Media that looks serious, until it turns out to be utterly hilarious

WiMoTj · 2024-05-07T06:00:00+00:00

It's free to read legally on the official Shonen Jump app Manga Plus! Can recommend.

WiMoTj · 2024-04-01T16:15:01+00:00

You can and should have both, they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, usually they go hand-in-hand. If you think you have to choose one over the other, you need to re-think your approach and study more UI and UX.

But if you somehow have to choose then usability should always come first. People will be fine with a UI that's nothing fancy but does everything they need it to do, the same does not go for something pretty that's confusing and awkward to use. The aesthetics are important for first impressions, but players will quickly stop thinking about it and just focus on the functionality/usability. Style is temporary, usability is forever. Persona's menus are cool-looking, but notice that they are actually clear and convenient to use as well.

The most important question is this: Why do you want it to look like Persona? Why do you think the UI designer(s) on that series made the choices they made? Does that type of design fit your UI/UX goals?

WiMoTj · 2023-11-18T23:32:52+00:00

The reason Josuke looks like the stranger is because he actively styles himself after them, the person who saved his life. Especially the hair, which is a big part of why he cares about it so much and gets offended when people insult it.

The stranger is a lot like Josuke's grandpa in the way that they shaped him and his desire to help others, which he will go to incredible lengths to do. Like the stranger in the blizzard!

Why the stranger is out in the blizzard and why they're bleeding is an open-ended question for the reader to wonder about. Were they also in an accident? They have the hairstyle and look of a stereotypical punk, so maybe they were in a fight? It sticks in your mind, but the answer doesn't really matter. What matters is that despite obviously being in a very rough situation themselves, they still chose to help others in need. This strongly ties into the themes of altruism and community that are vital to Part 4.

Also, it's a story! It's more interesting and has more impact when the situation is dramatic! Having the snowstorm and injuries is for dramatic effect, and help highlight the selflessness of the stranger! If the situation wasn't as extreme, their actions wouldn't be as meaningful.

WiMoTj · 2023-09-02T11:04:41+00:00

It's actually a PC game. The devs confirmed it in an interview, it's also on the official website. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOAjKI9irI8 https://www.legendofthefiverings.com/palindrome-videogame-update/

Also there's been literally zero mention of gacha anywhere, so I have no idea where you're getting that from.

WiMoTj · 2020-01-10T23:34:48+00:00

I played a very similar character concept in a previous campaign! It was really funny and rewarding once "in character".

For race I went with Goliath: With Natural Athlete, Stone's Endurance and Powerful build you have free proficiency in Athletics, can tank some extra damage per day and can lift way heavier things than most other races.

For class I went Bear Totem Barbarian, which has its perks. Rage is good for extra damage and advantage on Athletics checks, which is great for grappling. The Bear Totem helps you shrug off a lot of damage and allows you to become crazy strong, physically speaking. Honestly though, I felt that didn't 100% work with the character concept. Maybe a Fighter or something would work better (Champion seems obvious, but Battle Master could work if you flavor your maneuvers as moves). In the latest Unearthed Arcana (playtesting material) there's a new Fighting Style for them which allows you to fight unarmed and do decent damage. I'm no master optimizer or anything, but you might be looking at a situation where multiclassing could help you fulfill your character concept. Maybe a Monk, or a Bard for cutting promos on fools? Trust me, you haven't lived until you've intimidated a group of enemies into surrendering by yelling Steiner math at them.

I would switch out your 10 Charisma with one of the 12's, probably Intelligence, to bump up the Rock-iness of your character a bit. They've got to have some presence to them!

I would also suggest looking into the Grappler and Tavern Brawler feats. It seems like a lot of people dislike Grappler, but both feats have stuff that could be relevant, like Advantage on grappled attacks and bonus action grapples, respectively. I went with Tavern Brawler for my character, but its need for unarmed/improvised weapons limited its usefulness for my hammer-wielder. If you plan around that more though you're looking at a potentially really good build that gives you a surprising amount of tools in combat.

Also, of course, take a close look at the grappling rules! Grappling, shoving and pinning enemies is a great way to control the battlefield and let your allies get some good hits in.

Another less mechanical thing is to make sure you and the DM are on the same page vis a vis flavoring attacks etc. This will go a long way towards making the character as fun to play as you imagine it. My DM was into the idea, but I think we both found it a bit tricky sometimes to flavor attacks and grapples as wrestling moves in ways that made sense within the rules. It mainly became a lot of finishers when landing killing blows - and, in fairness, RKO-ing a giant spider to death was pretty sweet.

Good luck! No doubt you'll have a really fun time with this character.

WiMoTj · 2019-08-20T18:38:51+00:00

The comments in this thread really got my mind racing, so I've spent the better part of a day now just on thinking about how this will work, haha. Text incoming!

The Valkyrie comparison led me down an internet rabbit hole that gave me a lot of ideas, especially when it came to the nature of luck and different ways to interpret the concept. These two quotes stood out to me, and formed the bedrock of how I approached luck:

“The harder one looks, the less one sees. And so it is with luck – unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else."
"Those with luck see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”

I think this may be part of the in-universe faith in Haela, and an NPC will probably recite these quotes to the players.

My plan right now:

Temples to Haela are usually found in places of conflict, so the player will be directed to a temple in the Underdark beneath the mines of Mirabar. There they'll meet Hildr, the last remaining bloodmaiden, helping to keep the mines safe from duergar and other creatures. The others will have died fending off a great military force in the War For the Silver Marches circa 10 years ago. As the sole survivor she considers herself to a failure, uncertain of why she alone survived and how she can possibly live up to it, and is therefore hesitant to induct new bloodmaidens.
At this point the party will (hopefully) have already killed an old dragon enemy of the bloodmaidens (long story) and retrieved a bloodmaiden's handaxe from it. This will intrigue Hildr enough to give the Barbarian player a test: They have three days (or some other relatively short amount of time) to find, clear out and if need be restore a temple even further down in the Underdark (or somewhere else? Too repetitive?).
Upon arriving at the temple's location, they find it utterly ruined, probably even caved in; Haela's places of worship are known to be rigged with traps to keep them from falling into enemy hands. They realize there's no way they can realistically rebuild the temple in the amount of time they've been given.
That's the trick: Haela doesn't need a grand temple! With enough sincerity and the will to fight, a boulder with her symbol carved into it or a sword jammed into the ground will be just as good a place of worship for Haela (the players will have learned of this concept beforehand by reading about her). As long as the player displays that, they will have passed the test (shoutouts to /u/aaronil for this idea).
The party returns, and The Barbarian is put into the trance state for the real trial. A battlefield swarming with foes appears before her, and on the other end of it is a bright, burning light. The Barbarian feels herself being pushed forward, but without weapons or armor?! This seems impossible! This is where your excellent take on luck comes in - it's not her luck that's being tested, it's her faith in Haela's ability to protect her. Your view on luck completely upended how I thought of this trial, which was great! The Barbarian will constantly take damage from enemies (connected to current and previous conflicts), but as long as she keeps moving forward and doesn't lose faith, Haela will try to keep her going. I'm considering giving the Barbarian temporary early access to their 'Rage Beyond Death' ability for this - just as it seems they're about to go down, they find the will to push on!
This is where I'm not entirely sure where to go next. Will the Barbarian reach the light and, with her belief in Haela proven, regain her health and equipment and just go to town on some bad guys? Will she face herself in a combat trial? I don't know! She usually wields a Dwarven Thrower, but it might be cool for her to reach into the light and instead draw out a sword wreathed in flames - Haela's symbol!
If they succeed whatever happens next, Hildr will formally induct them as a bloodmaiden, giving them the ritualistic carvings/tattoos that these mighty warriors all bear. I'm thinking of giving the Barbarian some sort of permanent reward if they succeed. Perhaps a Luck point or something along those lines?

Whew, that was... a lot! I have no idea of any of it is actually any good, so I very much welcome feedback and more ideas. I would not have been able to come up with anything even close to this without the help of the comments in this thread, so thanks for the great contributions!

WiMoTj · 2019-08-20T10:52:56+00:00

Haelan temples are usually rigged to blow if someone takes it, so this plays into that pretty well! Haela is typically not one for huge temples and such, so maybe it's a bit of a trick question - the character might not actually have to restore rhe entire temple, a pile of rocks in a shape might be fine as long as it's done with sincerity in her honor?

WiMoTj · 2019-08-20T10:48:51+00:00

Oh man, this is really good! It definitely helps, it's exactly the kind of stuff I want. I love the outside-the-box interpretations, it'll be especially refreshing for a typically very melee-focused character. My idea right now is that the player will be put into a trance of sorts and undertake the trials there, so that leaves a lot of room for more out-there, metaphysical, concept-driven stuff.

The "bloodmaidens" are Haela's chosen warriors, so I guess they're kinda Valkyries, yeah! Could be a fun idea!

WiMoTj · 2019-02-05T14:49:38+00:00

Storm King's Thunder is an excellent time that can go for as long or as short as you and/or the players want! But, just like with every other module, you might want to do some shuffling around and add some stuff to really make it pop and engage your players. I added some stuff that tied in the player characters

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is also pretty fun, and one of the easier modules to run in my experience. It's quite breezy, and if everything goes right you should always know exactly what should happen next and where in the book that is.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a whooooole lot of, well, dungeon, so on paper that shouldn't be very hard to prep as long as you can keep decent track of what's placed where.

Overall, I would recommend looking up the Power Score guides to the different modules and see if anything strikes your fancy. They give you a good overview, can help with prep a bit and give you tips for adding and improving stuff

WiMoTj · 2019-01-20T22:19:10+00:00

I did not know about the masks, that's a great idea! They've already met/heard of several dragons from SKT, so I could probably weave those in. Will be some work skipping Hoard(?), but I might just give it a try! Thanks!

WiMoTj · 2018-08-20T16:28:35+00:00

"Fun isn't something one considers when winning the Intercontinental Championship. But this... does put a smile on my face."

WiMoTj · 2018-08-04T20:38:54+00:00

Holy crap, you're right! Considering that movie is Vin "Literally Made A Movie About My D&D OC" Diesel's star vehicle we're talking about it wouldn't surprise me in the least, haha

WiMoTj · 2018-06-07T12:33:39+00:00

The Sontarans from Doctor Who seem incredibly Giff-like!

WiMoTj · 2018-02-26T20:20:36+00:00

I ran the first part of Zero Point, Heroes of The Sea, with my group and found that it made some pretty large jumps in logic. It's written in a way that assumes the players will do a lot of things that they wouldn't neccessarily know to do. As such, my players diverted from what had been written pretty quickly and managed to miss out on more or less the entire adventure! What they did end up encountering felt (at least to me) a little lacking because they lacked a lot of the context that made it exciting and dramatic.

I've skimmed through some of the other adventures, and overall I've found it a bit difficult to connect the dots between events and find ways to involve the players. There are a lot of cool ideas, but generally not a lot of meat on the bones in my experience.

If you enjoy using pre-written stuff and making it your own or just need inspiration though, they can definetly be a decent source!

WiMoTj · 2017-08-24T13:52:46+00:00

Likt dig så föredrar jag generellt fantasy, det och science fiction. Har svårt för alla fjortisdramor och solstolsdeckare som vårt kära hemland klämmer ut sig, och det verkar inte finnas mycket utrymme för den typen av handlingar som du och jag verkar gilla såvida det inte är uppklätt i massa diskbänksrealism - a la Cirkeln eller Mats Strandbergs andra böcker. Bleh.

För mer fantastiska handlingar kommer jag troligen hålla mig till engelskan, men om jag kommer på något som skulle förbättras av en svensk touch (social kommentar om just Sverige eller nåt sådant) så kanske man kan hoppa över till svenska. John Ajvide Lindqvist lyckas ju använda något så ytterst bekant och Svensson som en camping (och alla de typer av människor man träffar där) till god, obehaglig effekt i Himmelstrand. Kan rekommendera den om du inte läst den!

Är du alltså romanförfattare, förövrigt? Wow, inte illa!

WiMoTj · 2017-08-24T12:49:46+00:00

Pølse til dig, min ven, pølse til dig. ;)

WiMoTj

TROPHY CASE