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elftwink · 1 month

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been learning to play ironsworn (gritty fantasy ttrpg which you can play with a gm but is mostly suited for solo or small group co-op gmless play) after having the rulebook pdf for several years (stars finally aligned to remove invisible thing blocking me from reading it idk) because i'm on another solo ttrpg kick & i don't know what took me so long to get around to this game because it genuinely is exactly what i was looking for. years ago when i was playing through solo 5e modules i should have just been playing ironsworn (believe it or not, 5e isn't very suited to solo play and is extremely clunky when you try lol).

also though i have dabbled in some other solo ttrpgs, a considerable amount of them are journaling games which is fun but imo considerably more work (usually by the time i'm a quarter of the way through the journal entry, i know how to entire scene played out and i want to move on to the next gameplay thing, so i get frustrated and bored quickly. it feels like when you solve a level in a video game but don't have the coordination to pull off the necessary move so you have to spend 20 extra minutes doing something you already figured out), so i really appreciate like not needing to write something for the game to progress (ive been taking notes for my own record since im playing solo and thus am not really out loud roleplaying the way you do in a group, but i definitely could do that instead and not take notes and the game would still function perfectly)

& ive been playing by myself but also in the past ive played a lot of ttrpgs in very small groups which has been other games but is mostly dnd and like. we also should have been playing ironsworn so that having a gm was not necessary. have definitely played games where we had to adapt the rules soooo much to do something that is just base game included in ironsworn. plus it's rules-light enough to do pretty complex moves that pose difficulties in bulkier games (ever introduced someone to dnd and they tell you they want to do a sick backflip and catch something and then attack and you have to tell them that will require several different consecutive rolls and some creative liberties with how the rules are 'supposed' to let you move? you can just Do That in ironsworn. use the strike move and describe it. done!)

the one thing is that although it's rules-light enough to theoretically play any setting or genre (some with more difficulty than others), ive found so far that like... the grittiness and sense of threat is very built into the mechanics so that would be sort of difficult to work around or change (but i think it's great from a game design perspective). what i mean is like, okay: you start with 5 max hp. there isn't really a way to raise this max hp, you just slowly gain abilities (assets) that make you less likely to have to lose the hp in the first place, or that make it easier to recover. when you encounter foes, you rank them on a scale of 1 -5, and enemies on the lowest side of this scale do one harm to you, while enemies on the highest side do five harm to you. so even though encountering an epic enemy won't always be deadly due to the assets you have, they are ALWAYS capable of taking you down to 0 hp with one good hit. so the feeling of threat is much more present compared to games where your character starts to be able to just tank and push through a failure or huge threat.

admittedly also i'm playing solo, im still learning how to balance combat, and also i built a character who has NO combat talents and iron (the close quarters fighting stat) is one of my lowest stats so i personally am under much more threat than if you built a character who knew how to fight or who could do deadly harm. but also the other thing about combat is it's extremely difficult to maintain control of the fight; you have to score a strong hit to do it on basically all moves, and there's a really limited pool of moves available when you don't have the initiative, and obviously none of them really favour you. i don't know that this makes combat genuinely more difficult, but it does make you feel like the fight is always about to spiral out of your control. every second you let it drag without decisive action feels like it brings you closer to dying. like i said, this is a feature of the game design and not a problem in any way. just thinking about it because when i was initially learning i was going to try to supplant it into a homebrew fantasy world of my own but the tone just wouldn't be right. and that it is somewhat difficult to replicate the kind of worlds that i typically play or run for dnd, which tend to lean somewhat sillier and definitely much higher fantasy

but i like to try new things and tbh especially in dnd i find that i very rarely feel that sense of threat and when i do feel it, it has nothing at all to do with the actual mechanics and reality of the combat and everything to do with how well the dm sells it to me and makes it sound and feel scary and dangerous. which is a testament to what a good gm can do for you but i do appreciate the threat feeling more built-in and also being actually real.

#good idea generator #kas plays ironsworn #am giving it a tag because i will continue to talk about this. its my blog #idk i just find in dnd like. players often FEEL threatened WAY before they actually are threatened #which makes it really hard to balance combat because players treat evenly matched fights like hopeless death traps #so instead they do underleveled combat that feels boring for some hard to pin down reason #but like. the reason is even though you're nervous about the dm's description and the things the monsters can do #there is no real threat. especially in bigger parties where the players DOMINATE action economy. they are always in control #so of course it gets boring. it drags out so everyone can take their turn but it never forces you to make difficult choices #or to totally exhaust all your abilities. after awhile the combats start to feel same-y #because even if the monster is different. you never have to do anything different to defeat it #ofc this is a subjective assessment and also if youre reading this and we play dnd together this is not a gripe abt our table i love u #i think it's really easy to get trapped doing this esp in tables which like rp more than combat #because its also like. once you're used to a certain balance of combat if your dm suddenly threw you a big one #you assume that this is a uniquely large threat in the narrative as well (rather than a rebalancing attempt)#and treat it accordingly. which is to say with way too much caution because it isnt actually that big of a threat #so then as a dm when you have to maintain the feeling of threat and the mechanical threat #(especially when sometimes the mechanical line between 'cakewalk' and 'tpk' is razor thin #and is more about the initiative order and luck than anything else)#you start to prioritize the feeling of threat. which is imo the right call always #but its just after awhile when you feel the threat but nothing ever happens to anybody. the dissonance starts to affect the table #also balancing dnd combat as a dm is really hard and often requires a LOT of on the fly adaptation #because sometimes the CR is useless and you don't know how it's gonna do until the dice are on the table already #anyway. my point is that im enjoying how ironsworn handles this problem

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not-a-mongoose · 10 months

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guys. Guys. what if skizz somehow ended up in double life, and somehow just happened to get shoved into a soulmate pair, and that pair happened to be Team Rancher?!?!

Like skizz and jimmy (from what i've seen of interactions between the two of them specifically) are so great at hyping each other up. And ofc Team Rancher, but also the dynamic between Skizz and Tango.

idk what i'm trying to say here, they'd just be absolutely hilarious before dying immediately in the second last episode asjfkdjslkafjk

#double life #mcyt #jimmy solidarity #solidaritygaming #tango #tangotek #skizz #skizzleman #traffic smp #double life smp au idea #<- tagging it with that bc idk anything but i hope someone else does?#anyways i hope we can get a team up like this next season!!!

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amarianatrench · 3 months

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the urge to write about falling in love with a holy yet inhuman being

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anachronistic-falsehood · 7 months

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i'm having ideas for like a qsmp character roleswap and how that would effect the story. like we switch the backstories and canon events of some characters and see what it does. pac and cellbit swap, mike and bagi swap, felps and forever, bad and phil, roier and fit, and tina and tubbo maybe??? or tubbo and niki??? idk those are the only ideas i have right now but i am rotating this potential au in my mind so hard. imagine kid pac running away from the island and ending up in a war with philza minecraft. cellbit and bagi living together in an orphanage before turning to robbery as a means for money. roier from an anarchist wasteland and fit with no memory of why he's here. ofc spiderbit still speedrun their wedding and fitpac still exist in the most agonizing slowburn ever except now cellbit is in a spiral of panic, roier is being recruited by the resistance, fit is depressed and emo, and pac is eating people <3

#qsmp #sorry i'm a homestuck i love roleswap aus <3 it's a problem #idk if i'm ever going to do anything with this idea but man if it isn't interesting to think about #the bagina would still exist i would find a way to work it in there because i am NOT excluding the yuri from this concept #we just need one more french speaker and then i can plan out the pairs of french speakers who switch #i think etoiles and antoine and then baghera and pierre maybe??? idk about kameto. he can stay himself i think #thats what u get for being an absent father #i want dantdm to switch with someone but that would require someone else's character to get completely shafted which would suck #WAIT NO. KAMETO AND DANTDM SWITCH #ABSENT FATHER SWAP!!!!!#idk what a british guy would be doing on a plane of french speakers but its ok he's dantdm he does what he wants #i'll make a tag for this if i decide to do anything with it but i likely won't #maybe i'll post about it more later when my brain is actually working

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paigemathews · 8 days

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if you could give prue kids (in an au where she lives), who would it be with (can be anyone dead or alive) and could you tell us a little bit about them?

Okay, so this might be a bit of a boring answer, but canonically, I think that Prue really only ever would've ended up at a place where she was comfortable having kids with Andy, if he had survived. Obviously, if she hadn't died, I think that they'd have given her another love interest, but looking at her canon love interests for more than an episode: Andy (dead), Bane (jail), Jack (...c'mon), and Justin (literally got dumped for no personality.) And while I'd love to spin up a Prue/Bane kid (not a Jack kid bc quite frankly, @phoebehalliwell has got that on lock already), I think it's gotta be Prue and Andy, assuming that they both survived.

The rest of this kind of have to go under the cut because I finished it, checked how many words it was, and went 'oooh, fuck.' In case you're wondering, the answer is over two thousand, so. I'm gonna get blocked if I just drop that on people's dashes lmao.

So, in this 'verse, I think that Prue would've actually been the first to have a child, for several reasons. Firstly, we actually do see her express a desire to have kids at a few points in the show and she doesn't seem to have as many as the same hang-ups of her sisters. Her issue seems to just be the good dad part. Secondly, she'd be the one with the longest and most stable relationship, since she and Andy have known each other for so long and were pretty much on the verge of committing to each other anyways when Andy, y'know. Got dead.

That said, I don't particularly think that it would have been an intentional pregnancy. This is kind of dependent on where we're at in the show, but I think that it'd probably end up at a point where the danger is ramping up and the Source is becoming more of a threat. I don't think that Prue would be initially willing to a) step back from the front lines of the fight b) bring a child into the consistent danger of the household and c) risk orphaning her child like she was. I can see it as a plotline where demons are constantly attacking and frazzling the sisters and we see her miss her meticulous birth control pill or something and then a few episodes later assume that it's because of stress, only to find out that, surprise! You're pregnant, and probably a bunch of dangerous stuff is happening.

But anyways, I think that Prue and Andy would go with the P tradition, because Andy seems like the type of family guy who'd be all for it and I think that Prue, having seen this kind of different continual line of her family, would be into it. (Also, I don't really see any reason why she'd be against continuing it either, tbh.)

So our firstborn daughter is Perri Christina Halliwell, and I'm now realizing the obvious connotation of that lmao. I'm just trying to look at P names that have not been taken by any of the sisters themselves or my main next gen, and Christina is actually a reference to two different female writers that my brain initially thought was the same person: Christine de Pizan, a medieval feminist writer (responsible for The Book of the City of Ladies), and Christina Rossetti, a Victorian writer whose works were often viewed through a feminist lens (at least in my class). I like the name flip thing though, so now I'm keeping it. As for the first name, I think that Perri has this almost rebellious feel to it, which fits for her.

But anyways, Perri, our firstborn witch! I think that because of the circumstances around Perri's birth, especially with Prue having lost her own mother at such a young age, she's incredibly protective over her. (God forbid if Piper or Phoebe died in this 'verse, because it'd multiple by ten.) Perri is also the first member of the next generation, so she's kind of the test child on "Training Your Magical Child 101." And the thing is, I'd genuinely argue that the sisters not being raised with their powers both endangered them as they tried to figure everything out and kept them from reaching their full potential, and I think that Prue's biggest goal is keeping Perri safe, so she goes. kinda hard on the training witch thing. And Andy kind of sides with Prue on this because he doesn't have the magic to help or protect Perri, so. It's not just Prue, but Piper and Phoebe (and Paige? idk if Paige is in this AU or not yet tbh) are also training her, so it's a little less harsh than it could be.

Perri grows up to be a powerful witch with a pretty thorough background on all of the different aspects of magic (spells, potions, powers, demons, etc.) Like her mother, she's a telekinetic witch. I think that under her mother's tutelage, her powers also actually advance relatively quickly so that she develops advanced telekinesis. Lastly, she also had this combination of levitation/limited flight in that she can lift herself and other things off the floor but can't go Superman-ing around. (Is this half because I want to imagine a scene of Perri mid-air wrecking someone's shit? Yes. I fully admit to my utilization of the Rule of Cool here.)

Beyond powers, however, she's a bit more like Phoebe or Paige than Prue as a teenager. She rebels against her parents a lot, but a lot less of the punk teenage rebel thing and more like the artsy creative checking out the art exhibit at the local rec center or whatever. She loves her parents but chafes at the protectiveness. She's very independent, vivacious, bold, etc. She's actually a lot like Prue in that tbh, very popular in high school but with a less "Student Council president, head cheerleader, straight A-student" type of vibe. She's a lot fun. I've kind of bounced between a few different job ideas for her, but I think that she'd love to work in fashion, probably as a designer. Her vibe is very much just nicely saturated colors and colorful modern art.

After Perri's birth, shit probably hits the fan at some point and we get a dark point where all seems lost, maybe a death from someone close (not Prue or Andy obviously and I hesitate to kill anyone else, so some character that they got close to in this rewrite that wasn't in canon. What do you want from me, this is about the kids not the show.) Or maybe just struggles with the Elders and trying to buck that control, especially since we'd have the Piper/Leo and Phoebe/Cole relationships at some point here. But they persevere, and there's probably been another little Halliwell kid running around this point with Perri, but this ain't about them.

Next up, we have Presley Artemisia Halliwell! Now, if you haven't seen that Tumblr post about Artemisia Gentileschi, it's metal af and I have no clue where it is, but short story: girl got a shit deal for quite awhile, including being raped then tortured to give evidence during her rapist's trial, but she was also an amazing painter that focused on women from myths, allegories, and the Bible. Okay, actually, I really gotta find that Tumblr post to explain it, gimme a second. Here it is, high key recommend reading it but trigger warnings but discussion of the previously mentioned rape and torture. Okay, but the point for the middle name: a) I think that she's a fucking cool ass painter and b) seeing as I've mentioned that something awful has happened, the element of surviving that pain and refusing to bow down, especially to a male-dominated society, for someone like Prue. And Presley is because it has this almost academic vibe about it to me, a little cold in a way. (Idk how to explain this, it's one a.m. and I've been at this for two hours, y'all.)

Now onto our second Prue/Andy daughter: Presley! At this point, they've been raising a daughter in the house, maybe even another of the sisters' kids, so there isn't as much of a strictness on her at all points. Don't get me wrong, there's still a level of protectiveness, but Peri's continuing survival has proven to Prue and Andy that magic isn't an instant death sentence. But I'd say that it's Presley's powers that shape her so fundamentally here.

Presley ends up with molecular immobilization initially, but her powers don't advance to molecular combustion. Instead, her next power is an extension of slowing down molecules to freezing them entirely (molecular inhibition, the freezing power that warlock!Piper temporarily had when the sisters were turned evil in Prue's Dark Wedding to Zile). So she ends up being able to freeze things metaphorically and literally. Over time, the molecular inhibition grows to be a bit more versatile, specifically in regards to hand gestures. I'm trying to decide if there's another logical advancement here, but I think that makes her powerful enough for now at least.

With the ability to temporarily freeze everything around her, Presley utilized it to give her time to think. She's very analytic, observant, and intelligent. Unlike her sisters, she's more quiet and introverted but has no issue interacting with people. She's just more content to observe the people around her than be as social as her sisters but is perfectly fine with other people approaching her. Like her mother, she can be a bit prideful and bossy, and Presley can sometimes assume that she knows best because of her observations and intelligent. She actually works adjacent to her dad as a forensic specialist because I knew I wanted her adjacent but not actually a cop. I'm not sure what her specialty is yet though! Her vibe is a lighter neutral Sherlock Holmes and a park on a nice day. (I know that doesn't make it sense, I am simply trying to translate the vibe in my head.)

I think that the last daughter is probably after the craziness has finally died down for the sisters so maybe after any Ultimate Battles or something. They're finally able to just live their lives how they please, with not so many demon attacks, which is when Prue has her last daughter.

Our youngest witch is Pamela Dorothea Halliwell! Dorothea is a shout-out to Prue's love of photography, specifically to Dorothea Lange. Considered one of the most influential photojournalists of the 20th century, Dorothea Lange is known for her work during the Great Depression. Pamela is actually also a shout-out to Pamela Barnes, a psychic in Supernatural! It can also be considered a shout-out to Pamela Bousquet, a Warren ancestor in one of the spinoff novels, who had telepathy.

Pamela rounds out our trio as the resident psychic. While her primary power is premonitions, she's fascinated by divination as a whole, including her powers expanding to show her the past and future, reading palms and tarot cards, and whatever else you'd count that as. Beyond just seeing the future, she also has astral projection, telepathy, empathy, and dream leaping. Her family is pretty sure that at least some of this is magic that she learned instead of naturally possessed, but neither she nor they could tell you which is her own natural power and which she gained through studying the craft. Technically, Pamela could be a threat if she was interested in fighting demons, but she's much more interested in the study of magic and her specific branch of it to wield her powers offensively. She's a threat despite not because of the way she studies.

Continuing with the psychic vibes, Pamela is best described as somewhat dreamy. She's an absolute sweetheart but can get a bit lost in her own head sometimes, which can be dangerous with her powers. Despite what you may initially think, she is voracious when it comes to learning and wants to know everything about everything. She pursues her passion with relentless abandon, which can sometimes bite her on the ass. Honestly, a lot of her dreaminess and kookiness is because of her powers, which are going to cause her some problems soon if she doesn't figure out how to not get lost in them. So of course she works in a witch shop reading palms and tarot cards, basically a more legit "The Amazing Phoebe!"

In my head, I think that Perri is about 26, Presley is about 24, and Pamela is about 21 maybe. The girls are all still in California but maybe spread out a little. Perri is probably in some more fashion-y city that I'd have to ask my sister to pick (but not tonight bc she'd kill me for waking her up at 2 a.m.) while Presley may still be in San Francisco but Pamela definitely is.

Okay, so this definitely ended up taking and being a lot longer than I thought it would be, but this was so much fun! I'm always a sucker for the next gen, and I love thinking about how it may have turned out differently with different characters, relationships, or plots. It's especially fun because there's so many possibilities in the Charmed 'verse for the kids and I'd love to spin out some of the ones that unfortunately just didn't fit for my "canon" kids. (I used to do Charmed roleplay on Tumblr and actually have a new blog that I'm probably never going to actually use, and it has the entire set up of an alternate next generation stemming from Pandora, Paige's daughter, in the Warren Witches spinoff novel. Pretty much all of Phoebe's kids were designed to utilize some of the interesting power ideas I couldn't make my canon girls get.)

But if you have any other suggestions like this, definitely drop it in my askbox! This was so much fun! (Granted, it's two a.m. and I have to be at work at 8:30 tomorrow but whatever.)

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damiemontclair · 7 months

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Lán Qǐrén & Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén & Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī Characters: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Lán Qǐrén, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén, Lán Yuàn | Lán Sīzhuī Additional Tags: Regret, Gūsū Lán Sect Punishment Methods (Módào Zǔshī), Punishment, Whipping, canon typical lqr behaviour, Grief/Mourning, Drinking, Bad coping mechanisms, Branding, (tho really its barely mentioned at all), Song: Inquiry (Módào Zǔshī), a rather unhealthy disregard for one's health, (that ones for lwj btw), you should not be riding a sword when half your back is open lwj!! Series: Part 24 of Damie's MXTX-tober 2023 Summary:

Day 24: Favourite Scene & Regrets

Lan Wangji did not know, whether Wei Yings actions were right or wrong, but he was willing to bear the weight of them all the same. This pain, he would take it. He would take it a thousand times over, if it meant Wei Ying was safe.

#mxtxtober #mxtxnet #mdzs #lan wangji #idk what else to tag this #one week of mxtxtober left!#lets try and finish this in style shall we?#I've got a couple of ideas for a few of the last 7 prompts #we're getting at least one more xie lian fic #I've got ideas for one svsss fic. maybe a 2nd one if I can swing it.#one wangxian fic #and one more for the juniors series.#so i've got two prompts I don't have anything in mind for yet #ones hope&death and the other is darkness&revenge #maybe I'll make an og!sqq fic for darkness and revenge... if I do tho it'll probs have a ton of warnings #hope and death... well. idk. guess we'll see *shrug*

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theres-whump-in-that-nebula · 11 months

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Whumpers, what are your earliest memories?

Mine is from when I was about two or three. I was in a stroller, at my cousin’s Irish dancing recital. After the recital, my aunts were talking down to me in the stroller, and to each other. I was experiencing extreme anxiety because I couldn’t understand what they were saying, when I felt I should have been able to communicate with them like they were communicating with each other. I was also very tired and dazed. I did not cry though… I probably looked normal on the outside.

I also remember when I was about four or five, I went to the beach with my dad and one of his friends. I somehow found my way onto the dock, planted my little rear end on a jet ski, untethered it from the dock, and started floating into the sunset. There was an old lady lounging in a donut inflatable out some way; she said something to me, but I couldn’t understand what she said, despite trying really hard. I’m assuming it was something along the lines of “Oh my god get off that jet ski you’re going to fucking DIE, kid,” but again… couldn’t understand a word of what she said, and got frustrated because she was speaking English (without an accent) and I should know how to understand adults speaking English to me.

At this point, my dad is yelling at me from across the water, and a young lifeguard drags the jet ski back. On land, my dad lectured at me very harshly as he led me back to the car. I didn’t know I had done anything wrong, and was very confused. At some point this guy starts quoting the Bible at me, and the only thing I could pick out were the words (spoken very emphatically), “Your days are numbered.”

“My days are numbered?” cue a vivid mental image of a calendar, with dates listed for every day of the week, “What does that mean?” Later on I figured out this was the Bible’s way of referencing death at God’s hand which just made me even more confused as to what I did, until at age thirteen, I figured out, “Oh a baby who can’t swim floating on a jet ski is terrifying, actually.”

Tagging: @kaleidoscopr @redd956 @hereissomething @astudyinpanda @c0ldbrains @straight-to-the-pain

#tag game lol #I had a thing with not understanding people very well (or at all) as a child idk if that’s normal kid stuff or what lol #Like you know how in dreams people’s speech is a blur? That was how I (mostly) interacted with the world from ages two to six #My best friend at the time would talk to me a lot (she was a couple years younger) and she was still partly in the “babbling” phase #and couldn’t speak clearly at all #so I just kind of nodded and went along with it despite having no idea what the hell she just said #Which I continued to do with everyone else into adulthood; as soon as someone talks to me I zone out whether I want to or not lol #My life has been a perpetual cycle of: “Why can’t I do that; am I stupid or something?” > studying it intensely > excelling at it #Like humor. No one laughed at my jokes in my first year of public school; so I watched what made people tick…#By the time junior year online English class rolled around I had the teachers and students in stitches almost constantly #Likewise with understanding people: I zone out all the time; but I can quickly replay what I heard in my head and ask a question to verify #if that’s what they said; then give an appropriate response to it #Basically I repeat 70% of what people say to me during conversation to make sure I’m not missing anything #As a result I’m now pretty good at figuring out what people are saying if there are language barriers or speech abnormalities involved #But do NOT give me verbal directions; I can and will forget them the instant you walk away

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