#it’s the same way I have now played in two star trek campaigns while also deeply not giving a fuck about that franchise

[void-cloud]

So one of my oldest social survival methods is: Know just enough about a topic to survive small talk

For example, back when World of Warcraft first came out: I didn't play it. I barely had interest in playing it tbh.

BUT I did collect a gaming magazine that included WoW guides at the time and with that I could hold just enough of a good convo with classmates about the game.

While again, not really giving a single fuck about ever playing it.

Anyway New Friend (ish. I should talk about her at one point) is very much into Magical Girl Media and seems to be under the impression I too enjoy Sailor Moon and co very much.

Meanwhile I'm quietly sitting here like.....the only Magical Girl Anime I've seen since childhood was Madoka Magica and I found....ok(tm). It's not a genre that excites me *shrugs*

But I'm also just enough of a weeb that I recognize the bigger charas and can talk about vague premises and welp...give the impression that I share her enjoyment.

Idk what to do with this info now. It's generally been weird to be able to recognize and track certain behaviours that I developed and helped me survive so far oO

[snowwhitelass]

New Outlander Game Coming – Talking with the Game Designers

By:  Erin Conrad, June 15, 2021

Gamers Corner, TV News

Outlander game, Sony, Starz Outlander, Variable Outcomes

Who wouldn’t want to dash around the Highlands with Jamie, trying to be his favorite, and rescuing him from trouble on the way? That definitely sounds like a fun time, even if all you can do is dream about it. Or IS that all you can do?

NO! Sometime this fall, a brand new board game will debut – Outlander The Series! Designed by the husband and wife team of Matthew and Ashley Killeen, the game will let you play with a bunch of your friends, meeting familiar faces along the way, and getting in and out of all kinds of scrapes. The game will be available for holiday shopping, so you can start to set up your Outlander game nights now. I had the opportunity to talk with Matthew and Ashley about the development of this new game, and learned some details.

From the game’s marketing information: “His fate is in your hands! Step through the stones of Craigh Na Dun and run through the Scottish Highlands with the handsome Jamie. The year is 1743, and the outlaw James Fraser is at your side as you navigate the thrills and dangers of the Highlands. Use your wit, reach the right locations, make the right friends, and gather the items you need, all while keeping Jamie out of the hands of the many who would do him wrong. The gallows await fair Jamie (or worse!) should you fail. Fulfill your destiny, and win his heart. Only then will victory be yours!”

Outlander is the Killeen’s first big franchise game. “From a business point of view, it’s something I always wanted to do,” Matthew said. “I enjoy games with an IP license attached, TV show or movie, and I have designed prototypes that might be good for Ghostbusters or Star Trek. I really wanted to get into that.” Ashley knew Matthew was interested in trying a licensed game, and said “I’ve been watching Outlander, you should make a game based on that.” Matthew hadn’t yet seen the show, so he said “you do it” – and she did.

Ashley didn’t get into the show until season three. “The first version (of the game) was based on the book, because I thought that might be the avenue to go. But it ended up being more layers to secure the book rights than TV. We heard back from Starz/Sony quickly, and the show and book were similar enough that I didn’t have to change too much from initial design. I swapped out characters and items that didn’t translate from one to another. Jamie still has same event encounters, the same enemies. It’s nice to look at both sides, to really put in all those little hidden tidbits from show. I’m hoping that fans of the show will enjoy all those subtle things that I’ve put in. But the other thing we wanted to make sure was that it was not dependent upon being familiar with the show, because the last thing you want is a game with Outlander masked on top of it that doesn’t play as anything on its own. And having a lot of friends who knew nothing about Outlander, how could I get them to the table?”

Matthew said, “One of philosophies for the board game stuff was that I’ve seen games that were maybe like a movie spin on top. Is this fun or exciting because of the game, or just because of the movie or tv show tie in? And one reason, the biggest reason why I got excited was when I first played it, I had never seen the show. I knew nothing about it. I had never seen the characters, and yet, I still enjoyed it. It was a good game.” Ashley added, “He has since seen the show.” Matthew continued, “That’s another thing that’s always bothered me. I feel like if a certain publisher or game designer makes something but doesn’t know the back story, that’s lazy. As soon as I found out we were going to do this, I watched the show. I know all my lore now. I was obviously able to play the game again once I knew the show and the lore, and it made the game play better.” “You understood my decisions,” said Ashley. “Exactly,” said Matthew. “Whether you know the show or not, it’s a good game.”

Ashley discussed their process: “I started December 2019. This past December, we were finally able to go forward. We got the contract from Sony in November. It was a long process! We got approvals for the design of the game, and access to the virtual library. We could figure out images that would go with the components we had.” Once they had that, Matthew figured out the graphic design for the game.

Was Sony/Starz helpful? Enthusiastic? Ashley said, “They were enthusiastic. They didn’t really have a board game. They had Destiny Dice, but that wasn’t the same thing.” (For my review of Destiny Dice, a game that came out a couple of years ago, click here.) I’ve had reservations about this previous game, so I asked how they overcame the failings of that one to make this new game. My concern with a platform like this is that the show is so big and layered – a group of women will come together over a glass of wine or three, and are they going to be able to figure it out easily enough to have a good time in an evening? Ashley feels that the new game will let us do that. “The idea behind this was that we wanted to bring everybody to the table – people whose board games lives consisted of Scrabble for their whole lives, and those who have played campaigning, like Mage Knights, epically, every week. We want to bring both those sets to the table. It should be intuitive enough once you’ve figured out the first turn order. It’s the repetition of that, it’s just your personal strategy that changes on what you choose to do, but the game play isn’t going to change on you as you go.”

She added, “But there’s enough in there that if you are an experienced board game player, you’re not sitting there bored waiting for the next thing to happen. That was our goal, as many people at the same table as possible enjoying it at the level they’re at. You can have the game player who knows nothing about Outlander, and you can have the Outlander fan who doesn’t play board games, and they will have a good evening. We also tried to be strategic about the length, because you don’t want to have just a tease of a game, because then you can’t be really invested and immersed in that world, but we also know, especially being parents now, you don’t have time to spend four hours on a game. That’s not going to happen any more. What’s a good length? If you can watch an episode of Outlander, you can play a round. So we wanted to find something that made sense. A lot of these pieces, once you apply a little logic to it, they fell together really nicely.”

This is the first “franchise” game the Killeens have designed. The fascination with board games started in 2004, and in 2011, Matthew began to design games as hobby. “I enjoyed playing, but in between then I was going to school and forgot about it. As school was winding down, I really got into it. I created an educational game called Witchful Thinking. We’re both teachers, and when doing practicum, the teacher (that he was working with) had kids doing games for math. but they were really boring, and the kids didn’t like it at all. I remembered I had a game that worked for this! I started looking at my business from a professional point of view, filling in gaps in the market. I wanted to bring people to a table they hadn’t been to yet. Witchful Thinking is a card game – witches brewing potions, teaching math – subtraction, addition, pre-algebra, and more advanced math. It was a great educational tool.” The company has more ideas – they have an upcoming Kickstarter for a game called Tennessee James, an Indiana Jones parody (learn more here). Matthew says that the company expects to bring out many more titles – “Between the two of us, we have a backlog of designs.”

When do they expect to have this out? Matthew said definitely for the Christmas season. “I am working with manufacturers right now, trying to iron out some of those details, but we’re going to be moving into manufacturing right now. It depends on how long it takes to do the mass production plus shipping, but I would estimate this would maybe in stores (or online retailers) by October. That’s probably a good estimate.”

Did they do a lot of testing? “We needed especially non-Outlander fans to play this game. The Outlander fans, it didn’t take a lot of convincing to get them to play,” said Matthew. “Even before there were pictures on the cards, they knew the board, they knew the characters. So even if you had a blank piece of paper that just said Murtagh on it, they know what it means. I wasn’t worried about the Outlander fans, and the game play is pretty intuitive, once you go through the steps. So once you’ve done a round, you can keep going around, no problem. So we were just like, ok, you don’t know what these names mean and where these places are, but you’ve got a bit of the information, are you on board? And so far the reaction has been, yes, I feel like I’m playing a game, even if they don’t know who Jamie is or anything like that.”

He continued, “The tall and short of it is that this that this has been play tested thoroughly. It’s not broken, and the most important part is that it’s fun.” Ashley added, “It’s a nice balance of cooperative, nobody wants Jamie to come to any harm, but you still want to be his favorite. So you can get a little catty, and that’s what makes the fun. You’ll be adding something a little stronger to your tea nights once you start playing that way.”

Matthew said, “One of my strategies for play testing is that I like to try different strategies each time and see what works and what doesn’t .Ashley laughed, “You played mean one time.” “Yeah, it’s my wife, I’ve got to play nice, right? But one time, I didn’t play nice, and I took a competitive edge, and it was awesome,” he said. So players, remember that!

“When I was working on Witchful Thinking, I was looking to put it into Walmart and Target. But they don’t want to talk to the independent company, they want to make sure they’re getting multiple products from the same distributors. So we want to make sure that the distributors that we get are also trying to get the game out there. I do have distribution in the US for Witchful Thinking, and they’re excited to take on this one.”

What was your favorite part of the game, as you play it, I asked? Ashley said, “I like the QuickSave. This is a component we have because Jamie is always going to move in a predictable pattern, and the three villains he’s trying to avoid – Black Jack Randall, the Redcoats and the Watch – those are all the Meeples that are going to be moving around. As you are collecting friends along the way, if you happen to be en route to an Encounter, you can use the special abilities from your friends. So maybe it’s Dougal who is going to be discarded, and that will be a Quicksave to put Jamie back in hiding, so the game’s not over, you haven’t captured him yet. I like that idea, the Quicksave. So you’re strategizing, not just for what’s going to give you a lot of Favor from Jamie to try to win his heart in the game, but where are these people going to help me if Jamie is in a pickle. Because he’s going to get himself in a lot of pickles.”

As he does on the show, I said! Ashley continued, “And as a designer, that’s a fun way for me to tie in the personality of the characters. There’s a reason why they have the values that they do. There was a little argument between us in the design phase, because I made Willie – Willie Mackenzie from the first season – he has this hidden kind of superpower that most of the time, he’s a bit weaker, but when the danger level’s up, he’s strong. Matt was criticizing that, ‘he’s a minor character, why is he so strong?’ But you haven’t been paying attention. Because when Jamie’s in Wentworth, it’s Willie who’s willing to go. So that’s his power, when things are toughest, he’s the one that can save the most. I was having fun finding those little nuggets, the lore, that fans love, and if you’re paying attention to how I’ve designed it, you’ll start seeing like why you get more Favor in some places, or more Wit, or why you have the saving abilities.”

The women playing will like seeing that, I agreed. “I think that we’ve got it so that your favorite characters, from S1 at least, this is just in the Highlands, you’re going to see them, I think they’ll do you proud,” Ashley says. “We’re still excited about it, even though it’s been a year and a half doing it, so I think that says something about it, that we can still be passionate about it, little choices like that, I think the game has life.” Ashley told me that she has ideas for additional Outlander games to follow each season, so this may go on for quite a while!

As their cute kids came into the room, I asked if game design was full time, or is this an extra job? Ashley said, “I’m a full time teacher, so I’m squeezing this in between the report card writing and the classroom stuff. With a bunch of changes with Covid, it’s made more sense for Matthew to stay home, so we decided to go all in, make this run for itself.” Matthew said, “I can speak from the graphic design standpoint – I didn’t design the gameplay, Ashley did that, but I offered suggestions here and there, it was her decision on things, and she made some great decisions. And between that, I did the playtesting and the graphic design in January and early February, I’ve put in hundreds of hours, not just with the graphic design, but also the business stuff too, figuring out social media posts, getting things approved by Sony, talking with the distributors. So this has been not just like a full time job, but overtime, I’ve put in some serious hours for this.”

Since this is the company’s first big license, I asked if is this something they want to continue. “Absolutely,” Matthew said. “And I knew that when I turned this into a hobby back in 2011. I enjoy making board games. I enjoying making movies, watching movies, reading books, all that stuff. I needed some sort of creative outlet. And this was it. I enjoy tabletop games, so I found a business that I’m passionate about. But I found over the years, since I am a small business, I had to learn everything. I can do the game design, I can do the graphic design, the IP stuff, social media, the PR, distribution. I have all those experiences, so if I can continue this, I’ll be very happy.”

Price point for the game should be $48.99 CA (US equivalent is about $40). And it will be available in the US, and more – Matthew says, “The territories we have with Sony are Canada, USA, UK, Australia and France. We’re a small family run company, but at the same time, this is a big license. So we want to do the fans proud, we want to do this IP proud, so we want to give the biggest reach that we can.” Ashley said, “We’re limited because we’re not the distributors, so once we put it in those hands, it’s really up to those stores that want to put it on their shelves. So until we know where they’re placing it, I can’t tell you ‘oh, pick it up here.’ ” Matthew agreed. “I have experience with all of that, so when I made Witchful Thinking and released that, I had a hard time getting distribution. So I went store to store, city to city, and I made those contacts myself. For me as a business owner, I’m not just one of those owners who throws money out and does it. I have experience in all these aspects. So when this game comes out, let’s say that distribution doesn’t have as far of a reach as possible, I’ll make it happen. With Covid especially, the online market is important.”

“From a business standpoint, we’re a new company,” Matthew said. “It seems that we’re very new to this but that’s not really the case. This game has been been in development for a long time, and between the two of us we have 20+ games in prototypes. So we definitely know how to make games, and make games fun. And the fact that we’re both teachers, I think makes it even better. Because as teachers, we have to know how to sell to an audience.” ” And explain the games,” Ashley added.

PRE-ORDER THE GAME RIGHT HERE! Three if by Space has the game available for pre-orders in our Collectibles shop!! Click here to go to the pre-order page!

[theradioghost]

could you elaborate on the long term plot of greater boston? i don't mind spoilers! i tried it but couldn't get past the first episode :( but i trust your taste and i've liked every other show you've rec'd so i wanna keep listening

EDIT: okay for some reason the formatting of this post is EXTREMELY befuckened and I can’t get it to behave, so it’s possible that this isn’t going to display with a spoiler cut and if so I am VERY sorry. the “keep reading” break is in the ask instead of the body of the post I have no idea what’s happening right now but if you don’t want spoilers please be aware this post spoils like everything about the show

Sure thing! I will .... do my best, but because of the nature of GB’s plot it’s a bit difficult to describe it without ending up either way too detailed or way too vague. But I will absolutely do my best because if there is any show out there that deserves it, this is that show. Cut for Obvious Spoiler Reasons!

So, there’s a LOT of plot that goes on, but what a plot summary could never convey is that the real heart and soul of this show is the characters. There are a metric fuckton of them, and every one of them is multidimensional and dynamic and wonderful, even if it’s not always obvious at first.

Leon Stamatis of course starts the show by abruptly dying of Existential Crisis/Panic Attack on a roller coaster, which sets everything else in motion. Of that big ensemble cast, at first the most important players are

Nica, Leon’s little sister who wants to be famous but doesn’t really have any concrete plans as to how

Dimitri, Leon’s little brother who is currently traveling in a submarine attempting to find Atlantis and keeps sending Leon letters, unaware that he’s dead

Louisa, Leon’s recent ex, a wedding photographer who later quits and becomes a crime scene photographer slash detective

Leon’s best friend/roommate Michael, who is unemployed and has just had a relapse after being sober for 12 years because he has no idea what to do without Leon

Gemma, a lesbian who absolutely hates her job as an editor at Third Sight, a company which publishes magazines relating to astrology/psychic stuff/divination/etc

Charlotte, Gemma’s pregnant wife, who has recently lost her job as an animation background artist and is feeling directionless

Professor Paul Montgomery Chelmsworth, aka the Mayor of the Red Line, a slightly eccentric college professor and casual friend of Leon’s who is inspired by his death to call for a referendum declaring that the Red Line of the Boston subway system will become an independent city.

It’s that last one that is the real ~main plot~ of the show: at first, more and more of the characters getting caught up in the campaign to create the city of Red Line, and then the chaos that results when they succeed and actually have to run it. But you also have characters like Louisa and Nica and Michael, dealing with a whole rainbow of grief and distress as they cope with Leon’s death. His eccentric personality is the other driving force of the show’s events -- Leon was caring and compassionate, but also obsessed with timetables, organization, and scheduling every action in his life down to the minute.

The other major force in the show is Third Sight, a magazine publisher with a focus on fortunetelling and the like; Michael ends up working there, along with Gemma and several other major characters. Third Sight also has an enigmatic boss no one has ever seen, who turns out to be a manipulative little bastard named Oliver West.

While Red Line successfully becomes a city, “Mayor” Chelmsworth turns out to have some major commitment issues and vanishes as soon as the vote passes, leaving Charlotte and Gemma to clean up the mess. Charlotte ends up interim mayor, but also begins to campaign for the upcoming mayoral election, in which she has two opponents: Isabelle Powell, a Black realtor and an incredible character whom I absolutely cannot do justice here, and Emily Bespin, Literally The Worst Person Who Has Ever Existed, Holy Fuck I Hate Her So Much.

The election is being manipulated behind the scenes by Oliver West, who also takes advantage of Nica’s isolation and a near mental breakdown to convince her to help him by orchestrating several escalating ~pranks~ in Red Line. Honestly he’s manipulating literally everyone, and also heavily backing Emily Bespin, in an attempt to profit off of influence in the new city. Eventually this ends up with Michael kidnapped and imprisoned, several other characters attacked and one badly hurt during a wedding in Red Line, and Isabelle Powell’s nephew framed for the attack. That results in Powell’s supporters beginning a set of protests which throw Red Line into even further chaos, even as Charlotte and Nica begin to have some real moral epiphanies about how they’ve been acting.

As events continue to escalate and the election draws closer and closer, the now-assembled cast have to figure out just who exactly is manipulating events and how -- not to mention how to prove Powell’s nephew’s innocence, what the hell has happened to Michael, and what the hell they’re going to do if Bespin wins the election and makes good on her promise to evict everyone involved in the protests.

Meanwhile, Dimitri is traumatized by finding a mass grave at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, gets rescued and then imprisoned in Alaska by infamous vanished plane hijacker DB Cooper, finally makes it home to Boston disillusioned and lonely only to inevitably find out his brother has been dead for two years, and then gets totally rejected by his sister, because he basically can’t catch a break.

Also meanwhile, the same conflicts playing out in Red Line play out on a more metaphysical level, in the structure of the show itself. While the first season only hints at the possibility that Leon might not be quite as gone as everyone thinks, as the show progresses Leon’s ghost makes his presence known by starting to argue with the omniscient narration. Increasingly taking over the show’s narration until a brilliant scene where said narrator quits and audibly gets up from the microphone and leaves, Leon, the man who spent his whole life trying to impose order on the chaos of the universe around him, finds himself battling the very structure of the story they’re in, in an attempt to help his friends as both he and they are caught up in the chaos of Red Line and Oliver West’s plans. Unfortunately, the structure of the story has other ideas, and plans of its own.

None of this, of course, even begins to touch on the cheese robots; or Michael’s ongoing struggle with self-actualization and alcoholism; or Mallory the foulmouthed teenager who somehow manages to first witness and then be involved in nearly every major plot event of the show; or the in-depth examination of structural racism as it relates to things like housing and city planning and Boston’s history and well-intentioned white liberals and the imprisonment of Black youth; or Star Trek obsessed chaotic neutral gay reporter Chuck Octagon and that one time he flirted with his own mirror universe self; or the complex but beautiful process of Charlotte and Gemma working on their relationship in the midst of all this chaos because while they have troubles throughout they truly love one another and are trying to be better people; or the fact that one of the other major characters is an insufferable Loud Vegan member of a polyamorous commune who -- on the advice of his ~spirit advisor~ the ghost of 19th century feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft keeps changing his name throughout the show to things including Earthman, Panda Bear, Extinction Event, and Dipshit; or the unfortunately real Olive Garden food truck; or the laughter and the tears and the flamethrowers and the fact that one of the show’s most important and heartbreaking conversations takes place on an amusement park log flume ride audibly filled with liquid nacho cheese.

It’s a good show, is what I’m saying, basically.

[ctl-yuejie]

For the untamed ask game 5, 8, 10, 17, 16, 19, 21 35, 46 and 55

5. Biggest WTF momentThe golden core reveal in the book! ( read it before the drama so I don’t know how much I’d have been surprised without prior knowledge watching the scene in the series). Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention, but from what I remember I wasn’t even sure that Wei Wuxian had lost his Golden Core at that point. So I was extremely shocked by the reveal and also very excited because it made his past actions much more understandable and his dynamic with both Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji got even more interesting. 

8. Most Confusing Part In The Storyon my first read i had a hard time remembering all characters so i think i zoned out a lot when the story didn’t focus on wangxian, so not necessarily a particular part of the story that confused me but i was just not paying enough attention. also: the timeline is random af.

10. Favourite Fanfic Set-Up Uhhhh!!! I love me powerful Yiling Patriarch stories where he survives the second sunshot campaign and anything and everything that focuses on the Yunmeng brothers relationship after canon. Also: every fanfic about the WangXian family regardless of universe.some great “bamf!wei wuxian survives the second sunshot campaign and adopts everyone”

16. Favourite Habitwei wuxian talking non-stop about lan wangji after they’ve met. so much so that the whole jiang family (read: jiang cheng) is super annoyed by it.

17. Purer Cinnamon Role Than Wen Ning (sorry for all these typos in the ask game) hmmmm…Wen Ning is pretty much peak pure cinnamon roll, but from the younger generation Ouyang Zizhen might even out-perform him. sure he is loud and direct, but also doesn’t know how to act in most social situations because the world is such a happy place for him and did you know that Hanguang-Jun and Senior Mo are dating and they’re not as dramatic about it as I want them to be but still super cute, and wtf Hanguang-Jun is now married to the Yiling Patriarch and all my dreams have come true, i have no idea why Lan Qiren looks so constipated maybe that’s because of Jingyi…..19. Cinnamon Role Meme (4 Characters) 21. A Fanon You Like hmmmm….this is pretty much canon but WangXian adopting everyone and everything while roaming the country & Wei Wuxian managing to cultivate MO Xuanyu’s core.and the lan wangji played inquiry for 16 years fanon. not because i think lan wangji would try and bind wei wuxian’s spirit to him but more so to find out whether he’s at peace and at some point it becomes this tiny remembrance song he plays for wei ying once a year.

35. Who Is The Biggest Disaster many disasters in this one but maybe Jin Zixuan??? i think he is so lucky for Jiang Yanli to be persistent in her love for him and MianMian intervening to clear up some misunderstandings…left on his own he really is a sad disaster.

but there’s some tough competition from wei wuxian, jiang cheng, jinling and more…

46. Favourite Fanfic / A Fanfic You Want To Recommendprepare yourself! (if not stated otherwise it’s wangxian)

since then i am because you are by sarahyyy (very short, fluff, oblivious wei wuxian & marriage)

overcast by willowcatkin (middle-length, canon divergence, role revearsal, accidental child acquisition)

and so my heart beats wildly by lily_winterwood (long fic, modern au with cultivation as an olympic sport, wangxian are competitors)

The (Several) Convenient Kidnappings of the Chief Cultivator by the Yiling Patriarch by misscam (short, some silly sexy fun)

your heart, two doors down by ficklish (middle-length, modern au, wangxian are neighbours, single parent! wei wuxian)

A Little Happiness by Suspicious_Popsicle (middle-length, post-canon, lan wangji turns into a child, everyone panics & wei wuxian just wants him to be happy)

asymptotic by chinxe (middle-length, canon divergence, lan wangji plays inquiry, that is how he encounters wei wuxian for the first time, beautiful but it also hurts)

transcendent by hyunbyun (short, wei wuxian is insecure about being in mo xuanyu’s body, domestic fluff)

Continuation by thefaceofno (long fic, post the untamed canon, hair brushing, some more pining but happy end)

i’d be all right (if i could just see you) byThirtySixSaveFiles (long fic, college au, wei wuxian is an idiot and takes lan wangji to a party)

Libation by BastetCG (middle-length, gods au, tentacle sex but in a very innovative way)

a lot can come from being in love with your captain bythefaceofno (long fic, part of a series, star trek au, various pairings, action & romance)

How Wei Ying Went from Oblivious Idiot to Shameless Boyfriend in Three Days by misscam (middle-length, college au, wei wuxian is oblivious but tries to be oh so helpful when lan wangji seems to have a crush on someone)

Adventures in Solitude by etymologyplayground (short, hurt/comfort, the untamed episode 16 canon divergence, lan wangji tries to come to the aid of yunmeng)

every time we kiss i swear i could fly by sarahyyy (short, kissing booth college au, lan wangji has a misunderstanding and is sad but all is well)

The Last Three Feet by etymologyplayground (middle-length, wangxian are oblivious, domestic downtime in cloud recesses with sizhui)

A Start on How by misscam (middle-lenght, college au, sleepovers!!, lan brother feels)

critical path analysis by chinxe (long fic, b99 au, hilarious perfection, it is scary how well the characters fit)

dirty politics by sarahyyy (short, politics au, wangxian are in a secret relationship but oh so wonderful together)

Rumor Doesn’t Have It (But Wei Wuxian Is Determined to Change That) by misscam (middle-length, post the untamed canon, everyone is weighing in on the relationship of the yiling patriarch and the chief cultivator, maybe wei wuxian should make some of the rumours come true)

Found Family by tulirepo (short, hurt/comfort, lan wangji finds ah-yuan on burial mounds, all the found family feels)

i want your heart to be for me by ThirtySixSaveFiles for sealdog (middle-lenght, wangxian soulmate au  but set in canon, usually not a soulmate au reader but the concept is tied in super nicely into the story here)

to recollect and long for by mme_anxious (middle-length, all the found family and ah-yuan feels, hurt/comfort)

Grand Pianos Crash Together by etymologyplayground (long fic, post canon, wangxian find back together: an epic)

grief; the stages of by synonemous (sussiekitten) (long fic, the whole story in a modern setting, stuck in early 2000 wei wuxian is hilarious)

Sleeping in Paradise by daiki (middle-length fic, thematic fic, wei wuxian survives the sunshot campaign, jiang yanli lives, jin rulan’s relationship to the mysterious sleeping person at lotus cove)

What Rests on Tea by Gotcocomilk (long fic, yunmeng feels, jiang yanli & jin zixuan live, inventor!wei wuian, some great hurt/comfort)

and i will go this way by detention_notes (long fic, post-canon, wangxian write each other letters, wei wuxian travels with lesbians and harrasses friends and family on his roadtrip)

Not Just Netflix and Chill (Or Lan Zhan’s Lack of Grasp of Euphemisms) by misscam (short, modern au, lan wangji is the cutest and wei wuxian is helplessly in love)

These Things Stay the Same by notevenyou (modern au, war zone/disaster zone journalist! wei wuxian, sizhui feels!!!!!)

works in progress (they are all very, very good)

a stone to break your soul, a song to save it by rikke (long, almost finished, arranged marriage to save the yiling patriarch, yunmeng bro feels)

Death of a Ghost by Gotcocomilk (long, wei wuxian materializes as a ghost after his death, major yunmeng feels, he raises all the children)

Flowers of Blood and Bone by Sakurafubuki (AriasOfSnow) (long, vampire/vampire hunter au, a lot of action, great world building, crafty!wei wuxian, vampire!lan wangji)

I will surrender (myself to this moment in time) by Naamah_Beherit (long, post-canon, wei wuxian wakes up in gusu but has no idea how he got there, angst (with promised happy ending), lan sizhui calling wei wuxian father feels, wei wuxian gets confronted by the darkness in his life)

Lying on the Edge of a Star by Suspicious_Popsicle (long, slow-burn, wei wuxian falls into young lan wangji’s courtyard who is falling fast and deep, pity that to wei wuxian humans are but a fleeting existence)

please forgive my most passionate disruptions by pumpkinpaix (scribogenesis) (long, modern college au, wei wuxian is a stripper, lan wangji binds himself by his family’s old customs, marvelous character study, all the lan/yunmeng/wen sibling feels)

The storm comes and goes (and I keep walking) by Naamah_Beherit (long, wei wuxian survives the second sunshot campaign and roams the country as a rogue cultivator, he adopts all the children)

55. A Story-Arc That Haunts Youdefinitely the yi city arc!!!! i both love and loath it because it is just so sad and horrible but also has some stunning visuals, wei wuxian being a badass kindergartner and some big reveals for the main plot.

The Untamed / MDZS ask game

[sigmalied]

Sig’s Anthem Review

Verdict

BioWare’s Anthem is a genuinely fun and engaging experience that sabotages itself with myriad design, balance, and technical oversights and issues. It is a delicious cake that has been prematurely removed from the developmental oven - full of potential but unfit for general consumption in this wobbly state. Anthem is not a messianic addition to the limited pantheon of looter shooters because it has somehow failed to learn from the well-publicized mistakes of its predecessors. 

Am I having fun playing Anthem? Absolutely. Does it deserve the industry’s lukewarm scores? Absolutely. But this is something of a special case. The live service model giveth and taketh away; we receive flexibility in exchange for certainty. Is Anthem going to be the same game six months from now? Its core DNA will always be the same, but we’ve already begun to see swift improvements that bode well for the future. 

Will my opinion matter to you? It depends. When I first got into looter shooters I was shocked at how much the genre clicked with me. They are a wonderful playground for theory crafters, min/maxers, and mathletes like myself who find incomparable joy in optimizing builds both conventional and experimental by pushing the limits of obtainable resources ad infinitum. The end game grind is long and at times challenging as you make the jump to Grandmaster 1+ difficulty in search of top-tier loot to perfect your build. This is what looter shooters are all about.

If you don’t like the sound of that, you’ll probably drop Anthem right after finishing its campaign. But if you do like the sound of that, you might find yourself playing this game for years.

TL;DR: This game is serious fun, but is also in need of some serious Game & UI Design 101. 

I wrote a lot more about individual aspects of the game beneath the read more, if you’re interested. I’ve decided not to give the game a score, I’m just here to discuss it after playing through the campaign and spending a few days grinding elder game activities. There are no spoilers here.

Gameplay

The Javelins are delightful. I’ve played all four of them extensively and despite identifying as a Colossus main I cannot definitively attach myself to one class of Javelin because they’re all so uniquely fun to play and master. Best of all, they’re miraculously balanced. I’ve been able to hold my own with every Javelin in Grandmaster 1+. Of course, some Javelins are harder to get the hang of than others. Storms don’t face the steep learning curve Interceptors do, but placed in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, both are equally as destructive on the battlefield. 

I love the combo system. It is viscerally satisfying to trigger a combo, hearing that sound effect ring, and seeing your enemy’s health bar melt. Gunplay finally gets fun and interesting when you start obtaining Masterworks, and from there, it’s like playing a whole new game. 

Mission objectives are fairly bland and repetitive, but the gameplay is so fun I don’t even mind. Collect this, find that, go here, whatever. I get to fly around and blow up enemies while doing it, and that’s what matters. Objectives could be better, certainly. Interesting objectives are vital in game design because they disguise the core repetitive gameplay loop as something fresh, but the loop on its own stays fresh long enough to break even, I feel.

The best part is build flexibility. Want to be a sniper build cutting boss health bars in half with one shot? I’ve seen it. Want to be a near-immortal Colossus wrecking ball who heals every time you mow down an enemy? You can. There are so many possibilities here. Every day I come across a new crazy idea someone’s come up with. This is an excellent game for build crafters. 

But... why in the world are there so few cosmetic choices? A single armor set for each Javelin outside the Vanity store? A core component of looter shooters has always been endgame fashion, and on this front, BioWare barely delivers and only evades the worst criticism by providing quality Javelin customization in the way of coloring, materials, and keeping power level and aesthetics divorced. We’re being drip-fed through the Vanity store, and while I like the Vanity store’s model, there should have been more things permanently available for purchase through the Forge. Everyone looks the same out there! Where’s the variety? 

Story, Characters, World

Anyone expecting a looter shooter like Anthem to feature a Mass Effect or Dragon Age -sized epic is out of their mind, but that doesn’t mean we have to judge the storytelling in a vacuum. This is BioWare after all. Even a campaign that flows more like a short story - as is the case with Anthem - should aspire to the quality of previous games from the studio. Unfortunately, it does not, but it comes close by merit of narrative ambience: the characters, the world’s lore, and their execution. 

(For a long time I’ve had a theory that world building is what made the original Mass Effect great, not its critical storyline, which was basically a Star Trek movie at best. Fans fell in love because there were interesting people to talk to, complicated politics to grasp, and moral decisions to make along the way.)

While the main storyline of Anthem is lackluster and makes one roll their eyes at certain moments or bad lines, the world is immediately intriguing. Within Fort Tarsis, sophisticated technology is readily available while society simultaneously feels antiquated, echoing a temporal purgatory consistent with the Anthem’s ability to alter space-time. Outside the fort, massive pieces of ancient machinery are embedded within dense jungles in a way that suggests the mechanical predates nature itself. The theme of sound is everywhere. Silencing relics, cyphers hearing the Anthem, delivering echoes to giant subwoofers… It’s a fun world, it really is. 

As for the characters… they might be some of the best from BioWare. They feel like real people. Rarely are they caricatures of one defining trait, but people with complex motives and emotions. Some conversations were boring, but the vast majority of the time I found myself racing off to talk to NPCs as soon as I saw yellow speech bubbles on the map after a mission. And don’t even get me started on the performances. They are golden.

The biggest issue with the story is that it’s not well integrated with missions. At times it feels like you’re playing two separate games: Fort Tarsis Walking/Talking Simulator and Anthem Looter Shooter. And the sole threads keeping these halves stitched together during missions - radio chatter - takes a back seat if you’re playing with randoms who rush ahead and cause dialogue to skip, or with friends who won’t shut the hell up so you can listen or read subtitles without distraction. I found it ironic that I soloed most of the critical story missions in a game that heavily encourages team play.

Technical Aspects: UI & Design 

This is where Anthem has some major problems. God, this category alone is probably what gained the ire of most reviewers. The UI is terrible and confusing. There are extra menu tabs where they aren’t needed. The placement of Settings is for some inane reason not located under the Options button (PS4). Excuse me? It’s so difficult to navigate and find what you’re looking for. It’s ridiculously unintuitive.  

Weapon inscriptions (stat bonuses) are vague and I’ve even seen double negatives once or twice. They come off as though no one bothered to proofread or edit anything for clarity. Just a bad job here all around. And to make matters worse, there is no character stat sheet to help us demystify any of the bizarre stat descriptions. We are currently using goddamn spreadsheets like animals. Just awful. 

The list goes on. No waypoints in Freeplay. Countless crashes, rubber banding, audio cutouts, player characters being invisible in vital cutscenes, tethering warnings completely obscuring the flight overheat meter… Fucking yikes. Wading through this swamp of bugs and poor design has been grueling to say the least. 

And now for the loot issues. Dead inscriptions on gear; and by dead I mean dead, as in “this pistol does +25% shotgun damage” dead (this has been recently patched but I still cannot believe this sort of thing made it to release). The entire concept of the Luck stat (chance to drop higher quality loot) resulting in Luck builds who drop like flies in combat and become a burden for the rest of the team. Diminishing returns in Grandmaster 2 and 3; it takes so long to clear missions on these difficulties without significant loot improvement, making GM2 and GM3 pointless when you could be grinding GM1 missions twice as fast. 

At level 30, any loot quality below Epic is literal trash. Delete Commons, Uncommons, and most Rares as soon as you get them because they’re virtually useless. I have hundreds of Common and Uncommon embers and nothing to do with them. Why can’t we convert 5 embers into 1 of the next higher tier? Other looters have already done things like this to make progression omnipresent. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, BioWare. It’s already been done for you. 

When you get a good roll on loot, the satisfaction is immense. But when you don’t, and you won’t 95% of the time, you’ll feel like you’ve wasted hours with nothing to show for it. We shouldn’t be spending so much time hunting for useful things, we should be trying to perfect what’s already useful.

It’s just baffling to think that Anthem had the luxury of watching the messy release of several other looter shooters during Anthem’s development, yet proceed to make the same mistakes, and some even worse. 

Nothing needs to be said about visuals. They are stunning, even from my perspective on a base PS4.

Sound design is the only other redeeming subcategory here. Sound design is amazing, like the OST. Traditional instrumentals meet alien synth seamlessly. Sarah Schachner is a seriously talented composer. 

I’m just relieved to see the development team hauling ass to make adjustments. They’ve really been on top of it - the speed and transparency of fixes has been top-notch. They’re even working on free DLC already! A new region, more performances from the actors... I’m excited and hopeful for the future. 

[performanceroll-blog]

BEGININGS - HOW TO GET STARTED? Ok, so you got yourself the standard 4 person group of players, you’ve been voted captain of the proverbial ship and you’re all excited to get the ship sailing. But starting out, especially when you’re a new DM, or even only circumstantially elected to be one, running a game can look as intimidating as this nice Beholder art above (Don’t start with a beholder btw, for the love of all that is holy). It was the same for me, it is the same for most people, I would imagine. First thing you need to know is that no one does a great job right from the get go. Half the fun is in learning from your mistakes and growing through trial and error. Here’s how things went for me in those initial stages and what I learned. Now, the ideal situation, and one I was lucky enough to have, is that all of the players you have are new to the game as well. That way you can all discover the wonders of dnd together and even if you make a mistake as the dm, chances are that they won’t notice. Besides, they’ll also be making a bunch of mistakes so it all balances out. Don’t fret about it too much. It also helps if you’re all friends to begin with. I know often times that simply isn’t the case, but it’s at least worth mentioning.  Living where I live, in Croatia, having next to no support for dnd, I was pretty lucky to find friends interested in playing pretty much right off the bat. Sure there were a few campaign restarts and member changes in the first few months, but quickly enough, we formed the core group of 5 people and decided on me as the DM. And don’t get discouraged if you don’t succeed in finding a group right away or if you have a bad experience or two to start with. Sometimes those things just happen. I also had a failed game that I tried on Roll20 online first. But going past them with held entuziasm pays off in the end, trust me.  How do you start?  First of all, you have to pick a setting to play in. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the setting can be fantasy, sci-fi, modern, post-apocalyptic, prehistoric - whatever you want it to be. What I would reccomend is to go with something you are most familiar with. Maybe you always wanted to play in the Forgotten Realms alongside Drizzt and Bruenor. Maybe you’ve seen all the generations of Star Trek or loved Firefly and sci-fi is more your scene. Maybe you’re already so far down the rabbit hole that you’ve made your own setting with cities, civilizations, cultures, religions, calendar and all. Whatever it may be, having a preestablished knowledge on the setting helps you create what you want to start a game, as well as maneuver through the setting with more confidence once you start playing.  For me, that setting was Exandria - Tal’dorei - Matt Mercer’s world from Critical Role. Now, I’m sure a lot of you were introduced to dnd through Critical Role, I was too, and I could go on about CR for a hundred pages, but that’s a topic for another post. I am, however, gonna explain why that setting worked for me and maybe you can take some lessons from that.  For starters, I’d watched through the whole first campaign of CR so I was pretty familiar with the world already...I knew the prominent cities, popular npcs, their voices and manerisms, latest world events.... and Matt’s Tal’dorei campaign guide just came out so the choice of setting came quite easily to me. The guide is a great piece of material to build your own personal campaign on without having to start from scratch. It describes most of the significant places in Tal’dorei (the main continent of the world - Exandria), gives you historic reasons why and how they are there, but leaves plenty of space for you to express yourself and implement your own ideas. As I’ve come to learn about myself through this experience, I love adapting published material for my own needs in the campaign, as well as coming up with my own inventions. And that’s the thing. If you don’t know what type of dm you are when you’re starting out, you don’t have to. You will constantly evolve and sooner or later find you own style.  Anyway, we went with Tal’dorei - Exandria. By that point, of the group, only I had watched Critical Role and I was excited to bring a dash of everything I thought was great about the show I was watching to the rest of the bunch. It always helps to be doing something you really love - you tend to go that extra mile and make the extra effort to produce the best result you can. That’s true with most things in life.  Now, almost 2 years later, one of the players took the bait and has already watched through the whole first campaign (I am so proud :)) while others haven’t (mostly due to lack of time to spend on 4-hour episodes), but they enjoy playing in the setting nontheless. When you have the setting you want to play in, and that sort of includes general worldbuilding already (which is a topic in and of itself to explore), it’s time to think about how to start the campaign itself. That’s gonna be the topic of one of my next posts as you join me on the journey of the campaign we’re playing. I’m gonna go into different ways you can start a campagin and how and why I started mine the way I did. It’ll sort of be the intro into our game and the first post of The Croakers Campaign Chronicles. It’ll be the retelling of the story, as well as my personal DM insights into how it all transpired.  Thanks for reading and, as always, I hope you’ve gained some inspiration ;)

[shadowron]

The Lonely Decker

(Dwarf Decker Julian Strouther from Dreamchipper in his Monopoly Man Costume)

Now.

As I’ve noted before: the decker was the first archetype I ever played in Shadowrun, and has always remained my go-to character. I ranked them 2nd best of all 1st edition archetypes, only being beat out by the rigger. So it pains me to say this:

Deckers are kind of boring.

Not that they aren’t useful. It’s just that, and I don’t even think this was really fixed in future editions, every decker you make is basically the same. Buy the best deck you can, buy the best progs you can, max out computer skills. Voila.

Want to play a combat-type? Former Company Man, Gang Member, Merc, Ork Mercenary, Street Samurai, Tribesman.

Want to play a magician? Burned-out Mage, Former Wage Mage, Shaman, Street Mage, Street Shaman.

Lots of variety there.

Even if you wanted to play a more social type: Detective, Rocker.

What’s left?

Well, admittedly, the Rigger. Given that the decker and rigger are both defined by the equipment they use, there is still much more room for uniqueness being a rigger than a decker. Third edition included separately the vehicle rigger and drone rigger, but there’s nothing stopping a custom-built rigger from specializing like this in 1st edition. Even for a vehicle rigger: which vehicle? Optimized for speed, for combat, or for transport? Ditto for the drone rigger. And this is just speaking of 1st edition, pre-Rigger Black Book.

As for the decker, even Virtual Realities didn’t address this flaw – while it included more detailed rules for building your own deck, everyone still made the exact same deck: the best you could possibly build following the rules.

There are two decker archetypes in 1st edition: Decker and Elven Decker. But, as I’ve already addressed in an earlier article, being an elf doesn’t really give you an advantage. Yes, you get +1 Quickness, but your starting Reaction is still limited to 6, and that’s what counts in the Matrix. The other races have penalties to Quickness or Intelligence, and so unless you want to start with a handicap, you want to play a human decker.

Early adventures tried to include more variants. Dreamchipper had a Dwarf Decker as a sample NPC. DNA/DOA had a (sigh) mage/decker. Horrible idea. “He lives for the rush”, which loads at 2400 baud since he’s using fragging tortoise mode because he doesn’t have a datajack. I guess the rush comes from getting your ass kicked in both Astral Space and the Matrix.

(Mage/Decker Andrew Shalene from DNA/DOA before his twelve-hour Matrix run getting past the first SAN)

Searching for Inspiration

The next step would be to say, okay, in what ways could you make different deckers unique?

Now, if anyone comes at me with Otaku/Technomancers…  Just no.

On the record? Just interested in 1st edition rules here.  Off the record?  I hate the entire concept. HATE. H@T3.

They tried to make cyberspace work more like magic, but frag that, don’t just make a lame mirror-image. Do it like Mage: The Ascension, and make the “Matrix” just another metaplane (and yes – I played a Virtual Adept). Or keep the techno-mysticism and ditch the magical element altogether, but then it would be a more blatant ripoff of Count Zero by Gibson.

Shadowrun was first published in 1989, I started playing in 1990. I had not read any cyberpunk literature at that point, and wasn’t even really that much into sci-fi. Had not read any Asimov at that point, was Team Star Wars over Star Trek. This was before The Lawnmower Man (1992), Hackers (1995), and of course, The Matrix (1999), which:

1.       You couldn’t even be mad at for co-opting the word “Matrix” from Shadowrun given how much blatant theft Shadowrun engaged in.

2.       Why did they never publish a table-top RPG?

Not that there was any lack of computer “hackers” in movies before that, with Wargames (1983), Revenge of the Nerds (1984), and Weird Science (1985) in successive years of my impressionable youth.  As 1990s computer nerds go, I was about a 6/10. I grew up on the Apple II and learned the basics of programming by high school, was a frequent visitor to dial-up BBSs and chatlines on the family PC.

Don’t mean to brag.

Back to the issue at hand: what are the interesting decker variants?

Aligning with the “cinematic hacking” aspect of Shadowrun, there really isn’t much. There are systems you want to get into, and the IC doesn’t want to let you in. Your two options are:

1.       Sneak past it, or

2.       Crash it.

That gives you only two specialties: are you a Thief, or are you a Fighter?

If you’re the only decker – most likely – then you must be a little bit of both. Pick locks and hide in shadows until you need to whip out the broadsword. Thief maxes out Masking and Sensors utilities, Fighter maxes out Combat and Defense utilities. If you’re not the only decker, then it makes more sense to specialize. Even then, the D&D analogy starts to break down – the Thief can’t “sneak” the Fighter past the IC using Deception or Sleaze progs, as their use is individual to the persona. Fighter could slow/crash the IC, allowing the Thief to pass, but then it risks triggering alarms. No point in the Fighter waiting outside the system and “guarding the gate”, as security deckers are prone to enter from within the system they are guarding.

You could argue that, if your entire campaign was built around deckers, then there would be room for a proliferation of decker species, and you’d be correct, except then you’re really talking about a different type of game entirely. Like if you had taken the Shadowbeat sourcebook and decided to run a *shudder* Rocker-only campaign.

Stuck with the lonely decker

So what is there to do?

Rather than varying what deckers do inside the Matrix, you vary what they do outside. The beauty of the classless system is that you can, apart from magicians, add as much as little of an archetype as you like.

Speaking of archetypes, what would it take to get one of the other, non-decker, archetypes to work as a decker? After all – a good starting nuyen rolls gives you the chance to buy a deck. A Radio Shack CD-100 with Rating 1 Bod, Evasion, Masking, Sensors, Analyze, Attack, and Sleaze is 9800 ¥. Is this the worse deck imaginable? Absolutely, but it is a deck. The character can at least attempt to do something in the Matrix.

To whom do you give this deck?  Only two of the other archetypes have a computer skill and a datajack: Rigger and Former Company Man. Of those, the Rigger is the better choice, with a slightly higher Computer skill (3 > 2), and a slightly more in-game motivation for decking (they’re the tech rat).

Now, the only other archetype with a Computer skill is the Detective (at 4), but he has no datajack. Which means that, if you really want to take advantage of this backup wannabe decker, you going to have to…

That’s right. I’m going to say it.

TIME TO BUY A FRAGGIN TORTOISE!

I realize I slammed an NPC mage/decker above – because that idea is just stupid. Detective Decker is slightly less stupid, because he has skills that can be applied elsewhere. Because of the limitations of tortoise mode:

·         -1d6 to Reaction

·         -1 to all program ratings

·         Locked in value of 3 for Persona programs

They’re, yeah, going to suck a bit.  But, the advantages of tortoise mode:

·         Immunity to black IC

·         Locked in value of 3 for Persona programs, so you don’t have to buy them

·         Costs a tenth as much as a regular deck.

It’s this last one Detective Decker will take advantage of. Buying higher rating progs to counter the -1 penalty is okay when that Radio Shack CD-100 Tortoise only costs 620 ¥. Less than an Armor Jacket! May as well splurge on the Allegiance Alpha Tortoise for 1320 ¥. Less than an HK 227! Roll well and you may just be taking home that Sony CTY-360 Tortoise (11,100 ¥) you’ve had your eye on all these years.

You deserve it.

Multiclassing

In college, I found myself in the lucky position of finding a group of friends who had Shadowrun as their common RPG – and only because my friend Jimmy had never played D&D. That’s right – had played Shadowrun but not D&D. I had no idea such people existed. Love you, Jimmy.

We also used a rotating GM system to ensure everybody got a chance to play, which works well for Shadowrun, with each run being nicely encapsulated. Led to some interesting inconsistencies with karma and money distribution, but was fun nonetheless. It was in this campaign that Josh’s merc commented “Generic Assault Cannon? That sounds like something I should have.” And Warren’s street samurai trying to argue he could tuck and roll through a window with an assembled sniper rifle strapped across his back.

He did roll *really* well on Athletics, as I recall.

I had a decker/rigger named Pandora. She, like a lot characters of mine, was a blatant filling of party gaps, but one that made sense. Since both decker and rigger are based upon equipment, you just need to start at max Tech level and choose your purchases wisely. Focus similarly in skills: Computer and one Vehicle skill.

Third edition Shadowrun, with its total rewriting of the archetypes, included what most deckers were leaning towards becoming anyway: Combat Deckers. When you were waiting for the one-on-one time with the GM so that you could fulfill the obligatory Matrix portions of the run, you had to do something, and it sure as frag isn’t casting spells, so might as well shoot a gun.

[curriebelle]

Critical Role and Queer Perspective

There’s a little Critical Role analysis I’ve been thinking about that probably won’t fit in my thesis, mostly because it’s too narrow in scope. I wanted to talk about it, though, because it’s been one of the most interesting transitions to watch in terms of how the show thinks about its queer characters.

I have no idea where I read the comment, because it was a very long time ago, but I also remember it vividly. A Critter explained that Gilmore’s scenes made them uncomfortable, because Gilmore fell into the trope that “Queer People Are Funny”. That’s the very 90s-sitcom-esque tradition of writing jokes where the punchline is that the character is A Gay. It’s a problem because it makes people not take queerness seriously - being gay is literally a joke. The first time I saw this comment was when the Whitestone Arc was first airing, but I’ve seen it repeated here and there throughout the run.

I don’t think that argument holds true anymore. Critical Role might not be perfect, but its attitude toward queer representation is not only above average, but also constantly improving. The show started with its singular gay character, Gilmore, who first showed up in Episode 14, and by the end of the series we have a non-binary emperor, two queer happily-ever-afters (Larry and Tary, and Kima and Allura), and multiple characters confirming queer sexualities. More importantly, these characters aren’t just token sexual minorities - they’re quite varied and interesting, and have stories that don’t revolve around their queerness, but don’t ignore their queerness either. The cast does make mistakes with these characters sometimes, but they are very eager to correct them when they do.

I think a really good point of contrast is when Scanlan drinks the love potion and falls briefly in love with Percy near the end of the campaign. That entire scene is utterly hilarious, but it’s no longer made hilarious by relying on the Queer People are Funny trope. It’s hilarious because Scanlan is over the top in his declarations (”your eyebrows...I want to lick them”), because Percy is constantly miffed that Vox Machina is shocked that someone finds him attractive, and because Vex is trying to manage the whole thing and failing not to threaten Scanlan’s life.

This is obviously a matter of opinion, but while the argument that Critical Role uses the Queer People Are Funny trope doesn’t hold true now, back when Episode 14 first aired it sort of was true. For future context, if you didn’t know, I’m queer myself and this episode didn’t bother me at all at the time. Still, I could certainly see how it would put other people off, and it does make me a little uncomfortable in hindsight.

In Episode 14 there are two big moments where the show wrings a joke out of people being queer. The first one is Gilmore’s introduction. The party prepares Vax to flirt with Gilmore for discounts, and they erupt into giggles when Gilmore comes swishing in, and any time Vax initiates flirtation or contact there’s more laughter. I think it’s important to compare this scenes with Vax’s first love scenes with Keyleth in Whitestone - which were notoriously awkward - because it becomes pretty clear after doing that that Vax flirting with Gilmore was A Joke. I don’t think it was meant to be mean-spirited - the players loved Gilmore and the fans did too, pretty much instantly - but there was something giggle-inducing about Matt and Liam trying to out-flirt each other.

The far more uncomfortable moment in Episode 14 is when Kima and Allura reunite. Matt describes them hugging and talking, and Orion - whose character Tiberius has a crush on Allura - starts grumbling that it’s “the story of his life”, implying that Kima and Allura are either together or interested in each other. This one is less “queer people are funny” and more “Orion gets weirdly pissed at his dungeon master for implying a women is attracted to another woman instead of him.” Matt’s initial reaction was to claim the two were ‘just good friends’. Orion’s reaction felt bizarrely possessive and objectifying - like he was upset that the character he’d ‘called dibs’ on, Allura, had the gall to flirt with someone else in front of him. Matt’s denial doesn’t strike me as a bad thing - he was more defending himself from Orion saying “Seriously, Matthew?” - but regardless, he eventually changed his mind on what kind of ‘good friends’ they were.

So we’ve got two early scenes that fall loosely into poor representations of queer characters - one turning gay men into jokes, and one objectifying queer women. In my mind these are more bruises than deep cuts, mistakes that make some people uncomfortable and that are worth pointing out, but that don’t condemn the creators or the show as hateful. It’s worth pointing out that the show does have queer players on it (at least one, possibly more), who didn’t find the scenes disturbing either. The most interesting thing about these moments, though, is how they triggered plotlines that continued throughout Critical Role - plotlines that actually transformed the show’s representation in a really neat way.

Let’s back up a moment. CritRoleStats has previously pointed out that Critical Role now comprises more content than The Simpsons. We’ve spent a lot of time with Vox Machina and their allies; as much time as The Simpsons has spent as an icon of popular culture. In fact, it’s pretty much only sitcoms that can rival Critical Role in terms of sheer runtime and content, but their formulas for churning out this content are very different. Sitcoms are purposefully written so that each episode starts with the status quo being disrupted and ends with the status quo being somewhat restored by the end, with a few lessons learned along the way. Think about i:; nearly forty years later, none of the Simpsons have aged a day. Other long-running shows (like Law and Order or Star Trek) can wring years and years of programming out of single-episode stories, each one forming their own unique adventure. Sometimes the characters grow between seasons a little, and some are killed off or leave the show, but the characters largely remain consistent so their adventures can continue in perpetuity.

Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, by their very design, have to progress. Characters gain experience, learn more about the world, explore it, make new friends, and develop relationships. Change is anathema to sitcoms, but integral to tabletop gameplay.

And alongside the players’ concerted efforts to get better at queer representation, I think this sense of progression was what changed how Critical Role thought about queer characters. The other key factor was that the players are both the writers and actors for their PCs. They know their motivations intimately, and they write their lines on the spot from what they feel like their character would do. And there is only so long that you can inhabit a character before you have to stop taking them as a joke.

I think the moment that drives this home hardest for me is still Vax ‘breaking up’ with Gilmore in Episode 38. He takes Gilmore aside in a tavern, says he’s enjoyed the flirting and that he’s ‘been curious’, but he can’t take it further because he’s in love with someone else. Gilmore is hurt, but gracious, and leaves the tavern. A brief pall hangs over the group after that, until the game moves on and the pain fades a little. Gilmore remained funny, and charming, and bombastic, and flashy, and lovable, but that was a moment he utterly stopped being a joke. His infatuation with Vax, or his love, or whatever you want to call it, was not funny anymore. It was heartbreaking in the way that only love can be, queer or otherwise. As painful as the scene was, it was a huge step in everyone’s ability to understand how to play queer characters. Vax was devastated that he had to break Gilmore’s heart, and Liam still identifies Vax’s biggest regret as “causing Gilmore any pain.” Moreover, Liam was more open and enthusiastic about Vax’s bisexuality as the campaign went on after that scene.

And after that scene, Gilmore disappears in the dragon attack. The group rescues him, and Matt reveals that he nearly died trying to save Uriel’s children. In the Chroma Conclave arc we learn he crafts his own spells, seen when he kills the assassin during the Rakshasa attack and when he helps create the Whitestone barrier. The party meets his parents in Ank’Harel, and learns he changed his name to help his business succeed. We learn during the fight with Thordak that he’s a runechild sorcerer, one of Matt’s homebrew classes. It was like something had snapped, and Gilmore suddenly unfolded into three full dimensions of characterization. Of course, the storyline had gotten more dark in general, but some characters - think Viktor or the mapmaker - remained jokes, no matter how dire their situations were. Not so with Gilmore. The events of the campaign, and the party’s investment in Gilmore’s well-being and their constant instinct to seek his advice or his help, allowed Matt to play him more and to get to know him better. We saw how he reacted to tragedy and pressure and the destruction of his livelihood. He became perhaps the most beloved and fleshed-out of all Matt’s NPCs, to the point where he - along with Cass and Kaylie - was Vecna’s chosen sacrifice to hurt Vox Machina the most.

Coincidentally, Kima went through the exact inverse of this development. In the Underdark, she rebuffed Grog and Scanlan’s advances (both of them hit on her quite a bit) and seemed much happier to be reunited with Allura. The joke that Kima and Allura were a thing began to seem, over time, like much less of a joke. Fans (bless Charlotte Sandmael, for one) helped persuade Matt into getting on that ship. At the same time, though, Matt wouldn’t have gotten them together for kicks or just to please shippers. Instead, he let Kima and Allura develop through the story of the Conclave’s return. The dragons from their past brought them back together again. We saw snippets of their guilt and panic and mutual support, and even of their relationship in less hectic times (”you didn’t have to wear the dress, Kima, it was just a suggestion-”). The storyline would likely have fleshed out Kima regardless, due to her history with the Conclave, but in getting to know both Kima and Allura better, I think Matt eventually saw what the fans were seeing, and he realized that the pair of them falling in love wasn’t really a joke after all.

So, Gilmore started as a beloved if somewhat stereotypical queer cameo, and he evolved into a well-rounded and absolutely adored queer character; and two characters that likely would have been well-rounded regardless naturally developed a queer relationship out of their storylines. I think that happened because Matt is, by all evidence, an extremely empathetic person, and as a dungeon master he strives to understand all the characters he creates inside and out. Look at how well he understands Sylas and Delilah’s relationship: they’re sympathetic and understandable, despite the fact that they’re also despicable. He gets deep, deep inside their heads. And when you get that deep inside the head of someone who is openly queer, you learn to write and play them in a wonderfully rich way; and when you get that deep inside the head of someone whose orientation you don’t know, you might find out that queerness is a part of their personality.

Which brings me, finally, to Tary. I think Tary is just about the pinnacle of this development arc across the story. Up until Tary, the only player character who had a really in-depth queer storyline to explore was Vax, which almost accidentally emerged from him treating Gilmore as a flirtatious comedic bit and then realizing, through roleplay, how strong and conflicted his feelings were. Interesting in its own right, but also more or less concluded as a storyline by Episode 57. By the time Tary shows up in Episode 85, though, Kima and Allura are together, Gilmore’s super well-explored as a character, and the non-binary J’mon has been introduced. Most of the other characters were sort of locked into female-male relationships at this point (or into Epic Single-ness, in the case of Grog Strongjaw), and regardless of their identities (bisexual Vex and Panlan Scanlan) they didn’t get as much time to explore the stories of their orientation as Vax did. So when Scanlan left and Sam had an opportunity to explore a new character, he ended up with Taryon Darrington, who was later established as gay.

The most excellent thing about Tary, besides literally everything else about Tary, is that I still don’t know if Sam knew he was gay from the beginning or if he figured it out along the way. I can’t remember what Sam has said about this, and in a way it almost doesn’t matter. Tary only had about fifteen episodes to explore who he was, and in that time he had a really compelling and honest series of fears and revelations about his sexuality. To me, Tary is pretty much the pinnacle of all the hard work Critical Role has done to try and understand and play queer characters more sensitively. As a character, Tary is far more than his queerness, but he also has chances to explore that queerness in a very real way - and he even gets a happy ending!

And yeah, some things about Tary were a joke - even some things about Gilmore and Kima and Allura are still jokes - but the other thing about love is that, along with being heartbreaking, it can be pretty hilarious. Kima gets grumpy about how perfect Allura’s hair is in the morning. Tary morosely dubs his lost love affair “Larry and Tary”. Gilmore teleports into a hallway where Vax is (for some reason) naked, and cheerfully asks if it’s his birthday.

I think the reason I’ve been so proud to watch all this development is that it doesn’t just explode that Queer People Are Funny joke from the inside, it actually fixes one of the most difficult things about it. Because queer people want representation that doesn’t make a joke out of their identities, it can sometimes be hard to write funny or happy stories about being queer, and that’s part of why we end up with endless numbers of queer tragedies. And that sucks, because queer characters seriously lack for happy endings. They don’t even get to have fun, in some universes. 

But being queer is fun. It’s fun and it’s funny. I loved the part where Kima was complaining to Allura about her dress. My first girlfriend was a wonderfully creative seamstress, and she and I used to cosplay together, so - let’s just say it brought back some nice memories. Critical Role remedied the problems that the Queer People are Funny trope created almost as a direct result of its format - as a result of spending so much time trying to understand those characters. Queer characters can be funny again, and they can be tragic, and they can be well-rounded and human. I think there’s a magnificent capacity for greater understanding here. It makes me very, very excited for the next campaign. If they came this far in round one, I really hope round two nets us a queer player character or three, and I can’t wait to meet them.

[hunterartist711]

Darkness 2 For Mac

Gameplay Sound Graphics Value

Genre: ActionMin OS X: 10.6

‎Second issue in an four issue series! Each 24 page comic is published in print and digital at the same time! Don't miss the next chapter in this exclusive comics prequel to next summer's blockbuster STAR TREK movie! New characters and new conflicts threaten Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterpris.

The Darkness 2 game playable on macOS and Windows is published by 2K games has a Very Positive rating on Steam (out of 4106 user reviews). The Darkness 2 is a supernatural first-person shooter developed by developed by Digital Extremes( developers of co-op shooter Warframe) is based on a comic book series by Top Cow Productions.

I just got the Darkness II, and my wife wants to play it also. I didn't think it would be enjoyable for her to play over my save, I thought it would be better if she started off from the beginning.

360 controller works but, not in darkness II So i'm using big picture mode with my controller just fine but, i play darkness 2 the 360 controller doesn't work. The options menu shows support for it, it works great in other games but, i get nothing in darkness 2.

Buy The Darkness II as a Steam Key. It’s been two years since Jackie Estacado, now Don of the Franchetti crime family, used The Darkness to kill the men responsible for his girlfriend’s murder. He’s been unable to shake the memory of Jenny’s death since bottling up his supernatural power and now The Darkness.

The Darkness II April 26, 2012 | Jon Carr

Pages:123Gallery

Click to enlargeGuns Blazing

Mac OS X: 10.6.8 / 10.7.2 | CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo | RAM: 2 GB | HD Space: 11 GB | Graphics: AMD HD2600 / Nvidia 9600GT with at least 256 MB VRAM or higher

Reviewer's Rig:

27' iMac, Core i5 Quad 2.8Ghz, 8GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD5750 1GB

What is perhaps most interesting about The Darkness, is that it started as comic book back in 1996 (It's actually quite good, and anyone further interested in the story and Jackie should check them out. But be warned, they are even more explicit and gruesome than the game). The comics got a makeover in 2002, and still remain successful. In 2007 Starbreeze Studios (of Chronicles of Riddick fame) developed a game based on the comic books, also named The Darkness. Sadly, this game was console exclusive and never made its way to PC or Mac. The first game's story is briefly covered in an opening flashback and should be paid attention to as it highly relates to what is going on in the second game.

Yes, The Darkness 2 is now out on Mac as of a few days ago thanks to the efforts of Transgaming and published again by 2K (And is of course available at GameTreeMac, as well as Steamplay). However, Digital Extremes developed the 2nd game, not Starbreeze Studios. How the two compare Mac gamers will never know, but you can know that The Darkness 2 is very good. Why? Read on!

As a quick overview The Darkness is an evil, sentient being, one of the two primal forces in the game's universe (his opposite being The Angelus, who is female and Light) Both forces inhabit male and female hosts respectively, granting them amazing powers, but also causing them to fight for their individuality and control, as both forces contend not only with each other, but to take over their host completely so it does their bidding.

In the first game, The Darkness awakens in Jackie Estacado on his 21st birthday. As a hit man for the Franchetti crime family this turns out to be particularly useful since The Darkness enjoys and is fueled by killing. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when the mob kills Jackie's girlfriend Jenny right in front of him while The Darkness forces him to watch. In turn Jackie goes on a murderous rampage and wipes out the whole mob. But by doing so he is completely consumed by The Darkness.

After the events of the first Darkness game, Jackie is now head of the Franchetti crime family and has been suppressing The Darkness for years. However, a spectacular ambush during an evening at a restaurant forces Jackie to awaken The Darkness once more, unleashing its awesome powers and imbuing our protagonist with scary Darkness arms and a predilection for shooting out lights.

As you can imagine The Darkness doesn't do well in the light. Anytime Jackie stands in, or is blasted with, light he is partially blinded and loses Darkness powers and abilities. So, it is in your best interest to shoot any and all lights, in addition to focusing on the light carrying foes you encounter later in the game. It's not quite Splinter Cell levels of lightbulb assassination, but it is part of things.

Perhaps the most interesting and compelling aspects of The Darkness 2 are the story and characters. Essentially, you are playing a criminal and a murderer. However, Jackie is extremely likable and easy to care for, especially when you see how tortured he is about Jenny's death. You have a number of flashbacks and possible hallucinations of Jenny throughout the game and these are surprisingly sweet and tender moments in contrast to all the brutal violence on display. Even without playing the first game it's easy to connect with Jackie and Jenny and care about both of them because it's so easy to see how much they loved each other, and how much Jackie still loves her. Not many games believably pull off romantic relationships, but The Darkness 2 is certainly one of them. You also get to interact with the men under you in your mansion between action missions and various other interesting characters who are all impressively voiced and animated.

Pages:123Gallery

Platform: Steam

In stock

Feb 6, 2012

Categories: Action, Most Popular, Most Viewed, New and Trending, Popular Games, Recently Updated, Top Selling, What's Popular

Darkness 2 For Mac Os

$29.99

You must be logged in to get this game for free. Log In or Register

❮❯

The Darkness II steam key free

Free The Darkness II steam key. Free Steam KEYS! Free Steam Games. Steam Giveaways. Free CD Key. Games Key. Free games to download. The Darkness II cd key free

About The Darkness II free steam key

Inspired by the popular comic book series produced by Top Cow Productions, Inc., The Darkness II is an intense first person shooter that delivers a twisted and gripping narrative of tragedy, modern crime drama, and supernatural horror. Players will be taken down the brutal and personal path of Jackie Estacado, head of a New York crime family and wielder of an ancient and ruthless force of chaos and destruction known as The Darkness. Its been two years since Jackie Estacado used The Darkness to kill the men responsible for his girlfriends murder. Hes been unable to shake the memory of Jennys death since bottling up his supernatural power and now The Darkness wants out. A sudden, unprovoked attack by a mysterious organization known as the Brotherhood heralds the start of a full-scale war and opens the door for The Darkness to reemerge, setting Jackie on a journey to hell and worse.

4-Player Co-op Campaign - Play as one of four unique characters each capable of wielding weapons infused with Darkness powers.

Quad-Wielding Chaos - Slash, grab, and throw objects and enemies with the Demon Arms while simultaneously firing two weapons, adding a new dimension to the FPS category.

Harness an Unstoppable Power - Master the Demon Arms and summon the powers of The Darkness for even more explosive gameplay.

Kill the Lights - The vicious powers of The Darkness manifest only in the shadows so use the environment to your advantage and watch out for enemies who will use light as a weapon.

Intense and Personal Journey - Experience a dark, twisted and gripping story written exclusively for the game by acclaimed comic book author Paul Jenkins whose credits also include The Incredible Hulk, Wolverine, and the original The Darkness game.

Distinctive Graphic-Noir Style - Graphic novel shading and color combined with the dramatic lighting of film noir pays tribute to the source material and brings the pages of the comic series to life. Inspired by the popular comic book series created by Top Cow.

Limited Edition Content

If you pre-purchased The Darkness II you are exclusively entitled to the Limited Edition, which includes free digital editions of The Darkness: Origins Volumes 1 and 2, collecting the origin of Jackie Estacado and the Darkness by Garth Ennis and Marc Silvestri! Please visit http://comics.comixology.com/redeem and enter your code. You must login to your comiXology account, or create one, in order to redeem. Once redeemed, you can download your comics on your smartphone or tablet device, as well as read on the web!

How to get The Darkness II key free

1 - First step is to register as the member 2 - Choose an offer available and make sure you choose the one that's giving you lots of coins 3 - Complete the offer you have chosen, you must use real information to complete an offer / survey 4 - Get coins instantly to your account

Darkness 2 For Mac Iso

5 - Unlock The Darkness II cd key

Darkness 2 For Mac Download

Source: Source

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7

Processor: Intel Core 2 @ 2GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+

Memory: 1.5GB RAM

Hard Disk Space: 10GB

Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 / ATI Radeon HD 2600

Sound: DirectX Compatible

Additional: Requires installation of Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable, DirectX and nVidia PhysX version 9.11.1107 (included with download)

Not available.

Not available.

Release date: May 22, 2020

$4.99

Release date: Jan 17, 2020

$4.99

Release date: Oct 17, 2018

$4.99

Release date: Sep 28, 2017

$4.99

Release date: Oct 24, 2014

$4.99

[cavefelix]

The Green Arc: Be Not Afeard; the isle is full of noises

This is an Otherworldy arc for The Immigrant in this campaign because you are literally from another world. I suppose with some tweaking it could be used for a different stranger in a strange land tale. The Immigrant’s higher power it’s dealing with may be the seductive spirit of baseball (or your campaign’s substitute sport) whispering (Field of Dreams is an excellent example of a Green Arc). Or perhaps they may still be connected to the world of 139199 Eris.  For a mortal Arc you can get away with that ambiguity. :p

Quest 1: Homesick blues

(Knight 1, Knight 3, Otherworldy 1, Aspect 2, Shepherd 2, Shepherd 4, Emptiness 2)It’s impossible to play baseball on 136199 Eris, because other than you, there were no other baseball players. And so you came to Town to live out your dream. But this place is so alien. Everything everywhere you go is strange. Memories of Eris call to you.

I’m not going to going to go into detail of the customs and cultures of Eris, even though they’re important for this quest. If you want to use the melancholy bat people of the planet as a Star Trek like stand in for a particular culture, go ahead. If you want to assume they’re just sentient humanoid bats who love to do batlike things like hang upside down and either drink blood or consider mosquitoes a delicacy, that would work too.

35 point version

Major goals:

You encounter another bat-person in town but don’t have a chance to talk to them.

You perform a major cultural faux pas due to your misunderstanding of Town culture with ramifications that last at least a couple of scenes. (E.g., inviting the Rider and human players on the Walking Field Goats to the same party.)

You receive a letter from home. (If your game is higher tech, a phone call is an acceptable substitute -- the charges would be astronomical. An e-mail is not. The important thing is someone made a serious effort to communicate with you acrross worlds.)

You may take each once.

Minor goals:

You fly above the buildings of a region at night.

You ask about what everyone else sees as a routine thing 

You freak out over something everyone else sees as routine. (Examples: “You got a haircut!?!?” “Ugh! How can you guys eat *rice*?”

You fail to make an important play in a baseball game, either because the sun was too bright or you had established you were thinking of home before the game began.

You ask for advice about Town or consult a book/guide.

20 XP version: You’re still getting used to Town. It’s weird. You’re homesick. Your love of baseball is in conflict with your confusion over where baseball is played. Take a two sided sign.                          This is what I want/ I miss home. Once per scene/15 minutes you can earn an XP by flipping the card.

Results

You feel a little more comfortable in Fortitude. Also, you gain one of the following two perks:

If someone helped you out a lot in understanding the ways of Town, you can take a Connection (This person) 1.

Your new feelings have permeated your Air of Melancholy  magic. You gain a Trick: Air of Nostalgia. This lets you evoke memories of home which, as long as they have just a touch of loss or bittersweet in them, can be surprisingly positive.

Quest 2: The High Price of Success

(Knight 3, Otherworldly 2, Storyteller 2, Emptiness 3)

The first part of this quest is going to be fun. You go on a massive winning streak. Hit grand slams; make amazing catches; put the team ahead in bottom of the ninth. And Fortitude will welcome you. You’ll be so welcome it’s almost disturbing. People will dress up in costumes that look like you.  

Why does this happen? Is it fated? Did one of your rivals put out a pitcher you find you can read really well? Is some higher force taking an interest in you? Or is this just some statistical quirk that all ballplayers have every now and then, and people are excited about in your case because of your exotic origin story?

Then you’ll go back to normal. Which is good. Just…everyone in the big league is a good player. Fans will be disappointed. Your teammates will be puzzled. Maybe you’ll feel let down yourself.  This quest explores the highs and the lows.

40 XP version

Major goals

You perform some amazing feat during a game. (This must be taken first. The other major goals can be taken in any order.)

You are awarded the Keys to Fortitude, a parade is held in your honor, a professor announces there will be a course on you, or some other entirely inappropriate award for some rookie player is announced.

A teammate avoids talking to you.

Someone throws an object other than a baseball at you. (E.g., rotten fruit or the like.)

You may take each once.

Minor goals:

Your play has the potential to give your team the win -- but doesn’t.

You are yelled at on the street.

You are asked to do something you are unqualified for.

You avoid or put off an appointment

You go outside on a rainy day.

You spend more time than you’d like interacting with fans.

25 XP Version: Major goals

You perform some amazing feat during a game. (This must be taken first. The other major goals can be taken in any order.)

You are awarded the Keys to Fortitude, a parade is held in your honor, a professor announces there will be a course on you, or some other entirely inappropriate award for some rookie player is announced.

Your play has the potential to give your team the win -- but doesn’t.

You may take any two.

Minor Goals:

You are surrounded by a large crowd

You are yelled at on the streets

You spend time interacting with a child

You go outside on a rainy day

Results:

You accept that you’ll always have a burden to live up to you can’t always meet. Also, you’ll choose a perk.

While you were on a winning streak, the honor you got with one of your awards came with permanent access to some place you don’t really care about. Three possible examples include full access to the Fortitude Museum Archives; an office which was obviously a broom closet until they converted it for you in the College of War and Nightmare; or the key to Tip-Top Ticker Tape’s factory floor. (If this goal didn’t come up during play, you can still take this perk, assuming the award happened offscreen.) 

At one point in the rest of this Story (and once per future story) you get a +3 Tool bonus to weather the fickle nature of fandom.

Quest 3: Two roads diverge

(Knight 2, Otherworldly 3, Aspect 4, Emptiness 4, Mystic 4)

Someone is trying to change you. More specifically, someone has decided that they don’t want a bat person playing in the game. Even though this has certainly been cleared by the commission, and is also fine with the fans. Who would do this? My best guess is that it’s one of the following people:

Sandy Helliwish, the Manager for the Horizon Ferrets, because they’re a total jerk.

One of the more passionate players on the Bluebell Park Harts, either one named Purity who is, let’s face it, xenophobic/racist, or one named Justin or Justine who really believes that you have an unfair advantage over the human players in some way, violating the laws of baseball. 

A pitcher on a team that you’ve consistently hit well against, who’s humiliated and looking for an excuse other than that they telegraph their curveball.

Justin(e) is a good choice if you want a conflicted person leading the charge) The others are good if you want a flat out villain.

I’m assuming that people will come to your aid and the bad guy will ultimately fail. But since this is the last quest in the arc, if you want a tragic ending that could happen too.

25 Point Version

Major Goals

You are called up before a legislative body (possibly the commissioner of baseball.

Someone not totally trustworthy offers a horrific compromise to make this issue go away. (E.g., a deviant scientist offers to take your brain out of your body and transfer it into a human.)

You are seen flying and someone uses this against you.

You may take any two.

Minor goals:

You make a spectacular play

You make a horrible play because of the stress.

You and the person trying to get you disbarred from the game meet.

A group of fans show strong support for you.

The person trying to get you disbarred gets literal mud on their face (either thrown at them or because they trip).

15 point version

What’s more important to you? Playing the game you love or staying true to the thing that you are? Each time you need to grapple with that question as you’re being confronted, turn this sign to the appropriate side:

                            Batter/Bat Person

You may flip it once per scene/15 minutes of play. (Also, if you’re in a game where the Fortitude Lynxes are not a baseball team but some other organization, please change “batter” to something that makes sense, like goalie, baritone, etc.)

Result: 

You refuse to give in. You won’t sacrifice your heritage -- whatever the consequences may be. Also, you gain one of the following perks:

Once or twice a story, your catchphrase “It’s different on Eris” becomes supernaturally compelling. Any tale told about Eris afterward is treated as a Superior Skill with two edge. If you have used this perk more than twice, you can use it again with a Refresh Token.

Alternately, you can take a point from your catchphrase and move it to a new skill: Rhetoric 1, indicating you’ve learned how to respond to arguments well.

[barre2barresg]

Barre 2 Barre SG Interview Series: Cheryl Koh (Part XI)

What does wellness and being healthy mean to you?

Self-love. I have always felt there is an amazing relationship between love and wellness. Having positive thoughts, valuing your needs, and finding a balance in everything you do are a few ways to love yourself better and live a healthier life. Keeping that in mind while embarking on my fitness journey has allowed me to gain deeper fulfilment out of everything I do – from the much dreaded HIIT workouts (that I used to really struggle with) to indulging in some KFC fried chicken once in a while! Share with us a funny story related to barre!

The first Barre 2 Barre class I signed up for was the “Fire” class, and I definitely did NOT read the class description at the time. I was already feeling the burn in my thighs soon into it, but only when we got into the seated chair position and pulsed on the balls of our feet did I finally understand what #shaketochange really meant! Of all the workouts I have tried before, I’ve never experienced that VIOLENT thigh trembling midway. In fact, it was not even a tremble; it was FULL-ON shaking, and I was so embarrassed that I had to stand up to take a short break. I tried getting back into position to continue the workout afterwards, but the same thing happened again. The realization that I had ZERO control over my thighs was hilarious and embarrassing at the same time! How did you get into BarreAmped and what are your future plans for barre? 

I was first introduced to barre by a couple of my girlfriends about a year ago, and it was literally love at first sight… and shake. At the age of six, my mum enrolled me in ballet, which kicked off my early interest in dance. I went on to learn Chinese and contemporary dance in primary and secondary school, and joined a dance club in my polytechnic where I dabbled in hip hop, street jazz and contemporary dance. Dance played an integral role in my growing up years, but at the age of nineteen, I stopped dancing due to school and work commitments. For years I tried to get back into it by attending open classes and even joining another dance club in university, but it just never took off and I concluded that it was because I had had a shift in priorities.   This is why I instantly fell in love with barre the moment I entered the studio for my first class. Seeing the familiar wooden floors, large wall mirrors, and ballet barres brought back so many memories from my earlier dance days. Soon, I grew familiar with the BarreAmped technique at the studio after joining Barre 2 Barre as their social media and marketing intern. Having attended classes two to three times a week for the past month (as recommended by Jess), I am starting to see the effects of attending class religiously. Now, it honestly seems as though barre is a drug and I’m addicted to the burn it brings! As for my future plans, I am looking forward to trying out the barre studios overseas when I head up to Europe for a six month exchange program next year! And who knows, maybe I’d like to get a BarreAmped certification when I’m back ;)

What is your favorite way (aside from barre) to keep fit and find some downtime?

I’ve always been active. Before I started dancing, my dad thought I’d grow up to become an athlete. He would take me and my brother for swimming classes on the weekends or take us jogging in the park with him. I then of course started dancing, and eventually returned to taking 5K runs to get my weekly dose of exercise in recent years. Besides the physical benefits, running has been a way for me to cope with stress and to squeeze in some “me” time. I feel a notable change in my mood after a run and get addicted to the ‘runner’s high’. I love how much more energetic, awake, and happy I feel after running, which pushed me to participate in my first half marathon, the Sundown Marathon in 2016.

Since then, I’ve made a personal promise to myself to complete at least one marathon each year. I’ve just completed the Standard Chartered half marathon, and the Fire and Bootcamp barre classes were a great complement to my preparation workout plan.

List your three dream dinner party guests; what would you discuss with them and which dishes would you prepare for them?

1. My late grandpa. We’d chat about all the things we never got to when he was alive. I always wanted to know what life was like for him during World War II. I’d make him his signature fried rice that he always used to cook for me and my cousins when we were younger. Till today, I’ve never tasted a plate of fried rice better than his. 2. Princess Diana. I recently watched ‘The Story of Diana’ on Netflix, and it reminded me of all the goodness and compassion she spread throughout the world. I’d love to hear about the mission work she did, the people she met, and the lives she touched. Since she’d be accustomed to having a royal cook prepare her meals, I’d much rather take her for a meal to my family’s favourite Dim Sum place at Takashimaya. The one dish I’d definitely want her to try is their century egg porridge. Even the bowls I’ve tried in Hong Kong can’t compare! I’d also order a couple of steamed (not fried) dim sum dishes, as she seemed to be rather health conscious. 3. Don Draper. I know he’s a fictional character, but a girl can dream, right! I’d love to hear his thoughts on Heinz recycling the ‘Pass the Heinz’ campaign this year, a pitch that was rejected fifty years ago. I’d probably whip up burgers for dinner and put out Heinz bottles of ketchup just for the laughs.

List your three favourite travel destinations and list three more that you want to travel to and why!

1. Lourdes. I had the most unexpectedly amazing spiritual experience in this holy town in south-western France. It was such a beautiful, prayerful place, that I started tearing up from the sheer sight of it the moment I entered its gates. My parents and I went on a pilgrimage there, chatted with some of the sick and elderly after mass, and participated in the iconic Lourdes Torchlight Procession. 2. Gili. I visited Gili Trawangan in August this year with my closest friends, and it basically involved lots of long island iced teas, dancing by the beach, making friends with backpackers from around the world, kayaking at sunrise, swimming with turtles, and pampering ourselves with cheap massages, pedicures, and outdoor yoga sessions. 3. New Zealand. I've been to both the north and south of New Zealand, and I have to say, the South Island of New Zealand is literally heaven on earth. The hidden beaches, grand mountain vistas, spectacular lakes and rustic buildings all contribute to the charm of the place. I'd love to go back there one day! - 1. San Francisco and Los Angeles, because I’ve never been to the US and I’ve been dying to go! 2. Venice. When I was planning a trip to Europe last year, Venice was the destination I was most looking forward to. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, however, we did not manage to complete our Italy trip, and I've been wanting to return there ever since.

3. Morocco. Seeing so many pictures of my friends going on camel treks and desert tours and sleeping under a blanket of stars in nomadic tents has made me want to experience of the magic of the Sahara Desert myself!

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Barbarian Prince, Borgia Blade, Hugo Awards

RPG (Tor.com): I’d even say it was the pinnacle of ‘80s solitaire fantasy games (I’m not sure that’s a huge category, now that I think of it). But Barbarian Prince is quirky and poorly balanced, and there are plenty of more recent solitaire games that have surpassed it. We should be talking about them instead. Like the superb Nemo’s War, or some of the great Leader titles from Dan Verssen Games, or the engrossing Charlemagne, Master of Europe from Hollandspielle.

Hugo Awards (American Thinker): The Hugo Award annually acknowledges the best sci-fi and fantasy. Martin was the toastmaster for this year’s award show, which was held via Livestream. As the host, Martin made jokes and quips throughout the show. He later said of his performance that, “Most of the stories I told last night were time-tested, in a sense. I have told those same stories before. Usually they get big laughs.” This time, Martin did not get big laughs. Instead, he offended the social justice community.

  H. P. Lovecraft (Book and Film Globe): In 2014, a storm arose over whether winners of the annual World Fantasy Award should continue to receive a bust of H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), designed by Gahan Wilson, in recognition of their achievements, or whether a more politically acceptable figure should be the emblem of the revered program. The World Fantasy Awards have long been some of the most coveted prizes for authors who write stories and novels in the weird, horror, fantasy, and slipstream genres.

RPG (Geek Native): At Power-Con today, a virtual convention for She-Ra and He-Man fans Mattel announced a Masters of the Universe RPG. Legends of Grayskull will be powered by Cortex Prime, the latest version of Cortex from designer Cam Banks. Masters of the Universe becomes the second hugely popular series Fandom’s Cortex has signed up as many weels, with Netflix’s The Dragon Prince also announcing an RPG called Tales of Xadia with the system.

Publishing (Legends of Men): Flashing Swords was one of the first series of Sword & Sorcery anthologies. The first was published in 1973. It lasted five for five volumes with the first two featuring some awesome Frank Frazetta cover art. The series was edited by Lin Carter, one of the best-known authors and champions of S&S, though his books don’t seem to be considered the cream of the crop in the genre. The fifth volume was published in 1981 with mediocre cover art. The series has been untouched since then until 2020 that is.

RPG (Tales of Flothmar): Burials of Teganshire Post 1 of 30. The number one campaign killer, in my realm of experience, is apathy for the game world. Burials of Teganshire puts in the work to help a DM avoid the Shiv of Don’t Care. Go to the crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to get your copy. Once apathy sets in, the campaign putters out. Goes splat. Deflates. Poofs in a puff of sadness (and sadness poofs are the saddest poofs of them all). Over the next several days, we’ll be discussing the player association to a campaign and ways a DM can jump on the verisimilitude bandwagon.

Fiction (DMR Books): If someone had told me three years ago that I would soon be singing the praises of Gardner F. Fox to anyone who might listen, I would’ve laughed in his face. At that time, I only knew Fox from his comics work for DC and from his sword-and-sorcery tales. I was never that big a fan of DC. While I do have a soft spot for Gar’s Niall of the Far Travels stories, I never cared much for his Kothar and Kyrik books.

RPG (Jeffro’s Space Gaming Blog): It didn’t matter, though. They were dead set on retrieving them now. Narjhan broke in to insist that I give him a payout for the Snakepede head he recovered previously. Rhedgar the Veteran needed to have his research into the nature of the Woman in Ice resolved. I revealed that she was a powerful sorceress in a previous Aeon. That she was known to have a powerful demonic henchman. Also, that she was imprisoned in ice by a powerful variant of the Spell of Forlorn Encystment that we really ought to get a name for soon. The players wanted to know more, but that is all they get for 50 gold pieces and a week of down time.

Fiction (The Dacian): Cadiz, 1811, a city under siege. Napoleon’s army surrounds the city, subjecting the population to daily bombardments. Inside the besieged city, swarmed with refugees, British soldiers, and rife with political turmoil, the mutilated bodies of several teenage girls are discovered. In the chaos of war, there is a killer loose in the city. Police Commisario Tizon, a brutal and complex man with a love of classic literature takes the case and tracks the killer across the chessboard of the city. His investigation crosses paths with a young woman who runs a successful mercantile company, a rough corsair captain, a French artillery officer, and a taxidermist turned spy.

Fiction (Woelf Dietrich): Clark Ashton Smith was considered one of the big three of Weird Tales, along with Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft, and was a member of the Lovecraft Circle. An American poet, sculptor, painter, and intermittent author of fantasy, horror, and science fiction short stories, Clark Ashton Smith, took the fevered dreams of his childhood and laid them bare in his short stories and poetry. He chose his own path from a young age and left school early because it could not teach him what he needed to learn. It would just have been a distraction, which, although a romanticized way of looking at it, is probably not the whole truth. Smith’s health issues played a big part in his decisions.

Cinema (Jon Mollison): The Vast of Night. This was pretty good. It’s a slow-burn mystery set in small-town New Mexico way back in the lost golden age of the 1950s. The plot revolves around a technically literate high-school girl – one who feels organically smart rather than performatively so because screw you manbabies – and a street-smart DJ who stumbled onto some strange doings while the rest of town is pre-occupied with a high-school basketball game.  Yeah, it’s aliens, but the mystery remains, and the limitations of 1950s tech and social rules are played up to perfection.

Star Trek (That Hashtag Show): In 2015, on the podcast The Nerdist, Quentin Tarantino was asked what his vision for Star Wars would be. In true Trekkie fashion Tarantino answered that he would be much more interested in making a Star Trek movie. Elaborating on how the Abrams reboot series was an opportunity to revisit some of the classic episodes. Expanding such an episode to a feature film length that explored the concepts more. This remained a fun little encounter until 2017. When Deadline announced that JJ Abrams would produce a Star Trek film directed by Tarantino and written by The Revenant scribe Mark L. Smith.

Sensor Sweep: Barbarian Prince, Borgia Blade, Hugo Awards published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/