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metalhoops · 1 year

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Steve was used to climbing out windows. Before his junior year, he’d made a habit of entering through and escaping from girls' houses unnoticed. He was stealthy. He’d learned how to scale trees and tread lightly across roof shingles with the deftness of a nocturnal animal. Yet, for the first time, he found himself escaping his own home. There was a first time for everything, right?

Steve’s parents were home. The second Steve saw the familiar BMW pull into the Harrington’s driveway, he knew he wanted to be anywhere but home. His parents were only palatable when he had good news, but all he had to tell them was that after their last visit, The Mall had burnt down and he’d gotten a new job at a video store. He really was doing the family proud. He didn’t want to deal with it, not today.

That’s how he found himself crawling out his bedroom window, shimmying across the guttering and trying not to sprain his ankles as he dropped onto the lawn. He headed out back, past his pool and into the woods. Usually, it was the last place you’d find Steve. He kept expecting to run into a Demogorgon or something equally as nasty.

He walked for a while without direction, trudging through the underbrush until the rustling of leaves behind him set his teeth on edge. His body moved before his mind had time to keep up. He spun on his heels, hand scrabbling to the forest floor in search of a weapon. It supplied him with a fallen tree branch, almost too large to heft comfortably, but he did it, running on adrenaline. He came face to face with a familiar, wide-eyed boy.

“Holy shit, Harrington. Take it down like ten notches,” the boy grumbled, showing his upturned hands as though trying to calm a startled animal.

Hawkins was a small town, the kind of place where everybody knew everybody. Steve knew the boy with deep brown eyes and dark hair, halloed by fallen leaves, was none other than Eddie Munson, or as he was colloquially known, ‘The Freak’. They’d gone to high school together. He thought the guy was due to repeat his senior year, again. He didn’t know what he was doing alone in the woods.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked.

You couldn’t blame him for being on high alert. Even if Eddie was someone he’d grown up with, that didn’t make him safe. Steve was still riled up after running down Billy Hargrove with his car. He was paranoid. He’d had a rough couple of years.

“Collecting sticks,” Eddie breathed, indicating the large bundle in his hand.

“Collecting sticks?” Steve echoed. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe him. He couldn’t fathom why the guy was doing it.

“Yeah, I’m making a miniature log cabin for my D&D campaign, and you know, miniature logs are just... sticks—you don’t care, anyway. Sorry for startling you, my liege.” Steve tilted his head, thinking the acronym was familiar.

“Is that the dragon game, with the Demogorgon and junk?” Eddie looked at Steve like he’d sprouted a third head.

“How the hell do you, Steve ‘the hair’ Harrington, know what D&D is?”

Steve wished people would stop calling him that. Every time he heard the stupid nickname it felt like someone was rubbing chunks of asphalt into his gravel rash. He wondered if Eddie felt the same about his title.

The old Steve would’ve used it just to spite the guy, to see what buttons he could push, not because he wanted to but because it was expected of him. It wasn’t an excuse. He knew that. Instead, Steve shrugged his shoulders and told the truth, something the old Steve never would’ve done.

“I babysit some nerds who play it,” he confessed.

Eddie looked at Steve in wonder. He was puzzled, amazed and, for once, a little intrigued. He’d never looked at Steve like that back in high school. The two rarely crossed paths and when they did, they never spoke. Sure, Eddie ranted about ‘jocks’ as a whole, but Steve had always just been one piece of a puzzle. It would seem redundant to yell at a patch of blue and grey for being a picture of the sky.

“Why did you need to take up a babysitting gig?”

To answer that, Steve had to embellish a little. Maybe he no longer liked lying about who he was, but he couldn’t exactly dump the cosmic mind fuck that was The Upside Down on some unsuspecting guy.

“I needed money.”

“You needed money? What, did you get cut off?” Steve shrugged in response.

“Christ, what did you do? Piss in a family urn? Trash the house? Get a girl pregnant?” Eddie questioned.

“I think generally existing was enough to do it,” Steve mumbled, kicking at the dirt beneath his shoes.

Eddie let out a low whistle.

“Hey Harrington, think fast,” Eddie called, throwing the bundle of twigs in his direction. Steve dropped the branch and grabbed the bundle with wide eyes.

“What was that for?” Steve choked.

“What are you doing in this neck of the woods, anyway?” Eddie asked instead of responding. Steve shrugged, still cradling the bundle to his chest.

“Avoiding my parents.”

“You got any plans for the rest of the day?” Eddie spoke. Steve responded with a shake of his head.

“Well, you know, this really is a two-person job, so if you wanted to come back to my place, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”

For some reason, Steve agreed.

Eddie had a habit of collecting strays.

There was the cat he’d kept under the bed when he was six and the gathering of stray dogs that hung around the back of the trailer park that he’d been feeding for as long as he could remember. The same theory applied to people. He made friends with the loners, the weird kids, the ones with wide eyes and nowhere to go. He was a bleeding heart, so sue him. However, he’d never expected Steve Harrington to trigger his urge to protect and befriend. That really hit Eddie out of left field.

Never in Eddie’s wildest dreams did he imagine he and Steve would be sitting across from each other at his small dining table, Steve’s knee pressed on the inside of Eddie’s thigh. The jock’s still hands held small bits of twigs in place as Eddie worked around him with his hot glue gun. The guy had seemed so lost, back in the woods, so unlike how Eddie remembered him. He knew about D&D for Christ’s sake. Eddie wondered if he’d woken up in an alternate universe because it seemed like Steve Harrington was actually a good dude.

He asked Eddie about his goddamn log cabin, tavern. Then he’d pushed deeper. ‘Why do you need a bar in a game about dragons’? To which Eddie explained, of course, you do more than just fight dragons, which appeared to be news to Steve. Besides his friends, no one showed interest in Eddie’s ‘stupid little fantasy game’. With Steve, questions came thick and fast. Eddie loved every second of it. When he’d asked why Steve cared so much, the guy had shrugged his shoulders and muttered,

“I might be able to impress the kids.”

Eddie decided to ask about ‘the kids’. He and Steve didn’t have much in common. Sure, the two could commiserate about high school together, but neither man was in the mood to do that. And god, Steve could talk about ‘the kids’.

“I run a D&D club called Hellfire. If they’re starting high school this year, send ‘em my way. I’ll tuck your little ducklings under my wing. Keep the big scary jocks away from ‘em,” Eddie noted, feeling comfortable enough with Steve to take a jab at him. Steve surprised him again by snorting out a laugh.

“Make sure you do. That Jason kid’s a senior, right? Total psychopath. The kid would peg basketballs at pigeons.”

By the time the sun set, the boys were in stitches and had a fairly decent log cabin to show for a day’s work. Eddie was surprised that the idea of Steve leaving set a pit in his stomach.

“Hey, Steve? We should do this again,” Eddie proposed, and Steve was too quick to agree.

“I have work tomorrow morning, but how about the afternoon?”

Eddie hadn’t expected the guy to be as keen as he felt.

“It’s a date,” Eddie agreed, before promptly wanting to shove his head through a miniature log cabin. A date? Really, Munson?

A flicker of amusement crossed Steve’s face as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his too-tight jeans. Mind out of the gutter, Munson. You were doing so well.

“You’re weird, you know that?” Steve remarked, running his hand through his trademark hair, and yeah, Eddie should’ve expected that.

Now Steve was going to call him a Freak, the ‘King Steve’, he’d heard about would make an appearance and Eddie would be glad he dodged a bullet by cutting his crush off at the knees before it had the chance to grow legs.

“Weird is good,” Steve corrected, seeming aware of Eddie’s inner turmoil.

“One thing I’ve learnt about myself since high school is that I like weird.”

Oh, no. Eddie was so gone for Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington.

Read Part 2

#steddie #steddie fic #steddie drabble #steddie ficlet #drabble #ficlet #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #alternative 'first' meeting #pre season 4 #long post #I always forget to tag that #just assume all my drabbles #are long posts tbh #thing I had to google to write this #'when were hot glue guns invented'?#apparently the 50s #Metalhoops writes

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askmrtorgue · 10 months

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HEY! YOU THERE! WANT TO PLAY A TABLETOP ADVENTURE WITH A PROFESSIONAL STORYTELLER?

I'M MISTER TORGUE, AND THE NERD WHO HELPS ME LOG INTO THIS ACCOUNT ASKED ME TO DO AN AD FOR HIS SERVICES. I TOLD HIM I WOULD, BUT ONLY IF I GOT TO WRITE IT MYSELF. SO STRAP IN, DUMPSUCKS. IT'S PRODUCT PLACEMENT TIME:

DO YOU WANT TO PLAY DUNGEONS & DRAGONS BUT YOU CAN'T FIND SOMEONE TO RUN YOUR GAMES?

ARE YOU FED UP WITH A GAME MASTER WHO WON'T LET YOU STRAIGHT-UP MAKE OUT WITH THE VILLAINS OF THEIR STORY?

DO YOU WANT WANT TO LEARN TABLETOP RPGS BUT EVERYONE WHO TRIES TO EXPLAIN IT USES THINGS LIKE MATH AND SPREADSHEETS AND YOU CAN'T STOP THEM BECAUSE FATAL SUPLEXES ARE ILLEGAL ON YOUR PLANET?

THEN YOU NEED BENCOMPETENCE, PROFESSIONAL STORYTELLER AND GAME MASTER.

BRAOOWWWWW-CHICKABRAOW EXPLOSION NOISE HEREEEEEEEE!

BENCOMPETENCE HAS RUN OVER 100 PROFESSIONAL GAMES OF TABLETOP GAMES, INCLUDING DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, CITY OF MIST AND MORE. HE HAS 100% POSITIVE REVIEWS FROM HIS CLIENTS, WHICH IS PROBABLY MORE THAN 34%.

NOT ONLY DOES BEN OWN A PAIR OF CAT-EAR HEADPHONES, HE EXCELS AT RIPPING YOUR HEART STRAIGHT OUT OF ITS RIBCAGE USING NOTHING BUT COMPELLING, ROMANCEABLE CHARACTERS AND BADASS EPIC ADVENTURES. IN FACT, EVEN HIS VILLAINS ARE SEXY AS F*CK. JUST CHECK OUT THIS VAMPIRE FROM ONE OF HIS CAMPAIGNS:

THIS DEATH DADDY IS ABSOLUTELY ABOUT TO KILL ME AND I DON'T GIVEN EVEN A SINGLE F*CK.

NOT YOUR STYLE? NO PROBLEM, PLAYER, HE ALSO OFFERS TERRIFYING MURDER MOMMIES!

THIS WOMAN COULD DRINK MY BLOOD AND I WOULD SAY "THANK YOU"

WANT TO GET EVEN MORE NUTS!? HOW ABOUT BEING A SH*TLOAD OF PIRATES THAT FIGHT MINDFLAYERS AND TENTACLE BEASTS!?

OR MAYBE EVEN ROMANCES THE TENTACLES BEAST?? I DON'T JUDGE

YOU DO YOU!!

THERE IS A 4% CHANCE THIS TENTACLED ABOMINATION WILL CUDDLE ME AND NOT EAT MY BRAINS AND I LIKE THOSE ODDS!!!

BENCOMPETENCE'S GAMES ARE INCLUSIVE AF AND BEGINNER-FRIENDLY, BECAUSE GATEKEEPING IS FOR SH*THEELS AND TRASHGUZZLERS. WHETHER YOU'RE BRAND NEW OR HAVE PLAYED A QUILLION SESSIONS, YOU WILL BE RIGHT AT HOME. ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU GET IN THERE AND KICK THE NARRATIVE'S ASS RIGHT IN ITS D*CK.

HE ALSO ASKED ME TO TELL YOU THAT SESSION 0'S ARE FREE, AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANS!

WANT TO JOIN A TABLE? THEN LISTEN UP, F*CKTRUCKS, BECAUSE IT'S LIST TIME:

FIGHT OR MAYBE MAKE OUT WITH HOT EVIL VAMPIRES IN CURSE OF STRAHD (NOW AVAILABLE IN DEATH DADDY AND MURDER MOMMY)

I AM NOW STARING AT THE VAMPIRE AGAIN AND FORGOT THE NEXT BULLET POINT

JOIN CALL FROM THE DEEP , BE PIRATES, AND BLOW UP THE ENTIRE F*CKING OCEAN!!! AGAIN!!!!!!!

SOMETHING ABOUT LEARNING TABLETOP RPGS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A DISCOUNTED SESSION

THERE'S A LOT MORE TO SAY, BUT THE NERD WRITING THIS SCRIPT STARTED TALKING ABOUT CHARACTER SHEETS AND SOMETHING CALLED NARRATIVE AGENCY, SO I HAD TO BEAT HIM WITH A FOLDING CHAIR UNTIL HE STOPPED. YOU CAN HELP PAY FOR THE BODYCAST I PUT HIM IN BY SIGNING UP TODAY!

END OF ADVERTISEMENT.

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venusmage · 2 months

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I'm sorry about your D&D game. Can I ask what made your players and yourself decide to restart the campaign?

(Continued from another message: "I meant in terms of just stopping the game versus continuing without the kicked player versus restarting. It's not a judgement thing I'm curious on your thought process. I think a lot of groups have gone through this.")

Oh, absolutely groups go through this all the time! Two of my players are also DMs that have had games fall through or stop due to people leaving or getting kicked. It's always a huge bummer for everyone involved. Our game's been running since mid 2021 - so that's a lot of (almost) weekly sessions. We were on session 67 I believe. I've got 900 hours logged into roll20 and a good 750+ of them are just the one game I've been running. As a DM it hurts because you put sooo much time and effort into setting it all up; having it just suddenly end totally sucks. It sucks for the other players, too, who just wanted to get together and play.

It's not the first time for us - two players at the very start of the campaign didn't vibe with the table and ended up leaving, which is totally fine! It's the first game I've ever grabbed people together to run for, so it wasn't an already established group that all had experience together yet, if that makes sense. Once they left we kept playing for nearly two more years until just recently.

When it happened I basically asked my players what THEY wanted to do. The PC of the kicked player was integral to the plot of the campaign, so do we find some way to write them out? Do I turn them into an NPC? Or did we want to restart the whole game, giving myself and the players an opportunity to try some new things? I'm not as inexperienced of a DM as I was in 2021 and felt like I could make a more cohesive game for my table. The players were excited at the idea of taking their PCs in slightly new directions to make it fresh, especially since we've been playing together consistently for a while now and the awkwardness that comes from roleplaying with new folks is gone. They've been having a blast changing builds, designs, and backstories around and we're all super stoked for Waterdeep 2.0!

#no art here #dnd talk #also even though it was not an amicable kick w the person in question #i dont likke the idea of like. yoinking their pc for an npc yk #id rather they just not be there #also also one of the players came in later than the others so he has a chance to be there from the start now

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stevesjockstrap · 6 months

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23 for Steddie please ❤️❤️

🫣 You’ve either under or overestimated what giving me free reign would inspire so I hope this is decent 😘

Eddie walked quickly into the library, wincing as his boots made loud sounds on the tile floor and echoed around him. He looked around briefly but didn’t let himself get distracted.

He saw a bay of computers along a wall and headed there. But after a lot of clicking and key smashes, he couldn’t get it to work. With a (louder than necessary) growl, he stood.

A man in a sweater and glasses wearing a lanyard was heading for him with a barely concealed scowl on his face. He found he was equally irritated and turned on by this.

“Could I help you with something, sir?” The man asked when he stopped a few feet away. The man pointedly took in his appearance, his big boots, his ripped jeans, the faded and torn band shirt that clung to him under the jean vest that was littered with pins and patches.

“Hopefully. I just need to print something from my email. But I can’t get in to-“

“Do you have a library card?”

Eddie grinned at the man now. He really did appreciate the no bullshit approach, and it was a fault of his for always falling for, well, bitchiness.

“I’m afraid I don’t, sugar.” He turned on his charm as he stepped closer to the man, pointedly looking him up and down. “I’m only in town for a few days so I’m not sure if I could accomplish that? You see, my band’s touring-”

The man, Eddie looked down at the end of his lanyard to see if he could spot a name tag or identifying information but came up dry, interrupted again, “Okay. We can just do a guest pass. Do you have change for printing?”

That did stump Eddie for a moment. “I’m sure I could go wrestle some up from the tour bus. Do I need that right now?”

Eddie chuckled when the man sighed and nodded at him, like he was the most insufferable person he’d ever had to deal with. “I promise I’m not trying to be a problem, love. We just got signed by a new record company and I need to look over the contract. And being on the road…” he shrugged.

“No problem. I’ll get you logged into the computer while you grab some money. It’s five cents a page.” He slid past him to begin typing on the computer.

Eddie jogged through the middle of the library, getting a glare from an older librarian at the front. As he came back in she watched him like a hawk. He grinned and gave her a little wave.

Approaching the bay of computers again, the hot librarian was nowhere to be found. He tried not to let it get to him. He logged into his email and hit print.

Nothing happened. He stood up again and looked around for brown waves and glasses. He finally walked around the corner in the back where he’d not been yet.

“Woah,” he breathed. He let out a low whistle as he approached a table set up with every manner of Dungeons and Dragons books, dice and memorabilia. He picked up the closest die and rolled it. “Fuck yeah. Plus six luck. Gunna need that, Munson.”

A throat cleared behind him and he grinned as he turned around. “Hey there, just who I need. I brought you a whole dollar in quarters. You don’t want to know what it cost me on the bus,” he winked. Jeff had made him promise to clean the bathroom. He shuddered to himself.

On the way back to the computers he continued trying to make conversation. “I dig the D&D table. You have a lot of nerds through here?”

He turned from the computer to face him with an unreadable look. “Yeah, my kids really enjoy it. We do a weekly campaign for the teens and a couple of them have wanted to start a younger group.”

“Y-your kids?”

Hot librarian smirked at him. “The kids in my teen group.”

“Ah,” Eddie nodded stupidly.

He stood up and walked over to a printer that Eddie hadn’t seen.

“Here you go,” he said has he handed over the pages. Eddie dropped the change in his open hand. “You owe me fifteen cents,” he looked up over his glasses at him.

“Oh fuck,” Eddie said too loudly. Kids behind him snickered and he turned to send a sheepish look at their grown up. “Uhh I can go grab some more… Maybe Gareth or Drew are back and their prices won’t be as steep.”

“What do you have to do with the contract after you look it over?”

“Huh?” Eddie asked eloquently.

“I would assume you have to send it back to someone? Fax it?”

“Oh. Maybe?”

The librarian shook his head, maybe affectionately. Eddie tilted his head and slid closer, dropping his voice. “All your librarian skills are so hot, you know?”

He huffed a laugh and Eddie grinned. “Well when you come back to fax it I’ll have to charge you again, so you can bring it then.”

“Ahh, so you’re already planning our next date, sweetheart? You should probably tell me your name first.”

“I’m Steve.” He actually held his hand out and looked up at him so he could see the blush across his freckled cheeks. Eddie was so done for.

Eddie shook his hand and didn’t let it go. “Eddie. Very good to meet you.”

🖤

Is 90s rockstar!Eddie and librarian!Steve a thing yet?

(The next day he comes in and Steve helps him fax the signed contract back and it gets brought up that Steve looked up his band.

“You checking me out, baby?”

“It’s one of my hot librarian skills, you know, research?”)

#steddie #pre Steddie #this was a shower thought so #steve harrington #eddie munson #rockstar!eddie munson #librarian!steve Harrington #answered #mine #stranger things fic #slowandsteddie #filled request

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catholicdaredevil · 2 years

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my love || eddie munson x gn! reader

this is just eddie adoring you and telling you just how much in elvish there's some light making out and alcohol drinking but it's pretty mild oh and elvish!!

quick elvish translations are as follows:

My love - Meleth nîn

Your beauty took my breath away - Thîr vain chîn darn thulen.

words: 1.3k

ao3 link

gif credit: @drogonstone

"Skull Rock? Really?" You fix Eddie with a glare, trying your hardest to ignore the way his eyes melt when you meet them, comforting puddles of warm brown. Every time he looks at you it's like his eyes are dripping in honey, sugar-coated affection practically pouring out of him.

There's a small smile that plays on his lips as he steps forward, tucking his finger into your belt loop to pull you into him. Eddie tucks his head under the veil of your hair, leaned in until his lips brush your ear, sending shivers down your spine. "Yeah, Skull Rock. Trust me."

His words are intoxicating and you do in fact trust him, it's enough to make you weak in the knees and gulping down air, unable to find your voice enough to do anything but nod. Eddie claps in excitement, pressing a quick kiss to your neck and pulling back, grabbing the bag he'd brought out of his room when he had first brought up the trip. You can feel heat pooling on your cheeks, eyes focused on your shoes as you wait for him to get the last few items he needs before leaving.

His van is littered with things, blankets and pillows piled in the back for the nights you end up at a drive-in or a bonfire. Scattered books for D&D and notebooks filled with campaign ideas that he's stayed up until ungodly hours of the night filling out when an idea hits him. It's nice, his little mess, it’s him. The smell of his cologne and the hairspray he swears up and down he doesn’t use. It’s a comforting mix of him that always makes you feel half nostalgic, half at home.

Eddie’s humming along to whatever tape he currently has shoved into his radio, music so low you can barely hear it. His fingers drum along the wheel in tune, light catching off his multitude of silver rings. It’s the beginning of golden hour, the wind through the open windows whipping your hair around as dusk begins to settle over the world. You can smell bonfires burning in people’s backyards as you go through town, the burnt smell of fireworks and eventually the salty tang of lover’s lake as you get closer to your destination.

Eddie pulls the van to a stop, getting out and jogging to your side so that he can open your door and hold his hand out for you to take. You can’t help the small laugh it draws from you, despite the fact that he does this every single time you get out of his car. The few times that you don’t let him he pouts for at least the next ten minutes. He moves to grab one of the blankets out of the back of the van, throwing it over his shoulder along with the bag, finally grabbing a couple pillows.

“Lead the way, meleth nîn,” he croons, arm held out for you to take, the Elvish term of endearment slipping from his lips like it lives there. You lock your fingers with his, the familiar cool metal of his rings wrapped in your hand. You lead him under low tree branches and over logs, crunching leaves beneath every step you both take until the large gray rock comes into view, the sun finally starting to set beyond it in the distance.

You turn to face him and freeze, his brown eyes are wide, pupils blown as he studies your every move. Eddie notes the way the breeze lifts your hair in a halo around your face, the way the golden setting sun bathes your skin in light that makes you glow. It’s enough to make his breath catch in his throat and his heart grind to a stop, just taking you in, until your lips pull up on the side into a small smile.

“Eddie, what is it? Is there something in my hair?” Your hands move to run fingers through your hair in an attempt to get whatever leaf has clearly found its home. Eddie’s brain finally kickstarts and he drops everything in his hands, clattering to the forest floor messily and in two steps he has you in his arms. Lifting you off the ground as he slots his face into your neck, breathing you in almost desperately, like every inch of space between the two of you is causing him actual pain.

“Eddie, Jesus, what’s wrong?” You card your fingers through his hair, gently pulling at the hair on the back of his neck to try and get him from his hiding place. Eddie grunts quietly, tightening his arms around you and pulling in another strangled breath. “Eddie?”

He pulls away enough to cradle your face, thumbs tracing across your cheeks hesitantly as if you might break under his touch, finally speaking, voice breathless.

“Thîr vain chîn darn thulen.”

Eddie talks Elvish to you all the time, affectionate names most of the time and yet sometimes, times like this. It almost seems like English fails him, like whatever he needs to say can only be uttered in this language you don’t know, don’t understand. Yet, there’s no mistaking the intention of his words, the adoration laced into whatever he’d said. It’s enough to make you gasp, for heat to bloom in your stomach as you watch the way he continues to look at you.

You stand like that for who knows how long, until the sun has almost finished its descent from the sky, until stars start to sparkle in its place. Eddie’s lips lift into a grin, leaning in to press the joy into you with a kiss. “Sorry, got a little caught up in you, I promise I had a plan.”

Eddie pulls back, gathering up the mess of things scattered around the two of you and getting to work. He delicately lays out the blanket, tossing pillows on one side and sitting down. Reaching into the bag, Eddie pulls out a container of strawberries and a 6-pack of wine coolers with a grin. “Come sit, meleth nîn.”

“I still have no idea what you’re saying to me Eddie,” you whisper, voice caught in your throat at the sight of him laid out in the grass, strawberry in his mouth. He looks sinful, under the final orange rays of the last glimpses of sunlight, fireflies glittering in the air around him. You drop to the blanket next to him, his arm wrapping around your waist to tug you into his side. Eddie kisses your forehead, then the tip of your nose, meeting your lips in a sickeningly sweet strawberry flavored kiss.

“That’s cause it’s for me to know and you to wonder.” His voice is low, handing you a wine cooler. Eddie tucks the edge of his ring under the bottle cap, popping the top with a smirk. You take a sip, listening to the soft sound of music playing off a cassette player he pulls from the bag, it’s something he must have made you, since it’s his voice singing.

Eddie drags your legs into his lap, fingers tracing incomprehensible patterns and shapes across your thighs. He pauses in thought for a moment, eyes bright and shining as they meet yours and you can’t help the affection that blooms in your chest until it feels like it might burst. That saccharine look, honey and love.

You take Eddie by surprise leaning in to connect your lips with his, opening your mouth with a soft gasp when he catches up and his hand cups the back of your neck. Climbing into his lap your hand fists in his hair, dragging a moan from his lips until he whispers reverently into your mouth, “My love.”

You sit back on his thighs, staring him down as his words sit in the air between you. It’s moments like this that make you realize just how lucky you are, to be with him, to be loved by him, to love him. As if your silent reverie was played out for him to see, he finally responds to your earlier comment.

“Meleth nîn means my love.”

#eddie munson #stranger things #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #stranger things fic #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fluff #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fluff #ezra writes

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shannanigansart · 2 years

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Our LOG Campaign recap is highlighted on our twitch! If you wanna jump right in to our next dnd session this Sunday, just watch the recap and you’ll be fully caught up! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1518249696

#love over glory #dnd #dnd campaign #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons #d&d #log sterling

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its-short-for-jackalope · 7 months

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WOW! THAT WAS SOME LORE, HUH? :D

reposting this meme bc it's true and bc I really like it, lol

I have quite literally been scribbling notes on a scrap of paper like a madman while rewatching TGOA part 3 as many times as possible, just jotting down all the mindboggling information we've been given, and some less direct stuff that I could be reading too much into but is fun and neat even if it doesn't amount to anything crazy and galaxy-brained, lol.

So click/tap below the cut for rambles about the final part of Pulp Musicals episode 3

The Ghosts of Antikythera ⚓️

Names, Names, Names!!!

Hey, might as well start with all the new names we've gotten!

The captain of the Antikythera — the ghost ship from 'someplace else' — is Addison Arvad.

Kal (my beloved/beloathed ❤ ) is Kalfu

The Traveler we met in TBS is Sia 💖💖

Ahlaam is another Traveler. I adore her already, and not just because she saved Rose.

Dakkar is... somebody. As expected, I've been going crazy in my dms with @man-down-in-hatchet-town, and she believes Dakkar is probably inspired by/based on Captain Nemo? 👀

King(?!) Itzal is... probably bad news! Kal's the one who calls him a King and he is obviously pretty loyal and devoted to him, and wants to impress him (aww), so methinks Itzal is maybe not so good???? (I am also a proud supporter of Brooke's Dylan Saunders as Itzal campaign, lol)

The Blazing World is home. It's where the Travelers and the Antikythera's Searchers (rip) are from, it was destroyed once—but is being rebuilt?—and Kalfu and Itzal seem to want it gone for good.

Lincoln Island is the mysterious island our heroes on the Ellen Austin are approaching at the end of the episode, the place Ahlaam sent Rose and the Antikythera to via orrery.

Quick *Approximate* Timeline

Eh, what can I say? We got numbers and I decided to do a tiny bit of math about it.

1874 — the Antikythera & the Ellen Austin

🔴 YOU ARE HERE

🎶 When are we? 🎶 Well, Morgan Reese informs our time-traveling heroes that, uh yeah lol, last he checked the year was 1874. What a funny question from a bunch of rapscallions!

Captain Arvad's logs from the Antikythera start in January 1874, so we know the Searchers were out and about in this same year. Their disappearances were recent and the ship hasn't been empty for all that long, I don't think.

1865 — may this monument stand forever

On this site in 1835, Sir John Herschel and Anna Hanover launched the first brick satellite, the Sagitta, in what was known as Township Number Nine. Erected to commemorate their bravery, to thank them for their gift to all mankind, may this monument stand forever.

Dedicated August, 1865.

1864 — the dark angel appears

A desperate AJ makes his ill-fated deal with Kal in exchange for his crew's safety during the Battle of Mobile Bay.

Damn the torpedoes.

1835 — the beginning of our adventure

🎶 IT IS EIGHTEEN THIRTY-FIVE 🎶 and the Great Moon Hoax and The Brick Satellite both happen in this year. Things were so simple back then!

1829 — the Blazing World is destroyed

In 1874, we are told (first by Arvad's journal, and then by Sia) that their home, that the Blazing World was destroyed 45 years ago. If my math is right and they're not hippity-hopping too much in time (they have time travel capabilities so idk for sure) that would put the destruction of the Blazing World in 1829.

If the world being destroyed is also the Event that Kal alludes to in Gunpowder and Rum, pt. 3 ("Your powers are returning and you still don't remember what happened? 😒") AND it's the one that left Margaret without her memories and powers, then... could Margaret have been feeling lost, alone, and disconnected with her phantom pain in New York for 6 whole years before the Stratfords wrote the hoax that would bring the quartet together??? 🥺

And while we're on the subject of time passing!

If Sia and Kalfu and everyone besides the quartet has gotten to 1874 the long way 'round... (which I think is the case if Kal snarked at Sia for hiding Margaret in the future—if he has a sense of the future in relation to the world and time, I'd say this also implies he & the others have a pretty consistent present?) ...have they aged? Or does their magic also lengthen their lives? I imagine it would be mentioned if Sia was visibly older, and since Samuel described Kal as looking ~40 years old, then how could he be younger than the war he's been in? lol. But idk, this is just food for thought!

Kal Loves His Lore Dumps, Doesn't he? This one's mostly about Margaret <3

"You've proven quite elusive over the years... We've searched across the seven seas... I suppose it's only fitting that I find you here by chance, looking for an orrery! I'd have settled for the ship, what's its name? An-ti-ky-ther-a. But you will be quite the prize. It's you that will seal our victory! A ship from the Blazing World would have been quite the quarry. But you? That could end things once and for all!"

"The ship, the orrery, they don't matter now. Not when I can dispatch the two biggest traitors in history with just one blow!"

Seems like our girl is pretty special~ 🥰

I mean, of course she is, she's our Margaret, but if Kal is willing to let the Antikythera go to get her instead, and he's so convinced that taking her out will win the war... our girl is Pretty Special™ right? Maybe she's a princess or something, or maybe her Radiance is just that heckin' strong. idk, but I'm excited to find out either way.

I'm also wondering if there's a connection between Margaret and the orrery/orreries... If Kal thought it was fitting to find her when he was after the orrery, does that mean something more? Could Margaret have created the orreries and/or the magic behind them? 👀

...actually maybe this isn't such a good and fun thing. 😅😟 Things don't usually go very well for special and important characters—what is the saying, tragedies love heroes? I mean, Margaret has lost her powers and memories once already, as well as her home and whatever family she may have had before. I know all our pulp blorbos have been in dire straights a few times now, but I don't want them to get MORE DIRE than this!

Kalfu, Sia, & Margaret's history

Kal: High marks for cloaking the fleet, but seriously—

...

Kal: Come on, it's a Traveler reunion.

...

Kal: Just a drink between three friends.

...

Sia: Oh, you were once a man that I trusted. Tell me, where has he been?

...

Sia: Itzal poisoned your mind!

Kal: Itzal opened my mind!

...

Sia and Margaret: *powering up*

Sia: Hey, Kalfu!

Kal: Huh? Ugh, not again.

Kal: *team rocket fog's blasting off again*

I think it's pretty safe to say that, once upon a time, these three were once close. Maybe they were friends and peers, or maybe Kalfu was once Sia and/or Margaret's mentor with that "high marks" comment. Whatever the case, they used to be allies who trusted each other.

I think it's also safe to say all three of them are/were Travelers. Obviously Sia is, and Margaret probably is/was one as well, since she and Sia have a badass combined attack (that I'm betting they used against Kalfu ~45 years prior). As for Kal... I don't know how the radiance and the fog fit together exactly, whether they've always been separate or the fog is a dark bastardization of the radiance, but it seems like he is on equal footing with Sia as far as magic powers go, and he can teleport like they do—AJ witnessed this at the Battle of Mobile Bay, and Samuel did (kinda) on the deck of the Ellen Austin. I don't know if that's the only qualification for being a Traveler, but it's worth mentioning.

It seems like Itzal was a pretty big factor in this trio splitting up—for whatever reason, Kal turned his back on Sia and Margaret to follow him, or perhaps Sia and Margaret left Kal behind when he wouldn't leave with them. I don't know, but I want to—I have questions!!!

Sia and Itzal — Future sight?

Kal (to Sia): You know, for someone with precognitive abilities, you sure like to cut things close. 😒

...

Kal: How I wish King Itzal was here to witness this. Or did he already know? Eh.

There's not much to say about this, really, I just think it's interesting.

But it does make me wonder if Sia *knew* that sending Margaret and the others to Hanover in 1874 would lead Margaret to the Antikythera and help her regain her memories, even if Sia couldn't see much more than that. Like, if she knew that Kal would be there, I don't think she would have put Margaret at risk like that when she was still vulnerable. Unless she was betting on Margaret figuring things out before Kal could make his move... gah, who knows! (Matt. Matt knows.) We do know that Sia can't see everything, though—she knows that the crew of the Antikythera are gone but has to ask Kal what he did with them.

Also, obligatory "yikes 😬" at the idea of having an enemy (King Itzal) who could possibly see your attacks/plans before you make them. That can't make this war any easier!

Fogging the vortices, you say?

Kal: We've been fogging the vortices for decades. There was bound to be an Antikythera sooner or later.

Vortices.... plural for vortex, yeah?

"A mass of whirling fluid or air, especially a whirlpool or whirlwind."

Is one of these vortices located here in the Sargasso Sea? Is that why Rose already knows plenty of ghost stories about these waters, why this is a strange place that'll one day be dubbed the Bermuda Triangle? Where are the other vortices??? How many are there??? What are they, exactly???

Okay, but what about the gates?

Kal: A war for a world of power and might

Sia: A war for a world of courage and light

Kal: Fought over decades

Sia: Over ascension

Kal/Sia: No chance of surrender, no chance of redemption

I'm just throwing darts here, but I feel like 'ascension' has to do with the gates that have been alluded to a few times now?

First, in TBS, Sia told Margaret that she couldn't take her to the gate until her memories were back. Then in part 2 of TGOA, Kal said something about the Antikythera's orrery leading him to the first gate.

I don't think these gates are the same thing as the vortices—if the bad guys have already been 'fogging' them, then Kal wouldn't need an orrery to find them.

The gates probably lead to the Blazing World, right? Kal and Itzal want to destroy the Blazing World for good, which is why Kal was trying to get the orrery, to get to the gate, to ascend to the Blazing World and turn it to dust once and for all.

Travelers and Symbols/Elements/Associations

To finish up, here's one of the things I've noticed more recently. We have four magical characters now who seem to be at similar levels of power and might all be/have been Travelers, and maybe it's just a fun bit of flavor rather than anything Extremely Vital to the plot, but they each seem to have their own kind of... niche?

Lemme run through 'em real quick.

Kalfu—

● Want a drink?

● Gunpowder and rum, too strong for some! 🎶

● And poison... is kinda my thing.

● Non-lethal fog, my latest brew

Kal's easy to figure out—he's been pretty clear with his gunpowder and rum (delicious!) and once he revealed it he's been very cheeky and upfront about his use of/preference for poison too. He also stands out as the only person wielding fog, but I'm sure that'll change as we delve further into the dark and into this war we're learning about.

Sia—

● "Was that sunlight shining in the sphere?"

● We're here to light the fuse

● Lay another hand on her and you'll go down in flames

● I will always be that feeling burning under your skin

hehe okay, Sia is the reason this whole section of my post exists lol. I noticed the references to fire in enough of her lines/lyrics in part 3 that I thought it couldn't be a coincidence, and then I looked at the others. I just think it's neat!

Maybe these lines are just nods to the fact that light can burn as well as illuminate—Kalfu would probably know, hah—but it is fun to think that maybe we could see our first and dearest Traveler friend whip out some cool fire magic later on—when she's not duking it out with somebody on a wooden boat, lol.

I'd love that for her, tbh.

...especially because alcohol is flammable. :)

Ahlaam—

Narrator: In a blinding flash, a woman materialized, and with a single motion, she pushed the water of the room with her mind

Okay, I fully admit this is mostly just a reason for me to make another waterbending joke. Ahlaam's appearance in this episode wasn't really long enough to give us much information about her, but I mean we also haven't seen anyone else do anything with water until she came along, so... if we see her do more stuff like this and she has more associations with water in episode 4 onwards, I will feel pretty smart. 😌

Margaret—

● the moon

● the sea

● astronomy

we might not know much about Margaret's magic beyond how brightly it glows—which isn't unique to her—and what she's been able to do with it, be we do know that she has a connection with the moon, of course.

I think we could also argue that she has a pull to the sea—mostly because of the view from her window and the rooftop, overlooking the water. Learning about the Searchers and the fact that Kal was looking for Margaret on the sea supports this connection, but again, that doesn't really single her out from the others.

Margaret does have an appreciation for astronomy, but even that might not be super unique, if her people have orreries on every ship and they all look up to the sky. However... my brain is still chewing on a possible connection between Margaret and the orrery, because of what Kal said. It would be pretty rad if she was the one who designed and crafted them, figured out that magic. So idk, that could be something.

If her memories are returning, maybe we'll see her really start to shine amongst her fellow Travelers as she recalls more about herself and brings together the person that resides in her memories and the person that losing her memories made her into.

phew, okay! this is a long post and I am now very sleepy, lol. I'm sure I missed a few things—I didn't take any *literal* notes during parts 1 & 2 and it'll be a few days before I get the album and lose my mind again—but maybe there's a few things I managed to catch that y'all will enjoy.

As always, feel free to reply/reblog with your own thoughts!!!

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kawaiichibiart · 1 month

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We're celebrating Minori's and Ena's birthdays in April!!

Ranked Match Spring will start in April:

We have some campaigns to look forward to:

"Wait, Ia, there's no date for the Miku Expo campaign, when do we get the rewards?" Well!! This is a special campaign. Why? Well, make sure to checkout the dates for Miku Expo, because for (currently) 21 days, if you log in on Miku Expo days, you will get these rewards!! >:D Be sure to check to PRSK socials because they will notify us about the log in dates!

We will also be getting the World Championship Campaign and costumes, we just didn't a graphic for CC.

The Yearning for Spring, A Moment in the Night Gacha is returning in April:

The Happiness Package gacha will be up for purchase again:

Here are the songs coming in April:

And here's our mystery song for March (it'll be available later tonight):

We will be getting an update to the game, you can learn more by checking in game announcements:

#project sekai #project sekai colorful stage #hatsune miku colorful stage #proseka #prosekai #colorful stage #colorful corner ep. 26

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secretgamergirl · 3 months

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Do experience systems do more harm than good?

Earlier today I saw someone talking about the common wisdom that you can't make an RPG without SOME sort of system where after you finish a session (or maybe an adventure), the GM gives you some sort of points that, whether automatically or based on assigning them, makes your character better at doing stuff. Not only do I strongly disagree that that's something every game needs, I'd like to present the argument that even in games you'd have a hard time imagining without them, experience points might actually be doing more harm than good.

Before I even get into this, let's take apart the obvious perks to having experience systems:

1- It helps maintain longterm interest in keeping a campaign going when the players are getting some sort of regular reward.

This is true of certain campaigns, but I don't think I'd really ever want to be in one. In a good campaign, everyone involved should be having a fun time just hanging out with each other, putting themselves in the shoes of the characters, building up a story and a world together, and generating cool memorable scenes. That should be more than enough incentive to stick with a game, and if you don't have those things going on, you should really stop and work out what's going wrong, not try and pave over it by powering everyone's characters up. I don't need to boost some Watcher Score when I marathon through a good TV show or a movie, and I'm not even getting to influence how those unfold, you know?

This is also one of those many things where what we have today is sort of a twisted ghost of what was originally conceived back in the early days of D&D. I had an old project on this very blog where I was reading through the books for 1st edition AD&D with a critical eye, and a huge takeaway from that was that Gary Gygax seems like he was just the absolute worst kind of GM (also backed up by reading message board posts of his, and various accounts). Back in his day, leveling up wasn't the expected inevitable progression as a game went on necessarily. You'd roll your stats, with some harsh restrictions, be forced to play what you had, roll your HP too, and the game was just kind of inherently hostile to the PCs, so you had a good chance of dying in a given session. Not only that, but when you did, there was no real coming back from it, you make a new character, starting from scratch, with 0 experience, and see if you can keep this one alive long enough to get up there again.

And aside from the carrot of maybe getting one of those elite high level characters if you stuck with it, there was the stick of characters partying their gold away. Seriously, by AD&D 1e rules, characters would just kinda burn through... I want to say it was 100 GP per level per day. And not in-game day. Real life day. You'd better show up for every session, because a week from now, your character's going to have 700 less gold in their pocket whether you show up to play or not.

We don't really play that way anymore. At least nobody I know does. Leveling up is planned out in advance by GMs, characters level up at the same time as everyone else even when the player misses a session, and if you need to make a new character or you're just joining the game late, obviously you come in at the same level as everyone else. I don't even want to dignify the arguments against doing that with discussion. It's even common for people to start games at levels other than 1 because people just don't like low-level play.

And you know, this is way outside the scope of what I was sitting down to write, but I've gotten into the jobification of video games before, right? Where people keep doing stuff like daily login rewards and weekly challenges just so there's a sense of obligation to log into games every day? That crap doesn't actually make things more FUN, it's in there to keep players compelled to play regardless of how much fun they have, and that's... literally the argument behind experience as an incentive to keep a game running.

2- It good when number go up!

Funnily enough, this is the hardest one for me to refute. There is some basic direct release of the good brain chemicals when you have numbers, and they go up. And I mean... sure, but in a tabletop game you're not generally seeing a number climb on its own, you're getting points thrown at you that you have to jot down or mark off or otherwise track and do math with, and like... there's plenty of other results from playing the game good to release the good brain chemicals. You don't explicitly need this one.

3- It's cool when you can have a story where like some dorky little kid starts off barely able to do anything and all unconfident and then gradually gets it together and gets more confident and competent as time goes on!

Oh yeah, everyone loves that sort of thing, and there's a strong case to be made that this is the primary reason people feel the need to put an experience system in basically every RPG, but those systems are all kind of just the worst at actually delivering on that, is the thing.

D&D and its derivatives are the absolute worst with this. The way I put it in this earlier conversation, you start out all, "I am a poor peasant child, barely able to afford the clothes on my back, a length of rope, a week's worth of food, and this dagger here" and then a few months later "I am basically a god and any amount of money less than 1,000,000 times my starting net worth isn't even worth stooping over for." And when I made this point someone corrected me that if you really go by the expected pacing, a campaign without big stretches of downtime between adventures with the recommended combat pacing is going to get you to level 20 in a month.

Now, I don't want to completely spit on the D&D power curve here (the economic one though can absolutely go to hell, stop making me a billionaire as a side effect of killing monsters and do all that bookkeeping). I do enjoy the eb and flow, campaign to campaign, of playing the same characters as wimpy little nothings and demigods over however long it takes my regular group to finish a campaign. But as far as having characters with arcs to them? It is AWFUL!

First off, it's just too damn fast and abrupt. When our little ragtag band heads off into the swamp to deal with those goblins or whatever, we're going to come home from even that little speed bump of an adventure tougher than all our neighbors and absurdly wealthy, to a point where it feels almost inevitable that you leave your old life behind completely and look down on everyone you grew up with.

It's not IMPOSSIBLE to have some sort of long or medium-term personal quest to avenge my parents or show I'm better than some bully, but it takes a real delicate touch to do it right, since you really have to decide up front when exactly I'm going to have that confrontation, make the villain something of an appropriately challenging nature for the level I'm going to be when I settle things, and that I don't manage to arrange that confrontation much earlier or later than planned, because again I'm pretty quickly going from dealing with food rationing, animal attacks, and slippery ravines, to taking down monsters four times my size without breaking a sweat, to like changing the course of history and rivaling evil gods. There's a very small window where it makes sense for me to get back at that owlbear who put me in the hospital or whatever.

And that's not even getting into the problem of how I've got these other three humble little kids from home experiencing all this rapid growth at the same time. Can't really have a wise old mentor if we're using experience as experience. We're either never going to catch up, or we're going to leave them in the dust if they're not leveling with us.

Now, again, D&D is kind of a huge exception here. Most RPGs I've played instead go with a starting setup where you don't start off as some starry-eyed youth who can't do anything, but instead have some skill-based system where every character is an expert without peer in a handful of skills that fit some archetypical theme, and for anything else, they need outside help, either from fellow PCs, or making arrangements with NPC experts. Standard with this is a little drip-feed of extra skill points, but this... really doesn't work for what we're looking for here. If I want to be the party's hacker, I'm going to start off as an excellent hacker. I'm not going to put all my points into shmoozing people and then expect the rest of the party to put up with me looking for the any key over a dozen adventures before finally working out this make or break ability.

4- You gain new abilities as you level up!

So... first off this actually isn't generally all that true. If you're playing a wizard in D&D, sure, every couple levels you get access to a new tier of spells, and hey that's a big game changing deal maybe. Most level-ups though are just about numbers going up. All of them in most games. Hitting harder, more often, in bigger areas, maybe. Skills and abilities work more consistently. You maybe get more HP.

For now though let's focus on when you do level up and get cool new abilities. One moment you're some kid with a stick, then you bonk the magic number of goblins with it, and now suddenly you can make all your friends fly, unbound by gravity, or you can read the thoughts of everyone around you, or you can teleport home where it's nice and safe no matter what the situation. Well that actually really sucks for the GM!

Let's say I'm doing what everyone ever making an 8 or 16-bit RPG did and lifting plot concepts shamelessly from Laputa. We've got our big floating continent. Maybe we've got some kinda evil emperor up there, raining terror down on people or something. Nobody can get there and confront him... until they hit level 7 or whatever and have access to the fly spell. I better get any air superiority based adventures out before then. Also anything where there's a tower that has windows, or dangerous terrain, etc. Better get mysteries and hidden agendas taken care of before that mind reading. Better not think about trapping the party or them getting word of an attack somewhere else before that teleporting. And that's assuming I'm being on the ball about that sort of thing. I might have this whole thing planned, where the party desperately needs to get to that flying continent, and it's this whole quest hook where maybe they have to befriend a dragon or help build an airship or get some kinda rubber bones potion and access to a powerful cannon. Whole adventures about getting that power of flight, and any of these might just totally fizzle because oh whoops, the party leveled up and they just do that now.

Less dramatically, what if we're playing of those skill point games. I'm already a super great seductive femme fatale sneaking past laser sensors and stealing keys off people I'm charming right from the start of the game, and hey, cool, that's a nice simple archetype, everyone knows what I'm good at, we can plan missions around me being all sleazy over here while someone else sets up in a sniper position and someone else is in the basement hacking and all that. Several adventures down the road, well, I have all these skill points, I haven't been able to put them into the stuff I'm good at, so now I'm also a combat monster. The original combat monster can also hack. The original hacker can also charm the pants off everyone. We're starting to develop a lot of redundancy, but that's not necessarily bad? But then we play a bunch more adventures. Those secondary concepts capped off, we're working up more. Nobody is unparalleled at the thing they originally did. Have the party is equally amazing at a given thing. If we keep going like this, eventually everyone is going to loose all sense of unique identity, and there isn't really a strong in-game reason we need this whole ragtag crew anymore. Anyone of us can take on any problem solo, really.

5- The power fantasy of being super amazing.

This is kind of a point I've already hit but I'm stuck with this format, but the thing with experience is, again, sometimes sure you gain new abilities, but usually all your various numbers go up, and that actually kinda sucks in practice. First off, it's a lot of tedious bookkeeping, in basically any system you can name. It also doesn't generally really make a difference in the grand scheme of things?

I'm level 3. I've got a +7 to hit, doing 15 damage a hit, and an AC of 18. I'm fighting some orc with 40 HP, 15 AC, and attacking at +5. I level up a few times. Now I'm level 7. I've got a +13 to hit, doing 30 damage, and an AC of 24. I'm fighting crustaceanoids now, with 80 HP, 21 AC, and attacking at +11. Objective numbers wise, crustateanoids are way way tougher than orcs, but in my experience this is the EXACT same fight. I hit on an 11. I need 3 hits to take something down. It's bad news for me if my enemy rolls a 13 to hit me. All we've done is a bunch of annoying math refactoring with nothing to show for it but cosmetically reskinned mooks.

Now here, interestingly enough, I ONLY have the D&D type example here. Again, most other RPGs I have don't have that same sort of rampant power creep. You start out absurdly skillful at whatever your specialty is, and there's little if any room for growth, numbers wise. So here, if we go from orcs to crustateanoids to hellborn cyberdragons as enemies, not only is this technically a set of progressively scarier enemies to have to deal with, they actually ARE more meaningful threats to the party. Maybe those orcs were all show, they never really hurt us because we're awesome secret agents or something, but now things are getting serious because these crustaceanoids are just as good at sick flips and firing machine guns in two different directions as we are, so we have to take them much more seriously. And oh damn, after this we have to deal with a hellborn cyberdragon? Those are so scary if we all just rush in we're probably all gonna die. We need to come up with a whole complex plan to avoid directly engaging that if at all possible, and run for it if that doesn't pan out, or something.

And hey, we don't need something even more epic than a hellborn cyberdragon to top that. One of those is still going to be harrowing no matter how late in the campaign we bust it out. We can establish a power balance early on and keep it relevant like that. PCs gotta get more innovative and clever not just kill most monsters until demigods are easily punchable.

6: Revenge of 3- Well character growth is still important!

So, I really shouldn't be trashing experience points' ability to deliver cool character growth if I don't have some alternative to it, right? We need some way to change things up so the game doesn't stagnate. Well sure, but we can do better than experience there.

Just off the top of my head, how about we go with plot relevant respec-ing? Like at any given time a character's got their main spotlight thematic kit. Your best of the best at being a hacker or wizard or whatever. Maybe also a secondary skillset. And then definitely some number of slots for stuff they're into but it's not their main thing. Maybe we have a few variant minisets for those. Like if someone just unlocked their psychic powers and haven't fully figured them out, you have access to this here set of abilities. Once you have your big dramatic power mastery moment, that becomes their main thing and we demote their previous main thing to a secondary thing... and if we don't like this psychic stuff in the end, we demote it back down and fill a tertiary slot with like Lost Psychic Powers, where you still get to be all knowledgeable about how this sorta crap works and maybe have some battles of wills but your cool telekinesis is all locked away. At least for now.

I don't want to sit down and fully design a game at the tail end of a blog post here, but feel free to try this out with whatever system you like. Just pick whatever level feels like the good one, build characters with that as their basic kit, let'em have a few dips into secondary and tertiary angles, do a lot of getting thrown out of orders and taking major injuries and getting temporarily possessed or infused with mystery things. And you can do the plucky young kids in over their head thing with this sort of system easily enough. Start off with just the tertiary interest/mini-skill-packs, and once whatever you want to grow into starts coming up, rapidly grow into that over the course of a few adventures, no needing some big dramatic status quo change like this usually calls for.

Oh and I haven't been talking about video games here, but kill experience there too. If I'm not doing the whole Metroidvania/Zeld'em Up thing to pick up new powers as I explore, just gimme the whole kit from the get-go. Have traditional difficulty curves. We're good. Leave the skill trees and the level-grinding out of it. What are you holding back for, replayability? It's been raining free big-name big commitment games for years. Quit demanding that much of our time.

Oh and I keep forgetting to beg for money while I write these. I went 24 hours here without eating because I was just out of food and couldn't afford to go to the store. Someone took pity on me and hand delivered a big bowl of soup. Things are getting real bad. Patreon link.

#game design #experience points #leveling up

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a-grim-grinning-ghost · 4 months

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hey if youre bored at work still, tell me about what nerd shit youre interested in the most right now! or give me a top 5 maybe

ooooh, okay let’s see

i currently watch a 30yo man role play as an old woman on red dead and gta5 on twitch

i have about 1000 hours logged in Baldur’s Gate 3

i’m trying to figure out how to DM so i can run a D&D campaign

i have a huge love of opera and musical theater

i own a robe from the Critical Role store

i realize now that a lot of these are about D&D 🤔

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distortedwhite · 4 months

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sits down. hello enstarries i'm here to let everyone know the worst experience i've ever had with game account recovery. literally even aichuu was easier than whatever this fuckery is

(tweeter thread)

let me provide a little backstory first. everyone here knows i Love enstars—jpstars specifically. i grew up playing !-era enbasic, am still playing !!-era enbasic, and play the japanese version of enmusic as well. when engstars first released i gave it a try, got bigbang subaru and conquest hiyori, somehow became a vice prez for the society i'm in (and still get to mod for even months after quitting engstars. if anyone here needs an active society, contact me or toribuns on tweeter :DDD), got link click kouchan and mika... i was pretty happy with my account.

however, i quickly lost interest in engstars, since jpstars is my one and only love LOL but i kept engstars on my phone in case i wanted to return to it. and i did return to it! i played the campaign that ran during the secret swan gacha just to see if i could get natsume (i didn't ftr www)

and back i went to ignoring engstars for 476534 years. and that's where my personal problem arises. you see, i never linked my account to a tweeter acc, or google acc, or email, or whatever. my thought process was like "why would i need to do that? i still have engstars on my phone, and it isn't gonna randomly kick me from my own account right. RIGHT???" but that's precisely what happened. i opened engstars because i needed some info from the new spotlight event for the wiki, only to see engstars just kicked me out.

ofc i go "OH SHIT. I never linked my acc to anything." so i check support and they don't have Anything on account recovery. but they Do have something on data transfer :D it requires me to have a new engstars account in order for them to do the transfer, so i make a new account. and let me just tell you. fuck the engstars tutorial. legitimately, fuck the engstars tutorial.

after 4753835 years i escape tutorial containment and fill out the rest of the support form, which included your typical "lost account" miseries. ("how the fuck am i supposed to know what my rank is. HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW ANYTHING......") eventually i do manage to fill the form and send it off. waiting game.

(also i still cannot believe engstars is an Official thing. it feels so fanmade and unprofessional. typos and spacing issues, And the app won't even let me scroll down further to read whatever it says on the second screenshot. i assume it says "Problem solving in progress" but me not able to scroll down in order to read it is bad design)

a day later—which, kudos to engstars support team, i did not expect them to only take a day—i receive a response saying they did find my account! but they also said my account was linked to a tweeter account that doesn't match the one my new engstars account—yknow, the one that they needed me to make to transfer data—is linked to.

i was pretty surprised because damn i had no idea my account was actually connected to something but okay! engstars support wanted me to switch tweeter accounts in order for me to do some.... authorization... things... seriously i can't read their response. revoking my kudos because i'd rather have a legible response than a quick one

ANYWAY i try...??? to log in with a different tweeter account, but engstars won't let me, so i go directly into tweeter and revoke engstars access permissions. and after that? i expected to get back to the tweeter log in screen, but instead engstars won't even give me that, telling me that the login failed after tapping the "Login with Twitter" button.

guys i'm so tired. but i'm doing my best. link click kouchan. i go clear app data for engstars, and after opening the app again, the support ticket i got was still there which is nice. i also get the tweeter log in screen again, nice. i also don't even get to log in because whatever browser engstars is using, it doesn't have javascript enabled so tweeter doesn't do anything :)))) i have to back out of the page, bringing me back to engstars and the, by now, very familiar "login failed" pop-up

that's where the story more or less ends? pauses? someone on the wiki server suggested to try login on the pc version so i let it do its downloading thing while i sat here writing this LOL it's done now. time to try that.

forgot the password for the account i was trying to get into DSGHSJDG anyway tweeter blocked my attempts because i had too many wrong ones. how long does it take until i can try again. whatever i'll end this post here... tell all your friends to keep your accounts safe because this is an absolute shitshow.

#ran talks nonsense #enstars #engstars #ensemble stars

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