theannoyingurge - Tumblr blog

[theannoyingurge]

Does anyone know what this patch 7 update looks like in-game yet?

Dark Urge players will now notice Gortash reacting to them in the dialogue in his office at Wyrm's Rock.

[theannoyingurge]

Thinking about the fact that, to pull Gale from the stone and get him in the game at all, you have to decide to try to touch an extremely dangerous looking swirling mass of unstable magic. Something that is, objectively, a terrible idea

Like, the options it gives you are to either touch the sigil or leave, and if you leave you just... don't get Gale in the party

You have to take the risk. You have to let your curiosity override your common sense. You have to look at this unstable, possibly dangerous malfunctioning magic sigil and go "...Ok, but what if I poke it?"

In short, to get Gale in your party, you have to do exactly what he would in that situation, and indulge in a moment of reckless curiosity. And I just think that's delightful

[theannoyingurge]

Wyll: Fuck yeah, that's my girl! (devnote: Enthusiastically, Karlach's language has rubbed off on him a little.)

Wyll: Oh shit - I'm starting to pick up your bad habits. Well, fuck it. In for a coin, in for a coffer. (devnote: Oopsy - he's been picking up some bad language habits from Karlach!)

Edit: These lines trigger for an Origin Karlach in the Epilogue!

[theannoyingurge]

Gortash does not have priestly vibes. He appears to be showing Bane lipservice while daydreaming about literally sharing his throne. That said, I don't know that being Chosen automatically equals 'head of the whole church', although I think it did mean that for Durge. Gods can have many Chosen, and historically, Bane's religious HQ is in Mulmaster. His church was large and influential in the Moonsea region, which is quite a distance from Baldur's Gate. It would be difficult to rule from Wyrm's Rock. I suspect Gortash began a small undercover cell in the Gate and paved the way for the church of Bane to take open control of the city by allying with The Dark Urge. Fun fact: around 10 years before the game, half of the Council of Four was affiliated with Bhaal. Even dead, Bhaal had major influence in the city of Baldur's Gate, and he'd been rejecting Bane's calls for at least a century or two by this point. Any Banite trying to make political headway should be very careful here. Honestly, any Banite breathing too loudly should be careful here.

It's easy to see why befriending Bhaal's favorite child might've been a priority for a sleazy weapons dealer who wanted to play politics, let alone divine politics. This man needs a damned miracle to play this game and actually win it, and I think he's smart enough to know that and plan accordingly.

Now I'm curious whether Durge would ever offer him religious counsel or cult leadership advice, as someone who received too much direct attention from their own deity (and ostensibly possessed insider knowledge of the Dead Three). "Repeat after me; we are but servants to our Lords." "We are but servants to our Lords, until such time that..." "NO."

Meanwhile Gortash is teaching basic table manners:

"Now, this is a fork. Yes, you use it instead of your hands." "But my hands can't feel the tearing of flesh through the fork." "Correct. Close your mouth when you chew."

Even when you know Gortash is the Chosen of Bane and that he reestablished the Church of Bane in Baldur's Gate on some level it still seems a bit surreal to view him as highest ranking religious figure.

That man definitely looks like corrupted politician, like a dictator, like smuggler, like slaver and shady businessman and that specific kind of guy that other people like for some reason even though you find him so sleezy and disingenuine.

What he does not look like is a head of any church no matter how evil but anyway, the man really can multitask.

[theannoyingurge]

hilson

[theannoyingurge]

You need to draw and make art or else all the images will stay in your head and you'll get sick

[theannoyingurge]

The Golden Reign of Gortash

[theannoyingurge]

Furthermore whoever removed the audio jack from phones should be grilled in front of congress. The fact that I need a dongle to listen to music on a modern telephone while 20 years ago I could have simply plugged a universally standardized cord into the audio jack everyone knew how to use is an anti-human move that should be punished.

[theannoyingurge]

dear god please kill whatever this shit is

[theannoyingurge]

Some writing advice

that I like to use when I write. None of this is meant to be taken as hard and fast rules, they’re just things I like to do/keep in mind when I’m writing and I thought maybe other people would enjoy! <3

Never say what you mean

This is an offshoot of the very common “show don’t tell” advice, which I think can be confusing in application and unhelpful for scenes where telling is actually the right move. Instead, I keep the advice to never say exactly what I mean in stories.

By using a combination of showing and telling to hint at what you really mean, you force your reader to think and figure it out on their own, which makes for a more satisfying reading experience.

You might show a character getting angry and defensive in response to genuine care and concern. You could tell the audience that the character doesn’t see/talk to their parents often. But never outright give the real meaning that the character feels unlovable because of their strained relationship with their parents and as a result they don’t know how to react to being cared for.

Your readers are smart, you don’t need to spoon feed them.

Be sparse with the important things

You know how in a lot of movies there’s that tense scene where a character is hiding from something/someone and you can only just see this person/thing chasing them through a crack in the door? You get a very small glimpse of whatever’s after the character, sometimes only shadows being visible.

Do that in your writing. Obscure the important things in scenes by overdescribing the unimportant and underdescribing the important.

You might describe the smell of a space, the type of wood the floor is made of, the sound of work boots moving slowly across the room, a flashlight in the character’s hand. And there’s a dead body, laying in a pool of blood in the far corner of the room, red soaking into the rug. Then move on, what kind of rug is it? What is the color, patterns, and type of fabric of the rug?

Don’t linger on the details of the body, give your reader’s imagination some room to work while they digest the mundane you give them.

Dialogue is there to tell your story too

There’s a lot of advice out there about how to make dialogue more realistic, which is absolutely great: read aloud to yourself, put breaks where you feel yourself take a breath, reword if you’re stuttering over your written dialogue. But sometimes, in trying to make dialogue sound more realistic, a little bit of its function is lost.

Dialogue is more than just what your characters say, dialogue should serve a purpose. It’s a part of storytelling, and it can even be a bridging part of your narration.

If you have a scene with a lot of internal conflict that is very narration-heavy, breaking it up with some spoken dialogue can be a way to give some variety to those paragraphs without moving onto a new idea yet; people talk to themselves out loud all of the time.

Dialogue is also about what your characters don’t say. This can mean the character literally doesn’t say anything, they give half-truths, give an expected answer rather than the truth (“I’m fine”), omit important information, or outright lie.

Play with syntax and sentence structure

You’ve heard this advice before probably. Short, choppy sentences and a little onomatopoeia work great for fast-paced action scenes, and longer sentences with more description help slow your pacing back down.

That’s solid advice, but what else can you play with? Syntax and sentence structure are more than just the length of a sentence.

Think about things like: repetition of words or ideas, sentence fragments, stream of consciousness writing, breaking syntax conventions, and the like. Done well, breaking some of those rules we were taught about language can be a more compelling way to deliver an emotion, theme, or idea that words just can’t convey.

Would love to hear any other tips and tricks other people like to use, so feel free to share!!!

[theannoyingurge]

refseek.com

www.worldcat.org/

link.springer.com

http://bioline.org.br/

repec.org

science.gov

pdfdrive.com

[theannoyingurge]

[theannoyingurge]

Hate AI, but love writing contests?

Want to take part in a global, fun project to write a Novella in one month?

Grab some friends, and take part in Novella November, by writing 1,000 words a day for the month of November, ending with a 30,000 word Novella to test and stretch your novel-writing skills!

Your goal is not perfection, but merely getting into the habit of writing a litte bit every single day :D

No website, no sign-ups -- Just a community initiative to write using only your own word!

What are the rules? Just Three so far!

#1 - No AI

#2 - No Plagiarizing

#3 - Wordcount for the month should only come from what you write during the month.

What does that mean?

Only words written during November should go towards your Wordcount for the month... but! Feel free to use your 30k words as a continuation of previous writing, or just make it the first 30k words in a longer novel!

Don't think you can write a whole entire 30k word story? Write a series of short stories that total up to 30k!

Not ready to write original works yet? Write a 30k word fanfiction that you can post at the last day of the month!

Share your writing experience, tips, encouragement, and questions in the #Novella November tag!

EDIT 1, from the tags: Want a progress tracker? Track your progress with TrackBear!

https://trackbear.app/

Or, create some custom progress cards in advance you can fill out as you reach word goals!

[theannoyingurge]

“wait, the calculator company makes bombs now?”

No, the bomb company made so many bomb microchips they were able to flood the calculator market and then drive prices up because they have a monopoly.

[theannoyingurge]

The first time Durge got this line, I almost switched to romancing Gale. I really feel like his night babysitting a rabid Bhaalspawn could have used a throwback to this moment.

Like, what's the matter? When did it stop being sexy? Where is the line, Gale? At least Astarion is unhinged consistently!

got that gale dialogue in act 2 the other day

[theannoyingurge]

Does baby gurl have time to let Durge get their treatos?

Btw, script is in the alt text.

[theannoyingurge]

This piqued my interest, tho not enough to re-instal the game and deal with my bazzilion missing mods and how broken everything will be after this patch, so I'll be waiting for others to post what it is