#Scape and Run: Reanimation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

iconcolon4 · 2 years

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The Preferred Runescape Wiki

RuneScape could be run with varying levels of graphical detail. There are players with maximum combat that have very low ranges in other expertise and there are pure skillers with no combat levels and very excessive non-combat skills. This does not apply to familiars, even when they're using the flawed combat type. Prifddinas A player using a Spirit tree to teleport. If a rune dragon is pressured into its subsequent phase via oblique injury, it should turn aggressive towards the player that brought about the phase transition. It's now potential to attack the dragon with melee once more. The profitable entry from the Design A Hat competition is now yours to put on! The Granite Hammer now requires 50 Strength to wield as a substitute of fifty Attack and Strength. An information topic entry request could also be submitted using this kind (requires login). Fixed an issue that was blocking access to the quick Motion Bar and the Fight Settings on the HUD.

The advantages and disadvantages of the combat triangle apply to both NPCs and participant opponents. A player can create more than one account, and can interchange between taking part in them with no limits. Thralls will remain energetic for one recreation cycle (0.6 seconds) for each Magic level the caster has. This spell will last one cycle for each Magic level the participant has on the time. Press and drag one finger to rotate the camera. This one ought to make your tail wag: now you can interact with several cats and canines throughout Gielinor! Angels Scapes has now designed a whopping 200 official pins and keyrings for the merch retailer! The puzzle can now be solved by 'Searching' the right place with the required merchandise in your backpack. What can we say? You possibly can strive them out by grabbing Egg Sacs from the Grubby Chest within the Forthos Dungeon. Gnome Ball - A challenging Agility minigame where players attempt to move and charge with a small ball in direction of a hoop to attain a goal, while defending gnomes attempt to deal with them before they'll throw it. Eleven January 2021 (Replace): - Whereas on cell, Interface tutorial highlights are now hidden if a different interface is opened on prime of the present one.

Providing spells from the Arceuus Spellbook now solid instantly, and have a cooldown animation instead of a warmup one. Naturally, Corruption spells can only be solid on a participant who shouldn't be already corrupted. Nonetheless, there isn't a cooldown between Corruption expiring and a brand new Corruption spell being cast. Demonic Offering is the only spell we've overlooked from the Beta, as we've not added the Demonic Ash merchandise yet. Last man standing osrs In the present Arceuus Spellbook, there's a reanimation spell for every related creature, making a grand total of 22 spells. In July 2012, Jagex launched Solomon's Basic Store, making it doable to spend actual currency in exchange for "RuneCoins" that might be spent on cosmetic rewards in the sport. The Soul Wars shop has been updated to incorporate a 'buy X' choice for the XP rewards. Unique drop rates have been up to date to match the struggle size and issue increase.

The Struggle Cave go away timer has been diminished to 3 minutes. To be able to battle rune dragons (and be assigned them for a slayer task), the participant must first complete the quests Ritual of the Mahjarrat and Fate of the Gods. We want to ensure anybody new to the series has a clear understanding of the order of events, so we've made X Marks the Spot a requirement for Shopper of Kourend. Nevertheless, so as to fully deal with the issue we will need to rollback progress for a small portion of gamers. Whereas their harm ignores accuracy checks, Safety Prayers will cut back their damage accordingly. Gamers might be prevented from by accident clicking on Stock gadgets while utilizing the Deposit Field or getting into a Bank PIN. Disposal of those low-cost items would lead to efficient bank sorting. If gamers now not meet the requirements, this merchandise might be un-outfitted to your Inventory (if not full), failing that your Bank (if not full), and failing that it'll drop to the ground. 9 August 2021 (Update): - Sure path interfaces are no longer zoomed into full display on cellular. They are led on a set path where they learn many of the non-member expertise needed to succeed in Gielinor, the realm of RuneScape.

#last man standing osrs #Extrememining

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pearlsongfromstuff · 3 years

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Hi its the oc ask anon from before! The New God OCs look intriguing and im always a sucker for dnd!

I watch Kyo's stuff too so all of that is really interesting as well, but the New God thing is drawing me in. If you want to talk about other ocs that's okay, but thats the one that has my interest atm

Have a good day pearl!

Thank you so much, Anon! I'ma nickname you Anny, Anny. So anyways, with just New God OCs (The name New God actually is name of my biggest AU that houses most of my main stories and my OCs. The name was inspired by the name Bad God but instead of a "Bad" God, there are "New" God's running the world. Fun little fact)

So with just these OCs alone we have 33 OCs, so I'ma give brief explanations for them

(Note: All the OCs with (*) are made by @chaoscorners-blog since we share these OCs but they were his original concepts)

(Also some other vocabulary you might need to know for this AU:

Minnrig- A fake Micronation near Ukraine and Romania where most of the stories take place. This place holds all the power in this universe

Red Eye Curse: Also called the 2p Disease or Madness Curse, the Red Eye Curse was a magical curse that plagued most of the 2p Universe. It drove people to madness by making them selfish, power-hungry and manipulative. It's also why the 2p Universe was known as the "Evil Side" while the 1p Universe was known as the "Good Side". It eventually disappeared 10 years as fast as it appeared)

Pearl and *Angel (He/they / He/They): The "New Gods". They run the universe and live in a castle near Minnrig. Though they may seem kind and thoughtful on the surface, they're actually not that good of people. I recommend not coming close to them.

Darling (She/Her): Adopted daughter of Pearl and Angel, she is known to have any magical powers. Not much is known about her since she rather hide in the Ancient Records within the castle

Star and Rose (He/Him, She/Her): Star and Rose are also adopted children of Pearl and Angel but unlike their older sister, they have magic. Star and Rose are probably more powerful than Pearl and Angel combined. Star is more adventurous and wants to learn about the magic in the world while Rose tries to live a more normal life, away from her godly heritage.

*Viktor and Sal (He/Him, They/Them) : Two 2ps that escaped to the 1p World, they live with Pearl and Angel as caretakers for Star and Rose. Star is the most attached to them, calling Sal "Mama" and Viktor "Dad".

Lewton (He/Him): The personification of Minnrig, Lewton is also the Detective of the town. He's also the husband of Bazarov (who we'll talk about if anyone asks about 2ps) and he's also responsible for the end of the Red Eye Curse.

*Zargon and Diablo (He/Him, She/Her): The Adopted children of Bazarov, sadly they were found around the time Bazarov had the Curse, they were taught since adoption to become soldier, and they're mainly representative of Heart (Zargon) and Mind (Diablo). Bazarov actually stole Diablo's heart for years, making her very heartless and making her a war criminal like her father while her brother always seemed to get the blame. After many years and while Lewton was working on saving the world, Zargon found Diablo's heart and they got the fuck out of there.

Deera (She/Her): The eldest sister of Zargon and Diablo, Deera kinda left her siblings for dead after the death of their birth parents. She instead headed to the Fantasy universe and kinda became a fucking villain in the stories, mainly manipulating anyone for whatever she wants.

Riley (She/Her): Another adopted child of Bazarov (He has a lot), She was raised while Zargon and Diablo were but sperate. She later on took over her father's place as General.

Abble (She/her): An (say it with me now) adopted child of Bazarov but with a twist: She's also Lewton's daughter. She actually has a nice upbringing unlike her other siblings because Bazarov was free of the curse when she was being raised. Her siblings are highly jealous of this.

Bean and Loki (He/Him, He/Him): Bean is a cat who radiated too much magic and can now turn human. Loki is a Mochi America but somehow, during hatching, gained more of a conscience than his other Mochi brethren. They're also married after many weird circumstances.

*Azreal (She/Her): To put it shortly, she's a bootleg Dr. Frankenstein. She has a never ending thirst for knowledge and uses such knowledge of other universes to bring people to life and to create life. And in one story, she kills Nevo......sooooooo-

*Mono (He/Him): During life, he was a simple manga artist with a wife and child but after horrible circumstances, he ends up dead at the hands of a gang. Azreal takes him and brings him back to life. Sadly, during the "bringing back to life" process, his soul is merged with a more evil soul, so now two personalities are contained in one body. Mono being the more awkward side and Parasite having absolutely no chill.

Pearl Song (Any Pronouns): Originally my very first cringy Marysue OC, we revamped her into being another of Azreal's projects. She has the power of the everything due to her past life and now uses that power in her current life to cause chaos with her favorite brother, Mono.

*Foalina and *Matthias (She/Her, He/Him): Another project by Azreal, they are two bunny twins that travel the world as performers. On stage, Foalina is seen as meak and weak while Matthias is more flirtatious and cunning. Off stage, they hate each other with a burning passion

*Caddy (She/They): Another project by Azreal, she is a mute traveler of the many universes. She is very excited soul that likes any good story.

*Shyane (She/Her): Azreal's first project, at first, Azreal saw her as a daughter and she saw Azreal as a mother but after time, their relationship became more strained and she became more of a servant than a daughter. She is very nurturing and caring.

*Demonic and *Ivan (She/Her, He/Him): Demonic is another project by Azreal which Azreal didn't just take a dead body and reanimate it, she actually created her. She was mainly used for experiments until she finally left. After many unfortunate events in her life, she gives birth to Ivan, her son. Ivan is the light of her life and just is an absolute sweetheart. We see more of them during Ages AU.

*Lilla (She/Her): A girl from the 1500's that left her home to become a Teutonic Knight so she didn't become a maid, after her entire crew is supposedly murdered and the enemy is after her, she starts working for a witch in the woods who eventually send her to the future to escape death sentence.

Amelia (Amy) (She/Her): Basically Amy Rose (from Sonic series) but she is an old interpretation I had of her in 2016 that she basically became my OC. Anyways, she also comes to our present and meets Lilla and after she helps her understand the world around her (which Amy sees as old technology), they actually fall in love and get married, yay!

Cosmo (She/Her): Daughter of Amy and Lilla

Amore (She/Her): Amy's past lover that basically gets in fights with Lilla a lot

Kaarlo (He/Him): Lilla's past lover that dies of hypothermia after looking for her in the snow. F in the chat

Berry, *Duke, Nicholas, and *Cole (Any Pronouns, He/Him, He/Him and He/They): Basically two femboys (Berry and Cole) and two hunks (Nicholas and Duke) in a Dream Scape

AND THERE ARE ALL MY ORIGINAL CHARCTERSSSSS. Damn that's a lot of typing for one phone. Anyways, I hope this entertained you guys! I will take any asks you have. I will also post some art of all of them later

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thebardish · 3 years

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Orientation

We see a series of scenes; a deep cavern illuminated by large glowing mushrooms with a small caravan traversing a narrow ledge, a fiery hammer sparking against an already red-hot anvil, industrial lights of a submerged city-scape of domes shining brightly against dark water, aerial bands of white marble populated to the fullest with every creature capable of achieving flight, dark forest floors of gangly trees covered in a thick green carpet. Then, we see a quaint study of an old man in a large pointy hat, a deep dungeon-like dugout housing a ragtag group gathering supplies led by a wheelchair-bound silhouette. We see a thin Tiefling chasing after an even thinner Elf, laughing and collapsing together against an old tree, a regal Triton in a think armchair with piles of books, tomes, and scrolls scattered around him, two bright purple eyes form from the darkness and out steps a tall woman, almost floating across the cobbled roads, she darts her eyes across any and every living thing. And then, we are back in the study, a dim candle burns at the edge of a messy desk as lightning gives brief clarity to what he is writing and then a knock at the door breaks his concentration. The dugout is now packed with all sorts of creatures looking to the same silhouette, who’s pointing to a large map on the table with pins. Thunder cracks and dust falls from the ceiling and then it fades to black. We see a pitch black void, and then a light. A flash of bright white light and then an enormous chunk of Earth with a vast array of ecosystems comes into focus. The Academy sits in the vast expanse of nothingness. Inter-dimensional doorways blink into existence and snuff out just as quickly. The Academy has come into being, and that’s where our story begins.

JOVIS:

Jovis is struck with a vision: He sees a ring of sparks that turn into large circular flames, and a hooded figure clutching something to their chest quickly jump through and vanish. He sees himself as a child, but from outside himself. He is swaddled in a tight crimson blanket, the same blanket used for the back portion of his cloak. He recognizes the location, it’s Mimi and Momo’s front doorstep. He remembers this scene from a third-person point of view, looking down onto himself.

Jovis awakes in his room to the smell of pancakes. Mimi and Momo are playfully arguing and Jovis grabs a quick bite before running out to meet Oliver at the courtyard. Oliver spills the contents of his backpack and tries to build a tower with the copious amounts of energy drink cans, but Jovis crushes all but one.

Hathor pipes up and says, “Jovis, why are you friends with this excuse of an Elf?” and follows it up by insisting. “You are at an age where you should learn the extent of what it means to be my vessel and have my power flowing through you.” Jovis agrees and fires his first actual spell, a large purple fireball into the final energy drink can. He hits it directly but as he does there is an overwhelming feeling within him.

Sekhmet, a voice Jovis has never heard before, speaks up and says, “Back off, it's my turn to shine!” and without moving or initiating anything, two more purple fireballs shoot off past the crisp of a can and burst through the window leading into the library.

Jovis freaks out and runs away, trying to find his way home or an adult to try and fix this, but he finds instead a large set of engraved Oak doors. He pushes them open and is stuck mid-fall and an invisible conveyor belt tracks him to the center of the room. Someone is already waiting in this room.

CAL:

Cal is found in the Library. He zones out and replays the last fight he had with his father. He stands opposite to his father, flanked by Cal’s younger brother Prince Zelzes to the left, and to the right is Roven Silverspear, the king’s literal right-hand man. The argument is nothing of note, besides that Zelzes and Silverspear interject with belittlement by name-calling and undermining his side. He returns to his bedchamber after training that night to find something is off, the hallway is just a little too quiet. He stands back at just the right time before his doors are blown off and guards try and storm in. He makes a break for it. He manages to injure one of the attackers before fleeing.

He spends a week on the lamb, ducking in and out of the public eye and trying to derail the search for him. He overhears talk of his disappearance, with no mention of the assassination attempt. He develops a split personality to cope with this newfound trauma, and towards the end finds himself cornered in a supply warehouse. The guards are closing in and in a last ditch effort to get away, he summons a rectangular portal of frosted glass that lights in the darkness. He gauges his options and jumps through.

Cal unfurls a scroll that details The Sicarius, a group of Grung assassins known for their use of poison and ability to sneakily topple unruly governments or monarchs. He scans it with more detail when suddenly a large, purple fireball blasts through the window right above his head and begins to burn the Library. Cal jumps up, and knocks over his ‘to read’ pile, where a tome falls open and has a large picture of Adrian, followed by a brief description. Adrian is a Grung who helped found the Academy.

Shelby, a high elf, screams for help because a second fireball has smashed into the Library farther down, causing a bookshelf to fall and pin her. Cal rushes over and lifts it up, allowing Shelby to escape. She thanks him graciously before running off.

Cal rips out the page about Adrian and stuffs it into the scroll about The Sicarius, and runs. Cal finds his way to a set of large Oak doors, he checks them for traps, but doesn’t find any. He takes a step in and is tracked into the center of the room, where he stands and briefly after, a Teifling almost falls in.

THARA:

Thara finds herself full of so many emotions as she points to a carriage with The Baron of a far off land, but corrects herself at the last minute, letting go a blast of pure necrotic energy, decimating and reanimating the horses. Her outburst turned the attention of the onlookers to her, and she ran. The two guards make chase, almost catching up to her, but in a brief instant of clarity, she stops at a shimmering pond of silver water and her reality shifts. Instead of jumping downwards, she is spit out sideways out of the backdoor of a restaurant.

Thara is now in an alleyway, and she makes her way out and into the street of a bustling farmers market, and across the way she makes out a pink skinned, wheelchair-bound Dr. Cantaloupe holds a plastic bag as his adoptive daughter Cherry zips around and fills it up with assorted groceries.

She rushes over to him and immediately collapses at his feed, sobbing. He helps her up and brings her to a park bench overlooking a large lake. He explains how the Academy works and how everyone here was once a newbie. Cherry hops up and sits next to her, playing with her hair or asking questions about how she got there.

They sit and talk for a bit, enough time where now Dr. Cantaloupe and Thara are walking and talking through the hallways of the Academy. Dr. Cantaloupe looks around and registers that Cherry isn’t with them, and as he gets a little nervous a loud explosion blows dust into their hallway a few intersections back.

Dr. Cantaloupe wheels around and speedily disappears around a corner, leaving Thara alone. She investigates the explosion to find the Library is alive with flames, and across the hallway are two large Oak doors. She looks around and enters them, and just like the others, is tracked to the center. She is last to arrive.

COUNCIL ROOM:

All three are now within the Council Room, where they are stuck in place, staring at a wall of thrones. In the center, an old Human Wizard sits. He has a large pointy hat and a long white beard. He is clutching a staff in one hand. On either side of the wall of thrones sits two doorways with swirling black portals in their frames.

To his right sits a towering robotic humanoid with eyes of all shades covering most of her metal flesh, she has eyes seemingly everywhere besides where normal people have eyes, where she has a large red gemstone for the right socket and a large black eye patch covering the left. On her shoulder sits a mini throne where a blue and green Grung sits.

To the right, sits three large, but ultimately normal-sized thrones. Two on ground level and one positioned above their heads in the center. On the ground sits an elderly Tortle. Next to him is a young, dirt-stained Svirfneblin, and above them sits a dark Kenku with a bow string across his chest.

The party hears a voice, and they can tell it’s coming from the Council, but none of them are moving in any way. The voice says, “This Council has presided over the Academy of Adventurer’s since its inception. Now, The Chosen, The Lost, and the Re-claimer, find their way into this hallowed hall. You are here for a reason, yet none of us called upon any otherworldly deities to bring such a group here. There must be another reason for strings as intertwined as these,” and the voice pauses, as Dr. Cantaloupe, with Cherry on his lap, comes bursting in.

Dr. Cantaloupe shakes a finger at the council and demands the doorways out of the Academy are fixed this instant. He’d like to, at the very least, have the option of leaving and returning to his family. Cherry even jumps off his lap and makes a game of running through the portal and being spit back out into the room.

The Council speaks up, “The exit doorways are free and open to use for anyone who needs them, just as the Academy is.” This frustrates Dr. Cantaloupe. He apologies to the party before leaving to wait outside, since the Council seems to not be answering their questions. “The Doctor seems to be not a fan of our Academy, all he has to do is leave,” the Council says.

RESISTANCE:

Dr. Cantaloupe is waiting outside the door, still calming down. He explains of a place they can go that will be safe to speak of such private matters. He leads them down a hallway and taps the wall in a design and it slides up and over to reveal a hallway. Cherry speeds down into the darkness and out of sight. He then creates a sigil of sorts with his hands and begins to lift himself up. His wheelchair folds up into a briefcase and he floats down. The stairs are a rough stone and the walls and ceilings are dirt.

At the bottom, there is a landing that splits in three. To the right is a locker room, the left a bunk house, and forward to a long meeting area. Dr. Cantaloupe unfolds his wheelchair and sits down on the opposite side of a round stone table. He leans back and folds his hands and tells the players he will answer any question they have.

The Resistance was formed as an underground and covert way of learning more about the Academy. They learned that the Academy heals itself overnight, almost exactly at Midnight. When he found out none of the exit doors were working, the Resistance changed into a full-blown operation to fix them and find out why they aren’t working in the first place.

Dr. Cantaloupe slides contracts to each member and offers them a safe haven to train as well as learn more about what’s going on. Each person signs the contact, and with the last one being signed he brings the party down a more secure tunnel, this one with sparse lighting from bulbs until they reach a stone doorway that the party walks into. There are no lights in this room and Dr. Cantaloupe explains that to be a part of the Resistance they need to prove their might, trial by combat style. The three of them were taken to the Council Room for a reason, so having them in the Resistance is more than beneficial.

The party defeats the Purple Wormling and it disintegrates, only to be brought back the next day. After that, The party splits up. Jovis runs home, waking up Oliver and shouting at him about the very eventful day he had. Cal meditates in the lake to gain some clarity, and Thara prays to her god.

#orientation #d&d #dnd #prologue

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secrethandshake-club · 5 years

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The house game

So there was this legend about this haunted house that, if you visit it, the ghosts would choose one person and play a game with the visitors. Logically, me and two friends decided to go in, as soon as we entered the creepy old house, I started feeling sick. As we continued walking around I fainted, that was the moment I knew I was the chosen one to host the ghost.

My friend started slapping me in the face, after a few more slaps I woke up feeling worst, at the edge of death. I was shaking, I wanted to throw up and I was probably sweating.

We tried to get out but that’s when the game began, the ghost was talking through me telling my friends their deepest fears and forcing them to stay in the house, otherwise it would kill me.

I was forcing the ghost down so I was able to control my own body, as soon as I got the control of my body, we started running around trying to find a way out, but then I fainted again.

Just that this time was different. I was experiencing an out of body experience watching my friends trying to reanimate my lifeless body. Then I felt a weird sharp hand on my arm, I looked around and there was this black thin looking creature, it was humanoid but not human at all.

It was telling to follow it, and started dragging me while saying how there was no scape from there in its deep demonic voice.

I looked down at my friends and my bodyone last time, finally understanding that I wasn’t coming back.

#dreampai #dream #once i dreamt

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roll4steve-blog · 6 years

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Beginners Guide to Creating a Nation

Nations, states, countries, some sort of principality or kingdom. It comes by many names, but at the end of the day, it is just a place people live. The cities and villages can vary a lot, or there can be such a strong oppressive boot on the back of the people that there is a sense of uniformity. When it comes to homebrewing, I talk about a lot. Whether it be the campaign, a creative twist to an old setting, or just building it a bit, I do talk about it a lot. Anyway, as I was saying, when it comes to homebrewing for a new setting, to really introduce your players to the world, you only really need one nation fleshed out. The others can come with time. Start simple, how much influence does the central or federal government have in small villages? Do they have any unusual laws that the players can incorporate into their backstories? Are they isolationists? Do they have a mandatory or voluntary military service? These are some simple questions to really kick the thing off. Now, Roll4 has looked at this topic before, but a different contributor, different style, more of an introduction, a launching point. People tend to think differently, what works well for some, doesn’t work at all for others, so here is the same concept with a different lens. The early work comes off as more of a listicle, a checklist of things to consider, and to expand from. A good starting point if you are going blind, or unsure of what you are looking for, the minute you start filling in one or two of the sections, it really starts branching out, and making it easier to find the information for the next. A listicle like that one is great for fleshing out more and more details or things you missed. Back when I was in high school I had a huge list of things I went over, and I continued to refine how I build countries until this point right now. I still have that huge list, and refer to it occasionally, but I tend to think a softer version with less hard lore works better for me. So, about 10 years of work has gone into the advice I’m about to give, not consciously worked on, but through trial and error, mistakes in GMing, and just correcting it so I don’t have that issue again. Before we really get rolling, I do want to put as a side-I did google a few different phrases looking around for other people giving advice on how to build nations or countries for tabletop gaming. Honestly found them to be very lackluster, or at the very least unfocused, and it is what made me want to revisit this topic. So let's go, to start with, at least how I start, ask yourself about the problems that face the country, or regions of the country. It could be arid and hot, limiting the food potential, meaning famines are common. There could be a culture that thrives on the hardiness of those who can live through the tough times, meaning the common folk don’t squander food, they stretch every grain of rice or wheat to the fullest. Mayhaps, the winters are so rough on them that during the inhospitable seasons, such as winter, there is a ritual of forgiveness for families that can’t handle their children, can’t afford to feed them, and give them to the spirits of the land, and the memories of children that aren’t properly honored, results in, let’s just say a rather sad, and dark plot hook. But the idea of starting from this position is to build flaws inherently into the society, whether it be the honoring of strength, meaning that the strongest is right even when very wrong. “I can drink this poison, so clearly it isn’t poison!” Or it could be that the pursuit of knowledge dwarfs all other values, safety and life included, “What do you mean why? Why did I make a portal to the abyssal plane of unfunny comedians? TO SEE IF I COULD OF COURSE!” These inherent societal flaws can lead to a lot of plot hooks, lots of quests for your players to be engaged by, or to include in their own character’s backstory. A society that is known for having a corrupt king and corruption all the way down would produce a lot of thieves, don’t you think? But you get the idea, you can have any kind of flaw, from dormant dragons below all their castles to something small, like the occasional seasonal flooding. The next big thing for me after that is asking how the society copes with, or fixes, the problem. If you have a legion of unwieldy scientists running about doing magical studies that result in possibly altering the very laws of nature, perhaps, there are strike financial burdens on those that harm others, or it encourages isolation by the most strange, or maybe, only mayors are entitled to that level, and part of the planks of their elections are the insane experiments they want to run. “I wanted to vote for Rezog the Reanimated, but, well, the tax break just isn’t worth his promise to bring back all the dead in the city, so I guess I’ll vote Fleming, he only wants to make a super cold that makes you sneeze with super strength.” It could be a society with might makes right has gladiatorial fights, and puts scholarly pursuits on the back seat. Meaning they have to train their strength of arm, for arms and armor. Selling their nation like mercenaries, and being manipulated by some foreign powerhouse. After that, I like to ask ‘Who is in charge?’ And make an NPC for that. Does he reflect the traditions, or is he a beacon of changing times? Is he making things better or worse? If he is changing the nation for the better or worse, he can easily be marked for an assassination, and the PCs can be tied up in that political thriller, and that adds more twists and turns, is the assassin from within the nation, or are they a foreign agent? I won’t dwell too much on that, NPC building could be a fun topic for the future, for now, we will stick to helping create a nation (or whatever you want to call it). One of the next things I consider is reputation, what is the country known for, is it known for its Silver Mines? Well, it is a real shame those Silver Mines are running out, huh? Or, the flip side, it was known for Silver a long long time ago, and is still known as the Kingdom of Silver, Ver, but, those mines have been empty so long, that the name seems almost mocking. Are they known like Sparta was for great warriors? Or maybe Scholars like Athens? A reputation for exploration and establishing occupational garrisons like the England of Old? I also tend to find using comparisons to real world nations helps me get an idea for how I think it should be structured, as well as looking at certain times in history. Focusing on the nation's reputation can help you plan out some twists and turns, and even get some basic notes on neighboring countries. Keep them short and simple to start with, trade agreements, and things like that. Don’t flesh out a country that may never be visited, or the players don’t care about, have a few interesting tidbits, and offer them a hook or two if they want to go that way, but if they don’t, leave it as a background decoration, like an empty book on a bookshelf, it makes the place look more complete, but it is hiding the truth. Now, this is the key part of what you should do when building a campaign as well, ask yourself this, is this nation important to my plot? If you are running a sort of free-roam, let the players’ choose their own adventures, it is both yes and no, and you should just keep using their exploration and ideas to build it up. However, if your plot is all about the spirit world, maybe not so much. You can let a lot of the nation building take a back seat unless it has some particular boon or drawback to the plot. Like, say it is a militaristic naturalist country who thinks spirituality is asking for great unrest and thus the party’s exploration into that realm makes them wanted criminals, or perhaps, the king has a spiritual guide, and the party can communicate with him through the abstract and often confusing mind-scape. I won’t dwell on this one too long, as your campaign is your business and tying the nation into it, and see how that shapes the journey the players must walk is something only you can really know, So, I only have one more important thing to say about making your nation. Lie. Lie your gosh-dang pants off. Are any of your player’s agricultural experts? How about experts on geography or tectonic plates? Well, if they are, dude, nice skill set, but more than likely, they are not. And that means, even if your geography for your nation is logically unsound, no one will catch your lie. If your farming practices or seasons or a little off, no one will notice. If you act as the expert on these things, not to a condescending degree, but enough to give your player’s confidence that this world and society works, they will believe you. Likewise, mistakes, let them happen, roll with them. If your player suspects something and is building up to the Priest-King of the Holy Kingdom of Eviaries actually lost his faith when his wife died, and has a really solid rationale behind it, lie, say you had it planned from the start. They won’t know! Also, years later when you tell them you just stole that idea you can share a nice laugh. Anyway, this is more or less my beginner's class on nation-building, a little bit of helpful advice, a bit more focuses on the fluffy lore part of it, rather than the hard facts. If this appeals to you, let me know, and I’ll be sure to do a follow-up, if not, well, I have a lot of other ideas I want to run through. Read the full article

#CampaignBuilding #CreatingaNation #Worldbuilding

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the-bad-the-weird-and-the-cheesy · 7 years

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So I had the good fortune to see Troll (1986) on the big screen last week. It had been a very long time since I had seen it, but I have always had a special place for this fun little film.

Near where I live, a theater called the Blue Mouse in Tacoma shows old school horror movies once a month. The program is called Friday Night Frights and its run by some really nice folks. This is where I was able to see the film. The guy who runs the program Anthony Dluzak is a great host and is very knowledgeable on the topic of horror. It was a very fun evening. Before the movie began there was a horror trivia contest with prizes, I managed to win a VHS copy of Troll and a sweet patch. The sound and picture in the theater was pretty good, and the seats weren’t too bad for being a old theater. I got to do a Q and A with Anthony which I will post in a separate entry but I will include his input on Troll after my review.

On the topic of Troll, it really hits on nearly all my favorite aspects of 80’s horror flicks. Charles Band (who I have a great love for) was producer on it and it’s easy to see his involvement as the movie very much feels of Ghoulies and Puppetmaster.

1. It has a kooky very original plot. Basically a Troll sets up residence in a apartment complex and begins his nefarious magical hijinks….Is there anyone that can stop him? It’s super cool to me, as there is a distinct lack of fantasy/horror films that have been made besides this one.

2. Second is the crazy special effects. Troll uses a combo of stop motion animatronics and puppet effects to pull off most the action. I absolutely love the effects they are so cheesy and fun. The practical effects in this movie are even better as they tell the story and never feel thrown in for the sake of effects. Troll is not overly gory but there are some gross effects. There are alot of cool creatures and gags in Troll, in fact this movie is wall to wall creatures which I really appreciate.

3. The soundtrack is alot of fun, thanks to Richard Band. You may know him from doing the soundtrack to Reanimator, Puppetmaster and Ghoulies to name a few. The music ranges from over the top cheese ball to eerie faerie-scape through out the film.

4. The actors in Troll are great, the characters are varied and so over the top and corny. I’m not going to go into all the cast but do yourself a favor and look it up on IMDB it’s crazy who they got to be in this movie. Here’s a few actors in this movie, Julie Louis Dreyfuss….(Yes from Seinfeld you heard me right), Sonny Bono…(Yes from Sonny and Cher fame), June Lockhart from Lost in Space as well as Lassie, and Michael Moriarty of Law and Order and a personal favorite of mine Q the Winged Serpent.

As a bonus to this review I’ll include Anthony of Friday Night Frights take on Troll which I found matches up with my opinion pretty closely.

Anthony…… What makes Troll an essential horror film to watch is how it embraces both classic fantasy elements of European folklore, with horror. The animatronics, stop-motion photography, miniatures and prosthetics and masks are all amazing effects that they combined to create a fantastic visually-heavy film. The characters in the film are hilarious and cheesy. Then the story line is one of the more unique in the horror genre. It is a very well rounded horror movie.

If you missed Troll don’t feel bad alot of people overlook Troll because it was overshadowed by Troll 2 which is literally one of the worst films ever. In fact Troll 2 actually has nothing to do with this movie, the studio pulled a fast one which was common back then and retitled it Troll 2 from Goblins which it was originally titled.

Well that’s about it. I recommend checking out this film and if you live in Western Washington go check out Friday Night Frights.

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