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iamthedukeofurl · 1 year ago

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One interesting thing that can happen in long running media is that the general cultural background can shift under the work, recontextualizing it as it is being written. I'm specifically thinking of the Order of the Stick, a Dungeons and Dragons themed webcomic that started in 2003 with the titular party of adventurers going through a dungeon.

From left to right, we have Belkar Bitterleaf the halfling ranger, Vaarsuvius the Elf Wizard, Elan the Human Bard, Haley Starshine the Human Rogue, Durkon Thundershield the Dwarf Cleric, and Roy Greenhilt the Human Fighter. The comic takes place in a fantasy setting that knowingly runs off the rules of Dungeons and Dragons third edition. Characters talk about rolls and bonuses and intentionally take levels in various classes. At the start, the comic was a pretty basic gag comic about the D&D rules, basic fantasy/adventure tropes, ect.

In the 20 years the comic has been running, it has updated about 1300 times, not counting bonus strips exclusively made for the printed version, and several print (or PDF) only side and prequel stories. It has also dramatically grown from it's roots, the art has improved while keeping the same general aesthetic, and the gag-a-day comic has become a sweeping fantasy epic. The characters have grown beyond their initial bits (Belkar is a Murderhobo, Elan is stupid, Haley is greedy, ect), and it's genuinely up there as one of my favorite stories. But anyway, let's talk about Vaarsuvius. If you look at the above art, You'll notice that the characters tend to have three types of body shapes: Rectangles for Roy, Belkar, and Elan, feminine curves for Haley, and Robes for Vaarsuvius. This presentation is a pretty consistent signifier of gender and/or somebody wearing robes. Early on, part of Vaarsuvius's running gag became their ambiguous gender. At the time, it was a fairly common joke in fantasy to talk about how Elven men had androgynous or "Girly" appearances, so V was part of that. Instead of a singular pronoun, characters would generally just abbreviate Vaarsuvius's name as "V", and whenever the narrative would have naturally provided some indication of gender one way or another, V would resolve the situation without providing any such indication. For example, an early gag has the characters seeking out a set of modern style bathrooms in the dungeon. When they find them, V says that their "More Efficient elven biology" means they don't have to go yet, so they wait outside while the boys go into the Men's room and Haley waits in the inevitable long line at the women's. When Vaarsuvius reveals that they are married, they use the term "Spouse" to refer to their partner, when we see their children, the children are clearly adopted (V and their partner both have pale skin, their children have darker skin) and refer to Vaarsuvius as "Parent". Vaarsuvius themselves seems to have trouble identifying other people by gender. Characters outside the central cast might refer to Vaarsuvius as "He" or "She", but doing so was always shedding light on that character's perspective, rather than saying anything about Vaarsuvius. The assumption behind the gag is that Vaarsuvius must be either male or female, and the joke is that the narrative/Vaarsuvius themselves keeps finding ways to avoid "Revealing" their gender. Fan wikis and official books list Vaarsuvius's gender as "Ambigious" and on the forum there used to be a regular, multi-part thread dedicated to debatings Vaarsuvius's gender, even after the author declared that it would "never be revealed".

Anyway, going back to the start, it's 2023, and something shifted at some point, both in the comic and in the general cultural background. The jokes about V's gender kind of fell off, not just because the gag got played out, but because the basic assumption behind it simply doesn't work anymore. Everybody knows that Nonbinary people exist. There's no point in the comic where Vaarsuvius switches from being "Ambigiously Gendered" to Nonbinary, in fact, the entire comic reads just fine if you read Vaarsuvius as male or female and just not caring enough to clarify their gender to anybody and at some point other characters just stop thinking about it. But it's interesting to see how a character trait that was once included in even the most basic character descriptions (Varsuvius: Elven Wizard. Arrogant, Intelligent. Ambigiously gendered) just kind of got washed away by a rising tide of cultural nuance towards gender. Also go read OOTS, it's pretty great.

#order of the stick #oots #webcomics #long running media #posts that have been swimming in my head until I let them out

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starlitwixen · 1 year ago

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D&D Origins

It's finally finished! I've created a Minecraft datapack for the Origins mod that replaces all of the default origins with ones based on the races and classes from Dungeons & Dragons!

List of Races

Aarakocra

Dragonborn

Dwarf

Elf

Fairy

Genasi

Gnome

Goblin

Halfling

Loxodon

Orc

Tabaxi

Tiefling

Triton

Warforged

Human

List of Classes

Barbarian

Bard

Cleric

Druid

Fighter

Monk

Paladin

Ranger

Rogue

Sorcerer

Witch

Wizard

Commoner

Links

Modrinth: https://modrinth.com/datapack/dnd-origins

If you're interested in learning more, all of the individual race and class features are documented on the D&D Origins Wiki!

If you're interested in following the pack's development, and/or playing on the demo Minecraft server, you can join the official Discord server!

#he speaks #minecraft origins #dnd origins

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candycandy00 · 5 months ago

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I saw you reblogged a lot of stuff from x men. How would you pair the jjk men with x women?

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to answer this, anon! I hope you’re still around to see it!

Gojo x Rogue

Both have powers that make them basically untouchable. Both are freakishly strong. Both are considered extremely attractive both in universe and out. Rogue is very used to dealing with a hot, arrogant guy who thinks he’s a gift to humanity (that’s basically her type). Gojo would no doubt like a feisty, fun loving woman like Rogue.

Geto x Emma Frost

Both can be cunning and duplicitous. Both are extremely sexy. Both are natural leaders that people tend to want to follow. Both have dealt with depression, and both have spent time on the “good side” and the “bad side” in their respective stories. Also Emma is a telepath so she could probably help Geto a lot with his emotional problems.

Nanami x Storm

Both are considered the “mature one” of their groups. Both care deeply about the younger generation and become mentors. Both are very intelligent, and can be very kind but also stern when necessary. Nanami is one of the few men who wouldn’t feel threatened by Storm being a lot stronger than him. I think they’d get along very well.

Sukuna x Dark Phoenix

Let me be clear. Dark Phoenix using Jean Grey’s form. Not Jean herself. Honestly I just want to pair Sukuna with someone who completely dwarfs him in power. For fun. I think he’d kinda be turned on by the fact that she devours entire solar systems for breakfast. Oh the chaos they could get up to together. But there are some similarities! Both have taken over the bodies of multiple humans, both are often associated with fire/flame powers and imagery, and both are motivated by their own hedonistic desires for pleasure.

Choso x Psylocke

Both are strong martial artists. Both have brothers they would and have done anything to save/protect. Both have experience with inhabiting bodies that don’t belong to them. Also Choso needs someone very forward and upfront about her feelings because he’s the type to totally miss signals. And that’s Betsy in a nutshell. Betsy also seems to have a thing for emotionally damaged big brothers.

Toji x Kitty Pryde

Okay these two have practically nothing in common besides having weird purple creatures that like to hang out on their shoulders. But they are each other’s type for sure. From what little we’ve seen of her, Toji’s wife seemed spunky and feisty (the way she’s grinning in the Zenin family tree thing says a lot). That fits Kitty. And then Kitty’s two primary romances were with a huge, muscular dude and an assassin with a checkered past and very questionable morals. Both with black hair. Toji would be like catnip to her.

Higuruma x Cecilia Reyes

Both had respectable careers they shined in before being dragged into this superhero nonsense. Both were pulled into the action late in their lives, compared to most other characters, and both had to adapt very quickly to a world of violence and powers and villains. Both are highly intelligent and practical. These two would have plenty to talk about!

Yuji x Jubilee

This is a match made in heaven, basically. They’re both young and fun loving, both capable of being silly and serious, both orphans who had to grow up fast, both have powerful mentors they greatly respect and want to make proud. Both even have a far more serious black haired friend that they annoy. These two would have a blast together hitting up the arcade or going to the movies.

Megumi x Husk

Both are hard working and put a little too much pressure on themselves. Both feel like they have something to prove, and both are a little too willing to sacrifice themselves for what they see as the greater good. Paige has a thing for moody guys in black and Megumi would definitely like a genuinely nice and caring girl like her.

Yuta x Monet

Both are among the most powerful of their groups. Both are considered prodigies, both have a vast assortment of skills and abilities. Yuta is definitely attracted to strong, domineering women and Monet fits that completely. And due to Monet’s painful past, she really needs someone kind and caring like Yuta.

Inumaki x Moonstar

Both have abilities they have to be very careful to control or else risk hurting their friends. Other than that, I just think they’re cute together lol.

#Jjk #jujutsu kaisen #x men #gojo satoru #geto suguru #kento nanami #fushiguro toji #Sukuna

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homestuckreplay · 6 months ago

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Webcomics at Day 100 #10: The Order of the Stick

Pages read: 9/25/2003 – 4/4/2006 (books 1&2; 301 full page strips)

Reason for selection: D&D is really important to nerd culture (and online culture since 3e), and this is probably the most popular and longrunning D&D webcomic, to this day loved, followed and theorized on by a large fanbase.

Current status: Ongoing with no set schedule, averaging twice monthly updates. Creator Rich Burlew says the current book will be the last, but fans predict the arc will not end until 2031 or later.

Content warnings: frequent misogyny, sexualization of female characters, equating sex and gender, occasional transphobia, sexual humor, occasional jokes about sexual assault and harassment, one joke about slavery, extreme amounts of cartoon violence

Overall thoughts:

I am definitely the target audience for Order of the Stick. As a long time D&D player who also enjoys hearing about games I didn’t play in and likes webcomics as a medium, it’s not surprising that I fell in love with this very quickly, because I’m the exact type of person it’s being written for. As such, it’s hard to analyze whether it’s easy for non-D&D players to get into.

D&D references appear in the majority of strips, typically to 3.5e – the edition released shortly before the comic’s debut, which almost entirely dictates the characters’ abilities and the rules of the world they live in. Most references are still relevant to more recent editions, and the comic riffs on random encounters, initiative order, attacks of opportunity, momentary in-game retcons after remembering an extra feature or skill bonus after the fact, timeskips during travel, rogues stealing from party members leading to intraparty conflict, the ‘all PCs have dead parents’ backstory stereotype, and especially alignment.

The entirety of book two, ‘No Cure for the Paladin Blues’ (so named because it features a paladin dressed in blue), explores alignment in more depth than the occasional jokes surrounding the other topics. Roy, an honorable leader who has sworn an oath but isn’t a paladin by class, and Miko, who is a true paladin and follows her order’s rules to the letter, come to blows over the meaning of ‘good’ and ‘lawful’, whether intent or outcome determine a person’s alignment, and what it means to live in a world where alignment is objective, codified, and detectable. These are ideas that later D&D editions will also question, but not as efficiently as secondary character Celia, a sylph defense lawyer, does in a literal courtroom scene in comic 282.

The D&D references range from these blatant ones, to the more subtle. To zoom in on a moment I loved, strip 214 features a moment where Miko – a party ally, who would be controlled by the DM in a real game – goes against the party’s planned stealth ambush and barges into an ogre camp to confront the leader. This would be really bad D&D etiquette in most games, as a DM would be taking agency away from the players, not allowing them to even attempt a plan they’d worked hard on. But it works well as comic writing, because it characterizes Miko and sets up a new three-way conflict between her, the party, and the ogres.

Establishing characterization is much easier with D&D ability scores and spell lists to lean back on, but Burlew has never made official character sheets for the party to allow the story to come first. Instead, Burlew uses common player character archetypes – a respectable human fighter/party leader avenging his father, a Scottish dwarf cleric who likes ale and can’t roll stealth, an androgynous elf mage who prefers learning about the limits of arcane potential to social interaction, an annoying, pretty, constantly singing and talking when he shouldn’t bard (who surprised me by being dumb instead of horny), a treasure-obsessed crackshot rogue, and a chaos gremlin. XP and level up mechanics provide an easy, in universe reason for characters developing new powers.

I found most characters quickly likeable, except for the chaos gremlin – halfling ranger Belkar is the party’s evil member, generally played for comic relief. However, as the overarching plot is introduced as early as strip 13, and other characters are given two dimensions and ethical beliefs within the first hundred strips, Belkar’s being loved by the party of relatively decent people despite his selfish, violent and amoral actions (stated outright in strip 285) feels out of place and unearned to me. His misogyny and sexual harassment of female characters, also played for laughs, really contributes to this – it’s hard to overlook, especially as it’s reflected by the author.

Burlew falls into common pitfalls when writing female characters – for example, a woman only being taken seriously when she is competent and can out-perform the men, a man needing to experience being treated like a woman in order to respect one, and regularly referring to women as ‘bitches’, ‘whores’, and ‘chicks’. In 2015, Burlew said that he has few regrets about his early work, but that they include ‘[u]nintentional sexism and/or insensitivity to gender issues. Doing my best to fix it going forward.’ This acknowledgement is important to my decision to keep reading.

[Note on next paragraph, added later: I have now been informed that Vaarsuvius is canonically genderqueer, confirmed later in the comic! huge win for representation and on Burlew incorporating reader feedback & thanks to the anon who let me know!!]

Against all odds, the wizard of unspecified gender Vaarsuvius is actually written fairly well. The ambiguity is often treated as a joke, and minor characters will sometimes assume their gender one way or the other – but the other main characters don’t know and are okay with not knowing. They’re respectful and don’t question it when Vaarsuvius doesn’t use the gendered dungeon toilets, and while Vaarsuvius shares a room with female party member Haley at inns while the men all share a second room, strip 225 makes it clear that this is because Haley and V are good friends, not because they share a gender. (As a sidenote, Haley and V’s sweet and unlikely friendship is my favorite dynamic in the comic).

Artistically, the characters are drawn as stick figures (as represented by the comic’s title) with clean lines and bright colors in strips that are typically one A4 page. The first OOTS book was printed in February 2005, with further books released after each major story arc, so Burlew has written the bulk of this comic knowing that it will be collected in print. Likely, this influences the decision to mostly stick to the A4 style, and rarely include oddly shaped strips, animation, hyperlinks, hover text, or other web-specific elements. Important story beats and milestones do see extra-long strips, with the 200th strip covering a long-foreshadowed battle four times as long as a regular strip – with white space indicating the page breaks. Strips may play with panel order while keeping the A4 format, such as comic 242, which uses arrows to indicate that panels should be read vertically, not horizontally.

Character designs are extremely recognizable from the first strip, and the art style gets slowly more complex – while the stick figures remain, backgrounds grow more detailed and shading is introduced over time. With the early strips, the art in print books is (allegedly) an improvement over the web versions, an incentive to buy print copies when the full archive is available for free online.

Most characters speak in white speech bubbles with black text, but there are exceptions – core villain Xykon the lich has black speech bubbles with white text, creatures of pure light have yellow speech bubbles, sylpha and ghosts have blue, and a bastion of lawful good order has red. Lowered opacity speech bubbles with dashed outlines indicate whispering, and (in a more questionable choice) bold lower case speech indicates a character has low intelligence. The different colors are effective at making characters from other planes feel truly alien, and the importance of the speech bubbles reflects the wordiness of the comic – the text is small, speech bubbles are often paragraphs, and even zoomed into 150% I ended up with a bad screen headache after a couple hours’ reading, which makes an archive binge much harder.

OOTS has a reputation for beginning as humorous and becoming more serious and story driven in its third and fourth books. I haven’t reached those yet so can’t compare, but I already find that while jokes are frequent, the story takes precedence when necessary – and like other comics I’ve read, even Burlew seems surprised at how quickly the strip becomes something beyond its original intentions, letting a character say ‘Wow. That’s a lot more planning than I thought this strip had’ as early as strip 60. However, he also says that having the characters leave the dungeon and take on a bigger quest in strip 122 was partly because he ‘was leaving a lot of good jokes on the table by never having them go to town or on a wilderness adventure’, so the ‘plot driven’ and ‘joke focused’ drives are coexisting then. I’m really excited to see how the tone and story develop over the next thousand strips. :D

Relevance to Homestuck:

As best I can tell, there’s no official connection, though there is fanbase overlap. I’ve said before that Homestuck is a precursor to actual play podcasts, and plan to write more about that someday. In its case, Andrew Hussie clearly acts as DM with the command-submitting readers acting as players; D&D mechanics aren’t used, but the dynamic is spot on.

In Order of the Stick, the characters referencing movies, modern slang, current events and 21st century professions is extremely reminiscent of real D&D play, as this sort of humor is common to both regular D&D groups and actual play shows like Acquisitions Incorporated and The Adventure Zone. A pair of lawyers sent by ‘the spooky wizard who lives by the coast’ are introduced in strip 32 and become recurring characters, a reference to Wizards of the Coast, the real world company who owns D&D. The same is true of characters mentioning exposition, sidequests, plotlines, character mirrors, and other concepts that D&D players know about, and therefore put into their characters’ mouths in games.

OOTS characters feel like they have players and the strip captures the experience of the gaming table really well, but readers don’t have much influence, and Burlew is taking on all roles. This is true even when they contradict, like in strip 21, where the character’s actions of killing a chimera go against the DM’s plans to have him be a recurring villain.

Like Homestuck, OOTS begins as a fairly small scale story – taking place in a single dungeon – but expands within a couple of years to include threats not just to the world, but to the very fabric of reality. In a couple of very minor parallels, both feature the dunce cap (HS 746/OOTS 14), the 8 ball (HS 804/OOTS 127), and a plot important meteor (HS 196/OOTS 134). Meteors seem like a surprisingly common feature of webcomics, actually, and I wonder if this was a big part of 2000s culture that I don’t remember. OOTS has a minor character, Banjo the Clown God of Puppets, who appears in several strips including 80 (regular Banjo) and 85 (as the eldritch Banjulhu). His mysterious and unsettling appearances are reminiscent of Lil Cal, and his tentacles of Rose’s eldritch doll. I could also discuss Kickstarters here but I think I’ll save that for a few years down the line.

Scholar Gabriel Romaguera wrote his master’s thesis and part of his PhD thesis on Order of the Stick. I’ve read his master’s thesis in full and really enjoyed his analysis, which is far more comprehensive than my own (though as a sidenote, I do genuinely hope to write a master’s thesis on Homestuck someday). He’s only one scholar, but a lot of his analysis links up with the limited Homestuck analysis I’ve read. Romaguera discusses serial vs archival reading, web vs print versions, and whether the OOTS books can be considered a webcomic.

‘Some of the material is only relevant when read within twenty four hours of the original publication... Readers are supposed to wait for new installments, read them, go over to the forums, reread them to make sure th+at no detail was left unnoticed, speculate what would happen, and continue to wait until the new issue is published and then the cycle continues. This process makes for a deeper connection to the narrative and to the characters as years go by.’ (Romaguera, p.138)

This argument is presented uncritically and unproductively, just as it has been by many Homestuck analysts. While it’s technically true for any serial work, it becomes more true when participation in an active fan community of theorizers, proofreaders, lorekeepers and fanwork producers is seen as critical to understanding the work. From some time browsing the forums, this is definitely true of both OOTS and Homestuck moreso than other webcomics. (It’s also the attitude that made my lab scientist brain go ‘okay, cool theory, but have you tested that experimentally?’) Romaguera goes on to say that ongoing webcomics could be taught in classrooms when teaching students about serial narratives as ‘[t]he serial reading experience is often taught in hindsight and with nostalgia that suggests that current readers have missed out on the original text as it was intended to be read.’ (p.151) I agree and I love this idea more than words can say.

‘This effectively makes OOTS an ongoing trans-media narrative, wherein some parts of the narrative are exclusive to one medium, and some parts are exclusive to the another one [sic]. Readers go through the process of piecing these parts together to make this third text and thus fully attain the narrative. Still, this practice only goes on until Burlew publishes the final book and all of the narrative is collected in one authoritative text.’ (Romaguera, p.139-40)

In most webcomics (including Homestuck), print editions are supplementary, collector’s content. With OOTS, it seems like both the author and fans give the print editions a lot of importance. Once OOTS is no longer serialized, it does seem likely that the print editions, which include entire books of bonus material not found online, will be seen as fully definitive. Similarly, I would call The Unofficial Homestuck Collection the definitive edition of Homestuck, due to its functional flash player, wealth of supplemental content, and options for reading spoiler free. Ultimately, both these works have transcended their original websites in a way few webcomics have.

Continue reading? I think this is my favorite webcomic I’ve read for this subproject so far. I usually would’ve read 2009 strips for a comparison, but didn’t, because I want to experience the story linearly without spoilers. I could get totally obsessed with this. I want to make D&D character sheets for the beta kids.

#webcomics 100 #order of the stick #oots #dnd #order of the stick replay 2031 to 2059 (NOT doing this)#chrono

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pikagatogirltits · 5 months ago

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Have I ever actually mentioned how addicted I am to brewing Magic decks? I currently have 37 Commander decks... that is to say the decks I currently have physically built for playing with. I just thought it might be fun to share a list of them, complete with Moxfield links. I even sorted them into a few different categories for better organization.

Trans Women of Magic (pet project to build a deck around every canon trans woman on a Magic card)

Alesha Says Trans Rights - Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. RWB power 2 or less recursion shenanigans. My personal favorite deck.

Ballroom Blitz - Xantcha, Sleeper Agent. BR goad and group "hug."

Hit and Run Time - Arcee, Sharpshooter. RW +1/+1 counters and combat tricks.

Legends Never Die - Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate. RB reanimator and +1/+1 counters. (Characters who get multiple cards I'm probably only going to hold myself to building one deck per character, but I like how Granny Alesha plays well enough to build her anyways.)

The Doctors Are In - Rose Noble and The Fourteenth Doctor. WURG Doctor Who themed deck, mainly wins via Gallifrey Stands.

When Fluffy Bunnies Attack - Cadira, Caller of the Small. GW tokens.

Other Favorite Decks

Gatewatch Assemble! - Jared Carthalion. 5 color Superfriends.

Let's Go Lesbians! - Halana and Alena, Partners. RG +1/+1 counters.

Squirrels Squirrels Squirrels! - Chatterfang Squirrel General. BG tokens aristocrats.

Ziatora the Burninator - Ziatora the Incinerator. BRG sacrifice with a strong focus on self reanimating creatures.

Artisan Commander (commons and uncommons only)

A Wizard Did It - Balmor, Battlemage Captain. UR wizard typal and spell slinger.

Iron Gut Rampage - Gut, True Soul Zealot + Agent of the Iron Throne. BR tokens aristocrats.

Rograkh and His Puppy - Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh + Anara, Wolvid Familiar. GR Voltron.

That's a Lot of Elves! - Miara, Thorn of the Glade + Numa, Joraga Chieftain. BG elf typal.

The Ups and Downs of Life - Dina, Soul Steeper. BG lifegain.

To Arms! - Akiri, Fearless Voyager. RW equipment.

Typal Decks

Changeling - Morophon, the Boundless. 5 color changeling "typal" aka a bunch of different typal lords combined with changeling cards.

Cleric - Orah, Skyclave Hierophant. WB cleric typal/graveyard shenanigans with a lifegain subtheme.

Dinosaur - Pantlaza, Sun-Favored. RGW dinosaur typal.

Dragon - Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm. GUR dragon typal that makes lots of token copies.

Dwarf - Depala, Pilot Exemplar. RW dwarf typal with an artifact subtheme (with an emphasis on equipment and vehicles.)

Elemental - Omnath, Locus of the Roil. GUR elemental typal with a land subtheme.

Elf - Marwyn, the Nurturer. G elf typal.

Goblin - General Kreat, the Boltbringer. R goblin typal. (General Kreat is the third commander for this deck after Krenko, Mob Boss and Pashalik Mons as I try to hit the sweet spot of "strong but not too strong for my very casual playgroup.)

Pirate - Admiral Beckett Brass. UBR pirate typal with a treasure subtheme.

Rogue - Anowon, the Ruin Thief. UB rogue typal with mill and theft subthemes. (The mill is mostly there to enable stealing from your graveyard.)

Soldier - Darien, King of Kjeldor. W soldier typal. (Currently considering taking this apart and turning it into RW soldier typal with Commander Mustard at the helm.)

Vampire - Anje, Maid of Dishonor. BR vampire typal with a blood subtheme. (Second iteration of the deck, original one was heavily water damaged by a cat dumping it into the dog's water dish right after I had sleeved it...which managed to save some cards at least.)

Warrior - Tazri, Beacon of Unity. 5 color warrior typal with token subtheme. (Originally a Najeela, the Blade-Blossom deck but not one of those Najeela decks so I changed the commander so I wouldn't get auto targeted for running a powerful commander.)

Werewolf - Tovolar, Dire Overlord. RG werewolf and wolf typal.

Wizard - Naban, Dean of Iteration. U wizard typal ETB shenanigans.

Zombie - Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver. UB zombie typal. (My first ever EDH deck, it used to be helmed by Grimgrin, Corpse-Born.)

Other Decks

Daretti's Scrap Shop - Daretti, Scrap Savant. R artifact aristocrats/recursion.

Double-ment Gum - Yenna, Redtooth Regent. GW enchantments.

Oops! All Creatures! - Nikya of the Old Ways. RG all creatures gimmick deck. (Nikya's "you can't cast noncreature spells" isn't a restriction if I'm not running noncreature spells.)

Slimefoot and Friends - Slimefoot, the Stowaway. BG saproling aristocrats.

Ultimate Showdown - Buttercup, Provincial Princess (Sisay, Weatherlight Captain.) 5-color historic/legends matter with a token subtheme. All Universes Beyond deck, and all creature cards are legendary.

#Alex Chats #Magic the Gathering #mtg commander #Commander decks #Alex's decks

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vigilskeep · 1 year ago

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not sure if you've been asked this before but how do you think the bg3 companions would fit in thedas? like. i can totally picture talvashoth lae'zel, grey warden wyll, astarion as a runaway from tevinter enslavement, etc.

oh!!

yeah qunari lae’zel checks out, it’s the same archetype. warrior, champion subclass, maybe throw in a little templar. i could go either way on grey warden wyll but he’s for sure a spirit warrior relying on a desire demon’s help. i’d love him to be a rogue with those abilities. and the duellist subclass too. and a free marcher!!

i simply couldn’t see astarion as an elf in dragon age. he’s just. so fundamentally upper class. i have to human noble-ify him, sorry. i could see him as a nobleman turned orlesian bard by an abusive master. so rogue, bard and assassin subclasses. (as an aside, i think he could be inspiration or a jumping off point for a really fun mage character: privileged human noble apostate son of a bitch who gets caught by the templars, has the worst possible circle experience anyone can get, gets free, and is pretty damn sure he doesn’t owe the world even a sliver more restraint than what it takes to keep becoming an abomination from ruining his hair. that’s a completely separate idea i’m getting carried away with. he’d kill it as a blood mage though.)

as for the others... gale is a tevinter mage, for sure. sorry for the baggage my love but his character hinges on an unashamed appreciation for magical ability, both his own and experienced from others throughout his life. that kind of value would only be placed on it in one place in thedas. mage, and a subclass like necromancer or rift mage that pushes the boundaries a little on what’s allowed or possible, without going all out maleficar. shadowheart on the other hand, i could see as an elven/elf-blooded circle mage? a prodigy of loyalist circle politics, plus it would set off the dynamic with qunari lae’zel perfectly. mage, spirit healer/arcane warrior. and karlach... hmm, screams city elf or dwarf commoner origin to me. maybe starring the blight as her terminal condition, or her engine as some kind of dwarven botched attempt at recreating the golems. warrior, berserker subclass obviously, maybe reaver too.

those would be my initial thoughts

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lyinginbedmon · 15 days ago

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The benefit of playing any TTRPG character is you get a week or two inbetween sessions to figure out how they process new revelations in their narrative.

For my perfect best boy Dahren the dwarf dragonborn Rogue, last session dropped a doozy of a conversation on him and I'm steadily working out what implications that's going to have on his overall arc.

Let's run through the intro here. Dahren is a trans man, from a culture that barely has a concept of gender and even less of actually changing it. Dwarves in this setting are quite literally carved in stone, and then animated by their family in a magic ritual into flesh and blood.

So far as he knew, he was the only person remotely like him. So he spent the last 50 years stealthing his way through finding some magical ritual that would let him be who he always was, without even having a word for what he was. And since that goal seemed equally improbable regardless of exact destination, he naturally picked becoming a dragon, because nobody is going to argue with a dragon about its gender. Lest they become extra crispy anyway.

And to his credit, he's had a commendable degree of success! He's managed to study, research, and supply a ritual that permanently converted him into a cis male dragonborn. It's been a fun time for him getting accustomed to his new form and its differences, from a tail to a breath weapon to even the ability to fly. He's enjoyed it immensely, especially because it allows him to be very openly a dude with no fear whatsoever of being rejected as such. The first few sessions after that achievement were marked with an uncanny degree of confidence.

...

So anyway turns out he's been kinda wrong this entire damn time. We're over 60 sessions into this campaign and he just found out some very important information about his entire (previous) species.

Firstly, loads of people apparently know a bunch of trans dwarves. They're not commonplace, but they're common enough that the party paladin's temple has a bunch. So yay, he's not alone in all this, that's great right?

Well... secondly. Not only do transition options exist for other races, the dwarves have one all to themselves. Apparently it's even pretty effective, compared to how the other races go about things.

So the first thing that happens I guess is a kind of deflation. He's done so much, risked and lost so much, and the easy answer was probably just waiting in a temple in his hometown. Absolutely none of his rigorous study and dodging of death was actually necessary.

This would probably morph into a kind of depressive episode. He's not alone in his issues, he's just the dumbest sack of rocks from the local quarry. So he thinks anyways.

Does he even still want to be a dragon at this point? Hasn't he already done the main thing he wanted? Sure he had to sacrifice his species on the altar of achieving it, his own family will probably struggle to recognise him (and his mother didn't even live to see him), and apparently he could have just wandered into a cave and figured things out in under a year, but he did it, right? Why do anything more?

...

Then I think is the recapitulation in his hero's journey.

Because yes, he never actually had to go through everything he did, but when does anyone? What made him go through it all anyway? The answer to which is simply no-one ever told him there was another option. Dahren is one of the smartest people in the entire campaign setting at this point and he never had the slightest inkling that it existed. The guy has an unmodified Intelligence score of 22.

(if you don't play D&D, the "typical" score is 10, and very few effects let you go higher than 20. Dahren is very special.)

Maybe there's something special about the specific cave. Maybe it doesn't always work. Maybe there's special conditions or requirements. Maybe it's a religious thing that doesn't work if you follow one of the dwarven deities. He won't know for sure until he finds out more about it from the paladin's temple. There's any number of things that conceivably could have kept it out of the books he's poured over, but if it exists and there are others like him that need it then surely they deserve to know about it, right?

So how many other people like him are there? That will also never hear about it? How many die never knowing they had options?

Moreover, why is something as significant as that option so unheard of in his community? It was common knowledge to the paladin, and it's basically almost everything he was told was barely possible at all. Surely it should be a thing of renown? Surely it should be rigorously studied and documented, but he's trawled multiple libraries of magic and never found a single reference to it.

...

And thus we enter the anger stage.

Because if this is reasonably well-known outside of his society, then it suggests there's a factor inside of his society that has kept it suppressed. And that's going to be someone responsible not only for all of Dahren's struggles and misery, but presumably also those of countless others. Someone, intentionally or not, with a great deal of blood on their hands.

Now Dahren is freakishly persuasive. Without even trying he can roll 26 on Persuasion, and he's not even max level yet. In older versions of the game, 26 would be enough to turn someone from actively trying to murder you right this moment to "casual interaction in the office breakroom". The amount of rizz he has displayed since getting the confidence boost of transition is kinda breathtaking.

However, good persuasion doesn't get you everything, you can't just talk your way through every problem in life. Lord knows Dahren has encountered plenty of problems that diplomacy alone wasn't sufficient to resolve, the man has killed a Lot of people (as a D&D character it's kindof a given) and sometimes you just need a really big stick to back up your prose.

And if before he figured no-one would ever dispute a dragon's gender, then they probably won't argue with a dragon instituting a few social reforms either.

So maybe... maybe being a dragon can still mean something. Something very worthwhile.

As for how long it's going to take him to actually go through all of this in-game... well you're just gonna have to wait and see.

#lying talks #dungeons & dragons #shadows of sorcery #god I love a juicy bit of RP

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thievinghippo · 9 months ago

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31 Days of DA - Introduce your Hero of Ferelden

Meet Anelle Brosca

She's a dwarf commoner rogue who romanced Alistair. After the events of DA:O, they roamed Felerden together as Grey Wardens, until events forces them apart

Anelle chose to support Bhalen in Orzammar, not because she necessarily agreed with his politics, but because that would ensure her sister's safety. Anelle's nephew is one of the most important people in her life (who is 22 at the time of the next game!)

Her favorite drink in the world? Just a glass of clean, clear water. Growing up, everything in Dust Town tasted of lyrium (because lyrium dust gets into everything, hence the name). Her mabari's name is Parta, which is the dwarven word for 'peace.' She secretly loves it when Alistair rests his arm on her head, but tells him she's annoyed by it

Since the end of the 5th Blight, Anelle has been on a one-dwarven woman campaign to get Alistair to grow a proper beard. For whatever reason, he refused, until they were reunited after the events of Inquisition

Important links

#anelle brosca

#otp: the long walk

fic - five times brosca didn't look up at the sky and one time she did

tarot art by @snuffes, line art by @sketchingsparrow

(want to join in on the fun? here's the prompt list!)

#31 days of dragon age #that's the tag I'm using #anelle brosca #hippo's da celebration #hippo's dragon age tag

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cherryvaliant · 8 months ago

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Reposting my canon world state Warden and Hawke in honor of Veilguard releasing today. No one in Veilguard will remember you but I'll never forget 😔✌️

@beetnik-jay for the lovely art 🐸

Halsi Brosca, Warden Commander of Ferelden

Dwarf Commoner

Alistair Romancer

She/her

Two Handed Warrior (Starfang my beloved)

Five feet of muscle, scars, and trauma

"That's Paragon Brosca to you, dipshit."

"I want my face on one of those big statues."

Alia Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall

Rogue

Fenris Romancer

She/her

Archer (I imagine she put food on the table by hunting up until the Blight)

5'10" of jokes to mask the trauma

Left in the Fade

"Let's be more specific. I don't do anything involving children or animals."

"Tell Varric 'bye' for me. I'm sorry, Fenris..."

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dao #dragon age 2 #da2 #warden #hawke #tarot #Brosca #dwarf #lady dwarf #human #woman #archer #warrior

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chimeradragonsyeaaaahhh · 23 days ago

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exhausted-archivist · 2 years ago

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DA2: Things I've Noticed Prt 1/?

I've been replaying Dragon Age 2 just to explore and also play through some routes I haven't done before. Got my first rogue Hawke and I'm planning on romancing Anders because I haven't romanced him yet.

But this is more of just cataloguing things I've noticed throughout my playthrough:

Bethany starts off with a staff that deals cold damage.

Worthy, the rune crafting dwarf has what appears to be a hunk of red lyrium on his crafting table in Act 1. Before you even go down into the Deep Roads. This is also found in the Black Emporium.

When you talk to the Expedition Hirelings next to Bartrand one of them mentions that the Expedition is planned to be 2 weeks long.

When entering the Chantry, Sister Lorena and Sister Samea will speak of Fereldan orphans in Darktown.

Sister Lorena: Those children! The orphaned Fereldans ran off again after we fed them. Sister Samea: I wish they'd let us help them. It'd be better than scraping by on the streets in Darktown.

This paired with dialogue from Sebastian paints the picture that not only does the Chantry go out of its way to "help" in some way, but if they do help you they fully expect you to become part of and work for the Chantry.

Sebastian: (In Darktown) Why do these people not come to the Chantry? The brothers and sisters would find a place for them.

Sebastian: (In Darktown) So many souls waiting to be brought to the light.

When you go to the Hanged Man, there is a "Talkative Man" who speaks of a conspiracy theory that there are more mages due to lyrium being put in the water. (Which is likely a joking reference but Mm. Opinions.)

In the Black Emporium, you find the Andraste in Nude Repose - Invisible codex. Where it speaks of how enchanters were tasked with extending what we know to be the veil, to hide Andraste's nude form. To tuck her away in a sense, into the Fade. Which implies some heavy veil muckery that might be on par with some old magic we’re vaguely aware of. Given it has lasted ages.

The eluvian used for the mirror of transformation is a reused asset of Merrill's eluvian but it has chunks of red lyrium coming out. This was redesigned in Inquisition to be a simplified and universal eluvian.

Aveline and Varric both acknowledge that most people in Lowtown or are crimnals/thieves can't read. Adding onto the fact established in Asunder that most of the common folk rely on pictures.

To add onto that, based on set building there are books in the kitchen which implies that at least a level of literacy might be had with at the very least the lead cooks. To follow recipes, inventory, ect.

There are peticoats, frocks, and other historical clothing referred to by Gamlen and Bethany when speaking of clothing.

Leandra doesn't have a single child who isn't self-loathing unless the player doesn't choose those options. Bethany seems to deal with more of the emotional dumping/guilt than Carver does. Which is... Yeah, I got thoughts.

When you first meet Anders, you have the first accusation that Merideth and her templars are abusing their power (If you haven't gone to the gallows yet, which at the time I hadn't.) The example is that they are turning over a dozen mages tranquil in 9:31, presumably this is happening in late summer/early autumn given Awakening considerations. So it's been almost a year, August at the earliest; and they've already exceeded more than one tranquil a month.

Anders has surgical tables with a slit to help with drainage and a gutter that empties into a vessel. Which is neat in consideration to what we know of their medical status.

#dragon age 2 #da2 #Archi explores Kirkwall #Kirkwall shenanigans #anders #varric tethras #varric #sebastian #sebastian vael #lyrium #black emporium #kirkwall #chantry #sister lorena #sister samea

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