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world-of-puppets · 4 years

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Puppetry Lost Media

In honour of reaching 50 followers last week (now 55 followers, as of writing this) I decided to cover two subjects of great interest to me: puppetry (of course) and lost media.

Everybody online loves a good old bit of lost media. Whether it be being a part of the many searches for the media in question, or watching documentaries about them on sites like YouTube. I’ve been mildly addicted to the latter kind of content for a while. From what I’ve seen, though, there aren’t many videos or articles out there specifically covering lost puppetry. So, in no particular order, here are a couple of pieces of lost puppetry I found while scrolling through the lost media wiki.

銀河少年隊 - Ginga shounen-tai AKA Galaxy Boy Troop (1963 - 1965)

Osamu Tezuka is one of the most pioneering figures in Japanese art and animation. Starting as a manga artist in the 1940s inspired by the animated works of American studios such as Walt Disney and the Fliecer Brothers, he adapted and simplified many of the stylistic techniques of both artists to create his own signature style of big shiny eyes, physics defying hair and limited animation. A style that would go on to heavily influence the world of anime and manga as a whole.

But animation and graphic art were not the only mediums Tezuka would dabble in. Ginga Shounen-Tai, or Galaxy Boy Troop in english, was a television series that aired on the public broadcast channel NHK from April 7th, 1963 to April 1st, 1965. Running for 2 seasons with a total of 92 episodes.

The series was a mixture of marionette characters that utilised the Supermarionation marionette technique, popularised by Jerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, and limited traditional animation. The story revolves around a child genius named Roy who leads a rag-tag group of heros around the galaxy in a rocket ship in order to revive the earth’s sun and later protect it from alien invaders.

Out of the 92 episodes that aired, only episode 67 still exists in its entirety with French subtitles, and the full episode can be found on YouTube with English subtitles uploaded by user Rare TezukaVids. According to user F-Man on the Tezuka in English forums, footage of episode 28 exists but with no audio, and episode 87’s animated segments exist without the marionette segments. F-Man also claims the reason for Galaxy Boy Troop’s disappearance is due to Tezuka not being proud of the series and having all episodes of it destroyed.

Personally, I think it’s a shame that pretty much all of this series is gone. From what I’ve seen in episode 67, it looks really charming. Tezuka’s signature character design style was adapted suprisingly well to marionettes, and the puppetry itself isn’t that bad either. I love the little face mechanisms like the blinking eyes, flapping mouths and others. It gives the puppets a lot of personality and charm. Like, just look at this old mans eyebrow mechanism and tell me you wouldn’t want to watch 92 episodes of this show;

Tinseltown (2007)

Tinseltown was a 15 minute sitcom pilot created by the Jim Henson company under thier Henson Alternative banner. The pilot was commissioned by the Logo Network and aired as part of the Alien Boot Camp programming block in 2007.

The pilot (and likely the series, had it been picked up by the logo network) features a cast of both puppets and live actors as characters. The premise revolves around Samson Kight, an anthropomorphic bull preformed by Brian Henson and drew Massey, and his partner Bobby Vegan, an anthropomorphic pig prefomed by Bill Barretta and Michelan Sisti, as they attempt to balance thier lives working in Hollywood with life as parents to thier sullen 12-year-old foster son, Foster, played by Paul Butcher. Other human characters included Mia Sara as Samson’s ex-wife Lena and Francesco Quinn as the family’s manservant Arturo.

The Tinseltown pilot used to be available on the Logo Network’s YouTube channel, but was later removed for unknown reason. Since then, the pilot has not been made available online. However the characters Samson and Bobby have made appearances in other Henson related works, such as the improv stage show Stuffed and Unstrung, where they played the role as the shows producers, and in a 2011 video on the Jim Henson Company YouTube channel celebrating Jim Hensons 75th birthday.

I find Tinseltown pretty interesting as I feel like it should be more noateable or known, considering that this is (as far as my knowledge goes) the first Jim Henson Company project featureing openly lgbtq characters as its leads, and would have been the first Henson show to do so had it been picked up. As someone who’s interested in lgbtq+ representation in creative media such as animation, I realised that there’s not many examples of canon lgbt characters in puppetry. The only ones aside from Samson and Bobby I could think off the top of my head would be Deet’s Dads from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Rod from Avenue Q. Though, obviously, there could be more I’m not currently aware of. I don’t think the Tinseltown pilot was a masterpiece or anything. After all, there’s probably a couple of good reasons Logo didn’t pick it up for a full series. But I think it be cool if either Henson co. or Logo made this available online again, if just so we could appericate it as an interesting little footnote in the history of lgbtq rep in puppetry.

With that said, considering the pilot’s obscurity and the fact that it’s main couple haven’t been used in any Henson Related projects in almost ten years, as well as the possibility that there may be legalities preventing the Henson company from releasing it such as Logo still owning the rights, it’s unlikely we’ll see the Tinseltown pilot anytime soon.

Sonic Live in Sydney (1997 - 2000)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a fictional character no stranger to multiple interpretations of him and his universe across a diverse range of media. From the more light-hearted and comedic stylings of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Cartoon Networks Sonic Boom cartoon series, to more serious faire such as the Sonic SatAM cartoon and the Sonic Adventure videogame duology. One of the more obscure and stranger adaptations of the character came in the form of Sonic Live in Sydney, a one an a half hour live show hosted at the former Sega World Sydney amusement park in Darling Harbor, Sydney, Australia. Originally beginning as a live show with actors in meet-and-greet style costumes, the show eventually was replaced with a puppet show during its last two years.

The shows plot was set in an alternate timeline whos continuity was a mix of the SatAM cartoon and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where Doctor Robotnik’s Death Egg crash lands in Sydney, Australia instead of Angel Island and attempts to take over before being foiled by sonic and friends. According to Phillip Einfeld of Phillip Einfeld Puppetoons, the company that made the puppets, Sega felt the costumed actor version of the show wasn’t dynamic enough, and wished to replace it with a version featuring live puppets with animatronics. Both versions of the shows plot are identical.

While Sonic Live in Sydney’s soundtrack is available on YouTube, and some photos of the show are available on the Lost Media Wiki, no footage of either the costumed actors version or the puppet show version have resurfaced. The show was closed down in 1999, possibly due to cost, shortly before the Sega World park as a whole in 2000. So unless there is someone out there who viseted the show between 1998 or 1999 who recorded the show via a handheld camera, footage of both incarnations of the show are likely forever lost to time.

On a personal note, I don’t have much to say on this one other than how gloriously peek gaudy 90s Sonic the set/puppet design is. I have no doubt finding footage of these puppets in action would truly be a silly delight to behold...

Legend of Mary (year unknown)

This one is a little different from the other entries on this list as while the film itself in its entiraty is available on YouTube for anyone to view, the information surrounding Legend of Mary, specifically its year of release, remains a mystery as of writing this.

I have mentioned the film before on this blog so I’ll keep it brief here: in summary, Legend of Mary is a short film retelling of the Nativity featuring the Rod puppets of Austrian puppeteer Richard Teschner. the video was uploaded to YouTube by user canada 150 archive. I looked up the people credited in the film and was able to find most of them, but didn’t find Legend of Mary listed in thier credits, and was unable to find the film on sites like IMDB, tMDB or Letterboxd. I reached out to Canada 150 archive asking if they had any info regarding the Legend of Mary’s release date, and after a coupe of months, they replied saying they didn’t know.

And that’s as far as I got on my search for answers, if anyone of you guys has any information regarding Legend of Mary, then it be of huge help in finding the release date.

Sam and friends (1955 - 1961)

Sam and friends was the very first puppetry television series created by Jim Henson alongside his colabarator and future wife Jane Nebel. filmed in Washington, D.C. and airing twice daily on WRC-TV and the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. from May 9, 1955, to December 15, Sam and Friends would mark the first apperence of Kermit (though not yet as a frog) and paved the way for Henson’s iconic and revered legacy in the realm of puppetry on film and television.

With the impact this show had in mind, it may come as a shock to some that almost half of Sam and Friends, specifically, 42 of the 86 episodes, are considered lost. With 16 existing, 8 documented, 9 known from memory, plus 8 existing Esskay commercials and 1 memory-known Esskay commercial. Some taped episodes have been shown at venues such as the museum of the moving image while others have been erased. It’s unknown if copies of these erased episodes still exist.

This post would become far to long if I were too list every episode missing from Sam and Freinds, but if your curious, the lost media wiki article has a comprehensive list of all lost episodes.

Annnd that about it for this post. This type of content is pretty different from the stuff I usually post. So I’m egar to see what you guys think about it. If you enjoyed this article, want to see more like it or have ideas for what puppetry-related topics I should cover in the future. And again, thank you all so much for helping me reach 55 followers. Your support really does mean a lot to me, and I hope you enjoyed this as a follower milestone gift.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this dip into lost puppetry, and have a happy holiday season!

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potteresque-ire · 4 years

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Is Cho Chang a Racist Stereotype? - [2] Her House

Another very long post (this time Confucius comes to say hello). My thoughts are under the cut.

Once again, this isn’t a JKR discussion. This is my 2nd post on whether I think it’s fair to call Cho Chang a racist stereotype. The 1st one is here.

My short answer is still no.

Another critique I’ve seen of Cho Chang’s portrayal is that she was a Ravenclaw, which fit into the “smart Asian” stereotype.

But what, exactly, is “Ravenclaw smart” and “Asian smart”? I think it’s worth investigating. Intelligence comes in many forms, and the allegation would only be valid if the two kinds of “smart” are equivalent.

Here’s what the books and JKR, via Pottermore, have said about “Ravenclaw smart”:

“if you've a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind;”

“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”

“…our people are the most individual – some might even call them eccentrics. But geniuses are often out of step with ordinary folk…”

"Most of the greatest wizarding inventors and innovators were in our house…”

The day-to-day illustration of “Ravenclaw smart” was the answering of riddles to enter the common room. A good answer was “well-reasoned”, and it was known that the door would refuse to open until such an answer was provided, which sometimes led to long discussions outside the common room by the locked-out students. Another manifestation of “Ravenclaw smart” was described as going “full-nerd” on a subject that wasn’t necessarily practical or popular (ovomancy was the example given on Pottermore).

Since “wit” was such a heavily used word in Ravenclaw’s description, I looked up its definition as well.

* Intelligence and the ability to think quickly (Cambridge dictionary) * Mental sharpness and inventiveness; keen intelligence; a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humour (Google) * The ability to relate seemingly disparate things so as to illuminate or amuse (Merriam Webster) * Wit is the ability to use words or ideas in an amusing, clever, and imaginative way. (Collins)

My understanding of “Ravenclaw smart” from this info is: the ability to connect dots freely and nimbly. Social norms and expectations are noted, but happily disregarded if they get in the way. “Ravenclaw smart” is by nature argumentative and open-ended. It expects the dot-connecting to lead to places, but doesn’t have a specific place in mind; all endpoints are valid and welcomed as long as they’re logically sound. The strength of “Ravenclaw smart” is it leads to revolutionary innovations; its tendency to unbridle itself from social needs and expectations, however, can lead to amoral/immoral behaviour (Lockhart). The wisdom from “Ravenclaw smart” is also in danger of being ignored or misunderstood when its owner makes insufficient effort to make it comprehensible, or accessible to others (Luna, and likely, Rowena Ravenclaw.)

Those who’ve studied under an East Asian education system (especially in the 90s), or those who’re familiar with those systems, probably know by now where this discussion is leading to.

“Ravenclaw smart” isn’t “Asian smart”. It’s … about the opposite of Asian smart.

What is “Asian smart”? Outside this discussion, any kind of intelligence. But here, I’ll restrict it to the kind of smartness that leads to the racist allegation, the kind of Westerners typically associate with East Asian students (such as Cho Chang, who, for the sake of simplicity, I’ll assume is Chinese from this point on; however, the arguments will likely still stand if she was, for example, Korean, for reasons that will be clear later on). The kind of smartness that is good at math, that gets the highest scores in exams and seems to understand everything. Never asks questions, never makes trouble.

"Asian smart” sounds great. But what if I suggest the following “dark sides” to it?

1) Good at math: with practice, lower level maths are likely to require the least reasoning among school subjects, with their unambiguous, close-ended answers. A child who has done 7x9 enough times no longer need to calculate or think through the logic of their answer. They write down what they’ve memorised by repetition — 63 — and get full score.

2) High scorer: does everything as told. Prioritise the wishes of authority (teachers, parents) above everything else.

3) Seems to understand everything, never asks questions: views knowledge as “model answers” to be regurgitated in exams. Whether it makes sense doesn’t matter.

These are very cynical takes, aren’t they? I’ve cast in these students in a very negative light.

But what if this negative light isn’t negative at all if these students have stayed in the land of their ancestors? What if these “cynical takes” were considered virtues for the budding Chinese scholars of old?

What if “Asian smart” is purely a consequence of history and culture?

First of all, if you ask “Asian smart” students and they’re honest with you, most would tell you that their smartness isn’t the product of miracles or extra brain juice. Some would say it’s not even intelligence. It is the direct result of extra hours spent at the desk.

What is their motivation? Are Chinese children simply born to be extra hardworking?

Perhaps it’s their so-called “tiger moms”? If then, are Chinese moms born more … feline?

The answers, as you may expect, are no, Chinese aren’t born any different from other races. Their drive to study can largely be explained by an ancient, nation-wide exam system known as the imperial examination system (Ke-Ju, 科舉), plus a dude with a name of Confucius.

Many are aware that Chinese have long considered scholastic aptitude as important. But how long is long? The answer: 1.4 millennia. The imperial examination system, or Ke-Ju, began in 605 AD and while the system had evolved over time, the gist of it was this: students participated in locals exams and the “winners” moved up to the county, then provincial levels etc, until the students who’d won all previous exams sat for the final one in the capital palace, at times proctored by the Emperor, where the grand winners would be decided. The Ke-Ju system was essential in shaping Chinese’s attitude towards academic achievements, because the final top 3 winners, regardless of birth, would be hired by the Imperial Court (+ in some cases, get to marry a princess!).

Ancient Chinese studied and studied and studied for that reason; Ke-Ju was one of the very few social ladders available to commoners, who mostly lived in poverty. The Chinese folklore-scape has therefore been filled with “inspirational” stories about how people overcame exceptionally challenging studying conditions (like this one) to become successful in some way.

How, exactly, does Ke-Ju shape the traditional Chinese view towards studying and education?

1) Historically, Chinese views studying as a means to a better life. The pursuit of knowledge was secondary. The modern analogy to studying hard in ancient China is working three part-time jobs to pay the mortgage for a house, and there is, in fact, a famous Chinese idiom that reflects this: 書中自有黃金屋 (“In the books, there is a golden house”). According to the poem (勸學詩) where the idiom came from (written by an Emperor, by the way: 宋真宗, ~ 1000 BCE), other things found in books included high wages paid in food, beauties, chariots and horses. All practical stuff.

2) Because of 1), getting high scores, or “winning” the exams, was seen as the paramount goal of studying. Far less emphasis was put on understanding the exam material. The teachers of ancient Chinese schools (私塾) were known for doing little explaining; instead, they made recite passages and expected them to figure out the meanings by themselves later. The attitude that scores are everything was further fuelled by the fact that the Emperor had the final say on the result of Ke-Ju — the Emperor who’d most probably claimed the throne by genetics and was not always the most intelligent or knowledgable. While the ability to formulate well-researched and well-reasoned answers helped tremendously, the most important skill for the final Ke-Ju winner was, therefore, the ability to guess what the Emperor wanted to hear, and sometimes, what they wanted to see (there were instances where the Emperor swapped the rankings because they found the original victor too ugly).

ie. The most important skill was to know the Emperor’s Answer, and to be able to frame it as the winner’s own perspective even if the winner didn’t, in reality, believe in a single word of it.

3) The tradition of having an “Emperor’s Answer” means its modern equivalent, having an “one and only” model answer, have remained the norm in education systems in many Chinese-speaking communities. Many educators have asked for reforms, argued that model answers discourage independent thinking and creativity, but teachers have also been trained on model answers and they’re often unsure of their own opinions, and at times, fearful that they’ll pass on a “wrong” perspective to their students. The latter is especially true in places under authoritarian rule, where school lessons must follow closely the regime’s propaganda (which can be vastly different from year to year).

You may wonder then: but certainly, the students would revolt. How could children learn in such a stifling environment for so long?

This is where Confucius (孔丘, 551-478 BC) comes in. The education system is only a slice of a culture where authority is not to be questioned, where silence is seen as a virtue even among the youngest of children.

Many may know Confucius to be a philosopher, but he was also a political advisor and not a very popular one. I’ve half-jokingly summed up his slogan as “Make China Great Again”, as he lamented his era for having lost the social etiquette and order of several centuries before, and he was set on bringing them back. He researched on rites and rituals that were already old for his time, postulating that every detail of how people behaved around each other would affect social harmony. Social order, he believed, could be achieved by people respecting and obeying their elders, not only in their thoughts but also in their day-to-day behaviour, which was to be bound with a set of intricate rules that dictated their word choices, actions and even postures according to the situation and kinship between the interacting individuals (a fun video here showing a Confucian rite, including the sheer variety of Confucian bows). The elders would, in return, take care of those with less authority than they had, share with them their wisdom.

Confucius also believed that harmony of the world could be achieved by self-discipline from the base level of the society to the top. In this “discipline pyramid”, individuals sat at the bottom. The discipline of families came above it, in which elder generations of each family reined in the rebellious younger ones, made each family a true unit where its members were unified in thoughts and actions. The nation (government) then exerted its authority on families and cured their conflicts — to drive this point home, the term 父母官 has remained in use in China today, which likens the government officials (官) to parents (父母) and constituents to children who should listen to their parents (imagine someone likening Boris Johnson, or Donald Trump, as your father). Finally, the world, with the Emperor as its ruler, smothers the insurgences among nations to achieve the ultimate order and harmony. (修身、齊家、治國、平天下).

Confucius did put a big asterisk in his theory. For this “discipline pyramid” to work, the asterisk said, the Emperor who’d establish the final world order must be a good one. The problem was: most Emperors thought they were pretty good. Confucius’ philosophy appealed to them because the Emperor sat at the pinnacle of this power structure, and as each level ruled over the one below, the lowest level — the individual commoners — had so many constraints piled on them that their individuality was stripped. This made governing much easier.

And so, while Confucius’ political theories were not particularly popular during his lifetime, Confucianism became the official school of philosophy for Chinese imperial courts after ~100 BC. China’s immense power in the ancient world meant Confucianism also became the prominent school of philosophy in its sphere of influence, which included, among others, the modern nations of Japan, S. Korea and Vietnam, all of which also held their own versions of Ke-Ju.

(Hence, this post would very likely remain valid if Cho Chang was Korean.)

In addition to locating talents among commoners, the Ke-Ju system further cemented Confucianism as the “proper” school of thought because it required the students to learn Confucian texts. These students, who would also become disseminators of knowledge outside the Imperial Court, would bring Confucianism to the commoners who’d practise it as well, as a display of cultured upbringing, in the hopes that their descendants would one day know it well enough to enter the Imperial Court. The discipline pyramid soon infiltrated every aspect of Chinese culture, and Confucianism became Imperial China’s tool for reinforcing social hierarchy and a social stabilizer. It remained revered in all levels of the Chinese society until, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), the Red Guards, with the blessings of Mao Ze-Dong, made an all out-attack on Confucian values and while remnants of them have survived in China’s social fabric, they’re largely in tatters (As a result, the best places to observe the legacy of Confucianism nowadays are in Japan, S. Korea and Taiwan.)

Back to the “Asian smart”. “Asian smart” was an impression built from students who were (children of) recent immigrants from Confucianism-influenced communities. Students who’d been educated in the tradition of those who’d sat in the ancient schools, their backs ramrod straight and spoken only when called, their mouths opening only to satisfy the teachers’ requests because teachers were the authority in the classroom and never to be questioned. Students who’d expected an Emperor’s Answer to every exam question, the answer that was, always, the final word. Students who’d studied hard because golden houses could be found in the books.

This “Asian smart” is as different as can be from “Ravenclaw smart”. Asian smart is quiet and unquestioning, while Ravenclaw smart challenges and argues. Asian smart views knowledge as a servant of society, while Ravenclaw smart sees knowledge, and the pursuit thereof, as lording over social expectations. Asian smart is about reinforcing social order while Ravenclaw smart is about breaking the mould. Asian smart has groomed the establishment for over a thousand years while Ravenclaw smart has nurtured eccentrics.

Of note, this disparity between the two “smarts” doesn’t mean one is superior to another. Our current pandemic has made a case for Confucian collectivism; individuals in E. Asian countries have shown themselves to be more willing to sacrifice personal freedoms and aesthetics for the sake of their communities, more comfortable at obeying new rules despite the questions of their need have yet be answered satisfactorily by science, and the benefits of these attitudes have been reflected in the case and death counts. The pandemic has also reminded us of the importance of knowledge that serves society (for example, epidemiological research, vaccine development, contact tracing), even if it’s not always the most exciting. Healthcare is a discipline that requires a “no ifs and buts, no matter how well-reasoned” attitude towards certain rules (how to put on and remove PPEs, for example).

Anyway, I digressed! The conclusion I have, after so many words, is this: Cho Chang being assigned Ravenclaw isn’t racist stereotyping, as some have alleged. I can appreciate where the allegation comes from. The common association with intelligence aside, many sorting tests have also tied academic achievements to Ravenclaw, even though Ravenclaws were never described as book smart in the series. But the allegation doesn’t hold up well after an investigation into the way Ravenclaw House was written, and the kind of smartness Cho Chang was expected to have if it was, indeed, race-based.

It doesn’t mean, I’d like to note, that some Asians aren’t being unfairly judged because parts of our society still hold the false impression that our racial group are somehow born to excel in academics or any work where maths are involved. I understand—I truly do—the frustrations of having one’s accomplishments belittled, attributed to a quirk in the DNA that doesn’t exist. I’ve, too, had to certify that my Mom is 100% human, free of the tiger too many times.

But the HP books cannot be blamed for that, and the longer the blame is placed on something that doesn’t deserve it, the longer the focus, and effort is shifted away from the actual problem and its potential solutions. The time and words spent on such “call-outs” can be better spent, I believe, by explaining how the misconception of “smart Asians” can affect real people like you and me.

And like Cho Chang, perhaps, if we love to think about the HP world. If her classmates wondered why she wasn’t the top of her class for her year, why she wasn’t famously book-smart like Hermione Granger to win them some house points. Why did she sign up for Quidditch? Why would any Asian, never mind a tiny, fragile E. Asian girl like her, even think about touching sports? Shouldn’t she be studying? Learning advanced arithmancy even though their OWLS were still a year away?

And Cho would come back to the common room hours later, flushed with sweat and smiling, and announced that she’d made seeker.

#pie metas #cho chang #ravenclaw

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theonyxpath · 4 years

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Here we are in almost the last week of the Deluxe M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter, and like all KSs, we’re at that time where pledges start to slow. So we’re thinking about this KS, and our previous ones, and the roster that’s coming up.

What works, what doesn’t, and what just makes us wonder. Like, should we continue to portion out sections of the complete text during the KS, so at the end backers have pretty much the text as it’s going to be before being formatted during layout. (Which makes it a lot easier to read in most cases!)

We like that model, as it shows prospective backers just what they’re getting so situations where folks expected one set of information but got something else don’t occur any longer. And it shows that the text being finished won’t be a factor in the final project delivery to KS backers.

Those are two pretty good things, in our estimation!

But, does that kill the fun for folks? Like, is there value in being, well, surprised by your new book when it arrives? So far, we’ve been betting that the surety of information is more important to more backers than those who might miss a surprise, but we could be wrong.

Similarly, if we say this is the text and if you don’t like it then you can drop your pledge before we finish, we see that as a valuable option for backers. We want folks who back to enjoy the Kickstarter and the material we’re releasing. We hope they enjoy the chance to help create one of these books by backing, or going further and taking one of those fancy, upper-tier rewards that let them add characters or be part of the art.

Lunars art by Gunship Revolution

Yet, we can only hope we’re pleasing folks as it is often hard to tell if our methods are not delivering our intention since the vast majority of backers don’t interact with KSs Comments section. Whether because of a general, well-earned, fear of Comments sections throughout the internet, or of KS Comments specifically, my impression from talking to backers is that they don’t need the stress.

Who can blame them? It’s why I always try and suggest other ways for folks to communicate with us – even here, I’ll suggest adding to the Comments for this blog, but whenever I do I also get direct emails. And they usually start off with a variant of: “Hope you don’t mind my contacting you this way, but I didn’t want to get involved with any drama in the Comments.”

Like I said, we tend to think a lot about how we do things, and particularly Kickstarters since they are one of our most public display of our processes.

In some states, public display of your processes can get you arrested!

To get back to the M20 Technocracy Reloaded KS, here’s some links to fun and informative programming that will be reposted in the Onyx Path Media section below:

Tune in to hear words of wisdom from the Technocratic Union live on Twitch, Tuesday, May 19th at 9 PM EDT on the Onyx Path Publishing Twitch Channel. twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Plus, Red Moon Roleplaying continue their actual play of Technocracy Reloaded right here: https://youtu.be/RtdW0znt7GU Please give them your support!

And also, Travis Legge’s M20 Technocracy Reloaded actual play, featuring a stellar cast including the one and only Satyr Phil Brucato: https://youtu.be/ALnD1nwuTis

TC: Aeon Jumpstart art by Aaron Riley

Our Next Kickstarter:

Of course, as we’ve been thinking about Kickstarters, we’ve been thinking about the best time to bring back the Legendlore Kickstarter. This was the KS we cancelled as we launched it right before the Covid-19 lock-downs, and we just didn’t think it could get the sort of attention it deserved.

But as we have considered the situation now, it seems like our lines of communication are, if not perfect, working far more closely to expectations. I’m getting regular notices from backers of our previous KSs again, for example.

So, without further ado, and not wanting to sit to long on Legendlore, we are going to Kickstart it next after M20 Technocracy Reloaded!

Expect most of our approach to be similar, but knowing that we already have a wonderful group of backers from the first go, we’ll be aiming at putting the KS together in a way that doesn’t just make them go through the same things again, and that appeals to folks who didn’t back the first time.

More on that as we have some actual examples!

Lunars art by Yiyhoung Li

Things We’re Doing To Try and Help During All This

On Wednesday, we’re opening up Dystopia Rising: Evolution Community Content on the Storypath Nexus. This is a chance for anyone to work with the templates and art packs we provide to create new projects for DR:E. As a creator, it’s a way to both publish your ideas, and to get a little extra cash during these difficult times.

That’s pretty much our feelings for any Community Content site right now. Plus, for players, the projects posted on these sites are PDFs that usually aren’t that big or expensive, and they very often are focused on useful additions to our official stuff. Adventures, deep dives into specific topics we’re not really set up to put together – just great ideas to add to your playing enjoyment.

Just wanted to chime in here to remind folks that we released Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2 on DTRPG last week, and besides the big book itself in PDF and PoD versions, we released each chapter as an individual PDF. If you’re into a particular line and/or historical period, but can’t indulge in buying the full book, these individual chapters are a lot easier on the budget with the job situation being what it is.

Also on DTRPG right now is the Shelter in Play Bundle containing about $180 worth of PDFs, including the Vinsen’s Tomb Jumpstart for Pugmire and A Light Extinguished, the Jumpstart for Scion 2e, plus a ton of other delightful games for playing while we’re all stuck in together – all for $10, and the proceeds go to two worthy charities! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/312564/Shelter-In-Play-BUNDLE

Our friends at IPR, Indie Press Revolution, are running sales of our books over on their site (link below in the sales partners area) and are planning to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. If you’re looking for our traditionally printed hardcover books and screens, Deluxe and otherwise, now’s a great chance!

We made the decision last week that we wouldn’t be attending gaming conventions until we feel like our folks would be safe from Covid-19 if they attended. Considering that “con crud” is a thing that we expect to get after major conventions during a normal period, we just can’t send our people into a convention right now. Unfortunately, that includes our industry biggie Gen Con, which still has not announced whether it is postponed or cancelled. Regardless of their decision, ours is: we’re not going.

Finally, speaking of conventions: Thanks for the support and interest in an online Onyx Path Convention I received in the blog Comments and elsewhere all last week. It was heartening, and a little scary, how many of you would enjoy virtually playing our games and meeting with us. Actually, all kidding aside, it was great to hear!

No news yet, but you gave us even more to think about. In this case, expect that we’ll be acting pretty quickly on running something like a virtual convention. We want to commit, if we’re going to, before the enormity of it has a chance to sink in!

So, thanks to your feedback, we’re a few steps closer to arranging a virtual venue where we can talk about and play in our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter funded in 43 minutes and at with just over a week to go has passed 1800 backer operatives, is over 400% funded, and has achieved Stretch Goals consisting of a Storytellers Screen unlock, an unlock of more original Mage PDFs, Backers’ Exclusive T-Shirt, Wallpaper, and building the Technocracy Reloaded Player’s Companion PDF: sections on Constructs and Symposiums (and then expanded by a later SG), Digital Web 3.0, Technomancers’ Toybox 20 and the Q-Division bonus section, Unlikely Allies 1, 2, & 3, Mission Statement short scenarios, and the expanded Digital Web 3.0.2. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/m20-technocracy-reloaded

Highlights of M20 Technocracy Reloaded include:

An Operative’s Handbook that provides a detailed overview of life in the Technocratic Union, describing the organization of the Union, the Conventions, and the roles that sympathizers, extraordinary citizens, and Enlightened Operatives play in the overall structure of the Technocracy.

An examination of Technocratic initiatives on a global scale.

Devices, procedures, and hypertech used by the Technocratic Union that explores the Enlightened Science, allowing operatives to apply similar effects in the field, if they have sufficient understanding of the principles that allow these gadgets to function.

A comprehensive list of citizens, cyborgs, operatives, progenitor creations, and allies to use as NPCs.

Storyteller support that explores story seeds and metaplot to shape a chronicle for their needs.

Next Kickstarter: We return to The Realm of Legendlore!

Onyx Path Media!

This week Impish Ian Watson returns to delve into the Trinity Continuum, specifically the recently announced Trinity Continuum: Anima, VtM Bloodlines, and the happy wonders of managing Onyx Path social media with the Terrific Trio!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Tune in to hear words of wisdom from the Technocratic Union live on Twitch, Tuesday, May 19th at 9 PM EDT on the Onyx Path Publishing Twitch Channel. twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Join the Consensus and watch the stream.

Plus, Red Moon Roleplaying continue their actual play of Technocracy Reloaded right here: https://youtu.be/RtdW0znt7GU Please give them your support!

Come tune in to our Twitch channel for a schedule including:

Vampire: The Masquerade – Blood on the Tamesis

Vampire: The Masquerade – Chicago by Night Noir

Pugmire – Paws & Claws

Storytellers with Coffee

Scarred Lands: Chronicles of Calastia

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds

Dark Eras Werewolf: The Forsaken

Chronicles of Darkness – Tooth & Claw

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Good heavens, that’s a lot of games for you to watch!

You can subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath to catch up with any episodes you missed!

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale: https://youtu.be/fx_UEKY6moE

Scarred Lands: Purge of the Serpentholds: https://youtu.be/9YC0qb29vjk

Mage: The Ascension – Technocracy Reloaded: https://youtu.be/ALnD1nwuTis

Hunter: The Vigil – Hometown Heroes: https://youtu.be/LJs8Q6KVu1o

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion: https://youtu.be/SXYLA9rCjKk

Vampire: The Masquerade – Blood City Chicago by Night: https://youtu.be/NmDv9Sq_wKA

Chronicles of Darkness – Seattle by Streetlight: https://youtu.be/6CwozhRpUNo

Do subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Did you miss 307 RPG interviewing Matthew Dawkins regarding everything from They Came from Beneath the Sea! and They Came from Beyond the Grave! to upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade books? Give them a listen here: https://307rpg.com/?p=265

Further to that interview, the 307 RPG Podcast released an episode all to do with the Archetypes in They Came from Beneath the Sea!: https://307rpg.com/?p=282

That’s not all! Vorpal Tales commence an actual play of They Came from Beneath the Sea! tonight over on their Twitch channel! Find them here: https://twitch.tv/vorpaltales

Utility Muffin Labs, home of the 25 Years of Vampire: The Masquerade podcast, have released a glowing review of The Chicago Folios right here: https://utilitymuffinlabs.com/25-years-of-vampire-the-masquerade?author=51a88e2ee4b035d1810e13fe

Occultists Anonymous are here with a new special Mage: The Awakening series:

RV Mage 07: Reversion With Orphean mages no longer on the field of battle, the Pentacle mages work to undo the warping of the Gauntlet. The werewolves threatening the Supernal Being is going to make negotiations a little difficult. https://youtu.be/iUZKuh0G5sI

RV Mage 08: Excursion Following the Supernal shenanigans in downtown Richmond, Vicar, Drifter, and Amanita begin the search for further Orphean agents. An attempt to restore relationships with the werewolves goes as well as you might expect… https://youtu.be/YUcXnQwB-vM

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This week, the PDF and PoD versions of Oak, Ash, and Thorn the Changeling: The Lost 2e Companion bolts from the freakish Hedge on DriveThruRPG on Wednesday!

Oak, Ash, and Thorn as a companion book to Changeling: The Lost Second Edition, expands on what’s in the core book. It contains:

Expanded rules for freeholds and a selection of seeds for sample freeholds in four international locations.

Rules for creating new court Bargains and an introduction to non-traditional Mantles, including free companies, traveling bands, and Lost dynasties, with a playable example of each.

Entitlements, the titles of nobility that changelings assume to inherit mystical legacies from the Lost who came before them, including three full examples with accompanying tokens and Merits.

Expanded rules for tokens, including two new types with examples, guidelines for creating your own, and a system for ripping out one’s heart to become unkillable.

Also on Wednesday, we open the Dystopia Rising: Evolution Community Content section of the Storypath Nexus! Expect template and art packs you can use to create your own supplements to the DR:E tabletop RPG (and even get a royalty for your work!) Check it out for community-created supplements to further expand your fun with DR:E!

Conventions!

Though dates are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s our current list of upcoming conventions:

UKGames Expo: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/

Tabletop Scotland: https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

Gamehole Con: https://www.gameholecon.com/

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

V5 The Faithful Undead (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Manuscript Approval

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Post-Approval Development

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy

Tales of Aquatic Terror

WoD Ghost Hunters – KS final art: One more piece coming in.

Aberrant – Contacting and contracting. Signing off on sketches.

Pugmire Adventure – All sketches in.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Dividing up among current artists.

Legendlore – Back to KS prep.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS) – Happening.

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon – Waiting on art notes.

Masks of the Mythos – Waiting on art notes.

Scion: Demigod – Waiting on art notes.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Sent out notes for fulls and splats for KS.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Over to Josh.

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Working on it.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Getting charts from dev.

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – New artist taking care of finishing missing art.

Pirates of Pugmire – Errata input.

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Inputting backer errata.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Gathering Backer PDF errata.

Scion Companion – Just waiting for two tweaked pieces, expected today.

Contagion Chronicle – Corrections going over to Josh.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Duke Rollo Book – Finishing gathering backer errata.

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

At Press

Night Horrors : Nameless and Accursed – PoD proof on the way.

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Community Content site – Opening on the Storypath Nexus this Weds!

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet

They Came from Beneath the Sea!

C:tL 2e Oak, Ash, & Thorn – PDF and PoD versions on sale at DTRPG this Weds!

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Please welcome Aaron Voss to Onyx Path! Aaron is old White Wolf and was my print buyer in the years before the merger with CCP, and has expertise in every stage of the game book creation process, and is specifically going to oversee getting our projects printed and shipped (and help Mirthful Mike Chaney out where he is needed).

#Onyx Path Publishing

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sunnydwrites · 7 years

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Writing Injuries

[ What a fitting topic, seeing as I’ve been inactive for almost a month now due to my own injury. ] Hey everyone, it’s Abby with a writing advice post! This week we’re talking about injuries, and we’re going a little in-depth.

So let’s get one thing down, real quick: Being injured sucks. But this guide isn’t anything close to comprehensive, and it’s definitely not the only thing you should be relying on for this topic. This is meant to help you get started and build a general base on injuries, treatments, effects, etc.

In this guide, we will not be talking about an injury’s effects on mental health; that topic on its own is extensive enough to be covered in a post of its own (which may very well happen eventually).

Actually Getting Hurt

This is arguably the hardest part to write. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly which event would realistically create the “desired” injury here, but there are general things to go by and things to pay attention to here. If you want to go more in-depth, I would highly recommend @scriptmedic‘s blog; injuries are kind of their thing.

Pay attention to anatomy.

Some things don’t have nearly as big of an effect as you’d think they would, and others are the complete opposite. Your anatomy knowledge will come in handy here; know the most easily injured parts of the body and how to avoid those injuries, and write them in. Some examples of this include (taken from real life experience):

I slammed my finger in a car door not too long ago (just above the first knuckle). I couldn’t use that finger for a day or two but there was serious bruising in that one knuckles; my nail eventually fell off and that’s about it.

Practicing a bit too roughly before my martial arts test is what got me inactive for so long. We’re still not sure what happened; we’re thinking it may have been a pinched nerve or a strained tendon.

But why are these effects so weird? They should be flipped, right? Slamming your finger in a car door should be a little more serious than practicing a little too hard, right? Wrong.

Now, I don’t know too much about anatomy in general. But just a glance above and you can pretty easily see there’s a lot going on there. That’s a lot of stuff you can pretty easily mess up, especially when it comes to tendons, nerves, and weaker muscles. With my finger, the injury was more of a contusion, where the bruise was just incredibly deep (albeit incredibly painful, but not hard to source).

So what was the point of this little section? It’s just a reminder that everything in your body is connected. When you’re writing your injuries, give the anatomy of you character a quick check and see what else might be affected, then plan accordingly.

Deciding on the Cause

This is directly related to the thing above; once you’ve determined what needs to be affected, it’ll be a little easier to figure out the big cause. It’s simpler to work backwards this way because once you know what needs to be injured, a quick bit of research should do the job for you. “Injuries that affect xx and xx” might even suffice, but I would highly recommend checking out a few different websites. This will do two things for you:

Fact-check - Because the last thing you want is an unrealistic injury, if you’re putting in the effort to research it.

Broaden the possibilities - One website might list three of the most common causes for wrist pain; another might give you fifteen.

Just to be sure, I would check with two or three different websites. If you’re still unsure, remember @scriptmedic referenced above.

If you want some ideas just to get you going, here are a few I made up off the top of my head:

Getting into a fistfight

Big fall

Sliced with a sharp object of some sort

Breaking or spraining something

Aggravating a previous injury

Any sort of bullet or stab wound

I mean, the possibilities are literally endless here. These are just a handful I came up with on the fly, but it just goes to show that pretty much anything could be plausible so long as it fits within the boundaries of your world.

The Injury’s Effects

Side effects are the things you’re going to want to pay attention to; that’s what your character is going to have to live with for the longest time while they heal. I’m going to split this into three categories: Making Sense, Short-Term Effects, and Long-Term Effects. Here we go!

Making Sense

This one could probably start off pretty obvious; naturally breaking your leg isn’t going to hurt your wrist unless you somehow injured your wrist in the process. The effects of each injury should relate to the injury somehow; if they don’t, I hope you’re creating a hidden wound for later.

Another thing you’ll want to keep in mind here is the idea that this is all relative. A bee sting will be a bit of a painful jolt to someone who’s never been stung, where someone who’s been stung a thousand times before will chalk it up to an annoyance. Someone who happens to be allergic to bees, however, will react in a completely different way.

What you’ll want to keep in mind here is your character. Is there anything they’re allergic to, maybe? Are they especially sensitive to anything? Do they have any pre-existing conditions? (Hint: that last one is definitely something you should be paying attention to.)

Short-Term Effects

Doing the research for this one, most of the results that came up were for brain injuries like concussions and such. This makes sense, seeing as injuries to the head tend to be pretty severe. But these short terms effects could easily be very dramatic, especially if you’re writing from the perspective of the person. A few of these can include:

Nausea

“Blinding” pain

Possible (temporary) numbness in the affected area

Shock

Inability to use the affected area

These are some quick things I thought of that will both add accuracy and a bit more “drama” to the story. (Either myself or a close family member has experienced each of these things.)

Short-term effects should fade after time, but it depends on the severity of the injury. For example, bruising could fall into pretty much any category; it can go wherever based on the injury. Short-term effects (in non-severe injuries) can usually be described as sharp and uncomfortable, where are long-term is usually more of a distant pain as the body heals itself.

Long-Term Effects

These are the ones you need to be paying attention to in your writing. They need to work themselves into your character’s life one way or another. Like literally every other part of writing an injury, this needs to be heavily researched. The long-term effects are going to be what will determine your character’s abilities for days, weeks, months, years, etc.

This one is going to take a lot of research, and I mean a lot. There are a lot of causes for different effects and these need to be kept track of. Having too many injures can lead to so many long-term effects that your character wouldn’t be able to function. A few examples of long-term effects could be:

Memory loss or a case of amnesia (for head injuries)

A constant, dull ache in the injured area

Not quite regaining full range of motion

Need of a support such as a crutch or cast

Inability to perform basic tasks (usually for more severe injuries)

Again, these are just a few examples; none of these go strictly with one injury, and one injury could create more than one of these effects. So I’m going to stress it again: do your research and keep track of everything.

For this one, because I have the experience to do so, I’m going to give a quick real-life example of long-term effects:

About five years ago, I was crawling around in the snow looking for something and ended up smashing my knee - hard - on a rock. For the rest of that day it hurt to move it, and that feeling continued for about a week. There was a slightly visible bruise there, but we went to the doctor’s anyway to get an MRI. When started off as a contusion quickly became something they described to me as “water on the knee”, but eventually that faded. But, like in the wrist, there are a lot of things in your knee that can be screwed up like that. So to this day it hurts to do too many impact exercises (like running or martial arts, both of which I do regularly) without a brace, and on the days I don’t wear I brace I have to be extra careful or I’ll be feeling it for the next week.

Moral of the story? Look at how long-term effects play into your story, how they can develop from a small bruise to a contusion to something different entirely and how that follows your character. (Also, don’t smash your knee on a rock. Just don’t.)

The Healing Process

Hey, things are starting to get better for your character! Yay! We’re into the healing process now, looking at different ways healing can be done and things to watch out for.

Different Healing Processes

There are many processes we know about, but this isn’t meant to be a comprehensive guide. We’re going to look at the two most common healing processes here: natural and surgical. This part won’t entail magic (but that’s totally cool if you want to include that).

Healing Naturally

As would be expected, healing naturally takes the longest time. If the healing process here is completely natural, there’s no medication whatsoever (with maybe the exception of a few painkillers). This is going to require your character is take it easy, and I mean really easy; any sort of vigorous exercise could lead to the aggravation of their injury, and then we’re right back to square one.

In this stage, your character should be focusing on healing and staying healthy; this option would presumably be the hardest for your daredevil or prideful characters.

Surgical Procedures

This one involves a lot more help from other people. Of course it wouldn’t be a magical cure to the injury, but having someone much more qualified might speed up the process a bit, don’t you think? This would involve a much more controlled environment and would follow a pretty linear schedule; hospitals usually keep their patients until the injury is more manageable and send them off with a list of things to be careful of (at least, that’s what happened for me).

Using this method might present a challenge for characters who find people hard to trust or hate any of the tools that would be used in the procedure with a passion, that kind of thing.

Facts & Common Misconceptions

In this section (also the last section) I’m going to cover a few common misconceptions that come with injuries and their healing, then give a few facts to pay attention to. (source)

“FACT: R.I.C.E. spells initial relief. While both acute and chronic injuries should be attended to by a qualified physician, using the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) method for milder injuries like strains and sprains within the first 48 hours after injury occurs will help to initially relieve pain, reduce swelling and promote the healing process.”

“MYTH: “Rest is always best.” This is not entirely true. While rest may initially reduce inflammation and pain, it will not treat the root cause of a soft tissue injury (i.e., muscle, ligament and tendon sprains, strains and tears). It is important to seek a proper diagnosis and treatment plan beyond the initial rest period to treat soft tissue damage. Rest alone is not enough to heal and strengthen the affected area.”

“FACT: [Sports] Injuries are either acute or chronic. Acute injuries occur suddenly, like when you twist your ankle during a game. These types of injuries include sprains, strains, breaks and fractures and are characterized by severe pain and tenderness, swelling, limited motion, out-of-place bones and inability to put pressure or weight on the area. Chronic injuries occur after longer workout sessions or sports-related activities, and are characterized by pain during the activity and dull pain or mild swelling afterward.”

“MYTH: “Pop a painkiller.” We all admire the elite athlete who takes a shot before the big game and plays through the pain. While this may seem admirable, even a world class pro will tell you that it’s not the long-term situation. If you take a couple of Advil or the like before your next workout or game, guess what? The pain may subside, but it will return, and then it may be even worse. If you experience pain, listen to your body’s alarm systems and seek professional medical advice.”

“FACT: Never play through the pain. Never. This is a sure way to aggravate any injury. If you feel pain during a workout or a game, stop and seek treatment. Acute injuries should be attended to by a physician immediately. Less severe injuries—like mild sprains—may be treatable at home, but you should still consult a doctor before beginning any type of treatment.”

“MYTH: “Stretch away those injuries.” Not so fast. While stretching is an important component of any workout or pregame warm up, it is not a shield against injury. In fact, stretching an injured muscle or other affected area may cause further damage. Keeping your body strong, balanced and in shape through proper training is key to overall injury avoidance.”

“FACT: Don’t play doctor. If you are injured during a workout or sports-related activity, don’t try to treat it yourself. Yes, initial treatment measures you can take at home—like RICE—may mitigate the pain and reduce the potential for further injury, but they are not a replacement for sound, effective medical treatment unless indicated by a doctor.”

References

Wrist Anatomy Image (p.s. This website is really great if you’re looking for diagrams like the one above!)

@scriptmedic - Aunt Scripty is incredibly helpful and gives a lot of useful information, then usually continues with alternate suggestions if any are needed (or if enough information is needed). Check out their Before You Ask first.

Common Misconceptions - This page applies mostly to sports injuries, but is accurate to more than just those. Everything is quotes came directly from that page.

Please let me know if any of this information is inaccurate! Until next time, stay lovely <3

#writing tips #injuries #writing injuries

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consilium-games · 7 years

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The Queen Smiles: let me tell you a story

In the eleventh hour of the eleventh month (or, near enough to it), I've managed just barely to publish my second title this year. And to start us off, I'll plug it here, in all its darkly gleaming glory: The Queen Smiles, a cosmic noir horror fairytale game. If you like Cthulhu and Azathoth, Philip Marlowe, or the Grimm brothers and Celtic lore, you'll find something to love here. If you like none of those things, you might at least enjoy this post.

The Queen Smiles grew out of a lot of things. If you like to analyze art (like RPG rulebooks) without having statements from the author to influence you, save this post for much, much later, after digesting the book and even playing it a bit. After all, that would perfectly fit the spirit of the game: making one's own interpretation and meaning out of something ambiguous and hard to explain.

However, if you like seeing the foundations things sit atop, or wonder more generally where ideas come from, read on. I won't get especially personal here, but topics will get political--and the personal is political. That also fits the spirit of the game.

Lots have noted that 2016 . . . did not exactly treat many people kindly. Not even the Republican Party of the USA (in which I live)--no, not even winning the election served them well. In full disclosure, my own biases are unabashedly liberal, progressive, left-wing and socialist, but it never failed to impress me that everyone stands to lose under a delusional, incoherent populist and crony not only of the dystopic cyberpunk corporate fiefs we've gotten accustomed to, but outright foreign nations. Times have gotten no less dark than strange.

Initially, most of the imagery and psychological space of The Queen Smiles came from the isolation of my current job. Without many details, know that it involves very nearly all my waking hours during the working week, in a place very remote from where I actually live, and without a lot of time to just get to know anyone else--a lot of time to spend in one's head when not beleagured with the actual job. So, the mind tends to wander:

What if the GPS box that keeps me from getting lost between home and work and back suddenly . . . got spooked? What if the increasing absurdity of our world really went off the rails? What if the ominous politics we now have turned . . . really weird? That, and doodling with a new mechanic snapped it all into focus, as I read about Celtic folklore at work in between actual work. And thus, the Queen took shape.

America has no real experience with confronting an outside hegemon: America has instead always done the hegemony. During World War II, Germany posed a threat--to allies, very far away (if you forget about Americans vocally and publicly sympathetic to Germany--America nearly joined the Axis, lest we forget). During the Cold War, fears of Russian spies infecting good honest Americans with Communism never materialized into anything but witch-hunts and opportunities for personal vendetta--the movie Red Dawn never became a documentary. And even today with the 'war' on terror, America defends against a tiny number of disorganized plots and spree-killings with fleets of unmanned aerial weapons platforms. These attacks on America shock the conscience and have no excuse or justification . . . but the gulf of disparity between "what America defends itself against" and "its actual defense" simply boggles comprehension.

So America has no conception, no framework for understanding, of the seven-league-shoe strapping onto the other foot. Of an outside force having more power, of an invader taking over, of falling to an occupier. The Queen Smiles, at least in part, tries to get at this: what is it like to lose not just a war, but your entire world? And, much closer to our world: what is it like to watch the things that make your world sane simply erode, under the influence of madness you can barely describe?

'The Queen' of the eponymous book is not intended as a stand-in for our current elected official, however. Or, not quite: that new mechanic I mentioned exists solely to define the Queen and Her values, through play, by prompting the players to associate unrelated outcomes to the Queen's favor--'The Queen Smiling', on different outcomes of the dice. In short, it's a way of creating a time-lapse inkblot and projecting it, a bit at a time, onto the towering figure of otherworldly power and caprice of the Queen.

But, for that reason, The Queen does serve in another way as a proxy for this administration: it 'is' whatever the players want it to be. However, the 'conventional' way to do that consists of coded language and subtle innuendo, interlaced with vague sentiment-laden surface rhetoric, giving the listener an excuse to read a sympathetic interpretation into anything--if the listener has such a motivation. In The Queen Smiles, the process works in reverse: players have their characters take action, and roll dice for it; every dice-roll then singles out one element of the current scene and its action, and says unequivocally, "the Queen Smiles on this". And then it falls to the players to infer what that inarguable fact means in any larger context.

The Queen can Smile on your success, or failure. On your setbacks and suffering, or on your safety. On your wavering and stumbling through a confused and confusing ordeal, or on your swift and direct progress to a clear and compelling goal. Which events, and which facts of these events She Smiles on will give you the means to conjecture what She actually values, what She wants, and most specifically, what She wants with you. The Queen doesn't craft a platform or message to appeal--instead, She shows in hints and tells what She truly favors, and leaves it up to you to figure it out.

The Queen Smiles plays into modern times in another way, however. Namely, this outside force invading our reality might benefit us--or, some of us. Our society rests on foundational and institutional unfairness, the kind we probably will never fully uproot--if only because our most influential citizens don't want to. Toppling these unjust and corrupt pillars would hinder those who have benefitted from them most--and so, these same pillars become enshrined as right and good and moral and identified as the core of a nation's and people's identity.

Which also means that for those most harmed by systematic, pervasive injustice, knocking it all down poses a tempting proposition. If the Queen will cast down the mighty and crush our world as we know it--might She not also lift up the lowly and establish a world better for the oppressed? The game explores this idea--but, it's a horror game . . .

Which means that in The Queen Smiles, the Queen does not offer a fair deal in any event. Instead, She offers, at best, a chance to side with the oppressors in a new regime, which stands poised to crush the old regime in splendor or wonder or horror, but crush it utterly and without remorse. For me, the real horror lies in the fact that this still could make a very compelling offer. That peaceful, humane reform could be so remote and unlikely and at-best-partial that having an eldritch horror from beyond our puny understanding step in and sweep it all aside seems--pragmatically--like a better bargain.

Of course, the underpinnings of source material that go into a work don't ever fully define it--or else I'd not have made The Queen Smiles with so much influence from Lovecraft. Just as this work doesn't cower in a racist panic over the horrors of "people of different ethnicities having children", it likewise doesn't wallow in post-truth despair. You can tell a huge array of stories with it, provided they fit with the core, kernel idea of uncanny beings imposing their world on ours. And forthcoming, I intend to play around more with the 'One Red' alteration that The Queen Smiles uses, to project and embellish the Queen, putting the notion to other good work.

So regardless of where you live or what you believe, I hope you'll find more good gaming from consilium games, and at the least, that you'll get something you can use yourself. Happy holidays in general, whatever those might be, and let's all hope the next year goes better.

#the queen smiles #game design #roleplaying games #politics

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symphonicwinds · 7 years

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Sophia Reviews: Persona 5 Confidants

I keep seeing people posting thoughts/opinions of each social link confidant of p5, but I noticed a lot of them were based on not 100% runthroughs, aka they didn’t finish everyone’s social links and don’t 100% understand everyones character arcs. And I guess I wanted to talk about everyone/my experience going through EVERY SINGLE FRICKIN SOCIAL LINK besides caroline and justine’s or else I wouldn’t have a reason to NG+ to full competion.

This discussion only covers the development/characterization of each confident within their own link, and the overall quality of the social link and their benefits to the gameplay. This does not include how I feel about the character as a whole, especially the ones with a significant amount of screenime in the main story. Me not liking a confidant’s link =/= me not liking them as a character.

I should also mention that I flip between the words “social link” and “confidant” a lot. For those of you who haven’t played past Persona games, social link was the word for confidant before Persona 5 decided to get Edgey™ and change the name.

This is the first of a series; because I tend to talk a lot and there are 21 stinkin’ confidants in the whole game, I will be dividing this into parts. This is part one, and it covers Arcanas 0 (the fool) to 4 (the emperor). I will release them as I finish them, with 5 arcanas at a time. Stay tuned for arcanas 5-10, tomorrow!

PSA: BEWARE OF SPOILERS. This is a spoiler-tastic discussion, since this discussion includes late game/end game social links. If you haven’t beat the game yet, please, good lord, please do not read this until you’re done. Don’t do that to yourself.

0. FOOL - IGOR

Igor’s link was probably one of my favourite social links, mainly because of the twist of Not Igor towards the endgame. I know some people dislike auto progressing social links, but I think it worked just because of the twist. I played persona 5 blind (besides using a confidant guide because holy shit there would be no other way I would be able to do that in my first play through otherwise), so I legitimately didn’t pick up on the Fake Igor thing. I also played persona 5 with the Japanese cast because I’m a fucking weeb I’m learning Japanese right now and holy shit I need all of the listening practice I can get. I knew the voice was off but I figured they didn’t want to impeach on the original talent of the previous voice actor, who had died.

Honestly, I still don’t 100% understand the final arc, in the rebirth v staying the same, and I’ll revise this section once I do get a comprehensive understanding of it, but I liked the idea of the Protagonist breaking free from his chains to the point where it’s visually shown in the velvet room. The fact that he only breaks free from the velvet room’s chains by the time the reveal happens was really interesting to me, and the fake igor plot was really intriguing because it completely changes your perception of the game.

As a social link, on the gameplay side, Igor’s is great, but also expected. More personas, extra EXP when fusing personas. You get these as the story progresses, so you can’t miss out on them.

I. MAGICIAN - MORGANA

Again, another story progressing confidant. I do like Morgana as a character, and I especially think that he is much better than Teddie, but I kind of found Morgana’s confidant to be slow moving. Igor’s social link was similar in that regard, but it’s expected to be because the beginning of Igor’s social link is more mechanical/for the sake of the game than actual character development. And the effect of the twist is compounded by that. The highlight of Morgana’s social link was definitely his disappearence, as it helped resolve some character issues along with advancing the plot along. I also didn’t like how everything came together at the very last second; again, this works with Igor because you don’t expect Igor to have growth/his own character, but Morgana does, so the pacing of his social link was kind of rough. Obviously this is because it was tied into end game plot points, but I wish his dreams were more explicit, or that he learned a bit more about himself over time, rather than shoving it at the end.

Morgana’s unique confidant boost is the ability to create infiltration tools, which are really useful in your Palace runs. You will not be able to miss out on getting this, but it is a great individual benefit. He also receives the standard party boosts but he lags behind other party members in this regard because he doesn’t reach rank 10 until the end of the game, making him the last party member to get maxed out. Obviously this isn’t as much of an issue if you didn’t max out all of your party members beforehand, but because of that he was always backup for me, besides during boss fights.

II. THE HIGH PRIESTESS - MAKOTO NIIJIMA

I guess I should start this off by saying that, Makoto is best girl.

Makoto appealed to me, mainly because I related to her the most, out of pretty much the entire cast. I sympathize with her dynamic with Sae, her desire to be “useful”, and her struggle with creating an purpose for herself, rather than doing what other people tell her.

In terms of her social link, I really liked her dynamic and relationship with Eiko, as they were really great foils to each other. Persona 5 is great at having minor NPCs/other characters affect the character growth of their confidants, and Makoto’s link is no exception to this. I really liked how Eiko and Makoto helped each other grow, and watching them bond was sweet, especially since you know that Makoto hasn’t really had any friends prior to joining the Phantom Thieves. I think the biggest thing I enjoyed about Makoto’s link is how subtle it is; she doesn’t have a huge fundamental change as a character, but rather, she gains the resolve to follow her dreams. Ann’s link functions in the same way, but it’s a bit less subtle than Makoto’s.

Makoto’s romance exclusive scenes were great, but they weren’t spectacular. As someone part of the Queen’s Guard (Makoto fanboy/girl), I liked them a lot! And getting her flustered was absolutely adorable. My only gripe with Makoto’s romance option is that it is too subtle. While this works for her character development, I kind of wish her feelings for the protagonist were more apparent. Her confession felt kind of forced, especially in contrast to other romanceable social links. Once you romance her, it’s great, but the confession itself is kind of flat.

Makoto’s social link bouses are the same as any party members, so they’re very useful! Her unique attribute is letting you see enemy drops, which I never found to be that useful.

III. THE EMPRESS – HARU OKUMURA

I really, really want to talk about Haru, because all of the discussions I’ve seen around her sum up to be “She was okay, but I didn’t really finish her link.”

LET ME AMEND THAT FOR YOU.

I do like Haru as a character, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate her gentle, sweet character. I also think it’s hilarious that she uses an axe and a machine gun as weapons. But I don’t think her character was handled very well, especially with her father’s death.

I know, for story reasons, that we couldn’t have Haru out of commission for long for the sake of her grieving. But Haru never openly grieves about her father’s death, and it seems like she’s completely unfazed by it. I understand that grief comes out in different forms, and it is explicitly shown that Haru stays with the Phantom Thieves to avenge her father, but there is no sadness shown. The death of a parent, especially your only one, can’t really be “gotten over” in the span of a week or two, it’s something that follows you for the rest of your life. I understand that Haru didn’t want to bring down the rest of the team, but I kind of wish that in her actual social link she does show signs of distress behind closed doors. Of course, that would probably make her social link busier than it needed to be, especially since she already has so much going on, but I feel like that should have been addressed.

Haru’s link is essentially her trying to figure out what she wants to do with her future, between trying to dissolve the arranged marriage between her and Sugimura, figuring out who to trust in the swarm of advisors trying to help her manage Okumura Foods, to her own life goals and aspirations outside of her father’s company. And while these are all great ideas, ultimately I feel like Haru’s link was too overloaded with different problems for each issue to develop in the best way possible. And because of that, completing Haru’s link left a lot to be desired for me. I think what’s there is fine, and I especially enjoyed Haru developing her passion for gardening and later coffee making, but I wish there was more time to explain or to go through the other issues presented in her link. I also think that the whole “Sugimura lied to you about your engagement” resolution felt like a cop-out to what could have been an interesting story in itself.

One more thing I wanted to mention: Haru’s social link does succeed where Makoto’s doesn’t where it shows Haru slowly falling in love with the protagonist, cumulating in an adorable “denial” of her feelings for him. It genuinely hurt me to turn Haru down, because I had already romanced Makoto.

Other than the standard party bonuses, Haru’s confidant also allows you to grow veggies a la Persona 4 Golden. The veggies are great, especially because they’re SP healing items. What makes this better than Leblanc coffee is that it doesn’t take time out of your day to plant and harvest your veggies, as Haru essentially does it for you. While it’s not absolutely vital to plant veggies, especially when you can make coffee/curry at Leblanc, and you probably have SP adhesives at this point of the game, it’s definitely a good bonus.

IV. THE EMPEROR – YUSUKE KITAGAWA

Yusuke is another one where I love his character, but his confidant wasn’t my favourite.

While there aren’t any major glaring flaws like Haru’s link, Yusuke’s link just wasn’t as memorable to me. I know a lot of people love his link, and I know a lot of people wanted him as a romance option but really the true OTP is Akechi/Protag, but I think his link was…okay.

I do appreciate Yusuke’s internal struggle; either “selling out” to earn a living or staying true to his ideals, while trying to figure out the true meaning of beauty, but it didn’t really resonate with me as hard as some of the others. I’m not entirely sure why? Perhaps I don’t relate because I’m not an artist. However, I will say that, while it didn’t personally wow me, Yusuke’s link objectively was well done. Yusuke is a comic relief character in a lot of ways, and his social link had a great balance between comedy and more serious moments. I also really like how Yusuke always appreciates the Protagonist’s company, and this social link does a really good job at showing the bond between Yusuke and the Protagonist, rather than the social link just happening while the Protagonist is just there.

I also want to disclose here that, I have no idea what Yusuke’s sexuality is. While I don’t necessarily think that he’s straight, I also don’t believe that Atlus intended on making him queer, just because Japan is still incredibly conservative about sexuality. And from the way his character is presented, he seems more eccentric more than anything else; he doesn’t strike me as queer in the same way Kanji from Persona 4 does.

Yusuke’s confidant bonus, besides party skills, is the ability to duplicate skill cards. If you manage to get a good skill card, this is a fantastic skill to have. I personally didn’t utilize this as much, but that was because I didn’t use or obtain that many skill cards during my playthrough.

#sophia's thoughts #persona 5 #p5 #p5 spoilers #igor #makoto niijima #morgana #yusuke kitagawa #haru okumura

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Robotech Remix: Inside the Robotech Reboot With Brenden Fletcher

https://ift.tt/2WHQBlV

Robotech is a series famed for its serialization. The original 85 episode anime series was one continuing story following three generations of heroes against three waves of alien invaders. Ever since Robotech first aired in the 1980s fans have held onto that original continuity tightly. But the newest Titan Comics series has changed all of that.

Starting with the initial relaunch in 2017, the comics featured a new continuity with some alterations. Robotech Remix took those alterations even further, stranding Masters Saga character Dana Sterling in a timeline where she was never born! It was a shock to some but over the first four issues of the new series, soon to be collected and released on April 14th, fans were won over. Artist Elmer Damaso captured the anime look of Robotech and added his own expressive touches while writer Brenden Fletcher poured all of his love of the franchise into a story that will please old and new fans alike.

Ahead of the release of that first Robotech Remix collection Titan Comics has provided us with an interview with Fletcher that will also be printed in that graphic novel. In it Fletcher describes why the reboot happened, where the series is headed, and much more!

Is this a reboot or a new series?

All of the above! Seriously, Robotech Remix is a little bit of everything.

It’s a whole new series, starting with a new #1, that anyone can pick up and enjoy. It picks up one of the most compelling story threads left hanging in Simon Furman’s Robotech series, but the inciting incident of our plot takes place in the pages of our first issue, kicking everything off in a fresh, new direction. And in this new timeline, splintered off the classic ‘80s anime, we do find some rebooted versions of familiar characters. It’s a great device, allowing us to remain faithful to the original show while reimagining things for modern readers.

What’s your history with Robotech?

I’ve been a fan of Robotech nearly all my life! I caught the initial broadcast of Episode 1, “Boobytrap”, when it first aired on WUTV 29 out of Buffalo, New York, all those years ago. I was an immediate and passionate fan. My family bought me the toys in middle school, I played the Palladium D20 roleplaying game through high school, and later, applied the myriad influences of Robotech to my life as a storyteller. I attempt to shoehorn transforming robots and pop idols into nearly every comic project I work on. I’m not ashamed!

Who’s your favorite character?

This is a tough one. My favorites have changed through the years, as I’ve grown. I definitely wouldn’t have said it years ago, but the characters I’m loving most today are the Sterlings – Max, Miriya, and even Dana Sterling! There’s always been an underlying complexity to them that I’m getting a chance to bring to the surface in Robotech Remix.

What’s your favorite aspect of Robotech Remix?

I’m really enjoying bringing new blood to the Robotech universe! This will be one of the most diverse casts with the coolest new mecha the series has seen in a while, designed by the incredible Elmer Damaso! Elmer is a godsend. His designs are absolutely stunning, his storytelling is spot-on, his knowledge of Robotech characters and lore is comprehensive, and oh my crap can this guy draw mecha! I’ll never forget the email I got last week with scans of napkin sketches he’d done at the breakfast table, when inspiration for a transformation sequence struck. The designs came with profuse apologies for their rushed and sketchy nature – and holy cow, even downing his pancakes and eggs, this guy brings his A-game! Elmer might be one of the most talented, hard-working, and humble artists in the biz, and I can’t wait to show his work off!

Comics

Remixing the Robotech Saga

By Shamus Kelley

Comics

Robotech: Remix Designs Show Off New Cast (Exclusive)

By Shamus Kelley

Where’s this series headed?

This is the Dana Sterling story we’ve all been waiting years to read. Dana traveled back in time to save the universe, and in doing so stopped her parents from falling in love, getting married, and giving birth to her. It’s an examination of where she belongs in the Robotech universe, if she belongs there at all. It’s kinda like Back to the Future with transforming robots, alien invasions and pop idols!

What would you say to the fans?

Robotech pretty much invented the remix, if you ask me. It’s a story built from jamming on the content of some of the coolest Japanese animated series of the early ‘80s, combining them in innovative and imaginative ways to create something new. It paved the way for the anime explosion of the ‘90s! I think about this a lot in terms of what the series meant to us as kids growing up in the ‘80s, the nostalgia we have for it now, how it influenced western anime culture, and the role music could play alongside it. As you can imagine, I’ve got some things to say that’ll find their way onto the comics page. I hope you guys come along for the ride and chime in with what Robotech means to you!

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Make sure to pick up Robotech Remix: Déjà Vu when its’ released on April 14th from Titan Comics.

The post Robotech Remix: Inside the Robotech Reboot With Brenden Fletcher appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Comics – Den of Geek

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ntrending · 6 years

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Can artificial intelligence solve the internet's fake news problem?

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/can-artificial-intelligence-solve-the-internets-fake-news-problem/

Can artificial intelligence solve the internet's fake news problem?

You may have noticed: It’s a weird time for facts. On one hand, despite the hand-wringing over our post-truth world, facts do still exist. On the other, it’s getting really hard to dredge them from the sewers of misinformation, propaganda, and fake news.1 Whether it’s virus-laden painkillers, 3 million illegal votes cast in the 2016 presidential election, or a new children’s toy called My First Vape, phony dispatches are clogging the internet.

Fact-checkers and journalists try their best to surface facts, but there are just too many lies and too few of us. How often the average citizen falls for fake news is unclear. But there are plenty of opportunities for exposure. The Pew Research Center reported last year that more than two-thirds of American adults get news on social media, where misinformation abounds. We also seek it out. In December, political scientists from Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Exeter reported that 1 in 4 Americans visited a fake news site—mostly by clicking to them through Facebook—around the 2016 election.

As partisans, pundits, and even governments weaponize information to exploit our regional, gender, and ethnic differences, big tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter are under pressure to push back. Startups and large firms have launched attempts to deploy algorithms and artificial intelligence to fact-check digital news. Build smart software, the thinking goes, and truth has a shot. “In the old days, there was a news media that filtered out the inaccurate and crazy stuff,” says Bill Adair, a journalism professor at Duke University who directs one such effort, the Duke Tech & Check Cooperative. “But now there is no filter. Consumers need new tools to be able to figure out what’s accurate and what’s not.”

With $1.2 million in funding, including $200,000 from the Facebook Journalism Project, the co-op is supporting the development of virtual fact-checking tools. So far, these include ClaimBuster, which scans digital news stories or speech transcripts and checks them against a database of known facts; a talking-point tracker, which flags politicians’ and pundits’ claims; and Truth Goggles, which makes credible information more palatable to biased readers. Many other groups are trying to build similar tools.

As a journalist and fact-checker, I wish the algorithms the best. We sure could use the help. But I’m skeptical. Not because I’m afraid the robots are after my job, but because I know what they’re up against. I wrote the book on fact-checking (no, really, it’s called The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking2 ). I also host the podcast Methods, which explores how journalists, scientists, and other professional truth-finders know what they know. From these experiences, I can tell you that truth is complex and squishy. Human brains can recognize context and nuance, which are both key in verifying information. We can spot sarcasm. We know irony. We understand that syntax can shift even while the basic message remains. And sometimes we still get it wrong.3 Can machines even come close?

The media has churned out hopeful coverage about how AI efforts may save us from bogus headlines. But what’s inside those digital brains? How will algorithms do their work? Artificial intelligence, after all, performs best when following strict rules. So yeah, we can teach computers to play chess or Go. But because facts are slippery, Cathy O’Neil, a data scientist and author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, is not an AI optimist. “The concept of a fact-checking algorithm, at least at first blush, is to compare a statement to what is known truth,” she says. “Since there’s no artificial algorithmic model for truth, it’s just not going to work.”

That means computer scientists have to build one. So just how are they constructing their army of virtual fact-checkers? What are their models of truth? And how close are we to entrusting their algorithms to cull fake news? To find out, the editors at Popular Science asked me to try out an automated fact-checker, using a piece of fake news, and compare its process to my own. The results were mixed, but maybe not for the reasons you (or at least I) would have thought.

Chengkai Li is a computer scientist at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the lead researcher for ClaimBuster, which, as of this writing, was the only publicly available AI fact-checking tool (though it was still a work in progress). Starting in late 2014, Li and his team built ClaimBuster more or less along the lines of other automated fact-checkers in development. First, they created an algorithm, a computer code that can solve a problem by following a set of rules. They then taught their code to identify a claim—a statement or phrase asserted as truth in a news story or a political speech—by feeding it lots of sentences, and telling it which make claims and which don’t. Because Li’s team originally designed their tool to capture political statements, the words they fed it came from 30 or so of the past U.S. presidential debates, totaling roughly 20,000 claims. “We were aiming at the 2016 election,” Li says. “We were thinking we should use ClaimBuster when the presidential candidates debated.”

Next, the team taught code to a computer to compare claims to a set of known facts. Algorithms don’t have an intrinsic feature to identify facts; humans must provide them. We do this by building what I’ll call truth databases. To work, these databases must contain information that is both high-quality and wide-ranging. Li’s team used several thousand fact-checks—articles and blog posts written by professional fact-checkers and journalists, meant to correct the record on dubious claims—pulled from reputable news sites like PolitiFact, Snopes, factcheck.org, and The Washington Post.

I wanted to see if ClaimBuster could detect fake science news from a known peddler of fact-challenged posts: infowars.com. 4 I asked Li what he thought. He said while the system would be most successful on political stories, it might work. “I think a page from Infowars sounds interesting,” he said. “Why not give it a shot and let us know what you find out?”

To create a fair fight, my editor and I agreed on two rules: I couldn’t pick the fake news on my own, and I couldn’t test the AI until after I had completed my own fact-check. A longtime fact-checker at Popular Science pulled seven spurious science stories from Infowars, from which my editor and I agreed on one with a politicized topic: climate change.

Because Li hadn’t had the budget to update ClaimBuster’s truth database since late 2016, we chose a piece published before then: “Climate Blockbuster: New NASA Data Shows Polar Ice Has Not Receded Since 1979,” from May 2015.

Climate-change deniers and fake-news writers often misrepresent real research to bolster their claims. In checking the report, I relied on facts available only in that period.

To keep it short, we used the first 300 words of the Infowars account. 5 For the human portion of the experiment, I checked the selection as I would any article: line by line. I identified fact-based statements—essentially every sentence—and searched for supporting or contradictory evidence from primary sources, such as climate scientists and academic journals. I also followed links in the Infowars story to assess their quality and to see whether they supported the arguments. (A sample of my fact-check is here.)

Take, for example, the story’s first sentence: “NASA has updated its data from satellite readings, revealing that the planet’s polar ice caps have not retreated significantly since 1979, when measurements began.” Online, the words “data from satellite readings” had a hyperlink. To take a look at the data the story referenced, I clicked the link, which led to a defunct University of Illinois website, Cryosphere Today. Dead end. I emailed the school. The head of the university’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences gave me the email address for a researcher who had worked on the site: John Walsh, now chief scientist for the International Arctic Research Center in Alaska, whom I later interviewed by phone.

Walsh told me that the “data from satellite readings” wasn’t directly from NASA. Rather, the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, had cleaned up raw NASA satellite data for Arctic sea ice. From there, the University of Illinois analyzed and published it. When I asked Walsh whether that data had revealed that the polar ice caps hadn’t retreated much since 1979, as Infowars claimed, he said: “I can’t reconcile that statement with what the website used to show.”

In addition to talking to Walsh, I used Google Scholar to find relevant scientific literature and landed on a comprehensive paper on global sea-ice trends in the peer-reviewed Journal of Climate, published by the American Meteorological Society and authored by Claire Parkinson, a senior climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. I interviewed her too. She walked me through how her research compared with the claims in the Infowars story, showing where the latter distorted the data. While it’s true that global sea-ice data collection started in 1979, around when the relevant satellites launched, over time the measurements show a general global trend toward retreat, Parkinson said. The Infowars story also conflated data for Arctic and Antarctic sea ice; although the size of polar sea ice varies from year to year, Arctic sea ice has shown a consistent trend toward shrinking that outpaces the Antarctic’s trend toward growth, bringing the global totals down significantly. The Infowars author, Steve Watson, conflates Arctic, Antarctic, global, yearly, and average data throughout the article, and may have cherry-picked data from an Antarctic boom year to swell his claim.

We’re in our fake news predicament partly because of algorithms. Can they also get us out of it?

In other cases, the Infowars piece linked to poor sources—and misquoted them. Take, for example, a sentence that claims Al Gore warned that the Arctic ice cap might disappear by 2014. The sentence linked to a Daily Mail article—not a primary source—that included a quote allegedly from Gore’s 2007 Nobel Prize lecture. But when I read the speech transcript and watched the video on the Nobel Prize website, I found that the newspaper had heavily edited the quote, cutting out caveats and context. As for the rest of the Infowars story, I followed the same process. All but two sentences were wrong or misleading. (An Infowars spokesman said the author declined to comment.)

With my own work done, I was curious to see how ClaimBuster would perform. The site requires two steps to do a fact-check. In the first, I copied and pasted the 300-word excerpt into a box labeled “Enter Your Own Text,” to identify factual claims made in the copy. Within one second, the AI scored each line on a scale of zero to one; the higher the number, the more likely it contains a claim. The scores ranged from 0.16 to 0.78. Li suggested 0.4 as threshold for a claim worth further inspection. The AI scored 12 out of 16 sentences at or above that mark.

In total, there were 11 check-worthy claims among 12 sentences, all of which I had also identified. But ClaimBuster missed four. For instance, it gave a low score of 0.16 to a sentence that said climate change “is thought to be due to a combination of natural and, to a much lesser extent, human influence.” This sentence is indeed a claim—a false one. Scientific consensus holds that humans are primarily to blame for recent climate change. False negatives like this, which rate a sentence as not worth checking even when it is, could lead a reader to be duped by a lie.

How could ClaimBuster miss this statement when so much has been written about it in the media and academic journals? Li said his AI likely didn’t catch it because the language is vague. “It doesn’t mention any specific people or groups,” he says. Because the sentence had no hard numbers and cited no identifiable people or institutions, there was “nothing to quantify.” Only a human brain can spot the claim without obvious footholds.

Next up, I fed each of the 11 identified claims into a second window, which checks against the system’s truth database. In an ideal case, the machine would match the claim to an existing fact-check and flag it as true or false. In reality, it spit out information that was, for the most part, irrelevant.

Take the article’s first sentence, about the retreat of the polar ice caps. ClaimBuster compared the string of words to all sentences in its database. It searched for matches and synonyms or semantic similarities. Then it ranked hits. The best match came from a PolitiFact story—but the topic concerned nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, not sea ice or climate change. Li said the system was probably latching onto similar words that don’t have much to do with the topic. Both sentences, for example, contain the words “since,” “has,” “not,” as well as similar words such as “updated” and “advanced.” This gets at a basic problem: The program doesn’t yet weigh more-important words over nonspecific words. For example, it couldn’t tell that the Iran story was irrelevant.

When I tried the sentence about Al Gore, the top hit was more promising: Another link from PolitiFact matched to a sentence in a story that read: “Scientists project that the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer of 2013.” Here, the match was more obvious; the sentences shared words, including “Arctic,” and synonyms such as “disappear” and “ice-free.” But when I dug further, it turned out the PolitiFact story was about a 2009 Huffington Post op-ed by then-senator John Kerry, rather than Al Gore in a 2007 Nobel lecture. When I tested the remaining claims in the story, I faced similar problems.

When I reported these results to Li, he wasn’t surprised. The problem was that ClaimBuster’s truth database didn’t contain a report on this specific piece of fake news, or anything similar. Remember, it’s made up of work from human fact-checkers at places including PolitiFact and The Washington Post. Because the system relies so heavily on information supplied by people, he said, the results were “just another point of evidence that human fact-checkers aren’t enough.”

That doesn’t mean AI fact-checking is all bad. On the plus side, ClaimBuster is way faster than I can ever be. I spent six hours on my fact-check. By comparison, the AI took about 11 minutes. Also consider that I knock off at the end of the day. An AI doesn’t sleep. “It’s like a tireless intern who will sit watching TV for 24 hours and have a good eye for what a factual claim is,” Adair says. As Li’s team tests new AI to improve claim scoring and fact-checking, ClaimBuster is bound to improve, as should others. Adair’s cooperative is also using ClaimBuster to scan the claims of pundits and politicians on cable TV, highlighting the most check-worthy utterings and emailing them to human fact-checkers to confirm.

The trick will be getting the accuracy to match that efficiency. After all, we’re in our current predicament, at least in part, because of algorithms. As of late 2017, Google and Facebook had 1.17 billion and 2.07 billion users, respectively.

That enormous audience gives fake-news makers and propagandists incentive to game the algorithms to spread their material—it might be possible to similarly manipulate an automated fact-checker. And Big Tech’s recent attempts to fix their AI haven’t gone very well. For example, in October 2017, after a mass shooting in Las Vegas left 851 injured and 58 dead, users from the message board 4chan were able to promote a fake story misidentifying the shooter on Facebook. And last fall, Google AdWords placed fake-news headlines on both PolitiFact and Snopes.

Even if there were an AI fact-checker that’s immune to errors and gaming, there would be a larger issue with ClaimBuster and projects like it—and with fake news in general. Political operatives and partisan readers often don’t care if an article is intentionally wrong. As long as it supports their agenda—or just makes them snicker—they’ll share it. According to the 2017 Princeton, Dartmouth, and Exeter study, people who consumed fake news also consumed so-called hard news—and politically knowledgeable consumers were actually more likely to look at the fake stuff. In other words, it’s not like readers don’t know the difference. The media should not underestimate their desire to click on such catnip.

One last wrinkle. As companies roll out an army of AI fact-checkers, partisan readers on both sides might view them as just another mode of spin. President Donald Trump has called trusted legacy news outfits such as The New York Times and CNN “fake news.” Infowars, a site he admires, maintains its own list of fake-news sources, which includes The Washington Post. Infowars has also likened the work of fact-checking sites like Snopes and PolitiFact to censorship.

Still, AI fact-checkers might be our best ally in thwarting fake news. There’s a lot of digital foolery to track. One startup, Veracity.ai—backed by the Knight Prototype Fund and aimed at helping the ad industry identify fake news that might live next to online ads—recently identified 1,200 phony-news websites and some 400,000 individual fake posts, a number the company expects to grow. It’s so fast and cheap to tell a lie, and it’s so expensive and time-sucking for humans correct it. And we could never rely on readers for click-through fact-checking. We’ll still need journalists to employ the AI fact-checkers to scour the internet for deception, and to provide fodder for the truth databases.

I asked Li whether my one fact-checked story might have an impact, if it would even make its way into the ClaimBuster truth database. “A perfect automatic tool would capture your data and make it part of the repository,” he said.

He added, “Of course, right now, there is no such tool.”

Footnotes:

1Fake news is an embattled term. It is used to describe news that is intentionally meant to mislead—for political or economic gain— based on false, misinterpreted, or manipulated facts. But partisans also use it to smear reputable legacy media outlets. Here, we’re using the former definition.

2The book is part of a family of writing guides from the University of Chicago Press. And yes, the facts in it are valid beyond Chicago.

3 A Popular Science fact-checker spent 15 hours verifying the pages of the Intelligence Issue and caught 34 errors before we went to press.

4 Infowars is a media empire and clearinghouse for conspiracies—from the federal government controlling weather to the idea that Glenn Beck is a CIA operative.

5 We made sure that the rest of the story did not provide evidence or context that would affect our fact-check.

This article was originally published in the Spring 2018 Intelligence issue of Popular Science.

Written By Brooke Borel

#Technology

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ropedropnet · 7 years

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News Nuggets from Around Disney World

It’s time again for a hearty helping of Rope Drop [dot] Net News Nuggets! As you probably saw earlier this week, I have already posted about the Star War related news that came out of Celebration. Of course, the biggest news since the last post was that The Rock was on the Jungle Cruise!. Talk a “plus-ed” experience.

Nuggets!!

Now, on to the rest of the News Nuggets:

Planet Hollywood Observatory to create outdoor, quick-service counter at Walt Disney World Resort – If the rumors are true that Plant Hollywood has their donkey-sauced burger pre-made, then they might as well try to offload them as kickin’ “quick service” options as well.

First Look at Menu for Satu’li Canteen in Pandora—The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom – The menu seems interesting, but even more interesting is the Mobile Ordering feature. I would hope that in 5 years, all Disney quick service restaurants have mobile ordering. Speaking of which…

Full List of 15 Walt Disney World Restaurants That Will Offer Mobile Ordering Starting Soon – This has potential to be fantastic. I can’t even list the number of times that mobile ordering has made my Chick-Fil-A or Starbucks experience significantly better. I hope Disney’s implementation of this works just as well.

First Listen: Sneak a Peek at Our ‘Happily Ever After’ Theme Song – Huh. The clip of this song isn’t exactly what I was hoping for from the new show. Maybe it’ll be better in context.

Disney-Pixar’s “Cars 3” Nationwide Tour Kicks off at Disney Springs – Denise over at Mouse Steps has coverage of the “tour” the will be promoting the new movie. It include replicas of the cars, games, etc… Not really my thing, but I can see why people would really like it.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” screening, Headless Horseman meet-and-greet Fort Wilderness for Halloween – Huh. Interesting. Another thing not really up my alley, but interesting nonetheless.

Bob Iger’s Contract Extended to July 2, 2019 – These kind of corporate maneuverings are not usually something I write about, but Iger has had an “interesting” relationship with the parks. To date, I would argue there have been some negatives (e.g., the trend of “up charge events”, lower staffing during certain periods), but we’re about to start on some big changes (e.g. Avatar, Star Wars, Toy Story), so it should be interesting.

Virtual tours of Copper Creek Villas – I’ve previously said this is where Elyssa & I might buy DVC, but that was before I saw the maintenance dues.

Registration Now Open for Annual Passholder Previews of Pandora: The World of AVATAR – If you’re an AP holder, you probably already got an email about this (and hopefully booked it…since it’s sold out.)

Mission Space at Epcot Closing This Summer for Refurbishment – I wonder what’s going on. June 5th through July 31st is a pretty strange time for a refurb.

‘The Music of Pixar Live!’ Will Debut at Disney’s Hollywood Studios This Summer – This seems like a summer holding area for crowds waiting for the night time entertainment when so much of the park is under construction.

Learn From the Pros How to Decorate Your Own Cake at Amorette’s Patisserie at Disney Springs – $130 is a lot to pay to decorate a cake (even if Amorette’s is pretty tasty.)

Pandora – Everything You Need To Know – I’m going to leave this here, since I don’t do an “info dump” nuggets. This is a pretty comprehensive rundown from the TouringPlans gang.

Disney testing Virtual Queues at its Walt Disney World water parks – Just like Volcano Bae!

Portobello at Disney Springs Closing April 23 For Refurbishment – No surprise here. All previously existing restaurants at Disney Springs need to upgrade to compete with the new comers. The big surprise is that nothing has happened to Bongos yet.

News: Liberty Tree Tavern Menu Updates (And Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake for DINNER!) – Does this mean all you care to enjoy ooey gooey toffee cake for dinner?

STK Orlando now offers brunch, including The Ultimate Brunch For Two – The menu looks fine. That said, it stil takes place in STK (which isn’t really the environment Elyssa and I like when we’re at Disney).

pictures from WDW Magic – Here are some

Walt Disney World Gondola System Foundation Construction About to Begin – This is really going to maybe, possibly happen, huh?

New My Disney Experience app Launches, Makes Planning Walt Disney World Vacations Even Easier – I like the concept, but the execution is funky. Standard app conventions say the menu is on the left and you use the “hamburger” icon to open it. This menu launched from the bottom is strange.

Limited Spaces Remain for Member Event at Markham’s at Golden Oak – Yes, $130 is a lot for this event, but it would be cool to hang out in the Golden Oaks club house.

Typhoon Lagoon Moonlight Magic registration now open for DVC Members with Reservations – If you’re DVC and staying at a DVC on June 23, 28 or July 5, 13, you can register now.

Countdown to Pandora – The World of Avatar Continues with First Look at Na’vi Translator Device – Ignore the actual item, and check out the lack of Disney branding on it. It will be interesting to see how that concept applies throughout the land.

Take A Behind-the-Scenes Look At The Making Of ‘Happily Ever After’ – I am really apprehensive about this show, and I still haven’t seen anything that eases that. I hope the final product ends up looking better than the stuff in the clips they’ve released.

New Shirts from Star Wars: The Last Jedi to support UNICEF – Elyssa doesn’t love the look, but–at least–it’s for a good cause.

Leaked (?) Photos from Inside Pandora – The World of Avatar – WDW News Today reposts photos for a guy who is MUCH braver than I am. (I would never blast my Twitter handle against something like that.)

Tree of Life Awakenings Projection Show is Expanding to the Back of the Animal Kingdom Icon – This could be useful in spreading people throughout the park as it starts to be open later at night.

Magic Kingdom Party Dates – 53 dates is a lot of dates.

Light up your visit to the Epcot China Pavilion with a new photo prop from Disney PhotoPass Service – I like these little touches. They’re not particularly complicated, but they do make for some interesting new photos.

Rumors of TRON Lightcycle Power Run Roller Coaster being Close to Green Light for Walt Disney World, Disneyland – The problem with rumors like this is that you never know if 10 different sites are citing the same “source,” are places like WDW New Today and Jim Hill actually hearing it from different places.

Fittings & Fairings Gift Shop at Disney’s Yacht Club Temporarily Closed – Something to keep in mind for those staying at the Yacht Club (though there are plenty of options around Crescent Lake for similar things.)

Ample Hills Creamery extending hours for the next month. – Ample Hills is going to be open until 11:00pm just in time for Elyssa’a and my arrival.

Rumors of Groot and Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy Coming to The Studios – I hope this is better than the Doctor Strange thing. Also, I wish Disney World was getting Gamora.

Sign Up Now For The runDisney Virtual Running Shorts Series – Elyssa and I do 1 (or more) runDisney events per year, and–I admit–I did this last year. I just wanted the medals (which I thought looked cool.) I’m not sure I’ll ever do it again (and definitely not for these medals.)

Four Seasons now selling homes on Walt Disney World property starting at $5 million – But they’ll probably be like only 2-3 million on the resale market, right?

Grab-and-Go Menu Available at Art Smith’s Homecomin’! – Something to keep in mind if you’re walking around Disney Springs. The to-go menu is available from the Shine Bar (which has a separate entrance you can use.)

Dry weather limits certain activities at Disney World. – Something to keep in mind if you’ll be down there before Central Florida gets some rain.

‘Happily Ever After’ To Feature The Most Advanced Projection Mapping Tech Yet – Disney is really trying to talk up this show. I hope it’s a winner, since people are going to really expect something big if it’s going to replace Wishes.

Club 33 announced for Walt Disney World, coming soon to 4 new locations – Something to aspire to, I guess. I wonder when I should put my name on the waiting list to have the opportunity to buy in about the time I’ll be able to afford it.

Walt Disney World’s Uber-Like Transportation Service Slated to Begin Soon – Two Questions: (1) Will it be comparable in cost to Uber?, (2) Will Disney ban Uber & Lyft from property to encourage people to use it?

Martha’s Vineyard Review at Disney’s Beach Club from easyWDW. – I don’t normally post reviews like this in the News Nuggets, but I found this review of Martha’s “Graveyard” to be interesting for it’s overall positive tone. At a minimum, Josh has a good tip that the beer selection is pretty decent.

Walt Disney World Plans to Hire 1,000 New Cast Members This Spring – This seems a lot more promising than last year’s staff cuts, etc… (which were rumored to be a result of Shanghai Disney going over budget.)

That’s it for this edition of the News Nuggets! Let’s all celebrate by watching the Blue Angels fly over the Magic Kingdom:

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#walt disney world #disney #Animal Kingdom #Disney Springs #Epcot #Events #Magic Kingdom #News Nugget

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