#i don't even have to make fun creatures up for this fantasy world

[greatprotector-if]

TELL US ABOUT THE BIRD OF THE WEEK PLEASE

i had so many weird birds i wanted to talk about today (there are birds that fully look like small dragons and birds who can make their WINGS whistle as part of their mating rituals and some birds who are just. so smelly that they're literally called stinkbirds BUT THIS IS BECAUSE they don't have stomachs, they have a Food Storage Pouches where their food sits and ferments and takes like 50 hours to digest. god nature is amazing) but... story parallels

so today i am talking about kestrels. or 1 kestrel singular because i actually don't know anything about kestrels (sorry) other than what i learned in this kestrel video that changed my life that everyone else should also watch if you haven't already and I'm going to talk about that video

(kestrels are either the smallest or one of the smallest in the falcon family. they're just small carnivorous guys. imagine a small falcon with cool spots)

so there's this story about this kestrel family that went viral a year. Or multiple years idk ago and it was about a kestrel nest with a mother and father!! until one day mysteriously the mother disappeared and the father was left to raise his chicks alone.

a kestrel dad's job is just to hunt stuff and take it back to the nest and then let the mum tear it up into small enough pieces to feed the chicks, and often what happens if the mum ditches the nest the chicks just. get surrounded by food too big for them to eat and they starve 💔

it looked like things were going to go the same way in this story too. mr kes kept calling for his mate who never answered and the poor chicks (only like a few days old or something) got nothing to eat. the guy documenting this had to step in and help so they wouldn't die but then at some point mr kes got into the nest and sat on his chicks

male kestrels Do not brood their chicks after they've been hatched so this is huge and was so amazing to see??!!!!!!! he did eventually give up i'm pretty sure but uh. HEY. HE TRIED. and after a couple more days or something he finally learned that he needs to Tear the food up into small enough pieces first. and so he raised them (with help from the guy documenting but hey) until the chicks were old enough to leave the nest ))): Mr Kes you're my bird of the week. My bird of the month and of the century

Whenever i hear stories of birds that step up as fathers that gets me. there was this bald eagle named murphy who lived in a bird sanctuary and created a nest for a rock and incubated it 💔💔💔 AND THEY GAVE HIM HIS OWN EAGLET. MURPHY HAD A FOSTER SON (they have since released his son back into the wild which does hurt me a little bit but it's for the best & i'm sure murphy will have more children in the future)

i love birds so mjch

[nexus-nebulae]

i really really wanna write a story at some point that starts out as one of those cliche YA novels where a normal human character finds out about an entire magic world they didn't know about- except the character is some form of mentally ill with paranoia and delusions, so the story revolves around how much more difficult it becomes for this person to percieve the world while also dealing with whatever Magic Bullshit is being thrown at them

[twst-hottest-takes]

Tweel Anatomy discussion!

Part 1.

(Ask and ye shall recieve! This will be split up into a couple of parts because this could get long and it's easy enough to break up into pieces. [I definitely wasn't putting this off until the cards officially released.])

For starters I have to say again that I just love the twins and their merforms are so cool. I just want an excuse to gush about them. A lot of this discussiom will involve headcanons and hypotheticals and estimations, so there is your warning to not take anything in this post as law. This post, like pretty much all the others is very opinionated. Some of the fun bits about contemplating the anatomy of a fantasy creature involves drawing the imaginary lines between where the fish parts end and the human parts begin, and where the two become a blur and turn into something completely new. I like to think I strike a balance with my hypotheses, but perhaps others might not feel the same way. This is a post meant to start a discussion, not a fight. So let's see how far down the rabbit hole we can go . . .

Starting with a classic: How big are these guys?

Let's answer Ace's question. (While laughing like middle-schoolers about how that question was phrased.)

Now there is no canon answer to my knowledge so I can only give my best estimation. (Corrections welcome!) I firmly believe that they do not change "size" between their land and sea forms. For all intents and purposes, the twins are being treated as though their heads, arms, torsoes, and pelvic regions are the same size between human and merforms.

BECAUSE EVEN WITHOUT CHANGING SIZE THESE GUYS ARE ABSOLUTE MONSTERS IN THEIR MERFORMS.

I have no real proof of my theory. I simply compared the sprites and scaled the chibis until they had the same head size. Forgive me for not having a better method of measurement. I am not going to try and unravel the live 2D mermodels and I think trying to measure their shadows from their intro scene would be even less reliable. The length of the tail is approximately 75% the length of the rest of the body after where his feet theoretically end.

I didn't do the same with Floyd because I feel that it's safe to assume that he's probably a few cm longer (3-5 cm max) due to his 1 cm height difference when they are in human form. I hazard a guess that only the two of them actually care about that difference in length.

332 cm. (Or around 11 ft for those of us stateside.)

We know they're huge, but tying a number to the length REALLY puts things into perspective. Like it's actually a little scary.

Next: Gill placement.

I am a big fan of the gill slits being around the ribs! Not only do they look cool, but I like that it can be read as a combination of human and eel anatomy in their merforms.

Since they have a humanoid chest cavity, it makes sense that even though they don't have lungs, they may have a muscular structure similar to a diaphragm. By having a muscular system that works passively/sympathetically they could have a "breathing" motion similar to humans; but, instead of taking air in, it simply keeps water moving across the gills to maintain gas exchange.

Benefits of this system include: Being able to sleep (as I would assume merfolk do), and being able to stay in one place (most fish need to be moving constantly to keep their gills working). The ability to be stationary isn't necessary for fish, but for merfolk who have social conventions, even being able to sit still to have a conversation is a boon (unless the world of mermen is built around the idea that no one ever sits still, but I feel like the photograph from Book 3 proves otherwise).

Furthermore, having the gills on the ribs as opposed to somewhere farther up--for example, on the neck--the twins can reasonably stick their heads out of the water without fear of limiting their breathing ability. Though these new card illustrations show that they don't seem to have any problem with having their gills exposed to the air (at least as far as being photogenic is concerned), I can see it being convenient for merfolk to be able to poke their head and shoulders above the water and still be able to breath regularly (which definitely doesn't have anything to do with luring unwary travelers to their deaths. . .nope. . .not at all).

I have seen people say they don't like the choice and that the gills should be on their necks. If that's coming from a place of personal preference and is purely aesthetic I guess I can see it. But if anyone tries to tell me that it's not "eel-like" enough and they need to have the gills closer to the mouth, I will fight you. From a design and functionality standpoint the rib gills are fantastic!

For the last bit of this entry, let's talk about the elephant in the room: THE EEL ABS!

I'd say "don't get me started on this one" but I'm already here and we're already too deep in, so here we go.

Things are about to get spicy!

~They're fine.

Like, as a choice, the inclusion of these muscles is likely just for fanservice points, but it's not an anatomically strange thing.

Come here and I will explain to you a thing:

MERFOLK DO NOT SWIM WITH THE SAME MUSCLE GROUPS AS HUMANS DO!

Once upon a time, (this is going somewhere, just stick with me!) people complained that Ariel, the Little Mermaid herself, was too skinny and not built like a swimmer. People insisted that she not have such a tiny waist and her arms should be bigger. Now I, here and now, should not have to tell the reader why this is so ridiculous to say, but I'm going to anyway~ ARIEL DOES NOT USE HER ARMS TO SWIM! Those who have watched the movie may have observed that she swims like an aquatic mammal. All of her momentum comes from the verticle motion of her tail, and to some extent her abdomen, not her arms. When she turns human, Ariel does not even know how she can use her arms to help her swim upwards and out of the ocean. She struggled without her tail so much Sebastian and Flounder basically carried her to the surface.

In this way, merfolk do not need to have the same type of body as a human swimmer because they are functionally different and some people seem to get stuck on that.

Now returning to Jade and Floyd, again, their arms are not "built like a swimmer's." Once again THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE. There is nothing in all of Twisted Wonderland that suggests they swim with their arms at all. These boys have 5 foot long tails that are probably primarily muscle to propel themselves through the water. The arms are not for propulsion. The tails do the grand majority of the work, but this conversation was started about abdominal muscles so we'll circle back to that now. Unlike other merfolk (as exemplified by Ariel) who swim with verticle motions of their tails, eel-based mermen would swim by making horizontal motions, also primarily with their tails. I do say primarily because the idea occurs to me that there may be situations where the limits of their ability to move might be tested. If a merman built like this wanted to go significantly faster than whatever is "normal" for them, muscle groups higher in the body would get used. Essentially, given Jade and Floyd as characters, I don't find it hard to believe that, at the speeds they swim, they would be using their very human-shaped abdomens to increase their speed. That's a workout, especially for the obliques.

So, in conclusion, I don't think the abs are weird. Gratuitous? Absolutely. But they aren't the anatomical monstrosity some people seem to think they are.

Let me say once more, if you simply don't like how it looks, or the fish abs squick you out and you like to headcanon they don't exist--that's fine. But don't argue with me on the basis that it's not realistic. Mermaids are, after all, fictional creatures and depictions of them tend to be fanciful. The tough conversation comes about when we choose to draw the lines with how realistic we actually want them to be, HENCE THIS ENTIRE POST!

(Laughs like a maniac before signing off.)

Thank you for coming to the first part of my rambling. What should I talk about in the next part?

Other than the throat teeth. We've got a miniature essay about the throat teeth just about ready to go.

Also, apologies if there aren't enough visual guides. I really wanted to get this posted, so if anyone wants me to I can doodle up some more stuff to help with things like the image of the breathing aparatus and swimming motions. I have just not had much time this week.

(Going to fall asleep thinking about how sparkly these boys are.)

[rue-dixon]

Is Chilchuck's wife blonde? Analysis:

I've noticed a lot of the fandom doubts what Chilchuck's wife looks like and still thinks she's a blonde woman. Which is understandable, since it seems to be something Kui really likes to point out. But my theory is it's intentional, and more important than we think.

As I said, be clearly has a type for blonde woman. And Kui makes a point of this by continuing point it out in the World Guide side book. But why? It hardly seems relevant, after all it's only mentioned once in the manga during chapter 58.

Many fans assumed the first woman that succubus took the form of was his wife. Which is understandable. But that gets quickly thrown out the window when the next serval succubus that attack him all look completely different. But according to Marcille, they're all blonde. And she even asks if that was because of his wife. Which is why many people probably think she's blonde.

But Chilchuck gets upset when she asks. Now at first you assume it's just Chilchuck being embarrassed as always. But at this point he's talked about his family multiple times calmly. Especially after having such a serious talk about his wife just a few chapters earlier, why would he react so strongly again now?

Now let's put that aside for a second. Why does the fandom believe the woman with short black hair is his wife? Well simply because she shares multiple features with his daughters, who we actually do see and confirmed to be his daughters.

His oldest, Meijack, shares her more unique eye shape. And his middle, Flertom, her hair. They even have the same small piece of stray hair on the top of their heads. So it's highly unlikely this is a coincidence.

And according to this official colored sketch, neither of his children are blonde. So it's safe to assume his wife is in fact, not blonde. So then why is it talked about so much?

Well actually I think his "fetish" to say, along with the succubus is what drove his wife to leave him.

So before they encounter the succubus, Chilchuck freaks out when he realizes what attacks them. Which isn't out of character for him, but he's very specific with what he said. It's clear he really, REALLY doesn't like the succubus. Even Marcille comments about how it seems he's seen one before.

Now we do know due to a side comic that a party tried to feed him to a succubi group. Which could explain why he's so scared, but he never actually sees any of them. He runs away before they even find them. (I'd provide evidence but I've reached my limit on photos and I don't feel like making multiple posts lol.)

So why does he know so much about how they work then?

Here's my theory:

He actually DID run into a group of succubus a long time ago with another party. The same party that actually knew and ended up meeting his wife. Blonde woman like we saw attacked him, and the party already knowing about his wife assumed; oh! That must be what if wife looks like of course! Eventually down the road the party meet her. Only to be surprised that she looked absolutely nothing like his fantasy they saw. So of course through drunken fun, the party brings this up. More to make fun of him if anything. I'd assume him and his wife were already having problems up to this point. Maybe she had doubts of him being disloyal since he was always away. Or maybe doubts that he didn't loved her anymore, or even no longer found her attractive or desirable still. So hearing that a creature that supposedly transformed into the thing your heart wants the most, and it's the complete opposite of her confirmed whatever insecurity she had in her mind. That maybe the woman they turned into was even his mistress herself?! Knowing Chilchuck, he probably didn't try to comfort her or at least did it very well. Or maybe not even try to talk about it after at all and instead just tried to blow it off. Which only made things worse. And that pushed her to finally leave. Her final straw possibly.

However this is purely speculation of course. A theory based on the extremely limited knowledge we have of that night and their marriage in general.

[meo-eiru]

Breaking my lurker status (forgive my english I don't speak the devils tongue/j)

1.-I LOVE YOUR BLOG SO SO SO MUCH PLSSS-- you write so good and you draw even better it's so fun to see a notification pop up bc it also means I can see the silly people that also like your characters just as much as I do! I find it so cute to see all the different ways people live this characters I love it💥💥

2.- I beg of thee, to spare a crumb if One Eyed monster once again (when you have time bc remember to rest, eat and drink aguita💥), I've been OBSESSED with that one since I saw your first post about him, I just find him so endearing!

Like imagine scene! He is just so head over heels over by us but be doesn't have the courage to come talk to us, but oh! What's this? We are going out of our way to talk to him? HE MUST BE DREAMING! And we are just gushing over how cute he looks with his hair covering his face bc it makes him look so tiny and sweet that we can't help but reach to touch his face and in his daze we move just a little bit of his hair and he only notices that we have seen his full face when he can see more clearer (bc having so much hair in front of your only eye must never tough) and he just PANICS-- like just completely and utterly scared that he takes off running already crying and thinking that we will never wanna see him again and that we are disgusted by him, he only stops in an alley far away to catch his breath.

But in his break down he fails to notice how we ran after him, yelling for him to stop, following him to the alley and seeing in a front row seat how he is just completely broken saying between sobs how we'll hate him now.

But we never had hated him to begin with, we found him cute at the start so we got close to him, and when we saw that big doe-eye it was like staring at the most beautiful star in the sky, we would never hate him after all.

He doesn't hear our steps towards him, he only reacts when he feels our hand lightly touch the top of his hair, his head snapping up to see who it was, his heart almost jumping out of his chest when he sees it's us, both with joy and sorrow, I mean, we are probably there to mock him right? To tell him how ugly his one eye is and to tell him we never wanna see him again, after all,

¿If not for that why else would the one person he loves more than everything be there before him after seeing his one eye?

When he only manages to babble a weak - why? Here? You...Huh...? -

But we don't say anything, we just kneel down and hug him, holding him close, letting him cry in our shoulder, with one of our hand rubbing comforting circles on his back and the other petting his hair, waiting for his cries to stop.

When they do all we say is a simple couple of words, almost got loud enough but just for him to hear, leaving his once broken heart renewed and beating so fast he feels he might have a heart attack.

- You are even more beautiful than I could ever imagine... -

Something so little to anyone else, but something so big for him that he doesn't think his fragile heart could take anything else.

But he doesn't need anything else, he only needs this,

He only needs you

(I propose the name Jade for him, ¿why?, bc when I first saw him I related him with one of my favorite gemstones💥)

-Yummy-

Oh my god this healed my soul, improved my grades, my eyes and skin are shining, world peace is happening, global warming ended and there’s no longer world hunger.

It just means so much to him, he’s so different from everyone else, he’s a monster. There’s no way you could love a creature like him who can’t even talk to you directly without exploding from nerves. He’s not handsome, he’s not charismatic, he’s not funny, he’s just a stalker who’s too pathetic to breath the same air as you.

Only thing bringing a bit of solace to him is the fantasies he has about you. Holding hands, going on dates, watching movies and cuddling, you saying you love him even if he’s a monster… Yes fantasies, such a thing can only happen in his fantasies.

So what’s happening right now? Is he dreaming? You’re so warm he can’t think straight. You think he’s beautiful? This can’t be real surely he misheard you. He can’t talk from the tears rolling down his eye. Please forgive him for getting your shoulder wet. He’s so just so, so happy right now. All he can do is hug you back and sob as he prays this is not just a dream.

[bynineb]

What pieces of media are your biggest creature design inspirations?

ooh how fun! let's see...

Pokemon Crystal (Ken Sugimori)

(src: Bulbapedia)

I had a Pokemon Crystal strategy guide with all 251 Pokemon in it that I studied religiously when it came to making monsters of my own. I love Ken Sugimori's illustrations so much - the dappled paint makes it so soft, gives everything the feeling of being struck by light dancing down from foliage above. The subtle implied detailing with line strokes and shadow allows the imagination to run wild. They, truly, feel like creatures to have adventures with. And of course, Pokemon is a juggernaut of an RPG, facilitating those childhood fantasies, and then there's a TV show showing them playing and shouting their name and fighting... No wonder so many people got hooked on it!

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 (Akira Toriyama)

(src: Dragon's Den)

Since they're designed as enemies foremost, Dragon Quest's monsters can get a lot kookier & scarier than Pokemon can. And Toriyama gives his monster designs so much charm and personality! You feel like he always has fun coming up with them, and it makes every Dragon Quest game more delightful for having them be your foes (and sometimes friends). Also, all the English names are puns and portmanteaus and other fun word things!

After Armageddon Gaiden (artist unknown - dev is PandoraBox)

(src: Bogleech, who also wrote a wonderful article on these critters: https://bogleech.com/halloween/hall18-aagolem)

Uniquely grotesque beasts from a deeply obscure Japanese RPG named After Armageddon Gaiden, the second in a duology about player-controlled demons fighting alien invaders. Some of the designs get quite gory or disturbing, fair warning. But in a cool way!! The sheer strangeness of these designs are something to behold!... And they have the best names ever, like "Barabumblebo"...

YU-GI-OH early card art (Kazuki Takahashi)

(src: Yugioh fandom page)

Yu-Gi-Oh's early monster designs are something I think about a lot. I don't know what that says about me, but I do know they're unbelievably cool, a blend of genuinely scary Egyptian-flavored horror and wacky, tropey, cartoony fantasy. The fact that these ridiculous designs are frequently art for a card that's completely worthless in terms of winning duels, combined with their randomly specific descriptions about how unbelievably powerful they are, gives them a certain mystique. It's as if the creature you see depicted truly exists as a part of some greater fantasy world...

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

(src: me, many moons ago)

Seeing properly scary monsters inside a strange virtual world in Ocarina of Time was quite the experience for my young self. For example, I had nightmares about the Stalchildren who used to burst, endlessly, from the ground of the strangely empty Hyrule Field. But that also made it feel like such an adventure! The thrill added to the experience. And even many of the game's races are quite monsterlike; Gorons, Zora, Deku, and so forth. This had me imagine turning a "bad" creature into a friend, a concept I cherish to this day... hence Love-Love here.

Well that's that! Thanks for asking, this was fun to write : )

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Marcille is Not Handling Being In Charge Well

Yeah, that doesn't sound exactly like Thistle at alllll, Marcille!

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[Tolkien fistpumping in the background of the fantasy genre]

We'll know that shit's REALLY bad if Chilchuck ever stops making sarcastic comments.

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lol

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EYES /weeps

Also I just noticed that Marcille's hair has been down since we reunited with her. She no longer cares about the things she used to, she's openly using dark magic with no concern for the consequences, she's not taking care to manage her own mana... I wonder if the demon already ate her desire to style it?

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The Island Lord really is just completely useless, huh. He is NOT getting a role in Laios's new government.

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omg I didn't notice when it was in the dungeon, but it's the Sky Snake! Silver Wings that Race Through the Heavens, Marcille's sky snake!!

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This IS genuinely creepy. It's easy to forget that this whole adventure so far has happened underground, save for a few scant scenes. But we are about to enter, in effect, the real world...

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I remain sooo interested in this secretive paramilitary outfit comprised entirely of conditionally-pardoned criminals who already have their hands dirty with forbidden magic and aristocratic scions from families seeking to prove their loyalty, all of which reports directly to the Queen. Their mere existence is sooo dodgy.

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AIDGHADFC I DID NOT REALIZE THAT THE LION GAVE MARCILLE HER EVIL GOTH MAKEOVER! I thought she chose that herself... This is worse, actually... (And then it ate her desire to stop.)

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You're completely right, Kabru! "They're tripping each other up because you don't know enough about monsters to manage them properly" was exactly Laios's critique of Thistle's dragon horde, too!

Which, I will admit, supports the Elves' position about how incredibly bad it would be if Laios WAS the one leading this army. I do want some good fic about that maybe.

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I always really enjoy the trope of, in a big battle or elaborate plan, things will go bad for the whole extended party at once even though their personal dramatic moments are happening completely apart and unrelated to one another - and, conversely, they'll all rally at the same time, too. It's very basic storytelling, an in-canon "coincidence" of timing required for a compelling rhythm of story, and I enjoy it every time.

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I'D KNOW THAT WING-HILTED SWORD ANYWHERE!!

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I'm going to make a goddamn COLLECTION of every time this woman puts the whole group in Outfits made of other creatures. She should do rabbits next. They deserve to dress like giant dungeon rabbits.

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lmaooo

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I love when characters say shit like this about their friends. I mean, @ Laios don't underestimate yourself, but actually he does mean "smart" in the sense of "unlikely to get manipulated", so in this case he's right.

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This, the first panels and then the next 1, was when I was like, "oh, okay, we're going to win." Laios was JUST saying that he couldn't defeat the demon if he didn't understand literally these things about it. Now, Laios understand it as a monster, and Kabru understands it as a person - so we're good. We've cornered it on two angles of 'guys who can kill things with remarkable efficiency if they understand them through their special interest.' We're going to kick this thing's ass. We're going to be okay.

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And then we're rewarded with a wink! Kabru trust Laios now!! Truly, life is good.

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Lolll at myself, and at this chronic faker. Should've known the Wink(TM) was a lie! The Wink is always a lie, or at least a tease.

It is so fun to watch this boy take charge of situations on sheer merit of quick-thinking, knowing all the factions involved, and confidence in giving commands.

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Hot. Obviously, objectively, this is hot. Walking confidently, unafraid and unsurprised, through a corridor of kneeling dragons? Laios, Lord of Monsters, damn fuckin' right.

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This really is Laios's interactions with collective humanity in a nutshell. They shun him, disdain and fear him, for what he loves (monsters). "It's all right," he says. "The misunderstanding won't last" - he smothers how angry it makes him. They'll understand eventually, he promises himself. (They never have before, but one day...) But also: he really genuinely does love monsters, and loves to be associated with them, even if the cost IS to not be associated with humanity.

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Izutsumi: I could still kick Marcille's ass. I'll kick anyone's ass. I'll kick my own ass.

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Laios, King of Monsters: loves every monster except squids and octopi. Those guys just suck.

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I love how her shout is almost in the black magic font, even as spoken words. That is her gesture for exploding things. This is what she looked like when she killed Mithrun 20 minutes ago.

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I connected the dots. I connected them.

[slytherinshua]

hi it's me again! hope ur day's been good, wasn't going to send more asks for a while since the last one but since you were asking for more soft thoughts AND make it magical this time, i had to 😣 thought of being like a village person who is very adamant that fairies exist and while strolling thru the field one day you just find yushi/sunoo laying there and surrounded by flowers and even tho u don't k anything abt him u make it ur thorough mission to accuse him of being a fairy and he's SOO mad at this bcuz not only were u rlly cute about it but he also was a fairy and he's not about to reveal himself bcuz he thinks ur cute 😭😭

SKDJKS STOP GOODBYE THIS IDEA IS SOOOO FUCKING CUTE??? okok i'm gonna do yushi bcuz i love yushi but this is also reminding me of my jaehee fic im writing lmfao cause he is a fairy in that as well although its a stardew valley au not magical BUT YUSHI AS A FAIRY!! wc: 1k. genre/warnings: fairy au. reader is very excitable. not proofread and soft thoughts so it's very very messy be warned this is really just a jumble of thoughts.

fairies were always shrouded in secrecy, especially in your village which was right next to a forest thought to be home to many magical creatures. the village leaders banned anyone from going into the forest due to its dangerous nature, but you've always wondered about it. there were a few books on fairies, but all the information in them was unconfirmed and more speculation than fact. some even swore that fairies were completely made up and didn't exist in the real world, but you always liked to imagine that they did, and maybe they even lived among you.

so, ever since you were little, you started to imagine your own version of what fairies would be like. of course, they would be breathtakingly beautiful and gentle. they would have magical powers and glitter in the sunlight. their presence would be so harmonious and lovely that even butterflies would flock to their side. maybe they could grow flowers with the touch of a finger or could fly around with butterfly like wings? your imagination was truly endless, especially when you were little. but once you got to schooling age, you started to get made fun of for your obsession with the mythical creatures.

although you insisted that they were real, your classmates just laughed at the idea, telling you to not kid yourself with fictional fantasies. but no one was ever able to truly shut you up about the idea. you still daydreamed about fairies unabashedly, no matter what anyone else thought about them. to you, they were real.

after an annoying encounter with a guy in the village who seemed adamant on winning you over, you decided to take a stroll through the flower field to clear your head. cursing the guy under your breath wasn't helping as much as you would've liked. not only was he ugly, and full of himself, he was also downright rude. you definitely weren't going to let him sour the entire rest of your day.

pink, blue, and yellow flowers were blooming all over the field. butterflies and bees buzzed around happily, caring to the sweet-smelling blossoms. you saw that the butterflies seemed to keep flying to one particular spot in the field. it piqued your curiosity, so you made your way over to that part.

immediately, your fantasies about fairies came flooding back to your brain the second you saw the boy lying on the ground. his ginger hair lay over his forehead perfectly, and light freckles adorned his pink cheeks. he was simply beautiful. the second you saw him, your breath was completely taken away. you were sure that if fairies existed, he must be one of them.

"so you do really exist? you aren't just fantasy." a grin spread to your face as you mumbled under your breath. you had been trying to not disturb the sleeping boy, but his eyes flew open as the words left your mouth. maybe fairies had supernatural hearing?

the boy sat up hurriedly, "what? me?" he blinked in confusion, finger pointing back at himself in question. a butterfly landed on his hand and he gently swatted it away, face heating up in embarrassment.

he would've been upset at his nap getting interrupted, but one look at you and all annoyance dissipated. you were really pretty. as a fairy, he really should've been more worried about coming into contact with humans, but it was too late to think about that now. you had seen him, and it wasn't like a vanishing spell was going to last long enough for him to get back to the forest. plus, there was no way you would suspect that he was a fairy. most people didn't even believe they existed nowadays. he was surely safe-

"you're a fairy, aren't you!?"

oh.

his eyebrows furrowed, "no. fairies aren't even real, why would you think that?" gaslighting was never his strong suit, but it was worth a shot either way, right?

"can you do any magic? can you grow flowers?" you didn't seem to have even heard his attempt at refuting you, as you were quick to throw a flurry of questions at him. what scared him the most was how accurate they were. how did you know so much about fairies?

"n-no, i said i wasn't-" he stuttered, interrupted by you shoving a flower in his face.

"try fixing it." you said simply before pulling off some of the flower petals. yushi's heart clenched slightly at the sight. he so badly wanted to reach out and repair it. the poor flower didn't deserve to die. but that would mean outing himself. the risk wasn't worth it.

you sighed as the boy just stared at you blankly, "so you really aren't a fairy? then why do you look like one?" you sat down on the grass with him, arms crossed over your chest in annoyance.

"how do you know what fairies look like? have you ever seen one?"

"well... no." you huffed in exasperation. he was right. "but you look exactly how one would expect fairies to look like! even butterflies can't stay away from you."

it was frankly unfair at how adorable you sounded trying to justify it, especially since yushi knew you were entirely right in your assumption. he could already imagine the look of pure joy and astonishment that would bloom on your face if you heard that he really was a fairy as you suspected.

would it really be so bad to reveal himself?

"what's your name, by the way? i'm y/n."

yushi thought for a second, weighing his options. he could tell you his name and that he was a fairy. he could tell you his name and leave you questioning whether he was a fairy of not. or, he could try to find a way out of the conversation altogether. he rather hated the last option. deciding that the second option was both the safest, and left him plenty of options, he went with it.

"...i'm yushi."

↳ nct wish taglist (bolded could not be tagged): @kangtaehyunzzz,, @eternalgyu,, @lexeees,, @nyukyusnz,, @planetkiimchi,,

@haecien,, @talkingsaxy,, @thesunsfullmoon,, @hursheys,, @mjupis,,

@lilly-cherry7

[howtofightwrite]

So, uh, I know that this place is mostly for writing, but making your own TTRPG system kinda qualifies as writing, doesn't it?

Either way - here's a fighting-related question that came up during my process making it. Is fear an important aspect of combat? Small-scale combat, to be specific, not the kind where you see a thousand of knights fight another thousand of knights.

Would wounds (or even hits that are strong enough to be felt through armour) inflict noticeable stress to a well-trained soldier? Would it be bad enough to, potentially, make them panic, even if they aren't in any actual danger yet? Or would that mostly be a problem with inexperienced fighters, and training/combat experience could make someone relatively desensitized to that sort of thing?

It's probably worded weirdly, I know, but, in general, what I'm trying to ask here is - should one consider stress/fear as a thing that might change the tides mid-combat, even if cowardice (or anything similar) isn't a major character trait for neither of the combatants?

This one isn't really writing, it's a game design question, and fully answering it is going to require digging a lot deeper into what you're trying to do with the game. It is entirely reasonable for your character to still suffer some lesser injuries from hits their armor absorbed, and for you to have a secondary mental stat that gauges your character's mental ability to keep functional. Warhammer's Morale and the Storyteller system's Willpower stats come to mind as examples of this. Also Call of Cthulhu's Sanity stat, though that's a little more involved.

So in game design, you need to decide how you want combat to feel. And, this can be anything from gritty realism to a fun power fantasy. In fact, the genre of your game will heavily determine how you want your systems to shape your experience.

I can't remember if Warhammer tabletop does this, or if I'm conflating it with Gladius and Dawn of War, but, in Warhammer your units actually have a separate morale hitpool. Obviously, for a lot of armies in Warhammer, keeping your units fighting against horrific, unknowable abominations is a major theme, so a main system (and a part of every unit stat card) is how much stress they can take before they have a complete nervous breakdown, and start running in the opposite direction. In fact, in tabletop, the game actually has multiple systems evaluating whether your own units will actually follow their orders at all. The difficulty of commanding troops against impossible threats is a central theme of the systemic narrative Warhammer is trying to create, so it gets multiple top level systems.

Compare that to D&D, where there are no top level systems regarding the mental state of your characters. They signed up to fight unknowable abominations, and magpie their way through the world, so when they encounter something genuinely unnerving, that gets special rules on that monster. It's not part of the power fantasy of D&D (most of the time.) So when it does show up, it just gets attached as an addendum to an existing rule system or as a special rule for one creature.

So, what does your game system want?

If you want a small scale, sword & sorcery brawler, you probably don't need to model their mental state, or how afraid they are. You really need to know if their morale is high, and when it is high, you can probably handle that with simple conditional buffs. In fact, this is probably a system where you wouldn't even want to model a low mental state, unless things are truly dire, or supernaturally oppressed. (Again, with special rule cases for that, because it's not going to come up very often.)

This probably should have been a few paragraphs earlier, but just looking at an RPG's character sheet can often tell you a lot about what the designer intended for their game. The things your players are going to have to interact with regularly need dedicated systems. Stuff that comes up rarely, shouldn't get dedicated systems. (And, this is a very real issue with a lot of RPGs, where there are a lot of different systems to keep track of, that could have been scrubbed out and set aside as flavor or special rules. Including with D&D.)

If your primary focus is a kind of horror RPG, then you need those extra systems. You're going to be dealing with them constantly. You might want an attribute called Resolve (or whatever) to specifically model how well a character handles dealing with horrific situations, or seeing their friends ripped to shreds. You might also have a separate tracked HP pool (similar to how Darkest Dungeon handles it) specifically focused on their ability to manage psychological strain.

If you're going for that, psychological damage can be a lot more deciduous in a tabletop environment, because you cannot armor yourself against that. Characters might be able to have some psychological resistance through strenuous mental conditioning, but again, as the game designer, you control exactly how much a player can stack up, so you can balance around the absolute maximum damage that a player could mitigate, while also keeping in mind how much the raw damage would do to a defenseless character.

You could have a rule system where characters can pretty reliably soak off most of the physical damage, but suffer serious attrition due to psychological (or, even magical) damage that they couldn't mitigate.

How armor works in your game is a similar situation, where the rules need to follow the kind of experience you're trying to create. However, unlike dealing with psychological strain, armor rules also need to consider how easy they are to implement at the table. A lot of CRPGs use % based armor mitigation, and that's great, if you have a computer that can crunch those numbers for you. If you're at the table and rolling 3d8, it's going to be a lot more awkward to figure out what 43% mitigation will do to your resulting values. So, it's a lot easier to simply say that armor subtracts X from incoming hits. Like, “Armor 2 means that each incoming attack does two less damage.” This starts to run into a balance problem. In theory, a character with sufficient armor might be able to mitigate all incoming damage (and you will have players who stack defense with this specific goal in mind. You can't escape that.)

This leads to one of my favorite solutions for this. I think it was J.E. Sawyer's Fallout 3 that never happened, but the idea is that if you're taking damage from hits, and your armor is absorbing that, it goes into a second, less severe, damage category. To use the example of White Wolf's Storyteller system, you convert lethal damage into bashing. It can still kill your characters, but it reduces the overall effect of that damage in the moment, makes it a lot easier to recover from, but also doesn't let them just walk in and soak all the damage without issue. So, for example, your character has Armor 4, an enemy swings on them for 8 lethal damage, and 4 points of damage are converted to bashing. (When their lethal + bashing damage reaches their HP pool then they're downed or knocked out), but they're not in danger of dying unless they take more lethal damage, or are suffering from some ongoing damage effect (like bleeding.)

Another, more lethal option I really liked from a D20 system (so, basically 3.5e D&D), was Star Wars's vitality system. The Wizards of the Coast Star Wars RPG had two HP pools. One was the normal hit dice per level based on class from D&D called Vitality (if you ever wondered why your HP in KotOR was called Vitality, this is why.) The second pool was Wounds. This was equal to your Constitution score. So, if you had CON 12, you could take 12 wound points. If you ran out of Vitality, damage would apply directly to your wound pool, and if you ran out of wound points, you were dead. Just, dead. No downed state, no stabilizing, you were toast. And, here's the thing that I might be misremembering, but if you critically hit someone, instead of multiplying your damage, your damage bypassed their vitality and went directly to wounds. This meant you had a fairly normal D&D rule set that could turn lethal with very little warning. Still a concept from game design that I like to keep in mind, because it creates a very dangerous feel in combat. Because of how the flavor was written, Vitality damage didn't even necessarily mean your character was being directly harmed. Taking damage from vitality might mean your character narrowly escaped getting hit by a blaster bolt, or that they effectively parried an incoming lightsaber attack. It still had the effect of wearing characters down over time without automatically meaning that they were suffering absolutely implausible amounts of injuries (though it could, also mean that your character had suffered minor cuts and scrapes or that their armor had taken a few hits for them.)

Something that gives the player a bit more control over their own durability would be to give items HP pools of their own. This isn't a normal item deterioration ruleset, but rather you're giving their armor a fixed amount of HP, that it can absorb in their place. So, to refresh that example above, if your character has Armor 4, and they're hit for 8 damage, instead of taking 4 bashing, they might choose to have that damage dealt directly to their armor. (And, this is a case where the decision to how to deal with that damage could be in the player's hands if you wanted. It gives them some proactive agency while taking damage, which is rare in TTRPGs.) You could even use this for a blowthrough rule, where if a character takes more damage in a single hit than their armor's remaining HP, the armor is destroyed and offers no protection from that attack. This, again, plays more into horror, as their armor will be wearing down over time, and if they're not performing regular maintenance to try to keep it working, could potentially fail them in combat. (It also creates a very cathartic moment for players to sheer through an enemy's armor, dropping them on the spot.)

All of this can and really should be, tuned for your systems and numbers. I have biases on exactly how granular I like my TTRPGs, but that doesn't mean you're tied to those values, and some people really do like the triple digit HP pools of high level characters in D&D and Pathfinder. I'm not going to say you're wrong for that, because I don't think you are, but obviously, something like Armor 4 means something very different if you have an average HP of 8-12, versus, if you have an average HP pool ~72.

So, when balancing combat to create the experience you want, you need to keep track of average combatant HP, average attack damage, and the mitigation options characters can use. At this point, you then need to decide how you want these to relate to one another. All of these values are relative to each other. From a gameplay perspective, there's no difference between a game where characters have 10hp, and each hit connects for 1 damage, vs a game where players have 40k HP, and each hit connects for 8k. It's the same game, the only thing that's changed is the amount of numbers you have to scribble onto the page while tracking damage. If you think your characters are too resistant to incoming damage, you can increase the amount of damage attacks do, or limit the amount of mitigation they have access to. Limiting mitigation can take the form of simply reducing how much damage resistance they can get, or it can function by adding additional considerations to their mitigation (as mentioned above.) (Granted, the Vitality system is a bit of a nuclear option, because that will change your combat to be exceedingly threatening, without becoming instantly lethal. Which, might be what you want.)

You have a lot of freedom for how you shape your players' experiences, and with a bit of creativity you can provide a unique combat experience for your players.

-Starke

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[adobe-outdesign]

could you review some of the neopets as animals outfits, like the fennec kacheek, red panda vandagyre, and cockatiel pteri? (those are examples, choose whichever you like!) thank you <3

(Note: I included a random selection of outfits in this post, but feel free to send in asks if anyone wants to see a specific outfit I didn't cover.)

I'll be honest, I'm personally not super big on the "outfit that resembles a real-world animal" trend. First, I play Neopets for the cool fantasy creatures; even the most true-to-life Neopets species have some pretty fantastical colors. I feel like making pets just look exactly like actual animals kind of defeats the purpose of them being Neopets. I get why people would like it and I'm not saying it's bad; it's just not my thing.

Also, the other reason I'm not always big on these outfits is that a lot of Neopets have colours that already resemble real animal patterns. Not only do the outfits blur the colour/customization line quite a bit, but usually I like the colour ones much more, as they keep the actual design of the Neopets in place and just change the patterns and colors, rather than covering up the fun fantasy elements. This also helps them avoid the uncanny valley effect, which I talk about more below.

Also I might be over thinking this but who is making these outfits. None of these animals seem to exist in-universe as far as we're aware. what are the shopkeepers basing these off of. the colours at least have a magic as an excuse

Examples that I think are okay:

Feathery Pteri Outfit: This one's nice! I like the layered patterning on the wings and the high-contrast colors. Most, though, I like that this sticks fairly close to the actual pet, mostly just changing up the tail shape. This almost could've been a paintbrush colour, but then again what colour is up in the air.

(Side note: the eye clipping over the beak is a rendering issue? I think?)

Bouncing Zafara: This one definitely strays farther from the actual pet than the Pteri, but it's a fitting animal choice and it doesn't fall into the uncanny valley, which is all I care about. The body is still somewhat recognizable as a Zafara in terms of shape, and the Miamouse as the joey is super cute.

Freshwater Lenny: Kind of the same case as the Zafara; not super one-to-one with the actual pet, but it's still recognizable as a Lenny and isn't too uncanny. The legs are a particularly nice touch, actually changing the pose to look more heron-like (though they are also the part that strays dangerously into being too detailed).

Please don't:

Adorable Kacheek: Sorry to the fans of this one, but this outfit just resides deep within the uncanny valley to me—like it's a mascot suit instead of just a normal pet. The artstyle is way off from Neopets, looking much more Subeta-ish (except Subeta's art usually isn't so off putting). It's not a bad artstyle, mind you, it's just not very Neopets-ish. I also feel like a fennec fox was also a bad pick for this one, as it's basically unrecognizable as a Kacheek at all.

Feathered Eyrie: Speaking of the uncanny valley, this is another pet that lands squarely there due to having entirely too much detail in the shading and weirdly realistic fur textures. It also just doesn't look very good aesthetically—the beak doesn't fit the face, and the wings are an absolute trainwreck (not only is the perspective wrong, but the left wing is coming from the middle of its back!). On the plus side, you'd be hard pressed to not recognize this as an Eyrie, and it's a fantasy creature instead of a regular animal, so I guess that's something?

Furry Meerca: Hmm... no. This one also suffers from an overly-detailed artstyle and way too much realism, which is especially jarring when placed on top of the Meerca's heavily stylized body shape, resulting in a perfectly round animal with hyper-realistic animal eyes. It's also particularly bothersome because we already had a chipmunk Meerca design in the form of the striped Meerca colour, which is just this but less soul-haunting:

Which is what I meant at the beginning when I was talking about colours vs outfits. The colour is a Meerca that looks like a chipmunk; the outfit is a chipmunk that looks like a Meerca. Big difference.

[childotkw]

Can we hear a bit about your original stories? I just started writing one and it is So Hard just to come up with the characters and their environment so I wanted to hear how you came up with those if you didn’t mind

Very interesting question! For me, a lot of my ideas come from wisps of inspiration from tropes or other concepts.

Characters and worlds and environment go through some pretty intensive edits in my head, so the roots aren't always obvious - and often I smash together multiple ideas, carving and chopping and smoothing things out until I have something workable that gets me excited.

(Buckle up, this post might be a long one)

Coming up with a concept

I'm not sure how it might work for other people, but I am constantly on the look out for inspiration for stories - asking myself 'what if this happened?', 'how cool would it be if this person had to do this thing?', or 'how could this trope work in a different genre?'.

Keeping myself open to these kinds of outlandish and sometimes hilarious thoughts means I've trained my brain to constantly churn up interesting concepts and ideas. Some barely have life breathed into them before I'm moving on. Others cling to me and live in my head for years.

The point is, be on the hunt for interesting ideas, and let your imagination have room to run free. Don't get boxed into an idea in its infancy. Let it grow crazily, let it get wild, before you break out the pruning tools. You're human. Let your mind have fun. Let your imagination explode.

Coming up with a character/s

So when I'm thinking of a character to inhabit my crazy new concept, I tend to go for vibe before anything else. I ask myself things like:

What kind of character do I really want to play with? Good, bad, morally grey? Cool, morally grey it is.

What species do I want? A god, a human, some fantasy creature? Human.

What type of human? A fighter, or more cerebral? Both? How 'bout a strategist? Okay that works.

And I go from there. I basically build a vague construct before worrying about things like physical description, name, age, gender, sex, etc. Those come later, once I've got a vibe I find interesting for a main character. Then comes the fun part.

Bringing concept and character together

For this to work, I've gotta figure out how these two elements to interact. To do that, I ask myself a whole bunch of questions.

How does my shiny new character fit in this world? Are they a grand figure or are they a nobody? What do I want them to do? What challenge would be interesting to watch them overcome? What can only they do? Why should my audience care about this random little guy?

This is normally where plot comes to me in fits and bursts, and once I have an idea on the overarching aspects, I start hammering out the finer details. This is where I really let my imagination out to play. I go wild, spinning off in multiple different directions, chewing on ideas and concepts and finding what works best for me.

Here you can also start developing things like other characters, relationships, dynamics, worldbuilding (e.g., currency, religion, factions, hierarchy, magic, science, how the bloody postal system works, etc.).

An example (through a conversation I regularly have with myself)

So, here's an example of an idea I've been playing with the last week.

Coming up with a concept

Okay! I've been inspired by the Old Guard, so I want to explore immortality and the idea of humanity and what life actually means. But how do I make this concept even cooler? What would make being immortal hard to conceal in a modern world?

How about instead of a modern world it's a futuristic society where everything is captured on some form of phone / camera / recording - and that makes dying and coming back to life extremely difficult to get away with. Where it's getting harder and harder to be able to cover their tracks, where falling through the cracks of society is damn near impossible with instant identification and other such measures.

Nice, nice. What else? How does the immortality work?

From the moment of their first death, the person now has increased healing and cannot age; though they can physically change (i.e., gain or lose weight and muscles, grow their hair and whatnot). Injuries heal at a rate relative to the seriousness of it - even amputations.

How does amputation work though? What if they lose their head? Does a new body grow or does the body grow a new head?

I'll have to iron this out but maybe it depends on the largest body piece? So the body would regrow the head, but if the body was completely blown apart, then whatever piece was biggest would become the 'main' one that the rest of the body would regenerate from?

What causes the immortality?

(I have an idea but wanna keep it a secret for now 😉)

So how does this world work then? It's futuristic - but how futuristic?

I'm thinking we've just achieved space travel. There's a colony on the moon and one being developed on Mars. We're spacefaring but it's not quite to the level of say, Star Wars or Star Trek. No aliens yet either! We've also got rudimentary robots running around, but they're machines more than fully autonomous. Basically, it's that time just before a massive technological leap in human history. We're on the verge of realising a lot of 'sci-fi' technologies.

Coming up with characters

Who are our main characters?

I was thinking of using Helen of Troy, since she's a mythological / historical figure that I've always found really interesting! So instead of her dying way back in the day, she actually became immortal during the Trojan War and has been enduring through the last 3500ish years as best she can.

The other main character I was planning on focussing the story around was Aethiolas - Helen's (disputed) son and former Prince of Sparta. I thought it'd be cool to explore an immortal mother and son dynamic, where almost 4000 years of sorrow and bitterness have tangled their relationship into something complex and...heartbreaking.

So what are they both like?

Helen has turned towards pacifism, whereas Aethiolas is and always will be a warrior. Helen is a leader - usually calm and collected and capable of commanding respect. Aethiolas, for the longest time, acted as her second in command and is quite a confident person. While Helen might long for the past, Aethiolas looks to the future with excitement and fascination.

Helen's group have become more observers, whereas Aethiolas takes an active role in shaping history - joining causes that speak to him and seeking to bring positive change into the world.

Aethiolas is viewed as reckless and dangerous to their way of life, killing humans who threaten him without hesitation; whereas he views his mother and the others as too rigid and afraid of change, and far too morally righteous and superior. A common argument between them would include lines like -- "Just because we can't die, mother, doesn't mean we should allow ourselves to be killed."

Helen views their immortality as a punishment. Aethiolas views it as a gift. But there is still love and loyalty between them. Despite everything, Helen is Aethiolas' mother, and he cares for her. And she for him.

Bringing concept and character together

How do these characters fit in with the world now?

Well, Helen is in charge of their group of immortals; whereas Aethiolas has become more of a 'lone wolf'. While he and his mother have had a falling out, and they fundamentally disagree on the use of violence and interacting with the world, Aethiolas still acts as the group's sword and shield. He doesn't live with them but he protects them from threats and they rely on him when issues crop up that do require swift action. There's some hypocrisy there, and it is one of the major points of conflict between them.

The story would likely kick off with several new immortals being born - and in a rather public and difficult to cover up manner. This has the risk of dragging all of the immortals into the spotlight, and prompts them to have to quickly decide whether living in the shadows is even possible any more.

--- -- --- -- ---

This became very long and rambling, but this is essentially how I create ideas from scratch. I'm super tired atm so it might not be super coherent! But if anything particular jumps out at you or you want me to focus in on something, please let me know!

[theresattrpgforthat]

This is slightly off-theme for you, but: *not* horror fantasy *adventures* by small companies, for systems with combat? (Compatibility doesn't really matter; creatures can be tweaked from existing and/or created.) Finding games has become easier than adventures, and most adventures I find are on the horror side of things (The Isle, etc.). Thanks/apologies for going off theme!

Theme: Non-Horror Fantasy Combat Adventures.

Hello there! I have less familiarity with adventures, but I follow some folks on Itch who compile some very useful collections. I noticed that in many cases these collections included dungeon crawls or system agnostic settings, so I hope you find these to be useful!

Mount Zorgoth, by Highland Paranormal Society.

Zorgoth, the Cyclops godling rules from the highest peak. His star magic keeps the world below shrouded in darkness! Can the spell be broken?

This is a one-page mountain-climbing adventure with a goofy look to it and a light-hearted tone. There is no named system for which this adventure appears to be designed for, and as a result there aren’t any stats for the monsters that show up - such as the Slug Shepard and his 2d4 spider goats. But for a one-page rpg there’s certainly a lot you can glean based off of the different locations you can go to. I think this might be a fun game to try with Brave Zenith, as tone-wise both games feel a little bit goofy.

Welcome to Candy Mountain, by cog5games.

Created centuries ago with dark magics informed by gluttony, cast by a wizard who has since lost interest, Candy Mountain stands as a blemish of sweetness protruding from an otherwise bland countryside. The inhabitants of the mountain, who were also affected by the strange enchantment, went about their daily lives. Until…

Side with the Candy Crone and summon a gargantuan Lemon Titan to crush the Sugar Queen. Or! Bow to the Sugar Queen and stop the Candy Crone from exacting her revenge. Or! Forget all that and seek out a source of pure sugar crystals for Doctor Xaraqus and complete the lens of the temporal telescope.

There are honestly a lot of Troika supplements that you would probably find interesting to flip through in your search for non-horror adventures. Troika is a science-fantasy multiversal ttrpg, so there doesn’t have to be a lot of cohesion in terms of setting details. This also means that while not every Troika supplement may work for you, there’s bound to be something out there that does! If you want to check out more troika adventures, you could also look at the Troika! Pamphlet Adventure Jam that this game was submitted to.

Flowers Beneath The Mountain, by BPB Games.

A Casual Stroll Through a Wondrous Locale. Time to Hit the Road!

Flowers Beneath the Mountain is a licensed adventure for Ryuutama. Designed as an evocative introductory adventure for new players who want to explore a region that has more magic and whimsy than the standard setting, Flowers Beneath the Mountain is a simple adventure that provides useful information to help veteran or first time Ryuujin to fill out sheets on their own.

I know Ryuutama has a reputation for being a bit on the cozier side, so I expect this adventure to be fantastic and cute, even if there are monsters for you to fight. The game also comes with tokens for you to use on a Virtual Tabletop of your choice, if you are looking for that to add to your game!

Almanac of Lost Places, by Fantastic Jean.

A mountain coveted by rival kingdoms. A city where information is not a synonym of truth. The ruins of a civilisation far from being abandoned. A valley bending reality to protect itself from exploitation.

This is a loose outline of a number of places with conflicts waiting to be expanded upon. The Almanac holds story seeds: how you describe people and places, and how your players decide to respond will determine what conflicts they find themselves in, which allies they make, and what powers they will bear witness to. There's potential for horror, but I don't think this setting is beholden to it. I’m also wondering if perhaps combining this with something like the Big List of RPG Plots would give you enough to get a story in motion.

Overdue! by seedling.

In this system-agnostic game in a fantasy world, the players are all agents of the Library, sworn to carry out its will.  In this one-shot they can become entangled in book-themed royal intrigue, outwit a dragon who has taken control of all scientific journals, save the kingdom, and, most importantly, retrieve an overdue library book.

This is a system-agnostic dungeon-like adventure that looks to be less focused on combat, but I have a feeling that if you wanted to involve some combat, you could likely change some of the encounters within the game without necessarily having to change the core premise of the adventure.

[inventors-fair]

More than Playable: Typal Runners-Up ~

And our runners-up this week are @feyd-rautha-apologist, @misterstingyjack and @nine-effing-hells!

@feyd-rautha-apologist — Leeches' Kinship

Sometimes when reading these cards I'll go back and look at sets, and this one made me realize that there were indeed quite a few vampires around Strixhaven! If this wasn't intended to be on Strixhaven, well, that's my bad, but that's also what ya get for not including it in your submission. Having a cheap drain effect is pretty awesome, although clever limited players will know that you wouldn't want too many of them in your deck at the expense of creatures. But then, the creatures you get (if they're vampires) will be all the better, so win-win.

Morbid as a Witherbloom mechanic would be more than reasonable, IMO. If there's overlap with the Silverquill folks, that's fun as well, possibly. They do both overlap with vampires! And there's that little sweet spot for where overlap matters, and I think having overlapping subthemes with one small lean makes for a cool draft common that suggests to the players how flexible they can be. I may or may not have talked myself into liking this card a lot more than I did initially but that could also be the Vampire's curse. Hardly matters—I dig this thing and think that it gets one withered thumb pointed right up.

@misterstingyjack — Worldsoul's Boon

What I'm enjoying about the flavor is that most of the elves are assumed to be in white and green, but on Ravnica, there are plenty of Golgari elves, Simic elves, and even a few kickass Gruul elves to boot, and most of the mono/multi white cards wouldn't even come close. I feel that the flavor text itself is a little on the nose, and I'm not sure right now if it's implying that elves are closer to nature or if it's more along the lines of fantasy racism. Convoking is awesome, of course, but just plain attacking is pretty much right along green and white lines, yeah?

That said, if you have a one-mana Elf, turn two adds an additional three power to the board on top of potential lifegain. I feel that this could've definitely been pushed to three mana for that reason alone, and not just because there are a plethora of one-drop elves in any given format that you should keep an eye on. Small notes: 1) I also don't think you needed "then" in the first trigger; 2) Is it just me or is the text on this card really squashed? Anyway, let's back up to the good stuff, because as much as this might suggest typal at first glance, I think it speaks more to Ravnica's diversity in species and the eventual feeling of playing hybrid in a manner that's honestly pretty smooth. Having an Elf is a bonus, not a requirement, but having a creature? That's all that matters in the end. Just gotta have the RIGHT creature. Neat design and unexpectedly interesting!

@nine-effing-hells — Greater Glories

Whoof. It's a real conundrum if this card's undercosted or not. Obviously, Forced Adaptation is the baseline here, but we have to remember Luminarch Aspirant and the like which can give the counter on the combat step that the creature attacks. So you're gonna get the buff straight away, and then every turn thereafter. Now that said, it's pretty fragile, and auras fall off more than we'd like most of the time so I'll give you that. Still, for two mana, this is an aggressive all-star, and I'm not sure if I'm too down for how that plays out.

But we're also pushing boundaries here, and I think we both know that for three mana this card would be practically unplayable. Even if it gave trample for that cost, that's fairly steep, and I'm sitting here biting my metaphorical nails trying to make a decision. In the end? There's a non-zero chance that this card would be really annoying in a set without strong combat interaction and/or removal for either creature or aura. I don't hate it, and the Warrior aspect totally checks out for green on any world. Theros is the first one that comes to mind, but I'm equally drawn to Kaldheim, or really anywhere that's got warriors! It's a versatile and challenging card.

General commentary will be up soon as it's up. @abelzumi

[jewishvitya]

Anon:

I've actually met J.K. Rowling irl and asked her about the antisemitism controversy point blank. Very politley, she said it was ridiculous. She said she based the goblins on English folklore and nothing more.

It doesn't matter what she says. She can tell us her intent, not her impact. Not once did I accuse her of making the goblins in the books antisemitic on purpose. My issue was that she didn't care enough to acknowledge it and talk about it respectfully. The result stays the same. I laid out how they are antisemitic. It's in the text regardless of what she says.

She made Grindelwald an antagonist who claims he wants to stop the holocaust. By trying to stop him, the protagonists are trying to preserve the course of events where, in real life, the holocaust happened. She used holocaust imagery in her magic movies. I'm not just going to trust her word and her judgment on what's antisemitic. Be serious.

As for the game, most gentiles I know don't even know what a shofar is.

Even if you completely disregard the horn, it's still a storyline of blood libel using an antisemitic depiction. The only reason the horn is a problem, is that they put it in the hands of antisemitic caricatures. I'm not claiming ownership on the concept of ram's horn instruments. I was clear on that too.

As for the 1612 parallel, I genuinely don't know where that came from. [...] In fact, the one people keep referring to happened in 1614!

The Fettmilch uprising was a series of events that started at 1612. A bigger expulsion of Jews from the place was at 1614, but the attacks started before that, at 1612.

If you play it, you'll find trans and gay characters that are amazing and so fun to interact with, as well as an overall theme of antiprejudism.

Sure, I'll go ahead and interact with those fictional trans and gay characters. It sounds so nice. I'm sure I'll enjoy them enough to make up for giving money to a person who's at the forefront of the current attack on trans rights. Trans people dying in reality while she emboldens transphobes and makes it her entire online persona? That just isn't upsetting enough for me to feel repulsed by the idea of supporting this.

As far as I'm concerned, she has blood in her hands.

A theme of anti-prejudice is nice. Not compatible with the plot where you have to put down a rebellion, and not compatible with her behavior in reality.

But Rowling's world doesn't really lend itself to themes of anti-prejudice. She has:

A slave race where wanting to be free makes them weird, and if one is freed against her will, she becomes an aimless drunk. Our protagonists decorate their decapitated heads with Christmas hats. The idea of freeing them is a running joke, and the protagonist ends up a slave owner.

A werewolf community of HIV+ allegories where all but one person join the wizard Nazis. That one person ("the good one") poses a danger to innocent people more than once.

A race of greedy ruthless untrustworthy fantasy bankers, who are legally barred from having an equal place in society and shown as vicious for their attempts to fight for it, who have their cultural rules of inheritance constantly disrespected, and only have a place for their usefulness in crafting and managing the banks.

Giants who are shown as victims of wizards but also as dangerous creatures barely able to think.

Rowling doesn't understand prejudice. In her world, all the prejudiced opinions wizards have against the marginalized are correct. The slaves want to be slaves, the werewolves are dangerous, the goblins are greedy and bloodthirsty, the giants are violent and uncontrollable.

She doesn't have an issue with prejudice - as long as you're polite about it. She has an issue with outright physical violence, with rudeness and slurs, and with job discrimination. Beyond that, she doesn't care. She gets to have a surface-level message of anti-hatred because she can't come up with a villain that isn't literally Hitler.

[olderthannetfic]

https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/737771866482212864/one-thing-i-hate-in-modern-adaptations-is-when-ppl

This is actually kinda an interesting example of the weird tokenism that's currently being peddled in Hollywood for some time. You have a story where you actually have an under-represented group, but because it's the wrong kind we're just going to swap them so that you can visually see the difference, and so it fits our worldview in a completely different part of the world.

Let' me switch the sides for a second: Does Hollywood actually think that poc want to have the "leftover" roles from white characters? Do they honestly think that pocs feel more represented when being put into a story that didn't actually include them and doesn't feature their cultures and heritages, and doesn't even acknowledge them as a poc character in a white story? Do they honestly think that poc people want a white story, by a white author to represent them? That poc want to be stand ins for fantasy racism against fantasy creatures? This story features hate against magical creatures like elves... how about we just add in regular old racism again poc instead? As if the rule is that if there's racism, then pocs have to be victims of it, even if the story tells about fantastical racism. Why can't Poc simply exist in a story where they aren't victims of racism?

Especially if it ends up being such a waste of time and money like what Witcher ended up being, especially the "Origin" spin-off, made by people who hated the source material, and who hated and ousted on the one singular man who not only wanted to respect the source material, but even fought to have vital parts of the story respected until he couldn't anymore. Then they blame "We thought our audience were brainless mongrels so we didn't want to make it too complicated for their little stupid brains." Great, not only did you ruin one of the few stories that was by a Polish-Slav about Slavic and Polish folklore which already doesn't have much of a foothold, and wasn't the typical anti-Slavic Hollywood + "everything is Russia" storyline, but you also insulted the intelligence of your audiences, didn't actually give good rep to pocs, and you even managed to shit on the value of representing actual poc stories once again by giving them scraps.

I've also noticed this has started the stupid trend between fans, because instead of pointing out how stupid Hollywood is, and noticing it's Hollywood doing this shit, I see poc making fun that token-trend with comments "If a poc movie for pocs is made, by pocs and written by pocs, don't forget the token white character." Yeah, exactly we all see the problem don't we? That's why everyone clowns on it, but it's like people just kinda forget how stupid this trend is when it actually comes to throwing the hard critics at Hollywood. Where are the stories for the people who want to be represented as their own figures and stories for once? Without having a stupid token character because Hollywood thinks people are too dumb to identify or root for a character who doesn't look like them. We don't need useless token characters, we need stories that are made FOR the people, written for them, with care.

We want poc stories. We want black stories. Asian. Latine. Indigenous. Hell even Slavic. Whatever! Written by them for them, we want to see stories that can just BE these stories without the need for token characters awkwardly forced in. Tell me a story where the identity of the characters is respected and fully realized! Who needs a token character when you have actually stories where these characters actually get their stories told instead of being a footnote or a throwaway line? I want to watch a big blockbuster movie who's source was written by eg a black woman, about her culture, shaped by her experiences, and with black actors who are playing roles that were always for them. I don't want another "Hey this book was written by a white person, how about we just turn some random white characters poc and call it a day. Who cares if the author doesn't know how to write a poc experience, they'll just eat it anyway." I'm not saying that a person can't write about characters of a different ethnicity not their own either, especially if they actually do research and ask people of that ethnicity or find good resources, etc! Write what you want, put effort into it and your heart.

But we first need to set a precedents for authors to be able to write for themselves and their experiences tied to their identity, to get a voice and be featured above constantly using stories that weren't made for it. If the story was made for Polish slavs, then make it a story for polish slavs. If you want a high fantasy story with actual poc characters that was already part of the story, then go and find one of the thousands of books by various poc ethnicities that already cover that!

Bullshit excuses by Hollywood that poc stories don't sell are a fucking sham. The old fucks at the top just hate the idea of actually doing something for actual diversity, by giving poc people a chance to see their own stories on screen that they themselves have written.

--

[greatlordfluffernutter]

Kingdom Hearts worlds I need to see before I die:

The Muppets. Show me muppet Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Have Ms. Piggy show up as a party member to beat the shit out of shadows. The gang helps put on the Muppet Show.

Star Wars. Listen they made two tron levels it wouldn't even be out of place. Make it the death star from A New Hope. Give sora a lightsaber keyblade and some fun new force powers. Make goofy a wookie. Idk what to make Donald but some sort of creature. Let me fight Darth Vader to Duel of the Fates.

Epic Mickey. That game looked fucking beautiful and had so many forgotten Disney characters you could interact with, including Oswald. IDC what you do with it that world just feels like a blank check to do whatever.

A Final Fantasy World. No literally just any Final Fantasy world I don't even care which one. If I have to choose one I'll be biased and say do a 2-way crossover with XIV so my WoL gets a keyblade and Sora gets to fight Perfect Alexander.

A Goofy Movie. I DON'T CARE HOW IT WOULD WORK WITH THE LORE FORCE GOOFY TO STOP THE PLOT ENTIRELY TO GO ON A ROADTRIP WITH MAX (and Sora and Donald).