#gm for 10 years

[retrokid616]

so again big episode but over here on the east coast im going on 1 am here so im gonna try to stay as long as i can

cause normally i dip out and see the highlights but after the week we all had fuck it

im not leaving tonight so to everyone here in the us i see y'all next week if you’re leaving fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck trump agian (4 more years really) but yeah i'll stay as long as i can

[whatudottu]

1k years ago humans were in the middle ages (also i have allot of fun thinking about how young mechamorphs as a species in general are compared to even humans like. we've been around 300x longer then they have and its crazy to think about. they are the babies of the universe.)

Hehehe yeah! Humans may not live long in comparison to 1 galvanic mechamorph, in terms of generations mechamorphs only really have maybe 2 or 3? Give or take certain circumstances-

Sometimes my favourite part of thinking about long-living species is to pit them against generation differences, even if a species lives longer than the entire existence of humans at all- makes them kinda feel young in a sense? Dunno :P

[thebrood1979]

the bruins trades right now make no sense to anyone and that's beautiful. nobody but sweeney knows what he's cooking. not sure sweeney even knows actually

[silasbug]

i have no idea what happened or how it happened, but i can finally play bar chords!!!!!

i am so fucking excited. i know it's nothing special but this is a big deal for me because my fingers are short and that shit is painful, but i can actually sound the chords!! and i can switch to them with relative ease, too!

i'm going to be an absolute fucking menace now that half of the songs i want to play are actually playable for me, ha. hahahahahaha. AHAHAHAHAHA.

[lesbiansanemi]

Me: maybe 8 days off will fix me, maybe going back to work won’t be so bad. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s alright

Also me: *is at work for less than two hours and already Wants to Die* Ah. Great.

[silvcrignis]

I See No Blood || William || Open

“... What the hell are you doing in my dorm room? It’s bloody 3AM! You’d BETTER be fucking dying!”

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Ace Trappola: Trouble, that Trappola

Wow, different pjs??? I wonder if each student will truly have unique sleepwear or if it’ll be like “everyone in the same dorm has similar sleepwear, just recolored and with a different motif”. I’ve been laughing about how Ace is dressed and posed, it’s very… Justin Bieber-coded. His bedhead though, it reminds me of Sylvain from FE3H.

Fun fact, I have an irl friend that has the same birthday as Ace... Therefore, I am legally obligated to celebrate it with them/j This year, we're going to an Alice in Wonderland-themed afternoon tea, which I think is very appropriate for Ace! Aaaaaah, My Alice in Wonderland-loving heart can’t take it 😭

Rise and Shine!

He was having a pleasant dream.

There was a path, and the longer he walked on that path, the more the scenery morphed into nonsense.

First was a forest full of twisting turns, colorful signs that pointed this way and that. There was mewing coming from the trees overhead, but every time he looked, he’d find no one there.

Next was a field of progressively bigger and bigger plants. The flowers had faces set in them, and they taunted Ace as he passed. He had plucked the underside of a mushroom cap and chomped down on it. A mistake—Ace had an out-of-body experience, ballooning to the size of a giant and then back to his regular size.

Then he washed away in a sea of tea, spilling from a gigantic glass bottle labelled Drink Me. He swam with the sugar cubes drifting in the fragrant rapids. He caught a current of milk and rode it past trees of chocolate. A dollop of grape jam had dropped down from a branch and landed on his nose.

When Ace, at last, fished himself out of the tea, he was left sticky, skin caked in sugar. As he made to wring his clothes of Darjeeling, he spotted an iced cookie by his feet. Eat Me, it said. There was a trail of them, confections dotting the road ahead in a neat trail. He had followed it—followed until the cookies became crumbs and he was left wandering in a white void, a blank canvas.

Wandering… wandering… where?

Just as that question cropped up like an unwanted weed in an otherwise flawless lawn, a soft sound tickled his ear.

Someone was calling his name.

Who is it…?

He picked up his pace. A casual stroll to a speed walk, then a speed walk into a jog, a job into a run, then a run into a full-on sprint.

"I'm coming! I'm coming already, darn it!!" Ace shouted into the blinding white. "I'm coming, so...!!"

Wait for me. I'll meet you there.

I'll definitely, definitely...!!

His eyes snapped open.

He was lying on his back, wrapped up in his comforter and staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom. Ace blinked several times, slowly adjusting to the sunlight that was spilling in through drawn curtains. A groan escaped him--it was too early for this.

“Mmm… What time is it?” He rolled over in a groggy daze, reaching for his phone. It was still connected to a charger, but it snapped right out of its socket when Ace jolted up. "WHAT?!"

The time, it couldn't be correct. But the line of text messages in his history confirmed the building dread in his stomach.

Gm, Ace! I'll be over soon. Cya then.

I'm here!

Hey, are you up? It's 10 minutes past.

Did you stay up late talking to your bro and sleep through your alarm again?

Hellooooo?

I'm gonna leave without you if you don't come out in 5 minutes.

"Crap, I'm running late!!"

Ace leapt out of bed and flew across his room. The comics and magazines littering his mattress scattered to the floor, but he didn't stop to pick them up.

He moved like lightning, hurriedly dressing and rushing into the communal washroom. While he brushed his teeth with one hand (lest he face the wrath of his vice dorm leader), he teased out his hair with the other. After splashing his face with water (who was going to clock him, Vil?), Ace scribbled on his signature heart, grabbed his backpack, and slipped into his sneakers.

He had his technique down pat thanks to years of practice.

Ace bolted down the hall, stuffing a protein bar into his mouth as he cleared the door. The day greeted him--and so did you, glancing up from your own phone.

"There you are! You kept me waiting, wise guy," you lectured him. It wasn't anything serious--not like his dorm leader's lengthy tirades--just paling around.

"Excuse you," Ace huffed, running a hand through his hair, "I'm fashionably late. There's a difference."

You laughed. Typical of him to always have a snappy comeback prepared.

"Well, c'mon then, fashionably late loser," you urged, playfully nudging his arm, "or we'll both be tardy."

"We'll be late, but at least we'll be late together," he grumbled, nudging you back. "That's fine by me. Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to be stuck in a room with ya for the afternoon."

"That's a weird way of describing detention with Crewel-sensei."

"What can I say? I'm a poet," he shrugged, letting his sarcasm drip like thick nectar. "Besides, I can't leave you hangin'."

"No?" Your eyebrows hitched. "Funny, cuz I clearly remember you ditching me for cleaning duty on the first day of classes. I almost thought you had left for class without me today too."

"Oi, that was then and this is now! Come on, do you really think I'd do that to you? Me? Really?"

"Absolutely," you said without missing a beat.

"Pfft. You're so wrong about that." He rolled his eyes. "If you were really that worried that I'd gone without you, you could've poked your head in to check on me."

You frowned. "That'd mean I'd have to go into your room."

"So? I've been over at your place and in your room before. What's the big deal? You'd just be returning the favor."

He leaned in, so close that your noses almost touched. Your heart stood still. The corners of Ace's mouth lifted into a smirk. It suited him well, loathe as you were to admit it.

"Or is it that you're being shy?" he asked in a singsong. "Prefect 🎵"

"I-I'm not!" you squeaked, stepping back to put distance between the two of you. "Quit assuming things, Ace! This is why you're so annoying."

"And who is it that's decided to hang out with my 'annoying' ass, huh?" he countered smoothly.

"Urgh...! Maybe I shouldn't have wasted my time waiting for you to get ready after all..." you muttered, turning away from him. "My morning would be way more peaceful without you."

"Way less interesting too," he quipped--getting in the last word.

You shook your head, but didn't bring yourself to argue. However meddlesome his tongue was, he had spoken the naked truth.

He's trouble, that Trappola.

[stereax]

CapFriendly Alternative Sites MegaPost

(Last update: 07/27 - added CapSized.)

As we are all likely aware by now, the Washington Capitals have decided to ruin everyone's lives by purchasing and sunsetting CapFriendly. The site has gone dark as of July 10, 2024.

While the hockey community has experienced a similar loss before, with the death of Matthew Wuest and the subsequent loss of CapGeek, this is a markedly different situation that sets a troubling precedent - namely, that freely usable, public NHL data is now available to the highest bidder, who can then revoke access to the data at a minute's notice. Two things can coexist: we can be happy for the makers of CapFriendly that they are being compensated well for their services while also scorning the Washington Capitals organization for choosing to turn off CapFriendly entirely.

Under the cut, please find a list of free CapFriendly alternatives and other websites that contain NHL data. (In some cases, they are mostly free - however, most/all important information for lay analysis is available for free.) This list is dynamic and taking suggestions, so please feel free to send me any websites you find at @stereax and check the original post for updates!

PART 1: SALARY CAP TRACKERS

PuckPedia: The New CapFriendly

PuckPedia is the closest replacement to CapFriendly currently available. It contains salary cap information for all teams and players, draft pick information, several calculators including a buyout calculator and a pick value calculator, agent information, and more. They also run PuckDoku! The biggest strike against PuckPedia is its lack of simulators (Armchair GM, mock draft, or trade simulators); however, in the wake of the CapFriendly news, PuckPedia shared that an Armchair GM simulator is under active development. 07/05 Update: PuckGM is here! You can also react to prospective PuckGMs (thumbs up, thumbs down, laugh, think emojis).

CapSized: Labor of Love

Referred to me by @nonslipdoormat and billed as a "solo female developer's project" (nonslipdoormat IS said developer!), CapSized is a site that's designed similarly to CapFriendly. It has some features other sites lack, such as trade histories going back to 2003 (with some entries as old as 1964!) and a detailed transactions page again stretching YEARS into the past. The more you poke around, the more cool things you uncover. Its primary purpose is to be a "visual database", but calculators and an NHL GM mode are on the list of future additions. I'll be dead honest, I think this is my favorite cap-checker site because of all the extra utilities. Super excited to see where this project goes!

Referred to me by @reavenedges-lies. A "baby site" that has some of the basics of salary cap info, plus a buyout calculator, qualifying offer calculator, and trade proposal maker. The trade proposal maker is prone to error and seems to only be useful for graphics. It can be a useful site for some, but it would not be my first choice.

CapWages: CapFriendly Lite

Another alternative to PuckPedia that mimics CapFriendly in design and is more intuitive for users going directly from CapFriendly to an alternative site. Like PuckPedia, it now features a GM mode, but the GM mode is in beta and is not fully functional (it only shows contracts currently existing at the NHL level). Nevertheless, for checking salary cap info, it is very good and I recommend it. Also now has a buyout calculator.

CapSpace: Young Gun

BenchWarmers: Greenhorn

Similar to CapSpace but perhaps a little better in the design department. I like how, if you don't have an account, it acts like you're Kyle Dubas and has you watching Toronto and Carolina. Has a few neat stats (like "core four" which shows how much the four most expensive players are making) that I haven't seen easily replicated on other sites, but functionality is rather limited outside of that, which is why it's also not my first choice.

Spotrac: Another Salary Cap Checker

An alternative to PuckPedia for salary cap information. However, it lacks much of the information and functionality of PuckPedia or most other sites listed here.

PART 2: ADVANCED STATS

NaturalStatTrick: The Holy Grail of Stats

NaturalStatTrick, or NatStat for short, is a site that contains just about any stat you can think of for any team or player. It has a learning curve but is generally understood to be the most reliable stat tracker available for free. You can even view stats for individual games on it!

MoneyPuck: DTWoMeter and More

You know it from the Deserve-to-Win-o-Meter or its playoff odds rings, but MoneyPuck has a lot of useful data as well if you do a little browsing. Generally, I've heard that MoneyPuck is less accurate than NatStat, but is easier to use, especially on mobile.

HockeyViz: "If I Ever Sell, I Failed"

Home of the Simple Hockey Charts, HockeyViz has a visual for just about every stat out there. You've almost certainly seen some of them before. Most of them are completely free to the public! They're super useful for visualizing stats as more than "just numbers", allowing you to see exactly WHERE things are happening on the ice.

HockeyStatCards: GameScore Kings

Again, you've probably seen HockeyStatCards's GameScore charts. Using data from NatStat (see above) and an algorithm created by Dom Luszczyszyn, it provides a simple GameScore number that tells you whether a player is having a positive or negative impact on the ice for every game in the NHL.

PART 3: SPECIALIZED SITES

NHL Armchair GM: Building Rosters

This site allows you to Armchair GM a roster. Notably, it has a steeper learning curve than CapFriendly and does not have a forum or other way to easily save and publicize your Armchair GM moves. However, it can be useful to make Armchair GMs and have visuals for them.

NHL Entry Draft: With the First Overall Pick...

This site contains a ton of draft resources, from a mock draft simulator to scouting reports. Definitely a useful site for those who are interested in the entry draft. I've seen a couple of mock draft sites, but this one seems to have by far the easiest and arguably most expansive way to use it.

NHL Injury Viz: Rulers of LTIR

Here, you can explore the relationship between the injuries of players, their cap hits, and how teams did without them. Very useful when you're arguing that a certain player going down doomed the team.

PART 4: MORE TYPES OF DATA

HockeyReference: The Good Old Days

Hockey Reference is best used for surface level data about older players. It has some trivia sections as well, for if you ever wanted to know all players wearing certain jersey numbers, sharing a certain birthday, or hailing from Alaska.

EliteProspects: Every League Imaginable

Want to know the roster of a third-tier league in Quebec? EliteProspects has you covered. Literally every league on the face of the Earth, currently existing and not, EliteProspects has info on. Any player you can possibly name, EliteProspects has their stats from atom hockey all the way to the end of their career.

HockeyDB: Another Spot for Stats

HockeyDB, referred to me by @reavenedges-lies, is another solid site for looking up basic hockey stats. Also has a ton of leagues, similar to EliteProspects. Has a hockey card feature as well that shows you cards featuring the player you've looked up, which is neat!

PART 5: FORUMS

HFBoards: Hockey Forums

Probably the most well-known hockey forum out there. If you want to talk puck on a more forum-like site, similar to CapFriendly's forums, this is the one for you.

PART 6: CAPFRIENDLY ARCHIVES

SergeiFyodorov's CapFriendly FAQ Drive

Curated by @sergeifyodorov. Originally posted here and sent to me by @fellowshipofthegay. Archives of the CapFriendly FAQs!

Got a site that's not listed here? Let me know at @stereax and I'll add it! Remember: While CapFriendly may be going away, hockey analysis is here to stay!

[anim-ttrpgs]

Re-Introducing the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club & FAQ

Alright, so, we have this discord server called the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. A discord server, run by the A.N.I.M. Team, for reading, analyzing, and playing TTRPGs. It’s free to join, and at the time of writing this it has a community of nearly 200 members.

Also at the time of writing this, for a limited time, you can get a FREE PDF of the July 11th update of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy just by joining the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club! This is a huge upgrade over the free May 10th version!

Here’s how the book club operates:

Nominations. Members nominate RPGs they wanna play.

Voting. After we finish the current RPG, we vote on what the next one will be. You can vote for as many nominations as you want, and nominations with the most votes wins.

Reading. We encourage you to buy the winning game to support the developers, but if you can’t for any reason, we will find a way to get you a PDF. A rough deadline is set that will allow everyone to read the rulebook at a rate of about 10 pages a day, though reading faster or slower is okay.

Playing. We assign GMs on a volunteer basis, and players are assigned to groups with GMs based on schedule compatibility. Each group plays the same adventure module, so each group will have commonalities in their adventure that they can talk about and compare their experiences with, even with different GMs, players, and characters.

Repeat. Voting begins anew with the nominations that we have accumulated in the mean time.

A.N.I.M.’s current Patreon goal is also tied to the Book Club. If y’all can raise our Patreon income to $310/month, that will allow us to set aside manpower to carve out and organize a small additional space within the ANIM TTRPG Book Club server for other games which do not fit the nomination criteria for the main book club! At the time of writing this, it sits at $259/$310. Signing up to the patreon grants you access to monthly rulebook updates as we continue to finish the game, adventure modules, short fiction, and our patreon discord server.

Below is a bit of an FAQ as an attempt to quell any concerns or hesitations

“The Book Club games probably don’t fit with my schedule.”

They might! Because we assign multiple different groups based on schedule compatibility, the book club games are actually very very schedule-flexible! You might be surprised!

And if they still don’t, even just reading the rulebook and joining in on discussions is a valuable form of participation!

“I’m afraid to play with strangers.”

They won’t exactly be strangers if you hang out around them in the book club long enough! Yes we do get what you mean, but there’s nothing to worry about. The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club is a safe community, and we have rules and, more importantly, procedures designed to make playing with relative strangers as smooth an experience as it can be!

“What if I don’t like the RPG that wins the vote?”

While we encourage you to step a little out of your comfort zone, participation in any given round of the book club is not mandatory, there’s no punishment for sitting out! It’s cool to just hang around in the discord server and discuss virtually anything if you want to.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[retrokid616]

gm: see's party of 15 fuck around for even a second in the moon

[thisisnotthenerd]

as the fhjy premiere is upon us, i'm back with another edition of thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats. it's just the updates that are relevant, since relationship tracking is taking so long to do and i got sidetracked by polls for a few months. this will be sorted by the categories i have data for--you can look at the spreadsheet to find data for all d20 seasons. or you can read it on ao3. anyway:

player data:

runtime and episode data:

before the start of junior year, we have spent 88 hours, 40 minutes, and 14 seconds with the bad kids on-screen, including in oneshots. this is about 3 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes, and 14 seconds.

that's 41/221 d20 episodes, 22 of which were battle episodes.

we've spent 125 hours, 37 minutes, and 32 seconds in spyre as a whole, or 5 days, 5 hours, 37 minutes, and 32 seconds.

that's 57/221 d20 episodes, 32 of which were battle episodes.

cast appearances:

brennan at the top of the list, with 19 d20 appearances, 15 of those as a gm/dm.

next is lou, with 11 seasons as a player; 8 intrepid heroes seasons, 3 sidequests.

followed by ally, zac and siobhan, each with 2 different sidequests under their belts

second to last is emily, with 9, with acofaf

and in last is murph, with only 8. if aabria is in 2 of the 2024 d20 seasons, she's in the running to beat him.

seating preferences:

junior year tipped a lot of the intrepid heroes into a distinct preference, simply by setting them on one side of the table.

emily axford: strong left side preference (6/8), most commonly in L1 and L2. paired next to zac 5/8 seasons, and across from murph 5/8 seasons. fig sits in L1.

zac oyama: strong left side preference (6/8), most commonly in L2 and L1. paired next to emily 5/8 seasons, and across from ally 7/8 seasons. gorgug sits in L2.

siobhan thompson: weak left side preference (5/8), most commonly in L3 and R3. paired next to lou 7/8 seasons [doubled across 5/8], and across from emily 3/8 seasons. adaine sits in L3

lou wilson: even split preference, most commonly in R3 and L3. paired next to siobhan 7/8 seasons [doubled across 5/8], and across from murph 2/8 seasons. fabian sits in R3.

ally beardsley: strong right side preference, most commonly in R2 and R1. paired next to murph 6/8 seasons, and across from zac 7/8 seasons. kristen sits in R2.

brian ‘murph’ murphy: strong right side preference (7/8), the strongest of the intrepid heroes, most commonly in R1 and R2. paired next to ally 6/8 seasons, and across from emily 5/8 seasons. riz sits in R1.

character data:

given what the bts's have shown, there might be some changes to these that i'll update during the premiere, but as of now, this is a quick summary of the bad kids' data, including dnd race, class, level, highest stat, feats, and age. you can go through the thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats tag for my previous commentary on this data, or check out the spreadsheet.

i'm putting them at level 9 for now because that's what we left off with, but more than likely they're starting at level 10 or higher. we know about riz's respec, but there may be others that crop up during the season.

fig faeth: tiefling. lore bard 8, hexblade warlock 1. CHA. actor, lucky. 17-18

gorgug thistlespring: half-orc. berserker barbarian 8, artificer 1. STR. orcish aggression/fury. 18

adaine abernant: high elf. divination wizard 9. INT. spell sniper, war caster. 16-17

fabian seacaster: half-elf. battlemaster fighter 6, swords bard 3. DEX. sentinel. 18-19

kristen applebees: variant human. twilight cleric 9. WIS. human determination, inspiring leader. 17-18

riz gukgak: goblin. arcane trickster rogue 9. DEX. healer. 17

all of the bad kids have some magic now--the ladies are all full casters, while fabian is a split multiclass, gorgug is a 1/2 caster multiclass, and riz re-subclassed into a 1/3rd casting progression. still an even split of multiclasses and pure classes, though that may change. riz's re-spec has bumped arcane trickster up to the most common rogue subclass, with 6 arcane trickster characters, 4 of whom sit in R1.

and that's it! all of the intrepid heroes/bad kids data that i have updates for! see you all at the premiere of fantasy high: junior year tomorrow!

[msfcatlover]

It’s so hard to brag about your RPG friends to other people (especially your GMs) because nobody gets it when you try to explain that they make the best characters.

“Oh, they’re so creative!”

“They’re an amazing actor!”

“We get along great!”

No. You don’t get it.

I have not stopped thinking about this NPC he cooked up on the fly for me to interact with over 6 years ago. I want to plan 5 different heists with them, but actually I want it to all be the same heist & for us to do it as 10 different characters because I want to see all the different ways their ideas bounce off mine. She’s completely willing to play along with any & all bits, even if she herself thinks it’s really stupid or boring, if it’s what her character would do. Every single time they introduce a new character, I am on the edge of my seat, vibrating with excitement to see what they’ve come up with. Every time we meet a new NPC, I hold my breath, praying that they become a recurring character.

I am a rabid fan of my friends’ characters, and it’s impossible to explain.

[acknowledge-reigns]

Point Of View (Poly!Jimmy Uso x Naomi x OC) | 18+!!! SMUT

Description: Jimmy and Naomi have been married for 10 years. When their recently added third, Kira, needs help seeing herself from their POV, they're eager to show her.

Warnings: Established Dom/Switch/sub dynamic, Daddy/Mommy kink, mention of orgasm denial as punishment, fingering, nipple play, petnames, mention of injury, doubts and reassurance, praise, threesome, poly!Jimmy and Naomi.

Song: POV by Ariana Grande

Face Claim: Coco Jones

You can find my other works here.

MDNI!! THIS STORY INCLUDES SMUT. AS ALWAYS MY STORIES ARE KAYFABE COMPLAINT TO SOME EXTENT AND DO NOT DEPICT REAL PEOPLE.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。..・。.・゜✭・.・

Sometimes it is easy for Kira to feel like a third wheel. Not because anyone intentionally made her feel that way but when you constantly hang around wrestlers and well... You aren't a wrestler, it's easy to feel that way.

Add onto that the fact that she's in a poly relationship with a married couple that had been together 14 years. She had just joined them about a year ago. Jimmy and Naomi both made her feel just as loved. She just felt to some extinct she couldn't relate to them the way they relate to each other at times.

It wasn't that Kira didn't have the desire to be a wrestler. She'd actually started training when she was 18 or so with Booker T's 'Reality Of Wrestling' in her hometown Houston, Texas, which is where she originally met Jimmy and Jey.

They were close friends back then, nothing more.

One split second miscalculation led to an awful neck injury and that was all it took to injure her to the point of never even getting to make her television debut. With her future in ring out the window, she stayed on with Booker T who became somewhat of a father figure, and under his wing she learned how to run a promotion.

Years later this led to her becoming GM for TNA Impact, where Naomi, performing under the name Trinity Fatu at the time was Knockouts World Champion. The two hit it off, eventually Kira realized Trin was married to her old friend from ROW and they all grew closer and closer until one day the couple sat her down, explained that they were poly and that they both had developed feelings for her. And the rest was history.

It became a pretty fun dynamic. Kira was a sub. A bratty sub, but a sub nonetheless. Naomi was a switch. Domme to Kira but submissive to Jimmy, who was a Dom.

Naomi was a very nurturing, caregiver type Domme which Kira loved. There was nothing like brating until she pissed Daddy off and got spanked then got cuddles from Mommy. Jimmy was the type of Dom that didn't take himself too seriously. He wasn't afraid to joke around and could always make his girls laugh, even durring an intense scene.

When Naomi returned to WWE she brought Kira along with her who served as sort of an assistant to Nick Aldis, but eventually took his place running Smackdown altogether due to Roman and The Rock deciding around wrestlemania that someone connected to the bloodline needed to be GM. Jimmy volunteered her, not that she had minded.

Kira lay in bed, sandwiched between Jimmy and Naomi in their hotel room after Smackdown.

Kira snuggled closer to Jimmy, feeling his strong tattooed arms around her. He kissed the top of her head, and she felt a rush of warmth and affection.

"You okay, babygirl?" he asked, his voice soft and concerned. "You seem a little quiet tonight."

Kira sighed softly, not wanting to burden him with her feelings. "I'm fine," she said, forcing a smile. "Just a little tired, I guess."

Jimmy frowned, sensing that something was off. "You know you can talk to us, right?" he said, his hand gently stroking her arm.

"It's nothing, Daddy." Kira lied. Naomi quirked a brow not believing it one bit.

"No lying, baby. Don't make us have to punish you." Naomi responded.

"The truth, or you won't cum for a week." Jimmy added.

Kira hesitated for a moment, then decided to open up to them. "I just... sometimes I feel like I don't fit in with you guys," she admitted. "You're both wrestlers, and I'm just... not. I don't have the same experiences or knowledge as you do, and it makes me feel a little left out sometimes."

Jimmy listened attentively, his expression understanding. "I'm sorry you feel that way, babygirl," he said, his voice gentle. "We never meant to make you feel left out. We love you just the way you are."

Naomi, who had been listening quietly, spoke up. "Kira, you're an important part of our relationship," she said. "We wouldn't be where we are without you. We love you for who you are, not for what you do."

Kira felt a lump form in her throat as she heard their words. She knew they loved her, but sometimes it was hard to shake off those feelings of inadequacy.

"I know you do," she said, her voice soft. "And I love you both too. I just... sometimes I wish I could relate to you more, you know? Like when you talk about your matches or whatever."

Jimmy nodded, he remembered that day in training when it happened, when Kira landed wrong on her neck and her hopes of a wrestling career died. He could see the pain on her face even now.

Naomi reached out and took Kira's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "We understand, babygirl," she said. "And we're here to support you through whatever you're feeling. We know how much wrestling meant to you, and we're sorry that it didn't work out the way you hoped."

Jimmy nodded in agreement, his eyes filled with empathy. "We'll always be here for you, no matter what," he said. "We love you, and we want you to be happy."

Kira felt a wave of gratitude wash over her as she looked at the two people she loved most in the world. She knew that they would always be there for her, no matter what challenges came their way.

"Thank you," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "I love you both so much."

Naomi leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "We love you too, babygirl," she said. "And we'll always be here to help you feel included and loved."

Jimmy wrapped his arms around both of them, pulling them close. "Forever and always," he said, his voice firm and reassuring. "Naomi, what do you say we reward our princess for opening up to us?" Jimmy asked, "I'm tryna make her scream so loud we get kicked out the damn hotel." He added, his trademark humor making an appearance.

Naomi grinned, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "I like the way you think," she said. "I think our princess deserves a little extra attention tonight."

Kira felt a shiver of excitement run down her spine as she looked at the two of them. "What do you have in mind?" she asked, her voice a little breathless.

Jimmy leaned in and whispered something in Naomi's ear, causing her to giggle. "Oh, I like that idea," she said, a wicked grin spreading across her face.

Kira's heart raced as she watched the two of them exchange a knowing look. She had no idea what they were planning, but she was already feeling the heat of anticipation.

Jimmy and Naomi both turned their attention to Kira, their eyes filled with desire. "Are you ready, princess?" Jimmy asked, his voice low and seductive.

Naomi reached out and ran a finger down Kira's arm, sending another shiver through her body. "We're going to make you feel so good," she said, her voice sultry. "Just relax and let Mommy and Daddy take care of you."

Kira's breath hitched as she felt their hands on her body, their touch sending waves of pleasure through her. She closed her eyes and let herself surrender to their touch, trusting them completely.

Jimmy and Naomi worked in perfect harmony, their hands and mouths exploring every inch of her body. They whispered sweet nothings in her ear, telling her how beautiful she was and how much they loved her. Reminding her that she was their good girl.

As they continued to lavish attention on her, Kira felt herself becoming more and more aroused. She could feel the heat building between her legs.

Jimmy's hands roamed over her body, his touch firm and possessive. Naomi's lips trailed kisses down her neck, her tongue flicking out to tease her sensitive skin.

Kira moaned softly, arching her back as Jimmy's fingers found her most sensitive spot, circuling her clit. Naomi moved lower as well, her lips and tongue exploring the curves of her body.

Jimmy's mouth found hers in a searing kiss, his tongue delving deep as he claimed her lips. Naomi's hands were everywhere, caressing and stroking her in all the right places.

Kira felt like she was in a haze of pleasure, her body trembling with need. She could feel the tension building inside her, and she knew that she was close to the edge.

Jimmy's fingers moved faster, in and out, curling inside her, his touch driving her wild. Naomi's mouth was hot and wet against her skin, and she could feel her orgasm building with each passing moment as Naomi sucked one of her sensitive nipples into her mouth.

With a gasp, Kira finally reached her peak, her body shuddering with pleasure. Jimmy and Naomi held her close, their arms wrapped around her as she rode out the waves of her climax.

"You're so beautiful when you come," Jimmy whispered, his breath hot against her ear. "We love seeing you like this."

Naomi nuzzled her neck, her lips brushing against her skin. "We'll never get tired of making you feel good, princess," she said. "You're ours."

Kira lay there, her body still tingling from the aftershocks of her orgasm. She felt loved and cherished, surrounded by the two people who meant the most to her in the world.

Jimmy and Naomi lay on either side of her, their arms wrapped around her protectively. They showered her with kisses and sweet words. Kira couldn't help the giddy feeling that had come over her, she loved being taken care of by her Doms.

Kira felt a sense of contentment wash over her as she lay there with them. She knew that there would be challenges and obstacles in their relationship, but she also knew that they would face them together.

Jimmy and Naomi had a way of making her feel like she belonged, like she was a part of something special. Kira snuggled closer to them, feeling safe and loved in their embrace.

Jimmy and Naomi held her tightly, their bodies warm and comforting. They talked softly, their voices filled with affection and tenderness.

"I love you both so much," Kira whispered, her voice filled with emotion. "You make me feel like the luckiest person in the world."

Jimmy and Naomi both smiled, their eyes filled with love. "We love you too, princess," Jimmy said as Naomi lovingly played with Kira's hair. "And we'll always be here to remind you just how special you are."

[bigmammallama5]

Hi! I have a super specific question that I think you’ll be somewhat equipped to answer… I’m planning to DM a dnd oneshot set in the Carmilla/Silas University world. And want to use the main series cast as NPCs (the idea being my group would be solving the mystery of the 1st season and interacting with the weird campus - eventually leading into a battle with the angler fish god). But I’m struggling to assign more dnd-adjacent races/classes to the characters and was wondering if you had any opinions? You are the only person I can think of that has/had an interest in both worlds! Apologies that this is so random!

OMG this is such a fun idea!!! I was thinking about the series just the other day and how it’ll be 10 years old this fall. Maybe I’ll draw something for it if I have the brain. But ANYWAYS I was poking around lists of race/class for DND, not necessarily basic 5e and I thought these could be fun:

Laura- Fighter, halfling, give her a giant enchanted spatula

Carmilla- Rogue, tabaxi or shifter (tabaxis have a range of cat-like human to humanoid cat to intelligent cat)

Danny- Ranger, classic elf or air genasi or aasimar

Kirsch- Fighter or Barbarian, classic goliath or leonin

LaFontaine- Gunslinger or artificer, dwarf or githzerai

Perry- Cleric, eladrin or classic human if you dont want a mess of different races

Will- Rogue, tabaxi or changeling

The Dean- An aberration or goddess of chaos possessing a High Cleric in Perry’s temple, either an eladrin, high elf, or elemental type humanoid

Then for our notable mentions/supporting cast:

JP- artificer, changeling or shifter (you hear a bubble pop and a 2GB USB clatters to the ground)

Table Dancing Natalie- Bard, kobold or gnome

Betty, SJ, Elsie- GM’s choice, they were sacrificial lambs

[canmom]

social mechanics in RPGs

not a metaphor this time

so. a comment prompted by seeing this float by the dash.

some TTRPG mechanics are designed to abstract over something. you don't want to intricately simulate climbing a wall so you make a mechanic that says 'roll your Climbing Up Shit number and see if you get up the wall in time' (or whatever the stakes may be). any time you need to climb a wall, you just roll one die, and done. maybe offer a little description.

some TTRPG mechanics are designed to draw the game towards the thing they're simulating and make it a focus. these rules might be elaborate, intricate subsystems - the combat rules in D&D being the archetypal example. particularly in later editions, D&D is really interested in combat, it wants to have an elaborate tactical sim where you're juggling different resources to gain an advantage, it wants combat to take up a lot of game time.

in D&D the combat rules are largely self-referential (i.e. game constructs interacting with game constructs) and don't leave a lot of room to determine things by pure narrative logic, so the system needs to have enough depth to carry that. some systems, such as The King Is Dead, structure nearly every interaction.

other TTRPG systems leave more to player improv. there are various frameworks to account for the interface between the fuzzy narrative game world and the hard, procedural, mechanical one. PbtA has its 'moves', which trigger based on conditions to push the narrative in a certain direction. OSR games like to say 'rulings over rules', where the rulebook is silent on a subject and the GM makes a call on the spot based on the narrative situation. exactly what qualifies as 'going aggro', or whether your gambit is feasible and what dice you should role, is a judgement call.

exactly what should be precisely litigated by a rulebook and what should be left to the improvisation of the players, shaped by various vague prompts, is a huge part of the art of TTRPG design. it depends a lot on the group as well.

I think when it comes to social situations in RPGs, it is easy to get lost in these ambiguities. 5e D&D has three numbers on your character sheet called Deception, Persuasion and Intimidation. (in 3.5e the first two were instead called Diplomacy and Bluff). exactly when you should roll these numbers, and how it interacts with the fiction, is left to the discretion of the group.

the stereotypical "I roll to seduce" could be one approach, an approach where the dice system completely abstracts over social encounters - pretty boring. but equally there is the approach where you roleplay a conversation, and after a certain amount of back and forth, the DM declares 'OK, role me a Deception check' and evolves the fiction accordingly - now you're using it a lot more like a PbtA move, pushing the course of events down bifurcating paths at specific moments, and otherwise pursuing free improvised roleplay. however, from the numbers-and-dice side of things, this looks exactly the same.

some games like Burning Wheel offer a conversation system of comparable complexity to its battle system, designed for tense debate-like confrontations. it has something like a dozen actions - e.g. you can make a Point, Obfuscate, or make a verbal Feint, just as in combat you can Attack, Push or Disarm. Is this to Burning Wheel's advantage? it worked pretty well the one time I played it like 10+ years ago, but I also had a very talented GM who could probably have staged a very convincing debate scene regardless. however, the system provided structure, and prompts (how do I make a point? how do I obfuscate?), so it would surely have played out differently without it. it certainly led to a very intense and fun moment of roleplaying where I had to step out onto the 'stage', which has honestly informed me in TTRPGs ever since.

that said, a lot of the time, the best system for adjudicating social situations is literally just to roleplay it out and make a decision - 'what is this character feeling', 'what that character would say'. no mechanical abstraction can beat the human mind when it comes to simulating human beings. that is the unique advantage of TTRPGs as a medium, which no computer or board game can match! don't throw it away lightly.

the problem for a lot of discussions of RPG design is that how the group handles social situations at the table - what they say and when, when they call for dice - is something that depends a lot on the specific group dynamic, rather than something that can effectively be engineered by a rulebook. like many aspects of RPG practice it is something you learn by doing it and watching other players, not by reading about it in a book. you can try pretty hard - Apocalypse World and cousins are statements of a paradigm as much as anything, most trad games have pages and pages of GM advice - but that's not the same thing.

what makes D&D D&D, what makes indie story games indie story games, are their various play cultures, their habits and traditions - and the book is only part of it.

some players might find the prompts given by the notional buttons that say 'persuade', 'deceive' and 'intimidate' (or equally 'go aggro', 'seduce or manipulate' etc.) to be useful pushes in the right direction to play a highly social character, especially if they feel shy or awkward in life. others might find these limited options constraining, or simply irrelevant. or they might find a way to make them fit the rhythms of their group.

thing is, though, it's highly contextual and you aren't going to solve it forever by turning it into an argument about which is the best book-product-tribe to belong to.

[theresattrpgforthat]

SYSTEM OVERVIEW: Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA).

This week I’m taking a break from my regular recommendation posts to talk about some indie ttrpg systems that have gained some well-deserved attention over the years. I’m going to introduce you to how they work, why I like them, and what kinds of games are out there!

Powered by the Apocalypse is often described by its progenitor as a game philosophy more than a game system. If you want to learn about the ins and outs of Vincent Baker’s thoughts on this game philosophy, I recommend looking at his series of blog posts about the system, starting here.

There are a lot of things that can be housed within the family of PbtA games, but a game that advertises itself as Powered by the Apocalypse is probably going to have the following elements.

Moves

To do anything, PbtA games have a list of moves available to the whole party, and then certain moves specific to any given players. When you do something that fits the description of the move, you follow the move’s instructions.

Generally, this involves rolling 2d6 and adding a relevant modifier, somewhere between -1 and +3. The most common source of these modifiers comes from player stats, 3-5 player traits assigned to you during character creation that represent your strengths and weaknesses. These traits might be Cool, Sharp, and Hot, like in Apocalypse World, or Spirit, Wit and Heart, like in Thirsty Sword Lesbians, etc.

Other games use different sources of modifiers. In Apocalypse Keys, you’ll spend Tokens gained by roleplaying according to certain prompts, such as feeling lonely or forgotten. In Patchwork World, your modifiers depend on the moves your character takes. Can you become cats? When you burst into 1d6 cats, roll -CATS. Do you have Bee Resonance? You’ll roll +Stress marked.

Some moves might not even require you to roll dice - maybe you just have to use up a resource, or answer a question before that action happens.

Staggered Successes

PbtA games are not the only games to use this kind of metric, but they’re certainly the most well-known. When you roll dice in these kinds of games, there are generally three different kinds of results you can get: 7-9, 10 and higher, or 6 and below. Usually a 10 or higher allows something spectacular to happen, with a greater amount of narrative control given to the player. A 7-9 is partially successful: the player and GM will likely share narrative control. On a 6 or less, a significant amount of narrative control is given to the GM. 6 or less is usually seen as a turn for the worse, but what that turn looks like is dependant on the game and the genre.

What I like about these results is that regardless of the outcome, the results are meant to be narratively engaging, and push the story forward. Failing to sway the bartender doesn’t stop your plan in its tracks - it leads to the bartender calling forward security, or maybe calling you out on your shit. In a game like Last Fleet, these outcomes push the characters closer and closer to a meltdown. In Urban Shadows 1e, they encourage the characters to deal more intimately with favours and debt. Each outcome should propel you into another fraught situation.

Social Currency.

Having some kind of personal connection to other characters becomes a useful resource in many PbtA games. At the beginning of the game, you’ll answer leading questions that tie you to other characters, in both positive and negative ways. What exactly that personal connection is depends on the game.

In MASKS, your teenage superheroes have Influence over each-other. This Influence is either present, or it isn’t, but when it’s present, it can be spent to encourage other characters to follow your lead or your orders. In Blood Feud, you can look up to or down upon your fellow players, which will change the nature of how you interact with each-other. In Interstitial, you can spend Heart Links to improve your chances of success, adding modifiers to your roll.

I love these mechanics because they encourage the players to engage with each-other - and their interactions don’t have to always be positive either! Monster-Hearts expects your players to be at each-other’s necks just as often as they might be making out, for example.

Character Playbooks

Most, though not all, PbtA games have character playbooks - which may not feel like a novel thing, but it’s a big change for folks who are used to putting their character together from a list of options provided in a rulebook. Character playbooks usually provide all of the options for your specific character type on one page. You don’t choose from a big list: you choose a concept, and then select options from that concept.

Often concepts fill out tropes, such as the Git in Pigsmoke, or the Monstrous in Monster of the Week. These may come with pre-assigned stats, or ask you to assign certain stat values as you like. You’ll also choose playbook-specific moves, describe your character, and take note of special advances or forms of harm that may be incurred as you play. This harm might be physical, but it could just as easily be an emotional state, such as in Voidheart Symphony, where your character could become Angry, Callous or Scared.

What I like about this is that it can streamline character creation. If you’re a first-timer to PbtA you might need some guidance, but you can probably still knock out a character in under an hour. If you’re a veteran, you might be able to put a character together in a few minutes.

Collaborative World-building.

Any given PbtA game is usually inspired by a short list of media or some kind of genre. Brindlewood Bay is inspired by elderly lady detective fiction and eldritch horror. Sunset Kills is inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and similar supernatural-teenager media. However, the specifics of what your group is doing still has to be determined by the group. This means that you’ll have to decide how you met, how you got here, and what the world around you is like.

For some games, like Legacy: Life Among the Ruins, the character choices you’ve made will determine facts about the end-of-the-world you live in. Did you pick titan-slayers? That means there’s titans walking around. Similarly in Comrades, if you pick the Propagandist, you have a newspaper or radio station as part of your rebellion.

I like about this because it affirms one of the core claims of PbtA: the game is a conversation. You begin your Session 0 sharing ideas as a group, with players having just as much say in the creation of the world as the GM. If you want to speed up the game, the GM may propose a setting to make things more specific. I’ve done this in the past with Wolf Hounds, which I wanted to make fit into my Monster Squad campaign last year.

However, even if the GM makes some decisions about the world, the choices the individual players will affect what parts of that world we’ll focus on. I feel like this experience gives a lot more agency to the players, so if you want to run a game but you don’t want to be responsible for everything that lands on the table, you might want to consider something Powered by the Apocalypse.

There are some elements of PbtA that can provide quite a bit of whiplash for new players. The game is very reactive, which means that it can be difficult for a traditional GM to figure out what to plan. Some games, like The Between, come with modules or adventures that can make it easier to ease into a GM-ing role. I’d also recommend checking out PbtA games that play in genres that both the GM and the group are very familiar with. If you like teenage superheroes, MASKS will probably be fairly easy to pick up. If you're familiar with found-footage horror, you might be more interested in Public Access.

I’ve talked about a number of PbtA games in the past. Let’s take a look at a few that I haven’t mentioned much.

City of Mist is a game by Son of Oak about ordinary people caught up in supernatural investigations as they grow to embody myths and legends.

Trespassers, by BoughandWave is a game about monsters in a wood - but you are not the scariest things in this forest.

Fight Item Run, by Whimsy Machine, is a game meant to replicate beloved video games about dungeons and magic.

A Monster's Tail, by Five Points Games, is an homage to monster catcher media, such as Pokemon, Digimon, and Jade Cocoon.

If you’re interested in PbtA games, you might also want to check out the collection of PbtA games that I’ve put together on Itch!