#worldbuilding tutorial 9

[kalikalahansa]

Are there any differences between just wearing diapers full-time and actively untraining?

A follower sent me this question in an ask recently. I didn't feel like I could answer it comprehensively without derailing the ask. I'm answering it here instead.

The answer is: Yes, but actually no (but ...)

In humans, and in many other species, the body system which controls the voiding of bodily waste is adapted such that it is under voluntary control. However, the means by which that control is maintained require it to be maintained through use. If it isn't used, it erodes.

Untrainers actively target this, by actively refusing to use their control and by adopting strategies which will allow their body to void with minimal physiological effort. People who want to wear and use their diapers 24/7 (henceforth "24/7ers") obviously don't actively seek to lose their control. However, using diapers 24/7 means they will increasingly generally be in a situation where not using their control is a convincingly better choice and/or using it is convincingly worse.

Here's a hypothetical. It's based heavily on my experience but is not a direct factual account; it's also heavily simplified because I'd have to either do anonymisation or worldbuilding otherwise and I'm not going to do either of those things.

Say you're a college student. You have a very predictable college administration, and because of that, four days a week, you have:

a 9–11 AM lecture

an 11 AM–12 PM interval

a 12–2 PM tutorial, with no break in the middle

You have a chance to snack, hydrate, and get a coffee in the interval. As a result, you consistently have the problem of realising, about 30 minutes into your 12 PM tute, that you need to pee.

This is a problem. See, in most places, excusing yourself to pee is a neutral act, but in college, there is an expectation that you'll stay in the room unless you absolutely have to leave. Not usually an overwhelming one, but present in the same way that getting up constantly to pee at a movie theatre is somewhat more frowned upon than doing so while watching the same movie at home.

So, what do you do? Well, if you're continent, or at least wearing underwear, the answer you're pressured toward under those circumstances is just holding it for the remaining 90 minutes. Sure, it might be annoying, but if you have normal continence it's not likely to be so distracting that you can't willpower through it. If you're wearing diapers and have decided to use them, however, none of this logic applies. Short of any other intervening factors too complex and individual to be listed here, if you feel the need to pee 30 minutes in, there's no reason not to pee 30 minutes in.

The effect of this is obvious: that's 90 minutes you're not exercising your control when you otherwise would have. That's not much, but you can never have just one potato chip, as the saying goes. For instance, you also realise that you've been feeling the need to pee about 30 minutes into your morning lecture. You haven't really been thinking about it because that one does have a break at 55 minutes and it's a lot easier to wait until then. But why wait?

And so this continues. This hypothetical person is based on me so it would probably be pretty reasonable to nominally divide their day into 3 blocks of 8 hours each:

college and related things (studying on-site, commuting, etc.)

home and related things (work, study at home, free time, etc.)

sleep

(No, I did not get anywhere near that much sleep; yes, the non-college-time block was a lot bigger than that for me.)

Out of your college and related things block, when you level out you're probably holding it for maybe 50% of the time you were before, on average. So you're effectively holding for at least 4 hours fewer out of 24 per day, 4 days a week: –16 hours out of 168 per week, total.

Still not a lot, but it builds up. For instance, I think at this point we can safely assume you're still dry at night and your continence behaviour during sleep is the same as it was before you started wearing full-time. But most people at least initially find it easier to start using their diapers at home and in other familiar places, where nobody has any reason to watch them. So at home the amount of time you were holding it had already been maybe half what it would have been before. Another 4 hours' worth of non-use of control, 4 days a week, making –16/168 h/w, for a total of –32/168 h/w.

On the 3 days a week you're not at college, we can safely move the 8 hours a week that would have gone to "college and related things" into "home and related things", the block during which you're only holding for about half as long as you were anyway. So that's 16 hours total, so that's 8 hours fewer of control on each of those 3 days; 8 × 3 = 24, making a total of –(32 + 24)/168 = –56/168 h/w.

But wait! All that practice you're getting wetting your diapers at college, where you're nervous about it, is helping tremendously with wetting your diapers at home and other places where you're more comfortable. So suddenly instead of holding for 50% of the original length of time at home you're holding for 25%. Then 10%. So now that 8 hours of control not being used is 14 hours 24 minutes (× 3 days a week) and now it's –75.2/168 h/w. And it continues to add up.

And of course you can respond to this by saying, well, I want to wear diapers 24/7 but I know I don't want to lose my bladder control, so I'll simply pee at the same time I normally would have. Which makes perfect sense, but also, that's an abstract long-term commitment, and it's now competing with things like the visceral discomfort of needing to pee increasingly for 90 minutes, when you know you don't have to be experiencing that discomfort. You have to really care about the thing you're committed to for it to serve as the bulwark of your self-discipline in that kind of situation. And even then, there are probably going to be days when you're going to give in, because the machine didn't have mocha iced coffee today, it only had double espresso, and now your eyeballs are swimming.

And you can say, well, I'm not going to need to avoid peeing for 90 minutes, because I will simply do other things, like not have water and coffee directly before my two hour tutorial with no break. To which my answer is, sure. Water is necessary for brain function, caffeine is addictive. Yes, it's plausible that you'll give up one of those, but the path of least resistance is the one where you wet your diapers because it's the one where you get everything you want (staying in the lectures, wearing diapers, using diapers, drinking coffee, drinking water).

And all this discussion of self-discipline and paths-of-least-resistance is ignoring the positive disincentives against using your control. For example: When we pee in a toilet, we tend to release it all at once and as quickly as possible. In most diapers, that's not advisable. The superabsorbent polymer can't absorb that much liquid that fast; the inside of the diaper will flood and leak.

Diapers obviously can absorb a lot of liquid given enough time, so the first thing to address is flow rate. Flow rate is determined by volume (that is, if there's more pee you need to void, you will pee faster). Therefore, the way to pee at a lower flow rate is to pee when there's less pee in your bladder. The kidneys produce urine at a rate which is strongly predicted by your diet and medical conditions, so if those are relatively stable then your urine output will be too. In that case, the most effective way to pee when there's less pee in your bladder is to pee frequently. In short, diapers literally discourage you from holding your pee and encourage you to pee as close as possible to when you feel the urge.

And then, of course, there's the fact that the map is not the territory, and the view from the top of a mountain differs from the view from the bottom of the adjoining valley. Decisions about maintaining continence and responding to continence failures that are made prior to going into diapers 24/7 are made in one context. Decisions about the same matter that are made well into the process, when the things in question are or might be actually happening, are made in another context entirely. And there are obviously factors other than immediate short-term discomfort or utility that dictate what choices someone makes.

Wearing full-time isn't the same as untraining. But it makes not untraining a lot harder than it was before wearing full-time.

[astronomodome]

What’s Up With Those Title Cards, Anyway: An Analysis

Now that Mumbo’s second episode is out I find myself thinking about these title cards again. And as much as I realize that they’re meant to be a fun nod to previous Hermitcraft seasons and Mumbo’s place in them, the items included and the context of their presence raise a whole lot of questions for me.

First of all, these aren’t blocks, they’re real items. Many of them don’t even have equivalents in the world of Minecraft (or even in Hermitcraft). Think about that. Are the blocky forms that we see on screen mere representations of a larger, more high-resolution world? A world with stickers and stamps and keys? A world where a ticket to Hermitcraft is a physical object you can hold in your hand? This certainly seems to imply so.

What is the context for these items? Where are they? Where are we? The stylistic choice was made to have them sort of resting on a solid-colored background. The selection of items makes me feel as though this is a representation of a desk of some kind, items important enough to Mumbo for him to keep around, lots of paperwork and stuff that you might find in a private office drawer. Which just raises even more questions. How does Mumbo keep these items from season to season? Where are they right now? Do they actually exist at all? (Not to mention smaller timeline questions. When did Mumbo receive the Grumbot message? When was it sent? Does the Grumbot left in Season 7 have a different consciousness than the one in Season 9, which last saw its dads only a month or two ago?)

If you follow the Rendog school of Hermitcraft lore, I guess you could say they’re kept on the Hermetheus along with all the other season-to-season holdovers and souvenirs. But that is one interpretation of many, canon to Rendog but never really canonized on a server-wide scale. Plus… if we take that interpretation in its entirety, how do the items from season 8 even exist, given that their entire world was canonically a simulation?

I also notice the relationship between the real world and the Minecraft world, the distinction between Mumbo the youtuber and Mumbo the block man. The ‘Official Rich List’ certificate mentions a ‘screenshot of a Minecraft chest’, implying that whoever wrote this certificate knows what Minecraft is from an outside perspective and finds Minecraft diamonds to be meaningless as a measure of wealth. And yet the certificate is addressed to one Mumbo K. Jumbo. The middle initial, having its origin in a highly in-character storyline during season 8, makes me feel like it could be more of a character Mumbo thing, but there’s no hard evidence.

How does Mumbo even have a picture of real-life Grian? Is this redstone incident report out-of-universe too? Who is he reporting this damage to, anyway?

And yet these are placed alongside items that are definitely from inside the world of Hermitcraft, if only the more fleshed-out version of it. A key to a mechanical car-horse would be functionless unless it was actually used, in-universe, by Mumbo the character. The ODEA manual was an idea considered but rejected by Mumbo during Season 7 in favor of tutorial videos, but perhaps this would make sense as an alternative for a world where the characters live in their Minecraft world as reality and have no capability to access the ODEA website.

Perhaps, in Mumbo’s view, there is little distinction between what we in the fandom call c!Mumbo and cc!Mumbo. We see both in-universe and out-of-universe items side-by-side, contradictory, because they are interchangeable here.

I doubt we’ll ever get any answers to these questions because obviously Mumbo made these title cards as fun little references instead of serious or purposeful lore, but I still think it’s fun to think about. Neat little worldbuilding details like this are few and far between in most mcyt content so I was foaming at the mouth when I first saw these. Well done Mumbo!

[starwarddaze]

meta's obscure game reviews part #1: DREAM UNIVERSE

since vidoes may take a bit to drop i'll be writing game reviews for more obscure myths / games that i find.

the subject of todays rant session is dream universe, a dream game / frozen soul fangame which i found at completely random while scrolling the dreamsphere wiki.

dream universe is a fan made sequel based off of the meager frozen soul lore that's available. and it does one hell of a job of expanding on it. i wont go into spoilers, since you should really experience it for yourself, but it's some fascinating worldbuilding.

unlike a traditional yume nikki fangame where you have a nexus, dream universe relies on a 'dream code' system. each dream requires a certain combination of numbers to enter it. you get these codes just by exploration or solving puzzles

this game does a good job giving enough hints to solve different dream codes on your own without the use of a wiki, which is a good thing cus this game sadly has none... there's even a small tutorial at the start of the game teaching you the basics of movement, how to use the wood plank and notepad which i don't really see with yume nikki fangames.

now the onto the dreams, the dreams are absolutely gorgeous. my favorite dream so far has to be foundations of paradise. the atmosphere of dream universe can range from serene to abstract to unsettling in a blink of an eye. if you're a visual tourist this game is for you.

as much as i love this game, there are a few downsides i do have to mention however.

this game is pc only, sorry crusty ipad kids mobile users

there's a few unfinished areas in this game, which is understandable considering it's a roblox game with an indie developer but it's still worth mentioning.

the dreams a significantly less expansive then frozen soul's dreams. this could be a pro or con depending on the person.

the game is single player only, so if you wanna explore with friends you're just outta luck.

overall, i give dream universe a solid 9/10. go play noooowwwwww!!!

[gorgonarcher]

9th Game pt2 - Daggerheart (Full Release)

Okay, so I made a gorgon archer for Daggerheart a while back in version 1 of the playtest cycle. Now, since I recently received the full release core set, I figured it might be worth doing a new one.

I'm going with the same overall worldbuilding lore I used in the first character, namely the existence of a past goddess that has fallen into a non-responsive state which is the origin of the gorgons. See the link above for expanded lore. This is also similar to the natural and corrupted versions of gorgons I used in the Fantasy AGE build I did just prior to this one.

This is going to go in a bit of a different direction, from my original Daggerheart build. For one thing, I'm going to make this one a rogue rather than a ranger, and for another, this book has rules for mixed ancestry that will make for an interesting way to veer into a semi-unique ancestry.

An interesting thing here is that while the game encourages you to think about what kind of character you want to play, it does not consider "Concept" as one of the steps. Instead it starts right away with picking a class. Here are the steps of the finished portion of the game:

Step 1: Choose your Class

Step 2: Choose your Heritage

Step 3: Assign Character Traits

Step 4: Record additional character information

Step 5: Choose your starting equipment

Step 6: Create your background

Step 7: Create your experiences

Step 8: Choose your domain cards

Step 9: Create your connections

Step 1 - Choose Your Class

As I said earlier, we're making a Rogue. So, next we pick a sub class, and that's a choice between The Nightwalker as a sort of shadowdancer equivalent and The Syndicate as a person who has a large network of contacts. Now I just made a gorgon archer that was heavy into social stuff and contacts, so I'm going to go with the Nightwalker in this case.

Interestingly, each class has their own specialized character sheet, but also there is a generic character sheet as well. At current moment, I don't think there's a particular reason I have to use either the generic or the specific class character sheets, but the text assumes you have them. This is reasonable, but as someone who has been using word processors over character sheets for around 30 years now, I get antsy when I feel like I'm being told to use a sheet.

This is entirely an issue on my side and not really something a developer should have to account for.

In any case, this step is broken into substeps beyond just choosing a sub-class. All told this step is broken down into:

Pick a class

Pick a subclass

Grab the appropriate character sheet, character guide, and subclass card.

Record your level (1)

Record character details: name, pronouns, any bits of appearance you already have in mind.

Record class features (unless you do have the appropriate character sheet, in which case they're already there for you.)

So that the third and last bits here are interesting as the third assumes you have the character sheet and the last acknowledges that you might not have the character sheet.

One thing to note about the heavy insistence on using their character sheet is that they have created a clever little physical aid which points out what the different bits of information are used for in the game. They call it their sidecar, and of course the various boxes don't line up if you don't use their character sheet. So, it's basically a tutorial tool for a new player.

So, this is what we got for the Rogue:

Tatalia Rathis (yes, I've been playing Might and Magic 7) - She/Her

Domains

Midnight - Shadows, secrecy, and other such things.

Grace - Charisma, storytelling, deception, and performances.

Starting Evasion: 12

Starting Hit Points: 6

Class Items: Choice of a forgery tools or a grappling hook. (I'm choosing the grappling hook)

Hope Feature: Rogue's Dodge

Class Features:

Cloaked

Sneak Attack

And Nightwalker gets us the following features:

Spellcast Trait: Finesse (both Rogues have this)

Foundation Feature: Shadow Stepper

Step 2 - Choose your Heritage

This is a combination of your physical heritage and your upbringing and this is where I'm going to be using mechanics that weren't available when I did the character at beta.

So with mixed ancestries there's two steps:

Determine the combination: which two ancestries are you choosing?

Choose features.

Each ancestry has two features and you'll choose the top feature of one and the bottom feature of another. So you can't just choose both top or both bottom features. Also, in determining the mix you determine what you're called. This could be "goblin-orc", "goblin with orc heritage", or a unique name such as "toothling."

What's fun about this is that they have created an easy way to homebrew new ancestries by mixing and matching elements of existing ones. And, yes, you can say this is due to mixed blood, but you can also say you're just an unusual heritage that is its own thing. And we're kinda doing the latter with our gorgons.

So, the bottom feature I'm certain of and that's the Dreadful Visage of the Infernis, the demon-touched/blooded people of the setting. The name pretty much says everything about why I'm picking it to represent a gorgon of all things.

Now, the top feature I have a couple of thoughts on and by the time I've written this far have "narrowed it down" (pinch of salt) to the following:

Representing scaly skin:

Drakona - Scales

Dwarf - Thick Skin

Galapa - Shell

Giant - Endurance

Representing agility and reflexes:

Elf - Quick Reactions

Goblin - Surefooted

Katari - Feline Instincts

Representing mobility

Faun - Caprine Leap

Simiah - Natural Climber

Okay. I don't often do these gorgon archers as the cinematic type of gorgon you see in Clash of the Titans where the character is a snake from the waist down. I also much more rarely do the thing where the gorgon has wings as in the actual myths, but that's not going to happen here either. Anyway, with a snake-from-waist-on style of gorgon, the idea of mobility seems the most important. So, I'm going to look at Faun and Simiah to represent this sort of gorgon.

I'm going to go with the Faun's ability and fluffing it, or "flavoring" it as Daggerheart says, as a the agility of the snake body allowing her to pass small obstacles and scale heights with ease. She's not usually jumping (though snakes can do that too) but is more flowing across in that characteristic way snakes have.

As a further note, the character I made in beta was very much humanoid with two legs and all. So either this is a re-written world-lore or ... and I like this option better ... there is a wide variety of gorgons out there. Some with thicker scales, some with quicker reactions, and some with the snake-tail bodies. Heck, perhaps the Dread Visage is also not a universal trait.

Now, with that done, we have to choose our Community, which is basically the upbringing of our character. The character I made for beta was very much a wandering, nomadic sort searching for answers and avoiding people that think she'd make a good sacrifice in some nefarious ritual. So for this new character, we're going to pick someone who's remained mostly in one area.

So the options are as follows:

Highborne - elegance, opulence, and prestige

Loreborne - academic and political acumen

Orderborne - a focus on discipline and faith

Ridgeborne - harsh rocky environments

Seaborne - coastlines, islands, lakefronts, or river people

Slyborne - criminal underworld

Underborne - physical underworld, subterranean upbringing

Wanderborne - nomadic and lots of traveling

Wildborne - dwelling deep in a forest

I'm ruling out Highborne, Loreborne, Orderborne, Slyborne, Underborne, and Wanderborne right off the bat. I don't want her to be an explicit criminal, I did wandering before, and I also don't want her part of any sort of privilege or high authority. And the physical underground just isn't interesting to me. That said, the idea of a noble going rogue and breaking away from their family is interesting.

Moving on, the two I'm most interested in are Ridgeborne and Wildborne. Both of these lean into decisions we've already made with the ancestry and class. With Ridgeborne giving more ability to deal with difficult terrain and Wildborne giving some stealth features.

I also can't lie and say the Seaborne's thing about sensing the ebb and flow of life isn't interesting.

However, I'm going with the Ridgeborne and giving it some overlap a bit with the ranger from the prior Daggerheart character I made.

The book mentions languages, but in the sense that there's not a big focus on them, leaving it up to the individual tables if they want to make a list of different languages to track or not.

Step 3 - Assign Character Traits

The game has six core stats given along side a trio of verbs to give people an idea of what each trait applies to. These are:

Agility - Sprint, Leap, Maneuver

Strength - Lift, Smash, Grapple

Finesse - Control, Hide, Tinker

Instinct - Perceive, Sense, Navigate

Presence - Charm, Perform, Deceive

Knowledge - Recall, Analyze, Comprehend

As a note, I relieved and happy to see that "Constitution" and "Stamina" don't make an appearance. There's a few games that make those traits dynamic and interesting, Fantasy AGE for example ties Constitution to several activities, but for the most part, these stats just sort of sit there and provide boosts to HP.

When I read "core six stats" I will admit to an inward groan expecting renamed D&D Ability Scores. So, this is a pleasant shift. It's been long enough since I did the beta-test version that I'm not entirely clear on whether or not this was the case back then... I'm guessing it was and... okay, I went back to the other sheet and confirmed it was indeed this way back then. Still, the kudos is worth repeating.

Okay, now, we need to distribute some trait modifiers across these stats. We have set array of: +2, +1, +1, 0, 0, and -1. Checking, I see that longbows and shortbows are associated with Agility, which as we see above is also associated with movement, so that's going to be my primary association. Finesse as the Rogue's spellcasting trait and Instinct; in relation to the idea of a survivalist in rocky, mountainous area; come next. So... now it comes to which I'm the least interested in to get the -1. And I think it's going to be Strength, which is a bit predictable, agreed, but it seems to fit the most.

That gives us:

Agility +2

Strength -1

Finesse +1

Instinct +1

Presence +0

Knowledge +0

Step 4 - Additional Character Information

We covered some of this in part 1, actually. This is starting traits and includes the following:

Evasion: 12

Hit Points: 6

Stress: 6

Hope: 2

Step 5 - Choose your starting equipment

The game has us choose:

A choice of weapons: one 2H primary weapon or one 1H primary weapon and one 1H secondary weapon.

One armor

Other starting items, one of which I mentioned in Step 1

The recommended choice for a rogue is a dagger with a paired secondary dagger. But we're going to go with the shortbow which is a two-handed weapon. This does mean that they don't have a melee weapon, but I cross checked the suggested weapon sets of the ranger and it shows just the shortbow without another weapon.

Given the flexible ranges used, that's likely going to work out fine. In a lot of games, like Fabula Ultima or Monster of the Week, I wouldn't even really worry about that at all. It's just the heavy association with D&D the developers of this game have that make me suspicious about having a character with just a ranged weapon.

As to armor, there's four varieties at first level: Gambeson Armor, Leather Armor, Chainmail Armor, and Full Plate Mail Armor.

Chain Mail reduces Evasion while Plate Mail reduces Evasion and Agility. So both of those are out. It comes to a choice between Gambeson and Leather. D&D brain says "well, clearly leather is just better than padded" but that's not the case here. The Gambeson provides a bonus to Evasion while Leather does not. Both provide an Armor score of 3 while Leather has a slightly better damage threshold.

Now, to explain, characters have a small amount of Hit Points which only get marked off when an attack surpasses a character's damage thresholds. This feels like they designed this to still have the fun of rolling lots of dice, but still keep hit point accounting to a low amount. Armor Score can be spent to reduce the severity of an incoming attack so perhaps you'll only take stress rather than actual hit point damage. Meanwhile, Evasion is how you actually avoid being hit.

I'm going with the Gambeson, both because I like gambesons and because I like the increased evasion.

Side note, I am unsure why I've been capitalizing the names of types of armor. Eh... whatever, not important.

We now look at other starting items which for a rogue, according to the guide we get:

a torch

50 feet of rope

basic supplies

"a handful of gold"

A choice between a Minor Health or Minor Stamina Potion

A choice between a set of forgery tools or a grappling hook

I'm going with the Minor Stamina potion to clear Stress and just bank on the idea of avoiding getting hit.

Step 6 - Create your Background

Now we have to answer some story prompts that on first glance rubbed me the wrong way because they make certain assumptions about a person playing a rogue. However, the textbook makes clear that these are placeholder prompts and can be replaced if you wish. So, I'm going to tweak this a bit by stating the original question and revamping it to a different take.

What did you get caught doing that got you exiled from your home community?

Tatalia is not an exile from her community, but her community itself has been pushed into the mountains in order to survive as the pleasant farmlands they used to live in have been fought over repeatedly in the past few generation by two or three different nations that simply ignored the people already living there. It wasn't there farmlands and homesteads being trampled, so they didn't care.

You used to have a different life, but you've tried to leave it behind. Who from your past is still chasing you?

This assumes a criminal background again. I'm going to go with it partially and say that she did end up with a group of fellows that have been harassing the forces of all the people that use their homeland as a battleground. They were named as bandits and the group was scattered. Distinctive as she is, it was easy for some description of her to get out. So there's probably some low-key bounties from one or more nations on her even though she wasn't skilled enough to be one one the major thorns. She's just recognizable and maybe she knows where the others are.

Who from your past were you most sad to say goodbye to?

I'm going to say that she was very close with her mother and a younger brother, though her father has been dead for ten years. Her mother had tried to talk her out of getting involved with the resistance trying to poke the invaders in their ancestral lands, just be focused on making a living out of the game they could hunt and food they could grow on the mountain. That conversation ended in a bitter fashion and Tatalia is a bit to ashamed to make it easy to go back and face her mother.

Step 7 - Create Your Experiences

This step is the most Fate like of the set so far as experiences are short phrases describing achievements, descriptions, and other traits which translate into something that gives the character guidance moving forward. I'm very fond of Fate Aspects and have already dealt with two versions of that system here, one rather recently. So I've linked those discussions so you can go see the discussion of Aspects there.

In this case, I'm going with the following two experiences:

Always Keeping an Eye Out

Everyone deserves respect

This covers her watchfulness as well as her snake-hair and her bitterness at how her people have been shoved aside from where they used to live and her response to it being one of wanting to protect other people's lives from abuse. In fact, Keeping an Eye Out is double edged in that she is always looking for ways to help but is also capable of sustaining a grudge.

Each of these is given a value of +2. She will be able to spend some of her hope in order to add that number to a roll.

You might start to feel like your Experiences no longer match your character, or else didn't give the flavor you expected. In this case, they can easily be changed simply by working with the GM to rework those elements.

Step 8 - Choose your Domain Cards

This is where we start getting into your character's signature gameplay abilities. The stuff that's beyond the basic elements every person with your class, ancestry, and upbringing have. Each character has two domains each of which have 3 first level powers for a total of 6 and we choose two of those.

Oddly, despite putting her Presence at 0, I'm going to give Tatalia two cards that are somewhat charisma flavored. They would still use her Finesse as the Spellcasting trait, however.These powers are:

Uncanny Disguise

Enrapture

In both cases, I assume that there is a bit of magic going on. I'm going to assume the disguise even lets her hide her snake-tail appearance for a bit... similar to how naga function now in Legend of Five Rings. And Enrapture is a short duration magical charm as well.

Step 9 - Create Your Connections

These are links between yourself and your teammates, something that is increasingly becoming standard to build at session 0 instead of having everybody just happen to be on hand for the initiating event.

I'm going to edit these in later as it is currently getting late and I am already operating on low sleep. Similarly, I will likely edit in a level up theory-crafting later, as there's some interesting mechanics in play here. I'll also try to get some photos of the cards later to paste here. And I'll probably create a party as well.

For now, here's the Compilation

Tatalia Rathis - 1st Level Gorgon Rogue

Gorgon (Faun/Infernis)

Ridgeborne

Rogue: Nightwalker

Traits:

Serpentine (Caprine Leap) - Faun

Dread Visage - Infernis

Steady - Ridgeborne

Cloaked - Rogue

Sneak Attack - Rogue

Shadow Stepper - Nightwalker

Stats

Agility +2

Strength -1

Finesse +1 (Spellcasting Trait)

Instinct +1

Presence +0

Knowledge +0

Proficiency: 1

Damage and Health

Minor Threshold: 6

Major Threshold: 12

Hit Points: 6

Stress: 6

Defense

Armor: Gambeson

Evasion: 13 (12 base, +1 for Gambeson)

Armor Score: 3 (Gambeson)

Experiences

Always keeping an eye out +2

Everyone deserves respect +2

Weapon

Shortbow - Agility, Far, d6+3 Physical, 2-handed

Domain Cards

Grace: Enrapture

Midnight: Uncanny Disguise

Returning to Part 9 - Connections

Okay, editing in connections, first of all, I want to note that making a random set of characters is kinda easy due to the way these cards work. Simply shuffle the cards and deal them out. Boom, instant random character.

So let's get to that and make 3 party members for Tatalia. I'm ruling out the origin cards I used for Tatalia. So no Faun, Infernis, Ridgeborn, or Rogue. I'll also redraw if I get two of the same class.

I did have to re-draw once because I got both types of bard, but the end result is:

Goblin Loreborne Wordsmith (Bard) - Named Dale Bracada

Human Wildborne Wayfinder (Ranger) - Named Deyja Eofel

Giant Seaborne Stalwart (Guardian) - Named Tula Barrow

This is a mix of pretty standard archetypes with one outlyer in the form of the Goblin bard, who I choose to imagine is some sort of storyteller such as the one played by John Hurt in Jim Henson's Storyteller. I'm going to go ahead and pull their Domain cards too, randomizing that as well, though I'm going to leave off the Enrapture card so that it's unique to Tatalia.

Dale Bracada - Inspiring Words and the Book of Ava (Book of Ava has three spells: Power Push, Tava's Armor, and Ice Spike)

Deyja Eofel - Untouchable and Gifted Tracker

Tula Barrow - Whirlwind and Forceful Push

As for weapons:

Dale is going to get a Scepter magic weapon and a small dagger in their off hand. As well as a Gambeson.

Deyja is going to get a Battleaxe and Leather Armor

Tula Barrow is going to get a Cutlass and a Round Shield with Chain Mail.

So, let's get to the connections Tatalia has to the other three.

What did I recently convince you to do that got us both in trouble? Tatalia convinced Tula to help her raid an enemy caravan to free some captives. And now Tula's also been noticed by the invading authorities.

What have I learned about you that I keep a secret? Tatalia has recently learned that Deyja is a deserter from one of the invading armies, but she keeps it secret to avoid getting him in trouble.

Who do you know from your past and how have they influenced your feelings about me? Dale has encountered and spoken to the captain of a military patrol who made regular trips to the mountain villages to keep a thumb on Tatalia's people and it's made Dale feel a bit of pity for Tatalia. Unwanted pity.

Now I'm going to update this and then start editing again to do the theoretical leveling in a bit after I read the process a bit more thoroughly.

Level Ups

So, leveling is based on milestones and as you level up you increase two things: your level and your tier.

Tier 1 - Just first level

Tier 2 - Levels 2-4

Tier 3 - Levels 5-7

Tier 4 - Levels 8-10

Each tier increases Proficiency, adds a new Experience, and unmarks any Stat that was improved so you can improve them again.

So, some things here. The game is only 10 levels. At each tier you get some specific improvements and at each level you get a new card and are able to choose between various improvements. There's a limited number of times each option can be taken. They are as follows:

Improve two stats +1, can be taken 3 times, can't apply to the same stats more than once

Improve Hit Points +1, can be taken twice.

Improve Stress +1, can be taken twice.

Improve two Experiences +1, can be taken once.

Choose an additional Domain card, can be taken once.

Improve Evasion +1, can be taken once.

And at tiers 3 and 4, these other options:

Take a subclass specialization option, can be taken once, prevents multiclass this tier.

Improve Proficiency +1, can be taken once - counts as two options

Multiclass, can be taken once - counts as two options, prevents specializtion this tier. Can't multiclass more than once at all.

I'm not likely to multiclass here, but we'll see. As to Proficiency, this also goes up at each tier. So you have the following:

Tier 1 - Proficiency 1

Tier 2 - Proficiency 2

Tier 3 - Proficiency 3

Tier 4 - Proficiency 4

So, you can get up to a Proficiency +6 if you take both the options to do so at Tier 3 and 4. Each point of proficiency increases the number of damage dice rolled when you make a weapon attack.

Now, I really like this system because there are more advancement options than you have ability to select and that makes the build an interesting approach. Also, one of my gripes with D&D is that it's very cookie cutter and a lot of levels with a lot of classes you don't make decisions, you just right stuff down.

Okay, on to the Leveling.

Tatalia Rathis - Tier 2

Level 2

Basic improvements

Tier 2 - +1 Proficiency

Tier 2 - a new experience: Your friend in the shadows

New Domain Card - Shadowbind

All Damage Thresholds increase by 1 since they are based on level.

The shadowbind allows her to cause several people to be restrained and it feels like something that can be easily reworked as a petrifying gaze.

For the optional improvements I'm taking the following:

Improve two stats: +1 Finesse and +1 Presence

Take another Domain card: Grace - Tell No Lies

Level 3

New Domain Card: Chokehold

Damage Thresholds increase

Chokehold feels like something appropriate to a sneaky gorgon rogue who is snake from the waist down.

Gain +1 to two Experiences, "Everyone Deserves Respect" and "Your Friend in the Shadows"

Permanently gain +1 Stress

Level 4

New Domain Card: Stealth Expertise

Damage Thresholds increase

And now she has 6 Domain cards, and her Loadout is limited to 5 cards, so she's always going to have one in her "Vault" for now, but that number will increase.

Gain +1 to two stats: +1 Agility and +1 Knowledge

Permanently gain +1 Evasion

Gear

One neat thing is that the game does organize weapons and such into tiers, so I am going to grab some improved tier armor and weapons for her as she levels, assuming she'll find appropriate tier gear before the end of that tier. In her case I'm going with the following:

Finehair Bow - Very Far, Agility, s6+5 physical, two-handed, Reliable: +1 attack

Tyris Soft Armor - 8/18, Armor 5, Quiet: +2 to move silently

I'm less certain about the other random loot that can be found.

Tatalia Rathis - 4th Level Gorgon Rogue

Gorgon (Faun/Infernis)

Ridgeborne

Rogue: Nightwalker

Traits:

Serpentine (Caprine Leap) - Faun

Dread Visage - Infernis

Steady - Ridgeborne

Cloaked - Rogue

Sneak Attack - Rogue

Shadow Stepper - Nightwalker

Stats

Agility +3

Strength -1

Finesse +2 (Spellcasting Trait)

Instinct +1

Presence +1

Knowledge +1

Proficiency: 2

Damage and Health

Minor Threshold: 12

Major Threshold: 22

Hit Points: 6

Stress: 7

Defense

Armor: Tyris Soft Armor

Evasion: 13

Armor Score: 5 (Tyris Soft Armor)

Bonus: Quiet, +2 to moving silently

Experiences

Always keeping an eye out +2

Everyone deserves respect +3

Your friend in the shadows +3

Weapon

Finehair Bow- Agility, Very Far, d6+5 Physical, 2-handed, Reliable +1 Attack

Domain Cards

Grace: Enrapture, Tell No Lies,

Midnight: Uncanny Disguise, Shadowbind, Chokehold, Stealth Expertise

Typical Loadout: Tell No Lies, Uncanny Disguise, Shadowbind, Stealth Expertise, Chokehold

Typical Vault: Enrapture

Tatalia Rathis - Tier 3

Level 5

Tier 3 - +1 Proficiency

Tier 3 - New Experience: Justice, one arrow at a time

Tier 3 - Clear marked stats

Level 5 - Domain card: Invisibility

Invisibility feels very useful to a sneaky rogue. Note that it is a level 3 card, but the level 5 cards didn't feel really like what I wanted.

I'm also going to immediately improve her Proficiency by +1 using both her options this level.

Level 6

Domain Card: Share the Burden

Share the Burden just feels appropriate to someone who is trying to help people around her.

Improve two stats +1 Agility, +1 Instinct

Gain the Specialization Nightwalker trait

Level 7

Domain Card: Midnight Touched

This means she is encouraged to have 4 Midnight cards in her Loadout, at least while this card is there, because otherwise it does nothing. Every Domain has one of these "Touched" cards that give passive benefits as long as you lean into that domain.

Permanently gain +1 Evasion

Improve two stats +1 Finesse, +1 Presence

And for Gear I'm sticking with her Tier 2 weapons for now, I like their secondary effects.

Tatalia Rathis - 7th Level Gorgon Rogue

Gorgon (Faun/Infernis)

Ridgeborne

Rogue: Nightwalker

Traits:

Serpentine (Caprine Leap) - Faun

Dread Visage - Infernis

Steady - Ridgeborne

Cloaked - Rogue

Sneak Attack - Rogue

Shadow Stepper - Nightwalker Foundation

Dark Cloud - Nightwalker Specialization

Adrenaline - Nightwalker Specialization

Stats

Agility +4

Strength -1

Finesse +3 (Spellcasting Trait)

Instinct +2

Presence +2

Knowledge +1

Proficiency: 4

Damage and Health

Minor Threshold: 15

Major Threshold: 25

Hit Points: 6

Stress: 7

Defense

Armor: Tyris Soft Armor

Evasion: 14

Armor Score: 5 (Tyris Soft Armor)

Bonus: Quiet, +2 to moving silently

Experiences

Always keeping an eye out +2

Everyone deserves respect +3

Your friend in the shadows +3

Justice, one arrow at a time +2

Weapon

Finehair Bow- Agility, Very Far, d6+5 Physical, 2-handed, Reliable +1 Attack

Domain Cards

Grace: Enrapture, Tell No Lies, Invisibility, Share the Burden

Midnight: Uncanny Disguise, Shadowbind, Chokehold, Stealth Expertise, Midnight-Touched

Tactical:

Loadout: Invisibility, Midnight Touched, Shadowbind, Stealth Expertise, Chokehold

Vault: Enrapture, Share the Burden, Tell No Lies, Uncanny Disguise

Social Infiltration

Loadout: Enrapture, Uncanny Disguise, Tell No Lies, Stealth Expertise, Shadowbind

Vault: Chokehold, Midnight Touched, Share the Burden, Invisibility

Survival

Loadout: Share the Burden, Midninght Touched, Stealth Expertise, Shadowbind, Uncanny Disguise

Vault: Enrapture, Tell No Lies, Invisibility, Chokehold

Tatalia Rathis - Tier 4

Level 8

Tier 4 - +1 Proficiency

Tier 4 - New Experience: Darkness, kind and secret

Tier 4 - Clear marked stats

Level 8 - Domain Card: Shadowhunter

This is going to aim for being in the dark quite often. And for the level options. I'm once again going straight for the Proficiency boost.

Level 9

Domain Card: Night Terror

Night Terror affecting people that can see her to horrify them definitely feels like a gorgon thing.

Extra Domain Card: Master of The Craft, immediately add to Everyone Deserves Respect and Darkness, Kind and Secret

Give a +1 to two stats: Finesse and Instinct

Master of The Craft is an interesting case. It permanently increases the bonuses of one of your Expereinces by +3 or two of them by +2, I chose the +2. Then the card just sits in your Vault, forever, never takes up space in your Loadout.

The Blade domain has a similar card called Vitality that does the same thing, where you choose two out +1 Stress, +1 Hit Points, and Increased Damage Thresholds.

I really like this design space. Yes, you're giving up an option for an active power at that point, but you're trading it out for a permanent boost that you don't need to put in your Loadout.

As a note, on scanning through the cards, these are the only two cards that work like this, which is interesting.

Level 10

Domain Card: Eclipse

Yeah, I definitely like Eclipse for this character.

Permanently give +1 Evasion

Nightwalker Mastery trait

And for gear, let's look at Tier 4 stuff and I'll bring her to the Dunamis Silkchain and the Aantari Bow.

Tatalia Rathis - 10th Level Gorgon Rogue

Gorgon (Faun/Infernis)

Ridgeborne

Rogue: Nightwalker

Traits:

Serpentine (Caprine Leap) - Faun

Dread Visage - Infernis

Steady - Ridgeborne

Cloaked - Rogue

Sneak Attack - Rogue

Shadow Stepper - Nightwalker Foundation

Dark Cloud - Nightwalker Specialization

Adrenaline - Nightwalker Specialization

Fleeting Shadow - Nightwalker Mastery

Vanishing Act - Nightwalker Mastery

Stats

Agility +4

Strength -1

Finesse +4 (Spellcasting Trait)

Instinct +3

Presence +2

Knowledge +1

Proficiency: 6

Damage and Health

Minor Threshold: 15

Major Threshold: 25

Hit Points: 6

Stress: 7

Defense

Armor: Dunamis Silkchain

Evasion: 16 (17 with Shadowhunter)

Armor Score: 5 (Tyris Soft Armor)

Bonus: Timeslowing, Mark Armor to add 1d4 to Evasion against incoming attack.

Experiences

Always keeping an eye out +2

Everyone deserves respect +5

Your friend in the shadows +3

Justice, one arrow at a time +2

Darkness, kind and secret +4

Weapon

Aantari Bow- Finesse, Far, d6+11 Physical, 2-handed, Reliable +1 Attack

Domain Cards

Grace: Enrapture, Tell No Lies, Invisibility, Share the Burden, Master of The Craft

Midnight: Uncanny Disguise, Shadowbind, Chokehold, Stealth Expertise, Midnight-Touched, Shadowhunter, Night Terror, Eclipse

Tactical:

Loadout: Invisibility, Midnight Touched, Shadowbind, Stealth Expertise, Shadowhunter

Vault: Enrapture, Share the Burden, Tell No Lies, Uncanny Disguise, Master of The Craft

Social Infiltration

Loadout: Enrapture, Uncanny Disguise, Tell No Lies, Stealth Expertise, Shadowbind

Vault: Chokehold, Midnight Touched, Share the Burden, Invisibility, Master of The Craft

Survival

Loadout: Share the Burden, Midninght Touched, Stealth Expertise, Shadowbind, Uncanny Disguise

Vault: Enrapture, Tell No Lies, Invisibility, Chokehold, Master of The Craft

Assault

Loadout: Midnight Touched, Shadow Hunter, Eclipse, Night Terror, Shadowbind

Vault: Enrapture, Share the Burden, Tell No Lies, Uncanny Disguise, Invisibility, Stealth Expertise, Chokehold, Master of The Craft

Okay... some definite things I love about this. Making this as an option means the last level is much easier to set up as a story capper as compared to the capstones in a lot of level-based games. The flexibility is going to make for a lot of variety. I very much could have chosen not to lean heavily into Nightwalker and focused on basic stuff. I could also have leaned more heavily into increasing Stress and possibly boosting Hit Points. And I was definitely invested in doing high damage given I took both proficiency boosts available to her.

What about her Party

I'm going to go ahead and level up her party using random chance to account for the unexpected directions a campaign would go and also to make sure it doesn't take long to do. Just going to note the choices. I'm choosing Domain Cards, but for improvements I'm mixing choosing and rolling. And I'm not naming experiences so just a bare bones summary.

Dale Bracada

Level 2 - Book of Vargas, Extra Domain Card: Troublemaker, +1 Stress

Level 3 - Hypnotic Shimmer, Improve Presence and Knowledge

Level 4 - Book of Exota, +1 Stress

Level 5 - Thought Delver, Improve Presence and Instinct, +1 to two experiences.

Level 6 - Teleport, +1 Hit Point, Extra Domain: Book of Sitil

Level 7 - Endless Charisma, +1 Stress, Upgarded Wordsmith

Level 8 - Astral Projection, Improve Presence and Knowledge, +1 Stress

Level 9 - Copycat, Extra Domain Card: Safe Haven, +1 Stress

Level 10 - Notorious, Wordsmith Mastery, +1 Hit Points

Summary:

Grace: Inspiring Words, Hypnotic Shimmer, Thought Delver, Endless Charisma, Astral Projection, Copycat, Notorious

Codex: Book of Ava, Book of Vargas, Book of Exota, Teleport, Book of Sitil, Safe Haven

Stress: 11

Hit Points 7

Master Wordsmith

+3 Presence, +2 Knowledge, +1 Instinct

Deyja Eofel

Level 2 - Natural Familiar, +1 to two Experiences, Extra Domain: Strategic Approach

Level 3 - Tactician, +1 Hit Point, +1 Stress

Level 4 - Healing Field, Improve Agility and Strength, +1 Hit Point

Level 5 - Wild Fortress, Multiclass: Druid (Warden of Renewal)

Level 6 - Recovery, Extra Domain: Rune Ward, Improve Strength and Instinct

Level 7 - Wild Surge, +1 Stress, +1 Evasion

Level 8 - Rejuvenation Barrier, Wayfinder Specialization, Improve Agility and Finesse

Level 9 - Splintering Blow, Extra Domain: Premonition, +1 Stress

Level 10 - Deathrun, +1 Evasion, Improve Strength and Instinct

Summary:

Arcana: Rune Ward, Premonition

Bone: Untouchable, Tactician, Recovery, Splintering Blow, Deathrun

Sage: Gifted Tracker, Natural Familiar, Healing Field, Wild Fortress, Wild Surge, Rejuvenation Barrier

Stress: 10

Hit Points: 8

Evasion: 14

Wayfinder Specialization

Warden of Renewal Foundation

Two +3 Experiences

+3 Strength, +2 Agility, +2 Instinct, +1 Finesse

Tula Barrow

Level 2 - A Soldiers Bond, Extra Domain: Bold Presence, +1 Hit Point

Level 3 - Critical Inspiration, Improve Strength and Presence, +1 Hit Point

Level 4 - Fortified Armor, Improve Knowledge and Instinct, +1 Stress

Level 5, Armorer, Extra Domain: Rousing Strike, Improve Strength and Presence

Level 6 - Vitality (Damage Thresholds and Stress), +1 Hit Point, Improve Knowledge and Instinct

Level 7 - Valor Touched, +1 Hit Point, Stalwart Specialization

Level 8 - Battle Cry, Extra Domain: Rise Up, Improve Strength and Presence

Level 9 - Hold the Line, Stalwart Specialization, +1 Hit Point

Level 10 - Unbreakable, +1 Hit Point, +1 Stress

Summary

Blade: Whirlwind, A Soldier's Bond, Fortified Armor, Vitality, Battle Cry

Valor: Forceful Push, Bold Presence, Armorer, Rousing Strike, Rise Up, Valor Touched, Hold the Line, Unbreakable

Stress: 10

Hit Points: 14

Stalwart Specialization

Stalwart Mastery

+3 Strength, +3 Presence, +2 Knowledge, +2 Instinct

All in all, I like the flexibility, both the tactical flexibility of shifting loadout and the build flexibility so that you don't feel that one guardian or rogue is the same as every other one.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Writer Q&A Tag Game

Thank you @sunset-a-story for ALSO tagging me way back in August. I AM SO SORRY

1. What motivates you to write?

It itchy, itchy urge to create something. I NEED it OUT. I MUST make sense of it ALL. The thoughts need ordering and putting together to maximize the happy chemicals. I see something I like that someone else made and I get jealous so I must do something like that, but MY way, and BETTER. It all makes me very itchy (restless).

2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I skimmed my entire 3rd draft (so far) to pick a line. There are a lot of good ones but none I liked more than the rest - I couldn't choose. So... I know I've already shared this one but dammit. It is a kickass line. It's also the first line of WIPVII - and you do not know what devils I sold my soul to to escape THAT writer's block.

I will live, I tell myself through the salt water in my eyes and the sting of the south wind on my face. This will make for a good story one day.

5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

Banter and wit. Which is funny because I always thought that was the thing I would struggle most with - I was the academic overachiever who took herself too seriously in school. But when I reread my drafts there is something that makes me laugh in nearly every scene. Most of my highlighted lines are banter or retorts.

6. What do you enjoy most about the Writeblr community?

I love seeing writeblr content on my dash and I looooove getting interactions when I liveblog my writing. It is so nice to be able to share this with people who love it too (rather than inflicting it on my poor irl friends who are not writers). I just love all you Writeblr friends so much!

7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

A 2x3.5' and a 3x5.5' whiteboard with a rainbow's worth of whiteboard markers in different thicknesses for brainstorming, family trees, timelines. My sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, and YouTube drawing tutorials for my maps and concept art. MS Word, dark mode, Times New Roman pt 11, with comments enabled for my manuscripts, outlines (bullet points), and worldbuilding notes. Subfolders within subfolders stored on my PC to organize all my Word docs. Two separate USBs which my completed manuscripts are saved to (in case something happens to my computer AND one of the USBs).

I have yet to find any worldbuilding or map making software (and it hasn't been for lack of looking) that gives me enough flexibility. I have yet to find any writing software that has features Word doesn't but that would actually help my process rather than overwhelm me.

I do want to write out a draft of WIPVII by hand at some point (though with my penchant for writing hand cramps this might be doomed). I also want to try an electric typewriter.

8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

WIPVII doesn't have very complex worldbuilding (there is no magic and most of it is ripped from real world history) but I do always love it when authors tell us what way the wind is coming, what smells it carries, what the view is in the distance, whose lands those are... that kind of stuff. Really creates a sense of place. I spent a lot of time mapping all this out in my own novel and I am very happy with it! The description feels so rich!

9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

Learn more about the craft. Writing is problem solving. If you aren't happy with something figure out why - the mechanics and technique behind writing. If you're still stuck learn even more. There are so many great, free resources on tumblr, youtube, blogs, pinterest (though it is most stolen from tumblr) even twitter and tiktok.

Also, learn how to filter out what advice is helpful now versus what should wait for later so you don't get overwhelmed. If you haven't even written a first draft yet don't bother with pacing, exposition, line editing, or let alone how to query. Just focus on the macro-stuff like plot and character arcs.

Tagging with the lightest brush on the shoulder these nine alleged humans: @cheeto-flavoured-pasta, @alnaperera, @bluberimufim, @daisywords, @boundedsea, @full-on-sam, @writernopal, @ashen-crest, @surroundedbypearls

[fuzzy-oooze]

hmm. here's some tips:

1-steal like an artist. Everything in the soulsborne games is blatantly stolen from Berserk from the characters to monster to town names and they get away with it because it's all remixed.

2-EXAGRATION and SYNTHESIS are your two greatest tools. Making things more extreme or combining two ideas together are easy ways to be creative. Even if you think that two ideas are mutually exclusive, try to combine them anyways.

3-another easy way to be creative is to decide on several themes of X vs Y (such as, say, order v chaos, magic v technology) and mix 'n' match 'em 'till you have every combination

4-learn from history. Truth really is stranger than fiction, like those guys who tried to make a mechanical jesus.

5-always try to ask "well, if X, does that mean they can Y?", if they can create water with magic, does that mean that deserts are no object anymore?

6-just fuckin' stream of consciousness your ideas and things you think are cool down and then decipher what you can actually do with them.

7-EVERY worldbuilder is just following Rule of Cool, it's just that for a lot of us it, being realistic is part of the cool. 8-try to figure out a way to put in just anything you find cool into it. You don't have to actually go through with it, it's just an experiment to flex your brain some. 9-let your personal biases color it, it's for you, after all, be cringe. 10-when in doubt, look it up. Use youtube tutorials and Fantasy Name Generator. the greatest part of living in a society is that other people have had the same problems as you and have already thought of answers.

Here's something that might help:

hehe evil time :3

*begins working on my own TTRPG*

Oh my god I did that! I'm still doing it! it's mostly done though.

[worldbuildingworkshop]

Worldbuilding Tutorial #9: Example World B

Intro This world, as usual, will be a much better example for building your standard fantasy world than World A was, for the tutorial on government an on others. I will use a couple different methods of building governments just to demonstrate examples of how to come up with these things. 

------------

Region #1: Warm Coastal Region This is a region with a small physical area but a high population density and a lot of resources moving through. It’s a trade city with a lot of money flowing and a lot of access to unusual services and goods, and thus the government needs to be able to support all of that. A lot of the day-to-day trade affairs are governed by guilds; there are many major guilds in the city - for shipbuilding, carpentry, theater, blacksmithing, dyers, bakers, you name it - and individual guilds will tax their members for funds by which the guild operates. Guild members are expected to abide by certain rules about where they can conduct their business, who they can conduct it with, etc; operating in a craft without belonging to the guild is not quite illegal but heavily penalized. In return the guild will help protect them and their families and support them in some situations - especially legally but in other ways, including monetary ways, as well. The guilds have a lot of power in the city, and while they do not run it and nor are the guild masters de facto on the ruling council, they have a lot of weight to throw around if they choose to. They also compete heavily with one another (and within themselves at times) and are not beneath sabotage and subterfuge in order to get an edge.

There are two portions to the actual rulership of the city: the council and the regent. The council does most of the heavy lifting; they do the proposals, the research, the wording of the decision or law, etc. The regent then approves or disapproves the decisions and signs off on them, although the regent can be overruled by a 8-1 vote. The council and regent are also in charge of adjudicating major crimes (minor crimes are usually dealt with by city law enforcement, who answer in turn to the regent). Regency is hereditary through a family member chosen by the current regent and approved by the council (does not have to be a child); councilship is not hereditary (though the same family will often find their hands on the seats) and can be any of the upper-class members of society. Candidates are nominated by guilds and other powers around the city, including the regent, who serves as a tiebreaker in the ultimate vote on new council members.

Region #2: Wooded Region Because of the widespread smaller-scale communities and the cultural disinterest in large-scale stratification, government in this region tends to come down to individual villages. Generally villages will have a town meeting every week which is open to anyone who wants to come; during the meeting everyone has the opportunity to discuss issues with other townsfolk, say their bit or present their own perspective, and then the yes or no of the issue is determined by a simple majority vote. There are several city officials who are in charge of running, conducting, and mediating these meetings; they are the closest it generally comes to any kind of ruler. They are also the figures who, in times of crisis, will be sent as “diplomats” to speak to other towns or villages and come to an agreed-upon course of action. These figures are usually people who have been active in the town meetings for a long time and shown interest in the job, who are then brought in as trainees until someone is ready to retire (or the population grows such that they need another person to fill the job).

Region #3: In-Between Region This region operates in a somewhat feudal system governmentally speaking. There are a number of fifes which are ruled by various nobles or warlords; this land is governed by the owner, whose rulership is hereditary. Generally the more land and resources a noble has, the more power they have; as such, land wars between fifes are fairly common. If you live on the land belonging to a fiefdom, you are assumed to belong to that fief and subject to its laws; for more travel-oriented jobs, such as trading or barding, it is common for people to pledge themselves to a particular house who then becomes the patron of that person and funds their ventures (so getting a house to accept your pledge is a big deal). Fiefdoms can negotiate with other fiefdoms to make alliances, trade or land deals, fund armies, etc - all the larger decisions that require some degree of coordination.

Region #4: Open Plains Region This region is essential rule by local warlords. Bands vary widely in size from 20 to hundreds of people, and bands may merge or split as it becomes politically or economically necessary. The headperson in charge of an individual band is whoever has enough sway to keep control of and manage it well; this is often hereditary, although traditions vary somewhat and in all bands there inevitably comes a time when the next blood relative doesn’t have the skills necessary to take care of the band, at which point they are usually usurped by someone who does or the band splits off to follow a rival. Marriage between bands is common as both a way to keep inbreeding from becoming an issue and also as a way to cement alliances and other agreements; it is traditional for the member of the more powerful band to join the less powerful one as a sign of good faith. At times there will emerge warlords who have the drive and skill to bring many bands together into their own and create something more like a dynastic period under a single ruler; this also tends to break apart eventually, though that time can vary to the rulership of a single headsperson to many, many generations.

Region #5: Cool Coastal Region Unlike the other regions so far, this region is actually ruled by a monarch and a centralized state. Individual towns and people pay taxes, the wealth goes back to the monarch who distributes it across various projects throughout the region. The rulership is hereditary to some extent, although it usually passes within the same family rather than from parent to child; the monarch nominates an heir and their advisers and other notable figures (like a representative from a particularly large city) confirm or deny the nomination.  Aside from taxes and any state projects that are local, there isn’t much day-to-day interaction between communities and the government; mostly the communities regulate themselves however they see fit, usually a combination of selecting a community member to be the headsperson (usually an elder or married couple of elders) and town meetings.

A cultural note on the monarchy in this region: unlike in our world, the position comes with very few bells and whistles. The vast majority of people don’t know who the reigning monarch is and don’t particularly care except in passing; there’s little glory or personal wealth attached to the position, mostly just a sense of duty. If a particular monarch starts to step outside the lines on cultural norms, it’s usual for their advisers to stage a quiet coup and things essentially go on as they were. 

Region #6: West Coastal Region Like region #5, this region is ruled by a monarch. Unlike the previous region, the power structure is much more stratified, top-down, and rigid; the throne usually passes from parent to child, comes with a lot more glory and power and wealth, and is paid more direct attention by common folk. Rulership is usually done by a married couple; the man’s (King’s) purview usually includes collecting taxes, running the military, and making trade agreements. The woman’s (Queen’s) purview usually includes distributing crown resources and overseeing legal or judicial affairs. The two work together on projects that fall under both their purview, but otherwise work independently - hence one of the important traits that people look for in their rulers is a good marriage, because a bad one will tear the country apart. 

------------

Up next will be a tutorial on religion and magic and how those play out in different cultures (rather than the reality of divine forces in your world, which was covered in the metaphysics tutorial). 

[elfwreck]

Any advice on starting to write? I just want to do some hobby writing mostly fanfic. I have ideas pouring out of my head and I’m constantly thinking up of whole ass scenes in my head with dialogue and everything. But when I go to write I can only do it for what feels like 10 minutes and i crap out and I find it hard to get back into the story I was thinking up and not doing a different one

There are a million "How To Write" books and websites and YouTube tutorials and every author and wannabe author has their own set of suggestions.

The key part (here I am, another aspiring writer full of advice) is:

Figure out what your stall points are, and work on them.

Find out what circumstances work for you, and re-create those. Expand where possible.

Can you write dialogue for hours but as soon as you have to write a scene change, you get stuck and give up? Fine. Just write banter. Throw in notes like "SCENE CHANGE HERE - LATER, IN THE KITCHEN..."

Or can you write internal character-focus thoughts but not dialogue? Again... write what works. Add the other parts later.

Can you get stuff written if you have three tabs open with different stories and you switch between working on them? Fine; do that.

Do you write better with a playlist in the background - or do you keep stopping it to switch songs or add new ones? Does the Pomodoro method (just google it) work for you, or do you need long uninterrupted time blocks? Do you get more writing done on a paper notebook (which you'll then have to scan or type), in a Google Doc, in a program like Word, in a raw text editor, with something like Written?Kitten!, or a story-organizer like Scrivener?

Do you work better with a deadline? (I work much better with a deadline. I get a lot of stories done by deciding long in advance what I'm going to write, doing a mad rush of research and note-writing, and then... ignoring the whole thing until the deadline's getting close, and then slamming out the story in a couple of days, because apparently it had formed the rest of itself in the back of my mind.)

Try a few different methods, including a couple that seem counter-intuitive. Note which one lets you get more writing done. Start with that.

Not because "you should start with what's easy," but you should start with whatever makes you able to write, and work on expanding that to other areas.

This year's NaNoWriMo is going well for me, because I grabbed one of those fanfics that have been noodling around in my head for years - heavy on dialogue and epic emotional impact scenes - and realized "oh hey I have a LOT of scenes planned for this, in something like an order... I will try writing them up and calling that a novel."

(9 scenes done, 21 to go, with 10-ish more that have to happen but don't have to be onscreen" - 42k words. No way I'm getting done with this story by the end of NaNo.)

What works for me: Detailed plotlines in an outline. I have to know where the story is going or I stall out quickly. I sometimes wind up throwing away or changing those details, but I need a direction to get started.

I also need all the worldbuilding details in advance or while I'm writing. I write with the fandom wiki open in a dozen tabs so I can check character birthdays, heights, who showed up in what canon episode, and so on. If I can't look them up, I get stalled out trying to decide how to phrase things in case the details have to change later.

For some writers, that'd be a horrible distraction - if they stop to look up a detail, they won't get back to the writing. For them, it's better if they just highlight or otherwise mark the details they're not sure of, and fix them later in editing.

Recently, I've gotten a lot of value out of this:

Turns out, I'm a "methodological plotter." I need as much structure as possible figured out in advance so I can fill in the scenes.

The descriptions of the types were a little hard for me to follow. The advice of "you may find yourself with this problem... so try doing this..." is what clinched it for me. Methodological Plotter is the one where all the advice made sense, the one where I said "oh, THAT's how you fix that thing? Oh good. I'll try that."

Try anything that sounds like it might work for you. The initial goal is GET WORDS ON PAGE. Not write an excellent story. Not write a complete beginning-middle-end story. Not convey the emotions that are running through your head. Words on page. That's where you start.

Some people manage this by titling the top of the page "Crappy First Draft." Give yourself permission to write badly. To break the rules of language, to write boring dry descriptions, to write repetitive dialogue that goes "he said, she said" after every phrase, to use clichés, to bring modern idioms into a historical setting, to change verb tenses and POVs every few paragraphs, to include stupid author's notes...

Whatever it takes to get words on the page.

Later, once you've found what works for you, what makes it possible for you to finish a story - you can work on whatever bad habits you think you have.

Give yourself permission to fail to do justice to the amazing story in your head. Because that's the only way it's going to get on the page so that you can polish it into the gem it's supposed to be.

[swan2swan]

Okay I should have been updating on the Camp Cretaceous panel as I watch:

1. They didn’t want Bumpy to be Scrappy-Doo

2. I’m onto Josie, who was in charge in the writer’s room, and she wanted a little bit of Breakfast Club and character bonding, and putting them on the run let them thrive

3. Sheela was super-excited to write for...or rather...she had no idea what to do with them: and it was hard to get a handle on whether “she was likeable” in regards to (I’m guessing Sammy? Or Brooklynn?).........and she was very concerned about the messages sent to teen girls...no! It was Yaz! But she was happy about how much the internet loved Yaz!

4. It’s because Yaz was surly and defensive at first. And that really helped...gosh I love.

5. Josie really relates to Darius. “We’ll all bring our dinosaur encylopedias that we all own--” oh wait. 

6. 

Loving Josie’s merch.

7. Sheela: “Two glasses of wine in, we are all Sammy.” 

8. “We’re all Sammy, deep down.” --Josie

9. Once they landed on the fact that Brooklynn was losing followers, it made her sympathetic. There were problems. 

10. Rick Williams really liked that they wanted to figure out what they were gonna see. The show is about more than kids running from dinosaurs (looking at you, Phoenix), but it’s all about the themes of bravery and loss and such.

11. Eddie is “pretty much the worst dude on the planet”

12. Bethany loves the “Rosencrantz and Guldenstein stuff”, as Josie calls it (Bethany calls it the Back to the Future Part 2 stuff).  Liked “getting paid to watch the movie”

13. “Who doesn’t love an adorable dinosaur?”

14. Josie or someone wrote the line about how nobody knows how to drive and there was the line “THAT HAD A JIMMY FALLON TUTORIAL!!!”

15. Yeah, the moderator’s right--the emotional impact of the Masrani crash is SO GOOD in Camp Cretaceous. It all ties together so well.

16. Colin knows he has to make his stories evolve with ages of kids and people

17. They had to re-record the kids screaming because “there’s a difference between Saturday morning cartoon screaming and ‘I’m going to get eaten and DIE’ screaming.” 

18. Josie relishes the afternoon of “No, but...like you’re dying.”

19. “The second half of Fallen Kingdom is...staight-up Gothic Horror.” The moderator gets it. I’ll have to watch that movie.

20. He loves how they get muddy and messy.

21. Colin loved being in a room with so many creative people. 

22.  Josie “loved having Colin in the room”. They spent about two hours talking about each character. 

23. Sounds like everyone got along with Trevorrow and had fun with him.

24. They did study the movie and mapped everything out to the Indominus’s course, so yes, everything does line up.

25. Colin loved that they were able to put the whole kayak ride into the show, and that they made up new parts of the park.

26. Question to Zack: Anything that made it into the series that you always wanted to see in the films? His answer is yes, because there’s a lot of worldbuilding, and he loves the satire of modern theme parks and how they work. He loved showing off the mechanics behind the scenes--and the fact that the kids get to go into the tunnels and go beneath the attractions is neat. 

27. Colin interjects by showing that they put the research facility in as part of the show--based on ONE SHOT OF THE SIGN IN THE MOVIE. That’s great. 

28. Question about diversity. Zack really wanted it to be a diverse cast because “THAT’S THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, BABY. It’s not five white kids and their one racially-diverse friend.” 

29. “How did you approach the inclusion?” Sheela takes that one saying that good representation starts with good character development (yup). There’s no tokenism here. Everything is just realistic and solid. “Even if we covered the many conversations that we have about race and about culture and how that informs these kids...when a writing staff looks like this, kids can be assured that these conversations are being had.” 

30. Bethany loves the monorail episode. 

31. Colin was responsible for “chocolate is nature’s chocolate.” 

32. The moderator loves the diversity in dinosaurs. Toro is the villain, Bumpy is the cute dinosaur...new stuff, what are your favorites? 

33. Bumpy was originally a MAIASAUR. That’s fantastic! But the writers pushed for Ankylosaurus, which is honestly so superior...and it works with the Indominus. 

34. They knew Indominus couldn’t be the nemesis because the kids can’t beat Indominus, so they needed others. They had models on-hand, and Carnotaurus was terrifying. It’s just a mouth on a body, chasing them through the camp!

35. Sheela is a Compy. She’s always snacking. Compies are adorable.

36. Mosasaur love. Fun with the Jaws storyline.

37. Now we’re on to dealing with the TRAUMA. Scott wanted them to end up at a point, so while things are “infinitely worse for them”, but...they’re kids, and they’re resilient. 

38. “:They’re a family now.” YES, FOUND FAMILY, YES.

39. Future seasons? Let’s have another one come out, I think they’re about to drop the trailer. “If people like what we’re doing, we’ll certainly do more,” Colin says. 

40. THIS is where the show starts. The show STARTS now. And, yeah. They don’t know what the timeline is or where it’s going (Netflix, please). 

41. Josie and co. probably know more about Dominion than most other people...so they know. They know things about the next movie. They know what is coming, to an extent. That’s neat...and keep your eyes on the show for future stuff, I guess! (I’m guessing Mantah Corp...). 

42. No spoilers but there is something to consider that there is a three years between (yeah, I don’t expect tie-in to Fallen Kingdom), but this is NOT a show about adults coming to save kids. This is about kids alone having to save each other. 

43. Colin assured them that it was their show. It was more limited in the first season, when they were playing inside the movie, but now...it’s their show.

TRAILER!!!

[adlinfypjournal]

About This Journal

This journal will include everything from my research to my process of making my Final Year Project Final Output. The process will most likely go like this:

♥ Research ♥ 1. Art Styles (References from existing comic books) 2. Game development (Tutorials and How I could possibly build the whole interactive e-comic experience) 3. Research on sustainability and upcycling to help nature. ♥ Progress ♥ 1.Character concepts and sketches 2. Environment and worldbuilding concepts and sketches 3. Finalized concept illustrations 4. Comic book storyline draft 5. Comic book storyline finalization 6. Comic book storyboarding 7. Finalized sketch version of comic book 8. Line art of the comic pages 9. Full color of the comic pages 10. Interactive Parts (To be specified later)

[writing-with-olive]

How I plot/plan my novels (starting from a basic idea)

so I’ve seen various people wonder how to plot novels, so I decided to share my method. As usual, the steps without the attached descriptions and examples will be posted at the bottom for people who want to copy-paste

this method works for a single storyline/single POV. if there are two storylines or povs, you may have to alter some of the steps near the end of this process to fit your needs.

Spoiler warning: I use examples from both the Hunger Games and The Martian

1. Have an idea. 

This can range from a general vibe, or something more concrete, such as plot points. The easy thing about this step is it doesn’t really need to be super specific, just a general idea of the direction you want to go.

2. Start writing down the things you know.

Start creating a list/brainstorm of all the ideas you have at this point. For me, this is usually an assortment of dialogue clips, worldbuilding, character vibes, plot points, things like that. You will likely find that you have a lot stronger grasp on some of these things, and a lot weaker grasp on others. This is perfectly okay. (for example, when I did this for my current WIP, I knew a lot more than I expected about the worldbuilding, but the characters didn’t have as much detail to them. The more time you spend brainstorming here, the easier it will be moving forward. To make it easier, I usually catagorize this stuff into the catagories of: plot, characters, worldbuilding, other.

3. Identify your main character.

You may already have a character in mind, but you will want to identify who that person is, and in a very basic sense of what they’re like. At this point in the process, it doesn’t really matter if they’re not fully developed/one or two dementional. You just need to know who is leading your story

4. Create a scaffolding outline.

NOTE: this will likely not be the same outline you end up with, but having a basic idea is going to be helpful when you start worldbuilding. 

You should have a sentence/bullet point for each plot point, but not much more than that. Remember - this is going to be more of scaffolding than your final outline, and it’s more to give you a sense of where the story might be headed. If it helps you to think about the story in terms of acts, each of the three acts has two of the plotpoints listed below; one near the beginning of the act, and the other at the very end. Below, the -- indecates the seperation between each act.

The catagories you should fill out are:

Enciting incedent: this is the thing that first rocks your character’s world.

No return: your protagonist makes a decision (or has a decision forced upon them) that they cannot return from - no matter if they succeed or fail, they will not be able to go back to the same life they had. 

--

Midpoint: (this actually comes half way through the second act, rather than being positioned near the beginning) This is a turning point, and something that will test your characters. This will be one of the most intense points in your book to your character, other than the climax and breaking point. 

examples:

in The Martian, the airlock broke, and all the food was frozen. Unless this problem is solved, starvation is imminant.

in The Hunger Games, Katniss has to choose between dropping the Trackerjacker nest on her enemies, or not to.

Breaking point: something really bad happens, and this is your character’s lowest point in the book.

--

Climax: This is where your protagonist finally confronts the antagonist. 

Resolution: This is the aftermath of the climax, and the determiner if your book has a happy ending or a sad one. 

5. Worldbuilding: Brainstorming

Now that you have a scaffolding outline, think about what places might need to exist in your world. Does your Inciting incident plotpoint involve your protagonist finding a dragon in the forest? If that’s the case, you need to have a forest. Dragons are probably rare if this is the first time your protagonist has found one. Maybe they’re unheard of. Think about the implications of each of your plotpoints and add them to your brainstorming list that you started in step 2. The more you do here, the easier the next step will be. 

6. Worldbuilding: Figuring stuff out.

This is the harder of the two worldbuilding steps. Figure out things such as climate, weather, animal/plant life, commerce, social norms, magic system, whether or not there’s a religeous system, etc. I strongly recommend this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja3IgxY7dbU - Worldbuilding Basics) by Jenna Moreci. What I did was take notes about all of the questions she posed, and then copy-pasted it onto a google doc and filled it in from there. Rather than answer questions in order, it’s far easier to answer with what you know first, because that will influence your other answers. As you answer more and more things, other answers will get easier - you’ll be filling in gaps, rather than creating things out of nowhere.

This is also a great time to make world or town maps. Two resources that worked really well for me on this front (for fantasy) are: this tutorial (for making worldmaps), and this tutorial (for town maps)

--

character development, skeleton outline, create a story, organize your cards, fill in holes, more details (optional) all under the break

7. Character Development.

Starting with your main character, start to turn people from cardboard cutouts into 3-d characters. You can use this questionaire that I made based off of two of Jenna Moreci’s character development videos, and a video by a professional editor Ellen Brock:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tup43nRDKqM - (Jenna Moreci)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQcQ-As2BU0 - (Also Jenna Moreci)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MozMgyppTjM (Ellen Brock)

I would strongly recommend watching all three of these videos

8. Skeleton Outline.

Now that you’ve got a sense for who the characters are - and how they will likely play into the story, go back to your scaffolding outline. You will likely find that that outline is no longer realistic for your characters. Repeat step four, thinking about what the character’s goals are, and how that’s going to affect their decisionmaking - and therefore the plot.

9. Create a story

I find it easiest to do this step with notecards on my bedroom floor, rather than on a computer, but if you find that doing the following on a computer works better for you, go for it.

Write down your six main plotpoints on notecards and set them aside. then, on more notecards, brainstorm events that you want to happen in the story, writing one thing per card (I usually like to sum it up in no more than six words, with the occasional card going beyond that). You may find later that you’ve left stuff out, or that multiple notecards will fit into one scene, and that’s okay. For now, don’t worry about it. Write down all the events of the story you can think of - and you don’t have to write them down in order, or even know the order yet. Ideally, you’ll end up with 50+ cards.

10. Organize your cards.

I like to start by seeing which events fit into which acts/before or after which of the main plotpoints. To do this, I set out the major plotpoint cards that I made at the beginning of last step, and line them up in a column. Then I take the other notecards and put them next to the major plotpoint they come after. It’s fine if they are mixed up in these catagories. If there are a handful of events that happen before your enciting incident (there shouldn’t be more than three or four tops), but them above your inciting incedent section.

Important: remember that in most books, your character is going to be more reactive to things during the first half of the middle (second act). This means that they will react to problems, but not have too many plans of their own to solve them. Your Midpoint will split up the first and second half of yoru middle/second act. After your midpoint, your characters are going to be a lot more proactive - creating plans, to better their situation, rather than just react.

example:

in The Hunger Games, Katniss spends the first part of the games reacting to things like dehydration or getting attacked

the midpoint is when she chooses whether or not to drop the trackerjacker nest on her competitors

in the second half of the middle is more proactive - she and rue make plans to win, such as a plan to blow up the Career’s supply pile

If your characters are doing something more reactive, it’s probably a better idea to put it before your midpoint. If it’s more proactive, it’s probably better to put it after.

After you have this done, now you’re going to turn the collection of cards into a pretty good outline. Going row by row, organize the cards so that they are in chronological order in your story.

11. Fill in the holes

At this point, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what the plot looks like. Now you’re going to type up your current outline in a google doc or other processer. Then you’re going to create scenes, using the goal>>decision cycle. Basically, that cycle goes as follows:

goal scenes:

goal: your character starts the scene with a goal.

conflict: there is something in the way of your character getting that goal

disaster: either your character does not achieve their goal, or, by achieving it, they create unseen consequences. (or both)

this brings you to...

decision scenes

reaction: your character is going to have an emotional reaction to whatever the disaster is. Depending on the disaster and your character, the emotion could range from mild annoyance to a full-blown meltdown

options: after your character gets through the main emotional reaction, they are faced with two or more options, ideally none of them good. In any case, the default options are to do something, or do nothing.

resolution: your character makes a decision. What they choose to do will be their goal in the next scene.

Your first scene is going going be a goal scene. Go through, scene by scene, alternating between goal and reaction. Some cards will be part of a single scene. This is the time to combine them. If you discover a hole, create the scenes you will need to bridge that gap, and fill in either the goal or decision scene details, depending on which one that scene is. In the scene outline, you may also choose to include notes, or various details that you want to include or avoid as you write the scene. When you’re done with this step, you will have a solid outline!!!

12. More details (optional)

Personally, I don’t do this step, but some people like more detailed outlines. This is the time where you might want to include all of the other details you think you’ll need/want as your write.

++++++++++++

Recap of the steps:

1. have an idea.

2. start writing down the things you know.

3. identify your main character.

4. create a scaffolding outline.

5. worldbuilding: brainstorming.

6. worldbuilding: figuring stuff out.

7. character development.

8. skeleton outline.

9. create a story.

10. organize your cards.

11. fill in holes.

12. more details (optional).

[thestuckylibrary]

Group Ask 150

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Please send us an ask stating which group ask and which person you are replying to. Thank you so much in advance!

diurnaldays said:

I can't seem to find this one stucky soulmate AU that interwove fictionalized historical documents and academic papers into the narrative as a form of worldbuilding? And a scene early into the fic depicted Steve talking to a priest about a grieving ritual he could undertake now that he'd lost his soulmate (Bucky). There was also a major plot point where Steve used his soulmate bond to help the Winter Soldier recover his memories and become Bucky again.

princessniitza and Anon sent in The Ties That Bind by Odsbodkins (complete | 26,609 | E )

Anon 1 said:

Hello, I can’t seem to find a stucky fic where in post-WS, Bucky can’t figure out why Steve seems to be avoiding him or being strained around him, only for him to suddenly remember breaking Steve’s heart the night before he shipped out so Steve wouldn’t be left missing him and possibly never moving on. After confronting Steve with this they make up and its happy! I really remember loving it but I can’t find it for the life of me! Hope I have enough detail!

dolphinqueen10 sent in Remember Me by prisma134 (oneshot | 18,040 | M)

Anon 2 said:

Hi I’m looking for that fic after TWS where at Steve’s house/appt Bucky has relapses into the Soldier, but every time Steve sees it happening he acts like he isn’t a threat. He changes his body language to relaxed, he doesn’t go defensive, etc. Eventually Bucky realizes what is happening but it works anyway??

dolphinqueen10 sent in No Such Thing as Fighting Dirty by leveragehunters (Monkeygreen) (oneshot | 3,878 | T)

dreamsbeyondlife said: (dubcon/noncon)

Hey, do you guys know the fic where Bucky asks Steve for things by having sex with him? Bucky thinks Steve is his handler and that they have to have sex so he can get "rewards".

possibleplatypus sent in Uberrima Fidei* by asocialconstruct (oneshot | 3,075 | E) *rape/noncon, htp

capnstverogrs said:

hi! im looking for a fic where after steve’s mom dies, who works as a nurse, erskine adopts steve and he tried to go through med school but just wanted to do art? and so he does medical illustrations but then his boss peggy makes him go deal with the house erskine left steve when he died which he doesnt address until 4 years later or something

abarbaricyalp sent in Through The Woods by alby_mangroves, recalibrates (complete | 64,082 | E)

Anon 3 said:

Hey! I've lost a fic and I'd appreciate any help in finding it. It was a oneshot smut piece, from Bucky's pov. Steve is lying on a couch and acts all indifferent while Bucky basically gets off on top of him? It's only an act and he's actually turned on as well, which is revealed after Bucky's orgasm. It had definitely post-serum Steve, and I'm fairly certain it happened in avengers' tower, but it might also have been modern au piece.

possibleplatypus sent in raise the flag by mcwho (oneshot | 957 | M)

Anon 4 said: (infidelity)

Hi! I’m looking for a fic where Bucky and Steve are getting married, but Steve meets Peggy when he is taking dance classes for the wedding and she’s the instructor, and he starts having feelings for her. Stucky ending though. And I think I remember Steve not having the serum and it all being set in an alternate 1930s universe where gay people could get married. And I think Bucky’s family owned a furniture shop?? And Steve’s mum was dying. Hope you can help, cause I have tried everything :(

Anon 5 said:

Hi! I have been searching for a Stucky fic I read a while ago (can't remember if it was here or Ao3) but one of them is a struggling artist, and they meet when their art is blown into the road and the wealthier one helps them pick it up and they start a sugar daddy type relationship. If you could find it, it would be amazing!

Anon 6 said:

hi! I'm looking for a fic that's post winter soldier and at one point Steve and Bucky are in one of Bucky's old safehouses and Steve wears pearls he found there while they have sex I'm sorry this is so vague thx for the hard work

Anon 7 said:

hey! I'm looking for a wrong number fic where steve accidentally calls bucky for advice on how to flirt with the cute guy at the bar but it ends up being him?

bennettmp339 and dolphinqueen10 sent in Slide To Answer by relenafanel (series, complete | 13,064 | T)

Anon 8 said:

Thank you for this amazing resource! I’m looking for an AU fic in which a WinterSoldier Bucky is on a mission & meets up with a teenage BlackWidow Natasha whom he trained & she’s trying to impress him but also angry & rebellious. I remember she surprises him by climbing into his car & he comments on her choice of clothing; a bright puffer jacket that clashes with her hair.

Anon 9 said:

This is a very specific ask, but earlier today I started reading a oneshot in which Bucky was suffering from PTSD and something happens that triggers the winter soldier memories. I had literally only just started and I accidentally closed my browser. Could you please help me find it? I think it had something to do with some song too. Thank you so much.

Anon 10 said:

Hi there, a while ago I read a fic where Cap!Steve becomes a really good cook when he wakes up in the 21st century bc all the food is new and all the Avengers are really surprised that he likes to cook. I think he visits a restaurant in koreatown nyc a lot? Hopefully you can find it, thanks!

princessniitza sent in The Way to a Man's Heart by Niitza, whatthefoucault (oneshot | 43,837 | T)

shadow-of-a-whisper said:

I'm looking for the Stucky fic where Winter Soldier breaks into a woman's apartment to wait for Steve to show up. She was the owner of the truck Steve and Nat "borrowed" to go to Camp Leahigh, which was presumably blown to smithereens. WS knows Steve will visit her to try to pay for the truck. When he does show up, she tries to warn him. There's a dramatic angsty reunion where nobody gets hurt.

Anon 11 said:

hey sorry, i have two fics in mind that i can’t for the life of me find. there was this one fic where steve gets eaten by rats, that’s all i can remember sorry. and the other was one where steve used to go to a bunch of gay bars and stuff and i think he had a drag queen friend named marlene? i’m p sure him and rohdey dated for a lil but and i think it had pepper/tony/rohdey

awolfnamedaliac and Anon sent in the Kept Boy* by moonythejedi394, Neutralchaos (WIP | 203,653 | E) *rape/noncon, sex work, heed the tags

[tonkiturbo]

Hollow knight crystal dash stop

You don't discover the significance and motivations of this boss until way later, when you can reach a secret area above the boss arena with an ability you won't obtain for a long while. Of course, keeping the pressure on and only dodging at the last second is a viable strategy also just keep in mind that there's no quick dodging skill yet and there's certainly no way to block. His attacks are slow, but generally hard to get around if you're too close, so this fight teaches you two things about boss fights right off the bat: find your window, and then bug out (so to speak) and get some distance until that window comes around again. This large guy feels very "tutorial boss," and is actually a stronger version of some regular (though still challenging) enemies you may have encountered earlier in the same area. Suffice it to say, there's plenty of spoilers to go around: Dark Souls II There are also items like the Dream Nail that offer tantalizing hints to the thought processes of bosses and other enemies once you've obtained, should you be bold enough to use it on them in the middle of the melee. Keep in mind a lot of this is my own interpretation as these games rely heavily on subtext, I spend a lot of time looking for clues and pondering their meaning during the quieter moments of the game. Each of these boss entries gets a little into the fight itself and the opponent's history, if any. Hollow Knight also follows the Soulsborne example of frequently providing more narrative context to these fights only after the fact, subtly doing most of its worldbuilding in an incidental fashion. It's a smart condensing of the usual Soulsborne conventions concerning boss fights, putting itself more in line with a classic Castlevania, but you still have to employ the usual mix of cautiously choosing your moment to strike, finding those rare opportunities to heal between enemy patterns, quickly recovering from errors instead of freaking out and exacerbating the situation further, and just trying to avoid being too greedy in general. The health system is greatly simplified also: almost all boss attacks do one hit of damage to you, and you can either attempt to heal that damage with the default charge spell - this puts you in danger, as it can take a few moments to activate - or try to complete the battle without losing the rest of your meager 5-9 HP. That is, its mechanics are far more streamlined and far less versatile, as you only have the one weapon and a small set of skills and modifiers (via the game's adaptable charm system) to wield against each foe. It often feels like most of the running time in a Soulsborne game is split between anticipating the next boss fight and trying to move past it.Īll that said, Hollow Knight is not quite a Souls game. Each one is a learning process, and that sort of engenders this love/hate connection that grows in intensity the longer you spend trying to defeat them. Hey there, snugglebugs, to a new one-off episode of Bosswatch! I got into the habit of writing these about Soulsbornes because the boss fights invariably represented the best the game had to offer: the peak of their mechanical complexity and slow mastery curve coupled with the cathartic release that follows the defeat of any major antagonist, enhanced exponentially by the number of failed attempts each one generated.īut more so than that, Soulsborne bosses are frequently masterpieces of design, both in terms of their appearance and backstories - both usually quite elaborate - but also the array of attacks they throw at you and the ideal methods to counter them.

[hydralisk98]

Memopad Entropy&Servitor

MKN' Entropy & Servitor

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[STEPS]

Write Klara Ker's details

Draw Klara Ker's assets

Mockup RL Klara Ker further

Produce Klara Ker's life scriptures

Manifest things from my constructed world(s)

[COMPONENTS]

Klara

Nil (PoV camera & player agent)

N (far future patron agent)

Sasha

Haexe

Maskoch (location)

Living conservation of old computing systems, polyglot linguistics, anti-Wilsonism, timeless-ness, LGBTQ+, wholesome empowerment & cozy addventure, spiritual journey tutorial, programming mechnaics ala Zachtronics, exploration dynamics of Hypnospace Outlaw, maybe first person 3D perspective, subliminals and esoterism in mind, discovery of information, less directed exploration, character customization mechanics, cartoon retro yet vector-based "dotted" graphics, aesthetics, question per question, cusper generation feeling squished between GenZ & Millenials, maybe some further building and creative asset , worldbuilding, Knowledge+Shape&Time, Divination?, mathematics, numeral systems, hex editing, rom hacking, file system dive-ins, source code investigations aka reverse engineering, SysAdmin skills, alternate history and geography, life long learning, political intrigue, bitwise arithmetic, logic gates, cataloging bookmarks of information, curiosity-driven, etc...

Point and click desktop icons navigation game

[ENDE]

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasListens: The Adventure Zone

The Adventure Zone was a tough sell to me, despite (and possibly because of) seeing it pop up as various artists I respect began getting into the podcast.

First off, despite my love of the hobby, I have a rather low tolerance for second hand accounts. Short stories focusing on a singular, amusing event is great. Multi-part text narratives are a no go. Likewise, I’ve always had difficulty getting into actual play podcasts, since most that I encounter don’t really put a lot of weight on actual entertainment over, you know, just putting a recorder in the middle of the table during the usual game night. So I listen to very few Actual Plays.

And by ‘few Actual Plays’, I mean One Shot (Which does a good job of rotating content and keeping the separate narratives relatively short and self-contained) and Campaign (Which started with good production quality, and already had my loyalty due to being a One Shot spinoff show.) I don’t even listen to rest of their network.

I’d made a couple attempts at Critical Role, but since it’s a continuation of the cast’s ongoing campaign (thus continuity lockout) and was confined to YouTube for years (thus I couldn’t really listen while driving, running errands, or doing chores), I just couldn’t force myself to be invested. And it’s cast is a bunch of Voice Actors! I love voice actors!

Basically, a bunch of the usual complaints I have about media accessibility.

Further, as Adventure Zone’s popularity began exploding, I admit there was a degree of resentment on my part. I’ve longed harbored a desire to have my own Actual Play show, and if the genre’s exploding now, while I’ve still got no concrete plans, chances are, once I do have my act together,[1] I’ll again be starting during the twilight period of the genre.[2]

Dang it, McElroys! Don’t you burn the fuel before I even board!

Still, it was becoming a talking point, and was a downloadable podcast, so it wouldn’t hurt to try. Probably drop it after an episode or two.

The first couple of episodes were not promising. Players were mostly newbies, with a lot of rules talk; they were running the adventure that comes prepackaged in the Starter Set, which means I had to sit through the session that I’ve literally either tried to run or play several times. And it never gets past the freaking bugbear.

So, of course, after completing that specific portion, the McElroys promptly leave the rails, lightly skip past Phandalin, so I didn’t even get to finally see what’s supposed to happen after the lengthy mechanic and battle tutorial!

However, that’s also the point Griffin began making the story his own, so I might as well keep listening as I eat my slice of pre-work CostCo Pizza.

That’s what the series mostly was. Background noise as I prepared for work. The first couple arcs were okay. Not amazing, but okay. The performers were good comedically, and they seemed to be having fun, so it was alright.

I was intrigued by the premise of the second arc. Train-based mystery, huh? Sure. I’m always game for playing with tropes. Griffin, and the players, were beginning to explore character voices, and the NPCs were getting livelier. I admit, I was a quick sell on Angus. The precocious boy detective being placed in the middle of a train mystery, perpetrated by a serial killer, with a rather maimed body is just the right balance of darkly inappropriate.

Especially since Angus was there to solve the mystery in case the Boys were too incompetent.

Still, wasn’t too absorbed. I began swapping between TAZ Arcs and One Shot series. If I got too bored, I’d just drop TAZ, since podcasts are one of the few mediums I’m able to do so, since I can only will myself to consume them in limited circumstances (basically, while in transit, or some other activity that is physically busy but mentally void).[3]

Combat, however, remained a time for Canvas’s eyes to glaze over, and nothing of value to remain.

The Lunar Interludes were fun! Building comradery with a small community is what I’m about. Especially with their bunkmate, Pringles! Even though Griffin clearly didn’t want anything more to do with Pringles.

Poor Pringles.

Petals to the Metal is marked by many as the real turning point. I… liked it a little less than Rockport Limited? It started strong while the Boys were infiltrating a bank, and Taako has a semi-hypocritical moment I recognized from my favorite Pathfinder character, where this kleptomaniac wizard objected to Merle and Magnus taking time to rob the bank while supposedly saving it.[5]

However, this was followed by a sequence explaining the Mad Max race and infiltration to steal parts which… was actually kind of dull. The dialogue with the guards was great, but then it was long stretch of explaining a compound we’d never see again, and a large fight. Then there was a charming sequence where The Boys selected their animal motifs, with Taako getting an actually pretty nice (if meta) serious moment regarding his Mongoose mask.

Then the race itself was… a giant combat. Interesting enemy concepts. Still a giant combat.

The ending of the race, while exciting, didn’t carry much weight because I’d lost the thread due to not paying attention.

Then there was the final boss fight.

Petals to the Metal had a lot of combat, okay? I don’t enjoy combat!

However, music was beginning to be introduced, and it was pretty good. I was beginning to feel it.

Then the Crystal Kingdom knocked it up just enough notches for me to go ‘Huh. The finale’s coming soon? Better catch up.’ and gently set One Shot aside,[6] lean my head forward, and marathon with purpose!

The sound design continued to improve, to the point of being used to foreshadow the events of the arc. The events also helped highlight how the show creators were paying attention to and heeding the words of their audience. In a positive aspect, Griffin began reading out the lyrics of the song. And, in a bit of hilarious and spiteful worldbuilding, explains the origins of what were (apparently) the much discussed elevators.[7]

In retrospect, a lot of plot stuff happened in the lab. Weird.

It was a good arc for callbacks and call forwards.

Eleventh Hour, however, is my favorite arc. For some reason, I’m just a sucker for Groundhog Day loops.[9] Compounding this, Eleventh Hour was set in a small community of new characters, there was a mystery element, plenty of space for shenanigans, puzzles, ominous prophecy, and a well done tragic villain. Also, backstory for the three leads.

Oh boy, the backstory for the three leads.

I was a Taako fan until this arc. He clearly was the best character. However, as it turns out, Travis really did devise a solid backstory. A few quick early life scenes, then we’re shown he found happiness, won a happy ending already, and had it stolen.

Then Magnus showed his true strength of character, and I was sold. Magnus was my new boy. He’s great.

Anyways, episodes with ‘Finale’ in the title were showing up in the feed, and I wanted to stop spoiling myself, so I really had to buckle down.

Luckily, work kept putting me in the garden center as the season was in its death throes, so I had plenty of time to sit in a small hut with my phone and a pair of headphones. I’d begun actively looking for opportunities to listen to more, take longer errand runs to have an excuse to get through Eleventh Hour and more episodes.

It was a good time.

The Suffering Games however, was less good. Not because it was designed to be a miserable experience, which I naturally love. The sequence of events had a lot good character work, especially for Magnus. The Wheel of Sacrifice is an amazing concept once your players are high enough level, and Griffin does a good job narrating and describing what each sacrifice does.

Especially the loss of memories. Each one stung. And Griffin did a great job of making a few of the choices hurt in surprising ways; in particular, Merl giving up his unused Axe proficiency. What was originally a cop out, Griffin expertly weaved into a solid loss. Then Magnus was given a surprisingly insidious choice: losing the memory of who he had sworn revenge on.

Also a mercy, considering losing Julia might’ve been worse. However, narratively, that would’ve removed Magnus’s main drive and significant portion of his character. Remember, GMs, carefully consider how the threads are weaved before cutting them!

Plus, we also got a good demonstration of how close The Boys were when Taako and Merle agreed to take over the vengeance quest without further details. It’s important to Magnus, and now someone else needs to do it.[10]

Taako got off really light, as the only narrative sacrifice was his beauty, which Taako quickly rendered moot via magic.[11] Because we learned a lot about the other two, I wish Taako could’ve loss more.

However, the non-wheel of sacrifice parts were… well, they fell flat, and since there wasn’t space for any significant character interaction with someone outside of the party (even Cam got put into Magnus’s pocket), it was just gimmicky encounter after gimmicky encounter. It turned repetitive.[12] Prisoner Dilemma's don’t work if those on the other side aren’t emotionally significant.

Sure, looking back and examining it, a lot of interesting things happened. But sitting in the garden center, waiting for customers, it felt tedious. Not sad and emotionally devastating, just… eh.

Were I to replicate it, I’d probably combine the prisoner's dilemma and Wheel of Sacrifice, and make the players compete against one another. If you both spare the other, then you’re both given a choice between two sacrifices. If you’re forsaken by someone you spared, then you take both. And if you both forsake… I guess the GM just gets to decide which one you take?

If you want to up the ante in later rounds, offer to return something lost in later rounds if you forsake your partner. And if you want to twist the knife, have those spared choose the sacrifice for those they betrayed.[13]

Sorry, slipping into SepiaDice for a moment. Back to the review.

Reunion Tour was a good trip into the apocalypse, and final check in with a lot of the minor characters as everyone bugged out. Bad things are coming, and Madame Lucretia Director has a lot of secrets to be found.

Stolen century was... I don't know how I feel about it? There was a lot of backstory that needed to be conveyed suddenly, yes, but after the arc was concluded, I didn't feel like I'd learn much new about anything substantial. Nothing new about the world, since the places visited came and went so fast, that few left an impression.[14]

There were four characters for us and the players to get to know, but... Well, that didn't pan out too well. Of course, focus had to remain on the players, but ended up giving little room for Davenport, Barry, and Lucretia to develop. So, while it was an arc of vignettes, which is usually my jam, in this case, the vignettes were too small and delayed the plot so long, that I was just waiting for them to get on with it.

(Though, it probably didn't help that I was ill during the latter half of Stolen Century and the first two parts of the finale, making it kind of a blur.)

How to possibly improve it? Well, let's put the SepiaDice hat back on, I guess.[15]

First off, I wouldn't have changed systems, and not just because I hear about Powered by the Apocalypse so often I've become burnt out without ever playing it. Staying with 5e would've maintained a level of consistency with the rest of the series, and let the players use their experience to act the part of the well traveled people they are in the arc.[16]

Second, instead of a bunch of ten minute scenes for a handful of worlds, spend an episode on a world and do a one shot. Show them preparing to leave their homeworld, then the first world. Then do sessions covering the rest of the details that need to be conveyed.

Finally, integrate the other four crewmembers into these adventures. There's two viable methods: rotate through them as a sort of 'Guest NPC' (or Guest PC if they want to bring on temporary cast members). Or, let the players run two characters (Give Lup to Justin, Davenport to Clint, and probably Barry over to Travis) while Young Lucretia can be mission control until it's time to toughen her up.

So... that's Stolen Century, I guess? I'm having a hard time remembering specifics.

Story and Song was a good finale.

I don't get to play many endings. In fact, I’ve played only the one, and... it wasn't a good campaign to begin with, so it is what it was.

The Adventure Zone, meanwhile, did what every good narrative should do: give a cameo to everyone they practically can, tying up any fraying that may have occurred. That way, the audience gets a chance to see their favorite character at least one more time.

Then, for the players, they were split up, and given an epic scene that contributed to the final conclusion, and closed their character arcs (even if that closure involves an old running gag.)[17]

Afterwards, into the breech for a fancy final battle.

Finally, the epilogue. I don't want to spoil it, but I do wish to speak on the framework. Griffin handled the epilogue perfectly. First, he asked the players to describe where the characters are a year later, then pitched what he (Griffin) would like to have happened while making it clear the player got final say, before both were happy with where we leave Taako, Merle, and Magnus.

That's how you finish a game.

Suffice it to say, I may have started with a lot of reservations, but I learned a lot, and hope to apply it to my own games and projects.

If you enjoyed this... whatever I just wrote... maybe poke around my blog. I have other reviews and essays. Maybe I wrote something else you like. If you'd like to support me and my creative endeavors, I have a patreon! I like money.

Thanks for reading.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Heh, wordplay. [2] Though, to be fair, I kinda knew Sprite Comics were ignoble going into Nintendo Acres. Still, it had its charm. [3] This is foreshadowing to the fact that I ended up making a conscious effort to listen to the show while hanging out at home.[4] [4] I was also sick with a stomach bug at the time, though. [5] In my case, Trix was happy to loot a corpse the party found on the side of the road, but not the crypt they were dungeon delving. In my defense, the road corpse had his things by accident, while the items in the crypt were deliberately interred. It’s a respectability thing. [6] I’ll be back soon, don’t worry. [7] As someone who had a player try and call out a clock as anachronistic, I can understand how that could be irritating.[8] I solved it by just saying ‘this isn’t Earth, and there’s a wall clock.’ But different strokes, I suppose. [8] There was also an ongoing debate about whether sandwiches existed. I was in the ‘Sandwich like things likely existed before the Earl of Sandwich’ camp, but I never got around to dredging up the Good Eats segment. [9] Fair warning: if I figure out how to replicate Endless Eight on my actual play show, I’m doing it. Same session, on repeat. And you’ll have to sit through it. [10] This better come up during a live show! [11] It’s always annoying when a player does that. [12] You may ask, ‘Canvas, you hated the repetitive feeling, yet you want to emulate Endless Eight?’ Well, you see, I also deeply love meta jokes on the audience. And I’m just a little Chaotic-Aligned. [13] Obviously, you’ll need a mature game group to do this, and an emotionally satisfying conclusion. [14] One was the world of TAZ Nights, but since I find participating in the Max Fun Drive off-putting for unknowable reasons, I had no context to care. [15] Which is probably a giant paper mache D12 mask. [16] But mostly I'm just sick of Fate and ApocalypseWorld. [17] Especially if it delivers on that running gag's punchline.

[worldbuildingworkshop]

Worldbuilding Tutorial #9: Example World A

Intro This is the first example for the tutorial on government. This example has the advantage of including several non-human groups, particularly ones who operate in a very different way that humans physically and mentally both. So if you are dealing with such a species, this is a good example to take a look at. 

For this one in particular, it’s important to remember the role that fate has in this world. Many of these styles of governing rely and derive from the fact that there is an external force imposing order on all of these groups, cultures, and people, and are much looser systems than would work in the real world. 

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Region #1: Unseelie Fey As stated in previous tutorials, fey are very individual in this world - especially so in this region. It’s a very every fey for themselves, fey eat fey sort of place, and cooperation does not come easily or often. That being the case, there is no structured government to speak of. That is not to say, however, that it is anarchy here either, though it may look like it at times. In this world, even for fey, there are rules; and this is a world governed by fate, which is law in its own way and law that even fey cannot escape. In this case, however, it’s less “government” and more like “your free will doesn’t count anymore” - and fey will find themselves doing things they’re actively trying to avoid, because they don’t have a choice in it anymore.

The singular “rule” in Unseelie society is essentially “There are no rules”. The enforcement of this rule mostly comes in the form of mob justice: fey will tend to group together to destroy an individual who tries to impose rules or order of any kind on others, and may seek out and torment individual fey who maintain any kind of rules for themselves for being deviant. Decisions are made on an individual basis through individual negotiation, and precedent has no power over further decisions. If an individual doesn’t get what they want out of an agreement, they simply refuse to engage with it.

This kind of “government” would not work for humans or human-like creatures, for many reasons. It serves mostly as an example of how governing can be very different for non-humanlike species and in a context unlike earth (i.e. where there is an external force that can exert order when necessary).

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Region #2: Seelie Fey Like with the Unseelie Fey, this region of Seelie Fey does not have any kind of established rules or codes, nor official “government” to speak of. Individuals do as they will, and other individuals can choose to attempt to punish them or not. Fate is, of course, an ever-present force, and like with the Unseelie it is less a matter of choice and more a matter of inability to do otherwise - but the Seelie are usually somewhat more willing, and thus (usually) suffer less for it.

Unlike the Unseelie, Seelie society tends towards cooperation much more often. This means that it is not uncommon to have groups of fey called to the same place, or who choose to go to the same place, and debate as a group the correct course of action. In situations such as these, it is the voices of the majority and the most powerful who make the decision, and those who disagree will often go along with it anyway. There is no rule about this - a seelie fey could choose to walk out if they liked - but it is the way the culture tends. Precedent only matters in that some fey may have memories of previous situations and have some memory of how they turned out before - if not concrete memories, then merely feelings. But it doesn’t factor in in any strict legal sense. 

Like the previous “government” style, this would not work for humanlike creatures or in an earthlike world. It is again an example of how governments might function with very different parameters. Furthermore, it’s an example of how essentially the same situation and kind of being involved can result in two different forms of “governance” because of differences in culture. Aside from culture, seelie and unseelie fey are essentially the same; but their approach to their organization is very different, and different enough that they cause each other grief over it frequently.

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Region #3: Humans As stated previously, there is no overarching government in this region; instead, each village is its own individual place, and follows its own rules. Generally - and there can be deviations - the structure is that if there is a man that most of the village likes and trusts to be a good leader, he is the head of the village. There is no official vote taken, nor official position granted; what this means is that people in the village will start coming to this person with disagreements, proposals, and questions, and this person will have the responsibility of answering them. If this person doesn’t want the job, he simply refuses to answer the things people come to him with, and they will bring their thoughts to someone else.

If the village is in agreement, this man will generally be called the head of the village. If it is not, and there are instead two or three different men that different groups within the village favor, then the title won’t be used until one of them emerges as a lead to the other two. Situations like this usually sort themselves out over time; oftentimes there is intricate social politicking that goes on with each trying to overshadow or undercut the others. Sometimes there is outright bloodshed in an attempt to eliminate one side or another. Sometimes (and probably least frequently), these “leaders” will come together and sort out an order or hierarchy amongst themselves and either all but one will step down or they will consult with one another for difficult decisions. 

No one has to bring their problems to the village head, of course; people are free to make their own decisions. However, someone may - if they feel that some kind of retribution is necessary - lodge a complaint with the village head, who will have to drum up public support in order to do anything about it if something significant must be done. The head is not the sole decider of justice in cases where there is a crime, and those who decide on their own often quickly lose their position. Rather, they function more as mediators and advisors to the village than an official. There are norms that exist rather than any codified rules - things like “it’s not polite to kill people” and “if you take someone’s things then it’s your own damn fault if you get hurt when they try to take it back”. These rules change over time as the culture of the individual villages changes. 

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Region #4: Humans Like with the above region and as stated before, this region is also a series of unaffiliated villages who each conduct their own affairs. Unlike the previous region, the government structure is more official: there is a council of all of the elder men of the village who mediate and make decisions that will affect the entire village or that cannot be solved by the parties involved. The council will choose to “bring in” a man when they feel he is of a proper age; and all men are eventually included in this, even heavily disliked ones. There is no rule requiring this, but it just “isn’t done”. 

Usual procedure in these villages has become that the council will hear a series of problems in the first part of the day, then debate them privately throughout the day. No decisions are made that day; instead they are made the following one, in order to allow time for reflection. The other unspoken purpose of this is to get input from other members of the village; the elder men will often discuss issues just as anyone else might discuss their day, and other members - particularly the elder women - will have a chance to give their input this way. During debates, if there is something that concerns a particular subsection of society - the herders, for example - sometimes the council will ask members of that group to essentially “testify”; they will ask them questions relevant to the matter, usually without telling them what exactly is being debated, and then sent away once there are no more questions to ask.

As with everything else in this world so far, for the most part there are simply norm of “it’s not done” rather than rules. However, this region is the most likely to actually have any kind of codified law; it will generally be passed down orally rather than written, and decided to be made a rule by the council and then announced to the village. 

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Region #5: The Feywood This region is very unlike the previous two fey regions because it actually has a structured government. The Feywood has a version of the classic “Fey Court” that is sometimes used in literature and folklore in the real world. There is a King and a Queen and a court - though these are not bound by gender roles. Amongst the fey, these roles have little meaning; they are respected, and a fey may be more inclined to follow the will of their rulers because of this respect (almost more like a Pope IRL); but they are also welcome to tell their King or Queen to stick it up theirs. Rather, these roles mostly have to do with mortals and how the fey deal with them.

The role of the King is to essentially allow or deny access to the wood by mortals. If a mortal is found wandering in the woods where they shouldn’t be, often they will be captured and brought to the King, who will decide what should be done with them. If a mortal wishes to bring a petition to the fey or ask a favor, they would seek out the King as well. The role of the Queen is somewhat more nebulous; the Queen’s role could essentially be defined as PR. A Queen will go out and show mercy, provide help, and reign in fey who are causing problems. They can also veto the decision of the King if they wish to take a particular mortal under their protection instead. As for the Court - the fey court is made of members who come and go, but is usually made up of powerful fey who are interested in partying with the King and Queen for a while. These fey share their wisdom and knowledge and help inform what the King or Queen does next - if there are rumors of something ill afoot in the north woods, the rulers and court may find their paths straying there next. 

The King and Queen are also unique in that they are one of the few fey that are able to choose agains the current of Fate if they so choose. All other fey are intimately bound to this; but a King or Queen of the wood can understand that a thing is Fated and decide not to follow it. There is a price for this ability, however: Kings and Queens are also one of the few fey that die of old age. They may live hundreds of years, but near the end of their “time”, they will start to age and wither away very quickly, and then die. Successors are not chosen by the current Queen or King; usually they are not “chosen” at all. Rather, a fey will hear a call (usually sourced from fate), and if it follows it, will find itself the new ruler. It could theoretically happen to any fey - there is no difference in species. It is the title which bestows the differences upon a fey, not their birthright which determines their ability to hold the title.

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Region #6: Elves Elves have one of the most hierarchical societies of any other region in this area. There is a ruler, who can be either sex; this person is chosen by methods to be described shortly, and both resolves issues that are facing the region at large and may also pursue their own agenda. There is a capital city that they rule from. The ruler may also have a number of consorts, who are often also advisors and can make decisions in the ruler’s place if they are away or indisposed. Beneath the consorts there are a number of what are essentially “nobles”; these nobles are usually figures of great renown or with great feats under their belts, and who are extremely skilled in their area of study. Nobles hold no official position in the court, but use their influence to enact various pressures on the ruler either on their own or by getting support from others. None of these positions is determined by blood; rulers are chosen by their people and nobles, consorts are chosen by the rulers, and nobles come and go as individuals rise to fame and fall from it.

When a ruler dies, often what happens is a number of nobles will nominate themselves to be the next ruler. There are series of tests and tasks performed, through which nobles will attempt to prove their worth; many will go on great quests to prove their fitness as well. As nobles begin to fail or fall out of favor, they will often put their support behind one of the other nobles instead. Throughout all of this, the common people watch and may choose to throw their support behind rulers as well. Eventually it usually comes down to a duel of some sort between the last few contenders - which may be combative, or may be a debate or other feat. These are highly public and a great spectacle for everyone else. The winner becomes the next ruler, and the remaining nobles pledge fealty and surrender some of their resources in order to ensure that they are in no position to usurp the ruler.

Within a village, usually the eldest member is in charge of making decisions - much like the ruler is on a larger scale. Sometimes a village member will become very skilled and renown for that skill; oftentimes, if they achieve status of a noble through this, they will leave the village and head to the capital to pursue position there (if they have a mind for politics, anyway - not all of them do, but many people will treat them like a noble anyway). Nobles are often de-facto advocates for their village and their village’s interest, so it is within the interest of a village to try to raise as many highly-skilled individuals as possible. Other people outside of a village, especially from those villages who do not have a noble, may flock to another’s noble instead and put their support behind them instead. 

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As you can see, the government structures in this world are highly influenced by its metaphysics: they are very focused on individual choice and agency, and are in some cases about as far away from collectivist as you can get and still have a society. They don’t depend on rules, but instead on cultural norms, and as such are more moldable than most governments are. This means that enforcement of these rules comes from consequences from the societies themselves rather than an executive force - a dangerous situation in the real world, but which is able to function in this one because of the underlying metaphysics with fate and magic. Age, memory, and skill are also major themes in determining status that thread through all governments in this world - you can see those themes repeated over and over again. 

World B, because it lacks these underlying mechanics, will be very different - and also much more familiar. They’ll be up next.