#the system is *made* for campaigns with all three elements

[alicesoinions]

so a thing about the "5e can do anything" mantra is. any tabletop RPG can do anything; but every RPG is also designed for a specific experience.

you can pick any rpg book and hack its rules away into whatever sort of adventure you want; but the result probably won't be as good as if you used a game properly designed for that

and there's this weirdly common sort of thinking that views D&D as completely moldable, and you can change or remove rules as you see fit, but the rules of other RPGs are set in stone, and one little thing you don't like is grounds for ignoring the entire system

for whatever you want to do, there's probably a good system for it - but also, any RPG can be altered if it's not quite what you're looking for

[theresattrpgforthat]

Mint Plays Games: Household

March saw the beginning of a new multi-session series with my home group, and this time we're hopping through a number of different dimensions, using the Planedawn Orphans campaign toolkit. The basic premise is that the characters are hopping into the lives of people inside various worlds, looking for items or relics that they can use to build a brand-new world, a place where all of them can start over. Our first world visited was Household!

Household is a roleplaying game by Two Little Mice, about tiny fae folk going on big adventures in an old, abandoned house. Players choose from four different kinds of folk and five different Professions to determine their faerie gifts and their personal strengths. The game consists of rolling a number of d6s in the hopes of getting pairs, three of a kind, or, if you're lucky, four matching numbers.

We had two different investigations, one looking out for a missing noble's son, and the other trying to figure out where a missing prize bumblebee had gone. Household chosen to represent the "Air" element from the checklist in Planedawn Orphans, so we decided that the relic that made the most sense for this setting was "A Pair of Perfect Wings".

We had two different groups of adventurers, both of them given advice to blend in to whatever events were going on around them when they showed up in the other world. Since some of the players signed up for Household, but not the for the inter-dimensional travel, we decided that their characters would be permanent fixtures of the world, new friends and companions that the Orphans made along the way.

I find the setting for Household to be very charming, and the art certainly helps you visualize all of the different places and main characters. I think the set-up of the game is very good for folks who want a lot of help coming up with adventures, because Household is written as a history that has already happened; the events of the book will come to pass unless the player characters decide to do something about them.

The rules themselves are easy to learn, but this might be a downside for folks who like complex character builds with a lot of pieces that can be tweaked. Your character is pretty simple in Household, and while you'll improve as you gain experience, I don't see a lot of big changes happening over the course of play. Then again, we only played a couple of sessions, so I might be putting the cart before the horse.

Household absolutely delivers on the atmosphere it promises, but based on our limited run of it, I think the world outshines the rules. We're looking at playing another game in the same rule-system down the road, and I'm interested to see what changes have been made, and whether or not they give me more cool things to do. I'd be happy to revisit the House in the future, but I'd also love to run some other rules-systems inside the setting!

[usafphantom2]

U.S. Army Officer Confirms Russian A-50 Radar Jet Was Shot Down With Patriot Missile

The U.S. Army colonel described how Ukrainian Patriot operators staged a “SAMbush” to bring down the A-50 in January of this year.

Thomas NewdickPUBLISHED Jun 10, 2024 6:55 PM EDT

The Beriev A-50U ‘Mainstay’ airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft based on the Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft belonging to Russian Air Force in the air. ‘U’ designation stands for extended range and advanced digital radio systems. This aircraft was named after Sergey Atayants – Beriev’s chief designer. (Photo by: aviation-images.com/Universal Images Group via Getty Images).

A U.S.-made Patriot air defense system was responsible for shooting down a Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft over the Sea of Azov on January 14, according to a U.S. Army officer. The high-value aircraft, one of only a handful immediately available to Russia, was the first of two brought down in the space of five weeks. Previously, a Ukrainian official confirmed to TWZ that the second A-50 was brought down by a Soviet-era S-200 (SA-5 Gammon) long-range surface-to-air missile.

Speaking on a panel at the United States Field Artillery Association’s Fires Symposium 2024 last week, Col. Rosanna Clemente, Assistant Chief of Staff at the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, confirmed that the first A-50 fell to a German-provided Patriot system, in what she described as a “SAMbush,” or surface-to-air missile ambush.

“They have probably about a battalion of Patriots operating in Ukraine right now,” Col. Clemente explained. “Some of it’s being used to protect static sites and critical national infrastructure. Others are being moved around and doing some really, really historic things that I’ve haven’t seen in 22 years of being an air defender, and one of them is a SAMbush … they’re doing that with extremely mobile Patriot systems that were donated by the Germans, because the systems are all mounted on the trucks. So they’re moving around and they’re using these types of systems, bringing them close to the plot … and stretching the very, very edges of the kinematic capabilities of that system to engage the first A-50 C2 [command and control] system back in January.”

Fifteen crew members were reportedly killed aboard the A-50.

Col. Clemente also provided some other interesting details of how the Ukrainians worked up their capabilities with these particular systems, which included a period of validation training involving the U.S. Army in Poland in April 2023.

Elements of a German Patriot air defense system stand on a snow-covered field in Miaczyn, southeastern Poland, in April 2023. Photo by Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance via Getty Images

According to Col. Clemente, the German soldiers tasked with training the Ukrainians on the mobile Patriot systems woke up the Ukrainian battery in the middle of the night, marched them to a location where they fought a simulated air battle, and then made them march again. “I was like, ‘Huh, wonder why they did that?’ And it was a month later, they conducted some of their first ambushes where they’re shooting down Russian Su-27s along the Russian border.”

As we reported at the time, the use of Patriot to engage the radar plane over the Sea of Azov seemed likely, especially as it followed the pattern of an anti-access counter-air campaign that Ukraine was already waging against Russian military aircraft using the same air defense system.

Accordingly, in May 2023, Ukraine began pushing forward Patriot batteries to reach deep into Russian-controlled airspace. Most dramatically, a string of Russian aircraft was downed over Russian territory that borders northeastern Ukraine. Among them may have been the Su-27s (or perhaps another Flanker-variant aircraft) that Col. Clemente mentioned.

A screen capture from a Ukrainian Air Force video shows images of three Russian helicopters and two Russian fighters painted on the side of a Patriot air defense system. The three helicopter and two jet images bear the date May 13, 2023. Defense Industry of Ukraine

While the use of German-supplied weapons within Russian territory previously led to friction between Berlin and Kyiv, German officials more recently approved the use of Patriot to target aircraft in Russian airspace.

In December 2023, similar tactics were used against tactical jets flying over the northwestern Black Sea.

These kinds of highly mobile operations were then further proven with the destruction of the first A-50, on the night of January 14.

A Russian Il-22M radio-relay aircraft was also apparently engaged by Ukrainian air defenses the same night, confirmed by photo evidence of the aircraft after it had made it back to a Russian air base. It’s not clear whether the Patriot system was also responsible for inflicting damage on this aircraft, but it’s certainly a probable explanation.

A photo of the Il-22M which purportedly made an emergency landing in Anapa, in the Krasnodar region of western Russia. via X

Both incidents appear to have taken place in the western part of the Azov Sea and, as we discussed at the time, the distances involved suggested that, if Patriot was used, it was likely at the very limits of its engagement envelope.

Based on Col. Clemente’s account, it seems likely that the Patriot system in question was not only being pushed to the limits of its capabilities but was likely being deployed very far forward in an especially bold tactical move.

As we wrote at the time: “Considering risking a Patriot system or even a remote launcher right at the front is unlikely, and these airborne assets were likely orbiting at least some ways out over the water, this shot was more likely to have been around 100 miles, give or take a couple dozen miles.”

Of course, all this also depends on exactly where the targeted aircraft were at the time of the engagement.

A map showing the Sea of Azov as well as Robotyne, which is really the closest Ukraine regularly operates to that body of water, a distance of roughly 55 miles. Google Earth

Once again, the A-50 shootdown may be the most important single victory achieved so far by Ukrainian-operated Patriot systems, but it was part of a highly targeted campaign waged against the Russian Aerospace Forces which has seemingly included multiple long-range downings of tactical aircraft.

The Ukrainian tactics first found success in pushing back Russian airpower and degrading its ability to launch direct attacks and even those using standoff glide bombs, which have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian towns.

The same anti-access tactics extended to Russia’s small yet vital AEW&C fleet have arguably had an even greater effect. After all, these aircraft offer a unique look-down air picture that extends deep into Ukrainian-controlled territory. As well as spotting incoming cruise missile and drone attacks, and low-flying fighter sorties, they provide command and control and situational awareness for Russian fighters and air defense batteries. According to Ukrainian officials, the radar planes are also used to direct Russian cruise missile and drone strikes.

Dmitry Terekhov/Wikimedia Commons

The importance of these force-multipliers has seen earlier efforts to disable them, with A-50s in Belarus having been targeted by forces allied with Ukraine.

The recent appearance of a photo showing a Ukrainian S-300PS (SA-10 Grumble) air defense system marked with an A-50 symbol also indicates that previous attempts were made to bring these aircraft down using this Soviet-era surface-to-air missile, too.

With all this in mind, it’s not surprising that Ukraine’s highly valued, long-reaching Patriot air defense system was tasked against the A-50.

In demonstrating the vulnerability of Russian aircraft patrolling over the Sea of Azov, the January 15 shootdown might have been expected to push these assets back. That may have happened, but another example was then shot down at an even greater distance from the front line, on February 23. The fact that the second A-50 came down over the Krasnodar region fueled speculation that it may have been a ‘friendly fire’ incident.

However, Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR), subsequently confirmed to TWZ that the second A-50 — as well as a Tu-22M3 Backfire bomber, in a separate incident — were brought down by the Soviet-era S-200 long-range surface-to-air missile system.

Undoubtedly, there are more details still to emerge about the shootdowns of the two A-50s, not to mention other engagements that the Ukrainian Patriot has been involved in.

However, Col. Rosanna Clemente’s comments confirm that the Ukrainian Air Force is using these critical systems in a sometimes-daring manner, using limited numbers of assets not only to protect key static infrastructure but also to maraud closer to the front lines and bring down high-profile Russian aerial targets. Not only does this force Russia to adapt its airpower tactics for its own survival, reducing its effectiveness, but it also provides another means for Ukraine to fight back against numerical odds that are stacked against it.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

[utilitycaster]

Your post about the religious issue and the separation between audience/cast/characters hit on something important, I think. I was really annoyed about the discussion on thursday but I think I developed a negative reaction to the general matter because of the "discourse" and some opinions in the fandom. And that's definitely something I have to untangle. But I also feel a disconnect to the ingame discussion. And of course, that's probably got to do with how the players engage with this vs how I perceive it. But I do not understand how people that haven't really had anything to do with religion just go "yeah, no, why not screw the gods" so consistently. And I don't know if I missed something important about the world, the context, the discussion, or if that is just something going against my personal tastes and the campaign just focusing on a subject matter (rebellion against gods instead of against religious institutions) that I won't enjoy as much. I mean....did I miss anything about that? Because at this point I'm really not sure anymore.

See, I get it because we're rehashing some elements of the Team Wildemount half of the party split, and as we've all mentioned the fandom discourse is being brought up again. That said, I think a lot of people are overstating the way the PCs feel about the gods because it's not as all in as, say, Pike or Caduceus (and because people are refusing to take FCG's explorations of faith seriously, and the various dumb complications the fandom discourse has always had are still presence). Like...even FRIDA was both phrasing it as a temporary sleep rather than a permanent death and it came out not long after that FRIDA was very obviously projecting their own anger at their own situation onto the gods, and that Deanna had been taking the position of defending the gods. I've seen multiple people say Deanna is anti-god when in fact she's extremely pro-god, but she has complicated feelings and she's overwhelmingly works over faith which is very difficult for people from a faith over works background to grasp.

Similarly, I don't see Deni$e, Bor'Dor, and Prism as particularly anti-god so much as apathetic and not thinking this through. Like, they strike me as how apolitical people in the real world often act. People will often say "the government never did anything for me" but most of them are not actually, when it comes down to it, radical anarchists who openly support tearing down the system; they're just complaining. Like, Deni$e has no love for Ludinus either, and all three of those characters are mostly invested in just getting home and not being involved, and "screw the gods" is just a thing to say rather than an actual philosophical position. It's very stupid when fans are like "what did the GODS ever do for the characters" since they have the benefit of distance, and should have some passing familiarity with theological/philosophical discussions of free will, but it's completely understandable when characters do it.

Honestly what I find more interesting, personally, is that the party was so suspicious of what was going on that they accidentally got press-ganged into the rebellion whereas they could have just gone to the inn for the night and felt things out more subtly. And to be clear I don't think this is a bad thing, nor do I think this was railroaded (party made a series of decisions that led to what happened) but I'm way more invested right now in the story unfolding about the forms of extremism and power and poorly handled activism/community relations. The gods are honestly a backdrop.

[dungeonsandblorbos]

Campaign/Character Intro: The Cauldron & Kettle Questing Co. vs Chaos, feat. Jun Vyardes

Status: Completed System: DnD5e

About: This was my second campaign with my university TTRPG group (the same folks as The Orphic Uprising/Amazonomachy), and ran a full 69 sessions (nice) mostly during the COVID shutdowns. It was set in the world of Acquisitions, Incorporated, an actual play podcast by Penny Arcade based around the idea of classic adventuring parties but make it ~capitalism~, and primarily played out of the official Acquisitions, Inc. playbook, plus some additional homebrew expansions and a nice little extra homebrew arc on the end that introduced us to the incredible chaos of the D10,000 wild magic table. The story ended up going real hard on the queer found family vibes, and there were several story beats that made us all real emotional together, which was really cool to be able to do while we were all forced to play remotely because, ya know, pandemic.

Genres: Medieval fantasy, Corporate fantasy Rating: Teen General content warnings: strong language, mature humor, immature humor, drug and alcohol consumption, fantasy violence. Posts may not be tagged due to the generally mild nature of most of this campaign's content. Tags: #cauldron & kettle questing co., #jun vyardes, #tim and jun

story and character details under the cut

The Story Our story here began when our newly assembled party was mistaken for an established, experienced adventuring party and sent by Acq, Inc. to investigate a collapsed tunnel in Waterdeep, where we found a piece of a strange but powerful artifact with no clue as to its origins or where the rest of it was. There were a few hiccups, but we were ultimately successful, so as soon as we were done with that dungeon, we were sent down to Phandalin to take over an abandoned Acq, Inc. franchise location and investigate the disappearance of its old party.

There, we established The Cauldron & Kettle Questing Company (and The Cauldron & Kettle Cafe) and grew into quite the accomplished little Acq, Inc. subsidiary! We also began unravelling a dangerous conspiracy involving an eldritch-worshipping cult determined to open a rift in the universe to bring their gods to the material plane and destroy reality as we know it. No pressure for a bunch of newbie adventurers, right?

The Blorbos

I played Jun Vyardes (depicted above), a 30-year-old half-elf light cleric/bard. Having grown up the daughter of a traveling bard, she was great with change, but never learned how to put down roots. When she left Daddy Bard's side and devoted herself to Vestia, a human goddess of domestic fires and revelry, she thought she'd found her home. For some time, she really was content there—but the road still called to her, so with her goddess's blessing, she set out on a new adventure, and joined Acq, Inc. It only took her a few months of questing with her new party that for her, home would never be a place—it always had been and always would be the people she loved. Jun was fiercely devoted to her friends, hyping them up as often as she sassed them. She had some killer recipes for fantasy edibles, played a mean fiddle, and was a talented firedancer. And despite being a cleric, she had the worst Religion bonus of the entire party because she never actually went to any kind of school thanks to the whole "travelling bard childhood" thing. She was technically supposed to be support in combat, but she wore medium armor and could throw fireballs and figured it would be easier to help her friends while fighting right next to them, so she very often rushed in first. And that only got her nearly killed like, three times, so it's fine. It's totally fine. Jun is fine.

The other key members of the Cauldron & Kettle Questing Co. were Tim Cobbletoss, a mild-mannered half-orc barbarian raised by halflings and Jun's half-brother, played by my lovely husband @somethingclevermahogony; Taku, a whooping crane aaracokra and path of the four elements monk who hit like a tank but couldn't take hits himself, played by the fantastic @ostrich-runner; and Briny, a perky not-goblin-anymore bloodhunter who loved learning new things, their friends, the sea, and gambling, although they didn't actually really know how to gamble.

We also had our own B-team of NPCs, consisting of Gorkow the goblin with a massive sword he called his "butter knife"; Noriel the wet cat mandolin-player; Min the messenger; Susan, the oddly intelligent ogre; and Susan's two very fluffy dire wolves. Other recurring favorite NPCs included Jun's totally not girlfriend, Eleni; Jun and Tim's father, Girasol Vyardes; Taku's baby siblings Tela and Teleku; Tim's favorite erotica romance author, Dorkas Nimblewood; and our beloved Tea Trolley, a steam-powered vehicle shaped like a teapot that we used as a battering ram in multiple combat encounters.

[amanicfanaticsfanartac]

Took some advice from a friend and decided To take this art thing less seriously and have some fun!

So some of my golems design's that I wouldn't have posted other wise for my dnd (100% homebrew) campaign tomorrow!

I was in a rush so I just made black and white cool instead of trying anything complicated,

*The first is a tanker type and I wanted to make things at least a little spicy so gave him massive burst damage as I imagine a magic blaster of that caliber can only be used by a big guy.

*the second is a fighter or the front line and has sharp counter attacks and multi hit And applys wounds,heavy and light to wear you down.

*the third is a magician type,multi spell caster with three elements plus a simple magic attack that counters resistances and has a guaranteed survivability as all damage can be negated by sacrificing a magic pillar (I was inspired by the blaze in mincraft)

*the last one is a assassin type that has poison and evasion and is ment to introduce the players to the enchantment system after looting his sword with plus attack!

That's all I have so far and the dnd campaign is tomorrow. . .

Pray for me!

[lichfucker]

yesterday (march 22) was the one-year anniversary of oops all dwarves' first session.

this is the first campaign I've ever gmed. I've run one- and two-shots aplenty, but this game is the first that's endured. it wasn't easy to get to that place; oops all dwarves saw a couple different iterations before it settled here, in this world, in this system, with these players, with these characters. with this gm.

besides a two-shot I ran for the reforged crew, I was the only one of us who had ever played savage worlds before. we were all far more familiar with 5e, but that system didn't work for us, for what we wanted from this game. did I think savage worlds was the perfect system? not necessarily. but it's the one I was most comfortable running. I didn't want to spend months of my life trying and failing to find something better. I was sick of waiting for someone to hand me the campaign.

in all things I do, and in dwarves particularly (with regard to starting the campaign at all), there's an element of "if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself." but I haven't done it myself. the best of this game is not what I have done myself. I sat down with my players in january of 2022 and said, "here's a homebrew world I've been working on since 2017. I know everything about one corner of one continent. let's start somewhere I know nothing about." and we built the city of Reverie, its geography, its culture, three thousand years of its history. my players made the decisions that I keep coming back to, again and again, whenever I need the world to feel alive. and I always need the world to feel alive.

what could have been a silly game of crime and poor impulse control and delayed adolescence and instant gratification has instead become a story about self-determination, about independence and interdependence, about personhood. about identity. about community. about devotion. about love.

maybe you're Fix (it/its, played by @kingfisherkink), a twelve-foot robot built during the technological renaissance of the 3300s when artificial intelligence was discovered. maybe you were built to serve as an assistant to some rich entitled bastard. maybe your ownership was passed down through the family for two hundred years until the world finally understood that robots are people. maybe you lived through the liberation movement, and changed your name, and set up a mechanical/medical clinic in the small robot enclave the city carved out for you. maybe time has passed. maybe you've been around for five hundred years, now, and you're getting old, and your systems don't work as well as they used to, and sometimes your joints get rusty and sometimes the cuckoo clock in your chest won't stop ringing and sometimes your voice box shorts out. maybe you're a creature of faith. maybe you worship the god of community and protection and the equality of all living things, and maybe you worship as well the god of choice and privacy and healing. maybe you find an innocuous but sacred artifact in the midst of some petty crime, and it fulfills you, so you keep it in a place both hidden and reverent. maybe you want to have children. maybe you start to build them in secret, because making new robots has been illegal since 3561 on the grounds of it being unethical. maybe you plan to name them Change and Kind, in the hopes they will embrace those ideals. maybe you find a friend in some teenager who has nowhere else to go, and you have no idea the limits of what you would do to protect them. maybe it frightens you that you don't know. maybe you kill someone you'd been trying not to harm, despite how much you hated him. maybe you have to tell your friend, "I'm sorry, I can't do that for you, even if it would save your life." maybe you find out that the artifact you kept would have gotten someone else out of a fatal situation. maybe you have a one-sided rivalry with some other robot doctor, because everyone mistakenly believes it's better than you. maybe you're arrogant and selfish. maybe your altruism has always been arrogant and selfish. maybe you give up every last cent you have to pay the ransom of someone who doesn't like you and will never trust you. maybe you hope Change and Kind will be both of those things without exception, without hypocrisy.

maybe you're Archie (they/them, played by @travismatagot), a human kid on your own for the first time. maybe you were raised in a secret government facility and trained to commit espionage. maybe you don't have any memories from before they took you— maybe you were just too young, or maybe the experimentation and manipulation and conditioning they put you through to give you psionic powers got rid of the memories for you. maybe you were always a bit of an underachiever. maybe you turned eighteen and graduated and your handlers send you south to a new city on a new continent so you can do your work. maybe when faced with the freedom and choice and fear of being utterly on your own for the first time, you freeze, and you don't get off the boat, and it keeps moving, and you wind up in Reverie. maybe you wind up sleeping in a hammock in a mechanic's shop in the robot district. maybe you get swindled a little bit by a pair of tempestuous twins. maybe you start growing your hair back out to cover some of the magical tattoos on your skull, though you'll never be able to mask the tattoos on your face. maybe every time you look in the mirror for your entire life you'll see the evidence of the person you were supposed to be. maybe you learn to knit and make the ugliest vest your new friends have ever seen. maybe you run into someone from home— one of your peers from the program who always hated you, and she's advanced in the ranks, and she threatens to rat you out, and she doesn't understand how you can be so ungrateful for everything your superiors did to make you special. maybe you leave a to-go box full of tapas where you know she'll find it. maybe you do that a lot. maybe she asks for your help assassinating a well-known political figure, and maybe you say yes. maybe you've been saying yes to everything lately. maybe you've been saying yes a little too much. maybe you don't know what you like and what you want, so you might as well try everything and have everything and do everything. maybe you get some more magical tattoos even though you thought you wouldn't. maybe you go to a punk show to meet people your age but you don't talk to anyone. maybe you can read minds. maybe you never do. maybe you're consciously rejecting your training, or maybe you just forget about it. maybe you know people can be awful and cruel— you were raised by the awful and cruel to be awful and cruel— but maybe people have also been nice to you here. maybe you're waiting for the consequences to come. maybe there's a part of you wondering if they ever will.

maybe you're Brontide (he/him, played by @keplercryptids), a dwarf/air genasi grifter with lightning in your blood and glitter on your face. maybe you think that that description is wrong, because it doesn't mention your twin sister, and there is no accurate description of you that does not include her, because there is no you to describe without her. maybe you have never been anything but her hands. maybe you were born to be her scapegoat. maybe you can weather any amount of vitriol and pain so long as it means she gets away clean. maybe you know exactly what to say to gain anyone's adoration and forgiveness. maybe you apologize every day of your life, and never once feel sorry. maybe you seek out any spotlight. maybe you are loud and bombastic because if they're all going to be watching you anyway then you might as well give them a show, and you might as well learn to revel in it. maybe using your magic gives you migraines. maybe they're getting worse. maybe you endure it anyway. maybe you're good for nothing else. maybe you're visited in a dream by a witch who tells you that your sister's mind is her own and yours belongs to her, too, and maybe you're supposed to feel offended, but you don't. maybe that's good and right and correct. maybe you don't want to have your own mind. maybe you don't understand why you would want anything that couldn't be hers. maybe you would do anything for her. maybe she would do anything for herself, and for you by association. maybe people keep telling you there's a difference. maybe you don't care. maybe your sister lies to you. maybe she's never done that before, at least, not to your knowledge. maybe you beg and plead and cry for her not to do something reckless and stupid— she's the one who thinks, after all, who leaves you to be reckless and stupid in her absence— and maybe she doesn't relent until you fall apart. and maybe she does it anyway, and maybe you can't stop her, and maybe you're left utterly alone until you can cash in every favor imaginable, indebt yourself to everyone you know. maybe you even tell them something true. maybe they all help without hesitation. maybe that's never happened before, either. maybe now you feel beholden to the promises you've made. maybe your life is full of new things now. maybe your sister feels entitled to the aid, feels like she's earned every penny, insists you do the same. maybe you disagree. maybe for the first time in your life you disagree. maybe it's different this time. maybe you try to tell her that you were an empty husk without her, and all these people made the world right again by putting you back in her pocket, and surely they deserve some recompense for that. maybe she says they did it for her. maybe you say they did it for you, and for her by association. maybe you tell her there's a difference. maybe she doesn't care. maybe you don't know why you do.

maybe you're me, the luckiest gm, with the most wonderful party who meet every session with enthusiasm and curiosity and delight, so invested and so inspiring. maybe you're amazed a year has gone by so quickly. maybe your heart is full of light and possibility.

happy dwarfiversary. I cannot wait for the next one.

[jcmarchi]

No Rest for the Wicked Preview - Early Access Roadmap And Cerim's Crucible Endgame Content - Game Informer

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/no-rest-for-the-wicked-preview-early-access-roadmap-and-cerims-crucible-endgame-content-game-informer/

No Rest for the Wicked Preview - Early Access Roadmap And Cerim's Crucible Endgame Content - Game Informer

No Rest for the Wicked (NRftW) graces Game Informer’s cover this month, and it marks a dramatic shift for Moon Studios for several reasons. For one, it’s an action RPG from the team that gave us two of the best platformers/Metroidvanias ever in Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps. You can read all about what the game entails in our digital issue, which is available now. But another huge shift is that NRftW will first launch into Steam Early Access on April 18. 

That means everything revealed about the game so far is subject to change depending on player feedback. Moon says it’s not married to any system and is willing to rework something if the community doesn’t enjoy it. 

Torn Mage concept art

This is Moon’s first stab at the early access approach, and for a studio that strives for perfection, releasing an intentionally imperfect product for the world to pick apart is a drastic shift. But it also allows Moon to practice what it preaches regarding transparency. 

In February 2021, Mahler famously criticized the game industry on ResetEra for how certain studios misrepresent their titles by making them appear bigger or grander pre-release than how they eventually turn out. He called out titles such as Cyberpunk 2077.

When I ask if his sentiments inspired the choice for early access, Korol says no and that Moon originally envisioned releasing NRftW as a traditional finished product. But midway through development, the project’s ambition, the changing attitudes towards early access, as well as growing success stories, made the release model more attractive and sensible for ensuring a quality final product. And for something as idea-laden as NRftW is for Moon, having players help guide and refine its development is invaluable. 

“Making a game, it’s almost a little bit like cooking, right?” says Mahler. “Like, you don’t know what is the exact right recipe. You have to make it, let people try it, adjust it.””

Last week’s Wicked Inside presentation saw the team reveal NRftW’s early access roadmap (posted below). Multiplayer will arrive in the game’s first update. As the game evolves, new story chapters will be added alongside more areas of the world. The early access launch includes a substantial section of Isola Sacra, with players able to visit the following zones:

The Shallows

Orban Glades

Sacrament

Nameless Pass

The Black Trench

The game’s first story update will unlock three more areas:

Marin Woods

Lowland Meadows

Hunter’s Vale

Expect to learn more about those zones in the future. Having seen the full map of Isola Sacra myself, the island looks huge and dense, and that’s without including unseen elements like interiors, caves, and secrets. 

Click to enlarge

ENDGAME CONTENT

As for how Moon plans to keep players coming back to NRftW on the road to its 1.0 launch, it divulged that its endgame content will consist of multiple things to do instead of just a single activity loop. Speaking with Mahler on the subject, the one piece of content he shared is special roguelike dungeons called Cerim’s Crucible (formerly known by their working name “Crypts”). Accessible only after players have wrapped up the available campaign content in the early access build, entering Cerim’s Crucible involves visiting a special zone surrounded by several statues. 

Approaching one of them and offering your blood activates that particular statue, which warps players into a randomized dungeon crawl and tasks you to get through 10 randomized rooms to reach the end. Mahler says this structure is inspired by Diablo 1’s Dungeon, in which players fought through 16 increasingly difficult levels to face Diablo at the end. Only one statue is available for the early access launch, but more will be added over time. Each statue will take players into different sets of rooms. 

In addition to Diablo, Mahler compares the Crucible’s structure to that of Hades in that each room offers a specific, randomized challenge, which could focus on platforming, combat, or puzzle-solving. You never know what enemies will spawn each run, either. As for what awaits players at the end of the Crucible, Moon is keeping that surprise close to the vest. 

Completing Cerim’s Crucible rewards special, exclusive loot and materials required to craft more advanced upgrades, creating incentives to tackle them repeatedly if you want to build the most powerful version of your character. Like everything else, the loot is randomized, so different runs result in different rewards. Eventually, Moon intends to implement stipulations (such as, perhaps, exploring naked) and multipliers to Crucible statues in exchange for greater loot. 

You can learn more about No Rest for the Wicked by checking out our features and videos rolling out over the coming weeks in our exclusive coverage hub below. 

[dandeliicnsarchiived]

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

✈️ AIRPLANE — does your oc like traveling, or do they consider themselves a more homey person?

( for all of the atlas' & claire ! )

details about ocs! || Accepting!

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

video games, of course, campaign-based ones to be exact

reading, but she often falls asleep since it's so peaceful

She dabbles in art, playing the guitar and taking care of plants, mainly because of Victoria's influence.

✈️ AIRPLANE — does your oc like traveling, or do they consider themselves a more homey person?

Given that Rosalie's main job is being a freelance Help Desk with no government restrictions or corporation restrictions; Rosalie travels a lot. However, she can be contracted for certain amounts of time but she always requests to be relocated so she can bring her daughter, Eva with her. She has a system and I'll deep dive into this later!

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

Rosalie's abilities are based on the song My Enemy from the Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack. Not for the lyrics but the instrumentals of it.

Rosalie has the worst temper out of the Atlas' and Claire, she just doesn't show her anger or express it since she has so many resources and methods to keep her anger under control.

Despite her long toxic relationship with Christopher Lockhart, the first person she slept with was Nathaniel Lee, but the first person she experienced foreplay with such as heavy petting, long make-out sessions was @anomalouss 's Mattheo Abbott. (Kat expect a headcanon from this tehehe )

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

Practicing her witchcraft

Singing to her favorite metal, metal-core, music

Taking care of her plants and working at Alexia's Petals, her flower shop

✈️ AIRPLANE — does your oc like traveling, or do they consider themselves a more homey person?

It's implied that being the CEO of Atlas Tech. Victoria does travel for meetings, however being a heavy introvert with a limited social battery, she does prefer being home and getting to decompress with her husband. When she was younger, she did travel more but it wasn't to well-known locations, it was mainly to be in nature and practice her witchcraft since her abilities are heavily based on the elements.

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

Despite us not completing the thread (that's my fault, man ), Victoria did die by the hands of Seonho's ex-girlfriend but was brought back to life by her mother since it wasn't her time yet. This will be explained in a headcanon later down the line so we can fill in the blanks.

Part of Victoria's introverted traits are based on me yes, but it's also based off of metal musicians! It's off the concept of clean vocals and dirty vocals. The clean vocals being them singing and the dirty vocals being the screaming you hear. It made sense after I heard Courtney LaPlante from Spiritbox and my best friend Jiselle telling me that Courtney sang like a fairy and screamed like a man. I took that joke and turned it to Victoria's personality traits because she THINKS so much, and speaks very little. Her words are soft, even around people she likes and loves but her thoughts are always SCREAMING in her head.

It is part of Victoria's story that she does track down the person who indirectly caused the Witch Hunt on her family and confronts them. In this interaction, we'll see a shift in Victoria's personality and behavior, it effects how she approaches things as an adult. When interacting with Adult!Victoria, she speaks with confidence and is a little less introverted because she overcame a HUGE obstacle in her story.

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

Cooking and Baking, anything that involves being the kitchen and making something. We'll discuss the baking in the facts!

Working out/going to the gym - it's an outlet for his emotions. The only toxic trait Tyler has is not going to therapy, simply because he's an emotional guy and if he talks about it things go ablaze.

Helping his sisters, defending and protecting them.

✈️ AIRPLANE — does your oc like traveling, or do they consider themselves a more homey person?

Travel HATES traveling, but its mainly because he's a mama's boy (not in a weird way). Given that the Atlas Monarch, Michelle Atlas is a music artist, he missed his mother a lot and hated seeing her go away for tours. He associates travel with being left behind and forgotten. So he likes to stay put in the French Quarter but will travel if need be, such as playing CEO when it's his turn to play CEO.

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

Tyler is based off of two things, an old fire demon that I made but completely reconstructed and my best friend Gabe who is also referenced for Rosalie's Knight, Gabriel. Gabe is reason why Tyler is mainly into Rap and R&B. Gabe has such amazing music taste ranging from the silliest of things to some tracks that have deep messages. So paying homage to him, Tyler is based off his music taste in some ways but how I wanted the "perfectly imperfect" guy to be. Tyler is just a big mesh of all the important male figures in my life with added features!

Even though Tyler is an excellent cook, he's not the best baker. I imagine that he often texts Sarah Miller ( @unbearablyindifferent ) for help when it comes to baking, given that Sarah gives him jack-of-all-trades vibes when it comes to the kitchen. Tyler can cook ya a 5-course meal, but desserts? baked goods? Yeah, he follows instructors to a T and asks Sarah for advice when he can't understand bakery lingo. ( EXPECT HEADCANONS )

The main story I'm trying to tell with Tyler is; that sometimes all the self-care/mental health tips you get in your life don't apply to every situation. Example being, Tyler doesn't do professional therapy sessions. He doesn't like his emotions, at least the negative ones. I get this idea from my father. He's a U.S. Marine veteran, the man does NOT talk about his feelings. He vents and uses various hobbies to keep his mind off of whatever is bothering him. So I write Tyler having all these hobbies, looking out for other people because it's a way for him to cope. I have written some examples of him almost losing control and you can see he has different methods to calm down. In a thread with @revivedwilcox, Tyler gets triggered by the thought of NPC Christopher Lockhart since he witnessed abuse towards his little sister. Instead of talking about what he was feeling, he just stepped back and sung lyrics that reminded him of a happier time. I want Tyler to be another angle of mental health; that some times you have to find other ways to cope with your problems and it's okay to not do whatever everyone else is doing. As long as you're not harming yourself or others, do what works for YOU.

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

Long walks in the woods

Reading romance novels

Learning about vampirism

✈️ AIRPLANE — does your oc like traveling, or do they consider themselves a more homey person?

Ever since Claire became a hybrid and stopped aging at 30, she has taken advantage of traveling, mainly by foot. She has no problem running at full speed in different towns and seeing the sights. In addition, by the time she's an adult, she has come to terms with vampirism and uses her compulsion for materialistic gain. The woman has told people she's jumping on a flight to Paris to stay in the fanciest hotels and living the high life.

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know. ( gotta save the best for last )

Claire is a perfect mix of all three Atlas', the friendliness of Rosalie, the anger of Tyler (due to being a hybrid) and the logic of Victoria. She's the best of all three characters.

During Claire's early twenties 21-25, she is struggling HEAVILY with being a hybrid, however, 26-30, she learns to cope. She sees it as an opportunity to learn more about herself, taking advantage of things she never had and using her abilities to help others. Another reason why she took up being an OBGYN, bringing life is such an important thing to her since her life was taken from her.

Claire's story is about accepting who you are, overcoming your traumas at your own pace, and learning to love yourself. Life events happen and alter everything you had planned. It's the main reason why I had her die on her birthday, it set her back a couple of paces, yes. She had to drop out of college and start a new one, but she was still able to complete her goals. So I use her as a way to let readers know that even if things don't go your way, you'll end up on top one way or another. I still have some more details to work out that's why you'll see minimum interactions and more headcanons because I am figuring it! So stayed tune for Claire updates!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 27, 2023

Heather Cox Richardson

Seven people died today in a school shooting in Nashville. Three of them were nine-year-olds. Three were staffers. One was the shooter. In the aftermath of the shooting, President Joe Biden once again urged Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons, to which today’s Republican lawmakers will never agree because gun ownership has become a key element of social identity for their supporters, who resent the idea that the legal system could regulate their ownership of firearms.

In the wake of the shooting, Representative Andrew Ogles (R-TN), who represents Nashville thanks to redistricting by the Republican legislature that cut up a Democratic district, said he was “utterly heartbroken” by the shooting and offered “thoughts and prayers to the families of those lost.”

In 2021, Ogles, his wife, and two of his three children held guns as they posed for a Christmas card with a caption that read: “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference—they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”

Meanwhile, protests continue in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to hamstring his country’s Supreme Court and put the legislature in charge of judicial review has sparked fierce opposition.

Netanyahu regained power last November while he was facing criminal charges of fraud, breach of trust, and bribery. His far-right coalition put together a government and elevated two critics of the Israeli judiciary, who promptly put forward a plan of “legal reforms.”

According to Amichai Cohen and Yuval Shany in Lawfare, supporters of those changes claim that unelected judges who are part of a “liberal deep state” have too much power, often using it to pursue criminal proceedings against senior politicians, prohibit Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank, or to refuse religious exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.  

On January 4, 2023, Netanyahu’s minister of justice Yariv Levin proposed an overhaul of the judicial system that would put Netanyahu’s slim majority—just 64 seats in the 120-member Knesset—in complete control of the country’s laws, enabling the far-right majority to avoid any checks on its power (as well as enabling Netanyahu to evade the criminal trials he faces).

But Netanyahu did not campaign on remaking the judiciary; it is the far-right members of his coalition who have made it their signature issue. Protests against the measures began almost immediately as alarmed Israelis realized the move would destroy their democracy.

The protests continued until this Saturday, when Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant warned that the massive backlash against the judicial overhaul, including more and more military members who are boycotting their training missions, threatened the nation’s military readiness. He called for a halt to the attempt to force through the changes. Two members of the coalition backed Gallant and one appeared to be wavering, thus threatening Netanyahu’s majority. The next day, Netanyahu fired Gallant.

The firing sparked massive demonstrations and widespread strikes. At first, the far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition refused to stop their plans to overhaul the judiciary and called for their supporters to turn out to oppose the protesters, but Netanyahu apparently cut a deal with them. He has announced that the judicial reforms will be postponed while the two sides look for a compromise, and that he has agreed to the formation of a civil “national guard” the right will control. While Bethan McKernan of The Guardian called this move an empty gesture, Zach Beauchamp of Vox noted that the new paramilitary unit will be under the control of the extremist minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who in 2008 was convicted of supporting a terrorist organization and who used to keep a photograph of a mass murderer in his living room.

Still, as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo notes, the halt is “pretty transparently a stalling tactic,” launched in the hope that the protests will die down and the package can go forward later, although, as Marshall points out, polls show that the so-called reforms are very unpopular.

The crisis in Israel threatens the country’s relationship with the United States. During the Trump administration, Netanyahu cozied up to Trump and his Republican allies, and Israel’s continued rightward shift has alarmed foreign observers. In early March, Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the state to “erase” a Palestinian town, and he has called himself a “proud homophobe” and a “fascist.” In Israel, Netanyahu’s son tweeted that the U.S. State Department is behind the protests, hoping to overthrow Netanyahu, a sentiment to which Netanyahu himself has nodded.

When Smotrich visited Washington, D.C., earlier this month, White House officials declined to meet with him, and more than ninety Democratic lawmakers wrote to Biden asking him to use “all diplomatic tools available to prevent Israel’s current government from further damaging the nation’s democratic institutions and undermining the potential for two states for two peoples.” According to Josh Lederman of NBC News, more than 300 rabbis last year said that members of Netanyahu’s coalition were not welcome to speak at their synagogues.

The threats to the Israeli judiciary threaten the nation’s economy, as billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg pointed out in a New York Times op-ed earlier this month. “Companies and investors place enormous value on strong and independent judicial systems because courts help protect them — not only against crime and corruption but also government overreach. Just as important, they protect what their employees value most: individual rights and freedoms,” he wrote.

In case anyone missed the obvious comparison between what is happening in Israel and what might transpire in the U.S., Bloomberg continued: “In the United States, our founding fathers’ insistence on checks and balances to control the tyrannical tendencies of majorities was part of their genius. Our Constitution is not perfect—no law is—but its many checks and balances have been essential to protecting and advancing fundamental rights and maintaining national stability. It was only through those safeguards that the United States has managed to withstand extreme shocks to our democracy in recent years—including a disgraceful attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power—without a catastrophic fracturing.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HOW TO GET STARTUP HUB

I'm looking for are programs that are very dense according to the metric of elements sketched above, not merely programs that are short because delimiters can be omitted and everything has a one-character name. And that's probably an ongoing trend. System administrators can become cranky and unresponsive because they're not directly exposed to competitive pressure: a salesman has to deal with bugs wholesale. In some applications, the processor will be the limit; the number of elements, where an element is anything that would be a flaw. But in retrospect having nothing turned out to be another intellectual hangover of long forgotten origins. They look at whatever they want online without worrying whether it's work safe. The disadvantage is that it has started to be driven by a spirit of benevolence.

A company big enough to be fairly conservative, and within the company the people in charge of acquisitions will be among the more conservative, because they know what they're doing, and it's true for software too. All the rest were working on releases, ports, and so no matter how good his language was, no one wants to work with someone to know whether you want them as a cofounder. It's the way we lie to kids, the most conspicuous difference between Web-based software assumes nothing about the client, they can't be measuring intelligence. Formidable is roughly justifiably confident. The parents who want you to help the sick, but also because it's a prestigious and lucrative career. Then there was a problem with a server. Family to support This one is real. When you own a desktop computer, and there I find the ancient rule still works: try to understand the underlying principles.

Many investors explicitly use that as a question, because now I can pretend it wasn't merely a rhetorical one. And it seems great for 10 year olds. Expressing ideas helps to form them. It would seem a misnomer if someone said they were very determined to do something people want. Another way to get rich. And to my horror I started acting like a child molester telling his victims they'll get in trouble if they tell anyone what happened to them. Open source and blogging show us things don't have to be mean when you have absolutely no desire to work on crazy speculative projects with me. This won't work for all startups, but philosophically they're at the opposite end of the summer. It's more important to grow fast or die.

Some changes might be bigger than others, but the startup itself, like it was for Yahoo and Google. Maybe it's because you haven't made what they want. Gradually you realize that these two things are as tightly connected as only a market can make them. The valuable part of English classes is learning to write, and the PR campaign surrounding the launch has the side effect that after having implicitly lied to kids about: they're the two different senses in which the same curve can be high. If you want to create the most wealth, the way to the extreme of doing the computations on the server is nothing new in it. Since they're writing for a popular magazine they then proceed to recoil from in terror. Maybe some aspects of professionalism are actually a net lose. I'd much rather read an essay that displeases one side in a dispute reads as an attempt to pander to the other. They seemed to have done as well as buildings you need roads, street signs, utilities, police and fire departments, and plans for both growth and various kinds of disasters. Nothing could be better, for a new language.

The customer is always right, that's a sign of a good bet—that you can supply the three things any language needs—a language you should learn as an intellectual exercise, even though you don't need the current. That's the secret. As written, it tends to offend people who like unions. You please or annoy customers wholesale. Amateurs I think the goal of a language is readability, not succinctness. Python's goal is not to be the CPUs of computers. I see a third mistake: timidity. Don't have multiple people editing the same piece of code. It's common for a group of founders to go through one lame idea before realizing that a startup has to go to grad school in the fall with all the other seniors; no one regards you as a failure, because your occupation is student, and you could also do x.

We've kept the program shape—all of us having dinner together once a week turns out to be really good at acting formidable often solve this problem by giving investors the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies: it was a crushing impression. It's usually fairly quick to find a cofounder, but that you should have access to email messages no matter where you are, the more dangerous it is to make more than you expect, but you're also capable of more than a hundred years old. At a minimum, files will be centrally available for users who want that. Raising money is not like applying to college, but I can think of a financial advisor who put all his client's assets into one volatile stock? When people come to you with a problem and you have to compile and run separately. Drastic as it sounds. But I think that there will be a collection of programs rather than a single binary, it can be very useful. You have to use some implementation-specific hacks as well, and in practice languages are judged relative to whatever they're used to hack. Once you cross the threshold of profitability can be trivially low.

We had to spend thousands on a server somewhere, maintained by the kind of results I expected, tend to have fewer bugs. Someone who's figured that out will automatically focus more on their needs than your interests, and make more than you spend. One of the most pointless of all the things we could do than the traditional employer-employee relationship still retains a big chunk of master-servant DNA. But more importantly, by selecting that small a group you can get a job, as if they were deliberately trying to do in certain situations? Some amount of piracy is to the advantage of software companies. I'm not the only way to get paid for it. I can answer that. And vice versa: you'll sell more of something when it's easy to buy. Companies are likely to be one-directional: support people who hear about bugs fill out some form that eventually gets passed on possibly via QA to programmers, who put it on their list of things to do. What big companies do is boring, you're going to spend the weekend at a friend's house on a little island off the coast of Maine. I now realize that you should have access to the system from anywhere. If I encourage too many people to apply to Y Combinator, it just means more work for me, its main value.

The famous scientists I remember were Einstein, Marie Curie, and George Washington Carver with Einstein misled us not only about science, but about how to make money that you can't do it and the adults will probably let you off. So if you want. One expert on entrepreneurship told me that his copy of CLTL falls open to the section format. Hygienic macros are intended to protect me from variable capture, among other things, they had become extremely formidable. Fewer do than at school, but there are things you can do to keep the two forces balanced. I went to college with a lot of wiggle room. At this point, anyone proposing to run Windows on servers should be prepared to explain what they know about servers that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, among others, were all founded by people who only think about one thing, real problems are rare and valuable. That is one of the things startups do right without realizing it. Most of the legal restrictions on employers are intended to protect me from variable capture, among other things, treating a startup as it grows larger? What I'm looking for are programs that run on Web servers and use Web pages as the user interface.

[stevensavage]

The Unaccountability Machine: Political Madness By The Numbers

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve's Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I just read “The Unaccountability Machine” by Dan Davies. If you know me and when I get obsessed, be aware I’m about to become insufferable for awhile.

The core of the book is that our institutions have seemed to go mad, and the author finds explanations in the oft-ignored realm of business cybernetics. This isn’t science fiction, it’s cybernetics in the feedbacks/system sense, and how it relates to organizations. A core element is that members and parts of organizations become unaccountable in ways that lead to bad and mad decisions.

The financial crash of 2008. Any number of organizational meltdown. And of course, politics.

One of his points - and believe me, I’ll be dissecting this book on and off for a time - is that when your goal is a single measurement, an organization will go insane. When “line go up” is your only goal, problems occur - if not for you, everyone in your path. People are held unaccountabile for bad choices when “line go up.”

You may be thinking about any number of corporations and stock prices. But also I thought about American politics in light of (checks his calendar) about seventy percent of my life. Now I have my own quite pronounced political beliefs, but I’m going to set them aside to discuss a number.

The amount of votes.

Votes are the goal of democratic politics. It elects people. It gets people power and benefits and determines policy. Everything is about getting someone, often anyone, into office. Politics is a team thing, so as long as one of “Your Team” is in office, you can reach your goals.

This means politics in modern times isn’t just the old repression/gotv routines and campaigning and winning people. It means calculations and triangulations, test-marketing, lawsuits, etc. Anything to Just Get Enough Votes.

Anything for Line Goes Up, sometimes just a bit. Even if it makes you do some crazy things.

I remarked once about a certain political activist organization that it was a “winning machine” - and that wasn’t a compliment. Said organization later got itself entangled almost suicidally in various legal troubles and scandals. I wasn’t sure that they didn’t get the mission, but that they got it too well.

Their goal was Line Goes Up, vote-wise, and they’d do anything.

But also let’s say that you’ve made certain decisions to get votes that, perhaps like this organization, aren’t legal or ethical. Then you want to win no matter what to cover your backside or to soothe your conscience or whatever. Line goes up becomes an imperative, and you’ll deal with the bad things later or maybe you just ignore them or hand-wave them away.

Or maybe your opponent(s) are bad people - or you’re told they are. You want to win to protect yourself! Also anyway telling people those folks are threats makes the voting Line Go Up. Keep telling, keep talking, keep escalating, what’ll go wrong.

Kinda seems like politics, if you’re not careful, doesn’t become about helpful results. It takes a lot of effort to make it meaningful not “what three things can I say to get 0.5% more votes?” It’s so much easier to find what buttons to push - and hey, you’re a good person, right? What could go wrong.

Lots of things. Like many of my columns I want to mention the Latest Thing, but each week is a new Latest Thing. All in the name of Line Go Up.

So as we look at the 2024 election where my prediction is that I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore (look at France and the UK in 2024), I wonder if we’re in the political equivalent of a financial meltdown like 2008. My own (obviously correct) political views aside, it seems like Line Go Up is so important, any and all fallout is ignored, and the most batshit things are tried - and sometimes work.

But the batshittery, the triangulation, all of that might be hitting a breaking point. I’m certainly seeing that as I write this in July 2024.

As for a solution, well we’d have to step back from Line Go Up and ask what we want as society, as people. We’d have to make the Line a tool, one of many. But in this current state, I’m not holding my breath.

Well managed to do that without leaning into my own beliefs. Perhaps those will come later, maybe in the rebuilding.

Steven Savage

www.StevenSavage.com

www.InformoTron.com

[technoupdat]

Understanding and Mastering Modern Marketing

Marketing is like the heartbeat of a business, keeping everything running smoothly and ensuring that customers are happy and engaged. At its essence, marketing is all about understanding what people want and need, creating value for them, and building strong relationships that drive sales and help a business grow.

The 7 Ps of Marketing

A classic framework is the 7 ps of marketing, which expands on the traditional 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) by adding three more elements: People, Process, and Physical Evidence. Let's break these down:

Product: This is what you’re offering to meet customer needs. It’s not just about the item itself, but also the experience and satisfaction it brings. Knowing what customers want and continuously improving your product is key.

Price: Setting the right price is essential. It needs to reflect the value of your product while staying competitive. Pricing also affects how customers perceive your product’s quality and your brand.

Place: This is about making your product available to customers in the right place and at the right time. Whether through physical stores, online platforms, or both, effective distribution ensures accessibility.

Promotion: This covers all the ways you communicate with your customers about your product. It includes advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and personal selling. Good promotion builds brand awareness and drives sales.

People: Everyone who interacts with your customers, from employees to sales staff and customer service reps, plays a crucial role. Having skilled and motivated people can greatly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Process: This involves the procedures and systems you use to deliver your product or service. Efficient processes make for a smoother customer experience and can give you an edge over competitors.

Physical Evidence: This refers to the tangible aspects that support your product or service, like the physical environment, packaging, and branding. Consistent and appealing physical evidence helps build trust and reinforce your brand image.

The Journey of Marketing

Over the years, marketing has changed a lot. In the early days, it was all about the product. Companies would develop something and then find ways to convince people to buy it through heavy advertising and sales tactics. This was known as product-oriented marketing, where the focus was on pushing the product out to the market.

However, as time went on, companies realized they needed to understand their customers better. This gave rise to market-oriented marketing, which focuses on researching what customers need and want. By tailoring products and strategies to meet these needs, companies could create more effective and efficient marketing campaigns.

The Digital Age

The rise of digital technology has completely transformed marketing. Digital marketing uses online platforms and technologies to reach and engage with customers. This includes everything from social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) to email marketing, content marketing, and online advertising.

One of the biggest advantages of digital marketing is the ability to get real-time data and insights. Marketers can track how customers are interacting with their campaigns, measure performance, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategies. This level of detail and accountability has made digital marketing a crucial part of modern business.

Wrapping It Up

Marketing is an ever-evolving field that requires a deep understanding of people’s needs, a strategic approach to product development, and effective communication. The 7 Ps of Marketing provide a solid framework to help businesses create and execute successful marketing strategies. By focusing on these elements, companies can better meet customer needs, build strong relationships, and thrive in a competitive marketplace.

In the end, good marketing is about making connections and building trust. It’s about showing your customers that you understand them and that you’re here to provide them with value.

[leutjaneausten]

Open in app or online

March 27, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

Seven people died today in a school shooting in Nashville. Three of them were nine-year-olds. Three were staffers. One was the shooter. In the aftermath of the shooting, President Joe Biden once again urged Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons, to which today’s Republican lawmakers will never agree because gun ownership has become a key element of social identity for their supporters, who resent the idea that the legal system could regulate their ownership of firearms.

In the wake of the shooting, Representative Andrew Ogles (R-TN), who represents Nashville thanks to redistricting by the Republican legislature that cut up a Democratic district, said he was “utterly heartbroken” by the shooting and offered “thoughts and prayers to the families of those lost.”

In 2021, Ogles, his wife, and two of his three children held guns as they posed for a Christmas card with a caption that read: “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference—they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”

Meanwhile, protests continue in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to hamstring his country’s Supreme Court and put the legislature in charge of judicial review has sparked fierce opposition.

Netanyahu regained power last November while he was facing criminal charges of fraud, breach of trust, and bribery. His far-right coalition put together a government and elevated two critics of the Israeli judiciary, who promptly put forward a plan of “legal reforms.”

According to Amichai Cohen and Yuval Shany in Lawfare, supporters of those changes claim that unelected judges who are part of a “liberal deep state” have too much power, often using it to pursue criminal proceedings against senior politicians, prohibit Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank, or to refuse religious exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.

On January 4, 2023, Netanyahu’s minister of justice Yariv Levin proposed an overhaul of the judicial system that would put Netanyahu’s slim majority—just 64 seats in the 120-member Knesset—in complete control of the country’s laws, enabling the far-right majority to avoid any checks on its power (as well as enabling Netanyahu to evade the criminal trials he faces).

But Netanyahu did not campaign on remaking the judiciary; it is the far-right members of his coalition who have made it their signature issue. Protests against the measures began almost immediately as alarmed Israelis realized the move would destroy their democracy.

The protests continued until this Saturday, when Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant warned that the massive backlash against the judicial overhaul, including more and more military members who are boycotting their training missions, threatened the nation’s military readiness. He called for a halt to the attempt to force through the changes. Two members of the coalition backed Gallant and one appeared to be wavering, thus threatening Netanyahu’s majority. The next day, Netanyahu fired Gallant.

The firing sparked massive demonstrations and widespread strikes. At first, the far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition refused to stop their plans to overhaul the judiciary and called for their supporters to turn out to oppose the protesters, but Netanyahu apparently cut a deal with them. He has announced that the judicial reforms will be postponed while the two sides look for a compromise, and that he has agreed to the formation of a civil “national guard” the right will control. While Bethan McKernan of The Guardian called this move an empty gesture, Zach Beauchamp of Vox noted that the new paramilitary unit will be under the control of the extremist minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who in 2008 was convicted of supporting a terrorist organization and who used to keep a photograph of a mass murderer in his living room.

Still, as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo notes, the halt is “pretty transparently a stalling tactic,” launched in the hope that the protests will die down and the package can go forward later, although, as Marshall points out, polls show that the so-called reforms are very unpopular.

The crisis in Israel threatens the country’s relationship with the United States. During the Trump administration, Netanyahu cozied up to Trump and his Republican allies, and Israel’s continued rightward shift has alarmed foreign observers. In early March, Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the state to “erase” a Palestinian town, and he has called himself a “proud homophobe” and a “fascist.” In Israel, Netanyahu’s son tweeted that the U.S. State Department is behind the protests, hoping to overthrow Netanyahu, a sentiment to which Netanyahu himself has nodded.

When Smotrich visited Washington, D.C., earlier this month, White House officials declined to meet with him, and more than ninety Democratic lawmakers wrote to Biden asking him to use “all diplomatic tools available to prevent Israel’s current government from further damaging the nation’s democratic institutions and undermining the potential for two states for two peoples.” According to Josh Lederman of NBC News, more than 300 rabbis last year said that members of Netanyahu’s coalition were not welcome to speak at their synagogues.

The threats to the Israeli judiciary threaten the nation’s economy, as billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg pointed out in a New York Times op-ed earlier this month. “Companies and investors place enormous value on strong and independent judicial systems because courts help protect them — not only against crime and corruption but also government overreach. Just as important, they protect what their employees value most: individual rights and freedoms,” he wrote.

In case anyone missed the obvious comparison between what is happening in Israel and what might transpire in the U.S., Bloomberg continued: “In the United States, our founding fathers’ insistence on checks and balances to control the tyrannical tendencies of majorities was part of their genius. Our Constitution is not perfect—no law is—but its many checks and balances have been essential to protecting and advancing fundamental rights and maintaining national stability. It was only through those safeguards that the United States has managed to withstand extreme shocks to our democracy in recent years—including a disgraceful attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power—without a catastrophic fracturing.”

—

Notes:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/27/us/nashville-shooting-covenant-school

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/27/tennessee-congressman-mass-shooting-school/

Twitter avatar for @AliVelshi

Ali Velshi

@AliVelshi

Americans should watch developments in Israel, in which a sitting prime minister, facing criminal charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery, was returned to office, and is now attempting to pass laws that would, among other things, limit the ways in which he can be declared… https://t.co/YQ62Kh1Sm1

1:22 PM ∙ Mar 27, 2023

30,221Likes8,984Retweets

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-crisis-palestinian-violence-judiciary-protests-biden-support-rcna73504

https://www.dw.com/en/benjamin-netanyahu-wins-majority-in-israeli-election/a-63643822

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2023/02/23/israels-majoritarian-nightmare-should-be-a-us-concern/

https://www.lawfareblog.com/new-israeli-governments-constitutional-law-reforms-why-now-what-do-they-mean-and-what-will-happen

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/25/israel-defense-minister-yoav-gallant-netanyahu/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/26/israel-judicial-reform-netanyahu-protests/

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/26/1166134644/benjamin-netanyahu-fires-defense-minister-yoav-gallant

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65083776

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-observations-on-the-unfolding-crisis-in-israel

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-13/ty-article/.premium/smotrich-heads-to-paris-after-chilly-u-s-trip-but-not-at-frances-invitation/00000186-da57-d9b0-a3af-db7f4bf60000

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/ben-gvir-responds-to-bennett-fine-ill-take-down-baruch-goldsteins-picture/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/israel-netanyahu-judiciary-plans-halt

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/opinion/israel-protests-benjamin-netanyahu.html

https://www.vox.com/2023/3/27/23658430/israel-protests-netanyahu-judicial-overhaul-general-strike-democracy

https://www.timesofisrael.com/gallant-calls-to-pause-judicial-overhaul-citing-tangible-danger-to-state-security/

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-19/ty-article/.premium/ben-gvir-to-head-team-that-will-fight-terror-incitement-by-palestinians/00000186-6a21-dba0-a5c6-7a7dec6a0000

Drezner’s World

Israel is Going Through It Right Now.

The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World has been reluctant to write about developments in Israel for quite a long time. That was particularly true after Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition won last November’s election. Netanyahu’s cabinet elevated some…

Read more

a day ago · 28 likes · 2 comments · Daniel W. Drezner

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/opinion/michael-bloomberg-israel-netanyahu.html

[shoeboxgoblin]

!!

Thanks so much! Let me introduce you to Cherry (short for chernobyl)

Cherry is a character I am playing in a game run in a system and world handcrafted by our dm. its extremely high scifi but also extremely high fantasy.

facts:

Cherry is a "radium" elemental. they are two feet tall, shaped like an amogus (no arms, stumpy legs) and made entirely of amorphous, incredibly radioactive green translucent goo.

(i largely ignore the actual qualities of radium in game. they are just a radioactive slime basically)

the first thing that happened in the campaign was their "birth" in which they woke up in a crater having come to consciousness for the first time ever with full knowledge of language, mathematics, and chemistry, and extremely potent magical powers, but no experience with anything at all. the first thing they did was invent a mouth to scream.

they have a high pitched voice with my best impersonation of a russian accent.

they work entirely on cartoon physics (whatever is funniest)

they live inside their friend's spaceship's radioactive power core, which they somehow power independently

they collect random items they find, with no care for value

the inside of their body is an extradimensional space, so they Kirby-swallow things they want to keep

they glow and click like a gieger counter

they are maybe the highest damage dealer in the party

their three attributes are radioactive, amorphous, and "just a little guy"

they know how to crochet now because they swallowed a book on how to do that

heres the 2 minute mspaint drawing i did of them during character creation:

Send me a "!!" and ill introduce you to one of my ocs!

[adaptysolutions]

7 Personalisation Tips to Boost Your Sales for eCommerce

The idea that personalisation is a prelude to better customer engagement and more business is a cracker-barrel one. Today, customer personalisation in eCommerce gets regarded as a standard service. As online portals brim with suggestions, a personalised eCommerce experience is deemed paramount.

According to a report by Accenture, 91% of customers get inclined toward companies that remember them and render relevant offers. Also, about 83% are willing to share their info in exchange for deals based on specific interests.

How does E-Commerce Personalisation work?

Providing personalised suggestions does not suffice by itself. A seamless customer service experience plays second fiddle to long-term customer loyalty.

Say that you get logged in with your Gmail account. You type a product on the Google search engine. You’ve checked a few websites and understood the features. Later in the evening, you scroll through your social media accounts and find ads about that product. Even more, you received emails about the same. Long story short, personalisation in eCommerce works across channels, sites and applications. Personalisation embodies all content and gets fuelled by real-time, first-party information. A related aspect is the customer journey and its varied phases.

Another aspect is that personalisation in eCommerce can take various forms, including recommendations, cart abandonment emails and onboarding quizzes, to mention a few.

Next are some tips to boost sales. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

Create a personalised home page

Begin with understanding your target audience by getting to the bottom of the three types of data or D’s - behavioural, demographic and contextual. This reinforces the insight by Invesp - 59% of online shoppers posit that personalisation makes it easier to find relevant products, facilitating the path to conversions, sales and continued business.

The crucial elements of a personalised homepage are:

Headlines - makes for the first touch point for online visitors. A captivating headline helps directly address high-value leads early in the journey.

Call-to-actions - serve as a door to unique tailored experiences. Some examples are: ‘get in touch’ and ‘demo requests’. You can also create specific ones for high-tier plans for known customers.

Customer testimonials - these serve as social proof, reinforcing conversion by establishing credibility

Personalised shopping guides

Targeted pricing

IP geolocation enables you to evaluate website traffic and offer specialised pricing. Depending on the location, you must factor in the different tax rates and other geographic pricing dynamics.

Promotional campaigns for different social networks

Given the plethora of social networks, your target will drift towards at least some of them. Each social media site has its types of audiences and engagement. Note that social omnipresence forms the bedrock for eCommerce businesses.

Multiple payment options

Customers today pay through several modes, including debit and credit cards. Another avenue is BNPL (buy now, pay later) options, enabling customers to pay later through limited fees.

Add a chat option to your site

The considerable number of options has made the online universe a tailspin of sorts. However, the glad tiding is that there are eCommerce personalisation tools that produce a resolution. One such avenue is a chat option. These are intelligent systems and resources serving as the rudder for conversational marketing and customer support. Chatbots go beyond just answering queries. They also help forge long-lasting customer relationships.

Another aspect is that these AI-driven chatbots continuously learn from past user interactions. To this end, they possess the innate ability to customise future conversations, making them apt for handling commonplace queries and chat queues, reserving the Sapiens for more pressing issues.

Personalise your live chat

You can begin by assigning ‘human names’. This helps considerably elevate engagement rates. Better yet, using an enticing mascot, probably leveraging pop-culture movies and series. Next is playing around with unique colour combinations, fonts, layouts and logos. These shall then become constituents toward communication elements, fuelling connection and recognition among your target audience. Enterprises must maintain consistent messaging by leveraging automation and integrating eCommerce websites. One way is creating messaging templates.

Use Personalised Pop-ups

The common contention among digital marketers is that personalised pop-ups do not work. However, statistics have a starkly different story. In 2020, the average pop-up conversion rate stood at 3.09%. Moreover, pop-ups can help convert up to 40% of your visitors into subscribers.

There are fundamental reasons to feature pop-ups among the powerful eCommerce personalisation tools. These are next.

They are visible to everyone: Pop-ups have a 100% viewership rate, making fewer chances to miss out on them.

Help with messaging once visitors get engaged: If well-used, pop-ups can deliver prompts about when your online visitors are most likely to click through.

They provide value: However, you must ensure that these are relevant and well-implemented. Better yet, combine them with advanced targeting scenarios. Doing so helps improve their effectiveness.

They cannot get ignored: Visitors will notice your value proposition or any message you wish to impart to their faces.

Pop-ups, like several other KPIs and metrics, can help track user engagement. Pop-ups help capture a treasure trove of data.

Get personal in email marketing

In the context of customer personalisation in eCommerce, email marketing helps curate email campaigns for specific subscribers.

Personalisation is expansive! At the base level, email personalisation uses the subscriber’s name in the subject line. The more advanced level involves content regarding demographic aspects, including age, previous purchases, number of times the user logs in to your software, gender and location.

Personalised email campaigns have proven to help enhance opeWn and click-through rates. Also, they can have a measurable impact on the ROI and revenue. According to studies, personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to get opened.

A renowned avenue is Gmail Ads. These typically get featured in the social or promotions tab. Also, Google automatically makes these ads responsive for mobile, desktop and other gadgets.

Cross-Sell During Checkout

In marketing parlance, cross-selling can get known as ‘bundling’. However, leveraging this during checkout is a mark of ingenuity. Say that you have purchased a new mobile phone. A well-equipped cross-selling tactic would be to suggest a phone cover. Long story short, it is a way of marketing additional (but relevant) products to existing customers.

Another related tactic is upselling. This strategy involves marketing an upgraded version of the to-be-purchased item.

To sum it up!

eCommerce businesses must collect data about each customer; this arduous task has become easier with analytics and eCommerce personalisation tools. However, note that much depends on the stage of the sales funnel. The engagement metrics vary for each. For instance, the conversion phase puts forth the metrics such as cart abandonment rate and average order value. Similarly, at the information stage, time spent on the website and impressions takes precedence. Given this, enterprises must incorporate customer lifecycle.

Today, consumers are out and about. Therefore, omnichannel outlets and multiple touchpoints are the need of the hour. At Adapty, our adept, agile and adaptive approach leverages actionable data and real-time communication, offering a seamless, personalised eCommerce experience.

Contact us today.