#in a land of media

[katherynefromphilly]

Oh my god Merlin is trending. Why is it trending already?? What is happening? Is it me? Am I doing The Trending? Is The Trending somehow trending itself? Is it magic? Is the magic no longer secret??? IS ARTHUR COMING BACK?

[muffinlevelchicanery]

[contemporary-disquiet]

ANDY GOLDSWORTHY, Ice Star, 1987

[dcxdpdabbles]

Danny: What's this? *Holding red envelope*

Jazz: I don't know. It came in the mail today. No name or anything, so I assumed it was for you from your night job.

Danny opening envelope: Jazz. This a love letter. A letter addressed to the Elder Daughter of the house

Jazz: For me? Who's it from?

Danny: Jason Todd. This is obviously a fake-

Jazz: I'm writing back.

Danny: What!? Why!?

Jazz: This is romantic as hell. He quoted Pride and Prejudice. I can not possibly pass up a chance with a boy who looks like that and reads classics.

Three days later

Tim: Oh shit

Dick: What?

Tim: Remember that prank we pulled on Jason by pretending to send love letters to random addresses posing as him?

Dick: Yeah, that was funny. He looked so embarrassed

Tim: One of them answered. *Holds up teal envelope*

Damian: Incredible. Contact her as quickly as possible

Tim: Why?

Damian: She's obviously has the courage and curiosity that fits well with Todd. Out of the lot of potential candidates, she shows the most promise to join this family

Dick: Dami.....those were real addresses?

Damian blinking slowly: You told me to help you find suitable lovers for Todd. It was a task. I complete tasks. I found real addresses for girls that fit Todd preference in women.

Tim: Omg

[chocolatechipkraken]

Fool's Gold

(pyrite cubes made in Blender and Phos drawn in FireAlpaca)

[trashprinxe]

Let’s have a talk about malleability and TTRPGs

I come from a theatrical background. Did theatre for most of my life, majored in stage management, the works. Plays and the way they function are deeply embedded in my psyche.

So when I design and play games, I come from that theatrical framework.

Now — on the one hand, you have Shakespeare. Fairly universal stories, yeah? You can cut it up, switch things around, put it into a multitude of settings. And it still works! King Lear in space. Romeo & Juliet as pirates. The Scottish Play (old habits die hard) done avant-garde. It’s malleable!

On the other end, you have hyper-specific plays about hyper-specific themes. Angels in America. The Laramie Project. Venus in Furs. Etcetera. You can’t remove the core themes, change the setting, switch scenes around: without erasing the core intent of the work and the story it’s trying to tell.

And in the middle, you have plays that are somewhat malleable. Almost, Maine, for instance. It’s made up of vignettes; you can do only some of them, if you so choose. It’ll still have the same impact.

I believe TTRPGs exist on a similar spectrum.

You have systems that can accommodate many different genres or play styles. People play dnd this way. Pathfinder comes with pre built settings that run the gamut

PbtA games are hyperspecific. Monster of the Week is about, well, monsters of the week. Remove that, and you’re playing a different game.

Call of Cthulhu can be set in any time period, but you still have to be up against Eldritch horrors. If you’re able to fight the monster, that’s a different intent than the game was built for.

Lyric games are akin to 4.48 Psychosis (everyone should read that, by the way, it’s a master work of avant-garde theatre).

And so on and so on.

Nothing is better or worse than any other. It just exists, on a spectrum, in the same vein as playstyle or crunch do. Everyone has their preference.

But with any game, there comes a point where you’re no longer playing that game.

10 Things I Hate About You is not The Taming of the Shrew, though it were based on it. There’s a limit to even the most forgiving game to where you’re no longer playing that game, but something you and your table have created for yourselves.

You can’t take the queerness or religion out of Angels in America. That’s a different play altogether.

It’s a spectrum.

I choose to design in the specific. That’s what resonates with my brain. You may want to play something that’s capable of handling more universal narratives. That’s fine too!

But we can’t ignore the bones of the system, and it’s incorrect to say we’re putting on Hamlet, when we’re actually performing The Lion King.

So: the Theory of Malleability (working title).

I don’t have a great end to this. Just musings. But I hope it makes sense to you too.

[keepthedelta]

cannot believe i have to stan nico hulkenberg this is such a difficult day for me

[hellohaters]

Francisco Infante-Arana / Applications project

[nemfrog]

Proposed moon lander separates from rocket. Beckman Bits, a magazine published by Beckman Instruments Inc., an aerospace company in Fullerton, California. 1964.

Science History Institute

[fishykays]

Kirb and ducks <3

[smuganya]

JOEL Élite | 7.07

[inkyami]

Wait for me in our garden

An illustration celebrating upcoming release of "Our Garden" finale by Uliana Cherkasova.

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[iswearimahuman]

y’know you could do a lot with Edwin’s age. And I’m not just talking about gay repression. I mean like dude died before women were even aloud to vote. You could come up with some fun stuff with that. I’m sure he’s partially up to date with modern times but like there’s probably a lot he doesn’t know about. Like he missed out on 70 years of pop culture.

[contemporary-disquiet]

HENRIQUE OLIVEIRA, Radice Comune, 2019 Arte Sella, Trentino-Alto Adige

[frobby]

welcome to venn diagram hell

[sandwichhour]

mspaint doodlin 👍 read hnk and i'll never be okay again