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Everybody stop what you’re doing RIGHT NOW and celebrate the last Out of Touch Thursday of 2020

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"I don't hate people with autism, I just hate people who display autistic traits! It's very different. I'm a good person."

"Don't let the internet turn you into an asshole" didn't mean "find an acceptable minority of people to be mean to so you can continue being a bully" it meant. As a general rule of thumb. you should not be a dickhead to strangers on the internet

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This is a Tumblr post, in TikTok format...

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A group of adventurers have descended into a dungeon and encountered some trolls.

"We need to use fire against them!" is not metagaming.

"Look for torches, there wouldn't be troll encounter if there wasn't some way for us to beat them!" is metagaming.

Is this clear?

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Reminds me of when there was a whole debate over whether D&D was a "story game" -- the debate was *actually* about "what is a Story Game?", was it (expansive) a game that can be used to tell a story, or (limited) a game that has specificly story-based rules.

I prefer the more limited definitions because you can tell a story with any game -- including risk, monopoly and badminton -- to the point where it would be immensely difficult to make a game that can't be used to tell a story, just like it would be pretty difficult to make an rpg that *cannot* be used to tell queer narratives with queer characters, if the players are so inclined.

The "problem" with this for the D&D crowd is that D&D5E doesn't particularly want to be anything other than profitable, which means it can't be a Thing in the way that, say, Dungeon Bitches is. It can't focus, it can't be a Queer game because then the bigots won't buy it, it can't be a Straight game because a lot of players are queer, it can't be a tactical combat game because then the people who don't like tactical combat won't buy it, it can't be a story game because then they can't sell minis. So it isn't anything, and so people have to describe it in terms of what it doesn't *stop* you from doing, and in that specific sense it is a queer game but also so is ice hockey.

Which is to say, you can definitely*run* a Queer Campaign with D&D, but that doesn't make it a queer *game*.

D&D is the Taylor Swift of TTRPGs by which I mean it's something with broad mainstream appeal and name recognition and also there are people out there who pretend it's gay

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"I’m very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial in this case.  He’s being prejudiced by some statements that are being made by government officials. Like every other defendant, he’s entitled to a presumption of innocence. But unfortunately the way this has been handled so far his rights are being violated. And as you know, Your Honor, there’s a wealth of case law guaranteeing his rights to a fair trial, but none of the safeguards have been put in place yet here — in fact it’s just the opposite of what’s been happening. 

He’s a young man, and he is being treated like a human pingpong ball between two warring jurisdictions here.

These federal and state prosecutors are coordinating with one another at the expense of him. They have conflicting theories in their indictment, and they are literally treating him like he is some sort of political fodder, like some sort of spectacle. 

He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest staged perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary. He’s been cooperative with law enforcement. He’d been in custody for over a week. He waived extradition. He was cooperative at all accounts. There was no reason for the NYPD and everybody to have these big assault rifles — that frankly I had no idea it was in their arsenal — and to have all the press there the media there. It was perfectly choreographed. 

And what was the New York City Mayor doing at this press conference, Your Honor? That just made it utterly political. And as your honor knows under Loro v. Charles, the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has held it to be clearly established that these staged perp walks to the media unrelated to a legitimate law enforcement objective is unconstitutional. And I submit that there was zero law enforcement objective to do that sort of perp walk. There’s absolutely no need for that whatsoever. 

And frankly, Your Honor, the mayor should know more than anyone about the presumption of innocence that he, too, is afforded dealing with his own issues. And, frankly, I submit that he was just trying to detract from those issues by making a spectacle of Mr. Mangione. 

And there are consequences to this. 

He has a right to a fair trial. And I just want to put on the record statements that the mayor made publicly about my client. Nothing saying “alleged” for example. And he said “I wanted to send a strong message with the police commissioner that we’re leading from the front. I’m not just going to allow him to come into our city. I wanted to look him in the eye and state ‘You carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city of New York that I love.’” And he wanted to show symbolism. 

Your Honor, he’s not a symbol. He’s somebody who is afforded the right to a fair trial. He’s innocent until proven guilty. And the mayor was talking to jurors — future potential jurors that elected him. Those are the people that elected him that he is talking to and calling this man a terrorist.

So, Your Honor, I just want to make a record of this and put everyone on notice that this has to stop, and my client is entitled to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence."

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This is how you frame the billionaire agenda.

Social Security and Medicare are paid for, week by week, through payroll contributions.

Elon and Vivek want to steal your contributions.

Americans should be united in fighting for Social Security and Medicare increases.

Republican voters would accept a worse retirement delivered by House Republicans, then focus all their anger on distractions provided by politicians and media.

It is a sick cycle proven to crush the soul of America.

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You forgot

Companions + first reaction to the inside of the TARDIS

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Dungeon Bitches

i remember you writing a list of something in some fucking context (i remember nothing), and on that list there was a lesbian ttrpg that really stuck out to me that i didn't save. It was a real edgy one about being lesbian violent and mean (i think), which isn't really much to go off. Where i'm going to is, would you be interested in just listing every lesbain indie ttrpg you know of? Its fine if you dont wanna, of course.

You're probably thinking of this thread here, though you're quite correct that "mean violent lesbians" isn't sufficient to pick out a specific entry – several of the titles plugged in that thread would easily qualify!

As for "listing every lesbian indie ttrpg [i] know of", that's a trickier demarcation problem than you might imagine. What is a lesbian tabletop RPG? Is it one where the player characters are obligatorily lesbians? (If so, we end up excluding games which are explicitly about the lesbian experience, but feature some other type of character.) Is it one written, at least in part, by lesbians? (If so, we bump into the problem that not all indie tabletop RPGs are autobiographical, the maunderings of certain self-appointed critics notwithstanding.) Is it one where the game itself is a lesbian? (Not an impossible brief, but now we're catering exclusively to folks who are into meta bullshit.)

Ultimately I'm going to pass the problem down the line and just ask folks in the notes to name the first game that comes to mind when they think of the phrase "lesbian indie ttrpg". Let's see what sort of consensus evolves.

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Assasian's Creed: Leverage

...

Huh.

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watching leverage is truly a "giggling and kicking my feet" experience for me personally. it's genuinely such a fun show with such fun and compelling characters that i can't help but grin like an idiot at my screen when they do barely anything