Ru In Progress___|

💖💜💙 Charu Patel || South Asian Am || she/her || TTRPGs- player, designer, writer, editor || producer at All Nerds Here & Valor Live! Profile pic by https://twitter.com/yesterdhir

[cherrydropru]

A Belated Introduction

I'm Ru. I am a game designer/writer/editor/stream producer in table top role playing games.

You can check out all of my written work at https://charupatel.carrd.co/

And all of my actual play work here: https://charuperforms.carrd.co/

You can also check out an article I wrote that I'm quite proud of about my thoughts on game design here: https://startplaying.games/blog/posts/game-design-and-the-pieces-of-myself

My work in the industry focuses on my curiosity with curating and forging identity, the complications of building community, and experimenting with atypical game mechanics. I draw on magical girl animes, 90s teen media and 80s/90s Bollywood to inspire my narrative design. I've designed my own games, Kick Rocks! and Kick Garlic! and have worked on Unbreakable Revolution, Slayers Almanac, Grasping Nettles, Babes in the Wood: All Hollows EP, and BUTT&HEAD.

[deadgenerations]

it's honestly pretty incredible how much influence on Cybperunk one black gun otaku weeaboo ended up having, to such a degree that much of his contribution to genre conventions is now so normal as to be invisible as contributions and not just natural to the genre. Say "thank you Mike Pondsmith, mechs and katana are cool"

[harlequinactor]

Thank you Mike Pondsmith

[rathayibacter]

in cyberpunk future world, phones wont have physical cameras in them anymore. instead, your phone will measure your exact coordinates and facing angle and use that to construct a milimeter-accurate rendering of the scene in front of you by downloading assets from the metaverse. this will take upwards of a minute, consume enormous amounts of processing power, and only work if every subject within frame has an up-to-date Worldspace Meta license, but you'll be able to zoom enhance and rotate images like in that movie so its worth it

[theinstagrahame]

Finally, we'll slow down and enjoy the moment with friends

Sponsored by Meta (tm)

[reagan-slayer69]

“but what if you abort the baby who’ll cure cancer?!” sir the baby who will cure cancer is an organic chemistry major who works at a Home Depot because you use AI to go through your resumes

[mel-155-a]

"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." - Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

[idlelizard]

silly salt cellar

[oatmealaddiction]

See, I think people only appreciate art if they feel that they themselves couldn't do it. It's not that the art is esoteric or abstract or weird, people love The Chocolate Guy, or weird machines in art museums that flail around, because they recognize the amount of skill these artists have. But when they see a piece like IKB 191 (1962), they'll laugh and point and say "I could do that", and won't appreciate the piece until you've explained all the work that went into mixing up Klein Blue and inventing the color. I have to think this sort of reaction is a result of envy, and the belief that someone is making easy money by pretending their art is good, and that art should only be reserved for people that are literal magicians in their talent, and not for people who value the simple methods. The thing though is, if you look at a piece of art and think "I can make that", please do so. Please make that art. These artists who value 'simple' artistic expressions are opening the door for you, they're placing value on art that doesn't take 20 years of apprenticeship to even come close to making. They want you to succeed, make that art. Do it. Make the art.

[write-on-world]

[ghoul-icious]

Correction:

[elftwink]

theres a phenomenon that happens on here i have been calling "normalize loving parents posting" which is when you spend a lot of time on tumblr and are exposed to a lot of one specific counter-cultural narrative day in and day out until you start to forget what the dominant ideas are for most of the human population and thus feel the need to "defend" things that are widely accepted and popular. it's called this because of the time a bunch of text posts about shitty dads were circulating and then people with good relationships with their dad didn't feel included enough and started making "uhmmm can we normalize loving parents? not everyone has a deadbeat dad, MY dad is great" type posts, seemingly forgetting that good relationship with dad is a cultural norm that is expected and encouraged. i think its good practice, especially when im annoyed, to stop before i hit the post button and ask myself if this is a real issue or if im normalize loving parents posting. because often im about to try to normalize loving parents

[elftwink]

common examples of normalize loving parents posting:

support women who shave their legs and wear makeup every day

let's hear it for masculine men

reminder that two people of the same gender can have a close platonic relationship!! not everything is gay!!

skinny shaming is hurtful too guys

does anyone else think [ironic kink du jour] is strange and freaky and gross?

saluting our bravest warriors who aren't afraid to stand up and advocate for the status quo

[oatmealaddiction]

I feel like some of you guys think "bad art" is like someone gluing rhinestones to a water melon, or a guy who made his own armchair out of Ohio license plates, or a trashy romance novel where someone says "the blue-eyed one kissed the brown-eyed one," when in reality bad art is a 1000000 Billion Dollar movie where none of the workers got paid and every single creative decision was market tested to see how lucrative of a profit it could foreseeably make to wow shareholders.

[cherrydropru]

Day 1 - Free Space [TTRPG Promptober] Stuck in Line MMORPG Play when you are waiting in line, waiting for food/order, waiting for transportation. You are in a mmorpg and the place where you are waiting is the lobby. You need to find the your Quest, Side Quest, Supplies, and change Outfits/Armor The people waiting around you (in line, for their orders, or for transportation) are the NPCs you need to interact with.

To find the necessary NPCs, you must look amongst the waiting and find the items listed below. Find ONE on the list for each NPC. If you find the NPC, answer their prompt. To find the Quest Giver and receive one Quest, find someone with: -a dog (or other pet) -a graphic tee under a blazer -a hat with a logo -a party of three (including themself) To find the Side Quest Giver and receive one Side Quest, find someone:

-talking (not texting) on their phone

-listening to something on their phone on speaker -fidgeting -with a red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple or patterned phone case To find the Supplies Vendor and receive supplies, find someone:

-with an overstuffed backpack

-searching for their wallet in their bag/purse

-having their name/number called more than once -looking at their phone for less than a minute To find the Outfit Vendor and change your outfit/armor, find someone: -with hair in spikes or dyed an unnatural color -wearing two different patterns -with a shirt in reference to something (a meme, famous brand) -dressed to the nines -brightly colored shoes When you find these vendors, answer the prompt associated with them. PLAY EXAMPLE: For the quest giver, look at their outfit and demeanor. They are in trendy clothes and are a stereotypical mean girl trope. You need to retrieve their Ancient Relic from their ex. They did not break up amicably. Quest Giver: Look at their outfit and demeanor — what kind of quest do they give and how long do you have to complete it? BONUS - How can you complete the quest in real life? Side Quest Giver: Look at the people or items around them — what type of quest do they give and how many parts are there? What reward will you receive?

BONUS - Begin the quest by getting one or two parts done. Supplies Vendor: Look at the items they possess, their order, and/or their accessories — what resources do they give you? How will it help you on your quests/side quests? BONUS - Obtain those items are items in a similar category in real life. Outfit Vendor: Compare their style to yours — what type of outfit/look do you get from them? This outfit is neither in your style nor theirs. BONUS - Add or change a part of your outfit throughout your day.

[theweight]

*grasping at straws* My straws!

[anton--rayne]

What do you mean by "health and incest" if you don't mind? I haven't heard of that about donor conceiving industry

the sperm / egg donation, even IVF industry is rather unrestrained in majority of the world where its allowed. it of course used to be worse back in the day with many more couples being lied about the course of treatment & genetic material & some being promised to use their own material but that not happening due to either malice or lack of hygiene etc etc... Which often involved doctors just using their own sperm without the woman's consent. You can also guess the similar cases with male doctors doing this in modern age to lesbian couples without their consent out of sexualization.

But in many ways it hasnt gotten better since. Even contracts are often not followed, such as the expiration date of the genetic material. Its not uncommon for someone to donate, say, 25 years ago, and the clinic promises to stop using it after 5 years both for the donors consent & health worries due to bio degration, but ofc. LoL. Children conceived after the contract was expired for 20 years are also not unheard of.

One of the biggest worries is the lack of coordination among clinics which is where the incest part comes in. For a majority of the industry history, there was no limit on How many children could be conceived out of 1 donor, 1 donor could donate to several different clinics and the clinics could use the material over and over and over, which meant hundreds or dozens of people going around not knowing they are half siblings, especially in the same City & region, and thats just one donor. and you can guess the dating concerns this rises for donor conceived people, a complaint i have seen often reading their experiences, the worry of always having to get genetic tested with a partner Just in case and the worry that it will turn out they have been your sibling all along, which is also not unheard of.

Even for modern practices supposedly preventing this, clinics simply do not work together. The tightest regulations tend to be "5 families per donor", and "5 or under" are only for around 4 countries or so! For majority with regulations it is 10 to 25 families (again, not children, *families*, children limits also tend to be stuff like "70 kids per donor), and in some it is completely unrestricted, such as the United States. The only state with restrictions, it is 25 families. And again, thats often just one clinic, majority of the cases there are no restrictions checking if the donor was also at another clinic, so it can be 25 families at one clinic, 25 at another etc etc..

This uncontrolled state brings another problem, which is Health history. There are open and closed ones, but in many cases, donor conceived people simply do not have access to at least half of their medical history, accomodating for those who were donor conceived both ways. If they were to want to personally ask the donor, since contracts are often closed, they simply cannot. It also can be that the donor doesn't want to therefore the donor conceived person simply do not have access to their info, but also often the family did not want to and made this decision for their child, and many people actually aren't even told when they are donor conceived. Due to similar reasons and situations, if the donor were to later get an illness in life, especially one that's genetic, it is often the case that they cannot tell them. Even if they could, they actually dont have to. So theres also the worry donor conceived people face of this worry, not having access to medical history. But besides all that, due to the importance society places on genetics and the raising parent whose material was used being considered the "Real parent" etc, it does end up in a unique struggle for donor conceived people, who also often have the baggage of being raised by same sex couples in a homophobic world

For the donors themselves, since donors often get paid, you can probably guess the ethical concerns of people having to donate sperm / eggs due to poverty. Especially for egg donation which is more taxing on health to do, it is often not a pleasant thing to do under the gunpoint of financial worries. And that's for couples where at least one has a uterus, as for those that don't, the deeper can of worms enters: Surrogates. Especially with surrogates often being even poorer women, especially from the third world, and pregnancy's unique dangers on the body, it is criticized more. Etc etc and other problems of fertility industries..

[azspot]

“When I speak of Indigenous peoples surviving an apocalypse, I’m not speaking metaphorically. The colonization of the Americas represents the largest genocide in human history. Indigenous populations declined by an estimated 90% in the century following European contact, which was about 1/5 of the world’s population at the time. This over just a one-hundred-year period. Entire civilizations vanished. Languages died. Sacred sites were destroyed. After that culturally genocidal policies were enacted like banning religious ceremonies and children being stolen and forced into boarding schools designed to “kill the Indian, save the child.””

— Randy Woodley

[n0va-pkt]

If this post gets 50k notes by the end of the year I'll buy myself and then wear a lovely princess dress

This is very notable because I Do Not wear dresses and usually actively avoid doing so due to being a nervous wreck

And for extra smugness I'm betting this wont get past 1k

[n0va-pkt]

It's been 2 months and we haven't even broken 6k

You're all terrible at this

[kitten-railgun]

[n0va-pkt]

Then haul ass!!! We're only 1/4 of the way there with less than 2 months left!!!!!!!!!!!

[xtinedancefit]

Accidentally clicking on an AI assistant feels like clicking on a link that’s going to give you a virus.

[pharahsgf]

taylor swift's new album includes the lyric "did you girlboss too close to the sun" and rolling stone gave it a 5/5. post your bad art

[cherrydropru]

Day 1 - Free Space [TTRPG Promptober] Stuck in Line MMORPG Play when you are waiting in line, waiting for food/order, waiting for transportation. You are in a mmorpg and the place where you are waiting is the lobby. You need to find the your Quest, Side Quest, Supplies, and change Outfits/Armor The people waiting around you (in line, for their orders, or for transportation) are the NPCs you need to interact with.

To find the necessary NPCs, you must look amongst the waiting and find the items listed below. Find ONE on the list for each NPC. If you find the NPC, answer their prompt. To find the Quest Giver and receive one Quest, find someone with: -a dog (or other pet) -a graphic tee under a blazer -a hat with a logo -a party of three (including themself) To find the Side Quest Giver and receive one Side Quest, find someone:

-talking (not texting) on their phone

-listening to something on their phone on speaker -fidgeting -with a red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple or patterned phone case To find the Supplies Vendor and receive supplies, find someone:

-with an overstuffed backpack

-searching for their wallet in their bag/purse

-having their name/number called more than once -looking at their phone for less than a minute To find the Outfit Vendor and change your outfit/armor, find someone: -with hair in spikes or dyed an unnatural color -wearing two different patterns -with a shirt in reference to something (a meme, famous brand) -dressed to the nines -brightly colored shoes When you find these vendors, answer the prompt associated with them. PLAY EXAMPLE: For the quest giver, look at their outfit and demeanor. They are in trendy clothes and are a stereotypical mean girl trope. You need to retrieve their Ancient Relic from their ex. They did not break up amicably. Quest Giver: Look at their outfit and demeanor — what kind of quest do they give and how long do you have to complete it? BONUS - How can you complete the quest in real life? Side Quest Giver: Look at the people or items around them — what type of quest do they give and how many parts are there? What reward will you receive?

BONUS - Begin the quest by getting one or two parts done. Supplies Vendor: Look at the items they possess, their order, and/or their accessories — what resources do they give you? How will it help you on your quests/side quests? BONUS - Obtain those items are items in a similar category in real life. Outfit Vendor: Compare their style to yours — what type of outfit/look do you get from them? This outfit is neither in your style nor theirs. BONUS - Add or change a part of your outfit throughout your day.