords of the Fallen (2014) was one of the most mid games I've ever played, a fairly repetitive slog that I, for some reason, felt compelled to 100%. This is apparently under a new director/team (??) so this confusingly named reboot is something I'm cautiously optimistic about.

Final Fantasy XVI: I'm not really a big Final Fantasy fan, my experience is in the first two games. That said, the action of this game looks cracked, I can't deny. I'm interested. I know the writing for the series lately has been compelling, and the combat designer for this game worked on Dragon's Dogma and Devil May Cry V, so I can only assume this one is going to be nuts.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn: From the developers of Ashen (which was very souls inspired), this one looks like it's got more of its own identity which is cool. I also think it follows that game's lore?? Who knows, we'll find out.

Games from 2022 and earlier that I need to get to:

Norco: I just didn't have time to get around to it, narrative type games tend to get put on the back burner for me.

Citizen Sleeper: See above, same reasons.

Disco Elysium: See above, except longer standing.

Kentucky Route Zero: See above, and begin laughing.

Outer Wilds: See above, except with the context that I played an hour and just sort of forgot. I'm sure it's good, and I know it's short-ish, but here's my sort of hot take: the [spoiler, gimmick] is something I always thing is COOL in games but is never something I actually LIKE that much in games. I always feel like I'll find one that really clicks, but something about it sort of short circuits my brain and willpower.

Thymesia: A souls-y game that just sort of went under my radar and I couldn't afford and didn't have the time for

Hyper Demon: Partially due to lack of money and partially due to not being done with Devil Daggers quite yet

Signalis: I have no excuse - well yes, money. But aside from that, I know I should play it.

NieR Replicant: I just forgot! I own it, I just.. didn't have time!

[cumberworld44]

When are you drawing more A Monster in Paris?

Rn, if ya' want!

Did you see the trailer for "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile"? The mom says "He could kill you!" and the kid responds "But he wears a scarf and sings!" lol, it's gonna be "A Monster in New York".

Haven't been posting much art tho because of the comic I've been working on "Lamphead Meatmop" if you were curious. It's taking me WAY longer than I thought it would and there are SO many more pages than I had anticipated. Here if you wanted a peek >>>> 😘

Recently saw "Kingdom of Heaven" and Baldwin the Badass was in it so I'm playing Darkest Dungeons again and I'll be posting a Darkest Dungeon/Pokemon crossover in a hot minute.

If y'all want to request something of me, I'll certainly do my damnedest. Unless there's like a lot, ya' know.

[archibaldtuttle]

Other than Disco Eslysium, what games do you enjoy?

For multiplayer games, I usually go for MTG Arena, LoL and Stardew Valley depending on the friends I'm playing with.

For solo games, I play a lot of roguelikes, my favourites being Binding of Isaac, Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons, Hades, Cultist Simulator, Sunless Sea, FTL, Darkest Dungeon, Dead Cells...

Some of my favorites outside of roguelikes are KOTOR 1 & 2, Morrowind, the Sims, Baba is You, Cook Serve Delicious, Return of the Orba Dinn, Spiritfarer, Dragon Age 1 & 3, Civ 5 & 6, Street Fighter 4, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines and Fallout New Vegas.

Recently I've been getting into Shadow of Mordor (about 8 years late but hey it was on sale), Wingspan (a nice bird themed board game) and Song of Conquest (a Heroes of Might and Magic-like that is really really good but I'm bad at it)