#the plan is for a mini campaign and I am READY

[inonibird]

I've been introduced to the TTRPG called Wildsea and now I'm going to make it everyone's problem. This is Beezley. They are bees. That is, I've broken my creative slump by immediately coming up with a character concept that is a variant of the Tzelicrae race in this setting (which is officially described as "Spider-colonies wrapped in humanesque skins; thousands of tiny arachnid minds threaded like beads on a string to produce a full, rich sapience", hive-minded swarms who either create protective shells made of cloth and salvage or unnervingly puppeteer bodies that are no longer needed), but I'm arachnophobic, so...BEES. :D Yes, Beezley found a dead body and built their hive around the skull and there is 100% a sticky, honeycomb-encrusted skeleton under those clothes. :'D

[felassan]

Some more info on the Mass Effect board game, from co-designer Calvin:

"Hi all, Calvin here, co-designer of the game. I've gathered all the frequently asked questions on social media and bgg and gathered them into some answers for you. Feel free to ask more questions if yours is not answered, and if I can answer it I will. I will be updating this as more information about the game becomes available. Release info - The release date is (hopefully) November depending on the gods of shipping - Price is confirmed, the game will be $50/£40 - The team is currently working on translation deals for 9 or so languages. More details soon. - For info on pre-orders go to https://www.modiphius.net/pages/mass-effect-signup - There are currently no plans for a collector’s edition vs standard edition - It is not crowdfunded, the game is direct to retail - "If you'd like to support the game right now, there's nothing better than going into your local FLGS and asking them if they'll stock the game when it comes out. With the vast amount of great games coming out every week, retailers rely on fans asking about the game. This helps them gauge how much to buy, the more people ask, the more buzz they know there is, the more confident they are to buy enough and the more likely there's one waiting for you on the shelf when you go in :-) That feeds up the chain; the more retailers ask their sales reps at Asmodee, the more Asmodee goes, "Oh wait, let's order more, so we have enough for all the shops". Plot - The game is set on the planet Hagalaz, early during the events of Mass Effect 3 - The players are tasked with investigating a crashed Cerberus research cruiser which could have info that contributes to War Readiness and could help stop the Reapers - The game is designed so people who have never played Mass Effect can still enjoy it. Eric hasn't played the games as much as I did so he got to do what he calls “the meathead test” on all the theming and story. - We worked with Bioware on all the plot and theming. - Yes you can do calibrations in this game Basic game info - Co-operative squad tactics - 1-4 players - Included are six 32mm minis, masc Shep, fem Shep, Liara, Garrus, Tali, and Wrex - Not many other components to keep price and complexity low - 45 minute missions - 3-5 missions per campaign - Branching paragon/renegade choices + sidequests - Enough missions to replay the campaign several times without repeats - Solo play is really fun, in fact I like all the player counts equally, which is something I’m very proud that we were able to achieve in this game - Solo play is basically multi-handing, you control more than one character. - There is no legacy aspect, the game is fully resettable - There will be new original art"

[character limit text break]

"Gameplay info - Low rules complexity, but with lots of tactical depth. We aimed for an audience of Mass Effect fans who might not know anything about board games. Board gamers should still find something to enjoy if they’re into co-op tactics. - A group that just wants to turn their brain off and blast through the game should have an easy time - But a group who wants to get the best endings, complete all the sidequests, get all the level ups will have to min-max pretty heavily - The game has relatively low randomness. Planning, prediction, and preparation are very important to avoid bad outcomes - but there’s still enough randomness to avoid AP as players try to plan out perfect turns. - Important gameplay elements include positioning and combo-ing abilities with other players. - There is a tactical map. - Players will level up their characters by performing in game actions and learn new abilities. - We got all 6 Shepard classes in there. It is one of the things I am very proud of doing. - Re: alpha gamers, Eric and I do not believe it is the designer’s job to solve for jerks at your gaming table. Obviously we have designed the game so that every player has something to contribute and there’s plenty of info so that it’s hard to track. But we also recommend having adult conversations with your table partners. Interviews/Behind The Scenes Beyond Solitaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-nLGDt97i4 Topics: how we designed the game and implemented the narrative UKGE promo copy https://twitter.com/Modiphius/status/1796844231018811782/" Post last updated August 8th

[source]

New original art 👀

[briarberrythornedhart]

No Peeking - A Tiny CYOA

Obviously, Eddie Munson takes D and D deadly seriously. Second session in and you could tell - where everything else is borderline a joke to Eddie, D and D is not.

Like, he isn’t content with the standard issue Advanced D&D Dungeon Master Screen.

Yes - He uses it, but he also made his screen wider to hide all his plans, baddies, and campaign notes. He’s got books propped up and a three ring binder and he’s got clips to hang things on the screen that no one can see. He’s made himself a cave.

Nay, a fortress.

Which is probably why he spends most of Hellfire crouching in his throne, or sitting on the throne arm, to be able to see the players reactions.

“Thank you for not... peeking.” He says, coming up to you after the game, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck under his curls. Not making eye contact.

“Sorry... not peeking at what now?” You say, nervously, because you HAD BEEN Staring at Eddie most of the game. Looking at his eyes, his lips, his yummy tattooed arms, sometimes down at his slutty whore knee so close to you so exposed by his ripped jeans and generally wanting to bite it...

“Well, you always avert your eyes from my DM stuff, like when you get up during a break, or if you need to come closer to move your mini or roll a die.”

“Why would I look? I don’t want to see what terrible shit you’ve got ready to ambush the party so I can worry about it before it happens. I gotta stay nimble.” You shook out your hands.

Eddie laughed. Maniacally. Then, mercurial as ever, he got serious. “Well... it’s appreciated. Because sometimes you get... close and I almost wanna just show you everything. Expose all my plans and show off what I’ve been cooking up and... I drop my guard with you. Usually I’m more careful. But something ‘bout you gets past my defenses. It’s not stealth - like - your real life dexterity isn’t great....” Eddie shook his head, pursing his lips.

“I know I’m clumsy, sometimes, you don’t have to rub it in.” You try not to pout. But that sounded so sweet until he was insulting you.

“No, no no, I mean, I just trust you. And I probably shouldn’t, I mean look at you. You’re waaaay to cute to be trust-worthy. You’re probably up to NO Good.” He made that face that he makes when he is trying to get someone’s goat. But he’s just called you cute, so all is forgiven.

Do you:

Protest “I am entirely up to good. There is no correlation between cuteness and goodness - look at your fine self! I don’t assume you are Evil just because you are gorgeous.” 🌟

Or

Do you tease Edward Munson about his DM screen, “No one can see anything behind your screen, anyway. What monster are you hiding back there??” 😉

——

If you respond or like my post I will write more silliness about it. Is that a promise or a threat? ::Shrugs::

[bvannn]

Weekly Update March 1, 2024

I’m not doing the best this week but I’m also not doing the worst. I’ve not been sleeping well and I think it’s culminating today so slightly early update post just in case I fall asleep early tonight. I’ve had on and off moodiness and flareups but not a whole lot of surgery sickness, hoping next week will be the same. I think this week was a lot of semester stress, which makes it hard to take care of myself. I just ate three applesauces and next week is spring break, so I should have a bit of breathing room for more art stuff. Just in time for my art block to maybe be giving way. All I gotta do is get caught up on sleep, which I’ll try to start tonight.

So I’ve been trying to put more brain power into actual Oc story writing stuff this week. I have the little comic I’m working on in the background and that’s going a bit slower than I’d like but I’m still making progress and reviewing over it there’s fewer older pages needing redo than I’d thought. I’m also now officially through the second act of the episode/chapter/ w/e, so the third should move smoothly. Scenes are flowing nicer than I thought they would, generally going pretty good.

I also finally think my animation art block is giving way. Clip studio is good for flowier animation so I’d like to combine it with flash for any actual big animation projects I try to pick up but on it’s own it’s fine for smaller ones. I might do some more sketch style test animations for unfamiliar movements, and eventually I’ll need to do a test for one with lineart and color layers. The interface is not user friendly at all but I did figure out how to do it the way I had wanted. Not planning on doing any shaded animations though, shading will have to be done with after effects somehow. I’ll round up ideas for test animations tonight because I’m very headfoggy today so I doubt I’ll be able to throw music together.

I’ll definitely do a quick little gif for the bigger song I finished, I’ll try to get going on the next one, but for the time being I might finish up some half baked covers. I’ve fiddled with vocaloid more now, have two half finished vocal parts I’m using to test out how the English and Japanese banks work with English songs. Japanese bank is working better than I thought, but it’s annoying having to play with the dynamic and exciter settings for certain consonants, and the limited vowel selection also sucks, but it’s not like the English banks have basically the same issues too. I just need to play with settings a bit more, finish writing out the vocal parts (should basically be copy paste at this point, I’m already through one chorus of each), and throw together instrumentals to go with them, but I picked songs with simple instrumentals anyway, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get a skeletal structure ready, then I can fill it in with piano or violin because I can’t go two songs without either I’m addicted.

Music comic and animation are the main things I did this week but I am slowly getting my updated commission sheet together. I’ll probably start timing myself on smaller songs so I can try to add music options properly. Animation comms would be nice too but that’ll definitely be a ways off.

I did make unexpected progress writing an epithet TTRPG campaign, it’s like mostly structured, but maps minis and some encounters still need to get written. I might sit down to do that over break. I’m more certain now that I’ll need to take people online as players but I’ll wait until I’m closer to run before I make a google form for that

I’m going to try to either spend tonight with friends or go to bed early or both. I’m a bit worried about my body because flareups have been getting bad but tomorrow I don’t have to move my legs at all beyond doing laundry so I should be fine. If plans for both fall through I’ll either watch a movie or cartoon (I don’t do very often but if I indulge in media I can improve my writing skills) or draw or both. Tomorrow is walled off for homework though I don’t think I’ll be able to do much else.

[mithridacy]

i am going to “release” a mini ttrpg right now on this post. it’s designed to be a frantic card interpretation exercise played in three minutes, and performed like a ritual. it has been in my word processor for three years and i refuse to edit or format it. thank you

The Train

You are ready to board the train. Nameless, formless, you have no past and no known destination. Pick a direction, lay the cards of fate, put your faith in the conductor. You may not reach your destination, but the train will not stop. 

Play: Alone, as an exercise in worldbuilding. Telling stories with a friend. When you need a transportation-based action scene. For tarot practice. 

Supplies: A descriptive card deck of your choice– written with the Spindlewheel Tarot in mind, works with any deck you can derive meaning from quickly. You will also need a clean surface, a timer set for 3 minutes, and a compass. 

Experimental rules for playing this through text are included at the end, but it was conceived as a physical game and benefits from being played in person. 

Setup

Roll a 1d8, this is a cardinal direction (1=North, clockwise to 8=Northwest). Whoever is playing the Passenger sits facing this direction. Let this color the game as you wish, even if only how the light hits your cards.

Lay the cards first, face down, as in a tarot reading. Place four cards in a column traveling away from the Passenger, these are your Journey cards. Then place one more at the far end of the column, separate from the rest; this is your Destination. If playing alone, the Passenger holds the rest of the deck face down in their non-dominant hand. If there is a second player, they will take the deck, acting as GM (those in an ongoing campaign may want to plan their card choices). 

Start the timer. 

Gameplay

The train begins to move. 

The Passenger flips the Journey card closest to them. Read the Spindlewheel prompt or interpret and explain out loud what it means to you. Is it another passenger? Somewhere the train is passing through? A tone shift in the train car? Does the Passenger change their location in the train? Decide if you will concentrate on it, or let the motion of the train carry it away. It may not be worth considering at all, move to the next Journey card immediately. If you focus on it by looking inside the car or your thoughts, lay a card from your hand on top of the first and continue the narration. If you look out the window, lay a card to the right or left of the main set. You may continue any chain of cards as long as you like, but the train (and timer) keeps moving.

When you are satisfied, flip the next closest Journey card and repeat the process, and so on through the fourth Journey card. At any point, you may choose to read only the title of a Journey card without description, acknowledging that the train moved too fast for you to comprehend what you saw. 

When playing with a GM, the Passenger will flip and describe only the four Journey cards. Further exploration will be phrased as questions (“What is passing by to the right?” “Do I see a way past the guard?”) or action (“I ask the others why they’re travellingtraveling.” “I’m making a run for it.”). Keep statements extremely broad to reflect the variety of cards that may be pulled in response. The GM will draw the top card in the deck and provide an answer or resolution. 

Ending the Game

You may choose to end the game at any time. However, when the timer goes off, the story must conclude in some way. 

Staying On Target: If you make it to the Destination card with time to spare, congratulations! You have completed your journey. Even if the card seems negative, explain why being there is better than the alternative. For a two-player game, the Passenger has control in this ending, so long as they respect the GM’s past contributions. 

Being Carried Away: If time runs out before the Destination card, you never reach your stop. Flip over the next Journey card to explain what prevented you from making it there. If the next card is the Destination, explain why being there is a disaster. The ending reflects the tone of the game, and does not require a tragedy. This should be a collaborative effort if a GM is present, the Passenger is encouraged to describe the actions that lead them here.

Interruptions

There may come a natural moment to end the game early. The Passenger may escape the moving train, or they may pick a fight they do not win. Stop the timer, and narrate or use card draws to reach a satisfying ending. 

“Winning” the game

It is always possible to get the Destination ending. If you are playing alone, this may be satisfying to you. If you are playing with two people, be careful to consider what choices are right for your character and for the game as a whole. As a Passenger, respond appropriately to events the GM presents; as a GM, try not to directly block the Passenger from progressing. Adjust the timer for longer scenarios if desired, but individual card prompts should not be answered with more than four quick sentences. 

Modifications

Worldbuilding: If you are not playing with a pre-existing character, the first Journey card will probably lead you to develop a character and setting in one or two sentences. This is intentional, but if you dislike starting from scratch, draw a separate Station card at the beginning to determine your character, setting, or location. 

Jokers: include jokers in your deck. Whenever a joker is drawn, something on the train malfunctions.

Time: if you are playing through text, or quick speech or comprehension is difficult for players, a timed game may be unreasonable. Instead, limit yourself to 15 cards total and 1-3 sentences per card. Have the GM keep track of the cards drawn, so the Passenger is less likely to know for sure when time is up. 

[noremac-and-rts]

Day 1 with Star Wars: Empire at War

After finishing Ahsoka, I was eager to scratch the SW itch since the finale had aired. Since the original SW Battlefronts are not available on PS5 I turned to my computer to see what i had in my library on Steam.

Empire at War has entered the chat. RTS games are arguably my favorite style of gaming with great memories of playing the original Warcraft and Starcraft games, followed by Age of Empires 2 and 3, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, Black and White and others. Typing that sentence, I can instantly hear the sound of clicking on a worker in AoE 2 or the Nerfs in Galactic Battlegrounds. Special shout out to attaching computers for LAN parties.

Empire at War, henceforth referred to as EaW, never fully gripped me. I think as a teenager it was too complicated. I wanted to just build an army and attack bases. Not being able to manage resources or plan ahead is probably why i could never play anything harder than medium when playing against the computer. But now I am a man. Am I good an managing resources and playing the long game in real life? No. Am I good at it in games? Also probably no. So as a man I take the challenge presented in EaW. Can I control an entire galaxy worth of offense and defense? May the Force be with me.

We start with a new campaign. Tutorial? Sure why not.

Tutorial 1: Basic Land

Playing from the viewpoint of the Rebels, we need to stave off a dastardly attack from the empire on Kashyyyk. Arrrrrwrrrrrronnkkk raarrh. At the start we have a comforting setup with the mini map in the corner and a command bar. The voiceover says it wont explain all the buttons, but a quick scan and you know how to use them. Two other items stand out: fog of war is present, but we can see the map and where to go. The other is no resource collecting, which will come into play later.

Our troops are ready to rock and roll. Click, grab. These motions are on autopilot. We move through the map to find other soldiers. Found, grabbed, moving on to destroy a device jamming our signal. We cross the paths of some Wookies but they run into their homes. Clearly, Chewie doesn't belong to this tribe. A soldier shouts, 'There's the device'. We dispatch it with authority and move on to the base.

As we enter the base, we are alerted about incoming Empire troops. And with a wall blocking the path to the red arrows on the map, we automatically know where our next battle will take place. I line up the troops and follow the guide for building a turret and bacta tank. More soldiers are present, some with missile launchers(Plex Troopers). Oh yeah, its all coming together. I place those behind the regular soldiers on the wall.

As a note, if you click on the Barracks nearby, there are upgrades you can pay for. Since we have been gifted a bounty of credits, of course I purchase these. More troops also appear near the barracks.

The air cold and still before battle......

'Rebel Scum' we hear. Empire troops move in and are quickly defeated after blowing up our wall. Two At-Sts move in and its time for the Plex Troopers to shine.

Its at this point, we are alerted to "Cinema Mode". Its a button that allows you to watch the action like its a movie! Pretty cool, but by the time I press it, my troops have already won. If you move the mouse, it brings you back to overhead mode.

We need to continue down the map to claim the enemy's territory and stop the invasion. Our goal is to Hold the Reinforcement Post long enough to turn it from Red(enemy) to Green (Yours) a la OG Star Wars Battlefront.

We capture both areas with ease. But, to our dismay, more Empire troops are coming, more than we can handle. We are instructed to save our forces and use the retreat button. This button will come in handy in the future so you can save your resources (troops) for future battles in stead of letting them get murdered. Fun! A 10 sec countdown starts as we await rescue.

We Win! Too easy. I'm so good at this game. I'm sure they didn't write the code to be that easy. Tune in next time for the next tutorial level.

[alexiavonv]

Seas of Treachery EP 1 - Warm Welcomes From The Shining Star

(The Ol' Treachery Arc | previous post | this epsiode's song)

As a reminder, this is part of the summaries recounting each session of my D&D campaign, Seas of Treachery. I'll write a little TLDR at the end of each post in case you'd like it! I'm gonna be including some images here and there, but I am no artist, so most of the time I will probably be using heroforge minis to represent people. Regardless, enjoy

-

The campaign starts with our characters sailing in to the city of Barthélonia, the shining star of the sea. The city is known for being the home of the Tribunal, the Acqeuduct of a Thousand Years (an over 100-foot tall aqueduct/bridge connecting the island of Barthélon Norte to Barthélon Sud), it's massive industrial district, and being the "center of the seas". Each of our characters had their own reason to come to the island - Izzy was looking for a rare ship component, Srian was looking for a forbidden biology book, Alyssane was hired for an unspecified "job", so on and so forth.

The Crew was brought here by a frogman named Rob-Rōnna - a tall, green bullfrog man with a large afro and white disco suit, done down a few extra buttons. He's a fisherman that seems to know just about everybody in the Barthélonian Sea who does any kind of seawork - pirates, squeadores, navymen, fishers, even just random dockworkers. He's an amicable man, even to the people he hates, and thus, he has earned himself somewhat of a chill reputation across the sea. He's the adoptive father of both Triggerfish and Rosemary, and the rest of the crew were able to hitch a ride with him and his kids to come to the city. When the crew left the ship, he did also, stating very firmly "Don't come with me, I have some business I've gotta take care of on my own."

Too bad Trig has authority issues.

Triggerfish decided to follow him, as he led her into the shady back alley black markets of the city. Narrow alleyways, bustling crowds of people, stalls of various illicit, rare, and dangerous materials scattering the dank, musty alleyways. She was in her humanoid form, attempting to keep at least a little bit of attention off of her. Rob walked into a café on a cornerside, sitting down at a stall with a cloaked man who asked "Do you have it?", to which Rob responded "It's all there." Trig found out he was trading some sort of golden idol, likely for cash.

Unfortunately for him, this was a setup, as Admiral Lucia Kirikoban (one of the leaders of the tribunal and its navy - pictured below) walked in with a troupe of navy soldiers. "Rob-Rōnna! Good to see ya', bud! You didn't think you'd be able to run forever, didn't 'cha? Well, the law never forgets, and the law never forgives!" She said to him, getting handcuffs ready to arrest him.

"Oh great, the little pig came out to play! I'm craving bacon." Trig finally piped up from the other seat.

"Who is she?"

"I don't know, who is she?" Rob tried to save face for Trig, telling her he had a plan before handing her a talking head - a magical stone that works like a radio/walkie talkie. Trig is too hot-headed to handle things normally though, and she decided to poke the pig until the pig demanded her dogs kill the snake. Or, for those confused, Trig made Kirikoban amgy, so Kirikoban had her guards attack.

The fight wouldn't last that long, however, as Rob used his Espíritu Power: Bubble Cage on Trig, encasing her in a bubble before kicking her out onto the streets into relative safety. She bounced around, ran over a few horse-riding guards (no biggie), then went back to the ship, where everyone else met.

(Pretty much everything up till this point was part of a pre-campaign side session with Trig's player)

The group all talked about their days and their quests, but Trig scrunched herself awkwardly into the corner with a look of wanting to say something, but refusing to on her face. Eventually, however, Izzy forced the story out of her. With this, the crew decided to at least follow the string he left behind, and they used the talking head.

A mysterious feminine voice came from the other end. "Who are you, what do you want, and how did you contact me?" Was their introduction to a woman named Sarah Saunders (pictured below), who they met in a café next to the industrial district. Around the town, unions and workers have begun striking and protesting, leading to clashes in the streets that even our crew almost got swept up into. The source of these riots all came back to Sarah and her group, Las Unionistas.

Sarah didn't meet the group on very nice terms, cutting straight to business. She said she had a plan to save Rob, and essentially just thanked them for telling her. Trig and Rosemary weren't okay with this, and asked them to let them help save him. Sarah had no trust in them, but through Izzy and Rosemary's combined silver tongues, she was eventually swayed to let them meet Las Unionistas. A half-orc private of the navy walked into the cafe with his guards and shouted at her - "Sarah Saunders, you're under arrest for inciting a riot!" said Private Arbor Whey (pictured below), to which Sarah responded "No need, Arbor. They're in." The two originally planned to test the crew's loyalty by having them beat up Arbor to protect Sarah.

The Crew, Sarah, and Arbor all went down to the basement of the café, then through a false stone wall into the Las Unionistas HQ - a large stone basement with an exit out of a drain pipe into the local canal. Sarah then told the crew that before she could get any work done on saving him, she needed intel from the man himself, who was beind held in the Judicial Fortress. The Judicial Fortress is a massive, 100-story tall stone fortress on a small island in the west Barthélonian strait (only a few minutes from Barthélonia). The Fortress is known for its high security, as well as being where the worst criminals are tried by the Tribunal themselves, and thus was quite an intimidating thing for the party to take on.

Arbor Whey piped up, saying that he could get them in there. "Tribunal law states that you have the right to a lawyer, and I just so happen to have a law degree, as well as experience in the Fortress itself!" He said he could get all the Intel they needed, and that he knew how to get them in. The party decided to begrudgingly take him up on his offer, and thus, the episode came to an end!

-

TLDR; The Funsize Crew came to the city of Barthélonia with their frogman friend with a boat, Rob-Rōnna. They had their own adventures, but Rob went to a café as Trig was following him in secret, where he tried selling a golden idol, but was instead busted by Admiral Lucia Kirikoban of the Naval Tribunal. Trig tried to fight, but Rob used his Espíritu Power to get her to safety after giving her a talking head (communication device). The crew used the device and met Sarah Saunders, who didn't want to work with them to save Rob at first, but was convinced to. They met a man named Private Arbor Whey who could help them get intel on where Rob was being held, and they begrudgingly accepted.

[sataniquepanique]

The Shire

I, like most of you, am still in mourning. I saw a post about Eddie never being able to see LOTR in theaters, and I can't stop thinking about it, so I wrote au shit about it to make myself feel better.

Summary: Eddie is taking his daughter to see The Fellowship of the Ring in theaters.

Genre: fluff, wishful thinking, au Eddie Munson

“Eddie, I think she’s a little too young to see it…” you say with a cautious smile, watching your husband run around the house with your little girl on his shoulders. Both of their hair flying wildly around, as he gallops with her around the living room, laughing and giggling. 

She’s his clone. Same dark curls, large chocolate brown eyes, and his same love of fantasy and wonder. When you found out you were pregnant, he knew she needed a badass name. “Something ethereal, something…fantastic,” he said as he listed a bunch of D&D names and characters from different fantasy novels, all of which were swiftly rejected. After turning down almost a few dozen of his absurd selections, you finally settled on one that you both knew was perfect.   

“What says you, Arwen the Conqueror?” He booms in an affected voice, swinging her down onto the couch. 

The little girl giggles and points her plastic sword at you, “Lord of the Rings is for EVERYONE!” She yells.

Eddie turns to you and flashes his widest smile, the one that still makes you melt. “See? She’s fine.” He winks.

Eddie was destined to be a dad. He was so patient, and was always goofing around making Arwen (or her preferred Ari) laugh uncontrollably. Ever since she was an infant, he would read Lord of the Rings to her at night, mimicking all of the characters and their unique voices. At 5 years old, she was now starting to spark an interest in D&D, sitting on Eddie’s lap while he planned the monthly campaigns for his group of friends. 

“Alright my little elf,” you take your daughters plastic sword from her, “go get your shoes on and wait for Uncle Dusty.” 

Dustin lives a few towns away, and when him and Eddie heard that they were making a Lord of the Rings movie they immediately made plans to see it together on opening day. Dustin is Eddie’s unofficial younger brother, they do everything together and have been there for every important moment in each other’s lives ever since high school, including being the best man at your wedding.

Dustin doesn’t even ring the doorbell, he just throws the door open when he gets to your house.

“One ring to rule them all…” he calls into the foyer. 

Eddie snaps his head towards the door when he hears him, still bending down to tie Ari’s shoes. 

“…one ring to find them…” he says ominously, making eye contact with Dustin.

“One ring to bring them all…” Dustin says slowly as he steps further into the house.

“…AND IN THE DARKNESS BIND THEM!” Eddie yells as he launches himself at Dustin, grabbing him by the shoulders. 

“I can’t believe it’s finally happening,” Dustin smiles at him.

“Same, man, same.” Eddie gives him a quick hug, clapping him on the back.

You smile at Dustin and wave, while Ari runs and grabs a hold of his leg. “Hi Uncle Dusty!” She says sweetly. 

“Hey kid! You ready?” He shakes his car keys at her. She squeals and runs to the front door. 

You stand up from the couch and give Dustin a look, “please have both of my children home relatively early” you joke, rolling your eyes at Eddie. Dustin gives you a little salute, “will do Lady Munson.”

You can feel the excitement radiating from Eddie as he moves closer to you, and it makes your heart flutter. He’s so cute when he’s riled up.

“Be back later princess,” he whispers as he kisses you goodbye softly, lingering for a second and then following it up with a quick peck as he sprints out the door with Dustin close behind, scooping up your daughter on the way out. 

You can hear him yell from outside, “TO THE SHIRE!” Followed by a tiny echo of “to the shire!” from his mini me. 

[chaos-burst]

Hey! :) I’ve wanted to play d&d for a while now, and after getting into critical role i finally decided to convince my friends to play with me. None of us have played before, so im both exited and a bit nervous since i’ll be the dm. We don’t know anyone who plays, and i’m not very comfortable with palying with strangers, so we’ll be diving right in together! Do you or your followers have any tips or good resources to recommend for new players and/or dms? Any tips would be greatly appreciated! :D

Hey there!

I’m very flattered that you would ask me for DMing tips, but I just have to preface this saying that I am a first time DM myself and I am currently on session 13 of my campaign. But I can see if I can list some things that I found useful building my first campaign :) And I totally feel you not being comfortable with strangers, I play with a group of friends and we were all first time players when we started!

Let’s start with resources! (I will put the links in a reblog bc tumblr is a dick about posts with external links in them. Sry for the hassle!)

Probably a bit redundant, but nevertheless very helpful: The core rulebooks for D&D. Which is to say The Dungeon Master Guide, The Monster Manual and The Players Handbook. Bc those are expensive as fuck, check out this lovely thing (1).

Then, depending on whether you play online or live: Roll20.net (2) You can invite your players to your campaign and make maps for encounters with minis on them, you can insert music that plays in the background and it also rolls dice for you if you have to roll a big amount of dice and don’t want to do math ;)

There is an encounter builder on kobold-fightclub (3) that can help you balance encounters according to your party’s level! I have found it quite helpful and it’s also an easy way to filter monsters for a specific terrain when you know that you’ll be running through a swamp/desert/cave etc.!

I also found this this cheat sheet very helpful, esp regarding the different conditions that I can never seem to remember.

Then, ofc, one of CR’s sponsors: dndbeyond (4). Me and my friends bought a subscription bc damn is it useful to be able to click on anything on your character sheet and see what the hell it means. It also helps you track your spellslots/HP etc. during combat. 

Something I also did was watch Matt’s videos (5) on how he DMs. Altho it bears to say: Don’t compare yourself to Matt Mercer. It will only stress you out. 

You like maps? So do I! Check these out (6/7). 

You want to keep track of your npcs and important lore and places and everything? You could try worldanvil (8)! It’s like building a wiki for your own world!

And then about tips. It is probably easier to give tips when you have specific questions than it is to give general tips, but I’ll do my best! I’m sure many experienced DMs want to chime in and add to it :)

Communication is (as with most things in life) key to everything. Get together with your players for a Session 0 and just talk about what kind of game you want to run and what kind of game they want to play. There are people who like combat more than roleplay or vice versa. There are people who want to play an evil campaign or they want a lot of political intrigue or they are soft marshmallows like I am and don’t want permanent character deaths and so on and so on. Just get together and talk about what you guys want to create. Also talk about the characters with each individual player.Ask them about triggers they have, so you can avoid topics. Ask them how they feel about an NPC flirting with their character. It goes the other way around as well! Tell them about your boundaries and your expectations. One of my friends wanted to make a character with a neutral evil alignment. I told that it’s fine, as long as there’s the prospect for the character to evolve towards a neutral or good alignment, bc I have no interest in dm-ing an “evil” campaign. 

Something that might make running a campaign easier for you is if your players’ characters already know each other before the game starts. If you’re like me you will sweat bullets thinking about how to get them to work towards a common goal. If they’re already friends/rivals/lovers/colleagues/members of the same adventuring guild you will not have that problem. And they can give you some notes on how they envision the relationships to be/how they met.

You can start your adventure with one of the official adventures that are out there if you want to! You don’t have to do a whole ton of worldbuilding like I did bc I’m a crazy person and have my whole setting homebrewed. If not, you can always make life as easy as possible for yourself and start small! Build a small town with a few key NPCs, put a small assortment of possible quests there and then only roughly sketch out what you want the “outside world” to look like. I as a player love some context when I build characters, so if you want to give your players a small introduction into the campaign setting, I think that would be helpful and also helps creating characters who fit into your setting! If you want to run a campaign that has tons of dragons and poisoned oceans that cannot be crossed by mortals it would be sad if a player came to you and gave you the character sheet for a sailor.

If you do a whole campaign, I found it helpful to have a rough idea about different factions and two or three major events that shape your world. Ideas for later quests will eventually tie into big world events when the players get higher level!

Draw yourself a map. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or anything, but at some point there will be a question about “where is the next big city, we need to buy healing potions” and you will feel much safer if you just have a piece of paper (analogue or virtual) with like... a rough outline, some landmarks and some cities on it. At least that’s how it was for me!

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Don’t beat yourself up if your first quests are “standard” stuff like “Take care of this giant rat infestation in the cellar of the tavern.” or “My purple dragoncat has been abducted, please get him back for me.”. I started my campaign with small quests before getting to a small arc and then I want to work towards bigger arcs eventually. But for new players and a new DM I found it very helpful to keep things low stakes to not stress anyone out too much. If you fuck up the giant rat infestation, the world will not end, you know? That is nice. Also works well as a tutorial for everyone! Combat is intimidating! So many rules! Take your time to figure out how stuff works with some nice, small quests and some not-too-complex-combat encounters!

You don’t have to follow every rule. There are so many rules for everything and that can be helpful but it can also be stressful. You don’t have to do everything by the book and if you notice that some rules annoy you and your players, you can always change them as you go along! (Cats have nightvision. Sometimes the rulebooks are dumb.)

Don’t get hung up on too many details. I love worldbuilding, but I get obsessive easily. Sometimes I think my world isn’t ready enough bc I tend to think like a writer who has to have everything figured out. That is not the case with d&d! Sure, It’s good if you know stuff. But d&d is not only about planning, it’s also about improvising. And the world will grow while you play in it! Before you know it you’ll go like “I want to have an encounter with this cool ice monster. I need an icy landscape.” and then you will make one. And maybe it wasn’t there before, but who cares. Your players will be excited and you can make up the lore as you move along! 

Did I mention communication? 

If you have specific questions about certain aspects of DMing or how to start, feel free to message me anytime :) I hope this helps a little bit! I’ll reblog in a second with the links!

[darkmist111]

Phantom Thieves Play Dungeons and Dragons

The Wander and the Worker

Akira had faced many trials, both legally and spiritually. He had also been a master of organization, stuffing as much activity as he could into a single year.

Yet this challenge nearly brought him to his knees.

“So you only add 2 to armor class?”

“No that's only for medium armor your un-armored right now.”

“Shit I should've picked a race with more dexterity.”

It was like herding cat's, without Morgana’s help.

“You guys ready? It's almost 5.” Akira said know that this group could double a session’s play time.

“Hold on I’m trying to memorize our modifiers.” Ann said squinting as she had forgot her glasses at home.

“Don't worry just remember your crap at everything not dexterity and charisma.” Ryuji said nonchalantly.

The plan was to get all the players to level 2 before they got to the main campaign, so Akira did this little mini session with 2 characters first so the players could slip into their roles.

“Alright are we ready to play?”

Ryuji had finally gotten Ann to stop fusing over her papers.

“As we’ll ever be I guess *sigh* I really hope I don't die at level 1 again.” Ann groaned.

“Hell yeah let's kick some ass!”

“Alright close your eyes and listen.” Akira took a deep breath and his voice changed.

“This is the world of Exceeden”

Akira peaked and caught the grins on his two friends faces.

“Unlike our world with disconnected planets, the world of Exceeden is but one layer stacked in-between other realms, but different from the other realms Exceeden did not occur naturally but was created by 20 core gods. The gods were once one shared in their love of their creation, however what they didn't know was it would grant them more power than even their unparalleled minds could imagine.

Jealousy, anger, spite, and rage broke them apart each believing their creation should go the way they decided and the 20 became 5. 6 of Law, 6 of Chaos, 2 of Good, 2 of Evil, and 4 to keep the balance.

While the realm has no supreme rule the cycles of mortals carry on. Empires rise and fall, stories are told and forgotten, until finally the sands of time cycle towards something or someone that can shatter the heavens despite their humble beginnings.

The year is 997 A.I.(After Invasion) and our story takes place on the continent of Almoria. While not the largest continent it houses a wide array of People and Cultures in no small part due to the many differences environments.

In the far north in the icy tundras Orc and Goliath tribes war against the Tiefling Solos Empire and their Minotaur allies even further north in the Shadow Lands.

Below that are the eternal plans of Sparks where wild magic hum and fae slip into our world. Bands of Centaur and Satyr dance across the fields, unknowingly starting war with the Leonin Clans.

On the east of the Great Sezali Desert a new and ambitious clan of HobGoblins are gathering their forces of Goblin and Bugbear.

This makes the Elven Allied Council to the west nervous and the desert has become a sort of cold war, but also a hive of activity for trade and merchants.

On the West Coast the Aarakocra war against the Triton and the East Coast, the legendary Tortle Cleric Genbu brokers peace between the Locathah and the Grung.

In the Mountains Kobold, Lizardmen and Dragonborn War against a unfathomable threat as the Chromatic dragons and Metal Dragons have united to control the Arcane Canyons.

With the fall of Tyrant Human King Rexanik, many flee to the peaceful mountains city of Eternix. The city, nicknamed the city of small folk, was almost completely Gnomes, Halfling, Dwarfs, as well as the Black Wing Monastery, suddenly has possibly the highest human density in the continent.

Humans have also tried their luck in the chaotic Forest of Nayan only to be never heard from again.

In the south peace is almost a certainty as the brotherhood between the Loxodon and Gith remains just a strong as a century ago. Their city Omniox hold the Verdan trading Guild the only constant in these turbulent times

Not all is so clear though, hidden in the desert are rumors of cults who use arcane, scientific, and religious methods to create inhuman monsters that stalk the night.

However it is that Desert where we start our story in the town of Ixyana. Ixyana is a port town to the sea of sand, willing to offer weary travelers any pleasure they require... for the right price. Ixyana has always been self governed but with escalating tensions between the Elven and HobGoblin armies, the town is being pressured to pick a loyalty. But today neither a Goblin nor Elf is the new stranger in town.”

“Ryuji please introduce your character.”

“I’m just a guy who looks like an average traveler, I’m wearing normal cloths and using a spear like a walking stick, the only unusual thing about me is that have blue skin and white “Hair”. I’m a Fighter but only because you get in fights when you wander as much as I do, but it's clear I’m not formally trained.”

The wanderer enters the town carrying a satchel over his back midday. He makes his way towards a inn looking to rest for the night. He hears a commotion and see several HobGoblin warriors speaking angrily toward each other, before rushing off. The young man enters into a alley to avoid crossing their path, as he steps out he sees another beautiful HobGoblin women in revealing clothes dart out from behind a stack of boxes. Before his eyes she begins to shift form before becoming a striking dark haired Elven women and quickly entering the Inn.

“Well That's a Flag if I’ve ever seen one.”

The man is overcome with curiosity and follows her. He enter the inn and sees the first floor is a diner/bar.

At this time of day not many people are drinking and lunch is already over so the inn is uncrowded.

The blue man sees the former HobGoblin women now Elven sit in the corner of the bar skillfully blending in for those not looking.

As he walks up to her she glances before biting her lip.

“Sorry I’m not working right now.”

You realize from her statement and her outfit that this women is one of the courtesans of the towns most powerful group in place of a formal government, The Desert Respite, worshipers of Bast one of the 20 original Gods and practitioners of the arts of pleasure both of a sexual nature and of entertainment.

“I still can believe your playing a Prostitute.” Ryuji says teasing.

“For your information I’m a high class escort. And let's see if you’ll be laughing in a few minutes.”

“Sorry it's not that I... I just... saw you change.”

The woman tenses her eyes narrowing and grits her teeth.

“So what?”

“Are... Are you a Spirit.”

The women slowly turns her head, seeing the nervous young man though in her eyes he's more of a boy shift his weight nervously.

“Perception check!”

“Roll for it.”

“...!!!! Natural 20!”

“Heh, yeah he's a pretty easy mark.”

“Hey!”

She smirks before tipping her drink back and gesturing to the seat across from her.

“From out of town.”

“Out from... everywhere.”

She changes her posture, trained but attractive.

“The desert must've been quite the ordeal, I didn't notice a Caravan enter town. Is your group somewhere else?”

“No, I’ve been traveling alone.”

“Alone?”

“Yes I am quite skilled at traveling, born and raised doing it in fact.”

“Incredible, you must be strong.”

The women bit her lip while the blue skinned man sweat feeling nervous from the shapeshifters forward flirtations.

“You know I have a certain need for a strong man.”

“Role Wisdom Ryuji.”

“What! She hasn't even cast anything.”

“Your mouth was dropped.” Ann teased. “Let's hope your character isn't a simp.”

“No way!”

Ryuji rolled.

“Shit! 6, 7 total.”

“Simp”

“Shut up!”

“What did- What do you need. I’m always looking to help out.”

“You see a girl can only stay in one town for so long before she needs a change of pace. I’m thinking you’ve been to plenty of places, why don't you and I go on adventure.”

The spearman let out a yelp as he felt her leg delicately trace his own.

“And I’ll be sure your thoroughly compensated.”

“Roll Perception against Ann’s Persuasion.”

“Yes!”

“Shit”

Ann rolled and grinned which caused Ryuji to hang his head.

“21 total Persuasion!”

“Goddamnit, 14 total.”

“Yeah she has you wrapped around her finger.”

“*Gulp* There’s no need for that ma’am, I'd be happy to guide you wherever you desire.”

The man saw her smile turn victorious and her leg rubbed a little higher.

“Don’t worry it's no trouble, when we stop for the night I can give you a nice and long compensating.”

_______________________________________

The pair quickly gather their things the shapeshifter, changing again into a stunning Yuan-Ti. They walked through the town. Some men stared at the shabby looking Traveler and the beautiful courtesan, leering at her exposed cleavage, open thighs, and toned belly, others smirked and gave respecting nods. He glared and the former while that latter made him feel like a scumbag.

She insisted they walk on foot so not to draw attention. The man frowned but didn't say anything.

As they walked they chatted.

“My names Zap by the way.”

“Nais of the Desert Respite.”

“So Nais, are you wondering what I am?”

“Probably not as much as your wondering what I am.”

“Well I don't know, I’ve never seen someone change what they look like except my dad.”

“Your dad?”

“Yeah, he’s a Genie.”

“...”

“...”

“...You're not joking?”

“Nope. A Lightning Genie to be specific.”

“Insight Check... 11?”

“He seems to be pretty honest.”

“So you can grant wishes?”

“He could, not me. I’m only half genie, my other half is Human from my mom. Dad said my type of people are called Genasi.”

“Where’s you dad now?”

“He’s only allowed to stay in the material plane for 20 years at a time. He left on my 10th birthday, I’m 22, so he’ll be back in 8 years. Though he’ll probably see my mom before me.”

“... You know that is a really weird story right?”

“I actually didn't know until later in life. For a long time it was just the 3 of us, then the 2, now me.”

“I see.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You can change into other things, is it magic?”

Nias looked away not wanting to meet Zap’s eyes.

“It's not magic it's just something I’m able to do, as well as my mother and her mother before her. She said that we might be descended from Doppelgängers.”

“That's amazing.” Zap said with awe.

“Perception Check!” Ann yelled out.

“Zap doesn't lie. He's a open book.”

“19!”

“Zap really does think your amazing.”

“Geez he doesn't have to try so hard I already said I’d fuck him.”

“Excuse me! But Zap is a gentleman he doesn't only think about sex.”

“Unlike his player.”

[ambitiousblackfeminist]

Poetry Collection Available, Surfing Lessons in Costa Rica: A Digital Pass the Hat Campaign for Reza Rites November 4-11, 2021 Hi friends,

I'm selling a short, #3mblackpoetry collection as part of a mini-crowdsourcing campaign I've designed to help fund surfing lessons* in Costa Rica for my November 7 birthday.

Yes, you heard that right: I'm conducting a limited-time only, "digital pass the hat" to support a birthday trip centered around Surfing Lessons in Costa Rica.

Now to be clear, all of this makes me nervous. No, not the part about traveling outside of the US alone, as a single woman. No, not the part about realizing that my Spanish proficiency levels vary depending on the topic of conversation. And no, not the part about the different ways that Covid 19 has affected international travel and reentry to the US.

Instead, I'm nervous about this part: sharing a post about my unbridled attempts at seeking joy, and the vulnerability behind asking for help. "People do GoFund Me's all the time" some have reminded me. And for two decades I've tried to examine and spotlight the pursuit of joy in the face of communities with narratives and historical truths that could live in misery and oppression for it not the active choice of embodying, broadcasting and disseminating stories highlighting #BlackGirlMagic, #BlackBoyJoy and the #CarefreeBlackGirl. Why is this different? In fact it's not.

If I may also borrow from The Nap Ministry, and the hashtags noted above: I booked a trip to Costa Rica because I'm tired, and I'm sick of bottling up my joy, or hindering it out of fear of the unknown, and due to dripping and overflowing levels of sensitivity toward others at a time when I need some, too. I am exhausted from walking with the weight of Black womanhood on my shoulders. I am sick from constantly having to choose between humanity vs paycheck, integrity vs isolation, duty vs imagination, compassion vs validation. And I am ready to reactivate nuclei of joy that lay dormant in my soul.

Know this: the flight, the lodging, the airport transportation - all of these items are booked. At a time when my nervousness was low, I booked these items before my skepticism could reach fever-pitch volumes, although I ensured everything was refundable. And even now, I have my doubts concerning whether this part plea-part essay will yield any results. But one thing I learned over Covid is that people need to see examples of unburdened self-love and devotion to joy. It was a message that rang loud and clear with every dance video I posted through stay-at-home orders, and the feedback I continue to receive when sharing moments of movement and culinary experimentation through my social media stories. It is also the warmth and pride I feel when catching glimpses of friends and complete strangers brave enough to venture into the waters of happiness. I, too, am ready to swim again. (I am Salt Water. Praise Gaia Gallactica)

So as nervous as I am, I come here to share my truth, and to ask for your assistance in this endeavor. However, I don't come empty-handed; as I shared above, I have produced a special, limited-time only book/zine/collection of poems to share with anyone who gives 10 bucks or higher; one prize, no matter the donation (at or above ten). If you give 50 or above, I will share an additional collection of poems and/or write an exclusive one just for you or a loved one. Funds not applied toward Costa Rica will be put toward the cost of repairing the typewriter I use for writing poems in community settings, toward printing copies of the limited edition zine, and/or as seed money toward programming and publishing I have planned for National Poetry Month 2022.

As far as today's offer: "I've Come to Find It Lovely: Poems Inspired by Color and Art" is a collection that inspires a certain sense of whimsy and sweet nostalgia - the same feelings many of us reach or aim for when seeking joy. I hope some of you will make a donation because you've consumed some #3amblackpoetry previously and care very little about how funds collected are used; that is, you just want to read more. And I hope, for those who see your own joy reflected when I share mine, you will reach into this same place as you imagine me surfing, with the added bonus of a few poems that you'll also get in the process. Give if you want or can. Keep scrolling if you can't or won't.

My trip may be refundable, but time spent worrying, instead of pursuing restoration, joy and la pura vida is not. Thank you for your support, positive vibes, and/or collaborative energy.

Sunshine, laughter, and rolling coastlines,

Reza Rites

Paypal Link: https://bit.ly/3jUfcOY

Direct Message me across Social Media platforms for the Venmo and/or CashApp links

* Ok, ok - maybe towards an excursion or different activity, or maybe toward a meal

[jelpiparade]

Hey, everybody! It’s wenz-day~

No meme from me today, but just a small update!

So I was suffering from a bit of burnout -- unsurprisingly, because I churned out a demo and a new game in the space of about two weeks -- so I put myself onto a little mini vacation and didn’t allow myself to develop anything new for three days. Wednesday is actually day two so I had to write this post in advance.

Heroine for Hire News:

The preparation for H4H’s Kickstarter has finally finished. I’m terrified but all in all, ready to rumble. I look forward to seeing if I can garner y’alls support for the release of Fai’s route. If you want to keep track of the campaign and be informed when it launches, here’s a link for that.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chouette/heroine-for-hire

Aside from that, there’s not much other news for H4H. Thank you very much to those who purchased the game and downloaded the demo. Your contribution goes to an indie dev who’s working her hardest to bring you guys melanin-infused games to play. :^)

Ocean Pearls News:

Due to aforementioned burnout, I hired some scripters to help put expressions into the finished routes. The first route to be released will be Isven’s route, followed by Lemos’ route. I’ll announce release dates as soon as I am able. :^)

So far, Lemos seems to be the favorite which brings me much joy, hehe.

??? News:

I should mention that one of the reasons I burned out is that I started scripting a third VN. :’D It’s called War of Roses and it’s about a young woman trying to save her family’s flower shop while beating handsome men off of her.

LOL, but it’s a much looser than VN structure. The primary mechanic is a dress up game where you dress the MC to impress, while each love interest has a style they adore. I wanted the MC to be a bit customizable, unlike most of my games so there’s plans for five skin tones (fair, tan, olive, dark, deep) and she is renameable as well. (REALLY rare for my games! Haha.)

Anyway, because of the nature of the game’s mechanics, the choices are floating and pretty much contained to within the chapter. You can romance a guy in one chapter and then flip to someone else in the middle of another without anything hindering you. No guilty tripping at all!

There’s 15 chapters and I’m scripting chapter seven. Not as we speak though because as I said, three day break. A very special friend is drawing the sprites, someone who I’ve worked with and absolutely respect and adore. ^^

I can’t wait to do some reveals on that front! :D Anyway. See ya next week!

[sentinelstand]

just some finale thoughts below the cut ~~~~

personally i am content with the ending we are getting. i didn't think i would be. but now i can hold my hands up and say i was wrong. there's a lot that's surprised me about the final arc in general and these last two episodes.

i think it's fair to say that all-in-all i didn't like this last arc. that's not the fault of cr, i just personally don't have the attention span for an arc that spans 30+ episodes. i also really hated when they made it to cognouza because i despise body horror so i ended up having to check tumblr before watching every episode so i would know when to skip/take a break before the worst parts.

but there were things in this arc that i adored and caught me off-guard -

the difference between lucien and mollymauk - i want to make it clear that i was never really fond of mollymauk, and i think it's because i started casually watching the campaign around episode 34/35 and already knew that he was dead. i just never really vibed with him. but i respected his choices - that he was adamantly not trying to be the person that he was before. lucien is the complete antithesis of molly. just everything about him made him so unlikeable and i really didn't see how they could bring molly back and redeem him after lucien, but these final two episodes really showcased the care that the m9 had for molly

essek - i am going to be honest with you, i've always been very conflicted/dismissive about essek as a character. and not for the reasons you think. i actually don't give a fuck that the dude is a war criminal - that's what makes him interesting. i was ambivalent to him because honestly he was interesting and at the same time completely uninteresting to me. but these past like 14/15 episodes he has really grown on me. he's been humanised to me - he has fears and wants and preferences and dislikes. i enjoy that he has opened himself up to the others while also being completely open about the fact that at the end of the day, he will always seek out further knowledge. he is not a good character - he's, at best, true neutral. he does good things for his friends.

fjorester, fjorester, fjorester - i am going to be honest with you, i didn't see fj coming when it did. but it fit so well. i watched cr passively for years and never engaged in the fandom because i was just a passive viewer. but then things started to get serious between fj and i was like okay here we go. i adore these two. i love the build-up all campaign between the two characters - how they grew together. i love the build up to the kiss and the slow learning between them as they learn to navigate a completely new space. as someone who was a passive viewer for so goddamn long, fj felt so natural. it built up for so long - the early crush, the flirtations, the kidnapping, jester's heartbreak, them learning to be friends, tricking maruo, fjord jumping off a goddamn tree to rescuse jester, fjord trusting jester with vandran, the entirety of the kiln talk, fjord and jester goofing about with the dreadnaught in the hfb, the entirety of the nicodranas evening, the resurection, travelercon, the unicorn, everything. i just really really love fj. i could go on for days about them but i am not going to because this post is already super duper long.

shadowgast - ok i think it's no surprise to learn that i am not the biggest fan of caleb. he's alright - a lot of my dislike/indifference to him comes from the fact that he's treated as the main character by a lot of the fandom and that irritates me. i also really dislike pining over characters who are in other romantic attachments, i find that kind of story disgusting. and with my indifference to essek too, i didn't think anything about shadowgast. until like five episodes ago. there was just something about essek staying behind to watch caleb take paper that just made me go oh. i like these two together - in my mind they work the best out of any of the caleb ships. you have two incredibly intelligent people who has aspirations beyond what they are currently doing who recognise (now) how much that power could end up with them slipping down the wrong path. i just think that they suit so well. i'm enjoying their dynamic a lot more than i thought i would.

overall i think i am much more content about the ending than i originally was. i like that essek is officially a part of the nein. it suits him. i am also surprised that i like that molly is back. these are two characters i didn't originally like that i am glad are back now lol

anyway some hopes/thoughts/wishes for the finale

marion and jester reunion - i would like a reunion between all three, but i really hope we get to see marion one last time

veth getting to go home at long last

i kinda want molly to recuperate with the clays? i feel like that will help to mellow him out while he tries to cope with what the fuck just happened

is it weird that as someone who actually now ships shadowgast to not really want a shadowgast ending? i don't think that they are ready yet. i kinda like a nebulous ending for them - a glimpse into what could happen between them. i would love a oneshot where we deal with Trent first and then a oneshot dealing with uk'otoa because my boy deserves to go back on the sea, and that's when i envision shadowgast happening?

i really, really, really want them to check in with yussa but that's because yussa is my favourite wizard lmao

i want to see zeenoth's trial getting addressed

i want the finale to end with them relaxing and planning their next moves

a check-in with the crew considering that orly and marius were such a huge part of c2

and finally, one shots that i would like in the future -

one-shot/mini-series dealing with trent

one-shot dealing with uk'otoa/vandran/sabian because fjord is going to need to get back on the sea at some point

one-shot dealing with perhaps making sure essek can actually exist as a person???? like this poor dude is going to be on the run for the rest of his 700-900 year lifespan at this point

one-shot dealing with cad's home

i would like to see zeenoth's trial but i also feel like that is such a roleplay heavy plot that i can't see it happening which is sad

[gayenerd]

This is the interview with Adrienne that is teased in that Mankato punk blog I talked about awhile ago.

Green Day frontman's wife remembers Mankato

By Amanda Dyslin

The Free Press

July 01, 2009 04:38 pm

— Adrienne Nesser, living in Mankato in her early 20s, had a long-distance friendship and flirtation with a guy so interested in her, he and his band planned tours around Minnesota just so he could see her.

Green Day wasn’t famous at the time. In Adrienne’s own words, they were just another band she had seen a couple of times in the Cities.

They were both also seeing other people. But there was something pretty powerful that must have connected them over a distance of thousands of miles. There had to be. Otherwise, she never would have agreed to leave her home state of Minnesota to move to California to be with him.

Just weeks later, they were married July 2, 1994, Adrienne was pregnant with the couple’s first of two sons, and Green Day’s album “Dookie” became a household name. All of this seemed to happen over night.

Finding Adrienne and talking to her about all of this was a big part of our Campaign Green Day mission. (See accompanying story for background.) Today, we accomplish that goal as Adrienne talks to us about life in Mankato, including her favorite Pagliai’s pizza toppings, how quickly her life changed when she headed West, and also the big question we’ve been pursuing for weeks: Would Green Day ever come back to Mankato to play a show?

Free Press: Tell me a little bit about your college experience at Minnesota State University. Were you a studier? A partier? On the student senate?

Adrienne Armstrong: I was a transfer student to MSU. I was at the U of M for a few semesters, then Minneapolis Community College. I was dating my then boyfriend who lived in Mankato, so it seemed a good place to go to finish my degree.

I loved school, especially when I was in the more focused classes of my degree. And I was definitely a partier. I found it easy to balance both. I loved the What’s Up, and for the life of me can’t remember the name of the bar across from Pagliai’s that I absolutely loved. (Square Deal?)

I graduated in 1993, but I had turned in a paper after one of my classes ended, and the professor never posted the grade. I had to call the school to argue the fact. They finally sent my degree in 1996.

FP: Why sociology? What interested you about the subject and what career did you have in mind?

AA: I have always loved the dynamics of social groups, clicks and society classes. It’s what triggered my interest in social justice and being an activist. I really didn’t have any career in mind while going through college. Occasionally, I would think of getting a credential to teach, but it was always a fleeting idea.

FP: You seemed to have a ton of jobs while you were here. Your Mankato friends have listed Pier 1 Imports, the Piercing Pagonda, Pagliai’s and The Jungle among them. Am I missing any? Any favorites?

AA: I really only had a few jobs in Mankato. It was hard for me to find a job because I had dreadlocks and dressed kinda funky. So the first place that took a chance on me was The Jungle and the bowling alley. It was a trip. I really liked working there, and the bowlers warmed up to me.

I worked at Pagliai’s all through college, and that was super fun. I worked with lots of my friends and the pizza was awesome. I worked at Pier 1 after I graduated. I was a manager there. I loved that job. I was hired at the very beginning; we put the store together from the ground up. The people I worked with were fun, and I loved running the store. I remember unloading a truck full of merchandise with 70 below windchills. The whole town was shut down. Good times!

FP: Do you have any favorite moments in Mankato? Any night or event or time that really stands out for you when you think about your college years?

AA: My entire experience of living in Mankato was fantastic. I loved living there. It was a small town with such a heart. Camping in our friends T-PEE, the festivals in Sibley Park, tubing in the storm drains, biking, which seemed, at the time, the biggest hill to campus, and the really cool friends/people I hung out with.

FP: I read you met Billie Joe in 1990 at a show in Minneapolis. Had you heard his music before that show? How famous would you say Green Day was at the time?

AA: I met Green Day for the first time at a house party in Dinkytown. A friend of mine invited me to a party on the Fourth of July. So I went with my boyfriend at the time to check out the bands.

I saw a couple songs, then we left to watch fireworks. The next day they played The Varsity. I ended up going to that show, too. My friend, Erica, introduced me to the guys that day. I wouldn’t say they were famous.

I mean, I went to a lot of shows ... saw a lot of bands. They were just another band. This was the first time they played Minnesota.

FP: Was it difficult having a relationship long-distance when Billie Joe was on tour after you’d first met?

AA: Billie Joe and I were friends first. And never tried to be exclusive. I was in a dwindling relationship that was off and on. And I know he dated many other girls. We grew over time. After I graduated from college, I finalized the break-up with my longtime boyfriend and was single for almost a year. During that time, I saw Billie Joe a few times, but it wasn’t until I moved out to California that things solidified pretty quickly.

FP: I couldn’t get anyone to clear this up for me: Was it because of you that Green Day started coming to Mankato and playing shows? Or was Mankato a part of their early touring locations?

AA: Umm ... probably. : )

He booked a mini tour that started in Sioux Falls, S.D., and then came through Mankato, Minneapolis, to Beloit, Wis. So yes, to see me. Very Romantic ... .

FP: Talking to people around here now, it seems like the band was playing shows everywhere here in town: garages, basements and that show on a farm near St. Peter. Was it really like that? Or was it just a few shows that just sort of popped up when they happened to be here?

AA: Green Day always played anywhere, any time. So when they were in town as a band they would play garages, basements, street corners and even that farm on top of spools. Billie Joe came to Mankato a few times on his own for visits as well.

FP: Did you have any idea in the early days of your relationship that Green Day was going to hit the big time?

AA: I really didn’t think of it. I just knew that I loved the band and their music. They were so fun to watch live. ... But it wasn’t in my thoughts at all what their future held. I remember being with a friend in Minneapolis, and we were watching MTV, and their “Basket Case” video came on. It freaked us out. We were like “Oh My God, how crazy!! They are on TV!”

FP: A few people who knew you said your decision to move out West to marry Billie Joe happened quickly. It was like one minute you were here and then you were gone. Was that how you remember it, too? Were you scared?

AA: Billie Joe had asked me to move out to California and give us a try. I was Totally scared. But super excited. It was a new adventure, and I was ready. I had a big garage sale — sold as much as I could, including my favorite blue creepers, packed a mini U-Haul and drove out with my 15-year-old brother and my friend, Holly, who was already making the trip. I figured I’d give it the summer and see what happened.

FP: It seems as if shortly after you were married “Green Day” and “Dookie” became household names. What was that time like for you? Was it strange to suddenly be living the life of a celebrity? Is it still strange?

AA: I was out two weeks and Billie Joe asked me to marry him. It was crazy. But it was a crazy time for us — and I said yes. It was a whirlwind. I was pregnant, and his band was everywhere. It was completely overwhelming. We were just trying to navigate it all — it was a bumpy ride for sure. It took years for us to find our footing. ... But sometimes I think it was all those trials that made us stronger and brought us to where we are today.

FP: What’s your life like now?

AA: It feels pretty normal for me now. I am a mother of two amazing kids. So I am busy with school, sports and all their activities. And Billie Joe’s life keeps us busy. It’s never boring ... that’s for sure.

FP: What are your roles at Atomic Garden and Adeline Records? Does that keep you pretty busy?

AA: My friend and I are partners in Atomic Garden. She’s a very good friend who is amazing and patient. I work as much as I can when I am in town, and we do all the buying together. We have an incredible manager who does most of the day-to-day stuff. She allows us to live our lives and still have such a beautiful store. I don’t do anything with Adeline Records anymore. I worked the label for years when it first started. But I have moved on. : )

FP: Do you still keep in contact with anyone from the Mankato area?

AA: I keep in touch with a few people. But sadly lost touch with a lot of them.

FP: And now for the $65,000 question. What do you think our chances are of getting Green Day to come back to Mankato to play a show some time? Are small markets like ours pretty much out of the question at this point?

AA: I would love to imagine Green Day playing Mankato again. I don’t think it’s out of the question. They still play small clubs and stuff. They are still the same in that way — they will play anywhere. It’s more just the logistics of it all.

FP: How about you? Could we get you to come back some time? How about a big party catered by Pagliai’s?

AA: I would LOVE to get back to Mankato for a visit. So let’s keep in touch and make this happen! It’s been too long since I had a Pagliai’s pizza with onion, green olive and extra sauce. Cheryl Rueda made me the BEST pizzas!!!!!

Copyright � 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.

Photos

Adrienne Armstrong lives in California and co-owns Atomic Garden, an eco-friendly clothing store, with a friend.

[littledata]

Kara first becomes aware that Lena has a legion of seven evil exes hellbent on destroying her life when she gets home to find “Stay away from Lena Luthor” spray-painted on her apartment door. Her first thought is the culprit must be Lex Luthor, but spray paint seems a little inelegant for him, and besides, it’s just a bit too coincidental that the crime occurs the day after she shared dinner, drinks and a foot-pop inducing first kiss with the CEO of L-Corp. She rather doubts Lex found out about that from inside his supermax prison cell.

“I might have an idea who’s behind it.” Lena says sheepishly when she arrives to survey the damage. “I do have these seven evil exes who try to kill anyone I date.” When Kara suggests that this was perhaps something she should have mentioned after the aforementioned dinner, drinks, and earth-shattering kiss, Lena holds up her hands defensively. “I assumed it wouldn’t be a problem. I mean, you are a superhero.”

There’s just one issue with that superhero plan though, as Alex points out when she shows up to take a look at Kara’s vandalised door. The legion of seven evil exes who are now hellbent on destroying Kara’s life only think Lena is dating Kara Danvers, not Supergirl. So when they show up to fight her she can’t actually punch them into space without revealing her secret identity. She either deals with this problem as Kara Danvers or outs herself to a group of heartbroken supervillains.

So what does Kara Danvers do when she’s confronted with a legion of seven evil exes hellbent on destroying her life? She makes friends with them. Obviously.

1. Michael. Lena dated Michael for three weeks when she was fifteen because he had an earring and rode a motorbike. She was in the midst of a rebellious phase where she was trying her damndest to piss off her mother, and it worked until Michael suggested she drop out of high school to tour the country with his band. Even aged fifteen, Lena Luthor was nobody’s groupie. In the intervening years, he had racked up a couple of minor felonies (he was responsible for the spray paint) and was now playing bass in a Nickelback cover band. Kara agrees to hand out flyers for their next gig, and he tells her that she’s “totally kick-ass” like he’s from a 90s teen movie, then agrees he won’t try to murder her. She has to stand on a street corner in the cold for three hours, but it’s worth it when Lena shows up with hot cocoa, plants a warm kiss on her freezing nose, and tells her she looks cute in her scarf.

2. Madison. Kara first becomes aware of Madison when she is pelted with soccer balls by a small herd of children out of the windows of a mini-van. After she makes her escape, she forces an embarrassed Lena to explain that Madison was part of her first experimental steps into sleeping with women. They had hooked up once in their freshman year of college before Madison met a man, settled down and had four kids in quick succession. Kara has to find out for herself, buried somewhere in the depths of Madison’s mommy blog, that Lena had ruined her sex life with her future husband forever by giving her the only orgasm she would ever have.  Kara ignores her friends’ rather lewd suggestions of how she could get in her good books, and instead stays up all night baking cookies and brings them to Madison’s PTA fundraiser. She arrives home that night to Lena brandishing three large pizzas and a lewd suggestion of her own.

3. Prisha. Kara knows all about Prisha. She’s beautiful and intelligent and perfect, she’s a hot-shot prosecutor and she has a blackbelt in Judo and Kara hates her guts. Lena only ever references her vaguely, but Kara does manage to get out of her that Lena was eyeing up engagement rings before she found out Prisha was cheating on her, and after that Kara just hates her even more. She’s actually determined not to befriend this particular ex until she receives a court summons for an unpaid parking ticket. Kara Danvers has never parked illegally in her life. She offers Prisha Supergirl’s number so that she can get in a few sparring sessions to train against someone really tough (under the influence of kryptonite, of course), and that means she gets to make friends with her and punch her in the face. “You do know you’re the only person I care about dating right now, don’t you?” Lena asks her later with a teasing smile, and Kara feels a little bit guilty about the whole punching thing.

4. Simon. Lena broke up with Simon after he stole some of her PHD research, published it under his own name and used the resulting exposure to start a multi-billion dollar tech company. He still frequently appears in the news for the human rights violations in his company warehouses. He sends a delivery driver to do his dirty work for him, who hands Kara an exploding pen when he asks her to sign for her package. Admittedly, this might have actually worked if she wasn’t an alien, and Kara isn’t exactly thrilled by the thought of attempting to make nice with Simon. She is excellent at gift-giving though and finally hits on what every Silicon Valley tech bro really wants: she talks Winn into hacking his social media pages and making his twitter advertising campaign go viral. She tells Lena she’s starting to worry about just how bad she is at picking her relationships, and Lena points out that her current girlfriend is pretty great. It’s the first time she’s said it, and Kara melts.

5. Jensen. Jensen was Lena’s final attempt at pleasing her parents and dating men, back around the time of the whole Lex-Luthor-tries-to-kill-Superman fiasco. It seemed like it would make Thanksgiving a little less awkward, Lena explains, and Kara supposes she can’t argue with that logic. Their relationship might have even worked out if both of them hadn’t been very, very gay, and although they parted on amicable enough terms, that doesn’t stop Jensen from trying to poison Kara with tainted cupcakes from the bakery he owns. The cupcakes are really good though, if you ignore the arsenic, so once Kara finds out he owns a bakery she becomes one of his best customers, and inside of a month she and Jensen are regularly meeting up for coffee. He’s not really evil, just kind of dramatic, and Lena pouts adorably when Kara teases that she could say the same thing about her.

6. Rosa. Kara finds out about Rosa when she receives a call from the National City jail warning her away from Lena. Lena looks faintly embarrassed when she admits that she dated Rosa for a couple of months until she realised the other woman was stealing from her apartment and attempting to milk every penny she could out of her. Which, yeah, Kara supposes you’re at risk of that when you’re an incredibly attractive, single billionaire, but Lena seems to think she should have known something was amiss in advance. Apparently, Rosa is very well connected in the organised crime world though, because she definitely recognises the goons who jump her and Alex outside of her apartment building as being from a local mob family. Said goons didn’t exactly expect to be contending with an over-protective Danvers sister though, and they’re seen off very quickly. Alex is less than impressed when Kara starts up a penpal friendship with Rosa, despite her little sister’s insistence that Rosa was mostly blackmailed into most of her crimes by her underworld family members. Lena, who perhaps understands a problematic family more than many people, sighs and says, “Well, you forgive people. That’s what makes you Kara.”

7. Clara. Kara has absolutely no idea what Lena saw in Clara. She’s nothing like any of Lena’s other exes, doesn’t even have much in common with her, and it isn’t until Alex has tears of laughter running down her face that she kind of sees it. Clara has long blonde hair, blues eyes, glasses, favours button-ups and - oh okay fine, she’s a dead ringer for Kara. She does an excellent imitation of Kara on the phone and attempts to break up with Lena, but gives herself away when she mentions eating a salad for lunch. Kara gets in touch with a talent agency she knows through CatCo and helps Clara get a steady gig as a Supergirl lookalike. When she asks Lena what she was thinking when she slept with her, Lena gives a small shrug. “I was head over heels in love with my best friend but not quite ready to admit it yet.” 

“Am I in danger of becoming evil if you ever break up with me?” Kara asks once the legion of seven evil exes hellbent on destroying her life have all been successfully befriended and neutralised. She expects Lena to make a joke about Supergirl never turning evil, but Lena just gives her a curious look instead.

“What makes you think I’m ever going to break up with you?”

[letterboxd]

Sundance 2020.

“Dude, I hope this gets over 3.5!” Letterboxd rates this year’s Sundance.

Our West Coast editor Dominic Corry returns to Sundance to engage in such essential festival experiences as: judging other people’s cellphone etiquette, pretending not to notice A-listers, coming to rely upon coffee to a dangerous extent, and hastily downing a hot sandwich while standing over the garbage can outside the Park City Fresh Market.

He also watched a whole load of cool films, and spoke with the writing and directing talent behind some of the 2020 festival’s most talked-about premieres: Janicza Bravo (Zola), Eugene Kotlyarenko (Spree), Miranda July (Kajillionaire), Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor) and Jim Cummings (actor and executive producer of Danny Madden's debut Beast Beast).

Zola

“There are more ways to access great storytelling than the ones we’ve been used to.”

Generating much of the buzz ahead of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival was Janicza Bravo’s Zola, a film based on the Twitter thread by A'Ziah King that went famously viral in 2015. It concerns two exotic dancers: King herself—who goes by Zola—(played by Taylour Paige) and her new friend Stefani (Riley Keough), who head down to Tampa one weekend accompanied by Stefani’s boyfriend Derrek (played by Cousin Greg himself, Nicholas Braun) and Stefani’s “roommate” (read: pimp, played by Colman Domingo). To say shit gets cray doesn’t quite cover it.

It’s been simplistically, if understandably, described ahead of time as “Pulp Fiction meets Spring Breakers”, but Bravo herself cited a much more eclectic selection of cinematic inspirations when we spoke to her ahead of the film’s world premiere.

“My inspirations were The Wiz, Coffy, Paris Is Burning, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Special Victims Unit. And Natural Born Killers!”

Bravo (pictured above) took to King’s Twitter thread immediately when it went viral. “I think I found it within a day, or days, of it coming out,” says Bravo. “It was sent to me by a group of girlfriends and before finishing it I knew that I wanted it, and I worked at getting [the rights] for about two years.”

Bravo wasn’t the only one who wanted to tell this story on the big screen—James Franco was initially linked to an adaptation.

“It’s not that it was difficult to get the rights, it’s that there were many other people who wanted it and the people who got it before me were just fancier. But here we are.”

Bravo is credited with Zola's script alongside playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who recently blew up Broadway with his incendiary show Slave Play. She concedes there were unique challenges in translating something so specific to the big screen.

“The thing that everyone was attracted to about this story was the voice, and I would say the hardest thing was to make sure the voice was still present in the film. What you’re reading, that it would translate into the visual.”

Bravo says she’s not sure if this is going to lead to a rash of social network-based films (Letterboxd: The Movie excepted of course), “but I would say that what the story tells you is that there are more ways to access great storytelling than the ones we’ve been used to.”

Spree

“Put it on lists and do those Letterboxd battles!”

It can be all too easy to over-perceive mini-trends at film festivals, but it was hard to overlook the large role that social media played in multiple films at Sundance this year.

In Eugene Kotlyarenko’s Spree, floppy-haired Stranger Things star Joe Keery (pictured above) plays wannabe influencer Kurt Kunkle, a driver for a Los Angeles-based ride-sharing service (called… Spree) who plots to up his subscriber numbers by murdering his more obnoxious passengers on a live stream. Or he might just be staging it all for the LOLs. The entire film plays out as a series of live-streaming videos, mostly from the dashboard cameras in Kurt’s car.

Kotlyarenko’s film questions the overly prominent role of social media in modern life. “We've all kind of signed on to this thing, to use the literal expression,” he told us. “It’s part of the way we understand ourselves and our relationship with the rest of the world. It’s basically: a like or repost or a good rating on something, gives us part of our validation or sense of self and that is a kind of twisted place to be. [Spree] is a provocation, it’s a challenge, it’s a way of saying: look, we have a problem.”

Kotlyarenko had a number of inspirations in mind while he was writing and directing Spree. “A lot! A lot of movies! I actually put ten movies in a Dropbox for the cast and crew. One movie that I thought was really inspiring was Jafar Panafi’s Taxi, also known as Taxi Tehran. You want Man Bites Dog in there, because the whole thing is that the movie’s a live stream, right? So how do you do that pseudo-doc thing but now? So you’re following a psychotic character and you’re getting very close to them. Uncomfortably close. What else? Network and To Die For, just hardcore media satires. There’s a bunch of other films, like Coming Apart, do you know this film? It’s a late ’60s movie starring Rip Torn, where he’s a psychiatrist and he sets up these hidden cameras and exploits all his patients and stuff but they don’t know that they’re on camera.”

It turns out Kotlyarenko is a keen Letterboxd member, and he’s looking forward to other members generating an average rating for his film. “Dude, I hope this gets over 3.5!”

We can safely assume Kotlyarenko won’t employ measures as drastic as those adopted by the main character in his movie in order to get his desired rating.

“I want people on Letterboxd to watch the film and rate it whatever the fuck you think it is [worth]. And, you know, put it on lists and do those Letterboxd battles. Put it up against, you know, some Gasper Noé movie. And let it win!”

Kajillionaire

“Instead of sort of half-arseing two jobs, you’re doing one job really well.”

Filmmaker, actor and performance artist Miranda July is a central figure in the American independent cinema scene, even though she’s only directed two films: Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future. Her third full-length feature Kajillionaire had its world premiere at Sundance this year, just as her previous works did, but the big difference this time around is that she stuck to writing and directing, having also played the lead role in her two previous films.

“It’s just better,” she told Letterboxd of staying behind the camera for Kajillionaire. “Instead of sort of half-arseing two jobs, you’re doing one job really well, you know? You get a lot of energy when you’re performing—that’s nice. Especially initially to kind of set the tone, that was super helpful, starting out. But now it’s like: these people all knew my work. So I didn’t have to actually be in it for them to like, get it. Which is, you know, what a dream right?”

Kajillionaire is a typically (for July) offbeat tale of a Los Angeles family who attempt low-level scams to raise money to pay the rent on the disused office space with oozing walls in which they live. The family (comprised of mom Debra Winger, dad Richard Jenkins and daughter Evan Rachel Wood) find their equilibrium challenged when an optimistic young woman (Gina Rodriguez) eagerly joins them for their latest “heist”.

Miranda July. / Photo courtesy of the Sundance Institute

Letterboxd asked July if she thinks there’s a common narrative thread running through all three of her films.

“I mean, I see the thread, but it’s really just me living my life. Not that it’s autobiographical at all. But now I was ready to face issues and tell a story that only could be told by someone who had been a child, grown into an adult, and then been a parent of a child and had this 360-degree perspective. And also I think there’s a joyfulness that only comes in once you’re like: I know a little bit how to do this, you know? Like, maybe there’s some fun that I had, as well as breaking my heart 100 times.”

Although Kajillionaire would seem to speak to general economic anxiety, July said that wasn’t necessarily the point of the film.

“All I’ll say about that right now is: I wrote it in this time and the whole thing comes from my unconscious. But I am the child of boomers and, you know, living in the same world you’re living in. The sense that something criminal might have happened is in the air, but I wasn’t consciously [thinking]: ‘I’m going to hit them hard with this political satire’. It’s not that movie. But I don’t think anyone would be wrong to find that in it.”

Beast Beast

“It allows you to circumvent all of the bullshit that is Hollywood.”

We met up with one of our favorite filmmakers (and Letterboxd member), Jim Cummings, who wrote, directed and starred in the 2018 low-key masterpiece Thunder Road, an expansion of a 13-minute short that won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2016.

Cummings was at the 2020 festival as both an executive producer and supporting cast member in a film in the NEXT program (which highlights emerging filmmakers) called Beast Beast. It’s the first feature from writer/director Danny Madden.

“Danny was my co-producer and creative director on many of my short films, the Thunder Road feature, and my new upcoming werewolf movie. So it’s great to be here for his first Sundance feature.”

Cummings, who also runs The Short to Feature Lab in Malibu, understands more than most how shorts can be a pathway to feature filmmaking.

“It’s just so much more fulfilling to make something as a proven concept. You kind of become your own studio in a way that’s incredibly fulfilling. I think it’s the future. You can afford to make something over a weekend with your friends in the backyard that’s a short film and then you can use that and use Kickstarter or a crowd-equity plan campaign to raise the rest of the money for a feature. It’s absolutely the future and it allows you to circumvent all of the bullshit that is Hollywood.”

Jim Cummings and Danny Madden. / Photo by Jovelle Tamayo, courtesy of the Sundance Institute

Hang on, did you say new upcoming werewolf film? Thunder Road fans can look forward to beholding Cumming’ follow-up feature soon.

“I shot a werewolf movie in Coalville, Utah last March. I spent four months out here. I wrote it, I directed in and I star in it, and it’s a proper monster movie. It’s like a proper werewolf comedy. It’s like Thunder Road with a werewolf. Or Zodiac as a comedy. That’s coming out in theaters in September.”

And because this is Jim Cummings we’re talking to, there’s more: “I ran a crowd-equity campaign for a movie that we made about talent agents that I can’t really talk too much about, but it’s very good and it’s a horror movie that we shot in November. That should be coming out around the same time.”

Possessor

“It has a lot to do with character psychology, without giving too much away.”

Following the world premiere of his new film Possessor, Letterboxd sat down with second-generation filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg, the son of legendary director David. The younger Cronenberg’s second feature (following 2012’s Antiviral) had Sundance audiences audibly wincing at the extreme body horror on display in the sci-fi thriller, which stars Andrea Riseborough as an assassin who forcibly inhabits the minds of others to perform her incredibly violent executions.

We asked Cronenberg how he feels about the term “body horror” (a sub-genre often associated with his father’s work) being applied to his film.

“I guess it depends how you define body horror,” says Cronenberg. “There are violent scenes in the film and I guess that fits into a certain aspect of body horror, but it isn’t really what I would necessarily describe as body horror. There’s a small amount of story stuff that I feel is legitimately a part of that genre, but it’s not [the] prime aspect of the story.”

Cronenberg confirmed that on-screen viscerality appeals to him in general as a filmmaker: “I think especially in genre, although it can be incredibly conceptual. It’s partly defined by deep visceral emotions, not always because of graphic violence or gore. Sometimes it can be a film primarily about dread or anxiety that I would still consider to be a horror film, and a lot of classic ghost films for instance are not graphic but are visceral and in that emotional sense.”

Actors Christopher Abbott and Andrea Riseborough with director Brandon Cronenberg. / Photo courtesy of the Sundance Institute

The violence in Possessor may have had audience members covering their eyes in Park City, but Cronenberg told us there was a point to all the grue.

“It wasn’t just there to be intense or to provoke people. It has a lot to do with character psychology, without giving too much away. The way it’s depicted and the various approaches that are taken in different scenes, very much relate to the main character, her relationship with violence, her own internal space and also where the audience is situated from a kind of more objective or more subjective position.”