#Ignoring The Hero Handbook series

[casketsanctum]

A Ravenloft Reading Recommendation (ARRR!)

Alright, everyone! It's almost Halloween, and you (probably) recently got Curse of Strahd and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft but you want to know more about these terror-filled prisons. Well, grab your adventuring gear and delve with me into the Domains of Dread! This'll be a long one, so strap in and remember: Mistipedia is your friend.

This list covers Second Edition Ravenloft, Third Edition Ravenloft, and the novels. I can only hope I got everything in this.

Let's start with...

Second Edition Ravenloft

Realm of Terror

This is the original campaign setting for 2e Ravenloft, coming with 144 pages of rules, NPCs and domains, as well as a bunch of other goodies (maps, card stock sheets, and a transparent map overlay). Realm of Terror predates the Grand Conjunction timeline, so in terms of in-game time... it's a bit out of date. A lot of it, according to John Mangrum, is incoherent and many of the dates in this contradict others, so be careful about what you use here.

- You get... Rules for the Demiplane of Dread, alternate rules for Classes, Spells, the Dark Powers Check, fear and horror rules, as well as new spells, new magical items, and the different Dark Lords and Domains you can explore.

Ravenloft Campaign Setting (Box)

The revised campaign setting for 2nd Edition. Takes Grand Conjunction into account. Not to be confused for the book from 3rd Edition.

Domains of Dread

Third and final version of Ravenloft in the days of TSR. Introduces clusters and pocket domains, as well as new secret societies and several new classes. Postdates Requiem: The Grim Harvest.

Masque of the Red Death

A sub-setting of Ravenloft, taking place on a 1890's Gothic Earth.

- The Gothic Earth Gazetteer: Like the Ravenloft Gazetteers, you get details on the lands of Gothic Earth and their inhabitants. - A Guide to Transylvania

And More...

Islands of Terror - Self explanatory, new island domains! Nidala, Wildlands, Sceana, I'Cath, etc.

Darklords - This covers a handful darklords.

Forbidden Lore - A Ravenloft setting expansion. Rules for the Tarokka Deck and Dikesha Dice. Secret societies, spells, cursed items, as well as expanded psionics, curses, and power checks. You also get the domain of Kalidnay.

Forged in Darkness - Lots of cursed items.

Children of the Night: Vampires - 13 New vampire NPCs. Children of the Night: Ghosts - 13 New ghost NPCs. Children of the Night: Werebeasts - 13 New lycanthrope NPCs. Children of the Night: The Created - 13 New construct NPCs.

Champions of the Mists - New heroic NPCs and new Character Kits.

Carnival - NPCs that make up Isolde's Carnival.

Classic Van Richten's Guides (Either 2nd or 3rd Edition)

These have Van Richten lore in it, so I would read these if not for the main content.

Van Richten's Arsenal With VR Arsenal, you get new tools and devices, new arcane and divine spells, new magic items, and alchemical devices and feats. It also comes with Prestige Classes like the Alchemical Philosopher and the Anchorite of the Mists, as well as a guide to plan investigations and battles and plenty of NPC stat sheets with detailed backgrounds.

Van Richten's Guide to Demons

Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts

Van Richten's Guide to the Ancient Dead

Van Richten's Guide to the Created

Van Richten's Guide to the Lich

Van Richten's Guide to the Mists - We usually ignore this book because of it's questionable lore.

Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey

Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani An excellent exploration of Vistani.

Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead

Van Richten's Guide to Vampires

Van Richten's Guide to Werebeasts

Van Richten's Guide to Witches Included within VR's Compendium 3.

Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium I (Vampires, Werebeasts, Created)

Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium II (Ghosts, Liches, Ancient Dead)

Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium III (Demons, Vistani, Witches)

Modules

Feast of Goblyns - The first module of the Grand Conjunction series. Domains: Kartakass, Gundarak, Daglan.

Ship of Horror - The second module of the Grand Conjunction series. Domains: Sea of Sorrows, Nebigtode.

Touch of Death - The third module of the Grand Conjunction series. Domains: Har'Akir.

Night of the Walking Dead - Fourth module of the Grand Conjunction series. Domains: Sourange.

From the Shadows - Fifth module of the Grand Conjunction series. Domains: Darkon, Barovia.

Roots of Evil - Sixth and final module of the Grand Conjunction series and the follow-up of From the Shadows. Domains: Barovia.

Death Unchained - Part one of Grim Harvest.

Death Ascendant - Part two of Grim Harvest.

Requiem: the Grim Harvest (Boxed Set) - Death Triumphant, the last part of Grim Harvest.

Death Undaunted - Written by John Mangrum, never published, but still good!! Played it with a wonderful DM.

Book of Crypts - Nine short module anthology. Contains: Bride of Mordenheim, Blood in Moondale, The Dark Minstrel, The Cedar Chest, Corrupted Innocents, Rite of Terror, The Man With Three Faces, The Living Crypt, and Death's Cold Laughter.

Thoughts of Darkness - Elder brains, Mindflayers and a Von Zarovich, oh my! I played this one with a wonderful DM. Very fun.

The Created - Odaire

Web of Illusion - Sri Raji

Castles Forlorn - Forlorn

Dark of the Moon - Vorostokov

Adam's Wrath - Lamordia

The Awakening - Nova Vaasa

Hour of the Knife - Zherisia

Howls in the Night - Mordent

When Black Roses Blood - Sithicus

A Light in the Belfry (Boxed Set) - Avonleigh

Circle of Darkness - G'Henna

Chilling Tales (Anthology) - Through Darkened Eyes (Tepest), Undying Justice (Borca), Gazing into the Abyss (Darkon), Family Feud (Valachan), Surgeon's Blade (Lamordia), Scarlet Kiss (Mordentshire), Ancient Dead (Har'Akir), The Taskmaster's Leash (Dementlieu)

The Evil Eye - Invidia

The Nightmare Lands (Boxed Set)

Neither Man Nor Beast - Markovia

The Shadow Rift

Vecna Reborn

Die, Vecna, Die!

Third Edition Ravenloft

Ravenloft Third Edition (Campign Setting)

An update of Ravenloft to 3e.

Ravenloft Dungeon Master's Guide

Campaign creation, creating domains and communities, sinkholes of evil, samples of NPCs, as well as psionics and magic within Ravenloft. Cursed / Magic Items. Basically chapter one of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, but more fleshed out.

Ravenloft Player's Handbook

New mechanics like class weaknesses and magic ratings.

Secrets of the Dread Realms - Contains a new prestige class and a list of darklords by domain (with detailed backgrounds!)

Denizens of Darkness - New monsters! (3e)

Denizens of Dread - New monsters! (3.5e)

Heroes of Light - Focuses on heroic characters and deeds within Ravenloft. Prestige classes, secret societies, NPCs, and a heroic campaign guide.

Champions of Darkness - Focuses on anti-heroes. Prestige classes, secret societies, NPCs and an anti-hero campaign guide.

Legacy of the Blood - THIS IS A GOOD BOOK. Details on several powerful familes of the Core. Includes options to make characters related to that family and story hooks that go with it. Includes: Boritsi, d'Honaire, Dilisnya, Drakov, Godefroy, Hiregaard, Mordenheim, Renier, and the Von Zarovich families.

Masque of the Red Death (3rd Edition)

No modules in this one.

Ravenloft Gazetteers

A DM's dream come true... You get a massive amount of information and lore with these. Comes with a side-story. Very good!

- Volume 1 - Barovia, Hazlan, Forlorn, Kartakass

- Volume 2 - Darkon, Necropolis, Lamordia, Falkovnia

- Volume 3 - Dementlieu, Richemulot, Mordent

- Volume 4 - Borca, Invidia, Verbrek, Valachan, Sithicus

- Volume 5 - Nova Vaasa, Tepest, Keening, Shadow Rift

Modules

Dark Tales and Disturbing Legends - More modules! This is an anthology.

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft - Update to I6: Ravenloft.

Novels

Vampire of the Mists (Good!)

Knight of the Black Rose (Not a big fan of Soth, in my honest option.)

Dance of the Dead

Tapestry of Dark Souls

Carnival of Fear

I, Strahd (A classic.)

I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin (Read this one. Excellent!)

The Enemy Within

Mordenheim

Tales of Ravenloft (19 Short Stories - The Caretaker is my favorite. It has Strahd.)

Tower of Doom (Personally, if you don't want your eyes cursed, I would not read this. This has been a warning. I told you so.)

Baroness of Blood

Death of Darklord

Scholar of Decay

King of the Dead (A must-read. It's that good.)

To Sleep with Evil

Lord of the Necropolis

Shadowborn

Spectre of the Black Rose

Heart of Midnight

[ao3feed-coldflash]

Moments

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2liyEtE

by Trexi

Series of different POVs from moments during the events of Exceptions and Inevitable. Highly recommend reading the previous two parts first.

Words: 1314, Chapters: 1/19, Language: English

Series: Part 3 of Ignoring the Hero Handbook

Fandoms: The Flash (TV 2014)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Barry Allen, Leonard Snart, Lisa Snart, Mick Rory, Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen, Kara Danvers, Eddie Thawne, Iris West, Joe West, Wally West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Mark Mardon

Relationships: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2liyEtE

[yamihiei]

Chapters: 19/19 Fandom: The Flash (TV 2014) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart Characters: Barry Allen, Leonard Snart, Iris West, Joe West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Zoom, Earth-2 Harrison "Harry" Wells, Lisa Snart, Mick Rory, David Singh, Wally West, Eddie Thawne, Oliver Queen Additional Tags: Season/Series 02, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eddie Thawne Lives Series: Part 1 of Ignoring the Hero Handbook Summary:

Barry doesn’t mean to visit Snart in prison the second time; it just kind of happened (Multi-POV).

[minimickzy]

Betelgeuse || Peter Parker

Where you get trapped in a Ally with Spider-Man for eternity

Characters: Peter Parker x Reader

Word count: 1508

Warning: death (you’re a ghost), dark humor? mugging

AGE 17/18

a/n: this is a Beetlejuice AU 3 part series, I uh, it’s really somethinG and i;m kinda proud so it would mean a lot if y’all would read it <3 PLEASE LEAVE SOME FEEDBACK or let me know if you want to be tagged!

Nothing had ever happened to you as you were walking home before. It was sometimes a bit windy or maybe you’d step to hard and splash yourself with a puddle, but nothing worth noting. But if course that wasn’t the case tonight or otherwise there wouldn’t really be a story to tell.

It was dark out and all you could hear was the traffic slowing making its way down the block. It was so loud that you didn’t even hear them coming. A few men pulled you into a ally, one held his hand on your mouth to stop you from screaming.

You kicked and twisted your body as fast and hard as you could, if they were going to mug you or worse than you sure as hell weren’t going to make it easy for them. The struggle suddenly stopped when Spider-Man, the queens local hero, showed up on the spot. He pulled two of the guys off of you and started to fight them. You took your foot and dig your heel into the man’s own foot causing him to wince in pain and giving you a second to break free of his grasp and run down the alley. Before you made it to the street you heard a loud ringing noise and felt a sharp pain hit the middle of your back.

That was that. You woke up face down on the pavement. Semi warm liquid pressing your clothes against your skin. You felt light headed which you guess made sense as you seemed to have lost a lot of blood. You could remember some of what happened. At least enough to come to the conclusion that you had been shoot in the back by one of the muggers. But it seemed to be morning? The bright sunlight blocking your vision so how had no one found you?

You used the wall to help yourself to your feet and quickly looked around the alleyway before your eyes landed on the red and blue heap on the ground near a dumpster. “Hello?” You called out but the pile didn’t move. You made your way towards it slowly and then tapped it with your foot. No response. You tapped it again and this time a groan escaped it’s lips.

You jumped back, “shit, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” He rolled over to be face up towards the sky. There were two bloody spots on his chest, both looked deep- probably caused from gunshots. “Oh my god! Shit shit shit! Help!” You were near hysterics. He started to try and get up and upon seeing the light bleedthrough the wounds, you screamed, “There’s a hole in you! You have TWO holes! Oh my god, I DO TOO!” You pointed right we’re his heart should have been, in its place a hole that you could see straight through. He looked down and let out a yelp.

You took a step back and felt your heel catch on something before you feel back down to the ground. You huffed as you looked for what you tripped on. It seemed to be a book. You picked it up and read over the cover sending new fear through you. “What?! What is it?” Spider-Man asked, “it- it says the handbook for the recently deceased. Which means we’re dead. We’re dead!” “That doesn’t make any sense.” You glared at him, “and us having fucking holesin us does?” “Well no.” You groaned before laying back on the ground.

“I’m gonna go and get help.” You sat up and raised an eyebrow at him, “who do you think can help us?” He completely ignored you and took off yelling towards the street. “Hey wait!” You stood up and started after him but as soon as he went past the sidewalk he vanished. “Shit! Hey? Where are you?” You yelled but there was no response. The people on the street just Kept walking by, they didn’t even flinch.

It was near dark again before Spider-Man fell back into the ally way. “Welcome back.” You said as he stumbled over to you, “did- did you see that? That giant worm thing.” “I don’t- no I didn’t. You’ve been gone all day.” “What? That was like two minutes.” You shook your head, “look the suns setting.” “Wow.” He sat down next to you on the wall. You watch as his expression changed from confusion to Exception. “Then what’d you do all day?” You shrugged and pointed to the mirror you had set in front of you earlier, “look, no reflection. I thought that was kinda cool, also no one can hear or see us. I smashed a bottle and then a women screamed and ran away so they can hear that. Oh and this.” You pulled out a newspaper that someone had dropped. The headline read: Local Student and Spider-Man shot dead in Queens.

“It didn’t say who you were though. Said the Avengers and family decided it would be best to not reveal the identity of the fallen hero.” You smiled at him, “really, it said that? It said I’m a hero?” You chuckled at his reaction to the word. “Yeah. But tell me, who are you spider-man?” He looked to you and then back to the paper. “I’m sorry but that’s a secret.” You laughed, “We’re dead! Who am I gonna tell?” You could almost see the gears turning in his head. “I guess you’re right.” He reached up and pulled the mask from his face. He was slightly younger than you’d expect, you had assumed his voice was just high. He had soft eyes and almost curly chocolate brown hair, cute. “My name’s Peter.” “(y/n).” “Nice name.” “Thanks.”

The two of you sat in a heavy silence. You could hear the city around you but it seemed muffled, or maybe just far away. “Can ghosts sleep?” You asked half-heartedly. “We can find out?” He slide himself away from the wall and laid his body on the ground. “I hope we can, I feel exhausted and I’m really hoping I don’t feel like that for eternity.” You added mirroring his actions.

You woke up to Peter pacing in front of you, the Handbook for the Recently Deceased in hand. “Morning.” He jumped a little startled by your voice and then sat down right in front of you. “Okay so I know you just woke up but i was reading and- Listen to this Geographical and temporal perimeters. Functional perimeters vary from manifestation to manifestation! Like this book is insane! Did you go through it?” You shrugged. “The second rule is the living usually won’t see the dead. I put it down after that.” He nodded but you could tell he wasn’t actually listening and insead quickly reading through the pages.

You got up and became curious of your surroundings. You noticed that someone had started a memorial for yourself and Spider-Man. You weren’t surprised for the outpouring of love for Peter but you were taken aback by the amount of things there were for you. You were just a no one walking too late at night in the wrong place, You didn’t deserve all this. You watching as more and more people brought Flowers and small gifts to the allies entrance.

You sat at the edge, there wasn’t much to do as Peter was reading and the ally was empty except for trash and sometimes a few cats or rats. You realized how much you wanted to go home, see your family and friends again. Be in your own room with your own stuff. Watching the people walk by hand in hand or laughing, it hurt a little to see something you’d never have.

Just as all the sadness and anxiety set in about truly being trapped here forever, a flyer found it’s way, blowing through the street, right into your hands. “Bio-exorcism? Hey, Pete. Come look at this.” You heard him shut the book and walk over to you, “what is it?” You pointed at the paper in your hands and started to read off the words, “Betelgeuse, The bio-exorcist. Troubled by the living? Is death a problem and not the solution? Unhappy with eternity? Having difficulty adjusting? Call Betelgeuse.” Peter furrowed his brows, “Thats is? There’s no number or instructions?” “Nope.”

Peter took the paper out of your hands and looked it over a few times, “are you not happy- is there something wrong?” He looked slightly offended. “Peter, it’s just that we’re stuck in an ally. Don’t you miss your family? Or your friends?” He shrugged, “I’ve been trying not to think about it.” You scoffed, “you can’t not think about something forever.” “I can try.” He ran his hand through his messy curls and took a deep breath. “Look, I say we give it a few more days, we can try to make sense of this book and then if we don’t get anywhere we can call the beetle guy.” You gave him a tight smile, “thank you.”

General taglist

@marvels-queen-bee  @paigeyisme @littleblue5mcdork@mystxrieux @dannnyphantomm @properparker @flopobrien @utautattooedghoul @commondazy @safehaven1097 @macymafia @pinetree111@thekidsofneibolt @mcheung0314 @notnotnotnotkayla @bigbilliamdenbro @iaiabear

Peter Parker Taglist

@make-yourownmemories @light-up-shawn @savethebabyseals @marvelswebdesigner @caipurniia @basicmarvelbitch @marauders-trash-forever

[hoopyfrood]

so my review for disenchanted is... it's fun. it doesn't go anywhere amazing, but there's some fun jokes and some fun characters. its an enjoyable watch with some characters that keep you watching, though i kept wanting them to wring more out of each episode, there is so much potential for a lot of the side characters.

as for characters, most characters aren't really fleshed out, so i didn't feel much connection to most of them, i only really care about luci tbh and bunty is sweet. i'm interested to see what happens with queen oona but seeing as most of her appearances have been small jokes or short appearances, idk, i'm not holding out for much development for her.

bean is good, in theory, though there's not much to her. they have a stereotype of what a non feminine woman is and keep falling back on it, falling back on her being drunk or high somewhere. we don't learn about her childhood, her education, her hobbies, her aspirations. her storylines revolve around her dad or elfo, mostly, under the guise of being about her journey.

some side characters become more interesting, like the kings advisor, odval, although i wish the secret society had been more than just a quick joke. others remain flat and uninteresting, clearly plot devices, not even offering jokes that are that good. i liked getting to learn more about bunty, and the king has some funny moments, but a lot of characters are forgettable. luci is a great break from the repetition or obvious storylines, he's unpredictable and chaotic and kept me watching. he's two steps away from being a fourth wall breaking character, narrating the events in his own way. love eric andres dry tone, luci is a great character i'd love to learn more about.

the pacing of the episodes is a bit random, there's no real connection between most of them and they don't always flow well, sometimes it felt like people's opinions and decisions changed randomly just to keep the plot going. the last episode repeated the same scene several times. the reccuring plot involving luci didn't really grip me and didn't go anywhere really, and has now been overshadowed by the plot of the last episode. i am interested to see where that goes, but i do wonder if the people who sent luci will get a moment to shine and be relevant again.

people keep comparing it to futurama, to the simpsons, but i don't think that gets us anywhere. it's made in a different era, set in a different era, made in different circumstances than for tv viewing. the voice acting is great, it's fun hearing familiar voices, and luci is reminiscent of benders carelessness (also reminds me of paul from the film paul which is a fave of mine), but it's a very different story. there are some weird vague mentions to things like feminism and gender spectrums but they fall flat, i felt unsure if they were being played as a joke or a reference and what the point of them was. there's also that random mention to cultural appropriation, speaking of which, the only two characters of colour are side characters, one completely just a plot device, with ambiguous race and not much depth. seriously guys? you put in elves and gnomes and lizard people but racial diversity was just too hard? put down the d&d handbooks and start being creative.

okay, i'll mention elfo, but briefly. he's annoying. i'm saying it, everyone else seems to be saying it, but what the fuck. it's not his obliviousness and naivety that's annoying, that could've been used well, but it's his crush on bean. i'm not invested, i don't care, it's not interesting. i really don't feel bad for this lil guy fancying a woman out of his league. they tried to give us a different female hero but still went with the 'poor nice guy who she ignores' trope? she deserves what leela and lisa didn't get with the guys chasing after them: the freedom to say no and have it stop. it added nothing to the plot, it became his whole character arc instead of learning to be bad and explore a new place. i'm glad nobody else seems to like him or the idea of him and bean ending up together. seriously, it's so overused, esp in groenings works. i just didn't have the patience to care about him any more as soon as i saw where it was going. bean escaped his advances, but barely, and suddenly she really cared about him despite being ambivalent earlier. the time progression didn't seem real enough to amount to that much character development, the time passage wasn't even clear, it just felt like ten episodes and suddenly luci and bean really cared about elfo all of a sudden. can't relate.

ok, elfo out of the way, what did i enjoy? the scenery, the banging theme song, the good one liners, every character john dimaggio voiced, that one time luci got captured that was quite fun to watch, the whole talking cat thing, uhh, some other stuff. seriously, you can enjoy watching it and not feel too bored, it's just the repetitive tropes that get a bit dull. i kept watching for the potential, a lot of the time. hoping for things to go farther than they did. the earlier eps are fun, the later ones i felt had odd pace and sudden character development/change and a lot of repeated content.

in the second series i want a lot more from these characters. they tried to fit in like three plot twists when most people would have preferred more character exploration, more believable development between bean, elfo and luci as friends. a lot of the episodes were bean and friends get drunk, fuck stuff up, go back to see the king. i don't want more of that in s2. i expected more depth to the plot seeing as multiple writers were involved in gravity falls, but it's ok if it's just fun too, but decide which you're going for because atm i'm not sure how seriously to take the twists or not.

i'd love to see more of hell, learn more about luci. i loved the mention of him having a 9 to 5 job in hell, there's so much that could be explored there, and robot hell was a blast in futurama. seriously, bring back dan as the dancing devil, that'd be fun. i'd have rathered luci having odd jobs from the devil than having two random people apparently controlling him but doing absolutely nothing at the same time. in s2, recycle the tired tropes into something new. throw out the 'old hooker' trope and put in more three dimensional women. get rid of the 'strong female character' idea you have in your heads and actually write a real female character. please, god, get more female writers, i can tell when a woman is written by a man and it's boring. i feel they need to let shion takeuchi have more involvement because i bet she'd do a better job with a lot of these elements but alas she's literally one of only three women on the team with any major involvement, and it shows. it's a show centred around a female character yet it's mostly all decided by men. it's 8 men to 3 women as far as i can tell. and only one person of colour, afaik. it really shows. i'm not surprised, but more people should be pissed off about this. ridiculous.

don't do anything with elfo he's fine where he is just leave him there. bring back tess the giant i want to know more about her. please let oona and odval have a friendship where they bitch about the king and have medieval scrabble nights or something. let literally any women interact with each other without hating each other or talking about men. give bean a girlfriend. don't give pendergast any more screen time people are obsessing over him for some reason and he doesn't deserve that. let the queens be friends or something. let them date. too many women hate each other in tv i'm tired. ramp up the goddamn puns i know u have more stored somewhere and the scenes of shop names etc are fun. have bean learn to drive a horse and cart or get a job she's good at or learn a new skill or make a female friend or something more than having her get drunk and fight her way out of a situation with no real consequences. ok i'm done.

[dcwomenofcolor]

Would you say the new Teen Titans book with the new roster is worth checking out??

I think it’s a very mixed bag for me. I can’t say for sure if it’s something I’d actually recommend to another person. I ended up typing a long spiel so it goes under a cut, but in summary

I like the new characters well enough (or at least, neutral @ Lobo’s daughter Crush)

There are nice ideas I see as the creative team having good intentions, but also oh-god-make-it-stop moments too

The new TT line up was first introduced in Teen Titans Special #1 (mostly Damian, Emiko & Wally actually) and I didn’t find it a good first impression. The issue was a lead up to a new team that had a rather diverse roster, focusing on 3 young heroes of color! How could I not look forward to it.

I finished that issue feeling terrible for all of them. It’s as though the writer Adam Glass wants to effectively traumatize all these kids of color in the first go.

One of the things I disliked most about that issue was taking the complicated mother-daughter relationship Emiko and Shado had that was established in the main Green Arrow book, and effectively steamrolling it to the point of no return. I get villains being villains, and not every one of them has to be Morally Gray. Shado is not a Good Person; she has been an assassin that doesn’t give up those ways long since her creation, but her only saving grace is that she does love her daughter Emiko in her own way. She wants her daughter safe. Here, however, she’s willing to leave Emiko for dead. Like. What.

(Oh self, when won’t you learn not to get invested in a complicated mother-child relationship where DC would eventually let their white male writers villainize the Asian mom terribly?)

Hell, Glass looks to be wanting to change up everything about Emiko that I enjoyed reading with this TT run. Because not only did TT Special hack off her mom in the picture, TT #20 (where the full team is together already and it’s the start of a new arc), replaces her friendly, easygoing team player personality with…. someone who’s pretty much a jerk to Wally. And who’s unapologetic about it. If Glass intended to have Emiko wanting to be more no-nonsense when it comes to crimefighting after the incident with Shado in the issue before, it could be better handled because Emiko doesn’t even seem to care she’s being rather mean here. That’s really not the character I grew invested in from past issues.

*massages temples*

Okay the creative team having ideas that had good intentions? Mostly having to do with Damian. One of the most frustrating things about reading Damian is having to see writers ignore years of character progression and churning out the same “Let’s see Damian learn to make friends and be a Decent Human Being AGAIN!” storyline. It’s tiring, it’s boring, it gets old fast. 

Damian looks to be playing well with the team here so far, especially with new character Djinn (Damian opting to redeem people when he can is a theme I’m always behind 100%). He even has his heritage acknowledged. But every well-intended concept comes with a Terrible Asterisk. 

Damian didn’t kill the Big Bad Villains! But imprisons them in his own torture cell. Like, okay, that’s definitely not in the Robin Handbook.

Damian is friends with a Lebanese immigrant family! Oh remember how I said it feels like Glass wants to traumatize these young heroes of color? Yeah, shocker alert, tragedy befalls that family that sends Damian over the edge.

So yeah, I’m still not sold on this series. Djinn and Roundhouse are cute as a button *Rosa Diaz voice* I’ve only read them for one whole issue but if anything happens to them I’ll kill everyone in the room and then myself , Wally should catch a break, Emiko fucking deserves better, Damian has wildly varying degrees of Human Decency (color me shocked), Crush has potential IMO.

[the-book-queen]

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1st POV. Friends to lovers + marriage of convenience on a reality show as they both try to make it in Hollywood.

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  $0.99 ✦ Lady in Waiting by Marie Tremayne

An heiress who doesn't want to wed the horrible man she's promised to runs away and becomes the maid for the hero, an Earl.

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  $0.99 ✦ The Her Billionaires Boxed Set by Julia Kent

4 books, most of which follow the same couple -- or rather menage (MFM). She's a shy, curvy financial analyst, meets two secret billionaires while online dating.

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  $0.99 ✦ A Lady's Guide to Passion and Property by Kate Moore

She's just inherited her father's inn when a handsome stranger shows up with a crime to solve.

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  $1.99 ✦ Wicked Cravings by Suzanne Wright

Wolf shifters. She has a secret, and has always wanted the pack Beta -- surprise, he's ignoring his feelings for her, too.

TBQ Rec

Entire series is on sale + in KU

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   Putting these lists together takes time. If you appreciate this content, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi. http://ko-fi.com/danielletbq

[sungpraise-blog]

headcanon/meta about my portrayal (david is brainwashed)

back when david was a problematic camper, he was taken on that walk with cameron and jasper but his memory of events has been altered. jasper did die, he saw it with his own eyes and he tried hard to process it, but cameron wouldn’t let him. he terrorized david into rehearsing a narrative of what “really” happened until david believed it himself and recited it perfectly every time.

david, despite ‘earning’ the badge for his compliance, was still terrified of cameron. he wasn’t a problem child but he was a nervous wreck and he couldn’t go back home like that or there would be more investigations. cameron then decided brainwashing again was his only option, forcing david to be an “ideal” camper with false memories of how good that summer was. he forced david to believe that he was a hero (which gets reinforced even as an adult such as when he claimed he ‘knew’ hitting david with his car would put out the fire and save him) and to idolize him for things he didn’t really do. he easily played on david’s need for a father figure to save himself.

david was compelled to come back, renewing the brainwashing every year to keep him ignorant and compliant. when he came back as a counselor cameron took it a step further.

cameron began to turn david into the ideal counselor-- someone who completely idolized and all but worshiped him. david was brainwashed to believe nothing illegal was going on or would ever be going on, subconsciously compelled to cover things up. (he didn’t seem to process that neil might have died, he couldn’t begin to understand that daniel was a cultist and refused to believe he wasn’t innocent even after seeing daniel pull a knife on a child. he saw and heard things with his own eyes but he refused to see things for how they were. not to mention he covers up the ethically wrong or outright ignores it.)

over the years his memory of events seems to be shifting again, he remembers some of the other details of what happened that day with jasper and cameron but it’s still muddled and covered up. he finds himself blanking on certain details, forced to improvise (such as when the kids called him out on his story being bullshit) and he seems to have a boy scout handbook moral for the end of a story that shouldn’t have one.

even over the course of the series cameron is not a good boss to david, he has no concern for his well being (hitting him with his car without apologizing) and he blames david for himself being caught (probably because he thought he had brainwashed david into being a perfect accomplice to always cover for him. he didn’t take into account david’s persistent empathy)

and the only other person we see that shares david’s enthusiasm, energy, speech patterns (censoring himself), and with a nearly unshakable faith in an idol is daniel-- someone that was probably brainwashed into his religion.

while cameron might not have david drinking kool aid, he did make david a nearly perfect follower and it doesn’t seem that out there that someone with a lab of abominations and a torture chamber in his basement would traumatize and brainwash a child to save his own skin.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

minopoke said: Was 616 Natasha also enhanced with some sort of serum?

Yes, but comics have been vague and contradictory about what it does.

Morgan was the first to suggest the Black Widow program did some kind of chemical alterations, but the enhancements they offered were vague and cosmetic—“you hardly get sick, you don’t age as fast, your hair doesn’t fall out, your skin can take the wind and sun” — not really superhuman power upgrades and not the result of a “serum.” The other thing is that Morgan’s “biochemical rewiring” was also a metaphor for patriarchal control. The chemical treatments that Natasha was given made her tougher and more pretty, but also sterilized her, removing her reproductive agency, and included a pheromonal control mechanism that was supposed to make it impossible for her to turn on her male superiors.

A lot of what Morgan did wasn’t suited for mainline superhero stories, so about half of his Natasha plots were immediately ignored.  Shortly after his Black Widow miniseries, though, other stories brought back the idea that Natasha had actually been around since WW2 and had some way of evading the normal aging process. Since this development never had an explanation, fans understandably pointed to the Morgan series as providing a possible reason she didn’t seem to age.

They also theorized that the chemical treatments she got through the Red Room might have been a sort of variant Super Soldier Serum, because comic book Russians have been trying to steal or recreate the Super Soldier Serum forever. So that’s where the idea that Natasha is some kind of knock-off super soldier comes from. It even made it into one of the Official Handbooks right after Civil War, even though it had never been shown that way in any comic.

But Natasha’s stories themselves pretty quickly abandoned that idea. The Official Handbook took out the part about Natasha having a variant Super Soldier formula in their recent updates. Liu and Edmondson in particular stressed in their interviews and that Natasha isn’t a typical hero partly because she doesn’t have powers.

I’m a spy. Not some rooftop-jumping archer, shield-wielding super-soldier, or shiny-metal philantrobot. I need to make it clear on my business card.

Practically, like I said in that post, there’s no appreciable difference between being “normal” peak human and a Super Soldier. Heroes without powers always recover from terrible wounds in an unbelievable way, with no lingering brain damage and no scarring. You don’t need a chemical enhancement to jump from building to building in Marvel 616. Natasha wasn’t shown as demonstrably stronger in Morgan’s series than she was before it, and wasn’t shown as weaker when Edmondson and Liu were trying to portray a non-powered Natasha.

But there is a symbolic difference. Realistically, you can’t expect someone to outpunch a nuclear warhead through sheer willpower alone, but superhero comics aren’t realistic. They’re metaphors. For a character like Natasha, who has always been about skill over brute strength, it makes sense that she doesn’t have powers, because her story is all about her own determination and training. That’s why I think stories have generally rejected the idea of Natasha as a quasi-powered combatant since it was introduced in the mid-2000s.

Quote from Black Widow: Homecoming #5 by Richard K. Morgan, panels from Black Widow #4 by Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto.

[rxbxlcaptain]

Rules and Regulations (Acts of Intimacy #2)

Author’s Note: Here’s the second in my responses to the Nonsexual Acts of Intimacy prompts! This one was requested by @vaultfox​. Thank you so much for sending this in! This one is just shy of 1k words, but I hope you all enjoy anyway :) Feel free to keep sending in the prompts, y’all! Check out this post to see what I’m working on next.

Other stories in the series: Previous Work // Next Work

Prompt: ♝: Reading a book together. Or, I guess data-pad in this instance. :D

Words: 992

AO3 / FF.net / Below the Cut!

Once upon a time, Cassian’s room was his safe haven, free of intelligence assignments and other rebels with lists full of recent losses. He could lock the door and no one, save K-2, would attempt to bother him. He used the room to decompress, to compartmentalize horrors he had witnessed, or committed, in his last mission.

Now, Cassian’s room was rarely empty when he returned to it. Far from being annoyed at the invasion of privacy, as Cassian would have predicted a year ago, he found himself enjoying it. He savored the human presence in the room, another set of lungs breathing in and out, another mind churning through thoughts and ideas.

More than that, he cherished the time with her.

Time was a delicacy in the Rebellion, especially for two not-quite lovers who were still learning their way around each other. So, every time Cassian found Jyn Erso, recently named a sergeant in the Rebel Alliance, sitting at his desk or curled up on his bed, he welcomed it. Welcomed her home.

“Evening, Captain,” Jyn calls as his door slid open. She shoots him a smile from her place on his bed, a datapad resting on her lap.

“At ease, sergeant,” Cassian slowly responds, confused by her use of his rank. “You know, you don’t really need the formalities when it’s just us.”

“Oh, yes, I do. It says so, right…” She scrolls backwards on her datapad. “Here. ‘Enlisted and noncommissioned officers should address Alliance officers by title at all times, even in barracks and recreational areas.’”

Cassian pauses, halfway through removing his leather jacket, to stare at her, disbelief coloring his gaze. “Are you reading the Alliance handbook?”

Jyn hums her response, flipping back to her previous spot.

“Who are you and what have you done with Jyn Erso?”

“That’s Sergeant Erso to you, Captain.”

Cassian snorts, draping his jacket over his desk chair before moving to join her on the bed. She shifts towards him without removing her eyes from the datapad, settling on his shoulder. His hands sneak around her waist, grabbing the blanket she had laid over her lap.

“Do you think this counts as fraternization?” Jyn asked, skillfully ignoring Cassian’s lips wandering along her neck.

“Just don’t mention it in an official report and we should be fine.”

“And here I thought you lived your life exactly by the book.”

“I hear a little rebellion is good for you.”

She scrolls a little further. “Now who told you that?”

“You.”

Cassian propped his head on her shoulder as she turned to smile at him. His mouth turned up in response, loving the way her eyes melted as she glanced at him. “I tend to say very wise things.”

“Now you sound too much like K-2.”

Jyn laughed, finally putting down the datapad to face him, her right shoulder still leaning against his left. She gifted him with a quick kiss.

“Really, though,” Cassian continued, picking up the discarded datapad. “What are you doing reading the rules and regulations of the Alliance? I don’t think anyone outside of high command has read this in its entirety, and that’s because they wrote it.”

Jyn turns away from him before she shrugs. “Seemed important.”

“Most people don’t follow half of these regulations anyway, and those that do…” Cassian pauses to consider his next words. “They’re rarely anyone’s favorite members of the Rebellion.”

“It’s just that—“ The words seem to catch in Jyn’s throat. She doesn’t need to finish them, though. Cassian already understands. Jyn Erso, hero of the Battle of Scarif and half the reason the Death Star was successfully blown to smithereens, still has a reputation around the Rebellion. Daughter of an Imperial scientist. Raised by a Partisan. Rogue. Dangerous. Unreliable.

When she officially enlisted, rebels from the High Command on down raised their eyebrows, having expected her to take the offered freedom and scram, never to be heard from again. The idea that Captain Cassian Andor, one of Draven’s best intelligence officers, stood by her side and defended her, helped her integrate into the Rebellion, raised even more. Jyn—by necessity of her life or by personal preference, it was hard to tell anymore—was not a person who enjoyed being followed by stares and whispers wherever she went.

“You want to blend in,” Cassian finished for her. She nodded minutely, eyes focused on the far wall. “You don’t need to prove you’re part of the Rebellion, Jyn.”

“Listen,” Jyn turned back to Cassian, the fire in her eyes relit. “I know I’m part of the Rebellion. You know. I’ve convinced the princess and Senator Mothma. But it makes my life easier if the eighty percent of the rebellion that still doubts me don’t have any ammunition against me. So I’m reading the rules and regulations.”

Cassian nodded. Anything important to her became important to him. “Then let me help,” He cut off the beginnings of her protest. “Trust me, I know the difference between rules that should be followed and rules that just make you look like an ass if you follow.”

“Inside information really is your specialty, isn’t it?”

He grinned back at her. “Perks of being an intelligence officer. Now come here.” He pulled her back to him and turned the datapad back on.

Jyn laughed, a sound much younger and more carefree than she normally made. “Are you going to read to me?”

“Yes,” Cassian settled in, one hand around her waist, one holding the data pad. “’Article IV: Dress Code.’ Most of this is probably completely ignored, honestly…”

Cassian’s room was once his haven of silence, of stillness, a cool reprieve from the hot stress of the rebellion after a long day. But now, having Jyn Erso under his arm in his bed, her body warming him inside and out, her laughter punctuating his snide commentary on the official handbook, Cassian couldn’t imagine why he ever wanted it any other way.

[tarisilmarwen]

What are your must-reads (must-sees? etc) of the old SW EU?

Glad you asked!  Had to have some husband help with some of these, as I’m not as well-read post-Jedi as I’d like to be, but here’s a few suggestions.

Books:

Any of the character journals.  For the OT they did one for Han, Leia, and Luke, all covering A New Hope from their perspective (though Han’s technically takes place while he’s imprisoned in Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi, with a Bomarr monk taking down his account for posterity).  They also had really good ones for Padme, Anakin, and Maul for The Phantom Menace.

The Jedi Apprentice series.  I am such a sucker for young!Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon stories you can’t even believe and holy crap I loved these books.  There was a sequel series chronicling Obi-Wan training Anakin, by the same author, and sometimes crossovers that bridged the two series.  I don’t care as much about Jedi Quest because I’m not as invested in young!Anakin but if that’s your jam have at it.

The novelizations of the films.  The old ones, obviously.  Disney has since released new novelizations of the OT, at least, but the pre-prequel ones have a lot more interesting lore and mystery.  A lot of which was Jossed when the prequels came out but hey, still fun.  Also the prequel novelizations.  Make sure to get the ones that are written by actual writers and not the ones that are basically just the film script with minimal added descriptions.

The Courtship of Princess Leia.

The Heir to the Empire series, with OG Thrawn.  Also Mara Jade AKA Luke’s badass wife makes her first appearance.

The husband also recommends the Young Jedi Knight series.

If pilots are more your thing, Rogue Squadron is a good read.

The New Jedi Order series is a little polarizing.  It starts off with a major character death and then the heroes just keep losing and losing and losing battles with small victories here and there that barely stem the tide of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion and towards the end there’s yet more character death and the foundations are laid for the derailment of another major character.  Personally I kind of ignore that this series exists, but it’s a husband favorite so it stays in the recs.

Darth Plageius delves into Palpatine’s backstory.

There’s a collection of books that cover various factions of the Star Wars universe; The Jedi Path and the Book of the Sith covering our Force users, naturally, the Bounty Hunter’s Code for scum, and the Imperial Handbook.  The two Force user books are Jossed by now (the other two were published after the canon reset so can be considered new canon), but they have a lot of cool history and factoids, and Palpatine’s section in the Book of the Sith is chilling.

Games:

Knights of the Old Republic like oh my gosh seriously.  SO GOOD.  They rereleased a backwards-compatible version for the xbox one and it’s on PC now too.  Personal opinion is that Female MC is best, but you do you.

Film/TV/Radio:

Clone Wars. The 2D animated one.  Same artists as Samurai Jack I believe.  Super cool.

The OT radio dramas JUST LISTEN THEY’RE GREAT.  They add a lot of new material before and in-between canon scenes from the films and it’s all seamless and just adds to the story, and a lot of it is the same stuff that wound up in deleted scenes or in the novelizations and character journals.  Plus a few actors reprise their roles.  (Antony Daniels does all three and Mark Hamill is on board for New Hope and Empire.)

Again I must apologize, my book-knowledge of Star Wars is a bit lacking, but that should be enough to get you started.

[ao3feed-coldflash]

Inevitable

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2BepRxV

by Trexi

Barry’s at the point where hiding his relationship with Len isn’t feasible anymore. The wedding ring is kind of obvious. But there are consequences for keeping secrets, something Barry knows all too well.

Words: 1743, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of Ignoring the Hero Handbook

Fandoms: The Flash (TV 2014)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Barry Allen, Leonard Snart, David Singh, Julian Albert, Joe West, Eddie Thawne, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Lisa Snart, Mick Rory, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, Kara Danvers

Relationships: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart

Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series 02, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Secret Relationship, Relationship Reveal

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2BepRxV

[rickhorrow]

15+5+5 To Watch : 9219

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 2 with Jacob Aere

With the new season days away, NFL corporate sponsors finalize activation plans. Starting with last Thursday’s Packers-Bears season opener at Soldier Field, 37 corporate sponsors are activating around the NFL in support of 50 brands. Those brands will combine for a total of 64 football themed TV spots, an increase of 35 additional spots, according to NFL Senior Vice President of Sponsorship Management Tracie Rodburg. Anheuser-Busch, one of the NFL’s most active sponsors, is expanding its NFL portfolio with its Bon & Viv brand in the rapidly expanding spiked seltzer category. VISA will debut two spots this week, including an NFL 100 themed ad about generational fandom. Verizon will rely on the power of the NFL to help with its 5G rollout, with activations in 12 stadiums. New sponsor Lowe’s has two national TV ads and will sell NFL licensed products in store and online. Gatorade, the league’s oldest corporate sponsor, has spots with Todd Gurley and J.J. Watt planned. NFL sponsors will also unveil more than 109 digital spots, and TV and digital ads will employ more than 100 active and retired NFLers.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady narrowly beat out Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes for the title of most marketable player in the NFL. And the resurgent Browns had two players crack the top five, according to a survey of sports business executives, marketing analysts, and media members conducted by SportsBusiness Daily. Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and quarterback Baker Mayfield rank third and fourth, respectively, with Giants running back Saquon Barkley rounding out the top five. Brady's status as the NFL's most marketable player may come as something of a surprise due to his age. But the 42-year-old quarterback’s success on and off the field helps him stand the test of time. The Under Armour ambassador's extensive endorsement portfolio features a number of major luxury brands, including Aston Martin and Tag Heuer. Mahomes, the reigning league MVP, is the poster boy of the NFL's offensive revolution. He also offers potential partners a safe endorser with no off-field concerns or troublesome history.

As the NFL and NFLPA continue early CBA talks, the 18-game regular season proposal has stolen headlines. But another issue is being largely ignored — and it could be just as impactful. According to multiple reports, eliminating the NFL's archaic "funding rule" is a top priority for the NFLPA. In fact, Broncos kicker Brandon McManus, the team's NFLPA player representative, called it "almost a non-negotiable for us," per The Athletic. The NFL's funding rule stipulates that every fully guaranteed dollar owed to a player, but not yet paid to him, must be placed in a league-run escrow account. Even if a player is owed guaranteed money over the course of two or three years, ownership still must place all of that money into a separate bank account. When the NFL wasn't the cash cow that it is today, this rule made sense and worked in the players' favor. But in today's era, the funding rule has morphed into something completely different: a convenient excuse for ownership during contract negotiations.

Ticket demand for this year’s five NFL international games is up 55% compared to 2018, according to StubHub. This NFL campaign season will see four regular season games played in London and one in Mexico. 2019 will mark the 13th consecutive year the NFL has staged matches in the UK. This year’s London games will be split between Wembley and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with the showdown between the Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders at the new Premier League ground the most in-demand game. “When the NFL first started the international series there were a lot of questions around whether there would be demand for American football in Europe, in Asia, in Mexico and elsewhere,” said Akshay Khanna, general manager of NFL for StubHub, speaking to Reuters. “Interest in the league, internationally, continues to climb as…London games are drawing fans from over 35 countries.” StubHub’s third annual NFL preview also found that the league’s sales coming from outside the U.S. have increased by 19% since the start of last season, with fans from 54 countries using the ticketing platform to buy tickets.

Bridging the gap between the U.S. Open and the NFL: a glass of good red. The Rams, Bears and Giants have taken advantage of new NFL rules allowing official wine sponsors, signing Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi to deals heading into the 2019 season. Woodbridge’s entry into football will include an ad campaign running on ESPN and NFL Network for the first time, as well as a national consumer sweepstakes. Locally in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Woodbridge will have in-store displays, local sweepstakes to win game tickets and out-of-home advertising. To promote the partnerships, Woodbridge Wines will debut a new bottle format for its Cabernet Sauvignon line, which will sell for $5.99 in each of the markets. The NFL relaxed rules on alcoholic sponsorships this spring, allowing teams to name official wine and spirits sponsors for the first time. In tennis, where wine and spirits sponsors are ubiquitous, the U.S. Open earlier this year signed Jacob’s Creek, and Chinese spirit purveyor 1573 signed an $85 million deal with the Australian Open last fall. 

I can see clearly now, a deal was done...Oakley has announced a four-year partnership with the NFL, becoming an official on-field partner and licensee of the league. The partnership marks the biggest sports deal in the brand’s history and will begin at the start of the new football season, with Oakley shields and eyewear Powered by Prizm Lens Technology being available for all 32 teams, as well as making Officially Licensed NFL Eyewear available for fans. As part of the partnership, all players will have the option of wearing Prizm Clear shields during games. “We see Oakley as an ideal partner because we’re united by the same goal: supporting some of the world’s best athletes in their quest for elite performance,” said Renie Anderson, Chief Revenue Officer & EVP, NFL Partnerships. Ad Age noted Oakley will be "designated as the 'preferred' eyewear provider, meaning coaches and players will be encouraged, but not mandated, to choose Oakley sunglasses and eyeglasses if they wear them on the sidelines." The partnership also adds a new logo to every NFL field.

As the U.S. Open enters its second week, Nike, New Balance and the USTA are "using this year’s tournament to align themselves with the empowerment, inspiration, and equality of female athletes." According to Fast Company, all three have "launched ads in the last week or so that celebrate female athlete empowerment in a few different ways." Last Sunday was Women’s Equality Day, and the USTA’s “Women Worth Watching,” created by agency Mcgarrybowen, New York "shines a light on how little attention is actually given to women’s sports." Nike’s “Sport Changes Everything” campaign "goes for full-on inspiration with spots starring Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens, Naomi Osaka, and Simona Halep, all featuring young girl fans reading out letters to their tennis heroes." New Balance "continues its newfound push into major sports branding with a new spot celebrating young phenom Coco Gauff that oozes with the brash, youthful attitude of any next generation.” Team8 President and CEO Tony Godsick represents the 15-year-old Gauff, who had already signed deals worth approximately $1 million with pasta maker Barilla, New Balance, and Head before her run at Wimbledon earlier this year.

Canadian tennis player Vasek Pospisil, newly elected to the ATP’s players council, has "quickly become the loudest voice agitating for change in the way tennis players are compensated," according to the Toronto Sun. Pospisil has "embraced the role of advocate,” explaining that while the players “have seen prize money increase dramatically for those that make the later rounds of tournaments, the compensation for the many more athletes who do not enjoy that level of success remains stagnant." Pospisil said tennis is "doing so incredibly well, but there’s still just 100 players or so that are making a good living." Pospisil added that 14% of revenues from tennis tournaments are "returned to players in the form of prize money, and he has called on professionals to form some sort of union so that they can bargain for a better deal." Roger Federer also “agreed that more money should go to those players who are not piling up wins." This year, first-round losers in both main singles draws collected $58,000, a $4,000 increase from last year. The men's and women's winners will collect $3.85 million out of a total purse of $57.2 million.

The National Lacrosse League announced that Jessica Berman has been named Deputy Commissioner and EVP of Business Affairs. Berman joins the NLL from the NHL, where she has spent the last 13 years, most recently as Vice President, Community Development, Culture, and Growth. Berman will oversee all of the league’s legal affairs and transactions, manage team services, and assist the Commissioner with the NLL’s overall growth strategy. “It takes the brightest and best to build great leagues and teams and, we are very proud to welcome one of the brightest, best and most progressive minds in sports business to the National Lacrosse League,” NLL Commissioner and Sport Business Handbook contributor Nick Sakiewicz said. “Her wide-ranging background fits exactly with the growth trajectory we are on, and her addition to our veteran team is a perfect cultural fit and win for the league, our member clubs and for the sport of lacrosse.” Berman becomes the first female Deputy Commissioner of any professional sports league in North America.

Participation in high school sports dropped in 2018-19 for the first time in 30 years, according to an annual survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations. The 2018-19 total of 7,937,491 participants was a decline of 43,395 from the year prior, when the number of high school athletes reached a record high of 7,980,886. Participation in 11-man football declined for the fifth straight year and reached its lowest mark (1,006,013 participants) since 1999-2000. Likewise, combined boys’ and girls’ basketball participation was down 23,944 participants. On the flip side, participation in boys six-, eight- and nine-player football is up, and girls’ 11-player football has doubled over the past 10 years. Big winners this decade include lacrosse, soccer, and volleyball. Since 2012, boys and girls lacrosse is up 19%, boys’ soccer is up 9% and volleyball has seen growth for both genders (up 26% for boys and 8% for girls). Much of the speculation on the declines is focused on the growing trend of athletes focusing on a single sport rather than multiple. We need to find more, creative ways to keep kids involved in multiple sports – and have fun in the process.

ESPN digital’s output reached 86.8 million unique visitors in July, marking the eighth consecutive month the sports broadcaster has set record user-reach across its assets. According to data released by the Disney-owned sports media company, unique online visits were up by 25% year on year over July 2018, cementing ESPN’s position as the preeminent digital sports property in the U.S. The results place ESPN's digital reach 63% above CBS Sports, its closest rival for unique visits, expanding from a 56% lead across every key demographic set in June. That figure includes yearly audience growth among users aged 13-24 (63%), total male users (48%), and also total female users (22%). The ESPN App also remains the market leader in the U.S., attracting 19 million unique visitors in July – a yearly increase of 26%. The platform has also seen 44% increase in its consumed digital content, with that figure going up to 70 million hours. That mark is 25 million more than its closest rival, NBC’s Yahoo Sports app.

INTER:SECT is launching an all-sport voter registration and engagement initiative. INTER:SECT is an L.A.-based tactical solutions agency that promotes the power of collaborative innovation that exists at the intersection of sports, business, and social impact. The "Don't Drop the Ball. Vote." initiative is pursuing partnerships across the major U.S. sports leagues to have voter registration opportunities at professional sports venues in the lead-up to the 2020 election. The initiative is intentionally nonpartisan and centered on get out the vote efforts along with some strategic, localized voter engagement components. The voter engagement component convenes local sports representatives, business, and community leaders in cities around the country to participate in locally-focused think tanks to collectively strategize around executable solutions to promote voter turnout among citizens of those specific regions. This is a terrific example of how sports can propel civic engagement without putting off voters and legislators on either side of the aisle.

Toyota, a top sponsor of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, will "provide 3,700 vehicles, including dozens of self-driving cars, about 500 fuel-cell vehicles and 850 battery-electric cars to the international sports competition." According to Bloomberg, Toyota is "doing everything it can to market its transition into an eventual provider of on-demand transportation for consumers and businesses, instead of being merely an industrial manufacturer." Toyota Olympic and Paralympic Division General Manager Masaaki Ito said, "2020 will be a good time to show our transformation into a mobility company.” More than a dozen "autonomous driving vehicles, which Toyota calls e-Palette, will run on a continuous loop within the Olympic and Paralympic Village to shuttle athletes and staff." Ito said that another "artificial intelligence technology-enabled, autonomous-driving vehicle, known as Concept-i, will travel alongside torch relay runners." Toyota is also "deploying various robots." In addition to the "javelin-collecting robot, the manufacturer will have a humanoid robot, a robot to assist disabled spectators, and a telepresence robot that lets people talk with and see each other." Toyota said that "all of this will be done while achieving the lowest emissions target level of any official fleet used at the Olympics." 

Gronkowski brothers’ Stadium Blitz obstacle course set to debut in Buffalo. As Hashtag Sports relates, fresh off his own NFL retirement, Rob Gronkowski and his four brothers — Dan, Chris, Gordie, and Glenn — were approached by a Texas company called Complex SE to partner on a touring obstacle course called Stadium Blitz. The obstacle course, designed by Complex SE, is a well-rounded challenge demanding strength, speed, agility, and endurance. The length is equivalent to a 5K, winding through not only the football field but, in most venues, the steps in the bleachers, the adjoining team facilities, and the locker rooms. The defining aspect to Stadium Blitz is the 15 obstacles, split into groups of five based on degree of difficulty, which allow participants to accumulate points throughout the course. Now that all five brothers are out of football, building the Gronk Fitness brand has become their priority Number 1. The venture is the latest example of pro athletes showing an entrepreneurial spirit as they transition to life after sports. 

Finally, as the summer of 2019 draws to an end and the fall sports season unfolds, here’s a colorful story. A free spray tan is "at stake for Browns fans" for a second consecutive year, as Cleveland-based Sunless Inc. will "offer complimentary first-come, first-served spray tans after the Browns' first regular-season win of the season." According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the deal will be offered through the company's spray-tan subsidiary brands Mystic Tan, Norvell, and VersaSpa and is "only good the day after the victory." A Sunless rep said that the value of the spray tan is "usually in the $30 to $50 range.” Of course, with the Browns projected to make the NFL Playoffs and the Indians only a few games behind in the AL Central and looking for a MLB post season wild card berth, the sports outlook in Cleveland is far sunnier this year than in seasons past.

  Top Five Tech

The UFC has surpassed the NFL in Instagram followers. With over 15 million followers, one of the big reasons for MMA’s success is its global appeal that has attracted fans in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This makes its marketing style more similar to the NBA, but the UFC actually has events in various countries, which can serve to further grow a following on social media and in general. According to Forbes, the impacting images of the UFC are also another big factor. While some may shy away from the high impact images, combat sports photos are the most revealing and intimate of all sports photography. The UFC's Instagram page offers a balanced look at the pain, glory and passion of fight life through images and video highlights to bring a large global following to the sport.

Ready, the company of The Ready Games casual esports tournament platform, announced $5 million in funding. According to VentureBeat, BITKRAFT Esports Ventures led the round with participation from new investors Comcast Ventures and Eldridge Industries. The market where Ready looks to close in is the “hyper casual” gamer that is defined as simple tap games where the player can control gameplay with no more than two tap gestures. To date, The Ready Games has produced 130 original game tournaments in six months using its proprietary Ready Maker development platform. The Ready Games has become one of the most prolific mobile developers in the App Store, and they specialize in catering to the rapidly growing audience of female gamers. Ready looks to target casual female gamers while also looking to add cash prizes into the casual gaming market with the top 20% of players getting to split prize money – a similar scenario to esports betting. 

Mercedes-Benz upgrades fans’ U.S. Open experience with voice control and AR experiences. According to the Marketing Dive, tournament visitors can get a virtual tennis lesson from brand ambassador and 2017 champion Sloane Stephens through September 8 at the U.S. Open. Visitors activate the lesson with the voice command, "Hey, Mercedes, teach me to play like Sloane," prompting a recorded video of Stephens teaching proper serving skills. The AR activation immerses players in a virtual court and responds to their individual movements. Afterwards, guests receive a digital video of their game experience to share on social media. Mercedes-Benz is looking to dominate the sports tech market, as during the Atlanta Falcons' first home game in September, the carmaker will create a similar tech-powered activation at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the help of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.

Rap group Migos’ member Offset joins esports team Faze Clan. According to the Verge, Offset recently invested in Faze Clan, one of the biggest names in competitive gaming. In addition to competing in major tournaments for Fortnite and Call of Duty, the team Faze Clan has a massive following, and operates something like a streetwear brand, with regular merchandise drops that sell out nearly immediately. In a recent video, Offset was seen playing Madden at the Faze house in Los Angeles, and he seems like just another member. Offset’s presence with the Faze Clan marks yet another pop culture icon joining the esports space with Drake became a co-owner of 100 Thieves last year, while The Weeknd invested in Overactive Media, parent company of the Overwatch League’s Toronto Defiant, and Wiz Khalifa partnered with his hometown organization Pittsburgh Knights. 

UEFA and Japanese gaming company Konami partner for inaugural eEuro 2020 esports tournament. According to SportsPro, the first-ever esports tournament featuring European national soccer squads will feature all 55 of the national associations that are members of European soccer’s governing body. Rather than play in the historic FIFA series, participants will compete on Konami’s soon-to-be-released eFootball PES 2020 gaming title. Qualifiers will be held in London over various dates between November-December 2019, ahead of the tournament’s grand finale, which will be held at Wembley Stadium July 9-10, 2020. The esports tournament winners will also receive tickets to the UEFA 2020 European Championship final as well as a cash prize yet to be disclosed. Although there is stark competition with competitors like EA Sports’ FIFA series, the new eEuro league may make space for a second major soccer video game in the gaming world.

Power of Sports Five

Pledge It and MaxPreps partnered to launch the fourth annual Touchdowns Against Cancer (TAC) program. Starting its fourth season, TAC, powered by Pledge It, has raised nearly $500,000 to benefit cancer research for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. In support of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, every touchdown scored by participating high schools throughout the country during September will directly benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Last season, the Lynx from Lausanne Collegiate in Memphis raised a record $21,267 by scoring 26 touchdowns and securing dozens of pledges throughout their community. Just like winning on the football field, the TAC crowns a champion for the school that donates the most and John Stockett, senior director of business and marketing for MaxPreps, thinks this year’s TAC participation could lead to the most money raised in a single year. 

Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber hosts a charity event to honor first responders. This was Schwarber’s third annual Schwarber's Block Party, which was held at Rockwell on the River in Chicago. The showcase, which celebrated Chicago's first responders, featured first-responder memorabilia on display, and Schwarber even dressed up in different first-responder garb. Schwarber's father is a retired police chief, and Schwarber's charity, the Neighborhood Heroes Campaign, supports first responders. According to the Cubs’ front office, Schwarber's sister is an active-duty police officer. Several current and former Cubs players, including retired starting pitcher Ryan Dempster, attended the event, which had a substantial turnout. The evening raised awareness for Schwarber’s Neighborhood Heroes campaign which launched in 2017 and aims to honor first responders in a variety of ways.

UEFA will recognize an English Burnley F.C. fan who ran to every away game for charity. Although hard to believe, Burnley fan Scott Cunliffe covered nearly 5,000 km as part of the aptly-named “Run Away Challenge” and raised nearly $74,000 for various charities. To put this distance in perspective, no Premier League player ran more than 450 km on the pitch in the 2018-2019 season, and the distance covered is roughly the route of running from New York City to Denver and then returning back to New York City on foot! According to the National Post, Cunliffe was recognized at the Champions League draw in Monaco and got to rub shoulders with the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Virgil Van Dijk, who have been shortlisted for the UEFA Player of the Year award. UEFA said 18 charities in Burnley have received 50% of the funds raised by Cunliffe while the other half will be divided between community trusts at other Premier League clubs. Although not a star on the pitch, Cunliffe’s running ability has helped to change lives across the soccer world and should inspire others to do the same.

The Kelly Brush Foundation will host its 14th annual charity ride for adaptive sports. Organizers of Vermont’s largest charity bike ride are gearing up for another adaptive sports ride. Last year, 900 participants came out for the event. Funds raised by riders provide direct support for equipment that gets spinal cord injury patients out enjoying activities that enrich their lives like skiing, basketball, cycling, and tennis. According to VT Digger, the foundation has awarded more than 830 people grants in 47 states for adaptive equipment through its Active Fund. The ride also supports the foundation’s ski racing safety program. Participants can ride 100, 50, 20, or 10 mile routes through the scenic Champlain Valley, and/or play a round of golf at the Ralph Myhre Golf Course at Middlebury College to support the Kelly Bush Foundation. As for those who can’t make it to Vermont, the foundation offers a virtual option that allows participants to take part in the fundraising ride from anywhere.

James Harden is back to giving. This time, it's for basketball courts in Houston. According to USA Today, Harden is donating more than $240,000 to Houston to renovate outdoor basketball courts in under-served areas that were ravaged by Hurricane Harvey. The announcement was made at Tuffly Park in north Houston, where over 100 neighborhood children also received new bicycles. Harden also donated $1 million to the city two years ago after Harvey. Harden's charity weekend also included a comedy show and a celebrity softball game that featured newly-acquired Rockets guard Russell Westbrook. On top of the direct donations, all of the JH-Town Weekend events benefited Harden's 3 The Harden Way foundation, which offers scholarships and internship opportunities to students facing economic hardship.

[toomanysinks]

How do startups actually get their content marketing to work?

[Editor’s note: this is a free example of a series of articles we’re publishing by top experts who have cutting-edge startup advice to offer, over on Extra Crunch. Get in touch at ec_columns@techcrunch.com if you have ideas to share.] 

Even the best growth marketers fail to get content marketing to work. Many are unwittingly using tactics from 4 years ago that no longer work today.

This post cuts through the noise by sharing real-world data behind some of the biggest SEO successes this year.

It studies the content marketing performance of clients with Growth Machine and Bell Curve (my company) — two marketing agencies who have helped grow Perfect Keto, Tovala, Framer, Crowd Cow, Imperfect Produce, and over a hundred others.

What content do their clients write about, how do they optimize that content to rank well (SEO), and how do they convert their readers into customers?

You’re about to see how most startups manage their blogs the wrong way.

Reference CupAndLeaf.com as we go along. Their tactics for hitting 150,000 monthly visitors will be explored.

Write fewer, more in-depth articles

In the past, Google wasn’t skilled at identifying and promoting high quality articles. Their algorithms were tricked by low-value, “content farm” posts.

That is no longer the case.

Today, Google is getting close to delivering on its original mission statement: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” In other words, they now reliably identify high quality articles. How? By monitoring engagement signals: Google can detect when a visitor hits the Back button in their browser. This signals that the reader quickly bounced from the article after they clicked to read it.

If this occurs frequently for an article, Google ranks that article lower. It deems it low quality.

For example, below is a screenshot of the (old) Google Webmaster Tools interface. It visualizes this quality assessment process: It shows a blog post with the potential to rank for the keyword “design packaging ideas.” Google initially ranked it at position 25.

However, since readers weren’t engaging with the content as time went on, Google incrementally ranked the article lower — until it completely fell off the results page:

The lesson? Your objective is to write high quality articles that keep readers engaged. Almost everything else is noise.

In studying our clients, we’ve identified four rules for writing engaging posts.

1. Write articles for queries that actually prioritize articles.

Not all search queries are best served by articles.

Below, examine the results for “personalized skincare:”

Notice that Google is prioritizing quizzes. Not articles.

So if you don’t perform a check like this before writing an article on “personalized skincare,” there’s a good chance you’re wasting your time. Because, for some queries, Google has begun prioritizing local recommendations, videos, quizzes, or other types of results that aren’t articles.

Sanity check this before you sit down to write.

2. Write titles that accurately depict what readers get from the content.

Are incoming readers looking to buy a product? Then be sure to show them product links.

Or, were they looking for a recipe? Provide that.

Make your content deliver on what your titles imply a reader will see. Otherwise, readers bounce. Google will then notice the accumulating bounces, and you’ll be penalized.

3. Write articles that conclude the searcher’s experience.

Your objective is to be the last site a visitor visits in their search journey.

Meaning, if they read your post then don’t look at other Google result, Google infers that your post gave the searcher what they were looking for. And that’s Google’s prime directive: get searchers to their destination through the shortest path possible.

The two-part trick for concluding the searcher’s journey is to:

Go sufficiently in-depth to cover all the subtopics they could be looking for.

Link to related posts that may cover the tangential topics they seek.

This is what we use Clearscope for — it ensures we don’t miss critical subtopics that help our posts rank:

4. Write in-depth yet concise content.

In 2019, what do most of the top-ranked blogs have in common?

They skip filler introductions, keep their paragraphs short, and get to the point.

And, to make navigation seamless, they employ a “table of contents” experience:

Be like them, and get out of the reader’s way. All our best-performing blogs do this.

Check out more articles by Julian Shapiro over on Extra Crunch, including “What’s the cost of buying users from Facebook and 13 other ad networks?” and “Which types of startups are most often profitable?”

Prioritize engagement over backlinks

In going through our data, the second major learning was about “backlinks”, which is marketing jargon for a link to your site from someone else’s.

Four years ago, the SEO community was focused on backlinks and Domain Ranking (DR) — an indication of how many quality sites link to yours (scored from 0 to 100). At the time, they were right to be concerned about backlinks.

Today, our data reveals that backlinks don’t matter as much as they used to. They certainly help, but you need great content behind them.

Most content marketers haven’t caught up to this.

Here’s a screenshot showing how small publishers can beat out large behemoths today — with very little Domain Ranking:

The implication is that, even without backlinks, Google is still happy to rank you highly. Consider this: They don’t need your site to be linked from TechCrunch for their algorithm to determine whether visitors are engaged on your site.

Remember: Google has Google Analytics, Google Search, Google Ads, and Google Chrome data to monitor how searchers engage with your site. Believe me, if they want to find out whether your content is engaging, they can find a way. They don’t need backlinks to tell them.

This is not to say that backlinks are useless.

Our data shows they still provide value, just much less. Notably, they get your pages “considered” by Google sooner: If you have backlinks from authoritative and relevant sites, Google will have the confidence to send test traffic to your pages in perhaps a few weeks instead of in a few months.

Here’s what I mean by “test traffic:” In the weeks after publishing your post, Google notices them then experimentally surfaces them at the top of related search terms. They then monitor whether searchers engage with the content (i.e. don’t quickly hit their Back button). If the engagement is engaging, they’ll increasingly surface your articles. And increase your rankings over time.

Having good backlinks can cut this process down from months to a few weeks.

Prioritize conversion over volume

Engagement isn’t your end goal. It’s the precursor to what ultimately matters: getting a signup, subscribe, or purchase. (Marketers call this your “conversion event.”) Visitors can take a few paths to your conversion event:

Short: They read the initial post then immediately convert.

Medium: They read the initial post plus a few more before eventually converting.

Long (most common): They subscribe to your newsletter and/or return later.

To increase the ratio at which readers take the short and medium paths, optimize your blog posts’ copy, design, and calls to action. We’ve identified two rules for doing this.

1. Naturally segue to your pitch

Our data shows you should not pitch your product until the back half of your post.

Why? Pitching yourself in the intro can taint the authenticity of your article.

Also, the further a reader gets into a good article, the more familiarity and trust they’ll accrue for your brand, which means they’re less likely to ignore your pitch once they encounter it.

2. Don’t make your pitch look like an ad

Most blogs make their product pitches look like big, show-stopping banner ads.

Our data shows this visual fanfare is reflexively ignored by readers.

Instead, plug your product using a normal text link — styled no differently than any other link in your post. Woodpath, a health blog with Amazon products to pitch, does this well.

Think in funnels, not in pageviews

Finally, our best-performing clients focus less on their Google Analytics data and more on their readers’ full journeys: They encourage readers to provide their email so they can follow up with a series of “drip” emails. Ideally, these build trust in the brand and get visitors to eventually convert.

They “retarget” readers with ads. This entails pitching them with ads for the products that are most relevant to the topics they read on the blog. (Facebook and Instagram provide the granular control necessary to segment traffic like this.) You can read my growth marketing handbook to learn more about running retargeting ads well.

Here’s why retargeting is high-leverage: In running Facebook and Instagram ads for over a hundred startups, we’ve found that the cost of a retargeting purchase is one third the cost of a purchase from ads shown to people who haven’t yet been to our site.

Our data shows that clients who earn nothing from their blog traffic can sometimes earn thousands by simply retargeting ads to their readers.

Recap

It’s possible for a blog with 50,000 monthly visitors to earn nothing.

So, prioritize visitor engagement over volume: Make your hero metrics your revenue per visitor and your total revenue. That’ll keep your eye on the intermediary goals that matter: Attracting visitors with an intent to convert

Keeping those visitors engaged on the site

Then compelling them to convert

In short, your goal is to help Google do its job: Get readers where they need to go with the least amount of friction in their way.

Be sure to check out more articles from Julian Shapiro over on Extra Crunch, and get in touch with the Extra Crunch editors if you have cutting-edge startup advice to share with our subscribers, at ec_columns@techcrunch.com.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/13/how-do-startups-actually-get-their-content-marketing-to-work/

[fmservers]

How do startups actually get their content marketing to work?

[Editor’s note: this is a free example of a series of articles we’re publishing by top experts who have cutting-edge startup advice to offer, over on Extra Crunch. Get in touch at ec_columns@techcrunch.com if you have ideas to share.] 

Even the best growth marketers fail to get content marketing to work. Many are unwittingly using tactics from 4 years ago that no longer work today.

This post cuts through the noise by sharing real-world data behind some of the biggest SEO successes this year.

It studies the content marketing performance of clients with Growth Machine and Bell Curve (my company) — two marketing agencies who have helped grow Perfect Keto, Tovala, Framer, Crowd Cow, Imperfect Produce, and over a hundred others.

What content do their clients write about, how do they optimize that content to rank well (SEO), and how do they convert their readers into customers?

You’re about to see how most startups manage their blogs the wrong way.

Reference CupAndLeaf.com as we go along. Their tactics for hitting 150,000 monthly visitors will be explored.

Write fewer, more in-depth articles

In the past, Google wasn’t skilled at identifying and promoting high quality articles. Their algorithms were tricked by low-value, “content farm” posts.

That is no longer the case.

Today, Google is getting close to delivering on its original mission statement: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” In other words, they now reliably identify high quality articles. How? By monitoring engagement signals: Google can detect when a visitor hits the Back button in their browser. This signals that the reader quickly bounced from the article after they clicked to read it.

If this occurs frequently for an article, Google ranks that article lower. It deems it low quality.

For example, below is a screenshot of the (old) Google Webmaster Tools interface. It visualizes this quality assessment process: It shows a blog post with the potential to rank for the keyword “design packaging ideas.” Google initially ranked it at position 25.

However, since readers weren’t engaging with the content as time went on, Google incrementally ranked the article lower — until it completely fell off the results page:

The lesson? Your objective is to write high quality articles that keep readers engaged. Almost everything else is noise.

In studying our clients, we’ve identified four rules for writing engaging posts.

1. Write articles for queries that actually prioritize articles.

Not all search queries are best served by articles.

Below, examine the results for “personalized skincare:”

Notice that Google is prioritizing quizzes. Not articles.

So if you don’t perform a check like this before writing an article on “personalized skincare,” there’s a good chance you’re wasting your time. Because, for some queries, Google has begun prioritizing local recommendations, videos, quizzes, or other types of results that aren’t articles.

Sanity check this before you sit down to write.

2. Write titles that accurately depict what readers get from the content.

Are incoming readers looking to buy a product? Then be sure to show them product links.

Or, were they looking for a recipe? Provide that.

Make your content deliver on what your titles imply a reader will see. Otherwise, readers bounce. Google will then notice the accumulating bounces, and you’ll be penalized.

3. Write articles that conclude the searcher’s experience.

Your objective is to be the last site a visitor visits in their search journey.

Meaning, if they read your post then don’t look at other Google result, Google infers that your post gave the searcher what they were looking for. And that’s Google’s prime directive: get searchers to their destination through the shortest path possible.

The two-part trick for concluding the searcher’s journey is to:

Go sufficiently in-depth to cover all the subtopics they could be looking for.

Link to related posts that may cover the tangential topics they seek.

This is what we use Clearscope for — it ensures we don’t miss critical subtopics that help our posts rank:

4. Write in-depth yet concise content.

In 2019, what do most of the top-ranked blogs have in common?

They skip filler introductions, keep their paragraphs short, and get to the point.

And, to make navigation seamless, they employ a “table of contents” experience:

Be like them, and get out of the reader’s way. All our best-performing blogs do this.

Check out more articles by Julian Shapiro over on Extra Crunch, including “What’s the cost of buying users from Facebook and 13 other ad networks?” and “Which types of startups are most often profitable?”

Prioritize engagement over backlinks

In going through our data, the second major learning was about “backlinks”, which is marketing jargon for a link to your site from someone else’s.

Four years ago, the SEO community was focused on backlinks and Domain Ranking (DR) — an indication of how many quality sites link to yours (scored from 0 to 100). At the time, they were right to be concerned about backlinks.

Today, our data reveals that backlinks don’t matter as much as they used to. They certainly help, but you need great content behind them.

Most content marketers haven’t caught up to this.

Here’s a screenshot showing how small publishers can beat out large behemoths today — with very little Domain Ranking:

The implication is that, even without backlinks, Google is still happy to rank you highly. Consider this: They don’t need your site to be linked from TechCrunch for their algorithm to determine whether visitors are engaged on your site.

Remember: Google has Google Analytics, Google Search, Google Ads, and Google Chrome data to monitor how searchers engage with your site. Believe me, if they want to find out whether your content is engaging, they can find a way. They don’t need backlinks to tell them.

This is not to say that backlinks are useless.

Our data shows they still provide value, just much less. Notably, they get your pages “considered” by Google sooner: If you have backlinks from authoritative and relevant sites, Google will have the confidence to send test traffic to your pages in perhaps a few weeks instead of in a few months.

Here’s what I mean by “test traffic:” In the weeks after publishing your post, Google notices them then experimentally surfaces them at the top of related search terms. They then monitor whether searchers engage with the content (i.e. don’t quickly hit their Back button). If the engagement is engaging, they’ll increasingly surface your articles. And increase your rankings over time.

Having good backlinks can cut this process down from months to a few weeks.

Prioritize conversion over volume

Engagement isn’t your end goal. It’s the precursor to what ultimately matters: getting a signup, subscribe, or purchase. (Marketers call this your “conversion event.”) Visitors can take a few paths to your conversion event:

Short: They read the initial post then immediately convert.

Medium: They read the initial post plus a few more before eventually converting.

Long (most common): They subscribe to your newsletter and/or return later.

To increase the ratio at which readers take the short and medium paths, optimize your blog posts’ copy, design, and calls to action. We’ve identified two rules for doing this.

1. Naturally segue to your pitch

Our data shows you should not pitch your product until the back half of your post.

Why? Pitching yourself in the intro can taint the authenticity of your article.

Also, the further a reader gets into a good article, the more familiarity and trust they’ll accrue for your brand, which means they’re less likely to ignore your pitch once they encounter it.

2. Don’t make your pitch look like an ad

Most blogs make their product pitches look like big, show-stopping banner ads.

Our data shows this visual fanfare is reflexively ignored by readers.

Instead, plug your product using a normal text link — styled no differently than any other link in your post. Woodpath, a health blog with Amazon products to pitch, does this well.

Think in funnels, not in pageviews

Finally, our best-performing clients focus less on their Google Analytics data and more on their readers’ full journeys: They encourage readers to provide their email so they can follow up with a series of “drip” emails. Ideally, these build trust in the brand and get visitors to eventually convert.

They “retarget” readers with ads. This entails pitching them with ads for the products that are most relevant to the topics they read on the blog. (Facebook and Instagram provide the granular control necessary to segment traffic like this.) You can read my growth marketing handbook to learn more about running retargeting ads well.

Here’s why retargeting is high-leverage: In running Facebook and Instagram ads for over a hundred startups, we’ve found that the cost of a retargeting purchase is one third the cost of a purchase from ads shown to people who haven’t yet been to our site.

Our data shows that clients who earn nothing from their blog traffic can sometimes earn thousands by simply retargeting ads to their readers.

Recap

It’s possible for a blog with 50,000 monthly visitors to earn nothing.

So, prioritize visitor engagement over volume: Make your hero metrics your revenue per visitor and your total revenue. That’ll keep your eye on the intermediary goals that matter: Attracting visitors with an intent to convert

Keeping those visitors engaged on the site

Then compelling them to convert

In short, your goal is to help Google do its job: Get readers where they need to go with the least amount of friction in their way.

Be sure to check out more articles from Julian Shapiro over on Extra Crunch, and get in touch with the Extra Crunch editors if you have cutting-edge startup advice to share with our subscribers, at ec_columns@techcrunch.com.

Via Eric Eldon https://techcrunch.com

[zippdementia]

Part 43 Alignment May Vary: Concluding Part 1 (and side quests)

This is the ongoing adventure in the 5e conversion of classic 3.5 adventure The Red Hand of Doom! Not only does this detail the adventures of my three players but it also give detailed suggestions on how to run a 5e conversion of this campaign.

Tools I reference a lot: The 3.5 Red Handbook of Doom, The beastiary Revenge of the Horde, secondary beastiary Tome of Beasts.

The Red Hand of Doom Campaign has a very good pace throughout its first part. The heroes are brought into town, they are given a quest, and several nice battle scenes within the Wytchwood keep them moving towards the end goal of Skull Gorge Bridge and, ultimately, retreating before the might of the Horde.

Things get a little tougher in the second Part. Read directly from the campaign module, heroes are given the option to either wander around and engage in random encounters with the horde or to pursue the quest line into the Blackfens and Rhest. In theory it is a nice attempt at open world gaming, with the idea being that if heroes choose to ignore the main plot line eventually they have a more difficult time fighting the final battle in Brindol. But in practice, it is a poor choice. Compare these options: run a series of skirmishes or engage in a full quest into the unexplored swamp lands which will ultimately involve an attempted alliance with a third party and an attack on an ancient stronghold.  Which of those two sounds more exciting?

Of course, it is great that the skirmishes and side scenarios are included in the campaign book. If your group decides they wish to attack the horde directly or wants to travel with the evacuees all the way to Brindol, then by all means use these skirmishes to build these scenarios. But at the same time, it should be made more clear than it already is where the main quest line is, so the players have that as an option, too, and aren’t guessing at where to go next.

The evacuation of Drellin’s Ferry marks the end of Part 1 of the Red Hand of Doom. This event could be simple, without much fanfare, or it could be a gigantic battle against the full might of the horde, one which is doomed to end in failure. In the case of the latter, transitioning to part two is easy and flows well. Decimated by the horde and having escaped (barely) with their lives, townspeaker Wiston decides that they need more help. They need a hero from the last great war, and that hero is Mortigan, an old Wizard who used to be Wiston’s mentor. He now lives as a recluse in the Blackfens, but if the adventurers would go and find him, Wiston is sure he would come help.

This mcguffin was first suggested on Giant in the Playground, and it is the most elegant solution I’ve seen to setting up Part 2. It’s a good hook, an appropriate response to Drellin’s Ferry getting sacked, and it gives the players a task which feels uniquely suited to them.

The tricky thing is if the players destroy Skull Gorge Bridge and evacuate the town early. Then there is no big battle against the horde and the evacuation will go more or less peacefully (getting the town evacuated peacefully is the reward for playing Part 1 smart, don’t take that away from your players just because you want to have a big finishing set piece). It is still fine for Wiston to bring up the wizard and task the players with the finding of him, but some of the urgency will be lacking as the horde is not yet nipping at their heels. In this case, I think it is good to flesh out the end of Part I with a couple of side quests. I’ve developed two for the scenario, based on materials in the campaign book, and they are presented below.

It’s also worth pointing out that at this point my party is split and will be for this entire session. We’ve been no stranger to split parties in these adventures (heck, the very first thing Karina did back in session one was to split from the party) and over time I’ve developed better systems for handling it. What I do now is whenever the party is split, I have them roll initiative and I treat everything essentially like combat, with players taking turns. If there isn’t actually a combat happening then turns can be longer, encompassing a series of skill checks or roleplaying moments each turn. As a general rule, players shouldn’t be taking more than a couple major actions before switching to the next player.

This keeps the game flowing and everyone engaged. In the instance I’ll describe below, it lets me run a combat on one hand while I run a roleplaying encounter at the same time!

Cabin in the Woods: Jorr Plotline

Traki could smell wine and apples and... something else. The darkness was heavy here. It was strange, but even without his vision he could sometimes still “see” darkness. It had a different... “feel” was maybe the word to describe it. Sound did different things in the dark. And things were colder.

The cellar he and Tyrion were in was definitely cold. And quiet. And there was that something else, too, a smell of something sour and old. 

Tyrion spotted the body at the end of the cellar, chained to the wall. It was emaciated, hanging limply, the chains almost too big for the shrunken wrists. There was something familiar about it, despite the mumification. Tyrion got close to examine.

“What is this doing in Jorr’s cellar?” he said, maybe to Traki, maybe just to hear the words out loud. To hear something in this dark place with the smell like old feces.

Then the corpse jerked to life and screamed. “NO! Don’t let her do it! Don’t let her come!” the body screamed. Tyrion jerked back, startled (though the curse on his axe kept him from being truly afraid). Traki was more shaken.

“That voice!” The elf said.

“I know,” Tyrion replied. The dessicated man in front of them was Xaviee, their former ally.

This side quest requires two pieces of set up and relies on mystery and the dark past of Vraath Keep to drive it. In this plot (inspired by Twyin’s backstory, one of our fallen characters) after Vraath Keep fell, one of its noble ladies fled into the woods, only to be found and brutally murdered by bandits. Her soul, unsettled in its demise, remained in the woods and became a Banshee-like creature known as “The Lady of the Woods.” She began to take power from the Fey who used to rule the Wytchwood and preyed on human men who wandered too deep into the woods. As long as she had access to human blood, she could retain her power and her spiritual form. To help her, she had her father, who remained in the woods and would occasionally bring her sacrifices.

Her father is Jorr Natherson.

Jorr does what he does not out of evil, but out of love and a hatred of what happened to his daughter. Desperate to keep her spirit alive, he occasionally kidnaps men who wander into the woods and keeps them alive for weeks in his basement, letting the Lady of the Wood come and feed on them until they expire. He still hates goblinoids and will assist in halting the horde’s progress towards civilization, but now he also hides this dark secret.

In our group, this plays out really interestingly, because our group also has Xaviee with them, the NPC who came from Vraath Keep and was there the day of the massacre. The group sent him off alone with Jorr when last we saw the two of them, so it makes sense as to what happened next: Jorr disabled Xaviee and brought him to his daughter, who began the cycle of feeding. Now he keeps him in his cellar, letting her come every so often to continue the feeding. Figuring the adventures are dead or have fled, Jorr doesn’t worry too much about them until he comes home to find his cellar door open. A smart, insightful man, he is quick to guess at just who has invaded his home and discovered his secret.

“Who is down there? Come on up now and let’s talk this out.”

“You would be wise to stay away!” The deep voice drifted out from the cellar like a rumble of thunder, but Jorr just laughed.

“That you, Tyrion? Yeah, what a lovely singing voice you must have. Clear your throat and get your halfling ass up here. I want to talk.”

The party does not come up though, and when Jorr finally descends into the cellar to talk to them, Tyrion unleashes a prepared Scroll of Fireball. Jorr is nimble, and dodges most of the damage. His hounds miraculously also roll well, though the fireball hits one directly in the chest and that one dies badly. Jorr retreats, calling the halfling insane and locks the cellar door behind him, leaving Tyrion and Traki to face off against two angry hounds and a fire that is quickly spreading through the cellar. And they still have to save Xaviee. 

This quickly becomes an “oh shit” scenario, as the fire continues to build. The way I handle the fire is I have them roll Con saves, where the DC and damage for failure gets higher each turn. The damage caps out at 4d6 and half damage on a success. By this time, the hounds have been killed by Tyrion, but Tyrion himself expires to smoke inhalation while trying to chop down the locked cellar door. Traki goes to work on the door with his magical monk fists, pounding at it for two rounds before finally bursting through. By this time he is at 2 hit points. Literally, we were 2 hitpoints from the death of both Traki and Tyrion. Because of a door. Well, and Tyrion going nuts and unleashing a fireball in a close quarters cellar filled with wooden casks of alcohol.

Traki pulls Xaviee and Tyrion’s unconscious bodies out of the cabin and collapses on the grass, breathing in the fresh air. And then he hears footsteps...

“You burned my home!” Jorr’s anger made his voice turn shrill and almost unintelligable. Traki, coughing and hacking on the grass, held up his hands in placation.

“You had our friend, you... did things to him.”

“I did nothing he didn’t deserve.”

“You gave him to the Witch of the Wood!”

“The witch is my daughter!”

The revelation hit Traki like a blow from a warhammer. He began to recall things they had heard, things the others had seen and told him, of Jorr’s strange behavior during their travels together, and his anger at everything related to Vraath Keep. Jorr had even told them the sad tale of the maiden who had fled the horrors of the Keep’s last war only to fall to rapists and bandits in the woods. How had they not put it together before?

“She has to feed,” Jorr went on. “She has to in order to survive.”

“Listen, you had a choice,” Traki said. “You did not have to tie our friend up. You do not have to kill us now. We all have choices.”

“Choice?” Jorr spat the word. “What choice did she have?”

“You have a choice,” Traki said again, lamely, believing them to be his last words.

Jorr’s voice dripped anger, frustration, and deep sadness. “I will make my choice,” he said, and Traki heard the soft creak of wood as the bowstring drew back.

Moments passed then, yet even Traki’s ears did not mark Jorr’s leaving. All he could hear was his beating heart, and all he knew was that he was still alive.

Meanwhile, Nysyries has washed up on the shores of the Elsir river. She is pulled up on land by an old forest giant, who comes straight from the Campaign book. I play Old Warklegnaw as pretty insane, kind’ve like Treebeard out of Lord of the Rings but less wise and more as if he has dementia (which, frankly, Warklegnaw does). He at first takes Nyseries for a fish, then decides she would be good eatin’, then finally decides she would make a good supper companion. He takes her back to her fire. I like in the campaign that astute players can seek out the giants of the forest and make them allies, but it really wasn’t something that got highlighted in our game. So instead, I give Nysyries the chance to ally with the Lady of the Wood (AKA Jorr’s daughter and Tywin’s wife). Warklegnaw is one of her allies and he summons her to speak with Nysyries.

The Lady of the Wood is a buffed up Banshee with some life draining touch attacks that heal her (thus the dessication on Xaviee and the bandits she attacked a few sessions ago). My original intention was for the players to get the chance to face her and lay her soul to rest, but seeing as Nysyries can’t do this on her own, weakened as she is, I come up with another plan.

First, I build a little tension by having the pixies from a couple sessions ago reappear and try to warn Nysyries right before the Lady appears, fleeing before her presence. Then I have the Lady offer Nysyries a deal... she needs the Dragonborn to suck the souls out of men to keep her spirit alive and ultimately needs her to murder a man with lord’s blood to “get the lady’s revenge” on the lord who caused her so much pain, Lord Amory (whose war with the giants ultimately cost her her life in a pretty horrible way). The one she needs killed is Lord Jamath of Brindol. While the act of doing this is undoubtedly evil, the goal is not--it will save the Lady’s soul and free her of her cursed need to drain men of their life in order to survive. In return, she (a) promises to make the woods a place of wonder after she is freed, (b) to harry the horde as they make their way through the wood, and (c) to lend Nysyries some of the power of the wood, allowing her to turn into two creatures normally off limits to Druids: the blink dog and the displacer beast (though the displacer beast, being so powerful, takes both uses of her transform ability). The downside is that if Nysyries fails to drain a man’s soul for her mistress every three days, she will lose her powers as a druid and replace all levels of druid with levels of “commoner.” 

It’s a classic trade off of power for character flaws, in this case made more complicated by the fact that the Lady is appealing to Nysyries’ love of nature, need to stop the horde, and that this is ultimately a good act (done by horrible horrible things). Nysyries struggles with the choice all session while we jump back and forth between her and Jorr’s cabin, but ultimately she decides to take the deal.

We’ll see how it plays out!

There is a second side quest I’ve come up with, based on the Lady Dagger scenario, but we will have to save it for next time as it actually ends up taking us a few sessions to play through!