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txttletale · 11 months

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bundletober #13: blazing hymn

alright i've fallen behind on bundletober (the series of blog posts where i review and talk about a ttrpg i got in a bundle every day) and am hoping to make up the difference by putting out two entries today. this is the first one, and i'm looking at the mecha-piloting, synthetic-armour wearing, blaspheming-against-God-and-his-angels game blazing hymn by peach garden games.

now sadly this game is not a lyric/blackout poetry game about rewriting church hymns to be about gay sex. someone should make that btw. no it's just about wearing highly advanced battlesuits powered by the song of your heart to kill aliens with weapons of pure energy. which is about as cool.

first off, the layout of this game is unique and stylish. there are hexagons everywhere:

the game puts sparse splashes of dreamy pastel colours amid a constantly shifting set of black and white hexagons. it gives the book a visual identity that is at once both visually distinct and also changing massively from page to page. it's a really cool way to mix things up and keep you wanting to turn the page if just to keep seeing what the next one even looks like.

what's the game about? simple. angels have come to earth to destroy it badly. with the power of song, young people can power specially designed battlesuits, called Hymnals, that when not activated collapse down into crystal necklaces. it's a pretty anime concept--the game is pretty open about being inspired by Evangelion and Symphogear, neither of which i've actually seen--but it's cool as hell. the aesthetics of the layout really help bring the aesthetics of the game itself, of technology and ethereal mysticism merged into one thing, to life.

the game uses a pretty simple three-stat system where you build dice pools with a state relevant to an action and can get a full success, mixed success, or failure, depending on what you roll. your characters have two resources, Health, which is what it sounds like, and Gain, which is essentially magical power. because you can swap Health for Gain and Gain for Health at a 1-1 ratio with no restrictions, i'm not really sure why they're separate things--seems like a missed opportunity to not only simplify the mechanics but also create a strong mechanical narrative element by making Gain the only thing that keeps you going--once your song is silenced, you're out.

to create a character, you pick from one of six unit classes--here's where i'd describe the six classes, but honestly, they don't quite feel distinct enough. a lot of the powers you can pick for each hymnal class feel very similar, or are outright overlapping in a lot of cases. this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the descriptions of the hymnals, while trying to clarify their combat roles, all end up seeming to repeat themselves or say contradictory things. i think some direct ties between those descriptions and their mechanics would have helped--i'd find it a lot easier to remember that, for example, the 05 Xyston type "brutal in combat" if that flavour text was followed by a direct reference to one or more of its abilities. they do all have pretty different stats--which, in a game with a very simple and elegant combat system, means i'm confident they play very differently once you hit the table. but just looking at them, as a prospective player, i struggle to tell the difference.

i don't have that problem with the next character creation mechanic, though, which is choosing the songs you sing to power your hymnal. each song, as well as a thematically appropriate set of stat boosts, also prompts a pair of revealing character questions. they're the kind of mechanic that i want to get my hands on because they make it fun to create characters, giving real mechanical expression to the emotional fundamentals of who they are.

the combat system itself seems really, really good. it's astoundingly simple--you're encouraged to use a map, but there's no fiddly grid or distance tracking, just the ability to move between being Close, Near, or Far from an enemy. it keeps the numbers low to keep it getting silly and doesn't bother with any of the unecessary bookkeeping and fiddliness that plagues TTRPG combat as a whole. no initiative, no separate turns--there's a 'player' turn and a GM turn, and during the GM turn the GM picks from enemy's listed actions until they've done two for each player. players can use their abilities on the GM turn, and the game encourages the GM to take enemy actions that wil lforce them to--so nobody's ever standing around twiddling their thumbs waiting for the whole table to rotate back to them, and having a lot of enemies doesn't mean the players listen to the GM talk for fifteen minutes.

there's two unique mechanics that i think are very interesting-- Civilians and Condemnation. Civilians are--well, exactly what they sound like. on their turn, players can use an action to evacutate up to 5 of them. this extremely small and simple mechanic is fucking genius. so many games tell you they're about saving innocent people, but yet the only mechanical verbs you have to interact with anyone are violent ones. as elaine scarry says in the body in pain:

so in a way i think blazing hymn puts its money where its mouth is in a way very few combat rpgs with emancipatory or heroic aspirations bother. angels are said to attack populated areas--you're sent to preserve life as well as destroy the enemy. it makes the game feel fundamentally different, like despite the questionable ethics of hymnals (after all, they only work on young people, who then have to be sent into deadly combat situations) there is something heroic you can do.

the second cool mechanic is condemnation, a reality-warping toxin that angels use to destroy the places they're sent to. this rocks because it adds a ticking timer to the battlefield, a passive threat that forces the player characters to be proactive. if condemnation gets too high, not only is the fight going to get harder, but civilians are going to die en masse. it's a great piece of game design that gives the GM a great lever to pull for pacing and urgency.

i also really like that one of the steps of the GM turn is to 'change the situation', whether that means something happens in the narrative or something on the map changes (a train arriving is the example the book gives) or more angels attack. in general, one of my biggest complaitns about d&d is that unless a DM takes it upon themselves to design additional mechanics and encounters outside of anything the game actually gives them, combat inevitably turns into two lines of people hitting each other with sticks until one of them dies. i love dynamic, progressing combat, combat where the stakes change moment to moment. and blazing hymn delivers.

anything else? oh yeah, the angel designs are cool as fuck.

god damn. anyway despite a few minor issues with the hymnals themselves, the core of blazing hymnal is fucking good, a nice tight and razor-sharp combat system wrapped up in pulsing pastel crystalline aesthetics. if you like cool anime fights and like having the rules to back it up but hate complexity, crunch, and tedium, this might be the perfect game for you. it's certainly given me a lot of cool design ideas to take foreward into my own projects.

blazing hymn is available for purchase as a digital download through itch.io

#tattletxt #bundletober 2023 #ttrpg #bundletober 14 will of course be shorter

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indie-ttrpg-of-the-week · 4 months

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Armour Astir Advent

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir A game about mechs fighting eachother! What else to do with a giant robot, I mean You could stand around and yell about ideology for a while, but what is this? Gundam?

Touchstones: Gundam (Turn A especially), Breath of the Wild, Escaflowne, Mazinger, Ghibli movies (add a quarter)

Genre: Mech game, PBTA, High Fantasy

What is this game?: Armour Astir: Advent is a game about mech pilots fighting against an oppressive empire, fighting using not only head to head mech combat, but also stirring dissent, using backhanded diplomacy, and guerilla tactics

How's the gameplay?: AAA has one of the most unique bits of gameplay I've ever seen in a PBTA game, refer to the Apoc World write up for the basics of the game, because there's a lot to unpack here. AAA's got a ton of standout mechanics, Let's start with Gravity Clocks! You got 3 Gravity clocks to use on anyone, and one to use specifically on your rival, Gravity clocks represent the volatile relationship you have with 4 different characters, the clock always has a value, starting at +1, that you can add to any roll related to that character, when you do so, you tick up the clock, when the clock is full, your relationship levels up, you change the nature of your relationship and that +1 becomes a +2 babyy, This encourages players to choose carefully what relationships they want their characters to focus on, and adds a lot to the Drama. AAA also has its really cool mech creation system, it's a bit too complex to get into here, but its less like Lancer's Subway style mech creation, and more like cooking from a recipe, you get to create some of your own abilities, and pick from a few pre-made ones, all mechs also have a type, which works into a weapon triangle type mechanic where certain mechs are better against other mechs. Another thing about AAA is the Faction Turn, the player's rebel group is made up of many smaller factions, each with a different role, while the empire is one group with small divisions, the idea is that while the authority is one imperialist gestalt, the rebels are more of a confederacy of farmers, local mercenaries, villagers, etc, but because of this, a lot of drama and miscommunication can happen, the Faction turn represents this, its intricacies are a bit complex to really get into, but basically during each Conflict turn, players run a scene where they instead of the big damn heroes, play as random soldiers and mooks from the individual factions, and try to fight back against imperial schemes, or try to solve local problems, this is meant to humanize the soldiers in the war, as well as show that the players aren't the last bastion against the Authority. That's about it for the gameplay, I tried to be brief but AAA is just something really really special when it comes to how it plays, there's a ton of other intricacies I couldn't even touch on here Oh right, half the playbooks don't even use mechs, they can fight during mech battles but are significantly worse during them, they're instead intended to help on the intrigue part of the war, commanders, celebrities, diplomats, footsoldiers, people who would be more connected to other parts of the war that aren't just the mech fights, during mech fights they play on the "B-Plot", basically a second narrative layer usually going on around the same time as the mech fights, think of it like a gundam episode where the main newtype child is fighting against a person who could have been a friend in another timeline and at the same time the soldiers inside the main base need to figure out who's been stealing their food supplies What's the setting (If any) like?: AAA is Setting Agnostic... kinda, there's 3 universal constants: - There's an authoritarian group known as the Authority, being fought by a union of scattered factions under one banner known as the cause - Magic exists, is fairly common place but restricted to certain people, and is connected to how mechs work - Some smaller chunks of lore like the existance of Angels, Demons, Eldritch entities, smaller scale vehicles called Ardents, etc, stuff you'd expect to see in any fantasy setting

What's the tone?: AAA is a game with a tone set by players, but the overall tone is not asimilar to that of most post Gundam mech anime, there's an overwhelming sense of war being hell, but there's still hope in fighting an evil fascist empire, also there's always expected to be a little bit of Angst

Session length: This is one of the few games I've written about I've actually sadly never played, but from reading the rules AAA does lend itself to longer, 4 or so hour sessions

Number of Players: 4+ is recommended

Malleability: AAA is as said above, setting agnostic, if its got mechs you can run it in AAA

Resources: AAA has a fanmade google sheet, a few fan-made expansions, and two official expansions, Encore (more playbooks) and Amor Astir (romance rules, yeah idk either)

AAA is one of those games that is just a mechanical treat, everything works really well and serves a greater tonal purpose, just a really good game

#ttrpg #ttrpg community #indie ttrpg #trans creator #armour astir

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slanax · 2 months

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re lrb but in a new post bc it kinda derails from the original point of the post but

FE3H really dealt a blow to the concept of unique characters that Engage didn't manage to fully recover from

like as units, most characters start in the exact same class at the exact same level. Great start. Their class progression gives them all the same options for the same requirements outside of a handful of genderlocked classes which is the stupidest possible point to put your single distinguishing feature. The Tier 0 classes Noble and Commoner are different classes but are identical in gameplay. Why not make that your distinguishing feature that locks class access to characters? Would fit better with the story themes anyways.

Nominally some characters are better at some weapons and worse at others. This does not matter except maybe your Tier 3 promotion on Maddening gets delayed by a chapter or you need to rig the exams a bit more (luck based promotions by the way. Also terrible. Costs resources to even try. I digress.) The high end S+ ranks are functionally unreachable anyways.

Also doesn't help that outside of exactly two exceptions (magic, and gauntlets on mounts) every Tier 1 class can use every weapon type exactly as well as each other. There's no reason for a brawling character to go Brawler. Just go Brigand, they have more Str ("Just go Brigand" applies to every unmounted melee class by the way)

Then there's the mastery skills. Brigands get Death Blow. Everyone wants Death Blow. Archers get Hit +20. Everyone wants Hit +20. So you already have characters that all play the same, in classes that all play the same, but now every one of them cycles through Brigand and Archer to truly be. the same.

And then even if you want to sandbox and go "I'm gonna make a cavalier that uses swords instead of lances" Tier 2 shows up and tells you "what are you, stupid? Paladin is a lance class. See, they get Lancefaire. Put a lance on that guy you fucking moron. Who told you sandboxing was okay."

You'd think Tier 2/3 getting -faires would solve the issue of every class being the same weapons wise. Course it doesn't. Falcon Knight has Lancefaire, Wyvern Lord has like 2 less lance damage through raw Str. It does not matter and only serves to make you feel bad for not using the "correct" weapon type and losing out on the +5 boost.

The thing that actually distinguishes characters is their personal skills. Except most of those fall off and stop mattering after the earlygame bc they're like +2 or +4 boosts to stats that'll be in the 20s soon enough.

No, the thing that actually actually distinguishes characters is what skills and arts they learn. Shockingly, half the cast learns no skills that outclass the generic ones. So those don't matter. And of course, the game doesn't tell you about any of these, doesn't tell you if there will be a payoff for training a character in a certain skill over another or god forbid if that payoff will be worth it.

Engage gets a little better about this, at least the characters have a base class again, but it falls flat around midgame when reclassing is fully available. There's a lot of neat and unique class/emblem combos you can make, so at least the class samey-ness of 3H is fixed, but the characters become little more than warm bodies that carry that class/emblem combo into battle and some of them might have more optimal numbers for one of them.

anyways the way I think this can be fixed (outside of just getting rid of universal reclassing or going back to the Fates system of passing around class sets through supports) is to place more emphasis on personal skills. Class skills are generally just better in SwitchFE, and I don't get why. If personal skills give you a big boost that stays relevant throughout the game, even only in specific classes or circumstances, that encourages players to make use of that, use this specific unit for their personal skill, and create a tailored class build that specifically brings the best in that unit out. Or give them a specific gimmick. This hack I'm playing has a Cav that gets Brave but can't double when he moves his full Mov while mounted. That's a cool payoff. That makes him stand out. Do shit like that, intsys. In 3H this would just be the Cavalier mastery skill, and in Engage it'd be an Emblem skill, so everyone could do it. Just make it unique.

also make growths more distinct I'm tired of everyone having the same 35-45% slop in every stat god I wonder why every character feels the same when their statlines are fucking identical

#fire emblem #fe3h #fe engage #ended up a bit long and rambly so readmore is prolly appropriate

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hyperspacereverie · 2 years

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Would you like to play an RPG where instead of grinding up EXP and leveling up and getting higher stats, your party becomes stronger by being fed delicious magic orbs that can teach them fun new spells, with no limits to who can learn which kinds of spells?

Hyperspace Reverie will not have leveling/EXP at all! Let me introduce to you the main progression system of the game, the Spell Orbs. (under the cut)

You don't actually have to eat them. Jester is just a weirdo.

As you fight and defeat new enemies, you will sometimes come across special, stronger versions of the monsters you've been fighting, and once defeated they will award you with their Spell Orb! They can then be consumed by any party member in order to teach them a new spell unique to the orb obtained. Only one Orb of any type will be able to be found, so you will never be able to teach the same spell to all your party members, and therefore you'll have to think carefully which Orbs will be given to which characters. For example if you find a Fireball Orb, once you give it to one of your characters, they will be the only one able to cast fireball!

Therefore it will be up to you to figure out how you want to build your party. Maybe you will give all your damaging spells to one character and build them into being a magic damage dealer, or maybe you'll focus on a different strategy so you'll spread them around the party equally. It becomes even more complex when you add your character's weapons and armor to the mix, some of which will even temporarily teach their wielder a few spells of their own! There will be lots of room for fun combos to experiment with.

By putting focus on this main mechanic and developing it I hope I can make the game feel really unique to each playthrough, making it so each player feels like their version of the characters play completely different from another player's, considering I plan on adding dozens of different spells to be found and also lots of unique gear to experiment with as well!

Want to support the game and get access to a Discord server where you can discuss it and more? Check out our Patreon!

#mechanics #spell orbs #rpg #jrpg #gamedev #rpg maker #rm2k3

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dragongirl2k6 · 4 months

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So… JSaB magic system or whatever

(AKA: I ramble about an aspect of my JSaB AU for a bit)

I’m not sure if there will be more text posts about this, but here we go

-Types of Magic

In this universe, there are a total of four types of triangles:

Life:

Life triangles, as per their name, as able to physically heal a shape, sometimes even being able to revive shapes from death or make plants grow. Aside from that, life triangles can also heal a shape mentally, giving them a bit of a calm sensation. A rather interesting ability it offers is the ability to see the lives of other shapes up until the present day, sort of like retrocognition.

Death:

Death triangles can hurt or kill shapes physically and mentally. It can take limbs or cause scratches, as well as negatively impact a shape’s psyche, giving them a sense of dread or depression. As an opposite to Life’s retrocognition, Death Triangles can also let shapes see their’s or other’s deaths, sometimes in different branching timelines.

Creation:

Moving away from shapes, Creation impacts the environment and world instead of the beings that walk on it. While life creates organic material, creation creates inorganic material, being able to form land, sea, sky, and fire among other things. Creation can also create tools and weapons like swords, axes, saws, and even buildings. While it doesn’t directly impact living creatures, Creation triangles can affect them.

Destruction:

Being the opposite to creation, Destruction triangles aim to annihilate inorganic material, though it can also hurt living beings in proximity. Along with completely destroying creation, Destruction triangles can also warp it to some extent, causing disruptions like hurricanes or tornadoes. Some even say that Destruction triangles can damage the fabric of reality, creating these ‘tears’ that shapes may travel through.

General Powers:

There are two general powers that all these types have, being able to cancel out their opposite and being able to purify or corrupt shapes.

To state the obvious, Life spells can cancel out Death spell and vise versa. Same goes to Creation and Destruction. Usually the more experienced shapes with the most triangles will have the stronger spells and will block out the opposite type.

The second general ability would be purification and corruption. Triangles themselves cannot be cured or corrupted, instead their sources can be altered and affect the triangles they produce.

-What they look like

Triangles in their base forms are relatively similar aside from color. The color of a triangle however doesn’t determine the type it is. Instead, when they are in an active form, it will produce these symbols that determine what it is. Certain shapes can also instinctively know which is which.

When a shape uses the triangle’s power, it enters a somewhat liquid state and will flow into the affected object/area/shape.

-Direct Vs Indirect Spells

For example, an indirect death spell could affect a necklace and cause the wearer to be in a constant state of stress while a direct life spell can heal the shape it targets. An indirect destruction spell could enchant an axe to chop down trees easily while a direct creation spell would directly form a mass of land.

-Who Can Use Triangles

Only certain shapes known as Wielders can activate the main powers of one or more types of triangles.

Normally Wielders look like normal shapes, though when activating their powers a symbol on their chest is revealed. This symbol reveals the type of magic they can wield.

The only shapes besides Wielders who can use magic would be Guardians (Player Shapes) who don’t require triangles to use the power.

Wielders can only be born if one or both of their parents are Wielders themselves. However, even if both parents are Wielders, it doesn’t guarantee that their children will share their power, which is the most likely outcome. Sometimes an offspring will bear one of the triangle types, but very rarely will a child have both. It’s unknown if a shape wielding three or all four types is possible, though chances are that it’s so unlikely that it’s pretty much impossible.

(Can you tell I got inspired by animus magic from Wings of Fire when making this?)

Where triangles come from

As expected, the Tree of Life (Also called The Immortal Tree or Rainbow’s Tree) provides the strongest triangles and is supposed provide all four types.

While the tree is supposed to have four parts and four types, a certain incident caused the Death Piece to be stolen, resulting in the tree only having three parts.

However, the Tree isn’t the only producer of these triangles, though it is the most iconic and powerful.

Certain plants, ranging in types and power can produce the triangles a random intervals, almost like pollen. They tend to produce more in spring.

Anyways, that ends my ramble. Hopefully I actually do something with this magic system.

#jsab art #jsab #rambles #headcanon

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pathfinderunlocked · 3 months

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Empty Heart - Minor Artifact (bastard sword)

"They who hold fast unto their convictions shall never count betrayal amongst their crimes, though all the world may call them villain. My path is unchanged; my creed, sacrosanct... this, I believe with all my black heart." - The Enemy of All to Ser Tryphaniel, exalted blademaster and paladin of the Mythril Oath Order

Artwork provided by client.

This is a commissioned scaling magic weapon, designed to level up as the player does.

The original sword known as Blackheart was a legendary blade; prophets foretold that it would be wielded by the five incarnations of a great villain. Eventually all five incarnations appeared and were defeated, and the weapon was lost.

This weapon, Empty Heart, has an identical appearance to Blackheart, but is actually a shadow replica of the real relic, created as a forgery and passed off as the original. But the forgery, created with material from the plane of shadow and imbued with the blood of an elder god, was made too well. Magic items are sometimes intelligent, and this one, with the otherworldly insight of a god of curses and nightmares, understood the horrible legend of the sword it was supposed to be a facsimile of. As it sees battle, it grows in power along with its wielder, and gradually becomes more and more like the original sword. More real.

Empty Heart - Minor Artifact

Aura illusion and abjuration; CL varies (see text); Slot weapon; Type bastard sword; Size Large; Weight 48 lbs

DESCRIPTION

At first, this replica of the legendary weapon Blackheart functions simply as a Large-sized +2 bastard sword, except that a Medium-sized or Small-sized creature can wield it without penalty, as if it were sized appropriately for them. Creatures smaller than Small take a penalty on wielding Empty Heart as if it were a Small-sized weapon. This allows a Medium-sized or Small-sized creature that lacks proficiency with bastard swords to wield Empty Heart two-handed as if it were a longsword.

If Empty Heart is wielded by a lawful character, it instead functions as a broken non-magical bastard sword.

Initially, Empty Heart has a caster level of 11th, but every time it gains a rank of power (see below), its caster level increases by 1.

Although Empty Heart cannot communicate, and does not have its own will like a truly intelligent magic item, it has a limited ability to perceive its surroundings and learn from them. As it experiences battle, it understands more about the legend of Blackheart that it was forged to replicate, about how to achieve that legend, and about what power, combat, myths, and greatness truly mean. As long as Empty Heart remains in the possession of a mythic non-lawful creature while that creature fights and adventures, Empty Heart gains 1 rank of power for every 2 experience levels earned by its holder, as long as its holder's new level after leveling up is at least equal to twice Empty Heart's rank.

As Empty Heart gains ranks of power, it gains the following properties. Each rank replaces the properties of earlier ranks; they do not stack.

1 rank — When Empty Heart damages a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 18 Will save against an illusion [shadow] effect or take 1d3 points of Wisdom damage. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day, regardless of whether it succeeds on the save or not.

2 ranks — When Empty Heart damages a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 22 Will save against an illusion [shadow] effect or take 1d3 points of Wisdom damage. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day, regardless of whether it succeeds on the save or not.

3 ranks — When Empty Heart damages a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 22 Will save against an illusion [shadow] effect or take 1d3 points of Wisdom damage and be unable to cast spells, spell-like abilities, or psionic abilities for 1 round. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day, regardless of whether it succeeds on the save or not.

4 ranks — Empty Heart's enhancement bonus is now +3. When Empty Heart damages a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 24 Will save against an illusion [shadow] effect or take 1d3 points of Wisdom damage and be unable to cast spells, spell-like abilities, or psionic abilities for 1 round. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day, regardless of whether it succeeds on the save or not.

5 ranks — Empty Heart's enhancement bonus is now +3. When Empty Heart damages a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 24 Will save against an illusion [shadow] effect or take 1d3 points of Wisdom damage and be unable to cast spells, spell-like abilities, or psionic abilities for 1 round. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day, regardless of whether it succeeds on the save or not. If the target fails its save, for the next 24 hours, any time the target attempts to cast a spell, spell-like ability, or psionic ability, it takes 2d6 damage and must make a concentration check (DC 10 + damage dealt + spell level) to successfully cast the spell.

6 ranks — Empty Heart's enhancement bonus is now +3. When Empty Heart damages a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 26 Will save against an illusion [shadow] effect or take 1d3 points of Wisdom damage and 1 point of Wisdom bleed, and be unable to cast spells, spell-like abilities, or psionic abilities for 1 round. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day, regardless of whether it succeeds on the save or not. If the target fails its save, for the next 24 hours, any time the target attempts to cast a spell, spell-like ability, or psionic ability, it takes 2d6 damage and must make a concentration check (DC 10 + damage dealt + spell level) to successfully cast the spell.

7 ranks — Empty Heart's enhancement bonus is now +3, and increases to +5 against a target that has cast a spell, spell-like ability, or psionic ability in the last round. When Empty Heart damages a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 26 Will save against an illusion [shadow] effect or take 1d3 points of Wisdom damage and 1 point of Wisdom bleed, and be unable to cast spells, spell-like abilities, or psionic abilities for 1 round. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day, regardless of whether it succeeds on the save or not. If the target fails its save, for the next 24 hours, any time the target attempts to cast a spell, spell-like ability, or psionic ability, it takes 3d6 damage and must make a concentration check (DC 10 + damage dealt + spell level) to successfully cast the spell.

8 ranks — Empty Heart's enhancement bonus is now +3, and increases to +5 against a target that has cast a spell, spell-like ability, or psionic ability in the last round. When Empty Heart damages a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 28 Will save against an illusion [shadow] effect or take 1d6 points of Wisdom damage and 2 points of Wisdom bleed, and be unable to cast spells, spell-like abilities, or psionic abilities for 1 round. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day, regardless of whether it succeeds on the save or not. If the target fails its save, for the next 24 hours, any time the target attempts to cast a spell, spell-like ability, or psionic ability, it takes 3d6 damage and must make a concentration check (DC 10 + damage dealt + spell level) to successfully cast the spell.

9 ranks — Empty Heart loses its illusion aura and becomes Blackheart. Any creature wielding it gains proficiency with it. Blackheart's enhancement bonus is now +5, and increases to +7 against a target that has cast a spell, spell-like ability, or psionic ability in the last round. When Blackheart damages a creature, that creature takes 1d6 points of Wisdom damage and 2 point of Wisdom bleed, and is unable to cast spells, spell-like abilities, or psionic abilities for 1 round. For the next 24 hours, any time the target attempts to cast a spell, spell-like ability, or psionic ability, it takes 4d6 damage and must make a concentration check (DC 10 + damage dealt + spell level) to successfully cast the spell. A given creature can only be subjected to this effect once per day.

DESTRUCTION

Sunder Empty Heart with the original Blackheart, or by the hand of its original wielder.

#d&d #pathfinder 1e #magic item #magic weapon #artifact #minor artifact #commission

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archer3-13 · 4 months

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I think, and this occurs to me recently after watching his fantastic speech for the ten billionth time, what i woulda wanted from edelgard as a character is basically whats going on with gaius baelsar in final fantasy xiv [specifically during a realm reborn phase of things]. because strip away a lot of the context around the two characters and there is a surprising amount of similarities.

both have a firm might makes right attitude driving the core majority of their beliefs and world view

both are characters who utterly detest religion and deities as things the weak cling to as a means of compensating for their own shortcomings

both have an "I alone can fix it" attitude about the world around them and thus believe in the righteousness of their own actions by virtue of the ends they aim to achieve. the ends justify the means mindsets.

by virtue of their ends justify the means mindsets both ally with scary dark magic secret society advanced manipulator type groups as means of procuring short term advantages such as super weapons, with the justification that they can deal with and eradicate the evil mole people later once their immediate objectives are fulfilled. They both do this despite utterly detesting the group they ally with because they perceive those people as less dangerous then they actually are.

well both aim to be utterly ruthless in the prosecution of their objectives, they are more sensitive to their subordinates needs and fates then they would otherwise like themselves to be even as they sacrifice those subordinates to achieve their goals.

both genuinely believe in the empires of their settings as forces for good in the world that need to expand and conquer lesser nations because only under their glorious hegemony can the course of the world and history be rightly hemmed.

The difference that makes me like gaius quite a lot well being fairly indifferent to edelgard however, comes down to I think a matter of presentation.

Gaius is fierce, bold, forward with what he believes and why he acts the way he does. His very presence steals the show of whatever scene he tends to show up in both in a metaphorical and a very deliberate sense of emphasizing him in the framing of any given scene. hes unapologetic, making an overture to you the player to join him because your so awesome yes, but its very much in the sense of becoming an instrument of his will as he treads the path to glory. and when you refuse he admires you all the more for it and proudly and loudly declares how defeating you will prove not only his righteousness but his supremacy over any and all who might try to impede his path.

edelgard is quite, demure even in most of her scenes. she gets a few speeches sure but they dont ever really reach the level of roaring bombast that gaius puts into every fucking line. its to the point that I would argue shes demphasized whenever shes on screen. this isnt to say shes some waifish stuttering introverted mess mind, but i think its very telling that her presence in the grondor cg both pre but especially post timeskip is not only fairly minimal but also emphasized to be reserved or hesitant in the brief moment she does appear. that doesnt speak of a bold conqueror to me, that speaks of a distant almost imperceptible ruler. someone whos either got a layer of armour on so thick as to be unapproachable or who's just a tool in a larger game they're powerless to stop [especially that second portion of things]. oh player san, why must we fight? i just wanted to walk on your path... and maybe hold your hand... and all that malarkey.

and that, that I think is the difference in what makes me vastly prefer one over the other. gaius gets to be the master of his own destiny even as he fucks ups, a figure to be admired even when coming into inevitable conflict with him because of his extreme ambitions. edelgard isn't presented in that manner despite otherwise being treated narratively like she is that. in terms of presentations shes emphasized to not be the master of her own destiny, to be someone pitied and cried over. she couldn't help it, shes just a pawn of destiny and the grand game. and that's bullshit because she very much is an active agent within the narrative. a discordance between presentation and writing. and that sucks.

#fire emblem #edelcritical #ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #gaius baelsar

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practically-an-x-man · 7 months

Note

Your OCs are put in the Hunger Games! Who's surviving, and how?

Ooooh thank you!! Very good question, let's see....

(long ramble incoming btw, I love thinking about survival strategy with my OCs lol)

Rae: With her abilities or without, she's not afraid to jump into a fight. She'd probably avoid the initial slaughter, but would run back to the Cornucopia once it's cleared out to get a weapon and whatever other supplies she can grab. This strategy probably gets her a decent way through the game, since she's an experienced fighter from training with the X-Men, but she stands a much better shot if she has her shields. Without them, she's surviving somewhere in the realm of 75% of the way through the game before being double-teamed or taken down by a better fighter, but with her shields she might make it to the end (or close to it)

Robin: Plays things a bit conservative, and works on generating an alliance with another player or two. She'd most likely get offed by something in the natural world - she's a good fighter and can manage a team or alliance well, but she's not as experienced with nature and would probably end up getting sick from tainted water or mistaking a poisonous mushroom for an edible one.

Madison: Disappears into the wilderness. She's playing the long game for sure - she can survive in the wilderness for years if she has to, the enhanced creatures and traps would prove a bit of a challenge but nothing she can't handle. She waits for most of the players to take care of each other, then works on quietly assassinating her biggest threats (this would be easier with her abilities, with her venom and camouflage, but she'd find a way even in a completely power-neutral Hunger Games). She could very likely make it to the end, unless someone catches her in the act of trying to assassinate them and manages to kill her first

Ophelia: Hm... this could go two ways. On the one hand, she is wickedly smart and resourceful, and could thrive in a tech-forward Hunger Games. She'd probably be the type to repurpose the unexploded landmines like those people in the first book, and use those and other resources to set traps. On the other hand, she's been a city girl all her life, and reading textbooks on wilderness survival is different from being in the thick of it, so a nature-forward Games wouldn't be good for her. Plus, there's the matter of her knee - she can still fight, but she wouldn't be able to outrun Mutts or a wall of fire or any other traps like that.

Jasper: I'm gonna be real, they're not surviving the Hunger Games. Their main resources in the Games would be their medical experience, so their main plan would be to use their nursing skills as incentive to form an alliance (since they could very well be the only one able to stop a person from dying of infection/blood loss/etc. if it came down to it). But that strategy only gets them so far, since their only "fighting" experience is roller derby and a single college self-defense seminar. As soon as someone invades the alliance, or they get to late-stage game where they have to turn on each other, Jasper's probably going down.

Katherine: Sadly... also not making it out alive. With her magic, she stands a much better chance, since she can call on the gods to aid her (they're motivated to keep her alive since she's about the only one able to act as a priestess in the modern world, so they'd be willing to give her strength and cunning and protect her from whatever threats they can), but even that can only go so far, and without her magic she'd probably be one of the first to die - shot down or speared in the first rush to the Cornucopia

Kestrel: With their shapeshifting at their disposal, they survive without winning - they'd shapeshift into a mundane animal somewhere in the battlegrounds, and keep moving and transforming until both the cameras and the other contestants lose track of them. They don't fight, and don't even really consider themself a contestant, but they can survive in the form of various animals until the Games are complete, then slip away when the arena is abandoned. Without their shapeshifting, in a power-neutral games, they probably tie Madison with pure wilderness survival strategy and can last a good long while, but they're not cunning or ruthless enough to get rid of their competitors first and would only be able to kill in self-defense, which leads to them eventually getting struck down.

Quinn: She'd have the Foxface strategy for sure - all cunning. Physically she could be swiped down easily, against physically-abled and highly-trained fighters from the First District especially, so she becomes the master of mind games instead. She's got a thousand tricks up her sleeve, everything from swiping tools from her competitors while they're unaware to weaving such an elaborate lie that they convince an "ally" that poisonous berries are really perfectly safe. This strategy probably won't get them to the end of the game, since it usually always ends in a physical showdown that Quinn likely wouldn't be able to keep pace with, but it's interesting to watch and they get a lot of support from watchers of the games (she expected food to be an issue, since she's a city girl and knows nothing about hunting or foraging, but between nicking food from other contestants and donations from eager watchers she's actually in pretty good shape. Once they even managed to get her pain meds, since all the physical movement is havoc on her back and legs)

Eris: The better question is, is there any way they're not making it to the end of the Games? I mean, if there was ever a place that was made for them, this is it. Good god, I pray for their enemies. The only thing I can imagine taking them down is if it's a power-neutral Hunger Games, Eris would dive into a fight with the expectation of their healing factor and would realize too late that they can't shrug off their injuries like they usually do.

Nikoletta: She is the assassin of all assassins!! Especially if she has her powers at her disposal, she's finding a knife and picking off the contestants one by one (and diving into the shadows to escape). Even without her shadow-touch, she's sneaky and a good manipulator, so she'd make a good assassin either way. If anything's taking her down, it would be an alliance - in all likeliness, she's not even opening herself up to the possibility of an alliance, she's a lone wolf who just wants to get out alive, but if someone actually managed to break through her shell and form an alliance, that could turn into a point of weakness for her (either by them turning on her, them being used as ransom by another contestant, or Nikoletta being so focused on her ally's safety that she gets blindsided herself).

(also oh my god could you imagine the angst of them being put into the Hunger Games with their partners?? i mean i'm talking about Nikoletta's weakness being a surprise alliance bc that's basically an echo of her actual story with Abner, but could you imagine if it actually was Abner on the other end of it? Or Eris being forced to battle Rick one-on-one, knowing that even as good as he is, they'll always be the better fighter, and there can only be one winner? Or Madison choosing to go completely solo, since she doesn't trust her ability to keep herself and another person alive and hidden in the wilderness during the Games, but then having the thought of Alex fending for himself always simmering in the back of her mind and pulling her focus? Or- let's take things really dark, her taking out a competitor in the dead of night and realizing only once the sun comes up that it was Alex? God there's so much angst in a premise like this)

#my friends!!!#answered asks #my ocs #nikoletta bordeaux #oc eris #oc quinn/aces #oc katherine johnson #oc kestrel #jasper wilson #ophelia octavius #rae mckinney #robin cassidy #madison douglas

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kaetiesmindpalace · 5 months

Text

Your Turn to Roll--A Project Fear Fanfiction: Chapter 1-Character Creation

Chapter 2/2

One of your interests is a game called Dungeons and Dragons (DND), a table-top roleplaying game filled with daring fights, monstrous creatures, and numerous bonds you enrich through each session the story follows. With live play shows like Critical Role as well as media portrayal like in Stranger Things, DND has gained many new players in recent years. It is a topic you have brought up a ton to your friends Alex, Chelsea, Dakota, and Tanner as you wanted to tell them about the shenanigans that ensued during one of your sessions.

On this particular day, you were going down a YouTube rabbit hole when a notification from your group chat came through. After pausing the video, you open your messages to see what was sent.

“I finally looked more into Dungeons and Dragons since you’ve mentioned it a lot, and I got to say, I’m interested in trying it out,” Chelsea had sent.

“Same,” the boys responded in quick succession of one another.

“I’m so glad you’re interested in it! I can try to take a crack at running a game to help ease you guys into it all,” you quickly respond with a huge grin on your face.

“You’ll surely do well with it,” Dakota encourages you.

“Yeah, if anyone could do it, it would definitely be you,” Alex says.

“Thanks guys. We will need to start off with character creation before going right into fighting things and other story elements. What day works the best for y’all?” you asked, already super pumped that your friends want to understand your interests just a bit more.

“This Thursday I’m pretty free,” Tanner answers.

“Same here,” Chelsea replies.

“It would have to be after 6pm for me. Editing takes a lot of time,” Dakota specifies.

“Thursday works for me,” Alex states.

“Let’s try for 7pm on Thursday at my place then. Sound good?” you text back.

“Sounds like a plan” they all respond.

Thursday at 7pm came quickly and soon you were all around your table. You placed a character sheet in front of them as well as a pencil to start the process off. Once everything is set up, the group looks to you for further instructions.

“Okay. I’m going to start by asking questions that will help you figure out what class your character will be. Think of a class almost as being what your job entails. Now, would you like to be able to use magic or not?” you explain before asking.

“Magic would be cool,” Tanner says with a sparkle in his eye.

“Yeah, it has always intrigued me in fiction,” Chelsea enthusiastically responds.

“I definitely want to try using magic,” Dakota replies.

“It’s interesting, but will it be complicated?” Alex asks.

“I will admit, magic can be a hard part to understand in DND. We are starting at level one, so we can slowly understand it more and more as we go. I know someone who started playing DND with a spellcasting class and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also know someone who started off with a magic-using class and wished they hadn’t. I do not want to deter you from anything that interests you and will always help with any questions you have,” you clearly state.

Alex nods before responding with, “I think I want to start off without magic then.”

You smile before turning to the others to ask, “Do you still want to play spellcasters after hearing that it can be difficult? As I mentioned, I want you to play what interests you.”

The three nod their heads before Chelsea replies with “I always like a challenge.”

“Great! Since we already have one diverging from everyone else, are you guys alright with me helping Alex first and then come back to you guys for clarifying questions?” you inquire.

You get nods from Alex, Dakota, and Chelsea, as well as a “Go for it,” from Tanner.

Turning towards Alex, you question, “How would you describe the type of fighting you would want to do? Would you describe it like the Hulk? Using martial arts? Sneaky? Having archery or a long-distance focus? A variety of weapons and armor?”

Alex ponders for a moment before replying with “I like the idea of a sneaky character.”

“It seems like with that response that you would enjoy playing a rogue. I will pull up the rogue information from 5e.tools and you can start putting in that info onto your character sheet like proficiencies and features associated with level one. Abbreviate where you need to as this sheet is what you will use even as you level up. Wherever you have a choice to make, go for what interests you. Some parts like hit points and modifiers I will go over once everyone has figured out their race and class. Some of the choices you can hover over, and it will explain a bit more,” you expound while handing your laptop over to Alex.

He quickly takes your computer, puts it down in front of him, and begins to write. You then pick up the spell list sheets and hand them to the other three, stating, “We will look at the sheet I am passing around later after figuring out more of your character, but I would rather hand them to you now to make sure you have it.”

Dakota, Chelsea, and Tanner all put the spell sheet to the side and then focus back on you.

“While I was working with Alex, did any of you think about where you’ve obtained your magic or how you would use it? It wasn’t a requirement for you guys to have done so, I will provide examples like I did for Alex when it came to fighting styles, but I thought I would ask,” you question.

Tanner and Dakota shake their heads “no” before Chelsea speaks up, “There is a class that learns magic through school and books, right? I think I remember reading something about that and it intrigued me.”

“Yes, wizards carry around a spell book of all the magic they have learned through the years and can even add to the book. Was that what you were thinking?” you respond.

Chelsea nods her head, a glimmer of fascination in her eye.

“Sorry to interrupt, but how should I denote expertise versus proficiency on something?” Alex asks.

“I often use a check mark for expertise and just filling in the bubble for proficiency. You can do whatever helps you differentiate the two though and even make a note of what each thing means if that helps,” you mention.

Alex nods yet again before quickly putting down the last of the rogue class information. Once he is done, he hands you back your laptop.

You quickly click to the wizard information on the same site before handing the laptop over to Chelsea, saying, “I’ve pulled up the wizard information for you. You can start putting it onto your character sheet like proficiencies and features associated with level one. As I mentioned before to Alex, wherever you have a choice to make, go for what interests you. Some of the choices you can hover over, and it will explain a bit more. We’ll go over hit points and modifiers later. Abbreviate wherever you see fit.”

Chelsea immediately grabs your laptop and starts getting to work, allowing you to draw your attention to Dakota and Tanner.

“Okay, spellcasters vary greatly. Some are born with it while some must specifically and continuously learn it, the latter being the wizard class that Chelsea chose. Some magic comes through nature while some comes through the arts like music. Some…” you start listing.

“Wait. Magic can be connected to music?” Tanner interrupts.

“Yes! A person from that class is called a bard and it is a very fun class to play, from my personal experience. Does that interest you?” you ask with a grin on your face.

Tanner nods before continuing, “I like the idea a lot, but are they solely a spellcaster?”

“All classes have a physical weapon of some sort, but people can create characters who almost always go for the spells rather than the weapon. For bard, there are a couple of subclasses down the line that focus more on combat with weapons rather than with spells if that is what you wish to do. You would still get magic no matter what route you go with when it comes to the bard class,” you state.

“That’s something I would want to do,” Tanner tells you.

You give him a thumbs up before turning to Chelsea to see her progress. She was just finishing the last part of her sentence before she clicks on something on the laptop and turns toward you with the computer in her hands, the bard page on 5e.tools already up.

“Thought I could help set you up for the handoff,” Chelsea discloses.

“Thank you,” you respond before handing the laptop off to Tanner, “You can start putting in the bard information onto your character sheet like proficiencies and features associated with level one. As I mentioned before, wherever you have a choice to make, go for what interests you. Some of the choices you can hover over, and it will explain a bit more. We’ll go over hit points and modifiers once everyone has a class and race. Abbreviate as you go since we’ll be using this sheet as you guys level up.”

Promptly, Tanner takes the computer and begins jotting down the bard information. Dakota was the last one to figure out what class he should play. You bring your attention to him, ready to help him out.

“Did any of the spellcaster descriptions I’ve given so far seem interesting to you or should I keep going? There are other spellcasting classes I haven’t described yet, so don’t fret if what you’ve heard so far isn’t interesting you,” you inquire.

Dakota shakes his head “no,” so you continue, “What are your thoughts on having your magic being connected to a being?”

“What do you mean?” Dakota asks with an inquisitive look.

“Well, some classes are connected to gods and use their divine power to help. Some have made a deal with an entity which granted them their magic,” you reply.

“Making a deal with an entity sounds…evil yet intriguing,” Dakota remarks.

“Well, dealings with entities are not always evil. Yes, some deals are made just to gain more power, but some make deals to help themselves out of bad situations or to help those around them,” you clarify.

“So, a deal could be made to prove oneself as capable of something?” Dakota questions.

“Yes,” you simply state, “I’m assuming you’re asking these questions because that is the route that intrigues you the most. Is that correct?”

Dakota nods.

“The class that makes a deal with an entity to receive magic is called a warlock. It is one of two classes that picks its subclass at level one. So, what kind of being do you want to make a pact with? I can give examples, if need be,” you ask.

Dakota ponders a bit before responding, “Maybe I’m essentially making myself, but are their entities that revolve around life and death?”

“There are, and there is nothing wrong with essentially making yourself. I made the ideal version of myself in my first campaign, and most of my characters usually have a little bit of me in them too. For the patron, there are two subclass choices: The Undying and The Undead. The two are similar, with some small differences. I can pull up both of their information for you to compare and decide from there if you like,” you suggest.

Dakota nods. As you are about to turn to see Tanner’s progress, your laptop is in front of your face.

“I just finished and heard it was about time for the handoff,” Tanner says with a smile on his face.

“Thank you,” you tell him, returning the grin.

You quickly pull up the warlock information, including the two subclasses, before handing the computer off to Dakota for his turn to jot down his class information on his character sheet, making note to abbreviate words as he goes so he can continue to have room on his character sheet as the adventure continues.

“Sorry for the wait in between everything, I am just trying to get everyone on the same page,” you apologize to the others.

“We get it, don’t worry about us,” Chelsea states.

“This is a learning process for us, so it’s understandable that we’re taking even character creation slowly,” Alex joins in.

You nod your head in acknowledgment at your friends’ responses before continuing, “That’s great to hear. Thinking back to what Dakota noticed about his choices, do you think you are creating a fantasy version of yourself or some completely different person?”

The three waiting for the next step start thinking before looking at one another and laughing a bit.

“I think I’m unintentionally creating myself too,” Tanner states.

“Same,” Alex and Chelsea reply in unison.

“As I said, there is nothing wrong with that. This could help with your character backstories if you want,” you mention.

Dakota looks up from writing at that moment, stating, “I think I’ll go with The Undying as my patron. Also, I like the idea of these characters being us. Maybe we’re Project Fear in this world too!” before continuing to write.

Chelsea, Tanner, and Alex nod their head in agreement before stating almost simultaneously, “I like that idea.”

“Having your characters already know each other helps with why you all would come together for the adventure. Seeing as you guys like the idea of being Project Fear in the game, a shared background may help support that. We can discuss this more after y’all figure out your races as well,” you mention.

That is the moment when Dakota finished writing and handed you back your computer. Taking it from his hands, you look at your friends to see anticipation and wonder in their expressions as they await what is next.

You place your laptop on the table in front of you before saying, “Alright. One part, done. Next is race. I want to make it clear that because you’ve mentioned that you’re making yourselves that you don’t automatically have to make your character human. Again, do what interests you. There are a lot more options for races compared to the class you play, so this may take a little bit. Do any of you have an idea of a fantasy race you would want to play? If it has been in a fictional fantasy world before, then it is highly likely that you can play it.”

“I want to play a vampire!” Dakota exclaims.

“While vampires can be in a game of DND, they are not a playable race,” you mention, noticing a frown on Dakota’s face, “but, there is a race that is part vampire called a dhampir which is playable. Let me pull up that information for you.”

Dakota smiles hearing that he could play something close to what he wanted rather than the idea being scraped completely. You pull up the dhampir information on 5e.tools before giving the laptop back to Dakota.

“You could have kept the laptop had we known you would be the first to figure out the race you wanted to play, but hindsight is 20-20. For ability score improvements, leave the additions next to your ability spaces as they will be accounted for once you figure stats out. Dhampirs are more customizable with where these score improvements go, so I would suggest looking at your saving throw proficiencies as a guide on where they could go. For reference, a size medium creature would be around our size while a small creature is almost child size,” you clarify a bit.

Dakota yet again takes the laptop before jotting down the information onto his character sheet.

Again, you turn back to the rest of the group before proceeding, “What about you guys? Any fantasy races that have interested you in the past?”

“An elf would be interesting,” Chelsea states.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Alex responds soon after.

“Lucky for you, elf is a playable race. We will need to narrow down which type of elf you would like to play as there are a few subraces of them. Some of the subraces may go along well with your class choice. Is that a route you would want to go?” you question Alex and Chelsea.

The two look at each other with agog expressions before turning their gazes back at you.

“I…I didn’t expect there to be options when it came to elves, so I’m down to hear your suggestions,” Alex replies.

Chelsea nods her head at what Alex told you, agreeing with what he had to say.

“Okay, do you have a preference as to who I suggest a subrace to first?” you ask.

“I think Chelsea should go before me as I went first when it came to picking my class,” Alex suggests.

“Sounds good to me,” Chelsea agrees.

“Alright. Chelsea, I would suggest going with a high elf. They are often noted as having a keen mind as well as knowing a decent bit about magic. To me, that seems like a decent fit for a wizard,” you propose.

“I like the sounds of this,” Chelsea responds while nodding.

Seeing the lull in the conversation, Dakota pipes up from his writing, “I noticed for dhampirs that they could originally be of a different race. I was reading more into some of the races and Kalashtar seemed interesting. Since that race doesn’t provide other proficiencies or other movement speeds, could I choose the Quori language to know?”

“By all means go for it,” you answer.

Dakota quickly finishes up his writing before handing the laptop back to you. Before handing the laptop to Chelsea, you click on the high elf information.

“Elves do live a lot longer than humans, so if you want to go down the route of these characters being you, then add maybe 100 years onto your actual age. As mentioned with Dakota, for ability score improvements, leave the additions next to your ability spaces as they will be accounted for once you figure stats out,” you place the laptop in front of her before pointing to the references tab, “Here you’ll be able to find the languages tab and can look at the other possibilities available to your character that is offered for high elves.”

Chelsea starts to jot down the high elf information, leading you to bring your attention to Alex.

“For you, I was thinking the mark of shadow elf. They gain some bonuses for sneaking. With these bonuses, you will get a very tiny bit of magic: a cantrip and a once per long rest use of a spell when you hit level three. Is that alright?” you inquire.

“What would the spell and cantrip be?” Alex asks.

“The cantrip is called minor illusion. You could create a sound or an image with it, which could come in handy if you need some form of distraction for sneaking around. The spell you would learn at level three would be invisibility, which I think is self-explanatory. Had you chosen a spellcasting class, you’d have access to more spells and such,” you explain.

“Sorry to interrupt, but what is the difference between a cantrip and a spell?” Tanner asks.

“You don’t have to apologize for that; it’s an excellent question. Cantrips don’t need any preparation and can be cast at will. Spells, on the other hand, need some preparation such as a certain amount of time or materials needed for it to work. Spells can be cast at a limited amount per short or long rest, depending on the class you chose, while cantrips have no limits on the number of times you can use it,” you clarify.

“I like the idea of having a tiny bit of magic since it did interest me. It won’t be as overwhelming as a class that has many spells and cantrips I feel,” Alex acknowledges with a smile.

“Glad to hear it,” you reply.

At that moment, Chelsea finished what she was writing. Before handing the laptop back to you, she clicked on what you were assuming to be the mark of shadow elf page, much like she clicked on the bard page after writing down the wizard information on her character sheet. With the laptop now in your hand, you can see that your assumption was right.

“Thanks for setting it up again,” you thank her with a nod before handing it over to Alex.

“Don’t mention it,” she replies with a smile.

With the resources in front of him, Alex begins jotting down the mark of shadow elf information onto his character sheet.

“Just a reminder that elves do live a lot longer than humans, so if you want to go down the route of these characters being you, then add maybe 100 years onto your actual age. As mentioned before, for ability score improvements, leave the additions next to your ability spaces as they will be accounted for once you figure stats out,” you remind Alex, who nods at your comment while continuing to write.

The last to figure out their character’s race is Tanner, so you quickly turn towards him.

“When looking more into DND, I ended up going down a rabbit hole of playable races. It seemed so intriguing that there is such a variety. Now, I don’t remember all of them, but I do remember that some can fly, and that intrigued me the most,” he mentions before you could ask any clarifying questions.

It seemed that everyone was a bit shocked by Tanner’s admission, but you could not be happier knowing that your friends were well and truly trying to understand a game you love so much.

With a smile glued to your face, you proceed with “That’s great to hear that you found some interest when trying to understand DND a bit more. You are right, there are a few races that can fly. I will need to ask a few clarifying questions to narrow it down a little more. First question: would you rather be a small creature or a medium creature? As I mentioned with Dakota, a small creature is roughly the size of a child while medium is around our size.”

Tanner ponders for a moment before responding, “I rather like my own height, so medium creature.”

“Okay. Now, would you want to look like an animal? Some of the flying races look like birds,” you question.

Again, Tanner takes some time to think before saying, “I don’t think so. If I’m going down the route of playing a version of myself, I’d rather look more like me.”

You nod your head, narrowing down the options quickly, before asking, “Alright, how far away from looking like yourself are you willing to go? There are 2 possible options left, each diverging at least a little bit from the standard human appearance.”

“I think sticking as close to looking like myself as possible would mean no extra appendages like a tail,” Tanner replies after taking a moment.

“Well, we narrowed it down to the protector aasimar then. They have partial lineage to celestial beings like gods and angels. I think it is fitting that we ended up here as aasimars have healing capabilities outside of the class they choose and you’re always one to help your friends like when you were booking it to Chelsea at Randolph County Infirmary. Protector aasimar cannot fly all the time though, I hope that that is okay,” you explain.

“Is it like how Alex will get a once per rest spell at a certain level due to being a mark of shadow elf?” Tanner asks.

“Yes, exactly like that. Having your wings out will give extra damage on an attack or spell, so they limit the use of it,” you answer.

Noticing that Alex has long since finished jotting down his character’s racial information, you grab the laptop back and bring up the protector aasimar information. The hand off of the computer and a reminder to leave racial ability score improvements next to their subsequent boxes happen shortly after, leaving a moment of respite. You look around the table at your friends, joy overflowing from you. Your friends are inching closer and closer to playing DND with you with every choice they make, and you could not be happier that they were all willing to try it out.

“How much more do we have left?” Dakota asks, grabbing your attention.

“Once Tanner is finished writing down his character’s race, what is left would be your character’s background, your ability scores/proficiencies, and spells for our spellcasters. You’ve mostly figured out your backstories as you’ve already mentioned wanting to be Project Fear in this world too. I know it seems like a lot, but there was the thought of you all having the same background so we would not need to go one-by-one,” you expound.

Everyone nods their head at what you said and soon enough, Tanner is finished with his character information. The laptop is soon returned to you and your friends wait with bated breaths to hear what you have to say next.

“Next up is background. This is what your character was before adventuring and can tie into the adventure as well. Since you guys were thinking of being Project Fear, could I suggest one that might fit all of you?” you inquire.

You get a nod from the four of them before continuing, “One background is called the entertainer. I think it may be self-explanatory on what that would be like. Do you think this would be the right background for all of you?”

The crew look at one another before they all respond with a resounding “Yes!”

You chuckle a little bit before asking, “Since there is only one computer, would you rather all look at the information together on the laptop, have me read it out, or if you want to search for it on your phones, you are more than happy to. I know we didn’t start out with the other decisions with everyone’s electronics out, but I didn’t want you guys being too overwhelmed with the many options.”

“I’m fine with using my phone for this,” Dakota states.

“Same here. Plus, don’t worry about only now having us use our electronics, we get it after hearing all the questions you asked to help narrow everything down,” Alex responds.

“Exactly! I’ll use my phone as well,” Tanner replies.

With a quick look at her phone, Chelsea responds, “My phone is almost dead. Can I use the laptop?”

“Go right ahead,” you say while handing the computer to her before continuing, “For those using your phones, the site is 5e.tools. From there, click on the icon with the word ‘backgrounds’ on it. Then, you will scroll through the options until you find ‘entertainer’ which then you will click on and write down the information. One of your tool proficiencies as an entertainer is a musical instrument, but I am fine with you guys having it be some form of paranormal equipment that you use on the show if you so wish. Also, your equipment section will mention that you have a favor of an admirer. This can be as simple as the Project Fear bracelet or your cross necklace. It does not need to be like one of the examples listed.”

As soon as you are finished explaining everything, the quartet starts writing down all the necessary information. This gives you a moment to think about the campaign. You know you need to have the paranormal somehow involved, especially with how they still want to stick to being Project Fear. Maybe make it so for some reason ghosts aren’t appearing anymore? Nah, that would limit their abilities and seem unfair. A necromancer controlling all the ghosts? That feels like a campaign many people have probably done before.

Your thoughts were cut short when the dull thump of four pencils hit the table as you felt all eyes back on you.

“Okay, next up is figuring out our attributes, which directly ties into our proficiencies, hit points, armor class, and initiative. We will be using a system called twenty-seven-point buy. Each of the six attributes starts at an eight. You have twenty-seven points to add to your attributes. The maximum any of these attributes can be before adding in racial bonuses is fifteen. Remember what your proficient saving throws are to gauge where a score should be its highest and where you may not need to add much to. Constitution affects your hit points, so I would suggest at least adding a couple points there. There will be more to explain afterwards. You can use your phones, the laptop, or if you have scrap paper like the back of the spell sheet to calculate everything before putting in the information.”

With that, the crew start to figure out their stats. Part way through, Dakota looks up at you and asks, “There are two spaces per area for the attributes. Why is that?”

“That’s an excellent question. One spot is for your attribute score while the other is for its modifier. There is no right way to put either number in, though I have heard many people put the modifier in the box and the score into the oval. The modifier is used for proficiencies and skills and is derived from the attribute score,” you describe.

“So how do we figure out the modifier?” Chelsea inquires.

“To get your modifier, you subtract ten from your attribute score, divide that number by two, and round it down. The modifier is what the skills associated with an attribute will be, as well as the saving throw. If you are proficient with something, you add your proficiency bonus to the modifier. At level one, the proficiency bonus is a plus two. For expertise, the proficiency bonus is doubled and then added to the modifier,” you clarify.

The crew nod their heads while continuing to calculate and write down their modifiers, allowing you to think more about the campaign yet again. You have an idea on a non-player character (NPC) to add to the campaign who may give them their over-arching mission. The idea of a banished bard trying to free himself from wrongful exile and persecution after previously being considered a hero seems like an interesting jump off. Possibly an overarching theme of not everything is as it seems or even don’t judge a book by its cover seems like a good work around. But where to start the party off with trying to help said bard?

Again, the clicking of pencils hitting the table is what draws you back from your imagination. You look at the crew and say, “Alright. Next few steps will be easier. Look at the spot labelled ‘initiative.’ This will be added into your roll when figuring out the turn order of a combat. You will add your dexterity modifier in this space.”

With quick nods, the crew jot down the number and allow you to continue, “That same modifier will help you figure out your armor class, which is the number an enemy needs to meet or beat to do damage. Leather armor is eleven plus your Dex modifier while no armor is ten plus the modifier.”

The crew make rapid calculations, write down the number, and await further instructions from you.

“We’re close to being done with character creation. This step will be the last one for Alex to hear instructions from. One of the most important numbers to know from your character sheet is your maximum hit points. Much like a video game, this number determines your health status in and out of combat. Hitting zero means you are unconscious, meaning you will be rolling death saving throw to see if your character does die or gets stabilized. 3 failed saves, meaning rolling nine or lower, equal death. Your party can still heal you in your unconscious state, bringing you back up into the fight. To determine your level one HP, look at what your hit die is. The highest number will be used plus your constitution modifier. For other levels, you will roll the hit die and add your con modifier to determine hit points with the average number being the minimum for this campaign,” you explain.

In the blink of an eye, the crew notes their hit points. Alex places his pencil down and reclines back in his chair, finally done with his sheet.

You chuckle a bit before looking to Dakota, Chelsea, and Tanner and stating, “The last step that I will explain is spell sheets. You each have a certain number of cantrips and spells that you know per level. It varies per class. I’m not sure if you had noted down these numbers exactly, so you can go back to 5e.tools to look it over again should you need it. As mentioned earlier when Tanner asked about it, cantrips have no limit on how often you can use it. With that in mind, have at least one offensive cantrip in case you run out of spell slots. Luckily, 5e.tools does allow you to look at all the spells available to your class as well. You don’t need to write down the exacts, just note their name on the sheet and you can refer to the information online. I still require looking up how spells work, even after playing for years, so don’t think poorly on yourself for not knowing everything.”

You notice the trio quickly get to work on the devices they were using before jotting down numbers of spell slots and names of cantrips and spells their character would know. You turn your attention towards Alex and copy his relaxed position.

“Seem interesting so far? I know this has been a lot of information to take in,” you ask.

“It was a lot, but it seems like it will be fun. You can never go wrong with fantasy I feel,” Alex replies.

“Well, that’s good at least. Once we get into actual gameplay, the fun will pick up. Interacting with a character and daring fights can get your blood pumping. Some people go to the extent of giving their character a voice other than their own and start physically embodying their character like hunching over. Now, none of this is expected out of anyone, and since you guys are playing yourselves, it wouldn’t make sense to give your character a different voice. If you continue to play DND after this campaign and think that would add more fun into your gameplay, then go for it,” you expound.

“We’ll have to see. From all the stories you’ve mentioned, I think I’ll enjoy it, but I do not know how far I’ll go to get into a character,” Alex responds.

The two of you sit in silence for a couple of moments more before Dakota, Chelsea, and Tanner finish writing their spells down.

Once all the writing is done, you speak up again, “That will be the last thing I will make you do with me today. We mentioned having connecting backstories as you all are continuing to be Project Fear in this game, so during some of your free time you can collaborate and write those details down. You can keep simple bullet points, write a paragraph, or some people go to the extent of writing many pages of backstory. As level one, I will say that backstory would be a bit limited when it comes to fighting big beasts. For example, if you were to go fight a dragon now, you all would be dead in one shot. Ghosts and ghouls are potential enemies in the DND world, and at level one, fighting them would also be deadly. That isn’t to say you couldn’t have seen them or talked to them but fighting them would be unlikely where you currently are at.”

The group smiles at you and nod their heads in acknowledgment.

Before you could ask them, Tanner asks, “So when should we meet next?”

“I was just about to ask that,” you chuckle before continuing, “Does Thursdays at 7pm generally work for you guys? I know things can happen last minute, but is this a time that is usually available?”

The crew think for a moment before all nodding their heads and saying some variation of the word “yes.”

“Alright, so 7pm on Thursday it is. See you then,” you confirm before letting them go.

You could vaguely hear them muttering to one another as they headed to their cars to leave. Seems that they can’t wait for next week to arrive.

In the meantime, you have session one to plan out for them.

#project fear #destination fear #dakota laden #chelsea laden #tanner wiseman #alex schroeder #dnd #dungeons and dragons #pov second person #gender neutral reader #you're all the best of buds #kaetie writes

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saltytwi · 8 months

Text

just had 2 crossover ideas for aqours: one for toh, one for tf2

lol get ready for a very silly (and really messy) post

yknow the type of crossovers where you just think that what if the characters were from that universe.

so here they are:

aqours in the toh universe, which i dont know the name of this au yet

aqours in tf2, aka aqours fortress, bc i saw a niji and a muse version but didn't see one for aqours so i decided to do it

they're not idols in either of these btw

also i'm gonna take some inspo from GnY but not entirely bc i still haven't fully watched it. just some stuff

chika takami

in aqours x toh

i know there are 9 covens but she struck me as 'obsessed w magic but doesnt have it'. so yeah she uses glyphs

(but if she would go for a track it would be plant and she would use it SO MUCH to grow oranges)

she arrived in BI one day randomly and a plant coven family adopted her

her family in the canon is that plant coven family

her palisman is a puppy (it's shiitake) it's still an egg but it hatched just a while before day of unity

in aqours fortress

soldier

(she uses a rocket launcher like weapon in gny)

a detail: her bangs are longer than canon so it kinda covers her eyes along with the helmet, but she crooked it a bit so one of her eyes is visible unlike her blu counterpart

in this version of expiration date she teleported oranges for 3 days straight, instead of bread

you watanabe

in aqours x toh

construction

there is no water related coven?..cmon

anyway she and chika became friends when chika first arrived in BI, when she arrived to help her family

she uses her magic to create ramps to jump from, she's fast as hell

she's a feared player in flyer derby

her palisman is an otter

in aqours fortress

demoman

(since demo has a lot of sea-themed cosmetics) and well sea is you's whole thing

(she also has a whole solo that has a pirate/sea vibe (plus shes the center of pirates desire))

one of her melees is the giant flag in that song's live.

one of her taunts is her doing a cheerful salute

soldier demo besties = chika you besties

also btw. she uses tiny little bombs for easier carriage. think of the little blue stones at the beginning of arcane (i forgot the name of it sorry)

riko sakurauchi

in aqours x toh

bard coven

her hairpin is in the shape of a little piano, she summons a keyboard from it

she can also make magic with violins too

the second track she would learn after wild magic got legalized would be beast keeping

and yes just like in the anime, chika approached her first

her palisman is a fox, it stays on her shoulders

in aqours fortress

sniper

to be honest i didn't really know why. but then it struck

she's awkward and reserved

she likes animals

she actually has no idea how she ended up here but she doesn't really complain

she doesn't throw anything. has a strong asf razorback on though

hanamaru kunikida

in aqours x toh

potion coven

mostly seen in the library

she doesn't have a palisman yet but she got an egg (its gonna be a raccoon)

so she always walked to her school but ever since becoming friends with ruby, the latter picked her up and they fly together mostly

in aqours fortress

engineer

smart + shortest lol

hanamaru has a country-vibe(?) solo

in this universe, she's not awful with tech, in fact she's amazing at it

although she's kind of 'old-fashioned' and doesn't get social clues well

and yes she does have gunslinger

shes the one who 'made and upgraded' all the girls weapons. yeah this au kinda takes place in (kind of) future

ruby kurosawa

in aqours x toh

beast keeping

comes from a family full of illusionists, so when she decided to go for beast keeping track she got some side-eyes

except her sister. her sister supports her with her whole being

her palisman is a bunny

in aqours fortress

scout

honestly i have no idea abt this one. i think its the reason i made dia as spy so scout is automatically her sister aka ruby

she's still a diehard idol fan

in the anime her first instict when she gets scared is to sprint away as much as possible and she's fast so there you go. scout

she doesn't have many siblings like the og scout, but she does have a missing sister that her family told her

small detail: her shirt sleeves aren't rolled up

yoshiko yohane tsushima

in aqours x toh

wild magic

i was gonna give her the oracle coven since it has fortune related things but. this is a magical world. it's yohane we're talking about

she would try to master all magic as possible

her favorite is oracle though

she met with riko while she was practicing wild magic, almost got caught but riko somehow saved her from scouts, and then duo went into a bonkers adventure

after that she met chika

was aware of the day of unity bs. first warned chika, then riko

her palisman is a cat

in aqours fortress

pyro

instead of pyrovision, she sees whatever she imagines in her fallen angel thing in the anime

she's wearing a gas mask but the ones that doesn't cover your head fully. it's either that or she cut a part in the full head mask to make her bun visible. her hair is singed in soot (look man i needed something to differentiate her from the og okay)

she doesn't really take out the mask as much as her blu counterpart though.

mari ohara

in aqours x toh

abomination

she's purple lol

her family is kinda like blight indisturies

although she never really cared about their bs, always sneak off to play with dia and kanan when they were kids.

her palisman is a peacock

in aqours fortress

medic

good manners, dramatic, tad bit silly

comes from a rich family of surgeons and doctors

but she never become a doctor and work in a hospital, but she does have a license (idk if its still though)

still childhood friends with kanan and dia. although the latter disappeared after a while so it was just her and kanan

kanan matsuura

in aqours x toh

healing

her palisman is a dolphin

lives with her grandpa, they run a small clinic which also happens to be a shop that sells herbs

she wants to swim so bad. even though the water is boiling and she was born and raised in BI she didnt understand why she has a feeling like this

in aqours fortress

heavy

she's physically the strongest in her team so

wanted to support her family and her grandpa's diving shop, so she somehow found herself doing mercenary work while trying to find a work related to diving

they gave her the heavy class immediately when she lifted the minigun effortlessy in front of them (she just moved it aside from the table it was sitting on)

dia kurosawa

in aqours x toh

illusions

the only one who has a sigil branded on her wrist, even though she's still in high school

her family wanted her to be branded

teacher's pet. she's yells no running in the halls, or shuts up the class before the teacher comes in, etc.

everyone's kind of afraid of her, except her sister

her palisman is a penguin

in aqours fortress

spy

honestly this is entirely based on the vibe

she often tries to get her group together, while not being the leader

(and spy tried to get everyone to work together with their wishes during expiration date)

has good manners, and seen as cold, but she is also silly

also btw i have thoughts of giving her a hood and big sharp sunglasses instead of a balaclava bc i think it looks nice. (but she does wear balaclavas during very secretive missions)

she's still ruby's big sis. (she left the family when ruby was very young. i still havent thought much into this one)

after a while the rest of the team saw her identity

~☆●○°•°☆°•°○●☆~

additional notes:

aqours fortress

in this au, the girls are a bit older, like in post-college age

miss pauling is shizuku

admin is lanzhu

aqours is the red team

meanwhile blu is muse (technically it should be the reverse due to colors but role reversal lets go)

honoka = soldier

kotori = engineer

umi = sniper (uses her bow and arrows more than her rifle)

rin = scout

hanayo = demoman (im still not rlly sure if i should swap kotori and hanayo but kotori's smart and she's a designer, sooo...)

maki = spy (instead of a hood+glasses, she wears a fedora+mask with her hair in a bun)

nico = pyro

nozomi = medic

eli = heavy

i was actually gonna make blu as niji but couldn't decide who's who so i went with muse instead.

i had some ideas for liella but i don't know them too well. maybe one day. (the ideas in question: chisato is scout, shiki is medic, ren is heavy)

aqours x toh

none of the girls are branded since they are all still in high school, well, except dia

they're all in hexside

i have an idea where this au takes place in the same time as the actual canon, but chika's arrival would not make sense since there's probably only one door between the human realm and BI 😭 but then again. what if. another door

during the day of unity they all somehow ran away from that, thanks to yohane and chika. although dia almost died

i havent thought much about that yet

maybe they went to the human realm but i dont think thats possible bc i think there was only one door?..

anyway they all took refuge in mari's family's mansion. dia gave the illusion of it being look like shit so nobody really approached it.

yeaaaah these are not really balanced. some of them has many things, some of them doesnt. some of them also dont really make sense. but anyway i'll maybe draw something(s) for either of these aus

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cagednoob · 1 year

Text

Gonna spitball stupid ideas about God of War since I just finished GOW: Ragnorak.

Putting under a readmore so I don’t kill anyone with a potential huge block of words-

Also spoilers, obviously.

So onto the first-

Who will the next game follow?

Ngl I feel like the obvious answer is that it follows Atreus. He’s going on a journey to find other Giants. It makes sense to follow him.

This game feels like the perfect conclusion to Kratos and his story. Him leading the Nine Realms and fixing the harm done to it (or as much as he, Freya and Mimir can). I think it’d do more harm then good to force him into another game.

Could he cameo in a game solely with Atreus? Maybe? I think a cameo of him would always be a bonus. Whether it’s just dialogue or if him and Atreus find a magical way to communicate long distance.

Actually maybe no magical communication, so then the possible reunion would be so much more sweet. And they better reunite.

Where will the next game take place?

In my heart- Egypt. Egypt was the original idea for the 2018 game, and it was eventually swapped to Norse mythology.

Which fun fact- Atreus wasn’t originally Loki! It was conceived halfway through, and honestly props to that guy who suggested it. But if we’d kept with the Egyptian route I think our boy would’ve been just normal boy.

But also the reason why I say Egypt- Egyptian hieroglyphs are one of the three languages on the Mask of Creation. The others being Ancient Greece and Japanese.

Now along with it being the original setting and cast, we’ve also had many artifacts that originate from the Egyptian mythology.

Such as an Ankh in GOW: Ragnorak, and Atreus himself even puts on a helmet that originates from the region (if I am remembering correctly) in 2018.

And along with this, I can see Atreus having a time in the Egyptian Pantheon- most of them do have animal forms that they can also slip into, which would give Atreus more of an in I guess.

Also the concept art have the Egyptian Gods seen as gigantic (other then Thoth in that one comic, though maybe he could also become big). So I think he’d logically head that way eventually.

Here is some concept art just to share them

Giant God in the distance (maybe Ra, or even another one such as Osiris/Set/Horus)

Killing giant Sphinx from the looks of it

Finally not 100 certain on this piece, but Kratos fighting a giant Sobek

Who would Atreus be in the Egyptian Pantheon?

Now this is a tricky one. Mostly because it’s one you gotta do carefully.

Atreus being Loki is the twist. And it works solely because he was a new character. Kratos works as Fárbauti because he isn’t super prevalent in the mythology. He’s only mentioned by name.

Thus Atreus should he be also someone in the Egyptian Pantheon (whether outright said or stupidly highly suggested)- he can’t be a big player in the myths. We know the boy now, and forcing him into the role of Set (a similar Chaos being), who is a big player doesn’t work. Because we know both their stories, and we know they don’t fit.

Therefor a suggestion would be to look at deities not super well known in public eye, or even those that don’t have as many mythological stories of them.

My suggestion? Wepwawet. There isn’t too much known of him, but also Atreus could fit him.

Wepwawet is known to have two known weapons- a mace and a bow. He is a wolf deity (a form well associated with boy), and also said to accompany the Pharaohs on hunts. And he is the “opener of ways” which Atreus like his father can bring. Especially if he continues the fight against fate like his father.

But he’s a War God, I hear you say. And I say- so what? Yes, Loki isn’t a war god, but Atreus is also Y’know Atreus. And he was raised by Kratos of all people. I can imagine he could theoretically take up the God of War mantle. Which I’d imagine they’d have to if they want to continue calling the franchise following Atreus, God of War. And he could be a Tyr type and fight for peace.

But he doesn’t have to claim the role of any God or mythological figure tbh. But if they have to make him someone I think Wepwawet would be the best bet at the current moment.

Sigyn?

Not sure what to make the “title” of this section, but this is mostly a small ramble-

I’ve seen some nitpicks or complaints that Sigyn wasn’t seen in Ragnorak and I understand for the most part.

I think Atreus didn’t have enough time in Asgard to get to know too many people. There’s many other Asgardians we never met. But we did meet the big players (or the ones widely known by media).

But with the changed fate shenanigans, this likely prevented Atreus from meeting Sigyn as well.

However I do think we could still meet her.

As we saw from the end, many pieces of Asgard fell into the realms. Who’s to say she also didn’t fall with these pieces and managed to, I don’t know? Wonder off?

It’s possible she’d even possibly travel into another place entirely in trying to escape what was happening. After all, how many of the Asgardians were told of what Odin had done? How many did Sif get to inform about the change in plans before the collapse?

So, if she isn’t in Vanaheim, wasn’t updated, and did fall with the pieces of Asgard, why wouldn’t she run? Asgard fell to the enemies and they could be going after every Aesir God. And who knows? Maybe she managed to get to another area entirely far from the Norse Pantheon.

Could do enemies-to-friends-to-lovers arc with her and Atreus even. And yes, Atreus can have multiple loves in his life. Whether it leads to a polyamorous relationship or just a period of romance (between him and Sigyn or Angrboda idk) I’m not sure of. But I think I’d be fine with either.

And her parents can just be two unnamed Aesir Gods. They could imply her parents to be someone sure, but it also fits to just have them being unnamed similar to Angrboda.

But I for sure feel like they have a chance to still include her.

Edit to this 2/11/24: since posting this I am very much more of the supporter of Atreus and Angrboda. I’m still in that mindset of one of them can very much have different romances because love to me is fluid, and who you’re with can change depending on time and place.

So yeah 🤷 I still think she(Sigyn) can still be included somehow one day as a potential love interest. Or polyam relationship, but that’s just me imagining the impossible (probably won’t see a polyam relationship done good in a loooooong time lol).

But if it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen. But if it did happen I wouldn’t be bothered too much since that’s life. And we know that Atreus and Angrboda end up together in the end, we just don’t know the journey to that point. Which what that journey entails could be anything.

Now who would be the big bad?

If it’s Egypt, it’s Ra.

Now there’s many Gods that are the Pharaohs (such as Osiris, Set, and Horus to name a few), but Ra is the big player. Pharaohs claimed to the be the sons of him, and other gods would often times merge with him.

This could be the combined form of Ra, known as Amun-Ra even. Since in this form he is considered the King of the Gods.

But also if Ra was the big bad, that means the Eye of Ra could be bosses. Since there is a mythos of him sending the Eye of Ra as the form of Sekhmet to destroy the humans who were plotting to rebel against him.

And if Atreus was believed to be a threat why wouldn’t one of Eye of Ra be sent after him? And there’s at least three (Sekhmet, Hathor and Bastet).

Last thing too is that Ra sometimes has a myth attached to him where he is reborn everyday. With the sunrise he’d be born again, and I think that’d be an interesting thing to see play out.

Most the final big bads have been older guys, and while Ra could fit the bill- it’d be interesting to see him at different ages. Imagine an age we could see him at even being the same age as Atreus. Maybe the final fight could be just holding him off until sunset when he’s at his oldest.

But the image of Atreus befriending someone his age and then an hour or so later running into the same guy but ancient is something that digs at my mind in a good way. Imagine the fuckery.

I kind of played with the idea in my head that the Eye of Ra Goddesses came from different pantheons. Since most of them their only parent is Ra (Bastet sometimes has a mother that is Isis), one could potentially play with it. Maybe one of them is from the fallen Greek Pantheon, one from the Japanese (the other languages on the mask), and to tie in more form Norse the final one from that Pantheon.

Hell Sigyn could even be one of them, and it would still work tbh since she’d be a new character. Maybe she’d be Bastet.

But that’s a big maybe idea. Since them being just plain ol Egyptian origins is also fine.

Calliope

Now this one is a tricky one as well- and I’ve seen mentions of people saying she’s gonna come back. And tbh? I’m not sure. I don’t think she should because then the impact of losing her (twice) wouldn’t be there.

But I feel like there can be a way since by the end of GOW3 Greece had fallen, and the underworld opened to allow those within to travel. Theoretically she along with other members of the family could’ve wondered out and away.

Personally if she came back, I can’t see Athena not snatching her and using her similar to Kratos. Buuuuut maybe she wasn’t caught by Athena?

Tbh I kind of like the idea of her becoming a God in her own right and having beef with Atreus.

Because Kratos ‘replaced’ her and her mother with a new family Y’know. Not sure what God she’d be. I kind of played with her being Sekhmet since Ra “created” his daughter with magic. Hell with that you could even have his two other daughters Hathor and Bast being individuals from other pantheons that he took in and made his daughters.

Could even do the same to Sigyn :0

But that would be a big stretch and not likely at All. Just a little playful AU in my mind tbh.

#caged rambles #god of war #god of war rambles #Atreus #sigyn gow #that’s all I’ll tag since those were the two big names #gow Ragnorak spoilers #just in case #debating making a god of war side blog to not bother friends #this has been in my drafts for months lol

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thathermitweirdo · 1 year

Text

So uh, I know a lot of people have HelsHermits that they’ve made, and I’ve come to share my own. But they aren’t exactly Hels Hermits, so forgive me of my sins.

To sum it up, basically Scar and Cub used their Vex magic in season six to essentially curse the Architects in order to slow Sahara’s business. This wasn’t their idea, Vex hierarchy or whatever, blah blah. So basically the ConVex duo use their magic to let demons infect Mumbo, Grian, and Iskall like normal rival companies do.

Oh yeah. And they’re cannibals. So they aren’t exactly the friendly type of ‘Hels’.

Mumbo’s body is possessed by a demon the ConVex Duo named Crow. He’s a rather elegant man who was happy with Mumbo’s fashion choice, though he can be somewhat sarcastic and childish. His name is Crow due to the fact that he has large wings on his back that look like a crow’s wings (wow so creative). He’s essentially the ring leader of the other two. Since I can’t draw the basic description is this: He has eyes like a cat, sharp pupils with a shade of yellow that could glow in the dark. Other than that and the wings, his hands are bird-like talons that can easily pierce flesh.

Next comes Iskall’s demon, a man by the name of Fern. Once again a creative name that I 100% blame on Cub and Scar in universe rather than me even though I made the characters and named them. Oh well. Fern has a form of control over plantlife. When possessing Iskall, vines of all sorts manage to break out of their skin and wrap around them. Fern can use these as extensions of his body, they are very thorny as well, so they make for great weapons. He also doesn’t crave flesh like the other two demons, instead, he prefers simply drinking blood.

Finally comes Grian. He is taken over by a demon who cannot speak, who was given the name ‘Mute’. Canonically, Mute and Crow are together (because I’m a horrible sucker for Grumbo even if they’re just demons possessing Grian and Mumbo’s body) and their ship name is Cute. Mute basically has acid leaking out of their eyes, which are completely black and inky. Their cheeks tend to be covered in the black tears, which can be used to melt through most solid objects. Mute also has the ability to smell any nearby players, so they make for a great hunter! Even though he can’t speak, Crow takes the time to listen to Mute and appreciate them. And yes, Mute is non-binary!

So yeah, haha. That’s them. If I could draw I would but uh, I’m not good at that. I do have a oneshot of them on Wattpad, maybe I’ll post it here if y’all like these three.

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft fanfic #hermitcraft fandom #hermitweirdo writes #mumbo jumbo #hermitcraft au #grian #iskall85 #helsmits #hels hermits #evil hermits #they’re gay your honor #hermitcraft season six #cubfan135 #goodtimeswithscar #convex #architects #hermitcraft headcanons

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katyspersonal · 1 year

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You talk about underrated bloodborne cooperators? How about some headcanons on olek or gremia if you have them?

Ahhhhh, shoot; Sorry for the delay ;-;

🦠 Honestly, for him, the things are sort of,, writing themselves? He is a unique cooperator: he doesn't step back during the boss fight, but will always jump into the battle aggressively, as well as being a unique cooperator that can sprint just like the player! This is especially interesting, since he is a cooperator for Isz Dungeons. Another Isz cooperator is Damian, who has like three long distance Hunter tools, a healing bell, and a shield that was distributed specifically for the Tomb Prospectors that delved into Isz. You also cannot summon both Damian and Gremia... This gave me very strong feeling of them having worked together and fallen apart, as well as them having directly opposite hunting styles - Damian being overly cautious, and Gremia being.... opposite of that.

🦠 His affiliation with the Choir is further hinted by him wielding Rosmarinus! Again, he appears to be not a full member, but the lower class that would simply bring them cool stuff from the dungeons... Isz dungeons, specifically. I think it is weird that he doesn't have Loch Shield even as an unused item, though? I can't help but feel as though it is a deliberate choice - he believed it was completely pointless to guard himself from basically "magic", seeing how it was the VERY thing his institution pursued... Basically, not only he is the type to jump head first into a battle, but also he had that concept of 'if that Arcane stuff is truly a good thing, it is not supposed to harm us'. It was both very smart and very dumb idea. Like... He had the right logic, but not the right picture.

🦠 He is one of the characters using the generic face data. You might know it from gems such as:

sgfgdgfd okay sorry for cursing you xd But yeah, I've basically spent it on him, since other characters with this face data had their faces COMPLETELY obscured. He though, shown enough face to earn it. I simply chose the hairstyle and added the 'aged person' spots on his skin.

🦠 Like I said, he used to explore with Damian, whereas Damian would always have his sorry reckless ass saved. But I write down Damian as one of the 'still alive' cooperators; so, Gremia's hatred would be because Damian is in School of Mensis now (hence no way to summon both of them). Gremia is not very capable and educated on the Choir's shenanigans, but with whatever naivety and honesty he has, he believes them way more and is devoted to them no matter how many Ls they take :( Though, in the way, he adopted the mentality that was around in earlier Healing Church somewhere - that you should strive to do good, even if it is not always a smart choice... Or something like that. He swears he can't remember where it came from.

🦠 He visits the base at Choir occasionally, only to cover up rare celestial larvae that would grow into teen or adult state and then petrify. None of those babies is able to grow up to be like Ebrietas, they all lean stronger to half-human and just... go still at some point. I simply drew it from the fact that the "statues" in Upper Cathedral seem to be weird Eldrich figures covered by fabric, as well as themes of petrifying upon facing too much arcane being enough in Bloodborne:

🦠 He is actually on good terms with Wallar! That dude also might originate from Choir's prospectors, moreover, he is wielding an arm of a smaller Amygdala as a weapon... And Amygdalae are trademark Great Ones of School of Mensis. They are both more on the "just block and report" side regarding opposing institutions; but whereas Wallar is more malleable and puts curiosity before principles, Gremia is... well, not that.

🦠 I am not entirely sure where he came from, but hmmm. Loch Shield was initially used in Research Hall by bodyguards of the Healing Church staff that were performing "rituals". I'd say Damian was there for the practice, but Gremia was not. He was simply more of the Healing Church hunters trained by Ludwig. He is also one of like, four people that ever saw Ludwig's Moonlight Sword shining in action - in his case, this was an accident. He told Forgotten Madman, though, and whoever else would listen, because he is absolute garbage at keeping secrets, but only very few actually cared.

🦠 In fact, his penchant for picking up fights and blurting out whatever he thinks was the real reason why Choir collectively agreed to never promote him, at all cost. Gremia is not a fool just because he can be naive and blunt to a fault, but he could not be predicted and controlled in the way they wanted... Hell, they had to lie to the guy that the orphans were terminally ill and experiments were their only alternative from dying early, because if he knew the true nature of those "experiments" - he'd tear them all apart! Like I said, he has a good faith, but is also naive enough to be diverted where "smarter" people want him to be. If you have morally questionable plans - you simply should never let him in, that's it. He won't understand, and jump straight into conclusions.

🦠 He likes working out at the times when he is not exploring the dungeons, nor tending to what remained from the Choir's base. Physical activity just gives him peace! However, if only he lived at the time when photography was developed enough, he would be obsessed with it. He likes pointing out interesting bits about his environment! Without a good camera, though? Yeah, he is bringing along TOO many "discoveries", including the pointless ones, like arcane plantlife everyone saw 7 times this week already, or a literal brick from the wall. At the very least, this passion ensured that he'd bring a LOT of Pearl Slug eggs...

🦠 At the same time, he is forgiving to a fault. If Damian came to him saying that maybe School of Mensis was a failed institution, after all, Gremia would just go 'oh, good, glad you are done being a dumbass'. He is only hostile for as long as it is relevant. Patches woud've approved 🤔

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⛏️ Everything around him suggests being a very basic Tomb Prospector of the Healing Church! His weapons are Kirkhammer and Repeating Pistol, his summon locations are Pthumeru dungeons... Interestingly, in the layers 4 and 5 of Pthumeru Dungeons, you can only either summon him OR Queen Killer. Yeah, I know, gameplay mechanics and all, but!! I try to use what I can + I headcanon that the surviving veteran Queen Killer was helping School of Mensis to capture Mergo's cord from the undead Queen Yharnam (only to be left to die as he expired his use...). So I feel as though the "normie" Healing Church and School of Mensis had a competition for Mergo's cord. Do I even need to mention that Yharnam's battle in the dungeons features her as still pregnant, but with still a slice on her belly area...?

⛏️ You probably don't need a reminder in who won that competition, but yeah... Olek is a rare cooperator that is technically dead as you summon him. I think he fought Queen Killer and lost. He is one of the people that honoured Ludwig, though. If you got to fight him as a hostile NPC - he'd recite Ludwig's inspirational speech (same as what Yamamura recites in his madness).

⛏️ He was not rude to Simon for his weird ass choice of weapon (well... weird in Healing Church's concept of such). Only a few people were understanding of Simon, actually!

⛏️ Otherwise, he was a very devout hunter. It is funny that you asked for both Gremia and Olek, as they are both devout to their institutions! I separate the "normie" Healing Church focusing on the blood ministration and the "nerds" Healing Church focusing on Arcane and Eyes; and so, Gremia would be more interested in eyes, whereas Olek would be more devout to blood. But they both would struggle to listen and consider alternative ideas.

⛏️ I also found his design interesting! The curly hair is my liberty, actually, since his original face data is bald. But he looks rather 'not white', which I wrote in my headcanons about how Healing Church opted out to blaming the "foreigners" for the beast plague, and Olek looked.... very foreign. So, much like with many other hunters and Tomb Prospectors that looked not like typical Yharnamites (think Czech + Polish + Hungarian people), he ended up being tasked with too many requests, just as long as no one had to see him.... Only, he survived for a long while, one of the few.

⛏️ His genuine faith in Healing Church and passion for hunting could bring him back from the death, after all. (More about it in this ( x ) post)

⛏️ He would've been rather social aside of his duties before the Healing Church. He would know every neighbour he has. He would know every friend's birthday and special day to prepare the gifts for. He would always be ready for any celebration months ahead! Basically, he is a 'backbone' person of the community, doing his best and lost to a pointless quest he has lost in anyway.

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Thank you for the ask!

#bloodborne #ask replies #tomb prospector olek #tomb prospector gremia #bloodborne headcanons

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