#Brennan’s are often like “world build for me” and Zac’s are often like “be just the most pathetic man”

[rooolt]

my favorite part of original noise boys is how tailored for them the prompts have become. Josh is always given prompts where he truly has to make insane sounds you never even anticipated before, Zac is given a lot of physical comedy and opportunities for little one liners, and Brennan is given the chance to just monologue and make a bunch of shit up

[sixthsensewulf]

Something just annoys me when people say that Neverafter failed as a Horror Season. .

It was a horror season. It just moved through various horror sub genres. Did the vibe change after episode 3? yes. Did it still be a Horror season? Also Yes.

The Subgenres: Body Horror. Comedy Horror (That was the most one used, because it was 7 comedians in a HORROR SETTING), Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Cosmic Horror.

Horror doesn't need to be scary 100% of the time. Horror can just be creating a world of dread and uncertainty. A world where anything can happen. It was tense, it was spooky, it was a horror season.

Fucking hell. .take the video game Alien Isolation. The xenomorph learns how you play, but occasionally you know it's around, but you cant fucking see it or it's not that. That is the horror of the game. That is the tension. The pay off, you get enjoyment out of it.

Also I read a lot of horror books at the moment. The times I have been scared by a scene in a book, i can't count that high, but the reason why? The tension and the building to a reveal. The pay off. It's amazing. For Example: I got creeped out in The Ritual because of the style of writing and descriptions of the forest. You don't even see or read the description of what is chasing the main characters until literally the last chapters. I'm not kidding. That book is pretty much a Folk horror.

I've read some crazy body horror / splatterpunk that I'm not going to describe fully. Been creeped out so often and scared.

Also read some insane haunted house / psychological horror books as well. Those scare you because of the tension, the atmosphere and the build up to a moment. Like I have been fooled by a moment, where I think a scare or a jump is coming then nothing until it actually hits you.

The reason why people occasionally say it failed as Horror Season, just have one view of what a horror style TTRPG is. The common examples I believe are, Call of Cthulhu, Vampire the masquerade and Curse of Strand. Or just think horror is just how much we can scare people, jump scares galore right. It's not.

For example horror moments I loved in Neverafter:

The Spider fight. . Anything and everything could have gone wrong. And pretty much the aftermath. the description of the town being that fucked up because of the spiders.

PiB with the giants at the end - if he rolled badly, who knows what would have happened. But also he is a tiny black cat.

EVERYTHING WITH THE STEPMOTHER. Just my god. The description of her eating her children. Like the description of that moment of the group fleeing from her in the Library. Her treatment of Pinocchio. "I don't even have a name in my own story" speech (yeah that creeped me the fuck out)

Everything about Candlewick. . Yeah it was played for laughs because of Lou throwing away a Nat20 but Candlewick was just terrifying. My favourite Zac moment of that "so Brennan, who is being eaten"

Honestly the whole deal with the world between pages - that's Cosmic Horror, especially with the ink pot etc.. not going to lie, I was on edge with that episode, because my mind was going, something is too good to be true here, something is going to happen.

Ylfa - yes, 100%.. just her story, on one hand it's heartbreaking but the other the description of her eating the wolf to become the wolf..

Rosamund - got to admit I think why people think it failed as a horror season is because they were expecting more scenes like we got at the beginning. That opening sequence is incredible. The other briars moment that sticks in my head is the final fight one with Thumbelina.

Sorry for the ramble rant about Neverafter.

TLDR: THERE ARE MORE SUB GENRES FOR HORROR THAN PEOPLE THINK. BESIDES IT WAS A HORROR SEASON BECAUSE OF THAT.

[thespoonisvictory]

top five d20 character duo GO

oh GOD this is hard

5. Fabian Seacaster + Riz Gukgak

Two characters I enjoyed by the end of fhfy and adored by the end of fhsy. for Fabian, the sheer scale of his S2 arc is something to behold, and he's just endlessly funny to me. for Riz, his interactions with Kalina are genuinely terrifying and so so well done, and his struggle with being ace is deeply real to me in a way that a lot of other media isn't. they're both just very well pulled off in terms of their growth while also just being delights to watch.

4. Margaret Encino

I love ASO and every PC in it, but Margaret's crazy energy takes the cake. a good portion of it is watching Ally play the closest thing the Gunner Channel has to a straight man, while channeling chaos in a different way than usual. Her interactions with Lucienne and her work are incredible, and I just have a big soft spot for characters that are deeply practical but not combat oriented.

3. Lapin Cadbury

Listen. We have him for six episodes and he is still one of the PCs of all time to me. I know that it's not very sensible, but I just think that him dying when he did created a perfectly preserved character that served the story excellently. he so exemplified the complexities of religion in Calorum, as well as the way the Rocks still had a lot to learn about the world. his dynamic with Theo is great as well, and it's worth pointing out just the sheer competence Zac plays him with. It's very satisfying to watch someone be very good at navigating the world Brennan created.

2. Colin Provolone

Side Quest characters often struggle with one of two problems: either the character arc they've intended is too much for the limited format and comes out incomplete or rushed, or the character they've created was created almost too aware of the limited format, and thus comes out a little flat or underdeveloped. Colin Provolone fits more depth and growth in him than some main campaign PCs, and imo sticks the landing perfectly. his growth feels natural and well established in the world, without the campaign ever feeling like it's slowing down or bending to try to accommodate it. As a Zac PC he's obviously hilarious, but he is the heart of the trw crew, and his ending is deeply satisfying. my only wish is that the campaign he was in spent more time with the Calorum politics he was so intertwined with and less time in mushroom land.

Adaine Abernant

What can I even say: the PC that first made me love wizards, and beautiful marriage of mechanics and character building, a deeply personal representation of anxiety, and attached to one of my favorite NPCs. A lot of what I love about her is pretty self-explanatory, so I'll say this one thing: I love the Adaine is able to have anxiety and be anxious, while also just, being mean and snippy and just like a teenage girl. the representation of her panic attacks mechanically is fantastic, but more than that it's everything that's not the panic attacks that matters to me. this is clearly a character near and dear to Siobhan's experiences, and I'm so glad she exists.

other contenders: Theobald Gumbar, Captain K P Hob, Detective Hunch, Squawk and Chirp, Sofia Lee, Gerard of Greenleigh