#numbers wise this card is bonkers

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than spellcasting

I just got a big ol' bag of KitKats today as a gift from my mom fuck yeah I'm gonna make magic cards about it

Also I don't remember why but the idea of a saga creature got put into my head so while I was making KitKat cards I also made this

[otakween]

Digimon World 3 - First Impressions

Yaaay, so excited to be continuing this series! Well...can we even call it a series? I guess it's kind of like Final Fantasy where the games don't connect (sometimes). The numbers give me a sense of accomplishment anyways. Digimon World was bonkers and memorable for its weird mechanics, Digimon World 2 was kind of a flop, but enjoyable enough, not sure what the world's opinion on 3 is. Either way I'm ready for the long haul -cracks knuckles-

Notes:

This is the first Digimon game I've played that feels like a riff on Pokemon. There's badges I'm supposed to earn, towns to explore with all the usual RPG buildings (inn, item store, etc.), people who challenge me to battles as I walk by them, and the only digimon that earns EXP in battles is the one at the front of my party. I see this as a win because I enjoy the Pokemon gameplay loop.

Already got two CG animated cutscenes (FMVs?) I think the animation looks good! It holds up more than some of the other games I've played anyways. The bear digimon especially looked really cute in the opening. The other cutscene that played when I entered the digital world was great for immersion.

Load screens are kind of annoying, but oh well. I guess I can fast forward if they get bad. The text scrolls very slowly as well, which maybe I can adjust.

So the main character "Junior" and his friends go into the Digital World or "Digimon Online." In this game's canon (so far anyways) the Digital World is a game. I found it kind of strange that they all logged in together and then immediately were like "kay let's split up, bye." If they were going to split up then why were Teddy and Ivy like "wait for us Junior!! You're going too fast!"

I suppose this game world is supposed to be an MMORPG because a lot of the human-looking characters I spoke to referenced playing the game and their real lives as well. Gotta love a game within a game. The map/world doesn't really have an MMORPG vibe to me, but oh well.

Since I accidentally chose the "hard mode" pack in the last digimon game, I decided to give myself a break this time and go with the "balanced" pack. The Maniac pack has the best digimon imo, but I ain't taking any chances.

I was just reading about the game and I guess it has around 20 game-original digimon? Excited to meet them all. I'm sure some of this game will also be a preview for the next anime season.

The sleepy digimon in the inn were really cute

Love the sprites and how your digimon walk behind you. Too cute. It looks like they put a lot of effort into the background as well.

I've heard some stock sounds and music from past games already which is fun

I felt a little bit of dread when they mentioned the card game. I really like the digimon card game, but having to battle and play cards in one game kinda sounds like a pain. This is gonna be a long one...

When I played Pokemon when I was younger I would just level one Pokemon up and not give EXP to anyone else lol. I know that's not good strategy-wise, but because that one Pokemon would hog the EXP they'd be overleveled and it made the games easy. For the sake of "playing the game correctly" I'll try to do it right this time and move the digimon around.

[cookiecomics]

Howdy, apologies for presuming, but if the “Bad End” companion fic to ATOTT is titled “Eternal Punishment” and Philemon is part of your fic already as the God of the Velvet Room, can we expect references to P2 Joker (such as the Cursed Persona Joker from EP, or the IS boss Angel Joker and the scrapped Devil Joker) or appearances to P2 characters like Nyaralothep?

I’m left thinking about that P5 Imagining Project that was made by fans. Nyaralothep is a major character in the P5 IP and makes a return. The P5 IP had a surprising number of similarities to the final P5 release, including the “witch hunt” act 3 in which Ex-Shadow Operative Connor reveals to the protagonist that he too is a Wild Card Persona user, is a murderer as a result of a secret project experimenting on Persona with orphaned child soldiers, and that he seeks to redeem himself by assassinating the people responsible for the project.

The fan plot goes on to some raving bonkers apocalyptic plot but the music was great.

I dunno why I went on a tangent but I’m digging the little references in ATOTT to previous persona games.

Hewwo!

And no need to apologize i love questions!! Eternal Punishment (the fic) is a wink and nod to P2 :3 in itself but though Nyarly has a minor role in ATOTT as a whole, he's not present in Eternal Punishment. The line Eternal Punishment is actually a quote that Arsene says in EP.

"“Know this, Phantom Thieves.” The shadow lifted his faded gloved claw. “This act was not one of mercy but your eternal punishment.” 

What is he talking about? :3 (Shrug) guess we'll see.

Nyarly being apart of ATOTT is sort of the extension of a headcanon-ish that I have based on something Jose says in the game. That 'someone' asked him to learn about humans. That someone was probably Philemon. The velvet room made references to a bet that was made, but it was clear that since Igor was sealed away that the bet was not made between Igor and Yaldy but likely Yaldy and Philemon. These hints that Philemon is involved in P5 but behind the scenes is what gave me the idea to add Nyarly into the mix. Their constant betting to see which side of the coin humans fall. Nyarly represents every dark thing in human's hearts. He's always there, watching, judging, waiting for humans to destroy themselves.

I dunno, I like that about him. :)))

P2 is alot of fun lore wise! I like referencing them :)

[bronanlynch]

tonight on beam saber: so much chaos. we’re always pretty chaos but I feel like tonight was even more wild than usual. love when we all just start saying words

“Did anyone benefit from this” “I love to answer philosophical questions in my table top role playing game” (the answer was no. literally no one benefited from the party’s previous successful mission. including the party)

“What’s the funniest way to get into an event like this?” “Hide in a big cake?” 

they did an absolutely bonkers flying car chase instead, involving flying the car into a building (as in, as a way of getting inside the building), scooping up a bunch of expensive jewelry, and continuing to drive the car directly out of the building)

they were doing this as an extremely bastardized version of the Collect downtime action, because I’ve done basically nothing with the region mechanics but I let them do it if they could think of something fun enough

V and Indigo got locked in a room together by the intern, who just wants his parents to get along, because he wants them to talk about the stuff that’s awkward between them (V’s new scar, the revelation that V does murders, that kind of thing). they refused to talk about any of that and only talked about how worried they were for the intern. V spent the entire time trying to pick the lock or find a way out. Indigo cleared all of his stress

“I have one more idea, and if this doesn’t work out roleplay-wise we can just jump out the window, you know, in a safe and controlled manner”

V is working on recruiting a cohort of unionized spies, which means @girlfriendsofthegalaxy is gonna come up with lots of fun npcs with themed names for me

“Excited to see which of them you’ll turn into a bishie anime man this time” “oh there’s gotta be at least one” “they’re all bishie anime men” “no, some of them have to be hot women”

the union will have membership cards (“you get a stamp every time you do a particularly notable crime”) (this was originally a joke but I think it should be a thing. gotta commit to the bit)

“Sorry for turning this into a venom hurt/comfort fic” (I’m not sorry. happy valentine’s day)

“Unauthorized use of a vehicle in the third degree” “is this when V gets real into illegal street racing”

the party is now a tier 2 squad! good for them! honestly impressive how powerful they are and how much trust their patron faction has for them considering everything about the way they operate. part of that is a game mechanics thing, part of that is that I as a gm have trouble figuring out how harsh I should be so I lean more towards just. giving the party things, but also it does kinda make sense, they have a powerful magical orb as an honorary third party member and their whole thing is malicious compliance

“it’s a very sleazy sort of war crime”

“Virtue, when you say steal as much shit as possible, you don’t mean cultural artifacts, do you?” “only the ones that would be useful to the war effort… do not bring me pot sherds”

“We can’t OSHA inspector our way into this one” 

when we finally got around to the mission planning part of today’s session, it only got more chaotic tbh: they’re meant to be stealing from an archaeological dig site, I wanted to introduce a complication so now there’s a holiday coming up, it’s the kind of holiday where lots of tourists will be at the site, so they’re pretending to be tourists and they are going to release a bunch of golden retriever-skunk hybrids (with collars numbered 1 through 12 except there are only 11 of them)

they sneaked the golden skunk retrievers in by putting them in baby strollers for triplets and carrying merchandise for a society for parents of triplets

“a family can be four spies and 11 golden skunk retrievers” 

the site is free to visit because it belongs to the Democracy and they have a whole thing about educating yourself on your nation’s past as part of your civic duty

“Unlike our real life democracy” “our what now?” 

“Indigo just hasn’t struggled in a while”

had to stop just as they got into position to unleash the skunks so can’t wait to start on a chaotic note instead of having to work our way up to complete and utter chaos

[jq37]

The Report Card -- Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 1

Sophomores and Spring Break 

Note: Hey guys! I decided to try something a little bit different and slightly more structured than my usual recaps for FH: Sophomore Year. I’m hoping this will be a little easier for me and a more useful tool for keeping up to date since there will be a lot more eps to keep track of and they’ll be easier to miss. Lemme know what you think and if you want raw, unfiltered opinions on anything specific, feel free to send me an ask. I’m always down to go off about literally whatever. 

We’re back, baby! It is Sophomore Year at Aguefort and the gang is on Spring Break. A lot is going down so lemme break it down. The Bad Kids, having defeated Kalvaxus last year, are all entitled to a share of his hoard and all the red tape is finally cleared so they all get 20k gold each (which is an insane amount of money converted to USD if you use the WOTC conversion rate of a gold coin being around $145 (circa 2006 when they answered the question)--which would be close to $330 with inflation). Jawbone and Sandra-Lynn are moving in after less than a year into a profoundly haunted house and it’s kind of a Full House situation because Adaine, Fig, Kristen, and Tracker all officially live there (plus it seems that Zayn has also anchored himself to Adaine’s tower--btw, Adaine took the tower that the haunted house obviously has) and you know all the other Bad Kids are gonna be there on the regular. 

More importantly, Aguefort gives the gang their big project for the year--finding the crown of the Nightmare King which was stolen at the end of last season--which is worth 60% of their grade (Adaine does a full Hermione at this information). Each of the gang has info about the NK but the trail has mostly gone cold. Luckily, Fabian just got a hot tip about where Falinel is keeping Aelwyn and she seems like a pretty good lead to start with since she was super tied up in the bad side of all the messiness of last year. Adaine is displeased to say the least. 

Going off to find the crown is super exciting story-wise for two reasons. First of all, it means the gang gets to hire, well, hirelings to help them and temporarily join the party! They ping basically every cool NPC they can think of (except for Tracker for some reason which is BONKERS because (1) she probably would have done it for free and cutting her in would still be keeping the money in the family, (2) she’s dope as hell, (3) she’s a cleric and the party can always use more healers, (4) she’s a werewolf so presumably she has skills that would help in the woods, and (5) they’re t r a c k i n g down a crown and the girl’s name is literally T R A C K E R, but I will not backseat D&D) and eventually end up with Ragh (who has been without an adventuring party all year, poor guy), Sandra-Lynn (swayed by a nat 20 rolled by Fig), Cathilda (!?) ,and, for some reason, Gilear (which Fabian is happy about, mainly for the opportunity to maybe bump him off on the way). Second of all, if you recall, Elmville is a pretty modern town but the rest of the continent is less fantasy high, more high fantasy. Horses and lanterns and all that pseudo-medieval goodness. They are gonna stick out like a sore thumb. I am very here for it. 

Everyone goes home to rest up but, after some ominous dreams, only four of them wake up. Riz and Fig are left asleep and then Brennan mic drops and ends the episode which is a power move and I am extremely upset about it but also, respect. Right for the jugular immediately. I heard Murph and Emily are on tour in the UK next week which probably has something to do with this but, in the moment, I did not know that and I really felt the hammer drop in my heart. It was wild. Cannot wait to see where we go from here. Plus, who doesn’t love watching characters freak out because their friends are in danger?

Random Thoughts

I have no idea what the title of this episode is or if it’ll even have one and not a number but I gave it a placeholder one for now. I also don’t have access to the stream yet so I didn’t get to include some info I wanted to (like a record of nat 20s, and nat 1s so I can track their stats for the school year) and I probably missed some stuff because my brain can only hold so much info guys. I’m not Brennan. 

I mentioned this yesterday during the stream, but there will never be anything better than the pure D&D joy of everyone, in character, talking over each other to clown on each other. They get the friend-group banter that’s a hair breadth’s away from bullying so true to life and it’s so fun to watch. On the flip side, the opening scene with everyone introducing themselves and affirmatively claiming each other as their best friends was also peak D&D. Found family= best trope. 

Fig and Adaine burn spell-slots at basically the same time to try and beat each other to the best room in the (Scooby-Doo ass) house--which is exactly the kind of thing that would happen in this world. It’s such an intuitive setting. I love it so much. (BTW, Fig ends up staying in the false space under the revolving grand piano because, of course).

Fabian and Gorgug went to recruit Ragh, who assumed they were propositioning him for a three-way. In his defense, they did do it in a super proposition-y way and they were in the middle of the LGBTQ student union.

Also, Gorgug gives Ragh an inspiring speech about thinking you’re your own dad which makes him burst into tears. 

Speaking of, Jawbone offhandedly says he’s poly but, like, based on some of the stuff he’s said, I feel like that’s not really a reveal. He also gets along well with Gorthalax and would be down w/ a three-way if Sandra-Lynn wanted to which, again, totally checks out. 

Arthur Aguefort uses Chronomancy to rewind time and catch a snide comment Adaine made under her breath, which is exactly the kind of frivolous use of God-like power I’d expect from him.  

I really love Adaine’s energy coming into this season. She’s in therapy. She’s in a good home environment. She’s comfortable enough with her friend group to do stuff like prank Fig (love that they’re gonna be living together now). And she’s good friends with Zayn now which I want to see more of based on their one interaction in this ep which was very cute. I am already on record as saying I would be down with her getting a ghost boyfriend--I mean, for the aesthetic alone--but I’d be happy with just more friendship. 

Fabian is also hilarious this season because you can tell he’s gone a bit soft from having friends and leaning into that (the friendship necklace with Riz) but also he’s fully aware that it’s happening so he’s, like, ping-ponging back and forth like, “These are my friends,” and, “What am I saying? I used to be cool,” and it’s very funny. Very happy the Aelwyn storyline is happening right out of the gate, both because I think Aelwyn is a very interesting character with a lot of potential for nuance but also because Fabian reacting to her and Adaine reacting to Fabian reacting to her is always gold. 

Prompted by an offhand conversation from Fig about rock and roll, Brennan--earning another feather for his Cap of God Tier DMing--goes on an impromptu five minute long improved diatribe about a bard who played such a good concert that it instantly impregnated everyone in attendance (dudes too) who gave birth to kids with sick rocker hair and denim jackets and ascended to Rock Heaven on their 18th Birthday. You truly have to watch it to believe it. At a certain point I thought he was gonna drop it but that was the moment he doubled down and kept going. Amazing. 

Watching Murph, in real time, make up a girl/boy/whateverfriend in Fantasy Canada was a gift. 

I don’t have access to the stream yet but best quote of the night that I can remember is Kristen choosing her room: This is triggering and I’ll take it. (Her line about her lesbian starter kit and the one about wanting a horse were also bangers). 

The group talks about what they’re going to do for transportation outside of Elmsville since they don’t really use cars out there and they somehow get from “disguise Fig’s tour bus” to “commission Aguefort to create a brand new animal that can hold six people plus hirelings, one of which is Fabian who is also riding his motorbike”.

I love that Sandra-Lynn’s Mom Powers work on Tracker. 

Basrar doesn’t accept the invitation to come with on the quest, but he does give Kristen a bag of infinite ice cream sandwiches, which is basically just as good, IMO. 

Oh Gilear. The man is sleeping in the Seacaster garage, being bullied by skater kids, and now he’s stuck on this quest with his ex and Fabian who actively wants him dead.  

Speaking of, I’m psyched to see more of Sandra-Lynn. She was kind of a sleeper badass at the end of last season. 

Ragh is keeping secrets which I hope the cast doesn’t forget because it could be nothing serious (like the high school drama happening with Skrank and the 7 maidens--maybe he’s just crushing on Gorgug who did full kiss him during Promocalypse) or it could be Serious Business that will blow up if the don’t stay on top of it. We’ll see. 

Oh, almost forgot. Adaine wants an emotional support frog. Every time I think I can’t love her more.   

Detention

Fig for Not Respecting Personal Boundaries

Fig goes full Emily right out the gate and, after finding out that Skrank (nerdy bird dude who apparently can get it) was not only dating Ostentasia (rich, popular dwarf) but also dumped her in pursuit of Danielle Barkstock (one of Ostentasia’s party members, the scandal), disguises herself as him with Danielle to figure out what’s going on. And, wouldn't you know it, when she gives herself away, Danielle immediately is shocked and appalled, as you would be, obviously. We also learn that she’s still catfishing Dr. Asha which is, how you say, for sure a crime. Fig, please, I’m begging you. Cease. 

Honor Roll

Fig, Riz, and Adaine for Researching the Nightmare King

Fig made both lists, look at that. Wasn’t my plan for this to be a three-way tie (also didn’t expect to use the word “three-way” this many times in this writeup) but I think their contributions were pretty much equally valuable. Rainsolo on the Discord wrote up this summary of the lore dump Brennan gave them.

[gefdreamsofthesea]

The Wise Woman's Tarot arrived yesterday and I just finished the book. It is being sold on etsy. There are a limited number of sets left.

The cards are large: 6 1/2" x 3" and the cardstock is bullshit thin, bendy, and glossy. The minors have color coded borders: cups are blue, wands are red, pentacles are brown, swords are black, court cards are Maiden, Seeker, Shaman, and Priestess.

Most of the majors have not only been renamed but also reordered. There's no Emperor card (The Star is in his place.) There are two Empress cards (one representing sexuality and the other nurturing). The Devil and the Hierophant have been combined in the Oracle. There are way too many changes to list. Flash Silvermoon explains these changes as representing the shift from wholeness to separation, matriarchy to patriarchy, and something to do with Crowley, I'll address this in a moment. The minors, however, are true to RWS tradition.

The book is comprehensive and discusses card meanings, spreads, how to do readings (including a section on how to read for your pets) and tables that have information like the animal guides for each of the majors, astrological correspondences, there's even an appendix for the border designs for the majors and how they relate to the card (look closely and you'll see them). I really like that the manual is spiral bound so you can lay the pages flat.

I'm finding it difficult to describe the art. The style is closest to the Daughters of the Moon. There are some cards I really don't like (Oshun as the sensual Empress) and some cards I really like (The Valkyries in the 7 of Swords). There is a lot of racial diversity, the majority of the goddesses are young-ish but there are some elders, and I would say a good mix of different body types (including warriors who have actual muscles) but I still wish there were more fat women.

Okay, so now it's time to discuss the, shall we say, narrative of this deck. I could try to be nice but honestly I can't think of another way to say this other than it's absolutely bonkers. The tarot, says Silvermoon, is an ancient teaching tool that matriarchal societies used to preserve their teachings when patriarchal societies invaded. These matriarchal societies included Lemuria and Atlantis, who built Stonehenge and the pyramids by using sound to telekinetically move stones into place. Also Atlantis had magical crystal generators made of quartz I am not making this up it's in the book.

So basically the major arcana is this herstory from when everyone was whole (and also we were all hermaphrodites intersex) until The Patriarchy happened and Amazon warrior cultures were needed to protect the matriarchies. The Patriarchy remade tarot to be patriarchal but naturally its True Matriarchal Origins are hidden in the symbolism.

One thing I do like about this deck is that while many of the cards depict goddesses or legendary figures, some just have regular women. The Two of Cups has Israeli and Palestinian women with the cups and caduceus, in harmony instead of in conflict. The Four of Wands has two Ashanti women in front of their house. That said, there's also some outdated/offensive language like the E slur instead of Inuk/Inuit. There are also a lot of goddesses and such from living traditions (Silvermoon does not stop talking about Oshun) which I would say one of the problems of creating a multicultural deck, but especially a goddess-based deck. Speaking of Oshun, her depiction in this deck is one I really don't like. She's sort of splayed out/contorted with a river coming out of her vulva, and people are bathing in it. It just looks so weird. Also have I mentioned there are a lot of naked boobs in this deck? Another thing I'd like to note is that one of the spreads in the book is a "health spread" which assigns different body parts to astrological houses that you can use to diagnose health problems. I don't recommend doing this for a bunch of reasons. The other spreads in the book are pretty typical. I want to read for my pets now.

I would like to talk about the Lovers for a second. The Lovers depicts three people (again Silvermoon uses the h word) that are flowing into each other. At the bottom of the card there is a heart with the silhouette of two women having sex. She talks about people experimenting with gender, destroying the patriarchal nuclear family, and the only time the word "transgender" appears in the text, in a positive sense. There's no "woman-born-woman" nonsense, no hyperfixation on "blood mysteries" (menstruation is mentioned a few times throughout the deck), there is still some cissexism where woman = uterus and vulva but there isn't a huge focus on motherhood that I've seen in other decks (note: Silvermoon was a lesbian who had a ton of furry children).

In sum this deck is....something. If you're looking for a feminist deck with more updated terminology, I'd recommend Thea's Tarot (with its great companion guide by a nonbinary author). I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly recommend this deck but it's an interesting piece of feminist tarot herstory.

TERFs don't get to touch this post.