#you could also play with a regular deck of cards

[boygirlctommy]

had a dream i invented a new card game called REAL. it was like a mix between commander and uno and played with pokemon cards

[queenlua]

hey lua what decks do phoenix aceattorney and miles aceattorney play in magic

PHOENIX WRIGHT

once upon a time, a friend bullied me into going to a Pro Tour Qualifier, which was probably the largest Magic tournament i’d ever been to at that time, right?

i was happy to be bullied, to be clear, but the problem was… i hadn’t played standard-format Magic competitively in about 2-3 years.  so my knowledge of the current metagame, what deck archetypes were popular, and what the current cards even were, was staggeringly limited.

“it will be fine,” said my friend.  “here, take this spare deck i built.  it’s super-straightforward and easy,” he lied.

he said this to me approx. 8 seconds before the first round began, so uhhhhh, i sure was playing a game of magical cards without ever having even looked at the damn deck before!

so, lo, literally in the course of playing the deck, i was learning how this shit was supposed to work.  “oh!” i’d exclaim with delight, halfway through my turn.  “THAT’S how those two cards are supposed to interact.  oh that’s super clever.  what a neat combo.”  and then i’d proceed to shiftily look at my opponent over my cards, riffle those cards a lil bit, and then say “pass” with as much of an enigmatic vibe as i could muster.

meanwhile, my opponent was Actually Prepared, and they were Trying To Win, and they were pissed.  they threatened to call Slow Play on me because i was taking so fucking long reading all the cards.  as in, he literally called a judge over, who stood there watching me the whole time, in order to determine if i was being Criminally Bad At Magic versus just A Regular Amount Of Bad At Magic, and i was sweating bullets the whole time because i didn’t know this deck or their deck or any of those cards and AHHHH why is the judge staring at me!!!

….which only served to make it EXTRA-humiliating for this poor fuck when i proceeded to eviscerate them 2-0.  hahahah get dunked onnnnnnnn nerd!!!

and then i also proceeded to eviscerate my next opponent???

sheer dumb luck.  i cannot overstate how ill-prepared i was for this tournament.  i absolutely did not deserve these wins.

meanwhile the friend who gave me the deck was having a much worse time with their deck, and they were like “what the fuck. you weren’t supposed to win. how are you winning with that shit, my deck’s so much better than yours”

anyway.  i think that’s the kind of scenario Phoenix would get into if he were an MtG player.  dude Gets Himself Into Situations And Then Uses Cleverness + Bullshit + Luck To Get Out Again.

(AA4-era Phoenix seems like he’s doing the same thing… but, in reality, he’s actually been meticulously crafting his deck in secret for the past six months.  he’s not even aiming to win the tournament, he’s just exploiting a known weakness in the opponent-matching system that lets him know with certainty who he’s going to get matched up against (spoiler: first round is Kristoph), and he’s hyper-optimizing his deck to beat Literally Only Those People.  meanwhile, Apollo, who built a tryhard hyper-optimized variant of Red Deck Wins, is lowkey annoyed that Phoenix's seemingly-random pile keeps vaulting him just one table above him in the standings, because Apollo knows his deck is better. he knows it!!!! just let him go 1v1 and prove it aaaaughhhh!!!)

((also, in case you want Actual Concrete Cards And Colors And Stuff: in general i think Phoenix prefers limited play (draft, sealed, "anything where you open booster packs on the spot & throw a deck together") to constructed play, because he doesn't like being tied down to any one game plan. when he does play constructed, i think he's less attached to a specific colors and more attached to specific mechanics. in particular: he's not a combo player exactly, but he likes mechanics that feel like bullshit. dude saw Madness for the first time & his eyes lit up & he was in LOVE, "you mean i'm discarding the card but then i can cast it for free??? hell YES." he absolutely ran a poison counter deck during New Phyrexia. ah fuck i just realized he was probably a huge stan for noted awful expansion Battle for Zendikar, i think i gotta cancel him now, sorry))

((and i think Phoenix also has a touch of Timmy in him! like, i went to a huge state tournament once with a bunch of really skilled players, and there was this one dude in our car who had a really solid deck, clearly adhered to a lot of the trends in the meta at the time... but his win condition was a Shivan Dragon. which wasn't a bad card at the time, it was a reasonable win condition, but it was... slightly suboptimal? not at all the obvious pick? sort of random? and multiple people asked him "why is that your win condition" & he shrugged and said "i like dragons." so the dragon stayed & that dude ended up getting second place in the whole tournament so FUCK optimal play, bring a dragon. i think Phoenix would sneak in a dragon now and again. just 'cause))

MILES EDGEWORTH

this one is trickier!!!

young!Miles is just going to play Whatever The Meta Deems To Be The Best Deck, right. the von Karma perfection thing and all. it's all very boring & micro-optimized to be the Best Deck Of Its Kind & he pours over the results of the big name tournaments week after week & does some math or whatever to hyper-optimize his own build of the Obviously Correct Deck. there is no soul in any of this, purely Executing On A Formula.

...but then he experiences Character Growth & has his big gay crisis & now he has to pick up the game again. he opens the latest tournament results... clicks around some win % stats for various cards in a desultory kinda way, and... his heart's just not in it, right?

enter 2-4 era Miles. 2-4 era Miles is playing some utterly unhinged Five Color Good Stuff thing. there's a lot of Planar Chaos cards in there, because that whole set was about Weird Shit & cards doing Stuff You're Familiar With (But In The Utterly Wrong Color!!!) & all that is resonating with Miles more than he'd care to admit. he cannot possibly talk about his unnecessary feelings but he can make a weird noise rock album about them. and by noise rock album i mean this fucking Magic deck.

and he's playing this deck with a 100% straight face, as though this is the exact same behavior that won him the Junior Super Series five years in a row & not a desperate cry for help from a madman. everyone else is like Miles... are you playing fucking singletons... in a fucking standard deck... you know your deck will be more consistent with four-ofs right... and then he gives a cool fish-eyed stare & taps out to cast some arcane bullshit legendary creature & gives a single rap of his knuckles against the table to indicate that he's passing the turn.

and it works, is the thing! all those years of training to be the Spikiest Spike Ever have paid off; this Five Color Good Stuff thing relies on some pretty clever insights to make the mana base work, and parts of what he's doing eventually get adopted by the larger metagame to become an Actual Serious Deck. but, like. it's still a monstrosity. any skilled players watching are still definitely wondering Are You Okay, Dude.

after 2-4, i think Miles settles back into playing something more normal. he still cares about winning, but he's going to do it with a touch of class. he wants a game that involves dialogue, some actual back-and-forth, because just trying to combo off is lame coward behavior.

aw yeah baby we're talking counterspells!!!

he's a blue player at heart & he's happiest when he's updating the autopsy report shutting down whatever his opponent's plan is. he'll splash other colors as the occasion calls for it, but he'd be happy running mono-blue the rest of his life. like, i ran a pretty fun Legacy deck back in the day which consisted of:

every kind of counterspell i could get my hands on,

propaganda because FUCK creatures,

thieving magpies for the card draw,

and a few silver wyverns to, y'know, actually win the game

...and i think Miles would appreciate that deck. just play counterspells until the opponent runs out of steam & then cruise your way to victory with a couple birds. simple. elegant. classic. doesn't involve any of this modern Planeswalker bullshit (Miles regards most developments that happened to MtG post-Time Spiral block or so as affronts to game design).

(i do think Miles has a secret fondness for sagas as a card type, however. they remind him of all that Character Growth, but in an abstract/subconscious/nonthreatening way. too bad most of them are a bit of poor match for the kinds of decks he likes to play)

FINALLY: i think Miles hates playing Commander with every fiber of his being & Phoenix loves it & this is a pretty serious point of contention in their relationship. poor dudes

[chaoticace2005]

Back with more shit

So, I've seen the "Husk fighting with throwing cards" post lately and I keep thinking about how I always assumed he just had Gambit (Marvel universe)'s powers. Gambit's powers are a bit... Unclear at times, but the general gist should be that he "mentally create, control, and manipulate pure kinetic energy to his desire." Which is usually used as him throwing something and that something fucking explodes.

He shows up in the X-Men films, gambling, and uses regular playing cards to explode basically Wolverine.

What I'm getting at is that I want Husk's weapons to be regular objects, and he chose playing cards and dice because he's gotta commit to the bit at this point and it's too late to go back. But in reality, any projectile would do. He could throw, with his hands, a bullet and it would explode someone's face.

-🐇

Honestly yes!!! This tracks so much! I don’t know too much about Gambit so I’m gonna @ @xxqueenofdragonsxx because they’re a nerd for this stuff.

But yeah from what I’ve seen and the way you described it this totally works! Him being able to put his power into any object but choosing to use them for the *aesthetic*. Also with the fact that we DO see him in the flashback seemingly using the same/similar pack of cards it holds up.

I know some decks of cards that have some kind of metallic fold, so maybe when he had to fight angels they got a thin layer of that in angelic steel, that way it can actually do the angels in.

Imagine playing with them normally and getting a paper cut, rip 😭

[wishluc]

✧ CW: yandere character, stalking

You'd never have guessed that General Mahamatra Cyno was such an avid fan of Genius Invokation TCG.

It came as a huge shock when you, waiting for an opponent to duel with, heard the all-too-familiar voice addressing you.

"May I join you for a game?"

That day, Puspa Café was bustling with patrons, as per usual. Still, you had managed to find yourself a seat on a secluded table by the corner, where you could comfortably wait for someone to join you. Despite being somewhat new to the game, you had quickly grown to love Genius Invokation TCG, and were now a regular customer here.

You watch, with wide eyes, as Cyno stands by your table with an expectant look. Immediately shaken out of your trance, you nod and, with bated breath, stare at him again as he takes a seat across you.

"Excuse me," Cyno says, before surveying your cards, picking up one to look at the back. It doesn't seem to bother him that you've not given him a single response yet.

"General M—"

"Cyno the Adventurer," he smoothly interjects, closely inspecting your card back, "I hope that you won't let my position waver your interest in my duel, but if it helps, you can just think of me as someone else. So while I'm here, please refer to me as such. You had this commissioned in Liyue, yes?"

"Yes..." you're not sure how he knew, but maybe Cyno was familiar with the artist's works, "But, adventurer...?"

He nods, "and you are...a poet traveling to find inspiration."

"A poet," you echo weakly, confusion heavy in your voice, "yes..."

"Before we begin, I'd like to give you some tips. You'd be better off using an artifact card than this weapon card. Also, the synergy between these cards won't be as good as these, and..."

Was this just a characteristic of a professional player? You're not sure how he managed to identify your go-to cards and analyze your usual strategy so quickly, but it didn't appear too strange that someone like Cyno was so quick to identify the flaws in your gameplay.

The duel itself was undeniably exciting. Cyno had cards you hadn't seen yet, cards, he told you, that were exclusive to Mondstadt. Even his card back was done by a famous illustrator based in Mondstadt. You were almost envious of his cards. However, when Cyno unsurprisingly won, he only frowned. Your mind raced for explanations. Was he disappointed in your play? Did he think you were holding back in fear of upsetting him? It would be awful if he had a bad impression of you just from a card game, and though he didn't strike you as someone to hold such views, you couldn't help but be cautious.

"Another game?"

After a considerable amount of time had passed, and three more games had ended with varying results, Cyno was finally ready to retire.

He clears his throat, "next week," he declares, "I'll be here again. Will you be available for another game?"

You mentally ran through your schedule. Next week...you didn't have anything planned as of yet. Regardless, how were you going to turn down a personal invitation from the General Mahamatra himself?

"No," you tell him, "then, I'll see you...?"

Cyno hums, looking deep in thought.

"Next week, I'll be the ex-leader of an Eremite camp. A fugitive seeking to reform his old ways. And you can be..." he trails off, instead giving you a gentle command, "surprise me."

You don't know what to think of him, really. He was a lot more eccentric than you had heard, but for the most part, he was...harmless. Ultimately, like the other players in the café, Cyno was just here to have fun. While you mull over the possibilities on your way home, you fail to realize a card from your deck had gone missing. It was one of the weapon cards that Cyno himself had advised you against using, and at the time, you hadn't noticed anything, so overwhelmed as you were by his presence, but he had pocketed it for himself. It would soon find itself a new home inside Cyno's own case, not that you would ever know.

It was only a small token taken to commemorate your first official meeting. Next time, Cyno was hoping to get his hands on a much better prize.

all works © wishluc. do not copy, steal or repost my works on other platforms. (including translations)

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hi! Do you know any one session ttrpgs? Preferably space/sci-fi themed but that’s not strictly necessary.

What’s important to me is that it’s creative, that it has fun mechanics and that you really have to work together (it’s for a birthday party). Also I should probably mention all participants are beginners but I’d definitely set aside some time to get into understanding the mechanics beforehand.

Thank you for running this blog and thanks in advance for answering! :D

THEME: Collaborative Space One-Shots

Hello friend, I think I have a really neat mix of games here for you to check out. I think most of these will naturally lead to creative, collaborative solutions from your players!

This Ship Is No Mother, by New Madras.

This Ship Is No Mother is a game about people in space, working jobs that are probably going to get them killed. It's 50+ pages, fully illustrated with art by Justin Nichol.

Inspired by movies like Alien and games like Mothership and Dread, this is for fans of tension, creepy-crawlies, and general horror. Mechanically, it's a card-based Forged in the Dark game, first in the series of games currently called the Cardsharp Sonata.

In this game, players start with a full deck of cards and as you play, that deck will run down. When the deck ends, there is a climactic moment of panic as one of the characters is going to do something stupid and get themselves (and maybe everyone else) killed.

A space horror game, this is a great game option for folks who love Alien. It’s designed to play within a very specific time frame, because the game ends when you use the last cards from a 52-card deck. It’s a game meant for horror and suspense, and was designed to run with Mothership game modules, so I’d recommend looking up some Mothership modules on Itch!

24XX Unlikely Heroes - Space Questing, by FutureFriend.

All you wanted was a steady paycheck, a quiet life among the stars, and maybe a comfy closet to nap in. Action and adventure? "Mmm, no thanks. I’m good." The universe, however, isn’t taking "no" for an answer…

Time to grab some tools, buddies, and your brown space pants. Out here heroism may be less “epic deeds and grand destinies” and more “frantically pressing the right button before it all explodes!”

24XX Unlikely Heroes - Space Questing is a rules-lite sci-fi RPG that is distilled into just 4 pages that fit snugly on two sides of a sheet of paper. It is a hack of the awesome 2400 system, by Jason Tocci.

24XX is a pretty light system and is great for dungeon crawls. As with most games in this family, the rules and GM advice fit on one page, so they should be pretty easy to teach. This game is pretty goofy, as you are regular space-folk who find themselves pushed into a dramatic scenario. If you are running a game for the first time, I’d definitely recommend running this game with the help of a dungeon, such as Space Frogdom, a light dungeon with space frogs and a countdown towards the hatching of a dragon egg.

Holdfast Station, by Lampblack & Brimstone.

The rim of the known universe. A place so god-forsaken, so hostile and alien to life itself that only the mad go there—and only the desperate stay.

That’s you.

Holdfast Station is about asteroid miners surviving and holding their community together in the grim desolation of space. Regular folks in a rough spot, who hold to each other and their own. A place where survival means you trust each other, you fight like hell, and you hope for the best. A place where food and water and even air is scarce. Where the crushing emptiness and massive force of the void are only feet away. Where you live so close you know everyone by smell. Where one accident could spell everyone’s destruction.

It’s about the people who step up when disaster strikes. They aren’t heroes, just regular people—people with no choice but to risk it all for their home and those they love.

Holdfast Station is a "pick up and play" RPG—After you gather players, some dice, and the provided record sheets (physical or online), the book guides you through play, one step at a time. One player, called the Navigator, takes on the role of storyteller, narrating events, encouraging players to contribute, and moving the story along. Each of the other players takes on the role of a worker on the station, striving to survive at the edge of known space.

This game advertises itself as a “no prep” game, although if you are a first-time GM, it might still be good to read through the entire thing first, just to familiarize yourself with all of the pieces of the game. Holdfast Station is all about a terrible event threatening the station, so it naturally encourages the players to work together to try and solve the problem before time runs out. The game might run a bit long if the players need a bit of help putting characters together, but I enjoy the guidance and tools present in the game that help you stay on task.

Survivors, by Alexander Schneider.

Survivors is a science-fiction role-playing game designed as a one-shot cosmic horror scenario where players are faced with survival questions while also encountering an unknown alien force which threatens their very lives. Together they may find ways to survive (or at least hope to) but they will hardly escape the psychic horror they pose themselves. Is it the desperate situation or something else which drives them mad to a point of no return to their former selves?

If you want a horror one-shot, you might be interested in Survivors. It has a very specific opening premise, and each event that the players encounter gives them roleplaying prompts that encourage them to replicate paranoia, fear, and a deterioration of emotional stability.

This is definitely a game you have to clear with the group beforehand, as the way the game has a lot of representations of different forms of mental illness, most of them inflicted upon the players the further they delve into the adventure.

Koboldly Go!, by CoffeeSnake Studios.

Calling all Kobolds! 

Gather your crew, assemble your ship, and take to the depths of space on a mission to discover strange new worlds. To seek out life and new civilizations. 

To Koboldly Go where no lizard has gone before!

This game is exceptionally humorous and lighthearted, and works really well for groups who have some appreciation for the inherent goofiness of early Star Trek. You create your kobolds by rolling for your job, colour, and your stats. You also spend time designing your ship by drawing from a regular pack of playing cards. The biggest downside for this game is that it doesn’t come with an adventure - you’ll have to create one yourself. I’d recommend drawing from Star Trek to create a planet or star system that has an anomaly that directly affects the ship, since you spend a lot of time creating it.

Greenhorns Quickstart, by Spicy Tuna RPG.

In Greenhorns your crew will create planets and fill the cosmos with new incredible life. Survive anomalies that spawn from these worlds and stabilize the planets for long term life. Define the planets’ histories and futures through the loot you retrieve and return home to a heroes welcome. You are Kruxian. You are chosen.

The full game of Greenhorns is good for a multi-session experience, but the Quickstart is suited to one-shots and is also free! Player abilities are mostly focused on combat, with each character class contains skills that guarantee success - but can only be used so many times. This is a game that depends on players coming up with creative solutions to problems, so I think collaboration will come pretty naturally.

The setting is kind of gonzo, with a mix of space fiction and fantasy tropes. If you want a unique setting that might inspire more games in the future, I recommend Greenhorns.

ATMA, by Meromorph Games.

Welcome to a world near our own. The volcanic mineral atma empowers the living and entwines the dying, while artificial intelligence and alien titans join humanity in this daunting new century. Yet in the Restless Zones, beyond society and law, trouble lurks. Gather your fellow adventurers and prepare to test yourself against the world’s most dangerous frontiers. The sky’s getting darker…

ATMA is a complete roleplaying game system in a tiny package. It's portable, quick to set up and teach, and plays in just 2 hours — perfect for game nights or pop-up sessions! A Game Master and 1-4 players use illustrated tarot cards to fuel RPG gameplay focused on creativity and quick thinking. ATMA excels as a tutorial for first-time GMs who've always wanted to run an RPG, while allowing limitless creativity for roleplaying pros.

This is probably the closest to what you’re looking for, I heavily recommend that you check ATMA out. It’s self-contained and super-fun to pull out and show off the the group. I don’t know if you have enough time to order the physical version, but there is an online version of the game and free print-and-play downloads if you just want a quick test of the game! I love the art and abilities presented in ATMA, and I think it’s definitely very beginner-friendly. It feels part-way between a boardgame and a roleplaying game, so if your friends are familiar with board games, this is a good bridge.

I’d also recommend…

Mothership has really quick and easy-to-understand character creation, and the game is designed to run small adventures that work as space dungeon crawls. This content is great for GMs because it gives them a location with a bunch of information to present to your players, which means that you have a lot to work with if you haven’t done something like this before. I’d recommend checking out There is A Goblin on Icarus Station if you want a Mothership adventure that has something for horror fans and comedy lovers.

[chromegnomes]

today is my birthday. in hobbit fashion, I am giving you all a gift that is also Selfish on some level: 50% off Wizard War! ($4)

Wizard War is a Tradingless Card Game that asks two questions:

What if you could play a TCG-like strategy card game using regular poker cards and other household items

What if the card game War didn’t suck, and was instead complex, layered, and wizard-y

The digital edition comes with a tablet-friendly PDF and a printable PDF, along with a printable sheet of Reference Cards so you can easily keep track of all the rules for the smoothest play experience.

It also comes with a digital version that you can upload to playingcards.io and challenge a buddy, using a custom deck of pixel art wizard cards designed by yours truly

Everything you need to play IRL is included in the digital version, but if you're craving a more hands-on Wizard Experience, you can get the Physical Edition from my ko-fi page, starting at $20, and own the deck and zine for yourself!

You really can't get more Wizards Per Dollar anywhere else. Also: the game is legit fun. You can trust me on this bc I spent hundreds of hours making and playtesting it and still don't hate it

That's all, carry on, I'm off to celebrate being one year closer to looking like the wizard on the cover

[luck-and-larceny]

FFXIV Write: Reticent

She flipped a card over. King of Hearts.

“Ah. So there's a man who has been occupying your thoughts lately.”

It was important to deliver her readings more in statements than questions. Confidence was the key to convince people to pay you. That was rule number one in these kinds of games.

The woman on the other side of the cards didn't react. She didn't agree. She didn't disagree. She simply stared at the revealed card.

Ok.

Malika gave the woman space to think about it before adding, “It's important that I mention here that this does not necessarily mean you've been thinking about him romantically. The hearts represent depth of feeling and affection, but not necessarily a desire to be romantic. It could be a father figure, a mentor, or even a co-worker you've been worrying about.”

Again, no rising intonation. 

And, again, no response.

Malika tilted her head slightly to get a better look at the midlander woman’s face as she peered down, unblinkingly and wordlessly at the card. Nothing. Blank.

“Let's turn over the next card then,” she said and bit back the urge to nervously clear her throat. No nervousness here! Only sport!

She turned the card over to the 9 of hearts.

“Ah,” she said, “More hearts. Now why do you think that'd be, hmm?”

The first rule of the game was: Don't ask questions, make statements.

The second rule was: Fuck it, break the rules when you need to. In this case, she hoped asking for a response would make her sound like a patient teacher allowing her student to draw her own conclusion.

“Dunno,” the midlander answered and shrugged. And that was it. Nothing. 

Malika was quickly losing her patience. The way this woman stared at the cards you'd think she was watching paint dry on a wall!

“This card represents satisfaction, contentment and joy,” Malika said… emotions she, herself, was quickly forgetting how to feel. “Paired with our handsome King there it looks like things are going pretty good for you!”

Why even come get scammed by a shady asshole peddling fortunes with a regular ass card deck– not even a cheap divination deck!-- if your life is going so well? Tell me why you're here! You owe it to me! 

“Oh.” The midlander answered. Flatly. No emotion.

Was she alive? Had someone created an automaton to come get their fortune read? Was this a trick? Evander was pretty good at designing machines… She looked around for evidence of him. Nothing. There was a lot of that here today.

“Oh.” Malika repeated it and then turned another card over. Ace of Diamonds. “More good fortune. Literally. You'll receive a letter soon saying you're to receive money you did not expect. Tied to the hearts here, it suggests the letter will either include good news about the man or maybe be sent by him. Is there a man you're hoping to receive good news from?”

More nothing. Absolutely nothing. Time to pack up and call this a bust. She hadn't expected to get anything too significant for reading playing cards, but she'd at least hoped for fun. Or gossip she could use at a later date on another scam. Anything at all! Reading someone else's good luck in the cards and not even getting a conversation from it left a terrible taste in her mouth that only getting sloppy drunk could fix. 

She started to pack up. Silently. It's what the “customer” deserved.

The customer reached out a hand and gently held Malika’s wrist. 

Weird.

“Please turn the next one over!”

Malika raised her eyebrows. Finally, something interesting. Finally feeling like she was back in control, she exerted her power by not packing up but also not turning the next card over. And not speaking either. She could feel the switch of fortune in the air, could sense the tables turn. Exhilarating.

The woman across from her blushed and released her wrist. Then, blessedly, began to speak. “I didn't want to give too much away,” she explained, “because I'd been warned these sorts of set ups could sometimes be scams.”

“Hurtful,” Malika responded. “You wound me.”

“I'm sorry! I just… I thought to protect myself I shouldn't give anything away. I should see what you say and then, you know, see if it was right. Then I couldn't be scammed, you know?”

Malika nodded. “I know. These streets can be dangerous. People can be so unscrupulous. It's a good practice to watch out for that. You did the right thing.” She smiled warmly and tried to keep a predatory grin from overwriting the warmth. “But card reading requires two people working together to create the– we'll call it a narrative. I don't have oracular visions.”

Well, not usually anyway.

“I just have the ability to read vague messages in the cards. You've got to lend your personal experience to them to make the message more specific. It's like we're dancing together when we do this. If you don't move with me, it's clumsy and unsatisfying.”

“Ohhhhh, that makes sense.”

Did it? Good! Malika rather liked the dancing analogy…even if her first thought for comparison was less polite.

“The King of Hearts is my uncle, I think. I adore him! He’s a professional “treasure hunter” and he's opening a new museum in La Noscea that is going to be full of all kinds of ancient items and artifacts and other stuff like that. He sends me letters all the time telling me all the things he's found that he'll put in the museum and other stuff he's just planning to sell and he says he's been making so much money off it all. I asked if I could become a partner, so maybe that's what the letter will be about! Next time we do a reading maybe you'll pull a card for me that shows me as Queen of Diamonds!”

Malika had to keep her head down staring at the cards. She couldn't lift it or her wolfish grin and the bad intentions in her eyes would be far too visible to Red Riding Hood. 

“Maybe!” she agreed.

She turned the final card over. 2 of Spades. Its meaning: Bad luck. A need to be extra cautious. A cheat or bad actor in your life.

Malika lifted her head and her smile was nothing but sweetness. “2 of Spades! It means you've been needlessly cautious. You've been hiding so much away when you need to learn to be more open and honest. You've shut the door on your thoughts and feelings when you really need to throw that door wide open and impulsively do anything your heart desires when you desire it. Transparency is the key to your success!”

“Ohhh, that makes sense!”

“Doesn't it though! Now tell me everything about your uncle and yourself.”

[ghostherlig]

i am very slow with writing atm with being sick and also my wrists are starting to hurt more now that it's getting colder- but here's some silly goofy random headcanons while im recovering!! (for johnny, kenshi, raiden, and kung lao) under the cut bc this really ran away from me- (collected over the course of this entire day as things popped into my brain, i apologize for the mass of words you're about to read :'))

johnny can play piano!! he has a grand piano that he really loves and he plays anything from classical to ost's to his own little tunes whenever he thinks them up- he has a recorder attached to it so he can remember them or maybe post his own song one day

(based off the previous hc) if/when kenshi is over/moves in he'll play at night and let kenshi listen in- but randomly johnny will transition what he's playing into the jaws or michael meyers theme and that's kenshi's cue to start running- because now the house is in hide and seek mode, and as soon as johnny stops playing, he'll be searching

kenshi used to play the violin growing up, but he dropped it once he was old enough and competent enough to commit himself to the yakuza- he can still remember some of the songs he used to love to play. he hums them from time to time and has been caught doing the motions of playing the violin before

kenshi loves animals but has an extra soft spot for cats and bunnies especially- he's a cat magnet in places where strays are common, they always flock to him (he for sure keeps catnip in his pocket when he can)

johnny loves his action and hero films but kenshi enjoys romcoms and horror- romcoms for the stories and drama, and horror films because the sound design usually slaps- he also can tell you what fruit or vegetable was absolutely destroyed based on the sounds alone

lao and raiden are way too good at Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes- raiden is on the manual while lao is on the bomb and they can crack the normal mode in like 45 minutes (they're a little slower when they swap places but they can still do it impressively fast (fastest speedrun time is sub 30mins)

johnny knows how to play mahjong after taking a role and having to play on-screen for five minutes- he wanted it to look authentic and thought "there's no better way than to actually play"- raiden and lao found out and now they're all trying to teach kenshi with specially made tiles with braille in the corners

kenshi is ridiculously good at poker- he brought a deck of cards with braille stamped on them and him and johnny played strip poker for a night- needless to say kenshi was smirking to himself as he switched his button up for johnny's

johnny can do pitch and diction perfect impressions of people he's heard talk for long periods of time- you can bet that a lot of his free time at wu shi was spent scaring his fellow champions by talking to them in liu kang's voice from behind a wall-

(based off the last hc) johnny only does it around people he knows well or as a party trick with different characters from pop culture- most often his power is used for evil though

raiden isn't a morning person and actually is super groggy in the mornings- the first thing he does on early days is take a cold shower to wake himself up

(based off the last hc) lao is a morning person and is usually the one to wake up raiden by ripping his blankets off of him- he's lucky he has survived this long, but he tells everyone that if looks could kill, raiden would have killed him long before he made it to wu shi

we all know kung lao eats for a family of five, but that man also naps like a divorced dad after an all you can eat buffet- he is OUT after he's done absolutely fucking up like five full plates of food

raiden really likes boba!! kenshi took him to get some after an errand run and he fell in love with the taro flavor- he also really enjoys winter melon and the regular thai tea

johnny always gets his boba with coffee- he doesnt really like tea flavors and no matter how many sips of kenshi's tea he has, he will always prefer his coffee

kenshi bought johnny a really nice espresso machine that he uses every morning- johnny didnt buy himself one before that bc he never thought he would enjoy making coffee at home and it was easier to just stop by the local cafe since they always had his order ready early- but he finds it really calming and really nice to slow his mornings down and make a latte before leaving for work

johnny, to return the gesture, bought kenshi a really nice kitchen knife since he knows the man really likes to cook- it sees a lot of use as it's a santoku that he basically uses like a chef's knife (it's his sharpest and most well treated kitchen tool, right next to his 8 inch cast iron)

kung lao owns maybe three articles of clothing with sleeves- all of them are coats for when it rains- oh and one hoodie that he stole from raiden that somehow survived when he went into his wardrobe and cut and hemmed all of the sleeves

when kenshi visits, johnny makes him coffee in the morning too but since kenshi doesnt always like the bitter coffee flavor he'll add some fun home made syrups- he has plain vanilla, but also has seasonal flavors like pumpkin spice, snickerdoodle, sugar cookie, white mocha, peppermint, etc.

kenshi LOVES mint chocolate flavored things- he especially loves the kitkat flavor and the pocky flavor, as well as ice cream- johnny CANNOT stand it, he's never liked mint outside of gum and even then he prefers cinnamon or clove gum (the first time kenshi kissed him he was confused bc he tasted like spices)

johnny keeps a jar of butterscotch candies on his desk for when he needs to brainstorm ideas- he finds he thinks better when his mouth is occupied (oral fixation haver)

(based off the previous hc) kenshi bought him some violet (the flower) flavored candy after he found out johnny always kept a stash- he also will refill the giant glass jar with butterscotch candies when he knows johnny is busy and will forget

(also based off the candy hc) lao and raiden also buy him hard candies- they get him ginger and lemon ones that johnny falls in love with immediately- he has two jars on his desk now, one for butterscotch and one for ginger

raiden really likes sketching and coloring- lao bought him one of those adult coloring books with mandalas and really intricate shapes and raiden finished all of it in like two weeks- he used to sketch in his free time and has an entire sketchbook dedicated to drawings of lao and his features (a lot of his arms, hands, eyes, and smile) it's hidden under his mattress

kung lao shaves his own undercut when it gets too long- normally cant let it grow out for longer than two or three weeks. sometimes, raiden will offer to do it for him so they can spend a bit of time together and just talk and be close <3

johnny definitely really enjoys washing kenshi's hair- johnny has a bit of a curl to some of his hair but he never uses the products he's supposed to or the methods he's supposed to when it dries- so it's pretty straight, but kenshi's is pin straight and doesnt tangle the way his does sometimes, so he really loves running his hands through it and has even convinced kenshi a few times to sit so johnny could put coconut oil in it for him

johnny loves coconut flavored things and purposefully buys ice cream bars that have coconut cream based ice cream- kenshi was unaware of this and was offered one and said yes thinking that it was vanilla- kenshi does not like coconut, so it was a very sudden and unpleasant surprise

kenshi cuts fruits as his way of showing love very often- he washes and cuts fruits for himself when he's stressed but preps it for others out of love and will often take apple slices, peeled oranges, cut melon (of any kind), or strawberries and grapes up to johnny's in-home office while he's working

johnny buys kenshi small gifts year round and goes crazy for the holidays and his birthday- he asked kenshi how he would feel if johnny bought him (technically them) a house back in japan- kenshi drew his line in the sand and capped johnny's gift prices at $2k per holiday/birthday (which he had broken before)

raiden keeps taxidermy bugs!! he always loved butterflies as a kid and his first framed butterfly was a gift from lao

please excuse any typos, it's later in the day now and my eyes are a little strained- i hope this was comprehensible, lol

[the-grey-hunt]

i have covid and must sit in my room all day. it's ghost trick posting hours and i am thinking about a gt major arcana set

These are purely based on my vibes from experience and the little pamphlet that came with my Rider-Waite-Smith deck, so feel free to argue with me, i could really use a conversation to get invested in rn

0 - THE FOOL. Obviously this one is going to be Sissel. The Fool represents setting out on a journey that's gonna take you through the rest of the cards, and it's the zero point, the beginning of the deck (sometimes the end, which is how my pamphlet organizes it). I'd draw him in the junkyard, maybe as the ghost flame.

I - THE MAGICIAN. This one gave me the most trouble. I eventually settled on Pigeon Man, partly because I couldn't figure out a 'scene' i liked for this more than a person. He fits the bill of a man hiding some secrets, but one who's a sort of 'magus' (pamphlet's word) or knowledgeable figure. No idea how i'd draw it.

II - THE HIGH PRIESTESS. I picked the park guardian/Dabira. HEAR ME OUT. The description I have says "tenacity", or if reversed, "passion" and "surface knowledge" (hate to say it but Dabira does not know the lore). Normally this would be a woman, but I ran out of female characters before assigning this one. This drawing would highlight the stars in his eyes.

III - THE EMPRESS & IV - THE EMPEROR. Alma and Jowd, respectively. The Empress is "the unknown, doubt" or reversed, "truth, the unraveling...of matters". More her role in the story than her actual personality, but the game devs didn't give her one, so. The emperor represents "conviction" (lol) and "protection", but also reversed can mean "confusion", "obstruction".

I'd draw Alma in a fake foil-card, where it looks like it's being tilted so some of her is visible through the "foil" but the "reflective" parts are her blacked-out flashback silhouette. Jowd would be at the foot of a ruined throne.

V - THE HIEROPHANT. This one's Kamila. "Captivity" is one of the potential meanings, but reversed it can also be "weakness", which I don't mean as an insult, but she's a little girl who gets physically overpowered. It would be Kamila on a thronelike seat in the red trunk, the hierophant's tools (maybe pieces from the contraption) on the floor before her.

VI - THE LOVERS. Yomiel and FianSissel. "Love" and "trials overcome", but reversed "failure" or "foolish designs". I think they as a pair represent the potential meanings pretty well; there's definitely love, but their love leads them to foolish plans down doomed paths. Drawn as each other's reverse, like a face card in a deck of playing cards.

VII - THE CHARIOT. "Triumph", but reversed, "defeat". I'd draw this as squished Jeego rolling away with the wrecking ball—both a triumph and a defeat!

VIII - STRENGTH. Lynne! "energy" and "action" both describe her. The reversed meanings don't really fit, so I'm ignoring them lol. I'd draw her in her determined pose, maybe from in the Yonoa with the pocket watch.

IX - THE HERMIT. Ray! "Prudence" (the other meanings I'm given don't fit as well), but reversed, "concealment", "disguise". I'm drawing that boy wigglin'.

X - WHEEL OF FORTUNE. "Destiny", "luck". No character fits this as well as the clock from the 'rewind time' cutscene.

XI -JUSTICE. Literally just gonna be the Justice Minister, in one of his slumped-on-the-desk poses. "Executive", but reversed, "law in all departments", "excessive severity".

XII - THE HANGED MAN. This one is Cabanela, and you know he's going in the hanged man pose. "Trials", "intuition" "discernment"— reversed, "selfishness", so the regular and reversed readings are the truth v. how he's percieved.

XIII - DEATH: I think this should be a drawing of a detective's pistol. There's the possibility of getting more metaphorical with this card, but here, I don't think you need to.

XIV - TEMPERANCE. I put Rindge for this one because i wanted to include all the people who get their lives saved by Sissel, and I do think it fits. "accomodation" (of lynne); reversed, "competing interests" (his assignment v. helping lynne). I'd draw him seated at the table in the restaurant.

XV - THE DEVIL. This isn't as much a person (I mean, it's Sith), but I want this card to show as its centerpiece the little grabby thing that takes Yomiel's Temsik fragment out. Both Yomiel and Sith would be visible, to either side, but the meaning of "violence" or, reversed, "fatality", "pettiness", seems best suited by this specific scene.

XVI - THE TOWER. It's already been done perfectly and is tbh the reason I'm making this post

XVII - THE STAR. What else? The Temsik meteorite. Carries a meaning of "loss", but alternately (not reversed, but alternately) "hope", "bright prospects for the future". Two very different scenes in that park...I'd draw it in the crater, where it could be showing either future.

XVIII - THE MOON. Beauty and Dandy for this one, idk how i'd draw them. "Hidden enemies", "danger", "deception", "error".

XIX - THE SUN. Missile! Means "material happiness", "contentment", even when reversed. It's what he is and what he brings to people around him! I'm giving that boy a halo effect.

XX - THE LAST JUDGEMENT. A scene of "the last desperate struggle" (to borrow the soundtrack title) in Temsik Park, the last moment of gameplay in the game. Could be either the fountain with the meteor coming down, or missile in the bullet right before it's swapped. could be a lot of moments!

XXI - THE WORLD. I would do a cool thing with the phone lines and traveling through them for this one. luckily no one can make me draw it, so you're just gonna have to picture the coolness yourself

[niuttuc]

The Graveyard Gang

Did you know Golgari likes the graveyard? Read the cards carefully next time you face a golgari deck, and you might notice it. As a result, a lot of Golgari commanders like the graveyard a whole lot, and specifically creatures being in there. So I made a deck for them, a deck that can use any of its ten commanders, randomly selected before each game. And their companion, Umori, just to make deckbuilding a bit spicier. Here's the gang as a whole!

They all have equal chance of leading the deck every game, and even if they don't show up in the command zone, they'll be somewhere in the 99. They're all in special versions when possible and all in foil, the only foils in the deck, as to be able to find them easily when sifting through the deck to pick one at random before every game. They're of differing power levels, but that's fine! If you end up rolling one that's too strong or weak for the table, you could always reroll, or worse, pick one of them, but that's less fun.

As far as strategies, we're playing only creatures, so I wanted to lean onto creatures that get really strong from having many of them in the graveyard, so there's lot of that! Their large bodies are our wincons, either through regular attacks or throwing them at people's faces with Jarad.

Of course, we're playing commander, so we're also eating our veggies, with plenty of ramp, card advantage, interaction, and in this case, self-mill.

This deck WILL fold like wet paper in games featuring plenty of graveyard hate, but that's the life of a graveyard deck. And we can survive a reasonable amount of it. Just don't get your graveyard exiled when it's your entire library, before you can recycle it with Endurance.

Speaking of, Endurance is here as a safety valve. If we do our plan TOO well and end up milling out, like this deck is known to do on occasion, the combination of Genesis triggering on our upkeep and Endurance having flash can ensure we shuffle our graveyard into our library to avoid dying. We may have a lot of work to do once again milling all that, and a couple */*s may die, but that's a worthwhile price to stay alive.

Is Umori optimal for this deck? No, I haven't used it once. But this is a deck with ten commanders all wanting slightly different things and trying to be alright with all of them. We're not here for optimal.

[hidefdoritos]

Haha yeah, you know me too well. Yeah, I've always been big on patterns. There was this one time when I was in like 8th grade I got invited to family game night at some friends' house. They explained a card game and let me watch a round.

In the game, the judge decides on a pattern in their head. "Red card, face card, clubs card" or something like that. Then everyone else takes turns laying down cards. The judge declares whether each card is correct or incorrect. At the beginning, it's all guesswork; at some point, the pattern emerges, and then we all congratulate ourselves and change roles.

They let me come in as the judge.

This was a mistake. I was small and full of spite. I didn't know about things like "sharing" or making things "winnable." I knew that the optimal pattern was something so complex they'd never get it but so simple my win would be legitimate. I wouldn't mess with the environment, or with counting the cards, or with a pattern of the frequencies of in/correct. It had to be a visible card pattern, and mine was going to be the best visible card pattern ever.

I chose my pattern. We started. And they started losing their minds.

From their viewpoints, there was no pattern. No rhyme or reason, no telling. I sat increasingly smug in my spot at the table. Half the deck was gone. They stared daggers at me. They had a very nice red-black pattern going, but it wasn't the deciding factor. They asked if I was sure there weren't any mistakes. I was sure. They played on. One declared she didn't have anything left to play. She was wrong, and I looked at her cards and told her so.

They started collaborating among themselves. Pointing at cards. Showing each other their cards. Two thirds of the way through the deck. Three quarters. Seven eighths. Card after card laid down, some accepted, some rejected. By far, farther than they'd ever made it in a game. It wasn't fun anymore, but I wasn't gonna call it off just because the kids were getting bored. I was full of more brainpower than those little twits could even conceptualize, and I was going to win.

One player went out--I confirmed nothing usable left in their hand. Then another. The remaining three played out their cards, swapping turns and swapping theories. Interest had waned. They stared at me glumly as they laid their cards, waiting for a verdict they couldn't predict. A parent left the room to work on the pizza and snacks.

Finally they were stuck. The deck was exhausted, and so were they. A few random cards left over, nothing discernably interesting about any of them.

"Give up?" I asked, a triumphant gleam in my eyes.

They stared at me.

I pointed to the array of cards snaking along the table. "If you'll see here," I gestured expansively, "it's a very simple pattern. Every other card has to be an even number."

They stared at me.

I swallowed.

"So, every other card could be literally anything?" asked an older sibling.

"Y-yeah," I said, losing 80% of my confidence. "...Isn't that fun?"

I was rescued by the remaining parent standing up from the table. "Why don't we start the movie now," they suggested, and started shepherding their glaring children into the living room.

"It could be worse," I explained lamely. "It could have been every fourth, or fifth, or I could have targeted people with their elbows on the table, or...." I trailed off as an adult started directing us toward pizza and snacks.

Anyway, I think that whole escapade says a lot about me in junior high school and also me as a person. Yeah, that pattern recognition is kinda like why I always get the same thing. Yeah, a number seven, ketchup only on the burger, regular fries, root beer with no ice. Can I tip you? Do you take cash tips?

[cherrysweather]

Hello! How are you? So, I have a request. Can you write about a scenario where Trucy gets bullied badly, LIKE EXTREMELY BADLY. But then, her S/O saves her from the bullies. Any format is allowed! And yes, thank you for reading!!!

Hello hello uwu

I'm fine? I think?

I hope you're doing well though ^^

Thank you for requesting and, let me give you a hug ;v;

It was so sad writing this because thinking about Trucy getting bullied hurts me TvT This is short and I'm sorry for it, but I really didn't know what to write and this work caused me to lose imagination more than once to write in general, I'm so very sorry

So, I hope I've written all the emotion well; I hope you'll enjoy! <3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trucy Wright is saved from bullies by her S/O:

It was always like this.

It didn't matter if it was during breaks between school lessons, on her way home, during her shows rehearsals or her live ones, Trucy was never alone - in the worst way possible.

Spoiled, fraud, naïve, delusional - she was called like this and more so many times a day that her mind sometimes forgot her name.

It started when some of her classmates asked her to show them some magic tricks, complimenting her hard work in everything she was doing.

Of course, some people didn't like that -call them jealous, ignorant, stupid or just disrespectful- and started to bother Trucy, mocking every achievement she conquered.

What she thought and hoped would last for some time, took a regular seat in her life instead; if she answered correctly to an answer she was a nerd, then a loser if she failed a test, an attention-seeker if she talked to someone from another class, anti-social if she didn't.

Wrong or right, everything she did was scolded, they always highlighted the worst aspect of it.

Trucy learned when she was a child how to handle the kinds of emotions that these events made her feel, how to bottle them up and keep a smile for everyone around her and to try and convince herself that she was strong, she could do it on her own.

That's why no one ever noticed.

Phoenix was the only one who immediately noticed how her daughter would isolate herself even when Apollo and Athena were with them at the office, but when he tried to talk to her about it, she just smiled and told him she was fine apart from some school stress.

He didn't want to play the part of the invasive father, the one who asked and asked until the answers he wanted reached his ears, so he asked someone he knew Trucy trusted as much as she trusted him.

Of course, they noticed too. How she slowly stopped to tell them how her day went on their way home, how she stopped bringing her favorite deck of cards to show them some new tricks and many other small things that made Trucy the bubbly girl she was.

They talked to her, making her realize that she had to react and show those bullies that whatever they said or did didn't touch her. She didn't have to become like them, envious, mischievous or evil; ignore them, ask her friends for support and always opt for a smile. They remained close to her while she tried to do that, waiting for her after school if they finished earlier their own lessons and always checked on her mood and health.

And, it worked, actually.

They stopped talking badly about her, thanks also to the other classmates who started to call them out, they stopped ripping her books after a teacher yelled at them and a very menacing blue lawyer glared at their group with death in his eyes each time he came to pick up his daughter.

"You think you're strong?" "You always need someone else to cover your back" "It's easy to say you hold shows in theaters when others do all the work for you"

Her blurred vision didn't help at all while she searched for her safety contact to ask for help; she was walking back home with unrequired company- like always.

This time, she understood quickly that a smile wouldn't help that much after a kick hit her legs. When they grabbed her backpack, arms or clothes, she pushed them away, not being able to hit them in any kind of way. That was until she felt her scalp burn and almost fell backward, wiggling from the grip she hit someone's leg; that triggered, however, a pull to her hair that made her back meet with a wall.

The only thing she felt after a while was air being pulled out from her lungs as someone pulled her scarf tightly around her slim neck. She closed her eyes and continued to push them away, free herself and avoid visible bruises. How would she explain that to Phoenix afterward.

They waited for Trucy outside her school; she told them that Phoenix invited them for lunch with Maya, Apollo and Athena, so they hurried up once classes finished and waited. They realized Trucy probably forgot when just the staff remained inside the building, so they started walking towards Phoenix's house.

That's when their blood started to boil; it took a few meters ahead to spot Trucy's cape and the same individuals she talked about these last weeks, and what helped recognize them was the rather unfriendly way they were treating her.

Trucy regained the courage to open her eyes again when she heard that familiar voice screaming against her bullies, pushing them away and finally freeing her neck from the grip of her scarf. No one there knew how they resisted beating them on the spot, calling them every possible way to make them feel as bad as they made Trucy feel, if not worse; to remind them of what they really were, how insignificant and vile.

They didn't even wait for them to go away, pulling Trucy away, somewhere safer to try and soothe her, speak to her; but that wasn't the ideal moment. Trucy slowly calmed down from the shock, but did not utter a word.

Once home, she just closed her in the bathroom, processing what just happened in the silence. Useless to say that once Phoenix learned everything, he knocked on the door softly, trying to get his daughter out of there and talk, doing his best to suppress his anger.

For once, hearing someone cry his lungs out was a positive sign; Trucy finally found the courage to let herself go, let off all the steam inside her while torturing her father's shirt and almost attempting to merge with his chest.

They waited, already thinking of ways to pay back those bullies as they deserved. When Trucy finished explaining the full situation, she gave herself a break, washing her face and dragging them to her room; lunch could wait.

She occupied her bed and used them as her pillow; her sobs could still be heard from time to time, her grip on the pillow was more than strong, so it was their hug on her. Only when her breath stabilized and she fell asleep they could relax, too. The gentle strokes on her hair didn't stop and they patiently waited for her times of recover to then find all together a solution.

Even though, Phoenix was already filling in the documents for a legal complaint for every one of those being.

[fearlesscomfort]

just got done with a sharpie cube and i wanted to post my top five favorite cards in my deck

5: Cation “create a token that’s a copy of target create five of those tokens.” this was involved in most of my turn one wins, this ranks fifth because i barely pushed this card to its limits, the way we were ruling this could copy spells and abilities but i only ever exiled it with Mo’s Ridge and created six copies of Mo’s Ridge.

4: Unto Nature “destroy target destroy target exile card.” removal was kind of dogshit because even though all creatures have haste (home rule) creatures usually do their shit on etb. our rulings were on the fly and terrible though so this could destroy cards on stack. cannot stress enough the importance of counter spells when a card that reads “glimpse hole” is the the draft. boring but also really funny to counter a turn one play and then remove two lands.”

3: D “you may have D etb as a copy of any card d.” very funny, when i made this my only thought was a one mana copy spell. @jodahpologist cracked this card wide open and cast 12,000 copies of her and won with Exodia + Venser, that shit really does say “any card.”

2: Mo’s Ridge “hideaway (this lands enters the battlefield when it does, look at your library and exile one face down and put the rest on the bottom of your library.) T: add G. you may play the exiled card without paying its mana cost.” i adore this card, obviously good however we had a home rule where you put a land from hand onto the battlefield turn zero so the second player could like counter a spell or something. as a result most of my wins involved Mo’s Ridge turn zero targeting Cation.

1: Worm “Create 3,366 9/9 blue kraken creature token.” god i love this card, i love Reef Worm as a regular magic card and drawing on her was the only time i had the “what am i doing i’m ruining such a beloved and wonderful card” thought during the whole cube. but my sacrifices paid off i have a big dumb grin looking at her while i write this.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

I've Got Friends on the Other Side

For the Prompt: Reverse TRIO Danny as a magic occult goth - got into sleight-of-hand to spite his parents when they used to spout that ghosts were real but magic was bullshit. He started with card tricks and snowballed into becoming proficient in several types of true occult magic, as well as all the basic party trick stuff. He now uses tarot cards rather than playing cards, both to freak out the 'normies' and scare off the bullies, but also because the cards tend to tell him things in a roundabout way. What did the cards just tell him about Tucker? (from @deathcomes4u)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for occult practices]

Danny Fenton had never really fit in. It didn't help that his parents called themselves ghost hunters and drove around causing mayhem in their souped up RV. When he was little, Danny had thought that his parents work was fascinating, but apparently he hadn't been interested in ghosts "the right way" because he didn't care about their scientific mumbo jumbo. Instead, Danny had gone to the library and checked out books on the occult.

When his parents derisively told him that magic wasn't real, he'd been furious. How could they say that to him when they'd devoted their entire adult lives to the study of ghosts? A less spiteful kid might've felt disheartened and given up their interest, but Danny doubled down. He taught himself sleight-of-hand tricks, as well as more spiritual forms of occult magic.

In middle school, he'd switched from playing cards to tarot cards, both to freak out the normies and scare off the bullies, and learned to read the cards pretty damn well, if you asked him. He'd started to dress in black, to wear crystals and other jewelry, to trudge around in heavy, buckled combat boots. He developed a reputation as the school's freaky goth kid, and that suited him just fine. His only two friends, the only two people outside of his family who were brave enough to come near him, were a passionate ecology nerd and the tech-obsessed school loser, and that suited him fine too.

Sam and Tucker were far from the most popular kids in school, which made Danny somewhat protective of them. He did regular tarot readings for them, at least once a week, when he was alone in his room, to keep tabs on what was going on in their lives, especially things they wouldn't necessarily tell him about.

Danny lit a black candle on his bedside table and shuffled his tarot deck three times, one for each letter of Sam's name. He manipulated the deck to bring the Empress, the card which represented Sam, to the top, but it was an honest shuffle aside from that. One by one, he laid out the cards on his comforter in a Celtic Cross layout, to tell him what his friend was struggling with. The Empress laid upright in the middle, the nurturer, the one who cared and helped, just like Sam cared so much about animals and the environment and did everything in her power to protect them.

Seven of cups—Sam was dealing with temptation of some kind. Six of wands, six of cups, Death, ace of cups. She'd had some kind of victory, and been happy about it, until she realized that it would come at a sacrifice, and she changed her mind. Reversed seven of wands, ace of pentacles, reversed queen of wands, Justice. There was some kind of time limit, and she couldn't make up her mind. Ultimately she would settle on accepting the temptation, and that would be the right choice, even if it wasn't without consequence.

Considering the reading, Danny tried to decipher a deeper, or more specific meaning. A victory for Sam would be convincing her parents to donate more money to animal rights groups and eco-friendly causes. If Danny were to guess, he would say that her parents had offered her a deal. They'd donate to her charities, but only if she did something for them, possibly something that was against her principals, or possibly something she just didn't want to do.

Next time he saw her, Danny would advise her to take the deal. Supporting vital causes to save the Earth would be worth whatever he parents wanted in return.

Satisfied, Danny made a note in his journal about the reading, returned the cards to his deck and shuffled again. Six times, he shuffled, once for each letter of Tucker's name, and he brought the king of pentacles to the top. His hands grew painfully cold as he did so. The candle on his beside flickered as if blown by a strong wind, but his window was closed. Whatever was bothering Tucker must be drastic to have such an effect while he shuffled.

Once more, Danny laid the cards in a Celtic Cross on his bed. Tucker's card, the king of pentacles represented intellectual prominence and ambition, both things that Tucker had in spades. The next card Danny laid down was the Wheel of Fortune, which told Danny that something pretty wild must have happened in Tucker's life, something filled with uncertainty, risk, and shock. Something Tucker definitely would've mentioned to him, but he hadn't for some reason. Danny's confusion doubled when he flipped the next card. The Magician, reversed.

The Magician was the card that represented Danny, it represented superstition and skepticism, unconventional methods, and magic. Different tarot readers read reversed cards various ways. Some believed that a reversed card indicated that the meaning of the card was also reversed, other believed that it indicated a delay, an increase or decrease in energy, or that whatever the card indicated was internal, rather than external, or vice-versa.

Danny used a more free-form style, judging the meaning of a reverse card on a case-by-case basis. However, in his experience, an upright Magician represented himself, and a reversed Magician represented his family. Whatever Tucker's problem was, Danny's family had something to do with it.

Danny's fingers physically ached from the cold so much that he dropped the next card. Death landed, reversed, in the next position on the cross. The position indicated the recent past. Death was a card that Danny rarely had to take literally, since it normally represented a different kind of loss or sacrifice, but the reversed position in this atmosphere clearly indicated an increased energy, so he could only assume that someone really had died, and Danny's parents had something to do with it. Or perhaps... could it have something to do with a ghost, his parents' work?

Danny swallowed and flipped the next cards, the two of swords and Judgement completed the cross. Tucker was at a crossroads and faced with a decision he couldn't make, or a decision he didn't know how to make, or a decision that would make itself if he didn't choose soon enough. Perhaps it was out of his hands, and Tucker was just being dragged along for the ride.

Reversed page of swords, ace of pentacles, The Tower, The Chariot. Whatever Tucker's problem was, it was something his friends could help him with, but he wasn't going to them because he was overthinking, probably panicking, possibly even afraid. The Tower was never good, and especially not in the position that represented the subject of the reading's fears. It represented failure, destruction, danger.

Tucker must've really been going through it, but the Chariot, at least, indicated a happy ending. It was triumph, victory over adversity. Everything would turn out okay, but Tucker had to make it through the trenches first.

Once all the cards were down, Danny tried to glean some more specifics from the reading, but it was foggy, as if it was shrouded in a mourning veil.

On Friday, after school, Tucker had been supposed to meet Danny at Fenton Works. Danny had to help a teacher with something, so he told his friend to go on ahead. He'd expected Tucker to be there already when he got home, but he didn't show. Was that because of this... issue that Tucker was apparently dealing with? Danny sighed in frustration and blew out his candle, watching the smoke curl up into the air in agitated spirals.

Tucker had some serious spiritual unrest going on, and Danny was just gonna have to ask him about it directly.

When Danny got to school, Tucker was nowhere to be seen. Sam was waiting for him by the steps, though, so he figured he'd talk to her first.

"So what kind of deal did your parents offer you?" he asked her. "What do they want in exchange for funding your environmental causes."

"Did... did I tell you about that?" she asked, more to herself than to Danny. "How do you know about that?"

"What did they ask for?" he asked again, ignoring her question. She should've been used to this kind of thing by now. It wasn't his fault he kept surprising her.

"They want to parade me around at upscale galas and crap," she said. "In formal wear. To schmooze pretentious investors and CEOs of companies that pollute the Earth more in a day than the average person does in ten years. But they said as long as I do, they'll give me a monthly donation allowance of five thousand dollars, which is pocket change for them, but it can do a lot of good in the right hands."

"You should do it," Danny advised. "It won't be fun or anything, but ultimately the rewards a worth wearing a gown, don't you think?" Sam sighed.

"You're right," she said. "I think I was always going to accept in the end, but... I guess I just needed someone else to say it. So thanks."

"You're welcome," he said, offering her a rare smile. "Good luck with the galas and crap." She snorted, and shook her head.

"I can't believe I'm gonna agree to this."

"Hey, have you seen Tucker around anywhere?" he asked her.

"I haven't," she said. "Come to think of it, I didn't see him all weekend, either."

"Well if you see him, let me know. We really need to talk to him."

"We?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure he needs both of us right now."

Tucker came to school right as the first bell rang, so there wasn't time to talk, but Danny and Sam conspired to corner him during lunch, and corner him they did. The three of them were alone behind the cafeteria, so they could speak freely.

"What happened last Friday after school?" Danny demanded. "Did someone die? Did it have something to do with my parents and ghosts?" Sam looked at him, aghast, and Tucker just shook his head resolutely.

"How do you do that?" he asked under his breath.

"We can help you," Danny said. "So stop overthinking, and freaking out, and just talk to us, alright?"

"Wait, what?" Sam asked, utterly lost. "Who died? What's going on?"

"I did," Tucker said quietly after a moment. "I went to your place to meet up with you, like we planned, but you were late. I got bored, and I heard you parents complaining about an experiment of theirs not working, a portal, so I went down to the lab to check it out."

"The portal works, though," Danny recalled. His parents had been over the moon.

"It didn't at first. I went inside it, and touched something, I don't know what," Tucker said. "It turned on while I was inside and... you can't imagine how painful it was. When I came out, the portal was on, and I looked like..." A fizzling white light rolled across Tucker's body like his skin was dissolving into glow-stick fluid right before their eyes. "This."

When the light faded, Tucker stood before them in a white jumpsuit. It looked like one of Danny's black Fenton Jumpsuits with the colors inverted. His normally dark hair was also white, as were the frames of his glasses. His freckles, usually invisible against his dark skin unless you looked really closely, glowed faintly, and his eyes were a luminous green, like the flame of a copper sulfate candle.

"You died," Danny said, finally understanding everything. "You're half ghost now." He gasped in realization. "The two of swords! The crossroads! You were cut in two; you live two lives, oh, duh!"

"What?" Tucker asked, while Sam just looked between the two of them in shock.

"Don't worry Tucker," Danny said. "I know this is stressful, and your struggling, and probably contemplating your own mortality, but in the long term, everything will be alright. This will eventually turn out to be a good thing, I promise."

"Uh... I can't make promises like that," Sam said, her brain catching up to the situation enough to finally speak up. "But I can promise that Danny and I will be there for you. We'll help you in any way we can."

"Absolutely," Danny agreed.

"You guys!" Luminous tears trickled from Tucker's eyes, and he sniffed once before pulling both his friends into a tight hug. "I can't believe I even thought of keeping this a secret from you. You guys are the best!"

"Yeah yeah," Danny grumbled. "We know. You can let me go now."

"Sorry." Tucker quickly released Danny from the hug and let the goth boy adjust his fishnet sleeves. "I forgot you don't like hugs."

"I guess I can forgive you," Danny said lightly. "Just this once."

[theresattrpgforthat]

Okay! So, is there an RPG that's more rural, like farms and fields, windmills and carts, swamps and forests, but also still like big monsters and magic? Vibes wise, something akin to Amphibia the show, or Atomicrops the game. I'm sure one could just repurpose any regular RPG to make a world like that, but I'm curious :3c

THEME: Farming Plus

Hello friend, so I have a few games here that feel at least slightly fantastical, as well as a game that definitely works as a post-apocalyptic kind of game, although I don’t think any of the games listed here have the cartoonish-ness of either Apmhibia or Atomicrops. My main goal was to find games that felt like they communicated a slice-of-life style of game, while making room for a setting that feels outside of our normal experience. I hope you still find something that works for you!

Take Root, by katykoop.

You've achieved the dream! You have a farm, in a cool place full of forests and the mysterious dungeon keep, and there is the promise of glory-- with a festival at the very end of the year. Play against several farmers, with a world master controlling it all, to win by having the most points in your farm display. 

Each season is condensed into 9 days,  with harvest on the 4th and the 8th. Unlock cool items through random events with NPC's, buy livestock, and traverse the dungeons of Dungeon Keep. 

This is take root. 

Take Root is a very procedural game, with each player responsible for their own farm, which they are tasked with caring for until harvest and the bringing of your fruits to market. The phases of the game are (predictably) sorted into 4 seasons with 9 days in each season, with two market days per quarter of the year. Different seasons have different basic crops, and certain items are more valuable than others.

However, you’re not just farming in Take Root - you’re also venturing into dungeons, and trying to romance select NPC’s. Diving into the Dungeon Keep is dangerous, but could have you coming away with rare items that give you money for seeds or items that allow you to fulfill mini quests - such as wooing the love of your choice, for example. The end of the game results in a winner - the player with the highest accumulated points, acquired through selling items, adventuring, and romancing NPCs.

All in all, Take Root is streamlined and simple, and yet manages to combine both dungeon delving and farming into one neat little brochure.

Farmtasy Simulator, by Guanaco Games.

The goal of this game is to build up your farm by managing resources, while dealing with threats both mundane and fantastic. Using cards for the encounters and dice to determine the outcome of actions taken, the player will gain resources and try to figure out how best to use them to continue building their farm. This game is meant to be played with one player and a GM. Farmtasy Simulator can be used as a supplemental mini-game for an on-going fantasy campaign, or as a standalone to enjoy some agricultural fantasy hijinks.

This is meant to be a two-player game, with one player and one GM. The character has dice and five stats with varying modifiers, while the GM has a deck of cards that they will pull from over the course of each year, used to generate encounters that will make the farming difficult. Farmtasy Simulator appears to be primarily designed as an add-on to another game, incorporating farming mechanics into a larger story. I think it might be a neat way to watch time pass for one character who’s trying to settle down and start a farm - perhaps each player takes their turn running through the simulator with the GM, or the GM use this as a mini-session with the only other player available to build their backstory before they went adventuring.

What’s So Hard About Farming?, by K.Petker.

This is a game about working on a farm and dealing with the triumphs and hardships of such a life.  It might not be any kind of farm or farmers you’re familiar with, but the connection to the growing green and the earth is still there.  Regardless of the season, there’s work to be done.  And things might get a little weird.

I don’t own this game, but my experience with What’s So Cool About…..? games is one of light rules and plenty of freedom to let you take those rules where you like. What I expect from this game is just enough rules to give you a reason to roll dice, and the rest of the world is up to you.

On the plus side, this means that if you want to farm in a swamp, or in a post-apocalypse… well, you can do that! On the downside, the experience won’t fundamentally change according to to the setting unless you decide to do a bit of game design yourself, which is a delightful challenge for some, and an unnecessary amount of labour for others, so take from that what you will!

Mectors, by Harper Jay.

After the war, thousands upon thousands of bipedal mechanized fighting vehicles (or “Bimechs”) were left scattered across the land. Many were brought back to the capital cities to be repaired or scrapped, but the majority of them were too damaged to be easily transported. With the war won, the victors simply left their mechanical refuse in the battlefields to rust and wither. 

In Mectors, players take on the role of a farmer, miner, fisher, carpenter, or some other worker in a labor intensive field. Mector Owners come from all kinds of backgrounds. Some own a Mector that’s been in their family for generations. Others came across theirs recently, through purchase or luck. And a rare few have managed to piece their own together using scraps from decommissioned Mectors, but this is even harder than it sounds. No matter how they got it, they now have a powerful tool with a long history.

I’ve recommended Mectors before for a similar request, and I think it definitely holds up as a great option for a fresh take on the slice-of-life farming sim - because it involves mechs! The setting is post-war, in a country that has learned to beat their technological swords into highly efficient plowshares - and the troubles that plague your settlements are less sinister and just the problems of a small community, such as the mushroom fungus spirit who is willing to guide lost travellers out of the cave, but also can’t seem to stop herself from feeding them mushrooms that also leech away their memories. If you want to tell stories about people solving everyday problems, set in an agricultural setting that’s wholly divorced from our own, I recommend Mectors.

Weeds in the Waste, by Megan Cross.

Weeds in the Waste is a solo storytelling game about tending a garden in a post apocalyptic wasteland.

Determine the state of your wasteland, create your gardener, plant your seeds, and tend your garden as you play through the seasons in the wastes. It is a narrative, storytelling game played using 2d6s and a 6x6 grid, as well as a series of prompts. 

As primarily a solo game, much of the tone and pace of Weeds in the Waste is set by you, the singular player. This includes describing how the world ended, and how your garden started, as well as what kind of gardener you are. The game moves through different phases for every season, indicating what parts of your hard work pay off, and what parts are unfruitful.

The end game (and reflection phases) revolve around what withers, and where - which I think is truly reflective of the post-apocalyptic themes in this game. Try as you might, the current conditions of the wasteland can only be so fruitful, and you will have to learn how to live with a drastically reduced yield in comparison to the work that you’ve put in.

There are also rules for multiple players of Weeds in the Waste, so you can also make this a collaborative effort, answering the questions together, and strategically planting your crops as best as you can.

I’d Also Recommend….

My Small Town Farming Recommendation Post (some overlap with this one)

Grandpa’s Farm, by Tyler Crumrine.

Iron Valley, by M.Kirin.

[noidretina]

Idea that I had(I know it's never going to happen) for a permanent Genshin Impact feature:

PvP. Okay, not direct pvp because clearly having people clash against eachother with 6-digit numbers and 5-digit health pools simply isn't going to work, and any amount of nerfing damage would still make it painfully Pay-to-Win.

So here's the idea: Both players have a deck of cards pertaining to enemy creatures. They start off by drawing cards and selecting a limited quantity of them. Then the round starts and both players play off against the selection chosen by their opponent.

This could be done in two ways:

The domain is separated by a transparent wall, so if one player finishes a round before the other, they can look at the other player

Both players are in a shared space, and enemies towards both sides can attack and be attacked by both players.

In either case, a player achieves a 'win' state if they defeat the opponents placed by the other player.

Players accumulate points the faster they complete their objective. After a few rounds, a winner is declared.

This seems like it would still be on the Pay-to-Win side, but let me explain a bit further about reward distribution.

After a winner is declared, both players' points are added to a UI system that resets weekly, monthly, or every version. The winner is given a static addition to the points for winning, but both players get points, as to prevent all-or-nothing Pay-to-Win madness.

Every so-many points gets you a level, which grants you new cards for more enemy choice variety, Character EXP materials, Talent Materials, Weapon Ascension Materials, Weapon EXP materials, Mora, Artifact EXP materials and Sanctifying Elixir(s). Things to make the grind to build characters feel less grind-y without spending more resin.

It would also include a one-time debut reward for accumulating your first so-many points in the form of primogems and/or intertwined fates.

If a single player mode is added, it would simply be the player against preset groups of enemies. The player would not know which preset of enemies they are facing against until their party is set for the match; same as in two-player mode.

This was a fun idea to have, and while it's unlikely to happen, I may want to consider something similar for one of my own game ideas(if I can figure out multiplayer, that is). I'm also thinking from the perspective of a developer, and considering things that Genshin would actually consider. Obviously, adding another renewable source of primogems would be a huge investment that may very easily result in lost profit, which is why I'm hesitant to include it. However, I wanted to ponder an idea with more sustainability than the TCG, as the only lasting reward for the TCG is more currency that is exclusively used for the TCG. So, beyond the one-time rewards, the only reason to play the TCG is for the TCG itself(and if you're really desperate, battle pass). I want something more sustainable and more unique.

Hell, maybe it's a worthwhile idea to have resin able to be spent here, and having the rewards for getting levels be whatever rewards you would've gotten for doing any artifact/talent/weapon ascension domain of your choice. This alone would make it much more sustainable than certain artifact domains. It's already fairly lengthy to find a few co-op people to challenge a domain from before 4.0. This would allow you to reap the rewards of a preferred type while still allowing players to be co-op butterflies. (or I guess pvp butterflies).

One complication that I can imagine however, is simply having two parties of four in a domain, as well as duplicate characters in a domain. But let's be real here. Again, this is an idea, not a demand, and we are long overdue duplicate characters in domains anyway, especially considering regular co-op has no problems with it.

Rambling aside, this would be a cool idea!