#we should advance the setting for fantasy

[aetherictree]

Reading Raising Steam, and I'm mildly disappointed that Sir Ptrerry, like so, so many fantasy authors, skipped straight from the medieval period to the industrial revolution with nothing inbetween.

Ankh Morpork and Sto Lat are on a plain, no? A plain is flat land. Flat land is ideal for digging a canal. There should have already been waterborne trade between them. And canalboats are far less odius to the neighbours than trains.

We need more authors to take a standard fantasy setting and sprinkle in a few, pre 1800 developments. Canals, potatoes, power looms...

[reflection-s-of-stars]

One really subtle, fun thing about the locked tomb is how they talk about “generalist” necromancy.

Judith says in Cohort Intelligence Files that Abigail’s necromancy is “generalist,” though we later find out her real skill lies with spirits. No matter how true it is, this is one of a few things in CIF that paint Abigail as a less-than-stellar necromancer (another one is the idea that her political power is what sets her apart from the others).

So “generalist” necromancy is seen as less advanced than a specialization, like Harrow’s in bone or Ianthe’s in flesh.

You don’t see a ton of that in fantasy media. In A:TLA, normal benders like Katara, Toph and Zuko are far less powerful than Aang, because he can bend all four elements. In Aurora (my favorite ever webcomic that you should all read), Erin has more prestige than any other living mage because he can do every type of magic. The Owl House shows wild witches like Eda, who do multiple kinds of magic, to be outlaws and outcasts. I could go on.

The reason fantasy authors do this is because they want to present magic as a skill/ability, whether it’s inherent or learned. It’s like sports or an instrument: the more you practice, the more things you can do, and the more things you can do, the better you’re considered.

And that’s the big difference between these examples and the Locked Tomb: instead of a skill to learn, TLT presents necromancy as an academic field.

In academia, specialization (like a college major, or being a specific kind of doctor) is common and expected. You’re encouraged to dive deep into one area of expertise, rather than being a jack-of-all-trades. That’s what necromancy is.

“Yes, Pent is a ridiculously powerful political force and talks to ghosts on a regular basis, but she’s a generalist. Not like Ianthe, who’s good at flesh magic!”

It’s really subtle, but it adds to the tonal blend of sci-fi and fantasy that helps make TLT so cool.

[leafofkudzu]

Happy Spooky Season, everyone! The first Saturday of October is this Saturday, which means it's time for another art party hosted by my guild, Verdant Shield [VS]! And this time we'll be doing something a little special for the season: instead of having our Halloween-themed party in November while the actual festival is running, we'll instead be taking over the Godslost Swamp (and beating Shadow Behemoth into submission a few times) for an extra spooky themed party! Bring your best Halloween costumes, your edgiest edgelords, or just your regular old selves - it's party time!

For those who aren’t familiar with art parties, they’re a concept carried over from Final Fantasy XIV - in-game get-togethers for artists/writers/creatives of all types to hang out, chat, and create together! Get your favorite character/look together, head to the location, find someone that catches your eye, and create! Afterwards, everyone posts their creations in a shared tag (ours is #VSArtParty) so others can see, interact, and share! Tl;dr: the ‘goal’ of an art party isn’t to be drawn, but to draw others, and share with the community!

Time and /squadjoin information is under the cut, but will also be posted again via reblogs as the squads go up on the day of the party!

Location Information:

Godslost Swamp was chosen for being easily-accessible and appropriately Halloweeny, but also a little bit because I want to shake things up in terms of what actually happens during said parties. We've been in areas where the occasional enemy spawned on top of us before, but this time we'll be set up right in the middle of a world boss, with 2 spawn times occurring during each party. So, come armed and ready to rumble, and play nice with the non-partygoers who'll inevitably show up!

Time & Squad Details:

As we always do, we’ll be having two parties - one on EU servers and one on NA ones - with an hour break in between. People tend to arrive early and/or jump between accounts as soon as the break comes up, so don’t be surprised to see tags and announcements going up ahead of schedule!

The first party will be on EU servers and begin at 9pm Central European Summer Time (aka 3pm Eastern Daylight Time or 5 hours before in-game reset). I’ll be hosting on my EU alt account, so to join either /squadjoin or whisper Paranomalous Plexxi for an invite.

The second party will be on NA servers and begin at 7pm Eastern Daylight Time (aka 1am Central European Summer Time or an hour before in-game reset). I’ll be hosting this one on my main account, so to join either /squadjoin or whisper Shrouded Horror for an invite.

Closing Words:

Apologies for the short notice on this one, one of these days irl things won't sneak up on me at the exact time I should be posting these advance notices ahaha...ha.... :')

Anyway, thank you everyone who bears with me and still comes out to these events regardless - you are what make these events fun, and I look forward to seeing you all again very soon! ♥

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

Emperor | Yandere Qin Shi Huang

Yandere Pantheon College AU (4/7) | Master List

“Mao Mantai!”

The Chinese club supervisor and professor for advanced languages was quite the character

Oddly enough slamming through the shoddy facilities he’s allowed to have classes in

That is when he doesn’t find a neglected classroom on the elite side to teach his kids or hold club activities in 

“Mr. Huang you cannot teach your classes in here!”

“Ha! As the emperor of the Chinese club, I see no reason I should leave. In fact, I think you should leave on the account that you’re irritating me. Students!”

“Yes sir!”

Because of his…emperor complex(?) he’s the hardest person to reign in when it comes to the average teachers attempting to ‘unionize’ 

Not that he doesn’t believe in the cause

He’s just so set on just existing where and with what he wants because he can

He’s not one for all the legalese

At least that’s before you petition him

“Uh Qin are you in here? I was told the club gained some new exploits….”

“Qīn'ài de rén! Glad you finally decided to come by you’re just in time for your fitting!”

He’d stolen one of the elite lounges for himself 

filled with all the luxuries they shared lounges or just the average lounge in general

Coffee maker, shaved ice maker, half a kitchen, 

nice furniture–courtesy of those dedicated club members

He was quick to make sure it screamed Chinese royalty in here

Shooing off the students and some teachers who were always at his beck and call 

You make your case

“Qin I think it’s great that you got this room but I heard that you beat up the guidance counselor and that one teacher that came to confront you—we really can’t have you—”

“Red or green, Bǎobao?”

“You really set the group behind because we–wait what?”

“Red or green for your hanfu! Now that I think about it maybe I should just have you match mine!”

“...why does this matter?”

“Every emperor needs his empress!”

“What?! But I’m a–”

“As an emperor, the path is where I lead!”

Honestly, he’ll have you eat, play board games with you, and have you sit in his lap before hearing you out

It’s a real negotiation when he’s being serious

As an emperor, he doesn’t feel the need to go through paperwork or intimidate the elite side into respect because he’s more than prepared to do whatever he feels like to get what he wants

You might have to just back up Brunhilde and have her debate with him 

And through much deliberation

He’ll finally agree

…with some conditions

After all, they were all fighting the same foe

“Hǎo! Now let’s talk about my conditions!”

“Whatever you want we can do it. It’s a pleasure to officially be working with you.”

His first manner of business is making sure you wear some article of Chinese fashion that matches his

“Do I have to wear this? Some of these are just so…out of my style.”

“It’s either that or I could cover you in another mark of mine…that actually might be better…”

“Ah! On second thought I’ll let you overhaul my closet.”

The second demand is that when you’re on break you’re doing your work on his lap

Wherever that might be

Third, should anything happen to you average or elite he better be told, and he’ll deal with it himself

“I think these are reasonable terms.”

“I agree thank you for being merciful, Emperor Qin!”

“I’ll say! Brunhilde don’t play up to his weird fantasies!”

“Oh Huánghòu, you’re anger makes me want to ravish you!”

“N-n-not here!”

“The path is where I lead!”

[physalian]

“How do I know if my story needs work or if I’m just being hard on myself?”

As I sit here accepting the fact that at 70k words into Eternal Night’s sequel while waiting for my editor for Eternal Night itself, that I have made an error in my plot.

Disclaimer: This is not universal and the writing experience is incredibly diverse. Figuring this out also takes some time and building up your self-confidence as an author so you can learn to separate “this is awful (when it’s not)” and “this is ok (but it can be better)” and “this isn’t working (but it is salvageable).”

—

When I wrote my first novel (unpublished, sadly), years ago, I would receive feedback all over the chapters and physically have to open other windows to block off parts of the screen on my laptop to slow-drip the feedback because I couldn’t handle constructive criticism all at once. I had my betas color-code their commentary so I could see before I read any of it that it wasn’t all negative. It took me thrice as long as it does today to get through a beta’s feedback because I got so nervous and anxious about what they would say.

The main thing I learned was this: They’re usually right, when it’s not just being mean (and even then, it’s rarely flat out mean), and that whatever criticisms they have of my characters and plot choices is not criticism of myself.

It did take time.

But now I can get feedback from betas and even when I hear “I’d DNF this shit right now unless you delete this,” I take a step back, examine if this one little detail is really that important, and fix it. No emotional turmoil and panic attack needed. I can also hear “I didn’t like it” without heartbreak. Can’t please everyone.

The only time I freak out is when I'm told "this won't need massive edits" followed up by, in the manuscript, "I'd DNF this shit right now". Which happened. And did not, in fact, require a massive rewrite to fix.

So.

What might be some issues with your story and why it “isn’t working”.

1. Your protagonist is not active enough in the story

You’ve picked your protagonist, but it’s every other character that has more to do, more to say, more choices to make, and they’re just along for the ride, yet you are now anchored to this character’s story because they’re the protagonist. You can either swap focus characters, or rework your story to give them more agency. Figure out why this character, above any other, is your hero.

2. Your pacing is too slow

Even if you have a “lazy river” style story where the vibes and marinating in the world is more important than a breakneck plot, slow pacing isn’t just “how fast the story moves” it’s “how clearly is the story told,” meaning if you divert the story to a side quest, or spend too long on something that sure is fluffy or romantic or funny, but it adds nothing to the characters because it’s redundant, doesn’t advance the plot, doesn’t give us more about the world that actually matters to the themes, then you may have lost focus of the story and should consider deleting it, or editing important elements into the scenes so they can pull double-duty and serve a more active purpose.

3. You’ve lost the main argument of your narrative

Sometimes even the best of outlines and the clearest plans derail. Characters don’t cooperate and while we see where it goes, we end up getting hung up on how this one really cool scene or argument or one-liner just has to be in the story, without realizing that doing so sacrifices what you set out to accomplish. Personally I think sticking to your outline with biblical determination doesn’t allow for new ideas during the writing process, but if you find yourself down the line of “how did we get here, this isn’t what I wanted” you can always save the scenes in another document to reuse later, in this WIP or another in the future.

4. You’re spending too long on one element

Even if the thing started out really cool, whether it’s a rich fantasy pit stop for your characters or a conversation two characters must have, sometimes scenes and ideas extend long past their prime. You might have characters stuck in one location for 2 or 3 chapters longer than necessary trying to make it perfect or stuff in all these details or make it overcomplicated, when the rest of the story sits impatiently on the sidelines for them to move on. Figure out the most important reasons for this element to exist, take a step back, and whittle away until the fat is cut.

5. You’ve given a side character too much screentime

New characters are fun and exciting! But they can take over the story when they’re not meant to, robbing agency from your core characters to leave them sitting with nothing to do while the new guy handles everything. You might end up having to drag your core characters along behind them, tossing them lines of dialogue and side tasks to do because you ran out of plot to delegate with one character hogging it all (which is the issue I ran into with the above mentioned WIP). Not talking about a new villain or a new love interest, I mean a supporting character who is supposed to support the main characters.

—

As for figuring out the difference between “this is awful and I’m a bad writer” and “this element isn’t working” try pretending the book was written by somebody else and you’re giving them constructive criticism.

If you can come up with a reason for why it’s not working that doesn’t insult the writer, it’s probably the latter. As in, “This element isn’t working… because it’s gone on too long and the conversation has become cyclical and tiring.” Not “this element isn’t working because it’s bad.”

Why is it bad?

“This conversation is awkward because…. There’s not enough movement between characters and the dialogue is really stiff.”

“This fight scene is bad because….I don’t have enough dynamic action, enough juicy verbs, or full use of the stage I’ve set.”

“This romantic scene is bad because…. It’s taking place at the wrong time in the story. I want to keep it, but this character isn’t ready for it yet, and the vibe is all wrong now because they’re out-of-character.”

“This argument is bad because…. It didn’t have proper build-up and the sudden shouting match is not reflective of their characters. They’re too angry, and it got out of hand quickly. Or I’m not conveying the root of their aggression.”

—

There aren’t very many bad ideas, just bad execution. “Only rational people can think they’re crazy. Crazy people think they’re sane,” applies to writing, too.

I just read a fanfic recently where, for every fight scene, I could tell action was not the writer’s strong suit. They leaned really heavily on a crutch of specific injuries for their characters, the same unusual spot getting hit over and over again, and fights that dragged on for too long being unintentionally stagnant. The rest of the fic was great, though, and while the fights weren’t the best, I understood that the author was trying, and I kept reading for the good stuff. One day they will be better.

In my experience beta reading, it’s the cocky authors who send me an unedited manuscript and tell me to be kind (because they can’t take criticism), that they know it’s perfect they just want an outside opinion (they don’t want the truth, they want what will make them feel good), that they know it’s going to make them a lot of money and everyone will love it (they haven’t dedicated proper time and effort into researching marketing, target audiences, or current trends)—these are the truly bad authors. Not just bad at writing, but bad at taking feedback, are bullies when you point out flaws in their story, and cheap, too.

The best story I have received to date was where the author didn’t preempt with a self-deprecating deluge of “it’s probably terrible you know but here it is anyway” or “this is perfect and I’m super confident you’re going to love it”.

It was something like, “This is my first book and I know it has flaws and I’m nervous but I had a lot of fun doing it”.

And yeah, it needed work, but the bones of something great were there. So give yourself some credit, yeah?

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

How Shadow and Bone trilogy should've ended

The most popular solution in fantasy genre to an evil monarch seems to be replacing them with a less evil monarch and having trust that they will make things right. We accept this easily since the story is usually set in medieval times and the idea of forming a government seems unrealistic given the setting. But Leigh Bardugo lost the right to use that excuse when she decided to set Grishaverse in late nineteenth century/early twentieth century.

The setting

Leigh Bardugo was inspired by imperial Russia and decided to make it more edgy, giving it the nickname "tsarpunk" (God give me strength). The time period or the year is never mentioned in Grishaverse, but since it's closely based on the real world, I'll draw conclusions from the text. She might've specified in interviews, but most people never read all the declarations an author makes, so she should've made things more clear in the books. The world-building is frankly, rather flimsy, even for YA.

Most fans seem to think the story takes place in 17th/18th century. It does not. Even though the technological advancements can't be measured the same as in the real world since the Grisha are primary reason for it, cars and tanks already exist in Grishaverse. Even this doesn't make any sense because according to the text, Fjerdans invented tanks first, cars second and submarines third. In reality, the order of the events is the opposite: submarines (1620), cars (1886), tanks (1915).

The events in Shadow and Bone trilogy seem to be very loosely based on the death of Czar Alexander the third (1894), reign of Czar Nicholas the second (1896-1917), Rasputin's murder (1916) and the February revolution (1917) which ended monarchy in Russia.

2. The fictional world setting

Besides barely mentioned Wandering Isle and saints-know-whose Southern Colonies, we have Fjerda and Shu-Han with absolute monarchies, and then we have Kerch and Novyi Zem, which are framed as more "progressive" countries by the narrative. We don't know much about Novyi Zem, except that it's a newly established country with growing economy and doesn't have monarchy. Kerch is ruled by the merchant council (*cough* oligarchs *cough*) - also doesn't have monarchy. So why is it such an outlandish idea for Ravka to abolish absolute monarchy? It isn't.

3. The monarchy is only as good as the monarch

Monarchy had been causing more damage to Ravka than the Fold. Incompetent Kings waged and lost countless wars, emptied royal coffers and made a significant amount of soldiers desert the first army. Regular people lived in poverty, lack of education made them prejudiced and easily controlled, and no effort whatsoever had been made to integrate Grisha in regular people's lives. The Kings preferred them bunched up in one place in the Little Palace to better keep an eye on them (it's canon, the little palace was patrolled) or on the front lines.

"I’ve always cared about good work. Polnya’s had a line of good kings. They’ve served their people, built libraries and roads, raised up the University, and been good enough at war to keep their enemies from overrunning them and smashing everything. They’ve been worthy tools. I might leave, if they grew wicked and bad."

-Uprooted, Naomi Novik.

Ravkan Kings haven't been doing any of those things. But it's okay to keep the outdated tradition that does more harm than good because Nikolai is charming and better than his rapist father(who he gave a nice retirement and more servants to rape, btw)? What about his descendants?

Since it's always been that way, it should continue to be that way? Why is the change in status quo perceived as something bad?

"- Who invented this vehicle? The Frenchman asked between laughs, pointing to the postcart on which the sleepy "yamshtchik" was stupidly nodding. - The Russians, I answered. - I imagine nobody is likely to dispute the honour with them. I pity you to be forced to addle your brain and shake up your stomach on a thing like that.

- What's to be done? If the whole of Russia travels in this manner, why should I complain?

-That's why Russia doesn't advance more rapidly. God give you a safe journey. As for me, I tell you frankly I would not risk my life by getting into it."

-Ilia Chavchavadze, Notes of a Journey from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis.

4. Abolishing the monarchy would actually solve problems

If Nikolai really wanted what's best for Ravka, instead of putting himself and then an impulsive living nuke with anger issues on the throne, he would create a parliament, a council of sorts, where he would still be the head figure as the King, since the nation wouldn't immediately take the change well , and the members would be the Triumvirate and the nobles he trusted, like Count Karigan. Over the years, the flow of power would pass more to the council, and eventually the monarchy would be abolished and Nikolai's children wouldn't take the throne. Regular people would be given an opportunity to have an education and later, the otkazatsya part of council wouldn't consist of just nobleborns. A part of the council would always have to consist of Grisha, which would bridge the division between them and otkazatsya.

But no, who wants progress and democracy when we can have a cool slay queen dragon (an emotionally unstable vessel for an ancient being).

[spiteless-xo]

Oml those nsfw promps?? 👀

Would you be interested in any one of the following:

Zeke with 72 “That is kinky even by my standards…”

Levi with 207 “Don’t give me that look”

Geto with 38 “I think you deserve a treat.” …Because maybe you deserve a treat ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

oooo, options!!

i'm going to attempt levi because i've never really written him before and hey, what better time to try than a sunday evening when i'm resting in bed w a tummyache? 🙈 apologies in advance if it's horrible

list of prompts ⋆ masterlist

╰┈➤ smut prompts - 207. “Don’t give me that look.”

ft. levi/gn!reader cw. unedited, not proofread, explicit sexual content (handjob, mention of masturbation, sexual fantasies), explicit language. 1,759 words.

Levi pinches the space between his brows, sighing heavily as Hange speaks -- trying to give some sort of pathetic excuse for their mistake.

"There's only one bed?" Levi grumbles in frustration.

"Well, no, there are three, Levi -- if you had been listening to me, you would've heard that."

"I heard you, four eyes," he says with a sigh before gesturing between himself and you. "But there's only one bed, for us."

Hange nods, pushing their glasses up the bridge of their nose. "Commander Erwin needs his own room -- for privacy reasons, of course -- and I'm staying in Eren's room for observational purposes so --"

"So, that leaves one bed," Levi repeats, glancing over at you, standing nervously to the side, "for us."

"It'll be fine, you don't even need a full bed, anyway," Hange snickers. "Get it, because you're short?"

"I get it," he hisses, pushing past Hange into the bedroom.

Hange offers you a sympathetic shrug before walking off to their shared bedroom with Eren, whistling a cheerful tune.

Swallowing thickly, you follow Levi into the bedroom and shut the door behind you. "I can find somewhere else to sleep, Captain."

"That won't be necessary."

Levi is already searching through the dressers and closets for extra bedding. He finds some quickly, pulling out blankets and pillows and then throwing them onto the ground.

"I'll just sleep on the floor."

"Captain, I --"

"That's an order."

You furrow your brows at him in confusion and he responds by quickly turning away from you to hide the blush as it grows across his face. It's bad enough that he's stuck sharing a bed on this mission -- but did it have to be with you of all people?

Levi found himself flustered around you more often than not. Misspeaking during drills... dropping things... stupid little mistakes that he had never been guilty of before.

Not until you joined his squad.

"We have to be up early for tomorrow's mission," he says, kneeling down on the ground as he makes himself a place to sleep. "You should get some rest."

Even with his back turned toward you, he can tell you're fidgeting -- unsure of what to do.

"Relax," he insists. "Go to bed."

You hum in response and he hears you start to work on unbuckling the straps of your ODM gear. Levi swallows thickly and keeps his head low, fluffing up his pillow needlessly as he hears you undoing belts and straps -- his face burning hot.

He starts to work on his own straps quietly, still respectfully keeping his back to you as he pulls off his ODM gear. He sets it down next to his bed before pulling off his boots and then crawling into his makeshift sleeping bag.

You walk across the room, still dressed in your clothes from today, and blow out the candles in the room. Levi watches you carefully through narrowed eyes as you blow out each candle with a soft puff of your breath -- stepping up onto your toes to reach a particularly high candle -- Levi bites his lip just as the two of you are submerged in darkness.

"Goodnight, Captain."

"Goodnight."

---

Levi wakes to the sound of his own teeth chattering.

He pulls the blanket tighter around his shoulders and breathes out a slow sigh. Even as his eyes adjust to the darkness, he can see his breath and he realizes that the temperature must have dipped drastically overnight.

He curls into himself and cups his hands around his face, breathing steam into his palms in an effort to keep himself warm. He looks around the room from his position on the floor for some kind of heater or fireplace -- but there's nothing.

"Captain Levi?" you whisper from above him. He hums in response, clenching his jaw hard to prevent his teeth from knocking into each other. "Are you ok? It's gotten really cold."

"I'm fine," he says, but the trembling of his jaw betrays his true feelings.

He can hear you moving on the bed beside him and although his back is still turned toward you, he can tell you're leaning by the edge of the bed, now.

"Do you... want to come up here?"

"That wouldn't be appropriate."

"You're... really cold."

The concern in your voice makes his face burn hot and despite his pride, his toes are going numb and he knows he won't be able to get back to sleep when he's shivering like this.

"Move aside," is all he says when he sits up, before crawling into your bed from the ground like some kind of animal.

Instantly, he feels much warmer, whether due to being off the floor or the heat radiating from your body. But he's still trembling.

"Should we, um..."

Levi already knows what you're about to suggest and the thought has blood rushing down between his legs.

No, no -- he cannot allow himself to get hard next to you right now.

"Should we --"

"I'm fine," he snaps, and it's harsher than he had intended but he needs you to stop because now his body is shaking from how tightly wound-up he is and he needs to just go to sleep before he embarrasses himself.

But then Levi feels you shuffling closer to him in the bed until your chest is pressed against his back. His breath catches in his throat when your arm slides around his front, pressing firmly into his stomach.

"Captain, you're shivering," you say, whispering into his ear and sending jolts of electricity down his spine. "Commander Erwin will kill me if you die of frostbite tonight."

Despite himself, he snorts, melting back against the warmth of your chest. His heart thunders in his chest at the same time that his cock throbs painfully in his slacks -- did you even realize what kind of an effect you had on him?

You rub your palm across his stomach -- a warming gesture, Levi thinks -- but it only serves to build the growing ache between his thighs. He releases a shuddered breath, squirming slightly to subtly adjust himself, but then you slide one of your legs between his, bringing your thigh up between his legs.

"Captain, I --" your hand seems to dip lower, fingertips brushing against the waistband of his slacks and Levi feels his mouth go dry. "I hope this is not too forward... but I've always admired you."

Levi says nothing in response -- he can't. He's too busy hyper-focusing on the way your hand seems to be gently working open the button of his pants.

Was this a dream?

"I begged to be put on your squad," you admit, breath hot against the shell of his ear as you drag his zipper down. "But you never even look at me."

"I look at you," he hisses when your palm presses against his hardened bulge. "I look at you -- all the time."

It feels like you're smiling against his neck, lips pressing softly into his skin as your hand moves, sliding back up to the waistband of his briefs, only to dip inside.

"Is that true?"

When your fingers wrap around him, he can only groan in response. His body shudders at the feeling of your warm, soft palm grasping his cock and giving him a firm squeeze.

"You do so much for us, Captain," you whisper, as if you already know he's about to protest. "Let me do this for you."

Levi trembles forward, every inch of his body lighting up at once when you start to stroke along his length. It's embarrassing how quickly you're able to bring him to the edge with just your hand on his cock and your mouth on his neck.

You run your hand up his length, swiping your thumb across his tip to smear the spilt precum and he moans at the feeling, hips bucking forward. You kiss him softly behind the ear and he shudders -- you hold your hand steady as he fucks your fist, breathing quickly growing erratic as his gut tightens.

"Feels good," he groans when you squeeze him a little tighter. Levi throws his head back against your shoulder as your mouth latches onto his neck, licking and sucking the sensitive spot where his shoulder meets his neck.

He's fantasized about this moment -- about having you touch him like this -- for longer than he's willing to admit. Hunched over in the showers, hand fisting his own cock to thoughts of you. The way the sweat glistens on your face after a day in the sun, how you smile around mouthfuls of food when the others joke around during dinner.

He wants to ruin you -- cover every inch of your skin with his cum, marking you as his. He's fantasized about having you wait for him in his office after each mission, down on your knees with your mouth hanging open -- ready to please him. He's pictured bending you over his desk and sinking inside of you, plunging his cock into your warm, wet hole, and using you until you're just babbling his name out in ecstasy.

Levi cums with a guttural moan, body tensing as his cock shoots ropes of cum across your hand. He gasps as you keep stroking him through it, milking his cock for every drop until he's just a whimpering, trembling mess in your arms.

The two of you lay there for a moment, wrapped up in each other with Levi's cock softening in your hand, until you pull away -- reaching behind you for a cloth to clean up the mess on your hand and the front of Levi's pants.

He relaxes into you with a sigh, still never once turning to face you throughout the night, and the two of you fall asleep in the warmth of each other's bodies.

--

"How was your sleep, Levi?" Hange asks cheerfully when the two of you exit the bedroom. Levi is still adjusting the tightness of his straps as he looks over at them, brows furrowed in annoyance.

"Fine," he says and Hange's smile grows.

"Did the bed feel good, last night?"

"I slept on the floor," he insists, but his face burns in embarrassment and there's a sinister glint in Hange's eyes.

"The walls are pretty thin," they knock on a nearby wall for emphasis. Levi tries to push past them but they stand firmly in the way, waggling their eyebrows at Levi in delight.

"Don't look at me like that," he snaps, swallowing thickly to hide his shame as Hange cackles.

"Oh, but Levi, I'm always looking at you."

"Shut up!"

[v3nusxsky]

Heyyyyy

Would you write a jemily xFem Reader where the Reader just joined the team and the two women find out that reader has never had a threesome so they have one with reader…? Thxxx so much in advance! Do with this what you will (:

-a writer you chat too <33

One for the books 18+

*Authors note~ Jemily smut has been long awaited and very much missed, I’m sorry it’s taking me so long to get our requests I’m getting ready to go to school seeing a lot of family and still trying to book a driving test *

A/n p2~ I know who requested this one and considering I look up to them and admire their work I really hope this is okay

Trigger warnings~ virgin r soft switch JJ and dom Emily, mommy and daddy kink oral degrading praise kinks cum filled strap vibrator bindings body shots gagging drinking? Masturbation?

Prompt~ see ask^^^^

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

Ladies night with the BAU was always interesting, but this was your first one as a member of the team. After all what a better way to get to know you. Truthfully JJ had her eye on you for a while, but her wife was adamant you weren’t even gay at this point. The little fantasy of finding another to introduce into the bedroom at least would have to be with someone who was definitely gay, no matter how much they truly wanted you. But a few drinks later and a few probing questions had you spelling that you were in fact a lesbian and very much single. The green light for the women to proposition you. A quick conversation decided that JJ should be the one to approach you due to her motherly nature.

That was how you ended up sat next to JJ as you had a hushed conversation, Emily keeping Garcia busy which gave the plan a violent shove. “I’ve never um I’m a virgin” you whispered to the blonde. “It’s okay baby, we can teach you everything you want to know, need to know and probably some things you haven’t even thought of” JJ reassured which had you nodding in agreement and admitting how badly you wanted the women. Your fantasies at night would be real and that was sure to be one for the books.

Perhaps that’s enough of the story to explain how you had been taken to the women’s hotel room with the promise of a nightcap and a conversation. The very conversation that had a very drunk you had your top off, revealing a pretty navy blue bra to the women. JJ preparing you with salt and lime juice, all the way from the middle of your bra to the waistband of your skirt, before she pours the liquid along your body and allows Emily to lick up the trail, ensuring to get every last drop of the liquor. The feeling of the raven haired woman’s tongue was unlike no other and you couldn’t bite back a whimper when she gently nipped the smooth skin of your stomach.

From there you were ready to beg them to ruin you, to take your innocence as long as you had them. But Emily already knew how much you needed them, so she set JJ to work. The blonde agent happily stripped you bare and used soft silky material to tie your wrists to the bedposts. From there she spread your legs and with the nod from Emily took an experimental swipe of your slit. Meanwhile Emily had appeared by your head to shower your breasts with her kisses. Truly you had to have died and gone to heaven? Because nothing has ever felt like this, real or not.

Your little whimpers and whines of need were turning both the other agents on to no end, so it was rather hard for them to keep up their little game. Emily had JJ stop and untie you, not wanting to push any limits but giving you a crash course on certain elements. Then she helped you tie the blonde woman up with a skill you seemed to lack. Only then did you watch Emily take your discarded panties and stuff them in the other woman’s mouth to stifle a protest. “Angel, your next lesson is to make your mommy feel good” Emily purred kissing your neck. “Em, I uh I don’t know how” you whispered feeling slightly embarrassed about that. “Oh but you will learn to be a good slut for mommy right?” Emily was pleased to see you nod In response, “then go eat mommy out angel, don’t be rough darling she doesn’t like that too much, gentle licks and kisses like a good girl.”

It took a few trys to find the right pressure and speed and also to get use to the taste of her pussy on your tongue but as soon as you did, you were eating her cunt like a pro, Emily couldn’t be prouder, watching her wife’s face contort in pleasure as her moans were muffled buy your panties had the woman dipping her hand into her own panties to play with her own puffy clit. Truly you couldn’t pinpoint when both the woman stripped down to nothing but maybe that’s because you were busy being fucked by Jays talented tongue. But hearing the praise and encouragement mixed with moans tumbling from Emily gave you the indication that she was very much playing with herself as you pleasure her wife.

“Oh fuck! Y/n good fucking girl, daddy is so proud, oh fuck Jay I’m coming with you, come for us” Emily demanded and be the tone alone Jay was instantly following the command, soaking your face with her cum as it gushed from her fluttering core. You helped her down the best you could before Emily instructed you on how to untie the spent woman. A few moments later JJ was back and ready to confine so Emily demanded she helped position you, after all the guest of honour hasn’t came yet. Once in position Emily lubed up her cum filled strap on and asked for your consent. Of course you gave it willingly, Emily prentiss wanting to deflower you? Any gay teenage girls dream come true.

It hurt at first, your little pained whimper causing JJ to coo at you from her place in the room where she was digging through her bag, Emily kissing away the few stray tears that escaped. But some time and patience had you begging her to move, to fuck you. You wanted to be hers. “Fuck angel, who would’ve know you were a slut? A pretty fucking whore for everyone to use. Dirty girl for daddy” she panted as she began to find her rhythm pounding into your needy cunt.

“Oh but what about mommy’s precious girl? Don’t you wanna be a good girl for me too” JJ teased coming over to you and handing Emily a small little vibrating toy. Emily seemed to get rougher with her thrusts and when you mewled out loudly JJ would silence you with kisses or sucking on your breasts. But soon enough not even that would quieten you so she slipped two fingers in your mouth and pressed on your tongue, causing you to instinctively suck on them. “Oh fuck baby, keep doing that. You should see the way she’s clamping around my cock, wanna cum pretty?” You attempted to answer around her fingers, “oh wait that’s right, our little whore is too busy sucking on mommys fingers to speak, did we dumb you down baby?”

The tightening in your lower stomach was getting stronger the more Emily drilled into your awaiting cunt before you felt it suddenly snap and your body convulse as pleasure shot through you. “That’s it angel, good girl, you’re so fucking pretty” Emily panted before squeezing the balls of her strap on to cum inside of you. Now all three body’s covered in sweat and on the come down from a blissful night, yet Emily was the one to want to clean you both up, to get water and snuggle, JJ opting to curl up and nap leaving you and Emily alone to talk. She reassured you this wasn’t just a fling for them. And that you were so good, she reassured you for any worries you may have until you drifted off to sleep between them both.

[self-winding]

I posted about this once before. Back in 2018 I wrote a YA novel which derailed my budding writing career.

I had already had three novels published by two different Big Five publishers; none of them made impressive sales, but the third one did get some modest critical acclaim and a pretty solid advance as well as scoring some foreign deals. I more naturally gravitate toward fantasy and sci-fi but my modestly successful novel was a contemporary and I was advised "write something similar to this for your follow-up!" So I did. I wrote a YA novel set in the early '00s, in a small town in Wyoming.

I never succeeded in selling this. I ran up against a lot of seemingly contradictory criticisms from my then-agent and editors. I was told that the book wasn't "relevant" enough to current political issues, but I was also told: “It's a particularly ‘sensitive’ moment right now. While that should mean we publish sensitive books, the reality is that a lot of books that tread too close to hot-button issues…are getting dismissed, abused, and trolled, before they are even opened.”

“They [the editors] are afraid - perhaps correctly, perhaps not - that your book would get mauled just for existing, on concept alone, by the massively influential 'culture cops' who haven't read it.”

“I also think in a different time culturally, it wouldn't matter so much. I don't mean politically, but that even ten years ago publishers were more taste-makers and didn't live in fear of social media in the same way.”

The editors at [Big Five Publisher] had a roundtable debate over whether to publish this book and ultimately decided no. I would have settled for a much smaller advance from a different publisher, but my agent refused to even shop it around after that rejection; she was convinced that even if it was published it would end my career. So I sent her another novel of mine, a middle-grade fantasy, which was accepted and published but again had lackluster sales, and after that my agent dropped me and I've been unable to find a new one.

I sent out my YA novel and got similar comments from a few other prospective agents.

I've had thoughts like "maybe they just thought it wasn't that well-written and they're just giving an excuse of it being too controversial to let me down easy." But then, my former agent turned down another book of mine for reasons more to do with story structure and the premise just not being interesting enough to her; she generally was not shy about telling me if her problem with a book was technique-related or if she just found it conceptually boring.

Anyway, I posted the first chapter of this novel on Wattpad a while ago and then took it down because another agent expressed interest in a partial, but that went nowhere. So recently, on a whim, I reuploaded the first six chapters. Maybe I will upload the rest, maybe I will end up taking it down again? I dunno. I realize this post is kind of a rambling mess. It's been a while since I've had a real success in my writing career and I'm just feeling a bit lost and frustrated.

[markantonys]

i already made a joke post about it but genuinely, the whole "wot s1 sucked, which was 100% the show's fault and not the source material's, but now s2 is so much better! shocking! who could've seen that coming!" narrative is SO annoying

like, the eye of the world is boring as shit! it's generic as shit! of COURSE an entire season based on it is not going to be the most groundbreaking or thrilling fantasy television you've ever seen in your life! how on EARTH can the readers who've been saying for decades that the books don't start to hit their stride until book 2 or 3 or 4 fail to grasp the correlation with season 2 being better than season 1? but even so, s1 alone IS more groundbreaking and thrilling than book 1 alone, because the showrunners knew that book 1 is boring and generic as shit and did their absolute damnedest to pull in as many unique elements from later books as they could conceivably fit in this early on.

second, s1 had to do a HUGE amount of heavy lifting in terms of setting up characters, relationships, lore, and worldbuilding. s1 did all this groundwork so that s2 could have the payoff you're enjoying so much, s1 constructed the basic building blocks so that s2 could explore the more advanced concepts you're gushing over. s1 ran so that s2 could soar! put some respect on its name!

third, stakes tend to get higher, characters to get deeper, and plotlines to get more exciting as you go along in a story. this is how stories work. why are you shocked that s1 only built the basic foundation of the story and s2 has the space to grow and deepen that story? that's how stories work, that's how TV works, and that's most certainly how the WOT books work.

fourth, practical constraints s1 had that s2 had less of

budget: s1 was starting from scratch, whereas s2 had more budget to spare since some things could be reused from s1 AND it got a bigger budget than s1 in the first place.

experience: second seasons almost universally tend to be better than pilot seasons, simply because everyone involved in making the show has gotten into the groove and solidified how they want to do this thing. this is how television works.

covid: it should go without saying that s1 would have been One Million Times more difficult and expensive to make than s2 due to covid stuff. whatever effect we may think covid had on s1, the true effect was probably astronomically higher than what we imagine. the majority of "looks too cheap" "looks too empty" complaints likely come down to this (notice that most of those complaints are about episodes 6-8 and not the early episodes; 6 was filmed pre-covid, yes, but i wouldn't be surprised if some covid-related restrictions were starting to rear their heads before production was officially shut down).

the worst part is the people who end their above-mentioned take with "they must have listened to audience criticism of s1 and made changes accordingly." [moiraine voice] the arrogance. s2 had already been written and filming was WELL underway (if not finished or close to finished?) by the time s1 even started airing. if you're impressed by what a great season they've delivered, the credit for that lies entirely with the people who made the show, not your stupid ass.

[dice-wizard]

Hello everyone looking for a new fantasy tabletop game!

You can buy Exalted Essence now.

What's Exalted you ask?

Exalted is an epic fantasy TTRPG where players play the titular Exalted - humans elevated to superhuman/demigod status - in a wild and unique setting that draws inspiration from the ancient world rather than medieval Europe. Creation (the setting) draws key inspirations from the entire world. If you're used to having to make yourself visible on your own in other fantasy, there's probably some representation in Exalted.

It has explicit queer and trans themes about finding your people, creating your own identity, and having the power to punch back at the people who hate you. This isn't incidental. The writing staff is queer as hell. You can hear me break this down more here.

Curious to learn all you can? Well you can get a detailed overview of the entire game on the podcast Systematic Understanding of Everything hosted by myself, @presidentofbirds and @phillycuriosity

If I'm used to D&D 5e why should I pick this up?

Well, I presume if you're reading this post you're already interested in trying something new, so:

The entire game in one book. Exalted: Essence is self contained, character types, equipment, enemies and all!

An exciting style of fantasy that's different than classic D&D but like, textually gay, and very easy to have scenes like ballroom fights, epic galas, and touching homoerotic healing scenes - no house rules required.

But also, tactical depth and combat you can really sink your teeth into if fighting monsters and villains is your bag.

An excuse to use all your d10s at once

Character building and advancement mechanics designed to be familiar to a 5e audience. Characters "level up" based on story beats, and have Advantages, which are functionally similar to class and race features.

A world welcoming to most heroic archetypes, so it's easy to convert your favorite OC.

Extremely kissable dragons, demons, gods, elementals, ghosts, faeries, and unnamed ancient horrors

I'm a fan of a previous edition, what's Essence got for me?

Design focused on alleviating some of the previous versions' missteps

Virtues are back, baby

2e fans will find it an improvement from second edition's mechanical strengths - it's pretty easy to convert all your favorite 2e Charms to XS.

Streamlined versions of familiar rules to make it painless to introduce new friends to the game we love.

The Cliff's notes on Ex3's new Exalt types.

Did I mention it's all of Exalted in one book?

How does it play?

d10 dice pool looking for 7,8,9 as successes. 10s count as two successes, which can lead to explosive, heroic outcomes

Combat system designed to keep all players engaged the entire time - even characters who aren't focused on fighting at all.

Combat also narrows the gap between experienced and new players and players who want to win at RPGs and players who just wanna vibe so GMs aren't tearing their hair out trying to balance encounters.

Social system designed to resolve in a single roll so you can be immersed in role play and not interrupt it with constant rolling - without sacrificing a variety of social approaches

"Ventures" system for characters working on long term projects from traveling across the world to crafting magical wonders to building communities without forcing this to be "downtime" activity

Characters have access to Charms - exception-based special powers that make them extremely good at whatever they focus on.

It's easily my favorite game (and the project I developed that I'm the proudest of), so I'm excited for everyone to try it out.

[briarfox13]

So after 80+ hours I've finally finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard! And boy do I have some thoughts (it's going to be a long post, sorry)

SPOILERS AHEAD

Firstly what an incredible journey from start to finish, I laughed, rejoiced and cried along the way. I loved it so much! The main story was engaging, and some of the side quests are the best Bioware has ever made.

However, I do have some criticisms with the writing and some lore. The beginning feels rushed, I wish we had more time before shit hit the fan. The faction backgrounds sound awesome and I wish we'd played those as a prologue and met Varric through those rather that tiny scene we got.

And I do wish the game was darker in some aspects. It felt weird that as an Elf I could just wander around Minrathous without a single problem, even the Venatori didn't comment on my race? Which felt off. Never thought I'd say this, but I miss the dark political plot points that the other games had (Looking at DA II here).

Expect The Blight, that was incredible, disgusting was just what I wanted to see.

I also don't like the concept of Ancient Elvhen magic being like advanced tech? I'm not fond of that. I play DA for the fantasy not the sci-fi. But that's a minor nit-pick.

But damn, Act 3? That was an explosive, incredible set of quests, and those twists broke my heart 😭 IYKYK

Honestly though, it's hands down one of the prettiest game I've played since probably Metro Exodus.

The environments, the lights and atmosphere is top notch; I know it wont happen but I'd kill for an Origins remaster with this engine (and combat system). The combat is my favourite so far.

Music is pretty but kind of unremarkable, Trevor Morris' Inquisition music was a 100% times better and more memorable, they should have stuck with him.

No offence to Mr. Zimmer but all his music sounds the same to me 🙈

The Grey Wardens, my babies are back ❤️ They've been my favourite faction in gaming since Origins and I'm so happy to finally play another Warden.

The reactivity was just amazing, I felt so connected to the plot by playing as one, especially with the Blight plotlines. Declaring for the Wardens at the end made me cry 😭 In War, Victory!!

And finally some good Grey warden armour!! XD I hated DA II and DAI's armour for them with a passion XD

Emmrich my love 💚

While I think it's too short (please Bioware add more romance content, I'm begging 🥺) I haven't loved a Bioware romance like this since Garrus'. (Sorry Alistair I still love you but, you're now joint second with Emmrich)

His romance was so sweet and charming, it felt so real. And so beautifully written; as someone who finds necromancy and death in religion fascinating but the reality of death terrifying, Emmrich was perfect for me.

I just adore it so much, I'm way too attached to him and my Rook 💚🥹 And obviously Manfred my son

To let you all in on a secret, even before I booted up Origins for the first time (2015) I was originally a Solas girlie (thanks to the internet) and now just under 10 years later I am so happy to have a happy ending to his and Zephyr's story 🥹❤️

I wish they interacted more with each other, and we'd got more about Solas' love for the Inky but ultimately I am happy with what we got. After all it wasn't entirely their story.

But, what I am not happy about is the Inky's personality. I respect it's kind of a soft reboot, but only 3 choices and none of them about how the Inky was like? Zephyr would never in a million years work with Morrigan (even with her Mythal fragment). It just didn't feel quite like my girl (even though I was happy to see her).

I do wish we'd got a couple more choices when making the Inky to make them feel more ours than slightly generic.

So finally, I will say that personally I adore this game, it's not perfect by any mile but I had fun, and that's important to me. It might even be joint top with Origins as my favourite DA game!

I've always been a Mass Effect girlie, but Dragon Age is important to me too. And I'm so happy to finally see a new DA release that has somewhat succeeded.

Now I'm done, do expect Tabitha spam! I'll make sure to tag them with spoilers for those who haven't finished/played!

And to my non DA followers, I'm very sorry about my current hyper-fixation (blame the ADHD) but bear with me! I have some tasty Halo art pieces cooking in the background 👀

[greater-than-the-sword]

Fairy tales have to be at least somewhat vintage, but it doesn't actually matter what time period they're set in as long as it's in the past. All fairy tales used to be 'long ago and far away, in the days of knights and lords'. Then it was the days of kings and queens. Now you can set them in the Victorian era, a whole fairy godmother or whatever in an age where the lightbulb was already invented and no one bats an eye. Part of this is technological advancement; at that time there was this feeling that the new technology had replaced wonder, but we no longer feel that way about their ancient tech, instead it is quaint and homely and mysterious; why should an iron sewing machine have less mystique than a spindle when neither are modern?

The more magic the farther in the past it has be. You can already put soft magical realism in the 80's. Some day they'll be setting fairy tales in 2023 and it won't be ironic, 'urban fantasy', or a joke just a heartfelt romanticization of our age

[nitw]

do you wanna rant at me about the anime boys ? i am vaguely curious about them. mostly for the (con)text of them and your feelings about them (other than "[gnashing teeth keysmash] I'M OKAY [eats them]")

LMAOOO thank you i love when people invite me to yap............... i'll try to keep it as simple as possible in case you uhhhh 👉👈 feel like checking out alien stage yourself som,etime. teehee

FIRST OF ALL, QUICK SYNOPSIS:

alien stage is an animated music project on youtube co-produced by animators vivinos and q-meng, with assistance from multimedia studio lico

it's set on a different planet than earth, in a far future where aliens have dominated humans. it's fucked up!!

it specifically focuses on a broadcasted singing competition where humans (who are born and raised to perform - literally think of them as show dogs) compete against each other by elimination. and i mean literal elimination. whoever gets less votes dies onstage. it's fucked up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

there are 6 main characters, and each music video delves into their backgrounds and relationships with each other. there's a lot of drama and grief and horror!!!!!! 👍👍👍👍

ANYWAY THE GAYBOYS

this is TILL:

voiced by AKUGETSU who sounds like if an electric guitar was a person

rowdy punk guy who does everything he can to express his individuality. comes off as rude and intimidating sometimes but he's really just an insecure mess. also he never did anything wrong ever in his life

a prodigy at songwriting and playing guitar! (he also plays the recorder but we don't rlly get to see that much)

his guardian alien (urak) is an abusive piece of shit who has sent multiple kids to die in the competition before till, without succession

often seen restrained and/or beat up. my guy cannot catch a break

has a huge embarrassing crush on one of the other characters, his childhood friend mizi. but it's been made very clear at this point that it's more of an idealistic fantasy than anything - he never actually got to know her well and just yearns for her attention. also mizi is a lesbian and she's got her own angst to deal with </3

i don't know what's going on with his neck and at this point i'm too afraid to ask

HE SHOULD BE AT THE CLUBBB HE DESERVES LITERALLY ANYTHING BETTER THAN THIS

i like when his face goes (╬◣Д◢)

and this is IVAN:

voiced by PARK BYEONG HOON who 💗 💗 💞 💕 😻 ❤️ 💗 💓 💖 💕 💕 💖 💘 💕 💗 💓 😍 😍 🥰 💕 🥰 ❤️ ❤️‍🔥 💕 hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

came from a very hostile background until he was auctioned off to his current guardian (unsha) - a wealthy businessman who treats him more like a priced object than anything - and was then trained for the competition like the rest

kinda monotone. mysterious freak. no one knows what his fucking problem is at first

secretly a ticking time bomb bottling up all his sadness until he's ready to explode in the most dramatic way possible

formed a DEEP UNREQUITED OBSESSION with till which he hasn't let go since he was like 5 years old. i have to respect it

tried to escape from captivity with till once as kids. till hesitated at the last second. * Ivan will remember that.

he sucks he's the worst i cry about him every day

i like when his face goes (⇀ヮ↼˶)

i don't wanna spoil too much because the series is really worth watching BUT basically these two tragic dudes have spent their whole lives together, doing advanced emotional parkour tricks to distance themselves from the inevitability of it all, and it does NOT work in their favor!!!!! in fact it just makes everything more complicated and terrible and sad and oh god i will never be able to look at the colors green and red together the same way again

[stargazer-sims]

Moving In

Clancy: How’s it going, kid?

Forest: Okay, I guess.

Clancy: Got all your stuff unpacked and set up?

Forest: Yeah, mostly. I still have to organize all my art stuff. I need to decide where I want to put my easel.

Clancy: You’ll figure it out. Do you like the apartment?

Forest: It’s great.

Clancy: But…?

Forest: Just thinking about Dad.

Clancy: Oh?

Forest: He didn't seem too bothered about me moving out. Even the day when he caught me packing, he didn't try to stop me.

Clancy: Why do you think that is?

Forest: Probably 'cause he wants to get rid of me.

Clancy: Or because he thinks it's what you need right now.

Forest: It kinda is. I mean, living there was getting pretty bad. Nobody over there understands me. At least when I'm by myself, I won't have people looking down on me all the time and rubbing it in my face that they're all so much better than me.

Clancy: Well, this will give you the chance to figure out who you are and become your own person.

Forest: Exactly.

Clancy: Anyway, now that you're all set up, we should go over the apartment rules.

Forest: Come on! There are rules? I thought i was supposed to be independent now.

Clancy: Sorry to shatter your fantasy about adulthood, but everybody has rules to follow. We have rules at work, and we have regulations and laws in everyday life. You have rules at your job, don't you?

Forest: Yeah.

Clancy: And there are rules at school?

Forest: Okay, point taken. What are the apartment rules?

Clancy: The first rule is that rent is due on the first of the month. If you think you can't pay it or you're going to be late, you need to let me know in advance, and I'll give you five extra days to get it paid. No coming to me on the first and being like, 'Aunt Clancy, I don't have rent money'. Got it?

Forest: Got it. As long as my boss pays me, you'll get the rent.

Clancy: Good. The next rule is no parties, and no overnight guests that you're not related to. If your brothers and sisters want to stay over, that's fine. You can have a few friends at a time over if you want, and I don't care what you do together in there, but try to keep the noise down and let them know they they need to be out by midnight.

Forest: Okay.

Clancy: Next one is laundry. You can go to the laundromat or you can use my washer and dryer. If you want to use mine, we'll work out a schedule.

Forest: Is that it?

Clancy: That's it. Basically, you're on your own. I'm not going to be telling you what to do from day to day and I'm not going to be making any decisions for you. If you need help or advice you can ask me and I'll help you, but when all's said an done, every choice is going to be yours.

Forest: You know what? I can respect all that.

Clancy: Good, because I'm not above evicting you if you don't.

Forest: Seriously?

Clancy: Seriously. That's what happens in real life, and if you do manage to get yourself evicted, I'm not explaining it to your parents. That'll be up to you, too.

Forest: Don't worry, Aunt Clancy. You won't have to evict me.

Clancy: That's what I want to hear.

Forest: Oh, somebody's texting me. Sorry... not trying to be rude.

Clancy: It's fine. Is it your parents?

Forest: No, it's somebody from school. It's a girl.

Clancy: Ooh, interesting.

Forest: Her name is Nora. She's in my class. Her parents kicked her out too, during the first week of school if you can imagine that. She's living with somebody in an apartment downtown. Apparently her mom is way worse than my parents, but she likes living on her own and she makes a lot of money with her online job.

Clancy: What kind of job does she do?

Forest: No idea, actually. She doesn't really like to talk about it.

Clancy: I see.

Forest: She wants to know if she can come over. Is that okay?

Clancy: It's your apartment. That's up to you.

Forest: Cool. I'll tell her she can come.

Clancy: Okay, I'll leave you to it. Have a good night

Forest: Thanks, Aunt Clancy. It's gonna be all good, you know. You won't regret letting me move in.

Clancy: Remember you said that.

Forest: It'll be great, I promise.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Second, do you have any good fantasy RPGs set in a non-european focused or at least not medieval-European world? It can be based off of a real-world culture or something brand new

THEME: Non-Western Fantasy

Hello friend! For this recommendation, I wanted to highlight games made about non-western fantasy by authors who hail from the cultures that inspire the games. For that purpose I really want to shout-out to rpgsea and rpglatam, two community/movements that have made it much easier for creators from Southeast Asian and Latin American cultures to advertise and publish their games. Not all of my recommendations come from these communities, but they’re a great jumping-off point to find more games with unique settings, fresh ideas, and beautiful, beautiful art.

Nahual, by Miguel Angel Espinoza.

Nahual is a tabletop roleplaying game about brjos nahuales, humans of mestizo and indigenous ancestry that have the power to shapeshifter into an animal form. These nahuales hunt angels to make a living, running a changarro - a business - together to sell the products they make from the bodies of the angels they have killed. These are stories about underdogs, struggling to find their place in a Mexican world of fantastical and overwhelming forces.

Miguel Ángel Espinoza is a Mexican layout artist and game designer, and the head of Smoking Mirror Games. His ttrpg Nahual really picked up steam on Kickstarter, unlocking stretch goal after stretch goal. At its core, this game is PbtA game about underdogs going up against celestial parasites. Angel Dust is a potent drug, and angels are used by corporations, politicians, and the Church to lure in worshipers and make money. You play the labourers at the bottom of this pyramid, aching for freedom but trapped inside a concrete jungle. Your biggest asset? The special gifts you’ve inherited from your ancestors, watered down as you’ve lost your cultural memories. 

This game is more urban fantasy than anything else on this list, but if you want to explore a game about reclaiming something that you’ve almost lost, you should definitely check out Nahual.

ARC, by momatoes.

Ready Yourself. For Tonight, we save the world.

The RPG to slay the apocalypse. Capture your imagination with near-inescapable dooms that threaten infinite worlds. Be a hero or be the guide to facilitate a heart-racing story to remember.

ARC enables people wishing to run a game with limited experience. The Doom and its Omens help create tension and manage the story’s pacing. The rules are approachable so you can focus on helping make the best story for the table. Additionally, the last chapter of the full book is filled with tips for building a good experience for you and your friends. 

The creator, Momatoes (aka Bianca Canoza), is from the Philippines, and is the custodian of RPGSEA, as well as a Winner of the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Award. Her game, ARC doesn’t have a lot of setting decided for you - instead, you decide elements of the setting yourself. There's even a license for creators who want to publish their own content! The biggest selling point of ARC is the Doom, a terrible event that the Heroes want to prevent at any cost. The GM will set up Omens, which are pieces of the story that advance the Doom - pieces the characters will need to investigate and interact with in order to resolve. Finally, the Doomsday clock is a tool that can be used to keep the sessions tight and focused: every moment on the Doomsday clock has the GM roll 1d6 per unresolved moment - the higher the roll, the closer you tick towards catastrophe! If you want a beginner-friendly game that allows maximum creativity, you should definitely check out ARC.

Arunika, by Anonymocha.

Darkness and gloom threaten to shroud the entirety of this world you call home. Or perhaps, it already had. However, there's hope.

You are a Light Bearer. This beacon of light you hold is the key to reviving the world's gleam and hope, through your own. You are bestowed with the pursuit of rekindling the world, forging bonds with its inhabitants along the path, and freeing it from the murk with what you can offer.

Arunika is a TTRPG of maintaining hope, sharing it with the world, and most importantly, caring for yourself while you're at it.

The rulebook reflects a world's journey towards revival from the characters who escalate it. It is made with the vision of a game that has a non-violent, narrative-first, and feelings-focused system which can be interpreted in many optimistic, creative, whimsical, melancholic, or introspective ways.

Mocha, the creator, is an Indonesian artist with a beautiful and unique art style, visible in the projects they create and contribute to. One person plays the Light Bearer, a character who holds the Light, a beacon that needs to be used to rekindle the world. Other players can play the Companions, friends and old foes that accompany the Light Bearer on their journey. This game can be run with just a GM and one player, with all of the Companions as NPCs. The stats of your character will fill or deplete depending on the events of the game, so Heart will increase when the party has a positive interaction, while Hurt will increase from suffering harm, or decrease when your character is comforted. If you want a game that is easy on the eyes, gives you the basic premise and lets you build your own world, you should check out Arunika. 

Hearts of Wulin, by Lowell Francis and Agatha Cheng.

Hearts of Wulin is a game of wuxia melodrama, Powered by the Apocalypse. Players take the role of skilled martial artists in a world of rival clans, conspiracies, and obligations. The game emulates films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Chinese wuxia TV series like The Smiling Proud Wanderer and Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, and Chinese martial arts novels from the second half of the twentieth century. In these tales, romance is as dangerous as a blade. Everyone has ties to factions, loves they can’t quite express, and secrets which will shake them to their core. As in the source material, stories in Hearts of Wulin are driven by the characters’ duties, romantic desires, and entanglements with other characters.

You get everything you need to play the game in three different styles: Core, Courtly, and Fantastic. The core game is as described above: a game of wuxia melodrama featuring wandering wulin warriors. The courtly style of play sets the game in a world of politics and factional scheming. The fantastic game adds strong elements of the superrnatural to the story. Each style of play has its own playbooks and moves—it's like having three games in one! 

Agatha Cheng is a cultural consultant and a podcast host, on top of being a co-author of this wuxia-inspired game, in a genre she’s loved since childhood. Hearts of Wulin is an homage to melodramatic stories about protagonists, torn between equally treasured relationships. You may be in love with your teacher’s greatest rival, or perhaps your master and your father despise each-other. The PbtA system that Hearts is built on prioritizes emotional conflict and failure that moves the story forward, while slimming down the mechanics to simple 2d6 dice rolls. If what you’re looking for is story beats that rip your heart up and make you feel all of the feelings, you should check out this game.

Gubat Banwa, by makapatag.

Gubat Banwa is a game of rapid kinetic martial arts, violent sorcery, heartrending convictions and bouts of will. Warriors that channel gods face sorcerers that master black arts, martial artists who have unlocked a new form of cultivation clash swords with those that perfect the night alchemies.

Gubat Banwa is a  Southeast Asian fantasy martial arts Role-Playing Game, inspired by the refulgent cultures of Southeast Asia. Raise your spears, KADUNGGANAN, you elite warrior-braves and asura-knights who travel The Sword Isles to prove their conviction and dictate the fate of the world. Revel in larger-than-life war drama like in Asian Dramas, ballistic tactical martial arts grid gameplay in the vein of Lancer or Final Fantasy Tactics, and find glory beyond heaven. Wield the Thunderbolt of Liberation! Rejoice! In the Glory of Combat!

Makapatag, or Waks, is a Filipino creature who loves creating tactical ttrpgs. All of their games have strong Southeast Asian inspiration, but Gubat Banwa is what you’re looking for if you want good old fantasy. Rules-wise, the author credits Lancer, Pathfinder 2e, ICON, Ryuutama, Apocalypse World, and so many more iconic, well-loved games for their inspiration. This game is made to specifically centre Southeast Asian cultures, and the setting is not solely based in a specific historical setting, but is rather inspired by many cultures and stories of these cultures. I strongly recommend you read the Note On Intended Audience on page 4 if you get this book.

And what a book it is. 400 pages, with maps, roll-tables, an extensive dive into the lore and terms created for this book, and pages and pages of gorgeous gorgeous art. Character creation is heavily involved, incorporating the culture you hail from, the ideal you’re fighting for, major life events and debts, as well as different Disciplines, combat arts that each have their own styles, weapons, and techniques. Fighting in this game is not just a matter of survival - it is a science. If you want a game that gives you in-depth characters and hours and hours of material in a world in which every piece of lore has been carefully thought out, I heavily recommend Gubat Banwa.

Mangayaw, by goobernuts.

Mangayaw is an RPG for one facilitator (the Mangaawit) and at least one other player. Players act as Binmanwa, adventurers and survivors in an archipelago of bloodshed and goldlust. This game is inspired by Philippine legend, folklore, culture and history. The game and its setting is still a work-in-progress. Based on and inspired by Cairn, Into the Odd, Mausritter and numerous other games. 

Benj, the creator, is a member of RPGsea, and draws heavily from Philippine folklore and history for this game. This is absolutely for OSR fans, with delay fast combat, class-less and level-less characters, and a ton of equipment and magic items inspired by Philippines folklore.

Whereas many OSR games present the rules with the assumption that the GM knows what they’re doing, Mangayaw contains a page of principles for the Mangaawit, outlining narrative focus, the purpose of danger and treasure, and advice on how to present the characters with choices, NPC motivations, and the benefits of random generation. It also contains principles for the players, and principles of the World, providing guidance for folks who may be unfamiliar with the culture that inspires this setting. There’s suggestions for names, descriptions of unique items, and tables for magic and sorcery. If you love roll tables, you’ll love Mangayaw.

Brave Zenith, by Roll 4 Tarrasque.

Brave Zenith is a post-fantasy tabletop RPG, set in a world inspired by Brazilian culture and long summer nights playing JRPGs on a pirated PS1. With a set of simple interpretative rules, that focus on player creativity and imagination, explore the ruined world of pastpresent, meet colourful (and deadly) creatures, see the sights of the Second City, partake in delicious Monkey Oil and become an adventurer.

Roll 4 Tarrasque is a team of Latinx creators whose efforts won Game of the Year for 2022 at the Indie Groundbreaker Awards with this game. Brave Zenith is a game about fantasy odd-jobs, rather than epic quests - your characters are cleaning up houses, hunting ghosts, stealing from the rich, etc. The people and creatures of the world are unique and enchanting, from the friendly Jelly shopkeeper to the slippery butter construct, to little porcini goblins. 

Characters have 3 stats, gain abilities based off of their occupations. There are three suggested origins to help you determine what your character looks like, but you’re also welcome to create your own! There are typical hallmarks of dungeon delving here, such as loot tables, monsters to fight, and spells to cast. For the GMs, there’s a chapter full of advice on how to prepare for a session, quick NPC generation, and tables to help you write an adventure on the fly. Finally, the rulebook itself is bright, colourful, and fun - perfect for communicating the kinds of games it’s designed to run!

Lutong Banwa by Sinta Posadas (Diwata ng Manila).

We, the Tamawo, we have no concept of hunger, food, or of a nuclear family. We wandered aimlessly for a long time. Then, we met a Giant Grab. She took us in like her own children. Clothed and sheltered us like we were her kind. We call her Mama Kasag. She showed us more about the people that came before us. The ones she calls “Humans”. 

Lutong Banwa is a cooking game, where you set out to adventure and find ingredients from Spirits and recipes from old civilizations. Embark on this anti-canon storygame adventure with its own custom system and play to find out just what sort of zany adventures you can get up to in this weird, wild world. Do whatever you want.

Sin is a Filipino game designer who loves designing games that incorporate magic realism. Lutong Banwa is no different. You play Tamawo, who have bodies that appear similar to humans, but live in an age in which humans are long gone. Humans are strange beings of a past age, with unfamiliar customs, such as cooking. You’ve picked up cooking as something to explore, and thus go out on errands to find new ingredients for Mama Kasag. This game is charming and small, quick to learn and easy to play. It even includes recipes to get you in the cooking mood! If you like cozy games with low stakes and a charming setting, you should absolutely check out this game.

A Thousand Thousand Islands.

This is not a game, but rather, a collection of system-agnostic zines for use in fantasy tabletop games. This collection is designed by a trio of Malaysian designers, and contains places such as Mr-Kr-Gr, a river kingdom ruled by crocodiles, Korvu, a maritime nation of tenant mercenaries, and Ngelalangka, a market inspired by Southeast Asian bazaars. If you have a game system that you’re already comfortable with and you want to explore fantastical places within that system, I heavily encourage you to check out these zines.