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[monsterfactoryfanfic]

today btw the children insisted that I as an adult could not possibly have a mommy, but I MIGHT, they conceded, have a "plain mom," the definition of which is, apparently, "she goes up in a rocket ship." every day I am paid to have totally comprehensible conversations

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

hi lydia! i found a thing on twitter,,,,....here u go

OBSESSED

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

i fuckin love tabletop games but i hope i never care about games more than the people who make them

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

A bread is one of the most vulnerable animals on earth of all time. It can die in a number of different ways, which include being smashed, being old, being rottened, being crumpled up, getting too hot, having water put on it, and having water not on it but being in the air a lot (the water (mist)). The bread’s favorite way to die is being eaten, but the world is a complicated place, and it does not care for what the bread wants, and so it dies in a variety of ways which are not the preference of the bread.

Humans are considered the bread’s natural predator, and also, are the bread’s mommy (make/give birth to the bread). Humans are a large species of ant or plant or ele phant with two grasping appendages which they use to give birth to the bread. They also have one hole which eats the bread, and some other holes, which the bread is not allowed near, generally.

Some bread can go in the fridge. Some bread has fruit in it. Scientists don’t know why, as putting fruit in the bread is considered yucky, and scientists have difficulty imagining an organism that likes yucky things.

There is the anteater, which is an organism that likes yucky things, but scientists do not need to imagine it, because it is real.

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

Honestly it's weird that roleplaying as we know it evolved from historical wargaming.

Like for example DBA rules contain some suggestions for running campaigns with narrative and "propaganda" so I wouldn't say that it's something incompatible, and 0E looks way more like wargames than say PbtA games do, but storytelling games were a feature of artistic salons for way longer and they appear much closer to roleplaying than rulesets for reenacting ancient battles on tabletop.

Salon games didn't have skill checks but neither did wargames and it's strange that nobody came up with simplistic skill checks to add uncertainty and realism to the game

I think the line is a lot clearer when the role of dice and rules in tabletop roleplaying games is correctly understood.

"Uncertainty" and "realism" are, at best, secondary to what the dice are actually doing. Even most tabletop RPGs get it wrong when they try to explain themselves – they'll talk about the rules as something to fall back on to prevent schoolyard arguments (i.e., "yes I did!/no you didn't!") from derailing the story, when in fact it's the exact opposite.

If we look at freeform roleplaying as an illustrative parallel, we see that, while newly formed groups may in fact fall to bickering when a consensus can't be reached about what ought to happen next, mature and well-established groups tend instead to fall prey to excessive consensus-seeking: the impulse to always find an outcome that isn't necessarily one which everybody at the table can be happy with, but at the very least one which everybody at the table can agree is reasonable – and that's a lot more constraining than one might think.

In this sense, the role of picking up the dice isn't to build consensus, but to break it – to allow for the possibility of outcomes which nobody at the table wanted or expected. It's the "well, this is happening now" factor that prevents the table's dynamic from ossifying into endless consensus-seeking about what reasonably ought to happen next.

Looking to the history of wargames, this is precisely the innovation they bring to the table. Early historical wargames tended to be diceless affairs which decided outcomes by deferring to the judgment of a referee or other subject matter expert, but the use of randomisers increasingly came to be favoured because referees would tend to favour the most reasonable course, precluding upsets and rendering the outcomes of entire battles a foregone conclusion. This goes all the way back to the roots of tabletop wargaming – people were literally having "rules versus rulings" arguments two hundred years ago!

(This isn't the only facet of tabletop roleplaying culture which has its roots in wargaming culure, of course. For example, you can draw a direct line from the preoccupation of early tabletop RPGs with punishing the use of out-of-character knowledge to historical wargaming's gentleperson's agreement to refrain from making decisions based on information that one's side's commanders couldn't possibly have possessed when re-creating historical battles.)

To be clear, I don't necessary disagree that salon games could have yielded something like modern tabletop RPGs. However, first they'd have had to arrive the the paired insights that a. excessive consensus-seeking is poison to building an interesting narrative; and b. randomisers can be used to force the breaking of consensus, and historical wargames had a substantial head start because they'd figured all that out a century earlier.

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

obsessed with the april fools day joke from the another crab's treasure devs

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

I just received a large brass coin with an emblem of a cartoon rat on it in the mail. It was literally the only thing in the envelope – there wasn't even an explanatory card. I presume this is a reward from one of the several dozen crowdfunded tabletop RPGs I've backed over the course of the past decade, but I genuinely have no recollection which – if any – of them it might be, so it's honestly all a bit sinister.

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

there needs to be a gender neutral word for niece/nephew that a) doesnt make explicit reference to them being your siblings kid b) doesnt sound fucking stupid

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

i really badly wanna make this game have like, grainy, shitty, black and white photocopied pictures, and I think for weird shit like this it would work really well

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

Happy Birthday to me, buy my games

It's my birthday this week! To celebrate, I put basically everything (that isn't already part of a bundle) on sale. Wahoo!

I might be biased, but I think there's some very cool stuff you can pick up.

If you've been enjoying my sneak previews of Stampede Wasteland, you'll probably want to check out DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE, which is in many ways a mechanical precursor to what's going on in Stampede. Also, its got a megastructure.

There's also Into the Riverlands, a system-neutral setting zine chock full of flavor. Some of which you can see here.

Or, maybe you want something a little more experimental. Then check out Fractal Romance's expansion, Velvet Fragments, which includes a whole new set of playbooks for exploring the Fractal Palace with. (There's a decent change you might already own Fractal Romance, it's been in some big bundles).

Check out the whole sale here!

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern on Backerkit now!

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern is a GMless one-to-three shot TTRPG based on games like MF0: Firebrands and The Sundered Land. It's a collection of 20 mini-games where former adventurers open a tavern together and reintegrate into society after a life on the road.

What happens after the adventure? What does daily life in a fantasy world look like? Stewpot draws inspiration from stories like Dungeon Meshi, Redwall, Frieren, and Bartender, as well as various aspects of D&D. It's a great way to wrap up a long-running fantasy TTRPG campaign.

Start a garden, cook monsters, run a festival booth, reforge old weapons, flirt with mysterious strangers, and more in a new version of the game with tons of art and new storybook-style layout!

(more info and full description of the mini-games in the read more!)

The structure of the game is based on characters having an Adventurer Job, with Adventurer Experiences that represent their abilities and powers, and a Town Job with Town Experiences. You can make new characters just for the game, or bring in old characters and recreate them with the existing Experiences or write your own.

As you play the game, you'll cross off Adventurer Experiences as you let go of them or let them fade into the background, and gain new Town Experiences that take their place. Along the way you'll upgrade your Tavern and give each other Keepsakes!

Games from the old Itch.io PDF version (0.41):

The First Step: Before you decided to put down roots here, before you found this group of friends, what were you doing? What was the first thing you learned about how to live in town?

NPC Sidequest: Your adventuring days may be over, but there are plenty of people in town that could use your help.

Wear and Tear: There’s always something to fix, or clean, or pay off.

Market Day: You never would have guessed how many things you need just to keep a tavern running. 

Homegrown: There’s something special about using ingredients grown nearby. Why not give growing your own a try?

Sliced: Sometimes supply routes get disrupted. Or maybe you just want to stand out from the rest of the taverns. Whatever the reason, you’re playing this game because you want or need to do one thing: cook with monster parts.

Romancing a Stranger: Someone in the tavern makes eye contact with you, and their gaze lingers a little longer than you’d expect. Your co-workers urge you on, and make every excuse they can to send you over to talk to the lovely Stranger.

Off the Clock: Where do you go after the tables are wiped down? Who’s heard every story you have about the worst people who have walked in?

A Friendly Tavern Brawl: Every tavern has its rowdy patrons. You know they’re good at heart, but sometimes when the ale is flowing and spirits are high, things get a little out of hand. How do you handle the situation?

Festival Day: Your town has a few festival days a year, and they’re some of your busiest. How do you prepare? How do you handle the influx of people?

A Bard's Tale: During your time as an adventurer, you accomplished many daring deeds. In fact, some of those deeds are retold to this day by travelling bards.

A Glass of the Gods: Sometimes a troubled adventurer will come in, looking for answers, and letting them drink themselves into oblivion is the wrong answer. It's up to you  to  mix the perfect drink, something perfect for the situation that can push the adventurer to look inside and find the answer on their own.

A Distinguished Guest: Someone important is in town, and they’re already almost here. The tavern has to be at its best for this guest. After all, they might leave a generous tip.

In the Rhythm of Things: Time passes. Rough edges are sanded down. Before you know it, life in town has become like breathing. You gather in your favorite part of the tavern and wonder where the time has gone.

New games for this crowdfunding campaign:

Shields and Skillets: Enchantments are volatile things, especially when they sit unused for long periods of time. You have to let go of your old equipment before it’s too late.

Shelter from the Storm: Early one morning, you feel it. A familiar ache in your bones. Something is coming.

A Funeral: As an adventurer, you said farewell many times. Sometimes it was only temporary. Most of the time, it wasn't. 

Retracing: You've left town for something: an errand, a vacation, an old favor. Suddenly, you recognize the route you're traveling. You've been this way before, during your adventuring days.

A Fleeting Memory: Something about the way the fire flickers lingers in your mind. The smell of hay and clover brings a tear to your eye. A fading memory resurfaces.

A Familiar Face: An old friend you haven't seen in a while has stopped by. Why not show them around the town and the tavern?

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

i took this photo on friday on Indiana University’s Dunn Meadow, our designated “free speech” zone. we have been protesting in solidarity with columbia and other universities calling for IU to divest. Many of you have probably already seen an image of a sniper positioned on the top of the Indiana Memorial Union, pointed toward the peaceful protestors. You may have also heard that administration has sent in SWAT and riot police to intimidate us into silence on Gaza. they have arrested over 50 students and faculty now. i have personally had two close friends arrested. you may have also heard of the anti-Black reasoning for sending in militarized police: that one of our active organizers was deemed suspicious purely due to the fact of his Blackness. we have been protesting peacefully since thursday, and have been met with sustained resistance from Chabad agitators who have blasted shitty EDM over Jewish seder as well as Muslim prayer. they have been joined by college republicans, antisemitic antagonists, provocateurs, and as you can see, white supremacists waving the thin blue line and proud boy flags. out and proud white supremacist nazis. these are the forces that stand against Palestinian liberation. these are the forces that back Zionism. it is so important to stand up and fight back against them. please. join an encampment if you have one near you. join us in solidarity if you can. if you can’t physically join the protests then i encourage you to donate to bail funds or find out what is needed locally. donate to helping protestors have food and water. it is so beyond important we do anything we can in the name of palestinian liberation.

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

MONKEY MAN (2024)

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

sometimes I struggle to come up with example names, and other times I know exactly what a corporate biohacker would name themselves

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

sometimes I struggle to come up with example names, and other times I know exactly what a corporate biohacker would name themselves

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

sometimes I struggle to come up with example names, and other times I know exactly what a corporate biohacker would name themselves