#or a vampire. but a vampire that doesn't cheat and steal art

[bizarrelovetriangel]

just want to share this on tumblr so i can let you all know that if you use ai, and specifically use it to make jjba 'fanart', araki would hate you :)

but he brings up a good point about how ai is becoming a problem that it's difficult to tell if a work is done by ai or not, and more mangaka should be concerned about this too.

also, i really hope laws do come out to protect artists. not only will it protect them, it'll protect art and humanity overall. mangaka are already dealing with plenty of problems, like stressful deadlines and underpayment, among personal issues. do not let ai become a bigger problem. the companies that publish their work need to step up and find a way to protect them as soon as possible.

do not make a future where manga are being done by ai users.

[indierpgnewsletter]

The 1980 Dallas RPG was a Soap Opera Wargame?

In 1980, SPI, a company known for its wargames did a strange thing and published an RPG based on the Dallas tv show. If you don't know anything about the tv show, don't worry, I will protect you. It's too late for me though. You go on ahead. Basically, it was a hit TV show of big money family feuding. Imagine Succession but it was written in the 1980s and instead of TV news, it was an oil company. Unlike the show, the RPG wasn't a hit. The art director of the game famously wrote that they printed 80,000 copies and that was 79,999 more than people wanted. That one person seemed to be this person's grandma who bought it for him to save his soul from D&D/Satan.

What is this game though? Well, James F Dunnigan, founder of SPI and designer of legendary wargame, Panzerblitz, seems to have applied his analytical mind to the internecine squabbles of Dallas and decided that, if you think about it, petty family drama isn't so different from CIA covert ops. And he was right.

As you'd expect from a wargame, the rules are dry and clinical to a fault. You start by picking one of the 9 characters from the show - JR, Jock, Sue Ellen, Pam, etc. They all have stats like Persuasion, Coercion, Seduction. And these stats have attack/defend values. For example, JR has a Coercion of 24 because he's a real jerk. Sue Ellen has a Seduction resist of 18, but it's 20 against JR, because again, he seems to have been a real jerk. This game genuinely went out of its way to make sure you know JR's wife really really doesn't want to go near him.

Each character starts the session ("episode") with a secret story-based objective. Jock wants to run an angry former employee out of town, JR wants to cheat an Arab oil magnate out of 100 million dollars, Sue Ellen wants to do a favour for an old boyfriend. Yeah, what can I say? Some of these objectives feel more important than others. Regardless, you achieve these objectives by controlling 4 or more specific minor characters and organisations by the end of the game. For example, to enact his 100 million dollar plan, JR has to control the Ewing Oil Company, Mustafa Quattara, Professor Bayard, the reporter Mary Cleef, and so on. But characters' objective overlap so Pam also wants Mustafa Quattara and Jock also wants Professor Bayard. These conflicting goals means players need to scheme, negotiate and attack each other so they can win.

The sessions play out in five rounds. Each round, the GM sets the scene. Then, the players can negotiate and make deals. Then, we enter the conflict phase where each player makes three moves - either trying to gain control of uncontrolled NPCs, or attacking another player to steal an NPC from under them, or protecting their own NPCs. And the game throws in little curveballs every round: Oops, some of JR's drinking buddies are in town and he can't say no to them, so his character is out of this round. Hopefully the player has some NPCs that they can use to act instead. Oops, Mustafa Quattara is being chased by assassins. Whoever controls his card has to give it up as he disappears for a bit and comes back uncontrolled. The end result is somewhere in between Vampire the Masquerade (or rather, Undying) and Blood on the Clocktower.

Sure, the math is dense (you roll 2d6 under the difference between the attack value and the defense value, plus or minus any currency spent). Sure, it takes 9 players to really sing. Sure, multiple people can complete their objective so you need to track victory points separately to decide the real winner. Sure, you have to take the homophobia out of the Seduction rules. Sure, roleplaying is completely optional. Sure, sure, sure. The game is a mess. But it's a very playable mess. I'd go so far as to say it's an electric mess. It's shockingly (sorry) fun to play. I think the secret lies in a very clear agenda for the players, a tight boardgame-like action economy, a premise that supports hilarious degrees of pettiness, and an inter-personal experience that demands everyone pay attention to what their friends are doing.

So. Am I planning a full 9 person play-by-post game of this? Yes. Am I thinking of changing the setting and the math? Yes. Is that basically designing a new game? Yes. Should this game be labelled "Powered by Dallas" or, as one of my players suggested, "Hornswoggled by Dallas"? YES.

(This was first published in the Indie RPG Newsletter.)

[artistcaptainbendy]

I see that you have alot of Captain Underpants aus, so if you don't mind, can you tell me about all of them and the differences between them and canon.

Hey sorry for taking a while to reply.

I can't really remember everything AU I made but I'll try my best.

Let's start with what I think was the first one, smartypants Au. It's basically what happens when instead of the boys making krupp, the captain, it was Melvin. Of course the biggest difference here is that krupp is the silly one and the captain is the smart one. Melvin was tried of how dumb krupp was and so taught him a lot of info to try and make him smart (by editing the boys comics), when that didn't work he hypothesis him and made him captain smartypants. Now at first I was going to have SP!Krupp's chaotic nature just be something he does, but later on I decided to have it be his part cosmic chaos demon because it sounds funny, so now he has a reason to be chaotic he needs it to live. Now I believe almost everything I've drawn is technically Canon, sp can travel to other Aus and interact with other krupps so stuff like that happens.

Now let's go to Bendypants au. Just what happens when I take a horror game and blend it with the CU universe. George and Harold being joey and Henry, Melvin is sammy, krupp is boris, edith is Alice, of the star of the show himself! Captain underpants is bendy. Now some relationships I had to change for the characters but the story is basically the same. Now what I say isn't Canon is of course any of the funny side things I draw like them celebrating holidays together or when they all went to space or anything that happens with Beetlejuice. Its more of its own side au where it's the same characters but different vibes. AU BP is different from persona BP with is me even if I use some of the same story beats. Now I'm realizing I've drawn more things for the silly side au then the official one hahaha.

Side timeline au time. Criminal SP krupp, if what happened to sp in high school made him a worse person instead of better and he became a Criminal. He uses his chaotic powers to steal and rob places, one day after saving two teens, they wanted to join him. At first he wanted nothing to do with them but after a while he finally let them be his crew. Now I haven't drawn much for this one but most of it is Canon. Even the silly.

Imaginary friend AU. Again not much drawn for this one so all is Canon. But it's what if the OG, PP, and SP captains were Imaginary friends to their krupps who are kids. I still have no explanation as to how there are three krupps but eh.

Sp jekyll and hyde AU. Same story as the play version but with some changes, so I guess not that similar. But instead of murder it's pranks, and smarty doesn't cheat on edith. George and Harold are two orphans who hyde SP took and smarty decided to adopt. Now I'm not sure what to have not Canon so that's up in the air.

Vampire SP. Gosh there are lot of sp krupps. Ok it's sp but Vampire and smarty is his twin brother who somehow is a werewolf. Sp doesn't want to drink blood but has to so he doesn't go crazy, so his former caretaker works at a blood bank and sneaks him some "food". He had a girlfriend 100s of years ago and now has found a woman who looks a lot like her, this being Edtih. Hmm everything Canon, even when helped fight Beetlejuice.

And lastly (because I might of forgotten the other aus I might have) is the lumberjack Au! Krupp is a lumberjack......that is all (jk). His a lumberjack that lives in the woods in a small cabin, people thought he was some odd creature till the boys found him and saw he was just a lumberjack who might have been in the woods for too long. They befriend him and now once in while hang out with him. Now this more of a cozy au nothing too crazy happens in it, there might be sometimes when it does, like when krupp upsets the sprite of the woods, but hey who doesn't do that. Not much art for it yet but mostly all Canon, and the side horror thing with him as the protagonist is separated. But I'll leave you with a fun fact.....in this universe lumberjack krupp's parents are actually the smartest people in the world, like world class scientists levels, and he doesn't like talking about them and hopes no one realizes his their son.

What? I can't make a krupp who doesn't have issues it's impossible! Make a character who's just happy with life and has no worries ? Never!

[escapedaudios]

I don't usually argue with anons making critiques, but I'm nipping this one in the bud real quick. After seeing a glimpse of the discourse around the other "Lexi" (Redacted's Alexis) I'm a little wary of people saying which morally bad characters you can't enjoy.

All of Lexi's actions were unambiguously bad up until episode six, where she has a brief moment of humanity and sincerity. Up until that point she cheats on Ash, lies to Thad, uses her status and image to manipulate a mob into turning against the protagonists, manipulates people, finds information about others just to attack their insecurities, insults the Listener publicly, and it's implied that she may have even stalked her ex. She's very VERY clearly depicted as a bad person by the narrative.

Understanding in good faith that the audience already knows she's a bad person, I think it's unfair to try and establish an arbitrary line where you "shouldn't" enjoy her. In episode five, she takes advantage of the blurred boundaries of the situation she's in to steal a second kiss from her ex when she was only supposed to kiss him once. She does this for her own selfish reasons, as well as to taunt and anger the Listener. This is unambiguously wrong, and the narrative doesn't gloss over it. Ash is immediately furious with her, and the Listener is seeing absolute red but has to contain her anger because of the situation she's in.

I suppose this could be categorized as a sexual assault, but I feel like putting it in that category and concluding that you should react the same way as you would to far worse acts is a little misrepresentative. An emotional association with rape is invoked by describing her actions as sexual assault. Expecting people to react the same way they would to what she did as they would to a far more sadistic and traumatic action because you placed both things in the same broad category doesn't sit right with me.

People can like Lexi. They don't like her in spite of being bad, they like her BECAUSE she's bad. She's fun to hate and she's awful in such an entertaining way that people can't help but be at least a little endeared to her. Most of the people who enjoy her character in the bounds of the fictional story she exists in would hate her if she were real and they knew her in real life. Understanding this is an important part of media literacy.

I'm not mad, but I mention this because I've seen this kind of rhetoric spin out of control before. I've seen fans of uncannily-similarly named Alexis of Redcated Audio get scolded and even harassed for enjoying her character. Why? Because Alexis(Redacted) turning her ex (I think Sam?) into a vampire against his well has been interpreted as a metaphor for sexual assault. This quickly spiraled out of control into people accusing people of being ok with rape for simply enjoying the character, making fan art of her etc. I don't believe the anon who made this confession was trying to incite harassment or make that kind of accusation toward anyone, but I'm going to put my foot all the way down before anyone tries spinning that kind of angle.

Lexi is, in fact, iconic. She's horrible and awful and lies and cheats and antagonizes the other characters constantly, but she's SO MUCH FUN in the context of the story. Let people have their fun! I personally love writing her and can't wait to bring out more of her. Her awfulness is a delight to construct. She is my wretched angel, my vile princess. I do in fact, love my terrible creation and appreciate people enjoying her. I'd hate for having harmless fandom fun with a villainess to become a touchy subject here, yeah?

Since someone confessed that Ash from Greasefire Life gives them the icky, I feel the confidence to confess this. I think Escaped and his fans glossed over the fact that his character Lexi literally sexually assaulted Ash? Forcing someone to kiss you, especially as intensely as she did during the audition is not okay and if the genders were reversed or the roles were reversed (Ash don't it to Lexi) people would definitely not have brushed it off like they did. I don't think Escaped or his fans are bad people, but they shouldn't be calling Lexi "iconic" all the time as they do. I liked her before that happened.

.

[filmnoirsbian]

Things Read in March

Articles & Essays:

White outrage about Will Smith's slap is rooted in antiblackness

Hillsong Co-Founder Has Resigned After Allegations of Misconduct

Nurses Eat Their Young; An Insight Into Systematic Hazing and its Implications on Patient Care

Rashida Renée on Killing Nostalgia in 2022

'It's a powerful feeling: the Indigenous American tribe helping to bring back buffalo

Aren't You Wasting Your Time?

People of colour fleeing Ukraine attacked by Polish nationalists

We All Simp for Alfred Molina

The Problem with 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'

How Silence Became a Luxury Product

Inside the Cat Show Controversy

I Love Sally Rooney's Novels, But They Aren't Written for Me

This Fall, Dress Like A "Cool Shrink"

The Narcissism of Queer Influencer Activists

"The Slaves Were Happy": High School Latin and the Horrors of Classical Studies

An Interview with Andrew Garfield

The Nightmare on Elm Street remake is better than the angry mob insisted

Emily Ratajkowski: 'I had succeeded in comodifying my body. So why was I so unhappy?'

The sinister return of eugenics

Your brain is not a computer

My Year of Reading Every Ursula K. Le Guin Novel

World's longest song drones on

Interview with Jo Ann Beard

The Fourth State of Matter

Reddit Account May Prove Murder

Who is the Bad Art Friend?

The Bizarre Book 'Consensual Hex' is Getting Dragged for Depicting Real People

12 Literary Plagiarism Scandals, Ranked

Bob Dylan Slams Plagiarism Accusers as 'Wussies and Pussies'

Uncle Jam: George Clinton talks sample trolls, Kendrick Lamar, and UFO crashes

Bob Dylan Cheats Again?

The Allure of Chola Femininity

The Sacred Wood

The Cop-Attacking Chilean Dog Who Became A Worldwide Symbol of Protest

Why a baby shark is called a pup -- and other unusual baby animal names

The world's most unwanted plants help trees make more fruit

Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported

Bizarro World

War Over 'The Conjuring': The Disturbing Claims Behind a Billion-Dollar Franchise

'Our Flag Means Death' Might Just be the Best Queer Show of the Year

The Alt-Right's Asian Fetish

Race Consciousness: Fascism and Frank Herbert's "Dune"

The Bootstrap Fallacy: Self-Levitation Doesn't Work

Lost Genes Explain Vampire Bats' Diet of Blood

A New Start After 60: 'I became a psychotherapist at 69 and found my calling.'

The Art of Loving and Losing Female Friends

The Singularity Is Here

How the Snowflakes Won

How Hollywood heartthrobs and Steven Spielberg helped make a drag queen cult classic

Let's Talk About Bæddelism

A Guide to Every Single Immersive Van Gogh Experiences Blanketing the U.S.

The Secret Life of Sacheen Littlefeather

"Cultural sexism in the world is very real when you've lived on both sides of the coin."

When Writing Fiction Hurts the People You Love

Poetry:

Outbreaks by Kitchen McKeown

Telemachus' Detachment by Louise Glück

To My Body by Nancy Sullivan

Magdalene by Marie Howe

Dream by Mathias Svalina

Phlebotomy, As Told by the Blood by Torrin A. Greathouse

The Lost Woods as Elegy for Black Childhood by Derrick Austin

March by Richard Kenney

Spring by Chloe Honum

Lines on Last Spring by Robert Hass

Books:

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

White Lines On A Green Field by Catherynne M. Valente

Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon

[luverofralts]

potentialfate-sims had to answer this, so now you do too! 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 25, 31, 34, 38, and 50 for Roman and Abe!

Roman's main outlet is cooking, which he would argue is creative and crafty. Abe likes to sketch, but he's out of practice with his crazy life. He can also sew, but he doesn't like to.

2 Roman has expensive cologne that he wears for formal occasions and when at royal events, but it reminds him of his grandfather's cologne, so he doesn't wear it often otherwise. Abe uses the same brand as his dad did because the smell reminds him of Ian, but not often. They both just use deodorant when dealing with the chaos of their normal lives.

6. Abe would go to Lucy, assuming that Roman is with him and also injured, otherwise he'd go to Roman. Lucy has been fixing his problems for years, and probably will continue to do so until the day one of them dies. Roman would go to Ulyssa as he's pretty sure that she's his best friend and she has a lot of important connections. If she wasn't available, then he would go to Lucy.

7. Roman spends most of his life in fear, so of course there's a few odd fears mixed in with the valid ones. He mostly fears losing people in his life (with good reason). He fears his kids growing up too fast because that means letting go of them and he's insanely clingy. Abe has a ton of valid fears as well, but he's distrustful of magic, and fears vampires. The fact that Theo is friends with a vampire child terrifies him and he worries that one day they might get married and have little vampire demon babies. He's also convinced that his son is going to fall in love with his witchy best friend when they're older, which scares him for the same reason as the vampire friend.

8. Roman collects occult books and his mother's art, mostly because people keep dumping both on him. He also collects recipes wherever he goes. Abe doesn't really collect anything, as he's not materialistic. He's jumped between residences too often to have a lot of stuff to bring with him. Most of his stuff is at the Helios household and he hopes to maybe work on a collection of something after they get married and live in a single household permanently.

10. They have a lot of regrets. Abe regrets cheating on Roman in college and breaking up with him. He regrets how hard he was on Theo and not being around for a lot of his early life. He regrets ever making a deal with Malika, but since it saved his son, he would do it again if he had to, but would hate it. Roman regrets wasting money chasing his dream of owning a restaurant when he could have spent it on a house or the kids. Deep down, he regrets ever asking questions about his family heritage and thinks that if he were ignorant of his mom's background, his powers may have been dormant and never revealed. A lot of his regrets are bittersweet too. He regrets marrying Adrian, but he wouldn't want to change things and lose the girls they had. He regrets believing his grandparents' ideas for him as a teen, but if he hadn't gone to the school they wanted, his life would have been completely different. As he gets older, he's also sort of regretting how he's treated his uncles. He's not crazy about Hunter really, but he doesn't see Adam as much as he used to, since visiting him meant also visiting his father. Now things with his uncles are strained and he is beginning to regret not spending more time with them or listening to their advice.

12. Abe has no sense of style and he'd be happy to let Roman pick out his clothes if that meant wearing something that wasn't a suit. He wears a wide variety of clothing styles and sometimes steals Roman's shirts because they smell like him. Roman thinks a blazer is lounge wear and a suit will work for any occasion, even trivial events. He has some old t shirts he sometimes wears when he's in the mood for them, including some pride ones that Abe always steals from him. He also maintains a collection of ridiculous hats to wear with the kids that is a poorly guarded secret in the family. All sense of style goes out the window when the kids want to play. He also buys pro-demonic clothes as a joke for Abe to wear, including his much loved visor declaring him to be Satan's Babe.

16. Oh, they have kids. Roman has always wanted kids like a good heir to the family fortune is expected to, but he's also a family sim with a very poor ability to use birth control. Obviously he would have chosen to start their family when he was older if he could, but he's been an obsessive dad since the day Theo was born. Abe just always assumed that he'd have kids because his mother expected him to have them. He wants more kids with Roman, and is hoping for a daughter.

25. Roman has a schedule with the kids that doesn't change much with school and meals and scheduled play dates. It sometimes drives him crazy but he refuses to stop micromanaging his family's lives. Abe doesn't have a routine because he's trying to relax more and be less concerned about other people's expectations for him. By being less rigid in his schedule, he feels like he can be a better father and partner. Besides, Roman will usually let him know what he expects their routines to be.

31. Roman would probably wish to read minds. Enough people lie to him or hide important things, and he just wants answers even if he has to read minds to do so. Abe would probably want super strength because he often feels like he's powerless to do anything to help Roman or Theo supernaturally. Being strong would let him feel like he's doing something to calm Roman's fears and keep his family safe. I would give them the power to be connected supernaturally again because that's the only way they'll listen to each other instead of assuming all sorts of strange ideas and getting into trouble.

34. Abe deals with grief in a somewhat healthy manner. He tries to see the best in a situation, and turns his grief over losing his father to a willingness to visit him now as a zombie. When he broke up with Roman, he channeled his grief over their relationship into parties and one night stands, but he's sort of in a better place now and a little more mature. Roman has no real coping mechanisms for grief, but has gotten used to how it feels and is numb to it. He usually runs away from his problems or distracts himself from his feelings by focusing on something else, but Abe has slowly been getting him to process what he's feeling. A lot of his grief shows up in his nightmares, which he wishes he could stop, but isn't really something he can change.

38. Abe is pretty normal for dreams. He has good dreams, bad dreams and some sexy dreams. His nightmares are about common things like a family member's death or having his son run away again. Roman has violent, terrifying dreams that make sleeping next to him a struggle. He can mostly remember his dreams now, but they don't often make sense to him. He doesn't know why he has these dreams, only that they're usually filled with people he's lost over the years and are terrifying to him. He's not optimistic that he can ever make them stop, so he's trying to learn to control them as much as he can. Abe usually relocates to the couch or a spare bedroom if they get really bad and he has a busy day to prepare for.

50. My favorite thing about those two idiots is how obsessed they are with each other. Roman will not even entertain the idea of leaving Abe alone, and once Abe realized that Roman was who he wanted, he's been mostly dedicated to obsessing over him as well. They're often quite problematic, but they're slowly learning to be better people even if they make Lucy and Ulyssa want to murder them constantly.

[avaritia-ffxiv]

So anyway so far I have Renvanna + Calhoun, Giovanna and Calhoun has Chase who's so far died TWICE. One time he drowned 'cause I made the mistake of turning autonomy on for a second and he went for a swim with low energy. If I didn't have the 'kids can die of anything' mod he would've probably been fine 'cause he was a child, but I have that mod 'cause fuck giving immunity to tiny beings.

So he died.

The second time was as a teen 'cause he had a mood swing.

(It's fine tho I cheated him back to life after both times.)

Chase and Giovanna are presently Enemies. Giovanna got to the top of the Criminal career and became The Boss, except then right away I had her quit and her and Ren moved to the countryside where they now have a cute little farm. Calhoun's still doing Calhoun things, working on his own career while getting aspirations like the Serial Romantic and whatever the new heartbreaker thing was.

I also have Nura! He has a cute lil cottage in a lil village in the countryside where he's fiddling around with his garden while on the gardener career.

And of course Gilya, from their modern AU. Ilya's a craftsman and very handy with the woodworking bench, makes a lot of money out of that. Gia went into university to get the Fine Art degree, then he'll become an Interior Decorator 'cause I got a mod that makes that degree give a boost to that career.

Still gotta make Simona and Seba, and I think I'm gonna toss Ramona somewhere in there.

In the same save are also a bunch of Elezen derivaties! We have Rise and Angoul doing spellcaster things, Minuinne and Laugreint living a happy lil life for now, before she gets to die horribly. Anastazie isn't in there yet, but she's in my gallery as a vampire. Also her husband. Who's also gonna die once I plop them down. Very unfortunate, that.

And of course Latielle and Astreul. She's a medium (and also a spellcaster), he's a werewolf and that's. Yeah. Yeah.

I gotta built their family trees a bit. Minuinne already has her parents and brother, but Rise needs her parents and Darcevain's parents so I can make Darcevain. Really want to add Damon in too. Make him the Gloomiest man alive, gotta get to that.

In a different save I have Rivka and Reid's shenanigans with Shinya in there too. Gotta make Hiraku as well. Shinya also has a massive family which has been... A lil painful when they all decided to stay over. Think I'll give Hiraku his mom as well. I've played a couple of Shinya's siblings too, one I made a property owner and the other a competitive rider, but those are pretty WIP.

Was there anyone else? Can't remember off the top of my head.

Infinitely amused over the fact that I can leave Gilya to socialize unsupervised and 100% chance they'll just go WooHoo after flirting for a bit, but if I let Giovanna queue a single interaction with Ren, she'll just end up yelling at him or some other Mean interaction, since she has the Evil trait and apparently their relationship doesn't save him from that lmaooooo.

Also Ren has the Kleptomaniac trait and I hope he never comes over to any of my played households I've built nice houses for 'cause my items will not be safe. It's fun to play him tho and have him steal items.

Hopping from TS4 to FFXIV and not knowing how the camera controls work anymore.