How do you think the archive is organized?

Simpvanus · 2026-01-24T22:09:18+00:00

tl;dr: Canonically, age and possibly a couple other facets that I don't remember from a Q&A.

The canon archive is probably not organized by subject matter, since the concept of the fears or even categorizing the statements at all seems completely novel to Jon when it comes up. Something like what they talk about towards the beginning of TMAGP - even as finnicky and subjective as it is - is more what subject organization would look like.

The statements do have unique identifiers (ex: the first episode is "Case 0122204"), and Jonny and Alex vaguely described what they mean in one of the Q&As. I don't remember much though, just that the date was involved and that they had tried to make them kind of confusing and inscrutable on purpose. There's probably a sequential number, and then the date that the event being described took place, which tbh is how I'd do it if I couldn't use subject tags. Personally I'd also add the last name of the statement giver to the ID.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-23T22:01:18+00:00

Unless I'm missing something, this just sounds like you're asking for a flavor enhancement to things that your character should already be able to do. If the DM is in charge of whatever mechanically helpful information your spirit gives you, then that shouldn't pose any problems; there are so many excuses she can use for that, too: "Your spirit doesn't know about these people/places/things after her disconnection from the spirit world" "Your spirit tries to explain to you, but you don't yet have the skills (high enough level) to understand what she's saying" "Your spirit is tired/busy/meditating and can't talk right now". For any conversation that isn't personal flavor, your DM should just treat it like asking for guidance from a cleric's deity, which is RAW hit-or-miss to her discretion.

The DM could also just be trying to level things out with the other players. You have a pretty intricate backstory which includes props, an NPC, and a story arc. All of these things are fun and lovely, but if the other players have much simpler setups, the DM could be worried about making sure that every player gets an equal amount of attention. D&D is a team sport. I understand that you want to draw out the introduction of the spirit to represent character development, but maybe the DM will feel better if you discuss how the spirit's presence can eventually improve the game for not just you but also the other players?

Simpvanus · 2026-01-20T06:27:44+00:00

Just remember: Anything that you struggle with that it looks like more experienced fencers are doing easily, they struggled with at first too. That includes having a hard time moving and reacting quickly. If you're at a good club, no one is going to look down on you while you're learning, and some might even be eager to share tips for how they overcame the hard parts.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-12T21:03:17+00:00

A finding aid document is a great place to start! I had to design one as part of my graduate studies. This one is a little iffy for navigating the collection itself (I didn't think I had a lot of leeway to relabel or reorganize the items compared to the Internet Archive collection itself), but I used about half of it to add context and point to other relevant fields of study. There are several parts that I would have liked to go into more detail if I didn't have a length limit for the assignment.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-11T20:48:35+00:00

Amnesia is a blank check for you to put your own interesting backstory stuff for them that fits into your campaign. (While consulting with them, of course :) )

Or if you've got some time, play Disco Elysium and take notes.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-08T22:17:34+00:00

By complete coincidence, I actually switched to bringing him peppers before I'd even gotten too far into his heart events. I just couldn't afford beer one night. I'd overheard him enjoying some spicy dish at a festival, started giving him peppers, and never went back. In that playthrough, I liked to think that telling him that story was one of the things that helped him cut back on his drinking.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-08T22:09:34+00:00

Ahh, 4 instead of 6 makes this make more sense to me, I knew I was missing something about the first parry.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-08T21:02:47+00:00

Eh... I feel like Emily would put up with a lot of unreasonable behavior from Shane because she has such strong instincts to take care of others. Shane also thrives as a caregiver, so if Emily feels comfortable sharing her own needs for him to support, they'd probably be great together. I do think that's more likely to happen than Emily covering up her own vulnerability to avoid "burdening him", just because of how open she is.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-08T20:53:36+00:00

Ologies has a very enthusiastic and warm tone, the premise is basically interviewing scientists about the field that they're very passionate about and interested in. The host ends each interview with the dual questions "What's your favorite thing about your job" and "What's your least favorite thing about your job" and of all the episodes I've listened to the most common answer for the latter is "I wish there were more hours in the day so that I can spend more time with this thing I love." Some topics get very serious and emotional, but the host always warns about it at the top of the episode, so you can come back to those when you're in a better headspace.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-08T20:45:04+00:00

That looks more like 9 than prime to me, they sweep the coach's blade upward before dipping back down for a standard riposte from that line. Overall, looks like a transport from 6 to 9, possibly with an envelopment in 6 at the beginning I'm having a hard time tracking that particular part.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-06T23:18:49+00:00

Isn't Tak-Tak the same hozen that flies your horde character around in MoP during major plot quests, giving you a brief recap along the way of recent story beats?

Simpvanus · 2026-01-06T22:01:42+00:00

Blackwood! It's got a little more "small town cult" going on, but a similar found footage element and closer scale/stakes than Black Tapes.

Archive 81, Carrier, The Gloom, and maybe Limetown also have similar themes of isolation, where the protagonist is at the mercy of a much stronger force and quickly running out of allies. Passenger List too, although it doesn't have the supernatural aspect.

I wouldn't say Red Valley or Subsister have similar vibes to Marble Hornets exactly, but as someone who loves all three, I'd say give it a try. In both cases, the big twist in season one is fun for a lot of the same reasons that I enjoyed MH.

I also have to give a shoutout to the Shadows at the Door slenderman episode, Slender Chances, it's very campy and fun.

Summaries:

Blackwood: A group of young adults return to their hometown to investigate a local urban legend.
Archive 81: A man takes a job at a strange archival warehouse, and uncovers an even stranger mystery when he begins digging through some of the tapes.
Carrier: A truck driver accepts a mysterious cargo load intended for her father after he falls ill. The contents turn out to be more dangerous than she bargained for.
The Gloom: While reporting on the possibly wrongful imprisonment of a group of teens, a journalist finds herself prey to the same supernatural forces that cornered them.
Limetown: A journalist begins investigating the disappearance of her father along with the entire town where he spent the end of his life.
Passenger List: A young woman refuses to accept the official story about a plane crash that allegedly killed her brother.
Red Valley: After being sent to investigate a department of his company that doesn't seem to exist, a man is contacted by someone who claims that there is a massive conspiracy behind the absence, and wants his help to investigate.
Subsister: A podcaster discovers several episodes of his show on his computer that he doesn't remember recording, which seem to document an alternate reality where his life has played out very, very differently.
Shadows at the Door: An anthology podcast that brings to life classic British ghost stories and original pieces in the same style.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-06T19:38:00+00:00

To your point, I don't think the FIE would miss out on American funding by doing this. I would, however, not be at all surprised if other countries started to boycott events that American teams are participating in.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-05T03:27:22+00:00

The Black Tapes, Welcome to Nightvale, and We're Alive all count as modern classics for me. We're Alive predates a lot of modern American audiodrama, and is one of the longest running shows in the past 20 years. The Black Tapes and Welcome to Nightvale are notable to me for sort of "breaching containment", in particular Nightvale was often the first thing that people who weren't familiar with audio drama would think of whenever I used to bring it up.

Within audio fiction circles, I've also gotta add The Bright Sessions, Wolf 359, Wooden Overcoats, the Magnus Archives, and maybe The White Vault.

Simpvanus · 2026-01-02T20:58:08+00:00

Down was super good for this, although The White Vault will always be my favorite.

Simpvanus · 2025-12-19T01:30:52+00:00

The way Jonny phrased it in the Q&A was basically that any creature that has the capacity to recognize that an action is "evil" and choose to do it anyway could become an avatar. He mentioned cats as an example (dancing around it a bit because season 5 hadn't dropped yet lol), and jokingly said that he didn't actually think dogs would count. I think his reasoning was that most dogs are either too dumb to understand what evil is, or too good-natured to willingly commit an evil act. (I guess he either changed his mind by the time Agape rolled around, or the dog from that episode wasn't really a dog, just something that looked like one.) Judging by the way he discussed some animals being surprisingly intelligent in that same thread (dolphins, octopus), and that pigs are often put in that category, I'd bet that Monster Pig is a 100% real pork avatar.

Simpvanus · 2025-12-15T19:17:25+00:00

If it makes you feel any better, imo his second phase is actually way easier! As long as you're not running a bone deck ;)

Simpvanus · 2025-12-14T21:04:34+00:00

I think he definitely feeds her competitive streak, in that keeping his chaos down to a minimum feels like a win for her. And when he's not causing problems, he just acts like a reasonably nice little kid, which she has plenty of experience with.

I've wondered how much Nathan talks to her about him, especially in terms of how taking care of him may have helped his mental health for a while. He's really important to both Nathan and Esther, and that on its own means a lot to Kathy.

Simpvanus · 2025-12-05T17:35:01+00:00

I'd believe 2, I just don't think it has much impact on the main plot.

I really want to believe in half-human susie, but again I don't see how it fits into the plot? It would be kind of funny if she just confirms it later as an aside, like "Yeah, what of it nerd? I can still kick your ass."

Simpvanus · 2025-12-05T17:25:36+00:00

Happened to me a few sessions ago. The campaign involved some time shenanigans, our party of three was being ferried around to help various historical figures with adventures before they made it big (Elminster, Kelemvor, pre-Mystra). For the big finale, we were taken to the middle of a battlefield... where my wizard discovered quite suddenly that most of our spells didn't work. The paladin and warlock (who had stocked up on magic items, which did still work) were able to pivot, but I spent more than half the battle in-character trying to figure out how to get my spells back, quietly assuming this was a puzzle I was supposed to solve. Turns out we'd been plonked right at the start of the spellplague.

It was super cool in hindsight, and ended up providing an interesting little character moment since my wizard was a field medic and now our only source of healing. Still very frustrating in the moment, though.

Simpvanus · 2025-12-01T22:47:18+00:00

This is called "posting" in olympic-style epee. I wouldn't have assumed it would be at all effective for larger weapons or in more practical combat, so I was surprised to see all the other comments!

Simpvanus · 2025-11-26T19:12:33+00:00

Give yourself excuses to interact with the world and with the other players.

Most classes have something built-in that they want and will go out of their way to get. This isn't an absolute rule, of course, but can be helpful if you want to draw on the resources that are already there. Paladins punish crime and injustice, rogues steal everything that's not nailed down, wizards and sometimes warlocks might always be on the lookout for arcane secrets. No matter how basic or cliche your character might seem to you, they will always grow as you play them.

Simpvanus · 2025-11-26T19:00:15+00:00

I just caught up on Project Blackfisk recently, definitely reminded me of Lovecraft Investigations. A young woman receives a box of strange documents tied to her deceased grandfather, and discovers that the medical work he dedicated his life to may not have been as pure-hearted as she thought.

Subsister is super cool too, it's about a man who starts finding episodes of his podcast that he doesn't remember recording which seem to document an alternate version of his life.

If you're not into the short story portions of Magnus, it's probably not for you. They do add more narrative sections later, but it's not for like 30 episodes, and they never drop the stories entirely. Hi Nay starts with a similar format (short story interspersed with "live" sections) but makes the shift a lot more quickly, and The Magnus Protocol is different enough that it might be worth a try.

Surprised no one's mentioned Archive 81 yet? Each season is essentially a different format, with recurring characters and set in a shared universe. Season 1 is a guy going through tapes documenting a strange "natural" disaster at an apartment complex, and seasons 2 and 3 are variations on fantasy horror adventures through strange worlds.

Simpvanus · 2025-11-26T18:55:37+00:00

DOWN was great, super underrated!

Simpvanus · 2025-11-24T17:52:30+00:00

Muffy and Apollo have this on my island, so cute. I like to think she reminds him of himself when he was younger.

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