#core rules

[rpgcovers]

Dragonbane ~ Free League Publishing (2023)

[tabletopgayventures]

Just an update on plans

So a few things I plan on doing going forward:

I'm going to post a Lexicon of ttrpg terms either today or tomorrow. This will mostly be my interpretation of the terms and also cover things I want to talk about with blog.

I'm going to set up an email list. If I do it correctly, I may get help from my mentor for that, it'll allow people to put their email. I'll be able to send updates when I post and what about and also let people know if my blog is deleted. Which we all know tumblr loves to do.

Currently working on overviews of Core Rule Systems. Things like D20, PBTA, Basic, Dominion, etc... The rules that make up the games we know and love. Not ever game has a pre-built rule system but for the ones that do it'll make the reviews easier.

After that I'll do a review of either Starfinder 1e or Glitter Hearts. I haven't decided which yet. But if their are any requests please let me know!

[roll-for-anal-circumference]

IFG v4 Combat

While the heroes are traveling overland, rooting out evil, or exploring a dungeon, there is a pretty good chance they will encounter monsters. When this happens, the game master will need to create the environment for a battle scene.

Scenery

While combat can be performed with just your imagination, it is better to take about a foot or two of space on the table and depict the combat arena. If fighting inside a room or building, you will need to depict where walls, doors, furniture, etc. are, as well as make it clear where hazardous zones and zones of limited movement are. There are several ways to manage this, and your game master will opt for whichever method they deem is worth worth the effort required.

Drawn Scenery: Using one or more large sheets of paper or a dry/wet erase mat, draw any pertinent features. If playing using a virtual table top, this is the only way you really can go, and is where the petabytes of downloadable maps found online come into play.

Modeled Scenery: If using well modeled figures, LEGO™ minifigs, or other forms of detailed markers for your heroes and monsters, you may wish to use actual war-game terrain. Dungeon-crawler board games often have high quality plastic or cardboard scenery, and you can just buy pre-made wooden scenery at any major craft store.

Improvised Scenery: You can just lay out the scenery with books, cups, cards, or anything else at hand.

Option: If using a graduated battle map with preset squares or hexes, each individual square or hex is two yards (six feet).

Positioning

Using whichever types of markers they group has, the game master will place the heroes somewhere on the battlefield. While the game master will keep any declared marching orders in mind, even the positioning of the heroes will up to the game master. After determining the distance and attitude of the monsters, they are also placed on the battlefield. The players are free to look around, but once positioning has happened, the heroes cannot declare activity until combat time has started.

If the nature of the environment does not answer the question for you, or you just want to leave these things up to chance, the game master should determine how may yards the heroes are away from the enemies by rolling 4d6. The usage of light sources and Awareness skill checks should be used to determine of the enemies ambush the heroes, or the heroes catch the enemy unaware, or if both sides of the conflict are fully aware of the other.

The Combat Round

The combat round is the basic unit of time, representing how much it takes for each combatant to take their turn. During a round, a character can accomplish roughly what a real person would be able to do in ten seconds. Of course, confusion, panic, and indecision all play a part, so don't expect a character to achieve very much during a round. Realistically combat would happen in real time with actions overlapping with each other, but for the ability to play the game at all, combat is tracked using turns.

Initiative

Each combat round starts with an initiative check, which determines the turn order of the battle. An initiative check uses an Athletics skill. In order from highest to lowest initiative, the heroes and enemies take their turns, counting down. Heroes and monsters may elect to take their turn after when they have rolled but never before. Players win ties with monsters, and ties between players are broken by the players agreeing on who to let go first. The game master does the same for monsters.

Ambushes: One side successfully ambushing the other causes surprise on everyone being ambushed, and are counted as hidden until they make their first attack.

Kicking In Doors: When characters burst through a door into a room, they surprise anyone in the room. This depends how long it took to destroy the door, warnings from alarms or sentries, and any precautions the party has taken to not be heard. Obviously, if the party has spent the last ten minutes hammering at the door, anyone on the other side isn’t just aware, but may even be ready to attack immediately. Keep your wits about you when judging these situations.

Surprise: Any character who enters combat surprised suffers a -4 penalty to their initiative check, and loses an action on their first turn. Once the second round of combat starts, they’re no longer surprised.

Entering Combat Late: Newcomers into a fight who are not summoned via an ability, hang out on the sidelines until the start of the next round. Summons get to act immediately after they are summoned, then roll initiative at the start of the next round.

Taking Your Turn

Once you have established who goes first, each hero and monster then gets to take turns. On your turn you may perform any two actions, but cannot perform the same action more than once. Here are some actions you can perform.

Actions

Attack: Using one of your weapons, you make an attack against a target within the listed range of the weapon. This is a Weapon skill check against the appropriate Evasion skill of the target. If your attack roll is successful, you hit and deal the weapon’s damage.

Attacking Again: If you already attacked, you may attack for a second time on your turn. This second attack suffers a -4 penalty to-hit.

Escape: If grabbed by an enemy, you can attempt to escape it by using your action. You must beat an opposed skill check using your Athletics skill vs. the grabber’s Brawling or Might.

Get Up: While knocked prone, you are at -4 Reflexes and Move and cannot Run. So you can spend your Action to get up.

Grab: Make an attack to stop the target from moving. You and the target are -4 Evasion skill until you let go or the target escapes.

Reload: You cannot reload the same turn you Ran. Reloading a crossbow takes an action.

Other Action: Do something else that can be done in under 10 seconds while distracted and trying not to get killed.

Move: You move a number of yards equal to twice your Movement characteristic. Moving over terrain such as rough gravel or water cuts your movement by ½.

Parry: You may not parry the same turn you Move or Run. You gain +4 Evade skill until the start of your next turn.

Recover: You may not recover the same turn you Attack or Grab. You take a moment to breathe and take stock of yourself. You regain all lost Stun Points.

Run: You move up to 4× your Movement characteristic, while not making any steep turns. You suffer a -4 penalty to your Evade skill until the start of your next turn. You cannot run over terrain that would ½ your normal movement.

Melee Combat

Something critical important to understand in melee combat is your controlled area, shortened to your control. It is an area you control while in melee combat, you are constantly harrying your foes in this area trying to keep them at bay, as well as make meaningful attacks against them.

Attacking From Stealth: If you are hidden and/or invisible, or the target of your attack unaware of your presence, you have a +4 bonus to-hit.

Back Ranks: Melee weapons with a longer range, such as a halberd or two-handed sword, can stab around allies or over obstacles. This allows them to attack from behind some cover, or allies.

Charging Into Melee: A character who performs a Run action immediately before attacking gets a +4 bonus to their attack roll.

Fleeing Melee: You cannot simply choose to flee melee on your turn. If you wish to flee, you must declare that you are fleeing at the start of the round when initiative is rolled. While fleeing, non-innate attacks have a +4 bonus to-hit you. Once you have declared your intent to flee, the first action on your turn must be to Move or Run out of the controlled area of every enemy you are within.

Innate Attacks: Brawling and wrestling, and the natural weapons of monsters are innate attacks. This means the attack cannot be disarmed without restraining the limbs (via a grab), but cannot gain the bonus to-hit fleeing opponents.

Maneuvering With Melee: You can move freely within the controlled space of an enemy, but must be wary of overlapping enemy control.

Surrounding Your Opponents: If three or more allies have a single enemy within their control, they have the enemy surrounded and benefit from a +4 bonus to their attack rolls.

Weapon Damage: Melee weapons deal between 2 and 4 dice of damage depending on their size and versatility, with bonus damage based on the user's Physical characteristic.

Missile Combat

Missile combat requires a very different kind of spatial awareness from melee as need you to focus on things other than the angry man menacing you. When you attack or cast, you select a target for your action then expend its cost (ammunition or prepared reagent), then roll your skill check.

Attacking From Stealth: If you are hidden and/or invisible, or the target of your attack unaware of your presence, you have a +4 bonus to-hit.

Movement Before Acting: Moving before you attack imposes a penalty on your skill check equal to the number of yards you moved. Movement after attacking has no affect on your action total.

Harrying Enemies: Attempting to cast a spell or make a missile attack within the controlled space of an enemy imposes a -4 penalty to your skill check. If you are surrounded (within the control of three or more) you suffer an additional -4 penalty.

Weapon Damage: Missile weapons often to one or more dice more damage than a melee weapon of the same versatility and size, but do not add a characteristic score to damage dealt.

Partial and full Cover

Cover comes in two forms, partial or full cover.

Partial Cover: Partial cover makes it hard for attackers to get to you, such as chest high walls, pillars, etc. IT provides you with a +4 bonus to your evade.

Full Cover: Full cover makes it impossible to draw line of sight to you because you can just pop out to attack then dive back behind your cover.

Critical Hits

If your attack roll is 10 or more greater than the target’s Evasion skill value, you score a critical hit. Attacks that do not deal damage have no greater effect on a critical hit, however, those that deal damage deal an additional 2d6 damage.

Damage

The common result of a successful attack roll is dealing damage to the target. Damage is first removed from the target’s Stun Points, then if any further damage is left, it comes out of the target’s Hit Points.

Damage comes in a few different flavors, called types. These represent how the attack deals its damage to the target. The Protection spell can alter how you interact with certain damage types, and some monsters may interact with certain damage types by taking halved or double damage from them.

The Damage Types Are:

Physical: Blunt force, cutting, or puncturing trauma from weapons.

Energy: Harm from scorching heat and burning flames, electricity, etc.

Frost: Harm from extreme cold.

Toxic: Chemical damage from poisons, venom, and acids.

Death and Dying

When you hit points are reduced to 0 you die. Thankfully for our heroes, however, being killed isn’t always permanent. Unless your body is chunked via overwhelming damage, medical attention can bring you back of you are attended to before the end of the scene.

If your body, however, is destroyed or you’re left dead long enough for the warmth to fade from your flesh, you need supernatural means to come back. You can’t be resurrected from death due to old age, if your body is so far gone it can’t be identified as being your body, or if you’ve been dead for longer than a year and a day.

Healing

Supernatural healing restores hit points as listed in the description of the spell. Resting, however, is how you heal if you don’t have the reagents or potions on hand. Resting is very slow, gaining only 1d6 hit points back each night of rest, and only if you have food. Resting in an inn or your own home with good cooking provides an additional 1d6 healing.

Status Conditions

Sometimes attacks do things other than deal damage, or deal damage alongside something else. Other times there are things that benefit you

Asleep: You are unconscious, unable to act or move. You usually fall prone when you all asleep. Taking damage from any thing, or a good vigorous jostling will wake up you.

Blinded: You cannot see, making it impossible for you to cast spells or make missile attacks. Your attacks against opponents in melee have a 50% chance to miss even if would have hit.

Hidden: When you are hidden, you are hidden from specific enemies. Creatures you are hidden from can’t target you with attacks, and you have a +4 bonus to-hit. Attacks that would target you have a 50% chance of missing.

Invisible: You are Hidden from everyone, not just those who lack line of sight to you. Also, you can’t be detected without magic.

Paralysis: You cannot move, automatically fail any Body and Weapon group skill checks, and suffer a -4 penalty to your Evade skill value.

Poisoned: You are weakened due to poison, suffer a -4 penalty to all Skill checks.

Prone: You are on the ground, you do not control the area around you and melee attacks made against you have +4 to hit. However, missile and spell attacks originating outside of 5 yards suffer a -4 penalty to-hit.

Stunned: You’ve been knocked for a loop, making it impossible for you to do anything. You drop the items held in hand and skip your turn.

Damaging Objects

Kicking through a door, using a war maul to bust down barricades, breaking magic rings, etc. There are many a reason why heroes may have to deal damage to an object.

Objects have a hardness score and hit points, but no stun points. These numbers are based on material density and size. Damage to objects is reduced by its hardness before subtracting the remainder from its hit points. Unattended objects have an Evade score of 10 with objects being held by another creature target the holder’s Evade skill value with a -4 penalty to-hit.

Damaged Objects: An object that has fewer than half of its hit points is damaged. Damaged objects can still function, but impose a -4 penalty to their usage, and no longer benefit from their Hardness if damaged again.

Repairing Objects: Not all objects can be repaired. If the game master rules that it can be, a skilled craftsman may spend time repairing objects by making an appropriate skill check each day of work. A successful check repairs hit points equal to how much the check beats the item’s hardness. A properly equipped lab grants a +4 bonus to the check. Each time an object is repaired, its Hardness is reduced by 1.

Cloth, Paper: Hardness 0; HP 1/inch

Glass, Ice: Hardness 5; HP 2/inch

Leather, Hide, Rope: Hardness 5; HP 10/inch

Copper, Wood: Hardness 10; HP 240/foot

Stone, Iron/Steel: Hardness 15; HP 360/foot

Hard Metal: Hardness 20; HP 480/foot

Most Weapons, Shields: Hardness 10; HP 30

Knives: Hardness 15; HP 20

Firearms: Hardness 15; HP 50

Climbing and Swimming

Climbing a sheer surface or swimming through water is handled via Athletics skill checks. They allows you to move upwards or through the water at speeds based on a combination of your Movement characteristic and the quality of the surface you’re climbing or swimming through.

When climbing up or swimming, your speed your Movement ×1 yards. Whereas climbing down, your speed is ½ your Movement.

Falling

Its not the fall that kills you, but the landing. Heroes who fall from a cliff and land on solid ground or still water take impact damage. For every 10 feet fallen (3 yards plus a foot), you take 1d6 points of damage on impact, to a maximum of 20d6 damage.

Suffocation

You can hold your breath for a number of minutes equal to twice your Physical score. However, if unable to breathe longer than that, you start to suffocate, losing 1d6 hit points per round. The loss of hit points caused by suffocation is not normal damage and as such ignores Stun Points.

[maliciouscigarette]

Art by giganticbuddha (here's their ko-fi)

[fonmythenmetz]

The Shadow

[emacrow]

Tim whom is still banned from caffeine went into looking into other ways to get caffeine.

He went into anonymous source from someone name KingTuck4ever who talk about a energy drink that kept him up for weeks during a critical time of his life and Tim was at this point of desperate to spend any time of money he got.

Later that night, he received 6 very large Dark green boxes with a DP logo on it filled with Lightening Green tall soda cans with the name Ecto-Spark!, ingredients tags on the back, made with organic vegan products, DO NOT NEAR MEAT RELATED PRODUCTS, guaranteed to keep you caffeine deprived souls awake and alive enough to enjoy a night afterlife party! Or your money back.

Tim at the point didn't read the back as he pop open the top, smelling a strong scent of caffeine, carbonated bubble and a taste of lemon lime mixed with a tang flavor that had his mouth drowning nearly in drool.

He took only one experimental sip, before his eyes widen instantly and immediately began chugging the soda can for all the liquid caffeine it had inside. This was 1000 times better then Death Coffee Cup from his favorite Cafe that he was still banned from.

It felt like his whole body got electrified with energy and feel like he can run a whole 4 week marathon without breaking a sweat. This drink was like tasting nirvana after a week of being in a Gobi desert for his fucking soul.

.....

.....

.....

Bruce can never know about this. He can't tell anyone about this drink. Not Damian, Not dick, not step, maybe Jason, but Cass can kept a secret since she knew body language. He might possibly go rogue and kill Bruce himself if Bruce tried to take this from him.

Meanwhile Tucker was amazed of the total amount of money he received from the anonymous Caffine obsessed ghost. Usually he ended up receiving old relics, Egyptian related artifacts, gold coins, etc but this is a first he got actually modern day money.

Poor dude must've been recently form a core to spend that much money. Good thing he had send extra since he know how crazy those caffine-obsessed ghosts can be over the new drink he made specifically for himself, Sam and Danny but it's nice to have extra cash for new tech making. Especially since Danny became high king of the ghost zone when he became 20 year old, and the amount of paper works that had been left for dust collecting could filled a planet to the very brim.

Took him, Sam, Danny, Ghost writer and Techno 5 months to fully turn at least 26% of sacrifical gifts from ritual, contracts, conquests, complains from territorial ghosts about humans taking their land/house/property/or about their murder, help hundreds of ghosts stuck in their personal hell of a limbo of their own death, guy name Constantine whom was rapidly becoming a pain in Tucker's ass especially when he got one contract form his former previous life about this guy.

[ashes2caches]

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 1: Dread on Arrival

(Part 2)

[garlicgravy]

I don't remember this but HOLY FUCKING SHIIIIIITT LLOYD WAS CONFIRMED TO BE AT LEAST 9 YEARS OLD HERE AND HE WAS ABLE TO DO THAT??? JESUS FUCK

[rpgcovers]

The Wildsea ~ Quillhound Studios (2022)

[eegnm]

Morning after

Details:

[roll-for-anal-circumference]

Creating Your Character

Find out from the game master what kind of campaign is being played, and come up with a character idea that fits with the idea.

Spend a number of Character Points to determine your base characteristics. The exact number is based on the power level of the campaign.

Determine your Derived Characteristics.

Spend a number of Option Points to buy your Skills and Talents. Skills cost 1 point per +1 and Talents cost 3 points each. You may not buy the same talent more then once unless the individual talent states otherwise. Heroic or higher-tier characters should have access to more options than just skills and talents; at least one form of power set.

Choose your equipment from an equipment list presented by your game master, this might be just selecting items or spending an in-universe currency as best fits the campaign.

Power Level and Point Totals

Everyday: 15 CP/15 OP; Transforming heroes before getting their powers.

Elite: 20 CP/25 OP; The baseline for characters worth being the main characters.

Heroic: 25 CP/35 OP; Most of the Marvel universe

Superheroic: 30 CP/45 OP; Justice League, Late Dragonball/early Dragonball Z

Cosmic: 35 CP/55 OP; Dragonball Super, DC’s The New Gods

Skills and Talents

Where your characteristics are who your character is, your skills is what they know. Skills come in four groups; Body, Education, Social, and Righting. Silo the skills into alike areas, but do not dictate which characteristic they apply to. Each skill defines which in its own individual entry.

Talents are special abilities that go above and beyond the normal limitation of skills. Some provide small bonuses that apply to multiple areas, a large bonus that mitigates penalties or has a very focused use, or may even just be a new mechanic for your character.

Option Points

After noting down your Everyman skills, you have a number of Option Points to spend on further skills and talents. Each option point put into a skill increases its bonus by +1, and each talent costs 3 points. Skills and talents are described below. While there is no hard rule to limit these things, try to balance things out so that you’re not rolling more than a +10 for more than one skill.

Everyman Skills

Every character begins play with a +2 in each of the following: Athletics, Awareness, Basic Weapons, Evade, and Wrestling.

If your game includes nonhuman characters, you may be presented with a different set of everyman skills and maybe even talents.

Skill Descriptions

Body Skill Group

Athletics (Reflexes): Running, sports, etc.

Awareness (Reflexes): Spatial awareness and reflexes, investigation, and searching.

Climbing (Physical): Climbing sheer surfaces, with or without handholds and ropes.

Might (Physical): Feats of strength, such as kicking down a door or lifting a portcullis.

Stealth (Reflexes): Sneaking and hiding, attacking while unseen grants you a bonus to-hit.

Education Skill Group

Artistry (Mental): Creating pieces of art. You may define one specific field of artistry you get a further +1 bonus with.

Etiquette (Mental): Knowing how to behave the right way in the right place.

Husbandry (Reflexes): Tending to animals, and using them as a mount.

Lore (Mental): Knowledge of the world and history. You may define one specific field of lore you get a further +1 bonus with.

Sailing (Mental): Performing the various jobs needed to sail a ship on the seas.

Tracking (Mental): Following animals, people, or monsters in the wilderness.

Trapping (Mental): Creating, disarming, and finding traps.

Social Skill Group

Empathy (Mental): The ability to read a room, and understand the feelings of others.

Performance (Mental): Distracting, entertaining, and telling lies.

Persuasion (Mental): Getting person your talking to in the mood to do what you ask.

Wardrobe/Style (Mental): How well you know how to accessorize and style your clothes.

Fighting Skill Group

Archery (Physical): Firing a bow or crossbow.

Boxing (Reflexes): Fighting using unarmed strikes, usually your fists but kicking is allowed.

Evade (Reflexes): Dodge physical attacks.

Fencing (Reflexes): Fighting using edged weapons.

Firearms (Reflexes): Firing carbines, assault and battle rifles, muskets, pistols, shotguns, etc.

Heavy (Physical): Fighting using weapons that strike with a heavy blade or blunt force (axes, hammers, maces, etc.)

Polearms (Physical): Fighting using a halberds, spears, and staves.

Taunt (Mental): Attacking with your words to distract or fluster an opponent.

Throwing Weapons (Physical): Throwing darts, javelins, and stones. Including using launchers like the atlatl or sling.

Wrestling (Physical): Fighting with your bare hands to overpower and restraint foes.

Talent Descriptions

Acute Senses: One of your five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) is extremely acute. If the sense is touch, you can read print with your fingertips, feel tumblers moving in a lock, and determine subtle differences in materials by feel. If the sense is smell, you can instantly detect people or substances by scent alone and can track them like a bloodhound. At the bare minimum this reduces penalties due to muffled senses by half, and grants a +2 bonus to Awareness skill checks that use the acute sense. You may select this talent multiple times, each applying to a different sense.

Ambidexterity: You do not have a dominant hand, able to use weapons and tools in either hand at no penalty.

Animal Empathy: Animals like you; they will never harm or attack you unless severely provoked. You always seem to attract whatever animals are common to the area, and they will immediately gravitate to your side, although they may not necessarily do what you ask them to.

Beautiful/Handsome: You are extremely good looking; people will automatically stop and stare at you when you pass, and you are generally surrounded by admirers. In addition, you automatically have a +1 bonus to your Persuasion, Performance, and Wardrobe/Style skills for each level taken.

Blind Fighting: You can attack in melee combat even if you are not able to see your opponent, and ignores the usual -4 penalty to-hit for attacking an enemy you can’t see in melee.

Combat Sense: Your reflexes are keyed for danger; you automatically react faster to danger than anyone else. You have a +1 bonus to Initiative checks for each level taken.

Direction Sense: You are never lost, always know where North is and can orient yourself easily without any external cues.

Double Jointed: Tou can bend your limbs and joints in impossible ways. You can fit into any space equal to half your height and width and it is impossible to tie you up or entangle you with a single rope; you can only be restrained using restraints like cuffs, shackles, or nets.

Eidetic Memory: You never forget anything you have read, seen, heard, smelled, or touched.

Immunity: You are immune to the effects of one specific poison or disease group (must specify).

Intuition: You have an uncanny feel for hunches; the GM will give you a chance to make an Awareness check whenever he thinks you might get a hunch, even if there are no clues present.

Lightning Calculator: You can automatically do complex mathematical operations in your head without using any aids.

Light Sleeper: You wake instantly from even the lightest touch or smallest sound (no Awareness check required).

Longevity: You are extremely long lived, but do not show any appreciable signs of aging. No matter how old you are, you always look and feel as a person half your age.

Night Vision: You can see the dark.

Perfect Pitch: You always know if something's in tune, and automatically gain at +3 bonus in any musically related task (singing, playing instruments, etc).

Rapid Healing: You heal extremely fast, recovering 1 hit point per hour. You may take this talent a second time to increase the healing to 1 hit per minute, then a third time for 1 per round.

Simulate Death: You can lower your heart rate and breathing to such a low level that it is a Legendary difficulty (TN 35) to tell whether you are dead or not.

Speed Reader: You can read one page of any normal text that you are familiar with in three seconds (you can read 200 pages in 10 minutes).

Status: You hold an influence in society, complete with the appropriate resources. Each time you take this talent, increase our position to the next higher level. Within a European style medieval fantasy setting, the levels are as follows:

Level 1: Guild or local bureaucrats, knights/police

Level 2: Guild officers, low nobility (Viscount, Baronet), regional bureaucrats

Level 3: Guild masters, middle nobility (Count, Baron), kingdom bureaucrats

Level 4: High nobility (Duke, Marquis)

Level 5: Low Royalty (Grand Duke, Prince)

Level 6: High Royalty (Emperor, King)

Time Sense: You always know what time it is, always know how much time has elapsed between the present and the last time you checked.

[redavexat]

I am casting a prediction

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 268

Fright Knight sighs, running a clawed hand through his hair in an attempt to stop the flames from flickering into being. It had been far too long since he had taken a human-ish form. His human-ish form. Ugh. He didn’t exactly care for his human form after so long as a ghost, but needs must he supposed. 

Especially with the whole, we’re going to punch a backdoor into the literal daycare part of the Infinite Realms and be surprised when literal toddlers go exploring. 

Well, at least it got him off of guard duty for a bit, which was relieving. Not that he didn’t love the darkness, but it got boring in the shadow of his sword for literal centuries with nothing else happening. He was a warrior for Realm’s sake! Borderline an Ancient in both power and age! He wasn’t meant to stay so still for so long. 

So while ghostling wrangling wasn’t exactly in his area of expertise, he could definitely gather them back up to the Realms. And deal with the curs who had decided to attack literal babies. 

The Daycare area was already understaffed due to just how large it was, and the one in charge of this section had practically sobbed to the Council (In another world they would have been put on hold for a century in line for their concerns, and then more once a Sarcophagus was opened, but they had told the other ghosts in distress, causing others to let them go up in said line) how they were almost certain they had felt at least one core form Outside the realms thanks to the breach. 

Which had understandably put everyone at an uproar. 

So here he was slipping between shadows to do reconnaissance and take stock of if any Ghostlings had left the city. And gently scruffing those he comes across in exasperation because what are you doing, ghostling? Look at the mess, what would your caretaker say? 

[jon-sedai]

For a significant period of his life, Rhaegar lived knowing that he was the prophesied prince.

Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, ‘I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.’ (Dany I, ASoS)

Most (if not all) of the written lore we have depicts Azor Ahai as being a warrior who wielded a magic sword. So it’s not unreasonable to assume that Rhaegar’s decision to become a warrior came because he read about Azor Ahai and his Lightbringer. And Rhaegar did become a warrior, one primarily characterized with his House’s main colors: black and red.

Many years later, Rhaegar’s last surviving son also reads about Azor Ahai and his Lightbringer — in a book Rhaegar left behind, no less. Now Jon doesn’t dwell too much on it, but a few chapters later he dreams of this:

Burning shafts hissed upward, trailing tongues of fire. Scarecrow brothers tumbled down, black cloaks ablaze. “Snow,” an eagle cried, as foemen scuttled up the ice like spiders. Jon was armored in black ice, but his blade burned red in his fist. (Jon XII, ADWD)

This one line holds visual imagery that speaks a thousand words. Jon is a warrior in black armor, as his father once was. The visual contrast of black and red also calls back to the house of dragons; which is a great touch given that Jon’s ADWD arc is marked by Melisandre’s dreams of waking a dragon. Plus Jon has a glowing red sword — THE sword of heroes, Lightbringer.

There’s an interesting contrast between Jon and Rhaegar here. Rhaegar, defined by his inheritance, was directly primed to be the hero. But he couldn’t be because he died. On the other hand, Jon is defined by his lack of inheritance; being bastard born and all. Yet it’s Jon who actually lives to realize the hero’s ideal. Jon is the one who actually wields Lightbringer; well, he will in due time. Despite his bastardy, Jon is already achieving things Rhaegar never did. Which raises an interesting question: Rhaegar was the heir, but he never sat the throne, nor did he fulfill prophecy. Bastard as he is, Jon is already fulfilling prophecy….so will he do what his father never did and rule as well?

[sunstonespark]

main series ryuki characters redesigned as madoka magica style magical girls yaaaaaaaay

i have a lot of thoughts about this as an au but i'm not bothered to write them rn lol