Ashes of Dreams - Nouvea (the French version)

Definitely seems like a Shadow Sorcerer or Abbert Mind. But the selfish look, but dark purple skin and long, dark nails screams Elf with Hexblood Lineage. If she is a Sorcerer in the end, her powers could Definitely relate back to a hag considering the hexblood origins.

My friend, I think you may have just manifested your stand

Ngl, I hadn't realised the extent of her Vtuber activities until now. I already knew her from DTW and DTL (across multiple platforms) as well as the IRL stuff he did as Pwupster. Even then, I thought that was a lot but I had no idea about Exoe ASMR, her previous life as the Scottish faun lady in that one vtuber agency, or the fact she was cooking a whole agency and 5 kids to come out of them as a result. And yeah, keeping most of her identities obfuscated from casual consumers of her content to the point I almost thought Stronny was like, maybe her Scottish cousin or something until I came here to have it confirmed that it is in fact the lewd lady herself. Massive fucking props to her to have gotten this far on just pure gumption and work ethic, she fucking earned every bit of success she's getting 👏 👏 👏

As I was about to walk out and get into my car with the full intention of driving 100mph into a stone wall with no seat belt, my dog ran up and looked at me. He thought I was taking him out for a walk, so I did that instead. I did that for an hour and when I got home, I cried while holding him and promised him I'd never think about doing anything like that again. He's been gone almost 2 years now, but I'll always keep my promise to him.

It's really not. If you think Strive is broken, you've never played another Guilty Gear game.

The reason Testament is weak despite all these abilities is because the power floor for Guilty Gear characters is extreme high. Someone like Testament would be stupidly OP in another more grounded series like Street Fighter or KoF, but in Strive they're on the weaker side.

You'll think Testament is very honest until they PRC Crow into Teleport and side switch you from full screen and then combo off the stain state for like, 60% HP. Or until they put you in blockstun in the corners for a full 35 seconds and deal approximately 20% damage to you purely in chip, all the while being massively meter positive.

And that's not complaining, I know all this because I'm a Test player and have done this to people. And somehow, impossibly, this level of power is still bottom 3.

I genuinely did not know that. I thought her American accent sounded a little hard to place, but I figured it was a weird neutral accent that a lot of people who have autism develop. I didn't realise she'd just been masking her real really convincingly for literally years. Honestly, it's more impressive that during her unscripted content she avoided using very specific kinds of lingo which would be a dead giveaway. She must have put some amount of work into keeping those two identities separate.

If you're new to the game, I'd suggest maybe not buying the DLC straight away, there are plenty of strong options in the base game if you're just starting, but if you're 100% deadset on playing one those two, here are the key things:

Sin: It is generally agreed that Sin is both better, but harder to learn than Elphelt. A lot of his best stuff is reliant on his stamina mechanic and you'll have to get used to managing it if you want to play him effectively. He's a better midrange fighter than Elphelt because he has better normal pokes and better specials, and his ability to cancel his specials into each other or into dashes means he can often convert damage better than her without the use of meter. He also excels in the fact that he can push or carry opponents to the corner better than her, and he can spend more meter on his supers. Generally speaking, Sin has no obvious weaknesses and does everything well, so he's very strong, but he can be rendered extremely vulnerable with no stamina as his best tools are reliant on spending it.

Elphelt: She is easier than Sin but has more weaknesses. One thing she does have Sin beat in is her ability to zone and play at full screen. Unlike Sin, Elphelt has a homing projectile which means she can still harass opponents at full screen, and very importantly, she's not entirely reliant on rushing down an opponent who you want to keep away from you, like Potemkin or Goldlewis. Also, her normals that fire her guns are less likely to get counterhit, but she doesn't tend to get as much off them as Sin does. Elphelt is very tricky for mixups, as her Rekka series allows her to keep pressure on with extremely hard-to-react overheads and lows, and she can reset pressure at almost any point during the string. Additionally, she is much better at setplay than Sin since her grenade throw move allows her to get in on opponents or apply pressure while they're knocked down, while also making her mixups stronger and harder to see. Adding her command grab super to that, she's extremely good at keeping you guessing and afraid and can put out some serious damage if you guess wrong or make a mistake. However, she's got lower health and defence than Sin and also while her offence is strong, she has almost no defensive tools like Sin does. Plus, while she does have zoning, she can be outzoned by a dedicated zoning character or someone with big enough buttons.

TLDR: Your choice boils down to "Do I want to play a character who's more well rounded, tougher, has strong tools for everything and great damage, but asks for harder execution from me?" or "Do I want to play a character that's got very strong offence and is very easy to use and learn, but will die much if I make mistakes, especially if I don't learn defensive fundamentals?". Whichever of those sounds more appealing is up to you my friend.

I think you're right and Strahd's Forbiddence trait is an interesting and unique weakness... to a point.
Early on things like daytime and certain buildings being safe creates rare moments of assured safety for the party, but as the most important thing most people forget about Strahd is this is all a game to him.
He's playing by specific rules for his own amusement and so he doesn't immediately wipe his new toys off the map. He respects those rules as long as the PC's respect and fear him, but when that respect stops going both ways, that's when the rules stop applying.

Small anecdotal example: When I ran this, my players had just beaten Baba Lysaga and gathered the Sunsword. It was a landmark moment of triumph and they felt like they'd finally gained a definitive advantage over Strahd. Naturally, they decided to Long Rest inside the defeated hut, Strahd paid them a visit, but stood just beyond the hut's doorway since he couldn't enter and offered them congratulations and commented on how "the game is finally becoming interesting.".
The players, feeling emboldened by Forbiddence and their new weapon, flashed the sword and burned the Vampire with sunlight, noting that his regeneration took much longer than normal to kick in. Well, Strahd waited for the burning to stop and his face to regrow, gritted his teeth in an annoyed fashion, and chastised the players for how they had so brazenly spat in his face. They had not realised the courtesy he had extended them thus far in the name of sportsmanship and chivalry, and how as both the Lord and Land of Barovia, they only continued to live by his mercy and whims. And they had just used up the last of his patience.

And then Strahd simply stepped through the doorway and stood there.

I had never seen my players so shocked and genuinely frightened as when they were trapped in that tiny hut with that Vampire and he promised them that now, the rules were off. No place, no time, no person was safe or off limits anymore. He would hurt them, humiliate them, and if he could not do it to them, he would do it to every single person they loved, they spoke to, or even looked at.

So Forbiddence is a great and interesting weakness for sure... but nothing will ever make your players realise how badly they were always in over their heads than when they see it was never a weakness at all, but a courtesy extended to them.
And they just burned that last bit of respite.

You and Rina absolutely killed it! I have to make special mention of the ending in particular because it felt so wonderfully genuine and authentic. No judgement, no drama, just acceptance, comfort, and clear communication of where sexual experience can sometimes leave you in a funny and awkward headspace. Many audios can leave you satisfied, but few can leave you feeling... happy 😊. Great work ladies, you're absolute pros.

Easy fix.

If they love their family and were given a great childhood, do something simple like maybe the parents retirement fund didn't stretch as far as they wanted and a dream they were putting off until they retire they can no longer afford.

Have your character decide they want to do everything in their power to thank their parents for their great life by raising the necessary funds to make their parents' dreams come true.

Wholesome reasoning, no trauma, problem solved.

You did only one thing wrong:

You didn't execute the problem player IRL after he complained you punished him for disrupting the group dynamic and being a "that guy".

I wish this was a take more single player games took, which is that the evil path should be an easier, but quicker and riskier path that would appeal to someone with a weak will or no morals. I remember Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation used to rag on this all the time because, as he so succinctly put it "If you're presented with two equally difficult, equally rewarding paths, then taking the evil one is just plain stupid."
And he's right, because in the case they both require the same amount of effort, there's only two reasons you'd ever pick the evil path: Curiosity or Sadism.

I agree, but its so similar to his normal coloured outfit, I don't think it deserves any commendation.

A few, but we already have people who are naturally masochistic so the genes and predispositions are already there. Plus, its an aberrant personality trait which some people can develop anyways.
The main concern would be how it would affect things on a wider scale. If sex is no longer desirable because it hurts (unless you're into that) and sex is often used to sell things, would other kinds of paid experiences start being designed to cause pain because now "pain appeal" is the same as "sex appeal"?
Would the primary trait for arousal now being a person's capability to inflict pain (like we see in some BDSM communities) rather than their physical appearance? And also, since most religions consider childbearing to be noble, but sex sinful, how would the dynamics of religion change now that sex is no longer desirable to a majority of the population? Would sex not for reproduction be considered a kind of penance or punishment now? Would the act of enduring pain to have a child be considered an even holier act now?
Creates a lot of new questions.

We'd evolve Masochism as a desirable evolutionary trait. People who had fucked up brains where they processed pain as pleasure would be the ones who reproduced most. At which point we might evolutionary become predisposed or addicted to pain, in the same way some people are already addicted to sex or masturbation.

I have a rule for this with my players. "You have literally 20 seconds to resolve all their attack and damage rolls and if you go over that time more than once, we're going to start using mob rules, which means literally only two of those creatures are going to hit ever turn and you'll take their average damage only." Nothing is worth slowing down the game like that.

They're only useful if you're playing in a game with social aspects or in which there are lots of weird skill checks which most people don't spec into. Otherwise you're bringing a strictly worse caster into most combats, with their only redeeming qualities being chunkier HP and Bardic Insp. I say this as someone who both loves and played Bards and Paladins regularly, but know for a fact which one fits into more campaigns or which more people would prefer on their side in a fight.

Kai, May, Nago, and Ram out of everyone here looks best, but I do have to give props to many of the DLC characters who look sick in it and aren't featured here. Elphelt, Asuka, Sin, and Bridget also looks great in that colour, but the other DLCs can be hit or miss. Johnny also looks good in it, but he doesn't get any points because it's literally just his normal outfit colours with blue highlights.

I remember I was staying with my previous girlfriend in her sisters apartment during the summer while she was on holidays. We were apartment/cat sitting for her. One day I get in the shower and pull the curtain and I hear this wet squelching noise. I look and up the folds of this shower curtain is mold. Black, thick, stringy mold between every single fold of this curtain, it was like nothing I'd ever seen. Plus it didn't help she had a 4 year old son with asthma who bathed in there regularly. I immediately went out and bought and new shower curtain for the place, firstly for myself since I was staying there, and second so hopefully the poor kid won't have mold in his lungs. My then gf made me take it down and put the moldy one back up because she was afraid her "proud" sister would get offended by the new curtain, throw it out, and then stop talking to us. Gross and ridiculous behaviour.

While Testament is fairly beloved, they're not a character that was super fun to play against in the past. I'd also say Asuka wasn't a safe bet since while he's a very long time legacy character, he's never been playable and there's never been a character as complex as him. That's something that could have blow up in their face really bad. Season 3 is the only one I'd say is full of safe bets. Elphelt is super popular, Johnny might be the most requested character of all time, Slayer is an amazing fan favourite, and ABA was a smash success despite being a sleeper hit in the older games.

My pleasure! I mean, I am doing a PhD in this super niche subject, so if this information is proving interesting to at least one Internet stranger, then that's validation enough that maybe I'll find a position one day where I can teach and lecture about this for a living.

People who claim they never sleep. And you believe them, because they always look awful and tend to drink too much monster