#lancer's design has really changed

[ferronickel]

Looking Glasses Development Art 4

<== Prev Next ==>

Here's the color reference that I've been using to make Looking Glasses (prettied up a bit). This was one of the first things I made for the comic, but a lot of it wasn't finalized until after I'd already finished the first few pages. These character designs have changed a lot since then, especially Lancer's, so I'm actually in the process of making a new color reference guide with full-body paper dolls so I can design outfits on them. This guide was incredibly useful though, especially after I had Lancer paint his nails five different colors, which made my life a living hell.

[vexwerewolf]

Should I read homestuck

tl;dr: no

actual answer: yes, but with some extremely important caveats.

Firstly, because Adobe shitcanned Flash, you can now no longer experience Homestuck in the form it was intended upon release... unless you download the Unofficial Homestuck Collection. This act of unbelievable, nay, saintly generosity by Homestuck's most dedicated fans allows you to experience Homestuck as it was intended - as close as is humanly possible.

"As close as is humanly possible" is the key phrase here. One indelible part of the original Homestuck experience was UPDATE! Homestuck would sometimes go weeks or even months (and later, years) between updates. I wasn't on Tumblr back in the day, but at the peak of Homestuck, even if you knew nothing else about it, you'd know when an update dropped because Tumblr's net traffic would increase something like three to fourfold. People would go apeshit bananas about whatever new revelations the Huss would drop on us.

You also need to realise that Homestuck is a product of its time and while its takes on sexuality and gender identity was pretty progressive (for its time), Huss did use the r-slur a bunch.

While we're on the subject of the author, Andrew Hussie (of whom my current understanding is that they have not changed name but go by they/them nowadays) is, in the most diplomatic possible terms, a very unique person. They are, at times, a visionary storyteller with genuinely fascinating ideas. At other times, they come off as kinda spiteful towards their readers.

Without meaning to dip into spoilers, some story beats seem (in my opinion) almost intentionally calculated to upset, irritate or mock certain fans. It never rises to the sheer vicious contempt that Steven Moffat had towards Sherlock's fanbase, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth whenever I go back.

Additionally, and this is where a sort of birds-eye-view spoiler is unavoidable, the story suffers from the Game of Thrones pitfall of repeatedly increasing its own complexity by adding new plot threads without resolving existing ones, eventually leading to fatigue on the part of both the reader and the author. The arcs of a lot of characters just straight up get abandoned, while a couple of characters take an unnecessarily large amount of screen time.

There's one character in particular that the author openly states within the narrative (the author exists within the world of the story. It's... a whole thing) that they favour, and whose behaviour the story is warped to accommodate. You'll know exactly who I'm talking about almost the moment they show up.

Another reason I say that it's not really possible to read Homestuck as it was originally intended is because a lot of the shit that happens in it fits into the zeitgeist of the internet at the time any individual update was written. There's a whole section in the late middle third that is inextricably and very specifically tied to how it was like to use Tumblr in 2012.

Additionally, a lot of things have soured with time. There was the whole Hiveswap debacle (it was first announced in 2012. We got the first act in 2017. We got the second act in 2020. We do not even know if the third act will ever come out.). There were the legal threats. There were the Epilogues and Homestuck 2, which were... how do I put this? Not universally liked. There's been nearly a decade of discourse since Homestuck ended, and a lot of things haven't grown better with age.

All of that being said.

You should read it.

I cannot express to you just how big an impact Homestuck has had on internet culture. Even people who claim to hate Homestuck unconsciously use slang that it invented. Its unique ideas on storytelling, character design and narrative chronology have, in both subtle and unsubtle ways, changed the way millennials and Gen Z tell stories.

A lot of people were inspired to tell stories because of Homestuck - one example I always give to Lancer players is that Kill Six Billion Demons started as a comic on the MSPA forums (before it was homestuck.com, it was MS Paint Adventures), so Homestuck is in an indirect but demonstrable way responsible for the existence of Lancer. The sunglasses that Gideon Nav from the Locked Tomb wears have been explicitly stated by Tamsyn Muir to be Dave Strider's. Toby Fox made music for Homestuck, and worked on large parts of Undertale while living in Andrew Hussie's basement.

We also know someone in the Bluey creative team is a Homestuck, because...

There are subtle but direct references in Bojack Horseman, Hazbin Hotel, Steven Universe, Adventure Time - and those are just the ones that it's easy to prove! In a more general sense, I think there's a lot of cartoon series, movies, games, etc. that would either be very different or wouldn't exist if Homestuck hadn't happened.

It's certainly influenced my work.

I think, being very cautious to manage your expectations, that you should read Homestuck. At the very least, a lot of things people say on Tumblr will start to make, if not sense, a different kind of nonsense.

[theresattrpgforthat]

hi! have you seen the TTRPGS for Palestine bundle yet? and do you have any recommendations from it

https://tiltify.com/@jesthehuman/ttrpgs-for-palestine

THEME: TTRPGS for Palestine

The TTRPGs for Palestine Bundle is going from April 12 to May 7, so there's not much time left to get it, but here's some recommendations of some really awesome games that you can find in it.

Gubat Banwa, by makapatag.

GUBAT BANWA is a Martial Arts Tactics and War Drama Tabletop RPG where you play as martial artists poised to change the world: Kadungganan: the cavalry, the wandering swordsmen, the tide turners, the knights-errant, the ones to call in darkest night in a world inspired and centering Southeast Asian folklore.

Witness, grand warriors, honorable gallants that trudge and toil under kings and haloes. Witness, KADUNGGANAN, that refulgent name. That blasted name: WITNESS NOW. The end of days is upon us: and the new world MUST BE BORN. Bear your blades, incant your magicks. Cut open your tomorrow from the womb of violence. Inscribe your name upon the very akasha of this world. 

Gubat Banwa is designed for fans of 4th edition D&D, with in-depth character abilities that make you feel both unique and powerful, in a colourful and flavourful world full of vibrant cultures and clashing conflicts. The game uses an action economy with different action options carrying different weights, which also reminds me quite a bit of Lancer. If you want a game that pushes you to strategize with your friends and weigh your advancement options carefully, you want Gubat Banwa.

Gun & Slinger, by Nevyn Holmes.

GUN&SLINGER is an RPG geared for short, episodic sessions about a weapon and a wanderer. A Maestro and two players (Gun and Slinger) set out into a dead planet mutated by a god's forgotten child and hunt strange bounties, investigate the world and unlock hidden powers. During play, they seek to learn the nature of what’s hunting the Slinger, figure out why the Gun is sentient and discover how the world died.

This game is specifically for three players, using the rules of Go Fish as a resolution system. Gun & Slinger is all about using your resources to the best of their ability, and your resources might exist on your character sheet, but they also exist as cards in your hand.

What really intrigues me is the lore that’s baked into your character sheets. One of you is a wanderer in a twisted world, tempted by strange powers that guarantee to change you into a monster. One of you is a sentient magical gun, borne by that wanderer and designed to deliver death and pain.

Gun & Slinger has expansions included, allowing you to instead play as a wanderer possessed by a demon, a mech and a pilot fused as one, or someone who bears a cursed sword. I think the fact that it requires a small table and the fact that the characters’ lives are tied together makes this a high-stakes, terribly intimate game.

Apocalypse Frame, by Binary Star Games.

In a ruined and terraformed world where most of humanity is under the yoke of a brutal regime, the former workers of a once-remote factory - now known as The Collective - have risen up to create a future of freedom from oppression. You are an Ace - a highly skilled pilot referred from a Division in The Collective and assigned a humanoid combat vehicle known as a Frame. You and your Strike Team of fellow Aces must take on The Collective’s greatest threats, ensure its survival, and carve a path for its continued success.

Apocalypse Frame takes mechs and fits them into the LUMEN system, which centres competency as well as fast but effective rounds of combat. The game includes a variety of different threats, allowing you to tailor your campaign to your group’s tastes, and the tailoring doesn’t stop there. You choose both a division that your character belongs to, and then one of three mechs within that division, allowing players to share similar fighting styles but differ in weapons. You can also modify your basic frame, adding general modular systems alongside systems and armaments that can come with your mech, making character creation and progression exciting for folks who love tweaking and tailoring to their heart’s content.

If you’re a fan of Armored Core or Battletech, you’ll want to check out Apocalypse Frame.

Here, There Be Monsters!, by wendi yu.

No matter what they tell you, there’s still weirdness and wonder everywhere. You just have to know where to look. At the edges and cracks of ‘normal’ life we exist, we persist, and we resist: the monsters, the magicians, the anomalies, the freaks, and the outcasts. We gather in the shadows, trying our best to live our lives in a world that, when it doesn’t exactly fear or hate us, doesn't even believe in our existence.

here, there, be monsters! is a rules-lite response to monster-hunting media from the monsters' point of view. It's both a love letter and a middle finger to stuff like Hellboy (and the BPRD), the SCP Foundation, the Men in Black, the World of Darkness games and the Urban Fantasy genre in general. It is an explicitly queer, antifascist and anti-capitalist game about the monstrous and the weird, in any flavor you want, not as something to be feared, but to be cherished and protected.

Here, There, Be Monsters is a love-letter to anyone who has been made to feel monstrous, as well as an homage to media such as Hellboy, the SCP Foundation, and Men in Black. It’s urban fantasy meets organized power structures, and as the monsters, you’re here to burn those structures down.

This game uses descriptive tags to slap onto your characters to represent what they can do. You can choose from a number of different monster character backgrounds to give you guidance towards, and there’s plenty of monsters both in the base game and in the game jam wendi ran back in 2022. If you want a game of power, anti-capitalism, and punching up, this is the game for you.

Pale Dot, by Devin Nelson.

Pale Dot is a collaborative storytelling game for 2-5 players about a crew of non-human cosmonauts leaving their planet to explore a strange solar system, finding threads to unravel the unknown along the way. It is fantastical, surreal, and perhaps very unlike humanity’s own ventures in space exploration. Though one thing is universal: leaving home is terrifying, dangerous, humbling, and a catalyst for changing one’s perspective. 

Pale Dot is a GM-less game where players work together to create an alien setting and subsequently envelop it in cosmic mystery, embodying cosmonauts called Dustlings, as well as one of 5 different settings. During their journey they will be able to travel to 24 different locations within their solar system, each with several prompts for improvisational scenes. Each player will also have to manage the integrity of their cosmonaut and their shared ship while avoiding space's many perils.

The cover for Pale Dot gripped me the first time I saw it; a tiny creature in an astronaut suit, looking up in fear at something in the sky, as vegetation blooms inside their helmet. You play as the Dustlings, non-human but sentient species exploring the Cosmos, a strange, horrifying and wonderful universe that changes those who venture into it.

Mechanically, Pale Dot uses a GM-less structure similar to Dream Askew, but there feels to be a much bigger emphasis on the setting your cosmonauts explore, rather than the cosmonauts themselves. Your characters are assembled traits, drives and equipment, almost all of which can be expended to cause or solve problems. Each player is also responsible for at least one setting element, such as The Cosmic Wilderness, The Wondrous Endeavour, or The Omnipresent Danger. As you visit locations, different elements will be prompted to influence the scene, while your cosmonauts try to navigate the scene and try to finish the mission. If you want a game that is collaborative and evocative, I definitely recommend Pale Dot.

Fractal Romance, by Ostrichmonkey Games.

A never ending abstract landscape of rhythm and soft glamour. Wander the halls, rooms, and chambers. Encounter strange Denizens and get to know them better; befriend them, fall in love, just chill. Try and fill out your own blurred edges. Fractal Romance is a tabletop role playing hangout. You will pick up a character to play and explore the Fractal Palace, generating its infinite sprawl and the Denizens that inhabit it, as you play.

Fractal Romance is all about searching; for something you need, something you want, or even for who you are. It feels rather surreal, perhaps like a dream dimension that you are moving through. The game uses a deck of cards to generate rooms, as well as the denizens of this gigantic, dream-like palace. This game uses rather simplistic playbooks, each asking you to choose three descriptive words, and then uses cards to fuel your character’s actions: you have things you can always do, things that cost a card to do, and things that you must do in order to draw another card.

If what you want out of a game is a chill time with friends, moving from one vibe to another, and generating emotional stories for your characters, you might want to check out Fractal Romance.

Himbos of Myth and Mettle, by huge boar.

You are big. Big arms, big tits, big thighs, big brai- you're big where it matters. In addition to a heaving, throbbing body, glistening lightly with a thin sheen of pleasantly fragrant perspirant, you have one singular unifying trait  - come hell or high water, you are going to help.

Himbos of Myth & Mettle is a high fantasy, high camp role playing game of epic proportions (of body), for 2-5 players, one of whom will act as Game Guide.  The rules center around a simple roll under mechanic and prioritize narrative flair and cinematic descriptions. Himbos is inspired by many classic fantasy properties (and could be considered OSR adjacent) , but leans towards a more garish, salacious and queer (gay or odd, pick your fighter) style of play. It is designed with comedy and flamboyance in mind, but is not without it deeper and darker touches. It's definitely not grimdark, but there will probably be blood. Think classic fantasy pulp in style, but contemporary sensibilities, modern rules-lite mechanics, and a player philosophy centred in helping, kindness and being fucking hot.

I’ve heard rave reviews for Himbos, and I think the idea of leading an entire group of well-meaning but possibly over-ambitious adventurers is a great set-up for a game full of laughs. Himbos is very much designed for a light-hearted evening of fun, flirting, and fucking up (but in the best way).

Other Games from the Bundle I've Recommended:

Space Taxi, and Creation Myths, by GothHoblin.

Caltrop Core, by Titanomachy.

Souvenirs, by Rémi Töötätä.

Thunder in Our Hearts, by Marn. S.

Eldritch Courts of Some Repute, by AlanofAllTrades.

[makapatag]

On Posture In Gubat Banwa

So the sixth version of Gubat Banwa's First Edition "returns" to the ideal that HP as a pacing mechanic, an Action Economy limiter, and a resource pressure. As always, in Tactical Combat games, resource management is a major aspect of the gameplay. Management of action economy, management of distance, management of other currency (such as Class-specific Resources). Most of a Tactical Combat Grid game revolves around the manipulation of these mechanics: reducing, regaining, adding, changing, force multiplication/division of these resources, and more. In Tomian Design (that is, Tom of LANCER RPG and ICON RPG), costing.

For the first 5 versions of Gubat Banwa's design, we worked with lower HP values (across the board) and with Dice Pools. The idea was that each dice in a dice pool was an attack launched, or a moment of concentration. Every die in the defense pool was a parry or evasion attempted. While the fantasy of that worked pretty great, the maths on the other hand did not. It worked almost counter-intuitively against the high-flying martial arts x deliberate tactical combat that I was trying to strike a balance for. My white elephant, my Shambhala, was to strike a good balance between that.

The Change

In 1.6, while the Dice Pool didn't entirely go away--much of the game is built around getting tactically advantageous positions so that you can get more dice and a higher chance of dealing greater damage on the target--it went for a more linearly scaling game with the result on the die reducing the target's Health.

It was a hit, mostly, among the inner circle (that is to say, my friends that I run the newer version for). There was an immediate sense of "we know how this game works" now.

On Tactical Video Games

It was more transparent--this information was crucial to making a tactical game work and sing. This is why in video games, almost every tactical game has the "Combat Forecast", like in Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics, that showcased the expected Hit Rate and the Damage Output.

This is absolutely integral: tactical games are decision point games. Without the proper information (doesn't need to be complete information), no decision can be done satisfyingly. This isn't to say that dice pools can't be used for a tactical game of course--I've done it. But it requires a different kind of design principle and design goal that Gubat Banwa wasn't going for. That sense of martial progression, of spiritual strength and eventual enlightenment.

From HP to POS

During the initial playtests, we were still working with HP. Hit Pearls. The idea was that every hit "shattered" a Hit Pearl. This worked with the Dice Pools, because the fiction was that every attack could be parried with Defense Dice.

What was the problem with this? Firstly, the math of this was inherently fraught, unfortunately: on higher levels, Defense Dice were either horribly impenetrable or did absolutely nothing to defend you. It became a binary thing. That was not the goal: for the martial fantasy to come to life, much of the decisions should not binary but rather, on a gradient spectrum.

To me, the destroyer of tactical grid games is when there's a single best strategy that shatters the tension of the game. My favorite parts of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre were early game moments where the output randomness could make every fight go completely different, even if you redid the same stage more than once.

Secondly, when the outcome of an action is that, really, nothing happened, you used an attack (even worse, the attack was buffed by yourself, an ally, and tactical modifiers) and then the target was able to parry all your hits. The fiction is exciting for a second, but then when you return to the battle grid, nothing changed. The mechanics fed into the fiction, but the fiction didn't feed into the mechanics.

With the math change, the fiction of the Hit Pearls wasn't working because HP values were higher to compensate for the changed math. 12 Hit Pearls could feasibly be visualized as Link's Hearts, for example. But at 48 HP, that didn't work anymore.

Hearkening to the Ancients

So I actually went on a trip to older versions of Gubat Banwa, and found I'd solved that particular problem. Older versions of Gubat Banwa had HP as "Mettle", their ability to stay in the fight. Turning to the game's current version, I realized the Physical Defense stat was perfect: POSTURE. The stance, the guard, the ability to keep fighting, the ability to turn mortal wounds into grazing hits, the ability to ignore the effects of bleeding wounds, of burning pyres, of seeping poison.

Every attack was inflicting damage by chipping away at the target's guard, or forcing their stance into more compromised positions so that they would be open to an actual mortally wounding strike. They were still real hits that the defender was actively still guarding against. And with every attack defended, their guard wore down.

This hit me after watching Donnie Yen's SAKRA (2023) the other day. Reaching back into the high-flying wuxia roots, Donnie Yen's character doesn't even take real hits until after he's overwhelmed because he is such a martial superior against the rest of the Beggar Clan. Because his Posture was so high.

Ten Thousand Earth Shattering Blows

It worked great. Not to mention that it's a great reference to Sekiro, another huge inspiration to the games's intended fiction, which also had a Posture break. Now Staggered for half Posture or lower made sense: your guard is brittle! You court death! Now the Wide Open affliction felt more in genre: your guard is wide open, so you're suffering more!

The Physical Defense stat was renamed into PARRY, while the Magical Defense stat was kept as RESILIENCE (itself a reference to Final Fantasy Tactics A2!) The defenses were there to keep the mechanical bite of an Attack vs Defense interaction, to provide an avenue for another mechanical design space, as well as to shoe in the fact that when an attack targets your Parry you're physically blocking while an attack against your Resilience requires your fortitude and concentration to block against: when your Posture is reduced, when you guard is worn down by these attacks, you know how you were defending.

When enemies hit 0 POS, that attack is the one that gets through their Defenses and kills them outright. When a Kadungganan falls to 0 POS they're not dead, but they suffer a WOUND, which only heals on Downtime (as opposed to POS healing on Repose, ie., short rest).

On Defeat and Victory

While you're Defeated, you suffer the same effects of Stun, but you can still act and do things, even make attacks at full power: you're Kadungganan after all. But every attack against you, despite your PARRY or your RESILIENCE is not met with a stance ready to block. Thus, every instance of damage you suffer, no matter how much, inflicts another Wound. When you eat 5 Wounds, you can pull on your Conviction to stay alive. Otherwise, you are tossed back into the cycle of reincarnation, or into the river to Sulad, or to Lunar Heaven, or to whatever next life your Kadungganan has chosen to ascribe to.

Status Effects

Statuses such as Poisoned, Bleeding, or Aflame, don't break you yet because they must eat through your bodily resistance. But they are still real: an aflame Kadungganan fights on even as flames swathe their body.

They can die later, when they feel the effects of the burn when their POS falls to 0. They can die later, when the Poison finally seeps through and enervates them and destroys their defensive capability. They can die later, when the bleeding takes its toll and they can no longer keep their stance up.

Martial Glossolalia

With a simple terminology change, the fiction changed entirely. Now everyone knew it was their defenses wearing down. Swords didn't cut off their fingers, flames didn't burn through their skin. They know that defenses are a holistic thing: your stamina, your constitution, your composure, your reactive ability, your dexterity, your presence of mind, your focus.

"It's not realistic!" The game is not meant to be realistic, and realism is not an inherent ontological good nor is it a goal for most TTRPGs, you will notice. Experiences, feelings. The fiction Gubat Banwa draws upon--SEAsian Folk Epics, Asian Martial Arts Cinema--is filled to the brim with the CLANG CLANG CLANG of sword-on-sword action. Often these clangs happen so quickly that you cannot process them, they are abstracted to you when it resolves in your brain--so is it abstracted by Gubat Banwa. Posture going down is the CLANG CLANG CLANG that resonates across a fight scene. It's not realistic because it's not meant to be, and even then, we must argue what your conception of reality is!

I could be argued that much of Tabletop RPGs (and, I would argue, most of games in general) is an exercise of language. Exploiting its vagaries, its ability to connect. When you go into Gubat Banwa, learning the mechanics of the game is learning a new language. And what is language but the foundation of culture?

[corsair-news-alliance]

Waitwaitwaitwait. Morse. You. The Morse of CORSAIR. Quite possibly one of the most influential non governmental bodies in the Orion. As a handler, do not have a chassis.

Like, what sort of strict Union Glue huffing tester was in charge of your certification? Like, by the Stars. Unless you nearly killed someone with your testing range, they really shouldn't have flunked you. I get that is Lancers are "elite strike forces" technically, but c'mon. Any poor fucker can wake up with a Litch instead of a toaster once morning because a HORUS cell thought it would be "funny." GMS testers aren't usually that strict unless you actually tested on Cradle.

You should retake. Even if you're not planning on using a chassis. From the sounds of it, you've survived hell twice over. Try it again. If you want to rule out mechanical failure, which is generally the only reason anyone even gets flunked, ask to borrow someone closer to you's neuro helm if they don't use a mech mounted system.

Having an Everest to use in a crisis scenario is a lifesaver. Even if you're not great at it. Even if you're a shit shot. Just punch a fucker. Designate CAS. Hell, the Everest can even work as a command vic!

There's so many uses for a combat chassis outside of frontline combat that it's a crime they failed someone like you.

Signing off, [Redacted]

[Morse lets out an absolutely exhausted sigh]

Ra below the Omninet is as bad as my parents. I'm not that damn influential I'm a handler... I stopped more people from dying in a pointless company civil war. I am not some force of power. I did my job and that's it.

Don't idolize me.... don't turn me into a figure I am not.

I failed the damn shooting range exam nearly twice. These meat and blood hands with a training sidearm...

I am not fit to pilot a mech, I do not want to pilot a mech and I won't pilot a mech.

How hard is it to understand that I am not a pilot and won't be a pilot. My job is behind the desk taking care of pilots. You wanna know who did handling and piloting?

[Her vocal stim of clicking is audible for a few seconds]

Signal. Deuces. Hell Commodore did a few times.

It changes you.

I've seen it.

Power to the pilots, I'm dating one and pining after another, but I am NOT touching a frame with the intent to even turn it on.

Not everyone has to pilot to be useful. Thought the Omninet would know that.

//Morse\\

[randomlywanderingmoth]

Part of the problem with Fate Grand Order is the core gameplay is fundamentally flawed, and it's very difficult to restore "a fun game" around a flawed core.

Quick and Buster and Arts were all interesting notions, and could have mapped into action gameplay (if we were to merge FGO's ideas with FSR's gameplay I would equate them to fast attacks, heavy attacks, and weaker attacks meant to charge your special bar, but I digress).

As it is, though, it just makes for unpleasant feelings in gameplay, demanding optimizations (I would point out that in the international release we only recently got the ability to combo all three together, and made Quick chains strong enough to consider independently). Those optimizations rise up around every aspect of the game; only a select few Servants have the ability to AoE without accessing their Noble Phantasm, and they haven't even made it to international. There's a wide range of Craft Essences, but only a few that ever matter. Creativity in builds is tamped down around increasingly narrowed build notions as the devs design with over-optimized teams in mind.

The end result is a game that, optimally, advises you to use your super rare fully powered optimized support, your friends' identically super rare fully powered optimized support, and a high power damage Servant, and repeatedly fire the damage dealer's Noble Phantasm to either clear waves or kill bosses.

Speaking of which, from a lore perspective, this is also completely messed up. By the lore of the Nasuverse, a Noble Phantasm is a Servant's super secret ultimate move, only meant for the final hour. This is fully incongruous with the gameplay, where you typically throw the same world-ending mythology-defining techniques three times in a row and call it a day. (Entertainingly, in the International release, we've also made it to Traum, where we see faceless Servants fire their Noble Phantasms like simple artillery, but that's its own commentary.)

Like, it's so effortless to imagine better systems than this! Servants deployed on a chessboard-like map, heralding back to the themes of Fate Apocrypha; suddenly we don't need anything as mechanically obtuse as Class Advantages when we could organically differentiate each Class by how they navigate the board or how they fight each other (Riders can leap over enemies like knight pieces in chess; Archers can attack at range without moving; Lancers do really well on Attack but have poor Defense; and Berserkers can be the units of terror that lore implies!)

Alternatively, the Grail Battlefronts we've already seen- rework the entire game to operate more organically like that; maybe Servants can use skills without entering combat, but it exhausts their actions. Then different forms of gameplay can exist beyond just "mulch the enemy"; like "defend this location" or "collect these resources" or "defeat This Particular Foe".

Or, even if we had to work with just the system we have! Change THAT! Rather than select three cards from a set of five, have it go down the list; each Servant gets One Action to either pick from "Quick, Buster, Arts, Use A Skill".

As for Servant Customization, walk it all the way back, all the way back up to the Attack/HP boosting. Make it so that players can individually optimize Servant performance in different ways- this Servant has better output in Arts, that Servant has higher Crit Star generation. And for folks who'd already spent their Fous, you could just say "right, so anybody with Fous spent can now allocate those points into these new Stats! No harm done!"

Of course, in order to do this, they would likely need to construct a whole new framework for their game, whilst preserving the progress people have made until now.

Then again, they are presently building castles in the sand during the rising tide with one hand and bandaging bullet wounds with the other, so maybe a long shot like that is what they need.

[fiovske]

Do you have any recs for other non-DnD game systems? I've only ever played 5e, and I'm a little intimidated to get into other systems, but I also want to branch out and get away from WOTC's bullshit.

Sure thing! I am also including a link to the itch.io pages since that's where i get most of these games!

Blades In The Dark: i'm mentioning this first bc the rules are very easy to grasp and if you're looking for a setting that has a touch of ghosts and steampunk, this game is the perfect gateway to that! it's the best for a heist i have found and the game mechanics and names are so soo sick here's just a slice from their itch.io page:

personally i find the setting and the stress mechanic very cool, because it takes into account the mental toil that an action can have and i find games with inbuilt consequence mechanics very compelling! it introduced the concept of clocks to me and i am obsessed.

a) adjacent to Blades, are all Forged In The Dark Games which are third-party blades games, and the most notable of them is Scum and Villiany which is space-western setting and also my favorite and if you're looking to play a game in the breadth of star-wars like interplanetary politics and everything, i highly recommend this game! b) if you're looking for a Blades game with mechanics to suit something more royalty-adjacent, with court-politics and agendas and masquerade parties and all, like say d20's court of fey and flowers vibe then i recommend Court Of Blades! I havent gotten around to playing this yet but it looks really promising and i soo badly want to play a game in this setting!

2. The Ground Itself : this is a world-building game. focused on one single place over time and how it changes and how it's people change, the events of this game can be spaced out from a week to several millennia depending on the rolls of ur dice or your choices! i have found that this game serves very well as say, a session zero game also, for setting up a place before you play in it, and not only a very fun session of making a place together for your party to play in, but also not leaving all the work to the gm! so it's a win win situation!

tbh, all games by everest pipkin are very good! i wanna get my hands on world ending game as well bc it is a game about giving your campaign, your world-building and your characters the perfect send-off.

3. Wanderhome : if you're looking for something ghibli-esque (this is the closest i can come to defining this game thru popular media) then i highly recommend wanderhome! it's got a very cozy pastoral vibe to it and the art is really beautiful and you get to pick from a range of animal-folk to play as it's very cool!

also honorable mentions,

a) Sleepaway is a game by the same creator in which ur a camp counsellor to a bunch of misfits and horror stories around campfires ensue! b) Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast which is an upcoming game which you can still back and it looks really interesting so i'd recommend checking it out as well!

4. Lancer: this game has mechs it has space-battles and you get to be a pilot in a future set years in the future and a thousand directions to take ur campaign in! he relationship between pilot and mech is smth that can be so personal.....

i wanna play lancer sometime it has very cool mech designs and it has very much piqued my interest, if i find ppl who wanna play lancer w me im 🏃🏃!

5. Heart The City Beneath : honestly, one of my fave settings of all time, it has strong horror components so mind the cws! but the classes and the game mechanics are very intuitive and overall it helps you not only build a character that feels natural and organic, but since this is a horror setting, things do not have happy endings... however it will ensure that your characters have a well-built journey whose ends will be terrifying and magnificent.

I got introduced to the fallout mechanic through this game and oooo how i love it, it's the perfect blend of your actions have consequences + every consequence is interesting and will affect your character deeply and emotionally, which is <33

this list got too long so i will just mention some more here:

the quiet year (very good map-making game, for before the frost shepherds arrive in winter.)

beam saber (forged in the dark game that deserves its on mention! austin ramsey's games i highly recommend!)

thirsty sword lesbians (ecactly what it says on the tin, i wanna check this game out also)

lotr's one ring rpg (this one is the closest substitute to classic d&d bc lets be real. tolkien is where d&d got it's shit from. and i have heard good things abt this game even tho i've never had the chance to play it)

mothership rpg (space horror whose build mechanics are very easy and user-friendly and i've had a LOT of fun with this!)

orbital (one very beautifully written rpg about life in space and it's only 32 pages but well-worth the time, highly recommend)

that's all i can give off the top of my head, i might've missed a few but these are strong standouts, so i hope u find at least one to your liking!

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Ghostly Changes

ectoberhaunt2023 day 19- claws/horns TW- none summary- Danny's ghost form is changing

ao3 masterlist

After the accident, Danny had been relieved that he still looked mainly like himself. He could pretend that he was just a kid with ghost powers. Sure maybe he had kind of died, but he was still alive. He still looked normal.

And then Undergrowth had happened, and his core started to mature, things had started to change.

It had started small. When he was in ghost form his skin began to get paler. He hadn’t noticed anything at first, not until Sam pointed it out.

After that, he’d tried to be more observant. He was not only getting paler, but his skin was taking on a slightly blue color. 

And then his human form had begun to look pale as well. Mr. Lancer had given him a strange look one day and told him he should spend more time in the sun.

The fangs at come next, and Danny had to be careful not to open his mouth to wide or people would see. Not that people were really looking at him these days. Most of the time, Danny noticed that if someone glanced at him, they’d quickly look away. Even Dash was avoiding him.

And what was worse was that even Sam and Tucker never looked him in the eyes anymore.

He’d ask them what was up, and they’d answered that looking at him was unsettling. That it made their skin crawl and activated their flight reflex.

Danny stood in his ghost form in front of his mirror at home. He tilted his head side to side, reached up to feel his ears. They were slightly pointed now. His freckles were slightly green and if Danny looked closely they resembled the current position of the stars. He ran his hands through his hair which had begun to float on its own, not fiery but like he was underwater or in space. He felt along his head till he came to the two points that had begun to grow. He frowned and thought of Nocturne who had horns growing from their head. He examined his fingers which had begun to grow longer and end in sharp claws. 

He steeled himself and met his gaze in the mirror. His eyes were still green, but they swirled like the portal and his irises had grown to cover nearly all of his sclera. His pupil looked darker than black and made Danny think of black holes.

Danny transformed into his human form. This one was at least mostly normal, if you ignored the paleness, fangs, and the strange quality his eyes had. They didn’t look different, but according to his friends, looking into his eyes made them think of a powerful predator.

What was happening to him?

Did ghost’s have their own sort of puberty?

Frostbite had said his core was maturing. Was that what was affecting his appearance? But a lot of the ghost’s he had met still looked mostly human. Why was he changing?

He turned away from the mirror. It didn’t matter. He had too many other things to think about. He had a test he hadn't studied for and a project he hadn’t started. And with his luck they would probably be a ghost attack.

--------------------

Danny had gone back to ask Frostbite what was happening, and the ghost yeti had confirmed that his core maturing was what was causing the changes. 

“But why is it causing these changes? There are plenty of ghosts that still look human?”

“It depends on the ghost’s core and on the level of energy they have. Halfa’s have always been powerful, and you were made in the birth of a permanent portal.”

“So?”

“That means that you will be very powerful one day. Your form is changing to reflect that. You have met Noctorn the Dreamer and Undergrowth Guardian of the Green, their forms changed to reflect their cores and energy levels. The same is happening to you.”

“But I don't want to change.”

Frostbite had given him such a sad look then. “To fight the design Fate has woven for us always leads to disastrous results.”

“But I changed the future. I stopped Dan.”

“That was another timeline, the Great One. And you had the help of Clockwork Guardian of the Will Be.” Frostbite set a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “But worry not, Great One, these changes are merely of appearance. Who you are will not change.”

Danny had left after that.

--------------------

One year later

Danny’s human form hadn’t changed much more besides the fact that not even his friends would look at him directly anymore. But his Phantom form… 

His ghost form had stretched to a height of three meters, his arms and legs were long and his feet and hands ended in claws. His skin was skin tinged blue and several patches were covered in hoarfrost. His eyes were completely green except for the black holes of his pupils, and his green freckles still reflected the position of the stars. His hair was longer and floated unencumbered by gravity. His mouth was full of teeth and his face looked sunken with his cheeks covered in an ever shifting pattern of frost. And from his head grew antlers covered in hoarfrost. They were big, extending two feet above his head and two feet to either side of him.

And above his head floated a crown made of ice and the aurora borealis.

[megoomy]

judith, a witch(?!) in a pact with a malak named ba’ul

more info and reference sheet under the cut!

here she is!! i'm happy with her look, less so with the rendered image of her, but we can't win them all.

like it says on the sheet, i was taking a lot of cues from her in game Draconic Lancer title costume. I wanted to lean into the white more than her default outfit, calling back more to the helmeted look she has before joining the party. but obviously, i didnt want to do anything that looked too much like that, or that had gold accents like her in game jacket and...skirt cape(??), because then she'd come off as kind of abbey coded. so i settled on pink accents, pulling from the colors on the Draconic Lancer look. i think it's fun. it gives her a girlish touch, which is a part of judy's character that i like! she's badass and secretive and mysterious, but she likes cute things too. well. her idea of cute, anyways...i think it suits her persona of being a "witch" in this setting. judy understands how to create an image.

speaking of that. unlike rita, who has a lot of magical knowledge, judy is basically a witch in name only. she understands how to form a pact, and not a lot past that! i think we landed on this for a few reasons:

Judy's father, Hermes, was a blastia expert, and naturally good at the magic of vesperia's universe. but judy was just the opposite, and in the novels she initially couldn't even grasp the talents natural to most krityans. being a witch who doesn't actually do much magic seems apt.

speaking of her dad, this also provides her connection to rita. they're both...witches. rita WILL NOT call judy a witch though, as you might imagine LOL (on that note, maybe hermes takes on the role of grim as the witch teacher?? again, we havent really decided on this LOL)

ba'ul obviously makes most sense as a malak, since the malaks and the entelechaia are both spirit equivalents for these tales entries. (well, entelechaia become spirits--listen, you get what i mean if you've played enough tales games) and judy MUST be with ba'ul! much like she only learns how to use her nageeg after interacting with ba'ul in the novel, i think she has just enough resonance to meet ba'ul, and their connection increases it, and she refines that ability as a "witch" enough to solidify their bond through a pact. they're family!

But yeah she uses a spear to fight. Ba'ul helps her imbue it with seraphic artes to a degree, but mostly its just the spear. I went with a design similar to the Brionac, since that's her Lore Important Weapon, but uh, i haven't designated this lance with lore importance itself. maybe we'll come up with something. looking at it right now i really think i should've colored it differently but IM NOT CHANGING IT, I ALREADY POSTED TO TWITTER!!! (it may change, hell, i decided to make it kind of glow pink in the image, im not fit for weapon designs)

Ba'ul always comes first to Judy, but neither of them is particularly biased against daemons or humans, despite knowing the truth about malevolence. she's quick to befriend yuri and loves repede (who is also a daemon, i gotta put him down on paper soon) and seems understanding of people's different circumstances. but she prioritizes her own goals first, so she'll disappear at the drop of a hat if it suits her, and yuri knows better than to count on her too much...

oh yeah. ba'ul is considered a "dragon" in vesperia, but that comes with a lot of BAGGAGE in this universe, so he's not a dragon here. he, um....he just looks like that. it's fine.

[usafphantom2]

How many B-21 bombers will the U.S. need? Experts say more than 100

The U.S. Air Force originally wanted to build 80 to 100 bombers when the aircraft was first announced. But the world of 2023 is much more dangerous than the world of 2016.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 12/13/2023 - 08:51am Military

The original number of bombers would have difficulty fulfilling conventional and nuclear missions in a great war.

The B-21 Raider bomber, which has been under secrecy since 2016, made its long-awaited first flight on November 10. Now that the bomber is really flying, it is worth asking: how many stealth bombers does the United States really need?

With China, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and North Korea dominating the headlines for one reason or another, the 80-100 bombers that the U.S. Air Force originally wanted to build now seem like a mere starting point.

The B-21 Raider bomber was announced in 2016 with great fanfare and should replace the B-1B Lancer bomber and the B-2A Spirit bombers. In 2023, the average age of the B-1B bomber fleet was 34.5 years, while the average age of the B-2A fleet was 27.35 years. Both bombers have been out of production for a long time, and the B-1B, in particular, suffers from maintenance problems, since the contractors who originally supplied spare parts are no longer on the market. There is also the issue that planes suffer from outdated technology that makes them less able to penetrate enemy airspace as originally intended: bomb a target and then flee.

The B-21 will serve alongside the B-52J, an updated version of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, 76 of which are still flying. The B-21 was originally designed as the penetrating bomber, while the B-52J was the non-penetrating bomber that could bomb targets in a permissive environment (think: Afghanistan or Iraq), or launch salvaes of long-range conventional or nuclear missiles beyond enemy radar and the range of air defense missiles.

Since 2016, the rivalry between China and the United States has become more intense and China has doubled the number of nuclear weapons installed. The United States is also involved in a direct war with Russia, imposing strict sanctions on Moscow as a result of its invasion of Ukraine; a new Cold War with Putin's Russia seems almost inevitable. At the same time, North Korea now has intercontinental ballistic missiles that can hit the United States, while Iran uses its representatives in the Middle East to attack American targets, while continuing its nuclear weapons program.

Throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East, long-term peace prospects have not improved since 2016 – they have worsened substantially. Assuming that all this changes the strategic calculation and that we need more bombers, how many do we really need?

How many bombers for a nuclear war?

Let's examine the nuclear mission first. Many of the U.S. Air Force bombers perform conventional and nuclear functions. A B-2 bomber, for example, could launch JASSM-ER cruise missiles with conventional warheads against Chinese targets on a day and launch B83 gravitational thermonuclear bombs on Russian targets the next day. Still, only a subset of the U.S. Air Force heavy bomber force has a nuclear function: although all 20 existing B-2s have nuclear capability, none of the remaining 45 B-1B Lancer bombers and only 40 of the 76 B-52H bombers can carry nuclear weapons. This leaves 60 of the 141 bombers for nuclear missions.

If the U.S. goes to war with Russia, or with China, or with Russia and China, it must contain a series of bombers and keep them on alert 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, armed with nuclear weapons and ready to fly. A conventional war between nuclear powers could quickly turn into a nuclear war, and bombers on conventional combat missions would probably not be able to return in time to rearm them with nuclear weapons. By the time they flew back to the continent in the United States, there may be no more base to return.

In 2023, Russia deployed 1,674 nuclear weapons, while China deployed about 410, and North Korea between 35 and 65. China is currently embarking on a nuclear construction that the Pentagon believes will raise the total number of nuclear weapons deployed to 1,500 by 2035. North Korea is probably expanding its nuclear arsenal, although, being a poor country, there will eventually be a limit to the number of weapons it can use at the same time.

Sixty nuclear-capable bombers is presumably the minimum number that the USAF considers necessary to face nuclear war scenarios involving Russia, China and North Korea. The U.S. Air Force should also consider the possibility, however small, that, at some point, it may be forced to fight Russia and China at the same time. If the Chinese arsenal increases by 66 percent, we may need a corresponding increase in the minimum number of bombers, in addition to a handful of extras. As a result, we may want to increase the number of nuclear-capacity bombers from 60 to 90, with all 40 B-52J and 50 B-21 placed on nuclear alert.

How many bombers for conventional warfare?

In a conventional war, Air Force bombers would be used as missile carriers, launching missiles against long-range enemy targets. All existing U.S. Air Force bombers - a total of 141 B-1, B-2 and B-52 - can perform conventional combat missions. Most of today's bombers, such as the B-52H and B-1B, are better off launching cruise missiles against enemy targets, while the B-2 can still penetrate enemy airspace.

If we assume that the USAF replaces the B-1 bombers with B-21 bombers on a 1:1 basis, this gives us a need for 45 B-21. Once again, we may have to wage a conventional war against Russia and China at the same time or, at least, wage one while deterring the other. We could consider increasing the number of B-21 for conventional operations by 50%, giving us a total of 67 B-21.

This is not an excessively high number, but to launch a key in this, the U.S. Air Force also stated that the B-21 was built with other missions in mind, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and electronic attack. Some studies predict it with a maritime attack role in Asia-Pacific, sowing minefields near mainland China and hunting Chinese navy warships. We could add ten more bombers per mission, totaling 97 B-21 for conventional missions.

In total, our approximate calculations reveal that the U.S. should buy about 147 B-21 Raider bombers, plus 76 B-52J, for a total of 223 heavy bombers. This is significantly higher than the 80-100 B-21s launched when the bomber was first announced, but less than the 290 bombers that the U.S. Air Force intended to have at the end of the Cold War.

The conclusion

The world of 2023 is more dangerous than the world of 2016. The world of 2029, exactly when the first B-21 enter service, can be even more dangerous. The first mission of the bombers should be to stop the war; the second mission should be to fight if the deterrence fails. Fewer bombers in peacetime makes sense, but more bombers in times of tension to deter opponents and make war less likely also makes sense.

Source: Popular Mechanics

Tags: Military AviationB-21 RaiderUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

Sharing

tweet

Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

Related news

ARMAMENTS

Taiwan expands F-CK-1 fighter arsenal with new missile

12/12/2023 - 22:46

MILITARY

RAF activates second F-35 squadron in Marham

12/12/2023 - 22:23

MILITARY

Safran partners with the Egyptian Air Force to improve the performance of the Rafale fleet

12/12/2023 - 16:00

HELICOPTERS

Airbus delivers two more H225M helicopters to the Hungarian Defense Forces

12/12/2023 - 14:00

MILITARY

VIDEO: Dutch Air Force performs last Elephant Walk with its F-16

12/12/2023 - 12:00

HELICOPTERS

Boeing guarantees contract for six MH-47G Chinook Block II helicopters

12/12/2023 - 09:00

[aviel-the-trans-bucket]

I have an unquenchable thirst for Alex info 🙏 1, 11, 13, and 20!!!! 🥹🫶

So I think I’ve answered 1 and 20 before so let’s bang those out

1 voice claim

Ok so voice claim is hard, since he always basically sounds how I sound in my head which is wildly different to how I sound irl. But I would have to say Cody Carson the frontman for florida pop-punk band Set It Off

Specifically listen to their song lonely dance, the bridge section is almost exactly what I have in mind

20 Fighting style

Alex has had a mix of fighting styles over the years that have stacked on top of eachother and he uses any number of weapons.

He started as a dual weirder exclusively, dipped his toes into spears tho (the canon lore being him learning biting jabs) and went all in on a sorta battle mage lancer. His lance acts as both a deadly weapon and staff.

His fighting style is heavily inspired by the owl house and ffxiv dragoons. He does also has decent experience in hand to hand, bows, great swords and katanas, as well as chacrams

(I main dragoon, drk, and summoner in ffxiv I had to give him those job skills)

11 my inspiration

Alex has been ship of Theseused over the years, he started as get this, a my little pony oc. He was my childhood oc, and after middle school when I was dealing with my own gender stuff, I transed him and started to strip away a lot of the mlp elements keeping the magic and wings

So it’s early highschool and I’m getting into rapid fire fandom hyperfixations one after the next. His darker elements and backstory stemmed from creepypasta, alot of the characters from that backstory came from a gmod skit YouTube channel, he takes lore and interactions from characters in supernatural. Slowly on a drip feed he became what he is.

For design he’s changed a lot, he used to have a side shave dyed black and for a tim3 was fully brunet. The bleached hair was inspired by Gerard way and I can’t remember why I first gave him a white streak but over time more and more bleached. I was really inspired by the maleficent movie for his horns and wings but also angel headcanons from supernatural.

Some of my oldest art of Alex I have with the most recent on that list being from 2022

tldr: Alex as an oc is almost 12 years old

13 rival

I wouldn’t necessarily say a rival, he has some exes he’s really bitter around because they deeply hurt him. He also has Dean who was just real shitty but he’s dead. Alex doesn’t have many rivals just enemies and people he has to pretend to be pleasant around while contemplating their deaths

Either you become a friend or you become a nuisance, rival implies a certain degree of respect and most of the people Alex disdains he does not respect at all

For instance, narcissist dren, those sorts of people

[amethyst0cean]

Favourite episodes of DP Season 1: Bitter Reunions: I like that we meet Vlad Masters for the first time, and seeing how him and Danny find out each other's secrets this early in the show makes it intriguing for future interactions for the both of them.

My Brother's Keeper (overall favourite): I LOVE Danny and Jazz's sibling relationship in this one, how Jazz cares so much for Danny and will honour his secret until he is ready to tell her. I'm hoping we will see more sibling bonds between the two of them in future episodes because I didn't know how much I needed it until I watched this episode. Fanning the Flames: Ember's song will forever remain catchy in my brain until this day 🥹 Despite Danny getting a love-struck spell for Sam during the episode, I liked seeing the bits of how they feel for each other before that (even though they were super terrible at hiding it haha). I don't mind seeing more hints of that for the two of them in future episodes, I can easily seeing them being good for each other relationship-wise as much as they are being best friends 😊 Teacher of the Year: I really liked Danny and his teacher Mr. Lancer's interaction in this one. Mr. Lancer, while strict and harsh a lot of the time, genuinely cares about helping Danny improve his grade even when Danny has been slipping up lately. When Danny puts in the effort and tries his best he does really well on his exam, and him and Lancer have a good conversation as well prior to that. On a side note, Danny looks really cool in his video game outfit design.

Public Enemies: This was the episode where Danny gets seen as the public enemy for the first time, being tricked and lied to by Walker which in turn damages Danny's reputation. It's a terrible situation that happens to Danny, but it starts an interesting turn of where the series might be headed for future episodes. Maternal Instinct: I loved seeing the bond between Danny and Maddie in this one, I wished we got to see more of it 🥹 Maddie was also just an overall amazing character in this episode and completely badass ghost fighter as well. I also loved the bond between Jazz and Jack just as much. It was funny seeing Vlad thinking Maddie and Danny were 'wanting' to stay with him but we love him for it 🥲 Life Lessons: It was interesting seeing how Danny and Valerie had to work together on a flour-sack babysitting project, where responsibility was key when both of them don't get along well (and are also enemies on the ghost-fighting side). Seeing how they can work together when push comes to shove and how they were able to understand each other a little more was nice to see, and would love to see how their dynamic could change as the series goes on. Sam and Tucker also had a really fun parental dynamic in the episode. The Million Dollar Ghost: I liked seeing a Danny (Phantom) and Jack Fenton focused episode, with Danny trying to cheer up his dad when Jack is feeling blue about not being able to catch ghosts. Jack's ability shines more clearly though when his family is in danger and he shows he's more than capable to take down ghosts when he needs to. Danny telling his dad how proud he was at the end was really sweet as well. Control Freaks: An interesting episode that didn't involve a lot of Danny saving the day, but instead having his friends Sam and Tucker being the ones helping him break out of the hypnosis he was in while being controlled by the ringmaster Freakshow. The episode having more of a Sam focus to it as well was a nice change and something I would love to see more of in future episodes. This was an overall great finale to finish off this season.

[ultimate-character-design]

The Ultimate Character Design Tournament

Please remember to vote for characters solely based on their design, rather than which character you are more familiar with or like more!

Designs and propaganda under the cut!

*Spoiler warning for: Quina Quen

Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2018

This is the only iteration where they are different species of turtle and it actually affects them as characters. The most obvious and really cool one is that Donnie is a soft shell turtle. He has made tech shells that he wears over his soft shell that have gadgets in them and they're also used as protection. It's a really cool way of showing his character.

Raph is a snapper turtle which are known for being aggressive which goes well with his most famous character attribute of having anger issues.

Leo is a red eared slider and is the only one with natural face markings which makes him stand out which goes with his personality.

Mikey is an ornate box turtle which goes with his interest in art and fancy cuisine. He's also got stickers that he has stuck to his shell which is another sign of his personality.

The fact that they're all different species is just really cool. It makes them stand out more from each other and fits their personalities. It also feeds more into the found family trope that is essential to tmnt.

Hermes | Hades

Very cool rendition of one of the Greek Gods. Also, I want his scarf.

Zhao Yunlan | Guardian

you look at a picture of him and it is glaringly obvious that he is a disaster bisexual detective who works on mysterious cases (in the book it's ghosts and in the show it's superpowered aliens). like his design is just so well suited for his character. from the first look you get of him you get an idea what he's all about and it's right

Sans | Undertale

Jack Box | Jack in the Box

He's so sexy

Paris | The Dummy’s Dummy

Lancer | Deltarune

Bruno Bucciarati | Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

character design so good it changed the course of my life (made me watch the show.) described by the magaka as. and I quote. "a feminine silhouette that exudes eroticism." do with that as you will. I am just a simple man n I like his tits and little lace bra situation

Quina Quen | Final Fantasy 9

"Why you care about small things?... World only have two things: Things you can eat and things you no can eat." - Quina Look how round! They're a humanoid frog species called the Qu. Frog chef! Who doesn't love a good frog chef? And they are canonly genderless! They are really imaginative and curious about different things to eat. They are also meant for more comedic relief, but they are tied in the heavy story elements as well.

*Spoiler Alert*

They're a blue mage (in final fantasy this means that they absorb enemy powers to learn enemy magic). They're growth as a playable character comes from the gourmand eating enemies (and feral frogs) They just eat or cook them to absorb magic abilities! They're whole arc involves them being a better mage and cook in order to make their master proud.

Midna | Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

[mdhwrites]

Penacony: Star Rail's Haunted House

And like one trying too hard, you're left only reflecting on how cheap and fake everything is and not in the ways the story wants you to. Oh, and for my normal fans who like it when I rip something apart, this blog is for you.

I'm starting with my non-spoilery thoughts and to start that off, I do want to say that this is better than the Loufu. The game, from character designs, world design and just general work put in has never looked so good. The flavor on everything is top notch and it is a welcome escape from the bland, near industrialist feel of the Loufu. The game design is included in this too with some of the best dungeons we've gotten, not a bad elite in the bunch (as a Fire Trailblazer main, the monkey makes me laugh) and a lot of charm even in the superfluous mechanics you can mostly ignore. The writing also takes a step up as a lot of characters have personality... Kind of.

And this is the crux of the issue. By the end I was left with the feeling that a lot had happened, a lot of words had been said and I'd met a wide cast, but that little of it informed me of anything. Penacony is meant to be a mystery but we are not an investigator. We are just being shouted at constantly "ISN'T THIS MYSTERIOUS AND DRAMATIC!?" to the point where I look up at them and go "Maybe, if you actually let anything be human for more than five seconds." Which I will actually admit: It was human for about half of it. The middle of 2.0, from once you get into the dreams to when the first true twist happens, reminds me of the best of Belobog. Hell, there is a scene in it that is literally the best in Star Rail with how genuine it feels and how real the heartbreak of it is.

But then the lights come on and you see how that scene is nothing but smoke and mirrors too. It is a trick that made me FAR more upset than anything on the Loufu frankly but after the Loufu, it also has eroded a lot of my trust in the writers for their main content. That their narrative lens is extremely narrow and entirely against anything I enjoy in media.

And so I'm left wondering if I'll end up regretting having bought the Battle Pass at the start of the cycle, despite just a week ago having been pretty certain I was with Star Rail wherever it went.

That is enough beating around the bush though. I'll put a good bit of space to let people who don't want spoilers to leave and then I'll get into specifics. 'Kay? 'Kay.

Firefly and Robin are two sides of a coin but both are mistakes. I know it might seem weird to start here rather than talk about the build up, setup, etc. but... Why would I? EVERYTHING is built up to the tragedy of Firefly and the mystery of Robin. If we really must though, here are my impressions of each of the other characters:

Black Swan: Fuck if I know. Genuinely, I don't know. I want to know, especially after having put 150 pulls into her banner but the game is so hell bent on shifting gears with her so constantly and letting her not react to anything that I didn't get a read on her, despite being the character we probably spend the second most amount of time with in this patch. She is at least nice and kind of likable but I don't know how much of that is an act.

Sparkle: Cryptic Bitch. Move on.

Acheron: Okay, I will be fair and say I do like Acheron. I've talked to another person to find out that her red dialogue changes depending on your choices with her. From the white dialogue though, she feels like a Shounen Lancer. The serious one who also has a quirk that lets you laugh from time to time. The tease of her being an Emanator is interesting but also like... How the fuck is Sam even alive for five seconds after she draws her blade then? Unless she just didn't? Emanators are literally the absolute most powerful things in this universe besides the aeons themselves though. She doesn't get to be an Emanator and not be strong game.

Sunday: Cryptic and Evil. Move on because we still know fucking nothing about him.

March 7th and Welt: About as useful as on the Loufu and at least aren't taking up screen time on the Loufu. Welt continues to be a brick, especially with his voice acting and March 7th may as well not be here.

Himeko:

...

Lets out a long, slow breath. We'll talk about Himeko later. Let me just say that she really highlights a problem with a lot of the statements the game makes about us and the express in this patch.

Sam: Not a character and a fucking awful boss fight. AT BEST he is more of a murder hobo than BLADE. The dude motivated by his desire to murder one person. Move on.

Aventurine: The worst. Just the worst. He comes across as an asshole who has zero power, zero charisma and has literally bought every friend, ally and favor that he's gotten in the past ten years. He is not a gambler as his bets are always done deals because he won't make deals he'll lose. He also has way more knowledge than ANYONE else despite having no allies, no one liking him, no powers that we've seen and yet knows the secrets of the memory zone better than the PERSON WHO HAS POWER OVER MEMORIES. Because Black Swan doesn't know Aventurine's truth. She leaves that up to you. It makes for this petulant asshole who is just a mastermind because the game says he is, and NEVER proving it, the last person you'd want to trust but the one you're forced to put your faith into and ally with no matter what. I literally got a joke ending because I told him to piss off.

But let's move on to the two who mattered. Or that we are told mattered, right up until their deaths. Robin is the much easier to point out as bad. We had literally two conversations with her and then find her dead in a bathtub so as to prove that Aventurine is smartest of smarty people because he's just so smart and clever and powerful and OMG! It also is only to further anger and add personality to Sunday. As such, Robin is fridged for TWO dudes. And we have no reason to care because why should we? Because Sunday is now having to cover up her murder? I have to assume she's been dead only recently unless she's been dead for like weeks and you've been somehow preserving her body because Firefly sure didn't get to fucking survive for ANY time.

Speaking of: Firefly is a character made to die. The only options we get to react to her death is compassion for those around us or blinding anger. Not remorse or sorrow or anything like that. It is supposed to mirror the player. You either can just move on or be furious and have it push you to the end of the content. That's it.

And I REALLY mean it when I say she's made to die. She's this nice, sweet girl who snuck onto Penacony specifically to escape an illness she has that is genuinely tragic and is killing her. She is kind, a little mysterious but appears to genuinely have a good heart. We even take a selfie with her which is our keepsake for after she dies.

We also got to already fight the thing that kills her. It appears out of nowhere the first time, descending from the ether above us while it is only us and Firefly, leaving us defenseless. HOWEVER! In a boss fight I do genuinely like, we fend it off for one phase until it finally pushes us to the side and has Firefly in its clutches. It takes its time lifting her up and it looks like Firefly might do something when BAM! Black Swan appears, entirely subduing the beast and freeing Firefly so we can go round two against it and having it be a much easier fight now that three of us here.

But in the memory zone again, knowing that Death is coming and tracking something, with us, Black Swan and now a third super strong fighter, Acheron, we walk into an open area. AND DRUMROLL PLEASE!

It's the instant kill! Where the enemy we have dealt with before comes out of nowhere, shocking and surprising everyone, even physically just bumping into two of us before rushing past the MC while we stand there helplessly and killing Firefly in a single moment! Can we get a round of applause for one of the worst death tropes in video games, if not all of media!? I haven't seen a bullshit death like this since Kat in Halo Reach! Give it up for these writers and how absolutely hack they are!

And here is the worst part: It does hurt. It hurts a LOT.

Penacony's writing is genuinely good in places. The middle portion of Penacony with Firefly is great. Firefly is a delightful character, even if she's a cinnamon roll too precious for this world. The game spends literally half the patch just selling you on why you should care about Firefly. So yeah, seeing Firefly explode into goop hurts but it's like killing a dog. Yeah, that hurts me emotionally but I can tell they're nothing but meat to you and so I get ANGRY at you using my emotions against me.

And worse yet, and I cannot stress this point enough: She is not the important death. We move right back to investigating afterwards with only Acheron's heavy handed words, where she's acting almost like she's never seen death before, to carry the torch for her. No, instead, it's Robin's death that is stated as being able to bring Penacony down. The one that matters. So move on. Firefly is just motivation for you.

Which even if you don't play Caelus and are female with your MC, it still fucking sucks. It also makes the part of Penacony that's good null and void because all you are going to remember is the bullshit death that it was building too. It cheapens all those good moments because you see the manipulation going on.

And... I'm not surprised at this point. If you don't count Herta's Space Station, this is three deaths for three planets. Belobog didn't have a main character death besides the villain and it was PLENTY dramatic enough. The Loufu on the other hand killed Tingyun. Tingyun was our guide... LIKE FIREFLY so that's two in a row that they've axed, but she didn't get much of a character. Instead, it's just shock value for shock's sake, something the writers clearly understood because then the entire epilogue for the PLANET is spent backfilling how wonderful of a person she was and mourning her death. I'm not kidding.

So that is three for three on fridged women, all done in order to just add stakes or a twist to the story. All three of them are also really bad and don't actually add anything to the story. We just continue our investigation after Firefly like we would have done regardless and get to another boss fight that makes literally no sense because YOUR ALLY SENT US HERE ASS HAT!

Addendum: This is actually FOUR deaths in three planets. The fourth is at least a guy so it's not entirely gender biased but it is also off screen. A villain we met once, kind of, named Duke Inferno is claimed to have been killed by Acheron before she came here with his invitation. The only part of this story that's confirmed mind you is the death of Inferno which uh... To quote Aventurine talking about Acheron's story "Lines up a bit too perfectly" for the asshat in the coat. It's not good and it makes the trailer Hoyo put out for the Ever Flame Mansion, that uses imagery you can find on Penacony for it, feel like a lie since we're not likely to see those characters at least until 2.4. But yeah, thought I should mention that there is a fourth dead character.

But... If you are a writer who got a lot of infamy from character deaths and is used to having YEARS of backstory, build up, connections, etc.... This is actually what happens. This is the first the Honkai part of Honkai Star Rail has been a real problem for the game. Even in the lead up to Penacony, they hyped up the potential of death by bringing in the lead writer for the Honkai series, who hadn't been on a livestream since, it sounds like... He killed a BUNCH of Honkai characters a year and a half ago. But that was the SIXTH anniversary of Honkai Third Impact. (sorry if I'm getting the timeline and the like wrong on this at all btw)

Star Rail is not even a year old. With that pointed out: let's talk about Himeko and the Express in general.

I don't know these people. I don't have a connection to these people. This is literally the first real chance we are spending ANY amount of time with Himeko. What does she do with that chance? Be cryptic, untrusting and a complete ass honestly to pretty much EVERYONE despite having pushed us trailblazers as kind, helpful people who will take risks and the like. But nope, she's just as bad as the rest of the people we've just been introduced to.

So when Firefly wants us to take inspiration from our allies on how to lighten the mood or when Acheron at the very start says we've made unbreakable bonds that we might lose... What the fuck are you talking about? March 7th is the ONLY one that might be able to be claimed about. Everyone else has no relationship with us. Half of them may as well not have characters with how little they've done or shown us or felt like they're there mostly to help with exposition.

So sure, go ahead and kill them off. You don't care about them enough to actually make me invested in them, actually build a status quote to then shatter with real danger so... Why should I? These people just exist for you to slaughter because you apparently don't know how to write a dramatic story otherwise.

It... It is rough for me right now. I even played a bit of the side content and went "Yep, this is still a good part of Star Rail." It made me think of how my brother hoped that Star Rail wouldn't have the Persona 5 problem. Great character work, a lot of fun, some real, deep emotions and genuinely good storytelling (I've talked about Guinaifen with such praise for a reason)... You just will never know by playing the main story because it's not there. Not after Belobog. The most important content, the content EVERYONE will see just isn't good.

And whenever 3.0 comes out, I know I won't be hyped after this. Even if they undo the deaths, I don't care. I don't care about your main story because it makes no sense and the stakes are fake. So... Why am I still playing if only the side content is worthwhile?

If I can never trust that a Firefly will do anything but burn out?

======+++++======

I'll admit a lot of this is motivated by anger. I'll probably do a second blog talking about some of the positives about Penacony, because there is a fair bit of good mixed in with the rest, but I needed to get out this frustration first because it was the majority of what the patch left me with. I also still stick by most of what I said, maybe not quite as harshly, even with a calmer mind.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[bloomboxygo]

All right, these'll be some more thoughts of how Melodious as a whole is shaping up with the new Support, mostly in answer to a certain phrase I've stumbled upon.

"Still no XYZ or Synchros, huh?"

Even back then, I mostly dismissed said thoughts because it was a miracle we got something this good at all, but I put in some thought as I was working this morning. I could sum it up in a sentence, really...

In regards to tying Melodious' theme to the anime and what we wished at the time... That ship has sailed.

Simply put, whatever theme they might have had for Melodious was just halted right then, in my belief when Yuzu didn't even try to learn Synchro. And the theme simply didn't correlate with what the anime was trying to tell about Yuzu, that of being the Standard Dimension duelist, then Pendulum Dimension at the end. And the new support doesn't help much.

Despite what message the anime wanted to convey, Melodious remained a deck whose primary bosses were Fusion. And by giving Melodious a Fusion endboss which isn't even Pendulum, it's a message to me that they didn't really think of fixing that thematic clash. Rather...

The new support focuses heavily on making the current gameplan of the Deck more accessible, practical, and powerful over themes based off the anime.

And that is completely fine.

Why am I bringing up a thematic clash again? Well, let's bring up that picture I had reblogged some months ago...

Back then, I made a point about how much this image made Mozarta stick out like a sore thumb because of her mismatched association with the flower theme and dimension Yuzu's supposes to represent. I not only still stand by that, but I'd argue it's worse. Not only did they not try to put the flower theme to the Pendulum Monsters to attempt to change course on the theme, but Mozarta's sinply not played anymore because her role has been made obsolete by, ironically enough, the Pendulums themselves.

One would argue the Pendulums do strengthen that thematic connection to the anime, but they really don't change the archetype too much. They simply exist to make it exceptionally more consistent via setting themselves with ease and getting more Melodious to the field to prepare your strategy.

I simply wanted to make an observation, yet it's incorrect to linger on it for too long and complain about it. The design philosophy behind these new Cards was simply to improve the Melodious' current gameplan: a defensive strategy with light disruption bolstered by its protection, which turns into offense, removal and damage via the Battle Phase, and I believe it does so splendidly.

It's no use complaining much about the theme, even though it screams "missed opportunity". But the opportunities needed to be taken when the Anime was still airing. Who watched back then was right to expect Synchro back then but Yuzu didn't bother to learn it (because marketing), they hoped Yuzu would learn XYZ but she ended up super disconnected from it, they huffed tanks of Copium with Yuzu learning RITUALS, and they expected Pendulum from her but the main sources of Pendulum were Z-ARC, Reiji and the Pendulum Dimension. And she was moved as far away as possible by virtue of being flung away from Yuya all the time, being booted from her proposed Lancer position, and spending the whole of the show dedicated to the Pendulum Dimension stuck WHO KNOWS WHERE.

As I've said, the ship has sailed. The designers decided to bolster what was of the Melodious archetype, instead of introducing what could have been, and that's fine. Sure, a Pendulum Mozarta with a bit more of a flowery theme or dress would be SPLENDID, but so was the support we got. It all makes me more hopeful for the future!

[blueeyeswhitegarden]

Day 23: Back At Class, They Never Taught A Thing @arcvmonth

Out of all of the Academia characters, Dennis is by far my favorite one. I thought that he had a really good and memorable debut and his personality really shined through too. His deck was pretty cool as well. It's so interesting to me that Arc V had two undercover Academia spies and both of them turned out to be so drastically different from each other. It didn't take long to confirm that Dennis was from Academia. I remember the theory that Dennis was really Yuri in disguise because of having Polymerization in his deck. It lasted only a week, but it was a fun theory, even if it made no sense. The fact that the audience knew about Dennis being a spy way before any of the characters did provided some buildup to the reveal in his second match with Shun. It was still pretty intense to see Dennis' cheerful and upbeat personality disappear as soon as Trapeze Magician was destroyed and he summoned the giant Ancient Gear Golem.

One detail about Dennis' time in Heartland always stood out to me. He told Shun that he wanted to keep performing, but once he found Ruri, he didn't have any other choice. He had to fulfill his mission to Academia. While it was still a mask for his uncover mission, Dennis clearly loved being an entertainer, to the point where that became his true self. He never fit the role of a duel solider like did as a performer. But despite how much he wanted to keep performing, Dennis still completed his mission. Granted, it may not have changed much of anything in the grand scheme of things if he never told them about Ruri. If Dennis wasn't the one to signal the start of the invasion, then it probably would have been another Academia soldier. Leo had been spending years planing for this invasion, so it was going to happen regardless of what Dennis did, but the point is that he didn't have the courage to make that choice for himself. He felt too obligated by his loyalty to Academia to even consider just staying in Heartland as an Entertainment Duelist. Despite going all out with his Academia cards, he couldn't defeat Shun, which is a big deal for Academia students who are taught to look down on Xyz users and enjoy hunting them as if it was all a game.

I really liked Dennis vs. Kaito. Dennis's Performage monsters have pretty cool designs and I really like Arc V Kaito's Cipher monsters, so getting to see them duel each other was fun. The most memorable part of the match was definitely the ending though. Dennis and Kaito were able to put on a performance that entertained the people around them. Yusho could recognize how much Dennis loved to perform and offered him the chance to join their fight against Academia, but once again, Dennis believed that he didn't have any choice. He already burned that bridge with the Lancers and believed that they wouldn't accept him back. Not just because of his reveal of being with Academia, but when he was set back after losing to Shun, Dennis provided them with information on the Lancers. He's the reason why Leo has his own Pendulum cards. They could have potentially learned about it from Sora when he first arrived back at Academia, but Dennis actually had Pendulum cards in his deck, so it would be easier for Leo to use them to create his own Pendulum cards. It is sad that he felt that they wouldn't accept them when Yuya would have been willing to at least hear Dennis out, if not give him another chance, based on what happened with Sora. I'm less confident about Shun giving him another chance given his involvement with Ruri's kidnapping, but he was becoming less of an angry bird at this point, so he might have been willing to at least hear Dennis out. But he felt that he didn't have that option. And he gave the information that Kaito wanted after winning the duel, so he didn't fee like he could return to Academia either.

Even when I was watching the episode for the first time, the moment Dennis started moving backwards on the ship, I was wondering to myself “Oh man, is he really going to jump off the ship?” Dennis was torn between two options, as symbolized by the two sides of the ship's deck, and instead of making a choice, it was easier to take himself out of the equation by carding himself. It was a shocking and tragic moment. As sad as it was, it kind of made me really love Dennis even more. He was so conflicted over his true feelings and his loyalty to Academia that he couldn't handle it. He didn't have the courage or strength to make his own decision. It just showed how much Academia's teachings affected Dennis and that made him so much more interesting to me.

It's really interesting to compare him with the other former Academia students in this regard. Sora had his friendships with Yuya and Yuzu, which slowly made him realize that Academia would hurt people he cares about and he gradually accepted that he was their alley instead of their enemy. Serena was understandably shocked to learn that her entire worldview was a lie, but because of her prideful warrior nature, she immediately wanted to stop Academia and help save Yuzu. Arc V Asuka was horrified to see what Academia was willing to do even to their traitors and learned what Academia had really done to Heartland afterwards. She never wanted to use Fusion monsters or Polymerization again, which is why she runs a Ritual Deck instead. These characters had support from either friends or their own convictions that allowed for them to make the stand against Academia. Dennis did not really have that. Not because he didn't have any friends. He enjoyed his time with the Lancers and I believed that. He was still a spy, but he was clearly having more fun being with them than with Academia. At the very least, I believe he saw both Yuya and Gongenzaka as his friends. But because Dennis lacked the courage to make a choice on his own, I don't think having support from Yuya would have been enough, especially when even Yusho reaching out to Dennis didn't help him.

Yuya vs. Dennis was such a great duel too. Even though Academia was effectively destroyed, Dennis was still more willing to initially play the villain in their duel, similar to what happened when he dueled Gongenzaka back in the Synchro arc. But Yuya could pick up on the act and encouraged Dennis to be his true self. This time, Dennis accepted that option and that allowed for both of them to put on a fun duel that entertained the people of Heartland. There is such a clear different between Academia Dennis and Entertainment Duelist Dennis with his demeanor. Both Yuya and Dennis look so genuinely happy after the duel ends too. I especially love how Yuya asked Dennis to become an Entertainment Duelist teacher for the kids in Heartland. He was clearly caught off guard by that idea, but instead of saying he doesn't deserve it, Dennis agrees to it. While he didn't have to worry about his loyalty to Academia anymore, Dennis choosing to embrace his true self is still really huge. He accepts that he is an Entertainment Duelist and doesn't try to hide behind the mask of a villain or soldier. This also provides a way for Dennis to atone for his part in the Dimensional War. Heartland is still in ruins and the people are still understandably traumatized over what happened to them. They most likely aren't going to be happy to see Fusion monsters or Polymerization cards anytime soon. But that doesn't mean that they can't start the process of healing from the war. By teaching Heartland kids about Entertainment Dueling, Dennis is able to finally be himself while allowing the people of Heartland to remember how fun dueling can be at the same time.