#now united rpg

[okopocoh]

Anxious flavor of this years self portraitse (2024)

[tatakittysworld]

⠀⠀⠀⠀⏜︵♡︵⏜︵୨୧︵⏜︵♡︵⏜

⠀⠀⠀ ───┈┈───♡⃝───┈┈───

᭢ᥬ̶ׅᥱꪩ᭡᭡ᥒ ᦔᥱꪫᥢꪇ ،ׁ 𝖿𝗋𖦹𝗆̠ Ɲꪫ𐬡 մᥢเํt۫ᥱd & 𑂙o̫ꪻꪱ᭫᥉tٕ ᥲ

⠀͝ ⏝ ⠀ֵ ⠀ׂ ⠀͜   ͝ ⏝ ⠀ׂ ⠀͝ ⠀ֵ ⠀͝

[todayisafridaynight]

like mine being Aware of technology (was it actually stated his business was involved in IT or did i make that up) but then it makes mine lives aus funnier cuz like now he’s just as clueless although he’d pick up way faster than the other ossans

mine's Technological Prowess to me is that if he doesn't know something he's stupid good at figuring out how to work it. like he'll need max 20 minutes but he's golden after that

[z3r0-c001]

had a dream abt trying to contact a guy at a temp agency i used to work for and wondering why he hadn't been responding to me but when i looked back in our message history i had just been sending him like hundreds of neopets screenshots in between actual coherent work related messages

[thydungeongal]

Okay, so I'm going to explain gleeblor by going back to the feeling that inspired my very first post on it:

I've been running this blog for quite a while and while I would never claim to be knowledgeable of the entire variety of RPGs out there I do consider myself more knowledgeable than the median RPG enthusiast. Now, a lot of people who end up commenting on my posts have very narrow experiences with RPGs as a medium, sometimes having literally only ever played D&D and maybe another game. And when communicating with my audience I often find myself in a situation like. Oh hell, this person thinks that D&D is the default RPG, the template on which all RPGs are based on, and the concept I am trying to explain simply does not make sense to them because they think D&D is the default.

So in the very first post I made about gleeblor it acted as a shorthand for "RPG fact that is self-evident to me but sounds bizarre to someone with a narrow experience with RPGs" and for the alienation I felt with my audience having to explain the fact that. Not all RPGs are D&D. Literally, I described it as feeling like I was an alien explaining a concept that made no sense to humans.

Anyway, things that have been gleeblor to people in my notes:

The idea that an RPG does not necessarily need to have Encounters (this is what started it all and. The incredulity people expressed at the idea that things could even happen in a game if it didn't have Encounters.)

The fact that there are textually queer RPGs out there besides just Thirsty Sword Lesbians

That a game supporting romance is not just a table issue but can in fact be a factor in the actual rules and structure of a game

That a game does not need to have an "adventuring party" structure of the player characters being united in going against adversity together

[toaarcan]

I'm not wading into CR God Discourse this week, shit seems especially angry this time around and I've made my thoughts on that pretty clear already (no, the needle hasn't moved any). But man... I do not vibe with Predathos as an individual at all.

Like, the fights themselves were fantastic. Possessed Imogen was great, Imogen's escape leading to it turning into a more monstrous form was great, its evolution into an N64 "Head and Hands" monster for Phase 2 was great, and the fight in E120 was immaculate, I had so much fun watching it.

But man does Predathos itself, as an entity, disappoint.

Like, we have this eldritch monster from beyond all living memory, that's been imprisoned for thousands of years. It's been trying to find a way out ever since then. But all it does once it does get out is roar and attack things. Its characterisation can be summed up with "Hungy."

The campaign's earlier episodes present it as a terrible, horrifying thing, that the gods and primordials united to imprison. Its presence created the Ruidians, not by artifice but because being in its presence heavily mutated everything on the moon. They used to be regular Exandrian mortals and now they're not! And when Ludinus first made contact with it, it destroyed and permanently blighted an entire city. But apparently now it's no danger at all to anyone else. The Primordials were just doing the gods a favour by imprisoning it, I guess.

And the way it's been presented in these last two episodes is just inconsistent between story and gameplay. "It doesn't see mortals, it only sees the gods" but it has no issues having a full two-phase boss battle with a group of mortals, where it makes strategic and deliberate moves against them. "The Ruiner flees at the mere sight of it within Imogen, and the gods and all their celestial creations are helpless against it" but Braius can smite it and the Matron's boons can turn the tide and the Arch Heart's bottled Meteor Swarm is used to kill it.

Gameplay!Predathos can see mortals well enough to fight them, and has no trouble eating them. Lore!Predathos can't see them at all, and only wants to eat the gods. Gameplay!Predathos can be blasted with divine power and divine weapons and divine magic and it will be beaten. Lore!Predathos is totally immune to divine anything.

Predathos doesn't feel like a coherent character design for a game, it feels like a plot device designed to result in the exact end-stage scenario of E120. The gods can't fight it, so they and their followers have to do whatever BH says, because the alternative is them dying anyway. It has no desire to eat mortals so that there's no negative consequences to releasing it, just ignore Molaesmyr and how dramatically it's mutated the Ruidians (reshaping pre-existing life is only bad if the gods do it I guess). But none of this factors into the actual fight with it, where it has no problems seeing and eating mortals, and it can't no-sell divine power. And the fight was fun as hell, but Predathos' mechanics as an RPG Final Boss Monster do not reflect Predathos' in-lore role as the consequence-free invincible deicide machine.

[psychhound]

ttrpgs in the classroom (part 8)

oh boy have i not made one of these posts in ,,, like a year. grad school is crazy yall. lmao. but. i wanted to share what we do for our analysis unit now that we've hit it this semester!!

other games used in the unit:

we are but worms & graves for funerals

the assignment:

write an essay of approximately 1000 words doing a literary analysis of some aspect of a game, first forming an inquiry question, then looking in the text for evidence, then coming up with an argument about a deeper meaning of the text. the second draft of the assignment can either be an expanded essay, or a multimodal piece of the student's choosing. (the other option for this essay is to do a rhetorical analysis of an argumentative text about gaming)

the games:

[ID: a powerpoint slide titled choose your fighter game (the word fighter is crossed out, so it reads choose your game). it shows five ttrpg titles, with a short description of each, and an icon to represent them. the background is a light orange sky and green grass in a video game like art style. there is a fake game menu bar on the bottom. the games in the slide are functionally described below. end ID]

when we made war upon the slumbering woods by richard kelly @sprintingowl

a collaborate journey into the magical woods ... to destroy it

the treasure at the end of this dungeon is an escape from this dungeon and we will never escape from this dungeon by riverhouse games @riverhousegames

a lyric game about a never-ending dungeon and those stuck there

kenzie's project by sasha winter @stargazersasha

a Weird Academia horror game for three players

i love you, alive girl by anna anthropy

a 1-page game about writing love letters under surveillance

drifters by gila rpgs

a Weird West game of gunslingers and their guns

past semesters game options:

a dragon game by chris bissette cozy town by rae nedjadi @temporalhiccup

the process:

in the powerpoint introducing the games, i have a more thorough description of each one, and then three examples of inquiry questions that they could use as jumping off points to do their analysis on. the inquiry questions ask things like, what moral stance might this game align itself with, what other stories is this game in dialogue with and to what effect, what does this game have to say about the current state of our society? the students can use these inquiry questions or not, theyre only meant to be examples

the results:

this is definitely the most challenging project for my students, but i think that challenge is good for them! i've had really mixed results, with the most common issue i run into just being surface level analysis. they are, however, 18 and have never done anything like this before (for the vast majority of my students) so a lot of my feedback is just pushing them further and trying to get them to say something interesting. i really love a dragon game and cozy town, but i found they didnt have enough context of ttrpgs and dnd/pf to really Get why a dragon game was interesting, so i replaced it with escape from this dungeon since thats got some more meat for them like voicey rules and characters. and im a big fan of nedjadi's games and wanted to give my students something more cute and fun, but they struggled to find much to read into or say about it that wasnt very surface level. escape from this dungeon and ilu, alive girl are new games this semester so we will see how those go over!!

[sayruq]

So the 22nd was the bloodiest day for the IDF in Gaza

So many soldiers had died that the army sent in over 130 members of a rescue unit into Gaza

Now usually, as this Israeli civilian will tell you, the IDF will only admit to less than 10 deaths per day in Gaza, usually officers

But this time it was immediately leaked to the media and cause widespread panic.

In the end, the IDF was forced to give details to the public, admitting that their soldiers were killed while planting bombs in 10 houses. A member of the Palestinian resistance shot an RPG at one of the houses and resulting in an explosion that took out two houses (likely more than just 2). The Palestinians have released many videos of them spying on Israeli soldiers so this wasn't a lucky hit

All of this comes after Israeli began withdrawing a huge chunk of soldiers from Gaza, many of whom protested the move because they have not defeated the resistance. In fact, besides killing over 25,000 civilians, the IDF has not achieved a single military objective.

There have been many bloody days for the army since the ground invasion started (one cemetery owner said that they were burying a soldier every 1-2 hours and that was last year) but this is the first time we're getting an accurate number of casualties. It was always bound to happen as military censorship can't last long in a country as small as Israel.

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Steam "About This Game" section -

"Enter the world of Thedas, a vibrant land of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities – steeped in conflict and secret magics. Now, a pair of corrupt ancient gods have broken free from centuries of darkness and are hellbent on destroying the world. Thedas needs someone they can count on. Rise as Rook, Dragon Age’s newest hero. Be who you want to be and play how you want to play as you fight to stop the gods from blighting the world. But you can’t do this alone – the odds are stacked against you. Lead a team of seven companions, each with their own rich story to discover and shape, and together you will become The Veilguard. Rally the Veilguard and defy the gods in Dragon Age™: The Veilguard, an immersive single-player RPG where you become the leader others believe in."

"UNITE A BATTERED WORLD Enter Thedas, a vibrant world of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities. The world is teetering on a knife’s edge while corrupt gods unleash havoc across the continent. Nations war, and factions splinter. Who will you trust? From the Arlathan Forest to the back alleys of Minrathous, this is a broken world. Your actions will affect the fate of Thedas forever. - Dramatic Single-Player Campaign — When corrupt Elven Gods threaten Thedas, lead the charge to save it. Rook isn’t afraid of a fight, no matter the odds. No matter the cost. - Vibrant & Diverse Environments — Enter a vivid fantasy world, and experience imaginative new locations as well as some you’ve heard of but never seen. - Larger-than-life Foes — Battle darkspawn, demons from beyond the Veil, dragons that rule the skies, and unique enemies as you advance your quest and fight for Thedas’s future."

"RALLY THE VEILGUARD Rally a team of 7 companions, each with rich lives and deep backstories. These are characters to befriend and even fall in love with. Among them, an assassin, a necromancer, a detective, each and all bringing their own expertise and unique abilities to the fight. You are never alone — decide who to take into battle, and together face down demons, dragons, and corrupt gods. - Recruit Distinct Companions — Your team is full of individuals with grim and wondrous histories, their own personal struggles and motivations, and rare skills that’ll help you survive. You’ll fight alongside Harding: The Scout, Neve: The Detective, Emmrich: The Necromancer, Taash: The Dragon Hunter, Davrin: The Warden, Bellara: The Veil Jumper, and Lucanis: The Mage Killer. - Rich Companion Stories — Deepen relationships with each companion and learn more about them on your adventures in Thedas. Your choices in these stories will impact how they develop, and completing them might unlock powerful abilities. Create memories with your team that will deepen your experiences in Thedas and give you more to fight for."

"BECOME THE LEADER OTHERS BELIEVE IN Select from different races and combat classes, customize your appearance, choose your character’s backstory, and begin your journey as Rook, Dragon Age’s newest hero. The choice is yours. On your adventures, you’ll gain new abilities and discover unique, powerful artifacts to enhance your own combat style. Brace yourself: there are tough decisions to be made, allies to inspire, and a fight that needs every sword, staff, and bow you can muster. - Be Who You Want To Be — Craft your personalized Rook with a robust character creator. Choose from a diverse set of appearance options for Human, Qunari, Dwarf, and Elf lineages. - Choose Your Way To Play — Select from 3 classes (Warrior, Mage, and Rogue), each with 2 distinct weapon types and unique abilities you can select between mid-combat. Experience new strategic depth as you combine fast-paced attacks, parries, and dodges with the companion ability wheel to exploit enemy weaknesses and seize victory with devastating combat combos. Customize a combat style that works for you. - Deep RPG Progression — Level up your Rook and companions with their own skill trees. Choose perks and combat abilities as you climb towards more powerful specializations. WARNING: See important flashing images and other health and safety information at www.ea.com/legal." [link]

[source: Steam]

[natalieironside]

My ideal video game would be Diablo 2* with Age of Empires 2 as its endgame. (*Going w/ D2 because it's my favorite but most RPGs would make good examples) Let me explain.

Y'know how Dungeons and Dragons happened because Gary Gygax and his boys were really into grand-scale tabletop war games and came up with basically a backstory generation system, like the process of leveling up a d&d character is also the process by which the player character in this big tabletop war game came to find themself commanding all these armies? Like that.

I go through and I fight all the monsters and win all the quests and get the legendary items etc and become the big hero, and some of the rewards for being the big hero include a job in the civil service I now have to deal with and a feudal estate with farms and troop levies I now have to manage. And it becomes as unto one of the AoE2 campaign scenarios because I've got this one ridiculously OP hero unit that can annihilate any of my enemy's soldiers in a fair fight but I have to keep her in the city managing things because that's me and if she dies I lose the game.

If anybody has recommendations, fuck me up.

[theprissythumbelina]

So you want to write about horses.

Specifically, you want to write about horses in your medieval-inspired fantasy novel, rpg, or daydream fantasy. Knights in shinning armor on noble steeds, damsels in distress(or not!) on fine prancing mount, or an evil sorcerer cackling on a fierce charger above your poor tandem MCs.

Whatever it is you're imagining, a medieval horse appears. But you know nothing about horses. I can help.

(If you would like to begin with my first basic Basics post, start here)

^ When thinking knight, you're probably imagining a horse like this.

Preface: When talking about fiction, there is always a question of historical accuracy. That is wholly up to you. But you will at least, after reading this, know more of the historical fact involving horses, and certainly know about some of the more commonly-complained about fallacies involving horses in media.

Now, the above still is from the film Ladyhawke (1985), which is often credited for popularizing the Friesian breed in the United States. I can almost guarantee you have see a Friesian in a film or on TV. The recent series Shadow and Bone had a central character ride a Friesian in one episode. They epitomize the romantic nobility and grace of knights. Except they don't.

The horse you see above came into existence in 1879, primarily as a harness and agricultural use horse. Horses known as Friesian horses have existed since the 11th century, but those horses were completely different from the breed created in the 19th century. The modern Friesian is a trotting breed, made to pull carriages and look beautiful doing it. They have a long back, short neck, and due to inbreeding, a host of nasty genetic problems including dwarfism, aortic rupture, hydrocephalus, and megaesophagus.

However, breeds that trace ancestry back to beyond the middle ages do exist, and they have been breed to look much the same for generations. Introducing:

The Barb/Berber Horse

^Kinda just looks like A Horse™

The Barb comes from North Africa, and was spread into Europe through the Muslim conquest of Spain, where the breed mixed with the native Andalusian breed to create the Spanish Jennet, which is possibly the most widely successful horse breed in all of history. The Jennet is currently extinct*, but due to its durability, it was the horse used by the Spanish AND the British to invade the Americas, and descendants of the Jennet survive in local breeds from Argentina to Canada.

*a revitalization breed does exist of the same name

The Andalusian/Lusitano/Pure Raza Espanol

^The true Fabio of horses, known for thick flowing locks and sweet dispositions

Possibly the horse that most strongly resembles the ancient knighly horse, this noble creature used to be the preferred horse of film, before the Friesian rise in popularity. Horses of Spanish bloodlines are Andalusian, horses of Portuguese bloodlines are Lusitano, but the characteristics of both breeds are nearly identical. They are also known for a fancy 'high stepping' movement, in which they raise their knees higher than other breeds naturally.

The Arabian

^Note the narrow, 'dished' face and raised tail, breed characteristics

The ancient horse of the desert, made famous through books such as The Black Stallion, King of the Wind, and films such as Hildago. These horses are known for their stamina and intelligence, and were traditionally used as war horses by the desert tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian has descendants in almost all modern breeds, as it is used to add strength and stamina to the original stock, despite being a relatively small horse. During the Napoleonic wars, this horse became the prized war horse of Europe as well, with Napoleon himself preferring to ride Arabians into battle.

The Mongolian Horse

^Thick head, thick body, this horse is made to survive winter on the steppes

Introduced to Europe from the Hunnic invasions that ended the rule of Rome, the Mongolian horse is made to survive, thrive, and run in harsh cold weather. This horse allowed Ghengis Khan and his soldiers to conqure one of the largest empires to ever exist, from Korea to Poland. This compact horse would have mixed with the native stock of Russian, Eastern European, and Germanic tribes to help create the ancient northern horses, resulting in a thicker breed of horse in the north, and a lighter breed of horse in the south of Europe. Modern-day pony breeds such as the Exmoor, Fjord, Icelandic, and other have been found to have genetic ties to the Mongolian horse.

These horses do not exactly look like the modern image of knights on massive horses, but it is useful to remember that 1. people back then were a lot smaller and 2. horses back then were a lot smaller. Of course, there were hundreds of other local breeds during the middle ages, but many have been modernized and become today's sport, work, or pleasure horses.

During the middle ages, horses were not actually defined by breed. They were defined by the work the horse was suited and trained to preform. There were five main types of medieval horses.

The Destrier

Also called The Great Horse for its size, strength, and price, this horse was the renown mount of knights and kings in battle. These horses were highly trained for battle, and could be taught to do such things as striking out at soldiers in front, kicking at soldiers from the back, and even leaping all four feet in the air to protect it's rider. They would wear the most armor, and these horses would likely be closest in appearance to the modern Andalusian.

^Ornate heavy armor on a model horse. This armor was made for a horse not much more than 15hh, what today would be a small horse.

The Courser/The Charger

A lighter horse than the destrier, the courser is also a warhorse, highly trained and well-bred, but a little less expensive. A knight might not be able to afford a destrier, especially as a minor knight, but every knight should have a courser. The Spanish Jennet is the epitome of the medieval courser, and in fact was the horse used by Richard II. According to Shakespeare, the horse's name was White Surrey, although other sources claim the horse was Roan Barbary, and was a Barb or Berber horse*.

*Bought from Spain and likely a cross of Spanish and African blood, so a Jennet. But Jennet was also a classification of a horse type in those days, so, sources are muddled.

The Rouncey

The 'average' horse of the time, this horse was used mainly for riding, but could sometimes be ridden into battle if trained properly, and were the preferred horse for lower-class fighters such as archers or men-at-arms. As it described a riding horse, these horses came in all shapes and sizes, from all lineages, and in all colors. In peacetime they could be used to draw carriages or work fields. A proud and expensive destrier would never be caught pulling a plow.

The Palfrey

A highly-bred, highly trained horse, this horse is a high quality riding horse known for a specific gait, called an ambling gait. This horse had a special pattern of moving its feet that gave the rider a considerably more comfortable ride than the traditional 4 gaited horse. After the middle ages, these horses almost disappeared, only to be recovered in the Americas in the form of 'gaited' horses such as the Paso Fino, the Rocky Mountain Horse, the Missouri Foxtrotter, and the Tennessee Walking Horse. The Icelandic horse has also retained the special Tölt gait that may* be the exact gait of medieval ambling horses.

*may, I am not a gaited horse expert.

The Packhorse

This describes any kind of horse, usually a rouncey, that is used not for riding but to carry supplies. Packhorses could also be mules, donkeys, and ponies, so long as they could carry weight for long miles. These were supply horses, carrying food, weapons, tents, whatever else may be needed.

Knights, Horses, and the Battlefield

^ What an incredible creature of power and nobility. The man is fine too, I guess.

Now, if you have seen the above scene, you have probably seen The Hollow Crown, a historical drama with a few late Medieval battle scenes. In these scenes, knight clashes against knight in a furious charge, leading to pitched battles on horseback. I'm not going to say that never happened, but by and large cavalry was directed against infantry, not other cavalry, or used to conduct maneuvers requiring speed and surprise, such as a charge, a circling maneuver, a bluff retreat and most importantly, to chase down routing enemy soldiers. A knight on horseback was most effective in close quarters against unmounted and surprised soldiers. Lances were the primary weapon, allowing a mounted warrior length to spear and batter down at enemies, and a sword was secondary, as it had a shorter length, and would be used if a mounted warrior was surrounded by infantry or in battle against another knight. Throughout the medieval period, horses sometimes were removed from the fight all together due to unfavorable land, and kept in reserve to either help the army flee or to chase down the fleeing enemy.

Hungry for more?

There are many sources out there to learn more about the medieval period and knights in particular. I would highly recommend that you not look at Medieval Times sources, if only because better sources are out there. I enjoy the videos produce by Jason Kingsley CBE (Yes, that Jason Kingsley CBE) on his Modern History TV YouTube Channel, and find them to be accurate as far as I'm aware.

^ Jason Kingsley and his horse Warlord, in costume. I've sent marriage proposals but I've not yet received a reply.

That's all for this post. I'll have more when I feel like it, and send me questions if you want to know more about specific things or need a writing question answered

Reblogs welcome and encouraged

@jacqueswriteblrlibrary for wider reach

[tatakittysworld]

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⏜︵♡︵⏜︵୨୧︵⏜︵♡︵⏜

⠀⠀⠀ ───┈┈───♡⃝───┈┈───

᭢ᥬ̶ׅᥱꪩ᭡᭡ᥒ ᦔᥱꪫᥢꪇ ،ׁ 𝖿𝗋𖦹𝗆̠ Ɲꪫ𐬡 մᥢเํt۫ᥱd & 𑂙o̫ꪻꪱ᭫᥉tٕ ᥲ

⠀͝ ⏝ ⠀ֵ ⠀ׂ ⠀͜   ͝ ⏝ ⠀ׂ ⠀͝ ⠀ֵ ⠀͝

[s-che]

Monsterhearts 2: Plotting Anti-Plot

Last week I had the fortune to MC (and play) Monsterhearts 2 for the first time as the Dream Library begins a unit on monsters, monstrosity, and monsterfucking which will carry us through November, and boy howdy am I glad we managed to do it. 

For those who (somehow) don’t know, Monsterhearts is a game that bills itself as being about “the messy lives of teenage monsters.” It cites Twilight, Buffy, Ginger Snaps, The Vampire Diaries, and The Craft as media touchstones, it’s not joking when it says that these monsters are 1. messy and 2. teenagers. Monsterhearts is angsty, horny, frightening and, above all else, extremely fun to play. On top of that, Monsterhearts is also one of those games that, if you’re in a certain sector of the indie RPG scene, people will remind you is extremely fun to play all the fucking time. It feels sometimes like every designer I know has a good Monsterhearts story, and as much as Avery Alder’s reputation on a larger stage has been defined by The Quiet Year, I get the sense that for people who like what Monsterhearts is doing it’s an extremely hard game to beat. 

So to be totally honest, I was more than a little anxious MCing for my first time actually playing the game. There’s a sense in which hosting a game which you know is great can be way harder than hosting games you think might be bad — after all, if the session goes poorly, there’s nobody to blame but yourself. On top of that, Monsterhearts moves through some tricky territory: underage sex is a core element of the game, and the eight “Small Towns” (short, pre-prepped settings for quick starting the game) all deal more or less explicitly with histories of racism and colonialism in communities across North America. While these are interesting places to go in play, the idea of taking them on myself as host made me shy away a little bit (and I’m excited in the next session to look at things from a player’s perspective). 

All in all, though, I think the session was a resounding success. I went in with basically no prep and as much familiarity with the book as I could get (not enough to realize the quick reference sheet we were using for the first half of the session was from Monsterhearts 1, but so it goes), relying on the game itself — which leans away from strictly organized plots and encourages you, in true PBTA fashion, to let characters and their needs bounce off each other until the conversation goes somewhere interesting — to get us smoothly into play. I would call my efforts there a mixed success: while Avery has a real skill for writing pedagogically, giving you the explicit frameworks you need to get into play (if you’ve never begun a session of The Quiet Year by reading the rules book aloud to each other, you should go fix that now), the session was hampered a little by some awkward pacing and uncertainty: partially driven by my chronic tendency to waste time on slowly establishing things in one-shots rather than swinging as hard as I can in the first five minutes and letting the players lead from there and partially by player character relationships that lead to clear, decisive actions... which left one of our players bored at work while the other two went off adventuring. We ended up taking a moment, after returning from the normal mid-session bio-break, to chat and refocus ourselves, figuring out where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see in the last hour or so of the session, and then jumping back in and — thankfully — playing hard to reach a strong conclusion. In the end, I’m not interested in tracking down exactly where the first half of our session lost its footing (although I have some ideas for how I could have hit harder as an MC). I’m more interested in celebrating the way the table was able to come together, talk explicitly about what we wanted, and get the game somewhere satisfying for everyone involved. We closed on, among other things: an underwater fight between the Fairy (Mermaid?) Queen and a Kraken-Leviathan-Hellmonster, a throuple sneaking off from a beach party to hook up, and the messy end of a South Jersey summer (complete with a tsunami and a beached whale front of the boardwalk). It was a good time. 

Most striking to me in this moment, however, is the way thinking about Monsterhearts as a plotless game positions both me as MC and the other players. It really speaks to the way that capital-T The capital-C Conversation works in Powered by the Apocalypse games (good ones, anyway) to let play flow not according to the rules of a paced narrative, but along lines of player interest and highly-charged emotional incident. It is, I think, part of what makes all the PBTA games we’ve played in the Dream Library sing (in no small part because we pruned the last unit and didn’t play any PBTA games I think are bad, but that’s a different conversation) and it suits this game — with it’s emphasis on sex and messy desire — extremely well. It also fits in nicely with a point I’ve heard a couple of people make recently: that thinking of RPGs as first and foremost collective narrative engines is, at the very least, a narrow view. 

Anyway, this week I’m fortunate enough to be joined by a new host (hi @jdragsky) so I can check out MH as a player, then we’ve got a couple of two-shots planned for the end of the month before we move on to our next monstrously intimate game: Bluebeard’s Bride. You want in on an upcoming game? Have a link. You want to hear more about Monsterhearts? One of my players wrote up some of her thoughts as well.

Otherwise, well, get out of here. Scram.

[project-sekai-facts]

Pre-broadcast station commentary

The next Broadcast Station will be on the 29th, featuring Yukki, Yuichan, and Furirin! No VOCALOID Music SEKAI segment was announced, so it looks like the main stream will be starting half an hour earlier than usual. There is a reason for this, which we will get to.

Next month will be the Virtual Singer WLE! It will be held towards the end of the month, with chapters being 2 days long instead of 3 this time around.

There's room for one unit event next month, which is looking very likely to be Airi's 5th event. Due to its proximity to the vsinger WLE, the lineup will be entirely MCs. I reckon Shizuku for one of the other rateups, since she's behind on 4*s, and got spammed with lims last year so deserves some perm cards as a break. I reckon Minori could be the other 4*, since her only rateup on an Airi event was back in 2020.

This month's mixed lim event is likely to be either kamikou fes 2, or emu mixed 2. If it's the first one, I reckon the lineup could be Mizuki/Toya (maybe with An, Ena, or Rui as the other card), and serve as the 2-B mixed event. If it's Emu, Haruka/Nene seems like the most likely rateup. Next month's lim is hard to call, but will likely have a Rui lim unless he ends up on this month's event. If he isn't July or August, he's fes.

Now onto why the stream's starting earlier. I'm sure everyone has heard about the teaser for a new project already, and this is scheduled to be announced at 8pm JST, aka halfway through the stream. Given the heavy use of Miku in the promo, as well as this being retweeted by the official Miku account, it's pretty likely this will be vocaloid/piapro related. CFM has already said they'll be announcing vocaloid 20th anniversary stuff soon. PJDiva also turned 15 recently, and while that series is, let's be honest, dead, a PC/console game in the same vein but under the project sekai franchise wouldn't exactly surprise me? It's still a franchise beloved by many, so a rebrand of sorts wouldn't hurt.

A lot of people on twitter have been bringing up colopale's job listings, but imo it's not pointing to anything. Clpl has been vagueing about working on more mobile games for years, job listings confirm some sort of RPG, and there's some listing that suggest it could have a gacha. kinda like genshin? Based on images from their blog posts and job applications for a costume and armour designer, we're talking medieval-ish which. doesn't seem in-line with this teaser at all. though some of their job listings seem to be for multiple different projects, so i might be talking about two different games here. it's worth noting that colorful palette is not bound to CFM and Sega and they are free to work on their own projects outside of prsk, and very likely already are. feel free to laugh at me later if we do get miku rpg or miscellaneous other game that could be either a platformer or open world or something else entirely.

[eretzyisrael]

by Seth Mandel

Civilians, including children and the elderly, were deliberately burned alive as part of a widespread tactic: The commission found that there were more wildfires detected in Israel on 10/7 than any other day except one in the previous decade. Here is what that looked like on the ground throughout the Gaza border communities: “In Nir Oz, 5 members of the Siman-Tov Family were killed after their house was set alight. This included Yonatan, 35, his wife Tamar, 36, their twins Shahar and Arbel, 5 and their youngest Omer, 2. As the safe room started filling with smoke, Yonatan texted his sister ‘they’re here. They’re burning us. We’re suffocating.’ He then opened the metal screen on the safe room window, but the gunmen immediately fired into the room, killing both parents. The children died from being burnt alive and asphyxiating. Yonatan’s mother, Carol Siman-Tov, 70, was also shot dead in another house on the Kibbutz, alongside her puppy Boxer.”

Not only were civilians targeted; they were chased on foot by Palestinian invaders until they were killed, such was the essential barbarity of the entire invasion. The report notes that Gazans were armed with grenades to blow up any place surviving civilians might be hiding. One example was Shani Gabay. She first fled at the firing of rockets from Gaza and took cover in a shelter—which was then attacked with guns and grenades by terrorists. Gabay survived that too, and fled in a car that was blown up by an RPG. Civilians were to be pursued until murdered regardless of time, effort, or cost.

The terrorists were proud of all this, filming their exploits and uploading the videos to social media. In Kibbutz Holit, for example, terrorists killed a mother next to her baby, then filmed themselves putting shoes on the baby and rocking him in his crib before taking him hostage. Then they booby-trapped the mother’s body.

Attempts to make it impossible to escape were part of the plan as well. By 8 a.m. on 10/7, Hamas had taken control of the main highway that runs through the border communities as well as its main intersections. The rocket barrage with which the terrorists began the attacks was meant to keep civilians in shelters and saferooms in their homes, making it harder for them to flee when armed militants showed up.

Perhaps the most chilling part of the report, however, is its explanation for why one key element of Hamas’s invasion never happened. Terrorists had brought with them shelf-stable food and thousands upon thousands of weapons, including trapping devices and anti-aircraft launchers, designed to help them hold positions inside Israel beyond the day of attack. Why didn’t this well-prepped and well-stocked occupation come to fruition? The report quotes the Royal United Services Institute explaining that “the chaotic massacre that unfolded diverted efforts to prepare for a deliberate defense.”

The “chaotic massacre” to which RUSI refers is, the report explains, multiple waves made up of “thousands of Gazan civilians, who followed Hamas troops through the border breaches and joined in the attacks on nearby communities.”

This is the civilian not as victim but as perpetrator—the role of, the report says, thousands of Gazan civilians. Many of those Gazans partaking in waves of looting and kidnapping “went back and forth across the border.” This doesn’t include those on the Gaza side who held hostages in their “civilian” homes.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

300 polls summary

And now our 300th poll is over.

Here is a Summary of these 300 polls results (with some comparaisons to the 200th poll summary):

The 10 Most Known Games :

1 Pathfinder 2e (3,20% Never heard of)

2 Shadowrun (8.30%)

3 Warhammer fantasy roleplaying (10.90%)

4 Thirsty sword lesbian (13.50 %)

5 Apocalypse World (14,50%) NEW

6 Mage The Ascension (14.80%) NEW

7 Blades in the Dark (15%)

8 Monster of the Week ( 15.20%)

9 Lancer (16.30%)

10 Monsterhearts (16.90 %)

10 Werewolf The Apocalypse (16,90%)

Two new game in this top : Apocalypse World and Mage the Ascension. Root RPG is now out of the top 10

The 10 Most Played Games

1 Pathfinder 2e 42%

2 Monster of the Week 36.40 %

3 Chronicles of Darkness 34.70% NEW

4 The Quiet Year 31.70%

Below this line, the played part was not the majority on the poll

5 Shadowrun 30.40%

6 Blades in the Dark 28.60 %

7 Lancer 26,10%

8 Paranoia 25.50% NEW

9 Masks a new generation 25.40%

10 Dread 25% NEW

Three new games in the top Most Played : Chronicles of Darkness, Paranoia and Dread. Which means Laser & Feelings, Fiasco and Honey Heist are out of the top 10.

The 10 Most Voted on Polls

1 Dallas The Television RPG 8013 votes

2 Wanderhome 1187

3 One HONK Before Midnight 1163 NEW

4 Fight Truck 1044

5 Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine 1026

6 The Quiet Year 953

7 Dialect 893

8 Mork Borg 890

9 Pathfinder 2e 871

10 Thirsty Sword Lesbians 846

Only one new game on the most voted top : One Honk Before Midnight. This is the power of goose. Lancer is out of the Top 10

Percentage of Games per Decade

2020s: 158 polls (+53), 52.67% ↑

2010s : 75 (+26) polls, 25% ↑

2000s : 26 polls (+9), 8.67% ↑

1990s : 22 polls (+7), 7.33% ↓

1980s : 16 polls (+5), 5.33% ↓

1970s : 3 polls, 1% ↓

Most Known Game from each Decade

1970s : Traveller 29.30% Never Heard of

1980s : Shadowrun 8.30%

1990s : Mage The Ascension 14.80% NEW

2000s : Pathfinder 3.20%

2010s : Apocalypse World 14.50% NEW

2020s : Thirsty Sword Lesbians 13.50%

Some games have been dethroned ! Mage felled Werewolf for the 1990s. Apocalypse World won the 2010s by lighting up Blades in the Dark.

Which country do most games comes from ?

1 USA : 186 polls (+ 72), 62% ↑

2 UK : 29 polls(+11), 9.67 % ↑

3 France : 15 polls (+1), 5 % ↓

4 Australia , Canada (+4 ↑), : 8 polls, 2.67 %

5 Unknown (+3 ↓ ), Japan (+0 ↓) : 7 polls, 2.3%

6 Italy : 6 polls (+1), 2% ↓

7 Sweden : 5 polls (+1), 1.67% ↓

8 Finland (+1 ↓), Spain (+1 ↓) : 4 polls, 1.33%

9 Phillipines, New Zealand (+1 ↑): 3 polls, 1% ↓

10 Brazil (+1 ↑), Denmark (↓), Germany (↓), Scotland (↓) : 2 polls, 0.67%

11 Bandgladesh (+1), Ireland (↓), Malaysia (↓), Mexico (↓), Singapore (+1), Slovenia(↓), South Africa (+1) : 1 poll, 0.33%

We discovered game from 3 new countries : Bandladesh, Singapore and South Africa. A lot of american games for this batch of 100 polls. Please continue submitting games from other countries, and check the unknown ones to see if you know where they're from.

Most Known Game per Country

Australia : Mausritter 34.70% Never Heard of

Bandladesh : Midnight in a Perfect World 95.20% NEW

Brasil : CBR+PNK 54.40% NEW

Canada : Monsterhearts 16.90%

Denmark : Red Rook Revolt : 89.10%

Finland : Lamentations of the Flame Princess 44% NEW

France : In Nomine 60.20%

Germany : The Dark Eye 62.40%

Ireland : The Laundry 66.10%

Italy : Fabula Ultima 43.10%

Japan : Ryuutama 52.30%

Malaysia : Lumen Ryder Core 79.20%

Mexico : Nahual 81%

New Zealand : Monster of the Week 15.20 %

Phillipines : Gubat Banwa 36.80%

Scotland : Apawthecaria 81.40%

Singapore : Hearts of Wulin 63.90% NEW

Slovenia : Ultraviolet Grasslands 59.50%

South Africa : Nihilation 93.90% NEW

Spain : Eyes on the Price 63.90%

Sweden : Mork Borg 32.10%

United Kingdom : Warhammer fantasy 10.90%

USA : Pathfinder 2e 3.20%

Unknown : Brinkwood 69.30%

All the results and the submitted games can be found here

To submit a game, go here