#it'll just be kind of hacker style

[falle-ness]

FAVORITE FIRST WATCHES OF SEPTEMBER

picking up the cordial invite of anyone to do the game by @anyataylorjoys

I tag @thetudorslovers @streatfeild @randomprivateer @ainvege @zizzlekwum @katarinas-redemption @trishvaylar and anyone who wants to

I'm very chaotic when it comes to watching movies - I never know if I'm gonna end up rewatching a movie I've watched 20+ years ago (because I don't remember any of it), watching exclusively someone's filmography, or just pick a random movie.

It's been mostly Jackmantember XD

Paperback Hero (1999) – it's what I'd call a classic romcom. Just look at the premise:a local truck driver secretly pens successful romance novels using his best female friend's name who's a badass pilot. Things got complicated when a publisher gets into his small town in the middle of nowhere with an offer... It's perfect for an evening watch. Light, funny, hilarious, and comforting.

Reminiscence (2021) – a post apocalyptic sci-fi-ish neonoir with a twist. Reviews are mixed, but I'd recommend you watch it yourself. I liked it, and it hit just the right spot at that time, and honestly, made me cry. If you liked the Black Mirror episode about erasing/rewatching memories, you'll probably like this movie, too. Definitely not the kind of a movie to watch if you want to turn your brain off for the evening—there's too much stuff going on, but the pacing is really slow, almost dragging... But, again, I needed something like that.

Swordfish (2001) – wild 00s thriller I can't believe I've never watched before lol. Hot men, hot women (bisexual disaster alert), covert ops, tons of money, spies, hackers, shadow/puppet governments, conspiracies and whatnot... Gimme all, gimme moar. I don't care if some say Hugh Jackman wasn't believable here as a hacker. I actually like his version of a hacker more rather than a glassed-geeky stereotype that keeps popping up everywhere. And yeah, for those who care, it's 00s, so beware of 18+ and dubious consent and whatnot.

Prisoners (2013) – I know the director D. Villeneuve because of Sicario movies, and I can't believe I've never bothered to watch this. Villeneuve's movies are something between a chokehold and smothering. So I knew what I was getting into, but this was before Sicario, so I was curious to see where he started. This is not an easy watch. It starts off a beaten premise—there's two small girls missing, there's a cop who tries to do a right thing, and there's a father who thinks that trying is not good enough. From this point forward, the movie peels off the layers of the seemingly 'decent' neighborhood and its folks. It's a very unsettling movie, with a raw, gut-crushing performance from Hugh Jackman.

The Interpreter (2005) - yay, not a Jackman movie. This is a solid typical for 00s with its style and pace thriller about an interpreter for the UN who hears something she isn't supposed to (something on a very rare African dialect she knows) and becomes a target. Nicole Kidman as an interpreter and Sean Penn as the FBI agent tasked to protect her have quite interesting dynamic.

Australia (2008) - You either like Baz Luhrmann style or you hate it. I'm not his fan, but this epic saga about an Englishwoman who inherits a ranch in northern Australia was a revelation. Jackman here is a drover—the guy who droves cattle, horses, etc., to another location for a small commission. There are too many themes raised—racism, colonialism, the WWII, and the greed and betrayal. And how to stay human where everyone seems to have lost humanity. It's not easy to watch because the pacing is quite slow, and it's almost 3h, I think? But it'll leave its mark, trust me.

[kivaember]

AC6 College AU? Rusty plays the lacrosse, Raven is either a programmer or an engineer major, Ayre is an AI made by him, and Freud is one of the faculty members.

i've actually thought about a college AU!

Well, technically, a university AU bc I'm from the UK and college is a diff thing entirely to uni. Also I have no idea what American uni culture is like LMAO (idek what lacrosse is, rusty would be good at football or rugby tho) BUT ANYWAYS my idea for it was:

RUSTY: an undergraduate taking the BSc (Hons) in Ecology and Conservation (not sure if it's different outside of UK, but an "honours degree" is more difficult than a standard degree, and is more attractive to employers as a result). He's got an avid interest in ecology and zoology, and has plans to be a conservationist upon graduating.

621: He's actually a professor at the university, but looks so young that most mistake him as a student if they're not in his department. He teaches ethical hacking and cyber security, and has several rumours about him, such as he used to be a notorious hacker who was eventually caught and strongarmed into working for the government in lieu of a prison sentence, and now spends his time teaching the next generation, etc, etc. Is it true? Who knows...

WALTER: He's the university librarian, and everyone is scared of him because he's so stern and always has this aura of intensity, even when just checking a book out for someone. For some reason he's on very good terms with 621... many people theorise on their history, because Walter's also very good with computers... everyone is also aware that Walter and Michigan are a thing bc those guys ain't subtle in the slightest.

FREUD: He teaches sport science and students either love him or hate him. He's like the human personnification of marmite. He's very enthusiastic about health and remaining in peak condition, and he expects his students to give 110% in his classes. He's always butting heads with Snail, who's in the same department as him. People take bets on how long it'll take for them to fight in the parking lot and who would win (Freud has 'is insane' strength but Snail would be powered by sheer rage that has been repressed for x amount of years).

IGUAZU: He works in the on-campus cafe as a barista. He's surly and curt but makes the best damn coffee in the city so no one really complains about it. He seems to know 621 and has some kind of hate-love relationship with him? It's complicated. He yells at 621 every time he walks into the cafe but also knows his order off by heart so it's very hmmm (more fuel for the rumour mills).

MICHIGAN: He teaches War Studies and History, and while he's a pretty demanding professor, most students love his energetic style of teaching. Many assume him to be a red and blue blooded American on account of his bombastic personality, American accent and insisting on being called Michigan - he's actually French and the estranged son of a well-known billionaire. It's Michigan's deepest darkest secret.

AYRE: Every so often 621 will have a guest speaker in his classes who calls in remotely (and voice only) called Ayre. He says she's an "old work colleague" and they're both very vague about what work they were colleagues in, but people enjoy Ayre's guest appearances as she's very friendly - in direct contrast to the very taciturn and almost cold 621.

O'KEEFFE: He works in HR, but most students joke that he's more of an information broker than anything. Though he acts put upon, he's willing to help out students trying to navigate the byzantine beaucracy of university paperwork and how to squeeze out as much as possible from their loans or signposting people to things that can help them. He's easily bribed with coffee and cigarettes, but honestly, he'd help out even without a bribe... very much one of those people who look gruff and unfriendly on the outside, but actually a good person underneath it all.

FLATWELL: He owns a bakery just outside of university grounds that's popular with the students. One of the reasons Rusty chose this univeristy to do his degree: his Uncle lives just outside of it, and was willing to house him, letting Rusty save money for dormitory and food and stuff. Seems to have some ~history~ with O'Keeffe in HR...

UH THOSE ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS/ROLES and the plot would be Rusty crossing paths with 621 and thinking him very cute (621 would be the type to dress in cardigans and wear glasses), and also a fellow student... is totally unaware that he's a faculty member from an entirely different department. Tl;dr after some flirting and a few dates, Rusty only realises that 621 is a faculty member when he mentions off hand about needing to go back early to mark papers.

Rusty: oh you're... a TA? helping out in your last year? 621: no i teach Rusty: Rusty: wait how old are you-

In this I'm thinking Rusty would be in his mid-twenties, and 621 would be in his late thirties. So, about a 10 year gap between them, give or take a year.

But yeah. Coughs. That's.... that's my university au idea... mmhm. yeah...

[fantasyfantasygames]

She's All Flat

She's All Flat, Fiona "Suta-iru" Malchevik, 2022

Ok it's a game with a "bust size" stat but stick with me for a minute.

Are you entirely out of romance visual novels? Wish you could play more of them? How in the world did that happen there are trillions of them? Anyway, She's All Flat will not give you another one. Instead, it'll give you a way to play the "actor of the protagonist of a visual novel as separate from the role she inhabits". It's meta.

This is a one-player-many-GMs game, wherein the 3+ GMs are needed to fill out a large cast of supporting characters. Some might play the same supporting character frequently (e.g. best friend, major love interests), but the key is that they aren't the center of the action. The player character / protagonist (whose name you select from a list of the most frequently used character names in romance VNs) is the person the camera follows, and the one with the most fleshed-out stats.

Your stats are mostly descriptive instead of numerical. You generally don't have "Computers +12", you have "Job: Programmer" or "Hobby: Hacker" or "Love: Video Games". The game uses a card-draw system where dialog choices (as adjudicated by the GMs who aren't in the scene) shift you from Spade (bad) to Club to Diamond to Heart (good), and your descriptors shift you toward face cards. Get a face heart and you come closer to the top of your relationship escalator, however you define that. I think the "bust size" descriptor is mostly there to be part of the joke of the name, because "flat" is the default option. (Choices like that play into connections with NPC preferences and nothing else, thankfully.) Also, "has no feet" is the default, and now that I think of it I've almost never seen a VN character below mid-waist. Maybe I play the wrong kind of romances.

The meta part comes in when you jump out of that VN and onto your two-dimensional "set", where GM characters help you change clothes and do your makeup and hand you a new script (metaphorically) and prep you for your next role, and you try to remember who the heck you're in a romance with in the new VN. Will you pick up the deck of cards while you're between novels and declare that this, too, is just part of a higher-level story?

It's got potential as a comedy game. You'd need a player who's interested in playing up confusion or hypercompetence, as opposed to someone who's just going to be unhappy at being overwhelmed. There's a good GM section on how to negotiate romantic (or sexy) play before you blunder into something where a player gets uncomfortable. There are notes on how to introduce additional players who are also VN actors in this weird cross-reality setting. The main thing it's missing is a set of examples in the style of a VN, which I was really expecting to see when I came in.

Fiona Malchevik goes by a different middle name in each game she designs. This one seems to mean "Style" in Japanese, unless Google Translate is lying to me, which is certainly possible. The trick in finding them is that her dozen different games are scattered across a dozen different itch usernames.

[ask-sappy-squips]

can you still talkto other squips?

BOOKY: We can! We have to have our conversations through the phone however, or through other devices!

MUSICA: Livvie likes to contact us through whatever means she finds most unnerving.

BOOKY: Speak of the devil!

MUSICA: Why is that picture of me still your background?

[binarystargames]

Liminal Void: Professions (like Classes but not really). What are we doing here?

So I'm thinking about what I'm doing with Professions in Liminal Void. A Profession is like...a class, kind of/sort of? It's got a starting skillset (basically a broad Skill category), a little passive ability that differentiates it, a few changes to being able to recover/reload/recharge in combat, and a starting equipment package (which includes an outfit, a capital-T Tool, and two consumables).

Beyond the mechanical aspects, though, there's a few things I've been thinking about. What is the purpose of this, and should I extend it further?

Worker Professions

If you haven't read the free quickstart, I've got 6 in there:

Laborer

Driller/Excavator

Pilot

Technician

Engineer

Foreman

And I'm also going to be adding 6 more:

Demolisher (person who breaks down ships/station walls/etc, has a big portable-wrecking-ball driver)

Doc (tor, making the distinction that this is probably not someone with theoretical so much as practical medical training)

Janitor (it's a janitor, has a self-propelled waterless cleaning device)

Surveyor (person in charge of measurement, has a ranging/highlight-for-targeting laser)

Sysadmin (has a movie-hacker-style device)

Welder (high-temperature specialist)

The idea is that for any given Level 0 scenario, you can pick 6 of these that best fit it (6 for easy randomization) and go, characterizing it in a different way. Your character is a lot more defined by equipment than this stuff, but it'll make a pretty big difference over time.

I'm quite confident in the first 6...some of the last 6 are kind of a stretch or might be too specific. We'll see. I might also add a few more if I come up with 6 more ideas.

Mercenary Professions

Obviously given the easy formulation (skillset, talent, outfit, tool, consumables) I've been looking at swapping "Tool" for "Weapon" conceptually (given the two mechanically work roughly the same way, it's just that weapons are better at offense, use ammo, and have very few uses outside of combat) and creating professions based around more martial (or non-tool-using) things.

Now. I have mixed feelings about this. The big thing I want to avoid is letting this into A Dedicated Combat Game. It's got the ability to do that for sure, but I want that to be opt-in - if a character is set up just to do that from the word go, it's going to slide way more in that direction by implication. If your character's main talent is "do guns better" then, well, guess what they're going to do, probably. I don't really want to set players up to just do that.

On the other hand, though, it's not like taking on mercenary contracts isn't a part of the game, and that can involve hiring help - or if someone dies, maybe that hired help becomes a permanent fixture. (Or even before then, I strongly promote the idea of troupe play for this.) And for that matter, some people just have a more martial outlook on life. Not everyone started their career as a space plumber or whatever, or even if they did, it's not really always the most relevant thing about them, you know?

Right now the compromise I'm thinking is:

Backgrounds that leverage 6/12 of the weapons (basically, not the more situational/"heavy weapon"/"this is basically only for cops" ones). Right now I'm thinking:

Hunter (typically of the bounty kind, has a Revolver)

Infiltrator (sneaky bastard, has a Rail Pistol)

Investigator (private eye/intel, has a Laser Pistol)

Marine (boarding/CQC specialist, has a Shotgun)

Sharpshooter (what it says, has a Rail Rifle)

Soldier ("being in firefights" specialist, has a PDW)

Explicit guidance to not start with these these at Level 0 for characters, except if it makes sense through play. For example in Escape from CICP-1 there are a few corpsec soldiers and raiders that could defect, so if one of them joined the party that could make sense, but everyone starting out is going to have a Worker Profession.

Guidance as to how best to use these when starting at Level 1: basically, make sure that your Background is something that helps them gel with the rest of the party.

Integration in play: describe what kinds of characters you meet and hire with these kinds of backgrounds. Explanation of retraining at Tier too, like if you were an Engineer but you basically only shoot people nowadays maybe that part's not so relevant anymore.

But we'll see. I might just put a bunch of the Talents I was gonna use for those 6 into a list for players to take during advancement.

Conclusions

As usual, I have none other than "I'm gonna try some shit out and hope it works", but I still like making a final header for these writeups so here you go.

Once again, there's a free quickstart for this game if you're interested.