#there are so many non pov characters so i focused on the ones i gravely want a pov for

[aeriondripflame]

Oo if you’re still doing top 5s - top 5 non-POV characters!

not going 2 lie i forgot about these (im sorry!) but:

1. not sure if he counts because of the forsaken but aeron greyjoy

2. viserys iii

3. mance rayder

4. robb stark

5. the hound

[onf-headcanons]

ONF IN PSYCHO PASS AU (part 2)

Setting : angst, murder (influenced mass murder), futuristic society, you can read the introduction post prior reading this AU headcanon (for a better understanding cos some keywords will be slightly difficult for non anime audiences)

And warning long post and shipping hinting (I wont write it over explicit but if you are anime audience you can get the hint of which character I based so its suggestive should you integrated anime counterpart to ONF couterpart) if you are uncomfortable with that just kindly ignore it. Only adding it not just because to follow original series but also for the AU/headcanon storyline conflict purposes

Below is the known situation when the story starts in Yuto's POV

Yuto - Inspector

Changyoon - Inspector

Hyojin - Enforcer former Inspector

Jaeyoung - Enforcer

Minkyun - Analyst

Seungjun & Minseok - dead

And again sorry if its messy (Cos mainly I just want this AU to exist and making it to a birthday gift for myself XD)

The whole structure is followed the anime,but I will fast paced-ify to focus on main storyline. Also I will tweak my words/wordings to a more simpler format so that I wont cause you all headache.

Part 2 lets go (and here is where the story starts to be different from the anime plot, but main structure is kept the same)

1-4

(What's written in the file)

The 1st file

Kim Minseok, deceased at age of 20, was a former analyst in CID

2 years from today, it is reported that Kim Minseok was being held hostage along with his friend. It is his off day and the mall he was at, was coincidentally assaulted by terrorist. It is clearly that the attack is meticulously planned.

The group of terrorist have split themselves into smaller groups and used the first attacked location as their base. The head of the group with a about 20 men stay at the mall while the rest the members head out towards the city and started violence.

The group of terrorist took many hostages and they hid themselves in the warehouse (the only building that is currently safe to hide), threatening authorities for money and even the releasing of some mastermind/potential criminals.

They even mentioned should authorities killed 1 of their own, they will kill 1 hostages. That is the reason why they took hostages with exact number of the members in the terrorist group.

The authorities noticed the detected raise of area stress level. Since military are involved, CID are teamed up other department to resolve the issue while politicians try to juggle with terrorists. The goal is to rescue all hostages.

But while waiting, the terrorist had fun torturing their hostages but still keeping alive, based on witness, they are torturing hostages to kill time. (This also resulted authorities had to put effort to operate Psycho Pass cleansing program. as aftermath.)

When rescuing hostages, as reported by former military staff, that the boss of the group killed a hostage who was believed to be a friend of Kim Minseok. The boss was handled immediately before he can do more damage with Lethal Eliminator wounding him badly. This was proved by Lee Seungjun, former and deceased Inspector from CID who was assigned to back up with hostage rescuing mission.

However, Sibyl system detected Kim Minseok's Crime Coefficient level kept rising and spiked up to a highest record in history, marked 812 . Sibyl system judged that there is no saving for Kim Minseok and is to be executed at once. With some difficulties, Kim Minseok was executed by quick decision made by former military staff.

The 2nd file

Kim Hyojin, current status : alive. Former Inspector and current Enforcer of Bureau stationed in CID.

His Crime Coefficient level has tendency to be unstable after the death of his brother Kim Minseok and his colleague, Lee Seungjun. However it was under control as it did not surpass 100.

Based on witness, and observation, Kim Hyojin believed that Lee Seungjun was murdered instead of suicide. It was believed that he over committed into his delusions due to denial while grieving the loss of his brother and his best friend.

And to the extent he assaulted a former military staff who was also assigned to the hostage rescue mission along with Lee Seungjun. And that moment his the record of Crime Coefficient raised to 224 as he was "clouded by anger"

He was later assessed and treated before demoted to Enforcer.

1-5

(loosely based on episode 6,7 and 8)

Even though vague and its just suspicions, Minkyun voices up about a similarity he noticed from previous cases the team has handled recently. What Minkyun noticed was, even though the MO are different in all cases, the criminal are using a similar tech when they are committing crime

Hyojin and Changyoon's experience understand and believe in Minkyun's intention and worry should there is a mastermind behind and there is a larger picture. The team are in dumbstruck that those two would suddenly agree with each other.

"We need to be alert, cannot afford to repeat the tragic event happened 2 years ago." Changyoon comments

"Should there is another huge crime event, the whole city and country's Psycho Pass will go crazy, what happened 2 years ago only child's play in comparison." Hyojin adds

Yuto could feel his back bone shivers when he heard Hyojin talks about it non chalantly. Does he?

And look at the timing, before they can dig deeper into the tech, it is reported that a girl school faculty had a murder case.

While handling the case, Yuto finds opportunity to apologies to Hyojin because he has read into Hyojin's and Minseok's file. That was when Yuto and Hyojin are at office being a support back up for the crime scene investigating members.

"Wait, Why do I have to get angry, Yuto-ya?" Hyojin replies Yuto with a question. And this was a bit unexpected because Yuto thought Hyojin would feel down or upset or even get angry at Changyoon for spilling his history without his consent.

"I guess should I am angry, that would be solely directed at myself..." Hyojin continues with a thoughtful expression. But there a hint of sadness to it. "I knew something was wrong when I observed Seungjun's dead scene and my instincts told me that it might related to my brother's death. Just because I could not make it into words, no one believed in me."

"Is that why you confronted with the ex - military staff?" Yuto pieced the puzzle together. And Hyojin confirms it with a yes.

Yuto can understand why the word "delusions" are used. But unlike others, he does not push away Hyojin's emotions and "delusions".

Yuto timidly asks, "Lee Seungjun.-sshi?..Changyoon-sshi says he is your best friend...Must be someone you treasures."

Hyojin nods and his facial expression becomes brighter. "He is, I known him for ages, we always got each other's back."

"What kind of person is he?"

"Sometimes annoying, but a warm and excellent friend. Knowing him is the best and proudest thing that could happen in my life. " Hyojin smiles as he reminiscing about Seungjun. "I guess Changyoon already told you that I led the team back then right?"

Yuto nods and quietly listens to Hyojin talks about the old days.

"But actually without Seungjun being the pillar support to the team, I don't think I can lead well. Even though outsiders sees the team only led by me. But..." Hyojin pauses for a bit. "It was also led by Seungjun too. Along with Minseok, I never expect both of them to die in those ways."

Initially Yuto wanted to ask more about the old days, but when Hyojin spoke the name of his brother, Yuto pursues his lips as a sign of hesitation. But to his surprise...

"Do you know that Minseok joined the Bureau in a very young age?" Hyojin raised his head and looks at Yuto with glittering eyes. "Wait, you are 99 liner right? That makes you the same age as Minseok!"

Yuto could not process for a bit, so he went along with the flow. With that, more details about Hyojin's brother came out. So Minseok was filed as prodigy during a young age and arranged to join Bureau as an exception. And due to his young age and no plans for him to head out for action, the Bureau only focused on Minseok's academics and training as Analyst. Minseok did some basic self defense but it is not sufficient to qualify as a fighter.

"Aah... Should Minseok and Seungjun are here right now, they will be happy to meet you. Minseok never really had same aged friends when he is in the Bureau..." Hyojin gazes at Yuto as he mutters.

And speaking of Minseok, Yuto then suddenly remembers something and asks Hyojin about the hostage they met on Yuto's first day. "Hyojin- hyung... by any chance, actually you were not trying to hurt the hostage we met on my first day but were trying to contain them by driving them to a dead end?"

"Took you damn long time to figure that out." Hyojin pouts. "To think innocent people getting involved and caught up to things that are way out of normal....Anyone, even Minseok must have been very terrified and stressed to the extent his hue clouded and contaminated."

"But is he truly beyond saving?" Hyojin raise a question with a cold stare that gives Yuto chills.

Yuto keeps his silence as he worried to speak one wrong word. He wanted to say something but the event was 2 years ago and in file writes Hyojin as delusional, and since Changyoon is awfully cold towards Hyojin... Yuto does not know if he should trust everything the person in red hair says because he is questioning the system or trust his own hunch that Hyojin might have some insight that everyone chooses to ignore.

"Come on, don't look so acted up! Sorry if I scared you." Hyojin pats on Yuto's back and changed the mood.

Yuto smiles back at Hyojin and carefully offers, "Hyung , on next off day, can you bring me to visit their graves? I would like to pay my respect towards them as a junior joining this team."

Hyojin lifts his hand and pats Yuto, he smiles even wider and nods at younger one, "Sure. I promise I will not cause any trouble. Our Little Rookie Inspector."

Yuto understands it Hyojin teasing him again, but he let it slide because the mood is finally cheerful now.

"Thank you Yuto." Hyojin suddenly drop that out of no where. "Ever since I became Enforcer, no one talk about them anymore. It is nice to hear their name coming out from 3rd person's mouth and no one is depressed upon hearing it."

Yuto nods as a reply, and that moment, Minkyun returns with the other team. Hyojin instantly puts his index finger close to his lips, indicating the whole conversation a while ago to be kept secret. And Minkyun caught that, playfully wailing that Hyojin is being unfair and he should not just share his secret to Yuto only.

So the case that they has to attend to this time was young girl students being murdered, dissected/dismembered and later ensemble to look like an art piece of dark and grotesque genre.

It was suspected that a former teacher is committing the crime due to revenge by abducting the students and displaying the achievement by making the corpse into "art form". However, it did not take long for a second case with the same MO to appear and there is still no sign of the former teacher to be found anywhere in the city. Before any new evidence to be found, the Bureau can only back up by help enhancing security at the all girls school.

While looking at the photo of exhibit of dismembered victim, Jaeyoung unconsciously mentioned about genre and art style and the keywords enlightened the team. Minkyun search the data base but none could be found. Leaving the option of dark web, but it is unwise for Bureau to deal with those even if its for case solving purpose..

Hyojin remembers a criminal locked might help and once he gotten Changyoon's approval, Yuto and Hyojin immediately head to the place, hoping the person in Hyojin's mind could lend a hand. Yuto is curious on why Hyojin is so confident that the said person might be helpful, Hyojin mentioned that he was the one who put the said person behind the bars for having high Crime Coefficient level while selling illegal inappropriate artworks banned by authority policy.

Thankfully, the artist in confinement noticed the genre and art style by browsing through MO photo data provided by Hyojin and Yuto. It gave a huge clue, the MO was inspired by a famous underground artist, whose works are banned on market but the sales thrives in the black market. Apparently the artist has black market art persona and the normal persona. Art maniacs knows about this so it is not really a secret unless you dig into to it enough.

The team let Minkyun to run the data base to see if there is any connection between artist and students, even teachers and staffs in the school and BINGO. Apparently the artist's daughter is attending the school.

Knowing its a very suggestive clue, the team rushes to the school to get their culprit. They succeeded on getting the criminal this time but the murder still succeed in doing her 1 last act getting caught by CID. (Here is different from anime)

While monitoring back ups helping to clear crime scene, Changyoon calls Hyojin to have a chat at the Enforcers wagon and let Yuto to monitor Jaeyoung.

Back in the wagon, Changyoon and Hyojin temporary forgot their conflicts and start to piece the puzzles together. Changyoon even though sometimes is a bit not flexible, but when he sees Hyojin acknowledging Minkyun, he knows that the Enforcer in front of him is still the ex superior he knows.

Changyoon scratches his head a bit and tells Hyojin that the current and previous virtual community case felt a bit off. And should Minkyun's hint are actually legit, how should they tie up all the puzzle together?

Hyojin while biting his knuckles he goes, "Even though the young criminal this time has a high IQ. but as a minor, it is hard to believe that they can prepare such intricate crime display."

"I agree. " Changyoon adds, "This is an all girl school with dorm and I don't think our young criminal can gain access to the tools even if she wants to."

Hyojin and Changyoon come to a conclusion, that there is definitely a mastermind or consultant helping out criminals to execute their crimes, but who?

All cases looking irrelevant against each other but with the frequencies of cases occurring here and there, it does not hurt to think whoever behind this definitely is aiming for a raise of area stress level in a national degree. If that so, they might not dealing with a mastermind, but a group of crime syndicate who is trying to initiate a psycho hazard.

Although they both do not have strong evidence to prove their point but should their speculations are true (because of their first hand experience come contact with all these cases), it is already scary. While terror attack can produce fear and violence in large scale straightforwardly, a raise of crime number/disturbing criminal events affecting citizen's mental security can have long term effect. It is also a way to make authority focus on cleansing and clearing the hue and got distracted from something even menacing.

After a few seconds of silence, Hyojin finally breaks the ice., "Do we have a list of mastermind criminals that the terrorist group requested the authority to release 2 years ago?"

Changyoon replies "Yes we have, but... the authority did not really released them for reals. Its just a fake act to buy time...."

Hyojin stares at Changyoon in a straight face as they had thought of the same possibility.

"Hyojin are you suggesting that the terror attack was just to cover up a secret swap?" Changyoon stood up in disbelief, eyes wide open. "Thats crazy! Do you know how many terrorist members are there on that day? That many manpower and gunpowder just to do a human swap? For what purpose?!"

"And if there is a secret swap, are you saying that there is a traitor in our government?" Changyoon exclaims.

Hyojin only lowers his gaze and mutters, "I don't know." and he continues

"And you still think I am crazy?" Hyojin raises a corner of his lips and look at Changyoon with a victorious smile.

"I know you are delusional but this is insane, Hyojin." Changyoon frowns while he mutters. "Why do you have to complicate things and push yourself so hard until your Psycho Pass get clouded so bad?"

"My brother and my best friend both died with unconvincing cause of death. There are numerous points that are quite fishy regarding to the terror attack 2 years ago, Changyoon." Hyojin stares at Changyoon with firm eyes and its overflowing with hope.

"Seungjun wasn't himself after the death of my brother, it was not only guilt and regret he was feeling, he never acted like that before. He knew something. He must have seen something." Seeing Changyoon standing in front of him in silence, Hyojin took the chance to continue.

"I was there, I was the first person to find Seungjun's death scene. And as an former Inspector, I can tell you that was not a suicide." Hyojin starts to get excited as he voices out his points. "Who would choose to burn themselves and set a fire to their apartment room while at it when they can have a quick death?"

Changyoon still looking at Hyojin as if he is looking at a clown.

"You are a smart guy Changyoon, you can definitely tell there is something off if you..."

"Shut up." Changyoon silences Hyojin as he knows Hyojin is trying to persuade him to share common interest, Changyoon groans in irritation and barges out from the wagon, leaving Hyojin startled.

Jaeyoung who come across to this, asks if Hyojin did anything to piss Changyoon off in a concerned tone, Hyojin only denies him by laughing it off.

And Changyoon, who dashes into his car, punches the steering with his might before covering his face with his hands.

"What am I to you then?" he whispers into the silence. "Am I not your friend as well?"

To be continued on part 3

[peachymess]

I look at my boi Armin and crying because he doesnt seem happy about what he do and what he must do :( Im happy about finally see him, but its not like i want to be

Hello,anon! I see this consensus all across the fandom, so I’m going to say my peace rightnow (I drew something yesterday that I meant to speak for me, but I don’t wantyou guys to be sad, so I’ll try a less vague approach this once). I understandthe worry that our boy isn’t faring well, but I think it’s actually too earlyto settle on a concrete analysis of the two (2!!) panels we’ve seen of Armin sofar. It’s been four years, so we have little to no context here, compared towhat we need to consider.

Ianswered a friend on this topic two (or three?) days ago, and I want you toread that ask, because what I’m about to say builds on that (consider it a part2). Here’s the: link! Readit? Thank you ^^Now,you could all be completely right – I’m aware of that – but I’m not letting goof the opinion that it feels entirely too early to put a canon stamp on“haunted” Armin all the same. This might sound like denial – I do love him, andI can’t stand to see him suffer – but quite objectively, I’d hate to feed intothe “Armin is a broken man” theory only to find that he’s “only” bothered inthe way that any soldier would be, when he’s doing something bad that’s stillthe lesser of two evils in his eyes. You see, going with “alarm, alarm” rightout of the gate, might skew the way we analyze him going forward. If we’re soset on the idea that he’s sad, we might read every expression, dialogue oraction going forward, with the context of “he was sad earlier” – and that mightveer us way off center.

Asyou read in part 1, I think we’re confusing Armin’s focused-on-a-task face forsadness. Not only is he prone to a downturned mouth and a frown when he’sanything from thinking/reflecting to executing hard tasks, but the rest of thecrew also is! I’d say it’s Isayama’s style, but more so: even in real life,most people don’t look uplifted/happy when they focus/are taking heavy refugein their thoughts (as I believe Armin is right now – as anyone would be whenthey are about to calmly set a very important, well-rehearsed plan into action– after having to wait a while for the right time, no less).

Thefirst spoilers were of rather low quality; the crunchyroll publication gives amore correct image of what Isayama wanted us to see. And when I show you thedifferences in just a moment, I want you to look at the differences around theeyes especially. In the first image that got spread around, he lookedcompletely black around the eye, like he was worn and tired – while in the CRversion, we see that a lot of that had to do with the scanning, plus the factthat Isayama drew his face in very contrasted lighting. Now, granted, the CRscans do still look sad. But if this had been the first and only version wesaw, I doubt we’d be as alarmed as we are now (read: seeing the “sad” versionfirst, influences us to see sadness in the more neutral version as well). Observe:

Weall know Armin lives in his head a lot. He thinks, he tinkers, he analyzes andponders. While he waited in his boat for the right time to explode, he musthave had a lot of time to think about what they were doing, go over the planstep by step many times over, etc. Maybe his thoughts even drifted on tocompletely different things at times. Now, I’m not saying I don’t believe he’saware that he’s about to murder human beings. I’m not arguing that he doesn’tcare; of course he does! And it can’t feel great. But I’m saying that it isn’tnecessarily so that he’s mentally imbalanced by it. Why? Because this is toosimilar to the resolve he and the rest of his squad had to make all the wayback in Uprising (more on that later). So I ask you to look at the CR imageagain. Can you agree with me that it’s possible to see that face as a face ofsomeone who’s in deep thoughts and focus? He’s not pumped. He’s not eager to dothis. There’s no reason for his face to move way from its resting expression toshow elation. But he’s made the resolve to do the job, he’s not lingering. He’sready (like I said in part 1, he goes through the emotions beforehand, and hasby this point arrived at the conclusion that this has to be done – that the endjustifies the means) and so, he’s not poking at his emotions, even if they areunderlying. That’s my premature take on it.

There’sa panel of him when he’s writing down Eren’s recount of Grisha’s memories,where he looks pretty much the same as here, with one exception. Please have alook:

Herewe see the same downturned mouth and – because he’s focused on the task and nothis face – he doesn’t look all that pleased. Now, one can argue that heprobably wasn’t very pleased at that time, but the expression is reoccurring throughoutthe chapters.

However,yes, there’s still the difference of the eyes. They seem arguably sadder in 103still – but I think it’s possibly due to the differences in context: while in88, his eyes were “awake” and looking at a page, in 103 he’s not focusing onanything. When one is looking inward, one’s eyes tend to droop like that (well,the alternative is the sheep’s eyes, but I see the droop more often).

Itall depends what you want to see. Right now, I think many are expecting Arminto have a lot of inner turmoil, and after the worry kicks in, you may not“want” to see it, but you will be subconsciously looking for it. If you canagree with me that the image in the middle is possibly neutral enough to beread as either sad or focused, I’d like to bring up my next point (if not, thenI think we’ll just have to agree to disagree, because this whole discourse isbased on how we see that one panel): when we’ve read the panel on way or theother, we use the next panel to see how well it complies with our thesis. So,let’s have a look (and I’ll add in the CR version on the right, although thereisn’t as much of a difference here):

Tome, this panel is what sells it for me; while in the first panel Armin is stillin his head, the second panel is where his expression “activates” as he shiftshis focus from inward to outward. Again, this is based on one single panel –thus the chance of inaccuracy is high – but to me it doesn’t look like hecarries the “sadness” of the first panel into his activated expression. Inother words, what read as “sadness”, was either just his resting face, or justmild sadness that he resolutely casts away (as only a non-broken man can).

Thatbeing said, this expression is a new one from him and I can’t wait for morecontext so I can analyze this further. But for now, all I need is “that isn’tsimply sadness”.  Honestly, it looks morelike fear than anything, but ah, I’m holding my horses till there’s more.

Now,as promised: I need to bring up Uprising. The arc where 104 takes the step fromkilling titans, to killing humans. The arc where Armin shoots a woman andlearns to process it before the remaining “innocent” 104s follow suit when theytake on the special ops inside the crystal cave.

Verysimply put: this arc taught Armin that 1) throwing away your humanity is hard.He’s taken the first blow of that already (and continued to be willing togive), so doing it a x’d time won’t be as hard. 2) he can’t get out of thisuntainted (“we’re not good people anymore”), and 3) the end justifies themeans. The last point is something he already swore by theoretically, butUprising taught him to utilize this POV to go through with morally grey plans –for the greater good.

Nohuman has the right to use human lives as currency (a thousand soldiers to payfor an island of civilians) – yet, somebody has to, for the transaction to bemade. Someone has to basically “take on for the team” and do somethingmonstrous, to spare the rest the burden. This is what Erwin did, and he wasdeemed a monster by many for it. This is what Armin meant when he talked aboutthrowing away your humanity. The strength to do this, is the strength headmires more than anything, because it’s the hardest thing he can think ofdoing. It’s so hard to do – but it’s possible when you agree that “the endjustifies the means”. Uprising coaxed Armin to take this idea from the drawingboard and implement it into actual action. He did the math, and came away withthe answer that end>means. Several arcs later, the scale is way, way bigger,but the equation is still the same.

WhatI’m saying is that while he no doubt think it’s awful to kill people, he’salready decided that this is the lesser of two evils, and thus blowing up theships won’t break him. People get riddled with guilt for less even so – butthis is fiction! Isayama has already shown us a plethora of times that“war is bad” and “guilt destroys” so not only doesn’t heneed to show it again, but it also would seem like a waste of time to incorporatethat extra angst element towards the end when he already has so much else toresolve. What would be impossible to bypass in real life, Isayama can ignorefor the sake of not wasting chapters having to delve into “yet anothercharacter is now swallowed up by guilt and I need chapters to resolve it sincehe’s a main character”.

Thisis fiction. Isayama can bypass it. And I think he will.

Now,this is a whole lot of guesswork from my side – just like saying that Armin isgravely depressed is! All my rambling is meant only to show you that we knowtoo little to say anything for certain yet. I sincerely doubt that Isayama’splan is to throw Armin into some tragic hero’s spiral now, because there is somuch already on the plate that needs Armin mentally present. I’m not willing tohand Armin over to mental anguish just yet.

Oh,and I’d like to end this with a final digression: I grabbed some frowny facesfrom chapter 64 for you, anon. This is from the crystal cave fight. I wanted toshow you how “sad” Isayama’s characters all looked during it. Because I thinkhe has a tendency to make characters look like this in action, while it doesn’thave to mean they are feeling feel so bad they won’t be able to get over it.PS: note how the special ops look even more distressed than the SC, even thoughthese guys are basically secret spies who assassinate people for a living (aka,looking “sad” can have a lot of reasons past “broken”).

Ultimately, I think Armin is definitely not comfortable with war and what it he has to do to win it - but I have an abundance of faith that he’ll have a happy ending. And a happy ending doesn’t include an un-amendable conscience. I hope this could provide some relief, because our boy is back and he is strong. Stronger than every single one of us. 

[theonyxpath]

That’s right! The Kickstarter for They Came From the Grave! starts at 2pm EDT on Tuesday the 21st, which is tomorrow as I write this.

Grave! focuses on the tropes and themes of horror films and TV shows that came out throughout the 60s and into the 70s – and because so many of them were also based in a sorta-Victorian era, we have rules for that in there too!

Travel back in time through magic or science. Relive the experiences of your ancestors ala past-lives. Play through what you found described in one of their worm-eaten journals. Or just play in that earlier time period – there are a lot of ways to time-slip in They Came From Beyond the Grave!.

If the old Universal Monsters were the first round of film horror, then the advent of Hammer Studios, American International (especially with films helmed by Roger Corman), and Amicus, plus various horror-themed TV shows, gave us a new sort of horror. Often action-packed and more physical, and always bloodier and gorier than those that came before, they also brought in a more overt sexuality.

Sometimes that manifested in kinkier characters and sometimes in (s)exploitative scenes and dialogue (and costuming). It’s said that at one point during his career working on Hammer films that Christopher Lee was receiving more fan letters from women than any other actor in Europe, no doubt helped by his notable physical presence as Dracula.

Just like in They Came From Beyond the Sea!, we take those sorts of cultural mores of the times the films were created to note and use them in ways designed to be fun to play for modern audiences.

That’s part of the core gaming experience we’re aiming at with the They Came From…! game lines. They’re designed so that you can play them “straight from the box” settings, with the option of including as much of the meta-devices as you want. For example, the Quips and Cinematics can be sparse or non-existent, or they are fired in a mile a minute in a paean to the joy of the cinematic standards of the time.

Your characters can be people of the time the game is set in, or the time the films were made, or modern people with our sensibilities and expectations. Players can deconstruct the hell out of the setting, or create an homage to the sorts of films and time periods the game lines focus on.

So, yes, the They Came From…! games provide all the needed material to go from a serious, even dark, setting all the way to a laugh-a-minute cross between riffing on old films ala Mystery Science Theater 3000 and a fill in the blanks card game. We needed to provide as much structure as possible to enable humor at the table.

Because, as they say, dying is easy, comedy is hard.

Just to give you an idea of the range I’m talking about, there are four different links below in our Onyx Path Media section. Three are to very different Actual Play sessions, and one is to the brilliant trailer for They Came From Beyond the Grave! created by filmmaker/artist/writer/cool guy Larry Blamire. Each of them present a totally accurate way to play – any one of which might be the way your table wants to play.

Check us out on Kickstarter tomorrow if ANY of that piques your interest!

Grave! illustration by Durwin Talon

What About the Buried Bones?

Well, not only was that a reference to digging up some of the inside stuff for Grave!, it was also a reference to the two Realms of Pugmire PDFs and PoDs going on sale this week!

Pirates of Pugmire will be available in PDF and PoD versions this Wednesday, even while the traditionally printed version enabled by the Kickstarter campaign is getting ready to ship from our printers to our KS fulfillers.

Then there’s Buried Bones, subtitled Creating in the Realms of Pugmire, which wasn’t attached to a KS, and contains a lot of Eddy’s thoughts on Pugmire (and the Monarchies of Mau) with background info and info on how to create adventures for the setting. It’s also coming out in PDF and physical book PoD versions on Weds.

Seems like this would be super-useful for folks planning on adding projects to the Canis Minor Community Content site!

Pirates of Pugmire illustration by Pat Loboyko

Hey, look at this:

That’s for 100,000 downloads of the Onyx Pathcast! Huge congrats to Dixie, Matthew, and Eddy for years of weekly Pathcasts exploring ours and other company’s game lines every week, taking Deep Dives into specific games (like the They Came From Beyond the Grave! one going live on Friday), their insightful interviews of industry professionals, and all the farty horns, wresting references, and digressions that they are rightly known for!

While the Terribly Terrific Trio, or the Terrifically Terrible Trio depending on your PoV, do foster a light-hearted, irreverent, and quick-witted atmosphere during the Onyx Pathcast, they do also talk about the challenges of creating artful games in the TTRPG business. From the Dreaded Deadline Doom, to the Care and Feeding of Creative Folks, to trying to stay focused on the projects you love while the world goes topsy-turvey, Eddy, Dixie, and Matthew manage to cover some serious topics without loosing that spark of fun that makes this thing of ours so special.

Again, congrats!

Titanomachy illustration by Andrea Payne

Hopefully, I can bring up this next topic as carefully as the Trio do with such things, but that’s actually the point, I guess. As a company, we’ve signed up our Onyx Path Monday Meeting crew to attend Sensitivity Training Workshops starting this Wednesday and into August.

As a group, we talk to many different people in the course of doing our jobs (nevermind non-job time), and we’d like to do that better. We’d like to be able to communicate better, and to be more aware of how we are coming across – especially as we continue to bring more diverse creators into the TTRPG biz.

Finally, if you get a chance, take a look at all those projects at press down there at the end of the project progress section! I think these are the most projects we’ve ever had finishing up printing at the same time. Some of that is, of course, due to the slow-downs in printing and shipping due to Covid-19, and some of it has been Mirthful Mike Chaney gettin’ it done!

Combined, we’re getting the decks cleared so that more projects can get finished up, and therefore more projects can get started. It’s the Circle of Life, or something like that. End of the day, we’re making the games you love set in our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

They Came From Beyond the Grave!

Goes live on Tuesday the 21st at 2pm EDT!

Here’s a specially-made special trailer by the brilliant Larry Blamire:

And keep your eyes open for:

Onyx Path Media!

Congratulations on achieving over 100,000 DOWNLOADS!

This week: They Came from Beyond the Grave! Deep Dive!! (Exclamation Points!!!)

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

With They Came from Beyond the Grave! coming to Kickstarter this week, let’s start off with all the actual plays and assorted videos for that game!

Over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath, Vorpal Tales are running their first campaign of They Came from Beyond the Grave! This follows their fantastic They Came from Beneath the Sea! campaign, and I really think you should check it out! Their YouTube channel has episode one right here: https://youtu.be/Q6na0WHTfjo

Meanwhile, over on YouTube, our friends at Red Moon Roleplaying have started their own They Came from Beyond the Grave! story, with their usual excellent editing, quality, and in this case, a lovely cast of players led by Director, Matthew Dawkins! Come join in and listen to the Cult of Abaddon at play: https://youtu.be/RDYzNbk7VkQ

Also on YouTube, Larry Blamire’s hilarious trailer for They Came from Beyond the Grave! has dropped and is there for your viewing pleasure. It’s a testament to the kinds of stories you can tell using this game: https://youtu.be/NP65PlAw7mI

And finally, also on YouTube, in case you missed it we have the actual play of They Came from Beyond the Grave! that Matthew ran for Rich Thomas, Ian Muller, Dixie Cochran, and B. Dave Walters. Dare you enter Karnstein Manor? https://youtu.be/qLEFXntIa3g

This week on Twitch, expect to see:

Mage 20 – Technocracy Reloaded

Scion – Behind the Screen

They Came from Beyond the Grave!

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Realms of Pugmire – Pawsome Junction

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds

Scarred Lands – Tears of the Weeping Maiden

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games and subscribe to us on Twitch, over at twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Realms of Pugmire: Paws & Claws – S2E6 https://youtu.be/oWSUZCVQhpA

Realms of Pugmire: Paws & Claws – S2E7 https://youtu.be/ThgctcL9bTY

Changeling: The Lost: Littlebrook Reunion – E22 https://youtu.be/QJZLhWW6qOs

V5: Blood City: Chicago by Night – E20 https://youtu.be/Ua7ja2F9r80

Scarred Lands: Purge of the Serpentholds – E7 https://youtu.be/ZtnVKzQQAn8

They Came from Beyond the Grave! Trailer https://youtu.be/mWTla3xEmGA

Legendlore: Lost in the Crossing – E1 https://youtu.be/twMAjrCpj3c

Legendlore: Fiction Reading https://youtu.be/Dj5Qp0aagy0

Storytellers with Coffee: Technocracy Reloaded https://youtu.be/hb44inqafmE

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Systematic Understanding of Everything is a new Exalted Explainer Podcast by Exalted Dev Monica Speca and Exalted Writer Chazz Kellner. Check out their array of episodes (the show’s only just started!) over at http://www.exaltcast.com/

Our very own Chris Allen runs a fantastic session of Werewolf: The Forsaken here and on Twitch: https://youtu.be/XTaTf7sxnLk He’s not being violent enough with people’s eyeballs yet!

Our friends over at Near Dark Studios have just concluded their second season of V5 Chicago by Night, and you can find the entire playlist right here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhENuwZpsO7HXSuQ26MvX5uP-xqbYAwGG

Our good buddies at Vorpal Tales recently concluded their superb actual play of They Came from Beneath the Sea!, which you can find here on YouTube in full playlist form. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9fUj4KdqE4Ayzfw1vrDtFY81E0uaNT2K

And Occultists Anonymous just got their latest episodes to us:

Episode 114: The Devil You Know Zolius faces a VERY upset cabal, trying to keep his own life and maintain the deal he established with them. The cabal debate the pros and cons of keeping him alive. https://youtu.be/5NavGFi9_rQ

Episode 115: Going to the Dogs As the cabal settles and makes plans after Zolius’ intrusion, Atratus takes a trip into the Shadow with Shanna. A little sightseeing on the other side of the Gauntlet. https://youtu.be/FCcenqJfxMk

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

We’re told that the App Dev is currently creating an updated version for the latest devices, so keep an eye open for those!

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, the Pirates of Pugmire come sailing in, in PDF and PoD versions, both on DTRPG!

Large portions of the sea remain unexplored and uncharted, denying pirates the assurance of a safe journey home. If treasure is found, there’s always a hostile crew or two out there on the waves, lying in wait to raid returning ships. And twisted corpses of dead sea life animated by Unseen forces haunt the waves. It takes an extra level of grit to brave the Acid Sea. Do you have what it takes? 

Pirates of Pugmire is a chronicle sourcebook for both Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau. It’s usable with either game, or as part of a joint experience.

Some highlights include: 

Two new species for players to enjoy: lizards and birds 

Six new callings, including two for dogs and two for cats 

Rules for building, sailing, and sinking ships 

A trove of new allies, enemies, and treasures 

Information on Waterdog Port and Port Matthew 

“Going on the Account,” a chronicle of three new adventures, taking characters from 1st through 6th level 

For more Realms of Pugmire good-dog-ness, Pugmire Buried Bones, a guide to Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is also available this Weds on DTRPG in PDF and physical book PoD versions!

Collecting a variety of internal documents, email exchanges, blog posts, and community content projects, Buried Bones is the ultimate guide to creating in the Realms of Pugmire. Whether you’re making your own products for the Canis Minor community content program, want to make your personal Pugmire chronicle as accurate as possible, or are just interested in some of the behind-the-scenes details of the world, Buried Bones is the book to read!

Buried Bones includes:

A number of blogs related to the Realms of Pugmire, rewritten for this edition.

A handy guide to help people convert material from the 5e OGL to Pugmire or Monarchies of Mau.

Answers to frequently asked questions about the lore of the world and the mechanics of the RPGs.

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

Keep an eye out for our games being run at the online version of GenCon at the end of the month, as well as our What’s Up With the Onyx Path? panel currently slated for 1pm, Thursday July 30th!

https://www.gencon.com/online/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Indexing

Lunars: Fangs At The Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – Off to LeBlanc.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS)

Aberrant – AD’d. Meredith is helping with keeping track of all the artists.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e – Full art notes are in.

Mummy 2

Deviant – Sam doing fulls for this next.

Legendlore

Technocracy Reloaded

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS)

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Getting notes over to Cover guy. Pinging a couple of artists about fulls. Talking to Tucker about doing some of the dreamy stuff.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – KS art in progress. Fulls progressing. Halves progressing. Getting a few more halves rolling on that.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Ready for KS Tuesday.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Cover is in.

Geist: One Foot In the Grave – AD’d, art is rolling.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma – With Josh.

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – continued working it.

Pugmire Adventure – small project, knocking the layout together.

Scion Titanomachy

Trinity Core Jumpstart

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – PoD files updated.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Indexing.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

At Press

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – PoD proof on the way.

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Press proofs signed off on, PoD proofs ordered.

Pirates of Pugmire – Traditionally printed books almost ready to ship to the shipper. PDF and PoD versions on sales this Weds.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Pugmire Buried Bones – PDF and PoD versions on sales this Weds.

Dark Eras 2 – Files at press.

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet – Files at press.

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Dark Eras Compilation

Contagion Chronicle – Press prep.

Contagion Chronicle Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars Wall Scroll Map – Files at press.

Lunars Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Scarred Lands Creature Collection – Press proof signed off on.

Scion Companion – PoD proofs ordered.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

One small step for a man: in 1969 Apollo 11’s crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.

Which we reference in a bunch of our games, but for me, it’s a strong childhood memory of watching the moonwalk on the small, scratchy, b&w TV we moved into my parent’s bedroom. They had the only room AC (it would take years before we could afford to catch up to the other houses in the neighborhood and get full-house AC) and it was a hot and humid Philly July night. Right before the news broke in with the Special Broadcast, Jerry Lewis’s The Nutty Professor was on (I think it was Channel 10, Philly folks), and I was afraid of the transformation scenes.

Our parents tried to impress on us the importance of what we were seeing, but it was near midnight, and it was all we could do to stay awake that far. After the single greatest achievement mankind had achieved in surpassing the bounds of Earth, we just wanted to get to sleep. Yet, I still remember it all as it happened.