#artist gms rise up

[heybiji]

various npc doodles for the MASKS: A New Generation game i'm runningtt

[theresattrpgforthat]

do you know any games that would fit a film noir detective style game? especially one with a gilded age or art deco aesthetic

THEME: Film Noir

Hello friend! So I knew of one or two games - but my buddy Sean, well he knows way more. Most of the games on this list are games that he’s introduced me to or knows about. So shout out to Sean!

Noirlandia, by Turtlebun.

Noirlandia is a murder mystery roleplaying game played with an actual cork board. When you first sit down, no one knows the answers.

You'll figure out the way your city ticks—maybe it’s blanketed in white ash, maybe it’s built atop the back of an enormous dying beetle, maybe only a few non-synthetics remain.

Your story follows a group of interconnected characters, a mind-bending case, and the cold stiff that started it all. Roll well, and you'll be allowed to pin new leads to your cork board or string connections between them.

Find the truth, or lose yourself trying. It’s just another day in Noirlandia.

A GM-less game, Noirlandia sets up each of your characters as someone who is connected to the victim - someone who demands justice in a world that has none. The city is created by the players, which tells me that you can decide some details about what the city looks like. The city itself feels like a character in this game - it has defined sections that you build using a deck of cards, each with a distinct personality and a host of slang words.

Because this game is GM-less, everyone gets to participate in the construction of the mystery, from who the victim is, to why their characters are involved. If you like world-building as much as you like following a story, you’ll want to check out Noirlandia.

Urban Jungle, by Sanguine Productions.

The early 20th century of the United States was rife with fantastic change: from the rise of industry giants, to the great experiment of Prohibition, to the tragedy of the Great Depression, onto the dawn of the Atomic Age. The sky was tamed, the world was mapped, and the possibilities of science seemed limitless, all blue skies and buttered toast…

… for some folks, anyway.

A complete game in one volume, URBAN JUNGLE makes you a player in an anthropomorphic world of pulp-adventure, hard-boiled crime, and film noir. You’ll tangle with hardened gangsters, with jaded debutantes, with world-weary veterans, and with all kinds of shady characters.

Urban Jungle uses different sizes of dice to determine your level of skill. Character creation consists of distributing dice amongst your traits, and then choosing from a list of species, types, careers, and personalities. The type and career options open up a wide variety of backgrounds for your characters - you don’t necessarily have to be hard-boiled detectives. You could be a criminal, an artist, a member of the social elite, or a down-to-earth labourer of some kind, just to name a few. As a result, the differences between the characters in Urban Jungle could lead to a rather mis-matched party, so you’ll likely want to talk with your group about what kind of story you’re telling.

Judging by the skills available in this game, you’re likely going to begetting in and out of scrapes, chasing, running, fighting and investigating. You might tussle with the mafia, or hunt down missing artifacts. You might try to get inside a swanky party, or try to win at a game of cards. If what you want is a toolbox to create your own plots with, you might be interested in Urban Jungle.

Junk Noir, by JadeRavens.

Junk Noir is a cooperative, zero-prep, GM-less mystery game for 2 or more players. Players share control of Tracer as the titular robo-sleuth investigates mysteries, visits Locations, meets Characters, finds Clues, and triggers Events. In Junk Noir, you'll dramatize scenes, form connections, make moves, and play to see what happens! 

Junk Noir mysteries don't come with pre-written solutions — that's the detective's job! Solving a mystery is about more than just finding clues, since clues are only as good as the theory that connects them. Players connect the dots and discuss theories over the course of an investigation. 

This is a game for folks who like generative mysteries, such as Brindlewood Bay or Paranormal Inc. Junk Noir helps you generate clues that you as a group will have to put together, while each player embodies a part of Tracer’s programming. This is also a GM-less mystery game, which means you can all sit down and play with no prep required - the game will guide you as you play it.

Deadlands Noir, by Pinnacle Entertainment.

New Orleans, 1935. Whoever called this “the Big Easy” sure got that one wrong. Things are tough all over. Honest work is hard to find, and even dishonest jobs are getting scarce. The one thing that’s not in short supply is trouble. From shady thugs to crooked cops to Mafia soldiers, there’s plenty of characters out there looking to give an honest Joe a hard time. And that’s not the worst of it.

There are stories going round about things that go bump in the night. Things you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley on a darker night. And those stories aren’t just coming from rummies or saps who read that Epitaph rag.

Still, there are a few heroes left in the concrete jungle. Steely-eyed private dicks, fast-talking grifters, wild-eyed inventors, and shadowy houngans still struggle against the encroaching darkness. With enough moxie—and more than a little luck—they might just be enough to turn the tide.

Deadlands Noir is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game set in the world of Pinnacle Entertainment’s award-winning Deadlands universe. It includes new Edges, Hindrances, and powers, as well as new rules for handling detective work, the state of the Union and the CSA in the Depression-era, a complete Plot Point campaign, and of course, more monsters and ghouls than you can shake a smoking .45 automatic at.

Savage Worlds is a great system for pulp-action and protagonists that are good at what they do. Deadlands Noir is a setting for Savage Worlds, meaning you’ll need the core rulebook in order to use it. The Deadlands setting as a number of books that relate to each-other, including a Weird West and a Hell on Earth setting. This means that this version of Noir includes a supernatural element, and the people behind any big upset could have magical powers. The setting itself is based on the New Orleans that often shows up in popular media, with hauntings and monsters turned up to 11. If you want something paranormal mixed up in your noir, this is the game for you!

Sword Noir 2e, by Sword’s Edge Publishing.

Imagine a barbarian prince embroiled in the criminal underworld of a cosmopolitan city as they seek for an artifact in the shape of a falcon statue. Consider two accomplished thieves—one an urbane duelist and the other a brawny skald—hired by a wealthy retired general to deal with a blackmailer, only uncover multiple murders tied to the general’s children. Envision hardboiled crime fiction in the worlds of sword & sorcery.

That’s Sword Noir.

The concept of Sword Noir is a combination of hardboiled fiction, the film noir it inspired, and sword & sorcery. The setting is noir while the characters are drawn from sword & sorcery tales. The PCs live in a world filled with injustice and apathy. Treachery and greed dominate and hope is frail. Violence is deadly and fast. The characters are good at what they do. They are specialists. Trust is the most valued of commodities—life is the cheapest. Grim leaders weave labyrinthine plots which entangle innocents. Magic is real and can be powerful, but it takes extreme dedication to learn, extorts a horrible price, and is slow to conjure.Now is the time for your characters to walk down mean streets, drenched in rain, hidden in fog, and unravel mysteries, murders, and villainy.

Sword Noir is probably the biggest step from the original noir trope, placing your characters in a fantasy world, far removed from technology like telephones or sleek cars. However, the corrupted city still lives and breathes here, full of ne’er-do-wells and shady characters. If you want to revel in noir tropes but play with the setting a little, maybe try out Sword Noir 2e.

Noir World, by John Adamus.

WALK THESE STREETS. TELL YOUR STORY. MAKE YOUR MOVIE.

It’s raining. The alleys are as dark as the streets. You’ve entered a world where light and dark mix with gray and the unknown, where your past collides with your present and future, and it’s safe to assume everyone’s out for themselves.

It’s the stuff dreams are made of, it’s the stuff of old movies, classic movies. Great stories.

This is Noir World. And this is your world and your Movie now. Your story is worth telling, even though it’s not going to be pretty. You might not make it out alive, but it’ll be one hell of a ride.

It’s true what they say: the City is full of stories, and not all of them have happy endings.

As a PbtA game, Noir World calls back to Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts, and The Sprawl as sources of inspiration. This means that you’ll be building your setting together, using noir tropes as guides to construct the story you want to tell. If this game is anything like its’ predecessors, the primary thing you’ll be focusing on is relationships; what do your characters mean to each-other, and how do those relationships affect their ability to get what they want?

Fedora Noir, by Less Than Three Games.

In Fedora Noir, you create the story of a flawed private investigator in the style of a film noir. Players take on the roles of the Detective, their Partner, their Flame – and their Hat, the Detective’s sharp mind and inner voice. Together, players explore the Detective’s messy life against the backdrop of a difficult case.

In Fedora Noir, two players share control of the story’s main character: the Detective and the Hat.

The Detective role-plays a private eye on a case, narrating their actions and speech. But here’s the catch – the person role-playing the Detective doesn’t get to say what they think. That’s the Hat’s job. The other two main characters – the Partner and the Flame – provide the Detective with personal relationships. People to care about… or disappoint.

Fedora Noir is a game for exactly four players. It takes the form of a deck of cards, which provide prompts and references to help you navigate the story - great for folks who don’t want to keep track of character sheets. There’s a whole bunch of settings included - and if you want the art deco style, then the New Hudson setting is made for you. Each city comes with a piece of art to set the mood, a list of locations you can choose to visit, and a cast of characters that may be getting involved in the case. You also choose a Case card to represent the Detective’s mission, Actor cards to help you depict what your detective looks like, and a series of chapter cards that will bring you through the narrative beats of a detective novel.

Other Games to Check Out...

Hardboiled, by Fat Goblin Games.

Noire: Elle Est, Elles Sont, by Ursidice.

Nitrate City, by Evil Hat.

[thankyouforthememoriesworld]

Désolé, j'avais un peu oublié ta demande de traduction mais j'ai fini par le faire 👍🏻. Merci d'avoir partagé avec nous🤍.

In any case, here is the April 2024 interview with the NY GM talking about Jojo (in bold are the journalist's questions and in italics my remarks):

Johannès donned the New York jersey in 2019, 2022 and 2023, contributing to the progression of the franchise, the reigning WNBA finalist, from the small venue of Westchester to the Barclays Center. Let's have a chat with Jonathan Kolb, the Liberty's GM.

Over the years, Marine, initially very media-shy, has opened up. And in NY, how did her personality shine through? When we first welcomed Marine in 2019, she was clearly very shy. Honestly, she didn't speak very often. I think that was partly because of the language, but also because she was in a new team, a new country, a new league… It was a lot for her, but she handled it really well despite her shyness. Over the years I've learned a lot about who she is as a person, and I can now say that Marine has a lot of personality. She's incredibly funny (we told yall)! It's something that sometimes comes out with the media, and it's really fun to see her grow and blossom like that.

How popular is she in the US? In 2019, when she debuted with us, a lot of fans were asking, “Who is this player, how is she going to help us win?”. And in one of her first outings - and it happened several times - she shot at 100% and with every basket she scored - this was back when we played in a small arena in Westchester, NY - the fans celebrated louder and louder. She really won over the fans in NY. And it was when she came back in 2022 that she really started to blow up in the US. Our team wasn't where we are now, but we were on the rise, and Marine was one of the main reasons. I'll never, ever forget the move she made in the playoffs against Chicago, her overhead pass to Natasha Howard. We were down in the fourth quarter, but it was the only time a player ever made me say out loud, “Oh my god!” A spectacular play that will remain engraved in my memory, and which impacted the fans even more. And today, in 2024, she's a fan favorite in the US (the Jojo charm). She still has a long way to go to become a celebrity (Jojo is never going to want this), but the more she plays, especially in our market, the more people she'll reach with her style (most entertaining player in basketball🤙🏻). Because her style is so addictive, we want to watch her play all the time (should have played her more then).

We often hear that nobody plays like her. I couldn't agree more. Nobody plays like Marine (exactly🤩)! There's an excitement that rises when she gets the ball, you know you're more likely to experience something special than usual. Whatever she does with the ball, whether it's an elite-level read of the game, an exquisite pass (her IQ basketball is top tier), one of her one-legged running shots…Fans know, people almost start to stand up when she crosses the half court with the ball. She's an incredibly unique player, I don't think there'll ever be another like her (😮). Her skills, confidence and willingness to push the norms of basketball are something really, really special (it really is, we don't talk about it enough). We never want to put her in a box, we want Marine to play like Marine, because she's at her best when she does.

And so, like an artist, she must be allowed a certain freedom of expression, understanding that not everything is linear? In France, there's sometimes a lack of understanding, some fans not comprehending why she's not a leader scoring 20 points per game. It's something we continue to watch out for. We have to let Marine be Marine, and everything that goes with that. Sometimes Marine will want to take control of the game, and sometimes she'll think it's best to rely on others, but she also helps these players succeed by putting them in a position where they can score on the court. There's artistry in that. In the US, people are used to putting labels on players: so-and-so is the go-to player. Marine is so unique, she lets the game come to her and she tries to do what's right for the team, the best move, the right move, every time (that's a team player). Every time! She doesn't want to be labeled, and I don't think you can do it with a player like Marine. Or as you say, maybe her label is Artist (that's one of her nicknames and it's so fitting🎨). Marine defines what she is.

We hear that CC, the Iowa phenomenon, can revolutionize women's basketball. Do you think Jojo can do the same, especially as an inspiration to young people? I saw an interview with Marine where she talked about CC and Paige as the future of women's basketball. Which is a fair observation. But I don't think Marine should take too much of a back seat, especially with the Olympics in her own country. She'll continue to revolutionize basketball, as far as humanly possible (Willannès power couple changing the game on and off the court🔥). The way she plays is so distinctive and captivating.

[eternal-learner]

October 2024

Book

👻 Bear by Marian Engel

Movies

🦇 Salem's Lot (2024) 🦇 Scary Movie (2000) 🦇 Evil Dead Rise (2023) 🦇 Brain Damage (1988) 🦇 The Relic (1997) 🦇 Evil Dead (2013) 🦇 Basket Case (1982) 🦇 Chasing Cain (2001) 🦇 The Substance (2024) 🦇 Smile (2002)

Other

Design Your Career with a Whiteboard

Human Behavioral Biology 4. Molecular Genetics I / 5. Molecular Genetics II / 6. Behavioral Genetics

Podcasts

🎃 Anatomy and Physiology - Bit by Bit 1. Body Organization / 2. Homeostasis / 3. Cells and the Plasma Membrane

🎃 And Colossally That's History! Imola '94: F1's blackest weekend (Part 1, 2, 3)

🎃 Aria Code Puccini's Madama Butterfly: When My Ship Comes In

🎃 Articles of Interest Clergy

🎃 Automotive Repair Tips Automotive Brake Systems, Lines and Components Explained

🎃 Bean to Bar World Melanie with 20Nord20Sud of France

🎃 Canada: A Yearly Journey 1894 / 1895 / 1896 / 1897 / 1898 / 1899 / 1900

🎃 Canadian History Ehx One Long Terrible Journey: The March West / Bringing the Bard to Life: The Stratford Festival / Canada's Titanic: The Empress of Ireland / When Germans Invaded Winnipeg: If Day / The SS Viking Disaster / The Story and Tragedy of Henry Hudson / Exploring the Christmas Stories and Traditions of Canada / The History Behind 24 Sussex Drive

🎃 The Chess Angle 123. The Most Confusing Chess Concepts for Developing Players / 127. Chess Study Plans & Formulas

🎃 Completely Arbortrary The Phantom Fir (Douglas-fir) / Squirrel Talk (Oregon White Oak) / Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Tree (Arborvitae)

🎃 Draftsmen Karl Kopinski on Discipline, Sketching, and Making it as a Freelance Illustrator / Creativity Insights Artists can Pull from Writers / Developing an Illustration / Reinventing Yourself / How to Study Masters

🎃 The Evolution of Horror What is Horror? / Slashers Pt 1: An Introduction / Slashers Pt. 2: Psycho & Peeping Tom (1960)

🎃 F1 Explains Guenther Steiner on his hardest decision / Bernie Collins + Ruth Buscombe on strategy secrets / Liam Lawson answers your questions / Inside the safety car / How F1 helmets are made / Mika Hakkinen on high-speed tracks / Meet the mechanics in an F1 garage / Damon Hill on F1 title fights / How Formula 1 plans its races / Coaching F1 drivers / DRS: how the Drag Reduction System has changed F1 racing / What we learned in 2023 / Overtaking, breaking, and qualifying / Mick Schumacher + Bernie Collins explain the F1 race start / F1 race suits, boots + gloves: what F1 drivers wear / Pedro de la Rosa explains F1 car set-up / Downforce + why F1 cars have wings

🎃 Formula Once Upon A Time Senna, the Hills and Monaco / "Niki was the first real professional driver" - Daniel Audetto / Lauda "You're gonna have to shoot me down." / Show me the Money - what people get paid in F1 / The $10m Handshake

🎃 How To Chess 1. GM Eugene Perelshteyn on How to Limit Blunders / 2. How to Choose an Opening / 3. How to Get Past a Rating Plateau / 5. The Right Way to Read Chess Books / 7. How to Choose Your Opening Repertoire / 9. How to Review Grandmaster Games / 12. How to Improve Your Chess Away From the Board / 15. How to Choose a Chess Coach / NM Han Schut on Getting to the Root of Your Chess Mistakes / GM Sahaj Grover - How to Approach Studying the Endgame / GM Johan Hellsten - How to Analyze Your Own Chess Games / NM Bryan Tillis - How to Remember Opening Sequences / IM Alex Astaneh on How His Coach Accidentally Taught Him Board Visualization

🎃 Learn to Paint Dean Mitchell

🎃 The Listening Service What's the point of Listening? / Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto / Transcendence / Chasing a Fugue / How do you describe a teaspoon in music? / How Do You Make a National Anthem?

🎃 The Nations of Canada The Basques / An Alchemist Matter / Mystery on the St. Lawrence / False Starts

🎃 Psychoanalysis: A Horror Therapy Podcast Sibling Rivalry: Basket Case (1982)

🎃 The Race F1 Tech Show The pros and cons of Renault ending its F1 engine programme / Lifting the lid on F1 helmet technology / Unpicking the strengths and weaknesses of F1's "Big 4" teams / The secrets of F1 simulators / Secrets of F1 suspension

🎃 The Science of Birds Bird Songs - Part 2 / Vision in Birds / Hummingbirds / The Biggest Global Threats to Birds

🎃 Shop Talk Live - Fine Woodworking 318 - Back to School / 324 - Bridging creativity and technicality

🎃 Song Exploder Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over / New Order - Blue Monday / MUNA - What I Want / Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out / AURORA - Runaway

🎃 Stella Culinary School Flavor Structure Part 1 and 2 / S is for Sauce Part 1 and 2

🎃 The Tucker Carlson Show JD Vance: The Immigration Crisis, How Polls Are Used to Fool You, and the Left's Plan to Stop Trump

[emptymanuscript]

Just noticed this on the truck door… because it’s my first time driving it, today (HOW LONG HAVE WE HAD THIS TRUCK?!?!? XD!!) and that’s so cool. I love that ^_^ it’s like artists signing their work.

Do all GM cars have that?

Go union.

XD! :D

I feel like we NEED more of that. Just that visual reminder that people make our stuff. I feel like if there were a few more reminders of what workers accomplish for the world instead of all these golden calf idols of the “job creators” that maybe we would get our values a bit more back in order.

Probably not actually but it feels that way. And I’m not even a communist XD!! I do wish I knew what my socioeconomic-political philosophy was called but who cares really. It really just boils down to a rising tide raises all boats. So stop sucking all the water out of the aquifer and pour more in because even if you’re on top you’ll actually end up with more, more so, the longer you let it run. The thirtieth floor on a mountain top is higher up than the fiftieth floor below sea level.

… I may have mixed too many metaphors there. I may be a little manic at the moment. I might be avoidant. Who knows. Who cares.

Unions are good. I am happy to see evidence of them in my life.

I am not eligible for any of the unions in my line(s) of work but if anyone wants to make an H&M movie AND have me do the screenplay for it, I would happily join the WGA if you give me the invite. XD.

Otherwise, I have to get back to figuring out book 2. AGAIN! Oh, well. XD.

[caughtthedarkness93]

Endlessly, this. I see a ton of people in the tabletop space trying to bend D&D to do things that it's not designed to do when there are systems that are not only designed to do that, but are actually more straightforward in their mechanics and easier to learn. Fate's a really good one! In addition, it's setting-agnostic, so you can flavor it for any setting and genre. One of the big issues with hacking D&D is it's very specifically designed for zero-to-superhero campaigns in a soft magic, high magic setting reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, and if you try to do something that is not that, you wind up chopping out or aggressively modifying a lot of its inherent design. Like Dimension 20 and Critical Role are great, but they're also run by a bunch of people who are absolutely stellar improv artists and have been involved in those spaces for years. The 5e rules aren't doing the heavy lifting there, the players are. If you want to do something that's not that, there are so many easier and smoother ways.

A few favorites of mine:

• City of Mist - designed to do urban fantasy noir, heavy emphasis on character. You play a Rift, essentially an avatar of a mythical figure that is, in some way, in conflict with your normal life. Your mythos gives you supernatural abilities. So you could play an upright legislator with a background in law who is a rift of Robin Hood for a character focused on the conflict between law and justice. Your character's stats are determined by tags - essentially a set of four categories that represent aspects of your character's mundane life or mythos, each with three traits. When a trait is relevant, you can add it to your roll. So our Robin Hood lawmaker might be able to use his public speaking skills to negotiate a hostage situation, or convince a greater threat to stand down, or give a long-winded filibuster-style rant to stall for time. I love this system so much and am bummed that I've barely gotten to play it.

• Savage Worlds - setting agnostic, really well-suited to pulpy action-adventure stuff like Indiana Jones. Your skills are tied to a specific type of dice - so you may have a D6 to hack a computer, or a D10 to look at a map and know where you're going. Usually your goal is 4, but the GM can add modifiers to increase or decrease the difficulty. The real fun part is that when you roll max on a die, it explodes. You roll it again, and if it rolls max again, it explodes again. Keep going until it doesn't. Every 4 you get over your initial target is basically a crit. You can get ludicrously high rolls in this system, and though it has grid-based combat, it's designed to specifically be simple and fast-paced. This is my go-to system when I run a game that I suspect will involve lots of fights because it makes them interesting and dynamic, without bending the game's whole design around them like D&D does, and without using the whole attrition-based rules that D&D has that kind of necessitate several encounters per day. Combat can be a little swingy, but is weighted in favor of the players most of the time.

• Blades in the Dark - designed for dark steampunk fantasy heists. This one's a really interesting one because it's very heavily tied to its setting, but there's also a really good core mechanical engine under the hood. The downside of Blades is that by the time you've hacked it to create a new setting, you've borderline created a whole new system, but the upside is that it gave rise to a whole RPG design movement of Forged in the Dark (FITD) games, and if you want to use the Blades rules to play in a specific genre, someone's already made that. The upshot of this game is that it's purpose built to run a heist game, and there's two phases to it - the mission itself, where you have a resource called stress that lets you do flashbacks to have figured out how you planned for an obstacle the whole time, or Resist a GM's consequence (i.e. when the GM says something bad happens, you can say "Fuck you, no it doesn't") and use special abilities. Then there's Downtime, the time between missions, where you can get ahold of new resources, work off the stress you built up last mission by indulging in a vice, and try to cool off some of the heat from that last mission. It's an ingeniously designed game with a lot of systems that play together really well. Highly recommend giving it a look.

And this just scratches the surface! There's games like Fabula Ultima, which is going for a real fantasy JRPG vibe and does a lot of really cool things with it; Delta Green, which has you as an agent of a shady American spy outfit that investigates the supernatural and where you stay sane by leaning on your relationships with others, but risk damaging those relationships at the same time; millions of really cool systems out there that do amazing things in the space. D&D is what a lot of people know, but it's also a system with massive limitations and a corporate owner that I've seen act highly irresponsibly too many times to want to support any longer. Go see what cool things people have created - I promise you will not regret it. There's nothing stopping you from coming back to D&D if you decide that's what you want to play, but what do you have to lose by trying something new that could be tailor-made to play the campaign you've always wanted to play?

Saw a post that op turned off reblogs on about how a lot of people think DnD 5e is a great system for rp over combat and uh hey y'all

If you want a game system for more structured improv, 5e ain't it. DnD is very combat driven, despite what Dimension 20 and other such shows may lead you to believe.

If you genuinely want a ttrpg system designed with More Structured Improv Roleplay in mind, I'm gonna suggest you go ahead and pick up the FATE Core Rulebook. The system is all about telling a story and the mechanics it has make such clear.

Your character creation process is essentially "What is my character's job, their biggest problem, a facet of themselves from their backstory, and a couple tie ins to the rest of the party?" And then you allocate a few stats and you're basically done.

DnD is great, truly it is. But the story you can tell is extremely restricted by your ability to understand the rules and bend/break them appropriately in ways that don't fuck up the entire system, which takes so much more effort than the average person is usually willing to put in. It's very much genre locked, and taking it out of that high fantasy genre in a way that's fun for you AND your players is a lot harder than people like Brennan Lee Mulligan make it look.

Go pick up FATE. It is not genre dependant. It's all about flavor, and failing forward, and saying, "But your character was literally raised in a barn, don't you think it'd make sense for them to really bomb this conversation with a noble?" and having that actually be a fun mechanic.

If you want to see the system in action, the Nebula Jazz series by ItMeJP on YouTube should do you just fine. It's a Guardians Of The Galaxy-esque campaign with a heavy Music theme laid over top of it. It also features the producer of Monster Prom, Jesse Cox, if that helps.

There are other systems outside of DnD. Your idea might be better suited for one of them. Please. Please look in to other systems before trying to force the rules of DnD 5e to conform to your vision.

[ryqoshay]

Promptober-2021: Tri-Arame: Vampiric Plight?

Primary Pairing Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Rating: G Words: 643 Prompt: Mirror Parent Fic: Tri-Arame Time Frame: ???

----------

Author’s Note: Entry for Oct 27th’s prompt

Summary: Vampires can’t use mirrors, can they?

----------

Ayumu pushed herself up and out from between her girlfriends. Her vampiric strength allowed her to hold herself with one arm with ease, which was good because she needed the other to hold Setsuna at bay. Even in her sleep, Setsuna was surprisingly strong in her attempts to pull herself back against Ayumu to snuggle.

But how to actually make her escape from the bed?

Ayumu knew some vampires could fly and Setsuna had assured her and Yuu that they could eventually gain the ability as well as they learned how to handle their powers. But that didn’t help her this morning. Perhaps she could push herself up hard enough to simulate flight? No, that would shake the bed too much and surely wake Yuu and Setsuna.

Maybe…

Ayumu arched herself back and into a crab position over Yuu. From there, she managed to grip the edge of the mattress and pulled herself up the other way before flipping over the side and onto the floor. Ayumu rolled up to a crouch in time to see Setuna’s hands find Yuu and pull herself in to nuzzle against her.

Wow, that actually worked. Ayumu was pleased with her acrobatic maneuver that she would have been hard pressed to pull off as a human.

Alright. Time to get ready for the day.

Or night… actually. Ayumu corrected herself. She realized it would probably take a little while to get used to that.

She quickly changed into her street clothes, walked into the motel bathroom and…

Oh…

There was another thing she would need to get used to. Or rather, a lack of a thing.

The mirror lacked a reflection of her.

Ayumu quickly washed her face before looking back at the mirror and sighing. This was going to be difficult. She continued to the next step of her morning routine.

She tilted her head. How… She pulled at her hair as if it would magically lengthen so she could see it better. Geez… How was she going to put her hair into her favorite braided bun if she couldn’t see what she was doing? She’d never done it purely by feel before.

“Need a hand?”

“Kyaaa!” Ayumu startled.

Yuu giggled. “Hehe, sneaking up behind Ayumu is so much easier without a reflection.”

“Mohhh…” Ayumu punched lightly at the hands Yuu held up.

“Anyway, want me to braid your bun for you?”

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“I’m going to need a Dex roll from you, Yuu-san.”

“Eh? A Dex roll? To braid hair?”

“I had Ayumu-san do one for her attempts.” Shizuku explained.

“Well, yeah, but that was for without a mirror.”

“And for getting out of bed.” Setsuna added.

“Yeah, and she does that in real life every day.” Yuu pointed out. “Well, not exactly like that, but Ayumu’s quite the escape artist in the morning.”

Ayumu felt heat rise in her cheeks as Shizuku glanced at her.

“Impressive.” The GM said. “But I think that counts against your point. Anyway, do you have any experience with braids?”

“Well, no, not really.” Yuu admitted.

“All the more reason to have you roll.”

“Alright.”

The d20 clattered a couple times before…

“Nat 1…” Yuu sighed.

“Let me give it a try!” Setsuna offered, picking up her own d20 and rolling it. “Nat 20!” She cheered. “Critical success! Ne, Ayumu-san, can I give you twin buns?”

“Hrm…” Ayumu considered. “I kind of like my nor…” She noticed a flash of disappointment in the other girl’s eyes. “Perhaps I can give you twin buns instead?”

That worked well enough to get Setsuna’s spirits back on the rise.

----------

Perhaps I could learn to live without mirrors. Ayumu thought to herself as Setsuna’s dexterous fingers worked through her hair. I’ll teach Yuu-chan later, so she isn’t left out, but for now, this is a nice new addition to my morning… evening… whatever.

----------

Author’s Note Continued: This may need to be retcon’ed at some point if I decide to have Yuu start working with Ayu or Setsu’s hair with any frequency. I’ve established that she’s interested insofar as helping everyone prepare for idol performances, but she may become interested for other reasons. We’ll see.

Also, heaven forbid I write anything in chronological order, so here we get an entry for the Vampire TTRPG that takes place roughly in the middle of what I’ve written thus far. And I’m sure that will change by the time I get around to adding it into TA proper.

[fieldtomatoes]

oh no I dropped my monster documentary masterlist I use for my magnum social distancing

[Titles marked with * are restricted to Canada, but might be accessible through a proxy/vpn, any one of them could be on American Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu I just don’t know, and if all else fails, most are available on one rental platform or another although I know that’s not ideal.]

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World - 1h43m Covers the influence on all genres of music by Indigenous musicians including Charlie Patton (Blues), Mildred Bailey (Jazz/Swing), Link Wray (Rock), Robbie Robertson (Rock), Buffy Sainte-Marie (Folk), Jimi Hendrix (Rock), Randy Castillo (Metal), Jesse Ed Davis (Rock/Blues), and more, with interviews from Robbie Robertson, John Trudell, Taj Mahal, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Iggy Pop, Martin Scorsese, and more. Probably the best documentary I’ve ever seen. Trailer Available: a slightly abridged version (20 mins shorter, not sure what it cuts out) here, Kanopy, or rental services

The Island President - 1h38m Follows former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, who was elected after 30 years of dictatorship as he fights for his people’s survival and to end the rising sea levels that are washing his country away at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2009. Trailer Available: here

Angry Inuk* - 44m Provides the Inuit perspective on seal hunting; how they have been the victims of propaganda spread by animal activist groups and how increasingly restrictive bans have affected their culture and way of life (obvious tw for footage of raw seal meat, blood, and organs). Trailer Available: here

Genderize* - 13m Comparative interviews from 2012 and 2016 with a sibling trio about their understanding of and experience with gender and growing up. Personal endorsement, Chase is one of my profs and he’s literally the best instructor I’ve ever had. Available: here

Kumu Hina / A Place In The Middle - 1h17m / 25m The story of Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a teacher and community cultural figure who is Māhū (embodies femininity and masculinity; is in the middle). “A Place In The Middle” is the abridged version that focuses on the story of Kumu Hina’s Māhū student, Ho’Onani, joining the all-male hula troop, which is the B-plot of the original documentary. Trailer Kumu Hina available on: Kanopy or rental services // A Place In The Middle available: here

I’m Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas* - 52m Chronicles the writing of classic Christmas songs such as “Silver Bells”, “The Christmas Song”, “White Christmas”, and many others that were actually written by Jewish composers, with integrated performances of said songs by Canadian musicians including Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies who has contributed his fair share of amazing Christmas songs as a Jewish musician. Trailer Available: here

And We Knew How to Dance* - 55m Contributions of Canadian women during the First World War, told by the women themselves from interviews conducted in the early 1990s. Includes women who moved to the prairies to take over farms, were nurses and ambulance drivers on the western front, and became floor managers of factories, among other jobs, and discusses the sexism they faced. Available on: National Film Board

Reel In The Closet - 1h22m Showcases and discusses the home movies of LGBT people going back to the 1930s, and how they documented their hidden, but full, lives. Trailer Available on: Kanopy

Reel Injun* - 1h32m Examines the portrayal of Indigenous people in film throughout the 20th century and the evolution of the “Hollywood Indian”. Features interviews with Adam Beach, John Trudell, Charlie Hill, Sacheen Littlefeather, Robbie Robertson, Graham Greene, and more. Trailer v1 / Trailer v2  Available on: Kanopy or rental services

The Legacy Of Brendan Burke* - 45m Discusses homophobia in the National Hockey League and the awareness that was brought to that topic when Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM Brian Burke’s son, Brendan Burke, came out on TSN with a message of solidarity with all of the closeted players in the league. Features anonymous testimonies from gay players as well as interviews with Mark Tewksbury, Patrick Burke, and Georges Laraque, among others. (Important to note: the NHL is the only major sports league in North America to have never had a player come out, either during or after their career). Available: here

Tab Hunter Confidential - 1h30m Tab Hunter recalls what it was like being a closeted gay man in the 1950s, while also being one of the biggest stars of the golden age of Hollywood. Provides insight on the lengths that pioneering movie studios went to to conceal their LGBT actors’ sexualities. Trailer Available on: I found a free version after a google search, or rental services

Jon Richardson - A Little Bit OCD - 47m British comedian Jon Richardson, often mocked for his “OCD tendencies” investigates the disorder, how it affects the lives of nearly 1 million people in Britain, and whether he might be one of them. Available: here

No Sad Songs - 1h02m An Aids Committee of Toronto (ACT) film from 1985 that profiles Jim Black, a young man with AIDS and documents the gay community’s response to the AIDS epidemic through interviews and artistic interpretation. Considered to be the first major documentary about AIDS. Available: here

INVASION - 18m “In this era of ‘reconciliation’, Indigenous land is still being taken at gunpoint. INVASION is a new film about the Unist’ot’en Camp, Gidimt’en checkpoint and the larger Wet’suwet’en Nation standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous people.” A feature length film is coming later in 2020. Available: here

More resources:

PBS

CBC DOCS (imo better selection and layout than PBS, worth using a proxy if you’re not Canadian)

National Film Board (if you go to a Canadian university, go through your library’s database link for more options)

[heybiji]

[theonyxpath]

Our Legendlore KS only has days left to run, and actually ends on Thursday this week, so as my final push for folks to check it out, I’m not going to try and convince you like last week. I’m going to let two excellent writers do that!

Here’s a great description of Legendlore, written, as only he can, by our own Matthew Dawkins:

But why should you back it? Well, in this time where some gamers are clinging on to the notion that “all orcs are evil from birth”, “disability has no place in fantasy adventures” and “there’s no such thing as a good drow” (they haven’t heard of Drizzt), Legendlore says the opposite.

Legendlore is a fantasy setting where diversity is a strength, we don’t shy away from complex societies and cultures, and where you can damn well buy yourself a wheelchair especially designed for dungeon crawling, or sit on a bloody floating disc! This is a game that embraces the fact that it’s magical, it’s wondrous, and yes, there’s evil out there in need of vanquishing, but there’s also a brilliant world to discover and enlightenment and wisdom to be found.

I’m in love with the art, the writing, and skilful design of this game, which uses the 5th Edition system to amazing effect. I’m impressed by the effort and energy Steffie De Vaan and her entire team of writers have poured into it. It’s a game I want to play, and if you feel orcs are better only as black and white villains, I invite you to read the manuscript – which is available as a free download from DriveThruRPG.com – and feel as impressed as I do.

And here’s developer Steffie De Vann’s excellent take on why she loves the game:

Legendlore offers a rich and layered world. No one is born good or evil, nor does it have ‘evil races.’ People come in all colors, genders, orientations, and alignments. You can be a black trans feminine elf & be right at home in the Realm. Our iconics put our ‘money where our mouth is’ – our elf is a trans black woman, our pixie a non-binary person, our dwarf is a combat veteran in a wheelchair, and I could go on. This is a game that believes diversity is strength. It’s an isekai/portal game, and we created Backgrounds ranging from ‘Activist’ and ‘RPG Aficionado’ to ‘Working Poor.’

The world of Legendlore is home to a sentient 1974’s Ford Mustang, parasite mushrooms that try to kill you by YELLING VERY LOUDLY (trust me, it’s effective), sacred Chipmunks, and the descendants of Amelia Earhart running an aviation nation. It pairs this whimsy with a genuinely complex world. For example, the orcs used to live in what’s now the nation of Drohm. Orcs ambassadors are petitioning the other nations to recognize their sovereignty, but doing so would give Drohm the excuse it needs to go to war – and make no mistake, Darkoth the Darklord *wants* to go to war. Are the orcs right? YES. Should the other nations help them out? HECK YES. Is it understandable that the nations are dragging their feet because war is good for no one except the Generals? Also yes. If that sounds like a conundrum you want to tackle, and sway the fate of Azoth, this is a game for you.

If that sound good to you, go check us out on KS. And if you’re still on the fence – there’s a link in there to a free preview manuscript.

In fact, Steffie has been posting examples of the Legendlore characters she mentions above:

This is Aaliyah, our elven iconic. She’s a Black trans woman who uses a mix of ASL and forestspeak signs to communicate. She’s a peaceful ambassador foremost, but doesn’t back down from a fight when it comes to that.

This is Najda, our dwarven iconic. She is a Muslim army vet who was wounded during her tour in Afghanistan. She now works in a Los Angeles comic book store, where she discovered a crossing into the world of Legendlore.

Here’s Jada, our pixie iconic. Pixies are born agender, and choose a gender as they grow up. Feminine pixies have 2 antenna, masculine pixies have 0, and non-binary pixies have 1. Pixies are as fierce as they are small, they love laughing and hate bullies.

There you go, and here’s the link to the Legendlore Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/legendlore-rpg-setting-for-5th-edition-fantasy-roleplaying-0

Let the Streets Run Red art by Oliver Specht

Besides Legendlore, What Else?

Just a warning, and it may just be a short-term issue, but right now it seems that we can’t ship anything to Canada or Mexico. We haven’t yet heard whether we can receive packages from those countries, but since our most prolific printers are based in Canada, we may experience some delays in our traditionally printed projects.

Right now, we’re only having issues with getting the physical printer proofs sent back and forth for approvals, and not the actual books themselves.

You’d think after all the panels and Actual Playing I did during the Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Con a few weeks ago that I’d be all talked out. Well, that does not seem to be the case. Ever.

Naw, I love telling folks about what Onyx Path is and the game worlds we make! I just can’t help myself, we have so many exciting and fun things going on!

Last week, Mike and the gang over at the This Week In Geek podcast interviewed me about WW and Onyx Path, and it turned into a sort of oral history of how the companies transformed into each successive version, and just where game lines branched off to different companies and editions.

If that sort of stuff is interesting for you, here ya go: http://thisweekingeek.net/news/interviews/fan-service-interview-rich-thomas-onyx-path-june-2020

Then this weekend, I sat in on a retrospective of the Art of Mage at Ascension Con 2020 along with Satyros Phil Brucato and artists Mark Jackson and Echo Chernik. Echo took on the slideshow duties and we all discussed the Mage art that came up as it appeared.

That was pretty great, and it was certainly a treat to chat with folks I haven’t talked to in years. Hopefully, that recording will show up on YouTube soon and we’ll get you all a link.

Cults of the Blood Gods art by Thomas Denmark

What wasn’t great last week were a couple of issues that we needed to deal with. While we dealt with them as best as we could, we realized that at core our little crew of folks here are simply not HR experts. And more importantly, we shouldn’t try to be.

We need to concentrate on making great games and amazing worlds, like we do.

Which means that tomorrow, I’m interviewing our current best prospect for an HR point-of-contact for the company. Someone who is HR trained and has worked in HR at other companies. And very important for us, someone who is unconnected to Onyx Path and has never been a gamer or in the TTRPG business.

We need someone who doesn’t have the connections or baggage that might make it hard to be objective when they review HR concerns. Hopefully, my interview is the one, and once everything is good to go we’ll include info concerning them prominently on our website so folks know who to contact.

I mean, it’s important that our worlds are all about excitement, and fear, and victory, and defeat. What our creators and community go through in the real world shouldn’t also require all those moments. We want everyone playing our games and reading our books to be safe while they explore our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The Legendlore Kickstarter is in its last few days and ends this Thursday, and now we’re really building towards Stretch Goals: the GM’s Screen, and starting the Legendlore Companion book PDF!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/legendlore-rpg-setting-for-5th-edition-fantasy-roleplaying-0

Grab your friends and escape to another world!

You’ve found an enchanted portal — a transition point — between worlds. The portal, called a Crossing, takes you to a world you thought only existed in novels and films: a magical land where dragons roam the skies, orcs and hobgoblins terrorize weary travelers, and unicorns prance through the forest. It is a world where humans join other peoples such as elves, trolls, dwarves, changelings, and the dreaded creatures who steal the night. It is a world of fantasy — of imagination.

It is the Realm.

It is Legendlore.

Next Up On Kickstarter: They Came From Beyond the Grave!

Onyx Path Media!

This week: the return of the return of the Scion Actual Play as Eddy and Dixie’s characters dig further into the machinations of the gods!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

All our panels and games from Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention are still available on twitch.tv/theonyxpath! All you need to do is head on over to the website and subscribe. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can do so for free and access our entire catalogue of videos!

Legendlore‘s Kickstarter is coming to an end, but Jen Vaughn’s actual play is still going on our Twitch channel every week on Friday night! Lost in the Crossing is an amazing story played through by a fantastic GM and excellent roleplayers, and handles the Legendlore world from the perspective of visitors and native inhabitants of the Realm! Make sure you’re tuning in every Friday or catching up afterwards by subscribing.

That’s not all for Legendlore, as we have actual plays by Steffie de Vaan and Corinne McCrory over on our YouTube channel, which you can find here https://youtu.be/UaQXSlEatDw and here https://youtu.be/RRvnJOrmNzM! Please give our GMs some support and tune in!

This week on Twitch, expect to see:

V5 – Chicago by Night

Realms of Pugmire – Paws & Claws

Legendlore – The Metal Scourge

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Thieves of Old York

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – They Came from Devil’s Reef!

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Legendlore – Lost in the Crossing

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds

Chronicles of Darkness – Tooth and Claw

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games.

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Legendlore – The Metal Scourge: https://youtu.be/ECRrErPLm64

Storytellers with Coffee – Safety Tools: https://youtu.be/FjG-YbG_Q1k

Mage: The Ascension – Technocracy Reloaded: https://youtu.be/9Al7ZdkLGiM

Even more Legendlore – The Metal Scourge: https://youtu.be/RRvnJOrmNzM

#OnyxPathCon | How to Write for TTRPGs [Panel]: https://youtu.be/UKmJQEhInP8

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Occultists Anonymous continues right here with their excellent Mage: The Awakening chronicle:

Episode 108: Car-V Heist While Songbird prepares for a dangerous summoning, Atratus and Wyrd hit the junkyards with an overly elaborate plan to make an overly elaborate gift. How very Mage of them… https://youtu.be/wSy3c74jkfM

Episode 109: Crown of Blood Wyrd and Atratus enjoy the joy of a well-made gift and the good vibes that comes with that. Songbird joins together with Hadramiel to summon an Angel of Death to anoint a Vampire Prince in power. https://youtu.be/QxB6Ml6uStY

A Bunch of Gamers continue their actual play of They Came from Beneath the Sea! and conclude it with a mini review: https://youtu.be/qIMwcOZmR8k

The Botch Pit have released a wonderful new guide for Changeling: The Lost right here. Do give them a like and a subscribe: https://youtu.be/Bd0UZQZt2OM

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

Available this Wednesday, we present Dystopia Rising: Evolution shirts and posters on our RedBubble store!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – Handing off to Meredith to AD.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

Aberrant – AD’d. Sketches from HIVE in.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant

Legendlore – KS running.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS)

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS) – Waiting on art notes.

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Pinging potential cover and fulls artist.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – Art rolling. KS assets AD’d.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Shen Fei cover art finishing.

Geist: One Foot In the Grave – AD’d.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – working layout now.

Pugmire Adventure

Scion Titanomachy

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – Errata gathering.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Page XXs.

Contagion Chronicle – Backer PDF out to backers, gathering errata.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet

At Press

Scion Companion – Awaiting errata from devs.

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – PoD files uploaded.

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Press proofs signed off on, PoD files uploaded.

Creature Collection 5e – PoD proof ordered. Traditional files sent to printer.

Pirates of Pugmire – Files at press. PoD proofs ordered.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Pugmire Buried Bones – PoD files uploaded.

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Dark Eras Compilation – Creating PoD file.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

This coming week is a big one for our household with the birthdays of two of our widdle kiddies (really not widdle at all any more), and the July 4th celebration of the American colonies’ independence from Great Britain! “And just as Tom here has written, we say To Hell With Great Britain!” Sorry, Matthew…

In sadder news, we acknowledge the passing of Jim Holloway, noted artist for Paranoia and Star Frontiers and many early issues of Dragon Magazine. Personally, I very much enjoyed his style, and he brought a technical expertise and a sense of humor to the early TTRPG business that it sorely needed.

[headlinermanila]

SB19 Inks deal with Sony Music, releases first official single “Alab”

After selling out their first major concert in a record-breaking three minutes, SB19 is ready to dominate the local and international music market with the release of their latest single, “Alab.” 

If you think the previous releases were straight up fire, wait until you hear “Alab”—a dance-pop banger built on sophisticated production, digital beats, and pulsating grooves. 

Produced by Han Tae Soo, the upbeat track is “basically about finding your true love and doing whatever it takes to win that certain someone.” 

“Here, we thought of fire as our burning desire, emphasizing that there’s no other way to confess your love but to tell the person directly, and that you shouldn’t waste time,” lead vocalist and rapper Sejun opens up.

 Partnership with Sony Music Philippines

“Alab” is SB19’s first official single under Sony Music Philippines.

The P-pop boyband has recently expressed their gratitude to the international record label for making the partnership work. “With Sony Music Philippines, they’re a well-known major label worldwide. We feel like we can do so much more and expand to a wider audience,” Sejun says.

Sony Music, on the other hand, is thrilled to have SB19 on board. “We’re looking forward to fueling and supporting many more breakthroughs for Sejun, Josh, Stell, Ken, and Justin,” says Roslyn Pineda, Sony Music’s GM Philippines & VP Business Development Asia.

After receiving a copy of SB19’s dance practice video for “Go Up” from Sony Music Philippines A&R and Digital Director Maan Atienza, Roslyn can’t help but feel thoroughly impressed. “I am beyond excited! Filipinos are natural performers and when it comes to training and discipline, nothing beats the Korean way. When you merge the two, you come up with something special — SB19. They’ve taken K-Pop and made it their own. Actually, our own, if you consider SB19’s official fanbase name A’TIN.”

 Brief Background 

SB19 is composed of Sejun (leader, rapper and lead vocalist), Josh (lead rapper and dancer), Stell (vocalist and lead dancer), Ken (main dancer and vocalist), and Justin– (vocalist and visuals).

The fast-rising boyband debuted in 2018 with “Tilaluha,” and soon gained traction with the video release of choreography-heavy “Go Up” in July 2019.

They nabbed the first spot as this year’s most Googled Male Personalities in the Philippines, beating personalities such as Vico Sotto, Isko Moreno and more.

They recently landed on Billboard's Next Big Sound chart—which according to its website, tracks the fastest accelerating artists during the past week.

“Alab” is now available on all music streaming and download platforms worldwide.

[shadowron]

Harlequin: The Immortal Elf Metaplot Railroad Adventure (1st Edition). Part 1: Physical

In which the runners are hired by a dwarf, hassled by some orks, and do a datasteal against some elves. Trolls get a pass.

Written by Ken St. Andre (creator of the games Tunnels & Trolls and Stormbringer, among many others I wasn’t aware of when I wrote this), 

Illustrated by Jim Nelson (another iconic Shadowrun artist).

Respect.

This is a straight-forward B&E/datasteal, featuring those classic blossoming with nodes Matrix systems that the decker gets to see while everyone else uses the bathroom (both in and out of game, most likely). The interesting twist comes at the beginning, with the aforementioned orks: they are hired by the aforeaforementioned dwarf (who is their Mr. Johnson) to stand in between the runners and the Johnson – presumably as a way to test the runners’ ability to get out of minor scrapes without immediately reaching for their HK 227s but honestly just serving as their first target practice of the run. Come on’ – if there are condition monitors next to their description, they’re asking for it.

Please, get the rest of them some hats too.

The Mr. Johnson is a Mr. Morlock (yes, like in H.G. Wells The Time Machine, and not the first pilfering of names from other media in this adventure), a hump-backed albino dwarf who wears lace-trimmed purple satin clothes and has no sense of trying to blend in anywhere. He tells the runners to break in to a publishing firm named Sylvan Information Systems that is (wait for it…) “an Elven house, meaning it publishes Elven authors or designers almost exclusively,” to do two things:

Steal a handwritten manuscript of the next Ehran the Scribe book

Plant a computer virus, provided by Morlock, that he says will wipe out any electronic copies, but honestly could be anything because the runners will blindly trust him.

From here the runners break out their Etiquette dice and do some Legwork, but this run is really not subtle – they need to break into the building and do that stuff. While possible for the decker to do the computer part first from outside the building, they have to go in anyway to grab the hardcopy, and planning the virus early would certainly put the company on higher alert, so there’s a good reason for the decker to tag along and hide under a desk decking while the rest of the party takes light arms fire from the approaching guards.

I mean – that’s how it always worked when I played.

Maybe this would have worked better...

Except not here. 

After 7:00pm there are no guards.

Like, anywhere in the facility. How crazy are these corp chummers?

The text is written so that the GM strongly hints that the incursion should happen in the nighttime hours, which is what they probably would have done anyway, but there’s always the possibility of some scouting during the day – even dressing up the Elven Decker in a Fine Suit and sending him in there with some of his Little Mutant Vik Ninja Cyberboy! Fanfic, posing as a prospective author. But also knowing how the game is always played – the runners will instead want to break into the place AS SOON AS POSSIBLE because then they can get their Karma and nuyen and finally buy that Ares MP Laser they’ve their eye on. So, while the players don’t know this, there are no guards present at night. So what’s protecting the place?

Sylvan Information headquarters is in the eastern part of the Bellevue district, a nice part of town where everyone has a SIN and unemployment is low… Though some Lone Star vehicles are always on patrol in the streets, most of the security is private and does not call attention to itself.

This “most” must apply to everyone except Sylvan, because as we will see, it most definitely does call attention to itself. Audibly.

The Sylvan headquarters sits in the center of its own little landscaped park. Beautiful lawns surround the building, with walnut, oak, apple, and cherry trees dotting the grassy expanse.

Good because you know the Shaman is going to be all “WhAt TyPe Of TrEeS r ThErE I LuV nAtUrE!”

Oh you’re getting manabolted for that.

In the northeast corner of the grounds is an artificial lake holding three small islands linked by bridges. Beneath the surface, huge fish swim lazily back and forth, glittering gold, orange, and white.

The Merc and the Street Sam will take turns taking potshots at the fish.

Sam: “Why does everyone always think we’re violent? Do you think it’s the g-”

Merc: “...it’s the guns.”

But you get the idea – this is a beautiful idyllic landscape for which the Elves within to write their Elven Books about Elven Things and drinking Elven Wines and Lembas Bread and Whatever. You’d think the primary external security would try to blend in with that – subterranean Hobbit-hole like bunkers where pointy-eared leafy-ghillie-suit wearing commandos lie in wait with their smartlinked Smartbows, or maybe a series of Earth Elementals that rise up out of the ground to block any after-hours unauthorized intruders. 

Nope.

The whole complex is surrounded by a three-meter-high electrified fence. Touching it without shielding results in a character suffering 5M4 electric shock.

First of all – ouch. Second of all – this is not the security of a New-Age Metahuman Publishing Company. This is the security of a High-Security Secret Prison for Troll Cybercriminals. That beautiful idyllic landscape described above looks a little out of place when surrounded by a TEN-FOOT-HIGH ELECTRIC FENCE. This makes no sense except to provide a random obstacle for the runners to bypass.

But bypass it they will, because they must. What opposition will they find beyond. Guards?

The four company guards are normal Humans armed with stun batons.

Even thought I’m wearing Heavy Security Armor and have the face of a Ringwraith, I still only have a stun baton. I’m really just here to annoy you.

Yeah, they’re not going to survive. Except…

They come on duty every morning at seven and go off duty at seven in the evening.

Wait, what? Leaving aside the brutal 12-hour shifts, if you are worried enough about break-ins that you have a 

THREE. 

METER. 

ELECTRIC. 

FENCE.

You are not going to leave the rest of the joint unoccupied at night. Other than door locks, is there nothing to protect the building after the party gets a trampoline and bounces over said fence?

Well, it’s not totally unoccupied. 

Four barghests patrol the park grounds at night.

Ayup! The Eight-Titted Devil Dogs are here! 

Count my mammae. Count them.

Plus their keeper, who lives in a tiny apartment in the basement and I assume dresses like this guy:

It’s from an obscure 80s movie.

So that’s the penalty for breaking and entering here – no prison time or fines, it’s straight to being driven crazy with fear, paralyzed by their howl, and then eaten using “teeth (that) glow slightly in the dark because of luminescent bacteria in its saliva.” It’s never good when they describe a monster’s saliva. This, again, is so WAY out of line with the image presented of an otherwise mundane, small-print publishing company.

So while the runners are rewarded by finding a non-combat option to get past four orks in an elevator, they really have no choice except to use up ALL of their APDS ammo inside these poor puppies.

That’s right, chummer. You just killed four dogs. Live with that.

What did we do to deserve this? Other than try to eat you?

After the fence and the dogs, the rest of the adventure is essentially an afterthought – the players have crawled enough dungeons to know to search all of the rooms, so they will find the manuscript, the decker will deck the sculpted system and plant the virus, and collect their nuyen.

[hoteltoiletrie]

Hotel Soap

It’s one of the first things a traveler does when entering a new hotel room: set down bags, check out the view, wash up and unwrap the small bar of hand soap at the bathroom sink. Some small aspects of the guest experience have changed amid rising environmental concerns and awareness of sustainability—most notably and recently, tiny toiletry bottles swapped out for larger pump units to cut down on single-use plastic. Yet the miniature hand soap has remained, instead of being changed out for liquid handwash or something larger. Why is that?

According to the hotel operations staff we spoke with, a small bar of soap is simply one of those only-at-a-hotel offerings that make people feel special. “I go back to, what does a guest room offer the guest that you do not get at home?” says Anton Moore, the general manager of the Gansevoort in the meatpacking district of New York. “I think it's one of those things that still resonates with people, to have an individual bar soap wrapped and sitting there in the bathroom. It's a separation—‘Here I am in a luxury hotel’—versus not.”

The bar of Hotel Soap  often allows for a nice design or branding moment as well, continues Honan. Bars at Maison are pressed with the hotel’s logo and sit in a dish made by a local artist that resembles an oyster shell. “You have a design touch with the oyster shell. We want to create a sense of place, so at Maison, you feel that you're in New Orleans,” he says. Or the toiletry company itself is another branding touchpoint of the hotel: at the Marram, products scented with Le Labo’s Santal 33 are found throughout the hotel because “we felt like that woody scent— because all of our buildings are clad in hand-trimmed cedar—really complimented the experience of being here,” Mayer says. Plus, “their packaging really aligns with the color schemes in our rooms.”

The operations experts we spoke with couldn’t imagine such a thing, as the soap-making operations would have to be on premises just to start with. “I'm not aware of a way to do that, or at least I wouldn't have the ability to do that,” says Mayer. “I don't know how that would be hygienic, right?” Added Moore, “If you find that hotel, please let me know. I'd love to speak to that GM and learn more.” But while hotels might not be melting it down for their own guests, there is a nonprofit called Clean the World which collects and recycles unused bar soaps from hotels; partners include the Hilton, InterContinental, Hyatt, and Marriott.

[digitalactivism03]

Cyborgs

This past week's lecture featuring, Ghislaine Boddington was extremely thought-provoking and eye-opening. Specifically, one part of the presentation stuck out to me the most, and that was the body implants. More specifically, Boddington featured the artist, Neil Harbisson in her presentation. Neil Harbisson has achromatopsia. Achromatopsia is characterized by, "reduced visual acuity[...] and reduced or complete loss of color discrimination" (Kohl, 2004). In simpler terms, this means Neil Haribisson is completely color-blind and is only able to see in greyscale. However, Harbisson has an antenna-like sensor implanted in his head that translates the different wavelengths into vibrations on his skull, which he then perceives as sound. This allows Haribisson to feel the vibrations of different colors. Harbisson makes it clear in the article that he was never trying to 'make up' for not being able to see in color, but rather "create a new organ for seeing" (Donahue, 2021). The National Geographic article explains how this skull implant made Neil Harbisson, the "World's First Cyborg" as the British government allowed him to wear his headgear in his passport photo. Harbisson utilizing technology to aid him in working around a possible disability is amazing for future developments on accessibility. However, personally, I feel as though Cybrogs will definitely raise some resistance within our society.

For background context, a 'Cyborg' was first coined by Manfred E. Clynes, "For the exogenously extended organizational complex functioning as an integrated homeostatic system unconsciously, we propose the term "Cyborg". The Cyborg deliberately incorporated exogenous components extending the self-regulatory control function of the organism in order to adapt it to new environments" (Clynes, 1960). By this definition, we can clearly see how Harbisson fits into the cyborg category, and how anyone else with a technological implant could be considered a cyborg. I speculate that some find the use of these prostheses as 'unnatural', or even 'playing God'.

With the rise of Cyborgs living amongst us, I can see the benefits for those who want to enhance themselves or aid an existing disability. However, with moral questions of rights and the potential social resistance I have my hesitations about where I exactly stand with Cyborgs.

Sources Cited:

Donahue, M. (2021) How a Color-Blind Artist Became the World’s First Cyborg. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/worlds-first-cyborg-human-evolution-science.

Clynes, M. (1960) ‘Cyborgs and Space’, The New York Times, September.

Kohl S, Jägle H, Wissinger B, et al. Achromatopsia. (2004) [Updated 2018 Sep 20]. In: Adam MP, Everman DB, Mirzaa GM, et al., editors. GeneReviews® [Internet]. Seattle (WA): University of Washington, Seattle; 1993-2022. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/books/NBK1418/

[radmushroomboy]

TG GM

i was tagged by @deme-lu and @sp00pykat so here I am once again~

APPEARANCE

I am over 5′5″ / I wear glasses/contacts / I have blond hair / I wear sweatshirts a lot / I prefer loose clothing to tight clothing / I have one or more piercings / I have at least one tattoo / I have blue eyes / I have dyed or highlighted my hair / I have gotten plastic surgery / I have or had braces / I sunburn easily / I have freckles / I paint my nails / I typically wear makeup / I don’t often smile / I am pleased with how I look / I prefer Nike to Adidas / I wear baseball hats backwards

HOBBIES AND TALENTS

I play a sport / I can play an instrument / I am artistic / I know more than one language / I have won a trophy in some sort of competition / I can cook or bake without a recipe / I know how to swim / I enjoy writing / I can do origami / I prefer movies to TV shows / I can execute a perfect somersault / I enjoy singing / I could survive in the wild on my own / I have read a new book series this year / I enjoy spending time with friends / I travel during school or work breaks / I can do a handstand

EXPERIENCES

I have had my first kiss / I have gotten drunk / I have told a crush I like them / I have travelled outside of the country / I have flown on an airplane / I have stayed awake for more than 48 hours / I have had a near-death experience / I have caught something on fire / I have performed in a talent show / I have shot a gun / I have been on TV / I have gone scuba diving / I have broken a bone / I have slow-danced / I have gone on a shopping spree

RELATIONSHIPS

I am in a relationship / I have been single for over a year / I have a crush / I have a best friend / I have known a friend for over ten years / I have a brother / I have dated my best friend / I am adopted / My crush has confessed to me / I have had a long-distance relationship / I am an only child / I give advice to my friends / I have made an online friend / I met up with someone I have met online

AESTHETICS

I have heard the ocean in a conch shell / I have watched the sun rise / I enjoy rainy days / I have slept under the stars / I meditate outside / The sound of chirping calms me / I enjoy the smell of the beach / I know what snow tastes like / I listen to music to fall asleep / I enjoy thunderstorms / I enjoy cloud watching / I have attended a bonfire/ I pay close attention to colours / I find mystery in the ocean / I enjoy hiking on nature paths / Autumn is my favorite season

MISCELLANEOUS

I can fall asleep in a moving vehicle / I am the mom friend / I live by a certain quote / I like the smell of Sharpies / I am involved in extracurricular activities/ I enjoy Mexican food / I can drive stick-shift / I have memorised an entire song in a day / I believe in true love / I dream up scenarios to fall asleep / I sing in the shower / I wish I lived in a video game / I have a canopy above my bed / I am multi-racial / I am a redhead / I own at least three dogs / I am LGBT

thanks for sticking in if you want to do it feel tagged bc Im out of tumblr lately and idk what is going on 🔥💖

[kaavomeat]

Meat Up With Kaviraj: For Artisanal Sausages & Bacon – Brown Paper Bag

READ ARTICLE ON BROWN PAPER BAG – http://brownpaperbag.in/mumbai/food-and-drink/meat-up-with-kaviraj-for-artisanal-sausages-and-bacon/

06.04.2016

The Beast is resting when we visit Kaviraj Thadani in his workshop, located at the start of the Worli fishing village. But soon he will rise, bellowing, smoke billowing, devouring its next meal. “Which should be about now,” says Kaviraj, grabbing an eight kilo pork belly and walking down a flight of stairs to a 3 feet high smoker he built himself. “Open wide,” he laughs, throwing the meat in.

We take a photograph of the 29 year-old from the top of the stairs, while he introduces us to another fire truck red grill. This one does not have a bada** name (yet), but when set against his Prussian blue mosaic floor, it could be Kaviraj’s untitled work of art.

Kaviraj runs Kavo, a “bespoke meat” kitchen that sells bacon, handmade sausages, flavoured pork, smoked and stuffed meats on order. While shutters down at the Thadani family’s next-door Cool Chef Café (now Café Nemo) left many angry – a ton of collaborators and music artists cried foul about alleged non-payments – we’re happy to report that we’ve heard only positive things about Kavo.

As we speak with him about the origin of things, 50 kilos of meat arrive for a catering event + orders for the upcoming weekend. “I worked with Fortune Gourmet for three years to understand the business side of things, but my obsession with meat experiments go back to when I was 12 and roasting a chicken at Kodaikanal International School where I studied,” he tells us.

Meanwhile, the meat knife Kaviraj is lusting after costs 2,000 USD, so it has been bookmarked for a day in the near future when he is a sharper businessman.

Rub My Belly

Customers and chefs who have turned into Kaviraj’s loyal clients, recommend Kavo for the prime cuts, the handmade quality and the negligible use of preservatives. “I love the chorizo, which I plan to introduce at my café soon,” says Amit Dhanani, chef and owner at BAD Café in Bandra. Also on the menu you will find fresh chicken and pork sausages in flavours like pesto, parsley breakfast, hot Italian, smoked and super spicy; belly bacon, English breakfast bacon; and pulled pork, cured and smoked ham and stuffed chicken on order. “I’ve found a great meat vendor with a farm in Pune. In fact, on April 1 a new Danish breed of ranch pork came out in the market. It’s delicious but double the price,” says Kaviraj.

Kaviraj can also pack a picnic basket of mixed meats for you, cater your next party – The Beast can’t make it, but the red grill is a moveable feast – and even recommend steak knives and barbecue sauces until he starts selling his own. “I’ve been experimenting with making my own mustard as well as barbecue sauce that contains bacon,” he says, adding that until those are in production, we should try Fun Foods’ Barbecue Sauce and get steak knives from Kiros Hospitality in Byculla.

Hattori Hanzo

Meanwhile, the meat knife Kaviraj is lusting after costs 2,000 USD, so it has been bookmarked for a day in the near future when he is a sharper businessman.

“I’ve just started out, so right now I’m working on perfecting my products, taking it slow, going step by step.” He has the same answer when we ask if seafood is next, given his proximity to the fishing village. “Soon.”

More for us, the birds seem to say, swooping into the Worli bay for the catch of the day.

Getting there: To order call 9022886675 or email kaviraj@kpthospitality.com, pick up from 1st floor floor, Thadani House, 329/A Worli Village, Rs 250 for 250 gms of smoked pork sausages. Place your order a day in advance.  

Read more at https://www.kaavomeat.com/blog/press/meat-up-with-kaviraj-for-artisanal-sausages-bacon-brown-paper-bag