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acestories · 5 months

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The Starfarer Chronicles Chapter 1.5

01–01–408 GSC, Kadath

The Wanderer sat down with a huff. Fucking Solari, sending him down into an infinite hell to get a piece of technology. And of course, the Fusion Cell had its parts knocked out of place. And because the manufacturer was cheap, the access panel was a pain to remove.

After a minute of fumbling to get a grip, The Wanderer tore the panel off with a loud grunt, falling back slightly.

“Suck it bitch.” He declared to the inanimate object, getting to work immediately. Man, everything really was knocked out of place, yet everything is still intact. Score!

As he pulled out the wires, contemplating what he would do with the bonus for it being so intact, he noticed a fast approaching light being reflected off of the mechanical guts strewn about. The Wanderer himself had the gift of See-In-Darkness, so he hadn't come with a light, wishing to avoid attracting any predators, which meant only one thing.

On instinct, heart hammering, The Wanderer grabbed one of their Blaster pistols from their waist, twirling around, and pointing it at the person that was running up to them.

“Tell me who you are and what you want, or I'll shoot.” The Wanderer announced in a stern voice, finger already on the trigger.

Despite his pessimism, the Stranger wasn't particularly threatening. In fact, under different circumstances, The Wanderer might have found them cute.

They were short. Very short. Even sitting down cross-legged, he came up to their shoulders. They were wearing blue robes with gold edges, a purple scarf wrapped around their head and neck. All of it was clearly several sizes too big for them, giving them a baggy appearance only counteracted by the satchel they had slung across their shoulder. Glowing, blue-within-blue eyes stared from above the scarf, a clear spark of excitement visible while their cat ears stood to attention, poking tents into their hood. Their brown tail went this way and that. A small ball of fire hovered behind their shoulder, being the source of the light in the room.

The Stranger finished running up to him, coming to stand about a meter away from him. Their large eyes stared at his Blaster in utter fascination, seemingly unfazed by his demand.

“Tell me who you are, and what you want, or I'll shoot.” The Wanderer repeated harshly. He'd rather not kill this person, but he hoped the second time would get them to cooperate.

The newcomer turned their eyes from the gun towards him, clearly recognizing the annoyance in his voice. “AAABABA!”

That was not the answer The Wanderer was expecting. What in the ever living hell was that? Was this person trying to mess with him?

The Stranger was clearly happy, almost like a kid answering a question. And either they didn't care that he was still pointing his gun at them, or, as he was beginning to suspect, didn't understand. They got on their hands and knees, coming over to investigate the Fusion Cell in front of him.

Well, at least they're not touching it. He thought, reaching for the tool he needed. Honestly, The Wanderer was almost done with the repairs anyways. He went about putting each individual part where it was supposed to go, clicking it into place, before moving on to the next part or wire. The whole time, the seemingly feral cave child watched with intense interest, their eyes never once deviating from the process.

When the last part was in place, The Wanderer put the access plate back on, and scooped the Fusion Cell under his arm as he got up. As he did so, the Stranger got up and followed him with none of the same practiced grace as he.

The Stranger followed him, a few steps behind, their eyes practically glued to him. He kept swiveling his head around to look at them, hand hovering over his gun.

After several minutes of walking in silence, the pair arrived at the ramp The Wanderer used to get down to here. At a little under 3 meters wide, it had plenty of room for him and his unusual companion.

After the first bend, the Stranger rummaged through their satchel, pulling out a Nutrient Brick, the soft crinkle of the wrapper filling the air. Huh, I didn't know there were any Synthesizers around here. So that's how they survived.

“So, how long have you been down here? I assume a while since you have a whole bag of the Bricks. Any run-ins with some manner of beastie?”

The Stranger took another mouthful of Brick, staring at him while they noisily chewed. “Abapō amamama.”

Yeah, this kid can't talk. The Wanderer thought with a dry laugh. Not unless random gibberish counts.

The Stranger seemed confused for a moment, and after scarfing down another mouthful of semisolid nutrients, tried again. “Aglam iqorsh ass.”

It was still gibberish, but the fact the last one happened to be “ass” made The Wanderer explode with laughter. The Stranger kept babbling incoherently all the way up the rest of the ramp. As they exited, the Carbon Guard stood around them, their armor painted in matching colors. The gang's leader stepped up.

“Ah, you've returned. We were wondering if you'd be here on time, considering where the wreck is.”

The Wanderer held the cell in their hand, ignoring the comment. “I brought the Fusion Cell back in perfect, working condition. Give me my bonus pay like you said you would.”

The leader's face was hidden behind His helmet, but The Wanderer could feel the frustration coming from the trollish leader as he was ignored. He took the cell and started fiddling with it. After he removed and returned the access plate to confirm what The Wanderer said, he nodded in agreement. It was at this time that he noticed the Stranger.

“Who is this?” He asked, voice subtly harder, pointing at the Stranger, who ‘eeped’ and got behind the Wanderer immediately. Turning to look at them, he saw that the Stranger's uncaring attitude had evaporated. Where there was once curiosity, there was now unease and fear.

“Don't worry Solari. I found them down in the tunnels. Can't understand a word.”

“This wasn't part of the deal Raj. We never said anything about paying 2 people.”

“The deal was you paid me for getting a Fusion Cell your friend lost down in the tunnels, extra if it was in working condition. I have gotten you the cell in working condition. They don't change anything about the trade.”

The Leader tossed the cell back to one of their companions, hands grabbing the rifle dangling on his side from his shoulders. “Don't bullshit me. I can see their eyes, they're a mutie freak! And is that a ball of fire behind them? A mage too!?”

Just as Raj, the Wanderer was about to grab his gun, the largest member of the gang came up and grabbed his leader.

“He's right. He has done as we asked, and now honor demandss we pay him.” The Vesk spoke, his deep voice hissing slightly as his accent slipped through.

As the Leader turned to face his gang, he saw the others were clearly unhappy with his reaction. “Fine. Here's your credits, with bonus.”

He held out a fist full of thin, small silver bars. Credsticks.

Raj happily and quietly took them, and swiftly pocketed them. Money attained and the Carbon Guard walking away towards their hovercraft, their backs facing them and showing the gang's logo, Raj turned to his companion.

“Well, I can't just leave you here, now can I?” He sighed tiredly. “Don't worry, the nearest Tubeway Station isn't that far.”

The Stranger looked up at him, their brows knitted in confusion.

========================

Raj sat in his seat, fiddling with his wrist mounted computer. His fingers danced across the screen, bringing up his list of contacts. After only a few seconds of aggressive scrolling, he got to the one he was looking for. After listening to it ringing for 30 seconds, a click sounded, followed by a rustling and some muffled talking.

“Sorry about that, kids wanted to talk. Whatcha need Raj?”

“I need your help with getting someone a home.”

“Another orphan?”

“I'm not sure. I ran into them down in the tunnels while on a job. Poor thing has a severe case of Tunnel Sickness. Any attempt at talking is literally just random noises.”

There was silence. “Are you sure it's a good idea to give them to us? You know how bad sufferers can be overstimulated.”

“Believe me, I know.” He stated, looking over at the Stranger next to him. Almost as soon as the pair had finally reached the city proper, the Stranger had gone quiet.

They had their knees up to their chest, sleeves emptied. Their tail curled over to cover their feet, fur wiggling with their toes. Despite it all, their eyes bounced around, looking at everything excitedly, ears whipping around wildly at every sound.

How could he blame them? After being in the tunnels for long enough, the brain becomes sensitive to outside stimuli. And the Tubeway Pod had plenty of stimuli to give, due to the overcrowding that always occurs around 1600 hours.

A Kasatha monk stood serenely amongst a group of angry teenagers. An elven mother who looked like she hadn't slept in 3 years tried to quiet her baby. An Ork in a pink dress thumbed through a book titled “How to Honourably Garden”. A group of adventurers were planning whatever chaos they were going to get into next. A gaseous lifeform that smelled like rotten eggs in an environmental suit was referencing a map.

And those were just their immediate neighbors.

“I'm gonna try and help them at least start recovering, then I figured you and the girls could handle the rest. I'm not the best choice to handle this.”

“Fair enough.” She purred. “Well, can I at least get a description so we can plan ahead?”

“1.4 meters tall, 42 kg, mage, bl—”

Raj stopped as he heard laughter through his comms. “I'm sorry, you sound like you're reading a wanted poster, I'm still not used to it!” She guffawed.

“No it's okay, I do sound like that. It's just kinda how I talk. Usually.” He stated, slight inflection on the last word.

“Okay, I think I'm good. Anything else of note?”

“Other than clothes and the aforementioned tunnel sickness? Not much, but it's also been only an hour or two.”

“Any particular reason for liking this one so much?”

“Because when I look into their eyes…” He said as he looked down at the young mage. They looked up at him with their big, glowing blue eyes. Despite the obvious catching quality, it was the spark of intelligence there that usually wasn't there with cases this bad that stood out. “I see something that's unexpected. I'm not sure their mind has completely gone.”

“Hmm… I want to see them soon then. I know a few spells that could help.”

“Agreed. I'll make sure they can talk before we pick a day.”

“Agree—” BANG “Ssssshit, what was that? Damn kids, talk later.” Click, and the voice was gone.

Raj waved his hand in irritation, frustrated at Luck's intervention. Figures.

The Pod doors swooshed open shortly after, allowing the passengers to disembark. Raj waited for things to thin out before he grabbed the Stranger. Normally, he’d be more reluctant to handle someone in such a delicate mental state, but the Stranger clearly liked it before when he carried them onto the pod, so it was safe to assume carrying them off would be ok.

Lo and behold, his guess was right. They clung to him like a drowning rat clinging to wood. Still, they looked around at their surroundings with unending curiosity and excitement.

The Pod was bad, but the streets weren’t much better. A Cosmopolis like this is the worst place to be if one has sensory issues. But, he didn’t have a choice. His ship was at the docks, and without the money to afford a transporter, he had to walk.

The Stranger whimpered as a stage magician conjured a gout of fire as part of their performance. Raj held the Stranger slightly tighter. “It’s ok. We’re almost home, and then you can relax.”

Almost on cue, The docks loomed over them, Raj’s ship visible from where they stood at the base.

#not ace #personal writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #scifi #fantasy #science fantasy #Fuck my life I forgot to upload this sooner #Instead I got sucked into Video Game

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zarvasace · 10 months

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Me trying to write sci-fi:

He sat on a space chair and looked out at the space dock, sipping on space coffee. He had a lot of feelings about space—mainly that there was so much of it.

#i speak from the coffin #scifi #but really #isnt that all you need #a western with blasters instead of pistols #a drama with aliens #the most dramatic fantasy romance with spaceships and a few plasma swords #maybe a mech

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boxwinebaddie · 4 months

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JAIL

JAIL FOR GIVING US A SNEAK PEAK AND GETTING US EXCITED

JAIL

IF THIS IS ABOUT TO KILL A KING!!!! I AM SORRY, I KNOW!!!! RIP

i am still developing the plot <3 -- which you can still totally ask abt, but unfortunately a lot of it might not be Permanent because my tsot style universe is still largely In The Works? i do, however, place very high value on all of ur opinions of my writing and my world building, so it would be very sick to get ur opinions on what i've got?

but again!!! trying not to crutch or base my self worth around what others think of me! teacher nina modelling self help and self love! xx

either way! you guys know how i am, so i'll probably just post random dialogue or excerpt snippets here or there/test guinea pig/or rather, ~test stripe~ things out on you guys thru my tumblr blog bc as of rn i'm a little scared of ao3 because of how stressed out it made me. :'(

its nice here tho!!! and You Guys are nice!!! so as a step towards being kind to Myself, i'm going to use this blog as a place for uplifiting and inspiration and share my deranged thots when i feel inclined to <3 and if they pop up, i hope they thrill you as much as you all thrill me :')

-uncle nina, trying to teach myself how to use hath, thy and prithee

#i like #have ideas but theyre not fully recognized #like high fantasy universes are so complicated to me #same with scifi #its why i held off on tfbw and tsot fanfics bc i am very crazy abt the world building and it has to make sense to me #like the tfbw one allllllmost makes sense to me and it finally makes enough sense for me to write oneshots abt it or hcs #so if u want those fire away #but like anything about tsot ur just gonna have to take w a grain of salt from me bc im very indecisive and like #idk all the provincial life kingdom stuff and social hierarchy things have to make sense for me it will fuck w me if its messy #but i love u guys thank u for supporting my weird ideas & gut feelings and i hope conflicted antihero assassin stan is Giving #i honestly love him or what i think i know abt him in my head which is that he wears the big white puffy sleeve tunic #but dreams of silver suits of armor and carrying a big sword instead of food and drink to belligerent travelers at the inn ok #peasant stan...please one chance #i do not care that u have demons bestie...Boo Bitch!#place thine lips upon mine!!! come hither! make haste!!#like maybe he is committing treason but at least hes committed okay!!! my man is loyal OKAY! *me: in denial*#alien kite phantom theres stan disorder jersey & sexy cursed sellsword stan are my morally dubious and mentally ill shawties #i will fight for my kids #i will be fighting for my life tho smh

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solradguy · 1 year

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I came to terms with the Sol kinnie thing months ago now because honestly who gives a shit, but every now and then I'll find myself in a situation where I wonder if whatever it was I was about to do was/is a pre- or post-Guilty Gear interest lol

#textpost #Most of them have been pre-Guilty Gear interests which is honestly hilarious #Like of course I don't have proof for most of it but my fursona is the funniest one #He's basically bootleg furry Sol Badguy BUT he was like that MONTHS before I got into GG #I've been thinking about this over the last few days though #Because I was doing some Queen stuff and had a thought like 'am I only doing this because my brain's weird or do I actually care'#And went through like a checklist of things. I do actually care #Sol is like frighteningly relatable though and sometimes I wish he wasn't lol #I typed this at 2am last night but saved it to my drafts instead of publishing it haha Still kinda feeling it this morning though tbh #I wish I could better articulate or find a term that describes how I relate to Sol better because 'kin/fictionkin' feels too...#Hmm.... Psycho-religious? A lot of essays I read while initially figuring this out related the kin tag to something more like a-#-Philosophy or something similar to a religion #But for me it's more like my brain filling in empty spaces within itself because No One was like me growing up and #now that I'm also trans there are even LESS people who are like me #So my brain sees a character that's similar to me and is like 'oh holy shit it's us. Let's be like that' hahah #This got really long I should've put it up in the post sorry lmfao #Anyway this is something I've done my whole life and 'kinning' is really the only term that fits what it is even if it's not a 1:1 fit #It usually doesn't bother me but knowing that some of the things I enjoy now I probably won't later once my interests shift again does #I still keep waiting for it to happen with Guilty Gear but GG is so different from anything else I've been into I'm not sure it will #Since most of the things I like about GG were things I liked before getting into it. Like heavy metal & weird scifi/fantasy #I'm not going to elaborate on how exactly I relate to Sol also. My blog is too public for that #and this post is already a little too personal #kin tag

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ladynoirist · 1 year

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why am i completely incapable of reading scifi lmao

#this is how you lose the time war was like. MADE for me on paper #but the whole time i read it i was just like GOD!!!! WHY COULDN'T THIS BE FANTASY INSTEAD!!!!!#and rn im reading the body scout by lincoln michel which yea is SPORTSBALL scifi but it's a MURDER MYSTERY #by a literary author with lots of commentary on body modification culture and what not #once again made for me!!! well except for the sportsball part #but i still just can't get into it!!!!#im gonna stick w it and finish it bc i really like the author's newsletter and even his twitter (a rarity for me!) but like. why is it HARD #i kind of know the answer to my own question but its not for public poasting and it also fundamentally doesn't make sense

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lumarisart · 1 year

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Listen, brain, I need you to cooperate and focus on working on this FANTASY novel since I started it this month for NANOWRIMO. Please stop getting hung up over the scifi-fantasy serial because of two dumbass main characters being absolute dumbasses ;-;

#writing #smutty adventure scifi fantasy with elves and vampires and dragon shifters #should be writing freaking slow burn epic fantasy romance instead

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anxietyrobot · 2 years

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something to remember if youre an oc person is that its always valid to gut a project youre not longer interested in and put characters you like into something else that youre still passionate about

#ive done it before with andy and co because im not interested in contemporary stuff without elements of fantasy/scifi #and today i was thinking about how i wasnt interested in asphodelus's story anymore #and i was sad bc i like the character so i decided she could totally fit in the superhero world with her adoptive alien lizard dad #he just has to become a mutant instead of an alien aldkfjadkf

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llycaons · 1 month

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though I don't think I'll read any more Butler. I don't really like scifi, her prose did not appeal to me very much, and I've heard some...things...about fledgeling

#in the critical essay in the afterward it says she classifies kindred as a fantasy instead of scifi #which I agree with. there's no science. it IS fantastical #cor.txt

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byteofsoup · 2 years

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==> Enter name.

Your name is VINVUN LIZZRD.

You're fascinated with death, and you're especially talented at TAXIDERMY. Although you are a jadeblood, you don't particularly care for the living, and therefore didn't stay in the brooding caverns. You like to read, and your favorite novels are all INCREDIBLY GORY. Your lusus doesn't like them, she implies they're disrespecting the dead. Says the one who exclusively eats carrion.

You have a bit of a DIURNAL HABIT, as your jadeblood nature protects you the blistering alternian sun. When you aren't pinning the exoskeleton of some kid's dead lusus, you can be found in the woods near your hive, basking in the SUN'S DAPPLED RAYS and performing STRANGE RITUALS. You are not part of the resistance, but your strange nature still makes you QUITE UNEMPLOYABLE. Your favorite color is VERY DARK, DULL ORANGE, so you forgo the traditional dark gray tee for one in your favorite shade.

Your chittr tag is eccentricDesiccation and you speak with... an o>dd... distance... in yo>ur vo>ice...

#homestuck #hiveswap #fantroll #my art #he was meant for an au where alternia was fantasy themed instead of scifi #but i liked him too much #(sprite was made with a dollmaker)#transgender swag

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alienjaes · 2 years

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I miss getting to play in games. Running them rules but sometimes I wanna play in the wild-ass worlds we make too.

Hopefully when my last playtest is done and the game's released I can just...be a player again for a bit.

#that said I'm very happy with my games and I want to keep learning so I can keep giving my players good experiences #just miss getting to act with people #wanna do the scifi games instead of all fantasy #alienwords

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writingwithcolor · 9 months

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Afro-Latine Jewish woman maintaining cultural connection in an isekai comic

Anonymous asked:

Hello! Mixed Latin American nonbinary Jew here. I'm working on a, relatively light-hearted, isekai-style fantasy comic concept of an afro-latine Jewish lady who gets sent through a portal to a colorful scifi/fantasy land, inhabitated by various imaginary creatures sorta like in Alice in Wonderland. She gains magic powers and goes on adventures, working as a scientist researching the land's magical energy. (some of the local creatures she befriends are entirely original species, and some are inspired by my local folklore, but otherwise I try to avoid culturally coding the creatures since they're mostly nonhuman looking). The story isn't supposed to touch any heavy topics like antisemitism or racism, but I've read about the cultural problems in ""normie protagonist finds a new home in a funky fantasy world"" stories, f.ex. how Harry Potter's narrative basically implies that Muggleborns have to abandon their original cultures in order to successfully integrate into the very prejudiced but ""cooler"" Wizarding World. My original goal was to break the mold that escapism fantasy usually revolves around white protagonists adventuring in heavily Western-inspired fantasy worlds, and poc-coded characters are usually nonhuman creatures or racial stereotypes. However the protagonist girl in my story comes from a loving, latine-jewish human family, and while she regularly visits them on Earth instead of just staying in the fantasy land 24/7, I'm afraid that making her story be about being happy adventuring in a separate imaginary land filled with nonhuman characters might turn into an ""abandon your family and culture"" narrative. Are there any ways how I could avoid this? Maybe making the fantasy land's worldbuilding and designs more Latin American or Jewish inspired and thus resonate more with her cultural background, or making it clear that the land is not ""perfect"" and she still loves her family?

One of the first things that stands out to me is that you haven’t set her up to need to abandon her culture in order to make a life in another place. She has the ability to go home and visit her family, but I also don’t see any reason why, if she lives primarily in the fantasy land, she couldn’t be portrayed as practicing Judaism actively in her new home. It’s true that Judaism isn’t solely defined by religious/cultural practices, but it’s also true that religious/cultural practices are one of the most recognizable and most uniting elements of Jewish identity.

I think it might help in this case to think about Jewish practices in terms of communal versus personal: that is, what are practices she would need to seek out a Jewish community for, and what are practices she can do independently?

Does she control when she is able to visit her family? If so, visiting for Jewish holidays so that she can be at a family meal or holiday services seems like a way to highlight that she is just as connected to her family as someone who moved to a different city might be. If she experiences/has experienced the death of a family member or partner, going home to be with a Jewish community for shiva or to say kaddish on a yahrzeit is another touch (for readers who may be unfamiliar, Jewish mourning practices are intensely communal and are intentional about bringing the mourner into an active support system and slowly reintroducing them to the world, and as such a mourner is likely to spend this time somewhere where they can access and be supported by a Jewish community).

As far as practices she can engage with on her own in the fantasy setting, it would be nice to see her observing Shabbat, either in a traditional way by refraining from adventuring and instead engaging in hospitality and prayer between dusk Friday and sundown Saturday, or in a less-halakhic way if she comes from a Reform or comparatively-assimilated background, by marking Friday sunset with candles, blessings, and a good meal, even if she is intending to continue her research through the next day. She would hardly be the first Jewish person to live in a place without an established Jewish community, and a festive meal can be shared just as happily with non-Jewish friends if they’re griffons and fauns as if they’re Christians and Muslims.

Here’s one idea that I think would be hugely meaningful as a way of establishing both that she intends to make her home long-term in Fantasy World and that she intends to carry Jewish traditions with her into her new life: hang a mezuzah.

Think about it: a mezuzah is the visual marker of a Jewish home, as much to the resident as to a guest. When she is home from her adventures, in her garden cottage or enchanted tower or wherever she returns to between adventures to record and categorize her research, simply showing a mezuzah in the background instantly makes the point both that she is intending to stay, and that this is a Jewish space. If as time goes on she adds other Judaica items to her space, it can add to the sense that her Jewishness is present and alive in this world, simply because she is present and alive in it.

If she doesn’t have a settled space or if you’re not planning on setting any scenes there, having Jewish visual markers on and around her can help, too. For low-hanging fruit, maybe she has a silver Jewish Star or chai necklace that catches the light now and then, but since you’re going for a light, fun vibe, maybe she’s packing her adventuring supplies in a bright-blue vinyl backpack emblazoned with “Temple Shaarei Tzedek Junior Youth Retreat 1998” (am I old? I’m pretty sure there are adults reading this who were in Junior Youth groups in 2003, but I’m willing to bet retreat swag hasn’t changed that much).

I do like the idea of including Latin American and Jewish elements in the worldbuilding, especially as an intentional way to combat the cultural dominance of Western European folklore over fantasy writing, but because your character is from and has access to our world, you have the beautiful opportunity to carry real-world markers of Jewishness with her as well.

-Meir

I adore Meir’s answer, but then, I’m the kind of person to whom “enchanted tower with a mezuzah” as an aesthetic is so near and dear to my heart that I wrote a whole fantasy series about it. Couple of random suggestions: one thing I really enjoy is exposing my gentile friends to Jewish food—I love watching the absolute shock of delirium hit someone’s face the first time they taste my charoseth. Imagine this little bowl of chopped apples and walnuts, looking vaguely dirty because they’re soaked in cinnamon-infused wine, so it’s basically dingy beige slop….so that first bite of sensuous, deep sweetness is a huge surprise. Pick your favorite equivalent and imagine the first time a centaur or a winged princess or whatever other fantasy character tries it at your MC’s behest! (Feeding brisket to dragons would make a great name for…something…)

I don’t think you’re likely to do this anyway but since these are public answers: “fantasy world fun, Jewish upbringing a chore” is a narrative I would not feel at home in or care to read. But that’s a rather predictable remark from me anyway ;)

And of course I support the “the secondary fantasy world is actually Jewish” solution too, having one of my own.

–Shira

#Jumblr #Jewish #Judaism #Afro Latina #Afro Latine #Culture #Jewish culture #Jewish holidays #asks

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thenightling · 2 months

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So for those unaware of what just went down, a whistleblower has exposed that last year the American / Canadian / and UK comity of the Hugo Awards deliberately removed some nominations specifically because those nominations might offend the Chinese government.

The Hugo Awards (until now) were a very respected scifi / fantasy award. In years past Neil Gaiman had won Hugo awards for such things as The Sandman: Overture and other works.

However the nominations removed last year to avoid offending China included episode 6 of the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, likely because it showed Death taking souls to the afterlife. The Chinese government does not like Western depictions of the afterlife.

This has blown up into a very big and interesting scandal and now Neil Gaiman and The Sandman Netflix series are part of it.

I grew tired of Hollywood pandering to China years ago when I found out that's why so many horror reboots removed supernatural elements (i.e. the Child's Play remake turning Chucky into an evil AI robot doll instead of a possessed talking doll).

The Chinese market does not like western depictions of ghosts or the afterlife and this has lead to a steep decrease in high budget supernatural horror and why most horror is now made by smaller, low-budget divisions like Blumhouse.

Disney couldn't even put a Haunted Mansion in Hong Kong Disney. Instead it's "Mystic Manor" which isn't haunted at all but just "enchanted" with "living furniture." The popular excuse they give is that the Chinese culture has different views on ghosts than us. Bull. I've read plenty of scary Chinese ghost stories. And they don't mind western depictions of ghosts if they happen to be in Korean or Japanese animation.

#Hugo Awards #Neil Gaiman #The Sandman

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sprintingowl · 11 months

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TTRPGs As Terrariums For Blorbos

One thing that I think isn't covered enough in TTRPG recommendations is styles of play.

There's a lot of "this game has this tone," or "this game is this amount of crunchy," but less "what are you playing towards?"

In games like Microscope and I'm Sorry Did You Say Street Magic? and The Quiet Year, you're playing to see what happens to the setting.

In games like Mork Borg and Into The Odd and Mothership, you're playing to see how far your character can get.

And in a lot of games, you're playing to create a blorbo, an OC, just a little guy, and the soul of the gameplay is the story of who your guy is and who your guy becomes.

This is blorbo style play.

And the thing about styles of play is that you can apply them to any game, even games that aren't really built to enable them. So I wanted to take a moment to shine a spotlight onto some games that do specifically enable you to fully blorb out. (I'll try to cover a mix of genres and tones, but the rpg scene is vast so if you have a favorite that I missed please feel free to shout it out in the replies.)

-Golden Sky Stories. This is the English translation of the Japanese TTRPG Yuuyake Koyake. You play as shapeshifter kids and spirits in a small town and, instead of tracking EXP, the thing that you carry from session to session is your relationships with other characters. The tone of the game is heartwarming, and if combat happens, both sides lose. There can be emotional turmoil, but this isn't a game where you have to worry about bad things happening to your blorbo.

-New World Of Darkness. On the other hand, let's say you *want* bad things to happen to your blorbo. You want to play a guy that's really going through it. If you also like modern supernatural stories, New World Of Darkness was built for you. Characters in NWoD can be entirely non-combat, or a literal werewolf, or a noncombat werewolf. The game places a lot of emphasis on navigating through the setting socially, as its supernatural creatures tend to run in factions and starting a fight usually means making a bunch of enemies.

-Pasion De Las Pasiones. Of course, not everyone wants a fantastical setting. Sometimes good old melodrama is hearty and comforting. Pasion De Las Pasiones is a playable telenovela, and it encourages you to play your characters bold and recklessly. Every class even has a built-in Meltdown, where if you're pushed to the edge they become extra reckless, ensuring a broad fallout of messy drama when they do manage to calm down.

-Cortex System / Unisystem. Perhaps you want to drop your blorbo into an existing fictional universe? But you also want stats and meaty character creation instead of just freeform roleplay? There are easily a dozen games on the Cortex engine, including Supernatural, Firefly, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Marvel, and Leverage. And on Unisystem, there's Buffy, Army Of Darkness, as well as a somewhat rare I Can't Believe It's Not Planet Of The Apes.

-Lancer / Gubat Banwa. If you like blorb-y play but still want a heavy side of combat, both of these games have you covered. Lancer has a sprawling scifi universe focused on mech pilots, and Gubat Banwa has a violent and lavish mythological Philippines setting. Both of these games also have stunningly beautiful artwork, so if you like seeing a setting visually come to life, these are for you.

-Fabula Ultima. My final recommendation is also an extremely gorgeous looking game. Fabula Ultima is built on the bones of Ryuutama (itself an excellent travel-fantasy game) to enable meaty, blorby Final Fantasy style campaign play. Combat is a rich and deep option in Fabula Ultima, but so is everything from spellcasting to crafting, and players have built-in resources they can spend to affect the story. If a scene isn't quite going the way you want it to, you can spend a point to nudge it in the right direction. Fabula Ultima also feels extremely complete without being too complicated.

So there you go. Eight options, and that's barely scratching the surface of the sea of blorb-y games (Seventh Sea, Exalted, Blue Rose, Legend Of The Five Rings, Coyote And Crow, Timewatch, Nahual, and more!)

It's also not wrong to play non-blorb-y games in a blorb-y way. Do whatever you're comfortable with! But you might enjoy dipping into these titles.

Finally, if you've read this far and you're somehow still looking for MORE recommendations, I wrote this game about runaway changelings trying to find their place in the world, and it's probably the blorbiest in my catalog.

#ttrpg design #indie ttrpg #rpg #tabletop #indie ttrpgs #dnd #ttrpgs #ttrpg homebrew #ttrpg #rpgs

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