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oh he was GUILTY guilty

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“Jesus christ eat the goddamn mac and cheese.” scowls the hero “I can hear your stomach growling through your armor, you know.”

The villain blinks “You-”

“Are feeding you, yes. If all I wanted to do was punch people and throw criminals in jail, I would’ve become a vigilante. Heroism involves kindness, dipshit.”

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u guys know theres other movies and books than hp right. like you dont need to and cannot "find ways to read/watch hp without supporting jkr". unless youre literally doing literary research, engaging with it knowing about jkrs shittiness is a form of support. fucking read something else

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The Dungeon Meshi renaissance is making me want to share the resources that taught me how to cook.

Don’t forget, you can check out cookbooks from the library!

Smitten Kitchen: The rare recipe blog where the blog part is genuinely good & engaging, but more important: this is a home cook who writes for home cooks. If Deb recommends you do something with an extra step, it’s because it’s worth it. Her recipes are reliable & have descriptive instructions that walk you through processes. Her three cookbooks are mostly recipes not already on the site, & there are treasures in each of them.

Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables by Joshua McFadden: This is a great guide to seasonal produce & vegetable-forward cooking, and in addition to introducing me to new-to-me vegetables (and how to select them) it quietly taught me a number of things like ‘how to make a tasty and interesting puréed soup of any root veggie’ and ‘how to make grain salads’ and ‘how to make condiments’.

Grains for Every Season: Rethinking Our Way With Grains by Joshua McFadden: in addition to infodumping in grains, this codifies some of the formulas I picked up unconsciously just by cooking a lot from the previous book. I get a lot of mileage out of the grain bowl mix-and-match formulas (he’s not lying, you can do a citrus vinaigrette and a ranch dressing dupe made with yogurt, onion powder, and garlic powder IN THE SAME DISH and it’s great.)

SALT, FAT, ACID, HEAT by Samin Nosrat: An education in cooking theory & specific techniques. I came to it late but I think it would be a good intro book for people who like to front-load on theory. It taught me how to roast a whole chicken and now I can just, like, do that.

I Dream Of Dinner (so you don’t have to) by Ali Slagle: Ok, look, an important part of learning to cook & cooking regularly is getting kinda burned out and just wanting someone else to tell you what to make. These dinners work well as written and are also great tweakable bases you can use as a starting place.

If you have books or other resources that taught you to cook or that you find indispensable, add ‘em on a reblog.

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@martianworder asked me about this on my Forged in the Dark post, so here we go!

Clocks

So Clocks have been a tool that have been used before and outside of Blades in the Dark, but BitD was where I think they were made really popular.

Golem Clocks designed by cmartins on Itch.io

For all intents and purposes, a Clock is just a track that you fill, but in some cases it's preferred over a track because it fills less space, and it's easy to just draw a clock on a piece of paper to help you keep track of something as you play.

A Clock can be more than just a track. It can be a countdown, a timer, or a representation of a person or faction's goals. The larger the Clock, the bigger task it is. Here are some examples of how you could use them.

A Healing project clock from Blades in the Dark.

A player could have a project Clock that they fill over the course of many sessions. Perhaps they want to research a cure for a vampire virus that is threatening a loved one. The GM would ask them to make a research roll every downtime, and how successful they are indicates how many slices they fill - effectively, how much progress they make towards finding a cure.

Rebellion and Sedition Clocks for Brinkwood: Blood of Tyrants.

A play group might use a Clock to track a common goal, such as winning over a number of anarchists to help take down a mega-corporation. If this is a campaign-long goal, you might use a series of linked clocks to represent the jailbreak you need to assist before you can win over a computer hacker, and then the massive hacking project you need to support before you can overwhelm the corpo servers.

Faction Clocks from Scum & Villainy.

A GM might use a Clock to track the work a Faction makes towards their goal. Every downtime section, they GM might roll to see how successful the Faction is, or simply tick one slice of the clock if the Faction has no reason not to be able to do what they want. If the Faction is allowed to work unimpeded by the PC's, they might eventually do something that changes the world around them, for better or worse.

Mission Clock from External Containment Bureau and Doomsday Clock from Apocalypse Keys.

Clocks might also be used as a timer, to indicate when something terrible might happen, or when the group's time is up. This might be the amount of time before a murderer next strikes, before the haunted house claims another victim, or before the world begins to end. In some games, specific points in the clock (such as halfway, or a quarter of the way through) may trigger special events that give the PC's more information, or remind the group that the pressure is really on.

Clocks for Protect the Child.

All in all, Clocks are a great visual tool to help you and your game group keep track of what's going on in the fiction, and it can also help you keep track of a number of narrative threads in a fairly condensed space. Even if they're not built into the game you're currently running or playing, I think they're a fairly easy addition, and can certainly help with bookkeeping!

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Hades is trending again, so this is getting reblogged again

Melione (Greek Goddess)

Are we going to roll with what is trending? Yes. Yes we are. Let's watch the trailer.

Games covered in this post: Geist: the Sin-Eaters, Pathfinder 1e & 2e, Planescape, Scion (after the break). 

**HADES 2 spoilers incoming**

Supergiant games has revealed that the protagonist of Hades 2 will be Melinoe. Zagreus was an obscure deity from the Orphic Hymns and Milone is very much the same… except even more so. We at least have multiple sources on Zag, but as far as I can tell, we only have one text on Melione, which is short enough I’ll quote it in full: 

I call upon Melinoe, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth, whom revered Persephone bore by the mouth of the Kokytos river upon the sacred bed of Kronian Zeus. In the guise of Plouton Zeus tricked Persephone and through wiley plots bedded her; a two-bodied spectre sprang forth from Persephone's fury. This spectre drives mortals to madness with her airy apparitions as she appears in weird shapes and strange forms, now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness — all this in unnerving attacks in the gloom of night. O goddess, O queen of those below, I beseech you to banish the soul's frenzy to the ends of the earth, show to the initiates a kindly and holy face."

This is complicated and I’m just doing a quick read, so fellow academics please forgive and correct me if I get something wrong. 

It is absolutely clear from this passage that Melione is the daughter of Persephone, but who her father is is a bit more debatable. While the text specifies Zeus, lots of chthonic imagery is involved and Hades/Pluto is mentioned. Different groups of Greeks syncretized Zeus and Hades at different times to different degrees. While most modern people know them as separate gods, some groups (like the Orphics who wrote this hymn) viewed them as aspects of one deity. Others gave Hades a “Zeus'' alias because he was ruler of the Underworld. So depending on the story you want to tell, Melinoe's father could be Zeus, Zeus pretending to be Hades, Hades, or both as a single deity.

The other non-obvious bit from my readings is that the “saffron-cloaked” reference indicates Melinoe is a Moon Goddess. If you watched the Hades 2 trailer, you probably noticed she wears a crescent moon diadem and is trained by a Goddess who is most definitely Hecate, the only other saffron-cloaked deity in the Orphic Hymns (although the epitaph is associated with other deities elsewhere).

 As a chthonic deity, Melinoe also gets associated with the dead, in particular ghosts. She has a terrible and fearful appearance from being the embodiment of Persephone’s, which combined with the darkness motif, makes Melinoe a goddess of nightmares as well. Again, all this is seen in the trailer with Melinoe’s ghostly arm and eyes.

So while we don’t have a huge number of sources to play with, there is still enough for Supergiant to bring Melinoe into their game. And if they can do it, so can you!

General RPG Info

Allies: Hecate, Persephone

Enemies: None

Temples: Caverns, entrances to the Underworld, graveyards

Relationships: Hades (father?), Macaria (sister), Persephone (mother), Zagreus (brother), Zeus (father?) 

Worshippers: Diviners, necromancers, psychologists, the wronged and oppressed

Minions: Ghost, nymphs 

Geist: The Sin-Eaters

Melinoe is a perfect deity to use as the basis for a Kereboi (if you don’t play Geist, that’s a big, nasty ancient ghost). 

Description: Melinoe appears as a giant woman, who alternates between radiating blinding light and shadow so dark it snuffs out all lights. Her six arms are not attached to her body, instead they float around her, the bones within visible through their ectoplasmic outline. 

Virtue: Kind

Vice: Wrathful

Attributes: Power 15 Finesse 15 Resistance 15

Influences: Domain 5, Fear 5, Rage 5

Corpus: 30

Willpower: 10

Initiative: +30

Defence: 15

Speed: 35

Size: 15

Numina: Chthonic Darkness*, Domain Sense, Engulf, Enforcement, Hallucination, Olympian Light*, Puppeteer 

Manifestations: Avernian Gateway, Discorporiate, Emotional Aura, Empower Ghost, Image, Materialize, Possess, Twilight Form 

Essence: 50

Ban: Most obey the Old Laws of her Domain

Bane: A thunderbolt tempered in one of the Rivers of the Underworld

New Numen - Chthonic Darkness: By spending 3 Essence, the ghost can snuff out all light for the Scene. Mundane lights cannot be relit, magical lights require a Clash of Wills. 

New Numen - Olympian Light: By spending 1 Essence, the ghost shines bright with the light of the heavens. The victim contests with a Dexterity + Stamina + Supernatural Tolerance roll. If they fail, they suffer the Blinded (Both Eyes) Tilt for the rest of the Scene.  

Pathfinder

For Pathfinder 1e domains, I’m avoiding alignment-based domains on purpose. I’m also going to consider Melinoe a demigod and give her four domains/subdomains. 

Domains: Darkness, Death, Madness, Nobility

Subdomains: Leadership, Moon, Nightmare, Undead

For Pathfinder 2e, things are a bit more straightforward since we’ve done away with subdomains and everything’s just a domain.  

PF 2e Domains: Darkness, Moon, Nightmare, Undeath

Planescape

Placing Melione in Planescape is easy at least - she would be found in the Grey Wastes with her mother or visiting one of Hecate’s two realms on the Grey Wastes and Baator. Faction-wise, the Bleak Congress and Dustmen are natural fits for her followers. The Revolutionary League and Mercykillers could also work for followers who seek to avenge the wronged and the abused.

I think an interesting twist to Melinoe would be if she is also worshipped by aberrations and dragons due to her frightful description. So if you are running a Greek-themed campaign, perhaps you have some chthonic beholders who worship Melinoe alongside the ghosts of their ancestors? Given Melinoe’s association with ghosts and darkness, I would toss in shadows, spectres, and wraiths alongside her minions as well. 

Scion

Making Scion stats for Melione is pretty straightforward. Judge and Passion (Rage) are there because Melinoe was birthed from Persephone’s anger over the injustices against her. I'm also writing Melione as a Guide since they are easy to make and I absolutley love Guides. 

Callings: Judge, Leader, Liminal

Purviews: Darkness, Death, Moon, Passion (Fear, Rage)

Melinoe (One-Dot Guide) 

Asset Skill: Occult

Guide Stunt (1-3 enhancement): Gain an Enhancement equal to successes spent to the next action you take in the current session to deal with a ghost. 

Final Thoughts

This is a new type of post for me. Hopefully you find it useful and informative. Got another one planned for Zag and Mel’s sister Macaria which should be up on my Patreon in the next few days. 

Bibliography

Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow. The Orphic Hymns. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2013.

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Have you played VAMPIRE The Requiem ?

By White Wolf

Vampires trying to retain their humanity while still being blood suckers living in feudal All-Night Society.

NOT the Masquerade version.

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To the person reading this, I hope tonight treats you gently, and that tomorrow looks brighter. 

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What if I put out a setting supplement for my book (to learn about my book about growing up in your late 30s, being the product of a monkey's paw wish, and crazy wizard duels follow @gaywizardemporium) and then called it "System agnostic" but it's clearly meant to be run using Exalted

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Mon of the Week Vol. 2 is now available to all members, and features two animon in new short adventures using the 'Mon of the Week' format, first used a few months back! 🍃Fight for the resistance in woodland warfare featuring Phytocopter 🌋Investigate the unexpected cooling of Lava Mountain, where a pod of Whalava live. Ko-fi Members directly support my work as a creator, and get access to a new release for Animon Story every single month! Become a member here: http://ko-fi.com/zakbfree/tiers

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This starts out as a nice gesture, then quickly becomes absolutely ridiculous.

1,024 dice. Man.

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I legit thought that was a baby whale

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As someone who is a professional writer (and a teacher, another job that gets “I can do that”s constantly) and an amateur artist, that picking up a book analogy hits so hard.

abstract and modern art haters are sooo snobby like klein literally Created an entirely new pigment and then painted a canvas in a way where the brush strokes wouldn't be visible. the insinuation that people with no skill could reproduce that is so annoying because unless you are skilled at color mixing and painting you definitely couldn’t lmao

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that take-out is going to be freezing by the time it gets home.

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Anyway, I don’t just bring this up when I talk about Twilight, but I do bring it up every time I talk about Twilight:

Reminder that the Quileute tribe, whose sacred stories made author Stephanie Meyer a multi-millionaire, never received any money from the enormous success of the Twilight books or films.

Their entire community is located in a Tsunami disaster zone, in a region where a world-changing earthquake and tsunami are expected to hit perhaps within our lifetimes.

They should be set for life financially based on the use of their stories in Twilight. Instead, they have to publicly raise funds to move to higher ground and have been raising the same funds for years.

Anyone is encouraged to donate, but if you have personally purchased a physical or digital copy of any Twilight media or Twilight merchandise, I recommend matching the purchase with an equal donation to the Quileute People.

Recently, they successfully moved their school to higher ground! It was a major accomplishment to ensure Quileute children can learn in a safe environment! But there is still much to be done .

Statement from the Tribe (link to the source):

“Living in a tsunami zone at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, a catastrophic earthquake can wipe out our community in less than 10 minutes – an entire generation of the Quileute people will cease to exist.”

You can even set up a monthly donation. I don’t have much, but I’ve had a small monthly donation coming out of my PayPal for a few years now.

Many people don’t realize that the tribe didn’t profit off of Twilight, so I mention it whenever I bring up the series!

If you want to read more about how Twilight impacted the Quileute People, check out “The Truth vs. Twilight.”