#I have no solution for this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aeruthien · 2 years

Text

Now we've seen Whitestone, I want to comment on Culture in Critical Role, and how there are some fundamental aspects of DnD which make it unsuitable for exploring cultural differences.

I've seen some very valid posts about how Marquet in C3 isn't used to its full potential as a cultural setting, among others because most of the PCs are not native to Marquet. But while I fully agree, I want to broaden the argument even further: neither were Wildemount, Xhorhas or Tal'dorei.

I believe that Dungeons and Dragons is ill equipped to explore cultural differences, because there are key aspects of culture that it actively ignores: language, food and weather.

To start with language. In almost all versions of DnD or fantasy, everyone speaks common. This solves one of the main issues in world building, because it allows the players to travel the world without the issues that stem from not speaking a language. However, language is one of the main tools people use to distinguish themselves from others. Language, accent, tone, vocabulary and even grammar change based on who you are, where you come from and whom you're speaking to. But because everyone in Exandria speaks English like the cast do, they have a uniform culture, whether they are from Wildemount, Tal'dorei or Marquet. Even Caleb, who comes closest to breaking this pattern, is not truly Zemnian, because Liam (and Matt) doesn't actually speak German. Apart from the German accent and some German words, he doesn't speak like a non native German English speaker would.

Next up, food. Apart from some quick mentions of breakfast or dinner, food is almost always an afterthought. The Bell's Hells do not stop for lunch, and rations are almost never a problem. However, food is intrinsically linked to culture. What food is served, when food is served, and with whom food is eaten differs from place to place and from class to class. Is the food imported or is it grown locally? Is food served at 6PM sharp or much later? Do you eat with the whole family and is there always a surplus or do you have to fight for the scraps? What is the street food like? What spices are used? How does Xhorhas' cuisine differ from Wildemount, given that they live in perpetual night? But ultimately, the pie in Marquet is no different from the pie in Byroden, because again, the default will be the casts' default.

Finally, weather. While it might seem arbitrary, weather influences almost all aspects of our lives, from our homes, to our clothes, to our relationships. Is it warm enough to sit outside during the evening? This will encourage parties and late bedtimes. It is cold and rainy? People will sit inside pubs to stay warm. Colder and warmer climates, hot and dry climates, each of these influence when people are active and how they behave. Apart from the extremes, like the snow in Eiselcross, or the heat in the Fire Plane, the characters never have to deal with rain, or mist, or cold. They don't have to take shelter, they don't wake up cold, they don't need to keep a fire going or set up tents. And as such, there is no difference between a warm and hot jungle surrounding Jrusar or a high mountain trail in Zephrah, nor are the people who live there different.

There can be much more said about each of these three aspects of culture, and there are probably more examples to be given. And this is not intended as a excuse, or a reason for Matt not to try better. But sadly, DnD as a system glosses over most of the day-to-day interactions that make a city a particular city, or a culture a particular culture. And the default will always be the players' default.

#critical role #cr meta #dungeons and dragons #dnd meta #I have no solution for this #but it struck me as I saw the valid criticisms #matt is good at differentiation between say nobles and common folk #but not between cultures #and dnd does not make it easy #for example #trent ikithon and caleb who speak with a notable zemnian accents #what does this mean for people's perception of them?#are they seen as smarter because they are from old blood?#or are they seen as stupid because they are from rural areas?#there is nuance there that isn't explored #same with imogen #is her southern accent native to marquet?#we can't even describe her accent without mentioning the in real life place were it is from #so how is this linked to exandria?

49 notes · View notes

devsgames · 2 months

Text

Me: "hey game developers, especially AAA ones, are getting laid off en-mass and it's awful for our industry" Gamer: "well I only play INDIE games and the problem with AAA games is they are creatively bankrupt"

Me, slamming my fists on the table like a baby: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THIS IS ABOUT A BUSINESS PROBLEM PERPETUATED BY CAPITALISM NOT A STATEMENT ON CREATIVE DECISION MAKING"

#look I think AAA should make weirder games also but I wish we stopped treating that like some kind of solution and not just a fun idea #the problem is capitalism. its always capitalim #its not like AAA studios would have less problems if they made weird indie games lol #also hey spoiler alert: indie studios need to organize their labour too #in fact I think the organizing movement would be stronger if more indies adopted it first #anyway im busy so imma mute some posts now #thoughts #blog

5K notes · View notes

obsob · 5 months

Text

hmm anyway. holds u in my arms

#mine #cats #i did this a while ago n forgot 2 post whoopsies !!#anyway. my brain was so so small today colouring is so hard but...i think i may...have a solution....perhaps....we will test 2morrow and se #i hope everyone has had a good beginning to ur week also #tomorrow i need2 do orders and fix colouirng maybe and then thrusday finish colouring n then friday im going BIRD WATCHING #its fun ducks season i love fun ducks #ducks r so easy. unlike say a plover or a bunting of which there r 1000 and they are all the same

7K notes · View notes

blondie-drawings · 6 months

Text

(Worf voice) SLAY

#hello star trek fandom. i have arrived. unfortunately #giving data powers he doesnt have for the bit #i know the actress hated the outfits cos it was blatant fanservice but she looks SO GOOD #IM NOT IMMUNE TO FANSERVICE #obviously the solution is that everyone else should have gotten sexy unique little uniforms too. oh well #star trek #tng #the next generation #data soong #deanna troi #jean luc picard

7K notes · View notes

lilislegacy · 17 days

Text

honestly the sneakiest and most impressive thing percy’s ever done is convince an entire fandom that he’s dumb

#guys if percy was actually dumb he would have died a long time ago #annabeth comes up with very logical solutions but percy comes up with super creative solutions #boy is secretly genius #if i was in literally any of the situations he’s been in i would have died SO fast #percy jackson #pjo #heroes of olympus

2K notes · View notes

crabwithaknife-art · 1 month

Text

Dance Crazy

#rtvs #radio tv solutions #socpens #trog rtvs #scorpy rtvs #mastergir #yes they r out of sync #its bc toon boom can't export with transparency so I have to make these in ezgif #and its hard to time them

1K notes · View notes

gardenofnoah · 1 year

Text

“you’re going to hurt yourself like that, my love.”

you startle at the voice over you, having been nearly asleep.

“—uh?”

you turn your head to see Nanami looming over your side of the bed. if you were fully conscious, you would see the tiny look of mischief in his eyes as they roam your body, but you’re not, so you take it as his tendency to mother hen you.

and then he’s pushing you to the middle of the bed despite your whining, climbing in beside you. you try to settle in and find you’re still being moved—he’s on his back, shuffling himself down the bed and pulling one of your legs over his chest. you feel him turn his face into your belly in a move that feels suspiciously like nuzzling.

“what’re y’doin,” you slur, a little petulant at being woken up like this, despite it being well past the time you meant to rejoin the living and despite your own desire to seek out the warmth he’s emitting next to you.

“you’re going to hurt your hip, laying like that,” he says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. he runs a hand up the back of your thigh and over your hip, and you sigh a little bit, comforted by the feeling of him.

“i don’t know how you sleep like that,” he continues, absentmindedly dragging his fingers over your skin, making you shiver every now and then.

“feels good,” you grumble, face shoved into the pillow. talking about your bizarre sleeping position and maybe also the way the rough pads of his fingers leave a trail of warmth in their wake. you think you hear him chuckle softly, and you feel him press a kiss to the skin of your belly, right above the hem of your sleep shorts.

it’s soft, chaste—and then it’s not, and you suck in a breath when you feel him kiss you there again, feeling the tip of his tongue drag along the skin that stretches over your hip bone.

and evidently he hears your sharp inhale, because you feel a strong arm sneak around your lower back, pulling you closer to him.

“was still sleeping, you know,” but it’s lost all of its bite and you’re a little breathless now, fixated on the way his free hand slides up the back of your thigh to brush over the sensitive spot just under the curve of your ass.

“go to sleep then,” he says into the soft of your belly, pressing another kiss, opening his mouth a little wider to catch the skin of it between his teeth. he’s turned into you now, and despite yourself, you drag your leg up from his chest so it’s over his shoulder.

he moves to rest his head against your thigh that’s trapped underneath him, and distantly you think that it is more comfortable like this— his head squeezed between your legs having alleviated some of the pressure against your hip from laying on your side. that thought quickly becomes muddled in your head when you feel him latch on to the skin of your inner thigh that rests against his face.

you whine, hips bucking weakly as you squirm under tongue and teeth—both leaning into and trying to get away from the sting of his bite.

“my sweet love,” he coos, running his tongue over the fresh bruise, placating you. you shiver, pressing your face further into the pillow to try to breathe—to ground yourself despite the heat that curls up your spine. he stops, then, and you peak down at him to find that he’s staring back up at you.

“hi,” you whisper, fighting another shudder at the way his lips pull at the corners into a smirk that looks absolutely sinful on him.

“good morning,” he drawls, deep and far too awake. he rests his chin in the space between your hips, pressing a quick kiss above your pubic bone. your hips buck toward him a tiny bit, and his smirk widens when he feels it.

you bring a hand down to run it through his hair, tangling in the blond strands and scratching at his scalp. he closes his eyes and hums, deep in his chest, nuzzling into your thigh. it makes you smile, and it makes you ache.

“want you, ken,” you murmur, squeezing him gently between your thighs and reveling in the groan he lets out.

“i know, sweetheart,” he coos, hands coming up again to grope whatever skin he can reach and pressing a tiny kiss through your shorts, “i can smell you.”

13K notes · View notes

casiavium · 1 year

Text

If he's 'your' fiance why is there a giant statue of me riding him in the middle of the town square 🤨

#IN THE ZORA ENGAGEMENT ARMOR NO LESS #anyway this is NOT an invitation to bash her even though I don't like her design #sidlink #tears of the kingdom #totk #totk spoiler #SIDON I WAS GONE FOR SEVEN YEARS THAT'S LIKE. A WEEK IN A ZORA LIFETIME #HOW HAVE YOU MOVED ON ALREADY #totk spoilers #obv the solution is polycule

6K notes · View notes

hipstersbleedroses · 1 year

Text

“we need to digitise our files to keep them forever” people at work tell me. meanwhile i find carefully labelled floppy disks in our achive that nobody can read anymore. i pull out the files from 1949 next to it. its paper. i can still read that because the technology didn’t go out of style 30 years ago.

#i have no solution for this #i also scan stuff and file it as pdf #but sometimes i wonder if we really are heading into a new dark age #where nobody in the future will be able to read our documents because the technology is outdated

1 note · View note

queertemporality · 1 month

Text

i think people should talk more about the unique sense of hopelessness which stems from the realization that “help” in the form myth promised you does not exist; there is no help coming and you must create from scratch the tools that will dismantle (or at least diminish) your own suffering, and do this not once but every day for the rest of your life

#post #sisyphean task #like i WISH there was some solution where i could walk into a room with my problems #and walk out with fewer or at least some vague idea of how to tackle them #but that’s not the case #i’m just stumbling through the dark and each time you have to find a new way through #psych

765 notes · View notes

little-pondhead · 6 months

Text

Classic "promised-at-birth-to-the-Ghost-King" story, except the contract never states how, exactly, the King is to use the offered soul. Usually, one would be offered as a bride or sacrifice. But with Pariah Dark sealed away, his retainers got a little lazy in the last few millennia. They just made some generic contracts and practically handed them out like candy.

When Danny took over as king via conquest, that included all the weird and messed up soul contracts the previous retainers had signed. And since ghost magic was a thing and seemed to have it out for Danny personally, many of these contracts updated their terms and conditions as soon as that crown hit Danny's head, reflecting the new King's subconscious desires and personality.

This caused many issues with those still around to profit from these contracts. Some people lost their power, some gained more, and some were unbound and kicked to the curb. A few special people found themselves dropping dead after their less-than-ethical abilities disappeared.

Danny was unaware of the chaos he had unintentionally caused for quite a while. It was only brought to his attention when a letter arrived on his desk one day with a copy of someone's valid contract enclosed. The new changes have been highlighted, and a separate note is attached.

It seems that in exchange for blessings of near-immortality for her infant son, a mother had offered Pariah Dark both their souls in order to ensure her child's survival during harsh times. (The souls were to be collected upon death and were to be used as soldiers in the King's Army.) The mother's soul had returned to the Keep decades ago and was recently assigned to tend to the gardens, while her son seemed to have grown into a fine gentleman and was still alive. He used his mother's gifts to serve his country and loved ones well, it seemed.

At first, Danny didn't see what any of this had to do with him. If the mother was already a part of his kingdom, and the son would be eventually, why was a letter about the whole thing showing up before him?

Then he read the revised contract, which bore his magical signature. A signature that overruled the power of Pariah and binding it to him.

'...and as such, in return for the abilities stated above, [Mary Pennyworth] and [Alfred Pennyworth] will fulfill the conditions detailed below, upon pain of Ending.

[Mary Pennyworth], when returned to the Kingdom of Dark Kingdom of Stars, will work as a lieutenant in the Skeleton Army caretaker in the Gardens of Pluto.

STATUS: COMPLETED

[Alfred Pennyworth], when returned to the Kingdom of Dark Kingdom of Stars, will work as a general in the Skeleton Army caretaker of the King and his Court.

STATUS: PENDING'

Danny had to re-read the contract several times to understand what it was saying. He now had a caretaker? What did a caretaker do? Was it like a ghost parent? Could this guy ghost-ground him??

He sighed and pressed the speed dial on his phone for Tucker. Time to find out who the hell this Alfred Pennyworth guy was, and how to break a magic contract when it wasn't even fulfilled yet.

Meanwhile, Alfred had just found the original copy of the contract amongst his mother's belongings after it glowed and drew him in. The paperwork cleared up a lot of mysteries he'd always wondered about himself, even if he disapproved of his mother's methods. Nonetheless, he smoothed out the aged paper with dark green ink, noted the fresh (sloppy, a teenager?) signature, and began preparing to meet this supposed new King and his Court.

It wouldn't hurt to make introductions before he died, after all.

#pondhead blurbs #dpxdc #alfred is now their grandpa #i just want alfred to meet danny and his group of friends and unironically call him 'your majesty' and danny HATES it #like this is the guy who's gonna be my butler/caretaker after he dies? please man just say my name #it's not a cursed name i swear #no one else knows how to feel #cause like #if the contract wasn't in place everyone was sure Alfred would haunt the manor even after death due to his devotion to the wayne family #but now he's already got a job in the afterlife #so how will the bats see their father/grandfather figure now?#Bruce: the obvious solution is to adopt these random kids who still have families so alfred never has to leave :)#alfred isn't even dead yet but the bats are speedrunning their grief in like a week

1K notes · View notes

ruporas · 9 months

Text

i killed. i murdered. i'm nothing like these sleepy people here… nevertheless, you can actually be grateful? bastard… i’m saying… thank you. because you spilled blood, you saved all of these people’s lives. i couldn’t have done it without you. (ID in alt)

#vashwood #vash the stampede #nicholas d wolfwood #trigun #trigun maximum #participated in altades' dance collab :3 very grateful for the opportunity and many thanks to them for organizing this!#there was a lot of vw arc choices... but i went for the leonof arc bc it's a dear vw moment to me #i think a lot of the leonof arc further breaks down vash's ideology and for the readers - together with ww- to learn that his ideals aren't #pure naivety and that vash knows he's at an odd standpoint with himself. he's criticized ww for shooting rai-dei just prior when ww had don #so on the behalf of vash but here he thanks him for killing on behalf of his home and its genuine. bc vash's presence - although it's not #his fault - he was the reason leonof and gray had gotten to the ship and killed people there. that's the guilt he has to live with and #despite his anger he'd still resolute not to kill. meanwhile ww just did what he had to - beating down on a seemingly immortal monster but #at the core made up of many lives he had to take and i feel as the fight dragged on - his own mentality waned. committing active carnage #while remembering the orphanage... and bearing that guilt alongside the words vash left with him during rai-dei's death #only for vash to thank him afterwards what he's done and for apologizing for pushing his beliefs on ww when he had no solutions of his own #anyway. i just have so an immense love for this arc bc they just got around to appreciating each other in weird ways. though ofc its still #weird and confusing for ww bc every new info on vash it'll just be strange to him as someone who's human #ruporas art

2K notes · View notes

zoe-oneesama · 1 year

Text

Scarlet Lady AU Chapters Master Post - Season 1

If you’re on mobile, my links (which go to my blog’s Season Chapter pages) probably don’t work for you, so instead here’s a Master Post of the chapters.

Scarlet Lady Season 1

Episode 1 - Origins Part 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Episode 2 - Origins Part 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Episode 3 - Stormy Weather

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Episode 4 - Bubbler

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Episode 5 - Lady Wifi

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Episode 6 - Copycat

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Episode 7 - Mr. Pigeon

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Episode 8 - The Pharaoh

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Episode 9 - Horrificator

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Episode 10 - Rogercop

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Season 2 Master Post

Season 3 Master Post

Season 4 Master Post

Season 5 Master Post

#scarlet lady chapter master post #yeah I'm not gong through aaaaaaall these pages to 'fix' those links after I already went through aaaaaall these pages to put them in there #so this is the next best solution #I'll update it as a chapter is finishes #alskjfa the post is too long so I'll have to do it in parts #season 1 master post

3K notes · View notes

the-clintster · 5 months

Text

#german stuff #solution once the poll is over #poll #tumblr polls #op #hint: the day this poll ends is a clue #probably should have added a 'yes and I know how to draw this' option

648 notes · View notes

the-scooby-gang · 4 months

Text

Miguel: Every Spiderman follows the cannon. There are no deviations. There are no exceptions.

Spidergang with no dead uncles, their friend Gwen is fine, Sheriff Bronson didn't die saving a kid, etc. because four super powered teens and one super dog can cover a lot of bases and help each other better than one dude helping New York alone with only Daredevil and Deadpool sometimes: Yall hear sumn?

#scooby gang #spiderman across the spiderverse #spiderman into the spiderverse #scooby doo #shaggy rogers #daphne blake #fred jones #across the spiderverse #spiderman #peter parker #miles morales #miles is going to meet the gang in beyond the spiderverse and have so many emotions about it #Miles: so you guys are telling me that team work was the solution all along?#Fred: yeah pretty much dude #Miles: Cool cool cool nice to know *rocks Miguel's shit even harder*#The gangs mere existence would murder Miguel on the spot #all he believed in? shattered. vaporized. Daughter died for nothing #also IM NOT DEAD!!!!#I found a job guys!#so my time has been a little limited for fanart or fanfics #but now i have some time so BACK TO THE SCOOBY TIME #also would you guys believe i started this comic in JUNE and only had time to finish it NOW?!?!? crazy times

1K notes · View notes

corvigae · 5 months

Text

It's funny to me how The Sims 2 still showed up in the top 100 video games tags for 2023 Tumblr Year In Review. Against all odds, we're still relevant. Cockroach ass game.

#ts2 #the sims 2 #show us a broken 20 year old game we'll show you countless fixes and hours of dedicated gameplay and video essays #along with several hard drives worth of cc #i ran out of storage on my pc recently. my solution - deleting unnecessary files like the solid 5g i have of cc?#nah. by a new expandable hard drive. clearly.#personal grumblings

858 notes · View notes