orientationisland

[orientationisland]

[orientationisland]

so these sketches of ballet waterbending frickin EXPLODED and a lot of people seemed to want it animated SO. i give you extremely sketchy animations of katara, prima ballerina

#dear dead game i have not forgotten u

[orientationisland]

It just so happens that once a year, the sun aligns to illuminate the cliffside like this, explains the Scientist, it’s an ordinary mountain, really.

A singular event is always special, Nameless replies.

#inspiration

[orientationisland]

Character Creation

Thanks for filling out your interest forms! I've got some great ideas for adventures I hope you'll find fun :) Please message me (2ifbifrost) with your available times in the next two weeks so we can do character creation. Please convert your times to CST. We'll use Skype since everyone has that I think. Count on it taking an hour or two.

If you don't have any concrete character ideas, that's perfectly fine! A lot of times it helps to brainstorm with the other players or learn more about the specifics of the setting. If you do have a pretty solid character, that's great too!

[orientationisland]

These are the rules we'll be using. It's free and legal! Feel free to read or skim as much as you want, but everything you really need to know is in Ch 1: The Basics, pg 1-15. 

I really like the Fate RPG because it's straightforward but flexible, has one basic mechanic, and rewards you for acting in character and in ways that make the story more interesting. 

Ask box is open! If you have any questions or comments, just drop me a note. :)

#rules #reference

[orientationisland]

legolas!!!!

i’ve been wanting to redesign the fellowship for a while now and i finally got around to doing one. my silvan elves are inspired by various native american cultures and their clothes have a lot of green/woodland themes. the first outfit is legolas’ mirkwood guard uniform with the cloak from lothlorien, and the second is what he wears when it gets hot, or if he’s in a place where armor is unnecessary. he wears his mom’s boots. legolas is mixed race, so he’s a little paler than the other silvan elves. 

#reference #earth kingdom

[orientationisland]

"I flip off the rival jouster in a sportsmanlike manner."

(via linshial)

#inspiration

[orientationisland]

Interest Form: Sandetiger

Rate your interest in the following. Use a scale of -5 to 5 where -5 is “I would be extremely disappointed if this was included” and 5 is “I would be extremely disappointed if this was missing.” 0 is neutral, no feeling either way.

Setting:

Aang-era: 0

Korra-era: 0

Other (please specify): 0

Play:

Combat: 0

Exploration: 0

Politics: 1

Crunch: 0

Fluff: 1

Other (please specify): 0

"Crunch" is the mechanics of a game. It’s the rules that govern the setting and character actions. "Fluff" is the flavor text of a game, it’s a narrative description of setting and actions. Pokemon is a crunchy game, there are lots of complex interactions between different mechanics. Final Fantasy’s cut scenes are fluffy. Basically, is the story subservient to the mechanics (crunchy), or is the story more important than the rules (fluffy)?

Scope: 

Local (eg Republic City): 2

Regional (eg Southern Water Tribe): 2

National (eg Earth Kingdom): 2

Global: 2

AtLa is a global scope, Aang and his friends travel over the whole world in order to save it. Season 1 of LoK is local scope, the plot mainly focuses on the politics of Republic City. 

Other things you are interested in, themes, specific places/events, anything you want known:

Idk, I'm a big fan of text based role playing where we largely create the story. I've only ever done RPG games with rolls and dice one before (hullo Final Fantasy RP), but I'm still willing to give it a shot if that's what's decided.

#interest form #sandetiger

[orientationisland]

This is a hairstyle timeline that is meant to cover the Taishō era (1912-1926). However the dates for many reference photographs were rather vague, so some might actually fall into Shōwa era (1926-1989). Regrettably I couldn’t cover EVERY single hairstyle from this period so please consider this to be a brief overview. There are no Geisha, Maiko, etc featured here; they will be covered in another fashion timeline someday.

Some interesting notes about Meiji-Taisho era from Liza Crihfield Dalby’s Kimono: Fashioning Culture (1993)

·         “Men and women of Meiji had gulped up Western culture with all the indiscriminate enthusiasm of new converts. By Taishō, Japanese sensibilities vis-à-vis the West were much smoother. This was Japan’s political equivalent of the … social scene of the American Roaring Twenties. Japanese born during Taishō would enter adolescence as modern boys and girls. Significantly, women opened their closets to Western clothing during this decade. Kimono has lost space ever since.” (pg. 124)

·         “By 1915 Japan was beginning to feel itself a world-class nation, more confident of its military strength and social development. Ordinary Japanese were inclined to look at their society in light of how life might be bettered by adapting foreign ideas, or made more interesting by acquiring foreign fashions. Borrowing from the West was of course not new, but it had now become a more reciprocal and respectable process.” (pg. 124)

WOMEN’s HAIR:

·         In the Meiji era “a few women cropped their hair, but these courageous souls were simply regarded as weird” and indecent (pg. 75)

·         “If cutting the hair short was too radical [in Meiji Japan], as public reaction attests, women’s hair did gain a new option in the sokugami style, a pompadour resembling the chignons worn by Charles Dana Gibson’s popular Gibson girls. The further the front section, or ‘eaves,’ of the hair protruded, the more daring the style. The sokugami style bunched the hair, coiling it in a bun at the crown of the head. Unlike traditional coiffures, sokugami did not require the heavy use of pomade, pins, bars, strings, and false hair to hold its shape. Its appeal was promoted as healthier and more rational – hence, more enlightened- than the old ways.” (pg. 75)

#reference

[orientationisland]

Interest Form: mooseings

Setting:

Aang-era: 1

Korra-era: 4

Other (please specify):

I could work well in either verse but the Korra verse is a lot more fresher in my mind.

Play:

Combat: 3

Exploration: 4

Politics: 0

Crunch: 2

Fluff: 4

Other (please specify):

I tend to stumble over mechanics - especially when it involves adding and subtracting points like in D&D (maths in not my strong point). But combat is definitely something I would like to see! I'm not fussed about politics. I think story is very important and the way the dynamics between the characters flow and develop would trump rules for me.

Scope: 

Local (eg Republic City): 4

Regional (eg Southern Water Tribe): 2

National (eg Earth Kingdom): 1

Global: 0

I definitely would prefer a smaller setting because it's a lot less complicated and the setting won't interfere with the story this way.

[orientationisland]

Interest Form: 2ifbifrost

As an example, I'll fill this out for myself! Since I'm running the game, I won't actually have a player character because I would know all the secrets and hidden things, and that isn't fair. It's like God playing Jesus if Creation was an RPG ;)

Setting:

Aang-era: 0

Korra-era: 0

Other (please specify): 

I don't have a preference for either one, I'm really eager to play in both! Please don't everyone say they have no preference, because that doesn't actually help :P Also please don't +5 both of them, I don't know how time travel works in the Avatar-verse

Play:

Combat: 4

Exploration: 2

Politics: -1

Crunch: 2

Fluff: 3

Other (please specify):

When I play tabletop RPGs, I like to roll a lot of dice and kick ass in combat. I would be really disappointed if that was missing from a game I was playing, but I like other forms of play too. I'm not big on politics and intrigue because I don't think I play it very well so it isn't very fun for me. I like when there are rules for the cool stuff I want to do, but telling a good story is more important to me.

Scope: 

Local (eg Republic City): 3

Regional (eg Southern Water Tribe): 3

National (eg Earth Kingdom): 1

Global: -3

I don't like really grand scale stories very much, I would rather tell a tighter-focused story. I also prefer wilderness settings more than urban ones.

Other: I really like the martial arts of Avatar and how the different bending arts compare with each other. In stories, I really like when a minor detail from early on comes back into play for something important later in the story.

I hope that helped explain what I'm looking for. You don't have to explain as much as I did, but you can if you want. It's actually more helpful if you have opinions on what you think might be fun to play, it helps me create a game that you will enjoy more. If you don't know, think about books you've read and video games you've played and what parts you thought were the coolest and were most interested in.

[orientationisland]

Here are the details of what I really want to do. I want to run an Avatar-verse tabletop roleplaying game. Tabletop is like Dungeons and Dragons or Vampire the Masquerade, but I want to use either a game called Exalted or a game called Spirit of the Century (which has a generic settingless version called Fate).

Don't worry if you've never heard of those, you don't have to buy anything and I'll teach you how they work. The basics is, roll dice and do cool stuff.

Ideally I'd like to organize game nights where we can all be online and use Gateway as our meeting place. Because it has some functions built in and it's something I am familiar with. It's a text-based interface... thing. It's how people played WoW in the 80's. It's weird and outdated but not difficult. 

Does that sound cool? I think it could be cool. Questions? Fears? Hopes, dreams? I just really really want to play in this world with these tools I like and with people I like.

[orientationisland]

Interest Form

Rate your interest in the following. Use a scale of -5 to 5 where -5 is "I would be extremely disappointed if this was included" and 5 is "I would be extremely disappointed if this was missing." 0 is neutral, no feeling either way.

Setting:

Aang-era:

Korra-era:

Other (please specify):

Play:

Combat:

Exploration:

Politics:

Crunch:

Fluff:

Other (please specify):

"Crunch" is the mechanics of a game. It's the rules that govern the setting and character actions. "Fluff" is the flavor text of a game, it's a narrative description of setting and actions. Pokemon is a crunchy game, there are lots of complex interactions between different mechanics. Final Fantasy's cut scenes are fluffy. Basically, is the story subservient to the mechanics (crunchy), or is the story more important than the rules (fluffy)?

Scope: 

Local (eg Republic City):

Regional (eg Southern Water Tribe):

National (eg Earth Kingdom):

Global:

AtLa is a global scope, Aang and his friends travel over the whole world in order to save it. Season 1 of LoK is local scope, the plot mainly focuses on the politics of Republic City. 

Other things you are interested in, themes, specific places/events, anything you want known: