Algie, 35, Fil-Am, any pronouns. Mess of a blog; usually offline; untagged queue. If you like any of the stuff I've made, you're welcome to buy me a coffee!
Time has been repeating.
You don't know how long this has been happening. You don't know how many times you have lived through this—or how many times you didn't live through it.
You know you have been here before. You know that while the broad strokes of the loop remain the same, exact events differ each time. You know you have hazy memories of what happened in some loops, but—whether because of your current reality asserting itself, or because of some power (or powers) struggling for control of the timeline, or because your tiny human brain can't hold that many versions of reality—you can't remember everything.
You know you aren't alone.
And you know you will never be here again. The timeline is done repeating, stretched almost to its breaking point. Whatever happens now, happens forever.
So you're going to have to make this one count.
i have finally put together the core mechanics, which means this weird little game is technically in a playable state. i have yet to write up the gm's guide, which will consist of explanations of how to play ttrpg as scenes, suggestions of actions the gm can take in response to failures and successes, prolly some advice about making time weirder as continuity gets low, some npc suggestions, maybe a module of pre-made setting and loop info? we'll see.
HOWEVER. if you as a gm feel like you've played similar games and think u wanna give this one a shot, by all means! i am hungry for feedback. like genuinely if u have feedback or questions or something you'd like clarified or think would be helpful for playing the game. pleaseeeeeee.
once i get the gm stuff together i will prolly put out an actual call for playtesters, but dont let that stop u from playing or whatever. blease.
text of the game under the cut; apologies for any typos i haven't caught, i keep working on this while at work or when v sleepy.
EDIT: made significant edits to the game, partly based on feedback and partly based on spinning ideas around in my brain and rubber ducking em at my friends.
it does appear that readmore on dash of reblogs specifically keeps the old text instead of the new reblog.... it didnt always used to do that.... anyway fresh new edits on THIS version.
Setup:
You will need:
at least 3 players, one who will be the GM
something to write or otherwise record information about the fame, including both a shared record and individual character info
2d6, 2d4, and so, so many d12s; i think you roll at minimum 1 and at maximum 20 if you're really gaming the dice pool. an online roller may be useful
Creating the Loop:
Before playing, create the Loop your PCs are stuck in. [there will be premade loops added later, but at base there are instructions for creating it as a group:]
First, decide where and when it occurs—pick a setting, a genre, a location. Keep it as vague or specific as you like; the rest can be filled in as you play.
Have each player name a place within your larger setting, with a 1-sentence description.
Have each player name an NPC who exists within the loop, with a 1-sentence description.
Moments:
As a group, name twelve Moments—significant events you have encountered on previous loops and have vague knowledge of. Keep these names short, a handful of words or a short sentence at most, leaving room for interpretation. These aren’t necessarily all problems, either— they might turn out to be dangers you faced, tragedies you suffered, wonders you saw, triumphs you won—any event of significance. Make sure everyone at the table gets to decide on at least one Moment, and write them down.
These Moments will form the bones of your loop. They may occur in any order, and perhaps in unexpected ways, but the PCs must encounter and fulfill all twelve—whether “fulfill” means accepting, altering, or averting them—to complete this final loop.
Whenever the players fulfill a Moment, the GM will check it off the list and roll 1d12 against the remaining Continuity. If it is higher than the current Continuity, subtract the difference between those two numbers from the current Continuity.
—
Character creation:
Every player except the GM will create a player character, or PC, to play. You will likely want to create a backup character, just in case.
Give your character a name and a brief description.
Write down three Memories, small details you remember from previous loop(s) (not one of the twelve Moments shared by all players).
Write down your Keepsake, a seemingly unremarkable item with emotional significance to you, which you carry with you.
Write down two Goals you want to accomplish, and name something that has stopped you from accomplishing each of them in a prior loop.
Write down two Promises you made in previous loops, and name who you made those promises to.
If you break a Promise or abandon a Goal, roll 2d4; add that amount to the Continuity pool, and subtract the same amount from your stat health, distributed as you wish.
Choose one (nontime) Special Ability; you can use this once to start. More uses can be gained with Continuity points.
roll 1d6; heal that amount of stat health, total, across your own or someone else’s stats
teleport instantly to another PC
everyone who can hear your voice is knocked unconscious until the end of the scene
name a stat. you may automatically succeed at one roll of that stat. the stat remains the same for future uses.
set one thing you touch on fire; this lasts until the fire is put out or burns itself out.
change the weather; this lasts until the weather would naturally change.
create an illusion, perceived normally by sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, but can’t physically impact anything; it lasts until the end of the scene
read someone’s mind
levitate one person or object, up to 2d6 feet off the ground, until the end of the scene
turn invisible until the end of the scene
summon an animal until the end of the scene; you can roughly communicate with the animal you summoned.
negate a (non-time) power used by another character (including NPCs).
Finally, distribute 12 points among the following stats, however you want; you may make a stat negative in order to add more points to another stat. These will be the maximum possible health of each of your stats. You begin the game at maximum stat health.
Stats
Stunt: do something daring or dangerous
Skew: change someone else’s perception
Swerve: dodge or hide from something coming at you
Star: bring the drama; draw attention to yourself
Sense: recognize what’s really here, right now
Shatter: break something; ruin something
Survive: clench your teeth and hold on
—
Gameplay:
Your characters will make their way through this final loop, working to fulfill the group's Moments while trying to achieve their individual Goals and Promises along the way. The GM will is responsible for describing and roleplaying as the environment and NPCs involved in the loop, including describing the instability of the decaying loop, and deciding the effects PC's actions (and success or failure) have on the world.
Play will mostly consist of a series of scenes, which you will roleplay freely until you use one of the special game mechanics or do something which requires a roll.
Rolling:
When you try to do something risky or uncertain, the GM will ask you to roll to determine whether or not you succeed, using one of your stats.
To roll, create a pool of d12s as follows:
+1d12 for every fulfilled Moment
+1d12 if you are using information from a Memory
+1d12 if you are using your Keepsake
+1d12 for every Goal and Promise you have not abandoned
Take the highest d12, and add the current health of the stat you are using to determine your result (if the health is negative, you'll be subtracting).
If you are ever rolling with zero dice, roll 2d12 and take the lowest.
Any result above zero will be a success of sorts, but the higher your roll, the greater the impact of your action; lower rolls, while technically successful, will be less effective.
How a low result is less effective will be determined by the GM, but may include things like your action working for only a limited time, an attack doing less damage to a target, taking more time to accomplish something, or taking damage to your stat health.
Likewise, the greater effects of higher rolls will be narrated by the GM, with extremely high rolls potentially having effects beyond what the player intended.
A zero or less is a failure, with a corresponding scale of impact down into the negative numbers. The GM will narrate your failure, whether you simoly don't do what you were intending, or you make things worse.
Continuity:
Time, forced to warp and repeat and stretch over and over, is fraying. Too fragile to start over again—but not quite broken yet. It’s holding together enough for one last loop, with just enough extra slack for a handful of tricks.
The group begins with a shared pool of 24 Continuity points—simultaneously a meter of how stable this last loop is, and a resource you can use to manipulate the timestream, from pulling knowledge from a previous loop to rewinding time in small, vital increments.
At any time, a player may spend a Continuity point to:
rewind time a small amount (up to the beginning of a scene) (multiple points spent = multiple scenes back)
gain 1d4 charges of your special ability
remember something about a previous loop’s iteration of one of your 12 Moments (add this to your Memories)
reroll a roll before the results take effect
fully heal one stat
add 1d4 to a stat’s max
state a minor event (something that wouldn’t take more than 6 seconds to happen) that will occur before the end of the session; it can happen at any time this session
Paradoxes:
When you use Continuity, you are altering the already fragile timeline, resulting in paradoxes big and small. Whenever a player spends a Continuity point (but not for any lost in other ways), they roll 2d12 on the following table and take the effect:
(there is no 1 but tumblr wouldn’t let me start at 2)
Move into a timeline where you didn’t make it—died, or left, or are just not here. Remove your character from play and create a new character; one of your Promises is to your old character.
Erase an unfulfilled Moment and create a new one. Everyone with a Memory of that Moment keeps the Memory.
Gain a second Keepsake.
Lose 1d6 Continuity.
Lose your special ability; roll 1d12 and gain the special ability with that number, with one more ability charge than you had.
A new NPC appears.
Swap the maximums of two of your stats.
Gain a new Memory.
Swap the current health of two of your stats.
Something changes about an NPC. You still remember them as they were.
Heal 2d4 stat health, distributed as you choose.
Nothing seems to happen… (The GM rolls secretly on this table. If they get another nothing happens, nothing really happens; if they get a different effect, it happens, but you find out about it later.)
Lose 2d4 stat health, distributed as you choose.
An inanimate object near you is altered.
Change something physical about your character.
Forget a Goal or Promise, and replace it with a different one.
Lose your special ability; roll 1d12 and gain the special ability with that number, with the same number of ability charges you had.
Your Keepsake never existed; replace it with a different Keepsake.
You are suddenly in a different location.
Erase one of your Memories.
Gain 1d6 Continuity.
An NPC you know has forgotten you.
A double of you from another timeline appears. Choose which one to play as; both have the same stat health, but you may alter any other character information you want.
Stat Health and Character Death:
Your characters don’t have regular health to track. Instead, when you get hurt, your GM will have you remove points from one or more of your stats. This doesn’t change the maximum, but you will always roll with current health of your stats.
If any stat reaches -12 health—when, no matter what you cannot roll high enough to succeed—your character dies, retires, vanishes, or is otherwise removed from play. Refer to this list to decide how that happens:
-12 Stunt: your body breaks; your courage fails.
-12 Skew: the truth is unbearable
-12 Swerve: something has caught up with you, and you can’t run anymore
-12 Star: you’ve faded from everyone’s awareness. maybe even your own.
-12 Sense: reality is unrecognizable
-12 Shatter: you can’t ruin anything else. you can’t ruin anything else. you can’t ruin anything else.
-12 Survive: give up. let go.
Create a new character to play.
—
Ending the Game:
If the Continuity pool reaches zero, the loop fails and time fractures.
If you fulfill all twelve Moments without depleting all your Continuity, you exit the loop and move forward into your new future—with this final route behind you as the definite past.
Children near a magical wood catching bugs and their family are like. Please do not catch pixies and small fae and bring them into our home. They are sentient and they are intelligent
And the kids are like "but they get into our bug traps" and "we didn't catch him he followed us home"
And their parents are like. Please i do not believe that 6 fucking pixies smuggled themselves into our garage on the underside of your bicycle saddle and then set up shop in the old dolls house. These are living beings they're not toys it's not kind to treat them like this
And the kids are like we are NOT treating them like anything you said we're not allowed to trap them and they always get into our traps so we always run away when they see us and then they follow us and get inside our backpacks and stuff
And the parents are like
Stop lying!!!
And then they set up wildlife cams and not only can pixies apparently do all of that and are very desperate to hang out with these human kids (who have fun life-sized toys and are covered in wonderful things like glitter and are a free source of fresh bugs and pop tart crumbs)
But they can also like. Fully just pick locks and shit.
Setting up little cameras and having to come to terms with the fact that not only are these small fae initiating every interaction with the kids but have also taken their cat's side in the war against pigeons and keep riding it into battle
The fae quickly realise the camera is a camera, and just as quickly invent silent movies
Each intertitle card has been crafted from words cut out of other writing, so a piece of paper looking like a ransom demand states "BuT Hoo wil SAVE the Dams3l?" is pulled away to reveal a doll tied to train tracks
I've seen a bunch of "fandom etiquette" posts on my dash today and I'm going to say something that is maybe going to be unpopular but;
The absolutely pervasive mentality that unwanted criticism or critique shouldn't be given and should be ignored is why fans of color don't stay in fan spaces.
And I am not going to mince words here:
A lot of you are racist. A lot of your fan works are racist.
That might have been difficult to hear. And if it was, you should probably reflect on why that was.
"Fandom etiquette" has created a space where fans of color either bite our tongues and eventually leave or say something, get dogged on, and then eventually leave.
So much of "fandom etiquette" seems to be about insulating creatives from Feeling Bad and hostility to any kind of negative feedback is a pretty big contributor to why bigotry festers in these spaces.
#imo the potluck analogy applies- it would be rude to critique someone's icing technique at a potluck bc it wasn't as good as at the bakery #but if they had decorated their cupcakes w hate symbols it wouldn't be rude to tell them that's gross and gtfo #in fact it would be inappropriate to NOT say anything in that situation #or to complain that another guest who did point it out was 'ruining everyone's potluck' #and pointing out racism in fan works is 100% the second thing not the first! (via destructions-daughter)
There's also a tendency to conflate anyone who critiques general trends with bad faith randos. Like, there is fandom behavior that is 100% racist and should be talked about, but there are also trends of racist/sexist/ableist preferences.
If I say "I am uncomfortable with fandom's tendency to write trans men as feminine and submissive" I do not mean "I think every person who writes feminine submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I don't even mean "any cis-person who writes feminine or submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I mean "I would like writers to seriously think about why this is so common, why they write that, and if it fairly and genuinely engages with what it means to be a trans man, or if they just think it's hot when submissive people have vaginas and didn't want to write omegaverse of m/f".
Similarly, when people say "fandom is systemically less interested in black characters, less willing to give flat black characters rich fanon than flat white characters, and less interested in black characters in ships", the response is not to explain why you, personally, just happen to like popular white guy in that fanon. Your job is to look at yourself and ask if you tend to "just happen to be more interested" in the popular white guy across fandoms, be honest, and start unpacking that. Sometimes it's easier to love the flat character who's already getting 10,000 fics with headcanons and art and meta.
If somebody says "I wish there were more gluten free options at the potluck. I hate always showing up and not finding anything I can eat*", they are not asking you to throw your cake in the trash and weep. They do not want to hear your long speech about how actually this is your grandmother's recipe, and you've tried it with rice flour actually, but it just didn't work. You think about what you can do, and you listen to how they feel.
*The metaphor here not being that you can't read fic that isn't "good rep". The metaphor here is that it can be isolating to be in spaces where nobody is trying to make sure people like you are welcome.
not many people know this but when talking about your multiple pronoun-using friend you build up a combo meter for every subsequent unique pronoun you use
so like basically in the REIGEN manga tome tries so desperately to throw herself into the center of this literal Superhuman world she sees and play the role of the eager young protagonist and its so endearing but in the end reigen has to come clean and she can’t keep using the spiritual premise as a crutch. not because she was wrong to have her whimsical interests, but because the fantasy of specialness can often be an escape from the isolation a person feels due to being unable to live up to societal ideals of normalcy, and yet in the end the fantasy can itself end up feeding directly into the isolation by obscuring your view of the other people in your life. you cannot prioritize the idea of being unique or special alone and that is the reason that the power structures in the story (as represented by roshuuto in REIGEN) so frequently fail short; because actually EVERYONE is a Pathetic Freak Weirdo Nerd Loser, from the handsome, popular rich boy, to the pretentious Dark!Reigen foil who takes himself too seriously, to all of the mundane teenage girls who the audience is initially tricked into dismissing as shallow, but also by the same token EVERYONE deserves to be loved and feel supported.
because actually bonds with other people are the most important thing, and centrally this is also why REIGEN relies so heavily on bonds with others as something to create horror. the evil spirit mimics the voices of the ones you love and lures you in and when you’re at your most lost and scared and in need, that’s when you turn around and the face of the person you trust betrays you. tome only contracts the fatal curse in the first place because she cared about reigen and went back to make amends with him. because that’s the most horrifying, most terrifying thing, the thing that renders you absolutely helpless, isn’t it? it’s letting yourself rely on others and trust them to the point that it leaves you vulnerable, isn’t it? but you have to do it, if you want to achieve true connection then you can’t continue keeping up a veneer of Specialness and posturing as someone you’re not no matter how afraid you are of being seen as your true self. that’s the idea that really connects tome and reigen above all else. you have to be who you really are and you have to trust that you’ll be loved for it. and that’s horrifying! that’s an unimaginable, Forbidden terror! but it’s necessary.
and also I think it’s so clever how REIGEN conveys this by only bringing in shigeo kageyama, the protagonist and most recognizable character who the reader has so many preconceived notions of, in at the last moment as a terrifying ghost who is impersonating him. I mean also it’s partially because shigeo can easily be made to look scary lol, because let’s be real, he can be pretty goddamn scary /hj BUT MOSTLY it’s to have him in his uniform, in his most recognizable and iconic form that the reader will cling to, and then have it be blown away by the post-canon shigeo, the real shigeo, the shigeo who has grown and changed and is no longer stuck in the role he once was. because to be vulnerable with others you have to grow and change and do away with old pretenses and dynamics that you’ve become dependent on. it can be scary to stop playing roles after you’ve grown use to them for so long, but you don’t need them - your most honest self will be the most loved. and also I love how just like tome could tell that it was the real reigen bcause he immediately ran into a spiderweb and yelled, you can tell that it’s the real shigeo because he’s immediately rude as fuck and he and reigen literally instantly go into their mean pithy little affectionate banter lol ok sorry anyway.
and also because you cannot really be any more or less special than anyone else and you need bonds with others, it’s true both that you have to rely on other people, but also that you owe it to them to be kind. reigen is literally a normal person working in the spirit business, so he has to rely on other people with the necessary abilities, such as dimple the spirit and serizawa the psychic, yes, but he also does his part to take care of the people who matter to him. roshuuto is so focused on appearances and power - as shown by how he goes on and on about connections - but when it comes down to it, he was not willing to save others (leaving hoshido in Reliance), and so nobody bothered trying to save him in turn. he only abandoned, and was abandoned. this is shown most acutely in the end by how roshuuto “has no other option” but to pass his curse on to someone else to save himself, while reigen “has no other option” to take on a curse to save someone else. reigen and serizawa accepting their responsibility as adults to protect the children around them is an extension of the idea that you are equal to everyone and are obligated to be kind to your loved ones and recieve kindness in turn. anyway mutual trust and communication is all that matters and tome kurata is The protagonist of all time Sorry,
if you want to dress gay but aren’t sure how, you need to focus more on finding clothes you actually like and that make you feel good when you look in the mirror. develop your style independently of what you think looks gayest and trust the homosexuality will follow. it goes where confidence and self acceptance are
My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.
Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?
What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?
Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.
you may have noticed that my blog is disorganized and thematically incoherent and my tag game is weaker by the day. this is commentary on the chaos of modern existence
[ID: two tweets by j @repressedthesis. the first reads 'bbc was like "we want you to make a family show about King Arthur" and the writers were like "wizard committs war crimes" and colin morgan was like "the studios have tricked me, classically trained colin morgan into being here, so I'm going to portray a closeted homosexual."' the second tweet reads 'bradley james was like "I'm in a medieval times commercial!"' /end ID.]
Look, when you see someone talking about a particular bit of tabletop RPG rules tech and your first reaction is "well, that just doesn't sound practical", your first question should be whether you've actually identified a problem, or whether you've merely assumed without justification that every part of the game in question other than the bit you just read about is identical to Dungeons & Dragons.
the zendaya thing isnt even a new phenomenon by any means!! the article mentions margot robbie wearing the taj mahal diamond as well, and in addition to that i also want to remind people that diljit dosanjh's request to wear the patiala necklace for the 2025 met gala was denied by cartier because they said it was in a museum and could not be loaned. however they had no issues at all loaning it to emma chamberlain, a white woman, for the 2022 met gala, while they turned down the request of a punjabi man who wanted it to honor his heritage.
this behavior is nothing new. the global south and everything in it - the people, the culture, our heritage - is seen as nothing more than a decoration or commodity to colonizers. i don't even need to bring up the koh i noor or the entire british museum; these examples are recent and egregious enough on their own.
of course this is not to imply that any of the people involved here - zendaya, margot robbie, or emma chamberlain - had any sort of malicious intentions. but the ignorance is just as bad in my opinion. the ignorance is just as harmful, if not more. because it means we are not even an afterthought. it means that the real people and histories and heritages of the global south do not even register when these people are putting together looks for their movie premiers and met gala appearances. everything is just reduced down to a shiny piece of jewelry whose history they need not bother with. it's just a continued reminder of the way colonization affects us all even long after independence, of how barely-healed wounds keep being reopened even decades later. even now, we are being denied connections to our histories and heritages while they are freely being given out to those that have nothing to do with it and don't care for it. and i'm sick of it.
