#including like 5 other ff games

[caehum]

before i finish this piece im gonna replay ffxv

[sociopathicartist]

hii. I rlly love ur page! I was wondering if u could do some more romance headcanons with UT Sans? Could u include things such as making out/kisses, hugs/cuddles, etc! and some more fluff, js cute silly little things in the relationship <3

hey! thanks so much for requesting, of course i can add those in:3

Undertale Sans (random drabbles) romance headcanons.

Hugs & Cuddles -

Sans loooves cuddling. His favorite cuddles are always the standing-up ones, where he’s either behind you with his arms around your shoulders while you cook, or write, or vice versa. He just enjoys getting to be all wrapped up with you while one of you is just doing normal and daily tasks. Bonus points if you’re tall enough (he’s only 4’11, so…) and he can just dangle with his hands wrapped around your neck while you walk around the house to get stuff you need. He likes to give you company, and he likes having your company, even whenever neither of you is saying anything.

He also likes hugs, to him they’re pretty similar to cuddles, but just a bit shorter and are great for goodbyes or happy hellos. Sans isn’t a big fan of the short and quick hugs though. He always likes them to be tight, warm hugs that you both hold for a long time because both of you are just enjoying each other's embrace. He hadn’t hugged many people other than his brother, so getting to hug you all the time is always enjoyable.

-

Making out -

Despite having no lips, and giving you his little skeleton magical kisses that feel like warm and cozy bumps that send little sparks down your spine, Sans has always been a fan of making out. He just relishes feeling your warm, soft lips up against the large surface area of his teeth (chunk ass smile). While it doesn’t send magical twinges and little sparks throughout him (like his do to you) since you’re not a monster, he just enjoys the fact that you like kissing him. It’s also nice to get you so close and listen to you mumble words to him in broken sentences throughout your kisses. Sometimes he’ll peep a little ‘hey’ or will say something silly to make you laugh while you’re busy making out since he can talk through his teeth without having to open them up or anything (he only does that if he peeps out a tongue, but he rarely does that unless you ask since it’s a lot of work and it catches you off guard).

He’s just a really big fan of getting to kiss all over you, or vice versa. It’s also just funny to listen to your giggles or laughs whenever he leaves a little kiss somewhere ticklish, and he’ll very often just kiss you in the middle of your sentence or out of the blue since he couldn’t wait anymore. (poor boy, it’s been 5 seconds since his last kiss…) Sans likes to just constantly swoop you close to him for a kiss anywhere, and usually when you’re not expecting it. There’s nothing that he loves more than hearing your laughs and seeing your pretty smile.

-

Conversations -

I’ve mentioned and joked about this before, but this man never shuts up. I mean, ffs, in the game his dialogue is always coming one after the other, (which is good, ily sans), so when you both are alone together? He is always blabbering about something. Flowers he saw today after work, something he took a photo of because it reminded him of you, what videogames he’s been playing, what’s been on his mind recently. He’s always asking you questions too whenever he’s not storytelling. Just things to keep you entertained and engaged in the conversation, other easy questions whenever he’s already asked about your day.

‘baby, babe, look at this. i picked it up on the way home, let me tuck it into your hair.’

‘you know what that is right? lemme tell you really quick.’

‘we’re going over to toris later this week for a halloween party with the rest of our friends. what matching costumes didya want to do, babe?”

-

Hobbies / Routines -

Sans didn’t have too many hobbies before he went up to the surface. Other than work and occasionally reading his science books or talking to some of his friends, he was a bit too de-motivated to do anything. To him, there was no point in learning a new skill or fun hobby to occupy his time if his timeline theory was correct and all his progress would be set back to zero.

But holy shit did he eat up getting into a little routine with you. He loved it whenever he could just send you a text and you immediately would know that he wasn’t in the mood to cook and just wanted Grillbys. He loves getting to wake up whenever you do and eventually drag him out of bed, and getting ready for the day next to you in the bathroom, with a few odd or silly glimpses whenever you brush your teeth despite your lips making it harder since they’re in the way.

The simple routine of just getting ready together, eating breakfast while talking to each other (and lunch if you’re both off from work), and sharing about each other's days while one of you cooks dinner has become so easy for him. He used to not be a fan of falling into a routine, but he likes the comforting and domestic one with you.

Since his self-behaviors have been improving significantly with dating you, he’s taking back to some of the old hobbies he had before he gave up on them in frustration or negligence. Sometimes you’ll sneak on him and find him reading one of his old physics books on the couch, occasionally snickering at the puns he’s making up in his head while he reads. Other days you’ll find him in the kitchen cooking or baking, both things he did for Papyrus all the time whenever his brother was younger and he was raising him, and sometimes the two of you will sit down together and play silly card games or time-consuming board games.

He’s in love with you more and more every day, he just has to finally get rid of the nagging habit of keeping the ring he has for you tucked in his pockets, waiting its turn to rest on your finger.

[stellaefelices]

I wanted to do a short follow-up to my post “On Angeal’s Wings” with full excerpts from the Ultimania interview that discusses the meaning of the Firsts’ wings to expand on those of Genesis, as well as include a link to the entire interview.

In addition to Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth have a single wing on their backs. What is the meaning of the different colors and positions of their wings?

Nomura: “I wanted to have different varieties of wings so that the three of them wouldn’t look like [they were in] the same family. Sephiroth is a special being, so Genesis’ wing is on the opposite side of it, and Angeal’s wings are on the same side as Sephiroth’s, because he is a special person who is the origin of the Buster Sword’s legacy. However, only Angeal’s wings are white, which symbolically means “he did not fall in a negative direction”. In other words, Sephiroth could have been like Angeal, too. The colour coding is based on Sephiroth, who headed in a negative direction, and Angeal, who did not.”

So Sephiroth and Angeal are positioned as special characters in direct opposition with each other through their choices to align with good or evil. Nomura reinforces the idea behind this colour symbolism when discussing Genesis:

The “dumbapple” that appears in relation to Angeal and Genesis also plays an important role.

Nojima: “Originally, in the episode about Banora, I wanted to write about how “a land of poor but serious workers will not raise bad people”. In the FF series, you don’t see a lot of ordinary people working seriously (laughs), so with CC focusing on the theme of human relationships, I wanted to focus on episodes related to the characters’ hometowns from the angle of the soil in which their personalities were nurtured. That’s the origin of why I chose to have Angeal receive the sword from his hardworking father, and also why I chose the framework of “Cloud and Zack are both from the countryside.” In using the dumbapple, I also wanted to express the good side of Genesis——that in the past, he used to be a good person who was raised in a proper family.”

What is significant here is the statement that Genesis “used to be a good person” - by the time the events of Crisis Core are unfolding, he too has fallen in a negative direction. This is reflected in his black wing. The developers are not obligated to tell us these things, but given that Crisis Core was released as a heavily truncated version of the original story, I am grateful that they have provided us with these details in order to clear up any misconceptions about their characters. Here is the full interview for anyone interested:

[christiansorrell]

Play Report: Tacticians of Ahm #2

Tonight, I ran the second session of an ongoing playtest of an upcoming starter Tacticians of Ahm adventure I'm hoping to get out in the February update (the game is itchfunding now). So, here's a play report (and here's a link to the first play report)!

After the chaos of the griffin attack on the Academy's field day, everyone went back inside the Academy walls for safety. Both griffins, including the one carrying Von Lopesbane, flew off to the northeast, after getting hit by enough attacks from the professors and student tacticians below to be thoroughly annoyed.

Inside the walls, the party saw a number of scouts coming in from the north, west, and eastern roads, all with the same news: sightings and reports of imperial soldiers (even several skyriders - the empress's griffin rider legion) attacking Ahmian citizens - all while proclaiming to be fighting back against the corrupt1on!

Groups of Tacticians and their advisors began to form parties to go out and address these various reports - after all what's a better final exam than the real thing? Professor Dana Turr, an elderly naga woman and the Senior Term headmaster, gave the group an option (since their advisor, Von Lopesbane, was missing): Find Von Lopesbane on their own and it will earn them a guaranteed early graduation and exemption from the remaining weeks of exercises. The other Tacticians on site at the Academy are spread too thin with more violent reports nearby, but she can't abandon Von Lopesbane and if the imperial army is involved, this could be serious enough to actually mean he's in serious risk.

The group agreed and were sent off to Quartermaster Bormos to get field equipment before heading out: 5 rations, a healing potion, and a piece of equipment (under 25g) of their choice. Both Tacticians took Leather Armor. Quablin bought both of them backpacks for the road.

The group headed out, into the region northeast of the academy in search of Von Lopesbane.

The party was somewhat familiar with this region from their time at the Academy. To the north was Four Families, a collection of four family farms all housed very close to one another - the road eerily quiet. To the east, the village of Dodona - smoke rising up from that direction in the distance. To the far north, ruins of an old war watchtower, formally abandoned for centuries.

Helios pushed for the group to head to Four Families and then east towards Dodona. The road was strangely quiet on the way (no random encounters were rolled).

They arrived at the farmhouses and found it, again, strangely quiet. They approached the nearest house and a halfling farmer whispered at them out of the shrubs - There are soldiers in the house! They attacked the other houses and his family only just made it out in time.

Helios approached the house and tried to convince the soldiers inside that she was a higher ranking officer, but the soldiers were assured in their mission, claiming Helios to likely be an agent of the corrupti0n. Frustrated, Helios kicked down the door and rushed in!

Over a 4 round fight, the Tacticians faced 1 Lietenant (EL2) and 2 Spearman (EL1). Through a clever use of Stupor to stun two of the enemies followed by a perfect backstab from Helios the group took the fight but both were just a strike away from falling. The gained 1 XP, 1 RP for their combo and leveled their Relationship to Level 1.

They questioned the defeated troops, you seemed out of sorts, babbling about corrupt1on, being far from home, and the vile nature of the White Walled City - almost as if the concepts of D4RKW3LL and Ahm were swapped in their mind.

Next time, the party travels onward!

[Design notes: We were testing some changes/expansions here to overland travel as it is currently written in the published rulebook. It's more of a node-based pointcrawl than a traditional hexcrawl (like the FF Tactics overworld map). The other thing I'm focusing on going forward in playtests in holding myself better to the digital nature of the world and highlighting those aspects (and providing guidance in the rulebook for GMs to know how to do the same).](edited)

Tacticians of Ahm is itchfunding now and it currently at it's lowest price (just $15 USD) with monthly updates coming from February to September of this year (and hopefully beyond)!

[ril-sillyart1st]

BATMM FF AU: "sleepover"

Doing one of those memes with my Flarelyn Family! AU characters which this will be part 1 I guess. (Actually technically 2 because of that one reblog)

I only put the ones who would totally go to an sleepover.

Template:

Characters with information:

★ Blaze

likes sleepovers and is good at story telling. Most of his stories are kid-friendly and nothing violent but sometimes he likes to tell scary stories to his (adult) friends. He brings is own stuff and doesn't borrow from others.

Also she will be painting her nails because no one will stop them.

★ Crusher

Crusher always has pad, tampon and other period stuff with them just in case anyone including himself is their time of the month. They bring 5 to even 10 books sometimes.

★ Watts

She's the type of truck to tell Filipino scary stories that came from TikTok and not her actual mimic entity experience. And they steal their girlfriend's pillow.

★ Starla

she doesn't wear her hat to sleep. She tells about her animals' lives stories 💀 or alive. It also has extra pillows with it just incase.

★ Pickle

Boy this man is an maniac when it comes to sleepovers as he would throws pillow at Crusher to annoy them really badly lol. Pickle steals others food sometimes. He likes truth or dare game and will force you to do it. If Pickle got everyone's nerves then they tied him in a chair so he wouldn't be annoying anyone (especially Crusher).

★ Fiar

Fiar is usually well behaved but is very energetic to pillow fighting. She sometimes steal ahem borrows her daddy's (Crusher) books from the library room. If in Fuchsia's house/room then Fiar will bring her plushies. (Big to small) Fiar and Fuchsia watch Zip zip and other nostalgic shows in the tv. Also Fiar likes to make pillow fort. She's also the first one to sleep and get pranked by Fuchsia one time.

★ Fuchsia

Fuchsia tells scary stories to Fiar to make her scared which worked and she tells her to bring Crusher's books from the library room.

★ Scarlett

Her, Crusher and Blaze will be wearing facial mask when the kids are having a sleepover (wow double sleepover both for the kids and the adults). She's usually in her period when sleepover happens and would be fall asleep first when watching some movies with them.

★ Kizzie and Veronica

Kizzie is obviously invited to her sister's (Fuchsia) sleepover with Veronica of course though Veronica isn't the type of car to like sleepover. Veronica doesn't like sharing her food to the kids and only shares it with her girlfriend, Kizzie.

★ Onyx and Mia

They're usually with Stripes', Zeg's, and their fish friends especially sleepover but rarely goes to Blaze and the others' sleepover. Mia only has a few plushies she owns. They might match Sleepwears but that usually only does that when they're with Stripes, Zeg and the others, they're in their normal monster machines form when having a sleepover with their fish friends. (Pegwheel is always invited in their sleepovers.)

★ Darington

Just like Pickle but they have their own food with them. They have a glow in the dark star plushie, they'll just squished the plushie and it'll glows. They sometimes prank on the ones who sleep first but they're usually the ones who actually gets to sleep first in the group/gang and ended the one getting pranked by Pickle. Will make you wake up in the very early morning.

And also they bring their laptop with them when having a sleepover but forgets to bring their charger with them.

★ Stripes

He has a ton of food in his fridge if you need some, no need permission if it's only a sleepover. He likes playing Uno cards.

★ Zeg

He likes to make the pillows as his rocks to smash them. Zeg will woke up probably 2:32 in the morning and eats whatever in the fridge and forgets he was the one who ate that food that he's asking on where did it go.

★ Gabby and AJ

The two likes to play with their plushies that they assigned each other to make videos and get views at YouTube. (Blaze was their no. 1 supporter and Crusher still has old hate comments that are pinned by the kids themselves for shame.)

[gubbles-owo]

medical vent, so slapping that shit under a read more as to not jumpscare folks with a n x i e t y

went in for an echocardiogram today. that is, an ultrasound of the heart. been functionally disabled for two years now due to what is likely POTS or some other form of dysautonomia. or it could be something else entirely, who the fuck knows. the ultrasound is to help rule out structural problems so we can move forward with a proper diagnosis. i've technically had an echocardiogram before, but i was like. only 5 or 6 years old. i barely remember the details, but the memory is there. the reasoning for that testing is fuzzy because my parents can't remember shit nowadays, but my doctors were suspecting a heart murmur or smth which ultimately led nowhere. so i'm told to come in today without any prep. from what i remember from over two decades ago, you lie on your back, they put some cold gel on your chest, and they sweep this sensor thing against your chest while taking scans of what it sees. what i did not remember was that there is a contact microphone on the sensor. i could hear -everything- in excruciating detail. the different muscles of my heart contracting, the gurgling of blood as it's pumped through, and-- worst of fucking all-- how all of it would rapidly speed up whenever i heard it scream out of the shitty computer speaker. this wasn't just the dull thumps you'd hear with a stethoscope, this was crystal fucking clear. for context: i am was a sound designer (and music composer) by trade. not that i have been capable of working the past two years due to this very disability but that's besides the point. i have a very analytical ear. i listen very closely to things and my brain automatically takes detailed notes on what exactly its hearing. it's not just my former job, it's just always how i've operated. so you combine this intrinsic hyper-awareness of sound with the anxiety-riddled hyper-awareness of what the fuck it is my heart is doing at any given time (including worrying speedups, skips, drops in pressure, and seemingly stops altogether), and the result is. absolute fucking torture. that sound is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. now that sounds all dramatic and whatever the fuck but i do not take that lightly. idk if i can like. claim a thing that just happened an hour ago to be traumatizing. but it was... deeply, horrifically unsettling. if i ever have to do that again, i am bringing earplugs ffs. guess i'm gonna go bury myself in games or something for the rest of the evening as to not think about all this shit. been working on beating (and 100%ing) majora's mask for the first time. on console, so no savestates or whatever. which means it gets reeaal frustrating sometimes. but that sort of full-brain engagement is exactly what i need right now. hopefully i can sleep tonight.

[superthatguy62]

top 5 ffs?

Oh, hello.

Just as a warning, I have yet to go through the post 5 FF games to a significant degree, so I'll be including some spinoffs:

5: Final Fantasy Explorers

I haven't played... well, any Monster Hunter-type games, so FFE was my first taste of it, and you know what? I enjoyed it. I played it on single-player, so it was essentially "Beastmaster: The Game" and the bosses were still fun enough. Also it probably has one of my top 5 favorite Big Bridge remixes and some of the music (particularly the general boss theme and Odin's theme) are highlights for me.

4: Final Fantasy Tactics

It clears the 'higher-than-you'd-expect' hurdle of me being able to actually play a decent amount of a strategy game and is generally fun to boot. I got up to Chapter 3 before the random encounters started kicking my ass enough to discourage me from continuing (though the fights towards the end of chapter 2 really tested my patience), though said encounters didn't help by me playing the PSP version with its magic/animation slowdown. By all accounts, I should probably go for the GBA/DS games since those lack permadeath (albeit with a very different tone plotwise), but I still intend to try out the PS1 version of the first game and hopefully not grind myself into a corner.

3: Final Fantasy 2

Yes, this. FF2's 'quirky' and 'complicated', but I dig the story, the gameplay once your characters actually get built up and just general setting. It's also to read the supplementry material and other notes on what could have been: It really shows that the devs were putting some thought into the story and its a shame how some elements didn't translate properly. It's the type of game where it gets better the more you know of how it works. That said the dungeon design alone holds this back fiercely, especially in the PSP's Arcane Labyrinth (Darkness floor, my beloathed). Speaking of which, the bonus content for this game is probably some of the better such content of these re-releases.

2: Final Fantasy 3

Wow, what a surprise.

FF3 is basically the video game equivalent of "it could be that deep" in my eyes. Because you don't have any of those fancy "Materias", "GFs", Magicites" or even abilities to carry over like in FFV and FFT, you need to team build your way through whatever the game throws at you. Again, FF3 is one of those games that gets better when you have more an idea of what to expect: Getting thrown into a mini-dungeon early on is annoying, but its less so when you have mages prepared ahead of time to either magic their way through or play "pass the Fire Rod that the devs conveniently added". The world isn't fully developed, but the nuggets you can find are interesting, especially the whole duality concept and the existence of the World of Darkness.

But this is also the same guy who has spent however many years obsessing over this game, so you know. Feel free to add some salt to this opinion.

As for why this isn't higher, it's because my image of this game has been ruined by my obsession, and there I feel there is no "definitive" version. All three versions are playable (yes, even the remake) and enjoyable (yes, even the remake), but all have enough pros and cons that I can't fully say one is better than the others. It's the kind of game that feels like it has yet to reach its full potential and I unfortunately don't think there are many people, at least in the west, who would care even if it did. 3's always been the overshadowed game. After all, FF5 is right there. And, oh hey, speaking of...

1: Final Fantasy 5:

Not quite a basic answer, but still a not-uncommon one, I feel. I was very late to the FF5 party, only playing it when the PR came out and not even experiencing it through osmosis like I did with FF6, and while my obsession with 3 means that it will never overcome that bias, I can easily see why people consider it to be the gameplay peak of the Nintendo-era, if not 6. It builds on what 1 and 3 started and the job combos can be fun to play with. That said, I'll admit that part of my ranking it so high is a particularly impressive mod known as "Custom Classes", which allows you to swap out basically all of the commands, meaning that you can carry over more than one skill between jobs. I haven't finished a full playthrough of CC yet, but between that and the reasons I gave for FF3, I'll be willing to give the edge to 5 over it.

Also, 5 gave us Gilgamesh and ExDeath (and indirectly eScape, and therefore The Twinning).

Honorable Mentions:

Dissidia (012): I don't know how to feel about this game. Settingwise: I love the ways it expands the FF1 mythos, but I hate how WoL is a manikin and what that implies for the rest of the FF1 party. It gave me my favorite portrayal of Garland, but it also gave me Onion Knight, whom I resent for sidelining Luneth's party in later crossovers. Even gameplaywise, I like the general gameplay, at least on paper, but I think I get far frustrated with it more than I would with a normal fighting game. Yet, I keep playing or get the urge to keep playing. Maybe it deserves to be on the list? Maybe it doesn't?

Final Fantasy VIII: I haven't gotten far in FFVIII (I finished the Dollet mission) but what I've played so far feels promising as far as my first PS1-era FF goes (some perfectionism on my part aside). Junctioning is an 'interesting' mechanic, but I think I like it. I need to get the hang of Triple Triad, but I can understand how people get hooked on it.

Final Fantasy Dimensions: Albeit with the mother of all asterisks: This is here mostly for the 'idea' than the execution right now. Like the other FFT games, I do have it ready for play, I just haven't gotten around to it, because when I play games on my phone, it's usually the gatchas that I'm stockholm syndrome'd to playing right now and it's rare for me to not be playing at least 2 at a time. At some point I do want to get around to actually playing it, but until it gets like a steam release or something, it'll be one of those "get to it eventually" type games.

Final Fantasy: Admittedly, it has been ages since I played through FF1 (relatively speaking) compared to every other game on this list aside from FFE, so I don't know how much mention it merits. But I'll put it here anyway.

[crusherthedoctor]

Your hottest Sonic takes?

Most of these are ones you'll already know, but here goes. I'll number them in no real order because bullet points always get lumped together when I use them no matter how I space them, which bothers me lol. And as always, these are just the ones that come immediately to mind, as I'm sure to have plenty more (I'm not a contrarian for contrarian's sake, I swear D:).

1. Just because I take faithfulness to the game canon seriously - hence my disapproval for adaptations that change shit for the sake of changing shit out of a misplaced sense of superiority - doesn't mean I think the game canon is perfect. Putting aside the obvious questionable quality of certain installments, there are also certain traditions in the games that I don't exactly appreciate, and refuse to tolerate them just because I'm apparently expected to (ie: the friends standing around being cheerleaders while Super Sonic does his thing, Eggman being usurped and/or forced to team up with Sonic so damn often, characters having a limited range of interactions with other characters, certain characters being rather obnoxiously OP, etc).

2. IDW Sonic is still a holier than thou asswipe whose actions and overall behaviour don't line up with how great and virtuous he supposedly is. Prime Sonic is still an unbearable dumbass, and the show and characters are grilling him for the completely wrong reasons.

3. If your only idea for redeeming Tails is making him a yes-man for Sonic, then I don't think you actually care about Tails aside from how good he makes Sonic look.

4. Shadow coming back after his not-death doesn't undermine SA2's ending. But him coming back so soon afterwards kind of does. They should have waited a lot longer before bringing him back.

5. Rouge is not a villain. Rouge is not a villain. Rouge is not a villain. And outside of her jewel obsession, she's not even that majorly anti-heroic after SA2.

6. Eggman is a villain. Eggman is a villain. Eggman is a villain. And you can flesh him out without softening him up. Pre-Frontiers games already did it FFS.

7. Just because Cream is a little girl, and acts appropriately for the most part compared to Tails, doesn't mean she should be infantilized by the other characters and by the writing. She's more capable than she's given credit for.

8. Merlina isn't that amazing. Better than the Mephiles-tier villains of course, but she still fell short of her unique concept.

9. Erazor Djinn AKA Qui-Gon Djinn AKA Tonic Djinn AKA Other Djinn Pun is the best villain who isn't Eggman, an Eggman robot, affiliated with Eggman, or Chaos.

10. I've made my apathy for Silver well known during the last few days cause of all the IDW Silver discourse, but I'll take it one spicier step further: when people defend him by saying he earned his place, I think "...Did he?"

Make no mistake, he absolutely does not deserve to be treated like garbage by the IDW crew either way, but compared to other recurring game characters, including similarly divisive ones like Shadow, I've always felt as though he was shoehorned into later games because he was already set to as the hot new character of the initially anticipated '06, rather than earning his place more organically if you get me. And when people say how awesome it was that he almost killed Sonic effortlessly twice in '06, I ask myself when Sonic getting textbook Worf'd in a game with his name on it was considered a good thing. I mean, is that the level of '06 stanning we're at now?

Or maybe I'm just letting my bitterness at (IMO) better characters remaining one-offs do the talking. I'm willing to admit that I am indeed bitter about that. :P (Also, I'd like to apologise to Silver fans for harping on about him like this a lot as of late. I really have nothing against his level-headed fans, and I still sympathise with them on his poor treatment in the comics despite my apathy towards him.)

11. Forces is one of Eggman's best showings despite the underutilized premise. That fans' only idea for "fixing" the game is usurping him with Infinite and/or the Phantom Ruby says a lot about how much they want him to be out of the way.

12. I don't understand why the in-game racing banter in TSR is taken so seriously. Speaking as someone who otherwise takes characterization very seriously, this is like if people started shitting on Mario Kart because of Luigi's death stare.

13. Other games are objectively worse (like '06 and Chronicles), but Frontiers is my personal least favourite Sonic game for... well, nearly everything about it. And neither Sage or The End are as deep or as fans make them out to be.

14. At this point, I separate the IDW characters into two categories. The first category consists of the characters who I just hate or find lame full stop (Surge and Kit, Rough and Tumble, Mimic). The second category consists of the characters that I think could have had potential if it weren't for the awful writing, that I begrudgingly feel somewhat bad for as a result, and as such would be willing to attempt to redeem if I could (Tangle, Whisper, Lanolin, Starline before he got turned into Toothpaste Snively).

15. I respect Daniel Barnes, his work and understanding of Sonic's character in particular is certainly of a higher quality than that of Flynn and Stanley, and he also has more integrity to be sure. But I can't currently buy into the full hype since I wasn't that interested in Scrapnik Island, and since I'm very cautious of the golden pedestal mentality, since that's how people like Flynn got as far as they have in the first place, I really wish the fans who are as tired of Flynn and Co's antics as I am would keep that in mind.

16. I prefer What I'm Made Of over Live & Learn.

17. I'm not a literal "Classic Good, Modern Bad" type of fan, but the things that I appreciate most about Sonic games tend to be associated more in the public consciousness - at least in terms of gameplay, use of playable characters, and aesthetics - with classic and classic-in-spirit games.

18. AoStH is better than SatAM because it had Long John Baldry. *dab* And SatAM was the first serious split in the franchise, and the influence of said split continues to this day with the Freedom Fighter stans and their desire to make everything like SatAM/Archie, meaning I wholeheartedly wish this show never existed. *double dab*

19. I don't have a guilty pleasure, because that would imply I feel any guilt for enjoying them. I enjoy 3D Blast as a fun little time waster without any shame, and I have ironic enjoyment for ShtH, also without any shame.

20. If you use mandates as an excuse for bad writing, I officially cannot trust anything you have to say on the writing, the characters, and probably the entire franchise.

[masonspecialist]

top 5 games? Can be ifs, video games, ttrpgs, board games, whatever you want, so long as you consider it a “game”

Ooh!! Such a good question!! I'm going to include series as 1 game, but I'll also indicate if a specific game is my favorite. This is in no particular order either

1. The Harvest Moon games/Rune Factory games (magical melody and rf3 hold very special places in my heart)

2. TWC, obviously. The brainrot is so incredibly real rn.

3. FFXV. I haven't played any other ff game but according to the gorgeous customer I had yesterday who blew a kiss at me, I'd apparently like 9 and 10. But yeah, FFXV altered my entire brain chemistry. Ignis Scientia my beloved

4. I'm starting to realize I don't play as many games as I thought I did djdjdjdjd but uhhh. I've been playing the demo for the IF infamous and I've really been enjoying that one!!

5. Fuck uh..... Luigi's mansion. Specifically the first one for the GameCube. Many memories of playing that with my sister while we blasted Christina Aguilera's music (specifically her song Pero Mi Acuerdo De Ti)

[bethanydelleman]

Asks about my OTPs

Pick your top 10 OTPs without reading the questions, then answer the questions after you've made your list (I will do my top 10 Austen OTPs)

Catherine Morland & Henry Tilney

Fanny Price & Henry Crawford

Elizabeth Bennet & Fitzwilliam Darcy

Harriet Smith & Robert Martin

Caroline Bingley & Sir Walter Elliot

Elinor Dashwood & Edward Ferrars

Marianne Dashwood & Colonel Brandon

Emma Woodhouse & Jane Fairfax

Eleanor Tilney & her laundry Viscount

Sir Walter & Himself

1. Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6? – When Edward comes to Barton and makes fun of Marianne's love of dead trees.

2. Have you ever read a fanfic about 2? – Yes, my favourite is Fanny: A Mansfield Park Story by Amelia Marie Logan, and I've written severa, including one full length novel.

3. Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr screen saver? – Nope! Always my kids these days.

4. If 7 were to suddenly break up today, what would your reaction be? – This actually happens in FF quite a lot, people are always killing off Brandon early into the marriage and leaving Marianne with a baby. It makes me sad, let Brandon be happy! He's only 37 when they marry he probably has another 20 years at least! (Honestly, since Brandon has survived to his age, Marianne actually has a higher chance of passing away since she's the one making babies).

5. Why is 1 so important? – Because they are so uncomplicated and happy. Just two very cute people making a cute marriage and I would defend their ship to the ends of the earth.

6. Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship? – Um, it's a whole joke that Austen didn't reveal a new character because the new viscount made a laundry list that Catherine found. But I love Eleanor so much that I do seriously want her to be happy.

7. Out of all the ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry? – Henry & Catherine, Harriet & Robert I think? I may be a bad judge of "chemistry".

8. Out of all your ships listed, which ship has the strongest bond? – Elinor & Edward, I'm always surprised how sure they are of the other's love in spite of of all the obstacles.

9. How many times have you read/watched the 10’s fandom? - I honestly don't know at this point, I read Persuasion once as a teenager and I didn't like it but I LOVED Sir Walter. I've watched all the adaptations (including 1971) and I've read/listened to the book multiple times now.

10. Which ship has lasted the longest? – Sir Walter & himself obviously, that's been going strong for 54 years. I hope it continues until his death at 93. All the others are new pairings.

11. How many times, if ever, has 6 broken up? – The only Austen couple to break up and get back together is Anne & Wentworth, so zero for Elinor & Edward.

12. If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 or 8? – Huh, Fanny & Henry or Emma & Jane? They both have a sickly member, which is not great for their odds... Emma is smart but often distracted which would be really bad but Jane is a devoted learner.... Henry would "improve" his estate with zombie moats... I'm voting for both Fanny and Emma don't make it and Henry Crawford & Jane Fairfax find their second true pairing together.

13. Did 7 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason? – Colonel Brandon is attempting to hide his regard out of respect for Marianne and that's why I love him so much.

14. Is 4 still together? – Yes, eating walnuts and petting "her" little cow. Man they are cute!

15. Is 10 canon? – Yep! Though a bunch of the others aren't

16. If all 10 ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win? – I'm going to put my money on Colonel Brandon, who will do anything to save Marianne. He would be the Katniss and she is the Peeta.

17. Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 5’s ship? – Yes, Mr. Elliot has been trying to prevent Sir Walter from marrying again so he can inherit the baronetcy. He almost succeeds!

18. Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond? –  Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney, they are the only couple I can't bring myself to break up in fan fiction.

19. Do you spend hours a day going through 3’s tumblr page? – Um, none? I end up seeing Elizabeth & Darcy stuff no matter what, I have tags on the lesser known Austen characters.

20. If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she’d break them all forever, which ship would you sink? – That is hard because these are my favourite, but I guess Emma can marry boring Knightley instead of having a torrid enemies-to-lovers affair with Jane Fairfax...

I'm not big on chain letters. Thank you @firawren for the tag, if anyone wants to try go ahead!

[artisanalpeanutbutter]

Pros to ffxvi:

-gay party member

-pretty game

-combat is brilliant

-apparently the thesis of the game is about different kinds of love, which is an idea I really like bc I love love

Cons to ffxvi:

-my friend said he skipped over half the cutscenes in the demo bc it felt like the kind of fantasy novel that feels vaguely racist but you can't quite pin down why, and he didn't even know about the shit yoship said about not having black people in the game for "historical accuracy"

-same friend (who is straight) said it's excruciatingly heterosexual & very vanilla with its approach to writing both the romance & the plot

-i personally think the character designs are a HUGE step back from the often costume & musical performance-inspired characters of literally every other ff game except maybe 12, 11, and 14. (Yes im including 1-5. Look at the art for them. They're super glam rock (not quite as glam rock as 6 but still) and even the designs that aren't have a certain flair and grace to them!!!) And those games still have like, queer vibes & at the very least dont feel basic as fuck

-my mother (who loves hallmark) says the characters look and feel like a bunch of hallmark actors (this was an insult, she was clear about that)

-the shit that yoship said about "historical accuracy" and the pervasive whiteness of everything I've seen in the game

-no turn based elements at all ;_; but that's a super personal criticism

-no lesbians :( (though this was expected and also an extremely personal criticism)

-potentially no chocobos?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?

[autumnslance]

I saw you replied to my fear post, thank you for that. I’ve been trying to make an OC that is both a main and a character for writing like Aeryn is for you. My next question is can I take a canon character like Aerith, Rinoa, or Yuna for example as a base and then work to make them my own OC? I’ve been really into FF7 and the Atelier series, Aerith is the perfect candidate to be an Alchemist! Are any of your OCs inspired by your favorite characters in other series?

You're welcome! And I think that taking an existing character as inspiration is a good way to start with making an OC. I've done it a few times in some tabletop games, but also often don't consciously, only realizing there are similarities to characters I've loved after the fact.

In a tabletop game, I made a character initially inspired by a dancer character from one of the Lunar games, but the game didn't go anywhere (as often happens). I held onto that base concept, and then years later found a Pathfinder game the concept worked in perfectly, also letting me revise the character greatly.

My WoW paladin, Alynore, was inspired by characters like Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5, Paksenarrion from Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksenarrion novel series, and a little of Sleepy from The Black Company novel series. They're all dedicated military women, leaders, queer (1 bisexual, 2 asexual), no-nonsense, and value dedication, justice, and even kindness in their own ways.

I also took the idea of some favorite twin characters from a show who were taken in by their noble father, but ran away a few years later. I did a "what if a trusted member of the household was discovered to have let them run away, and now was charged with finding them?" and turned that into an OC in another game.

Aeryn maybe has some other Final Fantasy heroines in her makeup, but as I'd played through XIV twice before, I noted how the game treats what I call "Assumed Default WoL." They can't account for every permutation of the player character; even games like Dragon Age, or Mass Effect, or Baldur's Gate can't account for every version of their player heroes. But there are baseline assumptions, and so I baked that into the concept when I came up with Aeryn. An adventurous altruist, a determinator, a little bit of a gremlin--especially as time goes on and "this is my life now" really sets in (and WoL's dialogue options include a few more unhinged possibilities in some places). I looked at the influences and inspirations, said "OK, I know why they adventure, why does this girl?" In Aeryn's case, I started simple: I knew her brother was 1.0 WoL and never returned, so she was looking.

That was it. A lot of the rest of the details came later.

It's OK--and I often recommend--leaving a lot of backstory details loose and vague to start. I did the same with Dark Autumn, with C'oretta, Iyna, and various past characters in WoW and others. It let me add, change, shuffle, and write things in later. Sometimes even retcon and rework things.

Don't be afraid of that, especially when using other characters as starting points. Use the broad strokes summaries of their story and adjust it to fit in the new setting you're importing them to; goodness knows FF itself does this all the time (look at the Ivalice raid and Bozja story and related characters from Tactics and XII!). And then change things as needed, especially as you get ideas and interactions that feel "right" for the character and yourself, the stories you want to tell.

And maybe later you want to change them again (you come up with something new, lore drops make you want to play around with a different thing, etc), or make up AUs, or other characters to tell other stories. Play around, experiment, and remember nothing is set in stone.

[slugdragoon]

RPG Role Analysis Series #5 - Dragon Quest III vs. Final Fantasy I vol.I

It's time to do a bit of compare and contrast! I want to talk about Dragon Quest III, but I think we need to compare it to Final Fantasy I, because they have such a similar structure, and together are so foundational in the JRPG world.

Dragon Quest III was released just two months after Final Fantasy I, so I don't think they influenced each other much. The Wizardy series was already on IV around the same time, and Ultima IV had come out years earlier, and many of the classes in Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest III are analogous to those games, which in turn are taken from D&D.

Despite this, the chosen classes for each game have so much overlap! FFI has six, which each have a promoted class, but each class promotes only to that advanced class and can't change mid-game. There is also no main charater, your four party members are equal and your party composition can be anything. DQIII on the other hand allows you to choose your three party other members at will mid-game, but you always have to have Erdrick, the protagonist.

Warrior (FF) / Warrior (DQIII) - The damage-dealing knight in both games. Both Warriors are tanks that wear the best armour and swing the strongest weapons, their job is to hit things and stay alive long enough to push through damage. In DQIII however, the Warrior cannot learn Magic, whereas the FF Warriors' promotion, the Knight, can learn low-level White Magic, making it a bit more of a paladin sort, actually. There is no further distinction in FFI of access to spells than the level of spells a job can access, so all low-level White Magic is available to the Knight, meaning they can heal (single or multi-target), deal holy damage to a group of undead, increase allies defence and evasion, or reduce incoming fire and lightning damage, making them have a role in supporting the party as well as dealing damage.

Monk (FF) / Fighter (DQIII) - FFI monks and DQIII fighters are more similar than the Warriors in that in both games, neither can learn spells, including The Monk's Master promotion. Both wear no armour, and no weapons (except claws can be used in DQIII without penalty), and hit hard weaponless, but are left as glass cannons due to their lack of armour. FFI monks emphasize being faster than other classes, and DQIII fighters have a higher critical hit chance, but the main draw of both is that they save the party money by having one fewer member to buy expensive items for. In addition, they can reach their maximum potential better than two Warriors who would compete for the same rare/unique swords. This is especially useful in DQIII, as a Hero-classed Erdrick will always need this gear. These early games don't have monks do especially monk-like things, like have any special fighting abilities, their job is to be low maintenance, above all.

White Mage (FF) / Cleric (DQIII) - Both classes have low physical stats, but aren't as helpless at using weapons as the Black Mage/Mage. They won't deal your main damage, and have to be carefully guarded, but it won't be completely worthless to attack normally when no one needs healing (which is great, as their magic does not focus on damage either), and won't necessarily crumple instantly, but should be carefully guarded. Both types can heal, revive, do multi-target damage for a large MP cost, reduce incoming magic damage, buff (evasion and defence for White Mages, agility for Clerics), and heal status effects. The DQIII Cleric can cause sleep status and debuff enemy defence, wheras the White Mage can only dispel defences (not truly a debuff, which is the realm of the Black Mage). The Cleric also has instant death spells, where the White Mage can protect against the same from enemies.

Black Mage (FF) / Mage (DQIII) - Both the DQIII Mage and the Final Fantasy Black Mage have pitiful weapon attack power, as they are meant to only attack using spells. In DQIII, items exist to cast spells for free, which gives the Mage something to do without blowing all their MP. The Mage can buff party defense, the Black Mage can caste Haste, and both can buff party attack, both cast elemental damaging spells, and slow enemies. The DQIII mage get a lot of the dungeon traversal utility spells that carry over from the protagonist of DQI and the Prince of Cannock in DQII (and some new ones), as was as a magic reflecting spell and some polymorphing. The FFI Black Mage has instant death spells and status effects like blind and stone.

The DQIII mages have more of a mix of spells probably influenced by the roles of the Prince of Cannock and Princess of Moonebrook. The result is that the Cleric feels more like a D&D Cleric, with about the same level of offensive options, and the Mage feels more like a D&D Wizard who learns a variety of spells with different functions, including niche utility cases. The Final Fantasy ones really focused down on having the White Mage do purely beneficial effects to the party and the Black Mage do purely detrimental effects to the enemy (exception:making other people hit them harder), and fully exclusively own those roles.

Damn my posts are so long, I'll do some of the more divergent/interesting classes in another post (Red Mages/Sages, Thieves, the Merchant, Hero and the Jester).

[ladyvelamonte]

When you get this ask you have to answer with 5 of ur fav songs and then send this ask to 10 of ur favourite followers! (No pressure <3)

uh oh is this where I further reveal how much of a dweeb I am… cause get ready for MOST of this to be video game music LOL

in no particular order:

- Drawcia Sorceress - Kirby: Canvas Curse

gotta put in the theme for my favorite Kirby villain! Canvas Curse is so different in vibe from other Kirby games, and it still holds a special place in my heart! I wish I knew what happened to my original copy…

- Terra’s Theme - Final Fantasy VI

my favorite character from my favorite FF game! I love Terra a lot, and her theme has such a nostalgic, hopeful vibe to me, it always helps me feel better c:

- Resurrections - Celeste

as a trans woman, Celeste def had a big impact on me. every song makes me introspective in some way, but I think Resurrections is overall my favorite! (honorable mentions to Confronting Myself and Reach for the Summit)

- Roller Mobster - Carpenter Brut

Carpenter Brut was my first proper introduction to synthwave music, which has since become my favorite genre! I don’t remember how I found them, and I don’t think I’ve even listened to all their stuff yet, but MAN what I’ve listened to so far is GOOD

- Who Brings Shadow - Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

the final boss theme for, in my opinion, the best XIV expansion to date! it would feel wrong to not include a song from the MMO that’s captivated me for a few years now, and introduced me to some of my dearest friends as well c: (and I’m glad I found a vid that doesn’t just show the final boss!)

thank you for sending me this! I don’t get many opportunities to do ask game stuff like this, so I appreciate you thinking of me for this one 💚

[exitpursuedbyasloth]

(So I originally wrote the following in a reply to the post screencaped above. I wanted to reblog this as the S3B is premiering in a couple days and I have major concerns over this potential plot direction. However OP blocked me for my reply and I can’t, however they’re my words so I will repost them as I see fit. Including the original post for context only, and I added some additional clarifying comments.)

…that would be pretty terrible, ngl.

Canon Radovid (in the games, he’s like 12 at the end of the books, although his future turn is hinted at) turns genocidal towards sorceresses and other non-humans both for political power, but also because of the festering resentment of the abuse, manipulations, and wrongs he sees him and father suffer at the hands of the sorceress Phillipa and Dijkstra, including his father’s assassination by an elf at the behest of Phillipa. Phillipa controls him throughout his teenage years. That hate festers in him for years until he grows up, and instead of simply getting revenge on those who personally harmed him and his family, he decides the only way to rule was with an iron fist, and turned that fist against all sorceresses, witches, magic-users and non-humans (both because he hates/fears them, but also for political gain, as these things tend to go). He encourages the non-human hate, uses humans superior numbers to overwhelm and destroy groups of non-humans and magic users. He’s relatively militarily adept too. He made sure of that, because he wanted revenge against Phillipa even as a boy. I don’t think the show would abandon everything that makes Radovid Radovid (but then again, Eskel...), I don’t think he’s just going to be Some Guy. So his sadistic bigotry towards and genocide against all non-humans and (most) human magic-users will come into play at some point. And if it does, his relationship with Jaskier will HAVE to factor in somehow, that’s unavoidable at this point. But should this theory OP mentions come to pass (and there is a good chance it might, I have been concerned about this since it the news leaked of who Jaskier would be paired up with), that would mean the show made a conscious choice to have adult Radovid turn villain…cause his boyfriend dumped him? His boyfriend of like a couple months chose his family of 20+ years over him, and that was enough to make him lose it and just start stabbing everything? Or cause he was angry that Jaskier was using him as a shield because Phillipa was threatening him? And Radovid, a grown ass man, cannot handle this? This would put a homosexual relationship at the core of a xenophobic campaign of witch-burning, be the catalyst of it. And they would put that on Jaskier’s shoulders? Because he dumped Radovid?

Why? What does this do but add cheap angst where it wasn’t needed? There is no need to A.) Start Radovid’s xenophobic hate campaign 15 years early (they have so many world-spanning plots they already can’t write well, why add more?), and B.) connect it directly to someone in the main core cast by having them be the inciting incident for Radovid. That’s unnecessary, that doesn’t offer any narrative improvement to the story at all (FFS, the world is bigger than Geralt, Yenn, Ciri, and Jaskier). And is this the reason Jaskier is now canonically bisexual? Was that the only reason they did that, just to make him the casus belli of a genocide? That really would not be the kind of queer rep anyone should praise, and by god, does it feels downright spiteful.

And to be clear, I don’t think every queer story has to be all sunshine and happiness or perfectly positive (something I’ve been accused of when criticizing questionable writing of gay/bi characters in the past). But there is a vast ocean of difference between “Sunshine and perfection” and “Hey! Let’s change this catalyst for this genocide from ‘Paranoid Fascist takes what should have been a beef between him and like 5 people, and turns it into a full scale witch-burning industry and non-human genocide, for both political gain and cause he’s a paranoid xenophobic fascist’ to 'gay prince super bummed his boyfriend dumped him’, and let’s make sure we wait to show the boyfriend as canonically bisexual until the last possible second, just so people wonder if that’s the only reason we even bothered ”. A vast fucking ocean.

I’m fine with adaptational changes that add to or improve the canon material, or are just different but stand strongly on their own. But this? Would be a terrible miserable hateful idea, and is just cheap writing for forced angst (and I honestly would not put it past the Witcher writers, which is the worst part).

How is this good? How would this an improvement? What does this add? How does this stand on it’s own? Why would they take a bloody campaign of witch-burning and genocide that had a believable catalyst already, and retcon it happening because of The Gays? Cause a dude dumped another dude? If they did this, the writers would have to consciously make the choice to change the catalyst of the genocide to ‘a gay guy was like super bummed that his boyfriend left him for a Witcher’. Do y'all see what that looks like?

[lunarsilkscreen]

Something lost in TTRPGS. [Tabletop]

So I'm reading my through stuff, and I realized; D&D 5 was designed with the idea that critical failure = death, or taking agency away from a player is bad. And engineered things like advantage to help get around it. Which implies disadvantage, and so you could feel more in control, or more like critical failures weren't completely unreasonable.

And I started thinking; you have immediate actions, free actions and standard actions (Pathfinder or D&D 3 terms)

And I'm thinking; are a lot of free and immediate actions just lost to modern day players? Like things they just don't think about, and DM[Dungeon Masters] aren't equipped to really teach about?

The addition of feats in 3rd party material to give things that you would assume are standard as a class feat instead either implies some DMs thought they weren't RAW[Rules as Written] and thus not allowed, or that they just never thought they would be RAI to be featless [Rules As Intended].

Consider this; A berserker player roles failure; breaks their weapon and stubs their toe. A typical player would be like "Well, I was gonna do *this* but now I can't, pass turn" but, instead they could [scream at their target] in the hopes of passing an intimidation check.

Which could make them think that they were so strong they broke their weapon on purpose and feel like they're about to be ripped apart.

But I've encountered DMs that have a couple of perspectives on this; one would say "No. Critical failure is completely obvious to another party" and a second would say "No, in the middle of battle with adrenaline flowing they'd just be like 'Nah fam. You broke your weapon, you ain't scary. Nobody can hurt me without a weapon." Despite being clad in an acolyte robe, or less.

A noble *maybe* could get away with an attitude, or an older character.

So the question is this; are the rules soo complex now, that a player gets lost in a rulebook trying to do regular everyday actions and improv, or are improv and everyday actions so weak that players completely ignore them because the campaigns too heavily imply, that those actions wouldn't be viable?

And then I had another thought; how would we create a set that could overcome both of those issues in-game, without it feeling like handholding?

And then I remembered Final Fantasy Tactics (I haven't played ogre tactics, I can't get into it for some reason, and I've tried.) A game that both solved the problem AND made it worse. (Yes I know other FF games did it better/worse, worry about your own self..tyvm)

In the beginning of the game you start as a "freelancer class", with the ability to change classes on the fly, and bring class skills along with you into different classes(Jobs in the FF terminology).

But it limited your overall capacity, because the grinding didn't just make you, the player, stronger, it made the enemies stronger. Which is closer to how most DMs run a typical campaign. If you take the time to train or grind, then things happen in the background. Realistically; seasons change, bad guys get promotions, adventures just keep adventuring.

So if you bothered to grind, the game would get annoyingly difficult.

But it solved some of the problems with newer players to TTRPGs like "what can do as a fee action"? Well, you can pick up a rock and throw it. You could use pocket sand. You could provoke an enemy to attack you instead of your friends, or intimidate them into running away. (I'm embellishing a little here, deal.)

And use cross-class skills without wasting entire levels to cross-class.

So what if, a new design around the TTRPG includes a starter campaign of about 3 levels where the whole point is to teach new players in all the things *every class* can do without too much penalty. Easing them into acting, improv, and the overall mechanics of the game without being too focused on class restrictions.

The players get access to nearly every free action, several cantrips (as a character that would specifically have to take a racial feat for), and learn about different weapons types and their pros and cons.

(I feel like I'm describing [freshman year] at [college]. Is this [freshman year] at [college]?)

Which would then give the players an idea on how they could build their character up.

Intermediate campaigns could then start at level 3 or 5. After the tutorial levels basically. (But you could build.more complex campaigns that max at level 3 which exploit the intricacies of the lesser skills both to test the game system *and* encourage player knowledge {and thus DM knowledge} of the system.)

It would help diminish the effects of both racism and classism in tabletop game settings.