#and that's part of the challenge of the roleplay and part of the themes of the whole overarching story like

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

Veilguard vaguing:

It's not automatically a good thing, actually, that the game de-emphasizes or even outright removes racism against elves, and bigotry against other groups, from the story

[utopianparadoxist]

June Egbert, The Tao of Pranksterism, and Maid Roleplay

So we've got our first glimpse of June Egbert, shining like a star on the horizon, as of the latest upd8!

With the Warhammer of Zillyhoo at her side and the general harlequin energy of her silhouette, many are drawing comparisons to Trickster Mode, or to Nannasprite. Both of these, notably, are heavily linked to Jane.

And I'm interested in June's relationship to Jane's legacy as her ancestor, because this feels similar to ideas of classpect roleplay I've described for years. so I want to talk about it here and speculate a bit about what kind of worldview change a roleplay reading suggests might accompany June's gender transformation.

A quick bit of background for those who don't know what Class roleplay is-- It's basically the idea that a player of any class might end up roleplaying as a different class, to various degrees of success or failure, and that in Homestuck characters do so in particular when they are actively striving to live up to the legacy left by their Ancestors.

Vriska is the clearest example to argue. Early in her arc with Tavros she is actively trying to fit both him and herself into narrative roles left behind in Mindfang's journal, and in the process strives to make Tavros stronger much as Kanaya does for Eridan by giving him the wand, or Aranea herself later does to Jake.

The way she conceptualizes the endeavor emphasizes the verb "MAKE", a close synonym to the most commonly accepted Maid/Sylph verb, "Create". She kisses Tavros while wearing a fairy dress-the word Sylph originally referring to a kind of fairy. And of course she gets the dress from Kanaya, a Sylph herself.

And of course, her attempt to woo Tavros in this way is a disastrous failure. Later, when she tries to make Tavros kill her instead of kiss her--again evoking Mindfang and the Summoner's relationships--she again fails soundly, Tavros rejecting her mind suggestions and leaving her to bleed slowly to death by herself.

The reason Vriska is failing in these situations is at least partly that she is obsessively trying to be Mindfang instead of honestly coming to grip with who she really is as her own person. The way the narratives you build up in your head about who you WANT to be like distort your own self of self and lead to self-sabotage and toxic relationships is a running theme in Homestuck, and Roleplay mechanics helpfully signpost this on a mechanical Sburb Class level.

Later Aranea makes the exact same mistake as Vriska in emulating Mindfang, but fails at least partly because, as Vriska lays out, she just doesn't have enough experience doing "ruthless pirate shit"--in other words, behaving like a Thief.

But the Marquise herself poses an interesting possibility, because she seems to succeed at performing both the roles of the Thief and the Sylph. And Vriska attributes this to the fact that the Marquise is an adult, who learned to perform a role that didn't initially come naturally to her through a slow accumulation of experience.

In this way, Vriska suggests a way out of hard Classpect determinism. It *is* possible to act outside of your native Class, even to successfully incorporate the strengths and abilities of a different class entirely, but this is part of a nuanced and complicated process of personal growth and a gaining of increased complexity of perspective, experience and ability as you grow through life.

Now lets bring this focus to John. John and Jane's mutual ancestorism is explicitly tied to their shared interest in jokes and pranks. Dirk likens this to Zen, or the Tao, meaning it reflects something about their fundamental relationship to the world and approach to dealing with it and its challenges.

John invokes this connection again as he carries out the retcon, the absolute height of his impact on the plot and narrative in og Homestuck, with the retcon being literally just being a series of pranks. They're also a series of pranks he has a lot of fun with!

Even while everyone is dead and everything is completely cosmically screwed, John is able to enjoy himself as he carries on and keeps striving to Make a better future. He indulges the Zen of pranksterism in this moment, using it as a way to cope with and transcend the horrors of Paradox Space.

He's also, on a mechanical level, roleplaying a Maid.

The Maid class, like the Sylph, is associated with healing and improbable ressurection. Aradia is able to transcend her own death and act in the world as a ghost even before she God Tiers through the use of her Time-coded ghost powers. Kanaya is lethally shot and revives inexplicably as an immortal Rainbow Drinker, the only character to be immortal without even being God Tier.

This is more true of Jane than anyone, who's Maid of Life powers allow her to Make Life for herself in such a way that even after being beheaded in what should inarguably be a Just death, Jane can overpower the conditional immortality of God Tiers completely and just walk and talk around as a decapitated body and her severed head. She is Making Life for her own benefit, and quite definitely no one elses.

Jane's other major power is to offer people free resurrections, like she does in Collide. And what does John's retcon accomplish? Give Vriska a free resurrection, effectively taking a more circuitous path to achieving the same end result that comes to a Maid naturally. It's for Vriska's benefit for sure though. John is still natively a passive Heir class, and this moment represents a blurring of the lines between the roles of Heir and Maid, a moment where John's impact is not narrowly defined by just one Sburb assigned Class but is shaped complexly by his unique context and nature as John Egbert.

That said, after the Retcon, something really interesting happens.

John stops pranking.

For the rest of Homestuck and through the Epilogues, we basically never see John indulging pranksterism again. At the same time, he eschews using his Retcon powers almost entirely, seeming almost scared of the responsibility and level of power they represent unless he's directly told to use them, like Rose does in Meat. This coincides with his prolonged period of aimless, directionless depression.

Who does this parallel?

Jane, who has similarly given up "frivolous" or "childish" concerns like pranksterism and jokes in favor of deeply serious matters like Pursuing The Presidency and Representing The Gods As Respectable People To Earth C. And like John, Jane is all the more miserable for it. What that might mean for either of her iteration's arcs is a topic for another day though, this ain't about her.

While his desire to kill Dirk is honestly misguided and ridiculous, this update's shift in John's psychology does point to a kind of positive progress in his psychology that takes him closer to the ideal of June he's glimpsed in his own future. He's Making Breath--direction, purpose, momentum-- for his own benefit, nobody else's.

Which is important to do, because right now all the work John needs to do is internal. The thing about John sometimes evoking his Maid heritage is that so far he hasn't been doing it consciously or consistently. He barely knows anything about who he is or what he wants, and so he's not in a position to be good to or try to help anybody.

It's a step closer to embracing Maid as an alternate/complementary identity, along with the gendered implications that the female-specific (so far) class implies.

A fully formed June Egbert will likely take this even further, realizing the potential of and fully embracing the possibility of Making Breath herself, for her own benefit, Breath in this case being simple fun. Frivolity. Jokes. Pranks! Detachment from the pain and suffering from the world by enjoying the fun that comes with existing, even in the midst of the chaos.

She will likely be a June who fully recognizes the reality that Life is a Game to be played and enjoyed--which is why the Game of Life board from Problem Sleuth shows up in the vision of June that John experiences while witnessing the Light of Vriska's ascension.

Hence the association with Nannasprite and the design's evocation of Harlequins. Harlequins and clowns are performers on the stage, and a June who recognizes that all of life is a stage would be in a position to be a playful and self-aware performer herself--even moreso if she becomes June by going through Helltier or ascending to Ultimate herself, thereby gaining the same metatextual knowledge Dirk, Al and Vriska possess.

And if such an ascension brings her back in touch with the power of Retcon, an Ultimate/Helltier June Egbert unafraid to use her power for whatever she wants would be the ultimate wildcard. She could issue free revives to all the dead trolls. She could bring back her Dad and Rose's Mom and Dirk's Alpha Bro.

Those are just random Maidy examples tied to resurrection I'm coming up with off the top of my head that could make her happy and/or severely emotionally fuck with Rosebot and Dirk, but really, she could and likely will do way more imaginative and interesting shit than that. She'd certainly prove a lethal danger to Dirk, which could likely put her in conflict with Rosebot, Vriska, Davebot, Jake and Roxy, none of whom seem likely to want to see Dirk dead.

She's a complete chaos element! And she's already here.

I can't wait to see what pranks she's gonna play.

[gffa]

JEDI ORDER CITATIONS IN STAR WARS CANON, PART V [A Meta/Reference Guide on AO3] Welcome to my Jedi Culture and Teachings in Canon series, where I collate various quotes from current canon to provide a worldbuilding and reference guide, whether for better fic writing, just general interest in getting to know the Star Wars lore better, or if you want to be able to pull out some quotes when you're fighting the internet on behalf of the fictional space wizards. ;) So, what's here? Basically anything I think would be of interest to people who want to know what the Jedi are like in the canon--any worldbuilding bits (what special abilities do the Jedi have? do the Jedi have art? do they have funeral rites? what do we know about Knighting ceremonies? what are the themes of the Force? are the Jedi telepaths or empaths and what scenes in canon support that? what do we know about Jedi schooling?), any quotes from Lucas himself, all arranged in categories to help you find what you're looking for. Feel free to take this guide or leave it, it's not about telling other people what to do, if you scroll on by, that's fine, I'm not your mom, do what you want. But if you want to know what the Jedi have to say about Force bonds or what kind of clothing they way or everything we know about the main ziggurat of the Jedi Temple, I got you covered, babe. This section is admittedly overly large, where previously I would get to about 25k words of citations and post the next part, feeling that was a manageable chunk for readers. But with The Acolyte coming out, I made a challenge to myself to get caught up on all of The High Republic before it aired and I drop citations in as I'm reading, so suddenly I found myself with nearly 50k of citations and I was feeling in the groove, I had all my references easily accessible, I was getting through my backlog, I had access to some of the roleplaying guides, I was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and, wham, suddenly it's ~70k and here I am now. But that's 70k of examples of what the Jedi say and do, my best attempt to give context to show the consistent themes and parallels within the Jedi Order all across this continuity. How to use this guide? Well, you do you, for starters! But I hope you'll read the intros, as often some books need to be put in specific contexts, and if you have any suggestions for future categories or better organization, feel free to mention it! I do this for me, but I format it for sharing, so I'm game! Feel free to check out previous sections for more examples, and just scroll through to skim the bolded sections to try to find what you're looking for, since not everything always fits neatly into a single given category! (Or just ask me! I love being a nerd about Star Wars worldbuilding.) The guide is broken down into seven sections as before:

How the Force Works

Jedi Culture & Philosophy & Teachings

Jedi As a People

Psychic Space Wizards Doing Psychic Space Wizard Things

Jedi Temple (Living Quarters, Training Rooms, Meditation Gardens and Dining Halls !)

Jedi Outreach, Politics, and the Bigger Galaxy

Fantasy Flight Games Are Not Canon But Canon-Compliant Is Close Enough

Jedi, Buddhism, and Everything Else

[realmbreakinglibrarian]

Prison roleplay starter, darker themes MDNI 18+ ( I can either bottom or top continue in messages if you want too”

The metal doors slid open with a low, menacing hum, and the guard pushed you inside. “Welcome to your new home,” he said with a smirk, before slamming the door shut behind you. The harsh fluorescent lights overhead flickered, illuminating the narrow cell. The orange jumpsuit they had you in clung to your skin, uncomfortable and rough. Your eyes slowly adjusted to the dimness, and that’s when you saw him: your new cellmate.

He was lounging on the bunk with the confidence of someone who’d been around. Lean but solid, he looked up at you with a lazy smirk, his eyes catching yours with a gleam that was equal parts challenge and amusement.

“So… they finally sent me a fresh one,” he said, patting the mattress beside him in invitation. “Name’s Nate. And around here, I run things. You? You’re gonna follow my lead.” His tone was firm, a warning hidden beneath a lazy drawl.

It was clear from his body language and the way he looked at you that he had every intention of making you his.

[the-campaign-coach]

Using Rules From Other TTRPGS

As a game runner and player experienced in over 75 game systems, I can let you in on a big secret. 

No rule is as important as the experience your players are having at the table. 

This doesn't mean the rule of cool gets to take over all at times, in fact for many if not most players, consistency matters. It is nearly impossible for a game group to be able to find a single system containing all of the rules your players will like, and even more importantly doesn't contain any rules your players hate. Rules can be built very well for the theme but maybe a certain subsystem doesn't gel well with each player. 

Generally, I would not suggest changing the core concepts of a game, without completely changing which game you're using, but I will actually address that in a later post called, Porting a Game to a Different System. 

Instead, I want to talk about rules that exist within certain games that are able to be pulled across and either subtly added to the game, or used to change an inherent aspect of the game that doesn't work for your group. 

My first major addition that I would suggest using in almost any game is the concept of Advantage and Disadvantage. For those that don't know, the most common version of this is rolling an extra die and taking either the best of the pile or the worst of the pile. The math on a D20 for example is something like a +4 to the die roll. The importance to the game is beyond the simple math. Rather than this just being something that can allow the party to succeed or give them greater challenge, I've always found that succeeding at a disadvantaged role or failing at an advantage role creates the drama with just the dice, which is often hard to do. 

When someone has all the odds stacked against them and still managed to succeed, your party will celebrate the hardest. By the same metric when everything is set up for success, and failure still happens, the resulting consequences often define a game session, and can be memorable than a simple success would ever would be. I really suggest adding these as part of the game, but only after negotiation with your group to understand when and where they will apply, as they create a simple mechanical lever to pull on to increase the tension within a session. 

I played Brindlewood Bay for the first time recently and it has a wonderful way to resolve mysteries. Even if you're not specifically running a mystery game, the idea that the players build the story with you, is one that I strongly advise. In Brindlewood Bay, the players collect clues during play which make the final “solving the mystery roll” possible. The player who chooses to make the roll asserts what they think to be true, and if the roll succeeds then that becomes the solution to the mystery. Now ideally a player won't attempt this roll without discussing how they would like the story to end with the whole group.  A fun twist can happen when a great theory, and a decent chance at the roll, still ends up with a failed result. They will have to pivot to a twist ending that no one expected, but that still aligns the clues to point to the new suspect. 

I actually have an example of this from the year prior to playing Brindlewood Bay for the first time. I knew generally of the mechanics, so when a player interrogated a NPC and layed out a better, more well thought out explanation to the events that were unfolding, I just went with it. I had fed them clues that I thought were pointing them to a certain direction. The way he had interpreted them and explained it to our group via the interrogation was bette. He set up a scenario with better stakes than I had put in place. He then went on to create a magic spell from scratch because of this information, a mechanic both in that game of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying 2e as well as the Dresden Files RPG, but I will go into greater detail about that in a future post called “Making Magic: Custom Spell Creation”.

The last rule I would love to include for you to consider is giving away some of the narrative control. Most games limit this to a Meta Currency such as the Fate Points in Fate, or the Bennies from Savage Worlds. These allow small changes like an open window to sneak into, or maybe the bouncer at the club is an old friend. 

Alternatively you can use the Flashback mechanic from Blades in the Dark, and its derivatives. In this a player doesn’t just speak something into existence, but takes a hit to their main character resource to activate it. Once they do they get to have a flash back to how this change to the narrative was really part of the story we just hadn’t seen yet. That might be a similar result to those above but the vibes can be quite different so I would suggest grabbing the version that speaks to you. 

There are so many more rules I would love to highlight, so this might end up just being the first in a series of posts with the same theme. If you read this and feel like there are rules you can’t help but use in all you games let me know and I can try them out as well!

[susan-gampre]

What inspired you to create a character that is the Madam of a brothel? Have you had to overcome some challenges along the way because of it? Have you discovered any unique perks to playing a character of that nature? I am not wholly familiar with Susan’s background, so I am genuinely curious! She seems like a very in-depth character.

I can feel it in my bones this is gonna be long winded and perhaps abit overwhelming in information; Stick with me, loves!

The initial inspiration, I admit, was born during real life situations where my mother had joined a Burlesque troupe. I drew alot of my elements and themes from that world, it was an exquisite experience that brought me much joy to be apart of. I made the decision to create Susan and her Brothel to bring a new frame of mind to the game, one which promoted and humanized sex industry and the inherent freedom of those life decisions. A place of low inhibition to promote fun, freedom and sin.

What I find the funny part to be is I made the Sisters in Sin guild to claim that moniker and give some visual representation to Susan's position as Madam; In the end, people took to the idea quickly. The Brothel became a beast of it's own, one which I cannot bring myself to regret. Even with the inevitable challenges, especially inside the guild.

Mixed relations lead to a poisoning of the water hole -- Friends became lovers, then enemies. There was a lot of jealousy and deception that would occur, through the roleplay. Events and storylines really pushed some couples to the brink.

Inconsistency was a driving force in misunderstandings -- I as the GM couldn't be everywhere all at once. I had trusted appointed leads who also couldn't be everywhere all at once. People could fight then weaponize the guild against someone they didn't like, it was a really hard time to distinguish between truth and dishonesty. Very highschool he said, she said. Ain't it funny how rumors spread.

Some people couldn't play nice with policies set in place. There were a few times we had to crack down hard on how members who misrepresented the Sinners in public. We had morals, god dammit!

Outside of the guild, we had to deal with the combined doubt and, at times, discriminatory reactions of the public. People didn't trust us to have good intentions. Most just saw "Brothel" and chalked us up to another Moonguard Goldshire fuck fest without any passion, direction or vision. It was a hard uphill battle to dig our heels in and build a reputation outside of just being a whore house of negligent ERPers.

And yes, despite these handful of examples of things... I cannot regret it. It was a beautiful, exasperating and thrilling experience to host events for the realm and roleplay with, at the time, top dogs in the WoW Rp (Wyrmrest) universe. A true honor, even.

That was one of many advantages (perks) from the character I had created. On top of, Susan was an enigma. IS an enigma, despite how much story and writings have transpired in the last near decade of having written her. It leaves alot of opportunity to continue to grow the character, build new friendships, find new enemies and put to rest old stories in the wake of new.

This isn't as indepth as I'd like it to be, theres much that could be said but I gotta get back to studying! One more final!

Thank you so much for your ask! @sanguinesorceress

[dreamingroleplayer]

🌹💐🌺 🌹💐🌺🌹

SNEEZE ROLEPLAY AHEAD [M4F]

🌺💐🌹🌺💐🌹🌺

Do you like intriguing character dynamics?

Do you like sneezing?

Even better, do you like sneezy men with sensitive noses who progressively end up losing more and more of their composure with each hitched breath and sniffle?

Do you like being the reason (voluntarily or not) of such allergic fits?

If so, you're in luck!

I'm once again in search for a partner with which to play a snz roleplay with, and this time with a little more experience up my sleeve~!

It could either be based on a fandom or with original characters, though I personally have a reference for the latter, but be it what it is, I ADORE detail and thought put behind the story, so if you too are a nerd for storytelling and chemistry between the characters, I'm sure we'll get along just fine ^^

Now onto the snz stuff... Honestly, there are so many options I have the embarrassment of choice, but I think that starting with the general themes could be a good idea.

What I'm absolutely sure is that I enjoy being the person that gets induced to sneeze. Wether that has to do with the fact I also normally play sub roles might be related... So, if you're looking for someone to ruin his sinuses as well as his dignity, look no further~

And as for the methods of sneezing, a quick essential list could look something like this, you could call them my kinks:

- Perfumes

- Hair

- Flowers

- Smoke

- Feathers/fur

- Sneezing dusts

Of course, every (and I mean EVERY) combination of those is very well accepted, but of the dynamic is just as important! For me, the only important thing is having the other character directly being the source of my character's sneezes, and from there it can be either done subtly but with a teasing fake innocence, genuinely without a clue that her actions cause him to sneeze, or even openly torturing him with sneezy inductions and challenging him to resist! Your imagination is the only limit~

As a last thing, here are a couple of wonderful scenarios I found for some inspiration ;)

- "Don’t worry, I’m just getting started,” Character A (yours) said with a grin as she revealed the feather. B (my character) shivered with anticipation. A laughed. “I think we should give it a bit more of a test before going all out. We have plenty of time for that, don’t worry.” Twirling the feather in front of his nose teasingly, she inched it closer at a torturously slow pace. “Oh come on, you know I don’t have that much patience, ple-ih,” he hitched suddenly as A finally let the feather lightly graze the tip of his nose. “Patience or not, we both know the build up is the best part,” She teased, twirling the feather unexpectedly against his nostrils. "Heh eh hiiiiiih , Oh that tickles so muh-much,” He sniffed, pulling some of the small feather fibers a tiny bit inside his nostrils and dramatically increasing the itch.  "Heh eh ehhhh..." He groaned, the tickle backing off just enough that she couldn’t sneeze as She pulled the feather back. “Aw, that means it’s doing its job. It’s making your nose extra sensitive~" She murmured teasingly. “Here, I have another idea.” She pulled B’s head toward her, guiding him to nuzzle into her neck. “Mmmh... that’s n-nice...” He said dazed as he snuggled closer, closing his eyes just like A was hoping he would. Suddenly, he felt the ends of A’s hair starting to trace teasingly around his nostrils just like the feather had. Caught by surprise and still tickly from before, B couldn’t hold back. "Hitchiew! Hetchiew! Heh eh eh hetchiew! Hitchiew! Hitchiew! O-oh God, that was so much stronger than... Be-before... Wha- hah hatchiew!”

- Character A has long, silky hair woven with fragrant (and pollen-loaded) flowers, and is sat right besides character B . Every toss of her locks would make them inevitably fall over B's face and nose, tickling him mercilessly with the strands and dousing his senses with the heady, irritating aroma, his nose and sinuses burning, eyes teary. She could be either genuinely or fakely surprised by B's allergy, gasping and saying out loud "Doesn't anyone have a handkerchief? Look at my poor sneezy colleague" here she begins to look around, and every sharp movement of her head fills the air with pollen from the flower in her hair and only amping up B's torment ^^

- A and B are running late for an important formal event, both rushing getting ready. Suddenly, A quickly spray herself with some perfume while the poor A passes right besides her, getting caught in the crossfire and accidently breathing all that flowery aroma. Quiet hitches began to be hear, he knows he cant afford sneezing right know after getting all ready however his nose thinks otherwise. Twitching and quivering, he ends up sneezing repeatedly ruining his outfit completely

- B's steps echoed through the forest, each one causing the veil of dried twigs and leaves to crackle under his feet. It were hours, or maybe even days that he was wandering aimlessly in those woods in search for the ancient artifact, but until then it seemed like all he did was walking in circles. The tediousness of his task was almost driving him crazy, and he was constantly on the verge of giving up for good, but for better or for worse his determination dictated him to continue. And then it happened. At first, it seemed almost like a mirage, likely given how thoroughly exhausted he was, but upon closer inspection the figure (A) he saw moving amidst the foliage became more and more definite. From occasional glimpses of white and purple, he could then make out the outline of a body, a feminine one, and its erratic movements less and less dictated by chaos... It was a dance, performed by what would have been a normal woman hadn't it been for a pair of pointy ears and a long, luxurious white tail that flowed behind her and bounded with every step she took. Awestruck, he walked closer without even considering what to say, such was his curiosity, but be it for distraction or a deliberate choice, once he was just a couple of feet from her, she suddenly twirled, making her fluffy tail swipe right across his face like a gentle caress. Upon impact, a cloud of shimmering specks of some kind of dust wafted from it, and the combined effects of its tickly fur and flower-like fragrance made his eyes flutter, and his nose start to twitch. From there, a tingling sensation spread across his body

⚠️ Last thing to add is that I don't paritucularly enjoy the mess aspect of it (mucus, saliva, bodily fluids), but apart from that, I'm eager to hear you people's wonderful ideas!

What else to say? If this sounds like what you're looking for, and you're eager to irritate those red nostrils, don't hesitate to hit me up~✨

[anarchyrpbook]

THE ASHES & THE STAR-CURSED KING ── PART IV a roleplay sentence meme with various quotes and sentences taken from carissa broadbent's the ashes & the star-cursed king. feel free to tweak as needed. content warning: foul language, mentions of violence/murder, suggestive themes

not sure anything about either of us is normal.

don’t feed yourself to the wolves. know when your bite isn’t strong enough.

that leaves us to figure out how to get back into the castle we barely escaped alive. 

now that we’ve established that we’re fucking insane.

it’s been a while since i’ve been underestimated.

if i remember right, this is the part where we come up with some kind of brilliant, twisted plan.

i am definitely going to get an infection from this.

did you really think that i wouldn’t account for you?

that wasn’t a fair fight. they drugged me. and surprised me.

you’re finally taking me up on my offer?

challenging has never scared us before.

pretty trouble. i warned you of that, once.

you have my full loyalty and respect, highness. even if your decisions are not the ones i would make.

you thought because i was his, because he was fucking me, that he told me things.

loving someone is a dangerous thing. more dangerous still for a king.

men and their secrets, we spend a lifetime trying to unravel them, and once they’re gone, we’re still at their mercy.

if that’s all, i’d like to wash the sewage off of myself.

you’re too perceptive for someone with such bad people skills.

i’m still not sure that you’re not going to fuck me over.

obviously you’re mad, so what the hell are you mad about?

i shouldn’t have killed him.

maybe we’ll be dead by then, and it won’t matter.

i’m sorry that it happened to you. i’m sorry that i couldn’t stop it. i’m sorry that you had to fight this alone.

he asked me if i wanted to live. what the hell kind of a question is that? of course i wanted to live.

i’ve always admired that about you. that you fought even when you were afraid.

i just want you to know that you were the best part of it. the best part of all of it.

you accuse me of going soft when you’re spewing that sappy bullshit?

you have teeth too, show them that bite.

be careful. he doesn’t deserve to kill you.

go to the armies. go lead them away.

this is my kingdom. this is my castle. do not let anyone take it from me.

but oh, what a death it will be.

how many times have i told you, you can’t do that?

it’s not that hard to topple a kingdom.

don’t you ever do that to me again, never fucking again.

i didn’t think you would remember me.

fate, it’s beyond mortal understanding.

i thought you were dead. for a long time.

i never thought i would see you again.

you haven’t bathed since you’ve gotten here, have you?

we go down fighting in the name of blind fucking hope.

we would be honored to have your men fighting beside us.

you go, i’ll hold them off with the others.

give them fucking hell, alright? don’t you dare let him win.

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga 2024 Year End Retrospective - Twitch and Moving Past the Sewer Kingdom

This is part of a yearlong retrospective since I’m halfway through the Green Giant Saga since I started work on it very late last year.

As fun as I had writing Twitch, I do think there are a lot of improvements to be made, especially since Twitch had a decent amount of focus in this first half of the story, being a main character with substantial focus for 6 out of 10 episodes, specifically on his relationship with Zac.

Let’s start with the premise of the character, which has always been the premise of the character since I roleplayed him in high school. The premise is built out of the motivation he had in the old lore in which Twitch is trying to recreate his sentience. In Green Giant Saga, Twitch is a mutated rat who declared himself king of the sumps because he’s the monster with the biggest stash. By his logic, if you kill a creature (human or otherwise), you get to steal their things and the more things you have, the more security and luxury you have in a cutthroat environment like the inhabitable sumps. In this case, he truly thrived, accumulating more and more stuff for his throne.

As Twitch accumulated more wealth, he started to get more lonely. He read fantasy books and romance books that told stories of companionship that he truly wanted, but he’s always been taught that the sumps were to kill or be killed. The people that you put your trust in can always backstab you or exterminate you to steal your stash. As such, Twitch didn’t try to make friends the normal way, he aims to recreate his sentience and make more mutated rats. If he’s their creator who gave them life, surely that would make them loyal to him. However, he keeps failing and failing and failing in his sentience experiments, leading to more rat corpses in his lair than he knew what to do with. This was until one day, Twitch looted a special green goopy ingredient in the aftermath of what was, unknown to him, a warden raid into Zac’s home. When he combined it together, he finally created his first subject: not a mutated rat like himself, but the Zaunite Amorphous Combatant.

However, Zac didn’t act like the optimal servant that Twitch wanted. Zac had radically different morals, attitudes, and beliefs that frustrated him. There are many times when Zac would actively disobey him and go against his wishes. He wants him to be so much better than what he got; there are times when he wants to create a better subject, but he can’t give up on him. Too much blood, sweat, tears and dead rats were burned to get to his first sentient subject. What does that say about him if he couldn’t even make this first relationship work, and so, a lot of Twitch’s arc is him trying to make his relationship with Zac work in the context of him being the sewer king, a delusion based on his own beliefs. 

(Art by PirateSylph on Twitter / X)

In general, I think this is a good premise in the context of the Green Giant Saga. A major theme of the story is resolving the differences between a childlike fantasy to the real world. For Zac, it’s his image of superheroism, and for Twitch, it’s being a self-proclaimed king. It also emphasizes themes of empathy. Throughout the relationship, Zac and Twitch’s empathy for each other gets tested. In particular, this core belief that “the only subjects I can trust are those that I create” is set up to be challenged with the nature of how Twitch recreated Zac from his remains. What happens when he finds out that he didn’t actually create him?

However, in execution, I think there are some problems with it. The main problem I have that I’m looking to resolve moving forward is that Twitch’s character plotlines feel too centered around Zac. Zac is currently the main vector for Twitch’s development. I think this is fine at the start, especially with how possessive Twitch is, but I do imagine it getting repetitive. I get that sometimes people need to learn the same lesson multiple times, but Twitch learning to respect Zac’s wishes and compromise twice in a row isn’t exactly great. I still like “Monster under the Trashbags” and “Zac’s Day Off” and they both have their differences, but that’s not great for character growth and I’m going to try to avoid that same arc if I can.

 I also want more stories exploring his internalized logic of how “the natural sumps” work, mirroring how people would internalize systemic abuses as “part of the real world”. This is 100% being challenged by Twitch’s reaction to Zac’s heroic deeds (Puffcap Adventure and especially Fresh Sump Blood in particular) but I think we can challenge them more directly. It allows Twitch to be developed in a vector other than his relationship with Zac in addition to exploring the themes of systemic abuse.

Another improvement that I want to make is to have more opportunities for Zac to learn from Twitch. So far, most of the stories are Twitch learning from Zac which makes the relationship feel very one-sided. Granted, I think Twitch has a lot more to learn from Zac than vice-versa, but I wanted it to be mutually beneficial in which both are learning from each other. This is already getting addressed in the next story I’m writing (coming out mid-january), but I do want to look for other opportunities for Twitch to offer Zac something. 

I also wonder if I’m not being funny enough with Twitch? I think the latest stories in particular don’t show his more zany, comedic side more often, and instead display his more desperate, greedy, and possessive side. It’s funny because back when I did the roleplay blog, I thought I leaned super hard on the comedic side and now it’s the opposite problem, and if I want to write Twitch well, I need to strike a really good balance between the two. I think I noticed this when I went over some of the cover ideas of the current stories and found that a decent chunk of them has Twitch looking miserable or paranoid. Writers do love torturing characters I suppose, but I shouldn’t be too hard on him. 

Negatives aside, I do think a good dynamic is starting to form between the two (at least Fresh Sump Blood and the current story I’m working on). Zac is starting to become the reckless moral heart of the story, wanting to do good by everyone sometimes through stupid actions, and Twitch is the one that makes sure Zac doesn’t bite off more than he can chew through his paranoia and caution. Through Zac, Twitch is starting to learn a worldview beyond basic violence and greed and through Twitch, Zac is growing more confident in his heroism. I do think more work needs to be done to develop since a lot of the relationship’s initial teething problems were ironed out in Zac’s Day Off, the last Twitch/Zac episode. Twitch, in general, also just has the strongest voice out of any POV character in the series with how distinct and loud he can be. I wonder if it comes off as annoying sometimes.

I hope I can make good on these goals in the later half of the series, but I still think my Twitch is decent, albeit a bit repetitive sometimes. Definitely better than the nothing Riot has for him right now. It's so weird to say I'm more proud of my work on Zac than my work on Twitch because in my high school roleplaying days, it was the exact opposite.

—————————————————–

If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page (Character Insights and such)

[nocturius8015ficore]

Welcome on Fi-Core!

(Intro) What is Fi-Core?

Fi-Core a themed blog about the clone commando, Omega Squad, Field medic/Sniper, ''RC-8015'' Fi Skirata, from the Star Wars Legends Republic Commando books. (not a OC, just deep lore!) I started Fi-Core on Facebook in January 2024 and become part of the ''coremunity''. (community of -core). I exported the idea on Tumblr and Bluesky. I do memes, fanarts, fanfictions about clones. I also enjoy doing roleplay with my ''coresona''. I often speak with people ''in-character'' with this account.

Who is Nocturius?

Nocturius is who I am under the coresona. I have a university degree in Art with a specialisation in comicbook (drawing and script-writing). Feel free to ask me for tips about art, I enjoy sharing and teaching! I am from Québec, Canada, therefore my main language is French. That why English my be a bit wonky but I'm working on it. I'm also a queer person. Non-binary and pansexual. Leftist and agnostic/atheist.

Do I draw other stuff than clones?

Of course! Clones are my hyperfixation for now and Fi-Core is my way to vent about it. BUT throught my life, I mainly drew fantasy characters, such as elfs, dragons, merfolks and all kind of monsters. I also had a steampunk phase and have been involved in the Doctor Who fandom. You can see some of that on my ko-fi. I might do non-Star Wars new content occationnally eventually but I'm not sure yet how to organized it, we'll see.

Useful links?

@clonescomlink : Side-blog about clones and SW for most of my reblogging content. Because reblogging human creators post is important to fight AI prompter-poopers and celebrate true commnunity!

Tip Jar Ko-fi : If you want to tip me or see my art gallery I TAKE ART COMMISSION, DMs me!

Bluesky: RP, memes and same jazz as on my FB roughly.

Fi's HUD (navigation 2024-2025)

Here a compilation about stuff I've produced!

They are organized by categories and older first.

I got the whole buffet as a writer, memer and illustrator.

**Last update: 04th June 2025**

Enjoy!

👇👇

Fi's datapad

Wanna laugh? Here the collection for it

-> MEME MASTERLIST 2024

-> MEME MASTERLIST 2025

Fanarts

WIP, sketches, traditional or digital ink. black and white or color. -> FANART MASTERLIST 2024 -> FANART MASTERLIST 2025

15 minute Drawing challenge

Quick traditional drawing request from followers

Ord'ika (request Mamuzzy)

Sev and a Liv OC's kiss (request from Livmara from FB)

Star Destroyer (request Mamuzzy from tumblr)

Delta62 (request Wings and Beskargam from tumblr)

Syril's cereal (request Pew pew pew/ from FB)

Jenna Clone's OC ''Wildcard'' with Hevy from Domino squad

Sister's Helmet (request Axo-has-adhd)

Jenna clone's OC ''Salem'' with Wrecker TBB (request Jenna from FB)

Bardan and Omega squad crossover LOTR (request Pew pew pew from FB)

Gregor and Rafa Martez chilling (request from Nancy Ott from FB)

PHOTOBOOTH! (request from Livmara on FB)

Ordo bear hug (request by Mamuzzy/Ordo-Core from tumblr)

Big tiddy twi'lek lifeguard (request by Kino-Loy-Core from FB)

Mando lady cosplay (request by Wings and beskargam from tumblr)

Fanfictions

More serious thingy, family-friendly but go a little more in depth in the psychology, romance and other crusty bits than the original books. All the ficts can be read as one shot.

A very private party SW Republic Commando /Fi-Core Characters: Fi and Parja 627 words, semi in character story Mood/theme: slice of life, anxiety, romance

Cloudy mind or Ao3 SW Republic Commando Characters: Fi and Parja 510 words, post Imperial Commando: 501st story Mood/theme: Slice of life, dissociative disorder, anxiety, romance

Good night Ord'ika or Ao3 SW Republic Commando Characters: Ordo and Besany 1159 words, post Imperial Commando: 501st story Mood/theme: Slice of life, autistic spectrum, romance

Growing up or Ao3 SW Republic Commando Characters: Kal Skirata, RC-8015 Fi, Mij Gilamar 1730 words, 5 years before Geonosis Mood/theme: Childhood, clones, medical concern

Trust or Ao3 SW Republic Commando Characters: Bardan Jusik, Fi Skirata, Alpha ARCs trooper Sull and Spar 865 words, Middle of the book Republic Commando: Order 66 Mood/theme: Friendship, loyalty, solidarity

Duty Sir! or Ao3 SW Republic Commando Characters: Null ARC trooper Captain Ordo, RC-8015 'Fi''. 1000 words, Somewhere between Triple Zero and True Colors Mood/theme: Loyalty, hope

Hidden passage SW Republic Commando (AU) Characters: Null ARC trooper Captain Ordo, Alpha ARC trooper Captain Maze 387 words, Canon Divergence. Somewhere between Hard Contact and Triple Zero Mood/theme: NSFW, not-explicit sex, Gay, Clone shipping, Enemy to lover, thirsty horny bois.

Of all the things I've lost or Ao3 SW Republic Commando Characters: Fi Skirata, Parja Bralor, Bardan Jusik 1,180 words, Between True Colors and Order 66 Mood/theme: Slow recovery, depression, pinning, love

Wounded or Ao3 SW Republic Commando Characters: RC-8015 ''Fi'' , RC-1309 ''Niner''. + Darman and Atin. 1,075 words, Somewhere between in True Color, before Gaftikar Mood/theme: Solidarity, depression, brotherhood

Corr's bachelor degree or Ao3 SW Republic Commando Characters: Null-7 Mereel and RC-5108/8843 Corr Skirata (Mention Ordo) 1,413 words, Between Triple Zero and True Colors Mood/theme light mood, feel good, lifting up confidence, hooking up

Artefact or Ao3 SW The Bad Batch Characters: Echo, Crosshair, Phee Genoa (mention Tech) 1082 words, After Bad Batch season 3 Mood/theme: Grief, mental health, guild

Fi's commlink snippet record

Fi is chatting with his vodes and friends, micro-fictions

Father's day

Pretty face

Delta field medic?

Kal have a message for you!

Corr, we need to talk!

Pizza delivery

Gregor have a message for you!

Love you parja!

Ask Fi! (in character answer)

Verpine and sniper

Babygirl and the poll

Poll result

Fashion consultant

Question for Fi (under question for Noct) What is your biggest fear?

Admin-Nocturius OOC post and answer

There is a non-clone under the clone.

Fi-Core's anniversary

Rant 1 Learn a language and first aids

Answer to a depressed vod.

Wips tag game from the 27th January 2025

Just a post about being depressed.

First and last line challenge 16th February 2025

Rant 2 Create a safe haven

Last line challenge 5 March 2025 Embroidery cog

''Little guy'' avatar of me

Question for Noct: who is my second favorite character.

No haters under my stuff.

How queer is your clones? poll (and none-clone OC)poll

Get to know your mutuals / Fandom Folks to Get to Know Better I answer a lot of question in this one.

Team Work!

Stuff I did in reaction to someone or with them

Stardust (fanfiction) Characters: OC reg' clone, Fi and Niner 363 words, fanfictions inspired by a beautiful fanmade comic. Mood: Suffering, sadness, hope

The fishes : I said something silly, and @mamuzzy-creates-stuff draw a comic from it.

Tetris: Clones playing videogame on duty? No....

Five freshers! : I meet Fives on bluesky! :D

Haiku contest @mamuzzy-creates-stuff decide that the Nulls likes haiku and Fi decide to participate. In his way

Kitchen time with Daine Jir-Core : Screenshot from the coremunity shenanigans.

Eggs and potatoes with @mamuzzy-creates-stuff : Drawings, comics and gif!

Fi and the chips (with @ithillia)

Fi stands for ... Filosophy! (with @mamuzzy)

What are the girls plotting?? (with @ghostymarni and @crosshairs-dumb-pimp-gf )

Socializing with Ordo? (with @ordo-core aka mamuzzy)

Cool socks with @wings-and-beskargam

Might tell Ordo... (with Ordo-Core answer)

Backpack Commando (answer to @pichiflu-draws)

Horny clones

Dancing contest (with eobe)

[theresattrpgforthat]

Do you have any recommendations for games with fantasy pirates and tactical combat? I've really been enjoying running Pirate Borg, but I'm missing my crunchy strategy mini games. Thanks for everything you do for the community!

Theme: Tactical Pirate Fantasy

Hello friend, so by ‘tactical’ my best guess as to what you’re looking for is games that provide your characters with multiple options when it comes to resolving conflicts, with some options being better than others. This may or may not include maps in combat, but I think it might also include environmental considerations, buffs or de-buffs for using specific pieces of gear, and accounting for range or position when firing a gun.

However, really tactical games are much harder for me to find, probably because there’s so much math that goes into them. I did my best to give you a range of options, but I’m not entirely sure how well any one of these pirate games match your definition of ‘tactical’.

Bilge Rats, by Games by Cass.

Take to The Sea of Mischief and gamble your life away on high seas adventures as ratfolk pirates. Chase buried treasure, hunt wannabe pirate lords, and engage in some all together unsavoury action in Bilge Rats: A Sea of Mischief. This 78 page guide has everything you need to get your adventures on The Sea of Mischief up and running--except for the d6 dice, cups, and pencils you're gonna need. So, dust off your tricorn caps, get your cutlass shined, and get ready to set sail!

Bilge Rats’ form of strategy is probably unlike what you think of when you think of a tactical game, but I think it’s interesting and worth taking a look at! The basic system is centred around a game called “Liar’s Dice”, which involves rolling, bluffing if you don’t succeed, and calling other’s bluffs. You roll a pool of d6’s, with the difficulty being determined by a) the minimum number to beat to be considered a success and b) the number of successes you need to do the thing. As a player you’ll have to decide when a roll is worth bluffing, and if you enter PVP, it’s also about determining when your opponent is bluffing - challenge someone when they’re right, and you’ll pay the cost!

That being said, I think the most tactical part of this game comes into play during naval battles. Your character type is called a “Duty”, which determines your role upon the ship, your order of initiative, and a number of skill values. You’ll also have to consider wind speed, wind direction, and the roughness of the waves every time you engage in combat on a boat, so making strategic choices to improve your odds is probably pretty important.

The Runed Age, by Stormforge Productions.

In a world where magic and technology have fused together, where the limits that man is capable of have been broken, where a man can destroy the world with a stroke of a pen, the poor starve and the rich prosper off the blood of innocence. A world that should be a utopia has been turned by greed and pride into a battlefield where the poor wage war in the shadows for the ambitions of the wealthy. You are one of these scoundrels, these rogues, these pirates who struggle for the sport of the rich to achieve the glory, the riches, the power to break your chains and surpass the limits of The Runed Age.

The Runed Age is built on the Sigil System, a robust d100 roll-under system that allows you to play as narratively or simulationist as you want. The d100 genre of systems is a tried a true roleplaying method, and what sets the Sigil System (and thus the Ruined Age) apart from the rest is its combat and wounds system, which reflects the stresses and rigours of combat on the body to make combat as realistic as possible. This means that every fight in the Runed Age is a gritty, epic and lethal struggle for survival where you need to be prepared to do your best just to outlive your opponent.

The Runed Age is saturated with magic, using Runes as a mechanic to write your own spells. The openness of the system means that players have a lot of control over what they do with their magic, but the game definitely rewards system mastery because every time you try to write a spell, you’ll have to consider fiddly bits like power, range, and control.

When it comes to rolling dice, the system is heavily inspired by Call of Cthulhu. One review I found for this game mentions a possibility for tactical play, so I’m assuming that combat is more survival than CoC. If you want magic to be a significant part of the game, you probably want to check out The Runed Age.

Blood & Thunder, by Black Flag Printing Press.

You are a cutthroat aboard a pirate ship, seeking the fortune and glory that awaits those strong enough to take it. Brave the waterways of Erda and get rich or die trying in this nautical piracy TTRPG.

Lethal combat meets reactive gameplay at the infantry scale. Board, capture, or sink enemy vessels with naval play. Boasting rules for three dimensional range-finding and movement, even a regular swim in the ocean can become a deadly hazard as you're ripped apart by sharks, sea monsters, or something far worse.

Blood & Thunder is definitely fantastical, just judging from the races that you can choose from. Like D&D, your character choices are pre-packaged with stat bonuses and special abilities, but unlike D&D, you us a d100 for most of your rolls. Difficulty levels range from 0-100, with a limit on what you can even attempt to do depending on how high your skill rating is. If you can roll, you’ll aim to roll under your max skill rating.

Character levelling is also strategic; you need to meet certain requirements to take specific careers. Combat is also pretty dependent on a grid map, which I interpret to mean that range and positioning are two factors that you’ll have to consider, as well as an action economy that ensures that you’ll have to make your moves count.

Pirates and Musketeers, by Andrezj Buhlak.

The 17th century was rich in interesting events, political intrigues, bloody wars, and sea voyages. This book is a gateway to this fascinating period of history. If "dry history" is not enough for you, you can spice it up with fantastic assumptions, including vampires, werewolves, sea monsters and ancient ruins.

Pirates and Musketeers uses the Year Zero engine, which provides you with a number of d6s to roll that come from your base traits, character skills, and character gear. You have the ability to “push” your roll should your initial effort fail, which you will likely do often, as only 6’s are considered a success. However, should you “push” (or “re-roll”) your roll, any 1’s that you roll will also inflict penalties, doing damage to a stat or your gear. This means that in many stages of game-play, players will be balancing how much they value success against how many consequences they’re willing to face.

Language-wise, I’m not really a big fan of the way the game uses the term “savages.” The time period in this game is at the strength of many colonial empires, and some of that definitely bleeds through, so pick up this game with caution.

Caraval Crew, by iotsov.

A low fantasy TTRPG that focuses on sailing ships.

Right now, as far as I can tell, Caravel Crew is untested, but it has a lot of pieces for you to pick up and fiddle with. Combat has a lot of different kinds of options for your characters to exploit, with different outcomes if you bash, stab, shoot, parry, grapple, etc. There’s different weapons that are useful for different skills, and getting new weapons costs gold - an important resource to track. You’ll have a number of resources that you’ll need to keep track of and monitor, including hit points and something called EP.

On top of that, there’s also social and survival rules, so if you want a game that gives you engaging combat while still giving thought to other parts of the game, maybe pick up Caraval Crew and take it for a test drive!

24XX Skeleton Crew, by Jonah Boyd.

Dead men DO tell tales… on the other side. Skeleton Crew takes place in the sailor’s purgatory, Davy Jones’ Locker. When one dies at sea, their soul is brought to the Locker for a vast voyage to judge their fate. Some sailors only spend a few days in the Locker, but many form swashbuckling crews to preserve their non-lives for weeks, months, or years before judgement calls.

24XX games are another approach to the OSR (the same house of game design that fuels Pirate Borg), but use different-sized dice to represent a larger skill. I think there’s still more chance than strategy here, but again, this is a game that you could probably pull things from and then put into another system if you’re looking flavour.

The few fiddly bits that do exist in this game are things like different kinds of ships and different toys to put onto the ship - two things that you might be able to tack onto a game that doesn’t currently think about them, and thus opening up more pieces to consider should you get into a fight. Your ship could also come with flaws - what happens if you get in a fire-fight with a ship that has misfiring cannons? How might that complicate the battlefield?

You can also combine this game with another similar 24XX game, such as 14XX Golden Age to broaden your character origins or give yourself a few extra rules toys to play with.

Islands of the Far Sea, by Kindred Spirits, and Lilliputian, by ManaDawn Tabletop Games.

Islands of the Far Sea is a pirate-themed hack of Chris McDowell's Into the Odd, taking place in the Islands of the Oddworld. Play as one of seven Failed Careers in your new days as a Treasure-Hunter!

Lilliputian: Adventure on the Open Seas is an adventure game about exploring the vast and expansive ocean,  filled with uncharted islands, hidden treasure, weird weather and unspeakable horrors. Character creation is fast, fun and random, classless, and relies on fictional advancement. It is based on Mausritter by Isaac Williams, Into The Odd by Chris McDowall and Cairn by Yochai Gal, as-well-as so many more.

Into the Odd and Mausritter use the same bones, and both of these game books acknowledge that inspiration, although Lilliputian also draws quite a bit from Cairn. I don’t consider either of these games to be tactical games - but what they do have is possibilities that can be imported into other games. The Failed Careers from Islands of the Far Sea are packaged skills and gear that you can give a character to start with. They will then have to figure out how to make their kit work for the problems they walk into.

Lilliputian also has specific rules for naval combat, as well as lots and lots of random tables. I think more than anything it communicates a specific vibe, but taking a little bit from one game and a little bit from another is one way to customize your experience - as well as give your players more options when trying to figure out how to tackle their next salty obstacle.

[mystybelle]

From last night's stream-

I don't think RPGs have anything to do with stats.

I think an RPG, or whether or not a game counts as one, is more about how you can affect it's world or environment beyond just winning or losing.

Like, Skyrim and space Skyrim, for example,are not RPGs. They are a very shoddily made, medieval & sci-fi themed amusement parks.

But neither are any Final Fantasy games, Legend of Zelda games, Shadow of Mordor, the Assassin's Creed series, Genshin Impact, God of War (any of them, even the new ones), Kingdom Hearts (any of them), Diablo, Transistor, or any Pokemon games. These are lovingly crafted roller coasters with various themes, with different additional genres of games therein, unlike most Bethesda games, but not roleplaying games. They're gripping movies, comics, art exhibits, and dioramas with well done and utilitarian world-building.

Or visual novels. And that's not me disparaging these games, just hopefully pushing our evolving language for discussing games in a better direction?

I guess the next question is probably- "What is an RPG by your call then?"

I'd say games like the original Deus Ex, Stardew Valley, Fallout 1&2, Undertale, Pathologic, literally every single Animal Crossing game, Pathfinder/DnD (if your DM has a stable sleep schedule), and Shadow the Hedgehog.

The difference between these two groups is:

group A: Interactive media (games) that are stories, or Games(under the cut), with worlds that only exist to tell their stories or for the player's convenience.

group B: Interactive media that is a world the player is encouraged to interact with as a consistent Character within, or where the player's avatar & actions exists as a character within the world and not just an artifice of design or play.

There is nothing you can do on Final Fantasy VII's Gaea that will impact any part of the rest of the world, besides succeed at a given challenge or die and have another go. Nor in X, IX, or VIII. Locking a world's keyhole in Kingdom Hearts 1 doesn't change the game's state it's the next part of the story and the success state that follows defeating most level's final bosses (or after figuring out a clever puzzle in Traverse Town). Riku can't fail to save Sora at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, you fail to rescue Riku's man, and the game lets you try again until you catch up with canon. Transistor does not care whether you collect certain programs/citizens, the Process [REDACTED] no matter what. Zelda can't not be rescued in any of the series' games where she appears; there are no ways to save the land of Termina except by assisting its citizens in a very specific order. In Pokemon, Team Rocket cannot successfully kidnapp someone's Pokemon on screen, and Team Aqua cannot successfully flood the world.

But in Shadow the Hedgehog; the president can be spared and his life determines how the rest of the game's story plays out; you can steadily work to destroy the world with the Black Arms and feel the progress of the invasion as you complete more of their missions. In Pathologic, failing to cure a patient doesn't send you to a game over screen, the patient just dies. Sometimes your patient is important to you and their death will have disastrous consequences, sometimes not. In ACNH, everything you can do changes the game's state in a meaningful way, there are almost literally no meaningless actions you can take in that game (or any animal crossing game). In a solid Pathfinder/DnD game, unless your party fights and dies to the last man, failing to kill the Lich or Evil king means that they get to take over that town or city. Some tables don't even run TPKs back, that specific world just gets worse and you either abandon it to its fate or have to make new avatars to re-enter a world that's likely grown more hostile because of the failure. In the original Fallouts, the only real "game over" fail state in those games is dying. Everything else is simply a choice to make, or a consequence to avoid. Likewise in the original Deus Ex, JC Denton's actions decide whether the [REDACTED it's old but go play the game] play out as planned, whether [seriously go play it] live or if the [please, you won't regret it] get their way. Each potential reality in these games, doesn't meaning you just lose, but that you now have to account for new circumstances in the world of your own making.

I don't think a game doesn't become an RPG because it has stats, or levels. Those are just conventions of the media of games as a whole. A game is more or less of an RPG based on how internally consistent and independent of the player its world is. I think our language should reflect that that too, but considering that this genre of game comes from the original pen and paper RPGs, I don't like giving the most faithful successors to their heritage a name that doesn't include the words RPG in it. I'd rather call the first group of games "Immersive Movies" and give the term "RPG" back to the second group. But if we must call both groups kinds of RPGs, I want to suggest replacing WRPG vs JRPG, with RPGs vs "VRPGs" or Virtual Ride Playing Games (or Vibe Role Playing Games), seeing as the first group is more akin to a book/movie/play/amusement park ride that you read or ride through than they are games where you meaningfully play the role of a character.

If that makes sense? Replies/rb as are welcome as comments, I had the thought on stream and I've spent all day working to make it more coherent than the babbling that usually rattles around in my brain, but I couldn't make it any shorter than this. So idk, let me know what you think. I'm eager to hear from other devs, or just players for that matter.

Also, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, this isn't me shitting on any game I've mentioned except for Skyrim and space Skyrim. I'm not using RPG as a title of prestige, or saying any of these games are worse than the others except for Skyrim; I'm only saying we should probably re categorize them. Roller coasters are good things when they're well made.

[eldritch-spouse]

could you spare us some crumbs on what type of human monster romance stories Vorago has written about? Like is it best friends to lovers? slow burns? fast burn? office romance? fluff/comfort? and what kind of tags, cough cough kinks cough, he looks out for as well in the stories he reads or creates. If it is not too much to ask, I was also wondering what kind of critiques Vorago would write about when it comes to stories he reads. Is it like, the human in this story does not act how a human normally would, which breaks the immersion for me 5/10 sex is good though

Vorago is a big, big fan of very rural settings for his stories, going as far as to have studied the way of life people in certain remote locations lead for the purposes of creating total immersion. He likes the idea of a powerful monster of royal descent (*cough* his self-insert) getting summoned to a fictional remote area for some reason or another, and falling madly in love with one of the human locals during his stay where he fulfills his end of the deal struck. Thus begins a slow to moderate burn courting process oftentimes challenged by outside factors that drive those two souls apart. In some stories there are concepts such as the love interest having an aversion to monsters brought on by the way they were raised, in others the monster has to learn to better himself to earn the love interest's heart- But those generally end very sweetly. He's definitely written some very different fastburn stories about exorcists falling prey to attractions they can't stop, but the general theme tends to be a royal demon-implied monster and a somewhat dainty human.

Although it's not in the tags of his works, Vorago is heavily into roleplaying, in the bedroom or through written collaboration. You're likely to find glutton-specific kinks in his works, like general foodplay, one of his favorites being "nyotaimori". Darker fics include the twist of said human wanting to eat parts of the monster character in question. You have your usual size differences. Curiously, he has a scent thing. He's definitely read things with a variety of other kinks however.

Vorago's critiques are only given when readers are prompted to leave their two cents, otherwise he just has folders with certain notes about what he thinks of each story. He focuses more on the nature of the dynamic established between the pairs and tends to harp on lack of realism in settings. He definitely points out things that humans wouldn't or can't do, such as seeing perfectly in a setting that is much too hard for your species to see anything, or surviving something that would probably turn a human's bones to a pulp.

He's gotten many comments commending his effort to make realistic interspecies porn. To the point where some people online ask Vorago if their own drafts sound plausible.

[canonsin]

What Happened To The Roleplaying Community

I am aware there are way bigger problems in the world, I have way bigger, more serious problems in my stupid life but I HAVE got to vent about this hobby, even if no one cares. And I understand I am probably going to sound like a boomer complaining about the kids, bc I am def going to say "back in my day" but I feel like I am going insane, okay? Please just hear me out.

I was writing stories since I was a little kid, I started role playing at like 13-14. My last 1x1 roleplay partner was my partner for like 6 years if I did the math right. Then we left the hobby because we felt we had outgrown it and didn't have the energy for it anymore. Now, 3 years later at 34 I have returned to the hobby and I don't know what happened while I was gone but what. the. fuck.

Like I don't even know what to start ranting about first.

Finding someone to roleplay with has been hell these last few months. And if you can find someone who you vibe with they will suddenly just DISAPPEAR one day. What the fuck. One person we have been roleplaying two rps together for MONTHS, I thought we were friends, and she just fucking disappeared??? Like she still logs on, I can see her online, she hasn't blocked me or left the server or anything. She just won't respond to me. HEY, IF YOU'RE NOT INTERESTED ANYMORE, JUST SAY SO. OR BLOCK ME FFS SO I KNOW WHERE I STAND. It's making me so anxious you're just THERE not talking to me for SOME unknown reason. And heres another thing, if you have to take a hiatus because of mental health then like if I message you to check in on you, please for the love god message me back. I am not being pushy I am so genuinely checking on you, I just wanna know you're alive and doing okay.

And the other thing is, people are now only willing to do ONE roleplay at a time. My previous long term partner, we roleplayed MULTIPLE roleplays together. Just counted our old server, WE HAD 43 ROLEPLAYS. Some of them we did at the same time. Some of them fandoms, some of them original stories. I am tried of making a server for like multiple different people to roleplay one thing.

Back in the day, it was so easy to find a fellow femme roleplay partner but since I have been out of the community there are SO many cis hetero men in the space now. And I'm not saying they don't ALSO deserve to enjoy roleplaying as a hobby, they do, but why is every single god damn post on every single god damn fucking website a cis man looking for a female roleplaying partner. Like elliuiqy, a site for adult themed roleplays, almost every god damn post is a man looking for a female partner. I checked and the last time someone was looking for a FxF was a month ago. Yet there are DAILY posts of these dudes. Look, I prefer to roleplaying with other women or femme people. This is in part because I get this wild, uncomfortable anxiety when roleplaying with men. I just feel viscerally uncomfortable, I don't know why! Thats just how my brain and body react. If I could afford therapy it is definitely something I would explore with a professional! But even if that weren't case, cis hetero men, 9 times out of 10 are fucking horrible partners. "If you prefer to rp with women how do you know that?" Because I have pushed myself to roleplay with them despite my anxiety to try and challenge it and, while I am sure there are great ones out there because men are not a monolith (I'm seriously not trying to be like ALL MEN okay, just the many I've experienced, all I can do is speak about my experiences, I'M SORRY), all the ones I have had are fucking terrible as partners and writers.

They will disregard boundaries, they will push you into things you aren't comfortable with and so many of them are just shit at writing. You could write a beautiful long two paragraphs about your character's feelings or sensations they feel or thoughts or all of those things and they will write back basically "He liked it, it made his dick so hard, he wanted to put it in her" Hey, fuck you if write like that. It's like roleplaying with a 2x4. Git gud, you fucking scrub.

And like smut isn't like fun with them, its like they want to get off as fast as possible. They fire off the laziest, weakest responses possible in hopes of moving the plot along to get to the part they wanna get off to. AND THATS COMING FROM FUCKING ME OF ALL PEOPLE. Like I love to fucking write smut, its my favorite thing to write but you've got to build the characters and the world still! Otherwise it's flat and theres no emotion or fun in it. LIKE WHERES THE BEEF DUDE, I WANT MEAT AND POTATOES. ("What about roleplaying with trans men??" I don't know, they've never crossed my boundary of femme partners only, so I have never tried it. No idea how my anxious brain would react. Would it be like that gender affirming bird who bit that trans woman? Maybe.) Roleplaying with men vs women is like the equivalent of the Met Gala before Men started putting in SOME effort. Women would show up in these beautiful elaborate outfits that would leave people in awe, I STILL think about some of the dresses I've seen years later. And Men would show in a basic ass tux. Like why even be here if you aren't even gonna try.

And I have had terrible femme partners to but most of the time they are just like bad at writing but trying to get better. I am willing to forgive bad writing as long as you are working to improve and putting in effort. Like why the fuck would I want to write with someone who doesn't give a fuck about worldbuilding or character building or exploring interesting relationships and dynamics????

Also what the fuck is with people being like "I will only play a woman" [old voice] BACK IN MY DAY you played multiple genders you fuckers. If you preferred to play female characters you reciprocated for your partner by playing a male character in an rp they wanted to do. It wasn't just about what made you happy or what you wanted to do, it was a hobby that required PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION. IT SHOULD STILL BE THAT.

Also, Smut rolepalying doesn't count as literary roleplaying?? SINCE FUCKING WHEN?? Do romance novels not count as NOVELS NOW, what are you people FUCKING talking about!? If I write at least a paragraph that is in the literary style THATS WHAT LITERARY ROLEPLAYING IS OR WAS BEFORE WE DECIDED WRITING SMUT WASN'T INTELLECTUAL AT ALL, FUCK YOU.

And do NOT get me started on the fucking reddit roleplaying community. Wow. What a shit hole. Also, NOW, I have to go to like 50 different websites to try to find a partner. What the fuck is that about?? I used to be able to just post on tumblr "Hey I wanna rp this" and people would swarm. Now? I post on tumblr, I post on Reddit, I post on barbermonger, I post on elliquiy, I post on Iwaku, I post on RP Depository, I am in like EIGHT different roleplaying finder servers. And Tumblr, I post on my rp blog, I post in a rp partner finder community AND I SEND ADS TO ROLEPLAYING FINDER BLOGS. Like the amount of effort I have put in to just find someone, what the hell.

I just, WHAT HAPPENED WHILE I WAS GONE. I'm so tired. I just wanna write smut and filth and fluff and romance and some angst and have fun. Why is everyone behaving this way now, whats wrong with you all, what happened. It used to be a community but it doesn't feel like one now. Theres NO sense of community anymore.

[rphunter]

Hello everyone! I’m digging one of my favourite Original characters out of the attic and dusting him off for some good ol’ dungeons and dragons themed roleplay. I’m going to start by introducing my character and then the plot ideas!

Im M23 looking for someone 20+ for an MXM original character roleplay

Van’del Lasmar is a human alchemist who is traveling across the world right now in search of the place he was born. He was raised in a far northern kingdom named Eigilsor until a raid when he was 12, in which he was separated from his parents who passed away on complete accident on the part of the raiders. He had been taken back on a cart made for the bodies of the deceased and was found to have survived, but not unscathed. The majority of his body is covered in burn scars , but only some on his cheek and neck is visible nowadays to most people.

Since then he has lived in the raiding kingdom , another northern settlement named Moorufell. He was trained by the court alchemist when he became of age and eventually grew to take the spot of his mentor who mysteriously disappeared one day. Despite his hazy memories of what had happened when he received his scars Van’del grew complacent in his spot as court alchemist, not challenging the people who made the orders that very well liked his family. It’s only one day when he finds an old journal that belonged to his mother that had been recovered before the fires had even been lit that he feels unrest sitting heavy on his heart.

After a war had broken out and King Sacren had been killed in battle Van’del saw his chance to move on. When summer came he fled, taking advantage of the melted snow to make his trip out of the region easy. Now he heads on a journey, guided by the journal his mother left for him.

In appearance outside of being burnt I would liken Van’del to the earth equivalent of being Chinese in his heritage. He has dark , slightly shaggy, medium length black hair. His eyes are a dark brown and his expression is usually quite stoic. His colour palette for his clothes is quite dark, mostly made up of navy , brown , black and red. I go have commissioned art of him I’m willing to send to you that is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!

Now onto plot ideas. For your character(s) I have multiple ideas!

-This is from an old roleplay that was very dear to me, but I have a plot in which Van’del loses everything while on the road, all his things stolen and left for dead. Through grit he survives the encounter and goes to the nearest settlement and goes to the person in charge , whether that be the king, emperor, mayor etc… and offers his alchemic services for a temporary period of time whilst he recovers his things. You get a mysterious tight lipped alchemist, Van’del begins to question his journey and motive as he gets comfortable with your character and the place he has found himself in.

-This is a where a multi character idea comes in. Along the road Van’del encounters many different people who end up having vastly different relationships with him while he is looking for his home country. Some could be romantic encounters, cut short by his mission. Some are just platonic, lifting his spirits even if he doesn’t express it well. Some could even be purely sexual encounters on the road to his home. Endless possibilities for an episodic roleplay if you have multiple characters you want to use or places that you have not been able to really flesh out for your own worlds.

-My third idea is a bit later in the journey, more so at ‘the end’. Van’del arrives in the country he was born in , the birth place of alchemy. After having lived in different places his whole life he finds it’s harder to fit in. It comes to his attention that his understanding of alchemy was actually quite basic , just because of the fact that in the northern region he was residing in alchemy was only practiced by 2-4 people at any given time. Your character could be any host of people from his home country. A new mentor that pities him and takes him in to teach him more about the craft, a fellow alchemist studying under the same person who looks down on him initially, someone who takes him into their home when he comes to the country and is so unsure of himself. The possibilities are endless.

I’m open to other ideas as well if you have them, these are just mine.

Here is all other information I feel I need to say in the post. Feel free to ask questions though when we chat in dms!

My character is between the ages of 27-30 in these prompts. I prefer your character be Atleast 25. I’m open to whatever race or class of fantasy character you want to play, but please don’t make them too archetypical.

I’m a busy adult with a job so I cannot reply all the time. I do try to get out at least one every day or let you know if I can’t reply that day. I prefer we roleplay on discord in a server that’s organized.

NO AI FACECLAIMS. Picrew is fine , real face claims are not preferred,but better than none and original art is more than welcome. Even if you don’t have a face claim or art that’s perfectly okay.

Usually my responses are 3-6+ paragraphs. I match the length of my partner. I’m expecting you to be an active participant in the plotting and world creation. It shouldn’t be entirely on either of us.

If this interests you please interact with this post and I’ll reach out to you!

,

[orphanheirs]

WIP Questionnaire

Thanks for the tag, @transthadymacdermot!!

What’s the first part of your WIP that you created?

The characters. They existed as deviantart ocs that I used to roleplay with in chatrooms before any semblance of a story existed. This was back in high school.

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

I'll give a few examples here because there's a lot of songs I think fit the vibe of the story (I have a 4-hour long playlist of "soundtrack" songs)! All of these are based on pure vibes, not necessarily lyrics. For a TV show, I think a folk revival type song like "Over Again" by Stick in the Wheel or "Cannily Cannily" by Maddy Prior and Tim Hart would be sick. If it was a short instrumental intro song, an eerie tune like "More Bones to Sort" from the OTGW soundtrack or this song would work well. To get more general Rasputina is an artist whose overall sound is something that would work great for the story. If you don't know them they're a band that makes rock music with cellos and is very weird and goth about it.

What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

I love them all, but right now I have to admit my favorite is Tristan. It's definitely partially because he's the most developed right now, but also because he's the reason I revived the story after dropping it almost 10 years ago. I remembered him and thought he had potential and fell in love with him all over again. Coming up with ideas for his arc and his backstory got me excited for the overarching story again, and I changed him from a side character to a main character. I have a lot of fun with his personality and I relate to him a lot on a personal level.

What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share?

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Over the Garden Wall, Labyrinth, possibly Interview with the Vampire? and people who grew up with things like Hocus Pocus and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Maybe fans of Neil Gaiman? It's kind of hard to say though; I have no idea how the story would be marketed because it's..pretty weird lol.

What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

Not sure what the biggest of them all is, but my big three I guess would be plotting, research, and actually writing. I feel like I'm hitting my head on a wall when I try to outline story beats or whatever, so I think I'll just have to fly by the seat of my pants and plot as I go. Research also feels like a hurdle I need to get past because I want to base the story itself on actual mythology and folklore, and root the "real-world" parts of the story in the real historic regency period. Right now I know enough to share fun facts in a conversation, but in reality I don't know shit. I have a lot of work to do in that regard. Actually writing has been a challenge due to a combination of annoying factors including having very little free time in my life, executive dysfunction, and being? scared? of writing? because what if it comes out bad? Which I know is silly but it blocks me from writing a lot of the time nevertheless.

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Right now I'm thinking Crispin has a pet bat named Sparrow. Crispin named the bat Sparrow because he literally thought it was a sparrow, that being the only flying creature he knew of at the time. Now he knows better, but Sparrow is still Sparrow. I haven't thought much about it, but I think Crispin's keeping of a pet is one of the things that indicates he's different from his family/species, i.e. he experiences empathy and longs for companionship. The demon Tristan summons can shapeshift, and takes the form of many different creatures throughout the story.

How do your characters travel/get around?

Considering the time period, the options are limited. There's a lot of walking in this story, but also getting from place to place by carriage or cart. There's likely to be some horseback riding as well. In terms of the supernatural, Crispin can "teleport" himself from point A to point B using magic--but not very far. I still need to figure out the specifics of that though. Tristan is greatly aided in getting around by the demon he summoned, who transforms into a flying black steed Tristan can ride on.

What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

Right now I'm bouncing around and writing snippets of scenes that come to mind/interest me most. I'm considering everything experimental at the moment, and not committing to anything actually being in the final novel. This is helping me get over my fear of writing, and I like it because sometimes I end up liking what I write more than I thought I would. I also *might* write the story in novella form first, try out some things with that, learn from it, and then expand and/or rewrite it as a full novel. Other than that I'm researching and brainstorming and drawing (which is part of my process)!

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in?

Hmmm I think the fact it's a dark fantasy/horror story and the fact it's set in the regency period will attract people. The regency period and fantasy are both really popular right now (as far as I can tell). Also the fact that it has found family, which seems to be a popular trope. The fact it has queer characters might be appealing too. Other draws might be the Halloween aspect, and the deal with the devil trope. And if anyone likes enemies to friends and twist villains. There's also heavy use of gothic tropes and subverting them/combining them with folk horror tropes. Regency media (cough cough Jane Austen) tropes will also go under the knife of subversion.

What are your hopes for your WIP?

I hope to make it a published novel! Ideally traditionally published, but who knows if that'll happen lol. I also want the book to be illustrated, and to illustrate it myself. Besides that, I'd love to do some comics featuring the characters and maybe even short animations. (She said as if she had endless free time...)

Tagging: @ceph-the-ghost-writer, @finchmomentwrites, and @kaylinalexanderbooks !