rabidchilde

[rabidchilde]

Why is there a red turtle on the trail sign? More importantly why does it have an eagle face and beak? Wtf is going on here?

[rabidchilde]

[rabidchilde]

Cede nothing to fascists. Not even hobbies.

I'm always at least slightly irritated and sometimes get full on pissed off that white supremacist jackasses have infiltrated and changed the culture within a lot of my interests. Like, I'm interested in ancient Rome, and the US Civil War, and proto-Indo-Europeans, and Norse mythology, and Greek mythology, and wargaming, and heavy metal, and just... can you all just *fuck off* from my interests?

I love reading about the largest, longest-lasting empire in western history, and how it impacted all the cultures that came after it, but it was an EMPIRE and therefore HORRIBLE and unlike so many I actually understand that? It's just super interesting!

I am endlessly fascinated by the Civil War, particularly the cultural struggles in the North to get people lined up behind abolition before and during the war, and the heroism of people like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, but yes, I'm a war nerd, I ALSO get very interested in the battles, particularly the ones where large events hinged on seemingly small actions- Lee's scouts losing his orders leading to Antietam, Chamberlain's bayonet charge at Gettysburg, the countless blunders by generals on both sides leading to ever greater loss of life than the world had previously seen outside of the Napoleonic Wars, a foreshadowing of the mechanized slaughter war was to become.

That there was an influential culture or family of cultures whose linguistic imprint remains detectable to this very day in languages as diverse as Sanskrit, Latin, and Old Norse, is FASCINATING. Of course, ever since the Nazis decided that said culture was 'Aryan' the whole topic has become basically a minefield where you have to pick through mountains of bullshit for the honest linguistic archaeology. It wasn't 'Aryan' in the sense of some mythical super-white people and it wasn't even Aryan in the sense of the pre-Vedic Iranian/Indian peoples, it was older than that. Harrumph.

For a person who grew up reading Greek mythology, who finds it referenced in everything from Shakespeare to Modernist classics, of course it's interesting. And Norse mythology is so different from it! The gods are no less flawed and human, but in such a different way! The stories are often HILARIOUS. But of course white nationalist idiots have co-opted both as part of their grand imagined past and 'rightful' culture. Bad news for both- there are thousands of years of massive upheaval, cultural and demographic change in both Magna Graecia and Scandanavia, and NONE of you are anything like your 'ancestors.' Not that that's even a bad thing! Let people, societies, and cultures evolve! The past is interesting but it's not sacred! Fuck!

Wargaming... look even I admit this one is sus on the surface of it. It's bad enough when you're playing a fantasy game with fantasy factions, and god help you if you're into historicals, you are GOING to run into someone's Confederates or Nazis or the like. But the very concept can't help but inherently glorify war, which, you know, to quote George C. Scott as Patton 'god help me, I love it so,' because there's very little if anything glorious about mass murder for dubious goals but the heights of emotion and performance people reach is compelling, okay? It's melodrama with dice. Nobody actually gets hurt. This is a much healthier outlet for my weird fixation on quite possibly the Worst Thing that Humans Do than joining the army or (more likely in my case) an intelligence service. would have been. I was given a head for tactics and analysis and a heart for the drums of war, and I channeled it into friendly games with other nerds. I'm proud of me for this one. Fucking fascists can go die.

There's nothing inherently fascist about metal, though the blasting drums definitely evoke the same primal intensity as war drums or the like. But like punk, it became kind of a counter-culture, and when the main culture was not as openly fascistic, that drew in a lot of fash. Anarchists and commies and just plain weirdos, too, but the fash are there and if you don't kick them right the fuck out immediately they pollute the whole scene. So I'm always gratified to hear Rammstein singing things like 'my heart beats Left' to tell the nazis to fuck right off. At least I'm not into Black Metal, that scene is far far far worse than my beloved Power Metal nerd shit.

Anyway yeah as the initial reaction image indicates I do periodically take stock of why I'm interested in so many of the same things as goddamned fascists, interrogating my own assumptions and thought processes. That's healthy, we all gotta be vigilant we don't get sucked into something vile. But for the most part, I hope you'll agree if you read this far, I seem to at least enjoy similar things for very different reasons than the goddamn fash. But hey, if you read this and spotted something sus, and you're comfortable doing so, by all means send me a reply or a message (on anon if you prefer) letting me know what that is. Not as a callout, not as a game of moral one-upsmanship, but as a comrade looking out for another comrade.

[rabidchilde]

[rabidchilde]

There is a cat cafe near me that I only remember when driving by it. Italian soda and cat therapy sounds nice

Pet therapy is a fantastic idea. I don't know what the data says about its effectiveness as specific therapy for specific issues, but I know that petting a wee beast makes most people happier even if for just a moment. And that ain't nothin'.

[rabidchilde]

man i have GOT to do this thing. *doesnt do it*

[rabidchilde]

Beautiful. I don't know how you made that face work so well. Some kind of techno magic obviously

Final build for my warlord, Domina Livia Gamma-Decima of Forge World Konor.

In addition to the stormcast mask, I added some fun gubbins, cables, and such and deliberately altered the profile with the exhaust wings and an extra pauldron over her volkite blaster arm. Shooting for "balanced asymmetry" as a design philosophy.

The pile of skulls and couple helmets around the base continue that philosophy as well as limiting the amount of Martian Ironearth I have to use :V

The rock she's standing on probably qualifies her as "modeling for DISadvantage" by making her a couple millimeters taller and therefore easier to shoot, but I don't care, she's the warlord, she needs to stand out as much as possible. Hence all the rest of the conversions. And she's going to get my best effort at painting, all wet pallete and sable brushes.

Will update when she's painted.

[rabidchilde]

were you perpetually and exclusively praised for what you could one day become, instead of what you were, leading you to a lifetime of feeling like you were not only never good enough, but that the best thing about you was a future that would never come, that constantly felt like it was slipping away? Did you become so afraid of closing doors, of losing that one good thing, that potential, that you stagnated at the crossroads until your life began to rot around you and the asphalt ground to gravel and the roads grew ever rougher, the doors closing one by one even as you tried in vain to keep them open, instead of choosing a path and committing to a direction for your own progress? Did you watch the best thing about you, the one thing you were praised for, slowly collapse in your arms as you tried desperately and hopelessly to save it, finding yourself kneeling in the ruins of your unexplored promise, looking for a way out, and wondering if there was no where else to go? no way forward? When someone tells you they're proud of you, that they love you for who you are, that what you are is good enough, do you cry? do you struggle to believe them? do you have to try your damnedest just to make yourself hear the words? Do you wonder if, one day, you'll learn to be happy with who you are?

[rabidchilde]

me: you literally have a disorder. this is symptoms

me: no perhaps my soul is rotten

[rabidchilde]

Everyone talking at once at family dinner while it feels like my hearing hyper sensitivity is hitting me in the head with a hammer

[rabidchilde]

No boob-plate! The abdomen armor looks a bit like the regular Sisters of Battle war-corset but isn't emphasized. Plus the horizontal highlights make it look like brigandine armor, which would certainly be difficult to cinch down into an hourglass shape. In-world designs aside, the artist chose not to sexualize the character when they are almost universally sexualized in cannon and fan art. Kudos

Luce

[rabidchilde]

Look, no boob-plate! Possibly a war-corset, but the quilted cloth doesn't lend itself to squishing. The knuckle and knee joints make it look like powered armor instead of skin tight plates.

Sister Sabbatine of the Sacred Rose

[rabidchilde]

any trans person reading this I love you

any woman reading this I love you

any poc minority reading this I love you

any queer person reading this I love you

[rabidchilde]

[rabidchilde]

- Dog star, burning through a vast black sky -

In memory of Laika: a greater friend to mankind than mankind was to her.

[rabidchilde]

I was just talking about how Necco and Smarties are the last of the chalk candies. When they're gone, it's the end of an era

Oh! Oh! Trick or Treat!

the ancestral food of my people

Necco wafers, in classic flavors orange, licorice, clove, wintergreen, chocolate, cinnamon, lemon, and lime. From a time before we had better candy flavors. Or better candy.

[rabidchilde]

As a DM, should you fudge dice rolls?

Simple answer: All games are different, there is no one way to play. Figure out what kind of game your group wants, in session 0.

Now let me tell you why you might want to not fudge rolls in your games.

A lot of folks who fudge dice rolls in their games, perceive their role as DM very differently then that of a player. They tend to see the game as *their* story, one they are guiding their players through. Their job becomes that of entertainer. Fudging the rolls, part of the job of controlling dramatic tension. I used to be that kind of DM.

This can make for an enjoyable experience for players, and some DMs enjoy being more of a story teller and less of a participant in the game. But it comes with risks, loss of player agency, rail-roading, inflating then deflating enemies being unsatisfying. DMing can start to feel like a job, rather then a game.

Inversely folks often fear letting the dice fall where they may. It can feel capricious, harsh and could derail a plot that you put effort into. Plus, it has become a bit of a bastion of toxic folk in the hobby. The kind who think playing Dark Soul makes them a better, more hardcore person then soft, easy mode gamers! Thus something to be avoided.

Yet, I have become a staunch advocate of it! Not for any of the bluster reasons, but for one simple one. It lets the DM become a player in the game!

Unless you are getting paid to DM, playing DnD is a group game experience. You and your friends have all gathered to have a fun game together. Not a curated stage play where you entertain them. You should be having fun, playing together. In my opinion part of the fun of DnD is reacting to the unexpected. Watching plans fail and having to improvise new courses of action. Being surprised by outcomes. Wondering what will happen next! Letting the dice do their job as randomisers, lets the DM participate in these aspects of play. After 40years of this, I am having a lot more fun as a DM nowadays by keeping the scenario light, and letting PC decisions and randomness of rolls surprise me. As long as the group is on board with this stuff, I find that it lets you all play the game together, all be surprised by the outcomes, and I personally found that a great deal more fun.

Maybe give it a try.