Best posts made by Wizz

A few more recommendations:

Baccano!

Baccano! tells the story of a group of alchemists who meet in secret in 1711 aboard a ship called the Advenna Avis where they are gifted with an elixir that grants immortality by a demon; they then split up to travel the earth. We follow them through a series of nonlinear stories as they encounter one another again and again across the centuries, with most of the show focused on an escalating conflict between rival mafia families during the Prohibition in New York City where the immortals and the elixir surface again and shenanigans ensue.

This is like, easily in my top ten favorites. The score and the way the story is told are fantastic, the cast is large and interestingly eccentric, and the action and occult elements are just fun.

Pet

Hooboy, Pet.
It is an incredibly heavy and dark story about a criminal organization that uses psychic hitmen to either manipulate memories or cause mental breakdowns and catatonia in their targets. This is another one that is hard to say much about without giving too much of the story away, but it is complex and just...a lot. The visuals are amazing, as the show takes you into the psyches of the victims and the psychics, it's very surreal.

There are some elements of the plot that are very troubling, if not actually triggering, and so I'd say be cautious with it. But it's worth the watch, and lingers with you for quite some time.

Inuyashiki

This is an intense horror/sci fi anime that follows the lives of an elderly salaryman and a teenager whose bodies are accidentally destroyed by interdimensional aliens, who absolutely panic and proceed to replace them with super advanced cybernetic weapons platforms and then just...bail. The teenager, who was already mentally unstable, blossoms into a terrifying psychopath and the old man is forced to try and stop him.

It's a genuinely bizarre show, and very graphic and unsettling, but still worth the watch imo. The old man in particular (the titular Inuyashiki Ichiro) is such an unusual protagonist and you develop so much sympathy for him over the course of the series as he slowly learns to become a hero, and what that actually means. Plus, there's a scene where Ichiro is trying to activate this jetpack built into his torso and he can't make it work until he starts singing the old Astro Boy themesong to himself and C'MON THAT'S JUST ADORABLE, you'll wanna pinch his wrinkly old man cheeks!!

Parasyte

SPEAKING OF UNSETTLING BODY HORROR.

This is another show that is in my top ten, and is just amazing. It's an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-esque story of these little, well, alien parasites that burrow into people's heads, eat their brains, and take over their bodies -- only one of them fucks up when it tries to snatch the body of high schooler Shinichi Izumi, who traps it in his arm where it is forced to adapt and possess his hand instead.

They slowly become uneasy allies in the fight against the other parasites, who are infiltrating society and snacking on people. It's tense, incredibly gory, very creepy, and explores what it means to be human. I love it.

Another draft of setting documents I'm still working on slowly but surely:

Nonhumans

Overview: While what they actually call themselves (and even how accurate the more general term applied to them is) can vary pretty dramatically, the land now called Goëtika has been home to a wide variety of sapient beings since the earliest recorded histories; some of these have come and gone, while others have changed over time, due to exposure to powerful magical forces, divine meddling, alchemical experimentation, or simple natural selection.

Humans currently outnumber the others by an order of magnitude or more, but this was not always so, and had much to do with the "Holiest Nights" purges committed by the fanatical Church of the Crimson God after it came to power.

The following are summaries of each playable "race," with more in-depth write ups to come. In terms of mechanics, players of nonhumans should work their nonhuman status into their High Concept Aspect ("Disdainful Elven Bard," "Grimly Cheerful Beastfolk") and take an additional Trouble Aspect specifically tied to their nature.

Elves: Somewhat taller than humans, with long pointed ears, skin that comes in a range of metallic colors -- from the scintillating like silver and gold, to earthy copper and bronze, or dark as iron -- and limbs that are proportioned and formed differently, the elves are perhaps the most uncanny to the average human perspective, being so close and yet so different...more so because the elves have no cultural concept of gender and find the idea alien.

While only subjugated clans remain, the elves are not native to these lands; they came to Goëtika several thousand years ago, during a period legends say was heralded by a hundred-day eclipse of the sun, an invasion force that quickly wore itself out against the combined strength of the peoples already established there. If there are any physical records of where it was they came from, they've long since been destroyed, and the clans are notoriously tight-lipped about their fragmented oral histories to humans.

Elves and humans are capable of interbreeding, and while their offspring most strongly resemble the parent that birthed them, there are several telling signs that can give their lineage away unless they go to great lengths to "pass" as one or the other -- a necessary effort, considering the long and deeply-held antipathy between the remaining clans and the Church.

Dwarves: In the King's Court, a game often played is to find the most droll use of a common response among the wealthy and idle nobility -- "we've a dwarf for that." The reason is simple: unlike humans, born into this world without a purpose and seeking their whole lives for it, the dwarves of Goëtika were literally made with one in mind. Originally crafted seven hundred years ago by the royal alchemists, dwarves were designed to work where and when common laborers could not, in the deepest and darkest mines and hottest smithies, from dawn until dusk in shifts that would leave even the hardiest human dead from exhaustion.

What their taskmasters did not foresee in their arrogance was that the dwarves would not stand for these conditions and rebelled in a series of conflicts known as the Workers' War. While the dwarves won their freedom to a degree and took possession of the Birthing Kilns, it was only centuries until the rise of the Church forced them back into subservient roles.

Now, new dwarves are only made by holy concession when the old finally wear down after hundreds of years of toil, and each begrudgingly takes the work available to them -- or finds a place among the mercenary companies.

Mutants: Outside the sheltering walls of castles and villages, the lands of Goëtika are dark and wild, and to wander them alone is the deepest folly; in crumbling ruins and twisted woods, old powers still lurk, and vanishingly few could ever be considered benign. It is said that those who encounter these powers become twisted in body and mind to serve their purposes, and pass their cursed forms down to their children.

While many mutants are unique, some share a common origin and even culture. Coming out of the Elderbark -- an old forest far to the west of the capital -- is one such example in the Beastfolk, massive chimerical creatures that stride on two legs and claim to have been human generations ago. It is said there was once a small barony on the fringes of the Elderbark whose noble family gravely offended the power there, and the woods swallowed the people and the land whole overnight; the Beastfolk still live in the root-entangled ruins and thrive.

To say they are tolerated by the Church is perhaps a stretch, but the King's Court still recognizes them as citizens of the realm, permitting their strange trade caravans to travel unmolested and sending tax collectors into the Elderbark (even if they occasionally never return). Gold is gold, after all.

@tragedyjones
There's Florence & the Machine, and then he fucking lists Shakira.

....
....

what

@kestrel

This was the exact position I was in for many, many years with my siblings, and it's a horribly lonely place to be. I am really sorry.

But I made my peace with it and eventually the evidence was just too much to ignore, and they each came to face the truth when they were pushed too far. Not trying to say that's bound to happen in your case, but who knows? And if not, you have still absolutely made the right choice. You're not alone and we're proud of you, the whole "blood is thicker than water" bullshit is one of the hardest manipulations to overcome.

One more quick peek, this time aaaaat

MAGIC

Overview: While the true nature and source of magic has been a hotly-debated subject, one thing most every scholar agrees on is that magic is a fundamental essence from outside of reality with which the Gods and other Powers That Be become manifest on this plane of existence. It is through them that it must be "filtered" before mortals can make any contact with it -- or else risk madness, mutation, death, or quite frequently all of the above...and not always in that particular order.

Magic is inherently chaotic, and breaks down the laws of the mundane world in its rawest form, mana: liquids become solid, light becomes sound, the boundaries between minds and/or bodies become weak or dissolve altogether -- there's an ancient tale of hubris told to any who have dared to work with mana about a town that tried to place a well over a raw manaspring, and how every single inhabitant became part of a massive storm cloud that still roams the world, raining psychic agony instead of water and absorbing those unfortunate enough to come too close to the Eye.

The Gods and Powers consume mana and then refine it within themselves, sustaining their own manifestations and empowering their followers. How this power works through them and how it can be used varies quite dramatically, but all require some form of bond with the deity or force in question and an alignment of will -- the ancient druids of the Greenheart, for example, had to zealously reject the trappings of society and strive to bring humans back to their beginnings as hunters and gatherers or else their supernatural connection to plants and animals would fail, while the Magi of the Unseen Star were required to insinuate themselves into worldly courts to try and guide them to peculiar destinies decided by visions granted by the Star. Try to prevent these bizarre events, and the Magi would suddenly find that their incantations were only babbled words.

The potency of any God or Power (and thus their gifts) depends entirely on how many followers are "pacted" to them and their divine purpose; it is said that slaughtering the cults during the Holiest Nights is truly how the Church of the Crimson God rose to ascendancy. In these troubled times, most devoted followers must keep their heads down, and worship is done with the utmost secrecy and care.

System: Magic is available to every character in the game as long as one of their Aspects reflects it (usually this is their High Concept, but not always) and they have bought the requisite power stunt.

Gods/Powers grant access to three of the eight Workings -- Evocation, Divination, Enchantment, Summoning, Alchemy, Warding, Transmutation, and Planewalking -- and players can choose one of the example Gods/Powers or come up with one of their own; the difference in how players portray each Working's source is largely in roleplay but can also reflect specialization in some domain. Once a God/Power is chosen, the character is considered a devotee and can spend a Fate point in a scene to have their deity/force power their spell instead of taking a Stress hit.

Alternatively, players can choose to be a Pactmaker (see below), and temporarily mix and match their three Workings, but do not have the option to have their spells empowered.

Example Practioners, the Pactmakers: It is said there is an exception to every rule, even the divine ones; the only people bold enough to say that openly, however, call themselves the Pactmakers -- but are more commonly sneered at as sorcerers, warlocks, or ironically and extremely derisively as the Pactbreakers. These pragmatic men and women are devotees to no God or Power, but forge temporary bonds with them in exchange for vows of a single deed or geas.

This gives them a remarkable flexibility and a reputation among the greater forces of the world as intermediaries between mortality and the divine, shrewd bargainers who are among the rare few that can traverse the wilds and ancient ruins unharmed and unchanged (at least, not permanently). Unsurprisingly, this is why the Celebrated Company of Mongrels offers them employment and protection; there is a coven of Pactmakers in every regiment, and every expeditionary force the Company sends into the wilderness includes at least one or more Pactmaker to arrange safe passage with any Power or old god or goddess they encounter.

It is whispered that the Pactmakers are all that remain of the Royal Alchemists once employed by the court centuries ago before the rise of the Church, and there is certainly no love lost between them -- Pactmakers are officially heretics, and any who are caught in the practice are condemned to death.

@DnvnQuinn said in An open letter to Fallcoast:

No more werewolf ghost babies in 2e?

Nope. They basically came out and said they considered the ghost abortions a throwback to the most negative concepts behind the metis in Apocalypse, which were themselves kind of fucked up and based around shame culture, so they just scrapped the entire thing.

Could we maybe tone it down just a touch with the shitty apartment shaming? I know that the tub's not super appealing but like, grimy apartments are a reality a lot of us poors just gotta suck it up and deal with, and it's embarrassing enough.

ETA: Just to be super clear, I did mean shitty apartment shaming, not that the shaming itself is inherently shitty. Don't want anyone to read that as waaaay more hostile than I intended.

@ominous

FATE still provides a mechanical framework for these effects, with clear requirements and results you can point to, so not necessarily? But since this is going to be a very strictly PVE game, in practice yes.

Wait can 80's LA seriously be a thing

@testament said in Good TV:

I was never much into the She-Ra remake on Netflix(The Voltron was better, fight me)

I mean taste is subjective and all that, it's okay to not like things, etc etc but also you're utterly wrong

@ThatGuyThere said in Interest/Volunteer Check: Major Multisphere Chronicles of Darkness:

New Way: I get told I have Intimidated or Shaken or whatever they call the condition. I then have to dig out the book either physical copy or digital one look up the effect of that condition, then make a note of said condition, put in the req for the beat for receiving a condition then get back to the scene.

...Why does everyone assume this? I've seen a few people mention this drawback almost verbatim, like "Oh goddamn it, time to pause the entire scene and whip out the Ol' Dusty Tome." It's a MU*, why not just create a quickref database for the purely mechanical effects of the condition to your roll(s) and if you're genuinely curious about the fluff you can look it up later? Also, not to get nitpicky but you don't literally have to put in a req or create the note right then and there, you can do it after the scene is over. You guys make it sound like such a huge hassle but it's mountains out of molehills in my opinion.

I've always wanted a system with a little more lethality for a post-apoc setting, where combat is super dangerous and should always be cause for second thought, but that is probably literally just me.

@sunny

THIS IS WHAT WE WERE WAITING FOR @Arkandel

@ShelBeast said in Interest Check: Assassin's Creed (CofD/2nd Ed) Game?:

The Animus has evolved, over time, and Abstergo (Also now known as Abstergo Entertainment) now packages the "memories" gleaned into video game entertainment, and they mass market animus devices as a video game console. The "main characters" of the AC franchise after Desmond died haven't even been experiencing their own genetic memory, but the genetic memories that Abstergo harvested from Desmond's corpse. They have entire offices full of people hooked up to Animus machines, each rummaging through "Sample 17" memory sequences, and others. So, the concept of people mucking around in a historic playground through the animus isn't really much of a stretch.

Again, I'm not suggesting that other people can't use the Animus or that there can only be one machine or whatever, I'm saying that those users are not experiencing a shared simulation. They're all experiencing individual simulations of a specific memory from different POV's.

So for example, say one user simulating his or her ancestor's memory decides to go off script and turns right into an alley instead of down the street to the pub, another user simulating that memory from another POV wouldn't see that person walk right, they would see them just keep going into the pub, because it's an entirely different simulation of that memory, being run separately.

It has to work that way otherwise the data gleaned from the memories would be absolutely useless to Abstergo; literally the only reason they are doing ANY of this is to find the Pieces of Eden, the simulations themselves are just a means to an end. It's not like they're running these simulations for just "everyone that lived in England in 1688," they're only specifically searching the memories of people who had direct contact with the Pieces, because each of these experiences and memories tells Abstergo something about the Piece, like how it appears, how it works and where they might find it. That's a very small pool of people throughout history, they wouldn't simulate the experience of some random blacksmith or whatever just for funsies unless he saw or handled a Piece.

Just found out yesterday that my dad -- incredible dumpster fire, piece of shit human being who I cut off about 8 years ago -- just contracted COVID. He was pushing it as a hoax from the start, refused to wear a mask or get the vaccine, deliberately exposed my siblings even after he knew he'd potentially been exposed...just an all around loathsome dude who couldn't deserve to get it more.

Feeling a lot of unpleasant feelings about it.

@Misadventure said in The Descent MUX:

Actually, I think it is in part the game material. Mage is at the pinnacle of the "let me explain the cosmos to you" in the game rules. No one has a better understanding than they can.

That's a very oWoD Mage attitude. From what I've read, it runs against the spirit of everything Dave Brookshaw and Matthew McFarland have said about CoD Mage; one who thinks they can explain the cosmos should have the game board flipped upside down on them. Sure, with the right Arcana they can have access to a much broader view of the CoD cosmology, but it's like a Neanderthal with access to the Hubble Telescope. The Hubris of that caveman thinking he fully understands what he sees should break him.

@greenflashlight

Yeah, I might have accidentally made that a bit confusing by including anti-vaxxers/Blue Lives Matter assholes as the other set, but I didn't intend any conflation there.

Married but ethically nonmonogamous peeps and really outdoorsy types, live your best life and I wish you the best, it just isn't my thing and it's disappointing that I can't seem to find anyone more compatible, especially when I have to shell out a bit of cash for some of these services.