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captainlastrange · 9 months

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The Best Use of a Lovely Night

What was she calling herself for this mission again? Serbian? Cyan? Scylla! That’s right! That’s it.

Scylla took a deep breath of the night air, lazily flying circles around the targeted manor She to mental notes of the rotation, those that were coming in and out, how as the night progressed all that was left were the guards, and last-minute mental stock of her supplies. She remembered all the people who were required to die no matter what. Not that anyone would make it out anyway.

She loved nights like this.

After weeks of what felt like failing upwards, covering for dumbass employees' mistakes, and dealing with ignorant clients, she was already in desperate need of something to destress. How lucky was she for a job like this to fall so graciously in her lap? A job that was more than fine with total annihilation.

If her luck actually remained this constant then she might start praying, she snorted to herself.

Never a chance in hell. The gods had never been with her. She will never be there for them.

She did one more lap before deciding it was time for her fun start, she was starting to get hungry. Plus this might be her only night off for who knows how long. She pulled out her bow and her precoated arrows and waited for a while, waiting for the guards to fall into place like the good little lambs they are.

She was going to eat so well tonight.

With the skill that only came from years of agonizing training, she struck. Thirteen men and women died. None never seeing her or having a moment to think of any last words to spew in the night air. She didn’t bother moving any of them as she moved on to the next phase. She laid explosives around the perimeter and extra on the door just for fun. She lead the extended fuse into the wood and lit it. She jetted off as far as she could get. She wanted to watch this place burn, not get caught up in the blast radius.

Here would lie, Sir Donavin and his family. His wife, three children, his four brothers, their broad, and an elderly mother and father. Some of them were mages of some sort, most were brokers and dealers of some type.

From what her intel stated and from what she had picked up herself, they are a powerful family. Old money, good connections, and they were very proud of that fact. Unfortunately, that has made them some enemies. Hell, if this contact hadn’t come in when it did and Scylla need to cut loose as much as she did, she might have tried to become allies with them.

“Shame really,” She grinned.

She, thankfully, didn’t have to wait long for the explosions to go off. Her grin only widen as her bombs wreaked havoc on the manor. The mess of ash was worth its weight in gold and the numerous screams and the sound of the blast itself were music to her ears. The walls burst apart and the fire spread quickly. She was sure the bombs got a fair few of them, but she inwardly cheered as stragglers started rushing out.

Good. They weren’t as fragile as she feared. This was going to be fun. There were even some guards left! Perfect! She put up her bow and started diving down, she didn’t mind dealing with everyone else by hand. She didn’t even care if the fire destroyed her invisibility.

Once she came in closer to the first guard. Some poor man who just finished patting down the fire, she felt her teeth sharpen. Scylla took advantage of his distracted state and tore out his throat. The man’s dying screams quickly got the attention of the others. She took quick stock. Let her see, one, two, three… five guards left. All in varying states of health. Two irrelevant family members left. Fighter both of them. But only one was in armor. She knew he was one of the last to go in the night. Three relevant family members. Two were mages. She knew one was a very lucky wizard. Granted he could barely stand, but the fact that he was even alive was interesting. Not that it mattered. He had no focus or book so she was not worried. The other one was a bard funnily enough. And the last and biggest of her worries was a barbarian.

Wonderful.

The mages were going to die first. It’s not like the barbarian was close enough to stop her. She swallowed the guard’s throat and sprinted to the wizard, her claws sharpening. She severed his head from his body with just enough time to dodge one of the guards. She picked them off one by one, ignoring their battle cries and insults. Dodging and outmaneuvering their attacks and made sure to stay away from the barbarian until they were all dead, their entrails soaking into her clothes.

Soon all that was left was her and the barbarian. Tall, bloodied, well-muscled, and good with a sword. She chuckled as he swang at her, licking his family's blood off her claws.

“You wouldn’t be acting so high an mighty if you were down here!” He sneered as he waved his sword around, trying to hit her. He was so furious his veins looked like they were seconds away from popping out of his head.

She laughed at him and his current situation. There was no way he was winning this. He would die here, alone, and the last of his name. What a pity. She was half tempted to use her bow to put him out of his misery but where’s the fun in that?

No, no, no, instead she picked away at him. Attacking from above, slicing and cutting away at him before getting away. Dropping some of her small sticks of dynamite. She lets the house fire, adrenaline, and his screams of anger and agony keep her warm. Unfortunately, even with all of her training and experience, she wasn’t perfect, she never was, and he wasn’t as dumb as she thought.

In his rage, the barbarian manage to nail her with a rather large boulder that sent her careening to the ground, knocking the breath out of her.

His meaty hands picked her up by her neck, “I swore, with the gods as my witness, I will make you pay for what you’ve done, you conviving little bitch,” he quietly sneered as his grip tightened.

Her hand dug into his arms. She squirmed and fought. She scratched at any part of him she could reach but she knew there wasn’t a shot in all the nine hells she was going to win a contest of strength, no matter how hurt he was. Good thing she didn’t need to.

All he could do was gasp as she pushed her poisoned dagger deeper into his side. She tried to twist the dagger as best she could until he loosened his grip enough for her to speak.

She glared at him and gathered her magic, upcasting as high as she could, “Fear,” she growled. She watched with grim satisfaction as the spell took hold, though, from the look in his eyes, he was fighting valiantly. He was still forced to drop her.

She watched him stare at her with a frenzied terror she was more than used. As he turned tail and tried to run she took to the sky and drive-bombed him, sinking her claws and teeth in and started tearing into him, never letting up no matter how much tried to push her away. Only once he had fallen, truly struggling with his dying breaths, did he cry out to his long-dead family. Not that Scylla cared. She had worked up quite the appetite.

There a couple of minutes she was sure she blacked out. By the time she had come to, most of the bodies were missing chunks and she ached something fierce, but at least she was full and her mind was at peace.

She looked around her, at the burning manor, the blood-soaked and half-eaten corpses The surrounding forest was silent, the moon shown overhead ever bright, and she allowed herself a moment to sit down and breathe. She pulled out a notebook, some old tattered thing she picked up from who knows where, and wrote down each and every one of their last words. She only wrote down the good ones really. Most of them were incomplete and therefore not worth keeping.

Only then did she realize one of them had called her by one of her old names, Chel. She huffed, gods above, she hadn’t that name in damn near ten years. You would think a family with this much prestige would have better intel but, she shrugged, it didn’t matter now. Chel, Griza, Nennari, Falen, whatever other old name they managed to dig up, they were all gone. All dead and buried, like everyone she ever cared for. Discarded, Sycalla had no need for them anymore. She had no real use for any name really. She only reason she kept coming up with more was because of the paperwork. It was so much more of a pain in the ass without one.

She stood up, eventually, pulling out her machete and started hacking away at the relevant family members, pulling off heads and chunks of meat for later. All in all, this was a very lovely day off.

#dnd #griza #I made an evil version of my dnd character #shes got so so so many issues guys #writing #i fit so much trauma into her #im very proud #sos she needs a hug #lmao shes not getting one #dnd character #dnd oc #ocs #dnd5e

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shuunnico · 5 months

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You like rpgs. Do you recommend any games like baldurs gate 3?

Absolutely. I'll assume you mean CRPGs and not RPGs in general.

Computer Roleplaying Games (CRPGs) refers to a style and genre of game that BG3 follows. Some have started calling CRPGs "Classic RPGs" instead. CRPGs are typically identified by an isometric, top down view style, a heavy focus on story and exploration.

I'm going to split my list it three main categories based on accessibility factors. These factors include the amount of reading involved, the depth of mechanics and the level of abstraction/math required.

Easy Entry Level

Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023 - Larian Studios. The current gold star for easy entry CRPGs. Exceptional graphics, every character voice acted, very little reading and fairly straightforward mechanics and concepts.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 DE- 2017 - Larian Studios. This is basically a less polished, more complex version of BG3 and made by the same studio.

Disco Elysium, Final Cut - 2019 - ZA/UM. Disco Elysium is a detective/social focus game that dives into heavy narrative concepts. Failing rolls is just as viable for the story as succeeding them, making the game's mechanics take a backseat to story. However, there is a lot of reading and that may be a barrier to entry.

Tyranny - 2016 - Obsidian Entertainment. A game about being evil, it's mechanically pretty simple, but there's a fair bit of jank due to it's low budget, and the game ends on a cliffhanger, but it's story is very solid.

Mid Entry Level

Wasteland 3 - 2020 - inExile Entertainment. The long awaited third installment of the Wasteland franchise and significantly less complex than its predecessors. Post apocalyptic, frozen Colorado, grim reality and goofy ideas. This is the franchise that originally inspired Fallout.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall DC/ Shadowrun: Hong Kong EE - 2014/2015 - Harebrained Schemes. Set in the Fantasy/Cyberpunk hybrid setting of Shadowrun. Fair bit of reading, but the game's mechanics are relatively easy to grasp and don't require a lot of math. Always play Dragonfall before Hong Kong.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire - 2018 - Obsidian Entertainment. A unique setting, exploring a fictional parallel to the age of piracy. Very wordy (but a lot is voice acted), with a lot of world building, but well worth engaging with. The first game, Pillars of Eternity, is less accessible, but still good.

Kingmaker/Wrath of the Righteous/Rogue Trader - 2020/2022/2023 - Owlcat Games. Owlcat adapts existing systems into CRPGs, like how BG3 is an adaption of DnD 5e. Do not be fooled, these games are where you start hitting a lot of complexity, a lot of math and a lot potential to damage your playthroughs by accident. This is where things start to get difficult.

Difficult Entry Level

Baldur's Gate 1/2 - Bioware - 1998/2000. The prequels to BG3, these games use an older, much more complex version of DnD's rules. Be prepared for a lot of reading and complex mechanics, but you'll be rewarded with some amazing storytelling.

Planescape Torment - Interplay - 1999. Another game using DnD's older mechanics, Planescape is a completely different beast from BG3. Many consider this series mechanically inferior to the Baldur's Gate franchise, but with better storytelling and world building to compensate.

Fallout 1/2 - 1997/1998 - Interplay/Black Isle. One of the most widely known game franchises started as an isometric CRPG. Universally considered more complex, rewarding and deeper than the Bethesda portion of the franchise, you'll need some experience to get into them, but you'll be happy you did.

Games I haven't played but I've heard good things of:

Wasteland 2, DC - 2015 - inExile

Torment: Tides Of Numenera - 2017 - inExile

Neverwinter Nights - 2002 - Bioware

Arcanum - 2001 - Troika Games

Ultima 7 Part 1/Part 2 - 1992/1993 - Origin Systems

Icewind Dale - 2000 - Black Isle Studio

#Baldur's Gate 3 #Disco Elysium #DnD #Fallout #Rogue Trader #Warhammer 40k #Pathfinder #Baldur's Gate #Planescape #Bioware #pillars of eternity

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something-pithy · 5 months

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Notes and an Update: The Alignment Issue

pictured above: just a regular Tuesday night at Ancunín Palace

“So with Astarion, his evil ending is actually him...much of what he does is out of fear. And as a player, you can say to him, ‘You're right to be afraid.’ And that sends him to a really horrible place, and that I think is really powerful.” -- Adam Smith, Lead Writer of BG3

I’ve been talking about my notes about alignment in D&D and BG3 and my interpretation of them in the context of an echo, a stain since before I even started with these “Notes and an Update” posts. But every week, something else has come up that I wanted to post more than my alignment notes.

I think this might be a chronology thing. These notes seem old to me because they predate the vast majority of the story. I don’t remember the specific date I decided to write out my thoughts about the nature of “good” and “evil” as DnD 5e describes them / how they manifest in BG3, specifically in Astarion, but I know that I was scribbling notes – or whatever the keyboard version of scribbling notes is – about it since a palmful of stars / an echo a stain was just “the desired constellation.”

This is because DnD has Things to Say about vampires and their morality, who Astarion is as a character in this series is deeply informed by what he’s willing to do to get what he wants.

My decision to finally post these notes now is informed by a couple of main things:

The IGN interview posted this past Friday, December 15th titled “Baldur’s Gate 3 Developers Explain Its Controversial Endings, Beloved Characters, and Making the Best RPG of 2023,” wherein Adam Smith makes the statement I quote at the top of this post and

The description AO3 user fanciful included in their bookmark of the story*:

“There's several things in here I haven't seen in other Astarion/Tav fics, so do read this if you're looking for something unique.”

*(yeah, I’m not gonna pretend I’m so cool and unaffected that I don’t peek at who’s bookmarked the story to see what they might have said about it lol).

When I found fanciful’s blurb, I almost immediately went to bother my phenomenal beta, Komo, (whom I’ve mentioned before and will again, and who is probably a better beta than I deserve but very much the beta this story could not exist as it does without). The gist of my question to her was OMG WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, to which her response, in part, was that she was curious as well, but that she had her own thoughts:

“I think your take on a vampire lord/ascendant's "evilness" is unique. Like, it's not how ascendant fans who explain away his bad behavior, but also not [how] a traditional spawn fan would write him either, recognizing [there’s] nuance to the evilness.”

Which was like, SUCH a great compliment specifically because I’ve thought a lot (I mean a fuckin’ LOT) about how evil works, and how it works in this story. So here are my (abridged and ever-evolving) notes about all this, which are a very important part of the basis of my approach to Astarion’s characterization in aeas.

So first of all, the Adam Smith quote above indicates that Ascendant!Astarion’s alignment is not due to some mystical, transformative, vampire or diabolical force. It’s not the result of Mephistopheles taking his soul as part of the bargain. Any evil behavior / attitudes Ascendant!Astarion demonstrates are purely a result of his own choices, made of sound mind, body, and soul.

The DnD 5e Monster Manual labels vampire lords specifically as lawful evil.

Now I’m going to say here that I think the “good” and “evil” alignment binary is flawed. Yeah, there’s neutral, but that still operates as kind of a middle ground for this axis. I think something more accurate would be something referring to the good of the majority vs. self-interest, but I’m not here to get into all that.

For expediency, I’m going to roll with the definition of evil that seems to fit what DnD 5e is going for. And according to past DnD sourcebooks (this isn’t in 5e, but 5e offers much less detail about alignment than previous editions), evil “implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others.”

So for the purposes of these notes, my interpretation of “evil” in general and specifically in terms of an echo, a stain is that a character with an “evil” alignment is willing to hurt, oppress, or kill others without compunction in order to achieve their goals.

In my mind this doesn’t mean that they necessarily want to do those things, or enjoy them (though there’s evidence that Astarion does both at different points in-game), just that if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes. And they’ll do what it takes.

Now, it’s my inclination to view RPG sourcebooks as somewhat flexible depending on what best serves to the story, but also, in-game, there’s plenty of evidence to indicate Astarion was created and written as a character whose baseline can be read, at best, as chaotic neutral, but more likely as neutral evil if we’re going by the above definition.

So what?

OK well, in an interview with some folks at Collider, Neil Newbon said that the “Ascendant Ending” was the one he’d kind of pictured for Astarion.

“Actually I saw Astarion always going that route [Ascension], whereas other characters might want to [...] help him not only survive, and thrive in a positive way.”*

From a character arc standpoint, I agree with Neil: there’s no doubt in my mind that without a good-aligned Tav, Astarion would be on Ascension like white on rice as a default. I think it’s the baseline trajectory of who he is at the start of the game.

I also believe that it is *possible*, not a guarantee, but *possible,* that being in an environment where he’s surrounded by people who do genuinely care about him and his well-being, and yeah, with the support of a good-aligned Tav with whom he experiences deep mutual caring and connection (whether platonic or romantic), who treats him with respect, love, compassion, and care, who sees the best in him and encourages it in him / demands it of him until he can see it himself, he would not choose to go Murdertown, aka the Ascension route.

I also don’t think a high-approval, good-aligned Tav in his life, whether as a lover as a friend, precludes the possibility of Astarion choosing the Ascension route (clearly). BUT ALSO.

I don’t believe in binaries.

Does Astarion choosing ascension mean that suddenly all the ways in which he may have changed his perspective during the course of his adventures with a good-aligned Tav are nullified?

I don’t think so.

I’m willing to entertain DnD’s canonical assertion that a vampire lord’s emotions are altered by their transformation; however, I also think it’s feasible enough that Astarion’s tendencies toward obsession, paranoia, and possessiveness already existed within him prior to ascension, if to much less pronounced degrees. I think it’s entirely plausible that ascension amplified these qualities in him. but also Astarion’s decision to ascend is indicative of him embracing a worldview that is, as Smith says, deeply rooted in fear.

This fear impacts another important element of Astarion’s character in aeas, which is the way he perceives himself. Astarion as he exists in aeas is an Astarion who as a spawn, believed he was worth nothing. Astarion as he exists in aeas also has put Tav on a very high pedestal. This is not to say he doesn’t know or love Tav for who she is – I think this Astarion knows this Tav very well. But his perceptions about her are also skewed by his perceptions about himself, and a whole bunch of other things -- including fear.

SO when Tav leaves him, a couple of things happen in terms of his character, two of which are:

one of his absolute worst fears is realized (that Tav will leave him, specifically because he is innately a piece of shit and she finally figured it out), and there’s nothing he can do about it.

the realization of this fear prompts the understanding that he is not, in fact, all-powerful, therefore his power and control must be increased at any and all costs.

the monumental scope of his power and, frankly, terrifying disposition ensure that, without Tav in his life, there is literally no one offering a different perspective as a counterweight to this fear-based thinking.

Do I think Tav’s reemergence in Baldur’s Gate and Astarion’s life will change things for him?

Ehhhhh, that’s a complicated question with a variety of complicated answers that all boil down to, “Well, that depends.” loooool

I don’t know if I’ve said everything I could say here, but I’m running out of steam and if I’m getting tired of writing, you must be getting tired of reading, so I’ll leave it here:

tl;dr: aeas has been and will continue to be informed from start to finish by the ideas that

Ascended Astarion is absolutely and 100% Astarion

whether or not alignment is mutable, people/characters can and do still change based on their experiences and environment.

Make of that what you will. LOOOOOL

#ascendant astarion #bg3 #character analysis #astarion x tav #astarion fic #bg3 fic #slow burn #banter #bard!tav #manipulative astarion #tav's insight proficiency tho #headcanon #meta #character study #analysis #never forget HE EVIL

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freetobeeyouandme · 1 year

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A My Little Pony Hypothesis

Wrinkle in Time posting reminding me I never actually posted my own My Little Pony hypothesis because I meant to post it as part of a larger analysis of dragons in ST and then never did. lol. Anyway, I think the thing they're referencing with WiT may be one of the kids in that book letting himself be caught by the hivemind to locate their father and then getting left behind during the rescue mission, forcing the protagonist to come back and save him with the power of love. And the MLP references in the show actually also suggest (and therefore support) this version of events.

So in the MLP episode "Escape from Midnight Castle" the ponies are attacked by the evil centaur Tirek who also kidnaps four ponies to turn them into dragons to pull his chariot so he can subjugate the whole world with his Rainbow of Darkness. His plans are stalled because one of the kidnapped ponies is too small and he can't turn it. Meanwhile the protagonist ponies go to find the Rainbow of Light and then go to Tirek's castle to free their friends. While infiltrating the castle Applejack is captured and turned into a dragon. The ponies manage to stop Tirek last minute by overtaking the Rainbow of Darkness with the Rainbow of Light, which also turns everyone back into what they were. And all the ponies lived happily ever after.

So what's that got to do with Stranger Things? Well, Dustin explicity mentions the episode in S3 when he’s arguing with Erica about her status as a nerd, because Erica is into MLP and since that has nerdy stuff like castles and dragons she is a nerd. Erica then embraces that identity, gets into DnD, and names her character after Applejack. Who then ends up defeating Vecna in the S4 game...which made me wonder whether the MLP reference is actually important foreshadowing -- and who then is represented by Applejack. Personally I think Will is most likely, because while “getting turned into a dragon” does fit Max in S4 I think Max is actually the too small pony from the initial four that get kidnapped: Vecna’s first attempt to kill her didn’t work and even the second one isn’t quite complete, he just separated her consciousness from her body by the looks of it.

This is also why I think it’ll be Will. At the end of S4 we see El trying to find Max to get her to wake up, but she can’t find her. That’s not gonna change by her trying harder in S5, so I think if they want to go find Max they need to go into Vecna/The Mindflayer’s head and find her there (and i think that may be one of the priorities in the first half of S5 because of the heavy Star Wars parallels we got elsewhere). And the only person who was part of it before is Will, so I think she’ll end up piggybacking in through his mind. Plus that would let Will’s promise of “fix it together” from 4.01 come true. It also resembles the way the ponies infiltrate the castle in MLP AND Charles Wallace letting IT control him so he can find his father. In both WiT and MLP this rescue mission doesn’t quite go the way it was intended. Applejack gets kidnapped and turned into a dragon and Charles Wallace is left behind as part of the hivemind while the other kids get out with their father. Both of them are later saved by their friends, Charles Wallace explicitly with love, and Applejack with a very thin metaphor for it.

These themes are obviously also present in Stranger Things and people have already pointed out this similarity (and this potential plot) in relation to WiT, but I think it’s interesting to note that the DnD game which clearly foreshadows the events of S5 also references a piece of media that also has this type of plot. I also think the whole love vs. hate/anger thematic also points to Will because the topic of (romantic) love is important for his character arc in a way that it isn’t for others. El also wants love but her’s is familial and tbh with the return of Hopper I think her S5 arc will be taking the love she knows she has and turning it on Vecna. Will on the other hand is wanting, and I think vulnerable on that level -- but also a formidable foe once he realizes he can have everything he wants. Which is also a great way of involving their personal arcs and the love triangle in the supernatural plot.

Tl, dR: I think the theory that the writers posting about WiT means Will is gonna help El find Max and then get stuck in the hivemind, needing to be rescued with (Mike’s) love are very likely because the show references an episode of MLP multiple times, including in the foreshadowing of the DnD game, in which that exact plot also happens. And I’m very excited about it because I have been turning this idea over in my head for weeks now and I love it.

#Stranger Things #Stranger Things Theories #ST theories #ST theory #Stranger Things theory #byler #<- because target audience #will byers

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doom-nerdo-666 · 1 year

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Horror does have a place in Doom

(Mainly felt like making this post after a video by thebeansprout13, even if this comes out later because it was in my drafts for a while)

This is a very talked about, overplayed topic on Doom and it tends to repeat, sometimes because certain opinions/observations are more popular than others.

I think horror is an element in Doom and there's a lot of ways to talk about this, both in favor and against or even somewhere in the middle.

The 90's games

We all know about Doom Bible's canned ideas of the characters and story but even then, Doom is clearly inspired by Aliens, Evil Dead, DnD and so on.

But maybe this mix of inspirations (And the weird presentation of the games) means there's different things to pick apart.

If Doom was a movie, it could have been a B-movie with a goofy, campy nature and still have some eerie atmosphere or gross practical effects.

At first we have:

Some dark, suspense based music tracks.

Darker areas meant to show off lightning and "slow" moments.

Probably the default movement speed and the history behind "ALWAYS_RUN".

Doomguy being hurt in the box art and ingame status bar.

The Arch-vile's intended design of an eerie HR Giger inspired alien.

Textures like the flesh walls with metal pipes, twisted faces and some hanged corpses people thought were based on a real pic of Mussolini (But it's actually GI Joe figures).

But then there's:

The fast gameplay and combat that can happen.

Cartoony designs and assets.

The metal music (And other tracks like those that sound kinda like jazz).

The campy writing style in the manuals and intermission screens.

The presentation of Daisy's death.

Some of Doomguy's faces.

The name "BFG" and how some assets were made like using toys to make the guns.

Maybe whenever a level was clearly gimmicky and "gamey" or experimental.

The ridiculously low-tech aesthetic with blue carpet floors and maybe how Phobos' sky doesn't look like Phobos.

So it seems Doom always had a mix of elements and that's why people even argue over this, though i also see benefits of Doom being a "blank canvas" when it comes to its staying power.

Doom 64 was the more horror focused classic game with its take on Hell and some demon designs (But still not showing Doomguy's bloodied mugshot or some assets of classic Hell).

Even its theme song was barely metal (And i think John Romero really liked the PS1 port).

And D64 is also seen as "the real Doom 3" though this is a bit of a topic i mentioned in a different post.

Doom 3

A "reboot" of the series and a new entry in a time after the series was dormant (And mostly carried by fan mods).

D3 pushes things to a specific direction that John Carmack thought it was natural.

Some fans think the same, others thing it's opposite to what they expect out of Doom, some even accept it as a new thing.

D3 is much more story focused, with a bunch of cutscenes, background/lore, characters and most if it isn't goofy.

Demons are redesigned and some barely resemble their original versions (Might be because they looked "goofy" even if we have fanart that knows how to make them eerie; Meanwhile, D3's Arch-vile didn't capture the original design that much).

New demons represent a new art style that makes them "more serious and scary" or at least surreal.

The UAC stuff is still low-tech but in a more detailed, "professional" way.

Gameplay is slower, with a focus on reloading and the lantern.

Darkness focus and horror etc.

More serious tone, with little music.

D3 marine never smiles and looks worried most of the time.

Besides UAC and Hell, there's the Martians as a way to "extend" the universe but they're still mostly mysterious and not shown a lot.

The premise of a UAC marine having to fight demons after the UAC unleashing Hell is technically there, but it's also differently done from the original games (At least/specially if you look into the "lore" in the old manuals).

This game divided some fans, though a prespective i like to hear more is one that likes the idea but not so much the execution and i also always bring up how unfair it is that later versions (BFG edition and others) tend to have new problems or cut content for no reason, while not fixing certain flaws.

Because you'll still find some older fans thinking Doom was supposed to have some form of tension or horror, compared to those that prefer the fast action side of things.

Oddly enough, Hell in the series always had potential to be weird but D3, the game with the most experimental demon designs, didn't really took advantage of those elements.

At least D3 has some mods that fix some people's issues with the game, whether or not it leads to them respect the game more.

If you ask me: Doom 3's horror isn't just the dark corridors or slow "doomed" marine, but it's the crazy designs like the Bruiser having a screen on its mouth or the Revenant having transparent skin.

And i think D3 has its fair share of goofyness like the Turkey minigame (And the others in RoE that later versions deleted for no reasons) or that one fat zombie going "mmmm boy" that farts.

Doom 2016 and Eternal

D2016 is like an extreme opposite to D3: You are the horror and gameplay is more focused on movement and projectile avoiding that there's barely hitscan enemies besides the Possessed Security and maybe the Hellrazer.

Besides the arena focused combat, there's the Glory Kills, alt fires, upgrades, Mick Gordon's music, the character of the Doomslayer and so on.

But bits of D3's style are still present, speciall Mars and Hell a bit since Doom technically wasn't always "Mars" (Otherwise, more people would bring up the classic Phobos aesthetic and specific textures but even Hell still doesn't carry certain elements back).

(In fact, when D2016 was revealed, people complained about the lack of color and even said the demons looked "MOBA-ish")

The Hellknight is clearly inspired by its D3 design but one major difference is being eyeless instead of the weird eyes (Or are they sockets?) it had in D3.

Most demons have a rather "focused" aesthetic of chitin armored creatures and even lore explaining how they work or even how the UAC was involved in some being created/modified (Which may or may not affect the appeal of Hell being a weird dimension of evil that Doomguy has to put up with).

It's also somewhat known that D2016 was influenced by outside factors for Doom: The Doom comic ("Rip and tear") is obvious but there's probably other theories like anything to do with Death Battle or internet copypastas/webcomics joking about Doomguy (And i guess Brutal Doom but there's still arguements about it).

Doomslayer being a killing machine that scares demons is like an inverse to the "doomed" D3 marine: Putting classic Doomguy in the middle since he's both a strong action hero but still gets hurt (Even his portrayal in the 90's comic is like this).

The existence of D2016 is also a result of Doom 4 being cancelled: A game that was so deviated from Doom, it didn't even feel like a D3 sequel (And maybe it wasn't).

In a way, D2016's appeal relies on some bits of fanservice and at least getting basic ideas that people associate with Doom, which contrasts D3 not relying on "outside factors" but also chosing specific parts of the series while also executing them in a way that i'm not sure if it was ideal for D3 itself.

Then there's Doom Eternal, which builds up from 2016 in a lot of ways (And in was that people either like or hate it but it's still a very beloved and popular title).

The aesthetic is more colorfull and brings back some classic designs (Not entirely as they're put inside the new aesthetic), there's the concept of the "Doom universe", lots of new mechanics and a lot more to like (But also things that divided some fans).

Eternal's "videogamey" pickups were technically based on how some people thought pickups in D2016 overlapped with the environment, even if people liked how items in D2016 "existed in the setting" (Because even in classic Doom, you didn't have those kinds of pickups).

There's a lot of debates about Eternal's lore and aesthetic that leads to comparisons to 2016 but i'm thinking on making a post dedicated to that (Specially with some prespectives, opinions and stuff that most people don't consider).

Regardless, Eternal has clearly different media influences compared to the originals and feels like a different genre.

Basically, if classic Doom is a "campy B-movie", Eternal is a "saturday morning cartoon with gore" (And D3 is a serious sci-fi horror movie, i guess).

(And let's not forget: Different people are behind these games, in a series where people already interpret them in their own ways)

Sometimes, i think Doom is like the Planet of the Apes movie series:

D3 is closer to the original premise but 2016/Eternal are seem to be the more liked iteration of the series.

(Meanwhile, we have Mighty Doom as the most cartoony Doom game but in a cute way while the RPG Doom's had a different cartoonyness and sense of humor and a rather serious intro comic)

"Horror" in Doom to fans (And what else)

If you look at some pieces of fanart (Or even fan redesigns) and some mods, there's definitely an appeal of Doom being more horror focused and tense, even without affecting certain designs or the personality.

It's why one could not only defend D3 but even think that D3's issue isn't being different but rather doing a flawed job at its own direction.

Because 2016/Eternal also have their own differences from the original games but they seem to mostly nail their own direction.

I even see "horror" complement the "power fantasy" concept of modern Doom: Making Hell weirder and stranger, which makes Doomguy/Slayer feel even stronger.

Because "horror" as a concept can mean a lot: Not just dark corridors or walking slow, but it can lead to really interesting designs that make Hell feel threatning and weirdly creative.

After all, if it's possible to make a game out of "fans want a Doomguy that is more powerfull and the gameplay is fast", i don't see why we couldn't have one that is "fans want a tense, bone chilling experience and the demons look scary but still cool", even if you see those cool fan redesigns as better than what we got in D3.

(I like to believe that different types of Doom can coexist)

Even D3 haters may find or cherrypick some parts of the game they like (Which also makes me think it's another good reason why MetaDoom is a really cool mod).

I believe it should be possible to make a game that has elements of both "paths" represented, even if it means like a level with disturbing environments and then you find a goofy collectable toy in a secret.

I also said this before but i kinda get D3 hate coming from older fans but not people who got into the series at 2016 and after, because you technically "skipped" the "dark age" that some fans went through.

How hated D3 really is depends on which opinions or mindset overcome the others, because fanbases and hobbies almost tend to have an "anglicized canon" that is rather pushed by some specific people.

Anyway, i tried to add as much i could in this post but i'd like if someone like a Youtuber or older fan were to analyze this and even add more to this or correct potential flaws.

It's a topic that could be more explored, because even people that argue "Doom was always X" overlook elements that support their claims.

Other links to check, i guess.

How i think a good D3 re-release could be.

Doom 3 power ups and Doom 3 enemy roster rant.

"Doom 3 alternatives" for some picky fans.

The D2RPG intro comic.

Bunch of stuff related to Quake and Wolfenstein.

"Remastering" the 90's Doom games.

How a Doom movie or show could be good.

I mean, there's more on this blog but these could be good enough.

#doom 3 #doom 2016 #doom eternal #demon #doomguy #hell #classic doom #doom #opinions #id software #long post #horror

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jones-friend · 9 months

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What are your Top 5 All Time Favorite DND campaign moments? Doesn't matter if you're a player or DM.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

We made a session where the players were asked by a gold dragon to retrieve a globe from an anti dragon town, only to have the globe hatch into a baby gold dragon the players had to sneak out of the city

I dm’d a section where players uncovered an abandoned cultist lair to Vecna. They found a hand and eye made of human teeth, a room of self harm, then in a library a voice spoke to them. The ranger had a passive perception of 20 and was scared shitless when they couldn’t see the source. It was a nothic, a CR 5 dude when the party was six peeps at lvl 12.

Bodying Strahd when he came to fuck up our party with a nat 20 to tackle this man. 8ft minotaur fighter bulldozing the dark domain’s big bad.

I dm’d a solo session around the conceit that Pelor might be evil AND PULLED IT OFF. There’s a big conspiracy theory that Pelor may be a demon prince instead of a holy deity. So I made a gothic horror town like Innistrad centered around Pelor, only for the player to discover Pelor shackled the world’s version of the devil to the land who continues to cause suffering.

Saving this for all the npc’s I’ve made my buds have loved and adored: Taenth the brass dragon who hoards lifelong loves, Imro the lovable big grump of a red dragon, Jubilance the one in the throuple who reminds everyone to drink water, Yeen the boisterous gnoll merchant, Belorrel the secret dragon in a human town with a penchant for pastry making, Alixi the ex yuan ti guard who seeks outer peace, Fletch the plucky half-fiend aarakocra with a beast of a wild shape, Sir Rokas the leonin leader who’s mentor to many, its your love of my characters that makes me want to dm.

#Dnd #d&d #dungeons and dragons

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d-structive · 5 days

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who's your ocs?

Fair question. I never draw my OCs. (Unless we consider my own version of the egos as OCs...They are kinda on that thin line tbh...They kinda are, but they aren't. So they live in a limbo. lol.) But I had many, once. We are talking about Deviantart's time. I had vampires OCs, demons OCs, a human OC, transformers OCs, centaurs OCs, a spider-like creature OC... I never draw them anymore (coz I became lazy and uninspired) but I still have few....Which I still never draw, but if anything they are more recent, I guess. Kinda. XD I have two DnD OCs. Made with trickery. Coz a friend asked me to make some DnD characters in two different occasions...they said they wanted something to draw, so they asked to me and to some other people to create random characters. And now I do have a slender Tabaxi cheetah-looking OC named Wilo (Will-o'-the-whisp) and an evil tiefling guy named Gor. I never draw them. Actually, I never played DnD myself. But they exist now, I guess. XD Also, I do have Private Simp. He's more recent. Probably there are sightings of him on here too. Weirdo IRIS soldier born from a joke with friends. I drew slightly more about this guy, but not enough. I should, but no motivation to draw, recently...Because brain is not cooperating. But yeah...I do have some OCs. Guess once I was more creative...But what can I say? I do like to draw stupid fanarts. XD

#ask #d-structive

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thepiratefish · 3 months

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D&d Benny is definitely an artificer and my current head Cannon is that he made the d&d version of Charlie because that would be a very interesting reveal he shows up and it's revealed he made d&d Kayla's Charlie I have this theory because in that episode the way this Kayla's backstory is explained implies that mimic Charlie originally belonged to a shady organization and who always is shown working for criminal types Benny until we get a proper d&d Benny this is my head Cannon

Oh that's cool :> Champange dose cannonicaly have a DND character and me and a few other moots joke about his backstory trying to find their Blacksmith biyfreind that got kidnapped by an evil clan called 'The IRS' His name is Berry stand and he's an Earth genasi

#Popcross Asks #MVT Asks #Dnd Au

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sol-consort · 3 months

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I don’t think the assassin guy is supposed to be unlikable he’s just evil and does things that specifically hurts Shepard and friends so I don’t like him lol but yeah he does look cool reminded me of Nightwing

Also yeah I really liked Once Upon a Time but as the show went on it became more and more about Disney rather than the actual stories, which the bit of Disney wasn’t bad when it was small doses but then you have characters showing up in their full Disney attire and like no I don’t want that (seriously they made Hades a villain but only took from the Disney Hercules movie instead of actual Greek Mythology it was so ugh) and then Season 7 was just a shit show ugh and don’t get me started on what they did with the Wizard of Oz, Jesus. But some of the stuff they did was really interesting like connecting all these fairy tales together into a family tree and connected story, the Rumpelstiltskin character specifically was so good. I just remembered what they did to Jekyll and Hyde I gotta stop talking before I go ballistic

Yeah Disney have a tendency to do that and monopolise the fairytales media to have it fit their versions.

Still! I'm glad you have something you're very passionate about, it's clear you enjoy it and that's really good. A lot of people underestimate fairytale based media and presume it's childish but I don't think that's right. A great story can be told even though worms on a string and fairytales run deeper than we think.

For Jekyll and Hyde I mostly refer to the musical, it's so dramatic and theatrical, right down my ally.

Maybe you can start writing about once upon a time? Sometimes a fandom seems dead but you'll get the one or two people who want to listen. It's not about who shows up to your performance, it's about getting the chance to make art out of something you love! You can even mix it with dnd.

Term fairytales could be funny in that world since the fairy aka the fae are very alive and living, how would they react to the stories the humans wrote about them.

If not it's totally fine, not all art you consume is supposed to be recycled into new art. Sometimes I can't read fanfics it I happen to be writing that month because I keep comparing it to mine rather than enjoying the work itself.

#☆otherfandoms

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goldensmilingbird · 4 months

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I have been watching the presentation on Runes that I mentioned before. It's the kind of event meant for people working in animation to share their experience, so they're going through explaining the whole development and production process. And man, there is a lot of amazing art.

One of my favourite kinds of concept art is just kids hanging out and having fun. And some (the one with warriors in the sky and the one with Alice standing near a river) remind me of paintings, like something I've seen before. The atmosphere in these is amazing.

More character/expression sheets!

So William/Hugo wears the same shade of blue as a noble that Neel does, interesting...

Some great storyboards from the first episode. They mentioned that the channel actually didn't accept the first version, so they had to change stuff. Now I'll be wondering what was changed 🤔

And these drawings I'm pretty sure they said are by Jean-Louis Vandestoc, he is the director and also the creator of Lolirock (you can see his webcam in the corner of some of these). Love the expressions!

And here they made DND-like sheets for the characters. The corner of Turstin's page is cut off by webcam, so I actually don't know if he's older than others 😔 But Hugo and Alice were aged down a couple of years. I love that she's listed as the leader of the group. The inspiration section at the bottom took me out though. You got Andrew Garfield's Spiderman, Merida from Brave and Asuka from Evangelion and then young Dwayne Johnson fjjdkdks

Hela, my beloved <3

This whole spread is amazing. I love the image of Hela and Ulrich drinking together, and he's just all grumpy and worn out while she's having a great time

But damn, that design on the right is so cool!! I'm kinda sad they discarded it. The design notes are... something? "I'm not for the tomboy side, I would like her to be attractive and for Turstin to be shocked when he discovers that she is evil. She has to hide her symbol from the start to do the reveal :)" So I guess Turstin was supposed to have a little crush on her? And what's that about a symbol? I have no idea.

"I think it's so grilled (??) that she is a villain from the start. Normally during development of the story Hela shouldn't put on appearances, it's hard to trust her from the outset :)" Okay, that makes sense.

"The idea would be for her to be pretty and for no one know who she is really. Her hair in a braid will hide her symbol, and she would change her look to be more snakelike and evil". She changed so much, I literally can't imagine current Hela looking "snakelike". Maybe her original personality was way different as well.

And here's my man Ulrich, he looks mostly the same, but the design on the left kinda looks like a younger version of him. I also love the little Neel reaching out to him

And here's some other stuff

I'll finish the video later, I'm about an hour into it and there is still an hour and a half left.

#runes 2022 #long post #les armateurs

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lordoftablecloths · 10 months

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vent post i guess i dont know i just wanted to write stuff down instead of just go ing to bed and crying over it you can just scroll past it

im fine im sane im noramal im so unbleiveably cringe ,, the only person i have irl- fuck, or even online for that matter- to show the dumbass things i write is my silly little dumbass younger brother who doesn;t understand what im trying to get at and i guess its not his fault, i seriously doubt he's spent unhealthy amounts of time making various short scenerios in his head about charcters he came up with and eventually trying to give them a story and write little things about them in google docs because where else am i supposed to put this and its just ,, he doesnt know wht im trying to do and i dont know how to explain it to him because the "history" i gess behind it is so fucking complicated by now that these characters arent even the same characters as they were when i originally created them, other than some physical attributes and their names and he just knows them as the random cringe shit i made up in middle school but so many years have passed by now that these stupid fuckers whose only purpose to serve is to make me stop remembering that i exist and ive gotten too attatched to them because who else was i supposed to get attatched to when i was going through an identity crisis at the time- and, quite frankly, still fucking am- and it was so much easier to pretend i dont exist and just project my flaws and insecurities and underlying subconcsious thoughts into these charactes that no one knows about except me and oh god im just created a long ass vent post on tumblr that no one's going to read and no one understands the story behind fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck whatever ill go ahead and post this unfinished thing because no one's going to get it either way ill probably delete it later if it doesnt get buried under reblogs

dont think too much about this i just got sad because my brother was giving me a bunch of criticism on an outline of a story i was working on- which is fair, i need to take criticism- but he only knows the characters in it as their semi-formed cringe versions so i chickened out half way and now i feel bad because i was really proud of this thing for the whopping span of like one day before i decided to show it to another human person instead of letting it rot away inside of me like i usually do and now i feel bad about my writing skills

im trying so hard to just take his words with a grain of salt because this kid does not have nearly as much experience with writing as i do, but i feel like im copying too many of my inspirations (DnD, generic fantasy story about defeating evil creature, silly tropes, etc,,) which sucks because that was just like the first two pages of the outline and theres nine fucking pages and like the second half of it was what i put the most effort into and i felt like the ideas were really origianl but i could make myself let him naturally get to that part of the outline because i was starting to feel really bad and wieerd and oh god he is looking at ideas i havent ever expressed to another human person even though i am very familaiar with because i came up with them and they havebeen in my head for at least a year or two by now and have been haunting me ever since so instead of skipping ahead to the parts that were really good in my opinion but would have made no sense without context i just told him to piss off i gues s

i dont know. i feel dumb. i feel stupid. ive put so much effort into this stuff and the concept that ive been wasting my time feels like too heavy of a weight to handle. god none of this porbobably nmakes any sense ,,,,,,,,, i guess this is why i feel miserable when the fanart and shitpost memes i post get a comically larger audience and attention than the art relating to my silly goofy ocs, because these stupid fucking characters are all thats keeping me going . call me cringe, but is it still cringe if the concept that maybe i too can be around people that love me and instead of having to like me in spite of my faults love me for them keeps me from fucking killing myself is it still cringe?

if a tree falls in a forest and no one's around, does its fall even make a sound? (shit piss fuck sorry i dont remember the original quote and all i can remember is tha t one line from that one musical i dont remember what it was)

if an autistic moron that cant even talk to a cashier without having a panic attack makes a universe full of fictional characters of his own cfreation then an alternate universe, then several alternate universes, then a spin off from that original universe and etc etc but its all just on google fucking docs and no where else except deleted excerpts from a dead wattpad account, did he ever even create anything at all?

its pointless. its all so fucking pointless. its a waste of time. why do i do this at all. its so fucking pointless. it makes no fucking sense. you cant just make a story with characters in it, then make a fucking fantasy au of that universe with the same characters but with different designs and wildly different personalities and then make a whole fucking complicated lore-filled story about the fantasy au version while the original universe's story is still left mostly unfinished like forget about a first draft of the text i havent even finished the first ddraft of the outline yet buckarooooooo

okay fuck you guys thats all i want to tell you im going to go pretend to myself to try to go to sleep and then cry now

#vent #i guess #sorry for saying fuck you guys yall are the only keeping me together and making me feel like i have any importance at all #long post

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electricprincess96 · 5 months

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why do you dislike astarian?

I'm sure if I answered truthfully I'd get mountains of lectures telling me why I'm wrong and awful for not liking the fandoms darling but heres my attempt to articulate my issues. This is in no particular order.

1. It actively makes no sense in character for any version of Tav to keep Ast*rion alive.

A good aligned Tav would likely attack him after he attacks them when they meet and if we assume we give him the old "OK we'll forgive you this time but don't do it again" once he tries to snack on us without consent while we sleep that reasonably should be his last straw.

An evil aligned Tav should have even less reasons to give him second chances cause killing should be nothing to them. And it isn't till later we really know how his worldview would align with an evil Tav

The only real reason to keep Ast*rion is if you are roleplaying a pushover OR you are being Meta because you the player find him attractive. Even Lae'Zel who starts the game really mean (somewhat justifably so since shes put in a cage and racially abused after being put through what her people claim is a fate worse than death), has a good reason to be kept around, she claims to have a cure for the parasite and will share it with the rest of you. Ast*rion offers nothing other than trying to stab you when you meet and then trying to drink your blood without consent while you sleep. Realistically his luck should have run out like if it was Wyll or Karlach or Lae'Zel in charge and you didn't control them he'd be dead. Probably even Shadowheart and Gale would as well.

2. By changing how DnD Vampire Spawns work they made his plot actively very confusing.

OK so Vampire Spawns are meant to not have any control over themselves, their master is meant to be able to control them. We briefly see this when one of the Spawns goes to disobey Caz*dor later. The issue with that is if Caz*dor can control them.... why does he need to punish them into submission? Ast*rion says he almost escaped once but why did Caz*dor ever give him enough freewill to even attempt that? Is Caz*dor just a sadist? If so they don't do a good enough job portraying that. They make the hunger and bloodlust that Spawns feel seem almost.... inconsequential for Ast*rion after that first feeding scene, they basically plays so fast and loose with the DnD Vampire lore but still used the lore to justify every bad thing Ast*rion did under Caz*dor so that he doesn't have to admit any fault like no don't bend the lore into a pretzel but then still use the lore for justifying and exonerate Ast*rion.

3. I don't get the impression he changed as much as people claim.

Like does he grow through his romance? Sure he starts to see Tav as more of a person and less of a tool. That's great. But Lae'Zel and Shadowheart both have fantastic development OUTSIDE of their relationship to Tav. The bar was set too high for you to hide his development behind a romance route I have no desire to do. I'll admit this is an issue Gale to a degree suffers from as well, less so that he doesn't change if you romance him but in his case more so his very examples of his growth are hidden in his romance scenes.

But with Ast*rion I did not think he really self reflected in the ways I would have liked. Even right before fighting Caz*dor he was still claiming he had no reason to feel guilty about what he did as a servant of Caz*dor, like yes the game wants me to believe you had no control, but someone with a conscience would still feel guilty about it. Also everyone else provided you've been pushing then towards good throughout the game will choose to make the right decision on their own accord when given the chance in game, every version of the Ascension scene I've seen requires a persuasion roll for Ast*rion, meaning he doesn't choose to not do the ritual himself he always needs to be persuaded not to whereas provided you've pushed Shadowheart towards good the whole game she will choose to save Dame Aylin on her own, Lae'Zel will choose to turn against Vlaakith on her own etc. The only way he doesn't need persuaded is if 1. He never learnt about the ritual from Raphael, thus he is only there to kill Caz*dor anyway or 2. You kill one of the Spawns in the battle thus the ritual can't be complete

4. He was favoured by the developers at the detriment of other characters.

It's insane that there's literally proof from some of the people who worked on this game that they favoured Ast*rion over other characters when it came to content. And some of his fans think this is somehow a good thing? When all this does is show the rest of the fans (who let's remember the most recent stats the majority of players are not Ast*rion Girlies, they are very loud within fandom but fandom is not everyone who bought and played this game) that we are not as valued by Larian and that's gonna breed resentment.

Wyll got absolutely shafted compared to other companions and everyone got shafted compared to Ast*rion. When the game had to cut out content for Wyll and Karlach but was able to add in like double the amount of romance scenes of Ast*rion when compared to the next companion with the most scenes then we need to start asking why this was allowed. We'd all rather have a complete story for everyone than an extra sex scene with Ast*rion that doesn't add anything to the plot.

5. His fans are obnoxious

Now.... I will be the first to admit all the fans of each of the characters are kinda obnoxious (except most Wyll fans, you guys are cool, I like you). I love Gale and even I know that his fans can be overly defensive at times (sometimes justifiably so, other times they just need to take a step back and realise not every joke at Gale's expense is hateful). BUT because Ast*rion fans are so prominent in fandom spaces you are more likely to run into obnoxious Ast*rion fans than the rest. Like if a post doesn't mention him, don't bring him up in the comments, if someone says "I'm role-playing a Lawful Good Paladin etc. I need a Rogue cause my character wouldn't bring Ast*rion along" don't spend the next hour of your life trying to twist yourself into a pretzel to justify why someone who is Lawful Good should be OK with having the man who disapproves of you helping slaves around. And stop throwing the "canon" word around. This is an issue I have with fandom in general nowadays but "canon" doesn't matter much. BG3 will NEVER canonise a love interest for Tav, they might never even canonise a class or race for Tav. So stol trying to argue that because Ast*rion x D*rge got so much extra content that it's canon to try and win some silly Internet war. All you're doing is annoying people.

What's kinda sad is... I found Ast*rion to be incredibly charming early on, not my type for romance but I enjoyed having him around for the snarky commentary. But whenever his plot came up I found myself rolling my eyes cause the rest of the game Ast*rion seems so self aware that he's kinda an asshole yet when his plot scenes happen he seems to lose that self awareness and it just soured the character for me. But hey, by most modern day gaming standards he's still basically Shakespearean in comparison so this will likely be the only post I make detailing my issues unless I'm asked something more indepth.

#princess answers asks #anon #bg3 blogging #vampire elf discourse

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lincolndjarin · 7 months

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Hello! Just wanted to say that I go fucking FERAL for your writing, BKS, Oh Honey, one shots it’s all just unreal! I can only imagine how lucky your dnd campaign players are having someone like you writing their story! (Side note would be so interested in hearing about your campaigns if you’d be willing to share)

That being said it’s so nice to hear you’re taking a weekend to relax and take care of yourself! Wishing you a wonderful spooky Halloween weekend 💖 can’t wait to see what’s coming afterwards

thank you so fucking much !! <3 <3

this is so sweet and was such a treat to come back to after a couple days away uhg you guys are too good to me

i have no issue talking about dnd stuff i've done !!

i love to DM, as much fun as being a player is i've always preferred DMing just cause im a control freak and i need to know whats going on lmao. the main campaign i ran was called quest for darkwell, i planned it for over a year and it had three players. i spent a year crafting a world and it's characters and essentially built a story about three travelers who came together to cash in on a quest with an enormous pay out that involved traveling to an island kingdom known as darkwell and saving them from a corrupt monarch. it was extremely taz balance in the sense of going to different areas on the map and finding an artifact and then fighting the final boss who was an evil queen. that's like the super condensed version obviously there was a lot more to it.

i love story telling (clearly) so writing became the best option for me once dnd stopped happening, now we all live in different states and i'm too busy to write campaigns these days but it'll always have a special place in my heart.

but like also let me put on my spectacles and my white beard and be an old wise man for a second.

i loved and still love dnd. it was a huge part of me for the longest time and while i don't play anymore i still listen to dnd podcasts and it still influences my writing. that being said i can recall the exact moment dnd was ruined for me.

3/4 of the way through quest for darkwell i had a plot twist that involved time travel and like this huge thing with a religious figure who ended up being evil yada yada yada. and i was extremely proud of myself for coming up with it, it involved a lot of preparation and it was something i really cared about. two of my players adored it. they played pretty heavily into it and really got into the roleplaying and it was a really fun moment for me. i noticed that my third player was a little quiet and i brushed it off. it was the end of a very long session and the other two were hamming it up so maybe he was just tired.

the session ended and i was extremely happy with how things went, then my third player in front of the other players flat out told me that he didn't like what i did and that i ruined his character.

i had spent about a year and a half on the campaign at that point, i worked extremely hard to make the world as enjoyable as possible for my friends and in an instant i resented everything i'd built. i spent the next two weeks literally hating myself for what i'd done and i hated my npc's and i hated darkwell. the next time we had a session i literally couldn't bring myself to DM. i told my players i just wasnt in the mood and we never had a session, i came up with excuses until finally the player who had originally made the comments that caused the entire issue texted the gc and said 'so are we just never going to play again' and i responded with yup.

so anyway, the moral of this story is to be fucking kind to people who make you free content.

it's taken me a long time to come to terms with the fact that that wasn't a kind thing to do. if he had had issues with the direction his character was going in he could have told me in private and i would have fixed it. so BE FUCKING KIND TO YOUR WRITERS. they are giving you something that is special to them and they are giving it to you while expecting nothing in return. the least you can do is be kind and if you can't do that then just be quiet.

anyway that was like a lot just to get to the point but idc

#lincolndjarinasks

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donexmiras · 1 year

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What kinda dnd have you been playing? 👀

I guess it'd be your typical campaign? XD I'm not terribly well versed in the different versions, but we are playing two different campaigns off separate formats

But I'll have more details under a read more-

The first is more evil/neutral leaning, with two chaotic evils, a neutral evil, and I believe a true neutral, whereas the second one has all neutrals, but it's chaotic, good and true, there's definitely plenty of chaos in both

In the evil one I'm playing two characters, a crocodile rogue named Fen, and a reoccurring tiefling bard named Ita

Fen is currently soulless because our aasimar war-cleric thought it was a great idea to try and break a magic sword, that we had to remove from our barbarian of which the sword had cursed into attacking us, and thus exploded us all to death- but our dm gave us a second chance where we can potentially get our souls back while transporting us far into the future to do so

Ita only comes into play a bit later after trying to sneak into the house everyone was staying in, wearing a lampshade to try and camouflage herself, her and the cleric don't get along

With the other I'm playing as a mute bunny named Poncho, originally I was playing their son Authorn, but I wasn't feeling his character and instead we made him an npc, who seems to have some budding bromance with the barkeep

As for our current objective, we are currently hunting down a thieves den who stole from our one witch npc, she has a poison that would work really well with Poncho's arrows, among other things, and given how good my rolls were I almost took out a level 6 mage, but our dm had to stop me from bloodshed because he's needed for story purposes-

Additionally in that campaign there's Horse the moose, in reference to Moose the horse from my cowboy au (we often get confused and call him Moose though)

I can say more but that's the general summary for current events XD

#theres our dhampir in the neutral campaign who gets into her own trouble #and the cleric is certainly a fav in the group #i do love ita though shes forever my beloved #dnd shenanigans

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problemcore · 1 year

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for whichever of your ocs you'd like to talk about:

1. what'd be their level of goodness or evil? or like what's their moral alignment, dnd style?

2. if they had to pick a song to listen to on repeat for 24 hours, which would it be? would they rage quit the challenge?

hiiiii tysm for these! gonna talk about my ocs from kitchen magic, the game im planning on developing in the probably far future <3 my hands are freezing cold woe

sorry for nerd moment this will happen again. so yknow how the whole point in shadow the hedgehog (2005) is choosing between the paths of evil, good, and neutrality? luckily my three characters from kitchen magic (sasha, sunny, and dekota) pretty much represent this concept. sasha is very much true neutral. he doesnt have much care for the rules, and he only cares about making sure himself and his friends are safe and sound. sunny and dekota are like the angel and devil on his shoulders. sunny is a human who very very much follows the rules and does what she's told. is it because she truly believes in those rules, or because she's scared of failing the people around her? who knows! i havent developed her that much. but she's very lawful good. this is a good time to mention i have played dnd exactly once, so i dont know if im using the moral alignments perfectly . its fine. dekota is very much. chaotic. no clue if good neutral evil. but he sure as hell is chaotic! he's the magic law enforcer, adored by all his people, seen as very powerful. in reality he's only strong because he abuses magic, uses forbidden curses and spells, and even summons demons banned by the magistrate, all for his own benefit and no one else's. he'll even use his own people to get what he wants. he's the definition of a "the end justifies the means" person. WOW THAT TURNED OUT TO BE SUPER LONG hope any of this made sense.

2. HEHEHE I LOVED THIS QUESTION SO MUCH I MADE A QUICK DOODLE FOR IT

ive drawn sunny being a sonic the hedgehog fan too much for it to not be canon. good lord. anyway she would choose All Hail Shadow by crush40. fun fact since the very moment this ask was sent (over an hour ago) ive been listening on repeat to this song, to see if i myself could handle it. came to two conclusions. 1. this song slays absolute penis but i dont think i could last 24 hours. sunny definitely could. 2. the original version by magna-fi sucks. sorry.

unfortunately i dont have a good answer for any other characters. i could Maybe say. one of the songs from the album Avatar Country by the band Avatar for dekota. since its a very very him album. but thats about it. so instead ill leave you with this fun fact. when i was 12 i listened to fall out boy's immortals on repeat for 4 hours straight without noticing becuz it just became background noise at some point. sometimes i can still hear them.

#TYSM I MADE THE ANSWER SO LONG HOOOOLYYYY #this was so fun #tysm anon <33333 #i go sleepy now. its almost 1am.#asks #kitchen magic #sasha (oc)#sunny (oc)#dakota (oc)#anon #goodnight friends! i love you <3

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