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autumnblogs · 4 years ago

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Day 11: Melodrama

WIth Act 4 over, we’ve finished setting up the pins on the Earth Side of this story. We are now roughly one quarter of the way through the full story - and Homestuck is set up more or less in four acts, rather than in six acts as its “official” structure would suggest.

Time to start setting up the pins on the other disc.

https://homestuck.com/story/1942

But first, some more of Andrew’s prose to detail the fallout of the Sovereign Slayer’s activity. He’s been a busy man.

Also, Rose goes off the rails, but we knew that already.

This is the part of the story where Rose becomes an antagonist, in my opinion. More on that later. More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/1955

A letter from another version of Earth.

One of the very first things that we learn about Jake is that one of his all time favorite movies is Weekend at Bernie’s, an association that is part of a long list of red-herrings that link Jake up with Lord English, but of which nothing ultimately comes. It’s an association mostly because Bernie is a corpse who is also a puppet (like Doc Scratch, for example).

All that has already been pointed out by a lot of people before me, so moving on.

https://homestuck.com/story/1957

Just missed her.

https://homestuck.com/story/1993

Act 5 off to a great start, and while Karkat is in many ways a parallel to John (via their shared interests), right away, this action compares Karkat to Dave. Their reaction to being misnamed by the command prompt is pretty much identical.

https://homestuck.com/story/1994

Like I said, Karkat is pretty much immediately compared to John in terms of their shared interests, what with his Terrible Taste in Movies and his Amateur Coding.

One thing that stands out as endearing to me that I’ve probably not thought so much about before is Karkat’s practicing with his Sickle in his room. It reminds me of lightsaber wielding kids on early youtube.

https://homestuck.com/story/1995

So let’s break this and the next few pages down. Viewing the narration through the same James-Joycesque lens of “Narration is more or less identical with the characters’ thought processes,” that we have been so far, Karkat seems pretty ambivalent about existing as a troll, going as far as to describe his bad dreams as *terrible.*

Do all Trolls have dreams as bad as Karkat does? Is it a chucklevoodoos thing? Maybe it’s specifically a Karkat thing.

https://homestuck.com/story/1996

Karkat gets distracted instantly by intrusive thoughts and does something else that’s very Johnlike.

https://homestuck.com/story/1998

Aw c’mon. Early Sandler isn’t even that bad. Then again, it’s been a while since I’ve watched this one, maybe it’s worse than I remember it.

https://homestuck.com/story/1999

This section of the story is even more time-agnostic than the rest of the story, and a lot of it is told in past tense prospective action, which says to me that what we’re experiencing here is the various trolls on the meteor at the End of Act 4 collectively remembering what has taken place in the past, while the parts of this segment that are narrated in the present tense are being relayed to us via the characters in the narrative present (which is to say, the events which are being relayed to us in the panel.)

https://homestuck.com/story/2008

I wonder if Troll Will Smith is a Troll Scientologist?

https://homestuck.com/story/2010

I didn’t like the Trolls very much originally. They’re so ornery and pissy with each other all the time, with the exception of Gamzee and Tavros, but on a reread, especially keeping the things in mind that I’m keeping in mind, all of these characters are a lot more tolerable.

Using the cipher that we’ve established from reading the characters as basically attempting to perform what is culturally expected of them in the first four acts, we can immediately decode what is going on between Karkat and his friends - they are trying to be the best trolls they can be, or at least, live up to certain ideals/stereotypes the way that Dave tries to live up to the stereotype of the coolguy, or John emulates the mangrit and fatherliness and so on of his father figures.

But something is way *way* more wrong with Alternia’s role models than Earth’s.

That’s all from a Watsonian perspective. From a Doylist perspective, there are very explicit stereotypes each of these characters is designed around - commonplace annoying internet people from the ‘00s (pronounce that as Naughts).

https://homestuck.com/story/2012

There’s a lot of early installment weirdness in the first bits of Troll Stuff we get where it’s clear that Andrew was riffing and trying to find clear definitions for their relationships - it’s somewhat poorly known these days, I think, but Andrew has said in the past that he hates worldbuilding, and it kind of shows. (Did I mention that Kanaya Sollux friendship back when those two were interacting not long ago? That’s another one of those bits of early installment weirdness).

Anyway, the actual bit of early installment weirdness that I’m drawing attention to is the fact that the Subjugglators are described as being an Obscure Cult here, but later Homestuck Media (and even stuff within Homestuck, honestly) will make them out to be basically the only major aspect of being a Purple Blood.

https://homestuck.com/story/2013

Gamzee’s ignorance and his bliss are pretty much immediately linked to one another.

That said, I’m not going to dive too deep into Gamzee’s inner life. Like a lot of the trolls, in spite of his great relevance, he’s a bit of a joke character, and the joke is on us - whatever is going on inside this lad’s head is a puzzle for most of the comic.

Gamzee has a Freudian excuse in the form of his absent Lusus, which incidentally, is a parallel to Jade - the Nurture is the same, but the Nature is very differently. Unfortunately, when God was handing out Natures, he gave Gamzee one of the really bad ones, so he’s a worthless goddamn piece of shit.

https://homestuck.com/story/2024

Already into the first few troll conversations, and we’re setting up some stuff for later. Gamzee and Terezi’s very first conversation demonstrates the terrible chemistry that the two have together - Gamzee legitimately unsettles Terezi, and there’s just nothing at all she can do to bother him.

https://homestuck.com/story/2025

Sollux is probably so handy with this coding language because of his ability to hear the voices of the imminently deceased - so he can write programs that will execute along a pretty reasonable time frame.

https://homestuck.com/story/2027

Leader is a phrase that ends up being used in conjunction with Karkat a lot, and the concept of leadership is another one of those things that Homestuck Talks About but not a thing that Homestuck Is About, at least in the sense that leadership as a role is part of the comic’s broader commentary on cultural reproduction, the same way that Homestuck’s conversation about gender is, or Homestuck’s conversation about Roles in general.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Karkat wants to be a leader.

As long as Sollux is making his first appearance as a character, I want to take a second to say that as a character, he’s always been pretty tough and enigmatic for me to write, especially in the sense that he‘s frequently referred to melodramatic and sensitive or similar terms by people around him, but he actually doesn’t really seem that way in most cases - he just seems like a guy who wants to his own devices, and is generally pretty non-reactive to other peoples’ bullshit. Maybe he’s melodramatic in the way that Dave is, hyping himself up as a coolguy who is the best there is, but then again, Sollux kind of lives up to his own hype, considering that up until the last possible moment, he wins pretty much every fight he’s in handily, adapts Sburb personally, and has more romantic success than just about everyone else in the comic.

Maybe Karkat’s just projecting.

https://homestuck.com/story/2031

Roleplaying - a concept that I’ve used frequently to refer to the way that John and his chums perform rituals in order to relate to their culture and parents - is made explicit through the language of Flarping, which for the Trolls, serves as a way for them to literally act out the adventures of their long-dead ancestors, although it strikes me that it’s probably a lot more gainful for highbloods like Terezi and Vriska than it is in general for lowbloods like Aradia and Tavros.

I’ll get this out of the way up front instead of commenting it on a drip feed throughout Terezi’s upcoming courtblock roleplay - Terezi is the kind of kid who aspires to be a Cop. Or a lawyer, anyway, which in Alternian Law, is the same thing as a cop. In the wake of 2020′s scads of police brutality, and in general, having grown up into a nasty commie, it’s kind of hard to look at Terezi the same way.

While it’s clear that Terezi is remorseful later on toward her earlier attitudes and behaviors, Terezi is at least ambivalent, and at worst a purely antagonistic force throughout a lot of early Homestuck because of her authoritarian tendencies and her honestly pretty psychopathic behavior. She plays games with her friends’ lives.

https://homestuck.com/story/2047

Terezi adores having power over other people and making them helpless. For Terezi, alienation takes the form of emotional distance from the people that she’s tormenting. It makes it so much easier for her to conceive of them as wicked people who need to die.

https://homestuck.com/story/2055

Nepeta is an adorable girl who deserves all the good things. All of them.

That said, as long as we’re commentating and not glurging, Nepeta’s internet troll stereotype is probably less familiar these days, and I say probably less, but I can’t say for sure - it’s like this really specific thing that existed during the late ‘00s, where you had this highly specific stereotype, which I’ll call the Furry Artist Roleplayer, and I really hope that I’m not talking out of my ass by generalizing anecodtal evidence, but I know people who were pretty much exactly the Nepeta stereotype around the time that Act 5 was being written! Roleplaying in IRCs or on specialty forums with other people, all drawing art of their anthro OCs and writing stories about each other’s characters. That sort of thing still probably exists these days, but if it does, I’m not really part of any communities anymore where it leaks into the mainstream.

https://homestuck.com/story/2058

Okay, yup, Karkat is 100% projecting “Melodrama” on all the people around him. In a literal sense, Melodrama refers to theatrics that are exaggerated and sensationalized in such a way as to appeal to the emotions, often prioritizing spectacle and physical action over deep characterization.

Actually, if we’re taking it in the literal sense of the word, just about every character in Homestuck is pretty melodramatic - I keep talking about the way that they roleplay rituals and associate with symbols even when they fail to structures of power and culture that those rituals and symbols point to - performative participation without any actual substance. That’s practically the definition of Melodrama.

But Karkat is, perhaps, the most Melodramatic of all.

https://homestuck.com/story/2065

Aradia is one of my favorite characters in Homestuck, and possibly my favorite, something I can be up front about.

Our introduction to her is brief, and right out of the gate one thing about her is apparent - her relationship with destruction is central to her characterization.

https://homestuck.com/story/2069

While I was going to wait for the Hemospectrum to come up explicitly, now’s as good a time as any to talk about the fact that Andrew uses Troll society to comment on hierarchy a lot - hierarchy of just all kinds. Ageism is one of those, and Gerontocracy in particular in Alternia. In Alternia, just one of the ways that the oppression of the Hemospectrum manifests is the way that the Empire systematically takes advantage of its children by basically leaving them completely to their own devices. Trolls don’t have family units normally, but the fact that Troll adults are all offworld is not a “natural” part of Troll Society, it’s a decision. And while it’s a decision made by the Empress, it’s still one that, to some extent, benefits adult trolls at the expense of the children, since they’re not around spending energy on raising kids who are expected to raise themselves from the word go.

It’s honestly pretty late, and I’m tuckered out because of the steroids that I’m on, and the cough medicine, so in spite of the comparatively pretty short amount of reading I’ve done tonight, I’m going to call it here.

Cam signing off, Alive and a little High.

#liveblogging #commentary #nurture #nature #trolls

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Little Things Reminds Us Why We’re Drawn to Charismatic Serial Killers

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This The Little Things analysis contains spoilers. Read our spoiler-free review here.

The Little Things can be seen as a tainted police procedural with its murky ambiguity and troubling ending. But it’s also the story of a man for whom the allure of a charismatic serial killer goes too far. After all, serial killers make up less than one percent of homicides but they average a double-digit percentage of Hollywood crime films, and probably a majority of prison fan mail. What is it about these one-percenters we love so much?

Directed by John Lee Hancock, the supposed sociopath in The Little Things is Albert Sparma, a drifter who works as a repairman. Jared Leto is certainly magnetic in the part, serving Sparma up with a now-stereotypical “charismatic serial killer” vibe. But the Oscar-winning actor also brings an ambiguous energy to the part, suggesting he may merely be a serial killer groupie.

Albert Sparma is a self-identifying true crime afficionado and has taken his fanboy fancy so far as to actually confess to a murder he didn’t commit. That could be seen as some dangerous roleplay or surveying a battle ground for future maneuvers.

Sparma is perfectly thrilled when he’s pulled into the interrogation room to face off against Det. Jimmy Baxter (Rami Malek). He luxuriates in the tension, and loves the décor. He stands in vast contrast to Stan Peters (Frederick Koehler), quite possibly the actual murderer, who’d earlier responded to the room with an almost claustrophobic paranoid mania.

But Peters is not the charismatic type. Leto’s Albert, meanwhile, has a bad boy quality which is just irresistible. At least it is to Denzel Washington’s measured portrayal of Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon, who sees the makings of a young Ted Bundy in the suspect. Recall that in Joe Berlinger’s bloodless feature film, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Zac Efron plays Bundy with an abundance of charm. The film came out amid a glut of documentaries about one of the most well-known serial killers from the late 20th century, and Twitter exploded with posts about how attractive Bundy was.

Albert Sparma could have been his biggest fan.

Leto doesn’t bring the clean-cut, all-American hunk to his serial killer. He’s the rebel. His hair hangs so long, he has to move it out the way when he cooks. Sparma goes to strip clubs before cruising the strip. He wins a drag race with Deke while still in park. He plays so many mind games with Baxter his head explodes.

Dennis Lynn Rader, aka the BTK Killer, taunted the police by sending letters describing the details of his crimes. That’s an old trick though, going all the way back to Jack the Ripper, who also wrote to Scotland Yard about his alleyway antics. Son of Sam, the Lipstick Killer, the Golden State Killer, even the Axeman of New Orleans dropped personal notes on current events to the authorities. The Zodiac Killer wrote his in code.

They also sent letters to the newspapers. Sparma collects clippings and is up on all the true crime literature. Some people are attracted to serial killers out of a necessity to understand their acts. It is outside their reality, and it is even a coping mechanism. News reports explain how, but they don’t explain why such unimaginable crimes can be committed. They want to know how someone can go so dark. If Sparma is truly just a “confessor,” as even Det. Baxter finally accepts, that confession shows one aspect of the depths of his kind of obsession.

Some serial killer followers might be drawn out of the curiosity of how it feels to take a human life.

The body count in The Little Things is only four when Deke first double parks at the station. It grows as the case draws attention. Real-life serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer became celebrity monsters because of the attention they got from law enforcement and the media, and a collective curiosity for the macabre makes them larger than life. John Wayne Gacy committed his atrocities in a Pogo the Clown suit. And Sparma’s repairman overalls are a little baggy.

While Bundy was on trial, representing himself, he proposed to a woman, who not only accepted but married the convicted murderer, and conceived a daughter with him. Even in prison, Bundy received marriage proposals and love letters, as did Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Chris Watts, and Charles Manson. Some may be drawn to the serial killer hoping to spark some transformation in an irredeemable beast; others might be prone to Hybristophilia, otherwise known as “Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome;” and some are just drawn toward the bright light of fame in any shade.

In Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, Woody Harrelson’s Mickey Knox is a mass murderer, not a serial killer, by strict definition. Nonetheless, when he and his wife Mallory (Juliette Lewis) are walked up the stone steps to the courthouse, they are surrounded by adoring fans waving signs like “Kill Me Mickey.” Stone was making pointed social commentary in a fictional film, but his scenario was all too real.

Movies

Best Serial Killer Movies of the ’90s Ranked

By David Crow

Movies

Seven: The Brilliance of David Fincher’s Chase Scene

By Ryan Lambie

The Little Things is not based on a true story. It goes back to a screenplay Hancock wrote in 1993, which was too dark for Steven Spielberg. For inspiration, Hancock had to look no further than California serial killers in the 1980s like the Grim Sleeper and Randy Kraft.

Written before the glut of serial killer movies took hold in the 1990s, The Little Things is similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and the then-recent Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991) in that they are psychological thrillers, as opposed to the proto-slasher Leatherface in Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Yet all three of those films, from Norman Bates to Hannibal Lecter, were inspired by Ed Gein, who confessed to killing two people as well as digging up corpses from local cemeteries in the 1950s. Gein became internationally famous after being profiled in the book Psycho by Robert Bloch.

It’s no wonder an anonymous drifter might find comfortable skin to wear while traversing a sad, sick world. Sparma certainly walked the walk, and was up on his psychopathic patter.

“They are so friendly and so kind and very solicitous at the beginning of our work together,” forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison wrote in her 2004 book My Life Among the Serial Killers. “They’re charming, almost unbelievably so, charismatic like a Cary Grant or a George Clooney.”

Sparma does everything short of asking Baxter for an autograph during their first meeting. Serial killer fans have been known to spend hundreds of dollars for a lock of a murderer’s hair. John Schwenk, a true crime afficionado from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, has gotten follicles, false teeth, and even dental floss from serial killers on death row. He is a collector of murderabilia, and his portfolio includes a sketch of a skull by Richard “The Night Stalker” Ramirez and a portrait by John Wayne “The Killer Clown” Gacy.

A Texas senator named John Cornyn began pushing a bill to ban the sale of crime-related materials in 2007. It must have sounded like a good idea to the federal government. They pulled in $232,246 auctioning off the Unabomber’s belongings in 2011. Rodney Alcala, who was sentenced to death in California for five murders, put himself up for a romantic racket bid on a September 1978 installment of The Dating Game.

The Little Things reaches a satisfyingly ambiguous conclusion. The best evidence in the case is a boxful of newspaper clippings. Are they forensically clean trophies of past dark victories, or are they a scrapbook from one of the biggest true crime fanatics on the planet?

Charismatic serial killers are a movie stereotype now. Leto helps twist this trope by letting his character buy so completely into it we don’t know if he’s become one or is merely a victim.

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The post The Little Things Reminds Us Why We’re Drawn to Charismatic Serial Killers appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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johnwickcaretaker · 8 months ago

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Victory is Near

As we move into the third day of revolution, we have several final hurdles to overcome.

High Table forces in NY (the same group that captured The Director not long ago) are still at large, and may move against the Continental.

We need to take Sofia’s daughter somewhere else.

Casablanca is still under siege by The Adjudicator.

This will likely not stop until the The Adjudicator is dead or on our side.

Therefore: I need a status update. @vindegramont, where are you and your forces? Focus, please, on either Casablanca or New York.

@sofiaal-azwar, let us know how things are going for your troops

@shimazu-akira, since you have firsthand knowledge about what’s going on in NY, can you and Winston work to resolve that crisis?

As for myself, I’m currently on a plane with Katia and Sofia that’s now bound for Osaka, to get the kid to safety. After that, I’ll be fighting alongside you in Casablanca or NY, whichever is going worse.

#john wick roleplay #down with the high table #(ooc: last day of the event! I’m so excited!!)

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autemimperator · 8 months ago

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From: [email protected] [their private email]

Marquise,

I see that you're still active on the Table server. Working late again? So am I. I've been given the extra task of organizing surveillance. It's beyond me how Winston and John let Georgia Scott get out of hand. I had very little trouble discovering that she's in France, making a target of herself. I was about to give orders to contain the situation, but thanks to you, I didn't have to. Good of you to take her in. Meanwhile, can you believe John is in Casablanca of all places, with Sofia Al-Azwar? We're tracking him round the clock after the last...incident with you.

All his professed cares for "family" and "the-quiet-life" and yet he probably has no idea of the disruption she's causing - too busy chasing after his own satisfaction. He's currently busy playing with dogs. Does the man do anything else?? Anyway, thought you'd find that amusing.

Night night,

Jude

______________________

[ooc: They tend to email her to gossip from time to time. I'm expecting to have less animosity between these two than we had during the roleplay event - but feel free to take it where you like ofc! This is an email just to Vincent and Gigi wouldn't see it, but I'm tagging you so you can see story details, @alice-of-hightable.]

Jude,

Yes it’s been a horrible week especially for you and your department in particular. And I won’t worry about 𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐓𝐓 because I’m sure Winston would have it under control. And Mr. Wick is at the Casablanca Continental with 𝐌𝐒. 𝐀𝐋-𝐀𝐙𝐖𝐀𝐑? With dogs? It’s crazy how easily he goes from being a “busy” bastard to someone who is innocently playing with dogs.

I hope the next week doesn’t go as bad as this one for both you and I. Since the Table is starting to demand much.

See you at the office,

Vincent

#rp account #john wick rp account #marquis vincent de gramont #john wick rp acc #marquis de gramont rp #high table rp #john wick roleplay #the adjudicator #( ooc: yaayayya!! )

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fyrapartnersearch · 7 years ago

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Villain Enthusiast Seeks Same

Hello! I’m Autumn. I’m an almost-30-something currently in GMT + 5:45. The breakdown is I'm halfway around the world doing volunteer work for the summer and I'm feeling pretty isolated, so I figure burying myself in a roleplay would be a good distraction.

What I’m Looking For: You have to be 18+ and preferably close to my age.

I’m looking for a partner(s) who has an appreciation for villainous characters, both playing them (must) and playing against them (would be nice). Beyond that, I’m looking for someone who appreciates the necessity of conflict to move the roleplay forward, and who is both generally active but also understands that real life takes precedent! It would be great to find all of that wrapped up in someone who wants to also get to know one another OOC. I’m a chatty and hopefully funny person, and I do my best (or worst, if you’re one of my hapless OCs…) brainstorming/idea bouncing in an informal setting where I feel comfortable.

Basically, I work hard, I play hard, and I’m down for some awesome wicked villainy. Let’s do this.

Availability: I'm online every day, but be patient with me. WIFI isn't great out here and I have work to do while I'm abroad.

The Basics: I’m a para/multi-para roleplayer, though I do not give a flying fuck about word count. My metrics for determining quality are a response which 1) satisfyingly responds to what my partner has written and 2) introduces a new element for my partner to respond to. I’m “literate,” but I care way more about your ideas than whether or not you use an Oxford comma.

I play characters of all genders, and all pairings. In an ideal world, you would as well, but my bare minimum is that you are comfortable playing either M or NB in an M or NBxF pairing. I am able to play as many characters as needed for the roleplay, depending on how ambitious it is, and ask that you are able to play at least two characters.

I only play OCs. I prefer if we make our own world, but I’m open to playing against canon characters/in established worlds, provided the fandom in question is aligned with my roleplay interests (see below) and I’m either familiar with or don’t need more than a passing knowledge of the fandom to roleplay competently.

Properties I have more than a passing familiarity with: A:TLA/LoK, Game of Thrones (show), OUAT, Harry Dresden, The Grishaverse, Vlad Taltos/Dragaera, American Gothic (‘97 TV show), John Dies at the End, Alien/Prometheus, Marvel (films), X-Men (films), Batman (films), True Blood, TVD, BTVS, Hellsing, Pokemon (first gen), SCP Foundation, Area X/Southern Reach Trilogy, Inuyasha

Format: Email or kik are going to work best for me, since when I can't get Wifi I have a data plan that is very text friendly, and very hostile to anything else (so Tumblr is not great unfortunately)

Interests: Genre-wise, I comfortably occupy the realm of speculative fiction, and everything within it. I’ve done space opera, steampunk, swords and sorcery, urban fantasy, post-apocalyptic, magical realism, parallel dimensions, horror, etc. I love it all, if I’m with the right partner. To that end, I love in-depth world building and all that entails.

As mentioned before, I adore a good villain. I write the kind of villains where “Lux Aeterna” may as well start playing when they enter the room, because you just know something awful (but epic) is about to happen. I’m looking for someone who brings the same enthusiasm to the table. Ideally, we'd be doubling in a situation where we each play the respective villains to one another's hero(ines), but if you only want to 1x1 it would be you (villain--any gender) x me (heroine).

Vampires. Unrepentant, bloodsucking vampires. Incomprehensible, ancient vampires. Did I mention vampires? Overpowered villains. Heroes triumphing based on smarts and hard work, rather than strength. Unresolved sexual tension (particularly between a virtuous character and an irredeemable one). Mindfuckery. Detailed world building. The slow corruption of the heroic types. Twisted fairy tales. Psychological horror. Intricate magical systems. Alien/fantasy species with non-western moral codes/values/culture. The absurd. Fatal flaws.

Content: I’m no stranger to roleplaying scenes of abuse, trauma, or physical or psychological torture. You don’t need to be as open to this type of content as I am, but if all “dark” content is off the table, we aren’t a good match.

Smut: For the most part, I’m disinterested in smut. I’m far more interested in the foreplay and the psychology of the event, than the mechanics of it. I strongly prefer fade to black, but if you're the otherwise perfect partner whose only concession is asking for an occasional smut scene, I'm happy to oblige.

Limits: The short list is bodily excretions/fluids, and pedophilia.

Samples. tw: murder, blood, mindfuckery, dissociation, that kind of stuff. These are actual roleplay responses, not self-paras or drabbles or excerpts from my novel, so you may have to infer context.

If you actually read all of this and it sounds like a grand ol’ horrorshow to you, please contact me below:

kik: fallrps

tumblr: @fallrps (slowest response rate due to limited Tumblr access)

email: [email protected]

#indie rp #indie roleplay #independent roleplay #oc rp #para #semipara #short term #long term #email #messenger #tumblr #submission

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sotcpod · 8 years ago

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Making a Conspiracy Work

WARNING: This blog post will contain spoilers for the show. If you haven’t listened past episode 5 or 6, read at your own risk!

So, it’s no secret that I am a fan of conspiracies and shadowy organizations trying to overthrow the powers-that-be. The lore in L5R has a perfect villainous organization to serve as my adversaries in the campaign, in the Kolat Conspiracy! But the L5R books give terrible advice in running campaigns, so I had to take matters into my own hands to make this game work (and be listenable to an audience). So, what are the problems associated with running a game about fighting a centuries-old heretical conspiracy? 1. Conspiracies are inscrutable and inaccessible by definition. The only successful conspiracies are inaccessible. That is, it’s really difficult to get a grasp on their structures or organization, and interact with them in meaningful ways during play. The only reason that they are successful is that they are good at staying hidden, and they are compartmentalized enough that connecting the dots between members or events is difficult. The conspiracies that last long enough to be a threat are hard to pin down, and trying to get a big-picture handle on what the conspiracy is doing and where it’s going is even harder. 2. Conspiracies are complicated.

A conspiracy big enough to threaten an entire nation has a lot of moving parts. They consist of personnel (both active and passive), leadership, lines of communication, rank hierarchies, not to mention logistics, funding, protection, legitimate and illegitimate business enterprises. Simulating these things as a GM can be a nightmare.

3. Rokugan is a world where the social structure is set in stone.

A samurai’s word is her honor. To accuse a samurai of lying or deliberately contributing to dark powers is an insult to her honor, and duels are the final word in the judicial system of Rokugan. The word of a samurai will outweigh the word of any number of peasants, all day every day. Even if forensic evidence points a samurai to guilt, their skill with their blade or the testimony of a superior will exonerate them in the eyes of society.

So, how do we turn this into a fun, playable, interactive game? Well, to answer that, first we have to talk about vampires.

Kenneth Hite’s Night’s Black Agents is an incredible roleplaying game. Using the GUMSHOE system, the game focuses on Jason Bourne/John Wick-style badass superspies and underworld agents taking on international vampire conspiracies. But to me, the most genius thing to come out of the game is the concept of the Conspyramid.

Simply put, the Conspyramid is a campaign organizational framework that allows you to outline a conspiracy (or cabal, or shadowy organization) in a way that makes it conducive to play. You set nodes in the Conspyramid, each one being a component of the greater conspiracy. These nodes could be bosses, protection, sources of funding, organizations, or safehouses that the conspiracy in question uses for their purposes. Each node lies on a different tier of the Conspyramid, with the higher tiers representing more and more powerful agents, bosses, or organizations in the conspiracy that has a higher influence over the others beneath them. Finally, we connect these nodes together with clues for the players to uncover, so that by taking on one node of the conspiracy, they can compromise it and unlock the connections to the other parts of the conspiracy.

So how does this help us for planning the Kolat? Well, if we turn the Conspyramid on its side, we have low-level nodes on the left, and higher-level nodes on the right. Now we have a campaign map. The players begin with a few nodes of knowledge on the left, and follow clues to the right, up the chain of command, and burying themselves in the intrigues of the conspiracy that they attempt to unravel. This way, unraveling each node of the Conspyramid is its own session, at the end of which the players gain clues that give them leads to other nodes of the conspiracy.

At the end of the day, as a GM you have constructed a narrative jungle gym on which the players can climb and explore the way they want to. As long as you guarantee that the players get the clues they need to continue (an excellent piece of design philosophy from the GUMSHOE system, worth stealing for any game), the players can tackle which threats seem the most pressing. This allows a good balance of being able to prepare structured plots and scenarios with the depth that L5R excels with, but also gives the players power to choose their own fates, leading to a pseudo-sandbox experience where player agency comes to the forefront.

So, using this Conspyramid tool, let’s look back at our original troubles in running a game about the Kolat conspiracy in L5R. Conspiracies are inscrutable and inaccessible by definition.

By using the Conspyramid, we have just outlined the way our conspiracy is structured. Nodes are connected to one another by clues that the players will stumble across, and this allows them to actually progress and explore the conspiracy in a meaningful way, rather than it being lost to the shadows of mystery and intrigue. Conspiracies are complicated.

Still true. But, at least using the Conspyramid, we have a way to outline and connect the dots of the most interesting parts of the Kolat, without having to worry about the exact wherabouts and responsibilities of every agent. As a GM, we don’t need to know the details about how Agent A is passing his information along through Couriers B, C, and D to get the information in the hands of Agent Z. All we need to know about is the big players in the conspiracy and how they interact with one another. Now all we need to know is that Agent A is providing money and resources to Agent B, and Agent B is being protected by a gang of thugs from Organization C. Much more palatable!

Even if you realize halfway through play that your conspiracy needs more or less nodes, it’s easy to improvise and change the structure of the Conspyramid once you draw it up. What if the conspiracy responds to the players’ actions by flipping a mercenary army to its own side? Easy! Figure out what tier of influence the conspiracy’s new army fits into, and add a few connections to the already-existing nodes so that the players can eventually uncover it and take them on.

Rokugan is a world where the social structure is set in stone.

Also still true, but we have to remember one major thing about the Kolat: They don’t play by the rules. The Kolat advocate for equality and the downfall of the Kami and the Imperial line. They are enemies of any upstanding Rokugani, and Rokugan’s strict social structure becomes a double-edged sword to them. True, they do not have to organize themselves in a way that is beholden to any accepted feudal structure of lords and servants, but the players also have considerable power as samurai. With the right allies, positions, and privileges, the players can make moves to beat Rokugan’s “Game of Daimyos” at their own game, leading to some awesome court and social scenes, something L5R is very happy to do.

So, for any of you L5R GMs who plan on running a Kolat game, I can’t stress enough how useful reading through Night’s Black Agents was for me. Adapting the Conspyramid structure and changing a few words around (changing ‘Nations’ to ‘Clans’), you can drag and drop elements into your game to make a centuries-old philosophical conspiracy easily manageable, and create an engaging narrative playground for your players to explore.

#L5R #shadow of the cabal #RPG #podcast #GM advice #DM advice

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fabletonrp · 8 years ago

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I’m working on and posting locations sporadically, but I haven’t forgotten about it. Please contact me if there’s one you need but I’ve overlooked or if you need help finding one. The tagging is sort of a low-key mess at the moment and I apologize.

As soon as these bios are released, both How To Train Your Dragon and Hercules/Mythology will be at maximum capacity for bios in the roleplay. The roles listed as open will, of course, be considered if apps are received, but no new bios will be allowed.

NEXT REVISED/NEW BIOS TO BE RELEASED:

How To Train Your Dragon: Astrid Hofferson, Azicrur Haddock, Fishlegs Ingerman, Nerameq Hofferson, Ruffnut Thorston, Snotlout Jorgenson, Tuffnut Thorston, Valka Haddock. (Hiccup is already posted and in play.)

Hercules/Mythology: Castor Tyndaridae, Hades Drakos, Hercules Alcides, Megara Valis, Nikos Therapon, Po Therapon. (Poseidon Eldoris and Zeus Megalos are already posted and in play.)

BIOS WRITTEN TO BE RELEASED WITH THEIR STORY*:

Panikós “Nikos” Therapon (Story: Hercules, FC: Adrien Brody) Pónos “Po” Therapon (Story: Hercules, FC: Charley Koonz) Ella Tyrol (Story: Cinderella, FC: Caity Lotz) Cristoph ‘Kit’ Tyrol (Story: Cinderella, FC: Tahmoh Penikett)

BIOS I’M WORKING ON*:

Wreck-It Ralph (FC: John Krasinski) Hera Megalos (FC: Marion Cotillard)

*as a note, these faceclaims are not available for other roles and will not be negotiable. Both things will change once the bios are released, of course. These roles will not be available for OC apps.

Characters I’m considering adding, but haven’t found faceclaims for: Anita Radcliffe, Roger Radcliffe, skeleton bios from 101 Dalmatians, Morticia Addams, Gomez Addams, Bagheera, Mowgli, and Shere Khan.

Bios are in the inbox for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory characters. Thank you Knebs for writing them. I just need to make graphics and post them.

I’m counting and considering capping the following: Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz/Wicked, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Peter Pan, and Rise of the Guardians. I probably won’t accept OC applications or written bios for any of these while this is under consideration.

ON EVENTS, PLOTS, PROMPTS, M!A, AND MEMES:

Prompts 1-11 are always open. See the navi or the prompts tag if you want to work on something to help further character development anytime. We have a new prompt about scars/marks/tattoos for characters here.

Our next event is not scheduled.

Our next plot drop is not scheduled. Because these are so consuming and involve the whole RP, I like to keep them a little more spaced out. I would say the soonest we’ll have another one is in May.

We’ll do an M!A when we don’t have quite so many people on hiatus.

I’m always accepting suggestions for memes, especially quick and easy ones.

I apologize for so many of the things on this list being repeats a good month after I posted the last to-do list. I’m working through it all, I promise. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE’S ANYTHING YOU WANT OR NEED ME TO ADD!

#admin to do

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