#young dracula rp

[scvereignreignedarch]

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close."

Sarah Sanderson of Hocus Pocus and Count Dracula from Young Dracula

[turnupswritessometimes]

Nosferatu (2024) - Style over Substance

Also available to read on my blog: https://sophieisabelturner.wixsite.com/hotchocandhorror/post/nosferatu-2024-style-over-substance

Robert Eggers' Nosferatu (2024) was top of my radar for horror to catch around the new year. The trailers showed a movie dripping with dark atmosphere and promising a tale of dangerous obsession. Whilst the film certainly delivers on atmosphere, the tale itself is somewhat lacking.

The premise of Nosferatu is based off the silent movie from 1922, following a handful of other remakes, taking heavy inspiration from the original Dracula story. Whilst a timeless classic, it unfortunately means that if you're familiar with the story, this is a familiar retread of the story beats. This could work, particularly with a star-studded cast, and especially if there was an interesting take on the story or characters.

But before diving into that, it is worth talking about the positives. This film is beautiful. The camera work compliments the elaborate sets, particularly Orlock's great, gothic castle, to build a twisting, unsettling feeling. It's a treat to get lost in the claustrophobia of Wisburg and the sprawling Transylvania mountains. The use of so many elaborate and practical sets is a breath of fresh air and brings the setting to life.

Eggers employs an almost monochrome colour palette to add to this; not quite an homage to the original's black and white, rather, because it's "romanticsm, not expressionism." (And, apparently, there wasn't the budget.) The desaturation does bring out the gothic mood, making what little colour there is, particularly the orange and reds of fire, pop.

The wardrobe has been given the same care and craft. The gowns and suits are gorgeous and period accurate; bringing the time period to life and creating the kind of striking images reminiscent of the novel.

So, yes, the movie looks wonderful and the detail is painstackingly historically accurate.

But is this really enough?

Because the plot is nothing new. In fact, it feels by-the-numbers. Hoult makes a good young-man-trapped-with-a-vampire (a role he's delivered on a few times), Dafoe a great, zany Van Helsing character, and Skarsgård a wonderfully creepy count. And yet, though everyone is clearly enjoying their roles, there is nothing particularly stand out in the take. In fact, what stands out most is why only the count has an eastern-european accent, whilst everyone else is speaking crisp RP British.

Since the original movie has since been discussed as anti-semetic, Eggers' take does little to counteract this. The design of the count has a moustache slapped on, but is otherwise not particularly changed. (I have nothing against the moustache, by the way, the moustache is interesting, at least.) The lack of fangs for sharpened teeth seen more rarely in vampire horror, but doesn't quite live up to the gnarliness of the bites akin to something like Raw (2016). It still feels like there was a lot further they could have gone, if they were aiming for living corpse.

However, I can understand this is an adaptation, and as such, there's a give and take in how recognisably Orlok they'd want their villain to be.

I'd actually probably have still enjoyed this as a solid vampire flick, if not for the elephant in the room: Lily-Rose Depp.

Whilst I'm sure the posession scenes were taxinga nd difficult to film, Depp's performance feels like the one person everyone said was "really good" in your school drama classes, because they can shout a lot and pretend to cry passably. Depp relies on melodrama for the character of Ellen, and unfortunately, it makes it hard to like this her. And no, female characters don't have to be likeable, but it's clear this film wants you to be on Ellen's side, yet does nothing to make you be - and the performance certainly doesn't help. As it stands, I don't buy her and Thomas' marriage, and don't hugely blame the Harding's for turning her out. This happens after at least twelve weeks (Thomas says the journey to the count's castle takes six weeks, and it presumably takes him longer to get back) of dealing with screaming and night terrors and posessions in return for what? Who is Ellen when she is not posessed? She doesn't seem a good friend to Anna (Emma Corin,whose performance is great), and doesn't seem to have any real character outside of delivering forboding lines.

Therefore, I don't think the problem lies solely with Depp. The script just hasn't given Ellen enough of a character to make her interesting. We don't have enough of her backstory to feel sympathy, we don't see enough of her outside of posession to want her free, we don't even have enough of her and Thomas' marriage to want to see them stay together. It feels like this is down to a reluctance to do anything too different from the original, leaving just a couple of nuggets of what could have been an interesting theme:

Nosferatu pokes its head into a theme of sexuality. Seen most obviously through Ellen's movements whilst posessed, though this isn't hugely explored. Other characters don't really acknowledge on it (aside from a period-typical hysteria reference), which seems like a missed oppportunity to explore the attitudes of the time. This is touched open in a later scene between Thomas and Ellen, but at a service level, "I'm not clean," as opposed to exploring anything with depth or challenging this.

If this is meant to be an exploration of desire, why does everything feel so desireless? I can see the grinding bodies, but I can't see the emotion. As Ellen shouts "show him our love," I'm wondering what love we're meant to be seeing?

To conclude, Nosferatu is a gorgeously shot classic vampire movie, but its focus on historical sets and accuracy is to the detriment of doing anything interesting or fresh with its set-up. It's wonderful it was such a passion project for the cast and crew, but if I'm recommending a subversive vampire horror starring Nicholas Hoult, it will be Renfield (2023).

[hislittleraincloud]

The Randomosity of Life is Just Fkn Weird

Cute, but it's much like watching a kid swimming in the ocean of life with an identity that's everywhere. (Also woman, don't let puppies chew off your heel...you'll be paying for that puppy's vet bills. 🤦🏽‍♂️)

But first, on her first useless talent and the shit that keeps on happening to me, here is an RP that I was doing for ✨research✨ (to see what works and what doesn't), about two and a half weeks ago:

I won't show the rest. While it wasn't she who was tongue-tying them up but me, I have (had, maybe, since this is being mentioned now and some shithead is bound to think that I got the idea from her RL and not my RL) plans to do this with one of my main characters, but ugh. UGH.

But yeah, all of the little happenstance coincidences are all so gd weird. I'm pretty sure that some day soon the waves will collide and my mind'll be officially blown.

Anyway, there were several things I found weird about what she said since they're different than what she said when she was younger and fresher/more honest (since kids are more honest in the first place). After getting steeped in Wednesday, I only started to catch up on her hours and hours of Lives and interviews, so I know what she's said in the past and how some of it has evolved and has been tailored to fit.

Reading is fundamental, but educational reading (not just 'books', but textbooks, research papers, etc.) is fundamental for young people to do to understand how we work and relate within the world.

But all of that aside, our girl needs a vacation (and I suppose the mini-one in Venice for the festival is nice I was there 38 years ago LOL) because Jeeeeeesus

Next up: I want to see a Jenna reaction video as she watches Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula WITH Winona Ryder.

Please gods, make that happen.

[fangirl-saya]

@codepend3nt There's a pretty long RP below, so to avoid taking over your feeds, hiding it under "read more." (Crossover between Renfield and Korean Odyssey ftw)

It's early 2000's. Ogong, the disgraced deity known as the Monkey King, has just been “accidentally” sprung free from his 500 year imprisonment in the Marble Mountains by his bestie, Ma-Wang, and now both of them have to pay. Ma-Wang’s determination to get in Heavens’ good graces and attain godhood are unwavering. He needs to help someone dear to him, and the only way he can do it is by becoming a god. To become a god, he needs to collect a number of good-deed points (GDP? lol), and he lost a bunch of them when he freed Ogong. Ma-Wang (mostly) plays by the rules, maintains a facade of a human existence (via a persona of an owner of a huge entertainment company in Korea). Thus, while filthy rich, he is somewhat limited in what he’s willing/able to do. Ogong’s main objective is to be able to drink alcohol again. This prohibition is one small way the Heavens are still able to punish him. After 500 years of being under house arrest he is restless and eager to enjoy the world. He has friends in high places and enemies in even higher places. He mostly doesn’t care. Still, he feels he owes Ma-Wang for orchestrating his escape, so he works on collecting GDP by taking Heavens’ assignments to dispatch various baddies. For the most part, he’s been getting assignments around Seoul, but on this particular occasion, the assignment will take him to Seattle, WA, USA. To his surprised protests (“Why the hell are you sending somewhere so cold and dreary? Why do I have to be so far from my beloved car, Ma-Wang’s big TV and my cozy hot tub?”) the heavenly official only shrugs, and says the order came all the way from the Top. And so Ogong has to pack. To his relief, his car actually fits into his suitcase, though registering it at the destination may be a nuisance. There’s also not a ton of space left, and he eyes his collection of fur coats critically. It’s always raining in Seattle. Will he even be able to wear them, or will they get drenched the moment he walks into the streets? He stuffs a couple of his favorites into the car’s trunk and sets off to the airport. A private jet is already waiting for him, along with a brand new identity and a healthy bank account. Finding Dracula in a city of 700k+ residents is no easy task. Cut off from his regular channels, he bribes some humans and threatens some spirits to find out that an unusual number of homeless people have been going missing in the recent weeks - information that hasn’t made it to the press. Human souls are human souls, homeless or Fortune 500 founders. And so, while he’d much rather be somewhere warm and cozy, he is stalking foggy, cluttered alleys on the periphery of downtown Seattle, where the impromptu homeless encampments tend to spring up seemingly overnight. It’s been two weeks with little progress. Interviewing the not-always-coherent local residents revealed that the disappearances happen all over the city, that besides being homeless, the victims seem to have little in common - age, gender, health, origins, race, personality - all over the place. A couple of particularly inebriated fellas told him of a lanky guy with “glowing yellow eyes, dude!” that they’ve seen around their encampment a few times before one of their drinking buddies disappeared. “Do you think you’ll be able to bring Sean back?” “Unlikely,” Ogong answers bluntly. “Y’all make sure you stick together. Safety in numbers and all that.” Finally, on a Wednesday night, wet and dreary like any other, Ogong spots someone observing a small encampment from the shadows. “That’s definitely lanky,” he thinks to himself. And in the next moment he’s standing behind Renfield, a hand on his shoulder. “Hey there buddy. What brings you out here on such a fine night?” If Renfield were to turn around, he’d see a Korean young man, 5-11, almost comically overdressed for the relatively warm weather, with an oversized scarf and a heavy wool coat (let’s say it’s summer, and it’s around 65F?).

Renfield couldn't help but jump when he felt the hand clamp down on his shoulder, bright blue eyes going wide at the sound of the voice. "I...um..." he blinked a few times, slowly turning to face the man. Despite having a few inches on the guy, Renfield still seemed to cower under his gaze. Was he a cop? He was dressed kinda funny for a cop, even an undercover one. But still....Dracula would not like this one bit.

From inside his pocket, he let go of the handkerchief and the bottle of chloroform he'd been about to pull out. Then slid his hands out of his jacket so they were visible, just in case.

"I lost my cat. He got out of my apartment, and I was looking for him." He turned his head, looking back down the alleyway before calling out, "Fluffy! Fluffy, where are you?" A blatant lie, but one he was determined to stick with. He'd find someone for Dracula to eat somewhere else.

“A cat, huh?” Ogong gives his customary sardonic half-grin. “That simply wouldn’t do. Shall I help you look?” The words are dripping with mock concern and sarcasm. Ogong’s hand remains on Renfield’s shoulder, and while he isn’t squeezing it, exactly, Renfield can feel that the grip is pretty firm, and he’s unlikely to be able to twist away with human strength alone.

[a-den-of-demons]

Closed RP with @siiinfully

Setsuna stayed on the rooftops watching Cassia follow him. He heard of the descendant of Dracula becoming a monster hunter, but the young woman looked green, and also had to admit she cut a pretty figure. He would bring her to his bed if she wasn't intent on finding him and killing him.

Taking a risk, he landed in front of her, his massive 7'5" frame towering over her as he glared at her, "I suggest you stop, or this could get nasty."

[lastofthebelmontsrp]

Some writing I did for an off-tumblr rp. I'm really proud of it and decided to share it here. This is Trevor's contribution to The Hold.

These words I know to hold true. My name is Trevor Belmont. I was once the last of the Belmonts. I made friends with the Speakers and of the dhampir, Alucard. Together, we defeated Dracula. I fell in love with my wife Sypha. We had three children, Richter, Ann, and Marry. My days are running short and my mind turns to what it means to have legacy and a story.

My story starts as many stories do. I had parents. A sister. All of us were proud monster hunters. We lived happily. And then the church happened. My sister was too young to leave my parents. They killed my family, who sent me away in hopes I would survive.

And I did. I wandered alone and scared for many years. Much of what I did during that time is lost to the effects of how much I drank to forget. Turns out that phrase holds merit.

A small shining light in that dark time is my worst kept secret, my dear late wife Chavah. Chavah and I met when I was 17. She was running the inn I was freeloading in. Chavah saw me as a person for the first time in five years. Within a year, we were married. A child was had soon after that. My lost infant first son, Solomon. We moved to the abandoned home. The same inquisition apparently had been keeping an eye on my home. They lured me out in the middle of the night and beat me, forcing me to watch as they burnt my home, killing my Chavah and Solomon. Once more, I died a wandering drunk.

I came back to life when I found myself in Gresit. I found some hostile priests who were terrorizing a peaceful group of Speakers. Their magician was sent to find some legendary sleeping savior. I saved her and fighting the cyclops made me realize I still knew how to fight. I saved her and we saved her family and, eventually, the village. We found the sleeping savior and, after a hard start, we all became friends with a common goal. We were going to take down Dracula. And we did.

Sypha and I traveled. But this damn plot of land has a spell on me. We came back. I defeated Death and died myself. I don't remember anything from my time off this world, but I like to think I got to hold Chavah and Solomon once more.

I came back on a black horse. I don't know how I got back. I truly do not. But my beloved wife, Sypha was there waiting for me. My dear friend and brother Alucard was there waiting for me. My life turned to teaching and helping Belmont become the city of hunters it was meant to be. I helped the generations. I helped lessen my brother's load. I raised an amazing family with my wife. I realized I needed to leave one last mark. Sypha. Thank you for teaching me and my children how to read and write. I am dedicating the knowledge of the Hold to all future learners. With a little bit of wealth from that which I have amassed, I would like to start a fund that no one in Belmont will be illiterate ever again. I have missed knowledge for my own inabilities. Never again shall that happen to anyone who lives here.

Now I would like to talk to my family.

To my brother, Alucard. I hope your rest is satisfying. I sat with you before writing this because I craved the strength you have always given to me. Whenever I doubted myself. Whenever I didn't know what to do, you were there to remind me I was a mere dumb Belmont and turn me to the right direction. I long for your voice and your guidance. May you get what you need from this slumber.

My son, Richter. You make me proud every day. You have become the warrior and the advisor I always knew you would be. You are more than I had ever hoped for in a son. Lead our family in my absence. We are looking at you now.

My daughter, Ann. You are every bit as powerful and wise as your mother. Your work curating this Hold and relearning some of the magics that the Belmonts held. You have made me proud. Lead our family in my absence.

My daughter, Marry. You are stubborn like me and powerful like your mother. You embraced Speaker culture the most out of any of my children. This is not a bad thing. Your work of preserving history is noble and should not be downplayed. I am proud of you for this work. Lead our family in my absence.

To my grandchildren. I do not love you less for not naming you individually. I just do not have space at this tail end of this journal to give you the individual attention you all deserve. In each of you, I see the past and the future. You only see yourselves as the present. That is how it should be. You are all amazing and powerful and I love each and every one of you. Grow. Flourish. Continue to elevate the Belmont name.

I end this with a message to my beloved wife, Sypha. You met me at a low point and I can directly credit you to my being able to live. In multiple ways. You have seen me in highs and lows and loved me through it. You grew strong next to me and I grew strong because of you. We have done feats that are unimaginable. And my favorite part of our lives? The years we got to raise our family. The time we spent helping Belmont grow. Every morning I got to wake up next to you meant it was a going to be a good day. Every night I fell asleep with you in my arms meant I had a good day. Your laugh was my air and your eyes were my sunshine. We are old now, but I swear you have only gotten more beautiful. The rest of my days are just as good as the ones behind me.

My name is Trevor Belmont of the House of Belmont. This is my life in my own words.

[blixtrandetorst]

MUSE INFO

Born to a Swedish immigrant family in Silesia. His first language being Swedish but speaking German with very little an accent as being taught both from a young age. Dieter attended cadet schooling instead of public schooling. Then converting to officer training as soon as he was old enough. Leading into the outbreak of The Great War, he was commissioned and turned from a warm man {human} to vampire by Dracula himself. Commissioned to become a flier, Dieter quickly built up his victory count with his quick thinking and attention to detail in the air. Though his excitement in getting after a potential score can lead him to act a bit sloppy.

Case in point the lightning like scar that runs from just above his right eye brown Dow the length of his nose under it and through to his bottom lip. Sustaining this from a Sopwith Camel’s propeller. The scar being much larger on his face at his human stature of 6ft. Dieter gained this trophy in his shapeshifted bat form that is 17ft tall. From the scar, because it runs across his right eye he has cloudy vision and often resorts to echolocation aloft. His tapetum lucidum showing a grey hue rather than a red that shows in the left eye.

He’s devoted to his role in winning the war. Seeing himself get transferred to the prestigious Jasta 1, the flying circus commanded by Rittmeister Von Richthofen. He intends to keep performing and earn his keep. Even if it means putting himself in harms way, like overdosing on blood and not being able to revert back to human for weeks till things stabilize.

He wouldn’t change a thing. Testing the limits of his vampiric abilities is a guilty pleasure of his. How else would you know what you’re capable of if you done push it to the extreme?

OC based in the universe of: The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman

I do not expect characters or muses to be familiar with the universe before interacting. He’s a vampire first and foremost. That’s at most what is needed to be known before interacting.

Name: Dieter Bergström

Age: 27 (physically 27)

Birthday: November 3rd 1889

Sex/Gender: cis male

Ethnicity: Swedish

Occupation: German Kampfflieger

Height: 6’0ft/182cm

Hair: sandy blond

Eyes: ocean blue

Notable features: lightning like scar from above his right eyebrow down trough his right eye, along his nose and down through his Cupid’s bow through his bottom lip on his left side.

Build: athletic, lean.

Languages: English (for the sake of rp, mun is monolingual though learning.) German (fluent, faint Swedish accent) Swedish (first language, spoken at home growing up)

below is a sketch of his bat form compared with his regular height for scale.

[fangedpeace-a]

YOUNG DRACULA SENTENCE STARTERS

*change pronouns as you wish! sentence starters may contain some triggering topics such as tw: blood and tw: gore. 

‘ I'm a vampire ’ 

‘ Can't believe we have to speak this stupid language ’

‘ You've got to be the sweetest vampire ever ’

‘ I'm sure we should have taken a left back there ’

‘ Just the usual; lying, cheating, multiple murder attempts ’

‘ It doesn’t feel like my birthday. It feels like I’m going to my own funeral ’

‘ No, you're not. You're a ruthless psychopath, who craves fresh blood and raw power ’

‘ We've got to keep a low profile ’

‘ Who's the loser! Who's the loser! Go loser! Go loser! Go loser! ’

‘ Don't you touch me, you fungus! ’

‘ It's only a knee you've got another one! ’

‘ What did I ever do to you? ’

‘ Don't do it, ___. You're making a mistake ’

‘ In your face, peasant! ’

‘ Ok, whoever completes the most evil deed by tonight is the winner ’

‘ Whatever, you look closer to a thousand ’

‘ She's hovering between life and death ’

‘ Chill out, dude. It's just make up ’

‘ I don’t wanna be a vampire! I wanna be human! ’

‘  No, she can't be your number two, you're my number two, that makes her number three ’

‘ No way am I number three! ’

‘ What did I ever do to you? ’

‘ What if there's an evil vampire in my blood after all? ’

‘ Well...although you’re called the chosen one, you don’t, in fact, have a choice ’

‘ Look like claw marks, could be a werewolf ’

‘ When it's your turn you'll become just as evil as I am ’

‘ That's disturbing on so many levels ’

‘ Rise and shine sleepy dead! ’

‘ What if I turn into some kind of...bloodthirsty monster at midnight? ’

‘ You devious, conniving witch!’

‘ No. I'm better than you because I'm a vampire ’

‘ I am Count Dracula, not spell Dracula ’

‘ Have you any idea how tiring it is being adored all day? ’

‘ You can't escape your destiny ’

‘ Because love is stupid, and it makes people do stupid things ’

‘ I hope she chokes on a garlic snail ’

‘ Come on, ___! Rip his legs off! ’

‘ Spread the word, no more Mr. Nice Guy ’

‘ I promise, I will never disinherit you again ’

‘ Like the doctor said, that broomstick was an accident waiting to happen ’

‘ You know some of those Goths are very convincing ’

‘ I'm not evil. I'm not evil ’

‘ Feeling a little uncomfortable with the word 'victim' ’

‘ My hair was out of control... so I got rid of it ’

‘ Most people just switch hair gels ’

‘ All those in favour of getting caught running an illegal Breather-biting hotel and turned to dust, raise your right hand ’

‘ I think this coffin's way too fancy. Only a loser vampire would sleep in something like this ’

‘ You promised you'd be normal! ’

‘ I always wanted a big sister, till I met you ’

‘ Sorry, didn't I mention I'm vegetarian? ’

‘ I'm not frightened of shadows ’ 

‘ I draw the line at explosives ’

‘ You were dying... I was trying to be nice ’

‘ I laugh in the face of pointy wood ’

‘ I've created the world's worst vampire ’

‘ Most people get a car when they turn eighteen, not all the evil in the universe! ’

‘ I know what your father does; feeding on the innocent, bleeding them dry! ’  

‘ He's a plumber, yeah. If that's what you mean ’ 

‘ Well, that's alright. You're dead already! ’

‘ Sorry, which mum are we walking about? Coz I'm thinking about the backstabbing witch from Hell one! ’

‘ Wow! That's really evil!... And wrong, of course ’

[chosenonedracula]

//I really miss Vlad, guys. And I just *really* want him to interact with more vampire royalty?? Or maybe other types of supernatural creatures??

Like, the Volturi from Twilight - Also, Vlad meeting the Cullens and he’s so in love with this family??? Carlisle being a good and supportive dad, all the siblings being close, NOT trying to kill each other?? They all drink *animal blood only*??? Where have they been his entire life

The Originals from TVD/Originals - Anyone from Legacies?? Hope??? Klaus and/or Hope teaching Wolfie how to deal with this hybrid stuff and Vlad being so grateful because the extent of his knowledge about werewolves is that his mum left them for one and that they both just don’t care about their son at all - Maybe Vlad can send Wolfie to the school? And I just love Alaric so much

Any of the vampire monarchs from True Blood

[fangedpeace]

“ I can’t stop thinking about it...about 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌. ”  Chilling pale fingers curled around the edge of a rusted table, its smell taunting him like a death omen ─ a banshee wailing in the wind moving towards him. Vlad’s dark blue eyes were staring at the floor. His mind was a million miles away, stuck in a nightmare that continued to play over and over and never turned away from his fear. He could feel how much he’d changed, how empty he felt. The 𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐒𝐒 inside of him had grown so much that he could hear his reflections again, their mocking, menacing laughter was so much that he began to worry. Was he still the one in control?

His mother was gone, along with his sister. He’d done what he could to keep them safe from the 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂 world he lived in. But that nightmare still haunted him each and every day. The loss of his humanity, of choosing to be this forever, hadn’t truly hit him until now. In the end, he still had Tal. But had he made the right decision? Was it even his decision or was it the evil inside of him, begging to stay alive.  “ Did I make the right choice? ”

OPEN STARTER   /   post s5 based (main verse)

[styx-and-stars]

ok, I’m really, really bored, does anyone fancy just casually roleplaying?? if you guys have a fandom or an au or something in mind just hit me up with it, if I’ve heard of it then perfect! just message me if ya want 

[pitviperofdoom]

Rereading Redwall with the benefit of having recently reread Dracula makes it easier for me to understand why the phonetic accents in Redwall always worked for me while those in Dracula really didn’t, and it’s because Redwall accents are both intelligible and consistent.

In Redwall, as in the first book of the series, it’s a bit of a running gag that moles are difficult to understand, and their dialogue is written to be a bit opaque to the casual reader, but as of Mossflower that aspect has really eased off, and besides Egburt the Scholar in The Bellmaker I can’t recall it being a huge issue in later books either (though I may be remembering wrong, since I’m still early in my reread). No one in-story has any problem understanding Dinny and Urthclaw and Billum in Mossflower, and I’ve found that neither do I. The dialogue is pretty simple to parse, especially once you pick up on how the syntax of molespeech works and start hearing their voices in your head.

And in comparison, the accents in Dracula are... a mess. Words are misspelled all over the place, and there’s no internal consistency to it, and most of all it doesn’t convey the accent properly. It’s not quite opaque enough that I can’t figure out what they’re saying most of the time, but for the life of me I can’t tell what they’re supposed to sound like. Some of the way the dialogue of these non-RP-speaking English characters was written made my internal voice read it in a choppy American-Southern drawl. And because of all this, the accents are an obstacle rather than properly descriptive or immersive.

Meanwhile when Young Dinny says “Naw, oi baint the strongest, moi owd granfer Dinny, ‘ee be the moightiest mole in these yurr parts, even tho’ ‘ee seen many summers,” I know both what he’s saying and what he sounds like when he says it.

[utilitycaster]

I never got into D20 because I really didn't like Fantasy High, but I started Neverafter and I really like it so far. What non Fantasy High campaigns would you recommend?

Depends on what you're into! I've done my best but also given you an overview of all D20 campaigns in case you want to browse, and also in a possibly futile attempt to stave off people recommending things that I would not recommend in the notes which usually happens with D20 recs.

Recommended For You(Based on the fact you are liking Neverafter and did not like Fantasy High)

A Crown of Candy is a full-length campaign with the same cast as Neverafter (often referred to as the Intrepid Heroes Cast) that is, essentially, what if Game of Thrones, but everyone is food. It's very good and it's the first season where they switched up the earlier RP/Combat alternating rhythm, and they have never looked back (thankfully)

Escape from the Bloodkeep is their first sidequest, so it's short and sweet. Premise is "What if the villains of LOTR were the main characters, and also Sauron just fucking died". Notable for Matt Mercer playing When The Gay Baristas Get Mean Witch-King of Angmar and Erika Ishii playing Wine Mom Shelob but the whole cast is incredible.

If you like horror-inflected games or Dracula Daily, Coffin Run is REALLY good and is also a sidequest. Jasmine Bhullar is a fantastic guest DM, the set design is stunning, and Zac Oyama is unbelievably funny in this one.

A Court of Fey and Flowers was extremely popular on Tumblr a few months ago and for good reason. Feywild Regency Romance vibes. A hack of Good Society was used but it was mostly D&D. My favorite Aabria DM-ing yet. Mid-length season (longer than Bloodkeep/Coffin Run, shorter than A Crown of Candy or what Neverafter will be.)

The Unsleeping City is also a full-length campaign with two seasons. Urban Fantasy set in modern day New York City, some of my favorite characters of the Intrepid Heroes Cast, but the first season does suffer from alternating RP/Combat. The second season is in my opinion much stronger and I like the two characters who switched, but the first season is still pretty good.

Maybe?

Pirates of Leviathan. It takes place in the same world as Fantasy High but it's mostly adult characters. It was filmed during early lockdown, remotely, which means the entire cast is people they trusted to be very comfortable with D&D, and also meant they could actually get Matt, Marisha, B. Dave Walters, Krystina Arielle, Aabria, and Carlos Luna to coordinate schedules. It's a short season and it's very fun.

Probably not your thing because they are teen-centric/too close to Fantasy High

Obviously you said fantasy high wasn't your thing. I do think season 2, their only ever live season, was much, much stronger than the first season (which had plenty of growing pains) and it takes place outside of the school (it's spring break and they're on a quest) so if your issue was specifically the format of RP/Combat or being in a high school, and not that it was teen characters (valid to not want) then skipping to that one might be fine, but if the issue was the characters then skip this too.

The Seven is also in the Fantasy High setting, also with teen characters, though they also are on a quest outside the school.

Misfits and Magic is a (trans-inclusive) Harry Potter-influenced game run in Kids on Brooms. Fun and done well, but I'll admit I'm just kind of too over HP to be that into it and it is also about teens again.

Shriek Week is in a dating sim game designed and run by Gabe Hicks. Fun and silly and short and sweet, again with a great cast, but not remotely like Neverafter and if you're not interested in a school/young adult setting (the characters are seniors in college) then skip.

Not my faves, personally

I know a lot of people like Mice & Murder and again, the cast is great, but the low magic and the mystery run in D&D just doesn't do it for me; I do like a British manor mystery even, but D&D is just. it's not the right system. Everyone's a fucking low-level rogue. There's almost no combat. I do always love Rekha though and I want to see Sam Reich play D&D again.

Tiny Heist - the monologues I just posted aside, the premise just didn't work for me, even though, as always, the cast is great. I just think that if you are playing D&D and the cast is mostly rogues and fighters and you're like level 3, you should really just probably run a different system.

I like this one but I truly have no idea when to recommend it

Starstruck Odyssey: I like Starstruck Odyssey a lot! It's also in a different system (SW5e) and it's in a very different space opera setting, and it's truly a ridiculous and convoluted plot even for Brennan, so it's one of those things where it's like, if you are down with all those things please go ahead! But it's not the season I'd spring on a newcomer unless I knew they loved space opera or labyrinthine plots or SW5e.

[the-auris]

CHARACTER ROSTER

CANON

SURVIVORS:

☒ Dwight Fairfield

☐ Meg Thomas

☐ Claudette Morel

☒ Jake Park

☐ Nea Karlsson

☒ Laurie Strode

☒ Ace Visconti

☐ William "Bill" Overbeck

☐ Feng Min

☐ David King

☒ Quentin Smith

☐ David Tapp

☒ Kate Denson

☒ Adam Francis

☐ Jeffrey Johansen

☐ Jane Romero

☐ Ashley J. Williams

☐ Nancy Wheeler

☐ Steve Harrington

☐ Jonathan Byers

☐ Yui Kimura

☐ Zarina Kassir

☒ Cheryl Mason

☐ Lisa Garland

☐ Cybil Bennett

☐ James Sunderland

☒ Maria

☒ Felix Richter

☒ Élodie Rakoto

☐ Yun-Jin Lee

☒ Jill Valentine

☐ Claire Redfield

☐ Sheva Alomar

☒ Leon S. Kennedy

☐ Chris Redfield

☐ Carlos Oliveira

☒ Mikaela Reid

☐ Jonah Vasquez

☒ Yoichi Asakawa

☒ Haddie Kaur

☐ Ada Wong

☐ Rebecca Chambers

☒ Vittorio Toscano

☐ Thalita Lyra

☒ Renato Lyra

☒ Gabriel Soma

☐ Ellen Ripley

☐ Ripley 8

☐ Rain Carradine

☐ Alan Wake

☐ Saga Anderson

☒ Rose Marigold

☒ Sable Ward

☒ Aestri Yazar

☒ Baermar Uraz

☐ Lara Croft

☐ Trevor Belmont | RESERVED

☒ Alucard

☐ Soma Cruz

☒ Taurie Cain

- - -

KILLERS:

☐ Evan MacMillan, The Trapper | RESERVED

☒ Philip Ojomo, The Wraith

☐ Max Thompson Jr., The Hillbilly

☒ Sally Smithson, The Nurse

☒ Michael Myers, The Shape

☐ Lisa Sherwood, The Hag

☐ Herman Carter, The Doctor

☒ Anna, The Huntress

☐ Bubba Sawyer, The Cannibal

☒ Freddy Krueger, The Nightmare

☒ Amanda Young, The Pig

☒ Jeffrey Hawk, The Clown

☒ Rin Yamaoka, The Spirit

☒ Frank Morrison, The Legion

☒ Julie Kostenko, The Legion

☒ Susie Lavoie, The Legion

☒ Joey, The Legion

☐ Adiris, The Plague

☒ Danny Johnson, The Ghostface

☐ The Demogorgon

☐ Kazan Yamaoka, The Oni

☒ Caleb Quinn, The Deathslinger

☐ Pyramid Head, The Executioner

☐ Talbot Grimes, The Blight

☐ Charlotte & Victor Deshayes, The Twins

☒ Ji-Woon Hak, The Trickster

☐ Nemesis

☐ Elliot Spencer, The Cenobite

☒ Carmina Mora, The Artist

☒ Sadako Yamamura, The Onryō

☒ Druanee, The Dredge

☒ Albert Wesker, The Mastermind

☒ Tarhos Kovács, The Knight

☐ Alejandro Santiago, The Jailer

☐ Durkos Malecek, The Assassin

☐ Sander Rault, The Carnifex

☐ Adriana Imai, The Skull Merchant

☒ HUX-A7-13, The Singularity

☐ The Xenomorphs (multiple allowed)

☐ Charles "Chucky" Lee Ray, The Good Guy

☐ Tiffany Valentine, The Good Guy

☒ The Unknown

☐ Vecna, The Lich | RESERVED

☒ Dracula, The Dark Lord

☐ Portia Maye, The Houndmaster

- - - - - -

FRANCHISE-CHANGING SKINS

SURVIVORS:

☐ Isaac Nunes Oliveira/Tubarão (Renato Lyra)

- - -

KILLERS:

☐ Birch Witch (Hag)

☐ Look-See (Doctor)

☐ Mordeo (Huntress)

☐ Hunk (Legion)

☒ William Birkin (Blight)

☐ Tomie Kawakami (Spirit)

☐ Fuchi (Artist)

- - - - - -

CROSSOVERS

SURVIVORS:

☒ Sherry Birkin (Resident Evil)

☒ Norah Jakobs (The Nice House On The Lake)

☒ Casey Becker (Scream)

☒ Daisuke (Mouthwashing)

☒ Anya (Mouthwashing)

☒ Sypha Belnades (Castlevania)

☒ Anita "Needy" Lesnicki (Jennifer's Body)

☒ Graverobber (Repo! The Genetic Opera)

- - -

KILLERS:

☒ Jeannette / Therese Voerman (Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines)

- - - - - -

NPCS

These characters exist within the RP and can thus be mentioned by characters who have encountered them, but cannot be submitted or written.

Vigo

ZZL Tryks

The Observer

Nicolas Cage

- - - - - -

last updated: 6. December 2024

[taliyarenee]

I was so excited about the concept I’ve decided that I am going to write a short story about it. I may post it on Wattpad and then post the chapters on here also.

Imagine Keanu Reeves as Dracula.

[sinnhelmingr]

Historical families Hel is known to have given her patronage to because I Cannot Shut The Fuck Up:

Made contact with and on her demise took the spirit of Hanka, the wife of a deposed Albanian Bey in the late 18th century. Haka proved a cunning and bold woman, one Hel would have been honored to count among her ranks. All Hanka asked in exchange was that Hel give her family power to reclaim their lands and avenge their lost patriarch, especially for the sake of her ten year old son, Ali. Hel granted certain favors to the band of brigands that the mortal woman assembled, and in turn pointed the eyes of the Empire towards the young lion that Ali would become as he came of age. After that, she needed to do little, as the man made a name for himself as a fierce warrior and vassal to the Sultan. Regardless of her lack of influence over his adulthood, she was a passing figure in Ali’s court, always welcomed as a valued guest when she traveled the north of Greece. When he was executed for his rebellion against the Empire in 1822, Hel turned her guidance towards his youngest child per RP lore. Haydee was especially doted upon and cherished by Hel upon the teenager’s arrival in Europe over a decade later, likely due to her resemblance in spirit to her fierce father and unrelenting grandmother. Well, that and one can debate endlessly how much of herself Hel saw in the dutiful daughter moving Heaven and Hell and enduring any indignity for the chance to avenge her beloved father. It is uncertain whether Hel continued to provide patronage to Haydee’s descendants, as all of her children were adopted, but given Hel’s own stance on blood bonds, it seems likely she continues to provide at least blessings towards the family into the modern era. The only exception to this would be if Hanka bound the pact to her own blood, at which point Haydee’s descendants are on their own regardless of Hel’s feelings.

Made contact with and offered succor to the daughter of a French executioner in the 17th century, keeping up an interpersonal relationship even after the young woman’s marriage to a soldier. When called upon to keep watch over her companions son and descendants, Hel accepted. This is how she became a patron of the infamous Sanson family of executioners. What details exist of this arrangement are scarce, but it can be assumed the goddess offered some knowledge, power, or protection to the family over the centuries that followed. Her most integral relationship of the Sansons might be with their best known member Charles-Henri, the Royal Executioner during the French Revolution. It is known that during the Terror, Hel kept to rooms that overlooked the scenes of executions, and she claimed she was conducting some research in her unflinching vigil over human ugliness. Charles-Henri might have been her favorite of the family, but the line continued as executioners through his son, an his grandson, before the family lost their role as executioners.  It is unlikely her patronage extended past this point, ending a 159 year arrangement between the divine and the wretched. It is also unlikely that Hel collected the souls of any of the Sansons for her army, but rather forged a deal for knowledge in exchange for whatever the family gained from her as their divinity incognito.

Both agreements came about in the same relative stretch of time, forged less than a century apart and both having potentially ended in the late 19th century. From this, one might assume she was only open to such arrangements during a very specific ‘dead’ period in her time on Midgard. However, this ignores that she had been attempting to make deals during the 9th century (Ivar the Boneless, exact deal status unknown) and in the 15th century (Vlad Dracula, who denied her offer for alliance.) It is more likely that Hel has been extending her hand to mortals across the centuries, and that Hanka and the Sansons are simply the most recent of her deals, and thus better recorded than those who came before them.