#you don’t even need to be a dnd fan or player or anything

[live-from-new-york-its]

honor among thieves was an incredible movie and I will be paying to see it again in theaters, as a tribute to my love for john francis daley

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

Out of curiosity, thoughts on Scriddler?

i thought, that one day, i’d might be asked this lol. 

i’ll be frank, the nature of popularity of that ship kinda confuses me to this day. not in irked sense, i just generally was surprised to see so much stuff for them. like, i don’t remember them interacting in anything, that i’ve watched / read. which tbh, doesn’t say much, since i’m very picky about what i engage with, when it comes to superhero media outlets. so maybe, it did happen somewhere an’ i just didn’t see it. i remember casually browsing a few of accs, who shipped it, curious, if they had some specific comic strip or cut scenes from the game, which depict those two together an’ that’s what lead them to idea of this ship. but i saw nothing of sorts. an’ it’s not a problem, naturally. but for me, an outsider, who ships a completely different thing, it was a bit puzzling. just how it came to be this broad, if there wasn’t any huge kickstarter. or well, not the one, that i’ve glimpsed. 

either way, i’ll begin with saying scriddler doesn’t personally work for me. nor does it have smth, that i seek in my otps. with this in mind, i have no intention to belittle anyone with what will follow below. it’s just my own whimsical outlook on it, based on many individual criteria, that might be vastly different for others, who see things in that ship, that i’m incapable of. similar to how i see things in my rare ships, that i know would make many folks quirk a brow as to why ‘that’s even a thing’. 

now, about jon an’ edward. a pair that might sound good on paper, depending on what you include in said paper, but for me it’s like putting a hardcore dnd fan into a pit with hardcore bookworm, an’ expect them to get along swell, just bc they’re both outcasts. ignoring how the first one is more show-offish an’ loudly proud of his abilities, an’ the other one is kinda shut-in with occasional god complex lol. one of them tends to throw ugly tantrums, the other one prone to meltdowns. both are sociopaths, who have little understanding of ‘how to human’, unless they need to pretend *for small periods of time*. 

in short, i cannot see them having enough patience to handle one another in almost 95% of their interactions. i can’t imagine antisocial, snappy jonathan to be able to tolerate edward’s endless need for praise an’ attention. more so, i struggle to picture jon even knowing how to react in those situations, or being willing to put aside a book, an’ listen to nygma’s newest scheme, if he’s not in the mood for it. or see edward going along with whatever crane has cooked up *some fear plan*, if he already has his own in drafting. it doesn’t help, that they’re also a slightly different ‘breed’ of villains too. 

indeed, they’re both operate more on intellectual level vs brute force *not without use of it tho*, but where riddler’s tick is the actual level of intelligence or level of knowledge, the scarecrow is a mindrape kind of villain. nygma likes building traps an’ labyrinths, giving quests an’ a chance to ‘win’, even if it’s all be a faux in the end. jonathan, on other hand, is mix between being sadistic an’ pragmatic. they both want / need a very different things *usually*, when they kick bruce or whoever else around. or in other words, they’re kinda useless to each other’s obsessions an’ it’s hard to imagine them functionally combining their efforts, without smth going wrong or one of them getting pissed off at the other. which was one of few reasons why jonathan got fed up with the joker, when they had their team-up *during the bane era*. crane doesn’t play well with others, an’ he also has a short temper, when someone keeps doing things, that he views as useless or silly. an’ nygma being prideful as he is, most likely won’t just swallow jon’s critic, esp bc he would have some of his own stored as well. neither of them is actually a team player. so here goes their supposed villain team up for me, like even from a technical aspect. they don't strike me as villains, who can have buddy-buddy relationships, even in part bc of their 'big personalities'.

an’ circling back to their obsessions, it’s pretty much a core of their persona. the root of their disease an’ addiction. an’ also a thing, that usually pushes them to engage with anyone in a meaningful way at all *at the very beginning, at least* an' it’s kinda clinical in that regard too. i don’t think that jon would be engaged with riddler’s fear in any intimate fashion, for one. i don’t think, that past abuse or trauma or hardship is enough for him to get obsessed with a person. in fact, i think that he usually simply gets pleasure from making someone feel awful as simple as it sounds. unless, they’re his bully or someone, who has wronged him, he seems to just forget about those, who he hurt along the way. it’s unflattering aspect of the antisocial brain, but that’s just how it is. nygma’s past won’t be able to be memorable for him, partly due to crane’s general lack of ability to relate to others, without it being very heavily connected to his own woes. an’ even then, he tends to misunderstand it. an’ in return, doubt that nygma would understand why jonathan was that affected by bullying, considering that in edward’s eyes, it’s an attention *no matter what kind* an’ attention is good. after all, he did say that people usually literally looked past him, not even jocks were interested in tormenting him, until he became smth ‘worthy’ of their aggression. so from his perspective, he might think that jon being dramatic about it, since crane was on opposite side of the issue, he always attracts attention to himself. a very bad, bad kind, but attention anyhow. meanwhile, nygma *in his own eyes* has to fight tooth an’ nail to get any. an’ it might start as one time fight, but it will be an always looming issue, that eventually would blow into their faces. there is no denial, that it played a huge part of what made them so dependent on their gimmicks in the first place. the way the world around them engaged with them or in nygma’s case, the way, it did not. so yeah,  it’ll be a big ole mess, an’ neither would be able to navigate such a situation. 

from what i saw, people tend to depict them as ‘two evil old men in relationships’, an’ it feels like they both more put together in those set ups, than they usually are. or like jon is very receptive toward edward’s attempt to befriend him, an’ nygma actually is pretty good at figuring out what scarecrow might like an’ what not. an’ the problem with it is that i don’t see edward being this thoughtful about anyone. ever. period. in most cases, his disorder just won’t let him be this considering, even if he would have wanted to. like, even if we take newest batman 2022 movie, in there riddler is very-very delusional about the bat, an’ it doesn’t even occur to him, that bruce might have different needs / goals vs what edward imagined him to lol. an’ jonathan is this, but even worse. he openly tends to dehumanise an’ objectify others, seeing them only as tools or props to get what he wants. i don’t think that such person would suddenly act differently around nygma, who on top of everything is also clingy an’ needy. for jonathan, who doesn’t have any experience with companionship at all, an’ who lived most of his life alone, that’s be overwhelming an’ confusing, an’ also annoying. whatever good qualities they have, an’ whatever we love them for, it’s given that both jon an’ nygma be hard to be around in long term, an’ would at times get hella unpleasant too. picturing them trying to mend things in 'normal' ways, or talking about it like normal people is smth that i personally cannot invision at all. or in other words, from my perspective, they’re too mentally ill for each other. in fiction, it's often be a positive thing. like, that two mavericks with huge problems can make it work together, but my personal experiences pretty much prevent me from seeing it this way. unless, one of the two is at least somewhere leveled or tries to be, there is just no way for such relationships to hold on for too long. in jon's an' riddler's case, we talking about an actual extremes on top of all, so it's be even harder for one of them to pull up the other, when they themselves unwell. one might argue, that there is potential for them to make each other worse, then. but they already *objectively* suck on their own as people. the corruption only works if there is smth too corrupt to begin with. some versions of the scarecrow an' riddler are already too far gone, for anything else to make them suck more lol. an' once again, they don't share gimmick, they don't share worldview or have the same goals, so it's hard to picture them infecting the other with their own desease, so to speak.

there is kinda more, that i can say on the topic, but it’s getting hella long already, so i’d skip a few things an’ will go straight to my next point. i suppose, that i already gave an outline of why i cannot see them working together personality wise, so next i’d get to their general aesthetics or visuals. the surface stuff, if you may.

i love their general designs *some more than the others, naturally*. but when i look at them side by side, i’ll be honest, i just see two bottoms lol. an’ while yeah, there is such a thing as switching, i kinda rarely vibe with it. an’ with jon an’ edward, it’s just that. they're purebred bottom cocksuckers in my eyes. them havin’ twink on twink sex isn't very sexy or hot to me. i feel like they both would want or at least have that not-so-secret fantasy about being domed into ground by a 'superior man'. bottoms fighting each other about who should top is more of a comedy set-up in my eyes, than anything else. esp bc they both will be like 'you should top' vs 'i wanna top' lmao. i also will add, that i hc both edward an' jon as kinda shallow in sense of who they find attractive. i picture them pawing after men, who are *technically speaking* out of their league. my personal joke about them is that they're both middle aged virgins with hilariously high standards, who won't beat it just to anyone or anything. they pick misery over everything else lol.

an’ that’s all that i’ve got on the topic of scrridler, pretty much! hopefully, this mini essay did explain my view on the pair. an’ i also hope that it was at least, kind of entertaining to read as an outsider's pov. in the end, if you ship it, i do encourage you to just see this as some rando sharing their opinion an' nothing more.

[stomp-that-ho-regard]

I can't disagree with anything you or Miracalla put forward, but I do think there's one fan that CR is willing to please, D/ani Carr, and that's the problem. She blatantly favored FJ, regardless of how the characters interacted, and was involved with choosing questions for TM and writing the recaps. Given the poor memory of the players at the table, I wouldn't be surprised if she wrote internal recaps for them with the same biases that infuse her other work for the company.

Careful, anon. You’re gonna get called a conspiracy theorist lol

But I agree. She’s always had a self-indulgent way about her. Travis even asked her to help him with his post-hiatus playlist and she chose “Blue Healer”. You can’t get much more straightforward than that. 

Something was always off about the way Dani was seemingly put on a pedestal by the cast. She was a fan originally, right? And then they hired her for some reason. Did we ever learn the reason?

Bisexual here who's had to listen to my CR-loving dnd friends (I love you all but please watch something else), this may evoke controversy, but even if Marisha or Laura or Ashley or whoever is bi, that doesn't make them instantaneously experts on how to tell a queer love story. Or a love story in general. The argument of literally every person going "I personally think 90% of the cast is bi cuz of some vague stuff they said. Source: bro trust me" is invalid. It's creepy that they need CR to be queer to... I don't know, shut up all the people who point out that they still suck????

In pretty much all of those tweets I screenshotted, they’re all very insistent about ‘hearing it somewhere’ while at the same time not being completely sure where to find these things. While going through those conversations, I saw some people ask them several times for their sources; where they could find a statement that was made, if there was any video, etc., and the OG posters couldn’t give them anything. But still, they insisted. These people have collected a bunch of random, vague as fuck comments, (sometimes combined with weird readings of body language) and invented an extremely invasive headcanon of the casts’ real lives.

They’ll try to make it seem like them wanting the CR cast to be queer is about some level of personal comfort or even ‘rep’, but it’s pretty obvious that they just want the CR cast to be queer in order to get a leg up on critics. Which is not only stupid, but sad.

[landoncrris]

I think we should all take a deep breath :’) we’re not sure about anything. could be someone else’s phone, or even if it’s his, could be a picture of his family or even just the tower bridge in general if it means something special to him. i really doubt he’d go out having a girl on his lockerscreen like that because people text him all the time and since he doesn’t have dnd on, we probably would’ve caught it in a video/picture by now. also, are we not forgetting he has two phones? maybe that’s his “second” one and so the background is nothing personal. also you all coming in here to say things about him in such a negative note all because you caught a glimpse of a phone in a video is kinda…. weird. i don’t mean to sound rude but we’re definitely looking into it too much!! the only real “ick” anyone mentioned was anything he did in miami, and that’s most likely because we hadn’t seen that side of him yet. it’s a normal “shock”. if he likes his tattoos then leave him, him getting his teeth whitened is nothing of an ick, in fact he’s taking care of himself and I myself have done that in the past because of how insecure i was. anything he does to make himself feel good, why do people attack him instantly. not every single thing has to be an ick but people exaggerate and i’ve only seen this behavior on his fanbase. weird. he also might not know about his friends’ behavior on the internet, I don’t do a social media checkup when I meet someone to know what they’re saying online. he’s also extremely nice to probably see past it. also, some of the things you talk about happened years ago. he has been through so much ever since, it doesn’t make sense to analyze his past like that. i would cry if people ever went through my old pictures because that was reallll cringe. it’s normal. it frustrates me that people don’t think about what mason would feel/think about if he read any of these. his photoshoots? how is that an ick. he’s working. if it’s about the outfits, you know who you should be taking about. but also, if you just don’t like him then just say that (?) it’s infuriating to be his fan sometimes because he’s clearly just young and having fun whenever he can and he honestly deserves it. have you thought about how serious this season was and all the work he’s put in? helping carry a struggling team along with some of the other players? getting hate comments all the time? and the second he gets to relax and go out a bit you call it an ick because he’s finally been able to let go for a few days 😭 come on, if it were my fans i’d go insane probably. you find icky anything that’s not to do with him being your ideal boyfriend, that’s wicked. some people need to realize he’s a real person and not a fictional character we read in fics (even though all his fans’ fics are so so great, specially here on this blog!!) so i guess I just wanted to get that off my chest. some people are too sensitive and he could breathe and they would call it an ick. you found the word and ran with it 😭 love your blog lia, love that you’re so mature. I love your answers all the time but i don’t think i could ever put up with some of these anons. so i’m grateful you’re so mature and definitely such a great writer!! this was never targeted towards you but yes to some people who come in here every now and again and criticize mason for being a real human being and that just annoys me i guess, because i wouldn’t like people doing that to me. so just relax, breathe and enjoy his new content, he looked great in monaco :) x

i definitely agree with you at most things!! i do have to defend some people tho because they didn’t say those icks because of the lockscreen, they sent them to me because i asked for it, because in the end i was the one who freaked out about that video :) the teeth whitening itself isn’t icky in my opinion, it’s the picture of it i posted where you can see how he got it done. which is still no excuse i really get your point but it does look funny why lie. on anything else, i really agree!! maybe the reason why so many people try to find ‘icks’ about him is because we describe him as so perfect in fics that those things stand out more? of course those fics aren’t reality and we should know that but i also know how hard it is to remind yourself that that’s not who he really is why lie. and what you said about me and my blog, genuinely thank you so so much!! i really appreciate it and i’m glad that you think that way xx

[crimsun-n-clover]

psychiatrist gave me a new sleep aim to ward off the batshit violent nightmares of everyone i love dying

thanks i guess

i went out of town with my mom today. drove a little over an hour to a major city to walk around the shops and little gimmicky places. got some dnd shit from a nerd store while mom stared at the miniatures with apprehension (“stevie do you really need these” “yeah they go on the board and are good for battles” “you said yourself that your players suck” “okay MAYBE it’s for me”). didn’t buy any of the fancy dice sets i wanted or anything. i showed the restraint of a goddamn nun. i did get more tacky biker rings though so i guess it balances out.

fell in love with a stray cat there. named him judas because i was listening to judas priest. i miss him.

i spent the rest of the day listening to the fellowship of the ring as an audiobook. i love sam gamgee so fuckin much. “mr frodo sir this fucking sucks can we get drunk” “oh my lovely and faithful sam. no. i wanna put my life at risk.” “shit alright i guess i’ll shield you from the scary ass horses or whatever” like sam and frodo are the epitome of “could you do it,,, for m e?”

sam is a fucking simp and i love him more than i love my own fucking family because they’re straight republicans and not hopelessly devoted homosexual gardeners. i’m a (formerly) hopelessly devoted homosexual and i wanted to be a botanist for a couple years there so i could be a gardener if i didn’t hate the sun so much. he’s just like me <3

“sam we can’t go in there that old bastard set his dogs on me thirty years ago” and pippen goes “nahhhh you’ll be fine :)” and my man sam is like “i’ll fucking kill him mr frodo i don’t care how long ago it was”

frodo is so fucking blorbo. he’s my special little guy. my babygirl. my sopping wet cat in the rain. my scrunkly scrimble doo. i want to wrap him in a nice cotton blanket and gnaw on it like a soft taco. i want to watch him spin around in a microwave. i want to shake him like a snow globe. i am so normal.

i swear i had actual shit to talk about. uhhhh

if i get asked one more time “did you MAKE your jacket” “do you even listen to those bands” or the ever irritating “name three songs” i’m gonna maul someone. like nah jennifer i walked into the punk and metal store and said make me look like a threat to humanity and also a total loser at the same time. like fucking OBVIOUSLY i made it. it’s a battle jacket. have you people ever met someone with an interest in music?? i didn’t give someone a list of bands and tell them to go ham and put shit on crooked. i sat on the floor until five in the goddamn morning with a bag of patches i picked up from my patch dealer (he’s in his 40’s at least and had to move back in with his parents. he has met every member of megadeth and talked to dio before he died. he’s so strange and he even gives me a discount for being so amusing he’s pretty rad) and stabbed my hands until they bled.

i know that’s something petty to get annoyed with but hey man, just because i’m not an old bald dude who goes “YEAHHH SLAYER” at every show doesn’t mean i’m not part of that community. it’s like because i’m feminine looking and young they assume i’m trying to be quirky and different or something. nah dude i’m just actually fucked up.

“your parents must have good taste in music little lady” my mom listens mainly to country, is an ed sheeran super fan, and thinks that those shitty motivational songs are her anthems for putting up with her autistic asshole child. my dad heard me listening to misfits and goes “this guy sounds JUST like danzig” and i was like “i know????” and we looked at each other for a minute before i had to explain to him that danzig was IN misfits. i also was stealing his cds and found FOUR FUCKING NICKELBACK ALBUMS. so nah man i’m just a fuckin freak. a complete oddity. a deviant of my bloodline.

i don’t know how to end this i’m getting woozy with my meds so farewell tumblr i shall see you past daybreak tomorrow

[mid-nighttiger]

ok here’s one dave filoni thought: he’s way too attached to ahsoka. he can’t let go. he’s like one of those dnd or rp players who won’t let anything bad happen to his oc. and the rest of star wars suffers for it

there’s that time filoni said that to him, the clone wars was ahsoka’s (and rex’s) story, which is why s7, the final season, pretty much exclusively focused on ahsoka (and rex). uh, sir, the clone wars is called the clone wars, not ‘the ahsoka & rex story,’ so you’ll forgive me if i disagree. this is the final season, the finale season! we’re not getting any more content from this time period after this is over. why are you focusing on one (former) jedi and one clone and not the war, the clones, the jedi as a whole?

he has this idea of ahsoka as this perfect character who everyone likes and can do no wrong, but doesn’t show the buildup of relationships with others, so emotional beats often fall flat. to take examples from s7 -- the clones paint their helmets in honor of her, with her colors and facial markings, and it’s sold as this very touching moment. but why would they do this? what sort of special relationship does ahsoka have with these clones, besides ‘military commander,’ which most other jedi also have? what does ahsoka do that is so special that other jedi don’t do, that the clones would paint over the symbols of their individuality for her, even after she’s left military command?

he fekkin canonized time travel for ahsoka because he couldn’t stand the thought of her having even an ambiguous ending! what benefits does this have besides an out-of-universe ‘fans love her’? what does she bring to the star wars story, from a narrative standpoint? if time travel needed to be canonized, why ahsoka and not the myriad other important figures in star wars? don’t get me wrong, this would be all well and good from a fan standpoint in like, fan fiction and such, but it’s one of those things i never wanted to see happen in the canon media

this makes it sound like i hate ahsoka, lol. i don’t. i think she’s a fine character. tbh, i think it was mostly fine in the earlier years of tcw, when we do see her as a youngling, make mistakes, and learn from other characters. but since tcw ended for the first time, i feel like filoni’s built up this idea of her in his head that he just sticks fully-formed into his shows without caring if it fits with where she came from or how we saw her last

[oscar-the-cat-yt]

________________The Hallow_______________

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Head Canons~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

•Kai is BI. You cannot convince me otherwise.

•His only real parental figure is Davis, his butler.

•His parents aren't there much. But when they are it's constant fighting. From when they wake up, to when they go to sleep.

•He probably has anxiety from this

•Any loud noises, or really anything that reminds him of two or more people loudly arguing will send him into one of those states.

•Davis tries helping. Even getting him some earbuds/headphones. But it doesn't help that much. 

•Kai also usually gets jumpy when his parents are back. Any loud noise and such getz him scared.

•He tries blocking it out with games. Or music.

•He probably actively listens to McCaffrey 

•If those two options don't work, then he'd go over to Adams.

•Did I mention their boyfriends? Well they are. Fight me.

•They definitely help each other cope.

•Kai usually helps Adam when he's sad/feels like he's being a annoyance. 

•CUDDLE BUDS

•Skeet is a emo boi, as well as a skater boi.

•Probably has a drawer of beanies and fingerless gloves.

•Heavy marvel fan

•Him and Mari definitely like each other, they just never said anything about so they don't ruin the friendship they already have.

•His death hit Mari HARD

•On the brightside she's a love goddess.

•100% helped Adam and Kai together.

•Adam asks her Dads for advice.

•Mari always wanted to talk to animals when she was younger, hence why she choose the skill she did.

•Adam reminds me of Robin from Teen Titans, [the good one], and always looked up to him. So acrobatics was the skill.

•He probably definitely had a crush on him from a young age.

•The hero complex with him gets tiring. As well as worrying with school.

•Kai helps with this. Reminding him to eat, sleep, drink, ect.

•They honestly both remind each other of that. Every. Day.

•Their fights are probably about Adam being a bit controlling and Kai being annoying.

•They both immediately regret it and forgive each other.

•Kai is a little ball of fire. Like he may look innocent and funny for the most part, but he will fight you. 

•Definitely scary when he's angry.

•He doesn't like being mad.

•Adam probably has to drag him away from getting into any fights at school.

•Kai definitely dreads school. If not for the people or teachers, then the fact he has to learn stuff he's never going to use.

•He probably got bullied for a bit.

•He has heterochromia. One blue eye, one green eye.

•Adam also probably got bullied for being gay. 

•First friend he ever made was Mari's brother. But only for gaming purposes.

•Reeve and Vanessa are close. Like brother and sister.

•Reeve is a huge sports fan.

•He also likes ballet. Idk, he just gives me that vibe.

•He also loves hip hop.

•Vanessa probably collects dolls.

•or anything considered creep. She's probably a emo girl.

•Her and Skeet both like rock, Vanessa enjoying it more of the two.

•Reeve and Vanessa are beast on the dance floor.

•Party animals.

•Skeet probably has done drugs once. He probably regretted it.

•The group Stayed in touch after the hallow scare.

•Definitely group outings.

•The group chat is CHAOTIC.

•Kai definitely pulls all nighters playing video games. Or last minute homework.

•Weirdy is gay.

•Loves fashion. Makeup? Yes. Clothing? Yes.

•He probably creates new clothing designs in his free time.

•Also was probably musically creative from a young age.

•He's very creative.

•Him and Death are probably dating. If not, then very close homeboys.

•Death loves animals.

• Any animal he sees he must have. Horse? Yes. Dog? Um yeah! A frickin gorilla? Absolutely!!! Just any animal is a huge yes. And a lot of convincing Weirdy.

•He honestly probably runs a small farm. And by small, I mean huge.

•They both, Weirdy and Death, both tell each other about their successes. 

• A designer likes his design? Call death. A acting audition went well? Call death. A animal gave birth? Call weirdy. Just very supportive. 

•They probably live together.

• Kai and Adam are big on hand holding and cheek/forehead kisses.

•Adam can probably play the guitar. He definitely perfers the acoustic.

•Kai tried to learn the drums so they could start a band with the group.

•He gave up after two weeks. But still would love to learn.

•Adam loves books. Anything from Graphic novels to poetry.

•Kai has definitely bought him many books.

•Lots of study and reading dates

•Also gaming and movie dates as well.

•Adam is also a huge fan of comics. Especially Teen Titans.

•They probably attend comic con

•Kai definitely cosplays.

•Honestly their dynamic reminds me of Robin and Beast Boy. So pretty good.

•Weirdy and Death both love coffee. Probably frequent starbucks.

•Kai loves donuts. Gets them every. Single. Day.

•He probably adores the harry potter series. [Not j.k. Rowling tho for obvious reasons]

•Feel like he was self conscious about his hair until he saw Ron.

•Cosplays Ron alot. 

•He's a geek alright.

•He forces Adam to cosplay sometimes to.

•They both love dnd.

•They probably have sessions with the group for DnD. 

•Just a bunch of snacks, a table, and bean bag chairs. As well as character sheets and the other basics for the game.

• David probably joins. And by that I mean give pointers. Either that or he's the game master.

•Kai sometimes skips, [or at least tries to], skip school. Adam always talks him out of it, unless he needs it.

•Falls asleep in classes a lot.

•When he realised he liked Adam, he tried to date Vanessa since he didn't know his sexuality/ Wants to lose this friendship he has.

•When he did come out as gay, flirting 24/7

•Adam knew he liked Kai, but never acted on it. 

•When he does flirt back, Kai's face gets very red.

•Kai definitely is the prankster of the group. Vanessa and revee help.

•Adam tolerates it.

•Reeve and Adam have bro days. They mainly just chill.

•Mari didn't like Kai at first

•Maris favorite color is blue. And her favorite animal is a monkey.

•Okay, hear me out, Weirdy is/was a art teacher. 

•Just, that was the first thing he did with his life, then he grew from their.

•Probably always got the lead roll in a play

• Skeet definitely loves meerkats. Hence why he calls Mari Meerkat. 

•Her nickname for him, apart from Skeet, is emo boy.

•Vanessa is into horoscopes/Astronomy.

• Reeve questions her about it quite a bit, but supports her nonetheless.

•Reeve is on the basketball team. Definitely wants to be either a choreographer or a basket ball player.

•Adam has actively tried to learn karate after the whole, digital, thing.

[spirit-shroud]

what are some roles that have been largely changed for cityrune? since you said queen was an influencer now :]

hi ty for asking me im vibrating. havent gotten to talk about this au now for three years and now that chapter 2 is like real and this time i can like........draw occasionally and i have more understanding of nuance...... [grips table] [screams]

this isnt quite what you asked but heres what's everyone from chapter 1 has been Up To with a little bit of context (and under a read more bc it got LENGTHY):

kris - professional stay at home teen (they live w/ asgore n help run the flower shop sometimes. this decision was entirely bc i dont like toriel). was wrongly diagnosed w Sudden Soul Rejection when they were incredibly young and given an experimental transplanted soul as a replacement. it works for them fine, give or take having to see gaster once a month for checkups. but sometimes the soul makes them skittish n decides they're going to sit in front of the pc and play 30 consecutive hours of a certain simulation game and not even let them drown people in the pool. if it were entirely up to them, they'd be like. passing out on the sofa to documentaries about bigfoot. or practicing cool knife tricks to impress their friends at their next tabletop meetup

- EDITED IN: the soul is kind of their friend. they are wearing a hypothetical get along shirt. most of the time, they agree on actions and things to do. tends to refer to themself + their soul as we/us which originally was just something they did in their head but they kept slipping in speech/text n just became a Thing of how they talk. switches to 'I/Me' whenever smth is wrong.

- also edited in: they believe the soul they have is their original soul bc nobody has told them otherwise. whenever theyre like 'oh yeah we think about our soul n view it as a separate entity to us like. all the time. it likes to hurt if we make too many choices it doesn't seem to like and kind of forces us to be a toned down version of what we want to be but thats just how souls are haha' and everyone is like.... 'Hey Kris That's Really Not How It Is.' theyre like. 'huh. gonna ignore that for now' - this was going to be a plot point

toriel - head of H0MEWOR1D (H01)'s department of education; kind of lost her roots as a simple math teacher as she was pushed into a lot of power she didn't even really seek out. divorced asgore over some miscommunications in their relationship; also loosely as a result of grief from asriel's death

asgore - the same. runs a lil flower/gift shop. people come in more to talk with him than to buy flowers most of the time, though

asriel Flowey - he's back in flower form, thanks to the government an accident. causes a lot of technology glitches wherever he goes, and wants revenge. isn't sure how to go about it. asriel "died" around 8 years before the story takes place and kris still misses him and refuses to even THINK about even the IDEA of calling someone their sibling after what happened, just in case it somehow happens a second time

susie - more of the same really. she spends most of her time either at grillby's (she's sort of become his assistant n helps with opening/closing. it just happened) or getting into low-stakes trouble w/ kris

noelle - she's in the city's equivalent of college and shes so tired. shes So Abysmally Tired n got kinda pushed 2 follow in her mom's footsteps. she's rarely around anymore except through text or on monsters & mages (dnd) night. (however.........she will come back w/ a long break n hang out w everyone again)

berdly - tbh i didnt even consider berdly when i made the au initially. idk what he's doing. probably in a similar situation to noelle??? canonically got kicked out of the M&M group due to clashes w/ other players but lurks in their group chat to posts memes sometimes

didnt rly think of any other of kris' classmates (+ their families) after ch1 and probably will continue to not, until chs 3-5 come out and i gotta whip up roles and histories for like. a lotta guys all of a sudden. i also forgot about noelle's parents

sans - runs a convenience store that everyone kind of thinks is a front, but also it has really cheap snacks and the local teens make a point of stopping there after school. so essentially, more of the same papyrus - similar to ut. is a very polite and sweet boy but you'll know when he's coming

grillby - he's back. he runs a bar like back in ut but the cozy vibes and weird-for-a-bar hours keep attracting kids who need parents, so half of his menu is comprised of overly sweet mocktails. usually only frequented by monsters

QC - same as usual. has a "rivalry" with grillbz but, theyre besties and have a book club

mettaton - he's real and he's back. he's similar to how he is back in ut w/ his EX body. likes to hang out at grillby's and talk to unsuspecting fans. has a show for everything

napstablook - similar to how they are in ut. helps mtt with making music sometimes. doesn't leave the house too often, but spends a lot of time posting on undernet

undyne - unfortunately. more of the same. she is a cop in the monster district. i am also upset by this but couldn't think of anything better for her

alphys - a doctor studying under dr. gaster in the hopes she'll one day take over his research. she spends most of her time as a nurse with a bigger title, though, and blocks out the weirdness of her job with anime.

gaster - weird guy. H01's top soul researcher and resident House wannabe. trying to manufacture the ultimate soul that can be controlled with simple internal switches, but so far he's only had 1 (very limited) success with a certain human. monsters just melt, and darkners just sorta......get weird... he's onto Something, though.

ralsei - lonely boy with some very strange hobbies. popular on UnderNet for poetry, baking videos, and general cryptid vibe. is the DM for the monsters & mages group (also seems to think everything is actually very fine in H01 when it is very much not)

lancer - about the same. professional Round Boy. lives w/ rouxls full time. follows susie around like a lost puppy and calls himself her "underling."

rouxls - runs a hotel/casino kind of deal where the objective Bad Guys hang out, and usually ends up doing any of the spade king's paperwork.

spade king - mafia godfather. kind of a dick. don't play cards with him

seam - works with the spade king as his right hand cat more or less because they have for a lot of years and are in that 'sunk cost fallacy' zone. thinks of retiring to a quiet life in the monster section of town like, daily

jevil - used to work with the spade king, but got imprisoned for Crimes. got weird after The Accident (separate from asriel's accident)

temmies (all) - dont really get mentioned except offhandedly but they run the monster space station. so far, are the only monsters who have ever been to space.

as far as chapter 2 goes:

yeah i dont have much so far for characters. in the original version of the au i accidentally made darkners as a whole just kinda..... not great? like all sorts of weird organized crime ties n sort of going out of their way to be A Problem to the city (not even in like. a revolution way. in a working against them but with the same goals kinda way). with the whole context it worked At The Time, bc i just had the spade king to look to as a villain, and also in this au the darkners are just trying to survive a world that ultimately was not built for them (that humans think they own, and monsters sort of... seeing this and wondering what it'll mean for them whichever one wins), but w/ new info abt how the dark world works n more guys to work with i want to kind of. edit the vibe a bit. like yea darkners will ultimately do whatever it takes to take over H01, but maybe in a better way than like. idk. all this. it doesnt have to be peaceful or anything it just has to be more adaptable as we meet more kinds of darkners

however yeah i thought up 'queen as some sort of childless mommy blogger/influencer' and that completely revived all memory i had of this au. she should be on mtt's talkshow. also she sells collectible wine glasses w/ her likeness

spamton is another one of gaster's failed soul experiments, but he hasn't melted yet, and seems............fine? sort of. so he hasn't gotten decommissioned yet. he does want to give you malware tho. hot monster singles in your area n all that

im blanking on the rest of the guys but i hope any of this was comprehensible

[shadow-djinni]

may we hear more about your dnd kids Blz

okay anon, just remember: you asked for this

so, a little context. Aldin and Cal are from a, now sadly defunct, Legend of Zelda homebrew campaign a gang of my friends and I were playing (defunct owing to a change in DMs and then schedules falling apart). this campaign was set circa Age of Calamity, during the warmup to shit actually hitting the fan.

we, of course, completely derailed that plot, but I'm putting the cart before the horse.

the party is as follows:

my girl Aldin, a Gerudo sorcerer and molduga huntress from the deep desert, the resident powerhouse

Na'ila, Gerudo bard and emissary of the Spirit Temple, an absolute sweetheart

Olo, our Zora rogue, a charming but impulsive flirt

Ciel, a Korok fairy scion (homebrewed class, effectively a warlock of a great fairy) and the party's baby

and Broth, Goron cleric of Din, Team Dad and resident pacifist

now, we'd spent the first three sessions basically just dicking around Central Hyrule, participating in a horse race (we came in third), generally having a fabulous time of things and getting a handle on dnd, because most of us were newer players.

and then the fourth session happens. and one of the players (Ciel's) is guest DM'ing to give our main DM a break to plan some stuff. so we started that day at a stable, and wound up agreeing to assist a Sheikah Guardian technician (Landy) in getting down to a Zonai temple in Faron—she got a letter from her brother, who was on an archaeological dig there, requesting her help with an artifact he'd found. we of course agreed, because the party is largely composed of good-hearted altruists, and set off for Faron.

and we get down there, and the stable nearest the temple (Highland Stable) has been torched, and everyone in it killed, and the lizalfos looting the burned-out shell claim that the thing that did it came from the ruin half a day's travel from there.

aka the ruin we're going to.

so we get there, and the place is trashed and most of the people in the party Landy's brother was with are redeads so we have to put them down, and the sole survivor—Landy's brother, Cal—is down in the lower level of this temple with a couple of corpses, obviously having a terrible time of things and clutching a bone, which he claimed to have used to fend them off long enough to get down there and shut the door, locking himself in.

so we tell him to head back up while we figure out what the hell we're doing, and then one of the bodies down there reanimates as a redead and its screaming knocks out half the party, so

I need you to picture this:

Aldin, the strongest member of the party, scoops up Landy and Na'ila, slings one over each shoulder, and makes her way for the staircase while Broth and Olo deal with the redead. she enters the staircase, turns, and looks up, and Cal is busy whaling on Landy's little Guardian scout, Tipsy, with the bone. we very rapidly put two and two together—Cal is responsible for the whole mess, and we need to stop him, or we're done for.

now, by this point Aldin had an established pattern—she hits first, and she hits like a godhammer, and anything that survives that first blow had better put her down fast because it won't survive a second one.

and she refused to lay a hand on Cal. she terrified him into dropping the bone and we knocked him out and broke the damn thing instead.

as it turns out, the bone was cursed and Cal was under a compulsion to kill people, revive some of them as redeads, and...uh, commit some light cannibalism. and even though he's now freed from that, he's hearing a voice in his head from something calling itself "the First", which recognizes Aldin—because she had an encounter with something in a tomb out in the deep desert as a teenager. something that left a mark on her, in much the same way as Cal is now marked.

anyway, a dozen sessions later the truth comes out: Cal is a former Yiga blademaster on the run from the organization, trying to get to the bone before they could. Aldin is a vessel for the power of the Calamity itself, chosen to kill Link and Zelda before they can prevent its coming.

as to character dynamics:

Cal hates himself. he blames himself for not being able to resist the compulsion, he hates himself for killing his companions and putting Landy in danger, he's lost nearly everything—and is willing to risk what little he has left for Aldin, who is the only person who understands what he's been through and has been there to support him the entire way. Aldin loves him back fiercely, and is determined to give him the shelter she needed and didn't get after her Incident—even if that means fighting a god with her bare hands. they're like, peak mutual "not to me, not if it's you" energy, they're wildly in love, they snark at shit and cause problems together and Aldin flirts with Cal outrageously just to fluster him, and if they don't manage to destroy the world they might just be able to save it.

anyway, the campaign might be defunct but I'm stealing the ship and the core of the plot and attempting to file the serial numbers off and write something original with it, and in the meantime I'm subjecting all of you to art. and maybe fic excerpts if anyone's interested.

[cynical-amphisbaenia]

Uh, hi? I'm sorry if I'm sending a ton of asks. I accidentally sent an unfinished one and didn't know there was a character limit?? Like I typed a lot on one and it never had a limit so I'm not sure if it's like a mobile vs desktop thing? I'm really bad at Tumblr lol. Uh anyway, my interests are almost entirely dnd and art. I mostly run games for my friends and do world building or plot stuff. When I actually play I always struggle between wanting to play something useful but then get upset when I get brushed off as "not a damage dealer" like yeah I can heal you 30 HP with a 1st level spell but I'm doing 4d8 minimum damage a round. I know basically every ability in the game and usualy use that understanding to work around my allies and make it so they can work as effectively as possible. But I feel like helping them be the best they can be takes away from me and makes it look like I'm not actually contrabuting? Like noticing that I'm the reason y'all are attacking more often would be cool. When I do play damage dealers I have a lot of fun at first bit get annoyed at their lack of non combative abilitys and uses. I'm a very talkative player and like to poke and prod everything and try to advance the plot or keep people on track. I tend to absorb as much information as I can about topics that interest me or just ammuse me so I can spout off that information at random or help people apply that information to whatever (like me the DM, telling my players how to make their characters even stronger without realizing I have to deal with them) I really enjoy art and I dabble in photography? I think my abilitys with photography are more of a natural inclination towards taking good photos more than actually knowing anything about photography? I was one of my photo teachers favorites even though I just winged everything and pretended I knew what I was doing. I do that a lot. Acting like I know what I'm doing just because it makes things easier when I have to put up with other people involving it. I'm a big fan of cryptids and I've been meaning to just do a deep dive and learn every tidbit I can but I haven't yet. Estheticaly I'm very drawn to crowns. I just adore them for some reason and I always have. When I took my friends senior photos he payed me by taking me to spirit Halloween and buying me a crown. I joke about it being my thinking crown and like to wear it while I work. A reoccurring thing that pops up in my life is bees? They're just a part of my personality at this point. I love those lil guys (did you know they can smell fear and do math?) Something I just remembered about myself is that I'm capable of beliving two entirely contradictory things. Like tarot? It's nonsense. But also it's literally never been wrong so I guess it's not? Same with how I feel guilty taking on any "main character" role in games but constantly joke about being all powerful and a being a book or cartoon character that I'm pretty sure I'm slowly trucking myself into genuinely seeing myself as a powerful entity. I'm really good at noticing patterns in the way people act and why they act the way they do and most of the time I just use that knowledge to "win" debates or whatever they just try to argue towards me. By win I mean I just intentionally misconstrued what they're saying to annoy them until they leave me alone (like "fuck you!" "No thanks I'm not interested") a lot of what I do is motivated by how funny I think I would be. Like tricking myself into kinning vriska? Hilarious. Getting into Homestuck so I can annoy my friends with useless trivia? Wonderful. Making my super friendly flower cleric and nicest character I've ever made also a raging anarchist and overthrowing two governments and killing a god through the power of friendship? God tier funny (in my eyes). I do a lot of things just so I can have a story to tell later (like killing the god) uh I think I've rambled for a while so I'm just gonna send this?

No worries about all the asks! I just want to say in advance that I really hope I don't confuse you further, but here's what I can figure out based on the information you've given me:

Your aspect is definitely Light. This is the clearest I've ever been able to determine someone's aspect so I don't think you need to doubt that. So much about Light is important to you - information/knowledge, your approach to stories, your focus on roles in reality (even if it’s fictional dnd reality). 

However, I don’t think you’re a Rogue. The classes I suggest you consider are Maid, Witch and Knight.

Maid might describe your relationship to wanting to be acknowledged as a contributor, but often being ignored. It would also explain why you constantly create Light for others, but desire to sometimes take on those roles yourself. You also appear to create situations for yourself to then create Light in the form of stories, as well as creating Light through plot/worldbuilding.

Witch is an option as you do sometimes appear to manipulate Light - intentionally misconstruing what people say, slowly changing reality by doing things because they’re funny, and using your knowledge to change things for your teammates. Poking and prodding at the plot is a very Witch-like trait. Witches also tend to be confident with their aspect. 

Finally, Knight might explain why you think you’re redistributing Light - perhaps you’re serving it instead. You do tend to use Light as both a weapon and to protect others when playing dnd. Joking about being a powerful entity and pretending you know how to do photography are both very Knight-like traits. However, Knights tend to only pretend to be confident in their aspect which might not suit you if you truly are confident with Light. 

I know I just gave you three new classes to consider! Probably not very helpful, sorry. Though with your own knowledge of classpects, you might be able to easily dismiss some of these yourself. Of course, my general advice is which do you feel you do more often - create, change or serve? Maybe there’s particular roles in dnd that you’re drawn to which would line up with one of these. 

Well, I really hope I’ve helped somewhat rather than confusing you more, but feel free to keep sending me asks if you need help narrowing it down. I’m sure you’ll figure out your classpect though, don’t worry. ^^

[dmsden]

What Is Wanting and What Is Owed

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Since I’ve been given the rare gift of a 5th Monday this month, I get a freestyle article. And, although I don’t often like to get on a soapbox, I’m going to do so a little. If you don’t want to hear me pontificate, you may want to skip this article and come back on Thursday.

During its recent D&D “Live” event, a few products were announced. Rime of the Frostmaiden was announced as the new adventure. While I’m personally meh about the whole Drizzt/Icewind Dale storyline, books, etc, I recognize that they’re an incredibly popular property, and I’m looking forward to seeing new monster stat blocks and so on. In proximity to this announcement came three other announcements, all of which I thought of as very positive, but which, to my surprise, brought a ton of venom from other D&D players.

Beadle & Grimm’s announced a Platinum Edition of the mod. No surprise there.

WotC announced Heroes’ Feast, the official D&D cookbook, from the same team that did the beautiful Art & Arcana book.

And finally, WotC made an announcement, which I will not go over again here, about how they wanted to show more sensitivity when presenting cultures based on real world cultures. You can read this in full at https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/diversity-and-dnd

I was pleased with all these announcements, but I was shocked (I guess I shouldn’t be any more?) about the level of venom I saw online about all three of them.

The B&G announcements was met with comments like, “$500? For that, the adventure had better run itself for me!” “Does it actually cast the spells?” and so on. For full disclosure, I have bought everyone of the Beadle & Grimm’s products. I ordered Waterdeep: Dragon Heist with a lot of trepidation, because $500.00 is a decent chunk of change for me. After receiving it and being blown away by what it contained, I knew we’d be buying other products as they came down the line.

The fact is that I am the target audience for B&G products: I’m a huge D&D fan, as is my husband, and we have a decent amount of disposable income to spend on our major hobbies, which includes TTRPGs. If you’re not in that target audience, then of course you’re not going to buy it, but I don’t see the value in tearing down others who make that decision. I guess, if anything, it’s likely motivated by jealousy. That’s a pretty natural human emotion, but it would be nice to see the honest reaction behind it.

The reactions to the cookbook seem to range from “I won’t waste my money on this” to “Well, they’re gonna lose money on this one” all the way to “Why is WotC wasting time with all-fluff products like this? They should be working on XXXX, because I’ve been waiting years for it.” I can understand not wanting to spend money on something you don’t want or need; that’s sensible. I’m personally charmed by the idea of an official cookbook, because I love to cook, so I’ll be grabbing this. I was actually pondering a fantasy-based cookbook project myself, but now I’ll wait to see what this looks like and if it scratches the itch I have for such a product.

So is WotC wasting talent on this? No, they’re not. The people who are writing this are the same freelance team that worked on Art & Arcana, so no WotC authors were dragged away from valuable work for this. Also, this isn’t one of WotC’s normal books that they release in a year. We’ll still be getting all the fluff and crunch this year that we normally would, but those of us who like the idea of a cookbook will get one.

Oh, and as far as losing money goes, I’d like to tell you about a book called Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home. When the Dragonlance novels and modules came out, they were incredibly popular. They were so popular that the demand for more material about that world prompted TSR to publish Leaves. It was all fluff and no crunch. You got everything from astronomy notes to sheet music to...oh, gosh...recipes. And it was a massive seller. It sold so well that they ended up making two sequels to it. So I think WotC will be okay with this one. And if not, they just won’t do another project like this down the line.

I think what bothers me about this one is really the sense of entitlement. Way too many posts seemed to boil down to, “This isn’t what I want; I want XXXX. WotC owes it to me.” Like, really, no they don’t. Every time WotC has a product announcement, I cross my fingers for Spelljammer, because I have an irrational love of its silliness and the imagination that went into it. But it would NEVER occur to me to think that WotC somehow owes me Spelljammer. WotC is a company, and the core principle of every company is to make money. I’m sure that, if WotC eventually thinks Spelljammer will make it money, that it’ll happen, but they know that Forgotten Realms is their bread and butter, so I’m not holding my breath.

I’ve been going on for a long time, but the last one is the one that cuts me deepest to the quick, so I can’t ignore it. It’ll probably come as no surprise to anyone that, as a very liberal/progessive gay man, I was disgusted to see so many comments condemning WotC for bowing to political correctness or for doing this “just to make money”.

As far as making money goes, I have already said, that’s what a company wants to do. I think you’d have to be blind not to see the surging tide of people in the U.S. and across the world who are sick and tired of inequality. The fight for equal treatment for people of color, for women in general, for gay people, for trans people...it’s still raging. For every victory, like the Supreme Court case that said workplaces couldn’t fire people for being of LGBTQ+ status, there’s a crushing setback, like President Trump’s executive order to allow hospitals to discriminate against trans people. But things seem to be shifting again, and people are more and more stepping up to declare their dedication to the fight. So yes, if I were running a company, I would be taking notice, and I would be taking actions in this direction.

What I do not and will not understand are people who are somehow going to claim to be upset that WotC is going to take steps to try to not offend people in the future. It bothers me that people can’t say, “Well, I’m not personally offended, but I’m not black/Romani/gay/Asian/Native American/whatever. I think it’s great that WotC is trying to make sure D&D is more inclusive for everyone.” I don’t understand how anyone can play a game like D&D...a game that literally makes you walk in someone else’s shoes...and yet have so little ability to do it in your actual life. D&D literally shows you how different people with different abilities have to work together to help each other achieve a goal, and it’s sad to see that some who play it have so little regard for people who are different from themselves.

If you’ve stuck through this article this far, I wish I could offer you some great wisdom at the end. I guess I’ll just caution you to spend a moment thinking about what you’re going to say online before you say it. Once your words are out there, they’re very hard to take back, and that can have consequences. I try my best to make most of my interactions online with people positive ones. Even when I don’t agree with people, I try to be positive, and to educate them as to my side of the argument, rather than just blasting them with “No, you’re wrong for thinking that.” I thought long and hard before writing this article, and I thought long and hard before publishing it. I may lose readers over it, and, if so, that would be a shame, but I would rather be honest about who I am and what I believe.

So be kind to one another. To borrow a quote from Critical Role, “Don’t forget to love each other.” Roll those 20s. And we’ll be back on Thursday with a fun question about running a campaign that begins before Session Zero. Whaaaaat? You heard me. See you then!

[fimflamfilosophy]

“Is DnD Still Popular?”

To some of you giant nerds, the question, “Is DnD still popular,” is probably one of the stranger things you’ll read today, but within a specific context it makes a lot of sense. Speaking of, the show “Stranger Things” presented a popular, physical look at what DnD beasties might feel like, even if it didn’t present an honest view of what DnD games really play like. Along with more online media referencing the game and sites like Roll20 making it easier to join a group, it makes sense. Is this a temporary boom or has the roleplaying community seen a lot of permanent additions to its nerdy hobby?

I wouldn’t have numbers to say, myself, but for what it’s worth, roleplaying is always a very personal experience. And for a few of us, the question isn’t, “Are people still playing DnD?” Of course they are - it’s all anyone plays! The question is, “Can you get anyone to play anything else?”

What Is DnD?

For some people, Dungeons & Dragons has become so intertwined with the concept of roleplaying that people think DnD and roleplaying are synonymous. If you roleplay, you play DnD. Originally, this had a kernel of truth. There are articles about the history of the system, and during its inception the game had a hard time taking off. Fundamentally it was asking people to play make-believe, but with a system of mathematical rules and designs. We know now that this type of thing is like catnip to massive dork-faced neckbeards, but at the time it wasn’t expected to have much appeal.

Eventually it did get off the ground, and it became the standard for the entire concept of a roleplaying game. And as with all “firsts to the market”, there have been many competitors and copycats, but it’s difficult to pry the audience away when you need everyone to use the same system. In economics they call this “network utility value” - that is, a fax machine is useless if only one person owns one. You can only send faxes to other people with fax machines, so if another company tries to invent their own offshoot of the fax machine, they’ll never get anyone to adopt it because everyone is already using the existing fax machine network. Everybody knows DnD, which means that if you go to a convention or look for games online, you know you’re going to find more players for that system than any other.

Why Does DnD Continue to Work?

In early editions of DnD, there were a lot more rules, and as a result more freedom to design your characters. When I first started roleplaying, it was during the 3rd edition of the system, where you could still allocate skill points to become better or worse at specific skills like lying, climbing, forgery, or crafting. This meant that with good planning, you could play a sub-optimal wizard and make up for it somewhat by investing a lot in your “persuasion” skills to rely on talk more than magic.

But being the system that everyone has to learn isn’t enough to stay on top forever. Other systems like GURPS have taken hold by now, and some types of popular nerd media have introduced their own completely unique systems designed to simulate their specific media universes. The owners of DnD had two choices: either make the game more open and try to eat the lunch of other companies, or make all of DnD easier to play in general to capture a broader audience.

So they released 4th edition! We don’t talk about 4th edition. And then they quickly released 5th edition (and a few mumbled apologies), which streamlined a lot of things about the game to the extent I’m not sure why they even let you control your character stats at all now. Skills became baked in with your level, and most of the game is about choosing abilities when you level up. It’s become very similar to playing an MMO, and I believe that’s the point.

One of the big things you always see in a complicated roleplaying system is players spending hours putting together a character. For your experienced player, this is a labor of love. You really care about the small details and want to make sure you get it right, or you’re a Win-At-All-Costs type who wants to make sure you’re rolling the biggest numbers. Either way you’re familiar and know what you’re doing, but it presents a hurdle to new players, and that hurdle has been largely done away with in 5th edition.

No matter how old you are, how experienced you are, how creative you are (or aren’t), or how much you know about any aspect of the game, you can play 5e DnD. I think you could play as young as seven years old and have minimal problems, because all you have to do is choose a job and virtually everything else is filled in for you, as if by a program, as if a video game. An experienced player can help a new one whip up a character within fifteen minutes, and that new guy will be rolling dice at the dragon about as well as everyone else.

DnD is the Worst System

But DnD’s accessibility is also its greatest downfall. Because everything is sort of programmed out, you find a lot of players eventually growing bored with the same-old, and they try to find ways to inject new life into the system. They invent new races, new classes, new abilities, and so on - they call this “homebrew”. yet many people are bad at creating balance and fairness for something they personally intend to play, and DnD recognizes this problem. It has a lot of supplemental books telling you all you need to know about other races and classes you might want to play, and in theory they are as fair and powerful as anything in the base system.

Yet no amount of homebrew or supplementary material will solve DnD’s core problem: it’s rigid. If you want to play, you need a battle mat, because every spell, every action, can travel or act within a certain number of squares and you always need to know exactly where you’re standing. Players are expected to be able to take a certain number of actions per turn based on their level, and do an expected amount of damage. Monster encounters are built loosely around the concept of “Challenge Rating”, which is meant to imply a group of four players will find a CR of 5 suitably challenging if they are all level five. Basically it plays like “X-Com”.

And as you lock people in these mechanical, video game-styled designs, you find people champing at the bit. Not everyone wants to choose their abilities at level up or have their skill proficiencies dictated by what level they are. Some people want to express truly outlandish concepts, or play something that isn’t specifically designed around the idea of walking room to room blasting monsters. You’ll see people in roleplaying communities often asking, “Does anyone have any good ideas to homebrew [this idea] and make it work?”

Fans of DnD argue the homebrew approach works. Yes, it’s complicated and frustrating to invent entirely new classes and races for a single game where you don’t know how long you’ll play or what level you’ll reach, but DnD’s strict rules and design philosophy is a perk to those people, not a drawback.

Yet a fact of note is that a quote from a game I run got into a popular “Out of Context DnD” blog. The quote was, “ Mecha-Jesus unleashes a barrage of flames from his palms, but the train-snake martially dodges out of the way!”

It received 337 notes, and I was a little surprised by that. The game is a post-apocalyptic Road Warrior setting where the team boss decided to kill God as revenge for one of the gang members dying. Also featured in that day’s session was a battle between two men operating bucket cranes in a duel to the death above a giant grain silo, among eight other equally implausible events based loosely on Dante’s Inferno. For me, Mecha-Jesus is not a 300 notes event - it’s literally every other Friday.

What Do You Want to Play?

In my view, DnD often poses the question, “Are you even roleplaying?” I mean really. A lot of players feel like they are because they do an accent and come up with a backstory, but if you set yourself next to another player who has the same character stats and you’re playing together in the same game, has the system really given you the tools to solve problems all that differently? And the answer is is broadly, no.

I understand the counter-argument. Every player is unique. But in their way each Paladin in “World of Warcraft” is unique too. They have different gear, different competencies of player, and may take different abilities, but fundamentally they’re expected to crash dungeons and use what they’re given to kill monsters. The only advantage DnD has is that the GM can allow his players to interact with scenery items or talk to things, and you’ll see debate on exactly how much leniency a GM should give his players to act outside DnD’s base mechanics.

That’s a mentality. Some people like the safety of the system. They like to know what all the monsters are, what the risks are, what the rewards are, and have it all neatly lined up where you can see it. They want to join an Adventuring Guild that will bureaucratically assign a dungeon for them to attack so they always have something to do and a sure reward for doing it. The GM went through the trouble of drawing that dungeon out, after all. DnD is extremely safe.

And then there’s the alternative. I actually learned to roleplay among theater nerds who were already big into the concept of improv and narrative. One of them used to joke, “If you think DnD is the best system for the game, you know it’s not character-driven,” because any time you’re fine with trying to build an actual human around a set of level-up choices, you’re probably not designing the strongest possible personality.

Going back to media making DnD more popular, the first televised introduction to DnD I can personally recall is an episode of “Dexter’s Lab” where they address exactly this conflict. In it, Dexter runs a game where he forces his friends to play by his rules, where he wins. When Dexter rolls poorly, he turns the dice over to a better number and declares his evil wizard “fried” the team of adventurers. Then his sister, Dee Dee, takes over, and with no knowledge of the game’s rules at all, embarks on an improvised session of pure roleplaying where the guys tell her what they do and she tells them what happens. The sheets are just guidelines for them, and if they say they can do something Dee Dee accepts it.

Dee Dee’s roleplaying is open. It’s a void, and for some people, when you look into the void it looks back. How do you control everyone when they can do anything? It requires a certain level of trust that some players have a difficult time not abusing, yet weirdly everyone I’ve ever known who would lie and cheat during a roleplaying game actually preferred DnD, and I think I know why.

Rules Can Be Broken, but the Suspension of Disbelief is Immutable

The grognards that break the rules in DnD do so because the rules are so strict that they ironically can be easily broken. If the system says people take a certain amount of damage when they fall, and you find a way to throw to them that elevation consistently, by gum they’ll damn well take that damage. It’s in the rules! A friend I know combats this by saying if his players exploit the rules, then the monsters will start exploiting them too, to discourage arms races of bullshit.

What I’m describing is often called “rules lawyering”. So named because it involves finding a rules passage, interpreting the rule so the wording sounds like it favors an exploit, and then leveraging that into a powerful ability players were not meant to have. Because DnD requires you to know absolutely everything about your relative locations and words like “Attack” can have important diverging meanings depending on context, it’s a system extremely vulnerable to lawyering.

But with a more open system based on narrative and characters, it becomes harder to lawyer something you shouldn’t. In an open system, you build what the game calls for without consulting a bunch of charts and level guides. If you’re super heroes, you build super heroes. Cyborgs are cyborgs, Orcs are orcs - it’s whatever, and if you try to do anything outside the believability of the game, the GM tells you no. He has more authority in a more narrative game because the GM leads the narrative.

I’m personally fond of the Hero System, which ascribes massive ranges to all forms of weapons (a gun or eye laser can reach you down a long hallway) so the only general questions that need to be asked are, “Are you close enough to punch a guy?” and “Are you bunched up close enough to all be hit by this grenade?” You don’t need battle mats and the games play a lot more intuitively. There are two books of rules in Hero and they can be specific, but most of the rules revolve around character design rather than how to play, and fiddly things like physics or bursting through walls are meant to be decided depending on the type of game, at the GM’s discretion. There are guidelines, but they’re only that.

So if someone tells you they can punch through a wall in your noir investigator game, you tell them no, because the rules are just guidelines and in this game you can’t just drive your fist through a concrete brick even if you can find figures in the book that say maybe you can, because the book also says maybe you can’t - you’re expected to play the narrative, not the game. You can punch through walls in the super hero game where that’s typical, but not in this one.

From DnD to Anything Else

Of course, the open systems also present an opportunity for players to be very different in skill sets and abilities. You could imagine DnD is like “Power Rangers”, where everyone’s a different color and has different weapons but they’re basically all pretty much on the same level. An open system will wind up more like “Avatar the Last Airbender”, where one player is going to be Toph and someone else is going to be playing Sokka. 

It’s important in DnD that everyone be the same, because a lot of the game is spent in a 20ft x 20ft room full of skeletons (or Putties) - Toph would single-handedly dominate every challenge. Whereas in a narrative-driven game the ability to crush everything with a rock doesn’t actually solve half your problems and whoever’s playing Sokka probably winds up more active than the person playing Toph.

At the end of it all, that’s why the question for me is whether you can take the players out of DnD and take DnD out of the players. Everyone plays DnD, but can you get people to play Sokka and have a good time if Toph is in the party? Personally I think it helps to start people on systems other than DnD, and then they can go into DnD if they like being in small rooms full of skeletons.

Of course, trying to start people on anything but DnD is usually defeated by the network utility! Everyone knows DnD! It’s THE system synonymous with the hobby! A few too many times I’ve seen people play a DnD game and say roleplaying just isn’t for them because it’s boring. All you do is wait for your turn and then roll dice at goblins.

But all I can say to that is, you never roleplayed, man. You joined a pen-and-paper video game. I agree, throwing dice at goblins sucks. I used to have a friend who would compulsively roll dice when he got bored waiting for turns in games like that, and when asked what he was rolling for, he’d joke, “I’m killing the dragon! I’m killing the dragon!” Him, enjoying the experience of DnD combat in between other people’s turns.

In many groups that’s all DnD is, silly accents and go-nowhere backstories aside. Acting is hard. But if you’re very lucky, and you know just the right people, it’s possible to land in a game that is pure story and character, and those things are a rare treasure and a real blast.

[stomp-that-ho-regard]

I know you don't really do asks but hot take, based on your last post (it was eye-opening tbh)? Ashley's post-Obann doubling down on trying to make Yasha the center of Beau's attention after so many hours of not doing anything with the flirting (the brick wall that Beau threw pebbles at, if you would) feels infinitely more entitled than any queer (former or otherwise) CR-fan expressing their disappointment at how BJ was retconned to hell and back. It was just bad, bad form. Even moreso when it was pretty clear that Marisha had moved on to wanting to try something with Laura, who to reiterate, wasn’t opposed to the idea either (lbr, neither of them were subtle about it. If BJ was m/f, they’d be canon with how unsubtle they were). If someone tried to pull that crap on me in a dnd game, I’d tell them back off. You snooze, you lose. It’s so disrespectful. And yet, no one had the heart to tell her to wait for c3, huh?

What also makes the whole Ashley thing come off as even more asshole-ish, is that I remember Brian saying (right before Ash had come back), that while she was at home, she was watching the most recent episodes to catch up on where they were at. So that means, more than likely, she sat there and watched ep85, and saw Beau confess to having feelings for Jester. Then, I’m presuming, also caught Talks the following week, where Marisha doubled down on Beau’s feelings. And yet still came back the very next episode, seeming very adamant about attempting to put a wrench in that. So yep, that’s the fucking epitome of entitlement and a complete disrespect for the story and other player’s choices.

And no, they didn’t have the heart to tell her. And I think the reason is because they think of Ashley as the ‘baby’ of the group (even though she’s not the youngest) and they just can’t say no to her. That’s been pretty obvious for a while. They treat her like she needs to be swaddled in bubblewrap. I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s because she’s the most introverted out of all of them, and they feel protective in some way? That’s why it would come as no surprise to me if Ashley was indeed the one, as I stated in that post, to initiate the turnaround. Travis seemed fairly lax about pairings, as if it wouldn’t have been a big deal to him if FJ happened or not. He would’ve been fine either way. But if 'the baby’ wants to try something, they’ll bend over backwards to accommodate her. And they did.

And the whole "If Yasha killed Beau, she'd commit suicide" thing is so, so gross and in light of how dependent Yasha became on having Beau exist in her vicinity, character-arc-wise just makes it so much more uncomfortable? Like, would that have evolved to "if Beau doesn't love Yasha, she'll kill herself"? Cuz that's just manipulative.

Yasha had been through a lot of trauma, and I totally get that, after she was released from Obann’s hold, she would probably be a little clingy at first towards the people she cares about. If you just went through something really traumatic, you would want to hold on to loved ones very tightly and keep them close as much as possible because it would make you feel safe, right? If that’s the angle Ashley was coming at it from, (and it pertained to the whole group and not just one person) I’d understand.

But then later, it felt like Ashley was twisting this into a way to fan the flames of BY. Any time she’d open her mouth about Beau, anything she said would rub me the wrong way. She had Yasha constantly hyper-focusing on Beau (the rest of the group didn't matter apparently), as if being with Beau was going to be Yasha’s only way to heal. That literally NOTHING ELSE would be good enough or strong enough to bring peace to her life. That kind of obsessiveness is not romantic (or healthy) to me. At that point, you’re just putting this person on a pedestal and you’re basically, not just wanting, but expecting them to be your savior. That’s a hell of a lot of pressure to put on a person, especially someone you want to be in a relationship with.

You have to heal before you get into a relationship. You don’t get into a relationship to heal. Your partner should not have to act as your therapist.

Relationships require give and take. Yasha is all take and no give. It’s supposed to be an equal partnership, but BY feels extremely one-sided. Beau gives all the comfort and feelings of safety, and Yasha revels in that, but gives none of it back. In 141 episodes, she has never, not once, actively comforted Beau. Even in Kamordah, where Ashley claims Yasha ‘fell in love’ with her, there was no comforting on her part. (That was all Jester.) 

As you said anon, it’s just bad form. Bad form all around.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E71 (SDCC Edition!)

Tonight’s guests? EVERYONE. This is a recording of the SDCC panel from this past weekend!

There’s a table read of the first three pages of Vox Machina: Origins Volume 2, to be released August 14!

Ashley gets asked about the fate of an NPC from the first campaign. Ashley: “Uh. They all died.” Matt: “That’s your fault now.”

Lessons learned through the journey of CR? Liam: “It’s all about the people you travel with.” Matt: “If you can stick to making friendship a priority in your life, good things will come.” Their friendship has been the most important thing to maintain and check in with. Sam highlights how amazing it’s been to watch the community grow year after year.

Favorite RP moment that didn’t involve their own characters? Sam: “Well, that takes me out.” Travis: “I was such a fan of Vex popping out of the water in the bathtub.” Sam: “Anything Matt Mercer does is a pretty fantastic roleplaying moment.” Liam: “I think a certain pirate woman reaching the end of her line.” Laura: “I think Scanlan’s whole... (gestures) as much as I hated it personally.” Marisha: “There were some Percy-Vax standoffs that were pretty great.” Matt: “Percival and Grog having the fight underneath the Keep shortly after the Chroma fall.” Liam: “I really liked Percy and Vex in Syngorn.” Taliesin to Marisha: “I liked you at the Pirate King, busting out all that Cobalt Soul stuff. I wasn’t prepared.” Marisha: “Neither was I!”

Matt talks about how adapting the show to the animated series involves some creative truncation, but also involves holding his ground about what’s too important to change even if it doesn’t tie a perfect narrative bow. “This isn’t mainstream media, this is Critical Role! Some things should be messy. Some things are their own threads.” He’s enjoyed watching new people come up with new takes, and he’s excited to cast some of the NPCs.

The idea is floated of a full-day Sam Riegel DnD Beyond telethon. Sam: “Marisha, can we--” Marisha, glaring: “Uh-huh.”

What has Marisha taken away from Keyleth’s and Beau’s different experiences with leadership, in her leadership role IRL in the company? "I feel like Beau helps me be more assertive in my opinions.” Travis: “We don’t argue with Marisha very much, because she punches people in the face more now.”

Liam’s spell choices are a balancing act between trying to accomplish his own goals and trying to optimize the group’s performance. He’s taken Seeming for the party, but the opportunity to use it hasn’t arisen yet.

Taliesin gets asked “Is there X number of character deaths that would keep you from playing in this campaign?” Taliesin: “There’s really only one way to find out.” Matt: “Is it double digits?” Taliesin: “I at least have two more undeveloped ideas that hopefully will be used in the next campaign.” Liam: “Let’s get to that fourth character!” Taliesin: “I hate you all.”

Missed opportunities and plot threads? Matt can’t go much into it, because for both campaigns 1 and 2, there’s a chance they’ll wind up going back there. There’s a facet of campaign one’s story they got to continue with a one-shot that will be airing soon. He’d hoped there would be more delving into Thordak’s history, and there is another Horn of Orcus out there. Also the Clasp’s relationship with Emon. Ashley is still haunted by “that gosh-dang box”. Matt: “I answered that already.” Ashley: “I DON’T BELIEVE YOU. I DON’T BELIEVE YOUR ANSWER.”

Was Nott seriously considering leaving with her family? Sam, as Laura slowly reaches for his throat: “Yes, absolutely.” He’d been going back and forth with that for a while now. “Nott loves traveling with this gang, but she really wants to be home.” He called Matt about it to warn him that Nott might not be in the campaign anymore. “But I think what happened on Thursday was right for the moment, and we’ll see how it plays out.”

Matt gets asked about how to avoid min-maxing as an experienced DM when he gets the chance to play in someone else’s game. Matt notes that there’s nothing wrong with min-maxing if everyone’s on board with it, but that, the more that you play, the more you might enjoy trying something off-the-wall. There’s also the importance of respect when playing at the tables of less-experienced DMs, where you remind yourself that it is their table. Taliesin: “Part of the fun of the meta-game of D&D is that it’s changing all the time.” He points out that the Magnificent Mansion used to be considered a dump spell until Sam really showed what it could do. Taliesin highlights the challenge of experimenting in these less explored areas.

Sam gave Nott a kid in her backstory because he loves his own kids so much and wanted some of that feeling in the game.

Matt’s favorite Sorrowsworn? The Lonely, which is why he wanted to use them in the game the first chance he got.

Taliesin and Matt are asked if they might release Molly’s whole backstory at the end of the campaign. Matt: “When this campaign’s over, we’ll definitely do that.”

Caduceus is hoping some of his family’s at the Kiln, and potentially some of the other families. “He’s built of expectations. We’ll see how it plays out if those expectations aren’t met.”

“I feel that Yasha is obviously in the best hands with Matt. I, personally, I love the storyline. It’s so much to play with, and it goes with a lot of the backstory that I wrote, and a lot of what Matt prepared, and stuff that I don’t even know, and stuff I do know. I love it! I feel really good about it, but I can’t wait to come home and see what’s going to happen if Yasha comes back.” Matt: “Depending on when you come back, there’s a good chance you’ll have to make a new character.” (The general tone here is that it would be an in-the-meantime thing.)

Matt gets asked how he makes sure everyone in the party gets their time in the spotlight. “It doesn’t always work out, but trying to consider what aspects of the story can play to their individual strengths. You can offer opportunities for each of them to shine, hopefully.” He also highlights that a lot of it is the players respecting each other at the table and being comfortable with the expectation of equal time to shine. “Communication is the key to a good, healthy game group.” Laura also highlights that you as a player can engage other players’ characters if you notice they’re fading into the background a bit.

There’s a brief foray into Evanescence. As you do.

What advice would Matt give himself if he could go back to the first campaign? “Don’t stress so much about what people on the internet think about you. Guard this wonderful little lightning-in-a-bottle family and you’ll be fine.”

If Beau were a druid, what would her go-to wildshape be? Marisha: “I shouldn’t curse. A DAMN OWL. Take that, Thaddeus.”

Marisha: “I feel like the Mighty Nein has turned into fighting for the everyman.” Laura: “I feel like Vox Machina, though, we felt we knew who the good guys were. As the Mighty Nein, I feel like everything’s so gray, and it’s harder to make that choice, and therefore what steps up is everything around us and needing to protect the people who are victims of the bigger picture.”

Matt gets asked how to manage his DM-life balance in terms of parceling out prep time. “It can vary. Whenever I’m driving somewhere, if I have more than 20 minutes of a drive, that’s usually my brainstorming period.” He also tries to keep weekends free with no prep and instead reserves a couple evenings a week to prep, although it sometimes bleeds through to early Thursday morning. “I prepare more than I used to,” largely because of the Internet’s watchful eye in terms of continuity.

[powerbottomblake]

RWBY and Masculinity

I love RT’s, and specifically RWBY’s take on masculinity so much. The show subverts all expectations wrt their male characters and their development, which is why the male viewers experience major cognitive dissonance between what they expect and what story is actually being told (and then have the gall to call it bad writing). Under cut because this has gotten so long so fast.

The two main male characters - Sun and Jaune - are subvertions of genre/medium staples.

Jaune specifically hits all the beats of the typical male self-insert in a harem anime: he’s catapulted into a world he knows nothing of, instantly establishes 3 different dynamics with 3 different female characters/archetypes - Cheery, Ice Princess and Hot Tall and Earnest - one of whom he immediately sets his eyes on, he’s surrounded by women that are a whole lot more powerful than he is (and arguably THE most powerful one is instantly drawn to him), he’s essentially powerless and dealing with self-esteem issues and is nondescript enough to be a vehicle for any male viewer to project themselves onto. Which is why you have a good chunk of Jaune’s fandom from V1 being the embodiment of the Venn diagram intersection bewteen weebs and incels like That, and why there’s so much harem fanfic revolving around Jaune. 

CRWBY have heavily drawn from anime when making rwby so I don’t think this was coincidental; they laid out the groundworks to subvert a specific trope. Male fans, however, bought into the facade and kept waiting for Jaune to essentially steal the spotlight, be the focal point of several love interests and get a power up that’ll let him be their own power fantasy to boot, but CRWBY took his character in the very opposite direction. 

Jaune makes a lot of mistakes but what defines him is how earnestly he learns from them and redeems himself. He apologizes for lashing out at Pyrrha as a result of his own feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness when bullied by Cardin and then accepts her offer to teach him, sincerely taking instruction from her and then taking inspiration from her strength. Once he realizes his seduction skit with Weiss is not only ridiculous but wrong, he instantly changes his approach and prioritizes Weiss’s wants and needs over his, giving her space and knocking sense into Neptune so that Weiss can have her “ideal” date. Jaune doesn’t get embittered about being essentially rejected and most importantly he doesn’t let it affect his relationship with Weiss. Both of them become actual friends from that point on, and we get to see Jaune develop a certain measure of emotional intelligence starting that moment, which becomes part of his skillset and is shown to be part of what makes him a good leader. One of the best examples is how he and Ruby team up in V6E1 to get the hunter on the train to turn the turrets off. Jaune heals the hunter’s wounded arm and gently assuages his fear, in clear contrast with Qrow abrasively manhalding an injured and panicked man and expecting him to comply. The writing essentially puts down the show of arms and props up Ruby and Jaune’s approach; Jaune specifically is the example of masculine leadership the writing looks favorably on.  

And that’s the kicker here: Jaune’s strength comes from his set of soft skills as opposed to traditionally portrayed masculine strength, which usually careens into toxic power fantasy land. His whole arc in V1-3 is about learning to shed any distorted notions of chivalry and strength and knowing that his end goal shouldn’t be to become a hero for the sake of it or to live up to societal expectations, but to do what he can and as good as he can for the sake of everyone. Jaune is a good strategist and he knows how to make the best out of everyone’s powers. He’s there to enhance how people use their semblances together. His big power-up, his semblance reveal is basically him getting confirmed for a cross between a cleric and a paladdin (DnD players amongst us please correct me if I’m wrong): he is the ultimate support, acting as a healer and an amplifier to everyone around him, and that’s why he’s a good leader. His power on his own loses its entire meaning: Jaune takes strength from the people he loves and endlessly, earnestly gives back to them, never once stealing the spotlight in combat because that’s not his role and that’s okay.

And as for Jaune’s romantic prospects, think Forever Fall established once and for all that Jaune’s already found the One and I don’t think we’ll see him get any other love interest, especially now that arkos parallels oz/salem and with how vehement CRWBY are about lancaster being platonic. 

Now Sun. I want to tackle a specific expectation I’ve seen from male fans and that’s about him becoming more significant to the plot by coleading/leading the new White Fang movement...which would be hijacking Blake’s storyline. Blake is the one with drive and a cause, she was literally born inside the movement and has since seen it get derailed AND was the one to reclaim it from Adam and give it a new vision, as opposed to Sun who apparently wasn’t even aware of the systematic oppression Faunus had to deal with on a daily basis outside of Vacuo. So why is Sun, who has exactly 0 qualifications for this job and no interest in it, still expected to get it by a good chunk of his fans? Aside from the pervasive misogyny permeating fandom culture, there’s a specific trope media has served to us for decades now and that’s of a Semi-Competent Male Hero with his Hyper-Competent Female Side-kick (Vox published an article about it a few years ago and I really recommend checking it out), where a male character who’s semi good at best and not nearly as well-versed into whatever field he shares with his infinitely more competent female sidekick somehow walks in and saves the day and most of the time the female sidekick also, unsurprisingly doubles as a love interest. Time and again, male characters get rewarded for being half as good as their female counterpart at best AND they get the girl most often than not. 

But Sun’s whole character is, again, the very opposite of this. Sun never outweighs Blake on her own narrative (as is literal common sense) and shouldn’t be expected to. Sun actually gets schooled into the Faunus cause by his more competent female counterpart, Blake acting as his mentor and introducing him to the fight and why it matters. Blake and Sun basically reenact the plotline of Journey to the West (Sun quite literally references it by calling it a “Journey to the East”) a story whose main character is the legendary monkey king Sun Wukong, who’s the mythical figure Sun’s based on. Sun’s arc about finally knowing the cause and fighting for the right reasons happens thanks to Blake’s guidance - which Sun earnestly complies with and never questions because he knows she’s the expert and he doesn’t usurp that spot from her - and never overshadows her own narrative. Quite the opposite, it builds up to her own arc as a future leading figure of the WF and face of the Faunus cause by having her politicize someone who has no real stakes in this fight even though they should have.  

And then even his endeavor with Blake as a love interest falls through, with their relationship getting entirely recontextualized in V4-5 where their dynamic gets rebuilt as a friendship. Incidentally, that’s when it finally starts actually developing, instead of being stuck in the V1-3 limbo of mutual fleeting attraction where they’re constantly missing each other’s cues because they literally do not understand each other on a fundamental level. V4-5 is when Blake understands Sun isn’t what she needs in a romantic partner, but she does need him as a friend and ally. And Sun, whose premise falls in line with the Nice Guy trope, actually subverts it: he never makes Blake’s emotional journey about him, never expects anything in return and gracefully bows out of the narrative (for the time being) without ever pressuring Blake into acknowledging or returning his feelings. He doesn’t agonize over the initial attraction not going anywhere and doesn’t expect to be rewarded for being a decent person; again Blake’s feelings and well-being are his priority because that’s what good friends do. Their relationship developing into a steady friendship is never a point of conflict between them, and it’s actually lived as a positive event for both. 

And then, to top it off, CRWBY parsed together every bit of toxic masculinity and wrapped it into a power fantasy package and named the end result Adam Taurus, who’s the absolute worst abusive piece of shit. Adam is every single thing bad about men as a power structure: abrasive, entitled, controlling, takes violence as an indication of power and doesn’t take kindly to his leadership/vision being questionned. It’s not really coincidental that he steals the power seat from a woman and acts like he deserves it in any way. But male fans were so starved for their power fantasy fix and traditionally masculine cool calm collected and complicated male character that they were ready to minimize/outright ignore the abuse he’s put Blake through and just how awful a human being he was just to be able to hard project onto him. And CRWBY’s answer to that is basically this:

TL;DR: RT says if your masculinity isn’t humble, nurturing, supportive, compassionate, selfless and earnest then we don’t want it.

[inventors-fair]

Combat Commentary

Thank you all for your entries! Here is commentary for all the entries that weren’t winners or runners-up. I hope that this format, along with the gallery, allows for people to get everything they can out of the Fair.

@ace-hobo — All for One // One for All

This was a clever use of the split-card naming convention, and I liked this card in general. There’s an amount of math to do that can make combat difficult, and if this card isn’t uncommon it probably should be. It’s hard to make it out with that symbol. Regardless, a fine card, costed effectively, a good split. Some people might be pedantic about the name; I think it’s nice.

@competitive-casual-magic — Oil and Fire

Now this is a cool card. Wrecking Ball, but shock, but deathtouch, but not. What an interesting idea. I like the fact that it deals two damage to any target, not just a creature. Giving it flash is very cool. I imagined a lot of scenarios in which this card could blow out someone during combat and make for some complex scenarios. I don’t think this should be rare, personally, but maybe it’s complex enough. In something like Modern Horizons, it would be uncommon. For standard, hm... I’m on the fence about that.

@dabudder — Adrenaline Sliver

This card irks me, not because you did anything mechanically wrong or because it’s not a great idea, but because it gives slivers a boost based on the number of slivers you control rather than +3/+2. Part of the flavor of bloodrush was the fact that it based it on the creatures P/T and abilities. The dissonance in this specific card is frustrating. Still, forget that. I love the concept. I do enjoy this card. Don’t forget in future iterations to capitalize all instances of the word “Sliver.”

@dancepatternalpha — One Last Fight

Follower really liked this card. I liked it as a combo piece. Flavorfully, it’s pretty neat and I like the effort that you put into the flavor text. It’s very difficult for a new player to understand exactly what use this card does without understanding how combat works, but that’s what makes it a good uncommon. I imagined pairing this with Spikeshot Elder and having fun there, heh. 

@fivetrillionelves — Conquer Fear

Interesting card, pretty strong trick! I like the way it makes one of White’s weaknesses, its small creatures, a lot better. Flavor text does need that end quote. Not a whole lot to say about this card. It gets the job done. Might be hard to understand in multiples on the same creature, though.

@fractured-infinity — Unstoppable Curiosity

I am not a fan of this card, clever as it is. I don’t like buffing an opponent’s creature just for minor card advantage. If this was “Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you this turn, draw a card” or some effect where you could utilize the weakness without making yourself weaker, I feel like this card could be cool. As-is, I’d never use this card on an opponent’s creature. On my own, it’s not bad. “Trample” doesn’t need to be capitalized. Also, I JUST got the flavor text. It’s a touch unclear.

@ghost3141596535 — Bullshift

He, nice name. I can see that you intended this for Ikoria, and I like that aspect of it. Thank you for marking the rarity. Don’t forget your periods. As someone who hasn’t played with mutate, I can’t really say how strong this card is in practicality. It’s odd that it allows for mutate in creatures without mutate. I don’t know how that works within the rules.

@guardgomabroa — Sudden Desertion

I really like the flavor of destroying an army (which should be capitalized) but I feel that that’s too narrow to really have a strong reason to exist. It’s a cute card that’s using Magic naming conventions for flavor reasons rather than the game itself. Maybe that’s enough. I’m a little more of a stickler. It’s kinda cute, though, and I’m a fan of white removing things from combat, too. Maybe in WAR it could have been played. 

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Desperate Effort

I don’t believe “sacrificing” a “target” blocks well. The fact that it makes this card need two targets is confusing. Why not just “As an additional cost” the sacrifice? What’s the point of doing a creature that your team controls? Why only an unblocked creature? Why does it give the +X/+Y effect instead of a simpler +X/+X effect? I think that this card has too many moving parts and could have been simplified significantly while keeping the same strong flavor.

@machine-elf-paladin — Hunger of the Grave

This card was a contender for runners-up. It also could have used flavor text. It’s a great addition to Zombie tribal, great with graveyard strategies, well-worded and powerful with the lifelink. Not much to critique here. Good job.

@mardu-lesbian — Phantasmal Fallacy

I like what you did with the name. I think that this is a powerful cantrip that’s playing with some design space. “Planeswalker” becomes a 4/4? That’s a control card for sure. I’ll smack you in the face with a Mind Sculptor. The cantrip might be too powerful, as four power is pretty strong as-is, but I think this card is basically fine and pretty fun.

@misterstingyjack — Quickdraw

Interesting card. I like the magically influenced gunslinging flavor and what can be done with other equipment in this set. The fact that this can essentially be a five-mana do-nothing spell without so much as a cantrip is frustrating. This card should be, I feel, three mana at most. Might require playtesting, but still. Definitely not five.

@nikkatsu-dnd-mtg — Trade-Off

Firstly, this card’s name doesn’t stand on its own without flavor text to back up whatever’s happening, and the fact that there’s no flavor text is a major blow. I’m not sure why it’s an Arcane spell, and I’m definitely not sure why this is common. This card is a blowout and a half. Getting tokens is worth it, and swinging with a team of 6/6s minimum is insane. It’s a one-mana go-wide spell that should cost at least five mana and be at least uncommon. I know you thought that static abilities was a good enough loss, but I assure you: it is not.

@nine-effing-hells — Bardic Performance

I’m on the fence about this card, even though it’s probably good. You took the fairly complex addition of sagas and made it a simple and fun buff in the vein of Travel Preparations. I think this card is a fine uncommon, probably. There’s a tiny bit of disconnect between bard things and counters like that, but the flavor can be bent, and I can just suck it up. This card is good.

@piecesofliquid — Instinct of Greed

Concept is good. There are three specific things I would do to improve this card. One: Change the name to “Greedy Instinct.” No real reason, I just like it. Two: Most importantly, I would change the “exile” to “sacrifice” and take out “you control.” Sacrificing is only something you can do anyway, and it would work better with other red strategies. Three: The flavor text needs to be in quotes. Other than that? Again: good.

@real-aspen-hours — Sudden saplings

Yeah, as you said in Discord, this card is basically Blinding Fog. Instead, let’s talk about improvements for future submissions! Firstly, the card name should be capitalized; I copied it exactly as you submitted it. Secondly, you didn’t include a rarity, which is something you need to consider. Thirdly, if the flavor text is a quote, which it appears to be, it needs to be in quotation marks. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. Card’s fine for a functional reprint, lol. I like how you changed it to “by creatures” for a more Fog-gy effect. Why ALL creatures?

@shandylamb — Knowledge Breeds Strength

Strict +X/+X effects are not in Blue’s slice of the color pie. This is a green card through and through. I think the flavor text could have been a little more creative. The idea, however, is sound. This card would have been fine twenty years ago, probably. I don’t mean to sound snarky with that; it’s simply something old Blue could have done that isn’t done anymore. 

@snugz — Necromantic Ninjutsu

I am of the opinion that this card should be rare. I am also of the opinion that if this card was rare it would have won above and beyond. What a fantastically creative card. Follower loved it, as did I. For a standard set, though, rareify that baby. Great great great job.

@starch255 — Invisible Wall

Wow, this card is... Not Fun At Uncommon In Limited. The idea is sound and I would love playing this card, but it’s just too much! The hexproof, nuts. The nigh-infinite life, crazy. What a frustrating card to play against. If this was FOUR mana, I might consider it. However, I do like how trample effs this card over. Regardless of that, though, I’m not a big fan, no matter how much if a fan I am. If that makes any sense.

@teaxch​ — Serene Crane Maneuver

Interesting! I think this is one that needs the two targets, unfortunately, but I can imagine how this would work in limited. I would probably only sideboard this card if I felt really really clever, but I like it for flavor reasons and mechanical reasons. Again, I just wouldn’t...play it, necessarily. Maybe I would, but it would take the right environment. This is a volatile card.

@theobligatorysql​ — Combat Trick

This card absolutely needs to be an uncommon and absolutely needs a better name/flavor combo. Now, I do like it mechanically, and it’s pretty cool, but I’m not a fan of the fact that this is a meta-card. In a vacuum, I freakin’ love it. I feel that this card would go well in something like a Custom Cube.

@tmstage​ — One-Two Punch

Very cool. Aethertouch is one of those things that you’re introducing that I would have to see played out before I pass judgement on it. As of right now, I think that this card could have been a cantrip or something. “Non-lethal damage” — hm. Not sure how I feel about that, though. But I assume also that blue is what makes this card Jeskai. Personally, for three colors, I’d like to see something simpler and/or more streamlines. New concepts are scawwy, o noes!... In all seriousness, keep Aethertouch for future designs.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path​ — Meat Shield

“Target creature GAINS indestructible until end of turn.” It’s an actual ability now, remember? Aside from that, this card is...fine for one mana. It’s not perfect, it’s kinda clunky, but it seems like something WotC would print so you have that going for you. I like the simplicity of the flavor text.

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