#and everyone above them are like the consistent top 10 players group

[lastlifesmp]

Scott and Oli literally popped off so much this mcc. 12th and 13th place holy shit guys

[rimechaser]

Finished the latest chapter of the Fatui Office AU and whoops, came up with a bunch of headcanons for Sandrone and her gamer team.

They all play Genius Invocation FPS, which I'd loosely describe as having Overwatch mechanics, Call of Duty violence, and set in the Genshin fantasy world. In this modern Genshin AU, the Genius Invocation franchise takes place in the canon Genshin universe.

Sandrone and her chat group play competetive, ranked Genius Invocation FPS and they're all in the national top 50. Lowest to highest, it's Sucrose, Ayato and Sandrone, then Alhaitham and Cyno constantly competing in the top 10, and Nahida consistently at #1.

Nahida is something of a superstar in the gaming world (positively and negatively), but nobody's seen her face or knows her real name. Also, nobody knows that Nahida's older sister owns Aka-Net (think Google). Nahida is technically not old enough to play GI:FPS, but she's fine. Unrelated, she also carries a pocket knife because I say so.

Nahida also keeps lots of little succulent plants in cute glass vases, has a good life balance, and goes outside.

Cyno is something of a tryhard, while Alhaitham is just naturally good at the game. The fact that Alhaitham can be better than him without even trying gets on Cyno's nerves, so there's lots of competition between them.

Cyno is also a very serious nerd. He DMs games of Genius Invocation Tabletop RPG, organizes LARP groups, and is a streamer. His prized possession is a headset with jackal ears on it.

Sucrose also plays during work hours, but unlike Sandrone she's technically doing it when there's nothing else to do, like when a big file is saving or when code is compiling or something. She knows how to make sure this happens often. The two of them know they work in the same building but haven't talked because Sucrose is shy and Sandrone doesn't like talking to people.

Ayato is the team strategist and plays flex in whatever team composition they choose. Based on the enemy team, he'll suggest what everyone else should play and fill in whatever else they need. As a result, he has a pretty good understanding of every weapon/character/playstyle, but doesn't fully understand the intricacies since he doesn't focus on any one.

Based on the point above, I've decided just now that in Genius Invocation FPS, players can see the profiles on the other team. There are stats that show percentages of how often a character or weapon is used, but not exact numbers or if they actually won while using them. Ayato uses these stats when preparing for a match.

Nahida is the calmest player. Cyno is the most intense, with Alhaitham being the second most. Alhaitham swears more in voice chat, but Sucrose swears the most in text chat.

Itto got banned for a week for accidentally using a word that he didn't know was a slur once.

[verdantspringcourtyard]

Return of Mara Event

False God 3.0 has arrived! This event coincides with Asura's release and continues the event story from Taishakuten's event. It is another False God and War of Heian-kyo type event, lasts for around 1-2 weeks. Unlike those 2 events, this one has 3 maps the entire server must work through. Also, each map will have very clear paths that we need to take in order to reach the special bosses. When the timer for the 3rd map ends, the final battle between Asura and Taishakuten will begin.

Event Page

At the of top the screen there will be an ever-present timer slowly counting down to when the map will change, and to the right of it are 3 other buttons. The first one, from left to right, has a sake bottle icon. This is where you can collect 30 event AP, or 90 event AP and 6 Peppers if you purchase the event s-jade pack, at noon and 6PM every day. The second button is for chat, and the third button is for viewing shared posts that will have compass links to specific tiles. As TW, JP and GL do not have the share post function, they will only have the first 2 buttons.

On the bottom left there are 5 buttons. The first button, from left to right, is for viewing Special Buffs. Next is the button that'll bring up the Quest tab. Then the middle button is for rereading the event story, next to that is the button for the Spiritual Body page and lastly is the button for the exchange shop.

On the right side of the screen, there will be a treasure box and an eye. After using up 500 AP you can claim rewards from the treasure box for any cleared tiles. The eye reveals the tile types for challengable tiles.

Battlefield of the Abyss

The overall goal is for the entire server to work together to clear the 3 event maps by defeat the special boss for each. There are 3-day timers for each map and all 3 consists of 3 major activities. Some map tiles will have unlockable buffs for set groups of shikigami, equippable buff effects, treasure boxes and Asura's Shards. The latter is needed to strengthen bonus stats and to challenge the special bosses.

Types of map tiles:

Donation: Use 15 event AP to help clear the tile. There’s no limit to how much event AP you can use on these tiles in a day. *Recommended for beginners who can't do dispatch*

Dispatch: Select up to 10 of your shikigami to be 'sent' on a ~24 dispatch quest to clear the tile. Cost 15 event AP per shikigami to do, ie sending a full team of 10 shikigami costs 150 event AP. N rarity and 2-3* shikigami cannot be used.

Bosses: Defeat the boss to clear the tile. You have 4 minutes to do as much damage as possible and your damage determines how much event currency you get. Cost 15 event AP to do, is solo only and can be done on auto.

Buffs: Clear the tile to unlock a buff for a set group of shikigami or an equippable bonus effect for your shikigami.

Treasure: Clear the tile to unlock some bonus rewards. Please ignore treasure tiles until after the special boss/es are been defeated.

Shards: Tiles with shards on them must be cleared in order to challenge the special boss or bosses of the map.

Blue Tiles: The path or paths that the leaders will follow.

Flames: Lots of players are challenging this tile.

If you're ever unsure of what to do, can either focus on clearing shard tiles, blue tiles or tiles that have flames.

Leaders

On the map is a chibi Asura who will follow a set path to the special bosses and will help clear all the tiles on said path. He can be fed Peppers to restore his AP and continue clearing tiles, feeding him also grants some event currency. Once the special boss has been defeated he'll just stay in the same spot and do nothing until the map changes.

On map 2 a chibi SP Shuten will join Asura and on map 3 a chibi SP Onikiri will also join him. They function the same as Asura, ie they'll follow their own paths and can be fed. Can change leaders at any time, but can only feed and see their set path/s for your currently selected one.

Their skills;

Asura: Deals 100% damage to a tile.

SP Shuten: Deal 60% damage to a tile and 20% splash damage to 2 adjacent tiles.

SP Onikiri: Deal 50% damage to a tile and the tile behind it.

Special Bosses

In order to challenge a special boss, the entire server must create a path to them and collect all of Asura's Shards on the map. Creating a path should be extremely easy because everyone just needs to follow Asura, or the other leaders on map 2-3, and attack the same tiles as him.

On maps 2-3, once 1 of the bosses has been defeated a timer will start. The server must defeat the remaining boss/es before this timer ends otherwise the HP for the defeated boss/es be recovered.

Once the boss/es have been defeated, some hourly event currency will begin to be generated. Map 1 is 10000 per hour, map 2 is 15000 per hour and map 3 is 20000 per hour. The event currency is sent out when the timer for the current map ends. The total amount received will be increased by how much Demonic Power you have obtained from the current map. For experienced players, the boss and dispatch tiles will give the most Demonic Power, so if you want a lot of event currency you should help clear those types of tiles. Donation tiles also give a lot of event currency, but please leave them for beginner players who struggle with bosses or don't have enough shiki to do dispatch.

Spiritual Body

Clear certain map tiles to collect Asura's Shards to gain bonus stats for your shikigami, every 5 shards will grant a bonus stat. Once all shards have been collected, the special boss/es for the map will become challengable.

In the menu for this, you can view what bonus stats have been unlocked and equip unlocked bonus effects. There are a total of 6 slots to equip effects in, however, slots are only unlocked after every 10 shards collected. There are a total of 18 bonus effects to unlock, some may require multiple slots in order to be equipped.

Final Battle

This starts on the 10th day of the event and lasts for 2-3 days. The entire server must work together to destroy the 6 barriers giving Taishakuten a 90% damage reduction then help Asura defeat him.

The 6 barriers are 6 bosses, each is solo only, there's no time limit, can be done on auto and costs 5 AP to challenge. All 6 can only be challenged a max of 500 times. Unlike the rest of the bosses in this event these don't have shared HP, these are standard event bosses with ~1mil HP. Each boss needs to be defeated a certain number of times for the barrier HP to be reduced. Bosses drop random 5-6* souls, EXP souls and EXP pamphlets.

When all 6 barriers have been destroyed, everyone will be able to challenge Taishakuten without that massive damage reduction. He doesn't have any phases, but he does have the same skills that he had in his event. Costs 6 AP to challenge him, solo only and can be done on auto.

While the battle with Taishakuten is ongoing there'll be some total accumulated damage rewards and a 6* soul exchange box. The soul box is just the one in Senhime's and Taishakuten's event, need 60 of an item that drops from the battle and you'll have a choice out of 3 random souls. Total accumulated damage needed to get all the rewards is 10bil, rewards are; 200000 gold, animated icon frame, loading screen illust, 100 gold orochi scales, 400 AP, 100 jade and a 4* white daruma.

There is also a leader board, but it is just for showing off the best teams to use.

Special Buffs

Once a buff for a group has been unlocked, said group will gain a 20% damage dealt and damage reduction buff. Here are notable shikigami from each group.

Quests

There are 3 types of quests: story, achievement and wanted. Story quests are completed by the server and is just stuff need to do in order to progress the event. The achievement quests are a mix of server-wide and individual quests, the quests are "fight a boss tile x amount of times", "unlock x amount of buffs for the server", etc. The wanted quests are 3 random quests that refresh once every ~12 hours that you can do.

Exchange Shop

The exchange shop has 2 tabs. The first tab is for the normal shop items, the second tab is for the event packs.

The most notable items are; 120 event AP (restocks daily), 2 loading screen illusts, an animated event frame (same as final battle frame from Taishakuten's event), new Suzuka skin, a black daruma, black daruma shards, EXP Pamphlets, skin tickets, SP skin tickets, mochi, 3 blue summon tickets, a total of 600 jade, lots of AP and gold.

There are 4 event packs that contain the usual stuff; guaranteed 6* souls, shiki shards, jade and AP, daruma shards and realm cards. Each can be bought a max of 500 times. The packs are like the ones in the KnY collab event. For non-CN players or people who didn't participate, each of the packs have a very low chance to give a special item such as; ~128 jade, ~66 AP, ~3 blue summon tickets, ~100 gold orochi scales, 5* white daruma, a black daruma. A little animation will play if you get a special item.

Cost to buy all 120 of the event AP is 480 jade. There is also an s-jade pack that gives you 60 additional daily event AP and 6 Pepper every day at noon and 6PM. So if you want to buy that pack, do so on the first day of the event.

Recommended Teams

Just to reiterate - if you're ever unsure of what to do, can either focus on clearing shard tiles, blue tiles or tiles that have flames.

And don't forget to adjust your soul sets and equip appropriate bonus effects for your shiki throughout the event.

Battlefield of the Abyss

The following teams are just some general ones.

Alternative for Sen is Oitsuki and for Enmu it's Aoandon or Shoyou. If you choose to use Takiyasha in the Ryoumen team, can equip her with 3 sets of boss souls.

For additional teams when a boss has 0 minions, can refer to older event guides with recommendations for similar bosses.

Final Battle

For the barrier bosses, can use your standard event farming team or the same teams shown in the above section. Or you use a team like this one: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1964y1d7Aq/

Taishakuten always uses his annoying skill that will control your shiki with the highest ATK on his 2nd turn and never again. The only way to prevent him from controlling your shiki is by equipping Seimei with his shield. It needs to be used on Seimei's 2nd turn which should happen by default on auto.

The house imp buff in the 1st team is specifically for Senhime's deep freeze. So if you don't have her skill 2 maxed you can either do something about that by feeding her some black daruma, try swapping out SP Kiyo for SR Kiyo equipped with snow spirit or try using a different buff.

The latter 2 teams were only used during the last ~10% of the fight. The Taishakuten buff can be swapped for the seductress buff.

[thief-commander]

Boss fight for Arian? c:

@mystery-salad

Arian’s bossfight would actually be a duo raid boss fight with his podtwin, Callisto, since they are very protective of each other!

[In the picture above: Arian (left) and Callisto (right)]

The theme would be something similar to what plays during the Vale Guardian fight (which is a really underrated track imo, and it’s SO COOL).

The arena of the bossfight would be a round clearing deep in the dark jungle.

Arian is a deadeye and his brother, Callisto is a condi renegade. 

The fight would consist of 5 phases because of different mechanics.

Phase 1: 

Both Arian and Callisto are present in the arena and they each focus on one person from the group. The goal is to keep them apart, because they empower each other (buffed armor and damage). Arian is using dual daggers and he applies poison, and bleeding. Callisto is using dual swords and applies torment and chill. It’s a pretty straightforward melee fight with them, the players just have to condi cleanse and heal/block. The twins have to reach 66% health around the same time, otherwise they heal back up after some time.

Phase 2: 

Callisto disappears from the area and 5 of the players are left with Arian, who gains a few new skills. The players who stay in the arena have to continue fighting Arian. Arian summons shadows/shades that fire a trail of shadow magic at players that lingers for a little while, blinding and damaging them (imagine Deepstone fractal main boss). It is optional to kill the shades, players can just avoid standing in the AoE. 

The other 5 people reappear in an alternate arena, a dark path, where one of them gets a debuff that reduces their health and makes them unable to fight. The others have to escort that player to the end of the path without dying. The tricky part is that the path is full of poison blooms (like in Twilight Arbor), so the others have to clear it, and they also have to fight off ghosts summoned by Callisto from the Mists, that target the vulnerable player.

The players in the alternate arena return to the main arena if: 1.) the vulnerable player dies 2.) They successfully escort their teammate to the end of the path where they can enter a shadow portal and all return. 

If the vulnerable player dies, everyone teleports back to the main arena, where they can help fight Arian in case his health did not reach 33% yet.

If the other 5 players who stayed with Arian reduce his health to 33% but the escort isn’t finished yet, Arian becomes invulnerable and has to be kited around until the escort finishes or the vulnerable player dies.

Phase 3:

When Arian hits 33% and escort is done, everyone teleports back to the arena and Callisto takes Arian’s place. Arian teleports up to the top of the arena and takes out his rifle, targeting players and firing projectiles that leave a trail (like Mordrem Snipers in Maguuma). Callisto is now summoning supporting ghosts from the Mists that apply buffs to him. In order to damage him, the players have to take down the ghosts first (again, not mandatory but the damage dealt to Callisto is greatly decreased if the ghosts are alive).

Phase 4:

When Callisto’s health reaches 33% as well, Arian returns to the arena and summons spinning blades on the ground that apply big stacks of bleeding and make the arena harder to navigate. Once again, they both focus on a player, so the have to be kept separate. Arian also summons shadows that fire shadow magic at the players and Callisto summons ghosts from time to time that buff him. They have to reach 10% around the same time, otherwise they heal back up after some time. 

Phase 5:

When they reach 10% health, Callisto gets a buff that makes him invulnerable and Arian summons forth his shadows again. The buff is called “Resilience” and he has 3 stacks of it. These stacks can be removed by luring him into the trail of shadow magic fired by Arian’s shadows. Arian, in the meantime, has to be kited around. When Callisto’s stacks are off, players have to break his breakbar. After that it’s burn phase until 1%.

The fight ends with a cutscene in which an injured Arian crawls to his brother who is lying on the ground, alive but severely wounded. Arian pulls him closer and protects him with his own body. “You won today, but you’ll pay for this.” He growls through gritted teeth, then summons a shadow portal under them and they both disappear. 

[5mincolumns]

5min books review #5

Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer: No Rules Rules. Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

Value for money

7/10

Year, Price, Pages, Cover design

2020 by WH Allen; Euro 23,01; 272 pages (293 pages with Acknowledgments, Selected bibliography, Index), Hardback

Jacket design by Two Associates, Author photography by Austine Hargrave, Book design by Lucia Bernard, Portrait Illustrations by Henry Sene Yee. Top-quality paper made from Forest Stewardship Council, the exquisite reading experience.

5 sentences about the book

The book itself is organized around the triad “talent-candor-control”, similarly, as the Netflix organization is built. Netflix’s organism can live only when all elements are in place — they depend on each other.

First, the organization builds up talent density by creating a workforce of high performers. Then it introduces candor by encouraging loads of feedback. In the end, it removes controls such as vacation, travel and expense policies.

In the next steps, the triad is tuned: strengthening talent density by paying top of the market, increasing candor by emphasizing organizational transparency and releasing more controls such as decision-making approvals.

Last chapters are dedicated to maximizing the triad: the Netflix’s Keeper test is used for maximizing talent density, the circle of feedback is used for maximizing candor and emphasizing leading by the context not control eliminates most controls.

Narration consists of two parallel storylines provided by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer. Hastings represents a voice of practicality; he plots the conditions thanks to whom Netflix organization was established as we know it in its current form. On the other hand, Erin Meyer documents that there is a theory (psychological, sociological, cultural) behind every Hastings’s example.

What did I learn?

As well as Spotify model, Netflix triad works for Netflix and should not be treated as a copy+paste instruction model

Giving and receiving feedback is the additional inspirational lecture in the raster of similar books. Creating a culture of candor could be feasible in the micro-cosmos of your organization too (team, department).

“Don’t seek to please your bosses” — organization expects that employee tells her/his opinion and every person is responsible to tell what she/he thinks. If you start with line management or if you lead the product, there is a place to set up a relationship with your employees or colleagues in such a way and get benefit from it.

“My career is my responsibility”. The self-awareness of Netflix’s employees related to payment and salary awakened me and I realize my ignorance in the topic. Did you do your homework and are you familiar with the salary trends of your job position on the market today?

The place of the failure in the organization and how could be treated in the relationship of the employee and the boss (1. Ask what kind of learning came from the project; 2. Don’t make a big deal about it; 3. Ask her/him to sunshine the failure)

What was missing?

Mentioning above, reading the book could be as watching reality through the glass. Ok, interesting Netlifx story, the organization works only when all elements are in place. There are only a few things you can take away; you can try in your micro-cosmos but I would not expect the same results as Netlflix achieved.

Favourite quotes:

“In hindsight, I understood that a team with one or two merely adequate performers brings down the performance of everyone on the team. If you have a team of five stunning employees and two adequate one, the adequate one will

Sam managers’ energy, so they have less time for the top performers,

Reduce the quality of group discussions, lowering the team’s overall IQ,

Force others to develop ways to work sound them, reducing efficiency,

Drive staff who seek excellence to quit, and

Show the team you accept mediocrity, thus multiplying the problem.

For top performers, a great workplace isn’t about a lavish office, a beautiful gym, or a free sushi lunch. It’s about the joy of being surrounded by people who are both talented and collaborative” 7–8 (Reed Hastings)

Again you wonder, Should I speak up? But again, your lips stay sealed. You’ve probably experienced moments like these. You may not always remain silent. But often you do — and when you do, it’s likely to be because of one of the following reasons:

You think your viewpoint won’t be supported.

You don’t want to be viewed as ‘difficult’

You don’t want to get into an unpleasant argument.

You don’t want to risk upsetting or angering your colleagues.

You’re wary of being called ‘not a team player’” 18 (Erin Meyer)

“At Netflix, it is tantamount to being disloyal to the company if you fail to speak up when you disagree with a colleague or have feedback that could be helpful. After all, you could help the business — but you are choosing not to” 18 (Erin Meyer)

“We hire you for your opinions. Every person in that room is responsible for telling me frankly what they think” (Ted Sarandos) 26

“Because of our high-talent density, our employees were already conscientious and responsible. Because of our culture of candor, if anyone abused the system or took advantage of the freedom allotted, other would call them out directly and explain the undesirable impact of their actions” 52 (Reed Hastings)

“Real life is so much more nuanced than any policy could ever address” 57 (Reed Hastings)

“Spinning the truth is one of the most common ways leaders erode trust. I can’t say this clearly enough: don’t do this. Your people are not stupid. When you try to spin them, they see it, and it makes you look like a fraud. Speak plainly, without trying to make bad situations seem good, and your employees will learn you tell the truth.” 118 (Reed Hastings)

“When you succeed, speak about it softly or let others mention it for you. But when you make a mistake say it clearly and loudly, so that everyone can learn and profit from your errors. In other words, ‘Whisper wins and shout mistakes’” 123 (Reed Hastings)

“That’s when we added a new element to our culture. We now say that it is disloyal to Netflix when you disagree with the idea and do not express that disagreement. By withholding your opinion, you are implicitly choosing to not help the company.” 141

“A job should be something you do for that magical period of time when you are the best person for that job and that job is the best position for you. Once you stop learning or stop excelling, that’s the moment for you to pass that spot onto someone who is better fitted for it and to move on to a better role for you” 168

[ebonguard]

The Cloak & Dagger’s Open Nights return!

The Cloak & Dagger is a higher-class establishment run by a mysterious and heretofore unseen proprietor. Although there are a great many rumors surrounding the establishment, including that it’s involved in criminal activity and even that it may be run in connection to the Ebonguard criminal network, it’s difficult to pin anything down as fact over being mere conjecture without going to one of its elusive open nights for oneself.

One night per moon it sees an influx of colorful customers and even more colorful staff. The air inside is scented by cigarettes and incense. The menu consists of mouthwatering food exceeding both in quality and in price that which might be found in a local dive bar, and the selection of spirits on hand seems as nearly-endless as the rumors surrounding the establishment.

Date and <NEW!> Time: Sunday, September 29 at 8:30 PM EDT / 7:30 PM CDT / 6:30 PM MDT / 5:30 PM PDT (Last Call is at 10:30 / 9:30 / 8:30 / 7:30.) Located at: The Goblet Ward 11 Plot 55 [ Balmung ] 

⸸ Venue Information, House Rules, and Menu

⸸ For the convenience of event staff and fellow patrons, if you are attending for criminal RP and/or have ordered a Cloak & Dagger, please set your status to looking for party. This will let RPers with similar interests find you more easily, including <NEW!> our LIAISON, who is tasked with gathering up the RPers with this flag in order to encourage interaction. This will also allow the staff to find those interested in doing some crime more easily!

⸸ Out of consideration for fellow players and the staff we ask large, self-contained groups to consider using party chat in order to help moderate chat scroll. Thank you for your cooperation!

⸸ We ask patrons to bear in mind that The Cloak & Dagger is meant to be a classy venue and is a lore-compliant space!

The Cloak & Dagger is an open RP space! We invite anyone to come use the space however they desire outside of our designated event nights. An updated post with information on the venue is coming soon!

We hope to see you there!

Please note that Ebonguard is not associated with and does not condone real-life criminal activities. Activities engaged in or discussed by Ebonguard are strictly fictional and for entertainment purposes only.

The Cloak & Dagger is staffed by members of the Ebonguard criminal network CW LS. For information about Ebonguard, please see our recruitment information!

We’ve reworked the venue a bit since the last time we were open! Further information is available below the cut!

vis. @balmungrp @crystalxivrp @ffxiv-crystal-rp @mooglemeet

The Cloak & Dagger Updates

There are a few things marked as new above the cut, but here’s a quick rundown of changes we’ve made to make running The Cloak & Dagger more fun for both patrons and staff:

THE LIAISON: A brand-new staff position we created for the express purpose of creating RP opportunities for patrons and staff, our liaison is tasked with gathering up patrons who have the looking for party status enabled and doing two things: first, ascertaining whether they’re in attendance to make connections with other patrons or staff; and second, nudging the patron toward where they would be most likely to get that interaction! As The Cloak & Dagger is in a medium house, this means we fortunately have (and have always had) two floors at our disposal in order to run events out of. While for most of the venue’s life the top floor has mostly been ignored during event nights, the top floor will now be where the Liaison guides “like-minded” patrons in order to chat in a quieter/more private environment.

NEW EVENT STRUCTURE: While most staffed RP venues will focus solely on customer service throughout the night, The Cloak & Dagger is going to approach the genre a little differently. Instead of having staff dedicated to serving customers throughout the night, food and drink service will only be properly RPed out for the first 30 minutes and last 30 minutes. It can generally be assumed that your character’s needs are still being taken care of, but until we get more staff, this compromise is in place to allow staff to interact with patrons in a more interesting way than simply filling orders! Because all staff members are also members of Ebonguard proper, it’s safe to bet that everyone has some criminal inclinations of their own.

AN UPDATED MENU: In order to be easier on staff, the menu has been updated; it now no longer has a broad selection of food, though our cocktails are still just as good! We are looking to continue expanding our selection of “Specialty” cocktails with cocktails that can further enhance the flavor of RP via optional /random effects that can be used to make RP more interesting at our events, and are generally useful for clever criminals attending our events.If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in our message book or DM @hellsbovnd!!

A FIXED SCHEDULE: Rather than occurring on a random Sunday during the month according to staff availability, The Cloak & Dagger is now fixed to occur on the FINAL SUNDAY OF THE MONTH AT 8:30PM EDT. Please note that we also now open to the public 30 minutes later than we used to in order to give our staff a little more time to get into position for the opening! (Our last call is at the same time it has always been unfortunately, due to the fact that the event runs on Sundays. Patrons have usually cleared out by 10:30 Eastern anyway, though!)

And that’s just the features that we have prepared for our grand reopening! Updates that we will be continuing to work on include:

GAMBLING: The proprietor, Crow, is known for loving a good hand of cards, and as such he’s seen fit to invite patrons to try their hand at gambling upstairs. We are working on having enough staff to run this consistently as well as a system that makes the gambling itself interesting while also not being too cumbersome to RP. IC gil only!!

PERFORMANCES: The Cloak & Dagger has always been open for the occasional performance, but now all openings of The Cloak & Dagger feature two performance slots. Additional information about this can be found on The Cloak & Dagger’s web page under “attractions!” We will start advertising these open slots starting with our October opening.

[canongf-archive]

the official introduction post!

Christopher Brahm Ripley August 20, 1995. 24 years old. London, UK

(his playlist) (his aesthetic)

Brahm is a vocalist for English pop rock band Long Shot for Speedy, which consists of guitarists Maverick Spait & Marshall Demko (both 25), bassist Porter Hudson (26), and drummer Fletcher Day (25). The band is currently signed to  Rapid Records, a London-based label. 

He was born in Brighton, England to his parents Monty and Eve Ripley, and he’s of English and distant Greek descent. He’s the oldest of three children with twin younger brothers, Eli and Jax, who are 10. His parents split when he was 17 and his mother married Brahm’s stepfather, Thomas Turcotte, 3 years later.

Though raised in Brighton, Brahm and his bandmates relocated to London when Brahm was 19 and purchased a house there together, which is where they currently reside.

Personality: Brahm’s almost always the center of attention.  He’s cool, confident, charming, cheeky, and he’s not easily embarrassed or intimidated but he can be a little intimidating to people who don’t know him well. He doesn’t mean to be though. He just does what he wants when he wants to do it. And when he wants something, he goes for it. No real hesitation, no overthinking, no anxiety about it. Brahm’s fears are few and far between.

He’s not dumb but he is a dumbass.

Brahm’s a complete extrovert. He’s on when he’s around a group of people, and he’s around a group of people constantly. When he’s in a party setting he’s basically friends with everyone in the room. 

He’s romantic at heart, though his dating history might suggest otherwise. His flirtatious nature comes with his charm and though he wouldn't necessarily consider himself a player, he's sure that he probably comes close. Girls really like him and he knows it. And it's clearer now than ever with the level of success that he's had with the band. He's always respectful though, able to read hints and has no problem accepting a 'no'. Tries to upfront about what he's looking for (which is usually nothing serious). He's had numerous relationships in the past but none of them have lasted for over a year. Tells himself he just hasn't met the right girl yet.

He’s got a habit of internalizing his emotions. He’s thankful that he’s been able to find an outlet in music and songwriting, but he relies a lot on nonverbal communication to express how he’s feeling and sometimes when he’s upset or hurt he’ll react with indifference or anger because those allow for less vulnerability. He cries very rarely and almost never in front of anyone else. 

Physical touch and gift giving are his love languages. He's constantly hugging his bandmates, draping an arm over their shoulders, touching their backs when they're walking in a group, doesn't think twice about kissing them on the cheeks (and he has kissed them on the lips before too, but that’s a story for another time). When he is in a relationship he loves to spoil his girlfriend with lavish gifts and extravagant treatment. His gestures are often over the top. He makes a respectable amount of money with the band and he has no problem spending it on people he cares about, especially his romantic partners. 

Physical appearance: Brahm isn’t the biggest guy around but he’s not at all bothered by his size. He stands at 5′9 and weighs a little less than 150 pounds. He’s got some muscle definition, he’s solid and he does enjoy physical activity, but he’s not ripped. 

His hair is naturally a dark brown. It’s got a soft curl to it and lots of volume, leading to it being a little unruly at times but he’s gotten good at styling it how he likes. He’s bleached the ends a few times to experiment and during that time he let his bandmates try to color the lightened strands which was fun though it didn’t turn out perfectly or last longer than a few washes, but he hasn’t done anything to it in a while so it’s almost completely back to its natural shade save for a few subtle highlights and it’s long enough to hit mid-ear. His eyes are round and deep set and about as dark brown as his hair. His skin has yellow undertones, lighter when he’s home for the winter, but it darkens very easily with the smallest amount of sun. 

Brahm’s wardrobe consists of a lot of button-up shirts. He wears them often and doesn’t ever button them all the way up, preferring to leave at least the top two or three undone. When he needs to dress them up he’ll throw a blazer on. Sometimes he’ll forego the buttons altogether and wear them over a plain tank or tee. He loves jumpers (usually a size too big) and plain t-shirts too. Doesn’t matter what top he’s wearing though, he pretty much always rolls the sleeves. 

He rolls his pant legs too! Unless they’re cropped (like most of his suit pants). He wears a lot of solid color pants but he’s got some patterned pairs (striped, grid, plaid) and he somehow always pulls the look off. Usually pairs his rolled pants with high socks and wears a lot of boots and flat soled sneakers with the occasional dress shoe.

Brahm loves jewelry. He wears rings consistently, at least one on each hand, necklaces, bracelets, and watches. His ears are pierced and he'll wear diamond studs or small hoops from time to time.

He's got three tattoos so far! His first one is a triangle on his outer left ankle that he got when he and the boys traveled to the US for the first time (the triangle itself means absolutely nothing), the second is a Laurel wreath on the back of his right arm, just above his elbow, as a small homage to his Greek heritage, and his third was a drunken decision given to him by a friend on the tour bus one night (which, to be fair, turned out not as bad as it could have), a very small LS on his left hip that's supposed to stand for 'long shot' (apparently in his drunken stupor he decided that LSFS would have been too many letters).

I’ve had so much fun developing him and I’m so excited to be sharing him with you now! 

[dailybestiary]

Patch Has Issues: Dungeon #2

Issue: Dungeon #2

Date: November/December 1986 (Pretty sure my Christmas haul that year was full of dope toys from The Transformers movie/show.)

The Cover:

(Use of cover for review purposes only and should not be taken as a challenge to status. Credit and copyright remain with their respective holders.)

Ah, Clyde Caldwell. He, Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, and last issue’s Keith Parkinson were the mainstays of TSR’s amazing stable of artists. I have a soft spot for Caldwell. He did the covers for the D&D Gazetteer series, which means his work emblazoned some of my absolute favorite books from my middle school years. (At the time I had the whole series except the two island books, GAZ 4 & GAZ 9 (which I’ve since collected), plus the Dawn of the Emperors box set. My favorites, for the record, were GAZ 3, 5, 10, and 13. I...may like elves...a little too much.) And even as I sit here, other covers demand to be named. The very first Dragonlance adventure, the iconic Dragons of Despair? The Finder’s Stone trilogy? The first Ravenloft box? Dragon #147? Yep, he did those covers too. He was amazing.

But hoo-boy, we also have to talk about the not-amazing parts. Once Caldwell settled on a way of doing things, that’s how he did them. Points for consistency, but man, he had tropes. Even his tropes had tropes. He had a way of painting dragon’s wings. He had a way of painting swords and boots. He had a way of painting jewelry, and belts and coins—ovals upon ovals upon ovals.

And his way of painting women was with as few clothes as possible. Everything I said about Parkinson last entry? Yeah, that goes double for Caldwell. He never paints pants when a thong will do. His take on the reserved and regal Goldmoon—thighs as long as a dwarf and bronzed buttcheeks exposed—reportedly left Margaret Weis in tears. Magic-users (God, I hate that term) famously couldn’t use armor in D&D and AD&D, but Caldwell’s sorceresses pretty much stick to gauze just to be safe. And the Finder’s Stone trilogy I mentioned above? Yeah, the authors of Azure Bonds took one look at Caldwell’s cover art and literally had to come up with in-text reasons why the heroine Alias—one of the most surly woman sellswords in existence—would wear armor with a Caldwell boob hole.

Don’t get me wrong, I love cheesecake as much as the next dude. (Actually that’s not true; I came up in the grunge ’90s—our version of cheesecake was an Olympia brunette in three layers of thrift store sweaters reading Sandman while eating a cheesecake. Hell, that’s still my jam.) But context matters. The sorceress from “White Magic,” Dragon #147’s cover, may barely be wearing a negligee, but she’s also in the seat of her power and probably magically warded to the hilt—she can wear whatever she damn wants; it’s her tower. So no complaints there. But this cover’s pirate queen Porky Piggin’ it seems like an unwise choice. (The friction burns alone from clambering around the rigging…)

It’s clear from reading The Art of the Dragonlance Saga that TSR was trying to turn the ship around when it came to portrayals of women in fantasy, however slowly. And in Caldwell’s defense and to his credit, he definitely delivered women with agency—in nearly every image, they are nearly always doing something active and essential. They just tend to be doing it half-dressed.

Which is all a way of saying I dig this cover—the explosion, the churning sea (even if it does more look like snow drifts than waves), the sailors all running to the rail to look—but yeah, that pirate captain needs to put on some damn pants.

The Adventures: Before we get started, I have to note that though we’re only an issue in, already the magazine feels more noticeably like the work of editor Roger Moore. This is 100% a guess, but it really feels to me like Dungeon #1 was made of adventures that the Dragon office already had laying around, whereas Dungeon #2 was composed of adventures that Roger Moore and the new Dungeon team had more of a hand in sifting through. (He also has an assistant editor this time in Robin Jenkins, which had to have helped.) Even the cartography looks better. Again, I have zero confirmation of this, but the feeling is strong.

“The Titan’s Dream” by W. Todo Todorsky, AD&D, Levels 5–9

PCs visiting an oracle accidentally walk right into a titan’s dream and must solve some conundrums to escape. What an awesome concept this is! (Spoilers for “Best Concept” section below.) It’s a shame I don’t like this more.

First of all, dreamworld adventures are really hard to do well. And for them to work, there usually need to be real stakes—and not just “If you die in the dream, you die in real life!”—and/or a real connection to the PCs in your campaign. The latter, especially, is really hard to pull off in a published adventure; typically it’s only achieved through tactics that critics deride as railroading. (For instance, @wesschneider’s excellent In Search of Sanity does a great job of connecting the characters to their dream adventures...but it does that by a) forging the connection at 1st level, and b) pretty strongly dictating how the adventure begins and how the characters are affiliated. It works, but that’s high-wire-act adventure writing.)

Being a magazine adventure, “The Titan’s Dream” doesn’t have that luxury—it’s got to be for a general audience and work for most campaigns. That unfortunately means the default “Why” of the adventure—a lord with a child, a wedding, and an alliance at stake hires the PCs to chat with a wise titan—is little more than that: a default.

On top of that...I cannot get excited about anything Greek mythology-related. To me, just the fact I’m seeing it is a red flag.

Look, Greek mythology is why I got into this hobby. Hell, it’s why I got into fiction, period. (For some reason I somehow decided I had no use for fiction books targeted to my age, with the exception of Beverly Cleary. Then in 4th(?) grade, I got a copy of Alice Low’s Greek Gods and Heroes, and the rest is history.) But Greek mythology is often the only mythology anyone knows. When people think polytheism, that’s where most people’s minds go. Which is why, if you ever played D&D in the ’80s, I pretty much guarantee your first deity was from that pantheon. (In my first game, my first-level cleric pretty much met Ares and got bitch-slapped by him, because that’s what 4th-grade DMs do.)

So to me, putting Greek deities or titans in your adventure is the equivalent of putting dudes riding sandworms into your desert adventures—you can do it, but you better blow me away, because that is ground so well trod it’s mud. And this one doesn’t do the job.

The format is three dreams, each with five scenes. Parties will move randomly—a mechanic meant to represent dream logic (or lack thereof)—through these scenes, until all the scenes from one dream have been resolved. This is actually kind of fascinating, and I wonder how it would play at the table—I have a feeling observant players will dig it, but others may find the mechanism’s charm wears off quickly, especially if they have difficulty solving the scenes or get frustrated with the achronicity of events. I also like that every scene has a number of possible resolutions, so the PCs aren’t locked into achieving a single specific objective like they were stuck in a computer game.

But...I can’t shake the feeling of weak planning and execution (or even laziness?) that stayed with me throughout the adventure. Like, okay, the first adventure is a cyclops encounter out of the Odyssey. Cool! But then...why does the Titan follow it up with pseudo-Norse/Arthurian encounter? Did the Odyssey not hold the author’s attention? (Nor the Iliad, the Aeneid, or Metamorphosis? Really?) And then why is the third dream “drawn from the realm of pure fairy tale”? Like, were you out of pantheons? Horus didn’t return your calls? Or be more specific—why not German fairy tales, or Danish, or French Court, or Elizabethan? It feels like a class project where one group was on point, one group got the assignment a little wrong, and one didn’t even try.

Again, it’s not even that this adventure is bad—I honestly can’t tell if it is or not; I’m sure a lot of its success is determined at the table. And I could totally see throwing this at a party if I was out of inspiration that week or we needed a low-stakes breather before our next big arc. But the instant I think about it for more than a second, it all falls apart for me.

Have any of you tried this one? Let me know what you thought. And for a similar exploration into dream logic/fairy tale scenarios, I recommend Crystal Frasier’s The Harrowing for Pathfinder.

“In The Dwarven King’s Court” by Willie Walsh, AD&D, Levels 3–5

Willie Walsh is a name we’re going to see a lot more in issues to come—he’s a legendarily prolific Dungeon contributor, delivering quality, typically low-level, and often light-hearted or humorous adventurers issue after issue after issue. His first entry is a mystery with a time limit: A dwarf king is supposed to make a gift of a ceremonial sword to seal a treaty, but the sword has vanished. Brought to the king’s court courtesy of a dream, adventurers must find the sword and the surprising identity of the culprit before the rival power’s delegation arrives.

At first I was going to ding this adventure for its “What, even more dreams this issue?” hook...but here’s the thing with Walsh—never judge his modules until you reach the final page. Nearly every time I’m tempted to dismiss one of his sillier or more random adventure elements, it turns out that it makes sense and works just fine. In this case, the cause of the dream is haunt connected to the mystery, and I feel dumb for being all judgy.

So anyway, the PCs are given leave to search for the stolen object and the thief, but of course it turns out there is a whole lot of light-fingeredness going around. As Bryce (see below) puts it, “It’s like a Poirot mystery: everyone has something to hide.” This castle has as much upstairs-downstairs drama as any British farce, with nearly every NPC having either a fun personality and/or a fun secret (and with the major players illustrated by some equally fun portraits) that should make them memorable friends and foils for PCs to interact with. Not to mention the actual culprit is definitely a twist that will be hard explaining to the king...

GMs should be ready to adjust on the fly, though—a) it’s a lot of characters to juggle, and b) since the PCs are 3rd–5th level, the right spells or some lucky secret door searches could prematurely end the adventure as written. You may want to have some last-minute showdowns, betrayals, or other political intrigue outlined and in your back pocket if what’s on the page resolves too quickly.

Overall though, I’m a big fan of this adventure, and look forward to the rest of Walsh’s output. Also, given the dwarven focus and the geography of the land, this adventure could be a very nice sequel to last issue’s “Assault on Eddistone Point.”

“Caermor” by Nigel D. Findley, AD&D, Levels 2–4

Look at this author’s list of writing credits! Findley was amazingly prolific, and his work was pretty high-quality across the board, as far as I know. I particularly loved the original Draconomicon, one of the first and only 2e AD&D books I ever bought as a kid. I also loved his “Ecology of the Gibbering Mouther” from the excellent Dragon #160, and some of his Spelljammer supplements are currently sitting upstairs in my to-read pile, recently purchased but as yet shamefully untouched.

Now look at his age at the time of his death. Life is not always fair or kind.

(Speaking of unkind, man is the bio in this issue unfortunate in retrospect: “[H]e write for DRAGON® Magazine, enjoys windsurfing, plays in a jazz band, and manages a computer software company in the little time he has left.” As Archer would say, “Phrasing!”)

Anyway, this adventure is simple: An otherworldly force has been murdering the locals. The locals have pinned the blame on a handsome bard from out of town, and their own prejudices and general obstinacy are sure to get in the way of the investigation—that is, if the true culprits, some devil-worshipping culprits and and an abishai devil, don’t get in the way first.

All in all, this is a tight, well-written adventure, so I don’t have much to say about it, other than that if you like the idea of sending your party to help out some young lovers and save some faux-Scots/Yorkshiremen too stubborn to save themselves (and maybe slip in a valuable lesson about prejudice and xenophobia as well), this is the adventure for you.

One thing that does jump out to a contemporary reader, though, is the comically overpowered nature of the baddie pulling the strings in this adventure: Baalphegor, Princess of Hell (emphasis mine). Overpowered, you-won’t-really-fight-this-NPC happens with a lot of low-level adventures, when the writers want a story more epic than characters at the table can handle or are trying to plot the seeds for future evils. But still, any princess of Hell would already be a bit much...but an 18-Hit Dice, “supra-genius”, the Princess of Hell? Like, what the f—er, I mean, Hell?

If you use the adventure as written, the only way to have Baalphegor’s presence make sense is to eventually reveal that the area is an epicenter of some major badness. (Maybe that explains the lost nation of evil dwarves in the adventure background.) For a good model on how to seed early adventures in this matter, Dungeon’s Age of Worms Adventure Path and Pathfinder Adventure Path’s Rise of the Runelords AP, both from Paizo, are exemplars of small-town disturbances that eventually have world-shaking implications.

It’s also fascinating in retrospect to note Ed Greenwood’s massive impact in the hobby. Any article that appears in Dragon has the sheen of being at least semi-official, but it’s clear that Greenwood’s content was a cut above even that. In this case, an NPC from a three-year-old article of his is not just treated as canon, but also supplies the mastermind behind the adventure! It’s no surprise that in the following year his home campaign, the Forgotten Realms, would soon become AD&D’s newest and then its default setting.

Two final thoughts: 1) There’s some fascinating anti-dwarf prejudice in this article. Nearly every mention of dwarves paints them as exceptionally greedy and/or villains. And 2) how did one even begin to balance adventures in those days? This adventure is for “4–8 characters of 2nd–4th level.” There are a lot of difference at the extreme ends of those power scales…

“The Keep at Koralgesh,” by Robert Giacomozzi & Jonathan Simmons, D&D, Levels 1–3

One of the problems of BECMI D&D being known as “basic D&D” is that writers often assumed the players to be basic (that is, younger/new) as well. Which probably accounts for some of the early suggestions to the DM we get at the beginning of this adventure—like some pretty patronizing advice along the lines of not immediately announcing to PCs what the pluses are on their magical swords.

Fortunately, after that the article settles down and gives us Dungeon’s first real D&D adventure. In fact, not just real, but massive: 20 full pages of content—nearly half the issue! It’s a fully fledged dungeon crawl that has the PCs taking advantage of the summer solstice to open a shrine door that will lead them inside a long-ruined keep said to hold great treasure.

Now, I imagine in the coming installments it’s going to seem to many of you like I’m grading D&D adventures on a curve, because of my love for the system and the Known World/Mystara. That’s a fair accusation, but a better way to consider it is that I’m reviewing D&D adventures for what they are—adventures from a separate system, with a more limited rules system and palette of options than AD&D. You don’t go to a performance of Balinese shadow puppetry and compare it against Andrew Lloyd Webber; you look at it for what it achieves in its own medium. Since they appear side-by-side in the same magazine, comparison is going to be inevitable, but that’s with the understanding that AD&D was the kid coloring with the 64-crayon box of Crayola, while D&D was getting by with just eight.

On its own terms then, “The Keep of Korgalesh” is a decent, if not superlative, success. I love that it’s practically module-length and that we get three complete levels—a far cry from the previous issue’s side-trek-at-best, “The Elven Home.” We also get two new monsters, which absolutely fills my inner BECMI D&D player with glee. And I like that what starts as a dungeon crawl/fetch quest evolves into a “kill the big bad thing” and “find out what really happened to this city.”

There are issues, though. If the whole city was destroyed, getting to see some of it besides the keep would have been nice. Some of the ecology for the dungeon inhabitants is questionable. There pretty much wasn’t a single pool or fountain in this era of D&D adventure design that wasn’t magical, and this adventure was no exception. One of the new monster’s names makes no sense except that “tyranna” and “abyss” are cool words (I mean, I guess you could read that as “tyrant of the depths,” but still…) And there are painfully obvious borrowings from other works, especially Tolkien��a door that only opens at solstice, a lake monster, an orc with a split personality that is clearly a Gollum homage, etc.

What this adventure really needs is stakes—just something to give it a bit more oomph beyond the dungeon crawl. (Finding a blacksmith’s lost hammer is the hook offered in the adventure but it’s pretty flimsy.) Perhaps the PCs are some of Kor’s last worshippers, and clearing out the dangers here and resanctifying his temple is one of their first steps toward returning him to prominence. Maybe the PCs’ grandparents were involved in the city’s demise and restoring Koralgesh will restore the families’ honor. Or you could keep it simple and have a band of pirates or a rival adventuring group also trying to clean out the keep, turning it into a race (with the tyrannabyss causing the scales of fate to wobble at appropriately cinematic moments).

So the final analysis is this is a decent dungeon crawl upon which you can build a good adventure. The real reward of this module isn’t treasure; it’s finding out just what happened to Koralgesh. But for that to matter, it needs to tie into the PCs’ pasts, futures, or both.

BONUS CONTENT FOR KNOWN WORLD/MYSTARA NERDS: Kor is almost certainly a local name for the sun god Ixion. The chaotic deity Tram is probably a local version of Alphaks, though Atzanteotl is another strong candidate, especially since deceit was key to the pirates’ success. Koralgesh could be located somewhere on the Isle of Dawn, the northern coast of Davania, or an Ierendi/Minrothad Isle that those nations haven’t made it a priority to rebuild.

Best Read: “Caermor.” Nigel D. Findley was a pro.

Best Adventure I Could Actually Run with Minimal Prep: “The Keep at Koralgesh,” as a well-written, straight-ahead dungeon crawl. Every other adventure here relies on a pretty strong handle of very mobile NPCs and their motivations, or a Titan’s dream mechanics.

Best Concept: “The Titan’s Dream,” as noted above. It’s a great idea very worth exploring, even if I wasn’t about the execution we got in this case.

Best Monster: This was actually a monster-light issue. Despite some awesome art for the tyrannabyss, I have to go with the epadrazzil, a scaly ape from a two-dimensional plane of existence that has to be summoned via a painting. All of those details are just so wonderfully and weirdly specific it has to win. (Extra points for anyone who noticed the thoul—a classic D&D monster (though it did make its way into AD&D’s Mystara setting) born from a typo.)

Best NPC: Since this is a role-playing-heavy issue, there are a bunch of contenders, and the final verdict will go to whoever your party sparks to at the table. Obviously King Baradon the Wise should get the nod for [spoiler-y reasons], but I also really like the opportunity the executioner Tarfa offers, thanks to his incriminating goblet and how it might bring the PCs to the attention of a far-off assassin’s guild at just the right level.

Best Map: All together the maps from “The Keep at Koralgesh” form an extremely appealing whole. But for best single map I have to go for the palace of Mount Diadem—that is a bangin’ dwarven demesne.

Best Thing Worth Stealing: Jim Holloway’s illustrations of dwarves. Good dwarf, gnome, and halfling art is hard to find, and even the good stuff often leans stereotypical. While Holloway’s art is often humorous—I have a feeling he and Roger Moore jibed really well, though that’s totally a guess based purely on what assignments he got handed—his dwarves, especially in this issue, are fresh, specific, and unique. You could identify them by their silhouettes alone—always the sign of good character art. If you need an image of a dwarf NPC to show the players, “In the Dwarven King’s Court” is a great first stop.

Worst Aged: Female thong pirates on magazine covers. Also using the actual names of actual mental illnesses in game materials.

What Bryce Thinks: “This seems to be a stronger issue than #1, although half of the adventures are … unusual.”

Bryce actually almost likes “The Titan’s Dream,” confirming my loathing of it. He in turn loathes “In the Court of the Dwarven King.” Like me, though, he is pro-”Caermor” and sees potential in “The Keep at Koralgesh.” (Also credit where it’s due: I might have missed the condescension at the start if he hadn’t called it out.)

So, Is It Worth It?: If you’re a Clyde Caldwell fan, this issue might be worth searching out in print. So much of Caldwell’s work from this era was dictated by product needs, cropped and boxed up in ads, or shrunk down to fit on a paperback cover. So to get this cover in full magazine size, with only the masthead tucked up top to get in the way—that could be well worth a few bucks to you.

Also, if you’re BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia-era D&D fan (or know someone who is), again, this one might be worth having in print. “The Keep at Koralgesh” is a legit, proper BECMI D&D adventure, spanning 20 whole pages and with two new monsters to boot. I would have practically have cried if someone had given 7th-grade me this.

Beyond that you can probably just rely on the PDF. But both “Caermor” and “In the Dwarven King’s Court” have strong bones worth putting some modern muscle and skin on.

Random Thoughts:

The Caldwell cover painting was also used for the Blackmoor module DA4 The Duchy of Ten. PS: I’m not trying to tell you what to do or anything, but if you do happen to run across a physical copy of The Duchy of Ten or and of the DA modules, holla at ya boy over here.

Since this is our second issue, we now have a “Letters” column. Turns out Dungeon had been announced in Dragon #111 with a really detailed set of writer’s guidelines; most of the correspondence is questions re: those. In the process of answering, we get some surprisingly frank talk about payment. The $900 for a cover seemed low until I converted it to 2018 dollars, and ~$2,000 does seem right to my ignorant eye. I then made the mistake of converting my current salary to 1986 dollars and felt a lot worse about myself and what I’ve achieved.

Apologies this took so long to post. I had the issue read by early October and most of this review written with the next week or two after...but then I got involved in dealing with a 4.5 week hospitalization and aftermath...and then a second still-ongoing hospitalization...and even though I only had about four paragraphs left I just couldn’t find time to put a bow on it.

Notable Ads: The gold Immortals Rules box for D&D. (I also still don’t have that one yet, and Christmas is coming. Just saying, guys, if you happen to find one in your attic.) ;-) Also an ad for subscribing to Dungeon itself, starring “my war dinosaur, Boo-Boo.” No, really.

Over in Dragon: Beneath a glorious cover, Roger Moore is the new editor of Dragon #115, three authors (including Vince Garcia, who I like a lot) share credit on a massive six articles about fantasy thieves, a famous article proposing that clerics get the weapons of their deity (people were still talking about it in the “Forum” column when I was buying my first issues two years later), and a look at harps from the Forgotten Realms (notable because behind the scenes Ed Greenwood’s home setting was being developed for the AD&D game for launch in 1987.) A photographic cover and a 3-D sailing ship are served up in Dragon #116, along with maritime adventures, more Ed Greenwood (rogue stones), and articles for ELFQUEST, Marvel Super Heroes (Crossfire’s gang), and FASA’s Dr. Who game (looking at all six(!) doctors). (Incidentally, I had an Irish babysitter around this time who first mentioned Dr. Who to me—I wish I’d explored more but I was too young to understand what I’d been offered.)

PS: Yes, I’ve heard about the upcoming Tumblr ban. It is a terrible idea that will affect way too many of my readers. It shouldn’t affect me much (and I have all my monster entries backed up at the original site), but I will keep you posted as I learn more, particularly if I find you, my readers, packing up and going elsewhere.

[chessrushcheats-blog]

Chess Rush Guide

Chess Rush Guide

Chess Rush Guide is a guide for a popular new game. Auto Chess is the newest trend for mobile gaming at the moment. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, from Drodo Games, creator of the original Auto Chess, to Valve, and now, Tencent with Chess Rush. Chess Rush basically popped up out of the blue, without any major announcement or tease leading up to its release. It provides a fairly customary Auto Chess expertise with 2 notable exceptions: a Turbo Mode that can condense the normal long battles into 10-minute affairs and co-op for people who prefer to play with their partners. It doesn't require some investment and now you can appreciate playing Chess Rush on PC easily and serenely. Each auto-chess game offers a comparable ongoing interaction component. The accompanying instructional exercise will kick you off rapidly and it covers the essential of how to play Chess Rush. Ideally this will give you enough information to bounce in. Chess Rush is a methodology autobattler game where players fabricate a development by picking among more than 50 legends and go up against 7 others. The fight happens on a chess leading group of eight squares by eight squares. With this, the tanks or if nothing else the tankier saints should be deliberately situated at the cutting edges. Run legends, regardless of whether toxophilite or mages are commonly great harm sellers yet come up short on the barrier esteems to endure a ton of harm. Thusly they ought to commonly be arranged at the back however not excessively a long ways behind the front liners so they can add to arrangement harm to the foe's cutting edge legends. With various saints that can cause AoE harm just as monstrous status impacts, you ought to likewise avoid lumping each one so near one another. Much the same as the Chinese precept which generally meant "Know thy foe, know thyself, and in each fight you will be triumphant", it is very pivotal to find out about the qualities and shortcomings of the considerable number of pieces. Chess Rush as of now sports an enormous list of more than 50 saints, you can find out about their capacities, class and race cooperative energies by essentially tapping the legends symbol at the lower left half of the principle menu, and you will have the whole library for you to process. He is Gurru and he is exceptionally adorable and "peaceful". All in all, what use would he be able to be to players? Well, he is exceptionally valuable as he acts like a trump card. You can utilize him to redesign legends. In the event that you have two indistinguishable legends and you can't locate the third one, yet you have Gurru, at that point you can utilize him as the third saint to update that character. Continuously recruit Gurru whenever you see him on the enlistment screen. Alongside developments, Chess Rush likewise prescribes different lineups. There're 8 Elf pieces altogether. The "blend" in this technique alludes to the way that it's anything but difficult to branch into different Combos. It's anything but difficult to the point that two of the Elf pieces would already be able to actuate Druid. Two others would already be able to give you 2 out of 3 pieces required for the Assassin Combo. The Moonlight Dragon can be your begin for having the Dragon Combo. The Unicorn Cavalier can be your begin for having the Rider Combo. The Stinger and Sword Dancer pieces are 2 out of 3 to pick up the Assassin Combo. The summoner's strategy is particularly viable on the off chance that you confronting adversaries with relatively few AOE units. To exceed expectations in this system, beside social event the proper pieces is that do you have Spellbane Staffs? The gear quickens the gathering as it adds extra mana to the summoners dependent on the harm they do. What's more, you need to organize equiping units like Werewolf and Nightowl. In case you're meaning to be the ace Summoner, you ought to likewise work in the 4-piece Beast reward, so as to amplify harm yield for all partners (counting your request). (Trolls) or Hunters is by all accounts an extraordinary thought at this moment. Chess Rush appears to have cleaned looks and great creation quality generally speaking, which isn't amazing thinking about the assets of Tencent. It is put intensely into the anime/manga-motivated cartoony visual style run of the mill of Asian titles. The primary disadvantage is that some unit plans begin to mix together particularly on high star levels. Basically each of the three-star units have bright sparkling molecule impacts. Joined with conspicuous spells, this makes the front line somewhat jumbled and difficult to understand: Above you can see the visual mess - spells, sparkling units, and stars. It's four groups of two all duking it out in exceptional, vital fight to be pronounced the best of the pack. There are more than 50 legends accessible at dispatch for you to pick and look over. Figuring a definitive group is the genuine test here, however you'll additionally need to choose when precisely to utilize every legend. On the off chance that you need to get strategic, consolidating three of a similar legend will trigger fondness rewards that enable them to take amazing, detail boosting things into the combat zone. Try not to stress, Chess Rush's Goblins are something very similar. There are a couple of new thoughts to a great extent. Enthusiasts of Dota Auto Chess' Beast units may appreciate a comparable class in Chess Rush. It can gather token Pet units and is called... Brute. There is additionally a Furry unit class. That is all I am going to state about that. Things are a thing in this game as well, and they work in a manner like things in Teamfight Tactics. Units can prepare various things each, and joining duplicates of a similar one makes a more grounded thing. With the Auto Chess showcase rapidly going to a point of sarutation, a game needs to do its best so as to stick out, and truly, what Chess Rush has is about on a par with it can get. Toward the day's end, how much time you spend on this game will rely upon the amount you like the Auto Chess classification all in all. Chess Rush doesn't do anything momentous, however it offers a fair option with its cleaned visuals and new game modes. The outcome is an a lot quicker paced experience that doesn't really settle on the ongoing interaction. It's precisely the same experience, simply quicker. So the majority of the procedures you've grown so far will at present work. At that point there's the center mode, Tencent's other commitment to the class. Once more, this is a flash of brilliance as Tencent comprehends that portable is a social stage. Portable gamers love playing with others - just take a look at any of the top diagrams and you'll see multiplayer titles like Clash Royale, PUBG Mobile, and Brawl Stars sitting at the top. It is frequently successful to have a semi-tanky unit to be put at the far back, this is to counter contradicting professional killers where they can hop over your cutting edge and go directly to the throat of your squishy DPS units. When confronting adversaries with AOE strat, it is likewise savvy to spread out your development. Along these lines, make sure to consistently focus on rivals' sheets, realize what they're up to and adjust appropriately. That is it for the time being yet make certain to return later, as we will be refreshing this guide with future Chess Rush updates and fixes. Created by the Chinese gaming mammoth, Tencent Games, Chess Rush versatile game effectively accumulated a monstrous number of players. On Google Play, it currently outperformed 14 thousand votes and stands at 3.8 stars. On the iTunes App Store, the game likewise has 3.8 stars and is #33 in Card sort, however being in a card type isn't exactly a precise method to retire this title. On the off chance that this is the first occasion when you are catching wind of it, Auto Chess kind jumped up in mid 2019 from a mod players made in DOTA 2. Fundamentally, the decision is to either spend it on a saint or spare it for later as better ones may end up accessible on the following round. It might appear as though the decision would rely upon the underlying arrangements of decisions spread out for you, yet then there are general principles to pursue to raise your odds of improving at some point or another inside the match. First of all, put your focus on a restricted assortment of legends that has combos because of their classes or races. Managing 400/550/700 enchantment harm to close-by adversaries inside 3 matrix and dazzling them for 1.4 second. Void Doom is astonishing warlock. Since When you send various voids, 2 voids abatements arbitrary's foes wellbeing by half. Additionally Deal genuine harm equivalent to 5-7-9 percent of their maximum wellbeing consistently. General Puffer Fires planes of water a 2 arbitrary foes and managing 150/225/300 harm and lessening objective's protective layer by 75/150/225 for 20 sec. Sword is helpful hero.If you have Level 1 sword artist then it work DECENT.

[renrumm]

all of the dnd asks :3c ♥

Alright, @elerryn, you asked for it! all 20 Qs under the cut (plus some shitty dice pics lmao)

1. How many dice do you have?

right, when I first got this ask, I had about 11 full sets? Now, I have around 23 sets and 8 odd dice!

2. When did you buy your first dice set?

In the beginning of 2017, right before my first in-person campaign started

3. What is your most recently bought dice?

Well, I bought a bulk load of pretty marbled dice in all different colours about a week ago, but I don’t have any good pics of the sets yet!

4. What is your favourite dice type?

I really like the translucent ones (like the rainbow set you got me or the Spirit of Dragon ones) 

5.  What is your best dice set?

I’m gonna go with “best” as meaning “highest consistently rolling”, so it has to be the black and white swirled set, but I haven’t tried my newer ones

6.  Do you have a lucky die?

I think that would be my baby d20 (i got a free mini set of dice with an order once, they’re adorable)

7.  Do you have an unlucky die?

I don’t think so! I’ve only ever been really unlucky using roll20.net lmao

8.  What does your dream dice set look like?

Ooooh, maybe transparent with swirls of purple, blue, and pink? Man, i wish i could make my own ahah

9.  If you could only ever have one dice set, what type would it be?

The cool ass rainbow ones you got me!

10.  What is you favourite online dice shop?

I shop a lot at Feore dice on eBay (I’m not bothered about brand-name dice like Chessex etc. so I use them a lot) and Crit It Guild on Etsy have some awesome ranges

11.  Have you ever rolled a natural 1? What happened?

Oh a TON of times- once our party was crossing between two towers above a drop that would have killed us twice over. My character was a stronk and muscular elf lady who weighed a fair amount, so I let everyone but the Goliath barbarian go across before me.

Unfortunately, the rope became weakened by the strain of the others crossing, and when i went to climb across it snapped and I plummeted down. I crit failed my dex saving throw to grab hold AND my con saving throw to stop myself from being knocked unconscious on the way down XD Thank god they thought to tie me onto the Goliath because that woulda been a shitty way for Ryllae to go lmao

12.  Who is your favorite dice/d&d blog?

@battlecrazed-axe-mage always posts awesome pics!

13.  Do you have a d&d character?

I have like 20 now lmao, my newest one is an orange tiefling lady- she’s a Gunslinging Airship Pirate, but she lost her memory in a crash that killed her crew- she has a bad reputation but doesn’t know it haha

14.  What inspired you to make your character?

I really wanted to play a Gunslinger (thanks to Not Another D&D Podcast and Critical Role). I was revamping an old Tief when I suddenly decided she would be wayyyy cooler with an afro and a captain’s hat

15.  What is your characters background story?

Callista was an infamous sky pirate with a loyal crew- until she got too big for her boots and picked a fight with the wrong rival captain. Her ship (and crew) was destroyed in the ensuing battle and Callista was left for dead. With no memory, no purpose, and nowhere to go, Callista wandered the world with only her gun, searching for another motley crew to join

16.  What is your favourite class?

I used to play only melee classes (like fighter) but I recently played a spell-caster for the first time and I loved the flexibility of my druid’s abilities both in and out of combat! I’d have to play more to work out my all-time fave, but any spell-slinging class is top of my list

17.  What is your favourite race?

That’s so hard- I have characters of all the vanilla races and some monstrous races because it’s so hard to pick one! It used to be elves (bcos pointy ears obvs) but now I’m not sure

18.  When did you start playing d&d?

Back in 2016/2017 my friends from college finally got into it and made Roll20 accounts!

19.  How often do you play d&d?

I play whenever the squad is back from Uni, now I run Monster of the Week sessions weekly on Roll20 to fill the void… I might have to start looking for local d&d groups or ones online soon, I really miss being a player instead of the DM

20.  Who do you play d&d with?

Friends from school on Roll20 and Discord, and I’m hoping to get a few friends who stayed in town instead of going to uni to join a game with me eventually

[burning-up-ao3]

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – With the Penguins out west and my partner, Jason Mackey, there with them eating In-And-Out burgers and working on his tan, I decided to head out to beautiful, sunny Wilkes-Barre to spend a couple of days with the AHL club. This was my first time in Wilkes-Barre, unless you count stopping for gas and a sandwich at Sheetz on my way to New England, where my wife is from. I can’t say I did much exploring, other than twice visiting the TGI Friday's next to my hotel. One night, some employees and a few patrons groaned as Flyers goalie Carter Hart got beaten for a goal. One bartender estimated the city has a 50/50 split between fans of the nearby Flyers and those who root for the Penguins and the prospects developed here. Driving to the rink on Coal Street for the first time, my GPS led me to a building that included a beauty school and an industrial supplies shop. As I walked in, I thought this was an odd place for an ice rink and was right. Thankfully, a hair stylist in training pointed me up the hill. The Baby Penguins have a nice little setup at their facility, branded the Toyota SportsPlex. My favorite part was the lobby plastered with pictures of prospects who made the NHL club. On one wall are the words: “The road to Pittsburgh starts at Coal Street.” I watched a couple of spirited, high-paced practices and chatted with coach Clark Donatelli and a handful of players for a couple of stories you hopefully will read in the coming weeks. Shoutout to PR maven Nick Hart for rolling out the red carpet. After making it into the postseason 16 years in a row, the Penguins, 40 games in, are on the fringes of the AHL playoff picture with a 19-16-5 record. Game-to-game consistency has been an issue for the minor-league club, too. They started 3-0, lost nine out of 11 games, went on a five-game winning streak during December then immediately dropped five of six. “We have some young guys on our back end that are grasping our concepts now, the way we want to play. I think the young guys are coming along great in the system. They’re working hard,” Donatelli said Wednesday. “So now we’re just trying to put some consistency together. … It comes down really to their effort, competing day in and day out, shift after shift.” Donatelli likes the way his team has performed in its past 10 games, despite going 4-5-1. It’s no coincidence that it coincided with goalie Tristan Jarry returning to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Probably the most talented player on the roster, Jarry has been better than his .910 save percentage and 2.77 goals against average suggest. With an inexperienced blue-line group and no elite prospects up front, the Penguins have hung Jarry out to dry on some nights. But the coaching staff is thrilled with his focus, consistency and his improved practice habits. “He’s been awesome,” center Teddy Blueger added. “We feel great with him in net, and I think he’s one of the best goalies in this league, for sure.” Photo via Matt Vensel, Post-Gazette Blueger is the team’s leading scorer and best all-around skater. Donatelli trusts him in every situation – key faceoffs, both special-teams units, late in the game winning or trailing. He has 17 goals and 31 points and is a plus-14 for a team that has a negative goal differential when he’s on the bench. Watching him practice, it’s clear he is currently a cut above the rest here. Ethan Prow, however, is the team’s only All-Star – and it’s hard to argue with his numbers. He was a healthy scratch at times last season but has taken advantage of openings on the depth chart. The 26-year-old defenseman, a right-handed shot, runs the power play and is a strong puck-mover on the back end. The late bloomer could be on an NHL roster next season. Given that the Penguins will be looking to deal a defenseman once Justin Schultz returns, we probably won’t see Prow in Pittsburgh for the playoff push. But Blueger could get a look if Derick Brassard gets dealt. Jean-Sebastien Dea is another option here, too. Big Jimmy Hayes, the veteran journeyman, probably is not given he is similar to Garrett Wilson. Speaking of Wilson, the AHL club definitely misses him. He had 18 points in 18 games and was slated to be the team’s captain this season. But NHL coach Mike Sullivan likes what he brings to his fourth line, so Wilson might not be back anytime soon. Donatelli and the Baby Penguins have not picked a new captain. Instead, they are getting leadership by committee. “He's our guy,” defenseman Kevin Czuczman said of Wilson. “He’s the one everyone looks up to and he’s our ace up front. It’s tough not having him, but we’re happy for him. He’s doing awesome up there. He still keeps in touch with the guys, so it’s like he’s still here.” The Penguins are back on the ice at Mohegan Sun Arena three of the next four days, giving them a chance to climb to firmer playoff footing. While this team obviously wants to extend its long streak of postseason appearances, Donatelli said the top priority here in Wilkes-Barre is developing prospects for Pittsburgh, whether they arrive this spring or two years from now. “Winning is part of that, and that’s a balancing act,” he said. “Sometimes, we have to put some of our young prospects in situations where they are going to fail, and that’s the only way those guys are going to learn. They have to bounce right back and get better at it.”

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10 Fantasy Thoughts: Is Cooper Kupp your 2021 fantasy saviour?

What a week for individual performances.Derrick Henry and Aaron Jones followed up lacklustre Week 1 performances to win plenty of matchups. Aaron Rodgers did what Aaron Rodgers does with a monster bounce-back performance. Austin Ekeler was used heavily in the passing game with nine catches on nine targets. Just like we all thought. Well, some of us. Week 1 overreactions are almost always followed by a market correction, so maybe keep the hot takes to a low whisper instead of shouting them out to the world. It’s very unbecoming. But hey, if people want to make it known that they think Robert Woods is washed or that Saquon Barkley suddenly became a bad running back, then be sure to seek them out and offer to take those “terrible” players off their hands. Do them that service, take that weight off them on this journey, almost like their Fantasy Sherpa. And then crush them. (All weekly rankings courtesy of Fantasy Data) 1. Cooper Kupp’s revelation I will be the first to say that I thought that the biggest benefactor of Matthew Stafford heading to Los Angeles this off-season would be Robert Woods. Through the first two weeks of the year, it’s becoming apparent that I might be just a little bit off. Kupp has been nothing short of brilliant in the first two weeks, compiling back-to-back top-10 weeks, including the top spot in this week’s finish. He has 21 targets which places him in a tie for fifth among wide receivers, 16 catches (tied for first) and 271 yards (third) with Stafford under centre and occupies a ridiculous 37.5 per cent target share. It feels like every time the Rams get possession that Kupp is going to get an opportunity to score because he constantly looks like he’s wide open. Sean McVay is also unleashing Kupp out wide as opposed to the slot where he’s primarily been deployed from since his rookie year. That percentage of slot snaps has dropped from 73 per cent in his sophomore year in 2018 to 44 per cent through the first two games of 2021. Alpha wide receivers don’t play out of the slot and it seems as though the Rams have found their alpha receiver. Kupp is going to have an off game here and there and I expect Woods is going eat a bit more into Kupp’s target share, but make no mistake about it, Kupp is going to have a monster year. 2. Derek Carr, the unlikely addition to the QB1 group Steady. Decent floor. Capped ceiling. Great second quarterback. Those have been terms used to describe Derek Carr’s fantasy relevance since coming into the league, but we might be seeing him turn a corner and maybe, just maybe, he’s actually as good as we’ve seen in the first two weeks. It’s certainly early in the schedule, but it’s not like Carr has been up against cupcake defences to start. Baltimore’s D has playmakers and the Steelers basically shut down the Bills’ aerial attack in Week 1. He currently leads the league with 817 passing yards and has four touchdowns to one interception, while occupying the QB8 spot. With the Dolphins on the docket next, it looks like another matchup that Carr can exploit, especially considering that this Raiders offence looks like it has some pretty good pass catchers outside of Darren Waller. Henry Ruggs appears ready to take the next step forward after not living up to the rookie hype of being a high first-round pick last year. Hunter Renfrow is a reliable slot receiver and Bryan Edwards has all the tools to become a good receiver at this level. All this while the running game hasn’t been too great and Josh Jacobs is dealing with an injury. Carr is going to have to be on top of his game in the coming weeks as he gets the Chargers, Bears, Broncos and Eagles in the four games following Week 3's Dolphins game. By then, we should have an accurate assessment of where Derek Carr fits into the QB1 conversation. Something tells me that this is for real. 3. The Mike Williams we’ve been waiting for He’s had a 1,000-yard season and a 10-touchdown season, but both did not occur at the same time. We’ve been drawn in by his tantalizing talent and incredible ability go make absurd leaping catches, but we’ve never seen the consistency that warrants a regular spot in your lineup. Enter new Chargers offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, formerly of the New Orleans Saints, with Williams in a contract year and you've got a recipe for success. Lombardi talked up Williams in the off-season and is using him like he used Michael Thomas with the Saints. Justin Herbert even talked about his skill set and also wanting him to get the ball more. We’re now seeing the fruits of these discussions. Williams is currently the WR5 (tied with Amari Cooper) and has 22 targets in the first two games, parlaying those into 15 catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns. That’s the good stuff right there. I, for one, have been a big proponent of Williams ever since he was drafted out of Clemson and I’ve drafted him basically every year he has been in the league, so this one feels good. 4. Brandin Cooks = Automatic Cooks may be the most underappreciated fantasy player that we’ve seen in a long time. All he does is get the job done and his ADP almost never reflects his production at the end of the year. Last season, Cooks was the WR17 in 15 games with 81 catches for 1,150 yards and six touchdowns on only 119 targets. In five of seven seasons (including his rookie year where he only played 10 games), he has accumulated at least 65 catches, 1,082 yards and five touchdowns. It’s a pretty impressive resume that probably doesn’t get enough credit, especially in fantasy. The question now becomes, can Cooks still thrive with Davis Mills as the quarterback in Houston following the hamstring injury to Tyrod Taylor. What we know is that there isn’t a lot of competition for targets and that Houston is going to have to throw a lot in order to stay in games, so I will bet on Cooks getting plenty of looks and still manage to be in the WR2 or WR3 conversation going forward. 5. Teddy Bridgewater, the Wild (AFC) West’s newest gunslinger In a division that includes Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert and Derek Carr, Denver needed to being to have success through the air to stand a chance to stay alive in the AFC West arms race. Teddy Two Gloves was always perceived to be a dink and dunk type quarterback as evidenced by his Air Yards Per Target last season which had him near the bottom of the league for starting quarterbacks. Something has changed. It could be the poor competition faced so far as the Broncos took on the Giants and Jaguars, or it could be that Bridgewater has finally been unleashed. Through the first two weeks, he sits fourth in Intended Air Yards behind Trevor Lawrence, Derek Carr and Tom Brady and fifth in Completed Air Yards behind Brady, Carr, Daniel Jones and Justin Herbert. What we can deduce is that Teddy is slinging it early on. The Broncos offence has been very good through the first two games and gets a peach matchup against the awful Jets in Week 3. Teddy Bridgewater has become quite the fantasy asset in Denver with a plethora of weapons at his disposal and if they continue to let him sling it, we could really see him stay in the conversation as an every week starter and a back-end QB1 by the time the season is done. 6. The Cowboys RB timeshare…really? One of the Cowboys running backs is RB12 and the other one is RB26. My guess is that you’ve figured out that Pollard is the RB12 and Elliott is the RB26. Yes, the above statement is accurate. “It has to be because Pollard is making the most of limited opportunities though, right?” Incorrect! Pollard has 23 touches compared to Elliott’s 31, so yes, Pollard is making the most of his opportunities (7.7 yards per carry and seven catches on seven targets), but the workload is a lot closer than it has been in years past. Elliott just doesn’t look like nearly the same player that we saw two years ago and looks more like the player that we saw last year. So maybe this is just what he is at this point in his career. On the other hand, Pollard looks great seemingly every time he touches the ball. You’re going to start Elliott every week, but now you’re going to have to start Pollard every week until we are given a reason not to. The thought process is that the workload going forward is going to look very similar to what it is now, but there’s also a chance that if Zeke doesn’t perform that we could see Pollard get even more looks as the season progresses. 7. The Patriots backs are relevant again The best thing that happened to the Patriots running backs was to get rid of Cam Newton as the team’s signal caller and bring in a less athletic, more accurate passer in Mac Jones. That much has been evident over the first two weeks of the season. Damien Harris has taken over as the lead dog in that backfield and established that he’s going to be the guy to get the bulk of the carries. We’ve also established that James White is back after a tumultuous season last year where he dealt with great personal loss and injury. There is a very good chance with Jones at the helm that both Harris and White finish as top-30 running backs. Harris because of his workload and usage in the red zone looks like a virtual lock. For White, it comes down to how much usage he’s going to get in the passing game. With 13 targets (18 per cent target share) through two games, he’s on pace for 110 targets and if that holds up, he should be a great return on value, especially considering he was way down everyone’s draft board before the season started. The Patriots look like they’re back to being the Patriots we had seen for so many years prior, except for, you know, that Brady character. 8. Is the Vikings duo of receivers now a trio? It’s early in the season, we are all aware of that, but some times, some things happen that make you raise an eyebrow. There was obvious hype surrounding Justin Jefferson after his incredible rookie season and even though plenty of people were down on Adam Thielen, he certainly didn’t become a bad receiver overnight. But nobody expected what we’ve seen out of the third member of what might now be a trio of good receivers. KJ Osborn has been a revelation early on in the season for Minnesota, currently sitting at WR19 with 12 catches, 167 yards and a touchdown on 15 targets (18.5 per cent target share) and has been a great complement to the two great receivers ahead of him. The likelihood of this production is due to the injury of Irv Smith Jr., the lack of talent at the tight end position and Thielen and Jefferson drawing top coverages. Jefferson and Thielen are going to get theirs, but Osborn is worth an add in deeper leagues, especially because we have to think that the Vikings are going to be throwing the ball a lot this season. If Jefferson and Thielen go down with injury, Osborn is an easy WR3 play but could even pay dividends as a high-risk, high-reward flex play with those two in the lineup. 9. Patience is a virtue with Hollywood Brown There’s a very good chance that we overlooked Brown’s finish to last season where he was the WR13 from Week 12-17. Yes, he did have five touchdowns in that span and yes we know that is a fluke stat, but you know what, he’s been a touchdown machine since Week 5 of last year. In that stretch of 14 games he has 10 touchdowns, so he could just be on a hot stretch, but it’s worth noting. Through two games this year, Brown is the WR8 with 182 receiving yards, two touchdowns on 16 targets and looks like he’s becoming a lock for your lineups every week. We know that some receivers take some time to adjust to the NFL game and Brown is probably that guy. It also helps that he’s becoming a focal point of the passing game (28 per cent target share) while rookie Rashod Bateman is on the sidelines and Mark Andrews has scuffled a bit out of the gate (eight catches for 77 yards) because this Ravens team is still going to need to have some success in the passing game to make a run in the AFC. Hollywood has arrived. 10. The Weekly “Mike Tolbert Vulture Awards” Ricky Seals-Jones This is one of those rare occasions where a player vultures a touchdown and it was on a great play. Seals-Jones made the most of his lone catch, going for 19 yards and a touchdown but making a great grab in the corner of the end zone on a pass from Taylor Heinicke. I’m sure Logan Thomas managers were thrilled by this. Andy Janovich The Browns fullback not only vultured a rushing touchdown from both Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, but he also outscored Clyde Edwards-Helaire, James Conner, Nyheim Hines and was decimal points behind Jonathan Taylor, Alvin Kamara and Miles Sanders. Janovich’s two carries resulted in zero yards and a touchdown. Can’t make this stuff up. Jauan Jennings Jennings is outscoring Brandon Aiyuk in fantasy scoring just like you all predicted. He had two catches for 17 yards and a score in the Niners win over the Eagles and followed up the San Francisco train of touchdown vultures after they doubled up on the award last week thanks to Trey Lance and Trent Sherfield. Darrell Williams This one was easily my favourite vulture line of the week. Williams was a pre-season sleeper to take away work from Clyde Edwards-Helaire (and even outscored him this week), but you’re not going to get very far with his line of three carries for -2 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 0.7 yards per carry and still outscored the RB1 on his team. I love fantasy football. Read the full article

[your-dietician]

2021 NBA Draft Prospect Profiles: James Bouknight

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/nba/2021-nba-draft-prospect-profiles-james-bouknight/

2021 NBA Draft Prospect Profiles: James Bouknight

Over the next month, GBB will be profiling various players the Memphis Grizzlies may target in the 2021 NBA Draft. This year we will be breaking it up in to three sections – five to likely trade up for, five potentially available right around pick #17 where Memphis is slotted to pick, and five that surely will be there or perhaps the Grizzlies could even trade back and still select.

Next in our trade-up draft targets is the “Brooklyn Dodger” James Bouknight from the University of Connecticut.

James Bouknight, Guard, UCONN

6’5”, 190 lbs (6’8.25” wingspan), 20 years old from Brooklyn, New York

Two seasons at UCONN: 27.9 minutes per game, 15 points per game, 46 FG% (32% from three, 80% from the line), 4,7 rebounds per game, 1.4 assists per game, 0.9 steals, 0.2 blocks

ADVANCED STATS OF STRENGTH (per Tankathon) : Usage rate (31.6%)

ADVANCED STATS TO IMPROVE: Ast/TO ratio (0.64), Ast%/Usage (.41), Off Rating (108.7), Effective field goal% (49.8%), True Shooting % (54.6%)

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES: 2020-21 First Team All Big East, 2019-20 Third Team All-AAC, 2020 AAC All-Freshman Team

CURRENT BIG BOARD PLACEMENTS: 13th overall (Tankathon), 21st overall (Ringer), 8th overall (ESPN), 8th overall (CBS Sports), 9th overall (The Athletic)

The Memphis Grizzlies are coming off an injury-riddled second season of a rebuild that saw them exceed expectations by winning the NBA play-in and making the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2017. As great as the playoff performances were from the likes of Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks, it was not enough to outlast Donovan Mitchell and the plethora of shooters that supplied the Utah Jazz’s offensive fire power. As deep as the Grizzlies were from a talent and productivity stand point last season, the Jazz series highlighted one thing that the Grizzlies need moving forward: someone not named Ja Morant who can consistently put the ball in the hoop. James Bouknight can be that guy — at a cost. As draft season started, Bouknight looked like a potential steal for teams in the 10-20 range, but now he is rising rapidly up NBA Draft boards as he flashes his potential to be a star in the league.

Bouknight will not be there at pick #17. Honestly, he probably won’t make it past the 8th overall pick. That being said, if the Grizzlies become enamored with the prospect being compared to Donovan Mitchell and long-desired trade target Zach LaVine, I won’t blame them for trying to make a move up into the lottery. Bouknight is not an analytical darling by any means but checks a lot of boxes in the Grizzlies formula that Shawn Coleman highlighted last season.

What He Does Well

IndyStar-USA TODAY Sports

A key element of this current era of Grizzlies basketball has been getting more explosive and modern compared to the “Grit ‘n’ Grind” Grizzlies of years’ past. They don’t get much more explosive than Bouknight in this year’s draft, and much to the Grizzlies blueprint, it translates to both ends.

James Bouknight sent the nets to Hell today in a tough OT loss to #9 Creighton.

Bouk scored 40 Points on 13/24 shooting in his 1st game of the season not seeing zone defense. Scored w/ ease on all levels.

Rare you see a player w/ elite athleticism have such patience & control. pic.twitter.com/rgKWwCay3r

— In Due Time (@League_Him) December 20, 2020

Offensively, there’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said. Bouknight is one of those guys that every team wants — an aggressive three-level scorer who can not only make shots, but create the separation to create his own as well. Similar to Mitchell and LaVine, he uses an explosive first step to get to the rim for acrobatic layups and highlight reel dunks. In the same mold of Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant and many other young guards, he is a patient ball handler who can draw fouls with deceptive moves as well as use hesitations and step backs to create space and get to their spots and get their shots off. As his highlight reel above shows, he’s comfortable playing off the ball cutting to the rim as a lob threat.

Defensively, Bouknight has all of the tools to be a more than capable defender at the NBA level. He took a leap on that end his sophomore season, impacting the game by using his athleticism to jump into passing lanes and flash at driving opponents using his wingspan and quick hands to strip opposing ball handlers. As is the case with every young guard, there’s room for improvement — especially in on-ball, point of attack situations — but the established floor is already really good for a 20 year old.

An underrated aspect of his game that ticks another box for the Memphis Grizzlies’ draft formula is Bouknight’s instincts on the glass. While Bouknight may be the smallest of the top-5 shooting guards in the 2021 class, he leads the group in rebounding, averaging 6.4 rebounds per game. This ability only increases his value on both ends and the likelihood of him being a draft night target for Memphis in a trade up situation.

If his play from college translates, he has the chance to be a star in this league that is more than serviceable on the defensive end of the floor thanks to his athleticism.

Where He Can Improve

David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

There are two things that analytics will point to for James Bouknight to improve as he moves to the next level. One is his shot making from deep — as he only shot 32% from three over the course of two seasons at UCONN — and his playmaking. Bouknight, in a self-aware answer during the NBA Draft combine, acknowledged that his role as the “go-to guy” in college could lead to “ill advised” and “tough” shots but also stated his three-point shooting is “underrated.”

UConn’s James Bouknight put on an absolutely incredible shooting display at his NBA Combine Pro Day workout today. Shot the cover off the ball, showing phenomenal footwork, touch and body control. pic.twitter.com/XzHdjwLpRK

— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 26, 2021

As shown above, James Bouknight put on a shooting display at the NBA Combine Pro Day. This shooting capability may become more of the norm at an NBA level, with the offense less centered around him and his ability to create space.

The college numbers say one thing about his shooting ability but as Elite Media Group’s Reese Holliday points out, his ability to shoot 80% from the free throw line over two college seasons shows the potential to improve into being an efficient three-level scorer on the NBA level.

In college, Bouknight was “the guy,” as all eyes were on him to make plays for offense — which could lead to over dribbling and tunnel vision, a problem a lot of young guards have in similar situations. This is something that can be worked on at the next level. With an improved supporting cast, it is a lot easier to pass out of situations instead of forcing bad shots and turning the ball over.

The Fit

There’s been a lot of discussion about the Grizzlies consolidating at the shooting guard and small forward positions moving into next season. The pipe dream of these scenarios have been Bradley Beal and Zach LaVine. With Bouknight, the Grizzlies could potentially consolidate at a smaller sell than what would be required for the established All-Stars and members of Team USA.

With the addition of Bouknight, there’s a lifted pressure for everyone. Ja Morant has a new lob threat in the starting lineup who isn’t afraid to takeover if he has to. The scoring load for Dillon Brooks lightens, allowing more catch-and-shoot opportunities as the 3rd or 4th option in most lineups. Jaren Jackson Jr. has someone else on the perimeter drawing attention away from him. Bouknight would also add a capable perimeter defender to whoever remains from the trade that would have to happen to get him in Beale Street Blue. Taylor Jenkins would have another two-way asset that can be deployed in a variety of ways in small ball lineups due to Bouknight’s versatility as a defender.

This would be a win for everyone involved.

The Verdict

Photo by Porter Binks

The Grizzlies lucked out twice last year thanks to teams using age as a negative and opting for one and done’s over more experienced players. This will not be the case for the second year guard out of UCONN as his rise up big boards has nearly locked him within the top ten.

The tools he possesses on both ends are too valuable for him to slide far, regardless of him being “older” than the one-and-done prospects in this year’s draft. If the Memphis Grizzlies want to pair Bouknight with Ja Morant, it’s going to cost them something, but the front office moves over the last few years have prepared them for a scenario like this. And if they become the team many think they can become, the picks will lose their value after so long anyway, so strike while the iron is hot and go get a guy that fits the newly established standard here in Memphis and can fill it up as a member of the young core for years to come.

Will it happen though? Only time will tell.

James Bouknight will most likely fall in the 4-8 range on Draft night. The more he falls the more the Grizzlies should entertain trading up to pair him up with a young core fresh off a playoff run.

For more Grizzlies talk, subscribe to the Grizzly Bear Blues podcast network on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and IHeart. Follow Grizzly Bear Blues on Twitter and Instagram.

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[mstonecollins]

A tribute to my Father

My Father passed away on Father’s Day, 4 weeks ago today.  on Friday June 22, I delivered a Eulogy at his funeral. It was the hardest public thing I’ve ever done--and I thought I would share it today in his honor.

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I’m honored to stand before you today to celebrate the life of my Father.  I promise to do my best, but I’ll ask your forgiveness in advance if I am unable to complete today’s mission.  

There are many “naming” associations in life I am proud of…Kim’s Husband; Lauren’s Father; John Junior’s Brother; Douglas and Rachel’s Uncle.   Family is truly all that matters in this life.  The greatest of these—and where it all started—is being known as John’s Son.

As some of you know I retired last December after more than 30 years in business.  Over the course of my career I was fortunate enough to rise to a position of responsibility beyond anything I’d ever imagined—one of the top 100+ executives of a Fortune 10 Global Company with more than 250,000 employees.

Any success I enjoyed in the business world started with the foundation my Father instilled in me -- leadership principles I utilized over these past 30+ years.   Absent his coaching and development, it simply wouldn’t have happened.  As a tribute to him, I’d like to share three of them with you today as a testament to the kind of Father, Leader, Husband, and Friend he was over the course of his 90 years on earth.

HUMILITY

According to Jim Collins-not my Uncle Jim, but a world-renowned professor at Stanford University, author of best-selling leadership books like “Good to Great” and “Built to Last”, the difference between a very good leader and a world class executive can be distilled down to the existence of a single trait:  Humility.  He explains it like this:  In the sports world, head coaches that personify these humble leaders credit the talent of their players when the team wins championships.  When the team loses, they shoulder the blame, and take the responsibility for providing the team with the necessary preparation or game plan that would allow them to be successful.

This principle is critical to get groups of people to work together for a common goal.  Whether people admit or not, human beings enjoy being recognized for their hard work and their role in achieving a goal. Leaders that attempt to take credit for their team’s success don’t have successful teams or talented players very long.  

As my brother can attest, Pop demanded humility from his boys during our formative years. No self-aggrandizing behaviors were tolerated in any way, shape or form!  Any inkling of hot-dogging, trash talking, bragging, or basking in the limelight on the basketball court or baseball field would be met afterward with a stern-and I mean stern! rebuke.  He knew what our young minds could not comprehend—business and life are team sports. You’ll rise and fall based on the capabilities of the people you surround yourself with. Be a good teammate-someone that values the individuals of the team and the overall team above yourself—and you can put yourself in a position to have the privilege to lead others, and be surrounded by great people that can lift you up.

SETTING EXPECTATIONS

Successful leaders set clear-and high expectations for performance.   If you don’t know what is expected of you, what are you supposed to do?  Show me a team or company that doesn’t have clear performance expectations, and I will show you a losing team or failing company. And, of course, expectations are pretty meaningless if you don’t put in the hard work it takes to achieve them. Perhaps Pop’s favorite mantras were “the harder I work, the luckier I get” and “Luck is when preparation meets Opportunity”.   I heard these words hundreds of times from him.

Pop set very clear and very high expectations for performance, whether it was work in the yard, personal behavior, academics, or athletics. I must confess that early on, I could get discouraged with his feedback.  No matter how many points I scored, games we won, or courses I succeeded in at school, he had the annoying ability to find something that I could improve upon.  He was never satisfied-or at least I didn’t think he was.  

At the time, I didn’t realize or appreciate the value of the gift he was giving me.  First, he was instilling the principle that all good leaders know well—people can always do more than they think they can. Left alone, as human beings we typically are content to reside within the confines of our comfort zones. Great leaders push us out of them-and get us to do more.  Second, expect the best from yourself, and then you can expect the best from everyone you work with.  Finally, it instilled self-confidence in me that I would need in the future to be successful.  My wife Kim would likely tell you that he outdid himself on that one!  In all seriousness, when he pushed me to do more—after I got over my anger and frustration and actually tried, I usually found success.  I gained confidence in knowing I could do more-and believed in myself, no longer needing a push from him. Over the course of my career, not once did I have a leader of mine have to ask me to do more.  I was trained by my Dad to set high expectations for myself and my teams, and more often than not, we out-distanced our internal and external competitors as a result.

Later in life, after he was satisfied that he’d done all he could do to shape me, he was always quick to let me know how proud he was of me…giving me reinforcement in my darkest hours, giving me the support and confidence I needed to keep moving forward.  Many Father’s Days over the last 15 years I would write him a simple note or tell him in a conversation—based on his leadership and the expectations that he set for me, that anything I did right in my life, he should take credit for; correspondingly, anything I did wrong he should be absolved from.  I knew what “right” was supposed to look like, which leads me to my final principle.

DEMONSTRATING THE DESIRED BEHAVIOR

People listen to what you say, but they watch what you do.

I’m sure you’ve heard this over the course of your life.  It means that people believe in you based on what they actually see you do.  Words, as we know, are just that.  But deeds matter.

I used to tell people that worked with me that when you’re in a position of leadership, what you do is on display 7x24x  365.  It’s a simple concept-they’re always watching you, whether you realize it or not.  What you actually do is far more impactful than what you say.  When faced with a crisis, do you remain calm or lose your cool?  Do you support people when they need time for a family member, or only when it is convenient for you?  When things go bad, do you take responsibility, or blame others?  When you are faced with illegal, immoral, or unethical behavior, do you join in, cover it up, or do the right thing?  When no one is looking, are you working hard or goofing off?  Can you be trusted to finish the job to the highest level even if no one stops by to inspect your work?

No man is perfect, but my Father consistently demonstrated the desired behaviors to me over the course of his 90 years on earth. Simple things he did spoke volumes—like the dedication he had to the company where he worked for more than 35 years, getting up every day and working hard-never complaining.  Not a single time-not once-did I ever hear him complain about his customers or co-workers.  Turning down job and career growth opportunities to keep his family centered in a place he knew was a good place to live and raise his sons.   Showing up for every single game of my high school basketball career, and hundreds of other sporting events over the course of my life growing up here in Clemmons.  Caring for our neighbor’s yard – the missionary daughter of the original property owners--for more than 20 years, never asking for anything in return. Offering support and assistance to another neighbor who tragically lost her husband with three small children; riding bicycles with the youngest child that lost her Father too young.  Being faithful to my Mother, and God, and the Churches that mattered to him – the Francisco Presbyterian Church, and the Clemmons United Methodist Church. Honoring my Mother with his presence at her bedside every day for the last two and half years of her life, navigating his way with the help of friends and his caretaker – and, as he referred to her, his “adopted daughter”—Bebee as he was unable to drive himself due to his vision challenges.  

In his later years, after my Mom died, in our conversations he’d often wonder why he was still here.   He knew his body was failing him, and he worried he was only a burden to those he loved. He’d then rebound and cheer himself up, thinking of all of his friends in the community, specifically the Clemmons Kitchen.  If he couldn’t do anything else, he thought God wanted him to show kindness to others, especially those who needed it most.  Based on how many people tell me “I love Mr. John”, I know he succeeded in what he thought God wanted him to do.   What I want you all to know is that he got more out of that than he gave, and he considered it a privilege to be able to give of himself to others.

A TRIBUTE

I’ll end with an anonymous writing that my Cost Accounting Professor at Duke provided to me back in the fall of 1993. As you can imagine, it must be pretty good if it was a Cost Accounting Professor-CJ Skender, a great guy -- not exactly my favorite subject-and it still resonates with me 25 years later.  I’ve often thought if Pop had written down his expectations, this might have articulated them.  More importantly, though, in my view, it’s what he actually did.  It’s titled “Live Each Day”.  It’s my tribute to him and my gift to all of you.

Live each day to the fullest.  Get the most from each hour, each day, and each age of your life.  Then you can look forward with confidence, and back without regrets.

Be yourself – but be your best self.  Dare to be different and follow your own star. Don’t be afraid to be happy. Enjoy what is beautiful.  Love with all your heart and soul.  Believe that those you love, love you.

Forget what you have done for your friends, and remember what they have done for you.  Disregard what the world owes you, and concentrate on what you owe the world. When faced with a decision, make that decision as wisely as possible – then forget it.  The moment of absolute certainty never arrives.

Above all, remember that God helps those who help themselves.  Act as if everything depended upon you, and pray as if everything depended on God.

Thank you, Pop for everything you’ve done for me. I wouldn’t be the man I am today without you.  I love you and will miss you more than I can say.

[closetofanxiety]

Show Review: Ring of Honor/NJPW “War of the Worlds” Night One

Lowell, Massachusetts: The Flowering City! Kerouac Town! Home to the second-largest population of Cambodians in the United States, and more abandoned textile mills than you can shake a stick at! 

Let’s see how this momentous clash of companies shook out:

What: Ring of Honor/NJPW “War of the Worlds” Tour, Night One

Where: Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, Massachusetts

When: Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Who: I’ve seen crowd counts that put attendance between 1,200 and 1,500, and that sounds right to me. If it wasn’t a sellout, it was close. The place was packed to the rafters, and fully two-thirds of the people in attendance were wearing Bullet Club t-shirts. I went there after visiting multiple notable graves (one haunted), an abandoned mill turned into a kind of weirdo shopping mall, an abandoned mill turned into a national historic site, and a park named after Jack Kerouac where drunks were sleeping on the ground at 4 p.m., which is pretty appropriate when you consider that Kerouac drank himself to death.

Dark Match: Brad Hollister and Justin “Hammer” Tunis vs. The Dawgs

Hollister and Tunis are locals; I have seen them many times. Nice to see them getting a dark match. The Dawgs are new to me. I guess it’s Rhett Titus and Will Ferrara. Did you ever collect baseball cards? You know how the cards for all the bench players were grouped under the pejorative rubric “commons,” as in, “That pack of cards I bought was a bust, nothing but commons”? I kind of thing of Rhett Titus as a good example of that in wrestling. Not bad, not sensational, does the job he needs to do, but doesn’t really linger in the memory. This was a totally conventional tag team wrestling match. The crowd stirred briefly, after Hollister delivered a picture-perfect suplex. The Dawgs won. The cosmic wheel turns on.

Rating: Two Kerouacs.

The Briscoe Brothers vs. Jushin Thunder Liger and Flip Gordon

I haven’t been following ROH, but I guess the Briscoes are heels right now? They were lustily booed. Jay looked fantastic with his hair all matted and long and some kind of necklace of primitive fetishes around his neck. He looked like a chiseled, angry Dr. John who instead of learning to play the piano started a voodoo-based crime syndicate. I forget how much I like the Briscoes, but they are among my favorites. Holy cow, Flip Gordon is over with this crowd. Huge pop and “Flip! Flip! Flip!” chants. Liger, obviously, also gets a huge ovation. This match is entirely about Flip befuddling the enraged Briscoe cavemen with his arsenal of acrobatic dodges and counters. Liger comes in as a hot tag, but doesn’t really do anything spectacular. He doesn’t have to, my God, he’s Jushin Liger. He’s earned his elder statesman tag team apron-dweller spot. This match was a lot of fun. Not a sprint, but a condensed version of classic tag team wrestling, with some distinctive flourishes. The Briscoes wrestled like heels, denying the crowd anything spectacular (their post-tag tandem offense basically consisted of Mark holding Flip while Jay kicked him repeatedly) until the finish. I don’t know how to describe it, but it looked to be like a Razor’s Edge off the top into a cutter. It was nuts. Flip took the pin. I should note here that I had a terrible seat and couldn’t see three quarters of the ring, so I stood up against the back wall for most of the night. 

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs.

Deonna Purrazzo and Skylar vs Tennille Dashwood and Sumie Sakai

I want you to notice something here, something that would prove to be the theme of the evening: tag team wrestling. Our third match, and third tag team match, was a Women of Honor showcase for four babyfaces, which is always something of a heat vacuum. The crowd likes all these women. It was Skylar’s ROH debut; about two years ago, I was there when she had her first-ever wrestling match. It’s crazy to think how much progress she’s made. She’s still a little green, though, and the other three are obviously a category above her at the moment. Not much of a story here beyond Deonna occasionally walking up to the brink of being a heel, although I don’t know if that’s deliberate or if that’s just part of our bleak, nihilistic world now. The jury’s still out on whether Tennille is another example of WWE totally missing the boat on someone; she’s good in the ring, she has undeniable charisma, but she hasn’t developed a character beyond Person Who Wrestles And Occasionally Shouts “It’s All About Me.” When you think about it, this was kind of her problem in the WWE. She pins Skylar. After the match, Kelly Klein runs out to beat on Purrazzo and the two of them have a pull-apart. I noticed that Northeast Wrestling tag team stalwarts Adrenaline Rush were among the black-shirted security guards. Lots of familiar faces tonight!

Rating: Two and a half Kerouacs.

At this point, Dalton Castle comes out. He’s billed for a title defense against Matt Taven. There’s a brief “Rusev Day” chant for some reason, which, smdh. A segment of this crowd also chanted “You can’t wrestle” at Brandi Rhodes when she walked out before the show. I’m not sure how to characterize the ROH audience. There are too many of them to just be the indie wrestling diehards, but there are no casual fans among them either. It’s a weird group. 

Anyway, Castle cuts a meandering promo saying that he’s injured and can’t wrestle, although he’s not vacating the title. Matt Taven’s mom stands up and boos the shit out of him at this point, and good for her. Castle says he’s going to treat us to brunch instead. It’s past 8 p.m., but that’s probably still brunchtime in parts of Brooklyn. The Boys come out and throw croissants to the crowd. You call this brunch? Not even a damn mimosa?

The Kingdom vs. Coast to Coast

Matt Taven comes out with fellow Kingdomites TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia and cuts a promo calling Dalton Castle “a babyback bitch.” Taven’s grandfather, a dignified elder gentleman with a walker and an oxygen tank, is at ringside. I wonder what he thinks of hearing his grandson use that language. Maybe he taught it to Taven. Maybe he thought, “I’ve never been more proud. Especially because Dalton Castle is truly a babyback bitch.” 

Has any wrestling faction had a stranger evolution than The Kingdom? Remember when it was Matt Hardy, Adam Cole, Michael Bennett, and Maria Kanellis? And then Hardy left, and Taven joined, and they would do the Four Horsemen hand gesture? And now it’s Taven and Taven’s Friends? Don’t get me wrong, I like TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia fine, it’s just they’re not exactly Matt Hardy and Adam Cole. 

But they are here tonight, and they are wrestling, and so far we are 4 for 4 on tag team matches. I don’t know who Coast to Coast are. They are, like Rhett Titus, the wrestling equivalent of commons, at least to me. This match is fine. There are some shenanigans when Horror Man Marseglia pulls Coast to Coast and the referee under the ring and some red balloons come out, a la “It.” But then the guys just get out and run back into the ring. Commit to this gimmick, ROH: have them be bloody, mangled corpses (I mean, kayfabe-wise). 

The Kingdom lose this match due to interference from SoCal Uncensored, and so we have a six-man tag match later tonight, because of course we do.

Rating: Two Kerouacs.

Bully Ray vs. Cheeseburger

BULLY RAY IS BACK IN ACTION IN LOWELL! That’s WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray to you, pal. His entrance video keeps flashing the words “Hell’s Kitchen,” but he grew up in Queens. Why not claim Queens, Bully Ray? Hell’s Kitchen these days is not exactly a terrifying place; it’s full of Wall Street finance industry dickheads. It’s not even Hell’s Kitchen anymore, they call it “Clinton” now. O for the days when the Irish mob would shoot out your kneecaps on West 44th Street! 

This is a squash, with Bully Ray delivering an uncontested succession of power bombs to Cheeseburger, much to the displeasure of the crowd. Bully Ray leaves the ring to glare menacingly at some fans - THAT’S HOW THEY DO IT IN HELL’S KITCHEN, ER, CLINTON - and is counted out. Cheeseburger wins! Unfortunately, this means more power bombs.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, this would be the only singles match of the night.

Rating: N/A

Roppongi 3K vs. Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, and Cody Rhodes

Ring of Honor is really hot right now, maybe the hottest it’s ever been. They just had their largest show ever in New Orleans, and they’re comfortably drawing 1,000+ houses every night. It feels weird, though, like it’s borrowed glamour. It’s all from the Bullet Club/New Japan stuff, and although I realize there’s overlap, it doesn’t feel like a lot of the excitement is Ring of Honor excitement. The ROH stalwarts, guys like the Briscoes and Jay Lethal, feel like afterthoughts right now, as angles are booked around plot twists in “Being the Elite” and buildings are full of fans in New Japan shirts. 

Still, the fervor is undeniable, and the roof practically lifts off the place for the Bullet Club Threesome, although there is definitely a smattering of “You suck!” judgments hurled at Cody. 

This is basically like an NBA All-Star Game; no one is playing defense, no one is really taking it seriously, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. It doesn’t mean anything and no one is going to be talking about this match in 10 years or 5 years or even two weeks, but at the moment, for the day that’s in it, it’s fine. Everyone does his thing, Roppongi 3K get a lot of offense in, “Being the Elite” plotlines are advanced when Marty accidentally kicks that guy in the bear costume and gets berated by Cody. 

Bullet Club win, because that’s what the crowd came to see. Too sweet! Woop woop! Too sweet! Woop woop!

Incidentally, I’m reading the book “The People Who Eat Darkness,” which centers on the disappearance of a woman who was a nightclub host in Roppongi, so suddenly Rocky Romero’s team name seems sinister to me.

Rating: Three Kerouacs.

INTERMISSION

Before the show, there was a meet and greet session. We waited in a big long line inside the venue and people got really excited when first Naito, and then the Bullet Club, walked by to get to their tables. Lots of too-sweeting. Less excitement for Daniels and Kazarian, who weren’t part of the official meet and greet but who brought their own table to sell things. That’s how you do business, folks. Always bring your own table to shows, so you don’t have to put up with ROH’s red tape.

In order to get your picture taken, you had to buy a ticket, like when you go to a carnival or fair or something, and then present that ticket to the wrestler, who I guess would hand them all in at the end of the night in exchange for money. I was near the front of the line, so I bought a ticket for Naito. It worked out really well. I assumed the line for his table would be way too long, but because of Sinclair Broadcasting’s ruthless bureaucratic efficiency, I got to meet Mr. Tranquilo. 

Also, I want to doff my cap to whoever programs the music to play at ROH events. Cock Sparrer’s “Because You’re Young” sounds phenomenal over a real PA system, and how often do you hear Cock Sparrer songs in public?

EVIL, SANADA, and Naito vs. Silas Young, the Beer City Bruiser, and Brian Milonas

Crowd goes nuts for Los Ingobernables de Japon, of course. Naito gets a crazy ovation and sustained chant of “NAITO! NAITO! NAITO!” That’s how you can tell an ROH crowd isn’t just indie diehards; unlike indie crowds, ROH crowds can keep a chant going. I always want to call Silas Young either Paul Silas or Silas Marner. The Beer City Bruiser is like a real-life version of parody Wrestling Twitter account Jumpin Jim Grabowski, and Milonas is a New England guy. Lots of heat on Milonas, both from people who have seen him at shows before (the indie diehards) and people who scream at him for being fat (the ROH fans proper). 

This has the same NBA All Star vibe as the previous match, except Silas, Bruiser, and Milonas are not exactly all stars. Perfectly fine, perfectly good mid carders, but there’s a lot of star power on the other side of the ring. Milonas stops Naito from doing the Tranquilo pose and gets maybe the loudest heel reaction of the night. This match is what it is. It’s fun to see the NJPW guys, even doing like 20 percent of their normal repertoire. LIJ win, naturally.

Rating: Two and a half Kerouacs.

Jay Lethal vs. Jay White vs. Chuck Taylor

Taylor was a last-minute addition to the card and gets a crazily enthusiastic welcome. They avoid the usual trap of triple threat matches - one guy takes a powder outside the ring while a standard one-on-one happens - by essentially making this a handicap match, with Taylor and Knife Pervert Jay White teaming up against Lethal. This was my favorite match of the night. It told a reasonable story, the wrestlers are all compelling and played to their strengths (Lethal as heroic babyface, Taylor as chaotic neutral comedian, White as creepy weirdo), and there was decent action all around. Instead of kicking out of each other’s finishers, they would simply tease the finish, have the crowd react, and then have the intended victim escape at the last second. Very effective. Jay Lethal hits Lethal Injection on Knife Pervert and is about to win when Taylor swoops in with an inside cradle to pick up the win. Genuine surprise and a huge pop from the crowd.

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs.

ROH Six Man Tag Team Championship Match: SoCal Uncensored (c) vs. The Kingdom

Having already seen TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia wrestle a full match, I was not jazzed for this bout. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian are freaks of nature, though, and always find a way to deliver. Daniels in particular still manages to wrestle the way he did 10 or even 15 years ago, which is absolutely insane when you think about it. A lot of decent stuff here, although I admit I was not in the right mood for it. The Kingdom win in a mild upset and we have new six-man tag team champions. Taven celebrates at ringside with his grandfather, with nary a babyback bitch in sight. 

Rating: Three Kerouacs

The Young Bucks vs. Hiromu Takahashi and BUSHI

The first time I saw the Young Bucks in person was a little over three years ago. They seemed absurdly popular then, and it’s amazing to think how much bigger they’ve gotten since. At this point, it sort of doesn’t matter what they do, the spectacle is the whole point of the event, so credit to them for still working hard to put together a wrestling match. This is very much NBA All Star territory, but more like one of those games where one absurdly competitive weirdo like Kobe Bryant decides he’s going to play really hard, and is countered by a similarly competitive weirdo on the opposite. This seesawed between “hey we’re havin’ a blast here” and “can you top this, you babyback bitch.” Lots of crazy stuff happening here, some near falls that actually felt like near falls, and the Bucks winning with the Meltzer Driver, sending the Bullet Club shirted masses home happy.

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs 

[kraveller]

ASEAN Volleyball Philippines vs. Vietnam Detailed Review

The Filipinos await this volleyball game between the Philippines and Vietnam since the game is held in the Philippines’ PhilSports Arena in Pasig. Not only that, but I know the players representing the Philippines to be one of the players, not everyone, such as Santiago, who is known to be a good blocker in the sport.

The game is below for you to be guided on my review. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm4kGC_d-i8&t=5499s

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Court Dimension

The size of the court in the game seems to be larger than the standard. The reason why the size of the court appears bigger is that the planner of the game sensed that the game would have quite a lot of rally since the game is filled with good players, such as one of the best spikers in the Philippines which is Alyssa Valdez present in the game. But they follow the standard size of the court. They have a bigger space since the rally has a big chance to take a while.

The event is held on a court 18 meters (59 ft) long and 9 meters (29.5 foot) wide, which is separated into two halves of 9 m x 9 m by a one-meter (40-inch) broad net set. The top of the net is 2.43 meters (7 feet 11 5/8 inches) above the middle of the men's competition court, and 2.24 meters (7 feet 4 1/8 inches) for women's competition, which is the one used in this game. Not only that, but the line that you see divides the three players in front and back. Also called the attack line, it is marked 10 feet from the center to both sides. The Volleyball poles are also placed 36 feet apart and 3 feet from the side.

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Equipments

Not all of the equipment types are really needed, except the court's equipment and the things needed by the officials of the game, because without it, the game will not be challenging to play, mostly when one doesn't know where the opponents' side is. 

Equipments for the court:

Net: This one is essential for the team to know where their side is and not their side, but the net should not be touched, which is one of the game rules. A net should be 9.5 to 10 meters wide, then has a distance of one meter from the side, and the net’s distance from the ground is 2.24 meters. Wherein the total height of the net is 7 feet 4 1/8 inches for women.

Pole: This is where the net is attached, which is present in the game. So that the net will not fall since the pole is quite heavy.

Ball: Not only this game has the ball, but all volleyball games. The game will have no sense if there is no ball since the game is all about the ball being passed by the players or known as rally, which usually happens if the players mastered the necessary skills and see the game's rules. The ball used in the game could be a leather ball since the game occurred indoors.

Equipments for the players:

Uniform jerseys and shorts: As you can see in the game, there is one jersey on the team, the libero. The libero is different from others because the libero players are the ones who can leave the court casually, especially when there is a rotation because they are not allowed to go near the net or pass the attack line unless a rally happens. The libero players are the kind of players designed only for defense. That’s why the others are wearing the same jersey while the liberos are different.

Knee Pads: The knee pads are one of the critical equipment found in the game so that the players will prevent bruising and feel the floor burns. It can help the pain not to affect the players since it contains it.

Ankle Braces: The ankle braces are essential equipment that a player should have, which is present in the game because, without them, there is a significant risk that a player will have an ankle injury. That’s why when you have watched the game, you noticed that most of them have this since the surgery for the ankle injury is quite pricey, and one can’t play anymore because of this.

Arm Sleeves: The arm sleeves are also one of the important, especially to the libero. If you haven’t noticed, they are usually short because it’ll be easy for them to catch the ball on the floor. They need this. That is why the liberos have this in the game, which is noticed in the Philippines ’ team.

Elbow Pads: The elbow pads are essential, especially when the player dives. All players in the Philippines’ team have this, and some in Vietnam’s team.

Equipments for the coach:

Coaches Clipboard: The clipboard is essential because this is where the coach places his plan for the players, what they should do when the opposite team does this.

Uniform: If you have noticed in the game, they have the same primary color of their team, to show that they are part of that group and are the coaches. Both coaches in different teams are wearing uniforms.

Equipments for the first and second referee:

Whistle: The first referee uses this to signal the players to start the rally, gives the call that the team can serve, and nature or player is at fault. At the same time, the second referee makes the hand gestures as the first referee whistles. There are quite a dozen of uses the whistle has to the first. And this blog will discuss the second referee on how to officiate the sport.

Penalty Card: This is raised whenever there is a violation that a team has done or the player. When the players have done the block touch, every set of both of the teams has done this.

Equipments for the Scorekeeper and assistant scorer:

Scoresheet: The scoresheet is that important since this is the official record of the game since the score sheet is where the officials look.

Equipments for the Line Judges:

Flag: This is needed for the line judges to make signs for the referee to drive a judgment like they make a signal if the ball is in or out, the ball touched, judgment impossible, and such.

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Basic Skills

Passing/ Receiving: Passing is known to be an essential skill that a volleyball player should learn. And it is the most critical skill to learn as a player because a nasty receive means the setter can’t give a nice toss. Passing is the most crucial skill that a volleyball player should have since it can lead to a successful team. A successful pass would make it easy for the setter to have the hitter make a good setup. If you have noticed the rally in the game, the ball is a while passed. If the players haven’t mastered this, there will be no thrill in the game. The people will lose interest because what volleyball attracts people who don’t know how to play is the ball’s direction since they feel satisfaction. Having a good pass within the team shows that the players have good communication and confidence in the game. There are eight types of passing, which all are used by the two groups because of the intense rally.

Setting: The setting is a skill that a setter needs to master. Setting the ball is more advisable if you want to give your team a spike the ball. This is executed when the referee blows the whistle, indicating that the player can set the ball if you have noticed the video. This may be achieved when the player swings the arm and sends the ball to the other court. The component can be it can either be from the bottom or in the back of the head.

Spiking: Spike is where Alyssa Valdez is good. If you have watched the 49:27 part of the game, the Philippines' team gained a score because of the Monster Back Row Attack, since the spike brings the ball towards the ground, which is the opposing team's side. The spike isn't used in the rallies of the game because usually, they were using passing. If you have noticed, when someone does a good spike, the rally directly ends. That's how spike is powerful.

Blocking: Blocking can be present in every rally that the game has. This is usually done by the three players in the front of the attack line. This is important when the team needs offense. The blocking consists of 2-3 people since they are the ones near the net. That’s why when there is a ball towards these three players. They form a wall using their hands to stop the spiked ball.

Digging: A libero player usually uses this skill. Digging is like receiving, but it is more down. Digging is generally used when there are no players in the area, and the place is a bit far from the player. That’s why the players usually use this. Suppose you have noticed in the game. The players execute the digging whenever there is a space, and the ball is towards it. This is a big saver when the game is currently doing the rally, but it is quite challenging to execute. The player needs to use a lot of energy to make the ball dig up so that the players can make the rally's second contact.

Serving: This one might be a necessary problematic skill to master, the individual player is the only one tasked to do this, there is no teamwork to do this. I could say that this might be one of the essential skills to master. Because even in the game, the players lose the chance to gain a point because of this. Serving can help a lot to the team if is it a good serve. If you have noticed in the video, if the player did good service with good speed, it makes the opponents have less time to react, making them have a score in just a serve. One of which serve that I like in the video is the float serve. It makes the opposing player look like a beginner since they do is a good service as well the speed is fast.

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Technical and Tactical Skills

Technical Skill: 

The two teams can execute the necessary skills, but they lack control over their strength or the ball itself and the speed. For short, they can achieve, but they haven't mastered them yet. There are times that they can execute it excellently, sometimes not. For example, in the jump floater serve of both teams, when they try to achieve it, the ball may go out of the court or get stuck on the net. Also, in the way they pass, there are times that the players lack strength and focus on making the ball go to the other team's side; sometimes, they miss the ball, it gets stuck in the net or even passes it to where their teammates are not present. Overall, the players have the right footwork and communication with the teammates. The players need to practice shot selection, upper and lower body strength, hand penetration, timing, and ball control. Players need to master the technical skills of each essential skill and know-how to apply those skills in tactical situations. Both teams' technical skill level is actually at the same level, but the way they plan to execute it as a team changed over time, which will be explained in the tactical skill.

Tactical Skill:

Both teams could not make an aggressive serve in the four sets, except the last set. Since the previous set is getting intense, there is an aggressive serve wherein the service is towards the setter then the three players are close to each other. It made the author jump in her seat because of how wise the setter is. Honestly, both teams have very outstanding tactic skills, except that the Philippines' team coach could not study the other team's tactic skills.

In terms of the overall team's tactical skill, the Vietnam coach was able to read the Philippines' tactical skills and plan to play the ball to avoid the excellent attack of Alyssa, which is found in 49:27. It is also known as Monster Back Row Attack since she always does it in the center in the middle of the rally wherein the players are near the net or win against the team Philippines. I noticed in the game that the Philippines' coach did not watch the game that much because he couldn't read the opponent's tactical skill. If he could've, the Philippine team has won. The Philippines' coach didn't let Gonzaga and Jia Valdez, one of the right volleyball players, including in the crucial sets wherein Vietnam got to know their tactics. Maybe because she's a serious player when playing, but that's not a valid reason since they know the international game. Imagine, after Gonzaga scored, why was she placed on the bench. Not only that, he should've made Gonzaga, Jia, and Maddie join the first six-line since they are useful in doing the blocking and are good at attacking. The players are good, but the coach may intentionally or unintentionally didn't handle the game pretty well. With this, the Vietnam group gained an advantage. When you look at the game in the middle of the second set, you get to know the opponent's weaknesses and strengths. That's why they got better. There might be a small distance on both teams, but overall, the game is good. The Philippine coaches need a little bit of training and should know the players' strengths and weaknesses.

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Rules of the game

Let’s start with the basic volleyball rules in the game that the players follow. There are six players in the court, which should be the only players in the court. There are other players on the bench, but they are just for emergency or substitution purposes. The second is there is only a top hit per side. That’s why the players try their best like even execute digging to make the ball go to the other team to have a probability of scoring because, in a set, there are only 25 points. Third, the players are not allowed to hit in succession. If you have noticed that there is only one hit in a rally, it directly goes to the other team. Hit is the right choice if the player hits it towards the floor now. Fourth is the ball’s boundary line. If it is inside and does not pass the boundary line, it means that the ball is “in,” but if it goes outside the court, it is “out,” which means that the team has made a violation. Next is, it is illegal for a player to catch, hold or throw the ball. One part of the game wherein one player had the ball called out by the referee. Sixth is when two or more players get in touch with the ball, it is also called out for violation. Seventh, the players in the front line may switch positions after the serve. The last one is the officiates. The following are the first referee, second referee, scorekeeper, assistant scorer, and line judgers which their duties and responsibilities will be explained in the how-to officiate the sport part.

The author made a bullet form so that her dear readers wouldn’t have a hard time reading the paragraph form, the following are the basic rules and violates that a player should have.

Basic Volleyball Rules

· 6 players on the floor at any one time - 3 in the front row and 3 in the back row

· Maximum of 3 hits per side

· Points are made on every serve for winning team of rally (rally-point scoring).

· Player may not hit the ball twice in succession. (A block is not considered a hit.)

· Ball may be played off the net during a volley and on a serve.

· A ball hitting a boundary line is in.

· A ball is out if it hits an antenna, the floor completely outside the court, any of the net or cables outside the antennae, the referee stands or pole, the ceiling above a non-playable area.

· It is legal to contact the ball with any part of a player’s body.

· It is illegal to catch, hold or throw the ball.

· A player cannot block or attack a serve from on or inside the 10-foot line.

· After the serve, front-line players may switch positions at the net.

· Matches are made up of sets; the number depends on level of play. 3-set matches are 2 sets to 25 points and a third set to 15. Each set must be won by two points. The winner is the first team to win 2 sets. 5-set matches are 4 sets to 25 points and fifth set to 15. The team must win by 2 unless tournament rules dictate otherwise. The winner is the first team to win three sets.

Basic Volleyball Rule Violations

Take note: Rule violations that result in a point for the opponent

· When serving, the player steps on or across the service line as while making contact with the ball.

· Failure to serve the ball over the net successfully.

· Ball-handling errors. Contacting the ball illegally (double touching, lifting, carrying, throwing, etc.)

· Touching the net with any part of the body while the ball is in play.

· When blocking a ball coming from the opponent’s court, it’s illegal to contact the ball when reaching over the net if both your opponent has not used 3 contacts AND they have a player there to make a play on the ball.

· When attacking a ball coming from the opponent’s court, contacting the ball when reaching over the net is a violation if the ball has not yet broken the vertical plane of the net.

· Crossing the court centerline with any part of your body is a violation. Exception: if it is the hand or foot. In this case, the entire hand or entire foot must cross for it to be a violation.

· Serving out of rotation/order.

· Back-row player blocking (deflecting a ball coming from the opponent) when, at the moment of contact, the back-row player is near the net and has part of his/her body above the top of the net. This is an illegal block.

· Back-row player attacking a ball inside the front zone (the area inside the 3M/10-foot line) when, at the moment of contact, the ball is completely above the net. This is an illegal attack.

For the complete details of the volleyball rules, I recommend to visit this link since it is complete: https://www.fivb.org/EN/Refereeing-Rules/documents/FIVB-Volleyball_Rules_2017-2020-EN-v06.pdf 

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How to officiate the sport:

There are five volleyball sports officials: first referee, second referee, scorekeeper, assistant scorer, and line judgers. 

First referee: The first referee is the one found on the side of the net. The first referee is the head of all of the officiates in the said sport, wherein the other officials can ask about their responsibilities in the game. If you had seen the video, this official is given importance, maybe because he is the head of the game.

Second referee: The second referee takes the first referee position on the opposite side of the court. Second referee responsibilities before the match include Ensure the names of the volleyball officials appear on the first set score sheet. Ensure the coaches have lined up sheets at least 10 minutes before the end of each team's timed warm-up periods. The second referee collects the lineup sheets from each team at the 3-minute mark on the clock, timing the pre-match warm ups and submits them to the scorekeeper.

Scorekeeper: From the name of the official, the scorekeeper is the one who lists the scores of both teams, watches the server if there is a mistake in the position of the players in the rotation, lists the substitutions, sanctions, other events that the referee wants to be listed, and signs the scoresheet.

Assistant scorer: The assistant scorer, also known as the libero tracker, is beside the scorekeeper wherein the primary responsibility is to record the replacements of the libero on the libero tracking sheet if the libero is in the wrong position on the reserve since the libero's position is not allowed, also checks the record of the scorekeeper in the scoresheet to ensure that everything is right.

Line judges: The line judges in the game are the ones who are wearing bright green with the flag on their hands. There are line judges in each corner of the borderline, which makes the line judges 4 in this game, the purpose of the line judges is to help the referee make decisions by creating signals with the help of the flag in their hand. There are different signals, one of which is the ball in and ball out.

Now that we know their duties  and responsibilities, let’s proceed to the one of the important part that an official should know what to do, which is the handsigns and such.

Disclaimer: The pictures below are not owned by me, they are owned by FIVB. The author of this blog does not claim rights on the pictures below. The pictures above are edited by the author herself. 

The pictures are from this site: http://www.fivb.org/EN/Refereeing-Rules/Documents/FIVB_Volleyball_Hand_Signal_Poster_2015-2016.pdf

Next is the signs that the line guards do with their flags.