List Of Unique And Imaginative Types Of Government That Can Add Depth To Your Fantasy World:

this right here is the face of a man who kept a secret for 5 years and finally having it revealed

listen. aging into your thirties rocks. yes your joints get a little creaky. yes you can’t sleep in a pretzel on the floor anymore after a concert or a convention. and you lose some friends. but the thing is that you sort out who your real friends are and you sort out who you really are. and you get to see your friends settling into careers they like, and adopt new dogs and cats, and you find a job you can stand, and get really good at arts and crafts, and maybe that book you loved as a kid gets a movie deal and it doesn’t suck, and you learn to like new food and bake your own bread, and you realize that the great portfolio of self harm scars you all used to curate are going white with age and not updated, and half your friends are a different gender now and so much happier and maybe you are too, and you know who you are, and that it’s a journey and not a revelation. it’s a direction you’re headed, and you’re enjoying the trip.

reaching your 30′s rocks. and i’m hearing good things about what comes next, too.

A Starstruck Odyssey

This was such a funny campaign to watch. There was so much chaos and just fun little bits. I really loved it so much. Plus I love the sci-fi genre especially when it's fun and creative like this. And I think it was great that this was based on Brennan's mom's comics and universe she had built. Getting to hear little bits about the world outside of the context of their campaign really helped fill out the worlds even more.

I definitely think that Skip was one of my favorites. Him and Sundry Sidney. I loved everyone but I think their two stories I liked the most. One running away and finding himself since he lost all of that time to do so. The other redefining what she was thought to have been. Everything but turning into anything. It was so interesting watching their interactions with the NPCs that pertained to their stories.

I think my favorite scene was actually the Junkmother scene. The way Brennan portrayed this being that found beauty in the thrown side and outcasted bits and androids. Connecting with Sid on the want of bringing these thrown-out droids back into the light. And the art of her was really cool. Plus I always love when the editing has those multiple voices overlaying each other. It's such a small detail but I think that it really polishes off characters that are greater than average beings.

The sense of urgency stuck through the entire way through, mainly due to the credits but I think that really worked. It kept the story and the characters moving forward. I feel like sometimes there are lull moments, which aren't bad but depending on the campaign they may not work as well. Even during downtimes, the characters were working on things or banking in Margret's case. Which kept everything moving forward and I think it helped immensely.

Overall, I think this campaign is in my top favorites because of just how silly it all was. The giant "dog" and all the different factions coming after our spacers, just all of it tied up so beautifully. It was so much fun and I can't wait to watch more.

I'm not quite sure what campaign I'm gonna watch next. I started the first episode of Coffin Run but we will see. I have one more post about the last two episodes of Neverafter coming soon. I want to get that out before this upcoming Wednesday. So, until then, I'll talk to you guys later.

I'm autistic and I currently feel like shit checklist

Hi there. Are you autistic? Do you currently feel like shit and don't know why? Try this checklist to see if you can Fix The Problem!

When was the last time you used the bathroom? If you answered "I don't know" or "at least 3 hours ago", go now!

Do you need a drink? Go get one if you don't have one in front of you.

When was the last time you ate? If you haven't eaten yet today, consider eating A Meal, or perhaps A Snack. Something is better than nothing, eat whatever you feel able to!

Is there something in your immediate surroundings that is bothering you? If the light is too bright, turn it off. If there is an annoying sound, make the sound stop or reduce your ability to hear it (earplugs, headphones, etc.). If your clothes are bothering you, change them.

Is your space messy? Pick one area of your room and clean it up as best you can. Clean your whole room if you have the energy!

When was the last time you did An Activity? Scrolling on social media doesn't count. Try actively doing something fun! Play a game you like, read a book, make something, or go for a walk.

When was the last time you Spoke to a Person? Consider talking to a person you like if it has been a while.

How long has it been since you did something Special Interest related? Make some time to do that today. Infodump to a friend, have a nice long research session, look at related images or gifs, make art about it, whatever works best for you!

Try stimming actively! Put on some music and dance, spin in circles, go to the park and use the swings!

If you still feel like shit after trying all of these things, you might be tired or sick. Go to bed early and get some rest. Hopefully you will feel better tomorrow!

Hope that helps :)

To Ragh; or, On Fatness

Hi! Below is an actual play mini-essay. These are written as part of a personal writing practice of thinking critically about actual play. I hope you find this reading engaging and know that all I write reflects my own interpretations rather than as an official representation/canonization of these shows.

Ragh Barkrock may be one of the most beloved NPCs in Dimension20. It would be easy for Ragh, a bloodrush player good enough to potentially play professionally, to be presented as hypermasculine. In fact, the freshmen year art for Ragh, when he was antagonist rather than beloved ally, showed him in a muscular, inverted Dorito shaped body typical of a jock.

He's, obviously, built, and his cut jaw and cheekbones only bolster that image. As Ragh comes to terms with being gay at the end of Fantasy High, his countenance changes. When we see him again, the new art reflects a chubbier, happier Ragh.

The show aligning weight gain with acceptance and happiness already works against prevailing stereotypes that use weight loss as a quick metaphor for improving yourself and being the "real you." Moreover, connecting Ragh's acceptance of his sexuality with what seems like a larger comfort in his own body is a strong indictment of hypermasculine gay culture. As Gabriel Arana writes, gay men "must reconcile their sense of masculinity with their failure to conform to its heterosexuality." Not doing so has negative mental health outcomes, as Arana points out, and contributes to a culture that devalues fat queer people (see the popular "no fats, no femmes, no Asians" that often is touted in masculine gay subculture).

All of this, I think, is why Ragh's art for Junior Year was particularly impactful for me as a fat queer person. If being a gay man (or half-Orc, in Ragh's case) means having to situate your life in relationship to failing compulsory masculinity, then it seems there is an inherent queer aspect to embracing, celebrating, and showcasing a beloved NPC in an explicitly fat and happy body.

Ragh is still strong and he is still fat. His body radiates a commitment to the power of fat bodies to exist in spaces they are often violently unwelcome in, such as gyms. Existing in gyms and sports spaces as fat people means dealing the "impossible standard that rejects nearly all of us" and upholds a diet culture rooted in impossible, Eurocentric and colonial body standards. In TTRPGS or actual plays, there is a unique opportunity to think about how bodies might exist in worlds different from ours, to imagine bodyminds as otherwise. However, as queer critics like Paul Preciado have noted, sci-fi and fantasy representations of cyborgs and other transformative bodies often lean into "fixing" disabled people or moving gender nonconforming bodies more easily towards technologies upholding a normative standard rather than questioning the standard all together.

Spyre is a world that deals with similar issues to ours, even without direct one-to-one correlations, so it, too, is a place where the narrative and artistic choices should be examined in how it helps us interpolate the world the audience resides in. From the Applebees cultish adherence to a deity-based nationalism to the various representations of parental neglect and abuse and every side story in-between, Dimension20's flagship show does not shy away from difficult realities even when recasting them through fantasy. Ragh, as a half-orc gay son of a disabled single mother, then, I see the arc his fat body goes through as meaningful and intertwined with his self-acceptance and queerness. He moves away from the toxic masculinity engineered into his blood rush team to instead pursue coalition comraderie with his friends to the point that he and his mother end up joining a communal living situation with those friends and their parents. Ragh's body expands as his family does, as his ties to community do, and to me, the gift of his fatness is the invitation to expansion that it holds out to us as viewers.

Misfits and Magic

This was such a fun season! I really love Aabria's style of dming. Brennan's dming always has me hanging off of every word in the way of stunning me like I can't look away or react without missing something. While Aabria's has me reacting and even pausing to have my own little moments. It's so different and I hope to see more of her in future seasons.

I liked that this was through a different system of ttrpg. I've only seen one other game system before so it was nice to see even more. Plus it was fun that they had those advisory tokens. It was a nice touch.

I grew up watching Harry Potter and so this was a fun way of poking fun at the absurdity of that entire world. The touch of the wands! I thought that was so cool and another great way of immersive storytelling/playing.

I really loved the characters and just how they wanted to prove that they could be just as good and even better because they were mixing modern/common sense with magic. It was again poking fun at what was already put into place.

I thought the players were having so much fun. Between kicking some ass at magic and learning all of their specific forms of magic. Which I think was a really nice touch, it brought those characters more to life.

Overall. I thought it was so nice and even thought it was a short campaign it was definitely one of the most fun. I hope to find more of these shorter campaigns just as fun.

Neverafter: The Curdled Web

CW: Spiders (Though I won't be too descriptive.)

AH, this was such a fun battle! I really love how much the crew put into the setup of this episode. From the ambient lighting, the domes' screens with the webs and spiders, then the boss mini coming down from the center was so cool. Seeing all of the players reacting to that was such a joy. It shows how much time and dedication they put into these campaigns. Always going after more and better than the last one.

Speaking of the boss though, I can't express how much I love that Ylfa immediately was like, "She's like me and I can help." Even while doing her best to help defend her friends and Scheherazade. It's quite interesting at the end with her moment with her hand on the book. And her questioning her story and how she is always afraid in her story while in the Neverafter she could at least be with Ylfa. I thought that was so sweet and it really shows us more about the nature of the book.

I'm so glad that the group was having some better roles this time around, plus making some really smart moves in general. It was so different from the first battle though in a way, for the storyline at least, it almost feels necessary to have had the players experience a TPK as it allowed for the characters to grow and adapt to the world around them.

I can't wait for this Wednesday, I'm quite curious about where our heroes will be going and who they will run into.

Side note, I did finish Mischief and Magic. I will be posting about that sometime this week, maybe even tomorrow. Now, I am off to the stars.

Goddesses and Champions

So what if Lucy frostblade wasn't possessed when she submitted to change her god but what if someone in the rat grinders is a changeling. And what if that's why Ivy wasn't surprised when she saw Lucy at the party because she assumed someone else was pretending to be her. And what if that someone is kipperlily and that's why she's such a good rogue

REBLOG IF YOUR BLOG IS A SAFE SPACE FOR AROMANTIC PEOPLE AND IF YOU THINK THEY ARE VALID

I want to see how many people actually are willing to say this and not just act like it