Thirsty Sword Lesbians | The Shieldmaids of Fandom

About the adventure

The Call: Seven Years Ago, you were in a fanfiction community. It was vibrant, full of in-jokes and to-be-continued's and wild ideas. You were engaged with it perhaps more than someone with classes the next morning should be. And in that lively swirl of longing and love, you, and others were drawn into a Dreamshallow. A living spark of story and narrative given life by the fandom and it's shared collective dreams. A place of wonder and mystery, where you took up pen and sword against Bash Plots and Dark!Independent!Powerful!fantasies, and spun a golden future of glamour and grace. You made boon companions or perhaps closer ties yet to others who share your aspirations... or perhaps just your 'ships. You made the dream LIVE, for those shining moments of craft and creation. But dreams must end, and you moved on. Or you thought you did. The Fandom still had its stalwarts and diehards, and you took an occasional glance, but the bustle of life in the ordinary carried you on... Until they announced the Reboot. Now the Dreamshallow calls you back, through mysterious prompts in your browsers and newsfeeds. A war is being fought for the soul of the Dream, for the narrative and tone of the Fandom. Will the new face of the story and world you loved be Soulless Corporate Hash: Loveless, Overwrought, Callous and Krap, or will it be full of vital, challenging, creativity, shaped with care? Time to take your pen up again, creator. And write your legends anew. The Crunch: This is a game of Thirsty Sword Lesbians (a Powered by the Apocalypse game), using the Through the Looking Glass adventure prompt. Genre leans towards Heist. Shape your own narrative past and present, with shocking-yet-inevitable reveals (a new thing to spend those Strings on!) The Charm: Want to fight with swords made out of your fanfic ideas (be they Old Shames, Magnum Opuses, or anything in between)? Do it! Want to sink Toxic 'Ships in literal pirate raids? We've got yer back, Cap'n! Want to make that character who is totally into that other character say "I love you" back, corporate meddling be darned? Don't we all!? Fandom for the fans. Come fantasize with me.

Additional Details

How to prepare

A basic familiarity with PbtA is helpful but not required. An enthusiasm for fandom and all the glorious, crazy, and yes, sometimes silly things we do is required. This is a celebration of fan communities and transformative works. Consider what genres you like. Building our fictional fandom will be step one.

What I provide

I will bring TSL assets, rules, and a long history of being a fan, fanfic writer, and general lover of shared creation.

Gameplay details

This game will involved shipping, shipping wars, and possibly even torpedoing. Also, since it's Thirsty Sword Lesbians, players may flirt with one another. It's part of the conceit. Lines and Veils will be established at the start - we want everyone to be comfortable.

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

Lines and Veils
X, N, and O Cards

How will character creation work

Character creation for a PbtA game is playbook based. Pick a playbook (think of it as your class or archetype), pick some options, and most importantly, decide what those mean. Since relationships (all those strings that bind us) are important, character creation is somewhat collaborative, and will be done in-session.

Players can expect

What's StartPlaying?

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