#one word rpg

[takataapui]

'We Are But Worms On a String: a one word rpg' by takataapui

Worms on a string is a fan-made sequel to 'We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG' by Riverhouse Games, and the fan-made sequel to that 'We Are But Worm Food' by JackLance. Can be played as an RPG or a LARP. Can be played solo or in large groups.

Enjoy this totally rules heavy, crunchy, ttrpg ;)

[breathing-stories]

Finally released the finale of Lyrical Ludology Season 1!!

This journey has been such a blast, and I’m so happy I finished it off this way, even if it was delayed.

Enjoy this silly-fun bonus episode, and let me know if you play ;)

Listen here (or on your pod catcher of choice):

[psychhound]

[ID: a banner for a game. it is light tan with a crumpled paper texture, and reads "with breath & sword" in large blue font, and "a solo-journaling game that helps you fight anxiety as you fight monster" below it in smaller font. there is lineart of gauntlets lying over a sword with some flowers at the bottom. end ID]

You find yourself tied to the monsters. The scratchy feeling in your chest. The way your hands tremble. The sweat that dots your upper lip when your senses are telling you a monster is close, again, now, and it’s your job to fight it. To stand up for your ideals and stand up to the threat. Whether you tame it, or this is truly a monster that needs to be slain, only time will tell.

 You know you will succeed. You always have before. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a challenge.

 Grab your gear. Put on your boots. You know how to find it. You know what to do.

 First, you just need to steady yourself.

[ID: a page spread from the game. it shows "step four" on one side, which goes over the five aspects of the game's oracle. on the other side it shows the first oracle component, where something you can taste determines what your heroic core is. the page is minimally designed, with a blue border and text on a white background, tan accents, and one image of a dragon. end ID]

With Breath & Sword is a solo-journaling TTRPG to help players combat anxiety. 

In the game, you play as a monster-fighter, who is being summoned once again due to the presence of a new monster. Each time a monster appears, you struggle with the emotional effects of the magic: effects that look a lot like anxiety. You must steady yourself before you go off to fight: in the game and in real life.

Over the course of WB&S, players will participate in grounding methods and breathing techniques to calm themselves from an anxiety attack. These methods also serve as the game's oracle in order to determine how the story goes. 

What You'll Need:

A safe space to play 

A method of writing or recording

[ID: a page spread from the game. it is the section called "the science" and goes over the psychology behind the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique, the 4-7-8 breathing method, and destroying journaling. it has a few lines about narrative and play therapy, and that the creator of the game used these methods in his social work with neurodivergent teens and adults. end ID]

check out the game on itch now!!

[thecoppercompendium]

A while ago I wrote a 200-word game, so a 100-word game seemed to be the next logical step!

Decided to walk back from my weekly Friday activity instead of getting the bus and wrote a TTRPG on the walk. I would say I hope you enjoy but... well you'll see when you read it.

The Boulder

It takes 21 steps to reach the top of the hill. If you can reach the top while pushing your boulder (d20), you are free. To take a step, roll your boulder. If it is equal to or higher than the number step you are taking, you advance up the hill, closer to freedom. Add a tally to your current total for each step you take. If you fail to roll your boulder high enough, it rolls to the bottom and you start once more at step 1, starting a new tally. Persist. The top is in sight.

This is my second submission to the One-Page RPG Jam 2024! If you like this, you might like my first submission, What Scraps Are Left!

Feel free to reblog with your own sub-100-word game, I'd love to see them!

[thegreatyin]

ffxiv and fallen london feel like the same genre of fandom in the sense that upon getting invested in them you're forced to sign a contract stating you must make a weird little guy to potentially nerd over. and you Will.

[msmc-796-official]

After-Action Report: The Fireman Saga

[PARTIES INVOLVED]

MSMC-796 "Heaven's Fury"

MSMC-148 "Neon Scene"

Corsair Mercenary Company / @corsair-mc-official

AGNI clone "Rev" / @revvedandrunning

Hercynian Refurbished Armaments / @hra-official

Monsoon Lance, Dawnlight First and Only

Patrol Squadron Osprey / @albatross-lancer [tangential]

Intern Jimbo, THOR clone "Arthur" / @harrison-armory-incorporated [tangential]

Karrakin Trade Baronies / @ktbofficial [tangential]

+++++++

[CASUALTIES]

0 dead, 1 incapacitated, 2 wounded

MSMC-796-1 "Lockbreaker" // unconscious, stable condition; fractured right arm w/ shattered wrist [prosthetic replacement recommended], third-degree burns across most of the body

MSMC-148-2 "Prowl" // stable condition; second-degree burns across the upper body, temporary blindness

MSMC-148-5 "Stimpak" // stable condition; temporary blindness

+++++++

[DAMAGES]

1 destroyed mech

SSC Dusk Wing "And The Voice Of Apollo Spake From On High" // stable condition; damaged auxiliary weapons targeting system

IPS-N Caliban "Sudden Intervention" // DESTROYED

+++++++

[REPARATIONS - IN PROGRESS]

HRA - reparations paid; turned over the casket of AGNI clone "Rev", along with a confiscated virus harpoon (initially obtained from CMC) from known mech-poaching group "Whalers"

KTB - discussions on necessary reparations ongoing; jurisdiction over final reparations to be overseen by Hades & Jackal, Esq.

AGNI clone "Rev" - d̵͎̘͛̆ȃ̶͓͑̉t̸̨̯̜̅̉ḁ̶̺̗̍̄̑ ̶̱̺̋c̴̨̮͒o̵̤̐r̶̢̧̭͗̃͆r̶̨̢̰͋̅̕ȗ̶̡͕͝͠p̷̼̫͇̃͗t̵̨͍̐͠e̷̟̹̾̑d̶̨̕

[ha, yeah, no, I don't think so. the higher-ups can [AUTO-CENSORED BY PILOTNET] for all I care, we are NOT paying reparations to Rev, especially not after what they did to Kennedi // -- Slipshod]

+++++++

[DISCIPLINARY ACTION]

MSMC-796 "Heaven's Fury" is on a one-month deployment probation, effective immediately. They may not accept commissions (paid or unpaid), recommend or commission fellow squadrons for deployments on their behalf, send or receive commission offers, or otherwise engage in the field duties of a MSMC Lancer squadron.

However, all squad members are permitted to engage with PR responsibilities as usual, within the updated guidelines handed down from MSMC Upper Management.

MSMC-148 "Neon Scene" is on a two-week deployment probation, effective immediately, following the same terms as above.

+++++++

There, that should about do it. Hopefully command is satisfied with that. MSMC-148 is sending in their recorded footage from the field for review (seeing as they were actually able to get the full scope of things from the sidelines), and all of our text correspondences with everyone have been compiled and timestamped for viewing from as many perspectives as I and Slipshod could track down.

Obligatory thank you to the boys from Hades & Jackal, Esq. for their assistance in drafting this. (Hopefully Slipshod's little "addendum" in the Reparations section doesn't show up in their copy.)

TL;DR - Our entire squad is banned from any sort of field deployment for a month, and we're probably gonna owe some pretty serious reparations to the KTB for blowing a Worldkiller-sized hole in Karrakis during combat (if/when they actually get back to us).

Kennedi's gonna need a new mech once she wakes up, and as far as the medical team can tell us, she's slated for a new arm prosthetic once her burns start to heal over and they can safely remove the old one without damaging anything further. But she is in fact alive, and is currently stable. Sometimes, stubbornness is a good thing.

It's been one hell of a week. We all need some rest. Expect us to be on and off for a bit as we wait for this entire mess to blow over.

-- Angel

[OOC: FC's Note - look for the new tag (#the fireman saga) on my blog to track down all of our side of the story!]

[alexjcrowley]

I accompany my Italian friend group of straight men to the Imola gp, huffing as I pull my hair up in a messy bun and wear the first hat I found in my closet: the 70 years anniversary of Ferrari cap. I pull up to the gp reading my printed copy of the 6+ million words SebMark ao3 fanfiction while my friends scream at some guy- Chuck Leclair- to notice them. I roll my eyes. In the middle of the race, one of the red cars stops as it drives next to my spot and a guy hops off of it. I have no idea who that is. "It's Charles Leclerc!" screams one of my straight Italian guy friend before he passes out. "You're not like other girls" Charles tells me. "I know who beat Lewis Hamilton in equal machinery in 2016" I say. "These are paddock passes, see you after I win the race" he winks badly at me. He goes back to the car and immediately DNFs.

[rollforthings]

Tried writing a minimalist TTRPG (24 words)

Writing an SRD-style framework for my family of simple one-page games (based on Mountain Hike), which focuses a lot on the importance of playtesting, iteration, and (most importantly) cutting the fat of the games I write. (Don't take a hundred words to say what can be said in ten, two good options are better than twenty meh options, that kind of thing.) I must've dreamt about these ideas, because I woke up this morning and wrote my first 24-word RPG. It's not a part of the Hike Framework I'm working on. I think it's the extreme end of the philosophy. It's minimal but still actionable and still a game, I think.

Downscaling (the rpg) is about designing game rules and then deleting them. Don't worry about the quality of your designs, just get them on a page and play them. Delete the stuff that doesn't work.

[ifeelfreewithoutmyshoes]

I did not expect to enjoy this partnership this much

[2nd-mushroom-circle]

lines that made me cry in my 3rd relisten to the chaos protocol ep 32 (MAJOR SPOILERS):

- “brother heed me, as you ought.” something about the way connie says brother this time… i will never be ok about sing and seir

- i mean i could say the entire rest of the opening monologue. but the little hesitance on “lover, hold me”? OW.

- THE WAY VAL’S VOICE SOUNDS ON THEIR FIRST LINE. illegal.

- similarly, the sobbing after “it is lost. forever.” always catches me off guard and RIGHT IN THE HEART

- the way connie just moves on to lumiéra after val says “something snaps”. cause there’s nothing more to say. nothing that can fix it.

- “a door that had been so carefully pried open slamming shut, and… he doesn’t feel.”

- “and he just… looks at where he should have been a shield.” have i ever mentioned that cai is a masterful storyteller? cause cai is a masterful storyteller and god. i’ll never stop feeling things about xainan esch

- this whole scene with xainan crumbling into dust destroys me.

- “you have always been half dead, xainan esch”

- connie calling oblivion the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen as xainan is drifting away from his own life sure is something, huh.

- “i think im just exhausted with being a coward” no cause i have so many feelings about lumiéra waiting, waiting, always a little too hesitant and afraid to tell sing how she really felt, even though sing felt the same, because it’s too scary because it’s too complicated because lumiéra is literally just fucking HUMAN and it takes so much to make that step - only for her to finally do it and it’s just. a moment. too. late.

- the moment when we move from lumiéra’s flashback to the present. the imagery of happy, triumphant, hopeful lumi giving way to lumi crouched over sing’s body, tear tracks staining her face.

- and the imagery of seir holding up lumiéra with his sister. fuck me i guess.

- THE FUCKING PERSPECTIVE SHIFT

- ok being fully fr seir’s monologue here is when i actually started crying in earnest this time. what the fuck val. not one line. all of them

- “the knife that is xainan” always hits me a little bit

- “whelming it’s pitiable vessel” is just such a good phrase. didn’t make me cry but i love it

- the music cue when artemis appears did make me cry though

- “eyes that immediately fall upon sing’s body” if i think too hard about artemis’s relationship with sing (artemis singing the twins to sleep, artemis signing her transfer request because artemis can see right through her, artemis giving them all the warning she can, artemis knowing when they die and appearing right away but unsurprised, with grief that has always been there, artemis making a choice) i will break. and start making some not-yet-canon assumptions about artemis’s own emotional state. so we are not thinking about that!

- “a lance in her chest” “bleeding.” ow ow ow the multiple possible readings of this line. connie and sea kicking off their insane narration chemistry with a lance to my chest. ow

- “those warm, gentle hands, that do not touch, that are so careful with their love” ok so when i said we weren’t feeling things about artemis? i lied

- “and when her hands pass through your flaming horns, snuffing them out like a candle at the end of its wick, it is not violent. it is not to put a cap on your grief, not to quiet you, not to for you into a box or a body that cannot contain you -“ “it is a mercy.” “it is the sweet mercy of rest when you have no tears left to cry.” the actual reason i’m relistening to this episode is to memorize all the words. so i can hold them like precious things in a box inside me. btw

- and artemis sings you and your sister to rest one final time.

ok. *wipes away tears.* anyways.

- artemis wiping a tear from lumiéra’s eye and calling her the bravest girl in the room .

- we interrupt your regularly scheduled tears to bring you: i’m gonna pull an øka* and punch fate in the fucking face. “this pain has a design”. yeah it’s called fate’s a BITCH and a BAD PARENT. and you can quote me on this

*i have not yet watched the second stranger only seen the clip of øka punching fate. so many times. i replayed that clip quite a bit after this episode.

- “and you cannot hold on to your life much longer. you are a dead man walking and you can go no farther than this.” ok back to crying! this is the sequence i was originally most abnormal about. and you know what? it still hits. so much. xainan my beloved

- sea and connie narrative trading my beloved.

- “do you want to live?” “i don’t know.” “then why don’t you come with me, and you can tell me your answer later.” god what a line. what a perfect response. there are no words that can fix this, but maybe with time and love and care someday you will want to live again. why don’t you come with me.

- “and she carries you home.”

- i don’t think i fully internalized the imagery of sing’s sword being driven into the earth by the roots of the world tree and the roots growing up around it before, but this time i imagined wildsailors hundreds of years from now coming upon this site and approaching it with reverence and love, knowing that it was here that something bigger than their world changed forever, holding sing’s eulogy in the very heartwood of the wildsea—yeah.

- “i love my dad, ok?” thanks abasi already sobbing.

- “it is effortless, the care that they hold for you. it is a reality unto itself.” just. cause. this is what i was hoping the whole time in the lead up to this episode. i know it would be awful and crushing and it would break them, and i was so worried that they would have to just. find a way to push on somehow. make plot happen anyways. but this, nova being cared for and held and protected in their grief? someone carrying them home when they can’t do it themselves anymore? this was just what they needed. and what i needed. i cannot wait for arc 2.

[thedrotter]

hello dearest gamers ... today I have spent 3 hours translating the little character descriptions in the Re:Kinder page of Parun's website for the sake of me doing some wiki pages for em' characters and now i will share it with you!!! (ᵔ◡ᵔ) Here it is!! It's very likely a bit flimsy but it gets the point across (i hope).

(Oh yeah by the way the text in brackets "[ ]" is me butting in to clarify things not actual translated text)

Shunsuke

The protagonist of this story.

He holds the key to the story. [to unclasp it, or to solve it! The word used implies that, but I wasn't sure how to write it in in a way that sounded natural.]

A third grader in elementary school.

Ryou

He is Shunsuke's childhood friend!

Has a gentle and kind personality.

A third grader in elementary school.

Sayaka

A friend of Shunsuke and Ryou.

She is usually kind, but can be scary sometimes.

A third grader in elementary school.

Aya

Has a shy and quiet personality. [this sentence was a bit tricky to translate, there's a nuance to it i could not understand but this is basically what it's trying to say]

She has just recently moved into town.

A fourth grader in elementary school.

Rei

Has a strong personality that puts even that of the boys to shame. [in other words, it outshines theirs!]

She also cares about being fashionable.

A fifth grader in elementary school.

Hiroto

Oldest member of the group. [in between the kids, ignore Mami for a second Dx]

Seems older than he actually is, with a composed personality.

A sixth grader in elementary school.

Takumi

Has a weak and frightened personality. [which can also be read as timid and nervous (though it implies fear so frightened it is).]

For all the things that happen [to him] in the story, I give my condolences.

A third grader in elementary school.

Mami

Shunsuke's older sister [a sister figure, not literally his sister but wasn't sure how to write that in] next door.

She and Shunsuke are close friends!

A second year student in high school.

Yuuichi

Appears in the middle of the story.

A young boy that is a bit strange.

A second grader in elementary school.

Was it anything completely new and mindblowing no but is it fun to know what it says yes !!! 😊

[takataapui]

a simple guide to getting through all this.

download 'How To Survive: a one word rpg' for FREE/koha/pay what you want, here:

[spikeinthepunch]

thinking real hard about that new content in Painful bc i really love it-- while Painful did work well without more blatant explanations on Marty, Lisa, or Brad's past, it also meant there was some stuff I just never learned if i didnt play First at least (and my second play through of Painful brought even MORE clarity to me), and well honestly I just enjoy the deeper explorations of these characters. I already rambled about this content in a 2am post messily but now I am thinking hard about the cycle of abuse- specific to Brad and the general theme of new content in general being about how deeply rooted abuse is, improvement of yourself, letting go of guilt & anger and the importance of love.

in order to better break down the new content and how it adds things to the story i transcribed the new content-- queen's campfire dialog, mad dog's campfire dialog, and two large pieces of dialog from the nightmare scene. parallels! parallels everywhere! I uploaded it as a text file if you want to read it all yourself :)

also this means this post will be long as fuck. there are so many cool things to connect here.

This new content in Painful does a lot to express the years of shit Brad went through that further fed his issues. And while most of this ends up focusing on Marty (which I do thinks its important to not just throw Lisa on screen, her purpose is still as being 'off screen' for effect) it greatly helps Brad's character and the flashback to Lisa and him playing together or their convo before Brad runs away- fantastic addition alongside Buddy's later instance of putting makeup on Brad (made me extra sad)- and it 'humanizes' Lisa more. She existed- she was a sister with a brother and they hung out and had fun and they talked. etc. They existed in the same house and they endured horrible things.

I feel like this new content kind of hammered in the family like... the affect of abusive families. And what Brad has been missing from a normal upbringing, what he's lost after all this time because of abuse, and what he is desperately trying to get out of Buddy. At the end of the fight with flesh-mound Marty (we will be talking about this A LOT), this part especially feels like it reflects Brad's inability to not see Buddy as the redemption he needs, what he feels is the only thing to save him:

But if you stop. …if you do this. It's over. Dead. You know what happens. We can't let her out. She… She's gonna hurt us so bad.

Which also, I think parallels to Lisa too-- honestly. so much of what alludes to Lisa works well for Buddy and vise versa, for obvious reasons.

But the nightmare really just... you really get the feeling for how fucking exhausting it is. Brad is so tired and he's trying so hard. But the thought that says he will be like his father feels deep rooted- its his blood, Marty lives inside him, he can't fight it hard enough.

this next section of the flesh-mound boss fight ending has a clear conflict in his own thoughts. He recognizes it's all so tiring and it needs to be let go. But then it turns into anger at himself. And more likely recalling the tough words of wisdom his father gave him (or his grandpa too)

I know you're tired. All this anger. These memories. So many scars. So many mistakes. It all stings… So let it all go. You don't deserve it. The guilt is gonna kill you. Why can't you just let go? Be a man. When they hand you their heart. You don't bare yours. You eat it. Consume everything. Puke it up. Then eat it again. Eat like a dog. You know it only takes one taste. You know better than me. It's so fucking easy. And if you never stop… It feels so good.

Fun fact! The "When they hand you their heart. You don't bare yours. You eat it. Consume everything." gets referenced slightly in the new Joyful content, where Brad's friends are trying to recall some words of wisdom which they only recall as "Sometimes you need to just... Eat your heart out. Or something." Which implies Brad likely told them this line to some extent.

Oof. Probably my favorite excerpt from the boss dialog. Consume Everything. Puke it up, eat it again.... You know it only takes one taste. You know better than me... Marty's own behavior comes out here as he encouraged Brad similarly in other scenes. He's the one that's is in fact forcing Brad to get a "taste" of this. (Look back at the 'father' epilogue in Joyful). But he also makes Brad think that this is always all on him- by giving him the responsibility of "this is how men should be", it takes blame off of Marty and puts it on Brad for not "being a man" and thus, repeating these behaviors in a way that is often told to him as justified and as the right way to act.

He is constantly guilted and programed to this behavior in an extreme way by Marty taunting him, belittling and validating his own abusive behavior.

Let me cut over to Mad Dog's campfire scene. Yep! I promise its related (to me).

[cut to here. He is referring to what (seems to be) something his father said.] When I'm ready to die. We fight. You have to beat me. Then you will eat me. A dog in a dog in a dog in a dog. Hellacious. Miserable cycle. Never stop. Make. Us. More. Madness is a small cost. For power greater than love. […] Strength is our family. [Scene pans down the cliffs showing more and more skulls of humans and dogs hiden under ground. the next text appears on screen]: I love you… But I really have to go. [At the bottom of the cliffs, a spider much like the Marty-spiders appears, but with Brad's face instead.]

While this is something Mad Dog is saying as if its something his own father said to him, it seems pretty clear you can see the parallel to Brad. Honestly its way too accurate to ignore lol. the first line is strangely similar to things Marty says in the nightmare fight, and the "Dog in a dog" clearly feels very similar to the "eat like a dog" in that earlier quote i gave. Whats even more weird is the scene is pans through.

(Again not taking away from Mad Dog's own story, just explaining the parallel). The skulls that become more and more in the dirt feel like a metaphor for all the years of abuse, and the cycle of it. Now the Brad-spider? That surprised me.

Taking-

I love you… But I really have to go.

Feels like something related to Buddy. And I think this as well because of the spider at the end. Marty-spiders always felt like they were supposed to show how his effect is always there and you might now know where. His abuse still exists even in the smallest form. For a Brad one to be shown like that- I would read into it as how Brad is still going after Buddy, while his behavior is in fact abusive.

The hardest of it all is the imagery and the use of plural dialog too is that we really get to see how Brad feels like Marty is and always will be a part of him and that's what makes it so hard to change. And considering the above I mentioned, it makes sense.

We can't handle that, Brad. It's too painful. I'm not ready. We'll never be ready! Don't fight blood! Please! I'm fucking scared!

The desperation towards the end fits the idea of letting go of Lisa in the regard that the grief for her is also ruining Brad alongside his need to have Buddy as a way to atone for his behavior towards Dustin in the past, and try to not be like his father. And getting rid of that source is terrifying because it means a lot of scary things to him. The "us" and "we" keeps forcing that feeling that Marty is part of him, and that it really wants Brad to keep holding on because thats who he is. It is what he has been for so so long and he is terrified of letting go of grief because its what remains of Lisa in his head. And that letting go of Buddy would mean he is losing that opportunity to be the father he needs to be in order to prove he isnt like his father. These two reasons to not let go aren't good! They are not ways he should be living and he HAS to let that go.

But hey, thats not all. Let's get through the sad as fuck analysis okay? It'll get better.

As you descend a long rope as child!Brad you start to read a poem of sorts that I can only assume comes from Lisa. This excerpt also pops up in Joyful...

No friends. No brothers. No fathers. No mothers. Just me.

This gets repeated three times. Its weird but it always made me feel uneasy, and I think that is because it kind of focuses on how Lisa ends up being the core. When you apply this to Brad alone, it connects in the way that Lisa is the center of his grief and how that cancels out so much else in his life. Though i want to point out real quick-- it applies to Buddy in an interesting way that fufills their comparisons with the statues you destroy in Joyful. Very cool. And for Lisa it applies very blatantly. (No friends (Berny), No brothers (Brad), No fathers (Marty), No mothers (her own absent mom))

there is a LOT to this poem and you should look at that text post I linked to read it all. So I am just bringing up a one other part.

Deep below. A dark endless sea. A pain slumbers. One we'll never flee. Give me the strength. Let your memories set us free. So that when next we meet. I may grow into a mighty tree. [...] I know this wasn't easy. Thank you. …And Bradley, Good luck.

Oh yes, a step back to the boss dialog here, it's relevant:

I know you're tired. All this anger. These memories. So many scars. So many mistakes. It all stings… So let it all go. You don't deserve it.

This perfectly reflect points I have made up to this point regarding the way Brad holds onto his grief and even the earliest lines of the boss is trying to show him that. It's interesting that as the very start he's being so forgiving to himself then is devolves into more anger-- but here, once Brad has regressed, Lisa is the one to remind him this. I think its important to recognize how Its not about getting rid of Lisa's memory at all and this poem being spoken from Lisa (assumed) fits that. It isn't easy to recognize or to do this, it takes a whole different kind of strength.

In that text file i transcribed the end conversation between Brad & Lise where Brad says he is going to run away, but I won't be referencing it here... Do read it/watch it though.

If you read this far, good job! Just one more depressing thing though! The actual last thing said in the nightmare is great actually- for story telling. Because of course if this whole dream was trying to show that Brad has let go... well, it would kind of mess up the ending still carrying out with Brad still seeming unchanged.

Bradley, my boy. It's just not that easy. You can't save her. You can't even save yourself. After all… I'm in your veins..

Yes, thats it- thats the last part in the dream, where Brad sees a small flesh-mound Marty in blood. It doesn't ruin the fact Brad had this long ass dream. Its a great look into his mind. And how it entirely loops back. He really just... he really is stuck. You can see how damn hard he tries. But this theme of it being "in your blood" is SO fucking strong and it hurts. Because I think we all know, its not true. You are not fated to become the abuser. But god you can see how hard it truly is to fight what has been beaten into you for so long.

Right.

So looking at the parts where forgiveness are present... This pops up a bit in the new content- from this, too another campfire scene. I think the forgiveness and love sprinkled in is important to notice. A lot of people in Olathe in general are alone and without family. Brad has already been... alone, however. His family situation left him without affection, and an upbringing that left no proper parent to attach to meant he'd already not receive the affection he needed in order to give that to others properly. He had no one, and when he did finally have someone- Dustin- he still never received the love he didn't know he needed because of what was taught to him. And he did it again to Buddy.

This is obvious when you get to the end of the game. When Brad wants buddy to hold him.

And, Queen's dialog with Brad pulls a lot more of that conversation to the surface.

Being held by someone you love is the best feeling in the entire universe. […] These men out here. All this strength. This power. Your respect… you can't take it with you when you die. It wont save you. It doesn't matter how powerful you are. No ideas matter. No experience matters. None of that shit that's consumed you your whole life matters. You're completely naked in the face of death. Its terrifying. Now, a good hug. That matters. Honestly, it ain't gonna change much… dead is dead. But the way i see it. You can die afraid. Lost in your own mind. Haunted by the guilt of all your mistakes. Tormenting nightmares wondering what comes next. Or… you can be in the moment with someone you love. Someone that makes you feel like nothing else matters. Nothing could be more important than feeling each other's warmth and love. No thinking. Just feeling.

Brad's earlier chat included him bringing up how he didnt let Dustin or Buddy get physical affectionate too- theres some earlier chitchat that you may want to see in a video. But honestly the realization of how little affection Brad has received, due to Marty's influence, makes things even more depressing when you see how hard it is to let go.

Everything, everything is tied together. He can't let go. So he cant end the abuse. So he fails to ever change. So he never receives the love he truly wants and needs. By the end of the game, when you have that option to hold him, that new dialog hits even worse. And I don't think it is even to try and sway people into hugging Brad. if anything it kind of just opened up to me why Buddy shouldnt need to hold him. And how it is honestly something so much deeper. His struggle has infected everything he wants in life that he just keeps failing to have.

It depresses him, it discourages him. I can't even find more words to explain how heavy the weight is on someone like Brad after years and years of horrible abuse and never getting the help he so much needed.

[fantasyfantasygames]

From The Mist

From The Mist, Wending Way Games, 2010

In the game From The Mist (FTM) you play a lost soul finding their way back into the world. You are literally a soul, an ephemeral piece of a person. The person themselves is gone. It's never clear whether you actually died - some people think you did, some are positive that you just ran away to start a new life elsewhere.

Your character starts as a series of connections - "threads" that draw you back to specific people. Chargen is a group activity. You all have ten threads to assign, 6 "minor" and 4 "major", which is a lot. However, 3 of your major and 4 of your minor are required to be shared with other PCs, and everyone in the group has 2 major and 2 minor in common. One of the default suggested setups is that you're a friend group, and I think a lot of folks will go with that, but I also really like the "friends of friends of friends" approach where you don't really know each other except through all these living people.

Your goal is to return as a whole person. Each time you resolve a thread, you get a piece of yourself back, and with it, some game stats. FTM's approach to resolving threads depends on your anchor as much as it does on you. Early on you'll just be appearing in dreams, encountering one another and having conversations in the sleeping minds of people you know. (I can only imagine they wake up confused.) After your first thread resolves, you obtain a faint voice, light breeze, or ghostly form. Slowly you pick up a more whole appearance, a real voice, and the ability to manipulate objects. The last thing you lose is your ability to appear in dreams, at which point you are restored to the world.

One thing I find appropriate is that you can "fail" but still close things out - you don't need to resolve the thread well. It's about giving mini-stories an end rather than righting wrongs.

The art is kind of unfortunate. It's low-quality Poser work, and while it works to create an eerie look in the early game, it doesn't even quite make it down into the uncanny valley when depicting late-game characters. I would rather have seen some charcoal drawings. Hell, I'd take photomanipulation over this, and I'm not a huge fan of photomanip. It doesn't give one a sense of setting, but that part seems reasonable to me - there's nothing weird going on in this setting but you.

The system is fairly middle-of-the-road. It's a d100 roll-under system with Price Is Right rules. You have a Body score that is also your hit points, not that taking damage does anything but fuzz you out for a night at worst. You also have a Heart score and a Mind score, used for things like keeping your courage and tracking down old acquaintances. I think there's a bit of Unknown Armies DNA at work, because while there are no skills you do get certain areas where you can flip-flop your dice rolls, turning a 62 into a 26 if it would help. There are no social stats or skills, and that's called out as intentional in one of the sidebars. It's the game's "fruitful void" - the entire point of the game is social connection, and giving it mechanics would trivialize it. Overall it fits ok.

I love the concept of this game. It really deserves a reboot with better art. I can definitely see playing it with a different system - a Cortex knockoff, maybe.

FTM is out of print. It was a British game, so if you live in the UK check out the local game store if they still have a "used" section.

[blueengland]

i don't hate anime i hate anime that stuff weebs watch

[tonysdumplings]

this is actually diabolical behaviour have WoTC ever played DnD what the fuck is this, how is it a real thing that is a part of the class at level 1

meanwhile the sad old level 20 Ranger is in the corner like...