#thoughty

[beaujagr]

Right before the pandemic, I did a Kickstarter for my TTRPG Turn, which is about playing shapeshifters in small mostly rural towns. I worked with some great people on it and I think it is still an amazing game and wish I could play it more and expand upon it extensively, but I don't think that it will be in the cards for me.

However, it still exists.

This game, where you struggle between your public and private identities, where the rules are mostly focused on avoiding faux pas in human social interactions in order to keep your beast side hidden, where violence is easy but has hard consequences, and where the biggest struggle is finding people who will still love and care for you when you're exposed to be something most people would see as monstrous or freakish & you're struggling to live, it exists. I made that, six years after I first conceptualized it, & now five years after I made it real, no one knows.

I didn't get to take it to tons of conventions & promote it heavily, in part because I was struggling with my health, in part because the pandemic cut short a lot of my plans, in part because I didn't truly have a community that loved & cared for me when I was exposed & struggling. Instead, I lost my community, & I eventually had to give up my dreams, too.

But Turn exists. It's still beautiful and special to me, and I have had experiences with it building community and finding myself that I don't think I will have in real life. It's how I found my name. It mattered. Today, I'm holding on to that.

Turn is here, with my other works:

https://thoughty.itch.io/turn

+supplement, Towns Like Ours:

https://thoughty.itch.io/towns-like-ours

+Script Change, which I recommend using with it/any RPG:

https://thoughty.itch.io/script-change

Print:

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Turn.html

DriveThruRPG:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/10592/daedalum-analog-productions

KS:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/briecs/turn-a-tabletop-roleplaying-game

[beaujagr]

That's kinda what Turn is about 🥰

Thought.itch.io/turn

too many stories about turning yourself into a monster as a metaphor for pretending to be something you aren't and losing yourself in the process. not enough stories about turning yourself into a monster as a metaphor for choosing to openly embrace yourself even if it's strange to other people

[sarahsmi13s]

kissing in between logan’s knuckles where his claws come out because you remember him telling you that it hurt when they came out

that’s it, that’s the thought

[planetgayanimals]

Hear me out wheel but I am objectum and a masc leaning bisexual so these are barely coherent. Let me know who you get in the tags

[beaujagr]

This makes me think of Turn 🥺

this poem is about being nonbinary.

[whitestnoise]

[xxgothchatonxx]

So, Alisha Weir as Abigail was just delightful when she was being all wild, chaotic, and monstrous... but this is the part that really stuck with me. Lazar says "I came when you needed me" (which, excuse you, you're about 15 minutes late, darling) and Abigail 'responds' with this:

Honestly, this whole scene was fantastic, despite it being so short. Alisha proved that she could more than hold her own against an actor as seasoned as *spoiler*

(then again, I shouldn't be surprised - she played Matilda against Emma Thompson's Trunchbull)

But then, pure vulnerability.

Again, this scene is so short, but holy crap, Alisha nailed it. All Abigail wanted was her father's attention. But instead of it coming across as obnoxious and whiny, it's so subdued and quietly desperate. And Alisha got that across without saying a single word.

Which is also doubly impressive because Lazar looked like, well, That and it was still a really touching, emotional moment. So, instead of me pissing myself laughing at the contrast of seeing his buck-teeth-fangs, I nearly burst out crying.

[zosonils]

[this post is about something pretty significant in the story of shadow generations, for anyone who's still avoiding spoilers]

ok so something that fucking Gets Me is that shadow does smile every now and then. not often, sure, but with a little digging you can find at least a couple smiles from basically every iteration of shadow! observe

so like we have a template for what shadow looks like when he smiles. it's almost always some variation of this smug little smirk with his eyebrows/eyelids down, somewhere on a scale from 'cocky little bastard' to 'trying his best to copy what he thinks a smile might look like based on a description he heard once'. and most of the time it is steeped in some smug anime rival moment, but even when shadow is just genuinely responding emotionally to something nice happening, it looks something like this.

so all in all there's the impression that this is just how shadow smiles. that he's not super good at it, that maybe he doesn't quite know or remember how, but this really is him at his most genuine. right on, that's cute i s'pose, no problem, me too king i'm autistic. AND THEN THIS FUCKING HAPPENS

oh my god!!!!! fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this looks NOTHING like his 'normal' smile - his eyes are so open, his mouth is so relaxed, there isn't a speck of that smugness that shapes even his sincerest expressions! did he even know he could do this???? maybe everything we've seen so far has been an awkward attempt at it, and this is the first time we've REALLY seen shadow's smile. maybe we've seen him smile, but we're only now seeing him happy. maybe we'll never see it again.

after a lifetime of defaulting to a flat scowl and all these perhaps unintentionally self-assured looking smirks and half-smiles, shadow looks at his sister and smiles for her like it's the easiest thing he's ever done in his life.

this game is gonna make me THROW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!

[beaujagr]

I actually wrote a game that's partially about this, it's about shapeshifters in small rural towns! There are free copies for marginalized folks and a supplement with content for different places!

Hey can we queers please remember that the rural queer experience has unique challenges thanks

[snnynatural]

lumi dear, what is sonny's love language? is it only just one or is it a mix and match ? or maybe a little bit of everything? //

fun questions for lumi to talk about sonny! @malumxsubest

hello  my  sweet  baby  angel  cakes!  i  would  say  sonny  has  a  mixture! 

her  love  language  towards  people  are  acts  of  service  and  physical  touch.  she  runs  the  safehouse  specifically  to  serve  hunters  and  give  them  a  place  to  feel  like  home.  doing  everything  she  can  to  make  them  happy.  providing  shelter,  a  cooked  meal,  and  patching  their  wounds  up.  and  let  me  tell  you,  this  girl  is  a  hugger!  she  will  hug  you  and  squeeze  you  tight  till  you're  struggling  to  breathe.  she  will  hold  your  face  and  make  eye  contact  with  you  telling  you  that  you're  important.  she'll  ruffle  your  hair.  she's  just  very  touchy  in  a  wholesome  way.  unless  you're  dating,  then  sometimes  she'll  get  handsy.

love language  towards  her  are  quality  time,  words  of  affirmation,  and  physical  touch.  despite  being  constantly  busy,  she  does  enjoy  spending  her  time  with  everyone.  having  the  time  to  sit,  chat,  and  eat  with  them.  listening  to  their  stories  and  all.  again,  which  is  why  she  built  the  place  and  has  dedicated  one  day  every  month  where  they  have  a  celebration.  of  course  she  gets  excited  when  she's  being  hugged  on  or  being  lifted  off  the  ground.  how  to  really  get  her?  tracing  her  freckles.  you'll  have  her  in  a  blushing  mess.  now  words  of  affirmation  are  things  she  never  expects.  when  it  happens?  when  someone  tells  her  she's  doing  a  good  job?  that  she's  doing  something  important?  she  will  cry!  words  mean  a  lot  to  her  because  she's  not  told  very  so  often.  she  takes  words  to  heart  and  will  carry  it  with  her  always.

[beaujagr]

This definitely does have some Beastborn energy!

You don't understand, you should never know, how easy you are to need.

[planetgayanimals]

WHY DOES NOBODY TALK ABOUT RANDY'S LITTLE SCAR/WEAR CHIP?

[skateboards-wheels]

chips and fish is an interesting ship to me just because like. it's a fine ship. i like the stuff people make for it. there's reasonable canon backing to it. it's not bad and there's nothing too annoying about the fans. its a good ship but i just. Don't Participate In It. like they are just friends to me truly.

[whumpbby]

Dunno, maybe because I'm an old ace my bar for good romance and love interest is a bit higher than the usual romance readers'?

Yeah yeah, he will do everything for his love and nothing is more important than them. Yawn. Yeah yeah, he's the most powerful of them all, but also has childhood trauma. Yaaaawn.

Does he have a job? Does he have friends? Can we see him interacting with people who aren't the protagonist?

Does he have family? Are there people he likes and has relationships with outside of the protagonist? Does he have any responsibilities that can't be easily dropped for the protagonist's sake?

Is he a dick to protagonist's friends/family for no reason other than seeing them as competition/danger/annoyance?

Is he unhinged in a way that doesn't include the protagonist?

[beaujagr]

Yay!! I hope you enjoy it :D

For others who see this:

Turn on itch: thoughty.itch.io/turn

Check out the supplement at thoughty.itch.io/towns-like-ours (also on the sites below)

Turn at IPR: https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Turn-Print-PDF.html

Turn at DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/281964/turn

My website: briebeau.com/thoughty

My kofi: https://ko-fi.com/thoughty

For marginalized folks, libraries, schools, or community centers, if you want a copy of Turn and can't afford it for whatever reasons, please reach out to me at thoughty-bjs (at) outlook (dot) com with the subject line "Turn Community Copy" and I will do my best to send a hard copy to you until I run out of copies! You can also get pdf community copies at the itchio link above.

It arrived; thank you so much for the physical community copy! @beaujagr

[beaujagr]

Would you believe it's been a whole year since I published the final version of my content, consent, and safety toolbox for tabletop roleplaying games (and other purposes), the Script Change RPG Toolbox?

https://thoughty.itch.io/script-change

https://briebeau.com/scriptchange

Did you know that it remains Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution licensed, free to download with an option to donate, filled with a variety of tools and new resources for play, and supplemented by emojis for Discord and both playing & tarot cards?

If you didn't, now you do!