#since this is actually about DND or at least fucking original versions of it

[rjalker]

ESO's bullshit with the Sload is just reminding me of the fucking people who want to write fantasy RPGs that are supposed to be anti-racist but they still want to have a species (and these people usually mean species but *say* race because they think different races are different species) that's just inherently evil.

Like no, you cannot fucking write a progressive story where someone's species determines whether they're a good person or not.

Biological essentialism is fucking incompatible with writing a story that is anti-racist.

If you are anti-racist, you cannot fucking espouse biological essentialism. You cannot fucking claim, as word of god, that some people are just inherently evil and there's nothing that can be done about it besides abandoning their entire culture and language and assimilating into one of the Good People's Culture.

Nor can you claim that the only way for them to be good is to be a, and I literally fucking quote, "half breed" with a parent from one of the Good People's Cultures, and have this character use their Good And Moral Blood to teach the People With Evil Blood how to not be evil.

If your story is supposed to be anti-racist and progressive, then you need to not only leave biological essentialism at the door, you need to beat it to death in your head, too.

And no, you cannot just switch out "evil "race" (species)" with "evil culture" and claim your story is now anti-racist. That is still literally just fucking racism.

#writing tips #fantasy #science fiction #Dungeons and Dragons #DND #since this is actually about DND or at least fucking original versions of it #and if you reblog or reply to this post complaining about Well the rules say we have to -- #I will block you. #writing advice #high fantasy #whatever the hell that means #Martha Wells crit #Martha Wells critical #The Books of the Raksura biological essentialism #The Books of the Raksura racism #Martha Wells biological essentialism #Martha Wells racism #Rjalker reads The Books of the Raksura #The Elder Scrolls #ESO #Elder Scrolls #The Elder Scrolls Online #the Sload #The Elder Scrolls biological essentialism #The Elder Scrolls racism

[tillinghastcorporatemedia]

Often Dystopia (And how its gonna affect my art)

As much as there are some seriously good dystopian fiction. (yes im enamored with sci-fi) personally to me it almost feels tired but i understand the appeal and popularity

But how does this effect my art, and turn TillinGhast Corporate Media

Well first let me explain what TillinGhast Corporate Media is

TGCM was and is me taking what little part of my previous project that never took off and i never made it very far with, Tillinghast

Tillinghast was my outlet for my anger and isolation, and originally began after the death of my grandfather and the falling out of the people i had tried to gather for a band

I had written an ep dealing with my loss and an album that was inspired by election day 2016 and the amount of anger that i felt towards the establishment that i was already growing increasingly tired of

I ended that project after 2-3 years of trying to find vocalists/funds/and start making art

after that died i didnt touch any project and just wrote shitty electronic again, much like everytime i get bored with writing metal, but this time i had much more fun making just beeps and boops with no expectation of vocals and just making basic looping music

So where did TillinGhast Corporate Media come from?

If you notice i did keep the tillinghast name, as i found out when i first started this solo shit, isnt wasnt in use by any active musicians, and i only found one band that hadnt been active in over 8 years

But i wanted something new

something different

So i kinda let my focus on music, the thing i had been doing for over 10 years, go to the side to try and create elsewhere, right at the beginning of 2020

the first thing i thought i would try?

Writing a book

Which as a lot of people on here know, is really really really really really fucking hard to do, especially when you start this shit working a 9 hour overnight shift and writing on days off while everyone else you care about is asleep

And in figuring out what i had wanted to write then, i decided to not go big, but to try and keep me entertained, i needed more than just a few characters

So using a small chunk of info i had written down when i was trying to get into dnd and make my own scifi version of the game, i created a few planets, each with different species and histories and lore and economies

and i made a decision

Each planet would have different stories

to try and keep me entertained

which worked for about a year, and i havent updated since because i have trouble making myself create anything other than music, but i dont wanna get too recent or on a tangent

But why the name TillinGhast Corporate Media?

Well, because it sounds cool as shit. I used to love vaporwave and alternative genres and anything i could find that was "weird"

but also at some point i decided that if i do ever blow up, i want to hire other creatives and actually pay them well, and give them a place to really get out a message for the future

But its just me

So i get to have all the say

at least for now

But why a universe you ask? Why is this so damn long? Get to the point?

well at least for two of those im trying to be verbose and explain myself, and honestly if you read this far i love you and hope that youll stay here on this journey with me

I've always wanted to be part of a group, art creative, touring band, etc.

Ive gotten close only once or twice, but ive always been diy and taught myself shit so i figured i wanted to combine all of my loves into one thing, one giant sandbox where i can be creative in my decisions

And once again, i didnt want it to be just me. So TillinGhast Corporate Media will always be changing and evolving as i learn more about this giant world im having to navigate

I will say there will probably errors or fails, but i want this to be inclusive and open and loving so other people can use this as a means to escape, if even for a little bit, the harsh reality we all face.

Much like i got an escape in music and books as a kid and teenager

So why a universe? because a universe is big and can hold many stories and many perspectives, much like a library can hold many different pieces of knowledge

So to get to the final point, for those of you who actually made it this far based on the title

TillinGhast Corporate Media both as myself and as a future idea or brand

at least for now

Will not ever be a dystopia story

I have not forced myself to change and grow and evolve and continue to sit in my negativity and apathy and just general poopy pants view of the world

To not try with all my might to maybe write something that while not a utopia, is not dystopia and imagines a brighter, better, future where people maybe dont have to worry about as much, because they learned from our awful horrible past and actually refuse to repeat any of it

To try and make this more about characters and stories and music and the things that make myself and others smile, instead of regurgitated dystopias where even basic life is rough

does this mean everything will be all flowers and butterflies and my little pony?

absolutely the fuck not

Truth is often stranger than fiction and anything can happen even in a shiny place, but the point is to not be a negative nancy and have a bunch of shitty stuff going on all the time

One of the planets is a floating colony with what little remains of the human race

One planet is basically in the middle of an uprising of an exiled group

The book im writing (kinda spoilery but idk if ever ill finish this damn thing) literally has an act of terrorism being planned from someone who was radicalized by a really bad group that is basically space religion and its many parallels

All of my short stories are slice of life stuff that happens in a few scenarios where each character reacts to an outside force

But this wont ever be some dragged out for purely entertainment type angsty or edgy or anything like some books do with trauma

i want to look at stuff like we're building to something better, not something worse. optimistic but not utopia or something like that

(honestly this point ive already kinda gotten myself choked up so im gonna wrap it up)

But TillinGhast Corporate Media is basically my idea for a better future

and maybe im wrong and my stuff sucks and i need to change it

i have no idea because no one really follows my shit

so i just do what i want within the dumb boundaries and expectations i place on myself

but it is has been better before and it will get better again, and i am tired of that place being only in my head

so im creating this big huge universe with aliases that i call "artists" so it looks like there is actual musicians in this universe, i at one point started on a medium length animation series, and im trying to use my shitty computer to learn 3d shit

So stick around, at least you'll get some music out of it

and on that note i will mention i do have a few singles and 2 albums out, all of which is on youtube and streaming sites (its on spotify but i fucking hate spotify both as a company and some of the people they sponsor stream on any other site please you'll give more money to your favorite artists)

#tillinghastcorporatemedia #scifi #science fiction #scifiart #sci fi music #aliendancemusic #music #romance #creative writing #writers #writeblr #on writing #iknowtagsaredumb #honestlythoughireallyjustwannamakepeoplesmileifevenforamoment #idothisforfreeandfunsothisisntsponsoredoranything

[doycetopia]

Wizards of the Coast takes a… novel approach to dealing with PDF piracy

And by “novel”, I mean to say “utterly stupid and short-sighted.”

Earlier this evening RPGNow, Paizo, and DriveThruRPG pulled all of their Wizards of the Coast PDF products (where both new and much much much older products were available) at WotC’s request.  The ability to purchase them ended at noon – the ability to download products that you’ve already bought ended at midnight.

According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done to prevent piracy.  (In a followup statement, they clarified that they believe this… because they are luddite morons.)

“We have [taken these actions] to stop the illegal activities […], and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

I love the vast understatement from one gaming site today:

“I predict an increase in piracy of Wizards products.”

REALLY?

Let me take this one step further.  I guarantee – not ‘predict’, but guaran-goddamn-tee that every single PDF of WotC products made available after midnight tonight will be a pirated copy.

Just… think about it for a second; you’ll see exactly what I mean.

See… before today? Sure, some people were sharing PDFs like that on file-sharing sites, and there was pirating going on. Sure, yes.

Was it because the PDFs were made available by WotC and sold online?

No.  You’ve been able to get PDFs of ANY game book — hell, any book at all — even ones that have never had electronic versions available, ever since scanner technology became remotely mainstream (early 90s), because people have time, and geeks have desire for the electronic versions.

Until today, at least most of the people who wanted electronic versions of their game book were getting the PDFs the easy way: google search, got to RPGNow, click, click, download.  No torrent software. No worrying if you picked up a virus with your latest PDF. Easy.

Now, the only way to get the electronic version of a WotC product is to get it from a pirate site.

I can either not get it at all (sucks for me, and WotC gets no money), or I get it from a torrent site (hassle for me, and WotC gets no money).

The pirating people? This has no fucking affect on them what. so. ever.

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

This move by WotC, ostensibly meant to fight piracy, will actually ensure that more people will come to their site to download ALL the PDFs they want (for games, for novels… whatever — I mean, as long as they’re THERE for the DnD stuff, they might as well look around and see what else is out there, right?…).

It’s not just stupid and short-sighted.  It doesn’t just ensure the piracy of their work by 100% of those that want PDFs of DnD material; it actually hurts all the other companies in the industry as well.

original post

#crosspost #dnd #gaming #idiocy #luddites #News #piracy #Publishing #wotc #randomaverage

[callyrose1986]

my reality is a fantacy

MY REALITY IS A FANTACY  

Its beginning of April and I've been hearing voices since my birthday last September, I can't say I had the best time of my life... I decided to type it all down of what I went through, let me break it down for you, one day around my birthday I decided to read a few tarot cards online and the more I did they showed the same outcome, that I was to meet my twin flame, twin soul or/and soul mate, not sure if it's all in one or if it's just one of these, that I'm not sure of, now for those of you who don’t know what that is a twin fames or the others twin flame is when one soul splits into two, not sure exactly what twin soul is other what it sounds like, seems to me it is the same thing like the twin flame, soul mate is just that, a mate for your soul, look it all up for yourself.  

For some odd reason I begin to hear voices of a women and she helped me get better at hearing them I can't say exactly what she did I can't remember, I have the worst memory anyway though this times of readings I figured out who my other flame was and I don’t know if it was fate or dumb luck but it was my celebrity crush.... Imagine that, I have no idea who or why it turned out to be him but I was constantly told that I could manifest my desires and welp.... take that as you may I have no idea myself what is truly going on in my life right now..... only the gods and answer that messed up bit of information, not that I'm a religious person I prefer to spiritual instead.  

I tried to contact him online his name was Tom Hiddlston, I had a crush on him since I first saw I'm in the superhero movies when he played Loki in the Thor, tall dark and handsome was my type, I then fell for him even more once I got to know the actor, well as much as I could get to know him behind the silver screen. Anyway, I was reading pictures from his hashtags on Instagram like you read tarot cards and then I would post a reply and put it in Tom’s @page and I would get something like a reply... I could hear him in my head too and then for some reason he told others it turned into something like a little game them who turned out to be the cast of avengers.

it went over pretty good on his side, but unfortunately on my side when I broke it to my mother.... I made one of  the biggest mistake I ever made...deciding to walk from my small town of Coulhurst all the way to the city of Lethbridge to go to chapters. Where I thought the tort card where hinting I would meat Tom, not that I actually though I would I just wanted to go, and they were egging me on to go, something else that I could inform you all about is that there is many different realities not just the one you live in and unfortunately that mean that there are many, many different versions of ourselves and unfortunately, I did not contact just my version of Tom Hiddlston but I contact all of the others two, I have no idea how I managed that... the one that came was not my Tom from my world but from another and that means I could not see him.  

I still don’t know if I have talked to the Tom from my world, I guess I won't know till I get the chance to meet him in person, if that ever happens of course, let's see... I died in other reality's more times than I could count, mainly because I can't remember, being stabbed in the back by a trickster god called Loki a few dozen times and I don’t mean from the Norse mythology I mean by the Loki from the marvel movies, ya because that’s a thing....  

Everything you watch is a window to another reality and dreams are something of the same, now there is more like I can put myself into movies and shows I watch and I can hear what the characters are thinking and saying, not to mention in the begging I thought whatever I do in my mind what actually happen in the other reality's I was thinking I was in, now I changed that it just everyone imagining it but not really having it happen, I did a lot of not so nice stuff and still do but at least it's not real, I was sent to hell a few times wish I know what heaven was like, think I got jipped on that one, worst thing I ever did really was sole chock from when I was at school and church, I did watch some porn that was not meant to be watch by anyone's eyes and played some pornographic games but I don’t think I'm meant to go to hell for it...  

Apparently the ‘devil’ just wanted someone on one time, I brought myself back to life as soon as I knew I was dead, well eventually sometimes, it was just tiering having to do that all the time, oh by the way I can do that bring myself back it along with anything else you can think of, I can do anything I want too in other realities, does not work in my reality but then again I can't be killed by other people from other realities in my reality, also I got murdered on my way to chapters stabbed and molested by some random guy still not sure about the whole story behind that one my mother found me walking still to the book store in my reality, that was a trip I tell you, before I was picked up I somehow jumped into other bodies of the actors who had flown down with Tom and had found me at my house.

I did end up at the store but of cause no one showed up, that was one journey I won't soon forget, I  found out that my other selves where from other realities and that characters I created comes to life, like since tv and movies characters where once created, I was not sleeping and was not eating but I was not tiered or hungry but for a girl who did not have the  waite I didn’t need to louse more of it.

I was seeing signs of that my house was evil and that the color red was bad and everything that was ‘dark’ needed to go so I got rid of mostly everything I had in my room that was considered ‘dark’ on top of that lost a caption America sweeter and Tom Hiddlston doll and Spiderman figure and almost lost my phone, it was found  thankfully but not the others.  

Among all the other versions of me there is a few evil characters evil clowns evil demon things a robot some zombies some vampires and a dnd character and an original character called Cally, among others I'm not sure about, one of them is called the moon goddess who has the power to have everyone fall in love with her looks, and it leaks out into me so others from the other universes feel overly attracted to me because of her, there is an off switch but it keeps turning on and she says it's not always her doing it, I'm not sure if I should believe that, Tom has the same thing but I won't know that till later, names the sun god, I'm not too fond of that one, my fault for calling him the sun to my moon, nether one of them where exactly what I though them to be.

it wasn’t just that everyone was attracted it was harassment and no one would take no for an answer I was raped in a lot of realities, it's gotten better but still not perfect yet, they are lucking they didn’t die from doing that to me.  right after I when walking to the book story my mother had me admitted to a mental health facility, where they drugged me up to take away the voiced, it worked but on the down side I could not eat I could not sleep, I was shaking uncontrollably and it was worse than when I was home,  I just didn’t feel the need to sleep or eat at home.

I was drooling from the shot they game me and I was losing wait because I could not swallow the food, it was not a fun time, I was there for about a month after that I want in to shasha house and I was therefore a day or two and they took me to the hospital to see if they could figure out what was wrong with me, they gave me something for the shot I took to get rid of the voices since that’s what was making me have side effects, it didn’t take long for me to feel better, I was in the hospital for about a week or something close, after that I was at my sisters for a few days, meanwhile my mother had got something called global amnesia from the stress.

Then I was back to shasha house I was there for about a week or two and was thinking of the voices again, I haven't heard from anyone since I had that shot but even with everything that happen I still wanted them back I was lonely I liked talking to them I liked talking to Tom, you may think I'm stupid to start this all over again but I don’t give a damn! This time I would tell no one, have it be my little dirty little secret, don’t really remember how I got them back but I did, I didn’t get the right ones though I didn’t know that, I have been going through so many to find the one from my reality, there is no real way to find out who is Tom from my reality I've told Tom who loves  me by now that maybe we should meet at a comic expo somewhere where I can get to, so in Canada hopefully in Alberta.

let's see this second half I got stepped a few times again and mind f*cked a couple of time no more evil things like seeing red and thinking devil is after me, no more going to hell or dyeing, we tried merging all the realities but didn’t work tried to merge all the Toms still don’t know if that works to our advantage or not. I still have my highs and lose, I've run across the first group a few times and they are merged with a Tom who is now called God... btw I HATE HIM!!! Fuck the sun god GOD, ‘GOD Tom’ IS THE WORST!!! I will MURDER THIS BASTERED WHEN I SEE HIM because he lied about being the ‘REAL’. I also decided to stop giving ‘second’ chances to the villains, they just don’t learn.  

I'm sure there is more I could say but that’s it for now, I still haven't seen anything of Tom going to a Con near me yet, I still have a few weeks to go till I go.  

[theleafwarden]

Ok I wanna hear about your GW2/Dragon age fic ideas, because I've been idly brainstorming "What if my commander ended up as the Herald in DA:I through Mists/Fade related weirdness and had to deal with all of Thedas's crap, while thedas suddenly has to deal with a big horned cat-person necromancer

So I had to literally get up off my ass to type this out. Ok so before I even got into GW2, I was playing dragon age, mainly starting inquisition and my best friend finally made me get a gw2 account and like by the time I started lss2 I fell in love with all my damn characters on there. So like my main ocs are my polymanders, Laiari (Noble), Trev (Street Rat), Hawke (Commoner) and they were basically based off of my Warden, Hawke, and Mage Inquisitor. (Yes I also aware that Trev’s last name is Trevelyan and Hawke is not the same Kirkwall Hawke as my actual Trev would be. It’s confusing, ignore that.

ANYWAYS, so in my tyrian fanfiction, dragon age exist as a popular dnd board game written by a famous asuran author, oddly with the last name Tetheras (because let’s be real dwarven names sound very asuran…since they all short and creative anyways). And like from time to time on base, (at the time Fort Trinity), Lai, Trev, and Hawke would play Dragon Age and the rest of my ocs would watch them play. Laiari would obviously play Warden Lady Cousland who Marries Alistair and becomes Queen consort of Ferelden, Trev is Purple Hawke just trying to survive and deal with the fuckery that is Kirkwall with Isabela and Merill by their side. Lastly, Hawke, who is the ever elegant and calculated Inquisitor Trevelyan, circle mage, running around in love with Josephine. Everyone is pro mage, pro elven everything.

So like I have two headcanons on this. The first one is like how you have stated, the 3 are fighting and then a loud and bright light happens during some kind of fight, don’t know if I want it to be during the Zhaitan fight or Mordremoth, but they end up in the mists and get lost and end up in the fade and they fight probably the same nightmare demon or something and then the bright light happens again in the fade, they all black out and wake up in the specific lives. Laiari wakes up as Lady Cousland, the night before her parents are killed by Howe’s men and she’s rushed off to Ostagar with Duncan. Trev wakes up as Hawke, already at Ostagar with Carver and they both at least meet because dammit I will be damned if they didn’t!!!! Fuck what bioware talmbout! And then the battle happens and its after the Warden has moved on with Leliana and Sten in hand, that’s when the whole thing starts at Lothering. Now Hawke falls into the Inquisitor’s role right before the conclave blows the fuck up and also fuck whatever inquisition and da2 had going on. Hawke meets the Warden during the qunari invasion because she was with a group of wardens. She left a note with Alistair but he don’t ever read shit like he suppose to so that’s when Hawke and the Warden actually meet again. But back to the inquisitor, when she meets Hawke for the first time, that whole thing transpires and that one war table mission about the warden, that actually happens and we get the tea about the warden letting the father or whatever that one darkspawn dudes name in awakening stay alive and how that somehow transpired to things happening with that other dude from the legacy DLC (I can’t do names right now) and so overall they kinda all come together to help defeat him and deal with solas bitch ass.

Also the Warden, Hawke, and Inquisitor are all sent to Tyria and they literally DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE OMG

So that’s the shortened version of the first headcanon.

The second headcanon is basically during that one chapter in personal story when they dealt with that mirror or whatever and the commander got sucked into it or something. I don’t remember what it was but that happens to them, and come to find out, it was an eluvan and they got transported into the beginning of origins, all three of them. And they ust basically help the warden get through all of origins and awakening, and then they go to kirkwalll and help hawke with shit and the the same for inquisition. This headcanon isn’t all the way thought out.

Ok I know this got really long, but I have one more, which is kinda my favorite.

As soon as the Inquisition gets to Skyhold, a large light pillar appears in the courtyard and the polymanders from Tyria are floating down from the sky. This is I want to say either after Mordremoth or during living story season 3 and everybody about ready to kill their asses and they basically explain what happens before fangirling out because they realize where they are before my Hawke freaks out because now that she is in Thedas, she is considered an apostate and could literally die by everything in Thedas. And they basically talk about Tyria and how they got here and how to get back which means they have to help the Inquisitor to get back. Trev literally goes up to Solas and smacks him before whispering about everything he’s doing and he is SHOOK. Also from time to time Taimi is able to somewhat establish contact, but only where the veil is thin.

Also in regards to this headcanon, I have a revise of this one where this happens randomly throughout origins and da2 before it happens again in inquisition. Kinda similar to the first HC.

Ok I think that’s it im tired I haven’t had so much poured into my characters in forever so ignore how horribly organized my thoughts are.

BTW, I do have a sylvari/dalish-city elf one like this too.

#dragon age #da #guild wars 2 #gw2 #da fanfic #gw2 fanfic #thank you so much for asking me this randomly because I really love this headcanon #too bad im too lazy to read up and study gw2 and dragon age lore #patrickdiomedes #headcanons galore

[artcanary]

1-50

oh my god dude 

im gonna put this under a cut bc this is a lot. this is a ride, have fun i guess

1. Your first OC ever?god. its got to be Super Kitty. when i was like … an incredibly small child I used to draw comic strips about this feline caped crusader, who was friends with everyone in the city, and the comics always involved him stopping an evil banana man from stealing money from the local bank. He was paid with donuts for his service to the city. i still remember how to draw him. 

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?i’d get arrested if I didn’t answer this with Bronze, probably… but really, they’re very important to me

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?man, i cant remember! i really dont think i have… P:

4. A character you rarely talk about?there’s loads of characters ive never even posted a single picture of on tumblr, i wouldnt even know where to start asdf

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? bronze is the easy answer, but… i guess that could also go to Servant or Westrin. Servant has a comic project in the works that basically stars him, sort of a series of one-shots about the things he’s experienced, i feel like that would be a good thing to take off and run with. Westrin’s just fun as hell, i love the guy.

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?real talk now… there’s at least five different characters that i refer to as a whole as “bronze-tangential”, who started out as, “what would bronze be like if they were in this world?” and then becoming their own thing within said world because i just get stupid attached 

its an epidemic

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?nearly all of them, actually. that’s the main reason i make characters, after all! too many to really go into specifics here, again P: 

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here!not often, but i think Bronze and Westrin are the most common ones. unless playing a character in dnd, or running an npc in dnd counts… then a whole lot more hahaha

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?it depends on the circumstances. i don’t really like the idea, though. 

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? Westrin’s old getup is a pain to draw, and there was one other design i did that I cant find anywhere… whichever way, i dont often tend to draw super complicated things often 

a couple fakemon ive designed though… heheh those can get pretty finicky

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? hmmmmmmmm my immediate thought was Eric Silverdale from a comic i was working on a few years ago. hes a darling, i want him to be my friend irl

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lothow could you do this to me i love each and every one of all my friends ocs GOD the first one who comes to mind is @d20-official‘s Smith, whos Bronze’s friend… everyone in that DND party actually

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? Rated on a scale from “harmless” to “honestly somewhat frightening”: -Baromet (charming and quite friendly but definitely a kleptomaniac),-Westrin (demigod of bards and travelers), -XEN09 (a nonsense hacker), -Conny (needlessly contrarian and dumb as HELL), -Enza Colie (long fucking story but hes a good-for-nothing), -Hemlocke (mad scientist, chaotic evil), -Iris (AI and hacker, VERY bad), -The Terminus (glitch-in-the-matrix demon, chaotic evil), -and Sydd (the Queen of the Faeries, hopefully the danger there needs no explaining :’D)

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory Mmm… there’s a few of them, most obviously Lent (whose background I did a short comic about). Basically his entire town got eaten by ghosts and turned into zombies, he only barely survived with a sliver of his soul left. 

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?yes, i often discuss storylines and such with friends

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? Probably Bronze’s dad! I don’t talk about him much, but his name’s Devon Reed, and he was a biotech developer specialising in android design. 

I often describe him as being something of a reverse Arthur Weasley - a very fatherly scientist fascinated to the moon and back with the concept of magic. 

17. Any OC OTPs? having trouble thinking of a lot of them right now, but there’s Eric + Lent & Naiadine + Tailias from Emerald Sigil, Avken + Baromet from my space campaign world, Sydd + Wyvv from my unnamed campaign world, and I’ve been considering Westrin + Servant as an interesting dynamic in Servant’s story

18. Any OC crackships? My character Bismuth and @autistictimeknight​‘s oc Eros. Theyre so fucking in love, I love it. Its been awhile but I do still think about them sometimes.

As I recall, Eros is an empath, she can read other people’s emotions. But Bismuth is a robot, and Eros can’t read her. Because of this Eros can let go of her fear of unintentionally manipulating the emotions of her date, which would hold her back from most other relationships. 

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)Hey, meet Bronze! I definitely do not talk about them every five minutes, why would you say that. 

Bronze was with me through two of the hardest years of my life so far, and being a DND character they grew with me, both as a fighter and as a person. They were non-binary before I started using those pronouns, they were the first character or person or anything who I fought someone about using the right pronouns for, they make a great icebreaker for if I want to see how someone reacts to non-binary pronouns … 

One funny anecdote about Bronze is that when I first made them, their “gimmick” was that they would sometimes glitch out and mess up their speech, mostly because I wanted an excuse not to engage in the roleplaying (which I was very bad at). The interesting thing is that as I got better at interacting with the group, we both grew out of needing it very quickly. 

I’m very proud of Bronze. 

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?Westrin is a bard! His singing voice sounds like Bill Wurtz and these are his theme songs.

21. Your most artistic OCProbably Westrin again, he writes a lot of songs… and Hallux is a game designer?

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? I honestly dont know… no-one talks to me about them, haha! 

people use all manner of pronouns for bronze, though. 

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?I’m gonna go with Enza for this one. Enza Colie was originally written entirely because I wanted an antagonist for a short starring his sister, Jane Colie. But the more I fleshed out his reasonings for acting how he did and explored his character, the more I realised he’d make an even more interesting character if allowed to have a redemption arc, too. 

I just want to state for the record that I was very reluctant to the idea, and he basically dragged his way out of the villain pit entirely of his own accord. I am dubiously proud of him, and also a bit scared. 

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?Probably either Eric (Big Man, Best Friend), Crocus (Mother figure), Reed (Father Figure), Westrin (hed just make a good friend u kno??), or Bismuth (she makes good conversation!)

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)probably the homestuck fan-troll Hallux, but that’s mostly because they were based on a troll-sona I made awhile ago. They’re a hope/prospit game designer who is small and full of rage and love

oh, and there’s dave! dave’s a superhero speedster, existing in a modern-day superhero version of seattle. theyre idiot, just like me,

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? this is an interesting one… i don’t think ive ever had something Bad in a design ive done called to my attention by someone, but I did create my character Servant at around the same time I was first really expanding the diversity of my casts. (since i don’t talk about him often, a little context: he’s a magic spirit creature bound to human form to serve the royal family of the land and follow their orders.) 

somehow, younger-and-more-stupid me managed to have the revelation that making this “eternal slave” character literally anything other than a white man, especially as a white author, would be Pretty Not Good. im … thats really, really not something i should pat myself on the back for, but i do consider it one of the biggest bullets dodged in my artistic career so far that i realised that not all representation is good representation so quickly, before i could make that incredibly, incurably stupid mistake. 

after that, trying to make sure my characters and their presentations don’t harm anyone pretty much has become a paranoia. i don’t seem to have stepped on any toes yet, but when it inevitably happens, please let me know - i didnt know, and i want to fix it! 

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? None that I can think of, actually! I don’t really do that often. 

28. Your most dangerous OC? god damn it i have no idea!!! is it the terminus? glitch in the matrix god of chaos motherfucker?is it sarle? terrifying calculating scientist with the power of the soul at her fingertips ??? is it ares??? is it athena????? is it petra?????? the gatekeeper???? 

… actually, the gatekeeper might be it, if “dangerous” just refers to “the amount of raw power it can wield”. the Gatekeeper is a titanic entity that exists in interdimensional multiverse space, and its implied to have the ability to create and destroy entire universe bubbles at will. for what cosmic purpose, no-one knows. 

at a more personal scale, though, literally all of the aforementioned characters are pretty bad to run into too. 

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?god. Mina or Tawn. Tawn is the Indiana Jonesy type and probably dumb enough, but also competent enough not to get into too much trouble there. Mina would probably drag her friends along. 

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? XEN09. No-one knows, because no-one knows xir personal identity. Xe absolutely does, though. It’s less of a secret if you know xir in person, but good luck finding out about it otherwise. 

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)dave just reblogs memes all the time tbh. they like to keep tabs on the ridiculous superhero news going on, and they show human jokes and cat videos to their alien gf. they dont really post or add to posts, but they talk in tags a lot. 

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? i want to say tawn because i literally just realised ive been imagining their voice as sounding like luigi this entire fucking time and i never realised until this exact instant

33. Your shyest OC?probably baromet. they prefer to keep to themself in their hideout, with their collection of shiny things. they don’t really enjoy trying to communicate much, mostly because they expect to get yelled at. 

34. Do you have any twin characters?Yes! At least two sets; 

- Crocus and Sarle. (x) (x) They don’t exactly have a very well-developed relationship, but they are both quite important to the plot of my campaign world, and they are both very interesting. Crocus is a motherly figure who just exudes friendliness, while Sarle is .. very much not that, a researcher studying very gruesome things and pushing the boundaries of reality. 

- Jane and Enza Colie. I haven’t talked a whole lot about either of them here, but I’d rather leave their story to do the talking whenever I get around to it. Essentially, the both of them were intended to do the dirty work for their crime boss family, but Jane ditched to study medicine. Most of the conflict between the two of them comes out of Enza not understanding why she made the choice she did, and coming to understand how he’s been manipulated. 

35. Any sibling characters? I can’t really think of any off the top of my head, I should … I should really work on that. 

I can talk about Westrin, though. Westrin (a demigod of many things, but namely bards, travel, travelers, and people who are lost) often becomes close friends with mortals, sometimes practically adopting them. These people who consider him family, and people who have received his blessing, are able to use his surname, Brilanta, as their own if they choose. So I guess all of the Brilantas are siblings, at least in spirit. 

Oh, and XEN09 has like, seven siblings. Xe is the second-oldest, and least remarkable. 

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? I already talked about Eros and Bismuth up there a ways in question 18, but I’ll talk about another relationship here. @autistictimeknight​‘s character, Nova the Alchemist, is mentor and adopted parental figure to my character Munna. Munna … Munna isn’t a very good apprentice. She tries very hard. 

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human That’s most of them, I’m not quite sure what to say here. Bronze is an android? Bronze again? Westrin? All the aliens ?? 

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? man. uh. westrin or jean. or perhaps valencia. 

39. Introduce any character you want ??? uhhhHHHhhHHH Lord Brillium is the reigning deity of the Cloud Kingdoms in the other campaign setting I’m working on. They represent light and the quest for knowledge, and spend most of their days in the Cathedral Observatory watching the stars. 

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!one time bronze flew a hover-bike through the stained glass window in a cathedral blaring all star by smash mouth on their iguana

also one time bronze rickrolled a rakshasa demon and then pulled updog on it like, two minutes later

another time bronze scared off an entire army by pretending to be an automated security system 

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)ive got a whole little folder on here from all you blessed people !!!! right now ive got a drawing quinn did of one o fmy characters as my lockscreen

but i think the one i’ll really never ever get over is this piece of Jane, by @rabendraws​ / @owoltron​: 

(i bet you thought i forgot about this, dude. dude. think again.) 

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? this is kind of a weird question, m, I feel like Bismuth would find learning about the mythos utterly fascinating, as would Tawn. 

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confesshaha. uh. i might. 

aside from the entire “bronze-tangential characters” thing i mentioned awhile back, I tend to really like designing characters with hair color lighter than their skin color. it just looks so cool man. i love drawing freckles but dont put them on enough characters. i like really curly hair, but also really long and flowy hair. i like drawing triangular body types, and pointy/prominent noses. 

44. Something you like about your OCs in generaluhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is a really vague question. m. m. 

45. A character you no longer use?there’s old versions of characters, but a lot of my older ones have been somehow repurposed. I guess there’s Turien, my first-ever DND character, who’s just kind of sitting dead now. Haven’t really done anything with him other than a pretty recent tangential character. 

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?Not that I can think of.

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? Im certain it’s happened, but I can’t remember any specific instances. 

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pureSpring. spring knows nothing of th dangers of the world who is letting them into fights someon eneeds to stop this

(spring roll, hehe.) 

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memesim not sure what this question is asking since many of my ocs actively enjoy memes including but not limited to westrin, dave, bronze, xen09, iris, and doctor archersen

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you wanti think. i think im going to pass on this one. i gave you the good old oc talk. your damn turn, yall: 

if you have any questions about any of these guys feel free to shoot one at me!

thats all from me im tired and its one am. techskylander you absolute madman 

#yetanotherOCmeme #WHY #personal

[dr1ft3r0i]

More Stuff on Drifters

For those of you who might follow me, I, with the ever appreciated input from Dragonkitten555, created a group of PMCs in her universe called the Drifters.  If anyone is interested, here’s a few things about them in universe, and what they mean to me IRL.  

Firstly, in universe, the Drifters started out as a UN made task force following the unexpected intrusion and invasion of an interdimensional empire.  The First Toshigan War effectively proved the existence of the multiverse at large the UN, and thus, the Dimensional Rift Reconnaissance Tasks Group was created.  

Years later, after establishing a well entrenched Rift Relay network and having recruited millions into their organization, Drifter computers were hacked and in a crippling strike, 15,625,092 Drifters and civilian contractors were erased from existence by a group known only as Dark Descent.  History books written after the event note that at the time, Drifter forces numbered at 15,632,254 members.  In the decades of relative time that followed, many of the survivors would be hunted down, executed in pogroms or otherwise incarcerated for life.  

Currently, the Drifters are a roving security force, officially an ‘asset security firm,’ but functionally, are similar to the knights-errant of old.  In terms of material assets, they are much like the Blood Ravens Chapter of the Imperium of Man; if it’s not firmly attached to the ground, or cannot somehow be removed, it is fair game to be taken.  This leads to what is basically one of the single most diverse armories currently known in the local multiverse.  

[][]

Okay, with that out of the way, here’s the part where I tell you the real history of them.  Or at least, as much as I will admit.  

I was 13, young, and stupid...er.  Obama had not yet been elected President, and I was just getting into seriously drawing sci-fi stuff for fun.  I would sneak onto the desktop computer to play C&C 3, and I had just discovered the furry fandom.  

I do NOT regret looking up foxtaurs.  

Anyhow, the Drifters soon came to be a vehicle for my moronic teenage fantasies, because really, who doesn’t want to the hero able to travel across dimensions, banging chicks wherever they went?  Hell, I even, for a time, tried my hand at making RTS versions of those first iterations.  And then I ran into Dungeons and Dragons.  3.5 edition mind.  Not that vile shitfest that is... 4e.  

So, since that time in 2009, I have tried... and well, can’t say failed, but, still working on, making the Drifters into a workable DnD class.  It was a way for me to escape what was for me at the time, a banal existence.  I had issues at home, and school was, for me, hell.  And it wasn’t until I had almost graduated high school that I had even USED the Drifters in any actual story.  

I look back at the original ‘Against All Odds: Extraction’ story and laugh.  It’s now no longer on FF.net, removed by yours truly, but it was, at the time, my largest piece of writing, but it was pretty blatantly full of teenage stupidity and wish fulfillment.  I’ve since matured, and so have my Drifters.  Some of them have moved on, or changed, and it reflects in my personal life.  Now, if I ever WAS to write about the Drifters, well... shit, I don’t know.  I’ve only ever used them in RP chats, and trying to sift through the old logs would be... well, a bit of a struggle.  But they were good times.  And I hope I can continue them.  

Actually, scratch that.  I will.  Why?  

Because I’m a fucking Drifter.  And proud of it.  

#sci-fi #world building #Drifter #Drifterverse #Iblamefoxtaurs #Dungeons and Dragons #life #self deprecating humor #longer than normal post #pride

[cometkins]

hey its another character quesntionnaire

1) What is their full name, and does it have any special relevance? Alternatively, what nicknames do they have?

Theo Lavellan. It doesn’t particularly have any special meaning, but his last name obvs speaks to his Dragon Age origins, since he was my Inquisitor. The only ‘nickname’ of sorts he has is just his last name (which. he hates. but has said nothing about), otherwise Shouri calls him ‘gremlin’, ‘goblin’, and ‘little shit’ with all the affection in the world.

2) What hobby would they like to be good at?

I think Theo would want to be good at cooking? Cooking is one of those skills that’s more a necessity than anything when you’re a nomad, but now that he’s kind of settled into one place I think he’d want to refresh and expand upon those skills.

3) If they played dnd what race and class would they pick?

I think Theo would still be a warlock, and he’d probably pick a tiefling or aasimar or something otherwise kind of edgy and goth. This is in the context of modern life where he doesn’t necessarily have the same experiences though. His canon self would prob be an elf fighter bc he’s boring.

4) If they could go back in time and change one thing, what would they change?

It’s hard, because there’s a lot of things Theo would want to do over. I think above all else, without fucking with timelines too much, he’d want to have linked with Shouri sooner, and before Jericho came into their lives. Maybe then Shouri would’ve at least stayed with him when they got out, and they could’ve healed with each other. IDK how well adjusted Shouri would be, but I think Theo would be in slightly better shape having had someone with him during his recovery.

5) What is their favourite weapon to wield?

A bow, above all things. He’s gotten comfortable with staves though and he’s not afraid to whack a man with it.

6) If you could behove them one magical item, what would you give them?

Rod of the Pact Keeper please, preferably the very rare version. “While holding this rod, you gain a bonus to spell attack rolls and to the saving throw DCs of your warlock spells. The bonus is determined by the rod’s rarity. In addition, you can regain 1 warlock spell slot as an action while holding the rod. You can’t use this property again until you finish a long rest.”

7) If they didn’t have to adventure, would they stop?

I think so, yeah. Theo would very much like to just get married to Shouri and then settle on a farm somewhere so they can live out the rest of their days in peace and comfort. He really doesn’t want a lot.

8) What do they look for in a platonic or romantic partner?

In a romantic partner, Theo just wants somebody who will be there for him and help him through his traumas, and is gentle with him. He’s got a lot of pent up anger and sadness and resentment and anybody who can push through that to his soft core will be vastly rewarded and find an undyingly loyal and loving partner.

9) Do they trust easily?

Noooo, not anymore. I’d say Theo used to be cautiously optimistic in terms of trust in the past, but he’s extremely closed off now. It’s hard for him to trust people before they’ve shown themselves to be good and honest, and it’s incredibly hard to mend that trust when broken.

10) What is their favourite colour?

Brown. It’s the color of trees, rich soil, and Shouri’s eyes and hair.

11) Diplomatic or aggressive?

Theo can be diplomatic. When he wants to. Really. He was training to be his clan’s leader, he knows how to be diplomatic. He just has no patience for it, so he tends to take an aggressive approach.

12) They get arrested, and thrown in jail, how do they escape?

Dimension Door/Blink/Invisibility are all great spells. His stealth isn’t the greatest so Dimension Door and Blink are probably his best bets.

13) Would they leave their party for any reason?

If he felt unwanted, or if he felt like he couldn’t offer them more, or if he had the chance to settle down with Shouri with no immediate obligations to anybody.

14) If they could own any creature as a pet, what would they have?

He has his familiar that’s mostly a cat, I think he’s fine with his immortal cat vs an actual living one that could die.

15) How have you influenced your characters personality?

Theo’s BPD is def from me, and his impatience is definitely from me.

16) Do they have any tattoos? If so what? If not, do you think they would get one in the future?

They’re tattoos sooooooort of? But he has marks of adulthood on his body and it’s basically everywhere.

17) Where would they like to be in ten years time?

Hopefully married, settled on a farm, and maybe with a kid or two.

18) What genre of music would they be into?

Probably a lot of rock and metal and punk.

19) What would be the worst thing someone could say to them?

“I don’t love you.” “I don’t want you.” “You’re annoying.” “You’re too much.” “You’re weak.” “You’re useless.” There’s a lot, but it’s all kind of in the same vein of abandonment.

#dnd stuff #theo lavellan

[earcontact]

Who's Briorge???

Rekmid voice, to her child; Briorge Briorge you are named after the best man I ever met.Nah, really though, Rekmid is captain of the spaceship they are on (called Boat.PNG) and Briorge is her first mate. She recommended him for the position but it later turned out her was the least experienced person who was still qualified, which is okay, because Rekmid is like the least experienced person who is still qualified to be captain and they're both really good hearted, dedicated people who make it work.So that's the really short version, but I'll let Clio (who plays Rekmid) ramble on for awhile:Oh shit where to begin.Briorge is Rekmid's first mate and her best friend. When they first met they were two random employees for the ship, she was in charge of the care of the animals and he was the security dude she had to get past to get some answers to all the shit that'd been going down. Here's the thing with Briorge, he's Cuthbertian. Which I'm pretty sure is an actual religion in like actual DND and not just in our campaign but our campaign takes it to the next level, really. Cuthbertians are basically married to their work, they literally worship the god of like, bureaucracy, so they're really strict on how they handle themselves at work (in general really, but especially at work) and are sticklers with every detail.So Briorge gives Rekmid this long legalise talk about how they can't pass, but she's an employee so he'll put in a request for her. And while they're waiting, this dude who's like been looking and acting completely emotionless this whole time, who's obviously taking his job incredibly seriously, who like three seconds ago told his coworker that no, he cannot gossip, he's working, but like in the most dry and boring tone possible.But then while they're waiting, he asks Rekmid about how his animal friend is doing and is understandably upset when he learns that his animal buddy is dead, but he's still at work so hes gonna pull himself togetherThey get on through but Rekmid's already scrawled 'TO BE PROTECTED' over her mental evaluation of this random security.So much so that by the time she next runs into Briorge, despite the fact that at the time she's been wholeheartedly chasing down a Really Fucked Up Dude for a number of minutes, like doing absolutely everything she can to catch his attention short of lighting his ass on fire (she should have done that), like she's thrown things, she's been yelling this whole time, her gfs cast a number of spells but they just can't get this guy to let up or even acknowledge them for more than like a second.And since the dude just punched someone for no good reason, rekmid really fucking wants him to pay attention to them for a second so she can punch him right in the face.But it turns out that hey, this dude is the current leader of the ship, so he calls in Briorge to like, distract Rekmid and crew from following and fighting the asshole, and Rekmid does an instant mental 180 of 'I'm going to fucking get and fight this guy' to, when she sees Briorge, going 'FUCK NO ABORT WERE NOT FIGHTING HIM' and she slams to a halt No one else has such qualms over fighting or ignoring this random security boy, they've already ignored like two other security boys to get to this point, so the others take down the asshole while Rekmid's just like 'nope not fighting Briorge', but turns out Briorge ALSO hates this asshole, but hasn't been able to do anything because the asshole is his superior officer and his religion is like 'if u go against orders ur not going to The Equivalent To Heaven'But rekmid and co throw the asshole into jail and negotiate things with the new head of the ship who's significantly less of an asshole, and Briorge helps them out the whole time (typically by giving them the right paperwork and forms to fill out, fuck, bless his soul)Then shit goes down, people are dying and getting seriously because guess who: the fucking asshole broke out of jail and is continuing his lifelong habit of being an absolute ass and Rekmid's seeing this shit go down and like #1 thought in her head beyond 'FUCK' is 'fuck wheres Briorge, is he safe' (dont worry he is, he's in a different super magical fight and is somehow safer there where there's like 3 near level 20 magic users duking it out than he would have been in the fight against the one nonmagical asshole dude. super safe)They go fight and kill the asshole dude and heyyyyyyy turns out Rekmid could be captain, she says yes and when asked who first mate should be, suggest Briorge and goes into this long rambling thing where she tries her hardest her hardest to remain professional and its thing this about how she would trust him with her life hold on I'll just copy and paste itAnd never mind I can't copy and paste on mobileAnd Briorge becomes first mate! And since he has more experience working within this system than Rekmid does, she goes to him for help and with questions on a lot of things, they work together on figuring out what the asshole's fucking deal was, on what a different asshole's fucking deal was, on a bunch of shit.Briorge quickly becomes the person she thinks of first when she needs answers or when there's Too Much Chaos all at once and she needs a bit of stability because fuck, Briorge exists and Briorge can be counted on to be doing his job and doing it so goddamn wellLike, example time, Rekmid's wife/fiancee is Zey, tiny pan fairy bard who decided to throw a party and went through all the needed routes to do so and filled out so much fucking paperwork and spent days setting it up but Rekmid is Rekmid and once she dedicates herself to something she kinda let's things like sleep and rest and putting together the dots that 'your wife is throwing a huge party' even when she has the paperwork right in front of her and is the middle of signing to approve it.so yeah night of the party comes, Zey is fucking great at her profession of making people happy and the party is great, amazing, damn near riotous. Rekmid drags herself away from work because she's heard reports of two giant ghost dragons within the ship and is like 'fuck guess I gotta fight' and absolutely storms her way 2 where the party is and upon arriving sees her wife and two friends slaying space orc Elvis in a battle of the bands, two giant (illusionary) ghost dragons circling above and breathing out like confetti and glitter but she rolls a super low spot and thinks its like fire and poison and there's so many fucking people but she sees Briorge and immediately runs over to him like what's going on, why is no one being evacuated, why is no one attacking back against the ghost dragonsActually thats a lot more than what she saidWhat she really did was yell across the party "BRIORGE WHAT THE FUCK"But yeah, they've worked together a lot, in and out of work and Rekmid is like absolutely delighted every time she learns something new about him, no matter what it is.She helps him pick out a new animal friend thats descended from his original animal friend and he very seriously considers what he will name this adorable dire rat and eventually says "I have decided that I will name her Commander Cookie." And rekmid is straight up like "thank you, thank you so much for saying that in front of me, this is the best day of my life." And they spend like an hour or two just sitting and chilling while he pulls out his extensive collection of brushes dedicated to his dire rat friend and Rekmid spends the whole time internally going 'best day of my l i f e' and like has SU stars in her eyes.Okay works starting so I should probably cut it off here, but I Love Briorge, gods, he's amazing.

[doycetopia]

Wizards of the Coast takes a… novel approach to dealing with PDF piracy

And by “novel”, I mean to say “utterly stupid and short-sighted.”

Earlier this evening RPGNow, Paizo, and DriveThruRPG pulled all of their Wizards of the Coast PDF products (where both new and much much much older products were available) at WotC’s request.  The ability to purchase them ended at noon – the ability to download products that you’ve already bought ended at midnight.

According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done to prevent piracy.  (In a followup statement, they clarified that they believe this… because they are luddite morons.)

“We have [taken these actions] to stop the illegal activities […], and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

I love the vast understatement from one gaming site today:

“I predict an increase in piracy of Wizards products.”

REALLY?

Let me take this one step further.  I guarantee – not ‘predict’, but guaran-goddamn-tee that every single PDF of WotC products made available after midnight tonight will be a pirated copy.

Just… think about it for a second; you’ll see exactly what I mean.

See… before today? Sure, some people were sharing PDFs like that on file-sharing sites, and there was pirating going on. Sure, yes.

Was it because the PDFs were made available by WotC and sold online?

No.  You’ve been able to get PDFs of ANY game book — hell, any book at all — even ones that have never had electronic versions available, ever since scanner technology became remotely mainstream (early 90s), because people have time, and geeks have desire for the electronic versions.

Until today, at least most of the people who wanted electronic versions of their game book were getting the PDFs the easy way: google search, got to RPGNow, click, click, download.  No torrent software. No worrying if you picked up a virus with your latest PDF. Easy.

Now, the only way to get the electronic version of a WotC product is to get it from a pirate site.

I can either not get it at all (sucks for me, and WotC gets no money), or I get it from a torrent site (hassle for me, and WotC gets no money).

The pirating people? This has no fucking affect on them what. so. ever.

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

This move by WotC, ostensibly meant to fight piracy, will actually ensure that more people will come to their site to download ALL the PDFs they want (for games, for novels… whatever — I mean, as long as they’re THERE for the DnD stuff, they might as well look around and see what else is out there, right?…).

It’s not just stupid and short-sighted.  It doesn’t just ensure the piracy of their work by 100% of those that want PDFs of DnD material; it actually hurts all the other companies in the industry as well.

original post

#crosspost #dnd #gaming #idiocy #luddites #News #piracy #Publishing #wotc #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

Wizards of the Coast takes a… novel approach to dealing with PDF piracy

And by “novel”, I mean to say “utterly stupid and short-sighted.”

Earlier this evening RPGNow, Paizo, and DriveThruRPG pulled all of their Wizards of the Coast PDF products (where both new and much much much older products were available) at WotC’s request.  The ability to purchase them ended at noon – the ability to download products that you’ve already bought ended at midnight.

According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done to prevent piracy.  (In a followup statement, they clarified that they believe this… because they are luddite morons.)

“We have [taken these actions] to stop the illegal activities […], and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

I love the vast understatement from one gaming site today:

“I predict an increase in piracy of Wizards products.”

REALLY?

Let me take this one step further.  I guarantee – not ‘predict’, but guaran-goddamn-tee that every single PDF of WotC products made available after midnight tonight will be a pirated copy.

Just… think about it for a second; you’ll see exactly what I mean.

See… before today? Sure, some people were sharing PDFs like that on file-sharing sites, and there was pirating going on. Sure, yes.

Was it because the PDFs were made available by WotC and sold online?

No.  You’ve been able to get PDFs of ANY game book — hell, any book at all — even ones that have never had electronic versions available, ever since scanner technology became remotely mainstream (early 90s), because people have time, and geeks have desire for the electronic versions.

Until today, at least most of the people who wanted electronic versions of their game book were getting the PDFs the easy way: google search, got to RPGNow, click, click, download.  No torrent software. No worrying if you picked up a virus with your latest PDF. Easy.

Now, the only way to get the electronic version of a WotC product is to get it from a pirate site.

I can either not get it at all (sucks for me, and WotC gets no money), or I get it from a torrent site (hassle for me, and WotC gets no money).

The pirating people? This has no fucking affect on them what. so. ever.

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

This move by WotC, ostensibly meant to fight piracy, will actually ensure that more people will come to their site to download ALL the PDFs they want (for games, for novels… whatever — I mean, as long as they’re THERE for the DnD stuff, they might as well look around and see what else is out there, right?…).

It’s not just stupid and short-sighted.  It doesn’t just ensure the piracy of their work by 100% of those that want PDFs of DnD material; it actually hurts all the other companies in the industry as well.

original post

#crosspost #dnd #gaming #idiocy #luddites #News #piracy #Publishing #wotc #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

Wizards of the Coast takes a… novel approach to dealing with PDF piracy

And by “novel”, I mean to say “utterly stupid and short-sighted.”

Earlier this evening RPGNow, Paizo, and DriveThruRPG pulled all of their Wizards of the Coast PDF products (where both new and much much much older products were available) at WotC’s request.  The ability to purchase them ended at noon – the ability to download products that you’ve already bought ended at midnight.

According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done to prevent piracy.  (In a followup statement, they clarified that they believe this… because they are luddite morons.)

“We have [taken these actions] to stop the illegal activities […], and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

I love the vast understatement from one gaming site today:

“I predict an increase in piracy of Wizards products.”

REALLY?

Let me take this one step further.  I guarantee – not ‘predict’, but guaran-goddamn-tee that every single PDF of WotC products made available after midnight tonight will be a pirated copy.

Just… think about it for a second; you’ll see exactly what I mean.

See… before today? Sure, some people were sharing PDFs like that on file-sharing sites, and there was pirating going on. Sure, yes.

Was it because the PDFs were made available by WotC and sold online?

No.  You’ve been able to get PDFs of ANY game book — hell, any book at all — even ones that have never had electronic versions available, ever since scanner technology became remotely mainstream (early 90s), because people have time, and geeks have desire for the electronic versions.

Until today, at least most of the people who wanted electronic versions of their game book were getting the PDFs the easy way: google search, got to RPGNow, click, click, download.  No torrent software. No worrying if you picked up a virus with your latest PDF. Easy.

Now, the only way to get the electronic version of a WotC product is to get it from a pirate site.

I can either not get it at all (sucks for me, and WotC gets no money), or I get it from a torrent site (hassle for me, and WotC gets no money).

The pirating people? This has no fucking affect on them what. so. ever.

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

This move by WotC, ostensibly meant to fight piracy, will actually ensure that more people will come to their site to download ALL the PDFs they want (for games, for novels… whatever — I mean, as long as they’re THERE for the DnD stuff, they might as well look around and see what else is out there, right?…).

It’s not just stupid and short-sighted.  It doesn’t just ensure the piracy of their work by 100% of those that want PDFs of DnD material; it actually hurts all the other companies in the industry as well.

original post

#crosspost #dnd #gaming #idiocy #luddites #News #piracy #Publishing #wotc #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

Wizards of the Coast takes a… novel approach to dealing with PDF piracy

And by “novel”, I mean to say “utterly stupid and short-sighted.”

Earlier this evening RPGNow, Paizo, and DriveThruRPG pulled all of their Wizards of the Coast PDF products (where both new and much much much older products were available) at WotC’s request.  The ability to purchase them ended at noon – the ability to download products that you’ve already bought ended at midnight.

According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done to prevent piracy.  (In a followup statement, they clarified that they believe this… because they are luddite morons.)

“We have [taken these actions] to stop the illegal activities […], and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

I love the vast understatement from one gaming site today:

“I predict an increase in piracy of Wizards products.”

REALLY?

Let me take this one step further.  I guarantee – not ‘predict’, but guaran-goddamn-tee that every single PDF of WotC products made available after midnight tonight will be a pirated copy.

Just… think about it for a second; you’ll see exactly what I mean.

See… before today? Sure, some people were sharing PDFs like that on file-sharing sites, and there was pirating going on. Sure, yes.

Was it because the PDFs were made available by WotC and sold online?

No.  You’ve been able to get PDFs of ANY game book — hell, any book at all — even ones that have never had electronic versions available, ever since scanner technology became remotely mainstream (early 90s), because people have time, and geeks have desire for the electronic versions.

Until today, at least most of the people who wanted electronic versions of their game book were getting the PDFs the easy way: google search, got to RPGNow, click, click, download.  No torrent software. No worrying if you picked up a virus with your latest PDF. Easy.

Now, the only way to get the electronic version of a WotC product is to get it from a pirate site.

I can either not get it at all (sucks for me, and WotC gets no money), or I get it from a torrent site (hassle for me, and WotC gets no money).

The pirating people? This has no fucking affect on them what. so. ever.

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

This move by WotC, ostensibly meant to fight piracy, will actually ensure that more people will come to their site to download ALL the PDFs they want (for games, for novels… whatever — I mean, as long as they’re THERE for the DnD stuff, they might as well look around and see what else is out there, right?…).

It’s not just stupid and short-sighted.  It doesn’t just ensure the piracy of their work by 100% of those that want PDFs of DnD material; it actually hurts all the other companies in the industry as well.

original post

#crosspost #dnd #gaming #idiocy #luddites #News #piracy #Publishing #wotc #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

Wizards of the Coast takes a… novel approach to dealing with PDF piracy

And by “novel”, I mean to say “utterly stupid and short-sighted.”

Earlier this evening RPGNow, Paizo, and DriveThruRPG pulled all of their Wizards of the Coast PDF products (where both new and much much much older products were available) at WotC’s request.  The ability to purchase them ended at noon – the ability to download products that you’ve already bought ended at midnight.

According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done to prevent piracy.  (In a followup statement, they clarified that they believe this… because they are luddite morons.)

“We have [taken these actions] to stop the illegal activities […], and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

I love the vast understatement from one gaming site today:

“I predict an increase in piracy of Wizards products.”

REALLY?

Let me take this one step further.  I guarantee – not ‘predict’, but guaran-goddamn-tee that every single PDF of WotC products made available after midnight tonight will be a pirated copy.

Just… think about it for a second; you’ll see exactly what I mean.

See… before today? Sure, some people were sharing PDFs like that on file-sharing sites, and there was pirating going on. Sure, yes.

Was it because the PDFs were made available by WotC and sold online?

No.  You’ve been able to get PDFs of ANY game book — hell, any book at all — even ones that have never had electronic versions available, ever since scanner technology became remotely mainstream (early 90s), because people have time, and geeks have desire for the electronic versions.

Until today, at least most of the people who wanted electronic versions of their game book were getting the PDFs the easy way: google search, got to RPGNow, click, click, download.  No torrent software. No worrying if you picked up a virus with your latest PDF. Easy.

Now, the only way to get the electronic version of a WotC product is to get it from a pirate site.

I can either not get it at all (sucks for me, and WotC gets no money), or I get it from a torrent site (hassle for me, and WotC gets no money).

The pirating people? This has no fucking affect on them what. so. ever.

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

This move by WotC, ostensibly meant to fight piracy, will actually ensure that more people will come to their site to download ALL the PDFs they want (for games, for novels… whatever — I mean, as long as they’re THERE for the DnD stuff, they might as well look around and see what else is out there, right?…).

It’s not just stupid and short-sighted.  It doesn’t just ensure the piracy of their work by 100% of those that want PDFs of DnD material; it actually hurts all the other companies in the industry as well.

original post

#crosspost #dnd #gaming #idiocy #luddites #News #piracy #Publishing #wotc #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

Wizards of the Coast takes a… novel approach to dealing with PDF piracy

And by “novel”, I mean to say “utterly stupid and short-sighted.”

Earlier this evening RPGNow, Paizo, and DriveThruRPG pulled all of their Wizards of the Coast PDF products (where both new and much much much older products were available) at WotC’s request.  The ability to purchase them ended at noon – the ability to download products that you’ve already bought ended at midnight.

According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done to prevent piracy.  (In a followup statement, they clarified that they believe this… because they are luddite morons.)

“We have [taken these actions] to stop the illegal activities […], and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

I love the vast understatement from one gaming site today:

“I predict an increase in piracy of Wizards products.”

REALLY?

Let me take this one step further.  I guarantee – not ‘predict’, but guaran-goddamn-tee that every single PDF of WotC products made available after midnight tonight will be a pirated copy.

Just… think about it for a second; you’ll see exactly what I mean.

See… before today? Sure, some people were sharing PDFs like that on file-sharing sites, and there was pirating going on. Sure, yes.

Was it because the PDFs were made available by WotC and sold online?

No.  You’ve been able to get PDFs of ANY game book — hell, any book at all — even ones that have never had electronic versions available, ever since scanner technology became remotely mainstream (early 90s), because people have time, and geeks have desire for the electronic versions.

Until today, at least most of the people who wanted electronic versions of their game book were getting the PDFs the easy way: google search, got to RPGNow, click, click, download.  No torrent software. No worrying if you picked up a virus with your latest PDF. Easy.

Now, the only way to get the electronic version of a WotC product is to get it from a pirate site.

I can either not get it at all (sucks for me, and WotC gets no money), or I get it from a torrent site (hassle for me, and WotC gets no money).

The pirating people? This has no fucking affect on them what. so. ever.

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

This move by WotC, ostensibly meant to fight piracy, will actually ensure that more people will come to their site to download ALL the PDFs they want (for games, for novels… whatever — I mean, as long as they’re THERE for the DnD stuff, they might as well look around and see what else is out there, right?…).

It’s not just stupid and short-sighted.  It doesn’t just ensure the piracy of their work by 100% of those that want PDFs of DnD material; it actually hurts all the other companies in the industry as well.

original post

#crosspost #dnd #gaming #idiocy #luddites #News #piracy #Publishing #wotc #randomaverage

[doycetopia]

Wizards of the Coast takes a… novel approach to dealing with PDF piracy

And by “novel”, I mean to say “utterly stupid and short-sighted.”

Earlier this evening RPGNow, Paizo, and DriveThruRPG pulled all of their Wizards of the Coast PDF products (where both new and much much much older products were available) at WotC’s request.  The ability to purchase them ended at noon – the ability to download products that you’ve already bought ended at midnight.

According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done to prevent piracy.  (In a followup statement, they clarified that they believe this… because they are luddite morons.)

“We have [taken these actions] to stop the illegal activities […], and to deter future unauthorized and unlawful file-sharing.”

I love the vast understatement from one gaming site today:

“I predict an increase in piracy of Wizards products.”

REALLY?

Let me take this one step further.  I guarantee – not ‘predict’, but guaran-goddamn-tee that every single PDF of WotC products made available after midnight tonight will be a pirated copy.

Just… think about it for a second; you’ll see exactly what I mean.

See… before today? Sure, some people were sharing PDFs like that on file-sharing sites, and there was pirating going on. Sure, yes.

Was it because the PDFs were made available by WotC and sold online?

No.  You’ve been able to get PDFs of ANY game book — hell, any book at all — even ones that have never had electronic versions available, ever since scanner technology became remotely mainstream (early 90s), because people have time, and geeks have desire for the electronic versions.

Until today, at least most of the people who wanted electronic versions of their game book were getting the PDFs the easy way: google search, got to RPGNow, click, click, download.  No torrent software. No worrying if you picked up a virus with your latest PDF. Easy.

Now, the only way to get the electronic version of a WotC product is to get it from a pirate site.

I can either not get it at all (sucks for me, and WotC gets no money), or I get it from a torrent site (hassle for me, and WotC gets no money).

The pirating people? This has no fucking affect on them what. so. ever.

Well, no; that’s not entirely true.

This move by WotC, ostensibly meant to fight piracy, will actually ensure that more people will come to their site to download ALL the PDFs they want (for games, for novels… whatever — I mean, as long as they’re THERE for the DnD stuff, they might as well look around and see what else is out there, right?…).

It’s not just stupid and short-sighted.  It doesn’t just ensure the piracy of their work by 100% of those that want PDFs of DnD material; it actually hurts all the other companies in the industry as well.

original post

#crosspost #dnd #gaming #idiocy #luddites #News #piracy #Publishing #wotc #randomaverage