#spell writeup

[parisoonic]

How the hell do you manage to superimpose the hilariously exagerated proportions of the tf2 mercs into a cohesive 2d style? I always struggle SO much with like, the way the mercs' models have huge hands, the way they have relatively low-poly definition on things like arms, shoulders, and legs... and Especially the way like, the models are kinda janky when you pose them for art purposes- when using movement tools, things like armpits and seams between body parts get all deformed... Which makes the study of form and silhouette rather difficult.

I assume that a lot of your ability to translate the concept of the mercs from their original mediums into your own works of art comes to you quite naturally- through experience you have with drawing and art style stuff, as well as through intuition. I was simply wondering if I could poke at your mind and get some insight into your process, any thoughts you have about the proportions and silhouettes of the mercs, any quirks you've found while drawing the mercs, or simply what you enjoy drawing about them. Like, don't be afraid to infodump about something just because you think people wouldn't find it interesting- I am here, I am sitting, and I am listening- if you so choose to speak.

I am utterly fascinated and enraptured by the more behind-the-scenes aspect of art. The mundane things that come second nature to great artists yet seem so revolutionary to less experienced artists.

I love your work, I look forward to seeing more of it, and I hope you have a nice day :]

Sorry for the late reply! I've been a little…stuck on how to answer this but that's mainly because to me, drawing is composed of SO many different little skills - you have form, anatomy, shape language, silhouette, appeal, rhythm, acting and posing…not to mention everything AFTER your raw draughtmanship like line style, rendering and colour theory. Trying to distill a multiude of small skills into some pithy advice is overwhelming to my brain. So I'll take the invitation to ramble instead :))

I don't think I have any new or revolutionary insight into the tf2 guys specifically - more I'm using them as work horses to excercise general silhouette/posing/shape-language and further my skills when it comes to drawing characters!

I do agree though the proportions are rather silly when you stop and think about them realistically…they can be kinda tricky if you follow their 'actual' proportions. what looks great individually was maybe never meant to be directly compared (ie: Heavy's hand size against Spy's lol). It would've been funny if the TV show exsisted and we had more content to review…would the animators have had rules like Spy and Heavy can never shake hands? Would they cheated the proportions for shots? Or would they have said WHATVER it's gonna look weird and embraced it? (Like Kingpin in Spiderverse lol)

Paul Lasaine for 'Into the Spiderverse' This is AWESOME. But it's also one of the silliest designs I've ever seen comitted to screen. The varied scales of the characters work because of the unifying treatment (lighting, rendering, consistant hand anatomy, consistant clothing fold treatment etc) and because they are sort of proportional within themselves. A common mantra is that hands should be about as large as a characters face....which they all are here!

Human brains are very flexible and forgiving though. It's totally fine for you to put a character with huge hands and head next to a teeny tiny character! Vanellope and Ralph from Wreck-It Ralph look grand next to each other! And in that film you even have varying levels of stylisation sitting against each other (unified by the look dev treatment of the shaders and lighting). I think as long as the chracter is proportional within themselves it sort of works out. IE: a general rule is that a hand should be as large as the face so…you can have some large arse hands as long as their placed on a body with a big arse head. Unifying characters with the same treatment (ie: lineart brush, colouring style will also help them look cohesive next to each other :) )

I don't actually reference the 3D models/animations very much at all and instead draw their proportions based on my tastes for stylisation following their general vibes/silhouette profiles. I don't stick THAT close to their in-game looks and there are artists who do that are so so so much better than me (Creedei and Flapjack come to mind). I'm not amazing at body-type differentation and TBH they're all wearing chunky clothes all the time so I usually draw the guys as one-of-three body shapes: Heavy is the uniquely wide guy; Sniper/Scout/Spy are all tall and slim and Demo/Soldier/Medic/Engie have a little more of the generic 'hero' bodytype with varying tallness and broadness of the shoulders

Something like this! You can vary all these individual elements in terms of size, thickness, taper amount etc to create different characters. If you ARE going to reference the 3d works though you'll need to apply some anatomy knowledge to overcome the weird shoulders, armpits and knees which desperately need blendshapes to correct the 3D volumes and approach it a little more like an animation supervisor. There's a reason why you see in making-ofs and art-ofs character designers, character leads or animation supes doing drawovers of the models. These are character models that have had great effort put into their 'base' silhouette but it still needs to be reinforced in every frame for maximum appeal.

Shiyoon Kim for 'Raya' This sort of thing will occur at multiple stages during the animation process. Shiyoon Kim's notes are post final model but pre-animation. Most likely for internal rig tests, exploring what blend shapes and alt shapes are needed for the rigs etc. If your production has time, this will continue all the way to final anim. IF! But it's interesting to see how he emphasises the shapes and enhances the character acting of the 3d model.

As for 'mundane things' - I wouldn't say they're second nature! (If that makes you feel better!) I have to actively really persue certain advice and try to figure out how to best apply it. This can sometimes involve redrawing and redrawing an element of the drawing until I've grasped the nettle of whatever I'm after or…..until I get frustrated and either delete the drawing or just call it done lol

Here, I'm looking for a really specific flow of the head that sells both the acting and a subtle head tilt. I'm also trying to apply the general mantra regarding faces that converging lines (set by the eyebrows and mouth) are more appealing than parallel. It's tough! I also tend to use a drawing I've already done as a template/reference on the page too. Oh! This page is an amazing example of why I'm not an animator or storyboarder…consistancy? Who is she? 💅

Converging lines (that form tapered shapes) are always more appealing than parallel. Using this logic you can loft the facial features across converging lines to create dynamic appealing espressions. Combining this with anatomy, perspective and rotation is the tough part though. I'm still learning o7

The things I probably think about MOST are always flats vs curves, simple vs complex and general line of action/flow...and then eliminting tangents. Each of these can be a dedicated visual-essay on their own - hence my stumbling as to answer your question. Anyhow, not sure if it's ever come up on this blog but I looove dinosaurs :)) so i'm using a wee piece to demostrate these ideas! (but also to demostrate these concepts apply to everything from humans characters to animals, props and background design)

Okay, I'm getting self-aware that this is getting really long :') I have a wee tutorial tag for my blog if anyone wants to comb through my garbled art-thoughts. Learning, studying, repetition and practice will always be the greatest teachers! I'm glad you like my art- thank you so much for the lovely comments - I feel like such a noob still and not qualified to give people advice but we're in it together learning! High-five! 🙌

[leota-nexus]

@jessdean / @shopwitchvamp this was gunna be an ask but got too long so HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!! 🎉🎁🔮🎁🎉

A Crystal Oracle card for the giver of crystal oracles!

Turquoise (speaking one's truth, clear communication, purification)

And a Dreams of Gaia Tarot card for the tarot reader!

Three of Fire (action, implementation, exploration, expression, energy, hard work, sacrifice, imitation)

…And because this got a bit belated (woo chronic health issues), I asked the decks for any bonus messages & these basically threw themselves at me lmao

Rhodonite (achievement, potential, emotional balance, an open heart) Australian Agate (perception, strength, courage, stamina) Nine of Air (rev) (self-awareness, universal consciousness, understanding, insight, vision, imagination, fantasy, creativity) (rev: imagine your fears away) Three of Water (satisfaction, pleasure, joy, hopefulness, anticipation, attachment, expectation)

Well damn, I'd say have a good year but I think the cards said it better than I could! Thank you again for all that you do. Enjoy your belated birthday weekend & the rest of your break! 🖤

(Sidenote: my partner & I bought that Dreams of Gaia deck for our 10 year anniversary from a local place specifically because of your tarot videos. I had to wear your mystic flame skirt & my partner wore the dark jester joggers. I wore my amanita mini back there a week later & we got so many compliments both times, just wanted to pass those along to you!)

[twilightknight17]

The Promised Day - Part 3

Man, I left this for a while. God. Too much to do, too little time, and work is fucking exhausting. But let’s talk about the ending, finally.

Where last we stood, the Great Seal was cast, and everything faded to white.

Probably the closest any of you will ever get to seeing the Sea of Souls.

It’s crushing, how upset they are that everyone made it but one person. Honestly, I get the sense that any number of casualties would have been too much. This was an all-or-nothing fight. It was supposed to be that everyone goes home, or no one does.

But no, the one person they lost was their leader. In the end, there was nothing they could do.

…….it’s not the Sea of Souls, it’s the Universe. Oh god. Of course he can hear them.

Stop talking like you and Nyx are the same. T_T You’re not!

He does sound proud of them, though.

SEES is returned to the front of the school, Tartarus dissolves into light, and Minato walks out of the now-normal building so that everyone can hug him and cry all over him. If I didn’t know how this ends, I’d be really mad about ten minutes from now.

I do like that, after the timeskip, this version of the ending starts the exact same way as the other one, since they still don’t have their memories in this version.

Man oh man am I popular, though. This isn’t even all my social links, and look how many people want to talk to me!

It’s morbidly hilarious that this game literally started the trend of “walk around and talk to everyone the day before the ending”, but Minato’s the only modern protag who wasn’t going to leave. Not by choice, anyway.

You and your girlfriend can’t both have amnesia, my guy. Get it together.

We find out that Kenji is excited because apparently there are going to be three new teachers next year, and they’re all hot. So he has learned nothing. Lots of social links sent letters, because the end of their link was literally them leaving town.

(Minato wasn’t going to leave, everyone else was. Inverse Persona ending. X’’’D)

The Gourmet King is gone (no tears here). Maiko’s dad says she’s doing well but also says I’m absolutely not allowed to marry her. We’re able to give Akinari’s mom the notebook with his story in it. Mamoru and Kaz are doing fine. Bebe, tragically, has decided not to come back to Japan right away. He’s gonna stay with his uncle for a while so they can grieve his aunt together.

Ms. Toriumi is taking the accidental revelation that I’m her MMO buddy very well.

God I laughed so hard.

All the cats I saved from Tartarus are vibing in the back alley!

I think I saved eight total? I wonder if there’s more. Secret cat ending. Fill the whole alley.

And…

...can I listen to my music box now? Please. T_T

As Mitsuru makes her graduation speech, SEES starts to remember, and rushes for the roof, where Aigis and Minato are already skipping the ceremony.

That’s a long time.

I ended up dating Aigis just because I actually maxed her link, and I think the only other girl I maxed was Yuko? Maybe? And Maya, but that wasn’t a romance option, which I still think is weird.

So, the credits. They, uh, didn’t have to do that. Like, it’s brilliant. Having his silhouette sinking deeper and deeper and gradually fading away to represent him doing the same. He vanishes completely and only then does it end, and we get to see SEES reach the roof just barely too late. Beautifully done, Atlus, I started tearing up, how dare you. X’D

And then the main menu is no longer the Dark Hour.

So, overall, other than some nitpicks, I think this was a really solid game. But as a modern remake of a preexisting game, I think they could have gone further. Why NOT just make your male teammates possible social links? Why NOT include Hamuko? Why NOT include The Answer with the base game? Why lie and say you want the “core” (read: original base game) P3 experience, but then add new things?

Why make Ryoji tell you he wants to be more than friends and then not give you a third dialogue option?!?!?

(I know the answer is money. It’s always money. I am just salty.)

But I could forgive more of that if they hadn’t nerfed the final boss. I did some googling, and pinpointed some other things about the Nyx Avatar fight that didn’t line up. Before, he could attack twice per turn. This one can’t. They gave the Death Arcana an extra thousand health, but the old version automatically took half-damage from EVERYTHING except almighty. They took away Moonless Gown, and therefore took away his ability to become invulnerable. Apocalypse can reduce your HP to 1%, but if he’s not attacking twice per turn, someone always has time to heal, so who even cares?

(Shoutout to the Fandom wiki for being like, “It is strongly encouraged to heal when it uses this skill”. No shit, guys. Wow.)

And yeah, they buffed his spells up a level, but ultimately, all the things that might have actually made the boss genuinely hard got nerfed.

It kind of sucks. They gave him a cool new color scheme for the final arcana and then weakened him. Why even.

Anyway, gonna do NG+ on hard mode to finish all social links and the compendium, and also probably going to do something really stupid like solo the Avatar with my level 99 Minato and Thanatos just for giggles.

Because hell yeah. :D

[the-physicality]

.

[ventique18]

Dragon couple 🐉🌸♀️

When their first son was born, Yuu unfortunately resigned to her fate that she would be the mother of children named Malware, Malaria, and Malignant Cancer.

Her husband Malleus had named their firstborn Malleus. Which was not a terrible idea given the boy was his heir and inheriting his name could be symbolic, but she was certain there were not too many words starting with 'Mal' that could pass off as a name. So imagine her surprise when he had suggested that their second child, a lovely girl, be named Agatha.

"You're not insane after all. I was going to rethink our marriage if you tried to name our baby Malnutrition, or something." Her love for him had grown a tad fiercer, if that was at all possible.

When they welcomed their third child to the world, he had named him 'Lilia' and Yuu immediately caught up to his intentions.

"You realized we couldn't possibly give a good name that starts with 'Mal' everytime, so you decided to spell it out chronologically instead? Malleus, Agatha, and Lilia..."

"Oh, but my plan isn't quite as shallow as that." He commented with an eager smile, "We need five more children."

"Five more-- eight children in total?! Are you planning to build an entire Spelldrive team complete with a coach?"

"Perhaps." He replied, his grin both mischievous and secretive.

What ever could this man be planning? Some kind of ancient ritual that required eight of his own flesh and blood? World domination? Of course he wouldn't do something as terrible as that, but why eight in particular?

Seasons passed, years crawled on, yet their love for each other remained just as strong. True to his words, they managed to conceive their eight child after a few decades. They had the most delightful names, you see:

Malleus, Agatha-- the first two letters of her name stood for the element symbol of Silver, Lilia, Laverne, Eleanor, Yuuki, Ubek (he ran out of ideas), and Ulficia. They were his greatest masterpiece, the father would brag, and so he named them after an actual masterpiece that happened to exist before they did. Since their names were variations of the people closest to him, textbooks would then write him down as a king full of love and respect for those who had given his life meaning and became his strength.

... Or so the writeup could have been that respectable, if only he did not frown while reviewing such descriptions of him and personally wrote an edit request to the publishers. For they had omitted a crucial detail from their story:

That the first letters of their children's names, when arranged, spelled 'MALLEYUU.' Their names being variations of the people he care about were merely secondary. His main purpose was to immortalize in books his undying love for his wife, Yuu.

Later on, some would call him the Mad King; not because he was insane or cruel, but because they had never seen a ruler as madly in love with his spouse as he was with his wife. Their love story would then become a classic literary blueprint for centuries to come.

[dailyadventureprompts]

See You Back at the Bonfire: Checkpoint Based Resurrection in D&D

Artsource

Between doing a writeup on soulsborne inspired campaign settings and another on the oldschool/newschool disparity between challenge and story, I got to thinking about death and its place in gamified narratives. Darksouls was the obvious influence, but I couldn't help but think of Dungeon Meshi, World of Warcraft, and supergiant's Hades.

Back in the day death was common in d&d, the challenges were unforgiving and the characters were expendable as they were simple. High level might as well have meant "high scoring", as the rewards for overcoming deathtraps and monsters with save-or-die abilities were directly translated into character progression. Death in this instance amounted to a combo breaker, being sent back to square 1 in a roguelike to do it all again. Over time though we started getting attached to our avatars, especially those of us who played primarily for story, leading characters to become too emotionally or mechanically complicated to feed into the blender.

This leaves the modern DM in a bit of a lurch: death by mooks or misadventure denies a satisfying (or heartwrenching) endpoint to the story you're collectively telling with your players. Look no further than Critical Role, where there are a small number of plot-meaningful deaths ( Vexhalia in the Tomb, Mollymauk to the Iron Shepards) and then a much larger tally of obligatory moments where someone fails one too many death saves and requires the use of a spell slot. The DM is forced to play with gloves on much of the time, holding back from creating real challenges because they don't want to kill any of their characters at the wrong time.

What I’d like to propose is that when it comes to challenge vs story we can have the best of both worlds if we’re a little more freehanded when it comes to resurrection. It'll take some tinkering and it won't fit for every story, but as a baseline assumption to the d&d formula, I think it could be quite useful.

How It'd Work: If someone dies before their appointed time , their body can be brought to a local temple to have the gift of life restored to them. Temples of their own deity are thought to work best, but lifegiving deities like Pelor or Illmater are known to be quite freehanded when it comes to raising the dead, and even small countryside shrines are known to work in a pinch. The resurrection may not work if the body is damaged, desecrated, or incomplete, though sometimes the spirit is simply incapable or unwilling to return.

For adventuresome types, this means that if you bite it while exploring the wilderness or some dank ruin you best hope your companions like you enough to drag your corpse back to the nearest altar. Likewise hope that you've kept on good terms with that god. If your entire party wipes, there's a chance for a good samaritan (or enterprising corpse picker) to help you out, though they'll usually help themselves to what's in your pockets in the meantime.

Some temples also sell rare tokens or burnable offerings that can transform any mundane campfire into a one-use resurrection altar, though the expendable nature of these charms mean they are in high demand.

Behind the scenes: what we've done here is turn character death from a plot derailer into a plot generator. Whenever someone in your party dies, it's your excuse to introduce new npcs, questhooks, and worldbuilding. Hades uses this trick to soften the blow of defeat with story progression, and DunMeshi uses it to build out the setting.

We can likewise take a point of inspiration from soulsborne games which use the player's desire to find a safety granting bonfire to spur exploration; What's the first thing the party are going to when hitting a new settlement after renting a room at the inn? Check out the neighbourhood temples to see which of the local gods is sympathetic to them. Same thing with seeking out the shrine nearest to the dungeon entrance before descending lower to face greater threats, which has them engaging with the location's story while discovering a minor questhook to endear themselves to the shrine god.

This is also to say nothing of all the fun adventure-fodder surrounding the mechanics including all the delightful "came back wrong" possibilities.

Finally let's talk about some gameplay assumptions: It's a tricky art building d&d encounters, especially since 5e play tends to default towards having fewer encounters per day, meaning a greater importance on these encounters being more challenging. This is a problem that I and many other DMs have wrestled with; finding the right degree of challenge for the encounter to be meanacing and meaningful, but without going so far as to risk an unexpected character death derailing my game. There's only so many permadeaths a player (and a story) can endure, to say nothing of the narrative killing tpk, which can scrap months of investment and storytelling potential.

Videogame designers figured out this balancing act of narrative and risk a long time ago, bumping characters back to a checkpoint when the player is overwhelmed by a challenge. The Soulsborne franchise built it's reputation on this "If at first you don't succeed, die, die again" mentality, which let them build the challenging ( read: engaging) gameplay the series is known for. Games like Hades go so far as to make this reset a centeral point of furthering the plot, allowing the narrative to expand with each stumble along the player's insurmountable climb.

By allowing characters to be easily revived, we end up with the best of both worlds when it comes to narrative vs. difficulty. The encounters we build can be more challenging in the moment if we know we won't accidently end a campaign if the dice get mean. This also makes players more likely to make big swings and try for optional content knowing the campaign less likely to end if they fuck up.

While some people might take umbrage with the idea of making resurrection commonplace, D&D already allows for characters to be revived though in-game mechanics at the cost of cleric spells and diamond dust. The devs figured out pretty early that even in a game centred around frequent violent clashes, it sucks to have a character you're invested in die unexpectedly, and it's better for the health of the game/narrative to be able to get those characters back at a cost. The problem is that these resurrection mechanics are siloed off to mid/high level characters, when it's the low level adventurers who are most fragile and thus most in need of an in-game safety net.

Secondly, look at the Soulsborne series as the inspiration for this post: part of the reason players are able to "Git Gud" is because the fast respawns allow for players to get right back into the action after making a fatal error, allowing for a "die, die again" playstyle focused on persistence and adaptation. This likewise allows developers to develop gameplay scenarios that are properly intimidating:

[luddlestons]

any fun headcanons for transmasc caleb?

oooh YES actually, even though I haven't yet written transmasc Caleb I do read a lot, and I'm especially fond of the HC that he came out rather young, and Ikithon helped him a lot with his transition, in a fatherly way and also since he's powerful and can get stuff like name changes pushed through easily. Caleb both feels more indebted to him, and also appreciates what he's done for him, so it continues his feeling of not being totally able to hate Ikithon's impact on his life.

Which is kind of a sad HC so here's a cuter one:

I like the idea that the names Caleb goes by when he's on the run are names he'd workshopped before eventually settling on Bren. I know 'Caleb' was kind of random in canon, but I like the idea that he was always sort of fond of it but it didn't sound especially Zemnian*, so he'd passed on it before.

I ALSO think it's delightful that Caleb, in canon, basically invented THE transition spell, and I think regardless of his own gender, he goes on to perform that spell a few other times for friends or students who are transitioning and want to change their appearance all at once, and after he does an official writeup with Essek (and commentary from Noted Alchemist Veth Brenatto) and many other wizards study it for the purpose of trans.... healthcare? magic-care?

*I looked up 'Caleb' on behindthename because I was like 'wait it's not secretly german is it?' and found out that one of the tags for that page on the website is 'Critical Role Characters'. caleb widogast you will always be famous...

[thydungeongal]

dnd players looking into other games often seem to ask for the least maths and the most improv, what if im someone who wants to look into more rpgs but wants the opposite

what are some games, or some genres of game to look up, with the most maths and the least improv even in talking to people? Like ik its a newbie question (and ig this might be a case where you say ive been misled by the dnd culture etc lol) but whats the right design terminology to use for a game with very concrete rules and outcomes for all the "verbs" a player can interact with it through

Nah this is pretty clear, while D&D already is quite crunchy it's not the crunchiest game out there.

If you basically want the same exact genre as D&D but even more mechanical structure, Pathfinder 2e is worth a look. A lot of it should be familiar owing to the fact that Pathfinder is literally based on an older version of D&D and has simply just gone to do its own thing. Whereas 5e went for a looser structure, Pathfinder chose to codify more and more things. Its rules are also available for entirely free online.

My favorite game, Rolemaster, isn't quite as strict;it doesn't have specific rules for codifying everything, but very similarly to 5e, it provides the GM with broadly applicable methods for resolving tasks, and while some tasks get extremely detailed writeups most tasks are handled via a simple table. That table looks like this by the way:

Anyway so the point being that while it doesn't have specific spelled out rules for everything, what it does handle it does with mathematical rigor. However, the edition of Rolemaster known as Rolemaster Standard System did very much try to provide extremely detailed procedures, down to how each individual skill worked. It's also very much in the same broad genre of action fantasy as D&D and Pathfinder.

Someone has been slowly uploading all of Rolemaster Standard System on GitHub.

There's also HERO System which again doesn't have exacting procedures for everything, but what it does handle it does with a lot of granularity. But I think Pathfinder 2e might already do the trick, and Rolemaster is also a good option.

[absentlyabbie]

i have gotten to the point in my buying-shit evolution to where i am disgusted, affronted, even outraged when some big name "we're so amazing and quality which is why we charge out the ass" brand wants to sell me fucking "PU leather"

it's PLASTIC. BITCH YOU THINK I'M PAYING $60+ FOR PLASTIC SHOES OR A PLASTIC JACKET OR A PLASTIC PURSE?

levis and loungefly and soooooo many others can fuck right off with that.

and DO NOT get me started on clothes and bedding being sold by prestige brands for hundreds of dollars MADE OF FUCKING POLYESTER. the gall. the temerity. the EMBARRASSMENT. the unvarnished greed of it all.

i spit on your advertisements and all your marketing writeups.

ps never fucking trust a product that the brand doesn't wanna say what it's made of. that comforter or shirt says it's "skin friendly, breathable, wrinkle free" but doesn't spell out fabric content?

bitch, it's polyester. it is made of lies and poorly recycled garbage, which is where it will soon return when it falls apart in 3-7 months.

ho, don't do it. you are worth cotton, linen, and all the other natural fibers. you deserve real leather.

[axolator]

Script-A-Day #21: Witch Hunt by Kenoboi

Cut through the silent safety nets and go straight to the Demon!

Featured characters: Dreamer, Damsel, Boomdandy

Jinxes:

Marionette/Lil' Monsta: The Marionette neighbors a Minion, not the Demon. The Marionette is not woken to choose who takes the Lil' Monsta token, and does not learn they are the Marionette if they have the Lil' Monsta token.

Marionette/Balloonist: If the Marionette thinks that they are the Balloonist, +1 Outsider might have been added.

Marionette/Damsel: The Marionette does not learn that a Damsel is in play.

Spy/Damsel: If the Spy is (or has been) in play, the Damsel is poisoned.

Lil' Monsta/Scarlet Woman: If there are 5 or more players alive and the player holding Lil' Monsta dies, the Scarlet Woman is given the Lil' Monsta token tonight.

Complexity: Advanced. Recommended for players who can exercise caution with who they execute, lest they trip a Boomdandy or reveal a Damsel too soon.

Writeup under the cut!

Witch Hunt requires caution and careful planning from both teams. The good team must navigate the treacharously silent Minions, and determine if there's a Spy in play, a Xaan poisoning their info, a Scarlet Woman to kill or a Boomdandy to dodge, while the evil team has to be careful about which worlds they push and which players they kill to avoid giving the game away too soon!

This script was the runner-up for the Lord of Typhon contest, so it's unsurprising that it plays well along with the other two Demons on the script. The Lil' Monsta and Imp are hyper-mobile, and can make previous Minion candidates scarily viable as potential Demons in the late-game. Importantly, they're quiet enough to where a Lord of Typhon team who votes carefully and kills each other at night can frame the game as an Imp or LM game, with the good team none the wiser! Characters like the Empath, Dreamer, Oracle, and Ravenkeeper are the good team's keys to victory and figuring out which Demon type is in play.

Some notes:

If the Clockmaker gets a number that isn't a 1, that's incredibly powerful information for the good team, since it all but deconfirms a Marionette in play and eliminates Lord of Typhon worlds. Be cautious with putting it in the bag with evil teams that could produce a larger number, but do consider puzzledrunking or Xaan 1-ing a Clock that should've gotten a 1 into getting a higher number to spread confusion if your group has caught on.

Make sure you have a plan for who to leave alive when the Boomdandy explodes. Characters like the Clockmaker and Shugenja can quickly narrow possible Demon candidates after the bomb goes off, and if you're not careful, you can accidentally solve the game for the good team by leaving the wrong people alive! Make sure you keep the info town has available to them in mind when deciding who to leave as a possible Demon.

Be careful when building Lord of Typhon bags. Characters like the Shugenja, Empath, Balloonist, Oracle, and Philosopher can be incredibly threatening to a Typhon team, since a ping in the wrong direction can spell the end of the entire line. Consider leaving some of the Typhon counters out of the bag, keeping them as bluffs for the evil team.

That's it from me! Note that the grim screenshot I'm about to attach is from an older version of the script with Goblin over Boomdandy - nowadays, the Boomdandy tends to fit a lot better. Anyways, see you tomorrow with the next script!

[blackjackkent]

The Wyrmway atrium really is quite gorgeous. Crystals and green plants everywhere, the gentle sound of running water. And, from Rakha's perspective, I'm sure it's glimmering with magic in all directions from the various tests and traps and mechanisms controlling the final door into Ansur's hall.

I already did a full writeup on the details of the different tests during Hector's run, so I won't be quite as exhaustive this time. For the most part, anyway, I think Rakha pretty much just trails quietly behind Wyll, supporting him through each trial. This is his destiny to fulfill, his pride in his city and duty to his lost father, and Rakha would sooner cut her own head off than stand in the way of it.

The Trial of Courage is an interesting one in that it is the first time since Rakha got de-Spawned that her companions have seen her in combat. And they can see, again, slight differences. She's still powerful, still deeply in control of the Weave and its magic - but her attacks are less wildly violent, more precise, less random. There's less of that strange seizing feeling in the wake of her spells, like something might be about to spill out of the fabric of the world.

(A/N: I'm really proud of this screenshot. :P )

-----

She's pretty puzzled by the lanceboard trial.

In fact none of her party is really well-suited to it, including Wyll himself who actively says he has no lanceboard experience. I briefly considered that they might have pulled Gale out of camp specifically to solve this puzzle, but I think another possibility is funnier...

"There is but one rule," the statue says. "The black king must fall in two moves."

Rakha doesn't know how to play lanceboard. But she does know how to make things fall.

"Well," Wyll says after a long silence. "I guess that worked."

"Was this not supposed to be a test of strategy?" Lae'zel asks doubtfully.

"What need of strategy? The butt of this marble king has been soundly kicked!" Minsc says cheerfully.

Jaheira is laughing too hard to comment.

-----

She doesn't feel she has much to contribute to the Trial of Judgment (her own being so often in question for so long), but she does figure out dispelling the initial curse on "The Judge" way faster than Hector did.

She also watches Wyll navigate the trial with considerable admiration - and also quiet pride. She knows the beast would have hungered for the harsher sentence, the execution, the killing without cause, but she knew what Wyll would select instead. His sense of right and wrong is, after all, the one that has guided hers.

-----

The final trial, Insight, is also pretty interesting for her.

The trial deals with determining the best out of three different theories on war and diplomacy, and historically Rakha has struggled with conceptualizing matters on the level of nations. Her concerns have always been far more immediate. Perhaps, though, with the beast urges no longer monopolizing her thoughts, she is more able to bring focus to more sophisticated concepts.

At any rate, she reads all three books with great intensity after Wyll is done examining them, and is pleased when she realizes that she was correct to think that Amaps's (the one that among other things discussed reducing descrimination against orcs) was the most reasonable.

She also reads Suelto and Stedd's books and takes a certain amount of strange satisfaction in their cruelty, for they speak of things like razing nations to the ground and she does not feel even a flicker of slaughter-hunger rise in her own mind in response.

She follows Wyll to the bottom of the trial and watches attentively as he destroys the image of Suelto waiting there.

[toskarin]

some design rambles on Jetkaiser's combat system below the break. not particularly well-articulated, and expect a lot of unexplained jargon here if you haven't been following my rambles for a while now lol

-

Holy Arts and Techniques in Armored Blade Jetkaiser take the place of spells or skills in other ttrpgs. notably, their usage is not only encouraged by intense situations, but enabled strongly by desperation

while Techniques often have their own pool of uses before they start costing resources, Holy Arts always dip into a resource, and that resource is (excepting in very rare circumstances where a character might have developed some highly specialised abilities) Blood, which can be viewed as "the closest thing to a health value the game has, tracked only through its absence"

when a player takes damage, it's not really tracked. if something gets under your armour, you're wounded, and when a player has two stacks of wounds, they're killed. this holds true for enemies as well, and because of that, combat is inherently more about forcing a gap in your enemy's armour to hit the soft inside than it is about chipping at a health pool

the first time a character enters combat from a rested state, their blood pool fills. each time a character is wounded, their blood pool refills entirely, returning them to full fighting (if not enduring) strength. if the situation requires, a character can wound themselves to force an earlier refill of blood

there's a few design questions inherent to this, mostly around a very familiar issue in D&D-derived games (combat experimentation is discouraged by heavy consequences), so I ended up with a question to drop into my own hands:

how could Jetkaiser, on a very basic level as a game, encourage scenarios where a player character feels comfortable playing aggressively?

after all, directional armour aside, players only have a single health point of buffer before they're, theoretically, at risk of receiving a character death. if skills eat away at a pool of non-regenerating resource, why would a player ever risk using it?

the end result of this was the current system of wound-layering

when a character receives a wound for the first time in an encounter, this throws them into a state of sunder. several skills are set to fire off when a player is sundered, their blood pool refills, and nothing is really lost. I view this on the design side as the moment when your alarms would probably start screaming at you

in short, it's a serious place to be, but this will never kill a player

when a sundered player is hit again, they're presented a new option: crash their holy frame (the flying armour they wear) and receive a permanent penalty trait when combat concludes, or enter the second layer of wounds (torment)

when in torment, a player (or certain elite enemy) is willingly running the risk of much more debilitating harm. further injury at this point forces the character to crash, and post-combat, they roll 1d6 for each time this has happened to them before. if that number surpasses their blood pool's cap, the character dies

of course, even in the case of a success, a tormented character picks up worse penalties than if they'd crashed their frame earlier

I can't imagine the rules writeup of this will show up in the first playtests, just because I'm still wrestling the layout into a readable form, but so it goes

the wound system, at least, makes a really clean transfer to unmounted combat (carried out in roleplay) because it'd be a bit weird for characters who are more or less ace pilots to feel safe when fighting outside of their planes. if somebody pulls a gun, it should probably be at least a little bit more tense than ideal combat situations

[windienine]

(inviting u in like a vampire) pspspspsps victor. talk abt loïc and ysme more. tell me howd youd build them in chuubos.

hihihi!!!

luckily there's already a really clear nobilis analogue for what's going on with loïc, and that's the cleave of the botanists, a group of mortals (largely ones already chained to the service of particular divinities) who are able to draw on divine power by harnessing the innate magic imbued within flower species using conversation.

this means that loïc is comically easy to port to a nobilis framework

if we're building on that, porting him to chuubo's means he's got several levels in the Sentimental attribute.

some deets:

he's generally using flower magic as a magical skill, but some of the big casts are miraculous-level applications (i.e. chained spells) that he's invoking The Shepherd's Gift to harness in such a way where it moves the plot and shifts reality.

ysmé and lia are both his capital-t Treasures. other Treasures include flowers that tie in closely to them and the themes of the current chapter.

ysmé is his main source of divine willpower for Miraculous Ease, he gets to access his pool of extra will by taking actions in her name.

the cloud sage gives him access to sentimental's a waking dream ability, which allows you to contact someone or something dear to you across any distance.

^ thing he does

ysmé's conditional immortality might be framed as an application of The Shepherd's Blessing as well.

the Thing He Does At The End Of The Prelude is, of course, a Wish.

I'm excited for him to get weird and violent with it.

ysmé's a little trickier because we don't have the full shape of what she can do now in her weird half-state between dead and alive, mortal and goddess, etc. so i don't honestly know what arc she's on for certain (especially bc artisanry is also probably a magical skill for her)

but i am taking a plunge and saying my bestest bet is on Creature of Delirium, that pretty little arc that lets you reshape yourself, others, and fate itself.

the thing she extracts from people to gain power is faith. appropriately, she doesn't have faith in anyone but herself. loïc, as her witness, submitted/transferred all of his faith to her by binding agreement, so he's basically her magical peon now (though since he has Sentimental and her down as a Treasure it appropriately kind of goes both ways.)

this is kind of nothing but the power to command and captivate a whole group of people at once is literally called

Command would be appropriate for that Thing She Can Do to loïc

this.

^ god i hope she can do this

using Wield would let her be able to direct Loïc's miracles in new ways and turn him into an appropriate champion for her will, i.e. siccing him on people she doesn't like

the appearance-changing powers included in the latest writeups fit her abilities to a T and give them some narrative oomph

it's posssssible she's on a dual arc and might also have something like Star Quality or Troubled but i don't know enough to be absolutely sure.

thank you for opening the floodgates, seren

[dailydemonspotlight]

Alciel - Day 88

Race: Vile

Alignment: Dark-Law

August 7th, 2024

Bonum est deus... ahem. I'd like to start off this DDS by saying that, holy shit, the SMT wiki has an excellent page about Alciel, with fully cited sources and conjecture that makes sense, as well as providing two sources to pursue. Thank god... and as for a proper introduction,

Gehenna is typically seen as just another version of hell, but it's not quite that simple- rather, it's a separate part of hell, much like the difference between Hades and Tartarus. While Sheol is where the dead go, Gehenna is the home of punishment- where those whose souls have done truly horrible things shall face eternal torment as penance. It's not far off from its rendition in the Binding of Isaac, ironically enough, as it's torture to even exist there. Where there is hell, though, there must be one to preside over it, whether it be one cast below into hell or one who was sent there by the angels to watch over and torment the sinners. According to the Midrash ha-neʿelam, however, there is one being that presides over Gehenna to keep the sinners in and the righteous souls out, and that being is none other than today's Demon of the Day, Alciel.

Alciel, also spelled primarily as Arsiel according to @eirikrjs's writeup on the sources for the demon, is a demon that appears as the gatekeeper to Gehenna. While an admittedly minor character, only really attested to in some very obscure sources, Alciel can likely be confirmed as a genuine character in Jewish folklore. This is only further given credence by the meaning of Alciel, being "Dark Sun," at least in traditional Hebrew. Curiously, though, the original compendium entries about Alciel speak about his original name being "Aciel," which was 'Borrowed from a Babylonian god.' So, uh, what's up with that?

Yet again, for the source of this claim, we must refer back to the post by @eirikrjs, this time originating from the rather controversial book, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. The book in question is, again, seen as a rather controversial work, with dubious sources and a strange focus, but it does have this to say on the topic of Alciel. Again, I have to give all the credit to @eirikrjs and his team for even finding this, so thanks. To quote,

The kingdom of Gehenna was 60 times as large as the world. Each of the "palaces" had 6000 "houses," and each house had 6000 vessels of fire and gall awaiting the sinner. [The] Prince of Gehenna was Arsiel, copied from the Chaldean "Black Sun" Aciel, the negative deity corresponding to the god of light in the celestial realm.

This citation is given to one 'Cavendish, P.E., 146,' but I cannot for the life of me discover who this even is, or what it may originate from. Alas, I'm not fantastic at researching super deep into things, but if anyone can track down what this source was, please let me know. I'm starting to understand those amazon reviews that were roasting the shit out of this book for lacking concrete sources. Still, the given Black Sun of Alciel is a very confusing and interesting rabbit hole to dig into, and as the gatekeeper of Gehenna, I have to give him some props for a good job. A lot of stuff regarding Arsiel is murky to say the least, and I have to give a lot of props and credit to @eirikrjs for his work researching into this topic, especially given the relative obscurity of this demonic force.

For such an important figure in Gehenna, you'd expect him to get a few more mentions, eh? Well, whatever.

Maybe the guy's just camera shy. Could explain why he hides half his head underground all day.

[inventors-fair]

Decisions: One-Word Removal Commentary

As I'm wrapping up writing the commentary now, I'll say that this was a pretty interesting week all around, and it's led me to a strange conclusion: designing cards is hard. Really hard. And depending on what you're looking for fulfillment-wise, some things might be asked of you as custom designers that just aren't your area, and that's a judging conundrum.

I'd like to think that I'm an okay player and that I'm decent enough at judging power levels of cards. I'd also like to think that I have a good critical understanding of how a card's flavor works and how it would appear in the world. Sometimes asking for that marriage is all about vibes. Sometimes it feels like I'm asking for the same stuff over and over again in these writeups, but it's not because of anyone's fault on the submission side. It's the concept of custom card design in general.

Nobody in the real Magical design universe is going to be challenged to design a card based on a one-word prompt. Similarly, nobody would expect the exploratory designers to know the flavor text and artistic intent of the cards that they design. But we're not working in those fields. We're presenting a card as the best that it can be in all respects, because most of our knowledge of how cards work come from the other end of the production line: as consumers. We take cards in with all their glory, and the love of making cards can come from any number of places along the process of a card's journey to a booster foil.

What I want to express here is that these contests ask for a lot. They ask for a whole hell of a lot from you on the other side, because you have to go through every part of the process of designing a card to land at the feet of a vibe check. This is turning into just a rambling question of "what's it mean to be an Inventor here?" but it kinda matters. Doesn't it? Think about what you're doing here vs. what you'd be doing in a design team. Different worlds. Makes you wonder.

JUDGE PICKS are cards I wanted to show off because they were still really cool and/or because we have limited podium space and/or because I play favorites with my nostalgia and lived experience. ... Kidding. Mostly. On with the show!

@bread-into-toast — Falsify

For me, there's a discrepancy between the really cool mechanics of this card and the intent of the flavor going into it. Does it signify that the amount of information you've gathered allows for you to more easily falsify the target's existence? See, you picked a really awesome word for the destructive aspect, and I feel that the onus of the verb relies less on how easy it is for you to empower the spell (cost reduction for power) and more about what exactly happens when one "falsifies" a target. But there are plenty of spells that don't really have to worry about that, like Withering Torment. I dunno, maybe I also expected more from the flavor text? It's a cool callback to Festerleech. I had actually forgotten about that.

I guess part of me also doesn't really feel the connection between the Dimir and newspapers as a form of information control, especially when the headline is as tongue-in-cheek as this. It almost feels more like an OTJ headline to me? Ugh, I don't want to talk about connected threads and my lack of coherence that I'm mistaking for a lack of cohesion. The name, cost, and mechanics are all really great. There could be something in the setting/flavor that's not tying it together, but it could also just be a personal taste kind of deal. The humor that comes from the conflict between the Gruul and Dimir with the fantasy headlines can be done right for the right audience. For an effect this brutal, I usually have the association with that brutality, and while I said I didn't need grimdark as much from this contest—I mean, this would've been the place to do that, right? 

~

@brookeuwo — Beewitch

I really don't know why the creation of the token is tied to a trigger at the end there. I mean, sometimes you have creatures with enter abilities that can then be responded to, but I can't find any precedent for why this card wouldn't just be "Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Create..." etc. Here's what I'm thinking happened: this card came about after the name, and the intent is to show that there's a bee witch who's casting the spell that destroys its nemesis. You have to have the spellcaster to cast the spell. Right? The issue is that rules-wise, there's no reason for this not to just follow the gameplay precedent. If you destroyed something and then created the token, people would get the gist right away all the same.

Even if you didn't use a pun name and went with "Bewitch," the transmutation of something becoming a bug would probably be just as recognizable. See Bake into a Pie, for example. If you want this as an uncommon, 2UB would probably be the best cost for that IMO. Backing up a lot, though... I started writing about the spirit of the contest, but I'm not gonna be a killjoy here. I think I would have preferred a more organic pun and I'll leave it at that. This visual leaves a lot of room for a flavorful situation and a placement of character to bring it to life. Without some of that backing, I feel that this is a card that relies too much on the pun. It's still lacking a little bit of the justification for me outside the fact that it's a card-doing-the-thing. What can you add to make the world of the card matter as much as the effect here?

~

@capnsoapy — Liquidate

And now we have the other form of liquidate! I'll be honest, I'm writing these in a weird order so I don't know how much that sentence makes sense, but it's nice to see that there are parallels here with what words came to folks' minds for killspells. I do wish that we had had some kind of elaboration here, though, because while this card is great, I want a little bit more around it, y'know? What's the flavor behind what's being liquidated, is this an act of genuine bureaucracy or is it more insidious, is this just Orzhov or is there another world where this card is taking place, etc.—what more can you show me about the impact?

On-board, though, it's a pretty dastardly uncommon. I'm reminded, of course, of An Offer You Can't Refuse, although this is less responsive but kinda more powerful in limited. Grabbing artifacts and creating Treasures might not be the best strategy but can be necessary. Permanently yeeting a creature in exchange for Treasure is usually a pretty good trade in the late game. I think the choice to make this a sorcery was correct, and even at two mana... Man, that's the real question, right? An inexperienced player would snap this off against U/R/G decks, though, and they'd get punished for it; an experienced player would hold on and let those usually mana-hungry decks power through. I think I'm a real fan of this design. I still want to hear what you'd have in mind for fleshing the world, though, because the card is lacking a lot of that backdrop.

~

@corporalotherbear — Cleanse (JUDGE PICK)

I actually didn't know that "targeted permanent" was usable terminology; it hasn't been used for a while, but the fact remains that it's usable all the same! Runesword and Acidic Dagger appear to be the only two, so I do appreciate the fact that this is a novel approach to how targeted removal can be worded. All in all, this card is definitely looking to be a planeswalker-hating spell with good workarounds for various artifacts and +1/+1 environments. The WW could be a bit high sometimes, but removal is removal in the worst-case scenario. Whatever environments this card could appear in, having it in a counter-heavy set just makes sense. Ikoria comes to mind.

The flavor text feels a little general along with the name, but it's not generic. It's well-written to the point of me wanting a little bit more. Honestly, as I'm writing through the remaining cards for commentary, this is just one of those strong entries that's missing something I can't fully suggest or complete in my imagination, and that's really all that I would add. The character you've given here clearly has the vindictive tone of specific hatred, and this card is just plain Cleanse—like one would clean a plate or a shoe. The dismissal and the near-zealous mood is so close, and only a little bit of AD would've pushed it over for me. I also have to recognize that when all the text is precise and presented, not everyone wants to add any artistic stuff because, well, that's not the point of card design. That's understandable! With a card that's making me ask for that vision so much, I still would want it. This is less commentary about the card itself as it is commentary on how this particular contest works at this point. One-word cards ask for a LOT from you outside the design.

~

@dabudder — Apprehend

Put on the sirens and get out the lassos and etc., there's a new bounce spell in town. Maybe this is gaming the contest a bit, but I loved OTJ mechanically and I loved committing crimes (in the game of Magic: the Gathering). Having that spelled out as punishment for committing a crime would've been something that should've appeared on exactly one card because, well, nobody wants to be punished for it in-game. Is this the card to do it? Eh, I can see it happening! Stunning a creature is a crime in itself, as it goes, and I think it's funny that the commitment would be a crime to your opponents. Whose Crime is it anyway?

The thing about bounce spells is the fact that responding to crimes makes using this card sometimes worse depending on when you want to cast it. Here's a question: when does this card check for a crime to be committed? If you target something you want to tap and it's before a crime has been committed against you, could an opponent commit a crime and force a bounce? Does this card check for crime at time of casting or at time of resolution? That would be something to account for, because being able to force a bounce could significantly help your opponent with ETBs or plotting, if this is still an OTJ-kinda set. I really don't know how you'd change the wording for that, but it's something to think about. Otherwise, I really like how this card turned out vibes-wise! I'd personally give the FT an exclamation point and also spell out what a crime is when committed against you in reminder text.

~

@dimestoretajic — Brouhaha

"Downgrade" and "upgrade" are kinda throwing me in the flavor text, not gonna lie. I think I'm able to grasp the gist of this card's semi-intended flavor, though, and even without AD I can picture some kind of D&D-style brawl in a tavern or town square. I guess that's it? The word of choice is pretty great, honestly, and I was going over the wording in my head but this is the cleanest way to do so that I could come up with. Good job there. Smallest of notes about the flavor text while I'm on the horn here: the quotes around 'melee' and 'splat' go after the comma/period. General note.

Mechanically, though! Whoof. Resolving this spell would be kind of a nightmare at first on a busy board. Obviously this kind of card couldn't be rare, because the first mode is fairly anemic, but that's the thing: this whole card suffers a little bit from the fact that it's not necessarily going to leave you in a good spot. Even if everything is bigger, well, you can't guarantee you're going to hit the thing you want to hit. "At random" is fine for repetition and limits, I think, but removal is a stretch. Chaos is the intent of Magic's randomness, though. Maybe that's the point you were going for. I guess I can buy that. I'd also never play this card, though, and I can't think of a situation where I'd really like it in a deck. I want to rig my fights, as it were.

~

@feyd-rautha-apologist — Reforge

At time of writing this card doesn't have a shuffle clause. If you're reading this exact sentence and it hasn't been struck out, then this card still doesn't have a shuffle clause. I'mma talk about it as if it does, though, and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. What's up with the cost on this card? For five mana I could be playing spells that annihilate a good number of artifacts, maybe even all of them. There's no tutoring attached, sure, but what's the proper cost for a (limited) Open the Armory and Shatter together? I think that this card could've been four mana for sure, even three if it was rare. I get the worries about tutoring and whatnot; I feel that you may have pushed a little farther in the other direction.

Still, awesome effect, and seeing the description of a Phyrexian re-welding is pretty amazing for intended flavor. The fact that we've seen plenty of cards in the past referencing "reforging" without actually having the card name is a bit of a wasted opportunity and I think that, if they were to print a card with that name, it would almost precisely resemble this one. There could've been a line of flavor in there, IMO, but you're doing great work with veteran Magic players for how this particular iteration wants to be portrayed. Kaladesh, Kaldheim, Zendikar... I think that it's also a multi-planar kind of card, another pretty cool aspect to its presentation. Hey, the strengths we got are really strong! I'm still urging you to sand some of those edges.

~

@fionn-o-nassus — Puree

Haha. Ew. Let's get the really good stuff out of the way: this card's a visceral piece that knows exactly what it wants to do. You've got nonartifact destruction into blood, and there's some greasy grimy guy-guts all over the place. The name suggests some gross-out B-movie death, and I think that this card doesn't need to apologize for a dang thing. Sticking to your guns is important. In terms of the costing and formatting, though, there's a lot I want to drill in. Firstly, let's compare this four-mana sorcery to the two-mana instant Go for the Throat. The question is, for premier limited: is it worth the extra cost and timing for a Blood? I would argue no. A three-mana sorcery would be fine, probably, or a BB sorcery, or however else you want to push it. Having this effect for 3B makes it nearly unplayable. I'd be a lot more down for 3B if it made, like, 2-3 Bloods, though.

Secondly, small note, but "Create a Blood token" could've gone onto the first line; if the intent was to have it be a separate effect, that's understandable but not necessary. Thirdly, wording notes: "nonartifact" is a single word in Magic, and Blood should be capitalized. Lastly, here's why I've been drilling in art direction as a tool in people's arsenal: the flavor text is only half-necessary here, i.e. you only need the first half to make it work. Using art direction to describe a room where an inspector is standing in a pool of greasy red sludge with greenhorns getting sick and horrified behind them—we wouldn't need the whole second half, and like, that's what we would be seeing for the art, so it doesn't need to be described here. Does that make sense? The full picture of the card, which is what we're designing for these contests, allows for players to fill in the intuitive blanks. Side note, but I like that whole "Call off the autopsy" gist here. I do feel that there's a good foundation here.

~

@frognarch — Repurpose

I think it was pointed out that Break Down was a card that was precedent for this kind of effect. I've never played with the Fallout stuff, so I didn't really know that that card existed, so I got to see this card through fresh eyes, and I am overall pretty pleased with it! I think that the right environment could utilize this card far better than something like a core set or what have you, but the intent is for sure Mirrodin-esque, so that checks out. Limited environments with artifact-heavy matchups would probably sideboard this for sure. Maybe there would be a place for it in whatever premier constructed meta there was, but artifacts haven't been in vogue for a while now for some reason. Who knows? The flashback is definitely an interesting touch.

It's a shame that Junk is the name of the token, because the name "Repurpose" feels so much less like the junkification of a myr—except if you're Tommy Pico, I suppose. Creating junk tokens without having to destroy artifacts could just turn this card into a three-or-six-mana cantrip, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Hm. You know what, I actually like the forced creation aspect of the flavor, now that I think about it more. "You must repurpose this metal. You must try again." I mean, personally I like this card. It's also against some stiff competition this week, so with the exception of adding flashback's reminder text (which is something that I would do but that might not be necessary in some environments), I don't think this card needs any specific changes. Flying too close to precedent really is its only major flaw. I like the camera's emotional distance here, because this card isn't trying to tug at heartstrings as much as it's displaying the outcome of a repurposed world. Y'know?

~

@genericaura — Disembowel

Granted, there already is a card with the name Disembowel, but let's break this one down all the same because it's a really good name. I think the question that's unanswered here is what the name/flavor have to do with the mechanics specifically, because I don't exactly see what losing abilities has to do with the minotaur's rectangular wound. A minotaur is also certainly one choice here, because...well, I've never known minotaurs for being tight-lipped and demure myself, but that's a minor question. Aside from that, the problem is with what this card is able to do vs. what it wants to do. When you look at cards like Soul Sear, those force the abilities to be lost so that the spell can get through the damage that would otherwise not affect it. With this card, losing abilities might prevent death triggers, but what else would that accomplish, exactly?

I think the way for this card's power/potential to be realized would be to have all creatures lose all abilities for a turn before you destroy something; otherwise, this turns into a multicolored Murder by any other name at sorcery speed. If all creatures lose all abilities, then you can actually target something that would have ward or hexproof or protection, and yeah the cost might have to be higher, but then this card can do so much more with the really cool idea that you've presented here. I love having temporary mass Humility myself, and that would actually encourage me to build a control deck based around it! This one, however, isn't lighting my world on fire, and leaves me both wanting and questioning. Why rectangular? Is it a clean hole? What about the mess of disemboweling? I feel another whole flavorful direction should've been made to suit the interesting abilities presented for sure.

~

@greensunzenith — Deny

I dunno. Spending WUUB to Cremate something doesn't feel great here. I know that's the least powerful of these effects but it's also situational in a way that the first two exile effect don't seem to be worried about. Could this have been worded in a way to exile an entire graveyard, as an option? What is this card missing from its mechanics? Denial, as a tool, makes sense for the exile of spells and permanents, although I'm not sure if I would've centered Blue as the most prominent color myself. What's the balance here? The more I think about this card, the more it unfortunately feels like a first draft of an idea that could've been an awesome mythic removal card but which suffers from a lack of time in the oven.

With all that, not having flavor text is a massive miss here. Even if you're going to use Watchmen art, you don't have to have a quote as FT as long as you explain what's happening, yeah? If you imagined that this would just be a Watchmen-themed card, having a quote from the book would've been much better than what's happening here. I'm lost enough without the richness of detail that I can't even pick up what the intention might be for a larger sense of flavor in the world. Once again, first draft energy. I think that future iterations, of this card or others, will benefit from a more intentional and cohesive construction on all fronts.

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@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Snowslide

[Art direction: A snowy mountain can be seen under the viewer, occupying the majority of the frame. An avalanche is rumbling down to the valley and you can see various people riding it (a la avalanche riders.) The focus is on the avalanche, the mood is "this is dangerous, someone is going to get hurt".]

This card is a near-functional reprint of Melt Terrain, slash Poison the Well, slash Despoil. I dunno if this was supposed to be kind of a vintage callback, but now we have this card, and I'm not...sure if I can comment on it, exactly? I can say that land destruction has fallen out of favor or that it's not that strong for limited play, but these are things we've heard from designers again and again. I'm sorry, but I really don't have a specific mechanical angle that hasn't been said already.

As for the flavor, I am a fan of the extreme-sports vibes here. Naming the name of the card in the flavor text is a little odd to me, but that's also not the most uncommon when it comes to named events, so I get where you're coming from there. The choice to make this an environmental story about these extreme riders was sensible, especially without a quote. It's giving me that sense of someone describing the world of a roleplaying campaign in some ways, talking about the world and its inhabitants. I feel that the damage clause isn't as closely connected to the events being depicted, but I guess someone is going to get hurt in the snowslide, so that's fair. The flavor gets a thumbs-up from me. Sorry there's not as much to say mechanically.

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@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Spaghettify

I remember opening a foil Kiku's Shadow from an old booster pack many moons ago. I really like the effects of cards that punish creatures for their own power in the aggressive matchups. Squared PT boxes  can often make this a perfect kill-spell in most circumstances, to the point where I might wonder if having this be 2B might be better? It's strong enough to kill nearly everything, but with the bigger-toughness creatures this is a fair enough combat trick. Damage is one thing, but withering it down affects math in a really interesting way to me. Playtesting would reveal whether that strength at that cost would be worth it or not.

Stretching it out is the flavor aspect of this all, and once again I'm glad that you're a strong writer in the science fiction space (as well as overall). It's a know-your-audience kind of thing, because as much as genre is a lie and divisions in fiction are arguably blurred, Magic in a space travel set makes little to no sense to me. And now, after thirty seconds of an internet search, I've learned about Edge of Eternities, and... I really should just let folks do a sci-fi/space contest sometime so I can get off my high horse and get all this crap out of my system. Is that all I got against this card? Probably. I think I'd be better of tossing this to the public for judgment on that front, because by all accounts it's a fine card and it's depicting the event just fine. I am not the right audience to praise this card for its deserved merits, and my frustration at Magic's creative side is no excuse to call this card bad by any means.

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@lanabutnotdelray — Scrub

I don't think I've been more curious to see what someone was thinking of for visuals than you were for this one. I mean, there are a lot of super cool ways to go about it, but how horrific is this compared to how silly it can be? One angle is that Jaral is too enthusiastic about their position, and after a vigorous archive cleansing session they've accidentally'd a colleague into oblivion, but the other side speaks to a world where Jaral is part of a cabal that erases the records from oblivion and the ones who spoke those records along with them. The swing between these modes is discordant enough to make me question the intent, but putting my own two cents in here, I'm leaning towards insidious, just because.

Five-mana removal in limited that can also hit graveyards is pretty cool. I doubt that anyone would just be choosing the grave-purging option, but it would be really funny if they did for whatever reason. Ah well, instant-speed exile is probably fine for a premier set these days, and there's not a whole lot to say beyond that. The flavor of scrubbing was a fine choice for a word and it's presented in a way that makes sense and speaks to flavorful options that would be super easy to pick up on with just a little more push. Fine stuff overall, I say.

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@levelzeo — Ignore

Shroud is the sticking point for me here for the mechanics. It's frustrating that it makes sense for all intents and purposes, but the hard truth is that shroud as a tool just isn't something that's used these days and for good reason. Actually, here's a good question for you—you personally, and then extended to whoever's reading this: how familiar are you with Magic development, Mark Rosewater's blog, and/or commentary about Magic's developmental changes over the years? Following that, how long have you been playing Magic? I'm really curious if this is a case of just using what feels like the best tool despite contemporary design choices, or if you weren't as familiar with where shroud stands in Magic right now. Regardless, I feel it, but I wouldn't use it, y'know?

As for the rest of this card, though, you've captures a heck of a mood. It would take a skilled artist to recreate that exact vibe you're going for, and it's one awful vibe. In a good way! The card and the mood are aligned perfectly to me. Even without having shroud, it would be awesome—and unfortunately, yeah, gameplay would trump flavor for that. But being unable to be heard and seen is pretty awesomely represented; maybe having protection from its owner would suffice, although protection is also fringe, and it would be an uncommon IMO. Might still need to be. In the flavor text, I'd replace "Assure me that" with "Tell me" just for dialogue flow, but it's awesome in isolation. ... I guess every part of this card is "in isolation," huh.

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@melancholia-ennui — Shift

Phasing is a weird little thing. It's a weird little thing with a few weird little problems and I...don't know how I feel about this card! I think I want objectively to say that it's fine because phasing is a tertiary-ish tool that's being used nowadays as part of blue's toolbox. Why a counter, though? I think if this card was passing through the stages of design, I would've suggested that this be an aura, unless there was an ability-counter-heavy theme like there was in Ikoria. That being said, how many players could readily say what phasing does off the top of their heads? It's semi-deciduous, but the last time we saw it in standard was 2022 with Dominaria United. I feel that a flash enchantment would be more easily understandable myself, but that's Teferi's Curse basically.

That's the gist: keyword counters are a little weird, phasing is a little weird, and putting them together is far weirder (i.e. confusing for the board and memory issues) than you might be giving it credit for. But the idea is fun. If you're just here to have fun, then you have succeeded, and this card would be a pain in the butt for many a custom cube everywhere. Hooray! I think that idea is sound and difficult to deal with and I say that with love. It's hard to remove without blinking, if you can even do so in whatever you're running outside of blue. And hey, you know what, I have the feeling you know what you're getting into with that, so take my comments with a grain of salt. The other question is the word "chronurgy." Is that clunky to anyone else or is it just me? I like "chronomancy" but that's not the suffix you were going for. I respect that. Words are sometimes just as slippery as time.

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@nine-effing-hells — Overcook

Once upon a time, I baked someone into a pie. And now, they're charred and we're stuck with some very messy tokens. You know, looking at this card, I can understand why you wanted the "plus 2" added there. I also don't know why I'm feeling that it's too strong, because for a multicolor uncommon damage spell, it's really not? Just BR, kill an X/1, make a Food—that all tracks to me. Late game frying is pretty nasty, which is fun, and I like the notion of you playing into Asmoxyzculdicarheymacarena's kitchen space with the BR overlap, even if that's not the intended flavor. The flavor of this card's distant cousin, Bake into a Pie (and others), is kinda insidious, but where would this land? Kitchen accident, or Rakdos bonfire gone wrongright?

That's where I'm mildly frustrated with this card, because there's basically no direction on that and I don't understand why there's not. But, hey, other folks have mentioned that it's not their strong suit and/or they didn't have the time and space for it. I understand that sometimes it's just not there for the design part of the actual design. I'm writing this before the general spiel, so I'm going to add the point there when I get to it, but when a contest like this only allots so much context to the one word, building around that word takes a lot more than just mechanics alone might give you. I'm still curious and would like to know what you imagined the direction for this card to be.

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@piccadilly-blue — Wither (JUDGE PICK)

There's the not-conundrum conundrum: what's the difference between this card and a regular kill spell, a -X/-X until end of turn? For one, setting this card on Amonkhet piques the interest of the -1/-1 counter crowd, and for two, there really is a specific type of enfeeblement where even temporary buffs wouldn't save this creature for more than a turn. Giant Growth? Nada. There's no active way to save it with conventional combat tricks. I like that a lot! And I'll be honest, I read the little blurb about the game that inspired this card, and I straight-up forgot already. I'm afraid that I'm raising an interested eyebrow at this card for its own merits.

I think taking "part of" out of the flavor text might've strengthened it a little bit, but the gist of the quote is both internally sideways-clever as a reference to cycling on Amonkhet, and just a good brutal quote overall. We know who's saying it, and we know what the mood is: combative, domineering, hierarchical. Mechanics-wise, which kinda matters, having the 1BB as a cost is probably the most balanced for the effect. It's kinda like uncommon Murder plus counter synergy, and yeah, the double-pips matter there. I actually read the life loss as life gain for some reason, and I think that there might be an argument for this being potentially BB? Something like Bitter Triumph as a comparable loss might be worth looking at. I mean, hell, we're 90% of the way there and I'm digging enough of this card to polish rather than directly critique. That's worth a little fist-pump.

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@real-aspen-hours — Chronosiphon

Big dramatic spells are a pinnacle of the rare slot. Extra turn spells, well, not as much but they're a delight to me and so I'm happy to see them here. I was wondering about why the extra turn targeted, but then it's like, oh, yeah, any sort of protection makes that moot. I'm surprised that you didn't go for "Exile up to one target creature" with that consideration, because eight mana for an extra turn isn't stellar but it's not the worst thing in the world. What's the going rate for extra turns at this point? I think that because of the quad pips, you could've gone for something like six mana and it would've been fine for limited. Constructed, well, that's another story, but asking for that kind of mana feels like a lot. Hm, maybe seven. Exiling a creature is pretty important.

What's also important, at least for this contest, was the impact of the words. And I don't hate the portmanteau that you chose, but it lacks a lot of the punchiness in the spirit of the contest because it's less of a built-upon English word with inherent expectations and more of an amalgam designed to fit the card's needs. Maybe that was more something to intuit rather than something explicitly spelled out in the contest, but I guess that's the technicality here. There's some lack of surprise in the name, I suppose, but despite that the flavor text worked out pretty great. All in all, for this contest the name wasn't what we were after, but you did the best with the vibes and you've got a decent and workable card out of it all the same. Side note: what's up with folks splashing in white for extra turn spells? You're not the first, and I think the last two have been UW instead of straight blue. Ah well, curiosities.

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@reaperfromtheabyss — Manslaughter (JUDGE PICK)

There it is again, that specific gangstery feel. Obviously this would go pretty great in an artifact and graveyard-themed set, and as far as removal goes it's asking a fair amount. I think I would've been okay with this going the Bone Shards route of having two options, but that might've been a lot of text. Dealing that damage might also have made for some power level problems in limited. I...don't know why I'm saying that in the past tense, but whatever, that ain't my problem. This card's power ceiling can be really rough for your opponents if you're running anything with a mana value of 4 or greater, vehicle-wise! There are some big clunkers, I can imagine, that could really make a meal out of some poor blocker. Five, six, seven damage is so hard to come back from.

That is, assuming you're drafting around this card the same way, e.g. you pick vehicles highly after getting this card, and/or if you pick this up you're good for drafting more vehicles than usual. I think the lesson from this card is that it's okay to be super narrow because it's not so narrow that it's impossible, and it's not so broad that the intended specific flavor doesn't come across. Driving a car into someone and/or driving someone in a car into a ditch is pretty much exactly what one would want out of a vehicle/artifact themed removal spell. That flavor text seems really clunky to me for some reason, though. It lacks a little bit of punch that comes with the power. Just dropping it to "Prove it wasn't an accident" could be good, perhaps? The discarded evidence, the wounds impossible to heal from... I mean, the card itself slaps pretty hard, I'd hate to play against it! Fodder Launch comes to mind. I love that card immensely.

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@sparkyyoungupstart — Appall (JUDGE PICK)

Is this some joke about flashing? I wasn't entirely sure what to do with this flavor-wise, but hey, maybe it's just some wizard spell that's about driving someone back by force of whatever. And then there's still the name and the text and a connection that's evading me! I don't want for it to be too dirty, mind, but I do want to hear what you were thinking with that part of this card. If it's simply a good name and effect combination, that's fine, and your new assignment by the end of the week is to draw what you think the card would be depicting, assuming it's not too graphic. Anyway, there's something intriguing about the intended flavor that I wish I had more of, but that seems to be a running theme for these entries at time of writing, so there you go.

Regardless of that—this design space is pretty awesome, the instant speed hard removal (hard enough, anyway) is cool, and I think overall this card does just what you want it to. Playing this would mean drafting kinda hard around flash creatures, but depending on what was in the set, you could make it work. Ikoria did that, right? I'm not sure how many folks got the chance to draft a single round of Ikoria considering the era and everything, but flash was a draft theme there, and while this definitely has a more human feel to it, it could work in the end. I would like to see this card played, even though someone in actual R&D might caution against it because it's too close to hard removal in blue. Well, I say that it's totally okay at this cost, even if you don't have a single creature with flash, and if you do then you're good to just slap people in the face with every creature following it. Thumbs up from me.

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@taigadecorationno6 — Pact

It's an ambitious name, considering that the word "Pact" is most commonly associated with the Future Sight cycle of zero-mana instants. It's also an ambitious kind of art description—four characters, five hands, arranged...somehow? I'm having a little bit of a hard time visualizing that but I can sort of see the gist. I kinda wanna see how you'd sketch that out, honestly. In a return to the future (or whatever set this may come from) having split second return is a bit of an ask. Personally, I like the mechanic! The idea of this card allowing for an immediate exchange/deal that can't be responded to fits with what you're going for. Balancing these sorts of things in a trigger-happy present can be weird, of course, but weird is what we aim for.

The problem is in the wording of the additional cost. While I can glean intention, this cost doesn't say "permanent you control." It's entirely feasible for someone to claim that they can spend one white mana on an uncounterable instant that exiles one of their opponents' things permanently as a cost while also tucking another. Even if that wasn't the case and you had to exile something that you controlled, I think any format with tokens or zero-drops would be happy to tuck someone's lands at the cost of basically nothing. I'm thinking legacy: opponent plays a land and whatever, passes. You play Scrubland, evoke a Grief, then with Grief trigger on the stack, tap for a white, exile your Grief, tuck their land, make them discard, and now you're up both permanents and information. It's ridiculously strong that this targets any permanent, even at that 'steep' cost. Considerations for limited and standard are one thing, but there's something to be said for eternal brokenness here. I believe this card could've used some closer considerations to the technology of this day and age rather than delving into what feels like complex spaces for the sake of power.

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@tanknspank — Abrogate

Since I already like this card, I feel it prudent to bop you with a newspaper and remind you and everyone reading: when adding a quote to flavor text on MSE, use Shift+Enter! Anyway. Yeah, it's as standard as it comes, and you kinda already know that, right? My minor actual criticism is that I'd love to see a little bit of art direction here from alive-Teysa's time on the Orzhov throne, or at least what you might've imagined this kind of awesome name to be depicting. I can obviously make stuff up, but that's hardly here or there. The actual significant thing I want to discuss it the rarity. Honestly? I think this can be an uncommon. Hear me out! Even though it's an instant, there's an amount of past precedent that matters here. I was wondering how strong this card would be comparatively, and then there were cards like Gaze of Granite, Karn's Sylex...and I mean, it's just kinda not as strong as it used to be. Or is it? I might have actually just talked myself out of it.

Maybe there's something to be said here for changing times and measures. Destroying a single thing used to have different costs, different ways in which these effects mattered. Hell, Hero's Downfall used to be a premium rare for its planeswalker removal ability, and now it's a bulk uncommon in a core set. How the mighty have fallen indeed. But then we still have cards like Eat to Extinction, Pile On... And those still take up a rare slot that's more or less deserved in their environments. Would this card be good enough? Destroying big stuff for lots of mana in these colors... I don't know. I honestly don't know. My gut says that it could either be pushed down in rarity or up in power somehow. I want to talk about this card but I also know that I don't have the cognitive resources to know what the world of this set might bring. I seriously want to hear discussion on this from other folks. I'm struggling here! I like this card but not enough to give it the vindication that it might still rightly deserve. Not gonna lie, I'm doubting myself here.

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@wildcardgamez — Unravel

I feel that "repeat this process" isn't exactly what this card is looking for; something closer to Chain of XYZ might've resulted in an more grokable card. Perhaps: "Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. Then you may pay 1 life. If you do, copy this spell and you may choose new targets for it." After all, if someone casts a protection-type of spell in response, that would make sense, but what about choosing a new target? They'd essentially have to wait for this spell to resolve, and so all the further targets would essentially be impossible to protect from, and that really doesn't grok or play well. I think the gist is solid, but the method of execution is highly convoluted.

All the same, it's not a bad base idea. I'm surprised that this name hasn't been done before. I'm not surprised that paying life for black spells has shown up at least one other time this week, heh. I'm reminded of a few repeatable -1/-1 effects, and in limited, there's this really strong manner of destruction that can occur post-combat that makes your attacks so much more effective, and this card could blow some games out of the water with that. Is this intended to be set on Duskmourn? Innistrad? I'm not sure, but I get that sense well enough that this is a horrific place to sleep in general. The "this wasn't what he had in mind" does feel like a 'sitcom' ending, though; I'd rather have some detail about the room, the sleep, some kind of twist... Details bring these things to life, and maybe there's something to be said for the quality of dark humor there that matches an established verbal trope. Doesn't do anything for me, but I will concede that there's an argument in its favor.

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Endings! Endings are weird. But after a whole lotta entries, well, we're here. Thanks for bearing with as we got this done, and enjoy this week's UB contest.

@abelzumi

[ash-plavell]

Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective Episode 3 - "Into the Spell of Shimmering Light"

When I’m writing this (the same day that this episode premiered. I think having a season gap between what I’m doing writeups for makes a bit more sense for my current life circumstances), life is just life-ing for me. Then again, I didn’t get much sleep the night before. Double that with having a morning shift for a job and a college class afterward…yeah, it’s a bit rough. But I still made the…