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Me and Freudian slippers are currently on the hunt for 2-4 players to join us for some industrial-fantasy skulduggery and collaborative storytelling, with a regular PbP game of Blades in the Dark (I had an over-complicated and aborted go at doing this as a forum CYOA earlier last year! You can check it out here to get a sense of how games might play out.) We're ideally looking for people who are familiar with the game, but if you need a refresher, you can find everything you need right over here on the Blades website. It's a really fun setting and we think it's a great fit for play-by-post, so should hopefully be a ton of fun. If you'd like to join, just drop a post in this thread, along with your rankings for the type of crew you'd like to play (in descending order of preference). Assassins (killers for hire) Bravos (mercenaries and thugs) Cult (followers of a forbidden religion) Hawkers (contraband peddlers) Shadows (thieves and Garrett-types) Smugglers (for those who can move anything under the radar) If you've got a particular pitch or concept suggestion for your favourite crew type, feel free to drop that in as well. I'll ask all players to create a main character and a back-up in case of sudden... unavailability. Again, if you've already got a good idea on that front, feel free to drop a brief bio or character outline in your reply here! We're assuming the standard Doskvol setting and playbooks - but if there's a fan-made character or rule which you'd like to push for including, again just let me know. Once we've decided on the type of crew we want to run, we'll head over to Discord to create characters and begin the game!
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Jan 23, 2021 19:55
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I'm pumped about committing crimes with you guys  If you haven't checked out grobbo's (sadly aborted) CYOA before, you should definitely do so. What do you guys want to play? I'm pretty much down for anything! I think I personally prefer straddling the line between good and bad, though. After all, Duskvol is a gritty, dark place where bad things can happen to good people. And sometimes those things are the players...Freudian slippers fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Jan 23, 2021 |
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Jan 23, 2021 21:30
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Hell yes, I'm in. Will have to reread the book a bit and think up a background. Any specifics on the type of crew they are, so I can work up the backstory?
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Jan 23, 2021 21:41
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Fuzz posted:Hell yes, I'm in. Will have to reread the book a bit and think up a background. Any specifics on the type of crew they are, so I can work up the backstory? Awesome, great to have you on board - and no, it's still anything at this point! If you want to vote for your preference of crew type out of the six options above, we can agree on it between us.
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Jan 23, 2021 21:50
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I’ve been wanting a break from our usual D&D 5e game and started reading up on Blades in the Dark. Then I read the .pdf a few times, made a few characters and adventures & ordered the book from a local game store. Preference list: Cultists Shadows Assassins Smugglers Hawkers Bravos
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Jan 23, 2021 22:01
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Kumo posted:I’ve been wanting a break from our usual D&D 5e game and started reading up on Blades in the Dark. Then I read the .pdf a few times, made a few characters and adventures & ordered the book from a local game store. Cool! I think cults, shadows and assassins are my top three as well, though I can't quite decide in which order...
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Jan 23, 2021 22:26
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I've played a campaign of Blades in the Dark before, and while I have a good handle on several parts of the game I still feel like I haven't mastered it, if that makes sense? I might have to ask a question or two. But I'd love to join you, and I know the "everyday" rules. My preferences: Cultists Smugglers Hawkers Bravos Shadows Assassins
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Jan 23, 2021 22:41
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paradoxGentleman posted:I've played a campaign of Blades in the Dark before, and while I have a good handle on several parts of the game I still feel like I haven't mastered it, if that makes sense? I might have to ask a question or two. But I'd love to join you, and I know the "everyday" rules. I'm in no way an expert Blades player myself, but I think we'll be fine as long as we embrace the "Fiction first" paradigm and focus on bringing the setting alive. The rules are often deliberately vague, but I've found the general Blades thread to be very helpful. E: Fuzz posted:Hell yes, I'm in. Will have to reread the book a bit and think up a background. Any specifics on the type of crew they are, so I can work up the backstory? What type of crew would you rather play? Freudian slippers fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 23, 2021 22:57
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Brilliant, great to have you with us paradoxGentleman! If we go for Cultists, that could actually play well with the moral tension that freudian slippers mentioned. We could pitch it as: as a group of strangers in Doskvol, you've all received the same nightmarish dreams for the past three nights in a row, summoning you to a particular location, giving you instructions from a forgotten god demanding that you restore her faith to its former glory. You can be anything from an eager fanatic hoping to gain power to a regular criminal who doesn't know why they've been chosen and resents that fact. And as time goes on, you can decide between yourselves if you want to obey the god's commands, or try and fight back against it to be free of its influence. (Either way, there'll be lots of supernatural heisting, ancient history-unravelling, and dreadful powers that may work for or against you.) Something like... quote:Perhaps you’re a lifelong worshipper of the Lady of Luminous Depths. Perhaps you’ve carried her tattoo on your arm and whispered to her crude carved icons every night of your life, as your parents taught you, even though the faith had long been wiped out and there was nobody left to answer your prayers. Does that work as a starting point for sketching out characters?
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Jan 24, 2021 07:55
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I love it! If no-one objects, I say we're the loyal servants of our Lady of the Luminous Depths, Mother Of The Drowned, She Who Takes The Pain Away! Let our unworthy flesh be Her tool in restoring Her cathedral, briny and black! I'm already thinking of a Leech, an ex-academic and former leviathan hunter...
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Jan 24, 2021 08:12
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I'm down for worshipping a goddess of the deep, dark sea. The lifeblood of our city comes from her and her leviathan children, after all. Given the options in the Cult gang playbook, I'm thinking that her features are Alluring and Sinister? As for my own playbooks, hm. I'm thinking either an Hound mercenary thug, a Slide socialite and grifter or a Whisper petty channeler. Their motivation boils down to "What am I doing with my life, hunting pickpockets/conning idiots/exorcising minor ghosts just to make ends meet? Surely there's more to life than that?" Perfect cult recruitment material, basically. paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 13:06
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paradoxGentleman posted:I'm down for worshipping a goddess of the deep, dark sea. The lifeblood of our city comes from her and her leviathan children, after all. Alluring and Sinister seem like great options to me. Her dominion might even not be purely constricted to the depths of the sea, but might also encompass other types of abyss, like addiction and despair? Perhaps these are aspects we will discover in game? All your character concepts look viable to me, so that's cool!
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Jan 24, 2021 15:01
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grobbo posted:Does that work as a starting point for sketching out characters? Aye, that’ll do. Does anyone have any preferences as to playbook? I was thinking of playing a Leech or maybe a Whisper. e: Saw the spoilered text after I posted Freudian slippers, and similar to yours- was going to go with a leviathan hunter mechanic/sparkwright who starred into the ocean a bit too long. I’ll work up something else. What Special Abilities should we take as a Cult? Kumo fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 16:23
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Kumo posted:Aye, that’ll do. Great minds think alike? The special abilities are all cool, my first thought was that Chosen and Anointed seem like good starting choices, and Conviction and Glory Incarnate seem like good choices for when we are bit more established. Of course, if we go for Sacrifice as our specialty, then Sealed In Blood might stack nicely... 
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Jan 24, 2021 16:50
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Brilliant! Does anyone have any ideas about a good starting lair, as well? There are some basic prompts in the playbooks - alternatively, I can work up a few more specific options and you can choose between them. - A half-sunken grotto in the city’s maze-like underground canals. - An abandoned watch tower atop an ancient, crumbling wall. - The unassuming back rooms of a merchant’s shop. - A small, abandoned house at the end of a dark lane. - A rickety, tin-roofed shack perched on a rooftop. - A junked rail-car, rusted in place on its old, overgrown tracks. We'll give it a while longer to see if Fuzz is still up for playing (or if anyone else wants to join) and then I'll get the Discord setup and DM a link about so we can begin.
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Jan 24, 2021 17:41
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Thoughts on abilities: In my experience, stress relief is very important, and getting a boon on top of it with Convinction would be nice. Of course, it all depends on what the Lady considers a pleasing sacrifice. Chosen is more useful to certain crew members than others (a Cutter doesn't benefit much from those skills, for example) but it's still nice. If nothing else it expands your options for resistance, and who knows, an extra bit of flexibility might be good. Anointed is rather specialized but it's also a huge bonus. +1d to ALL resistance rolls against supernatural threats is no joke; same for healing. Do not underestimate Bound In Darkness. Teamwork is important, and being able to help each other across great distances would allow us to have both the adventage of spreading out and the strength of acting together. Any of these, I'd be down with. I'm not as convinced that the following ones would be good: Glory Incarnate is not something that a newly formed crew should handle, imo. It may bridge the gap between us and our more powerful adversaries but I'd rather have a safety net before allowing the Lady to emerge from her watery domain. Killing someone generates a lot of Heat, which is hard to get rid off once it happens. So I'd be careful with Sealed in Blood, even though getting rid of a bunch of stress is a nice perk. I haven't read in detail the rules for rituals, though... Zealots relies on cohorts, and I don't believe we start with any. I'd recommend waiting to see if we end up with a cohort or two before gettig our hands on this one.
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Jan 24, 2021 17:50
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paradoxGentleman posted:Thoughts on abilities: You do actually get Adepts as a starting upgrade, I think - "scholars, tinkerers, occultists, and chemists."
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Jan 24, 2021 17:59
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Freudian slippers posted:What type of crew would you rather play? My preference list would be: Shadows Assassins Smugglers Cultists Hawkers Bravos Personally, I've had terrible experience with any goon related game involving religion, unfortunately, but I'm down to be surprised and proven wrong! I've always wanted to play a Thief style heist based campaign in this setting, though, because holy crap I looooooove the original Thief games.
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Jan 24, 2021 18:07
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Fuzz posted:My preference list would be: Well, definitely feel free to let me know about what kind of issues you've had! This is going to be much more of a sinister Lovecraftian cult than any reflection of a real-world religion, but if there's anything in particular which has spoilt games for you in the past, we can try and make sure we steer clear of it.
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Jan 24, 2021 18:18
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grobbo posted:You do actually get Adepts as a starting upgrade, I think - "scholars, tinkerers, occultists, and chemists." Adepts is indeed one of the starting upgrades for Cults. The Faithful have heeded Her words and attended  Fuzz posted:My preference list would be: I have to admit, I'm pretty enamored with our little cult so far and have to throw my lot in with our Lady. Cult Shadows Assassins Hawkers Bravos Smugglers I hope you'll give us the chance to E: grobbo posted:Brilliant! Does anyone have any ideas about a good starting lair, as well? There are some basic prompts in the playbooks - alternatively, I can work up a few more specific options and you can choose between them. Or perhaps the rusted hull of a giant old leviathan hunter, which sank in the North Hook channel under mysterious circumstances many years ago? Only a small part of the vessel still protrudes from the water, yet several compartments and rooms remain unflooded... Freudian slippers fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 18:25
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grobbo posted:Well, definitely feel free to let me know about what kind of issues you've had! This is going to be much more of a sinister Lovecraftian cult than any reflection of a real-world religion, but if there's anything in particular which has spoilt games for you in the past, we can try and make sure we steer clear of it. - Players inserting RL religious ideology into the game, i.e. pushing the religion as some conservative thing because they think all religions should be like Catholicism/Puritans/whatever. - One player going ultra-zealot and trying to enforce THEIR very specific view of what the religion is or how the party should behave, and labeling other players as heretics and driving a wedge in the group constantly to the point where the campaign just falls apart from in-fighting. - A player being an aggressive atheist OOCly and thus going out of his way to exemplify why religion is terrible ICly, and be maximal piece of poo poo and always argue that religious types are terrible and oppressive people. For example, constantly implying that all the religious characters are pedophiles! Yay!  - The entire campaign similarly being set up by someone with a very low opinion of religion, and therefore as players trying to play religious sorts we were forced to be pieces of poo poo by the plot, because the GM wanted to demonstrate how religion is bad. - LOL CLERIC PRAY GOD, SMASH ALL. (not really relevant in this ruleset) - Pushing weird sex cult type poo poo, though this can happen with anything and some players just need to insert weird sex poo poo in everything. - The entire campaign being set up so that the party had to sacrifice (permakill) PCs as they went along, in the end the game being just one player left and the DM, with every other player peacing out with varying levels of dis/satisfaction at how the campaign was run. (also probably not relevant since we have backup chars) - The entire plot being a front, with the "twist" being that the entire religion was a scam and the players were duped the entire time. Could have gone well, but a few of the players put in some work and did research on tribal religion and whatnot to make up a fun mythos, and then it was all pulled out from under them as a corporate ploy, and the interest level nosedived shortly after that. Think that's all the variations I've seen in the last 15+ years of PbPing/live gaming with goons. Religious campaigns can be a minefield... I've seen a couple of games that managed to pull them off well, but ultimately they were less about the religion and more about the setting itself, namely Inquisition type poo poo in either some historical fiction type setting or 40k.
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Jan 24, 2021 18:39
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Well, I can safely say that I would never want to do any of the things you mention there and they're very, very far from the stories I hop we'll tell. I hope you'll forgive me for saying so, but it seems to me the problems may have been the players more than the theme. Should anything close to what you mention happen here, then I'd jump ship immediately.
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Jan 24, 2021 18:46
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I’d be interested in playing as well - I like the idea of someone who doesn’t know why they’re chosen but sees this as a good opportunity to get ahead in life. I’d have to look through the playbooks and see what sticks out to me.
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Jan 24, 2021 18:48
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Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely not down for any of that stuff, and all of it sounds exhausting! In my mind, this is a mysterious Cthulu-esque force, making demands on you collectively and offering you power in return, and it's up to you how you respond to it. While we might use some of the terminology and trappings of real-world religion, it'll ultimately be more like a DnD Warlock's patron in how it interacts with the players. Heliotrope posted:I’d be interested in playing as well - I like the idea of someone who doesn’t know why they’re chosen but sees this as a good opportunity to get ahead in life. I’d have to look through the playbooks and see what sticks out to me. Awesome, thank you and great to have you on board! And I think that should be enough for us to get started.
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Jan 24, 2021 19:07
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Freudian slippers posted:Great minds think alike? And so do we. I think I’ll repurpose an NPC I made- a Spider named Mercy with a noble background. I was kind of favoring Chosen because it lets people choose another die in an ability. Though I’ve never played, only read the rules- having more dice seems important and useful. As far as lairs go- the grotto seems the most fitting for a cult devoted to an entity based in water. But holy poo poo Freudian slipper’s idea of a rusted leviathan is a dark horse entry that sounds cool as hell. That is, if we end up going the Cult route. Are we decided on the Crew? e: pre:Mercy Kumo fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 20:47
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Name: Joanna Norfolk
Alias: Mercy
Heritage: Akoros
Background: Noble - Debutante
Vice/Purveyor: Obligation/Family
Look: Lovely, Bright, Hooded Cloak
Special Ability: Foresight
Study: 1
Survey: 1
Finesse: 1
Consort: 2
Sway: 2
Mercy is the daughter of a prosperous noble family who live in Brightstone.
Out of boredom, youthful rebelliousness (or something else entirely) she's taken
to consorting with criminals and making a name for herself as an "entrepreneur."
Father would be outraged if he found out, which makes the game
all the more thrilling.
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Blades! Yes please and thanks!! I was part of a wonderful mess called "In for a Penny" that got to the end of char creation but not the start of actual play. I'd be ok with any crew and any playbook; just lemme do some high stakes Crew prefs: bravos, shadows, cultists, smugglers, assassins, hawkers Edit: if we do go with Freudian slippers' suggestions and play a bunch of weird religious zealots a half-sunken ship I would be so very on board, pun intended Captain Walker fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 22:33
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We could all have joke nautical ranks, just to be in theme.
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Jan 25, 2021 00:05
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Fuzz posted:We could all have joke nautical ranks, just to be in theme. Pirates of the North Hook! Love it. grobbo, do you want a character pitch as well?
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Jan 25, 2021 06:56
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Yeah, that sounds good, if you want to draw something up while I prep the Discord - I'm hoping to send a link around to everyone later tonight! And then I reckon we've about hit our upper limit. We've got a Spider (Mercy) so far - she sounds great, Kumo, a refreshing change from the usual older Moriarty-style mastermind.
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Jan 25, 2021 07:54
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OK, I'm an absolute moron. Can someone please explain to me how I post a picture? I've uploaded to imgur and tried embedding the url with [img] or [timg] thing, but I'm doing something wrong here...
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Jan 25, 2021 08:30
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Freudian slippers posted:OK, I'm an absolute moron. Can someone please explain to me how I post a picture? I've uploaded to imgur and tried embedding the url with [img] or [timg] thing, but I'm doing something wrong here... That should work - are you closing the tags? Otherwise it might be something with Imgur. As for my character, I'm thinking of a Tycheros Whisper, so it might take me a while to find a good image. I can post my character here or in the Discord, whichever you prefer.
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Jan 25, 2021 08:33
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Heliotrope posted:That should work - are you closing the tags? Otherwise it might be something with Imgur. A tycherosi whisper is just what we need. Welcome aboard, so to say! E: https://imgur.com/a/PfdFJvT Name: Dr. Nathaniel Tyde Alias: (He won't have an alias to begin, but I think he might eventually start to be called Brother Fathom) Heritage: Akoros Background: Academic - former alchemist and junior physicker on a leviathan hunter Vice/Purveyor: Weird - Tyde voluntarily lets himself be possessed by a ghost in order to experience perfect oblivion. In essence, it's a Weird version of Stupor. Look: A tall, severe and weathered man of athletic build. Short, dirty-blonde hair and perpetual gristly stubble. High cheekbones frame a set of haunted eyes. He usually wears knee-high boots, leather pants, a white shirt and a threadbare grey/blue overcoat. Special Ability: Alchemist Study: 1 Tinker: 2 Prowl: 1 Skirmish: 1 Wreck: 1 Attune: 1 She died, my Ada. I filled my belly with drink and my heart with the sea. But the more you drink, the thirstier you become and the more you sail, the less you return. I like to find songs that encapsulate the essence and the intangibles of my characters. This is Dr. Tyde's song. Freudian slippers fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 25, 2021 08:57
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Freudian slippers posted:OK, I'm an absolute moron. Can someone please explain to me how I post a picture? I've uploaded to imgur and tried embedding the url with [img] or [timg] thing, but I'm doing something wrong here... For whatever reason they hide it & make it counter-intuitive. You have to upload a picture, then mouse over the top right of the recently uploaded picture and see "Copy Link" and an ellipses {"..."}. There's a drop-down menu under the ellipses, one of the options is "Get Share Links" which will generate a list of common formats. The third is BBCode. I tried using your link, then just re-uploaded it so here: 
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Jan 25, 2021 15:55
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OK, we should be all set up for Discord - Kumo, you're not set up to receive DMs, though! Do you want to send me a message or approve them temporarily or something so I can send you the link?
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Jan 25, 2021 17:43
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grobbo posted:OK, we should be all set up for Discord - Kumo, you're not set up to receive DMs, though! Do you want to send me a message or approve them temporarily or something so I can send you the link? Got it. Oddly enough, I tried buying a plat a few weeks ago and ended up getting a hold placed on my account. I had to tell my bank the charges to ‘Something Awful LLC’ were authorized in order to use my funds. It was a little silly. Kumo fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jan 26, 2021 |
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Jan 25, 2021 18:54
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If you still have any room, I'd be interested in something in the Cutter/Hound realm! You can reach me here or on Discord at RelentlessSA#6168
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Jan 25, 2021 22:51
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I'd be interested in playing. Maybe a Lurk that started having these dreams after stealing a mysterious idol that was asking to be stolen.
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Jan 26, 2021 06:43
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sullat posted:a mysterious idol that was asking to be stolen. Perhaps literally
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Jan 26, 2021 18:23
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