#the stat breakdowns are so detailed

[discountalien-pancake]

The friendship harem has started up some good old analog correspondence, so I fell down a fountain pen rabbithole and splurged on some new materials. Did I choose a very expensive ink purely because it was glass green and named Cinderella’s Slipper? Absolutely.

In the meantime, I dug out a very old, inexpensive dried up pen that I have no idea where it even came from. Took it apart and tossed the nib and cartridge into a bottle full of water to dissolve the old ink.

Something about this image of my dimly lit desk covered in art supplies and papers and random junk, with a bottle of bright blue water smack in the middle of it is immensely pleasing?? No idea why.

Anyway, perhaps I will pick up a bottle of less expensive, more versatile blue-black ink tomorrow so I can put my cheap pen to use while I wait for my nice pen to arrive.

[legendaryvermin]

So my home ttrpg group is between longform games right now, and I have been planning to bring a bunch of games to them this weekend as options for what we might play next. However, I have been trying to figure out how to talk about the games in a way that doesn't rely as much on me explaining the vibes to them.

I know that people have a bunch of qualitative categories for how they explain games, but I find the idea of saying things like Dark Fantasy OSR, or Lesbian Goofball PBTA less helpful when talking about how games actually play, especially when two games in the same category are like, wildly different in the way they use their frameworks.

So I invented a 6 axis, 1 to 5 star rating scale for TTRPGs that you are free to borrow when talking to groups, or whatever.

TTRPG 5 Star Rating Matrix

Width

What is the scope of this game? Is it narrowly about one thing or does it encompass many types of play? (Credit to friend of the blog @ostermad-blog for this one, they came up with it from my draft)

Weight

How much cognitive load does the player need to bear? Do rules often need to be referenced verbatim? Can those rules fit on a handout?

Wargame

Is the player expected to apply tactical acumen? Is movement tracked tightly or loosely? Does a bad build punish a player?

Writers Room

How much are players expected to make narrative choices and drive the story without the rules scaffolding them? Does this game fall apart without excellent improvisational storytellers?

(Prep)Work

Does this game require a lot of pre-planning by the facilitator? Are there intricate systems to attend to outside of table play? Can I put in the same amount of time as other players and still have everyone leave happy? 

Whimsy

Expected tone of the game. Does this game have difficult thematic elements baked in? Is the core subject or role in the game high or low risk?

Here are some games I know well and how I calibrated them:

I have breakdowns of what each star rating means below the cut if you're curious. Happy Gaming!

Width

⭐ - As written, the game has basically one mode of play, or one thematic core that it meditates on. May have phases, but textural difference is minimal.

⭐⭐ - As written, there are at least two modes of play, but the scope of that play is highly thematically focused or highly dependent on using the game’s own lore. Might have only one kind of character (e.g. Mech Pilot) that it supports. Has limited tools outside of the primary mode of play.

⭐⭐⭐ - Has a variety of modes of play, but may be rigid in their execution. Might encompass multiple kinds of characters (e.g. Doctor, Lawyer, fighter) or character options. The narratives that this game tells within its setting are narrowed, a three word description tells you what kind of stories it can tell with consistency.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Loose framework, but with some kind of thematic grounding. Describing the framework in 3 words doesn’t tell you the kind of stories that the game tells (e.g. Dark Fantasy, Star Wars Romp). 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- As written, this game is designed in such a way that it doesn’t put specific limits on what sorts of stories that it is meant to tell. It might ask players to define abilities or stats for themselves. The Facilitator is going to pitch a thematic grounding on top of the rules set.

One Star Examples: For the Queen, Dialect, Honey Heist Five Star Examples: Fate Core, Savage Worlds, GURPS

Weight

⭐ - It is reasonable for a player to be able to recite the rules from memory. The game may be prompt based, or driven by a flow of rules that are read aloud as played.

⭐⭐ - Players can hold most of the most important information about the game in their heads, with a page or less of rules reference needed to play smoothly. This reference could all fit neatly on the character sheet if one is present.

⭐⭐⭐ - Everything a player needs to know about the game is visible on less than 3 sheets of reference. Players are more or less expected to know exactly how their own abilities work in precise detail, and are unlikely to make a mistake in executing them.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Players make extensive use of multiple reference sheets to keep rules moving smoothly. No external tools are needed, but players memorizing the details of all of their abilities is taxing. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- Players and facilitators will prefer to make extensive use of external tools or reference to keep play moving smoothly. Expecting a player to have the exact details of their abilities memorized is not reasonable.

One Star Examples: For the Queen, Stewpot, Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands Five Star Examples: Dungeons and Dragons 3-5e, Lancer, Edge of the Empire

Wargame

⭐ - As written, this game does not treat combat as mechanically different from any other aspect of play, or does not include narrative violence at all.

⭐⭐ - While players may engage in combat, it is minimally different from regular play. There may be tools or abilities for players to use to conduct a fight, but the texture of those fights is thematic, not mechanical. Narrative and consequence drive the action, not hit points.

⭐⭐⭐ - As written, combat has its own set of rules. This game may have some elements of buildcrafting, but either it is difficult to build something that doesn’t work, or the player may meaningfully invest in other modes of play and still find a commensurate level of satisfaction. If combat occurs, spacing is kept in mind, but is tracked in relative terms (range bands) or highly simplified (zone based combat).

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This game has buildcrafting that is somewhat mandatory if players wish to survive a fight, but there is still a meaningful choice in choosing a non-combat role. It may use a grid or a spacing system to help players visualize the combat. Fights are driven by mechanics, not by narrative.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- To enjoy this game, players must spend time buildcrafting. If a player’s build is suboptimal, there may be significant parts of the intended experience that will either feel tedious, or that the player will not have meaningful access to. This game is played on a grid.

One Star Examples: Wanderhome, Dialect, Belonging Outside Belonging Five Star Examples: Lancer, Dungeons and Dragons 3-5e, Valor

Writers Room

⭐ - Players in this game are not expected to provide much in the way of narrative substance. Story is something that is driven by external input or tools, and players are there to imagine and react. The player need not separate the self from the character they play in any meaningful way.

⭐⭐ - The mechanics of this game drive most of the narrative, or else the narrative is set for the players by an external source or player. Players are encouraged to play optimally rather than dramatically, but do have room for expressing the identity of their character within the game’s mechanical frameworks.

⭐⭐⭐ - While the game does provide strong scaffolding to tell a story, the players present are expected to drive the story within those frameworks. The game’s systems create and resolve conflict on their own, but works best when the players are willing to choose the dramatically interesting option even if it mechanically non-optimal.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The game provides some mechanical tools that create and resolve drama, but there is a significant expectation that the players are buying into and driving the game’s thematic concepts. Players are the ones deciding what the scenes should be and when to end them, but mechanics still help determine outcomes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- The players are expected to drive the narrative at all times. Tools for deciding what scenes to do and when to end them are limited, optional, or vague. There is no meaningful scaffolding that creates conflict or resolution, it is incumbent on those present to manifest those things.

One Star Examples: Alice is Missing, Ribbon Drive, For the Queen Five Star Examples: Wanderhome, Systemless RP

(Prep)Work

⭐ - Facilitators are not expected to do work outside the time at the table. All rules can be read while the game is played. No memorization is needed.

⭐⭐ - This game expects the facilitator to have read the rules in advance, but the rules are so few that they can be run from a single reference sheet. At times, the facilitator must think about and potentially advance and adjust the narrative of the game behind the scenes. Prep is qualitative; answering questions about where the narrative is going to go, who will be there etc. The game can be run smoothly predominantly as improv.

⭐⭐⭐ - This game expects the facilitator to not only know the rules, but to imagine scenarios where the group must play. However, the scope of the scenario design is limited and qualitative. It takes a bit of pondering and perhaps a sketch and a few words of notes. Alternatively, the facilitator must design simple foes or track a simple background system. The work is trivial, and can be done with a bit of time before session.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The facilitator of this game is expected to have run systems between games, or created usable maps or scenarios. Generally, games at this level have some reduced wargaming component. The facilitator might need to engage in enemy design, but the work is limited or imminently reusable. The work is non-trivial, and failing to do it will somewhat impact the quality of play.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- The facilitator of this game puts in significant time between sessions engaging in game design activities. They are expected to plan narratives, write NPCs, draw maps, run significant background systems, and design enemies and combat encounters. The work is significant outside of play, and failing to do it beforehand will result in a worse table experience.

One Star Examples: For the Queen, Alley-Oop, Lasers and Feelings Five Star Examples: Lancer, D&D 3-5e, Stars Without Number, Edge of the Empire

Whimsy

⭐ - This game’s thematic core is considered dark, taboo, or difficult, and separating the game’s mechanical features from this subject matter is next to impossible. Games with horror elements almost certainly fit within this category. These games encourage extensive pre-play safety talks.

⭐⭐ - This game is designed to look at dark subject matter, but doesn’t expect the player to spend all of their time there. Players explore difficult topics, but may get to choose what topics to explore, or when to explore them. Games with political messaging/commentary tend to fit this category. These games encourage pre-play safety talks.

⭐⭐⭐ - This game may have dark aesthetics, but doesn’t enforce them mechanically. Alternatively, there are mechanics that address difficult topics in broad strokes, but players are given leeway in the rules with how any difficult topics are approached. These games may encourage safety talks. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This game may have the option to explore dark topics, but none of the mechanics are tied to such topics. This game may have violence in its aesthetics, but players may choose to adjust the aesthetics at the table to suit their comfort. These games tend not to talk about safety in their text.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- This game is designed to focus on thematic material that is considered to be relatively safe. The game is unlikely to tread into violence or trauma without effort.

One Star Examples: Trophy Dark, Dungeon Bitches, Vampire the Masquerade Five Star Examples: Honey Heist, Princess World, Beach Episode

The system here isn't about what's good or bad, to be clear. I think there are good and bad games at every level of these categories, but when I think about what my game group is good at and comfy with, I don't think we go in for things at like the 5 end of the Writers Room scale. It's too much work, and most of them aren't pro improvisers.

Similarly, if we play another game that is a 4 or 5 on the PrepWork category, I don't have time to run it these days. So this helps me make practical choices about our next game.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Realm SMP - The nitty gritty

I listened to Tubbo's rundown of Realm's features in the hour before the server opened, so here's some quotes + timestamps for folks who want to know the nitty gritty details about Realm's functions, tools, weapons, features, and more.

7m - Tubbo says he does have a team he assembled now, and it's costing him "Quite a bit of money."

Tubbo: To put all this together, to assemble the team – 'cuz I have assembled a team for this now – it's costing me a bit of money out the bank. [...] I'm going VERY out of pocket on this project."

10m - He reached out to a lot of his connections from working on Tubnet and got a custom rendered poster commissioned to announce Realm's first event.

Because of his show starting in December, Tubbo was worried he might not be able to give Realm SMP his full time, which is what prompted him to get a team.

13m 20s - The first event, Factions, is a long-form event, so even if a streamer isn't there on the event day (December 8) they can still play in the coming days. The factions won't be like more factions, MMO factions are different from Minecraft factions.

15m 30s - He has 3 events already planned - 2 for December, 1 in the new year

18m - Logs onto the Dev server

Tubbo: The Realm SMP is 100% vanilla, and while that is true in the sense that you can join the server using a vanilla client and it doesn't require any mods to play, there is some slight modifications within the vanilla game. Every single feature I've added to the server is to add to to vanilla features that already exist. It's not to take them away, it's not to make a different way of doing them, it's just to add more to the base game without destroying any already default Minecraft functionality.

20m - Shows off some weapons and tools

20m 50s - Tubbo says there's fancy leather which can be used to craft elytra.

Tubbo: Shoutout Philza! He's been on enough SMPs where he hasn't been able to get an elytra because the End is disabled. So there actually is a crafting recipe based on the elytra, but you have to unlock it based on skills.

21m 20s - Tool recap. Tool quality breakdown: terrible, shoddy, decent, good, great, flawless, masterful, fabled, and legendary. A terrible diamond sword would be worse than a masterful wooden sword.

23m - Skills recap. "Modifiers to my default player."

24m 30s - Skill point every time you level up a power level

32m - Going over custom things added to the server.

36m 30s - Mobs and hostile creatures will get stronger as players get stronger. Power scaling. Takes the highest level of the people in a group.

PVP and combat damage reduced to 10% when attacking with strong weapon.

38m 45s - No classes, wants everyone coming onto the server to be treated like an "average Joe" that can choose their own specifications.

Tubbo: I want them to kind of tailor their own custom class to themselves based on the types of specializations they pick in [different categories.

43m - Lives system clarification. Talks about death saving throws in DND. "If you die, it's equal to you failing a saving throw." If you lose all 3 lives, you'll be banned off the server for 24 hours, your stats are reset. "You are a new character, you are dead."

46m - Tubbo says he's cooking some lore for himself, but he's leaving thing open-ended so players on the server can tell the stories they want to make.

48m 30s - He scrapped the revive system in favor of the 24 hour ban

49m 30s - He encourages streamers to use Aypierre's translation thing for their streams and he's going to see if he can make a custom cheap version of a translator, but it might be a bit shoddy. "Obviously I'll speak and ask Quackity about stuff 'cuz he's the goat when it comes to stuff like that."

50m 30s - Banned items: mending books and mending enchants because it makes all the qualities of the crafts obsolete

51m 20s - Mob farms and other methods of automatically farming combat EXP are massively nerfed and do not work. "You cannot farm XP with farms." Mob farms are allowed, but they won't help much.

52m 30s - Trial chambers are enabled.

52m 50s - AFK farming skill XP is banned – not able to AFK fish or mine cobble gens (?).

54m 20s - He hasn't decided about Totems of Undying yet, but they may be necessary for custom boss fights and events. Totems of Undying don't work like people expect.

55m 20s - He just told members of the server not to be dicks.

55m 45s - Tubbo reiterates that he'll keep working on Realms as long as people want to play on it.

56m 45s - They started development for this server literally 5 days ago, and Tubbo reiterates his appreciation for Tangofrags.

57m 30s - He wants Realms to have a vanilla feeling with a specialized twist.

58m - He wants to add more people in the future, and tells creators "If I didn't respond to your message it's because I forgot! Not because I hate you! Thank you!"

58m 30s - Tubbo says he's hoping to add more people during the second December event

59m 30s - Tubbo says they're a four man army, technically five counting the person who made the event poster.

[phanchester]

since there are so many data nerd phannies i decided to make a compilation of all the spreadsheets i could find - lmk if i missed any or if you want me to add any additional details <3

last updated: 30/06/24

actively updating spreadsheets

dan and phil uploads from 2021-2024

dan and phil’s upload schedule from all their channels with days and dates

amount of days in between videos in each channel

pie charts of days of the week they upload

made by @ahappydnp 

everything dan and phil related

all of dan and phil’s video links from all their channels from all their accounts (including super amazing project, snapchat, vine, tiktok and more)

all of dan and phil’s radio shows, including reuploads and playlists, as well as the dan vs phil, fan war and internet news if available for each show with misc clips and written recaps

all of dan and phil’s liveshows, including some written recaps and the app where it was originally posted

all of dan and phil’s vyous including the question they were answering

all of dan and phil’s collaborations and video features (even if they were in the background), including the channel they were originally uploaded on 

all of dan and phil’s interviews

all of dan and phil’s merch, including originally shop links and links to the phandom wiki which has further information

all of dan and phil’s professional photos as well as some fan photos, including the event, photographer and platform

the dates and statuses of each of these videos (lost, archived, unlisted or public)

made by @stillarchivingdnp

dan and phil 2024 upload stats

each of their 2024 videos with channel, upload date, upload time in uk, length, sponsor and editor/s (if applicable) with an accompanying colour-coded calendar

(for amazingphil videos) whether dan featured and (for dapg videos) whether it was gaming/talking and who tweeted it

interactive part where you can see the time period between two videos

averages, maximums and minimums for times between uploads, upload times and runtimes with accompanying graphs

percentage of videos with other editors, with pie charts for all channels and each channel

made by @dnpbeats

all or nothing: dan vs phil season 2

all of the games for season 2, with the year they played them and the results with and without all or nothing coming into play

how often all or nothing came into play and who suggested it

the general impact of all or nothing

made by @organized-chaotic-disaster

dan and phil saying “i love you”

when dan and/or phil said ily

the video and timestamp from when they said ily and whether it was prompted

pie chart of dan or phil saying ily

made by @ahappydnp

games where one of them decides the winner

date and link for each video

overall winner with the winner for each round

breakdown of the amount of times each of them have won each round and the percentage phil has won

made by @dnpbeats

dan and phil 2024 upload schedule

upload date for each video, with the day of the week and approximate time it was uploaded in cst, including the most common and second most common upload day for dapg

days between each upload, including the longest gap, shortest gap, average gap and first and second most common gap for dapg

a colour-coded calendar displaying the upload schedule for dapg and amazingphil

made by @kat-aa

completed spreadsheets

all or nothing: dan vs phil season 1 with a great accompanying document with further details and analysis of the data

all of the games they played, with the year they played them and the results with and without all or nothing coming into play

how often all or nothing came into play and who suggested it

the general impact of all or nothing

made by @organized-chaotic-disaster 

youtuber tours

(not necessarily dnp but it includes them!)

120 different tours, including the creators, names, dates, countries, links (if available) and producers (if applicable)

each tours’ venue capacity range, average and total attendance

individual tour show breakdown with city, state, country and additional notes

data on each venue’s capacity, number of tours, and which youtuber went to each venue

data on each country’s amount of shows, broken down into states and cities

made by @stillarchivingdnp 

gamingmas 2023 schedule

all gamingmas video titles from 2023

the time each video was uploaded in gmt

made by @cactuslester

spreadsheet screenshots in posts

listening trends in all or nothing

scatter graph for the correlation between track number and number of listens

analysis of the data

made by @serendipnpipity

analysis of dnp’s letterboxd ratings and movies with part 1 and part 2

(pt 1) rating distributions for all the movies they’ve rated, including details about which movies one rated higher than the other, and which movies they rated the same

(pt 1) a list of their five-star movies

(pt 1) a list of movies one logged but not the other

(pt 1) cute little misc notes about the specific movies and dates

(pt 2) ratings broken down into genre, studio and franchise with accompanying bar charts

made by @philsrosesweatshirt

views on post-hiatus dapg videos after specific time frames

i believe this is a work of progress!

video titles with the dates and months, along with details of whether they were sponsored or had external editors

view count after 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 months and 6 months

made by @goldenpinof

favourite dnp tour song statistics

years phannies started watching vs the year they joined the phandom represented in a bar graph

favourite dnp tour song in a donut pie graph and a bar graph

favourite song vs year joined represented in a bar graph

made by @serendipnpipity

terrible influence: the tour trailer video analysis

all the videos that appear in terrible influence with additional notes

the list sorted by date, view count and channel specifics

timestamps provided for each clip, both in the video and where they appear in the trailer

made by @emojackolantern

[deancaspinefest]

Congratulations to all of the incredible artists and authors who participated in the eighth round of the Dean/Cas Pinefest!

Over the past month, 34 authors and 23 artists teamed up to share a collective 1,420,869 words of pine-filled fic and 117 works of art. The talent and artistry of this fandom absolutely floors us every year, and we're so happy that you're all still here sharing your wonderful creations with us 🌲 

With that in mind, we'll definitely be back for more! An official announcement for the 2025 Pinefest -- our ninth year -- will come sometime in July. Follow us here on Tumblr to make sure you don’t miss out on any details!

Under the cut, you’ll find links to every fic & art masterpost from the 2024 round, and you can also check out the collection on Ao3. Make sure to let the authors and artists know how much you enjoyed their creations with a like, kudos, or best of all, a reblog, rec, or comment!

following the light

One Drop, when What You Need is the Ocean

Of Dust, Gunpowder and Holy Water

Books, Pies, and Roommates

A Fairy Tale Cliche!

All in Honesty

Another Kind of Memory

Not our kind of thing

Different Currencies

In The Dog Days

Whatever Makes You Happy

Significant severe

all that we intend

Something Happening Somewhen

Two Princes

Broken (The Worst Is Over Now)

Well, I Never Been To Heaven

The Reel Deal

A Fabulous Evening's Apocalypse

Foxfire

Super Double Bus

Suddenly I See

Lavender Fireflies

Heartland Flyer

Something Blue

Wouldn't It Be Nice

If Only You Return to Me

all out to sea

Dear Father

Opposites Distract

Faking It?

Given to Fly

Take The Long Way Home

A Glacial Pace

All caught up on this year’s crop of pine? There are 694 more works of art and 219 more fics to be found in the previous seven Pinefest rounds -- and if you're into numbers, you can find a full breakdown of this and past year’s stats here!

Until next time… happy pining!

[mecachrome]

landoscar ao3 stats — 2023 overview

notes

retrieved ~sometime in march 2024

methodology: scraped metadata for every fic in the landoscar tag and...... that's it. however one important constraint is that all temporal data is date updated (not posted), so the above timeline isn't exactly a true representation of fic growth but rather how many fics were last-updated at that time. of course this is still its own reflection of fandom health in a way since dead fandoms don't update old fic but well... it's just not quite the same!

this is just info about general trends, fic content, tags etc... so nothing about kudos/comments or any authors specifically

i decided to focus solely on fics last-updated in 2023 (unless otherwise mentioned) because i wanted a tidy set that i can maybe compare & contrast in a year's time, because i expect a lot of details to look different then (tho as stated above this set isn't exactly static... 🤷‍♀️)

ngl i had to re-scrape a bunch of times because i forgot about it for like 3 weeks and then there were 100 new fics 😭 so if there are some minor discrepancies across the post it's because of that halfskh.

also i wanted to include more global comparisons (aka how 814 stack up against the f1 rpf tag in general), but this is also considerably difficult in some contexts since i can't exactly scrape 31,000+ fics can i... or i didn't even want to entertain the thought of trying to do so!!!

why did i do this? who knows.

anyway here's some viz T__T

ship growth

as evidenced in the opening graph, landoscar have been a very fast-growing ship over the past year — although interestingly enough they didn't really start growing substantially until july / the ~better half~ of the 2023 season. here are two views showing their "growth" (by date updated) alongside two other ships on the fringes of the f1 rpf top 10 (sebchal & galex):

landoscar are very much on-track to surpass them and officially enter the top 10 soon, likely before mid-april ❗️ :o

ship characteristics

onto the ship content — another thing i was mildly curious about was how landoscar differs in certain areas from other f1 ships, or the f1 rpf "global" average you could say. for example, here's a breakdown of rating popularity in their ao3 tag:

seeing as explicit is their most common rating, and that i don't necessarily expect this to be true for all ships/fandoms, i compared these percentages with the general f1 rpf tag to see whether some ratings are more commonly represented in 814 fic than average, which produced interesting results:

do lando ships simply skew more HornyTM in general? is it oscar? a secret third thing??? who knows... actually i think it would be fun to do more analysis in this direction but that can wait for another time!!!

similarly i also wanted to see which ships are the most "public" on ao3, as in have the highest share of fic that isn't user-locked... i will refrain from peppering in my feelings about the 4th wall too heavy-handedly but i was curious to see whether some sort of perhaps... er, generational gap (?) of sorts between ships that are more public vs. not could be identified. however i don't pretend to have any takeaways from this LOL i conclude absolutely nothing. (for ref landoscar is currently 72% public, vs. a global avg of 63%)

note that this graph is current stats, not filtered for 2023

looking at relationship tags, i also wanted to know whether landoscar suffer noticeably from Second-Ship Syndrome, so i tallied the first-tagged ship of every fic to find out. i know this doesn't necessarily mean that it's always the "main" ship but it's a good enough approximation. the results were quite positive!

filtered to top ships with count of >1 only

i then also calculated the number of ships tagged for each fic to discern the profile of multi-shipping in 814 ficdom; i did have to do a little bit of string standardization (all instances of implied / background / hinted collapsed to hinted for simplicity's sake + removal of other redundancies), but otherwise i left everything mostly untouched.

as you can see, landoscar also have a fairly promising amount of OTP: TRUE fic:

by the time you get to the fics with 10+ ships tagged, landoscar are less likely to be the primary ship, which makes sense just on a basic statistical level... this is also a very small sample size though

i also lazily tallied the 10 most common ships that weren't NOR/PIA or NOR & PIA to diff their shares of the 814 tag vs. of the general f1 rpf tag, to see which other pairings are more represented in the 814 tag than on average (because lestappen are the most popular by pure count but this is also true of fandom in general, so it would be a misrepresentation to say that their popularity is out of the ordinary):

maxiel's gap isn't really that surprising since i think that, generationally, in terms of when both pairings were teammates there is quite a gap; with carlando—actually let me tally this again but including all instances of "implied" and "past" as being part of the same ship, since that's how ao3 tag-wrangles as well:

Aha ! obviously as a direct ship there is competition between 814 and other lando or oscar ships, but this difference is somewhat less pronounced once we include all formats. tbh none of this really means anything but i thought i'd add it anyway... (it's also very possible that there are several errors in this, in which case my b 😔)

before we move on to additional tags, there are a few more basic characteristics of 814 fic we can calculate. i realize i never offered an overview of Super Basic Stats, so here are a few:

plus, looking at word counts, here is a distribution of those in 2023-updated fic, which shows that a majority of 814 fics were under the 5k mark:

85% of landoscar fics were under 10k & nearly 97% under 25k

i don't really have any reason to believe that landoscar's wc stats differ significantly from average ? so this is kind of just Data To Have Data, and it most likely reflects normal ao3 trends in general... but i thought i'd include it anyway because i already made it lol. similarly, here are word count distributions but stratified by rating:

& same info but heat map view:

i feel like this is also probably something you'd find across fandom in general — that gen fic is likely to have a higher share of under 1k works, since Building Up to sexual content often takes... Literal & Metaphorical Foreplay ! and the longer a fic is the more opportunities an author has to include a sex scene or other explicit content (ofc, not necessarily just porn but also graphic violence & so on). but i thought this was fun to visualize haha

additional tags & aus?

back in my old f1 rpf stats post, i made a table comparing fluff/angst "ratios" (not exactly a direct ratio because of how tag wrangling works, but an approximation) of the most popular f1 ships, and now that landoscar are somewhat popular i thought i'd first do an update:

also current data, not 2023 to make things easier

just like before, simi are one of the most fluffy ships and brocedes are by far the most angsty, but it's interesting to see 814 also extremely high up on the charts, with far and away the lowest % of angst. will be exciting 2 see how that holds or changes as the seasons progress !

finally, i also wanted to do a bit of au/additional tag analysis because you can kind of see this when you use additional filters on ao3 but the previews are limited and get bogged down by the prevalence of *checks notes* Fluff, Angst, PWP, Anal Sex and what have you. which are nice stats to have and all but what of the rest !

disclaimer that the set for these tables is a biiiit outdated because by the time i'd wrangled everything i was like I Am Not Changing It Again. unfortunately i clean my data with shoddy queries and regex functions in googsheetz...

there were 48 tags with at least 10 instances from 2023 fics, shown below, with ones that are (some ~vaguely) nsfw in red just to kind of get a rough sense of which tags get commonly used in M/E fic:

getting a bit too much into small sample size / specific fic territory so if you're an author i sincerely apologize for that... do not mean 2 put u on blast... TT__TT but i also tried to tally the most popular aus people write for 814, which is a bit dubious because people tag in really different ways and i had to accommodate for a lot of string formats but ... it's close enough ! (?)

i feel like this is very little interesting info but idk what else to add so i will stop here for now... well!!! if you made it to the end i hope u learned something or even vaguely enjoyed reading T__T and most of all thank you :')

[anim-ttrpgs]

Epicenter Initiative, a Better Way for Combat to Flow from Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.

So, plenty of games do it their own way, but from our experience, there’s two main ways to do turn order in TTRPGs: “Rolling for initiative,” and “freeform turn order” is what i will be referring to them as for

These both kinda suck.

“Roll for initiative!” is an inescapable pop culture meme that invokes the excitement of a sudden combat encounter and action scene, but in reality, rolling for initiative is not really very exciting.

You know that I have always been a proponent of rules in TTRPGs, and frequently say that combat and mechanics don’t stop the story or the roleplay, they are the story and the roleplay, but rolling for initiative in the traditional D&D5e sense is an exception to this. It stops the scene dead while the GM has to wait for everyone to grab and roll their dice, go around the table one at a time getting each initiative value, organize them into a list, and then the combat can start. Those goblins that jumped out of the bushes have been standing around waiting for the adventurers to get ready for like 5 minutes and the momentum is gone. Some games do this better and smoother than others, and earlier D&D editions do it better than later ones.

A common alternative to this problem is what I’m calling freeform turn order, which is the total opposite. There is no turn order, characters just act whenever their players say they act. This easily carries the momentum of a scene as it flows into combat, but is not without its own slew of problems, such as the fact that it means that the fastest characters are not the ones with the best speed/dexterity/initiative/whatever stats(as in, something in-universe that makes them faster), but rather the characters with the loudest players, and this really doesn’t work for any game that is trying to have combat with any stakes.

A GM can try to manually arbitrate this to bring it closer to fairness for the in-world parties fighting and the our-world players playing, but that means paying attention to and mentally keeping track of who has acted when and how much, which players are keeping quiet, which players are taking the spot light, and deciding arbitrarily how much spotlight they’re allowed to take, etc. This is a ton of work for a GM who is already also trying to roleplay 10 bad guys attacking the PCs and possibly a dozen other factors. This is something that an actual turn order does for a GM rather, taking the burden off them so they can focus on their other duties.

So we have two ways of doing things that offer their own strengths, but also each have major flaws. How do we get rid of those flaws while keeping both the strengths? This is a problem that we set out to solve for Eureka’s combat. We needed a way for there to be an actual mechanical turn order so that the GM doesn’t have to spend brain power making one up on the fly, but have that mechanical turn order be so obvious as to present itself instantly, with no rolling or around-the-whole-table stat checking necessary to determine it.

You could just say that PCs always go first, or that NPCs always go first, which is a solution, but doesn’t really mesh as well with tactical combat or with the kind of believable tone that Eureka is going for.

It took us a long while to perfect, but we came up with what we call Epicenter Initiative. In the actual Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook (which by the way you can get monthly updates on from a $5 subscription to our patreon or FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME by joining the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club) you will find a more detailed breakdown of the rules and how they change based on specific circumstances (such as how they work when most combatants have melee weapons vs most combatants having ranged weapons), but here’s the most basic gist.

When an attack is made, combat is started, there’s no special procedure for that. Whoever attacked is taking the first turn. The second turn goes to the person they attacked, and this fighting pair becomes the Epicenter of the combat encounter.

The remaining characters act in order based on their proximity to the Epicenter, with the closest characters acting first and farthest characters acting last.

This way there is a mechanical turn order that clearly dictates which characters act before other characters, and this turn order is also created instantly, with no need to roll dice or check character sheets in most circumstances, allowing the combat scene to play out uninterrupted from beginning to end!

If you’d like to steal these rules for your own group or even your own TTRPG, please consider a small donation to our ko-fi or subscription to our patreon, and/or at least crediting where you got them so other people can come check out the work we do. We are an incredibly small team busting our asses to keep ourselves and the world of indie TTRPGs afloat beneath the intense and insidious economic pressure of WotC’s monopoly, and any assistance at all goes a long way.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[hd-erised]

H/D Erised 2024 Stats Post!

Hi phenomenal @hd-erised community! Our Anonymous Masterlist posted yesterday, and reveals will be up on Sunday, January 5th, so there's still plenty of time to catch up on any of the submissions you might have missed before then! While we're all waiting eagerly to find out who did what, may we interest you in some stats for the 2024 fest? :D

This year we had a total of 44 submissions: 8 beautiful pieces of art, and 35 fantastic fics, and one lovely submission which did both!! Let's dig into the details, shall we?

Fanart Stats:

This year we had 8 gorgeous digital art pieces. The average submission from our amazing artists this year was ~12 pages, with our longest comic coming in at 44 pages!! The total number of pages we had between all of our art submissions was 109, so definitely loads to enjoy! We're so impressed with all of the fantastic art we've had this year, and we hope that you are too!

Fanart Rating Breakdown:

1 General Audiences

4 Teen & Up

3 Mature

1 Explicit (fic + art!!!!)

Let's hear it for our amazing artists! Please go leave them some love if you haven't already, because wow have they earned it! <3

Fanfic Stats:

This year we had a total of 35 total stories created for this wonderful fest, for an astounding total of:

~1,249,000 words!!!

That's way more than one million words of Harry and Draco loving on each other and getting up to all sorts of shenanigans! Are you impressed with the dedication of our spectacular writers? Because we sure are!

Our shortest fic this year was 2.6k, while our longest was ~143k! The average fic length this year was ~30k, which is a bit lower than last year, and 17 of the fics this year were below 25k—a perfect size for a day's read! :D

Of those 35 stories, we had:

1 General Audiences

1 Teen & Up

7 Mature

27 Explicit

And once again, the smut has come out on top! (Or on the bottom, as the case may be…)

In those stories, Harry and Draco got up to all sorts of activities in all sorts of places. We had facials and fingering and frottage, wanking and rimming, hand jobs and blow jobs, and of course anal sex (sometimes with gagging or felching or monsterfucking). Of the fics where there was penetration, Draco bottomed about 1.5x more than Harry, but, as always, they certainly were versatile!

And that versatility isn't limited to the bedroom (or any of the other places these boys got up to their shenanigans!); we also saw it in their careers. As we've seen in years past, Harry's most popular career of choice was Auror (12 fics—though sometimes we saw a career switch for him!), but he also had a variety of other jobs, including: man of leisure, magical landscaper, woodworker, professional Quidditch player, professor (or PE teacher, thank you very much), and a magi-geologist, amongst other things!

Draco, on the other hand, as usual held a much wider variety of careers. His most popular career was an Quidditch player/coach (at only 3 fics!). He was also a Sanguinologist, professor, barrister, wandmaker, Mala-cologist, magical preservationist, and a DRAGON among the rest!

Once again, our most popular time period by a landslide was Post-Hogwarts EWE with 31 fics set after the boys have left Hogwarts and ignoring (or mostly ignoring) the Epilogue, with 3 set in 8th year and 1 canon rewrite. That's 88% set post-Hogwarts!! 

Incredible, right? We're so impressed with all of our marvelous participants!!

We'd like to give a great big THANK YOU to each and every single one of you, all of our incredible writers and artists who devoted their creative energies to this fest, and another great big THANK YOU to all of our readers, commenters and reccers – you make @hd-erised the wonderful event and community it is, and we are so, so grateful to mod this fest for you.

Thank you for your support, your contributions, and all the love you've shared with one another! 

♥ Your Erised mods P.S. If there's a mistake or an omission, please forgive us, and do let us know by sending an email to our mod account at hderised@gmail.com

[dnpbeats]

d&p 2024 upload stats <3 (~interactive~)

hello! if you've ever thought to yourself "wow I wish I could see a spreadsheet detailing a bunch of useless but perhaps interesting information about d&p uploads," well today is your lucky day!!

I've complied all of dan and phil's uploads so far this year (across AP and DAPG), with fun info like upload times/days of the week, who sponsored the video, if dan was featured (for AP vids), if they were actually playing a game (for DAPG vids), avg. time between uploads, and more! also, the interactive bit is that you can select two videos and it'll tell you how much time there was between those videos being posted, just for fun. you can access the spreadsheet here, and there's more info under the cut about things I've included on them :) if you have any questions or want to see anything else added, pls let me know!

the first page of the spreadsheet ("Uploads") is basically just all the data collection. here you'll find the videos, what channel they were posted to, and day/time of posting. there's also other info I mentioned above, plus who tweeted the vid (for DAPG videos)

the next page ("Stats") is where you can actually see what the data means. so that's where you can find things like the average time between uploads (either across all channels or for each individual channel), the max/min time between uploads, the average posting time, etc! this is also where the interactive part comes in:

basically you just pick two videos and it'll tell you how much time there was between posting. honestly there's not rly that much need for this info but I thought I might as well include it while I was at it. if they post more vids that are parts of series it might be interesting to see how long they go between posting series on average, idk! (this is me manifesting more "it takes two")

on the third page ("Charts"), there's (you guessed it!) charts. rn I only have bar graphs for uploads by day of the week and for sponsors, but I can def try to add more if anyone wants to see more!

hope you all enjoy! <3 (if you don't want to scroll back up, here is the link again lmao)

ETA: okay i've also now added a column to indicate if d&p had any hand in vid editing, who the other editor was (if any), and then a few charts showing the breakdown of the vids edited by each editor!

[tubapun]

Hello All!! As you might have seen, I have spent this last week compiling all the monsters listed in the Scooby-Doo Encyclopedia (which covers every series from Where Are You through 13 Ghosts) into a spreadsheet, categorizing them by type, realness, and series. This is an ongoing project, but I wanted to be able to share what I have so far in terms of data!! Let's begin with a breakdown of Monster Types!!

This first pie chart details the breakdown by pure monster type, meaning monsters that are only one sort of monster. This may seem arbitrary, but as you can see, a whopping 25.98% of all monsters across the series included are some sort of combination monster. That's the largest category overall, but the largest specific category is Ghosts, with 19.61% of the 204 listed monsters being just a pure ghost. Some are sheets and some are just glowing translucent dudes, but either way they're haunting the gang intensely.

The only sort of monster that never appears outside of a combination is the Pirate. I almost excluded that category for this reason, but enough pirates existed in combination (always with ghostliness) that i didn't feel right dropping them.

This chart is much like the first one, but counts the combination monsters in with each type they contain. Because of this overlap, the percentages technically add up to 138.92%. but that's fine, cause they're still taken out of the 204 monsters. Now we can see that 37.44% of these monsters are some sort of Ghost, with Magic Users and non-anthro Animals being the next largest categories. For those counting, that's 76 instances of a Ghost type monster, most of which are combined with some other monster type!! Speaking of which...

These two charts detail the combinations, with the first one being about the sort of combos we get and how often they occur, and the second being about the instances of each type in the totality of the "multiple" category (total of 53 monsters for those of you who want the numbers from the percentages).

Notably, 69% of combination monsters are Ghosts. Nice.

Some monster types never get combined, however, with Skeletons, Robots, Cavemen, Greek Myths, Mummies, European Legends, Dragons, and Evil Humans always occurring as just themselves with no extra modifiers. But now you get to imagine a Dragon Skeleton Mummy, or any such combination and boom. Scooby-Doo Monster OC. You're welcome.

This concludes the data I currently have analyzed/available. I hope to have more soon, either a dive into which sort of monster is most often real or a dive into type percentages per Series (most of the real ones seems to be the ones from the Scrappy series, so I bet that will overlap the two categories). If you have any requests on data or even just want to see the actual main sheet these charts are pulling data from, please let me know, this has become a passion project in a very real sense.

Edit on 9/8: Here is the Breakdown of Monster Definitions with bonus stats on common Motives and Realness

Edit on 9/7: Fixed the first two charts to reflect an update in the data. I had initially placed Greek onster in the general European section, which caused their percentages to be flipped.

Another Edit on 9/7: Somehow missed that a character named "Ghost of" was in fact a ghost/magic user and not just a ghost. this has been fixed and the charts updated (thankfully the % of combos that are ghosts is still 69. nice)

Edit 9/8: I missed a monster somehow. This has been fixed in the charts and percents and numbers listed.

[ladyhoneydee]

AO3 Wrapped 2024

As a notorious fanfiction fanatic, once I learned of the wondrous AO3 Wrapped earlier this year, I just knew I would have to run my stats! It's taken me a few extra days since December 31, but here they are!

I'll be putting the cool basic graphics first! For people who are curious about more detailed tag breakdowns (more relationships, genres, fun niche tropes, etc) of what I read, look under the cut!

Here is the link to make an AO3 Wrapped of your own! My friend @minimum-underdrive spent hours improving upon the lovely coding made by soupbanana on github, and we would love for as many people to use it as possible!

Graphic Breakdown:

Slide 1: Pretty sure I audibly gasped and maybe yelled when I saw that word count for the first time! Yep, I sure do read a lot of fic, lmao. Ironically, I didn't actually read Delicious in Wilds in 2024—I was briefly checking something in it. But since the AO3 Wrapped code uses everything that appears in your history, here it is! My actual longest fic read in 2024 was Rage Against the Calamity by BCWill (@bugcatcherwill), which is currently ongoing at 626,657 words.

Slide 2: To quote my friend @louwhose: "wow I am so surprised that Dee, great reader of all things loz, got those fandoms and that character", lmfao. The order is also not surprising given which LoZ game duology has the most fics written for them!

Slide 3: Zelink...zelink...then—WAH! Hehe, sorry to jumpscare you with a Parks & Recreation ship. I had a...phase...after rewatching much of the show this summer. And for anyone curious, the AO3 Wrapped code decides your top authors not by how many words you've read by one author, but by how many fics you've read by one author. As a result, all of my top authors write lots of oneshots: Mistress_Lrigtar (@mistresslrigtar), Fyreflare (@wouldyoustilllovemeifiwasawyrm, and ZeldaElmo (@zeldaelmo) are pillars for zelink, spitecentral (@marinsawakening) wrote a lot of gen oneshots this year, and nocturne-of-forest (@nocturne-of-forest) is the current mvp for midlink oneshots.

Slide 4: This slide—with one very notable exception—was not too surprising to me! Fluff, angst, and hurt/comfort are genres and therefore get tagged for lots of different premises. Now Selectively Mute Link, on the other hand, was not something I expected to appear in my top 4 AO3 tags, and did in fact make me cackle upon reading it. I was somewhat surprised to see that my top rating was GA, as I would have expected T, but I'm certainly content with it, lol.

Detailed Breakdown!

The coding behind this basic graphic is wonderful and concise. However, I wanted to learn much more about my reading habits than just this brief takeaway could show me. Fortunately, as long as you (or a friend of yours, in my case, since I know zilch about coding) know how to run specific commands, almost every detail you want to know about your reading stats is findable.

As such, instead of just my number one fella Link, here are my...

Top Characters

Link (Legend of Zelda): 1307

Zelda (Legend of Zelda): 1071

Impa (Legend of Zelda): 196

Ganondorf (Legend of Zelda): 136

Purah (Legend of Zelda): 130

Midna (Legend of Zelda): 129

Mipha (Legend of Zelda): 121

Urbosa (Legend of Zelda): 119

King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule: 114

Revali (Legend of Zelda): 101

My top characters definitely reinforce the fact that BotW/TotK were my top games within the LoZ structure! Everyone but Midna appears in one or both of those games. However, Link and Zelda (who appear in many games and AUs) have an almost ridiculous lead on everyone else, and the characters who only appear in BotW/TotK all share very similar numbers (between 101 and 130). As a result, I'd surmise that several hundred of the fics contributing to Link and Zelda's numbers come from other LoZ games or AUs that aren't game-specific, and several hundred are BotW/TotK fics (or BotW/TotK-specific AUs) that focus specifically or solely on zelink.

Top Relationships (both romantic and platonic)

Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda): 840

Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda): 287

Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt: 87

Link/Midna (Legend of Zelda): 60

Midna/Zelda (Legend of Zelda): 29

Impa & Zelda (Legend of Zelda): 28

Link & Midna (Legend of Zelda): 27

Link/Sheik (Legend of Zelda): 27

Aryll & Link (Legend of Zelda): 20

Link & Mipha (Legend of Zelda): 19

More big differences here! Zelink is clearly my OTP, and you can tell that I click on a big proportion of everything written for them (1880 zelink fics were posted or updated in 2024), and that they are the most popular ship in the LoZ archive. Midlink is a substantial jump down, but since I also read a very high proportion of all posted midlink fics (113 fics posted in 2024), this is largely due to the paucity of the ship within the archive. Same and worse for Midna/Zelda, which being f/f (on AO3, a notably m/m site, and in the primarily f/m LoZ fandom) has unsurprisingly low numbers.

Fun fact: Link/Tetra is my 14th place ship at 16 fics, which means that if you count all possible incarnations of Zelda, my grand total of romantic zelink and zelink-adjacent works is 883!

Now onto Tags. I knew immediately that I would want to split tags into more categories, since AO3's system of "Additional Tags" containing everything from genres to warnings to author musings means that everything under the sun is lumped indiscriminately. As a result, any fun niche tag (enemies to lovers, for example) gets buried under the mass of Fluff and Angst that almost every AO3 user would have populating their top stats (especially if they read as widely as I do). As a result, I have split my top 50 tags (minus tags like "zelink", "Other Additional Tags to Be Added, and spoiler tags), into three kinds: Genre, Setting, and Fun!

Top Genre Tags

Fluff: 324

Angst: 286

Hurt/Comfort: 226

Romance: 130

Fluff and Angst: 105

Emotional Hurt/Comfort: 97

Angst with a Happy Ending: 89

Character Study: 73

Domestic Fluff: 67

Light Angst: 67

Smut: 66

Humor: 64

Friendship: 60

Angst and Hurt/Comfort: 36

Fluff and Smut: 33

Tooth-Rotting Fluff: 33

Romantic Fluff: 29

Found Family: 27

Fluff and Humor: 27

Slice of Life: 27

Hurt No Comfort: 26

Being an FFN transplant to AO3 at heart, I decided Genre tags were those similar to FFN's genre tagging system. I decided to keep in specific genres, like "Tooth-Rotting Fluff" or "Light Angst", to show the deviations within wider genres, and the kinds of angst or fluff that I'm most likely to read. When all tags are lumped together, the overall lumpable categories are Fluff: 618, Angst: 609, Hurt/Comfort: 359, Romance: 226, Smut: 99, Humor: 91. With that math done, I interestingly am almost balanced when it comes to fluff and angst! Personally I'm quite pleased to see Character Study as #5 on the list when you lump the overalls—I do love a good character study, and they never get as much attention as shipfic, so I'm happy to have contributed!

Top Setting Tags

Post-Canon: 111

Alternate Universe - Modern Setting: 97

Canon Compliant: 97

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence: 96

Pre-Calamity (Legend of Zelda): 85

Alternate Universe: 52

Post-Breath of the Wild: 44

Post-Game: Tears of the Kingdom (Legend of Zelda): 41

Alternate Universe - College/University: 33

Post-Calamity Ganon: 29

Post-Twilight Princess: 27

Setting tags refer to when or where a fic takes place. Of course, most fics, especially oneshots, that fall within a certain game will not include tags about that, and not every fic set Pre-Calamity or Post-Canon will tag such. Not all Alternate Universes will tag the plain Alternate Universe tag, and may skip straight to "Sci-Fi AU" or such. However, I think this is still pretty interesting! Most of what I read revolves around canon, and I'm basically just as likely to read things that are explicitly canon-compliant as are specifically canon-divergent. Yet, unsurprisingly to anyone that knows me, AUs form a strong contingency of settings! Modern AU being so high makes me laugh, but if you combine all 3 AU tags that appear on this list, I have 182 AU works--meaning that around 10% of everything I read this year was some flavor of AU!

Top Relationship Trope Tags

Slow Burn: 123

Established Relationship: 96

Mutual Pining: 77

Pining: 71

Friends to Lovers: 59

Love Confessions: 38

Enemies to Lovers: 31

Idiots in Love: 31

Eventual Romance: 29

Pre-Relationship: 28

First Time: 28

When I tell you I chortled at there being two separate pining tags, and them being right next to each other! It heartens me that the pining is more often explicitly requited, hehe. Otherwise, I think this is really interesting! Despite most romance works in both fanfiction and published media being about getting together (which is reflected here), my number of Established Relationship fics is also quite high. Which honestly makes sense, because I love a good established relationship where characters have to face an issue together. When it comes to the Big Three of romance tropes—Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, and Idiots in Love—I think these fell right where they belong. Friends to Lovers is my preference of these, Enemies to Lovers is common among BotW fics, and Idiots in Love is my special little guy.

Top Fun Tags (including romantic tropes)

Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda): 133

Slow Burn: 123

Established Relationship: 96

Talking Link (Legend of Zelda): 94

Zelda (Legend of Zelda) Needs A Hug: 85

Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug: 79

Mutual Pining: 77

Pining: 71

Link (Legend of Zelda) Uses Sign Language: 70

Oral Sex: 68

Grief/Mourning: 64

First Kiss: 60

POV Zelda (Legend of Zelda): 59

Friends to Lovers: 59

Canon-Typical Violence: 58

Vaginal Sex: 52

Mute Link (Legend of Zelda): 43

Happy Ending: 40

Cunnilingus: 40

Falling In Love: 39

Vaginal Fingering: 39

Love Confessions: 38

POV Link (Legend of Zelda): 36

Blood and Injury: 33

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD: 33

Explicit Sexual Content: 33

Masturbation: 32

Enemies to Lovers: 31

Idiots in Love: 31

Eventual Smut: 30

Trauma: 30

Nightmares: 30

Trans Link (Legend of Zelda): 30

Eventual Romance: 29

Pre-Relationship: 28

First Time: 28

Worldbuilding: 27

Kissing: 27

Anal Sex: 26

My favorite highlights from this:

Four of these tags (a total of 340 tags!) are about how Link communicates, and that's not even including the tag I myself tend to use for a non-talking Link (Nonverbal Link)! I love the diversity in how he communicates and how we as writers convey that fact, lol.

Apparently, I've read more Oral Sex fics (68) than Smut fics (66). I love what that says about how people tag.

I literally have only 4 more fics in my biggest smut-related category (68, Oral Sex) than I do for Grief/Mourning (64). Guess I'm nearly as sad as I am horny??

Zelda needs more hugs than Link, despite appearing less often in fics. I wonder if it's because of BotW, and many Pre-Calamity fics would be more likely to hug Zelda than Link?

There are more POV: Zelda tags than POV: Link tags, even though Link is in 300 more fics than Zelda overall. I have a feeling that's because Link is seen as the default, so people are less likely to tag for his POV specifically.

Nightmares and Trauma having the same value is hilarious to me. Did it just so happen that all fics with Nightmares also tagged for Trauma and they are the exact same fics? Were some fics with Nightmares lacking Trauma, but the math ended up matching regardless?

Trans Link ended up on there!

Worldbuilding ended up on there! Hell yes!

Bonus Info

I forgot to save this data and I've already read too many fics in 2025 to run it again, but my Rating stats for 2024 went General Audiences (711) -> Teen (in the 600s) -> Explicit (~275) -> Mature (~158) -> Not Rated (<50)!

Three of my top 50 tags were related to events! Zelink Week 2024: 40, Whumptober 2024: 37, Zelinktines: 37

In conclusion...I read a LOT this year! I already knew that, but it's one thing to know it, and one thing to see your data all written out. And now that I have this information, I'll be able to compare 2024 to 2025 when December rolls around once again!

If you want to find your own AO3 Wrapped stats, once again, here is the link! Unfortunately I can provide no advice on how to get the program to provide more tag details the way I got into for my Detailed Breakdown, but if enough people want to find that information and can't figure it out, my friend and I might post some sort of guide!

If you got this far, thanks for reading—I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into my LoZ fanfiction obsession!

[antimony-medusa]

MCYT on Ao3 — July '23

The state of MCYT on Ao3, just for fun. Yes I do this every month, I like numbers. 

The Cube SMP (8 works)

Slamacow Minecraft Animations (Web Series) (9 Works)

iDots SMP (14 works)

30 Day SMP | Free Trial SMP (27 works)

Legacy SMP (27 works)

Epic SMP (30 works)

Cogchamp SMP (32 works)

Kaboodle SMP (33 works)

Art of Survival SMP (33 works)

Dominion SMP (33 works)

Shady Oaks SMP (42 works)

X Life SMP (45 works)

Mer SMP (50 works)

Area Unknown SMP (51 works)

IvoryCello's Prison Escapes (Web Series) (52 works)

100 Hours Hardcore SMP (53 works)

Bear SMP (55 works)

New Life SMP (70 works)

SadSMP (70 works)

Magic Animal Club (89 works)

Tortillaland SMP (103 works)

Slimecicle Cinematic Universe (Web Series) (111 works)

House Builder Gang SMP | HBG SMP (129 works)

WitchCraft SMP (157 works)

Rats SMP (202 works)

SMPEarth (252 works)

SMPLive (274 works)

Outsiders SMP (277 works)

Mianite (Web Series) (357 works)

Yandere High School (Web Series) (370 works)

Afterlife SMP (371 works)

Evolution SMP (492 works)

MindCrack RPF (493 works)

Fable SMP (694 works)

Karmaland SMP (729 works)

Lifesteal SMP (1,021 works)

Origins SMP (1,416 works)

QSMP | Quackity SMP (2,256 works)

Empires SMP (5,235 works)

3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series (7,127 works)

Hermitcraft SMP (16,348 works)

Dream SMP (78,022 works)

Minecraft (Video Game) (107,041 works)

Video Blogging RPF (255,567 works)

Some Notes:

The only new SMP this month is New Life SMP!

Fics are primarily in English, but now we have three exceptions with significant Spanish fics: Karmaland, Tortilla SMP, and QSMP. QSMP also includes fics in Brazilian Portugese and a (very few) in French.

A couple of the smaller fandoms saw fic decreases, and 100 Hours Hardcore saw a 1-fic decrease for the third month in a row.

For smaller fandoms, both SMPEarth and Outsiders SMP tied for growth, both showing increases of 14 fics. Those are both original canonized tags for MCYT, so we also have one year of stats. Notably, that 14-fic increase breaks SMPEarth's monthly average of 9 fics per month, but doesn't beat Outsider's month-over-month average of 16 fics per month.

For mid-sized fandoms, the stand out is once again our friend Fable SMP, which has a consistent month over month growth pattern, showing a growth of 33 fics this month. Fable is one of the original canonized tags however, so we know that this month doesn't reach the heights of some of the previous months this past year, as the yearly average is 42 per month— by they did break last month's record of 32!

Lifesteal broke the 1k mark and I now officially consider them one of the bigger fandoms! Let's go Lifesteal!

In the larger fandoms, QSMP’s increase of 628 fics did not reach last month’s 692 or the previous month’s 816, but still beat out Empires (218 fics), Hermitcraft (501 fics), and 3rd Life (364 fics). The only one that beat it was Dream SMP, with an increase of 1,376. Dream SMP also broke last month’s increase of 1,357, but did not reach their month-over-month average of 2,446.

Of the canonized tags last year, Dream SMP has shown several months of not reaching their monthly average, Hermitcraft’s 501 this month did not beat their monthly average of 593, Empires 218 this month did not reach their monthly average of 296, Lifesteal's 58 this month did not beat their monthly average of 76, but the one standout is 3rd life, whose 364 this month DID indeed beat their monthly average increase of 359. 

Detailed breakdown of increases under the cut, showing both one month of increases, and one year of changes.

The Cube SMP (8 works, 8 last month, 0-fic increase | 9 works last year, 1-fic decrease over a year, which is an average of 0.08 fic decrease per month

Slamacow Minecraft Animations (Web Series) (9 Works, 10 last month, 1-fic decrease | was not canonized last year)

iDots SMP (14 works, 14 last month, 0-fic increase | was not caonized last year)

30 Day SMP | Free Trial SMP (27 works, 27 last month, 0-fic increase | 25 last year, 2-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 0.17 fic increase per month)

Legacy SMP (27 works, 27 last month, 0-fic increase | 22 last year, 5-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 0.42 fic increase per month)

Epic SMP (30 works, 30 last month, 0-fic increase | 28 last year, 2-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 0.42 fic increase per month)

Cogchamp SMP (32 works, 32 last month, 0-fic increase | 28 last year, 4-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 0.33 fic increase per month)

Kaboodle SMP (33 works, 28 last month, 5-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

Art of Survival SMP (33 works, 34 last month, 1-fic decrease | was not canonized last year)

Dominion SMP (33 works, 32 last month, 1 fic increase | was not canonized last year.)

Shady Oaks SMP (42 works, 41 last month, 1-fic increase | 30 fics last year, 12-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 1 fic increase per month)

X Life SMP (45 works, 45 last month, 0-fic increase | 27 works last year, 18-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 1.5 fics increase per month)

Mer SMP (50 works, 41 last month, 9-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

Area Unknown SMP (51 works, 50 last month, 1-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

IvoryCello's Prison Escapes (Web Series) (52 works, 52 last month, 0-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

100 Hours Hardcore SMP (53 works, 54 last month, 1-fic decrease | was not canonized last year)

Bear SMP (55 works, 54 last month, 1-fic increase | 33 last year, 21-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 1.75 fic increase per month)

New Life SMP (70 works, was not canonized last month | was not canonized last year)

SadSMP (70 works, 70 last month, 0-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

Magic Animal Club (89 works, 87 last month, 2-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

Tortillaland SMP (103 works, 100 last month, 3-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

Slimecicle Cinematic Universe (Web Series) (111 works, 100 last month, 11-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

House Builder Gang SMP | HBG SMP (129 works, 124 last month, 5-fic increase | 94 last year, 35-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 2.92 fic increase per month)

WitchCraft SMP (157 works, 151 last month, 6-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

Rats SMP (202 works, 198 last month, 4-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

SMPEarth (252 works, 238 last month, 14-fic increase | 144 last year, 108-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 9-fic increase per month)

SMPLive (274 works, 268 last month, 6-fic increase, | 236 last year, 38-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 3.17-fic increase per month)

Outsiders SMP (277 works, 263 last month, 14-fic increase | 85 last year, 192-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 16-fic increase per month)

Mianite (Web Series) (357 works, 354 last month, 3-fic increase | tag was not canonized last year)

Yandere High School (Web Series) (370 works, 355 last month, 15-fic increase | was not canonized last year)

Afterlife SMP (371 works, 367 last month, 5-fic increase | 250 last year, 121 fics over a year, which is an average of 10.08-fics per month)

Evolution SMP (492 works, 461 last month, 31-fic increase | 157 last year, 335-fics over a year, which is an average of 27.92-fics per month)

MindCrack RPF (493 works, 493 last month, 0-fic increase | was not tracking that tag last year)

Fable SMP (694 works, 661 last month, 33-fic increase | 194 last year, 500-fic increase, which is an average of 41.66 fic increase per month)

Karmaland SMP (729 works, 706 last month, 23-fic increase | tag was not canonized last year)

Lifesteal SMP (1,021 works, 963 last month, 58-fic increase | 108 last year, 913-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 76.08 fic increase per month)

Origins SMP (1,416 works, 1,378 last month, 38-fic increase | 816 last year, 600-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 50-fic increase per month)

QSMP | Quackity SMP (2,256 works, 1,628 last month, 628-fic increase | tag was not canonized last year)

Empires SMP (5,235 works, 5,017 last month, 218-fic increase | 1,681 last year, 3,554-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 296.16 fic increase per month)

3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series (7,127 works, 6,763 last month, 364-fic increase | 2,822 last year, 4,305-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 358.75 fic increase per month)

Hermitcraft SMP (16,348 works, 15,847 last month, 501-fic increase | 9,228 last year, 7,120-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 593.34 fic increase per month)

Dream SMP (78,022 works, 76,646 last month, 1,376-fic increase | 48,670 last year, 29,352-fic increase over a year, which is an average of 2,446 fic increase per month)

Minecraft (Video Game) (107,041 works, 106,506 last month, 535-fic increase | was not tracking tag last month) Video Blogging RPF (255,567 works, 252,019 last month, 3,548-fic increase)

[imagineitdearies]

Battle Log for Chapter 37/38 of Perfect Slaughter!

**Warning! Spoilers for ch37 and 38 ahead!**

If you guys haven't noticed yet what a total nerd I am, this will make it abundantly clear. I showed Cazador's monster stats a couple months ago that I homebrewed/crossed from BG3 and our classic D&D vampire, but I hope you didn't think I stopped there. If you like battle logs and getting into the nitty gritty of D&D mechanics, please enjoy this breakdown below the cut!

First, if you want to reach peak nerd about it with me, take a look at all the details for our main three! (*Note: I did mix Astarion and Tyrus's BG3 stats with a vampire spawn's ability scores, considering it's canon that Astarion lost a lot of things like strength and healing ability after being tadpoled)

Monster Stats: Cazador Szarr

Tyrus Aman'del's Character Sheet

Astarion Ancunin's Character Sheet

Or otherwise, as you look over the battle log, just keep in mind a few things:

"Legendary Actions" are special actions available to powerful monsters in 5e combat, such as vampires. Besides his normal actions, Cazador can take three legendary actions between turns, but only at the end of another creature’s turn.

Cazador has "Legendary Resistance" as well, which is simple but quite powerful: when he fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead, three times per long rest.

At the top of each round, Cazador receives 10 temporary HP per ritual source.

Thanks to Magic Circle, all of Cazador's attacks are rolled with disadvantage.

In his diseased condition, Tyrus rolls with disadvantage on attacks and saving throws, and his movement speed is reduced by half.

Pre-Round

Cazador: 270 HP Tyrus: 100 HP Astarion: 115 HP Ghouls: 35 HP each (four) Skeletons: 27 HP each (thirteen) Chatterteeth: 74 HP Godey: 74 HP

Cazador steps onto trap and speaks the words to trigger it ("Ecce Dominus!") All at once: Glyph of Warding (7th level) - 43 fire damage (succeeded saving throw, only takes 21 damage) Glyph of Warding: Magic Circle Glyph of Warding: Silence Glyph of Warding: Sunbeam - 38 radiant damage *Cazador spends his first legendary resistance to succeed saving throw, only takes 19 damage) Glyph of Warding: Phantasmal Killer (7th level) - 49 psychic damage

Round 1

Cazador: 181 HP +70 temp HP Tyrus: 100 HP Astarion: 115 HP Ghouls: 35 HP each Skeletons: 27 HP each Chatterteeth: 74 HP Godey: 74 HP

Ritual Circle: 29 radiant damage on Cazador from Sunbeam ray Cazador: Two unarmed strikes, 5 bludgeoning damage on second hit *Takes 20 radiant damage at start of turn because of Sunbeam **Fails save for Phantasmal Killer again so spends his second legendary resistance to succeed it Tyrus: Dash to Astarion *Cazador Legendary Action at the end of his turn, Bite attack for 18 total damage on ghoul Astarion: Paralyzed Ghouls collective hits: 26 slashing damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 13) Skeletons: Dash into range of battle *Cazador Legendary Action, Move without opportunity attacks Godey: 13 slashing damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 6) Chatterteeth: Casts Eyebite: Frightened on Cazador

Round 2

Cazador: 183 HP +70 temp HP Tyrus: 100 HP Astarion: 115 HP Ghouls: three have 35 HP, one has 13 HP  Skeletons: 27 HP each Chatterteeth: 74 HP Godey: 74 HP

Ritual Circle: 30 radiant damage on Cazador from Sunbeam ray (succeeds saving throw; takes 15) Cazador: Calls three swarms of rats (arrive in 4 rounds) *Takes 20 radiant damage at start of turn because of Sunbeam Tyrus: Help action to rescue Astarion *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 21 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw 10 piercing damage; Cazador heals 21 HP Astarion: Casts Expeditious Retreat and pulls Tyrus out of radius Ghouls collective hits: 21 slashing damage on Cazador(resistant; takes 10) Skeleton collective hits: 44 piercing damage on Cazador(resistant; takes 22) Godey: 16 slashing damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 8) *Cazador Legendary Action, fails to Bite Godey Chatterteeth: Casts Chill Touch for 13 necrotic damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 6), Cazador can't regain hit points until the start of her next turn

Round 3

Cazador: 193 HP +60 temp HP Tyrus: 79 HP Astarion: 105 HP Ghouls: three have 25 HP (one dead) Skeletons: ten have 17 HP, three have 6 HP Chatterteeth: 53 HP Godey: 64 HP

Ritual Circle: 23 radiant damage on Cazador from Sunbeam ray Cazador: One failed unarmed attack, one failed bite  *Takes 20 radiant damage at start of turn because of Sunbeam Tyrus: Removes the glyphs from the nearest spawn/ritual source *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration Astarion: Removes the glyphs from another spawn/ritual source *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 16 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 8 piercing damage; Cazador does not heal Ghouls collective hits: 14 slashing damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 7) *Cazador Legendary Action, fails to Bite a ghoul Skeleton collective hits: 34 piercing damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 17) Godey: 15 slashing damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 7) Chatterteeth: Casts Chill Touch for 21 necrotic damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 10), Cazador can't regain hit points until the start of her next turn

Round 4

Cazador: 169 HP +40 temp HP Tyrus: 73 HP Astarion: 107 HP Ghouls: four have 17 HP, one has 9 HP (one dead) Skeletons: three have 9 HP, seven have 1 HP (three dead) Chatterteeth: 45 HP Godey: 56 HP

Ritual Circle: 26 radiant damage on Cazador from Sunbeam ray Cazador: Two unarmed strikes, 5 bludgeoning damage on second hit *Takes 20 radiant damage at start of turn because of Sunbeam Tyrus: Removes the glyphs from another spawn/ritual source *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 20 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 10 piercing damage; Cazador does not heal Astarion: Removes the glyphs from another spawn/ritual source *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 10 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 5 piercing damage; Cazador does not heal Ghouls collective hits: 0 slashing damage Skeleton collective hits: (dead) Godey: 15 slashing damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 7) Chatterteeth: Casts Chill Touch (crit!) for 29 necrotic damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 14), Cazador can't regain hit points until the start of her next turn

Round 5

Cazador: 142 HP +20 temp HP Tyrus: 53 HP Astarion: 92 HP Ghouls: one has 2 HP (three dead) Skeletons: (all dead) Chatterteeth: 25 HP Godey: 36 HP

Ritual Circle: 21 radiant damage on Cazador from Sunbeam ray (succeeds saving throw; takes 10) Cazador: Hits magic circle barrier for 0 damage *Takes 20 radiant damage at start of turn because of Sunbeam Tyrus: Removes the glyphs from another spawn/ritual source *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration *Bonus action takes a healing potion at Astarion’s insistence (13 HP) *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 18 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 9 piercing damage; Cazador does not heal Astarion: Removes the last glyphs from another spawn/ritual source *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration Ghouls collective hits: 8 slashing damage (resistant; takes 4) *Cazador Legendary Action, Bites last ghoul for a total 14 damage Godey: Fails to hit Chatterteeth: Fails to hit with Chill Touch

Round 6

Cazador: 128 HP + 10 temp HP Tyrus: 57 HP Astarion: 92 HP Chatterteeth: 25 HP Godey: 36 HP

Ritual Circle: 24 radiant damage on Cazador from Sunbeam ray Cazador: Hits magic circle barrier for 0 damage *Takes 20 radiant damage at start of turn because of Sunbeam Rat swarm 1: Fail to bite Chatterteeth Rat swarm 2: Fail to bite Astarion Rat swarm 3: Bite Tyrus for 8 piercing damage Tyrus: Casts Message and speaks to Chatterteeth *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 18 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 9 piercing damage; Cazador heals 18 HP Astarion: Kills rat swarm 3 with 31 total damage, bonus action Bite for 7 HP healing *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 6 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 3 piercing damage; Cazador heals 6 HP Godey: 12 slashing damage on Cazador (resistant; takes 6)  Chatterteeth: Casts Chill Touch for 17 necrotic damage on Cazador (resistant, takes 8), Cazador can't regain hit points until the start of her next turn

Round 7

Cazador: 104 HP Rat swarm: two have 24 HP (one dead) Tyrus: 42 HP Astarion: 81 HP Chatterteeth: 1 HP Godey: 36 HP

Ritual Circle: 24 radiant damage from Sunbeam ray Cazador: Arcana Check to find Sunbeam rune in the ritual circle *Takes 20 radiant damage at start of turn because of Sunbeam Rat swarm 1: Fail to bite Chatterteeth Rat swarm 2: Fail to bite Astarion Tyrus: Reanimates all thirteen skeletons with Animate Dead, 7th level *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 14 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 7 piercing damage; Cazador does not heal Astarion: Kills rat swarm 2 with 28 total damage *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration Skeleton collective hits: 33 piercing damage (resistant; takes 16)*Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 21 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 10 piercing damage; Cazador does not heal Godey: 0 slashing damage Chatterteeth: (dead)

Round 8

Cazador: 44 HP Rat swarm: one has 24 HP (two dead) Tyrus: 14 HP Skeletons: four have 10 HP, two have 3 HP (six dead) Astarion: 74 HP Godey: 36 HP

Ritual Circle: 22 radiant damage on Cazador from Sunbeam ray Cazador: Successfully finds Sunbeam rune in the ritual circle and removes it *Takes 20 radiant damage at start of turn because of Sunbeam Rat swarm 1: Bite Astarion for 3 piercing damage Tyrus: Reanimates six skeletons with Animate Dead, 4th level *Cazador Legendary Action, Vampiric Bat Swarm!! All take either 14 piercing damage or if they succeed the dex saving throw, 7 piercing damage; Cazador heals 14 HP (Three skeletons go down, Tyrus goes unconscious and gets thrown off the edge of the platform) Astarion: Grabs Tyrus's hands before he's too out of reach, lifts him back up from the platform *Regains 10 HP at the start of his turn due to vampiric regeneration Skeleton collective hits: 33 piercing damage on Cazador(resistant; takes 16) *Cazador drops to 0 hit points, which activates Misty Escape to his coffin

Bonus Round

Astarion: Throws Cazador out of coffin Tyrus: Uses class feature "Command Undead" on Cazador(see Tyrus character sheet or necromancy subclass for details) *Cazador fails the saving throw, but spends his last legendary resistance to succeed) --after a bit of angsty dialogue and commands-- Tyrus: Uses class feature "Command Undead" on Astarion *Astarion does not resist/chooses to automatic fail on saving throw Astarion: Slashy slashy dagger dagger!!! (All it took was 1 point of damage, Cazador had not healed yet) Tyrus & Astarion: Hug 🩵🩵🩵

[mythaura-blog]

Development Update - May 2023

Hello hello folks, Miyazaki here! We've got a big update for this month--we've rolled out Mythaura's battle demo and are so excited for you to give it a try!

Topics covered include:

Battle Demo & Guide

Quarter 4 (2023) Rewards Reveal

Beast Creator Contest

New Homepage Splash Screen

More info available under the cut!

Battle Demo Guide

Welcome to Mythaura's battle demo! Here's a concise guide to help you navigate the 3v3 battles and make strategic decisions:

1. Battle Setup

The battle takes place between your beasts (on the left) and the enemy beasts (on the right) and ends when one side is defeated. For this demo, all beasts in this demo are level 1 and have average size for their species.

2. Beast Details

Click on the info icon in the corner of your beast's avatar to view its details. From here, you can read their abilities and see a breakdown of their stats.

3. Elements

Each beast has 2 elements, including a species element that is always shown. You won't know your opponent's secondary element.

For this demo, a beast's secondary element is currently randomized.

Check the elements page for more information on elements and for a breakdown of type effectiveness.

4. Turn Actions

Each turn, your beasts can perform one of the following actions:

Use an ability or surge ability.

Defend themselves or an ally.

Rest to regain stamina.

Once all players have submitted their actions, the round is resolved with the following priority:

Resting beasts rest first.

Defending beasts defend next.

Abilities are resolved.

Within each action type, the order is determined by ability priority, beast speed, weight (with lightest going first), and then randomly if all those values are the same.

5. Abilities

Beasts start with 4 abilities: one surge ability (species-based), one neutral ability, and one ability for each element. If a beast's species and individual element match, they will have 3 abilities.

Abilities with elements can be super effective or resisted, affecting the damage dealt. Pay attention to moves' effectiveness and your foes' abilities for better results.

Abilities incur fatigue and the fatigue cost is shown on the ability button.

Abilities will generally have a small chance to miss or be a critical hit. The chances of these can vary per ability.

Abilities have 3 types: Combat, Projection, and Support.

Combat: Attack vs Defense

Projection: Focus vs Barrier

Support: Non-damage dealing abilities

6. Surge Abilities

When a beast's surge meter is full, they can use their surge ability for a powerful effect. Surge abilities don't incur fatigue and never miss. After using a surge ability, the surge meter goes back to 0%. Please note that the surge abilities in this demo may be changed before the game’s official launch.

7. Defending

Beasts can defend themselves or allies, reducing incoming damage by 75% for that turn. This effect does not stack. Defending slightly charges the defender's surge meter and recovers a small amount of stamina.

8. Resting

Resting recovers a substantial amount of stamina and a small amount of health.

Remember, understanding abilities, elements, defending, and resting will help you make the best decisions during battles. We have provided an in-app form you can use to report bugs and provide feedback. Good luck and enjoy the demo!

Planned battle demo updates for the future:

A "quick queue" button that queues with the first available other quick-queue person and does not require a PIN

PvE Mode versus an ai battler

Timeout for move submission

Controller support

Weather effects

Ailments

Ability to set desired element from the queue screen

Better reporting and improvements to history, such as remembering when you discover a super effective element on a specific opponent

Quarter 4 (2023) Rewards Reveal

Our Quarter 4 rewards have been completed and are ready for their public debut! Thank you to the Ko-fi Sponsors who voted on the different Glamour and Companion concepts, we appreciate your support and feedback.

Q4 (2023) Glamour: Koi Pond

Q4 (2023) Companion: Blooming Jackalope

Q4 (2023) Solid Gold Glamour: Adult Basilisk

Special One-Time Companion: Radiant Golden Ossiflage

1x copy will be awarded to all previous and/or current Bronze, Silver, and Gold Sponsors

Sponsors of all levels may purchase one (1) additional copy of the Radiant Golden Ossiflage in our Ko-fi Shop.

Beast Creator Contest

We're back with another Beast Design Contest! We're looking forward to all the fantastic creations that this community comes up with.

Here are the parameters:

Each individual can submit one (1) Beast option for consideration

Any species fine (babies included)

Fill out Google form; provide both a picture and the preview code

We’ll pick three winners to have their Beasts featured on the front page for Quarter 1 (July 1 - September 30). Winners will also receive:

1x Beta Key

1x Quarter 4 (2023) Skin: Koi Pond

1x Quarter 4 (2023) Companion: Blooming Jackalope

These rewards will be applied directly to your account.

Submissions for the Beast Design Contest are due by June 15, 2023. The form will close at 11:59pm PST. Winners will be announced in the July 1, 2023 Development Update.

Homepage Splash Screen

Our wonderfully talented senior artist, Luci, created a scene detailing an early stage in a group of adventurers' journey in Mythaura. This perfectly captures the vibe of the opening series of introductory quests that players will undertake at the start of the game. We hope you enjoy the art, and hope that you look forward to playing through Mythaura's single-player story when we launch!

Mythaura v0.17

Updated homepage layout

Merged and finalized battle demo, fixing several bugs found along the way

Thank You!

Thanks for sticking through to the end of the post! We hope you love the battle demo and are looking forward to your feedback, which will help shape the nature of the game while still in its early development--leading to a lasting impact when Mythaura launches. Your help here is invaluable!

See you around the Discord!

[the-wardens-torch]

Falerin Arcita: Then and Now

I couldn't help but steal this idea when I saw @lynxden reblogging a bunch of very sincere and heartfelt versions of it from various folks that were a pleasure to read.

Aside from job-hopping and changing hairstyles a few times, very little has changed about my boy. I still have all of the free fantasias SE has given us over the years and never bothered with mods. But Fal's consistency has always been a source of comfort for me. He's seen me through the deaths of both my parents, three jobs, a new house, a nervous breakdown and recovery, losing a cat and adopting 2 new ones (one of which I had to bottle feed,) 2 bouts of COVID, multiple back injuries… You get the idea.

So here's the very oldest screenshot of him that I could find, from waaaaaay back in... 2.3, I think? Protect, Stoneskin, TP, gear getting destroyed when you got materia from it, and whatever they called that thing where you needed a representative from each stat to do limit breaks, I think?

So what's changed?

He started as a Bard, but then when HW hit and it became the Bow Mage, I found out that I loved Summoner.

I enjoyed doing the mental gymnastics of working Summoner into his backstory... but then EW did a total teardown and rebuild that I sort of hated.

After that there was a dalliance with Dancer for about 2/3 of an expansion - which I didn't bother working into his backstory because I was Too Tired by then, and he's always been the one who plays/sings the music rather than dancing to it.

...and now I'm full circle back to Bard.

As for his backstory… That hasn't changed much either, and I never have decided exactly how much he's aged. I have THOUSANDS of words worth of stories for him, but most of them are just slice-of-life, dialogue or introspection. No big action set pieces or thrilling dramatic turns, or explicit smut, just… living. His is a story of how many forms love can take, and learning to move past one's own shame and guilt over expressing that love selfishly. Now if I could just get those stories all up on Ao3 which would be easier if I didn't have 10 years worth of them that aren't in chronological order. I'm about 40% done with that.

His story has been more or less constant- I've just fleshed out the details. The most notable additions to his story have been that he spent part of his childhood in a burlesque house, he found a Bard soulstone thanks to @adeat's character Reonora Aestethe who is now his best friend (who is chatting with him in that first screenshot,) he met and is and trying to form a relationship with his estranged father, spoke with Bahamut's ghost, befriended a still-imprisoned Tiamat (who saw that coming?) got to talk with the spirit that keeps him alive, and most importantly he reconciled with his old friend/crush Alain whom he hurt a long time ago.

At any rate, I love my son who would be 10 years old if he were my actual son, and I'm glad he hasn't changed much aside from him becoming a more mature and better person. I appreciate you if you read this!

[getvalentined]

Since I'm seeing a lot of people babbling about this and have kind of built a large portion of my blogging presence on throwing FF7 lore analysis at people, I feel like I just need to say:

The listing "unable to read" in Sephiroth's boss battle stats in Ever Crisis is a reference to the fact that the system cannot parse any detailed data on the enemy with regard to origin, tactics, etc. The same thing is shown in Remake when scanning Sephiroth, Nero, or any of the Summons on a first playthrough.

The fact that so many people are literally grabbing this line and assuming it means Sephiroth is illiterate...honestly makes me question the literacy of the fandom as a whole.

The final catalyst for Sephiroth's breakdown, an emotional collapse that led to the Nibelheim Incident and caused the entire Crisis to occur, hinges on his literacy. Not only can he read, but he can read extremely well—this man was able to read and comprehend multiple years' worth of complex research notes written by at least three different scientists, and he did it in a single week.

I genuinely can't believe I have to say this. I can't believe I'm seeing people now, more than a quarter century into this series, saying that this is their new headcanon—in spite of it being undeniably impossible, this literally cannot be the case or the storyline would never have taken place—all because they didn't understand what a reading on a set of boss stats meant.

Sephiroth can read. Not sure about you folks, though.