Algie, 35, Fil-Am, any pronouns. Mess of a blog; usually offline; untagged queue. If you like any of the stuff I've made, you're welcome to buy me a coffee!
Time has been repeating.
You don't know how long this has been happening. You don't know how many times you have lived through thisâor how many times you didn't live through it.
You know you have been here before. You know that while the broad strokes of the loop remain the same, exact events differ each time. You know you have hazy memories of what happened in some loops, butâwhether because of your current reality asserting itself, or because of some power (or powers) struggling for control of the timeline, or because your tiny human brain can't hold that many versions of realityâyou can't remember everything.
You know you aren't alone.
And you know you will never be here again. The timeline is done repeating, stretched almost to its breaking point. Whatever happens now, happens forever.
So you're going to have to make this one count.
i have finally put together the core mechanics, which means this weird little game is technically in a playable state. i have yet to write up the gm's guide, which will consist of explanations of how to play ttrpg as scenes, suggestions of actions the gm can take in response to failures and successes, prolly some advice about making time weirder as continuity gets low, some npc suggestions, maybe a module of pre-made setting and loop info? we'll see.
HOWEVER. if you as a gm feel like you've played similar games and think u wanna give this one a shot, by all means! i am hungry for feedback. like genuinely if u have feedback or questions or something you'd like clarified or think would be helpful for playing the game. pleaseeeeeee.
once i get the gm stuff together i will prolly put out an actual call for playtesters, but dont let that stop u from playing or whatever. blease.
text of the game under the cut; apologies for any typos i haven't caught, i keep working on this while at work or when v sleepy.
EDIT: made significant edits to the game, partly based on feedback and partly based on spinning ideas around in my brain and rubber ducking em at my friends.
it does appear that readmore on dash of reblogs specifically keeps the old text instead of the new reblog.... it didnt always used to do that.... anyway fresh new edits on THIS version.
Setup:
You will need:
at least 3 players, one who will be the GM
something to write or otherwise record information about the fame, including both a shared record and individual character info
2d6, 2d4, and so, so many d12s; i think you roll at minimum 1 and at maximum 20 if you're really gaming the dice pool. an online roller may be useful
Creating the Loop:
Before playing, create the Loop your PCs are stuck in. [there will be premade loops added later, but at base there are instructions for creating it as a group:]
First, decide where and when it occursâpick a setting, a genre, a location. Keep it as vague or specific as you like; the rest can be filled in as you play.
Have each player name a place within your larger setting, with a 1-sentence description.
Have each player name an NPC who exists within the loop, with a 1-sentence description.
Moments:
As a group, name twelve Momentsâsignificant events you have encountered on previous loops and have vague knowledge of. Keep these names short, a handful of words or a short sentence at most, leaving room for interpretation. These arenât necessarily all problems, eitherâ they might turn out to be dangers you faced, tragedies you suffered, wonders you saw, triumphs you wonâany event of significance. Make sure everyone at the table gets to decide on at least one Moment, and write them down.
These Moments will form the bones of your loop. They may occur in any order, and perhaps in unexpected ways, but the PCs must encounter and fulfill all twelveâwhether âfulfillâ means accepting, altering, or averting themâto complete this final loop.
Whenever the players fulfill a Moment, the GM will check it off the list and roll 1d12 against the remaining Continuity. If it is higher than the current Continuity, subtract the difference between those two numbers from the current Continuity.
â
Character creation:
Every player except the GM will create a player character, or PC, to play. You will likely want to create a backup character, just in case.
Give your character a name and a brief description.
Write down three Memories, small details you remember from previous loop(s) (not one of the twelve Moments shared by all players).
Write down your Keepsake, a seemingly unremarkable item with emotional significance to you, which you carry with you.
Write down two Goals you want to accomplish, and name something that has stopped you from accomplishing each of them in a prior loop.
Write down two Promises you made in previous loops, and name who you made those promises to.
If you break a Promise or abandon a Goal, roll 2d4; add that amount to the Continuity pool, and subtract the same amount from your stat health, distributed as you wish.
Choose one (nontime) Special Ability; you can use this once to start. More uses can be gained with Continuity points.
roll 1d6; heal that amount of stat health, total, across your own or someone elseâs stats
teleport instantly to another PC
everyone who can hear your voice is knocked unconscious until the end of the scene
name a stat. you may automatically succeed at one roll of that stat. the stat remains the same for future uses.
set one thing you touch on fire; this lasts until the fire is put out or burns itself out.
change the weather; this lasts until the weather would naturally change.
create an illusion, perceived normally by sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, but canât physically impact anything; it lasts until the end of the scene
read someoneâs mind
levitate one person or object, up to 2d6 feet off the ground, until the end of the scene
turn invisible until the end of the scene
summon an animal until the end of the scene; you can roughly communicate with the animal you summoned.
negate a (non-time) power used by another character (including NPCs).
Finally, distribute 12 points among the following stats, however you want; you may make a stat negative in order to add more points to another stat. These will be the maximum possible health of each of your stats. You begin the game at maximum stat health.
Stats
Stunt: do something daring or dangerous
Skew: change someone elseâs perception
Swerve: dodge or hide from something coming at you
Star: bring the drama; draw attention to yourself
Sense: recognize whatâs really here, right now
Shatter: break something; ruin something
Survive: clench your teeth and hold on
â
Gameplay:
Your characters will make their way through this final loop, working to fulfill the group's Moments while trying to achieve their individual Goals and Promises along the way. The GM will is responsible for describing and roleplaying as the environment and NPCs involved in the loop, including describing the instability of the decaying loop, and deciding the effects PC's actions (and success or failure) have on the world.
Play will mostly consist of a series of scenes, which you will roleplay freely until you use one of the special game mechanics or do something which requires a roll.
Rolling:
When you try to do something risky or uncertain, the GM will ask you to roll to determine whether or not you succeed, using one of your stats.
To roll, create a pool of d12s as follows:
+1d12 for every fulfilled Moment
+1d12 if you are using information from a Memory
+1d12 if you are using your Keepsake
+1d12 for every Goal and Promise you have not abandoned
Take the highest d12, and add the current health of the stat you are using to determine your result (if the health is negative, you'll be subtracting).
If you are ever rolling with zero dice, roll 2d12 and take the lowest.
Any result above zero will be a success of sorts, but the higher your roll, the greater the impact of your action; lower rolls, while technically successful, will be less effective.
How a low result is less effective will be determined by the GM, but may include things like your action working for only a limited time, an attack doing less damage to a target, taking more time to accomplish something, or taking damage to your stat health.
Likewise, the greater effects of higher rolls will be narrated by the GM, with extremely high rolls potentially having effects beyond what the player intended.
A zero or less is a failure, with a corresponding scale of impact down into the negative numbers. The GM will narrate your failure, whether you simoly don't do what you were intending, or you make things worse.
Continuity:
Time, forced to warp and repeat and stretch over and over, is fraying. Too fragile to start over againâbut not quite broken yet. Itâs holding together enough for one last loop, with just enough extra slack for a handful of tricks.
The group begins with a shared pool of 24 Continuity pointsâsimultaneously a meter of how stable this last loop is, and a resource you can use to manipulate the timestream, from pulling knowledge from a previous loop to rewinding time in small, vital increments.
At any time, a player may spend a Continuity point to:
rewind time a small amount (up to the beginning of a scene) (multiple points spent = multiple scenes back)
gain 1d4 charges of your special ability
remember something about a previous loopâs iteration of one of your 12 Moments (add this to your Memories)
reroll a roll before the results take effect
fully heal one stat
add 1d4 to a statâs max
state a minor event (something that wouldnât take more than 6 seconds to happen) that will occur before the end of the session; it can happen at any time this session
Paradoxes:
When you use Continuity, you are altering the already fragile timeline, resulting in paradoxes big and small. Whenever a player spends a Continuity point (but not for any lost in other ways), they roll 2d12 on the following table and take the effect:
(there is no 1 but tumblr wouldnât let me start at 2)
Move into a timeline where you didnât make itâdied, or left, or are just not here. Remove your character from play and create a new character; one of your Promises is to your old character.
Erase an unfulfilled Moment and create a new one. Everyone with a Memory of that Moment keeps the Memory.
Gain a second Keepsake.
Lose 1d6 Continuity.
Lose your special ability; roll 1d12 and gain the special ability with that number, with one more ability charge than you had.
A new NPC appears.
Swap the maximums of two of your stats.
Gain a new Memory.
Swap the current health of two of your stats.
Something changes about an NPC. You still remember them as they were.
Heal 2d4 stat health, distributed as you choose.
Nothing seems to happen⌠(The GM rolls secretly on this table. If they get another nothing happens, nothing really happens; if they get a different effect, it happens, but you find out about it later.)
Lose 2d4 stat health, distributed as you choose.
An inanimate object near you is altered.
Change something physical about your character.
Forget a Goal or Promise, and replace it with a different one.
Lose your special ability; roll 1d12 and gain the special ability with that number, with the same number of ability charges you had.
Your Keepsake never existed; replace it with a different Keepsake.
You are suddenly in a different location.
Erase one of your Memories.
Gain 1d6 Continuity.
An NPC you know has forgotten you.
A double of you from another timeline appears. Choose which one to play as; both have the same stat health, but you may alter any other character information you want.
Stat Health and Character Death:
Your characters donât have regular health to track. Instead, when you get hurt, your GM will have you remove points from one or more of your stats. This doesnât change the maximum, but you will always roll with current health of your stats.
If any stat reaches -12 healthâwhen, no matter what you cannot roll high enough to succeedâyour character dies, retires, vanishes, or is otherwise removed from play. Refer to this list to decide how that happens:
-12 Stunt: your body breaks; your courage fails.
-12 Skew: the truth is unbearable
-12 Swerve: something has caught up with you, and you canât run anymore
-12 Star: youâve faded from everyoneâs awareness. maybe even your own.
-12 Sense: reality is unrecognizable
-12 Shatter: you canât ruin anything else. you canât ruin anything else. you canât ruin anything else.
-12 Survive: give up. let go.
Create a new character to play.
â
Ending the Game:
If the Continuity pool reaches zero, the loop fails and time fractures.
If you fulfill all twelve Moments without depleting all your Continuity, you exit the loop and move forward into your new futureâwith this final route behind you as the definite past.
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actually now im thinking abt how much i hate blue yeti (it sucks!! it's an ok mic actually on a technical level but it's NOT as good as ppl say, it's NOT actually that good for a beginner who wants good audio quality, it costs WAY more than it should for what it gives you, there are cheaper and better mics, and it gets fucked up too easily!)
do u want some of my podcasting equipment and editing opinions that ppl disagree with the most. do u wanna hear them. too late! (read more bcos i am kind)
as far as daws, pro tools is industry standard for bigger editing, but a lot of indie folks seem to hate it?? yes the nice one is expensive, but they've got way cheaper options that work just fine on an indie level. reaper is a good alternative. do not scorn pro tools to me if you use fucking adobe audition tho. fuck you.
audacity is good for recording and ok for editing but actually kinda shit for editing. the envelope tool can bite my ass. leveling in pro tools and reaper is WAY better.
audio plugin sellers will try and sell you de-reverb and de-clip and de-ess and de-pop etc etc stuff sooooo hard, and they're helpful, but not the magical fix some ppl think they are. they absolutely can help! but if it's a big problem throughout your recording, these plugins cannot get rid of all of it, or will create a sort of muted, flat version of your audio if pushed too hard. some problems can be fixed in post, but they'll never be as good as avoiding the problems when recording. AND ALSO if it's just a natural part of your voice, cutting it can remove flavor!! ....my professor scolded me when i tried to eq my lisp out of my recording lmao.
the 'remove background noise' tool DOES work, but by removing any noise below a certain threshold of loudness. if your background noise is too loud it cannot be taken out. also if you are too quiet your voice might be removed. this is why i prefer to remove background noise/use a noise gate AFTER recording, and tell ppl not to gate during recording, bcos what if i fuckign lose important stuff bcos you say it quiet? stop it.
i personally tend not to use a 'remove silence' tool, especially the one that removes silence and then moves all the sound closer together so all the gaps are gone??? pauses while speaking are NORMAL and i will cut some out and cut others shorter but you need some for PACING. and again what if someone said something quietly and now it's gone. i coulda boosted that.
(i have worked with audio that already had the silence removed and did a few times have to put quiet stuff back in. luckily we use a nondestructive daw (pro tools) and it was easily recovered. i can adjust for my employers u understand, but i got tools at my disposal to fix things that got lost.)
to that point, breathing sounds, filler words, and even some mouth sounds should be included in your goddamn audio. i'll cut out egregious ones or if there's too many i'll cut them down, but for podcasting especially those help things sound natural and relatable. fuck you, the audio-only medium creates intimacy and realism--
anyway.
you need headphones when recording. ESPECIALLY when group recording (ur mic will pick up echo from ur speakers otherwise) but it'll help even on your own to hear yourself better.
BUT you don't need studio monitor headphones unless you're editing
even if you're editing, you don't need studio monitors that cost like over a hundred dollars. $40-$80 monitor headphones will do more than enough to catch detail and do a good job editing. a podcast does not need the same kind of quality as a blockbuster movie, and you don't have that budget either.
btw on that note, after you finish mixing, grab the absolute shittiest, tinny, badly-bass-boosted earbuds you can find and give your podcast a listen. something that sounds gorgeous on monitors can hurt someone's ears with shitty cheap earbuds.
most ppl listening won't even hear half of the soundscaping you do. tiny fabric sounds every time someone moves? accurate footsteps? complex stereo? they're fun to have but dont spend a ton of energy on them, focus on the noticeable sounds ppl are going to. notice.
also don't overuse stereo, many ppl use one earbud at a time or can't hear well in one ear. make sure every sound is audible in both ears. 70/30 is honestly the highest you should usually be going unless you're really fucking it up, and 85/15 is the most i'd go for even the weirdest stereo sound effect.
if you're pulling pre-made sound effects (like from epidemic sound or freesounds), edit them a little bit. it will amaze you what cool sounds you can make by layering a handful of sounds over each other and blending the edges a bit with like, reverb or eq tricks or just fading in and out. i couldn't find a convincing bottle-dropping-into-water sound once so i built one using a grape falling, a cork popping, some water noise, and a lightly reverberating musical note.
also most ppl know this by now but many sounds in real life do not sound like people imagine them, and may not be convincing. no actually unless it's a storm, the ship in the middle of the ocean shouldn't hear waves crashing like on the shore. but people expect a little of that, not total stillness.
also, you need fewer tracks on your daw than you think you do. i noted free/cheap versions of daws before, and a lot of them have limited tracks for cheap versions, but honestlyyyyy 16 tracks is more than enough for most podcasts. you don't need to put each individual sound throughout the entire thing on its own track; you can put each sound as it comes up onto a track. and when u layer sounds u can even create the sound on its own, port it out as a new single sound, and pop it on the one track. my final project for my audio production class had 6 actors on their own tracks, 1 track for music, 1 track for ambient room tone, and then 4 tracks for sound effects because at one point i did have to layer a bunch of stuff happening at once. if you've got a very large cast maybe, but for a small cast? come on.
totally different note, but it does feel like some indie podcasters with no/low budget shows are getting more comfortable demanding more from ppl who they aren't paying, or aren't paying much. what do you mean professional recording setup. what do you mean attend synchronized readings three times a week. what do you mean backstage dot com paid account for auditions. get out of my house.
tbh on an amateur level, you can make a recording on your phone sound good enough for most ppl. as noted with 'most listeners won't notice half your sound design', most listeners won't notice your audio quality unless it is actively painful to listen to, or if they've got better quality stuff from you to compare it to directly. your average listener doesn't even know what reverb is. they do not expect fully immersive realistic sound quailty & design from you, and that's not a huge selling point except to a handful of people. good enough is fucking good enough. also it is known that several very good podcasts used phone mics or low quality setups and did SO GOOD until later they had fans/made money/could buy better equipment. cmon.
okayyyyy im sure i have more and worse opinions but that's all i can think of for now. kbye.
also also i dont think this was relevant to that person, but i prefer dynamic mics bcos if YOU and YOUR FRIENDS all record TOGETHER in a PHYSICAL SPACE
and you each use a CONDENSER MICROPHONE which has a wide range and will pick up ALL the SOUND from around it
do you understand how much mcfucking echo/reverb your editor has to cope with later. do you know what it is like when one person speaks and all the mics catch it. do you know how difficult it is to clean up crosstalk.
but oh algie, u will say, there's cardioid and hypercardioid mics out there, u can direct them to only pick up one person's sound, even the blue yeti has a cardioid pattern
firstable the blue yeti has a 'flexible cardioid' pattern and what does that even mean
secondable lotta ppl who buy a blue yeti bcos it is sooooo beginner friendly just set it and forget it. what setting are we even on. stereo? omni? they dont know they are beginners! but who is the audio editor suffering,
meanwhile a dynamic like the q2u picks up so LITTLE sound (comparatively) that if ur using them right, four of them set a foot or so apart pointing in different directions will have so little overlap u will not believe
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Alright guys its happening - im putting together a life plan before i become a fully fledge adult (if that word is even real). I have a question for all you voice actors and audio drama people:
What microphone would recommend to use for recording?
See, i am starting out and i would eventually like to try my hand at voice acting at some point in the future (even though that isn't my true passion) but i realise that even if i don't act at some point i might like to do introductions and/or qna episodes where i might possibly need a mic.
Since i dont have a job, im not looking for anything too expensive, but then again i am willing to save up for a few years in order buy something good quality.
I also would want to look for something beginner friendly as well - I'm not sure what the entails but im sure i could make a wrong turn somewhere.
If there is any software/mic setup stuff anyone wants to recommend (all hail wardrobes, closets and duvets) as well that would be super!
i've been through several mics and my fave so far for my voice is the samson q2u. lotta ppl will rec a condenser mic like the yeti or snowball and i get why (they have a wide range so beginners don't need as much vocal control, your voice can sound crisper/"truer" with all the sound caught like that), but condenser mics really shine in a very well treated studio and can be finicky in a home studio. also they're physically more fragile than a dynamic mic; you shouldn't be dropping or throwing a mic ofc, but condensers take more environmental damage, and too long in a humid place will cause crackling and whining.)
i have a loud/high pitched voice and also have some background noise/reverb issues, and a dynamic mic like the q2u minimizes those problems and the distortion from my loud voice better than most inexpensive condenser mics for me personally. plus it's both usb and xlr, so you can start usb and upgrade to xlr later by just getting an adapter/interface instead of a whole new mic if you decide to. it does run a little quiet so you have to be pretty close to it, but ideally you're like a fist-length away from your mic anyway (and have it turned at an angle to avoid popping sounds/mouth noises)
(the audio technica atr2100x is comparable, and other good brands are shure, rode, and neat, which i think also have condenser mics too if you prefer those. admittedly as far as neat i just really like their bee theme, but i had an ~$80 condenser mic from them years ago that had fun bells and whistles on and my voice sounded pretty okay.)
i will say that for mics, especially dynamic mics bcos their range is less wide than condensers, it really does help to go see how they vibe with your voice! if you've got a guitar center or something similar nearby you can go there and they may let you test out their microphones. also you can often find the same mics for cheaper on sites like bhphotovideo, adorama, or microcenter.
as for setup, duvets and closets are great when you are just starting, but you can also buy a few acoustic panels or sound absorption blankets for cheap and just like, hang them up. i glued several panels to pieces of cardboard and hung them in my recording space (....under my loft bed). they're cheap and obvs not as good as a fully treated studio, but i do find that they work better than any of the blankets i already had on hand.
if you can find good bass traps that will help as well--they do something a bit different from audio foam and really do help if you've got a lot of hard surfaces like floor & walls for your sound to bounce off of--but those can be more expensive, especially if you want ones that are specialized as bass traps instead of just the same acoustic foam in a slightly different shape.
even if you're just using a duvet or closet, i made the mistake of just draping a duvet over my head for a long time. this made extra background noise, stifled my breathing, and made me overheat. but you can pick up like a clothes rack or something similar and drape things over it for just as good sound absorption (if you position it well to block hard surfaces) and less interference with your voice.
(a lot of this may seem obvious but it was not obvious to me when i was just starting so... saying it anyway. also i don't do a ton of voice acting anymore since i figured out i like editing more, but from an editor's pov i thought my sound quality did improve as i made changes, and i still act a little in hobby stuff.)
please read this even if you're not indian. especially if you're not indian.
you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.
first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.
now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:
in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.
and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.
and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.
it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:
⢠infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.
⢠youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.
⢠only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.
⢠manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.
⢠journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.
⢠even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.
and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.
what i'm asking:
if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.
if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.
india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.
Children near a magical wood catching bugs and their family are like. Please do not catch pixies and small fae and bring them into our home. They are sentient and they are intelligent
And the kids are like "but they get into our bug traps" and "we didn't catch him he followed us home"
And their parents are like. Please i do not believe that 6 fucking pixies smuggled themselves into our garage on the underside of your bicycle saddle and then set up shop in the old dolls house. These are living beings they're not toys it's not kind to treat them like this
And the kids are like we are NOT treating them like anything you said we're not allowed to trap them and they always get into our traps so we always run away when they see us and then they follow us and get inside our backpacks and stuff
And the parents are like
Stop lying!!!
And then they set up wildlife cams and not only can pixies apparently do all of that and are very desperate to hang out with these human kids (who have fun life-sized toys and are covered in wonderful things like glitter and are a free source of fresh bugs and pop tart crumbs)
But they can also like. Fully just pick locks and shit.
Setting up little cameras and having to come to terms with the fact that not only are these small fae initiating every interaction with the kids but have also taken their cat's side in the war against pigeons and keep riding it into battle
The fae quickly realise the camera is a camera, and just as quickly invent silent movies
Each intertitle card has been crafted from words cut out of other writing, so a piece of paper looking like a ransom demand states "BuT Hoo wil SAVE the Dams3l?" is pulled away to reveal a doll tied to train tracks
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I've seen a bunch of "fandom etiquette" posts on my dash today and I'm going to say something that is maybe going to be unpopular but;
The absolutely pervasive mentality that unwanted criticism or critique shouldn't be given and should be ignored is why fans of color don't stay in fan spaces.
And I am not going to mince words here:
A lot of you are racist. A lot of your fan works are racist.
That might have been difficult to hear. And if it was, you should probably reflect on why that was.
"Fandom etiquette" has created a space where fans of color either bite our tongues and eventually leave or say something, get dogged on, and then eventually leave.
So much of "fandom etiquette" seems to be about insulating creatives from Feeling Bad and hostility to any kind of negative feedback is a pretty big contributor to why bigotry festers in these spaces.
#imo the potluck analogy applies- it would be rude to critique someone's icing technique at a potluck bc it wasn't as good as at the bakery #but if they had decorated their cupcakes w hate symbols it wouldn't be rude to tell them that's gross and gtfo #in fact it would be inappropriate to NOT say anything in that situation #or to complain that another guest who did point it out was 'ruining everyone's potluck' #and pointing out racism in fan works is 100% the second thing not the first! (via destructions-daughter)
There's also a tendency to conflate anyone who critiques general trends with bad faith randos. Like, there is fandom behavior that is 100% racist and should be talked about, but there are also trends of racist/sexist/ableist preferences.
If I say "I am uncomfortable with fandom's tendency to write trans men as feminine and submissive" I do not mean "I think every person who writes feminine submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I don't even mean "any cis-person who writes feminine or submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I mean "I would like writers to seriously think about why this is so common, why they write that, and if it fairly and genuinely engages with what it means to be a trans man, or if they just think it's hot when submissive people have vaginas and didn't want to write omegaverse of m/f".
Similarly, when people say "fandom is systemically less interested in black characters, less willing to give flat black characters rich fanon than flat white characters, and less interested in black characters in ships", the response is not to explain why you, personally, just happen to like popular white guy in that fanon. Your job is to look at yourself and ask if you tend to "just happen to be more interested" in the popular white guy across fandoms, be honest, and start unpacking that. Sometimes it's easier to love the flat character who's already getting 10,000 fics with headcanons and art and meta.
If somebody says "I wish there were more gluten free options at the potluck. I hate always showing up and not finding anything I can eat*", they are not asking you to throw your cake in the trash and weep. They do not want to hear your long speech about how actually this is your grandmother's recipe, and you've tried it with rice flour actually, but it just didn't work. You think about what you can do, and you listen to how they feel.
*The metaphor here not being that you can't read fic that isn't "good rep". The metaphor here is that it can be isolating to be in spaces where nobody is trying to make sure people like you are welcome.
not many people know this but when talking about your multiple pronoun-using friend you build up a combo meter for every subsequent unique pronoun you use
so like basically in the REIGEN manga tome tries so desperately to throw herself into the center of this literal Superhuman world she sees and play the role of the eager young protagonist and its so endearing but in the end reigen has to come clean and she canât keep using the spiritual premise as a crutch. not because she was wrong to have her whimsical interests, but because the fantasy of specialness can often be an escape from the isolation a person feels due to being unable to live up to societal ideals of normalcy, and yet in the end the fantasy can itself end up feeding directly into the isolation by obscuring your view of the other people in your life. you cannot prioritize the idea of being unique or special alone and that is the reason that the power structures in the story (as represented by roshuuto in REIGEN) so frequently fail short; because actually EVERYONE is a Pathetic Freak Weirdo Nerd Loser, from the handsome, popular rich boy, to the pretentious Dark!Reigen foil who takes himself too seriously, to all of the mundane teenage girls who the audience is initially tricked into dismissing as shallow, but also by the same token EVERYONE deserves to be loved and feel supported.Â
because actually bonds with other people are the most important thing, and centrally this is also why REIGEN relies so heavily on bonds with others as something to create horror. the evil spirit mimics the voices of the ones you love and lures you in and when youâre at your most lost and scared and in need, thatâs when you turn around and the face of the person you trust betrays you. tome only contracts the fatal curse in the first place because she cared about reigen and went back to make amends with him. because thatâs the most horrifying, most terrifying thing, the thing that renders you absolutely helpless, isnât it? itâs letting yourself rely on others and trust them to the point that it leaves you vulnerable, isnât it? but you have to do it, if you want to achieve true connection then you canât continue keeping up a veneer of Specialness and posturing as someone youâre not no matter how afraid you are of being seen as your true self. thatâs the idea that really connects tome and reigen above all else. you have to be who you really are and you have to trust that youâll be loved for it. and thatâs horrifying! thatâs an unimaginable, Forbidden terror! but itâs necessary.Â
and also I think itâs so clever how REIGEN conveys this by only bringing in shigeo kageyama, the protagonist and most recognizable character who the reader has so many preconceived notions of, in at the last moment as a terrifying ghost who is impersonating him. I mean also itâs partially because shigeo can easily be made to look scary lol, because letâs be real, he can be pretty goddamn scary /hj BUT MOSTLY itâs to have him in his uniform, in his most recognizable and iconic form that the reader will cling to, and then have it be blown away by the post-canon shigeo, the real shigeo, the shigeo who has grown and changed and is no longer stuck in the role he once was. because to be vulnerable with others you have to grow and change and do away with old pretenses and dynamics that youâve become dependent on. it can be scary to stop playing roles after youâve grown use to them for so long, but you donât need them - your most honest self will be the most loved. and also I love how just like tome could tell that it was the real reigen bcause he immediately ran into a spiderweb and yelled, you can tell that itâs the real shigeo because heâs immediately rude as fuck and he and reigen literally instantly go into their mean pithy little affectionate banter lol ok sorry anyway.
and also because you cannot really be any more or less special than anyone else and you need bonds with others, itâs true both that you have to rely on other people, but also that you owe it to them to be kind. reigen is literally a normal person working in the spirit business, so he has to rely on other people with the necessary abilities, such as dimple the spirit and serizawa the psychic, yes, but he also does his part to take care of the people who matter to him. roshuuto is so focused on appearances and power - as shown by how he goes on and on about connections - but when it comes down to it, he was not willing to save others (leaving hoshido in Reliance), and so nobody bothered trying to save him in turn. he only abandoned, and was abandoned. this is shown most acutely in the end by how roshuuto âhas no other optionâ but to pass his curse on to someone else to save himself, while reigen âhas no other optionâ to take on a curse to save someone else. reigen and serizawa accepting their responsibility as adults to protect the children around them is an extension of the idea that you are equal to everyone and are obligated to be kind to your loved ones and recieve kindness in turn. anyway mutual trust and communication is all that matters and tome kurata is The protagonist of all time Sorry,
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if you want to dress gay but arenât sure how, you need to focus more on finding clothes you actually like and that make you feel good when you look in the mirror. develop your style independently of what you think looks gayest and trust the homosexuality will follow. it goes where confidence and self acceptance are
My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.
Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?
What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?
Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.
