#that game was relatively painless

[redhotarsenic]

Oh forgot to mention that the dmc mobile game’s fuckin uh. The paid shit. There’s so much of it even for a gacha 👍

[brightyearning]

me, starting the foxhole court: inventing a brand new sport? that's ambitious.

me, finishing the king's men: so...who wants to join my exy team?

[friendlybowlofsoup]

Another Update

Hello Friends,

I have a rather long (but optimistic!) update to share with you all today. As many of you are probably tired of reading these kind of posts, I have a TL;DR here, but I did want to share what has been on my mind in that past half-year that I haven't been here.

It has been rough, and busy as always, but I think I'm finally facing myself and my project for the first time in a very long time.

TL;DR (it's actually long, I have a lot to say (*_ _)人)

I soul-searched and decided to stop compromising on my own feelings with regards to this project. I gave in to everything I wanted to do.

Plot changes, which means some character changes, which means some of the demo is outdated.

GotRM will be switching over to Twine.

----

OH MAN DID I SUFFER THE LAST FEW MONTHS

After my previous update, I hunkered down and really analyzed how I wanted to proceed with GotRM as a project. Because even prior to that post, I had already been going through long periods of hiatuses (which you are all aware of), and while I didn't lie about school taking up my time, I was also harboring a growing dissatisfaction with my own writing that really killed my progress for a long time.

So after everything had settled, I sat down and forced myself to peel apart my work. I know I said I would answer asks, but I uninstalled all of my social media and put aside this blog to focus. I made a note of all the things I liked and didn't like, and I made a list of things I wanted to change or improve on. The biggest point was that I also looked at my efficiency during actual writing sessions: how much of my time was spent writing vs. fighting with code? How could I change that?

And after a lot of deliberation, I figured there were a few things I had to change from the ground up, summed up in four points:

My working style was super incompatible with grad school. I can't spend 20-30 minutes scrolling up and down CSIDE checking code or looking for narratives while also jumping between chapters to make sure events line up. As this story grows, the more difficult it becomes to keep track of all the branches, so I needed an alternative working method, which I am adhering to now, and it prioritizes efficiency.

I hated the way I was tracking and coding stats in-game. I have griped so much about coding stats, and I have adhered to such a rigid style that I really felt trapped whenever I was confronted with balancing them out. So I'm throwing that to the wind and redoing how I utilize and convey them. Player-side, this decision doesn't change much since I never fully utilized stats in the demo anyway, and the stats page with indicators will still exist, but I'm getting rid of stat bars and how I treat stat checks.

The story I want to write now is different from the one I started out with. I've known for a while that GotRM was becoming far more than the tiny, wishful novella that I wrote as a teenager. I held onto that old story for a long time, but there's just so much I want to change that I realized I'd been clinging to a story I no longer enjoyed writing. So I spent the majority of the last few months rewriting GotRM from scratch. I redid some worldbuilding, I changed a lot of plot points, and I fixed a lot of characters' backstories accordingly. This meant scrapping stuff from even the demo, but that turned out to not be the biggest issue because:

I wanted to branch away from ChoiceScript. Honestly, I never really cared about getting officially published, but the camaraderie in the forums and on Tumblr were why I committed to CS and CoG. However, ultimately, I really want the functionality that other tools can offer GotRM, and so after a long internal debate, I will be switching over to Twine. Fortunately, since I was rewriting everything anyways, this has been relatively painless, and passage mapping has made everything so much neater. I am trying my best to make it up to chapter 2 before I release the new demo, so please look forwards to that!

And so yes, I am still here, chugging along.

I love this game and this story: it's been my creative escape for as long as I could remember, and you can imagine how frustrated I was when I realized I was starting to dread working on it.

I am forever learning more about myself and my writing style, and this is simply more of that journey. Thank you everyone for sticking around, for joining the discord, and for checking up on me--that I have all of you has truly been a dream.

Hopefully more updates to come soon! I understand that there may be questions about these new changes, so please ask away! I will (try) to release some asks that I've been working on in the drafts too, but I will wait until at least tomorrow to release them so that this post doesn't get drowned out immediately.

And as always, with a lot of love,

FriendlyBowlofSoup (Mei)

[imsobadatnicknames2]

top 5 ttrpgs for beginners

Sorry that this one took me a bit longer to answer than all the other Top 5 asks :p i wanted to explain a bit of my reasoning behind it and this gave me q chance to ramble a bit about something that bothers me lol

So, first of all I want to talk about what TO ME makes something a good beginner RPG.

Ramble:

I've talked a bit in the past about how I have sort of a bone to pick with the way so many people, when asked for recs for beginner TTRPGs, immediately decide to recommend extremely rules-light/minimalist/one-page RPGs (Hacks of Lasers&Feelings in particular seem to be somewhat popular on this front), when IMO these types of RPGs are at their best when played by an experienced group (or at the very least with least one very experienced player/GM who can provide some guidance to the others). I think a lot of ppl seem to have the impression that simpler mechanics inherently make a game more beginner-friendly, and that thus the most beginner-friendly games are inherently gonna be the ones with the simplest mechanics. And while this is true to an extent (a 700-page RPG with tons of complicated mechanics to remember is obviously gonna be inaccessible to beginners), when you consider that mechanics exist to DELEGATE decisions about the fiction away from the players and the GM so that they don't have to manually arbitrate them every time, there is point where less mechanics are gonna make harder for new players because it means there's more thing they're gonna have to find a way to arbitrate on and decide by themselves, and that's a skill that takes time to develop. An experienced group can probably get a ton of mileage out of a system that essentially ammounts to "the GM describes the world. The players describe what their characters do, and the GM describes how the world reacrs. When the outcome of a player action is uncertain, then [simple resolution mechanic]" but a beginner group is gonna be a little lost. Especially if the game, like many of these types of games, includes practically nothing in terms of GM tools. So I think recommending beginner RPGs solely on the base of how simple they are is well-intentioned but misguided.

(Ramble over)

So, some of what, to me, makes something a good beginner RPG is

Rules provide enough support that the group won't have to constantly be figuring out how to adjudicate stuff on the fly, but they're simple and flexible enough that they're easy to remember and learning them doesn't feel like a daunting task like it does with a certain game (*cough cough* D&D)

Relatively short and uni timidating. Maybe between like 20 and 100 pages. Players should be able to read through the rules and mechanics in one sitting.

Plenty of examples of play, often a good example of play is what makes a game's rules really *click* for a new player.

Relatively quick and painless to start running for the first time. Character creation should be quick and snappy, and if possible a short pre-written adventure (hopefully with some room to be expanded into something larger) should be included within the same book and ready to run out of the box. Even if your group doesn't like using prewritten adventures, having a *good* prewritten adventure can be a huge help in understanding how to write/design them.

Solid set of GM tools and resources (if it's a game with a GM, of course)

Optionally, plenty of compatible material to either use or take inspo from.

So, I think my recs would for beginner games would be...

Mausritter

If any of you have EVER heard me talk about RPGs you knew Mausritter was gonna be here TBH. I've repeatedly talked about it being one of my favorite RPGs and also that I consider it pretty much an ideal introduction to the hobby. I think the woodland critter theme is extremely charming and attractive for people of any age, while the slightly darker elements that rear their head from time to time keep it from feeling too childish.

The mechanics are simple and flexible but still provide enough structure that even a new GM will rarely if ever be at a loss about how to resolve a particular action. They're familiar to anyone who's played a dungeon game while still being extremely streamlined. 3 stats with the main action resolution being roll-under tests, no classes, characters are defined mostly by their inventory, all attacks auto hit and initiative is extremely streamlined, which keeps combat quick and dynamic, etc. And the mechanics are pretty short and esy to digest too, the players' section of the rulebook only takes 18 pages, including stuff like inventory tables and examples of play, and the website features a handy one.page rules summary (which also comes with the box set)

It's super easy to get running: character creation takes a couple minutes at most, and it features both a simple adventure and hexcrawl that can be used right out of the box with plenty of interesting directions to expand for further adventures.

Now, Mausritter takes most of its mechanics from Into The Odd, so a lot of its virtues come to it, but I think the few changes it made DO make mausritter most beginner-friendly, such as its inventory system which makes inventory management into a genuine challenge without having it devolve into a slog of tedious book-keeping, and the incorporation of a streamlined version of GloG's magic system, which manages to still be simple and easy without being as loose and freeform as the magic system from a lot of OSR games of similar complexity (which can be initially daunting to new players)

But what REALLY makes mausritter shine IMO is the extremely solid set of GM tools. In just a few pages mausritter manages to provide simple rules, procedures, generators and advice for running faction play, making an engaging hexcrawl, making adventure sites, and generating stuff like treasure hoards, NPCs, an adventure seeds and overal just a ton of useful stuff that takes a huge load off of the shoulders of any beginner GM.

Cairn

Lets say you're into Mausritter mechanically but your players aren't into the whole woodland creature theme and want to play something more traditional. Cairn is also built on Into The Odd's system, and takes inspiration from some of the same sources, so it's very similar mechanically. It does feature some significant differences regarding magic, character advancement, and how injury and healing work, but overall it's still mostly the same system under the hood, so a lot of what I said makes Mausritter a great introduction to the hobby mechanically still applies here (quick and flavorful character creation, dynamic and streamlined but dangerous combat, etc). It's also a classless system that features msotly inventory-defined characters, but aside from the option to randomly roll your gear, the game also offers the option of picking a gear package in case you wanna emulate a particular fantasy archetype.

Now, Cairn is a much more barebones document, and doesn't even feature examples of play or an explicit GM section with resources for running the game, which breaks with the things I said I look for in a beginner RPG. However, in this case I'm willing to forgive this because, first, Cairn's website features a plethora of first party and third party stuff that isn't featured in the book itself, including examples of play, GM procedures and tools, modular rules, and a wealh of conversions of creature stat blocks and adventures from D&D and other fantasy adventure ttrpgs.

And Second, something different that specifically distinguishes Cairn as a good example of a beginner RPG is how it explicitly outlines its philosophical and design principles, and the principles of play for both the GM and the players before it even shows you any rules, which is something that I think more games and ESPECIALLY begginer games should do. IMO the whole book is worth it just for that little section.

Troika!

Troika is a game built on the Fighting Fantasy system (which originally was less of a TTRPG system and more of an engine for a series of choose-your-own-adventure books) with a really interesting pseudo-victorian space opera weird gonzo setting which is a load of fun. It has very simple 2d6 mechanics, with characters having three stats (Stamina, Skill, and Luck), and being mostly defined by their inventory and the special skills from their background. Character creation is quick and snappy. The game gives you 36 weird and extremely creative character backgrounds, but creating a custom background is as easy as coming up with a concept and the names of a couple special skills that support that concept. It also has a very unique initiative system which might be a little divisive but which I DO find fun an interesting.

While it lacks many of the GM tools I praised Mausritter for, it makes up a little bit for it with an initial adventure that does a wonderful job at naturally introducing the weirdness of the setting, and which at the end presents a ton of opportunities to segway into a variety of urban adventures.

Now, a lot of beginners come into RPGs specifically looking for a D&D-type fantasy game (which is a problem because D&D is a pretty bad option for a beginner RPG) so for those types of players I would recommend

The Black Hack

The Black Hack is probably my favorite game for doing D&D-style fantasy roleplaying. It's a game that at its core uses the original 1974 white box edition of D&D for inspiration, but modernizes, reimagines, and streamlines every aspect of it to be one of the most simple yet elegant D&D-like experiences out there. For example, TBH uses the six stat array that all D&D players know and love, and with the same 3-18 point range, but does away with the attribute score / attribute modifier dichotomy, instead building its entire system around the attribute scores, with all rolls in the game being roll-under tests for a relevant attribute (including initiative, attack/defense rolls, and saving throws). It also innovated some extremely elegant mechanics that went on to be very influential for other games, such as its Usage Die mechanic as a way to streamline keeping track of consumable resources. Basically, it's like if D&D actually played the way it looks in cartoons and stuff: character creation doesn't take 3 hours, every combat encounter doesn't take five hours, and you can place some emphasis on resource management without the game making you want to tear your hair out with boring bookkeeping.

And one of the coolest things about it is the way it handles compatibility. Despite taking loose at best mechanical inspiration from D&D and playing very differently from it, TBH is intentionally designed to be compatible with a wealth of old-school D&D material. While it very clearly stands as its own distinct game, it's designed in such a way that you can prety much grab any creature stat block or adventure module written for any pre-3e version of D&D and use it in The Black Hack with little to no effort in conversion required.

The first edition of the game is a pretty barebones 20-page booklet that just describes the basic game mechanics, since it was assumed you'd probably be using D&D creature stat blocks and adventures with it anyway, but the second edition was significantly expanded with a bestiary, expanded GM procedures and advice, and tool for creating anything you could want: Hexcrawls, towns, dungeons, quests, treasure hoards, NPCs, dungeon rooms, traps, secrets doors, etc. plus a short premade adventure and even a few premade unkeyed dungeon maps that you can take and key yourself if you're in a pinch for a map, which as you all know, I think GM tools are an important part of a beginner game.

The game only includes the 4 basic classes from old-school D&D (fighter, thief, cleric, magic user) but the community has made several supplements adding back more modern classes.

Now, if you're that type of player that wants a D&D-like experience and you want an alternative that's still beginner-friendly but doesn't deviate as much from D&D's design, I would suggest:

either Basic Fantasy, or Old-School Essentials (or any good retroclone of Basic D&D tbh)

BF and OSE differ a bit from each other but at their core they're both attempts to repackage a relatively faithful but slightly modernized version of the 1981 Basic/Expert D&D set, retaining mostly the same mechanics while ditching a few of the aspects that might seem counterintuitive to a modern audience (such as descending AC, which I personally don't mind but I udnerstand why a lot of people find it confusing). I'm recommending these bc I think if you're gonna play any actual D&D product, the B/X set represents D&D at its most beginner-friendly (character creation is at its quickest and simplest, combat flows faster and remain itneresting due to doing side initiative rather than individual initative, the mechanics forsurprise, stealth, and dungeon exploration actions such as looking for traps are streamlined to simple D6 rolls) while still being recognizably D&D and these retroclones put in a bit of an extra effort to make them even more accessible to modern audiences.

Now, just like The Black Hack, these retroclones are limited in their race/class choice to the classic old-school D&D human/halfling/elf/dwarf and fighter/cleric/thief/magic user, but in the case of Basic Fantasy, the community has made several race and class supplements, some of which are showcased on the official website, and in the case of OSE, the OSE: Advanced addon reintroduces many of the modern classes and races that were originally introduced in the Advanced D&D line.

Have in mind that this list is pretty limited by my own tastes and experiences. I'm very aware that the very specific type of game I tend to play and like and experiences inroducing some of my friends to the hobby completely color the scope of what I can recommend as a good beginner RPG, and that that scope is significantly limited. I also like more narrative storygame type stuff, and I don't doubt that some of them would also make a fantastic introduction to the hobby (some PbTA stuff like Ironsworn, Dungeon World and Monster of the Week comes to mind) but my experience with them is not significant enough for me to feel confident in telling which of them are good beginner RPGs.

Also note that there are several games that I consider to be more MECHANICALLY beginner-friendly than the ones I listed here, but that I avoided mentioning specifically because they offer extremely little to no support in terms of GM tools, which I think is an important and often overlooked aspect of beginner-friendliness for any game that includes a GM! But they still might be worth checking out. These include games like DURF, FLEE, OZR, A Dungeon Game, Bastards, Dungeon Reavers, Knave 1e, and Tunnel Goons.

[crimeronan]

my mom called to say happy birthday and talk about my impending trip home to visit and then was like "so..... about your dad....." and then informed me that she and my sister have been discussing the logistics of how to have the most painless interaction with him possible. she was like "if there was a 100% chance he'd never find out, we both think you shouldn't see him at all. but...." and i was like yeah, no, i can't feasibly keep this trip secret. especially if i'm seeing his relatives.

and Then she explained that my siblings have worked out the Exact Logistics of how i can see him One (1) Time, with a set time limit, and then escape and not worry about him at all.

and then she was like well. obviously they're both coming with you too. they love to gossip about your dad's weird shit it'll be an adventure for the three of you!!

i..... didn't even tell any of them i've been stressed about seeing him. (although i DID tell them i didn't want to.)

she ended all of this with a laugh like "god, it really Shouldn't be this difficult," which is True, this is an insane game to have to play, but also. get you a family that cheerfully schemes like this. i'm feeling less stressed about my dad than i have in Weeks.

[loquaciousquark]

hi! i’ve been a fan of your writing since da2 and i’m so glad you’re playing bg3 now too. it’s been really interesting following your play throughs and character choices and how that ties in with your fic. i know you went with the choice to have astarion kill tav when he firsts bites her because it’s hilarious and i always want to do that, but i think i’d miss the scene after with the whole camp (and all the approval for defending him lol) and ahhhh i just don’t know! if you feel like it, i was wondering if you would talk more about your HCs around that choice and what to you makes it worth losing the morning after scene with everyone because i feel like it’s such an important group moment but… i want to punch him for killing me and also kind of slow things down with him so we stay just reluctant but oddly compelled allies for longer

Ahhh, what a fabulous question! Thank you so very much for this handcrafted opportunity to sit you down at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee and trap you for the next three and a half hours.

So the first bite scene ending in Tav's death wasn't actually intentional! I started playing BG3 in a three-person MP team with @eponymous-rose and @mystery-moose, and it so happened that my character (Tavish Gale, already ironclad) was the one who came across the boar and triggered the bite scene that night. By pure chance I rolled two natural ones on both those checks, and when it cut to the next morning and Tav was outright DEAD, we couldn't stop laughing! We had no idea what to expect or what the consequences would be, and when I switched to a SP campaign so I could horrifically binge this game like the gremlin I am, I felt compelled to recreate that glorious, character-defining moment.

However, as you note, that does mean you miss out on that lovely post-feed conversation where everyone says they're okay with him. On the other hand, you get that absolutely flat read of "Oh no. Something terrible happened here. :|" and then you get to punch him, so, you know, basically equal losses on either path. I know you get a ton of approval points after with the survival track, but I'm finding I'm not hurting for approval even in early game (I actually had to go and mod his approval 15 points lower about halfway through Act 1 this run because I was triggering his romance scene too early ahead of the party).

I actually need to probably sit down and write out the details of what happens here, but I do think a couple things take place. I know for sure that Tav fails the checks & doesn't fight it because she gets sucked into the feeling of relaxation and lethargy and the sense that nothing matters anymore. She spends most of Acts 1 & 2 fairly certain they're going to die any day, so why not live life to the fullest and do whatever you want in the moment without thinking about the consequences? If she's going to go out early anyway, why not to a relatively painless vampire bite instead of the agony of ceremorphosis? She probably realizes she's dying in those last seconds, but it's very much a "finally" instead of "oh no," so it's not really any skin off her nose.

I'm almost certain Astarion is shocked out of his mind when her heart stops. I don't think he realizes what's happened until he sits back and she's ice-cold and smiling, and his first instinct is to run off into the dark ASAP before everyone else wakes up and shanks him. Except because this happens IN THE MIDDLE OF CAMP, LARIAN, I think someone sees the whole thing go down and realizes Astarion didn't mean to do it and Tav was a brick-thick idiot who leaned all the way into her own death.

On pondering, I kind of think it was Shadowheart, who is utterly disgusted with both of them but who also knows she can bring Tav back with a scroll and does so without much drama. She'd be the kind of person to see what was going on, but who doesn't care enough to intervene or go "hey everything okay over here I can't help but notice you're engaging in some risky behavior", but who also wouldn't leap to TIME TO KILL ASTARION the moment it went too far.

I think Tav wakes up with a raging headache, and now that there are suddenly consequences she can't immediately brush off, she gets embarrassed and mad. Cue the punch, the argument, and probably everyone else waking up in the aftermath. Lae'zel initially wants to boot him from the group, I think, but Tav's anger burns out pretty quick (and she's pretty aware of her own failures to stop him), and she points out that if they're going to saddle themselves with Wyll's, Gale's, and her own baggage, it'd be pretty hypocritical to dump Astarion over his. So we still get some defense of him to the group, and I think Karlach (and probably Wyll, and honestly maybe Shadowheart who saw his fear) would be onboard with keeping him around pretty quickly. Promises never to do it again, keep your teeth to yourself, etc.

Astarion I think spends this entire conversation very, very scared and doing everything he can to hide it. I think he's completely overwhelmed by euphorically feeding on a thinking creature for the first time and then completely horrified by killing her - not because he likes her but because what if this is why Cazador commanded us not to, what if I can't control myself on my own without his compulsion, what if I really am the beast he's always said. He's panicking from the outrageous swings of emotion and talking really quickly and trying to put up a bold front, but inside he's about half a hair from snapping off into the woods and never coming back.

I think it's the punch that kind of shocks him out of the spiral, and then Tav then defending him to the group helps him flip into the "well obviously I deserve to stay and in fact to kick me out of the group would be not only stupid, but deadly" mode long enough to get through the night. He tries to put on the usual devil-may-care indifference, even though everyone can see through it, and they have a tense few days where everyone's pretending everything is fine even though it's really, really not.

Astarion & Tav are also avoiding each other religiously here, until something happens in a battle (the harpies, I think) and one of them gets injured because of that avoidance. That night, Tav stakes him to the ground and makes them talk about it. I think this is where she says she's not actually averse to him feeding on her and in fact asks him to do it that night - to get them both over the hump of what happened the first time. Astarion needs to feed without fear & she needs to not get swept up in the lethargy, and if he's going to get back to the sneering equilibrium he ought to have in the first and second acts, he needs to be successful at this and he needs to feel like he's won, or at least like he has an edge over her again. She's a little transparent about wanting to be bled in part to help him get back to this position of control, and in part because she does like forgetting the weight of reality, and in part because, again, they're gonna die in like twelve hours, surely, so who cares?

Anyway, it goes as well as it can for the two of them, even if they're both a little prickly throughout, and by the end they're a lot more comfortably back in that manipulative space they prefer. From there it moves on compliantly with canon into the party leadup (Loviatar and such) and then the party itself, and then progresses as scheduled with the rest of the game.

Ahh, it's so fun to think about these kinds of things. I'll continue to ponder, but I think this is either it for them or very close. Thank you so much for asking and for letting me ruminate! <3

[cryscendo]

au+trope+prompt game, Klaine:

babysitter!au

exes

“you have the emotional capacity of a brick.”

I'm so sorry about the last one, but I'm curious to see how you fix it :)

thank you so much for the ask! unfortunately, i lost the original prompt a bit in writing this. I wanted to leave the dynamic pretty open-ended so sorry if it’s a little off. hope you enjoy regardless!!

Word Count: 777

fic can be read under the cut!

~~~

Kurt has decided that he is going to kill Rachel Berry.

He’s never been one to consider murder as an option before, but it does feel appropriate that Rachel should be his first.

“Are you serious, Rachel?” Kurt asks in exasperation. He had agreed to babysit his nephews so that his step-brother and his wife could go on a date night. However, he should have figured that Rachel always had ulterior motives.

“It’ll be fine, Kurt! Your nephew really wanted to spend time with his Uncle Kurt and Uncle Blaine. Just this once, I promise!” Uncle Blaine? Since when did Blaine get upgraded to uncle? Before Kurt had a chance to argue, Rachel prattled on. “Make sure Chester gets his bath and is in bed by 8:30. Thanks, babe, you’re the best!” She kissed Kurt on the cheek before quickly heading towards the door. “C’mon, Finn!”

Finn followed behind Rachel silently, but not without directing an apologetic look towards Kurt. God, Finn, you pushover.

Once the couple was out the door, Kurt stared at the door, hoping to burn a hole in the wood through sheer agitation alone.

“So, are you just gonna stand there and look pissy or are you gonna help me babysit?”

And there was Blaine. He was sitting on the couch through the entirety of Kurt’s interaction with Rachel, but Kurt had been resolutely not looking at him.

“This is a bad idea.”

“Sure is,” Blaine agreed, and even that irritated Kurt. Finally looking over towards Blaine, Kurt saw his ex-boyfriend holding his nephew in his arms. Kurt heaved a sigh and eventually sat down next to Blaine on the couch, careful to leave an acceptable amount of distance between the two of them.

“Two people aren’t needed to watch one kid.”

“Then leave,” Blaine stated evenly. This took Kurt by surprise by how easily Blaine said that to him. “You can either do that or get over yourself for one night.”

Though Kurt appeared he wanted to argue, he simply shook his head dismissively. He didn’t want to deal with this, but at the very least, he could tell that Blaine didn’t want to either. But it was just one night. He could do this. Sure, he and Blaine aren’t on the best of terms, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t handle one night with him. Even if the only reason they’re spending any amount of time together is because of Rachel and her incessant scheming.

The evening went on about as Kurt anticipated that it may: casual bickering between the two paired with taking care of his nephew. Bathtime was relatively painless, aside from the fact that Blaine was insistent on playing in the water with Chester, therefore getting water everywhere that Kurt had no doubt he would have to be the one to clean up.

Eventually, once Chester was put down for bed, Kurt and Blaine sat down in the silent living room, on opposite ends of the couch once more. Despite his nephew being an incredibly well-behaved kid, Kurt cannot imagine taking care of a child every single day. He’s honestly amazed that Finn and Rachel can do it. He sighed, only this time not from frustration, but from exhaustion.

“Wasn’t so bad, now was it?” Blaine finally spoke up, his voice carrying none of the bite from earlier in the evening. He must’ve been just as tired as Kurt was.

“Could’ve been worse, I guess.”

Blaine huffed a laugh that was without humor. “Sometimes, Kurt, you have the emotional capacity of a brick.”

At this, Kurt felt a bit indignant. “That’s hilarious coming from you.” Truly, as if Blaine has any right to be casting stones in the emotional availability department.

“I’m serious. You have so much you wanna say, I can tell. Just say it.” Blaine caught Kurt’s attention with that statement. “Look, I know that we didn’t break up on the best of terms, but come on. We’ve got to communicate better than this. Much as you may hate it, our lives are still going to be interconnected. No amount of arguing is going to change that.”

“Are you saying that you don’t hate it?”

“Seeing you from time to time? I can certainly think of worse things.” 

Before Kurt could respond, Chester started to cry in the other room. “I got him,” Kurt said as he stood, ready to be away from this conversation. Blaine didn’t try to stop him, so Kurt left him to check on his nephew. Though not without thinking about what Blaine was implying. Does Blaine want to still spend time with Kurt?

It was all too much, too soon.

[artemisiavulgaris1114]

So I've been sitting on this 30 page Gortash/Lilith pre/during/post-game fanfic outline (!!) for months. the first chapter isn't done yet :') I normally don't post unfinished, buuuut I'm happy with the first part and felt like it needed to be released into the world--give it a bit of external life to hopefully feed back into it for when I do have the bandwidth for more writing <3

As Dark Things Are Meant To Be Loved chapter: 0.1/? (not up on ao3 yet in case anyone is looking for it there) rating: M (canon-typical blood and gore) durgetash (gortash x durge tav) although this first bit has no durge in it, just one tired asshole who's too old for this shit

Gortash gazed sightlessly upon the statue of the gods. The tabernacle was shadowed and dormant in the small hours of the night, but for the soft flicker of the altar candles, and his mind was similarly far away. The unmistakable odour of the lower city managed to seep into the air here, winding its way through the din of incense and herbal offerings. Despite his recent more lavish trappings, Gortash still found himself spending far too much time in a place he missed and hated in equal measure.

And now, that time was being wasted. The steel toe of his jackboot tapped against the marble floor, a steady rhythm counting down the seconds. He had a habit of noting even the smallest grains of sand that slipped through his fingers, and for someone who slept as little as he did, he was still too irritated by the situation to try and make productive use of it.

There came a softer tapping that was outpaced by his own. Then, the scent of something even far less favourable suddenly overwhelmed him–raw, rancid meat, with a musty undercurrent of desiccated fabric and blood. Gortash could almost feel the nauseating cocktail crawling over his clothes and skin, and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. He turned around to find a small, stooped figure, hooded in a tattered antique cloak with its hands clasped behind its back.

Gortash did not bother to tilt more than his eyes downward as he spoke, nor stop his lip from curling in disgust. “May I ask, did Lady Savienna fail to deliver the entirety of the sum I paid for this visit? Or were you really off squandering my precious evening, laying with long-butchered swine as your keen fetor suggests?”

The figure calmly folded back its hood to reveal what appeared to be an older, balding gnome with a thick silvered beard and many scars. Its eyes were beady, mischievous, and discriminating, which Gortash instantly clocked as owing to fey ancestry. Whatever this thing really was must have been almost too perverse to conceal.

“Oh, she did, my Lord. Yes, quite the substantial—and, dare I say, grandiose—donation,” the gnome twaddled, with a bow that was unreasonably low. “An adequate token of your respect.”

“Clearly not entirely adequate, seeing as it failed to guarantee something as simple as your punctuality,” Gortash’s jaw clicked. “Respect, indeed.”

“It is enough to guarantee you a chance to walk out of this meeting alive, my Lord, and nothing more,” the creature’s voice lilted with false deference, an almost mocking tone that bore no obvious threat.  “You see, when encountered, Banites are normally afforded the dignity and lesser mercy of a swift and relatively painless death—of which, I am certain you’re aware.” It added with a hint of amusement, “The ones that don’t go so quietly make for sacrifices that are most fruitful.”

Gortash’s gauntleted fist clenched reflexively as if it desired to crush something. He was already out of patience, but he refused to let himself be goaded. “Then consider them part of my ‘donation’, and stop wasting my time.”

The gnome cowered ever so slightly, but still, somehow Gortash had the distinct impression that it was nowhere near afraid of death.

“My proposal is thus,” Gortash began, his voice sharp and compelling even at normal speaking volume, “I will offer a doubling of your meeting fee in order to secure the particular assistance of one of your assassins in carrying out a targeted heist three tendays from now.”

“Oh, my, a down payment?”

“Depending on how we fare, there may be far more vested interest in it for you than the scope of this contract.”

“---and the potential for subsequent contracts. You make it sound like a most lucrative opportunity,” the gnome chuckled affably as it squinted up at him.

“I do not deal in any business that is not.”

“Yet, in this instance, you seek our help. It must be something terribly difficult to pull off, if someone such as you does not think himself solely capable.”

“I am more than capable,” Gortash flashed. “Trust that I would not have arranged this meeting had I not been given an unequivocal order to do so.”

“Interesting. It seems you are as ambivalent about this as we are,” the gnome grinned widely, showcasing a disarray of sharp, spoiled teeth. “In that case, I’ll humour you. Tell me, what is it that you’re planning to steal?”

“For now, I plan only to return something that was stolen from you.” The impish creature’s patronizing facade faltered, and it looked genuinely confused. “And what benefit is that of yours?”

“Nothing such that you’re entitled to hear,” Gortash replied dismissively, “but I will tell you why I require your services.”

He continued, keeping with an air of complete confidence and immaculate poise as he began to pace, all part of the hustle. 

“This job has particular challenges, and requires a particular approach sufficient to mitigate them, hence the long turnaround. What I seek from you is someone who is able to enact a series of seemingly unrelated murders, enough to alarm and distract the general populace, and more importantly, the Grand Duke, for the days leading up to the heist.” He stopped pacing and turned, pinning the gnome with a pointed look. “You know the one amongst your ranks of whom I speak.”

“Hmm, hmm. Yes, perhaps that does sound familiar,” the creature nodded along slowly, wringing its hands seemingly by rote. “Allegedly, one of ours made rather a name for themselves, nigh 15 years past. As they say, all those murders were the work of one very clever, exceptionally vicious Bhaalspawn, though they never did quite figure out who was responsible...” 

Gortash nodded. “A spotless record.”

The Bhaalist took a long, deep breath through its nostrils. 

“Keeps us respectable,” it said as it straightened its posture, cleared its throat and continued, “And, fortunately for you, I do happen to know the very one of which you speak. I also simply must profess that I have the unique privilege, and indeed, the requisite finesse, of serving them at a personal level...” and on it went, describing in exorbitant detail its distinguished affiliation and stewardship of its vile master, a decidedly sadistic and depraved individual, the leader of Bhaal’s contemporary cult–which really just made this whole idea all the less appealing from Gortash’s point of view. 

He had no idea what to expect. His dealings with Bhaalists had never been easy or pleasant, if such a thing was even possible. He preferred prudence and wit to mindless, unnecessary carnage from his underlings. Though he reasoned that their leader must have some modicum of each to keep them as organized and prolific as they were.

He had begun to pace again, this time in circles around the effusive creature as it rattled on. “Yes, yes—they sound simply delightful. Might they be persuaded to discuss this face to face?”

It pondered concernedly for a moment. “You see, this particular assassin that you’re referring to… they are one of our most accomplished, most venerated–”

“Your leader, yes. Which is precisely why I have sought them out.”

“You are well informed,” it admitted with an edge of spite. “But that does not gain you anything. They have a great deal of responsibilities, my Lord. Running the temple worship daily is no small feat, what with our cult now being so prosperous, so vital as it once was–”

“You will have your daily sacrifices,” Gortash interrupted. 

“Surely we have other suitable operatives of equivalent skill–”

“You do not. I will only work with another possessing capability and merits comparable to my own. As far as I’m aware, Bhaal only has one Chosen.” Gortash held his hands behind his back. “All I ask of them yet is a chance to meet and discuss my proposal properly and in detail.”

The gnome thought for another long moment before relenting with a grudging look. 

“Our Lord, pragmatic as ever, is receptive to any proposed Banite alliance, as long as you make it worth his while. Though…” and as it casually inspected the ragged fingernails on its hand, there was an especially sinister bent to its ever-present smile, “a Banite sacrifice is in most cases worth more than anything you could offer us otherwise,” it said before it looked Gortash in the eye. “Especially one of your status.”

“I look forward to making their acquaintance,” Gortash quipped back with a beleaguered smirk. “Now, shoo. And do pass along my invitation, will you? I shall await a response.” He swept past the decrepit thing without formality, glad to finally be rid of its air, and out into the azure cast of near-dawn.

[sunhated-a]

Perhaps in some far gone era, Muzan would have played along with his insipid game, back when he found enjoyment in crushing all those who stood against him. But, as with all things, a couple of centuries in and the novelty had worn off.

Still, he would admit that Inosuke was cut from finer cloth than the rest of the rabble Muzan had been forced to contend with that night. They had swarmed at him like flies, and died just as quickly. At least this one had the decency to fear him. Perhaps for that alone, he would make his death quick and relatively painless.

But Muzan's grace was painfully limited, and his patience more so. The Demon King met Inosuke's challenge with an icy cold stare: pupils narrowed into a thin slit. A stare as sharp as a knife and twice as deadly.

"You mean to challenge me to a battle? And what makes you think you are worth my time?"

He starts, with no small amount of contempt slipping through his placid mask.

"You are no one. Nothing."

@whirling-fangs | Moved from here.

[snepril]

I've tried to run ttrpgs more than a few times over the years - mostly D&D - but always hit a wall when it came to setup. 5e in particular is just so front-loaded it's almost impenetrable - and that's not even considering encounter balance!

But a while back I got into Lancer, and after playing a couple sessions, I absolutely fell in love. So I decided to try a hand at GMing it...

...and I think I've finally hit my stride! I made the battlemaps using asset packs from Interpoint Station, glued together in GIMP, and I'm running the game in Foundry VTT. The hardest parts so far have been setup and actually making the maps - once I got a system down for both, it made creating entire encounters relatively quick and painless. Honestly, I'm really proud of how it's all coming together!

[the-ellia-west]

Garnet for the Red Ask Game :)

GARNET - If they had to kill someone, what method would they choose?

Hmmm... Fun question to answer! Thx for the Ask @ajgrey9647!

Marril - He Kills people for a living, and he prefers to make it quick, His sharpened cards or Dagger to the throat, or a fast-acting poison

Shyre - Crossbow straight Between the eyes, quick, relatively painless, the only weapon she really knows how to use

Sokuna - Claws across the throat, quick and painless

Reon - cracking your head to put you in a coma so burning you to death qon't be as painful. He doesn't want to watch you suffer but he can't bring himself to kill with his own hands

Mouse - Claws to the eyes, She is a brutal little baby

Tias - Ripping your fucking heart out with his claws, or tortured to death MMMM YESS TORTURE AND VERY MUCH PAIN

Kila - Claws to the neck again, Quick and easy, very efficient

Viasaki - Knife to the heart, also quick and easy, but he doesn't have to feel your skin under his claws so it makes it a little easier

Kasi - Knife to the back, Stealth, ease, and convenience

Xhaazi: Decapitation... he finds it fascinating

Chrin: Fast acting painless poison, no blood, quick, and painless

[ratcandy]

when i read your sozo fic i had the thought that perhaps the mushroomos weren't asking anything in return for housing the refugees because their numbers would grow when they died. they might be grown from the menticide mushrooms lasting within the body without effecting.

and if they are fully straight up just mushrooms(like sozo asking you to get one for him to eat would imply), they might need connection to the soul or whatever the lamb latches onto to resurrect followers, which would be my explanation as to why they need the body. like with [redacted for post game spoilers. related to a pair of weird necklaces you can't get without ???]

YEAH That's similar to the idea I had! At least. I left the Mushroomo's intentions vague (mostly because there's no reason for them to tell Dr. Sozonius, he wouldn't know, but also) because I think they're sorta both? As in, both helping selflessly and selfishly. Simultaneously

It's like. When the refugees die, they'll be getting new members that way,,, but they are also genuinely doing their best to keep them alive and relatively painless. And if they end up strong enough to escape on their own, then that's great!!... The unfortunate thing though is most don't. All the Mushroomos can provide are the Menticide Mushrooms, and those are not sustainable as a food source. Especially since they just drug the shit out of you to the point you can't properly function while on them And considering most show up already starved due to Anura/Heket being of Famine, it's just. Well.

It just works out that way

(It's why I had one Mushroomo mention something about "shame," I thought about maybe some of them (if not all of them) viewing their healing "duties" from that standpoint? Trying to keep the refugees alive knowing they only exist when they die, but it's such needless suffering that causes their existence that they're just. Not super happy about it)

[signalhill-if]

How Signal Hill will dynamically update your saves

So it's pretty common to make big, fundamental changes in development that require players to start a new save. Sometimes shit just breaks. Sometimes you overhaul a system, and the new one is better, but the old one has to go. That's fine, especially since a lot of the games on here are only so many words and players tend to enjoy re-reading them anyway.

But with Signal Hill's unique structure, I saw an opportunity to make development super modular and updates really easy. That problem of needing to restart saves, though? That always nagged at me. I'm a perfectionist, so the idea of idea of making updates easy for me but keeping them hard for the player wasn't enough for me. And if you've ever developed a game, you know that "just don't make big changes that require a restart" isn't an option.

So I've come up with what I hope is a clever solution to make updates relatively painless. I'll get into the player's experience first, and then talk about the nitty gritty under the cut for my fellow devs (hiiiiiii~)

Seamless Player Experience

When the player opens Signal Hill, they are brought to the main menu where they can choose to load a save, resume where they left off, or start a new game.

If an update has come out, loading a save from any previous version will cause a permanent popup to show up on the top of the screen informing you that an update is required. This can not be removed or minimized without updating.

Clicking on the update will bring the player to a page with a brief explanation of how updating works and a changelog for the current version. The game will automatically determine what needs to be updated based on their save's data. Some updates will require the player to answer a question, such as "What choice did you make during this scene?" or "Did you succeed on this roll?"

Once the questions have been answered, the player will be brought back to the page they started on and will be able to continue the game seamlessly without issues.

Under the cut, I'll explain how this actually works in Twine.

Under the hood

So there are two kinds of updates that cause problems, assuming the content itself hasn't been rewritten. One is updating the StoryInit to add new arrays or set defaults for numbers. The other is when things have happened in the story that you need to record as a variable and reference later, but you didn't have the hindsight to do it at the time.

The game will now track a variable called $gameversion. Any time a major version is released, the $gameversion in the StoryInit will be updated to the new version, so a player starting a new save will automatically be on the correct version.

If the player is not on the correct version, a line of code in the header will identify that and show them the update message. This will bring them over to the update page.

Any simple StoryInit changes will be done automatically, such as adding new arrays or setting new variables to 0 so that the game can do math with them.

Signal Hill is a massive game and saves a fuckton of data, so this info can be used contextually to dynamically update more complicated variables. Here's are some examples.

The game saves a list of every character you've encountered as an array, $met. If $met.includes("yasmin"), that means you've met her. But the line of code that adds her to the list wasn't included in the first version by accident. However, this can be easily remedied.

When the player completes a lead, it is added to a hidden list called $playedleads. If $playedleads.includes("waveform"), that means you've completed the lead that introduces Yasmin. So if $playedleads.includes("waveform"), we can $met.push("yasmin"). We'll just have to include an extra safety measure at the end of that lead, so that anyboy who updated their game mid-lead will still get her added to the $met list.

In addition, the game saves events that happen through HiEv's Event Flag macro. If the player failed a roll at the end of KC's intro, they won't be getting paid for tagging along during Test Run, and it'll SetFlag "TestRunIntern" (some of my flags have very good names, tragic that you'll never see them haha). But that, also, was missed in the original release somehow. So if $playedleads.includes("lamplighters"), the game will prompt you on whether you failed or succeeded at that roll and the flag will be set accordingly.

The game version being recorded in the variables means that extremely old saves should still be salvageable, they'll just have to endure more updates. As the game recieves more updates, it'll send players to the appropriate page for their version. If the current version is 1.5.X and the save is from 1.2.X, then the player will be brought to the 1.3.X update page, which will include all of the updates from 1.3.X to present.

Eventually, old saves may become untenable due to some massive future change that can't be predicted right now. But assuming things go as planned, this should prevent players from ever having to start a new save if they don't want to.

This has been a little dry, but I hope it game you some ideas or was interesting! I'm pretty proud of this little hack, hence why I'm sharing, haha. Hopefully in the future I'll find ways to streamline this process even more.

[fioras-resolve]

you know, if there's one thing from the DS era of video games i'd rather leave behind, it's having the tutorial section try to teach you every mechanic back-to-back in a barebones tutorial sectioned off from the main game. sometimes it's relatively painless, like in castlevania order of ecclesia's basic training. but sometimes it's exhausting, like fire emblem shadow dragon having four prologue levels before you can finally play chapter one.

like, in my mind there's three main goals you want a tutorial to achieve. you want it to be comprehensive, effective, and engaging. most of the time it's very difficult to achieve all three, so most games settle for one or two. ds games tended to sacrifice engagement, while games with more organic tutorials like portal or shovel knight manage to succeed on all three for most players, but tend to be less effective for people with really low game or genre literacy.

i suspect that's the reason ds tutorials are like that, because a lot of its audience was people with less experience with games, so they want to insure the tutorials are effective. but i question how effective these really are. like, sure, for simpler games like platformers it's fair enough to learn everything at once. but if you're getting a lot of information at once, and not able to apply it until it's done, you're not going to remember everything. plus, people often skip or ignore text, it's commonly known by game designers as one of the worst ways to deliver information if you can help it. sometimes it is necessary, like in games heavy on text already, but it's something that can very easily backfire on you.

all in all just make better tutorials it's really simple why isn't anyone doing this /s

[xivu-arath]

I feel relatively painless and have some energy but have zero mood or motivation to lead me to do things so I'm tumbling around my options with no way of landing on a result

do I want to write original, or work on fic, or rp? a high energy game or a chill one? the only thing I know is that I need to start packing once my laundry is done, and go to an atm sometime today

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 22- Part 1

So, in order to battle Cain, I want to do at least a bit of level grinding, especially now that the level cap is higher again. I’m thinking Lv. 34-35? That sounds reasonable. Plus, it’s Tuesday, and the Trainer at the Battle Corner today is actually somewhat reasonable from what I’ve looked up, so this should be relatively painless. I’ll be heading to Grand Hall in order to-

…Uuuuh, sorry, am I interrupting something? They’ve got some kinda ritual going on? Cool, okay, I’ll check on that later-

Oh- shoot, new Trainers too? Alright, well, I was gonna rearrange my team at the Grand Hall PC, but I guess I’ll go back to Lapis Ward and do it there real fast.

At any rate, here’s the team I’ll be going with for the time being, and you might notice a familiar face in there as well:

Yup, Bloom’s back! Figured I could use a Grass-type again, and I think Decibel could use a break for now, at least until the level cap’s at a point where she’ll be able to evolve (which will be two Badges from now, based on the level caps displayed on the Trainer Card). Granted, Bloom himself still isn’t at his own full potential and won’t be until I can find a Shiny Stone, but he’s still partially evolved, so it’s an improvement.

For now, I’ve swapped his Rose Incense with the Exp. Share to help with leveling him up to the others’ levels in the coming battles. Though, I have noticed this blonde lady in the corner who wasn’t there last time I was here…who is she?

Okay, this must be something to adjust the game’s difficulty…I think. But despite the chaos we’ve seen so far, I’m not yet at a point where I need to lower the game’s difficulty, so I will not be using this lady’s services.

Alright, random flirting aside, um- what’s this Growlithe doing over here?

Oh- wait, this is Ms. Craudburry’s house, isn’t it? Aha, the police must be here to investigate the robbery- welp, time to get as far away from here as possible! Back to North Obsidia Ward!

What does this guy have to say about the ritual happening in front of him?

Oh, so it’s got something to do with that Link Stone thing people mentioned before- again, I’ll check it out later. Right now, it’s fighting time!

Alright, not too scary- one or two Zen Headbutts should beat it.

I mean, Kirin didn’t level up from that, so…I guess this battle counts as meaningless, since nothing changed? Maybe this second battle will be more meaningful.

Okay, I know where this is going. Into Glare we go!

She’s got Crunch, that’ll make short work of Wonder Guard…even if it tries to hinder her with Confuse Ray.

And this is a job Riptide can handle pretty well.

Ice Fang, here we go!

Man, lots of people flirting with Xera today- and since Cain is around, I doubt that’s gonna fully let up any time soon.

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