sapphic-scarlet-dynast

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

Playing Starfield again and the anti-fandom around this game is so fascinating. Like every day on the starfield reddit it seems there are people who are like 'i tried this game and its actually really good? why does everyone hate it' and there will be legions of reply guys doing damage control and effectively gaslight op into changing their mind and hating it. Wild.

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

famously, the only indie ttrpg is monsterhearts, the only queer ttrpg is thirsty sword lesbians, and the only experimental ttrpg is fiasco.

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

Credit where credit is due on the big twist of Fallout 4; the reveal that Shaun is the now-elderly director of the Institute comes part and parcel with the realization that with the death of Kellogg- who, as it turns out, was basically turned over to you as an olive branch- the institute is now completely free of anyone who has actually wronged you personally; your straightforward, no-further-justification-needed revenge quest has been cut off at the knees. Which does, in fact, clear the way for you to evaluate The Institute as it actually currently exists and not as the amorphous boogeyman you were planning on John Wicking as little as five minutes ago; if you stand against them it's going to have to be on general principle, based on what they've done to others, and on the flip side a sufficiently amoral character, absent the roadblock of a personal umbrage, is completely in the clear to throw in with them for comfort and power. They did not square the circle on this because they cannot square the circle on anything. But in the abstract it's a pretty clever piece of storytelling- where are you going to direct that narrative-propelling righteous anger when it turns out that institutional turnover has beaten you to the punch? Were you ever actually angry at the machine, or just at the specific cogs? Are you playing as the kind of person who thinks that there's a difference?

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

Not a fan of New Vegas in general, but Honest Hearts is so racist that I'm genuinely surprised that it got made. It's a story where Native American coded tribes, who are shown as either noble savages or just barbaric savages, are largely used as set pieces for the stories of the two white Mormons. The plot just revolves Daniel and Joshua, and what they want the Zion tribes to do, the story only really cares about them, and is particularly concerned about the genocidal warlords (Joshua) path to redemption, something it doesn't do well either imo. And not only that, but in every ending to the DLC that I remember the White Legs, who are just painted as comically incompetent savages, face near total genocide, and the only time the story seems to care about that is when totally wiping them out might ruin Joshua's chance at redeeming himself.

Replayed Honest Hearts. Actually somehow more racist than I remembered. How the fuck did this come out in 2011? The Dead Horses are literally from a Native American reservation, the Sorrows are from a place called "The School" (perhaps a residential school?). Daniel treats the Sorrows like children, none of the tribes have their leaders present able to voice their feelings on Joshua's and Daniel's ideas. Even the representatives we do get don't have strong feelings either way and just praise their two white male leaders. The Sorrows' Shaman is literally played as a joke and nothing more. At no point are you allowed to question the ethics of two Mormons "teaching the good word" (see trading aid for conversions) to these Tribes.

It's fucking infuriating.

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

I cannot overstate this enough.

There is no single person more responsible for the aesthetics and design of modern Fallout than Adam Adamowicz.

Fallout and many of its designs were of course established prior to Adam's involvement with the series, but his work on Fallout 3 brought an astounding depth and detail to a world he had full vision for.

His concept work was the foundation that the game designers intensely relied on and its astounding how closely his concepts were translated into the game.

I just went through all 800+ concepts he did for Fallout 3 and it is fucking *insane* how he seemingly designed almost everything for that game, at least at the conceptual level.

From mutants-

To robots-

To the buildings-

To guns-

To the details and vibe of the decayed metro-

Adam's artistic vision and creativity was behind the style and design of the entire game.

Adam was a generational talent and he left the world too soon.

Bless him and RIP.

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

the most important thing to realize for a safe and healthy work day is that lunars are hiding in the trash, in graves, and in coffins

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

I am confident if they catch the United shooter he will have some absolutely bizarre politics.

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

"Esoteric" is a piece of media that is impenetrable to the uninitiated.

"Esotericism" is the process of analyzing a piece of media as if it is esoterica, in order to extract hidden secrets.

Taylor Swift lyrics are not esoteric, but some of her fans find evidence of homosexuality through esotericism.

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

put three f/f ships you like in the tags. doesnt matter how obscure or embarrassing the media, go for it. and no, your m/m ship doesnt count as women

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

This is one of the most dystopian things I've ever read like TO PROTECT LIBERAL DEMOCRACY WE ARE ENDING LIBERAL DEMOCRACY???

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

log onto tumblr and you learn that cowboys are secretly leftist and pirates are secretly leftist and superhero comics are secretly leftist and vikings are secretly leftist and greco-roman antiquity is secretly leftist and knights are secretly leftist and the concept of the appalachian region is secretly leftist and all genre fiction is innately secretly leftist and every animated show you ever watched as a kid is secretly leftist and you never have to think about the political subtext of anything ever and you log off tumblr and for some reason people are talking about a descent toward fascism

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

"kill them with kindness" WRONG. GHOST EATING TECHNIQUE

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

It is a tragedy that until recently I was unaware of Dragon Kings being a thing

Like you're telling me that I can play as dinosaur people in my Exalted game? Hell yeah!

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

Practicing drawing in a comic style. Just starting with moments from old Exalted games, although I think they will only be fun for people who were in said campaign.

Game context: This is an Occult 0, Socialise 0, Performance 0 Night Caste child paying her respect to the local sea gods.

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

I was about to make a joke about a tabletop RPG splat whose game-mechanical shtick is that they can perfectly parry any attack as long as their assailant didn't really expect it to work, but then it occurred to me that that's literally just how the Fair Folk in Exalted 2nd Edition work.

[sapphic-scarlet-dynast]

A few days late to this debate, but I think part of the reason satirical depictions of fascism, especially in sci-fi settings, often struggle and are adopted by fascists is they tend to make the fascists good at war, a thing fascists value, but were historically rubbish at.

---Bret Devereaux

I love reading Bret's Twitter comments off to the side on A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.