Petter's Blog

just ask that person out, the worst thing they can say is an esoteric incantation that topologically inverts your body

And that might just lead you to discovering a new kink

I've noticed in recent years that, at least within mainstream usamerican culture, the sympathetic petty criminal archetype has largely fallen out of favor. you still have plenty of stories of noble nights, benevolent aristocrats, sympathetic mercenaries, but the idea of a thief with a heart of gold is increasingly rare. often petty criminals are just used as uncomplicated cannon fodder, so the protagonist has something human-shaped that they can kill or mutilate without remorse. you see this with dnd players often. the wicked king or the cruel dragon can be reasoned with, but a highway bandit robbing caravans to eat is perfectly fine to torture to death with sorcery

The real problem with D&D's contemporary culture of play is that it's basically a worse version of what Paranoia was doing forty years ago. It's a faux pas for players to display knowledge of the mechanics and the GM is expected to maintain an elaborate kayfabe where they merely pretend to be moderating a game with rules while actually doing something completely different, and they're not even allowed to kill players with orbital laser strikes for talking back.

Like, I'm not keen on any framing of play where the GM is expected to do literally 100% of the work of making the game happen, but it seems to me that if you're going to do that anyway, the GM being both allowed and encouraged to kill you with lasers whenever they want is only fair compensation.

To pose a particularly silly example, imagine rolling up a new dungeon and getting the schema elements "randomised, non-hierarchical upgrades", "upgrades are intrinsic modifications to the affected character's mind, body, or soul", and "each upgrade is a self-willed NPC and accessing its advanced functions requires persuasion, negotiation, and/or bribery". Is it a biopunk dungeon where characters advance by acquiring talkative parasites with incongruous goofy accents? Is it like a Disco Elysium thing where you advance by learning skills, but the skills are alive? Do you have ghosts in your blood?

Thinking about the kinds of characters who would do that for a living is extremely fun.

The core book's character creation chapter would of course include a Big Stupid Table of potential explanations for why you're doing this to yourself.

As always, I will note that the US never outlawed slavery

the phrase "you can get a hound by killing your sister" feels like a post you would see on tumblr dot com but it's actually advice about warframe