#a fantasy game about a magic tree

[marawhydontyoudraw]

I wish there was more content with Cuckoo knights in ER fandom.

Like, call my tastes specific, but there's something about being just a dude with a sword and a bunch of shiny rocks in a land full of glintstone wizards, moon witches and enchanted knights.

[corseque]

made the mistake of clicking on the "for you" tab and saw the worst dragon age text post I have ever seen. It was like "man, I hope Bioware goes back to exploring [idea they thoroughly explored in all 3 games] like they did in Origins. I just know that they're just so obsessed with [idea that has been the main focus of everything from the very first cutscene of Origins]. I'm so sick of it."

This is what 10 years of not actually playing any of the games and playing them in your head is like. 10 years. I think some of you guys need a break. I know it did me some good.

[kuwdora]

I’d love to hear about any of the Leshkel fics!

Okay I am gonna try not to foam too much at the mouth with all my excitement. You and I Becoming is my Ciri and Leshen Eskel story that will also feature a lot of Eskel and Triss friendship and begin exploring Ciri’s and Eskel’s magic. This story is about learning to leave behind the person you once were and living with the uncertainty of who you're becoming. It’s about Ciri not understanding her powers and having someone who isn’t her father figure that she can speak candidly about Geralt, witchers, and a witcher’s worldview. It’s also Eskel having still experiencing a lot of memory loss/cognitive dissonance about who and what he is and also start showing us how Eskel can perceive magic now. I started this draft literally 12 months ago and a few thousand words scattered around and it’s currently in the wrong tense but I’m gonna be fixing this up shortly ‘cause god. I need Eskel to live through all of season 2’s events. I am OBSESSED with Leshen Eskel. OBSESSED. And not just in a let's fuck Geralt with tentacles way (though I am also obsessed with that, alright!!!) but I just... I love trees so much. 😍 One of the main plot points will be Triss arriving to help Ciri learn about her magic, and also help Eskel figure out how to ground himself to his memories. And probably speak to a little of Triss’ own struggles with surviving Sodden. In my short Leshkel fic Driftwood, I implied that runic magic engraved on his body is what is helping him stay tethered to his sense of self. And that’s something that I would be unpacking in this story with him, Triss, and Ciri. This fic will most likely span the first half of season 2, probably through the time Rience shows up at Kaer Morhen. I am in love with Guardian Leshen Eskel arriving to fuck Rience up before he can attack Triss and Vesemir and steal the magic blood. Tree witcher+fire mage=bad times. But it’ll be really intense and interesting. In my first Leshkel story Heart Tap, it’s heavily implied that Eskel is not a very reliable narrator and that he’s “seeing” other characters from different Witcher canons and Eskel is experiencing a slip of other canon/fanon Eskel’s memories. This experience kind of grows more potent when he’s near Ciri. This is basically riffing of Ciri as Lady of Space and Time and Eskel having a connection with Ciri and whatever’s in the mutagens/monolith dust that are part of Eskel’s DNA. Ciri’s connection to the monoliths means she’s connected to Eskel. All that handwavey goodness. So here’s a brief, messy snippet. Eskel and Ciri go on midnight walks together through Kaer Morhen. --

Eskel peers at Ciri with his single eye, and now it’s his turn for uncertainty. There’s an oddness surrounding her body, an indecipherable scent and a kind of negative pressure that he used to associate with a mage opening a portal.

“You roam the keep at night. More than I do,” Ciri says and Eskel nods and settles against the wall. The night is too cold for him and he isn’t sure if he’ll ever get used to it.

“Do you have nightmares when you sleep?” she asks.

Eskel takes a minute to think about his answer. He doesn’t quite sleep anymor. His awareness never really goes away when he’s idle during the night.

“I have memories. Which I suppose can be the same thing,” he says.

Ciri nods. The medallion embedded in in the bark of his chest doesn’t react to Ciri’s presence. As long as Eskel doesn’t look directly at her, he can sense more oddness about her body. She doesn’t have a glow or aura. It’s still that negative pressure. Maybe a scent of—not soil, not the copper in somebody’s blood—but something else. Something that lingers in the air.

“Geralt said this was a safe place for me, for us. Everything I’ve seen is… not what I expected,” Ciri says quietly.

WIP Game List

[what-even-is-thiss]

I’m fascinated by the fantasy races in Zelda games.

Zora are sexy fish people but actually fish like actually fish like buddy this is a fish person

Gerudo are very tall and all women because their room is no boys allowed

Gorons are all rock men because you just can’t tell the difference between the sexes and the gorons don’t care. Their main characteristic seems to be that they eat rocks and just like hanging out

The minish are just tiny dudes living in a different dimension and possibly magic idk

Koroks used to be Peter Pan style childish elf people until one day they decided to be trees instead

Rito are bird guys. Like wow that’s a bird person. They can fly. People in universe don’t know how people their size can fly but they do it anyways because they don’t care about physics.

Zonai are like idk goat demigods that like jumping off of cliffs into lakes or something. I’ve got a working theory that this is why they’re all dead.

Hyleans. Are they humans? Are they elf people? Depends on which game you’re playing. They do have long ears. They’re pretty squishy and easy to knock over but some of them are magic I guess. For some reason they seem to be in charge of most things. They seem to be willing to copulate with all of the other races

The gods don’t do much honestly. One of them seems to have a pet blonde swordsman and princess combo that she likes to reuse a lot to get her errands done for her so that’s cool I guess

[boombox-fuckboy]

Hey!!! You commented on my post about limetown haha which is why I’m here. You offered to give podcast recs! What are your favorites?? I’m looking for some new ones

I completely forgot I had this ask, excuse the delay. Here's a selection of 30 podcasts I enjoyed from a broad range of genres: hopefully at least one appeals.

Let me know if you're after something more specific.

Arden: (Investigative, Comedy) On the 25th of December, 2007, heiress and young actress Julie Capsom crashed her car into a tree and fled into a nearby forest clearing, leaving a trail that seemingly vanished into thin air, and a dismembered torso in the trunk. A decade later, Bea, the first reporter on the scene, and Brenda, a detective on the case, are hosting a true crime podcast about it, and neither is remotely impressed with what the other has to say. Arden is also a retelling of various Shakespeare plays.

Desperado: (Supernatural, Adventure, Horror Elements) In a modern world of gods and magic, three young people, all under the patronage of death dieties, embark on the same adventure for different reasons: for safety, for revenge, and to kill The Old Man in the Sky. Fantastic banter and killer action sequences.

The Far Meridian: (Magical Realism) An agoraphobic young woman wakes one day to discover her lighthouse home has travelled to somewhere entirely unfamilar. As this continues to happen day after day, she uses the opportunity to search for her missing brother. A really unique and charming piece of fiction.

Gastronaut: (Sci-Fi) Interstellar travel audio blog of a former food critic as he travels to an active warzone to get firsthand experience with unfamilar cuisine. ft. Disgruntled martian nobility, sinister businessmen, explosive mushrooms, forbidden snacks, rogue revolutionary artists, and the consequences of your actions.

Girl in Space: (Sci-Fi) The Girl In Space lives alone on a space station, doing science, making cheese, rewatching Jurassic Park, and tending to the plants, animals, and artificial sun entrusted to her. It's a little lonely, but not a bad life. Would be a shame if someone came along to ruin it.

The Goblet Wire: (Microfiction, Weird Fiction) A surreal microfiction with horror elements, taking the form of phone calls to an audio-based game in which the voice of the mysterious Dictator leads each player through fantastic and horrific world and story.

Hello From The Hallowoods: (Horror, Supernatural) A dramatic entity beyond your comprehension visits your nightmares to tell stories of the people (in varying degrees of human and alive) that inhabit the strange, deadly, and beautiful Hallowoods, as they find meaning and sometimes eachother.

Hi Nay: (Supernatural Horror) A year after moving to Toronto, sound designer Mari finds herself drawn into helping people around the city with various horrific supernatural encounters due to her babaylan (shaman) family background. It quickly becomes apparent that there's something much more sinister and complicated happening in the background.

Inco: (Microfiction, Sci-Fi) A perpetually exausted interstellar information trader and her peppy AI find a mysterious (read: bratty) boy floating in space and are inadventently pulled into a world political intrigue.

Inn Between: (Fantasy) Ever curious about what the D&D characters get up to at the tavern between sessions? A generally lighter-hearted (with some exceptions) with richly-written and always-growing characters. A really interesting format, too: a lot of the adventure appears in the "next time" and "last time" segments which makes it all flow really nicely. Not a tabletop podcast.

Janus Descending: (Sci-Fi, Horror, Tragedy) A xenoarcheologist and a xenopaleontologist are sent to a study a dead city on a distant world. Nobody likes what they find there. A unique format, with one set of logs presented first to last, and the other last to first. I'd recommend listening to the supercut for this one.

The Kingmaker Histories: (Steampunk, Weird Fiction, Adventure, Fantasy Elements) In the Valorian Socialist Republic 1911, on her 25th birthday, tailor's apprentice Colette experienced the worst headache of her life. As a result, she fleed from town with a human artificer and a fae chef - both now smugglers - pursued by an utterly furious flesh-crafter. I'm not sure I'm selling how good this podcast is but it's very good.

Life With Althaar: (Sci-Fi, Comedy) A human repairman moves to a space station on the edge of human territory that is perpetually on the edge of self-destruction, and ends up with a less-than-ideal last-minute roomate. Althaar is polite, friendly, deeply interested in human culture, and eager to be friends. Unfortunately he belongs to a species that sends humans into a visceral panic at a glance.

Lost Terminal: (Sci-Fi, Hopepunk) Seth is a very lonely AI living on a satellite. His crew were left stranded aboard with no hope of return, and it's been longer than he can count since then. The Earth below him has changed dramatically, and with only a few other AI down there to talk to, he's very lonely. But! He has a plan to make some new friends.

Love and Luck: (Romance, Slice-of-Life and Urban Fantasy Elements) Voice messages cataloguing two young men falling in love and opening a queer dry bar together.

Midnight Radio: (Light Supernatural, Romance) Sybil McIntyre, host of the ever-popular 1950's nightly radio hour, begins exchanging letters with an old fan who has reluctantly returned to visit Sybil's beloved town.

Midst: (Weird Fiction, Western, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Elements) The old-western planetoid islet of Midst floats, rotating steadily, in a sea of reality-warping darkness. Down in the town of Stationary Hill, things are in movement, and vistors from the light above are about to bring unanticipated change. ft a monocycle-riding monster-hunter, radio-famous airship paladins, deadly mica, the universe's peppiest cultist, good dogs, and a really strange businessman.

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality: (Weird Fiction, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy and Horror Elements) A friendly AI tour guide leads you on a tour of the Mistholme Museum, explaining the strange and often alternatural story behind each item.

Monstrous Agonies: (Supernatural, Relationship Advice) An interpersonal advice show for supernatural entities and other people living liminally in the modern world.

Night Shift: (Urban Fantasy, Investigative) Set in a modern world with the addition of magic, which manifests in small inherited skills/traits, can warp people in horrific ways, or can be manipulated with the right science (and intense work) to induce superpowers. Sebastian Fenn is a barista at Night Shift Coffee, but since things are slow he's decided to start a podcast to talk about various mysteries, crimes and conspiracies around the city, and of course finds himself deeper in them than he'd intended.

The Pasithea Powder: (Sci-Fi, Thriller Elements? I think?) The last major interplanetary war was full of atrocities, but none more infamous then the creation of Pasithea Powder, a memory altering drug which was used to horrible effect and landed it's entire team of creators in prison. So when decorated war hero Captain Sophie Green sees one of them wandering free, worlds away from his prison, she gets in touch with a very old, estranged friend: one Dr. Jane Gonzalez, who's behind bars for the very same reason.

SCP: Find Us Alive: (Weird Fiction, Supernatural, Horror and Slice-of-Life elements) You don't need to know anything about SCP to enjoy this. A research team gets trapped in an underground research facility when the complex collapses and the building is dragged into a pocket dimension. The tear it was designed to study begins creating tiny copies of itself, generating strange entities the team needs to deal with. And as if that wasn't enough, the entire situation physically resets itself every 30 days. And yet, this is genuinely also an office comedy.

Second Star to the Left: (Sci-Fi) Audio logs of a scout sent to explore and establish early infastructure new world, and the communications with the minder in charge of keeping her alive.

Seen and Not Heard: (Slice-of-Life, Drama) Seen and Not Heard follows Bet, who's still adjusting to life a year after a bout of severe illness, and the resulting hearing loss it caused. It's about the ways we make connection, and food, and art, and different kinds of grief.

The Silt Verses: (Horror) In a modern world where gods are abundant, frequently both commercialised and restricted, two devotees of an outlawed river god go on a pilgrimage.

SINKHOLE: (Sci-Fi, Weird Fiction) Forum posts from a data restoration community in a near future where the human brain is its own computer and one city hosts a massive void.

Starfall: (Fantasy) Seeking to escape her mysterious past and find some purpose, a young swordswoman joins a travelling actor's troupe. This new life is unfamilar and sometimes stressful, but she's taken under the wing of stagehand Fel, who's determined to help her feel welcome as she experiences the figurative and literal magic of the theatre for the first time.

The Tower: (Weird Fiction) A low-key, meditative podcasy about a young woman who decides to climb a seemingly endless tower. Gorgeous sound design.

The Vesta Clinic: (Sci-Fi) New GP Dr. Fae Underwood, with the expert transcription skills of resident AI Sec, writes up patient reports on human and alien patients of The Vesta Clinic, a medical clinic on the edge of human space. Really comfy and creative.

Victoriocity: (Steampunk, Mystery) Set in the steam-powered Victorian city of Even Greater London, an aspiring journalist and a tired detective find themselves working together to solve a strange murder. I say Victorian but as queen Victoria is now an extensive grandiocity of cyborg components following seven only-kind-of-successful assassinations, you may need to adjust expectations a little.

[utilitycaster]

look, I know polls are silly and fun and so I want you to understand writing this rant is silly and fun for me but EMON? Emon is the Critical Role Entry for Most Place of All Time? I must call bullshit. And so:

Friends, fellow critters, and people who have me blocked but hate read my blog each morning over breakfast: Emon is not even the Most Place on the Material Plane. It is not even the Most Place in Tal'Dorei. Hell, it's not even the Most Place on the fucking Bladeshimmer Shoreline, which includes a destroyed city now overtaken by bandits, and a cave system that hosts both a rift to the Far Realm and a different rock than residuum that can make a different magical drug than suude. Emon is if you took the aggressively mid vibes of Washington, DC and transplanted them to the inconvenient location and city of refuge for flaky people who avoid gluten for non-medical reasons of Los Angeles. The second Percival Frederickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III invents the motorcar that sumbitch is going to have traffic bad enough to summon Tharizdun. Also there's a literal pit of fire that's been burning for 30 years that both hasn't been adequately addressed but also doesn't really seem that interesting. Like oh a bunch of dragons destroyed your city? Big deal. Draconia got so fucked up it doesn't exist anymore, and at least Westruun has some fucking charm. At least Pike and Grog actually lived there, whereas Vox Machina got a house in Emon and proceeded to spend their time literally anywhere else.

Here is a brief list of places on the planet of Exandria in the Material Plane - not even across Critical Role's main campaigns/EXU, which includes such non-Exandrian places as "living city of people who mind-melded and escaped to the Astral Sea during a century-plus-long war of the gods"; "Ligament Manor"; "Ryn's groovy pied-a-feu, man I wonder what made the scorch marks on that furniture, anyway", and "THE MOON THAT IS ACTUALLY AN PRISON FOR A THING THAT EATS GODS AND IS POSSIBLY HATCHING" - that are more of a place than Emon:

Jrusar: 5 spires no waiting, sweet cable car system, city almost entirely destabilized by goo creatures as part of an overly complicated plot to blow up the aforementioned moon

Bassuras: (literally "garbagetown") Run by Mad Max gangs and everyone is cool with it; regular sandstorms; one of those gangs apparently sits atop a hive mind and NO ONE has examined this (except for them)?)

Whitestone: has a tree planted by one god over a buried temple to another god that was corrupted in the name of a third, shittier god; overrun by zombies but it's fine now; streetlights and two bears that are allowed to do whatever the fuck they want.

Yios: The canal system of Venice meets the colleges per capita of Boston meets the orcs from your fantasies, also there's some kind of kitchen-based organized crime ring so intricate it could be its own campaign (so, also like Boston).

Vasselheim: literally no one understands what the fuck its government system is. Old as balls. Temples everywhere! Temples full of trees. Temples full of blood! Temples full of an old guy who will kick your ass. A sphinx that regulates the monster hunter mini-game. Presumably the giant titan full of the ancient cannibal dwarf city is like, still there, as a new fixture, since I don't see how they're moving that.

The arctic: where teleportation doesn't work, there's a river of lava in the middle of the snow, ancient ruins full of snow globes full of actual people, and the Chaos Bisexual Emerald - and that's just a smattering of what Eiselcross has to offer.

Since this is about space and not time we can toss Aeor and Avalir too, since they once were places, and while we're at it whatever the fuck is going on with the Shattered Teeth and its permanent fog cloud and fish dream cult and capitalist shipwrecked merchants.

And, of course, any arbitrary square millimeter of Wildemount, frankly, has more Mostness than the entirety of Emon could muster under absolutely ideal conditions. But for the sake of one place per region, let's hand it to Rosohna (city of eternal night for practical purposes, built over the Evil God Headquarters); Uthodurn (underground! Giant goats! Elves and dwarves, living together, mass hysteria!); Hupperdook (steampunk gnome party city); Nicodranas (Fjord, Jester, Veth, Marion, and Yussa literally all live there at once; plumbing used to be courtesy of an imprisoned marid...but watch out); and Blightshore (Blightshore).

In conclusion: Emon is boring, nominating it was a mistake, there are literally sealed gods in other parts of the world and also way better taverns, good night, and what the fuck.

[montrealmadison]

in your palace warm, mighty king

okay i’ve recently found myself on angel tree tiktok. if you’re unfamiliar with the concept, basically, some stores will put out a tree around the holidays with gift tags for anonymous local kids, and people coming in to do their own shopping can take a tag off the tree and buy kids gifts off their wishlists for the store to pass off to them. (the linked video shows it in action!)

anyway this got me thinking about jack zimmermann at the beginning of his career. he has been fabulously wealthy and privileged for his whole life, but he’s only recently started earning a massive salary of his own and has no real idea of what to spend it on. he’s comfortable. he has a car and a nice apartment and an engagement ring hidden somewhere in said apartment. he knows he should probably donate to a worthwhile cause, but he hasn’t figured out what.

one day, though, bitty’s visiting for the weekend and comes to the store with him, and right there in the entryway, he just… stops. jack doesn’t notice and consequently almost runs him over with the cart.

“you alright? careful, eh?”

bitty does not respond, because he’s looking at the tree.

“bud?”

jack follows his gaze. it really doesn’t look like much. it’s fake, unlit, and has seen better days if the way it’s a little flattened on one side is anything to go by. there is an equally squashed-looking stuffed snowman sat on the floor next to it. it’s the kind of thing your eyes slide over easily, hurrying from one place to another. blink and you’ll miss it.

bitty isn’t blinking.

“lord, i haven’t seen one of these in years,” he says. his voice is soft. he still isn’t looking at jack. “do you know what it is?”

jack doesn’t, so bitty explains. and when they inch closer, jack sees that all the ornaments he thought were plain paper before are actually printed with ages, shoe sizes, requests for warm coats and toys and cute jeans and deodorant. here and there is a specific wish—a bluetooth speaker. a particular board game. one kid, age eight, is fervently hoping for a bike.

and—okay. here’s the thing. they’ve been together for more than a year, and bitty is pretty willing to go along with jack’s desire to spoil him. but although he’s so open and accepting when jack wants to kiss him, or cook dinner for a change, or lay him out on their bed and make him feel good—he will always, always get uncomfortable where significant amounts of money are involved. it was the subject of the one and only fight that sent them to bed still heated. the fundamental difference between their upbringings is the hardest for them to grasp: jack has never known a life without plenty. and bitty—

“i think my parents put me on one,” bitty says. “the year we moved back to madison, after—”

the closet looms between them, black and yawning.

“well. you know. coach had to leave a good job in lawrenceville. took us a while to get back on our feet, i think. and that year, they couldn’t—i mean, i heard them talking at night about how we might not be able to make christmas work, when they thought i couldn’t hear them. but i still wrote my letter to santa, and there were a couple presents when i woke up christmas morning, so.” he scuffs one shoe on the industrial carpet. “maybe an angel sent ‘em.”

the words make something sizzle down jack’s spine and settle low in his gut. he steps forward, reaches out, turns over the nearest tag.

boy, age 11. shoe size: 8. wishlist: sneakers, earbuds, basketball, patriots merch, chapter books. loves fantasy and mythology.

once upon a time, jack spent three months in a rehab center designed specifically for the privacy needs of celebrity clients. his parents footed the bill, had the windows on all their cars tinted for him to hide behind when he got out. at the same time, thousands of miles away, bitty sat at the top of the stairs in his parents’ house and listened to them wonder if they could afford to keep the magic of christmas alive another year.

people are stepping around them to get out of the cold, now, their eyes skipping right over the tree and the boys in front of it. once upon a time, strangers on the street picked apart jack’s overdose like a piece of tabloid gossip. strangers on the street made sure a thirteen-year-old kid had something to unwrap with his family on christmas morning.

“bits?”

bitty sniffles, swipes at one eye with the sleeve of his sweater. “yeah?”

jack lifts the tag gently off its branch, catches bitty’s gaze. bitty’s intake of breath is so sharp it’s audible over the music playing overhead. do you see what i see?

“what do you think? wanna go get us another cart?”

[cy-cyborg]

Baldur’s Gate 3’s (accidental) examples of accessibility in a fantasy world

[ID: a screenshot of Baldur's Gate 3's main menu screen, a scene showing the city of baldur's gate and a stone statue sitting under some trees. The title of this post is overlayed onto the image with a small picture of the wheelchair symbol sitting on top of the word "accessibility". /End ID]

When we think of the medieval-European inspired worlds typically associated with fantasy TTRPG’s like Dungeons and Dragons, “wheelchair accessible” is not usually the first thing you’d use to describe such a setting. In fact, it’s pretty widely agreed upon that real-life medieval Europe was a pretty unfriendly place for wheelchair users (and most other disabled folks), so it makes sense that most fantasy settings inspired by the time period would be too.

However, realism and historical accuracy is typically not why most people turn to D&D and other similar games. Last I checked, real life medieval Europe didn’t have flying lizards who could shoot magic from their faces and sentient robot men, so personally, I see no harm in adding a stone slab next to the stairs inside the dungeon hiding a lich who survived off a strict soul-only diet for 1,000 years.

However, if you’ve spent any time in TTRPG spaces online as a disabled person - or even someone who’s just playing a disabled character, you have very likely come across the argument that wheelchair using player characters shouldn’t be allowed, because making the setting accessible for them would be too distracting and immersion-breaking.

While this is not the only reason these people tend to argue against the use of wheelchairs by player characters in TTRPG’s, it is one I have found especially odd, especially since the release of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a video game based in D&D's Faerûn setting, to which it sticks to fairly loyally. It was a wildly successful game, and I personally have absolutely adored every moment of it.

But one thing I noticed is that the people who cried about the idea of settings in TTRPG’s being made wheelchair accessible because it would be too distracting, out of place and immersion-breaking have been suspiciously quiet about the examples of those same accessibility tools being present in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the whole game would be accessible to a wheelchair using player, far, far from it, but ramps and even elevators appear throughout the game in several locations, and despite the protests aimed at their inclusion in actual D&D, hardly anyone noticed. At least, no one that I’ve seen has mentioned it.

Ramps appear in several places around Baldur’s Gate - the city the game is named after and the final region of the game. Most notably around the docks.

[ID: A picture within the city of Baldur's Gate. Characters are standing around a dead tree looking towards a set of stairs, half of which have been covered by a sturdy looking wooden ramp. /End ID]

Another few can be found in Waning Moon inn, a tavern overrun with undead, not far from Moonrise Towers. The ramps, while honestly hilariously steep, connects the 1st and second floors.

[ID: Two screenshots displayed side-by-side showing steep ramps built within a run-down, abandoned inn. End ID]

There are also multiple elevators located throughout the game, most notably a wooden one that is being blocked by a sleeping bear in the druid’s grove, right at the start of the game.

[ID: A screenshot showing an elivator consisting of an old, wooden mechanism acending a wooden structure. /End ID]

Another can be found at the centre of the Arcane Tower in the Underdark...

ID: A character is standing on a circular, glowing platform located inside a tube-like structure with a door behind the character. /End ID]

and several more can be found in the Temple of Shar in The Shadow Cursed lands: one by the entrance to the temple itself, one that takes you from the end of The Gauntlet of Shar back to the start, and one that takes you down to the inner sanctum of the temple.

[ID: Two more screenshots side-by-side show characters standing on another pair of circular elevator platforms, these two are intricately decorated, and ascend and descend by floating. /End ID]

Now, I know that Larian Studios didn’t include these features for the sake of making their world accessible to wheelchair users. Many of the ramps are located in places that indicate they were to aid carts and carriages moving supplies. The one in The Waning Moon Inn even has some kind of track built into it. The elevators are all also placed in locations where players would likely be backtracking a lot, and seem to mostly be present for our convenience.

But whether this was Larian’s intention or not is irrelevant to the point in my opinion.

While these locations are not fully wheelchair accessible, Baldur’s Gate 3 showed, quite publicly, that it can be done and be lore-friendly, that it won’t break people’s immersion and be “obvious pandering”. the key thing is though, the locations have to be designed with those features in mind from the start. If you make a normal medieval tavern and just replace the stairs with a ramp, it will look out of place. If you try to make elevators that look like the modern day version, it’s going to look out of place, but it doesn’t take much of a change to make either work.

A druid’s grove most likely won’t make an elevator that looks like the modern version we have today, but a big moving, wooden platform operated by a hand crank? That seems much more in-line with their aesthetic. The Waning Moon’s layout wouldn’t look the same if you just plopped a set of stairs down instead of the ramp, because it was likely designed with the extra space something like that would need in mind.

Unfortunately, even in the modern day, the inclusion of things like ramps and lifts are often not really considered in the design of buildings. not fully. This is why a lot of real-world examples, admittedly can sometimes look kind of weird and out of place, especially on older buildings. However, well crafted accessibility options don’t have to stand out. When done well, they are as much a part of the architecture and building or location's design as other features like stairs can be and I think Baldur’s Gate 3 is a great - if accidental - example of how it can look in a fantasy setting and be seamlessly integrated into the world when done right.

When designing a fantasy setting, whether for D&D and other TTRPG’s, for a book, for a comic or whatever else you’re making, remember that just because that’s how it was in real life, doesn’t mean that’s what it has to be like in your setting. The real-life dungeons were just prisons, but TTRPG’s have taken the concept and turned them into these labyrinths filled with puzzles, traps, monsters and treasure. Real-life medieval Europe, for the most part, didn’t allow women to do a lot of things we see modern-day fantasy characters doing, regardless of gender. There are so many commonly accepted differences between the real-life medieval period and fantasy, why can’t an accessible world be one of them too?

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Heya big brother! In honor of my birthday today(whoop whoop!), how about the m6 celebrating their kids birthday?

-🍼

The Arcana Mini-HCs: M6 and their kid's birthday party

Julian: wants his kid to feel like they have all the friends in the world, so he makes a blanket invitation to every parent he knows. gets so caught up in entertaining the parent guests that you get left to manage the kid's activities all on your own. feels awful for it later

Asra: sets up the most magical decorations you've ever seen, leaves all the social planning and logistics to you while they dream up their kid's fantasy party come true. spoils all the kiddo guests with too much ice cream, leaves their parents to manage the sugar high

Nadia: if you want to have a hand in planning this, you'll have to ask. she's going to ask her kid what theme they want, but how that gets executed is pretty much up to her. makes sure all the guests are perfectly accommodated, but vetoes all the louder party games

Muriel: if his kid wants a party with guests, he will help make that happen. he'll manage food, decorations, guest lists, budgets, activities ... and then disappear five minutes before the first guest shows up. will make occasional appearances for cake and gifts

Portia: oh, heck yeah! she's going all out, turning the garden into a play area, hanging streamers and balloons from the trees, planning a massive picnic, and coming up with the funnest games. she will turn into one of the kids, though, so you'll have to be the adult host

Lucio: trying so, so hard not to let his party reflexes kick in, because this party is not about him and this party absolutely must remain minor friendly. ends up getting caught up in his kid's excitement and gets along with their friends rather than with the other adults

[marawhydontyoudraw]

There's been a lot of wild theorizing in the fandom recently (for obvious reasons), so why not have some fun with it?

So yeah, tell me your idea of who Messmer is BUT only wrong answers are allowed.

Let me begin: Messmer actually is Ornstein, who was searching for the NK, but got lost in the soulsborne multiverse.

[darielivalyen]

When the gate opens, love and beauty will return to the world, and we will once again live in his perfect light. He's been gone for a long time, but his return is upon us. Let us praise his name and rejoice!

The Elder Crystals is a fantasy game set in the world of Sekherion, and its story begins in a place known as the Secluded Valley. The valley has been your home for nineteen years, and you have always seen it as a safe place.

All of that changes when you wake up in a forsaken cavern, right next to a large Crystal Gate, and you realize you were kidnapped and left for dead. Thankfully, you're not alone. There's a black cat with you, and he/she seems to be trying to lead you to safety.

As you explore the cavern, you uncover traces of suspicious activity. There are books and scrolls dating back to the Second Age, there are notes speaking of strange, dark rituals, and then, there is the Crystal Gate itself. You've never seen anything like it in the valley, and you can't help but wonder why it's there.

Is the Crystal Gate keeping you from what's inside, or is it keeping whatever's inside from getting out?

Play as male, female, or nonbinary.

Play as a member of one of eight races, with each one having a unique racial trait.

Customize your appearance, personality, and sexual orientation.

Romance a wizard astronomer, a dutiful monk, a quirky witch, a noble archer, a mysterious mercenary, or an arrogant elf from the outside world.

Build your stats and develop your skills, and see how your choices change your experience.

Choose your weapon and collect different types of equipment.

Explore three different types of magic.

Customize your dragon familiar.

Complete quests and track them in your personal journal.

Collect books to unlock a unique scene at the end of the game.

Protect your town from bandits, cultists, and the undead.

Join forces with an old wizard, an ancient lich, or a talking tree.

Learn the truth about your mother and her unusual connection to the Elder Crystals, and discover what happened when the valley was cut off from the outside world!

THE ASTRONOMER

Amedu (m) or Ameda (f) | Islander, human | 19yo | Wizard

Trope: MC's childhood friend.

Personality: relaxed, open-minded, esoteric, calm.

PINTEREST | BLURB

THE MONK

Nelfas (m) or Nelfasu (f) | Saryel/Southerner, human | 22yo | Monk

Trope: Voice of reason.

Personality: calm, detached, rational, unemotional, wise.

PINTEREST | BLURB

THE NOBLE ARCHER

Darion (m) or Daria (f) | Southerner, human | 20yo | Archer

Trope: Arranged engagement.

Personality: sarcastic, rebellious, cunning, evasive, cocky, loud.

PINTEREST | BLURB

THE WITCHLING

Cerien (m) or Cerina (f) | Northerner, human | 18yo | Witch

Trope: That strange person no one knows anything about. Someone with a secret crush.

Personality: obsessive, quirky, individualistic, unorthodox, shy.

PINTEREST | BLURB

THE MERCENARY

Xarien (m) or Xarina (f) | Northerner, human | 25yo | Battlemage

Trope: New person in town. Someone with a lot of inner demons.

Personality: deceitful, cunning, daring, jealous, ruthless.

PINTEREST | BLURB

THE GUARDIAN*

Qen (m) | Primeval Elf | 5506yo | Guardian/Holy Warrior

Trope: Someone with a connection to MC's family.

Personality: dutiful, arrogant, lawful, tactful, lonely.

PINTEREST | BLURB

*Unlike the other five love interests, Qen's gender is set to male, and he can only be romanced by male characters.

Art credits: Izabela Oliwia.

FORUM | DEMO | TUMBLR | PINTEREST | PATREON

[maranigai]

My favourite evil space princes but now it's a fantasy game about a magic tree.

[qqueenofhades]

just saw your offer for book recs and would love some fantasy/sci fi books, it seems like we have similar taste. i just finished nk jemisin's broken earth trilogy, and also loved the city we became by her.

Aha, I am at work right now and thus do not have my bookshelves at hand to make sure I'm not missing something blindly obvious. However, I will start you off with these:

The Rook and Rose trilogy by M.A. Carrick (The Mask of Mirrors, The Liar's Knot, Labyrinth's Heart). Yes, this is the series I have been screaming about nonstop for the past few weeks and thus craftily suckering unsuspecting passersby into reading. An AMAZING world, an OT3 who own my entire ass, lots of political intrigue, cultural and social commentary, a unique magic system, and also plenty of humor. It really has it all. I continue my one-man quest to make this fandom bigger. Ahem.

The Green Bone trilogy by Fonda Lee (Jade City, Jade War, Jade Legacy). Another fantastic fantasy series that NEEDS more readers. Inspired by Chinese/Hong Kong kung-fu movies, set in a gritty modern universe, kind of like the Godfather but with magical jade-wielding families. Tons of discussion of empire, culture, violence, appropriation, power, war, family, Asian identity, more. They're likewise nice and long to keep you busy.

The Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty (The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, The Empire of Gold). Another you-gotta-read-this trilogy (yes, I have many of them). Set in the 18th-century Middle East and the magical djinni kingdom of Daevabad. Politics, empire, religion, history, intrigue, magic, scheming families, ancient wars, and my most beloved, Muntadhir al-Qahtani. What is not to love.

The Priory of the Orange Tree and its standalone prequel, A Day of Fallen Night, by Samantha Shannon. Absolute doorstopper (800+ pages apiece) epic-with-dragons-and-medieval-worlds fantasy, like Game of Thrones if Game of Thrones was a) good b) gay c) feminist and d) had people of color. She is also the author of the Bone Season series (four books thus far) which is a unique blend of futuristic sci-fi and fantasy set in an alternate totalitarian London and a ruined Oxford.

Winter's Orbit and Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell. Two M/M space opera romances (set in the same universe, but can be read independently). She got her start as a fanfic writer and it shows; these are both delightful, plotty, funny, and full of sassy gay disaster homosexuals in space.

A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (I have read the first one, need to read the second one). Historian of medieval Byzantium writes space opera set in Space Constantinople which is also Space Tenochtitlan. Explores language, history, memory, power, identity, assimilation, and more, and is also very funny.

Autonomous, The Future of Another Timeline, and The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz. High-concept social-commentary dystopian science fiction; of the three, Terraformers (the newest one) might be my favorite. They're not related so you can read them in whatever order.

Two books that I have not read yet but I really want to: Swim Home to the Vanished by Brendan Shay Basham and To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose. Both are fantasy novels by Native American authors; Basham's is magical realism and Blackgoose's is about a Native American dragon-rider facing assimilation at an English (Anglish) boarding school.

Likewise coming soon and I am excited: The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu. Middle Eastern-inspired fantasy, cyberpunk, techno-magic. In space!

There are definitely more that I will get home and be like oh wait yeah. But this should get you started.

[quietsnooze]

Info dumping about my homebrew DnD world ahead!

Eidholme is a low magic fantasy DnD campaign setting wherein magic is very limited, feared, and persecuted. The continent is split into 5 kingdoms & 2 empires.

Here's a visualization using Azgaar's fantasy map generator, then painted by me using Inkarnate to show the landforms:

Long ago, there were racial variations (many of the expected DnD races), but war and mistrust tore apart the continent and drove out many as humans struck down the remaining.

Now, there are heritages in the bloodlines of many current day humans that lie dormant as also magic does

(Basically my way of saying "this is an all human campaign... mostly." When the players get to higher levels, they will manifest traits from their heritages if they want to have that aspect included. Most left that up to me to surprise them!)

The deities are known as Guardians. There are twelve who are revered across the continent in different capacities - the kingdom of the Reamers is highly religious and worships all 12, whereas others pick & choose their preferred "endorsed" Guardians.

The Guardians' sigils I designed:

• Pandor, of Pleasure

• Lilabet, of Patience

• Elnos, of Creation

• Phiphine, of Growth

• Aisling, of Endings

• Cohara, of Mercy

• Bodhi, of Progress

• Llyr, of Dominion

• Niamh, of Hearth-keepers

• Keros, of Justice

• Ashtur, of Aggression

• Ryasis, of Curiosity

The event that caused the humanization of Eidholme was over a millennia ago, but the hurt caused by the End of Magic is more recent - a little more than 200 years prior, with fear and abuse of it at an all time high, magic was almost universally banned across Eidholme.

What was the straw that broke the camel's back? The population does not know, other than it was surrounding the tensions that broke apart the Mountainlands into two empires: Marboke in the north, and Oakham in the south.

(My voice game players know tho! They participated in it in prologue)

The continent shares the equinox and solstice celebrations, but have differing, more local traditions for them. Here’s a calendar I created that shows them! In Launlia for example, the Primavernal is celebrated as the Awakening Festival locally, for Niamh, Guardian of Growth.

Another fun fact about Eidholme: the vast majority of the continent's trees and its ONLY forest exist in Duskhollow. The kingdom is shrouded in mystery, in ancient Woods magic, in protections that keep any out who it doesn't want to be there.

The Woods is alive. It decides.

I have a lot of documents my players can comb through for information at their leisure. This one factually lists information that the PCs would know. It is not necessarily Wiki-level accurate, however, as propaganda is a heck of a thing.

Cantrips aren't exactly rare, but depending on where you are, you wouldn't even want to risk casting one. Privilege allows some of higher station to play around with magic in a badly kept secret. Otherwise, you are licensed or regulated by the governing body on your usage.

And that, of course, is why both of the parties who play in this world stumbled across Wanted posters for their questioning and arrest! "Wanted in connection to blasphemy and magic usage in Launlia", while their allies are "wanted in connection to actions against the Crown"...

For as much as I limited in character creation for lore purposes, I gave back through the same world building. Characters can interact with the world, seeking lost ways of old magics, ancient techniques, connections with the natural world… even be taught new (homebrew) cantrips

This is one of those instances where the PCs fit the trope of “chosen one” levels of power, as few ordinary people are powerful like they are and will be. The catch? That also makes them HUGE targets for backlash. Without the right support, they’ll be on the run… everywhere.

That makes it a very socially driven, political ties sort of campaign story. They also have befriended nomads, who can help them in their own way.

Nomads are, expectedly, nomadic people dissenting of law and homeland. They are expectedly hunted or outlawed for their magic use.

Some places welcome them as a novelty, others allow them under tentative circumstances for services granted (easy to locally wash your hands of it and assign blame to nomads who are long gone by the time you’re found out). Their trust is notoriously difficult to gain.

Why? Because they’ve been lured by royals to perform, only to be mass incarcerated. They’ve been promised sanctuary and found instead themselves given to their enemies. The groups do not inherently trust one another, either- friendship with one doesn’t mean friend to all.

As for beyond the continent… not many know what lies beyond. Those who travel out rarely come back, those who do are driven back by storms and critical failures of their ships. The Brackish Tears is the only kingdom who receives imports from beyond the vast waters.

There's a tale of a Tearsian prince memorialized in statue: Eóghan Griogal - a prince, second son to King Cian and Queen Siobhan, beloved by his people in the 17th century, about 200 years BME (Before magic’s end) or prior to the new age. His romance to the wispy foreigner - had many people talking, some excited in the chattering and others devastated by his betrayal. For he found love at sea, a man whose affinity with water was undeniably clear, closer bonded to it than even the water births of the Reamers would boast.

The lore creates a very interesting challenge for a fantasy world:

- wood is expensive and rare, so describing anything, from building materials to origins of fruit, is adjusted

- gemstones are extremely rare and not mined anywhere anymore as the source died with the elves

- magic is mostly outlawed

I'm currently running two games in this world. One traditional DnD via voice sessions who adventure across the continent, one written/play-by-post mixed with Good Society ttrpg, sandboxed in the Brackish Tears' capital.

Here is the star map and constellations. I have so many documents for my players to chew on, and I’m adding to them constantly.

[theresattrpgforthat]

THEME: System-Neutral Settings (Fantasy Edition)

Sometimes what you need, rather than a new ruleset, is a setting that makes your system sing. These are a series of system-neutral settings that you can pick up, borrow from, or use wholesale in a game of your choice! 

All of these settings would work very well in fantasy or fantasy-like games.

Into the Riverlands, by Ostrichmonkey Games.

The Riverlands rests at the heart of the world. A great current of life and movement that winds and weaves its way through the mountains and valleys of the central continent. The Riverlands stretch from the south to the far north, acting as the lifeblood of continental travel and trade.

The Riverlands are a region of vibrancy and mystery. A colorful mosaic of peoples that call it home, and the strange twilight forest that surrounds it. Explore the bustling and vibrant City of Bridges, the mysterious and primeval Forest, the distant and crumbling Empire, and even further afield.

The backgrounds of The Riverlands have interesting themes, from the mercurial Trickster-Poet to the strange Forest Dweller, to the patient Marsh Apiarist. Picking up a game that is very light on rules, such as Tunnel Goons or Into the Odd, would allow you to slot in a character that fits inside the Riverlands without having to carry as much of the dungeon-delving as traditional OSR games. 

Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City, by WTF Studio.

The Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City is a tabletop role-playing game book, half setting, half adventure, and half epic trip; inspired by psychedelic heavy metal, the Dying Earth genre, and classic Oregon Trail games. It leads a group of ‘heroes’ into the depths of a vast and mythic steppe filled with the detritus of time and space and fuzzy riffs.

This game is designed with a d20 game in mind but much of the setting feels very fitting for an OSR-style regardless of the dice you use. There are 200 pages of interesting locations with encounter tables and plot seeds. Some of the locations in this city include The Porcelain Citadel, The Steppe of the Lime Nomads, The Glass Bridge and The Forest of Meat. The world is weird and resists the tones of high fantasy by populating the world with insectoids, fungal colonies, strange drugs and ancient machines. If you want acid fantasy that mixes the in a bit of weird science or post-apocalypse, this is the setting for you. The designer of this setting also has a free player guide, as well as a creature generator supplement. 

Into the Wyrd and Wild, by Feral Indie Studio.

Beyond the reach of roads, past the scope of mortals there is a darkened place. A shadowed tree-line where no-one dares cross and whose boundaries go undisturbed.

This is not the woods of peaceful fey and beast, but the dark and twisted children’s tale that kept you full of terror. It is a world of fear, madness, and bloodshed; ruled over by the uncaring watch of ancient trees. There is no bargaining with the primal forces that rule the uncivilized world, as you have nothing they could ever want.

The woods do not care for you. Never forget that.

Another dark fantasy setting, Into the Wyrd and Wild includes more than a list of beasts and NPCs for the characters to encounter. It includes a way to think about money in the setting, how to emphasize exhaustion, and various other rules that demonstrate the danger and violence to be found inside the Wilds. One of my favourite sections of the book is about the Court of Broken Branches, a faction built out of abandoned children, stitched up with silver stitches and led by a magical Queen. An incredibly evocative setting and a top-tier piece of work in terms of design.

Guidebook to the Viridian Maw, by Orbis Tertius Press.

This 24-page PDF of the digest-sized zine contains fodder for a wilderness sandbox campaign in the Viridian Maw: an overgrown meteor crater, mutated and reshaped by fungal influence. To get a sense of it, check out the free download for the one-page version of the setting.

Everything is system neutral & stats agnostic, though the material is written with genre assumptions leaning toward D&D/OSR games (but usable for games like Apocalypse World or Dungeon World, too).

If you want a game that sinks your players deep into a thick, dangerous forest, this is a great option for you. There are tons of great descriptions of beasts and plants that your characters can encounter, including Driftnettle, a floating kelp-like creature that prey on the unaware and asleep, and the Sporehorn elk, a symbiotic partnership between an elk and a colony of fungi. Much of the encounters you’ll find in this zine will prompt changes to characters that make them weirder, so it might be a good idea to let your players know about that before playing in this setting.

This game works for dark fantasy, but I’ve also used it as inspiration for a Changeling: the Lost game as well!

Into the Sea Woods, by Diwata Ng Manila. 

The Sea-Woods is the way it has always been: just beyond the village, across a wall that bars the rest of the roots from coming forward. No one ever knew why that wall was built. Was it meant to keep the Woods out or keep the Village in? One thing's for sure, things changed when a tree stood up from its spot and punched a part of the wall until it collapsed. It then promptly walked deeper into the woods, clearing through a small path.

Never heard of a tree walking before? Ah, then you really must be new here, aren't you?

This is a small collection of micro-settings that are whimsical and evocative. This is more of a friendly forest than a scary one - great for setting a Studio-Ghibli kind of tone. There’s a bit of a formatting issue with the current version, but the ideas present in each setting give a great amount of inspiration for making locations that feel safe and yet unique for your play group. My favourite is the Cabin, a house that always has a warm cup of tea and a freshly made bed, despite having no visible caretaker. Rumour has it the Keeper only appears at night, and if she does, she’ll bet her heart on a game of poker. I've also used inspiration from this setting in a Changeling game before, to great success!

The Gardens of Ynn, by Dying Stylishly Games.

The Gardens of Ynn is a point-crawl adventure set in an ever-shifting extradimensional garden. Each expodition generates its route as it explores, resulting in new vistas being unlocked with every visit. It's a big garden full of whimsy and delight and surreal perils. 

The Gardens of Ynn are a constantly re-arranging set of gardens that act as a magical maze. As a point-crawl adventure, this is a great option for a point-crawl game, but it might also be an interesting piece of inspiration for a horror game of some kind. This book begins with some basic lore about the Gardens themselves, followed by a d20 table that adds how deep you are in the Gardens to determine which area you happen upon next. Each area has a description, and many areas have additional roll tables to determine what can be found, or what kinds of encounters you might find within.

[bestguymammon]

Prompt: Write about someone rediscovering something old they thought they’d lost.

Mammon brushed his hand across your grave. Being the only one to touch it in a decade, he felt... protective. He had met your family after your death, finally allowing your body to be buried in the human realm.

Mammon pushed them away. They hadn't visited in years, anyone who possibly cared for you this long after had finally given up hope in visiting your grave.

So Mammon was left to his grieving.

The others had moved on, Asmo letting himself get into more risky sexual activity, Levi bruting himself in games. Everyone let themselves get buried in their previous activities, not letting anyone disturb their work.

Most grew angry, and cold. Beel stayed the most sane after your death, trying to keep the peace between everyone, especially between Satan, Levi and Lucifer.

They were the hardest to deal with. But he managed. Mammon went to see his younger brother once in a while, bringing him gifts of human food. Beel was extremely grateful. Tired, yet grateful.

Mammon let himself curl into the tree nearest to your grave. He was placed upon some other humans burial place, but he didn't mind. What would they do, haunt him in death? Kill him in the places he didn't travel to anymore?

As far as Mammon was concerned, you and Beel were the only people he considered real, everyone else a mere fantasy, an illusion to the eye.

He found it entertaining in fact. The odd looks he'd get when humans came across him, trying to shoo him away or shun him for desecrating the graves around you. The blank stare he'd give said it all.

He was a man who had lost everything.

You.

So there he would wait. Waiting for you to magically rise from the dead. He couldn't ask the witches for help. You were here, they were there, and he was already is crippling debt.

Today was the gloomiest of most days, with the occasional slight drizzle that turned into a downpour. Mammon tried using the tree as cover, using it to his advantage. It didn't quite work as well as he wanted it to.

He shut his eyes, letting himself gently fall asleep to the sounds of the rain. He heard some mud squealching and it made him freeze up.

Another human, but the energy felt different, scent was off. He looked up, towards a small child.

They were looking at him.

They had... your eyes. The slight tint to their hair as you did, that mindless, happy expression you had when looking upon him. Your features.. they were all there.

The child grinned, being drenched in the rain. Their soggy clothes fell around them, hugging them tightly as they walked closer to the grave where you laid.

Mammon flinched up, but quickly let himself freeze up once again, as if an instinct of his. He wanted to see. Was this your child? But-

Mammon's heart shattered at the thought. It wasn't likely, but it wasn't impossible.

"Who... who are ya? What're ya doing near my MC?!" he threatened.

He hoped the child wouldn't try anything sneaky. Mammon wasn't one for mauling a child. Especially when it resembled you in every way.

The small kid been smiling however, looking towards him.

"Don't cha remember me Mammon?" you said quietly.