“It’s too difficult to explain. You’ll never understand. You must simply accept it now knowing.“
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Lots of interesting stills from the one-and-only Dark Shadows.
RMH

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Jules of Nature

Kaledo Art
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Peter Solarz
Claire Keane

@theartofmadeline
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
NASA

PR's Tumblrdome
Cosimo Galluzzi

Janaina Medeiros

oozey mess
will byers stan first human second

roma★
d e v o n

tannertan36
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸

titsay

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@gravejones
“It’s too difficult to explain. You’ll never understand. You must simply accept it now knowing.“
Source details and larger version.
Lots of interesting stills from the one-and-only Dark Shadows.
Men are always like yeah we were in Slint together
This Pope is not staying silent on Trump's Epstein War. #SundaySermon #PopeLeo
i was really worried this might not be real because it seemed too good to be true so finding multiple news sources with the quote really reminded me not everything sucks
https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-leo-says-god-rejects-prayers-leaders-who-wage-wars-2026-03-29/
This is a particularly odd mix of true and false. yes, the Reuters link is legit, but if you read it, you’ll note that the “quote” is not present in the article. the screenshot quote from political.speech seems to be entirely fabricated, unfortunately, though Pope Leo did say in his homily yesterday that “[God] does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood,” which comes from Isaiah 1:15.
Any public statement, message, speech, and homily Pope Leo gives is recorded on the official Vatican website, so you can check this yourself at any time. Pope Leo in particular has already had an enormous number of false quotes attributed to him in these weird boomer meme formats, so I *highly* recommend checking the Vatican website yourself before reposting any of them.
Here’s a link to his full homily that Reuters reported on, and the bastardized political.speech quote “adapts”: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/homilies/2026/documents/20260329-palme.html
PALM SUNDAY: PASSION OF THE LORD – COMMEMORATION OF THE LORD’S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM AND HOLY MASS PAPAL MASS HOMILY OF POPE LEO XIV St Pe
Gives me hope that Amazon will one day crumble to nothing too...
The Tight 90
(This is a continuation or a fractal reviewing of what I've written about in The Worksheet Manifesto and The Quickstart, The Home Game.)
THE TIGHT 90 is a 90-minute RPG session. It riffs on the perfect length/density of a movie, and I think it's a term I learned/stole from will jobst.
WHY RUN SHORT GAMES?
Short games are easier to fit in a schedule. (We're all so fucking busy.)
Short games are easier to pay attention to. (We're all so fucking mentally ill.)
Short games focus on the good stuff and discard the bad stuff. (We're all so fucking tired.)
HOW RUN SHORT GAMES?
Tell everyone, "We're only going to play for 90 minutes. Because of that, I'm going to focus on the things that are most interesting and exciting for everyone at table, and I'm going to skip over everything else. I would appreciate it if you would do the same. If there's something you're really excited to do, tell the table! And if things are dragging, offer an alternative that moves the game along."
But then we actually have to do that. :( How?
SET SCENES AND STAKES
Don't start in a place where nothing is happening and ask your players "What do you?" Give them something to latch onto! Give them an immediate problem! Here are the first four pages of an issue of Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, et al:
In four pages we get a fatal problem, introductions, flashbacks on how they got here, and spotlights on everyone's powers. Awesome!
And while you don't have to have your players' characters falling out of the sky, at least start them at the dungeon entrance with a couple clear things to DO.
(For more on setting scenes and stakes, check out Primetime Adventures by Matt Wilson, which Sam Dunnewold was kind enough to run for me.)
Of course, if they're falling out of the sky or standing at a foreboding dungeon entrance, some player is bound to ask, "What do I have with me?" To which I say:
CUT THE BORING SHIT
Shopping? Don't do it! If someone would logically have something, they can have it. And if they try to exploit that, they're no fun to play with! Tell them no. (More on that later.)
Conversations on meandering horseback? Don't do it! Comic writer Chuck Dixon said that if Batman and Robin needed to have a heart-to-heart, they should never just stand around talking. They should have a heart-to-heart while training on top of a speeding train.
(The example was actually Nightwing and Robin, but I didn't want people to click away and look up who Nightwing was. Also, Dixon is a shitty guy! But at least in this, he was right.)
Basically, almost anything you can get out of a shopping scene or a campfire chat, you can get from everyone falling out of the sky or trying to escape a wildfire. ALL SCENES SHOULD PULL DOUBLE DUTY AS PLOT AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.
BE GENEROUS WITH INFORMATION
Imagine a scene at a gaming table. The characters walk into a house in an empty town and ask what they see. The GM tells them to roll perception. The highest result is middling at best. The GM says, "You think you can see some blood." Someone else asks if they can roll investigation. They get a middle high result. The GM says, "There are some bullet casings on the floor and claw marks on the walls." Are the claw marks big? Roll perception again. Do they look like any local animals? Roll nature.
THIS SHIT SUCKS. It's a way to take 30 minutes to poorly tell the players that something interesting happened, and it doesn't give them anything to do after.
Instead, try this: the walls are splattered with blood and empty shell casings lie cold on the floor. The blood doesn't line up with what you know about bullet wounds, though; it lines up with the huge claw marks that tear the walls and floor. And blood drops continue in a line outside...
AND THEN if a player has a cool ability or is an investigator or druid or whatever, you get to write them a cool note that says, "These claw marks are bigger than any animal from around here. Maybe bigger than any animal you've ever seen."
Other examples:
The prince says he doesn't feel threatened by the king. He's clearly lying.
Moving stealthily, you make it to the general's bedroom, but it's clear that he has some sort of sensors or security system set up there.
As a wizard, you know they're casting some sort of summoning spell, and if at least half of the cultists aren't hurt or incapacitated in five minutes, the spell will succeed.
GIVE THE SESSION AN ENDING
It could be an exciting cliffhanger if you think everyone will be there next session to pick it up. But if you're not sure, end with a calm moment where the players have a clear next step. That way you can start next session with, "Last time you'd promised the Cult of Mirrors that you would lead them in war against the Skeleton Army. They're ready to go and ask you what your plan is."
FURTHER HOMEWORK
"How To End Things" by Jason Morningstar. On cutting scenes. Don't be fooled by the Patron link; it's free.
"Grand Experiments: West Marches" by Ben Robbins. The ur-text of running player-motivated sessions that don't require everyone to be there.
BUT WHAT IF!!!
What if rolling investigation rolls are vital to building tension in my mystery game? What if knowing the exact inventory and distance are vital to my high-stress dungeon game? What if campfire stories are my favorite part of our cozy travel game?
COOL! There are lots of resources out there for you, so this isn't for you. But maybe I could tempt you into considering a different style of game sometimes?
(Special thanks to @ladytabletop for supporting my Tight 90 obsession.)
some linocuts. can't decide which ones I like better so I'll post both versions
[ID: linocut prints of different transmission towers in black on pink. the first has some big towers with drooping transmission lines leading off into the distance. the second shows the top of a utility pole. the third shows a power tower from almost underneath, and the fourth has some tree-shaped transmission towers with wires hanging between them, a silhouette of mountains in the distance. the second set is the same in red on yellow./End ID]
Is anyone here gonna take a knife baby edgy and dull and cut a six 6️⃣ inch valley through the middle of my skull ➡️💀⬅️ or no
SEXUAL POPEYE REVOLUTION
I SEE YA BEHOLDIN ME OLDEN FEETS! D'YA LIKES IT?
POPEYE WIGGLED ALL FOUR OF HIS REMAINING TOES TO THE CAMERA DISJOINTEDLY WHILE WEARING A HAT THAT FIT MORE SNUGGLY THAN THE OTHER ONE OF FAME. HE SMOKED THE NORMAL PIPE THO. WELL IF YOU LIKE THIS FUCK YOU.
NA NA NANA NA
Knowing that trans women of color started the movement in the united states and were literally immediately erased and excluded from what they started is the most deeply jading knowledge.
It is the original sin of the so-called queer community and it damns it from the cradle.
no white gay boy will ever reblog this, watch:
no white gay will reblog this
no white lgb person will reblog this
Without Stonewall, without the efforts of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, the LGBTQ Community wouldn’t be where it is today. Don’t forget the roots, don’t forget the catalyst.
and then TERFs wanna be like, “hmm well the LGBT community existed before Stonewall!”
but like…Becky, of course LGBTQ+ people existed before Stonewall. We’ve all existed since the beginning of time. But the movement got a shock to its senses, a jump-start, a rocket-into-space when that glass shattered via Marsha P. Johnson, and when Sylvia Rivera was up on-stage protesting guess who was on the sidelines heckling her?
The same fuckers who won’t ever reblog or acknowledge this
My apologies to the original poster as I photo captured this post to add to the thread-I reposted this last year for pride and expect to repost it every year I have left-it’s our history people.
Marsha P. Johnson allegedly died of suicide in 1992, and her death was never investigated. Even I, a mere prole, could catch the “she was murdered” vibes from the circumstances surrounding the discovery of her body.
Without a trans black woman, LGBT+ rights would not exist. Never forget. Never “pay it no mind”.
R E M E M B E R
The Quickstart. The Home Game.
My biggest enjoyment of RPGs comes from running games for people who have never played before. It's what I did for years before covid, and it's why I started designing games. It's something I'm actively starting to do again after a long hiatus. So it's time to make a new home game.
USE CASE The home game is not the perfect game. It's not my desert island game. It's something I am primed to run with minimal friction for new players, where we start playing fast and get a lot done in 60-120 minutes. Some key factors for that:
no rulebook or other external reference needed
basic rules fit on one side of one sheet
customization fits on a small selection of cards, which can be chosen, dealt randomly, and/or traded
rolls lead to interesting choices and big changes
THE SCAVENGING The home game isn't a game I designed. It's a game I stapled together from Apocalypse World, The Veil, and some of my own work. Here are some of the big features and why they were chosen.
- Feelings as Stats: Before every roll, the players have to decide how their character feels. One might worry that this slow things down, but in practice, I've never seen the decision take more than a few seconds. Encourages players to think about the situation emotionally.
- Plain Language: As much as I love powered-by-the-apocalypse games, "moves" and "+1 forward" and other language that lives in the genre isn't very intuitive. So I took a page from Belonging Outside Belonging games and just put "You Can Always…" above the basic moves. And I tried to give them clear, plain-language names.
- Limited Starting Choices: I love playbooks, but passing them around, choosing one, reading the whole thing, and choosing a playbook move can take a while, especially with anxious players who struggle with choice paralysis.
Here there are only 19 moves (mostly called "specials," more clear language), and I tried to pick ones that appeal to the main player types I see:
emulates a trope (warrior, wizard)
asks NPCs for help
befriends animals
chaos monster
And if the game goes past one session, you can add more moves, including from other games, to zero in on a genre. (Someday I'll write a long post about how PbtA doesn't NEED a genre and that it actually rules to mix and match playbooks and moves from different games.)
FINISHING TOUCHES People like cards and little gewgaws, so the specials all fit on cards, and I bring along character cards from Shadowlord!, an old Parker Brothers game, for players who struggle with picking a name or vibe. The leftovers become my NPCs. If I were doing sci-fi, I'd probably find a cheap copy of Coup; I always thought those character cards were beautiful.
A WORK IN PROGRESS I laid this out and printed it the other day, but I've already decided to cut two basic moves (Sway and Ultimatum) because they can get a lot of that info from Read a Person. And I'm going to turn the money move into something closer to Blades in the Dark's quantum inventory. ABC (always be changin) your home game (YHG).
MORE MORE MORE Check out The Ostrichmonkey Hack by Josh Hittie @ostrichmonkey-games and Home Game by Adam Vass.
Get PDFs of my home game from this Google Drive link.
This whole thing is probably related to my Worksheet Manifesto.
What's your home game?
I deleted some moves and added some extra inventory play, so I've updated the file in the Google Drive.
the em dash and i are in a torrid toxic love affair
"advertising doesn't work" the increase in scentbird ads and people talking about a "personal signature scent" directly correlates with my family's interest in perfumes. Even if they're not using scentbird, something probably changed to make them want perfumes more, right?
let's put it this way: my brief exposure to tiktok directly correlates to a period of time where i was spending a lot more money on clothing items. Even though most of them were second hand, I still personally felt like i'd spent that money irresponsibly and largely on clothes that I no longer wear either because they didn't last long or I outgrew them. When I stopped being on tiktok, my spending on clothing has decreased a lot, and when I do buy things i spend money on clothing that i know will last me longer. I stopped being exposed to dozens of people showing me cute outfits every day (a lot of them talking about specific brands and talking about fashion news and releases), and correlating with that is a decrease in my own spending. Hm.
Let's just say. adblockers work in more ways than one.
So so so many people are trying to find ways to still say they’re immune to advertising directly after this post like do you people not think
*crying* you people are so stupid
The purpose of advertising, especially large scale, high budget advertising, is VERY rarely to make you go "ah yes I want That Thing, I'm going to go buy it for myself right now." It's to create an anchor point in your mind: this fast food chain is funny. The people I admire on social media are fashion-conscious. That store has things I think are cute. That way, when you ARE prepared to spend money, even days/weeks/minths later, there will be an association that makes you more likely to think of the thing that was advertised to you, especially in the absence of any personal preference. You get hungry while you're running errands, don't know what you're in the mood for, but you see That Fast Food Chain and remember their funny ads and decide to pop in. You're in the market for new pants or a new jacket because the weather is changing, and you remember an influencer you follow has an affiliate link so you buy the same brand they wear. You want to buy a birthday present for a friend, so you go somewhere with things you remember liking because you both have similar taste.
It's not always evil and insidious, but it IS usually meant to be slow and subconscious. You are not immune to advertising just because you don't immediately buy every pointless product you see in a commercial.
having an adblocker and going out of my way to avoid advertising makes it really easy for me to notice how vulnerable i am to it.
i watched tubi one night only on a tv without an adblocker. there was an ad for dishwasher soap that i thought was fascinating, because it was targeting changing behavior rather than switching brands. that makes sense, right? if your parent company owns most of the competing brands, then your only opportunity for growth is to get people to buy MORE of the product they're already buying. same principle as the giant laundry soap caps you're only supposed to fill 1/8th of the way up to a fill line you can barely see.
so this ad puts up a statistic that using the dishwasher is more water-efficient than doing dishes by hand [small print: a full load of dishes]. then it flashes back and forth between that statistic and a bunch of smiling people of different races and family configurations all saying that they run their dishwasher every night, no matter what. "every night! every night!" even a lady who lives alone does it every night!
i literally deconstructed how manipulative that ad campaign was while we were watching it. i was paying attention! and still, i swear to god, after ONE evening of seeing it 5 times, it disrupted a life-long family rule that you can only run the dishwasher when it's totally full. now, if i have a 1/2 full load but i'm out of glasses or whatever and don't feel like washing one by hand (who does?), my social animal brain goes "it's okay to run the dishwasher when it's not full! lots of people do it!" and, if i'm feeling lazy, I DO!!
so maybe you're less gullible than me or don't have a dishwasher to fall for this particular trap, congratulations. but by the very fact that we are social animals and that PR companies are very good tapping into that, we are ALL gullible.
isn’t this basically chaos magic?
honestly wearing this would give me gender euphoria