#crew of the per aspera

[e-johnsen]

When your simple expression practice gets out of hand and turns into two full sheets of chibis. This always happens and explains why nothing ever gets finished. I guess... reaction emotes anyone? 😅

[found-family-tournament]

Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 12 Group 57

Propaganda and further pictures under the cut

Crew of the Per Aspera: Kyana, Dani, VR-LA, Finbar (+ the various lil guy pets and familiars)

Submissions are still open!

Crew of the Per Aspera:

Sorry, I got no propaganda for them yet :(

Reyna & Nico:

Sorry, I got no propaganda for them yet :(

[puppuddart]

teefies

[justablah56]

I miss rwd :(

[4letteraroace]

no rolling with difficulty today :(

i must wait one more week before i can be reunited with my blorbos :(

i fear i may perish without them :((

[the-mountain-flower]

(Spoilers for Rolling With Difficulty, S5E10)

I realized that since VR-LA had his memories restored, he probably knows what his original birthday is.

How awesome would it be if it just so happened to be the same day as the crew's group birthday?!

[incorrectrwdquotes]

Otto: Can you do something for me?

Dani: Of course!

Otto: And can you do a good job on it?

Dani: Whoa, whoa! You're changing the whole deal here!

[stormcrow13]

Rolling with Difficulties and a breakdown of project creep

Rolling with Difficulty is a live play 5e D&D Planescape podcast. Sophia, who plays Dani (does the Moviestruck podcast and is Overly Sarcastic Productions editor/producer) made several jokes about precious moments figurines in Season 3 so I wanted to make precious moments figurines of the characters. I started that in January of 2023 when Season 3 was playing and I posted it on April 1 of last year.

Since I made those I thought I might as well make minis and since I wanted to reduce the number of packages I held off on sending the precious moments to the RWD PO Box. And since I wanted everything, other than the precious moments figures(because I showed them off while making them), to be a surprise I didn't post any of them. Austin the DM thought that Intellect devourers are too goofy with dog legs so he gave his spider legs which I though was cool so I made it and printed a few. @comicaurora, who plays Kyana, posted some concept art of an ancient drone that appeared for a chapter of Aurora and I was inspired by the one she labeled as dumb so I modeled it. I thought it would be weird to only send one concept and not the one that appears in the comic so I did those too. They got posted earlier and separately since they are not RWD.

By the end of Season 3 I had modeled the original crew and Dani's robot cat Plug and printed a mini of each(plus and extra Dani for season 1 red Dani) for their player and Austin. I though I should send a Plug in scale with the Precious Moments figures and that the rest of the crew would want them. So I printed one for every cast member.

And then between seasons 3 and 4 they did a Weird Little dude one shot giving official art for every crew member's companion. One of Finbar's pixies Old Bay, one of VR-LA's mechanical bugs Drone, and Kyana's pseudo dragon Sunny. So I modeled all of them and printed one for their player and one for Austin. I was trying to paint and send out all them before Season 4 started so I wouldn't have to model Vhas. Well Season 4 ended in September 2023 and I'm posting this now. Season 5 was announced to be the last about the crew of the Per Aspera and I was still procrastinating on painting them so I made peace with them not being painted and just sent them. Austin told me he opened the packages right before recording the last episode of Season 5.

And I ended up needing to send them in two boxes despite not wanting to send more than one being the reason I delayed sending them.

The Models can be Downloaded for free from

Printables: Crew, Weird Little Dudes, Intellect Devourer

Thingiverse: Crew, Weird Little Dudes, Intellect Devourer

If you want to help me keep making free models or to tell me what I should make next please check out my Patreon

[theexhaustedqueer]

my favourite thing about the back half of Campaign 1 is that the crew of the Per Aspera at that point consists of: Kyana, who has a rare secret bloodline that gives her two souls and a never ending quest to fight evil, VR-LA, the actual chosen one of Mystra and someone who has made bargains with several other mystical beings, and Vhas, who’s divinely favoured by Ysgard, the chosen one of the Githzerai, and has been tasked with united the Githzerai and Githyanki under one sky. And then there’s Dani. A random orphan mechanic from the City of Brass who just happened to be in the right place at the right time to get her hands on a spelljammer. And the best part? Dani is objectively the most dangerous member of the crew.

[caliburn-not-calculator]

I ramble about: VR-LA’s Character Arc

I feel like I’m just saying loads of the obvious with this but I still wanna say it cause it’s in my head and won’t leave.

Anyway, heads up for mention of: Suicidal Ideation and Tendencies

VR-LA’s story starting from a place of absolute aloneness and even suicidal ideation, but ending with so many families, friends, and homes and a promise made in the maze of life to keep on going… It has me feeling things

He begins with nothing but flimsy phantom feelings from his past and his strengthening relationship with his friends keeping him stable. And, as seen with the Zuggtmoy madness and the despondency well, without them he ends up right back in that spiral. Right back in that trap of wondering it it would better to have not woken up on the ship.

Later, his isolation through his wish and utter dedication finding his old crew puts a slight wedge that relationship. His drive to find his past nearly breaks his present, and he ends up having to reconstruct both his bonds with them (though minorly) and his old crew. It’s the thing that leads him to try and leave his past in the past, and focus on what he has now. He tells Dani that when he dies it’ll be on this ship, that he isn’t going anywhere. He picks this life over the old one. That connection to his family and home that has kept him going, now stronger… but not yet healthy, not yet healed. The stubborn refusal to leave his past comminuted to be put to rest through season 4 now he’s learned how unhealthy it was to dwell on it. Killing Endellion, proclaiming to his old crew that the old him is gone, being willing to give up the ship to Dani. Being willing to give up and leave behind the home he once pledged to die on. All of that showing how his outlook has progressed from the Then, to the Now, setting up the lead in to the Later he comes to look forward to in season 5.

But at this point, VR-LA’s pledge to die on the ship is still standing, until all of sudden that declaration is thrown into question by his promise to Maxim. An unexpected moment, maybe considered quietly in the back of his mind for awhile, but now coming to a head at the wake up call that is Maxim’s constant refutes to VR-LA risking his life. Maybe it wasn’t fully true at the time, maybe it was part desperate ploy to win him over and part the first realisation that the future he had always thought inevitable didn’t have to be. Whatever it was, that first promise set him on the path to looking not just back, not just around, but forward.

An episode later, VR-LA is lost in the not so metaphorical maze of life. He knows his past and how he feels about it, he knows his present and all the new bonds he’s formed in this second life. But the question of what comes next looms before him, despite his gripes with what happened before, this is the major decision he faces. And it isn’t the death on the ship he always thought would come, the death he once considered accepting while adrift, but rather… life. What he finds and chooses at the end of the maze is a long life, well lived. The exact opposite of everything he thought he had always been moving toward.

I was not expecting to find a story about coming to heal from suicidal ideation in my silly autism robit but oh boy… oh fucking hell is it there.

AND THEN, how he literally ends the series with a proclamation that no longer is he going to “die on this ship” or “wonder if it would be better to not wake up”, but that he’s taking dying of old age a challenge. How he refuses anything less than that. How despite his new dangerous position, despite stepping up and not back, he is not looking for anything less than that future he found at the end of the maze.

VR-LA starts too focused on the past, moves on to trying to focus on his present, then eventually the future. And if that progression wasn’t good enough, by the end he manages to have them all. His memories and old crew, the crew of the Per Aspera and a life of adventure, his increasingly pivotal role as magister and his aim to grow old.

Like, when I first heard the silly “Hello! I am VR-LA :D” and “Will you be our captain?” robot, I was not expecting a story about overcoming suicidal tendencies and growing to accept and combine all aspects of yourself. Like, fucking hell WHY IS HE LIKE THIS HSJDBDKDBDKFB

It’s such a well done arc for an improv show, and yeah there’s the little awkward unclear points but overall it’s so fulfilling and complete, while leaving further room to settle and heal. Right from season one he proclaims it’s the fight against entropy that makes life worth living, and the the whole show he fights that fight with himself. He goes from someone willing, and perhaps even on some level wanting, to die, to someone actively fighting for the opposite. He goes from empty of will to live and memory to, in his own words, “overflowing”.

Anyway, I love this silly robot, he makes me feel too many things, and I can’t wait to see what new stories come to pass next campaign.

[gusgrissom]

Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) Edward Higgins “Ed” White II (November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967) Roger Bruce Chaffee (February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967)

The crew of Apollo 1. Ad astra per aspera ❤️

[puppuddart]

(2/2) rwd digisketch dump pt 2 this time from today!! my art has improved a whole lot since i started drawing fanart for these guys and i can’t wait to see how much more it develops from here on out

[justablah56]

starting the rwd ep now aND VASS IN THE INTRO . I REPEAT . VASS HAS NOW REPLACED FINBAR IN THE INTRO

[blazestar3450]

That finale was everything!!!

Spoilers below the cut

DX-TR is finally dead

Docent is back after how long

VR-LA got his memories back and became Magister

Kyana got to talk to have "Daughter/Dad" time with Finbar

FINBAR AND ELISE ARE HAVING A KID!!!

Vhas just being great

Dani bantering with Roy

Cressida and Roy getting back together

The B-Team officially becoming a crew

The Weird Little Dudes

Lucky bolt at the end

Just.... everything. It was so awesome to finally get to see the campaign end with a bang.

Thank you Crew of the Per Aspera. For everything.

[indilaras]

S4 Crew of the Per Aspera in my uh... pseudo-chibi style? Anyway I miss them <3

ID: a drawing of the Crew of the Per Aspera over a starry night sky background. From left to right: Kyana smiling, with one fist up, her Astral Arms mimicking her pose;

Dani frowning with the cannon emitting blue flames behind her; VR-LA holding his staff, surrounded by electricity and circular magic effects;

Vhas grinning and winking, with his sword on his shoulder; and Finbar smiling with one hand on his chest, floral magic effects around him. End ID.

[done-dm]

Since the finale is coming up and I'm trying to cope, I started going back to watch some old episodes and thought it was really cool how certain themes showed up as early as they did: case in point, Dani's whole relationship with the ship vs the crew.

Season 1 Episode 5

[After Dani chooses to the fight the monk wanting to take Kyana by breaking the motive force generator instead of calling Kyana back onto the ship and into a trap]

Sophia: Dani has just done something momentous in that she has broken the one thing she cares about more in this world than Plug.

Season 4 Episode 8

Dani: The ship doesn't live without the crew that's on it, and the best crew that's ever been on the goddamn Per Aspera is standing on it right now!

[...]

VR-LA: What do you mean? The ship is yours...

Kyana: Wait, wait. Dani, are we the ship?

Dani: Yes! Everyone's the ship! The crew is part of the ship, that's what I'm trying to tell you.

Season 5 Episode 4

Sophia: I think the decision [Dani] is going to have to make–which is probably the one that's top of mind–is knowing what they're about to try and do with the mind flayers and jumping planes is more insane than even having broken the rules of the weave [...] I think she's a little afraid that she's going to have to make the choice of 'save the ship or save the crew and, by extension, the planescape.' And as she's standing there amongst what she knows is the most important thing to her–the thing that gave her her freedom, her life, her title–I think deep down she's also certain that she's not willing to lose any more friends and would give it up if it meant the crew got to live. The rest of the planescape, eh, but she would pick the crew every time.