#croxotwords

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Shoutout to everyone who's ever liked my stuff. It's a big contributor for me to shake off the stiffness in the morning.

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Is it wrong when I see greatsword wielding elf my brain just went “perfect wife”?

No, this is a completely normal response. Greatsword Elves are consistently ranked within the top 100 wife-types.

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Fake VN where you get to date my spirit OCs. (name tags below)

Who would you date first?

Zahraj

Anzu

Tevesh

Jinn

Maya

Liameh

Veo

Gray

Celiphas

Voting ended onJan 24

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Mitzy Lore Post

Mitzy's true origin is lost to time, and possibly tragedy.

Gullybog was not known for being particularity foreboding or dangerous, other than having unsure footing. This was thanks in part to a local hermit-wizard, simply known as Simon. Simon was an aged man who had seen far more than most humans in their lifetime. A failed final adventure had him set aside ambition and recluse himself in the swamp. He never fully set aside his kindly nature, and consigned himself to helping the locals, albeit largely indirectly, avoiding most contact and creating a legend out of himself in the process. One day, Simon heard an infant's cries not too far from his abode. A small purple-skinned babe was found off the side of Gullybog Road, some few steps into the swamp. This child was proportionally similar to a halfling or a goblin, but her species was ultimately unknown. Attempts to divine the who or what left the child, despite pouring his magical prowess into the mystery, proved fruitless. And so, late in his life, Simon became a father. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, Mitzy's unusual upbringing included a great deal of intellectual schooling. Simon's magecraft and vast collection of magical and historical tomes meant the isolated Mitzy did not want for learning. She took to magecraft itself with gusto. Over the years she forged a bond with the elemental plane, collecting several loyal elementals which are still summoned to her side regularly in the present day.

During Mitzy's late teenage years, Simon's life waned. He passed away on an uneventful afternoon with his hand clutched by his daughter's. Mitzy saw to his cremation the next day, and thus began a new local legend of the Bog Witch. Mitzy carried on her father's minor do-gooding for the people of the swamp into her early twenties, until a chance run-in with a group of adventurers gave her an epiphany. She hungered to expand her knowledge and her aptitude, she needed to experience more than the swamp and the tomes she'd read and re-read a half dozen times could offer. She needed to find out where she came from.

After leaving the bog, Mitzy would go on to become part of an adventuring group of her own, two odd goblins from different societies who would become like sisters to her: Chakka the unyielding barbarian warrior, and Krix the shadow-manipulating thief. ----- Mitzy is a Wizard who's focus is on summoning a rotation of loyal Elementals. She can have one elemental consistently accompany her at any time without limitation. They can act on their own in accordance with their personalities, or can infuse Mitzy's attire, granting her additional defenses and augmenting her other spells. Her current elementals are: Ivan - Fire, Aggressive, burning aura sears foes and cleanses afflictions from allies. Slab - Earth, Protective, manipulates the environment in the party's favor. Leviafas - Lightning, Dispassionate, singles out high-priority threats, increases flow of mana. Melut - Ice, Sloth, chills foes and disperses enemy magics.

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Errant thoughts about Armored Core 6

• Armored Core VI is a game about your 3-story steel monstrosity going very fast blowing stuff up. • Armored Core VI is a game about war in a capitalist dystopia where you rationalize the horror you participate in as just another job. • Armored Core VI is a game about cheesy 1-or-2-note characters who only show up on comms and never in person who you will genuinely cheer for, cry for, love & hate by the end. • Armored Core VI is a game about ramming your head against the same boss 15 times until you make a seemingly minor part swap that renders you an unstoppable god. • Armored Core VI is a game about creating emblems and paint jobs for hours to then see those emblems and paint jobs for only 5 minutes in a mission and get a huge dopamine response from it.

Armored Core VI is a game that is not for everyone, but for a certain type of person, it's game of the year. That person is apparently me.

In a year full of bangers, this one is the most video-game-ass videogame.

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Do you play Atlyss?

Yes.

waiting for the next update.

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MORE Armored Core 6 Thoughts - The Corporate Military Leaders

After coming to the conclusion that Armored Core is my game of the year, I've been thinking needlessly deeply about many little bits of the game. I wanted to put some thoughts out there about the Corporate Military Leaders (V.II Snail & G1 Michigan). More specifically what makes them so different in how the player perceives them -- How their corny characterization makes them all the more engrossing. Spoilers to follow.

Michigan

• Massive blowhard military type, speaks with all the bravado of your stereotypical US army drill sergeant.

• Despite this, he is somewhat endearing. He's still a shill for Balam, but he has a clear level of respect for those under him, and grants even more respect where it's clearly deserved.

• Knows all his underlings by name.

• Will chastise his own men for not showing you enough respect on the mission where you are expected to kill him and his entire force. Seems to take it well despite what's happening.

• Despite his position placing him as one of the defcato villains, there is very little direct animosity to muster for him. By the point in the story where you can decide to kill him, Balam has already lost the race, and Michigan has shown very little ill will towards you personally (even if you've previously betrayed the Redguns).

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(Quick note on V.I Freud: While Freud is Technically a higher rank than Snail, he's clearly turned over military leadership to Snail, which makes Snail more of the de-facto face of Arquebus. Freud's just an ace who shows up to have a good fight, and otherwise doesn't make much of a show. Which, yeah, that's fine.)

Snail

• The Immediate difference here is that Snail is consistently depicted as conceited and selfish. Where Michigan is on first-name basis with basic underlings, Snail is verbally disgusted with the thought of acknowledging anything or anyone that isn't directly and immediately beneficial to him.

• And that's great because this game ABSOLUTELY benefits from having someone that's so easy to hate. Snail treats everyone around him, including his ranked allies, and even Freud, like dirt.

• He's even worse to you in the sense that he's convinced his type of space-cyber-lobotomy is so much newer and shinier than yours and makes him objectively superior to you. Like calm down dude this isn't a brain damage contest.

• This makes the Liberator of Rubicon Ending immensely satisfying in a way the other 2 endings just don't compare to. The game has spent around 15-ish hours having this guy be a gigantic douche in nearly every line he speaks, and then he shows up to fight you when realistically he doesn't even have to considering the circumstances.

• And so with Rusty's theme blaring in the background, he has an angry breakdown while you send him and his Balteus 2: Scuffed Laser Edition™ directly to the shadow realm. It is the most satisfying boss kill in the game.

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Wait, you play PF2???

Yes, and GM it.

Pathfinder 2e and Lancer are currently the main RPGs systems I participate in.