#they're basically the same game? just with different characters

[cavegirlpoems]

ok so. This is going to be long and pedantic. I've added a read-more link to spare everybody the tedium of my pedantry.

1: you will notice that nic did not actually list 'AD&D 2e' as one of those 'older editions' he was talking about. there are good reasons for this, because it does those things much less than the editions that came before it. AD&D 2e is generally regarded as the point where the game shifted to be more tactical and combat focussed, alongside the rise of Dragonlance-style adventure design which shifted the adventure structure from locations to linear plots.

If AD&D 2e is included in discussions about 'older dnd' - which it often isn't! - it's the outlier, and represents one extreme of what those editions did. In many ways, it's like a missing link between older editions and the direction wotc took the game.

1.1: baldurs gate is not early editions of dnd. It's a modification of 2e. Planescape torment is also not an early edition of dnd. It's also a modification of 2e. Also, crucially, both of these are video games rather than ttrpgs, and working by an entirely different set of constraints. Using them as a point of comparison isn't very useful.

2: here's a b/x character sheet off google images:

there are 16 mechanical details listen on it (class/level, xp, AC, HP, initiative bonus, to-hit bonuses, scores to hit, strength, stats, saves, exploration actions, save bonus vs magic, worn armour, class abilities, gear, weapons & damage, and cash). Of these, only 5 (AC, bonuses to hit, initiative, to-hit scores, weapons) are exclusively combat abilities. HP and saves aren't exclusively combat, they're for danger in general, which combat is only a part of. And this is the most generous way of counting possible; if we count each duplicate seperately (ie each save, to-hit bonus, and activities) it goes from 5 out of 16 to 6 out of 27. So, taking this metric, certainly 1e expects you to engage in combat, but its not taking up anywhere near to the amount of space you claim.

Yes, b/x dnd has more combat than world of darkness, a wildly different game about being a melodramatic goth with angst (wraith even literally gives you an Angst stat to manage). If we compare it to games in the same medieval fantasy adventure milieu - things like runequest or savage worlds - then the amount of combat crunch is entirely average, possibly on the lower side.

3: the actual amount of tactical granularity in early dnd is really quite low. In many, different weapons don't even do different amounts of damage: a dagger deals d6 damage just like a crossbow or claymore. A class like the Fighter doesn't get more tactical combat options in b/x, they just have flat better AC, to-hit and HP. The other big perks of being a fighter are 1) access to a wide range of magic items, including magic swords, which mostly either give you Bigger Numbers or grant you non-combat utility benefits, or 2) the ability to lead soldiers and build a castle at high levels. Combat is streamlined, and most of the granularity is front-loaded into the pre-combat procedures around surprise and so on.

3.1 also, in b/x? every basic-ass goblin is doing d6 damage. Unless you're a fighter or dwarf, you've got a d6 HD at best. You just flat die at 0. Maybe you rolled poorly for your first level. maybe you have 2 HP. A lot of fights are essentially a coin-flip to see if you die, unless you tilt things in your favour before the fight begins.

4: you are correct that 'dungeons' and 'dragons' are both in the name. Let's examine these in more depth:

4.1: The word 'dungeon' comes first, and is where you will spend most of your time in early dnd. The dungeon is not a combat encounter, it's a location to map and explore. Early D&D has extensive rules for mapping, logistics, light, opening doors, dealing with traps, managing hired followers, tracking time, and that sort of thing. If you look at what the game devotes the bulk of its mechanics to for what its about, then early dnd is a game about exploration; the actual mechanics for combat are far more bare-bones. Even when you get to an encounter, between surprise, reaction checks and morale, an encounter is far less likely to be violent than in later editions. Heck, early D&D even has more systems for running away (albeit bare-bones) than later editions.

4.2: Now, lets move onto the other word; 'dragons'. Did you know that every dragon has a listed probability that it's asleep when you find it? This suggests that you're not intended to just fight it; there's a chance you can sneak past it to steal its treasure without fighting it. there's also a chance for each dragon that it talks, which again gives you a chance that a dragon encounter turns into a bilbo-style conversation rather than just a fight. If you do fight it, unless you're very high level, it probably squashes you quite easily. But if it doesn't, there are rules for taming dragons for you to ride, so they're not just there to be killed.

You can certainly expect to encounter a dragon at some point, but that's not actually the same as expecting to have to fight it.

5: yes, dnd is derived from wargames, however it's worth pointing out that the wargames it's derived from are very different from what we see today with things like warhammer. It's reasonable to call them tabletop milsims: they cared about things like logistics, fog-of-war, and so on, and relied heavily on a GM for this; they weren't just combat. This influence is clear in early D&D, which also cares about logistics etc.

5.1 early editions definitely did care if your adventurer died, even if it happened a lot; this is largely what diferentiated them from the wargames that came before. In fact, the use of HP and the od&d 'alternative combat rules' that went on to be adopted - rather than the more brutal chainmail combat system - was specifically to allow PCs to die less.

5.3: early dnd is really not as murder-hobo-ey as the game would later become, because PCs that did that would die quickly, and you wanted to be alive to level up. Combat was less of a focus, had more ways to avoid it, and would kill you more easily, compared to later editions. So, people got into less fights.

Now, I can't claim to know what happened at every table back in the 80s, and neither can anybody else; not even people who were there at the time. But I've read a good chunk of DND adventures from the time, both from TSR and third-party ones in White Dwarf. They featured combat, certainly, but less than in later editions. The focus was on - say it with me now! - dungeon exploration.

ok pedantry over.

One of the funnier manifestations of gleeblor is Pathfinder players: I'll make a post about how D&D will color people's expectations of what RPGs can be like and create a very narrow set of expectations about the medium, and inevitably some Pathfinder player will be like "haha yeah those D&D players should really broaden their horizons, Pathfinder fixes all of their issues," and my friend. I'm sorry to say this but you are not immune to gleeblor and in many regards where it comes to expectations of playstyle created by the game, your favorite game is in fact just another company copying D&D's homework and slightly altering the wording.

[entamesubs]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!! Episodes 140-145 Sub Release

Torrent

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Please make sure to read the FAQ if you have any questions.

There are translation notes below for 142+, so spoilers ahead.

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臼と黒 / usu to kuro Usu and Dark

When Yuuhi accidentally reads it as "White and Black" during the preview, it's because 臼 (usu) and 白 (shiro, which means white) look very similar in terms of kanji, so Yuamu is chastising him for reading it wrong as they're two different characters.

翁丁臼 Otei Usu

Here's a funny one. Otes' "old-timey" name can be read as "old guy with mortar". Do with that information what you will.

お殿様 / otonousama + 武将 / bushou "Honored Lord" + "Military Commander"

There's some liberty taken with the titles the characters use in this arc as there's really no good English translation of them.

First, "Honored Lord" can mean a high minister or a lord (or both, it's not exactly exclusive). One of the synonyms given was "daimyo", but that is very much something completely different (and also, if they really wanted to call him a daimyo, they'd have just said it).

Second, Yuudias refers to himself as a 武将 (bushou), though as I researched it, 武将 (bushou) is normally translated to "warlord" which was fitting for that time. However... Yuudias is not a warlord. He neither has his own soldiers nor his own land. Given that he's basically trying to introduce himself the old-fashioned way to "fit in", and as a nod to his own military accomplishments, he probably just thought it was the right word to describe himself.

Though, it also felt strange to try and translate that as "military commander" considering that "Commander" is a real position in real life, and in the context of the show, was also something that Zwijo used to be titled with ("Supreme Commander"). We know that Yuudias' official military designation within the Velgearian army was "Captain" (from episode 20 & later 49).

Anyway, I went back and forth on this in my head. It was genuinely a little hard trying to think of appropriate titles that didn't make me feel as though I was mislabeling them. This strict adherence to the correct military title is the reason why Zwijo is usually referred to as "Lord Zwijo" in the subtitles when Dinois and Myuda address him as Zwijo-sama. They're still showing him the due respect he deserves as their Supreme Commander, I cannot call him "Commander Zwijo" since he is no longer part of the army.

It goes against what I personally would like, but given that I have no other ideas, "military commander" had to do for Yuudias.

This is basically a lot of words to say that the original idea was the best one, LOL. I guess Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu were also known as "military commanders" back then, so it's not that bad... I just have a little bit of a complex about correct titling.

Speaking of Ieyasu...

Ah, how pleasant! Two awakenings and one sleep. This dream of a fleeing world! The roseate hues of early dawn!

Otes' summon chant for Outerverse Oblivion is a nod/reference to Tokugawa Ieyasu's death poem. It was customary back in the day to compose a poem on the verge of death by learned men (noblemen and monks, mainly).

This translation was taken from Phillip Johnston. While translating SEVENS/Go Rush is my forte, I defer to the professionals for poetry-related matters. It is so much more complicated translating poetry than it is some dialogue from a card game anime.

"The Yuudias Incident"

I cannot give a crash course on Sengoku era Japan in the span of a single translation note, but basically the era was very hectic due to the different lords fighting over land and to rule Japan. These lords also betrayed each other constantly, backstabbing and overthrowing the masters they served like changing clothes.

When Otes said that Yuudias rebelling is "fitting" for the time, he's referencing that same backstabbing endemic to the era.

The title of the episode is also a reference to one of these betrayals, known as "The Honnouji Incident". It was when Oda Nobunaga was betrayed by one of his vassals and forced to commit seppuku (kill himself).

from the hour of the rooster until the crow’s evening cries

The "hour of the rooster" is mainly known as around 5-7pm. I'm not quite sure when "the crow's evening cry" is supposed to be, but I assume around 9-10pm. Zwijo makes his proclamation as a way to say "children have to work until this time, then they can play" (as was the case back then).

Episode 145

Not really a TL note, but just wanted to point out something really cool about this episode.

The episode is a reference to "Blink" from S29E10 of Doctor Who (the season where David Tennant was the Doctor and the main female lead was Martha Jones).

Yuamu font changes

Baloo 2 -> Sephora Sans Serif Medium

This is the same font that all the Darkmen (+ Dark Meister) use, but now with Yuamu's old colors. I felt like it was a cute change to recognize who she was before and how she's changed since then while still retaining her old flair.

-------------------------------

Well, if the dub is to be believed, we have anywhere from 6 to 7 episodes of Go Rush left. It feels kinda strange being so close to the end and yet not quite seeing where the end could be, but I suppose the same thing happened with SEVENS.

Regardless, have fun and keep enjoying Go Rush!

"Are you back on normal weekly releases?" 🤷‍♀️しらん

[artificialchaoscola]

Hello! I am so inspired by your fanfiction, it is amazing, great! I’m curiuse, what do you think about movie Sonic 3 and about Sonic and Shadow relationship there?? Maybe will you wtite something anout sonadow from Sonic 3? And what do you think about differece between movie Sonic/Shadow and comics Sonic/Shadow??

Thank you, I appreciate that!

Hm... That's a good question. I have seen the Sonic movies, and I do have thoughts on how the third handled their dynamic.

I should start with this and be upfront: I dislike the movies. There are things that they do well, and overall they exist to just be fun, but they also make changes to characterization and events that I don't appreciate. If being negative about these movies upsets anyone, I wanted to put this warning first so they can scroll on! (Also I'm sure half of this makes no sense so tolerate me, I am sleep-deprived!)

So first off, the differences between comic/game and movie Sonic and Shadow are substantial.

Let's start with Sonic:

Sonic in the games is meant to be much simpler. He is an anomaly of nature with an origin unknown. His carefree spirit, his love of the wind and adventure, his desire to help others... It's all simply who he is. In the same way Eggman's desires are straightforward in their cruelty, Sonic's are straightforward in their compassion. He doesn't care if he's seen as the bad guy and he doesn't care about being "the Hero". He will do what is right because it is right. He enters conflict one way and will leave said conflict in the same exact way, instead influencing the characters around him to change for the better. In the games since Sonic Colors, he has been more... snarky (?) over the more whimsical and "I say weird poetic shit that makes people think deep teehee~" dialogue the older games had, but overall this stuff has remained fairly consistent. That's about as easy as I can put it.

Online, you will see plenty of discourse over who Sonic is as a character. Now, I'm not a stickler regarding this kind of thing. I don't mind spin-off material changing up aspects of Sonic to better suit the story, even if they're not my favorite thing. Sonic Boom making him more egotistical and dry made sense for the comedy. Older cartoons like SatAM and Underground being written to follow how American cartoons approached characterization and humor also made sense, and in turn, it made sense why Archie Sonic was written in the way he was. In general, I like that these things exist on paper, even if they're not my cup of tea.

That all being said, Movie Sonic makes a lot of changes I just don't really like. While his exact origins are unknown, they've shaped his morality and desires off of the influence of Longclaw, his deceased mother figure. He struggles with doing "the right thing" because he wants to be a hero, but he's just a kid learning responsibilities. He's learning about the world around him and being taught through his relationships with Tom and Maddie. I guess, in a way, he is "learning" to be like the Sonic in the games. I think he's written like this so younger audiences have a character they can project onto. This makes perfect sense, as a lot of the nuances of Sonic's character from the games might be lost when translated into a movie format. People didn't really understand a lot of the qualities of Sonic X's Sonic for a long time, and the movies are much shorter than a show, so it all makes sense...

I just find it really boring.

Sonic as a character is very unique and multifaceted. Mysterious in so many ways, yet gives you a sense of hope in the darkest of moments. His influence on others, his worldview, his dynamics... They all feel so fascinating in the games. He appears simple, but beneath the surface, there is much to understand. Movie Sonic is basically a completely different character at his core with surface-level attributes of Game Sonic -- fast, quippy, might have ADHD but we haven't had the talk, "good", will always do "the right thing" in the end. And again, that's fine. I don't want to yuck anyone's yum! It's just not for me.

Now for Shadow:

Movie Shadow did NOT have enough screen time, so this is susceptible to change in the future, but personality-wise he seemed fairly consistent with his SA2 appearance which I appreciate. He is quiet, mourning, a bit sassy when he needs to be, lost in his pursuit of vengeance. They kept the theme of Shadow's loss of autonomy due to Gerald's influence, they highlighted the impact Maria had on his life enough for viewers to understand why he cared so deeply (while also correlating it to Sonic's relationship with both Tails and Tom in subtle ways, which is neat), they weren't afraid of making him appear sad. They even nodded to his insecurities about his alien DNA, an understated aspect of Shadow's character overall. Not to mention the "revenge = suicide" theme they didn't shy away from, which was a pleasant surprise.

However... I've tweeted about this before, but Maria's depiction in this movie and how it in turn changes parts of Shadow's character REALLY... REAAALLLLLLY aggravates me.

Shadow's entire character surrounded itself with the idea of identity and choice for years. Was he a weapon? Was he a cure? His creation in a lab for the "betterment" of humanity, a weapon for G.U.N. + the Black Arms, and as a cure for Maria... The core aspect of his own game was his realizing he had the potential to be ALL of these things, but it was up to him to decide. Not only about choice, but the fact that he himself should be the one to make said choice. That he cannot let others influence him in his choices. This is a huge part of the tragedy of his "death" in SA2. Maria's wish for him and Gerald's meddling with his mind symbolically kill him. His game is about reclaiming the loss of his personhood and putting the past behind him.

Movie Shadow's origins make him a being from space. He is not made in a lab, so he has no insecurities about curing Maria despite being supposedly "perfect." He is not on the ARK, detached from the world and planet his sister loved dearly, unable to fundamentally understand even a fraction of the normal life that was robbed from her (and him too, subtly). He is not a weapon for G.U.N., so he has no reason to be confused over the dichotomy of humanity's love and cruelty. He is not ALL of him, they've only made a fraction of him. He is fundamentally a weaker character because of this change.

(Also, just... writing Maria as not sick is a huge blow. Shadow Generations gave us a huge insight into how her illness affects her, how it pains both Gerald and Shadow to witness... Such powerful representation, only to remove it entirely from the movie. And then you go online seeing people praising Movie Maria over Game one because she got to have a montage where she played with Shadow... like that's not the WHOLE POINT of her character... that she can't BE a "normal" kid... There are kids out there playing these games who felt seen by her depiction in the games... One day I might go REALLY into this because it just offends me personally, but yeah, don't like it!)

Oh also I hated Gerald this movie. Everything about that. It's not Shadow related and I'm not as passionately angry about it as I am with Maria but I just needed to get that out there lmfao

Now for both Sonic and Shadow together:

For the few moments they had, they were cute! Shadow was depicted as a similar age to Sonic, which is great! They had Sonic trying to reach out to him constantly because he could see he was hurting, also great! Sonic having a moment of rage and nearly killing Shadow is... interesting BUT for the plot they set up, it made sense. I think Sonic going on a quest for revenge at the expense of his friends is like... incredibly generic and possibly the most boring route to take for him. Like for so many other protagonists this wouldn't be an issue, but this is such a not-Sonic thing to do in this way I couldn't help but laugh a bit when he and Knuckles were beefing. I understand what they were doing. It's just... That's Sonic talking to Knuckles. For movieverse, it makes sense don't get me wrong... I just laughed a little.

The scene they had on the moon was my favorite. Not only because relating Shadow to stars propaganda was going strong in my head, but I like that Sonic was the one to make him see that revenge wasn't the answer. In the games it's Amy in a different way, and I would never change that about the games, but for the Movieverse I like this. Very cute. It worked well for the changes they made to each character. It was also a great message on grief, even if it isn't how Sonic would convey this message in the games. I do want to write about this scene one day and why I liked it for the movies, but I want to rewatch the movie before I do so.

But yeah overall... Sonic movies are meh to me.

To answer your second question: I will likely not write a fanfic within the movieverse since I don't find it compelling. If inspiration ever strikes though then I'd be open to it, I'm just not really a fan and don't have any plans to do so as of now. Hopefully that all made sense!

[kumakuma-circus]

one of my favorite persona things i've learned is that like. the "present" point in the timeline for p3d and p5d is at somepoint during p5. so elizabeth has to go back in time to grab sees. which, given shinjiro not being there (outside of dlc), means she specifically chose to go to a point in time before the p3 mc's death but after shinjiro's. extremely hilarious to me honestly-

[vaguely-concerned]

as I am replaying origins -- a game which, to be clear, I love very VERY much -- I can't help but feel that people do don the rose coloured glasses on it a bit specifically when it comes to the range of dialogue options you're actually given to work with at any given time (something I've seen my fair share of silent vs. voiced protagonist discourse about over the years *smokes tired cigarette in survivor of a decade of DA tumblr*). like... there are a couple of situations where you're given a decent range of responses, but the vast majority of the time you have about three dialogue options, and often they're presented sort of like 'polite/bland/unprovoked near-cartoonish levels of assholery'. arranged like, y'know:

I am [BLANK]. It's an honor to make your acquaintance.

You can call me [BLANK].

How dare you speak to me. Fuck you and your family back five generations. I'm going to rob your mother's grave before your eyes.

(sometimes if you're real lucky you get the secret extra 'Something else/I'm bald/but I'm a dwarf!' option)

I'm not at all saying it's worse in that aspect than the other games (Dalish Inquisitor 'Who's Mythal' just entered the chat), but I do think it's worth considering that this might be a bit of a franchise original sin that has been present since the beginning, as indeed it is in most rpgs because making rpgs is real hard, and you notice it more with the dialogue wheel format than when the responses and questions you can ask are all laid out in a list together

[goldentigerfestival]

I love the vocal nuance in this exchange, but also posting this for my differences posts because this is one of the changes that infuriates me the most. Yuri didn't threaten Ioder, did not threaten him with a weapon, and just said he'd punch him in a lazy, half joking voice (half joking as in, he really doesn't want to hear that - that's just his way of saying so; but that's not the voice of someone who is super angry and threatening).

My other huge grievance is that this is a recurring issue between them in the dub. Yuri is pretty much always vocally rude to Ioder. Ioder has done nothing to wrong him or anyone and has only ever done good for the people where he's able to.

Yet despite Ioder being nothing but sincere, honest and polite with Yuri, in fact even happy to see him here and there, dub Yuri is outright tonally rude to him leading right up this scene where he threatens Ioder in this dark voice. Meanwhile he's actually just supposed to be… lazily telling Ioder he'll punch him in his Yuri Lowell way of saying "I don't want to hear that".

The dub really just wanted to turn Yuri into this dark edgelord and I hate that for my goofy, silly boy.

[ex-vespidae]

i would love to make kirby charts for my headcanons and theories

[lavnderkiwi]

Just a photo list of characters i've made throughout different games:

BG3 - Elora(High half elf), Ivy (Drow), and Vera (Tiefling) [Haven't touched this game in months so i had to remember what kind of elf Elora was lmaooo]

Cyberpunk 2077 - Vanessa, Ivan, and Avery

Dragon age Inquisition [bc i don't have any good photos of my hawke in DA2 or my warden in DAO :'( ] - Valoris (Dalish) and Herah (Qunari)

[flufftober]

🍂 🍃 Hello and welcome to our fourth annual Flufftober 🍂 🍃

We’re so excited to be back and have you here once again!

As always, let’s fill the month of October with as much fluff as possible 🥰 for that to happen, you can either use our 31 regular prompts or enjoy a little challenge 😏

Below the cut, you'll find all our rules, posting info, and all the prompts in writing. If you have any more questions, please feel free to send us an ask.

And now, for the challenge...

Prompt Extras

We love to see how many of you get inspired by our prompts every year - be it by the original list or the Prompt Extras. Once again we're offering you that option and you're more than welcome to replace prompts from the original list if they don't work for you for whatever reason - no explanation needed.

As has become tradition, we offer you last year's top five fan favorites (as voted in the end survey). In addition to that, we also offer a little challenge: five angsty prompts for you to turn fluffy!

If you don't want to replace any prompt from the original list but still love the additional ones - or you simply want to challenge yourself even further - you can also mix them all together!

So in whichever way you use these Prompt Extras, have fun with them and go wild 💚

We hope you like these prompts, and now

Happy Creating 🥳

Standard Blog Rules & FAQ

Addendum: We do not allow AI creations of any kind.

(Due to previous asks, we made sure to add more points to this section - while they're not new rules, they're newer to this list, so you'll find them colored green)

No inc*st or p*dophilia - we can’t keep you from writing it or creating art for it but it won’t be reblogged. No inc*st: This rule does not apply to distant cousins and such, as you might find in the LotR fandom (or basically in all of European Monarchy). The line we draw is at direct blood relations (siblings, parents, kids) and/or legal guardianship. No p*dophilia: This rule does not rule out fandoms that feature teenagers such as Harry Potter, Heartstoppers, Hunger Games, etc. It also doesn't mean you can't write about their time together as teenagers! It's aimed at ships in which one is a minor and the other is not - but since even that has grey areas, the rule is this: if you keep it SFW, all is good and allowed, we don't care; if it turns NSFW, be mindful of the legalities of the world/society/times your characters live in.

No hate or ship bashing - we’re all different and we all love different things. As long as it doesn’t go against rule #1, it’s allowed.

Tag correctly! Trigger warnings (including cheating!), ships, ratings, (pure) smut, etc - it’s all fine as long as you tag it.

There’s absolutely no word count restriction, write as little or as much as you like.

In regards to art, anything goes: drawings, paintings, collages, mood boards, gif sets, videos, playlists… the sky’s the limit (though not really…). If you would like to create a podfic, the fic you're using does not have to be new - your creation will be new!

You can mix and mash different mediums however you like, be it within one prompt or on different days.

While we can’t force you to write fluff or create fluffy art, please try to keep in mind that this is a fluff event 😉 that, of course, doesn't mean you can't combine it with angsty/whumpy prompts - hurt/comfort is absolutely welcome!

You can start creating as soon as you see this - but please refrain from posting before the respective day.

If you post early, we will schedule your post for the correct day; if you use multiple prompts in one creation, we will post on the earliest day you used.

You can participate on as many days as you like, even if it’s just one; you can also create multiple entries for the same day.

You can replace as many original prompts as you like with our prompt extras; you can also combine them with the original prompts or create for them in addition, that's completely up to you.

It’s okay to write one story/a series for all the prompts.

You do not have to stick to one character, ship, or even one fandom - switch as often as you like to or even write for multiple ships for one day.

The ship does not have to be a romantic one! Friendship and family feels are more than welcome (but this is not a way to get around rule #1!)

Original works as well as OCs in fandoms are welcome! But please make sure to mark these clearly, either in the tags or the post itself. We're not familiar with all fandoms (though we're definitely learning a lot!), so we're not always sure what might be an OC and what might be such an unknown side character not even Google can find them...

Reader insert fics (for example "character x reader") as well as RPFs are absolutely allowed.

Other languages are also welcome - just make sure to clearly mark the day and fandom so that we can still easily reblog.

This event can be combined with other events as long as the other event allows it.

Late entries are always welcome, even if it is months or years later.

All fandoms and ships are welcome - fanon and canon - as long as they’re of age (in case you want to add smut) and not related.

Posting

Posting to tumblr

Please use the tag #flufftober2024 Please make sure there is NO SPACE between flufftober and 2024! We will NOT be checking the other tag this year!

Since tags are sometimes wonky, make sure to also mention us with @flufftober in your post

We will try to catch them all, but please don't be mad if we miss a post or if it gets reblogged a bit late

If you're absolutely certain a post has slipped past us, feel free to send an ask with the link to your post

To make reblogging easier for us, make sure to add the following tags: #flufftober2024 #day [xy] #[fandom] #[ship and/or main character(s)]

If you're using a prompt extra tag it as #alt [number]

Posting to ao3

You can add your creation to the collection Flufftober 2024 (either as flufftober2024 or as flufftober_2024)

Late entries are always welcome, on tumblr as well as the ao3 collection! Neither will close - but like always, reblogs will become less regular the more months have passed...

Prompts

1. Lost Pet Meet Cute

2. “Left. Other left!”

3. Favorite Scent

4. Market Day

5. Acorn, Chestnut, Pine Cone

6. Mistaken Identity

7. Hoodie Weather

8. Chopping & Piling Wood

9. “Don’t do that!” - “But…”

10. Bet, Game, Contest

11. Ingredients & Spells

12. “This is spooky.” - “Really?”

13. Attic, Cellar, Hidden Room

14. Fantasy AU/Mundane AU

15. “What are you wearing?” - “It’s laundry day!”

16. Yes, No, Maybe

17. Only One Bed

18. Bewitched

19. Yarn

20. Paw

21. Bonfire

22. Heirloom

23. Stormy Night

24. Comfort Food

25. Haunted House

26. “I can’t find it.”

27. Afternoon Stroll

28. Lucky Charm

29. Time Capsule

30. “Forever?”

31. Make a Wish

Prompt Extras

Last Year's Favorites

Alt 1: “I’ve got you”

Alt 2: Rainy Day

Alt 3: “Wait you love me?” - “I always have”

Alt 4: “I hate it” - “No, you don’t”

Alt 5: Porch Swing

Challenge "Make it Fluffy!"

Alt 6: Gravestone

Alt 7: Getting Revenge

Alt 8: Written but never sent

Alt 9: Suddenly Severed Communication

Alt 10: Rejected, Betrayed, Exiled, Left Behind

[ecrivainsolitaire]

A summary of the Chinese AI situation, for the uninitiated.

These are scores on different tests that are designed to see how accurate a Large Language Model is in different areas of knowledge. As you know, OpenAI is partners with Microsoft, so these are the scores for ChatGPT and Copilot. DeepSeek is the Chinese model that got released a week ago. The rest are open source models, which means everyone is free to use them as they please, including the average Tumblr user. You can run them from the servers of the companies that made them for a subscription, or you can download them to install locally on your own computer. However, the computer requirements so far are so high that only a few people currently have the machines at home required to run it.

Yes, this is why AI uses so much electricity. As with any technology, the early models are highly inefficient. Think how a Ford T needed a long chimney to get rid of a ton of black smoke, which was unused petrol. Over the next hundred years combustion engines have become much more efficient, but they still waste a lot of energy, which is why we need to move towards renewable electricity and sustainable battery technology. But that's a topic for another day.

As you can see from the scores, are around the same accuracy. These tests are in constant evolution as well: as soon as they start becoming obsolete, new ones are released to adjust for a more complicated benchmark. The new models are trained using different machine learning techniques, and in theory, the goal is to make them faster and more efficient so they can operate with less power, much like modern cars use way less energy and produce far less pollution than the Ford T.

However, computing power requirements kept scaling up, so you're either tied to the subscription or forced to pay for a latest gen PC, which is why NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and all the other chip companies were investing hard on much more powerful GPUs and NPUs. For now all we need to know about those is that they're expensive, use a lot of electricity, and are required to operate the bots at superhuman speed (literally, all those clickbait posts about how AI was secretly 150 Indian men in a trenchcoat were nonsense).

Because the chip companies have been working hard on making big, bulky, powerful chips with massive fans that are up to the task, their stock value was skyrocketing, and because of that, everyone started to use AI as a marketing trend. See, marketing people are not smart, and they don't understand computers. Furthermore, marketing people think you're stupid, and because of their biased frame of reference, they think you're two snores short of brain-dead. The entire point of their existence is to turn tall tales into capital. So they don't know or care about what AI is or what it's useful for. They just saw Number Go Up for the AI companies and decided "AI is a magic cow we can milk forever". Sometimes it's not even AI, they just use old software and rebrand it, much like convection ovens became air fryers.

Well, now we're up to date. So what did DepSeek release that did a 9/11 on NVIDIA stock prices and popped the AI bubble?

Oh, I would not want to be an OpenAI investor right now either. A token is basically one Unicode character (it's more complicated than that but you can google that on your own time). That cost means you could input the entire works of Stephen King for under a dollar. Yes, including electricity costs. DeepSeek has jumped from a Ford T to a Subaru in terms of pollution and water use.

The issue here is not only input cost, though; all that data needs to be available live, in the RAM; this is why you need powerful, expensive chips in order to-

Holy shit.

I'm not going to detail all the numbers but I'm going to focus on the chip required: an RTX 3090. This is a gaming GPU that came out as the top of the line, the stuff South Korean LoL players buy…

Or they did, in September 2020. We're currently two generations ahead, on the RTX 5090.

What this is telling all those people who just sold their high-end gaming rig to be able to afford a machine that can run the latest ChatGPT locally, is that the person who bought it from them can run something basically just as powerful on their old one.

Which means that all those GPUs and NPUs that are being made, and all those deals Microsoft signed to have control of the AI market, have just lost a lot of their pulling power.

Well, I mean, the ChatGPT subscription is 20 bucks a month, surely the Chinese are charging a fortune for-

Oh. So it's free for everyone and you can use it or modify it however you want, no subscription, no unpayable electric bill, no handing Microsoft all of your private data, you can just run it on a relatively inexpensive PC. You could probably even run it on a phone in a couple years.

Oh, if only China had massive phone manufacturers that have a foot in the market everywhere except the US because the president had a tantrum eight years ago.

So… yeah, China just destabilised the global economy with a torrent file.

[roguerambles]

I understand the disappointment, I really do, but I think people might be blowing the whole world state thing a bit out of proportion. "This is SPITTING IN THE FACE of long-time fans" no it's not Steve, calm down.

The series has always had to compromise when it comes to the state of the world because so many of the choices (especially from the end of Origins) were so wildly different that trying to build a sequel from so many conflicting factors would be more or less impossible. It's why we've never seen the Architect again, because him being alive or dead has HUGE ripple effects that are damn near impossible to write around.

Heck, it was entirely possible for Anders to die at the end of Awakening, but the writers wrote around it by saying "oh no he actually faked his death" even though logically that made very little sense because at that point he'd have absolutely no reason to do that? But Anders was in the sequel so that had to come up with something.

Basically nothing from Dragon Age 2 was important in Inquisition - Hawke siding with Mages or Templars made no difference, Anders being alive or dead made no difference, whether Carver or Bethany were dead or Wardens or whatever made no difference. We got some flavour text and that was literally it, everything else played out exactly the same.

Hell, the Temple of Sacred Ashes gets blown to bits at the beginning of Inquisition, rendering everything to do with that quest from Origins basically moot. And we've never gone back to Orzammar, and everything we have heard from it has been kept super vague, because depending on who the King is and if Branka is still alive things would look WILDLY different. Crafting a new story there would be borderline impossible because the dozen different possible world states make the foundation shaky at best.

It's why I highly doubt we'll be able to side with Solas and help him tear down the Veil because that would result in basically a whole new world being created. Imagine them trying to make Dragon Age 5 and being like "okay 50% sided with Solas and tore the Veil down and 50% kept the Veil intact....wtf now what do we do--?"

Again, I understand the disappointment, but I just hope once the dust has settled and people calm down a bit they'll see that, realistically, very little has changed. Your saves are still there, your experiences and enjoyment of the games and the characters and the story are still there, but they were always gonna have to draw the line SOMEWHERE.

And that's not to say none of our previous choices will come back - if we get another game, or a spin off or something they'll probably do what they're doing with the Inquisitor now. They're just taking what's relevant to the story they are trying to tell, and leaving what they aren’t going to use presently ambiguous.

[autistichalsin]

Okay I know I've made like three posts about this one specific thing but I gotta say, anyone who calls Halsin a typical boring Druid either doesn't understand Halsin or doesn't understand Druids, because Halsin is very much an atypical Druid.

Just a few ways Halsin is different than other Druids:

He can't control his wildshape. He transforms involuntarily when under stress, which is not a thing other Druids experience, and he can't control himself fully in wildshape either. He retains traits, such as an enhanced sense of smell, out of his wildshape form, and has the ability to remain as a bear borderline indefinitely, instead of Druids usually only being able to maintain the same form for a couple hours at most.

He doesn't hate undead; he views them the same as living creatures, worthy of life. He cares for Astarion deeply, and is furious if the player allows the 7,000 spawn to die. (He's a little nicer if they do it for a mercy kill instead of the ritual, but is clearly only happy when they are released into the Underdark, the exact thing a Druid is supposed to want to avoid.)

He dislikes the city because it displaces nature, yes, but he VERY rarely says that. Instead, almost every time he laments the conditions of Baldur's Gate, what distresses him is how capitalistic systems harm sentient beings- especially children. He is more upset at the human(oid) suffering he encounters in the city than he is at how it displaces nature.

Halsin is on an obviously morally good alignment. While Druids are no longer required to be neutral, most still are anyway, especially those from the Emerald Enclave, which the Emerald Grove is part of.

Emerald Enclave Druids are encouraged to sabotage society; they breed aggressive animals and place them near settlements to deter development, secretly sponsor brigands to attack new settlements, and simultaneously interact with local populations by providing sweet drinks and teas to boost their public image, so that new developments are curtailed while nearby people think the Druids are kind and harmless. Halsin very notably never even thinks about doing such things, even though it would be trivial for him to do so.

While Halsin's explanation for wanting to stop the Absolute is initially far more in line with Druidic thinking (they're unnatural, obviously), he later grows to want it finished because he wants you, the player, and your friends to be safe.

Halsin has zero desire to ladder-climb in the ranks of the Druids, nor to grow more powerful; he was perfectly happy as he was before the Shadow Curse, and is quite upset he had to waste 100 years of his life "dealing with others' problems and personalities." BUT the fact that he was happy to just that as alderman of his commune suggests the problem was with being forced into the position and being relied on as the sole authority, instead of one trusted elder of many.

Halsin wants children desperately, but was kept from having them by his leadership role. This is yet another example of how, despite his deeply held beliefs, being a Druid ultimately made him less happy.

Halsin isn't very good at leading the Druids, to the point that many of his Druids resent him, many are swayed to a cult the instant he leaves, and he himself decides the best thing he could possibly do for the Grove is leave it and have a better leader come in and take over.

Nearly every struggle Halsin has in the game arises from a conflict with his Druidic beliefs- whether it's his need to cleanse the Shadow Curse causing him to be an ineffective leader of the Grove, his desire for a family being held back by his leadership role, or his love of humanity battling against his hatred for cities as unnatural blots on nature.

Basically, nearly every character beat Halsin has comes from him not being a typical Druid at all, and in some cases, from him being rather bad at being the things Druids are supposed to be.

[felassan]

All companions are pansexual!!!

Game is rated M, will contain nudity. [source]

Full article:

"In a new interview with The Veilguard game director Corinne Busche, we've confirmed that yes, you will be able to romance any companion you want, regardless of your character's gender or race. It's a bit of a surprise for fans, considering that in previous Dragon Age games, the romanceable characters had different sexual orientations. Some were pansexual, sure, but others were heterosexual, others were only attracted to the same sex, and some could only be romanced if you were a certain race (Dragon Age: Inquisition's Solas, for example, could only be romanced by female elves). But Busche pushes back on the idea that The Veilguard's companions are "playersexual," a term used to describe games where NPCs are specifically only attracted to the player character. She says she's seen playersexual "done in a number of games," and "it can be really off-putting where these characters are adapting to who you, the player, are." Rather, Busche insists that they're all specifically pansexual, and that might come through in what you learn about their backstories. "Their past experiences or partners, they'll reference them and indeed who they'll become romantic with," Busche tells IGN. "For instance, we saw Harding. I might be playing a straight male character flirting with her, but I choose not to pursue a romance. She might get together with Taash. So my perception, my identity has no bearing on their identities and that comes through really strongly." When asked if that means it won't take long for romance to become an option in The Veilguard, Busche confirms that you'll be able to start flirting with everyone pretty early, as you recruit all seven companions throughout the first act. But, she clarifies, "it's not until the later parts of the game where you really commit to romance and it gets pretty spicy.""

---

"Speaking of spicy... Of course, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a BioWare game, and games from the studio — specifically those in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series — are known to have some fairly explicit sex scenes. Busche confirms that The Veilguard will be no different, particularly towards the end of the game: "Of course, we are an M-rated game," she says. "We do have nudity." There's also some obvious parallels to be made between The Veilguard and last year's critical darling Baldur's Gate 3. The latter became known not only for its deep romances (like The Veilguard, Baldur's Gate 3 player characters can romance any companion regardless of gender or race), but also for its sex scenes, including one involving a Wild-Shaping Druid that went pretty viral. Busche isn't afraid to admit that she has played Baldur's Gate 3, and loved it, as she's an "an RPG fan through and through": "The more character-driven party-based RPGs with deep emotional connection, the better." "What I love about the two games is I think they live side by side in a really interesting way," she continues. "They're very different games, but those emotional connections and how the narratives hook you, I think there's space for both." Specifically in regards to the sex scenes and how The Veilguard will handle theirs differently, Busche says some of Baldur's Gate 3's scenes were "shocking and comical in some ways, and I would say I loved that." "Our companions, we want them to be relatable and fully realized. So they can get spicy, but in a way that I think people will actually relate to," she says. Basically: no bear sex. Busche goes on to say that how sexually explicit the scenes are, too, will vary between characters. "Some of them are more spicy than others," she reveals. "Just like real life, our companions have such diverse personalities. Some of them are more physical, more aggressive, and some of them are more... we have a gentleman necromancer, for instance, that is more intimate and sensual." Our interview with Busche comes as BioWare continues to roll out information about the highly anticipated Dragon Age sequel, with a cinematic trailer having dropped at the Xbox Showcase over the weekend. Dragon Age: The Veilguard will debut sometime this fall."

[source]

[deareverlasting]

BEAR WITH ME.

warning: spoilers for ep 75

i was just scrolling through tiktok and then the thought occurred to me that everyone grew up together (minus ben and aiden) and basically never interacted until the group project. yeah, duh, that's the whole premise of their strange group at first, but it just strikes a cord to think that these kids who have become so inseparable were so close to each other this whole time without even knowing it, without even knowing that they needed each other.

because why now, after all these years, would they? after all, they were just strangers who occasionally saw each other in the hall or during class, strangers that they could never understand, right? they were just too different.

i mean, just think about how taylor says she's always noticed ashlyn since they were kids and how she was always on her own. she didnt understand how ash could be content with that, isn't it lonely?

tyler is most likely, lets face it, pretty popular. when we're introduced to him and taylor they're in this huge group of typical jocks due to tyler being on the baseball team. ashlyn and logan must've known him before due to that, seen them parading through the halls. and seeing as how neither logan nor ash like loud noises or crowds very much they probably wrote him off as a loud jock and went about their day. maybe saw how cold and angry he was with everyone but his sister and thought he must be unpleasant to be around.

as for logan, he, like ash, is pretty obviously very much a background character in everyone else's lives. most likely a loner just like ashlyn, very shy. if the rest of the gang ever noticed him it was probably nothing more than a glance. because logan at the time was nothing more than barrons stereotypical nerd that does his homework because he's scared of what will happen if he doesn't.

it just makes me ILL that these people who would grow to care so much about each other were all so close without knowing it, hell, they probably passed each other in their towns grocery store multiple times before. maybe seen tyler play in one of his games with taylor yelling above everyone else because that's her brother, saw ashlyn perform and dance, saw logan reading in the astronomy section in the library.

and yet they didn't know they'd ever learn to trust these strangers with their lives every night. that they would learn that tyler is more than just a loud, angry jock. he loves and cares about his sister, took up being basically a parent from a very young age, and doesn't truly have any friends because they are just a distraction.

that taylor is every bit as friendly as she let's others believe, but if you mess with her brother or her friends that sun can cloud over so quick.

that ashlyn likes to be alone but given the time and patience, she would love to be alone with you. that she doesn't want to, but if she's needed, she will step up and be the leader you need. sure, she isn't good at "friends" and she'll make mistakes, but she owns up to them because she tries and she cares.

and finally, logan, who at first is so shy and unsure, yet is quick-witted and brave enough to make hard choices and learn where he fits in with a group. to stand up against someone who bullied him and threatened him daily and help someone else from going down the same path he did.

AND PLEASE don't even get me started on ben and aiden.

those two have been practically alone their whole lives until they met each other. all aiden had was the dark room that reeked of molding food and people he hung around just to pass the time because he knew they weren't permanent, nothing ever was with his parents.

and ben's only friend before aiden being the music he could create before it was taken away from him, and all he had left was the broken melodies that he tried to find in every punch he threw.

they were both so, so alone and seeking something that would stay, something that would last because everything else that made them happy seemed to fall just out of reach now.

but just one move away, one final move to a small town in georgia held everything that could hurt and heal them all in one. they were all what everyone needed, even if they didn't know it and it drives me insane that if these kids hadn't been put through hell, they never would have found each other.

and they're more than willing to claw their way out together, not because they have to to survive, but because they want to so that they can live.

red what have you dooone 😭/pos

[renshengs]

hmm i do think that danmei and dangai (censored danmei cdrama adaptations) being many non-chinese fandom people's first impression of chinese media has given them some misconceptions about mainstream chinese media, and it shows in a way that i find very frustrating when seeing discussions about cdramas on here. dangai dramas aside, even if government censorship didn't exist, the chances of your favorite cdrama gay ship becoming canon is about as high as the chances of any of those iconic homoerotic male friendships in a western TV show becoming canon. which is to say: extremely low.

what i think is that internationally huge danmei fandoms like mdzs and tgcf and drama adaptations like cql and shl have really fucked with people's conceptualization of danmei, in that they're using it as this reference point when analyzing relationships in all other forms of cn media, including cdramas and chinese games, which then manifests into people making very bold, very dubious claims about "queercoding" because 2 characters from a random cdrama reminds them of the one or two danmeis they'd encountered that shaped their entire perception of chinese media. basically it's this meme:

many people here need to understand that cdramas and chinese films are obviously mainstream forms of fictional media in china, just like how the mcu or the doctor who franchise is mainstream in the US and UK, or like shonen is mainstream in japan. not to burst your bubble of happy ignorance, but homoromantic relationships such as qingming/boya from the ying yang master are—for lack of a better term—fujobait. they are fujobait. bromances, because those sell well and everyone knows it. popular ships like bakudeku were not actually made canon in mha because shonen is mainstream, and in most industries geared toward maximizing capital, having full-on gay people front and center is considered a monetarily risky move. which sucks, of course, but china is absolutely no different. i promise you that if the govt removed their censorship laws for TV broadcasts, your favorite gay ship from mysterious lotus casebook or the blood of youth or fangs of fortune still wouldn't be canon. they might be allowed a bit more intimacy due to the lack of restrictive filtering, but they are not going to be sucking face for the same reason that gojo and geto from jjk didn't suck face.

danmei is still widely considered niche and risky in china, and if you haven't seen the recent news, authors are still getting arrested for writing it. assuming that chinese fiction, mainstream chinese fiction in particular, operate like dangais where the two guys with the most gay tension would be made explicitly canon were the censors to be lifted, is frankly pretty ridiculous. dangai dramas are adapted from danmeis, which are stories centered on a gay romance and narratively depend on the two guys falling in love. non-dangai dramas are very much... not that, hence why people shouldn't watch them expecting a censored danmei and then forcing assumptions of "my ship would be canon if only it weren't for censorship" on them.

it's very clear when someone who knows absolutely nothing about the actual situation with danmei and queer existence and mainstream TV censorship in china is trying to push their, if i put it crudely, "boss baby meme" perspective onto cmedia. fandom is all about poking at interactions between your favorite characters and giggling and speculating, but i think lots of fandom people (many of them safe in the pockets of their more progressive areas) view govt censorship as this big abstract dam that, if broken, would result in the canonization of all their favorite ships, which is not only an incredibly naive belief but also one that shows how much they view TV censorship as more of a personal inconvenience that's preventing their favorite ships from kissing on screen instead of the looming, deep-rooted issue depriving mainland chinese people of creative freedom it actually is. with cmedia fandoms there's a specific widely popularized "they're so gay omg how did censorship not notice" gag when there's any perceived homoromantic undertones in a story that's both rather insensitive and also ignorant, and many dangai and cdrama fandoms in particular (donghua fans too, link click shippers i'm looking directly at you) could really use some more education and sensitivity regarding this.

i've been in danmei & cdrama fandom spaces for years and post-pandemic this kind of nonsense has definitely gotten worse, especially when you compare shipping discussions here to shipping discussions in cn fandoms. here every 2 seconds someone makes an off-color censorship joke about tgcf donghua and over on douyin they are straight up commenting under the nezha sequel announcement post if there's going to be an oubing kissing scene. granted i obviously cannot see or know everything going on in cn fandom spaces because they are incomprehensibly enormous, but in all the spaces i've been in i've never seen a single censorship joke from anyone. why do people here absolutely insist on making them?

anyway. fandom be normal about chinese media challenge!

[directdogman]

Hi, I hope this isn't a bother. I'm trying to make a dating sim and want to have a section where the player inputs their pronouns (like you gave the option to in Dial Town). Despite my hours of effort though, I can't figure out how to do it. I'm using Visual Novel Machinery for Unreal Engine (because Unreal is required for the class I'm making this for). Even if you aren't familiar with it though, just the basic 'pull code from here and input there' would be so helpful. I'm sure I can piece it together in a way Unreal will understand with a bit of help. Legit though, I made unreal crash twice when I tried to run the initial code for it, so I'm at a loss. Side note: Your games are so awesome and a big part of why I want to make a dating sim to begin with. I wish you all the peace and love on planet earth!

Hello hello:

The trick is using a string for every instance of a pronoun in player dialogue (which is just a variable set of letters.) They, them, their, theirs, etc. Be careful when you set the system up as some pronouns don't conjugate for all cases. For instance, their and theirs are separate words, as are her/hers, but his uses the same word for both pronouns.

You also have to account for case too. This is how I set it up (this is all done right when the pronoun is first entered btw):

1)let the user input a pronoun for each option. each pronoun is a different string, one for each pronoun type (you'll see my list below)

2)i then use a script command right after that to turn all of the pronoun strings entered to lower case. This is account for players possibly capitalizing the first letter in the pronoun instinctively. IE: characters won't say: "Hey, where's He going?" instead of "he going?", which is correct.

How you convert to lowercase is different for each programming language, but I bet there's an equivalent command in UE.

3)Then I copy each pronoun twice, essentially creating two duplicates for each lower case pronoun (so there's now 3 identical pronouns for her, three for hers, etc.)

4)For the second set, I run a command that capitalizes the first and only first letter of each separately (this is useful for if a sentence starts with a pronoun, meaning the first letter would be upper case in that sentence. EG: His cowboy hat looks RIDICULOUS.)

5)for the third set, i then turn the whole string upper case. this is useful for if a character speaks in all caps or if the character is shouting/emphasizing. (EG: "Where's HE going?!")

At the end, this is what my list of strings looks like, hopefully helping you visualize what I've done:

Then, when a pronoun is referenced in dialogue, I use the string that matches the correct version of the pronoun I need. So for he, i use #6 normally, #12 if it's the start of a sentence and #18 if the character is shouting. it's good to keep a list like this handy so you don't have to go looking every time you write dialogue.

The big other thing to watch out for is how plural pronouns affect verbs. He and she IS, but they ARE. I have the player tell the game whether or not their pronoun of choice is plural after they're entered it in and then simply load two separate versions of each sentence with one set for ises and one for ares.

You can also make some more blank name variables to use for verbs and have the game check if the pronoun's plural and then reference a string like with the pronouns (ie, having a string for is that changes to are if plural and using that in dialogue.) Both solutions generally work and I use both for different situations in dialogue.

Beyond that, I can't really give any engine specific advice, but this is how I do it. Best of luck with your game! :)