#not too far but enough for a simple rpg

[ctommy-chileno]

My experience in impulse buying game development software has given me great knowledge

[nebmia]

Reviewing every rpg book on my shelf: 1, Dungeon Crawl Classics

Everything about this game is absolutely dripping with bonkers maximalist bombast that makes me excited to play. To start with book itself is nearly 2 inches thick. Is that practical? No! does it feel like you've got an ancient tome full of roleplaying possibilities? Absolutely.

In a world tending towards minimalism and 'polished' production its so good to have somthing thats just big and fun and unapologetic about not being what it is.

DCC's dice are a microcosm of everything great about it. Not only do they come in shapes they never taught you about in maths class but they also all come with a fun little bonus. One of my sets comes with a stat block for a monster, while the other has a ridiculous table of reality warping effects on which you roll ALL the dice in the set, and inevitably send your campaign careening off into madness. (and it has a frame story about a stoner wizard in a magic van).

And then there's the actual contents of the book, which is probably about 80% spells and ridiculous tables. And the spells are just so good. Each one takes up a a least a full page on average and gives a range of results according to how well you roll, from 'it missfires and things go horribly wrong' at the bottom, through 'it does about what you would expect' in the middle result ranges, to 'actually, this is almost too much' if you manage to get a roll in the 30s.

Alongside being sick as hell, this also has a satisfying effect of keeping low level spells relevent and interesting as their effects scale with the strength of the caster on a variety of axis.

related to spells is the 'spell duel' procedure. I have no idea how well it runs at the table, but the idea that when two (or more) wizards fight their spells can interact and you can use any appropriate spell to try and counter another spell is so increadibly compelling.

Ok, enough gushing about vibes. what about actually playing? So far what I have run is the 'level-0 funnel', which is probably what you have heard about if you have heard anything about DCC. The premise is simple: randomly generate 2-4 level-0 peasants for each player, send them into a dungeon, and then take whoever survives and level them up to become your characters for a campaign.

Not only does these lead to much hilarity as a mob of townsfolk bungle their way through danger but also really fun problem solving as the players work out how best to navigate problems with a shoehorn, a bundle of wood and a live chicken.

Specifically, what I have run is Sailors on the Starless Sea, which is correctly recognised as THE introductory module to use. Its a nice sequence of somewhat open investigation followed by a excellend sequence of bombastic set pieces, all the while giving the players lots of scope to come at things ininteresting ways. It can get a bit unwiedly trying to manage such large number of characters when they do run into combat but if you plan ahead a bit and use various tricks (it would be useful is more of that advice was in the book rather than coming from forums) it is manageable.

And to return to vibes one last time: the art in these books is just so good. We could not be further from the slightly stiff generic highly rendered fantasy art of wotc era d&d. Its all fantastically old school fantasy, so full of character, and just the right amount of rough around the edges. My only slight complaint is that this does include a little too much of old school fantasy art's treatment of women than I would like...There are still prenty of sensibly dressed women and i'm not about to decree that no sexy fantasy women are allowed but the dial is a little further in a direction of objectification that I would like.

[sprintingowl]

Magical Kitties And Other Cat RPGs

Magical Kitties Save The Day is a deluxe, all-ages ttrpg about cat adventures.

It comes in a big box, which is half empty space and half dice, character sheets, core rules, and multiple supplements. The art is absolutely gorgeous, and that quality you see on the cover is consistent throughout the core book and supplements.

Design-wise, Magical Kitties is pretty simple. You have a few skills, a talent, and a magical power, and together they give you a d6 pool. Outcomes on checks tend towards success-with-a-complication, and I'd broadly describe the game as being oriented towards mischief and hijinks.

Of note to me, the system is *really* similar to Joel Sparks' Cats Of Cthulhu, but absent some of the interesting lore about dreaming, without the more defined character classes, and a lot softer in tone.

Kitties in Magical Kitties can, at worst, get knocked out for a scene. And that's if you let your Owies build up enough that you start getting into actual dice pool penalties. Damage goes away fast, so if you get absolutely scrapped it's more of a signal from the game to cool it for a bit than a serious consequence for your character.

The overall design in Magical Kitties is trying to split the difference between being a game for kids and a game for adults, and I think mostly it works. There's enough meaningful choice during character creation that a typical DnD group could have a great time playing a mini-campaign of Magical Kitties. And the tone is soft enough and the consequences low enough that a younger kid isn't going to get too dispirited if the dice don't go their way.

My guess would be this system works best for ages 7+. For much younger audiences, you might want to check out something like Starport.

Overall, I'd describe this is a really, *really* big budget indie game that'll appeal the most to folks who:

-love cats -are at least a little interested in rpgs

It's impossible to overstate how lovely, fun, and creative the art is, and I kind of think the game is worth it for that alone.

That said, it's far from the only cat-based ttrpg! There's lots of good ones.

I've had the most fun with Cats Of Cthulhu, and strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in rpg design, and I've also really enjoyed GMing Secrets Of Cats.

If you have a favorite cat-centric ttrpg, or if you've played Magical Kitties and have your own feelings on it, please feel free to continue the discussion.

[velvetures]

alr alr alr so hear me out just HEAR me out right

Gaz. Right, right. Showing the reader he's a certified munch. Right. Idk how it would go. I imagine he maybe helped them out with something and they owe him a solid and then bro just like "fuq all this sexual attention bruv. Bring dat arse here and let me sip on ye like sum fine wine" or sumn. Idk. BUT PLS CONSIDER IT PLS I LOVE THIS MAN SOO MUCH

Tip the Driver

summary: you go above and beyond the call of duty and it earns you a certain operator's constant attention and adoration. he's insistent that he pays you back... and you're utterly shocked at what he suggests.

t/w's: canonical violence, blood, GSW, Gaz eating pussy like a champ, fem-reader, fem oral receiving, dirty talk, fingering, female orgasm, male orgasm, public?fuck,... probably missed a bunch..

MRAP's didn't make for the best office... but it was yours whether or not you liked it all that much or not. Between the .50 cal bolted to the roof and the unmoveable windows, it made for a shitty view just about everywhere you received orders to go. Be it sand and dusty nothingness or abandoned and flaming city streets with car alarms blaring after a bomb strike. Your "office" hardly proved to be comfortable, but no one could contest your ability to drive the damn thing and keep the men inside of it safe.

The most important of all was Task Force 141 on the frequent occasions that your specialist skills were necessary for getting the boys in and out of a tight situation when a helo couldn't be afforded. It was a pain in the ass job that hardly anyone ever wanted... and you couldn't say that you'd initially volunteered for it either. You'd been forced after multiple vehicle squads declined to work with the 141.

Nothing ever went to plan with them.

It all happened far too quickly.

What started as a simple insertion by vehicle turned into nearly inescapable hellfire raining down on the sides of your armored truck. Banging heavy brass and lead rounds against the walls and drowning out the sounds of Captain Price’s orders. The whole plan went to shit the first second an RPG took a nose dive less than fifteen feet in front of your truck; stalling the movement of the small convoy and pinning you between two rocky cliffs pinched off and slowly closing up even tighter.

One moment you were doing the only thing asked of you: drive Task Force 141 through the gap to the small terrorist encampment on the other side, and hide yourself until they needed a quick escape. The next you were knelt down in the back, tightening down a tourniquet around Kyle Garrick’s thigh and preparing with shaky hands to pack a steadily bleeding bullet wound. There was hardly a second to think about anything, much less second guess your best instincts after Soap and Ghost hauled Gaz back to the truck and made a very harsh demand that you “pack him tight”.

Honestly, you didn’t even know what that meant. But Gaz -in all his inhuman strength- had enough patience and discipline to ignore the pain he was feeling to walk you through exactly what it took to keep him from bleeding out before you could get him somewhere for real medical attention. From cutting his own pant leg open to handing you each tool or material necessary, Kyle couldn’t have been a better patient to learn with. But it didn’t make you feel any better for looking up at him every few seconds and seeing him practically chewing on his own belt to keep from screaming or cracking his teeth.

“Doin’ good sweetheart…”

“That’s it, keep it -fuck- keep it tight like that…”

“Can’t be shy with me. Need you to be tough, m’kay?”

Every little praise or motivation he gave made eased your worries, but damn if you didn’t feel the littlest bit guilty for needing a wounded man to give you reassurance. It should’ve been the opposite. You easing his nerves. Telling him he’d be okay, and that there wasn’t anything to worry about. But there wasn’t a single thing you could do except following his directions to the letter, and hope that he didn’t pass out before you could finish up.

“For a gearhead, you’ve got nice hands…”

“Aren’t you a little too pretty to get stuck drivin’ us around?”

The longer you stayed in the back with Gaz, trying to mop up the blood pooling on the floor and around him, the more invested he became with you; not just what you were doing to make sure he didn’t die. Naturally, you’d known Kyle well enough to say you were acquaintances but it was never significant enough to say more than a friendly hello and goodbye when you caught each other’s attention. But with each milliliter of blood lost, Kyle Garrick began losing that well-mannered silence he was so often teased about. Enjoying the sight of you that close to you, and mentioning even the smallest little goofy detail he could muster up in half-consciousness.

“Gaz… you need to rest,” You’re hardly able to get the words out with all of the anxiety you have building with each bullet lodging itself in the side of your truck. “Can’t have you leaving us…” He just chuckles with a little wince. Leaning his head back against the back of your driver’s seat with one hand resting over his thigh and the other instinctively resting on the grip of his pistol still tucked against his hip.

“Not leaving if you’re around… s’pecially now that i’ve got your attention..” He gives a shy little smile. “You’re a really pretty for a MRAP driver… well… the only pretty one…” His eyes cut down and away from yours. “But still…”

You’d have been mush with such a cute admission had it not been for the firefight happening just outside your vehicle. And it was the limit of your power to ensure that Gaz was stable until there wasn’t a shot fired and you heard a nearly breathless all-clear from Captain Price outside. When the back doors swung open, the rest of Task Force 141 took in the sight of your blood-soaked gear, red-stained hands, sweat dripping down your neck, and Kyle slumped against you sleeping off the exhaustion with a fairly decent field dressing.

They were impressed.

Enough so that Price ordered Ghost to drive and let you sit in the back next to Gaz who had unconsciously laid up against you like a body pillow of sorts. Your mission had been busted by bad intel and a tip-off. It led to all of you regrouping back at base.

The 141 hauling Kyle off to the infirmary to get legitimate treatment, and you back to the garage where your truck had been shot to hell and back and needed repairs… If you could make them.

It was a good thing you’d been in a MRAP… but even they could only take so much abuse before bulletproof panels started bending and cracking under pressure. On first inspection you’d seen the pinholes of light shining from the garage lights through the walls onto the blood-stained floor in the back. And that was an entirely different struggle you’d been attempting to overcome. Seeing the dark red remanence of Gaz’s injury puddled and dried all over the desert tan painted floor. You’d been so upset by it that you attempted to scrub it off by hand since nothing else had worked. For two days you scrubbed at it… your squad mates passing by to yet again see you down on your hands and knees with a scrub brush, hot water, and bleach. But you’d hardly made a dent in the unmistakable stains by the time that Gaz was given full release from the doctors on staff.

Fuck, the only reason you knew that was because he’d been the one to come and find you still scrubbing at the back of your truck.

The light tap on the open back door halted your frenzied scrubbing. Looking up from the pink-tinged bubbles surrounding your hands, you came to meet Kyle standing there a bit stiffly with a somewhat curious look on his face.

“Sorry about that…” His apology isn’t exactly a joke, but you can tell that a part of it bothers him. “I’m normally not that messy.”

“You hardly have a reason to be sorry.” You feel responsible for reassuring him. Having it in the back of your mind that without saying it, he’d go on believing that you were inconvenienced by the whole ordeal, instead of deeply, and for some reason -very- emotionally protective. “It’s the least I can do to let you bleed in my truck.”

Kyle chuckled, stiffly moving to pull himself up into the vehicle. He sat down even more slowly with his boots facing away from the stain you’d been scrubbing at. “I guess you have had at least a couple fingers shoved inside my thigh… maybe we’re even?”

He earns a laugh from you.

Probably the most genuine one you’ve let out since the day he got injured. Gaz can’t help but be reminded of just how pretty you are in that moment. Kneeling there with a mop bucket and suds of soap surrounding your knees with baby hairs sticking to the sweat on your forehead. He’d not been too under the influence to exaggerate just how pretty he thought you were. And the fact that your job entailed driving on an equal skill level to being part of the presidential motorcade certainly added attraction points.

That little crush he nursed was ignored as much as possible. But remembering small flashes of your worried face looking over him a few days back haunted every waking moment of his day. While a little crush on a pretty girl was one thing, adding fuel to that fire was burning Kyle’s self-control into ashes.

He wanted to think there was some way of… flirting with you, he supposed. Giving a hint that he wasn’t just coming to waste time in the garage with you because of how well you shoved gauze into the hole in his thigh. But he could only think of one decent idea… and damn if he didn’t think it was the most feral thing he’d ever dreamt up. Seeing you just sitting there like that enticed his pain-med-laced thoughts with enough eroticism to even make Soap’s head spin like a fucking top.

“You feeling okay Gaz?” The sound of your voice breaks him from the thoughts.

His nods, one hand sliding over the heavily bandaged spot on his thigh under his pants. “Yeah, just thinking about something…”

Your eyebrows quirk up. “What’s that? Must be important for you to be staring off into nothingness like that.”

“Just how I’m going to pay you back for keeping me alive.” He smiles, lazily drawing his gaze down to look at you. His forearms resting on his thighs gently, looking down at you sitting just out of arm’s reach on the floor. “And I think I know how to do it.”

Kyle’s wide stance and downright confident swagger merely sitting there makes the slight bleach smell in the air pale in comparison to the dizziness his heavy gaze does. From the black boots, to the jeans, hoodie and black baseball cap, he’s nothing short of pure masculine energy. And fuck does he know it. Screaming felt like an appropriate response to his comments, yet the only think that could come out of your mouth was a nervous giggle. Soft and a little hesitant. Flashing your nervous anxiety like a white flag right in Kyle’s face.

“Somethin’ funny?” He smirked a little, adjusting the bill of his cap and tugging it down closer to his eyebrows. You shake your head ‘no’, trying to recover and sober up quickly.

“Oh, no… please, do tell.” He presses smoothly, dark eyes brightening with what you can only compare to champagne and chocolate diamonds glittering in warm, cocktail bar lighting. Enticing… rich… and oh-so-pretty.

“Just, sounded a little suggestive is all.” You smile, saying it with an uncertainty that wavers between it being a joke, and a question as to his seriousness. Trying to keep the ball in his court as not to foul up on whatever kind of situation Kyle came here to trap you in.

If it’s naturally possible, his eyes darken. “What if I was being a lot more suggestive?” His upper body leans a little closer. “What would you think then?” You feel your own stomach twist into tight knots.

“I’d think you’re crazy.”

Gaz laughs. Actually laughs out loud, and grins down at you.

“Crazy, huh?” He reaches a hand out, fingertips touching the underside of your chin and guiding your face up to meet his. His huffs a little chuckle, almost mesmerized by you and the way you think. “Well, I might just be,” He answered quietly.

“But that isn’t going to stop me.” You swallow thickly, feeling his thumb brush over the swell of your bottom lip ever so softly.

“Stop you from doing what exactly?” Gaz chuckles lowly again, giving a moment to look at the blood stain on the floor and the hell of a time you’d been having trying to remove it.

“Showing you the one other time I don’t mind making a mess.”

***

You can’t be sure if it’s just how time suddenly bends around Gaz, or if you just can’t care enough to keep track of it. But you find yourself sitting naked in the drivers seat of your own MRAP, pants hanging from one ankle, shoes lost somewhere in the cab, and your panties shoved into Gaz’s back pocket. Be an hour or five, you’d already lost count of the times Kyle gave you the same praise as he did when you were helping patch him up.

Only this time, he was muffling your screams of pleasure with his hot mouth pressed against yours and fingers so deep inside your cunt that it was almost too easy to make you come for him. Your slick dripped from your clenching pussy into the fabric seat cover, soaking Kyle’s whole hand and your ass.

“That’s it… such a pretty pussy…” His low rumbling praise against your ear feels like electric static running down your spine. “What a lucky man… getting to shove my fingers in it, and see how wet I can make you.”

Lithe digits massage against the squishy front wall of your cunt, while his other hand doubles to put pressure on your stomach while rubbing at your clit with his fingertips all at the same time. You’re helpless to do more than let your head heavily thump against the tinted window behind you and squeeze your eyes shut to keep from utterly losing your mind. Kyle Garrick has turned you into a whimpering, messy, slutty-looking mess. And god is he more than happy to let you know just how good it looks from his angle.

“Fuucckk yesss..” He groans, kneeling closer to your pussy. Resting his cheek against your inner thigh and pressing a sloppy kiss to it when he’s able to draw yet another orgasm from you. Rending your legs truly useless and unable to fend off his attacks in any meaningful way.

It’s exactly where he wants you.

You’re pinned back against your seat with your knees on either side of your head and a dizzy look on your face as Kyle blows a teasing breath against your swollen clit, staring down at you damn near drunk off the sight alone. It makes you yelp, but with all of his methodical preparation, the only thing keeping him from sinking his tongue into your wet hole is wanting to see what other sounds he can drag out of you without touching that sensitive collection of nerve endings. Gaz couldn’t get enough of seeing your legs limp and easily maneuvered out of his way so that nothing more than your submissive little expressions and dripping cunt are on display.

“Told you I don’t like making messes…” His tongue licked lazily at the crease of your thigh, teasing himself with just the slightest tase of your arousal. Edging himself with the full prize of tasting all of his hard work.

“But I want you to look this slutty all the time, pretty girl…” He grinned darkly.

Finally lowering himself to your core, he curls his tongue through your folds with a satisfied groan. Purposefully burying his nose against your clit and sucking at your release until he’s certain he won’t need to eat for the rest of the day. You’re too wrecked to squirm anymore. Merely staring up blankly at the celling as he tongue rolls over your clit and dips down to gather up your slick before it drips down onto the seat again.

“Oh my god…” It’s a miracle you can utter a single word.

Kyle squeezes at the muscle and fat on your thighs in reward for finding your voice, if even for just a moment. That’s good… he thinks, knowing you can take this much pleasure and not give up when he’s still not satiated with the taste of your come sliding down his throat. He’s nearly lost all composure of himself as well; but damn if he didn’t just want to tie your legs to the driver’s seat and steering wheel just so he could lap at your cunt for hours without you interrupting him. Wishful thinking for this only being the first time he’d been able to taste you. But he was certain there wouldn’t be a single day in the future he’d go without at least the slightest tease of your pleasure lingering on his lips.

“One more,” He demands, teasing your hole with his thumb as his tongue traces your inner lips languidly. “Feed me baby…”

There’s not a moment’s hesitation.

You nearly come on command at this point. So overstimulated but desperate for more that when Kyle gently grazes his teeth over your clit, everything unravels in a fuzzy lost of your eyesight and a shock of sensation so strong in your body that Gaz manages to actually make your legs shake one last time. It’s so damn strong tears flood your eyes, and it’s not until you feel him slowly pumping a few of his fingers in and out of your weeping cunt that you realize he’s actually helping you ride it out by stroking at your g-spot tenderly and kissing your inner thigh.

He looks just as lost in the moment as you feel.

His mouth parted and still lapping at your folds like he’s possessed to do nothing else. Your arousal slicking the entire lower half of his face, and his baseball cap turned around backwards with a light grey t-shirt that he’d have to let dry before getting out of your truck due to the cum splatters covering the front. As if that wasn’t enough to turn you on seeing Kyle Garrick on his knees and pussy drunk off you, the large wet spot just to the left of his zipper made your weakened muscles clench around his fingers. Kyle follows your line of sight, chuckling quietly and gently palming at his softening cock through his pants with a small shrug.

“It’s my favorite…” He explains soft but very honestly, eyes flashing back to where he begins slowly removing his fingers from your cunt. Eyeing his own fingers and how your walls accommodate them before sinking his own fingers in his mouth to finish ‘clean up’ on his favorite messy job.

“Now we’re even?” You ask, a little dazed and reaching a hand out to find his for some stability and reassurance. Kyle laughs softly, helping you readjust your legs and lifting you up to sit in his lap to ward off the after-sex chills raising up on your bared skin.

“I suppose so,” His wetted lips press against your temple and linger there reverently for a minute or two.

“Or… we could… keep doing each other favors?” His voice lowers a bit, sounding far too unsure for your liking.

“I don’t want to do favors, Gaz.” You smile.

“I just wanna do you.”

[ogradyfilm]

Disco Elysium: The Game That Plays You

Disco Elysium is a rare and precious gem indeed: a video game that utilizes the language of the medium to its full potential. Interactivity is woven into the very fabric of the narrative, as fundamental and inextricable as words and images. There is no separation between “gameplay” and “storytelling”—they’re one and the same, synonymous and indistinguishable.

Its systems are deceptively simple: in basic terms, the designers combine mechanics from point-and-click adventures, RPGs, and visual novels into a perfectly harmonious genre hybrid. The player must navigate sprawling, labyrinthine dialogue trees, gathering clues to solve a murder mystery. Completing certain objectives earns experience points, which are used to level up your character’s attributes (divided among four branches: Intellect, Psyche, Physique, and Motorics); equipping articles of clothing and other miscellaneous items further increases these stats. Depending on how you “build” the protagonist, these upgrades may make him more perceptive, charismatic, or intimidating, opening new avenues of exploration and investigation—and providing a crucial advantage during the D&D-style “skill checks."

Seems easy enough, right? Just min-max your abilities, exhaust every conceivable dialogue option, and save scum frequently to circumvent the fickle RNG—the usual cheap, brute-force strategies. Or so I mistakenly believed—until a magnificently structured set piece totally subverted my expectations. I won’t discuss the twist in detail here; it’s far too delicious to spoil. Suffice it to say that your skills—which manifest as literal disembodied voices, dispensing hints, guidance, and nuggets of wisdom that you’ve been conditioned to trust without question or skepticism—are revealed to be fallible; they’re akin to unreliable narrators, subject to biases and prejudices. Even successful dice rolls don’t necessarily guarantee accurate information or favorable outcomes—a blatant weaponization of the user interface that irrevocably alters how the player engages with the material. You can’t merely tap buttons and skim through flavor text until the end credits roll; achieving victory will require you to actually pay attention, exercise a degree of critical thinking and logical reasoning, and make judgments based on your own personal values (rather than blindly following the advice of the flawed hero's internal monologue)—thus lending your choices (and the consequences thereof) a greater sense of urgency, gravity, and emotional significance.

And that is what makes Disco Elysium so special: it constantly deconstructs itself, recontextualizing its relationship with the audience. You don’t play this game; it plays you.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Dean & Cas Are In Love

A hopefully one day conclusive study of these assholes, hopefully told as briefly as I can.

[it went fuckin canon? Rendered useless in my own job. Posting these gifsets from my drafts for @mittensmorgul​ who can make better use of them than me.]

-------

I think I giffed the first 4 just because no one can resist that hug and “nice peach fuzz” boop. The raw affection while Cas stays stock still because he’s living an entirely different genre of survival horror to Dean. You know, Dean in an action RPG with one clear objective (handily these are often like, Find Wife, for a generic action guy). And Cas is in some sort of indie psychological horror where the very concept of Wifey is poison and he must resist the temptations of Save Wife to paradoxically Save Wife. 

I think Gif 5 is right after “we’re getting out of here” just to seal Dean’s pride in having accomplished his objective and heard the quest completion music. 

Then a gif of Benny cutting in because this nonsense has gone on long enough and he can see Cas is resisting all this and Dean after a minute of this conversation is wilfully blind to what is plain to Benny: Cas is resisting all this good cheer, and to Benny this is suspicious because you SHOULD only want to get out of Purgatory. Benny is being used here to show the absolute blinders Dean has on when it comes to Cas: to have a straight guy to the dynamic (ironically) simply to display that Dean is NOT on a simple emotional level here, and if he wasn’t already proving to be compromised over Cas in getting here, now they’ve arrived it’s become abundantly clear he’s on a whole other level with Cas to Benny when we’re talking Brothers In Arms.

(I mean Dean has a whole subtextually gay thing with Benny too, who comes across incredibly queer and in like a sad gay movie with Dean in the Benny-centric episodes, so when I say they exemplify Brothers In Arms and Benny is the straight guy, I am talking by Supernatural standards.) 

The I Prayed To You line then drops one of the biggest bombs in all of Destiel, and in later years will be amplified by the Longing Retcon two seasons later, which implies all prayer to a specific angel doesn’t need a whole formal letterhead and stamp and mailing address carefully written on it before it can be sent, but can just be a quick drunk text from your heart with no conscious intent. Making this entire year 1000x worse from Cas’s survival horror game perspective. Even before that, of course, this was the most dramatic statement of emotional intent from Dean we’d gotten thus far and as with the “has too much heart” statement being a thesis on Cas, this became basically the tentpole evidence for Dean’s point of view on Destiel, proving how much he cared.

Cas then reveals a sliver of how rough it’s been for him, and shattered Dean’s bubble with the explanation of where he went on arrival in Purgatory and why. That it was another self-sacrificial gambit, and a forbidden star-crossed lovers type thing of Cas being near Dean would doom him simply by proximity. Nom nom nom tropes.  

[pencilofawesomeness]

What is Twisted Wonderland and how would you sell someone on it?

Ohoho. Ohohohoho. Anon. You have activated my trap card >:D

(I'm about to be soooo annoying/unhinged and I'm sorry. I'm not.)

Alright, so:

Twisted Wonderland is a Disney mobile game made in Japan and co-produced by Aniplex. (Yes, that Aniplex.) I'm not here to sell you on the game, so much as the story, but it is a sort of story-book rpg with turned based fights and rhythm games, where you build character units from a gacha pull. As far as gameplay goes, it's very simple, and most of the emphasis lies on the characters and the story. And it's wonderful.

The on-the-box description of this game doesn't do it justice, per se, but that might be because Disney has a little bit of influence on it and they suck at knowing who their target audience is. It is about a high school based on classic Disney villains—but no, not in the way you're thinking, because I once made that mistake too. It is not a villain school. Rather, the world of Twisted Wonderland is its own entity, with characters built as sort of nods or foils to classic Disney characters. The world itself is somewhat built with these films as its past, and history has become so twisted (ha) that modern society views some of these classic villains as the heroes or supporting characters of their stories, and respect them as The Great Seven. (The seven in question being the Queen of Hearts, Scar, Ursula, Jafar, the Evil/Raven Queen, Hades, and Maleficent. None of them are remembered by name, though.)

The game takes place in the modern era, a society with both technology and magic. Specifically, it takes place in a magic high school called Night Raven College, an all-boys dormitory prep school where the only requirement to get in is a magic mirror that peers into your soul and determines whether or not you can a) do magic and b) kin the Great Seven. And, of course, the player character is a regular-ass human who gets isekai'd in and gets stuck with a talking magic cat direbeast named Grim.

Now. That is the general synopsis. I, on the other hand, affectionately call this the Mental Breakdown game.

See, here's the kicker. The magic system is pretty nifty; while it's functions as a standard magic-is-magic sort of soft system, it has ✨consequences✨

Magic has this byproduct called blot. It's this icky stuff that builds up when you a) use too much magic and/or b) are emotionally distressed. But less so in a "I'm panicked right now" sort of way and more so in a "I have chronic depression and/or anxiety" sort of way. And, when a mage is powerful enough, and sad boi enough, and then goes and uses way too much magic and sad boi juice in one sitting, this amazing phenomenon occurs called "overblot"—which is pretty much a super-powered evil form that turns the mage into the darkest form of themselves and then uses magic until they die.

Naturally, this happens in the game. A lot. The formula is pretty much that each "book" of the story, there is an overblot. One for each of the seven dorms, which are based off of the seven villains/the movies they come from. (And "based on" is pretty loose. Yes you can see the similarities, but these are dumb teenage boys with their own hopes and aspirations, and, sometimes, the game completely lies to you about what character they emulate the most. The guy who's Jafar? Well yes but he's actually just a really stressed out Genie stand in. The Hades guy? Whoops that's Meg. Is that a card soldier or the White Rabbit? Doesn't matter, he's got problems.)

The characters are so well written. I could gush about them forever, and they are the driving points of this plot and it means everything to me. They are some of the most traumatized and messed up individuals, but also, they are dumb teenage boys who do dumb teenage boys things. It is all incredibly well balanced and startlingly realistic for a game that amounts to beating the emotional constipation around people. Mostly because it cannot be beat out of them. The blot can, but they have to deal with their emotions with their own two hands, with varying levels of success.

And the shenanigans!!!! Oh, the shenanigans. I call this the Emotional Trauma game but I have once laughed so hard someone heard me through the floor. It's not all doom and gloom for sure. Sometimes you're watching your friend fall apart because his toxic mother instilled debilitating perfectionism and slowly start making enemies of everyone and sometimes you're sending three of the most gremlin students plus one cinnamon roll to infiltrate a gala that a bunch of weather fairies are throwing in the greenhouse because they stole your temperature regulating magestone to be shiny jewelry and you want it to stop snowing inside your dorm room. And sometimes you can have the exact same character who experienced losing his little brother right in front of him gush about a magical girl sledding anime and all of his gacha games. It is the best of both worlds.

And, that's not all! No, no. We get amazing character interactions. Not just pre-determined friend group interactions, but also random interactions. Yana Toboso (the writer/artist) really likes to stick names in a jar sometimes and make them interact and it is the best thing ever. Every single one of these characters I hold in my hands. Every single one of them gets to have their moment to shine. You can emotionally invest in all of them and be rewarded for it.

The game itself is free and pretty easy to get into. There's not really a bad power creep so you can get through it with what you got. Of course the fun part of collecting cards is that there are stories attached to them that you can watch, and those are also sources of joy. (And it's well documented, so you can find things online pretty easily to catch up and see more.)

I just think it's neat. (Read: I accidentally became wholly obsessed with this game and its characters and they are all blorbos to me.)

You should definitely fall into this rabbit hole with me :))) It's so worth it :)))

[hyperfixat]

sun and moon rpg au that i forgot to post here for like a year >.< ~4000 words

this was written at the peak of world of warcraft hyperfixation btw

Healers are vital to parties and guilds. It’s rare to find one on their own, unclaimed. Priests and Druids tend to be weaker when it comes to fighting, seeing as it wasn’t what they trained for.

You’re a Priest, on the low end of the average level of the humans and beasts around you. In the Hollowed Woods, beasts range from the thirties to the fifties. Your current leveling placed you at a thirty-five.

Your base is set up in a secluded area of the edge of the woods, near the beginning of a small creek. The only beasts you had to deal with were in the lower thirties; Vengeful Sprites, Were-Hounds, and the stray Fiery Spirit. Very rarely did parties run through your spot in the woods, with their numbers they charge into the deep.

There is safety in numbers, you knew this, and you had previously been in a small guild. Three Paladins, two mages, a warrior, and you. During an adventure in the Barren Lands, you’d failed as a healer. The party fought a Dessert Tumbler, they fought well, but you couldn’t heal them quick enough. Both Mages and two of the Paladins fell before the three of you remaining turned tail and ran.

After the monster had cleared you went back to the spot of the fight and tried your hardest to resurrect your friends, but your Mana kept faltering before you could bring them back.

From there you’d fought your way to the Hollowed Woods, a place you knew you could probably survive alone.

You’re too scared of failure to join another party or guild. At first there were offers from groups of humans traveling through, but soon word traveled and some became resentful that you were greedy. A Priest keeping their oh so desired Magic all to themself.

But humans like those tend to be far and few between.

Morning comes with sunrise and the shuffling of forest critters rushing around, scavenging for food and avoiding their predators. The sounds of the woods wake you as always.

Your morning routine consists of filling your flask at the creek’s edge and splashing some of the cool on your face. You don your usual armor, a simple cloth cloak, and you tuck your dagger into the small sheath in your pocket.

There’s no point in carrying a wand with you, Magic comes from within. Besides, wands are expensive. It would take a month's worth of pelts to get you the money that you’d need to buy one. Money gets spent on supplies and repairs, important things.

The weather is pleasant, warm spring air. Sunlight shines down through the tree branches creating intricate patterns on the floor of the woods.

The sound of rustling from a bush a couple yards away disrupts you from filling your flask. Your head flies up at the sound, expecting a deer or rabbit.

A Warrior, brandishing two large silver maces, covered in blood stumbles into your view. They haven’t seen you yet, so you duck behind a tree to observe the warrior.

They’re panting, staring into the direction they’d run from, maces shaking in their hands. When they take a moment to glance around, your blood chills. You know this fighter.

Raphael was once an ally, he was kind to you, and supplied occasional companionship. After a few weeks of friendship, he kept pressuring you to join his party. After you declined about a million times, he grew resentful. Raphael fought you, hurt you. He said if he ever found you again, you’d be dead.

Raphael looks to have lost his party. From the brush a long thin hand reaches through, grasping the thin branches of the bush and pushing them aside to stick a head through.

You’ve never seen anything like the monster. A large circular face with a large, cruel grin, one side a waxing moon, colored a deep gray, the other a dark, midnight blue. Upon the Lovecraftian horror’s head perched a beat up, torn nightcap decorated with stars.

The monster stalked Raphael, its large eyes glowing a bright red. Raphael backed up into the clearing and the monster followed, revealing a long humanoid body. You couldn’t recognize the clothing it wore, too unfamiliar with the deeper woods.

Raphael readied himself in preparation for the attack. The monster lunged at him and Raphael attempted to dislodge the monster’s path with his weapons, but he only threw his own body to the side. He stumbled and in the moment of weakness he was pinned.

You watch with bated breath as the monster’s slender hands wrapped around Raphael’s throat and held. It looked up around the tree tops, and you did too.

In the branches of one of the thicker trees crouched another creature akin to the one currently holding Raphael captive. This monster however was yellow with orange triangular rays shooting out around its head.

The monster on the ground’s head twisted 360degrees unnaturally spinning from its base at the neck. The voice that comes out of the beast is deep and scratchy as it calls to its partner up above, “he’s down, Sunny.”

The beast in the trees climbs down with the skill of an acrobat. As he descends you see that this beast is scratched all along its yellow chest, a thick deep blue oozes out of the gashes slowly. Sunny, its partner had called it, approached Raphael with caution.

Once the solar beast was in Raphael’s line of sight, he began struggling with a renewed vigor. The lunar beast hissed at him and he stilled.

Sunny’s large grin never faltered as he glared down at Raphael.

“You wish to fight me like a true warrior would?” Sunny mocked, voice warbled, yet sweet like honey. “Let him up, Moon.”

Moon stepped up and off of the struggling human, who quickly scampered away and backed against a tree.

Sunny’s head turned to an angle a little less than natural. “Come on, little human this is what you wanted, is it not?”

Raphael’s eyes went everywhere, as soon as he recognized the small shadow of your hut in the woods he cried out desperately for you. His voice was broken and dry as he sobbed your name.

You stiffened at the call. Of course he’d come crawling back in his time of need, begging to not be sent to the Other Side. You aren’t going to help him, and you don’t even feel bad about it. When the humanoids send him away, he’ll waste away into the ground for a week before he’ll resurrect.

From the brush where the fighters had come from, a Mage ran through. All eyes flicked to her, she licked her dry lips and froze as the two monsters stared at her. She quickly began casting a spell, blue magic swirling between her hands. Moon approaches her, leaving Sunny to the Warrior.

The pairs began to fight, Moon and the Mage’s fight was much more eventful, the two seeming uninjured. You were in a daze as their fight distracted you, a whirl of different shades of blues. You hear a shriek from the other pair and see that Raphael had thrown one of his maces at Sunny, hitting him in his chest, dead center.

Raphael was beginning to heal and gain energy the more he sat still and rested, Sunny was going to lose. Moon’s fight wouldn’t end for a long while.

It was a spur of the moment decision as you began a quick Rejuvenation spell to send to Sunny. As soon as the sparkly green Magic appeared around it, Sunny looked around for the source, but upon seeing no one turned back to Raphael.

Their fight continued on a more even playing field and after about ten minutes of the sound of grunting and hissing coming from both groups, Sunny and Moon reigned victorious. They had, to your distaste, consumed some of their opponents' remains after winning.

You continued to stay behind your tree and waited for the deep forest beasts to return to their home, but to your horror, they began searching around for the mysterious source of healing Sunny claimed it had felt mid-fight.

The two separated and began their hunt for you. You were stuck if you ran they’d see you; if you stood like an idiot behind a tree they’d find you. Who’s to say they won’t kill you as well?

Moon was coming in your direction, head spinning a continuous 180, side to side.

The leaves of the forest floor crunched as he wove between the trees, and all too soon his red eyes landed on you.

“Healer?” Its tone was softer than it had been in battle.

You, in a panic, glanced back in the direction of your house before thinking better of running. You nodded at Moon. It’s tall, much taller than you, and deadly as you had seen.

“Thank you. I’m not sure why you did what you did, but you are in my and Sun’s debt.” It bowed at you, silly hat jingling as it did so.

He turned to the direction Sun had gone and shouted for it.

The yellow counterpart quickly ran over to where you and Moon stood. You shrunk back a little as Sun stopped in front of you.

“Thank you, little healer.” Just like Moon, its tone softened and sincerity bleed through his words.

You meekly nodded with wide, shy eyes.

“You’re welcome to our part of the forest anytime, Priest.” Sun began saying as he untied one of the jingling bracelets on his wrist and held it out to you. “Make sure you purposely shake this a couple times and me and Moon will escort you to safety.”

And with that the two were off, not even gleaning your name.

Deep within the Hollowed Woods, Sun and Moon reside in a humble treehouse decked with mere necessities. They lie upon their shared bed thoughts of you in their minds. Why would a human help them? They’re natural enemies.

The Warrior and Mage they’d defeated crossed their minds as well, did you know them? Were you at war with their group? You had been alone, so surely you wouldn’t wage a war by yourself.

They’d help you if you were to fight, a sweet little Priest that helped them out.

Sun recounted his side of the day aloud, describing the cool chill that your healing had done. He said it was like a cup of ice water on a hot summer’s day.

They hoped you called for them soon.

You grasp Sun’s bracelet in your hand, observing it. The red linen was heavy in your hand as you pondered the implications of calling the monsters back to you. They were so large compared to you, easily two to three feet taller than you. The image of their hands bloodied with blood of your kin as they ate flashed through your mind.

What if you called them at a bad time, when they were much too hungry? Maybe turn on you, not that they wouldn’t attack in any other scenario.

With a trembling hand you tucked the bangle into your pocket, securing it. You don’t want to have to call for the monsters, but emergencies will be emergencies.

The next few weeks went by quietly. You managed to hunt a boar down, meat and leather that would provide you with food and money for a couple weeks.

Summer days were the loudest of the year, animals, monsters, and humans alike wandered the woods more in the pleasant weather. With the travelers came enemies, of course.

Rouges are stealthy, quiet, and blend in with their surroundings well. The ambient noise of wildlife is calming and you’re relaxing against the river bank. A small rustle came from across the clearing. You get a sense of deja vu for the incident a couple weeks ago.

You lean up with your hands supporting you as a figure looks around the environment. They spot you and pull a dagger from their waistband. You scramble to your feet. They’re rapidly approaching you, posture hostile and aggressive.

You’re frozen as they charge toward you and grab you by your neck.

You’re pushed against their body with the knife dull against your throat, pressing in. Your chest is rising and falling rapidly.

“You’re gonna come with me and help me out a little, okay? This can be easy or hard, Priest.” Their breath is hot in your ear and you repress a shudder.

You nod your head rapidly, fear coursing through your veins. “I’ll do what you need.”

“Good,” a curt response and they pick you up by your waist and throw you over their shoulder. Temporarily out of breath you stare at the ground as the Rouge begins walking back into the deep of the woods.

The trip isn’t long, maybe five minutes. The sounds of battle greets you and you struggle to look up and see what’s happening around you. Unceremoniously you hit the ground as you’re dropped. The Rouge looms above you and gives you a simple command.

“Heal them.”

You look at the fight, two Warriors, a Hunter, and a wolf (probably the Hunter’s pet). The humans look rough, but the large bird-like Screecher they’re fighting doesn’t look much better.

With the command and still standing threat holding you down, you begin to cast heals onto the fighters. The fight goes on and with your help the party manages to take down the bird.

You stand to your feet, legs shaking a bit from the Mana excursion it took to keep the group in good health. You turn from the fight, in the direction of your home, but before you can even take another step the Rouge reaches out for you.

“Ya know we’ve been needing a healer. You’re mighty useful, Priest. Might just need to keep you around for a bit.”

You shake your head side to side, no, you don’t want to join these people. You don’t know them and one of their party practically kidnapped you. “Thank you, but I really-,” you can’t finish your nervous declination.

“We weren’t asking, Priest. Make yourself useful; we’ve seen you hoard your Magic to yourself.” The Hunter sneers at you, the wolf sitting by his side, staring you down.

“Greedy bitch (and or) bastard.” One of the Warriors jeers at you. The other warrior, a tall, busty woman sneers at you and walks closer to your shaky form. She grabs the back of your neck and inspects your face. Eyes emotionless as she does so.

You stare back at her long face and she leans back from you to return and sit next to her fellow Warrior.

As you fill with dread, you remember something. Sun’s bell.

The ribbon is still in your pocket!

As inconspicuous as you can manage you slip your hand into your robe’s pocket and grab the small metal bell and as quiet as you can shake it a couple times.

Luckily none of your captor seem to have realized you did anything. They’re sitting around the corpse of their kill, some holding pieces of bread or bottles of water. They chat mildly like they aren’t in the middle of kidnapping a healer.

You aren’t sure how the bell in your pocket works or how soon Sun or Moon will get to you, but God you hope it’s soon.

It’s been almost a month with no call from you, no summon, no nothing. A few times Sun felt the bell with you jingle, but he always deflates when he realizes that it wasn’t a call, merely a jostle from you. Moon can’t feel the bell, but his chest aches for a call from the strange human healer.

Sun shoots up from his bed and Moon flinches back at the sudden jump.

“They called!”

Moon quickly gets to his feet, and stares at Sun.

“For real?”

“For real.” Sun’s permanent smile seems even brighter if possible.

“Lead the way, lead the way,” Moon urges quickly.

The duo make their way into the forest, heading in the direction they had found you last, at least that’s where they assumed they were going. About a quarter mile from the place you had met Sun stops. He tilts his head to the side, sensing where his bell is. Moon hesitates.

Nevertheless they head where the bell called from, slowing as they approach a group of humans. They know you’re there, but can’t recognize the other people with you. You’re shifting uncomfortably as an outcast from the group.

Sun and Moon felt a surge of wariness. Not at you, never at you, but these other humans… they seemed mean. You didn’t look like you wanted to be there, surely that’s why you called for them.

A bit hurt that you would only call in a time of dire need, a bit happy that you felt they could help you. Sun walks broad into the clearing as Moon slips away to get to you.

Sun bursts into the clearing where you stood, turning to face the humans with a snarl. Relief floods you as you realize he came. A hand on your shoulder makes you flinch and you turn to see Moon. He’s staring down at you, eyes emanating a soft red. He scans your form checking for any injuries. His gloved hand reaches to your neck.

The knife must’ve bruised you, you thought mildly as you get lost in letting Moon check you over for injuries. The sound of Sun fighting in the background isn’t on your mind as Moon rubs his thin fingers over your marks. To check on you, he has to crouch to reach your height, and it’s a bit embarrassing.

Too soon for your taste Moon pulls away to join the fight. You don’t seem to mind the humans destruction.

The whole group is yelling at you, shouting curses, and other foul things, telling you to heal them. Your mana is pretty low, but you weren’t going to help them in any way.

Sun and Moon are holding up well against the humans, which is good. You take the time to sit and try to regain what Magic strength you can.

After about five minutes you split-cast a Rejuvenation spell on Sun and Moon. From there their movements get stronger, and the fight quickly ends.

They’re dirty, the both of them, covered in blotches of blood, but they’re grinning at you so joyously. Like dogs expecting praise from a master.

You’re still cross legged on the ground and you have to look up to meet their eyes. Sun and Moon are ungodly large, at least nine feet tall. Sun is swaying in his place and he’s breathing heavily as he stares right at you.

“Did we do good to you, little healer?” Sun prompted.

You gaze up at them with mild disbelief, but you manage to respond. “Thank— Thank you for coming for me.”

“Oh, we’ve been dying to see you again!” Sun responded, dropping down into a crouch so he was at about half his height, still a foot larger than you. His hand, still with some tiny splotches of blood on it, reaches out to cup your face. He’s staring at you like you hung the stars in the sky.

After a moment of just letting your face be held, Moon drops down to your level as well.

“You’ll come with us for tonight, right? We’ve missed you so.” Moon speaks up. His voice is at the meekest you’ve heard from him.

You bite your lip, in thought. They saved you, spared you. Yet you know nothing of these two. They ate people. Their level wasn’t known to you, and they showed such strength in battle. They’re kind to you.

“Okay.”

They both brighten immediately. Sun and Moon each move to grasp one of your arms and assist you to your feet. You’re grateful for the help, still weak from lack of Mana.

They help you through the depths of the forest, reassuring your safety. It gets darker and darker as you travel. You’ve never been this far away from home nor so deep into danger. Without Sun and Moon you’d be dead meat. Mild fright grips your heart as you’re gently led through the dark.

At some point a Wild Thorn Beast attempts to attack you and your friends (maybe allies, what were you to them?). Sun and Moon growl at the beast and their grips on your upper arms tighten, not looking to start another fight. When the Thorn Beast realizes you won’t make an easy meal, it quickly scampers off.

Your heart is still thumping wildly in your chest from that encounter.

Sun and Moon reside in a large treehouse, small star shaped bots line the way up to the front door like decorative lights. You’re passed back and forth between Sun and Moon as they climb their way up to the entrance.

The inside of their hovel is dim, and slightly dirty, but better than most monsters have.

“I’m sure it’s not as nice as your home, but I hope it’ll be enough for now.” Sun spoke sheepishly.

“Thank you, for a lot of things,” you spoke quietly. “This is quite wild from my point of view. I don’t quite understand what’s going on.”

Moon grabs your hand and leads you over to one of the two discolored mattresses on the floor. Both him and you sit down on the soft, limp thing.

“You helped us, and that is… rare. Never have we met a human quite like you. For your help we wish to thank you, and you’re one of a kind. We don’t wish to lose you.”

Sun sat across from you on the other mattress. “Besides, you’re such a lovely little human, and the others out there don’t seem to appreciate that.”

“You don’t have to heal us if you don’t wish to,” Moon added. “However I do hope you stay in contact with us.”

“But why not just get rid of me? I'm at such a low level compared to you two.”

Moon and Sun shifted uncomfortably at that suggestion. “That means nothing to us, your level. And I wouldn’t dream of hurting you when you’ve helped us so.” Sun counters you quickly.

From beside you, you can sense Moon’s own Mana at work and when you look over you can see he’s revealed all of his stats to you. Health, Mana, Level, and Energy. His Health is about ninety percent full, along with his Mana. His Energy is about three quarters of the way full, and his Level you can’t even decipher.

When anyone or anything’s Level is over ten levels higher than you own, you can’t figure out what it is, and in place of a number simply a skull lies.

“I can’t read your Level, Moon.” You’re shy to say it, but his hand simply comes to lay on your shoulder.

“I figured as much, it’s a fifty.” Moon is as quiet as you.

Oh, that’s… high.

“But that’s good, right, little healer? We can defend you against any beast in the forest.” Sun’s face twists one-twenty degrees as he asks.

“You’re protecting me.” Spoken like a question, but a statement. Fact.

You’re in a bit of a trancelike shock. The rest of the night, you’re treated with care and soft hands. Cuddled up in Moon’s arms like a rag doll, you fall asleep.

The adventures of tomorrow are unknown, yet you know you’re going to be just fine with Sun and Moon on your side.

[dailycharacteroption]

Instructor (Starfinder Archetype)

(art by DamaiMikaz on DeviantArt)

We have another Starfinder archetype today, and it’s one that I have a much higher opinion of!

When it comes to fantasy and sci-fi RPGs, it usually is an inevitability that player characters eventually become masters of their chosen craft, the sort that become legends not just for their heroics but also for their mastery of one or more fields, from which others might learn.

Of course, becoming a teacher or instructor is usually something reserved for a post-campaign retirement for characters, but there is precedent for it in stories where the characters have a home they come back to, such as a fighter instructing the soldiers and guards of a castle, or a wizard teaching the next generation of mages.

However, in the far future of Starfinder, with the advances in education and communication technology, it is very possible for a character to have a day job or moonlight as an instructor in their field.

Enter the Instructor archetype, which does exactly that. Unlike many archetypes in Starfinder, it does have a prerequisite, being that the character must actually be high enough level and have enough skill ranks in a field to actually qualify as a competent teacher.

Such characters are masters of their chosen profession, not only becoming especially gifted with it, but also being able to effectively guide and coach others on it when necessary in the field, not just in the classroom.

When taking this archetype, one must choose a skill that becomes the focus for the class, which must be one that the individual is especially well-trained in.

So familiar are they with this skill that they can act with patience and confidence even when others would find the situation too stressful. What’s more, they can expend a bit more of this focus to fall back on their training and make it even easier.

They also become quite effective at aiding and instructing others in that field, able to either speed up the process of aiding them, or providing even greater aid, which only increases as they grow in skill.

Finally, the most skilled among them can do a thorough perfect job with their chosen field even when doing so would be hazardous or impossible, and they can see the consequences of such focus coming, letting them deal with them before they become an issue.

This archetype is a perfect example of a non-specific character option that can make a character a true afficionado at a chosen skill. That flexibility means that it can be used with every class and every skill. An ace pilot, a magical or scientific instructor, a master diplomat, or even just something as simple as an athletic instructor can be very useful and thematic not just in their own personal skill utility but also in aiding others in performing the same skills. What’s more, the archetype is simple enough and appears late enough in the game that it doesn’t affect your build beyond making you a bit more skill-focused in one area.

While the archetype does imply that the bearer be skilled enough to teach their vocation, exactly how they go about teaching is another story. Consider their personality and teaching style, since you’ll have time before you can actually take the archetype. Are they a patient teacher or a harsh taskmaster?

Even in the interconnected age of the stars, elves are slow to change and to trust, but slowly and surely it is happening, which is why worldly elven instructors are a must to help the new generation understand other species. However, there are those that would rather elves be insular and distrustful of other peoples forever. As such, biologist Reiyana is hiring for a bodyguard position during her return to elven space for a round of public speaking.

So dedicated to service that not even death stopped her, the bone trooper now known as Broken Circuit is an expert on hybrid tech and magical hacking. However, the war is over and retirement has finally found her. Now, she spends her time as a countermeasures instructor, but many guess correctly that she yearns to be back in the field.

There are those who wonder why a professional chef also moonlights as an adventurer, but Rebis doesn’t mind the confusion. After all, cooking is a universal need for living beings, and they aim to understand how to cook most any nonsentient creature they encounter in the galaxy, and how to cook them in any atmosphere or other planetary conditions.

[sylvan-librarian]

Nissa's Pilgrimage Part I: Worldwaker

Preface: 

Hi there! My name is Steven; I recently wrapped up a master’s degree in library science and am doing my best to segue careers. Since my terminally long job hunt has left me with more down time than I ever wanted to have, I decided to put my English degree to good(?🤷) use by writing a bunch of personal essays on Magic the Gathering, as it is a topic I have been obsessed with for around a decade now. I didn’t intend to share these ramblings at first, and I began this whole project for my own edification, to keep my brain active, and to prevent myself going insane from boredom. However, I thought it couldn’t hurt to throw these online and see what comes of it.

This particular piece is part 1 of ???. I have a lot of notes in my drafts and even more thoughts in my head, so it may just go on indefinitely until someone (finally) gives me a dang job.

TLDR: I’m a deranged MTG Vorthos and former English major with a lot of thoughts and even more time on my hands, so I began a handful of English major-y essays on my pet topics. I’m posting them here for now.

Introduction:

Almost every Magic player who began learning the game after the planeswalker card type was introduced in the Lorwyn expansion in October, 2007 can tell you a story about the first planeswalker card they fell in love with. It might have been because the mechanics on the card melded perfectly with their preferred strategy of play, it might have been because they kept up with the story and were invested in the represented character’s journey, or it might have simply been because they thought the art looked cool.

For whatever reason under Mirrodin’s five suns a Magic player first became attached to a planeswalker and their cards, the character often become symbolic for our love of the game itself. These symbols grow beyond simple loyalty abilities on a piece of cardboard and become inexorably intertwined with our own personal Magic experience.

For me, this planeswalker was Nissa Revane.

You see, in March of 2014, I started working at The Game Closet in Waco, Texas. I had just finished getting a master’s degree in English, so of course, my first job out in the real world was to become a clerk at my local game store (really putting my humanities education to work). Having grown up in a small Louisiana town, I never had a chance to play Magic. I entered the tabletop gaming world through my obsession with Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun, and sundry other RPG’s. 

Nevertheless, as Magic players made up the majority of the store’s customer base, I took it upon myself to learn the game. The Theros block was wrapping up at the time with its third set, Journey into Nyx, and a bunch of friendly players were more than happy to unload all of their bulk commons and uncommons to me (Journey into Nyx was famously underpowered, after all), so I tried to make a standard deck out of all this draft chaff and run it at Friday Night Magic. 

It didn’t go too well.

However, I was happy with the overall direction of the deck, and I immediately discovered that I loved green decks, specifically green ramp strategies.

I was enthralled with the idea of accelerating mana so that you can play flashy, intimidating creatures and cool, game warping spells far earlier than you have any right to, so I continued to tweak the deck until I made a functioning version of the Theros Standard Mono Green Devotion deck. Even though I wasn’t good enough at the game in my early days to consistently win (even at the local level), I had a lot of fun with it! It was fast and explosive, but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was missing something.

However, not a few months later, the Magic 2015 Core Set gets released, and the chase mythic rare in the set’s early days was exactly the kind of card I was looking for: Nissa, Worldwaker. I had no idea who this Nissa character was supposed to be — though I did think the art looked pretty cool — but I was in awe of the card’s abilities! It was precisely the kind of fuel I felt my standard deck needed at the time, and it turns out I was right! My Magic the Gathering “competitive” “career” begins and ends with a handful of first place rankings at my local game store’s standard FNM events, but as small a victory as those are, nearly all of these top rankings were due to Nissa, Worldwaker. 

Needless to say, I became devoted to the character overnight.

Exploration:

But who is Nissa, really? Let’s start with the basics. Nissa is an elf planeswalker from the plane of Zendikar, a largely untamed wilderness where the land itself has a will of its own, causing unforeseeable (un)natural disasters called “the roil” by Zendikari locals. According to the recently-released Magic The Gathering: The Visual Guide by Jay Annelli, Nissa is in her 60s and she is 5 feet, 2 inches tall, making her the smallest of the original four members of the Gatewatch (five if you count Liliana). Nissa has a mystical connection to the land and can sense a plane’s leylines, giving her a measure of control over the ground she walks on; this allows her to animate the very land itself to fight her enemies, a narrative element that has been expressed mechanically time and time again on Nissa’s cards throughout the years. 

Ostracized from the elven clan she was born in, the Joraga, for the crime of having this connection to the land (a rare brand of sorcery called “animism” in the lore of Magic), Nissa spent large stretches of years alone with only the spirits of the natural world as companions. This has made her socially awkward to a fault, and the issues she has in communicating with her friends (and later, lovers) has been a fairly consistent plot point throughout all of the (canon) story arcs she has played a part in. 

In a fictional universe that contains ageless elder dragons, a man-eating toad, a sentient robot who literally created a planet from scratch, and a wizard who once phased an entire continent out of the time stream, Nissa Revane’s eternal struggle to express simple feelings to people she shares a bond with always seemed to me the most human element in the Magic canon. Additionally (big surprise), that’s something I have in common with her. While other Vorthoses have made the argument that Nissa is on the autism spectrum, that is something I have neither the personal experience with nor the education of to speak about. That is certainly a valid lens to view this character through, however, so if that interests you, I’d encourage you to search up these pieces on your own.

What I can speak on with a certain level of expertise, however, is the personal struggle of being a shy, withdrawn introvert in an extroverted world. As a lifelong wallflower with a vivid imagination and a rich inner world, I can deeply relate to a character who doesn’t know how to put her intense feelings to words. For example, in the final story of the Kaladesh arc, Renewal, Nissa tries to express to her companion Chandra just how deeply she wants to be “friends” with her:

Nissa swallowed past the desert in her throat. "I don't speak often. I lived alone for...decades. Zendikar was my companion. We understood each other at a level deeper than words. I...I don't know how to talk to you. I'm trying to learn." Chandra looked up, eyes wide and startled. "You don't know how to talk to me?" "I will make mistakes," Nissa said. "Pick the wrong words. Misunderstand yours. I'll act strange and won't know that I am. But if you can be patient with me, I would like to be..." Waves of sky-song memory welled upward, symphonies of color and warmth, resonant movement and shared breath. She stilled them, reduced them, and forced out angular words shaped in a pallid shadow of acceptable truth. "...your friend." Chandra's hands leapt out to enfold hers, warm as a bird's nest. "I dunno," she sniffled, one corner of her mouth quivering upward. "I think you're pretty good at picking words." "It took all afternoon to decide how to say this."

While this section of Renewal is a cornerstone of Nissa’s and Chandra’s future romantic relationship, that is a topic big enough to warrant its own essay in order to do it justice. For now, though, let’s focus on this bit: “‘I would like to be…’ Waves of sky-song memory welled upward, symphonies of color and warmth, resonant movement and shared breath. She stilled them, reduced them, and forced out angular words shaped in a pallid shadow of acceptable truth. ‘...your friend.’” Nissa’s never ending struggle to use words grand enough to communicate the intensity of the feelings in her heart has stuck with me since Renewal was posted on Magic’s website in 2017. I doubt I’m the only one, either.

Heroic Intervention

Nissa was already the character I was most invested in back in 2017, but observing her deep well of emotions she didn’t know to express and her entire lifetime's worth of interests and experiences she didn’t know how to talk about helped me, I think, come to terms the previous two-and-a-half decades of my own life that I spent cowering in corners at parties, being as unobtrusive as possible in the lives of my friends and family, and holding myself back because I didn’t think anyone would ever want me around - as a friend, as a lover, or even as a coworker. This section, from later on in Renewal, really gutted me at the time: 

What would she do, if she had the time again? If she didn't flinch at light, noise, and touch, or speak in gestures and movements strange and off-putting to others? How could she tell this new life to laugh and weep without reservation or regret; to sing to the stars and waters, or to nothing at all; to love unreserved and unguarded; to treasure every moment with those beloved; to forgive any regretted trespass; to dance when moved to; to savor long silences in warm company; to greet each dawn, each face with the thought, this will be an adventure; to be brave, and kind, and trusting, and... ...like Chandra. The aetherborn waited, flickering. But why would anyone find her thoughts on the matter of value, anyway? Don't be afraid to follow your heart, Nissa told them. ...Why would that be scary? Halfway across Ghirapur, her body exhaled a laugh into the deepening twilight. May it ever puzzle you.

It wasn’t too long after this story was published that I began my own journey from hiding in the shadows to living my life in a way I was proud of. I moved away with the woman I was dating at the time, and even though that relationship ended up not working out, I spent five long, fun, life-altering years learning to

laugh and weep without reservation or regret; to sing to the stars and waters, or to nothing at all; to love unreserved and unguarded; to treasure every moment with those beloved; to forgive any regretted trespass; to dance when moved to; to savor long silences in warm company; to greet each dawn, each face with the thought, this will be an adventure.

I wonder to this day if the courage Nissa displayed during her own pilgrimage helped nurture in me the courage I needed in my own…

Conclusion

If you made this far, thanks! I’m not sure who, if any, will be interested in these endless ramblings, but if you're here, I hope you found something in it to enjoy!

Further entries in this little series will cover who Nissa is as a character, how she has been treated by various writers in Magic's various seasons, and why that matters (to me at least). The next longform piece I post will go over Nissa’s dual origins, why she was retconned from an incompetent xenophobe into the cinnamon roll with baggage we know today, and what both the Magic Story Team and its fans have made of this shift over the years.

References

Annelli, J. Magic The Gathering The Visual Guide. DK Publishing

Li, M., Digges, K., Luhrs, A., Beyer D., & L'Etoile, C. (2017). Renewal

[noellevanious]

started SLARPG. been playing for ~2 hours. my thoughts on it so far:

extremely cute w rly pretty art

all the character designs are adorable and i like the variety of animal people

this is obviously a game thatd have a huge impact on a transfem learning about themselves. as it goes on i can definitely see it hitting me certain ways but for now it hasnt rrally

charming in all the ways youd expect a game about lesbian furries going on adventures would be (upbeat, Fantastical, lovey-dovey)

i like how a lot of melody's dialogue choices revolve around her self-confidence and self worth. feels really genuine. i dont know how much of the choices actually play into the story or if they're just different dialogue, but her girlfriend saying "you're really impressive!" and her dialogue options being "yeah, i think i did good!" or "honestly, i think i couldve done better..." is Real as shit

the monster designs are fun. Again, very goofy fantastical mother-esque, but theyre unique enough that i think theyre fun.

It sure is a turn-based RPG that was inspired by Mother gameplay wise. nothing rly jumping out at me yet except for at the start where you choose whether Melodys magic was based on nature, her love, or her confidence. Star power gimmick idea is neat at least (if simple - just another 'MP' stat so far)

Writing is also bleh. Claire is really cute and i like her outfit but the dialogue between her and the other party members has been Okay at best, cliche in bad ways at worst

same with some of the characters/personalities. Obviously its an rpg so i cant say too much with certainty, i've only just started the story, but for now it definitely feels like the character writing is not a strong suit

It has a lot of charm, but its issues are very evident and would probably scare a lot of potential fans off (just how much of an RPG-ass game it is namely).

i think the art could definitely make up for it, cause it's really good and charming. i dont wanna disparage it, it's clearly a passion project, and deserves any attention it can get. give it a try but be prepared to play some RPG-ass gameplay

[ninesnowfang]

Ramble about Bravely Default's offensive spells and why they're bad and how Bravely Second made it amazing

first of all i'm gonna mention that i will default to BD for bravely default and BS for bravely second in this, BD2 isn't gonna be mentioned much if at all. I will also note that this is mostly stated for boss encounters since regular encounters are so easy it barely matters what you use, any sort of AoE spammed enough will clear the encounter, This will also talk about Hard mode being the played difficulty (normal and especially casual mode you can literally run whatever and it'll work) BD has probably the worst magic in any "final fantasy" style RPG i've ever played, it's very strong SUPER early on (aka once you get it) and no further than the first optional asterisk holder it's already becoming so weak comparitively to the sheer damage output that thief and its massive agility stat lets you do, this is partially because of bosses not having many elemental weaknesses to exploit and also because rods don't give magic attack via proficiency, a Brawler and a Black Mage will get the exact same amount of magic attack from the same rod which holds back magic starting late Florem or early Eisen. It's also held back by Spell Fencer taking away what COULD be its niche, having elemental variety to exploit any and all weaknesses if a boss DOES have them (mostly crystal bosses). By the time you get Hunter especially there's no longer much reason to use magic at all offensively thanks to hawkeye taking away the one issue physical attacks could have, that being the chance of missing or whiffing to many hits, doubly so once you get the strongest class in the game aka Ninja. Lastly the amount of JP needed as well as magical damage support being incredibly scarce as the game goes on compared to physical support (merchant's crit boost, quick, agility boosting equipment and ofc spellblade) just makes it an awful feel to use it compared to mowing down enemies with pyhsical damage. Then comes BS and your literal first asterisk you get is wizard with the glorious Spellcraft ability, Spellcraft lets you change your spells with different properties, need a priority spell that does 1.5x its original damage/heal? level 2 of the class which you reasonably get before the bella/cu fight where you really want those lightning darts, enemy magic defense too high? at level 4 you get spellcraft: hammer which deals PHYSICAL damage based on your magic attack, it can also crit for double damage, the same spellcraft level also gives you mist which keeps the spell on the side you cast it on for a few turns, this can be used with healing spells or even REVIVES, the next spellcraft tier includes wall, a counter that casts the spell after getting hit by a physical attack and blast which turns the spell used into an AoE and boosts the effect of it. So yeah Wizards give you a massive utility boost right out of the start with any caster you get… and it somehow also has the highest intelligence stat in the game + the now SCALING magic attack rods which lets you use magic offensively throughout the game… especially with the last spellcraft tier where you get spellcraft: Rain, changing the spell to be cast four times with no effect boost besides that.

This works with meteor and every hit does capped out damage and with the right setup you can do this 14 times per full brave turn, that is 56 capped damage hits which no boss in the game can survive. But it costs a ton of MP so unless there's a simple way to take care of that you really won't be able to spam it...

thankfully MP free in a pinch + ghost status turns these frail glass canons into a zero risk maximum reward team setup that obliterates the entire game and you can get that setup going at around 60% of the game being complete. Now how does physical stack up to that? well, magic is far easier to use in BS but physical builds have a lot of neat new tools too, fencer in particular is such a good class that it's worth using as a sortof hybrid tank and DPS or main DPS. thanks to spellcraft on Supportive magic like keeping up buffs every turn, immediately rebuffing someone with dart after they were just revived it doesn't really matter what kind of build you go for, hell use both magic and physical in the same team it's ABSOLUTELY viable in this game because Bravely Second is probably the most free "just go nuts it'll work somehow" class based RPG i've ever played and that's likely going to stay that way

On that note just to have it mentioned, BD2 also has good class balance as long as you ignore beast tamer and freelancer overshadowing the other classes as main jobs due to sheer stats, the game also has a good mix of phys and magic balance so it's another sorta "just use whatever lol" game, but not to the degree of BS

[ironmyrmidon]

I've been reading Dungeon Meshi, and I think it would be super easy to turn it into a TTRPG Module or video game RPG. Dungeon Meshi is clearly very heavily influenced by RPGs. I think DnD 5e would be a natural fit, and not just because that's the one RPG whose rules I can remember clearly enough to talk about.

Here's the way I would do it. You could adopt the food radar chart from the manga pretty much unchanged, assigning different foods and spices different nutritional values. Food preparation would be based on a Wisdom-based Cook's Utensils check, where failure means the food is ruined during the process. would keep DCs low, say 5 for simple food (Roasts, Stews), 10 for more complicated food (Bread, Omelettes), and 15 for specialty dishes (Mousse, Souffle). A player who is proficient with Cook's Utensils and has help from another player for advantage should be able to successfully cook most of the time. After all, ruining the food should be an exception that puts players into unexpectedly difficult situations, not something that's frustratingly common.

Then, if your players don't eat 3 square meals or fail to meet their nutritional needs, they have to start making hunger checks (increasingly difficult Con saves) or start racking up points of exhaustion. I added in the Con saves to make it less likely that the party all becomes exhausted at once, letting characters who can resist the exhaustion for a while help carry the characters who can't until they can replenish their food supplies or escape to the surface. If you want to make your game especially accurate to the manga, you could give dwarves disadvantage on hunger checks.

I thought you might have to ban spells like Goodberry, but I think instead we can use the nutrition system to handle them. The expanded nutrition wheels that are used in the second half of the manga have 9 nutritional values, so I think fulfilling 1 nutritional need per spell level seems fair. Therefore, see this list:

Goodberry (Lvl 1): Energy*

Create Food and Water (Lvl 3): Energy, Protein, Carbs

Heroes' Feast (Lvl 5): All 9 Nutritional Needs**

Magnificent Mansion (Lvl 7): Energy, Calcium, Iron, Pick 2 of (Protein, Fat, Carbs), and Pick 2 of (Vit A, Vit B2, Vit C)

*Berries are nutritious, but a single berry is not gonna have much of anything.

**This is a level 5 spell, but it costs 1000 gold to cast. It's not exactly an inexhaustible source of food, but the food is supernaturally wholesome, so I think we should boost its nutritional values. Don't give your players too much gold though.

I have a few other considerations. Carrying capacity should probably be used, because how much food you can carry is important to how far you can explore. The dungeon's town should give players access to most spells, services, gear, and especially food stuffs for the right amount of cash, since the dungeon makes the town prosperous.

You can also bring over the resurrection crews, but that's a post for another day.

[joculine]

DIE Issue #5 Reread (Gillen & Hans)

We are so back. Lets get into Premise Rejection.

This is my second favorite issue of the first arc, after Issue #2. I think it holds my favorite panel, which we'll get to later. This is a really bombastic finale to the trek to Glass Town and it sets up what will become a wild couple arcs. I'm sure you aren't expecting a standard ending to this "hero's" journey from DIE and that's certainly not where we're going. Let's get into it.

Art

I really like the design of this harvest god above. He's massive and lanky, and seems like kind of a mess.

I absolutely adore the design of this robot brain guy from the Eternal Prussian forces. Look at him.

What a weird little thing!

This issue is also full of stand out appearances for Ash and Sol. And gosh... are they stand out...

Good lord these two are volatile together. This is a great example of a relationship between a GM and their most "In It" player. The issue is really just long fight for control over the plot. I love that they are made for each other in the worst ways possible.

So About The Fallen

Part of why this is my second favorite issue of the arc is that it has the second Oh Shit moment of this comic. The reveal that the Fallen are dead players is such a great plot point. It clicks with the whole fantasy becomes reality becomes fantasy again deal, it keeps Sol around to stir up trouble after his death, totally re-contextualizes this type of enemy and how they've treated them, and, best of all, raises far more questions than it answers.

Big contender for my favorite Sol panel.

So everyone who has ever played this game and died ("the word is die") is revived as The Fallen. What does that actually mean? Aren't our crew here the only kids who have played the game? How are there so many Fallen here already? What about the elf queen, who was an NPC Sol made?

For those first questions, perhaps this is the Homestuck in me or perhaps this is me back-reading some later plot into this, but it seems pretty obvious some sort of time shenanigans needs to be in play. And it eventually sort of will be. (It will be quite similar to how Skaia functions actually.) We'll save that for the issue it shows up in, wayyy down the line.

As for the NPC Fallen, I believe there's some clarification in the RPG book here—there are Fallen, the monster and enemy a GM can throw out and there is the Fallen class, which all players receive upon dying in DIE. Diegetically though, I think there is not much difference between an NPC who has been abandoned or skipped over and a player character (or player as the case is here) who has died. They are both expended beyond their purposes and given a new role as detritus. They also have a drive to claw relevance back from the blood of the Paragons, something that would bring them back to life (and back into importance.) DIE has a zombie curse but only for those who would make the most emotionally painful zombies to deal with. Very on theme.

In this way, it's also very Dark Souls, isn't it? I wondered about this too for those games. Why can Ornstein and Smough not just come back hollowed and kick my ass again? They lack the curse of Undead, that tormenting anchor of relevance that only affects those hungry enough for dominance to keep going past the point of death.

Those who are Fallen (like the Paragons or the Chosen Undead) are meant to exist as long as needed to see their stories to the bitter end. Is that curse something imposed on them? Yes. Is it something they feed into themselves? I think so. There's nothing stopping Sol from just giving up at this point. But that's not what he's going to do. He's going to keep going because he can't let go of the game. Dying is no reprieve. And hey, now the Fallen aren't so morally simple to kill after all! Remember what Izzy was saying about the House Rule? Looks like they may have been cutting into actually Real People from the Real World for some time now. Ruh roh. We'll see this play out more soon. For now, we can think about how poor Sol has found out he is more at the whims of Die than he may have thought.

Speaking Of, Sol Has Kind Of Always Been Like This

Which I'm sure comes as a very painful shock to him. He's someone that views himself high above the players, a plotter pulling the strings. A real mastermind GM type.

That's what this boy is telling me. His work, be it Legos, Glass Town, the ruleset, or his grand second game, it all exists in a complete, crystaline state. You admire it. You follow the path he has set out for it. It is "finished" before any of the players set foot back on Die.

This is, of course, not how things will go. The title of this issue is Premise Rejection after all. Ash figured out quite quickly that Sol has put them in a railroading Saw trap to force them to play along. In response, she is guiding the party to pull it apart by the screws. Rather than look for these keys or whatever the Chamberlain was talking about, everyone has used their skills to pick away at Glass Town's defenses and put the big robot army against Sol's cool magic castle. With a fairly light application of their magical power, they manage to pull of city wide carnage at little risk to themselves.

This is classic player behavior and a great example of how a little thinking can tear down even the grandest GM constructions. Remember how we talked about how Glass Town was a pretty poorly thought out city? Sol is finding out just how problematic his plot holes are proving to be.

I love watching him come down with his big stupid cape. Look how unprepared for this he was. Do you think he was hiding at the top of Glass Town the whole time? I bet he even had a palantir or something. What a dork.

Very quickly we watch him start to edit the rules on the fly like a flailing GM. The damage is already done, so at this point he's flexing out of spite. Look, he's even restricting class abilities:

I do find it interesting how Sol's Master abilities are written to reflect Ash's Dictator ones. They're both italicized and both have squiggly lines around the speech bubbles. They're also both highlighted in colors, Ash with red (a major one in her color palette) and Sol with blue (also in his palette).

Let's connect their magic briefly with color (we'll talk more about color very soon) and say the red Dictator compulsions in this issue are destructive and "game breaking" while the blue/purple Master laws are defensive and "game enforcing."

Importantly, they both deal with the narrative but in different ways, Ash more with emotion and motivation, Sol with what people and things can literally do. We know from go that a Dictator is a story-teller and a plan-maker... that's not too dissimilar from a GM!

But Sol, huh? What a sore loser.

A Dictator's Best Weapon

I never really got why Ash has this crazy death touch thing. It struck me as an odd choice to give the social manipulation class. Chloe shared her thoughts with me when we were talking about DIE a few months back and it's illuminated things for me.

The Dictator commands emotion, yes, but they command narrative as well. What is this death touch if not the ultimate command—a powerful punctuation to the Dictator's arsenal. If making you love her doesn't work, making you dead will get the job done too... and there's certainly no way to argue with Ash on that. It's as though she's walking around with a big pen she can use to strike out bits of Sol's story she doesn't like. She went big here and scratched out the author section. Yikes. Hope you got a plan to follow up on that, Ash!

Look at her go, already editorializing just seconds away from killing Sol. Do we think Ash believes the narrative she's telling herself? Do we think she believes she can make us buy into it? The great part is, I don't really know! It's moments like these that pull us out of the story and remind us we're being given most everything through Ash's words that get to the core of what DIE is after. It's about these people trapped in stories of their own making and how it turns them into quite awful characters.

This is probably the darkest we've gotten so far. A great reminder to Ash's friends and first example to the reader at just how much she can commit to playing the anti-hero. Anyway, let's get back to the death touch.

This is the other half of that power—the power of its implication. See how Hans has set up this panel: first, your eyes hit the glowing hand, the brightest object in the panel and the thing that has just killed Sol. Then you move back to traditional left to right and see Ash. She's crying, but resolute. Then her words. They're harsh. Maybe understandable though? Then back at that hand. It's not just the weapon that killed Sol now, but the thing that may touch someone else. She's reaching out for their hands to start the ritual. She's letting them know what "anything" means... they'd better be unanimous. Now that's a master manipulator at work.

This is that favorite panel BTW.

How Far Is Too Far?

Here's another stand out panel from this issue. Ash's expression is exquisite: pain, anger, thrill, resolve. It's all there. This comes moments after using the voice to completely dominate the Chamberlain of Glass Town and it's not what I'd expect to see from her.

She's filling her role both as Dictator and schemer and yet I feel like she's about to throw up or cry. Or both. The metaphor here paired with the destruction she saw the from the Steel Dragon in Issue 3 is delectable. She's recognizing the horrible power she's choosing to wield in order to bring ruin to Glass Town... but she's also not rejecting it.

This is a question DIE is going to keep asking of its characters: how far are you willing to go with your role? Will you play your part even if it is horrible? What if harnessing the power of a Paragon is your only option? What if it's not?

Here's Angela, the badass cyberpunk, failing to both be grizzled or distant from her humanity. I think it's interesting Case, such an innocent pet, is mechanical, especially given that our other examples of robotic entities are all warmongering automatons. She treats him as so real, while she views the Prussian leaderbot as a tool to be hacked and who's autonomy is to be overridden. That's not to say I think that leaderbot is isn't merely an automaton though... I actually think this is more damning to how Angela anthropomorphizes Case.

I said last issue Case is a pricey distraction. I think that's still correct. Even here she feeds him one last piece of Fair Gold, understanding he will probably die again tomorrow. It's a bit of a waste before what's going to be a dangerous battle.

Matt, meanwhile, seems perfectly able to indulge in his pain enough to... save his friends? Or start an attack on a city full of people? Both I suppose. Not a great look but one he appears to have little issue with for now.

This interaction stood out to me this read. I've always had trouble understanding why the Emotion Knights have talking weapons. It's cool, obviously, but I had trouble seeing something deeper than that. I realized tonight though, these weapons are their emotions, not separate entities.

That sword is Matt's own worst impulses, weaponized both literally against his enemies and psychologically against himself. After all, what is a knight but their weapon? "Don't listen to it," Ash says. She might as well say "That's just the depression talking." Yeah, no shit.

Another quick observation... is she even listening? Getting "back to [his] family" is exactly what the sword (Matt's own grief) is worried about. Very empty words, but perhaps very intentional to keep Matt on track and focused.

Chuck has no problems living as a swashbuckler in a fantasy world because he is Chuck. No other comment needed.

Imagine for a moment that I stopped there and moved onto Isabelle. I feel it's important to at least entertain the hypothetical joke if we're going to talk about the Fool. Chuck (and his class) exist as a joke, but he's a joke you have to take seriously eventually, right? And be respectful and shit.

We see his carefree and self-focused attitude come to a head when he draws a gun on Ash. Yes, Chuck has no problems living as Die wants him to and he's willing to go frighteningly far to keep it that way.

Joining him is Izzy, who has begun to take her role as a "cleric" very seriously. What's going on here is complicated. Let's lay out the facts:

Isabelle is the one who brings up the House Rule. "We treat Die as if it's real." She's also expressed fear at being relied on as a teacher (both holy and high school), while still assuming responsibility of it.

This moment is a union of those two traits. She wants to stay in Die because these are real people who's lives they've ruined and she feels like someone needs to step up and guide them. While she hates the idea of doing that, she (very rightly) does not trust anyone else to a good job of helping the residents of Glass Town (or perhaps any job.)

This is especially odd with the role of the Godbinder, who deals in debts and balances with the gods. As she describes in 1991, she's an atheist with pets—really more demonologist than cleric.

Excepting Angela (who I think is underused in this issue TBH,) the party is in full roleplay here. What comes of that commitment? The burning of Glass Town. Not a good sign.

The Emotion Wheel

This is already so damn long and emotion wheel talk is going to drag it even more... but I need to do it at some point. Let's start with the first proper introduction of the wheel.

Oh look, it's Plutchik's wheel of emotions. This is not an original insight, it comes directly from one of Gillen's essays in the back of each issue. I think we might respond to those directly soon.

The wheel posits that all emotional states are variations of mixtures of 8 core feelings. This is how the Dictator and Emotion Knights function (the former mechanically, the knights more textually. Sol may be a fan of Plutchik's work.) Dictators treat this as a palette to work with, Emotion Knights as a sworn order to follow.

I think there is a strong connection between the coloring used in many of these panels and the colors on the wheel. Memory scenes, for instance, play with purple and blue: disgust, sadness, remorse, disapproval. Ash's story of the Joy Knight is pink and red, quite far from the yellow of joy and closer to contempt, loathing, and anger after many years walking as a corpse.

But Cassie, you may say, Ash's dictator powers are always red... and so is Matt's sword! Hold onto that thought with Matt, but it's also not an exact key. Which is good! I think that would be pretty boring!

As I noted in the Dictator/Master section, I've thought of reds and blues and destructive and constructive magic. This follows with the red skeleton, the blue magic core mantaining Glass Town's shield, the red sword that destroys it, and Isabelle's portals to escape.

I also think that Fantasy Heartbreaker is just a really really red arc. If I remember correctly, future arcs have a more varied palette. Perhaps there will be more color for us to explore there.

Now that I've dropped this big unwieldy graph, I also want to share a bit about how much I love Emotion Knights. I've run a game with a Fear Knight before, which was a lot of fun. And could you imagine a Trust Knight, sapping and destroying bonds between people to use as critical hits? I can imagine a very potent relationship between her and her Dictator wife. Really just a fantastic and juicy concept. I think they should be in every game.

Other Thoughts

I don't have anything to say about this other than it's great.

I think it's fun how badly Ash reads Sol's eye theming. I don't think he's afraid at all.

It's almost impossible to see Dominic and Ash as the same person. Ash is just so... confident in everything. She schemes. She kills. She's beautiful. She's a dominatrix... but outside Die she just... isn't that at all. She's so scared and so hollow on Earth.

I say almost impossible, but that's not really true. I think it's a familiar feeling to many trans women. It's scary to see how hard she's fighting to go back to that in this issue. Is it good for her to do that? I don't think so. Not entirely. Is it easier for her to be on Earth than Die? I honestly don't know. But I think it appears easier to her. Die is the world in her closet, but it can be so painful to stay there when there's so much waiting for you outside it. And yet... I don't think she's ready to go. There's still deeper for her to go.

Kieron writes her well.

Next time we'll be talking about either the end of issue essays or just jump into issue #6, I haven't decided. It'll be much shorter than this, but we had a lot of character stuff to cover. I'll leave you on my favorite line.

[apple-pecan]

Dragon Quest (1986)

it is the mid 80's. in japan, rpgs were a super unpopular niche genre and were only played by weirdos. the most popular console at the time, the famicom, had a player base that mostly favored platformers, shmups and other kinds of action games. but a man named yuji horii wanted to shake things up. his goal was to make an rpg for the famicom with the same accessibility and appeal as something like mario. and with the help of world famous artist akira toriyama, and war crime denialist composer koichi sugiyama, the "big three" managed to do just that. and thus, the JRPG was born, alongside one of the best series of it's ilk: dragon warrior. i mean quest.

to make it so even little kids can know what they're doing, horii's design philosophy was an exercise in extreme minimalism: there's only one party member, you can only fight one enemy at a time, only one type of healing and offensive magic, there's only a handful of towns and dungeons, and there's only one save point (?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!). the story is as basic as it gets too: some asshole dragonlord is destroying the world with monsters, and also a princess has been kidnapped. guess what you have to do.

you start the game essentially naked: you dont have any weapons or armor and only a handful of gold. so what do you do? thats right: punch a bunch of slimes in the face until you have enough to buy stuff, and level up in the process. yeah, this is what's either gonna make or break the game for you: grinding is absolutely mandatory. the gameplay loop is simple; bonk enemies outside of town to get gold, use gold to buy weapons and armor, then your strong enough to reach the next town where the process repeats. thankfully once you have better equipment grinding only gets faster, and unlike a lot of RPGs leveling up makes drastic changes to your character. not only do you learn spells, but your stats go up A LOT. one time i leveled up and my strength went up by a staggering 13 points. holy fluff. the level cap is only 30 in this game, so every level counts.

there's also a couple of dungeons, where you learn that dragon quest 1 is secretly a horror game in disguise. dungeons are all pitch black, with your only source of sight being torches (and a spell you will learn later). you can only see so far ahead of you, which can cause some serious problems as your wander around dungeons not knowing where the hell to go. and when a strong enemy corners you and wipes the floor with you, you die and go right back to the save point with half your gold permanently gone. this makes the game more accessible, of course: instead of booting you right back to the title screen like final fantasy or megami tensei, you keep all the experience you've gotten at the cost of your money. it's a risk reward kinda thing.

okay this review's been too positive let's bitch about stuff. ONLY ONE FUCKING SAVE POINT ARE YOU KIDDING ME. if you are unlucky enough to, say, get killed during the final dungeon, you must retrace your steps from the starting castle all the way to where you were, and this can take a WHILE. there's holy waters and the Repel spell that can remove weak enemy encounters to make it faster, but they only last a hundred or so steps and they don't work in dungeons and caves for some ungodly reason. and if you try using it in said dungeon, your MP is wasted and nelson will come up to you and say "HAHA!"

another aspect that both works and doesn't work is talking to NPCs. the villagers have vital information to assist you in your quest. except when they don't. it's important to talk to as many people as possible, where they can give you clues you wouldn't otherwise be able to figure out on your own... but then there's some shit no one ever actually tells you. take the infamous sunstones for instance; an npc tells you they are hidden in the starting castle, but you look forever and cant find the damn thing. turns out you have to walk around the castle (but NOT far enough that it spits you into the world map) and in one of the corners there's a stray set of stairs that lead to the stones. hope you have nintendo power magazine, kid.

sure, there's some stuff in this game that obviously wouldn't fly today, but for 1986 this was one of the most novel and fun games you could get for the nes/famicom. it's simple yet addicting, and it's easy to see why it started a genre that's still going strong to this day. it's the first dragon quest game as well as the first JRPG as we know them today, so obviously there's gonna be some issues considering this was the first of it's kind, but thankfully they kept making dragon quest games and they're all solid and fun. and unlike it's rival series final fantasy, which hasn't had a universally beloved game since final fantasy 9 24 years ago, dragon quest still hasn't peaked yet, with it's most recent entry, 11, often considered the best game in the series. (it helps that the "big three" have been involved with every game in the series so the quality has remained consistent.)

so, even if the first dragon quest is a bit too old for you (and for most people let's face it, it's going to be), there's still a ton of great dragon quest games that all have something to offer. want a really emotional storyline intertwined with similar monster recruiting mechanics as pokemon mystery dungeon? try 5. want a gameplay focused rpg with blank slate party members that you can customize any way you want? try 3 or 9. want a really charming story with great graphics, lovable, developed characters, and a world map larger than MY BUTT? try 8 or 11. want really sadistic and bullshit gameplay that'll make you cry and throw your nes out the window? try 2. sure, it's likely that final fantasy and pokemon will never be as good as it once was ever again, but over here in dragon land, it's never been better. play these games already dammit!!!! do you want me to beg!!!!!?????? DO YOU?!?!?!!?!?!?!!?! anyways i love dragon quest it's peak thank you bye.

8/10

NOTE:

............................................ final fantasy sucks

[autolenaphilia]

Diablo (1997)

The first Diablo game from 1997 feels like the computer role-playing genre boiled down to its bare essentials. A minimalist game made in what is often an (over-)complicated genre. There are only three character classes, a melee-focused warrior, a bow-and-arrow focused Rogue, and a magic-focused sorceror. There are only four main stats to upgrade, strength, magic, dexterity and vitality. There is a single town area, Tristram with the usual RPG shops, and it exists on top of the 16-level mega-dungeon where you will spend the bulk of the game. There is story and lore, but far less of it than the often wordy RPG genre.

It’s about a straight-forward dungeon crawler game as it gets. It’s a game about fighting the monsters, getting XP, items and money from them, upgrading your character and equipment until you are strong enough to take on Diablo himself, the final boss, hiding out at the end of the dungeon. This kind of laser-focused simplicity and mininalism is beautiful in itself in my opinion. This game knows what is about, and that is the combat. It’s designed so you can just ”get in and start smashing things. ” to quote lead designer David Breivik.

And the action is what defined the game’s legacy. Diablo is far from the first action-RPG, but it’s a major and influential title in that genre. Its success established the genre in western computer gaming. Diablo’s isometric third-person perspective with real-time point-and-click controls became widely imitated, not just by its sequels that continue to this day, but by a whole genre of “Diablo-clones.” including many beloved games like Nox and Dungeon Siege.

And the action in the original Diablo remains addicting to this day, offering a visceral enjoyment but also requires you to think and act strategically. It’s a difficult game, rushing in and aggro-ing too many enemies at once will kill you quickly, so you have to advance cautiously and think about what you are doing.

It gets frustrating at times. And some things haven’t aged well, like the slow movement speed. Yet Diablo is not as punishingly difficult as some of its influences like Rogue. It remains reasonably accessible. You can save and reload at any time. I’m notoriously bad at managing stats in rpgs, I tend to end up with an underpowered character in the end, but even I was able to figure out Diablo’ssimple four-stat system. And what saved me in the end is the ability to restart the game with the same character, keeping your stats and items. It was after doing that twice that I was finally able to defeat the final boss.

And replaying the game isn’t as much of a grind as you might think. The dungeon’s levels, including sidequests, item drops, and what enemies are on which floor are randomly generated (its most obvious inspiration from Rogue). Each playthrough is different, lending variety and replayablity to such a simple game. And there is multiplayer too, which I haven’t even explored yet.

It helps that the game sustains such a strong atmosphere throughout. It may look a bit grainy by modern standards, but the art direction, music and sound design are so excellent. It creates in combination with the tense gameplay this convincing gothic horror/dark medieval fantasy mood that is utterly compelling.

And it’s an experience well worth seeking out today. Blizzard might have ruined franchise’s reputation with later games with always-online requirements and predatory monetization, but the original Diablo is a game that is free from such things. It’s an achievement that stands the test of time. You can get it on GOG, and I highly recommend using the devilutionx port.