Professional escapist, language enthusiast

Chiara, Italy | Gaming, drawing, writing, RPGs Translator @ NessunDove

[chiakiakito]

Barbabianca, a storytelling game about community and shame

Once again I'm in the middle of my yearly ZineMonth freakout. This time, it's fun to finally work on a fully Made-in-Italy game with NessunDove: Barbabianca, a game of rumour and silence in a town that is no more.

It's a a collaborative storytelling rpg for 3-4 players about treacherous memories and poisoned words. About how hard times and easy answers can destroy a community. Its mechanics are bespoke and self-contained, weaving mapmaking, storytelling and roleplay into a harrowing tale about community and shame. It's also a way to share a piece of our cultural and individual memories: Barbabianca draws inspiration from Italian anti-fascist literature and Neorealist cinema, from the stories our grandparents used to tell us about village life at the turn of the century and from our own experiences in modern rural Italy. If any of this sounds cool to you, please check it out. It's on BackerKit until Feb 27 and early bird backers (first 48 hours!) get a free enamel pin with physical pledges!

[jburneko]

From an RPG perspective, I've been struggling for years to explain that "playing a character in a myth" and "treating a mythic world as if it were real" are two fundamentally different things. A part of this frustration is that I want a whole lot more of the former and a whole lot less of the later.

[iojg]

okay alright. can you elaborate just a bit? particularly on how specific you are about the meaning of "myth", as it throws me off

[jburneko]

So, I'm sure scholars probably have a more technical definition of "myth" than I'm using. I'm primarily talking about when elements of a story are meant to be received and processed emotionally rather than logically.

For example, we might have a character that wears jade armor and sits on a throne of ruby. Now if your mind starts thinking things like what the implications are for the culture and economy of a society that uses jade for armor and ruby for furniture design then you're thinking in the wrong direction. Same if you start thinking about the actual real world properties of jade and ruby and what you could possibly make with such a large and plentiful supply of it. No. Just. Stop. Don't do that. Instead, be *emotional*. What *feelings* does such an image/character invoke you. Disgust at their opulence? Awe at their power? Respect for their commanding presence? Fear? Now have your character react *to that feeling*. What emotion do YOU want your character to reflect back. In an RPG, your character TOO is a pile of evocative aesthetics in both image and action. Do a thing that will evoke a feeling IN ME as a fellow player at the table. You can't control WHAT feeling I have, but you can do something evocative, "logic" of the situation be damned.

[iojg]

i kinda see what you are getting at, hopefully. i think it's really mostly about being impressionistic, isn't it? my mind immediately drifts to pulp fantasy, to which such "loose" imagery seems to be very important. i personally don't get much from it mostly because i'm not that great at visualizing. i could never really get into howard because of it, for example. would you say this generally applies outside of fantasy roleplaying, though?

[jburneko]

Pulp fantasy (and actual mythology) is where you see it at its boldest. But I'm not talking *purely* about visuals it can apply to "entities" whose only "logic" is their symbolic/metaphorical place in the narrative.

You see this a lot in standalone horror novels that don't get caught up in their own "lore." My absolute favorite example of this is "The Library Policeman" by Stephen King. The creature in that book and how it "works" is wholly defined by the scope of the protagonist's personal trauma. It does not "exist" nor has "logic" independent of the protagonist's emotional journey. Sure, it all makes "sense" in that story but trying to tease out the creature as an independent entity with a consequential "existence" simply falls apart.

I would also point to something like Frank Miller's Sin City stories. The characters are BOLD archetypes with no substance behind their evocative presence. Senator Rourk is a complete tautology. He is a Senator because he's rich and powerful and is rich and powerful because he is a Senator. Things happen because Rourk wants them to happen. By what means? What's the power structure propping him up? Who are his allies? Who are enemies? What is the network composing his wealth? These things are not only unanswered, I would suggest they are UNASKED. It simply doesn't matter. Rourk might as well be Zeus.

It is that element of UNASKING, I am focusing on.

This is one of the reasons film franchises begin to lose their luster because later films are often built by asking questions the earlier films not only didn't ask, but were never designed to answer. "Fandom" may be clamoring all the time for "answers" but they're always disappointed when they get them and for good reason. The questions never should have been asked in the first place.

[anim-ttrpgs]

I'm usually a huge fan of fantasy/sci-fi logistics, groundedness, biology, etc., but this is also how you get people constantly trying to "solve" vampires by saying "well they drink blood so that means they are scientifically hematophages and there is no problem with them drinking blood of any animal because other hematophages can drink the blood of any animal" and "if it's transmissible by bite that means it's a virus or bacteria that causes a mutation."

No, this was never a legend meant to operate on a 21st century biology, the blood is blood but it's also life, and so on.

Sometimes the answer isn't "it's magic" because the author hasn't thought about it, sometimes the answer is "it's magic" because the author has thought about it.

[jburneko]

Exactly. You can pick and choose. In fact, supernatural things become MORE scary when they operate spiritually when everything else operates realistically. Yup, the world works exactly the way we believe it to, oh except this *thing*. This thing is unbounded by reality. It has uncomfortable existential implications or reaches into questions that have no answers. That's scary.

[chiakiakito]

Hi yes this is how the fantastic as a literary mode operates. Material thing X is an extension of emotional/psychological/social truth Y. Fantasy makes the abstract concrete so that we can interact with it, say things with it that would be hard to put to words.

The fact that we have forgotten this even as genre fiction is more consumed than ever before is one of the most annoying things in the current media landscape. We are unlearning how to interact with stories and it is maddening.

[trippedintoa-volcano]

Imagine that everywhere in the mechanical engineering world suddenly got infatuated with lasers.

Lasers have a lot of uses! Measuring things, heating things, cutting things, entertaining cats, particle physics. Lasers are pretty cool. Very versatile, very useful, potential to be very powerful.

Someone shows up one day and says "I have developed a never before seen technology! I call it a Death Star."

And it's a 3.4mW laser. Well no, we haven't seen this exact size of laser much since that's not really standard, but that's a bit of a misnomer, and I wouldn't call it new -

"HOLY SHIT GUYS! This Death Star is so entertaining! My cat loves it and it has such a nice color!" The Death Star becomes a viral novelty, and is mildly entertaining, as laser pointers often are.

Somehow, seemingly overnight, this leads to mania. "Lets stick lasers in EVERYTHING! The public loves them!"

More companies make 3.4mW lasers to jump on the bandwagon. Everyone that makes anything vaguely mechanical starts sticking lasers into their designs.

Everyone is calling them Death Stars. Any time there is a "Death Star innovation", it is just that they made a bigger laser.

Ford's next truck comes out and it has "Death Star integrated headlights", where they have just stuck giant lasers in place of their previously functional headlights.

An electric toothbrush is now "Powered by Death Stars" and shoots a laser at the tooth its cleaning. You think that maybe this could have actual applications as a sanitizing device if you're being generous, but when you actually look at the product, its laser has no purpose but to point at the tooth and drain the battery.

Mechanical products across the board get noticeably worse as everyone starts stuffing lasers in places where lasers have no right to be.

The lamp business gets in on it. "Here's a Death Star powered lamp!" These guys haven't even tried to stick a laser in their damn lamps. They've just started calling their light bulbs Death Stars and hoped you bought it before you could tell the difference. You at least appreciate that they haven't ruined their lamp about it.

Death Stars are lauded as the solution to all the world's problems. If it's not working, you should stick a laser in it! That'll fix it, everyone says. Once in a blue moon, it's even true! Weather prediction is really good now. But most things are garbage. Like "Death Star powered washing machines". What the fuck does that even mean?

Meanwhile, since all functioning mechanisms are being replaced with lasers, problems start showing up. All mirrors now cost $1000+ dollars, because the whole supply is being used up to make more lasers. The earth heats up, because everyone's blasting lasers at everything. People keep going blind, on account of all the lasers.

You, in fact, study optical mechanics. You know what a laser is, and how it works, and that it was invented many years before any of this nonsense actually started. People keep asking you about Death Stars, since surely you must know so much about them.

You explain that this is not really what lasers are for, except you have to call them Death Stars now, and that they're causing a lot of harm, so you don't like them much.

"Oh, but they're still such new tech!" they reply. "They'll figure out how to make Death Stars that don't burn your eyes out soon, and then it won't be an issue anymore!"

Somewhere, deep and buried, you remember lasers being used in particle accelerators, or in telescopes, or in laser cutters, or funny cat videos. They are, in fact, still interesting. Still cool.

But by this point they have replaced roads with "Death Star Powered Pathways", which are just laser pointers propped up on tooth picks pointing vaguely through the forests.

And you think you are going mad.

And they are still just FUCKING LASERS.

This post is about AI.

[miamaimania]

Tracery: A Symphony in Bronze by Timothy Cleary

[punksalmons]

the best time to learn a new language was when you were twelve and willing to go through great lenghts to read yaoi on the internet. the second best time is now.

[prokopetz]

I've had a couple of people ask for a digestible version of the whole "the real problem with Dungeons & Dragons is false advertising, not anything that's present in its text" thing I keep alluding to, so here's the bullet point version of that argument:

Dungeons & Dragons is owned by Hasbro. Yes, the same Hasbro that owns Monopoly and My Little Pony.

Hasbro wants D&D to be the only tabletop RPG that anyone plays.

In order to accomplish this, Hasbro needs D&D to be a universal entry-level game.

D&D is not a universal entry-level game.

All game rules are opinionated about how the game ought to be played, and as tabletop RPGs go, D&D's rules are more opinionated than most. This is not a flaw, but it's not what Hasbro needs.

D&D is also on the high end of complexity as far as tabletop RPGs go, and it's complex in a way that strongly rewards system mastery, so it's pretty far from "entry level".

Hasbro could produce a version of D&D that's at the very least less opinionated and more entry-level than it presently is, but they don't want to, because they've determined that certain rules features which run counter to both of those goals are critical to D&D's brand identity.

They also don't want to produce multiple versions of D&D tailored for different audiences, because they want every single D&D group to be a potential purchaser of every single D&D product; they'd be effectively competing with themselves for their own customer base if the published game was actually modular in any meaningful way.

So how does Hasbro square that circle?

Simple: they lie. They insist that D&D is in fact a universal entry-level game in spite of all evidence to the contrary, and back their advertising up with sponsored thinkpieces and podcasts and such to "prove" it.

Further, they've spent decades fostering a culture of play which conceals the gap between the game they're advertising and the game they're selling by ascribing any appearance that D&D isn't a universal entry-level game to the incompetence or malice of individual GMs.

The game the rules want to produce disagrees with the game the group wants to play? Nonsense – even the rankest beginner should be able to produce any experience of play using any set of rules, and if your GM can't, they're a Bad GM.

The game is hard to learn? No, it isn't – your GM is merely gatekeeping you. This wouldn't be a problem with a Good GM.

The upshot is that the published rules are more or less irrelevant with respect to achieving the desired experience of play, because they're operating within a culture of play which dumps 100% of the work of making that desired experience of play happen on the GM.

Indeed, much of what modern D&D presents as GMing best practices are really methods of working around the fact that the rules you're using disagree with you about what kind of game you're playing.

(It's not a coincidence that D&D's entrenched culture of play also insists that it's normal for GMs to be miserably overworked and treats GM burnout as a big funny joke, then turns around and loudly wonders why there's a constant GM shortage.)

The trick is, because you're still at least notionally using the rules of D&D, the fruits of all that GM labour are perceived as the product of "playing D&D", not of the GM's hard work.

In essence, Hasbro's business model for Dungeons & Dragons is selling you your own GM's labour with a D&D sticker on it.

It's a very neat trick, if you can pull it off.

Now, at this point some readers may be asking: well, sure, but not all GMs are doormats. What about "killer" GMs who do gatekeep and railroad their players and otherwise act like complete tyrants? I hear horror stories about them all the time.

That's the second trick: these are not opposites. The GM as human Xbox and the GM as tyrant of the table both represent the GM doing all the actual work of making the game happen. The latter isn't the outcome that Hasbro wants, but it's a logical conclusion of the position the want the GM to be in.

[marzipanandminutiae]

not going to lie- criticizing the hollowness of Dark Academia as appearing to pursue knowledge rather than actually pursuing it (and as nonsensical, terminology-wise, because academia doesn't have a specific aesthetic) is so incredibly valid but it DOES in fact fuck severely to be sitting in my office in a historical site museum, lit by electrified wall sconces with etched glass shades, with a huge oil painting behind me and a misty street of similarly old buildings outside my window

yes I am drinking tea

yes I am wearing a long skirt and really cool boots

yes I am writing my to-do list in a black-and-gold journal, with a fountain pen

I am living the Pinterest board baby

(I'm also fighting with a computer from approx. 2010 and a printer ditto, and most of my day-to-day work at the moment involves donor acknowledgment letters and scheduling and updating the website. but shhhh)

[chiakiakito]

You know what? You're right. Dark academia is mostly edgy nonsense but I would be lying if I said going to study in my uni's humanities library built inside the cloister of a literal medieval monastery while staring at the frescoes as I sip tea didn't improve my academic performance just a liiiiiittle bit.

[hippieghost]

This is a tea checkpoint.

Is your tea getting cold?

Did you turn on your kettle and forget about it and now the water is cold again?

Is the tea bag still in?

Did you intend to start the tea making process and forget?

Congratulations! You remember now.

[hollowboobtheory]

if you were born in the middle ages, how long you'd you have survived

wouldn't have even made it to birth

infancy

early childhood

childhood

adolescence/teenager

20s

30s

40s

long happy life (for the time)

Voting ended onMar 10

[hollowboobtheory]

I know this is the autism site and I see people wondering this in the tags so to be clear: this is assuming your parents survived to adulthood, met each other, and conceived you. altho the person who said they were ivf has an interesting answer so I guess you can say nuance if you want. I didn't put a nuance option sorry.

[wyllora]

Month of Stability day 3: Competency

My Assistant General Manager Competency! I designed and made the art for it as an entry in the Triangle Agency Fanzine, Haasio did the layout so it matches the book!

I published it by itself on itch after Haunted Table's team member Satah shouted it out specifically on the Community Spotlight for the Triangle Agency Fanzine! Huge honor ❤️

[beelur]

[jerkeline]

One way to get tasks done in the day is to make yourself a Chekhov's List. Put all of the things you have to do on a list, and now that they've been revealed they'll need to be completed by the afternoon (third act) and when you've completed something you can Chekov that task from the list

[chanceyknits]

every stitch, depicted and demonstrated

This database holds a ton of useful materials for embroidery! many different types of stitches in various difficulties, all incredibly useful!

[purple-fox-for-luck]

@wastelesscrafts does that look useful?

[wastelesscrafts]

[ID: an embroidery database showing 24 stitches of the chain stitch family (chain stitch, whipped chain stitch, double chain stitch, magic chain stitch, lazy daisy, Russian chain stitch, long tailed daisy, feathered chain stitch, Basque stitch, petal chain stitch, reverse chain stitch, heavy chain stitch) and the blanket stitch family (blanket stitch, buttonhole stitch, whipped buttonhole, double blanket stitch, closed blanket stitch, crossed blanket, buttonhole wheel, buttonhole wheel cup, rosette of thorns, buttonhole bar, barb stitch, mirrored blanket).]

That’s an amazing resource! Thanks for the tag.

[theresattrpgforthat]

I thought this video was just going to be about video games. I was pleasently surprised when C. Thi Ngyuen started talking about Apocalypse world about 13 minutes in.

He also says some beautiful things about how that which is often labelled "low art" is art that democratizes the process, and encourages participation in the medium.

[psikonauti]

Scott Prior (American, b. 1949)

Valley in Winter, 2014

Oil on linen

[knightofleo]

[velvetcloak]

1980, Black Silk & Sequin, “Firework” Gown, ASU FIDM Museum

[annelidarchive]

house of leaves / goncharov esque project consisting of the paratext of a nonexistent text where the described-but-unseen source material is an 800 page rulebook for the worst tabletop game you've ever heard of and the paratext is a series of arguments and blog posts generated by insane forum users