Wizaardvark’s Workshop

Because like.

A video game will often have cosmetics. Players like cosmetics. Players will spend money on cosmetics. And even in games where there's stats attached to outfit pieces, there's usually also glamours so that you don't have to be held hostage to a stat-optimized look.

However, a ttrpg that takes the time to list out outfit pieces will usually do so exclusively for statting purposes, and will not have a carve-out for glamours, and may well have a GM that is actively hostile to the idea. "Your AC is as Chain Mail, but you described your character as in a dress. I deduct one million participation points and a goblin eats your character sheet."

Also, ttrpg art tends to have a lot of cool costuming, but ttrpg text---even games with detailed lore sections---doesn't usually set aside time to talk about fashion. The art is left to do that lifting.

I think a big culprit for this state of affairs is that fashion is a deep field with a LOT of technical language, and making a fantasy version of a thing kind of requires knowing a lot about it.

So instead of diving deep into figuring out what kinds of garments a society might create, and in turn what kinds of cool looks players might be able to build with them, there's just a gesture towards the art. You can look like that.

As a result of all this, the point of dress up (being able to express yourself and feel something through choice of clothing) gets pushed into the margins. You can still do it, but the game isn't helping you. At best, it's not interfering.

"X field of art needs to have more Y topic" isn't a thing I think can ever be addressed quickly or comprehensively, but it *does* signal an opportunity going forward. So if you're a ttrpg designer and you're reading this, consider the place of dress up in your game.

What kinds of costumes can players wear? How does the costuming change how they are treated? How does the costuming echo or oppose how their characters feel?

And can you do more to support dress up?

Dress up, changing your name, scheming, risk, ghost stories, bragging, kissing, running, making a fort, and dolls.

Notably, kissing isn't about kissing. It's about doing things you're not sure are allowed, or that you're not sure you understand.

Changing your name is about having other people treat you as someone else, which is different from dolls which is about imbuing a neutral object with an identity.

Running is not just running, and is almost always combined with scheming.

Risk involves actual monetary or emotional risk, staking feelings, pride, or possessions on an outcome.

Making a fort does not require making a physical fort, but is better when it does.

Latest sculpture. This one is of Goumang from Nine Sols, one of my favorite-ever games. I thought she might be fun to sculpt, and I ended up proving myself tremendously correct.

She's made entirely from earthenware clay, and measures around 22cm/9in tall. She's not entirely finished- once she's been fired, I'll add her halo-thing and paint her; I still figured I'd post this version.

(Point-of-view of someone who's about to get two Jiangshi soldiers sicced on them.)

I tried to be as on-model as possible. I stuck mostly to the images in the artbook, since in-game sprites are proportioned for readability more than even cannon accuracy, but even then I took some slight liberties in proportioning her according to my tastes. (This largely meant reducing her head size so it wasn't, you know, a full quarter of her body height.) So she's really based on what she looks like in my head more than anything.

(I did change a few elements of her dragon-chair. That was mostly for practical reasons. I needed the arm-support parts to be sturdy enough, but also needed the back to be low and strong enough to hold up the core part of the figure. So the sides look a little different. Don't worry about it.)

This one took ten days from start to finish, appropriately enough. One day per Sol.

For her expression, I wanted to do something based off of how she interacts with Yi. I've always thought that it was remarkable how Goumang is one of the only Sols who actually seems to do her freaking job, and doesn't seem to have much of an ulterior motive if any at all- and we see quite the different side of her in the Chien comic. So I figure that what we see in the game might well be her worst side; she is, after all, facing off against her lifelong rival, whom she hates deeply. Anyway, I wanted to get across a sense of her deep scorn, but mixed with the haughtiness that she's built up for herself since being made a Sol. It was surprisingly easy to render on a simplistic Solarian head.

(Those ears, too, were quite fun to sculpt.)

I honestly don't think I could have chosen a better subject. I wasn't sure at first, since I thought the whole dynamic sitting pose paired with the difficulties the chair might pose would be a bit ambitious, but it worked out quite well. I'm quite eager to finish this one once it's been fired. Let's just hope it doesn't crack too much in the kiln. I will put a link in the comments once the full version is done, so keep an eye out for that!

Check out this new fun little ttrpg on itch for free and join our discord for games, community challenges, and more!! Cheers!!

Why is the mountain range square. How did the mountain range form. Why is there one singular volcano in the center. Why does it act like a composite volcano but have magma that acts like it’s from a shield. If it’s hotspot based volcanic activity why is there only one volcano.

European Geosciences Union Blog — Beyond Tectonics: Building fictional worlds to better understand our own

Reshaping Reality's Worldbuilding Tips

Worldbuilding pasta's series, An Apple Pie from Scratch also check their resources page!

R/worldbuilding's Reading List. Also check out their collected resources link. This basic geology guide from 11 years ago is still nice.

Creating an Earth-Like Planet, and The Climate Cookbook (aka Geoff's Climate Cookbook) technically the climate cookbook is a part of Creating an Earth like Planet I think.

Related: Worldbuilding Workshop's "Working Out Climates Using Geoff’s Climate Cookbook." Which goes through using the resource in order to map make. Also just the Worldbuilding Workshop in General.

Madeline James Writes's Worldbuilding Guide

Worldbuilding 101 (this links to the Biomes section but there's like...everything.)

Also I would recommend looking into Landscape Archaeology as well! That's because Landscape archeology is basically adding the social/cultural layer on top of all that geology and geography. Environments change when communities live in them, and communities likewise adapt to various environments.

This is a short free introduction to the concept: "Notes on Landscape Archaeology." To summarize, Landscape archaeology sort of like...studies the relation of people to places/spaces (that is, landscapes) in time.

Also this paper [An Archeology of Landscapes] breaks down/introduces the key concepts that I learned which is first that you can form the "construct paradigm" of a landscape from settlement ecology, ritual landscapes, and ethnic landscapes.

And then the highlights of their summary of what constitutes defining a landscape:

Landscapes are not synonymous with natural environments. Landscapes are synthetic (Jackson, 1984, p. 156), with cultural systems structuring and organizing peoples’ interactions with their natural environments ...

Landscapes are worlds of cultural product ... Through their daily activities, beliefs, and values, communities transform physical spaces into meaningful places. ...

Landscapes are the arena for all of a community’s activities. Thus landscapes not only are constructs of human populations but they also are the milieu in which those populations survive and sustain themselves. A landscape’s domain involves patterning in both within-place and between-place contexts ...

Landscapes are dynamic constructions, with each community and each generation imposing its own cognitive map on an anthropogenic world of interconnected morphology, arrangement, and coherent meaning ...

Basically a "landscape" is made by a community living in an environment. Once you have a geological environment that makes sense, landscape archaeology is like... Basically how I feel confident knowing where trade routes would be on a map, where there are areas of continual high conflict, what kinds of agriculture exists where, etc. once the geological stuff is hammered out, it's like...I know how that would influence the local cultures and vice versa. At that point, it's easy to start marking the natural borders, settlements, trade/port cities, and even strategic fortresses. If you have properly put rivers on a map, then marking your port cities is effortless, basically.

Also:

This course syllabus for a Landscape Archaeology class is freely accessible. It includes an online resources page.

Place, Landscape, and Environment: Anthropological Archaeology in 2009

@analog-delight, @sapphireh3art, and @puppiesthoughtsgobrrrr, in the span of a few minutes.

They aren't even hiding it this time, they claimed no reason for the termination. "For any reason, or none at all."

I've been told that all followers of a now terminated blogs were banned, so it's safe to assume that someone on staff just went down the list of a tgirl's blog and banned all of them.

Man ranting on the internet about the Superbowl halftime show or complaining that something is "woke"? Hobbyless Behaviour. Girls mocking another girl for not looking right? Hobbyless Behaviour. Mindless vandalism? Hobbyless Behaviour.

REBLOG IF YOUR ACCOUNT IS A TRANSFEM SAFE SPACE.

I mean, apart from melee-martials needing the buff, the whole fantasy is being a weapon wielding badass, right? It would encourage getting right up in the middle of enemies and get the rest of the party thinking tactically about how they can push more fodder into their highly armoured blender.

Further, some authors may never even find out the lawsuit is happening. The court's suggested notification scheme "would require class claimants to themselves notify other potential rightsholders," groups said, overlooking the fact that it cost Google $34.5 million "to set up a 'Books Rights Registry' to identify owners for payouts under the proposed settlement" in one of the largest cases involving book authors prior to the AI avalanche of lawsuits.

If you're an author, please use this database to see if you could qualify for that sweet GenAI lawsuit money.

I have never ever ever in my life asked someone to blaze my posts.

But if you want to throw me some pennies blaze this. I want ALL OF THE AUTHORS to know that they have the opportunities to get some sweet sweet GenAI lawsuit money.

Like to charge. Reblog to cast that Anthropic will have to pay out the ass.

Was inspired by the previous post a while back, and had been working on this on and off for a long while.

Monster Hunt: Vigex, the Scroungerwyrm

Finders Keepers

Setup: Drawn by the remnants of an overgrown battlefield, an adolescent dragon has made a lair nestled in the outer edge of a lord’s holdings. Using its treasure scent to ferret out the choicest spoils of that antique slaughter, the dragon has already begun to build its hoard out of the mislaid heirlooms and broken armaments, amassing quite a collection of arms, armor, and other errand valuables.  Obviously the lord in question wants it gone, but for the time being the dragon is content to prey on sheep and leave travelers be, though it has savaged quite a few of the lord’s best knights who dared to try and drive it off. 

Such a stalemate is a golden opportunity for a clever band of novice adventurers, who may rely on either their wits, their bravery, or their idiot luck to turn the situation to their advantage.  

Adventure Hooks: 

Despite the preying on their flocks and the threat of reptilian rampage, the common people turn out in droves whenever some knight or another decides to try and challenge the Scroungerwyrm, hurling jibes and encouragement and betting on the outcome.  The party encounters one of these would be champions at the local tavern, having intended to drown his sorrows but only succeeding in fueling his anger and shame. On the edge of picking a ( potentially lethal) fight with a couple of hecklers, this encounter with the drunken knight could go any number of ways:  the party could earn a rival for life by shaming him, or win some great reward by wagering that they could do what he failed to, they could also try to placate the hotheatded cavalier, promising to return the ancestral sword he lost when the dragon decided to take it as a chewtoy half way through their battle. 

Vigex is jealous of his collection as any dragon could be, but has a particular interest in the historical context of his finds. He instinctually knows that some things are more valuable having belonged to others, but he lacks the age or education to know any of the stories of those who died on the battlefield so long ago. A party who approaches the dragon with a knowledge of past glories and noble heraldry might be able to win a few small prizes out of the horde, or pick out something that a grateful noble would like to have returned to them. Storytime with the dragon may be a great way to win his favor, but the party will earn his lethal ire should they try to too obviously cheat him out of something valuable by claiming it to be worthless. 

While slaying the dragon and taking its horde along with the lord’s reward may be the most direct option, there is another that might benefit all parties without the need for (as much) bloodshed. Should the party be able to lay their hands on a treasure map to a particularly enticing dungeon, they may be able to rehouse the wyrm far away from civilization. Such a process will not be without difficulty, firstly because Vigex will insist that they bring him a very large rock to roll infront of his lair to guard it incase this venture does not work out. Next, they’ll have to survive an ambush from a group of knights intent on slaying the beast and its newfound allies. Finally, they’ll have to negotiate with Vigex over their newfound treasure: The dragon has enough sense to let them leave with as much as they can carry in order to avoid a fight, but if lied to or disrespected prior will demand all of the treasure stay with him. 

I have created a small but mighty invertebrate army! 💪🪲💪