#stress clocks
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I'm looking for TTRPGs that have... for lack of a better way of putting it, mechanics where like, your character is under a profound amount of stress, and if they don't manage it and additional stress that comes in, they'll break or snap and do something horrible and then have to deal with the consequences. So something that mechanically 'forces' your character to do something they'd normally never do due to external stressors.
THEME: Stress Clocks.
Oh this is my shit. Get ready for a Hall of Fame style of recommendations from me this week (as well as a bit of self-advertising)!
Also a note: this was (mostly) a chance for me to get very excited about a number of games that have specifically inspired me, and I am aware that it means that I’ve kind of neglected certain houses of design as a result. For this post especially, I encourage anyone who can think of a game that fits this request that isn’t listed here to give it a shout out in the reblog and the replies!
Mothership, by Tuesday Knight Games.
Mothership is a sci-fi horror roleplaying game where you and your crew try to survive in the most inhospitable environment in the universe: outer space! You'll excavate dangerous derelict spacecraft, explore strange unknown worlds, exterminate hostile alien life, and examine the horrors that encroach upon your every move.
Mothership inflicts Stress upon you with every failure, and hitting your Stress cap reduces your most relevant Stat or Save, thereby consistency reducing your chances of success with every roll. That’s not all though - your Stress cap also makes it harder and harder to stop your character from panicking, by representing the threshold you must beat every time you make a Panic Check. If you roll less than or equal to your current Stress rating, you must take on a new Panic condition.
You make Panic checks whenever you roll a critical failure, but also whenever you witness something traumatic. These conditions don’t necessarily force your character to do anything, but they represent the toll that being in a constantly hostile environment takes on your mind and body. You have to work harder and harder to prevent your character from attacking allies, giving in to the demands of whatever is haunting their psyche, or going straight-up catatonic.
You can also try to mitigate this stress and panic by resting and doing something that helps relieve the pressure - having sex, taking drugs, praying, etc. There’s even a Shore Leave mechanic for long-term games that allow your character to turn their stress into a character improvement.
In some respect, these conditions remind me of the Morality and Clarity tracks of Chronicles of Darkness and Changeling: the Lost, but with less of the errant language around mental health. The dice rolls also make the consequences much less predictable, so if you want to be surprised by what exactly causes your character to snap, I recommend Mothership.
Urban Shadows, by Magpie Games.
The streets bleed shadows as the supernatural politics of the city threaten to swallow you whole. Will you die a hero—a savior for those who have never had enough—or live long enough to become the villain? Will you fight the darkness…or give in for power?
The choice is yours.
Urban Shadows is an urban fantasy tabletop roleplaying game in which mortals and monsters vie for control of a modern-day city, a political battleground layered just under the reality we think we know. Vampires, faeries, hunters, and wizards fight to carve out a piece of the streets and skyscrapers, ready to make deals with all those who have something to offer.
The ‘consequences’ track for Urban Shadows is called Corruption. Each character playbook in this game has a couple of special moves called Corruption Moves, and when you start playing, you start with two Drama Moves the tie into this. The Drama Moves describe specific situations in which your character must mark Corruption. If you fill your Corruption track, you take a Corruption Move. Corruption moves give you special powers that are super-effective, but fill up your Corruption track faster. You can only fill your Corruption track so many times - fill it one too many and your character must be retired, because they’ve just become an antagonist.
I really like how this feels like a slow descent that speeds up the more you lean into it. Your character is consistently tempted to give into their darker sides in order to keep themselves afloat in this unforgiving city - but lean too far and they become exactly the kind of person they were hoping to stop.
Antiquarian Adventures, by acegiak.
Antiquarian Adventures is a pulpy tomb raiding and treasure hunting Blades In The Dark hack in the style of Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and The Mummy.
So Antiquarian Adventures is a pulp game. It’s not grim dark in any sense of the word, but I think it introduces a unique use of the Blades’ Stress mechanic in a special “ability” that happens when your character uses up all of their Composure (this is the “Stress” of this gam). Once you’ve used up all of your Composure, you cannot resist anything that comes your way and your dice pools are reduce to 0 until you do something (specific to your playbook) that usually invites a new consequence.
For example, The Veteran’s version of this is called “Not As Quick As I Used To Be,” which hamstrings the character until the player allows themself to be left behind or separated from their comrades. This kind of mechanic has directly inspired one of the projects that I’m working on, and I think that if you tweak the amount of Composure your character has, or makes the reaction harsher, you could absolutely make it work for a game that’s a bit grittier than Antiquarian Adventures.
Last Fleet, by Black Armada Games
The last of humanity are fleeing across space, pursued by the implacable inhuman adversary that destroyed their civilisation. They're outnumbered and outgunned. Supplies are running low. The actions of a brave few could be all that stands between humanity and extinction.
Welcome to the Last Fleet.
Last Fleet is a PBTA tabletop roleplaying game where you play brave pilots, officers, engineers, politicians and journalists struggling to hold the human race - and themselves - together under unbelievable pressure. The game focuses on action, intrigue and drama in this high-stakes situation. You'll fight space battles, search for enemy infiltrators, tackle supply shortages and navigate faction politics. You'll strive against your own self-doubt and sometimes crack under the stress.
Last Fleet has something called a Pressure Mechanic, which can be used as a player resource, but also activates when you take weather harm or get called out on your shit. Hit your cap? Clear your Pressure and take a Breaking Point action, which often puts you at odds with the other characters, making the situation worse. The whole situation is a designed to act as a pressure cooker, making the situation harder and harder to bear until you finally pop. I love it, and it’s also a direct influence on one of my games.
Apocalypse Keys, by Rae Nedjadi (@temporalhiccup)
Unmask your feelings, uncage your ruination… The Doomsday Clock is ticking down and emotions run high as you and your team of DIVISION agents struggle to find the Keys before the villainous Harbingers unlock the Doors of Power and bring about the apocalypse.
As an Omen class monster, you are the only thing capable of holding back the apocalypse. Combat occult threats and investigate supernatural phenomena alongside your team of supernatural agents working for the shadowy DIVISION. But in a world that shuns monsters like you, only your deepest, most heartfelt bonds can grant you the power to stop those who seek to unlock Doom’s Door.
Taking cues from Urban Shadows, Apocalypse Keys gives you a Ruin track to follow as your monsters try to stop the world from ending. The Ruin track gives you a Ruin advance every time you fill it, unlocking Ruin Moves, permanently marking character conditions, and eventually forcing your character to turn into a Harbinger if you let it. Your Ruin moves are powerful and dark, generating even more Ruin when you use them, and in some cases (like with the Hungry’s "Only Hunger Remains" move), your character can actually halt the current mystery as they get close enough to becoming a Harbinger that the entire party will have to work together to stop you from ripping the world apart.
Protect the Child, by Mint-Rabbit (that’s me!).
Humans have always been protective of their young, sometimes overly so. Humans have also always feared that which might make their young strange or different, and so insist that only humans can raise their own young. Monsters cannot raise human young. This is known.
You have a human baby. You cannot find its parents. What is even worse, is that this child has powers, powers that others covet, and so everyone wants it. If you want to prove that you’re not the heartless monster that everyone says you are, that means you’ll have to raise it, at least until you find someone who is better suited to it than you.
You are creatures of fur, scales and fangs. You have claws that can rend flesh, faces that can crack mirrors, howls that can cause ears to bleed.
And your charge wants a blankie.
Protect the Child is a Forged in the Dark game about monsters caring for a young human, a human who contains strange and mystical powers that make them a valuable asset in any monster crew. The setting and factions present in this game are flexible: you might be aliens in a far-flung future galaxy, fantasy monsters from rival kingdoms, or even everyday wild animals that fear human society.
Alright, so this is my baby and I can tell you exactly how to push your character towards some really unhealthy coping mechanisms. In Protect the Child, your character is constantly battling the stress of being a parent. Stress, like in other Forged in the Dark games, is a player resource, but it’s also inflicted on you when you resist consequences, and when the kid has an emotional breakdown.
Should your stress clock fill up, you’ll have to take a reaction from the list attached to your playbook before you can take more Stress, and these reactions range from doing something for selfish gains to lashing out to your fellow monsters to being fully monstrous at exactly the worst time. Your tools to manage this stress are also limited - you have to be willing to confront your fellow monsters and be honest about your relationships with each-other if you want to stop your emotional kettle from whistling all of the time. If you want a game where building relationships is the only way to deal with the pressures of monster-parenting, then check out Protect the Child!
#stress clocks#tabletop games#indie ttrpgs#game recommendations#dnd#asks#indie ttrpg#protect the child
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i keep getting youtube recommendations for videos with clickbait titles about how dark and disturbing the wicked book is from people trying to capitalize on the movie's marketing, which is the way of the world and all, but i just want to say that the correct way to experience the wicked book for the first time is to be a tween/young teen really into the musical and go "whoa this is based on a book?? i have to read it!!" and get some well-meaning but blissfully unaware relative to buy it for you only for you to be faced with the graphic puppet sex clock in chapter one. if you're over the age of fourteen years old it's already too late for you to get the full wicked book experience.
#lifeblogs#wicked#i do also think people really sensationalize it though which is kind of sad when part of the point is that like. stuff we view as fucked up#is still part of life#so much so that it must exist even in one of the most sanitized children's book settings#like this post is a joke but the clickbait is genuinely annoying me for that reason#cannot stress this enough also: the graphic puppet sex clock is the basis for the stage musical's set
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A recent illustration I made to submit to a show about disability
I wanted to depict pain and work. It wasn't selected, but I still wanted to share for any who relate 💕
#my art#disability#chronic pain#chronically ill#disabled artist#auto immune disorder#invisible disability#disability art#chronically ill artist#illustration#artists on tumblr#original art#I wanted to depict the stress of being chronically ill in productivity culture#called 'gotta clock in'#everything is fine energy#fire tw#body horror tw /
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so ive been playing the L death note ds game and the L communicator mode is so funny. Literally all you can do is feed him treats and make him say random lines at you. to restock treats you have to wait on the blank menu screen for five minutes at a time for watari to bring more food.
konami said u will keep your ds open on this blank screen for hours just to feed a fake L death note treats so that he'll tell you he loves you.
and you know what i am. i had to pause in the middle of writing this because watari came back with more food.
#its cute though it uses your system's clock and he makes comments abt the time and the weather#and theres special foods that unlock on holidays#his dialogue changes throughout the day. so u just have to keep coming back#i think it is really funny but i think its rlly nice#the game itself can be very high stress ur disarming bombs on a time limit#so it is just like a little fun thing to do. to like encourage u to take brain breaks#& 'time limit' is more like Moves limit u have a limited number of Things u can do before time Runs Out#its a fun game. i want to speedrun it#death note#🩸
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please be nice to kalvin brounfuck
#friends at the table#palisade#accidentally drew brnine in the hit clocks man meme pose#thats fine clocks are stressful#buncha freaks <3
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I’ve said this elsewhere, but I think it does bear stating outright:
I absolutely agree with the reading of Tommy’s “MY attention?” as being surprise that he was after Tommy not Eddie…
But there IS another reading of that: that Tommy is surprised that BUCK was trying to get his attention, rather than TOMMY getting Buck’s attention. We don’t see as much of that, of course… but that would also make sense with how ready Tommy was to kiss him immediately after that.
#I wanna stress: I’m NOT saying that the ‘not Eddie?!’ reading is wrong#in fact I think it’s probably the more likely correct one#just that there are in fact readings that don’t require#Tommy to have clocked the Buddie situationship#… also just because Tommy had a feeling Buck was peacocking for Eddie#DOESN’T mean that he is sure this has no future#there is every chance that after Buck said this#Tommy took him AT HIS WORD that he was after Tommy not Eddie#remember: Tommy doesn’t have five seasons of background on this#he’s just been around a couple weeks and seen Buck being a mess#bucktommy#tommy kinard#evan buckley#buck buckley#9-1-1#911#9-1-1 abc#911 abc
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are any of the brothers still in contact with totoko or chibita in postgrad plan? also, i assume most of them live in different wards of tokyo now, but did any of them leave tokyo entirely?
osomatsu and totoko are still in contact! she supplies the fish for the restaurant he works at, so he's started taking over pickup duty so he can see her on the clock. she more or less works fulltime at the fish shop now
and osomatsu's shift is usually restaurant dinner shift -> konbini night shift, but on the rare instances he gets put on lunch shift he'll go to see chibita after work. trade some oden for some fried rice
choro is still in intermittent contact with totoko, but they don't talk often, and she's out of contact with the rest of the brothers
and chibita hasnt seen any of them besides oso, which is why he still has all his hair.
they're all still in tokyo, but jyushi often leaves the region for work, so he's pretty hard to get a hold of
#that's a work moped btw not oso's personal one. he got his license after he learned that having one would let him see totoko on the clock <3#totoko on a few occasions has seen the others when she's wandering on her off days. but she doesnt know how to approach them#she's a little bit lonely. who said that#chibita's thriving though. no stress. in his lane. running at a profit#ty for the ask 🫶#postgrad plan au#png#1#yowai totoko#chibita
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This part focuses on Quincey in particular instead of everyone, "Quincey raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at her intently", and I wonder if it connects with what he had said before: "And I promise you, too, that I shall make all certain, for if I am only doubtful I shall take it that the time has come!" Because Quincey is the one who always clocks on the situation at hand first, and patrols for threats (and if he spots one he shoots first asks questions later)
He does clock things very fast and takes action just as quickly. When he's facing the right way.
But in this scene, our favorite Texan isn't looking the right way or even reacting safely as much as he is quick about it. Even if his reaction was entirely innocent surprise, the fact that he made clear how ready he was to serve Mina's euthanasia request--seemingly with more readiness than even Dr. Jack Malpractice who must 'steel' himself to the idea--has absolutely stuck in Jonathan's mind.
Hence Jonathan death gripping the kukri as Quincey gets (to his eyes) the wrong kind of interested.
The whole story could have gone very nasty very fast if Mr. 'You've yeed your last haw' Morris had made a wrong move at that moment.
#I don't know about the rest of the room but if I had been sitting in there I know I would have been sweating a flood out of stress#I am mentally editing my view of the cast as-is and electing Arthur the default 'Guy who is actually clocking the Jonathan situation'#because for all that Quincey is observant and fast#he is not pinging all the red flags; not enough to keep his peripheral on Mr. Harker#and not fast enough to match speed with the guy who almost split Dracula open like a loaf of bread#Arthur 'Only Proven Reader of Characters Pulling a Performance' Holmwood doesn't even have a real 'act' to read here#Jonathan is radiating ready-to-murder-to-guard-my-wife vibes and seemingly NO ONE ELSE IS PICKING THEM UP#Art: 'Hey. Hey is anyone else seeing this? Anyone?'#Jack: 'Of course! I recorded every second of the dreamy manfulness uwu'#Quincey: 'Nothing wrong with a man keeping his weapon ready at all times c:'#Van Helsing: 'While we must be so cautious in our consideration of decapitating and impaling dear Mina to spare his poor ears I have full#--trust in our good and dutiful friend Jonathan :3'#Art: ...#Jonathan: 👁️👁️🔪#Mina; blinking in Morse code: ('Please keep things chill please please please')#Art: 'I will go throw some money at people about this I think. And take a sedative or three.'#anyway#quincey morris#jonathan harker#mina harker#dracula#re: dracula#dracula daily
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nmj is so fucking stupid because im sitting at work, heart racing, all because alex said tim was on a tv show with pudsey
#like GENUINELY stressed for tim when alex said that. what the fuck#no more jockeys#alex horne#tim key#mark watson#AND MARK DIDNT EVEN CLOCK IT????#CRAZY#STUNNING WIN FOR KEY
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Understandably So no one mentions charles when talking about the Logan movie and again Understandably So This Aint Bout Him however i do confess that as someone who had never seen Logan until like. a month ago when i was binging all the movies and without knowing a single thing about it aside from laura i cant lie i was in fact jumpscared by him being there. especially for at least like 3/4s of the movie
#xmen#logan movie#snap chats#i be ramblin today hello ...#it was a pleasant jumpscare. yk until he died. after realizing he committed atrocities by accident 😭😭💀 OLD MAN NOOO#but no please LIKE I READ THE DESCRIPTION WHEN GOING TO WATCH RIGHT#AND I WAS JUST THINKING 'oh he'll probably be here for like twenty minutes. wdym he's here for way longer than that'#i THINK years ago i REMEMBER seeing a screenshot of the hotel bit with laura and charles but again that was years ago#and i might be tricking myself maybe its a false memory jealvvelka either way i just know they were cute :(#point is he was here for. i cant even say So Little cause again He Was Here For An Hour And Thirty Minutes Out Of Two Hours#and lets be clear 'snap has your brain molded that much you know exactly how much screen time charles gets in the movies'#girl no not yet i only know exactly when he punches his clock cause i had to keep restarting the movie cause it kept pausing vjAELKAJE#and it just so happened to struggle literally like. ten minutes after he dies- like when logan was dealing with x24 THAT part#so rude for that.. anyway I Repeat i miss charles and laura bein cute :(#it wasnt a lot but it was just sweet.. i always like how charles always got that Professor in his soul with these movies#like in dofp when logan's losing it after. getting future ptsd jvALKVLAJ??K charles is there to ground him#despite being. Like That vjeaLKj like sir please ily. i will accept the Youre On Acid answer youre trying your best#and then with THIS movie evidently charles is having. the worst time upstairs#but he's still super sweet with laura like oh stop you grandpa im gonna throw up#and to STRESS. they were EVIL about that wholesome dinner bit like :((( oh to see the fam happy and safe again :(((#like im throwing up frankly. people were right this movie IS sad i underestimated their assessment 😭#to lighten the mood in my heart. charles really do be an old man in this movie hes such a menace to logan JELKAK#god. Most Normal X-Men Movie Watcher Focuses On Professor X During The Movie About Logan VEJLKJA#ok im done. sorry i just keep replayin that bit in my head where theyre in the car and logans just 'Did You Take Your Meds SHOW'#like pelase. jaeRLKEaj ok im gonna try drawing i looked at my wall long enough and i think i can draw something
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genuinely struggling to feel any excitement about the jo gigs i’m attending thanks to the insane fans who choose to queue even since midnight at the day of the gig
#idek why i thought the ee tickets would kinda solve the situation#but it only pushed people with ga to queue even more#not to talk about some people with ee who show up at fuck o clock on the queue too like hello you bought that ticket to avoid queueing for#an insane amount of hours#i don’t talk about the people with ee who show up in the morning i mean everyone who may be arriving before 8am like huh?#and like i have ee for Milan but now i’m scared#it’s not even about getting barricade i’ve dealt with the idea i’ll never have barricade at a jo gig and i don’t care#but this is stressful af yk#sorry i’m just very frustrated and want to rant but i also feel like i have no right to rant or what and AAAAAAAAAAA#this is emma speaking
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I appreciate that you put thought into whether you can put enough time/resources into a new dog though. some people adopt pets with no plans for how they'll care for them but it's nice to see you taking it seriously. idk does that make sense. serious dog ownership
HEY HI I APPRECIATE THAT SO MUCH because I do try really hard to be a Responsible dog owner. everyone remembers, I was over-preparing for the day we brought Hugo home as a puppy lmao
#I clocked like 40 hours of watching training videos#and guess what. absorbed it all.#all that info? it's In Me now. I just Have It#being overprepared for an aminal IS good. it stresses me out when people just. Get A Puppy#but they don't have any plans for what to... do with it?#idk perhaps I'm a freak. but Hugo has such a tight schedule#and I had really concrete plans for his training and upbringing#and I feel like all of it was to his benefit. because he's so sweet and well behaved#sergle answers
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I join in on doing the screen redraw of the tf:one trailer and man.. am I struggling a bit with their bodies especially their helms. Maybe just a few more screen redraws would be easier to handle lol, but I’m not ready with the rendering progress with me and my non existent rendering style lol.
“Work in process” banner created by @cafekitsune
#I made myself on doing 6#so I am making 6#even tho I want to make some videos for the clock app#like I could do this and then do another but I don’t do that type of multitasking#I get stressed if I do so#artists on tumblr#digital art#digital aritst#procreate#centauri art#transformers#maccadams#transformers one#tf one#art wip#current wip#orion pax#optimus prime#Ariel transformers#elita one
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im gonna be honest, im not okay, mel. the newest episode has officially made me a nervous wreck and i anxiously await the next one but i dont think i can survive until then
i almost accidentally deleted this because you reminded me of it. /silly i'm not okay either, anon. i'm an anxious mess right now, trying to distract myself with other things to not think about the fact that i need to wait a month for the next episode. those three ruined me beyond repair...
#☆ inbox .#i will not recover btw#i keep seeing people pointing out stuff i didnt even notice#like i was so stressed i didnt even clock in that parrot threw away the spyglass#diabolical#absolutely insane#i gotta admit the trio (dean parrot and wifies) is growing on me#if you ever saw me slander dean i apologize#do they have a name already? they should#i propose compass trio#im bad with those but thats the best i could come up with
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One day you will reach a point where someone will misgender you and instead of feeling the jab of disappointment or fear or mockery, you will only feel confusion or bewilderment or even just...nothing, whether you correct them or not. And you will realize how far you've come, and how resilient you've grown, how much comfortable you are in your own skin.
#spitblaze says things#i complain too much about transgender stuff. lets get some positivity going#anyway yadda yadda usual disclaimer. i cannot speak to everyones experiences or lives. im not psychic i dont know ur circumstances#i just know that reaching the point of some terf misgendering you to get a rise out of you will one day be less dehumanizing#and more like. annoying or pathetic#yeah thats great i will never be a man uh huh sure. u got any better material i dont have all day#or like someone will just...casually misgender you. you will be in the street and someone will 'sir' or 'maam' you wrong#and instead of stressing about what made them clock you you'll just be like 'what'#and if ur still in thr place where ur not sure if you will EVER be in a spot where itll be either chill or confusing#remember. cis people get misgendered too#men with long hair will get ma'amed. women with broad shoulders will get sir'd.#there are individual pieces of clothing that will make people gender you a certain way and you will not know why#ultimately there are a million things that could cause someone to clock you or anyone else incorrectly and its 1000000% subjective
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mm i think my mental health has been declining rapidly the past few weeks hahaa
#i might be losing it a little#im laughing but its really stressing me the fuck out#you ever feel like everything is falling apart really slowly and you cant figure out how to fix it bc nothing is really wrong#which by definition means that the thing Wrong HAS to be you. so what do you do. what do i do with that#little things have been eating away at me since like. basically my birthday and i feel like smth is constantly prying at me#like sitting in a room and slowly being driven insane by the ticking clock but its a bunch of small things a bunch of clocks ticking and i#cant turn them off so i just have to wait but what am i waiting for IM the one who has to act but i feel frozen so im just waiting and sit#ting with these GODDAMN FUCKIGN CLOCKS and im. waiting for smth#idk. idkidkdidkdidkdidk#mmmmmmmm#vent#i miss my mama
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