And Be You Blithe and Bonny

And yes, I do mean what they did is supportive even for that last snippet. It takes a great deal of strength to turn away from the seductive allure of empowerment through cruelty toward others.  Support doesn’t always mean “wearing kid gloves when handling someone” or avoiding a confrontation for a much-needed discussion.

Roleplaying, like writing, is all about the fiction.  The make-believe. The “let’s pretend!”  Roleplaying is group cooperative storytelling wherein each person is invited, and meant, to contribute to the story as a whole.  To make the story better for everyone, more enjoyable.

Unfortunately, things like fascism and supremacy/nationalism movements aren’t fiction. They are things that create real-world evils with real-world people being severely harmed by them, these days.  It’s not a game, it’s not funny, and it’s neither conducive to group cooperativeness nor good storytelling. It’s not heroic. 

People who do these things are not the heroes of the story, and they never will be.  Not in real life.  Not ever.

Pretending otherwise is a bigger piece of fiction–and a more poorly written one!–than anything any professional author has ever published.  Even the worst piece of literary drek that has ever gone viral isn’t as bad as that sheer level of lying to yourself.

So do put down the roleplaying book, and go call someone you trust who isn’t involved with whatever Dark Side of the Force hole you’ve descended into, to help get you back out again.  We want you to actually be heroic in real life…and not someone who is basically nothing more than a wanna-be murderer.

Real life isn’t a story.

Real life isn’t a game.

Real life has consequences.

Mad props to Vampire: The Masquerade, for acknowledging this, & being supportive enough to be blunt about their creation not being meant for the kinds of people who think that creating horrors in the real world is “acceptable behavior.”

And yes, you can check, “Jacqueline Bryk” is listed as an author in the PDF version that has these essays.

Minecraft Players:

The small business Saturday Lucky Packs are now available in the Etsy store.

Option A: deluxe headdress or boater hat or witch hat, necklace, and a corsage or two-way clip Or Option B: regular headdress or custom beret, sash, and a corsage or two-way clip

The lucky packs will be made to order and to match a jsk, op, or outfit(s) of your choosing.

them: how?

me:

I mean, Dracula originally turned into a wolf just as much as a bat, before pop culture shifted the public’s mental association closer to bats. That could also be a point of feud too.

The Draculas have a complicated relationship with the fact that their patriarch could transform into both a bat and a wolf. The neighborhood has quietly agreed to just avoid bringing it up in their presence.

(Preface: This is an update about my working relationship with a TTRPG publisher. Fair warning: politics, ethics, and LGBT issues are discussed).

For those who don’t know, I have had a three year working relationship with Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP). I’ve been a fan of their books and a pretty big booster of them on social media. When it came time to pitch Blood in the Chocolate, I went to LotFP to do it. They published my first bigger budget book, which won an ENnie award later that year. It is fair to say that LotFP helped my freelancing career.

Earlier this week, this was posted to the LotFP Twitter and Facebook accounts.

This post has since been taken down and an explanation has been given.

Jordan B. Peterson is a man with a number of public opinions of transgendered people’s rights, the LGBT community, and left-leaning individuals (like myself) that I find morally repugnant. He has a large following among the alt-right (a political movement with ties to white nationalists, neo-nazi’s and other radical conservatives in North America). Regardless of what merit his works or his lectures might have, his statements on these matters are ones I deeply disagree with.

And then here was my publisher doing a photo op with him after attending one of his events in Finland.

Even if this was done as a marketing gimmick (LotFP uses a lot of shock value marketing), I think it implicitly sends the message that LotFP is a game that is accepting of Peterson’s fans, anti-trans people, and the alt-right. By posting this from the official LotFP account it signals acceptance of these people and their beliefs by the brand itself. These are things I cannot in good conscience be okay with or be associated with.

As of right now I will no longer be working with Lamentations of the Flame Princess as a freelancer or contributor.

What does this mean for my upcoming LotFP projects?

I am currently on contract to do the layout and design for one LotFP book: Courtney Campbell’s In a Deadly Fashion. The work for this book is half finished. As behoves me as a professional working in tabletop games, I am obligated to see this project completed. Once the final layout drafts are approved, my working relationship with LotFP ends.

The two books I was in works to do with LotFP are now projects I will be self-publishing.

What does this mean for Weird on the Waves?

Weird on the Waves is still progressing as previously stated. I will be adjusting it so that it is more of a system agnostic game setting rather than for LotFP specifically. An update email regarding this has just been sent out to pre-order customers.

What does this mean for you, my followers?

I have spent the past few years singing LotFP’s praises as an inclusive publisher. In light of these recent posts, and from the feedback of several people who have reached out to me with their dealings with LotFP and its fanbase, I cannot sing LotFP’s praises any longer with a clear conscience.

I firmly believe that trans rights are human rights. That LGBT rights are human rights.

I do not stand with the alt-right, and I will not knowingly work with a brand or business that, indirectly or not, shares their values or promotes individuals who do.

LotFP is free to conduct its business however it wants, to whatever end it wants. I will just no longer be a part of that. James and I have (at time of this posting) parted ways in a professional manner.