Read it Reel

A place where I can rant and rave about movies and books!

[strawberryfoxart]

Bane and Slow

[salytierra]

Citrus Scale equivalents

ORANGE = Teen and up audiences (T+) : PG-13 : Provocative poses, female-presenting-nippes, mentions of making out or semi-smexy acts.

LIME = Mature (M) : NC-17 : Non overly-explicit sexual acts. Like a couple doing the do but without the genitals showing, or a description of the act.

LEMON = Explicit (E) : R-18 : Overly-explicit sexual acts. All the in-n-outs and body fluids on display, very graphic descriptions of vanilla boinking or regular kinks (ex: light spanking, edging, roleplay) 

GRAPEFRUIT = (No ao3 equivalent, but usually requires warnings) : Extremely kinky or morally faulty topics, weird and extreme fetishes. (Ex: pain kink, slave/master, u.nderage, n.on-con, knifeplay, petplay, watersports, tentacles, etc.) 

[lokihiddleston]

[lokihiddleston]

#wow I LOVE this angle this is almost eerie #after a fashion because you can literally SEE him change #he bows his head in gif 1 and then in gif 2 #you see the Loki from Avengers rise to his feet #POWERFUL ACTING RIGHT THERE (x)

But it’s true, precisely when I created the gifs. I had a flash. When you see how he is standing at the end, this line of shadow on his face, you already see the look of a Loki in the avengers. A person closing his heart, accepting all the darkness because he is hurt. But he prefers to raise his head, kept that cold look. It was at this moment that he closed all feeling. It is at this precise moment that everything will switch for him.

[dnd-one-shots]

Fun Character Ideas by Zodiac

♈ - a dramatic dwarf who’s older sibling is a famous hero/villan who left big shoes to fill.

♉ - a half orc who’s trying to buy their parents a farm.

♊ - an alcoholic magic user who used to work for the main villan.

♋ - a hot-headed dragonborn who was framed for a serious crime.

♌ - a Cinniman roll with a psycho side.

♍ - a warlock who’s married to their patron.

♎ - a thrillseeker teifling who uses a whip as a weapon.

♏ - a Machiavellian Nobel from a disgraced family.

♐ - a half elf who outlived their partner and children.

♑ - an oversharing Paladin who worships the God of secrets.

♒ - a middle age elf who’s experiencing complex emotions for the first time.

♓ - a Sorcerer that accidentally cursed their family

⛎ - a clumsy fighter who’s never actually killed a person

[beebeedibapbeediboop]

Wondering and wandering

[moviesandquotes]

[dailydungeondelves]

Hello! I’m a new dm and I’m having trouble getting the players to focus. No matter how much or little I describe things they seem to get off track. I was wondering if you had any advice on how to form a more focused table culture without seeming too strict and mean? I don’t want them to get discouraged by having too many rules for the table, but I really need them to pay attention. Thanks!!

There could be a number of reasons.  If they are new players like you are a new DM, they may just not have the edicate down, ie, listen to others and take turns.  It’s a concept that either comes with practice, or people realise that they won’t be listened to eventually.  You can try to impliment this by going around the table, asking what each character wants to do in response to a situation, then going back and quickly giving them all some attention while the others wait if their character is somewhere else.  Same if players are looking at phones and not paying attention.  Just ask players not to use their phones during the game.  Basically stuff that boils down to being polite.

Secondly - talk to your players.  Chances are they aren’t even aware that you feel this way.  Let them know that you don’t want to be too rule heavy, but the story will fall apart if they don’t pay more attention.

If however you meant that your players tend to go off on tangents instead of following the plot, then I’d have to ask how are they going off on a tangent?  Are they:

Trying to explore character backstory elements?

Looking for other things like gold, monsters, magic items?

Going off in separate, independant directions rather than stay together as a group?

Obessively talking to an unimportant NPC?

These are just some of the common examples for me, and are all parts of roleplaying that can be good as long as they aren’t overplayed to the point where they start making the game less fun for others.  There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but I find that it’s good to try and mix these elements with the story that you’re running.  So, using the above examples:

Clues/elements of the characters backstory elements are wrapped up in the plot (someone who looked like a missing family member mentioned this place; an old military sqad a player used to be apart of tried to fight this monster; there’s a dungeon that could get you a reward that would please that person)

Hint that a reward the players are seeking is at the end of the story hook you’re dangling (if someone would kill that dragon, we’d pay handsomely; i hear that this person hordes magic items; on the way to delivering this item there’s a lair of a legendary monster)

Give the players a common friend/enemy/goal (Sure, the neutral evil drow ranger wouldn’t usually work with the lawful good human palidin, but if we fight about our differences instead of finding the goblin leader, we’ll all be dead!).  Or - ask the players to RP this (If you help me find my brother, I will help you earn money in the illegal fight pits!)

Just let them keep the damn NPC as a pet.  He’s apart of the story now, whether he likes it or not.

These are just some examples that the player’s interest can be gained.

One last note - make sure that the players are interested in the story you’re trying to tell.  Its all well and good to have a source book story, but if the players aren’t super into the plot hook, they might not give you their full attention.  Running a political intreigue campaign for a group of people who just want to fight monsters for instance, probably won’t end too well.

I hope this was helpful!  As always, the main object of any game is to have fun overall, so as long as people are having fun and you are happy with the hyjinks that are unfolding around your table, it’s not as important to get bogged down in finer details.

Anyone else with advice please feel free to add via comments or reblogs!

[dadsdice-deactivated20260123]

SESSION 0! Aah, the fabled “Session 0″. Many have chosen to ignore it and many have fallen prey to their folly. It is a session you hold before the actual start of the game in order to familiarize your players with the type of game you want to run, as well as adapt your plans according to their particular needs. I can not stress enough the importance of everyone around the table being on the same page in regards to the atmosphere, content and rules of the game. Time and time again I see people complaining about DMs running their own story without regarding the characters’ backtories at all. Or having homebrew rules that no one discussed that are being pulled out in the heat of battle, having dire consequences. Or the game being more combat heavy while the players just wanted to roleplay. All of that, and more, can be discussed beforehand so everyone knows what they’re buying into.  My second online campaign that I was a player in, I didn’t really enjoy playing. My natural proclivity is towards roleplaying and having meaning behind everything my character does. With that in mind I created an Artificer with an elaborate backstory and eventual mechanical servant to accompany him in his endeavors. I had a lot of things in mind to do with this character, with the end goal being inventing some grand invention to make my PC known throughout the lands. That would be the driving force of his actions. When joining into this game, the DM only told all the players to create a character who, for some reason, ended up in jail, which they wanted to have as a starting point - I had no problems with that and incorporated it into my backstory. No other pointers were given.  As I found out a couple of sessions into the game, the DM had a story they wanted to run and any major detour would simply be turned down and squashed. They simply wanted players to play “their” game. This, naturally, resulted with me being unhappy for the majority of the campaign. My character had next to no motivation to follow the DM’s plotline and was just kind of tagging along. I was given no opportunities to “invent” something, tinker with my equipment (no pun intended) or even explore my class’ features. In fact, maybe a couple of sessions in, it was decided that having the mechanical servant with the party is too much of a hassle to deal with, due to frequently having to travel on a ship and the servant being too heavy for the ships, so it ended up being left behind in some city and pretty much unused. I was not happy.  Now, I’m not saying the DM was a bad DM or that their story wasn’t great. It was actually quite interesting and playing with them at the reins was indeed fun. If only we had discussed the nature of the campaign beforehand. If I were only given a heads up about the nature of party travel that would prohibit me from using my mech servant (which is about a third of the Artificer class), I would have gone with a different character and different expectations and would’ve had much more fun. This is why session 0s are held. But what specifically is to be discussed in these preparatory sessions? ATMOSPHERE If you’re going into the Curse of Strahd adventure published by WotC, you should know that the setting is dark and gloomy, everything is sort of depressed and not much levity is to be had. Don’t go into it expecting fart jokes, memes and puns.  On the other hand, if the DM and the whole group agrees and wants to intentionally take the opposite aproach and make fun of how the adventure is written, more power to the whole group. My point is, that is something that should be discussed. Atmosphere is important. THE THREE PILLARS Any dnd veteran will tell you that the three pillars of dnd are combat, exploration and social interaction, However the DM wants to run the game or the players play it, whether it be  more combat heavy, social roleplay oriented or based on a hexcrawl, everyone should be on the same page before starting. You don’t want to go Ranger with a focus in surviving in the wilderness, gathering food and tracking animals, and then finding out the campaign will mostly be held in a city and based around political conflict.  HOMEBREW Whether it be rules that are not official or a setting where there are no humans, all homebrew material should be brought up before the campaign starts. No one wants to create an arcane spellcaster class and find out in game that magic doesn’t work due to some great devastating magic war a thousand years ago. The DM might even have a way for spellcasting classes to be able to cast spells or maybe plans for them to be the ones who discover magic again throughout the storyline of the campaign, but players should be aware of this before they start playing.  LEVELING AND CAMPAIGN LENGTH This is a tough one. These days, while games are much more accessible via online platforms, they are also more prone to disbanding before their natural ending. It is hard to predict whether a game will last as long as it is supposed to. When there were fewer options and most games were held in person, everyone put in an extra effort to have the game continue.  Having said that, players should know what they’re getting into because it informs their choices of character creation. Maybe someone wants to play a class because of that one awesome ability they get at 14th level. If the campaign starts at 1st and ends at 10th, naturally, that player would not choose that class.  Also, how will leveling be done? Standard XP system or nowadays more popular milstone system? Each have their pros and cons, but whatever you decide to go with, you should let everyone know beforehand. OTHER Other than what was already mentioned, anything else that you would like to be known. No phones at the table, no being late, no talking out of character, no metagaming, whatever the DM or the players hold important, should be made aware to everyone at the table.  Now, all of this is maybe not so important when playing with friends you’ve known for a long time, especially if you’ve already played with them. But it is imperative for online games or games where you sit at a table without knowing the other people present. Trust me, when everyone’s on the same page, everyone’s happier. And that doesn’t mean that compromises can’t be made. Maybe the DM wants to try that critical fumble table for injuries and worse, but the players don’t - you talk it out and find a consensus. Dnd is a collaborative game, so collaborate - even before the game starts ;)  In the campaign my friends and I tried starting before the current one, we were still newbies and neglected to have a session 0, which resulted in a TPK in the first session and a few member changes for the eventual game we are currently playing for almost 2 years now. But that’s a story for another day. Thanks for reading, as always, hope you’ve gained some inspiration ;) 

[showerthoughtsofficial]

The brain is just 8 lbs of meat that sits in complete darkness and plays a video game of what it thinks is the most realistic thing ever.

[willow-wanderings]

it’s 3lbs, not 8. also it’s not really meat, it’s mostly fat with some water and salt. You have a wad of soggy bacon inside your skull. And this blob of gross unprocessed jello somehow manages to run a complex biomechanical suit using less electricity than it takes to work a lightbulb. And people wonder why humans are so fucking weird and have odd experiences that aren’t actually real. I mean, if a bowl of tapioca pudding managed to hallucinate so vividly it invented calculus, it also going “dude, i heard a weird noise and i’m 100% sure it was the ghost of the neighbor’s cat which hasn’t actually died yet” would be just as expected as anything else.

[whatevercomestomymind]

Omfg dying

[spacealienstuff]

[awed-frog]

By the way, if there’s still someone out there wondering how Germany accepted Nazism and why most people just went with it - remember Columbine? That was in 1999. Almost twenty years ago. If you’re old enough, maybe you do. Maybe you remember the horror and the refusal to believe that was true and just sitting there in shock, looking at article after article. And maybe you remember how you felt in the days after? Like something had to be done, like that couldn’t happen again? Well. Yesterday, seventeen people, both kids and teachers, were killed in a school in Florida. It’s the eighth school shooting in the US in the last six weeks. And the thing is, many people will tell you this is now normal. Part of life. Something you need to accept, and man up, and shut up about it. 

Let that sink in for a moment? 

Because it’s 2018, and millions of citizens of a free, democratic country (a country which, despite everything, is still a privileged haven compared to 1920s Germany) are perfectly okay with children being shot in their classrooms. Because it’s just what happens, and it’s regrettable and sad, but what can you do about it? So I’m not comparing the two historical periods - this is not me saying, haha, the US is like Nazi Germany because gun laws - this is me saying, by the third time it happens, you’re okay with it. Humans adapt, are happy with someone else in charge, still reason in terms of immediate tribe so we worry about our families first and foremost - and that’s how everything happens. Oh, they’re shooting kids? I’m sorry for their parents, but it’s inevitable, there will always be a random madman, can’t control everything. Oh, they’re rounding up the Jews? Well, it’s a pity, I liked old Mrs Berg from the post office, but that’s how it works, isn’t it? They’re not actually German citizens. Oh, they’re locking up political opponents? Yes, it’s a bit extreme, but so was saying all those awful and hateful lies about the government. Oh, there are faceless corporations knowing where I am at all times? Uhm, not ideal, but how else am I supposed to call an Uber? Oh, there’s like three companies controlling the food market? Okay, that’s a bit disturbing, but it’s how the economy works, right? Hasn’t it always been like that? Oh, the President of the US constantly lies to the public? Yeah, I guess he does, but nobody’s perfect - let’s just focus on the big issues, okay? Oh, people are expected to work for free so they can ‘gain experience’? Most people around me do that - it means it’s normal.

People get used to things. That’s what we do. It’s a survival mechanism, and it’s part of our mindframe as social animals. Much of what’s going on around us would have been unthinkable and unacceptable two years ago, ten years ago or thirty years ago, and school shootings are one of those things. 

This is what a 15-year-old kid had to text her mother yesterday: “If I don’t make it I love you and I appreciated everything you did for me.”

This is not normal.

[injuries-in-dust]

Alien 1: We can’t land on this planet. Humans have already set up a colony here. 

Alien 2: We haven’t even turned on the scanners yet, how can you tell?

Alien 1: Look out the viewscreen in sector 6G.

Alien 2: Is that a…

Alien 1: Yep.

Alien 2: Across the entire desert?

Alien 1: Yep.

[hiheygoodday]

i need to stop

[kasturimone]

Oh no dont mine me, I'm just helping you study!

[rootfauna-deactivated20180326]

Shit No One Told Me About My Period

I knew the basics before I got it, but I had no clue…

* The blood wouldn’t necessarily be red. When I first got my period, I spent a few min looking at my underwear wondering how I shit myself. I didn’t know the blood could look brown, or be thick.

* That tampons weren’t a good idea yet. I was 10 or 11 when I got my first period and physically smaller than an adult woman. My first attempt at inserting a tampon was very painful and unsuccessful. I wouldn’t use them until I was around 14 or so.

* That when you use pads the blood can get on your bottom and I’d have to occasionally clean off the toilet seat after using it.

* That getting your first period DOES NOT mean you’re fully developed and fully able to bear children. I could have technically gotten pregnant at that age, but I was still a child and pregnancy would have put my life in danger because I was still physically immature.

* That it wouldn’t be regular for another few years.

* That very painful cramping is NOT NORMAL once you reach your 20s and is cause for concern.

* That the blood and tissue you pass can look chunky or stringy and not like blood from a cut.

* That stress can halt your period for months BUT

* That doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant

Feel free to add your own

[nonbinary-weirdo]

Relatable

[angelsaxis]

-passing blood clots is completely normal

-that your period may straight up skip a month when you first get it

-and then it’ll happen twice in the same month

-getting your period does NOT automatically make you a woman

[martee-bee-blog]

Painful cramping isn’t normal in your 20’s? That’s a little concerning, mine have been getting exponentially worse

[phinarei]

It is NOT normal. 

I can 100% guarantee you have endometriosis, PCOS, or another hormone problem. If your doctor says it’s normal, DEMAND a second opinion. 

Thinking that it’s normal is how people end up infertile or dead. It’s why so many women under 40 these days are having an almost impossible time either conceiving or preventing conception. Because no one teaches anyone that it’s the sign of trouble that can very seriously hurt you. 

Anyone who has severe cramps, heavy bleeding, or irregular periods after about 19 years old should seek medical advice. None of those are normal. 

If you have skin tags, a hard time losing weight, migraines related to your period, depression that is amplified when menstruating, severe mood swings, sleep disturbances that get worse with menstruation, or any other significant health problem that started with puberty and is worse when hormones are fluctuating you need to be checked. 

None of the things that people relate to women on their periods is actually an example of a healthy woman. It’s an example of people who need one form of treatment or another. 

[colt-kun]

Do NOT go to a general doctor. Find a women’s health center. Obgyn doctors. ASK SPECIFICALLY FOR A FEMALE DOCTOR. (Also helps with creating a demand for female doctors, win-win)

And if the doctor you do see tried to write you off as “nothing” or “its normal”? Politely insist for another doctor. People forget: you are paying them for a service. If you believe the doctor is not taking you or your problems seriously, ASK FOR ANOTHER DOCTOR. Specifically, “Do you have another doctor on staff who is more experienced with female health”. It is WELL within your right to change doctors as you see fit - you owe no loyalty to one specific doctor if they aren’t meeting your needs.

[master-yen-sid]

Reblogging for all my followers with vaginas. I have so many sisters and friends with vaginas and I didn’t know most of this. I turn 30 soon. You’d think I’d have pick up these bits of information over the years in conversation.

[luckystarchild]

Hey!! Hey everybody with periods!!! If you have a period you should read this, because it’s helpful, and people with periods really aren’t taught enough about their own bodies.

[daddys-chaton-noir]

even if u personally don’t get a period, someone u know/care abt prob does & u should pass this along

women’s health is health & we should all know these things, i feel

[darkshrimpemotions]

Umm what the fuck I am on depo provera specifically because I consistently have 8-9 day periods that are accompanied by the kind of heavy bleeding and cramping that literally puts me in bed for the first 3-4 days, and I could not take it anymore. But it’s always been like that since I got my period at age 12, so I thought it was just normal and I was really unlucky. I’m 29. Guess my ass is going to an OB-GYN first chance I get.

[thingamawhatsit-blog]

Just a note - if you have abnormal period stuff and went on birth control as a teen to help with this it can sometimes prolong something (experienced without birth control) you otherwise would have grown out of as your body figured out what the fuck it was doing.

[mmemento]

yea not everyone is meant to be on birthcontrol. if you have birthcontrol side effects pass the 3 month marker, you should probably see a gyno or a endocrinologist (an internal doctor). 

if you have PCOS, be sure to get your thyroid levels checked because thyroid issues (like hyperthyroid) get misdiagnosed for PCOS

[alleiradayne]

- That you can both get your period and still be pregnant

- There is about a 7-day window every month where you can get pregnant. And 7 days is DAMN generous, it’s more like two or three.

- If you’re not trying to get pregnant, you absolutely 1000% do NOT need to get your period. If your periods are so damn debilitating, talk to your OBGYN about skipping your period with birth control pills. Saved my got damn life.

[kasturimone]

- You can get your period after a 15 day cycle, it's normal, it just means that your ovaries (you have two) are on different cycle. They'll get in sync after 1-2 months.

[kasturimone]

[Natasha has apprehended Justin Hammer.]

Tony: Agent, you brought him here? [She nods.] Thank you. No, really, thank you. I feel maybe this whole time we've just been misunderstanding one another, and we're really just—

[She gives him an annoyed look.]

Tony: Yeah, you're right. We should go.

[kasturimone]

Deep wounds that leave scars One moment much more must flow Shadows from the soul Her tears in silence The strong arms that held her up In the thoughts and deeds Please do not grieve more And afterwards remember Pearls of morning’s dew

Sunshine Smile