I'm 90% sure I'm a Bird Secondary, except that I'm sort of a panicky person and sometimes I have moments whenn I can't think and act on my gut instead. Would this be a Lion Secondary model? Or maybe the Bird is the model?

Oh, no! Please don't sort yourself based on what happens when you're being controlled by emotion! Unless you're getting a feeling of security from these moments, like listening to your gut is your back up to your Bird, I wouldn't even count it as a part of your sorting. What people do when they're panicked, angry, afraid, or desperate only tells you how they act when emotion is the one in the driver's seat. You might be able to identify someone's Primary in this state (people usually make moves to protect or fight for what they value most when pressured), but this is not helpful in revealing Secondaries. I'd argue tdesperate people will look like Burnt Secondaries, trying anything and everything they can to get out of that situation, even if that burning doesn't last once the pressure lifts.

From the sound of it, your panic is typically Lion flavored, but ask yourself: is that panic you? Wouldn't you rather sort yourself based on what you do when you are feeling healthy and safe? It's up to you, ultimately, but as someone who struggles with anxiety, I personally don't consider my anxiety-induced reactions to be the true core of who I am. Instead, I look to what brings me out of that anxiety, back to a healthier headspace. For me, it's usually practicing something stressful beforehand (Badger) or it's looking around and realizing I can adapt to my situation, no matter how bad it gets (Snake). For you, it may be collecting knowledge or tools to help you face something you know will put you in a panic (Bird), or it very well could be trusting your gut and pushing through whatever is stressing you out (Lion). Either way, only you can answer which Secondary gives you comfort and security when things get rough.

Curiosity question if you don't mind from a newbie dm. How do you deal with tpk as a dm ? Where you super stressed as it was happening or was it ok cause you could communicate with the players ?

this is the first time i've ever had a tpk happen. several things happened and several things contributed to the way i ran things and why i think my players are okay with the outcome and i'll talk about them now. some of these i think are tips that can be applicable to dming, some of them are just personality things, and some of them speak to group synergy.

i know this party well. i know the PLAYERS at this table that i was doing this campaign with well and we know how to communicate, 3/4 of us dm for each other and we are all typically good at knowing what each other will enjoy

we communicate well, even if it takes a minute out of session. for example, in another game we play where i'm a player some of the decisions i was making as my pc were bringing down another player, and while we all agreed at the start that it was okay, things changed, and so i changed the way i was playing my character and they're swapping out their pc for awhile to play a different character.

i think it's important to note with the two examples above, your mileage really will vary when it comes to communication with other people because one's capacity for interpersonal communication has nothing to do with their enjoyment of the game. likewise, you might have great friends but realize you don't enjoy playing d&d with each other. things happen.

i think something any ttrpg player can keep in mind is that just because you like someone doesn't mean you like playing a 4 hour board game with them once every two weeks and viceversa. just because you get along to play a game doesn't mean you need to be best friends with someone you don't feel that close to outside the game.

some actual thoughts of mine regarding tpks and what happened in session that i feel like made it a successful session instead of something that felt horrible and unfair

i did not make the encounter with the goal to kill my entire party or even to kill one of them. i wanted a hard fight, cr is hard to balance, usually you have to punch way above your party's weight class to have a fight feel scary and challenging. that is what i was doing. the fight was very winnable. it just came down to roll of the dice. i think they could've taken them down but that's just not the way it turned out. the encounter itself did not feel hopeless, that is important. the alternate to this is i am not against, as a dm, flagging that a fight IS hopeless and that the party should flee. that is run very differently than how i ran this encounter, i was not signposting for them to run, i thought they would win.

when the first player dropped and then rolled a nat1 i asked them this: by raw this is failing two death saves, however, if you want this to be an automatic death you can choose that. i do not want to choose for you, i want you to make the choice that is fun for you. pc death is not fun unless you have fun with it. and then to keep a bit of mystery, i direct message'd them where i thought we could take their pc's story if they died / what the 'resurrection quest' could be. the player ended up deciding that auto death could be fun.

at this point, i did not know that i would successfully knock the other two players. and when it became clear that i could and was on the cusp of it, i asked them both something similar. do you both want to roll death saves and fight to the last breath or do you want to die. here's what will happen. they were excited by the death option.

my players chose to tpk. their characters did not, narratively they did not, the challenge was fair but hard and they failed narratively. failure should never be the end and should not be a punishment. the story moves forward. i presented an idea for where the story could go from the failure and they were enthusiastic about it.

after session i also checked in with the group and said, hey if you get second thoughts about this let me know and we can retcon that fight. i do not want to play a game that is not fun for you. as it stands now, they're all really excited about the idea of clawing their way back from the grave whenever we pick up a new story arc with those characters again.

and that's really what it boils down to for me as a dm whose spent a lot of time as a player in the game. pc death is not fun unless the player is excited about it. if they aren't okay with it, it will not be fun for anyone involved.

the game is about roll of the dice, the game is about story, the game is about mechanics and challenges and puzzles, but most of all it is about having fun. so if something is not fun, you don't have to do it.

i could talk forever about how i feel like there are some dms who take so so much pride in their intricate plots and ideas that they keep secret to their last breath without actually collaborating with their players which i think is actually a detriment.

Hii! I love your art! Do you have any tips on learning how to draw? I've recently gotten inspired again but there's sooo much to learn and there's so much I want to be able to draw that I just don't know where to begin😩

Hello, and thank you! Really glad you dig my art. :) As for tips on learning to draw, I totally get it, it can feel really overwhelming in terms of where to start and where to go for advice and such.

Personally, I read a lot of those 'How to Draw X' books as a kid to teach myself how to draw before I was able to take any sort of formal art class...but I'm not sure how prevalent those are these days. XD So my sincere advice: Start with fanart.

If there's a thing you love and you're excited about, draw it! Anything that gets you motivated to create, indulge that impulse.

An example of said indulgence XD :

(This also illustrates another tip: Stick with it! These were drawn ten-ish years apart--it can be discouraging when you don't necessarily see improvement right away, but it will come with time!)

By simply starting and being consistent, you'll go through some trial and error, which will reveal specific areas you might want to devote time to working on.

Other good resources to look to for inspiration and explanation: YouTube, art/photo reference books, art challenges, and other online artists.

Hopefully this helps, and I wish you the best with your artistic endeavors!

breaking my artistic dry spell by drawing my 6'5" orc and her 5'5" bosmer husband as every single tall goddess/short king meme that exists. unfortunately I can only think of 2

to meee :3 akechi and sumire arent exactly friends throughout january, (they only get really close several years later) but as a side effect of neither having anything better to do and the two constantly haunting kichijoji i think they inevitably fall together more often than not. ren takes sumire out for darts and shes weirdly better than she was last time (sidebar but the fact that sumire and akechi both mimic your throws but sumire sucks shit at darts too much for it to do any good is so cute) and shes like oh yeah akechi-san has been teaching me. oh wow i got a forty! unaware of the way she just blew rens mind.

dear god that would be turbo cringe or whatever, but seeing all those annoying little things in fics over and over again really makes me want to write one in which they're not obligatory funnymoments but rather like, words that have meaning and weight and so on

I NEEED to go back to making art that makes it ABUNDANTLY clear that theres something wrong with my brain BUT NOT in a cool or stylishly interesting way. i need to do it in a way that makes people say "hm." and walk away

a shot of whiskey at night has been doing wonders for my nerves. not to sound like I got my prescription from a cowboy-doctor or something, but it's near instant relief

Trying to update the squinfinitions list and I've now discovered tumblr only permits 100 links per post.

So! I'm planning on separating them into separate parts. I have two choices for organization and I wanna know what you guys think-- since mostly the compilations are for your ease.

Option 1: Keep it all alphabetical -- The whole pool of definitions will be organized in alphabetical order, meaning each part will continue off where the last part left off

Option 2: Separate into groups -- The first 100 definitions will be organized alphabetically. Then, the next 100 in the next part will be organized alphabetically, ignoring the previous 100 words from the previous part.

What do you think are some common mistakes people make when sorting characters?

Well, everyone's sorting process is different, so we make different mistakes. Not to mention we all bring different biases to the process. I know I've started doubting my own argument for a character sorting when I realized I might share a sorting with them. It's a silly little doubt that I've seen others echo, where you're unsure if you're seeing too much of yourself in a character and that's coloring your analysis. (The only real cure for this, by the way, is to share your thoughts with others.)

But a couple general mistakes I tend to see are people assuming that someone who acts out of love must be a Snake Primary or someone who acts rashly must be a Lion Secondary. They certainly can be, in both cases, but Snake Primaries and Lion Secondaries are more complicated than that. All Primaries can love deeply and act on those feelings, so you have to look at whether the possible Snake Primary actually considers it a moral obligation to do things for their loved ones over those they don’t know. All Secondaries can act rashly, especially when panicked or angered, so you have to look at whether or not they still favor charging into situations when not under these stressors, or if they regret charging in once they calm down.

I understand why my mom wants so hard for me to be in a relationship to the point of her immense pressure.

Cishet normatives and baby obsession aside (an admittedly big aside), she’s expressed wanting to make sure that I’m taken care of. In our vulnerable moments which are the few times we’re able to communicate a little of the hurt and fear we have for one another, she’s been so afraid that after she and my father pass, I won’t have anyone to watch over me. A part of her will always see me as a child because I will always be her child. And she doesn’t want me to be alone in life. And as an immigrant, she has internalized that the only people who will ever be there for you, understand you 100% are your partner and children.

There’s a lot of asides like I mentioned, like the obsession with passing down the family line, and the narrow view that only romantic relationships can be truly fulfilling, but otherwise - I get it. Spider notices I don’t respond to a question with yes/no and instead with an excuse and gently prods for my true feelings and response. Sarah exclaims ‘FINALLY!’ as I decide to buy muffins for myself (even though they weren’t on sale) because she says I decide to treat myself to something that makes me happy maybe 1 in 50 times she sees it. She sighs in exasperation after she tells me I should see a doctor and I respond ‘I’ll look into it’, because she knows the bad habit about me that means I never will. Spider decides to make dinner for me even after she’s worked all day, because she wants to cook something for me, and for a brief moment there’s just the dim lighting of the kitchen and us switching back and forth between discussion about silly porn game mechanics and our hurtful pasts and our future together. And it’s good. It’s so good. I get why she wants this for me and I know why she’s concerned.

I wish I could give it to her. I wish I could beam all the knowledge and feelings in my head about everything I have here to her so she’d know that I’m okay here. There’s so much to overcome about it it’s laughable. It’d be a difference of cultures. It’d be coming out about sexuality/orientation. It’d be coming out about my partner’s gender identity and it’d be coming out about my gender identity. It’d be having to explain the intricacies of poly and exactly how my relationship works. It’d be so many things that feel like the outright denial of her lifestyle. Sometimes I think about whether it’d be possible. Sometimes she shows a glimmer of understanding and compassion for others, and it makes me wonder if I could have that too.

When we had first moved here, our house was broken into and what very little we had was taken. She lost all of her family heirlooms that her mother’s mother’s mother’s mother had passed down over the ages. It’s an eternal secret - we could never tell my grandmother for fear of her health, and we never did. And sometimes I think the most compassionate thing I could do for her is do the same.

26.9.23

If a man says just admit you like me, how did he come to this conclusion because i do have a crush but idk how he feels. He could also be joking right

He could be joking, he could be flirting, he could be hinting at something. Ask him if you’re unsure. Only he holds the answer you truly wanna hear.

Re: the writing advice post I just reblogged + the post I made yesterday,

I think prose edits are actually my favorite part of the revision process, and advice on that front is actually more likely to be useful than advice on actual storytelling and themes.

For one, learning proper spelling/grammar/punctuation accomplishes a lot of things for the beginner writer:

It makes your stories easier to read due to fewer errors

It makes your stories more enjoyable to read because your sentence structures will be more varied instead of repetitive

The reader will be able to understand your story more easily and quickly, making them more likely to stick around

But once you have mastery of the technical rules of your language, more intermediate/advanced writers benefit from studying prose and doing line edits because

“You have to know the rules before you can break them”: deliberately breaking rules can add emotional effects to your prose, such as leaving commas out of a sentence to create a frantic, disorganized, panicked tone. However, you have to do this deliberately, understanding that such a prosaic choice involves a trade off of legibility for the sake of tone

“Showing, not telling” becomes much easier when you can insert foreshadowing, characterization, worldbuilding, chekhov’s guns, etc in the space of a sentence or even a few words as opposed to having to spell it out

Re: breaking rules on purpose, you start to understand how to strategically use incorrect/awkward/odd prose to make dialogue seem more realistic or to hint at things like characters lying, being indirect, or hiding their true feelings

The more you pay attention to your own prose, the more you start noticing sentence structures and words that you overuse, which allows you to make a deliberate effort to improve your writing.

If you want a good book to teach you some of these intricacies of craft, I highly, HIGHLY recommend Janet Burroway’s “Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft” for a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of different parts of writing (iirc imagery and characterization are the first two chapters, and if you read nothing else they’ll still do WONDERS for your writing).

Editing isn’t just about fixing punctuation and typos. Editing can be the most fun part of writing that turns your stories from “good” to “GREAT”

to anyone trying to platinum yakuza 0 and/or aiming to win all climax battles in yakuza 0: Proving Grounds 8 will break you psychologically. sorry about that