#benjamin rosenbaum

[plausible-fabulist]

So... have I mentioned I'm about to release a 450,000-word Jewish historical fantasy interactive fiction game? Here's an interview I did with my publisher, Choice of Games, about it.

[exponentiate]

Only a few chapters in, but The Unraveling (Benjamin Rosenbaum) is killing me.

“It’s not that I think I’m very [other gender]-like, but I also don’t feel very [gender]-like.” (paraphrased)

I’m. suffering lmao

[snapbookreviews]

Spring 2023 Behind the Scenes

This spring I read a wide range of genres, such as xianxia and Western fantasy, classic and classic-feeling literature, post-apocalyptic ttrpgs and more.

Soooo…… I have some big, exciting stuff coming up in the next few months. Patrons are aware, but it’s going to be impacting my reading habits pretty significantly, likely starting with the Summer 2023 quarterly reading post, which will cover June-August. I should also be able to announce it by then! In more relevant notes, I’m thinking I’m going to start having the substacks take a back seat, I…

[fellamarsh]

#3. The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum

"O person! O child of fate! Have you wondered if This is the World For You? Why not find out?"

In the far distant future, Fift Brulio Iraxis finds zirself caught in the middle of an art piece-turned-revolution, zir teenage struggles suddenly thrust to the forefront of zir rigid society. Torn between zir family's safety and staying true to zir feelings and zirself, whatever choices ze makes will ripple outward and effect zir entire world.

Take Karhide from Left Hand of Darkness, turn it into a circus, and shove it into a kaleidoscope, and you'll be close to the world of The Unraveling. Chock-a-block with new scifi terminology, neopronouns, and rapidly shifting perspectives (most characters have two or more bodies!), it can be a bit hard to wade into, but if you give it a chance it is an incredibly rewarding, deeply heartfelt read.

My Top Five Books of the Year

#5. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.

I absolutely adored this book. The visuals, the environment, the dreamy quality to it all... the slow unraveling of the mystery of the House and its inhabitants... the metaphysical themes... Piranesi was haunting and exquisite and I highly recommend it. 

[sinceileftyoublog]

Jake Xerxes Fussell Live Show Review: 10/17, Empty Bottle, Chicago

Jake Xerxes Fussell

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Over the years, Jake Xerxes Fussell's repertoire and sound have expanded, though he's never lost sight of his exploratory ethos. On his self-titled debut and sophomore effort What in the Natural World, he introduced himself as a contemporary troubadour, an interpreter who used original arrangements to surface the universal meaning out of old songs. 2019's Out of Sight was his first record with a full band, 2022's Good and Green Again his first to combine traditional songs with wholly original compositions. In July, Fussell brought it all together on his debut album for Fat Possum, When I'm Called; it's an album featuring a murderer's row of collaborators and songs that Fussell constructed backwards, coming up with melodies and riffs before adapting them to folk songs that fit.

On When I'm Called, legends Fussell knew who may or may not have met each other, like cowboy artist Maestro Gaxiola and painter, musician, and folklorist Art Rosenbaum (a mentor of Fussell's who passed away in 2022), are intimate bedfellows. Fussell lifts from the public domain, Benjamin Britten, and found poetry on a scrap of paper. Returning are close collaborators like James Elkington, in the producer's chair and playing seemingly everything from synth to harmonica, as well as Joan Shelley, singing alongside Fussell's baritone on "Cuckoo!". Uniting with Fussell for the first time are guitar luminary Blake Mills, whose abstract tones nestle between Fussell's acoustic guitar and Elkington's pedal steel on "Going to Georgia", and Hunter Diamond, whose woodwinds pop up just when you need them most, like a consistent smiling face around the neighborhood. In general, on When I'm Called, more than ever, the band gets room to meander, to take in their surroundings.

Fussell & Ben Whiteley

How, then, would Fussell, who usually plays solo, adapt the arrangements not just to a live stage, but for a crowd who has had months to take in the recorded versions? Indeed, Thursday's show at the Empty Bottle featured the youngest crowd I've ever seen at a Fussell headlining show. Some of that, perhaps, had to do with the venue itself and the start time of his set (after 10 P.M.). But something tells me, at this point, people are less inclined to hear beloved old songs and more amped for Fussell specifically, the guitar player who picks bright-eyed on "Jump for Joy", the singer who belts, "Well, wake up woman, take your big leg off of mine," on "Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing on a Sweet Potato Vine?". (I went to get a beer at the bar as he sang, passing by a crowd member cackling, turning to their friend and declaring, "I love that line!") Well, for one, Fussell didn't play solo this time. He was always accompanied by bassist Ben Whiteley, who plays on When I'm Called. Whiteley's steady plucking eased us into "Michael Was Hearty", and his rhythms buoyed Fussell's chugging guitars on an unexpected, but great cover of Nick Lowe's new wave classic "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass". As we were in Chicago, Elkington, too, joined Fussell on stage for a number of songs, providing contrasting guitar textures on "Cuckoo!" Even The Weather Station's Tamara Lindeman, all the way from Toronto, was in the crowd and came on for backing vocals.

Fussell

It's easy to say that what is usually a lonesome affair turned into a party, given that the number of people on stage at any given moment quadrupled from its usual number. The more I thought about it, though, whether it's four musicians crowding around each other or just Fussell perched on a stool, his shows are always communal. On Thursday, the most affecting and memorable moments of the night were spontaneous. Out of Sight's "Jubliee" started as a singalong and felt like a full-on hymnal towards the end, the crowd repeating, "Swing and turn, Jubilee / Live and learn, Jubilee," like it was a mantra of keeping-on. And then there was "Donkey Riding", a traditional song which does not (yet) have a studio version, inspiring the biggest, and somehow still most polite sing-and-clap-along of the night. The moment the crowd seemed to get a tad too rowdy, we shushed each other so we could hear one last instrumental flourish, one last guitar lick from the artist who continues to give us gifts we didn't even know we already had.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played DREAM ASKEW / DREAM APART ?

Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum

Queer strife amid the apocalypse and Jewish fantasy of the shtetl. Two games about belonging outside belonging that use only tokens and are GM-less. No dice no masters, PbtA.

[lgbtqreads]

Hi! I’m working on a project at work, and we’re looking for books featuring nonbinary characters/characters who use neopronouns where their queerness isn’t a main focus of the book. Do you have any recs?

Hmm, I think In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu and The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley would fit that nicely, as would The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum, though maybe the latter is a little more gender identity-centric. I'll also throw The Lifeline Signal by RoAnna Sylver out there - it's technically the second in the series, set in the same locale as the first, but I don't think you need to have read the first one, seeing as they have different casts.

[aaronsrpgs]

A new episode of RTFM! @maxwellander and I continue our quest to find the cure for "D&D Brain." This time, our delicious medicine is Dream Askew/Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum.

[choiceofgames]

NEW GAME - The Ghost and the Golem

We are pleased to announce our newest game! "The Ghost and the Golem." On sale until August 15th.

Confront mystic perils and revelations, pogroms, and your own wild heart in this Jewish historical fantasy set in the violent spring of 1881 amid bandits, betrothals, klezmers, and kabbalists! Can you save the shtetl…or do you long to escape it?

https://www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-the-golem/

When the czar is blown up by anarchists on a St. Petersburg bridge, the Jews are blamed, and a wave of anti-Semitic riots spread throughout the Russian empire. Though they haven't quite reached your sleepy little market village on the border of Poland and Ukraine, tensions are rising, and otherworldly portents foretell approaching doom. Can you delve into the mystical secrets of the Unseen World, investigate the underlying causes of the brewing pogrom, or make alliances with the local Christian peasants, the Czarist garrison, or the bandits of the wild forest? And let's not forget that Mamma is itching to get you married! Will you embrace the match that she and Gittel the matchmaker have arranged? Or do you have other plans?

In the tradition of the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer, Sholem Aleichem, I. L. Peretz, and the particularly zany parts of the Talmud (as well as modern authors like Michael Chabon, Naomi Novik, and Helene Wecker), The Ghost and the Golem lets you experience a magical nineteenth-century Jewish Eastern Europe. Surrounded by an often hostile Christendom, by wild forests in which anything might creep, and by the invisible creatures of the Unseen World—angels, demons, ghosts, and spirits—the Jews of the shtetl feud and reconcile, bargain and gossip, celebrate and mourn, and snatch a little joy and love where they can. Life in the shtetl is sweet as raisin pastries and bitter as horseradish: may it be the Divine Will that it endures another season…

"The Ghost and the Golem" is an interactive fantasy novel by Benjamin Rosenbaum, where your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based—450,000 words and hundreds of choices long, without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

[annleckie]

Here to recommend The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum. Like, I think some of y'all would seriously enjoy it.

[synoddiane]

Books I read in 2024, and awards

This includes some but not all novellas and webfic, based on a vague sense of how booklike they felt to me. Webcomics, manga, and graphic novels aren't included, even when they're really long ones.

In chronological order of when I finished reading them (ordering them by when I started reading them would be fairly different):

China Mountain Zhang, by Maureen F. McHugh

Cleveland Quixotic, by Bavitz

Summer Fun, by Jeanne Thornton

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler

The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson

The Unraveling, by Benjamin Rosenbaum

The Employees, by Olga Ravn

The Past Is Red, by Catherynne M. Valente

OKPsyche, by Alan DeNiro

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (volume 1), by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Trouble the Saints, by Alaya Dawn Johnson

The Gameshouse, by Claire North

Lyorn, by Steven Brust

Ethan of Athos, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Ella Minnow Pea, by Mark Dunn

The Two Doctors Górski, by Isaac R. Fellman

Her Voice Is a Backwards Record, by Ozy Brennan

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson

Brothers in Arms, by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Mezzanine, by Nicholson Baker

Checkpoint, by Nicholson Baker

The Hands of the Emperor, by Victoria Goddard

Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, by Elsa Sjunneson

A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik

Derring-Do for Beginners, by Victoria Goddard

Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski

The Wish List, by Eoin Colfer

The Memory Theater, by Karin Tidbeck

Tell Me I'm Worthless, by Alison Rumfitt

Three Eight One, by Aliya Whiteley

Bone Dance, by Emma Bull

Mirror Dance, by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud

Watership Down, by Richard Adams

Komarr, by Lois McMaster Bujold

A Civil Campaign, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Hexarchate Stories, by Yoon Ha Lee

Downbelow Station, by C.J. Cherryh

The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

Awards:

Most Clone Shenanigans: Mirror Dance, by Lois McMaster Bujold Runner-up: Brothers in Arms, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Book I Most Obviously Should Have Read a Long Time Ago: House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski Runner-up: Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

Most Uses of the Opening of The Haunting of Hill House: Tell Me I'm Worthless, by Alison Rumfitt Runner-up: The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

Hardest to Recommend Without Spoiling It: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler Runner-up: The Employees, by Olga Ravn

Most Constrained: Ella Minnow Pea, by Mark Dunn Runner-up: Three Eight One, by Aliya Whiteley

Best Mosaic Novel: China Mountain Zhang, by Maureen F. McHugh Runner-up: The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

Most Serious About Games: The Gameshouse Runner-up: Hexarchate Stories, by Yoon Ha Lee

Best Weird Gender Planet: The Unraveling, by Benjamin Rosenbaum Runner-up: Ethan of Athos, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Most Fascinated with Containers: The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson Runner-up: The Mezzanine, by Nicholson Baker

There were so many strong candidates for Least Reliable Narrator that I was unable to pick any one of them out as the winner.

[ladytabletop]

Game Roundup 2023: Part 4 (The Final Part)

Okay, this final post is going to be (unfortunately) mostly just a list of things I've read because it turns out I've read A LOT this year! First, let's highlight a few things.

FIST: Ultra Edition by CLAYMORE

This game is mechanically tight. Play all your action team/spec ops/military sim without too much sim fantasies! It's already spawned a ton of additional content and hacks!

Slugblaster by Mikey Hamm

Teens! Dimensional skateboarding! Goopy creatures! What DOESN'T this game have? It's Forged in the Dark but honestly it iterates on that system in a way that is perfect to me. Really slims things down AND makes downtime better with built-in character arcs to pursue. Plus a thriving fan community that's made a lot of cool content (yours truly included).

Voidheart Symphony by Minerva McJanda

This was pitched to me as Persona the TTRPG. (I have not played Persona). The thing I find fascinating about it is that you're using different rules depending on whether you're in The Kingdom or The City. It's gorgeously laid out, and I'm excited to run it!

Dream Askew/Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum

I had to pick up the OG Belonging Outside Belonging game(s) at GenCon and I waasn't disappointed. One game has you playing a bunch of queer post-apocalyptic survivors. The other has you playing an alternate history of a Jewish settlement.

CBR+PNK by Emanoel Melo

Another one I picked up from GenCon! The design on this one is TIGHT. if you have the chance to get a physical copy, do it! The presentation is unrivaled. This is cyberpunk FitD.

Other games I've read (and I'm sure many many many are missing!)

Inevitable

Running Together, Leagues Apart

Spellchitects!

Badger + Coyote Duet RPG

Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat

Unreality/Strictness -- The Single-Page Version

Totally Real Human Adults

The Dark Below

Memories by Moonlight

Wild Duelist

Hack the Planet!

Have You Heard About the Beast?

Wizardry and Bureaucracy

Spire

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Here's to more reading next year!

[plotbunnygames]

I thought I'd post a reminder of all the games you can get through us!

Viva la QueerBar is a story game about a queer bar and the team who runs it. GM-less one-shot for 2-6 players, Descended from the Queen mechanics. Written by Sandra Dahlhoff and Andrea Rick, cover art by Hannah van den Höövel.

Miss Bernburg's Finishing School for Young Ladies is a story game about the interpersonal drama at a boarding school for upper-class young women in the 1950s. GM-less one-shot or few-shot for 3-6 players, Firebrands mechanics. Written by Andrea Rick, cover art by Christiane Ebrecht.

Bunny, We Bought a Dungeon is an OSR map-drawing story game about anthropomorphic bunnies who bought a dungeon to move in there together. GM-less one-shot for 2-6 players, D6 dice pool mechanic. Written by Jasmin Neitzel and Andrea Rick, cover art from the Public Domain.

Dolly, We Bought a Dream House is a dream-house-drawing story game about Dollys in a pinktastic world who explore and furnish a Dream House together. GM-less one-shot for 2-6 players, D6 dice pool mechanic. Written by Jasmin Neitzel and Andrea Rick, cover art by Andrea Rick.

Magical Pets is a narrative TTRPG about pets at a magic school. One-shot or mini campaign for 2-6 players and 1 GM, Lasers & Feelings hack. Writing and art by Andrea Rick.

Rodents With Guitars is a narrative TTRPG about a group of rodents who want to win a guitar band contest. One-shot or mini campaign for 2-6 players and 1 GM, Honey Heist hack. Writing and art by Andrea Rick.

ImproVeto is a story game to practice collaborative storytelling (usually fun and absurd ones) and using the X-card. Warm-up or one-shot of 10-90 minutes, minimal mechanics. Writing and art by Andrea Rick.

---

We've also published the official German translation of Follow by Ben Robbins and are currently working on further translations into German (including Dream Askew/Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum).

We'll be crowdfunding our next bilingual game Against the Monster/Gegen das Monster in February 2024 (separate post to come!).

You can buy all the games shown in this post through our website (most of them are available in print and PDF). Digital versions (all screenreader-ready with image descriptions, PDF tags, etc.) and more detailed descriptions in English are also available on Itch.io.

[profiterole-reads]

Power to Yield and Other Stories by Bogi Takács

Power to Yield and Other Stories by Bogi Takács was absolutely brilliant! It's a collection of speculative short stories, sometimes interconnected, taking place on Earth, where aliens try to communicate with us through telepathy, on Eren, where people can get magically turned into plants (temporarily), and more...

This is next-level SF/F, I think one of the only books I've read that has come close to this was The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum. These stories explore gender identity, neurodivergence, religion, immigration and the human condition in general (as in what makes us human).

There are many non-binary characters. There are also a couple of intersex characters, and the author emself is intersex, but this book is more intersex in its themes than in its representation. Thanks for the rec to @intersexbookclub!

[dustedmagazine]

Jake Xerxes Fussell—When I’m Called (Fat Possum)

Folk musician and curator Jake Xerxes Fussell was initially known for recordings with a front porch vibe. On his latest, When I’m Called, some performances hew to traditional lines. The album’s opener, “Andy,” is a story about Andy Warhol by Maestro Gaxiola, depicting a pseudo-rivalry between the artists. Fussell plays it simply, just acoustic guitar and voice, giving the song a rustic rework.

Elsewhere, new and past collaborators perform with Fussell. Like his 2022 release, Good and Green Again, James Elkington produces, creating elaborate arrangements and contributing instruments to several of the songs. Other frequent collaborators join them, including horn-player Anna Jacobsen, guitarist Blake Mills, bassist Ben Whitely, who plays both electric and upright bass and drummer Joe Westerlund. Musicians new to Fussell’s orbit include string player Jane Cook and woodwind performer Hunter Diamond. Throughout, Fussell’s understated baritone allows the words practically to speak for themselves.

Fussell culls another selection from a different source than usual. Composer Benjamin Britten collected many folk songs, arranging them for classical and scholastic musicians. Britten’s collaboration with Jane Taylor, “Cuckoo,” is given the Fussell/Elkington treatment, obscuring its rather formal source. Joan Shelley provides backing vocals on the chorus.

One of Fussell’s mentor figures, the poly artist and folklorist Art Rosenbaum, passed away in 2022. Several songs from Rosenbaum’s collection are featured on When I’m Called: “Leaving Here, Don’t Know Where I’m Going” the Scottish ballad “Feeing Day,” “Gone to Hilo,” “Who Killed Poor Robin”, and the album closer “Going to Georgia.” Each is treated a each bit differently: “Leaving Here…” has a pastoral vibe that includes winds, harmonica, and piano, “Feeing Day” has sustained horn chords in the background, “Who Killed Poor Robin” incorporates an inexorable character in the rhythm section and Elkington playing tangy organ chords and autoharp, “Gone to Hilo” has guitar soloing from Fussell and Elkington on pedal steel and organ, and “Going to Georgia” has Mills providing an extra guitar, Cook strings, Elkington organ and feedback, and Whitely and Westerlund grounding the whole in an Appalachian mid-tempo pattern. While many of the songs are given relatively brief renditions, “Going to Georgia” allows the musicians a chance to stretch out a bit.

Fussell is still a captivating figure singing by himself with a guitar; I wouldn’t want to see his front porch abandoned. However, this album's changes in approach and material invariably work. These and the talents of his collaborators help When I’m Called to be one of Fussell’s strongest recordings to date.

Christian Carey

[spenglercore]

OC Masterlist

Made a list of OCs, organized by the IP they exist in. I'll add links to general info on them as I make the posts, and update this with missing info over time.

A lot of them are just different versions of an original, for example Victoria is the 'original', and all other OCs paired with a Harold look the same as her physically and share certain aspects of their backstory, but have different haircuts, styles of dress, etc.

---

GHOSTBUSTERS:

-Victoria 'Vic' Smith, punk nerd and Ghostbuster and later wife to Egon and mother to Callie.

-Cameron Spengler, Callie's younger brother by a year.

-Piotr Kowalski and Ilse Spengler, Egon's parents.

-Johann, Wilhelmina (Willie), Iosif, Marie and Pierre Spengler, Egon's five younger siblings.

STRIPES:

-Ingrid Antonova, greaser-punk and car mechanic.

-Zane Ziskey, Ingrid and Russell's wildass sentient mop of a son.

-Pater and Elsie, Russell's parents.

-Ian, Velma, Joseph, Maria and Piers, Russell's five chaotic younger siblings.

ORANGE COUNTY:

-Katya Brown, chemist and Stanford graduate just trying to make it work in the Bay Area.

-Maksym and Megan (Maks and Meg), fraternal twin children to Don and Katya and complete and utter surprise babies.

-Peter and Ellen, Don's parents.

-Giovanni, Willa, Joshua, Mariah and Pierce, Don's younger siblings.

STEALING HOME:

-Sophia 'Trippy' Tripolski, artist and handyman.

- Edward and Andrea (Eddie and Andy), her two kids with Alan.

BABY BOOM:

-Stacy Miller, secretary/office gofer currently pursuing a degree in Architecture

- Veronica, the daughter with Steven that shouldn't exist bc Stacy had always been told she wasn't able to even have kids.

SCTV:

For Dustin Eastwood:

-Cassidy 'Sid' Larson, general ranch hand type, occasional bounty hunter.

-Milo, her and Dustin's son who is FASCINATED by the outdoors.

-Piter and Elise, Dustin's parents.

-John, Elma, Joey, Mary and Pete, Dustin's five younger siblings.

---

For Officer Friendly, whom I named Oscar:

-Penelope 'Penny' Miller, professional 70s punk protestor.

-Benjamin, Casey, Melanie (Mel), Crystal, Shaun and Josephine, Penny and Friendly's six little chaotic felons.

- Philip and Lisa, Ofc. Friendly's parents.

---

For Moe Green:

- Emily Molson. Info pending. Because Moe needs SOMEbody to comfort him, holy shit.

- Ryan, Erin and Joel, her three kids with Moe.

---

For the PTA Fucker, whom I named Sterling Silver (fuck you Sam):

- Judy 'Jude' Silver, formerly Judy Gold, all I have for her is sixties hippie vibes but to the left.

- Joy, Cassius (Cas), Bianca (Bee), Leroy, Charlie and Dawn, Jude and Sterlings half-planned, half-surprise counterculture mob.

HEAVY METAL:

- Imogene [surname pending], assistant dockmaster on the station Zeke and Edsel operate out of. Tells Zeke that if he can land the goddamn ship sober and NOT fuck up the docks, she'll let him take her out. It backfires.

GROUNDHOG DAY:

- Bernice 'Bernie' Johnson, RN working in an ER in Manhattan who is starting to reconsider her life choices.

- Antonia 'Toni' Rosenbaum: Dan's youngest daughter, who lives in Manhattan with her new son Robert, or 'Bobby' to her and Dan.