You may think, “Huh, bit risky adding in a Deck of Many Things to this module…”
Oh no, oh no no no… it was so much better… so much worse? So, so much.
While riding in Esmerelda’s wagon the cleric noticed a small, ornate black box of onyx. Inspecting it, it was covered in white runes of some kind. After several arcana and history checks they knew it was in a language but none of them recognized any of the characters used in its alphabet- much like how you can tell пдлішіщ задля фіговий мщилоа is a language but you don’t know what it means.
While opening the box it has a pearl white bottom. Inside are perhaps 200 white slips of paper.
Cleric: “Oh god oh no”
Druid: “I draw 3 cards!” Paladin: “I draw 1 card!” Cleric: “uh, I guess I’ll draw 1 card.”
They’re expecting a beefed up Deck of Many Things… they certainly weren’t expecting my first words to be,
GAY CONVERSION THERAPY- YOUR SEXUALITY HAS CHANGED
Followed by, “Penis envy- you’re now male” and, “burgers and pussy, you’re female again and have a burger that will heal 1d12 HP when using an action to consume it.”
The Paladin then got, “2 Xanax and a bottle of wine, you get 2 good berry and a bottle of wine.” The cleric got, “multiple stab wounds- take 4d6 piercing damage.”
——
By that point I’d told them what was going on and they started drawing more cards.
Monk: “Nachos for the table- everyone gets a plate of nachos that heal 1d6 HP when eaten” and “Become a blue berry…. You’re polymorphed into a blueberry for an hour.” Obviously he couldn’t draw cards after that.
—
Van Richten: “A windmill full of corpses” a player interrupted with, “what if that card is why the Bone Grinder exists?!” Which I think is canon now.
That was followed by, “Firing a gun into the air while balls deep in a squealing hog… VR teleports out of the wagon and you all hear a series of explosions and a hog squealing…. VR opens the door after a moment, belt undone, and sits down without saying a word, holding a stick (hunting rifle).”
—
The Paladin got insane luck.
• 2 Xanax and a Bottle of Wine- 2 goodberries and a bottle of wine •Active listening- gain Alert Feat •A lifetime of sadness- getting that •Free samples- get 1 of each healing potion type •Getting serial killed- instantly drop to 0 HP and roll Death Saves (no outside intervention allowed)… he rolled 2 successes, 2 fails, and a final success •Accepting the way things are- doing that •Erectile Dysfunction- gets ED
—
But the peak was easily the Druid.
•Gay conversation therapy- changed sexuality •Penis Envy- becomes male •Burgers and pussy- becomes female •However much weed $20 can buy- received that much weed •Battlefield amputations- lost right hand (I let them choose, they chose disadvantage on Slight of Hand checks as opposed to losing a foot and losing 5 ft of movement). •Spaghetti? Again?- spaghetti that heals 1d12 HP appears •Ethnic Cleansing- Kenku, by the player’s choice, all died and were wiped from all non-magical texts
And their final card?
•Salvation- “You have the choice… Nita either gets 1 free Resurrection or they’re freed from Barovia.” The player chose salvation from Barovia and disappeared smiling.
God that was a good session

RSS is system used by most websites to easily distribute their content to anyone that wants to monitor it. Most websites that publish articles offer an RSS feed. You can collect and organize these feeds into your own customized, personal magazine/newpaper-like reading experience. These feeds are either stored in specialized OPML files or collected by different services called "aggregators" (Inoreader, Feedbin, etc.). The advantages of using RSS over just visiting various websites include:
• all of your content is gathered in one unified place • a good RSS reader will strip out ads, pop-ups, and everything else except for the content of your articles • you can integrate your YouTube subscriptions, Twitter feeds, and email newsletters • you can follow hundreds of different sources without having to search through bookmarks or click through the web - RSS automatically gathers new articles for you effortlessly!
FocusReader is an ad-free, modern RSS reader designed to provide the best Android reading experience possible. It will manage your feeds by either storing them locally (using OPML import) or seemlessly integrating with all of the major aggregator services (including Feedly, Inoreader, The Old Reader, Feedbin, Bazqux, Tiny Tiny RSS, FreshRSS, and Fever).
Basic, completely free features include:
• a full-screen reading experience • a pure reading mode that streamlines article content into a clean reading layout • podcast support • article translation • gesture navigation to painlessly swipe through subsequent articles, star articles, mark read, view images, open in browser, activate readability mode, or copy/share links • light and dark themes • full article caching for offline reading • magazine, card, and list views • user-defined reading settings (multiple fonts, font size, line height, line spacing, line justification) • sync on open, sync on demand, or optional background sync • per-feed customization settings • easy new feed search and add; just type in a term you're interested in and you'll be presented with tons of feeds to choose from • built-in image viewedownloader • integration with Pocket, Evernote, and Instapaper • mark articles as read either manually or on rollover • article sorting either ascending or descending so that you're presented with content in the chronological order you prefer • fully support using external browser custom tabs for seemless viewing of articles that are difficult to parse • high-definition favicons for all feeds • optional navigation using volume buttons
We feel that continued development is best supported long-term by a subscription model. This enables FocusReader to be in continuous development, addressing bugs quickly and always adding features. Those who choose to subscribe can use the following additional features:
• user-defineable light, dark, and AMOLED themes, as well as auto-dark mode, • complete subscription management - delete and rename feeds and folders, • filter out or retain articles using keywords • ability to open a feed's article using its corresponding app (for example: a YouTube feed can be set to open in the YouTube app) • ability to add an unlimited number of accounts • ability to backup app data locally or to Google Drive, DropBox, or OneDrive to save your setup for easy future restoration or share settings across devices • intelligent automatic ad-removal from synced Inoreader accounts • automatic duplicate article removal based on article title or URL • a "Today" view that will show articles from the last 24 hours • ability to cache images during sync (enhancing your offline reading) • full-text article search • Readability support that will fetch full article text into the app from partial RSS feeds; 3 different Readability engines are provided (native, Feedbin, and advanced)
Community: https://support.qq.com/products/286382
Developer email: [email protected]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/allentown521

Anyone welcome!
Hey im Jonathan! I would love to meet new people from wherever to game, make jokes? Text, anything! Let me tell you more about me!
About me: I’m from Texas
I am LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 Friendly
Lover of memes
I love to watch sci fi/ fantasy movies the most. Favorite would be LOTR : The Two Towers. sci fi would be tron legacy.
I enjoy gaming a lot and would love to play with people. I play a lot of multiplayer games. I love stardew and halo the most, but i play zelda, mario, doom and a whole lot of other games so just ask me what else i play.
On my free time i like to write about fantasy short stories and Or about my days.
I like to go on walks of hikes depending on the weather.
I like to explore more of nature by heading into a nearby forest.
Music: i like daft punk and metallica.
Reading: i like to read young adult fantasy and non fiction books. Percy Jackson and The Mortal Instruments especially. And ACOTAR Too
I enjoy Studio Ghibli, Anime, and Marvel and Dc Movies
I have a couple of dogs if you want to see them, just ask me :)
Currently plan to work on my masters this fall!
Thats mostly everything from me but if you’re interested to learn more just ask!

Anyone welcome!
Hey im Jonathan! I would love to meet new people from wherever to game, make jokes? Text, anything! Let me tell you more about me!
About me: I’m from Texas
I am LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 Friendly
Lover of memes
I love to watch sci fi/ fantasy movies the most. Favorite would be LOTR : The Two Towers. sci fi would be tron legacy.
I enjoy gaming a lot and would love to play with people. I play a lot of multiplayer games. I love stardew and halo the most, but i play zelda, mario, doom and a whole lot of other games so just ask me what else i play.
On my free time i like to write about fantasy short stories and Or about my days.
I like to go on walks of hikes depending on the weather.
I like to explore more of nature by heading into a nearby forest.
Music: i like daft punk and metallica.
Reading: i like to read young adult fantasy and non fiction books. Percy Jackson and The Mortal Instruments especially. And ACOTAR Too
I enjoy Studio Ghibli, Anime, and Marvel and Dc Movies
I have a couple of dogs if you want to see them, just ask me :)
Currently plan to work on my masters this fall!
Thats mostly everything from me but if you’re interested to learn more just ask!

Both of us are coming off fresh break ups. I just broke off a 5 year relationship and he broke of a 9 month relationship. This all happened around the same time about a month ago, which is around the time we met through a mutual friend.
It was clear that we both felt a spark pretty immediately and we started talking and slept together. He told me that I was his dream girl and checked all of his “boxes”. As cheesy as that sounds, it seemed genuine. He also seemed nearly perfect to me. The beginning of our “relationship” was absolute bliss and we even made big plans for the future. He would make the 1-hour drive every other day to come see me and hang out. Everything was going great.
This past weekend I felt things were a little off after spending a night at his place. After I asked him about it, he told me he felt like he wasn’t over his ex and he didn’t feel right being romantic with me. He said he needs space to get over his ex without a prospective partner being near him. This hurt, but I understood it. I asked him what we should do, and he suggested that we go back to being platonic for now and see where it goes. I agreed.
Since then, he’s been texting me less, shorter texts and hasn’t made plans to hang out one on one. He still initiates the texts. We still hang out with the same group of friends, so we regularly see each other. When we’re with the group, we still tend to hang out with each other only. It’s fun, but i can also feel the distance.
I’m not sure if he’s slow-fading me or if he’s actually trying to get closure on his ex before pursuing something with me. I’m afraid I’m giving myself hope by waiting around and believing him. But I’m also afraid that he actually needs time and I’d be missing out if I didn’t wait around for him.
TLDR; this guy says he needs space to get over his ex, but I’m suspicious he’s just using it as an excuse to slow-fade me. What should I do to figure out what his intentions are and what should my next steps be?

I am trying to manually add a server IP in the Plex App.
When I open the screen to enter the IP the keyboard changed at the bottom with the keypad with 0-9 and .
However, soon as I select the text box to type In the IP the ‘.’ Disappears on the keypad and I cannot enter a IP obviously because the period has been removed from the keyboard I cannot enter a IP
Is this a bug? Does anyone have a work around? I tried to copy/paste a IP into the box but that doesn’t work.

Not gonna lie, I was getting a bit bored looking for mods to play after a month of not playing any. I then started replaying some mods again like Outcast, Relapse, and even Consequences but haven't gotten much out of them which is pretty weird since I genuinely enjoyed them and I've replayed Relapse 8 times without getting bored. Then I realized that they were mostly Sayori and Yuri focused. I guess it makes sense considering they are my two favorites but how about the others? I was fine with Monika because of Within and Purist so all that was left was Natsuki. Outside of the mods I have on the enjoyment list, a majority of mods I've played are mostly Natsuki focused so I've seen different interpretations like her being a feral cat with a curtain poll as a weapon or a full-blown tsundere but little where she's a genuine person that acts out of impulse. When she is, she's a side character. However, with memes and stuff revolving around Heart Struck, I decided to play it and it was a nice surprise.
For a demo, this was a pleasant Natsuki mod after playing Purist which made me want to punch my laptop in her route. Now, I think everyone knows the synopsis of the mod but MC moved back to his hometown after 5 years and has Sayori as his neighbor but she isn't his childhood friend. Rather, it's Natsuki. However, there's a rift between them that MC is trying to fix along with some stuff Natsuki is hiding. As much as I love Sayori, I think she needs a trip to the backseat after I enjoyed my playthrough of Night Nurse. Natsuki as MC's childhood friend ironically worked a lot better than I thought it would. Maybe it's because they're kind of losers that have good chemistry with each other (outside the rift). Going back to what I mentioned before, I just like the interaction between the two. It's something that I haven't felt since Our Castle Walls and Relapse (maybe because some osts in common with Relapse are there) where they just click together. Some Natsuki mods usually just skip the genuine bonds or rush it to get to the drama but I think it's nice here. However, while I do know that the developer said it's not going to have a depressing ending, I'm just getting Within vibes where act 1 was so nice with its demo, and then act 2 went off the rails. Sure I liked acts 1 and 3 of Within I can't deny I would've preferred a more "healing" story which is what this mod is seemingly going towards. The first thing, and my favorite part of the mod, was MC trying to tell Natsuki he wants to make up for the last 5 years. The school center scene was a really sweet moment.
Anyway, I do like Sayori IS NOT in love with MC. I get there is no reason to since she isn't a childhood friend but for some reason, a few mods shoehorn it in for drama when it doesn't work 90% of the time. Maybe I'm just saying that because Purist, Exit Music, and My Escape (hmm I wonder who is the focus of those mods) gave me a headache thinking about it. I kind of like how she's similar to her in Our Castle Walls where she does want the best for MC. Monika and Kotonoha are nice supporting characters as well. Yuri is a bit odd and I'm not sure if she's planned for something else or if she's just like that in the mod.
As for things I am a bit iffy on; one of them is spelling/grammatical errors. It wasn't really too noticeable to me since I usually read the text fast but sometimes it stopped me in my tracks to see if it was a name or something. Another one is that MC gets a little too comfortable calling Natsuki "Shortie". It was fine at first but it gets a bit too annoying when Natsuki calls him a dummy less often. Lastly, I feel like it's weird that when MC was bullied in the past he was labeled as a creep or weirdo when he was seemingly normal. I'm not saying it isn't possible because that can happen in real life but he doesn't seem to bring up anything about it. I don't like making theories for a mod but maybe it's because when he left Natsuki he was angrier as he mentioned that he had no control over his life and he does resent his father for that which could explain the burst of rage he had against a bully near the vending machine. It could be genius character work if that's the case since while MC got less "passive" over time, Natsuki got more passive as Sayori mentioned Natsuki was a timider.
I'd give the Heart Struck 1.0.2 Demo a 7/10. Usually, Demos don't get higher than a 7/10 since I need to see things unfold once and for all. However, I do have high hopes as I actually like Natsuki a bit more now and hope this doesn't Rick Roll us like Within. If it does, I hope it is, at the very least, solid. I really do believe it has the potential to be at the very least an 8.5/10 mod.
​
Here's the ranking list for me so far (based on enjoyability):

1. Blue Skies: (9.5/10)
2. Relapse: (9.3/10)
3. Exit Music: Redux: (9/10)
4. Within: (8.8/10)
5. Night Nurse: (8.7/10)
6. Magical Literary Heroine Saves The Literature Club: (8.6/10)
7. Outcast: (8.3/10)
8. Consequences: (8/10)
9. Our Castle Walls: (7.9/10)
10. Exit Music: (7.8/10)
11. Rainclouds: (7.6/10)
12. After Image: (7.5/10)
13. Purist: (7.5/10)
14. Wicked Witchcraft: (7.4/10)
15. Fallen Angel: (7.2/10) (7.3/10)
16. Switcheroo: (7.1/10)
17. Salvation (7/10)
18. Heart Struck [Demo] (7/10)
19. Forward Momentum: (6.5/10)
20. Wintermute: (6/10)
21. Fruits of the Literature Club: (5.5/10) [Based on average route score for me]
22. Papa's Parfait Girl: (5.4/10)
23. A Date With Yuri: (5/10)
24. My Escape: (3/10)

Please, please, say more than "Hi" in your opening message
I'm an RPG, video game, book, movies, and huge Star Wars nerd as well as Pokemon, and currently reading Hellboy...sort of. I don't really comics much so it takes me forever. I like talking. More importantly, I like voice chatting. Where are the nerdy people who like to voice chat?
Let’s watch shows or play some games, or more likely, let’s just talk while doing our own thing. I'm also NOT skinny (fat/obese whatever) and while I'm not embarrassed about it is something I am working on now. I'm introverted and just like enjoying someone's company over coffee, ramen or whatever. I just want to talk and get to know someone. Let's talk about fandoms, or text stupid memes and jokes to each other.
Single dude who’s open to whatever as long as the connection is there.

• No kids, never want any but I do love my nieces and I'm generally fine around children
• I like talking. I like getting to know someone, their history, what makes them, them.
• I own a Switch and game mostly on PC.
• Currently playing some Dark Souls 2 and replaying Civilization 6 again
• I started reading The Light of the Jedi. Big Star Wars nerd here.
• Star Wars is my FAVORITE thing ever...
• I have a 13-year-old cat who's the bossiest guy ever
• I've been working on losing weight and have a very long way to go!
• Social drinker myself
• Absolutely love D&D, play in one campaign on Thursdays and run one on Sundays. It's been the best thing for this pandemic.
• Liberal/Progressive and vaccinated.

If you’re up for talking please send a message and selfie! And sorry but I will not respond to simple one word messages. Please send a real introduction.

Please, please, say more than "Hi" in your opening message
I'm an RPG, video game, book, movies, and huge Star Wars nerd as well as Pokemon, and currently reading Hellboy...sort of. I don't really comics much so it takes me forever. I like talking. More importantly, I like voice chatting. Where are the nerdy people who like to voice chat?
Let’s watch shows or play some games, or more likely, let’s just talk while doing our own thing. I'm also NOT skinny (fat/obese whatever) and while I'm not embarrassed about it is something I am working on now. I'm introverted and just like enjoying someone's company over coffee, ramen or whatever. I just want to talk and get to know someone. Let's talk about fandoms, or text stupid memes and jokes to each other.
Single dude who’s open to whatever as long as the connection is there.

• No kids, never want any but I do love my nieces and I'm generally fine around children
• I like talking. I like getting to know someone, their history, what makes them, them.
• I own a Switch and game mostly on PC.
• Currently playing some Dark Souls 2 and replaying Civilization 6 again
• I started reading The Light of the Jedi. Big Star Wars nerd here.
• Star Wars is my FAVORITE thing ever...
• I have a 13-year-old cat who's the bossiest guy ever
• I've been working on losing weight and have a very long way to go!
• Social drinker myself
• Absolutely love D&D, play in one campaign on Thursdays and run one on Sundays. It's been the best thing for this pandemic.
• Liberal/Progressive and vaccinated.

If you’re up for talking please send a message and selfie! And sorry but I will not respond to simple one word messages. Please send a real introduction.

Please, please, say more than "Hi" in your opening message
I'm an RPG, video game, book, movies, and huge Star Wars nerd as well as Pokemon, and currently reading Hellboy...sort of. I don't really comics much so it takes me forever. I like talking. More importantly, I like voice chatting. Where are the nerdy people who like to voice chat?
Let’s watch shows or play some games, or more likely, let’s just talk while doing our own thing. I'm also NOT skinny (fat/obese whatever) and while I'm not embarrassed about it is something I am working on now. I'm introverted and just like enjoying someone's company over coffee, ramen or whatever. I just want to talk and get to know someone. Let's talk about fandoms, or text stupid memes and jokes to each other.
Single dude who’s open to whatever as long as the connection is there.

• No kids, never want any but I do love my nieces and I'm generally fine around children
• I like talking. I like getting to know someone, their history, what makes them, them.
• I own a Switch and game mostly on PC.
• Currently playing some Dark Souls 2 and replaying Civilization 6 again
• I started reading The Light of the Jedi. Big Star Wars nerd here.
• Star Wars is my FAVORITE thing ever...
• I have a 13-year-old cat who's the bossiest guy ever
• I've been working on losing weight and have a very long way to go!
• Social drinker myself
• Absolutely love D&D, play in one campaign on Thursdays and run one on Sundays. It's been the best thing for this pandemic.
• Liberal/Progressive and vaccinated.

If you’re up for talking please send a message and selfie! And sorry but I will not respond to simple one word messages. Please send a real introduction.

possible trigger warning for anyone who does not want to hear about female bodily functions then don’t read this.
I just want to rant so sorry if my writing is bad. I F17 am really angry at my father for not understanding my period struggles. It started last week. I asked him three times last week if he could pick up some pads while he was at the store. He said things along the lines of “yeah, okay” every time. Each time he did not come back with pads. He said it was my fault that I didn’t text him to remind him the first two times. He went to the store yesterday morning and I texted him to remind him about the pads. About 30 minutes before I had to go to work yesterday my period started. I asked him if he got the pads. He said no. I didn’t even say anything him and I frantically searched for pads. I managed to find two somehow. I usually walk to work but it was too late to walk. I had to plead to my father to give me a ride. He was angrily talking to me the whole ride. He told me I needed to be responsible and get to work by myself. Once I was at work I had to push through. I had a pretty bad headache. One of my coworkers started her period and she didn’t have a pad. I really didn’t want to but I gave her my last pad. Once I finished my work around 11 I came back home. I was really tired and I wanted to go to bed but I had to wash myself since the pad I had was soiled. I called my mom to ask her if she knew where any pads or tampons were. She works in a different city some of the time so she wasn’t there. She said all she had was panty liners. I stacked them up and slept on a towel. I went to school embarrassed today because I was wearing bathing suit bottoms stuffed with paper towels. I have a lot of shame and embarrassment about my period. No one ever taught me how to take care of myself while on my period. When I had my first period a lot of people saw me bleeding and made fun of me. Now I feel very ashamed. I am embarrassed to tell anyone about having my period. I wish I could’ve asked my friends for a pad. I felt so stupid because I was too shy. I reminded my father in the morning to go to the store, and I texted him. I was just praying I could get a pad after school when I got home I asked my dad for the pads and he gave me a box of panty liners. I was so upset. All I could do was scream I quickly ran to my room. He said that he didn’t see the pads he normally bought me so he just grabbed that box. Usually I buy pads for myself but lately he hasn’t been letting me go to the store with him because I am at school. We only have one car and he uses it most of the time. I tried to calm myself down. I asked him if I could use the car to go to the store he said no. He wanted to take my little sister to the pool near our house instead. He took the car. I feel like this is all my fault I should have found a way to get to the store last week. If only I could have asked someone for a pad. Now I am sitting on a towel in my room, crying. What hurt me the most is he said when he left with my sister. He said ” we are leaving now, so you can have your time alone “. I feel so abandoned. I never want to go through something like this again. I need to look into reusable menstrual products, like washable pads or a menstrual cup. I I feel like there is no point in talking to him because he just will not understand. I’ve read a lot of posts on this subreddit. I know my problem. Isn’t that big compared to other people. I just wanted to get this off my chest and have someone listen to me.

I spent a lot of time searching for a solution and couldn't find one, so I'm sharing. This issue is only on the steam deck, obviously.
(Should Be) - When starting a new game if you click on the name text box the onscreen keyboard should pop up to input the name.
(Experience) - When starting a new game when you click on the name text box the text cursor appears but the keyboard doesn't appear. Pressing steam + x did nothing, three finger taps did nothing.
(Solution) - after clicking the text box and making sure the text cursor appears press the (...) Button. (that's the 3 dot button if my visual aid doesn't suffice) After the menu pops up, click the keyboard button to bring up the keyboard. You can't see what you're typing but you can type a name now.
Seems kinda silly but hopefully one person at least will find it useful.

I love Hobby Drama, but I never thought I’d have something to post about, until it occurred to me that as a podcast enjoyer and long term (now mostly former) McElroy supporter, I could probably do this one at least some justice. I’ve been listening to various McElroy podcasts since at least 2017, starting with The Adventure Zone and dipping my toes into MBMBAM and the various “Wifecasts”. Do not worry, I will explain who these people are and what the hell I’m talking about.
BACKGROUND
The McElroy Family
The McElroys are entertainers, their contributions mostly taking place through the various podcasts their family creates and promotes through the Maximum Fun podcast network.

• Clint McElroy is the father of the 3 brothers, Justin, Travis, and Griffin. He was a radio broadcaster and occasional college lecturer, but now he is retired and podcasts with his sons.
• Justin is “the oldest brother”. He and Griffin worked at one point at Polygon, writing about videogames. He’s married to Sydnee McElroy.
• Sydnee is a medical doctor and recently unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the West Virginia house of representatives.
• Travis is “the middlest brother”. He has a degree in theater and worked in that space at least until the original arc of their real-play DnD podcast.
• Teresa is Travis’s wife and there’s not a whole lot about her online.
• Griffin is “their sweet little baby brother” and a 30 under 30 media luminary. He worked at Polygon and is married to Rachel.
• Rachel is Griffin’s wife and I also cannot figure out what she actually does from a quick search. Writes grants?

The McElroy Podcasts
Good god, y’all, there are so many.
My Brother, My Brother, and Me (MBMBAM)
“An advice show for the modern era”, this is a podcast that has been running for a LONG time. The premise of this podcast is that listeners submit questions to the brothers about real life situations and then are given some truly awful (but often hilarious!) advice. The brothers also answer questions pulled from sources like Yahoo! Answers and more recently, Quora. There are recurring bits like Munch Squad, where Justin reads fast food promos and the boys clown on them, and Riddle Me Piss, where Travis poses an often ridiculous/unsolvable riddle to his brothers.
The Adventure Zone (TAZ)
A table-top role playing game (TTRPG) real play podcast that started as an episode of MBMBAM. This podcast features the brothers and their dad, Clint. The first arc, later titled Balance, was played using the Dungeons and Dragons system (DnD), but other systems have also been used, like Powered by the Apocalypse.
The Wifecasts
Sawbones (Justin and Sydnee) is a historical overview of various medical conditions and treatments through the years
Schmanners (Travis and Teresa) is a podcast about manners and etiquette.
Rose Buddies (Rachel and Griffin) is a podcast about one of the seasons of the Bachelor that they would watch together and then discuss.
Wonderful! (Rachel and Griffin) is "an enthusiastic podcast". I've never listened to it and can't tell you what it's actually about.
Misc
The Besties is a podcast featuring Griffin, Justin, and two of their friends. They talk about videogames (The Besties is ostensibly an award for the Best Video Game picked by some Best Friends), both new and old.
Still Buffering is a podcast by Sydnee and her two sisters, Teylor and Rileigh. They talk about culture and their different experiences due to the large age gap between them.
The Empty Bowl is a podcast about eating cereal by Justin and another guy, Dan Goubert.
Neat! is a podcast about alcohol by Teylor and Tommy, Sydnee's sister and her dad.
There are more, but they are less relevant/no longer airing, so I will save some space here. To listen or get more info, check out their site.
ON TO THE DRAMA
The Fandom
There are a lot of McElroy fanspaces online, on Reddit and elsewhere. There are subreddits devoted to many of the McElshows, including MBMBAM, TAZ, and Sawbones. There are also Discord channels at least for some of the podcasts, such as TAZ. I no longer have a Facebook, but there are also many formerly-official and offshoot groups there, as well. The brothers either currently or historically have maintained a considerable Twitter presence, and a lot of discussion of the shows happens on Twitter. There are also cheeky "circlejerk" subreddits that have started as a response to the heavy moderation of the "main" subs, such as TAZCirclejerk that function as reactionary spaces that are open to some trolling, as well as occasional genuine critical discussion of the various shows. There are also a lot of fans who make content on YouTube, such as fantastic animations of moments in various shows and silly videos for MBMBAM bits. Tumblr is also a place where fans of the McElshows gather.
I would guess that the fanbase for TAZ/MBMBAM trends a little younger, with listeners in their late teens or early twenties, but I am not aware of any actual statistics to this effect. I am outside of this age range, but not by too much, so I hope I can represent the perspectives with at least vague accuracy. It'll be bussin' (am I doing it?).
Small Drama: The Early Days
My Brother, My Brother and Me first aired in 2010. As a creature of the early teens, it had some controversial "edgy" humor, like recommending that the state mandate castration of all furries. Justin also made some fat jokes that would definitely not land today. They also had a bit about calling Native American currency Savage Cents.A lot of it was ironic, like making fun of Obama's middle name, in true early teens humor fashion. The brothers are definitely aware that much of this early content can be seen as at least a little problematic, and they actively discourage people from listening to the early episodes of the show whenever this comes up.
I didn't start listening to the McElroys until after this time, so I'm sure there were other moments besides the considerable pushback from Tumblr re: their comments about castrating furries and setting them on fire. For the sake of my sanity, I will abstain from diving deeper into the early days and move on to stuff that I was actually around in the fandom for.
A fun aside: 30 under 30 media luminaries is something you have to apply for. It's something Griffin started using in the intro after being awarded it, and the vibe was always that he got spontaneously chosen for being so awesome at podcasts, but he would have had to apply to be selected for the list.
The Adventure Zone Railroad, Blatant Cheating, and the Rise of Toxic Positivity
The Adventure Zone is a really sweet concept - comedian podcaster brothers play Dungeons and Dragons with their dad! They started the podcast by playing the introductory module that came out with 5e, the Mines of Phandelever. They created their own characters or gave their own flavor to the pre-built characters that came with the module.
In balance, Justin played Taaco Taako, a sarcastic elven wizard who initially started as a "dumb" character but evolved into being a sardonic, creative spellcaster. Travis played Magnus, a human fighter who was always ready for action. Clint rounded out the party by playing Merle, a dwarven cleric and deadbeat dad. Griffin was the dungeon master (DM) for the Balance campaign. The first "arc", where they played through the module, had some truly quotable moments and very funny characters, such as Taaco saying "Abracafuck you" as he kills the main baddie, and started the dynamic of "Magnus rushes in!" "Taaco is good out here." which is exactly what it sounds like. Travis was the only one who built his own character, and he wrote an extensive backstory for him before they even started playing, which came up throughout the campaign (but less than you'd think, honestly, for how extensive it was...)
After they played through the module, they used the story as a launchpad into a larger campaign that was set in the same universe, with a storyline of Griffin's creation. I don't want to give too many spoilers, as I love Balance and I want y'all to still feel like you can listen to it if you're still interested by the end of this. There was an overarching threat, a clandestine organization, and many, many goofs.
A few arcs in, the podcast had picked up quite a large following. The brothers (and their dad) are largely charming and very funny, and they brought fans that had started listening with MBMBAM into the TTRPG real play podcast space with them. This podcast was my introduction to the world of real play podcasts and sparked a love of the genre that continues to this day. TAZ is still the most listened-to real play podcast out there, and it has a huge following. This following came about organically, as they did not pay to promote this show, so most of the spread of awareness was through word of mouth and social media.
During this time, the Adventure Zone subreddit became more and more heavily moderated. There were people, starting fairly early in the campaign, complaining that the game felt very "on-the-rails", a term used to describe a phenomenon that sometimes happens with TTRPGs where the DM doesn't give their players enough freedom to make interesting choices and affect the world around them, also called railroading. The feeling of some in the fanbase was that Griffin was giving the players very limited spaces in which they could act and actually affect the world, and not allowing them to fully explore the world or interact with NPCs. An example of this is when they asked to speak to NPCs in a town, Griffin made the joke that they were all the same guy (someone famous who's name I don't remember now), and each person they approached was just a clone of that dude. These discussions were discouraged in the subreddit after they became more and more prevalent as the show aired.
A later arc of the show was called "The Suffering Game". During this arc, a lot of people were bored and/or made uncomfortable by the premise. Effectively, the characters are trapped and have to sacrifice bodyparts and abilities, with what seemed like no way out of the situation. Complaints were prevalent in the fanspaces, with many people dropping out of their weekly listens and coming back once the arc was complete. I don't remember if posts complaining about the Suffering Game arc were actually banned from the sub, but they were certainly discouraged. Fans responded to criticism of the arc by defending the premise and Griffin's DMing.
As an aside - this campaign was Griffin's first time as a dungeon master. There is a huge learning curve to this role in any TTRPG, even one not played on-air for entertainment. A lot of the missteps and "railroading" can be accreddited to this very public plunge into DMing, and the fact that, at the end of the day, they were making a podcast! Certainly, they could be set loose on a huge, unrestricted continent, but being mindful of how (not) listenable that could be, I think a certain amount of restriction on the players is critical, and a large factor in why TAZ was so successful.
Also during Balance, a listener decided to track the dice roll results (which were announced on the podcast) for all the players. If you're not familiar with DnD, dice are used to determine if/how well an action/attack/persuasion attempt etc. does. For example, if you're trying to attack an unarmored bandit, you might only need to roll a 12 on a 20-sided dice to hit them, but if you're fighting a heavily armored knight on horseback, you might need a 19. There are modifiers that get added based on character abilitites, but all of it revolves around the dice roll. A 1 is a critical failiure. A 20 is a critical success. An example from one of the arcs can be found here, but, to summarize - Travis basically never rolled low. If he did, it was only on things that weren't critical. People were quite upset - the dice rolls are integral to the system they were using. DnD is balanced for the probability of dice rolls as they actually are, and by lying about what he rolled, Travis was taking away the fun and the challenge that occasional failiure lends to the gameplay. While the data itself is conclusive, Travis eventually admitted to fudging rolls, but only when he thought it was "more narratively interesting". That's not how that is meant to work, and even a recent game I played based on a similar system had a "tip" - "Failing a roll sometimes leads to more interesting outcomes than a success". Most of the episodes were recorded remotely, as the brothers live in different states, and they rolled physical dice, allowing Travis to say whatever number he felt like rather than what was actually on the dice.
As a result of this, in future arcs, they roll dice digitally in D&D Beyond, which allows all players to see the number of the roll on a virtual tabletop. No more cheating for Travis (and they occasionally razz him about it, so it's definitely something that's mostly blown over).
Still, this left a sour taste in some fans' mouths, especially those that play TTRPGs or listen to other real play podcasts. Fudging rolls is just something that's not done.
This arc is also the first time I heard the term "toxic positivity" used to describe the TAZ fandom. Criticism, even constructive, well-natured criticism, was often discouraged in the fan communities. There was a feeling that the "boys" were Doing Their Best, and therefore, deserved the benefit of a doubt when it came to errors in their understanding or use of the mechanics of DnD or in their storytelling. The subreddit moderators for MBMBAM/TAZ around this time banned criticism of Travis as "the worst brother".
Post-Balance: Enjoying? Other Cultures
After everyone cried during the last episode of Balance, the brothers took some time off from larger campaigns and took turns DMing mini arcs. Clint DM'd the first one, and without going into too much detail, the brothers played superheroes doing superhero stuff.
Justin played a character based on Inuit culture (his own description) who had a Hulk-type ability to transform from a quiet, intelligent scientist to a big, aggressive god-woman named Kardala. Her affinities were for eating raw meat and enjoying violence. You can see how this may be rather problematic, especially coming from a middle aged white dude from West Virginia. While this gets brought up now as a red flag, I actually saw only minimal discussion of this in the fan spaces when these episodes were airing. I'm not sure if negative comments were moderated out or if there simply wasn't as much awareness of this as an issue at the time. Regardless, there were only a few episodes featuring these characters, and they moved on to the next mini-arc and then the larger campaign 2.
Amnesty: The Railroad has a new track
The second campaign of the podcast was titled Amnesty, and again led to complaints of railroading - player agency felt very limited in this campaign. Also, the player characters did not actually seem to get along or share common goals, until forced to do so by the story. This arc had Griffin as DM, but they used the Powered by the Apocalypse system instead of DnD as they wanted to set this arc in the modern world (and have a less complicated time of it than adapting the DnD rules). The premise was that the players were at a lodge in West Virginia and cryptids were afoot, which they had to figure out the story behind. Again, minimal spoilers, because I also enjoyed Amnesty and want y'all to feel like you could give it a listen if you felt like it.
Justin played a cautious cop. Clint played probably one of my all-time favorite TAZ characters as the owner of the Cryptonomica, a store dealing in artifacts of cryptids - which are real in this world, but he's a total charlatan and didn't realize that until the events of the campaign. Love him. He's amazing. There's a whole bit with a sassquatch suit. Travis played a female magician who had a rabbit pet/familiar named Dr. Harris Bonkers, Ph.D. At first, she's a showman-type magician, but then she acquires genuine magic powers. She was received amazingly well by some members of the community, but those of us who've been on the internet for a long time definitely got big "penguin of d00m" vibes from her and her rabbit. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a link.
The characters in this arc were constantly splitting up to spend time achieving their own goals, and there wasn't nearly as much cohesion of the party as in Balance. Also, the McElroys learning and using a new system felt like it might have hindered some of the possible storytelling of this arc. After this arc, they switched back to 5e for the next campaign, DM'd by Travis, so I think that may be an accurate assessment of their feelings on the matter as well.
There is a lot to say about Graduation, so I'm going to leave off here for now and pick up next time! Hope y'all enjoyed.
Stay tuned for more drama, more problematic NPCs, and more abuse of the Dungeons and Dragons system, as well as some drama that DOESN'T center around TAZ but rather the "extended McElverse".
Edit: Fixed formatting. Reddit lets you do live text formatting now?! Who knew!

Anyone welcome!
Hey im Jonathan! I would love to meet new people from wherever to game, make jokes? Text, anything! Let me tell you more about me!
About me: I’m from Texas
I am LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 Friendly
Lover of memes
I love to watch sci fi/ fantasy movies the most. Favorite would be LOTR : The Two Towers. sci fi would be tron legacy.
I enjoy gaming a lot and would love to play with people. I play a lot of multiplayer games. I love stardew and halo the most, but i play zelda, mario, doom and a whole lot of other games so just ask me what else i play.
On my free time i like to write about fantasy short stories and Or about my days.
I like to go on walks of hikes depending on the weather.
I like to explore more of nature by heading into a nearby forest.
Music: i like daft punk and metallica.
Reading: i like to read young adult fantasy and non fiction books. Percy Jackson and The Mortal Instruments especially. And ACOTAR Too
I enjoy Studio Ghibli, Anime, and Marvel and Dc Movies
I have a couple of dogs if you want to see them, just ask me :)
Currently plan to work on my masters this fall!
Thats mostly everything from me but if you’re interested to learn more just ask!

I, like probably many of you, become really lax in writing my dreams down in the morning. I’m just so tired I push it off and forget my dreams on repeat. Well with this, I can roll over and with like 1.5 button presses speak my dream into my phone and then fall back asleep.
So, someone made an iOS shortcut (which I learned from this are SO cool) that on button press: records voice, transcribes to text, and puts it to your clipboard to what you want with. Here’s his website link sharing how to do it: https://giacomomelzi.com/transcribe-audio-messages-iphone-ai
All I did was edit the last steps so that instead of just putting to clipboard, it creates a new Note (in a Dreams section of notes only), starting with the date and time, pastes your dream, and saves it. Here’s a picture of the last steps so you can copy them.
https://i.imgur.com/pXRiGjz.jpg
The empty Text box is actually 2 ‘Enters’. It’s a variable so that when you create the new Note, it puts the current date, 2 enters, then the voice to text entry. In my actual iOS notes app I made a new folder ‘Dreams’ and chose that to save them into so it wouldnt be clogged with all my others ones. I also edited the current date variable to be Short/Short just because I like it that way, but you can experiment with which settings you like!
And then (most important step) make the shortcut a button on your home screen so it’s EASY TO DO! Thanks for reading!

As the title says, Im a 35 year old woman with a fairly successful career, friends, hobbies, (mostly) stable mental health…but I’m missing that deeper connection with someone. The intimacy of sharing memes and fears, of texting way past bedtime, and of holding space in your life for someone else.
I’m a bit of a homebody. I picked up a gnarly reading habit during covid and ever since I’d so much rather stay in and read with my dog curled up at my feet.
When I do venture out into the world I like things that encourage quality time with my friends and family - brunch or dinner just catching up, checking out a new museum exhibit, escape rooms, etc.
Once a theater kid always a theater kid. I love any live theater from Broadway to Shakespeare. I’m one of those childless millennials who loves Disney.
I’m an open book, sarcastic, irreverent, non-judgmental and enjoy getting to know people. I’m a fantastic friend and sounding board. I’m progressive, aggressively pro-choice, body and sex positive, emphatically believe the earth is round and we landed on the moon.
Currently I live in Texas but making plans to get out before it’s too late. Where to? I’m not sure yet.
I don’t want to put too many constraints in what I’m looking for, friend, lover, enemy, someone to sweep me off my feet - I’m open to all possibilities! If you read all of the above and think we’d get along I’d love to hear from you. I wrote a lot here so don’t feel afraid to introduce yourself, who are you? What makes you tick? If you were granted three wishes what would they be? (you can't ask for more wishes.)
And since this is the internet, here’s my sentient skin suit

Given: I am a fan of Re:Zero for it's incredible mc, cast, story and lore. I am a fan of Zaregoto for it's extensive character study on its mc and all the great dynamics that the side cast offer to the mc. Hakomari (The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria) for it's rich story contents and storytelling, despite its simple prose and lack of interpretive text, with a really good well rounded cast and creativity. The latter two obviously both climax in quality with their conclusions. Are there any english translated light novels (and web novels; ive read LOTM) that also shine bright on their own? All three examples imo have some sort of overarching philosophy too them and don't settle for simple execution and all go above and beyond.
Other Novels I thought were good: -Monogatari -3 days of happiness (simple but well done)
Novels i disliked: -mushoku (too grounded in its ideas and not as much character building as id like) -overlord (too much focus on worldbuilding to the point of dragging sometimes) -kino's (not the style of story im into to be honest though i understand why people are fond of it)
I prefer a mystery, fantasy, or action, over a slice of life, though im not entirely against a slice of life depending on how good it is.
My MAL if needed: https://myanimelist.net/mangalist/Dragloncon&view=tile&status=2
Edit: im currently reading Toaru/Index

Hi there, I posted this on a relationship advice sub but I figured it’s not bad to get more advice lol.
My (18F) ex (21M) and I were together for 4 months and he was the sweetest most loving guy I’d ever met (I was 18 when we met and he was 20). We weren’t together very long but had a long “talking stage”. We broke up right after his 21st birthday when his brother basically told him he looked like shit. My ex was working in construction 40 hours a week and traveling 4+ hours every weekend to see me (as I was in a different town for school). He was exhausted and felt like he had no time for himself which is why he ended things. He said he “couldn’t take care of himself so he didn’t feel like he could be a good boyfriend and take care of me” I obviously tried to convince him that this wasn’t the solution and I’d work to try and see him more but he ended things. (He also has a heart condition and had just had an emergency appointment and so he was stressed about all of that) When he broke up with me, he told me he loved me and would always love me. It’s been about 2 months since the break up and I was worried about him. I decided to text him (breaking our no contact since the breakup). The conversation went as follows:
Me: Hey… I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing and make sure you got the package I sent. You don’t have to reply and can treat this like a voice mail.
Him: Do you want the honest truth?
Me: yes
Him: I cried when I opened it
Him: I cried when I read the notes
Him: I cried when I saw Cookie
(I wrote little notes in the box and since I didn’t see him for his birthday I included his gifts. Cookie was a Minecraft dog stuffy he gave me)
At this point I was crying and called my friend because I felt awful for making him cry. I had wanted him to cry when he opened it and sprayed my perfume all over his hoodies etc. my friend said I should tell him that and be honest.
Me: Do you want me to be honest?
Him: yes
Me: I wanted you to cry.. that’s why I sprayed perfume on everything. Because I was hurt. But I wanted you to know I cared.
I then didn’t hear from him after that so the next day I texted him this
Me: I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have reached out. I just wanted you to know I care about you and I want you to be happy.
Him: And yet that’s all I want for you
Him: I’m sorry
Me: Are you happy tho? Are you doing okay?
Him: Yes and no
Him: I’ve been trying to focus on work, I’ve been late a lot less I’ve been traveling less been able to save a little bit of money
Him: But I miss you
Him: Everyday
Me: Well that’s good that you’ve been able to focus on work. I miss you too.
After that he didn’t reply and it’s been 3 days. I don’t know if I should reach out again or leave him alone. I don’t know what to say. I love this man and I want to be with him but I just want him to be okay. I also don’t really understand why he would tell me he misses me but then not talk to me.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I really don’t know what to do.