#i suck at explaining the plot/premise of stuff BUT

[frickingnerd]

okay, i never really give game recommendations, BUT-- you guys should def check out our life: beginning & always!

it's a free visual novel/dating sim on steam & it's not too long either! i'm currently playing it & am considering writing for it once i open requests again! so like-- if anyone actually knew that game, that'd be so cool 👉🏻👈🏻

[shadowmaat]

Palia, a casual mmorpg review

A friend of mine was hyping a new game she was playing: Palia. Mostly she was hyping her attempts to romance one of the NPCs, but enough other details leaked through that I decided to give it a try. And I liked it.

I'm generally not a fan of the mmorpg genre, partly because I hate being social, and mostly because I hate fighting and my reflexes absolutely suck. Palia, thankfully, is more casual/cozy, and while there is a hunting aspect, they're all prey animals that run away. There's no fighting. Thank the gods.

The basic premise of Palia is that humans died out/disappeared a long time ago, leaving the world to the majiri, who have pointy ears and purple skin. There's also the grimalkin, a race of alien felinoids who arrived a few centuries ago and set up shop. And there are galdur, robots who have been around since the Age of Humans.

For Mysterious Reasons one of Palia's deities, the Phoenix, has started dropping humans back into the world, particularly around the remote village of Kilima. That's where the PC comes in.

A lot of Palia is your standard fare (I think). You get to know the NPCs and build relationships with them through talking and gift-giving (which is an actual mechanic of the game). There are quests and loot piles, and a number of skills you're meant to level up in: Hunting, Fishing, Mining, Cooking, Furniture Crafting, Foraging, Bug Catching, and Gardening.

The mainline quest, of course, is trying to figure out what happened to the humans and why you're suddenly reappearing. The list of items needed in order to complete the first part of the quest was... unpleasant, IMO, and involved a lot of epic-level rarity items that take a hell of a lot of time and resources to gather. That, again, is pretty much par for the course with games like this: allll the grinding. I've posted about that before, but thanks to some advice I did finally manage to get everything I needed. My main source of stress on that score is that I am a completionist, so leaving a task unfinished was stressful for me. Hells, it took me a while to accept that I didn't need to finish all tasks/requests immediately, and those are mostly plot irrelevant.

Once you accept that you don't need to do all the things right now ASAP, it's a lot more fun. Even the main quest only recently unveiled part 2, and while it includes some new (and easier, IMO) tasks to complete, it's also more waiting for the "big" update coming in '25, when a new area will be made available. Or I assume that's what's going to happen.

You get to build and decorate a house, which has been more fun than I expected. Tish, in particular, will make expanding your house easier, and you will get hecktons of furniture from loot boxes, from Tish's store, from recipes you can build yourself, and from the Grimalkin underground market.

I've been enjoying playing, even when all my current quests are filled. Even when there's "nothing to do" there's still stuff to do, and selling off all your excess supplies gets you more money for buying more things.

The NPCs are, for the most part, a lot of fun to interact with, even if every single one of them seems to have some tragic backstory. The only character I don't like is Tamala, and I think it's partly calculated that way. She's the witchy "vamp" type character and flirts outrageously with anything that has a pulse. I understand the narrative purposes of characters like that and I know the majority of the time the attitude is manufactured to keep folks at a distance, but I still find her unpleasant, manipulative, and mean-spirited.

The only real issue I have is that some of the longer-term players are clique-y assholes who like to tear into newbies for not following the unspoken rules of the game. Which are, y'know, unspoken.

Most people are very understanding of newbies and have no problem politely explaining the community-developed courtesy of "wait to chop down the magic trees til everyone can get here," but there's a handful who choose to bitch at each other about it and shame folks for chopping "too soon" and thus "ruining" it for everyone else.

Here's the thing: the grove of "magic trees" appears every in-game midnight, and time moves a hell of a lot faster in Palia, so you can get multiple groves in a single day. There is absolutely no reason to act like an inflamed, pustulating asshole just because you couldn't chop one grove. There's no reason to make newbies feel bad for not knowing something, especially when no one fucking tells them.

Thankfully that group is in the minority. I think I've only seen newbie-bashing bitch-fests twice, but that's still two times too many, IMO. Especially for, and I really can't stress this enough, something that isn't an actual rule of the game. If it was a rule, folks wouldn't be able to chop early. I appreciate the courtesy of people waiting for everyone to gather, but acting as if it's some grievous crime is fucking bullshit. Ugh.

Anyway, the game itself is fun. I love nerdy girl Jina and her helicopter mom galdur friend Hekla. Widower Ashura has Big Dad energy. Uptight librarian Caleri and her conspiracy-loving twin Elouisa. Zeki the grimalkin scoundrel with a heart of gold. Tau, the best pupper. Lots of fun and friendly characters, and very little need to interact with other players. You can also block/mute people or just mute the whole server, which is nice.

I'd recommend it, especially for people who like the idea of an open-world RPG thing but are more interested in stories than fighting. You'll get a lot of stories with Palia.

[emilyzipps]

i've heard about query letters for trying to get a publisher or agent for a book. can you explain what goes in those? do you have any tips? can you send a query before the book is finished?

A query is the name for what is essentially the application for finding an agent who wants to represent your book, or for a small publisher (who does not require agents) to acquire your book. The verb form is "querying," as in, "jesus fucking christ i hate querying so much."

The most important thing to do is make sure you're researching the submission guidelines for whoever you're submitting to. Almost all submissions will require sample pages and a query letter, which is essentially a cover letter for your book. Some will also require a synopsis and/or other stuff. Make sure you submit exactly what they ask for!

If you're writing a query letter, I would be happy to look at it and give you my (random one lady's) opinion. Just either plop it in my inbox (I'll respond publicly) or tag me in a post with it. This is the hardest part for sure, so it's okay to need help! If I'd gotten help on my first query, wow it would have been SO MUCH better omg.

For fiction: I would NOT query unless the project is not only finished, but edited. Best case, the agent/publisher likes the sample pages and asks you for the full manuscript. You need to be able to provide that instantly. I would say, get the book as close to done as you possibly can on your own. Query after alpha and beta readers, after doing as much editing as you can for free. Don't pay for an editor, but give them as polished a manuscript as you can.

Non-fiction often sells on proposal. Those are quite different and I know less about that!

Sample Pages

Some agents/publishers want the first 10 pages. Some the first 50. Some the first 3 chapters. Some the first 5k words. Send whatever they say they want, and don't get cute with it. When they say x number of pages, they mean double spaced, times new roman or similar standard font, one inch margins. If you're attaching a word document: include a header that has the book title and your name, plus page numbers in the footer. A google doc is not sufficient here, needs to be word. Sometimes they will ask for this to be pasted directly into the body of the email instead of attached. In that case, format your document into being double spaced, and then copy and paste that into the email body. Don't try to fudge their guidelines. They always mean (unless they explicitly say otherwise, which I've never seen) the first 10-50 pages. If you think your sample is better starting from page 70, too bad! If you have a prologue, include it (or cut it from the manuscript).

Query Letter

This is the hardest part of querying or submitting by far. Everyone struggles with these so don't feel bad if your first one or three or nineteen drafts suck. Essentially, the role of the query letter is to make the agent/editor excited about your premise, optimistic about your prose, and confident that you understand your genre and the book publishing marketplace. If you say things like "no one has ever written a book like this!" for example, they will know that you don't actually know a lot about books or publishing, because that's basically never going to be true. You want to sound clear, concise, interesting, talented, and normal to work with.

The basic format looks like this: Salutation, meta data with little hook, plot summary up through the climax, about you, the end. The whole thing should be 400 words or under.

In detail:

Dear Agent/Editor [spell their name correctly omg], I'm pleased to send you THE GILMORE GIRLS [your title is always in all caps], an 80,000 word book club women's fiction novel about a mother and daughter who act more like best friends--for better and for worse--that will appeal to fans of [comparable title, or comps. give 2 that are recent books (last 5 years) in your genre that did well but aren't mega famous. Don't comp Emily Henry or Sally Rooney, think more Ashley Herring Blake, format these book titles in Caps Every Word and Italics]. I am sending this to you due your interest in [something personal about them, like they are seeking stories about complex women in family dynamics or whatever. Do your research on their publicly stated wish list, change this for each place/person, don't be a creep like "based on the pictures of your child i found on your private instagram"]. [this paragraph is where you summarize the book. you can go up to the climax. If the book is in dual POV, introduce both POVs here]. Lorelai Gilmore's life is finally on track. It took a long time to get her feet under her and establish herself in her career, life, and home after having a kid at sixteen, but now at 32, she's finally found her rhythm. Her daughter, Rory, is a brilliant kid, Lorelai runs the inn she used to clean, and she lives in the cutest, oddest town in Connecticut, Stars Hallow. But when Rory gets into a prestigious private school, but isn't offered any financial aid, Lorelai realizes the only way to help Rory have the best life possible is to borrow money from her extremely wealthy and controlling parents--the ones she ran away from when Rory was only a baby. Lorelai will have to decide between her own happiness and autonomy and Rory's future--a future that's put into question when Rory starts caring more about a new guy in town than school, and Lorelai's own boy problems threaten to destabilize everything she's built in Stars Hallow. [about me] I have a degree in creative writing from Tumblr University. I live in California and spend my time walking my dog and gardening. [if you have published anything else, put it here. otherwise, just wrap it up]. GILMORE GIRLS will be my debut novel. Thank you very much for your time, and I hope to hear from you, Your Name

This example is only 270 words, so you can see there's a bit more room for expanding on the plot.

I think a good way to get a sense of if your query is working is have someone read it who has NOT read the book and does NOT know what it's about. The query is usually the first thing an agent/editor will read. Ask your friend, does this make sense? Ask them to tell the plot back to you -- if they're wrong, then you'll know what needs to change. Ask them, what do you think the central question of the book is? Who is the protagonist? When and where is it set? How many POVs are there? What is the vibe or mood going to be like? If they can't answer any of those questions, then put that info in your query.

[howsitduud]

Ranking Every Single Piece of Media I Watched/Played/Read in 2024 Part 2

This is part 2 to this post. I'm not explaining the premise of this list again. This is ranked from worst to best. Let's-a-go.

Rye Lane - 7/10 - I didn’t like it nearly as much as other people, mostly because I’m just biased against rom coms, but this is one of the best-made rom coms I’ve seen. I love all the cool touches and cinematography they add, like Yas’ play or Love Gu’Actually. It does dip into tired rom com tropes by the end, but I still had a blast with this movie.

Robot Dreams - 7/10 - Cute little animated movie about this gay ass dog and robot. The story went in a way I wasn’t expecting, and that ending in particular hit me emotionally. Funnily enough, this has a similar plot to Past Lives, but did it a hundred times better. That’s embarrassing.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - 7/10 - Pretty fun movie and that’s about it. The human plot wasn’t too interesting, but Jia and Trapper were cool characters, but the Kaiju action is where this movie shines, especially the suplex. It’s fun, it looks pretty good, it has good action, it’s about what you expect from a Monsterverse movie.

Ponyo - 7/10 - What a delightful little movie. Its lack of plot is carried by an insanely fun world and charming as hell protagonist. The animation and music are also great, as per tradition with a Ghibli movie. It’s not one of their best, but still worth watching if you haven’t.

Ouija: Origin of Evil - 7/10 - Who’d thought that a movie about a Ouija board would be really good? This movie has plenty of really cool filmmaking, writing, and acting that lets it earn every single scary moment it pulls off. I highly recommend this movie, and as a plus, you don’t need to watch the first to get context!

The Cat Returns - 7/10 - I wanna fuck the Baron. I know the animation is great and the story is super simple, but super fun and all the characters are memorable and it’s probably one of the funnier Ghibli movies, but who cares about all that when I can just fantasize about marrying a fictional cat?

Love Lies Bleeding - 7/10 - I LOVE LESBIANS! Aside from that, this movie is pretty fun, well acted, and the plot is the definition of “never let em know your next move.” Basically, it’s exactly like Drive-Away Dolls, but actually good.

Niel Gaimen’s Norse Mythology - 7/10 - Tumblr superstar Mr. Gaiman strikes again. This is a well-written, fun collection of tales of Loki’s bizarre adventures. I especially like how the last 3 stories led into each other, but I wish that more of the stories did that.

Jackie Brown - 7/10 - While not as fun or action-packed as other Tarantino movies, this is still a well-acted, well-written crime drama. Shoutout to Pam Grier and Sam Jackson for acting their asses off and shoutout to the ending for sucking eggs.

The Secret World of Arrietty - 7/10 - This is one of my partner’s favorite Ghibli movies, so I legally can’t say anything bad about it. Luckily I don’t have to, since this is a really solid movie. I love Arrietty as a protagonist, Haru is a funny villain, and this movie is just overall really cozy. I want to live in that tiny dollhouse holy shit.

Pearl - 7/10 - I think I watched these out of order since I saw this before X but oh well. I expected this movie to have good acting and a lot of tense, gorey scenes, but I didn’t expect it to be as pretty as it was. The color palette and aesthetic of this movie is unnerving in itself and I love it.

Deadpool & Wolverine - 7/10 - This is a really fun, campy, gorey as hell entry into the Deadpool trilogy and a good way to introduce him to the MCU as a whole. The Fox cameos were handled well, Hugh Jackman’s performance was really good for a movie like this, but with how hyped up it was and how great Deadpool 2 is, I was expecting a lot more.

DnD: Honor Among Thieves - 7/10 - Super fun, but not super deep movie. This scratches the itch that the other DnD movies didn’t where I wanted to see cool magical stuff with a bunch of likable characters. There are plenty of emotional moments to get you invested with the gang too, even if the comedy took me out of the movie entirely.

Furiosa - 7/10 - I’ve only seen 2 Mad Max movies so far, but I’m already a fan. The action is awesome, the cinematography is great, and I love the worldbuilding here. If the characters were better (Furiosa and Dementus were great though), then this movie would be as good as Fury Road.

The Wind Rises - 8/10 - I didn’t really get invested in this movie at first, but once the fire over Tokyo happens, this movie really grows on me. The animation and sound design of the planes are beautiful, the love story is so heartbreaking and well-told, and Stanley Tucci as Caproni is a 10/10 performance. Watch the English dub if you haven’t, it’s so good.

Anatomy of a Fall - 8/10 - Yeah, this movie has amazing writing and acting and a great plot where you slowly but surely unravel a mysterious case where there’s no single one person you can truly trust, but what the hell is up with the prosecutor and why was he such a bitch? Miles Edgeworth lookin ass headass

Mean Girls - 8/10 - Why do y’all hate this movie so much, it’s so fun. I’m normally against remakes of movies that don’t need it, but the script retooling and the musical numbers really help this movie stand apart from the original. Oh, yeah and Renee Rapp is amazing, but you already knew that.

MLPEG: Sunset’s Backstage Pass - 8/10 - This is the good shit. I love time loop stories, and Sunset going through the same concert over and over is a fun premise where she learns to give Pinkie a proper date night. Also the Dazzlings returning is better than the second coming of Christ.

Super Mario Land 2 - 8/10 - This game is just so charming. It controls pretty floaty and is nearly incomprehensible when played on actual hardware, but I love everything else about it. The sprites are beautiful, even for a Gameboy game, the worlds and bosses have so much personality, and the Carrot powerup is so fun. For the last 2D Mario game for 12 years, it’s a pretty good one.

The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs - 8/10 - This is such a fun play. It’s about a lady who got abandoned by a guy getting back at him by crossdressing and fucking with him, and it’s great. Most of the characters are interesting, it’s pretty funny despite its age, and I can fix Don Juan.

Civil War - 8/10 - This movie’s marketing basically made it destined to be controversial, but I thought it was pretty good. The characters and acting are incredibly good, the visuals and camerawork are incredible, and the apolitical nature helps us focus on how traumatizing a war can be. ‘Nuff said, really.

MLPEG: Forgotten Friendship - 8/10 - Yeah, these shorts peaked with the first one. Kinda sad, but this is a great story. The plot is interesting and tense, Sunset and Trixie being friends is pretty cool, and Sunset going back to Equestria and making up with Celestia is just chef’s kiss. Easily the best EG content since Rainbow Rocks.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - 8/10 - This counts as Ghibli, right? If so, what an incredible first movie for them. The animation is stunning, the characters range from ok but underbaked to one of my personal favorite Ghibli protags, and I love Teto so much. He’s baby.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes - 8/10 - Apparently all you need to create one of the most creative sci-fi movies of the 2020s is just a GoPro filming your friends nonstop for 70 minutes. The time travel and single-shot gimmick are great and the characters are all fun. Kinda wanted it to be longer tho…

Mary and Max - 8/10 - A very sweet, wholesome movie with a heartbreaking ending. I love the motif of the only dialogue in the movie being through characters’ letters and I especially love the look of the movie. One of the finest stop motion-animated movies

MLP: The Best Gift Ever - 8/10 - What a delightful time. Unlike Rainbow Roadtrip, the longer runtime doesn’t drag, but it gives everyone plenty of screentime with some great moments, like Rarity’s interactions with Pistachio, Applejack and Fluttershy outing Flim and Flam, and literally everything Discord does and says.

Only Yesterday - 8/10 - Guys, I think Isao Takahata is good at making movies. I love all of Taeko’s flashbacks and how they inform her decisions and mindsets going into her adult life visiting the countryside. I only wish the other characters outside of her were stronger and I also wish Tara Strong was in the movie more.

Penny’s Big Breakaway - 8/10 - This game is just super sillie. My favorite thing in games is when they have cool movement tech and this game is 80% cool movement tech. Penny controls super well, the art style is fun, the secrets are fun to find, and the characters are really charming. If the boss fights didn’t suck eggs then I would call this game a masterpiece.

The Fall Guy - 8/10 - David Leitch might be one of the best newer directors working right now. Between this, Bullet Train, and Deadpool 2, I’d say that he really knows his stuff when it comes to action-comedies, and it’s a shame this movie didn’t do that well. Maybe it can have a new life on streaming or VOD, because this movie is great.

Die Hard - 8/10 - I finally watched it this Christmas, and it absolutely lived up to the hype. The action and the sneaking around scenes are really good, but the true highlight here is how great of characters John McClane and Hans Gruber are. Especially Hans; Alan Rickman worked wonders.

Clue - 8/10 - I love pulpy-ass murder mysteries, and this scratches that itch perfectly. It has such an insane and fun mystery to follow throughout, the characters are funny and well acted, and there are so many quotable lines. I also love how they made 3 endings that they shipped to different theaters all at once. I wish I could be that much of an agent of chaos.

Inside Out 2 - 8/10 - It’s nowhere near as funny, interesting, or creative as the first movie, but it’s still really damn good. The new emotions are all great and super fun, the old emotions have enough good character writing to not be stale, and it’s still emotional as hell and fun as hell. Lance Slashblade is what the people who made Ralph Breaks the Internet thought they were making.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - 8/10 - Not a super deep or complex game, but such a fun one. The shooting’s great, but the framing device of an old cowboy telling tales with you playing out the tales as he tells them is just perfect. I also didn’t know that Dwight Eisenhower was such a twink.

Memoir of a Snail - 8/10 - Same story as Mary and Max, honestly. Another beautifully animated stop-motion movie with a great story and heart to it. It’s a lot more somber than Mary and Max, but that just means that the emotions hit even harder. Also gay son snail daughter

Orion and the Dark - 8/10 - One of the most underrated movies I’ve ever seen. This movie excels with its creative animation and incredible script by Charlie Kaufman. Dark, Orion, and Hypatia are all great characters and it's a shame that this movie didn’t get the marketing it needed to be popular. It deserves all the popularity, more than Kung Fu Panda 4, that’s for sure.

The Chalice of the Gods - 8/10 - Oh, we are so back. I don’t know what there is to say about this book that isn’t obvious. It’s really fun and there are some great character moments, especially towards the end with the fight with Geras. Shoutout to my boy Elisson, he’s done nothing wrong.

The Zone of Interest - 8/10 - The first hour of this movie is a perfect experience, with visceral sound design and haunting directing making me feel deeply uncomfortable and genuinely depressed at what’s really going on beyond the wall. The next 40 minutes or so are really boring and tedious, with none of the same spunk the first hour had, save for the ending. That first hour is so good that it carries the movie, and it deserves all the praise it gets.

Super Mario Party Jamboree - 8/10 - I don’t usually rate party games this highly, so that’s how you know this is a great one! It feels the most like a celebration of every single Mario Party that came before it, with plenty of modes and minigames outside of the regular party mode. Plus you can finally play as Pauline so that shot it up like 5 spots for me.

Amphibia - 8/10 - Another Disney Channel banger. I don’t like it nearly as much as its sister show, the Owl House, but I still loved the characters, setting, and the overall plot had me invested, even though I knew most of the big spoilers going in. I could’ve used more Hop Pop centric episodes, though.

The Boys S4 - 8/10 - One of the only things reaffirming my love of comic book adaptations is still great. Aside from some weak plotlines, it’s still as funny, biting, well-acted and well-written as ever. Stronger than the last season and it’s setting up for an amazing final season.

Wicked - 8/10 - I saw the original musical when I was a kid, and this movie translated the first act pretty well. Yeah, the lighting and the CGI is pretty ugly, but the practical sets stood out as incredibly pretty. Oh yeah, and the singing and the songs were exceptionally pretty, as is expected from a musical. This should’ve been called Wicked Act I instead of Part I. Are they stupid?

Asura’s Wrath - 8/10 - On a storytelling, writing, and character perspective, it is easily one of the best on this entire list. Asura is an incredible character, the story is gripping, and the action is insane, especially when you factor in the DLC. As a game, though… it’s alright, I guess. I’m not a fan of the hack-and-slash segments and the QTEs are fun, but I wish that there were more of those and less mindless button mashing.

The Office - 8/10 - Yeah, that’s right! I finally got around to watching one of the most critically acclaimed sitcoms of all time, and I really enjoyed it. There are some characters I wound up hating by the end and I especially didn’t enjoy seasons 1,8, and 9 that much, but it’s overall a funny show. maybe a lil overrated ok byeeeeeeeee

Fun Home - 8/10 - What a fucking book. The way Alison’s prose is realized through incredibly verbose, but still thought-provoking and stimulating text accompanied by beautiful artwork is just a sight to behold. I haven’t found a slime tutorial of it, but I hope the musical lives up to this standard.

Sorry to Bother You - 8/10 - I love a good, weird-ass movie. I couldn’t predict any single part of this movie’s plot, from the caller revolution to Patton Oswald white person voice to the horse people to the hilarious ending. There are some scenes that don’t fit the tone or vibes at all, but it’s still a great time that I think about a lot.

Invincible S2 - 8/10 - I mean, what’d you expect from Invincible? It’s not as good as the first season and that mid-season break definitely soured this show in my eyes, but I still loved every bit of it. The Mark/Nolan plot is still gripping, the side characters really shined this season, and the animation is beautiful. Oh yeah, and the Atom Eve special was also good.

Dykes to Watch Out For - 9/10 - A fun as hell, emotional as hell comic strip series by the Bechdel test lady herself. Most of the characters are great and super well written, and it puts a whole new light on LGBT issues dating all the way back to the 80s. I found Moe to be a bad protag at first, but seeing people on Twitter act exactly like her on a daily basis, I think she was properly done.

I’m in Love with the Villainess - 9/10 - The age of male loser anime is dead. Long live the age of female loser anime. This anime is just a blast from start to finish. Most of the characters and worldbuilding are nice, but Rae and Clare’s romance is the star of the show here. Rae just like me fr

Angel Hare - 9/10 - I am not an analog horror person, but goddamn I clicked so hard with Angel Hare. I’m not sure whether or not we can call this “horror” at all, but I loved all the characters, I love the style and the visuals, and I especially loved the messages and the themes, especially in seasons 2 and 3.

Killers of the Flower Moon - 9/10 - What a movie. I love Scorcese and all his best movies, but I didn’t believe he had this kind of story inside of him. A story that’s complex and pays respects to Native American history and culture so well, with performances that go beyond typical Scorcese directing and have a shit ton of nuance to them. Lily Gladstone deserved an Oscar goddamnit.

Dungeon Meshi S1 - 9/10 - This anime is so fun. The story and setting are intense and cool with how it deals with life and death, but the characters are the highlights here. All the main cast are memorable, likable, and have their moments to shine throughout the season. I’m rooting for Farcille all the way, babyyyyy.

Princess Peach: Showtime - 9/10 - This is a game I was so excited for this year and it fuckin delivered. I absolutely adore the art style of this game and how it incorporates elements from live theater. The gameplay (besides the Detective parts) is also a ton of fun. Turns out this was the Barbie game I needed in my life.

My Adventures with Superman S2 - 9/10 - Now this is my kind of Superman. I love everything about this show, from the writing to the animation to the characters to the action, it’s all so well done. It is kinda derivative of other cartoons, but that’s not enough to make me prefer this version of Superman over most others across fiction.

Transformers One - 9/10 - After watching all of the live action Transformers movies this year, I’d almost forgotten what a real Transformers movie is like. Yes, the humor doesn’t really work. Yes, B is unlikable as hell. I don’t care. This movie excels in just how perfect the story, twists, and characters are. This is exactly the Transformers movie I’ve always wanted.

Princess Mononoke - 9/10 - What if Pocahontas was actually good and subversive and had a ton of meaning? This movie is dark in all the best ways, with the inherent goodness of Ashitaka’s character creating some genuinely emotional and beautiful scenes. But god, we can cut like 15 minutes off the ending, yall.

Dune Part Two - 9/10 - My favorite Dune movie so far. It has the extraordinary filmmaking that the first Villeneuve Dune had, but this part has an exciting and interesting plot throughout. There are some great action setpieces, charming characters, and that ending is just beautiful. Plus, this is the orangest movie of all time, which was for me specifically and I appreciate that.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - 9/10 - If this is how all the Fire Emblem games are, then I have missed out on some good shit. The characters and story are fun, but the gameplay is so incredibly engaging and compelling (outside the minigames in the monastery). Also, Edelgard is the best character. You can’t convince me otherwise.

The Bear - 9/10 - Damn this show is just as good as everyone says it is. The editing and camerawork are both great, but the characters are the highlights here. Carmie has a great personal story, Sydney and Richie have great episodes, and most of the side characters are memorable and fantastic. Except for fucking Claire Bear.

Look Back - 9/10 - How is this movie even real? How can you pack such an incredibly rich, heartbreaking story coupled with gorgeous animation and incredible character writing and only have it clock under an hour. Please watch this movie above any others on this list. If this doesn’t get nominated for Best Animated Feature I will shit myself.

Twisted - 9/10 - How have I not watched Twisted up until this year? This musical is so funny, so emotional, and the songs fuck hard. How is Take Off Your Clothes one of the best villain songs of all time? How did this even happen? Why did the Aladdin movie neglect such an important character like Prince Achmed? DISNEY YOU HACKS

Godzilla Minus One - 9/10 - The best Godzilla film I’ve seen so far. Obviously, Godzilla was the highlight, being an absolute menace who is just incredible to watch tear through Japan, but the human conflicts with Shikishima, Tachibana, and Noriko were really compelling. I wish Noriko didn’t miraculously come back from the dead at the end, but it’s a small blemish on an otherwise perfect kaiju movie.

Grave of the Fireflies - 9/10 - Jesus fucking Christ. This movie is so beautiful and so devastating in so many ways. The animation is gorgeous, the story is heartbreaking, and Seiko and Setsuko are some of my favorite protagonists in any Ghibli film. But seriously, fuck this movie for making me feel these kinds of emotions.

Undertale - 9/10 - I don’t even need to explain why this game is so good. It can get repetitive going back to get different endings, but the writing, combat, and characters make it so that it’s never boring. It’s currently one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Also, that Alphys and Undyne date was the cutest shit I’ve ever seen.

X-Men ‘97 - 9/10 - I’ve never seen the original cartoon from ‘92, but if it’s anything like this show, I’ll be in for a treat. The animation is stunning, especially during the action scenes, and it adapts the X-Men comics in an incredible way. The rest of the modern Marvel movies should take some notes.

Poor Things - 9/10 - The best of the Best Picture nominees this year. It’s funny, creative, visually gorgeous, and Bella carries the movie in terms of emotional moments. It’s so fun seeing her figure out the world in her own, unique, risque way. Yorgos hasn’t missed once and this is no exception.

Fallout: New Vegas - 9/10 - If this game didn’t crash so much, it’d be a 10/10 easily. But the bugginess of the game and the fact that there were no options to get places quickly if you haven’t discovered them makes it so that I don’t think this is the masterpiece other people think it is. With that said, it’s still Fallout: New Vegas. The combat is fun, the characters are great, and the world is just spectacular. No wonder other trans women love this game so much.

The Wild Robot - 10/10 - You know, Dreamworks, I don’t know went to quit ya. What a masterful experience watching this movie was. The animation is godlike, the score incredible, and Roz’s journey throughout the movie being something I just instantly clicked with. I’m ok with the bad sequels if that means they pay for more movies like this.

Blue Eye Samurai S1 - 10/10 - Easily one of my favorite shows ever now. The animation is beautiful, the action is gory and creative, the characters range from super compelling to super endearing, especially Mizu, and the writing is some of the best I’ve seen from a Netflix show. I hope the next season is good, if it ever comes out, which isn’t a guarantee knowing Netflix.

ok bye

[blazernot]

Tell me more about Tr!gger? (If you want, haha.) I keep seeing stuff about your OCs, and I'm curious about the story's overall premise! (Or character relationships, if the premise is still super loose.)

Oh bestie im always down to talk about Tr!gger ask chikai or starlight lol.

A lot of the world building is vague and based on dream logic but the basic summary but in the past there were a bunch of different gods and superpowerful beings that ruled over stuff but over the years due to different factors like weakening grips on power and stuff like that they either started dying out, blending in with society, or fleeing west where only they could go.

Also another important addition is a group that started when a bunch of people decided that being ruled by gods sucked and life was really hard because of all these magic things and people running around doing whatever so they formed a secret society focussed on seizing control. In the modern day they're the Trigger Agency.

There's a bunch of other things about the gods like how they each govern different things, Like Ayako is light and used to be a dragon, and I've been calling them domains but I'll probably change that. And there's also different ways they're born or created and they can transfer their abilities to others but you asked for the plot not this stuff so I'll actually get to that after explaining one more thing lol

People have basically super or magical powers and there's fairytale creatures around but it's not a big deal it's like being left handed. Like neat fact bro but you know a few people like that. Stuff like witchcraft and the paranormal are just facts of the world- though note that everything used to be a lot nastier but thanks to Trigger and the nasty stuff dying out people are blissfully unaware of how bad things could really get.

Okay now to actually get to the plot lol. Erica is the protag and a pretty normal lady living in Starlight City. She's a private/paranormal investigator but you can also fix her to pay your car or whatever. Her ability is hammer space. She's moved into a new apartment and is just living her life when a random person just shows up one day and won't be normal. This is Momo. She is later revealed to be a robot and has a mission or something Momo has no idea where she came from but it's not affecting her that much and she won't. Fricking. Leave. So Erica just kinda has to put up with this person.

So that's the start through doing different jobs she meets people like Shield and Venus until she starts getting wrapped up into a major conspiracy concerning Trigger and what the team in Starlight City's and maybe the whole agency's goal actually is. Basically shes the protagonist against her will and that's the basic premise

[juniperhillpatient]

alright - ‘Orphan: First Kill’ immediate review:

disclaimer: I went into this movie with no trailers or prior knowledge other than having seen the first movie awhile ago.

also, let’s get this out of the way - it was never going to be as good as the first movie, which was iconic. & there was no vera farmiga so that’s automatic totally unfair points against this prequel. also, isabelle fuhrman is a conventionally beautiful adult woman & the film did what it could but she was never going to truly be believable as a 9 year old. in some ways that adds to the atmosphere maybe for some people. for me, it was always going to be unintentionally funny & an annoyance.

onto this movie 🍿🎥

*I did enjoy the dialogue & cinematography (some truly iconic lines & shots toward the end especially) & I was entertained. this movie was a lot of fun & I genuinely had a blast. I was sucked right in & barely distracted by my phone which is rare for me. so like. it passed the most important movie test - I had fun.

*right off the bat the movie did some really fun stuff showing leena’s asylum experience. there’s nothing in this life that I love more than a villain protagonist & it delivered there. I love leena. she reminds me of villanelle in a way - it’s the truly sociopathic blank tendencies paired with the knowledge that this character has deep trauma & a fantastic performance by the actress I guess!

*I would’ve liked the twist if it was set up just a tiny bit more cleverly. they could’ve done a few small things differently & this could’ve been really smartly set up. unfortunately, they tried a bit too hard to be surprising over smart & cohesive & it bit them in the ass & led to jarring & a bit dumb imo.

*that said I guess I liked the new characters. it just seemed like the writers couldn’t decide what they wanted to do. IF you’re going to introduce these new characters & their complex & interesting dynamics, dive into that. if you’d rather focus on leena, do that. the movie felt a bit disjointed & insecure to me - like it wasn’t sure it liked what it was doing, you know?

*also - again this goes back to me diving in with no prior knowledge because I’m about to criticize the very premise - leena is a very interesting character with a fascinating background. maybe they should’ve focused on her life in estonia, before the asylum. or they could’ve spent more time at the asylum. at least they could’ve done the plot twist sooner. my issue is that the movie spent a LOT of time rehashing the exact plot of the first movie. we get it, leena has daddy issues. maybe they could’ve shown her actual childhood & her dad to explain that in a prequel. there was no need to spend such a huge amount of time on leena thirsting after the dad which is exactly what the main focus of the first film is. like. we’ve already seen her do that. show us something new you know?

Anyway!

it seems like I hated the movie probably cause i do have some glaring criticisms lol

I really liked it though actually. I was entertained, I had a lot of fun, I just had ✨thoughts ✨

alright that’s all I have on that for now

[klysanderelias]

I really have zero respect for the Supermassive games (Dark Pictures, the Quarry, Until Dawn) partially because the premise of like, every single one, is just unnecessarily racist and mythologizing of whatever group they pulled out of a hat? Until Dawn is just egregious about the way it handles indigenous peoples and their history, the Quarry's plot is based around 'what if Roma people were all magical', etc etc, and it's just unforced error after unforced error.

And it's bad to the point of not being fun to criticize? Like, I have no desire to write like 30k words about Until Dawn, because Until Dawn sucks. It sucks in a way that's depressing instead of instructive. It sucks in a way where like, you get the same feeling from walking around your local art festival and seeing a white woman selling dreamcatchers and headdresses. I could explain why it's not good, but quite frankly a lot of people with better credentials have already done it, and it's not a fun project for me like going back and watching the Kolchak TV shows was.

And that's my primary critique, which is that this is the whitest, most christian, most unoppressed-but-should-be group of writers I've seen in a while, but they're also just bad at writing.

There's so many moments where the stuff that's happening on screen isn't just for convenience, it's stuff that they just never looked up. There is a correct answer for how long gasoline lasts, and it's not 57 years. There is a correct answer for how to make a torch, and it's not tying a dry rag around a bloody bone and setting it on fire. There is a correct answer to whether Iraq had WMDs, and the answer is NO.

And the thing is, it can be hard to criticize plot holes in this day and age because of the rise of CinemaSins - I've been led to understand that a lot of the 'factual errors' that CinemaSins points out are either just straight up misunderstandings of the text of the media it's reviewing, or it's stuff that's completely uninteresting. I wouldn't know, I've never watched a CinemaSins, but it's become synonymous with bad faith criticism, and specifically with bad faith criticism of small details.

But unfortunately, the small details often add up to a big whole, and small mistakes often lead to an inability to sell what's happening on screen. Austin Walker has talked about how he thinks that those sort of complaints are due to a lack of buy-in - that the audience will be more willing to ignore or forgive mistakes as long as the film is fun and rewarding their investment. I'm not sure I quite agree, I think that small factual errors, regardless of how much I might have been enjoying the experience, can on their own start to degrade the experience.

Like, I get really mad when I see people doing just horrendous CPR. Not just because I think that CPR should be portrayed correctly to avoid misconceptions, and not just because it's unbelievable to have a character come back to life from getting smacked on the chest three times, but because it's really easy to look up. Like, there is an entire industry devoted to producing correct instructional materials for doing CPR. It's like, if I saw someone injecting insulin into a vein, I would have to stop the show. I would have to stand up and call someone. I would have to write a strongly worded letter to the author.

Because like, yes, there are things that are completely unrealistic that are still genre staples, like the CSI 'enhance' thing, and there are things that are portrayed incorrectly because it's MUCH easier than doing them correctly, for example disarming a bomb, but then there are things that are like... y'all just didn't think about this for literally a second. You wrote a line in your script and literally no one said hey, that's just wrong. Or maybe someone DID say that, and they got shouted down.

And that sloppiness leads to much bigger questions. For example. I think that making a torch out of a bloody bone and a rag is stupid. However. Where did the rest of the fire in this scene come from? There's piles of burning shit all over the place - who lit them? How recently? What's burning? This scene is a Descent pastiche (which is passe and uninteresting, btw) so the female character is swimming through chest deep water/blood. Why are there little bonfires every so often? They're not contiguous, so it's not like something caught fire and has been slowly burning its way through the available fuel, except there ISN'T available fuel. Why, when she drops the torch, does the bloody mound of bones catch on fire? Did they play too much dark souls and start thinking that bones are kindling? Have they never tried to light green wood on fire in their life?

And again, it smacks of a writer who either had zero time to make shit work, or of a writer who was head empty vibes only writing, or of someone too lazy to even check. I know we love to joke about writers spending several hours doing deep research so that they can say 'cedar desk' instead of 'desk', but this is the other end of that spectrum.

And of course, it's not just factual errors that could be easily checked, it's often very important continuity errors that make the story extremely stupid when put together. The monster in this scene can move EXTREMELY fast, in the next scene it's easily outrun by someone in chest-deep water. In one scene, it's basically unable to perceive the world except by sound, so as long as a character is walking quietly, they can be literally in front of it and stay hidden, but in the next scene they cut to fucking monstervision showing that the thing can see the world just fine, and is in fact relying on that sight to detect this character, because she's not making noise, she's just standing there. In this scene, the monster can literally snatch a full grown woman off the ground in a flash, in the next you can hold it away from you while you're wrestling on the ground with it. The monster can't be killed by dropping a truck over fifty feet down onto it, and no sells bullets, but you can stick a sharp pipe through it and that kills it dead.

Again, it's convenience, because they needed this character to die here but not here, etc etc, but it's also just lazy, because instead of trying to brainstorm a scenario for everything to work coherently, they just said 'fuck it, in this one the monster's slow'.

Again, it's partially a genre thing, but it's an ANNOYING genre thing. No one LIKES jokes about how the monster can outrun the flash in the prologue but just stands there chilling when the protagonist with plot armor is crawling away. No one LIKES watching the monster forget how its super strength works when the plot requires it.

At least the 'enhance' jokes are funny.

And especially when it's combined with all the OTHER writing missteps, it just makes me outright mad. The Supermassive games are good for exactly one thing, and that's uncanny valley hyperrealistic character models, and literally everything else is trash.

I haven't even gotten into how their super special choice system that makes the game so different is just the most piddly smoke and mirrors dialogue tree with flags. Like, goddamn, play ANY VN. Yeah, I guess it's cool that in this scene, I can choose between saying the emotional thing or the rational thing, and the difference is that the voice actor says a different line! Groundbreaking!

And don't forget, there's character death in these games, so either those characters have unimportant and uninteresting stories because they can't afford to put loadbearing material in a route with a possible death, or the character will have meaningless close calls or minor harm happen to them but still have plot armor up until the point where the major plot relevant thing happens, and THEN they can die!

Like, it's a good thing for Supermassive that wikia and fandom are the main source of computer game information, because seeing this shit in an honest to god Gamefaqs style walkthrough will genuinely make you realize that none of these choices fucking matter. Thank god for enshittification, because it helps hide the one trick this pony knows!

AND THE MONSTER DESIGN IS DOGSHIT TOO

[gulonline]

thinking about starting an uber self-indulgent mascot horror story :3c it'd be in prose & visual art format, and, of course, be furry as all hell because i said so <3

working title is DreamLogic - inspired by a comment Haley Whipjack made in her Poppy Playtime lore video, about how the factory & its security system "works on dream logic." [i also like her thoughts on Horror For Kids at the end of said video; it's good stuff.] it'd be a just-for-fun project, because i enjoy the ideas surrounding mascot horror + the Lore Nonsense [or nonsense lore, or both].

i Know i don't have to explain myself in terms of "justification" for why i wanna make a thing, but i like rambling about my thought process + media within the genre - so that's below the cut lol

so like, fnaf is THE example, but i also kinda enjoy what stuff like Bendy & Poppy Playtime tried to accomplish in terms of themes & absolute wackiness.

i think mascot horror has really good bones for themes about the commodification of nostalgia & things related to that. a lot of them already have corporate greed written into them, but i don't think enough of them take either of those premises far enough - at least not for me.

Bendy is the big expectation to this [far as i'm aware] bc it's about an animation studio of overworked/abused employees & demonic bullshit, but idk enough about the story to say if it does or doesn't crank the "capitalism sucks the life out of everything it touches" themes up to 11 lol

a lot of mascot horror is Really focused on the [child] victims of that series' murdercrimes [Bendy as the expectation again, I Think], often times having said victims be the monsters that haunt or hunt the protagonist/player character. which like, yeah, given the demographic that [recent] mascot horror is going for, makes enough sense to center characters that are of similar age to the intended player/viewer. kids love "orphans having a bad time" stories. A Series of Unfortunate Events is just that premise, and, as far as i'm aware, is pretty fuckin' popular - for good reason!

that Said. there is a really... large emphasis on how the victims died, what was done to them before & after, and on their killer[s]. which is a bigger problem with true crime, which i feel especially gets perpetuated in a Lot of mascot horror. i don't think that's necessarily intentional, but it still sucks. like, fnaf again being THE example: it started out with missing-murdered kids' ghosts haunting a chain pizzeria, and now it mostly revolves around their immortal killer & his soap-opera levels of family drama. we know so many details about the kids, but what about their families? how are they handling the loss? what are they doing to grieve, to keep living, to get answers? we never find out; all the focus is on the Afton family - and it seems like it's going to stay that way.

i absolutely feel there's So Much lost potential for like. Not Doing That. but that's a very easy & understandable plot focus, since a lot of these stories take place where the crimes happened. it makes SENSE that the victims & their killer will get the spotlight.

which like. also made me realize: SO MUCH of mascot horror is focused on murder crimes?? kind of exclusively?? horror is so much broader than JUST murder, but, again - i think it's so prevalent as a plot point because it's simple & because fnaf did it [first]. fnaf is The template for mascot horror, so it makes sense every other story inspired or derived from it uses murder as the plot's catalyst.

there's no doubt a bunch of stories that break the genre mold - i just haven't encountered them yet! [Indigo Park i think is one? but again, not sure because i haven't looked into it.] i'm mainly referencing the Big Names to get an idea of the general formula/genre conventions. "know the rules before you break 'em" & all that.

i'm not saying all this to bash the genre, or even really the stories themselves. i loved fnaf's lore/story as a teenager. it's a guilty pleasure that i still dabble in every now and then. i'm more critical of its aspects, because now i have the wherewithal to properly analyze the story/themes/subjects, yes - but i still look back on it with a good amount of fondness. mainly because the experience of "haunted by a mostly mediocre-to-average thing that has these devastatingly Brilliant aspects, so you will now rotate it in your brain forever" is universal LOL

[fridge-04]

what annoys me the most is that i read somewhere someone saying that SOMEONE working on the movies (director? producer? idk) said that what is shown in the movies of haruo & metphies' relationship is only "the tip of the iceberg" and i just wish they would make a full series about haruo's life aboard the aratrum and going more into the exif and bilusaludo lore and obviously haruo's relationship with metphies it sucks so much they're not exploiting that :( and ghidorah too like tell me more about the lovecraftian void deity???? anyway... RIP to us 5 fans we shall never know it seems

That’s so annoying of them. The teasing. Honestly I think the general premise of the trilogy is brilliant and they made a whole extended timeline and everything that detailed all the Kaiju attacks and plans and alien arrivals before the Aratrum left Earth. The potential is huge for prequel stuff.

As for Metphies there are so many interesting things that they could explore, such as how he was only a teenager when he actually arrived on Earth which may explain why he’s so intuitive around humans without even needing the psychic powers. I’ve also heard a few people say that supposedly he’s meant to be like an Exif prince? Some ppl on here and other sites have said it and I’m still looking myself for confirmation but that’d be interesting. Like how do the Exif even reproduce? Especially when their whole thing is based around dying?

And I think you’re right about the Exif and Bilusaludo lore potential. Both are super interesting spins on classic Godzilla aliens (Bilusaludo/Black Hole Planet Aliens and Exif/Xiliens)

Also romance plots have kinda low key always been a part of human stories in Godzilla films ever since the love triangle subplot in the original so like, it’s not rlly a stretch to say Haruo/Metphies was meant in that way. I mean there are some pretty unsubtle marriage metaphors on Metphies’ end.

I guess we’ll just have to carry on digging into official sources and making our own fun since Toho seem to wanna bury the trilogy as a bad memory. There were some amazing ideas (admittedly not executed the best) but damn that shit was compelling. We need some Good Samaritan bilingual person to help translate all those interviews lmao.

[scarletshroud-a]

"G" Slur mention and The Quarry Review

So I finished watching the full game the other day and like while I liked most of the characters and even the plot premise of a werewolf, Supermassive Games still needs to be held accountable and called out on the use of the "G" slur (Gypsy) since it wants to double down on a "morally grey" cop calling a boy the slur and then the narrative leading into stereotypes about Roma people working in travelling side shows and being fortune tellers in the modern era (with that in mind, I do understand that there are some Roma who do make a living as fortune tellers but the who "travelling sideshow" doesn't really make any sense if the curse impacted the family 6 years ago) out of everything, the "showdown" with Silas felt really underwhelming, especially when it's a narrative of where a Roma boy has to die in order for a curse of unknown origin to be lifted and on top of the fact it's framed like he (this child) wanted all of this stuff to happen. Just barely and sympathy or believable sympathy.

I even read a comment saying "basically the Gypsies were behind everything" when that's not the case at all. Silas was just a child that was as much of a victim as any of the other characters. Supermassive Games, even when they at least tried to make you sympathize with the mother, she didn't really have much of an impact on the story other than being a ghost that pops up to scare the characters with her eerie presence.

What would've been impactful is if she appeared one last time and became an obstacle for Laura, Ryan and Sheriff Hackett, explaining her side of things and making a point that her child is just as much a victim here. We could even get a more impactful scene of at least a mercy killing. Speaking of, out of all the characters, Laura should've been Roma / Romani and played by one at that. No offense to the original actress, I think she did a stellar job but with this kind of narrative of trying to put the blame on Roma characters, they least they could've at least wrote them with better written sympathy / backstory and have Laura be Roma since she's the one that ends up killing Silas.

another thing of Romani stereotyping, the cop describes the mother as a "child abuser" which is part of the stereotyping of them being written or called "child traffickers" "child stealers" etc. Near the end and especially with the flashback, that looks more like a mother trying to keep her boy safe. As much as it sucks to keep him in a cage (which is a reality that Roma have experienced via being captured and rounded up by the government) I imagine she was at least doing it to keep the curse of his from hurting others until she found some way to reverse it.

But at the end of the day Its just God awful racist and bigoted writing that could've been written better, this involves the pacing of the game and tension build up in the story. Eliza and Silas are victims, NOT antagonists. A Better naunce of humanity vs monstrosity could've been written and I feel like for Silas specifically it could've made him of a humanized character like everybody else.

[etirabys]

Erik Hoel is the blogger who won the most recent ACX book review contest. He’s written some blog posts I like. One of them was about the process of publishing his novel (The Revelations), so I bought it to support Authors Who Write Novels About the Quest For Consciousness, and...

it fucking sucks! Never buy books to support Authors Who! He can certainly turn a phrase, and despite the dipshittery of the main characters, I found them nice to spend time with in a way that most novel protagonists are not. One of them deals with the sads by going back to their comfort read of the correspondence between Descartes and a contemporary Central European philosopher-princess, and musing upon their intellectual connection. I bought the book containing those correspondences immediately after reading the sequence. Basically the author and (many of) the characters pass the beer test for me.

And I liked nothing else about the novel. I have rarely finished a novel and gone, “Why did you write this? Why was this project so important to you that you jumped through all those hoops to get it published? If you were going to go to all that trouble, wouldn’t you want to, well, write something good and coherent?”

It doesn’t succeed at depicting a very smart person who is trying to come up with a theory of consciousness, because all it does is regurgitate a bunch of 101 points about how hard the problem is. Like, the ideal book about characters who are trying to solve consciousness would contain an actual theory that is explained in the book. There is no theory. It’s like writing a sci fi mystery book about first contact where the premise is that scientists are trying to figure out how the alien genome works, and then the whole novel is blog posts about the Fermi Paradox. The author wants to convey the vibe of grappling rather than grappling itself. Yeugh. Like, hey, I picked this up because I as a reader bought into the invitation to think about real questions along with the protagonists. Why not present me with some work?

The plot falls apart. No interest in resolving it in a coherent way. Stuff comes up, gets brought up again, and fades away. Because real life events and concerns are, apparently, just excuses to hang vibes off of. Hate hate hate.

[secretsofdbz]

"Fixing" the Goku Black arc, sticking to canon content.

Alright, so the premise (Zamasu, dragon balls, Goku's body, Shin's dead so no Beerus (and nobody thought about fixing that for some ungodly reason), no mortals plan, king kai still doesn't use telepathy...) remains intact, I'm more or less "sticking to canon" in terms of general idea and rolling with it, what I want to work on is actually changing the actual key events in the whole arc so it has a more satisfying payoff, alright?

(also nota bene, I absolutely SUCK at prose. I'm a technical writer and analyst, at best)

I'm also only using what's shown to be possible in canon at that point (Goku has instant transmission so he can use it), and not pulling random powers for plot convenience. I'm only working from established and clear things alright?

It starts by Bulma is killed by Goku Black, shit hits the fan as shown, Trunks' GF (it being Mai or not really doesn't matter) gets injured/saved by Trunks' healing power from the Kaio Apprentice training, and he flees to the past. He explains the situation (and no stupid attack on Goku, Trunks is over 30 at this point, but crying while seeing Bulma is k) and mentions how this new enemy is wearing a potara (Trunks knows potaras, Kibito and Shin wore them, even if he doesn't know about fusion). This is where he gets actual proper martial arts/introspection training with his bae dad (who's finally bae after 13 years) and his bae dad-in-law (Goku :p). Reminder that Future Trunks is actually a bad martial artist (https://secretsofdbz.tumblr.com/post/672921944655577088/future-trunks-isnt-a-good-martial-artist-and-that my hot take about that is here). Trunks already knew Grade 3 was a mistake, but his martial arts knowledge is still lacking, so this first part in the past should fix that. Insert slice of life seeing the results of his intervention, meeting Pan, maybe some introspection about present Gohan vs his Gohan (and learning he has healing powers from Apprentice Kai training? -> regain of hope for Mai), a talk with 13 Yo Trunks (remember he's 13 in Super, the age the Future one was when Gohan died), and maybe a random enemy showing up in main timeline to test their abilities/learn plot relevant stuff/get potaras (aka Chekhov's gun placement). I'd place Present Bulma sliding a space ship into Trunks' capsules as well as the coordinates for new Namek right here, just in case, because reasons. Now that's done, we need it to be both a flashback to "Gohan had the ~potential~ during the HTC training", to tie things with proper nostalgia call back (and Vegeta realizing he was trash at training his baby boi, and taking charge this time) moment, and a foreshadow moment to the end-of-the-arc Thing. So Trunks goes back with his bae dads to the Future and Vegeta and Goku get "gonna deck this guy for killing our wives" moment, they find out about extra zamasu, Arch-Boss Monologue thing, and this approach is a failure, so they retreat. Here's the major change: they don't flee to the past (the fuel is too precious/rare, time travel isn't exactly reliable), but Goku has IT, and a whole universe he can reach.

Destination option numero uno: New Namek. Goku knows where it is and can IT to it (as he's done so already, so it being the future timeline should be no problemo), and Future Trunks also knows it exists (he knew since Dende created new Balls, after all). Rezing Future Bulma is a thing that needs to be on the list of things to do, but both Goku and Vegeta know there's three wishes and that they can ~strategism those wishes (as Goku did with King Kai in the Freeza fight, and Vegeta is already a strategist, I mean, back then he got a lovely bunch of dragon balls, do do do do...). It's easier to patch up when you've got Namekian healers, too. Bulma may have reminded Goku of Future New Namek before leaving the maintimeline (just in case Goku gets tunnel vision).

Destination option numero dos: King Kai. Future King Kai may or may not have been killed by GokuBlack/Zamasu, but Kais being dead has not stopped them from doing anything (they just get a halo), so.. ? Hell he might be training Future Gohan or whatever (I'm still mad at nobody in otherworld interacting with anyone from the future timeline, k, so we getting some CLOSURE here, and it's forshadowed by the discussion with present adult Gohan). If we go the King Kai route, insert the use of Chekhov's gun with Future Gohan (fusion dance? potaras?). Can also insert Goku meeting himself who died of the heart virus, and/or Baba actually bringing someone in for a day (re: Gohanks fusion option, or double Goku fusion, idk).

Regardless of the fleeing option used (or perhaps both, por qué no los dos?) the three Saiyans get to Heal, get some Zenkai, discuss strategies (up to and including the Mafuba and either fusion option). They come back to Future Earth, create distractions, use of Fusions, otherworldly intervention/help, separate the thing into two fights, insert shenanigans as needed for a tense strategist fight, switching opponents and else (a little like the Vegeta fight in the Saiyan Saga). And then the bad guys fusion into merged Zamasu, and now it's three against one. Vegeta is starting to lose his temper (this bch killed HIS Bulma in front of HIS son! This is PERSONAL), taking the whole ordeal much more personally, and gets strongly wounded. Trunks is late to jump on the way, and heals him by sheer force of despair. A well placed smoke bomb by Mai and concealing ki helps them regroup, take a breather, and coordinate against merged Zamasu. Trunks' ANGRY. Like, SSJ2R angry. He doesn't know he healed Vegeta (he just caught him and screamed), that he'll be fine, and this mirrors Goku-Gohan during the Cell Saga. And Yamcha telling Trunks how Vegeta just threw his life by attacking Cell when he'd killed him. Now we've got two big tools to use: the spirit sword (with KaiserNeko's speech because it's badass tbh), boosted by rage, and the Mafuba (as it's the thing needed to deal with immortal stuff). If you want "strategy" planning and battles to be the highlight, you first try the Mafuba, but the double nature of the thing doesn't work, so you do the sword slice thing (fueled by the energy of the living and the dead, kinda calling back to the father-son Kamehameha, here you'd have Future Gohan and Bulma encouraging him), with Goku and Vegeta giving their energy to Trunks as their last hope, and as Zamasu is starting to break apart, Mafuba works on Zamasu (by Future Roshi? maybe?) and Goku Black is yeeted à la MechaFreeza.

Prologue: Get Namekian Dragonballs to rez Future Bulma, bring Dende on Earth to be the new Guardian, get new DragonBalls, and restore loss since Goku Black appeared (android/babidi-era stuff wouldn't work because it's too old), and, idk, since Beerus is dead in this timeline, someone makes that timeline get a new G.O.D and/or find a new Shin (Trunks as G.O.D of that timeline would be interesting, with Future Whis as his attendant, that would be... a thing). The other two wishes can be used to refuel the machine to bring back the dads of the year and, uh, whatever works for The Strategy discussed prior (the use of the DragonBalls doesn't need to be ~after~, it can be a coordinated thing like in the Freeza fight in the Namek arc), and/or ask for a way to solve this Shin-is-dead-so-there's-no-G.O.D problem. After all, Kibito was rezed by the regular Dende Dragon Balls... (also the whole time-limit only works for mass rezes? Dende Balls rezed Freeza after twenty years, so rezing Shin shouldn't be a problem). Trunks as "taking responsibilities and carrying the weight of the world on his shoulder, and being dedicated to his world" by doing the G.O.D thing makes sense for his character, but him not being a great fit for GOD leaves a hint for future arcs. Trunks' the kind of guy who is reliable and responsible, but also very humane despite his -get-shit-done attitude.

Perks of my thing: - There's only one time travel trip (and not deus-ex-machina the fuel in the Present). - It closes some plotholes of the future timeline (why didn't Trunks ask to use the Kami Dragon Balls to know where new Namek was + get a ship just after killing MechaFreeza?). - Emotional payoff: 32yo Trunks meeting (Future) Gohan almost twenty years past his death, and still mirrors with when he met his present-alive-dad-self. Tell Future Gohan about how thanks to his sacrifice, his present version is peaceful, a dad and a scholar. - Mai/survivors do the spirit sword thing and Trunks gets a cool version of the Genkidama which matches his theme. - SSJ2R echoes Trunks' Get Shit Done attitude. He's the hope and defender of his timeline, he needs to win this (with or without a fusion with Future Gohan?). - Mafuba is tested without it being a comedic effect (meeting future Roshi instead of present Roshi maybe?), and its failure may be before of merged (two entities = no bueno) or be countered. - There's a wholesome Shonen message about "you had it within you from the get go", instead of it being yet another Goku win with Vegeta acting as a punching bag to show how the enemy works. Vegeta KNEW that by getting himself beat, he'd wake Trunks' power (like his own power rose when Trunks died, even if that failed; hybrid potential and else) - This would be a Goku steps back to let the father and son have a redo of their Z bond, mirroring the bond Vegeta got with present Trunks in the Buu saga. - There's an opening to "fix" the actual origin of the problem: Shin (and as such, Beerus) being dead. This means potential "going to check up on that" at some point later (foreshadowing future elements). - And finally, there's no Button.

That and you add more exposition about Zamasu's beliefs, and maybe switch it to "it's all the Saiyans/Earthlings' faults" (and not just mortals in general). And here's the kicker: the timeline where everything is at peace, is the actual first, original timeline. The True, Original Timeline, the one that Trunks got killed by Cell to steal his time machine (if you -really- need the Zeno Button, that's the timeline Trunks and Mai should go to!). Zamasu couldn't go to that one because Beerus is still a thing there, but by killing Trunks in the third timeline (aka the future timeline we know), he'd achieve a similar situation. Now of course, we could change things a bit by having a fusion win, having Baba bringing Future Gohan (and have Gohanks win?), but here I only used the otherworld as introspection/emotional investment thing, so to keep more or less to canon events. It's just moving the same pieces rather than doing a full blown what if (after all, the manga has Shin show up, which I didn't use), but damn if I wanted better from this arc.

[drinkrust]

a reluctant goodbye to YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

note: this was originally written on 01/17/2022

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG sports a unique reputation. the public opinion of the game is irreparably fucked, but few people actually took the time to play it. it is in the spectrum of works that are so big in scope and fail so spectacularly that it forms a hole of discourse around it that attracts even people that wouldn’t even wanna touch it if it was considered good.

an interesting quirk of YIIK is that it is not an unfinished game. it’s done and presumably fulfilled the artistic ambitions of Ackk Studios, the team behind it. it’s a flawed premise executed badly, and every aspect of it got discussed to the ends of the earth. it’s a confusing game, and a wordy one at that.

it drops and picks up new plot points incessantly at will, and is very happy to send the player into hours-long detours only to introduce some new characters and make you play through a boring cave dungeon. it goes to massive lengths to gaslight you to make a dumb plot twist work, and it shamelessly drags out its Paper Mario-inspired combat minigames to make battles take 10 minutes each, but still, i cannot say that i hate YIIK.

it may be a bad game, but it’s hardly boring. i couldn’t look away from the disaster in front of me. i devoured the whole 15 hours that it gave me in a weekend. i can’t say any game this interesting is not worthwhile.

the writing is just so interesting. all characters share a bit of a hive-mind mentality between themselves to different degrees, which i can only explain as the writer letting way too much of himself into the story. and it doesn’t help that it is very easy to see where that disconnection in the characters begins and ends.

basically every time someone starts a philosophical monologue you can just assume that is the case. for example, when Michael dumps his whole backstory while getting into a big anecdote about his cousin’s supernatural experiences, he lets out the same personality quirks as Alex in his long rants. when a character does this, the other characters who are listening turn into pace-breaking audience surrogates that just ask convenient questions that let the main speaker continue the monologue. in the example i gave Alex takes that role (and that really does not fit his established character, if you can even call it that).

and that makes for some very unpredictable writing. YIIK starts talking about hundreds of things, but it quickly forgets about them before even leaving the “dictionary definition” part of the discussion. some may find this insufferable, but it can be amusing in a way. it’s like taking a thorough look into what can go wrong with the stream of consciousness writing if not edited appropriately, with some passionate and dramatic voice acting going along with it.

it even surprises you from time to time. some of the later themes that YIIK wants to get into were in fact foreshadowed in a lot of the dialogue that came before, but the game gets into so much unrelated shit up to that point that it comes as a genuine shock.

the writing in YIIK is just insane like that. very uniquely insane. but it doesn’t even comprise most of the game, because sometimes, you hardly get any dialogue for hours at a time (but mostly in the mid-game). when it does this, it’s time for dungeons!

and they suck. most of the dungeons are overly long, unnecessarily confusing, blend together, and are painfully linear. it’s bad in a very similar way to the writing, which makes for an unexpectedly consistent experience.

even the dungeons that try to be different and not only slightly decorated corridors end up being linear, and even overall worse than the most straightforward ones. Vella’s mind dungeon is a clear example of this. it consists of the main hub with like 10 doors, each leading you into a linear trek through enemies and some puzzles. the thing is, a lot of these doors can only be cleared when you have some stuff that you can get in the orders, so if you didn’t luck out and went into the correct orders you need to constantly go back and forth through them to finish it. and the areas they hold aren’t that small. it’s just a more convoluted and boring way to do things. it sucks.

but, again, these dungeons can be interesting, even knowing that battles each take 10x more time to beat than they should (and that dungeons are littered with them!). they serve as big changes of pace that give you uninterrupted hours that you can use to chew the plot that was given to you.

there are even good games that do this, like Pathologic. in that game, in between all of the heavy dialogue riddled with decision-making, you take long walks that never become dull. you are always thinking about what you just experienced, and planning out ahead. in YIIK, it’s just like that, except you try to understand what the fuck the game was trying to say.

everything in this game tries to stretch to reach somewhere but only gets caught up in itself, and in the end, i felt a bit empty finishing it. i mean, the ending is perplexing as it is, but i did get the same empty feeling i get when i finish any RPG, where i have to say goodbye to that world.

so yeah, i do think that YIIK is a worthwhile game. but i still have something to talk about regarding it. just when i finished it, i received the news that this whole article would become irrelevant really quick.

recently, the game’s developers announced YIIK I.V., a big (and free!) update that will radically change many aspects of the game, including the whole combat and leveling systems (which are my biggest gripes with it). but well, i just finished the game. not the I.V., just the normal game. and i wish more people got the opportunity to play it as it is right now.

mind you, I.V. is not the first time YIIK gets an update. my own playthrough had some decently-sized patches applied that changed cutscenes and nerfed/buffed some skills and bosses, but it wasn’t anywhere close to the scope of what’s promised to change in I.V.

but you know, i just want the original game to be preserved in some way. i’m sure that the story will still be batshit insane when the game gets changed, and that many of its plot points will still be at the same time over and underexplained, but the tightly maddening original experience will still be lost to time.

ok, so let me explain what i mean by this drivel. with the large-scale normalization of patches as tools for developers that came to be as a consequence of online services and overall better internet, a lot of the original 1.0 versions of countless games (especially ones without physical releases) are being left only in the hands of piracy sites, many of which could go offline at any moment.

the historical shitshow of Cyberpunk 2077’s 1.0, the empty wastelands of No Man Sky’s 1.0, and all of the other underwhelming releases that were heavily patched later (and that’s not counting MMOs!). all of these are already inaccessible through normal means, and while you technically can access them with a physical version of the games (and only while setting the console to offline), this is still a major hurdle to go through, and will only get harder and harder to access as the years go by and the games physical copies go up in price.

what i’m talking about here is that even though these are just straight-up worse versions of the game, i still want them to exist. they are often more interesting than the newer, fixed(ier) versions, and are important for early historical preservation of the still brand new medium of video games. a lot of old games were already lost to time, but what about the infinite amount of different versions of the same game nowadays? i’m not saying that every version should be kept, but man, at least the first one could be preserved.

but yeah, what i’m asking for here will most likely never happen, and i understand why. no developer or publisher would like to give players a broken or worse version of their game, and that’s why in the few cases that you can easily and officially play older versions (like with Minecraft), they are still functional builds with no rough edges aside from having less content.

so, with that big aside (wow, just like the huge tangents in YIIK, how clever!!!), i want to get into why i chose YIIK to be the focus of this piece. with the examples i gave before, the games were missing content in the case of No Man’s Sky or completely broken in the case of Cyberpunk 2077, but YIIK is different.

the old version that got discussed to hell and back is complete. it had a couple of bugs, but nothing major like with Cyberpunk. and it’s not missing content because there’s a lot of shit in this game. sometimes too much for its own good even.

like i said at the beginning, YIIK as it stands before the I.V. update is a complete rendition of a vision (even if it doesn’t completely match the expectations of its developers) and it gives any player that chooses to engage with it a lot to chew on, even if it’s all horrible.

what if the update removes the honestly iconic line shown below?

what if fixes the slog that is your first visit to Wind Town, where the combat first shows its ugly and repetitive face? what about the combat itself?

YIIK’s old version will only legally be available through the countless videos talking about it. a lot of those videos are pretty cool, but people who see that won’t be able to play it like that anymore.

but still, it’s not like i want YIIK to be bad forever. i wish the best for the studio with the I.V. update i want it to be good. i want the developers to close their chapter with this game that they’ve been working on for almost a decade and then move on to something new, but i also believe that bad games deserve love too!

also, i acknowledge that this isn’t the end of the world. i just wanted a way to encapsulate my feelings about the game while also talking about game preservation, an aspect of the medium that i also think should be talked about more, even if it’s more abstractly like i just did. anyway, thank u for reading! ^-^

[ridearockox]

Fic idea I've been rotating in my mind: Pete (for whatever reason) being on the set of Lisztomania and seeing them shoot one/some of the scenes where Roger is being a manwhore (the very beginning of the movie where he's kissing/sucking on that girl's tits, the scene where Wagner is talking to him and he has a girl in his lap and is kissing/sucking on her tits, etc (why was there so much titty stuff in this movie?)). Pete gets Very jealous and ends up being kind of bitchy and standoffish towards Roger for the next few days.

Roger eventually confronts him about it. He assumes it's just because he's been putting more effort towards Lisztomania than towards Tommy, and tries to reason with him that of /course/ he's going to put more effort towards it! Half of his role in Tommy is mainly singing, and the other half is just him standing around looking pretty with a vacant expression on his face!

Eventually Pete snaps at him that "It's not about that!" and Roger, fed up with Pete's behavior, shoots back with "Well what is it about then?!"

Pete shoves him up against the nearest wall, boxing him in, and mumbles "I want you to touch me like you touched those girls..."

Anon =places hands on your shoulders= I am going bonkers about this I've been thinking about this ask ever since you sent it to me because this plot reminded me of this super old Pete/Roger fic I once wrote (but never published) about Pete getting uncomfortably horny about Roger in the set of Tommy during that one scene from the Acid Queen segment where he's just like, wearing this very small piece of cloth. This ask actually is actually making me want to go back to that, polish it and post it!

But OK, back to what you described because it's so, so good. Pete decides to drop by the set because, OK, Roger is his friend and he's trying to show that he's interested in his side projects. Roger shows interest in the stuff he does even if/when he can't quite understand it so Pete thinks it's only fair that he makes an effort to support Roger.

He doesn't know that by doing that he would be unlocking like five different new kinks though.

It makes sense for Roger to think Pete is mad because "oh no he's putting more effort into this thing than on the thing I did." since Roger knows how attached Pete is to his music and writing, and damn, Roger didn't want to make it seem like he's caring more about Liszt than Tommy, so he goes to Pete to set the record straight like you mentioned, explaining how he has a way more "active" role in this movie than in Tommy, but, oh dear this is not the reason? Then why is he being all bitchy and weird?

When the words roll out of Pete's mouth Roger has a "???" moment because that was the last thing in his mind. Not even in a million years he would have guessed Pete is mad at him because he's awkwardly horny towards him after watching him kiss and suck some tits. Which Roger really didn't made a big deal out of because it was a movie thing and there's nothing less sexy than having to suck on girls tits while everyone is staring at you, expecting you to act casual about it.

But... there's no one watching them when he confronts Pete about his shift in mood. Roger can't help but change into a somewhat teasing mood. "Ah, so that's the issue. Well... you are kinda lacking on boobs though..." And he has this smug grin on his face the whole time and Pete is so angry but also kinda glad that his dumb confession didn't end up blowing up in his face aka Roger didn't get disgusted by it.

I really like the thought of them being soft and making out with each other a lot (Pete adores foreplay it's my favorite headcanon) and I would probably use this premise to add a lot of that to the story hehe

Anon, do you give me your blessing to snatch this idea and turn into a more polished fic later on? Because let me tell, I'm also rotating this idea in my brain a lot now that you brought it up lol

[bookwyrminspiration]

I've always wanted to try D&D but I can't afford the sets. I found a few guides and stuff online, but they're all so complicated. Also, how do you come up with ideas for campaigns? I was able to find The Dragon Queen's hoard as a PDF but how do I use it? What do I say? Can I use two regular six sided dice instead of the 20 sided one? I have some small toys from when I was younger, are they okay for minifigures? What do you do with the grid placemat? Can you explain Classes and races? Please help

I'd love to help!! One of the great things about dnd is that it's so adaptable. It's role-playing game and you can use or discard what works for you. To answer your questions I'm going to just go one by one and try and specifically address what you're asking, but if you need/want more information about anything or an overview, just let me know and I'd be more than happy to talk about it! I have no clue how much knowledge you have about the game so if I explain something you already know, please pardon me, and if I assume you know something you don't please don't hesitate to ask for clarification!

(This also applies to anyone else who wants to learn or ask questions about DnD)

To save space, I'm putting everything under a cut!

There's a lot of information out there about DnD, but the basic premise is just being a fantasy roleplaying game. There's a story and people have characters they put through that story where they decide what they do in it. You can adapt things to suit you as needed--once, I was running these two kids through a basic encounter and one of them didn't even have a character sheet. She just said things and I made things up to make it work. The other kid decided halfway through he had a vacuum that sucked out people's bones and we just went with it. Fudging or ignoring rules to work for you is 100% okay

That being said: Here's a link to a starter rulebook pdf, and I know upon first opening it that looks very overwhelming with the amount of detail and specifics it can get into, but I promise you it's not as hard to understand as it seems. That's actually the rulebook included in the starter set. And if you have any questions about any specifics please don't hesitate to ask. It's a lot easier to get into when you have someone to explain things

As for coming up with campaign ideas, it can depend! You can build a campaign around a final boss and figure out details from there, or you might have an idea for a story you want to take people through and add story, dungeons, and enemies to fit into that. However, there are plenty of pre-made campaigns you can use as well. I've never actually fully written out a campaign myself. I've typically been either a player or running people through sets.

People don't typically create their own right off the bat (not saying you can't though!)--I actually haven't even run anyone through a campaign I made; I've run them through campaigns from books instead because then everything's right there! This site has a handful of pdfs to already made campaigns, and there are plenty of others available as well. Those might be harder to get into though, so I'd also recommend specifically looking at this, where you can download the pdf for The Lost Mines of Phandelver, which is a more introductory level campaign and is actually the campaign from the Starter Set. It got a lot more of an open approach and explains how to do things as it goes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like in this situation you're the Dungeon Master (DM), as if you're the one using the pdf, then you're running the campaign. So as the DM (some people say GM for Game Master) you have access to the plot and the information about monsters/enemies.

First I'd recommend reading/skimming through the text before you start playing so you have a general sense of what the story is about and what journey you'd be taking your player(s) through. For example in the Phandelver campaign there's an Overview on pages 3-4 that summarize the whole story. Then on page 6 you'll see different paragraphs highlighted. Because it's a starter book, those have specific things you can say out loud to your players to tell them what's happening. On page seven it has a bullet list of things to look at and do in order to run that encounter. It's good to skim those beforehand so you aren't going in completely blind, but if you're good at improv you can also go in blind and make it work. Does it make sense how that campaign kinda guides you into it all?

To answer the what you say question, what you say is the information the players get to have and the more important details of gameplay. For example, if there's an ambush up ahead as they're walking on a trail, they don't get to know there's an ambush! So instead you tell them they're walking along and get ambushed (unless one of your players was observant enough to notice)! Goblins start assailing them from either side! You're guiding the story; the player(s) have no clue what's going on, that comes from you. As the DM, you also keep track of how much health the monsters/people your players are fighting have. You get access to information like what the monsters armor class is (how hard it is to hit it), what it's weaknesses or resistances are, etc.

As the DM you are, essentially, the narrator. You tell the story. Some of that will come from the already written campaign and some of it will come from you and whatever happens with the players. There's no rigid "you have to say this!' kinda thing. It's meant to be a fun, collaborative effort with each other to tell a story. If someone is trying to jump over a hole filled with water, you can add a bit of embellishment onto what happens and say they start to fumble about before spinning in the air and going SPLAT into a bellyflop, lingering on the surface for a moment before sinking down. You can use funny voices or not, really the whole point of the game is to have fun.

I will say that using two d6 (six sided dice) wouldn't work for what you're trying to do. However! You can use random number generators if you don't have any d20 (20 sided dice). You can literally look up "dice roller" and you'll get this:

By just clicking on one of the dice lined up at the bottom it'll roll it for you and give you a number, and then you just click on the dice that comes on screen to dismiss it.

The one thing this result doesn't have specifically is a d100, so what you'd do in that case is roll the d10 twice. First to see what the tens number would be and a second time for the single digit would be. For example if I rolled an 8 and then a 6, I'd combine those to make 86.

This site also lets you customize what number of sides of dice you want to roll, and there are plenty more like it. You don't need to have physical dice to roll them!

As for minifigures: absolutely old toys are okay! You don't even need to have minifigures to play. Minifigures can be fun to have a representation of characters and when you use them on a grid/map, it can be helpful to get a mental image of where people are and what you can do. You use the grid to keep track of where people are when you're playing. Characters can move a certain distance every turn and occupy a certain amount of space on the grid, so having that physically represented can be helpful. If someone sees two monsters but that they're only in range to hit one, it can help them figure out which monster they want to attack.

It's essentially just a giant map set-up that you can move the characters around on to represent what's happening in the game. It can be as complicated as a whole elaborate model and as simple as you drawing a vague map on a scrap piece of paper.

it's also entirely possible and still just as fun to play without them. I think the majority of my games I've played without a map or minifigures and we've just kinda kept vague track of things in our head. You can also use basically anything to represent things instead of figures. Erasers, bottlecaps, charms, barrettes, pins, anything. You just say "hey this represents this monster/character/thing" and then it does!

For classes and races, I won't in-detail explain every one of them right here because there's a fair number and also because there's better explanations in the books, but! Essentially those are the overview of who a character is. If you want, here's a pdf of the Player's Handbook that has all the details, but I'll summarize.

Race is what race the character is. Are they human? Elven? Orc? Dwarf? Each of those means different things for the character. Like if the character is an elf or part elf, they'll be able to see clearly in the dark.

Class is what your character specializes in. Are they a druid and really in tune with nature? Are they a rogue and focused on stealth? Are they a bard and focused on music? It's what your character does, what they bring to the table.

Those are simple explanations, but I think they get the point across. They're the basics of your character, who they are and what they do. If making a character yourself sounds daunting (and it can be), this pdf here has characters already made that come with the Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign, all you need to do is name them!

I think that covers all the specific questions you asked, but if you have more or any of this is unclear (it is a lot of information all at once) I'd be more than happy to answer any more questions! It's daunting at first with the sheer amount of information there is, but once you get the hang of it it's a lot simpler than it seems.

I hope some of that helps!! And that you enjoy the game should you proceed <33

[tundrainafrica]

Which would you say are your favorite fanfics ever? (Levihan ofc)

Okay, I don’t think I’m the best judge of what’s quality or not quality cause I ain’t no writing authority so I cannot vouch for whether you will like these fics or not. But I am a firm believer that good writing makes readers feel things and leaves a lasting impression. 

So lemme rephrase the question… What fics left a lasting impression?

So brace yourself for one hell of a ride while I talk about fanworks that just fucked me up in the following ways: 

Caused me to irrationally hate one random character

Made me forget something isn’t canon

Made me completely rearrange my day because I completely f-ed myself up.

Made me feel guilty for fucking up the view count because I keep going back there.

Makes me remember the fic as an aesthetic, not as actual words. Like literally I will imagine the setting almost perfectly in my head and like when I try to remember what happened, I don’t really remember the writing style or anything, but I could probably create a sim house about how exactly I imagined the house to look like or the yard to look like.

Changed the way I approach fic reading.

I don’t wanna spoil these fics because I’m assuming people are gonna read it so as much as I wanna make a long ass detailed review about why I love each of them, I won’t. I’ll probably just mention what the hell I was doing when I read the fic and how I completely fucked myself over. 

I probably will miss some since I’m just listing these out from the top of my head. So here goes…And I’m only posting completed fics because I’m just that way. 

Second chance by @fanmoose12

This is my comfort fic. The first time I read this fic, it was like 4am or 5am in the morning and I remember after reading it once, I read it like 5 more times that day. 

This is literally the fic I just randomly open on my computer at work on some incognito tab when I’m just tired from all the shit they make us do at work and this is the random fic that I just open up when I feel like reading. And this is one of the fics I plan on showing my children one day when I explain to them what love is. 

This isn’t depressing so I guess it doesn’t fall in the ‘fucked me over’ category but definitely one of the fics I read too many times to count that I remember it scene by scene like some simp. 

Partners by fanmoose12

Woops, one exception for WIPs. I just had to post this here because it definitely left a lasting impression. 

This was the first AU I have ever read and been invested in and I have been reading fanfiction since before I could remember and I have always stuck to canonverse fics until I got into Levihan. 

This fic got me into the AU genre and I have never read AUs in my life before this so I think that says a lot about how much this fic means to me. 

Somewhere Only We Know by @someonestolemyshoes

It’s not completely posted in ao3 yet. But since I beta-ed the fic, I finished it long before SSMS posted it but this fic. It started slow so it took me a week of on and off work to get through  but I got through the second part of the fic, the last 30,000 words  incredibly fast. I vividly remembered reading those last final scenes over breakfast completely in shock while my whole family was there. I literally had to leave the room and take my dog out for a second walk . 

I remember the aesthetic of the overall story vividly enough to actually make a moodboard of it and spend a good 1 hour going through country side pics after finishing it. . 

Yellow by @ariadneamare​

God, this fic. I read this over a day of work. Like breakfast, first few thousand words, Lunch next few thousand words. And I finished the rest before bed and oh god, this is the type of fic that builds a great aesthetic, some lightness and just to fuck you over in the end. 

I like to compare it to a longer and AU version of Pristine in terms of how it strings emotions along. I know they’re two completely different fics but the energy of the fic, the stream of emotions on how it strings you along is fairly similar. 

This is literally one of those fics where I’m just having a good day, and my mind goes ‘remember that one fic’ and I just wrinkle my nose like ‘yeah THAT FIC’ 

Pristine by @mannatea​

I’m sure everyone has read this, it’s practically a classic and I cannot count the number of people who told me it was depressing and I do not know why I did not believe them. I read this while waiting in line for milk tea. I lost my place in line around the time I finished that last part and just gave up on buying milk tea.

It has this build up, this incredibly fluffy build up which won’t make you think it will end the way it did. 

Well. you know a fic is good when you know it’s gonna end a certain way but you allow yourself to get strung along anyway. 

A Simple Choice by just-quintessentially-me

This is one of those fics for me that double as an aesthetic piece and a plot piece. I remember INCREDIBLY WELL, the road I was imagining that they were walking through and it satisfied my hurt comfort feels as well. Definitely one of my favorite 115-126 fics and one of the first ones I read in the fandom for sure. 

So those are the english fics, I have to Japanese fics that fall in that category. 

(For anyone who knows Japanese I guess but I personally think they’re worth a google translate.)

熱に浮く(Feverish Dream)

Classic canon compliant. Hange takes care of Levi when he’s sick fic but there are misunderstandings here, they contemplate their relationship and they are incredibly emotionally constipated here. Definitely one of the classics imo and it feeds my need for hurt/comfort.

前世なんてクソだと言う女と 全て忘れた男 

(A girl who thinks past lives are not real and a boy who forgot everything)

Hange is a teacher, Levi is a janitor. Hange remembers stuff and Levi doesn’t and just really cute stuff. 

I’m pretty sure you guys are tired of me rambling about how much this fic means to me but really, I wrote a Tale of Two Slaves (Which is just brushing 100k words already) because this was just so beautiful it got me into the reincarnation genre.

私の中の少女、あなたの中の少年

(The girl inside me and the boy inside you) 

Levi and Hange are exes/childhood friends and they meet again in a matchmaking party. This is just the greatest balance between emotional constipation and love. The premise was just perfect for the type of build up 

Closest thing I’m gonna drop to smut here. Will leave my smut recs for another post but I’m low key really still thinking whether or not I should expose myself by dropping my favorite Levihan smut pieces hahaha.

Filo Socmed AUs

A lot of these probably aren’t google translatable since Tagalog google translate sucks but if anyone is interested, most Filo Socmed AUs have a fair amount of English so it’s coherent. I guess? I completely forget though how much is in English and how much is in Tagalog but these are the Filo Socmed AUs I REALLY remember and really go back to. 

Vividly Remembered 

This one got me blowing my days worth of salary on some meal in a restaurant because I didn’t wanna go back home to my house yet so I remember just crying over a meal while finishing up this fanfiction instead of going home. 

Basically a fic where Levi and Hange were together already and were about to get married already but shit happened. I irrationally hate Nanaba because of this Socmed AU. Like everytime I see Nanaba, i think of this Socmed AU and I just hate her again. 

Photographs 

Levi and Hange are part of the photography club and shit happens. I remember being behind on work because I decided to take a three hour lunch break to finish this AU. This satisfied my sick Levi craving in so many ways (especially after reading Yellow)

Wherein Levi doesn’t have social media accounts and Hange is the class beadle

This last one just has the overall aesthetic of my own university so it really stuck tbh. And the premise of the build up is just incredibly cute. 

These are the ones I can remember from the top of my head so I’m sure these are among my favorites. I’ll definitely update this as I read more.