#there was a whole ass ZINE for them

[justsomeoneunordinary]

while i'm already on the hatake topic, i need to know how the kagumo ship happened, please someone explain this to me

obv i understand the concept of crack ships, i'm not from yesterday, but kagumo is a bit too popular to just be a crack ship with no background. like, what was it that made people ship them?

i once read a naruto timeline analysis in which it's also jokingly added when kaguya and sakumo would've come together and how kishimoto brought this onto himself, and well... i assume there must've been a line in the manga/anime that made fandom jump onto this train?

and i cannot for the life of me think of what it could've been. please, i desperately need to know what was said/done in canon that created this ship in the first place. i just wanna see pls someone open my eyes...

[cosmik-homo]

Honestly i really do know im being annoying with this but the logistics of swapping out Avon and Raistlin and watching what theh do is the greatest form of Playing With Dolls I've ever ever had. Its a serotonin treadmill. You've heard of watching a brilliant, dark tortured genius asshole slowly create his own downfall what about landing in the middle of such a slipperyslope and starting to turn it into an entirely different one. AND THERE'S PVP ALLOWED, one of my main options rn is Avon-as-Raistlin starts planning how to re-open the connection and either undo this or pass some more things between the worlds- and Raistlin-as-Avon is like FINDERS KEEPERS BITCH. Paying It (The Lichdom Curse) Forewards, im staying in your life and im winning at it, fuck off. And Avon's like, ex-fucking-scuse me?

[freak-phone]

working on doing a little zine out of that 'my oc as symbolism' meme for valdes, using a mix of collage writing and illustration... got stuck between 'i want to share this' and 'i want people to experience it as a whole piece so you can have a very awkwardly cropped page out of context. this one is for 'oc as an object'

do you guys wanna hear about probably valdes's most perverse trait. infodump under the readmore

A trait of his i've never really mentioned here is his thing with good luck charms. As part of his fixation on luck (and general baffling life choices), he's not really flush with money despite helping rig casinos for a living because he prefers playing for other people's belongings. Most of the appeal of gambling to him is the social aspect of it... he's a big peoplewatcher and it's very appealing to him to meet people and to watch them up close in that sort of environment.

A lot of his characterization is based in the (apparently real?) gambling strategy of just being very... weird and annoying at the table, both so people can't read you and to get under the other players' skin. not to mention i imagine that working for the casino means he can't actually get those big payouts from winning... so a lot of the time to throw people off and to not cut into his own paycheck he'll ask for a personal belonging instead.

And of course he knows he'll win, because he's being paid to card count and cheat, so he knows he'll get whatever strange thing he asks for. actual good luck charms, or the person's wedding ring, or a picture out of their wallet, or anything random out of their pockets as a little memento of getting to play with somebody and watch them lose. it's. he doesn't have a fetish for gambling but there is kind of a voyeuristic angle to it.

it's why his ref sheet mentions he wears mismatched jewelry :) because he's wearing his little trophies from cheating people. freaky magpie ass

(I wrote all of this and the actual point of the piece really is more about his self image. lol. well I hope i can share the full project soon)

[candycorncremator]

Unfortunately lower visual quality than I wanted be because Tumblr only allows 10 images so I smushed them into three canvases instead of two post. Anyway beta trolls Headcanon and some thoughts below the cut.

Aradia

Aradia is the design I probably have the most experience drawing of the beta trolls purely because of how many zines I’ve drawn her in the last year. I like thinking of her hair similar to Pinkie Pies’ in g4 of mlp, where it’s very curly bouncy in her alive and godtiered forms but straightens out more when she’s ghosting up the place and in Aradia-bot form. I didn’t realize until a recent zine I had been drawing her horns ways too low for comic accuracy but I am a creature of habit so I keep drawing them like that.

Tavros

I’ve grown to love this kid because of my recent reread but I do not like drawing them. Between the Mohawk and the long, straight horns, I don’t care to draw their most important traits so he unfortunately only gets drawn in these group drawings. As for the one ear being pierced, it’s kinda a reference to cow tags but also I think it just fits them.

Sollux

Sollux a pretty easy character to design. I just have to imagine a greasy nerd kid growing up too fast for him to put on weight, add his troll bits and voila. The snake bites are definitely a hold over from the humanstuck I made for him last year but I think it just kinda add to his whole vibe. The undershirt comes from someone who also sits in a hot-ass room most of my days and will wears a second layer so leaving the room won’t feel like stepping out into a frozen wasteland.

Karkat

Karkat for me has always been short and stout guy. Other than that most of his facial features are taken from me, being someone who also over exaggerates their faces and nearly always is squinting a little.

Nepeta

Between all my designs of Nepeta the only thing that ever changes with any consistency is her hair. Like giving her cleft lip scar because I gave it to my fan-descendent of her and it’s cute.

Kanaya

Like two months ago I saw a post on here saying give that girl a nose (in reference to Kanaya) and it was the single most true HC I have ever seen. I also like completely throw out any references I have of her when I draw her hair because I think she should have 1930’s waves and curls. I typically only have to draw the super simple eyes so the only thing I had to change was giving her actual eyes.

Terezi

Got pretty comic accurate but probably would erase some of the chin to imply she’s fat a little better if I wasn’t doing this more rigid style.

Vriska

Also pretty comic accurate with the exception of the snake bites which is probably because I don’t draw her a lot and I don’t think about her much enough looks wise to have any specific head canons.

Equius

Goodness his hair gave me a struggle, kept on looking like a balding metal head until I added the pushed back stuff. Also returned back to drawing pseudo animal ears by giving him horse ears only angle to better fit a humanoid head.

Gamzee

I hate their make-up but every thing else about drawing them is a dream; goat ears, not straight hair, simple horns, silly little guy. What more could I ask for.

Eridan

And I’m almost done but unfortunately this doofus is next and requires the most detailed bust even in canon. Due to drawing them in this year’s 413 countdown I know how I like styling their hair and fins so I basically just chop the hair up since this is suppose to be during comic hcs and then follow their canon and Pesterquest designs with a few added features and boom. I was drawing everyone with the dark grey lips but I forgot for Eridan so I’ll just say they use concealer on their lips.

Feferi

Yippee! Back to ignoring canon and just giving her the biggest eyes on account of her glasses and cute piercings. I originally based her fins off of lion fish fins but they’re definitely more based off of betta ventral fin now.

[userparamore]

I get that you don’t like Taylor but can you not see paramores growth as band because of the eras tour they seem so happy to be on that stage every night be grateful for that

first of all i don't really understand why you're coming for me over post that isn't even mine. second of all i'm allowed to be a fan of a band and be critical of them at the same time, and i've expressed my disappointment over this since the tour was announced. i'm not gonna beat a dead horse and bring up why i'm critical of this tour again in this answer, but the act of them being on this tour really says a lot about them for me in a negative way, and i think it's hypocritical of them after preaching about sustainability and equal rights for all.

paramore is also not some small indie band no one has heard of. they've been doing this for 20 years, they've sold out big venues, played madison square garden multiple times, they played their biggest show ever on the this is why aus&nz tour with 26,283 tickets sold in sydney. multiple of their biggest songs on spotify is close to a billion streams and they have 21 million monthly listeners. all this growth they've done, they've done on their own- sure it's nice that more people discover them, but they didn't need this tour to be successful. they already were.

also for me personally, this tour leaves a bad taste in my mouth. i come from a country where if i'm lucky they tour once every album cycle. i've been lucky to see them 2 times and the last time was in 2017. they played a festival so i didn't get to see a full set. they've been to my country four times total and 1 concert wasn't a festival. the eras tour didn't have a show in my country, and i wasn't about to fight swifties for tickets that are extremely expensive. in the end my friend ended up having a spare ticket to one of the vienna shows bc the person they were originally gonna go with ended up not being able to go, and i was asked if i wanted to go. me and this friend first became friends bc we both liked paramore, and they've never been able to see them live. travelling to vienna to have that experience together, i would sit through 3h of taylor swift for. i spent close to 2000 dollars on the whole trip including the ticket, for it to end up being cancelled. very happy we didn't die, but it still sucked to have spent all that money and the not be able to go. especially since this would've been my friend's first paramore live experience.

i'm happy they're having fun playing their greatest hits for 3 months. i'm happy for my mutuals who's been able to go and have had a good time. the money they earn will probably go to their new label, and hopefully we won't have to wait 5 years for new music. but don't tell me to be grateful.

i try my best to make this community a welcoming space. i try my best to contribute with gifs and edits, and post news when there are news. i've hosted countdown events, i've hosted/made zines, i've hosted gif challenges. i want to do all these things bc it's fun to be part of this community and i love the friends i've made here. but i can still do all those things, and not have to kiss paramore's ass. i can still express myself and speak on the things i don't agree with bc it's my blog. we've had "debates" in my inbox before, people have expressed their opinions on paramore before, and it's always respectful which i appreciate. we as a community can disagree on things and still be a community.

[sohkrates]

THE 55 is now Live on Kickstarter

THE 55 is a cyberpunk setting supplement for your favourite grungy dystopia. It's meant to slot into other cyberpunk TTRPGs in general and is compatible with CYB_BORG specifically.

It's also my biggest flex as a layout artist and graphic designer

Stack #95563 started as a location for my game Neon Black, then along came the #dungeon23 challenge and I thought I would turn THE 55 into a big concrete pseudo megadungeon full of second-hand shops, suits to kill, and weird crypto miners living in the walls.

So now it's 365 floors of wage theft, woe, and weird. Made darker and maybe a little magical to fit with other cyberpunk games. Maybe there's aliens too? Could be, look I'm not the cops you do with this zine what you like.

The Kickstarter is funding a print run and also giving out some goodies. You get early access to the digital copy (like, literally right now if you back it you can just read the whole thing).

You can also get a physical zine shipped to you, pages from the notebook I used for the #dungeon23 challenge, and a big ass poster of the cover art.

Looks cool right? Act fast cause there's a limited amount of, well, everything.

Also there's a financial hardship tier if you don't have much cash.

I've been working on this for a while, I was putting pages into layout as soon as I was finished writing them last year and it's just been getting better and better.

Anyway, if you want to dump your players into an arcology of thousands within a city of millions, or just want some more monsters, villains, or allies for your cyberpunk stories, please check it out and spread the word.

Thanks!

[karabastard]

Yalls high-quality fandom Art Books aint fuckin zines stop calling them that. They’re art books, they’re professionally printed and bound and cost upwards of $70 and come with other lil special shit like enamel pins, magnets or acrylic charms/stands if you’re willing to spend even more money. Zines are printed at the library or in your home and are stapled or sewn together and cost maybe $15 max. Yall are paying big money to put together a whole ass collectors package. Which is cool don’t get me wrong! I think Fandom Art Books are neat if you’ve got that kind of extra money but they’re art books, not zines.

[galaxy-forest-productions]

Devlog 20/08/2024 - Travel game idea that will probably change with time but I felt like sharing cuz it's 10 p.m. and I'm not sleepy yet

Since I'm traveling now and dropping zines as I go I've been inspired to create eventually a traveling themed TTRPG. I'll take my experiences during this train trip in europe as inspiration and learning material for this future game.

The idea I have is for a large project I call fantasy tourist, a game about traveling in a fantasy world. The base mechanics are simple. You have a buget for each town, you can stay for as long as you have money. I also wanted to add the fantasy adventure element of being allowed to take small jobs to increase your budget and stay in a town you liked for longer.

The reason this would be a large project, is that I wanted to properly write town guides. I wanted this to be a little bit more guided than my usual solo rpgs. Yes, imagining yourself is part of the fun, but I want this to feel like a choose your own adventure book in a way. I want you to feel like these places exist already and you're exploring them.

In my ideal version of this game each town guide would have:

Budget – depending on your character and other factors the budget you have on each town may change. I'll also add a dice roll for a little bit of fun randomness.

Overall description – this is just a description of the town you’re in and what is known for.

Attraction guide – this is the list of things you can do and see in this town. Some attractions also come with guided tours, if that’s the case it means you’ll get a detailed explanation of the inside and little details of each work of art etc… Most will be a rough information guide, when it's open, how long does it take to explore this attraction and how much it costs.

Events - some towns will have seasonal events and I like the idea of the game following a calendar, so you'll know when you're in each place and even plan for certain's town's events that you really wanna see. You can even choose to travel for a whole year and plan all the events accordingly.

Theme parks – if a town happens to have a theme park that attraction will include multiple small attractions inside. The rides, the places and such will all be described. I might even include a park map just for the funsies.

Restaurant guide – this is a guide of places you can eat at in this town and the prices too. I will include tiny menus for each restaurant just because I think it would be cute and add to the worldbuilding. Like each page could be a menu of that restaurant.

Available missions and when – missions are a way to make more money. Each mission will sacrifice time. Sometimes a few hours, and sometimes a whole ass day. You will be provided with money for completion. Some missions also can only be completed during specific days and some can be repeated.

Hotel guide – a guide with the hotels you can stay in. Some of them include breakfast, some are hostels which means you’ll share with others. Honestly these are mostly for flavor, paying for a better hotel won’t affect your gameplay much, except for the included breakfast, meaning one less meal.

Townspeople – some relevant citizens may be mentioned in this section. This will be most prominent in small towns where everyone knows everyone. In big cities there will be less of these since there isn't that local people feel.

I also wanted to make some other little guides that would be used all the time:

Traveler guides – this is the booklet with all the other travelers you meet. You might once in a while meet other adventurers. If you meet them frequently enough you might become friends. If you are friends with another traveler you might even agree to share a room with them to save on money, or even go to attractions together. I also might make the hotels relevant by having some of these characters be easier to find in certain hotels. Maybe one is always trying to save and staying in hostels, maybe another is a rich girl that will always take a 5 star hotel so meeting her requires you stay in a top quality place and so on.

Friend guide – Sometimes you'll have friends in other towns. If your character has a friend in that town they can ask to stay there for free for a little while. Each friend has their own limit of how long they will let you crash there before they get angry. I think which friends you have in each town should be picked in character creation.

And that's the ideas I have so far. Making each of those town guides will be hell, but I feel like it would be a super fun worldbuilding project. I also think it would be a cool base to then have other versions with different flavor. I'm not even sure what kind of flavor I want for this one when it comes to the fantasy aspect. It may be the classic medieval fantasy, or should I go more urban fantasy, reflecting how we travel today with phones and all that but with fantasy creatures and magic existing? There are tons of options.

[lunchtimebedamned1997]

More secret Vox project updates

(don't worry, Issu, it's not the ZIne lmao, I just have Radiostatic brainrot lmao I'm not spoiling Zine work BUT ALSO IF YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW THEIR IS GONNA BE A BADASS RADIOSTATIC ZINE @radiostaticzine if you wanna look around!)

BUT ANYWAYS, updates! :3

I've got some WIP shots & some BG stuff!

Apparently in the process of drawing Charlie's shoes, I realized that I accidentally understand how feet are shaped now? Wild. So happy about that, hope it sticks LMAO

I also finished the background that recreates one of the shots from Stayed Gone! I'm not going for exact replicas, bc personally this project is more fun for me when I don't get up my own ass about recreation and let myself just draw with a little of my personal art style seeping in there XD

With and w/o the crowd for your viewing pleasure lmao

I'm having A LOT of fun doing these lineless renders for the backgrounds, it's been an incredibly satisfying process, and I really think I've reached two of my art goals for this year!

Get comfortable creating (preferably lol) interesting backgrounds

Get more comfortable with using a saturated color palette

I feel like thanks to this project, I've really hit both of those goal posts! It's really been an exciting year in my art journey so far. I've come so far just since January! I've been doing art for twenty years and 2024 is the first time I just really feel like my art is somewhere I'm comfortable with! I definitely have things I want to improve and grow towards, but I honestly couldn't be happier with what I've been able to make - I hope that doesn't come of as self-aggrandizing, I've just worked so hard to be able to do things like this project and I'm so proud of myself for never giving up on all of this.

Also, this shot below illustrates what the base of this project looks like! I drew each of the main frames I knew I wanted traditionally in my sketchbook (its easier for me to visualize things when I can touch them, flip though pages, etc.), and then set those to the timings I wanted with the lyrics and everything, and most of the main shots are just refined versions of these initial sketches :D

ANYWAYS

That's all I should probs share right now since I don't wanna give away the whole project lmao BUT progress has been made and I'm jazzed af :3

[remidyal]

Zine Jam 2024 bundle out!

The charity bundle is out for the 2024 zine jam and available at this link: Dimension 20 ZineJam 2024 Charity Bundle by whirling and 51 others - itch.io

I ran one zine this year and ended up contributing to four others! You can find my writing as well as my design, er, efforts at the Back of the Sheets zine, which is focused on class swap aus and includes some character sheet info for each entry!

As for the other zines I contributed to:

Friendship is the Blood of the Covenant is an Escape from the Bloodkeep zine; I contributed a piece on Efink pre-canon.

And Life Is a Nightmare is a zine focused on teenaged villains; I wrote an Aelwyn and Ragh centered piece.

Parallel Planes is a zine focused on AUs built around one particular thing in canon going differently. I contributed a piece built around what would have happened if instead of having the worst turn in dimension 20 history, Cody Walsh had crit with his wild-ass sword.

Finally, I've Been Here The Whole Time is a D20/Game Changer mashup zine; I did a Yes or No inspired piece.

I'll be posting these to AO3 individually daily, but you can read them all right now alongside quite literally hundreds of other great works of fanart and fanfiction through the link above in the individual zines!

[estrellami-1]

I got a challenge for you with the writing prompts 👀 use 16, 17 AND 18 together. (Steddie, obviously)

16. "Excuse you?"

17. "This is all your fault!"

18. "I shouldn't be in love with you."

You’re choice on who says what 😌 (also doesn’t have to end happy, but we do love our angst w/happy endings)

Ooh I love this!!! I hope you didn’t necessarily mean in order, because, well… you’ll see. 😉

Dustin’s face is red. There are tears streaking down his face. Steve’s heart breaks as he reaches for Dustin and gets pushed away.

“This is all your fault!” Dustin screams, and Steve feels his fractured heart break irreparably.

“What?” He whispers, unable to believe he had heard correctly.

“It’s your fault!” Dustin insists, still crying. “If you hadn’t said what you did, Eddie would still be alive!”

Somehow, Steve’s heart breaks more. “Dustin-”

“No!” Dustin yells, pushing Steve away once more. “Just- just leave me alone!” He turns away, and no amount of pleading makes him turn back.

Steve leaves. Doesn’t know where he’s going until he’s at the cemetery, sitting in front of Eddie’s headstone. His body isn’t here; it’s still in the Upside Down somewhere. Steve will never forgive himself for that. He thinks, distantly, that he’s numb, in shock.

A dull laugh tears its way out of his throat. “He said it’s my fault,” he says. “Dustin, that is.” His throat clicks when he tries to swallow. “Said if I hadn’t said what I did, you’d still be alive. I hope- God, I hope that isn’t true. I don’t know what I’d do if it is. And I know he’s just looking for someone to blame, he’s grieving, I get that, but… it hurt. Y’know? Cause I thought we were past all that… that bullshit. Of thinking I’m still King Steve. Of thinking I’m not good enough, no matter what I do. Of thinking it’s not tearing me apart.” He shakes his head. Vaguely realizes he’s crying. “I just… God, I feel so stupid saying this, but… if there’s any way… just. Give me some sort of sign. Let me move on, at least. Let me be strong for everyone else still grieving you.”

He waits a few minutes, not terribly hopeful, but waxing more disappointed as the time passes. “I’m, uh. I’m choosing to believe there’s nothing you can do, instead of thinking you can’t hear me or something. I’m gonna come back, I swear. I dunno about the kids, but I know you love- um. You loved them. And you’d want to know how they’re doing. So I’ll at least tell you about them.”

Another minute passes as he wrestles his emotions under control, wiping the last errant tears from his eyes. “Same time next week?” He asks, imagining Eddie would grin and wink at him, say something like, “As long as you’re paying!”

With that thought, Steve stands and leaves.

He’s back next week. Says, as soon as he sits down, “Dustin’s not mad at me anymore, so that’s something. I think Claudia probably talked some sense into him. He’s just kinda… listless, now. Will too. I think, uh. I think he was hoping to talk to you. I dunno…” he sighs, tries to organize his thoughts. “I’m safe. That’s first of all. So if you are… it’s fine. Robin showed me a zine she brought back from a trip to Indy. Apparently the handkerchief means something. I didn’t know that until, like, three days ago. And it’s not that Will’s gonna start putting a hanky in one of his back pockets, but… I’ve seen the way he looks at Mike, y’know? And I wish I could help but I’ve got no experience with guys. Robin would be willing, but…” he chuckles. “She’s strictly into boobies. Which is kind of an inside joke, for us. Y’know she came out to me in a Starcourt bathroom while we were high off our asses with Russian truth serum? That’s one of the apocalypses we helped avert. Well, the Russians themselves weren’t the apocalypse. There was… well. It’s a whole thing. Billy Hargrove, remember him? He got mind-controlled. I hit him with a car because he was gonna kill Nance and them. He was fine, it wasn’t really him, y’know? Then he sacrificed himself. I’ve seen Max cry twice in the time that I’ve known her. She didn’t even cry when she sprained her ankle trying to land a flip. But she cried then. God, she was inconsolable. And he sacrificed himself for her. I think, for a while, she wished it had been her, instead of him.” He sighs, stands, smiles wanly at Eddie’s name. “Edmund, huh?”

He imagines Eddie’s smirk. “No relation to the Pevensies,” he’d say with a wink and a bow, “though I, too, came out of a closet.”

So it goes, week after week, month after month. The days get shorter and colder, then longer and warmer.

“Will came to me a few days ago,” he whispers one spring day. “Scared outta his mind. But he did it, and he was so brave, and I told him what I could.” He manages a smirk. “And it turns out we’re not too different after all. I’ve been… thinking, recently. And talking to Robin, and man, that was a trip. Turns out the normal, straight amount of flirting with the guys is zero. I don’t think I’m the only one to blame, though, because thinking back on it, Tommy got really close sometimes, before we fell out, and Billy had that whole… thing going on, which I honestly figured was just California bully, but it turns out no, they probably weren’t straight either. Which. That took me a few days to digest. So I’ve been thinking about it and I think I just… never let myself like guys? But I definitely like both. I just always went with girls ‘cause that’s what was expected, y’know? So that was a lot to process. It’s still a lot to process, honestly. But I’m getting there? Or I think I am. I at least had something to tell Will, so. There’s that.” He chuckles. “Y’know you’re the third person I told? Will was second. Robin was first, though she kinda told me, instead of the other way around. Sometimes I dunno what I’d do without her. Most times, actually, I dunno what I’d do without her.”

He thinks about Eddie’s grin, the tilt of his jaw. “Welcome to the club.” He’d probably bow. It feels like something he’d bow about. “We have nothing for you because America is a capitalist pigsty and we are all naught but its pawns.”

Steve leaves.

The weeks pass. He returns faithfully, like clockwork.

“It’s been a year,” he whispers one day. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You were supposed to make it. You were supposed to run, goddammit, why didn’t you run?” He bends in half as the tears come, burying his face in his knees. “Damn you,” he hisses. “This is all your fault, y’know that? I don’t even know how, but I’m in love with a dead man. Do you hear me, Eddie Munson? A dead man! I shouldn’t be in love with you!” He sobs for a few minutes, then forces himself upright. “And the worst part is I’m not even mad at you. Not really. I just- God, why can’t you be here? Why didn’t you run?”

Footsteps behind him. He stiffens, but doesn’t move until he hears the voice, vaguely amused. “Excuse you,” he says, and Steve whips around to find Eddie Munson staring back at him. “I did run. Or I tried. Those fuckers are fast, man.”

“Oh,” Steve whispers, drying his tears. “Great. Now I’m hallucinating.”

Hallucination-Eddie kneels beside him, wipes tears from Steve’s cheeks. “Could a hallucination touch you?” He whispers.

Steve stares for a minute before the dam breaks and he’s falling into Eddie, sobbing. “I know,” Eddie murmurs. “I know. I’m so sorry. If it’s any consolation, I definitely did die. I just… didn’t stay dead.” He runs a hand over Steve’s back. “And if it’s any consolation, I was able to hear every one-sided conversation. I appreciate the updates on the kids. And, uh.” He swallows. “I’m pretty sure somewhere along the way, I fell in love with you, too.”

Permanent Taglist: @justforthedead89 @ilovecupcakesandtea @madigoround @bookbinderbitch @suddenlyinlove @nburkhardt @artiststarme

[ethankyou]

Last year I had a chance to play Mörk Borg, which is the bleakest fantasy RPG I've ever played and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

So how'd it go?

Mörk Borg was probably one of the easiest games to learn. I made the joke at the table, if you've ever played D&D you are overqualified to play MB. It uses the D&D OGL, loosely, and is technically compatible with it, but this is not that kind of game. That's just all so you can roll your little d20.

The rules are free in the "bare bones" edition but trust me, you'll want to own the full art edition, get a physical copy and put it on your shelf. It is a gorgeous book and has a style that a lot of games lack. If I could distill about 10% of the style into my own games I would be extremely satisfied with my work.

Seriously like. Go to their website. Experience this. Do it now (or don't, I'm not your mom. But you should though).

This game feels in line with the perceived brutality of first edition d&d and its ilk. You may name your character if you like but don't get attached. You can have as little as 1 hit point and nothing pulls its punches here. Deaths are common, and expected and add to the feel of the world. You're not trying to save the world, not really. You're on the precipice of doom and you're just scavengers picking over the bones of the preeminent corpse of the world.

But you can also generate a new character very quickly with SCVMBIRTHER. Don't like your new one? Kill them and make a new one. As many as you like. It's a riot just generating these wretches and seeing what could be in store for you.

But while it is fun and also sometimes necessary to generate characters quickly like this, doing so misses out on one of my favorite parts of any RPG. The Character Sheet!

To me a good character sheet is like a window into the soul of the game.

The game has this whole, doodled in the margins of your math homework, zine you found in a dirty puddle, graphited in a bathroom stall at a crust punk show ass aesthetic and the whole book is just like this. And I am eating this shit up! Here's the alternate character sheet provided:

This soul appears to be a little scrunkled, can I get a new one?

Now I haven't talked about how the game plays yet or anything but just drink this in for a minute. If looking at this character sheet does not make you want to try this game then I don't know what else would!

I mean I guess knowing how the game plays would but like... Okay.

The game itself uses d20 rules, but much lighter. You have small stats, and add them to a d20 roll. No skills no proficiency bonus. You'll eat your 1's and you'll like it. The target numbers are usually pretty low, floating around 10-ish, unless you're dealing with something nasty.

You may have powers, but they seem to be pretty limited in their availability and uses. The game itself plays like D&D-lite, in that you are probably doing a dungeon crawl, or other dirty work you do as an adventurer. But you are not an adventurer, you are lowly scum just trying to make a quick buck. There's no heroics going on here. If your d&d group already plays like a bunch of murder hobos then you're basically already playing mork borg in spirit but just cosplaying as a bunch of heroes. This is the game you should be playing if you want to be a cutthroat little bastard.

The game uses Omens, a limited resource that you can use to improve what you're doing; deal max damage, lower damage taken, reroll a die (or someone else's) that kind of thing. You only get them back after a rest though so if you blow through them quickly you're at the mercy of fate (and fate is not merciful here).

Our group played Rotblack Sludge which is the introductory game from the main book. We did it in a single session pretty easily, even between doing food and a fair bit of goofing off. I imagine your group could do it in 1 as well, but 2 sessions tops for sure. There are a bunch of free adventures available on their website too if you wanted to get a little deeper! That link is to their "content" part of their site which is just an endless slew of free stuff. They really just want you to play their game. And quality enough that they know enough folks will buy it.

My main criticism of the game is that I'm not sure how this plays out in the long term. I think that narratively and thematically, the game is crushing it. But mechanically, the game is light. This is by design but I can see this turning away people looking for a long term replacement for d&d. I mean some committed groups will enjoy this forever regardless, but I feel like this has the legs for a few decent adventures before you'd wrap up and move on.

But a big part of long term games is character advancement. My understanding was that the levelling system in the game is pretty light to non-existent. It didn't come up in a one shot for obvious reasons. I'll admit I only own the free rules at this time, I'm still waiting for my copy of the actual book itself. So I had to go to my friend who ran the game to understand how the leveling system works. There's no experience points, so the group levels together. You check to see if you gain some hit points, you check to see if your stats increase, and you get a random piece of gear.

And when I say check I mean you roll some dice and compare to current. For hit points you roll 6d10. If the result is higher than your current max HP then you gain 1d6 max HP. Roll under and you lose 1 max HP. This choice frustrates me. I actually like that there's a chance to lose HP, but is this really the best way we could do this?

Okay that's not fair that's a knee jerk response. Let's talk about why it might work this way. This is a bleak world so it doesn't make sense for your characters to be able to heroically weather any storm. They're just people who got lucky and survived. So we want the ceiling for how many hit points a character can have to be on the low side. The system does do that, but it takes a weird path to get there, which feels out of place considering this is otherwise a very light game. I'm gonna talk about dice math for a bit so feel free to skip ahead to the next orange part if you feel sleepy.

The average of 6d10 is 33 (5.5x6), which means that characters who managed to level up multiple times are at much higher risk of losing a hit point. Average result of +1d6HP means about 3 hit points a level on average (accounting for the fact that you still could lose some along the way instead of gaining them). Assuming you start with 5 hit points (you might have 1-10 depending on your class), you're looking at 9 level ups before the odds are against you to gain HP. You might think damn. That's a long time. And assuming a character even lives to see level 10. And I agree.

So why does it need to be so convoluted along the way?

To replicate this system without the cumbersome dice roll comparisons you could have players roll 1d8-2: there's always a chance you'll get -1 HP, even 0 HP. After a character has 20+ HP it could change to 1d8-3, then 1d8-4 at 30 and so on. If you don't like the idea of players losing multiple HP then just have it be that any resulting negative is only -1 hp. But this way you're making 1 roll and decreasing the gain over time, while still gaining. You could also just roll a flat die every level, but I think in Mork Borg it is very thematic to have something like leveling up, which is normally comforting, be cause for fear.

Anyway this is easy enough to home brew out and it seems like a lot of folks do that. But I'm judging the game based on how it is not how I could change it.

The hit point math is done... FOR NOW.

The way stats level up is simpler. Roll a d6 for each stat. If the die is equal to or higher, gain +1 in that stat (max 6). If it's less, subtract 1 (max -3), a 1 is always a -1. I like the idea that your stats could fluctuate and that high stats are not safe bets. A few levels and weird rolls later and your worst stat could end up being your best. I think this part could be controversial but I like it and I like how they do it!

But there's not really much more to advancement than that. This is fine if you're just playing a short game. But you hear stories about people running campaigns for years on end and I guess... I just don't see that happening with Mork Borg. I might say it's not that kind of game but it actually kinda is though? They have rules for long term games.

The Calender of Nerthrubel fortells the end of the world. When 7 miseries have been accumulated, the world ends. At the start of the game you choose a die to roll for Miseries; as little as 1d2, as high as 1d100. The game master rolls the die and on a 1, the world gains a misery. So the size of the die does determine the upper limit of the game, but it is possible for the game to be over in as little as 7 in-game days regardless of the die type chosen. This is a very interesting mechanic! In fact I think it's one of the most interesting parts of the game! Most games struggle with a sense of urgency. Short of "you have 48 hours to save this prince" or "if you don't return with 25 wolf noses tomorrow you don't get paid", it can be hard to wrastle the players together to try and save the world in a timely manner. Meanwhile in Mork Borg your days are literally numbered. I can't imagine the tension that would come from being on your 6th misery knowing that every single day could be the last. That is truly bleak.

The role-playing opportunities in this setting for someone trying to grasp at the last ray of hope in the darkness, to fight against fate, or to battle the darkness within is truly incredible. The Dark Souls series has already probably come to mind by now for you and it's hard not to see that as an influence or at least a spiritual contender. There is something to be said about overcoming the odds and surviving in a bleak world. The Dark Souls franchise and periphery games have thrived on that for years. But when you die in that game, you come back you just lost some progress.

You don't come back when you die in Mork Borg, you just die.

So with no significant character advancement in the game, how do you meaningfully advance a character in a game like this? The game literally urges you not to get attached to your character. It's a bit tongue in cheek about it but it's not wrong.

At our table I was the only one who survived start to finish with the same character. And that wasn't from skill on my part i got a lot of dumb luck! We had 6 players and I think we had about 10 deaths? One player was on their like 4th wretch by the end of it! This seems excessive and I don't know if this is a standard experience, but we understood that's kind how it would go beforehand so our expectations were pretty set.

While I am sort of criticising this aspect, there is something pretty thrilling about going into a game without being too committed to your character. It makes those moments where you do realize them as a character in the narrative all the more meaningful, and more tragic when they die a terrible meaningless death. Nothing is precious in Mork Borg not even your life. So make the best of what you've got while you still have it.

Mork Borg is definitely not a perfect game.

But I cannot stop thinking about it and would drop any game to play it again, or even run it.

(and that's not even to speak of all the Borg spin offs like Pirate Borg, Orc Borg or CY_BORG!!!).

If you already play D&D or Pathfinder, Mork Borg is definitely worth your time to try, because you already know how to play it. It might not be for you, but if you go with the free rules and play a free adventure the only thing you're out is your time.

If you play other RPGs and enjoy dungeon crawls or hack and slash game play, this is still a great choice and will be easy to pick up and try.

If you're new to RPGs, Mork Borg is maybe a pretty weird one to start with, but is a really polished experience to try and a really easy game to cut your teeth on, so still not bad!

If you're more interested in character role playing, then Mork Borg might not be what you're looking for, but there are so many interesting narratives that can be explored here that I think would be really interesting and hard to replicate in other games!

If you're a power fantasy gamer, then I think Mork Borg might be a skip for you. Unless your power fantasy is to be a lobotomized mouse in Alley Cat Alley. No judgment, you do you.

If you took one look at the characters sheets up top and said "oh hell yeah I'm gonna play that!" and didn't read the rest of this lengthy text then we are already best friends but alas you'll never know it because you didn't read to the end... Oh well.

Now excuse me, I'm gonna dream about being ripped apart by a skeletal ooze and dying a painful death tonight (affectionate)!

[shootingstarrfish]

HOW DO YOU DRAW SO QUICKLY AGH

I swear every time I turn around you’ve posted another masterpiece I’m jealous you can draw so fast it takes me like 3 days at least for a piece lol

AHH i keep being asked this and im flattered yall think this?? ill take a bit to explain the choices that help with my speed and circumstantial stuff that helps a lot

obligatory YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THINGS FAST taking your time is good!! i just get bored easily so i like being done with things and moving on, but i'm very aware of the fact that social media rewards this and punishes inconsistency so i get it lol

long ass ramble under the cut lol

okay so things i deliberately do to draw fast-

i specifically have 2 distinct styles because i constantly have too many ideas, and most of them don't need to be several hour long illustrations so i try to pick my battles and go for a simpler more expressive style for shitposts/memes/etc and reserve my more detailed style for ideas that actually benefit from having that extra time and effort. ofc this won't work for everyone but i tend to have 50 styles at any given moment anyway so giving myself the freedom to switch between them has been really nice

not necessarily deliberate??? but theres no perfectionism in this house, which helps a lot so i don't spend ages fussing over minute details (im a perfectionist at heart but a lazy one LOL)

giving myself time deadlines is also really helpful, like "i have to finish the lineart im the next half an hour" has been really good for getting me to focus and get things done, even if i don't make the 'deadline'. i think generally being conscious of how i use my time is good

okay so circumstantial (?) things-

ALSO USE REFERENCES they help a lot!!! stumbling around trying to figure things out on your own is time consuming, don't be scared of using references!

this isn't a speed thing but i think it's important to note that i spend like ALL my free time drawing, probably to a ridiculous degree. i draw during my work break, i draw after work, on the weekend, speed is nothing in the face of time lol. im usually tired after work but im also stubborn so i try to push through and draw anyway (50/50 chance it works and i get something done or i just sit there in a daze wishing i was asleep LOL)

im also a dumbass who takes on way too much, i have a whole buncha zines and commissions constantly at all times cause i can never say no so i kinda just HAVE to be fast to keep up with everything. i don't recommend it but it's a thing ashdjfj

i also used to be on tiktok and for some god forsaken reason i spent like a solid few months consistently posting 3 times per day which burnt me out SO fast and i absolutely don't recommend but it definitely required speed lol

i will also say that as i draw more and feel more comfortable in my art it comes to me a lot more naturally, and i'm able to make decisions on the fly a lot easier

also okay so starr lore my dad used to be really against me drawing so i would have to sneak onto the computer when he was out of the house hahaha, this gave me anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours per day to do whatever i wanted, so i had to quickly adapt to that and be super fast if i ever wanted to get anything done

again speed isnt the be all end all of anything, tbh most of this is just my brain working in weird ways that prefers the quicker pace so please don't compare yourself!!

okay long ass ramble over thanks for reading <3333

[ikkaku-of-heart]

Finally someone gets it!

As a transman I can't get it how forced genderbend it a nice thing.....I just am so worried they would get horrific dysphoria for their first time and it irks me.....

Genderbend is not bad if it's done well and not sexism (how oda does)

Glad to help people know they aren’t alone in this whole thing. I don’t necessarily hate genderbend - I can enjoy it occasionally in a fanservice way - but honestly most of the time I just find it unnecessary.

Forced genderbend? Fuck that. What happened in chapter 1063/episode 1093 shouldn’t have been treated as comedy. It should have been horror.

I get people thinking fem!Law is hot but the whole context around the scene is just so fucking disturbing that it should have been fan-disservice. I mean, I can only imagine being forced into a body that isn’t your own is nothing short of terrifying. Especially when you consider that this happened mid-battle against one of the most powerful antagonists in the series, so you’re now suddenly in a body that feels *completely off* when you’re fighting for your life. Even without the sexist implication that being in the female body made Law weaker (hate that bullshit and fuck you Toei and Doc Q) it’s still jarring ashell and something like that could get you killed in this kind of situation.

I could get into the full implications of just how dark and horrifying I feel this scene really is (and perhaps someday I will with it being tagged as such), but for now, I have to say that, while Oda was sexist, I’m more disappointed in the fandom over it than him. Oda I sadly expect to some extent. The fandom? Yeah, the obsession they immediately had over it and the way the tag has been flooded with people going gah-gah over it and fetishizing it and (in the case of one zine server that I ended up leaving in part because of this) even using it as an excuse to ship Law with Blackbeard instead of calling out the sexism and transphobia and fetishism and recognizing it as horror…

Yeah, not a fan. It’s not canon as far as I’m concerned. I can accept people thinking the fem!Hearts are hot, and people can draw and write what they like. I won't bash anyone for it and I respect that some people see it as harmless. But I’m just really not thrilled that more people aren’t calling out how problematic the whole scene is. I’d probably be a little less pissed at the fandom if I saw it more balanced, with both simping AND pointing out how bad that scene really was.

Alas, fandom gonna fandom, and I won’t let them ruin my love for the Hearts. I'll just keep doing what I always do and write them being awesome, funny, competent pirates who absolutely are their captain's hype squad. They can say he looks great as a girl and believe he can kick ass in any body, but the reaction they had over it, and the fandom's continued reaction, just gives me the ick.

[sir-arlieosaurus-lung-struggler]

hi ppl. Welcome to my lil corner of the internet i guess.

About me

I go by Show & Scar & Dino & those could change but I love them 🥰

I use he/him pronouns, some neos idk

Minor

Links

☆ @shketchark is my side blog for art & general creative stuff

☆ @Arlieosaurus-the-2nd is mainly a "reblog/random shit" alt account (I linked it cause it wouldn't do it itself)

☆ @namehelp is my side blog for names & giving ppl names through asks :] (long hiatuses are prevalent, depression is a bitch, ill always answer asks though, it will take a while, im sorry for this ;>)

☆ Heres my pronouns.page and my pronouns.cc with a dump of my flags & pronouns & stuff (the 2nd 1 is most extensive). Heres a post w/ my lables (linked) that is occasionally updated

☆ my new carrd to be added soon

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Favorite posts (links embedded in text)

☆ MMIP Zine

☆ Essay on being Native & Aro

☆ Art of my favorite Indigiqueer fictional son :>(Marshall for short lol)

☆ proximiplatonic/intaplatonic coining post

☆ STOO/Kiwi coining post

☆ april fools boop-o-meter

☆ aro ford hc & aro ford + bi mable hc

☆ village accent

☆ floating orb/void wish

☆ DONT BE GUILY OVER TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF (message to me)

☆ finding $30 after complaining I didn't have money for book of bill

☆ 2020 protest art

☆ election day

☆ election day vent

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DNI/ppl i want to block me (plz :] )

Block me if you are: homophobic, transphobic, aphobic, a queer exclusionist, racist, ablist, a proshipper, radqueer, or a terf.

Block me if you voted for trump

Fuckers who don't respect triggers

NSFW blogs

Adult ran accounts are mostly fine but as long as its not NSFW, but I still examine caution around accounts run by adults

If you don't like me, just block 🤷 I couldn't care less

I'm online to be happy & for good experiences so I block liberally

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Fyi

☆ you may notice editing/rewording on this section. This is cause i have extreme anxiety & fear confrontation- or just fear of interaction honestly. Therefor i fear making strong statments, even about myself & things im passionate about, & feel the need to explain everything (hence this whole paragraph. I'm making baby steps on this). I'm online for positive experiences, whilst I do that i attempt to educate myself, but things are multifaceted & require research & talking to people & motivation/depression dosnt often allow me that energy. I'm ultimately here to turn my brain off & escape. I have alot going on & my brain only takes so much. Editing this was just for my own mental security as someone with life long untreated anxiety & dosnt show change in my stances.

☆ I stand with Ukraine 🇺🇦 & Palestine 🇵🇸. I honestly dont support any state or gov, I support people, not an entity. I don't think the innocent should be killed on either/any side, I don't support killing innocent people in general. I don't post about them alot but thats my opinion & I'll stand by it. Ik having some flags in my bio doesn't do shit, this is just an fyi cause I don't really post about it & don't want ppl misconstuding me. I just use tumblr as an escape & dont feel educated enough to speak on the matter more than this & the occasional reblog. That and I don't want saying some shit wrong about such an important issue to bite me in the ass.

How you can help Palestine while being a child/minor

[a-substantial-trash-pile]

i’ve been getting haunted by dumb past social mistakes i’ve done. also trying to tell myself that i have the right to be mad/upset about things that have happened to me instead of completely blaming and beating myself up for them. because maybe it wasn’t just me. sorry. long pointless ramble of “dumb thing that shouldn’t bother me but is bothering me again” so i can sort out my brainwaves:

like a little while ago in a discord server, before i requested people use tone indicators with me in my bio, i had a misunderstanding with another person in the server. i had made a joke and the person just responded to me with “No.” my brain immediately interpreted this as a cold response compared to how they were responding to others at the time (friendlier, full sentences). it didn’t help that i was already having a bad mental health day. i thought i had offended them somehow, so my socially awkward ass (who was still trying to learn how the discord social system/unspoken rules worked) decided to dm them to apologize and also mention that i liked their art in the zine that we both were in, because i thought it would soften the awkwardness and make it more lighthearted. the response back to my stupid paragraph of a message was just, “jesus christ girl it’s not that big a deal.“ which my brain interpreted as annoyed/aggressive. so i apologized for dm’ing because at that point i started really panicking. the person responded, “maybe think before you go dm’ing people out of the blue next time.” i told them that i was sorry that they had to be my learning experience and that i wouldn’t bother them again and that was how it ended.

except this stupid interaction keeps coming back up in my mind once in a while to haunt me. and i would beat myself up about it. because yeah, i shouldn’t have dm’d this person that i haven’t dm’d before. but at the same time, i wasn’t really familiar with what was “socially acceptable” in discord. i didn’t see dm’ing in the same light as other discord users at the time.

when i told that person that i was sorry that they had to be my learning experience, i meant it both ways. to them and to myself. because i know i fucked up, but at the same time, i wish that person had been nicer to me about it. and i wish they hadn’t responded to me with just that “No” that started the whole misunderstanding in the first place. and even though i don’t feel like i have the right to be, i feel angry about it. or maybe frustrated is the more accurate word. because i know that if i had been in that person’s shoes, which i have been, i would not have responded like that. and maybe that’s another problem with me: not being able to be aggressive and stand up for myself. and i guess deep down i was expecting to receive the same treatment that i give. in hindsight it could’ve been worse and the person could’ve been even meaner, but i think it was just a shock to my system at the time, because i had this rose-tinted glasses impression of people in that server being all chill. i got too comfortable and i overstepped boundaries. but i’m trying to tell myself that the way the interaction went isn’t completely my fault. it isn’t because i’m terrible and deserve the way that person responded to me. i shouldn’t feel guilty about feeling upset about it. my brain just doesn’t work the same as others and i have to learn to be kinder to myself.

anyway that interaction made me realize how useful tone indicators were to me, which in turn made me think that maybe i actually am in the autism spectrum. and here we are. so i guess i can thank that person in a way. but also fuck them for making that bad day i was having worse /lh (but also deep down kinda /s)