A Pink Blueberry.

A Pink Blueberry through and through.

[apinkblueberry]

I'm slowly building a new fantasy project, and ordinarily I do try to start with a spark of an idea but this time I've decided I want to start with a culture. I'm going to be honest with you, this post is me sorting out my thoughts but you're welcome to join me on this journey.

So starting with a culture is a really interesting choice cause that means there are certain things you have to be aware of. Starting with a culture usually means you want to highlight a particular culture or something akin to that. For my previous inspirations I have used Germany (I used Germanic fantasy but if I ever build it out visually it'll be featured a bit more), Italy (lots of Italian influences from the Etruscans to the late renaissance), Hollywood (in the 50's to the 80's), China (c. 100 particularly around the Han dynasty), Southeastern US (culturally primarily), and Japan (Edo period mixed with influences from the 70s to the 90s).

So what could possibly be next and why bother listing everything that I have? Well, because I want diversity in my work. By the time I die I would like to make a fantasy setting (that I'm proud of) based on every continent (including Antarctica). So clearly I already have North America, Europe, and Asia. So what's next well, that would be Africa, Australia, South America, and Antarctica.

Plus which mythology am I interested in right now? Well the ones that are really calling me are 3 major options.

Option 1 is relatively straight forward Pre-Roman Mediterranean. This includes more obvious mythologies like Greek and Egyptian, some may even think about Pre-Islamic Asia Minor, or Israeli mythology. But, what that also includes is French and Spanish Gaelic beliefs, and those get weird.

Option 2 is a little less straight forward that being Pre-Roman British Isles. Yes, I mean everything connected to Britain (being Scotland, Orkney, etc etc) and everything connected to Ireland (being Northern Ireland and Ireland). Obviously we're not leaving out the Isle of Man.

Option 3 is a bit more interesting, the Yoruba mythology. Fascinating stuff but there's a lot less information out there comparatively. I've always wanted to do a Celtic world and one based on the Yoruba people (obviously mixing them wouldn't work).

So now I'm in a position where I have to choose and I don't like having to choose because all the options are quite lovely but for this particular project I can only have one. I can have other projects but one at a time (please I'm still building two of them out, I need to give myself more of a break). So now I'm here thinking to myself which one do I want to choose, which one do I want to explore and share in my own way.

If you have any thoughts they would be welcome but in the meantime I will continue considering these worlds.

[apinkblueberry]

How I Start Fantasy Settings

Recently I've been feeling like a new fantasy setting is coming into my brain. I thought this could be a fun opportunity to show some insight into how I (personally) build my fantasy settings. The first thing I do is I start off with a few questions that help define how the rest of it goes

What is my spark? (Aka what was the thing that got the initial idea going?) What was the image, the inspiration that got the idea going, was it a short scene, was it an image, was it an item? If this spark is not maintained there is a solid chance that the project may lose a central idea. The more detailed this spark is the better.

What is my theme? (Aka what is the real world thing I'm discussing in this fantasy setting?) So the reason I ask this question as early in this process as I do is this is a great benchmark for anything I want to do. i.e. If I want to add a series of puzzles in say a casino, let me refer back to my theme, if its a critique on consumerism, then  I would probably want my puzzles to even be casino games. Now in that same scenario if the theme is a critique on fascism you'd probably want the puzzles to be much grayer and much more bland.

What is my challenge? (Aka what new thing do I want to do in this fantasy setting?) The reason I ask this so early is it helps define a clear path. For example if my challenge is making a bright fantasy setting, I probably do not want to add a dark gray sky unless that is meant to clash with the rest of the world in particular (or like part of a villain's power). If however my challenge is focusing on my story I need to spend a lot of time fleshing everything out before anyone else sees it to make sure its all ready.

What is my art style? (Aka how would I want this to look in an ideal world where I had infinite money and resources?) Now this isn't as crucial in a lot of the others but as someone who does a lot of art and got a degree in art with a minor in history (yes I'm a nerd) it really helps me reconceptualize it. For example if I imagine this as a stop motion film I probably don't want mechanics requiring rapid sudden movement, or if I do maybe including a mechanic making it so where people can break up that action. Another example, in an ideal world might be an anime, in an anime there are certain features you want to make sure to highlight, certain tropes, certain decisions and also the story needs to follow a particular structure, one that can become more episodic (via contained stories in a particular 'episode' or via short chunks that can be broken up that don't feel too obtrusive.)

What real life locaiton is my inspiration? (Aka If this was somewhere in the real world, based on its mythology or setting, where would it be based?) Now this is great when being tied into the setting and the story. You want to make sure that the aspects of the world do not become contrary to the area. For example do not base a Hawaiian story off of an idea of relaxation unless its a critique as the Hawaiian islands have been damaged by consumerism and the people who visit the region, I personally wouldn't switch to any island area for that and might instead focus on somewhere more like the Florida beaches or the Grecian coast. Though if you approach a setting based on Japan for example there's a lot of rich history and mythology there. You can absolutely lean into values of traditionalism and isolationism as that is what the country has done. 

Now here's what I consider the fun part (and by the fun part I mean the likely really difficult part that is usually not so fun, except when you finish), that of course being checking the questions between one another. There is no correct order for these questions, each one influences another one. I will run you through a setting I had called Project: Blood, I had been really excited about but chose not to based on these questions. 

Project: Blood's spark was a scene of a tower overgrown in undead flesh as someone rode by on a horse over a group of small green hills with a small group of golden decorations on the straps of the handles. That tells us a lot of things such as there are horses here and there is grass, so this place is definitely not in a desert or in the tundra or on a small island. Hills tells us its probably adjacent to some kind of fault line, meaning there is probably more extreme landscape somewhere close (such as mountains or even volcanoes). The tower tells us there's decent infrastructure and the flesh means there's a very powerful villain at play here (likely someone who can manipulate undead flesh such as a lich or a mummy perhaps but based on the grass more likely a lich). The person riding the horse tells us there's at least someone going to do something (and based on my intention planned on doing something about the towers). The golden brackets on the horse's handles tells us there's some kind of gold source, and there's someone who knows how to work that gold, likely a city and likely a nearby town or infrastructure for stables. 

Now I know that was a lot but that was just our spark, let's go to the next question, where is my inspiration? Normally I wouldn't go to this so early but looking at everything it really spoke to me as being a french inspired setting (not to mention I would love to use the original tarrasque in one of my dnd games but thats a rather small point). So knowing its french means there's likely castles (going in and adding it into my spark because castles are awesome). So we go in and do some basic research (I mean like first page of google and wikipedia, really minor amounts) and find some things to research*. So with french mythology one of the first things we find is Reynard the Fox (a really important character culturally or at least historically), and the original tarrasque (one seriously scary mo...nster). Including them into the setting something that comes to mind is either a fox hero to join or a fox race for players (in the case of dnd or just a fox people for other fantasy). The villain is likely in some way trying to use the tarrasque, are the towers linked to the tarrasque, maybe a binding agent? Wait actually that's super cool so that sounds perfect. Towers likely built over forgotten pillars binding a tarrasque, so now the 'lich' is starting to take them over is this freeing the tarrasque or do all the bindings have to be removed, are they in a particular shape, how do you communicate that to your audience? 

*For those of you who use AI (I try not to except for place holders) this is a great thing to prompt it, something akin to 'can you tell me some major mythology or folklore of x region' then you take the results and punch them into google and try to find sources (remember wikipedia is a great home of sources at the bottom of the page).

This is a lot to think about, yet again, and we are only two questions in out of five. So what's the next question, what is my theme? We could absolutely go into religion or nepotism or-wait no that's perfect, lets discuss divine right (as in to rule). There's plenty to discuss but based on that we should definitely have at least a king, at least one prince and at least one princess and a lot of people in the background trying to control them or have some kind of influence for their personal gain. And at some point royalty should transfer which means either the king needs to be new to his position (liches are way more fun rotting out the existing infrastructure), the king transfers his power or the king dies. I prefer he die in the process, which means there should be a lot of children fighting for the 'divine right' to rule. The lich will probably kill the king, which means an active war with each child of the king trying to take an army or a particular part. The players should be a group of loyal knights assigning loyalty to particular leaders to help influence who takes the throne. It would be super interesting if there were 12 children (like the 12 tribes of Judah and god's chosen people, playing into that theme) and each being linked to one of the tribes at least philosophically. 

Now before I keep going, this flows directly into my challenge, based on what I've said each child would have at least a slightly different plot unless a completely different trajectory which means our challenge is essentially that this (in a dnd game format) has replayability, because if you follow a different leader then different things happen. Your decisions following them changes things, if they die under your watch that changes a lot. 

Finally, what is my art style, which for me was super easy, a live action style show (like Game of Thrones) where the betrayal can be highlighted by great acting. This really doesn't change a lot but it does mean we get things like watching them travel, the journey becoming part of the story.

So this is a really cool start to a campaign, why didn't I go ahead and do it? Honestly, the challenge, I felt as though writing 12 interlocking calendars was dreadful. It wasn't fun and it didn't go towards a fun goal, but why didn't I just change the challenge, because based on our theme and our art style that's a near perfect challenge. Both of those would have to change and I honestly think (given our spark and our inspiration) that this theme, challenge and art style matches best. I realized rewriting it would take away some of the magic. 

Maybe you think I'm wrong, then please use this, I put it up here for a reason.

[apinkblueberry]

There are a number of really interesting creature types from monstrosities to dragons to aberrations. While I find these creature types fascinating I do often find myself in a hard position, most creatures cannot be multiple creature types at the same time. The only exception I've really seen of this is Humanoid (Goblinoid) but that's a type of Humanoid (technically). I want beast goblinoids, fey goblinoids, and even celestial goblinoids.

So I propose we start using more than one creature type for creatures we place the primary creature type first and then hyphenate and add another creature type. For example, let's say we want a fey goblinoid who's still a humanoid I propose we do it like this Fey-Humanoid (Goblinoid) where Fey is the primary and Humanoid is second, if any effects struggle due to a limited distinction we just go on their order, so if it targets humanoids and specifies it cannot affect Fey then we look at the order, Fey is first so it is immune.

Have I lost my mind or does this kinda make sense? There should also be more of the 'oids' I've seen some people say Dragonoid which I really like (not gonna lie I feel like Dragon shouldn't be a creature type and it should just be listed under Beast but this is not the time for that rant.)

[apinkblueberry]

Kobold Creature Type

A situation I've been facing in D&D for a number of years is the strange existence of Kobolds, don't get me wrong I love those little dorks, but their creature type is a little strange to me. They're just Humanoid which has always marked me as strange. Maybe I could understand if they were Humanoid but also Draconic in nature or something but they're not. I thought I found a good solution a few years ago in the essence of Dragon creature type but they are also Goblinoid, so I spoke about it online and asked if people liked the idea

They did not.

So I've been trying to find a new good compromise and I' still quite happy with the previous answer but other people are not. It could help expand Goblinoids outside of like four creatures (Goblin, Hobgoblin, Bugbear and Worgs.) It would also give writers more room to work in order to make other Goblinoids of other creature types and would leave implications of a hierarchy amongst the Kobolds. I've tried to find why it's such an offense to nature but honestly no idea, it's like the cheese touch, no one knows the source but everyone believes it (people say it's Greg Heffley but I don't believe them.)

[apinkblueberry]

How do we improve Exhaustion?

Exhaustion is a really hard mechanic to get right, in case you're not aware of what exhaustion is (work outside) but it is the act of pushing your body too hard and it starting to give way. This can result in things like heatstroke and losing consciousness suddenly. How do we put that in a game without it becoming excessively annoying.

D&D 5e has an interesting solution giving an increasing levels of pain before at the 6th level of exhaustion you just die (Pathfinder's solution is similar.) But that can be abused through spells like Sunbeam and other magic, and Barbarians suffer pretty heavily from it. Stardew Valley has a fun solution to it (which is kind of like the Pokemon solution) where you crash and someone comes to get you and brings you back home (or to the Pokemon Center.) There are games that after a certain point you just start taking damage and then it's treated like you reaching 0 HP (like Fortnite, it's storm could be treated as a level of exhaustion.)

None of these answers I am particularly in love with but they have a collective theme of that if you push yourself too hard your body will crash. There is no correct answer, I've been tinkering with it for years but never quite feels like I got it right. One D&D had an interesting solution where each level of exhaustion is -1 to all checks and saves but then you just die at 10 levels which feels rather abrupt, so surely there's a better solution. I would love to hear about any others that you all particularly enjoy!

[apinkblueberry]

As someone with a sound sensitivity can I ask for people to please stop turning their music in their car to maximum bass, I can hear it over 50 feet away and it hurts my head. I understand your windows are up, that doesn't change anything sound travels through solids not just gasses. When I'm sitting in bed trying to enjoy my day without a migraine it's rather frustrating when you turn my eternal headache into a migraine, please for the sake of my brain, stop. Don't get me wrong I understand some bass just please not maximum, there are other people.

[apinkblueberry]

"Write What You Know"

I've always loved writing stories that represents generally under represented people, but as I am not always a part of that group it does result in some difficult conversations. A while back I went onto Reddit (the appropriate subreddit for the culture I've been learning about and studying) to ask how best to represent certain parts of the culture. The first comment (which got deleted before I could read the full thing but hey, half of it's in my email) was surprisingly worrying with someone saying the equivalent of 'only write what you know.'

Now the following comments were incredibly helpful and incredibly supportive, and it's usually not wise to linger on those negative comments but I wanted to discuss this idea of 'write what you know.' Now in my University where I had been studying the idea of it was essentially 'find a basis in the unknown that is known and familiar to you.' But it was really interesting to use it as essentially this idea to support the concept of 'do not exit your bubble what so ever.'

If people followed that interpretation then no one would ever write diversely in any way, this would result in a lot of people writing the same old stories. Now I understand what they meant, they meant don't write about a culture you don't know (otherwise that concept would be invalidating the entirety of fantasy as a genre) but that doesn't stop the issues. James Patterson spoke about how he went about his research and I find it infinitely fascinating. He spoke about flying out to locations (even undesirable) in order to gain the experience of being there so that he could write it better. I just don't like the concept of 'only write what you know' because it removes space for ingenuity and limits the majority of writing to those who are already well enfranchised.

TL;DR I think people should write what they want to but research to the extent that the particular project calls for. Sorry for my ramble, but I would love to hear your thoughts.

[apinkblueberry]

What is the deal with Electrum in D&D?

One of the most confusing parts of D&D and many other TTRPGs (especially those based on D&D) is a currency I've found most players are confused by. Most of the currencies tend to follow a metric type structure 10 copper is 1 silver, 10 silver is 1 gold, 10 gold is 1 platinum, and 10 platinum is 10 platinum but notice there's a different currency I didn't mention (at least from D&D 5e) it goes CP (Copper Pieces), SP (Silver Pieces), EP (Electrum Pieces), GP (Gold Pieces) and PP (Platinum Pieces or occasionally a dance you do when you gotta go to the bathroom.)

The outlier is abundantly clear so let's talk about Electrum, what is it and why do we care about, in addition why is it on my character sheet when so few DMs use it. Well, let's start with its purposes mechanically 10 Silver is equal to 2 Electrum which is equal to one gold. Now functionally, what is Electrum, well funny enough it's not too complicated it's simply an ore that is partially gold and partially silver. During early civilizations (i.e. Mesopotamia) it was used as the primary currency so it's perfect in a more ancient setting of your game, but why aren't standard coins made of Electrum. The answer to that question is surprisingly simple, we learned how to separate the gold and silver and they're more valuable individually than together.

TL;DR Electrum is gold and silver and was used in ancient civilizations and it's used in these games as a simple method to help distinguish the time frame mechanically through the currency. So good for ancient games but useless in most other games.

[apinkblueberry]

How to go about a Bright Fantasy?

[To Long? TLDR at the bottom]

So I have an inherent issue going forward. My D&D campaigns keep getting darker despite me not wanting them to. I am hoping to write a Bright Fantasy campaign but I am having trouble doing so in the context of a D&D campaign.

I think this is because of the inherent mechanics of D&D support a darker setting. There are many official or WOTC supported classes that tend to lean towards these darker perspectives. It's not that they can't be brighter but players that play these usually end up sending their characters down a darker path them being: Blood Hunter, Rogue, Warlock, Barbarian and very often Sorcerers. For races: Dark Elves, Half Elves, Orcs, Half Orcs, Tiefling, Dhampir, Goblins, Goliath, Aasimar, Bugbear, Hobgoblin, Kenku, Kobold and Changeling. Now that may be just my experience but I think both lists should give some perspective. Now many of you may say that they are not inherently dark and I would agree but I think many players just enjoy the darker perspective of this sort of character.

Blood Hunter is pretty clear, the concept boils down to controlling people and becoming more monstrous to kill monsters. It is by no means a bad class but it does rather strongly tend towards darker characters. If you don't believe me I encourage you to Google Blood Hunter and just look at images. Rogues I personally dont think have to be dark but their tendency towards Stealth by far tends to lean people towards playing them darker and playing them with that perspective in mind. Warlocks in my experience tend to play off a dark patron and a darker world as a result. Looking at the Player Handbook subclasses for Warlock: Archfey, not inherently dark but many tend to lean towards characters like the Fairy King who tend to be quite dark rather than a brighter fey, The Fiend, I mean Demons I suppose they could be written brighter but that writing is rather rare, and Great Old One, ah yes what part of Lovecraftian horror isn't bright. Barbarians are often played as dumb brutes who only care about bashing things to death. Now by no means is this the rule but in my experience thats how people tend to play their characters. For Sorcerers very often how their power emerges in their backstory often kills loved ones and does a lot of damage. I personally see why but I think that it can very often lead to a darker character. I won't go over every race but I can make a seperate post later on if some of those aren't clear. They just tend towards darker characters.

This is by no means me saying that dark characters are a bad thing because it isn't but it does make the campaign darker as the campaign should be centered on the characters. So now the issue is how does one while still using D&D and not blocking half the classes from the players do a brighter fantasy setting. In addition, there are very few resources online for writing better bright fantasy but if you search on Youtube Not Grimdark Fantasy you get a series of Grimdark resources. Now obviously it sees the Tag Grimdark but seach Bright Fantasy you get a song. My point is there are limited resources for a Brighter setting but many on a darker one. So how do we go about writing a brighter world, unless anyone has found a brighter title I'm calling it Bright Fantasy. This is because Grimdark is Dark Fantasy so the opposite would inherently be Bright Fantasy.

Well, one primary example of a brighter Fantasy is the earlier pokemon games. For many of these pokemon they use bright and colorful animations and have fun cute stories. Now obviously there are many with dark Poke Entries but to find those you have to dig. The bad guys tend to be evil without really any remorse or if they have a reason its completely ridiculous like Team Magma and Aqua. But, and I recognize many people will be frustrated by this sentence, Generation 4 was the generation to move away from this brighter fantasy. You can catch several gods and even move through the distortion world and even catch the embodiment of death. Now its still a great game, however, from that point on in the series it never really returns to that brighter beginning. It seems like a lot of series that start bright turn dark. Obviously comic books are a great example where now everyone wants to be Dark Knight x Watchman. Even Jak and Daxter the first game is a very bright game but by the second it becomes super dark and depressing where Jak's first words are about murder.

So let me ask, how do I move my campaigns in more of a direction of Bright Fantasy. Some major elements that many stories use to move to a brighter setting is brighter characters. I can make the NPCs brighter but if the main cast is inherently a dark group than the bright fantasy will be too contradictory. It would be like Anakin Skywalker in the land of Teletubbies. Many stories add visuals that are brighter and more pastel colors but since I dont use maps and the like that would be very difficult to do. Many of the things used in other stories aren't options here so if you have any ideas please let me know.I almost forgot one final thing. Villains. So Grimdark villains tend to be morally gray but they do things so bad they can't be forgiven. Brighter Fantasy villains tend to be evil for the sake of being evil so that is something I may use but if the rest of the campaign isn't bright then it may just come off as edgy for the sake of being edgy.

TLDR? It's hard to do a a campaign of a brighter tone because so many mechanics inherently lean for a darker tone, so how do I write a Bright Fantasy in DnD?

[apinkblueberry]

DnD Campaign Name?

Hey everyone,

I do things other than just randomly rant. I just finished a campaign that I was DMing. So we are taking a week off for me to start my next campaign and get it ready. And I like naming my campaigns cause why not. I want a name that's card based and tells the party to be ready because I'm not gonna hold back. This is gonna be a uniquely dangerous setting but I think the world building is fun. I have some previous names below and if you like one of them let me know these are just some ideas Im playing with.

Some previous ideas: Ace Up the Sleeve, Going All In, Drawing a 2 and a 7 Thank you all for the ideas I hope you give! I'm very excited about this post and the ideas!

[apinkblueberry]

Mythology in Relation to Culture

I'm pretty sure my page is just me ranting at this point...so....enjoy I guess

Mythology feeds into our knowledge of a culture. The fact that the Greeks chose Zeus to be their head is significant. It shows the thing they valued most was weather and not pissing off Mother Nature. The fact the Mycenaean's chose Poseidon (or their equivalent to him) is significant cause to them the most significant thing was death and destruction (cause he was a Cthonic god at this time). However, something more interesting is that the Norse chose Odin to lead them because in their minds the most important thing was knowledge. Or the Egyptians who really embraced 'Praise the Sun' and Ra was their head god. So looking at mythology we can see what their primary value and concern was. Like if cartoons had a god their head god would likely be quicksand or 'Loony Physics' or something to that extent.

That being said there are other aspects of mythology that are crucial to us understanding those cultures. We can see in Greek perspective, due to Hades, death was a permanent thing but just a natural part of the process. Because of Charon kindness will take you a long way showing they valued kindness than we likely thought. Death is the ultimate equalizer so in the end everyone is equal. This against Osiris and his very formal system where your rank determines your position in death. Where Death is not only not an equalizer it also creates a greater division. Honestly, its surprising there wasn't some kind of a revolution amongst the people. It implies that position of birth matters so much but also the weight of one's heart matters so its important that you do deeds that are seen as good. Now the issue with that is that leaves a lot of questions on what is good but that is something we will see in time and have to determine ourselves.

That being said this can also be applied to Christianity. For example, the older fear of Witchcraft implies that there was a constant fear of demons. It implies an older edition of Christianity (I recognize this still exists but its not as universal anymore) pushed fear above all else. If you don't know what it is it must be entwined with the devil rather than just being something you don't understand. We can use these kinds of things to understand cultures and groups that otherwise we would have no context for.

These types of perspectives can help us get a certain level of context that we wouldn't have when analyzing these kinds of works or worlds otherwise. I think it's important to note that when thinking about such things that they were people just like us facing everyday issues as well. I hope this gave someone some cool perspective I think this is part of world building that is too commonly overlooked

[apinkblueberry]

True Goblins

Yes another rant enjoy

I am so sick and tired of Anti Semitic (and yes I had to google it to ensure I spelled it correctly, and no I did not the first time) Goblins. Goblins are really interesting on a deeper level than just being a racist stereotype. Honestly, I hate what J. K. Rowling did to them, that being said I’m not calling them perfect creatures Goblin literally means “Ugly Fairy” or “Demon”. They come from the Greek word “Kobalos” signifying “Rogue” or “wicked sprites invoked by rogues”. So they are little fairies that are known for stealing things and causing general purpose mayhem. In some areas the words for Goblins also comes from the word for “Friendly”. Now this name was Kobold, however, back at this point they are one in the same. All of this is the European perspective.

The Asian perspective says “They are known  as  Doggabi or Dokkaebi,  and  they  are  important  in  Korea’s  folktales. They roam in the night, creating  mischief, reward good people and punish the evil, playing nasty tricks on them.” Do not worry this source is cited at the end. Some Asian Goblins are even described as cute, those being the Dokkaebi. The Tengu can be identified as a Japanese version of Goblins. The Chinese versions are “T’ien-kou”.

Long story short they are universal but the perspective of them are universally different and unique. Same with the perspective of whether or not people still consider them an issue which is very important to note. This is the end of the new information from my source: This is a link to the source so click here. From here on out I’m going to be writing how I see a potential way to fix the writing of Goblins could be or as I call it: True Goblins.

So what is a true Goblin? Well, the True Goblin is the raw source of what a Goblin really is/was. It’s important to draw aspects from both the European and the Asian perspectives. It’s also important to note that they are both European and Asian which means the inspiration of them is something that is likely seen as universal and likely not region locked. Everything from here on out is going to be a potential way to write Goblins rather than me advertising ‘The Solution’. The main goal of this is to make Goblins a bit cooler, less Semitic (spelled it right that time), and true to its roots.

So physically they are short and I think their general stature should stay the same as that is rather universal. Nose wise as that is something that is one of the strongest parallels between them and stereotypes of Semitic individuals so rather than making their nose I think making it longer much more like a Tengu nose. If your not familiar with what that looks like it’s just like Usopp from One Piece or just google Tengu and you’ll see rather quickly. I think it would be good for them to stay green as that is a strong identifier. In terms of ears I think the more modern Dungeons & Dragons approach is good where they are making their ears longer and floppier and less humanoid. Making their ears look less of cartilage and more of a thin skin much more like long wide dog ears but without the fluff.

Now what do they do because a lot of the inspiration comes down to a gluttony and greed over money and especially gold. Well, in order to remove some of these associations that have been written into them I think there is a more fun approach that we can take. I think if we cross the Asian idea of giving to the good and punishing the bad along with the fae aspect I think we can develop a really interesting dynamic. I think with this they would come off as an evil version of Santa’s Elves (and honestly I highly suspect they may be at least partially part of their inspiration the connections are rather a lot). So they go out to especially children but will go to anyone and hand them a package, if opened and the opener is/has been good it will benefit them perhaps with gold or perhaps with healing but if someone who is/has been evil or bad it will hurt them perhaps by blowing up or cursing them or just a lump of coal. You could use this in a lot of different ways. They are seen as sinister because of the twisted nature of their approach most likely primarily approaching evil people but its just a form of karma. That being said lets factor in a little more of that fae aspect, when someone is given the gift they are marked and the gift inside is theirs and cannot be non magically taken from them and if it is taken magically all fae will know.

To me this is just an idea on how to redesign Goblins to hold to their previous aspects but be in a better position and hold true to their original mythology. Alright rant over, enjoy. I would like to hear your thoughts any other changes or is this good? Lemme know

[apinkblueberry]

Fantasy Realism

Is this post just a rant...yes. Am I going to make this post anyways...also yes.

So is it just me, the fact that fantasy is so unrealistic bugs me. Not like “magic is unrealistic” bugs me no that’s fine. No, the fact that a Minotaur only has one stomach and almost every race is built exactly like humans. This may be a thing that only bugs me. I don’t know if this is a thing but if it’s not I’m coining it “Fantasy Realism”. And no this isn’t like Magical Realism because that’s making everyone in a certain plot or area accept magic as a norm like saying “Ah yes that Minotaur is my lovely neighbor and makes lovely brownies” or “did you check out Frank’s new Flying Carpet its got this cool new design too”. Fantasy Realism is saying “I think a Minotaur should have four stomachs and as a result should probably be built a bit chonkier than they normally are” or “zombies through decomposition should look different than just rotting people because of the fungi infesting their brains”. Is this something I only think about or do others or is this a common thing I just don’t know about?

Personally I understand that some things don’t need to be explained. I do not need to know where a fireball comes from nor that it is a hyper condensed ball of gases that when released and come into contact with the air combust creating *fireball*. Some things don’t need to be explained but some things I feel need a bit more realism in them. A lot of people misunderstand me and assume I mean making fantasy realistic, in D&D 5e, absolutely hunger is a real thing but unless I’m playing in a survival game or a game where the DM feels that’s a necessary mechanic I don’t think the fact that I haven’t eaten in three hours should greatly impact all that much. I do feel as though some things should be a bit more realistic, for example, I love in D&D the distinction between recovering things on a short rest, long rest and using something once a day. Short rest implies something is draining (as per the limited supply) but really easy to come back from like a hot tiring sun your short rest is like sitting in the Air Conditioner for a few minutes. A long rest is like helping a friend move so all your muscles feel sore so you need to just sleep for the night. And every day implies it does not run off of your energy but rather an outside force you have no control over like taxes or Midnight. That is a small bit of Fantasy Realism, its a useful mechanic that is somewhat realistic but also makes sense in a fictional setting. It also helps set a bit of cost and helps ground the fantasy. I’m not saying make it all realistic I’m just saying certain aspects would be benefited by bringing more realistic aspects to them.

A lot of this will be using D&D 5e as a basis because its a very malleable platform and I mess around with it a lot. Part of Fantasy Realism for me is also the inclusion of mythology because that means to many people that seemed like a realistic and understandable explanation to something they didn’t understand. Mythology and Folklore tell us a lot about the world and without going too deep or anything like that tell us how people truly in their core interpret the world. The world Turtle, Zeus’ Lightning Bolts or even the Moon Rabbit. By including these objectively unrealistic things our fantasy worlds can feel more alive and can feel like they are more than just a thought that came out of our heads and they can feel like they can come alive. This is the same reason the LGBTQ+ community will fall in love with a series collectively because those characters are definitely gay. It makes the world feel more personal and more realistic, and...I guess the word is it feels more grounded despite it feeling fantastical. It’s the little things that matter.

Part of Fantasy Realism is remembering people are people. Even Hades named his three headed dog Spot. Everyone is a person, no one is above other people and by acknowledging this the actions and decisions characters make have more of an impact. The fact that Hades rules the underworld means very little, but, keeping in mind that Hades is one of the only Greek Gods that is a decent person and doesn’t go out raping and murdering and fucking with innocent mortals gives us context to love Hades and believe he is more than just some ancient guy that was just really into the dead and so they deified him. Context is what is needed to make the great powerful on the same level as the humble adventurer willing to lay down their life to fight them. No one is above morality even and especially in the eyes of Fantasy.

I don’t know if you all will agree but personally I find it important to keep this in mind. Perhaps I’m just wrong and this is too much realism in a fantasy setting but I would really like someone else’s thoughts on this. (My friends swear I’m not annoying them with this but like...how can I be sure) Or perhaps this is an existing thing I’m just not aware of. I would love to hear all of your thoughts!