#yetanotherinternetreviewer

[parano--vigilant]

Next Dark Side...Did anyone notice...In the thumbnail, there's a section for Dark Sides...The outline matches Roman...Hm. And considering how Roman acted this episode...Mayhaps Deciet's pseudo-redemption is about to make Roman go full Pride. Also, I can't wait until we get to see Virgil respond to this whole situation. He WON'T be happy.

Huh, it does actually look like it matches Roman? Might just be that the next dark side has no hats/headgear and Thomas stood in a similar position or that the thumbnail editor just took a random pic of Thomas to turn into a silhouette or heck maybe they even freehanded it. But yeah interesting!

[dr-dendritic-trees]

Sigmund Freud, Al Capone, Genghis Khan.

What can I possibly have done that is bad enough for you to inflict Freud on my for such a protracted length of time?

But fine:

Before becoming... like that... Freud was actually a neurologist so I could probably put up with him as a lab partner.

Al Capone I will be stuck in an elevator with, mostly because I would really not like to be stuck in an elevator with Genghis Khan.

That leaves Genghis Khan to train me at McDonalds... which would be... fascinating.

[prokopetz]

Game in a world divided up among multiple empires, each awful in their own unique way, Warhammer 40K style...But that isn't cynical. Dark is allowed but cynical is not, to clarify.

Hold onto your butts - we’re going obscure:

Among the Beautiful Creatures (warning: direct PDF link)

This is a playtest draft of a never-released game about a world that’s perpetually ending. The never-setting Sun continually retreats into the Dawnward sky, while Endward lies the dark and frozen realm of the ciphers; the Last City fights an endless retreating battle, expanding on its Dawnward edge while its Endward districts fall by inches to the implacable cipher hordes.

Also, the setting is populated entirely by Muppets.

(Didn’t see that one coming, did you?)

The game’s basic “thing” is that all player characters - indeed, all sapient creatures in the game’s setting - are shape-shifting muppety things inhabiting dystopian societies roughly based on the tropes of children’s stories; the Last City’s population is some three billion strong, and its streets are divided among a number of factions, from the hyper-rational Nandrian Empire to the mock-theocratic Sacred Kingdom of Charn. Basically, picture Jim Henson does Fritz Leiber and you’ll be in the right ballpark.

I know you said “no cynicism”, and it’d be really, really easy for the game to be cynical with a setup like that, but it’s really not. The tone is more elegiac: the player characters inhabit a world that never should have been and ultimately cannot sustain itself, and their stories are about making the most of the time that’s left before the End. And there will be an End - it’s baked right into the game’s default chronology that the Last City will fall within the player characters’ lifetimes, and nothing can possibly be done to prevent it.

(Fair warning: in spite of the otherwise vast freedom the game gives you to define your character’s identity, the character creation rules specifically forbid playing an agender or non-binary character. It’s only one paragraph, easily scrubbed out, and there’s a reason rooted in the setting’s mythology that it’s like that, but it can be jarring if you’re not expecting it. Also, the game’s introductory section contains a moderately graphic description of violence against a child.)

[classpect-crew]

Mage of Mind, if you please?

The Mage of Mind is going to know nearly everything there is to know about the outcome of personal choice. They’re definitely the type of person who would go through a choice-based game again and again to discover what each choice will contribute to the overall outcome. I’m sure this part has been said before, but I put a lot of faith in the notion that an autistic Mage of Mind would make complete and total sense. Think of it this way: the reason this person knows so much about choices, cause-and-effect, and everything to do with cultural boundaries is because they learned about it through years of experience, painstakingly cobbling together data from the world around them in order to understand it better. The thing about a lot of developmental disorders--and I speak from my own experience on this--is that a lot of things just don’t come naturally, particularly in the realms of social norms. We spend a lot of time trying to act “normal” to fit in with those around us, but on the inside, we’ve actually just built up this system by which we understand why certain things happen following other things, why some things are “okay” to do in certain situations and not in others, why some phrases are considered incredibly rude, and we piece together these systems from our own experiences, both good and bad. We have to become an active part of the weird cultural landscape in order to understand it, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. So, we learn, and we continue learning and studying until eventually we get the hang of it, but it’s still much like a second language to us. It will never quite be as smooth as someone who knows these things intrinsically, and sometimes we’ll slip up and make mistakes because we assume that certain events will always trigger certain outcomes, and we’re confused and hurt when it doesn’t always happen as expected.

Anyways, sorry to rant about that point for so long, but hey, at least my hyperfocus is good for something. (Gotta love combined-type ADHD.) Because of all this knowledge, the Mage of Mind will be able to track the effects of personal choices, both their own and those of others, as well as deeply understand the power and sway of cultural values. Their powers will be similar to Terezi’s, but unlike the Seer, the Mage will be much more inclined to act on what they begin to understand, rather than take an advisory position. Of course, it’s difficult to say that the Seers we’ve seen in canon haven’t been quite active in their own right. The key to understanding this is that Seers are typically very naturally active, and their greatest challenge is to take that advisory position instead of trying to do everything themselves. The Mage, on the other hand, is encouraged--no, expected to take the reins, using their knowledge to further their own understanding of the world, as well as their own power. The Mage of Mind, then, will be excellent at predicting future events, insofar as the actions of its influences can be mapped out. (More unpredictable, capricious folks will be much less likely to predict, naturally.) If you want someone to be your chief strategist, they’re perfect for the task. They understand what goes on in the minds of others, and if they see predictable behavior patterns, they’ll be able to easily use those to see the whole scope of a particular outcome. It’s almost thrilling for a Mage of Mind to follow the choice paths around, watching other influences come into play, examining the playing field as all the pieces move in the order that makes the most sense to their individual habits.

Because of the Mage of Mind’s likely chance of being neurodivergent in some way, it’s important that their allies are supportive of them. Alienating your Mage will only cause more problems for all of you. They can be a powerful ally and an incredible friend, but you’ve got to make sure you’re not shoving them under the bus. Again, I’m speaking from experience here when I say that I would have been a lot better off if other people hadn’t poisoned much of my youth by ostracizing me and treating me like a freak because I didn’t have an inherent grasp of social structures, I talked too much and too loudly, I had all sorts of weird interests, and I was a really, really awkward kid. Don’t treat your Mage like garbage just because you perceive their differences as being strange or unbecoming.

Wow, that got pretty personal. There’s a reason the Mage of Mind is another Classpect I identify with very highly. Along with the Rogue of Time and Rogue of Life, it’s one of the Classpects I switch around with, depending on which overarching personal challenge I feel is most relevant at the time.

I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite books, Ender’s Shadow. “No point in getting emotional about anything. Being emotional didn't help with survival. What mattered was to learn everything, analyze the situation, choose a course of action, and then move boldly. Know, think, choose, do.” Bean can be interpreted as a Mage of Mind in many ways, although I personally like to think of him as a Knight of Light as well, but that’s a topic for another day.

[parano--vigilant]

I have a theory about why Patton was a frog: It counterparts Deciet's snake motif. Snakes are scaly, dry reptiles commonly associated with Satan: Frogs are smooth, slimy amphibians who have been associated with divinity through the 10 Plagues of Egypt.

Huh, I didn’t know frogs were a part of the plagues. I guess that itself could symbolize Patton breaking, since it’s a negative religious thing?

[prokopetz]

Tabletop recommendations: Urban Fantasy with at least one non-humanoid playable race, fusions of magic and technology and little to no Masquerade. Also, a superhero RPG themed mostly after the Silver Age and a Steampunk RPG that lacks, or, better yet, explicitly acknowledges the weird Pro-Imperialism subtext lots of Steampunk has.

Would you believe that there’s a single game that satisfies all of those criteria at once?

The Kerberos Club (Wild Talents Ed.; Savage Worlds Ed.; Fate Ed.)

Yes, this is, in fact, a class-conscious Victorian steampunk supernatural urban fantasy superhero game*, and while its superheroics do tend to be a little Bronze Age by default, it can totally do Silver Age with only minor tweaks. It’s been republished for three different systems - Wild Talents, Savage Worlds and FATE - so you can pretty much pick your poison in terms of game mechanics; I’ve linked all three versions above. Note that the Savage Worlds edition is not standalone (i.e., it requires the Savage Worlds core rulebook to play), so if you’re looking for an all-in-one package, it may be best to go with one of the other two. You should be able to find descriptions of what each system plays like fairly easily via Google.

* I wasn’t kidding when I said there’s a game for very nearly any desired experience of play. It’s a diverse hobby!

[tyrantisterror]

You know, I was reading your post about Doctor Doom, and I agree that an MCU FF movie would be amazing...But then I remembered that Stan Lee is never going to see a good movie adaptation of what were, by many accounts, his favorite creations, and then I got REAL sad.

Yeah me too.

[wandmore]

Olive and Curious Raven Feather, 13 inches long, flexible.

Curious Raven would not make for the strongest of wandcores as the creature is not especially magical in-and-of itself, though it is rather lucky. Nonetheless an Olive wand might just compensate for this a measure, as they are known for seeking the hands of problem-solvers and peacemakers. Thus, while this wand may not be especially strong, it’s master would know to cast the right spell at the right moment, most likely. The length and flexibility indicate someone who, while quite confident in themselves is also willing to adapt as necessary, further marking their diplomatic and co-operative tendencies.