#external containment bureau

[literalcatpod]

54. Making a Human Resources Officer in External Containment Bureau Feat. Mint Rabbit

Pam Shrewt is the office cat of your nightmares, working as the mayor of a small Alaskan town by day, and a member of Human Resources in an anomaly investigation squad by night. People who know our inspirations, Shrewt is how you spell it, right? I don’t feel like looking it up. Anyway, thank you to Mint Rabbit, the face behind the popular Tumblr blog @theresattrpgforthat, for bringing External Containment Bureau by Mythic Gazetteer onto our show!

There’s A TTRPG For That: https://www.tumblr.com/theresattrpgforthat

Follow the show online: https://badgertrove.com/literalcatpod/

Follow Joel Holland: https://jholland.start.page/

Follow Avalon: https://twitter.com/AvalonAlchemist

We’ve got a Patreon now! https://www.patreon.com/BadgerTrove

Download the character sheets: https://bit.ly/literalcatpod

We’re on Bluesky now! https://bsky.app/profile/literalcatpod.bsky.social

Cover art, midroll theme, and Intro/Outro music made by Joel Holland

Thanks for listening! We’ll Cat-ch you later!

[unexploredcast]

In his 1962 book Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

He was almost right.

Unfortunately for Mr. Clarke, he had it backwards. What he should have written was that any sufficiently sophisticated magic is indistinguishable from technology. In fact, few are aware of just how many of the technological developments seen in the second half of the 20th century were the result of magical interference, and that’s at least in part because there are organizations in place to ensure that they don’t.

Organizations like the Forensic Department of Paranormal and Demonic Activity — a top secret private organization dedicated to studying, containing, and preserving the secrecy of rogue magical effects on the world. Utilizing a well-studied paranatural ability known as "Redaction" to maintain their confidence from the rest of the world, the Department has kept the existence of magic a secret since its founding.

But with the advances of magic-inflected technology now growing at an astronomical rate along with the approach of the turn of the 21st century, will it be enough to keep the truth from getting out? 

The Forensic Department of Paranormal and Demonic Activity begins this June for all Patrons at the $1/month tier and above. Back us on Patreon now: https://www.patreon.com/unexploredcast

[forgedinthedark]

Halloween Sale: Forged in the Dark

Some great FitD games are on sale on Itch this spooky season. Feel free to add others in the comments!

Arcanademia by Ostrichmonkey Games

$7.00 $5.25 USD

Arcanademia is a no frills Forged in the Dark game where you play as a member of a Department at a Magical University. You and your colleagues will embark on all manner of magical hijinks on your journey to the top.  

Sabotage rivals' projects, wrangle magical mishaps, court favor with the eldritch Administration, and maybe get some grading done. 

Bump in the Dark by Jexjthomas

$25.00 $12.50 USD

Thrilling, gritty, and utterly human, Bump in the Dark is a tabletop roleplaying game of supernatural mystery and action-packed showdowns with regular folk caught in the middle. It's a game about chosen family, protecting your community, and standing up to the forces (mundane and supernatural alike) that want to tear down all you've built.

External Containment Bureau by Mythic Gazetteer

$20.00 $10.00 USD

A game of paranormal investigation and bureaucracy. Play as trained agents of the External Containment Bureau, an organization tasked with the study, identification, and containment of paranormal phenomena. The Bureau authorizes agents to make use of these phenomena to give yourself incredible powers (so long as the proper forms are in order). But take care: using paranormal energies inches you ever closer to joining the ranks of the paranormal yourself. Will you transcend humanity in the line of duty? Play to find out.

Mountain Home by Karl Scheer

$25.00 $20.00 USD

Players take on the role of a group of founding dwarves setting out to create a new settlement. Dig deep, engage in politics with your neighbors, and secure your future in a strange new land.

Mountain Home games take place over the tenuous decades of a settlement's early existence in a new and remarkable land. The game cycles through both fast-paced expeditions where the characters set out to take control of fate and the steady dig downward as the settlement expands.

[theresattrpgforthat]

@martianworder asked me about this on my Forged in the Dark post, so here we go!

Clocks

So Clocks have been a tool that have been used before and outside of Blades in the Dark, but BitD was where I think they were made really popular.

Golem Clocks designed by cmartins on Itch.io

For all intents and purposes, a Clock is just a track that you fill, but in some cases it's preferred over a track because it fills less space, and it's easy to just draw a clock on a piece of paper to help you keep track of something as you play.

A Clock can be more than just a track. It can be a countdown, a timer, or a representation of a person or faction's goals. The larger the Clock, the bigger task it is. Here are some examples of how you could use them.

A Healing project clock from Blades in the Dark.

A player could have a project Clock that they fill over the course of many sessions. Perhaps they want to research a cure for a vampire virus that is threatening a loved one. The GM would ask them to make a research roll every downtime, and how successful they are indicates how many slices they fill - effectively, how much progress they make towards finding a cure.

Rebellion and Sedition Clocks for Brinkwood: Blood of Tyrants.

A play group might use a Clock to track a common goal, such as winning over a number of anarchists to help take down a mega-corporation. If this is a campaign-long goal, you might use a series of linked clocks to represent the jailbreak you need to assist before you can win over a computer hacker, and then the massive hacking project you need to support before you can overwhelm the corpo servers.

Faction Clocks from Scum & Villainy.

A GM might use a Clock to track the work a Faction makes towards their goal. Every downtime section, they GM might roll to see how successful the Faction is, or simply tick one slice of the clock if the Faction has no reason not to be able to do what they want. If the Faction is allowed to work unimpeded by the PC's, they might eventually do something that changes the world around them, for better or worse.

Mission Clock from External Containment Bureau and Doomsday Clock from Apocalypse Keys.

Clocks might also be used as a timer, to indicate when something terrible might happen, or when the group's time is up. This might be the amount of time before a murderer next strikes, before the haunted house claims another victim, or before the world begins to end. In some games, specific points in the clock (such as halfway, or a quarter of the way through) may trigger special events that give the PC's more information, or remind the group that the pressure is really on.

Clocks for Protect the Child.

All in all, Clocks are a great visual tool to help you and your game group keep track of what's going on in the fiction, and it can also help you keep track of a number of narrative threads in a fairly condensed space. Even if they're not built into the game you're currently running or playing, I think they're a fairly easy addition, and can certainly help with bookkeeping!

[ask-carmenpondiego]

Chapter 18: The Devil in the Details

M paced around his room which was fairly sparse of furniture. He already burnt through a solid pack of cigarettes since returning from his test run of the chronoskimmer and was well into his second pack. He pulled out his phone and patched through to the main computer, 079 pulling its face up on the screen. “Oh wonderful. You managed to spread my reach to your tiny slip of a mobile device. Could you make it any more cramped in here?” M growled, “I will stuff your stuck up assface into an ipod shuffle or worse if you keep it up. I need to go over the schematics on where I went.” The ai sighed as if it had something pressing that it was being pulled away from. It didnt. 079 pulled up the data code from the testing, giving a strong impression of if it had a body, it would be checking a watch and tapping its foot. M poured over the info and triple checked the details. “Everything is fucking correct for this world’s info. What the fuck happened that lead to that?!” 079 swirled its hair into a turban and had images of fortune telling items around its face “You know, I would tell you but I’ll give a little trivia factoid instead: I actually cannot see into the future. I’m a computer, not a psychic. I don’t even have a clue on what you even saw.” Red letters spelling CANCELLED were stamped across the turbaned ai face before returning to normal, wiping away the letters with a digital rag. “Yer no fuckin help.” M tossed the phone onto his bed and opened his window, leaning on the sill. “Perhaps what you saw was not what you saw?” 079 called out, muffled since the screen was face down against the comforter. M’s tentacle reached over and set it upright. “Elaborate.” M looked over his shoulder at his phone. “What you saw in one perspective was perhaps not the full story and you may have missed some key points. Ultimately, time will only tell. Its unadvisable to return to a time that you already visited, much less a time where current you and other you occupy the same time space. Time paradoxes still exist, you know.” M hissed at it through gritted teeth, “Yes I know time paradoxes still fucking exist! But HOW do I fucking change the event if I don’t know what fucking causes it?!” The phone was silent for a moment, “I’m sorry, was that rhetorical? I can’t quite understand the fragile folly of organic semi-intelligent beings. You could just let it happen rather than attempt to fix it and possibly bring about the resulting event faster.” M hung his head and flicked the cigarette butt out the window, “How the hell do you figure that?”

“I don’t. Again, I’m just a computer. I don’t give one iota of interest in what you do. Anything you do is your own fault in itself. In your words: I don’t give a shit.”

M ran his dark hands through his orange hair, “I’m going to have to tell Red.. can I even tell Red?” He points to the phone accusingly, “You just had to tell me that any fucking action I take could make it fucking happen faster! Now I can’t even fucking warn anyone!” In a very bored flat tone, 079 replied, “Oh no. I warned you against possible consequences for your actions that may or may not happen. What ever shall I do?”

“Report this to the TVA director, this is exactly what they have been looking for.” A small time desk jockey was reading a print-out of the timeline, noticing a new unauthorized time jump. He handed the print-out to a passing official who nodded and took the file containing the report. A short trip down the hall the official knocked on the director’s door, and entered upon permission. The director reviewed the file and started dialing the phone next to them. On the other end, a gentleman in a dark grey suit answered, thick files littered his desk from the MIB, ACME, SCP Foundation, United Nations Global Occult Coalition (UNGOC), G.R.U. Division Psychotronics (GRU-P), Earth Protection Force (EPF), Department of External Security (DXS), Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), Federal Bureau of Intervention(FBI), Federal Investigation Bureau(FIB), Foundation for Law and Government(FLAG), International Affairs Agency(IAA), the Wander Society and various other Interpol including Canterlot Royal Guard and Equestria’s global protection unit, all involving Carmen Pondiego and her VILE team.

The gentleman added the Time Variance Authority (TVA) file to his stack. “I see and this new variance is the confirmed beginning to our little thief problem? Understood. …..No, no. We already have eyes and ears on the entire group…… Oh yes, we have our contingency plan all set and planted, we just need to knock that first domino to put a bit of pressure on the situation…. Yes, just keep an eye on that variance timeline and let me know of any further splits or deviance… No, no, Thank YOU, Director. May prosperity raine upon you. Good bye.” A second gentleman with an umbrella hanging on his arm by the hook, seemingly a lower rank, stood in front of him. “Sir? If it has been confirmed for the beginning of the situation, then shouldn’t we eliminate the entirety as soon as possible? I mean, look how many unnaturals she has under her power. The reports say she gains more within a year or so and so does her reach.” The man at the desk tidies up and stacks the files and sets them aside. “No. There is a small chance this is the one who will lose it all and becomes a regular citizen again. We need to see if this time skip triggers anything. We have the safeguards in place. They just need to have the nerve to do what is demanded of them if the time comes. For now, we wait and gather more evidence against this Carmen Pondiego and her VILE team.”

A small red jet circles and lands on a dusty dirt patch outside a fortress ruin on an island on a lake by the southside mountains of Siberia. The fortress, once called Por-Bazhyn, sat undisturbed for many a year, though it currently looked like it was all filled in with dirt. The jet opens to let out its passengers, a few agents and Carmen. They headed to the main entrance and stopped just shy of the opening. Carmen looks at the blueprints and looks at a smaller opening about three yards to the side, “This is where we would typically enter but there had been damage to the interior entranceway further in where it just gives us a dead end. We’ll need to divert to the servants entrance over there.”

Once inside, they descend multiple flights to underground caverns and tunnels. Using their map, the group makes their way through twists and mazes, finally getting to a small open room with a deep drop in the center, the other side of the room was a chest, the walls were rough chiseled and some carvings have been broken away by time. The drop was just large enough that even an olympic jumper could not simply jump across. There used to be a rope bridge but has since rotted away.

Carmen nodded to Kiros who sank his claws into the wall and tested the weight of the grip. He then scaled across the chasm, making slight hand and footholds with his claws and hooked a line at the halfway mark and continued to cross the rest of the way, securing the line with a large pillar. Carmen and Lekir hook up their harnesses and attached the safety line before following exactly where Kiros had set his claws. Slowly making their way across, the girls didnt dare look down, Ninoga, staying on the entrance side of the room, was able to look down and see sharp staligmites growing up from the bottom of the chasm. “Nothing like an old fashioned temple heist with deadly drop offs for hobbies, huh?” Carmen chuckled, breathing hard as she hasn’t rock climbed in quite a while. Lekir shook her head, “You and I have different views on hobbies, I swear..” Ninoga tilted his head, “I thought we were getting things for a cure for Waldo?”

“We are, I was just saying this harkens back to when I was doing this for fun.” Carmen clarified, reaching the ledge. Lekir followed close behind as Carmen opened her pack to grab the extra rope and harness sets. She walked to the chiseled out shelf that holds the chest and checks for traps before picking up the chest which was surprisingly light. She frowned as she placed it near the harness set she was going to wrap it in and looked at the lock. The remains of the lock were already breaking away in her gloved hand in a pile of rusty dust. Kiros peers over, “Whats wrong?” Carmen shakes her head, “Its lighter than I expected..” Lekir comes over, shining her flashlight over for extra light since the room was very dimly lit by their larger lights they brought. “Well, we know we aren’t looking for coins and jewels, maybe it only holds a jar or something?” Carmen wipes the dust off her glove with her pants and proceeds to open the chest. With a yelp from both girls, the chest snapped back with a large set of teeth and a tentacle like tongue. They managed to scramble back out of chomping range just in time to see a red electric bolt shoot the chest from the side, blasting it into the wall with a crunch. Ninoga had sent the blast and called over “You guys ok?! I didn’t hit you, did I?” Carmen was catching her breath as Lekir waved over, “We’re good! Thanks!” Kiros was picking the broken pieces of wood apart, finding some meaty bits. “Should we save some for M as a snack?” He chuckled. “He’s gonna be sour he missed out on this.” He searches a bit more before finding a small scroll. “Here, I found something in the deep center.” Carmen reached for it, inspecting the type of parchment. “This is hide… its a rabbit hide!” She laughed, “Its the rabbit in the chest! So this is already the next clue.. This is awesome. Let’s get this back to HQ so we can figure out the next stop.” The girls carefully made their way back across the wall, having the two dragon types as watchers in case one of them fell, they could hoist them back up easily. They both made it without incident, with Kiros packing away some of the meat before scaling the wall, taking up the equipment he had set for the safety line.

After packing up the climbing equipment, the team made their way out of the tunnels and chambers and back towards the jet. They were met by a small group of militarized officials standing between them and their escape ride. The officials carried old looking bladed weapons as well as rods and had armored horses. The horses suddenly charged at the Agents, making the four scatter. One of the officials threw what looked like a bolas towards Kiros to which Lekir slid in and deflected with an ice spear she created, sending the bolas right back at the official, making him fall off the horse. The horse was startled and started to run with the official’s leg still stuck in a stirrup. Ninoga sent two officials flying with a good tail swipe while the last had gotten off of his horse to fight Carmen with close hand to hand combat. That didnt last long since Kiros picked him up from behind, tossing him to the wall as Lekir sent a smear of ice to hold him there like glue. Carmen was only a little cut up but she confirmed with a smile, they still have the loot.

They all piled back into the jet and set off to HQ, a fifth official that held back out of sight had made a call, “They have escaped. We could not detain them. I am sorry but we have failed to secure the scroll…. Sir? Please we will not fail again.. please no!” The official started begging before dark green vivianite crystals rapidly grew and speared through his body at all angles, severing organs and leaving nothing but shreds of flesh and bones between the multitudes of shards.

When they returned, Carmen was holding her torn red coat and had some cuts on her arms and side. Wally rushed up to her and held her close, making her wince, “Oh my Light! I’m glad you’re ok! I heard over the coms you needed a med kit! Do you need a hospital?!” Carmen pried him off, chuckling, “Nothing I’m not used to. This is why we train. I just got a few scrapes from some bladed guards. I just need some antibacterial gel and gauze. Its nothing! I don’t think these will even scar up.” Lekir laughs, “She’s the squishy out of all of us technically!” She slaps Carmen’s plush ass as if to demonstrate her plushness. The mare blushes and sighs about needing to sew her fabric coat yet again.

Asta nudged Wally’s arm a bit and he perked up as he remembered. “Oh! While you were gone, I went ahead and got you something. They didn’t have your bright red but maybe you will like this darker scarlet shade.” He handed her a box to which she took to the dinner table. Opening it, she grinned and chuckled as she lifted a brand new leather coat, a sleeker, lighter weighted design and had custom pockets on the inner lining and in the sleeves. She tried it on, wincing slightly as she moved, but overall had it on and it had fit perfectly. It even had a split back where her tail was able to freely peek out. She popped the collar and laid it bad down with ease and stuck her hands in every pocket she could find. “This is beautiful!! Thank you so much!!” She wrapped her arms around Wally and kissed him deeply. “Asta helped me with the sizing. She had to raid your closet for the right size. Now sadly they didn’t have a hat to match, so its just the coat for now.” He confessed, but she chuckled and put her hat onto his head. “Hats can be another time. Those can be a tough find anyway. But this is wonderful, thank you…oh! We also have good news! The chest had the next clue in it so we can go right to the duck that will lead us to the eggs! We’re almost there! We almost have you cured!”

Wally’s smile fell a split second as a worried look flashed. “I’m sure we will before it gets too bad.” M hung back and watched everything like a hawk, looking for any sign of the cause of such hatred he had seen on future Carmen’s face. It bothered him more than he expected, he wanted to say he didn’t care much about any of this just like 079 clearly stated as its own opinion. What M did find was that he was more attached to the whole team but moreso Carmen. As they joked, one thing was right, the majority of the team could handle a bullet or two and heal the next day. But Carmen was full mortal flesh and blood, no special powers, she couldn’t even use regular unicorn magic. Yet she dove into dangerous situations all the time with no regard for her own safety, as if she were one of them regardless of all the planning she does to keep everyone safe during their missions. And that bothered him even more since his test run.

He watched as she patched herself up all carefree, he puffed on his cigarette as he broods. It gnawed at his thoughts, he severely wanted both to go back to the future to figure it out but knew 079 had a very glaring and valid point. He thought about slipping off to the mech lab to tinker a bit more on the pod, seeing if he can alter something so its just not a time machine. He needed a distraction and his previous conversation of traveling to other universes may prove to be just the right project to give him that distraction.

A distraction did come to him, just in the form he didn’t expect. Carmen’s waterbottle was clear glass, yet the liquid had the absolute faintest blue glow, easily missed by casual glances. Perhaps 079 was right with his perception. He just needed more proof. He slinked off towards Carmen’s office as she laughed and had happy conversations with the others. She opened the scroll and showed the others. “Lets see what this thing says.” She laid it out on the table next to the coat box and tilted her head. Everyone gathered around for a view. “Is it supposed to be mostly blank?” The hide was indeed mostly blank, the bottom had a mountain ridge and a river and sporadic spots on the upper part that were either ink or tiny holes burnt through with a few sketch lines dashed in going a single direction. Otherwise it was very blank.

“Perhaps its a type of morse code?” Kiros rubbed his chin, Asta shook her head, “No, that was invented in the Amareicas in the 1830’s. And its not cuneiform.. the holes almost look like star alignments yet I dont recognize the placements but the other dots aren’t stars.” Carmen looked up and saw that M wasn’t there. She excused herself and went to search for him, finding him in her office, searching drawers and shelves.

“M, what’s going on? You’ve barely been around and more moody than usual since working on the chronoskimmer.” She inquired, setting her bottle on her desk as he was searching underneath for hidden compartments. He peeked up with a glare and his eyes darted to the water bottle and back to her, “Nice, acting stupid and oblivious right to my fuckin face.” Carmen furrowed her brow and lowered her ears, “Excuse me? But I have absolutely no idea what the hell you are going on about and I deserve an explanation for your behavior!” He stands and leans on the desk between them and whips the bottle across the room, smashing it against the wall. “THAT is what is going on. You have been way too easy going when it comes to your own safety, your cycles have been more intense, your pain tolerance is way too fucking high for a normal fucking pony, and your water always has a familiar blue glow to it. You’ve been fucking microdosing that fucking zydrate this whole fucking time! Now tell me where the rest of it is so I can fucking destroy it, you fucking junkhead!” She snarled at him and slapped his face to which he snapped his hand out and gripped her hair, slamming her head to the desk, “Don’t you FUCKING act all offended. Now I don’t give a fuck what withdrawal you suffer. Tonight you get clean for good and you never get high again. If you don’t listen to me out of fuckin fear, then at least do the fuckin curtesy of telling my brother that your so called happiness is a fucking lie. Fuck knows he deserves to hear the fuckin truth.” He growled as she struggled against his grip on her head as he held her down. “I will NOT let you go down a drug bender and do something you fucking regret!” She blinks and stops struggling for a moment, “What did you say?” She asked. His voice had a hint of unusual worry that she had caught. “I said I will not let you..”

“Yeah I heard that but you sound like you know something I dont..” He lets her up and avoids looking at her both out of fury and confrontation. “I’m not telling you. You are not supposed to know.”

She rubbed her head and walked around the desk, gripping his arm to turn him towards her, “Fuck that, you don’t get to assault me, accuse me of being a brainless addict AND withhold important information from me! Now tell me what you know!” He growls and grips both her arms, squeezing one of the deep cuts by accident, making her yelp. “I FUCKING CAN’T.”

“Why the hell not?!”

“Because I don’t know what fucking causes it!”

“It can’t be that bad. We’ve dealt with pretty bad shit.”

He shakes her a bit, “I saw you fucking die, okay?! It’s that fucking bad!”

The color drains from her face and she steps back from his grip. “When.. how?”

He sighs and puts one hand on his hip, the other running through his hair stressfully. “Three years, shot in Times Square.”

She let the information sink in, both hands on her hips, looking at the floor. She sighs and nods after a few silent moments, “Okay. Luckily the future is not set in stone. Let’s ban Times Square from our destinations. I’ll secure those guns my sister gave as a gift into the vault, far back so its hard to get them. And I really wish you didn’t smash my water. That was the last of the zydrate I had and boy, I could sure use some after that bomb you just dropped.” She looked at him, all coldly somber and turned to walk out of her office and back to the rest of the team. “We need your help to crack the riddle on that hide we brought back. Clean up your mess and join us when you’re done. I’m going to ice this bump on my head now and pour myself a stiff drink.”

[kristen-chin]

When I was a kid, I heard lots of stories about mountain gods, haunted casino hotels in the highlands, the liminal horror of driving through an oil palm plantation at night with no lights etc etc

And then I got on tumblr and saw tales of cornwolves and horrible corn fields and various types of Gothic - and it was cool

I wanted to join in the fun so to speak and shout out the stuff in my hometown area, so I wrote Operation Highland Exodus - a set of mysteries for the External Containment Bureau game

The game is now in the TTRPG Halloween bundle (only 7 days left to check it out) - it’s there alongside lots of other really cool tabletop games - so even if you aren’t a folk horror aficionado, there is going to be something up your alley.

[txttletale]

hello sorry if youre bored of ttrpg asks. however if i wanted to run something scp related. what system should i use

External Containment Bureau is pretty fantastic--really nails the dissonant-corporate-calm SCP aesthetic and has a fantastic method for on-the-fly mystery generation and resolution

[silentiaray]

Moon settlement

Masterpost

The moon settlement is an ecosystem completely isolated from the external environment, a significant part of which is occupied by a Slime Lake, which fills not only the reservoir allocated to it, but also seeps into the adjacent layers of soil. Water circulation occurs naturally due to the fact that it evaporates from the surface of the lake and condenses on the dome, collecting in gutters specially designed for this purpose. Part of it is sent to the reservoir at the top of the tower, the other part flows into the ditch surrounding the entire settlement, from where it is distributed among the residents in the volume they need. Each sector is permeated by a dense network of water and sewer pipes. The sewage system is not directly connected to the lake, but first passes through treatment ponds filled with special plants that remove organic matter from the water. For the residential sectors and Garden/Greenhouse (marked in gray and green), only this type of treatment is sufficient, while the industrial sector (marked in red) is separated from the lake by an additional ring of treatment facilities, since its waste may contain more harmful and hazardous substances.

The main part of the settlement space is organized in tiers, where the roof of the lower one is at the same time the street of the upper one (each tier is 10 meters high and 30 meters wide and contains 2 living floors above the ground and 2 below it). In each of the sectors there is a square with teleports (60x60 meters), connecting the most remote parts of the settlement with each other. The central tower is also partly residential, but first of all it is a huge “office center”, where the hospital, royal library, architectural bureau, law enforcement and other departments are located.

On the lowest underground floor of the tower you can find that same teleport leading to the planet. It is constantly surrounded by water, so it was easier for the guards to hold the defense, however, the room with it is reliably isolated and cleaned manually so that the water, in case of poisoning by the infected, does not leak into the lake.

[sohkrates]

Zine Giveaway!

Ever since I started selling games on itch, I've been doing a sale during the month of my birth (October).

Right now you can get all my games for 37%-off, or buy them all for just $37.

But also, if you want to get a huge bundle of zines I've made (and one I contributed to) including:

6 copies of Dungeon Local 001

4 copies of Nasty Brutish and Long

1 copy of MERGER

1 copy of A Torch in the Dark

1 copy of Haxen

1 copy of The Fall of House Prosh

1 copy of External Containment Bureau

Then you just need to support me on Patreon. Sign up this month and you get entered to win this bundle of 15 games. For just $1 a month (or more, my Patreon is based on a sliding scale of give what you can) you get access to all my games on itch, and early access to work in progress stuff, and if we get just a few more patrons, you can occasionally vote on what I create, and more!

I've been trying to get over the 50 patron hump for... a while now and I'm really hoping this can get us there.

Anyway, back to the writing mines I go. Stay safe out there.

[suganya09]

How to Prepare Economy and Economic Survey for UPSC?

The economy section in the UPSC syllabus is a crucial area that requires a strategic approach and in-depth understanding, especially as it’s part of both Prelims and Mains. The Economic Survey—released every year by the Ministry of Finance—presents an analysis of the country’s economic progress, challenges, and outlook. It’s a vital resource for UPSC aspirants, and effective preparation of this document can provide you with an edge.

Here's a detailed guide to help you master Economy and Economic Survey for UPSC.

Step 1: Understand the Basics of Economics

To build a strong foundation, it’s essential to start with the basics. Begin with NCERTs for Economics from classes 9 to 12, which provide a clear understanding of fundamental concepts such as supply and demand, GDP, inflation, fiscal policy, and balance of payments. After grasping these basics, move on to advanced sources like Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh or any similar standard reference book that offers a more detailed perspective.

Step 2: Analyze the Economic Survey

The Economic Survey is one of the most important documents for UPSC preparation. It provides insights into the government's economic priorities, critical issues, and proposed solutions, which are invaluable for answering Mains questions and framing answers in interviews.

Here’s how to approach the Economic Survey:

Focus on Key Chapters: Start with the introductory chapters, which outline the year’s key themes and policy measures. Pay attention to topics like fiscal developments, inflation, and external sectors.

Highlight Important Data and Graphs: UPSC frequently frames questions on economic indicators. Focus on data related to GDP growth, inflation trends, employment, and poverty.

Policy Recommendations: The Economic Survey often contains suggestions for future reforms. These can be directly quoted in Mains answers or used to substantiate your arguments.

Step 3: Supplement with Current Affairs

Economics is highly dynamic, and every day brings new developments in policies, trade, and global markets. Stay updated by following reliable sources like The Hindu Business Line, Economic Times, and PIB (Press Information Bureau) releases. Look out for updates on schemes, policy changes, and budget announcements, as these are highly relevant to both the Economy and Economic Survey sections.

Step 4: Practice Answer Writing

For Mains, answer writing practice is crucial. The economy section often has analytical questions that test your understanding of policies and their implications. Try framing answers based on recent economic data and incorporating insights from the Economic Survey. Practicing this will not only prepare you for Mains but also help in answering complex questions during the UPSC interview.

Step 5: Revise and Make Notes

Regular revision is key when preparing for UPSC. Make concise notes from each Economic Survey chapter and update them with any new developments. Having a personal summary will help you quickly revise closer to the exam date.

Conclusion

Preparing for the Economy and Economic Survey for UPSC is essential for achieving success, especially as this section carries significant weight in both Prelims and Mains. With the right resources, strategic approach, and regular practice, you can master this subject and gain confidence.

For expert guidance and a personalized study plan, join the best IAS academy in Coimbatore. Our experienced faculty and result-oriented methods will keep you on track throughout your UPSC preparation journey.

Ready to begin? Enroll at the best IAS academy in Coimbatore and achieve your dream of becoming an IAS officer.

[legalservicesandadvice]

Does Everyone Need a CIBIL Repair Agency for Credit Issues?

In today’s financial landscape, maintaining a good credit score is essential. A high score can open doors to loans, credit cards, and other financial opportunities, while a low score can lead to denials or higher interest rates. When faced with credit issues, many individuals consider enlisting the help of a CIBIL repair agency. However, the question arises: does everyone need a CIBIL repair agency for credit issues?

Understanding CIBIL and Credit Scores

CIBIL, or the Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited, is one of the leading credit bureaus in India. It collects and maintains records of an individual’s credit history, including loans, credit cards, and payment history. This information is then compiled into a credit report, which generates a credit score. The score ranges from 300 to 900, with a higher score indicating better creditworthiness.

Many people may face credit issues for various reasons, including missed payments, defaults, or excessive debt. A low credit score can lead to challenges when applying for loans or credit. To address these issues, some individuals may turn to CIBIL repair agencies, which specialise in improving credit scores and rectifying inaccuracies in credit reports.

Who Can Benefit from a CIBIL Repair Agency?

While some people may genuinely need the assistance of a CIBIL repair agency, others may not require professional help. Here are a few scenarios where a CIBIL repair agency can be beneficial:

Inaccurate Information: If you find discrepancies in your credit report that are beyond your ability to resolve, a CIBIL repair agency can assist in disputing these errors with the credit bureau.

Complex Credit Situations: Professional guidance can be invaluable for individuals with complicated credit histories, such as multiple defaults or a history of bankruptcy. CIBIL repair agencies can offer strategies to improve credit scores and negotiate with creditors.

Time Constraints: If you’re busy with work or other commitments and don’t have the time to monitor and improve your credit score, a CIBIL repair agency can manage this process on your behalf.

Lack of Knowledge: Many individuals may need help understanding the credit repair process or the intricacies of credit scoring. A CIBIL repair agency can provide expert advice and support in such cases.

When You Might Not Need a CIBIL Repair Agency

Despite the potential benefits, not everyone requires the services of a CIBIL repair agency. Here are some scenarios where you may be able to manage your credit issues independently:

Minor Issues: If your credit report contains minor errors or your score has dropped slightly due to missed payments, you can often rectify these issues by contacting the credit bureau and making timely payments.

Education: Understanding how credit works can empower you to take control of your financial situation. Many resources, including free credit education programs, can provide the information you need to improve your credit score without external help.

DIY Strategies: There are numerous strategies for improving your credit score that you can implement yourself, such as paying down debt, making timely payments, and maintaining a low credit utilisation ratio. These actions can yield significant improvements without the need for professional assistance.

While a CIBIL repair agency can be a valuable resource for certain individuals, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Understanding your credit situation, educating yourself about credit management, and exploring DIY strategies can often lead to successful outcomes without professional intervention. Ultimately, it’s essential to assess your needs and determine whether the expertise of a CIBIL repair agency is necessary for your credit issues. Whether you go solo or seek professional help, taking proactive steps towards improving your credit score is the first move towards financial health.

[literalcatpod]

This Month on the Literal Cat Podcast (08.2024)

WAKE UP GUYS! IT'S AUGUST! I know the poster says two, but you might notice we've got three bits on the feed for you this month!

On August 7, @theresattrpgforthat joined us to make a cat who has a double life as the mayor of a small town in Alaska and as an anomalous event investigator in External Containment Bureau by Mythic Gazetteer!

Then, on August 21, we bring you a... Cat veterinarian? A Veterinarian cat? How did that get here? In Monster Care Squad by @sandypuggames!

But that's not all! You might have already noticed, but today, on the public feed, we dropped the first half of our bonus Actual Play one-shot episode, Herding Cats, where we attempted to mash up four different PBTA games with the help of ChaosKingJameson (from twitch), @elfgirlcraftworks, and @el-ahrairahthefakeghost!

Also, Part 2 has just gone up on the Patron feed for Badger Knight and Badger Royal-tier patrons!

[unexploredcast]

It's finally here! The first episode of THE FORENSIC DEPARTMENT OF PARANORMAL AND DEMONIC ACTIVITY is now available for all of our Patreon supporters — check it out!

Three children have gone missing from their homes in the southwestern town of Irving, Nevada over the past five weeks. Local authorities investigating the disappearances have turned up only one notable commonality between the incidents—all of the children disappeared at precisely 8:28pm on Thursday evenings. The mission is simple: determine what caused the disappearances, find the missing children if possible, and obfuscate any paranatural causes from the public.

[covid-safer-hotties]

In Australia, COVID-19 deaths may have stopped decreasing - Published Sept 6, 2024

By: Ian M Mackay, PhD

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) published excellent data on deaths due to or with COVID-19 in Australia from 2022 to July 2024. Deaths dropped between 2022 and 2023, but they stopped dropping further in 2024. Is this baseline of death ‘living with COVID-19’?

Below, I’ve plotted the data from deaths due to COVID-19 – those where it is the “disease, condition or external event that started the chain of events leading to death.” The ABS also includes a dataset of deaths with COVID-19 if you are interested.

What might this data be telling us?

Twice a year, COVID-19 death peaks COVID-19 mortality peaks in a biannual pattern in Australia.

The peaks of death for 2022 (blue line in the graph above) and 2024 so far (green line) occur in our summer (orange shared areas) and winter (blue shade area). For 2023, the peaks are also in summer, but autumn contains the peak rather than winter.

Each new peak was driven by SARS-CoV-2 variants that differed from those that drove the preceding epidemic peak. I am a strong proponent that variation is crucial to the SARS-CoV-2 ‘waves’; the variant doth make the epidemic.

Antibody and cellular immunity from infection by the previous variant is generated and long-lasting. But the subsequent epidemic variant has, by definition, largely escaped that old immunity, being more successful at infection and transmission to greener human-filled pastures.

Variants of a virus are all part of the same species of ‘the virus’, but they differ due to being selected as the fittest new mutant during an iterative, evolutionary process (many millions of ‘generations’ are produced in each infection) within a person. The new fittest variant will most likely succeed against competition in its current environment. For a new variant to thrive, it’s had to successfully avoid the hindrance of existing immunity. There are many mechanisms by which viruses do this. One way viruses do this is by changing their outward ‘appearance’ enough that the old immune response can’t impede infection and transmission.

2022, the year the gates opened. In Australia (and New Zealand), we did a spectacular job of keeping SARS-CoV-2 out of Australia during 2021 through a mix of international and internal border restrictions and periodic (less periodic for some jurisdictions than others) lockdowns (stay-at-home orders). At least until we were all well-vaccinated and New South Wales set the schedule on our behalf. We also did a ton of testing, contact tracing, and quarantining. While we used masks (mainly surgical ones), they weren’t really put to the test because we had so few periods of sustained transmission.

In 2022, the floodgates opened, and we were off. Soon thereafter, the surge of hospitalizations and then deaths followed.

These new ABS data are fantastic because it’s very hard to find a trustworthy source of longitudinal COVID-19 data now.

Is 2023-2024 the ‘new normal’? The 2023 (red) and 2024 (green; ongoing) totals clearly show fewer deaths than in 2022 (blue).

That aligns with an expectation that vaccination and immunity from infection protect against the most severe outcome, death.

Still, even with that protection, the red and green lines in the earlier graph showed that monthly mortality is tracking quite similarly each year after the first surge of a novel virus into the community.

Is this what the future looks like? The ‘new normal’? ‘Living with COVID-19’?

Perhaps this balance will change further as we develop immunity to more variants. But that’s copium (wishful thinking), not fact. What we know is that SARS-CoV-2 keeps coughing up new variants with an approximately six monthly regularity. And that rate powers these biannual epidemics. If that rate speeds up – or slows down – it makes sense that the epidemic rate will also change. In between, we have not returned to zero cases and deaths because SARS-CoV-2 is an endemic virus, even if any given variant only has a finite existence.

Trends in mortality and age. Those dying from COVID-19 are mainly among older age groups.

According to the ABS data, 70-80% of all confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 were in those aged 80 years or older, while 17-19% of deaths were among 70-79 year olds.

Deaths in those aged 0-59 comprised 2-4% of all COVID-19 deaths, with 5-7% of 60-69-year-olds dying due to COVID-19.

Noting that 2024 is incomplete so this trend may change.

It’s also interesting to look at the trends among the total deaths in those older age groups. The trend is that the percentage of 60-79-year-olds has been decreasing each year, while 80-90+ year-olds have seen rising rates of mortality due to COVID-19.

Does this reflect that we were still protecting the oldest among us, those we knew were most at risk from death in 2022, but have increasingly removed those protections from 2023? Or is it about reduced ease, interest and pressure in getting boosted? Or perhaps this group is the canary in the coal mine, indicating that vaccine mismatch may lessen the protection for those most likely to die from COVID-19. Or is it something else entirely?

But death isn’t everything. Death is a very harsh and also more rare outcome of SARS-CoV-2 than it was. Nonetheless, because this virus is still mutating apace and being allowed to spread uninterrupted, many people are infected during each epidemic in each jurisdiction. Even a rare outcome means lots of people are affected when many people are infected.

While the “bad cold” and more severe outcomes due to COVID-19 are still occurring and creating havoc for workplaces, schools, ‘the economy’ (where did all those dudes go?), and families, long COVID-19 is also ever-present. Despite resulting less often now [2] than early in the pandemic, widespread transmission keeps driving long COVID case numbers.

Better vaccines We got our vaccines in record time, tested and rolled out new RNA technologies, and read many words about their flexibility. Disappointingly, they have not lived up to the promise of being rapidly updated or produced locally in more countries. Or rather, the promise is retained, but they haven’t been updated fast enough. In Australia, most of our COVID-19 biannual epidemics have been due to variants that aren’t well matched with the spike-gene-containing vaccines we have available.

Even when the vaccines inevitably become more effective, ongoing waves of misinformation, lost trust, and reduced public health communication will likely negatively impact vaccine uptake. There’s a lot of work to do here.

We need better vaccines or faster updates if we want to further push down deaths. We need vaccines that are updated twice a year or include conserved regions of SARS-CoV-2 – parts that don’t change rapidly or extensively but are still effective at generating immunity. We need vaccines that contain multiple pieces of different variants to cover the immunogenic spectrum. We also need those vaccines delivered to the site of infection—the upper airway. Thankfully, work on some of these strategies is progressing.[3]

We could absolutely do more to prevent transmission, but we aren’t, and those most capable of improving our health and safety by organizing better education on masking and cleaning our air are absent, too concerned about other things, or simply taking advice from those unqualified to be in any advisory role.

For now, the numbers say that we are settling into a baseline of death and harm due to this respiratory virus. Some might call this ‘living with COVID-19’. But that’s not true for everyone.

References Deaths due to COVID-19, influenza and RSV in Australia – 2022 – July 2024 www.abs.gov.au/articles/deaths-due-covid-19-influenza-and-rsv-australia-2022-july-2024 Vaccination Dramatically Lowers Long COVID Risk www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccination-dramatically-lowers-long-covid-risk/ An intranasal combination vaccine induces systemic and mucosal immunity against COVID-19 and influenza www.nature.com/articles/s41541-024-00857-5

[theresattrpgforthat]

Games with an atypical division of Player/GM responsibilities? For example, in Fellowship, the players have final say in lore/world building questions, not the GM. (Not counting GMless games, which have atypical GM duties by default)

Alternatively, if that's too niche: any games explicitly designed for rotating GMs and/or 'West Marches' style campaigns.

THEME: Unique Player Responsibilities / Rotating GMs

Hello there! I hope to do your ask justice, although I feel more at home talking about the first half of your question than the second. I’ll ask my followers to supply some more suggestions in the tags/reblogs, and throw at you what I have!

Fae’s Anatomy, by Hebanon Games.

Fae’s Anatomy is a comedic storytelling RPG wrapped around a challenging logic puzzle, recreating the high-stakes melodrama of medical procedurals like Grey’s Anatomy, House, and General Hospital. 

Anybody can be an expert in Fae’s Anatomy. The game is set in a world where all forms of magic, spirituality, and mysticism are science. Science? Just another form of wizardry. Quackary, superstition, and pseudo-science work, but so does chemotherapy, antibiotics, and sound medicine.

In many ways, I’d say Fae’s Anatomy feels like a typical ttrpg: you have one person giving hints and clues to the rest of the players, who will use certain skills and abilities to solve a problem. But the closest role to the GM role - the Patient - is simply different from the doctors in what limits them. The Patient is suffering from some kind of mysterious illness, and while they have a little bit of information available to their general illness, the app presented to them to help them run through the diagnosis keeps the solution obscured enough to keep them on their toes. The Patient also has to role-play their symptoms well enough to help point the doctors in the right direction. In some ways, it feels like Fae’s Anatomy is an elegant form of charades - and if you want to hear how this game plays, you can check out the special episodes that Lawful Great Adventures recorded using this game!

Apocalypse Keys, by Rae Nedjadi @temporalhiccup

The Doomsday Clock is ticking down and emotions run high as you and your team of DIVISION agents struggle to find the Keys before the villainous Harbingers unlock the Doors of Power and bring about the apocalypse.

As an Omen class monster, you are the only thing capable of holding back the apocalypse. Combat occult threats and investigate supernatural phenomena alongside your team of supernatural agents working for the shadowy DIVISION. But in a world that shuns monsters like you, only your deepest, most heartfelt bonds can grant you the power to stop those who seek to unlock Doom’s Door.

There are two ways in which Apocalypse Keys uniquely empowers the players in ways I consider slightly unorthodox. Firstly, there’s the fact that the lore of DIVISION, the shadowy government agency that holds your monsters leash, isn’t fully fleshed out at the beginning of play. It’s slowly uncovered with each mission and playbook advancement, with the players being presented with questions and workshopping the answers together.

Second is the mystery mechanic, which was popularized by Brindlewood Bay and The Between, and also made its way into games such as External Containment Bureau and Bump in the Dark. While the GM designs clues and thinks about what kinds of Harbingers might be responsible for this specific apocalypse, it’s up to the players to decide what the answer to the mystery actually is - and it’s the player’s roll that determines how accurate they are.

Brinkwood, Blood of Tyrants, by Far Horizons Co-Op.

Mask up. Spill blood. Drink the Rich.

The world is not as it should be. The rich feed, literally, upon the poor, as blood-sucking vampires who barely bother to conceal their horrific, parasitic nature. The downtrodden peoples of the world struggle under the burdens of rent, payable through the sweat of their labor or the blood of their veins. Evil has triumphed. Many have given in to despair. But all is not lost.

In Brinkwood, you take on the role of renegades, thieves, and rebels struggling for freedom and liberation in a castylpunk world controlled by vampires. Radicalized by tragedy, you have taken up arms and fled into the forests, where you were taken in by unlikely allies - the fae, forgotten creatures of myth - who offered a different path and the means to fight back against your oppressors. Masks, forged of old wood and older magic, are the final tool left to fight a war long ago lost. If you wear them, they will take their price, etching themselves upon your very soul. But they will also let you spill the blood of the rich and powerful vampires that now rule the land, and from that blood strengthen yourself and your movement.

There’s a lot of things about Brinkwood that I absolutely love, from the way the mask playbooks are meant to be swapped among the characters/players with every mission, to the slow but steady revolution that you build by fostering connections with various factions in the Bloody Isles. But for the purpose of this request, we need to talk about Your Exquisite Fae.

Your Exquisite Fae is the process by which the group collaboratively creates a faerie patron, otherworldly and uniquely powerful. It’s inspired by the game Exquisite Corpse, which has each player draw a piece of a drawing without knowing what the others have already created. In Your Exquisite Fae, the players receive answers to prompts written by other players but aren’t given hints as to what the context was - and then they elaborate on what those answers mean. For example, one player might state that the Fae has eyes that reflect the night sky, gleaming like a thousand distant starts. The second player might decide that those eyes see the deepest fears of the enemy, giving the group an advantage at finding weaknesses and secrets when spying on vampires.

Ars Magica, by Atlas Games.

Ars Magica is the award-winning roleplaying game by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein•Hagen about wizards and their allies in Mythic Europe. This flexible, deeply built world can support games that are historically accurate or fantasy-based, epic or small scale, political or personal.

Players work together to tell the story of their covenant — all of the magi, their companions, and grogs. This history can span decades. It might be heroic, tragic, or both in turn. The covenant could influence the entirety of Mythic Europe or the fates of a small corner of the world.

Spells will be cast. Duels won and lost. Houses may rise and fall. But magic is forever.

The last time I talked about this game, one of my followers pointed out that this was an incredibly complex game that was designed to accommodate rotating GMs. The game styles itself as a troupe-style game, which means you’re not just responsible for your mages, but also your companions and servants. If you want a game with complex relationships and big-picture conflicts, this might be the game for you.

Slugblaster, by Mikey Hamm.

In the small town of Hillview, teenage hoverboarders sneak into other dimensions to explore, film tricks, go viral, and get away from the problems at home. It’s dangerous. It’s stupid. It’s got parent groups in a panic. And it’s the coolest thing ever.

This is Slugblaster. A table-top rpg about teenagehood, giant bugs, circuit-bent rayguns, and trying to be cool.

It may look like a small thing, but during crew creation, each character playbook has specific roles in determining the crew’s resources and relationships. The Grit picks a faction that trusts the crew. The Guts chooses a faction that the crew has somehow annoyed. Each player draws a portal between the known multiverses, but the Smarts draws two. The Chill has final say over where you hang out when you’re not Slugblasting, and The Heart has final say over your crew name.

I’ve drawn direct inspiration from this setup in my own game that I’m playtesting, by giving each playbook final say over some element in the world, and I think it really boosts player agency and gives them control over the kind of story the group wants to tell.

Planedawn Orphans, by Sharkbomb Studios.

Planedawn Orphans is a campaign kit that helps you prepare a campaign for the fantasy role-playing game of your choice. It provides a flexible and versatile framework to start a campaign. The campaign kit will help you get started and provide structure and support, but some assembly is required.

Set in the Planar City, a strange melting pot that connects the vast diversity of the multiverse. You all play Planar Orphans stranded in this city, your original home worlds destroyed, corrupted or lost. A mysterious Patron has brought you together, provided you with a base of operations and tasked you to complete a Planar Key. This key will let you create a new plane for you and your fellow refugees. Your quest will bring you to exotic places filled with strange creatures and bizarre phenomena.

This isn’t a standalone rpg, but rather a campaign kit for whatever system you like - or even multiple systems! I’m recommending this toolkit because I’m actually planning to use it to run a series of rotating-gm games later this year, with a friend of mine. You’re building your own custom dimension by jumping into a series of vastly different worlds, and your home base is built collectively. There’s a lot of player agency and GM agency here, as players have plenty of control over their home dimensions (since they can’t ever go back) and the GMs can take turns designing custom worlds for the party to jump into. I definitely recommend checking it out.

Also Check Out

Asymmetrical Games Rec Post

[omamervt]

I wanna be excited that the External Containment Bureau episode just broke the 7-day download record but realistically, half of those are probably people who got the shit version that are now downloading the fixed one. The analytics don't know the difference, but I do.