#chekhov draws rqg

[thechekhov]

A little behind on RQG, but I had to draw Wilde in his Robes of the Thespian. 

(Robes based on this wonderful coat)

[thechekhov]

So hey. Rusty Quill Gaming ended. 

I finally got a chance to listen to the last episode a week or so ago.

And... that epilogue (at least the first part of it) has me feeling some sort of ways.

(spoilers for RQG end + Epilogue ahead)

Where to begin...

I think I’ll begin with - I really loved that campaign as a whole. I loved the characters, and I loved the progression of the story, and so of course I hated to see it end. I think that’s a common issue for many things, and it doesn’t reflect badly on the podcast itself, regardless of how negative my feelings may be.

At the same time I have to admit a weakness and say that ‘all the magic is now purged from the world’ is one of my least favorite tropes in magical storytelling. I understand why it may make sense thematically. I understand WHY people are drawn to that ending in some circumstances. I understand that jokes about how magic builds reliance have their place, and how it’s a valid reading. 

And yet.

The fact that the world went mundane and all the characters (save for Hamid) seem to have moved on relatively quickly and without issue feels like such a slap in the face. 

I don’t mean ‘moved on’ in the technical sense. I understand that the epilogue dealt with many fallouts of the world having to adjust to loss of magic. I appreciated the details added into that - the fact that communication has slowed, the fact that mass production has slowed, the fact that travel without use of Elementals has become a problem... Those are all very cool things to see in a worldbuilding sense. 

But I feel that, aside from Hamid, none of the players have bothered to draw any attention to the emotional fallout of removing magic from the world wholesale.

Magic, which is a historically powerful, well researched and well known study of energy and matter, and the interaction of the real world and those beyond. Magic, which was some people’s life work - and some people’s life blood. 

Einstein was a Wizard, for fuck’s sake. This was his whole LIFE. Yes, he is a bit wonky at this point in his life anyway thanks to magic, so he may be adjusting to this on a skewed scale. 

And yes, Azu is the most emotionally adjusted of all of them so I can forgive her dealing with her lack of connection to her deity in private. 

Yes, Zolf has always been an emotionally constipated asshole, and YES, he has had AMPLE experience with loss and grief, and this is not his first rodeo, so he is probably better equipped to handle this than most.

Even Wilde, who is a powerful bard in his own right, used his magic as a support for his other talents, and has things to fall back on which are not built entirely on magic. 

But Hamid? Holy fuck, Hamid. Magic was him.

He is the YOUNGEST of all of them. Before beginning to discover his magical abilities, he didn’t have anything to call his own except his family’s money. He didn’t have anything he could be proud of - indeed he was deeply ashamed of the person he had become. He built his whole identity, his whole pride, on the basis of his draconic bloodline. 

Magic - his birthright, his connection to his adventuring career, his reason to keep going - was torn from him and now he is just. Existing. 

And damn, that hurts.

Maybe I’m reaching here, maybe I’m projecting my own dependencies onto this sad little character. But I feel like people often underplay the importance of magic in a world that has co-evolved with it for so long, as has become so deeply entwined with its history, its cultures, its way of life. 

It’s not just a shortcut for lazy wizards - it’s something they studied, understood, worked years of their life into. It’s not simply something that makes their life easier, it’s not a deus ex machina generator for real-life problems. It’s something that has literally existed alongside physics, and something as integral to their world as gravity is to ours. 

I am an artist, at heart. I don’t pretend to be particularly exemplary at it - I didn’t go to art school. I just loved to draw. It was something I connected with early on, something that I called my own, and something I would always come back to as a form of self expression. 

I keep imagining a world in which I had gone on a quest to save everything I’d known - and had unwittingly sacrificed art in the process. 

I think about coming back into a world devoid of art. I think about realizing I could not draw - would never draw again. I think about flipping open empty comic books, trying to remember what they looked like. I think about stores, and libraries, and museums - empty of illustrations. I think about caves where the paintings of our ancestors have ceased to exist - our connection of them forever lost to time. 

What would that be like? To lose a part of yourself so integral to your identity that it feels like the part of you that kept you alive has been wiped blank? How would you feel if the world simply tried to keep going? Would you have the strength to turn to something else, to try to find something new? Or would the betrayal of losing decades of your purpose sting? 

In the epilogue, there was a gentle hint that Hamid avoids drinking now. I would not be surprised if it was the result of turning to drinking early on in that first year without magic. I can very easily imagine him feeling lost and alone, and wanting nothing but the numbness. 

And I am glad that a few others seemed to have noticed it somewhat, but I feel like the weight of that sort of thing is nowhere near done being discussed. I hope it isn’t. I hope we hear how the others may have dealt with it. I hope we hear how Wilde can no longer make illusions. I hope we understand how Azu dealt with losing her friend Topaz, and her god, and her healing. I hope we get a glimpse into that world, and the suffering that rift had caused. 

Because damn, it deserves mention.

[thechekhov]

Listening to BenQuest on RQG recently has given me life. It's really cute, and I love how hard they're all trying to be Ben!

Also extra points for Ben facepalming every 5 seconds. He's doing a great job as a GM!

[thechekhov]

Who’s up for some ONLINE Tabletop Gaming? How about the RQG grew playing online Pathfinder as... themselves?!

The gang’s all here! How are they playing online after they dismantled [SPOILERS]? Who is the DM? What is Cel doing with all their dice?!

Find out - never! I don’t know what I was doing with this. But it was fun nonetheless. :) 

[thechekhov]

I’m so sorry but I have been relistening to RQG25 just for all the horrid puns and I realized that Wilde was VERY likely just outside the door listening to the rest of that conversation play out, and he PROBABLY heard that. 

[thechekhov]

RQG177 was everything I’ve ever wanted, starting with the greatest combo ever.

[thechekhov]

Hellow fellas, I’m back on my bullshit.

[thechekhov]

I am a little late to the game, but the latest few episodes of RQG have allowed me to make small Satisfied Russian noises. As such, I felt the need to draw the newest character Sahra. 

Based her design heavily on the Nenets people, given that I would assume that’s the part of Russia the crew is currently in. These past few episodes have been... quite a ride. :) 

(more fanart imminent, but I’m waiting until the latest ep goes public)

[thechekhov]

Another online DnD ‘screengrab’ of Azu. Had to take some liberties with her house, as we really don’t know what it looks like yet... hope I did it justice! :D 

[thechekhov]

Last one for the ‘RQG Characters playing online as themselves’ series. Cel nearly killed me! Their background details were the hardest to color. I’m ready to perish now. 

[thechekhov]

Remember when I drew that one ‘screenshot’ of my DnD character playing online DnD as... himself? 

Well now I’m unhinged and have a MIGHTY NEED to draw all the RQG characters doing the same. 

Anyway. Here’s Hamid! He has The Fanciest Setup Possible. (Don’t question the technology vs. Timeperiod, just don’t question it. Don’t.) Stay tuned for the others.

[thechekhov]

From my ‘RQG characters playing online TTRPGs’ series. Zolf is not worried. He’s got LOADS of hitpoints. 

[thechekhov]

Cel has priorities, and those priorities are reasonable. 

Azu has her doubts, but she can’t deny it is cute. 

[thechekhov]

See you, Sasha.

…

[thechekhov]

Thank you, Alexander “Monkey’s Paw” J. Newall.

[thechekhov]

I really can’t stand all this in-party fighting, I just want them to be dumb together.