#but not imaginary

[fantasyfantasygames]

How To Win The Next Election

How To Win The Next Election, Full Court Marathon Games, 2024

Originally written in 2016, How To Win The Next Election (HTWTNE) was revised recently and reissued. Unlike a lot of RPGs, it's one with distinct winners and losers at the end. Your characters are people involved in the political process of a large nation, trying to ensure that your allies and land are protected.

Stats are focused on mental and social, and are also alphabetized: Artistry, Bravado, Charisma, Deviousness, and Earnings (a wealth score). The only physical stat is that there's a Fatigue score that can be improved if you get exercise (and other factors). Skills are fairly broad, and include Writing, Speaking, Design, Technology, Negotiation, etc. There are no official "playbooks", but there are a few templates you can use, like Organizer, Protester, Webmaster, The Face, etc. Stats are determined semi-randomly In general no one's going to be able to do it all themselves. Having your team work together is key, and even someone with really low stats can contribute. Connecting with other groups in-game is vital as well.

The game is designed explicitly for "campaign" play (ha). No one-shots here; the rules just don't work on a scale that small. Each session your team works on something specific: phone banking, flyering, fundraising, tough conversations, etc. In the long run, it's all about accumulating bonuses to your Turnout score. HTWTNE is unique in that allies from other play groups can also give you a bonus! Those bonuses fade over time at a somewhat random rate - some of them stick around for multiple sessions, helping you build momentum, but sometimes the game's randomized "news cycle" punts you off the public awareness. Your mid-game Turnout can also help you recruit new allies.

It's possible to put your team into a "walking dead" situation where you haven't taken advantage of the bonuses available early on, or haven't made enough alliances. Luckily there are a lot of "walkthroughs" online (weird for a niche TTRPG, I know) that can help you avoid that. There are even groups who play this game more or less continuously, though you'll probably want to dip in and out. Your Fatigue score recovers over the course of real time rather than game sessions.

HTWTNE can definitely feel unfair at times. I won my first playthrough and lost my second, and both were really down to the wire. Some of what I did mattered; some didn't. I can't say that I loved playing it, but I know I'll be playing again pretty soon.

Full Court Marathon Games (motto: It's Not A Race) doesn't put out a lot of products, but the ones they make are pretty compelling. I encourage you to try it out.

[brightgoat]

[spookybokchoy]

“Hey, wanna go to the mall today?”

a personal challenge to see how many characters/references I could fit into one picture, could definitely still do more!

Edit-For everyone asking how long it took, 2 weeks of planning and a little less than month to draw/edit (I work fast)

[theanxiousbookdevourer]

A Collection of My Favorite Parenthetical Asides in Disco Elysium:

[thestuffedalligator]

So usually when an imaginary friend is a real thing in a story, it’s either a demon or a ghost or some supernatural boogeyman that probably wants to eat the kid they’ve befriended (Mama, a couple of the Paranormal Activity movies), or “imaginary friends” are just treated as a real thing in the setting, and if a child just thinks hard enough they can manifest a friend into existence (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Happy).

And somewhere in the middle is an area where the imaginary friend in question is real and they are supernatural, but they aren’t malevolent, and they aren’t entirely honest about what they are. Like maybe they’re a fairy or a god or some kind of boggle from mythology, but they just got caught by a six year old and they don’t have time to get into it, so they just go “…Yes. I’m your imaginary friend. We haven’t met. How do you do.” And then they stick around because they do love this kid, and if you’re a boggle from mythology in the modern day good food is really hard to come by.

And at some level. That’s what I think Hobbes is.

[ozzgin]

You can't remember the first time you encountered your imaginary friend. Perhaps around the time your family had moved into the new house.

Inside the dusty cupboard you found a young boy, idly scratching the floorboards. His head quickly turned to face you, bones popping into place. He asked if you'd like to become his best friend; you certainly enjoyed the idea of someone's company during lonesome hours, so you nodded enthusiastically.

To your dismay, no one wanted to hear about your newly made acquaintance. Your mother frowned once you told her about the sharp rows of teeth, and the hollow eyes, and the long, blackened limbs he'd clumsily drag along. "That's my friend," you'd shout, stomping back to your room. She hoped you'd grow out of it.

In truth, you expected to grow out of it, too. At some point, you guessed, you'd no longer be a child, and your friend would vanish along with all the other imaginary beings concocted by lonely, immature minds. Yet the years went by, and he grew with you: taller, greedier, and clingier than ever.

You've become quite resentful of his stubborn possessiveness. He hates it when you make new friends, and you've never been allowed to date anyone. You still remember the day you came home with a love note hidden in your pocket; he tore it to shreds, then almost clawed at your face in his blinding anger. You're my friend, he shrieked, you're my everything.

Alas, you finally left the cursed blasphemy behind. You sigh in relief, dropping another box of belongings inside the sparsely decorated apartment.

"It's so quiet without your parents," a voice suddenly croaks.

You grimace at the sight of your deformed companion, currently blocking the door with his massive frame. A wide grin crosses his sunken face, and you can discern a string of drool hanging from one corner.

"Now that we're alone, we can have a lot of fun," he suggests cheekily, taking another step towards you. "Remember how you always wanted to have a boyfriend, so you could fool around?"

He places his hands on your shoulders, and you shudder at the sudden cold feeling.

"I won't go easy on you," he drawls, visibly excited.

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

You just know vampire discourse would be insane

0 notes

🧛‍♂️ dr.acula follow

Cannot stand these freshly turned vamplings pretending like it doesn't matter if you're drinking virgin blood or not. As if unpure blood doesn't literally weaken vampiric powers 🙄

🦇 baby-batz follow

Wait omg is this true??? Is this why I've been having so much trouble staying in bat form??

🧛‍♂️ dr.acula follow

If you can't control wolves with your mind or turn into ominous mist it's literally because nonvirgin blood is basically poison. Like yeah you can drink it if you're starving but why would you do that to yourself intentionally?

🦷 fang-fag follow

op doesn't know what they're talking about. The virgin blood thing was made up by a bunch of victorian prudes who only hated sex more than they hated women. the fact that op (who had already been a vampire for decades when the myth was started, if you believe their bio) should be Very telling.

🩸 blood-fan follow

People will try and tell you that there's something wrong with you if you vampiric powers don't come naturally to you, but it's literally fine. You have all the time in the world to figure yourself out. Literally. You'll get there I promise

🧛‍♂️ dr.acula follow

You're all degenerates undeserving of the gift of eternal life after death

🦷 fang-fag follow

Lmaoooo not op showing their whole ass! XD

💀 stake-my-heart follow

But what about the blood types thing? Couldn't this be like the blood types thing?

🦷 fang-fag follow

For the last time, feeling better after drinking blood of the same type (or compatable with the type) you had in life is a well documented scientific fact with actual evidence behind it. We know blood types are real and affect blood. Virginity is a made up social construct, which has absolutely no impact on blood at all. Red blood cells can't tell if you've fucked or not

🫁 childofthenight follow

op trying to find a tasty snack

[angelgigisworld]

[hinamie]

how many hoodies can i give this kid

[toastyyjams]

they took my right to tell you myself. [mizu5]

[hallowvamp]

Fangs out. Crying. Panting like he ran a marathon. Rubbing Dreamstat's cheek and resisting the urge to bite him. Never before have we seen such an insane display of yearning and longing.

[destinationtoast]

My grandmother is Japanese and really likes to give gifts. Often those gifts are Japanese desserts or other food, but sometimes she just slips me cash, folded up inside a tiny, beautiful envelope. But she likes to pretend she's not giving me money, so when possible, she'll hide it somewhere that I will find later.

Today I spent the afternoon with her doing chores and tech support, and she clearly felt this warranted a significant gift in return (no matter that I enjoyed myself). But she forgot to slip something into my pocket or bag before I left, so instead she rushed outside as I was starting my car, making the old-school "roll down the window" gesture. Once I complied, she was forced to acknowledge she was handing me money, but she also tried to minimize the gesture.

The result was that she said, "Thank you, dear! I just wanted you to be able to... to buy yourself a hamburger," and then handed me a darling little envelope that turned out to contain $100. And all I could think was:

[miittchan]

me and my bestie

[lapdogchase]

looks at the ethics board with my big wide autistic eyes and they say fineee you can do human experiments and i say YAYYY :3 !!!!!!!

[surrtasm]

OVER 1.1K LIKES FOR THIS BULLSHIT, THE ART IS SO ASS 😭😭🙏 MAMAS IM BETTER THAN THIS

Edit 2: almost 2.7k??? FUCKING INSANE😭😭 LUV U GUYS