#if they end campaign in a apocalypse setting then its their decision

[edgyeli]

The way people react to Campaign 3, hating on it, saying they all stopped watching because the story sucks makes me think, how much of the hate is because people put Matt on pedestal of ttrpg storytelling aspect, but it is still in the end dnd game where there's too many obstacles sometimes to put together a book worthy storyline, because you can't control the narrative fully and people are suddenly acting like it ruined everything because the story is "bad"

And I still think the bad aspect is subjective.

In the end it's a group of friends that are having fun playing dnd, and people are throwing shit like "oh they don't even have fun" and "matt must be disappointed with last episode" like

That's just you fully projecting on them babe. No one knows how they feel about this campaign, but there's multiple episodes of 4-sided dive where they literally say that they're enjoying themselves, and the conflict between the characters, and the mystery.

Like, it's okay if you're not enjoying it. But saying that it means the whole campaign is trash is so weird.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

The Vaxleth Album Part 1 -- Feat Keyleth

I thought this would be a cool thing to do and a good outlet for sharing my favorite music with others. With the end of TLOVM season 2, I am inspired to not just create playlists for my favorite ships but to essentially create an album that dictates the relationship of these ships.

Of course I'm going to start with Vaxleth, they were my first love starting in TLOVM season 1 which lead me to watching the Critical Role campaign. (warning to the TLOVM-Only folks, the below may give away certain aspects of the future of Vaxleth so read and listen at your own risk).

For this one, its more of an album of songs from the perspective of Keyleth as she's grown throughout the time she started her Aramente and having been part of Vox Machina and Vax's life and what comes after when he's so terribly ripped out of her life. I plan to also make one for Vax and possibly if this is received well, go onto all of the other ships in the show/CR campaign.

Who You Are by Lunatica -- This one I chose because I feel like it exemplifies Keyleth's mindset and of where she was at when she first started off on her Aramente. All of the hopes of her people were put squarely on her shoulders, everyone expects her to do great things and she's crumbling under that pressure and that persona that her people hope for her to become is crippling her and she's losing her sense of herself from that persona that both she and her people want from her.

The Grey by Icon for Hire -- sort of continuing on with the idea that Keyleth is suffering through her own identity and the identity she feels she needs to be for her people. After journeying from her home she finds that she might be losing who she once was and wants to go home to that place in her head of who she used to be but she's so far lost in her head of her duty and what she means to her people that she can't find her way back to who she was. But she's also not this other persona, the person the people and her father want her to be. She's just meandering trying to find something, caught in between who she can't be anymore and who she feels she needs to be but she doesn't know how to get back to the old her or how to move forward to get to the Her she needs to become, she's caught in The Grey.

Sirens by Cher Lloyd -- I thought of this song as a way of even though Keyleth is drowning under all of this pressure, she's kind of starting to find her footing, she's not there yet but if she only wades and keeps herself in the shallow water, maybe her and this seemingly unachievable persona can find their way to each other.

Let It Fall by Emmelie de Forest -- Keyleth has been on her journey for some time, worked a few jobs with Vox Machina and at this point, she's finding that even though she had set expectations for herself and how she felt she needed to complete her Aramente, maybe there are different paths to completing it. Maybe she needs to smash her crystal ball that holds these expectations of what she thought her Aramente was about and to follow this new path...with Vox Machina.

Sinners by Lauren Aquilina -- this is carrying onto Keyleth's shattered expectations of what she needs to do and coming to terms that even though she feels she needs to make the right decisions sometimes, maybe making the wrong decisions leads her to the same thing anyway.

Misfit by High Dive Heart -- I just think this is a fun song for Vox Machina in general but can also apply to just Keyleth in coming to terms of maybe the real her and who she strives to needs be is a Misfit.

Hollywood Ending from Anna and the Apocalypse -- again, another song that is just fun but I feel it has certain aspects that apply to Vax and Keyleth in the beginning of their relationship turmoil before their relationship began. Vax wants this thing with Keyleth but Keyleth can only allow herself to think about her Aramente and what she needs to be ultimately for her people. And meanwhile in the background you have people around them watching this turmoil and responding with openheartedness about the nature of love which these two just can't bring themselves to.

So In Love With Two by Mikaila -- just a fun song I thought I'd slip in for the short-lived love triangle with Vax/Keyleth/Kash. Absolutely should not be taken seriously.

Search Inside from Monster High -- I felt like this is a nice song for Keyleth to come to terms of she can complete her Aramente and be who her people need but also finding herself and coming to accept her own feelings for Vax.

Come Closer by Delain -- this I felt really only pertains to the state of Vaxleth in TLOVM season 2. Where Keyleth feels like she's losing Vax and she just wants to hold onto him as tight as she can but also feels like she can't stop him from slipping out of her grasp.

I'm Glad You're Evil Too by Rachie and PalmMute -- I feel like this is a fun song to document the coming together of Vaxleth. Its quirky and weird like them. And also a good way to highlight that they're not perfect people and that they accept these flaws in each other.

The Last Time by Hudson Henry and Lisa Cimorelli -- for me this is like the ultimate love song for Vaxleth. Keyleth coming to terms of the true depth of her feelings for Vax and why she's fallen for him.

Hoodie by Hey Violet -- now we're into the Vaxleth territory where Keyleth has lost Vax to the Raven Queen. This song documents that feeling of loss and just needing to feel like Vax is still with her somehow.

I Want You Here by Plumb -- another song that just delves deeply into Keyleth's feelings of loss for losing Vax.

I Am Only One by We Are The Fallen -- this I feel like speaks for Keyleth years after her loss, successfully leading her people, finding herself in countless wars, and wishing for the life she once I had where everything was much more simple.

At War by Letters From The Fire -- again continuing on with this idea of continuing to lead her people throughout they years and just feeling this overwhelming sense of loss for what has long died, her beloved Vax, the loss of Vox Machina. Keyleth is just suffering through this depression of living for so long and having lost nearly everything that once meant so much to her and wondering when she'll find the peace she wants, but knows she can't, she has to keep fighting for her people.

War by Poets of the Fall -- as Keyleth continues her fight, she sees a raven fly by and realizes ultimately however long her destiny calls for her to fight, the ones she loves may be gone but are by her side forevermore through every fight she must fight, just as Grog learned his lesson about friends, so to has Keyleth, her friends are her power and even if they're gone, they will always be with her, fighting with her at her side.

And here lies my Vaxleth Album feat Keyleth.

I hope you all enjoyed this. This turned a little bit more into less of Vaxleth and more of a character study of Keyleth. But that's the nature of shipping, I suppose. We feel drawn to characters and their relationships because we have an understanding of who these people are. So I can't describe a ship without first studying who the members of the ship are first and foremost.

[sheepalmighty]

It turns out I have a bunch of stuff to say on the whole Pixy being called Cinderella by Bristow (Wizard 1) thing. Even though it's been pointed out now and then, and I think its inclusion is something the player would intuitively get and understand in the context of the story and characters, I'd still like to put my reading on this line out there. I’m also hoping this post with help iron out the details for myself.

Firstly, I just want to say I think Wizard 1 respects Pixy and sees him as an important ally and does not need to manipulate him (like it seems his grandiose speech to his group has him otherwise portrayed) - this latter point I'll elaborate on later. I get this take from their conversation in the operation after Excalibur wherein he acknowledges that Pixy's prediction on how the conflict will pan out is accurate. He then prompts Pixy to ditch his 'dead end job' but Pixy declines. It's this conversation that Wizard 1 is calling back to when he calls Pixy Cinderella.

Here he's implying that the clock's struck midnight and the magic has faded. The magic in this case being the illusion that Pixy and his allies are essentially heroes. As such, the illusion is not only that Pixy is playing as someone he is not, which is obvious enough from him always having had ties to AWWNB, it also encompasses Cipher. The prince who had enchanted him is actually the same as everyone else - another soldier led into fighting a pointlessly bloody war. Or perhaps, in firing that missile, he also finally sees Cipher as the Demon Lord, the biggest threat in this conflict, in that moment (I'm also partial to him testing his own resolve). From all of this it can also be said that Wizard 1 is ultimately condemning all of the allies' actions throughout their involvement.

The illusion’s path can be traced back to its origins by looking at Pixy's disposition from around the liberation of Directus until the assault on Excalibur. During the liberation and after hearing the cheering from the civilians his overall tone changes from that of a pragmatic and jaded merc to a 'not bad for a bunch of misfits' positivity after Excalibur. This is the mindset Pixy is in when he tells Wizard 1 that he doesn't want to quit just yet.

During the "pulling" of Excalibur Pixy says to Cipher that Cipher's 'got everyone believing in miracles', but he may have also been swept up in this belief too. This is reminiscent of the previous couple entries that emphasised the lone fighter / squadron inspiring others to believe they can turn the tides of battle, maybe even inspiring the player in the same fashion as those entries (5 is more complicated but the heroism is almost always present). But, in this game, that notion is soon subverted in the double gut punch of The Inferno and The Stage of Apocalypse, and so are any of Pixy's hopes in any other solution and any belief (like Cipher possibly gave him) in being a positive force in this campaign. It hammers in what Pixy already knew but got carried away from.

And so, when Wizard 1 conversed with Pixy the first time he shows that he can't see any good in this conflict (a 'dead end job') but doesn't push back on Pixy declining. Perhaps retrospectively he puts himself in the role of fairy godmother by letting Pixy continue to believe in a positive outcome for this war, to wear the clothes of a hero for a while longer. He makes this decision apparent to us through the Cinderella-fairy godmother back and forth between them the next time they meet. It's coming from the place of a comrade reminding their ally of the ideology they banded together for though, just with some snark.

Finally, with the imagery of a clock striking midnight the concept of the eleventh hour, the time just before the point of no return, is evoked. After Hoffnung has been abandoned and the apocalypse happens it has hit midnight, the magic spell is lifted, and nothing can be changed. The path is set and Pixy has found his reason to fight. So, the way I see it, with a single line the Cinderella association pulls a lot of purposefully written theming, characterisation, and commentary together in an effective manner. It helps carry weighty implications in an already overwhelming and powerful moment of the game and, as has been hopefully shown above, provides some extra understanding of the commentary being made by this game through some introspection of prior events by the player.

A couple asides: Bristow's into literature so that provides a little more context to the whole Cinderella usage, though it's only in auxiliary text I think. If looking at it from a writer’s perspective maybe one reason Cinderella was chosen was for the imagery of Pixy running away after he sheds any pretense of being just another passive soldier. And, related to Pixy's Morgan le Fay parallel, Bristow's callsign may be Lucan (servant to King Arthur) but, after an admittedly short read on Arthurian legends, he can also be seen as Merlin who respected Morgan le Fay and taught her magic, and later conspired against Arthur with her.

[rpgsandbox]

Forge your legacy in the award-winning setting of the Iron Kingdoms with the celebrated 5th edition roleplaying game rules.

                                        (Delivering September 2021)

Embark upon a journey of adventure and intrigue in a world where steam power and gunpowder meet sword and sorcery. Armed with mechanika and accompanied by mighty steamjacks, explore the soot-covered cities of the Iron Kingdoms and the aftermath of the otherworldly invasion of the infernals.

Take on the persona of unique character classes, like the gun mage, who combines powerful magic with a deadly acumen for firearms, or the steamjack-commanding warcaster, who can command 10-ton autonomous machines of war with just a thought. Explore a fantastic world rebuilding itself after an apocalypse as it marches onward with its industrial revolution.

The Iron Kingdoms possess a rich history—and a tumultuous future—full of unique monsters, deities, heroes, and villains.

More than a thousand years ago, the land that is now called the Iron Kingdoms was western Immoren, a mire of warring human city-states. Then came the Orgoth, conquest-driven imperialists from beyond the sea who laid low the cities of man with forbidden magic and changed the face of western Immoren forever. The Orgoth Empire occupied the land for six hundred years before the people of Immoren banded together to defeat the invaders and drive them back across the sea from whence they came. While the rebel armies kept the peace, their leaders convened in a city called Corvis. This Council of Ten drafted the Corvis Treaties after weeks of furious debate, and the Iron Kingdoms were born.

Strictly speaking, the term “Iron Kingdoms” refers to the lands of humanity, those five kingdoms that signed the Corvis Treaties: Cygnar, Khador, Llael, Ord, and the Protectorate of Menoth. Other nations of western Immoren are commonly included in that description, although they took no part in the treaties. In the frigid north is the dwarven kingdom of Rhul. To the northeast lies the mysterious homeland of the elves, Ios. The last kingdom informally included when speaking of the “Iron Kingdoms” is the hostile island nation of Cryx, ruled over by Lord Toruk, the Dragonfather. All these nations—and many more—share the continent of Immoren.

The Orgoth were driven from western Immoren more than four hundred years ago, but the decisions made during the rebellion still echo through the world. There are many strange legends from the last days of that war—tales of dark, mysterious allies who helped drive off the invaders. Some say it would have been impossible to defeat the Orgoth without this help, that the rebel leaders had to make dangerous deals with infernal powers. These tales have proven true, and the Iron Kingdoms have recently been irrevocably changed by the Claiming, an attempt by these infernal creatures to take the payment they have long been owed—an unfathomable number of souls.

Full. Metal. Fantasy.

Delve into the award-winning world of the Iron Kingdoms with the latest edition of the Iron Kingdoms Role Playing Game from Privateer Press. Iron Kingdoms: Requiem combines this fantastic setting with the newest edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game.

Inside this book you’ll find the history of the Iron Kingdoms and information describing the current state of the world following the Claiming. Alongside these chapters is an extensive gazetteer providing detailed information on the most notable of the world’s unique and fascinating locations.

When making a character, you’ll be able to choose from many of the familiar countries and cultures of the setting. Whether you want to be a human, gobber, trollkin, Rhulic dwarf, ogrun, Iosan, or Nyss elf, this book provides all the rules that make these different peoples unique. When choosing a class, there are options for many you’re already familiar with, from the stalwart man-at-arms fighter to the free-flowing monk of the Order of the Fist. Beyond these are brand new rules for playing the characters that make the Iron Kingdoms such a memorable setting. These new classes include, among others, gun mages, arcane mechanics, combat alchemists, and warcasters.

Alongside these options are new feats, spells, and backgrounds to make your characters feel even more a part of the world of the Iron Kingdoms.

Finally, within the pages of Iron Kingdoms: Requiem are extensive rules for the arcane technologies of the setting. These rules cover subjects from firearms and mechanika, like the galvanic arms and armor of the storm knight, to the mighty warjacks that accompany warcasters into battle.

"Before the Iron Kingdoms became a land dominated by industry and machines, it was the monsters that defined it."

— Professor Viktor Pendrake, author of the Monsternomicon

In the Iron Kingdoms peril lurks at every turn, as fearsome and terrifying creatures both great and small look to turn unwary adventurers into their next meal or enslave them beyond death. From ferocious packs of ravenous burrow-mawgs to deadly ethereal pistol wraiths that haunt the back roads and forgotten cemeteries, and the fiendish Infernals that still stalk the shadows, the Monsternomicon is filled with creatures both mundane and supernatural to challenge even the most experienced adventuring parties.

This legendary tome includes over 80 monsters, new and old, steeped in over 20 years of worldbuilding, now appearing for the first time with 5th Edition rules.

          Click to go to the Update featuring these two preview pages.

Discover the origins of the legend that started it all...

Twenty-one years ago, the Iron Kingdoms was introduced through an acclaimed series of adventures known as The Witchfire Trilogy. Now, the legend continues in the newest edition of the Iron Kingdoms RPG, written for 5e.

A girl, a sword, and a secret...

As a child, she lost everything when her mother was wrongfully executed for witchcraft and her soul was consumed by the most ancient of all weapons, the black blade known as the Witchfire. Hellbent to spare her mother an eternity of torture, Alexia Ciannor stole the accursed sword and set out to unlock its dark secrets. With the voices of the Witchfire's imprisoned souls raging in her mind, Alexia would eventually unlock the power of the Infernal artifact and command an army of undead to vanquish the villains seeking to use the sword to once again subjugate the Iron Kingdoms.

Nearly two decades later, the veteran of countless wars, Alexia returns to Corvis, the City of Ghosts, in search of help from the malignant forces that seek the return of the coveted sword. The Witchfire's true purpose is finally revealed, and only the courage and sacrifice of a small group of unlikely heroes can save Alexia from the brink of madness and prevent the infernal weapon from fulfilling its apocalyptic legacy.

The Legend of the Witchfire adventure will take players from level 1 to level 4, and is the perfect introduction to the action-packed and intrigue-filled world of the Iron Kingdoms!

==============================================

Kickstarter campaign ends: Fri, February 12 2021 7:59 AM UTC +00:00

Website: [Privateer Press] [facebook] [twitter] [instagram]

[problematicwelshman]

Michael Sheen on Good Omens, sex scenes, and why Brexit led to his break-up

28 NOVEMBER 2018 • 4:18PM

Michael Sheen may be 49, and sporting a grey beard these days, but mention Martians and the actor reverts to a breathless, giddy teenager.

It all stems back to one evening when Sheen was about 12 years old. “It was a significant moment in my life,” he tells me over coffee in a London hotel. “My cousin Hugh was babysitting, and he put on Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds.

“I remember us lying there, listening in bed in the dark. It absolutely terrified me, but I got obsessed with it. I’m worryingly into it. I know every single note, every word.”

Wayne’s 1978 rock opera has had a similar effect on countless fans, even if it prompts a bemused shrug from non-converts. Without ever topping the charts, it has slowly become one of the best-selling British albums of all time, and this Friday begins a stadium tour featuring a 35-foot fire-breathing Martian and a 3D hologram of Liam Neeson. It’s a geeky novelty, but one of epic proportions.

When Wayne asked Sheen if he would star in a new radio drama-style version for the album’s 40th anniversary, alongside Taron Egerton and Ade Edmondson, the Welsh actor “bit his hand off”. It had always been his dream. For decades, whether doing serious political dramas such as Frost/Nixon or the great roles of classical theatre – Hamlet, Henry V – the one part Sheen really wanted involved Martians saying “ulla-ulla”.

“When I was doing Caligula at the Donmar [in 2003], I was filming The Deal during the day – which was the first time I’d played Tony Blair,” he says. “I’d be so tired, to wake myself up [before the play] I would do whole sections of War of the Worlds.” He can even beatbox the sound effects, he adds proudly. “The other guys in the dressing room would all be really pissed off with me - but I was playing Caligula, so they had to put up with it.”

Enthusing about an outtake on a collectors version of the album where you can hear Richard Burton coughing, Sheen briefly slips into an impression of the late actor. It’s eerily spot-on. Burton played the role he takes in the new version, which feels apt; growing up in Port Talbot, Sheen was aware of following in his footsteps.

“Coming from the same town as him really helped,” he says. “It’s place you wouldn’t necessarily think would be very sympathetic to acting – it’s an old steel town, very working class, quite a macho place – but because of Richard Burton, and then Anthony Hopkins, there’s the sense that it’s possible [to be an actor], and people have a respect for it.

“Ultimately, though, we’re very different actors - Burton was very much a charismatic leading man, and I’m probably more of a character actor. He wasn’t known for his versatility.” Sheen, by contrast, is a chameleon, as he proved with a remarkable run of biopics from 2006-9, playing Tony Blair, David Frost, Brian Clough, Kenneth Williams and the Roman emperor Nero on screen in the space of just four years.

He concedes that he may have made a “partly conscious” decision to avoid biopics since then. “I’ve been offered quite a few I didn’t do. I did feel, for a bit, it was probably good for me to move away from it – certainly from playing Blair at least, because that’s the one I became synonymous with. I’d quite happily play real people again, but it’s hard to find good scripts and it takes a lot of homework. With some parts I’ve been offered, you might only have a few weeks to prepare for it - and you can’t do that with Clough or Kenneth Williams.”

Despite his best intentions, Sheen is playing another Blair in his next film – The Voyage of Doctor Doolittle, where he’s the nemesis of Robert Downey Jr’s animal-loving hero. “I don’t know if they did that as a joke or not,” he says. “He’s Blair Müdfly – there’s an umlaut that he is very specific about. He was at college with Doolittle, and hates him, and becomes the antagonist because of his jealousy of Doolittle. Müdfly is employed to try and stop him from finding... what he wants to find.” As the film isn’t out for 13 months, Sheen is tight-lipped about further plot details – but he hints that Müdfly is “a villain in the tradition of Terry-Thomas villains.”

It’s the latest in a series of quirky, eyebrow-raising roles. After playing a vampire in the Twilight films and a werewolf in the Underworld franchise, Sheen says he would often be asked in interviews why a “serious classical actor” was wasting his time on fantasy films.

“There’s a lot of snobbishness about genre,” he says. “I think some of the greatest writing of the 20th and 21st centuries has happened in science fiction and fantasy.” While promoting the films, he would back up that point by citing his favourite authors – Stephen King, Philip K Dick, Neil Gaiman. “Time went on, and then one day my doorbell rang and there was a big box being delivered. I opened the box up and there was a card from Neil saying ‘From one fan to another’, and all these first editions of his books.”

It was the beginning an enduring friendship, which recently became a professional partnership: Sheen stars in Gaiman’s forthcoming TV series Good Omens, based on a 1990 novel he wrote with the late Terry Pratchett. Set in the days before a biblical apocalypse, its sprawling list of characters includes an angel called Aziraphale (Sheen) and a demon called Crowley (David Tennant) who have known each other since the days of Adam and Eve.

“I wanted to play Aziraphel being sort of in love with Crowley,” says Sheen. “They’re both very bonded and connected anyway, because of the two of them having this relationship through history - but also because angels are beings of love, so it’s inevitable that he would love Crowley. It helped that loving David is very easy to do.”

What kind of love - platonic, romantic, erotic? “Oh, those are human, mortal labels!” Sheen laughs. “But that was what I thought would be interesting to play with. There’s a lot of fan fiction where Aziraphale and Crowley get a bit hot and heavy towards each other, so it’ll be interesting to see how an audience reacts to what we’ve done in bringing that to the screen.”

Steamy fan fiction aside, it’s unlikely Good Omens will match the raunch levels of his last major TV series, Masters of Sex (2013-16), a drama about the pioneering sexologists Masters and Johnson. In the wake of the last year’s #MeToo revelations, HBO has introduced “intimacy co-ordinators” for its shows - but, Sheen tells me, Masters of Sex was ahead of the curve in handling sex scenes with caution.

“It was a lot easier for myself and Lizzy [Caplan, his co-star], as we were comfortable in that set-up, because we had status in it. But for people in the background, or doing just one scene, it’s different,” he says. “It became clear very quickly that there needed to be guidelines for people who didn’t have that kind of status, who would probably not speak up. We started talking about that, and decided there need to be clear rules.”

Sex scenes, he continues, “should absolutely be treated the same way as other things where there’s a danger. If you’re doing stage-fighting, or pyrotechnics, there are rules and everyone just sticks to them. Whether it’s physical danger, or emotional, or psychological, it’s just as important.”

Despite having several film and TV parts on the horizon, Sheen says he is still in semi-retirement from acting. In 2016 he hinted that he might be quit for good to campaign against populism. “In the same way as the Nazis had to be stopped in Germany in the Thirties, this thing that is on the rise has to be stopped," he said at the time. But now things are less cut. “I have two jobs now, essentially,” he says. "Acting takes second place."

While many celebrity activists limit their politics to save-the-dolphins posturing, Sheen has been working with a range of unfashionable grassroots groups aiming to combat inequality, support small communities and fight fake news. As well as supporting Welsh credit unions, and sponsoring a women’s football team in the tiny village of Goytre, he tells me that he's been “commissioning research into alternative funding models for local journalism”.

If he returns to the stage any time soon, he says it’s likely to be in a show about “political historical socio-economic stuff, a one-man show with very low production values”. It’s clear he’s not in it for the glamour.

Sheen was inspired to become more politically active by the Brexit referendum – which also indirectly led him to break up with his partner of four years, the comedian Sarah Silverman. At the time, they were living together in the US. “We both had very similar drives, and yet to act on those drives pulled us in different directions – because she is American and I’m Welsh,” he explains.

“After the Brexit vote, and the election where Trump became president, we both felt in different ways we wanted to get more involved. That led to her doing her show I Love You America [in which Silverman interviewed people from across the political spectrum], and it led to me wanting to address the issues that I thought led some people to vote the way they did about Brexit, in the area I come from and others like it.”

They still speak lovingly of each other, which makes their decision to end a happy relationship for the sake of politics look painfully quixotic. Talking about it, Sheen sounds a little wistful, but he’s utterly certain they made the right choice. “I felt a responsibility to do something, but it did mean coming back here – which was difficult for us, because we were very important to each other. But we both acknowledge that each of us had to do what we needed to do.”

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

Playlist: Charlotte Olivia Grace

Alternate Title: Dealing with Religious Trauma But Like in a Cute, Fun Way

Featuring: A director’s cut style breakdown of each song choice, and a bonus Campaign Song not found on the original playlist!

Not Gonna Take Me by BAILEN

You took my mother You took my father Oh, but you're not gonna take me!

This is SUCH a fun song and I feel like it sets the tone for the playlist so well! And, truth be told, it was the first song that I knew was going to make the final cut. The energy of the song is so lively and fun, and the chorus -especially the bit I quoted above!- is really just a Cog slam dunk. The toxic, insular culture that her parents had gotten wrapped up in is not going to take her too, and Cog is going to run as far and as fast as she can to make sure it never catches up with her. 

Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel

Well your mother told you all that I could give you was a reputation Aw she never cared for me But did she ever say a prayer for me?

HEY this is the Ace and Cog song. Thanks for the banger, Billy Joel. Like bro the whole song is about this guy rolling up and talking about whisking this girl who’s grown up wrapped up in religion away from it to a life that -not to brag- kicks serious ass. There’s more for you out in the world! It’s not a scary place, it’s exciting and full of life and people who are going to love you! Come on! Every time I listen to this song on Cog’s playlist, I picture Ace singing and doing a dumb little dance and voices along with it just to make Cog laugh because they’re SO cute. Also, coincidentally, Cog’s mom fucking Hated Ace. Presumably because he “stole and defiled” (her words!) her daughter. You hate to see it 😔 Also, every time I hear the line “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints” I picture Cog sitting around a fire with Ace and her party members absolutely breathless from laughing which is an incredibly healing mental image that I highly recommend. 

Haven by We Banjo 3

Let me be your haven Let me be your light Sail with me across the ocean deep And find a place for love and joy

One of my dnd characters? Wanting to be a source of light and peace for the people around them, wanting to come up alongside them and bear their burdens with them? It’s SO likely, and it’s true. I think in my head this was originally another Cog and Ace song, where she wanted to repay all the ways he’d helped her by reaching out and trying to offer him a sense of peace in the midsts of everything he has to deal with, but the longer she’s spent with her party the more I think it’s come to apply to them as well. Yes, sometimes you have to fight. Sometimes, you have to make hard, painful decisions. But there’s light and love and joy to be found in the world! And if you can’t find them, it’s worth it to be the source of those things for the people around you! I think Cog would love nothing more than to take all of her friends troubles away from them to just give them a chance to breathe, and this song speaks to that so genuinely.

Hover by Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The roof peels away And she's left uncovered Then feet leave the ground And she hovers, she hovers, hovers, hovers...

A song about discovering our self-worth, perhaps? About realizing you’re more powerful than the people around you want you to think you are, and then taking a deep breath and deciding to use that power for yourself? That’s self care, baby! This is very much the “I’m looking around, I’m realizing Home isn’t home for me anymore because it isn’t safe, and I’m starting to think that maybe it’s time for me to go” song. You know, that hyper-specific song that every playlist has. Also, it’s just such a pretty song! And right in my range, which doesn’t hurt its odds of making it onto a playlist. 

Cloud’s Song by Brent Walsh

Hey, God, are You listening? Sometimes it feels like I'm not hearing anything back Why does that scare me so much? Hey, God, are You listening?

Y’all ever uh. Y’all ever grow up deeply rooted in your family’s church of choice, only to have a crisis of faith later in life when you’re old enough to think for yourself because you don’t feel the connection to your god that everyone is telling you that you should? No? Just me and Cog? Okay! Cog doesn’t believe in the Old Gods. Mystra is dead, same as all the other gods, killed by whatever force caused the apocalypse and turned the Wasteland into what it is today. Anyone who says otherwise is looking for a way to manipulate people. ...but it’s one thing to say that and convince yourself that it’s true, and another entirely to unravel 18+ years of being told otherwise and come to terms with what a world truly without gods means for you and the people around you. And what if the gods are real, what if Mystra is alive, and she just didn’t care for Cog? If Cog is just fine not hearing from her either way, what should it matter if she’s real or not? Except it does matter, somehow, and Cog doesn’t know what to do with that. Oof.

The Gardener by Sarah Sparks

God the gardener when the autumn comes I will not seasons fear With the pruning a branch is stronger, I will learn to love the shears

This song is about coming out on the far side of a situation she never should have had to be in, but realizing that she’s stronger because of it. Is it still unfair that she had to grow up in such an unhealthy environment, burdened by expectations she was never going to be able to live up to? No, of course not. There’s no outcome that makes it worth it for her to have suffered through that. But because she survived it, she is infinitely more compassionate, more patient, and more intentional than she likely would have been otherwise. It’s not easy to come to terms with trauma like that, and I definitely don’t think Cog is as close to finding closure as she would like people to think she is. But she’s getting there, and I think this sort of perspective has done a lot to help her on that path.

Shake it Out by Doll Skin

'Cause I am done with my graceless heart So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart 'Cause I like to keep my issues strong It's always darkest before the dawn

So technically this is a cover, but honestly I love the energy on it so much more than the original. It’s about moving on from a past that’s clinging onto you and weighing you down by shaking off that guilt and turning to face a new day. Also, it’s just a fucking banger. It’s unapologetic about shrugging off weight you’re not obligated to carry, and while I don’t think Cog is quite to that point in her journey yet, I hope that by the end of the campaign she will be. Right now she still has a lot of guilt for the way she left her home, even though she knew she needed to go for her own good, but this song is for a Cog who -a few years down the line- has made peace with her decisions and understands that she deserves the same kindness from herself that she gives to everyone else.

Echo by Talisk

This song is an instrumental, but it goes So hard and is so representative of the arc I see for Cog in this game that it honestly makes me emotional every time I hear it. The beginning is quiet and a little slower, then about 30 seconds in the violin comes in and starts ramping things up as Cog begins to look around and realize the life she has been living isn’t the one she wants to continue. At around 1:30 the melody gets more complex and other instruments layer in as she sets out into the world and starts meeting the people she now considers her closest friends, and it continues to build and build and build with this anxious but excited energy of fingers flying across strings, barely keeping up with themselves with how eager they are to get the music to the world. The final variation on the melody from about 4:19 to the end of the song makes me picture Cog just spinning, arms wide, eyes closed with the sun on her face and the world’s biggest smile, and it just fills my heart with so much joy! 

Gold by Rabbit Wilde

All my friends are calling me Wild, like the wind I'm drifting from all I've known And packing up and trying all my best At staying gold

This song is so cute and fun, and high energy in the Exact way I was looking to cultivate for this playlist. This song is about the way Cog has grown and become more self-assured since leaving home and joining her party! Going from being tired and silenced, to having a fire burning from within her! She’s making new friends, she’s wandering and exploring the world, and she’s taking control of her life in a way that’s left her overall a happier and healthier person. And again, at risk of sounding repetitive, it’s just a bop. And bops always make it onto this playlist! 

Hieroglyphics by The Oh Hellos

'Cause you've been too busy thinking ahead Of where we're all going after we're dead To maybe consider our bodies are worth More than the dust that we can return

I am literally Obsessed with this song as a Cog song (and also, as a result of my playlist building, with The Oh Hellos in general). The whole energy of the song is looking at people who view religion as this old, tradition heavy thing its followers are obligated to bear forward and just asking... why? The lyrics I highlighted above are the ones that really sold this song as a Cog song for me, but there’s another line in the second verse with absolutely beautiful imagery about nebulas being beautiful, sacred bodies of dust that goes on to pose the questions; why can’t the same be said for humanity? Is being human completely divorced from being divine? Is there not inherent divinity in being a living, breathing creature with independent thought? For Cog, this is what faith should be. It should be about reveling in being alive and in the beauty of the world you get to live in. If there are gods, she can’t imagine them wanting anything different for the beings they created.

Bonus Track!  Tough Kids by Coyote Kid

I don't trust anyone more than I trust me and mine It's a dog eat dog world, but this pack runs till the end of the line

Campaign Song! Party song!! It’s just a banger!! If this campaign had a theme song, this would be it! I can fully picture the animated opening that would play before the start of the game, and it SLAPS. The first thirty seconds is this western style instrumental with the camera racing across the barren wasteland, with the first swell of the trumpet triggering the camera to pan up toward the sun setting on the horizon as the title card fades in. From there the camera takes off again and loops to each party member spread out across the Wasteland before they’re brought together. It swoops over the caravan Sunny and Wol are escorting, and they shield their eyes against the sun to look up at it as it passes. We see Nilos silhouetted against the outline of Scorch, steeling himself to enter the Bandit town with little more than the ratty suit on his back and the gun hefted over his shoulder. We see Maelo wandering out of his ramshackle house with his pack full and on his back, sparing one sad look at a swath of hazy green trees in the distance behind him before putting his back to it and setting out for the Crossroads. We see Cog! Bored to tears in a New Alexandrian classroom until she catches a glimpse of Ace beckoning to her from the doorway, and she grins and waits until her professor’s back is turned before grabbing her books and darting out of the room. We see Adiane in a dark alley somewhere, minding her business until she hears something that piques her interest! She looks up, rolls her shoulders, and we catch the flash of a dagger in one hand before she disappears into the night. And finally we see Clay, sitting against the back wall of what’s clearly a prison cell with his head resting on his knees, and we hear the rattle of a metal door being opened and Clay looks up as light from outside his cell falls on his face for the first time in god knows how long.  And then the chorus! We cut between various notable fights the party has been in to showcase their thematic skills! Sunny gives a mocking salute before hauling back to punch some bad guy in the face! Wol ducks an attack completely accidentally as he flips frantically through an enormous book, and when he looks up to cast his spell his eyes are a void dotted with silver stars. Nilos blasts some poor bastard point blank with a shotgun shot, then whirls around to slam the butt of the gun against someone else’s head! Cog’s casting gloves glow white hot as she flings a hand toward the sky to call for aid, and her robes whip around her as she sends a shockwave of magic out with herself at the epicenter! Maelo looks up, pulls a very obvious ‘oh shit!’ face, then taps the end of his staff against the ground and causes impossibly dense vegetation to grow instantaneously and send the people charging toward him toppling to the ground. Adiane whirls out from behind him as he finishes casting, tucks and rolls into a crouched shooting stance, then fires off three precise shots that drop three different targets. And Clay catches an attack on his shield, laughs and shouts something we can’t hear over the swell of the music, then summons his pact weapon mid-swing to catch his attacker unawares and send them toppling to the ground. And the second verse? OH boy. The cadence of the line “it’s a dog eat dog world” lends itself so naturally to having the antagonist of each arc surge up onto the screen one after the other, with a grinning Valentine bringing up the rear with his arms spread wide. And then! The bridge? We cut between the party’s npc friends living their lives and kicking ass. Ace and Sunny’s dads! Nathan and Sierra! King Alistair! Wol’s family! Penny and I’den! Also!! Not only can you physically not lose your shit listening to the repeated “we’re gonna make it or die trying” it’s also PRIME real estate for a flash montage of important moments of the campaign. Bombing the first bunker with a Meteor Storm scroll! Sunny putting her fist through the shadow demon in Lafaroh! Cog tackling Nilos to Dimension Door them into open air eight hundred feet off the ground! Watching the Bandits shoot down the Emperion airship over the Crossroads! Staring down the elf queen in her own courtroom and telling her she’s wrong! Finding the Godkiller! Sauntering into Scorch to clean up in the Murderbowl! God we do so much cool shit in this game!!  The final rendition of the chorus just shows the party working together as a team, having each other’s backs and covering weak spots without a second thought because they know how to work well together. The song fades out on an overhead shot of the party sprawled out around their campsite at the end of a long, exhausting day, eating and talking and laughing and just generally, blatantly, comfortable with one another. The camera swings up one final time to show the beautiful night sky overhead, with swaths of stars that wink out slowly one by one as the song comes to an end. 

[razieltwelve]

Briefing (Final Rose AU Snippet)

Note: This is set in the Tifa/Lightning/Fang/Summer AU.

X     X     X

“You know why you are here, right?”

Averia nodded at her mother. “It’s about Elsa, isn’t it?”

“Under normal circumstances, a princess would not be attending Beacon Senior Academy. If she wanted training, she would be receiving it personally from elite tutors while still residing in her home kingdom. Elsa, however, was adamant on receiving a proper education as a huntress, with all that implied.”

“Understood.” Despite being a single word, Averia’s approval was obvious. Elsa did not simply want to be coddled. She wanted to become a proper huntress, and that was worthy of praise in Averia’s eyes. Indeed, she expected nothing less from her friend. 

“Of course, she would never have been allowed to attend Beacon Senior Academy in the first place if we had not been willing to make certain… concessions.” Lightning sighed. “Given the prestige her attendance brings, to say nothing of the funding and naval assistance her kingdom has agreed to offer, we agreed to certain requests they made.”

“I assume that is at least partly why she is on my team.”

“Correct,” Lightning said. “We would most likely have placed her on your team regardless due to the personality and power fit, but her parents wanted a guarantee as well as assurance that you would personally see to her safety if necessary.”

“I see.”

“You and Elsa have continued to correspond since we last visited Arendelle. You are, quite possibly, her best friend. There is no one here at this academy that she would trust more than you. You will also be her team leader. I think it’s safe to say that if you give her an order, even one related to her personal safety as a princess, she will obey.”

“And having someone with Saviour in close proximity to their daughter would soothe her parents’ worries, correct?” Averia asked.

Lightning nodded. “Like it or not, our family is the most prominent family of huntresses in the world, and the Semblance we share is one of the most powerful in history, some would say the most powerful. Appearances and power matter. You are widely considered to be my ‘heir’ whatever that might mean, and your power is without question.” Lightning’s lips curved up into a small, proud smile. “I would bet on you to beat any student at Beacon Senior Academy even though you’re only just about to start your first year here. You have access to the second level of Saviour, and the third will not be far. If something wants to hurt Elsa, it will have to get through you, and there are very, very, very few things that can manage that, to say nothing of the support Elsa herself could provide in battle.”

“I would take care of her regardless of what her parents asked,” Averia pointed out. “She is my friend and my teammate. I refuse to let any of them come to unnecessary harm.” It went unspoken of course that trying to prevent them from ever getting injured would only hamper their growth, but Averia would not hesitate to step in if she thought they had bitten off more than they could chew.

“There was some concern they might ask your sister to help with this…”

“Ruby is fifteen,” Averia said bluntly. “I have every confidence in her abilities, but she’ll have enough on her plate leading her own team for the first time.” Like many of the advanced students at the Junior Academy, Averia had already led makeshift teams on missions. Ruby did not have the benefit of so much experience. Averia would not allow her younger sister to be overburdened due to the political machinations of others. “It wouldn’t be fair to ask her to do this. She also doesn’t know Elsa as well as I do.”

“Indeed.” Lightning nodded. “Those were my exact thoughts. Your sister is talented, but she is still very young. I would like to hold her back until she’s seventeen, but…”

“Your analysis concluded it was better to let her proceed.”

“Yes.” Lightning nodded. “It did. As for Anna, Elsa’s younger sister, she would also like to attend Beacon Senior Academy…”

“Diana, right?”

“Yes. She fits Diana’s team well, they get along, and Diana has more than enough power to ensure her safety. Anything that can get through Diana would have no trouble getting through any other team we put her on.”

“Politics is aggravating,” Averia remarked.

“Yes, it is, but it is part of the world we live in.”

“I assume Ruby will be getting Weiss Schnee then.”

Lightning nodded. “Correct. The Schnees are an extremely powerful and influential family, and Weiss has incredible potential. They all but demanded we put her on your team, but Ozpin put his foot down. He didn’t want to have two VIPs on the same team. When they found out, the Schnee pushed to have her on Ruby’s team. Refusing would have been seen as an incredible insult given our family’s prominence and Ruby’s status as a prodigy.”

“Then give her Yang as well,” Averia replied. “Weiss appears to be an ideal support type with some room to grow into a highly capable of melee type and a devastating ranged attacker. What they need is some who can draw enemy attention and keep it. Yang would be ideal, and she and Ruby already like and trust each other.” It went unspoken that Yang was one of the people that met Averia’s exacting standards when it came to her younger siblings. Yang could be trusted to protect Ruby if necessary and support her position as team leader. She would also tease Ruby mercilessly, but Ruby would survive. Probably.

“I’ve already put her on Ruby’s team,” Lightning said. “For those exact reasons.”

“Dare I ask who the fourth member will be?”

“Blake Belladonna.”

“Of Menagerie?” Averia raised one eyebrow. “Isn’t she a princess?”

“Technically, no. Her parents rule Menagerie, but they haven’t styled themselves as royalty. However, Blake is very, very good. After the… downfall of the White Fang, her parents took steps to develop their own, highly skilled armed forces whose loyalty and honour they could trust. Blake has been training with them for years. She is already at an advanced level in terms of her combat abilities, even for Beacon Senior Academy.”

Averia almost rolled her eyes at the mention of the ‘downfall’ of the White Fang. They’d had the audacity to bomb one of her Tifa Mom’s establishments went it was undergoing construction back when Averia had been only a few years old. Her parents had responded by attacking the White Fang directly. The campaign had been short, bloody, and decisive. Dropping Ragnarok through the roof of the White Fang’s last stronghold had brought an end to the White Fang and prompted Menagerie to develop its own, professional armed forces instead of relying on zealots and extremists.

“What do the simulations say?”

“Your Aunt Vanille and Diana have run the numbers. Blake is the best fit out of the remaining students. It was either going to be her or Jahne.”

“Give me Jahne,” Averia said. “Ruby’s too nice to deal with her all the time.”

Lightning laughed. “That’s probably true, and Elsa could use some practice dealing with someone like Jahne. At least she isn’t quite as bad as Jihl.”

Averia’s sighed. “Yes, there is that.” In all honesty, she liked Jahne, but then again, she also found all of Diana’s plotting and scheming adorable. There was probably something wrong with her, now that she thought about it. “Is there anything else I should know about?”

“Keep an eye on Team JNPR.”

“Oh?”

“It’s one of Ozpin’s projects,” Lightning said. “The leader, Jaune, is an interesting case.”

“And by interesting?”

“Frankly, he shouldn’t be here if we look solely at his grades and transcripts, most of which are fraudulent. However, Ozpin has pinpointed him as a person of great potential, and Yeul has peered into the future. She concurs it would be advantageous to allow him to remain. However, he may need assistance from time to time.”

Averia nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on it.”

“He has Pyrrha Nikos on his team, so he should survive without too much difficulty simply due to her prowess. She is not someone who would allow her teammates to come to harm. However, he will need help when it comes to leadership, strategy, and tactics. If he approaches you, at least hear him out.”

“Then I hope he is a hard worker,” Averia replied. “Because if I’m going to help him, I won’t do it in half measures.”

“I would expect nothing less.” Lightning glanced back at her notes. “One last thing…”

“Oh?”

“Try to keep your schedule flexible. Atlas has some… work they need done, and either you or I will likely be the ones to do it. Given my current schedule…”

“Of course,” Averia nodded. “Will I be working with one of their specialists then?”

“Your point of contact will likely be Winter Schnee.” Lightning smiled faintly. “Don’t worry. She’s one of James’s finest which means she may be a stickler for protocol, but she is also going to be highly competent.”

“I see.” Averia nodded again. “Then I suppose I should get going. Aunt Vanille and Diana are running another ‘killer robot apocalypse’ simulation, and they want me to examine the safety protocols they have to identify points of inefficiency.”

“You know, they could simply stop building killer robots if they want to avoid accidentally causing a killer robot apocalypse.”

“They could,” Averia replied. “But we both know they won’t.”

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

Behold the intrigue that goes on behind the scenes! As members of a super prominent family, Averia and Ruby are in high demand as team leaders. Of course, things can get complicated. Luckily, Lightning is up to the task of juggling everything, and there’s no one she trusts more out of her children than Averia to handle this side of things. After all, they’re both killer robots.

You can find me on fanfiction.net, AO3, and Amazon.

[fortunatelylori]

I've been thinking about alliances and what the map could look like with a Jon/ Sansa alliance. Between the two of them they have the map covered as far a who is potentially or who will be left once everything is settled, to rule one of the 7 Kingdoms except for Dorne. As far as we know Elia is still alive and imprisoned. She has a tenuous allegiance with Dany but that's it. Dany has done nothing to come to her aid. If Sansa is kidnapped there is a high probability they will connect. Thoughs?

*Sidenote The Dany/Elia alliance was also formed on hatred. If Dorne is still in play then there should be a stronger basis to make it long lasting. Sure Jon was born in Dorne but he’s a Northerner. He has no allegiance to them.

Hey, nonnie.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Yesterday, in the comments section of my D*ny/Cersei comparison post , @blurredblue mentioned that Cersei’s real weakness at this time is that she has no allies left in Westeros. And that got me thinking … That’s essentially D*ny’s problem as well. 

They sort of canceled each other out in season 7 on that front when Cersei took all of D*ny’s allies out of play, thus leaving her without legitimacy in terms of launching her campaign. D*ny returned the favor by burning the Tarlys alive, and leaving Cersei without her only true Westerosi ally. 

But the burning of the Tarlys was also D*ny shooting herself in the foot because, his crappy parental treatment of his eldest son aside, Randall Tarly was a well respected member of the Westerosi aristocracy with a great military record. Not only that but by burning them alive without a trial and the legitimacy of a crown, D*ny committed a war crime by the laws established in this universe. As we remember from Robb’s campaign, it’s actually not ok or acceptable to kill prisoners of war in Westeros. 

But D*ny’s biggest mistake to date is not that. The more I think of it the more I realize that in terms of strategy and diplomacy, her biggest mistake was her treatment of Jon Snow, aka The King in the North. Obviously all of this is predicated on the existence of political Jon in one form or another, which by and large has become, in my mind, the key GOT theory on which the entire Game of Thrones now rests. So for the remainder of this post, we will assume that in fact Jon’s actions in season 7 were politically motivated and that he is not a Northern Fool/cinnamon roll who fell in love with the Mother of Dragons and is ready to give up everything for her, like countless less important male character before him. 

The reason why I say that D*ny’s biggest mistake was her treatment of Jon is because, right now, House Stark is THE HOUSE you need in order to control Westeros. Dragons will only get you so far. You need alliances in order to establish a peaceful and successful rule and while everyone is bleeding allies left and right, House Stark, through Jon and Sansa, is racking in the numbers. If she had not been so greedy, if she weren’t hell bent on dominance and submission of anyone she encounters, D*ny would have had a fantastic opportunity to enter a mutually beneficial alliance with House Stark, one established on collaboration not coercion. By dismissing Jon, demoting him, proving herself a fickle ally who is more likely to burn you alive than treat with you, by not entertaining the very pertinent reasons why the North is seeking its independence, she blew her chance at that alliance.

Tyrion, by the way, must share a part in this debacle because he tricks Jon into coming to Dragonstone, is as adamant about Jon bending the knee as D*ny is, albeit in a more diplomatic way and he fails to do his proper research in advance. He thinks Jon is the gullible King in the North and the North is an ally worth having, particularly once their other allies are wiped out, but he doesn’t seem to understand that whoever holds the allegiance of House Stark will in fact hold the geopolitical hegemony over Westeros. 

Let’s break it down: 

We’ll start with Jon, since he is the titular leader of House Stark, despite his status as a bastard. In season 7, Sansa mentions that the Northern Lords are loyal, by and large, to Jon. We see Lord Glover and Lord Royce of the Vale mention that perhaps they should have elected Sansa as their Queen but the rest of the lords do not join in this conversation. They are, for the moment, holding fast behind their decision to elect Jon as King. Of course, strife is coming because of Jon’s decision to bend the knee but considering that Sansa will most likely support him in front of the Great Council, the Northern Lords will probably stick around. Also, Jon has the Wildlings undivided loyalty. 

People could be excused in ignoring the Wildlings since they’re a small group and one that has been brought South of the Wall only recently but the fact of the matter is they’re here now and they’re staying put. On top of that, they were involved in both the demise of Ramsay Bolton and fought alongside the Starks and their allies and are now part of the core group that will save Westeros from the apocalypse. So, unlike the Dothraki who are complete strangers to Westeros, the Wildlings are actually natives of this continent and are intimately involved in the goings on of the realm. 

Then there’s the matter of Gendry. This could amount to something or it might not so take that with a grain of salt. But all of the Baratheons are dead, except for this one bastard that rowed his way back to Flee Bottom and has now been introduced back into the plot, fast becoming best friends with Jon and poised to meet his sister, Arya, with whom he might fall in love and marry. That, in geopolitical terms, is the potential start of a lifelong alliance. The fact that the show pointed to the close relationship between Robert and Ned in Gendry and Jon’s first meeting feels like this relationship is bound to pay off in other ways aside from Gendry’s superhuman running abilities. If Jon is to become a political player, he would be well served to legalize his sister’s future husband and install him as the new Lord of the Stormlands, using the good will and strategic acumen he has gained to support his perhaps disputed decision. Because he will need people he can trust in high positions of power and Gendry is just that. 

Then there’s the matter of Samwell Tarly. This is another way in which the burning of the Tarlys will come back to bite D*ny in the ass. Because Samwell, the disinherited son of Randall Tarly, is now the only male representative of House Tarly. And with the demise of House Tyrell, the Reach is up for grabs. House Tarly is the only reasonable candidate for this position. Sam would chew off his own arm before supporting the woman that burned his father and brother alive and besides that he’s had “I love Jon Snow” carved across his chest since he first set eyes on the bastard of Winterfell. 

So two men that are friends with Jon Snow could, potentially, give Jon access to the Stormlands and the Reach. That’s a start. :))))

But that’s just a small part of what Jon Snow brings to the table because his true value lies in his prowess in battle and he’s about to prove his worth in the greatest war/wars this continent has seen in 8000 years. However you chose to look at it, Westeros is a medieval society that is going through a period where warrior kings are the norm and what people expect from their leader. 

We have moved away from this type of worldview but a successful medieval king is a military commander, who is always leading his army from the front lines: prowess in battle, courage in the face of hand to hand combat inspire a type of loyalty and devotion that is hard to discount. That’s what Edward I did, that’s what Edward IV, Henry V, Robert the Bruce and countless other successful warrior kings did. 

Jon Snow is going to be spearheading the fight against the White Walkers and by the end of it he will be the military commander that saved Westeros from the end of the world. He will become a legendary figure in his own time. Forget Aemon the Dragonkinght and Florian the Fool, King Jon will be the guy generations of kids for hundreds of years will pretend to be while playing at swords. He’ll essentially be the King Arthur of this universe. And that type of clout and image is hard to come by. If he ends up riding a dragon and riding Westeros of the Dragon Queen and the Dothraki as well, people will be one step away from treating him like a God-like figure. That’s if he’s alive by the end of the story, which I think he very much will. 

Then there’s Sansa … let’s talk about Sansa, shall we? 

Since about season 2, Sansa’s political importance has been highlighted by the plot over and over again. Yes, yes, she doesn’t wield a sword and she doesn’t have dragons but then again neither did Elizabeth of York or Eleanor of Aquitaine or any of the countless heiresses of the medieval world. 

Sansa has been called the Key to the North by Varys for a reason and there’s a reason why Tywin Lannister, Olenna Tyrell and Roose Bolton wanted her as wife for their sons/grandson. To quote Tywin: “Whoever marries Sansa Stark, has control of the North.”

But, since then, Sansa’s importance has only grown. And she is now not only the key to the North, but the most eligible match in the whole of Westeros. Because who ever marries Sansa Stark, essentially gets the keys to the kingdom and geopolitical dominance over the continent. 

Let’s start with the North. There are two important factors that make Sansa essential to the North. For one, she is the heir apparent to Winterfell and the Stark ancestral seat, since Bran has renounced his claim. But because D*ny is stupidly generous, she helped Sansa become even more influential by forcing Jon to bend the knee. Jon’s credibility and standing has been jeopardized by this decision. Instead of keeping him as King in the North and marrying him pronto, D*ny gave the keys to the North to Sansa, who has been diligently working to keep the North fed, clothed and ready for the war and who will now have a position of leadership in front of the whole North. If Sansa chooses to support Jon, this can’t be beneficial to D*ny because the goals of the North/Sansa and D*ny’s are bound to collide. So Sansa and Jon’s alliance will come in direct opposition to D*ny’s quest for the throne, whether or not either Jon or Sansa plan on it. 

But Sansa’s importance stretches beyond the North. The obvious one is, of course, the Vale. The Vale is a historical ally of House Stark and the North. Robyn Arryn is Sansa’s cousin on their mother’s side and Littlefinger was kind enough to really drive home just how important supporting his cousin was supposed to be for Robyn. He did it for his own motives of course but there’s no reason why Sansa wouldn’t and couldn’t take advantage of that now that Littlefinger is dead. Also, keeping Robyn happy is stupidly easy. Just imagine Jon giving him a ride on dragon back around the Eeryie. The kid will be a fan for life. In addition, Lord Royce is probably writing Sansa sonnets as we speak so the military arm of the Vale is firmly on Sansa’s side. 

Then there’s the matter of the Riverlands. Now that the Freys have been decimated by Arya, House Tully is poised to take back control of the region and here is where Jaime really screwed Cersei over. Because House Tully is headed by Edmure, the guy Jaime terrorized and forced to betray his blood with threats of killing his son. House Tully isn’t supporting the Lannisters anytime soon, Edmure probably feels like he needs to atone for betraying the Blackfish (you can see by the way Tobias Menzies plays him that he regrets what he does but feels he has no choice) and the best way for him to do that is by supporting his only other relatives, the Starks, namely Sansa, aka the girl Blackfish said was just like her mother. 

Then there’s the Greyjoys and the Iron Islands … Cersei, I think, will hold Euron’s allegiance but Theon Greyjoy is on a quest to rescue his sister and he’ll end up on a collision course with Euron. I’m pretty sure Euron is biting the dust. I’m also fairly certain Yara won’t survive. Now even if you pretend that Theon has no issue with the fact that D*ny does fuck all to help free Yara, aside from giving Theon a boat or two, who do you think Theon, as the only Greyjoy and leader of the Iron Islands, is going to support? D*enerys Targareyen, a virtual stranger he got into an alliance with out of necessity or the family that raised him and that he identifies with, and also feels he has let down in the past. Theon is House Stark, all the way. And if he manages to defeat Euron, he’ll have access to the best navy in the whole of Westeros. 

That leaves, as you well pointed out, Dorne … But honestly I’m not sure Dorne is much of a prize for anyone at this time. Nor are Jon and Sansa obsessed with collecting kingdoms, the way Cersei and D*ny are so they’d probably leave Dorne to its own devices unless the Dornish themselves seek an alliance with them. And they’d probably be best served to stay away from Dorne for the time being because I doubt the kingdom is in a good place right now. 

As for Ellaria Sand, honestly I don’t want her to make a come back in season 8. Her arc was concluded. Yes, supposedly she’s still alive but what does she really have to bring to the table at this point? Her only claim to Dorne was through her bastard daughters (so not a claim at all as bastards can’t inherit in Dorne anymore than in any other place in Westeros), and the Sand Snakes are dead (I know 2 of them weren’t her daughters but the rest are children and not part of the show). They really did a number on the Dornish plot and went crazy with the laws of succession but in realistic terms, what Ellaria and the Sand Snakes did was a coup d’etat and a pretty stupid one at that. They essentially threw their own country into political chaos and the Dornish, if they’re smart and their history shows they are, should drop Ellaria like a hot potato. There’s plenty of old families in Dorne, just as proud of their heritage and blood as the rest of the great houses of Westeros, so the country at this time is most likely in the midst of a civil war for control. In the future, an alliance with them might prove fruitful because they’ll most likely avoid the whole War for the Dawn and Dance of Dragons that will ravage the rest of Westeros. They’ll probably be able to rebuild more quickly. But Jon and Sansa don’t need Ellaria for that. They can enter an alliance with Dorne’s new leaders based on economical and political interests. They can even seal the deal with a mutually advantageous marriage. 

So, that begs the question, if House Stark is essentially running the board as the most influential house in Westeros, if between Jon’s military abilities and Sansa’s diplomatic and political maneuvering, they are capable of not only rallying people to their cause but also unite the whole continent under them, why the hell would they choose to support either the woman whose family killed their father, brother and mother, caused one sister to go on the run and tortured the other or the woman who is going around burning people alive and wants to conquer a war ravaged land with a hoard of rapists and murderers? 

Wouldn’t it make much more sense for them to seize power for themselves? And wouldn’t it make much more sense for Jon and Sansa to join their strategic and political advantages in marriage? This is a Ferdinand of Castile and Isabella of Aragon waiting to happen.

 Jon actually has nothing to gain and everything to lose by marrying D*ny and the same goes for a potential alliance between Sansa and Tyrion Lannister. Tyrion holds absolutely no power in Westeros, he’s a kinslayer and he brought a foreign queen, two dragons and two armies of foreigners to the shores of his country. D*ny is the daughter of the Mad King, a man so reviled people thought Robert Baratehon was good by comparison, and she’s going around imparting the very popular policy of fire and blood with everyone she comes in contact with. Those kinds of things are not easily dismissed and do not go unnoticed. 

Of course neither Jon or Sansa are thinking in terms of geopolitical hegemony at this time nor are they interested in the Iron Throne but between Cersei and D*ny, they will push them to the point where they will have to take action and assert themselves as the new power in Westeros, if they are to survive and thrive. It’s also very likely that their allies will push for them to become king and queen because they’ll understand that Jon and Sansa are their best ticket to a peaceful and healthy future Westeros. 

Thanks for the ask!

[theonyxpath]

Of course, Mid-Winter is a lot colder, but inside where the convention is, it’s nice.

Above, is an illustration from They Came From Beneath the Sea! of the sorts of terrors, horrors, and monsters, you face while playing our new game. Right now, its Kickstarter is doing really well for a totally new game, yet we’d love more backers getting a chance to playtest via the Early Access version available to every backer.

And, we’d also love folks to download the backer previews of the actual text and let us know what you think. Feedback now would be super helpful.

Even though it is Storypath-powered game, we’ve added enough extra materials that allow for not only a straight-forward style of playing, but also some pretty hilariously meta sessions as well, and we’d love to hear how those new elements like Quips and Props work around your table.

Although, as Matthew lets us know in the Media-focused part of the Blurbs below, at least one group is mixing They Came From! with their World of Darkness gaming! We had expected a bit of Trinity Continuum or Scion mixing since They Came From! is also a Storypath system game, but it’s cool that folks are diving in with other mash-ups as well.

CtL2e Jumpstart art by Tilen Javornik

In mentioning Mid-Winter, I was, of course, mentioning the convention that all of us from Onyx Path will be attending at the end of the week. We’ll have all of our game lines being played, sometimes with the very folks who wrote and created them, so it’s a rare chance to play with our whole crew.

We’ll also have our Q&A event late Thursday afternoon in the opulent Founder’s Room. You have to sign up, but once you enter that sanctum, we have a bunch of announcements of upcoming projects, some alcohol, and we pretty much do an AMA right there in a far more intimate space than your usual panel/seminar meeting room.

Previous years have been hilarious, and lots of stories were shared. It’s the right sort of way to meet up at a con where we’re already mixing it up with the attendees in games, in the restaurants and bars, and even the hotel lobbies.

Lest you think it’s us that are being all spontaneously open and stuff all by our lonesome, that’s not the case. Mid-Winter has a deliberate openness and friendliness that’s fostered by the whole crew that runs it – so you get a lot of attendees that go every year. I’m personally looking forward to seeing our Mid-Winter friends again this year!

Changeling20th Players Guide art by Drew Tucker

Now, the other part of Mid-Winter is that almost our entire Onyx Path Monday Meeting team will be there in order to have our annual Onyx Path Summit.

The Summit is where we’ll look at what went down in 2018 and look towards how we want 2019 to go. We’ll do some team-building exercises, and we’ll laugh a bit, and probably cry a bit too. It’s a rare chance to get us all together, and it sets the tone and direction for our decisions throughout the year.

Since that’s happening, and we’ll also be announcing new projects at the con, it makes sense that I talk about our plans for 2019 more next week, and so this week I’m going to give you our thoughts about what were the highlights of 2018 – the year that was.

Usually, it’s just our crew doing this, but this year Matthew asked for thoughts from our YouTube viewers, so I’ll be including some of the ones that talk directly about Onyx Path highlights – even though it’s awesome that folks had a great D&D campaign last year or that sort of thing.

Here’s the link for that vid and the comments: https://youtu.be/hgs2PdZyR-s

Here Then, the 2018 Highlights:

From Mighty Matt McElroy: A highlight for me was seeing the community content programs for Pugmire and Scarred Lands expand with new titles and fresh ideas from the fans of those games. I can’t wait to see what people come up with for 2019.

From Dynamic Dixie Cochran: My highlight was coming on full time and immediately doing the (pretty successful) Dragon-Blooded Kickstarter! I’m also excited we started the Pathcast and shipped Changeling: The Lost Second Edition. (I can’t pick one thing!)

From Erlan P on YouTube: Happy holidays The best gaming experience was playing Scion, the Wolfsheim story. The players decided to fight the werewolf to stop the Kindernacht. They fought all the main werewolf character and the Fenrir. The battle was so brutal that at the end of it one character died, two were incapacitated (one even losing a whole arm!) and the only one standing was at -4, just barely moving. It was supposed to be an impossible battle, they should had realized it eventually and ran, but no one gave up, and at the end they were victorious.

From Mirthful Mike Chaney: Dragon-Blooded pdfs going out a little earlier than promised and Lost 2e shipping early. 

From David F on YouTube: Favorite moment tied to gaming in 2018 was watching my wife light up when I told her that her likeness would be used in Geist 2.0 (close tie with Scion for her favorite game).

From Monica Valentinelli: A highlight for me was seeing the D&D community geek out about Scarred Lands, Mau, and Pugmire at GameHole Con. It was fun to nerd out.

From Fast Eddy Webb: Getting Monarchies of Mau into backer hands, and early to boot!

From Drew1749 on YouTube: My favorite gaming experience this year was the Changeling 20th Anniversary game one of my friends ran for us. The premise of the game was fairly simple but was so much fun, we were the guardians of a freehold that existed within a middle school in Ohio. As such the heroes were all given jobs as members of the school’s faculty regardless of qualifications. There were several groups of changelings in the freehold, each with different assignments and responsibilities. Some students were also Changelings and we had to protect the students and freehold in general from outsiders and fae intrusions.

There a lot more to Drew’s comment, and it’s all good stuff so check it out if you can, but I had to keep these to a paragraph. Sorry, Drew.

From Impish Ian Watson: Not to beat a dead horse, but it was great having the Kickstarter for the Trinity Continuum, getting the backer PDFs out, and hearing from so many excited fans about the new books.

From Stray Reaper on YouTube: Best Gaming Experience for 2018 definitely has to be returning to my friend’s kitchen sink Chronicles of Darkness game. I got to finally play around as an Acanthus.

From Brandon S on YouTube: The highlight for me this year has been my World War II Werewolf the Apocalypse 20th game (which I take far too much joy in stylizing as WWIIWW) set behind enemy lines in Arnsberg, Germany mere days before the British dambusters flooded the area.

From Matthew “The Gentleman Gamer” Dawkins: My highlight was Vampire-themed, and could be one of two things. It was either the release (to wide acclaim) of Beckett’s Jyhad Diary, or the excellent writing and successful Kickstarter funding of Chicago by Night for V5. We turned that book around in an efficient manner, and I feel due to the diversity and mixed experience of the writing team, we put together one of the best Vampire sourcebooks ever made.

And finally, from Thiago H: I always like Scion, but got the same problems everyone knows. Crunked system, complicated character creation, the combat system was hard do explain (but I thought it amazing anyway). And then, 2nd edition came. And man, I got really surprised. The system is amazing, character creation is awesome, we have heroism, the players can contribute actively in the narrative, they really weave LEGENDS as the group progresses. I fell deeply in love with everything.

Thiago also has a lot more to say that I couldn’t fit, but well worth reading. Thanks!

Dystopia Rising: Evolution art by Michele Giorgi

Finally here’s a bit of a wrap-up that could count as my highlight of last year, Ian’s year-end review of all the many projects we released last year, as well as a list of all of our Kickstarters. Phew! http://theonyxpath.com/release-retrospective-2018/

Just look at them all, with so much more to come in 2019! Do I have to say it? It’s almost like we proving that Onyx Path has:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!) funded on Kickstarter in less than 48 hours and we’ve passed through the first couple of Stretch Goals including getting Larry Blamire to illustrate a horizontal scene usable on a screen, two entries for a book of additional soggy Threats, a T-Shirt, an added Adventure Scenario, and we are rising up on the next goal!

TCFBtS! has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS that take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11! You can see the actual play here:

Check out the teaser:https://youtu.be/kxLydk4t76s

Hope to see you there back in the 50’s, fighting watery menaces and cracking wise!

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Illustration by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast is coming direct from the Mid Winter Convention, where our three troubadours of terror have a rare opportunity to actually all be in the same room while recording! Plus an equally rare chance to talk with almost everybody from Onyx Path and a huge number of our creators, fans, and random Milwaukeans trying to get in from the cold!

https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

On our channel Matthew Dawkins is recapping his campaign of Scion that he’s named “Tokyo Noir”. It sounds like a lot of grisly fun and mixes the children of Bishamon, Kissh?ten, and Loki in a murder mystery. Matthew is involving viewers in deciding the direction of the game, so get in early with your suggestions! https://youtu.be/cKpHy3W4Z-E

YouTuber Stuart Armstrong has put together an interesting video on crossing over They Came from Beneath the Sea! with the World of Darkness! Check it out and give his channel a subscription: https://youtu.be/2wBFny9mSng

One of our forumites, Cinder, has started a written recap of their campaign of They Came from Beneath the Sea! It’s in its early stages right now, but you can subscribe to the thread for updates: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/cavaliers-of-mars-and-pugmire/1278691-explorers-of-the-fathoms-tcfbts-actual-play

The Story Told RPG Podcast interviewed Matthew Dawkins regarding They Came from Beneath the Sea! and his fun, informative interview can be found here for all interested listeners: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/bonus-episode-4-they-came-from-beneath-the-sea-with-matthew-dawkins

The Twin Cities by Night Crew have a Scion 2nd Edition three part series that will be released this week.

The murder of a Scion of Ra halts the progress of the sun across the sky. In response a group of strangers are unknowingly brought together by their divine heritage to investigate the crime.

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! http://bit.ly/2w0aaEW

And we’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

This week, we’re offering PDF and PoD versions of the Changeling: The Dreaming Map of Concordia on DTRPG and in a variety of materials on our RedBubble store!

CONVENTIONS

Start getting ready for our appearance at MidWinter THIS WEEK in January in Milwaukee! So many demos, playtests, secret playtests, and Onyx Path Q&As you could plotz!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Let The Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

C20 Novel: Cup of Dreams (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Development

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

Manuscript Approval:

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Editing:

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Indexing:

Scion Origin (Scion Second Edition)

Scion Hero (Scion Second Edition)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Bunch of art out for approvals.

The Realm – Contracted.

Ex3 Monthly Stuff –

Chicago By Night – Contracting next bits.

C20 Player’s Guide – More art coming in and going to WW for approval.

Aeon Aexpansion – Going over the notes.

They Came From Beneath the Sea! – KS rolling.

EX3 Lunars – Most KS finals are in.

Signs of Sorcery – One more piece and then over to layout.

In Media Res – Contracted.

Hunter: The Vigil 2 – KS art in progress.

Shunned By the Moon – Got the notes, contacting artists.

Book of Oblivion

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Geist 2e

Proofing

Scion Hero – Indexing.

Scion Origin – Indexing.

M20: Gods and Monsters

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats

Trinity Core – Gathering errata.

Trinity Aeon – Gathering errata.

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Sending errata to devs.

CtL2e Condition Cards

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg)

At Press

Wraith 20th – New cover proof approved. Everything else is printing.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printed.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Lost 2e Screen – At Studio2, shipping with books to KS backers.

Scion Screen – At Studio2.

Changeling: The Lost 2e – PoD proof coming.

CtL2 Jumpstart – PoD processing.

Fetch Quest – Manufacturing finishing.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: 

After much brouhaha, my granddaughter Natalia came into this world yelling loudly on Jan. 2nd. Yelling loudly being a pretty typical method for dealing with the world in our family.

[smcadam]

Countdown Campaign 2. Inspiration

So, the next dnd campaign idea I have is gritty, mid level, 17/1800s apocalyptic. Does that mean I’m going to put pen to paper and start drawing a map? A timeline?

Nah I’m gonna go hit some media. I’ve got a loose sense of what this world might involv- actually, scratch that. Not world. Let’s establish right out the gate that we are not building a world, not designing a planet. We’re making one region, not even a full continent. Recent campaigns have had grand scale, I want this one to be on the slimmer side.

So, thinking about our region, I’m going to make a mood board. A mood board, is essentially a bunch of inspiring ideas, media or pictures that you like the vibe of, to help inspire you. 

I’m gonna be honest, Pinterest is the best thing I’ve seen for this. Sure, it’s bad for citing originals, but it is incredible at suggesting similar concepts, and so helping you discover works you’d have missed otherwise. 

So, Countdown Campaign moodboard here: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/smcadam23/countdown-campaign/       

But on this side of things, I want to list some concepts right off the bat that inspire me, that seem cool, interesting, awesome or gripping. 

-Wild West- We’re not american, we haven’t done american inspired stuff before, even that alone will make the campaign stand out.     

-Victorian London- Similarly, London of Dickens and steam engines is so unique, that I definitely want a capital city of its vibe.     

-The Walking Dead- Not a show I like, but the concept, the hard decisions under the apocalypse, is definitely hitting the vibe.      

-Arcane- Saw this recently, gorgeous show, but the setting of this fantastic, steampunk magical city is definitely potential.    

-Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress- Did you know there’s an anime where people try to flee superpowered zombie via train? It’s awesome. Trains are cool. And linear!

-Darkest Dungeon- Another immaculately designed visual story, but what era is it even in? I don’t know, but that mix of bows, guns, swords and greatcoats is right on the money.         

-Bloodborne- Okay, maybe not THIS apocalyptic, but it kinda fills the other end of the Arcane, London concept. What does that city look like if everything goes wrong? 

-Steelshod- Steelshod is a reddit story of a campaign where the highest level is 5. People don’t gain more hp after that, even if they get new abilities. That “Epic 5″ playstyle, is distinct, and worth remembering.        

-Ravenloft- Ravenloft is the D&D setting about horror, including apocalyptic horror, and a zombie infested hellhole from it forms part of the major inspiration for this campaign.      

-MorkBorg- A nightmarish, gritty, terrifying rpg game, Morkborg is such a bleak setting that you can roll for signs of the apocalypse like blood rain, endless night and the end itself..... that is INCREDIBLY METAL. Maybe too bleak.

Those are the main inspirations right off the top of my head. And, yeah, they’re vague, they’ve got hampers of cool little concepts and ideas- trains, zombies, gaslamps,- but that’s all I’m looking for for the moment.     

Going to pick this back up once I’ve got a big old visual board, and then we’ll start trimming the chaff and hitting on the definite elements of the region. 

[rpgsandbox]

                                       Mockup of the hardback book

An ancient, crystal-encrusted planet is rocked by war. As Kingdom fights Empire and the borderlands are caught in the middle, you are sent to rebuild the liberated city of Montara and make the surrounding lands safe for your Houses. As the years pass and this city makes its mark on you, where will your loyalties lie? With your Kingdom, with your House, with this new city, or only with yourself?  

Mysthea: Legends From the Borderlands is a tabletop roleplaying game about politics, adventure and discovery in a geomantic fantasy world based on Tabula Game's Mysthea Universe.  It fuses the grand strategy of board games like Twilight Imperium, Scythe and Mysthea itself with the tense character-driven adventures of pen-and-paper roleplaying games. With your help, we'll fund a beautiful print run of the game to end up in your hands and in shops worldwide.

Mysthea: Legends From the Borderlands builds on our successes with Legacy: Life Among the Ruins. Adapting elements from the Apocalypse World engine, it's a game system that gets you into the heart of the action, while at the same time allowing your stories to zoom out and take in the broad sweep of geography and history. It's based on the universe developed by Tabula Games for their board games Mysthea, Volfyirion and the upcoming Icaion, and we're delighted to bring it to life at your table. Here's what makes it special:

Legends From the Borderlands takes place on a backdrop of war. A few hundred years ago, the floating continent of Mysthea was home to dozens of independent city-states, with the world-shattering cataclysm an ancient memory. Now, only two major powers remain: the Kingdom of Ahatils and the Kitrean Empire. The Kingdom is aggressively expansionist, lead by a conqueror-king whose boredom with governance lead to him delegating rule of his conquered lands to the ancient Guilds of Ilvash. The Empire is more insidious, letting its territories rule themselves freely only as long as they cast aside their old customs and religions and follow the Empire's doctrine. And between these two monoliths lie the borderlands - a narrow strip of territory whose cities are treated as pawns in the game of empires.

Now a great war has been sparked into flame, and its battles shake the continent. As the war front moves ever closer to Kitrean heartlands, the Ilvashan Guilds send a convoy to control, reinforce and rebuild the newly-liberated of Montara. But as the Guilds meet with local Orders and Cabals, and contend with the perils of the too-close war front, they may find their loyalty to Ilvash and Ahatils tested. Will they stay true to their mission and make this city a vassal of their ancestor guilds, try to secure its independence, or use its resources to gain dominion over the Guilds in the Kingdom's capital?

Your group will have strong world-building tools, letting you make this story your own. Most important is Montara: it's up to you what form this war-scarred metropolis takes, though we will present examples in the book. The wider borderlands can shift and change as you play according to your decisions, and the final state of your city will be unique. Don't worry, though: the game's procedures will give you inspiration and easy choices to make, while making sure that your world remains coherent and full of mystery.

Each player controls a House present in Montara. They may be a Guild sent to this city from the ancient Kingdom of Ilvash, or an Order local to the borderlands. Together these factions form a venture, dedicated to putting the city back together for their own reasons. Your House is your constant as you tell a decade-spanning saga of discovery, conflict and rebuilding. Each will have a certain vocation that defines them, whether that's the Guild of Varorin's focus on commerce and production or the Order of Kyradar's quest to hunt Mysthea's strangest monsters. When they acts in concert, you trigger special abilities that work through the consequences of conducting diplomacy, sabotaging your enemies, claiming vital resources or many other approaches.

You'll jump forward through history, visiting the different flashpoints your venture experiences. At each flashpoint, you'll focus on a particular hero from your House. The hero archetype you pick gives you a particular skillset and role within the House, but it also gives you a new perspective: a gregarious Matchmaker will present a very different side to a House of soldiers than a battle-scarred Veteran.

Once you're done telling the story of a particular flashpoint, you jump your story forward in time. You go as far ahead as the group likes: a few months, a year, maybe even a decade. Over the time skip your House can experience great fortunes or suffer trials, the world can change dramatically, and new threats and opportunities can emerge from the borderlands. Once you've set up your new flashpoint you can make new heroes, still able to call on the powers of those who have gone before. Or perhaps you'll show how an old hero has been changed by the passage of time?

With Legends From the Borderlands, we’re inviting players to dive deep into a world still reeling from a meteoric impact that shrouded the world in endless storms and studded the landscape with shards of crystal. Rising above the endless storms are floating islands and continents, buoyed by shifting tides of gravity: this is the land of Mysthea.

Crystals are vitally important to this world. The strange shards of crystal dotting the landscape – named Qoam – react strangely to gravity, energy and most importantly thought. Each resident of Mysthea has the ability to exert telekinetic control over Qoam, though individuals vary in the strength they can exert and the kinds of crystal the best resonate with. The subtle arts of Qoam manipulation are core to your society – Qoam crystals line warrior’s armour, and resonators communicate across great distances. Qoam prostheses enable amputees to walk with the power of their will, and labourers build structures by exerting their collective will on blocks of crystal-studded stone. The most delicate artisans can even spark life in the crystal, creating servants made of stone and gleaming Qoam facets.

Finally, there’s the inhabitants of this world. None of them have escaped unchanged by the great crystal’s impact. The humanoid folk that make up the bulk of its population have changed the least, growing grey-skinned and pale under the gloom of the endless mists. The awoken automata are rare, often labouring under cryptic ethical codes put in place by long-dead civilisations. And then there’s the monsters, who cannot control Qoam and instead struggle to avoid frenzies when bombarded with its unrefined energy. These ‘monsters’ greatly value cities, where the controlled Qoam allows them coexist peacefully with others.

Legends From the Borderlands has 9 Heroes and 8 Houses for you to try. Look below for details!

                          Click through for full-size Heroes preview

                            Click through for full-size Houses preview

If you'd like a closer look, check out our quickstart.  This document gives you a jumping-on point for Mysthea: Legends From the Borderlands, letting you try out the core game rules and pre-generated player options before breaking open the full suite of options available in the main book.

                            Click through to download the quickstart

All backers will get access to the game as a digital PDF, with hyperlinked bookmarks and indexing.

                               An example page spread from the book.

Mysthea: Legends From the Borderlands is planned as a full-colour hardback book,  8.5" x 11"/21.6 cm x 28 cm/US Letter in size. We're estimating it'll extend to 240 pages, and it'll be packed with Travis Anderson's gorgeous art.

                                      Mockup of the hardback book.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Thu, April 11 2019 6:00 PM BST

Website: UFO Press

[aurelliocheek]

Apocalypse Soon: What happens when the iOS advertising ID is deprecated?

It’s rare for me to speak with a mobile advertiser that doesn’t view the deprecation of the IDFA — Apple’s proprietary advertising identifier for iOS devices — as a certainty, if not an imminent one. While the deprecation of the IDFA has been a possibility for years, and rumors of the identifier’s demise reliably circulate before every WWDC, a few recent developments support the notion that 2020 might usher in the end of an advertising ID for iOS devices:

In its most recent earnings call, Facebook’s CFO cryptically made reference to upcoming changes by mobile platform operators that will introduce friction into the process of mobile advertising measurement;

Facebook has also made some other changes that tangentially could relate to a potential end of the IDFA: it announced that it will no longer operate its Audience Network on the mobile web, and that it has modified its MMP program to disallow the sharing of view-through attribution data at the user level (see a note from Adjust below). Again, while neither of these issues directly relates to mobile advertising tracking or the relevance of an IDFA, they do both support a more privacy-centric posturing by Facebook that was perhaps taken to appease Apple;

Apple updated its iOS developer guidelines after last year’s WWDC developer event to bar apps in the Kids category from using third-party analytics or advertising SDKs. This was interpreted by many as a dry-run for full IDFA deprecation;

Google announced that it will phase out 3rd-party cookies from the Chrome browser within two years. Although Apple already does this with its Safari browser on mobile by default, Chrome has a much larger marketshare, and so this is a bigger development. While it is popular wisdom that the deprecation of the IDFA by Apple would likely instigate Google to deprecate the Android-equivalent GAID, given Chrome’s reach, it could be that Apple decides to one-up Google on the basis of privacy by reacting with the IDFA deprecation;

Apple introduced Sign in with Apple at WWDC 2019 as a means of allowing users to tie app- and website-specific authentication to their Apple IDs, meaning that Apple could ultimately be the route between devices and third-party platform IDs.

Of course, all of these development could merely be coincidental to a decision by Apple to deprecate the IDFA; Tim Cook seems zealously protective of user privacy, and the large mobile platforms generally appear to be eager to stave off invasive regulation in the wake of public furor over privacy incidents such as with Cambridge Analytica, etc.

And obviously, IDFA deprecation may not actually be on the immediate horizon, and it may not happen at all. But it’s interesting to consider what happens to the mobile advertising industry if it does, given the incredibly prominent role that the IDFA plays in even the most sophisticated advertisers’ attribution models for iOS. To that end, I present: a speculative, assumption-dependent vision of the first few months after the deprecation of the IDFA.

June 2020

Apple’s annual WWDC developer conference reveals a slew of new features coming to iOS 14 later in the year. Cryptically, Apple’s Vice President of Engineering, Craig Federighi, reveals that Apple has implemented a “simplified system profile” on iOS that limits the surface area of device information that can be collected by an app. The “simplified system profile” was first introduced to Safari in macOS Mojave in 2018 to stop devices from being fingerprinted by advertising networks. Marketing blogs and MarTech Twitter alight with speculation about the implications of this change.

Following the keynote, the first beta of iOS 14 is released to registered developers, and an important update to the documentation for the advertisingIdentifier property, which stores the user’s IDFA, is discovered (bolded text is new):

Important In iOS 10.0 and later, the value of advertisingIdentifier is all zeroes when the user has limited ad tracking. In iOS 14.0 and later, limit ad tracking is enabled by default.

Tech commentators immediately seize upon this revelation and declare that default IDFA zeroing will effectuate the end of direct response mobile advertising. Assuming that the iOS 14 adoption timeline resembles that of iOS 13, it is estimated that 50% of iOS devices will have limit ad tracking (LAT) enabled within a month of iOS 14’s release in September, and nearly all iOS devices will have limit ad tracking enabled by September 2021.

The mobile advertising technology ecosystem enters a state of panic, organizing war room meetings to come up with strategies for handling the monumental change coming to their industry in September, just three months away. Ad tech suppliers wonder if any additional device-level properties can be added to their models to improve the precision of fingerprinting, which, under the new “simplified system profile,” will only be reliable for a few minutes after an install. But most recognize that Apple is committed to removing or obfuscating these unique device signatures, such as when it added noise to device sensor data in iOS 12.2 as per the recommendations of this research paper. The changes implemented to iOS 14 are interpreted to be grievously dangerous by mobile ad tech vendors.

Privacy advocates very vocally champion both the mobile simplified system profile and the new default limit ad tracking setting.

July 2020

Facebook announces that it will stop sending user-level data to its attribution partners for both iOS and Android, across all campaign objectives, by September. The move is unexpected and widely interpreted as being a concession to Apple in order to continue attributing users with its own proprietary data collected from its SDK. Google, Twitter, Snap, and Pinterest all announce very similar policy changes just a few days after Facebook.

These announcement stun the mobile advertising industry: if Facebook, Google, et al no longer relay user-level data to measurement partners, then install and event-based campaign types like Facebook’s AEO and VO and Google’s UAC can only be assessed for ROAS via aggregated, campaign-level data from the platforms themselves.

Mobile advertisers become anxious: what does this mean for measurement? And how will non-Self Attributing Network (SAN) sources of traffic be evaluated? App advertisers are unable to glean much helpful information from MMP partners, Apple, or their account representatives at various networks.

August 2020

Apple announces the first set of members of its new Certified Mobile Advertising Partners program: advertising platforms that are registered to attribute installs via the SDKAdNetwork API that Apple introduced in iOS 11. The list of partners includes most of the largest and most prominent providers of mobile traffic.

At this point, advertisers begin to get a clearer picture of the future of mobile measurement and the severity of the changes being instituted. If attribution is handled directly from iTunes and doesn’t include user device identifiers, then the impending new reality of advertising dictates:

ROAS and CPE campaigns will only be possible via the SANs that are able to do any form of fingerprinting via their proprietary SDK data and the revenue data they collect;

Cost Per Install values for campaigns from the networks in Apple’s Ad Partners program are calculable, but building effective ROAS models for these campaigns will be difficult, if not impossible. Without being able to attribute revenue to campaigns (because all IDFAs are zeroed, and SKAdNetwork transmits no identifiable user information), the traffic sources of monetizing users are unknowable;

Most of the infrastructure currently supporting mobile advertising will soon become obsolete.

Advertisers scramble to assemble data science teams to build Media Mix Models from their existing data and to validate their current ROAS models. Shifting from deterministic measurement to probabilistic measurement will take time; in the interim, their ROAS models can be used to provide credible assumptions around what various traffic is worth. Advertisers also begin attempting to re-negotiate their contracts with technology and data partners, recognizing that many of these partners won’t be needed in their new measurement paradigms.

Google announces that it will also turn on “Opt out of Ads Personalization” by default in the next Android release.

September 2020

iOS 14 is released to the general public. Almost immediately, CPMs on mobile plummet as advertisers reduce media spend across the board. Some apps see their advertising revenues drop by half; apps that rely exclusively on advertising for user acquisition experience shrinking DAU levels. Advertisers concentrate media spend across Apple Search Ads, Facebook, and Google while conservatively layering in traffic from other sources as measured through attributed installs from iTunes (via SKAdNetwork) in a media mix model. Many advertisers note that their Facebook install volumes have decreased relative to levels from before iOS 14, recognizing that fingerprinting may have previously over-attributed LAT installs to Facebook.

December 2020

By the end of the year, most advertisers have adjusted to the new ecosystem reality, although overall mobile advertising spend is about 10% lower than it had been one year prior. Since iOS 14 was launched, a major ad network acquired an attribution provider and is using its data to develop a media mix model service. Because of the added complexity of tracking and measuring the effectiveness of media spend, a large proportion of smaller advertisers are now only advertising on either Facebook or Google and Apple Search Ads; larger advertisers have built their own infrastructure to aggregate campaign-level install data and integrate it into their media mix model.

Consumer sentiment around Apple’s privacy changes to iOS 14 was overwhelmingly positive in June, but the fanfare waned over time and those changes are rarely cited or referenced going into the new year.

Photo by S Goswick on Unsplash

The post Apocalypse Soon: What happens when the iOS advertising ID is deprecated? appeared first on Mobile Dev Memo.

Apocalypse Soon: What happens when the iOS advertising ID is deprecated? published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Everything We Know About Darksiders Genesis

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/everything-we-know-about-darksiders-genesis/

Everything We Know About Darksiders Genesis

Darksiders Genesis

brings a new perspective to the near decade-old hack and slash series, as it moves from a third-person action-adventure to a top-down, Diablo-style action-RPG.Ahead of the spinoff’s release later this year, we set out to discover what else is new in Genesis. Below is a compilation of everything we know so far, from details on its story and gameplay to its super limited Nephilim Edition.

Darksiders Genesis Release Date and Platforms

Darksiders Genesis will be released toward the end of 2019 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Google Stadia. Publisher THQ Nordic has yet to announce a specific date.

Darksiders Genesis Story

Screens – Darksiders Genesis (Reveal Screenshots)

Darksiders Genesis stars two Horseman of the Apocalypse: War and Strife. Series veterans will remember War as the playable character in the first Darksiders; the gun-wielding Strife is playable for the first time and is described as self-interested, decisive, and quick-tempered.

The story takes place before the events of Darksiders 1. The demon king, Lucifer, has “been plotting to upset the Balance by granting power to master demons throughout Hell,” and the two Horsemen have been tasked with stopping them. Players will “fight their way through a tangled, demonic conspiracy that threatens to forever upset the Balance and unravel all of creation,” according to THQ.

Joe Madureira, CEO of developer Airship Syndicate, told VentureBeat the team is “shooting for” a roughly 15-hour campaign.

Darksiders Genesis Gameplay

The most notable change to Genesis is the aforementioned top-down perspective, though the structure of gameplay itself remains largely familiar: Genesis will feature “intense combat, exploration, puzzle-solving, epic boss battles and serpent holes from heaven to hell.”

Genesis also introduces two-player co-op, with each player controlling one of the two Horsemen. Those playing solo will be able to switch between the two on the fly, allowing players to strategically alternate between War’s melee and Strife’s ranged attacks.

As noted in IGN’s Darksiders Genesis preview, “Both characters can build up a special attack meter that, when activated, temporarily turns them into the same giant fire monster capable of wreaking significant havoc.”

Darksiders Genesis Developer

Darksiders Genesis is being developed by Airship Syndicate, a 40-person studio based in Texas. It’s led by Madureira and Ryan Stefanelli, two co-founders of original Darksiders studio Vigil Games, according to THQ.

The studio’s debut game, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, was released in 2017. It earned an 8.0 in IGN’s Battle Chasers: Nightwar review, which called it “a skillfully modernized rendition of retro JRPG goodness.”

Darksiders Genesis Nephilim Edition

The Darksiders Genesis Nephilim Edition is available in limited quantities (only 5,000 are being made). It retails for $380 USD and includes the game, Darksiders: The Forbidden Land Board Game, nine-inch tall Strife figurine, artbook, official soundtrack, steelbook, and stickers.

Get the Darksiders Genesis: Nephilim Edition from Amazon:

Get the Darksiders Genesis: Nephilim Edition from Best Buy:

Darksiders Genesis Collector’s Edition and Preorders

THQ also announced a more affordable collector’s edition of Darksiders Genesis. For $120, it includes everything from the Nephilim Edition except the board game. It’s currently available on Amazon: The base game costs $40 USD. You can find additional information and purchase links through our Darksiders Genesis preorder guide.Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @jdsirani.

Source : IGN

[newstfionline]

The World Is Even Less Stable Than It Looks

By Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy, June 26, 2017

I’m normally leery of the pervasive threat inflation that tends to dominate discussions of foreign policy. Because the United States is so strong and in such a favorable geopolitical location, pundits and policymakers have to pretend the sky is falling to justify bigger military budgets and convince the public to keep meddling in distant lands. And whether the threat is falling dominos, “creeping Sharia,” the “axis of evil,” or even “violent extremism,” the actual threat these faraway dangers pose is usually exaggerated.

Right now, however, we’re at a moment when I think genuine concern is warranted. This is not to say that we’re on the brink of a major war, let alone a global clash of great powers. But flammable material is accumulating and it is hard to have high confidence in the political leadership in several key countries (including here in the United States). We would all do well to take stock of the global order: Is the world more secure than it was a year ago? Specifically, is the risk of war increasing or decreasing? Is the danger of a serious economic crisis higher or lower? Are the institutional arrangements and norms that help smooth and resolve conflicts of interest and enhance the prospects for international cooperation more or less robust than they were in June 2016?

With apologies to the late Sergio Leone, I’d group recent global developments under three headings: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good. Before descending into fatalistic depression--we’ll get to that soon enough--let’s start with the upside. Despite all the worrisome headlines and a recent slight uptick, the level of conflict between human beings is still at historic lows, and the likelihood that you will die a violent death is vastly lower than it was at nearly all other moments in human history. Nor have the number of low-level conflicts increased significantly over the past year or so, even if one takes the deteriorating situation in the Middle East into account. Although the Islamic State and other terrorist groups have been able to direct or inspire terrorist attacks in more places, the actual risk from terrorism remain relatively low outside active conflict zones such as Syria or Iraq, especially when compared with more prosaic and familiar hazards. Even now, the odds that a European or American will be harmed in a terrorist attack are vanishingly small.

Such encouraging trends are no guarantee of continued tranquility, of course, and one could even argue that complacency could make a spiral into war more likely. But we should still be grateful the world is more peaceful than it was in earlier eras and try to draw the right lessons from that observation. At a minimum, the major powers haven’t fought each other directly for over 70 years, and making sure that continues to be the case remains a critical task.

There are other encouraging straws in the wind as well. For the moment, voters in France, the Netherlands, and Austria have rejected the xenophobic nationalism of politicians like Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen, and instead embraced the more inclusive and forward-looking visions of leaders like Emmanuel Macron. The Islamic State’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” is now headed for the dustbin of history, and while this won’t eliminate the problem of violent extremism, it is a useful step forward. The peace agreement ending Colombia’s long civil war is holding--at least so far--and the war in Ukraine has settled down into a mostly frozen conflict that seems unlikely to escalate. The EU is in its fifth straight year of economic recovery, despite of the uncertainties surrounding the Brexit process, and European, American, and Japanese publics are increasingly upbeat about economic issues. And (fingers crossed), so far U.S. President Donald Trump hasn’t done much to trigger a trade war (though he still might). I wouldn’t say the glass is half-full, but at least it’s not completely empty.

The Bad. That’s the good news. If you’re looking for things to worry about, alas, one doesn’t have to look far.

In Asia, North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities in defiance of global opinion (surprise, surprise), and Trump’s naive hope that China would ignore its own interests and somehow persuade Pyongyang to do what Trump wanted has been exposed as the pipe dream it always was. But this leaves the United States and its Asian allies with no attractive options, and only the “least-bad” choice of reengaging with a country that just killed a U.S. citizen over an alleged purloined poster. Islamist movements appear to be gaining strength in Indonesia and threatening that country’s prior atmosphere of tolerance, and the Philippine government’s wars on drugs and terrorism are wreaking a fearsome human cost with little to show for it. And Trump’s bromance with Chinese President Xi Jinping has done nothing to slow Beijing’s efforts to alter the territorial status quo in the South China Sea. All things considered, it’s hard to see conditions in Asia as safer now than they were a year ago.

The same gloomy conclusion applies to the Middle East, only more so. The Islamic State may soon be a thing of the past--at least in terms of holding territory--but the exceedingly complex, multifaceted, and interrelated conflicts in Yemen, Syria/Iraq, and between Qatar and Saudi Arabia create much more potential for trouble than was present back in 2016. The impending defeat of the Islamic State has intensified its opponents’ efforts to control its former territory, with outside powers ramping up their involvement while diplomatic efforts languish. U.S. military involvement has risen steadily--with scant input from Congress or the American public--and U.S. aircraft recently shot down Iranian drones and a Syrian fighter plane. The latter act prompted Moscow to issue a direct warning against further U.S. attacks and to suspend the communications channel created to minimize the risk of an inadvertent clash between U.S. and Russian forces. And to make matters worse, an emboldened Saudi Arabia is continuing its brutal military campaign in Yemen while simultaneously trying to force neighboring Qatar to silence Al Jazeera, sever its contacts with Iran, and basically accept Saudi predominance. Maybe you can see a silver lining in all these developments, but I can’t. The worst case for the United States would be involvement in another big Middle East war arising “from sheer incompetence and incoherence rather than by design,” as Jim Lobe and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio put it.

Meanwhile, it’s “déjà vu all over again” in Afghanistan, with the United States about to reverse Barack Obama’s drawdown and send more troops back into an unwinnable war. Exactly why this step is in America’s national interest remains unclear, and at least nobody is trying to pretend that this decision (which Trump has delegated to Secretary of Defense James Mattis) is going to produce anything that might be termed “victory.” Instead, in a disturbing echo of the Indochina war, the United States is operating a new version of the “stalemate machine,” doing just enough to not lose. We know we can’t win; at this point we can’t break even, yet neither Democrats nor Republicans will let us out of the game.

Last but not least, the institutional underpinnings of the present international system continue to fray. The importance of such institutions is sometimes exaggerated, but even hard-nosed realists understand that strong institutions can facilitate cooperation among like-minded states and lend greater predictability to important international relationships. NATO is intact but weaker than it was a year ago, and doubts about the U.S. role in Asia have been rising following Trump’s renunciation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and his erratic responses to events in Korea and the Philippines. Instead of being able to count on help from close allies in most circumstances, today the United States faces a Germany whose leader wants Europe to “chart its own course,” and a Canada whose foreign minister says “International relationships that had seemed immutable for 70 years are being called into question,” adding that America’s decisions are forcing Canada “to set our own clear and sovereign course.” Such sentiments are not a sign of the apocalypse, but they do not herald easier ties between the United States and its most important neighbors and allies.

The Ugly. These developments would be worrisome enough if we had a surplus of gifted and farsighted strategists at the helm of the world’s major powers, the modern-day equivalents of Franklin Roosevelt, George Marshall, Konrad Adenauer, or Charles de Gaulle. Heck, at this point I’d take Maggie Thatcher, Zbigniew Brzezinski, James Baker, Jacques Chirac, and any number of past leaders who made some big mistakes but also got a number of big things right and did not enter public service largely either to fleece the public or to gratify their own egos.

What do we see instead? In the United Kingdom, two successive prime ministers have inexplicably committed remarkably maladroit acts of self-defenestration. The first was David Cameron, who ended his political career by pledging to hold a referendum on leaving the European Union (which he opposed) and then losing. The second is Theresa May, who called a snap election earlier this month that cost her party its Parliamentary majority. France has gone from the “bling-bling” of Nicolas Sarkozy to the hapless Francois Hollande and is now betting on the as-yet untried Macron. Italy hasn’t had effective political leadership since--oh, I don’t know, Garibaldi? Recep Erdogan in Turkey has proven to be extremely adept at consolidating power and extremely bad at actually running the country, and there are equally depressing examples of incompetent leadership in Brazil, Afghanistan, Poland, and throughout the Middle East.

But the United States is determined not to be beaten in this competition of political incompetence. If the consequences were not potentially so dire, the Trump administration’s collective ineptitude would be a great source of comic relief. I’m not talking about controversial policy decisions about which reasonable people might disagree (such as the pros and cons of giving regional military commanders greater authority over operations in their respective areas), I’m talking about foreign-policy actions that seem inspired more by the Keystone Cops or Three Stooges than by Clausewitz, Kennan, or Sun Tzu.

Indeed, only six months into Trump’s presidency, it’s becoming hard to keep track of all the squirm-inducing moments. There was the brief sage of Trump’s initial national security advisor, Mike Flynn, who lasted in his job a mere 25 days, or the appointment of self-styled “terrorism expert” Sebastian Gorka. There was Trump’s bizarre speech at CIA headquarters the day after he was inaugurated, in which he rambled on about the crowd size at his inauguration ceremony and complained about media coverage. There was the “armada” he said was heading toward North Korea when it was actually steaming in the opposite direction, and his on-again, off-again, on-again attitude toward NATO and Article 5. There were the press releases, tweets, and announcements that misspelled the names of foreign leaders and the mini-crisis that erupted when Trump announced South Korea should pay for the THAAD missile-defense system that the U.S. had insisted be deployed there. And then there’s Trump’s weird decision to gut the State Department (apparently with the full support of his secretary of state) and to assign sensitive diplomatic tasks to his son-in-law, despite the latter’s complete lack of foreign-policy experience and checkered business career. And don’t even get me started about Trump & Co.’s handling of relations with Russia and Kushner’s amateurish attempts to create some sort of backchannel to Moscow. With a record like this to defend, it’s no wonder the White House is trying to keep the press and the public in the dark about what it’s doing.

Why does any of this matter? Because the greatest achievements of U.S. foreign policy since World War II has been its ability, when it chose, to keep wars from breaking out or to end them quickly when they did occur. As I’ve explained before, a peaceful world is very much in the U.S. national interest, given how secure and well-off the United States already is. The combination of military strength and skilled diplomacy helped keep the peace in Europe and in much of Asia throughout the Cold War, and often (but not always) played a stabilizing role in the Middle East. It required not just credible military power, but also politicians who understood how the world worked and what the interests of others were, had a clear sense of America’s own interests, and were sufficiently consistent that others could count on them to do what they had promised.

By contrast, America’s biggest foreign-policy failures occurred when U.S. leaders started wars on our own (Iraq, 2003), escalated them for no good reason (Vietnam, 1965), or turned a blind eye to simmering conflicts and missed opportunities for peace (Korea in 1950 and the Middle East in 1966-67, 1971-72, and 1982). And many of these errors arose from impulsive and ignorant leaders who knew relatively little about the situations they were trying to manage.

Today, the United States isn’t disengaging from world affairs or adopting a new and well-thought out grand strategy, such as offshore balancing, but it is hardly acting as a clear or consistent defender of peace and the status quo. On the contrary, Washington is still trying to determine the future fate of Afghanistan, still hoping for regime change in several countries it doesn’t like, encouraging its proxies in the Middle East to escalate their local quarrels, and using increasing levels of military power to try to solve problems--such as terrorism and insurgency--whose roots are essentially political. The United States has pretty much abandoned its role as a potential mediator in lots of potential hotspots, and it would be naive to expect all of these conflicts will to simmer down on their own.

If the past 25 years have taught us anything, it is that few foreign-policy problems can be solved simply by blowing things up. The United States is still unsurpassed at that sort of thing, but the real challenge is devising political solutions to conflicts once the guns have fallen silent. We’ve been singularly bad at this in recent decades, and Trump’s disdain for diplomacy will just impair us even more.

The result is looking like the worst of both worlds: The United States is still engaged in most of the world’s trouble spots, but the ship of state is now being steered by an inexperienced skipper lacking accurate charts, an able crew, or even a clear destination. I don’t know about you, but that situation doesn’t make me feel safer, either.

[diversegaminglists]

Historical World War 2 Games

Started out as a content warning list but needed to become its own list because of the sheer size of it.

This is still a WIP and all suggestions and corrections are encouraged.

101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy

1939

1941: Counter Attack

1941: Frozen Front

1942: Joint Strike

1942: Pacific Airwar Franchise

1943: Kai

1943: The Battle of Midway

1944: The Loop Master

1945: Airwar

1945 I & II: The Arcade Games

‘43 - One Year After

50 Mission Crush

Ace of Aces

Aces of the Deep Franchise

Aces of the Pacific Franchise

Aces of War

Aces over Europe

Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943

Achtung Spitfire

Achtung Panzer: Operation Star

Across the Rhein

Action in The North Atlantic

Action Stations!

Admiral Graf Spee

Advanced Destroyer Simulator

African Desert Campaign

Afrika Korps

Airborne Assault Franchise

Airborne Hero D–Day Frontline 1944

Air Conflicts: Aces of World War

Air Conflicts: Air Battles of World War

Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers

Air Conflicts: Secret Wars

Air Duel: 80 Years of Dogfighting

Airfix: Dogfighter

Air Legends

Air Raid: This is Not a Drill

Allied General

Anglo-German War 39-45

Ardennes Offensive

Ardeny

Ardeny 1944

Armageddon Squadron

Arnhem: The 'Market Garden’ Operation

Artillery Brigade

Assault Wings 1944

Atlantic Patrol

Attack on Pearl Harbour

At the Gates of Moscow 1941

Avalanche: The Struggle for Italy

Avalon Hill’s Squad Leader

Axis & Allies Franchise

B-17 Franchise

B-24

Battle Academy Franchise

Battlefield 1942 Franchise

Battlecruiser

Battle for Midway

Battle for Normandy

Battlefront

Battleground 1: Bulge - Ardennes

Battleground: Ardennes

Battle Group

Battlehawks 1942

Battle Islands

Battle of Britain (1982)

Battle of Britain (1985)

Battle of Britain (1999)

Battle of Britain: 303 Squadron

Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory

Battle of Britain: Memorial Flight

Battle of Europe

Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge: Tigers in the Snow

Battleship 88: Iron Hero

Battles in Normandy

Battlestations: Midway

Battlestations: Pacific

Battlestrike: Force of Resistance

Battlestrike: The Road to Berlin

Battlestrike: The Siege

BBC Battlefield Academy

Beyond Normandy: Assignment: Berlin

Beyond Pearl Harbor: Pacific Warriors

The Big Three

Birds of Steel

Bismarck

Bismarck: Death of a Battleship

Blazing Angels

Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII

Blitzkrieg Franchise

Bomb Alley

Breakthrough in the Ardennes

Brothers in Arms Franchise

The Bulge: Battle for Antwerp

Call of Duty

Call of Duty 2

Call of Duty 3

Call of Duty: Finest Hour

Call of Duty: Legacy

Call of Duty: Road to Victory

Call of Duty: United Offensive

Call of Duty: World at War

Call to Arms

Campaign

Cannon Strike

Carrier Strike: South Pacific 1942-44

Carrier Aces

Carrier Force

Carriers at War

Chain of Command

Chain Of Command: Eastern Front

Clash of Steel: World War II, Europe 1939-45

Close Assault

Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far

Close Combat: Cross of Iron

Close Combat: Gateway to Caen

Close Combat III: The Russian Front

Close Combat: Invasion: Normandy - Utah Beach to Cherbourg

Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem

Close Combat: Panthers in the Fog

Close Combat: The Battle of the Bulge

Close Combat: The Longest Day

Close Combat: Wacht am Rhein

Codename: Panzers Franchise

Combat Command

Combat Command 2: Danger Forward

Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord

Combat Mission 3 - Afrika Corps

Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines

Commandos: Strike Force

Commandos 2: Men of Courage

Commandos 3: Destination Berlin

Company of Heroes

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Company of Heroes 2

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault

Company of Heroes 2: Theater of War - Case Blue

Company of Heroes 2: Theater of War - Southern Fronts

Company of Heroes 2: Theater of War - Victory at Stalingrad

Computer Air Combat

Computer Ambush

Computer Bismarck

Computer EastFront

Counter Action

Crete 1941: Fallschirmjager

Crusade in Europe

Daisenryaku Franchise

Daitōa Mokushiroku: Goh

Damage Inc.: Pacific Squadron WWII

Dam Buster

The Dam Busters

Das Boot: German U-Boat Simulation

Day of Defeat

D-Day (2004)

D-Day (1984)

D-Day (1992)

D-Day: America Invades

D-Day: Normandy

D-Day: The Beginning of the End

Deadly Dozen

Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theater

Decision in the Desert

Decisive Battles of WWII Franchise

Deep Strike

Desert Commander

Desert Fox

Desert Rats Franchise

Destroyer

Destroyer Command

Dive Bomber

Dnieper River Line

Dogfight 1942

Dogfight: Battle for the Pacific aka Pacific Warriors II: Dogfight

Dogs of War (Unlicensed Axis & Allies adaptation)

D: Ōshū Shinkirō

Down in Flames

Dreadnoughts

Dunes of War

Enemy Front

East Front & East Front 2

Eastern Front

Elite Forces: WWII - Iwo Jima

Elite Forces: WWII - Normandy

Empire

Eric Young's Squad Assault: West Front

Escape from Colditz & the remake Coldiz Escape! (Not affiliated with the 1970s Coldiz TV show)

Europe Ablaze

European Air War

Europe in Flames

Faces of War

Fall Weiss

Fall Weiß 1939

Fathom's 40

The Few

Field of Fire

Fighter Ace 3.5

Fighter Command: The Battle of Britain

Fighter Duel

Fighter Squadron: The Screamin' Demons over Europe

Fighting Steel

Fire Brigade

Fire Mustang

First Battalion

First Over Germany

Fortress Europe: The Liberation of France

Frontline Franchise

Gary Grigsby's Pacific War (1992)

Gary Grigsby's Pacific War (2000)

Gary Grigsby's War in Russia

Gary Grigsby's War in the East: Don to the Danube

Gary Grigsby's War in the East: Lost Battles

Gary Grigsby's War in the East: The German-Soviet War 1941-1945

Gary Grigsby's World At War

GATO

Germany At War: Barbarossa 1941

Gewetensvragen

G.I. Combat: Episode 1 - Battle of Normandy

Goh II

Great Battles of WWII: Stalingrad

Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-1943

Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-43 - America in the Atlantic

Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-43 - Super Ships of the Atlantic Great Naval Battles Vol. II: Guadalcanal

Great Naval Battles Vol. III: Fury in the Pacific, 1941-44

Great Naval Battles Vol. IV: Burning Steel, 1939-1942

Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal Campaign

Guderian

Hearts of Iron Franchise

Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe

Hidden & Dangerous 2

Hellcat Ace

Hellcats Over the Pacific

The Heroes of the 357th

Heroes of the Pacific

Heroes of WWII

Heroes Over Europe

Hidden and Dangerous Franchise

High Command: Europe 1939-'45

The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific

The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific

History Legends of War: Patton

HMS Cobra: Convois pour Mourmansk

Hunter Killer

iBomber

iBomber Defense

iBomber Defense Pacific Il-2 Sturmovik Franchise

iPanzer '44

Iron Aces

Iron Aces: Heroes of WW2

Iron Cross

Iron Front: Liberation 1944

Iron Storm

Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy

Iwo jima

Jagdstaffel

Jagdverband 44: Screaming Eagles

Jane's Combat Simulations: Attack Squadron

Jane's Combat Simulations: WWII Fighters

Kampania wrześniowa

Kampfgruppe

Kikō Shidan

Kishi Densetsu

Knights of the Desert

Lancaster

Lead Soldier

Legends of War: Patton's Campaign

Liberty Wings

London Blitz

Luftwaffe Commander: WWII Combat Flight Simulator

Making History: The Calm & The Storm

Making History II: The War of the World

Malta Storm

Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

Medal Of Honor: Airborne

Medal of Honor: European Assault

Medal of Honor: Frontline

Medal of Honor: Heroes

Medal of Honor: Heroes 2

Medal of Honor: Infiltrator

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Medal of Honor: Underground

Medal of Honor: Vanguard

Men of War

Men of War: Assault Squad

Men of War: Condemned Heroes

Men of War: Red Tide

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: WW II Pacific Theater

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator: WWII Europe Series

Midway Campaign

Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan

Military History: Commander - Europe at War

Mortal Skies: Modern War Air Combat Shooter

Moscow to Berlin: Red Siege

Mud and Blood 2

Muzzle Velocity

Nations

Naval Assault: The Killing Tide

Night Gunner

Norm Koger's The Operational Art of War Vol 1: 1939-1955

North Atlantic Convoy Raider

No Surrender: Battle of the Bulge

Objective: Kursk

Offensive

Officers

Operation Apocalypse

Operation Europe: Path to Victory 1939-45

Operation Crusader

Operation Iceberg: The Battle for Okinawa

Operation Market Garden

Operation Thunderstorm

Operation Whirlwind

Order of Battle: Pacific

Order of Battle: World War II

Order of War

The Outfit

Out of the Sun

Overlord (1994)

Overlord: The Invasion 6th June 1944

Over the Reich

P-38 Lightning

P47 Thunderbolt

Pacific Fighters 

Pacific Gunner

Pacific Storm

Pacific Storm: Allies

Pacific Strike

Pacific War

Panthers in the Shadows

Panzer Attack

Panzer Battles

Panzer Campaigns: Bulge '44

Panzer Campaigns VI: Korsun '44

Panzer Campaign VII: Kursk '43

Panzer Commander

Panzer Command: Ostfront

Panzer Corps Franchise

Panzer Elite

Panzer Front

Panzer Front Ausf. B

Panzerfront: Barbarossa 1941-1945

Panzer General Franchise

Panzer Grenadier

Panzer-Jagd

Panzer Killer!

Panzerkrieg: Burning Horizon 2

Panzers East!

Panzer Strike

Panzer Tactics DS

Panzer Tactics HD

Pathway to Glory

Pathway to Glory: Ikusa Islands

Patton Strikes Back: The Battle of the Bulge

Patton vs. Rommel

Pearl Harbour

Pearl Harbor: Defend the Fleet

Pearl Harbor Encounter

Pearl Harbor: Strike at Dawn

Pearl Harbor Trilogy: 1941: Red Sun Rising

Pearl Harbor: Zero Hour

Pegasus Bridge

The Perfect General Scenario Disk: World War II Battle Set

Piotrków 1939

Plane Arcade

Power at Sea

Protivostoyanie: Opaleonniy sneg

PT-109

P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations

P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations II

P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations IV

The Pure Wargame

Pursuit of the Graf Spee

Red Orchestra Franchise

Reach for the Skies

Red Skies

Red Skies: Von Stalingrad nach Berlin

Red Thunder

Rising Storm

Rising Sun

Rising Sun: Imperial Strike

Road to Moscow

Rommel: Battles for North Africa

Rommel: Battles for Tobruk

Rowan's Battle of Britain

RUSE: The Art of Deception

Rush for Berlin

Rush for the Bomb

Russian Front II: The Kursk Campaign

Russia: The Great War in the East 1941-1945

S2: Silent Storm

S3: Silent Storm - Sentinels

Sands of Fire

Search and Destroy

SeaWolves: Submarines on Hunt

SeaWolves II

Second Front: Germany Turns East

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe

Secret Weapons Over Normandy

Sega Ages 2500: Vol.22 - Advanced Daisenryaku: Doitsu Dengeki Sakusen

Sherman M4

Sid Meier's Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies

Silent Heroes: Elite Troops of WWII

Silent Hunter Franchise

Silent Service

Silent Service II

Sniper Art of Victory

Sniper Elite Franchise

Soldiers at War

Soldiers: Heroes of World War II

Special Operations

Spitfire

Spitfire '40

Spitfire Ace

Spitfire Attack

Spitfire: The Battle of Britain

Spring 1944

Squad Assault: Second Wave

Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942

Steel Panthers Franchise

Storm Across Europe

Strategic Command 2: Blitzkrieg

Strategic Command 2: Patton Drives

Strategic Command 2: Weapons and Warfare Expansion

Strategic Command: European Theater

Strategic Command: WW II Global Conflict

Strategic Command: WWII Pacific Theater

Strategic Simulations: Commander's Collection

Strategic War in Europe

Strikers 1945

Sub Battle Simulator

Sudden Strike Franchise

TAC: Tactical Armor Command

Talonsoft's 12 O'Clock High: Bombing the Reich

Talonsoft's West Front

Tanke Da Juezhan

Tank Operations: European Campaign

Tanktics

Tank Warfare: Tunisia 1943

Task Force 1942

Team Assault: Baptism of Fire

Theatre of War

Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943

Theatre of War 2: Centauro Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943

Theatre of War Collection

Their Finest Hour: Battle of Britain

Time of Fury

Third Reich (1992)

Third Reich (1996)

Tiger Hunt

Tigers on the Prowl

Time of Fury

Tobruk: The Clash of Armour

Torpedo Fire

Total Victory: Victory or Defeat

Trench Warfare - Mod for Wolfenstein 3D

Typhoon of Steel

Unity of Command

UMS II: Nations at War

Uncommon Valor: Campaign for the South Pacific

Under Fire

Under Southern Skies

Unity of Command: Stalingrad Campaign

Up Periscope (1983)

Up Periscope! (1986)

U.S.A.A.F. - United States Army Air Force

V for Victory: Utah Beach

V for Victory: Gold-Juno-Sword

V for Victory: Market Garden

V for Victory: Velikiye Luki

Vulcan: The Tunisian Campaign

War Birds Franchise

WarCommander

War Diary: Burma

Wargame Construction Set II: Tanks!

War in Russia

War in the Pacific: The Struggle Against Japan 1941-1945

War in the South Pacific

Warship

War Times

War Thunder

WarZone 3: WWII Edition

Western Front: The Liberation of Europe 1944-1945

White Death

Winds of Steel

Wings of Destiny

Wings of Fury

Wings of Prey

WolfPack

World at War: Volume II - Stalingrad

World War II Combat: Iwo Jima

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin

World War II: Frontline Command

World War II General Commander: Operation: Watch on the Rhine

World War II: Pacific Heroes

World War II: Panzer Claws

World War II: Panzer Claws 2

World War II: Sniper - Call to Victory

World War II Trivia

World Wars: European Conflicts

World Wars II: Pacific Conflicts

Wulfpack

WW2 Air Force Commander

WW2: Time of Wrath

WWII: Battle Over the Pacific

WWII Battle Tanks: T-34 vs. Tiger

WWII: Desert Rats

WWII GI

WWII Online: Blitzkrieg

WWII Tank Commander

[theonyxpath]

With tails wagging and tongue’s lolling, we are racing towards the last days of the Fetch Quest Kickstarter campaign! If you haven’t yet checked it out, please take a look at this easy to learn, cooperative, deck-building card game for all ages. The KS page has reviews and how to play links, and as a backer you can download a print’n’play version of your own and start having fun right now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/fetch-quest-a-deck-building-game-in-the-realms-of/description

And once you do, let us know what you think! Card games aren’t our usual thing, so the more feedback we get on the game or the way the Fetch Quest Kickstarter is set up, the better we can do the next ones!

    Changeling: The Lost 2nd art by Ken Meyer, Jr

    Here are a few more bite-sized treats selected from what we talked about in the Monday Meeting today:

Our sales partners at IPR‘s sale on prestige edition Chronicles of Darkness books (Demon: The Descent, Mummy: The Curse, Dark Eras, Beast: The Primordial) and their Screens ends June 24th. These are the remaining books from their respective Kickstarters, and are traditional printed and bound, with bookmarks and embossed and varnished covers printed over metallic paper. They’re gorgeous and on sale. http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Fantasy Grounds has added Shelzar: City of Sins from Scarred Lands to their online store, so that their Virtual Tabletop community can now explore the most wicked city in the Scarred Lands. We’re very happy that our SL presence in VTT is starting to build with our friends at Fantasy Grounds!

Our plans for Gen Con 2018 are rolling forward – just check out the projects Mirthful Mike is working on right now – and we’re going to be waving at Paizo again on our front, and across the aisle sideways at White Wolf this year. So we’ll have a ring-side seat at the explosion of gamers coming for V5 this year. Meanwhile, we’ll have our good friends from the Wrecking Crew demoing again this year outside the exhibit hall in their own room, and at least one demo table at our booth going at all times. Expect us to announce some pretty wild projects this year!

Lots of folks working on lots of exciting books – just peruse the First Draft part of the Progress Report below! We still have some very important core books to deliver, and then a smorgasbord of different projects of all game lines and sizes are on their way.

Last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast that featured an overview and behind-the-scenes of Vampire: The Requiem 2nd has garnered a ton of fantastic comments all over the place, and rightfully so considering the Terribly Terrific Trio (or the Terrifically Terrible Trio) were really firing on all cylinders with this one. If you want to hear more of these project or game-line oriented Pathcasts, then join the crowd and let us know! This Friday, at least two thirds of the gang will be interviewing the amazing up-and-coming writer and developer, Steffie de Vaan.

      Changeling: The Lost 2nd art by Brian LeBlanc

    And now, as a change of pace, and as sort of an illustration equivalent to the Developer/Writer viewpoints in last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast, I thought I’d do a bit of a walk-through showing the steps Mirthful Mike and I go through as an art director when one of us commissions an artist to create an illustration for one of our books.

The developer should have provided the art notes for the pieces they know they need. Some devs will write out very detailed, multi-page, descriptions that specify every aspect of what the piece should contain, others will give very brief descriptions and leave the decisions as to what looks good to the artist.

As an art director, I’m looking for a bit of a middle zone where the developer includes descriptions or reference links for accuracy – character appearance, the location, etc – and very specifically what they need to see happen in the illustration. If the point is to show a power being used, we do need to know what that power does. If the point is to show our cool protagonist in a run-down bar, then a brief description of what sort of attitude is being expressed is important.

In the end, we prefer to give the artist just enough info so that they can run with a piece and show off their abilities while still holding to the subject matter we hired them to illustrate. We also like to have a good idea of which pieces are going to which illustrator so that we can fine tune the notes based on how they are most comfortable working.

Some artists like having as much info as possible in addition to the art notes, like the whole text or at least their chapter, while others find all that reading too much to deal with while trying to get to grips with their specific assignments. No wrong answer there, and we try and work with them to allow them to make their best work.

For example, here’s a link to the art notes for the full page pieces for Wraith 20th that we sent to Ken Meyer, Jr. For this project, Ken was illustrating all the full-page pieces and they needed to contain the various player-character types. Since we’ve been hiring Ken for longer than any of us care to be reminded about, RichD was able to keep the info pretty minimal for the actual fulls, while stressing the overall specific feel of Wr20 (as opposed to any of our many other game lines Ken has done his beautiful illustrations for). Here’s a link to those art notes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B57iDF62OjtPaV9ySDZ3QlZtbEJqdW8yb2V4ZFVRZDdjRGVZ

Here’s the specific full-page description (in case you don’t want to read the PDF of the full art notes):

Chapter Nine – Drama Chanteur – Petite wraith with an electric violin and a headset mike, playing the violin like it’s a weapon. Because it is.

As per our illustration process, Ken then sent in a sketch worked up in pencil and based on a series of emails with Mirthful Mike that went over any questions that Ken might have:

Depending on the project, Mike may loop in the developer, me, or a licensing partner like White Wolf, for commentary and to see if the subject matter is being handled as needed. Most of the time, Mike handles this stage himself – particularly when you consider that different artists sketch with different kinds of completeness. Some artists like to create very tight sketches and then use the final stages to take that tight sketch into the finished medium. Others like to have less detailed sketches and work out the details in their finish.

So an art director gets to know how to “read” the sketches of their different artists and respond appropriately.

In this particular case, the communication worked the way we like it to, because here’s the fantastic final piece:

Now figure that we go through those steps, and often have redos or tweaks at each stage, for every piece of art you see in every book and project we make. An art director’s job is never done, especially when they are keeping an eye on all the styles and subject matters we have in all our projects which span:

Many Worlds, One Path!

    BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Fetch Quest, the adventure card game set in the Realms of Pugmire is down to its last days and we’d love to have you join us!

And if you’ve already pledged, this is definitely a game that needs to be spread by word of mouth, so please let your friends and family know about this game of good dogs (and cats!) out to fetch what Man has left behind!

Next up, Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition Kickstarter…starting sooner than you might expect…

    ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

    ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

      OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

IPR is holding a 40% sale on the Chronicles of Darkness prestige edition core books that we have remaining until June 24th!

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

  This Wednesday the PDF and physical book PoD versions of C20 Kithbook: Boggans go on sale on DTRPG.com!

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest differences in life, and nowhere is this more evident than the boggan kith. Although they have preferred to let others glory in the spotlight, this industrious kith has worked its own subtle and patient magic over the centuries, drawing power from dreams of hearth and comfort and becoming no less than the bedrock of Kithain society. Even heroes need homes to return to, after all.

For the first time ever, the secrets and gossip of the boggan kith are being shared with outsiders. So pull your chair closer to the fire, take up a fresh cup of tea, and listen carefully, because the real truth about these unsung heroes is finally coming to light.

Kithbook: Boggans features:

• A history of this unassuming yet vital kith, and how they’ve subtly shaped the Dreaming.

• Insight into boggan nature combined with advice for bringing boggan characters to life.

• Ready-made characters for quick play, and profiles of famous boggans past and present.

• New Treasures, Merits, and Flaws for boggan characters.

          CONVENTIONS!

Prep is seriously underway for Gen Con 2018 in the first week of August, which takes place in Indianapolis. In addition to our booth presence, be sure to check out the games and panels in the Gen Con Event Schedule.

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at Broadleaf Writers Conference (September 22-23) in Decatur, GA. He’ll be there to talk about writing for interactive fiction, and hanging out with other writers who have far more illustrious careers. http://broadleafwriters.com/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference-speakers/

Eddy will also be a featured guest at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

If you are going and want to meet up, let us know!

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

  Manuscript Approval:

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

  Editing:

Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

  Indexing:

Wraith 20

Cavaliers of Mars

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Hero – Stuff is progressing…

Trinity Continuum 

Geist 2e – KS artwork continues.

The Realm

M20 Gods and Monsters

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – More sketches coming in.

Promethean Night Horrors: The Tormented

  Marketing Stuff

Posters and Displays

Gen Con Cards

  In Layout

Fetch Quest – Prepping new playtest decks for Gen Con.

  Proofing

Scion Origin – Onyx review.

Changeling: the Lost 2 – Corrections to Josh.

Wraith 20 Screen – At WW.

Storyteller System Brochure

GenCon Brochure

  At Press

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary & Beckett Screen & V20 Dice – At fulfillment shipper, prepping for KS ship-out.

Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

Boggans – PDF and PoDs on sale this Wednesday.

Monarchies of Mau – In Indexing.

Monarchies of Mau Screen – Getting ready to send to press.

Cavaliers of Mars Screen – Getting ready to send to press.

Wr20 Guide for Newly Departed – Creating PoD files.

Gen Con Buttons – At press.

WoD and CofD reroll cards – At press.

FQ and PG Gen Con cards – At press.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Today is the birthday of J. Michael Straczynski, 1954 – celebrated writer of comics and TV, specifically of Babylon 5. Fun fact: B5 was a real pioneer in structure for television with free-standing episodes that were part of story-arcs that worked as seasons that had specific season-long stories and finishes, and so it was a huge influence on the limited-series concept for our games. Specifically in pitching Orpheus back in the day, I referenced B5‘s use of structure.