@Ghost said in 2023: Dead Celebs pt 2, Electric Boogaloo.:
@Misadventure Yeah, Zavala(sp?). Wonderful voice actor.
T_T
It is terrible to in any way reduce a person down to so little, but that little thing was lots of enjoyable time (and in a vague way part of my worklife).
TLDR; is there an action and sheet tracking code available for modification out there, like Arx or various RPIs have?
I am interested in a coded mechanism for players to describe their actions to be collected periodically (like weekly), track used resources and applied against a recorded object the actions are meant to influence.
So it could be the worlds slowest conflict, adding buffs to allies, debuffs to opposition , tracking against resistance and counter measures etc etc.
It could be building a structure or an organization.
It could be social influences and public events affecting individual, group, organization or cultural reputations and values.
It might be used to affect markets for a mercantile exploration trader game (Firefly, pirates, frontiersy stuff etc).
It could be used for research, experimentation, investigation.
I know some RPI type places probably have very involved code for similar, and like Arx where its a mix of some of the things I listed.
Ideally this would be able to use recorded sheets for PCs, NPCs, businesses, organizations, structures under player and NPC control etc.
Weirdly I come at this via Destiny 2, where indeed the character he voiced will be hard to replace or lose.
@Ghost said in The Pack Discussion:
As for the accusation and what's going on at that other place? Don't sweat it @Macha . Thems just a bunch of confirmation bias sharks reveling at the scent of blood in the water so they can claim moral high-ground with eachother after bullying the shit out of someone. Apparently abusing people for a "good reason" excuses people from being abusers so long as their peers/fellow abusers give them high fives for it!
Yep.
@Templari seems to be a repeating pattern across a few places. Staff keeping their predator friends protected and inflicting damage on players.
I wonder if thjey realize that by runniung a place that attracts players, they are part of the process. The procurer.
@Bathysphere Okay. I don't go there.
@Bessarion May want to mention It's done with Ares.
@hobos Was it all text like a MU*, with maybe talkign to handle some quick OOC communicattion, or was there a mix of speaking and writing?
@faraday I could see ther being an OOC chat channel for either a single server as single MU* or multiple games per discord server sharing one or more OOC channels.
Now I wantt to figure out a way to have a bot that you can ask it for a room, and it will spit out the desc, either as something to copy/paste to a scene channel, or directly injected.
I read an article regarding the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism, a medievalish re-creation/recreation group), and I thought it had some interestring points that bear on MU* play to a degree.
https://annasrome.com/
About that whole Crown Variance Request by Lochac:
December 14, 2022 ~ 11 Comments
Edit: I keep adding more stuff to the bottom as discussion points cross my feed as well as made some clarifications in my original post (it was late last night when I was getting ranted to by a dear Lochacian friend so things got muddy on my end as well.)
I am nearly permabanned from Facebook at this point thanks to the ridiculous reporting attack that went down right after my elevation that followed me onto my new account, but you can’t ban me from speaking my mind on my blog. So sit the hell down and listen:
It is not period to choose sovereigns by right of arms.
I know, I know, “But that’s not what the game was founded on!”
We’ve changed a lot since the 60s. The women aren’t wearing Gunne Sax and calling it “garb” for one, and two, the SCA has developed into a much larger more inclusive society EXCEPT FOR THIS.
I have no issue with heavy combat crown tournaments, but I do think that we’re way overdue to look at mixing it up. This post is about the labels we attach to our tradition, and why they are problematic, though.
No, you are not permitted to get in my face about this. I see you (nondescript you) and the way you’re treating people on Social Media right now and it is not a good look. “You’re not a fighter!” No, I do not fight in the SCA anymore because I do not have the time or physical capacity to do so. I have been authorized in both heavy combat and rapier combat, in addition to being a black belt in TaeKwonDo and having been practicing martial arts in some respect for nearly 30 years at this point. Do not cast aside my “Well you aren’t wearing spurs so your opinion doesn’t matter, you snarky little Laurel”. I see you. If you’re so big and bad, drop the sword and board and join me in the TKD ring. It’s been a hot minute since I fought in a national championship but I can still hold my own. I’ve kicked heads in camp at Pennsic.
Oh, you won’t. Why? “It’s not my element and it’s not fair.” You’re right, it isn’t. Much like heavy combat in the SCA is not the element for most participants, and it’s, indeed, not fair. But it’s also not fair to say that folks should not have thoughts on something when they aren’t combatants.
The Chivalry has the privilege of being the “most equal” of the peerages. I have no qualms saying that out loud because it’s true and I’ve had multiple knights and MoAs tell me the same. When you threaten their elevated pillar over the other bestowed peerages, they back into a corner and lash out like terrified house cats, and this is the reason why. We cannot in good faith offer an egalitarian experience if we do not have ways to make participation equal. Period. That’s it, that’s the tea.
No wait, no, that’s not -actually- the tea. I’m still boiling that water, so buckle up.
“The SCA is really a Victorian King Game and we should continue that tradition!”
Sure, let me, with my 2.5 history degrees, unpack this nonsense.
The Victorians -ruined- the Middle Ages and subsequent modern perception thus. The Victorians gave us the myths of damsels in distress, knights in shining armor, Pre-Raphaelite over romanticism and faux history designed for the purpose of the subjection of women, children, LGBTQ+, and POC. There. There it fucking is, isn’t it? The Anglo-American Victorian Period was rooted in white supremacy, and these “king games” were part of them. We modern classical and medieval historians are still working to unravel myths of medieval individuals not bathing thanks to the absolute abhorrent mess the Victorian “historians” created.
“Tradition” is a nice word that means you’re letting dead people tell you what to do. In this case, the “dead people” in question were using colonialism, white supremacy based on horrifically bad early anthropology theory, and sweeping dead children riddled with tuberculosis out of the gutter after they worked 18 hour shifts for quarter wage to justify the Smithian and Malthusian virtues of classical liberalism’s “invisible hand of the free market.” So maybe, just fucking maybe, we shouldn’t be putting this asinine period, during which the United States still permitted slavery for most of, on its own pedestal. The Middle Ages had their own issues, but we cannot recreate “the Middle Ages as they should have been” while touting that our organization is literally an echo of one of the most oppressive centuries in world history. If any of you supporting this theory have spent more than breathing on a Wikipedia page’s worth of reading on the Victorian period and its treatment of medievalism, you wouldn’t want to be waving this flag. Period. For a group of people who purport themselves to be belonging to an educational group, you’re really bad at educating yourselves.
This brings me to the boiling point before I pour that tea.
What did we do to disabled individuals during the Victorian period? The same thing the SCA is doing now: ignoring them. While care was not exactly great in the Middle Ages, disabled individuals usually found support in the family unit or community. The Victorians would throw them away and lock them up if they could afford it. Otherwise, they were unalived in a variety of ways such as drowning, falling, or just…”He went for a walk and didn’t come home. Pass the tea, old horse.”
The entire premise of the Lochac proposal was to create an avenue to be more inclusive of those that cannot physically fight for whatever reason (update: It was even less rigid, they just asked to be able to choose their own crown formats). Two sovereign nations, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, came to an agreement for the betterment of their own kingdom literally on the other side of the planet from North America, that this was what they wanted to do. They proposed it using disability as the example, and suggested that Lochac, being distant and away from the “core” kingdoms of the US and Canada, be a great testing grounds for this new idea, and the North American BoD couldn’t be arsed to give them a better answer than “Not right now.”
Okay but why? Where is the rest of the answer? Is the rest of the answer, “We are going to start developing this so standby”, or is it actually what I think it is, a shrieking harmony of toxic masculinity and ableism disguised as “tradition”? This is not a good look for the United States, but it’s also expected. We’ve managed to really show our asses in the last few years.
If you want the Victorian Interpretation of the Middle Ages As they Should Have Been, then I definitely recommend cooling down the ableism, racism, sexism, and all the other -isms that make it all 100% still Very Victorian Middle Ages As They Were, only with Less Consumption and More Covid. They also wouldn’t stand for any personae from Ireland, Italy, or Eastern Europe. In fact, Jewish personae need not apply either. Orthodox, Catholics and Jews go home, totally. The problematic term “Anglo-Saxon” is also 100% Victorian, and was used then, as it is now, as an avenue to promote white supremacy to support colonialism.
Or, you know, stop using the Victorian excuse. I’m sick of it, just tell us you don’t want to be inclusive of disabled individuals and would rather have the whispers of racist dead white men in your ears telling you what to do than make a fresh attempt at being inclusive.
There’s a good chance most people pining for the romanticized Victorian Middle Ages have no idea what they’re espousing, but they need to knock it off.
That, my friends, is the hot tea.
The SCA is in trouble as it is on the recruitment and retention front, a great deal of this has to do with the le Ancien Scadien Regime touting their sad devotion to their ancient traditions, but also because of inaccessibility, racism, and just you know, wow, there’s a lot of Nazis. White supremacists are not as dumb as we want them to be. They see and hear this “Victorian King Game” and connect the dots of all the points I made above, and we all know how they feel about the disabled, queer, and POC folks that already struggle to be seen in our game. We should stop inviting them to play. I had hoped they would have all left to go to the SMA, but alas, we have so many missing stairs newcomers are falling to their demise before reaching their AoA.
Either we’re an inclusive society that wants to recreate the Global Middle Ages, or, we’re a pseudo-Victorian society upholding dangerous ideals disguised as a historical education society.
Choose wisely, SCA.
Addendums based on what I’m seeing on Social Media, since I can’t post. I’m updating as I see more talking points.
I think that Milpitas should let Lochac give it a shot. If it doesn’t work, then we go back to heavy combat crowns. No harm, no foul. But the Palatine Barony of the Far West and Western Seas has a rotation scheme for choosing their baronage. I fail to see why this can’t be implemented as a crown format either. Nobody says it will never be fighting again ever, all folks want to do is make the experience more inclusive, which I see a lot of push back on in the form of “The SCA doesn’t have to be everything to everyone.” Um, that’s literally what inclusivity is. That’s a fancy sentence for, “I don’t want somebody disabled in charge for 4-6 months.”
I should note that the Palatine Barony is starting to fall apart with lots of inactive pockets due to a lack of support for the military community from the SCA as a whole but sips tea I know jack about that, I suppose.
I also see a lot of very odd mental gymnastics in regard to, “This is what we were founded as, therefore…” by the same people who will argue tooth and nail about interpreting the US Constitution and what the Founding Fathers would have wanted. This is only coming from the Americans, not the Australians, Kiwis, Canadians, or Europeans. In my opinion, it’s the same thing. If you can argue that the interpretation of the US Constitution should change with time, then SCA Corpora should be given the same respect. Don’t say, “This is how we did it in the 1960s” for the SCA, turn around, and argue about making the amendment for term limits for Congress in the same breath. You look dumb. Also, so are term limits, but this is an SCA blog, not a political one. Anybody who follows me on FB has gotten that well-documented screed enough.
The whole thing is a power grab, period. Not by the Chivalry, but by older members who refuse to let go. It’s like watching a professor who should have retired 20 years ago continue to hold onto a chaired seat just to refuse it to a younger generation who challenged their scholarship.
DEI is not just about BIPOC and LGBTQ+ members, I can’t believe I have to keep repeating this because it makes me sound whataboutist, but that’s just the Diversity portion. The I means Inclusion, and Inclusion means EVERYBODY. The E means Equity, and that means allowing everybody the chance to be given accommodations to sample all that the SCA has to offer. When the DEI office got slammed for having a roundtable talking about the military experience in the SCA because the panel was not visibly queer or POC, I got angry for obvious reasons, even as a member of the queer community, coming off of the massive struggle we had moving between 3 kingdoms in 2 years. But why is disability always on the back burner? Why is it always skirted when it comes to site accessibility and event options? When I mentioned having accessibility porters at events, folks who need assistance loved the idea, and then I got able-bodied folks telling me they didn’t want to “waste” their time at the event carrying other people’s things for them. Oh, okay. I am not disabled, but I do have chronic illnesses that can make my event experience less-than-fun, so usually I just don’t bother going. With Jeff being as sick as he is right now, we aren’t going to events anytime soon anyway, because I can’t trust people to help him if he needs it if I’m busy, or mask up near him while his immune system recovers from chemotherapy. This argument just cements further that the SCA is not a club for those that need an extra hand once in a while, and that is upsetting.
“You’re attacking the chivalry!” No, no I’m not. I’m attacking inequity and exclusion based on bad “traditions”. I didn’t badmouth the Chiv at all other than repeating words they have already told me: They are the most equal of the peerages and that they carry the most clout. This was by design in the game. Toxic masculinity does not define the Chivalry, it defines the systemic issue. If you hear the phrase “toxic masculinity” and assume “Chivalry”, then that’s indicative of a whole other problem entirely, isn’t it? Toxic FIGHTERS that bad mouth the other paths are another issue entirely, and they rarely wear chains.
“We need martial leadership for wars!” Okay, I agree. Then make non-war reigns non-martial crowns? Why can’t the Sovereigns be on the field at Pennsic for the champions battles while the Heirs visit the A&S Display to support their populace? Hell, I’ve had sovereigns express dismay at missing so much other stuff at wars because of, well, war. That tells me that we need to stagger things better.
“I don’t want my non-rattan community to become toxic like rattan has become, and the toxic people from rattan will just go into rapier, etc.” – Actually, this one makes a lot more sense to me and I’m glad someone brought it up. Again, I need to reiterate that not all fighters and especially not all chiv are toxic. The system is what breeds toxicity, but all competitions do this. Training on the national level in TKD wasn’t exactly free of drama, toxicity, or the like, I think it’s just human nature. Which is grossly unfortunate. I’ve been in and apart of enough A&S competitions that have gotten so cutthroat I could only imagine what adding crown to it could do. Still, I think that non-martial crowns should still be experimented with.
No, this has nothing to do with me planning to expatriate to Aotearoa New Zealand. I’m doing that because I want distance from the US and the inevitable trauma of losing my husband sooner than later.
“If you don’t like it, leave.” What, and miss THIS?
I just heard from a Lochacian that one of the reasons why they pitched this is that they have less fighters than they used to, but an active and large populace as a whole who are doing amazing things. So it’s issues of burnout with the current fighter pool as well as the desire to try something new to be more inclusive. Likewise, I’ve had ‘Strayans offering me beer all day and I’ve already lost that drinking game before.
“We should just abolish crown tourneys.” – Now we’re talking. Or, we can do something crazy, and medieval: A REPUBLIC.
On CTE and TBI: We are not talking about this enough. I’ve seen what happens to athletes in multiple sports with CTE. Please, PLEASE take this into account. It’s one of the reasons why Jeff decided he didn’t want to fight as much anymore. But we also need to approach this in a way that we don’t make the fighting community think it’s an insult or that they’re all just going out there and getting their bell rung. I’ve gotten popped in melee as well as singles, it happens and normally we just shake it off without thinking of the consequences. The same in TKD. “Well I just saw Tweety birds, better shake it off and get back out there.” AYEEEEEEEEEEE what are we doing to ourselves? Can this be solved with calibration? Maybe. Can it be solved by eliminating head contact and more active marshalling? Yes, but that requires having everybody on board, and head shots are sort of part of the game since it’s a fast kill. There may also be padding solutions, but as we’ve learned with the NFL, no amount of padding will make this perfect. Reduced contact is the only answer.
Members of Lochac have clarified that they did not ask for a specific crown format or with disability in mind (which is what another Aussie told me, which might still be a catalyst of course), they simply asked for the variance that says they can choose the crown format they wish, and the US BOD just struck them down without any clarifying questions or the like. I think the insta-denial is the issue here more than anything. The BOD could have gone, “What do you have in mind?” or “Can you provide us with more info?” And instead chose not to.
How does the Legend of the Five Rings setting handle this topic, in its sources, and in online play?
@Bellecourt So with the Velayrons also being dark skinned, that would have provided some cover for a story like Jon Snow being a hidden Targaryen. I don't know if Jon is one in the books, but as long as there is some consistency of phenotypes (that being important to the seed is strong storyline as far as I know), it wouldn't matter what those phenotypes were. I'd be satisfied with people being a color associated with the elements their people harken to (though again, that messes with Jon).
Also that link just shows font families to me, am I doing something wrong?
You could do a comparison between the two sets of dice pools, and see how different they are.
anydice.com can do it.
To see a difference, you do can compare lots of things, like 5 dice to 5 dice, or max pool to max pool, whatever. Once you know what you want to compare, you do pool1 - pool 2, and you'll see the differences.
This is another Kickstarter related email. I thought it said some important things, and maybe someone here will think so too.
Again, I did not write this.
"In today's Design Diary, Rae reviews the ways in which Apocalypse Keys is both implicitly and explicitly a queer game. As we like to say when we're promoting Thirsty Sword Lesbians: You don't have to be queer to start playing this game, but you might be a little more queer by the time you finish.
We hope you'll take the time to read Rae's thoughtful and personal reflections here. If you like to hear Rae talk about some of these themes (as well as how queer The Hungry playbook is) check out this episode of Character Study on YouTube.
====
Apocalypse Keys is a queer game, in the simple truth that I’m a queer creator and what I create is queer. If I listed every single aspect of the game that is queer and explain how it is so, I could very likely write an entire book on the subject! But I wanted to pick a few things and share them with you. (I almost called this game Apocalypse Kisses.)
To be queer is to be monstrous
The history of queer-coding villains and monsters is a long one. Over time the role, aesthetic, and the implications of monstrousness have become inviting spaces for queer folks. I wanted to create a game that really leaned into this queer monstrousness, and you can see it in the playbook pick list choices and in many of their themes. Playing the role of a monster is a revealing, revelatory, and often cathartic experience. For those of us who are othered and made to feel monstrous, embracing the monstrosity on our terms is both celebratory and healing.
It’s the main reason every player is a monster, and one of the many reasons there is no human handler or human controller playbook. Several mechanics and themes hinge on that monstrosity, on players exploring their own humanity in a world that shuns them and fears them. In the End of Session questions, in the creative space of the picklists, in the narrative spotlight of the moves, I wanted to highlight monstrosity and humanity.
To be queer is to build a found family
Times are changing, but familial and social acceptance isn’t something queer folks can expect. This year I came out to my parents that I was trans, and it was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. My parents tried, but it was difficult for them. They’re still trying. But I felt inhuman for days, unable to look at myself in the mirror or think about the look of disgust and despair on my mother’s face. And I know I’m one of the luckier ones. I know my parents love me, even if they don’t understand me.
It was my found family who held me together when I felt like I was breaking apart.
Queer folks can’t help but create their own families, when their own families struggle to accept them or flat out reject them. The family we choose for ourselves can be just as complex and messy as the ones we are born into. But the bonds we create connect us to each other, and the future we hope for one another.
There’s a lot of power in the bonds of Apocalypse Keys, an emotional currency that develops the complex nuance of the characters' relationships with one another. It was important to me that bonds can hold us back from going too far or missing the mark. It was also important that the lack of these bonds felt important, and that creating new ones took care, effort, and sometimes luck.
To be queer is to hold on to hope
In many ways, life would be easier for me if I wasn’t queer. To let go of my monstrosity, to hide it away under the skin and in the depths of my heart forever, perhaps some things would be easier.
When the psychiatrist and the doctor asked if I was ready for the life that would come from seeking medical transition, I was struck by the question. I wasn’t asked if I was ready to be asexual, panromantic, or even polyamorous. My personal narrative has never been “I’ve always known, since I was a child”, caught up as I was in the oppressive and suffocating systems of the world. To get to this point has been characterized by struggle, questions, realizations, and fear. A lot of fear. A lot of anxiety, looking into the chasm of the unknown before me.
But to be queer is to hope. It is to reach out with hands and hearts open and marvel that others will reach out to hold you. It is to look into the eyes of love, and find unconditional acceptance. It is to look into the mirror, to look at a body that doesn’t belong to me, and hope that one day I’ll see myself looking back at me. It is to struggle to find the words to come out as poly, only to have several loved ones say, “Oh, I always knew that about you.” It is battling against the confusion and fear of wanting to use masculine pronouns and the miracle of having your best friend say, “Oh, I didn’t know why, but I was always referring to you as he in my head.”
It is the hope that those I love can see me, the truest and brightest parts of me.
I created the mechanical and narrative depths of despair in Apocalypse Keys because I know it is human to reach towards the light. I know that, queer or no, we all desire to move away from the darkness and pull our loved ones with us.
But I know that in the dark there is love too. I know that in embracing the dark, we find a truth that will help us heal, and give birth to new hope.
Being queer has been one of the most difficult things in my life, but it also holds the most wondrous and miraculous moments too.
-Rae"
I wonder if it would be at all effective to skip the direct posing of isms, but include them in descriptions of actions and choices of actions. Part of me really wants to be able to portray these things in games, but even as a GM I can only describe that it is there. I barely managed to convey anti-mutant sentiments in my super hero campaign. People knew it was there, strong, and horrid, but I wasn't good at portraying it directly.
@Macha I'm not that wise about such things. You should wait until you're ready.
Sometimes life will show you are more ready than you thought.
I personally dislike using real people for played bys. Too much baggage.