#i was mostly refereeing to the books

[vintagerpg]

What a monster of a first product. This is Outcast Silver Raiders (2023), the Kickstarter first edition that boasts a box 3.75 inches deep (the trade edition, from Exalted Funeral, is in a slipcase and lacks some of the ephemera and bits that are in this, which makes sense considering what the cost-per-unit of this thing must have been). It’s the deepest RPG box on my shelves [er, it was, until Land of Eem showed up]. And what depths!

Map, standees, dungeon flashcards. The Player’s Guide lays out the core rules. Three classes — rouge, sorcerer, warrior. They work mostly the way you expect, though there are surprises. Rogues get a pool of luck points, sorcerers have a set of blood magic abilities rather than traditional spells and warriors get special combat maneuvers. It feels a little Black Hack, a little OSE. The Referee’s Compendium contains advice on how to run the game and its world. One of the longest sections is on ritual magic which A. Presents horrible magical options for players to seek out and B. Roots the game setting to a kind of fantasy occultism that I find extremely appealing. Nearly every ritual is a devil’s bargain. There’s also a lengthy section with expanded character options that basically aligns with the OSE standard. They’re there for completion’s sake, but I agree with Isaac that the game feels better without them.

The real star is the third, and longest, book, The Mythic North, which present a grim world that kinda sorta aligns with medieval Scotland. There is a central church and feudal lords and no lack of corruption, both terrestrial and spiritual. The book is basically split between encounters for hex crawling and dungeons for exploring. Both have threads of narrative that players can pick up and then referees can expound upon. The variety here is pretty awe-inspiring. I particularly enjoy the hex encounters, every one of which offers a unique event, NPC or situation. There is a lot of creativity poured into this thing.

It’s all written by Isaac Vanduyn. All the illustrations are by Kim Diaz Holm, all the maps are by Lex Rocket. Everything adheres to a palette of white, black and red, giving the game a cohesive sense of danger and violence. If I weren’t running my own thing right now, I’d be running this.

[zedecksiew]

How To Play The Revolution

So: I do not like the idea of TTRPGs making formal mechanics designed to incentivise ethical play.

But, to be honest, I do not like the idea of any single game pushing any particular formal mechanics about ethical play at all.

So here I am, trying to think through the reasons why, and proposing a solution. (Sort of. A procedure, really.)

+

Assumptions:

1.

Some genres of game resist ethical play. A grand strategy game dehumanises people into census data. The fun of a shooter is violence. This is truest in videogames, but applies to tabletop games also.

Games can question their own ethics, to an extent. Terra Nil is an anti-city-builder. But it is a management game at heart, so may elide critiques of "efficiency = virtue".

Not all games should try to design for ethical play. I believe games that incentivise "bad" behaviour have a lot to teach us about those behaviours, if you approach them with eyes open.

2.

The systems that currently govern our real lives are terrible: oligarchy, profit motive; patriarchy, nation-states, ethno-centrisms. They fuel our problems: class and sectarian strife, destruction of climate and people, spiritual desertification.

They are so total that the aspiration to ethical behaviour is subsumed by their logics. See: social enterprise; corpos and occupying forces flying rainbow flags; etc.

Nowadays, when I hear "ethical", I don't hear "we remember to be decent". I hear "we must work to be better". Good ethics is radical transformation.

3.

If a videogame shooter crosses a line for you, your only real response is to stop playing. This is true for other mechanically-bounded games, like CCGs or boardgames.

In TTRPGs, players have the innate capability to act as their own referees. (even in GM-ed games adjudications are / should be by consensus.) If you don't like certain aspects of a game, you could avoid it---but also you could change it.

Only in TTRPGs can you ditch basic rules of the game and keep playing.

+

So:

D&D's rules are an engine for accumulation: more levels, more power, more stuff, more numbers going up.

If you build a subsystem in D&D for egalitarian action, but have to quantify it in ways legible to the game's other mechanical parts---what does that mean? Is your radical aspiration feeding into / providing cover for the game's underlying logics of accumulation?

At the very least it feels unsatisfactory---"non-representative of what critique / revolution entails as a rupture," to quote Marcia, in conversations we've been having around this subject, over on Discord.

How do we imagine and represent rupture, to the extent that the word "revolution" evokes?

My proposal: we rupture the game.

+++

How To Play The Revolution

Over the course of play, your player-characters have decided to begin a revolution:

An armed struggle against an invader; overturning a feudal hierarchy; a community-wide decision to abandon the silver standard.

So:

Toss out your rule book and sheets.

And then:

Keep playing.

You already know who your characters are: how they prefer to act; what they are capable of; how well they might do at certain tasks; what their context is. You and your group are quite capable of improv-ing what happens next.

Of course, this might be unsatisfactory; you are here to play a TTRPG, after all. Structures are fun. Therefore:

Decide what the rules of your game will be, going forward.

Which rules you want to keep. Which you want to discard. Jury-rig different bits from different games. Shoe-horn a tarot deck into a map-making game---play that. Be as comprehensive or as freeform as you like. Patchwork and house-rule the mechanics of your new reality.

The god designer will not lead you to the revolution. You broke the tyranny of their design. You will lead yourself. You, as a group, together. The revolution is DIY.

+++

Notes:

This is mostly a thought experiment into a personal obsession. I am genuinely tempted to write a ruleset just so I can stick the above bit into it as a codified procedure.

I am tickled to imagine how the way this works may mirror the ways revolutions have played out in history.

A group might already have alternative ruleset in mind, that they want to replace the old ruleset with wholesale. A vanguard for their preferred system.

Things could happen piecemeal, progressively. Abandon fiat currency and a game's equipment price list. Adopt pacifism and replace the combat system with an alternative resolution mechanic. As contradictions pile up, do you continue, or revert?

Discover that the shift is too uncomfortable, too unpredictable, and default back to more familiar rules. The old order reacting, reasserting itself.

+

I keep returning to this damn idea, of players crossing thresholds between rulesets through the course of play. The Revolution is a rupture of ethical reality like Faerie or the Zone is a rupture in geography.

But writing all this down is primarily spurred by this post from Sofinho talking about his game PARIAH and the idea that "switching games/systems mid-session" is an opportunity to explore different lives and ethics:

Granted this is not an original conceit (I'm not claiming to have done anything not already explored by Plato or Zhuangzi) but I think it's a fun possibility to present to your players: dropping into a parallel nightmare realm where their characters can lead different lives and chase different goals.

+

Jay Dragon tells me she is already exploring this idea in a new game, Seven Part Pact:

"the game mechanics are downright oppressive but also present the capacity to sunder them utterly, so the only way to behave ethically is to reject the rules of the game and build something new."

VINDICATION! If other designers are also thinking along these lines this means the idea isn't dumb and I'm not alone!

+++

( Images:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-23-fronts-and-generals.1497106/

https://www.thestranger.com/race/2017/04/05/25059127/if-you-give-a-cop-a-pepsi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

https://nobonzo.com/

https://pangroksulap.com/about/ )

[belit0]

Mafia modern au

GURL FUYUMI AND RAIZEN IS NOW LIVING RENT FREE IN MY BRAIN WKDKKD

Imagine their school is having a sport competition with another school.

Raizen probably doing Judo (a japanese martial arts), and the students that doesn't have a sports are mandatory would be cheering for their school/grade Year. There are bench cheer and others kslskdkd.

Meanwhile Fuyumi got picked to be one of the cheer dancer lol, against her will but it's mandatory and graded for their PE subject sjkdkd

How would that go? Raizen probably expect Fuyumi to be at the benches but nooo he was wrong, she's in the cheer dance

How would that go?

Bro gained a buff (+strength+defense) and ending the match in just a second kdkdkxk

ASJKDHASJKHDASD AAAAAAAA I LOVE THEM

The gym was packed.

Banners in school colors draped the high windows, voices echoed off the polished floors, and the sound of sneakers squeaking and whistles blowing blended into the chaotic hum of a school-wide sports day.

Raizen stood near the edge of the judo mat, arms crossed loosely, jaw tight.

He hated these kinds of events — being put on display, the noise, the chaos.

But fine.

He picked judo because it was quiet. Focused.

It wasn’t about teams or group chants or stupid competitions over who could be the loudest.

It was simple: strength, control, precision.

He adjusted the hem of his gi top, rolled his shoulders, and turned to scan the stands.

He expected to find Fuyumi somewhere on the benches.

That was her zone. Quiet, observing, book in her lap, probably wearing a big hoodie and trying to look invisible.

But he didn’t see her there.

Instead… he saw pom-poms.

Raizen blinked.

There, near the center of the cheer group, was Fuyumi — arms stiff at her sides, clearly dying inside, her cheeks flushed redder than the school colors.

She moved half a second behind the rest of the team, clapping and stepping and raising one pom awkwardly while keeping the other close to her chest like she hoped it would shield her from reality.

She made the mistake of glancing his way.

Their eyes locked.

Fuyumi’s face turned beet red.

Raizen forgot how to breathe.

The referee whistled for the next match — his match — and he turned just in time to face his opponent, eyes still wide, brain fried.

She’s in the cheer squad. Why is she in the cheer squad. Why didn’t she tell me she was in the cheer squad.

He dropped into position, still mentally reeling, trying to shake the image of her in that pleated skirt, knees knocking together while she tried to keep up with the routine.

The other guy lunged forward — some kid from another class, big build, cocky smirk.

Raizen didn’t even blink.

In one swift, effortless movement, Raizen ducked, grabbed, and slammed the poor kid flat on his back.

Match over. One-point victory. Uchiha wins.

The crowd erupted — mostly in confusion.

Some in awe.

Fuyumi froze mid-cheer, pom in the air, mouth parted slightly.

Raizen straightened, brushed off his gi like he hadn’t just one-punched the daylights out of someone in front of the entire school, and turned toward the cheer squad.

His gaze found Fuyumi again.

She was looking at him like she didn’t know whether to hide behind her pom-poms or pass out.

He smirked.

Just a little.

Not because of the win.

Not because of the crowd chanting his name now like he was some kind of local celebrity.

But because she was there — in that ridiculous cheer uniform, trying not to trip over herself, pink to her ears and pretending she didn’t just give him the stupidest strength boost of his life.

[sunnnfish]

oh my GOD where do I begin. Uhhhmmm. Okay. So Love & Passion is a chapter is the Sasaki and Miyano: First Years novel. Every chapter in that book is from a different characters perspective, and Love & Passion is from Tashiro’s POV. It is mostly about tashiros first year of high school and his joining of the ping pong club. Here look at the cover illustration

Going under a cut now due to exceeding length.

So like. There’s like. A Lot. Certifiably. Especially if you’re a tashiro enthusiast like me. Phenomenal characterization and narration that is usually very fun and lighthearted and tashiro-esque!

Gonzaburo Tashiro, first-year. At the moment, I’m facing an insurmountable barrier.

^ First lines of the chapter. He’s continuously very silly and like. Dramatic narrator. Yknow.

And such a personality lends itself to awfully poignant lines of crippling sincerity and simplicity that make me bawl my eyes out.

I don’t get it. What happened to the loneliness?

But of course tashiro doesn’t exist in a void to we have our delightful cast of his dear friends and acquaintances! Middle school bestie shirahama, who gets him into This Whole Mess (I’ll get to that later). Dearest Hanzawa Masato, who he makes various umh. Comments about.

“Game, set!” announced the referee, a second-year.

Man, he sounds so cool saying that.

…

As I stood there, drooping mentally and physically, I was approached by the guy who had refereed our match—the club’s vice president, Hanzawa.

And last but CERTAINLY not least. Dearest dearest previous president of the ping pong club!!!!

There he is. The saulty little binch on the right.

And if you’re wondering why we call him that. Well. He’s never given a name. Ha ha! But he has such a presence. The way he speaks and moves and looks feels so intentionally intense and like. designed. He’s so on purpose. Makes me wonder if we’ll ever get a spinoff of hanzawa masato[GETS SHOT] ha ha sorry who said that. Anyways

Dearest previous president (prev pres for short) and hanzawa torment poor tashiro. Endlessly. From the moment he joined the club—which was kind of an accident (he and shirahama joined just to check it out but eventually wanted to quit, but to quit you had to win a ping pong match. Shirahama won his match against a newbie easy peasy. Tashiro got matched up against the president of the club himself. Obviously couldn’t win and thus forced to join the club permanently)—from the moment he joined the club, prev pres and hanzawa are like. All over him. Obsessed with him. He tries to skip practice but both of them come drag him out of him classroom to come practice.

But despite his desire to not really be there, he takes club so seriously. He’s so sincere about it. He knows everyone else there is really passionate about ping pong so he cant let himself be the odd man out and rain on everyone’s parade. And this paradox—being so avoidant of the club but coming to care about it and bond with other members—really catches the eye of dearest prev pres.

“I thought Tashiro’d be spoiling for a fight, but he isn’t. That’s what makes him a genius worthy of my inner circle. Remember that, Hanzawa, ‘cause when I graduate, you’re gonna be the next club president.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And I think that guy might be a good successor to you!”

Dearest tashiro overhears this and promptly realizes the two freaks he’s met will not let him out of this. Ever. But he tells himself he’ll decline the offer. Surely they’ll find “someone more appropriate. Someone more serious about the club, maybe.”

And this is what like. Gets to the heart of this chapter. Love & Passion. AND REALLY QUICK touching on the fact that all the other chapters are named in ways that refer to specific characters. They’re all in pairs, and the chapter cover art reflects that too. She & Kuresawa. Miyano & Kuresawa. Sasaki & Miyano. Senior & Junior. SO IT MAKES YOU THINK. Who is love and who is passion. Anyways Tashiro meets and knows these various people around him and they’re all so passionate about what they do and what they like. Shirahama ends up joining the basketball club and gets really into it. Miyano and kuresawa are passionate about their books and clubs. Hanzawa and previous president are passionate about ping pong. Tashiro is passionate about… ? he doesn’t really know.

We so rarely know what other people’s passions are.

“Are you into anything, Tashiro?” Ms. Toyoda asked, and I flinched.

“Uh, me? I dunno. I guess I hadn’t really thought about it.” I racked my brain for anything I might be passionate about, but nothing came to mind.”

Later in the chapter he participates in a ping pong tournament and its like. He’s like the rush of it all and cheering for him teammates and stuff but. He doesn’t cry like everyone else when he loses.

Still, when I saw players from other school practically weeping when they lost, I couldn’t help wondering: What made them so different from me? I didn’t have the passion within me to cry when I lost.

Maybe that’s what real passion looks like. What did I have, then?

…

But something held me back, a sense that ‘passion’ was reserved for something you really, truly loved. Something you couldn’t replace, couldn’t even dream of giving up.

Ping-pong isn’t exactly the hill I would die on. But then again…

And he kinda goes through this arc where its like. Im not passionate about this like everyone else. But it has given me a goal to work towards.

And amidst all that We also get into what tashiro gets up to outside of school. Namely, he frequents a bath house where hes become the grandchild of all the old people that also frequent the place. And he also practices ping pong with his new grandpas, because he totally doesnt care about ping pong. He just. Wants to win. So he can beat the president and leave. Yeah thats it.

But he never does get around to beating the president before he has to graduate. Queue the moment that makes me the most insane

“So you’re never coming back, President?” I said.

“I ain’t President anymore.”

“Not the point! I haven’t beat you yet…” I clenched my fists, a yawning, lonely feeling of loss opening within me.

“Ahh. You mean the thing about getting to quit if you win? The next president’ll keep that promise. Dont’ you worry.”

“What?”

I don’t get it. What happened to the loneliness?

The new president—in other words, Hanzawa.

This like. Special relationship hes had with the president. This game of cat and mouse remains unfulfilled. And he feels loss and he feels lonely about it. But at the same time he can renew that relationship with Hanzawa. And it suddenly doesn’t feel so lonely anymore. And its the simplicity and bluntness of this whole exchange is what really sells it—tashiro is not particularly eloquent. He’s brash and blunt but extremely observant. And thats reflected in his chapters. He recognizes the ways other people interact with the world and their expressions and language. And its so like. Factual to him. It is the way it is. And that observancy is applied to himself too. This feels lonely. Oh. This doesn’t feel lonely anymore. But he doesnt necessarily have the self-reflection to understand why he feels certain things. Anyways.

And amidst all THAT theres these few moments where he gets this really weird adjacency to queerness. Like. If i had a nickel for every moment he asked about queer people, id have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but its strange it happened twice.

First one:

Miyano’s hobby was man-on-man romance comics. I sometimes wondered about that (like, even though he’s a guy?),

Second one, where hes relaxing in the bathhouse common area and is listening to the old ladies talk about yuri.

Finally, I asked, “What’s yuri?”

“You don’t know? It’s stories of love between girls!”

“Huh, Haven’t heard of that one before…” I guess Ms. Toyoda and her friends had been into reading that sort of thing many years ago, and now their interest was being rekindled thanks to their grandchildren. “I didn’t realize women liked stories about girl-on-girl love, too…”

And its like. ITS NOT MUCH I KNOW. But it really is so weird it happened twice. Why did author Hachijo Kotoko do this. What does it mean. AND THEN IT ALL COMES BACK TO THE TITLE. Love & Passion.

I may not have that burning love that Miyano or Ms. Toyoda have, I thought.

Like. Specifically calling out the love miyano and Ms. Toyoda have. For queer stories. It sits so strange with me. Oddly meaningful but i dont know what it means.

Anyways. There’s also a really good shirahama and tashiro moment that i could get into but. I wont. Yet.

Anyways again. All that writing and i feel like i haven’t even touched on everything. Did not talk nearly enough about hanzawa’s presence but like. It’s very specific and hard to explain. But i also have an incessant desire to just quote like the entire chapter. So just go try to read it if you can. I unfortunately don’t know of any sources online but who knows. The book also has a second tashiro pov chapter so like. Cannot recommend it enough. I love tashiro gonzaburou so so much. He’s everything to me. Peace and love on planet tashiro.

[zabala0z]

S3 is once again killing me again with all the lore and I love it. School started up so I might be slower with my thoughts but I got episodes 92, 93, 94 and 95 to talk about!!!

MAG 92: Nothing Beside Remains

Elias makes me want to eat my phone, similar to that one guy from MAG 65 :) I was like screaming the whole time. Of course he can see everything, he literally called the police before Daisy came. I took that as "oh he has spies" but no he can see everything, I hate that. Is Jon eventually gonna get that ability or does The Eye give different gifts. Elias hasn't shown any "compellling" sort of power so I assume the latter. ALSO MORDECAI LUKAS?? I need to see a statement from a Lukas member cause what is up with that family, I'm dying.

Guess Basira is now working there. Hope Elias is paying her. the fact he won't tell Jon shit is so funny to me. So The Stranger is now, basically, the confirmed main villain. BBEG yknow? Mildly terrified, I hate circuses and mannequins so this season is gonna like body me

Not much to say on MAG 93 but whatever entity has the whole "gross shit" as its deal, I'm guessing this falls under it. Purple fungus, the obsessive cleaning, etc. Also yaaay Breekon and Hopes!! Again!11!! get out! Poor Georgie. Love her for being like "Do you even have qualifications??". Jons explanation helped me a lot because during Elias's explanations, I'm mostly just muttering curses to myself because I HATE Him. Avatars. Baller. So Jude Perry was the avatar of The Desolation (destruction, fire, etc) Michael Crew was the avatar of The Vast (sky??, emptiness, general loneliness) and then like Jon is an avatar and I'm guessing so is Elias. I think you can have more then one avatar but anyways.

MAG 94: Dead Woman Walking

Jon refereed to the entity as "The End" which, using my notes, was mentioned in Mary keys statement when gertrude asked where the book came from and Mary said "The End" and said she could never serve it, not finding death interesting. Wild that she can't feel fear anymore??? Like damn. This kinda read as someone in a depressive state in some form. Or like a nihilistic person. Cause like "everything ends, time, it has already ended". Wild.

Not much to say on MAG 95 but I did understand the context vaguely which is more then what I can say for the other war statements. Also Martin and Basira friendship??? Love it. She gets really engrossed in books. I dunno if she was like lying or this is something supernatural related but I love Basira

MAG 96: Return to Sender

Literally screeching oh my god. The fact these things just hijacked this mans business is almost funny. They also talked with a circus ringmaster. Nikola Orsinov? gregor Orsinov? A different one. the statement was given 1996 and Gregor was the leader around the 40's but Nikola, by her description I think, sounded young. So. Who was this ringmaster? Maybe Im getting the timeframe wrong. or they're like eternal. Maybe they like just shed skin and steal a new body, just going by the same last name- okay I don't know.

Also, SARAH BALDWIN???? Welcome back girl. The fact the gorilla skin was stolen by gertrude means she was trying to stop The Unknowing, and likely that's why its been this long for it to happen, because they need that skin. Ew. The Stranger loves skin a little too much. Also Sarah being filled with sawdust and cloves. Great. If Not Sasha was shot, would we have seen that? Or is it different with every one of those, NotThem.?

Anyways, I think that's everything. Every statement, I'm kinda thinking, "which entity does this fall under" now that I know the surrounding universe. Tough since I only know 6 by name and I think there's more. 6 too many entities for this world though

[samijey]

broke my promise to myself and actually watched the jey/gunther match and let me tell you... whoever booked that finish wanted jey to look like an idiot. mega rant under the cut which you should honestly read im not your mama but you should read it

he splashes gunther after getting dominated for 80% of the match and an (honestly underwhelming) spear and we're meant to believe the +2yr champion who's beaten virtually everyone on the roster (including drew who recently beat jey TWICE) was about to be defeated right there?......okay............ but it gets worse

when the referee (for no real good reason) stops the count at 2 after jimmy rings the bell, jey "forgets" about gunther and turns his back to him, allowing gunther to get back up almost IMMEDIATELY (remember we were meant to think he was about to be beaten 5 seconds earlier) yet jey quickly superkicks him BUT THEN decides to dive at jimmy on the outside instead of going directly for another splash (girl help) so ofc when he does go for the splash, gunther gets the knees up, and to add a cherry on top of this shit sunday, pins jey right there after performing no extra offense - doesn't even roll him up, jey just lies there flat on his back and gets pinned (while michael cole screams "GUNTHER ROLLS UP JEY USO" to make me even more mad, apparently, as zero actual rolling takes place in the ring - just a leg hook & weight on the shoulders combo... and not a particularly vicious one either) I just ??????

and of-fucking-course as the TV feed gets cut, cue cody and punk who come out all smiles ready to do the usual fanservice routine for the live crowd and suddenly jey is mostly done selling what just happened and is smiling along with whatever you wanna call it - sending the crowd home happy?? since when did that become mandatory for broadcast shows??? why can't emotionally devastating moments count just as much when it comes to delivering a satisfying ending to the live crowd??? are you telling me they couldnt have had jey walk to the back WHILE SELLING the heartbreak/frustration of what happened and THEN send cody out to do the fanservice thing??? fuck maintaining suspension of disbelief I guess - you can't even argue that "it's fine it was just a treat for the live crowd" because WWE has posted the footage everywhere and promoted it heavily.

imagine if after the camera stopped rolling at last year's rumble, sami had got up, undone kevin's handcuffs and they both hugged and cut a cheerful promo at the crowd - everyone would've blasted wwe for undermining the impact of that finish and not letting the moment breathe.

here's another, even more similar example - remember what happened after summerslam when jimmy attacked jey? he sold the devastation of the moment all the way until he exited the arena, so why is this any different? because it's "just" TV and not a PPV? nah, i'll tell you why: because wwe does not give a shit about this current version of jey's character - he's there to spew the same catchphrase 100x an hour (because it sells merch and pops the crowd let's be honest), display a grand total of two personality traits, and rub his popularity off onto the people wwe actually consider stars

for comparison - you cannot tell me that if it was cody in this position (just lost an important match thanks to the most important person in his life + got attacked by them on top of it) wwe wouldn't have had him look devastated or cut an emotional, tearful promo that would've then been posted and promoted everywhere

"chill, it's not that serious" my apologies for wanting something i love (and KNOW can be so much better with minimal effort) to have a basic level of logic and thought put into it, it's not like wrestling booking is rocket science and we know wwe is NOT incapable of actually delivering good stuff 🤷??? the standards for this show are so damn low and seeing no one else be bothered by it does my fucking head in ouch ouch wheres the aspirin bye

[gorybomb]

the more i watch wwe, the more the deathriders storyline reminds me of wwe. in the sense of like, all the run-ins and disruptive shit.

where i'd like aew to take a leaf out of wwe's book is to have more disqualifications. run-ins cause disqualifications in wwe pretty regularly, whereas in aew it feels like the referee is often just there to have 5 hp, count to 3 and otherwise be totally powerless.

i think disqualifications could lend some legitimacy that breaks up the stagnancy some people are feeling with the death riders. i'm not particularly bothered, i don't think the death riders storyline has been going too long and while i'm not super invested that's mostly because my predominant faves in aew are simply not important to the story rn.

but they need to balance it by having mox defend the title on his own steam more, i think. that's what's missing for me from the storyline. moxley being an absolute monster who is a challenge to defeat even when you take away the rest of the death riders. i love watching marina do the "get behind me king my strap is huge" routine but mox needs to be a violent force in his own right and they've only halfway been treating him like that, imo.

so yeah. i dunno. do some random actions to spice up the pattern of the death riders storyline and i think it'll be fine.

[canmom]

what's the book for? part 2

[here's an intro where I talk about the three hour video essay that inspired me to do this]

[here's the first part where I argue that there's a big difference between the actual thing you do in an RPG and the book that tells you how you're allegedly supposed to be doing it]

So if the actual TTRPG games are mostly learned by observation and practice, what is the something that RPG books claim to give you in order to enable that?

Here's three things I can think of.

This isn't intended as a Forge-like categorisation of games, most RPG books offer (or claim to offer) all of these to some degree, ideally in complementary ways...

A ruling reference - RPG book as legal system

In the intro to a typical mainstream RPG book, this is typically the explanation that is given.

Over the course of a telling a story together, all sorts of weird edge cases come up where you might not want to simply make a call on how it should resolve. Moreover, consistency is valued, for both challenge and narrative reasons.

In this case, the RPG book is a big collection of rulings for specific situations. 'What happens when a character falls off a cliff?' You can look it up. It's like legal precedents. This is how a lot of the stuff in the early D&D books started - stuff that someone had done, and a referee had made a ruling, and it got written down. Then it would get systematised, unified, and streamlined so that it's easier to remember and extend to new situations.

A lighter game avoids special cases and just suggests a general procedure for resolving situations of uncertainty, conflicts etc.

This angle doesn't tend to cover procedures for how the game is physically run - how to go about setting up the scenario, who should get priority when speaking, etc. etc. - beyond perhaps offering prebuilt modules to inspire you. In older games, most of that is stuff you pick up by watching. In newer games... well, hold on.

A grab bag of interesting prompts - RPG book as inspiration in the moment

Most RPG books have flavour text; many also have tables of weird shit you can roll on or select when building a character, character sheets full of interesting abilities, descriptions of NPCs and so on. A select few RPGs like Unknown Armies and Chuubo's Marvellous Wish-Granting Engine have really distinctive prose too.

The aim of all these tools is to give you something to latch onto when you're in the moment and you need to think of the next thing to say. It's also to get people onto some shared understanding of what this game is all about.

This is where the bulk of many RPG books lies. It's explicitly the aim of Apocalypse World's MC moves. Many one-page RPGs are nothing but lists of evocative names and description elements, and a short snatch of prose.

Prompt tables and lists of names are popular in just about every tradition of RPG design - trad, storygames, OSR, all use them. Sometimes they're the most memorable thing about an RPG, like Dark Heresy's crit tables.

Sometimes pages of tables is the RPG - in recent years, card-based games have become popular, using a regular deck of cards which indexes into a big table of events, each of which is like 'here's a short description. how do you respond?'. This type of game has a great deal in common with storylet-based interactive fiction like Fallen London.

Prompts don't have to be short, though. Arguably an adventure module can be pretty much this - something you consult when players arrive in a new place to get an idea of who they should meet for example.

In D&D, the Monster Manual is straight up a book of real freaky guys you can put in your game. It also has stat blocks for them, of course, but the descriptions and pictures do a lot of work here to make them concrete.

This is why I describe the pictures in Lancer as load-bearing. The pictures help - or are supposed to help - grease the wheels of imagination when you're trying to imagine mechs.

This function of RPGs is a large part of the angle you're playing if you tie the game to a particular genre, setting or IP.

A machine to guide you to a specific experience - RPG book as auteur blueprint

So here's the newer flavour.

RPGs can be one of the most feelings-dense forms of art that humans create - it's your story, with your characters. This is something that tends to arise organically after you spend a long time with a character and 'get into their head'.

However, there is often a desire on the designer's side to structure the game to bring about a particular kind of emotional experience more directly. From horror games to games self-consciously 'about' colonialism, abuse, romance, etc., these games try to give you a particular experience, similar to what a film or book gives you - or indeed, a computer game.

Here are some examples:

My Life With Master is an older Forge game. It's about the 'Igor' servant characters in a classic horror movie, billing itself as 'a roleplaying game of villainy, self-loathing, and unrequited love'. It presents you with an emotionally charged scenario and mechanics that try to push you towards specific drama - if you want to be critical, a firm instance of the incentives and buttons oriented design that Huntsman was talking about, sometimes quite explicitly saying 'this mechanic was designed to...'

Dog Eat Dog is a game 'a game of imperialism and assimilation on the Pacific islands', with the DM reimagined as a colonial power adding more and more restrictions and the players as native people who will inevitably break its rules, until they are eventually pushed to 'run amok' (fatally), or assimilate. It's a game whose entire argument is more or less spelled out in the book itself.

But games don't have to be this narrowly scoped to have this kind of aspiration. Something like Apocalypse World still wants to bring about certain kinds of interaction, laid out quite explicitly as 'agendas' for the MC and players. It is strongly 'opinionated', in programmer terms.

Even a very flexible game can take on this model. Fiasco is a very abstract structure, designed to set up a chaotic situation like in a Coen Brothers movie. Microscope is designed to give you a fractal zoom in and out of a fictional history. These games are almost all procedure; Fiasco has some fantastic prompt tables, and a clear way to cook up your own, but the bulk of it is the stuff it tells you to do with scenes and dice.

These could be seen as games on an auteur model, with many of the emotional beats of the scenario already rigged up in advance. You get this type of book to experience a good/meaningful story - with a certain amount of flexibility in the details that gets you more attached. If there is a GM/MC/etc. they have instructions to facilitate the expression of that story.

...well, I refer to it as an auteur model. Thankfully not everyone is Ron Edwards! Apocalypse World has a whole chapter about how to modify the game to your taste, or build new games on its framework, and that - plus its conceptual simplicity - probably played a role in its hundreds of derivatives. 'Hacking' games was well established as a practice in the storygames milieu right from the early days. Probably the vast majority of games put out on itch.io are simply hacks of an established framework, very few offer real innovation.

Despite this, the offer of these products is still that they'll tell you how create a kind of verbal machine to realise some very specific thing.

Secret fourth thing...?

I can't think of others right now, but I hate presenting a list as exhaustive unless I can prove it's exhaustive. It's very likely there's some other function a book can claim to perform.

However, to summarise, you look at an RPG book to get:

a consistent set of rulings to handle situations of uncertainty

a set of prompts to help inspire your imagination when you need inspiration

a carefully designed procedure to lead you to a specific experience

The third thing is kind of a different beast to the other two, huh? You might be thinking that the first two are trad games and the third one is post-Forge 'story games', but it's really much older than that. Paranoia is a great early example; there are shades of it in many games published in the 80s and 90s. Not all these games are affiliated with the Forge and its diaspora either - take for example Jenna Moran's games and Bliss Stage.

Story games are not books either

The Forge and its diaspora led to a lot of games being printed, and launched the careers of many an 'indie TTRPG designer', which was not really a thing you could be in the same way before. It would be easy therefore to think this was the main contribution: we should assess it on the basis of the printed games that resulted.

However, nothing says you have to use a book to pilfer from their idea pool.

The really interesting contribution of the whole movement, to my eye, is that it calls our attention to a facet of TTRPGs that had often been left implicit. Who speaks, when? Who gets the 'narrative authority' to make the final call on what becomes 'true'? How do you organise time - do you frame scenes, use flashbacks, cut between different characters? What makes a dice roll exciting? How do you work out what would engage the other players, and communicate your own interests? Are you trying to help your character win, or are you more like a writer who might choose to make them suffer? How do you make a compelling character arc? What can be changed around behind the scenes to make a better story?

These are all aspects of 'play', the thing that you do at the table. Any given TTRPG group will settle on its own implicit or explicit approach to this kind of thing.

Different RPG books will tell you to do this or that. Some games will tell you to set stakes, or make failure interesting, or make choices that act as 'flags' to show what you're looking for.

But these tools are not tied to any specific game. You don't need the 'permission' of a book, nor can a book stop you doing it. A book may lay out a procedure that makes it easier, may introduce you to an idea that you haven't heard before, but once you have the idea, you can play with it however you like.

The way I approach a trad game like D&D, from either side of the DM screen, has become very different after my sojourn into the world of story games. A lot of what I liked there, I kept doing. Other inspiration comes from outside of the 'hobby' entirely, in related milieu like improv comedy.

This is something the OSR milieu seems to understand quite well. Everything is expected to be mixed, matched, and interpreted by the needs of your group. Posts will be framed as mere advice, which can be picked up and applied regardless of context.

But that all depends on a certain amount of common ground as to 'what the game is'. There is an authoritative DM who runs the scenario. The emphasis of the game is probably on exploring some kind of ruin and surviving in a dark, decaying fantasy world populated by various factions at odds with each other. Players control flimsy characters whose survival is not guaranteed, but if they live long enough, they can become major powers. There is a heavy strategic aspect: you are trying to use your resources to survive and get something. This is the general shape of a 'prototypical OSR game'.

the shared context of storygames

Story games form their own subsubculture, but they do not have this level of shared context. Instead, a different kind of shared context is kind of implicit in the milieu.

Here's how things go at the London Indie RPG Meetup Group, which I've attended a couple of times: a group of nerds gather in a pub. People will pitch games with a couple of sentences; then people will form groups and play that game as a one-shot session. Someone will have a book, or printouts. Most players will not have heard of the game before.

In this kind of context, a lot of the quirks of story games make sense. 'Read this out' paragraphs, rapid character creation based on selecting prompts, simple mechanics designed to push you into drama as quickly as possible: all of this stuff is perfect for a one-shot game you play once or a few times. This type of game is not really trying to 'take on' trad games.

But then there's the 'middle ground' kind of game, which are closer to a 'trad' game - a game master, persistent characters each controlled by one player, multiple sessions, progression - but also instruct you to do something more experimental by trad-game standards. This includes Apocalypse World and its derivatives, Blades in the Dark and its derivatives, the Burning Wheel/Mouse Guard lineage, Jenna Moran's games... and so on.

It's this point of overlap where things get sticky and it all becomes a bit tense. Since, well, story game fans can be quite evangelistic - and part of that evangelism depends on a dismissively book-determinist view of trad TTRPGs. But conversely, trad players can be quite reluctant to imagine there is any other way of approaching this whole activity, and dismissive of any other approach. I do not like it, Sam-I-am.

So you end up with a situation of camps, with both groups bristling at the sense that they should be compelled to give up the thing they like to do it the way they consider inferior.

And if you want to criticise the other camp, what do you do? Pick up their book and criticise it as a product, according to your sense of what a TTRPG book is for. Which seems hopelessly besides the point when a book is such a small part of the story.

I've played trad games, story games, OSR games, 'freeform' forum games, LARP, MMO roleplaying, improv comedy... Not as much as I'd like of anything, but enough to get a sense of the many ways we can do this 'roleplaying' thing, whether by explicit rule or implicit convention.

So the puzzle I now have is, if there is to be a book involved, what is that book there to do? What really makes for a good RPG book? Are there other ways to get that thing? How do you game design honestly?

We'll try to address that in part 3 of this series, coming... sometime soon, hopefully!

[reavenedges-lies]

Oh please elaborate on the elbow bs baording call re Rempe

In Response To This

Okay I have time to type this out now. SO to be clear, BOTH the Boarding and Elbowing are correct determinations against Rempe in this case. If the Elbow had not been called then the Boarding certainly would've been. The interesting point here though is that the major penalty that was called was the Elbowing and not Boarding. I think this is mostly down to how easy it is for the Refs to call.

Rempe is also under review for suspension ( 1 | 2):

Rule Book Stuff Under The Cut

Boarding seems like its cut and dry.

A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously.

This however isn't the full rule as it goes on to say:

The severity of the penalty, based upon the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee. There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the Referees. The onus [read responsibility] is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a defenseless position and if so, he must avoid or minimize contact. However, in determining whether such contact could have been avoided, the circumstances of the check, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the check or whether the check was unavoidable can be considered. This balance must be considered by the Referees when applying this rule. Any unnecessary contact with a player playing the puck on an obvious “icing” or “off-side” play which results in that player hitting or impacting the boards is “boarding” and must be penalized as such. In other instances where there is no contact with the boards, it should be treated as “charging.”

Elbowing on the other hand is a mere sentence in length reading simply:

Elbowing shall mean the use of an extended elbow in a manner that may or may not cause injury.

There is far less wiggle room for the major penalty to go through without Toronto to disputing it. Major penalties are always reviewed by the On-Ice Refs and the Toronto Situation (War) Room but cannot be changed to a different penalty if called incorrectly. Refs only have the ability post review to:

Confirm the Major Penalty

Reduce the Penalty to a Minor

Rescind the Penalty

By calling it an Elbowing they get around the deliberation phase of whether or not the Boarding was violent enough to be considered a major or eligible for the Game Misconduct. This is an interesting case through and through but I hope that Miro is okay and that Rempe gets the additional punishment fit for the crime.

NHL Rules 2024-25.pdf

[teecupangel]

Assassin's Creed characters as demon slayers or maybe upper rank demons? 👀 what would be there breathing techniques? Blood Demon art??

There was a Demon Slayer x AC crossover idea here before but I can’t find it anymore. That one was more or less Assassins doing their own thing as an ally of the Demon Slayer and the Hidden Blade being made from scarlet crimson iron sand and scarlet ore (technically the brother of the nichirin sword)

So, for this one, let’s talk about what breathing style each main Assassin would have if they did learn Breathing Styles. Of course, Desmond gets the complicated backstory because it’s me XD

I will also only use the official breathing styles because, if I don’t impose this restriction, I’d be making new breathing styles here and there. (like, yeah, Edward uses Water Breathing but, if I truly wish to be accurate to his personality, he’d have created his own version and named it ‘Storm Breathing’ or something similar)

Altaïr: Thunder Hashira

Thunder Breathing which is the same breathing style that Al Mualim and Umar Ibn-La'Ahad had and he was trained by Al Mualim personally. Al Mualim passed the Thunder Hashira title to Umar who died while fighting an Upper Rank Demon. Altaïr later becomes the Thunder Hashira due to an opening later on. Kadar is his tsuguko while Malik is the Stone Hashira (the fact that his brother decided to be someone else's tsuguko is a very overly 'used' gossip in the Corps).

Ezio: Water Hashira

Water Breathing as the rest of the Auditore family. Claudia actually morphs her breathing style to Flower then to Insect and became the Insect Hashira. He used to be Federico’s tsuguko until a certain incident occurred that made him take the Hashira mantle from his brother.

Ratonhnhaké:ton: Wind Hashira

Wind Breathing that he learned from a retired Demon Slayer named Achilles Davenport. He’s looking for a certain demon that may or may not have killed many of his villagers, including his mother. All he knows was the fire of his village was snuffed out by the Blood Demon art of an Upper Rank Demon.

Desmond: technically Hinoto but his abilities can reach a Hashira level… it’s complicated.

Sun Breathing but he always denies it. As far as he was concerned, he uses a mix of Thunder, Water and Wind Breathing and just... wings it most of the time. He’s barred from being promoted by the current mentor, William Miles, until he accepts his mother’s ‘legacy’.

Edward: (If he’s dead due to canon, he used to be in the running of Water Hashira, if he’s still alive, he’s Ezio’s tsukugo)

He mostly used Water Breathing but a bit… ‘fiercer’. He’s on par with a Hashira but cannot take the title because an Auditore was the current Water Hashira. He learned Water Breathing from a dear friend of his that he lost to the demons before the Auditore took him in.

Arno: Hinoe

I sooooo want him to have Love Breathing but I cannot, in good conscience give it to him so Flame Breathing it is, lol. Formed a three-man team with Evie and Jacob since they all took the Final Selection at the same time and joined forces. Their team has the worst/best luck ever, getting in between Upper Rank demons versus Hashira and/or, strangely enough, Desmond Miles, at times.

Evie: Hinoe

She developed her father’s Wind Breathing to Mist Breathing. She’s aiming to be a Hashira like her late father, the Wind Hashira before Ratonhnhaké:ton. She’s very by the book and tends to argue with her twin brother with Arno playing referee and unpaid councilor.

Jacob: Hinoe

Beast Breathing. Okay, hear me out. He doesn’t have the same ‘quirk’ as Inosuke but he modified his father’s teachings from Wind Breathing to Beast Breathing, more to show how different he was from his father and twin sister. He doesn’t really care about being a Hashira and just wants to save people. He has a strained relationship with his sister, especially after their father’s death.

Bayek: Flame Hashira

Known only as Amun in records, he tried to learn his wife’s Sun Breathing but could not fully master it, instead creating the Flame Breathing as a way to honor his wife’s skills as well as show how he made the breathing style his own. (whether he is the first Flame Hashira and has long passed, a retired Hashira, or a current Hashira would change who Aya is. If he is already dead, Aya is actually the first Sun Breathing swordsmaster who taught the first generation. If he’s still alive, Aya is one of two people who know and use Sun Breathing, the other being Desmond’s mom who died when he was young.)

Basim: Tsuchinoto

Uses Serpent Breathing style after learning the basics from Roshan. Technically, one of the newbies but he’s had been in a lot of close calls with demons. He’s being hunted by a demon he calls ‘djinn’ who is actually his childhood friend turned demon Nehal. He has a pet snake called Midgardsormen and travels with a wolf-dog named Fenrir. His Kasugai Crow is named Hel.

Bonus:

Kassandra and Eivor are more on the side of Tamayo and Yushiro with Ikaros/Synin being their Chachamaru. They have their own agenda concerning the demons and may be demons themselves... maybe.

(of course, their Muzan Kibutsuji would be Juno XD)

Upper Rank (known only by their title)

Upper Rank 1: The Old Man of the Mountains

Upper Rank 2: The Young Eagle of the Stormy Seas

Upper Rank 3: The Traitor of the Tempestuous Hunt

Upper Rank 4: The False Prophet of Debauchery and Sin

Upper Rank 5: The Heiress of Fallen Nobility

Upper Rank 6: The Reaper of the White Night

(Alternate idea: Desmond is the ‘Nezuko’ to Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton’s Tanjiro/Giyu)

[solosolace]

Drarry? Severitus? Random tropes and canon?

Severitus- The Dursley are scared that harry might lose it again after what he did with Marge and no amount of convincing from Dumbledore is going to change their minds. So he gets Snape to take him in. He may or may not had no choice.

Drarry- Draco will get a redemption arc because he is still a git. The romance part wont be until the end of 4th year or 5th year. They will be friends first.

WolfStarPrince- I like this ship. Planning on making it a gradual thing because I refuse to Obliviate the hatred. Sirius lets Snape live in the Grimmauld Place because he's taking care of Harry. Remus is helping Sirius get better and is the referee. (Ideas are welcome)

Werewolf! Harry- Harry gets bit by Remus during the full moon, he's in denial. I always thought it was weird no one got hurt when Remus forgot his potion so I changed it so now Remus will never think to forget his potion not just because harry as to take some too but because he is consumed with guilt about what he did to him.

Veela! Draco- You can not tell me the Malfoys didn't have Veela in them. Abraxas Malfoy is half in my fic but married a full Veela. Most Malfoy are half or less, They don't like people to know because even though Veelas are valued and such they are still creatures and that ruins their Pure Blood image.

Werewolf! Draco- Voldys fault. Lucius was suspected a traitor (he wasn't but is now because really) so Voldemort got Greyback to bite Draco where the dark mark was going to be. This happens before 5th year starts and only happens because Lucius didn't realize Voldemort was lying. (Said he just wanted to see who his new followers would be) Now the Malfoys can hold onto their views because Lucius is a lot of thing but he isn't going to get rid of his son(I think)

Voldemort finds out Harry is a Horcrux- I want to make him go more insane. He still hates and want to kill Harry but now he's trying to find a way to do that without hurting his soul. Since no one has ever made a human Horcrux because he can't look for information on subject but he can test on himself. Cue nightmares and visions. And some very messed up Voldemort giving up and just trying to kill Harry soul and all.

Harry has trauma- I wanted harry to realize what the Dursley did was bad (Not fanon things like beatings and SA but the starvation and locking up, the isolation) that he's safe now even if he can't fully trust the adult around him. He steals food and hoards it, He'll hide in corners and small spaces but panic in other. Mostly I'm writing how I reacted when I left a my relatives place because I was treated very similar to how Harry was.

Now important things I will not add so when I post the fic you know its not there-

Bashing- I don't like some the stuff Dumbledore did but if I'm going to hate him its for stuff he did and the Weasley are family and I love them.

Lordships- I think its kind of pointless.

Odd wizard language not in the books- I cringe when I read them I will not write it. Ex. So mote it be, On my magic, etc, etc.

Soft! Snape- God help those who think Snape is a kind gentle soul, He will be a strict parental figure who shows care in a questionable fashion, not a Molly Weasley 2.0

[lorestarz]

@weightless-feathers Here’s the post you’ve been waiting for I’ve been postponing for like a million years cuz my brain is funky

So the history around king astral and queen terra is that they are not your traditional alicorn rulers of having a nation or kingdom to rule. They remain as like wandering cryptids(?) or really just representing the natures that pertain to them. Like how astral represents the stars, space and wandering knowledge which is why he spends much of his time and a Rosalina from super Mario galaxy space ship/castle wandering the galaxy. Up until he visits his wife (he loves his wife) Terra in equestria.

Queen terra lives in dense forests as a representation of the magic of nature (she does love the evergreen forest because of how it moves and grooves on its own there might be some more lore on that in the future). She is rarely seen by ponies mostly referee to as the mare of the moods a mirage that appears to lost travelers to show them to way to what they need. Her duty is to maintain the balance of pony progress and the nature of the world and since ponies already do a great job of that she rarely needs to interfere

The new pony there is their first daughter (I’ll be redesigning her later that’s just her first draft) her name is Noctilucia Nox nicknamed Lucia or Nox by her parents. She’s a representation of the sky’s and weather back before pegasi where in control of the weather she would be the one experimenting with the clouds and rainbows and her teachings where passed to pegasi for generations to come until it was just basic knowledge. She was a Pegasus at birth and earned her horn after “mastering” the sky’s (she still had more to learn of course but she had written several books on weather control and how to get each result) and what she is up to now is unknown.

Terra and Lucia drawing in my style will happen i promi along with more lore

[haveihitanerve]

Just heard the podcast- and heres my idea of the ball game

Theres 6 bats and 6 humans on each team, plus 2 bats + 1 human referee. 

That adds up to 27 total bat+humans on the pitch, which is the exact number of chapters in each book so..

They have two bats and one human so that the human can jump between bats to watch the game in full scope

Theres one ball, the one luxa shows us

I would say the game is mostly like football, since no hoops or anyplace to throw the ball through is mentioned in the books

The bats are as much players as the humans, able to toss the ball to each other just like the humans do

Bat communication is not allowed, since its not fair to the humans who cant hear it and would mess with some trust things if a human is throwing the ball to a bat, but the bat dives because another bat called out to it, so the ball just misses- that sort of thing

Its a game majority for bonded pairs- but is also a common practice for not yet bonded pairs- to see if they literally fly well together

Riders do not have to remain on their bat- but they are also not allowed to be on a different bat for longer than a few seconds

This means that riders are fully able to leap from their bat onto the opposite teams bat and attack their rider for the ball, but they have to do it quickly or they get a foul

Fouls can be anything from tying one bat wing so their flying is less balanced- to making you ride the offending players bat for the rest of the game- and the bat is allowed to sabotage you any way it likes-like diving out of the way of a ball being thrown to you

The goal of the game is to bring to the ball to the ground, the way luxa does, without actually having the ball in your hand when you land

And you cannot be on the ground for longer than a few seconds, otherwise the other teams bats are permitted to pluck you up and toss you around as the new ball- until you get rescued

This means you have to land- catch the ball- throw it to a new teammate- and hop onto your bat again to score a point

There are also teams of humans on the ground- ready with swords- blunt, but still able to hurt slightly- who are allowed to attack if you're on the ground too long- and cannons ready to shoot any bat+human team that hovers too close to the ground for the entire game

You can also get points by touching the ceiling- but you're mot allowed to be on a bat when you do- so you have to be catapulted up to the ceiling- touch the ceiling- then throw the ball to a teammate before being caught again, otherwise the point doesn't count

anddd that's all i could think of for now

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Hey, what's your opinion on James Raggi IV the writer and publisher of Lamentations of the Flame Princess?

I mean... from some of the posts I've seen from him and things I've heard, he's def an edgelord reactionary, but neither the worst nor the most notable edgelord reacionary from the old Google Plus era OSR circle, right.

I was into LotFP a couple years ago before I found out about the guy's politics and links to notable bigots in the OSR scene, mostly because I liked the whole black/death metal horror aesthetic and because it's one of the few straight-up retroclones that actually have a unique vision for the aesthetic and experience they want to create, (i.e. it tries to be a little bit of its own game with its own unique setting/aesthetic instead of being yet another legally distinct repackaging of an older D&D edition), and I still think the book itself is a good product, but ultimately it's not an experience you can't replicate with a copy of B/X D&D (or your retroclone of choice) plus a couple flavorful metal-inspired sourcebooks, and that unique aesthetic appeal has also now been far outdone by later RPGs like Mörk Borg, so it's not like you're really missing much by refusing to support the guy anyway.

Tho I've gotta say, It kinda surprised me when I first found out Raggi was one of those "BUT MUH FREEZE PEACH" edgelords, because some of the advice he wrote in the LotFP refbook seemed to be directly countering that particular flavor of edgelordism that pops up in right-leaning """"apolitical""""" OSR circles, e.g:

"The Referee shall realize that Rule 0 is for the purpose of establishing the desired atmosphere for his campaign, and not as an excuse to abuse players or a license to be a despot at the game table… The Referee’s role is to challenge players, not victimize them."

"Know your players. Communicate outside of the game, and find where the limits lie. Your job as Referee is not to shock, scare, scandalize, or assault the senses. Respect for the real person sitting before you playing the game comes before any idea for the game you actually have."

Reading that definitely painted to me a very different picture of him as a person.

[wanderingwilsons]

Me and the kiddos took the opportunity to join in on a city tour of Misawa last week and I learned so much. Not just about the place I live, but my capacity as a parent.

Slight disclaimer--Sometimes you just need to remind yourself of the honest truth and it is this:

I had different expectations for my kids on this trip.

This would have been more enjoyable going by myself, instead I was mostly playing referee between two bored kids that just wanted to pick on each other, but I tried my best to soak it all up.

So here goes:

We started the tour with three local guides who filled us in on all things food and entertainment in Misawa and Hachinohe. They had a ton of recommendations for what the cities had to offer and I tried my best to write them all down on my phone. The list is long, y'all. We will not be bored here.

Before we headed to the International Center, the tour guide told us of local markets, eateries and fun places in town. Because of the Tanabata Festival just a week or so prior to the tour, there were a few streets that were familiar to me.

When we got to the International Center, the guides provided a 30 minute presentation giving history of Misawa, the surrounding areas and even practiced simple Japanese phrases with us. Very interesting and helpful!

We hopped back on the bus and headed to Hachinohe, a town about 30 minutes from Misawa where we would explore the Fish Market and eat lunch.

When we stepped off the bus, a kind tour helper offered to assist me and the kiddos around the market. He was so patient and helpful, but I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed when we first walked in. It was busy and there was a lot to take in--sights, smells, noises and all while I was just trying to get my daughter set up in her stroller without losing my son.

Eventually we found our pace and started making our way through. The guide took to us like a gentle grandfather figure and even pushed the stroller for me. I think he could sense my anxiousness.

The first thing he wanted to do was show the kids the fish tank when entering the market. He then took us through the food and market portion where you are surrounded by all sorts of different vendors. We saw ice cream, churros, baked goods, produce and other foods. We picked a relatively popular dish to eat for lunch called yakitori--aka chicken on a stick. In its food container, the chicken laid on a bed of rice. While we were eating, the guide went and got the kids some mini churros! They loved them, of course.

Once we finished lunch, he led us through the open fish market. There were so many interesting things! We saw eel, octopus, even puffer fish! We didn't purchase any, but it's absolutely the place to go if you are looking for fresh seafood for dinner.

The kids were most intrigued with it as we walked through aisles of people and fish. Eventually, they began to feel restless and we went to the top level to let the kids play in the indoor playground while me and the guide talked more about the city of Hachinohe. He said he has lived there for 13 years and told me other places he recommends that I visit when we come back--one being a Korean BBQ place. Yes, please!

We gathered the kids up and explored a little bit longer before heading back to the shuttle bus.

As shown below, these types of arcade games are HUGE in Japan. Claw games are very popular and they had Kirby!

Our next and final stop before heading back was the Shinto Shrine. This was probably the cherry on top of the trip. It was beautiful! The kids were exhausted and played in the dirt while we were given a presentation, but had a good time walking around the shrine. We purchased a shrine stamp collection book known as a Goshuincho.

I let Teddy pick out the Goshuincho and he was very excited. I truly hope we will visit as many shrines as we can and collect the beautiful art. Maybe that can be something Teddy and I plan out while we are here.

In the photos you might notice there are white-lightning type shaped paper on different entry ways. These are referred to as "Shide" and represent holy spaces.

When we got back on the bus, we were exhausted. The day had been filled with so many cool things to do and see. The kids were mostly interested in their cotton candy and I did let them have a little bit on the bus.

On our way back to Misawa, the guides gave us more recommendations for local eateries and provided some tips and tricks for making the most of our time here.

Overall, it was a great way to learn more about what our local and adjacent towns had to offer. I'm looking forward to going back to Hachinohe to show Trevor around. Maybe even go back to the Fish Market and take our time there. Trevor was unable to join us as he was, and I quote, "meditating next to a waterfall." Whoa.

All that to say, if there's one thing I learned, it's good to explore with your kids. Even if it was a little frustrating and stressful at times, it was good for them to see where they live. It was good for us all to experience a culture apart from what we knew up to this point. I hope one day they will look back and appreciate the travel. Even if all they wanted to do was rub their legs in dirt, eat cotton candy and tell me they were bored. I bet they saw and enjoyed more than I think they did.

Kids keep you humble when you travel. There are times when I envy our young married friends that get to travel wherever and whenever they want. It must be really cool to experience Japan in that way.

But I know that it's also really cool to get to travel and see the world with your kids. They get an opportunity that not many kids do. I'm working on my patience. I'm working on expectation management. It's my first time doing this, too, so I absolutely learned from mistakes I made on the city tour to make next time a little easier to manage...hopefully.

Until then, I'm choosing to be grateful for this time. It truly is so cool that we get to be here!

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

Great answers!

1: if there was a live action tv show or movie, who would be cast as the duo? I can see the yellow coat kid from the 2017 movie it as Chris.

2: who would win in a wrestling match between the duo & the supersons? To make things fair: Chris & Jon wears red sun ankle bracelets & Jake has his powers turn off. Plus mar’i as the referee.

3: what’s their favorite puns to use? I can see Jake asking a goon: you know what’s my favorite ballet is? The Nutcracker! & hits the goon in the crotch.

4: in the two previous asks, with the whole stink face being used on the loser in games, do you think it would be better if the loser was sat on instead? like how most older siblings/cousins would do on the younger ones, or maybe squat over the losers face. Either one of the two options AND the loser giving the winner a parfait.

5: does the duo have any hidden talents?

6: based on the first captain underpants book: Jake & Chris mind-controlled their mean teacher or principal to become apple-pie man.

1) Well upon some research and since not he only does he posses formidable acting experience but also started recently in an actual DC Comics adaptation, I can see actor Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth) in the role of Chris Kent had a hypothetical show in the Starburst Duo been in production as of now. This especially can come in handy for more dramatic moments when Chris’ anxieties and internal struggles regarding his past come into the limelight. If Convery’s performance as Gus during heavier moments is any indication, he can pull of those moments with clarity.

Meanwhile for Jake, while so far no actors that are well known come to mind for his casting had this hypothetical show been made as this moment in time. Though if say there’s some sort of timey-wimey nonsense that allows for an actor even from before to fulfill the role, I can nominate Raphael Alejandro (Once Upon a Time, Bunk’d). It certainly would fit in with the short lived trend of Disney channel stars appearing in DC adaptations as had happened with Asher Angel in SHAZAM (2019).

2) it’s a stiff and prolonged match that sees both Chris and Jon give it their all and despite the fact Jon’s partner is well versed in all sorts of combat training and martial arts, Jake ultimately squeaks by a small victory for the Duo with using whatever strength he had in pinning Jon just long enough for Mar’i to make the three count, allowing the Duo their win. While those opponents had strength and tactics, Chris and Jake had a keen eye on legit teamwork and using their opponents weakness to their advantage.

3) Oh that’s perfectly in line with Jake’s banter. In fact if anything, while ultimately focused and determined on his approach as a crime fighter, Jake as Skybird is the one mostly using one liners between the two of them. Other examples can include but not limited to;

(Using Cellphones against his enemies should they be fighting in a Phone Store)

“Hey, The Butt Kicking Department Called, You’re Overdue On Your Payment”

(When on an Ocean Based Mission along with Cerdian, dealing with a sea monster)

“Under The Sea? What’s the matter with Over the Sea?”

(When Fully Charged Up and Eyes Glowing with Starbolt Power)

“Pardon the Pun, but Time to Light This Christmas Tree Up…..Brightly”

4) Maybe the loser being lightly sat on with their back as the cushion at most can be a possible Losers ‘Prize’ though knowing those two and despite their knowledge of that stuff, they still primarily have the loser make the winner an Ice Cream Prize. That said, the loser every now and then ends up wearing a maid’s outfit/dress and a photo of it is taken for their loved ones and friends to see.

5) Chris - Whether he knows it or not, he’s plenty capable of doing good dancing on the floor during big parties and gatherings. Only reason he doesn’t is due his sense of awareness and fear of potential embarrassment.

Jake - He’s plenty capable of reverse engineering and tinkering with alien tech and gadgets, often without needing any sort of blueprints or guides to figuring out how each device works or their functions.

6) Much akin to Captain Underpants, their principal winds up going out into the streets with the Duo needing to chase him around and make sure he doesn’t get hurt badly before the hypnosis can wear off. Coincidentally, Kite Man (Hell Yeah!) was in the midst of a robbing spree in Bludhaven but since they can’t be sure if Apple Pie Man would remember their crime fighter identities a secret, Chris and Jake had to remain in their civies while he dealt with Kite Man himself. Thankfully the Principal’s surprisingly tasty pies were able to subdue Kite Man with it’s tempting smell and taste, allowing for his easy capture. Needless to say, it was most definitely one of the weirder adventures the Duo had ever been on which is frankly saying quite a lot

After much delays, here’s some adequate enough answers for you my friend ;-) @gothicghost2000