#and then gives randomly-generated obstacles and opportunities for that goal

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than undies

Preview of a kinky villain-vs-hero scenario maker where I haven't really gotten to much of the kink part yet and I might not finish it because I mainly wanted to play around with the idea of having a few randomly-selected parts of the scenario to base your choices around and that part's done already. I could probably pivot into a pure sfw version instead

Kinky Supervillain Scenario Maker

You're going to become a kinky supervillain, with the goal of defeating your hero nemesis and subjecting them to kinky torment! First, create your nemesis by rolling a six-sided die (https://www.random.org/dice/?num=1) or just choosing.

Your nemesis is: 1: A femme fatale, wielding seduction and allure in addition to combat prowess. Not necessarily female; femboy fatales are all the rage in this city! 2: A calculating genius, an expert at gathering information who relies on plans and preparation to win the day. 3: A brash hothead, whose extreme skill and talent are surpassed only by their confidence and ego. 4: A grim vigilante, who takes everything seriously and never lets their guard down. 5: A novice prodigy, gifted with especially strong powers, but with very little experience using them in combat. 6: A team leader, weak on their own, but commanding a small squad of other low-power heroes.

Their power is: 1: Super strength. They can throw cars and punch through walls, making them dangerous up close and difficult to restrain. 2: Shapeshifting. They can change their appearance for stealth and espionage, or transform into animals for combat. 3: Psionics. They can read minds with telepathy or throw objects around with telekinesis. 4: Gadgets. A wide arsenal of weapons, vehicles, and/or other tools make up for their lack of powers. 5: Pyromancy. 6:

But they have a weakness: 1: They're very sensitive to touch, and this can even break their focus during combat. 2: Their powers work on a strict time limit, after which they're completely powerless for a good while. 3: They secretly enjoy being helpless and at a villain's mercy, making them less likely to resist or escape once defeated. 4: They avoid seriously hurting you, for either legal or personal reasons. 5: They're naive, oblivious, and gullible. 6: They share one of your kinks.

You have your own powers and assets, purchased with Villainy Points. You have [INSERT NUMBER HERE] VP to buy perks, and you can get more by picking drawbacks. By default, each perk costs 1 VP.

Copycat: Pick a power from the hero power table to gain, but it's slightly weaker than the hero's version. You can spend an extra +1 VP to make it just as strong, and a further +1 VP to make it even stronger!

Flight: You can fly around, letting you get wherever you want and making you difficult to catch. For +1 VP, you can fly super fast!

Illusions: You can make illusions that are convincing at a glance, but are slightly transparent. For +1 VP, they'll be properly opaque, and they'll be able to trick the other senses too.

Hypnosis: Mind control! It works easily on civilians, but to use it on someone powerful, you'll need to wear them down first. It wears off with time, but you can implant triggers for a strategic advantage or a funny prank.

Handy Henchmen: You get a gang of goons that obey you without question. They aren't very smart or strong, but you've got a lot of them. For +1 VP, they're strong and skilled, and of average intelligence.

Villainous Vehicle: A car, a blimp, or even a submarine, you get whatever vehicle you want, tricked out with all sorts of special features and gadgets. You can buy this multiple times to get multiple vehicles, or one vehicle that can switch between forms.

Evil Lair Deluxe: You already had a lair, of course, but now it's got everything a villain could ever want! Supercomputer, defense turrets, sex dungeon, all the necessities!

Power-Sealing Cuffs: Lock a super in these handcuffs, and their powers will disappear. They're big and heavy, so using them in combat is difficult, but they're great for capturing! For +2 VP, you can make them lighter and easier to use in combat, even changing their shape into something such as a whip.

Filthy Rich: You might already have money that you used to buy your other perks, but ill-gotten gains are hard to use outside the black market. Now you have loads of money to spend legally! Unfortunately, the black market doesn't accept cash, only VP. For +1 VP, you go from millionare to billionare; anything that can legally be done with money, you can do it.

Escape Artist: No matter how the hero corners you, you always have some trick up your sleeve to escape back to your lair. If the hero wants to capture you, they'll have to find your base and challenge you on your home turf!

[eraoflegendshack-blog]

Era of Legends

ERA OF LEGENDS: Dragon Discord is a brand-new mobile android and ios video game. Invite for the brand-new Android computer game, an unlimited globe loaded with fights, marvels and also expedition! Begin Period of Legends Generator, as well as next pick your training course and also sign up with the WAR!

Era of Legends Hack 

What do you require to understand about ERA of LEGENDS?

You will certainly have more fun with your friends. If you want to select one that matches your playing style, reviewed them and allow us understand what personality you chose! era of legends classes has a massive fantasy globe that will surely need a wonderful period of exploration. The above demands indicate that the game is currently the most ideal choice with a stunning 3D photo system and many outstanding fighting abilities. It incorporates the very best attributes of mobile games and also crucial features of the best MMORPGs.

Essentially, you must be accurate in strikes as well as placing, as well as look out for lots of opponent assaults in PvP, due to the fact that you will more than likely be the target of a significant number. Manager fights are also not unusual, due to the fact that you can sign up with forces with your allies as well as make long-lasting friendships. Similarly, you can normally influence more based rivals, no matter the level at which you are.

Regardless, gamers also experience a diversified personality system with extreme PVP obstacles as well as a selection of eye-catching functions that will certainly make you play better. Amateur gamers are incredibly competitive, ranking players who do not take cash to play. As a whole, many non-endemic gamers are starting to take note "states Beck.

It is apparent that each course has its very own well-defined feature. So you need to scientifically develop a character advancement approach to raise the personality's degree. You must utilize your skills at the ideal minutes to go from the method of enemy assaults and make an initiative not to drop as well much behind your team. In the first area, this method is completely safeguarded.

Fundamental details about ERA of LEGENDS

You are totally free to select your own course! The game is free, fast and also straightforward. You will obtain an option of 3v3 games together with 5v5 battles. Additionally, there are a lot of attributes that can still keep the Magic Beasts game players that you can accumulate, help you in the battle or give you with extra stats. While playing in the Era of Legends, you can experience the very best attributes of mobile video games along with the quality of the MMORPG category.

Video game Modes

PvP arenas-- catch flags or materials, battle 3 vs 3 or 5 vs 5, show the globe exactly how actual smart device warriors struggle! A group of competing travelers will find what things to occupy themselves with. Tactical extravaganza, gorgeous layout, together with a boundless stream of tales in addition to memes!

Dungeons and also raids-- The most effective way to place in hack cheats Era of Legends

Era of Legends Classes

There are numerous training courses you might choose from such as:

Assassin: powerful single goal breaking abilities, does melee damage Witch: summons animals to deal with as well as applies black harm and also debuffs, has a substantial variety Medicine man: This is the event healer and also buffer, his capacities are ranged and also have an AoE Mage: Has raised AoE damage utilizing a variety

You can  also check this website to dicover other news and read more about Era of Legends.

Era of Legends - is it a fraud?

The person can pick an arbitrary switch to randomly select any kind of personality from the vote or to hunt for the character after the video game. There are additionally numerous PvP modes for individuals who are itchy for perfect fit. For beginners, the autoplay attribute is completely shut off in the dungeon, which compels you to play the game. Versus bossom, you will not observe substantial damages brought upon in secs, such as Awesome, however rather you deal high as well as continuous damages. You do not have to worry that your account will certainly be prohibited. Hack is not noticeable by the video game and consequently you do not need to fret about restrictions.

Charming magic monsters in the android video game is mosting likely to assist you from the hardest struggles, heal your injuries, and also elevate your damage and guard. The world is so massive it is going to spend some time to catch even in the elevation of a griffin flight. It's the most effective area to explore one-of-a-kind landscapes, fix challenges, hunt for concealed treasures alone or together with family and friends. Develop your history.

Personalities: warrior-- securing their allies or wrecking their adversaries, warriors are regularly the frontline of any kind of problem. Shaman-- use their soul affinity to treat allies and damage adversaries, as well as also to mobilize Exotic animals to help them in conflict. Mage-- are specialists of all parts. Priest-- may heal the direst of wounds and also revive the dead to life. Possessing the power of the gods, priest are effective at inflicting huge sacred damage. They can puzzle their foes with powerful curses and also summon effective satanic forces to help them. Their quick movement makes them optimal in striking opponent back lines. Their elevated defense and wellness makes them excellent at holding opponents.

Items Monitoring and Cooperations

The like in any kind of MMORPGs if you relocate do some event instances as well as dungeons, also Globe Bosses, they'll fall lots of honors. Well, these advantages are split between each of the members of this event that battled together, which implies you'll need to chance to get it. There's the opportunity to end up being covetous (insist items by yourself) or proceed the things to the participants of your event, so if it's no use for your program be generous and only enable the others possess it. It is far better to talk with your comrades as opposed to keep every little thing yourself because there might be a point that's instead uncommon to find and in the event that you can not use that, after that it is a waste to have it. Era of legends download

Update Your Capabilities and Equipment On A Regular Basis You require to always maintain your abilities updated at all times, by doing you will certainly care for the adversaries a lot, much easier. Today for your Secret Art, every character has 6 unique Things Arts. Try them out on your own or see a few videos on Youtube as well as gear up those that you appreciate the longer and match your play design.

Bear in mind that the roughest capacity may not constantly be the largest of these, so when you choose two you wish to keep, check out different orders.

[hogwartstarot]

The Quidditch Spread

Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind Peeves and turned to face the two boys.

“Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood - I´ve found you a Seeker.”

Wood´s expression changed from puzzlement to delight.

“Are you serious, Professor?”

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer´s Stone. Ch. 9 The Midnight Duel

For those times you are up against a crafty rival or have a huge problem to solve, you can take inspiration in Harry Potter´s beloved Quidditch sport.

The Rules are quite simple, you are given Nine cards and just only Six Turns to find the Golden Snitch. If you find the Golden Snitch within those six turns, your team is awarded 150 points it is a nice augur that things will turn out in your favor. Nevertheless, the cards you flip in your search for the Golden Snitch are cards that offer further insight into your situation and your ability to solve it or the complications found along the way that you should be aware of.

Begin this spread by selecting a Significator, something that represents your dream. Put this card aside for this is the fabled Golden Snitch. Next, get it on with our patented Card Shuffling Ritual and randomly choose eight cards. Shuffle those eight cards with the Golden Snitch Card until not even Hermione would know where it hides. Finally, arrange all nine cards forming a circle for these shall represent the Quidditch Stadium.

THE READING:

Is quite simple. This a Qudditch Match and you are the Seeker in search for the Golden Snitch (your dreams/ what you wish to accomplish). You are given just SIX TURNS to find the Golden Snitch and win the game.

You are going to read the Spread in whatever order you see fit. You can start flipping the card in position number 3, then the one in position number five, then the one in position number one… you get the idea! Those position DO have Standard Meanings and Special Meanings. The Standard Meanings are the basic meanings when you read the spread normally, the Special Meanings depend on whether you found the Golden Snitch in that position WITHIN the Six Turns you are alloted.

The Referee: This is the guiding and moderating universal or mundane force that watches over the situation as it plays itself. If the Golden Snitch is found in this position, it means that the success will come if you follow the rules and play nice.

Your Team´s Goal Posts: This represents the common interest that you share with your loved ones and how this fits in with your objective: that which you want to accomplish. If the Golden Snitch is found here, that means that victory will come if you keep prioritizing your loved one´s interests and making sure they align well with your wish.

The Quaffle: This is you main way of scoring points, right? In Muggle-speak, this position indicates the foundation of your success, that which is essential for you to reach your objectives. But, be careful, if you find this card reversed then it means that you are losing ground because “your opponent” is wining and has the Quaffle in their possesion, meaning that you are going about your plans the wrong way. If the Golden Snitch is found in this place, it means that your bravery, hard work, dedication, intelligence and cunning are quite aligned and you shall get a very strong opportunity to seize victory.

Your Cheering Friends: Those forces and friends that empower and cheer you on, whose presence is important for achieving victory. If the Golden Snitch is found here, this augurs that soon your loved ones will give you something necessary for you to achieve your dream.

The Commentator: How others see you while you are playing this real life game, scathingly critiquing your or glowingly praising you. If reversed, it is criticism if it is a negative card. If upwards and a negative card, the criticism is not aimed at you but at your opponents. If it is a positive card, the positivity is diminished if reversed and if upwards is explosive praise about yourself. If the Golden Snitch is found here, play close attention to what others are saying to find the winning lead to achieve your desire.

Your Booing Enemies: This card represents the negative LIES they tell to you (or say about you) about yourself, or the scathing criticism that lives inside your head that ultimately sabotages you. If the Golden Snitch is found here it indicates that you should evaluate (with or without additional cards for insight) the way you are treating yourself. It means you should heal first before attempting to achieve your dreams.

The Bludgers: Obstacles and general nasty negativity preventing you from achieving what you want. If reversed, pay more attention because this isn´t just Bludgers almost hitting you, this is a nosebleed or an arm broken, figuratively speaking. If the Golden Snitch is found here, it means victory is to be achieved paying a high price. Beware you ambitions for they can give you what you want but taking away what you need and love the most.

Your Opponent´s Goal Posts: Those things already putting you into disadvantage, that may seem dire BUT they are NOT the end of you and your dreams. If the Golden Snitch is found here, it means victory shall come after a dark period, for there is light at the end of the tunnel even if darkness reigns.

Witchcraft and Wizardry: This card represents more of a spiritual matter. This represents energy at play that can work in your favor (like when Hermione cast the Impervius Charm on Harry´s glasses when the match was held under heavy rain) or against you (like when Quirrell was jinxing Harry´s Nimbus 2000 to kill him. Yikes!). This is Fate, this is Magick, this represents enchantments helping your or curses hindering you, or even something greater. If the Golden Snitch is found here, it means victory can come if you perform a good enough spell, empower your soul, do shadow work, pray for it, do meditation, and/or strive for harmony. It can mean that it will come sooner or later, but never because you force it.

Additional Notes: You have only Six Turns to find the Golden Snitch. If you find the Snitch within those Six Turns, the Special Meaning is Activated and is a good sign that things will turn out for the best. Nevertheless, whether you find the Golden Snitch or not within those six turns, I encourage you to read ALL the cards for the advice found in their Standard Meanings.

[jjmakesgames]

JJ’s Thoughts: August 25th, 2020

TL,DR: In this week’s workshop, we started pitching racing games. This post also has a postmortem on Stuck.

the workshop

This week, our main focus was on coming up with a racing game and giving an elevator pitch for our racing game concept. To be honest, this sort of genre was something I struggled with the most. My previous elevator pitches came from a personal goal to introduce a new way to design those respective genres in terms of mechanic or story worlds, but I struggled with coming up with something that wasn’t as basic as a simple racing game that had players competing with other players or AI.

The first step I took into finding something unique with this racing game was researching ones that currently exist and are in circulation. The ones I thought were worth looking into were Sonic Team Racing and Mario Kart 8. The common denominator between these two games were that they both had power-up mechanics that gave the player benefits that could boost their chances of winning. I ended up wanting to use power-ups as a main focus for this racing game.

Still coming up with a blank for the game’s base concept, I ended up looking through this week’s lecture slides to find some inspiration. What caught my eye in the slides is the mention of the lizard, mouse and frog race. Basically, each animal had their own proficiencies and were better suited for a particular terrain. I kept thinking about that concept, and that ended up being the final pitch for the game.

so what’s the game?

Oilchange is an arcade-style game similar in style to Subway Surfers and Temple Run, where you are driving a car down a highway made of different types of roads. You’re main objective is to survive the road for as long as possible while collecting oil tanks that can change what terrain you can drive on.

There are three selling points to the game:

Fast , dynamic gameplay. The player will be launched into gameplay where they must think on their feet and make decisions quickly in order to attain a high score. Each replay will be different, as the game’s AI generates a new iteration of the highway with different terrains placed in a constantly changing pattern.

Greater risks for higher rewards. The game will reward the player with higher score multipliers, skins for their car and longer lasting power-ups the longer they survive on the highway. These rewards will encourage the player to not only try and beat their own record but also aim for better gifts in the game.

Eye-catching and non-distracting visuals. An idealised final version will have the game’s graphics represent that of the setting, where in different terrain types and obstacles are rendered from afar so that the player has some time to prepare their next move. The background of the city that this highway cuts through would also help players focus solely on the highway, as the city’s buildings will be animated to blur while the player drives by.

Tha game’s primary mechanic lies in the lane system. The highway consists of three lanes, and on each lane, the game’s AI will randomly generate one of four terrain types (water, sand, grass, rock) on top of the standard asphalt. The AI could generate these terrain types as either spots in the asphalt similar to potholes, or as roads spanning anywhere between one and all three of the lanes. To combat this, the player must also collect oil tanks that boosts the car’s capabilities, and each of the four oil tanks are colour coded to match the terrain type they allow the player to travel on. The catch is that the game’s AI will generate terrain and obstacles at much higher rates than it would the oil tanks themselves.

Oilchange’s target demographic would primarily be children aged 4-14 and those that enjoy short and sweet arcade games, and it would be recommended to those who enjoyed playing games such as Temple Run and Subway Surfers.

Stuck postmortem

What inspired the design process from both a conceptual and mechanical perspective was my experience with mental health. I found Stuck much less to be a game with a focus on playcentric design but rather a creative outlet for my struggles with anxiety and intrusive thoughts. A substitute for a therapist, if you will. For me, the idea of it came from an innate desire to actively acknowledge and disengage from negative and intrusive thoughts, and I wanted to use this opportunity to create something tangible out of it.

One thing I would change about how I developed Stuck would be the behaviour of the negative thoughts, as I mentioned in my last post. The current prototype has the player stuck in the middle of the chaos that is the thought bubbles, but the bubbles simply move around the game space and aren’t hostile. The original vision of the game had the bubbles approaching the player from all sides of the screen, gradually getting to the point of surrounding and overwhelming the player while also helping them feel like they could manage it. I’m aware of GDevelop’s and my own limitations, so I wasn’t too sure if I could implement that. But that’s something I would like to work on in the future.

In terms of design, I would change the assets and colouring of the game. Initially, it was mostly me playing around with creating my own assets and choosing colours that I found pleasing to look at. I would redesign the colour scheme around a bit of research into what colour spectrums people find soothing, and how that affects people’s mental health as well as those who have similar experiences. The assets I would simply redraw but make neater and smoother, as I’d like to keep the hand drawn aesthetic of the game.

[williamexchange]

7 reasons your email marketing campaigns aren’t generating revenue

Your database is growing, your emails look great, and you make it into recipients’ inboxes. You even have a decent open rate.

And yet, revenue from your email channel just isn’t growing.

If that sounds familiar, there’s no need to panic.

Here, we’ll dive into ten reasons your emails aren’t generating revenue - and how you can turn the situation around. We’ll also touch on why your emails might be contributing to more sales than you think.

1. You don’t have an engaged email list

Increasing visitor identification rate is key to increasing sales uplift from emails.

The more shoppers you can recognize, the more opportunities you have to follow up with relevant email content.

Strategically placed data capture forms can be combined with targeted popovers to increase your count of engaged subscribers.

Remember to be mindful of timing. Give shoppers the opportunity to view your website so they know what you have to offer before the popover appears.

When Feel Good Contacts introduced targeted popovers with personalized offers, the company saw a 333% increase in sign-ups month-over-month. And a significant portion of subscribers went on to make a purchase.

2. You’re sending generic marketing emails

Email remains consumers’ preferred way to be contacted by brands. So it’s tempting to adopt a one-size-fits all approach to email marketing.

Email remains consumers’ preferred way to be contacted by brands. So it’s tempting to adopt a one-size-fits all approach to email marketing.

But if you’re relying on this “spray-and-pray” approach, you’re almost certainly missing out on incremental revenue. There’s no guarantee that offers will be relevant to customers’ needs, or stimulating enough to drive conversions.

Audience segmentation lets you design very specific messages to help you meet your marketing KPIs. Here’s how it works:

1. Define a group of target customers

2. Send them a message that’s appropriate to their needs

3. Specifically tailor the message to increase conversions

A good first step is to segment your email list based on browse and purchase behavior. This will allow you to customize emails according to shoppers’ interests, life stage and place in the buying journey.

Research by Mailchimp has found that campaigns with basic segmentation achieve a click rate 100.95% higher than non-segmented campaigns.

Here are some simple ways you can slice and dice your email marketing list:

Shoppers who engaged with certain products or categories. For example, sending a brand-specific newsletter.

Shoppers who are very engaged on your website, but haven’t purchased yet. Convert these browsers into buyers by sending personalized coupons.

Lapsed shoppers who have regularly bought from you but haven’t done so for a while. Let them know you miss them and remind them why they love your brand.

Customers who frequently make a purchase. Keep them updated on new products, but don’t bombard them with special offers that will cannibalize their order value.

Shoppers viewing high value products. Identify shoppers who are viewing your high margin products, and send targeted emails to get them over the line to conversion.

3. Your email content isn’t compelling

If content doesn’t resonate with customers at the moment they open an email, you can’t expect them to click through and convert.

Dynamic email content is the easiest way to cut through the noise. Images and messaging are automatically personalized at the moment of open, based on the customer’s interests, their location, the date and time, or a combination of those.

While segmentation is about sending customers the most appropriate message, dynamic content is about making that message compelling.

Here are some ways to add dynamic content to bulk and triggered emails:

Personalized banners: A dynamic banner allows you to show each customer the image that’s most likely to spark their interest.

Product recommendations: Product suggestions can be based on individual behavior, crowdsourced data, business priorities, or a combination of all three.

Personalized coupons: Coupons can follow shoppers from emails to the website to maximize exposure and redemption rates.

Location and weather-based content: For instance, basing product recommendations on the local weather, or including a real-time weather forecast.

Marketers can also leverage real-time content to drive urgency, build trust, and encourage those all-important conversions.

Animated countdown timers: These can be used across channels to build excitement and let customers know about important dates.

Popularity messaging: Highlights trending items to build excitement and increase trust in your products.

Social proof: We found that 61 percent of customers look for product reviews when making a purchase, while more than half (56 percent) find star ratings helpful. Pull star ratings into product emails to reduce purchase hesitation.

4. You aren’t sending real-time emails

Promotional emails are a great way to stay on shoppers’ radar, and can be a good source of revenue.

Triggered emails take this to the next level by treating customers as individuals, sending them messages based on an action they’ve just taken.

Customers who raise a certain signal (such as abandoning a shopping cart) are automatically sent an email - or series of emails - that encourages them to take the next action (such as completing a purchase). This helps you get content in front of customers at the moment they’re most engaged.

When marketers send both abandoned cart and abandoned browse emails, sales uplift can exceed 10%.

Other common triggered emails include:

Welcome emails (when a shopper signs up for the newsletter)

Wishlist emails (when a customer abandons their Wishlist)

Price drop alerts (when a product they previously browsed has dropped in price)

Back in stock alerts (when an out-of-stock product they browsed comes back in stock)

Purchase complete emails  (when a customer completes a purchase)

By connecting with customers at these key moments, you can provide them with valuable information and encourage them to take further action.

5. You aren’t actually recovering carts

Even if you’re already sending triggered emails, you probably aren’t doing everything in your power to recover lost revenue.

Many companies think they have a cart abandonment system in place, when in fact they’re only dealing with checkout abandonment.

Checkout abandonment is when a user has logged in and started the checkout process. But many users abandon their shopping before that stage.

Our research found that while 12% of visitors will cart a product, only 8% will make it to the checkout, and a mere 4% will complete a purchase.

There are two ways you can combat this:

When a new visitor abandons a cart

Serve an exit intent popover to let the customer know they have items in their basket, and offer to email them a reminder of their cart if they sign up.

When an existing subscriber abandons a cart

You need to be able to recognize the shopper and send them a cart recovery email. If you can only recognize subscribers who are currently logged in, you’re leaving money on the table. Make sure you can identify shoppers who have logged in in the past, using cookies. Also think about shoppers who have never identified themselves on the current device, such as regular visitors who normally use their PC but who are using their smartphone this time. Do you have other methods to recognize these shoppers - for instance, when they click through from a marketing email or submit a form?

6. You’re testing at random or not at all

If you aren’t testing at all, you’re leaving it up to chance that emails will generate revenue.

Think of a test as a survey of your customers. You give them two or more different versions of an email campaign, and their actions tell you which one works best. This lets you make data-driven decisions about future email and website content.

But if you’re randomly testing, there’s no guarantee of contributing to overall revenue goals.

By taking a scientific approach to split testing, marketers can make a demonstrable impact on conversions and sales. There are six steps to implementing a successful test:

Define your high-level goals (e.g. to generate more revenue from emails)

Observe the obstacles to achieving those goals.

Hypothesize how best to overcome those obstacles.

Split test and measure the results to see if your hypothesis holds true.

Implement the change or revert to further testing.

7. Email is generating more revenue than you think

There are two variables to consider when measuring email attribution.

What action did the customer take when they received the email? And how long should the campaign be tracked?

It’s worth thinking carefully about how you weigh up these variables. By placing too much emphasis on direct email clicks, you risk undervaluing the impact of marketing emails.

Data from the DMA’s 2019 Consumer Email Tracking Report shows that customers are saving your emails for later, or taking indirect routes to your products. Consider this longer purchase cycle when tracking campaigns. The action taken as a result of the email may take place hours or even days later.

Give yourself a chance

There’s no “perfect” approach to email marketing. Shoppers won’t always be in buying mode when they open their inbox. And what resonates with customers today might not resonate tomorrow.

But with personalization and testing, you give yourself a fighting chance of reaching customers with the right content, at the right time. Whether you are a small business starting out, or a corporation that needs to give their current site a cutting edge transformation, our team of Website Designers in Aurora, Denver can take on anything.

[gabriella-lost-in-the-big-city]

“...and one day you’ll grow up to be a strong, independent woman just like your mami”

by Gabriella J Bolanos

This is a very sensitive topic about me, but over the course of the past six weeks of this hellish semester, I realized the importance of giving trans people a space of their own in the world of “maternal” / “woman’s” (A.K.A. Cis-woman’s health). I loathed the maternity nursing lecture, mainly because the double dose of problematic WASPs was too much for me to swallow on a weekly basis. However, those five days at Mt. Sinai’s labor and delivery/postpartum floors was such an uplifting, emotional, and sometimes conflicting moment. Let me just put it out there that yes I am transgender, and I own up to being a transgender woman. I am proud to be a transgender woman, and I don’t see myself being anything else. However, society has not advanced enough to where transgender people are respected by women and men as viable women; and science has not advanced enough to where they can put a functional uterus in me. I had a lot of experience observing and participating in the births of numerous children 3 of those 5 days, many of them being families who were introducing their first child to their lives. I enjoyed seeing the face of young fathers and mothers feeling nothing but pure joy as they hold their just born child in their arms. It’s honestly an amazing privilege to be able to witness a moment so intimate, so groundbreaking, so heartfelt, so pure like the birth of a newborn. However, in the back of my head, I could never shake the feeling of jealousy and resentment of these mothers. I will never be congratulated for being pregnant with my child. I will never be congratulated for spending all those hours in labor or overcoming all of the pain to deliver my baby. I won’t feel that overwhelming burst of emotion holding my newly born crying baby on my bare chest. Sometimes I feel like I won’t ever be a “real” mom because I’ll never have the opportunity to do things that our heteronormative society tells us a mother does.

*Side Note: Why is there no gender-neutral term for “person that gives birth,” it’s always when the mother does this or when the mother experiences that or when the mother holds her baby for the first time… mother is clearly a gender-charged word, but in reality, it’s not always a cis-female that gives birth, there are transmen out there that give birth, and gender non-conforming people that give birth – and I highly doubt that they would want to be referred to as the “mother.” One time during lecture, one of the instructors “tried” to be inclusive and kind of touch on this idea that LND may not be as heteronormative as we tend to think it is. However, things quickly went south when she started to bring up the example of trans people giving birth. And so she says “ I had a colleague tell me that she one time had a transgender mother, male to female, give birth…” and I don’t know about you, but as far as I know, transwoman cannot give birth – and if somehow they can, PLEASE LET A GIRL KNOW. So essentially, I am 99.99% sure that she meant to say that there was a transgender man who gave birth but instead chose to mis-gender the father who gave birth. Anyway, I hope one day this changed and we see a bigger presence and respect of LGBTQ (esp. Transgender people) in maternity health and in woman’s health in general.*

I have always wanted to be a mom since I could remember, or I guess I’ve always wanted a family of my own and I didn’t know that meant becoming a mother until I realized that I was a transgender woman. A part of my desire to be a mom comes from a desire to make up for the mistakes my mother made raising me – in no way was she the worst mother to have, but we never really saw eye-to-eye, she internalized most of her emotions, she never really understood me, she never really could sympathize/empathize with me, she was never pushing me to go after my goals, it took her forever to accept the fact that I was trans, and along the way made me feel like a complete, worthless piece of shit for being who I am. However, at the end of the day, although I can’t 100% forgive her or honestly say my relationship with her was healthy and beneficial, she is still my mother and luckily she eventually got it together and now accepts me for the woman I am today, her daughter. I want to learn from my parent’s mistakes and be the parent I always wanted/needed growing up to my future children. Additionally, there is a bond you can’t recreate or break between a child and their mother. For example, I wouldn’t say my sister is the most positive mother, she can let her frustration and anger get the best of her around her child, she can be overwhelmed with work or too focused in her personal life to spend whatever time she does have with her child. However, no matter how many times my sister yells at him, spanks him, or leaves him behind to be cared by someone else, my nephew will always tell her how much he loves her and comes to her defense whenever me and my sister fight. This was a complicated lead up to the fact that I part of me wants to have a child so they can unconditionally love me, because I feel so lonely in this world sometimes, to know someone loves me, means the world to me. Although some parts of my desire to be a mom come off as selfish, in all honesty I want to have kids one day to take care of them and smother them with nothing but love, raise them to be “woke” individuals in society, take them to soccer practice or piano lessons, help them with homework, remind them that they matter and no matter how stressful things get, they will overcome all obstacles eventually, support them with whatever career/academic decisions they make, take care of them when they are sick, give them advice on love and life, the list goes on and on. I even have baby names picked out, even though adoption will most likely be my route of raising a family (unless someone wants to give me their second child) – so if I have a newborn son, I want to name him Brandon Mauricio Bolanos, and if I have a newborn girl, I want to name her Jacqueline Celeste Bolanos – cheesy names, I know. So Brandon comes from my obsession of Beverly Hills 90210 from the summer (Brandon Walsh was definitely my dream guy) and Mauricio comes from my father’s middle name and my original birth middle name – a part of me has a little guilt for being trans as I am my father’s only child and I know how important it was for him to have a “son” and I would have been the only person to pass down the family name as all of my cousins on that side of the family are girls. Therefore, I want to give back to my father somehow, but naming my son after him – not that I have a reason to feel guilty for being trans. And in regard to Jacqueline Celeste Bolanos – I just really like those names, it's different, and not something you hear every day. And ideally, I would like a third child (my favorite number happens to be 3), but the name on that one is a TBD for now.

I love the idea of being a mom, and can’t see myself not having a family of my own, but I can’t help to have my fears about it as well. Honestly, my biggest fear is getting into a fight with my child and having the phrase “well you didn’t give birth to me, so you’re not my real mom anyway” – I honestly believe if this ever happens I would kill myself right there and then because that would just crush me beyond the point of any possible repair. I also worry about if my child going to accept that I am trans? Is the world going to accept me as a transgender mom? Are the kids at school going to say to my child about me being trans? Is he going to get bullied for it? What are the moms at the PTA going to say about me? All of these thoughts, good and bad, swirl around my mind whenever I see a birth, or see a pregnant woman on the subway, when I see a baby in a stroller, or when my friends complain about never wanting to give birth, or when people randomly ask me if I want to give birth or if I am a mom. I don’t know if I’ll ever accomplish this goal of becoming a mom, finding someone to help raise our children, I hope that one day they would look up to me as their loving, successful mother and eventually I’ll be trying to keep up with the numerous grandkids I’ll be expecting. Until then, I’ll continue to hold babies like they are my own, envision a future of a full, loving family, and hold my tears back whenever things get emotional, and be optimistic that one day I’ll hear the word “mami” come out the mouth of my son, daughter, or GNC child.

[zippdementia]

Part 22 Alignment May Vary: Behind the Scenes

Last session took our players to the beginning of combat with Mordekai, Abbott of the Celaenos Monastery, who clearly has had machinations and plots running behind the scenes. This post talks about how to run a game where these kind of background plots and NPCs are important to keep track of. The next post will go back into combat and show whether the players survive or die at the hands of the corrupted knight.

The most basic and easy to run a Dungeons & Dragons campaign involves “static” environments. These are your basic dungeons, where each room is basically waiting for the player to interact with it before anything happens and a boss monster calmly waits at the final room for the player to show up. A dungeon can be made to feel more alive by adding in wandering monster tables, to simulate the movement of multiple creatures in the dungeon, but even this is just a dungeon mechanic. The GM doesn’t track these wandering creatures. Behind the scenes, they don’t even exist until they are rolled randomly into existence.

Then there are living environments. DnD 5 official modules like to use these a lot. These are areas/towns/dungeons with lists of NPCs, several with motivations and ongoing plotlines, that the GM has to manage as they move about the area, trying to achieve their motives with the help of (or in spite of) the players. The main difference in a living environment is that it does not wait for the players and encounters tend to be activated less commonly by entering a certain area and more commonly by taking certain actions or instigating certain events.

Celaenos is one of these living environments, and the biggest one in The Tomb of Haggemoth campaign. Players could miss all of the things going on behind the scenes. They could enter the monastery, negotiate access to the library, get the information they need, and leave, none the wiser to the slave ring or the fact that Mordekai is secretly and slowly turning the entire monastery into a bastion of evil, converting each knight one at a time and killing the ones he fails to convert.

That’s the simplest scenario, honestly. Because once they get involved in events, Mordekai and his lackeys won’t sit idle. They will react, first subtly, then dramatically.

Keys to Running a Living Environment

Figure out your end game scenarios Because a living environment presents potentially endless possibilities for a middle game, you cannot plan out everything the way you would a dungeon. But you can plan out your endgames. An endgame is a scenario in which the players have achieved their goals (or irrevocably failed to achieve them). For example, in Celaenos, their main goal is to find the map to Rori Rama in the library. To do this, they need to gain access to the library. Access can be gained by diplomacy initially (convincing Mordekai that they are no threat), and by stealth (sneaking in at night), violence (killing the knights), or staging a coup (convincing the few remaining good knights to fight Mordekai and his evil knights) if this fails. I like to physically write these down and keep them laid out in front of me so I always know what the players’ possibilities are.

Steer players towards your endgames As players interact with your living environment, things are going to change in drastic ways. Players are unpredictable and tend to go on tangents you didn’t anticipate. But no matter what they do, ask yourself which of your endgames it ties into and if it stops any of them from happening. For instance, my players started very clearly on the diplomacy path, by trying to gain access to the library by talking to Mordekai. When they accused his knights (unexpectedly) of being a slaver, that endgame was cut off (I literally crossed it off on the paper I’d written it on). Next, they discovered there was a secret entrance to the monastery (stealth endgame). They seemed more interested, though, in trying to free the slaves and uncover that plot rather than sneaking into the monastery, so I built a scenario wherein they were offered entrance into the monastery, giving them a chance to interact with some of the good knights, like Dickon and possibly turn him to their side (coup). Finally, they missed this opportunity and ended up in direct confrontation with Mordekai (violence). As you can see, at all times their actions were steering them towards one of the endgame scenarios.

Give the players a reason to be involved I can’t stress this one enough. When you’ve gone to all the work to set up a living environment, it isn’t very rewarding if your players don’t take an interest in it. At the same time, you cannot blame players for missing out on all the clever back plots if you don’t give them some hook or reason to investigate. This is especially a problem in some of the DnD 5 official campaigns, which are these huge, wonderfully detailed open worlds with very little to actually draw a player in or tell them where they should go next. Think about things your players have done in the game, or bonds their characters have that are waiting to be resolved, and how you can work them into the environment, and then make sure they stay hooked by continuing to create interesting scenarios that make them want to stay involved. Of course, if they still don’t show an interest, don’t push it. Be willing to let them miss things and move on to the next dungeon/town/situation. In our game, we have two major hooks aside from the main goal of infiltrating the library. The first is the slave ring they discovered back in Ottoman’s dock which continues here. The second is Abenthy’s backstory. He has been looking for his father, and he knows something called The Red Eye has been watching for him, and the Bronze Dragon told him more could be learned at Celaenos. One thing I didn’t post in the blogs was that, when the party first entered the monastery, they found tapestries depicting an Aasimir being worshipped by the knights. This is a hint to Abenthy’s player that there is more here, more that probably involves him, that can be discovered if he wants to, and serves as a good motivation for him to dig deeper into the events at Celaenos. When he asks the Abbot about this during their first interview, the Abbot definitely seems like he knows something, but refuses to say more. Again: mystery makes for good motivation, because everyone loves solving a mystery. As things progress, I create the scenario where the players are called back to the monastery to murder Dickon and Athos (ostensibly because they are responsible for the slave ring). This gives the players an immediate goal to achieve in the location I want them to be in, as well as letting them get involved in an memorable assassination plot. It keeps the game moving while continuing to steer them very tightly towards one of the endgames I originally envisioned. Note also that when they are attacked by shadows, one of them is the murdered Rose, just another way to tie them continuously into the slave sub plot.

Know your NPCs and their motivations, and as the players act, so should they A living environment doesn’t feel very alive if NPCs don’t react to things the players do. So you have to know how your NPCs will react. The simplest and fastest way to do this if you are not practiced at it is to use notecards. Use on notecard per important NPC. On it, write that NPC’s goal and general attitude. Then, when the players do something that gets in the way of that NPC’s plot or triggers them, look at their card. Has the player put up an obstacle to that NPC’s goal? If so, the NPC is going to try to do everything possible to beat that obstacle. How they beat that obstacle is up to their general attitude. An “old kindly librarian” probably won’t turn to murder to “keep his books safe,” but he may try to get authorities involved if he feels threatened, or hide books from players, or even pay them to leave him alone if they keep bothering him about his library. In our game, Mordekai’s goal is to keep his business secret. Any threat to this he will seek to deal with immediately. But he is not a fan of directly dealing with things, and is a very clever man. Thus, when the players reveal they are onto his slave ring, he first reacts by banishing them from the monastery. He then tries to murder them that evening by using shadows. When that doesn’t work, he comes up with a plot to use the players to do his dirty work by killing Athos and Dickon, two of the last remaining good aligned knights in the monastery. He then plans to confront the players as they murder Athos and claim they are intruders, setting the remainder of the knights on them. This will kill the far too curious players while also removing any suspicion that the Abbot had a hand in the murder of Dickon and Athos.

Overall, the key to running a good living environment is improvisation and being able to flow quickly as the game changes. But knowing your endgame and your NPCs will help with this immensely, giving you an anchor to keep you from drifting too far off course and gives you a direction to steer in.

[thealexandramunoz-blog]

CPS Interviews

Interview with Graphic Designer

1. How do you generate ideas?

My ideas often come to me when I'm not sitting down to work. Usually my ideas will be sparked by something I see when I'm driving to work, at the park, or when I'm doing a repetitive task like brushing my teeth. I have noticed that letting my mind wander helps me to come up with creative solutions to problems.

I am very curious and inspired by the difficulties every human faces and the use of creativity to overcome and grow from those experiences. In the past few years, I have had the opportunity to branch out and make connections with people who are creative in different ways. Being able to connect with musicians, garment makers, bakers, and gardeners has opened my eyes to the variety of different ways people express themselves and exercise their creativity, and the necessity of a creative outlet for happiness. These relationships have helped me retain a sense of wonder when going about my daily life, and have inspired me to live in the present, accept my mind wandering, and give myself room to see where my wildest ideas will lead me.

The biggest obstacle I face is fear, particularly a fear of not being able to execute an idea the way I see it in my head. Sometime this holds me back from trying out an idea, but I have found that by reframing my thinking and reminding myself that I will not learn if I do not try, I am able to overcome that feeling of fear. I have started to practice this not only in my art, but also in other areas of my life such as traveling, rock climbing, and trying out new hobbies.

2. What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

Whether it be a problem at work or a problem in my personal life, I try to be as objective as possible and see all sides of a situation. I try to approach solutions analytically, using all the info I have to inform my decisions. For example, I work as a designer for a small restaurant company that has had a decrease in beer sales lately. I am tasked with developing a campaign to help push beer. My first step is determining the target audience. In this case, adults age 21 to 35 (the area of our target demographic that can drink alcohol). Second, I will identify the best platform to convey this message. In our case, we have a high concentration of adults in this demographic on Instagram and Facebook. My best bet is an ad campaign on those platforms. Third, I will determine the correct messaging to help identify our restaurant as a place with not only great beer, but a great experience. We have a promotion where we sell half-priced pints one night each week -- this is appealing to the 21-35 age demographic because they are price sensitive and our restaurants are located in college markets. I will then develop a few different options for designs and text, such as "Half-Off Pints!" or "Pints as low as $1.50" and test each campaign to see which performs better. From there, I will choose the winning campaign to use in future promotions.

I will also have to work with the Operations team and our menu management team to ensure that they are aware and on board with the campaign and ensure that all areas are considered.

Interview with Commercial Real Estate Agent

1. How do you generate ideas?

Ideas can come from anywhere, but as much as I'd like to pretend that I think of my ideas all on my own, they are almost always drawn from one of two places, either something I've seen that inspires my idea, or born out of my own trials of a way to accomplish something. When working to come up with an idea, I really make an effort to come up with something totally unique and on my own. That stems partly from having some success working on my own, but mostly from pride that I believe that I can come up with a great idea without help. It may be the most challenging way to accomplish something, but I feel like its necessary to try my own way first.

When that doesn't work, I look to people who are successful in the field I'm focusing on to see what processes they use to come up with ideas. If I'm struggling with something at work, I talk to more experienced coworkers about what they do, then try to find the parts of their methods that I feel would work for me. Sometimes its necessary to pull heavily from others to get to the idea that you're looking for.

The biggest obstacle I face when coming up with a new idea is when I zero in on one idea that doesn't quite work, but am trying to force it through for some reason. Maybe I feel that I've sunk too much time setting up a process that I don't want to start over, or have written too many pages of a story before realizing that the ending would work better if the character's development was different. Essentially its a fear of wasting time starting over. To avoid this problem, I try to be as unstructured as possible at the beginning and focus on the goals of the idea before putting anything down on paper. Once I know my desired end goal, what I wish to accomplish or what emotion I exactly want to elicit, then its easier to fill in the words, images, or steps that lead to that point.

2. What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

Assuming that this is a more intellectual, less "rush to the emergency room" type of emergency, I take a little bit of time to fully understand the problem, where it stems from, and what a solution may look like. For example, if the problem is that I don't know what to write my short story about, then I know that the solution looks like a a completed short story. If my problem is I need assemble a huge list of leads to contact, then call them and track how my conversations went, then I know that my solution looks like a long spreadsheet full of leads. Once you know what the solution has to look like, its easier to look at the space between there and where I am and figure out the best way to fill it. From there I want to either research or think about how best start my process, really understanding the type of information I need to complete the solution. Form there I start to push forward, filling up the space in the best way I could gather. As I'm working forward, its vital to be constantly evaluating my process. If things aren't going as I want them too then I have to be ok with changing course and starting over. The key for me is to make the big problem into many little problems, so that I feel like I'm making progress and don't feel overwhelmed, plus its easier to solve a tiny problem than a huge one.

Interview with Director of Marketing & Technology

1. How do you generate ideas?

I am a huge ‘brainstormer’ and ‘white boarder’. This seems to help me refine and iterate on ideas. I use a white board, tablet PC or large format display to sketch and throw ideas up on the wall visually and then start to group/edit/delete down. I may do this over and over, refining the concept or going off in new directions. Doing this on the computer allows me to retain my history visually which is a great feature—I can roll back, copy, switch around, etc. This works for me for both my own benefit or when working with others. I find the visual nature of the affinity diagram one of the best tools. It’s kind of like a sketch pad, quickly tearing off brainstorming ideas then gathering and sorting them into conceptual groups.

Keep track of everything so you can go back to it—I manage projects, problems, requests, or ideas needing focus through Planner (which is kind of a Kanban tool for simplifying this) I may also just randomly search the web for key words on the problem or project at hand, a lot of times using the image gallery more so than the text results to let the web do some initial brainstorming for me. Gathering snips of ideas, whiteboarding those along with notes. I start with a large, ‘fuzzy’ funnel and iterate around ideas I like, continuously narrowing my results until I start to finalize a concept. That might feed into a new round of refinement, but the nature of the PC let’s me go through far more rounds of edits faster than ever before.

Inspiration is a tricky one, it can be all sorts of triggers. For design or technology these are usually sparked with something I’ve read or seen. I am a voracious consumer of information in my professional disciplines (technology and marketing). I subscribe to hundreds of feeds of news sources, blogs, and reference materials. Using a good newsreader I can casually skim hundreds of articles a day and pin the ones I want to revisit. A lot of times a random article on an unrelated topic may generate thoughts on a problem or design at hand.

So key thoughts for both these items:

Read read read (even if only skimming) in things revolving around your discipline). You need raw materials for new ideas and solutions.

Keep an electronic scrapbook for ideas (I use OneNote, MS Whiteboard, MS Planner, sticky notes, and longer form documents and sketches, all electronically) Whiteboard and brainstorm when faced with narrowing your thoughts Save your thought processes for later and revisit (sometimes sparks new ideas!)

2. What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

One thing that’s critical—identifying the actual problem. I do root cause analysis of issues first before going down the solutions path. This is a key factor often missed. Many times you’ll be in a meeting where people mention an issue or problem (or, ech, sugar coating it with ‘opportunity’) and immediately people begin to problem solve. The first step is always finding the root cause or issue, it may or may not be related in any way to the discussion. Getting people to pull back for big picture is important so you can solve the real problem, then focus down on solutions with a tool like brainstorming, research or diagnostics.

One other critical piece is learning what’s a priority—if everything is an emergency, nothing is. Are you solving a problem that affects a tiny fraction of your overall function? Are you designing systems or solutions around the edge case? Knowing what’s key to your process so you hit the important things first is a core principal for me. The old 80/20 rule revised for the 21st century is probably more 90/10 or 95/5: but is 5% of your process generating 95% of your problems? Or are you solving for the 95% first? Being able to do this lets you focus on the priorities.

[anewpoliticalspin]

Should we discuss bias?

This is a fictional scenario and company, but this will serve as an allegory for how our society often functions and should be a helpful for creating a mental picture.

Imagine you have just gotten a new job at a new company, and are there for your first day. You have just began your first day and are excited to begin!

A supervisor walks in, and asks to have a discussion with you.

Walking into the office, you are told you will be having a discussion about the company’s annual evaluation practice.

“The company rates its employees on a scale of 1 to 10. This number indicates how well you have done over the year, and your success rests entirely on this annual number. This number will be referred to for all decisions in regards to whether you are promoted, the new responsibilities you will be given, and your annual salary for the next year.”

This seems entirely fair and reasonable.

However, the employer tells you that there is one catch.

What’s that?

“At year-end, based on how well everyone has performed, an initial number is created that gives a fairly reasonable indication of how well someone has performed. However, there is an additional process that the company must do to get its final numbers for everyone.”

“What is this process?”

“Well, this is what is done. The company will take all employee numbers and put them through a system. The system will take a list of all employee identification numbers and once it has this list, the system will use randomization to select a certain number of employees. That randomly selected list of employees will each have a certain number of points deducted from their score. It is often one or two points, but it may be more.”

“Wait, randomly? You mean there is no criteria used to select this group of people, yet they will have points deducted from this annual score? But that number will determine their job prospects, their possibilities within the company, even their chances of being able to achieve their goals and ambitions at all. How can points be subtracted from their score without an objective reason why this is being done?”

“That’s correct, randomization means there is no criteria of importance that determines this.”

“Why is this process in place? Why is it there, and why can’t it be removed?”

“Well, hmmmm….I don’t really know.”

Also, in this pretend scenario, you have to work for this company. It is the only job you can get. At the end of the year, you hope your employee number is not selected. You always wonder why it is that such an unfair system is not removed, and more importantly, why your employer does not see a reason for removing it. Also, why haven’t any of your fellow employees said anything about this unfairness?

However, when you get a score of 10 at the end of the year, you realize that you do not have to worry about this scoring system having any consequences for your success at the company.

You forget that that system adjustment happens every year.

………..

Why is this important?

Women are often seen as less competent, and given less respected and their abilities underestimated in the workforce and in their daily interactions with others. Racial minorities, or those from immigrant backgrounds or from less economically advantages backgrounds, are also often underestimated in their abilities and level of competence. They may also be subject to mistrust and suspicion from law enforcement, and from society in general.

Yet what is often our reaction when the topic of bias or unfairness against certain groups of people is brought up?

We will sometimes ask why these discussions are being had, or even call them divisive for supposedly bringing attention to race or gender, which only causes people to think in terms of race or gender.

Mike Pence:

“Donald Trump and I believe there’s been far too much of this talk of institutional bias or racism within law enforcement. That police officers are human beings. In difficult and life threatening situations, mistakes are made and people have to be held to strict account,” Pence said.

The governor reiterated his belief that it is a challenging time to be in law enforcement and doubled down that “we ought to set aside this talk about institutional racism and institutional bias.”

He finished his answer by saying it’s time to “move away from the rhetoric of division and embrace the rhetoric of unity.”

There is a reason why the African American community is trying to begin discussion of differential treatment. There is a reason why race, and gender as well, which I will discuss later, are being discussed.

We do not have discussion of race and gender that advocate for discrimination based on these characteristics. Those conversations are divisive.

Conversations that bring attention to discrimination and attempt to eradicate it serve the opposite purpose. We don’t live in a society where people are treated equally. It is as a consequence of the fact that we don’t, that race and gender are being discussed. It is a discussion that is taking place because it is necessary.

These conversations are not divisive when the overall goal of them is to eradicate differential treatment.

Differential treatment does have consequences. It is proven that resumes with culturally black-sounding names, such as Lakisha and Jamal, have a lower chance of being selected for an interview than culturally white-sounding names, such as Emily and Greg. It is proven that racial minorities may receive longer sentences for the same crimes as whites.

It was also proven that women are taken less seriously. Actually, two employees with the same job once switched email signatures for a whole week to see how their interactions with clients changed.

Schneider wrote on Twitter. “Everything I asked or suggested was questioned. Clients I could do in my sleep were condescending. One asked if I was single.”

Hallberg, meanwhile, had a decidedly different experience.

“I had one of the easiest weeks of my professional life,” she wrote on Medium for a story she wrote about her experience. “He … didn’t.”

Schneider explained in his tweets that the whole experiment came about after he noticed a client was talking to him rudely, and couldn’t figure out why until he realized that their shared inbox meant he was inadvertently signing emails as “Nicole.”

When he explained to the client in email that he was actually talking to “Martin” instead of “Nicole” he said there was an “immediate improvement.”

“Positive reception, thanking me for suggestions, responds promptly, saying ‘great questions!’ Became a model client,” Schneider tweeted.

In spite of this, it can often be asked why it is necessary to have conversations about racism or sexism. Even more, we will get offended by them, as Mike Pence did, possibly because some of his supporters shared offense at discussion of these topics.

Why are we offended? Is it inherently offensive to want to talk about unfairness? It shouldn’t be. Unfairness has consequences.

When we become offended, maybe we should ask why we feel offended. Offense may be our initial reaction. Examine our reaction.

Our offense is a sign that something has bothered us. Why does it bother us when people talk about racism or sexism, or any other kind of inequality?

Can it actually be because the possibility that if we were not white, or male, or from a middle class background, that there might be certain obstacles we would face, that we haven’t faced before?

Offense can be a common reaction, but it does not mean that something is inherently offensive. Conservatives have said that people are too politically correct and get too easily offended, anyway.

Offense was actually a reaction some Southerners had to advocacy for Civil Rights passage. It offended them that African Americans were protesting their treatment! Yes, they were offended by it! They not only did not see reason why it was necessary, they thought that mention of it was offensive, and that it was bad manners or impolite to mention.

A snippet from the documentary White Like Me (click here for a link to the film) documents this. (At 29:18 Southerners are asked for their opinions on Civil Rights legislation)

You may notice that the notion that inequality exists offends them.

I am not comparing our current society to the 1960′s. However, when presented with similar situations, the reactions people have will often be similar.

One other matter that can be observed from the interviewing of Southerners in the 1960′s, is that despite “separate but equal” laws existing at the time, both of the two women interviewed brought up the notion that people did not have the same opportunities and said that this wasn’t true, that of course black people were treated equally. This shows that the problem is often not that people are opposed to unfairness, in theory. Instead, what is more often the problem is that there will be denial that unfairness exists.

If we could see the machine process that subtracts points every year, and see that it is there, we might do more about it.

[gamesmasternotes]

WRITING A GAME - The Steve Method pt2

In 2015, my local gaming group ran its second “GM Bootcamp”, an opportunity for people who were interested in Gamesmastering but had never given it a go to write and run short games. The ideas was that a group would form, which I would shepherd, and each member of the group would run a short two session adventure in the game system of their choice.

To help the group plan their games, I wrote a collection of essays about how I personally like to approach writing and running games. This is the second part of those essays, with a few revisions, focusing on longer campaigns.

My feeling on running longer games is pretty much the same as with short, but on a much larger and longer scale.

I'll start by building a world on a larger scale.

At a simple level, I’ll physically draw a coastline, and quite randomly draw in features such as mountains and forests, and maybe some rivers too. I’ll then choose specific sites (although often random too) for settlements.

The map will contain many inhabited areas, and many areas of wilderness where there are deliberate hazards. In fantasy this can be towns and village with open ground between them, in sci-fi it can be cities or ships with open ground or rubble/debris areas.

Each settlement will be populated by useful people with information and quests, and there will usually be many, many side quests. Each town or city will have the same basic collection of people – the bartender, blacksmith, grocer, etc, but to make things interesting they won’t always have the same prices. Often, I’ll also make one or two inaccessible because of a side quest. Maybe the Blacksmith’s tolls are missing, or the Blacksmith himself!

Usually when I ran a large game like this I overload on side-quests fully aware that most will never be touched. It doesn't matter if they are, after all they are unimportant to the main narrative, but the ones that were added a nice extra level to the overall setting. To make things simple in that respect, I don’t tie side quests to specific areas if I can, but plan them in the simplest sense so that they fit into any location or set of NPCs. “Save our child from thieves” works whether its Dwarves in a mountain, Elves ain a wood, or Humans in a city, for example. Its ok to plan for specific areas if there is something special you’ve planned, but it helps if you can have your others sides reasonably generic so you can adapt them as necessary.

So if we expand the short D&D game I used for the Bootcamp, the party are travelling out into the world to look for other Adventurers Guild lodges and new adventures. Every decent town or city will have such a lodge, as well as the same basic collection of NPCs selling or crafting wares. The lodges may be a great place to learn about new adventures and side quests, and may also have quests that eventually lead into a grander narrative.

As missions go, there will of course always be a main objective, but I like to use a system familiar in many video games of unlocking. I make impassable obstacles that can only be overcome once a few smaller objectives have been complete. Think the "large rock" problem that can only be passed with the "rock smashing" upgrade, or the ledge you need a jump upgrade to get over. In D&D, this might be a simple case of information – players won’t learn about greater and grander quests until the NPCs are sure they can handle the job. Or a sealed door, the key to which is hidden elsewhere in a different adventure.

It may also simply come down to a monster or enemy the party simply can not defeat because their power level is too low. Don’t be afraid of such things. Not every fight has to be “do or die” for an adventuring party, and its better if they learn that they CAN retreat and return to try again another time. The good thing about a sandbox environment is that the players CAN return at a later time.

To use Lord Of The Rings as my example again, the objective of destroying the One Ring was locked until other things were overcome first. You had to get to Rivendell first to find out HOW to destroy the ring. To get into Morder, you had either the Minas Morgul or Black Gate objectives to get through (though other routes also could be explored). To triumph at Pelennor Fields would have been nearly impossible without completing the Helms Deep objective first. As a good example in there though, Aragorn then went on the Army of the Dead side quest. It wasn’t really essential in the overall narrative, but by completing that side quest he got a great and useful bonus on the Pelennor Fields, which really helped I think you'll agree. I'll use a second example in Star Wars. If we slightly disregard the actual main characters a moment, we had a main objective of overthrowing the Empire. This required the destruction of two death stars, both missions locked first by rescuing a princess and then by a mission involving the deaths of many Bothans. Destroying the second Death Star was locked until you first completed the mission on the forest moon of Endor, but instead of simply going into that mission, the "player characters" went through a whole Ewok side quest which gave them a good advantage. Luke likewise could have developed his force powers solo, but instead went on a "train with Yoda" side quest, which again helped in the main quest, but also opened up other character driven narrative routes. If Luke had not trained with Yoda, he never would have found out about Leia, or learned that he has other ways to defeat the Empire that don’t require killing Vader.

My D&D game can easily be expanded on a similar basis, with higher ups in the Adventurers Guild keeping an eye on new members. Lets add a secret – they had a purpose all along. The Guild exists to find and train a group able to achieve a particular world-changing goal, which your players will inevitably be, but to prove they are worthy they must complete other objectives first. They must earn the respect of the Immortal who runs the Guild.

That’s what I mean by locking up the bigger objectives in larger games, and making other objectives the requirements to unlock them. I would still keep an open world, but there would just be specific barriers impassable until other things were done. There's no reason you can’t do something similar with your smaller games, but at most I would say again - keep it simple. One barrier at most, for example finding a specific key to get into the place the objective is.

The concept of barriers should be taken as checkpoints, goals to achieve before you can move on to greater goals. Try to avoid making them so strict that they are heavily scripted, but instead treat them as signposts along the way to quests you have an idea for.

Its important to remain flexible though, and allow for creativity. These barriers should be NEARLY impassable, but not completely impossible. Players will always be coming up with extremely creative ways to advance themselves along their own journeys, and often that can mean they come up with a way around what you’ve set up to deter them.

If players do find a shortcut, or a work around for your barrier, don’t just try to shut them down and say no.  If they find that way through, simply allow it, adjust, and move on.

For example, if my Immortal leading the Adventurers Guild is found too early! If the players decide the leadership is something they want DIRECT access to, or think it’s a mystery to solve, they may find themselves discovering the entire purpose behind the Guild far too soon. At this stage, it’s the GM who needs a new work around. Ok, the players have discovered everything far too soon. So now maybe they know there is a goal to work towards? Or maybe it just means they have to go on a VERY challenging quest to prove themselves. Again, they may fail and have to retreat.

If they get passed the giant rock and find the monsters beyond too much to tackle, they can withdraw, and come back another day now that they know.

Its important to know, that I would reckon around 50% of your total planning will never actually see the game table, unless its strictly scripted. But don’t be afraid of this. This is one of the reasons I like to keep the planning so basic and simple, so I don’t lock myself in certain ideas I want to come up, but then never have the opportunity!

Think about this – what is the point of Tom Bombadil in the Lord Of The Rings. From a GMs perspective, maybe he was intended as a main quest giver! But the party chose instead to ignore him and move on. As a result, the secret path through the Barrows, and dealing with Wights, was lost. All that planning, gone, but instead we get the chase to the ferry, and the threat of the Nazgul. Similar ideas, new location.

As my final note, when planning a larger game, I find it helps to have details on your player characters before the game begins, so that you can add character elements into the world. Have at least one element for each character just floating in the world somewhere, but loose enough that you can transplant it if you need to.

Having character driven elements in the world helps their characters become part of the world, which helps to immerse the player with everything that is going on and drive them to deeper involvement with society.

In our party, we have an Elf from a nomadic tribe, so its easy to think they might come across them or a similar tribe along the road. The earlier mentioned player with an uncle in the Adventurers Guild, may find that uncle has more influence than expected. The Rogue in the party may have links to thieves guilds around the map, or maybe a lost sibling for whom clues can be found all over.

To add a final note, there’s a house rule I like to use. Most game system have a skill or something similar which gives a character specific knowledge. In D&D this is specific Knowledge skills, or in World Of Darkness you can have things like Streetwise. I sometimes like to give every player character a free point or specialization in such a skill, with the provision that it must be specific. In a World Of Darkness game for example, I’d encourage each player to have a specific knowledge of an area of local society. The criminal underground, or law enforcement, or where the nightclubs are, or the best place to find cheese locally for example. It helps involve them in the world, and in the building of the world.