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Y’all are very strange creatures to show more empathy toward Caitlyn than the workers in the Lanes she gassed, just because they’re labeled as ‘criminals.’ It should be common sense that, given the state of Zaun, this might be the only way they can sustain themselves— a situation created by Piltover’s neglect and oppression. And let’s not forget, even kids were [forced to] work for the Chembarons. Gas is not going to go “minor detected, must swerve!!!”

But somehow, we gotta have this endless empathy for Caitlyn, as if her mom wasn’t also part of the problem. “The people of the underground deserve to breathe”— wow that’s like the bare minimum, thanks Cassandra.

All of the councilors (except maybe Mel? not sure) were against an independent Zaun. People were still living in horrible conditions. She’s in a position of power and is still complicit with all the other issues Zaunites face. Cassandra Kiramman was NOT a good person and she could’ve done so much more for Zaun than improve the air quality.

Do we even know what areas of Zaun were ventilated? Was it ever stated? /genq

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Here’s some Chronicles of Darkness thoughts for you.

So, Vampire: The Requiem (particularly in its first edition) gets a lot of flak for being kind of a watered down Vampire: The Masquerade. Whereas the other Chronicles of Darkness games really do reimagine their concepts— I mean, compare both Changeling games some time— Requiem struggles more to differentiate itself from its older sibling.

However, its second edition makes a really cool change, in my opinion.

So one of the defending aspects of Masquerade is, well, the Masquerade. Not just the notion that the supernatural hides from the mortal and mundane— that’s standard urban fantasy/horror. No, in Masquerade, that hiding is given focus as a delicate, brutal conspiracy. Part of the identity of that game is how perilous the position of the Kindred is, and how they are just beneath mortal scrutiny they are. It’s why it’s the name of the game.

Requiem… plays it a little differently, at least in 2E. They still have the Masquerade, they even still call it that, but it works in a really interesting way. See, one of the themes of Requiem is just how inhuman vampires are— and that’s a theme in Masquerade, too, but in VTM the focus is on monstrousness by way of immortality.

To lose your Humanity stat in Masquerade, you normally have to behave with deliberately cruelty, or at least reckless negligence, toward the wellbeing of others. Your Hunger makes you a monster, because it drives you to evil. It’s good stuff, I’ve written about it before!

But in Requiem, one of the ways you can lose Humanity is through— and this is a quote— “Surviving something that would hospitalize a human.” The reason being, well, humans can’t do that, not normally. But a vampire? Well, it can be hit by a truck, beaten and stabbed, hell, even shot in the head, and can walk it all off, with a bit of luck. Requiem takes the stance that, cool as that might be, it isn’t *human* in any sense. A lot of the ways you can lose Humanity in Requiem really do revolve around being inhuman in the most literal sense, in addition to being inhumane.

So what does that have to do with the Masquerade?

Well, here’s the thing about monsters: People are scared of them.

We love them too, sure. They’re enthralling, they’re fascinating, they’re impressive. That’s how the vampire lures you in. But when it wants you to go away? That’s what fear is for.

The Masquerade in Requiem is not a network of elders conspiring to silence mortal media institutions. It doesn’t need to be. All it has to be is the hesitance to knock on the apartment door of that sketchy neighbor during daylight hours, the impulse to rush home rather than linger when walking by that alley, the refusal to speak about what could be seen out of the bus window last night, if you looked closely enough.

To quote the book:

This is not about vampires needing to quake and hide, but about the fear humans have of what is hidden from them — just past the truth of Santa Claus and all the horrible adult revelations — the fear that if they shake even the most mundane structure, crawling things will fall out.

(V:TR 2E, p. 60, emphasis mine.)

And well, as much as I love the labyrinthine plots and schemes of VTM, something about VTR’s notion of what hiding from mortals really is sticks with me.

I’ve never really felt like some shadowy vampire puppet master is pulling strings to keep me from finding out about him, you know?But that there might be something horrible down there in the dark, that sends me racing up the stairs, even though I should know better… That I’ve felt.

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Hey so apparently the Trump administration is trying to include Natives in his unconstitutional birthright citizenship end order. They haven't been non citizens since 1924. He trying to fucking reverse the Snyder Act.

A lot, if not all, of his plans impact natives in some way. Remember to keep advocating for native rights.

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People have objected to the comparison between D&D fans and gaylors in terms of imagined gayness but like. I'm sorry babes, but the gayness of D&D literally is imagined.

D&D has queer representation in its art and fiction, this is true. Does that representation actually matter for the sake of the themes of the game and its gameplay, as presented in the game? No. You can decide that your elf is gay, and hey, who wouldn't, but the game will just stare at you blankly and not do anything with that information. It's literally fluff in the same sense that your character having blue eyes or being left-handed is. As written the game has nowhere to go with from that information.

But even more so, the thing that inspired that post was people insisting that D&D's gameplay and fiction does somehow interface with queer experiences and is, actually, meaningfully about the experiences of a queer found family and sorry I'm not going to mince words here but that part you straight up did hallucinate.

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Girl dad Silco is a source of endless entertainment for me

Extra doodles:

Someone save Sevika, she is in hell

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Sometimes I wonder how so many people miss the point of Fallout when the villains of each game are:

1. Guy who wants to make a master race

2. Genocidal republicans

3. Genocidal republicans again

4. Misogynistic slave army

5. Technocratic slavers

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Running an epic year-long Exalted 3rd Edition campaign culminating in a confrontation with the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible purely to see the dawning horror in my players eyes as debate breaks down, blades are drawn, and as I cue up the music for the final battle they hear the opening notes of Megalovania.

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two cups water one cup rice

makes a treat that's very nice

rice for me and rice for you

rice to eat with bowl of stew

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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

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"D&D was always for the freaks and the outsiders" is one of those statements that is technically true but if you dig a bit under the surface you realize that the freaks and outsiders in question are Misogyny Steve and The Dungeon Racist.

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oh my god...

so the first screenshot is trying to look this up on tiktok normally, "donald trump rigged election" and it says that search violates community guidelines.

the second screenshot is looking up the same exact thing, but with a (australian) vpn on. canadian vpn didn't fix it fyi.

THIS is exactly the type of censorship to be looking out for on tiktok. this actually is crazy.

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The World of Ultimate Gaming

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It was all a fucking sham. Someone here called it: they'd be "down" a shortwhile, then Trump (the same Trump who started the whole idea to ban it in the first place) would "come in and save TT". Watch the only mass social media in the us not property of an American company get bought out anyways, and Trump to go in history not as a censor, but as a "saviour of tik tok"

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Outraged by the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell family or friends. The one person he told was a ProPublica reporter.

This is such a wild story like holy shit dude

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Would anyone like to join me in my New Year's tradition of reading about good things that happened this year?