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joshuasumter · 2 months

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What if...The Cross Zone got a lot bigger?

From the creative minds that bought you Namco X Capcom, Project X Zone was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 in Japan and worldwide in 2013, receiving great praise as it bought characters from three legendary game developers -- Capcom, Sega, and Namco Bandai -- to crossed worlds, dimensions, and the fabric of time for the ultimate cross-over tactical RPG mashup!

But what if the cross zone had gotten a whole lot bigger with even MORE titles and are joined by even more characters from surprising guest companies.

What if...The Cross Zone got a lot bigger? explores what would happen if the events of Namco X Capcom, Project X Zone, and Project X Zone 2 occurred differently with the inclusion of characters, worlds, and universes of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Square Enix, and much more. For example, my fan-made original story movie inspired by the crossover RPG.

The Project X Zone Movie (Capcom x Sega x Bandai Namco x Cartoon Network x Nickelodeon x Disney x Pixar x Square Einx x Channel Federator x Channel Awesome)

The Project X Zone Movie 2: Fate of Many Worlds (Capcom x Sega x Bandai Namco x Cartoon Network x Disney x Pixar x Square Einx x Marvel x Star Wars x Level-5)

NAMCO BANDAI

Namco X Capcom (Reiji Arisu, Xiaomu)

Project X Zone (Mii Koryuji, Kogoro Tenzai)

Tekken (Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima, Heihachi Mishima, Ling Xiaoyu, Alisa Bosconovitch)

.hack// (Kite, BlackRose)

.hack//G.U. (Haseo)

Tales of Versperia (Yuri Lowell, Fylnn Scifo, Estelle Sidos Heurassein)

Summon Night 3 (Aty)

Adventure of Valkyrie (Valkyrie, Kurino Sandra, Sabine)

Bravoman (Arnold/Bravoman)

Wonder Momo (Kanda Momo/Wonder Momo)

Soulcalibur V (Natsu)

Soul Edge (Taki, Mitsurugi Heishiro)

Tales of Destiny (Rutee Katrea, Stahn Aileron)

Xenosaga (KOS-MOS, MOMO, Shion Uzuki)

Tower of Druaga (Gilgamesh, Ki)

Shadow Land (Tarosuke)

The Genji and the Heike Clans (Taira no Kagekiyo)

Baraduke (Masuyo Tobi)

Burning Force (Hiromi Tengenji)

Ordyne (Miyuki Chan)

Dig Dug (Taizo Hori)

Klonoa (Klonoa, Guntz)

God Eater (Alisa Ilinichina Amiella, Soma Schicksal, Lindow Amamiya, Ciel Alencon, Nana Kouzuki)

Yumeria (Neneko, Neito)

CAPCOM

Street Fighter (Ryu, Ken Masters, Chun-li, Guile, Cammy White, Ingrid)

Ghosts n' Goblins (Sir Arthur)

Okami (Amaterasu, Issun)

Viewtiful Joe (Viewtiful Joe, Sexy Silvia)

Monster Hunter (Monster Hunter, Felyne, Palico, Gore Magala)

Breath of Fire III (Ryu, Nina, Momo, Garr, Rei, Peco, Honey)

Resident Evil Revelations (Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine)

Resident Evil 6 (Leon S. Kennedy, Helena Harper, Ada Wong)

Resident Evil: Dead Aim (Bruce McGivern, Fong Ling)

Ace Attorney (Phoenix Wright, Maya Fey, Apollo Justice, Athena Cykes)

Darkstalkers(Morrigan Aensland, Demitri Maximoff, Felicia, Hsien-Ko, Donovan Baine, Anita, Jon Talbain, Victor Von Gedenheim)

Dead Rising (Frank West)

Devil May Cry (Dante, Trish, Lady, Nero, Nico)

Bionic Commando (2009) (Nathan Spencer)

Captain Commando (Captain Commando, Hoover (Baby Head), Jennety (Mack the Knife), Sho (Ginzu the Ninja))

Dino Crisis (Regina)

Final Fight (Guy, Mike Haggar)

Mega Man (Rock/Mega Man, Roll, Blues/Proto Man, Rush, Tango, Eddie, Beat)

Mega Man X(X, Zero, Axl)

Mega Man Legends (Tron Bonne, Servbots, Mega Man Volnutt, Roll Casket)

Star Gladiator (June Lin Milliam)

Strider (Strider Hiryu)

Forgotten Worlds (Unknown Soldier 1P, Unknown Solider 2P, Sylphie)

Cyberbots (Jin Saotome, Princess Devilotte de Death Satan IX)

SEGA

Billy Hatcher (Billy Hatcher, Chick Poacher, Rolly Roll, Bantam Scrambled)

Golden Axe (Ax Battler, Gilius Thunderhead, Tyris Flare)

Panzer Dragon (Keil Fluge, Blue Dragon)

Alex Kidd (Alex Kidd, Stella)

NiGHTS into Dreams (NiGHTS)

Skies of Arcadia (Vyse, Aika, Fina, Cupil, Gilder, Enrique, Drachma)

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog)

Sonic Boom (Sticks the Badger)

Bayonetta (Bayonetta, Jeanne, Viola, Luka)

Virtua Fighter (Akira Yuki, Pai Chan, Kage-Maru)

Fighting Vipers (Bahn)

Shenmue (Ryo Hazuki)

Shinobi (Hotsuma)

Shinobi: Nightshade (Hibana)

Space Channel 5 (Ulala)

Streets of Rage (Axl Stone)

Sakura Wars (Ichiro Ogami, Sakura Shinguji, Gemini Sunrise, Erica Fontaine)

Yakuza/Like A Dragon (Kazama Kiryu, Goro Majima, Ichiban Kasuga)

Resonance of Fate (Zephyr, Leanne, Vashyron)

Valkyria Chronicles III(Kurt Irving, Riela Marcellis, Imca)

Sega Saturn Advertisements (Segata Sanshiro, Sega Shiro (Segata's son))

Shining Force EXA(Toma, Cyrille)

Dynamite Cop (Bruno Delinger)

Zombie Revenge (Rikiya Busujima)

NINTENDO

Fire Emblem Warriors (Rowan, Lianna)

Fire Emblem: Awakening (Chrom, Lucina)

Xenoblade Chronicles (Fiora, Shulk)

DISNEY

Gravity Falls (Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines)

Kim Possible (Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Rufus)

American Dragon: Jake Long (Jake Long, Trixie, Spud, Fu Dog, Lao Shi)

Darkwing Duck (Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck)

DuckTales (2017) (Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby Vanderquack, Launchpad McQuack)

Phineas & Ferb (Phineas Flynn, Ferb Fletcher, Isabella Garcia-Sharpio, Burford Van Stromm, Baljeet Rai, Candace Flynn, Agent P)

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja (Randy Cunningham)

Mighty Med (Oliver, Kaz)

Sofia the First (Princess Sofia the First)

Disney's Descendants (Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos)

Wreck-It Ralph (Vanellope Von Schweetz)

The Simpsons (Bart Simpson)

The Lion Guard (Kion, Bunga, Fuli, Besthe, Ono, Anga)

PIXAR

Brave (Princess Merida of DunBroch)

The Incredibles (Mr. Incredibles, Elastigrl, Violet Parr, Dash Parr, Jack-Jack Parr, Frozone)

MARVEL

Captain America

Iron Man

Thor

Hulk

Black Widow

Hawkeye

Falcon

Vision

Wasp

Captain Marvel

Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel

Black Panther

Spider-Man

Doctor Strange

Iron Fist

Ghost Rider

She-Hulk

Wolverine

Storm

X-23

Future Avengers (Makoto/Hurricane, Chloe/Charade, Adi/Codec, Bruno/Twister)

STAR WARS

Rey

Finn

Poe Dameron

BB-8

CARTOON NETWORK

Ben 10(Ben Tennyson, Gwen Tennyson, Kevin Levin)

Generator Rex (Rex, Six, Bobo)

The Life & Times of Juniper Lee (Juniper Lee)

The Powerpuff Girls (Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup)

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (Mac, Bloo)

Dexter's Labratory(Dexter)

Samurai Jack (Samurai Jack)

Ed, Edd, n Eddy (Ed, Double D (Edd), Eddy)

OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes (Kaio O. Kincaid (K.O.), Radicles X, Enid Mettle)

NICKELODEON

SpongeBob SquarePants (SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star, Sandy Cheeks)

Fairly OddParents (Timmy Turner, Cosmo, Wanda, Poof)

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko)

Winx Club (Bloom, Stella, Aisha, Techa, Musa, Flora)

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera (Manny Rivera/El Tigre, Frida)

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (Jimmy Neutron)

Danny Phantom (Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Jazz Fenton)

My Life as a Teenage Robot (XJ9/Jenny Wakeman)

Glitch Techs (Miko "Me_K.O." Kubto, Hector "High Five" Nieves, Ridley, B.I.T.T., Zahra Rashid)

SQUARE EINX

Kingdom Hearts (Sora, Riku, Kairi, Ventus)

The World Ends with You (Neku Sakuraba, Shiki Misaki, Daisukenojo "Beat" Bito, Raimu “Rhyme” Bito, Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu, Rindo Kanade, Tosai “Fret” Furesawa, Nagi Usui, Shoka Sakurane)

Final Fantasy (Warrior of Light)

Final Fantasy II (Firion)

Final Fantasy III (Onion Knight)

Final Fantasy IV (Cecil Harvey)

Final Fantasy V (Bartz Klauser)

Final Fantasy VI (Terra Branford)

Final Fantasy VII (Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, Aerith, Cid, Yuffie) (Kingdom Hearts incarnation)

Final Fantasy VIII (Squall Leonheart) (Kingdom Hearts incarnation)

Final Fantasy IX (Zidane Tribal)

Final Fantasy X (Tidus)

Final Fantasy XI (Shantotto)

Final Fantasy XII (Vaan)

Final Fantasy XIII (Lightning)

Final Fantasy XIV (Y'shtola)

Final Fantasy XV (Noctis Lucis Caelum)

OTHER TITLES

CHANNEL AWESOME

Nostalgia Critic (Nostalgia Critic)

Angry Video Game Nerd (Angry Video Game Nerd)

Atop the 4th Wall (Linkara)

The Angry Joe Show (Angry Joe)

LEVEL-5

Professor Layton (Professor Hershel Layton, Luke Triton)

CHANNEL FEDERATOR

Bravest Warriors (Chris Kirkman, Beth Tezuka, Danny Vasquez, Wallow, Plum, Catbug)

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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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Tal'Dorei Travelouge: Makin My Way Downtown Through a Sea of Pexhalia(The Fey Realm, The Echo Tree and A Test of Pride)

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Hello all you happy critters and welcome back to Tal'Dorei travelouge where I take a weekly look at the legend of Vox Machina. We're almost done.

Even if I won't miss my stupidly self increased workload, I will miss covering this series and enjoying one of the best series on television. I still have a LOT to look forward to this year with the Owl House Finale, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Kiff (Which I previously had no intrest in but then I found out it stars Kimiko glenn so.... ) , and cumilating sometime late this year with Invincible's triumphant long awaited return. While the animation scene continues to be a waking nightmare, there's at least some daydreams to keep my hope alive and this is very much one of them. It's also just nice to know a show you love has a bright future: at least one more season, likely two more to finish it up as a whole, a spinoff coming in 2024 or 2025, and options for movies and other works which with tons of one shots, the exandria unlimited minis, and the various sequel one shots to this very campagin, means we will be eating good for some time provided amazon prime also dosen't loose it's shit. At any rate I have some episodes to make my way through so without further ado, full review and spoilers under the cut

So before I dig in, i'm doing things a bit diffrently this week. See thanks to the planeshift being mildly botched, our party is split this week, half to the feywild, which i'll call Team Double Date and half to somewhere near Vasslehiem, which i'll call Team On My Way. I was going to go with Team Grog nearly gets his penis bitten off by a wolf, but it was a bit too much of a mouthful. As such instead of covering each episode one at a time, i'll be covering each team on it's own, as their essentially a two episode long and three episode long arc respectively. Before I dive in I do want to talk about season 2 as we near the endgame. Last week I talked about the good side of this season being episodic, with our heroes going from city to city on their quest with arcs along the way, each leaving an impact. It keeps the sessiony nature of dnd, while still fitting tv fine and I stand by it as it, along with the conclave's wider focus as a whole, has allowed the whole cast to shine more after the percycentric first season. It's also likely this was just as intentional in building this section of the campaign: Briarwood was focused entirely around whitestone where, unlike the show, they stuck around for a bit after, and the two arcs before this were set entirely in Vasslehiem, the ones before that being entirely around Emon and a small backwoods town respectively. This was the first arc in the campagin to really travel around Tal'Dorei and build out the world, and thus is likely why they jumped right to the briarwoods instead as it'd do the heavy lifting for helping flesh out the rest of the cast's backstories, as it involves Keyleth's people, Vax and Vex's father, PIke's grandfather whose also Grog's surrgotate father, and Grog's evil uncle we formally met this week. It allows us to really get to know the cast's history after getting to know them the first season. The downside to it.. is it's fucking huge. This has upsides.. but it also means that this season really feels like part 1 of a two part story, and while it wasn't something I felt a ton in the first half as we approach the climax it's sinking in more. It feels like the story isn't close to done and that the final battle with Umbrasyl is more the big fight at the end of a disc of a ps1 rpg, than the actual end of things. IT's still cool to play, sets up a lot of stuff and feels climactic, but we both know the story isn't close to done nor the big bad actually here yet. I can't fault the team for this as the Conclave arc is fucking huge and you can already feel the compression a bit, with them having to cram a lot of character introductions from pre-stream and the stream itself into a shorter time frame.

I'ts not too bad honestly, though I haven't watched the stream to compare, but it's clear there's no way in hell they could've done this in one season and had it actually be good. It's just with a two season arc it means you won't know how it turns out till part 2 comes out, and it's hard on me as a critic as part 2 could be a great satisfying conclusion that feels just right and really makes this two magical seasons of television that takes this show to new heights or it could be entirely botched and make me regret the time and love I gave the show. I have all the faith it'll be the former and these fears will likely amount to jack shit, it's just nervewracking after seeing shows ended before their narritive could finish (Final Space) or suddenly take a massive nosedive that totally wrecks all the good will they've build up (Star Vs the Forces of Evil). I don't see either happening as Amazon is all in on this show and the crew actually give a shit about what fans think and have this story actually planned out more than five minutes ahead, but I still tense up a bit and I feel bad for doing it when the critical crew has given me no reason to. It just makes for a slightly less satisfying experience first go round, but i'm sure the ending will leave me begging for more and my doubts will be entirely crushed next year. We'll see. I just had to be honest, or there's no point in doing this. Anyways, let's get away from my crippling anxiety and talk about Percy's three Peni shall we?

Team Double Date:Of All-Too Relatable Fanart, Shitty Parents and Gaslighting Incels So naturally Team DD isn't in the best shape since half of them are missing and Keyleth has her requisite panic attack over it. Vax, even if he's in the middle of his "my future is horrible and thus everything is horrible" phase, can't help but help the love of his life and calms her down in a scene that's both heartwarming and well done as his points are right: Pike isn't alone and if Keyleth HADN'T done the spell they'd all be dead. Being seperated sucks and is difficult, but their alive and where one of the vestiges was. I also like a nice reason why they were likely seperated: Keyleth was taking them to the vestige.. but in her panic over Umbrasyl and the speed she had to do it and with Scanlan having mentioned two in quick succesion, her mind likely slipped to both and thus split the team roughly in half. And luckily didn't split them in half entirely. We also get to see my boy Percy in full on adorable dork mode. Seriously it was nice to see him happy as it almost never has happened in the span of almost two full seasons. Vex can do it , but outisde of her few things can make him actually smile, so seeing him giddy the whole ep about the feyrealm, having studied it as a boy, is adorable. Even if not entirely helpful as books on a realm where nothing makes sense and everything makes nonsense do'nt do diddly. It is a dope setting though, with the art department having gone all out to make it feel enchanting and otherwordly. It's also clear it does NOT like Vax, but grass trying to murder him, the deadliest of foes, is the least of their worries as they have a peeping tom, which contrary to certain one hit wonders jazzy songs, is not fun nor sexay.

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Your welcome for me inflicting this on you. Anyways, the peeper is Garmalie, a satyr, voiced by Billy Boyd. Yes they got a full on lord of the rings allumn for this, my boy pippin. Seriously I saw the Two Towers first and them riding a giant talking tree was one of the highlights... that and the fucking army of trees. He also played Chucky's seed Glenn in Seed of Chucky and the Series, and seems like a nice dude overall. Garm is a delight.. mostly for his introduction where the team capture him and assume his notebook is spy stuff... and instead it's fanart of varying quality. Yeah you can tell the nerdy voice actors who made this series have a LOT of experince with fanart because part of why his is so funny as i've seen all three types here before. Let me educate you Vex gets the worst, "Porn that horribly exagerates a characters sexy parts in a way that is not sexy just deeply horrifying. IN Vex's case her boobs are eleviated to propritions even Dennis Renoylds stellar artwork could never hope to match and also somehow twist around her body. I also don't like this kind because ther'es poor artmanship and then there's just greasy nightmares that show no respect for the subject. And yes you can draw art that's pornogrpahic and still you know respects the character. Second we have Vax and Keyleth who having sexual tension that can be seen from Tal'Dorei's moons, are drawn in bondage. Nicely done at that. I mean at worst Keyleth is out of character, but while she's drawn more muscular than we're aware of, it's not a terrible body type nor outright creepy like with vex and I do think they'd at least try it. Finally we have Percy of the "what the shit type" that's clearly drawn not to titliate but just to see if they could do it. He gets three pensises each with the face of one of the othe rparty members. IT's not offesnive just.. weird. Everyone's reactions are also perfect, with Vax just being stopped cold , Keyleth naturally all blushy, Vex amused, and Percy getting the absolute best with his utterly deadpan "Why do I have three Peni"? IT's easily the best joke of the week, and given a certain musical sequence we'll get to when we get to the other team, that was hard but much like Purvan and Playing WIth His Sword, this had me rewinding MULTIPLE times, evne more than either combined just to hear it again. It also has levels: it's funny enough he's asking, but the fact the weird faces on his peni aren't the part that he has questions he has is a nice subtle joke within the joke. Percy and Vax are both held back by their pride: Percy refuses Garmalie's help which, while he is shady as fuck, he also lives here and his info isn't as out of date or in cases wrong as some of Percy's, while Vax.. refuses to forgive percy and holds every incvoncince against him. The former.. is fair, as Percy did fuck up and while genuinely contrite it's only been two days, a week at most, since Vex died and undoing said death came at great personal cost. A cost he really needs to open up about to everyone else, but I get him being grumpy. But letting it interfere when Percy is genuinely doing his best and their stuck without a healer in a dimension they know little about with their only posisble help being a very suspect satyr.. that's less fair. It's what I mean abotu the character stuff: The episode gives the two a chance to short their issues out, but isn't too overt with it: Vax is more passive agressive, and what he's really mad about isn't brought up explicitly, and Percy's pride is baked into his character. It takes a stumble through some grass that leads to some delightful tripping balls from Vex and Keyleth to get them to work together well again. Said trip also has the best voice possible for Trinket so please...

The action sequence, as usual is great and allows Percy to debut Diplomacy, a gauntlet he apparently had in the game from day one, but gains here as his prostetic hand.. it requires a pull to get the juice flowing but proves the logical weakness. This also forces Vax to accept their going after him and after trying to brush off Percy apologizing again, Percy nicely refuses and says he'll have his friend and future brother in law's back no matter what.. which finally gets Vax to both kinda forgive him. It's a ncie moment as Vax admits he's been so distant.. because h'es scared of the path he's on and knows where he's going they can't follow. But percy decides Garm can as they need the help. Garmillee.. ends up being actually useful, in a nice shock. While he disappeared at the first sign of real danger, and thus won't be in for a fight he does give our heroes actually good directions and leads them to the elf captial of Sygorn. I mentioned last week that the city suddenly going up was clear setup.. well here's the payoff. Sneaking through a city isn't ideal but well.. Pixies are strong like bill bixby, so ti's best to go through... unfortunately even having the parties most subtle members along dosen't really help when your five (soon four as Garm nopes out) strangers in a town that shouldn't have vistors at all and the elves are forced to Namedrop dear old dad to avoid getting holes poked in them.

The ensuing conflict.. is tense and I was fully invested the whole time with the inevetibly nasty reunion between the twins and their father Syldor. I mean it helps the pre-show is Percy assuring Vex that while "Anyone can act like a noble just be an asshole and have a title" he assures her she has class. It's a taste of the fucking feast Percy and Vex shippers like myself got this episode. It helps that the show (and the campaign) avoids falling into an easy trap: We find out Vax and Vex have a step mom, Devana, played but the awesome Toks Olagundoye, aka Ms. Goddamn Beakley. I have to think part of the reason Sam knew to call on her was he was voice director on DuckTales, something I didn't know till art of ducktales but now cannot stop thinking about, as it means there's a VERY high chance the rest of the main cast could pop up here or on Mighty Nein. While Sam isn't voice director (That falls to his good friend Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), he still cleary has connections and the main cast for Ducktales, or hell the entire cast really, is all god tier. I"m not sure who they'd play as i'm only mostly familiar wtih the first campagin this shows based on and purpsofully barely familiar wtih the Mighty Nein as I want to watch that campagin with only moderate spoilers, but there's a lot of parts to play and several ducktales alums would be great for. At any rate, Devana... is kind and welcoming to the two: at most she just simply dosen't understand why it's been so long, making it likely she either dosen't get why their father's racisim hurt them so or simply hadn't seen the worst of it. Either way it's clear she treats them as family, when all too many shows fall into the "new wife is jealous of old kids" trap. Not that it dosen't happen, it can just be overused but she's not the reason they fled into the night only coming back to avoid a stabbing. She brings in a surpise though.. turns out the twins have a sister, Velora, played by Jayla Lavender Nichols, who I haven't heard of, child actor and all, but is nice in the roll capturing the girls innocence. And what I like is that.. neither of the twins put their shit with their dad on her. They could easily see him having her as simply replacing them or trying to have a child who has "pure" blood because racist is one of the many asshats he wears. Instead both's reaction once the shock wears off and they realize how delighted she is to finally meet her big siblings? Kneel down to her height, hug her and warmly interact with her. Vex who as we saw last season gets jealous very easily and as we see this episode has a relationship with her dad that can best be summed up as..

Is easily the sweetest with her: When Velora compliments her hair feather, she gladly gives it to her little sister as a reminder of her. It's clear the two love their new sibling, as big as the age gap is and as much as it's clear their father isn't embarassed she exists. It's also nice to see in Vax whose been somehow both grumpier and even more pissed off than usual since his bargin be genuinely happy.. for the five seconds before his father enters. So yeah how to best describe Syldor? Well normally i'd just use one reaction image, but Syldor is such a sea of asshole filled with asshole fish, asshole crabs, asshole whales, islands of pure assshole next to contents of calficied asshole dotted with rivers of pure asshole, not a one seemed to sum him up well.. though at the very least this one sums up how I feel well enough.

Syldor is one of the most punchable characters i've encountered in fiction. While he was bad enough in flashback, calling his children "diluted"

He somehow manages to make the worst second impression of all fucking time from there. He spends the episode being a massive knob to his children, only treating Keyleth and Percy with some degree of civility because he barely registers she's there and because he's nobliity respectively. The former is good both because Keyleth is so kind and loveable.. and because if he he got a wiff of her intrest in his son he likely would've done or said something so horrid there would be nothing left of him but a bloody pile of knife wounds and a traumtized widow and newly fatherless child to remember him by. And yeah I know as a big falutin lord he probably has collegues in such but even among elves I doubt anyone else can stand this arrogant, racist, selfish prick.

The city itsel is more sympatheic than him as while their in hiding their ACTIVELY preparing to come back and fight. IT's clear they left because they had the means queued up and unlike Vasslehiem I can support their being a bit cowardly: Vasslehiem is heavily guarded, full of powerful soldiers, healers and folks. It's army is likely smaller than tal doreis but prepared and they did not have to contribute said army, just goods or a dirction for our heroes. Instead they brushed them off and I hope they pay dearly for it before the arc's up. I dont' think they will canon wise but as seen last week, something not happening in canon.. dosen't mean it can't happen. Their not morally perfect, they could've waited to get refugees and didn't and clearly fled out of some form of racisim as much as preservation.. but the fact a bunch of assholes who took their city and ran are at least actively planning to help, traning to help and are simply hiding till their ready to fight.... is more sympathetic than turning away our heroes. Hell Syldor is somehow actually more helpful than the entire council despite being helpful by accident: When they bring up their after the vestiges he mentions exactly where it is, that it's nearbye and despite hating half of them, gives our heroes a scroll to let them get to the area. It's all condesceneding as fuck and if he dropped dead right after he'd be doing the world a favor, but it's telling that the biggest asshole in all of Tal'Dorei, very much including the four mass murdering dragons, was more help than a supposedly "Holy" council.

That said. .he's still...

So he spends the conversation doubting his children are capable of what's needed, despite Vax you know WEARING A VESTIGE IN FRONT OF HIM, mocking them and only not getting the uppercut he richly deserves because Vex STILL wants his approval

And because you know they need his help. Everyone has limits though and while Vax has been unduly patient with her dad, there's three things in her life you can't insult and expect to get away alive: Her brother, her bear, and her one true love. The former Syldor only gets a pass on because he always does this and she's just.. used to it, which is entirley sad. The next one is thankfully safe in his pokeball because Syldor is enough of an asshole to be a dick to a bear just because.. but Percy.. Percy is right there and made the valiant mistake of trying to do something nice for Vex. Having hit the end of his own patience since by this point they had everything they needed from the man, he simply gives Vex a title, mistress of the grey hunt. Unlike what I heard from the stream though.. this does nothing. Syldor isn't remotely impressed, sees he's just trying to help her, refuses to amend her title, and insults percy... and Vex finally tells her abusive dad to fuck off, that she will get the bow he dosen't think she can get and she's going to shove it down his fucking throat. This.. barely phases him because he has no feelings to phase, but it's also clear she's done.. and also taught her sister the word fuck. Awwww.... The conversation after this with my OTP. .is also great as Percy apologizes, feeling he overstepped.. only for Vex to make it clear that she found the gesture incredibly charming, and throughly apricates the title. In a sadly realistic touch she admits telling her father to fuck off iddn't feel good as it meant finally admitting to herself he dosen't care, but Percy perks her up by talking about her pure heart, and the scene is tender, shiptastic and generally sweet. And what I deserve after having to spend a good chunk of the episode with Syldor.

Anyways our heroes find the bow but also find a problem as not only is the bog it's in alive.. but as Gamilee (who rejoins them now he dosent' have to hide), puts it an archfey is in the middle of it named Saundor.. which as you can imagine is hell for me when Syldor is a major character in this episode. I get it for the stream as Syldor both came up long before this in a small arc (simply having his first in present apperance moved here to tighten things up), and the two weren't in the same episode. Here though.. he and the rest had no real excuse. Syldor is a through creep, trying to tempt Vex into giving him her heart and is generally apossievie incel who gets mad when he asks for it.. and is denied as, in a moment that made me cheer and percy get a look that now lives in my head rent free.. her heart belongs to someone else. A truly awesome fight insues as Vex goes one on one with the dick, without her trust bow after a point, and the rest of the team has to learn how to fight a tree.. an din a moment taken directly from the livestream and Marsha's on the spot thinking, Keyleth tears through their tree asses easily by combining two ablities: her minty fresh fire elemental transformation.. and woodwalking, alowying her to teleport from one to another and burn the fuckers from the inside. Bad... ass. Vex likely gets a great moment stabbing saundor in his blackened heart with a cool arrowhead Percy made for her, and our quartet prepares to head home and we get a hint for the future as Garmilee opens up a portal Tal'Dorei, likely somewhere near westrunn, effortlessly, as thanks for giving him the most fun he's had in a milenna.. and once their gone transforms into an arch fey himself. Curiouser and curiouser.

Team On My Way: Wolf Groin Attacks, Popop and Old Demons So while that's going on back with the other half of the team, things are.. less great. Grog is paralized with guilt over what he did, Scanlan is naturally panicked at PIke's peril and Pike is healing herself.. which I forgot she could do but thankfully saves her easily. Less easy.. is Grog breaking up with Craven Edge, which posses him.. but the memories of what he did to pike break him out of it and we get a badass sequence of him dulling the blade on every rock as it taunts him before finally shattering the fucker in half in a sea of blood. I also like that Scanlan and Pike are genuinely suprised it both drinks her blood and can talk, also making Scanlan come off as less of a dick for brushing off pike's concerns last episode: he HADN'T seen Grog go nuts with it like she had and as he correctly pointed out Grog is pretty weird to start with. It was hard to notice a change in behavior. Btu with his best friend and sisters support, Grog could vaniquish his inner demon. If I have one complaint, ti's that this goes a mite fast. it feels like they ran out of time and thus kinda had to speedrun grog breaking with the sword, and as a result it feels like a bit of an anti climax: the SCENE is good, but after this thing had such a grip on him and Grog had such insecuriteis about his own power and such a reliance on it it feels a bit quick and easy.. even with the aftermath.

Said aftermath is Grog is left skinny, a fate he considers worse than death, and is forced to rely on his friends to get by, leading to the amazing "On My Way" number. I cannot wait for the soundtrack to relase.. probbaly next week. I understand WHY, the last volume had spoilers and such and basically outlined the season via titles, if vauge enough not to ruin it, so in such a heavily packed season it was the last thing they wanted, but the wait is killing me on all the original music and I wish they'd relase this shit weekly at least. I didn't know I needed a country duet between pike and scanlan, or that Ashley Johnson could sing in fact, but god this was transcednant. Even better once I found out it was based on a gag from the second campagin: Matt had a habit of saying "you make your way", so they cast would chime in with the opening lines of a thousand miles.. and apparently it's evolved so much it gets it's own original song. We get a heartwarming roadtrip montage of Grog being a swiss army goliath, from a boat to a swing to a wolf chewtoy while our heroes drag him around.

They eventually get to a character i've been waiting all season for, partly because he's so important to PIke and Grog's backstories i'd read about.. and mostly because he's the goddamn fonz. Yes Henry Winkler is here and the crew was happy to get him. He's perfect as willhand, sinking easily into the wise but snarky and blunt gnome and i'm happy to see henry in anything, but especially here. It's also a sweet reunion as Pike gladly calls him pop pop despite being an adult, introdcues scanlan.. and Grog also adorably calls him pop pop while Willhand is eager to help his grandson. The problem is Grog needs to get his muscles stimulated... and after the obligtatory mastubation attempt explains they jsut need a jolt and whips up a cure, being an expert herbalist. Grog dosen't think he can swallow it..

No really. IT's... not one of the series better jokes, though Scanlan being the one to do it for obvious bead related reasons is, and judging from the trailer also foreshadowing. You know not every fantasy series can pull off a gnome shoving a lifesaving cure up a goliath's ass as foreshadowing, but Vox Machina somehow can. Problem is Grog's muscles while at least working again so he can walk normally and lift things, aren't back to full shape and need time to pop back up so our heroes are left a goliath down and decide to go investigate Westrunn for the gauntlets. This leads into our next episode as Grog is still trying to avoid it at all costs... only to explain their wielder Kevdak is not only his uncle.. but nearly killed him.

So we get things split again next episode, though just between this party as we wait for the rest to get back. Scanlan's story's pretty easy to run through if still important: he uses a new dragonfly form (after seeing one float by to comply with polymorph requiring you to have seen the creature first) to sneak in to grab the gauntlets and get out, and Pike even flirts with him to get his coperation. THe two. .have been actually doing better though we did get a very sad, well done moment where Pike is genuinely complimentary and it's almost working for once.. only for Scanlan to default to his horny shields, can relate and have her walk off mad.

Scanlan soon finds the local refugees led by Kaylie, played by Aisling Francosi, who I hadn't heard of and makes her Voice Acting debut here, but does a great job, not taking Scanlan's shit and being awfully paranoid about him leaving... she also looks a tad familiar don't she? I'll save the twist for next time, as it hasn't been revealed in show.. but let's just say I know what her deal is and it is a LOT. We also meet Dr. Dranzel, an orc leading a traveling troupe who weirdly dosen't know scanlan here. in the original campaign he discovered him.. mostly because the home game orignially just being a fun one off... Sam, being new to dnd and not sure what to do just had some fun and basically gave Scanlan Eminem's backstory. Maybe they don't want to piss him off, always a good strategy I don't know. So orc dr dre and kaylie need to escape and since they won't let Scanlan go get the calvary he helps sneak them out once Umbrasyl arrives. Umbra's been busy these eps, as he beliveis in the vestiges but Thordak, while wise mostly.. is also stupid abotu them and scoffs at needing them. He's also become best pals with Dr. Ripley, though Scanlan only vaugely recognizes her voice, so our heroes don't know yet. I DO like adding her as an active presence this season, as in the campagin she just vanished a while, which is fine for a tabletop as they had bigger issues and assumed she'd come back eventually, but for tv dosen't quite work, especailly since they had Victor hint at her. So having her play umbrasyl to further her own goals and survivial while forming something resembling an honest friendship is great.

Umbrasyl is getting tribute from the herd of storms....aka Grog's old herd, something he explains to pike. In the livestream I THINK she knew all this, but it was clever to have her not know: Wilhand simply didn't pry too deep because he knew better not to ask and Grog was too ashamed to tell pike, as we get his tragic backstory.. which is really this season's theme. Except for Percy but he had a whole tragic backstory season so it's fine.

Once upon a time a younger teenage grog was a happy mindless murder machine, a brutal monster woh gladly killed everyone he could with no thought to his victims as the herd carved it's way through any town unlucky enough to find their path, egged on by his adopted father Kevdak.. which is not nearly as confusing as the other naming situation as it's just two characters who happen to share a "dak" name, neither of which share an episode, played perfectly by Ralph Ineson, a character actor whose been in a LOT of things, including playing the Demoncisim guy in Star vs the Forces of Evil. The more you know and such. Kevdak is a brutal monster and Grog was on the path to become a spitting image of him.. till he met Wilhand. Wilhand begged for his life.. and in seeing a locket of Wilhand and his grandaughter, Grog for the first time in his life.. grew a concience. Maybe it was just how sad he looked, maybe the young goliath realized what he'd been doing all his life, maybe he just rembered his dad. The show leaves it vauge, but whatever it is.. Grog just coudln't kill the man and instead brains his cousin Zanror and tries to get Willhand to saftey without anyone noticing. He manages the first part.. but Kevdak kinda notices his son got his shit kicked out of him and confronts Grog who lets Wilhand go and gets ready to fight.. and we see why the poor guy is so afraid of him: As he has a vestige, which nicely crackles, Kevdak has super strength. A fun fact while he came up with this whole backstory, Travis both never thought he'd see Kevdak mid campaign, and the idea of the vestiges were matts, with him deciding it just lined up too perfectly not to use them as vestiges. This perfect storytelling syndergy.. results in a horrifying scene of a young man being beaten into a bloody pile, left in a pool of his own blood with no one to help him not even some poor kid to cry

Okay he's thankfully not as he's telling this story and in a nice bit of karma.. Willhand returns. He clearly figured Grog wasn't going to get out of that alive, and thus brought a young pike, her hair still brunette, long story, with him. Grog lost his herd.. but gained a family.

The two decide to go after Scanlan, but he does fine and gets the refugees to saftey, with Scanlan promising to reunite with them.. but the scared way they look at Grog gives him an ephinay: He realizes that his herd has done that to people, that HE used to.. and thus realizes where his strength comes from: it's about helping the helpless, and if he can't do that, it's worth nothing. So even without it he plans to confront kevdak, sending the other two off as he needs to do this one on one, to both clear his demons, and because it's the right thing.. as well as the only thing his uncle will understand. So thus as Kevdak beats his own child which despite being an adult I still think counts as child abuse at least on a technicality, and grog challenges him

See you next week.. or earlier if you follow my twitter. Untithen.. thanks for reading

#the legend of vox machina #legend of vox machina #critical role #percy x vex #vex'halia #percy de rolo #vax'ildan #grog strongjaw #henry winkler

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feyariel · 2 months

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Fey Reads Oriental Adventures 3.0 (2001)

Part 1: The Beginenings

In which Fey Rues the Twilight laments the problems (racist and otherwise) of this book

Remember how I talked about the Collective forming an OA party? Well, that inspired me to review OA. But since it's a favorite, I figured it'd be best to go chapter by chapter. My introduction dwells on the material people usually skip so as to address the elephant in the room: the fact that OA is not in and of itself a fantastic resource when it comes to authenticity of anything it discusses.

OA was one of the first two RPG (let alone D&D) books I ever bought (the other being the Psionics Handbook). I loved it to pieces -- quite literally: I carried it in my backpack so much that the corners of the cover frayed, which led to a friend of mine repairing them with brown duct tape (it doesn't match the cover, but it does complement it). It still remains a sourcebook I find incredibly helpful, with plenty of good ideas.

And yet...

To say that OA has its share of problems is an understatement. I'll explain as I go, but the title itself is a clue.

Alternate Alternate Subtitle: Why I Hate James Wyatt

James Wyatt's discussion of the origins of this book -- the L5R RPG and the original Oriental Adventures for 1st edition AD&D (1985) -- is a great reflection of what Tumblr will note is White (Liberal?) People Ignoring Racism.

Wyatt opens this foreword with an offset quotation of the opening line OA 1985 ("...The mysterious and exotic Orient, land of spices and warlords, has at last opened her gates to the West."). He ruminates on this as an outdated theme only: he says that society has changed, but he doesn't discuss the underlying issues -- of how the word "oriental" is now considered pejorative, of how exoticizing a culture necessarily others it and thus creates an inherently demeaning caricature regardless of intentions (for it is one which is always in contrast with the viewpoint culture of the exoticizing person [in this case, the West in general]), and how in the '90s and early oughts there had been major calls for representation of othered peoples (mainly by race, culture, and certain disabilities; gender and sexual minorities were still largely taboo at this point and we were grappling with having equal representation of women). He glosses over this entirely; it reminds me of Todd Lockwood's comments on the subject while working on concept art for 3.0 D&D.

This lack of understanding pervades the book from the very first page -- by which I mean the credits. The only credits that seem to be for people of Asian decent are artist Raven Mimura and pronunciation guide Moe Murayama. While Wyatt provides a mini bibliography on the same page, the only sources he cites in full are various D&D ones. He does cite "the Legend of the Five Rings™ roleplaying game, written by John Wick" (tee hee), but there had been two editions by that point by a few years and he doesn't indicate which he references. He otherwise cites "numerous L5R supplements by John Wick, Ree Soesbee, and others," in the manner of a YouTube plagiarist. Very helpful, James! This is the only bibliography in the entire book, so the only way to know if he does any justice to Rokugan (the L5R setting), Kara-Tur, or Asia past the -stans not belonging to Russia is by knowing or learning about those things from outside sources. (We shall see why this is a problem as we go.)

The credit for this fault can't solely be placed on Wyatt -- we are talking Hasbro-WotC business practices, after all, and there are typos in this credits list anyway. And though I checked a good portion of the major names (all but Mimura were white; I'm not sure who Murayama is), I couldn't check all of them, so it's possible someone involved was a person of color.

We don't necessarily need someone of color to write a book about Asia in fantasy so long as we have someone who is well familiar with the subject matter. Wyatt presents himself as this, bringing up his own "interest" in India and Southeast Asia while discussing the new OA book and its antecedents. If you weren't familiar with the original OA, you'd think that this would be a sign that he was responsible for the inclusion of non-Chinese/Japanese/Korean elements.

And, again, we'd be wrong. Most of those were already in OA to begin with.

Wyatt's philosophical approach to the book as a whole is inadvertently revealed when discussing L5R:

"In the meantime, a collectible card game somehow accomplished what generations of roleplaying games based on the fantasies of Asia never quite did: create a living world drawn from Asian history and legend that did not pretend to be history, never claimed to be accurate, and yet appealed to a larger and more vocal fan base than the original Oriental Adventures setting of Kara-Tur or historical Japan ever did."

(Emphasis mine.)

First of all, Rokugan is emphatically Japanese. It does include a few things from other cultures (e.g., naga), but 90-99% of things in Rokugan are Japanese. Not only are they Japanese, they're obviously and vehemently Japanese. To say that it doesn't pretend to be history or claim to be accurate is to mistake the conventions of the fantasy genre artistic license for an excuse not to do research and not to be faithful to source material.

Second of all, L5R did something that RPGs didn't for a few reasons. There's an implicit understanding in this paragraph that Asian RPGs failed because of lack of interest in historical recreation, but that's like talking about D&D as if it were a byproduct of Ren Faire culture. (Granted, the wargames it grew out of did have an element of that, but they were always about the wargame first and the period details second.) As with the rest of his intro, Wyatt's focus overlooks real-world connections in a glaring fashion -- in this case, the rise of anime and the subsequent popularization of all things Japanese in the mid-'90s onward. L5R wasn't a success in a vacuum, a work of awe-inspiring popularity that fell from the heavens, but part of the craze for all things Japanese that is still ongoing (and has in turn led to the growth of other imported Asian media fandoms).

"Fey, what are you getting at?"

Wyatt has a nasty habit of 1.) not understanding the material he's working with, be it Asian cultures or the alignment system and 2.) imposing his very constrained opinions on such material in a way that simply doesn't work. Such missteps are usually pretty obvious; they are frequently wrong as in just incorrect, but at least as frequently wrong as in also bad/evil in a way that it takes only a brief reaction to see. This isn't just true of OA, it's true of everything the man's hands have touched.

Now, to give credit where credit is due, Wyatt does try to keep OA operable for all forms of play: the Rokugan enthusiast, the weirdo who likes Kara-Tur, or the person who just wants to shake up D&D a bit. He spends the majority of the rest of the introduction on this, talking about what variety you can use and how to differentiate pieces hither and thither. He does mention that there is a chapter devoted to Rokugan itself, but not that the preceding chapter discusses pastabilities with cultural presentation, which is lamentable. This book is indeed worthwhile in featuring lots and lots and lots of options. It could be better if it were able to contextualize some of these, not least of which by labeling things by culture and not just whether or not they're from L5R. (There is one table that provides names of weapons by culture and another with Japanese, Chinese, and "Indian Culture" names for classes, but no additional translation notes, let alone explanations for how these things might differ.) However, if it were much better, it would have to sacrifice something elsewhere, as it's already nearly as big as the original third edition Player's Handbook.

The amount of material in this book should be enough to give a cursory outline of a Rokugani campaign. It provides a lot -- a lot -- of detail on the major clans, general details about the society at large (organizational structure, religion, history, economy, class immobility, etc.); with the amount of purely Japanese material in it, it should be possible to run a Rokugan campaign. I do recall at the time that there were mixed reviews, though: people who weren't already familiar with L5R loved it, but fans of L5R gave vague but always semi-negative reviews. This would allow for AEG (publisher of L5R) to cash in on the "everything must be d20 System" fad and release a series of Rokugan supplements (including a Rokugan Cmapaign Setting of roughly equal length).

The Short of It

The thing to take away from OA is not that it itself is a masterwork of writing, editing, cultural representation, authenticity, or even reliability regarding its featured campaign setting. Rather, it's that as a 250-something page book, it does a remarkable job of inspiring interest in Rokugan and Asia in general while also providing just enough material that you have a jumping off point for both gaming and further research. It's imperfect in the extreme, but it's very much worth the read anyway.

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smiteworks · 9 months

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New Release Pathfinder RPG- Campaign Setting: Fey Revisited Paizo Inc.

Unveil the mysteries of primeval legends, encounter ancient creatures from a time before time, and prepare to enter a preternatural world where nothing is permanent and everything is alive and vibrant.

#rpg #vtt #fantasy grounds #fantasy grounds unity #pathfinder #paizo inc.

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coloursofyourmind · 3 years

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#wang yibo #rpg #avatar 200*320 #uniq #the untamed #gank your heart #produce 101 #legend of fei #day day up

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majjiktricks · 2 years

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2, 5, 6, 10, 13, 21, 23, 24, 31, 33, 34, 42 48, 54, 64, 74?

god damn this took some thought... its 2am tho i'll blame my slowness on tired brain LOL

questions from this post!

2. First game you played? my first console was a ds lite so it had to be a game from that... i wanna say it was pokemon heartgold? that sounds right...

5. Game with the best soundtrack? this is SO hard... i love video game music very much... i can do top 3 maybe... pokemon b/w, stardew valley, the witcher 3. i would list ace attorney but i dont actually know what soundtracks go to which games because i always listen to series soundtrack compilations LOL

6. An underrated game from within the last few years? i genuinely dont think ive played anything recently released that hasnt gotten its due attention... most of the games i consider underrated are older or simply old enough to no longer get the attention they once did. if 2017 is "recent" then prey 2017. its a beautiful game with a good story and solid gameplay. i think it was overshadowed by other projects by arkane, but it still deserves attention.

10. Prefer PC or console? PC absolutely. i am much more comfortable with a mouse and keyboard than i am with a controller. that said, some games ARE significantly better played with a controller (yakuza, furi, hyper light drifter, etc)

13. Scariest game you've played? i tend to avoid horror games because i get little enjoyment out of being scared in a mental sense. i enjoy thrill rides and carnival games, but not thriller media, yknow? the scariest game ive ever played was prey 2017 by arkane studios because i didnt know it was a survival horror game when i bought it LOL

21. If you had to play one game for the rest of your life, what would it be? something multiplayer so i could do it with my friends and never run out of things to do. maybe ARK survival evolved, or minecraft. ive been playing overwatch since it first came out, so maybe that.

23. Favorite genre of video game? rpg or immersive sim i think. rpg because i love fantasy-scifi and those tend to come in the format of rpgs, and immersive sim because i LOVE it when you get to pick exactly how you get to accomplish your goals.

24. Ever cried because of a video game? i cant remember exactly. i probably have. the closest thing i can remember is being really emotional about the ending to yakuza 6, but i dont remember if i actually cried or not. tears of frustration, however, ABSOLUTELY.

31. Game with the best theme song? legend of zelda series. i cant think of a more iconic theme that works for any game of its catalogue.

33. Favorite female npc? my brain's immediate answer is mia fey. i cant explain exactly why but i love that lady very much. shes only around for a short time in the games but man. i also remember really liking josephine in dragon age inquisition, though its been so long since ive played it, i cant remember why.

34. Favorite male npc? i.. hmm. i like quite lot of them. to pick one? fenris dragon age. hes up there in the amorphous unranked blob of npcs i like.

42. A game you will never forget (in a bad OR good way)? borderlands 2. ive played that game so many times (of my own volition or not) that i have most of the story and quests memorized and can quote verbatim a decent number of lines if i encounter the scene theyre played it. i love the game to death, dont get me wrong, but i will likely not play it again for a looooong while.

48. A game you've always wanted to play but have never gotten to it? final fantasy and/or kingdom hearts. i read the kingdom hearts manga for a short time as a kid and was fascinated by it, but ive just never gotten around to picking any of them up.

54. A sequel you really want? a sequel to deus ex: mankind divided. i just wanna see adam jensen again... man deserves a proper ending to his story, and mankind divided was NOT it.

64. Describe your favorite video game using only three words. this requires me to establish a favorite video game... have you noticed i am bad at picking one-above-all favorites yet? hmmm. bodyguard's revenge quest.

74. Which game has the best lore? i cant speak for the "best" lore but for the lore i was the most invested in? probably dragon age. ive played all three games start to finish, read most of the lore in the games, and own almost all of the comics and one of the books.

#jazz noises #inbox #ask meme #coffeemakesmeahappybean

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sylvanvixen · 3 years

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@dungeonqueering

It’s here and it’s amazing! I cannot overstate how hyped I am for this project! Exalted is a fantastic and beautiful setting and the design for Exalted Essence has been fabulous.

It’s an amazing mythic fantasy world drawing from myths, legends and pop culture from all across the world, actively choosing to focus on world building that diverges heavily from medieval western fantasy. Various stated locations include cultures inspired by mixes of various places and time periods including China, India, Venice, Athens, Baghdad and a heck of a lot more.

The system that we’ve seen so far is an amazing game that runs fast and straightforwardly, rewards cool descriptors, makes convictions and bonds between characters mechanically relevant and gives every character cool magical abilities that enhance their stats and an awesome battle aura that buffs their skills, it’s also not restrictive in it’s powers for the most part, a fighty type character can totally invest in the knowledge skill and all the cool powers associated with it. There’s full social mechanics engaging in romance or rivalry (or both!) and for downtime projects like running a kingdom, navigating a wilderness, crafting and magical rituals.

The design team for this game is awesome, they’ve been incredibly cool and open while talking with fans, they’ve put in deliberate effort to avoid cultural stereotypes in their work, the art for the game includes diverse, multicultural characters, a number of women doing awesome things and several disabled characters. The design team is also majority queer, several of them even run a podcast about queer women speaking about rpgs called Bonus Experience!

The character options for this game are really rad!

Characters play as mortal heroes who've been empowered by one of the major gods or other cosmic beings of the setting who are given the power to perform magical and mythical feats in a diverse fantasy setting. It's got 10 Exalted (basically classes) each with subtypes called Aspects or Castes (basically subclasses).

Solars: Heroes with conviction to change the world powered by the Sun god they're mythic heroes and kings of light and excellence, basically most of the Avengers, Hercules, Adora, classic 'protagonist' dudes.

Lunars: Heroes who stand outside society empowered by the Moon God/ess, they’re shapeshifting warriors, tricksters and witches, think Maui, Loki and Double Trouble, the more wild card characters, explicitly trans validating with a gender fluid patron.

Dragon Blooded: Heroes born of blessed family lines empowered by the elemental dragons, passionate and numerous, basically elemental samurai, think the Avatar, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and most of the She-ra Princesses.

Sidereals: Heroes chosen by Fate, secret agents of heaven trying to create a better future with powers to forsee fate and obscure memory, like spy-thrillers with weird esoteric ninja powers, imagine if sailor moon was a spy/ninja show.

Getimians: Heroes who never were, heaven in Exalted is a bureaucracy and sometimes prophesied heroes end up edited out of destiny, returned by a rogue sidereal these heroes awoke in a world in which they were never born and their great deeds undone, now with funky quantum powers, like It's a Wonderful Life as an anime protagonist.

Alchemicals: Heroes born of metal, found in ancient tombs of the machine-titan, these heroic souls were reborn in bodies of magical metal and made to serve a community, able to incorporate magic item powers into their bodies, basically the Iron Giant meet every awesome sentient robot hero but in a fantasy setting

Liminals: Heroes born from death, resurrection doesn't work in Exalted but when someone tries you get a FMA situation where some new being is born in the body blessed by the OG death goddess with awesome ghost hunting powers and creepy body horror, think Frankenstein or FMA hommunculi, but with psychic powers and the ability to hunt ghosts in order to help protect the veil between life and death.

Abyssals: Heroes brought back from death, empowered by the ghost kings of the underworld these deathknights are empowered to become the lords of the underworld with spooky dark powers, very castlevania, vampire hunter D, and basically any gothic heavy metal album cover, not necessarily villains but it's an option.

Infernals: Heroes beaten down by the world order and empowered by the trapped titans to rebel against the world that hurt them, Punk rock kings of hell with their own final boss demon form and awesome alien powers, totally able to play a lot of villains, totally don't have to be evil, you could easily do Dante from DMC or Bayonetta.

Exigents: The exalted of any number of smaller gods and basically the homebrew Exalt, the example one is the champion of a Field God who gave up his power to empower the Strawmaiden who began cutting down an army of evil fairies like wheat. Has provided rules and guidelines for making your own exalted and their cool own powers, so you could be the champion of a god of rainbows, mice or libraries.

Exalted doesn't have proper 'race' options like D&D, if it's going to say something isn't human than it means it (Elves are called Raksha and they're vampiric chaos spirits given shape by dreams to look beautiful and terrifying for example) but you can totally play a 'mortal' with weird fantastic features; some people are beastmen so you could play a snakeperson or a catboy, some people carry the descent of spirits so you could play a character with the style of a tiefling, aasimar, genasi or weird fey character and some people just hung around faerie realms or sorcerers and were given strange mutations or powers

This game is just so damn cool. Check out the project, you can back it for 5$ and you’ll get access to the full rules text of the game, released in chunks throughout the kickstarter (Basically the full book, just without the editing, formatting and all the art) and if you like it you can bump up the pledge at any point afterwards, including after the project is over. It’s already funded several times over!

#exalted rpg #Exalted game #Exalted Essence #Long post

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jomnki · 2 years

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hey! are you stalking me? are you for tons of oversharing from a stranger on the internet? well do i have the perfect list for you my buddy. maybe ill give you my address next ohh boy, wouldn't that be funny. i just like listing and sorting things.

☄️constant fixation

🌞love

☀️past love

🌤️obsessed on one character specifically (blorboised)

🌠nostalgic

☁️enjoys casually

🌩️made ocs for

-(tip: a lone ☀️ means a long gone interest i no longer feel much for)

-(repeats in different lists means that the interest has a comic/show adaptation that ive consumed and like a lot!)

creator based content

scp universe 🌞

aphmaus mystreet and other rp series ☀️☁️🌩️🌠

nijisanji vtubers ☀️

tma ☁️

hermitcraft ☁️

games/franchises

pokemon (mainline and sideline games) ☄️🌞🌩️🌠

omori 🌞

ace attorney series 🌞🌤️

fe3h (just the one game) 🌞🌤️

sonic (lore>games) ☀️🌤️🌩️☁️🌠

danganronpa ☀️🌤️☁️

fnaf ☀️🌤️🌩️🌠

persona 3-5 ☀️☁️

animal jam 🌞🌩️🌠

furby ☁️

minecraft ☁️🌩️

digimon ☁️

yakuza series ☁️

animal crossing ☁️

strawdew valley ☁️

cookie run kingdom ☁️

legend of zelda ☁️🌤️

deltarune ☁️

undertale ☀️🌠

moshi monsters ☀️🌤️🌠

faith ☁️

cotl ☁️

inscription ☁️

hypnospace outlaw ☁️

shows/ their respective comics

case closed 🌞🌠

(fei ren zai) 非人哉 🌞

开心超人联盟 (happy heroes) ☀️☁️🌠

take my brother away (快吧我哥带走）🌞🌠

saiki kusuo 🌞

mob psycho 100 ☁️

card captor sakura ☁️

trigun ☁️

barakamon ☁️

chainsaw man ☁️

nozaki sensai ☁️

toh ☁️

kaguya sama love is war ☁️

miraculous ladybug ☁️

recovery of an mmo junkie ☁️

spy x family ☁️

tawog ☁️

peepoodo ☁️

gintama ☁️

full metal alchemist ☁️

hunter x hunter ☁️🌞

hetalia (sorry) 🌠

su ☀️🌠

fairy tail ☀️🌠

mha ☀️

ouran highschool host club 🌠

comics

oh holy! 🌞

junji ito's works 🌞

lookism ☁️

(快吧我哥带走) 🌞🌠slice of life stuff with a pair of siblings who are normal

(硬核一中) ☁️ manhua about these two fail boys and their classmates, i camt find a english translation of this so i might do it myself at some stage

(头条都是他) 🌞 slice of life drama comedy with an idol group of assholes

(非人哉) 🌞 4-koma comedy based on chinese mythological beings and deities but haunted by capitalism i guess

(小心被梦魔吃掉哦) ☁️ uhm.

(别对我表白) ☁️ a guy accidentally gets his friend in a car accident after running away from a confession.

omniscient reader ☁️ office worker's hyperfixation comes true. he girlbosses his way out.

(她们的故事) ☁️ girl likes girl they kiss

kings maker ☁️ i fucking hate the monarchy

karasu gaoka don't be shy!! ☁️ vigilante gang leaders rivalry that isn't gay at all

fanmade creations i like

rusty pectorior ☁️ fanfic centered on notyx and psyborg, felt like i was watching an entire show

in which sunny can't name things ☁️ textfic based post true ending omori. they're just being silly and goofy.

stuff im kind of interested in learning more about

splatoon

unrelated general hobbies and likes

🍰drawing, sculpting, animating, writing- just making stuff in general

🎾i love seeing people be unapologetically cringe. i love your sans au where he's god go you.

🥩 kidcore, horror, primary colours, horror, sunflowers, retro, soft sunshine

🐙 paleontology, anthropology, history, biology, learning about as much stuff as i can and being annoying about it

🍨thrifted items, collecting, trinkets, wonky toys with the felt and plastic, plushies of many shapes and sizes preferably not full of fur, erasers, stickers, magnets, badges, keychains

🥞sorting things out by different categories, the rough texture of a washed hung out and dried towel, rain, cold weather, the blanket ive used for ages, organising belongings, playlist of animation memes and songs i play while i run around pretending in my head that im super awesome, running around without said playlist, going through old stuff

🍄the video game grinding, hoarding and organising in games, strategy games, bullet hells, rpgs

🍮 my boy, dogs n cats n rats, reptiles, birds, t-rex, dragons, animals I love animals

🍩 burgers, small bits of shredded chicken, apples, round grapes, cold cereal with plain cereal and granola, fruit juice, red roasted beef noodles

🥑 whatever music i can imagine my funny oh cees move to

✖️ hot weather die die die, the feeling of hair tickling my face, smell of my own sweat, nose itchy sneezy makes me want to kill, oily textures, my nails against the plaster wall, the plaster wall itself, the feeling of certain pens against paper, not having something to chew on, running around when i trip on something invisible and give myself the third bruise that week, hair going karen mode, remembering names and numbers,

the blorbos (not ordered)

dimitri fire emblem. i love depressed traumatised men that can kill me.

kiibo drv3 is my son in law

herlock strangler

i desire bowser carnally.

yoshi is my other son in law.

the dogs from sanrio. all of them

the dawg. you know the one.

#i am cringe and i am free

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wormdramafever · 12 days

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#goodbye volcano high #legends and lore #dnd #tabletop rpg #dungeons and dragons #screencaps #fey gvh #gvh

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manicdragondreamgirl · 3 years

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I haven’t had chemistry since like 2008, and I’m also an idiot who likes to make my friends upset, so I rated the periodic table in order to tilt my friends:

Hydrogen - this is like your childhood friend who has always been with you more or less and always will be down to get a drink and chill even tho you haven’t spoken in years. Solid bro imo 7.5/10

Helium - always down for a good time, even if probably created Alvin and the Chipmunks which in some places is considered a war crime. 4/10

Lithium - Gives me bitchy vibes and is flammable as fuck if I remember. Skinny bitch with an attitude 3/10

Beryllium - idk this sounds like a sailor moon villain lol for that it can have a 6/10

Boron - more like BORONG amirite ha ha wait no seriously I have no idea lol 5/10 clean neutral rating

Carbon - *screaming* 2/10 I will not be taking questions

Nitrogen - cool cool cool tight tight tight 9/10 Nitrogen just is the cool hot chick you wish you were

Oxygen - kid who takes up all the glory for the group project even tho you did all the work, 4/10 for natural charisma

Fluorine - lol what are you knockoff chlorine lmfao bitch 3/10 reminds me of the dentist

Neon - I can vibe with this boy for his contributions to signs which cause my eyes to scream 8/10 modernized Art Deco thanks you

Sodium - 10/10 this is me and I won’t be taking questions next element

Magnesium - magnesium is a close relative of magnificent and therefore I think the case is closed folks 9/10

Aluminum - 10/10 for providing a home to my Diet Coke addiction I’d be dead without you

Silicon - 6.9/10 :smirk:

Phosphorous - This has a very soundly name and it’s welcome to do that but idk, not a fan, seems like he’d be smelly, 2/10

Sulfur - 1/10 pretty sure that dog farts are purely comprised of this and as such if I was leaving negative ratings I would

Chlorine - 7.8/10 for being in pools so we could swim without brain eating amoeba in the south you a champ

Argon - he seems like a nerd jk this guy has a good color 9/10 for just being himself

Potassium - I hate bananas and this word gives me the physical sensation of biting into one but only by thinking of abstract letters and making them into something which we can nutrientise from bananas and to me that shit is bananas, b a n a n a s — 3/10 for making me sing hollaback girl thru adhd word association

Calcium - hm my brain went to mega milk so you get a 2/10 today bud I don’t make the rules

Scandium - pretty sure this is fake lol what’s next faxdium, e-Mailite and copinium? 5/10

Titanium - this song’s a banger and also is the only thing that lets me wear earrings 10/10

Vanadium - if your erection lasts for longer than like idk it’s supposed to then don’t take vanadium wait what do you mean it’s not an ED treatment 4/10

Chromium - decent bloke shame the browser eats all your memory 5/10

Manganese - if a weeb tries to tell me how to pronounce mayonnaise one more time... 1/10

Iron - excellent tool against the fey, in your blood, what a bro, 10/10 this bitch slaps

Cobalt - has a powerful energy; I respect him. 8/10

Nickel - if I had a nickel for every time someone made this joke lol 5/10 he’s doing his best

Copper - taste bad 3/10

Zinc - isn’t that the dude in the green tunic and white tights who saves premcess Lelda or something lol 7/10 those games are good

Gallium - seems like a prick 4/10

Germanium - sounds like a child pronouncing geraniums which are superior 3/10

Arsenic - bad vibes coach 1/10

Selenium - isn’t this just sailor moon lol 10/10 love this bitch

Bromine - farmine wherever you aremine - 9/10 I love a good bro

Krypton - he’s okay I guess 5/10

Rubidium - yet another Steven universe villain who will be redeemed I imagine 4/10 seems a bit dull

Strontium - I feel nothing when I see this lad’s name and that seems like a shame 1/10 I don’t like it

Yttrium - this is an atrium in Yharnam, or something 8/10 would love to sit in one and make contact with higher beings

Zirconium - oh wait THIS is the sailor moon villain from the dead moon circus! 9/10 I enjoyed that arc

Niobium - seems sassy, I like that in an element 7/10

Molybdenum - I hate this one, rancid. 1/10 for making me have flashbacks to difficult Ancient Greek vocabulary there is no fucking way that sound combination is anything but Beta and Delta borking and then Latin being like oh imma steal that

Technetium - 6/10 decent name but seems a bit forced

Ruthenium - 5/10 kindly old lady element I guess lol

Rhodium - 10/10 this ain’t my first rhodium babee this lad has good vibes what a name what a king

Palladium - 10/10 for making me think of paladins

Silver - 12/10 I’m breaking the rules for this silver is the best it is so cool and also it is the other best tool for dealing with supernatural creatures when iron has failed you highly suggest Even if I am extremely allergic to it going into my ears...wait hold on

Cadmium - 2/10 sounds like a total douche

Indium - 8/10, i just think it’s independent and neat

Tin - 10/10 good ear sounds when involving rain and roof shapes and automatically reminds me of Nora Jones’s come away with me album which is also 10/10

Antimony - 7/10 decent protagonist good name all around seems rad

Tellurium - tell ur mom what? That’s so early 2010s league of legends humor bro 2.5/10

Iodine - strikes fear in my soul from having it poured on my wounds but this is why I have more pain tolerance than god 5.3/10

Xenon - I think this is a declension of Xena warrior princess which is a win in my eyes, 8/10

Caesium - kind of has a cunty Latin name, 4.5/10

Barium - yeah boss, bury’im! 7.5/10 I love a good mobster gag

Lanthanum - A bit pretentious on the Tolkien spectrum sorry bud 3/10 sounds like you’d be the dickwad elf everyone hates

Cerium - 6.5/10 I like this one, gives me a clean vibe

Praseodymium - the fuck who sneezed all their alphabet soup onto the paperwork and called it an element Christ we can’t keep doing this 1.5/10

Neodymium - oh my god what did I just say 1/10

Promethium - thank Christ we’re back to greek 9/10 Prometheus was a Chad I could get behind

Samarium - 5/10 gives me boring wizard vibes

Europium - 4.5/10 don’t rename opium chrissake can’t take these nerds anywhere

Gadolinium - 5/10 it’s a starship knockoff but it’s trying to be bold with the G sound

Terbium - 2/10 I don’t vibe with this one

Dysprosium - sounds like an antidepressant that has a lot of shitty side effects 3/10

Holmium - sounds like someone anxious asking their beloved to hold them 8/10 I like hurt/comfort fics

Erbium - you can’t just describe something as herby you daft bastard 2/10

Thulium - sounds like a spell I like it 8.5/10

Ytterbium - macguffin in a shite sci-fi show that gets highly overrated because BBC produced it and superwholock stans emerge and go utterly feral 1/10

Lutetium - bards are an element I agree 10/10

Hafnium - sounds like a river (my dog) sound and has a cute vibe, I’d offer it head pats 7/10

Tantalum - noooo you can’t be sad yuor so sexe haha 6.9/10 tantalizing

Tungsten - 10/10 this is a lad with history

Rhenium - 5.5/10 it’s ok

Osmium - 4/10 I wasn’t a big wizard of oz fan

Iridium - 9/10 sounds like iridescent and that’s in my top 10 favorite words and concepts

Platinum - 10/10 best Pokémon game

Gold - 7.9/10 all that glitters and all but it’s still pretty on some people, silver is better tho

Mercury - yikes 8/10 so it doesn’t kill me

Thallium - sounds like the brother character in a ps4 exclusive western rpg that oddly falls under the radar in terms of reviews and gets shafted at awards for no reason 7/10 I’ll support you tho

Lead - 2/10 that’s gonna be a no from me dawg pretty sure I still have lead in my hands from stabbing myself with my mechanical pencils

Bismuth - 6/10 sounds good in mouth and reminds me of biscuits for some reason, I’ll take it

Polonium - to thine own self be true so stop trying to act like the arts don’t influence science jk pretty sure this is named for Poland but hey that’s where we get the Witcher so you get a pass 6/10

Astatine - 1/10 I don’t even know what you are

Radon - 7/10 this motherfucker knows his shit and how to party, rad is right

Francium - I bring you francium...and I bring you myrdurdium... 7/10 for a good vine

Radium - killed the video star probably 9/10 I can get behind her

Actinium - as opposed to passtinium I prefer actinium in the voice of writing 8/10

Thorium - overrated Norse god 5/10 because lightning is still cool

Protactinum - sounds like some pretentious condom brand 4/10 wouldn’t do it with a dude who bought these

Uranium - I always thought she was a hot sailor scout 10/10

Neptunium - same for her I knew they weren’t cousins you couldn’t lie to me 4kids 10/10

Plutonium - sounds like a macguffin unfortunately 5/10

Americium - I read this with a pivotal letter missing and nearly died, 7/10 for the laugh

Curium - 10/10 gives me Curie vibes and also reminds me of curiosity which reminds me of—[old yellered before the association could set in]

Berkelium - what I shout when I want Burke (fam dog) to slaughter innocents and raze territories 2/10 world was not meant to know his commands

Californium - 1/10 California is cool with geography but probs could stand to chill with the ego sorry to my friends in Cali

Einsteinium - 6/10 it’s alright but we’re really running out of ideas huh

Fermium - 3/10 this one is porny

Mendelevium - 1/10 my brain didn’t like parsing this and I stand by my earlier statement of running out of good names

Nobelium - 0/10 you didn’t name any noble gases this cowards this gas can’t be a noble oh wait it’s NOBEL I take it back 5/10 seems an alright chap

Lawrencium - fear the old blood my sorry dead hunter’s ass I’ll never get back my life from the hours I spent trying to beat this lava shitting bastard 2/10 for being a boss who eats Taco Bell specifically before being challenged to have fresh lava shit with which to punish you for having the audacity to exist in his space

Rutherfordium - my god what a snob 4.2/10 I respect him a little but only because he sounds like a right lad

Dubnium - DROP THE BASS 10/10

Seoborgium - not sure about this one but it can have a 7/10

Bohrium - as an American English speaker this sound combination makes my pathetic throat become a black hole as I try to properly create the sound of it 10/10 I love when my body becomes a massive void in the universe

Hassium - lazy 2/10

Elements 109-118 can go fuck themselves I hate them all, collective 6.66/10 for their general demonic vibe

#the periodic table #made by an idiot #it’s me your manic dragon dream girl #long post

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rpgsandbox · 4 years

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‘I do believe in fairies! l do! I do!’

Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

Experiencing visions of a mythical land throughout your childhood, you are suddenly transported to the Inspirisles, a kingdom ruled by the fey. Responsible for a pact made long ago by your ancestors, you must now earn Belief and the respect of their gods or find yourself trapped there forever.

INSPIRISLES is a completely original tabletop RPG aimed at teenagers. It will promote empathy, life skills and deaf awareness with an emphasis on teamwork and creativity.

Play as teens gifted extraordinary powers.

Meet famous characters and fearsome monsters from Celtic folklore.

Work together to heal a crumbling land and restore a fractured kingdom.

Learn British/American Sign Language as you cast spells and solve puzzles.

Become apprentices to the gods.

Offer Belief to earn your tickets home.

This project came about after running my teen Dungeons & Dragons group Hatchlings for over a year. I wanted to create something for them. Something they could have a hand in building. And something I could take beyond the group to use in schools and communities as a workshop model. Inspirisles is the result of this, a game for young players that reflects my interest in folklore and my ongoing work with the deaf community.

Though Inspirisles is aimed at children, it can be enjoyed equally by adults and we are especially encouraging parents, educators and tabletop beginners to invest in our game. Many of us have fond memories of 80s fantasy classics such as The NeverEnding Story & Labyrinth. Inspirisles aims to capture some of that nostalgic magic and transport its older participants back to a more carefree and imaginative time.

Standard & Limited Edition book mock-ups

A5 premium-colour hardback with over 150 pages of material, including...

History of the islands and their Friends.

Creating your Foundling character.

Collection of spell, ability & item cards and the tools to invent your own.

A host of worldbuilding ideas & mechanics to breathe life into your quests, including using the arts in roleplaying, creating challenging environmental puzzles, alternative ways to earn Belief, rules for Inspired apprenticeships, exploration, downtime & Doom.

Scriv’s Tour: Follow the famous bard as she journals the key locations & personalities you will encounter during your adventures.

Scriv’s Story: Fiction retelling the moment our bard met Athelyn for the first time (Limited Edition only).

Menagerie of monsters from Celtic folklore & the tools to invent your own.

Starter adventure: ‘Duster Trials’.

Stunning art from cover to cover, including maps for locations and encounters.

Two page spread of Josh Somerville’s spectacular knot art (Limited Edition only).

Dyslexia friendly fonts throughout to prioritise accessibility.

Handouts: Blank character sheet, Shaping alphabet (BSL & ASL), milestone certificates & Grail template.

* terms in bold explored below.

Page sample by Anna Urbanek of Double Proficiency

Belief is the keystone of the Inspirisles. The energy binding all things. In its absence, the land and its children would fade from life and from memory.

If Belief were to run dry, it would have terrible repercussions. Imagine something calamitous like Earth’s polar caps suddenly melting or electricity disappearing from the globe overnight.

Though Belief is generated through such things as exploration, the arts, work and even battle, these pale in comparison to the amount collected from human children.

As children believe in magic less and less, the inhabitants of the Inspirisles must come up with new and increasingly creative ways to convince them otherwise.

Belief gathered from Earth is taken to the World Tree and released over its roots. This energy then spreads throughout the land, healing the foundations of the islands.

Shaping

A place where the gods walk freely, where dragons are hunted for hoarding Belief, where a war rages between Friends, where reforging an ancient sword can reforge a kingdom, where sign language is used to cast spells, where there is no death, only Disbelief, and where heroes rise and fall together.

It is also a setting to reflect the struggles of our own world. You’ll find environmental calamity, political greed and social injustice to name but a few. Making Inspirisles relatable to our future generations was an ambition from the very start. However, we would never want to push an agenda, so building a platform for whichever stories need to be told has been our sole responsibility.

Hibernation

Our system and its mechanics are entirely built around the theme of Belief. Players must work together to collect this wondrous commodity, reaching the heights before deciding whether to stay and enjoy the renown or return home and reunite with their true families.

Moving away from systems found in many popular tabletop RPGs, Inspirisles is largely aimed at young adults and does away with traditional mechanics such as racial bonuses, class systems, ponderous combat and even death.

Though our players should expect an open, sandbox experience, it’s nice to have an overall goal in mind. As such, the concept of healing the land as a team for rewards and progression is at the heart of Inspirisles.

As with any roleplaying game, Inspirisles will throw challenges at its players. As well as social and environmental encounters, Foundlings (players) will inevitably come across familiar monsters of Celtic legend, such as the Questing Beast who will stalk them across the land. Within the book, you’ll also discover many nasties of our own invention and the tools to invent your own.

Don’t go it alone!

Attributes

Foundlings will have six attributes: sword, shield, speed, smarts, social & survival. When facing obstacles, they can lay down up to three cards representing spells, abilities or items. These cards display unique properties that will have an impact on their attribute bonus. Players then roll 2d6, adding the attribute bonus plus any additions from the cards. If the obstacle they are facing is truly perilous, they may turn to their Grail Pool as a last resort, a resource only carried by Foundlings.

Sample obstacle resolution

Obstacles can include social interactions, puzzles, environmental challenges and battle. Whether the obstacle is resolved through roleplay or combat, if it requires a check, it is always contested between player and Grail Guide (Game Master).

With every failed encounter and instead of suffering injury or death, Foundlings will instead experience Disbelief. If too much Disbelief is accumulated as a group, players must pull together to reduce it using the Belief they may be saving for a rank or new cards. This balancing act encourages empathy between participants, but also prevents Doom from affecting the islands.

Puzzles & predators

Guinevere & Arthur, our Grail Guide choices

Our version of a Game Master is called the Grail Guide (GG). A participating adult or teenager will take on the role of GG and become the spirit of King Arthur Pendragon or Queen Guinevere. It will be their task to guide the players on their journey, making decisions on the rules, lending voice to the citizens and fangs to the denizens, and encouraging everyone to work together, share the limelight and have fun.

As the GG, you also have the unique opportunity to gift your players their Grail Pool, a set of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 & d20). Foundlings are the only beings able to carry this water poured from the Holy Grail. Even a sip will offer them an edge when facing the greatest of challenges and most dangerous of foes.

Talking of the Grail, with the book will be a template for the holy vessel that GG’s can cutout before sessions. This prop is then placed in the centre of the playing space and can be flipped whenever a player finds a theme or scenario too difficult. The GG can then move on swiftly without disrupting the overall session.

Safety tool

It is also the responsibility of the GG to add tension and peril to the experience. If their players accumulate too much Disbelief, they can consult a Doom chart. This will change the Inspirisles in dramatic ways, such as causing a volcano to erupt, introducing the Questing Beast to hunt Foundlings, having Excalibur seized by an enemy or building a troll bridge on the outskirts of a city.

Spelunking

As a player, you take on the role of Foundling, a human teen drawn by fate to the islands. Instead of selecting a race or class, Foundlings are trained by one of eight fey clans, otherwise known as Friends. The Knockers, Glow, Wyrmbitten, Capra, Piskies, Giantheld and Bucca populate distinct locations from city to forest, tin mine to tundra. Seven of these races work tirelessly to restore Belief and prevent the collapse of the Inspirisles. Whilst the eighth, an exiled people known as Glimmers refuse to help, sheltered far beneath the surface where the cracks go unseen and the tremors unfelt.

Friends

As a Foundling, once Belief is gathered, it can be used in 3 distinct ways...

Pilgrimage to Avalon where the World Tree sits. Belief is offered to its roots in exchange for training.

Patronage to the Inspired. Belief is offered in exchange for spells.

Provide for the community they were embraced by. Belief is offered in exchange for items.

Regardless of how Foundlings offer Belief, they will earn the favour of the ruling houses and feel their reputation and power grow.

Foundling character sheet

The Inspired are the closest thing the islands have to deities. Their influence can be felt across the kingdom at all times and ultimately players will need to impress them if they are to return home.

As well as being great teachers of magic in the form of Shaping, they have trades in their homelands, allowing Foundling players to become apprentices and earn Belief through hard work and dedication.

Kilna of the Fire has his forge.

Egrain of the Earth has her vinyard.

Athelyn of the Water has their bath house.

Vorm of the Air has his skyship.

The Inspired

Travelling via All’s Well, a mysterious portal leading to the British Isles, on their 15th birthdays, the brightest and bravest Foundlings are sent Earthwards to collect Belief. These elite are known as Dusters.

With the help of a Wellwisher, a common mammal transformed by Athelyn to be more like you and I, Dusters will be guided to a child without Belief, a teenager struggling to feel magic in their life.

Players will then roll a six-sided Dusting Dice (d6), revealing the target child’s particular sensitivity. 1: Fear 2: Joy 3: Wonder 4: Help 5: Story and (6: Other - determined by GG). Through roleplaying this sensitivity, Foundlings must convince the child that magic exists before collecting their Belief to take back.

Wellwisher

BSL alphabet by british-sign.co.uk

As well as speaking the common tongue for the sake of interactions with humankind, the fey use a form of sign language they believe communicates right to the heart.

The technique is known as Shaping, a term derived from the hand and finger movements used and a deeper meaning of shaping the world around them. Spells are solely expressed through Shaping, with gestures building energy before being released from the fingertips.

Spells are taught only by the Inspired. Only they know the deeper intricacies of the language necessary to harness magic.

Though optional, we are introducing British Sign Language (BSL) and Sign Supported English (SSE) into our game. We are using it as part of the spellcasting process and to solve some of the setting’s most challenging puzzles, encouraging our young players to learn the alphabet and more as they play.

When you back our core book, whether digitally or physically, you will gain access to a video workshop on the art of Shaping produced by our friends in the deaf community. Whilst not a comprehensive introduction to British Sign (see Stretch Goals), it will teach participants enough to encourage them to pursue the language beyond the game.

The core book will also come with an American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet sheet. The video tutorial unlocks through a stretch goal.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Mon, August 17 2020 12:00 AM BST

Website: Hatchlings

#RPG #kickstarter #Inspirisles #Hatchlings #sign language #BSL #ASL

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