2020 Yuletide Fandom Promo Post

[crantz]

Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!

Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign ups!

Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!

Suggested form to use:

<b>FANDOM NAME</b>:
<b>WHAT MAKES IT GREAT</b>:
<b>WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional)</b>:


For reference, last year's promo post!


This post on LJ

Comments

Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind

[sheliak]

FANDOM NAME: Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind

WHAT IS IT?: An interactive fiction/turn based strategy hybrid video game, about myth, choices, and stealing your neighbors’ cows, set in the distant, mythic past of the fantasy world Glorantha.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:
The world is incredibly detailed—especially in terms of myth and culture—and incredibly weird. Myths are literally true; disease happens because of disease spirits that shamans can banish, and the gods can show up in person, though because they are not beings of time their perspective can be odd.

Your prominent clan members are characters with names, faces, personalities, obsessions, strengths and weaknesses. They age, die, and sometimes get engaged to two people at once and make you deal with the fallout. A few have a chance at heroic destinies—only a chance; it’s up to you to actually make it happen.

Also, it’s gorgeous. The entire game is illustrated, mostly in watercolor with some carefully chosen exceptions; it’s all fantastically detailed and beautiful.





WHAT CHARACTERS ARE NOMINATED?: Nominated characters include two mortal heroes (Redalda and the Former Wheel), four different gods (Ekarna, goddess of trade; Elmal, who stepped up to become head of the pantheon after his father's death; his daughter Osara, a formerly domestic goddess who discovered a warrior aspect as her people changed; Elmal's son Zarlen, god of explorers), the demigoddess Cenala (heart of one of the major storylines of the game), and the genderfluid trickster spirit Raven.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Steam, Good Old Games, iOS App Store.

The Traitor Son Cycle

[blackswanseer]

FANDOM NAME: The Traitor Son Cycle - Miles Cameron

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: The first book starts out with what seems a simple enough premise: a mercenary company is hired on to protect an abbey from monstrous incursions. But it soon becomes apparent that something more is going on: with the monsters, the nuns, even the captain of the company defending them. In the subsequent books, things explode into a fight for the multiverse.

The series alternates between massive battles and incredible displays of magic, as well as day to day moments of character interaction and growth. It is not set on earth but does model itself on numerous real life nations from the Medieval period, including England, France, the Byzantine Empire and more. The author is a historical reenactor and there’s a lot of detail about armor and weapons and the realties of combat.

The magic system is fascinating and we continue to learn more about it throughout the series.

The books are ‘fic-able’ at any point - even if you’ve just read The Red Knight (first book), there’s lots of room for ideas and stories.

I think one of my favorite aspects of the books is the number of times the initial presentation of a character is subverted by the bigger picture that eventually becomes clear:

That who seems initially like a caricature of a vapid blonde beauty proves to have one of the most iron wills of the entire cast and wields it to save herself, her child, and later, much more, against an overwhelming antagonist.

That an old village woman who lived her life as a seamstress proves to have one of the most powerful magical talents known in the world.

That a cocky, almost dismissive young man turns out to be the one later agonizing over the understanding that saving the world means nothing if everyone dies of famine soon afterward and works to do something about it. (I mean, so many fantasy tales never even consider the impact of frequent mass battles destroying farm land, killing the people who would farm and harvest, etc., nevermind work to address it in text.)

That who seems at first blush like the wizard version of a tech bro stereotype instead comes across as a realistically socially awkward teenager who slowly evolves throughout the books. And furthermore, one who starts concocting ideas for magical ‘washing machines’ and birth control once he realizes how impactful not having those is to women’s lives.

That the ‘monsters’ we think we’ve been shown in the beginning are revealed as people in their own right, simply ones with different mentalities and cultures and desires than humans.

That amidst great warriors and powerful sorcerers, a laundress can be a hero in her own right.

A general warning on the overall series is, there’s a lot of character death. The battles are brutal and the author doesn’t pull punches.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): Paperback and eBook available on numerous bookselling websites. I’ve seen at least the first book, The Red Knight available at some libraries (including eBook versions, so try Libby).

Re: The Three Musketeers (2011 Anderson)

[corinalannister]

This movie is great, I loved it! It was quite comical at times too. So many opportunities for romantic shipping too.

Re: The Three Musketeers (2011 Anderson)

[corvidology]

It really was fun. :D

Re: 鹿鼎記 / The Duke of Mount Deer (Hong Kong 1984)

[trascendenza]

This looks VERY relevant to my interests, thank you!!

Re: 鹿鼎記 / The Duke of Mount Deer (Hong Kong 1984)

[grayswandir]

:D

Re: Surfing RPF 🤙🏽

[bustedxflush]

Holy cow, the rabbit holes this post is sending me down! I don't know whether I should be thanking or cursing you ...

Asimov's Caliban series by Roger MacBride Allen

[ololon]

FANDOM NAME:Caliban Series by Roger MacBride Allen
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:Do you love Isaac Asimov's Robot Series? Wish there was more in that universe? Only found stuff that sucked? Well this doesn't! After reading Asimov's robot series as a teenager far too long ago, I was desperate for more, but the sequels like Robot City I found pretty awful, and, although the Foundation/Robot combination series by big authors like Greg Bear et al was very good, it wasn't pure robot stuff. But I discovered these books by Roger MacBride Allen and was delighted: well written (without clunky 50s sexism in either), with the old-school murder mystery like the Asimov robot books, and with a really refreshing idea. The New Law robots, created to get around some of the issues of the Three Law robots, are a clever idea, explored thoughtfully, and Caliban, who is rather different, is a great robotic character. The human characters are interesting, realistic and engaging too. But I'm the only person I know who seems to have read them! And there's so little fanfic it's so sad...
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?:Well, er you could try your local library or secondhand bookshops. They don't seem that recently in print, but a google search will pick them up in ebay and amazon, for example.

Re: Surfing RPF 🤙🏽

[shinyfakehard]

:DDD I had to fight down so many "AND ANOTHER THING!"s while writing this, the rabbit holes are endless.

Re: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF

[raspberryhunter]

I somehow didn't see this comment! OMG this is AMAZING and I am totally adding it to my letter :DDDD (That is, if it is OK with you! If not, just let me know :) )

West of Loathing (Video Game)

[netchslayer]

FANDOM NAME: West of Loathing
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:
It's a Weird West humorous RPG with stick figures. Spinoff of sorts of long-running free browser RPG Kingdom of Loathing, but playable with zero knowledge of the original (I only tried KOL after playing this game and had no problems). Set in fantasy Wild West filled with (even more) peril after The Cows Came Home…from some kind of Hell dimension. Also contains a Necromancer, cult of some kind of Elder Deity, and alien robots (but leaning toward Eldritch side), to say nothing of friendlier ghosts, plant-based goblins and bean magic. There is no Ministry of Silly Walks, but there is an option for player character to perform them. Teeming with puns. You will want to look at descriptions of everything.

Battles are turn-based. There is the food/drink capacity (varying on build) and you can have a pardner + maybe summons depending on pardner and your own class. No free saves, but no real death either, just a bit of a setback (strike one gets you to the entrance of the area, strike two sends you to the main hub, but traveling doesn’t take much time and resting removes the effect). Pardner serves the function of the quest log.

Some grind is necessary, but I managed to finish my last playthrough of the base game within a day of nothing else to do - but with a walkthrough+previous experience to speed things through. But for a short and simple affair, it’s packed with content in terms of worldbuilding. It also has some interesting RP opportunities, like repeating certain actions giving you permanent traits - and it’s not a trick based on "moon logic". Of course being stabbed by cacti a lot will affect your skin. This also increases replayability - and each class/pardner is worth at least one spin, and you might be interested in trying out different horses too.

There is also a murder mystery DLC inspired by Winchester Mansion.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): GOG, Steam, Switch and Stadia.

Way Station - Clifford D. Simak

[hokuton_punch]

Title: Way Station - Clifford D. Simak

Medium: Book

Approximate length: One volume, not very long (100-150 pages, if memory serves)

Where to find it: Local libraries or bookstores

What is it: A 1963 novel (and Hugo winner) about a Union soldier, Enoch Wallace, who is granted immortality in exchange for running what is basically an alien train station out of his home.

What I love about it: It's worth a read completely for the premise, which had me from the start, but in addition, it's also just a lovely book with clean, vivid prose that paints a fascinating picture of a vast and varied intergalactic society that Enoch gets to be a small part of. I love Enoch's open and curious and accepting attitude toward it all and the friendships he makes, particularly his friendships with Ulysses (the alien who first offers him the job) and Lucy Fisher (a local deaf and mute girl who ends up key to the overarching plot). It's a great canon for all kinds of worldbuilding and has an open ending with room for many possibilities!

Content notes: It was written in 1963, so there's some occasionally dated language/attitudes.

[sailorhathor]

FANDOM NAME: Nirvana and/or The Foo Fighters (Music and Bands RPF)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Terrific music in the hard rock/grunge genre, good-looking guys, touching long-term friendships, and a bit of tragedy.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): Anywhere you can find music, or visit my pimping post here:

[sailorhathor]

I met Phillipa Pearce when I was 9 or 10 and got a copy of "Tom's Midnight Garden" signed by her. For some reason, she was coming to my school and they wanted two students who love to read to read this particular book (Tom's Midnight Garden) and tell her what they thought of it. My teacher chose me. Luckily, I loved the book and gave her a glowing review. She's one of only two people whom I can remember in my life who was able to spell my name right without me having to help them (my name is Laurel). 😁

[sophia_helix]

FANDOM NAME: The Butler’s in Love - Mark Stock
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a five second fandom! It’s a series of paintings of a butler experiencing the agony of love; resting his head against the wall in the course of his duties, maybe listening to the object of his affection or just too overcome to go on. There are great tragic and comic possibilities here, as well as openness to who he’s in love with — I just adore the idea of this controlled and proper man having to take a few moments to wrestle with his human feelings.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): https://twitter.com/miccaeli/status/1285220910203457538?s=21

[laulan]

FANDOM NAME: UFO Victorian Ladies (eeBoo Jigsaw Puzzle)


WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Five minute fandom, or maybe even five seconds! This is an extremely charming and colorful jigsaw puzzle by the company eeBoo that shows an Earth that experienced alien contact sometime before the Victorian era. Accordingly, fashion and society have been influenced by alien visitors. The puzzle shows several ladies who have UFO-affected fashion, including the four below:



There's so much to explore here! You could look at this illustration from a lot of different perspectives: what was the effect of alien contact on fashion? Who are these ladies? What was the effect of alien contact on colonialist perspectives of colonizers in that era? Did alien contact change history? Are aliens living on Earth and courting these ladies? Etc. etc. there's just so many things you could really chew on in this picture, I think.

[tjs_whatnot]

I am listening to Stephen King's book now and had NO IDEA it had been made into a series. Now I got to hurry up and finish reading/listening so I can watch. ♥

Re: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF

[mildred_of_midgard]

Hi! cahn pointed me to this idea, which is fantastic. I'm a fan of dysfunctional Fritz/Peter III, and I would love to read that fic or anything like it.

I've seen you around, and I'm always delighted by your Peter III fics and Yuletide gifts and hope for your requests to be filled.

Thus, in the spirit of the fandom promo post, I would like to say: you're more than welcome to come chat with us about 18th century history. We'd love to have someone who's more knowledgeable about Russia than we are! I've read some of your blog posts with great interest, and I think you'd fit right in in our fannish + scholarly space.

In other words, we are literally asking your opinion. :)

[moon_custafer]

The tv version is a fair bit different— one of the characters nominated was created for the tv version.

[100indecisions]

Not sure how much point there is to posting this with only one day to go until signups close, but...worth a shot, probably! Also anyone reading this will probably notice most of these fandoms have something in common, whoops.

FANDOM NAME: Avengers Academy (Video Game)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This silly little mobile game shut down almost two years ago and I still miss it, despite all the frustration involved in loving a game packed to the gills with microtransactions. The premise was really fun: it was a new Marvel universe with younger versions of a whole bunch of Marvel characters (even villains, with a few exceptions), drawing from the MCU and comics and ranging from extremely popular to very obscure, and for various reasons they were all going to school together. The art was great and the writing was top-notch, and it was really fun both seeing new aspects to familiar characters and meeting completely new ones, and then watching them play off each other. The overarching plot about the timefog wasn't really fleshed out by the end, so that's a good avenue for fic, and it's just as good for feelings, fluff, and hijinx.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: If you didn't play it while it was around, unfortunately there's no way to play it now. If you did play it and just want to refresh your memory, though, there's a lot of good info on the wiki and the subreddit. There might also be some Youtube videos, although I haven't checked that.

FANDOM NAME: Loki: Where Mischief Lies - Mackenzi Lee
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: If you like Loki in the MCU or the comics, you're probably already interested in this. It's not necessarily canon for either of those--like the other Marvel YA novels, it's kind of its own separate thing--but it's an interesting story that spends a lot of time digging into Loki's motivations when he was still young. Loki is also canonically queer in this. The great part for fic is that it's pretty open-ended: you could more or less fit this into MCU Loki's backstory (probably less so 616 Loki, although several elements haven't shown up in the movies), but you can also...not do that, and take it in any direction you like.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Anywhere you get your books. I was able to read it for free as an ebook because my library had it through Hoopla, so that's a good option to check.

FANDOM NAME: What If... Thor Was Raised by the Frost Giants? (Comics)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's Marvel comics, but it's also an almost completely self-contained story that doesn't require loads of other reading! It's also a fascinating AU of just how different Thor and Loki's lives could have been if Odin had been defeated during the battle with Jotunheim, and it presents all kinds of possibilities for future stories in this AU or just slice-of-life stories about Thor and Loki growing up. It's also very open-ended, which is just kind of begging for followup fics.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Anywhere you get comics. The digital version is $2 on Comixology. I'm pretty sure it's also on Marvel Unlimited, which does have a free 7-day trial.

FANDOM NAME: The Bifrost Incident (album by The Mechanisms)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: I don't actually know much about The Mechanisms but apparently they do complicated concept albums, and this one twists up Norse mythology with steampunk space trains and Lovecraftian cosmic horrors. And I need fic.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Looks like it's all on Youtube.

FANDOM NAME: Silent Hill 3
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Silent Hill 2 is more of a classic in a lot of ways, but this game also has ridiculous amounts of ambience and symbolism--and although I think 2 works better as a self-contained story, 3 is my favorite because of Heather Mason, the game's protagonist, who shows herself to be incredibly tough despite a WHOLE BUNCH of trauma. The plot is a direct sequel to the first Silent Hill game and it does get convoluted at times, but ultimately it's about a teenage girl fighting to reclaim her agency from the people who tried to make her an object for their own ends, and I love that type of story.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Well, if you happen to have a PS3 or Xbox 360, you can play the HD version, which basically everybody hates but I thought it was fine, maybe just because I didn't know better). Compared to other options (mainly the original PS2 version), I think it's still reasonably priced. Otherwise you're mostly looking at emulators and the subreddit has some good info. Or of course there are always Youtube videos--this one is nearly five hours long and it's supposed to be the whole game without commentary.

Re: Cheias de Charme | Sparkling Girls (TV)

[quandtuniverse]

I came back just to say I've somehow roped 5 more friends into helping me with fansubs so this might actually become reality sometime in the near future :'D Right now we're just watching through the show because some of them have never seen it before, but as soon as we're done with that (sometime in mid-November, at this rate) we'll get started on translating!

[karinathebookworm]

FANDOM NAME:Endgame Series by James Frey
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's a little bit like the hunger games but on a greater scale. Twelve teenager from different lines of humantiy are set up to fight in some sort of deadly game whose line while survive. Only one player can survive in the end.
The whole series is exciing to read. There is no plot armour for any of the characters and the cast is really international.

Re: Extraordinary You (K-drama)

[serkestic]

I've been trying to find an eng version of the webtoon for ages... would uou happen to know?

Re: Extraordinary You (K-drama)

[umanothing]

It's fully translated on Mangadex: https://mangadex.org/title/29776/july-found-by-chance/chapters/

Cozy Grove, Greenglass House, The Twisted Monastery Fortress

[spoke]

FANDOM NAME: Cozy Grove
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Ghosts! Adorableness! Fishing, cooking and bug catching! Occasionally vividly creepy things!

The premise is that sometime in the world's past, people started being able to see ghosts and other things, and it shows in a person's eyes - no pupils, just solid color. Whatever happens in history in regards to this is only slightly touched on in letters to the main character, a Spirit Scout (yes, like Girl Scouts) who is on their solo camping trip to move up in their training, yay!

This is not the island you were supposed to land on, you won't be leaving for awhile, and 'people' in this world includes anthropomorphic bears. Have fun, Scout! >:D

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): I've got it on Switch, and I know it's available on Steam also.

FANDOM NAME: Greenglass House Series - Kate Milford
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: A children's book series with ghosts and a very subtle but pervasive sort of magic that covers time travel and alternate realities, as well as... let's call it iron of questionable sentience. The main stories started in the Greenglass House, built by a smuggler for his wife and two kids, with the glass having been collected from various places for his daughter. More recently it's been moving into the nearby city of Nagspeake, but all of the books are set in a shared reality the author calls the Roaming World.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): https://clockworkfoundry.com/

FANDOM NAME: The Twisted Monastery Fortress by Sandro Del-Prete
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Since this one is artwork, the answer is also the link below, sadly the best resolution image I could find
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): https://im-possible.info/images/art/delprete/the-master-of-illusions/162.jpg