The Iron Spire @thepainecollective - Tumblr Blog

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creativepromptsforwriting

How to show emotions

Part IV

How to show bitterness

tightness around their eyes

pinched mouth

sour expression on their face

crossed arms

snorting angrily

turning their eyes upward

shaking their head

How to show hysteria

fast breathing

chest heaving

trembling of their hands

weak knees, giving in

tears flowing down their face uncontrollably

laughing while crying

not being able to stand still

How to show awe

tension leaving their body

shoulders dropping

standing still

opening mouth

slack jaw

not being able to speak correctly

slowed down breathing

wide eyes open

softening their gaze

staring unabashingly

How to show shame

vacant stare

looking down

turning their head away

cannot look at another person

putting their head into their hands

shaking their head

How to show being flustered

blushing

looking down

nervous smile

sharp intake of breath

quickening of breath

blinking rapidly

breaking eye contact

trying to busy their hands

playing with their hair

fidgeting with their fingers

opening mouth without speaking

Part I + Part II + Part III

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song-of-the-spheres

DEAR RESEARCHERS OF TUMBLR

You know what’s awesome? Research. You know what’s not awesome? Not being able to get access to research because it’s stuck behind a paywall and you don’t belong to an institution/your institution doesn’t subscribe to that particular journal.

FEAR NOT.

Here is a list of free, open access materials on a variety of subjects. Feel free to add if you like!

GO FORTH AND LEARN SHIT, MY FRIENDS.

Directory of Open Access Journals- A compendium of over 9000 journals from 133 countries, multilingual and multidisciplinary.

Directory of Open Access Books- Like the above, but for ebooks. Also multidisciplinary.

Ubiquity Press- Journals covering archaeology, comics scholarship, museum studies, psychology, history, international development, and more. Also publishes open access ebooks on a wide variety of subjects.

Europeana- Digital library about the history and culture of Europe.

Digital Public Library of America- American history, culture, economics, SO MUCH AMERICA.

Internet Archive- In addition to books, they have music and videos, too. Free! And legal! They also have the Wayback Machine, which lets you see webpages as they looked at a particular time.

College and Research Libraries- Library science and information studies. Because that’s what I do.

Library of Congress Digital Collections- American history and culture, historic newspapers, sound recordings, photographs, and a ton of other neat stuff.

LSE Digital Library- London history, women’s history.

Wiley Open Access- Science things! Neurology, medicine, chemistry, ecology, engineering, food science, biology, psychology, veterinary medicine.

SpringerOpen- Mainly STEM journals, looooong list.

Elsevier Open Access- Elsevier’s kind of the devil but you might as well take advantage of this. Mainly STEM, also a linguistics journal and a medical journal in Spanish.

utilitycaster

A very incomplete list of good NPC archetypes

by “good” I mean “this npc is enjoyable as a character”, not “this npc is moral”

1. I have no gender, only (pick at least one: an air of mystery, a bouyant outpouring of joie de vivre, a rare extra-large helping of calm common sense)

2. I’m old and I’ve been doing weird and questionably legal experiments, arcane or mundane, since before your parents were born, whippersnapper

3. Oh, hello! I almost didn’t see you there. Welcome to my place of work, where I am being very sexy, both by being a supportive listener and also having excellent hair.

4. as a former adventurer myself, I am so sorry to inform you that it be like that some times. Do you need a potion of healing or some tea?

5. I’M JUST A BARTENDER WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME SO MANY FUCKING QUESTIONS

6. annoying sibling, but in the end, ride or die

7. annoying sibling, who was evil all along

8. I initially come off as a reasonable and even helpful authority figure which will make my betrayal much more gut-wrenching

9. has justifiably been driven absolutely insane by the nightmarish surroundings in which they find themselves and is now going to seriously fuck things over for your party because you crossed paths with them, even though it’s really not their fault

10. WHY DID YOU BRING ME INTO BATTLE I KNOW YOU’VE IMPRINTED ON ME FOR SOME REASON, BUT I ONLY HAVE 6 HIT POINTS

11. I’m middle-aged, still extremely attractive, and I’ve been doing weird and absolutely illegal experiments, arcane or mundane since you were a child, and I’m going to kill you now

12. 1800s London Street Urchin, but make it D&D

13. I would gladly destroy the universe to gain personal immortality, also my voice is calibrated to be the exact timbre to raise the hairs on everyone’s neck (frequently overlaps with 11)

14. I have the misfortune of being a guard for the being against whom you have a vendetta and I am about to get one-shot killed by the rogue, because of course I am

15. I am a highly ranked authority figure in the realm, and you are a horrible adventuring party.

16. Loving parent who is trying their best in a setting that basically makes a cottage industry of murdering the heroes’ parents

17. WHY DID YOU BRING ME INTO BATTLE I KNOW WE’RE FRIENDS/RELATIVES, BUT I STILL ONLY HAVE 6 HIT POINTS (frequently overlaps with 16)

18. Crochety dwarf who sounds like they’re reading Scottish Twitter

19. I appear irritated but it’s only because you pretty insensitively interrupted my (pick one: sparring practice, study time); I have a soft spot for you idiots despite myself.

20. I am a small business owner specifically because I’m so fucking weird that I couldn’t make a living in any other capacity

guerrillatech

dmsden

Courtly Concerns – Discussing the Seelie and Unseelie Courts

True confession time, Gentle Readers. I *think* this week’s Question from a Denizen was anonymously submitted, but I’m not sure, because I usually make a note to that effect when I copy it into my database. Hey you out there….if this is your question, and I’m wrong about it being Anonymous, then I apologize.

In any case, the question is, “Heyyy! Can you explain the seelie and unseelie courts? I’ve tried googling them but I just don’t get them?”

I mean…I’m only mortal, but I’ll do my best.

In D&D lore, the Seelie and Unseelie are two affiliations in the Feywild. The Seelie fey are ruled by Queen Tiandra, and the Unseelie fey are ruled by the Queen of Air and Darkness. D&D doesn’t actually use the terms Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Instead, the Seelie are affiliated with Tiandra’s Summer Court, and the Unseelie are part of the Queen of Air and Darkness’ Gloaming Court.

For simplicity’s sake, you could say that Seelie fey are good, and Unseelie fey are evil, but this is a powerful and potentially perilous over-simplification. In truth, although the two Queens tend to split on a good/evil axis, the division is more about the fact that these two queens have a powerful and jealous rivalry. Sometimes this division comes across as a (somewhat) friendly competition, but, at other times, it can be outright war.

One interesting note is that, according to the lore presented in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, “ugly” fey as well as more independent fey are rarely members of either court. This tends to suggest that the courts are comprised mostly of beautiful and cute fey, giving a kind of artificial beauty to the two courts. One wonders if the hags, korred, redcaps, and such are deliberately excluded, or if they simply choose to stay off to their own, preferring not to be dragged into whatever sniping the two courts engage in.

From a gaming perspective, if you stick with the simpler “good vs evil” aspects of the Seelie and Unseelie, then most friendly fey are likely to be Seelie. They would be quest givers, allies, and the like. The Unseelie would be the antagonists of the story – a haughty frost princess, a faerie hunter who seeks out mortal prey, dryads that seek to entangle and kill those who come to their groves, and so on.

You can likely get a richer story out of going for a more nuanced view of the courts, however. Perhaps in your story, an Unseelie lord named Aglovale is constantly a thorn in the party’s side. He keeps sending knights to fight them, turns his gryphons loose on them, and so on. In the end, however, it turns out that the Seelie lord who’s been sending them on various quests is slowly annexing Aglovale’s family lands, which is why the Unseelie lord is opposing them. The players may find themselves with a strange ally – one they don’t like, but who is right nonetheless.

Ultimately, one reason that it’s dangerous to assume good and evil for the two courts is that Fey are alien and almost unfathomable entities. To simplify their natures into good and evil at all is to suggest that such conceits apply to them. By the standards of most legends, all fey possess a level of self-interest that D&D would tend to define as evil. I think any players making such base assumptions should find themselves dealing with immortal entities who simply don’t consider mortals on the same level as they are. Is a Halfling evil for roasting a chicken? No? Then be careful of defining the actions of various fey as evil as well.

I hope this helps, Anonymous. Seelie and Unseelie fey are a tricky thing to tackle. I hope they enrich your story.