#jazz the gm

[jus-a-lil-mouse]

In the small sleepy town of Roswell, Illinois, lights flicker off as the day comes to a quiet end. And yet - a hero arrives to save us all. A guardian angel begins her fight against a formidable adversary. A wayward son finally returns home. A grocery store owner takes a final inventory before closing shop. And a young vagabond prepares to reconnect with friend and foe alike. And above them all, high up in the clear Illinois night, inhuman lights begin flickering on.

A small companion piece to @this-is-z-art-blog ‘s Ectober2023 piece for Oct 6! More information/character details below.

Valliant: Valerie’s character! I picture her weapons being discs with a sharp blade on the edge, and she can use them for melee attacks or “throw” them for ranged ones. They come back to her when thrown, unless they are caught or get stuck in something. She is the Chosen of a group called the Red Hunters, who protect the world from alien invasion. And definitely DON’T secretly intend to take over the world using fear rhetoric/anti-alien propaganda.

Simcha: Sam’s character! ‘Simcha’ (meaning ‘joy’) is Z’s headcanon for Sam’s Hebrew name, and the character is a Jewish angel. Driven towards and created for a singular purpose, her mission is to hunt the Red Hunters and stop them from taking over. However, she doesn’t want to harm their Chosen, believing that there is still time to dissuade her from this path.

Trey: Tucker’s character! A handsome man with a mysterious past. Except for his childhood - that was spent here, in Roswell, where he grew up with his best friend Donnie. When Trey left after high school to try and discover the origin and mysteries of the lights above town, he stayed in touch only with his dear friend. And when things in Roswell started getting weird, Donnie called him home again.

Donnie: Danny’s character! A local man. The owner of the town’s grocery store and a friend to all, Donnie grew up here and plans to stay here all his life. Like most people, he claims the lights are stars and airplanes, and focuses on living his normal life. Eventually he can’t ignore the strange, extraterrestrial happenings - especially after nearly being abducted - and when things start getting even weirder? He knows exactly who to call.

Dahlia: Danielle’s character! A wandering lone wolf-type person, they’ve been adventuring all across the continent. Sometimes taking seasonal jobs for a bit of cash - and sometimes just taking what they need - they do what they can to help people. A dear friend of Valliant, and a former apprentice of Trey’s, they can’t wait to get to Roswell and meet up with two of their favorite people for a good alien-blasting.

Jazz: Is GMing! Swiftly deciding this was NOT the group to run a ghostly game for, she pivoted to aliens, knowing that Danny would enjoy the outer space of it all. Her younger brother and his friends are all teens with Problems, and this is the closest she can get to taking them to therapy. Her campaign involves the group slowly learning that aliens aren’t dangerous, but quite friendly and curious, and needing to go against the Powers That Be to aid them.

[lithiumrox]

before the cast/gm for circle of tide and bone drops, my dream cast would probably be:

gm: aabria

players: matt, spencer, liam, sam, aimee

[onepiexe]

making soup<3

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

About to watch Misfits and Magic. So jazzed to see Brennan get to play instead of GM.

[natjennie]

WAIT I realized yall probably dont know, but jacob andrews from drawfee/sss made an rpg system? it's wicked simple and they've played it twice now on drawfee, but I thought the rpg community on here would want to hear about it! it's called you awaken in a strange place, it's built to be completely improvised in one setting, everyone comes to the session completely unprepared, all the world-building and character creation and playing is done all in one go. all you need to play is 4 people, something to write with, and 2d6.

the game page is here on itch.io, but basically, one player comes up with the genre, another thinks of an adjective, and the third a location. (ex. a space western on the spicy titanic) then, everyone makes a statement about something that is true about the world. (ex. there are roving monster truck gangs) you come up with a kind of character you might like to be and 4 skill verbs that relate to them, which get the attributes +2, +1, -1, and -2. (ex. lying, standing still, jazzing, lifting furniture) everyone does that, including the gm so there are 16 skills total, most of which everyone just has +0 to, and those are the only skills you can use through the game. the appointed gm takes a few minutes to come up with a story, and you play! theres some other mechanics for getting bonuses to rolls, hp, helping other players' rolls, etc, but that's the main flow of it. I think it's a super clever system and really fun to goof around with your friends!

[geminison]

modern-ish things I would like to show dishonored characters

I got inspired by this lovely post by @dogg-teethh and kinda made my own thing but with dishonored protagonists and some side characters so, low and behold

Daud

blues music in general, he would enjoy brooding while listening, and Fleetwood Mac

thriller movies, can't abide the mysteries so would be glued to the screen until the very end. would get mad if it ends on unexplainable cliffhanger

radio dramas, something to fill the silence while doing paperwork

antidepressants, no comments

rope bondage, but not in a sexual way (yeah, I've seen it in ff and thought, yep, seems like his thing)

Corvo

90s fashion, a bit awkward but appealing somehow?

David Bowie, that's so specific? complex and diverse but funky

takeout food, he doesn't really cook, has terrible eating behavior and just plainly starvs when there no food around, so that would be helpful

absurdism, whole "acceptance without humility" thing? i dunno

Lord of the Rings, a small hero with a great burden and greater stakes, it would resonate

Emily

punk rock, 80s pop, industrial and Corvo would also show her "Rebel Rebel", she would vibe with it

Satoshi Kon's movies, great female characters and a bit of insanity

comics, variety of styles and stories to tell! she did enjoy drawing while she was younger, maybe it would inspire her to pick a pencil again

asian cuisine, a lot of different flavours, I wonder how she would like it

marine biology, so much info about whales and other weird ocean creatures, again little Emily would be so happy

headphones, she would feel even cooler while jumping from one roof to another and kicking asses

Billie

airplanes, speed, freedom and views! you are already a captain of the ship, time to tame the sky!

anarchism, yeah, fuck the government!

family therapy, grab your old man by the hand and fucking go, you need it, it wouldn't be easy but please

Killing Eve

heavy metal music and jazz, Emily and Corvo approve. Daud, well, tolerates, it's a bit too much for him

Outsider

video games, all kinds of it!

DnD, especially GM role, you don't have to be a god to feel a little bit like one, and he also has this dramatic side it would def suite him

sci-fi and horror genres

techno, ambient and modern classical music

programming and hacking, he's a nosy young man, he'd like to know all your secrets, and it's just fun ehehe

Delilah

big fashion shows for stylish and powerful lady

therapy, again, no comments

expensive cars that people own and don't drive

Florence + the Machine and MARINA

iPad, Apple pencil and some software for drawing digitally

social media

[catgirlforeskin]

Before I broadened my scope and lost interest in DnD, it was my favourite playground for homebrewing (in the sense of "here is a cool spell or monster I made", not in the sense of trying to force DnD rules on top of my custom cyberpunk murder mystery with monster collecting or whatever)

I'm looking to get into Pathfinder 2e to scratch that same itch though, how is Pathfinder when it comes to getting a feel for making little homebrew thingies that don't feel awkward?

Lucky for you, Pathfinder 2 has rules in the gm’s guide for how to make homebrew items, monsters, all that jazz without disrupting the tight balance of the game. I’ve used em before when GMing and been happy with em

[general-kalani]

Anyway last post from the me for tonight but if you're a personal blog with an rp side-blog and you wanna rp HIT ME UP!!! JUST THROW SHIT AT ME I DO NOT MIND!!! Just remember to tag the side blog that's rp-related and all that jazz.

Much love, gn/gm fellas see y'all tomorrow <3

[starry-hughes]

i’ve been having thougts over exactly how mooch gets drafted since i took a shower this morning. (and yes this is getting typed out on my notes app)

quinn is sososo supportive of his little sister. and part of his support is taking control of the tv in the locker room (if there’s not one in there, let’s pretend). one day, after morning skate, he turns on her game. and about that time the canucks gm comes in (i can’t think of his name atm). he sees the game on, but doesn’t take notice that it’s the women. he’s paying attention, and all of a sudden a “speed demon” flies across the ice and scores (spoilers: it’s mooch). he’s instantly like “who’s that?”. quinn perks up, “my sister!” and rambles off her stats (like he did with luke in that interview question). and he kind of deflated, and leaves the topic alone. and then he sees the osu men’s team playing and… she’s there again? (in my head, if mooch were real, she’d probably have to play with osu men before canucks are like “a woman can play too”, yk?) and now he’s thinking… what if they got the female hughes? and so he starts talking with the front office, and the signing people, draft personnel, etc. they start scrounging the rule book to make sure there’s nothing that explicitly says “no girls allowed”. there’s not. and so now they’re sending “scouts” osu games, even though they know their target (mooch). speculation starts flying, but surprise, they never think it’s mooch (because gender discrimination and all that jazz).

we’ve already touched on quinn being the one to announce her name at the draft, but i firmly believe mooch had little to no clue, and neither did quinn. only ones aware are ellen, jim, jack, luke, and tyler (maybe the entire devils roster as well because jack can’t keep a secret to save his life). mooch just thinks she’s there because quinn is “having his big moment”. ellen is slyly insisting “you still wanna look good, you know we’ll probably be shown at some point”.

quinn’s walking up to the podium (i think we said she goes #6 overall?), and he gets to the center. the ones that know, are all holding their breath. (osu is having a watch party because the coach’s are like “just wait for it”) l. he says the spiel, and kinda trails off- “and with the #6 overall pick of the nhl entry draft, the vancouver canucks select…. “ and he kind of tears up, looks down to collect himself, looks back up “mooch”. her jaw is on the floor. osu watch party is going fucking insane. quinn is in literal tears. broadcasters are baffled (because that’s not who they thought they’d pick at all). mooch doesn’t get up for a second, and luke and jack have to reach over and be like “that’s you baby sister, have your fucking moment” and she calmly walks up, until she gets in front of quinn, and she absolutely tackles him. they’re both crying on stage. their sibling moment is plastered freaking every where.

-🫂

it’s such a shock because everyone knew that she’s a hughes but no girl has been thought to be able to compete with guys at the nhl level. and mooch just went 6th overall. and no one thought she would get picked this high, she wasn’t even on the expected top ten draft picks.

she doesn’t know how to react because literally everyone is staring at her. she’s walking up to the stage and quinn practically tackles her and helps her slip on the jersey and hat

[einsteinsugly]

Steven James Hyde (born November 28, 1959), the Familial Lore.

WB's family hails from Detroit. His paternal grandmother Ruby was born and raised in Detroit, but his paternal grandfather William "Willie" abruptly moved to Detroit at thirteen after his family lost everything in the Tulsa race riots.

WB is the eldest of two children. He grew up close to his brother Henry. They never had much, but they made it work. His dad typically worked for GM, but he and Ruby ran a little music shop and jazz club on the side.

By the late 50s, WB had just lost his first wife Marion in a car crash, and had a young daughter to raise on his own (Angie). He was around during the founding of Motown Records, and had to live in Chicago for a bit to promote the new record label, with his best friends Francis "French" Owens and Jerome Clark. There he met Edna, and they had a relationship for a bit, but Edna's brother Tag was a massive racist. So they broke it off, but not before conceiving Hyde.

Edna had also met Bud for the first time at around the same time, but didn't become romantic with him until a bit later, after WB left the picture. She masqueraded Hyde as Bud's (Bud knows, too) to placate her racist brother, and they moved to Point Place, where Bud was born and raised (on a literal pig farm).

*****

His mom's family is peppered with tragedy. Edna O'Brien was born to teenage parents in northern Appalachia/southwestern Pennsylvania, and she was initially raised with love and care by her paternal grandparents, until her parents decided to take her back when she was four. By then, they had two more children, Terry "Tag" and Clifford "Cliff."*

They were never in the same place for long. Her dad Edwin took a bunch of menial jobs and was also a truck driver, and they often lived in rundown motels. Edwin consistently physically, verbally, and sexually abused his wife Daisy, and started to do the same to Edna when she was nine. A firmly closeted bisexual, he also sexually abused both Tag and Cliff.

When Edna was sixteen, it was clear that Edwin was beginning to groom their youngest sister Marlene, but Daisy refused to leave. So the kids split, with Marlene in tow, and tried to make things work. They lived in Chicago for a few years, and Edna dabbled in sex work, waitressing, bartending, and the drug trade to make ends meet. She also discovered a love for water skiing, and she spent summers in the Dells, which was dashed when she found out she was pregnant with Hyde. She was only partially relieved when Hyde was born, since he was white (so the masquerade described above worked), but he also emerged with her father's ice-blue eyes. The same eyes she despised.

*Cliff is the only good uncle in Hyde's life. He doesn't have much, but he tries to help out Hyde when he can.

[self-critical-automaton]

TTRPG player recruitment: MÖRK BORG

Any mutuals or like long time followers interested in joining a MÖRK BORG game? I have two players, lookin for about two more.

It’s a rules light game from the Old School Renaissance movement, themed around doom-metal, with a dark-fantasy vibe. Think BERSERK, Dark Souls, weird creepy album covers, that sort of thing. We’d be playing around lunchtims UK time, using voice chat and a virtual tabletop. Also it has high lethality, even for an OSR game, so don’t get too attached to your characters... The rulebook is available in a text-only no-pictures form for free on their webbed site, too, so you really have no excuse not to be jazzed at the prospect.

There’s a lot of systems I wanna try out, and I used to love GMing tabletop rpgs, so I’ve embarked on this long project where i’m going to run a bunch of mini-campaigns across several systems, to re-learn how to be a great gm and also to just broaden my horizons. I have a Black Hack game ongoing, but I want to open up a second one, and MÖRK BORG is the next system on the list. So.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 7.12

Beer Birthdays

Pete Brown (1968)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Buckminster Fuller; architect, inventor (1895)

Pablo Neruda; poet (1904)

Jamey Sheridan; actor (1951)

Henry David Thoreau (1817)

Andrew Wyeth; artist (1917)

Famous Birthdays

Milton Berle; actor, comedian (1908)

Eugene Boudin; French artist (1824)

Conte Candoli; jazz trumpeter (1927)

George Washington Carver; botanist (1864)

Van Cliburn; classical pianist (1934)

Bill Cosby; comedian (1937)

George Eastman; photography inventor (1854)

Walter Egan; rock musician (1948)

Anna Friel; British actor (1976)

Topher Grace; actor (1978)

Oscar Hammerstein II; lyricist (1895)

Mel Harris; actor (1956)

Cheryl Ladd; actor (1951)

Willis Lamb; physicist (1913)

Louis B. Mayer; film producer (1884)

Christine McVie; rock musician (1943)

Amedeo Modigliani (1884)

Michelle Rodriguez; actor (1978)

Richard Simmons; exercise guru (1948)

Richard Smith; GM executive, "Roger & Me" (1925)

Jay Thomas; actor (1948)

Josiah Wedgewood; potter (1730)

John Wetton; rock bassist (1949)

Bambi Wood; porn actor (1955)

Kristi Yamaguchi; figure skater (1971)

[pfeldspar]

As the new front desk supervisor my boss is having me train to fill in on night audit for this week 11pm-7am and I’m like you know what? No. I bend over backwards for this job having open availability, coming in on my days off, working 12 hour shifts. It’s not my fault the 3 night auditors quit. I told her I would work this week as night audit bc the schedule is already made but past this week I won’t do it. She’s fucking furious bc that means she or the GM will have to fill in and they both have families n shit but I make fucking $20 an hour and it’s not worth it. I asked if they’d give me any more money for working overnights and she said no so I refuse to do it. 3 people aren’t getting paid and they can’t spare a single penny for me per hour? The fuck??? I’ll take getting demoted. The extra $80 per paycheck isn’t worth it. God damn. I really like my boss as a person and I’m a chickenshit pussy who hates saying no to people but if she’s mad at me I’m not going to take it personally bc this is stupid as hell and a total slap in the face. They’re blatantly taking advantage of the fact that I’m a decent reliable worker.

Also hi haven’t been online much!! Mostly been drawing Lego monkey porn and Eddsworld porn lmfao also I have a 9k tomtord fanfic I’m working on that I’m super jazzed about

[lastweeksshirttonight]

Guess who's back

Lee is back, tell a friend.

I know I let this project sit fallow for the last few weeks, but I'm gonna kick it back in gear - especially now that we don't have any new LWTs to pick apart every week.

Last Lee Tonight (wherein Lee is still alive, he promises) Season One, Episode Five

(original air date: 6/8/2014) Major topics covered: Net Neutrality, the spelling bee, European elections

"Is there anyone into both anti-Zionist conspiracy theories AND smooth jazz?"

Welcome back from our mini-break! When we last left off, Last Week Tonight was still trying to figure out how, exactly, to structure its show, now that it's determined longer-form dissections of issues can and will work as stand-alone viral bits. This episode is, at least in some respects, where things start gelling into the format we know and love - and gives us our first really big viral bit from the show. I think this, more than the episode on the death penalty, is where LWT really starts to take shape.

Our episode is a rare start where John does not slap his desk a lot, but instead bobs around like a weird bird while everyone claps. It is delightful and important for you to know this, and he should do this more often. (Did you know that one of my main character traits is 'strong opinions about objectively useless shit'? SURPRISE IT IS)

The episode kicks off discussing a surge of far-right victories in European elections. Good to know people were worried about this getting out of hand in 2014. John makes it very clear this is a bad sign - "when Europe goes far right, they go far right through Belgium" is an amazing joke - and showcases multiple far-right Nazi groups that now have seats in their countries' governments. I hate how numb to a lot of this shit I am now because of the US' slow descent into fascism, but this was a startling warning sign at the time.

In contrast, Ukraine elected a chocolate baron as their president, and John takes the opportunity to sing badly and "whimsically". My heart.

Next is an update on Afghanistan, and a new plan for pulling out of the country by the end of 2014. Or the end of 2015. They've been just about to leave Afghanistan for a long time, and John has some further updates on plans going into 2016 and 2017.

These first bits before the "And Now This" feel a lot more like the modern introductory sections of Last Week Tonight. Everything aside from the brief Afghanistan update is centered around one singular theme (European elections), goes on for about 6 minutes (leaving plenty of time for the main topics), and goes into at least slight depth about the news (unlike earlier, extremely brief tossed-off news updates that expected at least a modicum of familiarity with current events). Things are starting to come together everyone!

Our first "And Now This" is about Jay Carney resigning from being White House Press Secretary, which they frame his resignation speech declaring his respect and love for the job with clips of him getting irritated, bemused, and drained by the idiocy of the press pool he dealt with. I honestly completely forgot this guy existed but all the memories of those Obama-era press conferences came back hard to me while watching this clip.

The first main story starts with the Internet, and John going on an extremely long tangent about buying coyote urine before bringing us to the actual topic - Net Neutrality.

This episode had a massive social impact when it aired in 2014. I remember this being such a huge deal, it seemed like every news organization was covering John's show and, through that coverage, informing the public about why net neutrality would be an absolute disaster for the US. Looking at this now, it also was a huge turning point in the marketing of the show - I've mentioned multiple times for previous episodes that the YouTube clips pulled from each episode so far make absolutely no sense, sometimes chopping up bits and not showing full context (like with the GM recalls), sometimes having shorter and longer versions of the same thing (like with the climate debate and the Bill Nye cameo). This episode marks the first time I can share the entirety of the episode's main bit with you as a YouTube video. It is absolutely wild to think that most audience's main way of interacting with this show, through longform YouTube bits, was not a thing at the start.

While the YouTube channel continues to have some smaller fragments of LWT episodes from this point on (usually the smaller intro bits or episode enders divorced from the main topic), and episode 7 inexplicably doesn't have video of its main topic at all (oh boy, that'll make my write up fun), by episode 8, the main subject of every episode has its own longform YouTube clip.

Here's the net neutrality clip for your viewing pleasure:

John opens the clip noting that discussions of net neutrality are boring as shit, saying he'd rather watch Caillou with his niece than listen to them. That's one of the most casually damning insults I've ever heard, because Caillou is fucking terrible. But net neutrality, I think as we all know now, is extremely important to the function of the internet as we know it.

I said I won't go deeply through each bit on a technical level, and this clip is very technical. It shows really well how LWT, at its best, really breaks down a complex issue and makes it easy to understand - and easy to get incensed about. Helps that cable companies get shit on CONSTANTLY in this one. I am still ready to destroy Spectrum over my early year internet fuckery.

I wish I remembered what I put in that FCC comment website, lol.

The episode shifts to another Other Countries' Presidents of the United States, which focuses on Tony Abbott of Australia, a religiously anti-immigrant shitheel who was an immigrant to Australia himself. It's always projection with these idiots. He's got a cavalcade of bad thoughts and ideas, a lot of which feel like they were pulled directly from a Thick of It episode. "I've given you the response you deserve", Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ.

He also looks a bit like a Paul Scheer character. I can't unsee it.

The last segment of the episode focuses on the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I made it to the regional tournament for this godawful stress-inducing nightmare in middle school, and I'm pretty sure the only reason I got that far is because my dad promised to buy me the Game Boy Advance game 'Ed Edd n Eddy: Jawbreakers' if I made it to state. I did not make it, and my dad felt so bad about it that he still bought me the game. I loved that game far more than I ever loved the goddamn spelling bee.

As an expert on this subject, "the Hunger Games of the mind" is a super accurate assessment and I related very very hard to the girl who said she was going to get every horror movie ever upon losing. I did much the same, except with Ed Edd n Eddy. (I was fucking obsessed with that show.)

I have to note that John also says "pop that pussy" in this clip. This is of interest to me and my gremlin followers.

Also Jesus Christ, Chris Cuomo, go to a fucking fight club or something to get out that Mortal Kombat-ass rage. My God, you absolute lunatic.

Random notes:

Lee obviously focuses on important things corner: plum tie, light blue shirt, dark gray jacket, holy shit it is too early for me to be this flustered. A LOOK. 10/10 no notes

Weird items from the Last Week Tonight YouTube page: a video of a singular joke from the Net Neutrality clip. I am not entirely sure what they were going for here - did they think one joke might go more viral than an entire 15 minute clip? Did they make this as a lead-in on a long-lost corporate website? Did they predict TikTok? I have so many questions.

A couple of years after the Spelling Bee bit, in 2016, John sent his congratulations to Scripps for their 90 year anniversary and some encouragement to participants. This is worth watching because a) all-ages/family-friendly John content is generally adorable and this is no exception, and b) John is smoking hot in it. Not even including the 'imo' there, he just IS. 11/10. 12/10 even. Ranking scale destroyed.

I would ask you all to guess who my favorite character on Ed Edd n Eddy was, but I am such a stereotype of a human being that if you guessed anyone other than Double D, you don't know me at all. Also this show is still hilarious as an adult, and I maybe got sidetracked watching a bunch of clips of it this morning.

[madfishmonger]

Quotes from Curse of Strahd

"Unlocking the secrets of the universe is worth the cost of a civilization." - the wizard "And your own brain!" - the barbarian

"We just have this ghost with dementia." - the bard

"Reading that book bent my brain a little." - the wizard

"The statue is of the faceless god of secrets." - the gm "The god of self-promotion." - the bard

"I'm pretty sure our cleric who worships an evil storm god is into smooth jazz." - the barbarian

"This healing potion is great, it's like a redbull." - the paladin

"I feel the presence of my god!" - the cleric "I think it's just more fireballs." - the barbarian

"I've learned a vaulable lesson, sometimes dominating your friends' minds is for the greater good!" - the bard

[raccgm]

This layout is very new to me and im a little confused, story time

but that is OK, ill figure it out eventually, just gotta...post some stuff, lets start with a DnD story

So I DM/GM quite a few games of DnD, but one that usually ended up falling flat on its face was Descent into Avernus, its a great module I just never could get it to work until my old school started a DnD club, of which I was one of the new DMs. It wasn't very big at first and I ended up having a group of 3 people. They were a cleric(much needed) a bloodhunter and a barbarian, pretty normal-ish for a 3 person party, but here's the thing. All 3 of them INDEPENDENTLY chose dragonborn as their race. Coming to the table and being presented their sheets I was, very confused but decided to say "fuck it well make this work." we were on a time crunch as it was an afterschool club and didn't have a whole lot of time to waste so we got on with it. For the most part it was a fantastic time! however there is one very distinct moment that will stick out to me as a GM. They had gotten into the bathhouse to deal with the Cult of The Dead Three, dealt with the assassins nearly died in the process all that good jazz. Well, when they broke into the office and saw that one old cultist with an evil skull flail they didnt hesitate, they all rolled higher than him and initiative and with their breathe weapons proceeded to set him on fire, flash freeze him, then the barbarian barged in the room and THREW THEIR FUCKING GREAT AXE AT HIM, catching him DIRECTLY in the chest and pinning him to the wall. The rest of the dungeon proceeded just as strangely. I cant wait to continue that campaign for them all.