#tunes talks crit

[sharpstake]

been mulling over the ending to murder at homecoming for a couple days and i think it’s problem is in big part to do with the fact that it’s a very fantastical twist for a story that’s otherwise extremely grounded. that and i don’t think the twist is well set up, but the first bit is what’s more compelling for me. 

because sprinting through school under threat of getting brained by a psycho little sister IS theoretically very fun but it just feels so out of touch with a story otherwise rooted in the suffering people will perpetuate on account of bigotry and the struggle with grief faced by those left behind after a death.

[risottofan7]

skizzisms list bc i felt like making a list (still adding on regularly so make sure to check og post if youre using this as a reference or something)

boat -> butt

okay? -> mmguh

flak -> static

DNR -> dinner roll

super dupe pooper scoop

get out of here you piece of JUNK!!!!!

[movie/song/tv show reference] whats that from 😏☺️

singing randomly

ooohuhuhu….ooo…

wuoh

nooch!

nooch. snoogins.

hup + bop (note that bop is mostly an impulseism but skizz has picked it up too)

you can bop if you so choose

saying single words/short sentences in a very abrupt way sometimes

jerk!

nicknames! eg: dipple dop, (tango) top, etc

mister doctor professor [name]

yeah babyy!

(high pitched voice effect) kevin bubbles malone refrigerator jimmy madeye dugan mug

messing with his poker chips while he talks

you’re amazing!

hungy dungy wungy chunky monkey

not an -ism but definitely a skizz thing: skompass (skizzleman compass) aka single blocks with torches on them that act like a breadcrumb trail

do/say x with my/your face

alriiight!

come on cletus

that’s what i’m talking about or that’s what i’m talking aboot

that’s for true

ah poopy :(

stop messing around (after messing around himself)

not really as common i think but sometimes he’ll put something in basic terms, and then say some variation of “but let me explain”/“what I mean by that is”/etc. (e.g. “Tango…you are such a perfectionist, but let me expand on this:…” in this stream)

there’s your thumbnail!

do you Need to take a Poopy. (phasmo)

(to the tune of “when the moon hits your eye…”) THAT’s moroiii (phasmo)

prreow. brrow (meowing. kind of.)

CRIT!!!!!!

makinabaaaabyyy

hi. how you doin'.

calling wardens "warden g"

you're amazing!

what's up!!

Ghoulie ghosty come out to play

(mimicking grian using the spirit box) are you heeyah

___ for a tick

you're not watching

im gonna leave that/leave it! (when he holds back on the opportunity to make a dirty joke)

___ is top shelf

combining two sentences into one longer sentence by just removing the pause for a period and continuing in the same cadence

sometimes will interject "oh" in a fully different tone at the end of a sentence. i have yet to figure out the pattern for it if there is one

Additions from notes:

random sounds while thinking (ex: lethr lethr lethr lethr)

What’s that gonna do?

great question newman!

in addition to “what’s that from”, Name it!

homie buddeh

“The Skizz”

HUYEAYUH/making faces along with that and other stream sfx

thats the first time in human history anyone has said that

in addition to you can bop if you so choose, singing the actual you can bop if you want to safety dance parody

mmmbye

(fns) you’re legit/are you legit?

(fns) come on knock on our doooor we’ll be waitin’ for youuu (in vc to bug the imposter) (part of the random singing point)

(fns) ope! crewmate again!

(fns) make-sure-to-eat-fruit (doing simon says)

DANGIIIIIT

what im gonnna dooo….

num-a-nums

well i Did/Am.

show me [item] salad!

the face he makes where his eyes go really wide and he tucks his chin in and stares

calling people he finds cool "cats"

referring to his face as his handsome mug

will sometimes not actually make his point yet before adding "you know what i mean?" as if there was a meaning to be had

claims he would never do something to someone that they did to him, despite the fact that he had or would do exactly that

lmk if i missed anything and i can add it Smile emoji

[locuas642]

Okay since I keep talking about changes, why not Kevdak?

So, the fight with Kevdak. Episode 52 The Killbox. Arguably one of the most tense fights in the entire campaign. The entire episode was that one fight and it was a shitshow. In which the party was spending as much time fighting as they were trying to stay alive.

It's not that they made mistakes, because they did strategize and used height and stealth to their advantage, and in some ways that helped a lot. But there were so many of The Herd, including Druids casting spells, and they were so hard to take down that most of the episode was this tension that was palpable. This was a fight that, had gone any longer than it did, a TPK would have happened.

How did they win? Luck and priorities.

THe party focused most of their attacks on Kevdak who, while a goddamn tank in the stream, they were able to exploit auto crits to counter his Barbarian resistances. But that still was something that would have gone horribly wrong if not for them keeping on rolling Lucky Rolls.

Including Grog's final roll, which was a reckless attack (5e rules: Reckless is a Barbarian ability that let's you roll with Advantage, IE roll a d20 twice, use the roll that is higher. Grog rolled a 1 first and a 20 second. that Critical was the lucky shot that ended the fight).

why do I bring this up? because In-Universe it was such a shit show, they got SO insanely lucky there and it required SO many things (including Vex doing a stupid thing and stealing her broom from someone) for it to go right, that Vax had come to the conclusion that either they were extremely lucky... or that Fate had intervined in their behalf. As in, The Raven Queen.

And this was the event that made Vax change his tune on the Raven Queen and, wathever she was or wanted of him, he concluded that she wasn't their enemy.

[dwtdog]

Little warmup I did from the dteam writing prompts account :33 silly manhunt cc fic :p

Last alive

“Dream! Wait!” George yelps, barely dodging an axe crit as he throws himself to the side. The endstone is bright on his screen, all-encompassing. They’ve been at this for hours, and the end is finally in sight. But it’s not the end the hunters had wanted. 

“George, do something!” Sapnap screeches from behind him, leaning his arms against the back of George’s chair. He’d died nearly twenty minutes ago, with no hope of coming back since Dream had tricked them and destroyed the hunter's bed, so he’d given up and run to George’s room to shout advice. “Hit him! Hit him!” 

George just groans, doing his best to tune Sapnap out as he runs for his life, circling a dark obsidian pillar and circling back at the last moment, grinning when Sapnap cackles as Dream runs off in the wrong direction. 

The dragon is low, only a third of her health remaining, and the crystals were destroyed almost an hour ago. It’s the most drawn out end fight they’ve ever had, and George is quickly losing hope in winning. 

“Bad,” George says, tucked behind the corner of a pillar and just barely out of Dream’s sight. “Are you almost back?”

“What?” Bad responds, clearly confused. George and Sapnap groan in tandem, and yeah- it’s over. 

Sam and Ant are berating Bad as Sapnap paces around George’s office, with Dream starting to cackly like a madman, now that his victory is clearer than ever. 

George opens his inventory desperately, praying that Dream won’t notice his nametag when he uncrouches. But it’s depressingly empty, only a few scattered items populating the squares. Nothing. 

For a moment, he considers jumping off the edge, launching himself into the void and hoping that Dream dies to his own mistakes. But it seems unlikely- the hunters had gone into the reunion banking on Dream being rusty, and it had been nearly impossible for them to catch up when he proved to be quite the opposite. Underprepared and out of sync, they were doomed to lose from the beginning. 

Unless. 

George mutes his mic, whirling in his chair to face Sapnap with a grin creeping up his face. Sapnap notices, tilting his head and asking, “What?”

“I have an idea,” George stage whispers, even knowing that the rest of the call won’t be able to hear them. It’s fun this way, and the adrenaline of doing something he probably shouldn’t is already coursing through his veins. “Come here, sit.” George stands, pushing his chair to Sapnap. Dream hasn’t found him yet. “Pretend to be me,” he instructs, before darting to the door and out of the room.

He hears Sapnap’s voice calling after him, but he ignores it. He’s already giggling to himself as he rushes down the stairs, taking them two at a time as he grips the railing tightly.

Patches watches him from the bottom, eyes wide and curious as ever. “Hi Patchy,” he murmurs as he passes her, heading for the double doors across the house. She pads after him, meowing as she does. For a moment, he feels crushing guilt, thinking they’d forgotten to feed her in their manhunt excitement, but no- Dream had called a pause a few hours ago just to make sure she got her dinner.

When he reaches the doors that lead to Dream’s room and office, he doesn’t hesitate to push them open as quietly as possible, hoping that Sapnap and the hunters are causing a distraction. 

It’s a practiced motion, the walk into Dream’s office. Happiness rises in his chest even at the simple action, a trained response after months of living together, months of quiet moments spent together, one working while the other keeps him company. It’s everything George had wanted from America and more. 

He peaks his head into the room when he finds the door unlocked, seeing Dream with his headphones squarely on, leaning back in his chair as he runs around the end. He’s talking loudly, arguing about something with the rest of the call. The dragon’s health has only gone down slightly in the short amount of time he’d been gone, and he lets out a sigh of relief at that, quiet as it is. As if reading his mind, the dragon starts to circle a pillar, a telltale sign that it’s about to perch that Sam had insisted all the hunters learn. 

This is his chance. 

Dream says something excitedly when he, too, notices the movement of the dragon, pearling to the fountain with a row of beds filling his inventory. George creeps across the carpeted floor, still quiet although he doubts Dream would notice if he set off a firework in the room with how focused he is.

Just as the dragon is circling the fountain, George lunges forward, yanking Dream’s chair away from the desk and spinning it around so Dream’s shocked face is clearly visible. He hears the hunter’s confusion through Dream’s headphones, and Sapnap’s raucous laughter when Dream yelps.

“Gotcha,” George says, grinning down at him. 

Dream just blinks for a moment, eyes as wide as Patches’ had been at the stairs. “George,” he gasps, still frozen.

“Did we win?” George teases, glancing back at the screen. Dream is still alive, the dragon already having flown off. “You didn’t kill the dragon.”

That seems to break Dream out of it, and he immediately shakes his head. “Nope. No, no, no. That is not a win. For one, I’m still alive.”

It’s at that moment that an enderman teleports into the fountain, all purple particles and screaming rage. With a few swings of its long arms, Dream’s screen is sent to a death message. 

“George,” Dream says again, this time entirely in disbelief. “We recorded for- For hours.”

George just shrugs. “Yeah, and? It’s only the reunion.”

Dream seems to think that over, eyebrows twitching as he does. On the screen, Bad is already beginning to construct a trophy, with the other hunters circling around him. 

“But-” Dream starts to protest, and George rolls his eyes, holding up a finger to stop him.

“You were already going to make us rerecord it,” he states, watching with satisfaction as Dream’s gaze turns to a glare, an easy admission of guilt. “The nether was way too slow, and Sapnap was meming the whole time. At least this way you can make a funny Tiktok out of it or something.”

Dream sighs, and finally his face breaks into a grin. “You know too much,” he grumbles, sliding his headphones off and standing up straight into George’s space. Chest to chest, George is happy to smile up at him, delighting in the feeling of Dream’s hands coming to rest on his waist. 

“You’re easy to know,” George shoots back, resting his hands over Dream’s.

[ohmygeese]

I feel like the complaints people have about this season about the princesses and destiny's children have the mechanics of dnd combat and storytelling to "blame."

Like I would've loved if Rosamund got to do a persuasion check for either Snow or Cinderella. Like I was ready for it even before the start of the episode but it couldnt happen 'cus one: Rosamund was out for I think a round of combat, two: Rosamund heard people coming from out side the Canonade and three: Snow white was already four rounds into the spell and something needed to be done pronto. Yes, her concentration got broken but I think at that point Cinderella stole Scheherezade's book.

So, Siobhan not wasting anytime decided to go for what could solve the problems at hand. A zephyr strike so she could at least deal good damage to Snow (maybe so Tim can put her in the book or at least to knock her unconcious) and so she could move 60 feet away from what she knows should either be the fairies or the Stepmother.

And then she fucking hit a nat 20, you don't plan that. A great, poetic nat 20 btw. Like again the image of Sleeping Beauty killing Snow White, two princesses who needed a true love's kiss to wake up from what is essentially death. One undead princess to another, trading crits and blows. Really, if any other dc member killed Snow, it wouldnt have felt as good anf painful as this.

And besides, we got Mira and Elody (maybe, Cinderella, I honestly don't know how thats going to go but I am waiting for it meaning I need Rosamund in her fucked-up state to do it). Heck, Red really tried with La Bete. And even got her fur when it was obvious that talking wouldn't work. It's the thought of even if it came down to this, I'm thinking of you. We're thinking of you. We'll accept you with open arms.

(Well maybe not all of them but c'mon you have to let the Frog Prince eat Rapunzel like the heron at Baba Yaga's hut. It's funny and nice callback. Who knows maybe Gerard coughs up a hair ball).

All in all, I am happy with this season and am excitedly waiting for the finale. I hope the Stepmother and Baba Yaga have a looney tunes type brawl. And I hope the Baba Yaga makes Alphonse appears in a battle one last time.

[petitprincess1]

Ive been following Viv for many years now, and im used to tuning out all the drama her parasocial hatedom keeps starting, but man its grating on my nerves this time

Everytime someone cried wolf, its turned out to be nothing, I dont believe shit anymore. Its so easy to fake stuff and start rumors on the internet

And i cant emphazise enough how little i care if Vivienne Medrano’s been a jerk in her private interactions sometimes. She’s not my friend, i dont know her, and no one is a perfect human being in any case.

The people who obsess over judging a stranger’s personality like that are creepy as all heck and clearly just self-righteous bullies. Viv falls short of being a paragon, so she must be a horrible, abusive person.

You ask me, Vivziepop’s been an acceptable target for so long, she keeps attracting new assholes looking for someone they can put down, either for to gain clout or for personal satisfaction

Same here. Who gives a shit if she does talk crap about some indie projects in private. First of all, it's private. Second of all, why is she supposed to support or live every single one of them? If you ask me, you're being disingenuous if you had nothing but positivity to say. It'd be one thing if she were making hateful tweets, but she doesn't.

Plus, EVERYONE talks shit about pieces of media or even people in private. That's not something to be judged on. If that's the case, then I guess almost everyone deserves to be crucified for the sin of having opinions. Which is funny considering how antis talk about them being free to have opinions, but I guess not Viv.

The allegations surrounding her are so obviously lies or blown out of proportion that it's baffling that anyone can believe it. Excluding the antis/crits that are children.

[dandelion-wings]

I'm completely garbage at the math here so this may not even be worth it, but I've been looking at charts for Crit ratio to fine-tune Navia a little, and managed to shift her from 27% rate/180% damage to 58% rate/108% damage, which I... think is better? But they were also talking about base attack mattering, which makes sense, and hers is nice and high (2.6k), so I went to check on Eula's as my other hefty 5-star DPS and while her rate/damage is 47%/170%, her attack is only 1.7k. I can't fix that with my present artifacts, so I'm trying to decide if I hate myself enough to run the Pale Flame domain again for a while....

[prismatic-glow]

what is snapshotting and why is it important? (Genshin Impact guide)

Hello! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

In today's post, i'll be explaining a hidden mechanic in Genshin known as snapshotting! Snapshotting is what makes some characters better than you may think and learning about it will definitely help you play your teams, even if you aren't into optimization.

So, let's get started!

First off, I need to explain what it is

Let's say you have 3 seconds left on your Bennet's burst. If you use your Xiangling burst, the damage will go down after 3 seconds because you lose the buff, right?

Wrong! Xiangling's burst is one of many abilities that snapshot! When an ability snapshots, it's damage is based off of a character's stats at the time of cast even if those stats change during the duration.

Essentially, you're taking a "snapshot" of your stats!

So, if you cast Xiangling's burst with three seconds left on Bennet's buff, her burst damage will not go down because it keeps using the stats she had on cast.

But, because the ability is based on the character's stats at the time of casting, gaining new buffs will not increase the damage of the snapshotting ability.

Let's look at another example that shows both of these characteristic

You cast Pyronado with 3 seconds left on your Bennet's burst

Once his field expires, pyronado's damage doesn't go down

With pyronado still active, you swirl pyro on Kazuha to give your characters a pyro damage bonus from his passive

Pyronado's damage doesn't increase from this buff because it wasn't present when the ability was cast

Now that you (hopefully, i tried my best) understand what snapshotting is, let's quickly go over some snapshottable buffs and abilities!

Snapshottable buffs are buffs that are able to be snapshotted. Some buffs like Shenhe's quills will still go away after their duration, even if they were used before a snapshotting ability was cast

Instead of telling you every buff that snapshots, here are a few that don't:

Shenhe's flat DMG bonus icy quills

Yun Jin's flat DMG bonus from her burst

Furina's buff from her burst

Raiden's burst DMG buff from her skill

Flat DMG bonuses, Crit DMG buffs, and buffs that ramp up are often non-snapshottable

for a complete list, read this wiki page https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Snapshotting

Next, let's talk about some abilities that can snapshot buffs

Ayaka's burst

Noelle's burst

Xiangling's burst

Beidou's burst

Fischl's Oz

Rosaria's burst

If you want to see all snapshotting abilities + non-snapshottable buffs, you can read this wiki page: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Snapshotting

And if you're still here, let's talk about why snapshotting is important to consider!

When you want to figure out the order to use your abilities (aka your rotation), considering which abilities snapshot can increase your damage by a lot. If you've seen some of my guides/other posts, you might have seen me say to always Xiangling burst after Bennet. This is because if you pyronado before Bennet's burst, it won't benefit from his buffs!

I hope this guide was helpful! And if you don't really care about teams/being optimal, I hope you at least learned something interesting.

i'm talking abt ICD next so stay tuned if you want to know the hidden truth about elemental reactions AINTNOWAYING

∧,,,∧ (  ̳• · • ̳) /    づ♡ have a nice day!!

[raxistaicho]

Are we not Engaged? Part 5

Spoilers under the cut

-Dragon loli Azura is getting attacked by Corrupted.

-She’s looking for her sister. Alear 100%

-What does getting Sommie to max joy do anyways? Oh well, making the littler bugger happy is fun XD

-Alear Yunaka C: I can’t stop hearing Ahri when Yunaka talks lol. “I’ve merc’d a time or two,” okay that was legitimately nice word play. Honestly, I like Yunaka most when she slips into killer mode when she scores crits. I’m probably trying to read too deep into her, but I’m curious where her real self starts and ends.

-Louis Yunaka C: Louis gives her tea. What is it with Firenans and tea. Louis asks Yunaka about her family, Yunaka kinda dodges the question and Louis tactfully withdraws. Not much happens here, but I suspect we’re building to something.

-Citrinne uses big hurty lightning \o/

-Celine Louis C: T E A. Celine likes to smell her tea. Louis knows where special tea is and Celine’s excited.

-Alcryst Citrine C: Citrine’s training, Alcryst praises her for it. She’s upset about not being strong enough for some reason.

-Hmm, seems I can’t actually take master seals into battle, that’s interesting.

-On to Brodia castle and chapter 8.

-Oh wow, Brodia castle looks even harder to take than Firene castle.

-Diamant is coming to greet us, hopefully he doesn’t take a shot at us or try to start an international incident.

-There’s something off-puting about Diamant’s eyes.

-Morion’s voice actor is terrible.

-Diamant apparently argues with Morion not to leave the castle. What, is he not capable of defending himself in this kingdom of might? Also the game actually froze in the middle of Morion’s dialogue for a bit, I never had that happen in Three Houses.

-It happened again lol.

-Morion just tosses Roy’s ring at Diamant, wtf... I know I’m supposed to see him as good-hearted and friendly, but he’s just acting like a another doofus.

-Here’s Roy. Thank god his summoning tune wasn’t a remix of Beyond the Fucking Sky. Or at least not one I recognized.

-Oh hey, here Ivy. “She’s dodging all our wyverns’ attacks.” We’ll see if that translates to gameplay lol.

-Ivy’s gonna take my life and my soul. Oh boy, more edgy cliches. At least she’s not as annoying as Hortensia. Oh she’s actually remorseful.

-Oohhh, the Sage Lord was Leif.

-Oh christ I already don’t like Amber.

-Citrinne got a Constance level! \o/ Oh well, with her meh base speed she might as well quadruple-down on poking. Besides, I have Celine when I need a monster-fast mage (17 speed roflmao)

-Etie’s decision to just really really stupid strong worked out when she dealt Zelkov a crushing 22 damage with a crappy Longbow, lol.

-Zelkov is like he's trying to be Hubert but he doesn't realize part of the charm is Hubert just embraces who he is and also takes it out for a romantic evening. At least he’s not lacking in noticeable character traits like Kagetsu.

-”With this ring, nothing and no-one will take me down.” They all say that. Then I send Celine after them.

-We got Leif \o/

-”Emblem of Genealogy” I really fucking hate how Leif is representing Genealogy Gen 2 rather than Thracia.

-”How could I have failed,” you flew straight into an ambush.

-Wait, did we just let Ivy leave???

-King Hyacinth is trying to challenge Morion into combat.

-Morion is toss around death flags like crazy. No idea why Diamant is so afraid when Brodia has been at war with Elusia for ages.

 -Diamant is boring as shit as a character. Morion’s supposed to be jolly and fun but he’s just an idiot.

-Finally we reference whether or not Alear can turn into a dragon. She absolutely will before the end.

-Oh my god, Catherine’s alive and she got old and came to Brodia!!!

-Celine Alear B: TEA. Seems bandits are attacking tea trade routes. What is it with Firenans and tea. Eve is sending Celine after the bandits because... she knows the most about tea? What? Alear asks what she’ll do, Celine says she’ll “drive them off with pranks”. Celine, you’re like my best soldier, just go kill them all \o/ Celine laments that real life isn’t so fanciful, then she raises things to 11 by saying she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her people. I mean I have her burn my foes to death easily but eh.

-Oh nice this game carries over Echoes’s weapon transformation system. Except unlike Echoes it gives you materials at better than a drip-feet.

-Framme Chloe A: Oh my god, it’s still the same scene. Framme accidentally gave Chloe a sandwich of fried bugs. This is literally just their B support being repeated!

-Celine Etie B: T E A. Turns out Alfred almost died when he was young and Celine had to toughen up because of it. Etie’s hand is still trembling. Oh she’s using her weird weighted teacups again. Celine’s handled cannonballs???

Celine Alcryst C: Celine’s out late because she can’t sleep. She admits to having recurring nightmares due to lingering trauma of when Alfred was sickly, Alcryst says he fears Diamant dying too. This one was legitimately a good support convo, it’s like something from 3H.

-Citrine Clanne C: Citrinne bugs me, she’s trying to be a refined mature lady but she’s got the same babyface as the other girls. Clanne’s trying to help a withered wildfowe, Citrinne is pleased for it. I think this has something to do with her obsession with getting stronger.

-Oohh, gold corrupted. I wanna see what that’s all about.

-Oh no, the fog of war is back.

-Alear Alcryst C: Alear almost gets ambushed... by a wolf. Alcryst asks the wolf to leave Alear alone... and then begs it to leave... This is worse than anything Bernadetta ever did.

-I began a relay just now. Later I shall see what the ignorant masses achieve with my incredible Louis, Celine, and Chloe.

-Celine Alcryst B: Turns out Morion stupidly made Alcryst worry that his father and brother will die. Alcryst goes to check Diamant whenever he’s woken by his nightmares. They pledge to support each other.

-Alcryst Diamant C: They’re sparring. Diamant is mostly trying to help out Alcryst’s mindset, but Alcryst is stubbornly pessimistic. It ends on Alcryst wondering if Diamant has any weaknesses.

-Alcryst Lapis C: Alcryst vows to protect Lapis because he thinks he’s worthless, but it makes Lapis really uncomfortable.

-Vander Amber C: Vander is devoted and stuff, Amber’s stupidly looking for a legendary weapon he thinks might be at the Somniel because he’s Amber and he’s stupid. Vander tells Amber he needs to make a weapon legendary by becoming legendary.

That’s all for now, next will be chapter 9.

[aldamiriel-necrococo]

Ok crit role C3 listeners. I am a long time CR fan, I’ve seen nearly every game they’ve played twice, seen all of Talks Machina+other supporting content. I love CR. This is not a CR criticism post, it is a bit negative but it is a request for advice and a one off thing, I won’t be putting negativity in these tags beyond this, please don’t block me beautiful CR artists and other bloggers 🙏

It’s taken me weeks to get through the insane level of description density in C3e41 (getting to the temple+the temple for Chetney’s trial). I can usually get through *anything* if I put it on while I’m working, soapy hands mean i can’t change the track and I have to keep earphones in for a bit of ear protection, but I still ended up having to force myself to listen to it and only got through cuz I sped it up x2, my eyes just kept glazing over and tuning it all out. I love Matt’s descriptions, it’s what got me into CR when I couldn’t get into any other live plays. But I hit my limit hard on this one.

I saw several posts on here from last week’s episode about people reeling from and trying to make sense of an enormous lore dump. I love CR, and I want to continue loving CR. If C3e41 was my limit of descriptive density, should I take a break from C3 at this point? Was that a one off situation and the lore dump episode feels not like that?

I’m just pretty burnt out from it after that episode and don’t want to properly sour the campaign for myself if it continues, I’ll just have to take a vacation from it for a while, not saying I’ll fully drop it and I hate it all now obviously.

Not trying to spread any negativity, make judgements on the show or Matt, anything like that, just genuinely would appreciate insight on how I can best keep enjoying my favorite dnd content 🖤

[crystalelemental]

Sync Pair Retrospective - Sygna Suit Morty

About a year ago now, DeNA surprised all of us with a sudden pivot into caring about Golden Week.  I sure didn't expect it.  And I don't think anyone expected what we actually got out of it.  Morty, with a shiny Ho-oh.  I think this was only the second time we got a shiny form of something in the game, barring eggmons, so it was still a pretty fresh concept overall.  And with such an unexpected combination, holding the rank of both PokeFair and Weather Support, reception must have been incredible, right?

Maybe if you don't know shit about the Pokemon Masters fandom.  Supports are always downplayed at first.   Always and forever.  Morty was considered downright bad by some, because he's an awkward defensive support that buffs slowly, and didn't help with offense, which is the only thing that matters, you know?  It's why Aura Cynthia is actually super bad and no one should pull for her over Ash or Red.

Well, like every other time this cycle repeats, it took like two days for the tune to change drastically, as everyone who got him went "Oh wow, this dude's amazing."  Fun fact: I actually held off too.  I forget why, I think it was just low gem count or something, but I doubled back when the Johtrio went well and god what a relief to have pulled him.

Morty pretty immediately solidified himself as one of the best sync pairs in the game.  Like, for context, there were people legitimately arguing that he was better than SS Kris when she dropped.  They're wrong, but they weren't far off. Morty's bulk was nothing short of exceptional, with unbelievably strong defenses for something that didn't need to mega evolve, defense boosting, Potion, and passive healing every action under Sun.  He's one of those units that turns a team functionally immortal.  And despite complaints that he was bad at offense, he did supply crit rate and speed, which is a very nice set of skills to have for strikers.

The tradeoff was having poor performance on his Atk/Sp Atk boosting, getting effectively only +1 on first application of Sun.  He could get a second stack at 3/5 with the right node, but to be honest his grid is so loaded with other, better tools, that you kinda just let his allies be self-sufficient in that regard.

Speaking of grid though, good lord.   It's immaculate.  2/5 is what I've been running, and I legitimately don't think he needs much more.  Sunny Disposition, MPR on trainer move and Sun, Master Healer on Potion.  Sure there's MPR on Potion and the coveted Vigilance, but like.  He's so good, even at this level.

The thing is, I could talk a lot about what Morty's good at, but the bottom line is he was uncontested in his role.  No other support manually sets Sun.  His only competition in this role is base Lyra, whose buffing kit is exceptionally strong on offense, but she lacks the same defensive backbone and drops pretty constantly. If Lyra gets a grid expansion (which, to be clear, she does not need), then Morty might be in trouble.  But PokeFairs are also getting it, and they're getting two, so give it a bit and he'll be right back at the top.  His role as a Sun-setting support is just unquestioned, and supremely valuable.  His particular kit also assists basically everyone.  Blaine, Ethan, Hilda, and Serena need that crit rate, but can boost their offense.  Anni N gets to save a lot of turns boosting.  Later additions like SS May loved that one extra point of crit to cap offenses for her first sync a turn early, and SS Hilda literally needs for nothing but defense and speed.   Everyone was perfect, but few as thankful as SS Red.

SS Red vs. Leon was still somewhat of an ongoing discussion at the time.   Anni N was better than both, but was a Tech, so by Striker discussion, it mattered. SS Red won with SS Morty, because Morty's Sun compression freed up team compositions, and SS Red was offensively self-sufficient, while Leon needed more help.  Lucian was the immediate coup de grace.   Debuffing special defense of opponents is tremendous, when your roster is filled with options like SS Red, Serena, Blarcanine, Anni N, and Leon.  All the big names are special. Sure you double-dip the speed boosting, but since both are relatively slow, it just hasted full access to something like Silver's Inertia.

The other was the combination of SS Morty/SS Lyra.  Grass-types largely run on Sun as well, and Morty is the only option that permits both Sun and Grassy Terrain at the same time.  You want full power SS Erika or SC Sonia?   You're running Morty.  And in both scenarios, he's giving speed, which is the most critical aspect of their kit to bring.  Hysterically, even for options like Mallow, who definitely needs more of the Attack boosting, SS Lyra had him covered.  There were no flaws in this core.

But somehow this was not enough.  Because the universe would bestow another gift upon Morty as Johto's Chosen, in the form of a sync pair scout most reviled. Variety Scouts are a hated thing, but absolutely nothing is funnier than Eevee Lucas.

Remember how I said Morty solidified SS Red as better than Leon?  Yeah, not anymore.   Eevee Lucas bursts in with team special attack buffs, status immunity for the team, special defense debuffs like Lucian at 3/5, and the ability to set Sun every sync, which was all of them since Leon sure wasn't using it unlike Red, who needed to mega evolve.  In this one addition, Leon was back on top, with one of the most insane synergy teams I've ever seen.  Seriously, think about Morty for a second.   Vigilance and Sunny Disposition on grid, Status Immunity thanks to Lucas, and he's still got a lucky skill free.  Morty is the most invulnerable sync pair when it comes to shenanigans.  He is having none of it, and is constantly boosting both bulk and HP with like every action.

However that's not to say that Morty didn't suffer.  As a generalist, his application was defenses and crit. Yes, the speed buffs and healing too, but those were incidental against the backdrop of his core function as an immortal being.  And, well...Aura Cynthia.

When it comes to defensive play, you will never get a bigger stat wall than Aura Cynthia.  I mean.  We will.  Powercreep.  But at present, she's unrivaled.  If you're looking for a general option for survival, immediate max bulk, Double Potion MPR, recovery in multiple ways, access to Gauntlet checking gimmicks like Paralysis and Impervious, and can even buff crit rate, but then also throws in stacks of moves up next and gauge acceleration?  Yeah, outside of his specified niche, Cynthia just won.   Morty could not compete with how defensively unstoppable Cynthia is.   And so, Morty became hard locked into his niche as a Sun setting support, bearing the blessings of Fire and Grass, unopposed.

At this point, I would like to pull back the curtain, and express that I finished this on 4/24/23.  You know.  The day before datamine.  My thinking was man, Morty is in such a specific niche now that there's no way anything happens that actively challenges him.  WHOOPSIE DOODLES

Sygna Suit Acerola with the steel chair.  Having both Grassy Terrain and Sunny Day, Acerola aims to compress both SS Morty and SS Lyra into a single pair. The staggering thing is, she kinda did it.  Acerola offers immediate capped crit for the team, a buddy move that can cap attack for the team, and perhaps most significantly, stacks physical moves up next.  That last component is critical. Acerola supports every physical Fire and especially Grass striker, probably better than Morty himself. Because moves up next is ridiculous.  To make matters worse, because of the compression of this role, she can even bring SC Steven.  Who packs rebuff, SEUN, even more stacks of physical moves up, defense debuffs, attack debuffs for Mallow, and even Restrain effect for Selene, all at the same time, while also having a 3/5 grid node to add flinch.  The combo of SS Acerola and SC Steven is unparalleled for physical damage dealers broadly, let alone under the same field effects as Morty.

Even so, Morty still retains the advantage for specially offensive Fire and Grass types thanks to Eevee Lucas and SS Lyra.  And his sustain game is far, far superior to Acerola's, which has merit.  To say nothing of having MPR on Sunny Day, which Acerola lacks, causing potential problems in Gauntlet.  Morty met his match, but he's not out of a job because of it.  In spite of taking a few big hits from his competition, Morty's still flying high as one of the best supports in the entire game.

[geolos]

genq why does it matter if dream gives 50 deadlines or makes a bunch of promises when hes gonna upload anyways 😭 u dont care for him, u just want him to upload FOR george. i understand u miss george but theres no reason to post about dream as if ur on crit and need to "criticize" useless shit

if he's gonna upload anyway what's the point of building hype by establishing a deadline only for it to die then come back when u drop a new deadline instead of just waiting until the video is already finished being recorded also Like i've said i know the mod and videos will be good so i'll be tuning in ? outside of youtube i don't care for dream like his music and streams and stuff but i still watch some of his youtube stuff and dream has been promising dt content this summer so i am obviously going to bring up the promises he's made 84958494 times like i fear i will talk about whatever i want to talk about

[chaoticcrits]

Here we have an early draft of our world map of the continent of Grid’tolia! The setting for my new campaign, Journey of the Lost Virtues, which you can actually listen to our session zero now on @spotify! Tune in for some fun world building and character talk and get to know our heroes at “Chaotic Crits Presents”

https://anchor.fm/chaoticcrits/episodes/Journey-of-the-Lost-Virtues-Session-Zero-e2enecu

[lustfulmechanics]

Man, brief switch from the usual MTG talk to briefly go into indie JRPGs, please for the love of god make sure to fine tune your mechanics and give players some kind of bar to shoot for. Been playing this one RPG and it's engaging enough to come back to, but oh my god, so often it feels like there's no grey area between "this enemy can't hurt me at all" and "this enemy kills me in 3 hits and I fight them in groups of two". I have 100 health right now but if I see an enemy do 16 damage I know I am fucked, because they are one lucky hit (or one guaranteed crit from weakness interactions) from doing 40 damage. I really have to wonder what the damage calculations for this game look like under the hood...

[weshipyourride]

Meet Bikeflights Ambassador Lisa Gillespie

Bikeflights Ambassador Lisa Gillespie is a passionate cyclist and advocate for women of color in cycling, leading the New York City Chapter of Black Girls Do Bike. She’s also an RN and clinical professor of nursing at Hunter College, but that might not come up if you get her talking about bikes.

Lisa grew up on the New Jersey shore as one of five kids. Riding bikes was central to their childhood activities, and the responsibility of passing on the knowledge of riding a bike fell from one sibling to the next youngest.

She began seriously riding as she commuted two miles each way to junior high, challenging herself to see how fast she could climb the hill on the way to school.

“I would always time myself to see how fast I could ride [up the hill]. Granted, that was the 70s, so just to give you an idea of the bikes I started with.”

At age 18, Lisa moved to New York City and used her experience with bicycles to make some extra money. Buying bikes at police auctions, she would tune them up or make some modest modifications and sell them. She soon began riding with bike messengers who were just making the transition to mountain bikes. Lisa continued exclusively mountain biking until about five years ago when she picked up a bike at a swap meet and rediscovered road riding.

“I started riding the road bike, and I discovered I could go fast, and I really liked that,” she says with a chuckle.

Soon Lisa’s cycling community expanded.

“I started riding more and discovered more bike clubs in the city, [then] started riding with more people, and along the way, I found out about Black Girls Do Bike.”

Black Girls Do Bike is a non-profit organization with more than 100 chapters across the United States and worldwide. Their goal “is in growing and supporting a community of women of color who share a passion for cycling. [They] champion efforts to introduce the joy of cycling to all women, but especially, women and girls of color.”

Soon after hopping on the Black Girls Do Bike rides, Lisa began leading rides.

During the pandemic, the number of rides Lisa was leading spiked, and as the organization operated without a leader, members suggested she step into the role, affectionately referred to as a “shero.”

“So I became the leader of Black Girls Do Bike New York City (BGDBNYC), and my goal was to take the group to be more recognized in the city and grow membership.”

Lisa sought to accomplish this goal by engaging with other cycling clubs and organizations and collaborating on rides and events.

“I talked to everybody,” Lisa laughs. “I did collaborations with groups like New York Cycling Club, Major Taylor Cycling Club, and we started hosting our own big rides like our breast cancer fundraiser: The Very Pink Ride.”

In addition to supporting cycling enthusiasts, Lisa and Black Girls Do Bike NYC Chapter also work to introduce beginners to the sport. Every year they host a season opening event encouraging beginners to register and learn the skills necessary to join group rides and events like the Five Boroughs Bike Tour.

“We teach our beginners gearing, shifting, how to ride in a paceline, climbing, descending, rolling on flats.”

With Lisa’s help, the registration for the season opener saw an increase of almost 600% from 2022 to 2023.

“The thing about our group is it runs anywhere from the commuter and the mom who rides with her kid on the back to very competitive triathletes, crit racers, mountain bikers and gravel riders. We have mechanics and coaches in our group. And this is all women. This is women helping women, trying to create a space for us.”

As the organization has grown, Lisa added two sheroes to help drive the mission forward.

Through her efforts, her cycling network grew, and she branched out into other disciplines of cycling. The first new endeavor she was talked into was triathlons, first as the cycling specialist on a relay team and eventually completing in all three portions of the Escape the Cape.

“I’m the type of person that if you ask me to do something I’m probably going to do it.”

Next came gravel.

“Last year someone asked if we wanted to get a gravel group together. Those who could modified their bikes with gravel tires, others got gravel bikes, and we went to Unbound! And that was the first time I used Bikeflights.”

Although rain and mud made for an extra challenging ride at Unbound, Lisa still describes the event as “an amazing experience,” and it certainly did not dissuade her from pursuing more gravel events.

With Unbound and the NJ Gravel Grinder under her belt, Lisa is looking forward to joining fellow Bikeflights Ambassadors Enzo Moscarella and Abe Alkhamees in racing for the Ride for Social Justice team at SBT GRVL in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on August 20, 2023.

The team holds monthly meetings in preparation for the event, and in addition to Enzo, Lisa will be joined by four other New Yorkers on the Ride for Social Justice team. There will also be three other members of BGDBNYC, one of whom is fellow BGDBNYC Leader Desia McCannon, who completed the Unbound 100-miler and is also using Bikeflights.

“We’ve done some rides together. We are bringing Brooklyn, Queens and Harlem to Colorado!”

Participating as a member of the Ride for Racial Justice team aligns perfectly with her work with Black Girls Do Bike NYC.

“It’s about visibility for riders that really aren’t seen. Black female cyclists are such a small minority of the field. People are not used to seeing us riding together. It’s important for us to claim a space in a place that we love,” Lisa says.

“It’s important for me as a black woman to participate and show up at these events because representation matters.”

[ailelie]

My writing yesterday was under my target wordcount and was just editing. My crit group read the first full scene between Nora and Viola and pointed out that it felt choppy and that the turns in the conversation didn't make full sense. So I revised to the tune of 200-something net words added yesterday.

One problem is that Viola is coming off as too friendly. Viola isn't going to hint at or explain herself because she knows better than that, so the best I can do is point out how she never volunteers information about herself (unless apologizing; she wields her personal information like a weapon).

Viola does talk to a lot of people and isn't awkward around them and Viola does know practically everyone. That's because Viola has a really good memory. But, as she'd point out to almost no one, a good memory is no substitute for empathy. She'll congratulate someone on their niece getting a job with the Royal Apiary, but she doesn't actually care. What she cares about is the potential in with the Apiary. What she cares about is information.

She isn't completely unfeeling. It is more that she locks all that away so that she can focus on being the perfect listener.

Viola's home situation is this: She was conceived about 10 years after her sister once it became apparent that her sister's chronic pain condition was not going away. People don't think her sister can be a good leader with her pain issues and they want Viola to be the heir instead. Viola disagrees vehemently, but nothing official has been said yet to either confirm her sister's status or to elevate Viola. So, Viola has decided that she will ensure her sister becomes Duchess and has appointed herself her sister's spymistress. She'll make sure that no one can take her sister unaware. But she's only 16 and so she's still building up networks.

And, besides, finding and connecting information, ferreting out secrets--this is fun for her.