#posting this feels like releasing a wild animal back into the wilderness after 2 years of rehab

[localcreeture]

leonardo tomato

[paperanddice]

Steel Dragon Wyrmling Medium dragon, lawful neutral Armor Class 16 (natural armor) Hit Points 45 (6d8 + 18) Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft., swim 20 ft. Str 16 Dex 10 Con 16 Int 16 Wis 10 Cha 10 Saving Throws Dex +2, Con +5, Wis +2, Cha +2 Skills Arcana +5, Perception +4, Stealth +2 Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities poisoned Senses blindsight 10 ft., darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14 Languages Common, Draconic Challenge 3 (700 XP) Limited Magic Immunity. The dragon can't be affected or detected by cantrips unless it wishes to be. Actions Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10+3) piercing damage. Breath Weapon (Recharge 5-6). The dragon exhales poisonous gas into a cube up to 15-feet to a side. This cube lasts until the end of the dragon's next turn, or until strong wind disperses the poison. When a creature enter's the cloud's area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, that creature must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Creatures are affected even if they hold their breath or don't need to breath. If a creature coats all of its skin with lard or grease and holds its breath, it has advantage on saves against this poison. Change Shape. The dragon magically polymorphs into a humanoid or beast that has a challenge rating no higher than its own, or back into its true form. It reverts to its true form if it dies. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is absorbed or borne by the new form (the dragon's choice). In a new form, the dragon retains its alignment, hit points, Hit Dice, ability to speak, proficiencies, Limited Magic Immunity, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, as well as this action. Its statistics and capabilities are otherwise replaced by those of the new form, except any class features or legendary actions of that form.

Steel dragons are unique among dragons in that they largely prefer living within humanoid settlements over more isolated lairs in the wilderness. They have a deep love of the structure and order of civilization, and while many move to the more orderly outer planes as they get older a few can be found in most large cities. At birth a steel dragon's scales are deep blue-gray with steely highlights. As the dragon approaches adulthood, its color slowly lightens to that of lustrous burnished steel. When these dragons take on human form, they always have one steel-gray feature-hair, eyes, nails, or sometimes a ring or other ornament.

City Dwellers. Steel dragons can shapeshift into humanoid form very shortly after birth, and wyrmlings are taught how to blend into humanoid society under their parent’s watch. They will appear as the children of their parent’s identity, whether biological or adopted, adjusting over the years to maintain the disguise. Once they have “grown up” enough in their humanoid guise (depending on the species they are disguised as) the young will leave to find their own home, often traveling to a new city to explore an entire new life. They mingle well into city life, finding humanoid companions, and a steel dragon that takes a particular liking to a given person may spend multiple identities remaining close to their friend’s descendants. Their dwellings are usually grand mansions or well defended forts, with grand vaults hidden below to contain the dragon’s wealth.

Regular Hunts. Adult and older steel dragons can’t sustain themselves purely on the food they eat in their humanoid guise, and will instead travel once a month out to their hunting grounds to gorge on wild animals or monsters. They cover this trip with an appropriate excuse to their identity, often feigning religious duties or visits to far off family.

Unusual Abilities. Steel dragons have an innate defense against magic. Weak spells will simply fail against them, and as they grow their immunity gets stronger as well until it blocks up to 4th level magic. This immunity is one of their only features that carries over into their humanoid disguises, occasionally surprising those who make the dragon their foe and giving the dragon an opportunity to avoid the situation without having to reveal their true form. Their breath weapon is different from other dragons, hanging in the air for longer than the green dragon’s poisonous gasses. They have exceptional control over the amount of gas released, and can reduce the size of the cloud if needed, usually to avoid collateral damage in crowded situations. The gas is absorbed through the skin as well as the lining of the mouth and nose, meaning creatures must protect all exposed skin to avoid being affected by the poison.

Alongside the mercury dragon, Katie also requested the steel dragon. Unlike other dragons with shape changing, I decided to let steel dragons get it from youth. The fluff for them emphasizing their preference for living within cities would be much more difficult if they couldn’t hide their dragon forms until they were quite a bit older. Their magic immunity was the biggest challenge, and the wyrmling above is quite a bit more fragile than most monsters of its level because of the huge benefit it gets being immune to the primary spells players will use around this time. Forcing the use of limited spell slots is a big deal. If there is a monster from an earlier edition of D&D that you want to see converted to 5e, feel free to send me a message. If you like this post, consider following my Patreon to get access to content like this a week ahead of everybody else, plus updates on other projects I’m working on!

[david-was-here]

Songs of 2017

So like last year I’m listing my favorite songs of the year in no real particular order. And this year I think I listened to more music than I have ever for this entire year! So expect this to be BIG!!! The critera here is songs released in 2017, which includes singles and deep cuts, as well as songs that were released in 2016 but are hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and songs that were technically released in 2016 but are singles in 2017. Link to a playlist I made on Spotify. So without a further adieu...

Little Bubble, Cool Your Heart (feat. Dawns), Death Spiral, Up the Hudson, Work Together, I See You - the Dirty Projectors

(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano, Plastic 100°C, Kora Sings, Under, Blood on Me, Reverse Faults, Timmy’s Prayer, What Shouldn’t I Be? - Sampha

Hot Thoughts, WhisterI’lllistentohearit, Do I Have to Talk You Into It, First Caress - Spoon

Dangerous, A Violent Noise, Replica, I Dare You, A Violent Noise (Four Tet Remix), Say Something Lovely, Lips - the xx

Pure Comedy, Ballad of the Dying Man, Total Entertainment Forever, Leaving LA, WHne the God of Love Returns There’ll be Hell to Pay - Father John Misty

Avalon, Mrs. Adams, Trauma - Foxygen

In a Body Like a Grave - Japandroids

Things Are Right with You, Enter Entirely, Strange Year, Up to the Surface, Internal World - Cloud Nothings

My Old Man, This Old Dog, For the First Time, One Another, A Wolf Who Wears Sheeps Clothes, On the Level, Watching Him Fade Away - Mac DeMarco

That’s What I Like - Bruno Mars

Scared to be Lonely (feat. Dua Lupa), There for You (feat. Troye Sivan) - Martin Garrix

Call Casting, Bad and Boujee (feat. Lil Uzi Vert), Get Right Witcha, Slippery (feat. Gucci Mane), T-Shirt, Big on Big, Brown Paper Bag, Stir Fry - Migos

Nyakinyua Rise, Enigma - Jlin

Show You the Way (feat. Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins), Friend Zone, Uh Uh, Lava Lamp, Where I’m Going  - Thundercat

Thinning, Dirt, Slug, - Snail Mail

So Close - Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

Doomsday, Shiver and Shake, Anything I Say to You Now, Breakdown, Outbound Train, Broken Anyway - Ryan Adams

Undercover, Keep On, Advice - Kehlani

Big for Your Boots, Cold - Stormzy

Minnesota, Country Song, Tour, Virgo - the Courtneys

BagBak, Big Fish, Love Can Be..., Homage, Crabs in a Bucket, Party People - Vince Staples

Leila 20, Nothing Feels Natural, No Big Bang, Nicki - Priests

Sleepwalker, Melting Grid, All the Land Glimmered - Julie Byrne

For You (DJ Koze Mbira Remix) - Michael Mayer and Joe Goddard

Slide (feat. Frank Ocean and Migos) Heatstroke (feat. Young Thug, Pharrell Williams, and Ariana Grande), Holiday (feat. Snoop Dogg, John Legend, and Takeoff), Feels (feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, and Big Sean), Cash Out (feat. ScHoolboy Q, PartyNextDoor, and DRAM) - Calvin Harris

Love, Change, Get Free - Lana Del Rey

Green Light, Liability, Homemade Dynamite, Sober II (Melodrama), Supercut, Perfect Places, Homemade Dynamite (Remix) (feat. Khalid, Post Malone, & SZA), Sober - Lorde (really just the album Melodrama but still...)

Bleeding in the Bus - Code Orange

Not This Time, Anything Could Happen, Breathing Room - Bash & Pop

Chanel, Biking (feat. Jay-Z and Tyler, the Creator) - Frank Ocean

Third of May/Ōdaigahara, Fool’s Errand, Cassius, -, Kept Woman, One Another Ocean (January/June), Mearcstapa - Fleet Foxes

Slip Away, Otherside, Go Ahead, Wreath, Braid, Every Night, Choir, Die 4 You, Sides - Perfume Genius

Tellin’ Lies, Midwestern States, House on Fire, After the Party - the Menzingers

Shake Em Off - Syd

Pleasure, Get Not High, Get Not Low, Lost Dreams, Any Party, A Man is Not His Song, Century (feat. Jarvis Cocker) - Feist

Kinda Bonkers - Animal Collective

Free Smoke, Get it Together (feat. Black Coffee and Jorja Smith), Madiba Riddim, Passionfruit - Drake

The Heat Part 4, HUMBLE., ELEMENT., FEEL., LUST., XXX. (feat. U2), FEAR., DUCKWORTH., DNA. - Kendrick Lamar

Crazy Crazy (feat. Charli XCX & Kyary Pamyu Pamyu) - Yasutaka Nakata

Ran, Cave, Time on Her Side, Through the Roses, North Star, Ancient Water, Day Glow Fire - Future Islands

Ascension (feat. Vince Staples), Andromeda (feat. DRAM), Strobelite (feat. Peven Everett), Momentz (feat. De La Soul), Out of Body (Kilo Kish, Zebra Katz, & Imani Vonsha), Let Me Out (feat. Mavis Staples & Pusha T), Sleeping Powder, Garage palace (feat. Little Simz), Saturnz Barz (feat. Popcaan) - Gorillaz

Daisy, Animal, Exercise, Dreams of Grandeur - Wavves

This is the World of the Theater, Whiteout Conditions, Colosseums - the New Pornographers

Limerence - Yves Tumor

Seaweed, Ravens, Swims - Mount Eerie

Sugar for the Pill, Slowmo, Star Roving, Don’t Know Why, Everyone Knows, No Longer Making Time - Slowdive

Cold Cold Cold - Cage the Elephant

Don’t Take the Money, All My Heroes, Dream of Mickey Mantle, I Miss Those Days - Bleachers

Stay (feat. Alessia Cara) - Zedd

iSpy (feat. Lil Yachty) - KYLE

Sign of the Times, Two Ghosts, Sweet Creatures, Ever Since New York, From the Dining Table - Harry Styles

The Cure - Lady Gaga

FOR MY PEOPLE, TEMPTATION, RING THE ALARM (feat. Nyck Caution, Kirk Knight, & Meechy Darko), AMERIKKKAN IDOL - Joey Bada$$

‘71: I Think I’ll make Another World, ‘88 Ethan Frome, ‘92: Weird Diseases, ‘01 Have You Seen It in Snow?, ‘05: Never Again, ’66: Wonder Where I’m From, ’67: Come Back as a Cockroach, ’68: A Cat Called Dionysus, ’69: Judy Garland, ‘73L It Could Have Been Paradise, ’77: Life Ain’t Bad, ’98: Lovers’Lies, ’04: Cold-Blooded Man, ’12: You Can Never Go Back to New York, ’14: I Wish I Had Pictures - the Magnetic Fields

Broken Halos, Either Way, Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning, Millionaire, Scarecrow in the Garden - Chris Stapleton

Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe), Nightmare Logic, Waiting Around to Die - Power Trip

Minneapolis, 100 Years, Cleaning House, Cold Apartment, Alive and a Well - Vagabon

The Bus Song, 1 Billion Dogs, Take It - Jay Som

Halfway Home, Skyline, Stay Happy, Hug of Thunder, Towers and Masons, Victim Lover - Broken Social Scene

Truth, Humility, Integrity - Kamasi Washington

Want You Back, Nothing’s Wrong, Little of Your Love - HAIM

In Cold Blood, Adeline - alt-J

Hungry Ghost, the Navigator, Rican Beach, Pa’lante - Hurray for the Riff Raff!

Feel it Still (even though I grew sick of it by the end of 2017) - Portugal. the Man

French Press, Julie’s Place, Fountain of Good Fortune - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Gone, Gone, Gone, Time Will Tell - the Feelies

Wedding in Finistere, What’s That Perfume That You Wear?, How We Met, the Long Version, How Can I Tell Him - Jens Lekman

Thinking of a Place, Holding On, Up all Night, Pain, Strangest Thing, In Chains, You Don’t have to Go - the War on Drugs

call the police, oh baby, other voices, tonite, emotional haircut, american dream - LCD Soundsystem

The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness, Day I Die, Born to Beg, Guilty Party, Carin at the Liquor Store, Turtleneck - the National

Close But Not Quite (feat. Sampha) - Everything is Recorded

Symphony (feat. Zara Larsson) - Clean Bandit

Heavydirtysoul - Twenty One Pilots

Love on the Brain - Rihanna

Wild Fire, Nouel - Laura Marling

Mildenhall - the Shins

Renato Dall’Ara (2008), Here’s to the Fourth Time!, For Whom the Belly Tolls, Hung Empty - Los Campesinos!

Yer Killin’ Me, Art School, Crash Test Rating, Strawberita, Trying 2 Fool U, I’m My Own Doctor - Remo Drive

God Bless Ohio, Window Sash Weights - Sun Kil Moon

Darling, Serve the Song, Stained Glass, White Light - Real Estate

3AM (Pull Up) (feat. MØ), Roll With Me, Boys, Backseat (feat. Carly Rae Jepsen), Femmebot (feat. Dorian Electra and Mykki Blanco), Out of My Head (feat. Alma and Tove Lo) - Charli XCX

Lucid, Anxi. (feat. Jenny Hval), Evolution, Bird - Kelly Lee Owens

Paradise, Ricochet - ANOHNI

Cut to the Feeling - Carly Rae Jepsen

Golden Cage - Nilüfer Yanya

Bad Liar - Selena Gomez

Can’t Help It - Baba Stiltz

Forever Young (feat. Diplo), Better (feat. Stefflon Don), Dirty Mouth, All Around Me (feat. YG and Kamaiyah) - Lil Yachty

Run - Foo Fighters

Everything Now, Signs of Life, Put Your Money on Me - Arcade Fire

Strangers (feat. Lauren Jauregui) - Halsey

Met Gala (feat. Offset) - Gucci Mane

J-Boy, Ti Amo, Goodbye Soleil, Tuttifrutti, Fleur de Lys - Phoenix

Hard Times, Told You So, Forgiveness, Idle Worship, Rose-Colored Boy - Paramore

Open Water, Melting, Billabong Valley, Anoxia, Doom City - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

Something Just Like This (feat. Coldplay) - the Chainsmokers (I’M SO SORRY)

You Never Loved Me, Rollercoasters - Aimee Mann

Alexys, Crushed Glass - Freddie Gibbs

The Call, Wondering, At Last, At Last - Xiu Xiu

Castle on the Hill - Ed Sheeran

Chelsea Hotel #2 - Kyle Craft

My Old Man, All the Best - Zac Brown Band

Build You Up - Kamaiyah

Praying, Let ‘Em Talk (feat. Eagles of Death Metal), Rainbow, Hunt You Down, Boots, Spaceship, Bastards - Kesha

911/Mr. Lonely (feat. Frank Ocean and Steve Lacy), Foreword (feat. Rex Orange County), Who Dat Boy (feat. A$AP Rocky), Pothole (feat. Jaden Smith), Boredom (feat. Rex Orange County and Anna of the North), I Ain’t Got Time!, November, See You Again (feat. Kali Uchis) - Tyler, the Creator

New York, Pills, Los Ageless, Happy Birthday, Johnny, Fear the Future, Slow Disco, Sugarboy - St. Vincent

Trees on Fire (feat. Amber Mark and Marco Mckinnis) - DJDS

Exhumed, Siphon, Veka, Wiseblood, Remains - Zola Jesus

Never Been Wrong, 8 Ball, Silver, Brass Beam - Waxahatchee

I Promise - Radiohead

I Don’t Wanna Die in This Town, Bad Luck Charm, She Hates Everybody - Old 97′s

In Undertow, Plimsoll Punks, Not My Baby, Lollipop (Ode to Jim), Foreget About Life - Alvvays

Cario and Southern - Son Volt

Magnolia - Playboi Carti

I Don’t Like You, Jucebox Baby - the Regrettes

Give me a Reason, Quiet - Ibibio Sound Machine

Speakerbox, Bait Face (feat. Scratchy), Laptop (feat. Manga) - Wiley

If We Were Vampires, Cumberland Gap, Anxiety, Molotov, Hope the High Road - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

One of Us - New Politics

Saunter, Urchin, Castration, Whip, Desafio - Arca

If You’re Here – Cornelius

The World’s Best American Band, Judy French, Little Silver Cross, the Satch, Party Next Door, Another Day – White Reaper

The Violence – Rise Against

G.K.A.C., I Only, Bangladesh (feat. Heems), Help (feat. Edan and Wiki), You Can Do It! (Give Up) – Your Old Droog

Nickelodeon Girls, Meme Machine, I Do It for My Hood, She’s So Nice, Uber Pussy, High School Blink193, I Will Get a Vasectomy – Pink Guy (RIP)

Sixteen, Bite Back, Leo, Barf Day, Tummy Ache – Diet Cig

Forrest, Birhtdays, Song for You, Shine – the Smith Street band

Misery, Black Rain – Creeper

Long Time, Fragments – Blondie

123, Sleepless, Your Heart, Powerplant, It Gets More Blue – Girlpool

Proud, Bobby, Witch, Judge, Powerful Man – (Sandy) Alex G

Déjà Vu, Picture That, Broken Bones – Roger Waters

The Great Debate, Lost Without You, Wandering Boy – Randy Newman

Street Power, Knuckle Up – Ho99o9

Love Galore (feat. Travi$ Scott), Drew Barrymore, Prom, Garden (Say It Like Dat), Broken Clocks, the Weekend – SZA

Shark Smile, Watering – Big Thief

Lights Out – Royal Blood

Cry of the Martyrs, the Underside of Power, Cleveland, the Cycle/the Spiral: Time to Go Down Slowly, Walk Like a Panther, Death March – Algiers

Crybaby, Tin Can – Kevin Morby

Da Next Day (feat. Big Rube), Order of Operations – Big Boi

No Halo, A Portrait Of, Disappeared, Second Letter from St. Julien, Leave the Fan On – Sorority Noise

Met me in the Street, Just Can’t Get Enough, Rank and File, Turn it Up, Milk and Honey, Pure desire, Can’t Play it Cool – Sheer Mag

Boyish, 12 Steps, The Body is a Blade – Japanese Breakfast

The Moth, Lead, SD, the Wolf – Manchester Orchestra

SHC, Static Space Lover – Foster the People

Just Like Love, Weakness, Wild Woman, All American Made – Margo Price

Dean’s Room – Allison Crutchfield

S.A.D., Bravado – Kirin J Callinan

For Cypresses, Three Rings, Systole – Grizzy Bear

War is Coming (If You Want It), Beach Life-in-Death – Car Seat Headrest

The Way You Used to Do, Domesticated Animals, Feet Don’t Fail Me – Queens of the Stone Age

Call it Dreaming, the Truest Stars We Know – Iron & Wine

Less Than, the Background World – Nine Inch Nails

Nomadm All I C is U & Me, NVR 4EVR, Holy Books – Death from Above

No Fear – DeJ Loaf

Four years and One Day, Blue Train Lines (feat. King Krule), Audition, Delta, You Look Certain (I’m Not So Sure) (feat. Andrea Balency), SP12 Beat – Mount Kimbie

Delta, Feels Like Heaven, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, Bubblegum Dreams, I Wanna Be Young, Dreamdate Narcissist, Acting (feat. Dâm-Funk), Santa’s in the Closet, Time to Live, Another Weekend, Kitchen Witch – Ariel Pink

Half-Ligth (feat. Kelly Zutrau), Gwan – Rostam

Mi Gente (Remix) (feat. Beyoncé) – J Balvin and Willy William

The Man, Run for Cover, Out of My Mind, Have All the Songs Been Written? – the Killers

Don’t Delete the Kisses, Space & Time – Wolf Alice

Righteous Woman – Torres

Prey, Say it First – Sam Smith

Lush, Daughter, Planet – Four Tet

Frontline, Take Me Apart, LMK, Onanon, Waitin – Kelela

I Wanna Be Like You, Numb – Ibeyi

You’re Dreaming, Flies on the Sun, Baby Blue – Wolf Parade

Roots Remain – Mastodon

Medicine, Flowerchild – Citizen

Up All Night, Colors, Seventh Heaven, Square One – Beck

Over Everything, Blue Cheese – Kurt Vile & Courtney Barnett

Biscuit Town, Dum Surfer, Vidual, Half Man Half Shark, the Ooz – King Krule

Processional, the Spaniards, the Long Goodbye, Half-Life of an Autodidact – William Patrick (Billy) Corgan

You Used to Say (Holy Fuck), Grand Finale, Vacation Town – the Front Bottoms

WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE, Saturnalia – Marilyn Manson

Gone, Double Helix, Want Me Around – Knuckle Puck

Laila’s Wisdom, Power (feat. Kendrick Lamar and Lance Skiiiwalker), Pay Up, Nobody (feat. Anderson .Paak, Black Thought, Moonchild) – Rapsody

In the Morning, Tinseltown Swimming in Blood, Saw You at the Hospital, A Light Travels Down the Catwalk, La Regle du Jeu – Destroyer

16 Psyche, Vex, The Culling, Scrape – Chelsea Wolfe

Little Dark Age – MGMT

Happy Hour, Weekend Woman, Mexican Fender – Weezer

Appointments, Turn Out the Lights, Sour Breath, Televangelist, Even – Julien Baker

Mustn’t Hurry, IDK About You – Fever Ray

Pills – Joji

90’s Kids, Blooming, Cloudy, Float, Straight Boy, Astral Plane – Shamir

Should I – Little Dragon

Mirage, Labyrinth – Toro Y Moi

Do U Love Me, For Y’all (feat. Jacquees), Liger (feat. Carnage)– Young Thug

Sylvia Says, Rest – Charlotte Gainsbourg

Lemon (feat. Rihanna), Voilà (feat. Gucci Mane and Wale), 1000 (feat. Future), Don’t Don’t Do It! (feat. Kendrick Lamar), Rollinem 7’s (feat. André 3000), Secret Life of Tigers, Kites (feat. Kendrick Lamar and M.I.A.) – N.E.R.D.

Jupiter, Ode from Joyce, Quintessence – Benjamin Clementine

The Gate, Body Memory, Courtship, Losses, Tabula Rasa, Claimstaker – Björk

Red Flag Day, You’re the Best Thing About Me, the Little Things That Give You Away – U2

Sky Walker (feat. Travi$ Scott), Banana Clip, Told You So – Miguel

GOLD, STAR, TRIP, SWEET, FACE, GUMMY, QUEER, SWAMP, JUNKY, BOOGIE, RENTAL, ZIPPER,JOHNNY, BLEACH, ALASKA, HOTTIE, HEAT – BROCKHAMPTON

Another Sad Love Song, Young Dumb & Broke – Khalid

Highway Tune – Greta Van Fleet

Gucci Gang – Lil Pump

We Were Beautiful, Sweet Dew Lee – Belle & Sebastian

All I can Think About is You, A L I E N S – Coldplay

Havana (feat. Young Thug) – Camila Cabello

Unforgettable (feat. Sway Lee) – French Montana

Rain in Soho, Andrew Eldritch is Moving Back to Leeds, Unicorn Tolerance, Paid in Cocaine, Abandoned Flesh – the Mountain Goats

Walk on Water (feat. Beyoncé) – Eminem

Strange or Be Forgotten – Temples

Runnin’ Outta Luck, Country Figs, Strangers Kiss (with Angel Olsen) – Alex Cameron

Tonya Harding – Sufjan Stevens

The One to Wait – CCFX

Crossifre/So Into You – Nai Palm

Still Serving – 21 Savage, Offset, and Metro Boomin

Neon Guts (feat. Pharrell Williams), XO TOUR Llif3 – Lil Uzi Vert

Mask Off (Remix) (feat. Kendrick Lamar) – Future

Lay It on Me – Vance Joy

Perplexing Pengasus – Rae Sremmurd

Midnight – Jessie Ware

Blanket Me – Hundred Waters

The Pathways of Our Lives – Mark Barrott

Find Me – Porches

Kill Jay-Z, Smile (feat. Gloira Carter), Caught Their Eyes (feat. Frank Ocean), 4:44, Family Feud (feat. Beyoncé), Bam (feat. Damien Marley), Legacy – Jay-Z

Global (feat. Ilovemakonnen) – Lil B

[bestoftheyear]

Best Songs of 2016

Year number six. I’m honestly surprised I still have the time to do this, listen to as much music as I do with all the adulting and life stuff happening. But I’d have it no other way! I’m keeping the list the same as last year, going down from 301 (because darts? idk) to number one, a song that has been at the top since February. My music taste is still ever growing, so much that I actually downloaded a country album for the first time ever--shout out Maren Morris.

Last year I went stats, keeping with that, I went with about fifty more songs in my playlists, just under 1800, so keep that in mind. For a personal project, I do a lot of judging. Judging started last December 16 and stopped December 15, or bascially after Kid Cudi released Passion, Pain & Demon Slaying--which is why there is music from Pusha T’s last album and likewise, nothing new from RTJ3. I already released the top 100 on the gram, so if you aren’t following me there then what the hell man! Anyway--hit that jump for the list

301. Blackbear - idfc (Tarro Remix)

300. Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam - A 1000 Times

299. 24hrs - You Know

298. The Skins - Bury me (feat. D.R.A.M.)

297. Astrid S - Hurts So Good

296. Lil Durk - Eyes (feat. Talib Kweli & James Fauntleroy)

295. Foxes - Devil Side

294. The Strumbellas - Young & Wild

293. Roy Woods - Only You (feat. Ty Dolla $ign & 24hrs)

292. Kacy Hill - Lion

291. The Japanese House - Face Like Thunder

290. Bridgit Mendler - Atlantis (feat. Kaiydo)

289. Allan Kingdom - Believe

288. Wild Belle - Throw Down Your Guns

287. Meek Mill - Shine

286. Bishop Briggs - The Way I Do

285. Anderson .Paak - Room In here (feat. The Game & Sonyae Elise)

284. FKA twigs - Good to Love

283. Post Malone - Leave

282. AURORA - Conqueror

281. Kendrick Lamar - Untitled 03 | 05.28.2013

280. Elohim - Hallucinating

279. TWENTY88 - On The Way

278. Banks - To The Hilt

277. Bryson Tiller - Rambo (The Weeknd Remix)

276. Frank Ocean - Ivy

275. Declan McKenna - Isombard

274. Daye Jack - Finish Line

273. Young the Giant - Titus Was Born

272. The Naked and Famous - Laid Low

271. White Sea - Bloodline

270. Ra Ra Riot & Rostam - Water

269. Beck - Wow

268. Isaiah Rashad - Smile

267. Warpaint - New Song

266. PARTYNEXTDOOR - Not Nice

265. LIV - Dream Awake

264. Bankroll Mafia - Out My Face (feat. Tip, Shad Da God, Young Thug & London Jae)

263. Isaiah Rashad & Goldlink - Untitled

262. The Weeknd - Attention

261. Tory Lanez - Luv

260. Justice - Safe and Sound

259. Chance the Rapper - Grown Ass Kid (feat. Mick Jenkins & Alex Wiley)

258. Lil Yachty - Minnesota (feat. Quavo, Skippa Da Flippa & Young Thug)

257. D.R.A.M. - Misunderstood (feat. Young Thug)

256. Louis the Child - Fire (feat. Evalyn)

255. Jack Garratt - Worry (feat. Anderson .Paak)

254. ZHU - Generation Why

253. DJ Khaled - Jermaine’s Interlude (feat. J. Cole)

252. Ab-Soul 0 Huey Knew THEN (feat. Da$H)

251. Raury - Neveralone

250. Banks & Steelz - Love and War (feat. Ghostface Killah)

249. A Tribe Called Quest - Conrad Tokyo (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

248. The 1975 - The Sound

247. James Blake - Timeless (feat. Vince Staples)

246. Kweku Collins - Stupid Rose

245. Bob Moses - Tearing Me Up

244. James Vincent McMorrow - Rising Water

243. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie - My Sh*t

242. Post Malone - Deja Vu (feat. Justin Bieber)

241. The Americanos - In My Foreign (feat. Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Yachty, Nicky Jam & French Montana)

240. Travis Scott - Lose (feat. Cassie)

239. Drake - Sneakin’ (feat. 21 Savage)

238. Chance the Rapper - Juke Jam (feat. Justin Bieber & Towkio)

237. Run River North - Run Or Hide

236. Lil Uzi Vert - You Was Right

235. Amber Coffman - All to Myself

234. Kid Cudi - Frequency

233. Euro - Georgia

232. KAYTRANADA - GOT IT GOOD (feat. Craig David)

231. Tiggs Da Author - Swear Down (feat. Yungen)

230. Jorja Smith - A Price (feat. Maverick Sabre)

229. Khalid - Let’s Go

228. Amine - Baba

227. Pusha T - MPA (feat. Kanye West, A$AP Rocky & The-Dream)

226. Young Thug - Wyclef Jean

225. Love Thy Brother - Love Me Better (feat. Ariel Beesley)

224. The Weeknd - Party Monster

223. Drake - Controlla

222. Liss - Sorry

221. dvsn - Hallucinations

220. Phantogram - Cruel World

219. Rory Fresco - Lowkey

218. Saba - Church/Liquor Store (feat. Noname)

217. Francis and the Lights - See Her Out (That’s Just Life)

216. Drake - Hype

215. Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness - Fire Escape

214. Theophilus London - Revenge (feat. Ariel Pink)

213. XYLØ - Fool’s Paradise

212. Glass Animals - Pork Soda

211. Post Malone - Congratulation (feat. Quavo)

210. Transviolet - LA Love

209. OnCue - 3AM

208. Wet - Small and Silver

207. Banks - Trainwreck

206. Bon Iver - 22 (OVER  S∞∞N)

205. Beyonce - 6 Inch (feat. The Weeknd)

204. Rob $tone - Chill Bill (Remix) [feat. D.R.A.M., Denzel Curry & Cousin Stizz)

203. Raury & Jaden Smith - Losing Your Mind

202. Chance the Rapper - Finish Line/Drown (feat. T-Pain, Kirk Franklin, Eryn Allen Kane & Noname)

201. Rae Sremmurd - Swang

200. Travis Scott - Coordinate (feat. Blac Youngsta)

199. Chairlift - Crying in Public

198. Allan Kingdom - Renovate (feat. D.R.A.M.)

197. Adam Vida - I’m Juiced

196. Logic - Wrist (feat. Pusha T)

195. Mac Miller - Cinderella (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)

194. Hundred Waters - Show Me Love (feat. Chance the Rapper, Moses Sumney & Robin Hannibal) [Skrillex Remix]

193. Bruno Mars - That’s What I Like

192. Travis Scott - Wonderful (feat. The Weeknd)

191. Frank Ocean - Rushes To

190. Lil Uzi Vert - Money Longer

189. Salaam Remi - Come Through and Chill (feat. Miguel)

188. ScHoolboy Q - Ride Out (feat. Vince Staples)

187. Joey Purp - Girls @ (feat. Chance the Rapper)

186. Kanye West - Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1 (feat. Kid Cudi)/Pt. 2 (feat. Desiigner)

185. Domo Genesis - Dapper (feat. Anderson .Paak)

184. The Head and The Heart - Colors

183. Cashmere Cat - Wild Love (feat. The Weeknd & Francis and the Lights)

182. Judah & the Lion - Take It All Back

181. Post Malone - Money Made Me Do It (feat. 2 Chainz)

180. Chance the Rapper - Blessings (Reprise) [feat. Anderson .Paak, BJ The Chicago Kid, Raury & Ty Dolla $ign]

179. Young the Giant - Something To Believe In

178. A Tribe Called Quest - Kids... (feat. Andre Benjamin)

177. Twelve’len - Star Dust

176. Sara Hartman - Stranger in a Room

175. Bishop Briggs - Be Your Love

174. The Hunna - You & Me

173. Hare Squead - Herside Story

172. Solange - Don’t Touch My Hair (feat. Sampha)

171. Belly - Consuela (feat. Young Thug & Zack)

170. Birdy - Wild Horses

169. Lil Yachty - One Night

168. Kanye West - FML (feat. The Weeknd)

167. Meek Mill - Litty (feat. Tory Lanez)

166. Charli XCX - After the Afterparty (feat. Lil Yachty)

165. Drake - Child’s Play

164. Big Gigantic - All of Me (feat. Logic & ROZES)

163. Ro Ransom - Doppelganger

162. T.I. - Dope (feat. Marsha Ambrosius)

161. Skepta - Man

160. DJ Khaled - Nas Album Done (feat. Nas)

159. ScHoolboy Q - THat Part (feat. Kanye West)

158. Milky Chance - Cocoon

157. Wet - The Middle

156. Mac Miller - Stay

155. Post Malone - Patient

154. 21 Savage - X (feat. Future)

153. Ava Wolfe - xkss

152. JONES - Melt

151. Local Natives - Past Lives

150. Caleborate - Options (feat. Pell & Sylvan LaCue)

149. Vince Staples - War Ready

148. Chance the Rapper - Smoke Break (feat. Future)

147. Kevin Abstract - Empty

146. Rihanna - Love on the Brain

145. Lady Gaga - Hey Girl (feat. Florence Welch)

144. 2 Chainz - Good Drank (feat. Quavo & Gucci Mane)

143. The Weeknd - I Feel It Coming (feat. Daft Punk)

142. 070 Shake - Trust Nobody

141. Beyonce - Don’t Hurt Yourself (feat. Jack White)

140. Kanye West - Saint Pablo (feat. Sampha)

139. Lecrae & Leon Bridges - On My Own

138. Run The Jewels - 2100 (feat. BOOTS)

137. Post Malone - Monta (feat. Lil Yachty)

136. KAYTRANADA - GLOWED UP (feat. Anderson .Paak)

135. Phantogram - You Don’t Get Me High Anymore

134. Mura Masa - Love$ick (feat. A$AP Rocky) [Four tet Remix]

133. Father John Misty - Real Love Baby

132. Sampha - Blood On Me

131. Nick Grant - Get Up (feat. WatchTheDuck)

130. Drake - One Dance (feat. Wizkid & Kyla)

129. Verite - Underdressed

128. Jon Waltz - Riot

127. Jon Bellion - Maybe IDK

126. Meek Mill - Offended (feat. Young Thug & 21 Savage)

125. The Strumbellas - We Don’t Know)

124. The Weeknd - Six Feet Under

123. Clams Casino - All Nite (feat. Vince Staples)

122. Snakehips - Money On Me (feat. Anderson .Paak)

121. Isaiah Rashad - Wat’s Wrong (feat. Zacari & Kendrick Lamar)

120. Anderson .Paak - The Waters (feat. BJ the Chicago Kid)

119. Kendrick Lamar - Untitled 08 | 09.06.2014

118. Kid Cudi - Baptized in Fire (feat. Travis Scott)

117. Jay Prince - Father, Father

116. Daye Jack - Hands Up (feat. Killer Mike)

115. Jorja Smith - Something in the Way

114. Migos - Bad and Boujee

113. Kodak Black - Too Many Years (feat. PnB Rock)

112. Pell - In the Morning (feat. Stephen & Caleborate)

111. Frank Ocean - Pink + White

110. Big Sean - Living Single (feat. Chance the Rapper & Jeremih)

109. Gucci Mane - Last Time (feat. Travis Scott)

108. Beyonce - Freedom (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

107. Rihanna - Needed Me

106. Roy Woods - Gwan Big Up Urself

105. KYLE - iSpy (feat. Lil Yachty)

104. Flume - Never Be Like You (feat. Kai)

103. Vic Mensa - Free Love (feat. Le1f, Halsey, Lil B & Malik Yusef)

102. Logic - Tree of Life (feat. Slug & Killer Mike)

101. J. Cole - Immortal

100. Shannon Saunders - Pure

99. Royal Teeth - Kids Conspire

98. Gallant - Bourbon

97. Banks - Gemini Feed

96. Run The Jewels - Talk To Me

95. A$AP Ferg - Strive (feat. Missy Elliott)

94. Kanye West - Real Friends (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)

93. Grouplove - Good Morning

92. Divine Council - Dememba (Remix) [feat. $ilk Money & Andre Benjamin)

91. Drake - Fake Love

90. 21 Savage - No Heart

89. Phantogram - Same Old Blues

88. Sara Hartman - Monster Lead Me Home

87. Chance the Rapper - All Night (feat. Knox Fortune)

86. Bruno Mars - 24K Magic

85. Khalid - Location

84. Alicia Keys - Blended Family (feat. A$AP Rocky)

83. Kid Cudi - Surfin’ (feat. Pharrell Williams)

82. Ta-ku & Wafia - Meet in the Middle

81. Frank Ocean - Nights

80. Bon Iver - 33 “GOD”

79. Big Sean - Bounce Back

78. Isaiah Rashad - AA

77. The Avett Brothers - Ain’t No Man

76. J. Cole - Deja Vu

75. Ab-Soul - RAW (backwards) [feat. Zacari]

74. Kanye West, Gucci Mane, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Travis Scott, Yo Gotti, Quavo & Desiigner - Champions

73. Rag’n’Bone Man - Human

72. Chance the Rapper - All We Got (feat. Kanye West & Chicago Children’s Choir)

71. Kaiydo - Fruit Punch

70. Desiigner - Tiimmy Turner

69. Rihanna - Same Ol’ Mistakes

68. The 1975 - Somebody Else

67. A Tribe Called Quest - We The People...

66. Bishop Briggs - Wild Horses

65. Kanye West - Fade (feat. Post Malone & Ty Dolla $ign)

64. The Weeknd - Reminder

63. ScHoolboy Q - By Any Means

62. Danny Brown - Really Doe (feat. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul & Earl Sweatshirt)

61. Glass Animals - Youth

60. Travis Scott - The Ends (feat. Andre 3000)

59. Anderson .Paak - Come Down

58. Chance the Rapper - Mixtape (feat. Young Thug & Lil Yachty)

57. Mick Jenkins - Spread Love

56. Maggie Rogers - Dog Years

55. Denzel Curry - This Life

54. Kanye West - Wolves (feat. Vic Mensa & Sia)/Frank’s Track

53. The Chainsmokers - Closer (feat. Halsey)

52. Beyonce - Formation

51. Young Thug - Kanye West (feat. Wyclef Jean)

50. Misterwives - Same Drugs (Chance the Rapper cover)

49. DJ Khaled - Holy Key (feat. Big Sean, Kendrick Lamar & Betty Wright)

48. Kid Cudi - By Design (feat. Andre Benjamin)

47. Joey Bada$$ - Devastated

46. Starrah - Rush

45. Sampha - Timmy’s Prayer

44. Post Malone - Go Flex

43. J. Cole - False Prophets

42. Drake - 4PM In Calabasas

41. The Weeknd - Starboy (feat. Daft Punk)

40. Frank Ocean - Nikes

39. Kendrick Lamar - Untitled 07 | levitate

38. DJ Shadow - Nobody Speak (feat. Run The Jewels)

37. SAINt JHN - Reflex

36. Noname - Diddy Bop (feat. Raury & Cam O’bi)

35. 6LACK - Prblms

34. J. Cole - Change

33. Beyonce - Hold Up

32. Francis and the Lights - Friends (feat. Bon Iver)

31. John Legend - Penthouse Floor (feat. Chance the Rapper)

30. Future - Low Life (feat. The Weeknd)

29. Wet - All The Ways

28. Childish Gambino - Redbone

27. Travis Scott - Goosebumps (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

26. Frank Ocean - Solo (Reprise) [feat. Andre Benjamin]

25. Rae Sremmurd - Black Beatles (feat. Gucci Mane)

24. Young Thug & Travis Scott - Pick Up The Phone (feat. Quavo)

23. Mac Miller - Dang! (feat. Anderson .Paak)

22. The Strumbellas - Spirits

21. Beyonce - Sorry

20. The xx - On Hold

19. Flume - Smoke & Retribution (feat. Vince Staples & Kucka)

18. The Head and The Heart - All We Ever Knew

17. Chance the Rapper - Summer Friends (feat. Jeremih & Francis and the Lights)

16. Kanye West - No More Parties in L.A. (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

15. Glass Animals - Life Itself

14. Bishop Briggs - River

13. Childish Gambino - Me and Your Mama

12. The Weeknd - Sidewalks (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

11. Solange - Cranes in the Sky

10. Amine - Caroline

9. Frank Ocean - Solo

8. D.R.A.M. - Broccoli (feat. Lil Yachty)

7. Chance the Rapper - Blessings

6. Jorja Smith - Blue Lights

5. Maggie Rogers - Alaska

4. Travis Scott - Through the Late Night (feat. Kid Cudi)

3. Anderson .Paak - The Dreamer (feat. Talib Kweli & Timan Family Choir)

2. Chance the Rapper - No Problem (feat. Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz)

1. Kanye West - Ultralight Beam (feat. Chance the Rapper, The-Dream, Kelly Price & Kirk Franklin)

[entergamingxp]

15 Upcoming Indie Games to Put On Your Radar in 2020

January 16, 2020 12:00 PM EST

2020 looks to be another great year for indie games. Here are 15 of them to keep an eye on as the year rolls on.

Last week, we gave you 10 2020 releases that you absolutely shouldn’t miss. However, that list mostly dealt with the biggest games of 2020. What about all the awesome games being made by smaller studios? Well, here’s the list for them. Below are 15 incredible-looking games coming from the indie scene in 2020.

Before we start, it’s important to note that with the continually growing indie space in games, there are hundreds of games that could easily make this list. I’ve capped the list at 15 mostly for my sanity, but the initial shortlist for this article was a mile long. Here are a few extra honorable mentions you should give a look: TemTem, Boyfriend Dungeon, Griftlands, Minute of Islands, Sable, Roki, Baldo, Garden Story, Ikenfell, Knuckle Sandwich, and She Dreams Elsewhere. I also chose to not include Axiom Verge 2, as that was already covered in last week’s article. Anyways, on to the list.

Lenna’s Inception

This Legend of Zelda-like from Bytten Studio is actually out this week. You play as an unlikely hero in a procedurally generated world that flips from 8- to 32-bit pixel art. It looks to turn the typical conventions of the genre on its head with a wild storyline that features multiple endings. You can also play the game with a friend in local co-op. A Link to the Past is my all-time favorite game, so any game that looks to iterate on that excellent formula is automatically something I’ll be paying attention to.

12 Minutes

Time loops are all the rage these days after the excellent Outer Wilds took the world by storm last year. Interestingly, 12 Minutes is another Annapurna-published game that explores the mind-bending concept. While Outer Wilds had you exploring an entire galaxy, 12 Minutes’ experience is a bit more intimate. As a husband trying to share a romantic evening with his wife, you’ll discover the many secrets taking place inside your apartment. On the surface, it might not sound like the most thrilling concept on this list, but everything I’ve seen has been very impressive.

Cook, Serve, Delicious 3

Before seeing this in action, I wasn’t really sure if the world needed another Cook, Serve, Delicious game. After all, how much more cooking, serving, and delciousing can a person reasonably expect to do? And then I saw that the game takes place in the post-apocalyptic US and you play as the owner of a food truck. As you travel across America, you must both cook food and fight off roving bands of evil cooks. It’s hard to imagine a cooking game with a better elevator pitch than this one.

Eastward

Earthbound-like games are a dime a dozen these days. The SNES classic made a major impact on the developers of today, and we’re seeing that love play out in games like LISA, Citizens of Earth, and, of course, Undertale. However, there’s something about Eastward’s style that really sticks out to me. While other games have done a great job of capturing Earthbound’s charm and gameplay, Eastward also nails the look. If I close my eyes and imagine what Earthbound would look like in 2020, Eastward isn’t far off. Hopefully, the team at Pixpil can nail everything else it’s going for just as well.

Sports Story

Golf Story is my favorite game for Nintendo Switch. Full stop. And now Sidebar Games is adding tennis and dungeons and espionage and buried treasure and a meeting with a queen? I need this game yesterday. If Golf Story wasn’t up your alley, this probably won’t be either, but for us beings of superior intellect, Sports Story is set to be one of the most exciting releases of 2020. I cannot wait.

The Red Lantern

The Red Lantern basically looks like FTL except instead of crossing the galaxy, you’re racing the Iditarod with a team of the best boys. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the book Stone Fox. So, a game that lets me play out the fantasy of racing Searchlight through the Alaskan wilderness is very much right up my alley. My only worry is how brutal the game looks. The trailer has a scene where a bear attacks one of your dogs and I really hated watching it. Hopefully, that’s a rarity or else this might just become an idea I love and not a game I play.

Spelunky 2

Spelunky remains one of the best rogue-likes on the market. The platforming is tight and the game has so many awesome secrets for you to discover. The sequel looks to be more of the same and I can’t wait to join the community in uncovering all the weirdness that lies within. This spot could also easily go to UFO 50, which is another Derek Yu project I’ve been waiting for with bated breath. Crazy to think both games are likely for 2020.

Spiritfarer

This is a resource management sim that is all about dying. You play as a ferrymaster to the deceased. As you craft your way across the world, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to improve your custom death ferry. Spiritfarer has a unique setting that is well worth a look. However, the thing that really made me pay attention is the game’s visuals. The hand-drawn art quickly catches the eye and seeing it in motion is even better. I’m intrigued to see if the game’s look and premise are matched by its quality.

Carrion

Spoiler alert for 2016’s Inside. Carrion is like that ending sequence where you play as the gigantic amorphous blob except that’s the entire game. Oh, and this blob is straight out of a horror movie and is very interested in eating everything. Publisher Devolver Digital describes it as “a reverse horror game” and I have to agree. The way the blob moves through the levels is both deeply unsettling and incredibly cool.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Y’all remember how Hollow Knight is one of the best Metroidvania games of the last decade or so? Or how it was a perfect match for Nintendo Switch? Well, how would you feel if I told you Team Cherry was going to do more of that except even more polished? Great news! That’s what happening and it’s going to be great.

Ori and the Will of Wisps

If you are a fan of sequels to tough-as-nails platformers with Metroidvania elements, 2020 is going to be a great year. Getting both Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Hollow Knight: Silksong in the same year seems like an embarrassment of riches. Plus, Axiom Verge 2 is coming, which is a bit different, but still sits in that same realm. Personally, Ori is the one I’m least excited about; however, I can’t deny that this will probably be great.

Mineko’s Night Market

Mineko’s Night Market is maybe the cutest game on this list. The “adventure/merchant simulator” wears its Animal Crossing inspiration on its sleeve. However, developer Meowza Games aims to put a much bigger emphasis on narrative and crafting. You play as a young girl named Mineko who has arrived on an island filled with cats. Your options for what to do are varied, but discovering the game’s secrets and preparing for the weekly Night Market is paramount. Mineko’s Night Market looks like it could fill a similar space to games like Stardew Valley. Great experiences to sit back, relax, and let wash over you.

Cris Tales

Cris Tales is billed as “a love letter to classic JRPGs”, but with a big twist. The game lets you simultaneously see the past, present, and future of your actions, which results in some fascinating situations. Maybe you warp your enemy into the future to make them older and weaker. Or you warp yourself to the past to make you shorter and are able to more easily dodge an attack. It’s an innovative idea that has major gameplay and narrative implications. The best part about Cris Tales is that there is a demo out on Steam right now. So, if you’re interested, you can go check it out and see if this game is up your alley.

Murder by Numbers

Picross is one of the best types of puzzle games in video games. However, outside of Picross 3D, there haven’t been that many innovations in the genre. Murder by Numbers looks to change that by adding a murder mystery narrative to the game. What a perfect marriage! And the whole thing is set to a score from Masakazu Sugimori who counts Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Viewtiful Joe among their credits. I need this game now.

Emily is Away <3

Both games in the Emily is Away series are incredibly moving experiences, especially for those of us who grew up in the time of MSN Messenger and AIM. The third game takes the series forward to a Facebook analogue. It’s tough to say if this release will hit as hard as the first two, but given the pedigree, I’m pretty confident in saying that Emily is Away <3 will be worth your time.

Obviously, the number of video games releasing in 2020 is vast. It would be a herculean task to try and cover everything. However, this list should be a great reference point for games to put on your radar. Of course, the best indie game of 2020 might not even be announced yet, but you can rest assured that when it is, DualShockers will be there to cover it.

January 16, 2020 12:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/15-upcoming-indie-games-to-put-on-your-radar-in-2020/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=15-upcoming-indie-games-to-put-on-your-radar-in-2020

[bapakharyoso]

Gjermund Roesholt left the cabin on Einarson Lake, in the remote backcountry of the central Yukon, around 9:30 A.M. on November 26, 2018. He headed out by snowmobile to check a trapline that was laid north of the cabin. His partner, Valérie Théorêt, stayed behind with their ten-month-old baby girl, Adèle.

Théorêt was a grade-school teacher on maternity leave; Roesholt was a wilderness and hunting guide. The couple, who normally lived in Whitehorse, the Yukon’s small capital city, had flown in to their cabin on October 4, intending to stay until the new year, when Théorêt was due back at

Gjermund Roesholt left the cabin on Einarson Lake, in the remote backcountry of the central Yukon, around 9:30 A.M. on November 26, 2018. He headed out by snowmobile to check a trapline that was laid north of the cabin. His partner, Valérie Théorêt, stayed behind with their ten-month-old baby girl, Adèle.

Théorêt was a grade-school teacher on maternity leave; Roesholt was a wilderness and hunting guide. The couple, who normally lived in Whitehorse, the Yukon’s small capital city, had flown in to their cabin on October 4, intending to stay until the new year, when Théorêt was due back at school. At the cabin, they hunted for game and maintained their modest trapping concession, a designated area where they were permitted to catch and kill small fur-bearing mammals, living out a dream of rugged self-sufficiency. Both were experienced in the wild, and they were careful about attractants—they stored the remnants of their hunts in a secure container inside a shed a short distance from the cabin.

Around 2:30 in the afternoon, five hours after he’d set out, Roesholt was working his way back toward home. It had snowed gently on and off throughout his morning on the trapline, and as he retraced his own newly dusted trail, he could see fresh bear tracks heading in the same direction. Before he reached the cabin, the tracks turned away.

When he got to the cabin, it was quiet. Théorêt and Adèle were not inside. Roesholt walked down the well-used trail toward a sauna, calling their names. Increasingly worried, he knew he might have to use the loaded rifle he carried.

His partner and child were not at the sauna. Roesholt kept going, down a trail they used for a small trapline that was close enough to the cabin to be checked on foot. He was about 800 feet from the structure when he heard a bear growl.

The grizzly charged Roesholt from 50 feet, but he got his rifle up in time, fired, and didn’t miss. The bear collapsed, shot fatally through the head. Behind it, just off the trail, Roesholt found his family. They had both been killed.

Later, after he had used his Garmin InReach to contact the nearest detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and after nearly 21 nightmarish hours had passed while he waited for an investigative team to arrive at his remote location and evacuate him, and after the Mounties and other agencies had done their work, a coroner’s report[1], published in March 2019, would conclude that Théorêt’s injuries “quickly proved to be fatal” and that baby Adèle’s were “instantly incompatible with life.”

The bear, a male grizzly, was 18 years old and starving. He still weighed just over 300 pounds, in muscle and skin and bone, but he had already burned away all his body fat. Too emaciated to hibernate and apparently hampered by a weeks-old injury in his abdomen, he had recently taken the desperate step of eating a porcupine, and he was pierced internally by quills from throat to gut.

The bear had followed the snowmobile trail earlier that day, left it behind to circle wide around the cabin and the sauna, and then rejoined the trail south of the buildings. There, investigators believe, he had sensed Théorêt coming toward him, out for a walk, her baby in a carrier on her back. In the chilling phrasing of the coroner’s report, the bear had retreated from the trail and “moved into a position of advantage” under the thick, obscuring branches of a spruce tree, six feet away. It was an ambush: no one could have seen him coming or reacted in time if they had. Théorêt might as well have been struck by lightning.

The next day, at 1:30 in the afternoon, I was at home in Whitehorse when I saw this[2] on the Twitter feed of the Yukon Mounties:

Yukon RCMP and Yukon Coroner’s Service are investigating the death of two individuals following a suspected bear attack on November 26, northeast of Mayo, near the NWT border. Environment Yukon is assisting with the investigation. More information will be released soon.

I remember thinking: Two? That’s weird.

There had been three previous fatal Yukon bear attacks in recent memory. An adventure tour operator named Claudia Huber died in 2014 after a grizzly invaded her home in the Johnson’s Crossing area, off the Alaska Highway. Jean-François Pagé was killed by a defensive mother bear in 2006, after he unknowingly walked by her den while staking mining claims outside the community ofRoss River. And a hiker visiting from British Columbia, Christine Courtney, was mauled to death in Kluane National Park in 1996. I knew these stories well, and I had read about other attacks elsewhere, but I couldn’t remember hearing of a double fatality before. It never occurred to me to think of a mother and her baby.

Awful clarity came less than two hours later, when a media release from the Yukon’s chief coroner landed in my inbox. At the same time, my Facebook feed began to fill up with photos of Valérie’s smiling face. Whitehorse is a small, close-knit community, and while I didn’t know this family personally, our worlds overlapped many times over. As I watched from my couch, our mutual friends changed their profile pictures to shots of themselves with Val, shots of themselves with Adèle, shots of Val and Adèle together. People were reeling and paying immediate tribute to their friend’s life the best way they knew how.

What happened next, I suppose, should have been predictable in our extremely online era. Local news spawned national news and then international news. “Canadian Press picked up the story,” Yukon News reporter Jackie Hong told me. “The New York Times picked it up, The Washington Post. And then suddenly it wasn’t just a Yukon story or a Canada story. It was an international story.” Hong covered[3] the attack for the Yukon News, and soon she was receiving requests from outside media, some as far away as Norway, to help her make contacts or to provide them with updates herself.

I was not exempt from all this. Outside contacted me less than 24 hours after the news broke to ask if I’d be interested in covering it. I was torn: I didn’t want to add to the noise, and I wasn’t eager to ask my friends to speak on the record about their pain. I didn’t want to have to try to track down Gjermund Roesholt and intrude on his agony. But I also didn’t want someone else, someone who might be less sensitive to the issue than I was, to get the assignment. I told my editor I’d be willing if we could wait for the results of the coroner’s report. Then, I thought, I might actually have something new or meaningful to share with readers.

Meanwhile, a TV reporter made the long journey north from southern British Columbia and set up shop outside Whitehorse Elementary School, where Valérie had taught. As grief counselors were made available to the students there, and as local parents struggled to figure out how to explain to their children that their teacher had been killed, the school received e-mail and phone calls from around two dozen different media outlets.

As the story spread, Facebook and Twitter and the comments attached to news articles filled with the most callous contributions imaginable.

“Who in the world takes their wife and 10 month old into bear country,” one person wrote in response to the RCMP’s initial tweet. “Why wasn’t she carrying a weapon?” said another. A third: “They both were torturing animals in traps for their whole lives, and now this bear fought back in his territory. I feel sorry for the baby, for the bear, who paid with his life, and for ALL THE BEAUTIFUL WILD ANIMALS THESE TWO PEOPLE MURDERED !!!”

It was like that everywhere: She should have had a gun. Or they’d been trapping and killing animals, so they had it coming.Or they should never have taken a baby out there.

I wasn’t the only one feeling conflicted about covering the attack. Claudiane Samson is the Whitehorse reporter for French-language Radio-Canada. She knew Valérie socially; they shared a tightly knit circle of friends in the Yukon’s Francophone community. She heard the news before the RCMP and the coroner made it public—she’d heard rumors of a grizzly attack, and then a letter arrived for the parents of children at Whitehorse Elementary, announcing that Valérie Théorêt had died. Samson did the math.

“It’s the kind of story where I hate my job,” she told me. “And it was not my first.” Jean-François Pagé had been her friend, too, and she’d been obliged to report on his death 13 years ago. But back then, social media was in its infancy, not the global force it is now. And so Pagé’s death was not scrutinized in the same way.

“I kind of knew where this would lead,” Samson said. All she could do, she figured, was try to use her work to show what Valérie’s life had been all about—her passion for the outdoors, her love of the Yukon wilderness, and her desire to be immersed in it. Like me, she figured she would do a better job than some outsider. “They were living their dream out there,” she told me. “That was my driving force in my whole coverage.”

But she was in a difficult position. Some media reports struck locals as insensitive—the station that sent the TV reporter to Whitehorse ran a segment that included charging bears and injured mauling victims describing their attacks. Even the most respectful coverage was tainted by the comments that faraway readers left online.

“It became a judgment over our lifestyle,” said Samson, who has had bears pass through the same backyard where her children play. “That’s where we’re at with social media.” (While Roesholt and Théorêt had gone deeper into the bush, and for longer, than most of us do, trapping and hunting are common activities around Whitehorse.) Very quickly, friends of the couple became reluctant to speak to reporters, fearful that even their most loving memories of Val would be smeared by online hatred. Months later, that fear is still fresh—when I eventually approached a friend of Val’s for this story, she described the pain of seeing her friend’s picture everywhere in the days after the attack and always surrounded by harsh comments from strangers. A teacher herself, she worried about fielding questions from her students, about scaring them away from the outdoors. She was no longer living in the Yukon, and she didn’t feel able to tell many people in her daily life about the loss she was grieving.

Reaching out to family members for comment is fairly standard practice when news reporters cover a person’s death. The Mounties had asked the media to refrain from contacting Roesholt or any other relatives. Not every outside reporter honored that request, but all local reporters that I’m aware of did. Samson told me she couldn’t bring herself to call Gjermund. Jackie Hong agreed. “There was no indication at all that he wanted to talk or was ready to talk,” Hong said.

The scrutiny was unprecedented. It’s a running joke among Yukon reporters that their stories only go national when they’re about animals. The wolf that chased a cyclist. The Bohemian waxwings that got drunk on fermented berries and then were locked in the government’s avian drunk tank. The wild boars that escaped from a farm and terrorized a rural subdivision. Now our joke had come true again, in the worst way.

Bear attacks are personal here—there is no hiding from them, no distancing yourself from the horror and thinking,That could never happen to me. As Samson notes, while strangers on the internet accused Valérie of being irresponsible for bringing her baby into bear country, every parent in Whitehorse knows that a bear could wander across their driveway or through their yard someday. Our whole lives are lived in bear country.

My favorite hiking trail winds right by the area where Christine Courtney died—there’s a monument to remind me, in case I’d managed to forget. I didn’t know Claudia Huber, but I had a dozen friends in common with Valérie Théorêt. And when I worked for a mining company as a field laborer a few years ago, I walked into the lobby of the office on my first day—about to head into the bush for a month, where I would hike alone for eight hours every day—and found a memorial to Jean-François Pagé mounted on the wall. Attacks are incredibly rare, but when they do happen, they feel real to everyone in the community.

Maybe that’s why the response to this one bothered me so much. In the aftermath, I found myself surprised and disturbed by the amount of attention the attack received. I felt intensely protective of my grieving friends and my shocked, horrified community—I wanted to shield them from the intrusive phone calls, the strangers creeping into their social-media profiles, the awful, cruel comments appended to every news story. When a reporter for The New York Timescalled[4] the Yukon “desolate,” I wanted to reach through my laptop screen and shake him, to try to make him understand a place he wasn’t describing properly. Life here is amazing, I wanted to say. This is the kind of place where you can hike to a glacier, watch it calve, and then engage in a howl-off with a pack of nearby wolf puppies. This is where grizzlies swipe spawning salmon from streams, and caribou still flow like rivers across the mountains, and the northern lights come out at night. It’s the opposite of desolate.

“This is a great place to live,” Samson agreed. “Yes, we live in bear country. [But] I’m not going to judge people raising kids beside a river because a kid drowned one year.”

In any future tragedies with the awful potential to go viral outside the territory, Samson would like to see authorities devote more resources to helping families cope with the deluge of media requests. The police could connect the family with a designated spokesperson, for instance, and all requests for information could be funneled through them. That kind of thing “helps the families,” she said, “but it also gives media what they need.” It directs their energy away from elementary schools and the Facebook accounts of the grief-stricken while still feeding their need for quotes and copy.

I kept wondering about that need, though. For Yukoners, this was real news—we needed to know that a friend and community member had been killed, where counseling services were available, and where public-memorial events were being held. For a community, the media can play a role in processing the event, even in healing. It can offer people a place to say: My friend was wonderful, and I will miss her.

But what about those outside that circle—the reporters in New York, in Vancouver, in other cities where grizzly attacks are not a threat? What need are they serving for their readers? On some level, it’s obvious: horrible stories travel around the world. We know this. We click on the tales of trauma and tragedy the way we slow down on the highway to gawk at the shrapnel of a broken vehicle. But at least the aftermath of a car accident can remind you to slow down yourself. For people outside bear country, was reading about this tragedy really anything more than voyeurism?

All winter these questions troubled me. As people around Whitehorse strapped canoes to the tops of their vehicles in midwinter to remember Val, whose boat had seemingly always been riding around on top of her little car, and as my friends who knew and loved her went on adventures in her honor, I thought about how the media and social-media dynamics had made their grief even harder. I wondered if it had to be that way. I didn’t find easy answers.

When the coroner’s report came out in March, it emphasized the family’s preparedness, their experience, their safety precautions. The investigators’ reconstruction of the attack made it clear: even if, somehow, Valérie had had a loaded gun in her hand when the bear made his move, she wouldn’t have had a chance. The only thing she could have done differently, I realized, was not be there. Not have gone for a walk with her child in the freshly fallen snow, not have been in the backcountry to begin with.

But those of us who love the outdoors understand: staying inside is no option at all.

Lead Photo: Kevin Gilgan/Stocksy

References

^report (www.justice.gov.yk.ca)

^this (twitter.com)

^covered (www.google.com)

^called (www.nytimes.com)

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[investmart007]

COLORADO | Lucky park visitor to get once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to release rehabilitated raptor back into the wild in raffle event

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/vsT9Q1

COLORADO | Lucky park visitor to get once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to release rehabilitated raptor back into the wild in raffle event

Raptor-release raffle among September events at Cheyenne Mountain State Park

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO – Ever held a raptor in your hands?  Few ever get to feel the power of a raptor’s talons as it launches itself into the air and back into the wilderness.  But that’s exactly the experience awaiting one lucky visitor to Cheyenne Mountain State Park in September.

Among a variety of nature talks and hikes and outdoor learning experiences will be a program by Pueblo’s Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center that will include the release of a rehabilitated raptor back into the wild.

And thanks to a fundraising raffle, a lucky park visitor will get the honors of sending the bird back into the wild.  The event is scheduled Saturday, Sept. 8, from noon-2 p.m.  Tickets are $2/each or 3 for $5 and all proceeds will support the center’s rehabilitation efforts.  Release will occur at 2 p.m., weather permitting.

Also Sept. 8 the park has scheduled its annual No Child Left Inside event 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This event encourages kids to get outside and experience nature through hands-on, engaging outdoor learning opportunities.  Check off some of the activities found on Generation Wild’s 100 things to do before you’re 12, such as make a leaf rubbing, roast marshmallows, and identify animal tracks.

Senior Strolls, our Junior Ranger programs, archery classes and the ever popular Full Moon Hike round out this month’s program list.

September Programs

Saturday, Sept. 1

Program: Junior Ranger Class – Fire Safety Time: 10 a.m. Location: Campsite No. 19 Details:  Do you have the right stuff to be a Junior Park Ranger?  Find out about the good, the bad and the ugly of wildfires.  Learn how rangers put out a wildfire.  You can pick up a Junior Ranger training booklet at the Visitor Center or at class. Kids 7-12 years old can earn a Junior Ranger pin or a colorful patch depending on levels completed.

Program: Animals in Winter Time: 7 p.m. Location: Camper Services Details:  Come learn how animals get ready for winter, what they do to prepare and how they make it through these tough months.

Friday, Sept. 7

Program: Senior Stroll Time: 9:30 a.m. Location: Visitor Center Details:  Join our naturalist-led morning stroll every first and third Friday of the month through September.  Each walk will be no more than a mile, with no more than 400 feet in elevation gain.  We will take a different trail every time and explore, discuss and discover the uniqueness each trail has to offer.  Join us after our stroll for cookies and a cold beverage.

Saturday, Sept. 8

Program: No Child Left Inside Time: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Location: Limekiln Trailhead Details:  Come play outside. Join us for our annual No Child Left Inside event.  We will have fun, family friendly activities, for all ages. Check off some of the activities found on Generation Wild’s 100 things to do before you’re 12.  Such as make a leaf rubbing, roast marshmallows and identify animal tracks.

Program: Raptor Release Time:  Noon to 2 p.m., Pueblo’s Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center will have raptors on display.  Learn about these important birds and the role they play in the environment.  Raffle tickets will be available for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to release a rehabilitated raptor back into the wild. Tickets are $2/each or 3 for $5; all proceeds will support the center’s rehabilitation efforts. Release will occur at 2 p.m., weather permitting.

Saturday, Sept. 15

Program: Discovery Hike Time: 10 a.m. Location: Visitor Center Details:  Join us for a naturalist-led hike through the park. Discovering new things on each trail.  There will be something for all ages.  A great way to get to know the park and what it has to offer.

Friday, Sept. 21

Program: Senior Stroll Time: 9:30 a.m. Location: Visitor Center Details:  Join our naturalist-led morning stroll every first and third Friday of the month through September.  Each walk will be no more than a mile, with no more than 400 feet in elevation gain.  We will take a different trail every time and explore, discuss, and discover the uniqueness each trail has to offer.  Join us after our stroll for cookies and a cold beverage.

Saturday, Sept. 22

Program: Beginner’s Archery Class Time: 9-10:30 a.m. Location: Archery Range Details:  Learn to shoot like a pro.  One on one instruction will help students learn how to shoot or polish up on skills you already have. All equipment is provided.  Ages 8 and up. Reservations are now open for all summer sessions.  Space is limited, so call the Visitor Center at 719-576-2016 to save your spot.

Program: Junior Ranger – Birds Time: 10 a.m. Location: Camper Services Details:  Do you have the right stuff to be a Junior Park Ranger? What do rangers need to know about birds?  Come learn how to identify the different birds that you can find here in the Park. You can pick up a Junior Ranger training booklet at the Visitor Center or at class.  Kids 7-12 years old can earn a Junior Ranger patch. Reservations requested.

Program: Archery Practice Session Time: 10:30-11:30 a.m. Location: Archery Range Details:  Phase 2. For those that have completed one of our beginner archery classes, you are welcome to come out and practice those skills you learned.  One on one instruction will help students polish up on the basic skills they learned in the beginner session.  All equipment is provided.  Ages 8 and up. Space is limited, so call the Visitor Center at 719-576-2016 to save your spot.

Monday, Sept. 24

Program: Full Moon Hike Time: 7 p.m. Location: Visitor Center Details:  Join us on this guided evening stroll as we explore moonlit landscapes and discover the nocturnal activities of owls and other nighttime creatures.  Bring a flashlight. Reservations required, space is limited. Please call 719-576-2016 to make a reservation.

Ongoing Programs

Programs: CMSP Trail Challenge and 100 Mile Trail Challenge Time: Ongoing. Began Jan. 1 – Ends Dec. 31 Location: Trail System Details:  Join the 800+ participants who have already accepted our challenge.  The goal of the Trail Challenge is to complete all 18 of the existing trails for a total of 21.87 miles.  Not enough of a challenge for you? T he 100 Mile Trail Challenge goal is to log 100 miles of trail within the park.  This challenge is a go-at-your-own-pace kind of challenge . A quick sign up is necessary and sign-up sheets will be available at the visitor center during business hours.  All miles must be logged and checked off by staff.  Completion of the Trail Challenge will earn a special patch and the 100 Mile completers will earn a CMSP Challenge Coin.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday

Program: Yoga in the Park Time: 9 a.m. Location: Visitor Center Meeting Room Details:  What better setting for a morning workout than Cheyenne Mountain State Park.  Join certified instructor Sudhanshu Semwal for Sankalp Yoga every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Beginners are welcome.  Dates, times, and locations are subject to change . Call 719-576-2016 to confirm classes or sign up for the weekly email reminder.

Donations are appreciated and a valid parks pass is required on all vehicles entering the park.

Cheyenne Mountain State Park is located at 410 JL Ranch Heights Road, south of Colorado Springs, off of Colorado Highway 115. From the city, take Nevada Avenue south, which becomes Colorado State Highway 115 to JL Ranch Heights Road opposite the Main Gate 1 entrance to Fort Carson.  Programs are free unless otherwise noted, but vehicles entering the park must have a valid State Parks Pass – $7 daily or $70 annual.

For more information, call 719-576-2016 or visit,

http://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/Parks/CheyenneMountain/

SOURCE; Originally published August 30, 2018 by CPW.STATE.CO.US