I must....ponder.

Demigirl, they/she/zie/it, 35. Gender is bullshit. This tumblr is for 18+, no minors. Fuck cops, capitalists, bootlickers. Punch Nazis.

[jasminewave]

Intro

Hey folks, We're Cosmic Junction System. I'm Skyline, the host. There's a bunch of us, so, some little housekeeping might be useful, since we keep getting follows. -34 (at time of making this post) -for the most part, very, very nonbinary -most of us are incredibly lesbian -transfemme -anarchist (I think?) -We post and repost a lot of incredibly filthy things, from a variety of kinks. Like as not, some of what makes us wet will gross you out. Ye be warned. -No minors on our blog. Nothing here is good for minors.

And above all else. we are into our *slut* era, and we intend to be incredibly dirty about it. So, ye be warned.

[rabbitkinglune777]

cool. another black child died in a hate crime

[rabbitkinglune777]

South Carolina jury finds store owner not guilty of murder in killing of Black teen | CNN

A South Carolina jury on Monday found a store owner not guilty of murder in the 2023 shooting of a Black 14-year-old.

apparently the murder happened in 2023 after doing some research but the murderer has been found not guilty.

black children get murdered and become victims of hate crimes every fucking day. this is ridiculous

[rabbitkinglune777]

im posting this here despite the website being extremely white centered, I want people to understand how in this country it's basically ok to murder and victimize black people, especially women and children in the name of "self defense" and white America will reward you for your antiblackness.

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

[terraswallows]

Smoking absolutely destroys your estrogen.

[redstonedust]

if vampires existed in real life i think there would be shady companies advertising "organic blood" sourced from "willing donors" who are coincidentally all poor people being paid like $5 per blood donation. and like haughty vegan vampires who only drink a synthetic blood drink thats brewed in a way thats actively worse for the enviroment. and radical traditionalist vampires who go on tiktok and claim that true alpha chads have to drain and kill people and anyone who leaves their victims alive is a liberal cuck. enter the world of hypothetical insufferable vampire politics with me.

[goldengamer2500]

[theprimeministerofamerica]

since i am a trans woman who plays sports i will never find your joke about trans women in sports funny. sorry.

[theprimeministerofamerica]

been said before but. allies also often throw in a “well actually when transwomen are included in sports with regular women they come nowhere near being the best so it’s fine to let them compete together.” bc like, well, i would like to think i could one day become the best. am i only allowed to play in sports because I’m not actually trying? it shows that there is actually a threshold in ability that, when reached, will cause certain groups of people who seem to support trans women in sports to reevaluate and find out they have been bioessentialists the whole time

[catgirlfunctor]

Every time I compete I am scared I will win. Nobody should ever have to be in that situation. I got second at a competition and I saw the look on the face of the woman who got third, and I left that competition as quickly as I could because I didn't know if she would try to do something about it.

[vasquez-rocks]

happy pride to this fucking thing susanna thompson does with her mouth

happy pride to this visible saliva that avery brooks decided to leave in the final cut of rejoined

[doyoulovethewayzeylily]

women love me for my unrepentant sincerity and my huge and illustriously estrogenated cock send post

[bunnilena]

can confirm. I did follow for one of those 2 things

[doyoulovethewayzeylily]

photomatt the people cry out, yearning to be set free. release them from this prison and allow me to offer succor (post cock on main)

[doyoulovethewayzeylily]

it has artistic merit

[doyoulovethewayzeylily]

cowardice

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

they seriously expected us to worship cops & soldiers when street cleaners and sanitation workers exist? fuck off i know who my heroes are

[filmphotofranz]

[finnglas]

when i was a tiny baby queer (aka a 24-year-old), i went to my first pride festival probably three months after i kicked ex-gay therapy to the curb and came out to my parents. being the people they are, my parents came with me. they weren’t really sure about this whole gay thing, but they loved me and wanted me to be safe and happy and wanted to be involved in what was important to me, so they came along. (i also think my mother still might have thought i might get drugged or murdered or beaten by a protester of which there were plenty.)

anyway i wanted a memento of my first pride, you know, and this one vendor was selling keyrings, and i liked it, so i bought one. do you remember those italian charm bracelets that were all the rage like 10-15 years ago? it was a keychain like that, and it had a rainbow rooster, a rainbow cat, and then just a rainbow, and so I bought it.

i run into my mom a couple of vendors over and she goes oh you bought something? what’d you get? so i showed her, and i was like, “I’m not sure why it’s a rooster and a cat. Seems kind of random. But I liked the rainbows.”

and my mom, who was some form of minister’s wife for most of my childhood and teenagerhood, stares at me like she thinks i’m joking.

“What?” i say.

“…it’s a cock and a pussy, Jules,” she says flatly, and that is the story of how i died at the age of 24 while attending my first pride festival.

[finnglas]

I love how every June this one gets dug up and passed around again, lmao.

[finnglas]

oh no is this what we’re doing now

[finnglas]

…relic…

*crumbles and blows away on the wind*

[coelii]

draw more fat trans women do it today do it now

[coelii]

make sure her belly sticks out further than her boobs btw

[coelii]

to be abundantly clear: this is not a fetish thing this is a representation thing I’m so exhausted seeing only depictions of skinny white trans women

[coelii]

Moi, par exemple

[lanaflowerz]

[ivy-justafox]

Well I got hrt so I guess it’s works

[eldritchbauble]

8 years out of the closet as trans, 7 years of HRT. No regret here. I would never go back and undo it. The only negative feelings I have toward my transition aren't actually about me, my body, or my health. Only resentment toward the politicization of my existence and the fact we have to keep saying this.

[4e3076]

patricia taxxon should be allowed to kill people

[txttletale]

there are many people who like to walk into a ttrpg having invented a blorbo in their mind and have the ttrpg to give them the tools to realize that blorbo and all the best to them i am so thoroughly not one of those people. give me a playbook that prescribes a very specific narrative role. give me a pregen character i have to play as. give me a dozen big stupid tables to roll up a guy on. give me some god damn lifepaths !

[txttletale]

cast me as though in a play and then allow me the tools to make the role my own!

[jasminewave]

Okay, but then, why did you sit down at the table? Why are you playing a TTRPG? You don't want to use the mechanics of the game to express a narrative for your character, why are you bothering to play the game at all? You could just go do improv. Or play a video game. Or look into local theater. If you aren't going to create the character, why did you bother showing up at the table?

[doctorstarky]

To push you into unique situations you might not be in if you had more control over character creation.

To explore the reality of how people can not control a lot of the traits they have or the circumstances they're in.

To create fun challenges by forcing you to solve problems with a random set of tools.

To allow new players to jump into the game immediately without needing to learn how to make a character.

[jasminewave]

Starting backwards

-new players should *never* be brought into a game without making a character. If they do, then they do not know the mechanics well enough to use them to play the game. This makes running the game much harder.

-This is a TTRPG, why are you not playing a puzzle game?

-This is a TTRPG, why are you not playing a video game?

-This is a TTRPG, why are you not just going outside and engaging with world?

We are talking about TTRPGs. You don't do the character creation, you aren't playing a TTRPG, you are playing an improv game. In which case why did you bother going to the effort to get the materials to lay the game?

This is a TTRPG. It comes with character creation. If you don't want to do that, why are you playing a TTRPG?

[tiiimezombie]

Omg are you all joking.

TTRPG's are more defined by their resolution mechanics during gameplay than anything else. Character gen can incidentally describe how difficult the game is to work with.

Let's talk about "fighters". Many games let you play through a combat scenario, and this character is one built around combat supremacy.

If you build your own fighter in D&D, you can pick a few major directions: are they good with shields? can they grapple? can they trip? can they intimidate? can they negotiate peace after someone steals their sword? You set stats and all, but until you've gotten to a combat scenario, your cool grappler is no different from anyone else. Further, if there's two fighters in the party, and yours can grapple and the other can't, but you choose not to use your skill - that too is the importance of playing the character over making them.

Continuing: if you announced you wanted to play a grappler and someone gave you a funny gnome that takes -1 against everyone they grapple who's bigger than them, that's a meaningful mechanic in character gen that again, is only "real" when done during a combat scene.

So even in a simulationist-leaning game, it's not character gen that makes the character compelling - it's when those aspects come up during play. If your character mid-game gets an injury that slows their movespeed, that's also a character modification that only matters during the play session - and that one wasn't in character gen.

If you stick with me a bit, we move to games that more strictly define a character. In this game, our fighter is incredibly strong, nearly unstoppable, but requires two relationships that their concept of self revolves around.

If you want to customize this character, you can say "i always deal significant collateral damage" or "i take losing very personally". Mechanically, during a combat that looks like more things can be effected when attacking, and getting a bonus to damage output when they've been injured.

There is less room for making this fighter unique within this subtype, but that also emphasizes how this Type of fighter engages with the world. It's during play you get to see how they think, what people they would sacrifice themselves for, and how they get permanently changed over time.

The gameplay of arguing over what +4 modifiers are relevant in a given sword swing vs knowing every time you swing a sword you have +2 (unless you're really Sad), is different in how calculations work, but you're equally determining What Truth Exists In This Play Space.

TTRPG's are about allowing and constricting actions within a playspace: one necessitating a fictional wrapping to make your individual actions Meaningful.

The reason your constricted (low number or just banned outright) and whether that's Good or Fun is strictly an opinion thing.

-----

Tangential: to emphasize the importance of play space over char gen, there's plenty of people who start with crazy backstories of slaying dragons before they become their level 1 rogue, and it defines all of that work as untrue or difficult to meaningfully interact with. It can be easier to just drop into a situation as "the one who wants to kill a dragon" and then use gameplay to figure out how that would work. Different preferences.

[jasminewave]

I don't play D&D. I stopped playing D&D once 4th edition came out. I play mostly level-less, classless, point-buy character creation systems. White Wolf games, Shadowrun, GURPS, there's a bunch of them. And the games I do play with something like class in it, are quite different from D&D.

The reason I do not play D&D is specifically because modern D&D has bad character creation, the key to all TTRPGs.

To respond to the "resolution is where the game is played not character creation", in order to have a character that can mechanically resolve anything, one needs to make a character that can resolve things.

[tiiimezombie]

Picture a campaign where your GM makes everyone play identical clones of the same orc mercenary in Shadowrun. From that base, each character can blossom as normal making relationships, getting cool scars, taking different equipment or whatever as part of campaign play. It wouldn't let a player personally live out their character idea, but it's a compelling space to play the rest of the game from. How would each character see each other? Would they backstab or view each other as the only people worth saving? Even immediately after starting identically, would clones not explore differentiating in-universe with like different bandana placements, or cutting different parts of their jackets?

[jasminewave]

This would be a really fun experience to do once, maybe twice. But there was no character creation here. I would not be satisifed that I played a TTRPG, under my definition of a TTRPG. *Shadowrun* is a TTRPG, but what you've described is a board game with improv elements. No character creation, no TTRPG. I might be crazy about this, but I'm consistent. I really do think that character creation is a nessecary part of a TTRPG, that it's very much the lynchpin of a TTRPG (TTRPGs with bad character creation cannot be good, TTRPGs with good character creation make up for a lot of their other flaws), and that if you remove it, you've changed it into something else. You can play a TTRPG any way you want; remove character creation, remove the setting, change rules, don't use the dice. These books are not binding contracts with The Demiurge, you do whatever makes your socks roll up and down. However, I am going to reject any TTRPG that does not have my previously established definition of a TTRPG (character creation, settign that is not our own, group of players collaborating on the same narrative). You don't have to accept it, but I'm not going to be persuaded by TTRPGs that lack things like that just because they are marketed that way. Statless TTRPGs are just board games with improv elements. Your character's name has nothing to do with resolving things with ludo-narrative elements (usually). You can make any kind of game you want and have fun with it, but if we are *specifically* talking about TTRPGs, that's a nessecry element.

[txttletale]

there are many people who like to walk into a ttrpg having invented a blorbo in their mind and have the ttrpg to give them the tools to realize that blorbo and all the best to them i am so thoroughly not one of those people. give me a playbook that prescribes a very specific narrative role. give me a pregen character i have to play as. give me a dozen big stupid tables to roll up a guy on. give me some god damn lifepaths !

[txttletale]

cast me as though in a play and then allow me the tools to make the role my own!

[jasminewave]

Okay, but then, why did you sit down at the table? Why are you playing a TTRPG? You don't want to use the mechanics of the game to express a narrative for your character, why are you bothering to play the game at all? You could just go do improv. Or play a video game. Or look into local theater. If you aren't going to create the character, why did you bother showing up at the table?

[doctorstarky]

To push you into unique situations you might not be in if you had more control over character creation.

To explore the reality of how people can not control a lot of the traits they have or the circumstances they're in.

To create fun challenges by forcing you to solve problems with a random set of tools.

To allow new players to jump into the game immediately without needing to learn how to make a character.

[jasminewave]

Starting backwards

-new players should *never* be brought into a game without making a character. If they do, then they do not know the mechanics well enough to use them to play the game. This makes running the game much harder.

-This is a TTRPG, why are you not playing a puzzle game?

-This is a TTRPG, why are you not playing a video game?

-This is a TTRPG, why are you not just going outside and engaging with world?

We are talking about TTRPGs. You don't do the character creation, you aren't playing a TTRPG, you are playing an improv game. In which case why did you bother going to the effort to get the materials to lay the game?

This is a TTRPG. It comes with character creation. If you don't want to do that, why are you playing a TTRPG?

[txttletale]

You don't do the character creation, you aren't playing a TTRPG

advanced dungeons and dragons: ❌ not a ttrpg

traveller: ❌ not a ttrpg

cyberpunk 2020: ❌ not a ttrpg

cubicle 7's doctor who roleplaying game: ❌ not a ttrpg

burning wheel: ❌ not a ttrpg

apocalypse world: ❌ not a ttrpg

warhammer fantasy roleplay: ❌ not a ttrpg

5e campaign starting with lost mines of phandelver: ❌ not a ttrpg

any one-shot in any system run at a con with pregens: ❌ not a ttrpg

[jasminewave]

Yup. Precisely. I'm not exaggerating when I say, if your game does not have character creation, *you do not have a TTRPG*. It's what *makes* it a TTRPG, that's the nessecary component. Furthermore AD&D has character creation. It's in the DMG. AD&D 2nd edition has it in the PHB; I own it in hard copy. Traveller has character creation. it's simple. but it exists. Cyberpunk 2020 has character creation. It just looks weird. 5e isn't a TTRPG, it's a way of making money for a corporation. And has character creation. And that last one? That doesn't work. At a con, you are *sampling* a TTRPG, the way you listen to 30 seconds of a song or take a bite of food to see if you want to buy the whole thing. I could go down the whole list, and debunk them all, but you already see my point. TTRPGs have character creation. If you do not make a character in the game, you are playing a board game or an improv game. You can play anything in anyway, sure, these books aren't a binding contract with the Devil, and if you want pre-mades, nobody can stop you. But character creation is the nessecary part of a TTRPG, and without it, you don't have a TTRPG, you have something else. Now, if you *prefer* that, sure. go for it. But then, why did you go to the trouble of getting a TTRPG? You could have just, played a video game. Watched a movie. And Apocalypse World has character creation. It's quite literally in the pdf you can get for free to play it.

[ernilthur]

Coming at this in good faith and genuinely want to understand your reasoning:

Why is character creation the defining feature of ttrpgs? Are there other necessary features too? Or just character creation?

What counts as character creation? How much choice/control do you need over the process for it to count? Does rolling up a character randomly count? What about the limited choices in a pbta playbook?

Genuinely interested and want to understand where you're coming from.

[jasminewave]

Character creation isn't the *defining* feature of a TTRPG, it's a *nessecary component*. There's a lot in a TTRPG that can be removed, but if you remove *that*, you end up with something else. A board game, an improv game, some kind of really weird storytelling game. It is *nessecary* but not *sufficient*. The other thing I would say that defines the TTRPG is that you are playing a role that is not you, in a setting that is not the one you live in (i.e., the real world), with other people who are all either doing the same thing or coordinating the game and setting (i.e. running the game). So, a TTRPG, then, would be a game where multiple people sit down to create a character that then is role-played in a setting not their own (Middle-earth, the World of Darkness, Faerun, Seattle 2077, etc). As for what counts, it's pretty broad. A player is creating character when they are making ludo-narrative decisons to create the role they are going to play. If the game has selecting a class, doing 3d6 in order, and then starting the game, you have character creation. You rolled stats, you picked a class, and now you are playing Gandalgrag Ironfist the dwarven warrior. If the game has a set of options you pick from a list, like Apocalypse World or the A:TLA TTRPG, then you have character creation. And if you have character creation, you are on your way to a TTRPG (next part is a setting and a group, but those are the easy parts). So, if you (for example) get togethet with your friends to play Kobolds Ate My Baby, you are rolling four stats, picking a couple traits, and then using those stats and traits, interacting with a setting with your friends, who are all doing the same thing (or running the game). KAMB is a TTRPG. Talisman is not, it is a board game. You create the role you want to play, then you and your friends play the role. Oddly, the table-top part of the TTRPG *is* removable, and it *doesn't* make it not a TTRPG, but that's sort of "well, we all live at home on the internet now, thanks assholes in power" thing.

[thelightsabovearbies]

So, a TTRPG, then, would be a game where multiple people sit down to create a character that then is role-played in a setting not their own (Middle-earth, the World of Darkness, Faerun, Seattle 2077, etc).

Patrol - A Vietnam War Roleplaying Game: TTRPG or not a TTRPG?

[jasminewave]

That would be propaganda about the Vietnam War in the form of a TTRPG where you can get points for torturing Vietnamese villagers. For instance, the play example has a character shooing a villager in the leg, because the villagers are not giving them information about "communist activity". Communist activity being one of those things that is definitely a neutral thing to be interrogating Vietnamese villagers about. There is also the oath all USamerican enlisted military members are required to swear to the United States in it, as a part of making that character (page 24, to be precise). It has character creation, though, and since this is so very, very clearly a fictionalized version of the Vietnam War where there were equal sides and the war just "fucking sucks", then yeah, this is a TTRPG. Kind of like how the Dresden Files TTRPG is, it's urban fantasy, or Vampire: the Masquerade, it's modern horror. This is also a fictionalized version of our world, where U.S. military in Vietnam are not objective monsters.