Tag: long post

Who else in cityverse are really good friends?

Tabor and Blake – You don’t know Blake, at least not really I don’t think. He’s a skateboard enthusiast who is really mellow and loves spooky things and philosophy. He’s also a frankenstein monster/zombie thing. Tabor makes sure he always has a job (he has been fired a lot for various reasons). They hang out a lot and keep each other out of trouble

Tabor and Sherwood – Their friendship is weird. Tabor is part of the ‘keep Sherwood out of trouble’ squad and makes sure he doesn’t get himself killed or arrested if Ashe is busy. He’s also made sure Sherwood got home okay on nights where he goes out drinking. Sherwood treats Tabor like one of his merry men and drags him on all sorts of vigilante adventures.

Marian and Piperit – They’re actually one of my favorites. Piperit doesn’t really like anyone but he makes exception for Marian as she is well educated and enjoys intellectual pursuits. They both support Shakespeare in the Park and often sit and are part of the local book club. Marian is also aware of Piperit’s love for Disney movies and will sometimes invite him to movie night at her place if she knows that’s on the agenda.

Dulcie, Lenore, and Julia – These three are in the same class and Dulcie convinced them to team up with her to be bad guys for Sherwood to chase down at night. They’ve grown as friends over time which is good for Lenore because she’s quiet and afraid and kind of dark. Dulcie’s attention issues and the fact that she occasionally acts up in class make school hard for her so the other two have been finding ways to tutor her that don’t end with them getting ejected from the library after Dulcie sets a few books on fire.

Forrest and Hope – Forrest P. Sherwood (yeah he knows) is a really shy sort who lives out by the park (in a very open house, he’s extremely claustrophobic). He has helped Hope with her bees on occasion, makes sure the park is always full of flowers to encourage bees to live there, and the two of them work together to spread information about the importance of insects in nature. Hope makes sure his home stays in good condition (with some occasional help from Hestus) and that he’s always getting enough to eat. Picnics between the two are not uncommon.

Of course, everyone seems to gravitate towards people of the same species. The angels will all hang out, as will the vampires. I like to think that Doyle and Fal are good friends, though Doyle occasionally has issues paying for his alcohol with money (luckily Fal seems to have plenty for him to do in exchange). Nolan works with lots of Jenn’s resident characters in the tattoo parlor.

These things change and grow as I think about the City, but this is what I can think of right now

dafttrolls:

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HELLO ALL! ITS THAT SPECIAL TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN WHERE I FEEL LIKE DOING A GIVEAWAY.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

  • You gotta be following me. If you aren’t I’ll know. If you don’t follow me yet, Hi I’m Ethan I roleplay fantrolls and reblog a lot of Five nights at freddy’s stuff, creepypasta stuff, and scary stuff in general. I tag all the horror and fnaf tho.
  • There will be two winners. Both will get the same kind of prize offers.
  • I will draw all OCs. This is NOT limited to fantrolls 🙂

PRIZES PRIZES PRIZES

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A FULLBODY CHIBI-ISH DOODLE OF YOUR CHARACTER! WOO

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A NORMAL HEADBUST OF YOUR OC.

OR

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A TALKSPRITE SET! [Set includes: 🙂 😦 😡 :|]

THIS GIVEAWAY WILL STOP ON OCTOBER 31st!!!!!

WINNERS WILL GET THE CHOICE OF TWO PRIZES.

GOODLUCK ALL.

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It’s the evening of the day following the disaster at the manor. Marian is dressed in black, even more modest than usual, hidden under a heavy cloak. She knocks on the door that the innkeep pointed her to; Knott’s door. The din of the bar downstairs was quieter up here, but still noticeable.

somewhere-in-the-dungeon:

It’s not hard to spot the jeesh as Marian moved through the bar- they were doing a good job of keeping the signals subtle, but she had seen most of their faces before. Looked like there was a new one- was that one of the brides?- but they didn’t stop her. Still, it meant it was no real surprise that Knott answered the door almost before she knocked. “C’mon in.”

The door felt heavier than common, and once she was inside it was obvious why. There were a pair of iron crossbars that had been fitted across it, recently if the color of the splintered wood where nails were driven into the wall was any indication. The rest of the room looked like a precisely arranged mess- empty mugs lying hapazardly around the floor, old clothes and rags spread like a second carpet. Knott was standing next to a sparing dummy that had been set up in the centre of the room, weighted with river stones. There was a piece of parchment pinned to the dummy’s chest with a short dagger, wet ink spread across it in an odd chickenscratch script.

“Anyone follow her?” The question seemed missplaced, but then a lump in the bunk moved and she realized it was a man, one of Knott’s squad. “No way big guy. We counted how many times the door opened, right number for the right people, and nobody’s stayed with her for three streets. No tail, visible or not.” Knott nodded. “Shapeshifter?” The lump shrugged. “We lost eyes same time you did. Could be.” Knott nodded again and considered. “Hit the first floor. Watch for incoming, tell Jade to make sure she’s outside the building. I don’t signal in an hour, get world to the rest of the circle. Earlier if you have reason. Shapeshifter marching orders.” The lump of a man grinned and stood, heading for the door. He nodded to Marian as he passed her, and shot her a quick roll of his eyes before heading out to the hallway. She heard him confer quickly with the squadmate who’d just happened to be lounging in the hall. “Grass marbles.” The reply was quick and sure. “Peas acorn.”

Knott looked at Marian, ignoring the strange conversation. “Please, close the door if you don’t mind. There’s a few chairs around here somewhere if you need a place to sit?”

Marian watched the scene play out in silence. In any other circumstance she would be a tad irritated, but after everything that had happened recently she had to appreciate the extra security detail. There had been too many mistakes. Of course, none of this was reflected on her face; it was as stern as ever. She turned and closed the door, exposing the back of her cloak. Stitched near the bottom of the cloak, somewhat centered, was the familiar blue fox that adorned all of Marian’s clothing. Beside it was a tiny orange tiger, evidence pointing to the stitching being fresh (for those who were looking).

Marian turned back around and faced Knott. This was much harder now that she was here. She shook her head at the request to sit, and despite how rude it was she kept her hood up.
“I didn’t come here for pleasantries,” she stated. She relaxed her hands only after she couldn’t feel them anymore. “I might need your help with something.”

She steeled herself as best as she could, but even the heavy fabric of the cloak was having trouble containing her trembling. This had all been much easier on paper.

“It regards Matra.”

Do you have any favorite RPG characters that aren’t yours? (NPCs count as long as you didn’t create them.)

Oh yes, I certainly do.

If we overlook the G part in your RPG I could go on for days about the many fantroll blogs I follow with amazing characters that I think are absolutely wonderful. I could also talk about all of my time spend rping on Gaia and the numerous characters I got to meet there that were amazing.

But we’re not overlooking the G

Top 5 in no particular order are:
Matra
Fal
Discord
Commander Cybren
and Gabe

Wow that was a lot harder than I thought it would be

Matra belongs to hyperionnebulae and is our Exalted party’s Zenith. She is cute and spunky and tiny and the absolute most sad and adorable character. She’s got a lot of dimension and has established a very firm presence in the campaign and I just want her to go back to being happy because goodness knows she deserves it. I’m extremely interested in her character arc and she’s just too cute (even when she is sad).

Fal belongs to somewhere-in-the-dungeon and was the first character I got to experience from him. I have a love hate relationship with Fal. That ginger dwarf was the cause of a lot of feels back in first campaign D&D and while I loathe and despise him, I have to give him credit for still being likable despite everything that happened. Fal is an absolutely wonderful if not incredibly frustrating character who kept us all on our toes and brought together an incredibly interesting plotline that ended in him marrying the party bard (me) and the pair of them becoming the most powerful gods in the setting.
He’s also the character that convinced me that his player is Evil

We’re skipping Discord to talk about Cybren.

My buddy, Ben, doesn’t have a tumblr (I don’t think) but he’s worth mentioning as a person because he’s great. He makes characters that tend to have a lot of character and feel very much larger than life, and Cybren is my favorite of his. He’s a Dawn caste Solar with a heart of gold and a big beard who only wants to axe people a few questions. We also discovered he’s a surprisingly good investigator and over the short course of our first Exalted campaign he and my character became good pals. He was so memorable as a character he was one of the first brought into second campaign as an NPC and we still try to check in on him when we can because he’s just too good. (Ben has a great sense of humor that really shines through his characters)

That leaves is with Gabe and Discord, NPCs created by my beautiful fiancee greensunprincess. They were introduced back when Sherwood was still around (and not in his emo phase). Gabe saved Sherwood’s life on several occasions and might have had something of a crush on my idiot hero, but he also knew the feelings weren’t reciprocated. He took care of Sherwood anyway and was the best friend he could be. I have cried over this character. I want to take him and hug him and keep him for myself he is just too sweet. He’s hiding something dastardly, I’m sure, but he’s just too good.
Discord might be my favorite though. Discord started as an antagonist that I loved to hate (and hate him I did) because he was a huge manipulative asshole who kept making deals with the party and screwing us over as much as he helped us. He was awful and conniving and always showed up when there were deals to be made and you didn’t want him around. Of course, that’s not all there is to him. He’s also an incredibly compassionate parent who loves his children and significant others. He did one deal out of the goodness of his heart for Sherwood and has been a stable rock for Marian. He’s secretly a big softie and a huge nerd and the fact that he can be both of these things at the same time and make me love and hate and fear him is just the best. There is so much to Discord as a character and that is amazing.

Honorable mention goes out to Hestus Mookin for being absolutely adorable. I haven’t gotten the opportunity to really play with somewhere-in-the-dungeon as far as Hestus goes, but he’s a brilliant little guy who might be a bit spacey but his heart is in the right place. In all honesty, Hestus might be the only character of Dungeon’s that I would classify as Good and he is really precious and super silly and he’s just really interesting.

In short, other peoples characters give me lots of feelings and I’m always excited to learn about and interact with them.

Naila’s Adventures in the Desert

Naila the tiny chubby deer satyr/faun got drafted into the army, and because she’s a law abiding citizen she did as she was told and met up with the DnD party despite not wanting to do anything more than continue her alchemy studies. She didn’t have much, a few spare flasks, some killer booze in a family heirloom bottle, some acid, and her workbook; but she went off on her journey and arrived at the rendezvous where she was promptly instructed to hand over her things. She refused, her work was her lifeblood and she wasn’t going to waste time having people potentially ruin her work. She entered the caravan without a check and got to meet the party.

Included among them was a shy and quiet centaur; asleep on one of the beds, a young lillend who had yet to grow her wings, and a rather persistent were-tiger who was clearly a cleric with a stick up her ass. Naila showed some hospitality by offering the tiger a drink while she set up her work on the other bottom bunk. A werewolf came in later and seized the bunk for himself, causing a grumpy Naila to move elsewhere to get her work done.

According to the rules given to me, Naila gets 12 points per day as an alchemist to make a variety of potions (not including her spell potions). Any unused points at the end of the day are halved and carried over. I calculated two days worth of points for this last session with 6 carryover points implying that on day one she didn’t have the time to do anything. That girl was a busy bee after that. With materials scavenged on her journey (wrapped around her horns or woven into her hair) she managed to make:

Alchemists Fire x2
Blood Thickener
Liquid Smoke x2
Hydrogen Peroxide 3% Solution
Antitoxin
Smelling Salts x2
Insect repellent
Luminous Water x6
Chalk x3

The chalk, water, and liquid smoke can all be made by transmuting sand because she’s skilled like that. Everything else is a tad more complicated but she seems to manage. The best part is, these are things she can make on the fly provided there is something to work with; and considering she always manages to have something on hand…it’s impressive indeed.

Most of her spell potions she reserves for healing potions (as accidents to happen). With all of her talents, this chubby naked satyr is set to become the party medic…who makes things explode.

This could be a lot of fun

Um, hi. I don’t know if this is something you do at all, but do you have any advice for someone who’s never played a tabletop game before and is looking to start with Exalted?

Hello! This isn’t something I normally get the chance to do but I would love to give a little advice!

1) First and foremost, I’m planning on eventually running a single session of Exalted for new people, to get their feet wet in the system and give them a chance to experience it. I’m still looking for interested players, so if you would like to you can join the Skype group and we can move towards playing (I was hoping a minimum of 3 players and I only have 2 right now). My skype is Nova Starlight and I’m the picture of the girl with short hair, so feel free to add me.

2) Note that there is a lot of math involved in tabletop games and you will have to keep track of some important numbers. Character sheets can be found online to help keep all of your information straight. Also, don’t ever be afraid to ask questions to your storyteller about how any of those numbers work.

3) Good advice for any tabletop is to know who you are playing with and what each of you are looking for out of the experience. Do you want to tell a great story? Are you interested in character development? Or are you more interested in killing things and looting bodies? You should check out a few posts by somewhere-in-the-dungeon as he tends to have in depth conversations with himself about how different people play games and his experiences with that. They’re enlightening reads. I’m sure he would be happy to answer any questions you might have as well!

4) If you haven’t already, you should check out my Let’s Talk About Exalted series. I cover a lot of the world of Exalted and some of the mechanics, and they were meant to help break people into the system and to explain things in a shorter and simpler way to reading all of the books. You can find those posts here (either as is, or linked via my masterpost)

5) That being said, if you find you like the idea and are interested in the books, all of the rulebooks as well as some other supplemental material can be found on DriveThruRPG.com either as PDF or physical books apparently. Here is a quick link to the core rulebook, which is a must. And here is a link to the Scroll of Errata which has important information regarding changes made for game balance.

6) If you want more advice on Exalted, you can talk to my fiancee greensunprincess as she is the one who got me into the game. She knows a ton about it and has started writing supplemental material on her own time. She is always interested in talking about Exalted with interested parties, and she’s quite nice.

7) Most important of all, these games are meant to be fun. If you are not having fun, ask yourself why that is and seek to change it. Every system isn’t for every person, but finding one that believes in the same sort of fun that you do is a nice feeling.

If you have any other questions please feel free to message me again. I’m always happy to help in any way I can (though I do better with more specific questions).

Also! If you are looking to maybe get a feeler out there for someone else who hadn’t really played tabletops until finding my lot of friends (and who has come to love them, Exalted included) you can send a little hello to hyperionnebulae
She sometimes talks about her characters like the rest of us do and can provide a nice insight as someone who is still new-er to this awesome hobby than myself, greensunprincess, and somewhere-in-the-dungeon

((Also, also, I hope you don’t mind I posted this publicly. I figure it would be a good resource for everyone looking to jump into things. If you are uncomfortable, let me know and I will take the post down but send you the info so you still have it))

Communication, Conversation, and Body Language

Okay, so in case anyone is unaware I am absolutely rubbish at instigating a conversation online. I am afraid of your ask box and will go on anon even to say nice things. I am afraid to respond to your rp even if it’s labeled open. I am a tiny and terrified person and it’s because the internet is a really difficult place for me.

I like people. I really enjoy getting to talk to people about things. I like arguments and discussion and excited yammering. It’s a drain, but I do so love it.

The problem is most of my communication with others relies on body language and tonality. I’m very good at reading body language, as well as picking up on the emotional state of others. I’m also fairly decent at reading the tonality of peoples voices (though some stuff becomes obvious really quickly for most people, like frustration).

Without body language to guide me (or in regard to people who are difficult to read) my mental default is negative emotion. This is a problem I have with communicating via the internet.

I cannot see any of you, therefore my default is that I am bothering you. I am annoying. You are angry or frustrated or upset with me in some way. Any conversation feels like it must be a chore for you. Discussions feel like awful arguments. On the internet I feel tiny and insignificant and unimportant. I feel like I am a huge bother to everyone; like I’m not worth talking to. I’m boring.

I know that’s far from the truth.

I know a bunch of you like me and some of you I know in person (so I think you like me too). At worst I haven’t left any real impression on a lot of you, so your response to me is likely more passive. This…does little to assuage my issues.

I’ve found, particularly when conversing with my fiancee (long distance relationships are not fun), that emoticons are helpful in keeping me cool in smaller discussions. Most of our conversations are really just various emotes and little hearts, because that’s all I really need. It’s kind of like simply sharing a space with a person, occasionally you give them a little smile or something. These aren’t really useful in longer discussions, however.

I dunno, I should prolly change my impression of people. It’s silly to think they’re always angry with me.

somewhere-in-the-dungeon:

Okay, the hypocrite thing first. Marian seemed to take issue with Solit’s treatment of the bandits. This is unnecessary, this is cruel, why are you doing this, etc. Knott saw Marian considering his daughter’s actions as evil, as though pattern-matching Solit to Abyssal in nature. Remember, Knott operates as though Good and Evil are actual things, things you can detect with the right spell, and your Good or Evil quality displays your ultimate allegiance to a greater cosmic side. Knott matched Abyssal to mean Chaotic Evil and Infernal to mean Lawful Evil.

Marian was accusing Solit of being Evil, and less than ten minutes later displayed affection for Discord and allowed him to take and raise her child. Discord is also Evil- Lawful Evil, so Knott can deal with working with him against Chaotic Evil foes, but Marian clearly cares about and trusts Discord. We all know Discord does Evil things, so the hypocrisy is that Marian seems to go “Solit, who does Evil, is bad and wrong. Discord, who does Evil, is lovely and I care about him.” What makes Solit abhorrent, but Discord charming? Discord actively has his own schemes going on. He’s not on our side. Solit on the other hand spends the majority of the time fighting alongside us. Good and Evil are sides in a war here, and Solit fights for Good so Knott feels he’s got a very good reason to think Solit is Good, despite her heritage. That’s the hypocrisy: “The Evil person you love is Evil, but the Evil person I love is Good.” 

Footnote of sorts; If Knott had to guess (and he is charitable enough not to trust this guess) it seems to be that Discord is attractive and well-spoken, and Solit is disgusting and ill-mannered. He trusts there must be more to it than that, but there does seem to be a pattern here. According to Marian, Ejava is good, Knott isn’t. Danzig is very questionable, Jin is acceptable. It looks an awful lot like she thinks ugly or rude people are Evil.

There is a somewhat separate complaint however. If you read Knott’s version, he has a seriously impressive level of control with his weapon. He can pick out particular arteries on a moving target. He can hit a six inch target from fifteen feet with a melee weapon. (I mean, I did have something like three times what I needed to hit their DVs.) He’s clearly playing with them, avoiding straight headshots, which would be the quick and kind way to kill them. He’s deliberately mortally wounding some so that they bleed out over time, so Solit has more time to play. Heck, he could have just Authority Radiating Stanced and told them to go pick flowers.

Marian wants to keep Solit from “succumbing to her nature as an Abyssal.” But here’s a thought; Solit is half infernally via Red, and has an Abyssal exaltation. Those are two strikes against her moral stance you might say. But the way she deliberately causes fear in her opponents, and enjoys the violence that’s going on? Actively seeking out ways to cause more pain and fear because she enjoys it? 

What makes you think she didn’t get that from her father?

Okay, I have to make a note here because I find this kind of funny.

Marian can’t not love Discord. He kind of tricked her into their relationship initially and it’s tied to Black Claw Style. I doubt anyone is aware of this, I just find it a funny detail.

And I get that Knott operates that way, but that’s part of the two of them misinterpreting each other. Marian doesn’t see things in such a clearly defined manner. Marian believes most people are good, they just do bad things. Knott is a good person who has wonderful end goals and whatnot, but the way he goes about doing things is less than appealing to Marian. The same goes for Terror; Marian has seen her do good things, she knows she is capable of being good and that she loves Ellodie and wants to make her parents proud of her, etc. However, she also knows, from a friendship with Ven, that Abyssals have a hard time being good all the time. Furthermore she knows what it’s like to lose control (Marian is not exempt from doing bad things, it’s important to remember she often thinks of herself in a very poor light) as well as the regret that can come with that.

Furthermore, no one is more aware of Discord’s faults than Marian. Part of Marian’s throwback is a complete flip in feelings towards Discord because he’s a scummy seedy deal maker who has done horrible things in the past (hell, he does horrible things now).
It’s important to keep in mind Marian’s relationship with Discord is complicated. Discord has always offered to be there should she need him and has, on a few occasions, been the only person Marian has been able to talk to about her personal life. Discord offers a great deal of comfort to Marian and that sways her judgement. She also knows that when he’s all business, he will do whatever it takes to come out on the high end of a deal. I like to think of their relationship as “I would trust you with my life, but never with my money”. They love and respect each other on a personal front but when it comes to business they’re both all business.
I regards to giving up her child for Discord to raise, it needs to be remember that that is Discord’s child too. There’s no reason Discord would do anything to hurt the kid and given both the death of Andromeda as well as the recent encounter with the Fae Lord, Discord was right; that child wasn’t safe in Creation. If Luna is after Discord via his children, a baby is an easy target (as we’ve proven). If Knott knew someone was out to get Terror and had an option where she would be 100% safe, would he not take it?

Finally (how dare you assume I didn’t read your drabble. I’m insulted) I recognize that Knott’s brutal and calculated behavior could be where Sol gets it from, but Marian considers that less than you might think. Perhaps that’s not right. Marian considers it, but her concern falls more with the combination of the inherited brutality combined with the impulses that come with being an Abyssal. One is difficult enough alone and could be waved off, but the combination of the two is dangerous.

Sherwood had a belief that everyone (well, every woman) deserved a chance to do good. He defended previous enemies that were in obvious trouble, he trusted Gabe even though Sherwood knew he was keeping secrets, he did his best to give people the benefit of the doubt until they proved otherwise. Marian tries to do that too. She tries very hard to find the good in people and pull that out into the open. She wants to help make a better Creation.

After reading everyone’s post session drabbles regarding last week I’ve got the feeling that Knott, Matra, and Marian all seem to be misunderstanding each others motives and feelings about both recent and non-recent situations. Perhaps they are also misunderstanding their actions and motivations as well.

Marian sees Knott’s lack of involvement with stopping Terror from torturing the bandits as irresponsibility. She wonders what sort of lesson he is teaching her by forgoing compassion towards another human being. She thinks there’s nothing more to it outside of Knott being completely impassive about these other people simply because they’re bandits. In reality, Knott simply has different priorities: the safety and security of his daughter.
Knott’s goals are keeping his daughter safe and comfortable without jeopardizing the lives of the innocent.

Knott, on the other hand, sees Marian as a sort of hypocrite (though how I’m not sure?). Perhaps that has something to do with her actions in disciplining Terror versus her not wanting to part with her own child. The sort of blindness some parents have (my children can do no wrong). If course, Marian’s child is a baby who actually can do no wrong (because she’s a baby).
However, Marian’s intention with trying to curb Terror’s actions was not out of any form of spite. It was an attempt to keep Terror from rolling off the deep end. It was an attempt to keep her from succumbing to her nature as an Abyssal and reminding her that she, like those bandits, was still human. She wants to help Terror, and sometimes love isn’t ‘nice’. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for another is to be firm with them.

Matra also seemed to misinterpret something in regards to the actual fighting. While Knott was certainly participating in the slaughter for his own reasons, perhaps as an act of catharsis, Marian was deliberately participating as little as possible. Matra’s reflection implies Marian was involved in things as much as anyone else, but true observation proves otherwise.
It’s important to remember that Marian has a martial art that has an attached philosophy of “Rage and destruction is cathartic and makes you feel better”. Not only that, but Marian has mastered this art (to the charm that refers to one who takes it as a master) and thus has accepted the philosophy. Despite this, Marian assumed Black Claw Form, a martial art specifically about defensive deception, against enemies that likely could not strike her anyway. This indicates either Marian’s lack of conflict where she deems it unnecessary, or perhaps Marian’s lack of desire to rid herself of her negative feelings (by not going punch drunk Marian bottles up her feelings). What little fighting she does do is with her flame piece (while perfect, inaccurate) and generally only to enemies already in or near combat with an ally.

The only thing that appears properly interpreted is Matra’s final statement before they encounter Discord. Matra says they should go, in such a way that seems to remind everyone that there is a job to do and that they have spent too much time bickering amongst themselves as it is. Marian agrees and drops the argument (even if she storms off like a child having a tantrum) and even Knott doesn’t feel the need to get the last word in. They all understand right there that continuing to argue won’t solve their differences, it will only exasperate them.

Quite honestly I think Matra’s the most mature person in the party right now.