pixel skylines
Xuebing Du
Not today Justin
i don't do bad sauce passes
hello vonnie
will byers stan first human second
$LAYYYTER
Cosimo Galluzzi
noise dept.
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Misplaced Lens Cap
DEAR READER
ellievsbear
Love Begins
Cosmic Funnies
Three Goblin Art
Discoholic 🪩
seen from Bulgaria
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
seen from Romania
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
@geooricle
I think whoever named worcestershire sauce that should have the worst tummy hurty ever
i have great news
MR. LEA I AM SO FUCKING SORRY
I had a double take because I thought for a second this was the same Mr W Lee as in Three Men in a Boat, but no he was the mayor of Abingdon, not Worcester.
I guess it would be hard to have 197 children if you're having such severe tummy problems.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
In reference to your recent post about ttrpg adaptations that don't let you play characters like the protagonists in the source material, what in your opinion are the best examples of ttrpg adaptations of media where one character is dramatically more capable and important to the narrative than the others which (1) let you play that character (2) make the game fun for all players (3) without just making everyone a Timelord/Avatar/whatever?
I think it's actually kind of bizarre that this keeps getting brought up as a show-stopping issue with these types of adaptations in order to justify not letting people play as character who resemble the source material, because it's been a solved problem for decades. Not just in obscure indie games, either; Ars Magica had it mostly figured out way back in 1987, while possibly the best known mainstream example is the 2002 Cinematic Unisystem adaptation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In the case of Ars Magica, its solution involves troupe-style play, where each player creates both an extremely powerful wizard character and a non-magic-using "companion" character who acts as the personal assistant or bodyguard to a different player's wizard; play is then arranged so that only one player's wizard is "on camera" at any given time, with that player's companion character being occupied elsewhere. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer adaptation, meanwhile, implements a metagame currency for dramatic editing, with the players of non-Slayer characters receiving a much better "exchange rate" on that currency than the Slayer's player.
In other games, the matter doesn't need to be addressed in the first place, because the axis by which game-mechanical "power" is measured doesn't overlap with the axes on which some characters are "better" than others. The 2010 Cortex adaptation of Smallville, for example, is perfectly willing to let one player be Clark Kent and another be Lois Lane, because you're not rolling Strength + Athletics to get shit done – you're rolling your sense of justice plus your relationship with your father (if those are the values and bonds that happen to be relevant). Indeed, depending on the circumstance, Lois Lane might well be slinging around bigger numbers than Clark Kent!
I fully understand that these examples have to make some fairly substantial accommodations, but this is only a problem if we're unwilling to depart from a model of play that's essentially reducible to a party of first-level D&D characters smashing rats in a basement. Are we really saying that we're less willing to think outside the box than fucking Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
(And that's excluding examples which are simply willing to let a game-mechanical power difference stand without accommodation. It's not like this doesn't happen in conventional tabletop RPGs anyway.)
To me, the issue isn't the power disparity, which as @prokopetz says can be resolved relatively simply but, as @the-moti mentions, the narrative importance. Having played campaigns where it revolved very much around one character's personal journey, you are somewhat at the mercy of that player liking their own character and not being a bit of an ass.
True to an extent; however, basically all traditional tabletop RPGs are already structurally at the mercy of one particular player having hugely outsize narrative influence and the ability to tank the game any time they please by being an ass: the GM. Having a separate non-GM player in the role the Doctor or the Slayer or the Avatar or what have you is actually a less lopsided concentration of narrative authority than the conventional setup affords; the only scenario in which this is not 100% obvious is the scenario where the game insists on pretending that the GM isn't a fellow player (which is, of course, another rats-in-a-basement D&Dism).
Yeah, I considered that, but came to the conclusion: "Hey, you know that major imbalance in D&D that places huge pressure and implicit authority on one person, who can nuke your campaign at a whim? Well, we've fixed it, now we have two of them! Hope they get along well!"
Arguably the fix for Doctor Who is to make the Doctor a GMesque role, deciding where you can go and putting you in danger is kind of his thing anyway. I assume this isn't what the game does, though?
Ultimately, you can't fix interpersonal issues at the table via the rules – trying is a mug's game. Attempting to rigorously enforce narrative balance by refusing to allow players access to any roles or affordances that could conceivably be abused to monopolise the spotlight is just limiting yourself for no gain.
(As for the Doctor Who example, yeah, the latest licensed RPG simply declines to tackle the issue by recommending that nobody be allowed to be the Doctor unless you're running a full party of Time Lords or whatnot; the question up top directly alludes to this.)
Ah, sad. The more I think of it, the more "an RPG game where the GM is actually a character who, while nominally in control of where you're going and what's going on, quickly finds themselves desperately trying to keep everyone alive and fix the issue they themselves set up in the first place" is *very* Doctor Who.
That's a bit of a different tack from what's discussed above, but it's definitely been explored. For example, in the localised 2007 Japanese RPG Ryuutama: Natural Fantasy Roleplay, the GM is explicitly personified as a benevolent dragon-spirit who guides the party's journey. They have their own character sheet, with different game-mechanical affordances for directly intervening in play depending on the specific dragon playbook the GM selects, and can even die if they expend too much energy aiding and protecting the party – an event which can lead to the GM stepping down and becoming a regular player, while another group member takes on the mantle.
(I'm given to understand that this sort of formalised GM's character is actually fairly common in Japanese indie RPGs; Western indie RPGs tend to be much more gun-shy about this sort of thing owing to the extreme vitriol that D&D's dominant culture of play has for "GMPCs".)
I think a great way to improve communication with kids (and adults) is to make every yes or no question a this or that question.
I started doing it when after brain surgery my husband had trouble forming responses to questions for a while, and realized that the habit was helping my students engage more truthfully with me.
Some examples:
Yes/No: “Did you clean up your room like I told you?”
This/That: “Did you clean up already, or do you still need to do that?”
Yes/No: “Are you going to sit quietly?”
This/That: “Are you ready to sit and do our quiet activity, or do you need some time by yourself first?”
Yes/No: “Are you doing anything fun for your birthday?”
This/That: “Are you having a party on your birthday, or are you going to relax?”
I think many children (and adults!) are averse to telling adults “No,” especially when a command is implied. (“Did you clean your room?” “Are you going to sit quietly?” Hmmm if I say ‘no’ I will be in trouble with the adult.) So they are actually pretty likely to just lie and say what they think you want to hear.
Presenting a this or that question provides an alternative to lying, a ‘no, but’ scenario where they are presented with the reasonable consequences of a No (“if you’re not ready to sit quietly, you cannot do our quiet activity with us yet.”)
I find it useful professionally with adults too - "Did you have a chance to finish that project, or is it more of a next-week item?" When done sincerely (rather than passive-aggressively), it gets over rough ground lightly: it gives the other person a solution you clearly already find acceptable, so they don't have to flail around trying to defend/excuse themselves, they can just take the solution and everyone can move on.
So imagine you have a job as a maid and you get assigned to this rich girl. Her parents picked you to kind of keep her in line, she definitely has some anger issues but she's also really sweet and silly when she's not being kept down by her shitty family. Like, they keep locking her up whenever she does anything they don't like and you're like, I just work here, but you do feel for her.
Then one day they finally assign her to be part of the family business and she's really stoked until she sees the environmental impact it has and she tries to get her family to stop and honestly you are falling so hard for this woman. She loves nature and animals and neither of you have any idea how to run anything, like, you're literally just a maid, but you're in charge of this whole huge shebang.
You both try to convince her family to cut back on production but it's a no go and they're pissed that they finally gave her responsibility only for her to immediately cause new problems. Once her family says fuck off to her efforts to preserve the environment she's just like, okay, fuck it, and she dons a disguise to fight them off as a mysterious rebel and she says it was your idea and you think you were probably joking when you said it but she's so happy so you're like, yeah, okay, let's like, destroy your family's interest in this site.
So then you're just like rebels together and you finally confess how you feel and she feels the same and you are so happy. There's a ton of horrible war going on but she sees you as more than a decorative maid. She convinces you to help her fake her own death and you really don't want to but you're so stupid for this woman so you do it. Her family are so fucking pissed that they just fucking nuke the site, but even after her family drops a radioactive bomb that distorts and destroys pretty much all the ambient life you guys are kind of happy anyway, at least you have each other.
Only then she meets this absolutely useless beach bum musician, falls head over heels for him and dumps you really abruptly. Then she dies in childbirth to bear this absolute goober's baby that you promised to raise.
And you still love her and miss her and her kid is a lot like her and that hurts pretty much all the time and that's basically why Pearl in Steven Universe is Like That.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
people who grew up religious and moved away from it or are still religious but just in a way where they've, like, realized they don't need to be a republican about it, always whip that factoid out like it gives them a Unique Authority in discussions about faith. as if "vaguely christian but not really that gung ho about it" does not describe the median american experience and they are some sort of unicorn of broadened perspectives. and i'm here to tell you as someone who was not raised as any kind of christian even a little bit: this experience with religion puts horse blinders on you. if not properly unpacked, this relationship to christianity does nothing but turn you into the sort of spineless centrist who thinks that Both Extremes need to chill out and accept the "right" level of ambient background christianity in life and politics, which, of course, naturally, is whatever level of christianity you personally don't find distasteful. but obviously the christian right will never be content with Only A Little Bit of domination over the daily lives of american, and obviously those of us who are not even a little bit christian will never be satisfied with Any amount of christian domination over our daily lives. so eventually you'll need to have an opinion on the subject beyond "why doesnt everyone just chill out" and i suggest you do it sooner rather than later
the thing is when you aren't reliant on "this is women only so it's inherently safe and harmless" you are forced to actually think about the circumstances that allow people to do harm to each other and how to handle these situations effectively and compassionately. also you are forced to grapple with the existence of people—including women!—who have been harmed by women and do not feel comfortable in spaces which insist their safety comes from the absence of men or penises or male penises
One thing about having “paranoid” in your chart is that you will never be believed about anything ever again.
Report a doctor for malpractice - they didn’t actually do that you’re just paranoid. Doesn’t matter if you actually have evidence it’s dismissed immediately they never even read the evidence.
This also affects POC more harshly as very real incidents of racism even violent ones will be dismissed under the “paranoid” label. POC are also more likely to get labeled paranoid by psych for talking about the very real and literal discrimination that they are experiencing.
ok but the doctor 100% did some time fuckery when he switched places with ace in the car in remembrance of the daleks right? the car did not stop ace just suddenly found herself in the passenger seat with no explanation
he uses literal hypnotism .5 seconds later. he's fucking with spacetime big time
Yeah the Seventh Doctor was kind of his "had enough of pretending to be human" era wasn't it
i have absolutely no sympathy for americans who think the democrats are exactly as bad as the republicans, on account of having lived under a tory government for fourteen fucking years
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
women with deadpan humor get behind me. a man is about to miss your joke and explain that what you said is not accurate
Oc Commission for Catattack on bsky tysm!
Hold on, you did the "repeating letters to draw out a word for emphasis" thing and I need to count them to check whether there are exactly eight. Why? Oh, no reason.
thirteen: i lie out of a deep seated need to create distance between me and my companions, in order to ensure that i dont lose them in a tragic, unavoidable scenario of my own making
seven: i lie in order to manipulate those around me in order to keep everything entirely under my own control, so that the most possible people can survive any given scenario
one: i lie because its funny. hoo hee hoo
eleven: I lie to artificially create a reveal moment at the end of the episode.
thirteen: i lie out of a deep seated need to create distance between me and my companions, in order to ensure that i dont lose them in a tragic, unavoidable scenario of my own making
seven: i lie in order to manipulate those around me in order to keep everything entirely under my own control, so that the most possible people can survive any given scenario
one: i lie because its funny. hoo hee hoo
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Me when I regenerate into a body that looks suspiciously like my ex-wife (she/they situashionship) who divorced me (and left me with some kid i dont even like) because i was also highkey trying to dump her (she took the dog)
“people don’t like it when they don’t get their treats” and “people don’t like it when their standard of living decreases” are both the exact same idea but one phrases it sympathetically and the other phrases it unsympathetically. This is known as rhetoric.
