#offsetting penalties

[silentreigns]

Actually while we're on this topic, can we mention Daniel and his fans' reactions about him punting Yuki off track — oop I meant "overtaking Yuki" — in Mexico last year? Because that was some hardcore microaggressions against Yuki and nobody ever recognizes it.

Daniel had similar incidents with Magnussen (twice last year) and Sainz. Both got apologies from him immediately after the race, he took accountability for all of those incidents in the media after the race.

He punts Yuki's car off the track trying to overtake him. He doesn't apologize. Claims he does nothing wrong, despite the FIA giving him a penalty for this exact incident. Essentially argues that Yuki was to blame because he was on faster tires so Yuki should have just let him through (embarrassing argument from a literal race car driver to begin with, he's on a better tire strategy and still can't overtake a slower car?). So, Yuki, the only person of an underrepresented race and ethnicity that Daniel has an incident with in 2022, is also the only driver he refuses to apologize to or take accountability for ruining their race. The ONLY one.

Then we get to his fans' reactions. He's voted Driver of the Day for essentially doing nothing but being put on an optimal strategy (new softs while quite literally everyone in front of him was on used hards), and nearly fucks that up almost as soon as his team initiates it by crashing into Yuki. Immediately, there's tons of memes and jokes about how "it was worth sacrificing Yuki for Daniel to get his confidence back." Much like what's happening now, NOBODY recognizes Yuki or what a race he was having up until Daniel fucked it up; instead, Daniel is hailed a hero for essentially doing nothing but being unable to safely overtake a car on an inferior tire strategy.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to Daniel getting some karma and Yuki getting the last laugh here. That race and Daniel and his fans' behavior left a sour taste in my mouth, and I know there's quite a few other Yuki fans who took notice of their behavior then too. (There were also quite a few racist attacks from Dan fans after Daniel blamed Yuki and played victim as per usual in the media too, so buckle up, we're in for a LONG rest of the season).

The Mexican gp 2022 was one of the few races last year that I remember clearly. But I remember it for all of the wrong reasons, because the actual race was boring as hell. RedBull and Mercedes were so far ahead of Ferrari, but Ferrari was so ahead of the midfield that there weren't that many overtakes. ~50 laps had gone by and nobody had DNF'ed yet. That was until Daniel collided with Yuki and got a 10 second penalty. And then Daniel overtook Esteban and everyone was cheering for him like he was on the podium or something like that. Just look at the interactions of the tweet I linked 🤥

Looking back at it, it was very fucked up that people were essentially cheering this nonsense on. I am like 90% sure I was happy for Daniel at the time too, and I wish I could have told my past self that taking a driver out and proceeding to do a "cool" overtake aren't things to celebrate. Barely anyone acknowledged Yuki not being able to finish the race, and he was like close to the points (he was like p11 and had a better weekend than Pierre but all that goes away when someone takes you out through no fault of your own).

Doesn't help that in the next race at Brazil he took out Kevin for a careless mistake in the first lap, after Kevin just had one of the best race weekends of his career by taking pole for the first time. The Brazil incident was very anticlimactic and shows that he wasn't in good form, racing wise. I don't remember how people reacted to his Brazil DNF, but I can assure you they were more sympathetic towards Daniel than to Yuki.

[pokedcheck]

fuckin hate that dude

[leafs-lover]

Bruins fans are hilarious 😅

[kelcemesoftly]

Request “You know I would die for you, right?” for Trav

Not My Girl

Triggers: swearing, alcohol, angst then fluff

Notes: Thanks so much for this request! I think I went a little overboard, but shhhh. I had a lot of fun writing this one :) Maybe angst is my thing??? Who knows.

Also, as much as I cannot stand the Bengals, I have nothing against any of the players or Logan Wilson. So no hate please ❤️💛

The Chiefs were down by a field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Usually, that wouldn't cause you too much stress, but this was against the Bengals. And historically, the games had come down to the last possession. That thought alone made you feel sick to your stomach. You knew how important this playoff win was to the guys on the team. It would prove to all the haters, all the doubters, that the Chiefs were the real deal, and that Arrowhead would always be Arrowhead.

You watched as Pat, Trav, and the rest of the offense fled onto the field. You were up in the booth with Britt, some of the other wives, and Trav's entire family. Unfortunately, the Eagles hadn't made it this far in the playoffs, and while that was sad for Jason, it meant that his family could come and support Trav while rooting for the Chiefs to pull off a win. "Let's go, babe," you muttered, standing near the see-through glass of the family-style suite. Pat got the ball and threw it to Trav, who successfully made the catch. He gained about ten yards before he was tackled down by Logan Wilson. Only this time, the defensive player was preventing him from getting up right away. At first you felt as if your heart stopped, afraid that Travis had been injured. But, that worry was quickly replaced with utter confusion once he stood up and got in the face of Wilson. You couldn't hear any of the words being exchanged, obviously, but you could see his muscles flex under his jersey, even with as far away as you were. "What the hell?" you whispered, glued to the plexiglass in front of you.

The ref threw up a yellow penalty flag as Wilson shoved Travis, who then reacted out of instinct by shoving the defensive player back. Soon enough, both teams got into a scuffle, and the only reason Travis got out of that mess was because Pat literally pulled him out of it. "What happened?" Britt asked, popping up next to you, her brows furrowed in concern and confusion.

"I have no clue. He hasn't been like this... this mad, in years," you said, shaking your head. At the beginning of his career, Trav had a real quick temper on him, but that had progressively gotten better as the seasons had went on. Sure, he would get heated here and there, but this was something different. Listening to the ref's call, you heard that each player got an unsportsmanlike call, offsetting each other. You reached for your drink and took a long sip, running your fingers through your hair while watching the boys on the field below. Luckily, Travis had remained put together the remainder of that drive, with him scoring a touchdown. Unfortunately, Butker missed the extra point, so the Chiefs were only ahead by a field goal.

Kylie had made you up another drink, and by the time you were half-way through it, the Bengals had tied up the game. "You don't want 15 to have the ball in his hands in the final seconds of this game," Britt said, clapping her hands as the Chiefs' offense took the field once again. You watched them intently, immediately picking up on the fact that Travis was distracted. That altercation must have really rattled him, based on fact that Trav had now dropped three passes.

"Come on, Trav," Jason encouraged, placing his hands on top of his head. The game was down to the final 30 seconds, and the boys still had forty yards to go. Blowing out a deep breath, you bit down on your lip as Britt handed you a shot glass. "It's good luck," she lied, clanking glasses with you and Kylie before all three of you shot it back.

As you reached down for your drink, you shrieked loudly when you saw Travis and Wilson going at it once again at the end of one of their plays, albeit this time it was much more intense. There was clearly yelling going between the both of them, with Travis pointing his finger angrily at the man across from him. "Baby, don't do this. We need you," you begged, swallowing the bile you felt creeping up in your throat. Once again, Pat was able to break up the fight, but not without a flag being thrown. Thankfully, the penalty was only on Wilson that time, otherwise your husband would have been ejected.

"What the hell is his deal?" you asked no one in particular, shaking your head. You were angry that he was doing this because he could have easily jeopardized the game and his team, something you knew he'd regret. And it was a playoff game, to make it worse. You just prayed that nothing else would happen in the remaining seconds of the game.

Britt took your hand in hers and squeezed it as Pat got the ball, scrambling around the pocket until he spotted Trav being wide open. Your husband caught the ball and ran it into the end zone, spiking the ball. He screamed out in happiness and did one of his dances, only being stopped by his teammates embracing him. Pat gripped his arm and dragged him off the field before he could confront his enemy, not wanting there to be a penalty flag on the play to overturn the touchdown. As soon as the touchdown was confirmed, everyone in the booth screamed and cheered. "We're going to the Super Bowl!" Britt screamed, jumping up and down with you.

Everyone in the booth celebrated while the players wrapped up the game, and before you knew it, you were heading down to the field with the other family members in the booth. As soon as you got to the field, your eyes roamed around for your husband. Once you spotted him, you took off running for him. Trav opened his arms and you jumped into them, legs and arms wrapping around his sweaty body. "You did it, baby, you're going to the Super Bowl," you grinned, happy tears streaming down your cheeks. Even though they'd been to three Super Bowls before, winning two of them, the pride and joy you felt for him never got old. Giving him a sweet kiss, you told him how much you loved him before he set you down. He kept his arm securely wrapped around your shoulders as his family hugged him, as well, not letting you go for one second. It wasn't abnormal for him to want to touch you, but he wasn't generally this clingy.

Before you had a chance to ask him what had happened on the field, Wilson began to approach your small group. When Trav saw him, a low, animalistic growl left his throat, and he started to stalk toward him. You tried with all your might to hold him back, scared of what he might do. Unfortunately, you weren't strong enough to do so on your own. Luckily, Jason and Ed were right there. Jason gripped the back of his jersey and Ed stood in front of his son, pushing him back with his hands on Trav's chest. "I think you should give him time to cool off," Ed said, turning his head to speak to Wilson. With a curt nod, he obliged and walked away with his shoulders slumped.

"Travis Michael Kelce," you said firmly, eyes narrowing. You had no idea what the heck was going on, but you weren't going to have him risking his career over a petty football disagreement with someone on another team. When Trav's warming blue hues met yours, his face instantly softened and he swallowed thickly. "What the hell is this about?" you asked, putting your foot down. He shook his head, signaling he didn't want to talk about it on the field in front of all the reporters. You could understand that, so you didn't argue with him. Instead, you continued to celebrate with him and the rest of the guys before they headed to the locker room.

You and the rest of the family waited in the family waiting area while Trav showered and changed. It was eerily quiet between all of you, considering the win that just took place. "He had to have said something non football related. Travis has never been that pissed over a game," Jason commented, holding Ellie in his arms.

You sighed and nodded your head, looking down at your shoes. "Why don't y'all head back to the house? I'll wait for him. Hopefully I can get it out of him and he'll be calm by the time we get home," you suggested, rummaging through your purse to hand Kylie the keys. They agreed and after giving you a hug, shuffled out of the waiting area.

It wasn't too much longer before Travis emerged from the locker room. A small smile crossed your lips, and you offered him a hug and a kiss when he greeted you. Despite how irritated and slightly annoyed you were with him about his altercation with Wilson, you couldn't help but be immensely proud of him. He laced his fingers with yours and led you toward your car.

As soon as he pulled onto the highway, you turned in your seat so that you could properly look at him. "Trav, what happened? This... this anger, this rage, it isn't you. Not anymore," you said gently, stroking the back of his hand that was rested against your thigh.

With a heavy sigh, he glanced toward you and then squeezed your leg before turning his attention back to the highway. "I fucking hate his guts, Y/N."

You chuckled humorlessly, scrunching up your nose. "I gathered that from your two interactions with him, babe. Why do you hate him? You haven't had an issue with him in the past," you pointed out, placing your palm against the back of his hand before lacing your fingers with his.

"He made degrading and derogatory comments about you, babe. Comments that I wasn't going to fucking stand for. I don't give a fuck what he says about me. He wants to comment on my game? My appearance? My personality? Go for it. But he will not speak that way about my wife," he seethed, face reddening.

You swallowed thickly, shaking your head. "What did he say?"

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that he said filthy things that he should have never said. I will never forgive him, Y/N."

"I appreciate you sticking up for me, babe. I really do. But you could have been ejected from the game. The playoff game, Travis! You would regret that for the rest of your life," you said, your free hand flying into the air.

"No, I wouldn't. You know I would die for you, right? Getting kicked out of one fucking game would be nothing."

And as much as you wanted to argue with him, as much as you wanted to say he would regret it in the long run, you couldn't find it in your heart to yell at him or be mad. He was defending your honor, being the most amazing husband and person you could have asked for. Instead of yelling at him, you leaned over and pressed your lips to his cheek. "I love you. To the moon and back."

"You already know, baby girl. I love you more."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist: @kelcemenow @hearts4papayas @keiva1000

[would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend]

Would a Pokémon like Shaymin be a good pet?

Shaymin falls into an interesting category, which many of the more friendly Mythical Pokémon fall into, where they would make a great friend but perhaps not the best pets. We’ll get into it.

Fascinatingly, Shaymin can transform between two different formes, their Land Forme and Sky Forme, which give them a very different appearance and size. While their Land Forme is a much smaller eight inches, their taller Sky Forme is not too tall to be a house pet either. This transformation is caused by interacting with the Gracidea flower, which can be found in regions across the world, so if you want to help your pet transform you certainly could. In their Sky Forme, Shaymin can fly (HeartGold/SoulSilver), which is an important part of their lifestyle, but we’ll get into that more a little later.

In their Land Forme, this Mythical Pokémon, is known to be pretty shy. Most of the time, Shaymin hides in flower patches, blending right in with their Land Forme (Diamond). Each season, however, in a practice known as the Flower Carrying, Shaymin takes to the sky in their Sky Forme and travels the world and tackling pollution with their impressive powers. Shaymin can “dissolve toxins in the air to instantly transform ruined land into a lush field of flowers” (Pearl), and delights in human’s gratitude for this work (Platinum). Shaymin loves to be hugged and thanked (Platinum), and shows this love by continuing their work and spreading a message of gratitude throughout the world (HeartGold/SoulSilver). So, while Shaymin has a long, friendly relationship with mankind, they might not want to take on the role of a house pet. Shaymin’s goal is to travel and spread their purifying power (as well as seeking out Gracidea flowers every season), so they may not be happy staying in one place. Unless you are willing to follow Shaymin along on their migration, they may not be the best pet for you.

While I feel that a pretty good case has been made already, I must talk about whether or not Shaymin is dangerous in pursuit of being thorough. Honestly, not really. Their signature move, Seed Flare, may do some damage to you and your home with a powerful shockwave, but the chances of Shaymin attacking anyone unless they are attacking it or harming the environment are close to zero. Plus: Shaymin can use many beneficial healing moves that offset the penalty of their offensive ones, like Aromatherapy and Synthesis. As far as Mythical Pokémon go, while you certainly wouldn’t want to mess with them, Shaymin isn’t carrying a lot of red flags.

Overall, while I wholeheartedly endorse being Shaymin’s friend, I cannot say that they would be happy being someone’s house pet. This Mythical Pokémon has a very mobile lifestyle and a noble purpose that they simply wouldn’t be happy neglecting in order to stay in a home. I unfortunately need to ignore their A rank.

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Weiss reading the news: Woman on cocaine speeding kills drunk driver on meth.

Jaune: Penalties offset. First down.

[theworldvsyoshiko]

This is so bad that not even the fact that she's had sex twice today offsets the mood penalty.

[wejustvibing]

Q: looked like an exciting race for you. did it feel like that from inside the cockpit

LH: not really. it was pretty boring from inside. it was just straight just following the cars ahead and tyres overheating, balance issues. so, i think was a little better at the end after that once we had the offset on tyres and i was having to catch that gap and have a little bit of a race with the guys. we do need to make changes for this race. it's such a great, great circuit and have the best crowd here but one stop strategy for everyone, DRS train, we got to make some changes for the future i think to enable better racing maybe.

Q: thought on moment with oscar and the penalty

LH: yeah, my fault. honestly, it was in my blind spot. i didn't really see, didn't realize i hadn't left enough space. i apologized to him when i got out of the car and we move on.

[bestworstcase]

klasdaskdasldas. i have a. great multitude of follow-up questions after the incarnadine post and i am struggling to decide which to ask, if that's okay? uhhhhhhh. i'm definitely curious about the Alsius Meritocratic Party/changes between Mantelian government and Atlesian government!

( the incarnadine post )

brief background: the pre-war mantle had a legislative assembly for which all adult citizens were eligible and selected by lot each year; military and civil magistracies were both elected by the assembly, and the assembly’s agenda was set for it by a theocratic executive body called the chancery. (the state religion was a highly syncretic form of madagian – worship of the four maidens – which remains the dominant religion in atlas today). notionally, the chancery was an elective body but in practice the state church was the king-maker, and decades preceding the great war were marked by a steady erosion of state power from the assembly and the (already somewhat impotent) judiciary.

post-war, reforms imposed by the vytal accords stripped executive power from the chancery (which still exists as the governing body of the state church, itself much diminished in political power) and replaced it with an executive council (6 elective seats, 3 appointed by the elected councilmen). the magistracies and judiciary were also restructured and strengthened but that’s not particularly relevant for the subject of this post; the assembly largely did not change, other than penalties for absences being reduced and the establishment of a procedure for the assemblies to impeach members of the council under certain circumstances.

so!! the executive council has no direct legislative power but because it sets the agenda for the assembly, it exercises quite a lot of indirect legislative influence (in that the council can kill any proposed law by declining to call the assembly for a vote). that plus it’s being elective plus its small size makes it the most powerful branch of the atlesian government and the one political parties typically focus most on controlling.

the AMP arose in reaction to post-war social reforms, primarily related to faunus civil rights but also a raft of new labor laws, which precipitated a migration of wealthy mantelians (in particular, former slave owners, most of whom had operated dust mines reliant on enslaved labor) to the swiftly-growing suburb surrounding atlas academy. (before the great war, atlas academy had been called alsius; hence ‘alsius meritocratic party’)

early on, the main thing the AMP stood against was a set of government programs to bring newly-emancipated fauni into a level economic playing field, which were funded largely by taxes targeted narrowly on industries where slave labor had been ubiquitous. by the present day, the party platform has moderated away from overtly anti-fauni policies (as these are politically toxic) to a broader anti-regulatory, anti-union position. the AMP is reviled in mantle but popular in atlas, which—because four of the six elective council seats are allotted to districts in atlas—has resulted in the AMP holding council majorities more often than not for the last few decades.

aside from the disdain for business regulation and worker rights, the modern AMP platform is built around a philosophy that equal opportunity is desirable, but shouldn’t be achieved by ‘penalizing success’ (i.e., imposing regulations or higher taxes on corporations and wealth). staunchly pro-military, strong support for heavy investment into public education and healthcare, socially egalitarian (nominally; there’s a noticeable covert hostility toward faunus rights still), against government subsidization of industries except for dust mining (although the fringe of the party wants to slash these too; the problem is that atlas/mantle would be uninhabitable without dust, but dust mining in the tundra is incredibly costly. the SDC runs its solitan mines at a loss it offsets in other more profitable markets, further shored up by military contracts; every other atlas-based mining competitor is dependent on government subsidies to stay afloat.)

currently the AMP holds four seats on the council. there’s a popular movement in mantle to expand the number of council seats to eleven by breaking up the mantle ‘districts’ into a seat per major borough, but that has virtually no chance of getting off the ground until/unless an atlas seat flips.

(the non-elective seats are held by 1. headmaster of atlas, 2. army general, and 3. governor of mantle, with the former two currently both held by ironwood; the votes for/against calling an assembly to vote on this proposal are currently three for, five against. if one of the AMP-held atlas seats flips it’ll be four-four and the thinking is that ironwood may be persuadable. if it goes to the assembly it’s all but guaranteed to pass, because the nature of the assembly—a set proportion of the citizen population, selected annually by random lot—means it’s statistically likely in any given year that the assembly’s majority will be working- and middle-class mantelians)

[bunnytalksf1]

canadian grand prix (derogatory)

I joke, mostly. As a tifoso I hated every second of that. as a fan of the sport? That race was fucking BRILLIANT.

So, let's start with Ferrari. I think that was the price we had to pay for Monaco. Charles was so fast there that the curse took two weeks to catch up with him! Seriously, though, this man's luck needs to be studied. At least it wasn't a new power unit... small mercies. He was losing half a second on the straights, adding to around 1.2-1.5 seconds over the course of a lap. Then the strategy gamble... bro what the hell was that. Being lapped by the front runners... I had my head in my hands. Sainz also sustained damage in the opening stages from contact (I don't know with who) and was losing downforce. Carlos didn't even say it himself, but Fred did, so that's how you know it's real! So yeah. Ferrari had a shocker of a weekend. Sainz should have bought home points, too. The damage was not an excuse for that off.

Alex Albon. Oh my god. That double overtake on Tsunoda and Leclerc was poetry in motion. He was driving so well today, a shame that he got taken out through no fault of his own, especially when he was on for points.

Max Verstappen made the difference for that win. The Red Bull was NOT the fastest car this weekend - both Mercedes and McLaren were faster. He drove incredibly and there's a reason he's a triple world champion, and there's a reason why he was so dominant last season.

Norris and Russell... Norris underdelivered in quali and paid the price, then made mistakes in the race to lose his shot at the lead. McLaren strategy department and luck also played a factor, I'll admit. Russell messed up big time, multiple times, allowing Max and Lando to get past him. Then subtly (sort of) blaming Lewis for fighting him as for costing him P2... GEORGE YOU STARTED ON POLE AND HE STARTED P7 WHY WERE U THERE.

As a side note, Lewis paid the price for a poor qualifying session, and I really want to see him improve this rapidly since next year he will be against a much better qualifier than GR63 in the form of Charles Leclerc, whose one-lap pace is arguably one of the best on the grid right now, even if the sf-24 isn't allowing him to show it so far. And even though I'm a Charles fan, I want a good fight!

That being said. I'm not a huge fan of conspiracy theories i.e. sabotaging drivers, but. This weekend was very, very strange on Mercedes' part. From FP3, where Lewis dunked about half a second on George, to quali, where Lewis was behind considerably and couldn't seem to make it up. He then said post-race his tyre temps were repeatedly low coming out of the garage (tyre blanket issue), and that's WEIRD. That last double stack putting Lewis onto Hards and GR onto mediums --- also weird! Lewis said after he would rather have not pitted if he knew they'd put mediums onto GR directly behind as his current set were feeling fine. I don't think he had a spare set of new mediums, hence the hards, but- yeah. That tyre offset handed GR the podium at the end, even though it was a pretty cool looking overtake.

KMAG AND HULK AT THE BEGINNING ON THE FULL WETS?? I thought for a hot sec the haas would podium. Then they fucked Kmag's pitstop. Just Haas things!

Sargeant, Tsunoda and Sainz all had avoidable mistakes that cost them points. Sainz in particular, Tsunoda had some braking issues, potentially (?). Daniel points! Yippee!

Daniel woke up and remembered he was a racing driver after being slandered on sky sports by JV. Perez forgot he was a racing driver after he signed his contract extension. Red Bull things!

Perez also had a 3 place grid penalty and RBR was fined 25k for driving back to the pits unsafely with that fucked up rear wing. As they should! It was dangerous! Barcelona's another track where overtaking could potentially be difficult so that might be costly, even more so if Perez can't sort his quali pace out.

Will be interesting to see how things shake up in the European triple header, and whether Mercedes is legitimately fast or if this was just a weird race. I think they benefitted from ferrari and RBR being off their game.

Anyways. Canada was a race that did not exist. It did not happen. Thanks !!

[prokopetz]

I will be running a session of eat god for looney toons action. I was thinking about gags at 2am and have some questions. Where would the bit in roger rabbit of him getting out of the handcuffs be? What about when popeye socks someone a mile away? Lastly where does seduction resulting in heart eyes end up?

Thinking about traits i can only think of cute (puppy dog eyes sustained action?)

For arts i find it rly interesting there isnt one for sneaking on your tip toes and hiding behind objects

Another is when a character get serious and eat their spinach or booze and get really good at punching things or very strong and buff for a few minutes more than mighty might be needed

Another that i want your take on is like You refute the lie of typical social procedure which reflects the ability to radicly change tone from serious to funny or to calm or getting mad and riling people up i think of bugs distracting elmer and then they end up laughing forgeting about there animosity for a bit Feel free to split this all up. Ty ty ily

Broadly, quick sight gags don't require an Art – they're just the sorts of surreal details you might describe after rolling a successful test that's been enhanced by the expenditure of Obstinacy. The forthcoming 0.3 revision of Eat God clarifies what those effects actually do as follows:

When you spend Obstinacy in this way, you may optionally include surreal details in your description on a success, as the laws of God briefly loosen their grip on you. Such details might include bodily distortions, moving in impossible directions, or the literalisation of figures of speech. These manifestations won't allow you to accomplish anything you couldn't without them; however, with a suitable description, they may allow you to ignore effect penalties that would ordinarily apply to your Result. This can't push your final effect modifier higher than +0, and it's up to the GM how large a penalty – if any – your description offsets.

Offsetting the effect penalty for trying to hide somewhere it shouldn't really be practical to hide is a good example of what using a surreal description to ignore an effect penalty might look like in practice.

More pointedly, remember that player characters in Eat God are not literally Looney Tunes characters; they're sword-and-sorcery fantasy monsters whose powers just happen to operate according to cartoon logic. You're not obligated to describe their operation in terms of Looney Tunes tropes; like, you can if you want to, but don't let yourself get hung up on cases where that doesn't hold true.

With respect to punching things at a distance in particular, the forthcoming 0.3 revision of Eat God includes revisions to several Rebellious Arts (mostly powering them up a bit), including the following rewrite to the Art of Ubiquity:

You refute the lie of separation. For as long as this Art is sustained, you may act upon creatures and objects at Near or Far range as though you were at Touch range. You may act at Near range in this way as you wish; doing so at Far range causes the Art to end once that action is complete. Acting at a distance in this way doesn't cause you to move, but you suffer the consequences of your actions (marking Stress, etc.) as though you were actually within Touch range of whatever you acted upon. The GM is free to invent an explanation for this, but isn't obligated to do so.

It's not quite punching things from a mile away, but then, God-eaters are very small, so it's operating on a similar relative scale.

With respect to being supernaturally cute, that's just an off-label version of the Trait "Striking Mien".

Finally, regarding the proposed Art, the problem there is the same as with having an Art for breaking the fourth wall: making doing tonally incongruous shit a special ability with a defined cost creates an implicit obligation to stick to a consistent tone whenever that ability isn't in play, which probably isn't a reasonable expectation for many of the sorts of groups who would be interested in playing Eat God.

[safelynte]

Found another one of these new TTRPGs 🤣 And it's got a lot of green flags

Levels are separated into tiers, with higher-tier characters getting more actions. Similarly to how nice Slay the Spire energy goes up by chapter. Which hopefully means more amazing combos as you go up.

But attacks require a major action. So you can only ever have one big attack. And only your first attack deals bonus damage for going over the enemy's defense. This first-attack bonus is a psychological mirror to PF2e's multiple-attack penalty.

Each player character has a spirit guage, which is a ramping resource. On the other hand, enemy elites/bosses will have a danger gauge to ramp.

Enemy statblocks are open books once the target is recognized, similar to Lancer. (Lancer scans cannot fail, but initial analysis in this system is a free action. So both are fairly efficient actions.) And enemies have falter (bloodied) effects, similar to 4e. But these effects go two ways. Some effects may make enemies fight harder, while other falter effects open up opportunities for PCs to execute monsters. As the execution effects are unique to each monster, the way your players finish off enemies depends on the encounter as much as their build.

Executed enemies lower the enemy's morale guage and award spirit to a PC. But in a wild twist that I did not expect, GMs can have faltering enemies retreat to save morale for other enemies and deny spirit to PCs. It is both tactical from the GMs standpoint and realistic from the enemy's standpoint.

You can also grant spirit to allies. A very dangerous mechanic, as it could lead to intensified quarterbacking. But it is elegantly offset by the cost of 1 spirit for each transfer.

Similar to 4e recoveries, healing effects are powerful, but a character can only be healed once per day. They get the medicated condition to note this.

Captain/boss enemies also have one-shot safety nets. 😅 Pretty good idea to have these with captain status, rather than as part of a normal statblock. So you can have a captain and non-captain version of the same enemy.

Interestingly, a normal player character here has an HP bar, Resolve bar, Mind/MP bar, Spirit gauge, 2-tier action gauge, and grid position. Which is a lot of overhead. But as I've polled on my tumblr before, not an impossible-to-swallow amount.

The grid/zone system allows shared spaces. There is no indication in the video as to how size and reach work in this game. But it seems ranged characters can reach one at least zone over. And there are attacks of opportunity (oh no).

[we-were-so-beautiful]

3. taxi

oh man, this one FOUGHT me y'all. so much cutting and pasting. I am not even kidding when I say that everything that happens in this chapter was supposed to be part of the last one, and I gave up and cut that one off early because I was sick of trying to finish this part. and now this is my longest chapter yet. you know, out of all three of them. at 1.3k. lol. I am not, how do you say, fast. but I was hoping I'd be able to get a chapter written over christmas, and I'm really proud of myself for finishing it!

Content warnings for this chapter: box boy universe, pet whump, dehumanization, cage mention, rampant classism. As always, please tell me if there's anything else I need to tag.

[masterlist] [chapter two] [chapter four]

“Okay I know they’re supposed to be expensive but what can you possibly be charging this much money for.”

“Adoption fees are to offset the cost of room, board and medical care while at the facility,” the employee parrots, without so much as the decency to look ashamed. 

“He does not look like he has had literally any of those things while he’s been here. Or possibly in his entire life.”

“Ma’am, if you cannot afford the adoption fee, then you cannot adopt a Pet.”

“Oh, I can afford it,” Vanessa growls, handing over a very shiny credit card before her mouth can get her in enough trouble to stop the employee from taking it. She bites her lip until she tastes copper to keep from saying, I’d just rather put it towards something that isn’t blatantly and obviously going right back into Worldwide Rehabilitative Un-fucking-limited’s pockets despite the fact that this is supposed to be a goddamn government facility.

Harm reduction, she reminds herself. Paying extortionate fees to kill shelters is still harm reduction. It’s the unsavory truth, but it doesn’t make the blood in her mouth taste any sweeter.

“Sign here,” the woman says, handing her credit card back along with a digital pad and stylus, and Vanessa cracks her wrist before she takes them. It’s sore and snapping like a glowstick from the mountain of paperwork she’s already been made to sign since the employee unceremoniously hauled the man on the floor behind her down from his double-high-stacked wire crate. She can’t decide whether to consider it an obscenely large amount, or an obscenely little one for all that it represents.

She can’t think about it too hard. Can’t draw too much of her own attention to the fact that she’s really doing this, or she might just run screaming back out into the grey-tinted autumn afternoon, and then where would this guy be? 

She scribbles her name on the touchpad, and just like that… it’s done.

—

“Don’t forget your leash and collar,” the employee reminds her.

“I won’t be using those,” Vanessa says, with all the imperious rich-lady self-assurance she can fake.

“You will if you don’t want to be liable for civil and/or criminal penalties up to and including the permanent forfeiture of your right to Pet ownership,” the woman drones like she’s rattling it off from a handbook, and nobody has the right to own a person but even Vanessa knows better than to argue the system with someone who literally works for it.

She grinds her teeth as she takes the lengths of bulky blue nylon from the woman. She crouches beside the man, who’s bent himself into an odd kneeling fetal position on the cold tile floor. “Sorry,” she whispers as she slides the coarse material around his throat, feeling his pulse beat harsh and rapid underneath. She hopes she’s being quiet enough that the employee won’t hear her talking to him like a person—because he is a person, goddamnit—but she knows better than to trust her own volume. Best if she can get the fuck out of here with him now, before she makes a mistake.

She really doesn’t want to lead this dude crawling down the street like an animal. Doesn’t want to imagine what people will think. But she asks him, “Can you stand?”, and he makes a sound like a choking dog, and so much for both their dignity, she fucking guesses.

“Ugh, fine, whatever, just… come on.”

—

Fuck standing, the guy can barely support himself on all fours. His joints threaten to buckle at every step as Vanessa urges him out onto the chilly sidewalk. Coat of dirt aside, he’s got nothing on him but a pair of boxers as filthy as he is and that godawful blue collar, and when his bare skin meets the frigid pavement his body clenches so hard she can practically hear his teeth slam shut.

She looks at the unwashed man before her, shivering hard enough to rattle his bones in the cold October air. Looks at her thick brown coat. Ugh, she likes this coat, the lining is stitched in in all the right places to keep the texture of the shell from making her want to climb out of her own skin and no amount of dry cleaning in the world is going to convince her to put it on again once it touches… whatever the fuck is all goddamn over this guy. She sighs and shrugs it off.

Fuck fuck fuck it’s cold. She’s shivering herself in just plain blue jeans and her second favorite Cure t-shirt. But a million “if you’re cold, they’re cold!” memes flash through her mind and she grumbles aggrievedly and drapes the wool coat over his massive, gaunt frame. This dude has like a foot on her standing, she remembers when the lapels will barely pull around his shoulders. She’s gonna have to shake Austin down for clothes.

God, it feels beyond fucked up to have a person on a leash, and it doesn’t help that the cheap blue nylon feels plasticky in her hand and she hates the texture. She can’t imagine how much worse it must feel around the throat of the shuddering man before her. She’s taking the damn thing off him as soon as she gets him home, she’ll get him a better one if Roselle can’t find her a loophole and she absolutely fucking has to, but when the fifth or sixth cab passes her by without even slowing down she starts to wonder how the hell she’s going to get him home at all.

—

“You want to go to the corner,” the employee says boredly, not so much as looking up from her newspaper when Vanessa shoulders her way back through the door.

“You what?” Vanessa echoes.

“The corner. Better if you go another block or two, even. Cabs don’t stop in front of the shelter.”

Of course they don’t, Vanessa thinks. 

She hipchecks the door back open and returns to the stupid goddamn hitching post they so conveniently provide along the front wall of the shelter, where she’s awkwardly strung up the loop of the stupid blue leash. “Hey, uh, dude? I’m gonna go up the street a bit, okay, I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”

He barely acknowledges that he’s heard her, curled back up under her coat in that same odd position with his forearms tucked into his chest. “...not that you would,” she adds dubiously, before power-walking away to the next block.

Vanessa hisses through her teeth in the bleak grey air and rubs at her goosebump-riddled arms, but true to the employee’s disaffected word it’s only a matter of minutes this time before a cab driver catches her wave and pulls over. “Thanks,” she says as she tumbles in. “I’m going back to the Heights. Need to pick someone up first, though. Just on the next block.”

The driver looks skeptical, but he rolls down the quiet street all the same—until he clocks the shelter just as Vanessa tells him to stop. “No. Nuh uh. No way. I don’t let Pets in my cab.”

“I’ll double your fare. Up front.”

The driver shakes his head, staring revulsed in the direction of the hitching post. “Not worth all that crud on my seats.” Oh. Great. He’s seen him.

“What if I cover the seats. Newspaper.”

The driver sizes her up with a calculating gaze, one elbow propped on the back of his seat, and somewhere in the middle of wanting to punch him for looking at her she finds herself wishing for once that she’d dressed… richer. Finally, he grouses, “Triple fare. And the meter’s runnin’ while ya cover ‘em.”

“Fine,” Vanessa spits, and sprints out with the door wide open before he has time to change his mind.

She barges into the shelter one last time, hopefully the last fucking time in her life if she has any say in it. Leaning over the counter, with a grin that’s probably a little too smug for her to be proud of, she snatches the newspaper directly out of the apathetic employee’s complicit hands.

-

taglist: @maracujatangerine @pigeonwhumps @tragedyinblue @marchtothefuckingsea @octopus-reactivated @briars7

[torchship-rpg]

Dev Diary 7 - Framework Systems

In Dev Diary 5, we talked about the core dice mechanic of the game; how tools create dice pools which are resolved with your character’s skills. In this Dev Diary, we’ll be talking about some of the universal mechanics which frame play around those dice checks.

Unity

Most of the resources tracked in Torchship are material ones; reaction mass, budgets, supplies, radiation exposure and stress levels. Unity is the one central exception which binds the game together.

Unity is a resource which abstracts the benefits of the trust, goodwill, and sense of community the crew of the rocket have with one another. It’s the personal capacities made available by harmonious operation, how the work put in by everyone is reflected and amplified in its representatives. In short, it’s the Power of Friendship, which as we all know is the most powerful of the five fundamental forces.

Unity is gained through the Impulses and Relationships of the player characters on an individual basis, but is placed into a group pool that anyone can use when they need it. Unity can be used for two things; the first is that you can buy rerolls on any of your Checks with it, giving you another chance to get the successes you need. The second thing you can use Unity for is to remove Stress, one of the four types of Harm that players can take and a common penalty stemming from Checks and Traits.

Having a good pool of Unity is how you offset the penalties that’ll stack up as the situation gets more out of control.

Unity is also created by introducing new members of the Crew. Your rocket leaves spacedock with a half-dozen crew characters defined; if you have six PCs, all your NPCs are just a number. That number is essentially a reserve of guest stars. If you need some Unity for a challenge up ahead, or you need an expert for a task none of the players have Certs in, you can bring in an NPC guest star to generate some Unity, defining who they are, what they’re good at, and playing a few scenes with them. After that point, they go into your roster to be brought back for situation rolls when needed.

In this way, the number of people who are not yet defined on your rocket becomes a quantum foam of potential skills, expertise, and relevant hobbies you can tap as needed. This also means that rotating members of your crew off the rocket when you resupply can be incentivised; if your PCs have picked up the skills you once needed them for, they can leave the rocket and maybe come back later as the captain of a vehicle in distress or something!

Investigation Checklists

As you go through your adventure, the GM can hand you Investigation cards as you come across things that are worth looking into. Investigation cards provide a Thing To Do when you aren’t sure what to do next; finding answers to the questions on the cards is always a good idea. 

There’s six types of Investigation Checklists: Anomaly, Site, Technology, Society, Individual, and Incident, each with four predefined questions and one blank spot that either the GM or the players (depending) can fill in with a very specific question. Finding the answers to these questions is how you do Science.

This ties rather directly into one of the framework rules regulating the conversation between players and GMs; whenever the players ask an in-universe question, the GM must always either give the answer, or tell the players what they need to do to find the answer. The Checklist basically acts as a set of pre-defined questions to ask the GM with additional mechanical incentives.

As you fill out the Checklist, it starts to give you bonuses related to the subject of the investigation. 3 Answers give you ongoing Advantage to all Checks involving it, while 5 Answers additionally gives a +1 to all your Checks involving it. When you approach a problem you’ve fully mapped out, you have a much easier time; you essentially get home turf advantage anywhere you’ve done enough science at.

Finally, knowledge is power, and that means that there’s bureaucrats who really like to learn about stuff. Each and every tick you make on a checklist is rolled as a d6 in a big pool at the end of the episode for a chance to generate Credits, a metacurrency we’ll talk about at the end of this update. You’re never quite sure what information will be useful, or for what, but science isn’t something Star Patrol is doing just for its own sake; anything you learn might end up being the key part for a technology, a treaty, or a military strategy.

It also means that investigation is never, entirely, innocuous. You might be studying the inside of a black hole for the pursuit of pure truth and scientific curiosity, but somebody back home might look at it and figure out a really funny trick to pull involving an artificial singularity and somebody else’s war rockets.

Relationships

This one is pretty simple. Every PC has a relationship to another PC, and we represent that with four attitudes you can have toward another person. Are they just a comrade, are they your best friend, are they a rival, or do you have a crush on them?

Every one of these affects the way you work alongside them. When you help your Bestie, you get an extra reroll, like there was a mini pool of Unity between you. You can generate Unity by one-upping your rival, so it actually benefits the whole team to have healthy competition, provided it doesn’t get out of hand.

And, this being a game by me, having a Crush is very funny. When your Crush helps you with something, an extra Unity is generated for the team… and you promptly have to reroll one of your successes as you start saying the dumbest things you could possibly say and your hands start shaking. You know, as you do.

Relationships are not inherently linked; you might have a Crush on somebody who considers you their Rival, for instance. However, it’s generally best for the team if relationships are symmetrical, because the bonuses stack with one another; two rivals competing will always result in 2 Unity for the team and Besties working together means 2 rerolls.

Mutual Crushes are the best though, because you get a proper will-they-or-won’t-they system. Every episode that goes by where the two are crushing on one another but having acted on it, you mark a track. When they finally get over themselves and smooch, you get a massive amount of Unity for each mark on the track, which also incentivises them doing this dramatic thing at moments when you absolutely need like thirty bazillion Unity for the task ahead. 

At that point characters become Sweethearts, which removes the rerolled Success as you stop being such a mess.

Scarcity

I’ve saved the best for last. Or worst. Biggest, for certain.

Torchship does not have replicators. They do not exist. There is no technology that magically turns nothing into something. Instead, your spaceship has huge stores of fuel, food, spare parts, print-stock, ammunition, reaction mass, and everything else it might need for the journey. Every spare inch of space not dedicated to somebody sleeping or a machine working is packed with shelves, boxes, crates, and storage tanks. Over the course of your adventures, you’ll use all that stuff up.

There are three broad categories of scarce resources your spacecraft carries with it. Your Reaction Mass is the stuff you shoot out the back of the engines to go places. The back of your spacecraft is basically one or more olympic swimming pools worth of water, hydrogen, decane, or other fluid for your rocket to use up, which can also be used as emergency coolant and, in some cases, as fuel for a fusion reactor. Even though you have an FTL drive, you’ll still use it up circularising orbits, manoeuvring in combat, and fuelling shuttles, probes, and missiles.

Your Supplies are a generic amalgamation of all the random stuff you have to carry to keep the rocket running. Just about everything worth doing costs supplies; you need it to build tools and shuttles, you spend it on repairs and medicine, you shoot it out of your guns and missile tubes, you breathe it and eat it every single episode. 

Rather than representing Supply as a big number that goes down until you’re out, you simply mark a tally down every time you use Supply. When the tally reaches your vehicle’s Supply Threshold, you take a Shortage; the GM tells you something is running low, or something that was running low is now out. There’s dozens of potential shortages listed in the rules, allowing the GM to pick one that is most relevant to how you’ve been spending supplies. You can run out of ammunition, food, spare parts, filters for life support, and weird matter for the FTL drive or gravity coils, among others. As time goes on, you’ll run out more and more.

Finally, most Star Patrol craft carry Antimatter, as fuel for the reactor and engines. You use this up sparingly when you overcharge either, or if you pack it into a missile to make a powerful antimatter warhead. You always have to be careful doing so, because antimatter is expensive, and running out means the next episode is going to be about you not having any antimatter and not being able to do very much about it. 

You can, to a limited degree, replenish these resources in the field through salvage and barter with others, but most of the time you’ll need to do it through official channels, either calling for resupply or trading with people using, you know, money. This is where Credits come in.

Credits are an abstraction of the surplus wealth of the Star Union, as well as representing the universal, antimatter-backed trade currencies of Local Space. You can buy any of the scarce resources above using Credits, and you can also use it to unlock new capabilities and technologies for the Union or improve your vehicle. It is to your entire civilisation what XP is to characters.

Credits are not passively generated; like XP, you have to earn them. As mentioned above, filling out Investigation Checklists can earn you some credits, but it might not be enough; you need to at least generate a minimum number per episode to cover your Union Dues, otherwise shortfalls back home start to be an issue. The rest of the Credits are earned by finding strategic resources that the Union can use; reserves of metals, lithium, and exotic materials, for instance, but also useful allies or destroyed vessels from hostile nations in wartime. Prospecting is very often the most lucrative, as you usually find plenty of resources as a side effect from snooping around.

Here’s the catch, tough; it’s not enough just to find resources in many cases, you need to secure them. That means making sure that your pesky rivals don’t have a claim on it, yes, but it also means ensuring that the resources can be extracted. A big load of titanium on a planet isn’t actually very valuable, but a big load of titanium on a planet with a local workforce friendly to the Union and sufficient spacelife capabilities will earn you a fair number of credits. 

Many resources, like exotic materials, simply don’t exist at all without being artificially created, so securing them is more about diplomacy than prospecting. Other times, there may be things that need solving to make the resources available; maybe it's in the territory of a state on the planet hostile to the Union, or the impoverished locals might not have the ability to build the infrastructure needed to exploit the resource. You can, in some cases, actually end up spending some Credits as developmental aid to ‘solve’ those issues and earn more in the long run.

You may notice this might, in some circumstances, create some perverse incentives. To which we respond…

Yeah. That’s the game.

[lee-hakhyun]

my fucking gpd.whatever. i didn't about that at all (lying)

if he's the reincarnation of 49, he should have fragments of kim dokja. if what it wants to eat is 'kim dokja', he'll let it eat as much as it wants. dkos tells him to stop, but he bites down on his arm. hard. that gets the story's attention, and it latches on. he smiles through the pain as it eats parts of his story. when the story is eaten, some of his memories will disappear. what will he lose? blinking, his memory of the snow garden, the faces of the readers, start to fade. he doesn't want to forget.

and then there's sparks. the heir to the eternal name (how do i shorten that. htten?) kicks up a fuss, and dkos sighs and says he expected this. htten is in pain... and there's some messages.

[Story Fragment, 'Crazy Soldier Yoo Joonghyuk' refuses to be absorbed!] [Story Fragment, 'Crazy Soldier Yoo Joonghyuk' is going on a rampage!]

crazy soldier yoo joonghyuk..?? why does lhh have this??? (most likely answer: there was someone who gave lhh their story to heal him when he was injured last chapter. this is probably the story he got then...)

anyway, htten absorbed the wrong fragments and now it can't eat. the incomplete consumption gets him 10 extra minutes. he's got 12:59 left to live... but his skill penalty is lifted! he's able to activate blade of faith and start fighting off the grolls. hearing someone yelling out in a pile of grolls, he manages to save the woman who had been holding the dead incarnation earlier. making sure she's safe, he looks around. there's still fights all around. bang cheolsoo and his group along with dayoung and her mother fighting nearby, and jung heewon and jung eunho were dealing with the dragons in the front. dkos says there's one 5th grade and one 4th grade. lhh asks for coins.

dkos says he's broke.

yeah, so, when he had first signed with dkos, he had borrowed the story king of a kingless world, and presumably paid the probability cost with coins. dkos continues to say he's broke. lee hakhyun wishes he could use [lie detection]. so what can he do?? dkos says he doesn't know... now that lhh thinks about it, didn't sys also grow with no support...

— cheering?

lhh ignores kdj and blows the head off a groll.

dkos gives him tips on how to effectively kill grolls, and after a while the population of monsters is lessened by a lot. having someone who has read wos does have some advantages i guess. with the pressure relieved a bit, the geumho station group is able to breathe. and here's bang cheolsoo! geumho station group is mostly fine, but the problem is the dragons. the 4th grade dragon prepares its roar, and shin yoosung warns everyone as her nagak army starts an ensemble to offset the sound, with some making barriers with their shells. but nagaks are still only 8th grade monsters. eventually some burst, and shin yoosung collapsed inside one of the shells she was hiding in. grabbing the fainted sys, lhh hands her to bang cheolsoo. previously, he would have never left her with cheolsoo. but now, cheolsoo is trusted by the people of geumho station. lhh entrusts sys to him as he runs up to jung heewon.

6 minutes left. jungsa kim is carrying an exhausted jung eunho away. jung heewon alone is protecting the front line. she's standing her ground against a 5th and 4th grade dragon with [demon slaying] and [madness]. it's like watching yoo joonghyuk. but it's clear she can't last for much longer, with blood pouring from her nose and ears. dkos confirms that he knows the weakness of the dragons, but that it'd be hard for them with their current combat skills.

so it's possible if he's stronger. lhh checks his coins. 418,000... enough that even kdj was surprised. he did extort asmodeus for 300k coins lmao with 24k per stats to get them all to 70, lhh is ready to go. kdj says its time to get back to the stream. the stream... there's been very little indirect messages since lhh woke up. since he terminated his contract with bihyung and signed a contract with dkos, he no longer has the interest of the constellations seeking incarnations. bihyung does show up, saying that it's been a while since there's been a broadcast in korea. while the constellations complain that the korean channels aren't fun and that there are no more incarnations left in the korean channels, we have an idiot promoting his incarnation. over and over. asking why no one is watching this interesting story. is this how han sooyoung felt seeing kdj promote wos while she was writing it?

the constellations get annoyed. some even start to show hostility, saying they lost a good incarnation to him... lhh doesn't want to see dkos get vilified so he starts to tell kdj to stop. until dkos says that cheon inho is his incarnation, but not his incarnation.

?

the contract he signed with incarnation cheon inho was a temporary one.

what?

dkos will harshy grow for the next 2 years and then release him to the constellation sponsor market. and then vows it to the star stream.

what the fuck??

it works, though. the sky turns red from the amount of constellations entering the channel. there's so much of a disturbance the incarnations and even the dragons pause. and dkos signs a stream contract with bihyung. how the hell did he get a new contract so quickly?? the terms of the contract have been revised though. it's to be expected, when lhh first signed he got a 7-3 split, and it would naturally be worse the next time around—

the distribution was modified to 10-0.

kim dokja, what the fuck did you do