#that’s what discord servers and group chats are for

[sabrinahawthorne]

Introducing: Chimera Hearts!

A Network for People Who Care about RPGs

Way back in February, I made This Post (inspired by This One) talking about some of the issues facing the RPG hobby and industry, and calling some of my peers to action to see what we could do about it. Originally, the goal was to hold a discussion with speakers & debate, taking the lessons we learned from each other back out into the world. After a week or so of incompatible schedules, we decided to expand the discussion. After a bit more back-and-forth, something kind of amazing happened.

With the incredible leadership of Daniel of The Copper Compendium, that same gaggle of folks has been putting together a discord server to act as the hub of what we hope will be a larger movement in RPGs. We call it Chimera Hearts – and we want you to join.

The Chimera Hearts server isn’t the heart of the movement – rather, it’s a hub for discussion & teamwork between disparate corners of the RPG world. A place to share tips and tricks – effective methods we’ve found to address the heads of the proverbial hydra, and a place to go when we’re looking for the solutions others have developed.

We also want Chimera Hearts to be a place where folks from across the industry can get together to build programs, initiatives, and infrastructure to cultivate the health & longevity of the industry.

There are already a couple of folks developing such programs; Aaron Voigt is putting together a mentorship program to give people the tools to start making their own RPG videos on Youtube! And I am currently in the middle of an experiment (which you can read about here), the goal of which is to figure out how to create a casual indie RPG audience in your city.

Chimera Hearts isn’t centralized; this isn’t a project built around a group of experts or authorities. The goal of the network is to connect people between otherwise disconnected subcommunities and give them the tools to start improving this industry in accessible, practical ways.

I’m blown away by how people responded to my call to action, and intimidated by the scope of motion that seems to have been set by it. It was by the dedication and expertise of Daniel, Aaron, and the rest of the folks working to put this together that Chimera Hearts exists, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it in any way. I hope you’ll join us and be a part of it, too.

Currently, the founding team of Chimera Hearts includes: @monsterfactoryfanfic; @thecoppercompendium; @in-case-of-grace; @theresattrpgforthat; @rowansender; @thefiresontheheight; @ladytabletop; @stoicheincat; and Julian, the Game Mistress of @tinytablepodcast!

[gladumfdoodles]

it's been a while since i did a little self promo post, so!! I'm doing another one!!

Hello folks, I'm Glad! I'm a fic writer in the Hermitcraft and Life series fandoms and have specifically been writing platonic scarian for nearly two years now. i have well over 400k words worth of those two on my ao3, which you can find here!

My most popular fics on Ao3 and the ones that you might have heard of before seeing this post are:

-Phasmobros: a GIGGS centric phasmophobia fic similar to a chat fic, in which the story is told through a series of radio logs, emails, and text messages. I wrote it during the height of phasmo with the GIGGS crew in October of 2023, and it haunts me to this day as my best performing fic and the first fic i ever wrote /silly

-Mer AU: a series in which Scar is a Blue Catfish mer forced to showboat for an aquarium and Grian is working on his Masters in Marine Biology who notices something isn't quite right. Features angst, whump, hurt/comfort, and more!

My discord server's favorite fics are:

-Secret Worlds, aka Atlantis AU: follows the plot of Disney's Atlantis if the characters were instead from the Life Series and Hermitcraft. If you like action, adventure, and worldbuilding, this one is very fun. I really enjoyed doing a deep dive into the culture of Atlantis specifically in the Disney film and then expanding on it, and a few elements of the plot have been switched or tweaked to fit the characters better!

-Mer AU: See above! This one is a big fan favorite, so if you want a nice introduction to my writing, that fic is definitely the way to go!

-A Group of Crows is Called a Murder for a Reason, aka NVSK or Necromancer v Serial Killer: Based off of a Tumblr post, in which Scar is the leader of the local mafia and kills a lot of people, and Grian is a necromancer who keeps bringing them back. This one is packed with hurt/comfort, hybrid instincts, possessive characters, and complicated morality. If you like BAMF Scar and Grian and pathetic wet cat of a man Jimmy (he's trying his best), this fic is for you.

-Technical Difficulties: A Scifi AU in which Scar is an enforcer and Grian is a criminal against his will. After an explosive meeting, they work together to take down the organization that held Grian and his friends captive, and Grian faces some incredible challenges along the way. Featuring some experimentation and feral Grian, as well as my favorite, a concussion scene.

-Angel Ellipsis: An angel/demon AU with some very particular world building. Based off of SilverWing's fic Mischief and Mayhem but with my own personal touch to it. Grian is a demon being kept for experimentation by human scientists when one day an angel is thrown into the cage next to him. Hungry, scared, and desperate, they cling to each other, until a local group of ragtag creatures comes to save them. Loads of whump and angst in this one, but also plenty of hurt/comfort. Also features the ZITS crew!

-Don't Look Too Hard: An old one but a good one! Grian is a homeless avian keeping himself alive on the streets with his friends when he suddenly gets kidnapped by the House of the Watchers, a noble family that serves King Scar. He quickly becomes their slave and personal punching bag, but the Watchers don't seem to realize that Scar can sense exactly what Grian is feeling when they visit the palace. This one is a feel good fic! Hurt/comfort to the max with so much bird brain. There are also a lot of characters in this short fic, plenty to get excited over!

And finally, my personal favorite fics. Most of them are listed above, so check out the summaries there if you're interested!

-Mer AU: This one will always hold a special place in my heart. I spent ages on the worldbuilding, and it brought me really close to my community as well.

-NVSK: This was my passion project last year. I loved writing this one so much and I love it so so so much. Please check it out, it is my baby and it needs more love.

-Smiler AU: My little horror project! It's an apocalypse AU in which a species of aliens have invaded Earth with one purpose: to make people happy. Except they get a bit confused and think that if someone is smiling, that means they're happy, and if they're not smiling, that needs to be fixed. And the whole fixing process? Doesn't have a very high survival rate. The smiler afflicted area is walled off by the World Governments, and Grian and Scar are just a few of those people trapped behind that wall. I'm still working on this one, and it is once again, a really big passion project of mine, so please check it out!

There are a ton more fics on my profile, more than I could ever link here, and I strongly encourage you go check them out if anything here seems interesting to you! I have a plethora of oneshots and short fics, as well as a smattering of long fics, most of which center on desert duo/platonic scarian. If you made it to the end of this post, congrats! Thanks for reading my rambling here, and I hope to see you over on Ao3!

[thatswhatsushesaid]

i wish more people on this website, myself included, would discover the life-changing magic of shutting the fuck up about ships they don’t like.

new rule, i’m challenging myself to say nice things about shit i don’t ship every time i also say something cunty. be the mediocre change you want to see in the world or whatever, i guess.

[batsplat]

Plsss batsplat drop a nice cozy place to talk motogp that is not this hellhole! twitter? Reddit? Old bar in my hometown? Plsss

idk man i'm quite possibly the worst possible person to ask about this because my motogp fandom experience before like a year and a bit ago was a deliberately solitary experience 😭 i'm not actually built for the discourse trenches ... idc enough about this stuff to discourse ... but if you had to rank all the social media sites

meet me 🥺🥺 in the comments 🥺👉👈 under old motomatters articles 🥺: carries the rare distinction of being an internet comment section worth reading. tightly moderated enough to cut out 80% of the most annoying talking points. gives you a range of viewpoints and often genuinely insightful. obviously you can't comment there anymore, which is a bit of a limitation

reddit: like all of reddit, has very gradually improved over the past decade. all sports subreddits are overly reactive and dominated by fans of whoever the big names currently are, but they do at least earnestly engage with the sport As A Sport. then again, they have no appreciation for narrative and also the understanding of human psychology there is downright asinine. anyhow, the mods went on an authoritarian bent last year i'm a HUGE fan of by banning ALL discussion of the marc/valentino rivalry. i always used to think the tennis subreddit should ban all big three fans and force them to debate the same tired talking points in a separate sub for eternity as a sort of huis clos-type deal - which they never did, but DID mostly banish it to a permanent thread for that purpose. it's made both subs so so much better!! god bless, shame they don't let you write essays speculating on drama from twenty years ago on there

tumblr: before last year, i had a wary attitude towards following sports on tumblr,, didn't know motogp was even a thing on here but the tennis community actively offended me. f1 was sort of my exception because i don't take that seriously as a sport anyway so it's fine. but i cannot stand when people do not engage with the sport as an actual sport... wheel knowledge on this site truly abysmal... i typed up and deleted further thoughts here a couple of times but it's maybe a bit much to take wild potshots at a community i'm in the process of posting in, so. to be delicate. let's leave it at that. i do like how many asks people send on here that simulate outside interest for hopelessly niche topics, a function previously fulfilled by the voices in my head

old motogp forums: funny to browse and occasionally quite insightful, but objectively all these people are clinically insane and more than a little homophobic. pigeon brain sports viewers

twitter: i have a list with motogp sites/journalists that has been a very handy tool over the years, but the fandom is - not to be rude - so fucking ass. i have never seen a single worthwhile opinion about motogp from a fan on twitter

anyway yeah hometown pub probably as workable an option as any of these

[cern1cal0]

discord mod ed

(insta request)

[carry-the-sky]

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[bellpeppre]

[r0semultiverse]

Should have posted this sooner but Netflix leaked the date of The Amazing Digital Circus episode 4 back in October

Back when episode 3 had just launched on Netflix like a whole minute before the Youtube premier (since it had a count down), Netflix showed this on the mobile app.

A placeholder image for Episode 4 of Pomni in front of the digital turkey from episode 1 and text that says "Coming in December."

I screenshotted it because surely there's no way this was true given the spacing between release dates of the last 2 episodes (two & three) and sent it to my partners and a server I'm in dismissing it as just Netflix being Netflix and putting out misinformation as streaming services are known to do quite often. Seeing as Netflix just acquired the rights to have it also shown on their platform, it was even more likely it was just total misinformation as GLITCH hasn't been that transparent with us before about this series and there was no word on episode 4 in any official capacity.

Editing this after having written the initial post: Apparently it was also supposedly leaked on the Netflix website too with a more specific date given.

Cut to yesterday when we got this image of seemingly promotional material for the next episode from GLITCH. I was shocked, it's coming soon then? Maybe this is just to tide us over for a few months, the Netflix leak was probably not even a leak. (This is the best quality I got, I don't have a twitter and I'm sure the instagram image compression is as bad as the Youtube community post.)

Ah yes, this man is super charitable with his 57 cents. 😂 (inb4 North America public service job moments with the two gunmen NPCs on the loose.)

AND THEN TODAY THE TRAILER DROPPED TELLING US THAT EPISODE 4 WILL DROP ON DECEMBER 13TH! I am shocked, I am in awe, and fuck Netflix for leaking the general date (even if it's just the month) that the next episode would come out as that wasn't official information that we were probably supposed to know. Also here's a banner showing something new going on with Gangle.

Having said that though I enjoy little leaks like this personally, whether it was coincidental and misinformation on the streaming service's part or not. CHECK THE NETFLIX PAGE AND APP RIGHT AS EPISODE 4 DROPS OR WITHIN THOSE 24-48 HOURS I GUESS! MAYBE THEY'LL DO IT AGAIN! 🤯 Netflix just can't stop leaking things I guess, from entire shows to release dates of shows.

Another edit: Apparently Gangle's VA said somewhere in this live stream that it was coming out in December, but I haven't watched all of it; so, I can't confirm if that's true.

[feycorvus]

i want so badly to spend less time online but thats where so many of my friends are :(

[canisonicscrewyou]

Creating a dedicated space for me and my mutuals and everyone else to occasionally say one(1) thing in the group chat and otherwise stare at everyone in an unsettling manner.

[autisticlee]

that autistic feeling when social rules changed so suddenly and randomly and you don't understand why and everyone refuses to offer an explanation becuase everyone ~should just know why~, but you're the only person that didn't get the update.

do you ever see people do something a lot and assume it's fine and normal and acceptable and harmless, then suddenly out of nowhere when you (or even someone else) do it, it's now suddenly "bad/offensive/weird/creepy/a red flag/unacceptable" and you just get so confused and dont understand why it suddenly changed.....

[starlightphil]

Hi! I made a post about making a casual group chat and/or Discord server for combining Dan and Phil and all things books and it got enough attention that I’m back with a poll! Please only answer if you want to join <3

[yet-another-haven-of-dollya]

Horishito I just done drawing some most beautiful art pieces that I had ever done in a while I'm so proud of myself.

I was right to take time and practice I AM getting better✨

[padiduys]

Do you allow other users to use your art (with ur permission and credit)?

In general, yes, but it depends on what for and where. I prefer my ship art not to be posted on places that don't accept RPF, like Twitter or TikTok (especially on edits, sorry), but I don't mind it being shared on an RPF-friendly Discord server or something similar.

I don't mind it being used as a profile picture but again if it's on places that don't accept RPF perhaps reconsider.

[deepwoundsandfadedscars]

.

[thegardengrows-infrozenrain]

love seeing cool fanart from a cool artist only to have to immediately block them for dramamongering.

like okay you drew a character with your headcanons. cool. great. don't need an inflammatory likebeggar caption with 25 "kAwAiI" emojis while you rant about how no one will like them because literally everyone in the fandom hates minorities and is a "weirdo freakazoid" who will attack you for headcanons.

like you can just tell behind the screen, past the needlessly smug aura, they're just fucking SEETHING about their imaginary haters.