Travis, 10 months ago: *choosing the sailor background because it adds a nice flair and goes really well with this new character he wants to create, expecting to be landlocked for the majority of this new campaign*
Travis, now: *elected captain of a stolen ship that has to order and interact with other, experienced, sailors and crew with everyone looking up to him expectantly even though he doesn’t really know anything about sailing because why the fuck would you its dnd but of course here he is in this new pirate au arc*
So that whole interview made me super emotional but I particularly relate to Travis’ initial feelings about D&D, like, a lot. Pretty much all I knew about role playing games until college I learned from that one episode of Lizzie McGuire where Gordo gets addicted to it and Lizzie and Miranda have to stage an intervention. It’s made out to be weird, kinda cult-ish and just not portrayed in a very positive light.
Fast forward to college: I’m a theatre major and a group of my very closest friends were like “Hey, we’re gonna start a D&D campaign, do you want to join?” And my answer was a super resounding “NOPE.” Even as someone who adores reading and movies and different ways to tell stories, I was genuinely put off by the medium at first. So my friends were like “That’s okay, you can always come watch if you want!” (Matt Mercer, you were right about “no one watches D&D,” we’ll get there in a second) And again I said “Yeah probably not, kinda weirds me out! Thanks but no thanks.”
And then. And then it happened.
The majority of my close friends were involved in this campaign, so I was facing a day of hanging out alone when the invite was offered again: “Hey, just come watch! If you’re bored or you hate it you can leave.” So I went.
I have no clue if the DM was doing a home brew or a guide based campaign or what. I sat down on the floor and I was a little skeptical, I was listening to everyone plan stuff out and trying to figure out the character sheets and what all the dice were for, I was just so lost. And then they sailed to an island where the people had velociraptors as pets. And someone in the campaign said “I’m gonna try to pet one.” He rolled for it, didn’t do so hot, and the DM said “She hisses at you.” And without even thinking, I just kinda hissed under my breath to my friend on the left thinking we’d just have a laugh.
IMMEDIATELY, the guy that just tried to pet the velociraptor looks at me and dangles his hand out with an imaginary fish and said “Okay, I’m gonna try to feed her then!” And held out a fish. To me. And I sat there thinking “Ok dude running the show, you can jump in any time now and take over!” until I realized he was looking at me, too. He had given me total control over that dinosaur and was waiting to see what I was gonna do.
And I GOT IT.
In that moment, playing a dumb dinosaur in a narrative I didn’t even half understand, I got it.
“Ten Prized Dogs Album 十骏犬图,” by the Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglion 郎世宁 (1688-1766), who was a court painter for three emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Known for his painting style that was a synthesis of European and Chinese painting traditions, he drew this series for the Emperor Qianlong who had many hunting grounds.
Writers love the stories they’ve written sort of like children. They were created with love and each one has a special place in their heart. They’d very likely love to talk to you about their story or their writing in general whenever you happen to see it.
There’s really no time limit on giving your encouragement and support to your favorite writers.
–Mod M
Writers are sluts for their own stories. If we could sneak them into every conversation, we would. What happens behind the scenes of a written story is often just as crazy as the actual story, and yes, we all want to talk about it constantly. Readers reaching out is how I’ve met all of my fandom friends, so I say PM authors. Never hurts.
Dude, we leave the tumblr urls in our end notes precisely because we want you to come into our messages and squeal at us. No matter how long it’s been. No. Really. REALLY really. Really.
Really.
I have met some of my very greatest online friends (and some have become RL ones!) through fic comments. Please do this.
Oh HEY RL friend I met through fic comments. How you doin’?
Anon, I recently received Tumblr messages about the first fanfic I ever wrote, from like years and years ago, in a fandom I’m not super active in any more, and let me tell you I WAS THRILLED. It literally made my week.
Authors ALWAYS want to hear from you, I guarantee it. Even if we arent active in a fandom anymore, if we’ve left the fic up it means we still hope people will read and enjoy it. And most of the time, we are more than ready to jump back into fanning about said fandom with a new person even if we havent touched it in a while.
I promise.
we love to talk about our fics, our character, everything we put (or don’t put) in a story.
a friend of mine told me about her friend i think from high school who was gay but not out, and he pretended for a while to have a girlfriend named Amanda who he would go see a lot, and they’d be all, come hang out with us and he’d be like sorry I’ve got a date with Amanda, and they were like when are we gonna meet this Amanda??? anyway he kept this up for like a year until he finally came out; and when his friends were like, “wait, what about Amanda?” he said, “IT’S A MAN, DUH.”
i have literally never admired anyone’s commitment to a joke more
Overdressed & Underappreciated 