#really I could just make a new post with the beta editor and it can just start over / continue in that new post

[roseguidedarc]

okay, I’ve been thinking about this. a lot of people are either using the beta editor out of choice or have it with their new blogs && since it seems like we’ll all be stuck with it sooner or later ! I think I’m gonna make the choice to switch over to the beta editor.

[novlr]

How do I strengthen my writing? I tend to fall back on bad habits because I can't find good habits to replace them.

Building sustainable writing habits that really help you improve can be really difficult. Especially if you don't know where to look. So, here are 10 tips for building good writing habits that can help strengthen your writing!

1. Clear out your creative faucets

Step away from your project and do something else! Write something different. Let yourself write badly. Or just plain old take a break. Your writing will suffer if you're constantly forcing yourself to work on something that isn't bringing you joy.

2. Read voraciously

In the immortal words of Stephen King: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.” 

Read widely in your own genre and outside of it. Take inspiration from other authors, and read critically to see what they do well and what they could do better.

3. Read some bad writing, too

Breaking down exactly why a piece of writing doesn't work for you can be super helpful for understanding what to avoid in your own work. 

4. Try on different writing styles

Try out different approaches to storytelling to find the voice that feels most like yours. You might find yourself attracted to descriptive, sensory prose, or more to austere and pointed prose. Your writing will be strongest when you're the most authentic self you can be.

5. Explore characterisation 

People are messy. Accurately and compellingly conveying this innate messiness is essential to creating a powerful story. Explore your characters and who they are, and if it's a character-driven story, don't be afraid to let them drive.

6. Make friends with your thesaurus 

A great way to make a piece of prose shine even brighter is to expand your vocabulary. There are a lot of words in the English language that mean similar things but have slightly different moods and tones. Finding the exact right word to convey what you’re trying to say will help your writing land more emphatically with your reader. 

7. Banish filtering words

Filtering is one of the most common mistakes new writers make. It involves describing a character’s sensations or feelings with filtering words like felt, saw, heard, knew, watched, or realised. This holds the reader at a distance and makes them feel like they’re hearing a story, rather than living it.

An example of filtering would be, “She watched the sun rise majestically over the mountains”. It would feel more immediate to simply say, “The sun rose majestically over the mountains”. The reader already knows your point-of-view character is watching; now, the reader can watch it with them. 

8. Glare disapprovingly at the passive voice

Passive voice isn’t necessarily wrong all the time, but nine times out of ten, it will slow down the pace of your story and encourage the reader to lose interest in your characters. Passive voice means having something done to a character — “John was punched in the face by Nick” — instead of a character actively doing something: “Nick punched John in the face”.

9. Familiarise yourself with story structure

The best stories follow an established plot structure, and follow it so smoothly that the reader doesn’t even realise there’s an ancient storytelling template behind it. These structures are designed to introduce just the right amount of tension and suspense and to give the reader the ideal payoff by the end. Rather than being formulaic, they help with pacing and plot development.

10. Get peer feedback

Finally, the best way to make your work as strong as it can be is to get some feedback from other writers. This can be from a professional editor, a beta reader, or a collaborative writing group. Getting a second pair of eyes can help you catch plot holes or inconsistencies before you send your story out into the world.

Want to know more? Read the full post at the link below!

[anim-ttrpgs]

The Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy October 17th Beta update has launched today on itch.io for free!

Happy Halloween! We pulled out all the stops just to get the update out in time for you to prep and play it for your group’s Halloween game! The free adventure module that comes with it, “Horror Harry’s Haunted House”, takes place on Halloween after all! In it, your investigators will solve a “murder mystery” in a charmingly spooky haunted house escape room. It serves as a sort of investigation and survival training ground for you and your PCs to learn the ropes before jumping into more Call-of-Cthulhu-esque adventures where death is around every corner. (You can even get two more adventure modules over on our patreon)

Download the new rulebook here on itch.io! Even if you download it for free, just checking it out, talking about it, reblogging this post, etc. helps us out immensely. We are a diverse, largely queer team setting out to slay a dragon, we’ve already been working on this for four years, and we need all the community support we can get!

If you’re wondering what Eureka even is, watch this trailer, or read this post if you don't wanna watch a video.

If you’ve ever tried to run a murder mystery in D&D, what you really needed was Eureka.

If you’re coming from the August beta release, which I assume you are, lemme tell you that a lot has been improved. I’ll go over some of the highlights, and post the full changelog under the cut. It’s still free, but if you could throw a bit of money out way on the itchio page, even if you’ve paid before, that would be a massive, massive help. We’re actually a bit over budget even with the relative success of the Kickstarter, plus for one of us this is their primary source of income.

Trait Overhaul

There’s a few new Traits, and nearly every single existing Trait has been redone to make them better and/or more interesting. Each Trait will now have an even more significant effect on your gameplay experience.

Combat Overhaul + World's Best Grappling Rules

Combat in Eureka is now better than ever, and it was already really good - plus, now you can actually comprehend the dang rules! The previous combat rules, I admit, were a dense and confusing slog to read through, even if they worked really well once you understood them. Now, thanks to our editor, you can understand them! Instead of being split across four chapters, it’s now just two chapters. One chapter explains weapons and is mostly just for stat reference, and the other chapter is focused on telling you everything your character can do during “dangerous situations,” which are not just combat, but really just any kind of scenario where a character can get hurt. As a special highlight to the combat overhaul, Eureka now boasts the first ever set of grappling rules that are viable, realistic, and fun to employ at the table! I’m serious when I say I have never seen them done like this before, and think they offer an actual leap forward in something that TTRPGs have struggled with since early editions of D&D! I also put a lot of my own judo and other martial arts experience to work here.

Monster Overhaul

A lot of what I said about the pre-overhaul combat sections of the rulebooks were also true of the monster PC rules. They were dense, hard to reference, and disorganized. Well not anymore! All six playable monsters in Eureka have been completely rewritten using the skills I have gained as a game designer since first writing them, and, like the regular Traits, they have all been at the very least tweaked to be more interesting and have a greater effect on gameplay, and some have been changed entirely with all new subsystems! Witches brew potions now, fairies actually have stuff to do with the names they collect, and more! Plus, speaking of Traits, every monster can have more regular Traits now, to really help flesh out their personality!

CHANGE LOG 

Copy-editing Progress: Thoroughly copy-edited up to p. 302. Half-ass copy-edited up to p. 322.

WHOLE BOOK

Stuck most of the $42+ kickstarter backer submission info into the very back of the book just to get it out of our email inbox and to allow the whole team to be able to more easily see it and work with it. Going to be doing more to integrate this stuff into the actual rulebook soon. 

Changed the headings to hopefully be more legible. Please give us feedback on what you think of this change.

CHAPTER 1

Changed the limitations on how Comfort is used to restore investigator Composure. 

Fixed a typo in the investigation example of play. 

Made it so that Composure rolls for fears in the “Ridiculous” category don’t even always need to be rolled when these things are encountered. 

Moved Character Health and Status, Grievous Wounds, Healing, and Healing Example sections to Chapter 1. 

Changed Partial Incapacitation to give -2 modifiers instead of -1. 

Overhauled the rules for injuries, incapacitation, and grievous wounds completely. A ton of it is changed. 

Added codified rules for medical facilities and what to do in the case of investigator death. 

Added “The Creeps” optional rule. 

Tweak to When is the Party “Split” section regarding how long to go before jumping between groups.

Lots of new art has been added.

Tweaks to Be Prepared to Lose section.

—---------------------------------------------------

Additions to the What is Eureka For section

Changed comforting factors and exacerbating factors for Composure rolls to be +/-2 instead of +/-1 so they make a real difference.

New snoop

Changed the font of the section headings in the Ticking Clock section. Let us know what you think of these headings compared to the other headings, because we are considering changing all the headings to be like this.  

Better clarified some stuff about how Ticks work when an adventure starts at some random time of day.

—-------------------------------------

More art has been added

Made travel take more time and matter more

CHAPTER 2

Changed the CQC skill to Close Combat, as this is more clear and obvious what that means at a glance

Made lots of copy-editing progress. Many paragraphs are shorter and convey the rules more clearly. 

Changed the way the Burnout Trait works. It now causes the investigator to lose flat Composure each day rather than affecting their Composure rolls. 

Changed the Death Wish Trait to not suck.

Changed the Elementary! Trait to use Visual Calculus instead of Social Cues.

Changed Go With Your Gut Trait to not suck. 

Added that wallets and like basic clothing and stuff have a WP cost of 0

Added glasses to item list

Added rope to item list

Added hand warmers to item list

Changed Arithmomania trait to where it only gives a +1 base bonus to Paperwork, and the bonus for having a lower Ignorance of Quantity Tiers of Fear rating is more investigation points. 

Changed Femme Fatale to add a +1 Seduce bonus instead of +2. 

Totally redid the Hardy Trait. 

Added -1 modifier to I’m Okay You’re Okay Trait

Redid the Just Built Different Trait. Now it allows a character “no sell” an incoming Superficial Damage attack once per Scene, reducing the damage to 0, among a few other things. 

Added Renaissance Man Trait. 

Removed Love Me Trait. Might try to reword it another time, but it was too similar to too many other traits and wasn't very interesting. 

Completely reworked Lover Trait. 

Many new snoops have been added.

Changed the Mad Genius trait to be called Lovecraft Protagonist and changed what it does. 

Removed the investigation point cap on Man of Action Trait. Also changed the name to Ask Questions Later. 

Changed My Glasses Trait to only provide bonuses to Knowledge Skill Investigative Rolls. 

Changed Nightstalker Trait so that it provides a bonus to all Interpersonal Rolls while trespassing 

Changed None of My Business Trait to suck less.

Changed Not Finished Yet Trait to suck less.

Changed Showboater Trait to suck less.

Changed Skeptic Trait to suck less.

Smalls is now a real Trait instead of just a joke Trait. 

Removed the +1 Bonus from the Unpredictable Trait.

Changed Wicked Trait to not suck. 

Changed Wizened Trait to suck less. 

Woo-Woo Trait no-longer based on Blacked Out Skill. 

Moved “Deadly Combat, Permanent Consequences” here and changed the title to “Disabilities are Disabling”

Changed Basic Physical Therapy on the Wealth Point Item List from 3WP to 2WP. 

Added new section “People Change”

Made Blissfully Ignorant trait immune to “The Creeps.”

Made the Technically… Trait have a +2 bonus instead of +1.

Updated the Hard Boiled Trait to work with the new way that injuries and incapacitation works.

Moved the Hardened Hearts snoop to be the Wicked snoop instead. 

Changed “Empath” Trait to be “Empathetic” instead. 

Made “Did You Know…” a better and more usable Trait

Made Hard Under Pressure a better and more usable Trait.

Changed how the WP cost of an item affects the modifier for rolling for it in-adventure. The modifier is now half the WP cost rounded down. 

—--------------------------------------------------------

Gave a proper name to the Wealth modifier attached to certain homes and vehicles, it is now called the Property Modifier(PM).

Lowered the price of firearm ammunition by 1WP

Lowered the price of desktop computers by 1WP

Lowered the price of cameras by 1WP

Combined various hand tools into one entry on the item lists and moved them to Misc.

Made hotels something that is prepaid in WP similar to food budget. 

Made Large Apartment less expensive and Tiny Apartment more expensive

Moved Baseball Bat and Axe out of Weapons and into Misc. 

Changed how Food Budget works.

Removed Net Skill Limit mechanic entirely

Edit to the duration of the bonuses for Femme Fatale

Changed Ninja Trait to a +2 bonus instead of +1

—----------------------------------------------------------

Made “Sleep On It” Trait give 1D6-1 investigation points, and still give Composure.

Added “Real Capybara Hours.” Sometimes jokes are just for us.

Added animals to item lists

CHAPTER 3

Moved the section “Deadly Combat, Permanent Consequences” into chapter 2. 

More art has been added.

Moved Character Health and Status, Grievous Wounds, Healing, and Healing Example sections to Chapter 1. 

—------------------------------------------------

Changed the name of Chapter 3 to “Dangerous Situations.” We are planning to put all the combat and other dangerous stuff into one chapter called “Dangerous Situations” and merge combat, chases, etc. into one thing rather than splitting it up and having it in a bunch of different chapters.

Made it so that the Speed mechanic works with Theater of the Mind as well, and removed that other awkward mechanic with rolling Athletics for how many turns it takes for a character to cross a large distance. 

Complete restructure of the way the mechanics for movement and action are explained, as well as defining things as both Movements and Actions. 

Created a Chapter 2.5. In the future when we are ready to shift the chapter numbers, Chapter 2.5 will become the new Chapter 3 and the current Chapter 3 will become Chapter 4. Chapter 2.5 currently houses the statistics of weapons and other combat items. The plan is that a first-time reader will read the weapon statistics in Chapter 2.5 before they read the combat rules in Chapter 3, which will inform the way they understand Chapter 3. 

Changed damage value and special attributes of pepper spray. 

Made brass knuckles do 1 penetrative damage. 

Made stun guns do 2 superficial damage.

Made it so that bulletproof vests do protect against 1-damage weapons. 

Moved and rearranged like everything from chapters 3-6. 

Close range bonus for guns is now +2 instead of +1

Simplified Stopping Power rules (the actual way it works has not changed, we just rewrote it so that it gives the same mechanics in like a tenth of the word count)

Separated open-faced helmets and full-face helmets, and made it so that wearing a helmet along with body armor gives a -1 penalty to incoming attack rolls. 

“Single Load” is now called “Internal Magazines”

Shotguns at extremely close range now have similar stopping power to a rifle, but at 5-10 yards they still have their double stopping power. 

Changed how Rate of Fire works for guns. Just making it a number instead of distinct actions. 

Made it so that Quick Cycling affects basically all guns except automatics, meaning characters with high Firearms skill can now fire semi-automatic pistols at 3 bullets per Action.

Streamlined Stabilization. It is no-longer a roll and instead a penalty that worsens the more bullets are being fired at once. 

Made Bipods give +2 Contextual bonus instead of +1 to single stationary targets.

Changed Reactions and made them more broadly applicable and usable as a rule.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overhauled Grabs, Throws, Holds, and Escapes to make them a viable option in a lot more scenarios.

Defined “On the Ground” and made it its own section.

Made knock out blows and throws ignore Armor. Knock-out blows are still somewhat penalized by helmets.

Added A Real John Woo Film Optional Rule

More art has been added

Hastily updated the random chase obstacle tables for the new Movement/Action system.

Updated the example obstacles to be more in line with how we designed obstacles for the obstacle tables. 

Redid how Poison works. We meant to make it less convoluted but accidentally made it more granular instead. We did write it better so it will at least feel less convoluted. 

CHAPTER 4

Merged this chapter with chapter 3

CHAPTER 5

merged this chapter with chapter 3

CHAPTER 6

merged this chapter with chapter 3

CHAPTER 7

Added “Psychological Warfare” mechanic. 

—--------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 8

The Blacked Out Skill has been changed in two major ways. First we made it more obvious that the Blacked Out Skill applies even to knowledge of the supernatural that is not necessarily true. And also rather than working the way that every other Knowledge skill works, the Blacked Out Skill now gives leads to where answers might be found rather than immediate concrete answers. 

THE GORGON IS FINISHED AND FULLY PLAYABLE!

Added that Alt. Witches have to make their supernatural ability composure rolls at +0 instead of +3. The +3 was a typo.

Started work on the complete monster overhaul.

Vampires have been completely rewritten. Most of their abilities and themes are the same, but the way the abilities work has been overhauled and improved in many cases, as well as now being formatted and structured in a sane and easily-referenceable way. 

More art has been added. 

Changed the +2 Contextual Close Combat bonus for the Werewolf Trait to a +1 Base Bonus

Wolfmen have been completely rewritten. Most of their abilities and themes are the same, but the way the abilities work has been overhauled and improved in many cases, as well as now being formatted and structured in a sane and easily-referenceable way. 

Fairytale Witch is currently being rewritten/overhauled. 

Changed Incredible Strength Mage Trait to have a +2 Close Combat bonus instead of +3.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Clarified that gorgon blood does not heal gorgons.

Changed the way that monsters interact with Composure and their Tiers of Fear during the act of preying on other people. Instead of just ignoring it or having a bonus (i somehow left both of those conflicting rules in and no one told me), a relevant Composure roll is still made when a monster eats someone, but they do not lose Composure points from it even in the event of Partial Success or Failure. This keeps the narrative benefit of a Composure roll to show the monster’s emotional state, but without making hunting numerically pointless.

Finished the complete fairytale witch overhaul. 

Made the Close Combat bonus for superhuman strength be just +1 for the vast majority of instances. The only exception is wolfman forms. They get a higher Close Combat bonus because their transformations actually make them bigger and taller and this helps a lot in Close Combat.

Reduced Athletics bonus of Incredible Strength trait to +2. 

Merged the Alt. Witch with Mage, and made Mage a Misc. supernatural category instead of its own separate thing. This is going to be a really messy transition for chapter 8 so please bear with us. I am making a brief run though the chapter to clean up the biggest discrepancies this change creates, but I probably won’t get them all until the editor and I have time to actually go through and copy-edit it. 

“Mage” is now its own trait, and what were previously called “mage traits” are now called “mage powers”. Mages now have between 1 and 6 mage powers as part of their mage trait, with worse composure rolls the more powers they have. 

When they engage in their True Nature, monsters now have a chance to recoup some or all of the Composure they lost as a result of using their powers to hunt prey. 

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fully overhauled the fairy rules. Just one more monster to overhaul! Woo! 

Changed the Curse of Slumber to take effect the next time the victim falls asleep rather than knocking them out spontaneously.

Overhauled the changeling rules to go along with the overhauled fairy rules. 

Clarified something about the vampire’s In Lizard Fashion ability, they wouldnt be able to use this to stop a speeding truck.

Removed the hard limit on how many people a wolfman could eat at once, and also added rules for what happens if they shift to a smaller form with people in their stomach. Made similar tweaks for vampires. 

More art has been added 

Fully overhauled the Thing from Beyond, and that completes the full monster overhaul. All Monsters now consist of a single Trait, rather than needing a pair of Traits. 

Gave vampires’ “wearing the evening” ability a maximum distance of 50 yards and also it is a Movement now 

Made a few more adjustments to some of the monster sections to bring them up to date with the new Movement/Action mechanics. 

Adjusted all instances of poison in the monster sections to account for the new poison rules.

[anghraine]

Dealing with images on Dreamwidth

Okay, one more Dreamwidth post!

DW is geared around text posts and currently handles images rather awkwardly. But it does actually have image hosting capabilities, though the space isn't unlimited (I've never come near to maxing it out). I was thinking about that and figured I could make a post over here about how I back up images to Dreamwidth, and then post them using the Rich Text Editor.

I tried to explain what I do as clearly as I could, but the detail might make it sound more complex and difficult than it really is. I'm sorry if so! But here goes:

Step 1: Go to the main page at www.dreamwidth.org. It should look something like this:

Step 2: Click the red button in the upper-right to log in. Once you do, the main page should look something like this:

Step 3: If you look below the Dreamwidth logo, you'll see five categories of things you can do. You want the first category, "Create." Click on it and select "Upload Images" from the drop-down list. I've put a blue circle around it in the picture below:

Step 4: Upload your picture!

The picture above is the standard "Upload Images" screen. From here, you can click the link to "View all your images" to see everything you've uploaded, and I think "manage your images" lets you adjust titles and descriptions of the images and such. But what you want is the "Browse" button. It'll take you to your computer files and you can upload the picture or pictures you want.

Let's suppose I want to upload two pictures from Baldur's Gate 3:

and

Okay. So after I click "Browse", find the right folder on my computer, and use CTRL+click to select both of these pictures (you can also upload pictures one-by-one if you wish), the space below the "Browse" button will show the pictures you've uploaded. It should look something like this:

There they are! You can give the pictures names in the "Title" boxes, but if you want the file names saved, make sure you click the "Save descriptions" button below the pictures (circled in blue below):

At this point (much faster than it sounds like), you've uploaded the pictures to your account where you can look at every picture or file you've ever uploaded to Dreamwidth. That's cool, but they're not actually in a post yet.

Step 5: Make a new post.

In a new tab, open Dreamwidth (www.dreamwidth.org) again. It's important that this is in a different tab and you don't navigate away from the one your pictures are showing on.

You should see the "Post" button in the upper right of the main page, below your username. I've circled it in blue here:

Click on "Post."

That'll take you to the Create Post page where you actually put things on your blog.

I'm currently trying out the beta version of this page that's going to get applied pretty soon, so the style looks a little different here than in standard Dreamwidth. I figured I'd use the beta version because a) it's what people will see in the future, and b) we're going to use the old Rich Text Editor that is the same in both styles.

The Rich Text Editor has a blue rectangle around it and a blue arrow pointing at it in the picture above.

Let's narrow in on the Rich Text Editor. Like in any post, you can just start typing into the Rich Text Editor, if you want words at all. So here I typed a little explanation for the BG3 pictures and put the cursor where I want the pictures to show up.

You can see that there's a bar of options above what I've typed, with buttons that let you bold, italicize, underline, etc. We want a button further on—the square button with a yellow background that looks like a tiny landscape of mountains and sunshine. I've put a blue circle around it on the screenshot below:

Step 6: Add your pictures!

Clicking on the little landscape button will open a box where you can paste the URL of any image you want to put in your Dreamwidth post. The image doesn't have to be hosted on Dreamwidth—you could paste a link to a picture on Tumblr or whatever—but it'll be more stable if it is, so that's what we're doing.

It looks like this:

Since we already uploaded our pictures to Dreamwidth in the earlier steps, we just need the URLs for the pictures. There's a pretty easy way to see what it is.

Step 7: Copy-paste the URL.

Click back to the tab with your newly uploaded pictures. There will be a code at the bottom of each one. In our case, it looks like this:

It might look a bit intimidating if you're not used to code, but you can ignore the most of it. You just want that little part that begins with https and ends with .jpg.

Copy the URL (I've put a blue box around it above) and click back to the Create Post tab. The "Image Properties" box from Step 6 should still be up.

Paste the URL into the top box that says "URL." I've surrounded the correct box with a red rectangle in this picture:

Hit the "OK" button at the bottom and:

You'll see tiny boxes around the frame. Those will go away if you click anywhere other than the picture; they're for adjusting the size.

Step 8: Adjust the picture if you want

You know how Tumblr automatically stretches/shrinks pictures to make them fit? Dreamwidth just leaves them the way they are, so if your original picture is very big, it will look very big, and if it's small, it will look small. But you can adjust the picture yourself.

Maybe my picture of Shadowheart seems really big compared to the text and I want it smaller. I'll click on the tiny box in the upper-left corner of the picture (that one simply because it's the most convenient) and drag it inwards until the picture is the size I want.

And there she is!

BTW: No matter what size you make a picture look in your post, once it is posted, you can always right-click with your mouse and say "open image in new tab" to see it in its real size.

Here's a real post I made with a picture of Shadowheart I'd slightly shrunk in the Dreamwidth editor:

But if I right-click on the image and tell it to open in another tab, you can see that the saved picture is actually full-size:

So feel free to adjust your picture in the post however you want; it won't change the version you originally uploaded to Dreamwidth.

I'm sure there are other ways to do this, but that's how I get images uploaded to Dreamwidth and then embedded in Dreamwidth posts!

[kaija-rayne-author]

Review 2 in series for Dragon Age Veilguard

Spoilers for Veilguard

First part of review series is below.

I'm not an asshole disclaimer (same as the first one, if you read that, you can just skip down to the cut.)

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

9 hours in, 7 hours playtime.

Negative review

While I'm incredibly grateful that I can play this game, because I really hope the story actually starts soon, (yes, I said it, the pacing on this is terrible, and I'm both an editor and a writer, I have a clue). I hate to say... I am soooo glad I didn't buy it. Or I'd be demanding a refund. I didn’t actually look at the price tag, but it must’ve been around $80 Canadian. Given our cost of living crisis, that's obscene but whatever. Games are expensive.

It's just not worth that much in its current state. Sure. Games on release often have bugs. I kinda hate spending money to be an unpaid beta tester. BG3 had nowhere near as many.

My computer comes down right around the middle of the minimum and recommended specs. DA4 doesn't even make it get hot like BG3 makes it. So I'm really thinking glitchy game vs computer issues. Considering I'm not the only one it's happening to... welp. (I looked the glitch up, it's pretty common.)

5 out of 10 loads, my character glitches back to the stock elf body. And if I continue playing, it corrupts my saves and they won't load. It has also happened mid-battle, too. So I have to figure out which save to go back to before the glitch bit. Which, without pics in the save files is fun /s.

'Balanced' play isn’t. I play on tactician/hard in most games. I'm on balanced, and keep fucking dying. TBH I'm not extremely awesome with the controls and moves yet, but I'm not bad either. I honestly just think the bad guys are too overpowered (way too fast, hit too hard, and it takes too long to break their armour) for beginning levels. And yes, I have my Rook in the best armour I currently have. Maybe if I could carry more than 3 potions, it wouldn't matter as much, but IDEK man.

And you know what isn't actually any fun in games? Dying a lot. Also? Having to drop my difficulty level for regular bad guys less than ten hours into the game. It's still teaching me moves ffs, so is sorta the tutorial. I'm not a 'get gud' type. I think that's ridiculous. Gaming is supposed to be fun. If it makes it more fun to drop the level for a boss fight or whatever, more power to you. But I usually don't have to until end-game material. If I have to at all. It's honestly pretty rare. Load time is ridiculous, so every time an over-powered not-a-fucking-darkspawn slams my rogue (which I swear shouldn't be possible, I know how to fight with rogues, they're my first and favourite class), I get creamed because I'm bloody stuck in a place I shouldn't get stuck in.

I know they had testing on this. Wasn't that why the date was pushed back? My memory isn't great since COVID but I think I might’ve seen that somewhere.

Solavellans will likely be disappointed in the first seven hours. You see Solas twice. He may as well not even be in the game.

And I really hate to say this, but I'm just bored. I wasn’t itching to play it like I usually am with good games. (If a game catches me up, it's about the only thing I want to do.) I still loaded it up tonight, didn’t have anything better to do. (Because I'd probably have done that instead.) I'm mostly playing so I know what happens in the story myself. And I was hoping we'd get some answers to all this lore that lives in my head, rent free. So, whatever, I'm still hoping it will catch me up. I'll keep playing in hopes we actually get something resembling a story at some point soon.

And the number of editorial errors is ridiculous. Both developmental and copy.

'Cause bodies can't decompose in the Anderfels? Because nothing external lives there? Granted, I have specialized knowledge there (former forensic anthropologist) but, that isn't remotely how decomp works.

Does your 3 week old raw hamburger not rot because it was in a cold, dark place without any external decomposers? (My 17 year old knew the correct answer to that, so did my 12 year old.)

The primary forms of humanoid/mammalian decomposition come from inside us. Bugs don't even start showing up for a bit. Why do you think bodies bloat? Our gut bacteria going wild. Why do you think bodies are routinely embalmed? No bugs (usually) in a funeral home or morgue either.

And y'know? I actually outright told Epler on Twitter (before it went to complete hell) that he needed a better editor or 4 after playing DAI. And DAV already has more editorial issues than I noticed in the whole first half of DAI. Way to prove my point.

I'm an exacting editor. I'm pretty good at it. And I don't expect perfection in anything. Perfectionism is a trauma response, after all. But so many errors so soon? Really?

I'm not even getting into the story issues. Because I'm still hoping we actually, y'know, get to a story? And if I'm really lucky? That story will cover some of the glaring errors.

But so far? I'm not impressed. I've never, since I started playing DA games, been fucking bored.

Next one is here:

[meraki24601]

Hello! I saw your advice on your previous reblog and it's very helpful to know that there's other ways of writing and you could break a couple of rules. I am a very bad storyteller so it truly helps, thank you for sharing! I just want to ask for advice about dialogue, I take days thinking what the character should say in this part of the story that I am not moving forward. I don't think that's normal for one line to take that much time?? How long should thinking for a dialogue normally take for it to sound natural? I think it should be quick because everyday conversation isn't planned but then I read somewhere that dialogue in stories are different from everyday conversation and that they should move the plot. But I don't want to sound like a Hallmark movie. I am also not very fond of the monologues that happened inside of the characters head, so I completely remove that in my story. I like when writers leave clues in conversations, even if the story is vague, it's like a puzzle piece! I think it's fun when they do that so I try to copy it but I end up just spending so much time with dialogues just thinking about revealing not too much information. I kind of 'overbake' everything. It doesn't sound natural anymore. I have taken a break and everything, tried to reset the story. Only to get stuck on a dialogues again.

Oh my god this is so long I am so sorry I just want general advice on dialogues! I am new at this so I'm making a lot of assumptions.

Hello Friend! Thanks for asking!

You have some really good questions in there. If you're asking questions and trying to learn, you're never a bad storyteller; you're just inexperienced and learning. It takes time to figure it out, and even professional writers struggle to make their stories "good." That's why alpha and beta readers, as well as editors, are so important. Anyway, in most cases, rules are there so you can learn how to break them. That definitely applies to writing dialogue.

One rule that I always hear is that you need to write quickly. Completing a draft should only take this long, and you should be able to put down so many words in an hour. While that might be true in part for most professional authors, that is mainly for people who need to chug out 5 or 6 books per year. Unless you have a contract that says you have to have a completed book in a month, take as long as you need. Take a day or more to chew on a line if it's important enough to warrant the attention. That writer friend I mentioned in my last post? They tend to average 20-30+ words per hour. I, on the other hand, average more like 8-15. Even so, I've written complete drafts of 5 novels and released a children's book, and he's only written one. Each person is different. Speed does tend to come with experience, but it's not required to be a good writer.

Yes, story dialogue generally differs from what you might hear when listening to someone chatting at the next table in a restaurant. That mainly comes from removing filler words and unnecessary verbal delays. Can filler words be used? Yes. However, they need to be used sparingly. Some verbal delays can be hinted at outside of the spoken words through actions and the listener's reactions.

Personally, when I'm really struggling with figuring out what a character would say, it's usually an issue with understanding the characters themselves. Would your character react to what's happening? What part of the recent events would they be reacting to? How would this particular person respond to what has been said to them? Are they the kind of person who would overthink and work out what this or that means in their head, or would they talk out their thoughts? How would their background influence the specific words they use?

For example, if a character were to ask another, "Hey, could you get her some more coke?" There are a few things this would tell you about them. First, I might assume they were from the southern US since they used the word coke instead of soda or pop. The request also suggests they're familiar with the person they're asking or the other person is in a waiter position. The person who needs the drink might be a child, an anxious adult, a significant other, or some other relation to the person asking, and this character has taken charge of the situation and asked so the other doesn't have to. If your character isn't a Southerner who wouldn't actively take charge of another person's minor needs, then they probably wouldn't say the line as it is, and you would likely need to adjust it to fit. Even though it seems like a simple, sweet thing to do, if they're making the request to avoid answering a question they had been asked, it changes how the reader and other characters would feel about it.

It sounds like you're trying to find the perfect dialogue right away. Remember that your first draft is supposed to be awful. Let yourself intentionally write bad dialogue. Get those Hallmark, cheesy, "I love you. No, I love you more."s down on the page and then make it less vomit-inducing later. Once you know who your characters are, how they act, and what your readers actually need to know, then you can make them say those meaningful lines that will have people screaming about how they didn't see things before they happened. If you need to, write the action first. Avoid writing a single spoken word until you know where everyone is and what's happening in the chapter. You can even use asterisks and plug in things like *so-and-so says something cool here that reminds the reader of their dead brother* to make a note of where you need to come back to and help yourself get past a troublesome spot.

Keep going! Writing is never easy, but it does get easier as you learn. Practice, and when you're ready, let other people read what you've written and give constructive feedback.

[gh05tsposts]

i require assistance and i'm not sure if anyone will see this but i don't have anywhere else i can post this

recently, on quotev, i have offered to beta read and edit an author's fanfics, we had talked a bit before then and they agreed to the offer. the next day they were in a rush so they published a chapter and asked me to read through and edit it, they said that for the next chapter they would send it through on a google doc to an email i provided them. i read through the published chapter, edits were made and everything was okay.

though i had taken notice that even though they knew i would be beta reading the chapter, they made no note of it in the author's notes. the only sign that i existed was i was added as a editor in the authors section. this makes sense, i am making edits to the fanfic and adding me as an editor instead of as a co author could be a sort of precaution against accidentally deleting the fic or problems like that. but the thing about being added as an editor, means that i don't really appear in the author's section unless you click it. again, further hiding my existence.

i'm really on the fence about whether this is intentional or not, but i felt that it was related enough to mention.

though i felt a bit salty about not being mentioned in the author's note, i tried to shrug it off and give the benefit of the doubt. maybe they didn't think about it, maybe they didn't feel it necessecary. so i made a comment on the chapter that it would be my first one editing and beta reading, a little introduction.

cut to today. the author releases a new chapter for the fanfic i'm editing, alongside another chapter for another one of their works. which felt weird, because i thought they would be sending me a google doc this time. again, i looked past it, maybe they felt that what we did last time worked better and just didn't feel the need to communicate that with me. a little curious, i scroll down to the author's note to see if maybe they introduced me in this chapter. still absolutely nothing. it literally feels like i don't exist beyond that little window of the author's section.

then i go and look at the new chapter on their other fanfic. when i go down to the author's note, they introduce and thank their beta reader that they had helped them with that chapter.

and now i'm even more confused and feeling super bitter, anxious, really don't know what to do.

why did they announce the other beta reader, yet i'm completely left out of existence. i feel betrayed. like, what was different between the two of us that they were thanked and not me.

this author is pretty well known in the quotev community, even more so due to how small it is. i don't know reddit etiquet about these kinds of dilemmas and i don't have any people i'm personally close with who can give me advice about this. so now i'm here, making this post. i'm aware that i could potentially bring this up to the author themselves instead of making a post on tumblr, but the risk of a messy confrontation is a bit too big for me to risk it. and i feel that if i were to confront them, i would belittle my feelings in an attempt to prevent an arguement.

i hope someone is able to offer some advice.

[fukuo]

Hello, Fukuo!

I'm using your Empati Theme, and I love how customizable it is, but there are a few things I was curious about. I tried to look up the answers before bothering you, and had no luck.

If you don't have the answers to these questions or the time to answer them, that's fine, I still greatly appreciate the themes you provide!

Is there a way to have photos show up as the preview for photo & text posts? My current format is a line of text as a title and then the image, if I make sure the image is at the top then it shows the image preview, but otherwise it will show the document icon. (this one isn't nearly as complicated since I know I can reformat my posts, it would just be a long process)

Is there a way to add comment & share buttons on posts, and move all of the buttons to the bottom, similarly to the way there are on the dash?

Do you know if there is a way to add in infinite scrolling? I've tried multiple variations of different code, nothing has worked.

And my final questions are would it be too difficult to add additional social media buttons similar to the facebook, twitter, youtube, ect, and have you considered making their order a slide and drop for rearranging? I would love to add some additional sites, but the other link option works for a splash page.

There are so many wonderful things about your theme! I love how the grid layout turns my images into a digital gallery, and how easy it is to view the rest of the post. Thank you again so much for making such wonderful themes!

Hello there! 👋

Thank you very much for using the theme, and I really appreciate that you've formatted your questions as lists; it makes it easier for me to scan, haha 🥸🤝

So here are my answers to each of your questions below:

Is there a way to have photos show up as the preview for photo & text posts?

To answer this, allow me to give you a bit of context.

Tumblr has a thing called NPF (Neue Post Format) — where every post created in a new beta editor allows us to put multiple types of media in the same post.

Previously, before this, we could create posts based on their post types, called "legacy post types." It's called "legacy" because Tumblr has been moving away from this for a long time (I believe they started this around 2018).

The thing is, with this NPF, it's very difficult to differentiate which one is a text post and which one is a "photo" post since the theme engine cannot differentiate these post types anymore (every post created in NPF is mostly categorized as "text").

My approach in building this grid theme is by manually detecting the media block in the posts:

If the image is at the very top of the post, it will show as an image.

If the image is not at the very top (it starts from a text block), then it will show the document icon.

So I apologize that there is no workaround for this in the meantime 🙏

Is there a way to add comment & share buttons on posts, and move all of the buttons to the bottom, similarly to the way there are on the dash?

The theme engine on Tumblr doesn't have the ability to have the comment/reply system similar to the dashboard, unfortunately. I really wish they did.

As for the "share button" on posts, I will consider including this in the next updates!

Do you know if there is a way to add in infinite scrolling? I've tried multiple variations of different code, nothing has worked.

Implementing infinite scrolling can result in a code break in the grid layout posts. I have tried including this in the first iteration when coding this, but to no avail 🥲

Also, I am not a fan of infinite scroll because of this reason: https://www.tumblr.com/eggdesign/649014437609668608/ooh-different-anon-but-can-i-ask-why-you-dont-like?source=share

But I will consider adding this in the future since it's a highly requested feature 🚶🌦️

And my final questions are would it be too difficult to add additional social media buttons similar to the facebook, twitter, youtube, ect, and have you considered making their order a slide and drop for rearranging? I would love to add some additional sites, but the other link option works for a splash page.

When it comes to rearranging the order of the social media buttons, there is no way to do that in the Tumblr Customizer.

Unfortunately, there is not, and the customize page has not been updated since 2015 (which is a shame; Tumblr should also pay attention to user experience in customizing the theme).

Regarding additional sites, what other sites are you thinking? I will consider adding this to the theme!

Hopefully, this answers your questions, and please let me know if you have anything else. Thank you.

Cheers.

[dxfiedfxte]

Pretty sure it was moved to the beta editor But Tumblr doesn't seem to think it was, so...

Thread move/continuation from: this post || @hxpelessnurse ||

🩹 - Mikan

Mikan felt a sigh of relief leave her as he told her not to apologize. “Most of m-my friends are single still too,” She added. “I definitely th-think M-Mioda could use someone to… calm her down a little.” The rocker was a rather wild one, and considering her rise to fame in the underground idol world, she was quite popular with both men and women alike. Still, Ibuki seemed far too distracted with causing chaos and making music to settle down. Mahiru and Hiyoko were on their own. They seemed quite happy together and Mikan had no intentions of breaking that apart. And as for her other friends? They were all off doing other things or working in the hospitals alongside her. She could probably gather a handful of friends who would be interested in a mixer party. But she’d think about that later. Mikan listened to him talk, her eyes lighting up as he explained he’d visited Seoul before. “L-Lucky! I’ve only been wh-when I was really little,” she replied. “I b-barely remember my trip with my g-grandmother.”

“I g-guess… people with older ideologies tend to shun those who d-don’t quite fit the molds that they think s-society should have… I’m n-not upset over it. I’ve lived my whole life with p-people telling m-me I’m not fully Japanese. It doesn’t offend me like people think it should.” There were far worse things she could get upset over. He was right about people coming from different backgrounds being more interesting though. She always found patients who came from other places to have the best stories to tell. “Really? I would have n-never guessed!” She exclaimed, taking a sip of her drink. “I know how you feel. K-Kids can be really cruel for no reason. But I don’t b-blame them. They don’t know any better.” Mikan leaned back in her seat, a genuine sense of connection forming between them. Part of her wanted to ask him home with her - a bad habit she had desperately tried to rid when she was younger - but she wanted to take this a little slower than her past relationships. Minato seemed too good to be true and she wasn’t about to let it go sour so early on. “Eh… so… I know this is b-being a little forward. But I f-figured since I’d already mentioned it before… I’d really like to do this again w-with you.”

[{ 🦋 }] - "Sounds like this Mioda friend of yours has a lot of energy, A little too much. Kind of reminds me of my best friend Junpei, that guy can always bring the hype, and make any moment more vibrant with his energy."

A soft chuckle as he thinks of a few times his best buddy did what he does best, be the same outgoing dude he was known for being. There was never a dull moment with his best friend Junpei Iori around. If his buddy agreed to come, he would more than likely just come for the party to meet new friends, as Junpei was in a relationship with Chidori Yoshino, and he honestly couldn't be any happier for those two.

For some reason, Minato felt like that name sounded very familiar, he didn't know anyone with that name personally, but he could have sworn he heard it somewhere before, he just couldn't remember. Either way, this person sounded a bit overly energetic, It made him curious about her other friends she has, especially since this Mioda character sounded very happy-go-lucky, and that wasn't a bad thing either.

When they further spoke about Korean food, Minato brought up his most recent visit to Seoul, a travel experience that he thoroughly enjoyed, not just for the wonderful food, but also because of the location he was investigating at the time, good food, and constant communication with spirits was a perfect recipe for a very good trip if he ever went to Seoul again, he would definitely have to invite Mikan to join him, especially if she hadn't been there for a long time, and besides, not only did he enjoy her company, it would also be a very nice switch since he had been there only with his coworkers, it would be especially enjoyable with Mikan Tsumiki right by his side.

[{ 🦋 }] - "Really? Hmm, in that case, the next time I go to Seoul, maybe can come along? I'd be happy to have you with me on that trip."

Hearing her state something so boldly that she lived her life being cast aside due to the slight difference, it kind of amazed him. On the outside, Mikan appeared so weak and frail, but never did he think that she would be so strong after living through that for such a long time.

[{ 🦋 }] - "Yeah, I think so too. But, wow... you're much stronger than I thought, I am very glad.. I admire that about you Mikan."

A soft chuckle after Minato revealed his other ethnic origin, something that was often hard to believe when it came to it, Thankfully, just like he thought, she understood how it felt too.

[{ 🦋 }] - "Yeah, it's hard to tell sometimes, and people these days can definitely be that way. Some kids can definitely be cruel, but they'll learn eventually."

Minato was a little surprised when she asked for a second date, he honestly didn't think it would happen, so evidently, but he wasn't complaining this time it didn't take him long to have an answer, because he also wanted to have another date with her, so he smiles.

[{ 🦋 }] - "You're not being too forward, in fact, I would be more than happy to go on a second date with you Mikan, I'm really enjoying this time we're spending together, and I'm looking forward to more." He says with a smile.

[rampldgifs]

Hey friend! I learned how to make gif packs recently and really want to help the others in this community as I am a disabled human and struggle finding the content I need but I’m struggling with how to post my packs as like if i do a post I can only post so many. Could you help or put links or etc on how to make like a source link with all the gifs?

hello! i'm not entirely sure what you mean, but i'm going to assume you're talking about uploading gifs onto a page. see under the cut !

first you need to add a page to your blog, open theme customization, and then scroll till you see add a page, like so:

then switch standard layout to custom layout

include whatever url you want and set a page theme code. there are plenty of options here.

next in a new tumblr tab you'll upload your gifs onto a post. now that tumblr's switched to beta it's more inconvenient, so my advice is to find an old post or draft of any of your blogs that was created with legacy, click edit, delete everything on the post (don't worry, it's temporary, you will not be clicking save) and upload your gifs continuously as explained in this post.

once you have copied the code over, close the post without saving.

if you don't have an old post or draft to use, this post shows how to upload with beta editor. just know that beta editor has an upload limit of 30 per post and just under 200 a day so it's pretty likely you'll take days to upload a pack of a few hundred.

after you've done this, grab your new page link, make a post for your gif pack, click the gear icon on the top right and include the link in the content source secion like so:

then you're done ! hope this answers your qn.

[seattlewa-hq]

Hi everyone! This is not a drill - we open for interactions tomorrow! I really can’t believe all the attention this roleplay has gotten so quickly. I sort of feel like I’m being pranked, like people are gonna come out with cameras and reveal it was all one big joke. But so far it isn’t! So, being said, I’m gonna leave a few points under the cut that I want to tell everyone! If everyone could like this post once they read it, I’d appreciate it very much.

01. Beta Editor

So I’ve been thinking a lot about it, and I think it’d be in everyone’s best interest if we all used the new Beta editor Tumblr has rolled out. Meaning, if you have an old blog with the Legacy editor, please click that big purple popup in the corner to switch over to the new editor. Now, I know this is a big change if you aren’t used to it. I also kinda hate it. But it works best for everyone if we all use it. Tumblr has said they’re planning on getting rid of the Legacy editor altogether, so it’s easiest for everyone to just make the switch and adjust.

There’s a helpful tutorial here on how to use it and the new new version of xKit, and if you need additional help then let me know and I’ll walk you through it. It’s a necessary evil and I promise it’s easier to use than it seems.

02. Intros

I don’t think I said this in the rules, which is my bad, but intros are expected from everyone! They can be as short or as detailed as you want, I really don’t mind. I just want the most basic of information about your characters, and I would like it pinned to your profile so everyone can see it!

03. Locations Page

Due to some requests in the OOC Discord, I’ll be adding a locations page to the main! It’ll take me a few days to get it all set up, but if you have any requests or ideas for it, send them to the main or to the suggestions page on our Discord if you’re a part of it!

04. Co-Mod

I’m thinking, with how much attention the main has been getting, I might need to consider getting a bit of help running things. I think I’ll put together a little co-admin application for whoever is interested, so if you are interested, be on the lookout for that in the next few days. 

05. I LOVE YOU!!!

I know I’m a broken record but I am SHOCKED beyond shocked that people have joined this roleplay. I thought I’d be sitting here, making posts into the void, getting ignored in the tags until I just lost motivation and deleted the blog. But you guys have proven me wrong in the wildest, craziest way and it’s insane! I’m so happy and so grateful for you guys, and I hope with everything in me I give you a fun writing experience here. 

[feathvrings]

“When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing.”

selective and semi-private indie portrayal of KAZ rietveld BREKKER, JESPER FAHEY, naoise burns NESHA VLADSTIK, and WYLAN van eck HENDRIKS, as understood by sen.

rules below cut for mobile users.

general:

all muns must be 18+, as i am. i do not allow anon asks, so please be aware of this. this is my first venture into indie/1x1 rp, so please go easy on me—i’m accustomed to group rp, and still don’t know all the terminology. i will use the block button, whenever i feel it necessary. be nice and respectful. it’s a basic thing. i’m here to write, not argue—so let’s keep the ooc drama to a minimum. i don’t interact with call-out posts/purity culture/passive-aggressiveness/etc. don’t godmod/metagame, please. my name is sen! i'm 18+ and use they/them pronouns.

writing:

i write semi-literate to literate multi-para responses. i use a mix of beta and legacy editors, mostly because i’m new to tumblr and can’t figure out what the hell is going on with that, but i don’t seem to have the option to switch whenever i want. i will cut posts whenever possible—please be patient with me. i’m very active and have a tendency to reply frequently. please don’t feel rushed by me, i’m very patient—this is just a heads-up. just a warning, i talk in the tags. a fair bit.

plotting:

please don’t reach out through dms to plot with me unless we’re mutuals. if we are moots, feel free to contact me at any time to start up a thread, fangirl about the source material or our threads/characters, or just chat about anything at all. ask memes are a great way to start up interactions—always feel free to throw an ask my way, even if we’re not moots. memes and open starters are open to everyone, and i’m willing to write those threads for as long as they go.

formatting:

i do use small text, just to keep my dash easier for me personally to read. if you’d prefer i not use it for various reasons, just reach out and let me know! i generally use gif icons and/or small/medium gifs, but you don’t have to. i do not expect you to match my formatting. please don’t expect me to match yours.

content:

dark themes and triggers will absolutely be present on this blog due to the nature of the source material. i will do my best to tag things as needed, using the format “trigger cw.” things that will 100% be tagged are as follows:

death.

gore.

nsfw content (not that there should really be any of it on this blog).

this list will be added to as necessary.

following:

i will not follow/interact with blogs that:

write only/primarily smut/nsfw content.

contain omegaverse or a/b/o content.

roleplay as real people.

use a deceased person as a fc.

if you write untagged smut/nsfw, i may block you. if i follow you, i have read all of your rules/information and am interested in writing with you. if i don’t, i’m not. if you initiate a follow, 9 times out of 10 i will check it as soon as i see it and read your page. if i don’t follow back, i’m not interested—it’s nothing personal, and it could be for any number of reasons, so don’t feel bad. please don’t spam follow me to get me to accept it—my answer likely won’t change. if i initiate a follow, you are (of course) under no obligation to accept it. if you don’t intend on reciprocating however, please block-then-unblock (i think that’s a softblock?) me to remove the follow. i will take the hint, i promise. if i soft or hard block you, it’s nothing personal. i keep my dash very strictly curated.

nopes:

i do not write nsfw/smut. i do not accept anons. i reserve the right to not interact with anyone or engage in any interaction that makes me uncomfortable—period, end of discussion.

asks:

any meme/starter can be answered at any time. (if it’s one of those “send an emoji” ones you may need to remind me which post it’s coming from.) you’re always welcome to turn an ask response into a thread. please don’t use me as a source for memes—reblog them from the op. they’re the one that created it, they should get the credit.

for mutuals:

if you’re going to drop a thread, please let me know. i don’t mind, just tell me ahead of time so i’m not eternally on hold. always feel free to reach out to me. my dms are open: if there’s a reply that you’d like me to make some changes to, any plotting things you want to clear up, a cool musing you saw that fits our characters, or you just plain want to chat—hit me up.

[anim-ttrpgs]

An absolutely incredible review of the beta version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy by review Willy Muffin on youtube, complete with visuals and actual analysis!

I'm going to also add to this post a comment that I left on the video, offering further insight into the design intentions of the game, though the comment might not make as much sense if you haven't watched the video yet.

Hey, lead writer of Eureka here, first of all I wanna say how good and professional this review is, it’s almost indescribable how it feels to see our project taken so seriously and given real analysis, complete with visuals and everything! We would be super impressed and happy with it even if you didn’t like the game—but luckily it sounds like you loved it hahaha

I’d also like to address a few things throughout the video, not as arguments or rebuttals, just further developer insight for everyone

Re: “Urban Fantasy.” “Urban Fantasy” is basically just another term for “modern fantasy”, just a fantasy story that takes place in the 20th or 21st century and deals with the intersection of contemporary life with the supernatural, and it might be an Americanism, or even a Southern-ism, since it has a lot of connections and origins in the living folklore of New Orleans, so I shouldn’t be surprised it isn’t a term everyone is familiar with. Just think of it as the kind of genre where instead of the vampire living in a secluded scary castle, his name is Phil and he’s your roommate haha. What We Do in the Shadows, Shadowrun, and the World of Darkness games are all some other good examples of “urban fantasy.”

Re: Scooby-Doo. Oh we would LOVE for you to run a Scooby-Doo-like wacky mystery with Eureka. Even though the main tone is dark and gritty and noir, we did intentionally build it so that it could run more lighthearted stuff as well! There’s even a few Scooby-Doo references to be found throughout the text, and if we hit a certain stretch goal on the Kickstarter, we’re going to be adding a bunch of Scooby-gang-inspired traits, including the option to play a Talking Dog!

Re: Combat being the largest section, even larger than Investigation. First of all, that’s kind of an illusion that is the result of the game being unfinished. I have a tendency when I write rules to use really long sentences, overexplain things, repeat myself, etc, and that dramatically bloats the rules text and page count, but that’s why we have an editor! She goes through after the fact and trims most of the fat off my bloated writing style to make it flow smoother and read faster, and take up less space. The PDF that was read for this review has had the Investigation chapter copy-edited (and cut down in size by about 25%!), but the editor hasn’t gotten to the combat chapters yet, so they still have a hugely inflated page count. When she’s done with them, you can expect each combat chapter to also be cut down in size by about 25%, so they won’t be nearly so large a chunk of the book.

Secondly, I’ll explain our reasoning for why the combat chapters and advanced combat rules are such a big chunk of the rules text, it’s intentional design which I will now explain. If anyone still doesn’t agree with that design, that’s fair, and that’s why we made the Basic Combat Rules an option.

The reason that the advanced combat rules are the default, and the reason they exist at all, is because it incentivizes and rewards Investigation. If combat is super deadly, it makes Investigation, snooping, and spying more appealing than kicking down the door and getting your head blown off. But of combat is super deadly, it also needs to be very deep and tactical, because if it’s deadly but shallow, then there’s no player agency. “Combat starts, roll some dice, okay your guy is dead.” That’s no fun. So by adding rules and modifiers for cover/elevation, distance, the difference between a pistol and an assault rifle, etc. we make it so that not only is combat its own high-stakes puzzle, but make it so that when the PCs HAVE to engage in combat, all their investigation can really pay off and save their lives. Spying on a building to find out the number of goons stationed there and how they are armed helps you plan and assess risk, stealing the blueprints to the building helps you know how to get the drop on the goons, and know the best places to attack from so that they are stuck out in the open and you are not, etc. and having rules for those things means that all the PCs’ snooping and planning makes a real mechanical difference in whether they live or die.

That’s just my opinion though, and one of the biggest reasons WHY we decided to write the combat with as much depth as we did.

Anyway, thank you again for this review and analysis of our project, our Kickstarter jumped up by about ten more backers in the evening when this video went up after several days of no new backers, and we have to assume we have this video, and all of you watching and reading this, to thank. You’re really making our dreams come true. :)

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is kickstarting from right now until May 10th! Back it while you still can!

If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!

Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

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.

[belacedia]

Important status update before I do any more writing I'm going to work on remaking my icons + revising my rules and biography pages !!     Some major - ish changes I plan to add to my rules include,

I am now a MUTUALS ONLY blog     ─     In the past I haven't really felt the need to limit who could interact with me since I'm pretty arbitrary about what asks / replies I work on anyway,   but for the sake of organization and keeping my drafts clean I've decided this is for the best.

I am now open to the idea of shiplocking / exclusives     ─     especially if my partner is more comfortable with being exclusives !!     Otherwise I'm still very open - minded about multiple interpretations of the same muse.

On the topic of DUPLICATES     ─     I didn't have any rules regarding this before,   but I've decided to clarify that I will not be following single - muse Belphegor blogs back for my own peace of mind.     This wasn't prompted by anything or anyone,   ( especially since I'm the only active single - muse Bel blog in the RPC that I know of )   so if you're a multi - muse that writes Bel,   please understand that this isn't directed at you at all.

My trigger tag is now #trigger tw,   as I have come to understand that this is the most universally accepted format at the moment.     My other rules and stipulations regarding sensitive content have not changed.

This blog is heavily headcanon - based     ─     this has always been true for my portrayal of Bel,   but I've decided to make it clear in my rules now so that I'm less anxious about taking liberties with canon later.

I am currently locked into using the new BETA EDITOR for tumblr,   therefore I require my partners to use the beta editor when writing with me,   or I will be unable to cut posts.

Sorry for the belated update to my rules changing,   I sincerely hope that for the most part these changes won't impact my current mutuals.     I also want to make it clear that nothing has happened that prompted this,   my experience writing Bel has been great,   I just wanted to make some changes that will hopefully better accommodate both myself and my writing partners !!     Anyway I plan to have my revised / rewritten rules up this weekend,   plus icons and biography,   and then I can fully focus on writing and having fun   ✨ ✨     Thank you and I hope everyone has a great day !!!

[cmrosens]

Writing Process Post

Everyone has a different writing process: really curious to find out yours!

Here's an example of mine with a story that's not in my usual voice and series: I start off with experimental writing, which could (for me) be individual scenes, or it could be a whole draft in which I play around with tense and voice and POV until I land on something I want, but the draft itself is discounted as a "first draft" in my mind as it's my "playing around" draft.

For my new hyperfixation project, Yelen & Yelena, an aromantic not-Beauty and the (permanently cursed) Beast, I'm trying out a fairy tale voice but it doesn't land right in the first chapter. My writing process is literally just to write something down, not thinking about it, and to change voice several times throughout until I find one I like and stick to it. I might even change tenses mid-paragraph or mid-chapter, I might mess with POV (is it closed 3rd, omniscient 3rd, what? I don't know yet).

***

I call this the 0Draft. It's not a first draft even. It's a lot of cobbled together notes and paragraphs I write in a stream of consciousness, and it doesn't have to make sense or be anything near perfect.

Revisions of the 0draft will turn it into a coherent 1st draft (1.0 draft). 

The 1st draft will be less of a mess, and turn into a more polished 2.0 draft where I layer on themes and close plot holes, and make it ready for alpha/beta reading. 

The 3.0 draft is post external comments but if I intend to publish it properly, then it's pre-line edits and professional editor stage.

3.0 Draft gets sent to a pro editor.

4.0 Draft is after the editor, and the one that is released.

***

And that's it! How does everyone else do it??

You can read my 0Draft first chapter for free now on Ko-Fi, I might tidy it up and serialise it somewhere if there's interest.

[rpschtuff]

It's been about two weeks since my big post explaining the legacy/beta editor stuff, and the response to that has been overwhelmingly positive -- frankly more positive than I expected. But I have seen some responses in the tags from people wondering how to manage cutting their old threads now that they've made the switch to beta, so I thought I'd make a new post touching on that. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I highly recommend reading the post I linked above first.)

If you still have the option to toggle between the legacy and beta editors, for the moment there is no reason you cannot switch as needed. This is what I've personally been doing, and I haven't had any problems so far. For my partners still using Editable Reblogs, I switch back to the legacy editor and cut their posts using Editable Reblogs. And for my partners using the beta editor, I switch to the beta editor and cut their posts using Trim Reblogs. The formatting between the two methods doesn't match, which may bother you if you're big on aesthetics, but overall it's very workable.

This is probably the best option for those who are still able to toggle between the two editors. It lets you cut everyone's posts easily, it's mindful of those who are stuck on the beta editor, and it lets you transition to the new system gradually without losing any functionality because of what other people are doing. The important thing is to prioritize using the beta editor when you can. You should only switch back to legacy when you need to use Editable Reblogs for a thread -- otherwise, try to stick to beta. Remember, many people are stuck on beta, and can only cut their posts properly if you accommodate them.

Converting pre-existing threads to the new method is where things get trickier, and where there's not really a clean solution. I'm talking about ongoing threads that you and your partner have previously been cutting with Editable Reblogs, but now both of you want to switch to Trim Reblogs.

Basically, you're going to run into an issue no matter how you do it, due to the two systems being incompatible. Assuming that you want every post to include only your current reply and the immediately previous reply from your partner, the only way to do that 100% cleanly is to finish out your current threads using Editable Reblogs, and make the switch to Trim Reblogs for any new threads.

Otherwise, you're just going to have to accept that for a single post, someone's reply isn't going to be cut correctly. You'll either have to keep one of your older replies at the top, like this:

Or trim your partner's immediately previous reply to keep only your own, like this:

It's up to you to decide which of these bothers you less. It's annoying, but it should only have to be done once per thread. Once someone has done this, you and your partner can move on with the thread using Trim Reblogs as intended.

You may also have to move your thread to a new post due to the issue of Trim Reblogs being funky with posts originally made with the legacy editor. This could also bring you to the same issue depending on how you choose to format that first post.

If you move your thread to a new post while keeping your partner's previous reply, something like this:

You will force your partner to be stuck in the same situation I just described above, deciding if they want to have a single post uncut or a single post that loses the previous reply.

However, if you move it to a new post without your partner's previously reply, something like this:

Then you will, of course, not have the previous reply on your blog. Again, there's not a clean way to switch an ongoing thread to the new system without one post being cut weirdly. You just have to choose which one bothers you less.

That was very confusing to write up, but I hope it makes sense and/or helps someone figure out how they want to handle the transition to the new system.

EDITED TO ADD: I'm told you can get around the issue of the original post being made in the legacy editor by opening that original post with the Tumblr app and editing it in some way -- this will essentially force it to be in the new post format that beta recognizes. However, I haven't tested this myself.