u/Impressive-Step7261

uj/The reason this isn't the main sub that I drew these creatures, which I came up with when I was a kid... and I never actually came up with a lore for them. In fact, I'm currently trying to figure out what the hell they are based on what I've drawn here.

I know for sure that they’re amphibians, their home planet is about 60 percent covered in jungles and swamps, they’re communal creatures, and the females are about half a head taller than the males (they are not on the picture). That`s all.

Yeah, I was a big Sonic X fan—but you’ve probably already noticed that.

In works where the plot largely revolves around virtual reality games or a single specific game, that game may feature some very strange mechanics and gameplay choices. Sometimes this is necessary for the story; sometimes it’s simply a mistake.

1)An unexplored starting location with unique content. In real life, most locations are explored fairly quickly, and it’s highly unlikely that anyone would miss pre-placed content in the area where all players spawn.

Examples (practically identical here: in both cases, the protagonist finds a unique quest chain and an important artifact in the starting location): The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, Ready Player One

2) No one plays in Excel. For one reason or another—though usually by the time the story begins—only the main character has thought through their build, even if the game has been out for several years and its mechanics are largely known.

Examples: Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu — the protagonist became overpowered simply because she was the first to think of putting all her points into defense, which made her practically invulnerable.

3) Administrators with no ability to influence the game environment. In many critical situations, for some reason, admins cannot ban a problematic player or wipe the server, and instead act more like game masters in live-action role-playing games.

Examples: South Park, “Make Love, Not Warcraft”—chosen specifically as a particularly strange example, given that it’s actual WoW and not a fictional virtual reality game. The admins can’t do anything about the problematic player and are forced to resort to in-game content.

I'd love to see examples from other works that personally seems weird to you!

EDIT: For the purposes of this thread, we'll assume that worlds that operate according to game mechanics are also included.

Dwarf Trade Unions may also be involved in this, but they all deny it.

This vehicle possesses intelligence, whether for technological or magical reasons. For purposes of trope level of intelligence can range from animal-like to superhuman. Bonus points if the vehicle is a member of the story’s main cast.

Moya (Farscape) is a bioship on which the main characters travel; she is a member of the Leviathan race—living ships just like herself, oppressed by the Peacekeeper regime. She behaves like a sweet, sad whale.

The Andromeda Ascendant (Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda) - the last surviving Glorious Heritage-class warship at the start of the series, carrying every conceivable type of weaponry, from space marines and mechs to star-killing warheads. It comes equipped with an Artificial Intelligence featuring a holographic avatar in the form of an incredibly beautiful woman. She behaves in such a way as to prevent the crew from getting themselves killed in yet another stupid adventure.

KITT (Knight Rider) - the former cybernetic processor that was installed in a mainframe computer used by the U.S. government in Washington, D.C. Wilton Knight envisioned a better use for the computer in his crime-fighting crusade, so he installed the AI system into something with reclining leather seats, that goes really fast, and gets really shitty gas mileage—which would become KITT. He behaves like a asshole, but overall he’s a good guy.

The cover isn't exactly bad; it's just that Anatoly Dubovik had a distinctive, grotesque, almost cartoonish art style that stood in stark contrast to the series he illustrated. Besides, for some reason, he never depicted Miles as a person with dwarfism.

One of the most effective ways to reveal a character’s personality is to give them a favorite type of game they enjoy playing or a favorite gaming strategy they like to use.

Knives Out: Marta is one of the few people who has ever beaten Harlan at Go. She claims that instead of trying to win against him, she only cares about creating a beautiful pattern with the game pieces, reflecting her moral purity and steadfastness.

The Queen’s Gambit: Beth Harmon is quite impulsive and has a playing style to match. It usually works out for her if she can intimidate her opponent quickly, but she is also easily frustrated and prone to slip-ups when she faces players with above-average defensive strategies.

Andromeda by Gene Roddenberry: In Episode 5 of Season 1 of *Double Helix*, Dylan plays Go with Gaheris in a series of flashbacks. During these games, we learn that Dylan has never once managed to beat Gaheris at Go; at the same time, they philosophize about the differences between humans and the Nietzscheans (Gaheris’s race). During another game, Dylan realizes that he couldn’t beat Gaheris all this time because Gaheris was cheating by stealing chips from the table, which gives us a better understanding of the Nietzscheans’ worldview as a people —and also that they’re assholes.

Character design elements whose purpose and construction cannot be understood without consulting additional materials—or which are completely unknown and left entirely up to the fanbase to interpret.

I don’t think this trope is a bad thing, because the fanbase always has fun speculating about why this or that element is there, and they don’t always have to make sense.

1. Gambit’s headpiece. Aside from Gambit, this was a common superhero accessory in the ’90s, and the fanbase is still debating what it’s for and what it is. In official X-Men materials, it’s listed as a “head sleeve” or "head sock".
2. Thor. Thor’s classic costume includes six plate-like objects on his torso whose function is unclear.
3. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable — why does Echoes have little wheels in its Act 1 form?!

In popular culture, it’s common to side with the children in generational conflicts. For one reason or another—fear for their children, a lack of understanding, difficult life circumstances, or outright hatred—parents are typically portrayed as controlling, abusive, or even downright destructive.

However, in this case, they are, in a sense, justified in their disappointment, fear, or hatred toward the child. As a result of parenting mistakes, difficult life circumstances, or poor life choices—even though the child’s parents are relatively decent people—the child has seriously messed up their own life and others’ as well, if they haven’t grown up to be downright evil.

In the soft version of this trope, the child is simply lacking the virtues that their parents possess; however, they do have their own virtues—the parents just need to take a closer look at them.

In the hard version, the child of relativily descent parents is either a loser, incapable of bringing order to their frankly chaotic life, or is outright evil and cruel.

How to Train Your Dragon: The soft version. Hiccup is the son of Stoick the Vast, a strong and brave Viking chieftain. Alas, Hiccup is nothing like his father in this regard—in a society where strength is not only a virtue but also the key to survival in the never-ending battle against enormous, flying, fire-breathing reptiles—which, quite understandably, frustrates his father. Fortunately, Hiccup clearly has his own qualities (like impressive feats of engineering), and he and his father manage not only to get along (though, unfortunately, it wasn't without its difficult moments) but also to significantly change the way of life in their home settlement.

Gladiator: the hard version. The film adaptation of Marcus Aurelius clearly fears handing the throne over to Commodus, and it is generally correct. If the old emperor is unaware that his son is a bloodthirsty and selfish monster, he at least believes that Commodus is not ready to assume this responsibility, so the throne will be passed to Maximus, who will then transfer power to the Senate, and the sprawling, despotic empire will be transformed back into a democratic republic. We see Marcus Aurelius on screen for only a short time, but in those brief moments, he comes across as a more or less decent man and ruler; however, judging by his own remark, Commodus turned out the way he did not least because of Marcus’s failures in raising him.

Right now, I'm preparing a home campaign based on the Savage Worlds role-playing system in the space opera genre. I’ve already created a sector map and included all the cool races you need for a space opera (like the Triceratons from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, funny robots, alcoholic insectoids, and, of course, Earthling cyborgs). The only race missing was the token “hot” aliens, whom the players’ characters can romance using telepathic techniques that have absolutely nothing to do with the game master’s fetishes—I swear to God.

So I commissioned a friend who’s an artist to create some small concept art of the aliens in the form of portraits (male and female—I think it's obvious who's where).

Based on the portraits alone, I’ve already started developing their lore (it’s easier for me to work from visual images). Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with a name yet, so for now I’ll refer to them as axolotls, since they resemble them (though the artist did include photos of sea slugs among her references).

Axolotls are a race of amphibians from the planet Thalassa (which is 87 percent covered by ocean). They exhibit natural fluorescence and have a humanoid shape. They are also predisposed to various psionic techniques and possess innate minor extrasensory abilities. The reasons for their humanoid form are unknown, but scientists have managed to detect traces of some mysterious genetic manipulations that can be roughly dated to 8000 BCE.

The Axolotls are a fairly peaceful and spiritual civilization, devoid of imperial ambitions—because they can live practically anywhere on their home planet, they had little understanding of the concept of war over resources and personal space. Nor were they a particularly technologically advanced civilization, given that Thalassa is a very non-hostile planet for the development of intelligent life.

The situation changed when the Solarian Empire occupied Thalassa approximately 200 years before the events of the game begin. Since, by the standards of the imperial government and the Emperor himself, the axolotls’ appearance is quite exotic and attractive (in part due to their natural fluorescence), Talassa was transformed into a resort planet for the imperial elite. Some axolotls were also forced to serve as laborers on oceanic planets (including Europa, a prison planet).

In response to the actions of the Imperial government, the axolotls were forced to adapt and change their way of life. Alas, pacifist sentiments within axolotl society remained strong even during the most severe crackdowns by the occupying regime, so the axolotls’ primary means of fighting the Empire was a spy network that supplied intelligence to other rebel cells throughout inhabited space. For this same reason, the axolotls avoided using weapons even in critical situations, which led to the development of their own school of unarmed martial arts (though one that proved quite lethal when practiced by civilizations not as peaceful as the axolotls).

One hundred years before the events of the game began, the Solarian Empire was defeated—not without the assistance of the axolotls. Following this, Thalassa declared its independence and established its own three-system government on the stars closest to its home system.

At the start of the game, the Thalassians are a thriving spacefaring civilization that, nevertheless, does not particularly seek to expand its living space and is more interested in internal social programs. In addition, they are the most authoritative sources of knowledge regarding psionic powers and techniques and are responsible for creating the first lightsaber-like weapon in the game’s setting.

I hope you like it.

I used to draw regularly, and at one point I decided to try my hand at something like a concept art piece. This is the duergar gladiator I ended up with. These days I hardly draw at all (the end of 2022 turned out to be pretty rough to me).

The scorpion on the helmet was originally supposed to be just a sting, but because of the specific angle, it ended up looking like... something else, so i redraw to scorpion-like.

Another NPC for my Kalimshan campaign.

​

Sadira is a drow dancer (pre-made statblocks for CR 1, 2, 3, and 4, with the abilities of a rogue and a bard from the College of Swords haphazardly cobbled together).

​

I won’t reveal her full backstory in case my players happen to stumble upon these posts; I’ll just say that she, along with another important NPC, is on the run from the campaign’s BBEG and is a source of crucial information on how to defeat him (I’ve prepared alternative routes in case she gets killed).

​

As with all the previous art pieces I’ve posted here, I’m including a link to the artist’s social media.

Another NPC from my homebrew campaign in Calimshan (which I already mentioned [in this post]) .

​

Kanaan is a gray-skinned tiefling (though this particular art color scheme makes it appear slightly pink) with one broken horn.

​

He doesn't have any complex backstory and isn't the primary threat in the campaign: his primary function is to periodically pop up in the campaign and irritate my players with his stupid antics. Therefore, his entire personality is built around the fact that he's an astronomical asshole. He's the only character in the campaign I'm allowed to swear loudly as. His entire motivation revolves around theft, drug trafficking, grave robbing, and any other activities that might conveniently catch my players' attention. He also really loves Kozakura swords, and this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that one of the player characters is a Kozakuran and has such. .

​

Kanaan the Snake has a CR 6 stat block, and all of his abilities revolve around low damage output, a variety of harmful status effects, and high movement speed (which he often sees as very useful).

​

This is my favorite NPC in this campaign, and even though he often gets players into trouble, they love him so much that when one of the players decided to run a spin-off of my campaign, he requested that Kanaan be used as a quest giver.

​

As with the art in the previous post, this art was drawn for me primarily as part of my program to replace the AI ​​art in the campaign with original art. Here is a link of an artist, she is wonderful.

This offhand remark—whether the result of a joke, an author’s mistake, or intentional—prompts us to seriously speculate on the nature of the setting and its history.

Demolition Man —Huxley reads Spartan an expository monologue and briefly mentions the Franchise War, which only the Taco Bell (or Pizza Hut) restaurant chain managed to survive. Huxley doesn’t go into detail, so we can only speculate whether it was a literal corporate war or simply a dramatic name for some kind of economic crisis.

In Shrek 2 when the Fairy Godmother meets King Harold he mentions he has a bit of pain in his leg from ‘The Old Crusade’, which implies that either the events of Shrek take place somewhere in our world, or the setting featured a local equivalent of the Crusades.

In Aliens Hudson delivers the line, “Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or just another bug hunt?” We know for certain that, at least at that point in the film’s timeline, the Aliens had not yet been discovered, which might imply that the Marines had previously encountered some other form of alien life—just not one as impressive.

What drives me crazy about this cover is that it’s well-drawn and was created specifically for the book. Yet it’s completely unclear exactly which scene it depicts and who is shown on the cover.

The white wolf is most likely a Ghost, which means that technically, Jon Snow is depicted on the cover, but the book clearly states that he has brown hair. The ghostly warriors around him are most likely the White Walkers, though at the time of the first book in the series, they are still very far away, not to mention that they resemble the Nazgûl here.

Either the artist read the book very selectively, or he relied on someone’s inaccurate retelling.

Meet Dave-7. He’s primate of science, has a drinking problem, and smokes a block of cigarettes a day. At first, he wanted to be a scientist, but he failed his college entrance exams and was drafted into the army. He spent the next three years as a scavenger, gaining nothing but a case of alcoholism.

I’m playing Pirates of Drinax with my GM friend (we’re currently about 30 percent through the campaign).

At one point, I decided I needed a custom character portrait and decided to commission it from Vitaliy Ostaschenko. He’s a Ukrainian artist who mainly draws science fiction content, particularly a lot of spaceships. I’ll include his contact info in case anyone’s interested.

https://www.artstation.com/kruger7215

Okay, this cover needs a little context too...

In 2008, “Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl” was released. Riding on its popularity, a book series of the same name was also launched. And based on its popularity, alternative multi-author projects were also launched, which not only followed a similar structure but also featured setting elements similar to those of the Stalker series. Such projects were called “stotchkers” (a rough adaptation from Russian to English—“pointers”) because the titles of these series were written with a period between each letter.

One such project was “The Death Zone”—a Stalker with the numbers filed off. Instead of radioactive mutants, there were robots and military equipment mutated by nanomachines.

The result was a cover featuring Miles Quaritch with an M41A pulse rifle, who had just taken down a T-700 and was now clearly about to beat the crap out of Starscream, who for some reason was wearing a T45D power armor helmet.