Card based initiative (Savage Worlds)
dnd jokes that will always be funny no matter what your dm tells you
- "jesus christ" "who's that"
- "this is just like (tv show/movie)" "that's my favorite play"
- referring to famous musicians or actors from the real world as "bards"
- adding the word "fantasy" in front of modern things (i pull out my Fantasy iPhone and open Fantasy Tinder)
- "how hurt are you" "on a scale of one to twenty-eight i'd say i'm at about a nine."
feel free to add more
You have to add another axis to the alignment chart you have 15 seconds go
Chill/Unchill
KOKOBOT - The Airbnb-Owned Tech Startup - Data Mining Tumblr Users' Mental Health Crises for "Content"
I got this message from a bot, and honestly? If I was a bit younger and not such a jaded bitch with a career in tech, I might have given it an honest try. I spent plenty of time in a tough situation without access to any mental health resources as a teen, and would have been sucked right in.
Chatting right from your phone, and being connected with people who can help you? Sounds nice. Especially if you believe the testimonials they spam you with (tw suicide / self harm mention in below images)
But I was getting a weird feeling, so I went to read the legalese.
I couldn't even get through the fine-print it asked me to read and agree to, without it spamming the hell out of me. Almost like they expect people to just hit Yes? But I'm glad I stopped to read, because:
- What you say on there won't be confidential. (And for context, I tried it out and the things people were looking for help with? I didn't even feel comfortable sharing here as examples, it was all so deeply personal and painful)
- Also, what you say on there? Is now...
- Koko's intellectual property - giving them the right to use it in any way they see fit, including
- Publicly performing or displaying your "content" (also known as your mental health crisis) in any media format and in any media channel without limitation
- Do this indefinitely after you end your account with them
- Sell / share this "content" with other businesses
- Any harm you come to using Koko? That's on you.
- And Koko won't take responsibility for anything someone says to you on there (which is bleak when people are using it to spread Christianity to people in crisis)
I was curious about their business model. They're a venture-capitol based tech startup, owned by Airbnb, the famous mental health professionals with a focus on ethical business practices./s They're also begging for donations despite having already been given 2.5 million dollars in research funding. (If you want a deep dive on why people throw crazy money at tech startups, see my other post here)
They also use the data they gather from users to conduct research and publish papers. I didn't find them too interesting - other than as a good case study of "People tend to find what they are financially incentivized to find". Predictably, Koko found that Kokobot was beneficial to its users.
So yeah, being a dumbass with too much curiosity, I decided to use the Airbnb-owned Data-Mining Mental Health Chatline anyway. And if you thought it was dangerous sounding from the disclaimers? Somehow it got worse.
(trigger warning / discussions of child abuse / sexual abuse / suicide / violence below the cut - please don't read if you're not in a good place to hear about negligence around pretty horrific topics.)
Kokobot is incredibly predatory and exploitative. I wrote a post about how it exploits minors' empathy and gamifies "giving mental health advice", resulting in an unregulated mess that can only do harm to teens' mental health in the long run.
There are young people on tumblr that actively seek support from KokoBot right now, if you check the tag for recent posts. Those people did not get paid to promote it, so do not harrass them. If you can, direct them towards resources about Kokobot (like this post) that are more transparent about what this company is up to.
This... is DEEPLY DISTURBING.
SIGNAL. BOOST.
Regarding the whole "D&D is under-monetized" Hasbro thing.
Gonna be real, gang, there are way way way too many good engaging systems out there from indie game designers for me to ever pay Hasbro microtransactions
Important Question
If you had to eat one creature in the monster manual: Which one, why, and how would you serve it?
Pencil asked this so i feel justified in answering: flumph. Specifically grilled and filled with cheese like a giant portabello mushroom - Paper
I bet Kruthik taste great in a giant crab boil
Latest addition
It uses the same core ruleset as the Dishonored game Ive raved about before, but then tries to faithfully replicate the FO4 back-end including item mods and perks, so there's a hefty chunk of crunch there. Still, I can't wait to test it out!
deadreckon-deactivated20230712
blood is basically the most normal thing for a sword to hunger for. if a sword gained sentience and started asking me for blood i'd be like yeah i thought you might say that
Honestly, fair. If I gained a sword that started to whisper to me in the night, begging to slake it's immortal thirst for Pepsi Max, I'd have some questions for the smith.
D&D alignment is famously dumb, to the point where in literal decades I've only ever heard it discussed to dump on it or joke about it, but designing esoteric cosmic alignment systems for RPGs is very fun in that it appeals to the nerd's natural delight in taxonomy and mysticism. anyway my favourite one that I ever came up with, which I have yet to deploy in a finished work but still want to, is an alignment trinity that goes like this:
- ROCK: associated with moralistic heroes and heroism, personal virtue, romanticism, himbos, babyface wrestlers, beach bodies, unarmed combat or purely cosmetic weapons, doing the simplest or most ethical thing without regard for the consequences, hot-blooded shonen protagonists who are 14, even numbers, the colours red and green
- SCISSORS: associated with "bad guys", cunning, pragmatic and ruthless self-interest, heel wrestlers, "edginess"/antiheroics, lethal weapons (especially blades and guns), surprise attacks, lies and betrayal, decisive lateral solutions, the ends justifying the means, odd numbers, the colours black and blue
- PAPER: associated with bureaucrats and institutions, "The Man", proceduralism for its own sake, dense codes of law, deciding what to do on the basis of abstract theory, Ayn Rand villains, inconvenient traditions, intellectualism and pseudointellectualism, co-optation by the establishment, art that only makes sense if you know art history, nonsense as distinct from lies, domestication of conflict, non-integers, the colours white and yellow
These form a kind of daoist element phase pattern where one is considered to "beat" the other and things transition according to that pattern, in the expected way.
This hits what I think is a sweet spot for design, where it feels plausibly transcendental in the sense that you can kind of let your eyes unfocus and genuinely imagine that these categories embody deep wisdom about the nature of the world, and it's elegant in that the aesthetics line up with the names of the categories in both metaphorical and literal ways, but it's also just visibly incredibly stupid and a joke, so you can enter into a superposition of taking it seriously within the narrative while considering it stupid and deflating.
Anyone got any good recommendations for horror ttrpgs? I want to have spooky times with my pals.
10 Candles! It's pretty well known these days but that's because it's SO DAMN GOOD, despite being a small PoD print.
Any description will undersell it but I've never played a game that more thoroughly understood MOOD.
It does require a bit of set up but for a horror experience everyone at the table will remember forever seriously check it out.
10 Candles link!: https://cavalrygames.com/shop/ten-candles
Also recommend Dread: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/83854/Dread
Quietus: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/297814/Quietus--A-roleplaying-game-of-melancholy-horror
And for campy horror, Something is Wrong in this House: https://annalandin.itch.io/something-is-wrong-with-this-house
Hope you have fun with your spooks!
Anyone got any good recommendations for horror ttrpgs? I want to have spooky times with my pals.
10 Candles! It's pretty well known these days but that's because it's SO DAMN GOOD, despite being a small PoD print.
Any description will undersell it but I've never played a game that more thoroughly understood MOOD.
It does require a bit of set up but for a horror experience everyone at the table will remember forever seriously check it out.
Thanks for coming to session zero! Let's start character creation :)
Removes everyone's teeth and blends them into a smoothie
Drinks the smoothie
@probablybadrpgideas How would blending people's teeth turn it into a smoothie? If anything, just blend it all into a powder and snort it.
Fun fact: live teeth contain liquid blood, and mushy stuff, so it would probably become a kind of paste if they were freshly yanked - Paper, who has a degree in bones
A PhD: Particularly Harmful Dentistry
Tired of your character’s style being limited by their Spellcasting Ability?
Try asking your Dungeon Master if you can switch it up!
Bard Intellect: Study world lore and the chronicle current and past events. Wisdom: Use compassion and empathy to hit just the right note. Charisma: Create stunning performances that enthrall and inspire.
Cleric Intellect: Study religious lore and follow your deity’s tenants as written. Wisdom: Interpret your deity’s will and act as an extension of it. Charisma: Become a beacon of inspiration and lead the faithful.
Druid and Ranger Intellect: Catalogue the natural world and apply this knowledge. Wisdom: Feel in-tune with the land and anticipate its needs. Charisma: Mimic creatures of the wild and become a part of nature.
Paladin Intellect: Study your Order’s tenants and follow them as written. Wisdom: Interpret your Order’s tenants and act as an extension of it. Charisma: Inspire and lead those around you.
Sorcerer Intellect: Learn to control your innate magic through study and practice. Wisdom: Guide your innate magic through passion and instinct. Charisma: Project your innate magic through intricate performance and gesture.
Warlock Intellect: Learn magic by studying and practising forbidden lore. Wisdom: Gain an innate understanding of your Patron’s magic. Charisma: Barter for power with your otherworldly Patron.
Wizard Intellect: Become a master of the arcane through diligent study & practice.
Sorry Wizards ~ No alts for you. This is just who you are!
Now this is something I can get behind!
Valda's Spire of Secrets ("the book is coming" I repeat to myself, in the foetal position and rocking back and forth in the corner of the room) had a whole thing about this, for both their own new classes and the original ones!
“They’re here, they’re queer, and they’re quite possibly some of the stupidest people on the planet.”
— Warlock, describing the party
