HEY.

Y'all are missing the best part.

Penguin escapes killer whales by jumping onto a boat.

Antarctic penguins (and most other Antarctic animals for that matter) are very interesting because they lack a natural fear of humans since, of course, humans are not a natural occurrence on the continent. It is one of the few places on earth where it is completely normal for fully wild animals to be comfortable around you. In fact, most react as though humans are just especially large penguins as those are the only flightless biped native to the area.

As far as this gentoo penguin is concerned, it was saved by a float of large yellow penguins also hiding from orcas.

Penguin Diogenes

I love this! But I am seeing a concerning amount of people that are like “why are these guys risking their lives for a penguin?” or “these people are lucky that the orca didn’t ram their boat”

The penguin jumped in the boat guys! These people just happened to be around. They might have been cheering for the penguin, but the penguin jumped in the boat on its own. Also what were they going to do? Throw the wild animal back in the water. It doesn’t matter how docile an animal may seem, you do not pick up wild animals unless you are a trained professional! The safest option for everyone is to let the penguin stay on the boat and leave on its own.

Also orcas are not as aggressive as we think. So long as you leave them alone they don’t hurt you. So unless this boat full on body slams into the orca, the most it will do is just circle for a bit because it knows that the penguin is nearby. Orcas are only known to attack boats that have hurt orcas in the past. In those cases they leave the people alone. It may be nerve wracking, but 9/10 times you will be fine.

Also I doubt the orca is that invested. Gentoo penguins are barely snack-food, this is more of an "Ah man, my jingly ball went under the fridge" situation for the Big Ocean Kitty. He'll find something else to do.

@alizarinessence thank you for your patience as I took my time to respond to you! PbtA games can be pretty daunting, and I certainly didn't understand how the play flow was supposed to work at first. I personally learned through trial and error, as well as watching other GMs who had figured it out - I am blessed to have a friend who is very experienced in running PbtA games so I was able to play in some of his games and ask him questions.

That being said, there have been a few things that I've also found helpful that I can refer to you, so I'm going to put them up here.

The Flow Chart

This flow chart was originally posted in a Dungeon World reddit post, and later referred to me when I started asking for PbtA advice. You'll likely see a similar flow chart in Apocalypse Keys, where Rae Nedjadi illustrates how a typical session of play is likely to look like.

In any given PbtA game, you as a GM are going to be presenting pieces of information to the players, just as you would in any other ttrpg. PbtA codifies this information as "moves," and each game will present you with information that is considered useful for the kind of story that it is design to tell.

In Masks, the players are teenage superheroes, so the game encourages the GM to introduce facts such as "civilians are in danger" or "your dad thinks you're being irresponsible."

In The Ward, the players are medical doctors in an Emergency Ward, so the game advises the GM to introduce truths such as "a patient's condition is worsening" or "someone's dad is fighting with a nurse in another room."

This reinforces the common maxim that the game is a conversation, a cycle of presenting new information, letting players decide what they want to do with that information, and making a roll if the fiction calls for it. This is a rather simplified cycle of course - the "see what happens" sections may include moments when players may jump in with their own characters' reactions, generating more events that the GM doesn't need to add to in order to make them interesting. Many PbtA games thrive off of player conflict, which can occupy the table for a couple of hours without the GM needing to add anything (Last Fleet is a good example of this kind of play.)

Listening to Others

Listening to other people play PbtA games can give you a sense of how the game is meant to feel, especially when the GM's and players take their time to talk through their moves and how they work.

I found Monster Hour to be exceptionally helpful; they started out as a Monster of the Week podcast, and even though I've never run MotW specifically, listening to Quinn talk the players through how to ask questions or use different moves made the game very easy for me to understand.

Joining a Community

Joining a community that loves a specific PbtA game, or PbtA games in general can be very helpful when seeking out advice. The PbtA Discord channel has a number of players and designers, who have a lot of game experience and are more than happy to dish out advice.

Start With Games That Have Guide-Rails

Not all PbtA games are created equal, and while the original spirit of the game was to make sure you didn't plot out a story-line, there's still some games that have a certain amount of prep that will give you the tools you need to gain confidence as a GM. Here's some of my favourites:

Visigoths vs. Mall Goths can be played as a one-shot, and doesn't require players to make a lot of decisions when putting their characters together. It has a number of scenarios that you can throw at your players, a mapped-out mall with details on all of the NPCs (and whether or not you can flirt with them), and some pretty hard limitations on what you can and cannot do. You can't leave the mall, for example - go through an exit on one side of the mall and you'll just pop back in on the other. You can visit the stores throughout the day, but each team of players can only go to so many places before the mall is closed for the day, therefore bringing the mission to a close.

Apocalypse Keys has a game structure that looks daunting but can be broken down into steps, and also comes with pre-written scenarios as well as instructions on how to create your own. The concept is pretty straightforward - you're solving a mystery, and you need to do it before one of the Doors of the Apocalypse is opened. This puts the game on a timer, which helps GMs keep their players on task, and also provides the Game Master with a list of clues to drop into the story as the players look for them. I've heard very good things about how Brindlewood Bay, which inspired some of the mechanics in Apocalypse Keys, makes itself easy to run for new GMs, so if you can get your hands on that book, you might find it helpful!

Last Fleet is laser-focused on a very specific premise - you are humans, in space, running away from a terrible and insidious threat. What is more, this threat has the ability to infiltrate your fleet. The laser-focus brings everyone at the table to the same page pretty quickly, and the setting includes a mounting pressure track that will make sure things keep happening, so as the person running the game, you won't have to do much after you set up the initial scenario. The game also comes with some really good advice on where you want to start with your players, to make sure they're on edge, but not fully panicking yet. Then you just need to tip the scales enough to cause them to ask questions, make questionable choices, and start a series of actions that snowball into catastrophe.

Wrapping Up

This is all the advice I have for stepping into PbtA, but more than anything, I recommend just diving in and giving it a go! As with any GM-ing endeavour, you will likely walk away from your first session with a list of things that you'll want to do differently the next time around, but that's just a sign that you're learning.

it's ok to be horny! it's good to be perverted! your sexuality isn't shameful and the things that turn you on are good and should be celebrated!!! even if its weird!!!! especially if it's weird and fucked up!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK!

u used to be able to change the orienttation of a windows screen by hitting ctrl alt arrow key. the teachers would all flip their shit becvause they didnt know how to put it back and we wouldnt tell them. there were incidents.

we used to be a country

I was typing an entire post about food issues and why I don't like wet food, until I remembered that unlike in Dutch, 'wet food' has a specific meaning in English. Just straight up deleted everything bc all I could see myself as was

The first couple of captain america movies were good. I know. I know. I hate the mcu too but the first couple of captain america movies were good I'm Sorry. I have to speak my truth

The mcu wasn't ALWAYS completely soulless. Like it was never high art or anything it's always been kinda silly action movies but the first couple of em were good. I'm not gonna let the first avenger + winter soldier get memory hole'd Never forget what we once had. Me & like three other people are left standing in the stucky trenches in 2023. I am cringe but I am right. Remember what we believed in

still think about that post that’s like dragon age characters are always breaking character to go on suspiciously detailed centrist rants. it’s so funny. what if that happened to all of us

my roommate: hey kate when you’re at the store can you pick up some paper towels, we’re out

me: oh? paper towels?

my roommate: yeah thanks

me: what an interesting request

my roommate: uh—

me: disastrous for the environment, paper towels. or at least that’s what they say. swaths of forests cut down to make them every hour

my roommate: oh ok yeah i mean if you’d prefer we could look into using cloth towels—

me: oh! but bacteria builds up on cloth towels so easily. i knew a man a while back. yes, i’d even call him a friend. he died from an infection caused by a cloth towel that an environmentalist forced him to use against his will

my roommate: dude what—

me: it’s just so hard to know what the right choice is

my roommate: oh hold up you’re breaking character to go on a suspiciously detailed centrist rant, i forgot you told me you did this sometimes

me: maybe both sides are wrong

#dragon age#i’m crying#they’re always phrased just like that too#and then your friend would say ‘i guess paper towels are okay sometimes’ and you’d greatly disapprove and threaten to move out

@nonhoration you’re deeply deeply right lmao. game of the year

My favorite rejected New Yorker submission

まっこいさんはTwitterを使っています: 「一瞬初音ミクに見えたな https://t.co/WLn2bGt3ad」 / Twitter

Remember when Ursula K. Le Guin called JK Rowling a nasty basic bitch back in like, 2004? We should have listened

i found the specific quote i was thinking of x

damn gurl :’]