#bc i really need to check out that ttrpg.........

[homopathicsociosexual]

If you like ttrpg podcasts you should check out Burnt Cookbook Party, bc i need more people to talk about burnt cookbook party. It’s Jenna Stoeber from the internet and four of her friends from real life making what I think is one of the best actual play series. I would put it up there with dimension 20 and TAZ. One of the PCs is a war veteran himbo with a valley accent, one is a socialite/terrorist, one is a magical chef from a city full of magic chefs, and one is still a mystery 40 episodes in. The story is really well crafted and involves war, politics, and weird time stuff

#I think it’s better than critical role but also I don’t think critical role is very good #burnt cookbook party #bcbparty

[viksalos]

eurghh i hate being personal on my personal blog. i posted all that shit this morning and now i feel legit hungover. got a headache and everything

at the same time it’s like. i had this strange worry that dropping these random insane facts about my life and experiences with religion whenever it’s relevant in conversation or to something i saw on here was like, not believable? maybe because i worry that people are perceiving me or keeping track of these things more than they probably are, or because i thought the facts would seem sort of contradictory (they aren’t in a factual sense, but they are in a religious sense) or because if i’m honest i only started remembering the childhood stuff maybe a few years ago, and in some ways remembering these things feels like i’m lying even to myself? like a lot of my childhood memories are just sort of, gone, or they need really specific stimuli for me to remember them. e.g. i didn’t remember that i’d been in a cult until for some reason i decided to play as a cult leader in my friend’s ttrpg setting, lol. but i *know* that stuff is true because i can ask my mom and sister and they were there. anyways

i struggle with ruminating on stuff a lot, and tend not to talk or post about it bc i hate the feeling of burdening others with my problems, but i have noticed that focused, guided thought on a topic (e.g. with psychedelics or, ugh, journaling) helps me with metacognition. abandoning thought patterns that are not helpful to me, finding solutions that will help me self-regulate, that sort of thing--not really gaining any *new* insight but just working with what i have. so i think from that i decided:

in some ways identity struggles can only be resolved through community

go check out the local reform synagogue when i graduate

in the meantime, see if hometown synagogue is still doing remote services

keep hanging out with my weird Jewish and metalhead and Sacred Harp and witchy friends. music and friendship and the rituals surrounding them do all offer me spiritual fulfillment, albeit in an unorganized and nontraditional way

don’t act weird at Perpetual Flame (will almost certainly fail this one but we’ll try)

#text #i'm not sure that i will continue to use tumblr for journaling in this particular way; necessarily. #but thinking about community i do feel like my current community is a mostly random assortment of irl and online friends #who i do appreciate. especially those of you that read the earlier post #(again not saying anybody has to go read it. but i'm gonna be brave and not delete it lol) #*especially* folks who've been following me for the duration of a good chunk of the events i outlined #remember when this was mostly a video games and shitposts blog. lol #well i still do the shitposts anyway but you understand

[isaacathom]

anyway i came here because i wanna ramble about some ttrpg stuff that MIGHT happen in my campaigns that i cant talk about "on main" (re: my twitter, which my dm and some players follow me on) without spoiling what my character HAS done and MIGHT do in future sooo yeehaw bitch

basically in one of the last sessions before a holiday hiatus, the admiral of the fleet we're a part of ordered us to try and obtain gunpowder by whatever means neccessary. the only source of gunpowder is a faction who are pacifists and and trying to use it as fertiliser, and who will under no circumstances give it to anyone. so the plan is to fucking steal it, right. My character (Naielle) finds that plan objectionable for a suite of reasons, and so she found an opportunity to warn the faction leader that these plans were being made.

thats not gonna stop the plan though, right? and naielle is not a stealth character, so she will not be involved in the actual mission, nor in its planning, so she can't really sabotage the mission beyond what shes already done.

But! She might be able to do something once they return. If they successfully manage to get the gunpowder, then Naielle has a few tricks up her sleeve:

The spell 'Invisibility' (and a con of +5)

Authority on the party's primary ship that would mean noone would question her coming and going

A Bag of Holding

A "Diplomat's Pouch" (a messaging pouch that can also send small items)

Provided the gunpowder is stored aboard the primary ship, then Naielle is in. She can get aboard, no questions. She can slip into invisibility. Her stealth isn't great (+2), but shes invis! she can HOPEFULLY get to wherever its held. and she can, at the very least, siphon some of it off (as much as she can carry without causing problems later - a bag of holding full of gunpowder sounds fun but she also has a dragon god in there and if something goes wrong she will cause an apocalypse, lol). She would then, *probably*, be able to send some kind of message to the faction leader about the whole thing (admittedly, Naielle cannot write in her language, but i figure a few grains of gunpowder and a card with a crude sketch of an elf with a hat will get the point across lmao)

thats assuming all goes well. and if it does, HEHE!!! at some point the admiral or whatever will go 'alright, we were saving this gunpowder for [situation], but we need some now' and oh shit, its gone! tf?! and naielles just sweating buckets.

But, even if it doesnt!!! oh, the drama!!!! if someone manages to hear her sneaking around, and attacks her??? oh!!! the drama! She has a decent hp but an abysmal ac, so depending on who it is and what they hit her with it could be genuinely quite a hit. if it knocks her out, or she fails the con check, then we enter the realm of her being directly challenged on her (extremely sus) actions. this holds true even if shes not challenged by someone she knows closely (ie if the gunpowder is held on a different ship, as i think i would still like to try this stunt regardless, because its fun) bc then you get into the realm of her commanding officer being woken at an ungodly hour by the vampire guy going 'captain odelia is being held in the brig on the flagship' which is. an incredible image for me.

butttttttt if she gets hit, doesnt go below zero, AND succeeds on the con check. well shit. she will 100% retreat after that - she doesnt have the spells to pull anything more than what shes doing, as the only other spell that would be useful is also concentration. so she would just leave, hopefully successfully. if she is caught, return to 'oh shit'. if she isnt, then id want to try and write in whatever injury she sustained as something she has to deal with now, at least for a little bit. even if its just like 'has bandaid on cheek' shit.

all this said. i have had an epiphany. which is that Naielle has Dimension Door, *and* the spell slots necessary to use it twice - once to get in, once to get out. this means that any of the ships in the fleet are now fair game, BUT it does have a verbal component, raising the potential that she is at least overheard, if not caught directly. NOW, she's never used dimension door in game, so theres a case that noone would realise it was her, EXCEPT that shes one of a small group of ~French Bastards~, and her accent is very recognisable. She can possibly fumble with that (i could ask the dm if i could roll a deception check on the component to have Naielle pull an accent and see how convincingly she pulls it off, eg?), but! it could be done!

the dimension door does add its own special spice too, which is what happens if she teleports into wherever the powder is held. and WHOOPS there are people there. that would be hilarious. if i go that route, Naielle would probably attempt to prepare for this in some manner, ie a mask and not wearing a number of items that are massive tells as to who the fuck she is (ie her hat, coat, etc). she could, hypothetically, get off a tp in tp out if she acts quickly enough. waste of two slots, and she'd DEFO have to roll that deception check bc she would have been spotted and heard, but like. fucking imagine.

if she succeeds in the tp out, an alarm is at minimum being raised. if she is id'd at the time, then HOHOOOO FUCK she's in trouble and she'll have to decide whether she accepts punishment or attempts to run. but the thing is that she won't really *know* if they've figured her out until someone tries to ram down her door, at which point she gets to make a choice. bc i think in the tp out she would tp right back to her quarters, bc she doesnt have time to think of anywhere else to go. she DOES have a third spell slot available for a third tp off the boat to ~somewhere else~, and she would have time to think about it, i think. if they DONT id her, then she's safe... ish.

id worry about making ~too much~ of a thing of this, because like. eg if Naielle is back against the door as someone bangs on it demanding to enter and decides to GTFO, thats a plot hijack. naielle has just hijacked the plot, bc now the party has to go and track her down. I do have a secondary character to play in the meantime, so its arguably not urgent. but its suddenly an entire plot point that needs to be addressed, especially since the secondary character is, by design, not very powerful compared to a usual pc lmao.

whereas if naielle is caught, in any of the above permutations, then its not quite a whole hijack, because noone has to go out of their way to go Get Her. she's on the ship. The party will need to come to a conclusion about what to do with her once shes done this, but that doesnt have to take that long, and can be readily pushed aside to be dealt w/ later because, well, shes in the brig. shes under watch. she cant DO anything, and if her word is to be believed, she wont do anything. so the party can decide 'we do not have time to deal with naielle apparently being a traitor right this second', shove her in the brig, and i pull out my secondary character.

which i dont think would work quite as well for the 'naielle books it' option because, regardless of whether naielle's a traitor, she has a wealth of very useful knowledge, and some specific skills the party has come to rely on (shes one of the secondary healers, shes the resident Astral Bitch, she has a lowkey spidey sense for absolutely fucked up lil guys, shes a competent dps, and she has a fucking dragon god in her pocket which we went on a whole quest for). letting her run off, and not addressing that for a bit, seems... unwise? to me? im biased ofc because shes my baby but i think tactically not accounting for Naielle Odelia would go poorly. especially because, if naielle isn't careful (and, 3 spell slots in one night burnt, she may not be *able* to be careful) she could get like. fucking captured. thats called plot synergy tho, i guess. naielle flees from the consequences of her actions, gets captured by the bad guys, chuck her on that boat we're planning to go raid... hmst. options present themselves.

anyway the whole point of this is that ive been trying to a more "active" player, rather than reactive, and apparently "lowkey betraying the party" is the method i have chosen, and im honestly really excited!! she now has multiple ways she can try to acquire the gunpowder (maybe even making it a two night affair - one night invis scope it out, another night dimension door x2?), she WILL try to do it, its gonna be fucking sick, and none of this will happen for like two irl months because we dont even have a plan in place for obtaining the gunpowder yet! i cant try and steal it back if we havent even stolen it yet lmao.

its gonna kick ass. i just wanted to gush about it. thats all :)

this isnt even getting into like. ramifications for success. naielles already, i hoped, put herself on good terms w/ the faction, and if she succeeds in retrieving any of the gunpowder i think she might be in an incredible position. or an extremely manipulatable position. both? both. itll be so fucking good. AGH.

#i came back from my holiday and chose violence for my campaign #i still dont want to cause trouble. like naielle pinching gunpowder shouldnt actively hinder our actions as a party #but it WILL have ramifications for like. the broader stuff. which will be fun. #itll be kick ass. i look forward to my dm describing a night scene and asking certain folks to roll perception lmao #going like 'okay. tonight. where are folks?' and i go 'ill be on [my ship]' and the whole time im sending them messages like #'i have cast invisibility and will be scoping out [the other ship]' lmao. itll be tight

[gensuta]

GAMES WITH TRANS/NONBINARY REP!!

Happy pride month!! I love playing video games so I thought it'd be neat to share the many many games I've played with nonbinary and trans characters >:3

Sorry in advanced I’m copying and pasting stuff from twitter ;v; Also know that many of these games ARE on consoles, but if you buy them on pc/mac use itch.io if it exists. It gives devs more money!!

VALIDATE!!  There's a demo on Steam and Itch.io that you can play RIGHT NOW and also a patreon you can support and I highly suggest it ^o^ It's a lovely VN with several playable characters and rlly good writing

Extreme Meatpunks forever is so SO good omg. It's a VN/mech brawler where u be gay and fight fascists!!! Trans and nonbiney ppl are out here being badass af. The game has cws/tws built into the game ( which i love sm ) Also there's a ttrpg on Kickstarter RIGHT NOW!! 

Another game with nonbinary characters is an rpg called Ikenfell! It was one of my favorite games to play last year and the music and just everything? Honestly so good I'm def replaying it this year. It also has tons of good accessibility features!

ok but i wanna geek abt ikenfell just a smidge more  U DON'T UNDERSTAND 3 OF THE PLAYABLE CHARACTERS ARE NONBINARY <333 The strongest playable character also uses ze/zir pronouns and I think that's pretty epic

Ok so like literally every game I've played by @analgesicprod I've loved 100% And Anodyne 2? Everyone should go play it and I will keep saying it until everyone does. And yes there's a trans character in it <3 Drem my beloved <3  Go check it out!!

Another game studio I love is @pillowfightio !!! They worked on Later Alligator, We Know the Devil, and Heaven Will Be Mine. I highly recc all of them but esp. Later Alligator cuz like just look at Joanie. They're so cool.  

In the game Everhood gender doesn't exist <3 Literally multiple characters are referred to with they/them pronouns and the gameplay is very enjoyable 

 CW LOTS of flashing lights and I feel like there should maybe be more cws but I'm not sure what else to add :l I guess a warning is that Everhood gets into more serious stuff and I'll be honest when the game first came out I had to put it down for several days b/c I just wasn't ready for a lot of that stuff, but I honestly liked the game a lot!

I was debating on adding this bc while I love this game there's some issues. So Gnosia is like werewolf ( or among us if you will ) but more narrative focused with time loops etc. There's two wonderful nonbinary characters and you can be nonbinary HOWEVER ( minor gnosia spoilers. skip past if you want to avoid it) . . . For some reason finding out the AGAB of one of the characters is mandatory and I fucking hate that. It's so unnecessary esp for the world building that's been done. Also tws for the game: sexual abuse / assault, gore ( in only one scene ) (spoilers end) but yeah I still added it because the characters are so neat and strong for the type of game it is and without that bit I wouldn’t feel so :/ abt recommending it. It’s pretty fun ngl

Wandersong!!! The main character is nonbiney and I love them <33 It's such a lovely little musical adventure with such a nice narrative and!! Some of the devs just released Chicory ( which I haven't gotten to play yet ;v; ) but check that out too!!

Bravery Network Online is super fun!! It's a turn based rpg that feels really good and has two characters that use they/them pronouns ( Fel and Reed ) the character designs are sooo good and the game is currently in early access!

I never thought I'd see a claymation point and click musical featuring a nonbinary detective but Dominique Pamplemousse is just that Need I say more?

A personal fav I think about every now and then is Dad fighter 30XX!! Like who doesn't wanna beat up their friend's shitty dad in the parking lot of a dennys?? Also the win music is my FAV

SPIRIT SWAP!!! By @SoftNotWeak !!!! Super chill and pretty game by lovely people with a demo you can play right NOW!! This game makes me want to become a strong magical thembo

More games I’ve played, but am too lazy to ramble about

ROM:2064 ( game is amazing but i got mixed feelings tho bc the og devs aren't getting paid for it I think :/ )

A Year of Springs

Secret Little Haven 

A normal lost phone

Calico 

Celeste

Hollow Knight

Undertale

Deltarune

Monster Prom / Monster Camp

Hades ( all of supergiants games slap btw )

If Found

Here’s games I haven’t played but have heard about

Bugsnax

Diaries of a spaceport janitor

Hustle Cat

Tell Me Why

Our Life

Last Minute Love

Black Tarot

Apex Legends

World of Warcraft has trans npcs :0

Dragon Age Inquisition

Sky, Children of the Light

TemTem

Battletech

Death and Taxes :0

Flicker :0 ( roblox games do count! It’s always cool to see what ppl make in it )

Assassins Creed Syndicate has a trans npc

Verdant Skies

Wandering Wolf Trick ( I love nomnomnami’s games sm but haven’t played this one. Highly reccommend her stuff )

If you have any games you wanna add to this PLEASE please do and I'll add them!! And while you're here please support the Queer Games Bundle going on itch rn to support tons LGBTQ+ game devs financially (including me ) <3 Last little edit for now: I’d def suggest trying to find cws/tws for these games just in case I haven’t covered everything for the ones I did talk about <3

#trans #lgbtq #nonbinary #indie game #video game #lgbtqia+ #itch.io #steam games #nintendo #switch games #gaming #games #game #pc games #pride month #happy pride 🌈

[equalseleventhirds]

you said you don’t really like white ppl playing people of color in ttrpgs bc they do it poorly. What do you think a white person would need to do to play a character of color well? Or do you think it should be avoided? Thanks for talking about this!

well, first of all,

actually no wait. rly quickly, there is a difference between playing a poc in a home ttrpg with friends/family that will never see the light of day, and playing in a ttrpg podcast/youtube series/whatever. one is at home, and not public, and is, while potentially in poor taste, something in a more controlled & less possibly influential environment. if you're playing a home game with friends, ESPECIALLY with friends of color, pls discuss your intentions openly & with an openness to criticism and use safety tools! bcos the people at the table with you are the most important ppl for you to interact with here, and you need to make sure THEY feel comfortable with this. (really you should be using safety tools anyway! but yeah.)

ok now with that out of the way, about playing ttrpgs in podcasts or other media! first of all: a LOT of research. like, a ton! talking to one or two ppl about their experiences as members of a particular race is not sufficient! like, more than learning abt the culture (and u do need to learn abt the culture) you've gotta also learn abt common stereotypes so you know what to avoid. you have to research into racism so you can avoid it! it's gonna be uncomfortable! but you can't go in purely on good intentions and some cultural knowledge, bcos you may accidentally play into racist shit without even knowing it.

secondly, i think it would be just good practice for white ppl who want to play a character of color on a ttrpg show to like... think really hard abt why they're doing this. like, is it that everyone on your show is white, and you're getting unhappy with telling only white stories? is it bcos you think this will appeal to your audience, or bcos you genuinely want to use your platform to help boost the stories and visibility of people of color? why do you get to tell a story abt a poc, in this context, where you are stepping into their shoes and acting for them? can you bring in a guest or another permanent player, an actual poc? would you feel instinctively resistant to letting an actual poc play 'your character', even though your character is a poc and you are not?

like, i can't monitor people's intentions. and i can't force white ppl to play with poc at the table. in some cases this may not be possible! it may be an old established podcast and a new player may not be feasible! and this may be a situation where you using your platform genuinely can help with visibility. but like... be careful. put some real thought into it. don't just do it on a whim. and yes, again, do research.

(speaking of playing with poc at the table: i also feel like, if there IS a poc at a table of otherwise white players, especially if they are actually respected and listened to, it can! really help! like, i am more comfortable with a white person playing a character of color if i know there's a real person of color there with them, to check them and tell them when they're crossing a line. i mean, that shouldn't always be people of color's responsibility, but like... it helps.)

(also helpful is things being... editable. i know ttrpgs are all improv, in the moment, ooh u can't go back and redo things!! but sometimes you like. you should. sometimes something has been done in poor taste and should be taken out, and something should replace it. white ppl do not always KNOW what should be taken out, but like! sometimes u can catch it.)

#long post #racism discussion #mostly just like. introspection and research and possibly like... working with actual poc if u rly do want to give them a platform #like it's not IDEAL but also sometimes ttrpgs are a place to explore things that are not ur life experience #i played some ttrpgs with white ppl where the ONLY character options were poc #and we used safety tools and had good discussions and like! things were better bcos they listened #bcos they knew why they were doing it (mainly bcos these were indie games and they wanted to help promote the game #not bcos they wanted to tell poc stories themselves) #and they knew that actual poc were at the table and acted conscientiously about it

[totallycorrectjunosteelquotes]

HEY HI HI HELLO so this is a list of all the fake Twitter accounts I have (so far)

Juno!

Private account because it's Juno.

Vespa 'hacks' his account sometimes. Hack being in quotes because really... his passwords are terrible. And whenever he sets a good password SOMEONE (Buddy) talks it out of him and tells Vespa anyways.

Rita! (Artist)

Her account is verified. Twitter did not verify it.

They had to impose a post limit because she kept crashing the servers by posting so much. She continues to circumvent the post limit and improve the site while she's at it cause why not leave it better than you found it, right?

Nureyev! Well, one of his accounts.

He posts here sometimes, only when using the persona or if it's been a while and he needs an alibi

Endlessly salty bc somehow Rita got verified and NONE of his accounts have but refuses to bring it up because why would that bother him it's just an account or twelve right???

Also Nureyev!

He uses this account solely to tease Juno and you cannot tell me otherwise <3 (Juno had it blocked for a total of one (1) hour and then frantically unblocked it)

This is Nureyev's personal account.

Or, well, as personal as it gets with him and public images. He is simply vibing. His name is a whitespace because yes

Mick!

Yeah this is Mick's account. he couldn't figure out how to sign out properly and somehow it keeps automatically signing back in and every time he tries to make a new account the @ he wants to use is taken, so... yeah. he's stuck with Juno Steel. His icon and name may change later, but his @ will always stay the same!

Sasha!

She made this account when she was like 14 don't @ her she's just revamped it because she didn't want to go through the hassle of making a new account. plus then she would have to actually go follow people and she doesn't want them to know she still checks Twitter from time to time.

A private account because... yeah

Buddy's account but also not Buddy's account bc she just posted about the bar

Verified bc Rita saw it wasn't verified and went you know what? I can fix that. and then she did. Absolute Rita move.

Jet's just Jet.

He posts sometimes. Mostly inspirational quotes or really, really, really weird memes.

Occasionally retweets from Rita or the lighthouse.

Vespa doesn't have an account because she thinks it's funnier just to use Juno's and nobody can stop her because who the fuck gets in the way of Vespa when she just wants to shitpost in someone else's name.

Disclaimer: I can't take credit for all of these. Some of these ideas came from my discord group (absolutely wild group of people we play a ttrpg set in the Junoverse) and I adore them all (love you guys)

#fake tweets #tpp #the penumbra podcast #incorrect tpp #listen... I'm gay #juno steel #rita [redacted] #rita tpp #peter nureyev #mick mercury #sasha wire #buddy aurinko #jet siquliak #vespa ilkay #vespa 'hacks' juno #juno shitpost hours #not a quote #technically #tpp headcanon #when trouble arises i simply queue #lex speaking

[seafleece]

now, i don’t know how this is gonna shake out, but i’m just thinking about comparisons between false flags in ttrpgs. 

this isn’t the first one, and it could be avoided bc matt kinda likes the plot armor at this point and most consequences seem to end up as “there’s a guy to fight”, but regardless, i’m just gonna give a little hypothetical: they get away from trent, and trent, seeing the obvious usage of dunamancy, decides to ring up ol’ dwendal and say ‘hey, the dynasty is stealing from us. i have proof.’ he has a vested interest in doing exactly this. at this point, the m9 has just aided in a false flag operation, unwittingly.

off the top of my head, i can think of two other false flag situations in a ttrpg show, both from friends at the table. in both of them, the cast is aware it’s what they’re doing, and it has serious plot consequences. dwindling conflict is reunited. soldiers and civilians die. player characters are even exiled from a community when one is discovered, and they don’t come back from it. those rifts between the affected groups don’t heal. there’s nothing the party can do to take back that mistake.

there have been similar calls in cr2, with the dynasty. if i had a little more faith in themes right now, i wouldn’t even be surprised if the assembly themselves collapsed that tower in zadash to make the dynasty look bad for the horrible crime of (checks notes) wanting their sacred artifacts back.

the real difference between these two groups of situations is that m9 largely outgrew their interest in the dynasty-empire relationship after the hiatus, and their treatment and sort of. disinterest and failure to consider optics. here is impossible to separate from the cast that critical is a show run by liberals. f@tt-- here i’ll direct specifically to partizan-- is directly interested in portraying the most corrupt aspects of war, and their cast decidedly does not take a liberal perspective.

when cr2 is over, i’d like to write a full comparative retrospective on portrayals of empire and war, but for now i’ll just say that how this plays out (and has already) really comes down to how cast politics affects the portrayal of fictional politics (see waffling on whether the assembly needs to go or whether trent is a “bad apple” and failure to condemn an empire for, y’know, being an empire), as well as whether cast sees themselves as storytellers or responsible for the themes that play out in their own show, which they often don’t or at least don’t seem to. the interesting conclusion to “using another country’s magic against a powerful wizard, one who would happily see war fought against that country for his own gain” just isn’t “and then they magic missiled each other to death”. there are empire assassins hunting essek. trent almost certainly knows about it. using dunamancy to attack empire guards watching over trent’s things means something with this context, inherently. and if it didn’t to cast, then it should.

impulsively blundering into consequence this potentially serious isn’t inherently uninteresting. it just becomes that way when it feels like it doesn’t mean anything, or when what it means is a big 3-hour fight with a guy that resolves (successfully ignores) the underlying issues.

i’m gonna make another little comparison for a second. in critical role, there’s trent ikithon. in partizan, there’s spymaster crysanth kesh. the party in both seasons has a vested interest in seeing this person killed, because they’re responsible for a lot of death and suffering, both on a personal and political level during a time of war, acting in their own interest at the expense of almost everything around them except their own power. when talking about killing trent or the people closest to him, cast treats this like a solution to a singular problem. when talking about killing crysanth or the people she’s closest to (including her daughter, who’s a player character the cast doesn’t shy away from despising or antagonizing or portraying as selfish and manipulative), the gm says outright that while she holds power, her death will not fix the war. the rules for beam saber, the game, are also explicit about this: the party is small. they cannot end a war, nor erase its sins. the difference is that the cast of critical role thinks of trent ikithon as a cause. the cast of partizan says that crysanth kesh is a symptom.

difference in tone is fine-- this isn’t saying that the cast needs to overthink everything they do and have a 0% war crime rate, or that this game needs to be about the horrors of war. it’s just saying (in a lot of words) that actions have consequences, and that whether they realize it or not, their actions shape a story. this is a really killer opportunity for matt to say no, i’m not compromising on a theme that’s been in this game since day one.

#fleece.txt #cr critical #cr meta #i'm gonna regret this aren't i #it's just!!!! this COULD be so much #it could be EVERYTHING #cr spoilers #cr2e127

[sun-critrole]

Diversity is one of the big reasons I prefer Dimension 20 to Critical Role. Dimension 20 makes a point out of having POC in the cast and telling POC stories within the show. They also have more LGBTQ+ people who play LGBTQ+ characters and it all feels much more realistic and homey than watching a bunch of white people tell their stories. I really think since Critical Role has a much larger audience that they need to put the work in to make both what happens on and off screen involve more POC

I agree. D20/Rivals of Waterdeep have proven that there are ways to make ttrpg streams more inclusive. CR is way behind the ball when it comes to race inclusion.

If you’re looking to expand your ttrpg entertainment, start with Rivals of Waterdeep. Dimension 20 is also great. I also recommend following the individual twitch channels of Tanya (cypheroftyr) and Brandon (iambrandon) bc they post streams multiple times a week.

I do encourage all my followers to check out shows and media which is more inclusive. And if you find a show you like, follow its creators on twitter/socials. The first step to expanding your understanding of your privilege is changing who you’re listening to.

#racism #anti-racism #critical role #dimension 20 #rivals of waterdeep

[bronanlynch]

weekly (monthly?) media roundup

ok so I do want to actually do these on some sort of schedule but unfortunately, as you already know, brains,

listening: Malice in Wonderland by Fangbanger, which I found from a tumblr post that described them as band for “if you have a complicated relationship with gender, had a falling out with god, hate the government, or just think that vampires are neat" and y’know? yeah. my notes on this song from several weeks ago are that I might not know any of these people’s genders but I do know they’ve listened to MCR

reading: the new Cassandra Clare book, Chain of Iron. it’s boring and homophobic. in the first book of this series, we find out that the heroine’s brother is gay and in a relationship with a man who has no intention of ever coming out publicly because 1) the book is set in 1903 in England, it was literally illegal and 2) he’s trying to have a career in politics. the heroine decides that this means he’s ashamed of her brother and doesn’t deserve him, and she is present and active in their breakup conversation.

above is the relationship chart I made from the first book, it really hasn’t changed much except now the main guy and the main girl are married, the lesbians got back together and then broke up again, the main girl’s gay brother hooked up with one of her husband’s friend, who’s a Good Gay and therefore worthy of love unlike the Bad Gay ex who is constantly mocked by just about every character for. checks notes. caring about appearances and manners given that his life and career are based on those things. the brother and his new love interest break up because the brother still thinks he’s a bad person for ever having dated his ex. also the main girl has now platonically run off to Paris with her husband’s platonic soulmate who is allegedly in love with her but it’s really unconvincing that he’s not actually in love with her husband (he’s not for very stupid lore reasons, the whole ‘parabatai are magically prevented from being romantically in love, except for these two straight people, when historically parabatai pairs were two men’ makes my fucking blood boil)

you might ask why I still read these books even though they make me angry and the answer is the 1) the aesthetic slaps 2) some of the characters are fun 3) the premise has enough potential that it could be good if it was good 4) sometimes I need to get cathartically angry abt bad fiction bc it just. does not matter

watching: so many things that I’m gonna just. run through them real quick

Word of Honor: gestures vaguely at how it’s slowly taking over my blog

Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty: love a found family, eh about the politics, can’t believe I predictably got a new fave character within the last two episodes of the show because one of the main characters is betrayed by his second-in-command and I think treason is the sexiest part of a relationship

SamBucky show: in the original draft of this post I said that it was so boring that week (episode 3) that I completely forgot about it until I saw the draft below this one talking about how bad and boring it is. at least more happened in later episodes and they’re finally giving me some tasty queerbaiting but the premise and the politics are. wow. it sure is military propaganda

My Hero Academia: new season is fun, love a tournament arc. don’t love that they tell us right away that the double agent character is a double agent, it was more fun in the manga when you’re not sure if he’s a traitor or not for a pretty long time

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun: new season is cute, there sure is some gender happening. there’s a tsundere bisexual catgirl

Backflip!!: I usually avoid high school sports anime for backstory reasons but my roommate wanted to watch it with me and oh boy these gymnasts sure are gay for each other huh

Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood: my roommate pitched this to me as ‘cyberpunk but in the 1930s’ and there sure is dark lighting, lots of glowy neon stuff, and government oppression, which are the most important elements of cyberpunk apparently. not sure how I feel about it yet, because there’s a cool shapeshifting lady assassin with a revenge quest but there’s also a trans character who was revealed to be trans in a way that I personally did not enjoy. yes you can have transphobic villains but like. hmm. maybe the audience shouldn’t find out that someone is trans because the villain cuts his shirt away specifically to ~put him in his place. or maybe I personally am just sensitive to that but either way no thank you

on the other hand, the main character is sick as shit

The World Ends with You: god I love an anime about the power of friendship. I’ve only had these kids for two episodes and I would lay down my life for them

Nirvana in Fire: we’re only three episodes in and I did spend the first half of the first ep being like. oh god which of these people are actually important who am I supposed to care about here. and then by the end of the first ep I knew which ones I cared about and am now very afraid for their safety. do love the political intrigue though

playing: got through the first mission of Brigmore Witches. I love a good undercover mission, I wish I hadn’t been too afraid of like. alarms going off if I freed the other prisoners because I think Comrade Daud should do a jailbreak, and Lizzy Stride can call me anytime

also recently have played various ttrpgs including Firebrands, more Things, Eldritch and Terrifying, Link, and of course more Beam Saber (oh shit I meant to do my recap post for last session OOPS)

making: Zan and I made some real good chicken parm the other night, vaguely based on this recipe. by which I mean, we looked at the recipe to see how many eggs to use and how long to cook it and pretty much nothing else. the egg marinade step seemed unnecessary and I made the sauce the way I always make tomato sauce, which some day I should write down because it does in fact fuck. the secret is a shit-ton of oregano and basil and no chunks of tomato because fuck that. bad texture

Zan made the zucchini which also slapped, using some of the leftover bread crumbs

writing: I’ve posted a couple of things but most recently I wrote some rarepair femslash. this is the first fic for this ship on ao3 and the second ship in the f/f tag for this fandom that’s actually about the women in the show (as opposed to showing up in the f/f tag because it’s marked as “multi” or like. genderbent versions of the main m/m ship) but like. look at them. they’re terrible evil assassin women and they’re in love. anyway I’ve gotten over being embarrassed about having written a sex scene and moved on to wanting people to read my fic. there’s sparring as foreplay it’s a good time

#dreaming.txt #tuesday no problem extended universe

[staggeringsmite]

2, 4, 8, 17, 18, 24, 32, 36?

(pick and choose if that’s too many 😅)

thank you!!! once again under the cut because this got long <3

2. what was your first time running a game like?

ohohoho it was genuinely pretty stressful bc i had been wanting to play dnd for a while and wanted my friends to like this cool fun game sooooo bad, but i Was in middle school and that time is mostly forgotten. somehow i remember this very well. the first game i ever ran was in 7th grade and was holiday themed over our school break. it was set during a winter solstice festival in this moderately sized city the party had just arrived at to see what the celebration was about. they did minigame time for a while running around the town, joining in games and celebrating winning little prizes or a few copper, which was a great way to introduce skill checks to a group that had never touched a ttrpg system before bc we were 12-13. i was fumbling around with rules everywhere, and it was suuper messy but we had a great time!! i think it culminated in a scrooge-esque character placing a nasty curse over the town and them having to go to his mansion to idk beat the nasty out of him and his little cult or something <3 the actual dm'ing part was a mess but also super rewarding, and i realized i really enjoyed doing it and cooking up a little game for everyone!

4 & 8 answered here!

17. what is your proudest improvisation moment?

dnd thoughts are like a constant background program running in my brain, so even if i don't write down every monologue or line or narrative moment i think up i'm constantly churning out these moments that make it easier to prep and/or pull out when the tone and timing is right, meaning it's not really improv. i am incredibly proud of the xarus and piper moment before they tried to stop castellane's coup because i did put some thought into what they were going to say, but obviously had to see what xarus' reaction was and couldn't really prep beyond the initiation of the scene. it turned into one of the most intense, emotionally complex scenes culminating in that forehead kiss that i will think about forever, and just, unstoppable force vs immovable object dynamic with xarus' self-sacrifical tendencies and piper's declaration of determination to see him through this fight.

other really proud improvisation moments i think mostly arise during combat. while i think i have a ways to go keeping combat interesting in terms of all the little descriptive moments that happen throughout, i don't prep anything dialogue or description wise and have to do more in the moment that creates them. some of favorites happened in the finale battle for wandering isles including xarus' divine intervention harm spell which manifested as his typical lightning (storm herald barb/tempest cleric multiclass) eye glow this time illuminating thirty feet out from him with the stormlord managing to crack into the demiplane with a huge lightning bolt across castellane's form. this and the tâm and theresa reaching out to/keeping veviri alive and the descriptions of the resurrection and tâm's twin heartbeat (honoring a previous nat 20 to allow this to even happen) were highlights of improvising and the campaign as a whole for me <3

18. funniest improvisation moment?

HOWARD SMOOTHANDS. okay i admit i should've been more prepared but school was a lot and i had spent sooo much time prepping the larger plot stuff where the party was that the simplest, most common dm thing of "hey you should put some people in this tavern in case they go in to ask questions" just sort of slipped my mind, there was a vampire cult happening at a large university you see you must understand. anyway i don't think this was entirely improv bc i remember the name coming from a generator, but i did end up having the on the spot get the atmosphere for this tavern and it was bizarre this was a very rural dilapidated community and they were all super suspicious of the party members that came in and then they met, flirted and slept with howard smoothands the barkeep so everything worked out. i think it is mostly funny because this arc was one of the darkest tone moments in the whole campaign, and it was great to break that up with thirty minutes of a halfling thieves' guild associate named howard smoothands.

24. how long does preparing for a session usually take you? do you chronically under or overprepare?

i don't have an exact number but i also know that it could take much less time than it actually does like most tasks i undertake because well, brain doesn't work great. i think it varies a lot depending on what the party is headed into if i'm running a main campaign, if i'm pulling from other modules to help supplement, running out of a book or completely from a module, etc. for my mostly homebrew stuff some sessions that i know are going to be big battles really only take 30 minutes of setup to get my balance right and everything into roll20 whereas if i'm running a highly individualized session (like one that has dream sequences or trials or highly specific character moments for each pc that i need to conceptualize and write and tweak) that could easily take me 3-4 hours to get finalized.

32. do you have any dice/other mechanic rituals? do you feel like you roll abnormally well (or the opposite)?

i cook my dice for a bit before my games <3 (leaving them on the highest numbers) i also Will Only use the dice or color of dice i associate with an npc when i roll for them. i feel like i roll decently well if not average but there have been Some Nights where it has been insane (double nat 20 for castellane at the dock fight with nyx for example).

36. how do you gear up to run a session? any pregame getting into character/setting moments?

i must admit when school is in i am probably prepping down to the wire on session days, but if i have some time i'll just read over my notes, open my stuff, and maybe listen through the campaign or character playlists

#thanks again andromeda!! #ask #asimovsideburns

[staggeringsmite]

multiples of 7?? these questions are so 🥺🥺

ahh thank you tess!! they were very fun to write <333

7. if you could give one piece of advice to first time gamemasters or people thinking of running their first game, what would it be?

alskjglkfjlk SO many thoughts in my brain but i think most of all would be make sure YOU'RE having fun!! it's so important to remember the dm is a player, and while you're guiding the story in a way that makes sure everyone else at the table is having fun, check in with yourself!!! it'll help you take note of what you like and don't like running, and if you like dm'ing at all or enough to do it longer term without it being stressful! i wish i had done this the first time i ran bc i was a nervous wreck (which could just be the mental illness but yea) and did have fun, but i think i let the stress of first-time running realllly get to me. in the end it is a GAME!!! it's supposed to be fun for everyone.

14. answered here!

21. where do you draw inspiration from when you’re getting ready to run a game?

wooooweeee lots of media no shame in absorbing a fun thing/environment from either a ttrpg show or other content that i think would be neat for my players in-game (adapting things to fit ofc) but also music!!! gestures to my 16+ hour finished wandering isles playlist nothing helps me think of a setting and atmosphere more than curating a specific feeling with a collection of songs that gives me the mindset and feeling of the place or characters i'm going to be

28. what do you have to have in front of you to feel confident going into a session?

a million tabs (this is also just how i live bc i'm fucked up and evil <3) i use OneNote for all my session/overall campaign notes, usually divided up into PC-specific lore out and about, World/Party/Overall plot lore out and about, and then a page for each session where i write my recap and make my session notes (or the module document + onenote or word doc with my additions/changes). that's the main thing but also! any dndbeyond tab for npc's i'm currently playing in the party, as well as a few home page ones or blank search engine tabs for quick references in case i forgot to pull something major up or need to pull something out of my ass. (i also keep fantasynamegenerator and npcgenerator bookmarked or pulled up in case i need to throw an npc out real quick) any major items i might have to interact with or remind them of. roll20 prepped with the map and stuff if we're doing combat. and finally discord in case i need to drop anything in the chat or someone's internet goes out or endless reasons really since it's where our dnd server is <3 i also like to have my dice organized for any npc's or other character things i might be rolling for

35. how do you wind down after an intense session?

party talk time is fantastic! sometimes we can stay on call for 2-3 hours post session wayy late talking about things that happened in the session and doing some epic meta stuff together, but it always devolves into some "chorus of nonsense" that is great when we've had a particularly intense/emotionally heavy session. sometimes social interaction is not where it's at though! if i'm feeling burnt out usually it's easier for me to take to tumblr/discord to type up feelings about the session. any of this or doing some playlist work helps me get the post-game rush of thoughts and feelings out enough to feel like i can actually shut down enough to go to sleep.

#thank you!! <333 #ask #lichfucker