Mrs.Platypus

This is actually something I think D&D is very bad at. It is clearly a game ABOUT fighting monsters, becoming powerful and finding treasure - that's what the mechanical focus is about. But in terms of fiction goals it often tries to be about everything, including things without mechanical support.

Like how AGON builds dice pools through mythical attributes and heroic deeds. Or how Mothership doesn't have a stealth mechanic and relies on players paying attention to the environment. Or how Blades in the Dark flashbacks feel like a heist movie, or Brindlewood Bay "opening credits" vignettes.

"Support the story" is pretty much meaningless. "Support storytelling" could mean giving the players tools to make meaningful choices which build the story?

I usually see "support the fiction", which to me means the game mechanics make it clearly ABOUT something specific.

Holy shit.

Jesus, hitting YOU with this would be like those poor fools who ask Gail Simone if she ever read a comic book. 😅

Game design. I'm definitely NOT a pro, but I've been around long enough to pick up a few things. And I keep running into online TTRPG bros who basically open up with "so, little lady, this is going to be complicated but stay with me - there's these things called DICE." 😐

Oh no

Wait, they suspended sales of V2 for a MONTH? The store is just gone from the website and you can't actually buy their software now, at all? Wtf?

They do have a big "future is coming on Oct 30" banner on their website, so I assume they're planning an Enshittification Speedrun.

👀

I like dark fairytale or alien elves. Pratchett's Lords and Ladies, or del Toro's Hellboy elves. I don't like them as protagonists.

Oh, I wouldn't mind it at all if there was a good reason for it. If you add a small twist that makes the details uncanny and alien, for example. Or if the character focuses on it all, because you want to show how he's obsessed with public transport.

Sanderson is just being tedious.

I also felt that in WoT he didn't really get the main characters? I stopped reading after a few chapters, because at that point in the series I was VERY familiar with the main cast, and they suddenly felt, thought, spoke and acted like completely different people.

Legs of a person sitting on a bed under a red wool blanket, with a black cat and a white cat sleeping cuddled on both sides.

I really really need to get up but...

I swear his version of "a guy got on a bus and sat down" would include an explanation of street-level boarding, list of people priority seats are for, detailed description of the ticket machine and the color and cut of the driver's shirt. One sentence of substance, three paragraphs of fluff.

I've avoided Sanderson for a while after bouncing off his WoT books and never finishing the series. I'm listening to The Way of Kings now, and his insistence on explaining absolutely EVERYTHING that happens in excruciating detail is a bit much...

To be honest "poproszę bilet na pociąg pospieszny do Szczecina" is not an entry level sentence. 😅

Hey, at least once you get the basics, you can tell how any word is pronounced. We sound out all the letters and they (almost) always sound the same. None of that "every C in Pacific Ocean is pronounced differently" nonsense.

That said, powodzenia.

Mind boggling concept to some.

My job is literally hiring interns for a big company. A significant amount of my time is spent explaining to my (mostly genX and millennial) colleagues that a job, in addition to requiring things from employees, should also OFFER them something. And that genZ having boundaries is a good thing.

This was the 10min Blue Origin flight in Jeff Bezos' dick rocket. She has (or is working on?) a PhD in aerospace engineering and that's impressive as hell. But she is an astronaut in the same way that taking a Ryanair flight to Italy made me a pilot.

I once had a very comfy pair of sneakers and the company name was - I shit you not - FAKE. I wanted another pair, but the local store didn't have them anymore and it was 100% impossible to find them online. Any variation of "fake sneakers" just gets you bootleg Nikes and "Adadas" from Ali Express.

Yeah, but the point about the CEOs still stands.

This is pretty much accurate. I know several students who are interns in supposedly data science/machine learning, and their job is labeling images to train self-driving cars. And almost every programmer I know gets offers for "review and correct AI generated code" jobs.

In what way is that legal? They're demanding renters sabotage themselves in a way that's definitely a reason to get fired immediately, and probably criminal as well. I'm baffled how it's legal to operate a mass data breach machine and block access to housing with it?

Ha! I should have known it already exists! Thanks for the link.

Playing through a fantasy world creation myth as a bunch of capricious deities, each with their own priorities?

Looking for playtesters for an upcoming sci-fi horror game kind of like shadowdark meets ten candles meets mothership.

If you want to test it with your group, send me a DM on Bluesky and I’ll send you a free copy.

Youtube thumbnail for episode 1 of the Public Access on the Bad Spot. 3 terrified latchkey kids are inside a CRT TV. Behind them, an ominous looking house and the tarot card The Fool. Episode title is Part 1: Welcome to Degoya County, NM

Patrons tomorrow. Everyone else, Friday. Can't wait for you to meet The Latchkeys.

#publicaccess #actualplay

@jessjewell.bsky.social @masquewren.bsky.social @jasoncordova.bsky.social @fkth.bsky.social

I love when nicknames like this really solidly stick, and then you read a Forbes profile of a 47yo founder and CEO of Kiwi Industries.