#violence mention

[prokopetz]

(Note: construe "I" as you, the person reading this, not me, the person posting this!)

[prokopetz]

The last-minute scramble is underway in earnest now – these 19 entries easily make today our busiest yet. Interestingly, in spite of this year's relatively slow start, we've now officially pulled ahead of last year's total by this point in November; in 2023, we had 199 total entries by end of day on the 26th, while 2024 is currently sitting at 202.

200 Word RPGs 2024

Each November, some people try to write a novel. Others would prefer to do as little writing as possible. For those who wish to challenge their ability to not write, we offer this alternative: producing a complete, playable roleplaying game in two hundred words or fewer.

This is the submission thread for the 2024 event, running from November 1st, 2024 through November 30th, 2024. Submission guidelines can be found in this blog's pinned post, here.

[daloy-politsey]

Queer Palestinian: Israel literally took my family’s home and bombs my people.

Zionist: Well, you should support Israel because Hamas is homophobic. No, you’ll never get Israeli citizenship because you’re Palestinian, but Hamas doesn’t like you, so you’re dumb. I’m very smart.

[leche-flandom]

okay violence is not the answer etc etc...that fist pump though? UGH we're gonna see that airbrushed above a teary eyed bald eagle on the back of so many ripped sleeve spring break t shirts for the rest of our goddamn lives

[velichorus-k]

The second installment of this comic right here. In which the gang hangs out :) pages under the cut!

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[ciphersbabygirl]

CisHarmed

CisHarmed, when one is CisID for any harmed identity, such as CisAbused, CisManipulated, etc

CisHated

CisHated, when one is CisID for any hated identity, such as CisHateCrimeVictim, CisRacismVictim, etc

[swollenbabyfat]

Quiet now children

[anotherbananasong]

Alpha is about to have his lights knocked out…

[cepheusgalaxy]

Living weapon/guard dog who doesn't really hate their job. Sure, they are not passionate about it either but it is more like... a chore. It's a little messy, but it's not like it makes them feel bad. Besides, they get rewarded after or punished if they do it wrong so it's fine, really.

Until caretaker goes along. Caretaker doesn't want whumpee to kill people because caretaker really cares about People in General. Whumpee really likes caretaker so they do their best to avoid killing until...

well. i suppose something bad happens

[prokopetz]

I'm not convinced that D&D4E's mechanical spine is amenable to being adapted for purely or primarily ranged combat – I've seen it tried and failed too often! – but if a non-terrible conversion of this sort existed it absolutely would have been my first recommendation here.

I've found myself quite drawn to the aesthetic of modern military urban fantasy shenanigans like you see in Tactical Breach Wizards, where plate carriers have runic protections and wizard staves are built into rifle frames, and I'm looking for an RPG that lends itself well to tactical military gameplay with a hard-flavored magic system.

At the moment I'm looking at cooking something up with Savage Worlds, but do you have a better idea?

I'm not sure if it's a better idea, but if you're feeling particularly old school, the exact intersection of sword-and-sorcery fantasy and military science fiction is squarely the comfort zone of GURPS.

(Indeed, much of GURPS' putative universality stems from the fact that a great many things people want to do with tabletop RPGs can be approximated as a reskin of sword-and-sorcery fantasy meets military science fiction. Not nearly all, but enough!)

[queerbauten]

what she says: I'm fine

what she means: yeah, so, man, I was in, uh, Berlin, at the Späti, and this German dude, he wants to fight me! he called me names; he say all this German stuff, but I don't know, he said something like... "DU BIST EIN SCHWEINHUND!"

[daloy-politsey]

Pictures of Syrians showing support for Ukraine

[marzipanandminutiae]

today's Historical WTF of the Morning:

in 1840, a group of Comanche rode into San Antonio for a peace meeting with white colonists. they had brought back 14-year-old Matilda Lockhart, previously kidnapped in a raid, to be ransomed back to her family. the girl's ransom was paid, Colonel Hugh McLeod interviewed her and remarked on her intelligence, her aunt Catherine attested to her release in a letter to a relative, having earlier written that she heard the captives were being "kindly treated" and writing nothing in her later account to contradict this, and that was the end of her part in the story

(which ended in a "fight" with 35 of the 65 Comanche in the party being killed including 2 children, and 29 being taken prisoner. seven Texians died as well, and while later claims held that the attack on the Comanche was justified because they seemed insufficiently trustworthy in their promise to return more prisoners, the actual situation in the Council House that day remains unclear)

in 1895, Mary Maverick- who, by the account of her own diary on that day, had been at home when fighting broke out at the meeting -claimed she had been the one to tend Lockhart, and that the girl had been gang-raped showed extensive signs of torture including her nose being burned off

something that. um.

I think would have come up in contemporary reports? maybe? that's pretty conspicuous and people would have noticed? especially her aunt, since that is decidedly not being Kindly Treated?

there was a news article from 1840 in Houston claiming that Lockhart had been burned and beaten, and that her hair had been torn out, but no mention of facial disfigurement is made. and again, contemporary sources from people who definitely 100% saw her when she was released don't mention ANY outward signs of abuse AT ALL. I found a description of her release from 1884 that doesn't mention the nose-burning, either- it seems like that was only introduced to the narrative in the 1890s "memoir"

like, look. I'm not saying no white person taken captive by Native Americans was ever mistreated. they're human beings, and human beings can do terrible things to other people regardless of demographic group, or macro-level oppression. some Native people did terrible things to other Native people long before Europeans got here, and it's dehumanizing to treat them like magical perfect fantasy elves or whatever. and it's possible Matilda Lockhart had injuries covered by her clothing, or later revealed abuse she suffered that didn't show marks, and that got dramatized into her missing nose or hair

but. I don't know. it's just galling that not only was this girl who went through, at minimum, the trauma of being taken prisoner as a child was reduced to a symbol in a much larger conflict, but also we once again have the employment of Someone Abused A White Woman/Girl So Whatever We Do To This Entire Demographic Group Is Justified narrative

(which is, as always, employed by people who don't give an actual shit about the lives of the women they use to justify racism. unless Lockhart had lived to be like 80, she'd still never have had franchise or- and even then, STILL not full human rights in her own country. and the people who wanted to use her as a symbol to justify racism probably would have fought tooth and nail to keep her from getting them)

[prokopetz]

Twenty-five days gone, five days to go. It looks like the "oh shit, I'm out of time" factor is beginning to kick in, if the size of today's batch is anything to judge by! These ten entries make 183 in total.

(There was also somebody who chose to disregard the submission guidelines and post their entries on Substack instead; they unfortunately will not be indexed or archived here – "don't make me keep track of shit on multiple platforms" is, like, my one hard rule – but I'll throw in a link on my personal blog for anyone who's curious.)

200 Word RPGs 2024

Each November, some people try to write a novel. Others would prefer to do as little writing as possible. For those who wish to challenge their ability to not write, we offer this alternative: producing a complete, playable roleplaying game in two hundred words or fewer.

This is the submission thread for the 2024 event, running from November 1st, 2024 through November 30th, 2024. Submission guidelines can be found in this blog's pinned post, here.

[tatcrthots]

Hi I'm Sage and I don't think, I just sit here and look cute.

@ jennycheckirl