lavender clouds

my official statement on this and every matter is that we all must hang out and tell our friends we love them more frequently 

People keep trying to construct analogies for the cultural dominance of Dungeons & Dragons in tabletop roleplaying spaces like "imagine you met a guy who considers himself a cinema buff but exclusively watches Marvel Cinematic Universe films released within the past 12 months, explaining that he doesn't branch out because he just doesn't have the time to learn the lore of a second cinematic universe; when you suggest avoiding that problem by watching a standalone film that isn't part of any cinematic universe, he reacts like you're a huge weirdo, and after a bit of questioning it turns out he genuinely believes that films which are part of massive cinematic universes and black and white Eastern European art films about depression are the only kinds of movies which exist", and I know this is intended as hyperbole to illustrate the absurdity of the situation at hand, but, like, I have literally met the guy they are describing.

there are a lot more abjectly harmful and meanspirited april fool's jokes out there but the one i personally find most annoying is when american game devs pretend that they're going to make a visual novel spinoff of their game because they can't imagine making visual novels in earnest

Every contemporary video game RPG wants to give me a party of emotionally dysfunctional weirdos and then bends over backwards to ensure that none of my interpersonal decisions cause any intractable conflicts or have any lasting consequences, which just feels wrong to me – like the latter is actively undermining the former. I want to see an RPG that goes full early 90s dating sim. I want an RPG where organising my party composition is like that logic puzzle about getting a fox and a duck across a river.

The Gentle Death 🥀 [commission for amazing Calamarty]

This WIP Wednesday we present the (nearly) 9 lives of Fred, from concept to colours to fully realised cat! 🐱

Fun fact: Fred was pitched as being a cat pretty much immediately. Because, as @storm-arts-around says, “your boss being a cat is funny.”

His personality is also based off a cat owned by our writer and composer @quirky-bones – abrasive, standoffish, full of Old Man Energy™, but lovable too of course (provided you stay on his good side…)

✨ Wishlist Spill The Beans on Steam! ✨

Playing through Fallout:New Vegas for the first time in years. And I'm developing a newfound appreciation for the damage done to the intended pacing of the narrative with the addition of the Courier's Stash. I wake up in Goodsprings, and as part of the extended tutorial you have Ghosttown Gunfight, the fairly self-contained faction war between Goodsprings and the Powder Gangers. And the design intent, I think, is that this is probably supposed to be a pain in the ass, with only one or two avenues of support available to you given the low level at which you'll pick this one up. Six Powder Gangers, some in body-armor, would be a serious threat, and committing to fighting against that with your dinky 9mm and a varmint rifle seems like a rough time! An actual uphill battle, doing the right thing instead of the easy thing. Fortunately, Benny inexplicably left my handy 40mm grenade launcher in the grave with me, so I cleaned up.

I'm working my way south, and, you know, in a version of the game where Benny didn't inexplicably leave my handy 40mm grenade launcher in the grave with me, this would have been the knock-on effect of my "good" Karmic choice in defending Goodsprings; the road south is littered with powder gangers who'd have been neutral had I not kicked the hornet's nest. As it stands? Free experience. I hit Primm, and fighting through the cramped hallways of the Bison Steve I encounter an enemy armed with what was clearly supposed to be the first heavy weapon I'd encounter in the world. Tight Corridors. Inexplicable Grenade Launcher. I clean up. South I go to the Mojave outpost, Nipton, that whole thing. And clearly, clearly you aren't meant to take a swing at Vulpes here, right? You're supposed to take it in, get a sense for the legion. In the version of the game that shipped you're supposed to get bodied if you try to kick the beef gate here. There are allowances in the game for if you pull it off, sure, but I did try with just the service rifle, without the glorious first-strike capabilities afforded to me by the 40mm grenade launcher that Benny inexplicably left in the grave with me. It didn't go very well!

So now I'm dogged by Legion hit squads on my way to Novac, which I get the distinct impression was not the point in the game at which this was supposed to start happening to me, because I am gathering up some pretty expensive equipment, all sold for space. I punch through to Vegas, and at this stage, the clear developer intent is that you need to spend some time milling around Freeside or Camp McCarran in order to gain access to the Strip- do odd jobs to scrape up the money, buy the forgery from Mick and Ralphs, gain monorail access, get your science skill high enough to hack the robot. Get the lay of the land, get a feel for the people, send some time stewing in the human cost of House's walled garden before you head in and hear the pitch from the big man himself.

Except I've got 5000 caps from selling off all the legion killteam equipment. In I go!

And the fun thing is, right, the Courier's stash can't be diegetic, but it is having a very direct impact on the world here. A top legion guy just went down to my inexplicable 40mm grenade launcher. Whatever else I'm roleplaying as, I am roleplaying as a guy who woke up in the possession of an inexplicable 40mm grenade launcher, and neither I nor my character can plausibly ignore that fact given its terrible bloodstained utility. I play a man, a man who would be a good man, a man nonetheless bewitched by the terrible resolutory power of the grenade launcher. My best friend, the inexplicable 40mm grenade launcher! My worst enemy, the inexplicable 40mm grenade launcher!

Beats to brew to ☕🎶

Enjoy this taste of the Spill The Beans soundtrack – crafted by our amazing composer and sound designer, @quirky-bones! 💜

✨ Wishlist Spill The Beans on Steam! ✨

"you are addicted to screens" no no you see i am actually addicted to my friends. unfortunately they live in there

new arc in dnd means new OUTFIT and my girl Ori is SERVING

more than i even like self inserts i love the power of the second person perspective. like from a literary standpoint, the discomfort of you is so deeply appealing to me. it forces the reader to engage with a story in a way it is not required from other perspectives. i like it literature and in video games and in art. i like when a story challenges my concept of self and tells me: forget everything. this is a story about you (disambiguation)

loving my friends so much moodboard

Indie RPG Tumblr is great because you'll see someone reblog a post like "yes, I agree that mainstream tabletop RPGs are too preoccupied with fine-grained action economies", and then their next post is about a game they're currently working on whose combat system is basically "what if Magic: The Gathering could physically kick you in the balls".

them...

Plato Speedrun 102% All Theories [WR]

Landian Accellerationism is the idealogical equivalent of "If you smoke cigarettes fast enough your body can cure lung cancer"