#it's just that with all the bg3 i've been playing it's making me wanna work on lore :' )

[tvrningout]

thinking about how i need to bolster the roster of deities for dorverold -- i got a lot of major deities but not a lot of minor deities -- and the urge to use g.ojo as the fc for one of them bc i just love the way he's drawn tbh

[geezmarty]

...devlog #1??? - mini BG3 VN

So I recently downloaded Renpy because I wanna learn how to code in my spare time and I figured I'd write about it here for both posterity & to record my process with it all!

The project I'm starting with will be quick and easy because 1) I really don't want to start with something huge 2) I have work & commissions to take care of and those will come first.

About the project:

If you've been following me you know I've gotten hugely into bg3 so I thought why not code a little scene where you get to meet my durge, Brigha! I'll put my goals and expectations under the cut. Here's my first renpy test ft. Wyll.

First of all, what the hell is Renpy? Very simply put, Renpy is a software that allows you to create visual novels. You can check it out (and even download it for free!) here.

The "mini VN" I'm working on will feature a scene in Act1 of how I imagine you'd meet and recruit (or not!) my durge if she were a companion in the game, featuring some neat little things and details that I will hopefully be able to implement.

This is what I want to put in:

Ability to input your character's name;

(royalty free) music playing in the bg;

Multiple dialogue choices with (very small) dialogue trees;

Perhaps some pop ups like perception checks or companion approval/disapproval;

Companion pop up comments, randomized in one instance towards the end;

Two endings.

It might seem like a lot and it probably is - I might cut a couple these to make sure I don't spend too much time getting the vn out there.

So far I have the first draft of the script ready and I'll probably leave it as is unless testers will point out inaccuracies or weird phrasing. Here is a little concept of how I imagine Brigha will be dressed when you meet her:

Sprite wise she'll probably be the only one to have a full body/expressions (to preserve my wrists) but I might also draw little simple headshots of the other companions for when they'll pop up to comment.

As for backgrounds I will spare myself and just grab screencaps from the game that I will blurry/apply effects to, just to make them look a bit more coeshive with the sprites.

This is all I have so far! The VN will be available to play for free on your browser once I'm done with it :) ETA undetermined since this is a free time project done for fun.

Wish me luck!

[orkbutch]

So I've been seeing A Viewpoint within the bg3 fandom occuring. And I gotta be honest. I disagree that the characters being bisexual in Baldur's Gate 3 means you cannot headcanon them as other sexualities for your own fandom content purposes. I think that's not reflective of how queer people and their sexual identities actually work, and its just antithetical to how fandom has always functioned, which is an exercise of imagination. I wanna clarify up front: I agree that someone saying that a character Can't or Shouldn't or Was Not Meant To Be bisexual because of whatever reason IS biphobic sentiment. The characters in Baldur's Gate 3 are canonically bi/pan, thats made pretty damn clear when you look through all their content. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about headcanons, au's; the kind of imaginitve play that is very much what fandom creativity is about. If you set a standard in fandom that depicting a character as a certain sexuality is Not Allowed, 1. you're kinda flattening sexuality in a weird way, like personally my sexuality is complicated as fuck and has changed over time, and 2. you're limiting creativity. And I think creativity in fandom is extremely important. It's the whole fun of fandom. Creativity is worth protecting and its worth establishing the nuance between Depicting A Version of Character who is X and Insisting That Character Should Be X in canon. Because like... we meddle with character's identities in fandom all the time. That's what headcanons ARE, they change appearance, social position, career, faith, species, traumatic experience, moral and political alignment, and SO much more. I think limiting what people can headcanon within fandom... is less fun! It's just less fun. Imaginative scope lets you do more, weird fun stuff. It lets you depict more complex interesting characters. Example: my Bad Nun AU. In that, Shadowheart identifies as a lesbian. Why is that? Because I wanted Shadowheart's experience within Bad Nun to specifically explore the history and context of lesbians within nunneries, especially how that manifested post Vatican II. These were also eras when 'lesbian' was more ubiquitos, had a different context and more flexibility; a lot of women that would probably consider themselves 'bisexual' now were identifying as lesbians, were in lesbian communities and events and spaces.

On that note: Flattening sexuality. You're gonna say people CANNOT depict these characters as ANYTHING but bisexual? That is not how most queer people's sexualities work. It simply isn't. I've identified as tons of different shit in my sexuality. I'm still not sure about it. For me half the time my "sexual identity" is just the words I use to communicate what I'm looking for, and that changes depends on What I Want at that time, what I'm looking to explore, my social context, ect. ect. like what. This isn't how sexuality works for real people. How are artists meant to be Creative and imaginatively depict real, complex, queer sexuality if they are restricted to depicting only what is within canon?? This is not how any other part of fandom works. Fandom art should work how all art works. If someone makes shit art, it gets dunked on and ignored for being bad or lazy or lame. If someone did Heterosexual Karlach fanfic, I would be like "what the fuck why" because they made Karlach less fucking cool. Het Karlach would be boring and thats More Egregious because they DECIDED to make her heterosexual DESPITE canon. But even then, EVEN THEN, I don't think that should be looked at as off limits shit, because I don't believe art should have many things off limits. Any limits must be very nuanced, because art and creativity is nuanced. Obviously my brain would go "het karlach? you deserve jail time and thats queerphobic", but I honestly believe creative license is more important than those feelings. I WOULD happily comment on their thing, "heterosexual karlach is boring, thats a shit idea" because I'm right

If you want good art and good writing, you need to protext creative license.

[animentality]

Maybe a hot take, but I think Durge is the real protagonist of BG3. Like... I'm sorry, everyone love their Tavs, but from a narrative point of view, it doesn't have fucking sense. It's just another guy (gender neutral) in a The Choosen One situation. I've read this story before, hundreds of times. But Durge's recepción (or disgrace)... now that has juice! That makes sense on a narrative level. You started it, you end it, one way or another.

Anyway, I'm never (with my +500 hours) going to play a Tav run. Ever. Origins only, mostly Durge. Durge and Durgetash are waaaaay better, sorry not sorry.

You are spitting nothing but facts, anon.

You wanna know what the HONEST to GOD fundamental problem is with the writing of Baldur's Gate 3?

It's that it spreads itself so thin, desperately attempting to write an open sandbox sort of world in which ANY kind of character can fit in...that it ends up being this hollow nothing.

IMAGINE if the Dark Urge WAS the default protagonist. It WOULD'VE BEEN an amazing story, if it had been given the focus it deserved, instead of just blankly repeating the SAME dialogue you'd get as a Tav and as an origin.

The idea of a former villain turned amnesiac, and going on an adventure, learning about themselves from the perspective of an outsider and seeing firsthand the horror they've wrought? It's like a fucking Zuko arc, except finding out you were the Big Bad all along could've been written even better than that...

We could've had that blank, nothing slate that Tavs start out as...and then find out, that it has thematic significance, because WE CHOOSE who we become, after a childhood/adulthood of being unable to make our own choices, and being forced into the role of the villain before the game even starts.

It's a MUCH BETTER WAY to give people a blank slate to work with, for the fun of roleplaying, but ALSO asserting a particular theme. Which is, the gravity of your choices, big and small. To do good or to embrace evil.

YOU KNOW. How Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 did being a Bhaalspawn.

IT'S ALSO A REALLY GREAT WAY to DO an RPG because yes, you slightly infringe upon the freedom of the customizable characters a person can make, but in exchange, you actually tell a fucking story where choices are the main theme.

INSTEAD. Because they were so dedicated to Tavs and the variety of ways you could play as a Tav...they completely undersell and underutilize what could've been a really amazing character.

You can literally choose to DIE for your friends in the end...and then what?

Withers brings you back in five seconds, no one has any real reaction to you doing that, except saying good job buddy :)

And then you're basically a Tav.

And ALSO. I want to say this, because it's been bothering me.

The Dark Urge has Tav syndrome too.

They have TWO notes in the entire game that we have to read into to try and glean a greater depth to their character other than murder hobo.

And that's it. They're a blank slate too.

If the Dark Urge was the protagonist, we might've been able to look into who they were before, outside of just laughably evil flesh eating monster.

They might've had real fucking depth, instead of just tidbits.

I and my fellow Dark Urge/ Durgetash enjoyers have to do the fucking work for them and write in stuff that isn't actually there. The Dark Urge as a protagonist could've been really meaningful. We could've seen inklings that they had misgivings about being Bhaal's Chosen. We could've seen scars of resistance, where they tried to defy Bhaal, but were punished with death, disintegration by the loving hands of your own father and flesh. We could've had betrayal, redemption, loyalty to one's blood family vs one's found family.

But we don't get that, because it's taking too much time away from Tavs.

Sometimes I really wish the Dark Urge wasn't even an option. They gave me this thing, and I thought wow this is the only way to play the game...and then I look and see, ah. But the potential for greatness could drive me absolutely insane.

And it has.

Durgetash is the product of my frustration with the game's characterization of the Dark Urge.

And I know I'm pissing off the salty BG3 fans who love their Tavs and all, and think the Dark Urge is lame, and god FORBID a protagonist have a character, can't have that in an RPG, but I can't find it in myself to care.

I'm built different than the rest of y'all. I don't just feed on content, I analyze its nutrients. I calculate how good for me it actually is.

And BG3 has wonderful mechanics.

But the story has so many problems, from beginning to rotten end.

And it is what it is. I still enjoyed myself playing it.

But the story isn't good for anything except allowing you to create a far more compelling story on your own, in fanfic or in original work inspired by it.

And I guess if that's all they wanted, then fine.

But goddamnit, I'm gonna complain anyway! Divinity 2 did it fucking better.

[karaokebearwithal]

Mutuals Mutuals Come one COME ALL!!!

Put your various sona's and appendages together for the unveiling of a lil' something I've been working on while being distracted from animating Dame Aylin's wings (Its long, hard, fun as all hell but the concentration required to do so seems physically impossible for a beast of my genus)

I drew all my moots tavs/pseudo-companions!!! It took a bit, but it was well worth it! Everyone's design is so unique and fun to figure out. (10 is a big number of moots)((which I am very grateful to have :3)) So without Further Ado!!! (there will be so much more Ado):

(page break cuz the images are 400x400 each but 10 times, I also go on for a bit about how much I like each Tav/pseudo-companion character) ((if anyone can give me tips on how to size pieces in a normal style digitally i'd be very grateful))

First of all is Sivvus the Fey Prince (he/him)! This elusive Eladrin Tav belongs to @thedomesticanthropologist! A gorgeous yet seemingly cold-hearted druid who tends to keep his cards close to his chest. Though if you want the challenge you can see for yourself if you can try and get close to him to see if Sivvus is as closed off as he seems to be. To be quite honest, Sivvus really grew on me. A very fancy Eladrin with a high society (fey society) upbringing ( with very good looking mood boards to match) and the like only for him to be thrust into the bg3 world with a worm to boot. He is charming! Also his backstory? <3 Defienetly go read it! 10/10 would draw the snob again :)

Second off we have Gum (He/They)! A Githyanki Cleric of Mystra. Being @piipaw's Tav you'd find this charming fruit lover trying to live a peaceful life after escaping from the creche that raised them. I like Gum a lot as the concept of a githyanki trying to find their own way in Faerun while also having no idea about any of the social customs is very gripping to me. I recommend greatly to check out the blog for Gum fics, fanart and a very cool moot . :)

Next is H'rayn of Verkos (she/her)! Now different from all the character's I drew, H'rayn is not a Tav! She's actually a pseudo-companion character with a lotta lore and history! She even has her own quest, party banter, approval and disapproval things. It's the whole deal!! @githkisser made an amazing post all about H'rayn . If you want a ton of indepth and fun info that's really really well documented, I cannot overstate how much you should it check out! I find myself going back to learn more about H'rayn as she really is as well thought out as in game companions! It's quite fun thinking up of ways tavs can interact with her and the art is mwah!!! very good indeed :3

4th! Tavern (Tav) the Bard! (they/them) This darling bard ran away from the circus.....from birth! Created by @avocado-writing, Tavern plays their way into your heart with their silly antics, warm heart and eldritch pocket dimension in their chest!

Tavern is a doll to doodle and I am amped to draw them even more in the future. The heterochromia and the inclusion of instruments does make them a fun challenge (i will draw instruments accuratley with these paws eventually). Go check them out!! :D

5th! Hvinidyr the Barbarian (he/him)! @star-bear-art (I just realised after all this we aren't actually mutuals. Which is funny since we kinda have the same name and theme with the bear thing XD) If you wanna see wonderous art of Hvinidyr as well as the other companions, go look right over here!

Winnie (Hvinidyr) has a lot of forms depending on the time period you wanna look at. The one I chose was the most recent with the large scar tissue all over the left (right? I'm horrible at directions, my paws don't make an L shape for me to tell). He was really fun to sketch out (and probably later colour in) and has a really unique design that I appreciate :)

6th Vierlin the Enchantment Wizard (and a lil' bit rouge)!!!(she/her) @sybaritick's Tav!!! Now!! This classic drow has a keen intrest in enchantment magic, teaching her crafts to nobles in Amn. After the whole tadpole fiasco, she also finds another use for her multitude of arcane skills. Most notabley depicted with a local wizard.

Now I won't get ahead of myself here but the fics that Sybaritick wrote about Vierlin are like....licking a warm pan of thickened maple syrup or a fancy meat meal with so much demi-glaze you're left smacking your lips for at least 20 mins after eating. Its indulgent. And I couldn't recommend it enough!! Read it!! (it took me a good 8 times to get the 'ie' part of Vierlin's name right, the letters look the same to me)

7th Fink the Spores Druid (they/them) belonging to @causticcontemplation! They're a pretty short Tav a 2.5ft and have a whole modern AU fic about them!!! You can read all about it here! (the pun name is amazing!)

I found it cool to use the fic to figure out how to colour them in, I ended up sending an anon ask instead and it helped great! Lovely Tav 10/10!

8th Korydass the Druid!! (She/her)!!! Conjured by @cfcreative, this seemingly non-emotive bronze dragonborn lights a spark in viewers as her tail and love for nature portrays otherwise. Art of Kory is many and also very good. Reading through her lore is fun watching her dynamics with the different origin characters change as she opens up to the party.

Now I do have slight bias, I like drawing Kory the most since her head shape is less humanoid. It's just so satifying, also her design is crazy awesome to work with so all around its great recommend I like her a lot :3

9th Asheera the Paladin (she/her) produced by @optiwashere.

To be quite honest I wouldn't even have a blog if it wasn't for Asheera's fics. They are EXCELLENT. If you want to go through a journey of a half orcs struggles, successes and gripping romance with Shadowheart, VAULT YOURSELF into Opti's A03 page and devour. You will have negative regrets about it just like I! Asheera is great I love her a lot I am the most normal about her.

(I'll keep it brief since this post is long enough to cross a river)

10th Quin the Bard (he/him) composed by @quinthebard (who'd have known?)

This darling plucky bard is the star of an ongoing comic that is very dynamic and very gripping. (My fave panel is this one). Despite being 100, Quin still maintains his joyful and kind nature when traveling with the tadpole gang.

Definetly one of the most friendlies Tavs out of all the ones i've drawn. (he was also the first i drew out of all of these!) He's a delight!! Go check him out! Thanks to all my moots for giving permission, having such great characters and being such lovely moots! <3 <3 <3

(Any pronouns or other changes that want be changed, feel free to DM about it. I love those! )

[bg3-npc]

I wanna share my "BG3 Through Fandom Osmosis" experience:

Baldur's Gate 3 has been trending frequently on here since it's release. Besides being a video game, I had zero knowledge of it. It was trending so often I'd periodically check the tag out of curiosity.

However I was never there very long, because the tag was mainly Astarion. I'd skim the few top posts and get the gist of his deal: asshole with a tragic past, vampire, you can actually fix him, ect. I saw the appeal, but it wasn't there for me personally.

I didn't look any further into the game for a while because I didn't care about the only character getting engagement. Karlach had some attention at first, and she had grabbed mine. Unfortunately, content for her subsided and became outnumbered by Astarion stuff. The only other character I saw that piqued my curiosity in the game was quickly shoved to the side in favor of the vamp.

It wasn't until I saw a post of Wyll that I found out there were other companions to play. I went back to the BG3 tag for him, and imagine my surprise when I found out everything this game has to offer. Quests, character creation, multiple choices and endings, more hours of various content than Game Of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. You name it, this game has it. You can even play without the vamp! He's not strictly necessary for game completion! Endless gameplay options, but I had no idea because I saw NO content besides Astarion.

Is it nice to see a white guy that's actually a well developed character? Obviously! I like seeing people talk about him with actual canon instead of stuff people gleamed/made up about him. (At least most of the time.) That said, it's a disservice to anyone unfamiliar/interested in this game to give Astarion sole focus.

What if, and this is blasphemous I know, someone isn't drawn in by him? If there's no content for anything else, the assumption will be he's the best part of the gaming experience. From an outside perspective, you'd think BG3 is nothing more than a ~Special White Guy~ Dating Simulator. If you have no interest in him, why would you ever look further into the game?

If there's no new people playing BG3 and/or participating in fandom, then eventually even Astarion content will run dry. I don't want that for anyone in any part of this fandom! However, you've gotta have fans of different parts of the media itself if you want to keep a fandom alive.

It's also a bit insulting to the anyone who worked on anything non-Astarion related. All the energy that went into this massive game, only for everything outside of a singular character to go mainly ignored? While I've heard the other companions are "less developed", none of them are underdeveloped. They hold different parts of the game in themselves. There's so much to learn and work off with them. You're genuinely missing out on the game by ignoring them!

General Fandom Disclaimer™️: I'm not bashing anyone's love of him. If he's what you're drawn to, he's what you like. It's not your job to make fan content or engage with anything outside of your likes. Fandom is an individual experience, not advertising or a recruiting service. It's just personally frustrating cause there's literally an entire world outside of that vampire, but you wouldn't know that from looking at this fandom.

[grimeclown]

no cause I've been having fun playing bg3 but I realized today that I don't actually uh. Like. Any of the companions. Like there are some where I'm like woah that's cool I wanna know where your story arc goes but... There's no blorbos here for me. And idk if that's a me problem or if the writers tried to make all the companions have mass appeal and accidentally made them all 2D

No that's kind of where it's at with me. They all have stories and personalities that work really well on paper and their voice acting and mocap stuff is very well done but hardly any of them have any real sharp edges except for lae'zel and she's got the whole alien racism thing going on that makes her obnoxious even still. When every character is standoffish but generally pleasant and agreeable in most circumstances until you hit the romance cues or piss them off on purpose, it just makes them kind of bland. Karlach is wonderful when she says something that reminds me that she spent the last decade tearing devils apart and isn't just some peppy 20 year old on a girl's trip to the beach . But most of the time she is just flatly cheerful and goofy. Where's the balance. Even Astarion as one of the most outright morally dubious characters is just kind of cartoonishly selfish and aiming to amass power for the sake of power. There's bits and pieces to something deeper but it's just not enough.

[renlyslittlerose]

So I'm like, 20 hours(?) into BG3 and so far these are my thoughts:

I don't like all the companions, but I'm still reserving judgment until we proceed a little further. Some feel like the writers played DA and ME, liked certain archetypes, and decided to try that with their characters without realizing why these characters worked so well in DA and ME.

In saying that, there are some characters I really like. Karlach is a breath of fresh air in the genre and a major stand-out for me (thus far). It's nice to have a character who has been through a lot of trauma but refuses to let it define them. She's happy to be out of the Blood War, she's happy to be adventuring, she's happy to have friends for the first time. She's just happy. And having her alongside Gale, and listening to them just enjoy the weather and fresh air, is such a pleasant experience.

I've decided to romance Shadowheart because I hear I can do side-romances while still dating her. I really wanna see if I can woo Mizora 👀

While I am playing a 'good' character (not killing the locals, trying not to be mean to people), I am making very practical - some might say slippery, tricky, unreliable - choices in order to further my goals. I won't step on the backs of people to meet my end goals, but if I gotta lie a little, or remove an eyeball out of my skull, or let a bunch of tadpoles wiggle around in my brain... well, who am I to say no to a little advantage?

In saying that, I welcome any and all bad outcomes because of my questionable choices l o l

I think the world is fun to explore, but it's reminding me a little of a watered down version of Witcher 3 in terms of things to explore, monsters to encounter, and the overall vibes. Still having fun, but there are some parts of the map where I think they could have done a little more to truly make it immersive (like the swamp - I mean, the tea house...)

Speaking of the Witcher - I wish they would have an indicator of the level of enemies before you're locked in a fight. I liked how in the Witcher (and Cyberpunk), enemies that were severely over-leveled for you would have indicators that told you not to bother, come back later, don't waste your resources, etc. I've had a bunch of times where I've been locked in a fight and wasted a good chunk of time, only to realize that there is no way I can win this fight and I better just reload and come back later

I am eagerly looking forward to being reunited with my wife, Jaheira. ~I have crossed oceans of time to find you~

The mission to rescue those trapped in the burning building has to be one of the worst fucking designed pieces of modern gameplay I have ever had to sit through. The only reason I didn't lose my mind was because @the-nuup was guiding me through it over discord.

All in all, I am having fun! I've been playing a lot of older RPGs over the last few years (BG1 and 2, Planescape Torment, KotoR I and II), so it's nice to have that same flavour but with modern graphics, voice acting, etc. It's scratching an itch, for sure.

I am currently in the underdark collecting mushrooms and avoiding large open spaces 🍄

[nikatyler]

Zeph 1.0

in other news we continue clowning for Astarion and letting him drink from us

(x)

Right so I don't know what or who to believe anymore in this goddamn game

I say goddamn but I still love it don't get me wrong

(x)

mum come pick me up i'm scared

now tell me why tf did i rush here with no spell slots left

yeah we're fucked, reload ���

(x)

i may be a monster

(x)

I'm starting to get a headache but I wanna keep playing 🥴

Hyperfocus this, hyperfocus that, what about "I'm fully aware I should be doing something else or else I will suffer greatly but I can't stop and it's worth the pain" kinda focus

(x)

*You notice the blood's source* *Astarion approves* okay thanks??? 😂

(x)

"Can you imagine dressing entirely in red?" I'm not saving your ass when I create Ross for my next playthrough smh

(x)

I felt really really really bad about this and thought I was making a big mistake (I probably was 💀) but seeing only 7 % of players unlocked this? Yeah that's cool. Or maybe not. Idk I feel bad 💀

(x)

Trying to take down the bitch evil vampire again

Am I struggling? Mayhaps

We are Fucked™ lmao (that's a lmao of big pain not lmao of this is hilarious)

Alright let's try again

How do y'all not get attached and just play and stay cool because it's just a game. I'm 👌 this close to ugly rage crying lol stop being mean to my boy leave him alone stay away from him get a job

Not now duo dammit

...fuck

Yeah no I'm reloading and I'm just gonna fuck around the city a bit, I can't do this rn 💀

Okay so the strategy of 1) just go there 2) try not to die is not working too well in the big fights in act 3 for me 💀 oh well I'll try harder I guess

(x)

they need a pair of glasses smh

(x)

So I'm seriously considering throwing 2 weeks of gameplay in the trash just to get a better shot at a romance but…now I'm thinking about some tedious parts and ehhh 🫠

Is he worth it? He is worth it. Right?

Lmao I don't remember the last time a fictional character had a grasp on me like that. It's rather embarrassing really 💀 I'm too old to act like this aren't I 💀

(x)

Actually considering how bad today has been, reloading that far will probably Fix Me™ so I'm doing that right after a little afterwork nap

And if it turns out to be pointless or a bad idea I can always just switch back to the furthest point in the storyline I got, I won't overwrite that save

(x)

Sacrificing about 42 hours of gameplay 🫡 it's been an honor but I need the vampire's love more than oxygen. Reloading now 🫡

And I'm making sure to actually finish some quests I didn't the first time *cough* the shadow curse *cough*

(x)

I put him in Karlach's clothes...for science

(x)

HELP I'VE BEEN LAUGHING AT THIS FOR FIVE MINUTES NOW

(x)

I need to pickpocket people more. In the game I mean. Every time I succeed, I get a good giggle out of it 🤭

(x)

organ rearranger you say...can i...can i say something...

Okay we're all adults here right I can say it. Minors look away this isn't a safe space for you

Well let's just say I stole this for someone and he can rearrange my organs anytime okay byeeeeeeee

Well technically he stole it himself I just giggled with my finger ready on f8 in case things go badly 🤭

(x)

Okay so I just found that one reason why some things weren't going well for me was simply because I don't long rest enough in the game 💀

(x)

Me when I first started playing bg3: I hope there's a way to avoid a lot of combat, I hope I'll be able to just talk my way through Me now: woooo slaughter!! 😗

(x)

Nooo I was like "wooo yeah cutscene finally!!! is it happening?? are we so back???? we're so back amirite" and it's this guy 😭😭 (with all due respect i was hoping for something else 💀)

(x)

and it's only gonna get worse

let's goooooo

(x)

Does this game hate me or what

It's so joever it's so joever I'm just not getting any cutscenes in the camp lmao

My negative rizz is so strong not even videogame characters want me

(x)

You know what? I get her

(x)

WAIT HOLD WE ARE SO BACK

I USED TO PRAY FOR TIMES LIKE THIS *incoherent screaming*

I truly am the embodiment of this meme

I'm not even trying to scream anymore my voice is dead

I can't believe this actually happened so now I'm pretty much spamming the kiss, ignoring everything else

"I play for the plot" she said 🤭

(x)

my game crashed, good thing I save every five seconds otherwise I'd think about jumping off of very tall somethings

okay i actually lost like zero progress, jfc blessed day

(x)

Zeph you're standing way too close lol

(x)

"I'm gonna speedrun the parts I've been through about a week ago," she said, failing to realize she's not a good runner

There's no such thing as speedrunning this game lol. I just want to do everything always. Fight everything and open every crate and loot everyone 🤭

(x)

back to act 3 we go now that i've righted my wrongs 😌😌

(x)

wise words from daddy, wise words indeed

(x)

buddy you have one job

(x)

...okay?

(x)

"watch out for anyone acting STRANGELY" said by the guy who tries to suck your blood on like the first night of camping together but ok love whatever you say 💀

(x)

[mosses-gate-3]

Introduce me to your OCs because ice been scrolling too long to find them and i wanna know im nosy 😭

OKOK so all the posts i've made with them are under #bg3 tav and #moss says things and they also have individual tags you can search too-- #salix, #reneeginald, #andis, #monty, and #cesair.

but i can do a formal introduction as well if you'd like :D (also tagging @haterofastarion as per request)

Andis is my first proper tav oc and probably the one I put the most of myself into. He's a spore circle druid whose body, due to a series of medical mishaps, is now being slowly overtaken and replaced by this magical fungus. Basically he's turning into a myconid but retaining all the cognitive function. (can you tell I really like body horror...) He's around 27 ish and has been living in Baldur's Gate for the past several years after having escaped from the lab that had been running experiments on him post-fungal encounter. Currently he works as a waiter and plays drums in a small local band. Despite all the medical trauma he's probably the most well-adjusted of all of them. He's in a polycule with Wyll and Karlach.

Salix is my beloved psychic damage bard. She's a siren who was kidnapped from her birthplace and raised by an elven noble. She was married off to a man named Lord Helrien who had a ring made to suppress her magic, basically keeping her as a decoration for entertainment in his court. After about sixty years of marriage, she snapped and killed him. She's currently on the run from both the Fist and Helrien's more illicit associates. None of this is to say she's a particularly good person-- she's mean, manipulative, deliberately cruel at times and pushes people away on purpose. I call her my Vicious Mockery bard for a reason lol. Her relationship with Astarion is very interesting because of this since they both need something from each other (protection) and feed off each other's worst energy in the process but I won't get super into it because there's A LOT of lore.

Ren or Reneeginald is a half-drow artificer who's most definitely being haunted. Their ghost's name is Juniper Stormaven and she's a long-dead pirate captain who's trying to convince Ren to resurrect her. Juniper's death, or in this case lack of one, is tied very closely to the disappearance of Ren's twin sister Marcella a few years before the start of the game. There is incredibly complicated lore for this and I have a whole companion quest written out for how these things play out as well as multiple AUs including a TMA one so I won't get super into it but that's the gist. Ren can come off as pragmatic and stony-faced, but they're deeply creative and enjoy creating and building beautiful things. They're romancing Gale (and I have a lot of notes on their romance but again I won't get into it).

Monty is my favorite (and only) Durge! He's a dragonborn and very much cowboy-themed, he's one of my favorite character archetypes of "hot roguish traveling fighter with an alcoholism problem and a deeply rooted anger and pain just past the happy-go-lucky mask." Prior to the events of the game, he wandered around, fighting in cages and tournaments to try and sate the Bhaalspawn bloodlust. This earned him the title of the Man Mal Fet, or the Ill-Made Man- Arthurian legend reference!! Monty's theory is that it's better to give in to the urges while he's conscious and can choose who to kill than to try to resist and end up killing indiscriminately. I have a companion quest written out in which he's not a Bhaalspawn but a normal guy who's been cursed and/or has entered a pact that forces him to kill a certain amount of people in order to retain his free will because I like making original backstories for my characters.

Cesair is the bard I made for my multiplayer runthrough with my beloved ex wife @doomedpuppetyuri . He's a lying, conniving little bitch, or at least he used to be. He grew up an orphan on the streets of Baldur's Gate and learned to play music to feed himself and his siblings. He was hired to become a jester in the court of an evil king. For years he was in love with his new boss, but something horrible happened and he was exiled forever. Now he's attempting to be a good person out of spite for his ex. This is also why he doesn't listen to the Emperor; in any other circumstances he'd love to consume the tadpoles but his dream guardian looks too much like the evil king so he refuses to listen to them.

[shmowder]

Ohh hello there you were nice Once (1ce) so now I have decided to nudge you more. How we feeling about the Patho fic 'But someone bust bear the yoke"? It's literally been the one fic stabbing me in the chest and kicking me around that there isn't more content to presume on it. It's amazing. If you haven't read it, PLEASE DOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! JFHFHFHFFHGHGGFDHDHDHFHDJSN

(p.s, how are the kids? the worm and the tragedian?)

Feel free to nudge me whenever you'd like, I'm delighted by our brief chats <3 You and the other anons have been so sweet and amazing.

I did check out that fic you mentioned, "But Someone Must Bear the Yoke" by inkpot_demigod. I've read the first chapter, and it seems wonderful and beautifully written. The concept of the minotaur being literal is intriguing. But I don't see myself continuing the fic.

I don't engage much with the patho fandom as a whole, I rarely read the fics or look at the posts. I even have the tags filtered out on tumblr. Which is a shame this fandom seems much sweeter than more toxic ones I've been in, but that's just what I do when I started creating for any fandom. Be it memes or writing. I did it with Bg3 and mass effect.

All my impressions of the characters come from playing P1 and P2. Reading the wiki or old dev posts sometimes. It is isolating in a way I won't lie, but it solves a different problem my brain struggles with, and hey, if it works, it works. Part of me also dreads falling into their fanon versions and not being able to dig myself out, I had a completely different view on Isidor before discovering the fanon version, and now I just feel sad. No one in pathologic is completely without sin, and despite all of Isidor's actions, he held such immense love for his son. His only remaining son which was the reason his wife passed away, he could've loathed Artemy for his mother passing away in childbirth but he didn't. He adored him above everything. It is also sad that Artemy's older brother isn't mentioned more, especially since people from the town do remember him. Katerina confuses Artemy for Ersher in their first meeting.

However, two wonderful people in the fandom did reach out to me, and we talk on occasion. Sometimes, we share pathologic ideas, and I credit them for inspiration on the writing/posts they influence. Firebird and Torse.

I'm glad you liked that author's fic that much! Do leave them a comment and describe your thoughts, I'm sure it will cheer them up reading it. Maybe check some of their lesser known fics and comment there, too? I know it makes me sad when one of my fics blows up in a fandom, but my other ones get ignored. It almost makes me resent my popular fics. Popularity in a fandom is a double edge sword fr-

Me and the kids are doing wonderful! Baby worm is absolutely enamoured with baby tragedian and shares candy with their new sibling all the time! I peel oranges and cut fruits for them, i take them to the playground and push them on the swings. The world smiles with them, My two sons are more precious than all the stars in the sky.

On a serious note, thank you for sharing your beautiful art with me and showing it! I would've bever found it otherwise or been blessed with such an adorable concept. Yk, filtered patho tag and all. So really I'm happy you decided to show me directly.

If it's the idea of minotaur or bull Artemy you wanna talk about, then I'm down! However, my version will differentiate from the fic and will approach it in another light. Be it x reader, Daniil x Artemy or Aglaya x Artemy.

[riddlerosehearts]

time for more long-winded bg3 playthrough thoughts! this time with some musings on my tav elenion's backstory/characterization and his irrationally intense hatred of volo. i'm sure this really only matters to me, but: if something i say about elenion's backstory or personality in this post contradicts what i said in the first post where i talked about them, then whatever i'm saying now is what's correct. i didn't have very many fully formed ideas about them when i first started the game so i've been thinking a lot about them and deciding things as i've been going along.

i got spoiled on a lot of stuff about the companions but i know fuck all about the actual plot of this game outside that--like, before i started i honestly didn't even know the most basic plot element of your party coming together because you all have literal brainworms. so this stuff about true souls and cultists is just wild to me.

halsin makes it sound like you have to go through either the underdark or the mountain pass, but i really wanna explore both and i've heard that it is possible to do so in one playthrough. if i can think of how to justify that from a roleplay perspective then i might do it.

oh yeah, i guess we have volo in our camp since we saved him from the goblins. elenion really does not like him! they generally try not to show it when they interact with him, but they were having too much trouble hiding it here:

like, the dude just claimed to be an expert on mind flayers because he knows that they have tentacles. sure, and i'm an expert on cats because i know they have whiskers. and after this he offered to give them eye surgery with an ice pick when there is no way he has the qualifications to do that. get out of here with that lmao. i like volo because i think he's funny, though.

but that's not the main reason elenion dislikes volo. they dislike him because his work is filled with falsehoods and exaggerations and in their opinion he's just a liar who fancies himself a bard. not that elenion thinks there's anything wrong with writing fiction--he himself enjoys folklore and legends--but he's more of a historian and he thinks it's wrong to mess with actual events and blur the lines between fact and fiction the way volo obviously does. it's also wrong to brag about accomplishments and expertise that you do not actually have, especially when you're trying to claim you can get rid of mind flayer parasites. so yeah, volo makes elenion irrationally angry and they're probably ranting to gale or wyll about him after every interaction they have. there's a one-sided rivalry between them going on in his head.

the only good thing that volo could do for elenion would've been to sell them a lyre. but alas, this fool only has flutes and hand drums. what is he even in our camp for? 😔

(i still bought the flute and the hand drums just to try them out anyway. and if you play an instrument in camp while volo is around he starts whistling along, so i guess that's what he's good for!)

anyway, enough about elenion's hatred of volo! was not expecting gale to kneel down in front of them and had them put their hand over his heart the day after he told them his condition was too volatile for him to be with them. and then nobody acknowledges the absolutely insane connotations of doing that. okay.

and then he reveals a ton of other incredibly insane things! i've gotten shadowheart to give me a lot of info about her backstory as well. but unfortunately i already knew about a lot of both their stories because i let myself get spoiled lol. i thought i wouldn't get around to playing this game for months or even years (and would probably forget about most spoilers i'd heard by then) so i let my friend talk to me about whatever and didn't blacklist anything. i'm still enjoying actually seeing how everything plays out, though!

the fact that i waited as long as i did to go out and progress karlach's personal quest just makes the lie that "yesterday she butchered an entire family" hilarious to me, sorry. like she literally spent the entire day yesterday hanging out with the tiefling refugees from the grove. i know because i was there. also, i'm going to need to look up how this quest goes if you actually bring karlach along because i'm guessing you'd get pretty different dialogue... and i did not think of it until after i was already mid-battle, whoops.

WOW way to perfectly hit elenion with his worst insecurities. like, he has actual backstory reasons to really hate being called all 3 of these things 😭 and then she basically reads him like a book despite him trying so hard to hide all that. this is why he doesn't like her.

it uh, worked out though, i guess! she explained that she was wrong about him and i was so tempted to pick the option to call her a prickly grouch (not because i dislike lae'zel or even because i think my tav would say that out loud, but because it's hilarious). but i did not pick that. instead i had him ask if she was coming onto him and honestly i'm kind of shocked that she is?! i really did not think my approval with her was very high and also... he kind of already turned her down at the tiefling party?? and she said both here and at the tiefling party that she wanted to taste him and that rejecting her was his loss?? seems kind of redundant to get such similar dialogue twice tbh but i guess maybe the game is giving you another chance to be really sure you don't wanna romance lae'zel. that or the dialogue is glitched.

okay, because of this i checked my approval with everyone and somehow it's literally still only on medium with shadowheart but high with lae'zel. that feels backwards to me based on our previous interactions and the types of actions they each approve of so i'm genuinely not sure how that happened? oh well lol.

i don't think i like how the saving mayrina quest plays out... i won't go on too much about it but unless i missed something, my only options to complete the quest were to use a wand from ethel's workshop to resurrect her husband, which seems extremely stupid considering everything we just saw that made it way beyond obvious that messing with magic from a hag is going to be a bad idea--or to snap the wand in half right in front of her, which seems pointlessly cruel. i even used speak with dead on ethel's corpse to find out that she was actually going to eat the baby and i have no option to tell mayrina about that, or to just end the quest by comforting her without telling her about the wand. so idk. maybe choosing to bring her husband back will lead to something cool later on??

AND THEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER MAYRINA LEFT I HEARD MY TAV SAY "PERHAPS USING ETHEL'S WAND WASN'T THE BEST IDEA". ALSFDSFJG. NO SHIT. sorry lmao, but i did think that was a really cool and interesting quest for the most part.

anyway--i'm going to go to the mountain pass, even though i've heard people say that's the harder path, because it just makes more sense from a roleplay perspective to me? like i've currently been rejecting nearly every lead on a cure because all of these offers of help are coming from absolutely insane people like volo and auntie ethel and priestess gut. but the githyanki actually know shit about mindflayers and lae'zel seems trustworthy. and if i want to go through it and then double back to the underdark i can say that we were planning to check out the creche based on lae'zel's advice before going and doing what halsin said to do. or if the mountain pass is really too hard i can just ignore the roleplay in this one situation because it's not a real d&d campaign lol.

[dserpentes]

What is your favourite episode from Doctor Who? And why? What exactly made you feel interested in playing BG3? And what made you love it once you did?

Since I already answered the doctor who question on my last ask, I'll skip that!

But about Baldurs Gate... I've been playing mainly Dungeons and Dragons since 2019, and already tried a few other TTRPGs.

Being a avid player, and Baldurs Gate 3 using the same mechanics and being set in the Faêrun universe, just made me wanna try it a lot, to see how different it would be from the TTRPG itself!

Also having mentions to Neverwinter and Waterdeep that was where the first campaign I was, happened (though we never finish bc got canceled). And now playing in a Lost Mines of Phandelver, made me even more curious about it!

And as I played and saw just how big the world is, the amount of content, but especially the characters?? I couldn't not fall in love with it!!

I absolutely went into the game without expectations and was still blown away! I am playing my second and third run and still finding things out!! It's insane haha

And Larian is still making more content, sending patches and all of that... There is so much work and love put into it.

And then we cannot forget. I had no idea who to romance first and decided to go with the flow, and Gale was the first to come to me. And boy am I happy because he became my fave 🥺❤️

But all the characters were so well thought and fleshed out, there is so much to know about them and they are so unique in their own way!!

Not just that, but the fact that they also go a little bit against the stereotype of what their class should be, which makes them more interesting.

So... Yeah, a lot hahaha

[kirkwall]

ok time to do some personal life venting for a sec bc idk where else to do it and i gotta so i don't explode

may i just list things tormenting me on this fine sunday evening

caught a cold that is making me feel like all my life force was drained from me

have to go back to work tomorrow after 2 weeks sick leave and 1 week vacation

said vacation barely felt like a vacation bc i was constantly exhausted or in pain

perpetual tummy ache that has been haunting me for at least a month now

parents got back from vacation today and my dad is cranky over unimportant shit and is letting it out on me and my mom (this isn't even a case of regular shitty dad behaviour or sth, my dad is usually the most chill guy ever, this just happens to be his one cranky day of the year)

emotional vampire friend i purposefully haven't talked to in two months texts me and a friend today of all days with a long ass guilt-trippy text that i now have to deal with so she doesn't become suicidal over us not answering fast enough!

all i wanna do is play bg3 and further learn how to make mods bc this is the first thing in months i've felt genuine joy doing but everything is preventing me from doing so :)

[bimboficationblues]

do u have any video games on the backlog

sooo many, I haven't been gaming at all this year. I feel like work really sapped me of my desire to game for whatever reason. I just started playing Darkest Dungeon last week but at about Week 20 I'm like "oh yeah, I remember why I always drop off this game." hen you're making progress it's awesome, but when you have a rough mission it's sooo demoralizing. I am replaying the Mass Effect trilogy with my long-distance gf in the driver's seat for the dialogue/choices while I do the shooting, which is a hoot.

BG3 and Armored Core 6 both seem worth trying, but also like they'd demand a lot of time that I'd currently rather spend on other stuff.

I never finished Psychonauts 2 even though it was really fun, I'd like to revisit it. I really wanna play through the new Hitman trilogy, they're super fun but just have so much content that I find it overwhelming. Sitting on my shelf or in my Steam library are the Insomniac Spider-Man games, God of War Ragnarok, Deathloop, Outer Worlds, the RE4 and Dead Space remakes, some adventure games and roguelikes and Metroidvanias...but aside from those remakes it's mostly games that have been out for a while that I just never got around to. I feel like there haven't been a ton of games this year that I've been super jazzed to check out despite all the big titles.

[davidmariottecomics]

I'm 100 Hours in and I Still Don't Know if I Like Baldur's Gate

Hello there and welcome back! 

As the title suggests, I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 a lot recently. I picked it up slightly before starting my new job when I had a lot of free time and have continued to put in a few hours on some weeknights and weekends. I've been playing for around 100 hours, or right around 4 full days of my human life, and I still don't entirely know if I like this game. This week, I wanna talk a bit about why I both continue to have complicated feelings about this game and why I continue to play it, some games that I have grouped together as similar play experiences and why I have different reactions to them, and more generally, why all of this makes for making comics based off of games such a challenge that feels so rewarding if you manage to do it right. 

Baldin' the Gate First and foremost, let's talk about Baldur's Gate 3. It came out last year and has since won a number of notable game awards, received nearly universal good reviews from critics, received lots of praise from players, and has all the good indicators that it's a good game. I also have no idea what sort of presence it has in the public consciousness because while it's sold millions of copies and I see lots of fan art and my friends talking about playing and whatever, I also know that I particularly inhabit spaces for people who like games like this and in part because of it being new and in part because of it being an adaptation of a sort, I don't think it has entered the overall cultural osmosis in the same way as Mario or Sonic or Halo or Call of Duty or Overwatch or whatever.

How it plays is it's essentially single-player (or multiplayer if you have friends you want to connect with), Dungeons & Dragons. Literally D&D, it's a licensed game set in the official Wizards of the Coast D&D world. Like, they talk about Drizzt a couple times. Minsc, a character who was featured in some of the D&D comics I worked on, is playable later in the game. There're all your core mechanics digitized, including many of the things you do being determined by a "die roll." You can journey with a party of 4 companions--a number of whom are major pre-built characters and you can build your own guy and choose their specs in traditional D&D fashion and solve puzzles and charm your way around town and fight enemies and pickpocket people and all the D&D stuff you'd like to do. Kinda. We'll get to that in a moment. 

The last bit of table setting with this is you're on an epic journey with a couple possible end goals. Within limits, because there have to be limits to your options, you can self-determine how the game goes in a lot of ways. Technically, you don't have to play with any of the pre-build, story-involved companions. You can be evil. You can be good. You can choose to usually kill or choose to try to just knock people out. You can do what I do, misunderstand a prompt that was going to unlock a character to your party, and accidentally have them get killed in the fight because they weren't one of your guys (whoops). Again, one of the things that is really rightfully praised in this game is that you can experience it for so long and whatever way makes sense to you. 

But that's also the rub, at least for me, and why I'm still struggling to decide whether or not I really like BG3. I personally often feel the two competing forces at the core of the game: To be D&D like, it needs to give you options for how to play it and tries really hard to cast a wide net to do so, but simultaneously, for you to actually progress the story, you do need to play by the rules of the programming and stay relatively "on rails".

For example, one of the items you can acquire in game is rope. And, while at some point it might've had more reason to be in the game, in the final product, you can't actually do anything with it other than sell it, I guess. But I didn't realize that, so I spent a good amount of time in my early game acquiring rope, sure I'd need it at some point. Finally, say 8-10 hours in or so, I forget what exactly it was, but there was some issue where I figured rope was the way to go! Like, it'd let me climb up and down from somewhere without being hurt or I'd be able to use it as a lasso for a far off lever or something. But, I couldn't use it for anything and had to look it up and discover, nope, you just can't use rope apparently. And while I figured it out otherwise, it became very apparent in that moment the limitations of the game for the ways in which I would usually engage with this type of gameplay and storytelling in a different medium.

When you apply that to the actual story decisions though, it can be really frustrating. There're a number of places where I've gotten into a conversation and none of the options even come close to how I'd otherwise approach the situtation. Again, I get why they have to be limited in that way, it's a programmed game and not my friend who can roll with my unique character decisions, but there are times when it just feels so limiting. Keeping it vague, but SPOILERS for this game: There's a companion in the game who I think is really compelling. And to my understanding, there are like 4 ways their story can resolve and none of them is particularly good, which feels bad because I want this person to have a happy ending. For as much as I can recognize the why, it doesn't change my emotional reaction to that being the case. 

So, I like a lot of the storytelling. I like a lot of the decisions available to me. I largely find the actual play mechanics fun, even if there're things I'd like to tackle a different way. I like just how big the game is and I find it appealing that by the nature of the game and the branching decision paths, you can find different ways to play it. But I don't know that once I finish this playthrough, I will come back.

Persona 5tar Rail

I like video games. Cool. Great. I am not personally someone who tends to put 100+ hours into a game--certainly not a single playthrough. I tend to like shorter games and games where I can dip in and out. If a game's working for me, I'll put a good chunk of time in. But--and recognizing that there are probably some games that've lost time in not syncing properly or the account being on multiple computers over a number of years or whatever--I just went through my Steam library and of those 270 games, BG3 is the only one I've put in over 2 days on. Most of the games that I've played, I haven't cracked 20 hours on. Most of the games, generally, I haven't cracked 20 minutes on. Getting me to invest so much time on a game is really rare. 

But two games that instant came to mind when I was thinking about BG3 and it's replayability and how that affects my experience playing it are games I've also put a stupid amount of time into: Persona 5 and Honkai Star Rail. While P5 and HSR are closer to each other than BG3, they do all have a fair amount of overlap. They're all modern roleplaying games where you've got a party of four characters that you take through fantastical worlds and solve puzzles with and battle with and have interesting stories. As I think I've talked about before on this blog, Persona 5 might--despite some flaws--be my favorite video game. If I'm pretty hesitant to put 20 hours into a game, it must speak strongly to how much I like P5 that I've put in almost 200 hours across two playthroughs (one of P5 and one of P5 Royal). 

One of the things that really works for me with Persona 5 is that I know each playthrough will be different, but not radically so. While there's a decent amount of flexibility in decision making in Persona 5, most of it is about choosing how you spend your time. There are certain things you want to do to progress the game to it's "true ending", but in terms of building your stats and your relationships and determining what to do when and how, it's wide open specificially because the actual ticking clock mechanic has such clear goal posts that you know you are on rails toward an endgame and can dig into how you want to play it in the meantime. It's a weird sensation, but because the limitations are clearer for what you can do and when, it removes a lot of the burden of "is this choice going to propel me forward in the way that I want with the game" and becomes "this choice matters only in so much as it reflects what I wanted to do and will ultimately fall into place for how I played the game this time." To me, that's more freeing, I guess. More compelling. Because I know how I like to play the game, and because that's how the game kinda wants you to play it, it feels like we're working in unison and each time I revisit is to see what I had missed before and how I can track different experiences to the same conclusion. 

Honkai Star Rail, meanwhile, is this middleground between the two. Similar to P5, to play the story of the game, everyone's going to have a pretty similar experience. The differences come in what characters are available to you and because it's a live-service game (that is to say, a game that is constantly updating), what limited time events you choose to partake in. It doesn't have the same social webbing structure as BG3 or P5--there isn't the same ability to chose to be good or bad or to ignore certain relationships in the same way. And I think that is a big part of why I haven't kept up and I find games like this so hard to come back to. I was an early adopter and I played a lot and I got caught up and now there've been a number of updates since my last real play session, and I feel like because there's now so much more that I could do, I'm overwhelmed with the options of trying to catch up, while also knowing that even if I do, I'll only hit the end of the current update, and not the end of the game. HSR has no replayability from the beginning, really, because you want to continue what you've started because the game's continuing in your absence. 

Okay, so Comics!

The parallel I can draw to comics is so while they're all pretty different, the similarities of BG3, P5, and HSR have created a grouping in my mind. I am taken on all three with the worlds that're created, I enjoy fan art of them, I get the same sort of satisfaction from how they control because that style of gaming is something that I like. But 100+ hours into each, I have a very different emotional response that changes how I want to interact with it going forward. I just want to finish BG3 and if this is my one playthrough, that's probably fine. I spent less than $1/hour of game. I know at some point in the probably not-too-distant future I'll revisit P5 (maybe I'll use it for some Japanese practice...). And I'll continue to check in with HSR because I feel like I've put a lot into it and I want to like it as much as I did at the start, but I really don't know that I can recapture the magic until it's done. And if that doesn't sound like the comics reading experience, I don't know what does! 

BG3 is a series that I'm invested in, and keep picking up, even though there's part of me that just wants to bail because it isn't bad, but it isn't quite what I want it to be. P5 is... I dunno. Young Justice. Crisis on Infinite Earths. Secret Wars II. The sort of dumb thing that I want to revisit over and over and over again, because each time I do, between me and the game/book, I find something different and new in a familiar comfort. And HSR is a book that I dug and missed an issue and it isn't easy to track down, so now I have to decide whether I dedicate that time to going back or if I wait for the trade and maybe to deal with a bit of redundancy or if I just let it go because I liked it, but maybe not enough. 

All of which is part of why I think it can be so difficult to translate video games into comics. I'm spending all this time deliberating over how to experience the story--what decisions I want to make and what decisions I have the ability to make, ultimately do I as an individual think I can revisit and make different decisions or am I just going to play basically the same because that's how I interact with the medium--which is something that comics storytelling doesn't really afford you. Not to say there aren't comics where you do have more input, but for the most part, you experience the story as presented to you because that's how the team wanted it.

I asked the question a lot working on Sonic, why would you want to read Sonic, when you can play a Sonic game? And if the characters are compelling and you feel like you're adding to the world and you truly want to engage in the sort of storytelling that only comics can to, that makes it a unique medium from something like games, you can probably find something. But you have to overcome that gap for a player who might be interested, because while both comics and games have plotted content, the difference of how the reader/player is engaged makes a world of difference. 

I hope that all makes sense. And if not... hey, I'll revisit this sometime! See ya next week! 

New Releases this week (2/7/24): Godzilla Valentine's Day Special (Editor - IDW)

New Releases next week (2/14/24):  None

Announcements: Happy Black History Month! This week, I want to spotlight N.K. Jemisin! I finally started The City We Became this week and I'm already really liking it. She also wrote the first story in Out There Screaming, the horror anthology from last year that I've talked about here before and that I really loved. She wrote Far Sector, a DC Green Lantern book that's quickly becoming one of my big recommendations for"a standalone Big 2 superhero book that shows you why superhero comics are actually pretty fun! She is becoming a favorite writer of mine and is one of the modern names in science fiction, fantasy, and horror that I think you should know! 

Usually, this is where I plug my Patreon! And I still will because you can *usually* read this blog there, get cool bonus stuff including some free comics and, at higher levels, stuff like podcasts, sneak peeks at things I'm working on, and more! BUT, Patreon's also not working right for me at the moment. I'm troubleshooting it now, but there's a slight delay in things going up, sorry! 

You can also check out my webstore where I'm sold out of Transformers vs. the Terminator (wow!) and have a very limited stock on everything else, my Kofi (I updated the Anti-AI Zine--Pay what you want for a brief, printable explainer on why AI sucks!), and Becca's site (still pending a new update, sorry)!

Bluesky is now publicly open! You no longer need an invite to join. You can find my account here. You can find a bunch of other cool people through my follow list! And there's a really good skeet going around with a bunch of helpful block lists for not dealing with dummies on the site! 

I mentioned last week that we're finally firming up plans for our wedding after a lot of back and forth and exploration on what makes the most sense. We've landed on some stuff we're happy with and will be sharing our registry soon (maybe later today???), if you'd like to contribute! 

What I enjoyed this week: Nancy (Comic), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Baldur's Gate III (Video Game), Blank Check (Podcast), Solve This Murder (Podcast), The City We Became (Book), The Sopranos (TV show), The Afterparty (TV show), Rent (Movie), getting some wedding planning done, Becca and I did an early Valentine's Day yesterday and I'm glad we had the chance to do that for ourselves. 

Pic of the Week: Here's a very cute picture of Becca from our date yesterday at SUR, the restaurant from Vanderpump Rules.