noopleisgod - Tumblr blog

[noopleisgod]

ok what we do in the shadows is trending and I know nothing about it but I’ve had this man for 17 seconds and I would kill for him

[noopleisgod]

I thought I had posted this here too but I guess not. Still recovering from that ending.

That last roll, though.

[noopleisgod]

Great news! Anything cursed in modern Exandria (fcg's flat earthing, campaign two hospital heist) can now be happily marked down as 'the ring of brass died for this'

[noopleisgod]

EXU: Calamity Spoilers Below

To those of you who complained that Asmodeus turned out to have been genuinely as evil as history painted him as, and not a misunderstood victim, consider the following: that was the point.

Asmodeus could see how pre-disposed Zerxus was to believe exactly that narrative.

And Brennan knew how pre-disposed we’d be to believe it too.

Because for some reason, a lot of people these days seem to like that idea; it’s become overwhelmingly popular in recent years. People love the idea that “history was written by the winners” and so making the historical bad guy secretly good and vice versa is becoming… almost cliche.

So he played the part. Asmodeus constructed exactly the narrative and persona that would elicit sympathy, because he knew that presented with a victim story like that, especially one that makes the gods out to be the villains, that Zerxus wouldn’t question it because that’s exactly the story he wants to believe.

And Brennan played it perfectly, because he knew how much the audience would love it if it were true, enough that they wouldn’t question it either.

If anything, Calamity serves as an object lesson too many people need to learn:

History is written by the winners, yes. But sometimes the winners were right.

Not every demon is secretly a maligned innocent victimized by the secretly villainous gods. Most aren’t, as a point of fact. But a smart one will pretend to be, because he knows how many would jump to believe it without a second thought.

And that’s scarier than anything else in the Calamity: the knowledge that most people, real people, would probably have been as taken in as Zerxus was.

[noopleisgod]

I have one. agenda

[noopleisgod]

There is just something so beautiful about a story whose ending you know is bad. These characters will die and their names will not live on in any history book. Their legacy will slip from the world, wholly unknown. The apocalypse and the blame of it’s creation will fall to another man, but that doesn’t change the fact that these six people were there. They were there and they mattered and they gave everything to ensure that, in some future several centuries from now, the world could begin again. And I just think that that is the most bittersweet and wonderful kind of story there is.

[noopleisgod]

At the very top of that cloud, the last member of the Brass Ring gets to keep his promise to his family.

[ID: Cerrit Agrupnin, an eisfurra with white feathers with brown tips and wearing a dark brown cloak, flies up and away from dark clouds tinged an angry red and into a break in the clouds filled with blue sky and light. Debris shoots up and out around him through the clouds. Cloud trails twist behind him in a double helix. end ID.]

[noopleisgod]

i'll be coming for your love okay...

wip of laerryn and loquatius dancing because everything is fine!

[noopleisgod]

Finished EXU Calamity. Many feels no thoughts. Much love

[noopleisgod]

I want to stare in the face of “do not wish to be remembered,” and tell it no, that I will wish to be remembered. I will wish for my friends to be remembered

Yknow???? Good for you Quay

[noopleisgod]

zerxus be like. becomes champion of lord of hell. pities him. calls him a child.

girlboss moment tbh

[noopleisgod]

can I get an f in the chat for the average citizen of exandria? like you’re here at the end of the world as you know it and don’t even get to have had a role in it. the world is ending and you didn’t even get to cause it, you’re just caught in the crossfire

[noopleisgod]

THEY KILLED PATIA

[noopleisgod]

finally starting this 6.5 hour of hell coming to meet the ring of brass

[noopleisgod]

there is no way to articulate the force of skill brennan brings to this campaign. matt’s incredible worldbuilding ability and brennan’s skill at making the fantastic seem real combine to indescribable effect.

a lot of the time i feel like brennan reigns in raw shows of storywriting skill in order to make the shows more watchable as comedies or dramas, and seeing the fucking raw power unleashed when he really, honestly, and truly has the reins loosened is astounding. most DMs don’t make you feel outclassed as a storyteller as a viewer alone, but watching calamity is like being on a paddleboard when a whale swims underneath you.

also, if you cannot trust your party there is no point in writing, and i have NEVER in my life seen a DM’s trust more faithfully rewarded than in this arc. this is a seminar on craft, a thesis about craft, a showcase of craft, of actualplay and improv storytelling, proof of concept that craft exists and is necessary to making satisfying actualplay stories. and it feels like stepping into a graduate-level course for the first time.

[noopleisgod]

There is so much strength, in character and in narrative, when Cerrit walks away. He realizes so early that Laerryn will not choose different (that she can't choose different), realizes that their fates are sealed. And he leaves. He realizes this and leaves because there is nothing left for him to do here. There is no point to staying and continuing to plead with them, with her, to make a different choice. It's futile. There is no role for him to play anymore in that thread.

So, he walks away. He goes to put his efforts to where they might actually matter. They are doomed because it's not possible for her to do anything other than what she will do. He realizes this, accepts that his time to influence the course of events is over, and goes to do what he still has influence over: tending to his children's needs in these final hours, minutes.

Honestly, there is a humility in looking at all this and accepting that, even with his best efforts, he sincerely has power, no ability to change this. That this is beyond his ability to dictate how this goes. This specifically is beyond him. But other threads are not. He puts his responsibility to tend to and comfort those who need him ahead of believing that he is capable of solving this, of solving anything.

Specifically because he walks, the Narrative Hand Of God—in defiance of the bleakness and futility of his struggling in vain this entire story so far—delivers him the means to save his children. Walking away is the right choice for Cerrit to make for himself because by doing so, he receives the chance to save someone, anyone, the only people he can possibly save enough to see at least one more morning.

And leaving is an incredibly difficult choice. Walking away from the party is not done lightly. He chooses to do what one NEVER does in this genre and in this game: look the end of the world in the eye and say, "I cannot do anything more." But, it is proven to be the right choice for Cerrit because the narrative literally rewards him.

He understands with great, sharp clarity that it is futile and useless to remain here trying to change the choices the others cannot ever make differently. He sees the path of inevitability, and he accepts that he can no longer change fate.

He does not doom anyone by walking away; he walks away because he recognizes they're already doomed. If he stayed, his children would've lost their chance for the dawn. By walking away, he gains the ability to save them, to save anyone at all. That is something he can still change. He walks away, and in response, the world gifts him the opportunity to change a small fate. And that means everything.

[noopleisgod]

Rot, and the tree sunders