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quasieli · 1 year

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Can you believe!!! It's been three years!?! Happy anniversary to the Reforged Campaign!!! Today in 2019, some of our little blorbos met for the first time, gathering up some new friends along the way. We've been through so much together and I just wanna get gushy and talk about my lovely friends who have made this little fantasy game so enjoyable and have contributed to my D&D brain rot for all this time lol.

@army-of-bee-assassins Joyce, playing Whitlock: the axe-swinging, tubthumping, Fighter/Wizard of our dreams ✨️ There's a reason we've said that if you don't love Whitlock, you're wrong. While a badass in combat (I'll never forget the fireball that took out nearly a dozen ghuls at once 🤩🥰), outside of our intense fights, Whitlock is the epitome of kindness and caring. It only made sense that this care combined with his love of the arcane led him to the school of Abjuration, he is a protector through and through. One thing that continues to astound me about Whitlock is that even after almost drowning (multiple times) and losing his home and his whole old life to the seas, Whitlock still has fought for elementals who have been enslaved and mistreated, because that's who he is. He stands up for the little guy, even when the little guy may be much bigger than he is. He is selfless in his actions, some may call him reckless (like being the first to charge into an unknown encounter, even if his initiative score doesn't usually reflect that lol), but I wouldn't. I would call it faith, because he has faith in his skills and he has faith in his friends, to be there right behind him, as he is always behind them. Love our sailor boy, I am forever on Team Beans 💙

@lacklusterlexicon Alyx, playing Kempa/Eun Ha: the best shirtless dragonborn Barbarian bhimbo you could ask for⚡️Alyx first joined our group as a guest, playing the lovely tiefling druid Kaia and it was a pleasure to have hir at our side as we fought the terrors of the Shadowfell and the corruption it brought to the Prime Material. But as that mini arc drew to an end, we as players knew we had found something special with Alyx and knew we couldn't let them go so easily. It was then that we were introduced to Kempa (then Eun Ha) and it soon felt like she had been with us since day 1. Oh Kempa, my beloved Kempa. She had been through a lot before reaching our little group, things that made her angry and that rage fueled her fight. But the rage did not consume her, she instead used her pain to push forward, to try and find her lost friend, and found a new family in the course of that mission. Kempa can sometimes be the goofy jock barbarian stereotype, but she is so so so much more than that. She brings kindness and empathy into everything she does. When we learned a lackey that we captured and interrogated was just a person down on their luck looking to make a living, we could've just let them go and been done with it, but not Kempa. Kempa gave them money, not wanting to contribute more pain into an already harsh world. Sure she can shoot lightning out of her mouth and decapitate a bad guy with a single swing of her halberd, but the core of Kempa is compassion, listening to others to understand rather than just making harsh judgements. I'm glad to have her on our side 💙

@lichfucker Tess, playing Ingot the Feather-Light: the sharpshooting, noble-turned-hero tiefling Ranger/Rogue 🏹 Ingot Ingot Ingot, what's there to say about him (that I can say without crying lol)? From the outside, it may appear as though everything was given to Ingot on a silver platter, what with his noble upbringing and having received the highest standard of archery training. But to look at him through this lens would be to do the utmost disservice to his character. Ingot has worked for everything that he has. He was the one who chose to veer off the path his parents had set for him and for what reason? To stand up for a stranger, a prisoner of war who just so happened to be just like them, a tiefling. Since that day, Ingot started to become the person he was truly meant to be, his upbringing and any devil’s contracts be damned. The real Ingot is not a good little soldier boy who just takes orders from the war machine. No, Ingot is a fighter, using their bow and arrow when they damn well please. You do not want to be on the wrong end of Ingot's ire. But more than that, Ingot's learned to be a lover as well. Despite his cold upbringing, he has forged a new family of his own, one that loves him for him, not for what he can or can't do. Ingot is not a soldier, he is a friend, a damn good one at that, even when he may act like a bit of a bitch. It's okay, we still love him, and it has been an honor to be on Team Tief with him 💙

@keplercryptids JD, our dearest creative, dedicated, a little bit insane (affectionate), and all around amazing DM and friend 💚 Thank you for creating Z’ress and Mahety and Suri and Dagen and Lorne and Nabil and Najiba and Temza and Gell and Ohestra and Z'rael and Levsais and Cover and Ildan (🙄 /j) and Polodren (:fearhamster:) and just the whole entire world that is Sirona, and the planes beyond the material! This world you have created is expansive and feels so real that it makes it so easy to feel like we are our characters, walking through it and living out their adventures. Thank you for the weeks and months and years of hard work you have put into making out little fantasy game. Never did I think we'd have what we have now three years ago, that not only am I still involved with this super cool game, but I made long lasting friendships with some of the best people I've had the pleasure to meet (online at least, but hopefully soon we'll all be together!). You facilitated that, you brought us all together and have kept us together and that's not an easy feat for five adults lol. Thank you for the cool mechanical parts of this game that have been the most insanely fun encounters that really challenge us to think creatively, even when we may get stumped by a puzzle where the answer was we had to walk into an unlocked room to get a key 😅. Thank you for the world of NPCs with vibrant personalities and who are complex and complicated and messy and funny and interesting and loving. Thank you for their wisdom and their friendship. Thank you for your friendship, you've taught me a lot and I will value it forever. Thanks for just being awesome 💙

And last but not least, shoutout to JD's best friend, who played the gentle titan of destruction, Salvador, and @artemissoteira AKA Rowan, as Ithren (if that even is their real name lol) for joining us along the way as guests, who made our little world all the more special. I appreciate and love all of you. Here's to many more years in our funny little fantasy worlds 💙💙💙

#Eli Speaks #SICL #Reforged Campaign #this is long and rambly but I had to get it out #I just love my friends so much 😭😭😭#Joyce #Alyx #Tess #JD #Rowan #Long Post

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ursamajori · 1 year

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hey so we put your boyfriend in a tabletop campaign and now he has a martyr complex. yeah he got protective to the point of being self sacrificial due to his lack of self worth. we gave him a found family so he had something to live for but instead he’s just committed to being a human shield to keep them safe even if it kills him. sorry

#starspeak #ttrpgs #my campaigns #sorry cas.#tumblr boyfriend #edit realized i said human shield. cas is an elf. whoops #i love seeing everyone tag their ocs btw. brings me so much joy #special s/o to everyone in the reforged campaign checking to see if z’ress has been tagged yet #and naomi literally one second after this was posted commenting about ganymede.#btw this is about my own character if that wasn’t. clear.)#get obnoxious (oc tag)

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ask-the-crimson-king · 2 years

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Art Hell Meets Tales from D&D: He Lives

Hello there. If any of you are familiar with Ravenloft lore you're probably very confused. And even if you aren't, I'm going to explain this anyway in a newbie-friendly fashion.

So I run a Ravenloft-based D&D campaign and the artificer was out for three consecutive sessions. I was finally able to make up for lost time with her, and one of my goals for the session was further her little questline.

Basically, there is a kid named Irik Zal'honan. He is the son of Firan Zal'honan, otherwise known as Azalin Rex. Irik was killed by Azalin via an execution in order for Azalin to demonstrate to his subjects that his laws apply equally to all.

To make a long story short, Azalin eventually gets ran out of his original kingdom on account of being a lich and tyrant. He runs into the Mists and is given a gilded cage in the form of a new kingdom that obeys his every whim and is the largest within the Mists. The spirit of his son follows him, and Azalin now wants to escape cause he can't learn new magic while in the Mists so he can't bring his son back plus other reasons, but basically his son is also in the Mists as a ghost.

So the party found Irik's soul bound within a sword during their time going through Barovia. For a while, he was stuck within, able to project himself only about 60ft away and unable to interact with the human components of his father; the side of his father he still has faith in.

Enter the artificer.

She takes up an apprenticeship under an NPC named Yusuf Reid, usually called, Spark, and asks about souls and the like, and Spark gives her some of his old notes and prototypes concerning trapping and holding a soul for a potential body swap. A manual reincarnate if you will.

So she goes back and studies the materials for a while, then comes up with a design for a new body for Irik because she feels bad for the kid/wants to be able to talk with him more and is eventually planning on putting him into an actual fleshy body. I have her make three checks initially.

This bitch rolls a 27, 33, and 31.

Alright. Dope.

The above is the result.

There's more that I'll have to draw in later but that above is his out-of-combat self. In-combat, he can draw out a longsword and shortsword that are folded into his forearms, and he has a scaled-down shoulder-mounted eldritch cannon because, and I quote, "he should have a ranged option."

All I told her was Irik would favor being dextrous and fast, rogue-like. And this player RAN with the ideas. She decided he should be darker colors for better stealth, though it doesn't work too well at current since the party is in a desert domain (hence the outfit right). His face should be robotic over humanoid in order to avoid freaking people out with the uncanny valley (but I added the eyebrows so he can emote better). She also decided he wouldn't have a jaw because why not. Every aspect of the design, minus the clothes and eyebrows, is her ideas 100%. I didn't even suggest a humanoid body for the kid to inhabit, I just said "what do you want to make the new vessel?" and even suggested making it a ring or maybe a projected illusion but she went "no I want to make him something humanoid so he can interact with the world" and I am.

So happy.

ANYWAY, I'm also sleep deprived cause I stayed up til 8:30am working on this and I am extremely proud of how the piece turned out.

#tales from D&D #ravenloft #yeah lets make irik zalhonan a warforged #i LOVE this campaign man #it goes in the weirdest of directions sometimes its great #there was the pokeballing of strahd #now the reforging of irik #lets go #art hell #long post

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no-road-home · 8 days

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Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern on Backerkit now!

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern is a GMless one-to-three shot TTRPG based on games like MF0: Firebrands and The Sundered Land. It's a collection of 20 mini-games where former adventurers open a tavern together and reintegrate into society after a life on the road.

What happens after the adventure? What does daily life in a fantasy world look like? Stewpot draws inspiration from stories like Dungeon Meshi, Redwall, Frieren, and Bartender, as well as various aspects of D&D. It's a great way to wrap up a long-running fantasy TTRPG campaign.

Start a garden, cook monsters, run a festival booth, reforge old weapons, flirt with mysterious strangers, and more in a new version of the game with tons of art and new storybook-style layout!

(more info and full description of the mini-games in the read more!)

The structure of the game is based on characters having an Adventurer Job, with Adventurer Experiences that represent their abilities and powers, and a Town Job with Town Experiences. You can make new characters just for the game, or bring in old characters and recreate them with the existing Experiences or write your own.

As you play the game, you'll cross off Adventurer Experiences as you let go of them or let them fade into the background, and gain new Town Experiences that take their place. Along the way you'll upgrade your Tavern and give each other Keepsakes!

Games from the old Itch.io PDF version (0.41):

The First Step: Before you decided to put down roots here, before you found this group of friends, what were you doing? What was the first thing you learned about how to live in town?

NPC Sidequest: Your adventuring days may be over, but there are plenty of people in town that could use your help.

Wear and Tear: There’s always something to fix, or clean, or pay off.

Market Day: You never would have guessed how many things you need just to keep a tavern running.

Homegrown: There’s something special about using ingredients grown nearby. Why not give growing your own a try?

Sliced: Sometimes supply routes get disrupted. Or maybe you just want to stand out from the rest of the taverns. Whatever the reason, you’re playing this game because you want or need to do one thing: cook with monster parts.

Romancing a Stranger: Someone in the tavern makes eye contact with you, and their gaze lingers a little longer than you’d expect. Your co-workers urge you on, and make every excuse they can to send you over to talk to the lovely Stranger.

Off the Clock: Where do you go after the tables are wiped down? Who’s heard every story you have about the worst people who have walked in?

A Friendly Tavern Brawl: Every tavern has its rowdy patrons. You know they’re good at heart, but sometimes when the ale is flowing and spirits are high, things get a little out of hand. How do you handle the situation?

Festival Day: Your town has a few festival days a year, and they’re some of your busiest. How do you prepare? How do you handle the influx of people?

A Bard's Tale: During your time as an adventurer, you accomplished many daring deeds. In fact, some of those deeds are retold to this day by travelling bards.

A Glass of the Gods: Sometimes a troubled adventurer will come in, looking for answers, and letting them drink themselves into oblivion is the wrong answer. It's up to you to mix the perfect drink, something perfect for the situation that can push the adventurer to look inside and find the answer on their own.

A Distinguished Guest: Someone important is in town, and they’re already almost here. The tavern has to be at its best for this guest. After all, they might leave a generous tip.

In the Rhythm of Things: Time passes. Rough edges are sanded down. Before you know it, life in town has become like breathing. You gather in your favorite part of the tavern and wonder where the time has gone.

New games for this crowdfunding campaign:

Shields and Skillets: Enchantments are volatile things, especially when they sit unused for long periods of time. You have to let go of your old equipment before it’s too late.

Shelter from the Storm: Early one morning, you feel it. A familiar ache in your bones. Something is coming.

A Funeral: As an adventurer, you said farewell many times. Sometimes it was only temporary. Most of the time, it wasn't.

Retracing: You've left town for something: an errand, a vacation, an old favor. Suddenly, you recognize the route you're traveling. You've been this way before, during your adventuring days.

A Fleeting Memory: Something about the way the fire flickers lingers in your mind. The smell of hay and clover brings a tear to your eye. A fading memory resurfaces.

A Familiar Face: An old friend you haven't seen in a while has stopped by. Why not show them around the town and the tavern?

#ttrpg #my games #indie ttrpg #ttrpg design #ttrpgs #stewpot #stewpot: tales from a fantasy tavern #backerkit #crowdfunding #fantasy #story games

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omegalomania · 1 month

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ok listen obviously like everyone else i am Fucking Devastated but the fucking sHRIMPLICATIONS here are KILLING me.

the two last "new" songs we got before the hiatus were alpha dog and from now on we are enemies (equally fucked up song btw) and pete namedrops alpha dog as the last song they wrote before the hiatus and it's such a. it's SUCH a fucking. augh.

like it's so painfully and clearly a farewell. the lyrics all telegraph it. your time has passed. never means forever. walk off into the sunset. the discussion of how much effort is required to maintain this life and how they already feel burned out, past their prime when they were all in their mid-twenties and early thirties. and the sheer fucking POETRY of the way it was the last song they recorded - tell rock and roll i'm alone again - until they announced their triumphant return with save rock and roll in 2013. welcome to the new déjà vu.

and oh yeah the last word issued in the song's studio version is the word "abracadabra," which pete cites as the word that christian bales character in the film “the prestige” says he will utter before he disappears from prison. "abracadabra" was a key word in the viral ARG-esque marketing campaign leading up to the release of believers never die...right before fall out boy seemingly vanished off the very face of the earth.

and, OH YEAH, the first shows they played after reuniting involved a multi-song medley spanning all the stages of their career, with one of those songs being the first time they ever played alpha dog, albeit partially.

the notion of the wizard through the curtain speaking to a sense of bitterness (at least if pete's ten year old genius annotation is anything to go by) which is the exact same phrasing to the way joe would later talk about the band's fraught, strained feelings leading up to the hiatus in a podcast with kerrang while promoting his book.

many people have pointed out the parallels between flu game and alpha dog - the way they both discuss the exhaustion of being so visible and constantly putting yourself out there and how taxing that is, especially when you're simultaneously trying to cover up how hard it is. how isolating it is, when the whole world is squinting against the starlight feathering off you. it's worth noting that these parallels are not merely implicit, either. "flu game" is in and of itself an explicit reference to a famous game michael jordan played while sick in which he claimed that he didn't want to give up, no matter how sick and tired he was. and how did pete annotate a specific couplet, ten years ago?

we must make it hard to look so easy doing something so hard

another explicit reference to michael jordan, years and years prior.

and this is the first time they've ever played alpha dog in full. nearly 15 full years after the hiatus started. by now, fall out boy have been together for far longer than they've ever been apart. by now, fall out boy has been in their "posthiatus" era for longer than they have their "prehiatus" one.

i dont really have a conclusion to this. just, i dunno man. something about the repeated lyric "never means forever" on a greatest hits compilation titled "believers never die." something about i'm a star vs. so much for stardust vs. no more stardust. something about motifs that span decades, that span years of hurt and cracked-open wounds that have now been poured over with liquid gold, mending them anew. something about reclaiming old scars and ugly histories and reforging them into something filled with streaming starlight and sun-drenched smiles.

abracadabra.

#*making poasts #id in the alt text #im pure fucking wrecked about this in case you couldnt tell. im also tired as hell #this might not be articulate to anyone else but im feeling a certain type of way abt it #fucked up for them to debut this one in full when i tumblr user omeglomania was not even there. fucked UP.

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your-turn-to-role · 1 year

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also. i absolutely adored what lovm did with the pass through fire quote

but then it makes me emotional about the original context, so i have to share that too (minor plot spoilers ahead)

because it wasn't originally to do with the ashari at all. it was from patrick rothfuss' guest character, a blacksmith named kerrek, who helped vox machina fight against the dragon in westruun, and helped keyleth personally through some difficult stuff (he may yet appear on lovm, but given the context of the quote now i doubt we'll get all of it)

and a little after kerrek's episode, patrick rothfuss actually made a legit letter from kerrek to keyleth, with a present inside, and left it with matt until whatever point in the plot she was able to recieve it

which by coincidence was one of the hardest moments in the whole campaign for her

and this letter had marisha legit crying in the episode, because it's just. so beautiful, and so needed. and it goes:

Keyleth,

I write to let you and your companions know that the repair of Westruun is proceeding well. I will not bore you with the details. Suffice to say that our children are well-fed and safe, our elderly and infirm are cared for and comfortable. Without the help of you and yours, this would not be the case.

The folk in charge argue constantly, but that is to be expected, and it is no bad thing. They all want the same good things in different ways. I listen, mostly, and do what I can to make sure that they listen to each other. Without listening, nothing good can happen.

The town... when I say the repair is going well, it is a hard thing for me to talk about. I am not a particularly clever man, and much of this is new to me. When you make a mistake with metal, you can melt things down and start afresh. It is irritating, and it costs in time and soot and sweat, but it can be done. There is a comfort in iron, knowing that a fresh start is always possible. But a city is not a sword. It is a living thing, and living things defy simple fixing. Roots cannot be reforged. They scar, and broken branches must be cut and sealed with tar, and this makes me angry, as it always has, and my anger has no place to go.

It was easier when I was young. I could use my anger like a hammer against the world. I was so sure of myself and my friends and my rightness. I would hammer at the world, and breaking felt like making to me, and I was good at it. And while I was not wrong, neither was I entirely right. Nothing is simple.

I do not work in wood. I am not brave enough for that. There is a comfort in iron, a promise of safety, a second chance if mistakes are made. But a city is more a forest than a sword. No, it needs more tending than that.

Perhaps a city is like a garden, then. So these days, it seems I have become a gardener. I dig foundations in the earth. I sow rows of houses. I plan and plant. I watch the skies for rain and ruin. I cannot help but think that you would be better at this, but circumstance has put both of us in our own odd place. You are forced to be a hammer in the world, and my ungentle hands are learning how to tend a plot of land. We must do what we can do.

Did you know that there are some seeds that cannot sprout unless they are first burned? A friend once told me that. She was... she was a bookish sort. I think of gardening constantly these days. I wear your gift, and I think of you, and I think it is interesting that there are some living things that need to pass through fire before they flourish.

I ramble. You have the heart of a gardener, and because of this, you think of consequence, and your current path pains you. I am not wise, and I do not give advice, but I have come to know a few things: sometimes breaking is making. Even iron can start again. And there are many things that move through fire and find themselves much better for it afterward.

I have enclosed a gift. Once it was a sword, but it has changed. It is a small thing, and silly. Please forgive an old man for his foolishness. Still, I hope it brings you some small comfort.

Kindly, Kerr.

and the present inside the envelope? a ring, engraved with the phrase "I have passed through fire."

#hi i saw a gifset of marisha getting the ring and im emotional again so have the full letter #god patrick rothfuss i know you're a professional writer but how are you so good at this #cr1 #the legend of vox machina #keyleth #kerrek #cr thoughts

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keplercryptids · 1 year

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listen, sometimes the pcs have been casting divination for weeks with regard to an upcoming attack on the city and they started getting cryptic answers to their questions and meanwhile they have to attend a noble's party and they're all very suspicious about something going down there, even though you know that nothing of note is actually going to happen at the party, so you serve smoked herring to the guests (because when you smoke herring......it turns red) and none of the players pick up on it because sometimes the little joke in-game is just for you the dm lmao

#jd&d #reforged campaign

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artemissoteira · 1 year

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truly, truly, @keplercryptids‘s reforged world is SO GOOD. the privilege of getting to dive into the guts of it with em is such a joy every time. when we were talking today i shrieked about something JD said and my partner-in-law came to check on me genuinely thinking one of our cats was injured or stuck somewhere (and then closed the door to my room for noise, knowing i would continue losing my shit).

sometimes i’ll be going about my day and think about things that are going to happen in reforged and i have to sit down for a minute. i’d say JD knows what I’m talking about but there’s at least 4 separate things that make me want to scream thinking about them at the moment (and i think only 1 of them is even going to happen in the next, like, several months). sometimes I think about things that ALREADY happened, things that I saw blossom out of the soil JD made for this game on purpose over and over out of love, not knowing what would grow from it but trusting that their players and the world they created together would find its way to a beautiful story, and i have to sit down.

and the poetry of that story! the number of times we’ll be sitting trying to figure something out, and then the answer that comes up that makes us both gasp (or shriek, in my case) comes out of looking back at something from months ago -- because story magic is cyclical -- because eir world is breathing and alive and true and it makes sense with itself, all the pieces already there just waiting to find the shape they fit in together. it’s breathtaking. it’s so, so cool. it’s everything collaborative storytelling can be when the incredible people playing it decide to really, truly care, and you can see it in every fiber of the world.

and jd does so much work, y’all. not just because 5e doesn’t make combat easy lol. but a solid 30% of any given conversation we have about an upcoming session doesn’t actually have anything to do with that session, because instead it’s about connecting things that happened in the world to things that are going to have to happen, like, 15 sessions from now in order to make the world make sense, and everything that has to happen between now and then to make it satisfying. jd is constantly playing 3d temporal chess with emself and, somehow... winning?? reforged is not like most games people run because it’s not a game most people could run, and certainly not a game most people would run and choose to keep running with this much dedication.

just. really truly love that all these little guys in this little world exist, & that y’all decided to let me tag along for part of the journey <3 <3 <3

#started thinking about things that make me want to scream about reforged but there's. so many actually. i'm stressed now lmao #reforged campaign #ofc there's a million other things to be said about character and stakes and emotional resonance and agency that jd also does very well #but whenever we talk i'm always just so struck by the narrative in this game and how alive it is #<3 <3 <3

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quasieli · 2 years

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I have a new blorbo in my brain... need to get them out of there,,, gotta draw them

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essekknits · 4 months

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Wei Wuxian is a sword.

He was raised to be one, after all. Raised as a sword for the sect heir to wield. To protect the sect. He is a sword, and the sword of a cultivator is a respected, spiritual thing. It’s important, but it still is a tool to be used.

When Lotus Pier burns, Yu Ziyuan ordered him to protect Jiang Cheng with his life. He is a sword honed to protect, and he grew up seeing himself that way. So he protects, and protects, and protects, taking hits for those he was made for.

(Little does he know, Jiang Cheng also takes the hits for him. He can’t know. That would break him faster than any external pressure)

He is reforged in the burial mounds. He was broken, left powerless, and thrown for dead in a place no one leaves. But the inferno reforges the parts together. Different, but there, and with a point of brittleness at the seam where he was once whole but no longer is.

During the Sunshot Campaign, he is again a sword. A wicked blade, cursed and jagged. He is feared for what he does, what he is, but respected because for now, he’s a sword in their hands. Wielded expertly, this is a sword that shapes the win of the Sunshot Campaign. But he took hit after hit, rattling his core. He would never expose the cracks, wanting to be of use, forged to be of use, but the cracks are forming.

After, they are afraid. The sword that was used so effectively and brutally during the war is now a threat to the peace. So with hit after hit, they try to take it down, or take it to them. Wei Wuxian is no longer a celebrated war hero, but a threat to everyone’s safety. They push and push and push, and he already has cracks running through him, carefully hidden.

And then he breaks.

And when a sword breaks, the shards fly everywhere. It can hurt both enemies and friends. They can hurt the hand that wields it, the people it protected, everyone. So when Wei Wuxian broke, everyone got hurt. It was messy and scary and painful and deadly.

Wei Wuxian is a sword, and when a sword breaks and is no longer of use, you melt it down and start over.

#mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #wei ying #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin

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rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world · 1 month

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“Were there no Israel, there’s not a Jew in the world who will be safe.”

As @sd.hurwitz says in their piece for @nationmag: “If you take the slogan at face value, Biden also seems to believe that, were Israel to disappear, he would be powerless to protect the 6 million Jews living in the United States—the country whose government he currently leads. Apparently, it’s a foreign nation’s job to ensure the safety of American Jews, not Joe Biden’s.

Biden’s comments collapse American Jews into nothing more than an Israel-lobby group with a religion attached. The idea that Jews are not, in fact, a monolith—that, for instance, there are Jews who think that the existence of a violently enforced Jewish ethno-state might make them less, not more, safe in the world—does not appear to have occurred to him. But that reforging of Jewish individual and communal safety into an American political weapon is part of what makes so many anti-Zionist Jews determined to confront him.”

Sophie shares how last month, Michigan voters sent a clear message to Biden through their “uncommitted” campaign, with over 100,000 voters indicating that they refuse to support a president who is complicit in the brutal murder of over 30,000 Palestinians by the Israeli military in Gaza. After the success of the uncommitted vote, we’re seeing a similar talking point emerge from Biden’s campaign that were there not a Joe Biden, Muslim and Arab Americans would not be safe.

American Jews are told safety hinges on funding the Israeli military, while American Muslims are told that their safety at home depends on a lack of safety for Muslims abroad. This conflation is dangerous. We reject Biden’s attempt to weaponize Jewish and Muslim safety for political gain in America. All marginalized communities deserve safety, which cannot be achieved at the cost of insecurity for others.

Safety is achieved when everyone is free. Informed by our Jewish traditions, we reject colonization and nationalism, opting instead for the preservation of human life. Our fight for a free Palestine is a fight for safety and freedom for all.

#palestine #human rights #free palestine #jewish voice for peace #jumblr #jewish antizionism #antizionist jews #gaza #joe biden #Zionism #us politics

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mylordshesacactus · 5 months

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Suncrest Campaign Character Epilogues

Audie (Human Wizard)

About a month after the final battle, as repairs are underway, the party gets a random Sending message from Max's friend Ihava the punk-rock tabaxi, namely, “Hey, did you do something with time travel? Because some dead heroes just showed up in the city and they’re very confused.” As an archivist, and also as the member of the party who's done the most reading and research into the Bastion of Life's specific adventuring party from 50 years ago, Audie is far and away the one that they want to talk to most--especially Rochelle Willowfeather, the tiefling monk who led that doomed final stand. Audie, once she stops stammering, is able to help her find records of the aarakocra settlement where her wife had lived--but sadly in the fifty years since Rochelle was frozen, her wife has passed away. She takes it hard, though her friends help her through it. Seeing as how she just helped to save the world, and how she has glowing letters of recommendation from the incredibly famous, miraculously resurrected heroes upon whose legacy was founded the entire Spellbound Dominion, Audie finally gets a full-ride scholarship to wizard college. Unlike her sister Summer, she completes her degree and starts only the occasional fight with administration. She applies for a work-study position. Her apprentice at her old archive is VERY confused but also very supportive.

Andromeda (Aarakocra Paladin)

Andromeda joins the City Guard. Deeply affected by Olassa's sacrifice, and having seen in the Violet Guard what a city guard can look like without honest people keeping its power in check, she wants to honor her mentor's memory. She enlists as a recruit, starting from the bottom. As an experienced and honest mid-level paladin, however, she climbs the ranks quickly and joins the officer track. While she, UNDERSTANDABLY, keeps her god-touched flail Morningstar (a legendary weapon) as her primary weapon, when she becomes an officer she commissions (possibly from Farrah!) a halberd as well. It's mostly a ceremonial weapon, but she trains with it and learns to wield it regardless. (Throughout the campaign, while she also wore a longsword for emergencies--Olassa's signature weapon was always the halberd.) Eventually, within a few decades, Andromeda is named Guard-Captain of the city of Suncrest.

Farrah (Tiefling Fighter)

Farrah, very excited to meet The Legendary And Miraculously Resurrected Heroes Upon Whose Legacy Was Founded The Entire Spellbound Dominion, happily invites them home to meet her mom! They all immediately start fangirling and asking for Brenda's autograph. This is the BEST running gag in the campaign. Farrah, after speaking with her blacksmithing master, transfers her apprenticeship. Instead of learning to make weapons she trains under a silver-and-goldsmith and learns to make tiny, beautiful things that require a lot of patience. Once she's satisfied she has basic skills in this area, she takes the armor of the fae commander who led the occupation of Suncrest, melts it down, and reforges it into a statue--an excellent likeness, in solid silver, of the Wolves of the Wild Court of Winter. This ninth-level casting of "Fuck You" is casually gifted to V, to display in the Sigil Rampant. In fact, the party periodically drops by with souvenirs from their travels to hang up there, now that V owns the place. Farrah also returns to the smithing guilds in Requiem for a while, learning how to forge enchantments into items, before ultimately returning to Suncrest as a mage-smith.

Max (Human Bard/Rogue)

Max never uses that last Wish. Consideration was given to using it for a resurrection--bringing back Olassa, or even the village of Little Ivywood. Ultimately however, Max's caution won out. He remains attuned to the scepter, but puts it in a chest and buries the chest in an unmarked, undisclosed location, sharing its coordinates with only Audie and Ihava in case of catastrophe--Ihava because she can be trusted to use it wisely, and Audie because she can be trusted to overthink any potential Wish so badly that if she ever goes mad with power the next generation of adventurers will have plenty of time to storm her evil fortress and take it from her before she can do anything diabolical with it. Also because he trusts his friend or whatever. In the meantime, he finds that bardic wanderlust again. He splits his time on the road between Suncrest and Requiem, spending--reluctantly--some time with his family. His route isn't regimented, but it's predictable, so that his friends can always find him if necessary. Eventually, about five years after the final battle, the two fae warlocks--Max and Farrah--wake in the middle of the night with a sharp pain in their serpent marks. Peering into the 'eye' of the peacock feather, they see the image of a plain, battered, half-rotten leather diary...which slowly pans out to show its location in the false bottom of a chest...being rolled and tossed....into a rickety cart......in a cave....in the Underdark. They understand, inherently, that this is their first mission as eyes of the Feathered Serpent. And the adventure continues. But first...

Nimbus (Human Ranger)

Nim also remains in Suncrest--or around it, rather. He doesn't join the Guard outright, but he's on their payroll regardless as a woodland scout and makes regular reports. He often talked about wanting to be able to send his sister to wizard school--Paisley Salvia is incredibly smart and "wizard" is the smartest thing Nim knows. They start by bringing her to study in an academic apprenticeship at one of the government programs in Suncrest to, essentially, get her gen-ed requirements in. When given the opportunity, however, Paise actually ends up not wanting to learn magic--she's much more interested in the mechanical and the mundane, using the real world around her to do great things. She wants to become an artificer...and unlike wizardry, which can only be really learned in Dumplinmere, there's no better place to do that then the rugged and resource-rich city of Suncrest. Nim is, of course, delighted. Paise is also extremely happy to be pursuing her dreams close to home, and of course that's mostly due to proximity to her family...but there is, of course, another consideration. Thesh Nightshadow, the young bugbear girl that she kinda sorta got outed as being in a relationship with when they were [checks notes] kidnapped by werewolves while meeting each other in the woods and had to be rescued by her older brother. (Thesh, when they found her, was barely conscious and half-delirious from fever. When the were-cult, mistakenly believing that torturing a maiden would force Albion the unicorn into their killzone, grabbed Paisley, Thesh tried to fight them. They broke her jaw. It had been left untreated for, at that point, nearly a week--she could very easily have died without Andromeda's intervention. Nim didn't even have the heart to tease them very much.) Anyway. Thesh is the daughter of the chieftain of the Talonholde clan and is training to follow in his footsteps. That means learning politics, logistics, military tactics, conflict resolution, and woodsmanship. For some of those, Nim gets her into the academy in Suncrest--but for the latter, even her village's best hunters unilaterally agree that Nimbus, who has class levels to their "Bugbear Commoner" stat sheets, is the best possible teacher. She ends up training under him a lot, and they get very close as a result. And about five years after the world nearly ended, the party attends their wedding--but the bugbear wedding ceremony I wrote for myself will be its own post ;)

#d&d #suncrest

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the-afronick · 4 months

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Normally I like to tally up everything I've beaten on an annual basis but I've been lacking the last two years, so this is three years' worth of finished games: 2021-2023. Also been lacking in finishing stuff until the last third of this year but I think I've got the swing of things again. There are other games finished/completed I've chosen to not count here as they were simply different ports of games I've already done before, but I'm still counting MW1 Remastered to make it a nice even 50.

Since this is all getting typed up right now in one afternoon, enjoy some quick thoughts on each of these.

Finished

Yakuza Kiwami (2017) - Yeah it still feels like a weird version of the immaculate Yakuza 0. I'm not the authority on these but I'm unsure if I'd recommend this over the PS2 game to someone who is willing to play the original.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012) - I liked the split campaigns, though moreso the 80s one. Probably need to play Arma 1 or Reforger to satisfy that Cold War craving now that '83 is canned.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (2016) - I think I got this with Infinite Warfare off of a keysite primarily to use this remaster as an excuse to replay CoD4. Still enjoyed it and really ended up liking the enhanced visuals/touch-ups in animations. 2007 is still fine to play but this was a fun detour. I want to try the Wii version at some point.

Death Stranding (2019) - A game I was way more curious about its story than I was its gameplay pre-release ended up being enjoyed the other way around. I loved Hiking Simulator 2019, cresting peaks and sliding down into cities while some Low Roar kicks in... and everything about the environments as you head west are the greatest. I'm probably gonna get the PC version of Director's Cut to play it again at some point.

Shellshock: Nam '67 (2004) - What should be a simple arcade third-person shooter ends up being frustrating because reticle bloom is way too much for some of the engagement distances. Not the worst I've ever played but I'm probably not going back to it ever.

Thunder Force AC (1990/2020 Sega AGES release) - I mean I like Thunder Force IV more but hey III's pretty good, and so is its arcade version.

Vietcong (2003) - Originally recommended to me by a friend and I kick myself for not getting to it sooner. Fun, tense campaign of having to take caution every with every move, guns felt great, and overall I had a good time. Regrettably couldn't play the online but ah well.

Postal 2: Paradise Lost (2015) - More of what I remember from playing Postal 2. It's still silly.

Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (2003) - This is the one. Yeah, 6 gets the recognition because it's the reboot and has the top-tiered fan favorite characters but 7 takes the wrinkles of 6 and irons them out to a fine crispness. Good patterns, good bosses, and good music. I have no complaints. Want to play a Touhou game? This one.

Touhou Reiiden ~ The Highly Responsive to Prayers (1997) - I first played this at an anime convention in a hotel room full of Touhou cosplayers on their laptop they had hooked up to their TV, mainly wanting to show off where it all started. Touhou's kinda fun as a Breakout game, but this is more of a curiosity than anything nowadays.

Ninja Gaiden (1988) - My second favorite Castlevania game, but man FUCK Act 6.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... (2021) - I mean what else can be said that hasn't already. It's nice that Nier 1 got a revisit after Automata set the world on fire and even though this didn't do its numbers, I missed my friends :)

U.N. Squadron (1990) - Glorious. The SNES/SFC version offers a fantastic and better conversion from the arcade game allowing for choice in mission order and choice in plane selection (though the YF-23 and F200 are effectively the only way to win) to work in tandem with your pilot's unique skill. Not particularly a great adaptation from Area 88 if you're looking for its story and characters but that's not what this game is aiming for - instead, it takes the elements that would work in a shooter and only those elements. You're mercenaries so money is the key to everything, mainly your weapons loadout. There are large superweapons, some taken straight from the manga. The only downside is the grinding element to get more money for better planes in the form of a strafing run special stage that you'll have to play over and over. Highly recommend.

IKUSAAAAAAAN! (2018) - I actually can't comment too much on this one since I only played it through once but it was fun and highly energetic, and Iku is my second fave 2hu so that's a plus.

Halo: Fireteam Raven (2018) - "hey let's play this since we're all together and it's a Saturday night which means bad co-op game night but now IRL!" (moments before friend temporarily lost their wallet.) We finished the fight, but at what cost? About $20 and an hour.

F-Zero X (1997) - Everyone likes GX (and you should) but I like to describe X as the first five feet of stairs on the difficulty curve of F-Zero. You absolutely can lift yourself up those missing steps but wouldn't it be better to ease your way on up? Very fast and grippy compared to SNES F-Zero. I also like the rock/metal soundtrack as opposed to GX's industrial (which again, still good, just not as good). Dream Chaser the greatest. Also that arranged music album is killer.

Project Wingman (2020) - Did you like Ace Combat Zero? Of course you did. Here you go, have some more. It's kinda weird how even with the option to bring in multiple types of special weapons, the strongest thing you're armed with are your normal-ass machine guns.

Neo Contra (2004) - The Shock Troopers 3 we deserved. All I have to do to sell you on this is show you the opening to the one stage where Bill and Jaguar are running on top of helicopter blades.

Udongein X (2021) - There are a surprising amount of Mega Man-inspired Touhou fangames out there to the point where they can be divided into inspired by classic series and X amongst others (maybe there's a Battle Network one too?) This is the latter and since it felt most like MMX1 to me, I liked it a lot.

Dimension Tripper Neptune: TOP NEP (2022) - Welcome to the Fantasy nep Zone.

Mega Man 8 (1996) - I hate this fuckin game.

Made Man (2006) - Frustrating. I was expecting a mafia clone of Max Payne but instead it's a cover-shooter with the most mediocre gunplay and braindead AI I've seen in a while. Also the bullet time only activates once you fill the meter and upon manual-deactivation, you lose all of the remainder. Kind of a shame too because some of the setpieces are fun (one of my favorites being a gunfight in the rafters above a rock concert at Madison Square Garden) but it just sucks otherwise. The main voice actor, Rick Pasqualone, does too good of a job for this game when everyone else is phoning it in and I'm glad he got a second shot in a better game as Vito from Mafia II.

P-47 Aces (1995) - Recommended by my friend @bizarredawdler. I got my ass beat.

Carrier Air Wing (1990) - If you liked the arcade version of U.N. Squadron specifically, this is more of the same. Not as good but hey, dogfighting the space shuttle isn't something you do everyday.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (2022) - This was fun, and probably the first beat'em up that I began to understand rather than just fumble my way through. Would like to do a co-op run with friends at some point. Played as Donatello, he seems cool.

Freedom Planet 2 (2022) - My GOTY 2022. Despite my teasing in numerous late night calls that this was one of those games where the slightest inconvenience resulted in a delay, I can honestly say my expectations were met, exceeded, and blown away. Enjoyed Freedom Planet 1 a lot back in 2015 and while originally hesitant that the artstyle change would bring a gameplay change, all of that faded away when that first demo came out. It's still just as fast and hard-hitting as the first one if not moreso. The reworks to each characters' movesets are nice. Neera is a great additional player character. God I wish someone could get these homebrew'd onto a Saturn because that's the only way this could get more perfect. My one (1) complaint is now Classic Mode being locked behind beating Story Mode once which, while I like the cutscenes and characters, makes it a little harder to recommend to people who just want the pure gameplay that you could immediately access in 1. That's the only thing I'd change.

Panzer Dragoon: Remake (2020) - It sure is Panzer Dragoon 1 but prettier, but oh boy I would not recommend it for full-price precisely because it is Panzer Dragoon 1 with all of its under-an-hour length intact. There's an achievement for playing it for 100 hours... also one for dying once. Don't have either!

Drainus (2022) - Team Ladybug caught my eye and captured my heart with Touhou Luna Nights, and ever since then I'm on board with whatever they've thrown at me. I still haven't finished Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth but I did play this, which was a pretty fun, if not easy STG. Looks nice too!

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015) - God the campaign sucked except for one part (you know the one). If you get this, only get it because Zombies workshop support is still alive and well.

Halo 5: Guardians (2015) - I cannot, cannot, cannot stress enough how many times I said "Halo 4 did this better." An absolute goddamn slog of a singleplayer with a dumbass story. The teammate AI will not save you or will kill themselves trying to save you despite the game being designed around squad mechanics. Halo's never been good at boss fights, so here have the same one over and over and now there's three of him hahahaha! I hear "multiplayer is good though!" sure it might be, wouldn't know, don't really care to know.

Dolphin Blue (2003) - Neat little run and gun. Liked the 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds here, very vibrant.

Demonizer (2020) - Neat little shooter, though it does punish you harsher later on for taking hits and losing your allies. One of those if you mess up late you might as well restart.

Ace Combat: Joint Assault (2010) - I really enjoyed Skies of Deception, the other PSP Ace Combat. This one is not that, dropping the Strangereal setting for our own and going with a plot involving insurance CEOs I think. Back to linear mission structure, no choosing the order. Could not play the Joint missions in which you and friends tackle operations at the same time affecting one another which is this game's entire gimmick. I don't remember any of the original music but there are plenty of AC2/3 tracks here which are good.

Demon Front (2002) - Kinda hard run and gun, though it's something I'll have to put more time into to get the groove of it. Otherwise, neat Metal Slug-inspired game! Recommended by a friend who I'm not sure wants to be named.

Raiden II (1993) - I like Raiden. Raiden II is more of that. Simple as.

Burnout (2001) - Another one of those games where you probably played a later one and went back only to discover there's kind of an idea here but it needs to get flushed out a little bit more. I started on this one back in the day and only finally got around to finishing, this time on the Xbox version. Not a whole lot going on here apart from being a standard AA racer of the time with a crash mechanic that's more discouraged than encouraged like its later entries. That AI rubberbanding isn't nearly as bad as NFS Underground 1's but it gets pretty bad. I don't regret playing this but I don't see myself going back, especially now having started 2 which is the ideal form of early Burnout.

Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn (2013) - After teasing my friend @thathomestar for years about it, I finally caved. I don't know MMOs or their systems or what makes for a good one, so I won't speak to its quality. I can make my catgirl fish so hell yeah.

Quake: Dimension of the Past (2016) - Where's the ammo? My gun needs more food!

Quake: Dimension of the Machine (2021) - Gameplay-wise it's more Quake which I love but holy shit do some of these levels look good.

8-Bit Commando (2011) - I thought this would be an okay Contra clone but instead it's subpar. I do like the verticality of your path, but it does feel more linear than it should be. Difficulty is easy even on Hard Mode. There's this weird thing where it'll upload replays of your gameplay as workshop items if you let it, so turn that off as soon as possible. Otherwise, you can't buy this anymore outside of keysites. Done to get footage of the dopefish in it.

Operation C (1991) - Quick, easy, but it is Contra, and nobody does it like Contra.

Contra III: The Alien Wars (1992) - Much like Super Castlevania IV, the jump to the Super Nintendo meant that Contra was gonna get a boost in just about every aspect... and much like Castlevania, I still prefer the original NES game to its SNES sequel. That said, I do think Contra III comes out ahead of CV4 with the amount of cool moments that happen, and abilities like locking the aim direction or standing in place and rotating your angle of shooting are accounted for in the increased difficulty. Very cool title, but personally not my favorite.

The Citadel (2020) - This is a fascinating game. While riding the retro-FPS wave, it still includes mechanics from modern shooters like bullet drop, travel time, weapon condition, hunger(?), full-body awareness (even as sprites!), and so on. Levels are really monochromatic. Very bloody and loud when it gets violent, and boy howdy does it get violent. And yet, there's this certain bleak serenity during level exploration that I haven't felt in a while. Looking forward to the sequel.

Castlevania: The Adventure (1989) - You know what? "Battle of the Holy" isn't just a good song, it's good even by Castlevania standards. And that's about the only good thing I can say about this dull game. I'll have to play ReBirth at some point.

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (1991) - Better, but I'd rather be playing something else.

Risk of Rain 2 (2020) - This is cheating since I've only seen credits twice or three times, and I normally don't do the roguelikes so again I won't speak too much to it, but I like this one. I've had a fun time alone but it's definitely a lot of fun with friends, and I hope we can come back to it.

Kid Dracula (1990) - What if Castlevania was Mega Man? is my clickbait attention grabber, but also a pretty apt description. It's easy apart from this one railcart section which I felt like I got through on sheer luck than anything else. Still enjoyable.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992/2021 Absolute Version) - I've never actually beaten Sonic 2 legit, half from getting pissed off by the special stages and half because I get bored by the time Oil Ocean rolls around. Now that the special stages are actually in 3D and have a draw distance, I finally was able to get through and grab all Chaos Emeralds for the first time without save states or sound test cheat codes. And I was finally able to appreciate just how good Sonic 2 is once that weight was lifted. The levels are fun and a vast improvement over Sonic 1's, and the 2-Act structure works a lot better for pacing. And during the final boss, doing it legit gave a level of pressure that a final boss should rather than turning on debug mode and spamming rings to help out. I think I can go beat this even more legit on my Genesis without the modern assists, but it is thanks to this version that I gained the confidence to do so. Just needed a little help up is all.

Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit (2022) - I had a big old dumb smile on my face the entire time.

Sonic After the Sequel (2013/2017 DX version) - I enjoyed this one too. A bit more lengthy due to a four-act structure per zone and the special stages are slightly more miss than hit for me, but it all worked out in the end. The true final boss had my friends and I laughing.

That's all. I'm gonna try to finish up a couple more Sonic games in the new year and also try to beat the Burnout series, with some other stuff along the way.

#year in summary

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