#just setting some guidelines for clarification

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Mr Gaiman!

I'm not usually one to speak up about things like this but I came across this today and am just genuinely curious:

I saw this post on Instagram earlier- this artist seems to be working in collaboration with some part of Amazon? They state somewhere in the comments that it took them 11 days to make, therefore this was not something completed before the strike, presumably.

Does this go against strike guidelines? I commented, simply out of genuine curiosity. Someone replied saying they believed it was withing the guidelines. As I went to thank them for responding and mention something I remember reading off of your blog I couldn't post my reply as both of our comments were deleted. Just made me suspicious and therefore wanted some clarification if you are so inclined. I know guidelines vary for those outside of the guilds. Thanks for your time and all you do!

Set builders, miniature makers, production designers and other such talented folk are not on strike, no. They aren't in the WGA or SAG-AFTRA.

[brucewaynehater101]

As someone who is partly deaf, I love that deaf Tim stuff. But hear me out for something that could work for either of them. What if on complete accident when both the Bats and Rouges hear about Tim's disability, the Rouges are the ones who do a better job with not looking down on Tim. Yes they add things to help him, like for Deaf Tim Joker would also use ASL as he monologs to make sure that Tim can understand him or with Blind Tim Riddler makes puzzle rooms themed around telling the difference in textures or he reads all the riddles out loud.

Meanwhile the Bats are. They *tried* ok? But they keep over compensating because they worry about Tim. Unlike the Rouges who don't pull their punches, during training the Bats do start pulling punches and going a little easier on Tim. Dick keeps trying to do things for Tim that Tim knows he can do. Bruce keeps taking him off cases that involve in person investigation. Damian keeps saying things about how all tasks should be left to him because clearly he's the superior one (if it's early Damian, later on when they're on better terms he wouldn't be as assholish about it but also keeps trying to take over tasks for Tim)

I'm really really glad that you vibed with the AU.

As far as your additions, I 100% agree. Having "good intentions" for people can still be harmful and frustrating. That's why, in these AUs, Tim tries to hide his disability until he's able to prove his efficiency. It's dealer's choice whether the Bats choose to acknowledge the evidence or are still doubting his capabilities.

I think the fic from the OG post has a scene where Babs, Cass, and Tim meet up to discuss the microaggressions they face from the Bats due to their respective disabilities. The sequel definitely has cute interactions between Damian and Tim. Damian refuses for anyone to treat his "rival" as weak or incapable. Peak siblings energy.

The funny part I find about this would be the Rogues accommodating Tim's disabilities just so they can defeat him. If Joker learned ASL for Tim, he'd probably research the hell out of how to look intimidating and scary while doing it (since, depending on Tim's hearing loss, Joker can't effectively utilize the vocal tone skills he's trained to be terrifying). Riddler would treat it as another puzzle and mental exercise (his Riddles would likely increase in accessibility for multiple disabilities as time progresses. He wants to challenge folks by their thinking abilities, not by their ability to test within the constraints placed on them. Perhaps, after his research and new implementations, he even starts targeting schools that unfairly places confines on their students [from both a socioeconomic standpoint and from improper accommodations]).

Anyways, I would love a fic that highlights some of the Bats' treatment of Tim and how not to interact with folks of different disabilities. Stuff like infantilizing, doing tasks for the person without permission, assuming what someone can handle, and disregarding them. It'd be cool to watch Tim try open communication (asking boundaries and what level of assistance the person desires) with all of them. For some, that's all that's needed. They have a clear guideline of "that shit was not okay" and the lines of communication are open for them to ask clarification in the future. For others, they listen to Tim, agree to change, and still pull that shit. I personally vote for Tim getting petty.

I feel like Babs and Cass would be the ones to understand the most that Tim can do anything he sets his mind to (he's so incredibly stubborn that he'd probably even be able to steal LexCorp from Luthor if he was motivated enough. He most likely even has plans already drawn for it ready to implement at any point). Duke would probably understand how others' perceptions of Tim affect him.

I also kill for Tim utilizing WE resources to bring aid and accommodations based on more specific audiences (such as how kids in the foster system, LGBT youth, and those with disabilities [both mental and physical] disportionately make up the homeless population).

I'm rambling a bit because sociology is a passion of mine. I'd get a higher education on the subject if I had the money.

Anyways, I love considering such perspectives in fanfiction. Let me know if there's other stuff I should add to this AU!

[brainwasheds]

— i've been asked abt sharpening a few times but i thought that i would just share my actual actions i use but with some guidelines because it can really differ between different video sources and no sharpening is always exactly the same

— i've included different examples of video sources that i use for gifs alongside each type of sharpening action because not all actions will work for every gif. while it's always a matter of preference (whether u prefer a softer/more sharpened gif) some sharpenings can whitewash a gif so i added a little question mark as a warning to be mindful of that and make adjustments! — there are three (technically four) different actions. one is ultra hd sharp and works best on really good quality footage such as master mvs or good film/show footage! the second is a simple sharpening that can be used on all videos and the third is a softer sharpening that utilises the diffuse setting and it has a glowy option w blur as well! — take a look below at how the sharpenings look on different videos 💙

💌 MASTER/BUGS/BLU-RAY VIDEOS video source: here (gdrive) file size: 2gb

💌 4K YOUTUBE VIDEO video source: here (yt) file size: 470mb

💌 1080HD OR LESS VIDEO video source: here (yt) file size: 77mb

💌 TS FILE video source: here (k24hrs + dm for password!) file size: 3.21gb video specifications: qtgmc 60fps preprocesser + bm3d denoise (2)

💌 GOING SEVENTEEN because it varies so much it requires an example of its own video source: here (yt) file size: 606mb

YOU CAN FIND THE SHARPENINGS HERE <3 if you ever need any help or clarification feel free to ask!! no need for credit if you use, but of course please don't claim the actions as your own <3

[archivalofsins]

Oh yeah, I was talking about this with friends yesterday and concluded that Shidou never goes home in Triage. He's still at the hospital just pretending he went home. There are also shots in Throw Down that show that the outside of the hospital he works at literally looks like where he's walking in Triage.

Post has been edited to fix spelling errors, add read more, and information for clarification. Edited: 02/27/24 3:17pm EST

Something Shidou purposely tries to hide as he quickly cuts away from these angles in Throw Down. Favoring showing off more barren areas like this.

The inside of the hospital is shown to have the same handrail on the wall that he walks past in Triage when he arrives home. The tile floor is spaced exactly the same as it is within the hospital as is seen in his makeshift home in Triage.

The tile wall literally turns into a window when he touches it.

Plus, literally no one else's second trial music videos have completely excluded where they committed their crimes. That's even counting prisoners like Mahiru and Futa whose mental spaces were entirely warped from what they experienced over the course of the last intermission. Even still their music videos followed a similar pattern to their first ones.

Even the train Mikoto (John) is seen in throughout Double is prominently shown in MeMe. Shidou's video is the same in this regard. Calling back to his previous one, which allows the viewer to discern between the discrepancies and figure out where he actually is, at some points.

For example, the plants outside of his house are reminiscent of the ones seen in the greenhouse during Throw Down. The shot of the greenhouse and his front door are almost the same.

Except we're seeing from Shidou's perspective.

This could be why the message machine for his house picks up near the beginning. To fully illustrate that regardless of what he tells/shows us he is currently not at fucking home. He's just not there and never went there.

Hell, even if that was his cellphone voice mail that's even more damning. Considering that from the beginning, we've been shown the use of phones is prohibited in his workspace.

Reformation of the Japanese Guidelines for cellular phone use in hospitals (August 2015)

New guidelines ease restrictions on cellphone use at hospitals (August 19, 2014)

Chiba University Hospital How to spend your time during hospitalization

Something that is common for hospitals around the world.

At least, I believe that's what this sign means. However, it could mean something else. It doesn't look like it's very cellphone friendly, though.

UPDATE

@doctorbunny has informed me about what this sign reads. In the older version of Throw Down on the Milgram App this sign was in color and clearly read.

おしずかに 通話禁止 please set to silent mode oshizuka = silent/silence ni = marks silence as the target (IE set _ to silent) tsuuwa = telephone call kinshi = prohibited So, set your phone to silent, phone calls not allowed. (Because operations are going on.)

So, yeah calls are prohibited in this area. Plus this confirms the area that he is in throughout Throw Down is one where operations are actively being held.

Oh, and as a kicker, we've seen what this man's home actually looks like.

It is far less extravagant than the presentation he shows us in Triage. I'm not saying that anyone even believed he went home. Because honestly why would he have mausoleum for his victims attached to his house. What we see in Triage at least to me is clearly an artistic rendention of his work place and showcases how he views it as his personal organ collecting spot.

Then, to add insult to injury, here's the scene mirroring this one from Triage showing us when he's actually home through the lighting and the repetition of body language.

I mean he's better at hiding it than most but not by much.

Other moments that parallel Throw Down in Triage highlighting that we are more than likely still at the hospital and never left.

The metal bars in his kitchen call back to those around the greenhouse.

The place he eats in as well within Throw Down.

And this part of Triage directly calls back to the climax of Throw Down.

[fluffyfebruary]

Fluffy February 2025 Guidelines

Hello everyone!  The prompts are up so that you have time to prep!

Guidelines:

Have fun! Most important!

Feel free to add your own spin on any of the prompts. They are the seed; let it grow into whatever beautiful fluffy work you wish.

Even though this is being done during February with Valentine's Day and all, Fluffy February doesn't require romance. Platonic fluff is good too. Friends, family, and self-fulfillment are all good things to write about -- remember, fluff is meant to generate good feelings. Fluff is for everyone.

Do the prompts you want. Forget the rest. Participants can submit to all or just one of the prompts.

Multiple submissions for the same day’s prompt are gladly accepted and vigorously applauded.

All fandoms are welcome.

All original works are welcome, too!

Keep it fluffy. Fluff can be a broad category. But this challenge is not for angst, horror, hurt without comfort, etc.

Art and podfic are also accepted for submissions.

OCs are always welcome and encouraged.

Tag your submissions with @fluffyfebruary so the admins can find and reblog posts onto this blog.

Also, please make use of tags and/or the Mature Community Label and/or the "Read More" cut if you have content that is not suitable to be read in a work setting. Please tag appropriately, and please don't get your fellow participants fired. @fluffyfebruary will not reblog anything that has adulty content without some sort of warning.

Feel free to cross post fic to AO3. An AO3 collection will be created for those that would like to submit to that as well.

If you have questions regarding any of these guidelines please feel free to submit DMs or asks for clarification. There are no dumb questions.

Have fun!

[euthymiya]

RULES — please make sure to read these before following me!

here are some basic guidelines i’d like to set in place so that we can have a smooth, bump free time here! if i add any rules, i’ll reblog this post as needed but please make sure to follow them!

— this blog is unwelcome to any type of discrimination such as (but not limited to) racism, sexism, ableism or homophobia. do not interact if you are pro israel!!!!

— please keep in mind that this is an 18+ blog. there will be sfw writing that minors are free to interact with, but my mature content and my blog itself is an adult only space. only 18+ individuals with ages indicated may follow!

— i support aging up characters and creation of any and all dark content. any dark content i might create or reblog will be tagged with: cw [trigger]

— please don’t repost or translate my works anywhere. i don’t have wattpad or any other blog, so my works should not be cross posted anywhere besides my ao3 that is also euthymiya. if you find my works anywhere else, please let me know! and please do not feed my fics into ai or create bots based around them. i heavily disagree with the usage of ai regarding the arts, and it makes me very uncomfortable

— this blog is also not spoiler free. i will not be tagging my posts for spoilers unless it’s newly released episodes or chapters, as i find the idea tedious. please keep this in mind when following for fandoms you’re not caught up on!

— feel free to send in asks and chat with me! i ask that you don’t get into any heavy or traumatic topics as i’d like to keep all interactions friendly and lighthearted

— i hope i can avoid this as much as possible, but i softblock to break a mutual. if you’re unsure whether you were softblocked or if it was a glitch (i know that happens sometimes) feel free to ask to clarify but please don’t ask for an explanation. just a clarification to double check for the sake of boundaries is okay but nothing more! though i try to avoid hardblocks, i will hardblock if you refollow after a softblock or ask why

— i don’t necessarily take requests, but i’m not opposed to ideas or thirsts in my inbox, so feel free to share any writing or concepts you’d like to see from me!

— as far as thirsts go, i don’t really have any hard no’s that i feel needs to be listed besides daddy/mommy kinks. if i’m not interested in writing your thirst the worst i will do is just ignore it so feel free to send it in! but please do not send the same thirst or idea to me and another writer. that’s a very uncomfortable predicament to put us both in, so please be respectful and pick one writer!

that’s all! thank you for reading and please make sure to keep my boundaries in mind when interacting and hopefully we can all have a good time together ;)

[book--brackets]

Welcome to the now various book competitions I run!

Current Competition (Best Childhood Book #5) Masterpost

Hello! This initially started as Best Childhood Book, but I now also run Best Childhood World and Best Fantasy Book. Competitions run on a schedule of BCB > BCW > BFB with submissions opening occasionally to fill spots.

Since we need some clarification, the definition of childhood book in this competition is as follows: a book people read in childhood that must be for a YA age group or younger and has chapters. There is a difference between “children’s” book and “childhood” book. ANY book that met those requirements could be submitted, as I am striving to keep my personal opinion out of this competition for the most part. This definition will not change for the foreseeable future.

This masterpost will be updated with links to all the polls regularly, and each poll will last 7 days. If you vote, reblog if you can so more people can vote, and feel free to campaign for your personal favorite if you want!

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD BOOKS (320/320)

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD WORLDS (192/192)

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN FOR FANTASY BOOKS (298/320)

Please submit with the name of the book and the author. Check the lists to see if anything has been submitted before trying yourself. If a book is part of a series, it will be listed under the series name (i.e. The Lightning Thief > Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Golden Compass > His Dark Materials). You can find the current list of childhood books here. A world will be listed with its series, and you can find the current list of worlds here. You can find the current list of fantasy books here.

Poll links and rules under the cut

Help decide parameters for submissions with some fringe cases: recently published YA, adult books lots of children/teens read, retelling worlds

First Competition (here)

Second Competition (here)

Third Competition (here)

Fourth Competition (here)

BCW First Competition (here)

BFB First Competition (here)

Rules/Guidelines

3 books per submission!

Submissions for Childhood Books

Must be a middle grade or young adult book

Must have chapters

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Submissions for Childhood Worlds

Must be the setting of a middle grade or young adult book.

Must be either a whole other world (i.e. Narnia, Panem), a setting largely separate from our own world (i.e. Hogwarts, Camp Half-Blood), or a specific setting within our own world that is invented for the purpose of that book (i.e. 221B Baker Street, Ferryport Landing)

Main characters have to have visited this place

Cannot be somewhere that already exists in our world outside that book

Submissions for Fantasy Books

Must be listed as 'fantasy' or some fantasy subgenre within the first three genres on Goodreads or Storygraph

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Must have chapters but can otherwise be for any age range

Polls

Be respectful (no hate, no harassment, I will block you)

I'm totally okay with spam reblogs; if you want to subject your followers to seventeen copies of a poll, you do you

If you're trying to get my attention about something, @ me or submit an ask, there's no guarantee I'll see all the reblogs

In preliminary polls, if a title gets less than 2% of the vote it will be removed from the list

Propaganda

Submit it to me as an ask; I won't be reblogging personal posts or reblogs of the polls

Promote the book you're supporting; it's okay to poke fun at the other books, but please don't attack them or the authors

Only ONE (1) propaganda post per user per book. I really don't want to clog people's dashes with sixty posts about voting for a single book

Asks

Be respectful, not just to me but to all the people who will end up seeing that ask when I post it

If you're asking about a poll or a rule or anything else, please check and see if it's in this post or elsewhere

Try to keep things focused on the competition/books

Competition Hall of Fame

Childhood Books First Competition: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Childhood Books Second Competition: Animorphs by K. A. Applegate

Childhood Books Third Competition: Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Childhood Books Fourth Competition: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Childhood Worlds First Competition: 35 Portland Row from Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Fantasy Books First Competition: The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Rulebook June 6th 2024 Update and Changelog

It’s the first Thursday of the first month of us doing a regular patreon rulebook update on the first Thursday of every month, and that means a major update!

It has been so nice to be able to finally work on the rulebook again instead of doing nothing but Kickstarter prep and promotion, and man have I been hard at work. Last week, if you count my A.N.I.M. job and my “normal” job, the shortest workday I had was 9 hours and several of them were 14 hours. At least I enjoy both jobs!

We have started getting more art into the rulebook, and getting those stretch goals taken care of. One stretch goal (the forgery rules) has already been added in full, with another stretch goal about 75% done, plus a complete overhaul of how Chase Scenes work and a whole new mechanic for determining how the police react to the actions of the PCs. Now, as the PCs are investigating crimes, if they’re not careful, the police could be investigating their crimes in the background too!

In addition to all the changes from the changelog below, we now have new and improved character sheets, and the Eureka adventure module “FORIVA: The Angel Game” is now fully finished, not counting the artwork, but that is going to get its own post.

Here is the full changelog! Remember, you can get a copy of this beta version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, along with three adventure modules, two short stories, and a novella, all for just $5 on our patreon page. And there’s no better time to do so, because of the Gorgon Initiative! Long story short, the playable gorgon monster type is a Kickstarter stretch goal we didn’t hit, but if we can reach 50 total patreon subscribers before the end of June, we’re going to be adding it to the book anyway! At the time of writing this, we’re at 41/50! You could make the difference, and get all this new Eureka content to boot!

CHAPTER 1

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

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

Copy-edited Foreword

A few minor clarifications in the Making Rolls section

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

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

CHAPTER 2

Added the Forgery skill to write-in skills

Many new snoops have been added. 

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

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

Added Skateboard to item list. 

Added four-wheeler to item list. 

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

Adjusted the Driving bonus of motorcycles and dirtbikes.

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

Started copy-editing this chapter.

CHAPTER 3

Added vehicle crashes to irregular forms of damage section

Tiny tweak to Drowning/Suffocation rules.

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

Completely revamped the way that Speed is calculated. 

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

Added an optional rule for bringing an end to chases 

Added vehicle attack rules for use during car chases

Added more guidelines for how to make your own obstacles

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

Added the work-in-progress random obstacle tables

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

Vehicle Urban Chase Obstacles table is finished but not edited

On-Foot Wilderness Chase Obstacles table is finished but not edited. 

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

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

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

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

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

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

Gave Acceleration of +6 to Superhuman Speed trait

Gave vampire small bat manifestation +2 Acceleration

Gave vampire wolf manifestation +4 Acceleration 

Gave vampire massive bat beast manifestation +4 Acceleration

Gave wolfman wolf form +4 Acceleration

Gave lycanthrope wolf form +4 Acceleration

Added ability to resist curses to fairy and witch

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

Added a tiny bit about the fairy world

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

Stay tuned for a post about "FORIVA: The Angel Game", a terrifying Eureka adventure module, soon!

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

Beta Copies through the Patreon

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

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

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

Other Stuff

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

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

[alterbox]

for rule 1, for clarity, where does a traumaendo with DID lay? don't wanna assume and break any rules.

i honestly have no clue what exactly this entails, which is why i say the blog is CDD system / traumagenic exclusive ^^. that is the only side of this community i have awareness of. i haven't heard this term before and did not consider it until now.

from looking up the term briefly, i think i'd say that if you A) are still a DID system & B) still feel that the trauma you had was crucial to your development as a system, as per the TOSD, & C) would personally be comfortable having the userbox made by a blog that typically only serves traumagenic systems... go for it...?

i do not engage in syscourse and the reason for those guidelines is that i am not aware of terminology or experiences outside of the traumagenic CDD community. thus, i do not feel equipped to make any userboxes about those experiences, and i presume there are better blogs for doing so. so in the end, i think it comes down to the contents of the box itself — if you think it could reasonably also be requested and used by a purely traumagenic DID system, feel free to send it in. (clarification: this only stands because the asker is still a DID system and this term seems (?) to indicate some tie to trauma forming a system; i'm not totally sure. this is not a standard i would set for a system without a CDD. even if you are making a request that would not typically be distinguishable as such. i still ask that this is respected.)

sooo... yes. if i am correct that this term means you identify as both traumagenic and endogenic, so long as you still do identify with the traumagenic label and have a CDD, for the medical reasons established for having one (the TOSD,) you're fine to request, unless you wouldn't want to request from me. if the request you send leans heavily into terminology and experiences that tie not to being traumagenic but to something else, i will just direct you elsewhere.

and a disclaimer, because i have had issues with this before: when i say that i do not engage in syscourse, this is not an invitation to try to convince me one way or the other. i will not do syscourse on this blog, ever, but my personal decision to not align myself with the debate is an active choice, not a thing i am waiting for someone to come fix. in the end, this is just a userbox blog, and i want to operate it as such. n_n.

[laikaflash]

Newish lioden player. What's up w the rumble marking drama?

I've been playing since 2018, so I'll set the scene. Strap in.

Before we had the Rumble markings, there were some new features added to the May event in 2019. This was a huge month for updates, the relevant ones here being a "Reputation Shop" for both of the storyline NPCs where you can get Brawl and Inverted Brawl marking applicators. These were the first app markings made for this event, and you can see in the responses to this announcement post that they got a fairly warm reception at the time.

Note that Brawl has a very busy and squiggly look to it. Put a pin in that. (I swear I've seen similar textures on foam gym mats. I'm not sure if that's what they were going for, though.)

Then came May 2020. Among other things, the Rumble marking applicator was introduced to the game. It has a similar look to Brawl, but with a somewhat jagged look. A few days in, there's a rash of threads in the forums about Rumble, the most serious thing mentioned in them by far was that the marking was a potential seizure risk. Some players brought it up in the announcement thread a few days into the event.

How is that possible, you may ask. Well, let me make this clear: I am not a neurologist and I've never had a seizure in my life. I'm not the person to ask about photosensitive epilepsy (or any other type); I'm just describing things as best as I understand them. From what I can find, there is ongoing research into why high contrasting patterns in still images may trigger seizures in some people with PSE. (Medical News Today has more technical info here.)

In any case, the seizure concerns got the admins' attention. On May 4 that year, the Rumble marking was hidden from view and the applicator removed from the shop. Forum threads about the marking were locked and players advised to refrain from making any more about it. (Source) The next day, the admins made a statement:

Today, we sought legal clarification over the marking. We have been advised that we are compliant and meet all legal requirements and there is no reason that the marking should be removed from the game or that any additional warning notice needs to be given out. Additionally, the marking itself was not flagged as a typical risk. [...] We must ask that if you have noticed any adverse effects while accessing Lioden at any point, to discontinue use of the site immediately and seek medical help from a physician.

(Bolding theirs! Excerpts from Rumble Marking Clarification)

With that, Rumble was reinstated with some faded effects added presumably to make it less harsh on a contrasting base. Lioden operates in the UK, so I think these are the guidelines they're trying to adhere to. However, those are mostly about video content and the May event doesn't have any animations as of yet. (And for the ones that do, you can toggle the animations off.)

But that wasn't enough for some people. Some of the players had already telephone-gamed the whole thing into "DANGEROUS MARKING AT ANY OPACITY" with the growing vibe of "If you have Rumble/Brawl lions, you're evil". Note the reminder of the section of the game's TOS against threatening, harassment; etc. in that same clarification post. This shit was nasty enough that I thought I could get dogpiled just for selling the applicators, so I buried them for a time. (You have no idea how relieved I was to find anyone this December with this marking app on their wishlist.)

You are reading this right: a year after Brawl was introduced, it got lumped in with Rumble. If memory serves, one of the game's artists was also scapegoated because of course that happened.

Finally, on May 8, the marking censor was added as part of a development update. (Announcement here.) This setting allows players to hide any marking they wish from their view without affecting gameplay for anyone else. That should do it, right?

Even then, the hostility didn't completely end there. Short of the entire art team leaving, I don't know what some of these people really wanted here. On a game that has around 2000 players online most of the day, I can't ascertain how many were adversely affected by the Rumble marking that week, but under the circumstances, I think the admins did the best they could. I wouldn't put this incident on the same level of Cyber Soldier Porygon. It was a shock at the time, but ye gods did some people take it too far.

And that's why I grit my teeth every time I see a "RUMBLE/BRAWL FREE DEN" message after having seen loads of garish customized den designs after all this time. Fortunately, you can toggle those off too.

[trans-luis-serra-navarro]

FAQ for #serennedyprideweek!! [June 23rd-June 30th!!]

—

☆ What’s the sign-up process for this event?

There is none!! Just post your piece into the tags #serennedyprideweek whenever you’re able to!!

☆ What kind of mediums are allowed for this event?

Everything and anything is allowed!!! Traditional art, digital art, fanfiction, edits, gifs, collages, colour palettes etc etc!!! This event is designed to inspire creativity so go ahead and go nuts with your skills!!

☆ What if I’m late or miss a day?

There is absolutely NO set schedule for this event!! The week can be treated as just a vague guideline- you can submit your prompts a MONTH late, and I’ll still reblog them!!! Don’t stress about being on time, just have fun!

☆ Do I have to follow the prompts to a T/Do I have to do all three?

Absolutely not!! You don’t even have to follow the prompts at all if you don’t want to!! They’re just there to inspire creativity, so feel free to warp them, do one or all three, combine them, or completely ignore them as you desire!!

☆ Will NSFW content be allowed?

Unfortunately, NSFW content will not be allowed in this event as to make this event as accessible for everybody involved as possible!! I understand this may be disappointing to some, but adults cannot consent to minors potentially viewing NSFW content and vice-versa, so this is the safest option for everybody involved!!

With that being said however, content that may be considered sexual in heteronormative society but isn’t inherently sexual and/or is inherent to Pride and Queer history is allowed, such as Kink gear, Female-Presenting nipples, nudity, etc!

Now for some of the more technical questions:

☆ Will this event be hosted on other sites?

Nope!! This is a tumblr-exclusive event, meaning I will not be hosting this on sites such as Twitter or Discord!! Any similar events made elsewhere are not monitored by me!!

In saying that though, you are perfectly free to post your content wherever you like, as it is yours and yours only!!

☆ Are you in any way associated with any previous Serennedy Ship Week events?

Nope, I am not!!! I don’t know the people behind those previous events, but this event is essentially a one-man band hosted by @wisecrackingeric-2 !! I have friends who’ve offered to help behind the scenes, but that’s it!!

Any similar events pop up around the same time, you are more than welcome to join those instead if you’d prefer, as this is a community event, and nobody owns an idea!!!

However, if you see anybody impersonating me and hosting this exact event elsewhere, that is not me, so please let me know!!

☆ Why have Anon Asks and Messages been turned off?

Truthfully, I don’t know!! Tumblr is an incredibly finnicky site, and oftentimes features simply just don’t work like they’re supposed to on side-blogs, which is the case for mine, so I apologise for the inconvenience!! If you need to contact me for an emergency, please do so on my main!!

If you need any more clarification on anything in particular, check out my Rules section, or just flick me an ask!!

[all-hallows-street]

Lingzi's Odaibako/Twitter Answers Collection Volume 2

Continuing the compilation of Lingzi's Odaibako answers. Click here for Part 1.

You can still send questions/comments/requests through Odaibako but please be respectful and mindful! As the author stated they will not respond to any questions or suggestions about future content! Also do not spam, Lingzi answers in rare bursts so they might not get to answer your comment any time soon.

A few clarifications. I will skip some doodle requests/drawn answers and will compile them later in a post with all of Lingzi's twitter drawings. Everything with [] marks an edit so the English sounds more natural.

16. Hello. I have a question. There is a scene where Nini imagines (delusions) having a child with Lily. Can demons and angels actually have children? Is there a mix of devils and angels? I was curious because angels themselves don't seem to reproduce.

Yes, that's just Neil's fantasy. Angels don't have the ability to reproduce~

Source

17. Hello Teacher Lingzi I'm Japanese and I'm learning Chinese. I would like to translate your manga All Saints Street into Japanese. But I understand copyright. Can I translate your comics and quote your images? (Also cite sources, of course.) Or is it difficult for an individual to do this?

Ah, sorry, I haven’t looked at the question box for a long time 😂 I don’t know if it’s too late to answer now 🙏🙏😭 If it is only for the purpose of learning and communication, it is no problem to translate comics that have been released for free! 👌👌

Very important answer for me lol.

Source

18. Do you have the names of the demon representative and the vampire representative? (Other representatives too) I like it very much😭

That's a new character created by the animation team, and I don't know him either... (laughs)

Source

19. Hello! I am Japanese. I learned about Halloween Street through anime and fell in love with it! I particularly like Ira. I want to know what kind of woman Ira likes🙇‍♂️💕︎💕︎ I like your comics❣️

Does it mean love in love...? I think he might not be interested in women... nor other genders... He is mainly not interested in relationships, but if I have to choose one trait, I think he might like [loves and is good at playing games] 】Female w

Source

20. Seven-year-old Anna looks similar to a seven-year-old human, so Damao must be in his twenties? How long is a werewolf's lifespan?

The lifespan of a werewolf is almost the same as that of a human, and Damao should be around 25↑🤔

Source

21. Hello Teacher! In the anime, Neil's age is stated to be 16 years old, but I read that in the original story, the devil is 80 years old and becomes an adult. Are the age settings different between the anime and the original?

Regarding this... I checked with the screenwriter of the animation before. They forgot the setting of the comic, so they wrote it according to the age of human beings 😂😂 So just think that the settings of animation and manga are different!

Source

22. Hello, teacher! I don’t know if there is a detailed setting for this, but I am a little curious about whether the ice cream that the devil eats (the name is really apt) is a real soul (?) Can the devil in the All Saints Street world eat human souls?

It’s a real soul 😂 But what’s frozen into ice cream should just be the soul of the fruit (everything is alive👌) Yes, they should like evil spirits and the like.

Source

23. I really like Neil's design. I love Neil very much and I have all his belongings around me. Neil has one side of his hair braided. Why does he braid it? I like it because it's very pretty. Do you think this is fashionable? (I'm Japanese so the translation may be different)

The setting is because Neil's mother's family has the habit of wearing braids for generations, so he and Nick both have braids. (But the real reason is that I like to draw braids and think they are cute)

Source

24. Hello, Teacher Lingzi. Does FENZ have any guidelines for doujin activities? (I would like to know if there are any rules like HMCH, such as distributing doujinshi but not producing goods.)

As far as I know, it has never been posted🤔...So I can't give a formal answer to this question. It's just for reference...As long as you don't take the official pictures privately ( Official comics + animation) should be fine if you print pirated copies and sell them, and do fan activities...

Source

Two similar questions are answered at once.

25. Hello! I recently learned about this through an anime translated into Japanese. All the characters are really cute and I really love them! Will a Japanese translation of the original manga be released…? I really want to read the original… When will the Japanese version of the Manseonggae original comic be released?

Because there are really many people asking about the Japanese single volume, I will give a unified reply here: Thank you for your interest in comics, but… I really don’t know! 😂😂😂 I basically won’t be involved in anything other than [conceiving + drawing] comics, so I really don’t know…but I haven’t heard any relevant news yet, so it should be…not available yet Plan it!

(It's been a year since and there are still no news about an official Jpn manga publication)

Source

26. Hello, excuse me for asking! Previously, you answered in the question box that angels do not have the ability to reproduce, but how are the genders of angels determined? Sorry for the Japanese. I would appreciate it if you could answer. My favorite work🥰

Being infertile does not mean that you have no reproductive organs🫢(probably) I think you can imagine the body of an angel as that of an infertile human 🤔

Source

27. Hello Teacher! Does Abu have a sense of pain? If there is something that everyone has that Abu doesn't, or something that Abu has that everyone doesn't? Please let me know!

I still feel pain, but it’s a special place... Maybe it’s because I’m less sensitive to cold and warm. Even if I only wear T-shirts all year round, it’s OK, but I still wear them with the four seasons in order to better integrate with everyone. To change clothes.

This is being answered through Abu's perspective or the translator is confused af. Source

28. Hello teacher~ I just discovered that there is a teacher’s account on Twitter a while ago, so I looked at all the pictures on Twitter. The series on Ira is really warm and cute, but at the end I saw Ira lying on Teacher Lin’s shoulder. It made me think, is it possible for him to lie on top of others like this (stealing) and moving (lazy)? After all, hiring someone to hold a parasol in summer is equivalent to getting a free taxi without having to prepare sunscreen. Although I don’t know how to deal with the clothing issue.

Haha, it’s because of the clothes that he usually doesn’t do that. Although it’s really convenient... If you can change clothes at home, the probability of turning into a bat is higher. Forget it outside, the clothes will fall off. On the ground~

Source

29. Can devils go into church? 🤔 for example if someone they know gets married at a church do they just have to stand outside? wwww

Oh I never thought about that before, but I think you are right[.] They may not be able to get into the church

Source

30. Hello teacher, I’m interrupting you again (although I am anonymous). I want to ask this time, will an angel still be an angel without a halo? To be more specific, it probably disappears. Also, can angels share halos?

Logically speaking, the angel's halo will not disappear, but it may be damaged and destroyed. If it is broken, just go back to heaven and apply for a new one😌👌It's not a big problem. Yes, Lily also secretly used Teacher Lin’s aperture.

Source

Continue in Part 3

[ff7central]

Hello!

I was wondering how long the prompts usually are for the exchange? I neither want them to be too short nor too long. So if they end up either way, would the prompter be contacted or rather removed from the exchange?

Some people give a line, some people give more detail. It’s hard to really set a guideline as some people are looking for something where they need certain things (like make sure there’s no mentions of x content - squicks etc.) or they want to give options of certain things that could be included. Of course, at the end of the day, Muses do what they will when a writer/artist gets to it.

No one is going to be just removed from the exchange because their prompts “aren’t good enough”. (Unless it’s like… your submission is clearly not a serious submission and it’s all completely inappropriate, against the rules hate speech or something.)

One of the instructions is to include a way for us to contact you, and during that time when we’re doing the matches we’ll reach out if we feel there needs to be any clarifications or if we need you to modify a prompt (such as if you accidentally wrote the same prompt twice or had all your prompts with the same pairing and we need some variety to be able to match).

The exchange is a way we come together as a community each year, and we do everything we can to make that happen. We will make every attempt to reach out, and will only default/remove someone as a last resort if every contact method has failed after a reasonable time.

[cheesesjunkyard]

Hold up one second, I don't know if you're really taking requests atm, but are there any actual rules or conditions that we should be aware of? Do they have to involve certain fandoms and such? And are crossovers also allowed?

Alright, this made me realize, that maybe I should make a set of rules, so here we go!

• I won‘t draw in a realistic style; I only do it in live drawing as practice

• as of now, I won‘t draw NSFW (gore, sexual themes, all that good stuff); some pieces may be suggestive but that‘s all it

• I won‘t necessarily draw fully rendered, well detailed pieces

• I‘ll draw 1-2 characters from requests

• you can request me to draw from any fandom; just make it clear what you want

• I‘ll draw OCs and crossovers

The last thing would be, that I can‘t promise to deliver your request quickly. For me, these requests serve more of a purpose to practice and explore different styles and I also want to work on many other things.

I hope this brings some clarification! :)

Maybe I‘ll add more rules or guidelines in the future.

[starryostar]

Its time

for a shitty tutorial i made in my sketchbook at work.

Lets begin.

this page.... is alright.

"Start with a circle. This will be the basis for your revolution" "It doesn't even have to be good"

The basic shape of heads in my style is just a circle. Circles are good! Hence the next part. The first one doesn't need to be good because its mostly going to be erased or obscured: it mostly serves as a guide. Or a basis, if you would.

"Continue with additional circles. Use guidelines Or don't." "These ones should be okay, they're eyes."

This is the only instance in which I acknowledge guidelines. I encourage their use! It helps.

'These ones should be okay' yeah no what i mean is that these ones should be treated with more importance because theyre not going to be erased or obscured as much, because theyre going to serve as her glasses, which for all intent and purposes, is her eyes.

Moving on.

This is where madness and incomprehensibility sets in. Okay.

"Add facial detail. Nose, mouth, eyelash thing, bridge of the glasses (if necessary)." "Nose and mouth are close on a bunny."

This, for the most part, I feel, doesn't require that much clarification. But I will clarify anyways: when I say (if necessary) re: the bridge of the glasses, that's if they are distant enough to not be touching. Sometimes they're not, and the circles touch on their own; the bridge is unnecessary in that case. The circles never overlap though! Not yet anyways idk.

'Nose and mouth are close on a bunny' Close Together is what I meant to say. It's my inclination to draw her facial features small and cutely unless she's showing her teeth, and compact as to fit on the first circle without needing to extend her cheeks or make a more defined chin or muzzle. But that is just me and my personal inclinations! If its in your artstyle to make the aforementioned chin or muzzle, then, feel free i guess. But Starry's face is not "long": there is very little space for the chin and forehead at most angles. That's also just my flavor of doing things. Cry about it !!!

"Hair time. The order and direction you approach from matters!" "Parts here. Do first or last." "Ive marked numbers for the order i make lines and arrows for how I make them."

Okay this is the complex part. First thing... the hair parts above her left eye with a W shape for the roots, as seen. This can either be detailed first or last, but if you're not confident in where to start drawing the first line, you should start there.

Regarding the rest of the hair, I find that working from the inside out works a lot better for creating volume than working from the outside in, and she looks nicer with more volume! It also helps to start in this way so you can make it that her hair frames her face like curtains. How much of her cheeks and chin are visible are dependent on that framing, and if it can be helped, its best to keep the lower horizontal curve in tact and hide the vertical left and right curves behind hair. That covers lines 1 and 5. Line 2 should have its end covered by line 3, line 4 is a self contained little bow shape, and line 6 has a sharper angle in it to create a more dynamic shape instead of simply cascading down. I think i might have drawn the arrow wrong for line 6... either will work. See what feels better: the volume should *not* be symmetrically distributed. And one last thing! If possible, try to make each line with a single stroke or quick gesture. You will create more natural flowing lines the quicker you try to draw them.

Moving on! Deeper into the pit.

"Hair part 2. I give her a bullshit ponytail thay defies physics..." "she has some hair leftover that frames her cheeks from behind."

I really should have elaborated more on this since its sort of important (its lab safe after all!) but it also... defies explanation. It goes up and out, down and in, then spikes 3 times. You'll either figure it out or draw something more realistic that'll slay. The hair behind her head is also a similarly complex out then in then spike; if anything, just draw the spike part behind her neck.

"If its down, its long, messy, and curly / wavy. Include the wavy shape."

Now. I think this is pretty succinct, and needs no elaboration. What i didnt mention is the errant strands that go in front of her shoulders, and just how long her hair is specifically. How long is it?

"It fucking lomg"

Yeah, you said it! Though if I had to say, dry, it would reach down to the bottom of her ribcsge, and wet, or straightened, probably down past her waistline.

Moving on.

I was starting to become cynical here! It's because my traditional looks way worse than my digital art and I have way less space to write.

"Ears. Yeah put em on. Theyre as complex as you make them. (Examples)"

Space them out to be on the left and right side of her head (some people draw bunny ears meeting in the middle: do not do this) and draw whatever you feel will be better. I try to default to v1 but if they're at an awkward position, then v2 will work better. Position can reflect emotion, but her ears tend to be upward. She's not lop-eared! it tends to get visually busy or overcomplicated if her ears are down alongside her hair, as the ears being up balances the overall mass and silhouette. They also tend to be pretty large for this purpose as well. As shapes, I tend to draw them with a straighter inside and a bow curve outside for v1. For v2, a simple oval is fine. Her ears don't tend to "bend" or fold on themselves, but if necessary, v2 works much better for this.

Dont touch them. I'll kill you

"Markings / color / other things." "I don't often include it when working in monochrome, but there's a star on the cheek and spot on the opposite eye." "This sucks doesn't it. Oh well."

I agree with you! Let's discuss this. The star is on her right cheek and the spot on her left eye always. With her glasses on, the spot looks more like an outline for the lens. They're going to be a gentle orange color. Her glasses are red and blue on her right and left, respectively: so to speak, her orange spot outlines the blue lens since they're color compliments. I make the choice to not depict any colors or markings when working with monochrome colors (meaning, just one color, like pencil on paper or making quick pen sketches on digital).

Other things that didn't get mentioned! Sometimes features of her face are visible or invisible depending on her emotions: or if they're necessary in conveying said emotions. Her mouth can sometimes be invisible, her eyebrows can sometimes become visible, and her eyes/pupils can sometimes be visible as well. When she smiles, I draw only vertical lines for her teeth. This is classic mad science shit. Get with it! If her mouth is open in a way that would show teeth, then I draw them normally, or with appropriate detail.

But that's all, i think. Now go out there and learn some damn combos. (draw her! i would like that)

[icharchivist]

hii! if someone is interested in getting into the original granblue fantasy (mostly because I'm curious about the characters, specially belial he's so pretty omg) are there any tips/things you'd recommend keeping in mind?

I hope you have a great day/evening/night/what other times of the day exist!

oh hi!!! another victim to how pretty Belial is...... welcome abord!

I have a lot of various level of tips depending on what angle of the game you want to explore, but it might be a little overwhelming. I'll start just by "making the game work well for you" and "how to advance in the Visual Novel (especially to get to Belial)" as the starter guideline.

My inbox is also always opened for any type of clarification: no question is too dumb, i'm here to help, whatever level you're at (.... except if you're on super High Level but i don't think that's going to be the case for a while)

I usually use the tag ichablogging gbftips if you need to look through some things

First of all, how the game works:

Granblue Fantasy is a browser game. It means you don't need an app to play it. however it is chromium based so you will need a google chrome tab or the likes (if like me you're on firefox, i genuinely run chrome only for Granblue at this point)

it is accessible on this address:

the page will be Japanese upon arrival, but just scroll a little and you'll find the "set language" settings

There all you need to do is press new game and start on your journey.

Note that the English and Japanese server are the same. Unlike most gacha we play, it means there is no delay between the stories-- both language get games and stories update at the same time.

Word of advice: when the game asks you to link your account, like here:

select Mobage. the page is in Japanese but it will be the most efficient way to save your progress. this page should help if it's not instinctive to you.

Once your mobage account done, tadaa, you can log in onto the game on whatever browser you would have, and you can be logged on multiple place at once! i'm currently playing on my phone while also taking screenshots on my computer! hell yeah!

On there the game will mostly hold your hand through the gameplay and the beginning of the main story, as well as your first gacha.

Slight information about the gacha:

-On your homepage, when the "Draw" button is blue, it means the rate up for SSR is really low. when the "Draw" button is golden, it means the rate up is at least doubled, and some rarer, limited units, are also in the pool. It is highly recommended that if you want to pull, you should pull when the Draw button is Golden (it's called "Gala" in general)

-there is a pity system called a Spark. After 300 pulls (or 30x10 pulls), you are allowed to choose one of any of the characters featured on this specific banner. Most people tend to wait until they have 300 pulls saved for when their fav is in the banner too pull as a result (or, as we say, we "save a spark"). This website can help you taking track of your spark.

-There ARE free pulls seasons: if you intend to be a seasonal (ie, not play for a time) it's good to come back in December, in March (it's the anniversary month, and next year is the tenth anni, so it might be even more of a celebration), and sometimes in Summer, in order to take advantage of the Free Pulls. Usually, in December and March, we get one free ten pulls a day at least, and then further into the month, we get "a roulette" that can double or triple that number. It's really worth keeping an eye on Free pulls seasons.

Others information:

-You will want to follow or keep an eye on the Granblue_en twitter account. It's a fan account that is always updating any information needed. It's a life savior gem.

-if you have any doubt gameplay wise, rely heavily on the gbf.wiki. It is EXTREMELY throughout gameplay wise. Genuinely a must-be-aware-of to play the game.

Important gameplay thing:

-If A Story Event is ongoing (it's not the case right now), and you don't want to read it for whatever reasons, do yourself a favor and actually go to the event page and manually skip every episodes of the event. It will save the event in your Journal, meaning it can be accessed later on when the event is no longer live.

(the current ongoing event, Dread Barrage, is a fighting event, i think you can kinda ignore it for now because it is when things start to be complicated, so don't mind it as of now)

Storywise:

There are three sorts of stories in Granblue:

-The Main Story Quest, which you will have to progress into in order to unlock the rest of the stories. It's the core of the Main Character's journey with Lyria and Vyrn as they travel the skies to reach their destination.

-Events and Side Stories, which are basically stories that happen when they dilly dally on their journey and go to new islands. Events and Side Stories often have their own casts that will not appear in the Main Story, but are still equally important to the game.

This type of story starts out as limited events: they run for ten days in Granblue. Then, they disappear for a while. Usually in the years that follow, this story gets a "rerun". It means the event goes back live, still limited for 10 days. And then, after a while, the event is ultimately added to the Side Stories tab, where it will always be accessible in game.

The Side Stories tab unlock after you finish Chapter 6 or 8 of the Main Story i'm not really sure. Some Side Stories will have requirements to be unlocked (like reading up to x chapter of the main story, or reading x over events before unlocking it) (it will be featured in the Gameplay Extras tab on the homescreen)

Some Side Stories are linked together. I personally call those "sagas". For example the Dragon Knights Saga (one of my favorite stories my icon and header are from) has about 10 events stories that have to be read in their publication order to be understood. It means you can expect the same cast, and a continuation to a previous story. Some Side Stories can also have casts from multiple sagas all together, so, have fun, explore the tab!

-Fate Episodes are the last type of stories you will have. They are linked to the characters units you will play with during the game, that you get by gacha or by completing events. Those are short stories that will be character driven. The characters can be Main Story Characters or Event Characters. Therefore they might further stories from their respective origins here and there. There is usually one starter episode unlockable as soon as you get the character, then one episode when you reach a certain level. SR and SSR characters who have a 5th star instead of only 4 also have another episode when you reach level 80, and then when you reach level 100. (the Fate episodes are available in the Quest tab and a shortcut to your list is also in the envelop menu on your homescreen)

SO THAT'S For the basic run down of some of the beginner things you want to keep an eye out storywise.

(Note that about every events are also available on youtube, so while missing an event sucks and all, if you wish to read an event which isn't in the side stories, or a fate episode of a character you can't get, youtube is here for you. also the transcript of every single stories are available on the wikipedia, though it's not as ideal.)

Gameplay wise, for the beginning, you'll get your hand held by the game. when it starts to get tricky, you're free to come and ask more precisions on here.

Now one last thing: how to get to Belial.

Belial is part of the side story saga known as "What Makes The Sky Blue".

The main story is a trilogy, respectively, "what makes the sky blue", "what makes the sky blue part 2: paradise lost" and "what makes the sky blue part 3: 000" After the trilogy, the summer event "The Maydays" is a sort of light hearted event following the events of 000 that involves the same cast. it is in the side stories. Last year, they also released another event including wmtsb characters, called The Mole Troupe. It has not been added to the side stories as of now.

To unlock the first part of wmtsb: you need to: -Reach Chapter 54 of the Main Story -Complete the side stories "Festival of Falling Flame", "The Cowardly Hero and the Captive Princess", and "Blade of the Young Champion" -(no one will blame you if you skip the side stories to read later, as it's mostly recommended because characters who appear in those events appear in wmtsb p1. But do read the Main Story though because the events rely a lot on the lore developed by the Main Story at this point.)

(and if you ever want to try out the Dragon Knights saga, it unlocks after Chapter 16 of the Main Story, and the first event is called Defender's Oath. Just to meet The Boyz.)

Also as a fair warning: early Granblue events tended to be shorter and perhaps a little less complex. After 2017 (wmtsb pt2), events started to grow longer and more complex. It might be jarring if you ever end up reading an early event and a more recent event back to back.

This would be my beginner outline at least.

One last warning: the gameplay will look intimidating at some point. don't let it intimidate you and just yolo. My ultimate beginner tip is that you should focus on stories and characters you like first. Discover the story, discover the characters. Don't let "trying to be good at the game" cloud you from just having fun with those characters. You can go far into the game without being hardcore into the gameplay, so take it easy and don't let it stresses you out.

Most importantly: have fun! take your time and enjoy yourself!

And if you have anything to ask - any tips, any recommandation, anything - my inbox is always opened ;D

Take care!