#becoming buffy podcast

[buffysummers]

Hi pals! So with my birthday and everything, I haven’t had a chance to share that I joined @becomingbuffypodcast to discuss season 4 episode 8, “Pangs,” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which dropped Thursday, the 27th. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other platforms you listen to your podcasts!

The original recording was over three hours, so Sarah did a fantastic job editing it to a more reasonable two hours lol. There was, as you can imagine, A LOT to say about this episode. I hope you guys tune in if you’re interested!

Keep in mind you do not have to listen to it in one sitting. I normally split up when I listen to my podcasts because I listen when I’m cleaning, walking my dog, working or playing ball with my dog/etc. So, if you’re intimidated by the runtime you can always finish another day! ❤️

Here’s a little preview of some of my commentary🤪 It was an honor to join these gal pals and I hope I can pop in for a few more eps in the near future!

#becoming buffy podcast #bangel

[becomingbuffypodcast]

S3. Ep20. The Prom

S3. Ep20. The Prom Arguably one of the most beloved Buffy episodes ever, ‘The Prom’ is an emotional, heart-wrenching, but beautiful piece of television. Sarah Michelle Gellar lists it as her favorite episode, saying, “I loved ‘The Prom.’ It stood for everything Buffy was about: the fact that she so badly wanted to be part of the other kids’ lives.” I have said it before, but Buffy shines the most when it takes the circumstances and lore of its world and uses it to humanize its characters. Filled with beautiful moments and breath-taking gowns, yet also some of the most heartbreaking scenes we’ve had this season, ‘The Prom’ is a display of everything that makes Buffy great. Since the pilot, Buffy has been fighting for one moment of normalcy to offset her daily sacrifices for her calling. This season has been all about choice, and from the beginning, Buffy’s wrestled with what kind of slayer and girl she will be. In “Anne” she runs away from both her calling and her life, in “Beauty and the Beasts/Band Candy/Revelations” she selfishly avoids her responsibilities for her own desires, and in “Homecoming” she manipulates her fellow students in order to have one normal high school experience. But she doesn’t stay this way. When confronted with her wrong actions, Buffy grows and changes, ultimately choosing community, responsibility, and empathy. The episode's use of Hellhounds as the monster of choice is oddly fitting. Known in mythology as guardians of graveyards and the underworld, they are often an omen of death. Buffy defeating them right before graduation is symbolic of her sacrifices allowing her classmates to escape hell/highschool and enter the world. Because of her sacrifice, it can no longer keep them there. In a lot of ways, this episode is preparing us for change, closing the chapter on the high school years and on Buffy’s childhood. As painful as it is, Mark Fields puts it well saying, “Inability to change is what freezes someone into childhood; it’s the condition of a vampire, not of a person.”

#buffy #buffy the vampire slayer #david boreanaz #angel #bangel #sarah michelle gellar #the prom #hellhounds #podcast #change #adulthood #growing up #becoming buffy podcast #meta #analysis

[elevenhopperz]

i am not sorry for the person i will become when that buffy audible podcast comes out.

#slayers: a buffyverse story #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #cordelia chase #charisma carpenter #james marsters #spike #drusilla #tara maclay #amber benson #anya jenkins #emma caulfield #buffy summers #anthony stewart head #giles

[cobalt-knave]

Supernatural Fiction Podcast Recs

Happy halloween! I wanted to put together another rec list to get out today.

Supernatural fiction includes some fantasy, some horror, and something all on its own. Here is a rec list of some audio dramas I enjoy in this genre.

The Antique Shop

The audio journal of Maya, a university student who takes a job at an antique shop. The shop contains strange and magical and cursed items. It also contains Madam Norna, who can help people with supernatural problems but there is always a cost, and the Madam must work with fate and not against it-- something Maya doesn’t agree with. There is also a great enemies (or acquaintances with animosity between them) to friends relationship that makes me happy.  

What follows is the strange stories of those that come to the shop and the slow corruption arc esque change as Maya becomes closer and closer to Fate and the role of the Madam.

The Bridge

Watchtower 10 sits in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, keeping lonely watch over the Transcontinental Bridge. Our main character Etta broadcasts stories, often strange, that happened on the Bridge. Meanwhile, some of her backstory begins to be revealed, and the sea creature in lower level 3 has people coming after him.

Etta and the other people who work at Watchtower 10 are all delightful characters.

McGillicuddy And Murder’s Pawn Shop

The podcast is set in 1921 taking the format of the diary belonging to Melinda Maudie Merkle. Maude has a terribly boring life as a typist, and one of her only sources of joy is going every so often to a pawn shop, McGillicuddy & Murder’s. One day, she comes across a broken piece of china with a blue eye on it. After coming home with the eye, strange things begin to happen, and she finds herself immersed in a world of wonder and horror and magic. An adventure, at last. Though perhaps not quite how she imagined it.

A lot of healing into a new person, leaving behind bad relationships, and surrounding one’s self with trusted friends and community. And, of course, adventure.

The McIlwraith Statements

15 years after the fact, Sarah McIlwraith is making her statements regarding the infamous IPP study. The IPP study was a psychology-focused scientific study into mediums, hauntings, and the paranormal. It lasted three years before it was revealed to be a hoax, ruining the careers of those involved. Sarah was a phd student working on the study. But here is the thing: the study never found anything, but Sarah has always been able to see ghosts. And many of those haunted locations were indeed haunted.

Sarah is a great character, and the stories she tells are all very interesting as you hear about how the study worked, the ghosts she met and helped, the mediums that always seemed to be faked. Meanwhile, Sarah is looking into the mysterious funding the projects got, which keeps a good meta plot going.

Kane and Feels

Lucifer Kane and Brutus Feels, paranormal investigators. These two are chaotic, absolutely insane, and fantastic. Great use of narration with both characters alternating narrating. They are buddies, your honor. Horror! Weird things! Dream logic! If it’s a demon, Feels will probably punch it. The little one helps, and the big one makes tea.

The Hidden People

More on the urban fantasy side than the horror side, this podcast follows Mackenna Thorne. It’s very self-aware and has a lot of fun bringing in other genre bits (the hacker, the funny guy, a fair amount of Buffy references I enjoy immensely). Mack’s parents are murdered, apparently by none other than Mackenna Thorne. As this mystery unfolds, a world to the hidden people (the unseelie court) is opened.

Mack has such an incredible character arc.

There is a demonic narrator who is constantly amused by everything the characters do wrong.

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality

Let the AI Audio Tour Guide take you on a tour of the museum. Hear the stories - some horror, some soft, some strange, and some tragic - of the various exhibits. If your Audio Tour Guide is behaving... strangely, you should deposit your audio device in the nearest incinerator.

The Audio Tour Guide gets so much character development, and it is an utter delight.

Beware the man with a voice like honey and chocolate and coffee all at once.

Jar Of Rebuke

Dr. Jared Hel works at the Enclosure, which studies cryptids (for lack of a better word). Jared works there after having amnesia, and he only remembers the past two years. And always wears a key on a necklace. They have one skill that makes him very useful for studying cryptids: he can die and revive.

#pod recs #pod rec #jar of rebuke #the antique shop #the mistholme museum of mystery morbidity and mortality #the hidden people #kane and feels #the mcilwraith statements #the bridge

[whatisyourchildhoodtrauma]

"Did you guys pick this up at all? They set it up that Tara doesn't really speak much in the beginning of the episode, right? ...She walks in with her books. Like, she thought class was gonna happen. And then she looks around and observes everyone freaking out, and then someone drops a cup and then she kinda cues and walks out. I have never put that together, that, like she thought it was a normal day." "Yeah, I think that Tara didn't know that everybody lost their voices." "Yes, it's such good storytelling, cause, like, we already know that she has had people in her life that did silence her, that she has maybe some confidence issues, maybe she feels like she has no voice. There's so many things that they did to kinda cue us into Tara's character right away." ⏤ Becoming Buffy podcast (S4. Ep.10. Hush)

#btvs #tara maclay #meta #i hadn't caught that she thought it was a regular day omg

[all-seeing-ifer]

Audio Drama Recs for Buffyverse Fans

Hey there, dear listeners! Are you a Buffy fan who’s been listening to Slayers and it’s got you interested in learning more about this whole audio drama malarkey? Are you a Buffy fan who’s not been listening to Slayers but are always interested in recommendations for new media to check out? Are you maybe even a Buffy fan who’s already listened to some audio dramas but want some ideas for others to check out? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this is the list for you!

The world of audio drama is a weird and wonderful place where niche independent art can flourish. If you look close enough, there’s something there for everyone! It’s my hope that the release of Slayers can help bring this wonderful medium to more people’s attention, so I’ve compiled a list of a bunch of different audio dramas that I think will appeal to Buffy fans, whether that’s because they have a similar genre, similar tone, similar characters, or something else entirely. 

No matter what it is you like about Buffy, I can almost guarantee there’s an audio drama out there where you can also find those same qualities. And the best part? All of the following audio dramas are absolutely free. An important part of the culture that’s emerged around indie audio dramas is that these shows are pretty much always free to listen to - funded instead by ads and patreon support. So you can just hop on to spotify, apple podcasts, pocket casts, or your other platform of choice, and get some beautiful narratives written by (and I do sincerely believe this) some of the most talented and visionary creative voices of the past couple decades beamed directly into your ears for the low low price of nothing at all. You literally have nothing to lose except time!

So without further ado, on to the recommendations:

Wolf 359 

Listen if you like: Episodic/monster-of-the-week storytelling with an overarching plot, a tone that mixes comedy and drama, pastiches of popular genres (with heart), anti-authoritarian themes, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues

Plot summary: Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. The Hephaestus is an odd place, and life in extremely isolated, zero gravity conditions has a way of doing funny things to people's minds. Even the simplest of tasks can turn into a gargantuan struggle, and the most ordinary-seeming things have a way of turning into anything but that.

Status: Finished

Episode count: 61 + minisodes and specials

Average episode length: 20-40 minutes

Why you should listen: I’m gonna say something that may be mildly controversial and say that Wolf 359 comes closer to capturing the Buffyverse’s tone and spirit than just about any other piece of media. A child of that mostly unfortunate period of time when every nerd creator on the planet wanted to imitate Joss Whedon’s style and it really does show (not least in the multiple direct references to Buffy the show makes). But while basically every other product of this writing style (including Whedon’s own later work) fell flat on its face into insincerity, Wolf, in a truly cosmically unlikely moment of lightning actually striking twice, just fucking nails it. It’s at once an ironic pastiche of science fiction serials from the golden age of radio while also being a serious and dramatic science fiction serial in its own right, and strikes the perfect balance between the two. While it starts out as more of a workplace comedy set in space, as the show goes on and the characters learn more about the company that sent them on their mission, the tone becomes increasingly serious and dramatic, without ever feeling like too much tonal whiplash. When it’s funny, it’s really funny, and when it’s serious and emotional, it hits depths of devastation few other shows can. While it may be science fiction and not fantasy, it shares the Buffyverse’s anti-authoritarian themes, as well as those shows’ large casts of flawed characters whose problems come just as much from interpersonal drama as from the speculative fiction elements of the story. If you ask me, it’s one of the greatest stories the 2010s ever gave us. But don’t just take my word for it, go check it out for yourself! Go meet Doug Eiffel, Renee Minkowski, Dr Alexander Hilbert, Hera, and a bunch more characters I can’t talk about without getting into spoilers. You can thank me later.

Ars Paradoxica

Listen if you like: A tone that mixes comedy and drama, anti-authoritarian themes, female-led shows, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues

Plot summary: When an experiment in a time much like our own goes horribly awry, Dr. Sally Grissom finds herself stranded in the past and entrenched in the activities of a clandestine branch of the US government. Grissom and her team quickly learn that there's no safety net when toying with the fundamental logic of the universe.

Status: Finished

Episode count: 36 + specials

Average episode length: 20-40 minutes

Why you should listen: Ok, let’s say Wolf 359 appeals to you, but you’d prefer your semi-ironic semi-serious speculative fiction dramedy show with anti-authoritarian themes to have a female lead. I mean I’d still recommend listening to Wolf because while Eiffel may be the protagonist you still get to meet Renee Minkowski and Hera and [OTHER CHARACTERS REDACTED], but you could also try out Ars Paradoxica! Another child of the Whedon-influenced era that produced Wolf 359 with a similarly Whedon-influenced tone, I think Ars is a lot messier, tone-wise, but it’s worth working through that. While it starts off quite goofy and irreverent, as the show goes on it really matures and grows into itself and becomes something very special. It becomes the rare time travel story that actually engages in a meaningful way with the political dimension of the time period its characters’ travel to. It’s about the paranoia of the final days of WWII and beginning of the Cold War, it’s about the bigotries that shaped mid-20th-century society, it’s about war and scientific ethics and the desire for progress and what we’re willing to sacrifice for that progress. But despite its often dark themes, it’s also not as heavy as I’m making it sound, with all of its lofty ideas and high concept science fiction being anchored by a cast of highly flawed yet endearing characters, including the inimitable Dr Sally Grissom herself. Compared to other 2010s audio dramas, it’s fallen into obscurity into recent years, and I think it’s about time we bring it back into the light!

The Silt Verses 

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot, anti-authoritarian themes, female-led shows

Plot summary: Carpenter and Faulkner, two worshippers of an outlawed god, travel up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations. As their pilgrimage lengthens and the river’s mysteries deepen, the two acolytes find themselves under threat from a police manhunt, but also come into conflict with the weirder gods that have flourished in these forgotten rural territories.

Status: Ongoing (on its final season)

Episode count: 33+

Average episode length: 40-60 minutes

Why you should listen: It’s my favourite audio drama, hands down. More than that, it’s one of my favourite pieces of art, ever. Do you have even a passing interest in horror as a genre? If you’re a Buffyverse fan, then I assume the answer is ‘yes’. In which case, you should listen to TSV. Of all the horror podcasts I’ve listened to, I think TSV is far and away the most genuinely terrifying (I’d definitely recommend checking out the content warnings before listening) as well as having the most unique, well-thought-out, and generally interesting horror concepts and worldbuilding. It also plays with classic horror tropes in a way that feels vaguely reminiscent of BtVS at times, but its tone and atmosphere and writing style is all entirely its own. Despite this far darker tone and approach to horror, it also shares many of the Buffyverse’s themes. It’s a story about broken systems: living in them, dying in them, striking back against them, trying to fix them, burning them to the ground, all explored through a horror/fantasy lens. If you like how the Buffyverse explores its anti-authoritarian themes, you will probably also enjoy TSV’s approach. If you love the various complex fucked up little guys that make up the casts of the Buffyverse shows, then you’ll probably also love the various complex fucked up little guys that make up the cast of TSV, especially Sister Carpenter, the female lead of the show as well as one of the few characters in existence whose greatness rivals Buffy herself in my mind. And if you love the Buffyverse’s outlandish and often formally-inventive monster-of-the-week style episodes, then TSV’s own experimentations and propensity for bizarre fantasy concepts will likely also appeal to you. Really there’s very little else I can say without you experiencing the show for yourself. Do you like good things? Do you like things that are good? Go listen to TSV. Again, you can thank me later.

The Magnus Archives

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot, anti-authoritarian themes, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues, fighting the apocalypse

Plot summary: A weekly horror fiction podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back… 

Status: Finished

Episode count: 200

Average episode length: 30 minutes

Why you should listen: One of the more well-known audio drama podcasts, and definitely the most well-known of the recent audio dramas! A lot darker, more depressing, and heavier on the horror than the Buffyverse shows, but there’s still a lot that Buffyverse fans will enjoy, from the anti-authoritarian themes to the multiple apocalypses the characters face. While TMA starts off as an anthology series, with each episode being a self-contained horror story, as the show goes on recurring characters start to appear and an overarching storyline begins to emerge. The later seasons of the show really display a similar ethos to the Buffyverse shows when it comes to taking their characters to very dark places, and the way that the show plays with horror tropes will likely also appeal to Buffy fans! Prepare yourself for some truly creepy storytelling and truly heartbreaking emotional moments and give it a listen.

Janus Descending 

Listen if you like: Horror, female-led shows

Status: Finished (sequel series ongoing)

Episode count: 13

Average episode length: 15-20 minutes

Plot summary: This limited series, science fiction/horror audio drama podcast follows the arrival of two xenoarcheologists on a small world orbiting a binary star. But what starts off as an expedition to survey the planet and the remains of a lost alien civilization, turns into a monstrous game of cat and mouse, as the two scientists are left to face the creatures that killed the planet in the first place.

Why you should listen: While it’s probably the least similar to the Buffyverse shows of any of my recommendations, I think Janus is still worth looking into simply because it’s a really great “starter podcast” for those who’ve never got into audio dramas before. It’s a limited series of just 13 episodes, each episode is only around 15-20 minutes long, and it uses the audio format in a really unique and interesting way. While it does now have a sequel series called Descendants, the original show works very well as a standalone narrative. The horror and tension and tragedy of the story is really well done, and despite how relatively short it is you still get to feel very close to the two protagonists. Another really underappreciated show that deserves more love.

Old Gods of Appalachia 

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, female-led shows, anti-authoritarian themes

Plot summary: A horror-anthology podcast set in the shadows of an Alternate Appalachia, a place where digging too deep into the mines was just the first mistake.

Status: Ongoing

Episode count: 54+ (not including specials)

Average episode length: 30-40 minutes

Why you should listen: Another dark and gorgeously atmospheric horror podcast (you may be starting to sense a theme here), this one based around an alternate history version of Appalachia where eldritch gods and monsters inhabit the mountains and hills. Much like TMA, Old Gods is primarily an anthology series, consisting of a wide variety of different horror stories set in the same world. These stories range from one-off episodes to season-long arcs, and cover a broad spectrum of horror sub-genres. While I do find it a little hard at times to follow all the different connections between the different stories and arcs, I think it’s still absolutely worth listening to for its tone, storytelling, social commentary (plenty of “fuck capitalism” stories here), and well-written and complex female characters. Definitely a must-listen for all the horror/fantasy fans out there (and I know for a fact that’s a lot of you).

Hi Nay 

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, female-led shows, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot

Status: Ongoing

Episode count: 32+

Average episode length: 30-60 minutes (not including specials and minisodes)

Plot summary: A supernatural horror fictional podcast about Filipina immigrant Mari Datuin, whose babaylan (shaman) family background accidentally gets her involved in stopping dangerous supernatural events in Toronto. 

Why you should listen: A very fun urban fantasy monster-of-the-week style show that pulls from both classic horror tropes and Filipino folklore. While I haven’t listened to much of this one yet, it’s a really engaging and often emotional listen with a very fun framing device that uses the audio medium in a clever way!

Of course, this is only a small fraction of the wealth of audio drama podcasts out there. I'm only one guy and I can't listen to all of them! If any of you have any recommendations for other audio dramas you think Buffy fans will enjoy, feel free to add them on! And if you're interested and have any questions feel free to send me a message - I always love talkin' audio dramas!

#buffyverse #slayers a buffyverse story #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #podcasts #ifer rambles #ok WHEW i'm done with this thing #this is it this is my contribution to events #i perhaps get a bit sappy in this post but i do genuinely hope that slayers is able to get ppl more interested in this medium #even if it's just a few people!! that would still be such a win!!! #i love audio drama very much and i want other people to love it too #long post

[iwillrememberyoumarathon]

Bangel fans, we want to hear from you! During the run-up to the IWRY Fic Marathon in November, we’ll be getting to know each other through our Meet the Fandom series. Answer the questions here to join in.

What is your name?

Sarah

Where do you hang out?

Tumblr: @becomingbuffypodcast

Also @becomingbuffypodcast on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok Podcast: Becoming-buffy.castos.com

Do you create any fan works?

I have a podcast on Buffy (Becoming Buffy) and one on Angel (Investigating Angel). I create analytic essays on each episode on Instagram and Tumblr, as well as analysis videos (YouTube).

Funniest Bangel/Buffyverse moment?

Angel slipping in the doorway in Graduation Day.

What Buffyverse opinion would have you chased through the village with pitchforks?

Anya's death was a full circle moment for her character, and was earned.

How would you have given Buffy and Angel their Happily Ever After?

Angel shanshu'd and met up with Buffy after she formed the Slayer Academy and left it to Faith, Giles, and Willow. They live by the beach and Buffy breaks out the stakes every once in a while when the world needs her.

Last fic you read?

"Reprieve" by Scribes1015

Slay, Lay, Obey - Dawn, Fred, Wesley?

Slay: Fred

Lay: Wes

Obey: Dawn

Fill in the quiz so the fandom can meet you!

#meetthefandom #iwryficmarathon2023 #buffy x angel #bangel

[monstersplaybook]

Greetings 👋! We’re The Monster’s Playbook, a monster-hunting actual play podcast set in Minneapolis, MN. We use the Monster of the Week game system by Evil Hat Productions.

We may be new to Tumblr, but we’re not new to actual plays! We’ve been doing this podcast for about a year now and have been playing our current campaign for even longer. And that means there’s plenty of content to sink your teeth into.

OUR CAST OF CHARACTERS INCLUDES:

Theo Nessos 🧙‍♀️: a professional sorceress trying to escape the shadow of her powerful magical family.

Mark Clayton 👻: a pretty haunted introvert, who just wants to make sense of his powers and the weird stuff that keeps happening to him.

Kira Ashwood 📓: a journalist with a cult past she’s desperate to atone for, and a secret power hidden even from herself.

Casey Davis 🔫: a taciturn secret agent becoming disillusioned with the agency she thought she could trust.

GET STARTED WITH OUR SHOW!

As I mentioned, we've been playing our campaign for awhile now, so we start our show "in medias res". We recommend you get started with our Session 0 (below) and Season 1 recap episodes to get up to speed.

If you like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Dresden Files, or any city-set supernatural story with monstrous threats and messy feelings then come check us out! We’ve got a new episode every other Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other usual suspects.

Podcast art by the wonderful @carlzsays.

#actual play #monster of the week #pbta #indie ttrpg #actual play podcast #ttrpg community #ttrpg podcast #motw #motw podcast #evil hat productions #motw rpg #ttrpg #Spotify

[open-hearth-rpg]

Ludography: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Nine

Continuing on with this week of meta-elements, I want to talk about ttrpgs and history. In the 21st Century, Old School Renaissance games would focus on the "Appendix N." As Dungeon Crawl Classics tells it, “Appendix N is the list of books that inspired Gary Gygax to create D&D. This bibliography first appeared as an appendix in the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide—specifically, Appendix N—which is why the list is known by that name...The books in Appendix N are a who’s-who of classic fantasy, sci-fi, and sword-and-sorcery fiction.” See this Goodman Games page here.  

That’s a useful read for non-game sources. These dtories show where Gygax got the inspiration which helped him reshape the material he and Arneson had developed. If you want to bore down to the absolute specifics, Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World, hunts down many of the specific fictional sources and how they impacted design choices and art. 

Peterson’s work is a real ludography, pulling together the various game design streams existing at the time and showing how they provided a foundation for what would become role-playing games. He analyzes the importance of Kriegspiel, play-by-post Diplomacy, and more to the community which would eventually arise. Is it useful for playing D&D (and its descendants)? Probably not unless you’re fetishizing originalism in ttrpg play.  

But when I’m looking through a game, I appreciate when the designer spends time talking about their game sources. A bibliography is great– telling me the movies, comics, and novels which inspired the game helps. It helps center me on what the designer feels is the tone and genre we’re going to be engaging in. I can read the rules through the lens of those tropes– and I can often find something new to read. Sometimes it will tell me that a game isn’t really for me– or that the expectation set by the blurb isn’t quite what the game actually aims for. 

But a ludography, a list of games (ttrpg and otherwise), is also really interesting to me. By this point there’s a huge body of work out there– some of it completely vanished. I appreciate these kinds of lists for three reasons. First, seeing what kinds of games the designer feels have operated in similar spaces. A game which cites Monster of the Week and Buffy: The Roleplaying Game, but not Hunter the Reckoning tells me something about the expected play.   

Second, it can offer an acknowledgment of other games. If your rpg is about vampiric lives, power-plays, and coteries, ignoring the legacy of Vampire & World of Darkness feels a little disingenuous and a 1990s/2000s. By that I mean the host of copycat games where designers would deny any inspiration or influence from earlier rpgs. It was weird but I remember it happening more times than I would have expected. I also like this citation better than bashing other games (something we see less of these days in blurb text). 

Third, it can give me a sense of the mechanical evolution of your game. It shows what kinds of systems it might draw on or the designer might have seen. That’s particularly useful for games building on a core system like Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark. That can offer some context for the system choices. The “Gratitude” page at the back of Apocalypse Keys does a dynamite job of this. Though I can’t find it right now, Marshall Miller for a long time was doing meta-work with this– asking PbtA designers about their sources and inspirations. The +1 Forward Podcast also made this a cornerstone of their work. 

But there’s another kind of tangential ludography I want to talk about, more important to me than these earlier forms. The “what’s different?” entry in ttrpg books. If I’m reading a second, revised, accelerated, or whatever version of a game: tell me what has changed. Reference the earlier game and talk about the design choices you’ve made. If it is just about adding in lore or expanding the timeline, that’s fine. But tell me so I’m not hunting through for the mechanical differences. Clearly the designer and/or publisher had some reasons for needing a new edition. They should be proud of those– and make clear how substantial they are. And if it is just a 1.5 with some errata corrections, they should be willing to say that. Buyers shouldn't feel like they’ve been tricked. Honestly when I see a new edition or version, this is the first thing I look for. 

The other version of “what’s different?” comes from games working with an established system or OGL. If you are writing a PbtA or FitD game, it's super helpful to me as a reader if you tell me how your version of the system varies from the “core” or at least the typical version. This doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but I think it is important. If your game doesn’t have stats, does away with stress, inverts the rolling, etc. If I’m coming in with some system expectations from having played these kinds of games before, what should I be looking out for? I put two pages talking about this early on in Hearts of Wulin. Again, it is something I look for when I’m checking out new games. 

(h/t to Evan Torner who has talked about the importance of ludographies before).

#ttrpg #rpg #rpg mechanics

[heatherbelart]

𝘐 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘠𝘰𝘶.

Buffy and Angel forever 💙🧡❤️

I was so delighted to be commissioned to paint this piece by the team behind the brilliant Becoming Buffy Podcast to celebrate their 100th episode! Head over to their Instagram (@becomingbuffypodcast) for the chance to win a print, or visit my Etsy store to buy one.

I have room for a handful of commissions over the next couple of months, so please get in touch if you’re interested.

Painted using procreate with digital oils on canvas.

#Buffy The Vampire Slayer #bangel #angel #buffy summers #buffy btvs #buffy x angel #angelus #sarah michelle gellar #David Boreanaz #sarah michelle gellar fan #buffy watch #buffy fanart #Buffy Fandom #buffy and angel #buffyverse #angelverse #btvs angel #btvs #angel season one #fan art #digital art #digital painting #Portrait Art #fanartist #procreate

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, April 3

WILLOW: How is it you always know this stuff? You always know what's going on. I never know what's going on. GILES: Well, you weren't here from midnight until six researching it. WILLOW: No, I was sleeping.

~~BtVS 1x07 “Angel”~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Not Guilty (Angel, Darla, Joyce, Buffy, PG) by badly_knitted

Time to Move On (Angel/Ritchie, Highlander xover, not rated) by rhodrymavelyne

Progression, Inevitable or Otherwise (Giles/Spike, M) by LiraelClayr007

Living Dead Girl (Buffy/OC, T) by Rozteka

How Fragile We Are (Wesley, Lilah, not rated) by naoa-ao3

When the Dust Settles (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Chelle

How It Happened (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Chelle

You've Got Your Demons (Buffy/Spike, R) by acekoomboom

[Chaptered Fiction]

hit rewind, Chapter 46/? (Buffy/Spike, M) by untiljanuary

Accidental Casualties, Chapters 11-30 COMPLETE! (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by Julikobold

Meow, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by CheekyKitten

Love Lives Here, Chapter 44 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Passion4Spike

With Sprinkles, Chapter 38 (Xander, anime xover, FR15) by dogbertcarroll

Bones and dirt, Chapter 3 (Angel, Buffy, Drusilla, ensemble, Spike, 13+) COMPLETE! by Blackoberst

Blood and dust, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, 18+) by Blackoberst

A Little Poet in Her Monster, Chapter 11 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Desicat

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: Evil boy, what a shame (Spike, worksafe) by novivi

Artwork: Calendiles Ella Enchanted AU ⁉️⁉️ (ensemble, worksafe) by yarboyandy

Artwork: Ethan Rayne WIP! (worksafe) by kingsncrowns

Manips: You Are The One I Want (Buffy/Spike, G) by VeroNyxK84

Artwork: Angel pencil portrait (Angel, G) by Pinkperson

[Reviews & Recaps]

PODCAST: HELLMOUTH HOMOS: Something Blue by Fear Queers

[In Search Of]

ISO: a fic where giles becomes a vampire after being turned by either spike or drusilla requested by ftmshepard

[Community Announcements]

Short & Spuffy 2024 Wrap Up! by SADmins

PODCAST: Announcement [episode release delayed until next week] by Gym Was Cancelled

[Fandom Discussions]

i understand why ats had baby connor disappear and reappear as a teenager by ssaalexblake

Darla and Drusilla were low-key romantic when turning their boys by lizzie-queenofmeigas

by virtue of ats s5 being the last canon tv installment of the buffyverse, spike and angel’s arcs culminate in… each other by justafriendofxanders

Lindsey McDonald x Reader headcanons by justafriendofxanders

What If: Willow and Xander's roles were swapped? by nightshade

Drew Goddard next in line to jack in by Skanky Vamp

The world post Chosen by Vixen22213

Angel...funny? by Moonycoves

What are best episodes to show someone who's never really watched the show? by spongyruler

Thoughts on Buffy leaving Sunnydale end of S2? by Imaginary-Ad-617

The Angel/Angelus divide by Dull_Bumblebee4623

Riley was a waste by xXagirlhasnonameXx

If you were a Scoobie, which villain would appear in your nightmares? by Glum-Substance-3507

Do you think plans for Fred/Illyria would have gone ahead had the show known they were cancelled sooner? by mat0591

Amy should have been a season 7 villain by Eagles56

What's a scene from the Buffyverse that you'd like to forget exists? by PristineSituation498

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#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series #ats #fan art #fan fiction #meta

[buffysummers]

Hi pals! So, I will be a special guest on Investigating Angel’s (sister podcast to @becomingbuffypodcast) episode coverage of 1.19, “Sanctuary.” It drops this Thursday, 4/27, on all podcast platforms.

I will post a link to the episode when it drops, but if anyone is interested in tuning in and hearing my thoughts on the very ~intense~ episode, I thought I’d let y’all know! It’s a rather juicy conversation.

#investigating angel podcast #investigating angel #angel #ats #angel the series #podcasts #becoming buffy #becoming buffy podcast

[becomingbuffypodcast]

Lost scripts, UCLA, & Seth Green

Due to the script re-write of Angel’s second episode, “Lonely Heart,” (check out @investigatingangelpodcast new episode for more details on the scrapped script) both Buffy and Angel’s shooting schedules got pushed back by a few weeks. Because of this, the crew was forced to shoot “The Freshman” on the same day that the UCLA incoming freshman had their orientation. Locations Manager, Ed Duffy recalls the day of saying, “That Friday was also initiation day for the incoming Freshman and we were shooting Bruin Walk, which is the main area where all these freshman were meeting that day. So we had two hundered kids there and they had eight hundred kids there and we couldn’t quite ascertain who was us and who was them, and it became a pretty interesting day. And besides them, there was also construction of a building going on right about ten feet behind us, so that was pretty interesting. That was a big day, and we got through it, but it wasn’t easy. Of course all these freshmen were very interested in Buffy and very interested in Seth and Alyson, and we couldn’t figure out how to keep them away from them, because we didn’t know who was us and who wasn’t, so it got pretty involved…we had quite a few kids that were extremely interested and knew more about Buffy than a lot of people on Buffy. There were some people that knew every single writer. Knew what they wrote, what they did, every director, and were just totally just connected to the whole thing. Seth was very much talking to all of them, so there was one point where we actually broke for lunch and we moved inside a lecture hall, and Seth stayed there through his whole lunch hour and signed things and talked to every single person until they were done talking to him. That was very nice, and we had people from The Daily Bruin there trying to do interviews. It was interesting. We haven’t really run into anything like that since because I got wise right about then and realize that I needed to keep us a little more insulated.”

#buffy #buffy the vampire slayer #becoming buffy podcast #investigating angel podcast #angel the series #seth green #oz #season 4 #the freshman #lonely heart #corrupt

[faggotwalkwithme]

hi, i'm theta, mars and basil! > he/him > gay + aroace > 17 :3

i love horror movies and i make them all transgender

my neocities (huge wip) (flashing warning)

my current interests areee > evil dead (+ other bruce campbell and/or sam raimi stuff) > twin peaks > jeffrey combs stuff (esp. reani, the phantom empire and dead man walking & love and a 45)

other stuff i'll definitely still be posting about: -> doctor who -> alternative subcultures (mostly goth and punk) -> fiction podcasts (specifically tma, w.bg and malevolent)

also, i'm in a band! we're @knees-mean-nothing, give us a follow :)

byf; i post a lot of fake gore/blood (like, A LOT of blood!), syringes, i'm a twin peaks fan (so also a lot of topics on sexual assault, incest and all that fun stuff..[/sarc] i'll try to tag this but i'll pribably mess up sometimes) i swear a lot and i use caps lock a lot. just bware if thats not ur jam

also exclusionists and TERFs go fuck yourself! and plz, if u ship minors and adults, block me

extra stuff below the cut :3

i literally just made this section because i like lists and i need an excuse.

my tagz: #shut up mars: original text posts | #faggotwalkwithme irl: my face | #friends tag: posts pertaining to. my friends | #friend's art!!!!: art that. is by my friends | #goofyfibula stan account: tag dedicated to my wonderful husbandbf (gender neutral), el | #ptrmoc: posts that remind me of characters | #<3: my favourite posts | #me: me | #gender: gender

past interests that i may still post about occasionally (bolded is i still post about it quite a bit!): monster high | warrior cats | musical theatre (in particular, hamilton/heathers/be more chill/dear evan hansen) | falsettos (gets its on category cuz its so special and cool) | good omens | stranger things/IT | sherlock (<- though if i ever post about that its usually in pain and making fun of it) | doctor who | life on mars/ashes to ashes | what we do in the shadows | bbc ghosts (and other six idiots content in general) | sing street | mozart l'opera rock | bugsnax | detroit: become human (im so sorry) | goncharov (i tag unreality) | the magnus archives | red valley | malevolent | WOE.BEGONE | fight club | the rocky horror picture show

more casual interests i'll still post about: camp here and there | MASH | interview with the vampire | buffy the vampire slayer | little lunch | bill and ted | severance | flight of the conchords | derry girls |

also umm some microlabels: quasiromantic, orientated aroace, genderfaun, xenogenders (im considering making like a blog or something where i document them all :3), aegosexual, grayromantic

top artists of all time according to last.fm: pulp | will wood | they might be giants | the cure | angelo badalamenti | mitski | oingo boingo | strawberry switchblade | the smiths | blur | pixies | talking heads | radiohead | david bowie | lemon demon | julee cruise | new order | hot freaks

my birthday is on february 24th :3 i'm from australia and indonesia!!! i'm an avatar of the lonely lets fucking go

#pinned post

[straightbaittournament]

only the option with the lowest percentage will be eliminated! propaganda under the cut:

fitzroy angursell and pali avramapul:

I’m pretty sure even the author thought they were straight and endgame when she started writing them. Although initially Pali is portrayed as the love of Fitzroy’s life so that you think you’re going to have to put up with this straight relationship, she’s later canonically confirmed aroace with a lot of subtext around two other women, while it becomes clear in later books that Fitzroy has a growing interest in another man. Tfw you are sure they’re going to kiss by the end of the book and then it turns out that previous marriage proposals were plausibly about friendship in the first place

oscar francois de jarjayes and andre grenadier:

Okay, so this might sound kind of weird but bear with me because I really think they should count. Oscar was afab but her father gave her a boy's name and raised her as a boy (by 18th century standards) because sexism and he had 5 daughters and decided she was going to be a son because they were a noble family and he wanted a son to become a high ranking military official because they're rich so they can just do that. Oscar joins the army and becomes Marie-Antoinette's personal guard. Her and childhood best friend Andre are very close through out the series (he supports her throughout the many scandals that she has to deal with because she works for the royal family) and at the end of the series it is revealed that they are in love, but they are both killed in the war before they can actually get together. The dying before they can be together might fall into the buried straights category but they relationship also has really queer energy because throughout the series it becomes apparent that Oscar usually Does Not Vibe with only the gender she assigned at birth. She sometimes refers to herself as a woman, sometimes refers to herself as a man, but her attitude is usually basically 'I'm a man, I'm a woman, I'm both, I'm neither, stop asking'. So I think they should count as straightbait because we find out that Oscar is nonbinary and Andre loves her no matter what her gender is (and then they die before they can get together).

abbie mills and ichabod crane:

They both start out as main characters, working together since the ep. 1. Next three seasons follow the regular m/f protagonist duo pattern: they need each other's help, there's chemistry going on, there are heartwrenching scenes and dramatic sacrifices, they learn they can only truly rely on each other - so the next step is to let them be together, right? Wrong. The next step is to let lt. Mills make a final sacrifice, which on top of killing the pairing insults her as a character - suddenly from the POV protagonist she started as she's demoted to secondary character who always was just there to be the main guy's support. There are some feelings acknowledged, but no confessions or promises exchanged during the final fleeting reunion. Three-seasons-worth of build-up and then she dies.

angel and cordelia chase:

They met as characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but their dynamic doesn't take off until the Angel spinoff Because the showrunners of Angel didn't go in with the idea of putting these two together, the characters' friendship was allowed to develop organically without the assumption of romance, which then made the realization of their feelings for each other more satisfying. Unfortunately the shadow of Bangel (Buffy x Angel) still held over Angel's character, so I think it was a hard sell at the time and didn't gain a lot of popularity in the years since. Both these two characters grew alongside each other, supported each other, and despite knowing that they loved each other, let each other go to pursue their destinies. A really underrated het pairing!

entrapta and hordak:

Heavily heavily heavily hinted/slow burn?

joseph cooper and amelia brand:

These two are explicitly set up as the male and female leads of the movie and shown to have a close relationship with each other, one where in any other movie I would have expected them to end up together by the end of the movie, especially since one of the central themes of Interstellar is love as a force that can change the universe. However, the two do not get together by the end of the movie and there is never any explicitly romantic scene between them.

akko kagari and andrew hanbridge:

Very typical hetero-love-interest introduction, rival vibes, aloof rich boy & headstrong "commoner" girl, learning to see each other's point of view, she dresses up for the first time in the series to sneak into his party to try to talk to him. Just classic 'ugh they're clearly gonna get together' but... they don't. Nothing romantic is ever explicit, and by s2 they're friends and that's it. there's no discussion or drama. they're good friends. literally shocked me. apparently a guy and girl who fit a bunch of romantic tropes... can just be friends

kurosaki ichigo and kuchiki rukia:

Oh man, where do I even begin? So, for some context, Bleach starts when Rukia (a shinigami) gets critically injured saving Ichigo from a monster, and she transfers her powers to him so he can finish it off. Instead of transferring half her powers as planned, however, she transfers all of them, which forces Ichigo to take over her job as a shinigami. During this time period, Rukia... lives in his closet. Yeah. The entire first arc of the manga is dedicated to their relationship, and while a lot of it is playful banter, Rukia's presence in Ichigo's life fundamentally changes it for the better. Rukia then gets kidnapped by the rest of the shinigami who aren't at all happy she gave her powers to a human, and the main plot ensues from there. Throughout the story, Rukia and Ichigo constantly save each other when they're at their worst. When Rukia thinks she deserves to die, Ichigo is there to tell her she deserves to live. When Ichigo is in a funk about his superpowered evil side, Rukia is there to snap him out of it (something his canon love interest explicitly realises she was unable to do). They share a sun/moon motif for crying out loud, and yet like that last sentence said... they don't end up together, but with other people instead. Yeah. No shade to the canon ships, but Ichiruki is peak straightbaiting, honestly. They have a lot of banter/chemistry, fundamentally change eachother's lives for the better, save each other when they're at their lowest, and have a very deliberate sun/moon dichotomy... but they both end up paired off with different characters instead asdfghkl

bow and glimmer:

They didn’t get together until the VERY END of the whole show and even then it was a little ambiguous (was it a BFF “I love you?” 🤷🏼‍♀️)

hardwon surefoot and moonshine cybin:

They’re DnD characters so they’re bi disasters canonically. Just not for each other The best way to describe Hardshine is this: “They’re soulmates” “Platonically or romantically?” “Yes” Literally they care so much about each other. Moonshine cured Hardwon’s vampirism by reincarnating him into a half elf and he told her “I’ve been half elf ever since I met you”. Moonshine is a high level elf druid which means she’ll basically live forever and literally the most emotional scene where she asks her mom “How long do half-elves live?”. Hardwon was always a fish out of water who never really fit in until he found Moonshine and the Crick. Are they dating? Queerplatonic partners? Siblings? Idk man they’re just in love it doesn’t matter how.

good luck everyone! now go vote!

#almost posted this to my main and then realized i had just saved it to my main's drafts #which still sucked bc i had to retype everything (fortunately i had just typed the poll options at the time and nothing else) #but good god what a heart attack #nine worlds series #the nine worlds series #victoria goddard #lady oscar and la rose de versailles #berusaiyu no bara #sleepy hollow #sleepy hollow fox #sleepy hollow series #angel the series #spop #she ra and the princesses of power #interstellar #little witch academia #lwa #bleach #not another dnd podcast #not another d&d podcast #singles tournament round 1 #poll #poll tournament #the rose of versailles

[yellowocaballero]

of the fandoms you have written for, which ones would you genuinely recommend? (like, should I play half life?)

That's a difficult one! It's hard for me to give very broad recommendations, "everybody should watch this, because everybody will like it". I can normally really only just list my favorites and the reasons why, and let people see if they're interested or not.

It's also double difficult because I mostly write fanfic for works I find like...5/10 - 7/10. If I like something too much I don't write fic for it - it's like painting on the Mona Lisa, lmfao. There needs to be a sweet spot of 'good enough for my brain to chew on it, has enough untapped soil and potential that there's blanks to fill in'. If I really, really love something, I'm just like...wow, I really love that! I'm very satisfied with that experience and there's nothing I would want to add or change! Anyway! So all of my favorite works that I would recommend without reservation aren't things I would write for.

That being said, my Animorphs, Buffy, and Artemis Fowl works were written from a place of deep love for the source materials. I can't recommend any of those without reservations, but they were written because the source material was very special to me. Other things I've written because I hate the source material. Detroit: Become Human is very bad.

If you're thinking, 'I might want to get into The Magnus Archives!', I do want to suggest that you read some transcripts of I Am In Eskew first. IAIE is my favorite podcast, and it basically did what TMA tried to do a thousand times better. It's incredible. 'Paining on the Mona Lisa' situation.

Similarly, if you're interested in comics, I'd have to recommend specific authors or runs over characters.

So - Half-Life is a classic, and makes the list of 'best of' games. It's acknowledged as one of the best FPS shooters of all time. So if you're the kind of person who likes 90s FPSes that are very light on plot, then it's a great example!

Sorry that's not super helpful haha. I don't actually think I can recommend without reservations anything I've written for. Either it's like The Magnus Archives (which was pretty good, but I really never feel the urge to re-listen or anything) or it's like Animorphs (incredibly high art that in some instances was either just really fucking dumb or really did not age well).

Play/watch a Let's Play of The World Ends With You. It builds character.

#or watch it whatever #sorry that answer was so unhelpful haha #i feel bad that i genuinely did stop and go through my dashboard and think 'would I reccomend any of these to anyone' #and #nope!!! #wow. #like 90% of the things I love I just don't mention OTL #like Catch-22 is my favorite book and I can't reccomend that either #cuz genuinely a lot of ppl would be put off by its treatment of women and that's valid af #also like a thousand other reasons #mad max fury road is the best movie ever but if you arent a big action movie person #you won't get much out of it #or you won't get the right things out of it. #you see the dilemma. #my asks