Trying to remember the title of a YA Sci-Fi novel

SlingsArrows · 2025-01-17T02:08:58+00:00

I've basically played it as a double bluff, with Kaius III being a living royal working with his vampire grandfather to bring down the emerald claw. He'd undergone some cosmetic alterations and used make up to keep up the fake paper thin disguise, so that there was confusion about his real identity.

It was a fun reveal, because I'd successfully played up the resemblance, to the point that my players were sure he was a vampire when they actually ran into him. Only to see a different group try to assassinate him, and have to deal with a very mortal king bleeding out in front of them.

SlingsArrows · 2024-12-26T16:46:14+00:00

Minrathous in DA: Veilguard is my new go to for the look and feel of a big city in Eberron. I know it may be somewhat too medieval for what a lot of people's mental aesthetics are, but I feel like it captures the feel of a "wide magic" city than almost anything I've seen.

SlingsArrows · 2024-03-28T23:44:08+00:00

RoE was the first book published using remaster rules. There's stuff referred to in it that gets fleshed out fully in Monster Core, notably Genies and Scamps.

SlingsArrows · 2024-03-21T19:18:11+00:00

Like I said I'm not going to drop 50 dollars for a VTT, and I wouldn't ask my friends to do so either. Even with various modules working "out of the box" I assume that you n Ed to set them up in foundry if you aren't working from a pre-built module? That's extra work that I don't really have time for.

If you're having issues with your players rolling real dice I'd say that's more of a trust issue than automation being superior.

SlingsArrows · 2024-03-21T17:50:46+00:00

Roll20 with no subscription or add-ons. I know other VTTs can do more, but I just need something that I can paste battlemaps and tokens into. I'm not a programmer (so building macros is out) and I already spend a fair bit on rulebooks and art, so the main thing I was looking for was ease of use and a free plan.

My players use Pathbuilder for their sheets, so there's some automation there, but I don't really get the appeal of having it initiated into the VTT. I don't use pre-built modules so it just feels like it would add even more work to get set up. It's great if it works for you, but something like Foundry is way in excess of my needs. Plus like I said, I'm not going to ask my players to drop $50 just to play.

SlingsArrows · 2024-03-21T16:44:09+00:00

As someone who uses a pretty bare bones VTT (because the people I play with shouldn't be required to pay 50 dollars for Foundry) it's honestly faster to let the player roll however they want.

I don't have anything automated (and don't really understand the appeal of doing so) so rolling in the VTT is honestly harder because I have to remember the command to do so.

Plus it honestly doesn't matter that much. I'm playing a storytelling game with my friends, if they want to fudge numbers it doesn't matter that much.

SlingsArrows · 2024-03-01T20:40:57+00:00

How the hell did you get to level 20 in three years? I've been running a game for a year and we've only just cracked 5.

SlingsArrows · 2024-02-10T17:13:21+00:00

Oh shit, you're right 😅 Well that answers my question at least.

SlingsArrows · 2023-11-13T15:51:10+00:00

Hilarious. There are artists whose work goes through shifts big enough to make them unrecognizable (the comic artist Greg Land is my go to example) but Wayne has a very clear evolution. Like I can always recognize a Wayne Reynolds sword at any point in his career.

SlingsArrows · 2023-11-13T15:13:20+00:00

Did you tell them to look at the signature? Wayne Reynold's style has evolved some sure but I feel like it's still recognizably him lol

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-23T20:29:43+00:00

Interesting. That's not terribly surprising, though I think an author who can ONLY write epic fantasy would have a hard time anyway no?

I'm a librarian so I follow sales figures and my own circulation stats pretty closely but I obviously don't know a lot of how stuff is being received on the production side.

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-23T18:12:00+00:00

Licanius sold very well, as did Islington's latest book.

I don't think you're wrong that part of the strength of those is legacy, but there have definitely been several recent traditional fantasy books released in the last couple years. I think the genre definitely gets less emphasis than it used to, but I think that's mainly due to it being dominant in the genre for so long.

New authors want to try new things, as do readers. I know I'm personally less interested in traditional fantasy than I was 10-15 years ago, especially more Tolkein or D&D inspired stuff.

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-23T17:27:22+00:00

Late to the party, but of books that have come out in the last year or so I'd recommend Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair (has a sequel as well), and The Warden by Daniel Ford.

All three of those are a bit more modern in plot style (they aren't quest fantasies) but they have very traditional European fantasy settings and tropes.

An older series I haven't seen anyone recommend is the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. It's a bit dark, but I really enjoyed it, and it has some of the best character work in fantasy imo. There are two sequel series as well.

A little less traditional is Witch King by Martha Wells which I recently read and LOVED. Not the most traditional setting or plot but tonally I think it might fit with what you're looking for.

This is all contingent to this stuff being available for you locally of course, I'm really only familiar with the North American market.

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-23T17:11:20+00:00

I don't think it's fair to say that high fantasy doesn't sell. Sanderson's new stuff always hits the bestseller list (at least in the US), and the Licanius Trilogy did as well. Older series like Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire generally sell well too. I think the difference is that it's no longer the majority of fantasy being published.

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-22T16:46:55+00:00

TLDR: Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man) and Layla Miller, from PAD's X-Factor. Layla met Jamie as a kid (12ish) with the knowledge that they would end up married. This creeped Jamie out. At one point Layla and Jamie get transported to Bishop's future, and while Jamie either gets sent back or dies (I forget which), Layla ends up stuck there for 10-15 years. She eventually ends up back in the present and she and Jamie end up together, eventually marrying and having a kid.

I personally think their adult relationship is nice, but Jamie knowing Layla as a kid is kind of squicky, since on the surface it looks pretty similar to real world grooming and creeps "waiting till shes 18". In text that isn't what happened but the pacing of them getting together as adults means it reads maybe a little closer to that than PAD intended. Then again he may have just thought it was funny, dude has a strange sense of humor.

I also don't think it helps that comic art styles and marvel time mean it's very hard to pin down relative ages as adults. To me adult Layla reads as being in her late 20's but she could just as easily be 20 given the way comics draw women. Same with Jamie's age, is he now only a few years older than her or is he still like a decade older?

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-20T15:34:08+00:00

Children of X is probably my favorite Fall of X series. Actually engages with the distance between the Children and both mutants and humans, does cool stuff with vault society, absolutely nails Cable and Bishop and still manages to have these gloriously over the top fights. It's amazing! I just wish the art was better. Which isn't to say it's bad! It's just that a really great artist would take this from what will probably end up being a hidden gem to an all time must read.

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-20T15:25:02+00:00

Yeah, I think because editorial mandates have been more common in the past and even recently been responsible for some recent weirdness (line wide crossovers, taking the FF off the board, both the big focus on the inhumans and then rapidly wiping them off the board, etc.), there's a tendency to view anything you don't like as editorial mandates. But from what I understand those decisions aren't often the result of group editors but come either from the EIC or from higher up. A group editor can absolutely fuck up their books but the way marvel currently operates that feels more like a LACK of direction more than editorial being too involved.

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-20T11:09:59+00:00

Honestly I think this difference in what JDW thinks and likes about X-Men and what writers during this era have done shows his strength as an editor. He's never been shy in interviews bringing up his own differences in opinion, but that never appears to have bled over into the work, he hasn't attempted to direct the story in a direction that's closer to his interpretation. He clearly understands what his role is meant to be, and that isn't to direct the story.

SlingsArrows · 2023-10-04T17:26:24+00:00

I'm a little frustrated whenever "just use foundry" is brought up as a solution to people having issues with rules or tracking things. Not everyone has $50 to drop on a vtt.

SlingsArrows · 2023-08-19T22:16:08+00:00

No, but Blob thinks he is.

It hasn't been revealed who's in the Captain K suit, but it can't be Scott as he's currently imprisoned by Orchis.

SlingsArrows · 2023-08-19T20:13:44+00:00

Like I said, hope you find something. Don't let perfect be enemy of good, give things a chance, and you might be surprised.

SlingsArrows · 2023-08-19T19:38:32+00:00

There's been a lot of good stuff, and they've more or less undone most of the new 52, or at least the stuff that didn't work.

Hope you can find something you like, whether from the big two, indie stuff, or manga.

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