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Jules of Nature
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Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
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Not today Justin
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Today's Document
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@tamsinsayshi
Closing Time: A Response to the Sacred Space Conference
[Content note: This blog post contains non-graphic references to anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and genocide.] Hello, beautiful creatures. After my presentation at last February’s Sacred Space Conference, I’ve received a few inquiries asking if I will be attending next year’s event. The short answer is that, no, I will not be attending Sacred Space either as a…
how i became "tamsin"
Hello, friends. Welcome back to Storytime with Auntie Tamsin. Today, I’m going to tell you one of my favorite stories. I love this story for a lot of reasons, but probably the biggest reason is that this actually happened to me. That’s right, it’s a true story… and, as is too infrequently the case, it has a happy ending. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. I’ve written before about…
Hi, this is a big post about my new TTRPG, Defy the Gods, which I’m Kickstarting right now! It’s a queer sword & sorcery adventure-romance set in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia. I was inspired by Conan, Clash of the Titans (1981!) and Princess Mononoke. (I've also got a BlueSky megathread going about it.)
Back the Kickstarter here!
Art by Thalie Shelen! @thalieshelen
(Btw hi I'm Chrys, a queer, trans game designer in Columbus, Ohio. This will be my second published game. The first was a furry pack of nonsense called Raccoon Sky Pirates.)
Defy the Gods is sword & sorcery as a story game. My favorite PbtA games emulate specific stories and lead you to resonant emotional moments like you find in those stories. Here, I used PbtA to emulate sword & sorcery, with an emphasis on the romantic moments—but also plenty of metal 🤘. You use the flirtation mechanics (taken from Thirsty Sword Lesbians) to tempt, support, or thwart others. But then, you can roll too high (taken from Apocalypse Keys), where you get more than you bargained for. Like Conan running out of the Tower of the Elephant while it crumbles around him.
Also like Conan, you have a glorious destiny, but in this case it ain’t good. Rising to your most powerful self makes you monstrous, heralding your character’s end as a hero and their beginning as an NPC antagonist.
It’s a queer game. You can fall in love with anyone, or make them fall in love with you. But because the game is also about power, the gods and tyrants wait to stomp on you if your enticement falls flat. Like if you flirt with someone in the wrong neighborhood. Every character has their own arc, and one of the things I had the most fun with was making those feel like queer problems as well as ancient-world sword & sorcery problems.
Play a fierce Sword, chaos-loving Sorcerer, fugitive Revenant, mischievous Sailor, immortal-sworn Vessel, or wild-raised Wolfling. (All character portraits by Thalie Shelen @thalieshelen)
The Sword is big-hearted and violent. You have a move that lets you kill any human-sized mortal NPC within arm’s reach, without rolling, if you’re not already in combat. This always causes more problems than it solves.
While most players roll just 2d6 & add their stat, the Sorcerer casts spells by rolling a lot of dice & looking for patterns in them. If you can’t find any patterns, your sorcery runs amok. This chaos is kind of lovely. For instance, you're always changing your body—sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. But always gorgeous.
The Revenant is like Inanna, or if Eurydice made it out. They escaped the land of the dead. They aren’t who they were in their past life, nor who they were as a shade. They're still figuring out who they are now. Demons pursue them to claw them back to the Underworld.
The Sailor can call on a cast of past friends and lovers for help. They always have a plan, and an eye for the exit. One of their moves lets you fill in the map of the otherwise unknown world.
The Vessel is in love with a minor god. They channel their patron’s power by wounding themself, but their patron can also soothe their pain.
The Wolfling was raised by animals in the Wilds and is curious about the humans, but they belong in neither world. They're definitely the part most directly inspired by Princess Mononoke.
The World Forces are the antagonist. You build them at the table, in quick rounds of pick lists. They are:
The Pantheon: gods, goddesses, and demons. They make the rules, but maybe you can break them.
The City: tyrants, the wealthy, and others with the gods' blessing. They push you to the margins, but you can fight to be seen.
The Wilds: gigantic creatures and their trackless wilderness home. It's place of danger and new rules, but you'll probably break them.
The Shadow of Atlantis: long-gone elders. They dared to scorn the gods, and the Pantheon destroyed them for it, but through you they may live again.
Death: a hungry, totalitarian force. Its underground domain is the end for all mortals and the mockery of hope. But maybe you can return.
Art by Shan Bennion! @anonbeadraws
This was an intensely personal project, but it was too big for me to do by myself. Here are all the people who helped make it a reality:
Avery Alder: Design advisor
Basheer Ghouse: @basheerghouse Cultural consultant
Cat Tobin: Horizons Mentor https://www.pelgranepress.com
Cris Viana: Graphic designer & layout artist
Ezra Rose: Interior art
Kanesha Bryant: Interior art
Katrin Dirim: Interior art
Jaqueline Florencio: Cover art
Lyla Fujiwara: Developmental editor https://www.jarofeyes.com
Mary Verhoeven: Interior art
Omar Ramadan-Santiago: Cultural consultant
Rae Nedjadi: Developmental editor https://temporalhiccup.itch.io
Rue Dickey: @ilananight Copy editor
Sean D’souza: World-builder & writer https://linktr.ee/seandsouzax
Shan Bennion: Interior art
Thalie Shelen: Interior art
(art by Shan again! @anonbeadraws)
Thanks for reading! See the Kickstarter here!
You 100% don't gotta be queer or trans to play this game. No matter who you are, playing it will dip your mind into how it feels to me to be queer—all its wonders, terrors & invitations, thoroughly infused with sword & sorcery.
Writing the Revenant, my last playbook, finally cracked my egg and helped me realize I was trans. That's how personal Defy the Gods is.
I had to make this game for me, but now it's yours. I hope you all play the hell out of it. I hope a few of you play it out of hell.
I’m paying to force seven thousand strangers to see a photo of my late husband having fun with his dog. Tumblr Blaze is totally worth it. XD
Thank-you to all of my new Internet stranger friends for being so gracious about having my post shoved onto your dashboards. I loved reading all of your kind tags and comments! Both Martin and Bosco have been gone for several years now but for 24 hours, they felt very present in my life. I greatly appreciate this gift. ❤️
Reblog to have your dashboard be visited by the spirit of joy that death can end but not erase.
Love that this is well beyond 7000 people now and still going
@leavescrown Exactly! It’s a beautiful gift. Martin and Bosco out there travelling around the Tumblr community, continually making new friends.
@sseanettles
#hello again martin and bosco!! sending you boys round for another go :)
Reading your tag made me laugh out loud. It’s like two old friends unexpectedly stopped by your porch for a quick visit. XD
I’ll always reblog Martin and Bosco when they splash across my dash, because of Reasons.
What’s loved, lives.
There is something truly beautiful in seeing a comment like that from someone so very loved and recently lost.
Yes, Peter, you’re absolutely right. What’s loved, lives. You three boys all come back around again to see me again soon, okay?
sisters of dorley shitposting.
i dont even play lol, lmao, i had to consult my roomate to know what to write in page 2
death before detransition
The increase in public awareness of the existence of transgender people in the first quarter of the 21st century CE¹ has, in many ways, been disastrous for trans people. This disaster is due in greatest part to the deftness with which bad actors have, with the aid of multimedia corporations and good old-fashioned home-grown bigotry, turned us into a political wedge issue as part of their efforts…
catching up with la pêche à la mode
Hello, beautiful creatures. Long time no see, right? Sorry, totally my fault. I’ve been busy with a few things (see below), and one thing led to another, and then I looked up and it was May 2024. Yikes! So, what’s been eating up all my time? Glad you asked! In no particular order… RealizationSo, it turns out that getting a bachelor’s degree in Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies and writing a…
greetings from the avalanche
HOLY HECKIN’ HANNAH IT’S AN UPDATE! Hello, beautiful creatures. I hope you’re all as well as possible. Like so many of you—probably all of you, if you’re reading this—I’m doing my best to get through these terminal days of the crumbling American empire. Life here in 2025 is already exciting enough, but life here in 2025 as a trans woman? Wayne from the Canadian TV show Letterkenny saying “Too…
For all the people who keep asking about Straight Pride
…I made this explanation.
Remember: the real Pride was a real riot against real oppression.
MUTILATE UNTIL IT’S YOURS
growing up as a closeted lesbian trans girl is so bizarre bc you really will leave everyone around you shocked and confused thinking why is that faggot straight
My friend sent me this with a "this made me think of you."
I feel so seen.
watching i saw the TV glow: I should transition
reading sisters of dorley: I should do my hair and makeup and wear nicer clothes
I Saw the TV Glow hammered home the point that I made the right decision—that it wasn't too late, that there was still time even if I was a late bloomer—and The Sisters of Dorley pushed me off the fence about certain decisions I'd been stalling on making.
The power of seeing ourselves and our own stories in the stories around us is awe-inspiring.
Call her tiramisu the way she’s full of espresso and lady fingers
Who tf is Sabrina Carpenter
"its okay to be a feminine man" is just "confused little girl" for transfems
The other implication of "its okay to be a feminine man" is that its more okay to be a feminine man than a trans woman. To be clear it is not actually that they are okay with feminine men, and this is a unknowing admittance there is a social heirarchy of available gender expressions with trans woman on the bottom.
philothea walking
and here at the trembling page-turning edgebetween not quite yet and too latea dog-eared storybook childwith scorched fingers and grubby face follows a trail of crumpled leavesto the room where the feast was set, years beforeand fills a plate with others’ leavingspicking out crumbs, craving a flavoreven devoid of the memory of tasteand sifting sand through dust and ashesfor this handful of…
carry every day
I’d make a terrible Buddhist. It’s not just that I refuse to free myself from the cycle of saṃsāra, or that I suck at meditation. I mean, both of those are true, but they aren’t the problem I mean. The problem is that I’m entirely too attached to the material world, and especially to things. Leaving the house without a bare minimum of personal effects leaves me feeling utterly naked, unarmed,…
