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things2mustdo · 4 years

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Bigger muscles, fat-loss, and a heightened sex drive are probably the first things that come to mind when you think of testosterone. But did you know that your testosterone also determines your mental health? Or that it determines your risk tolerance and how you show up against competition? That’s right.

In this article, I’ll discuss 4 little-known benefits of having optimal testosterone levels. See which ones affect you and which ones don’t.

Sign #1 – Sharp memory

In this study, men with higher levels of testosterone scored significantly better on tests of visual and spatial memory. These results were mirrored in another study where researchers randomized 37 subjects to receive either a weekly dose of testosterone or placebo for 4-weeks. After 4-weeks, the men receiving testosterone treatments scored significantly better on tests of verbal fluency.

How does testosterone impact brain health?

Well, preclinical observations assert that testosterone protects brain cells against damage and decay. This is why brain fog, memory loss, and difficulty concentrating are some common symptoms of having sub-optimal testosterone. This is also why men with lower levels of T have an increased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.

To ensure that your brain maintains optimal health and function into old age, it’s important that you start taking the steps right now to achieve and maintain optimal testosterone levels for years to come.

Sign #2 – Positive outlook

Have those Monday blues turned into an everyday thing? If so, chances are that sub-optimal testosterone levels are a contributing cause. In this meta-analysis spanning over 16 scientific studies and more than 900 subjects, researchers came to the conclusion that testosterone exerts a significant positive impact on mood.

On the flip-side, low levels of testosterone have been found to be a major contributor to depression. And when depressed men are given testosterone treatments, they report significant improvements in mood.

All-in-all, your testosterone has a significant impact on your mood. If you feel like you’ve lost your zest for life, it’s important that you get your testosterone level measured to figure out your room for improvement moving forward.

Sign #3 – Increased risk tolerance

In this study, researchers brought in 154 subjects (78 men, 76 women) and had them engage in a gambling task. Blood samples were collected before the experiment. Across the board, both the men and women with higher levels of testosterone engaged in a greater amount of risk.

In this study on MBA students, the ones with the highest levels of testosterone chose the riskiest careers. And finally, in this study on financial traders it was revealed that a traders early morning level of testosterone accurately predicted his profits for the day. High risk equals high reward, and the traders willing to engage in the highest amount of risk also set themselves up for the greatest amount of profit.

Now, of course taking risks comes with a potential downside – that’s what makes it a risk – but without risk there is no growth. Taking risks is what’s allowed mankind to conquer the world, build nations, and even land on the moon. No great feat was ever accomplished without some element of risk being involved. What risk are you procrastinating on that has the possibility of taking your life to the next level?

Sign #4 – Competitive drive

In this study, men were brought in to compete in a rigged 1-on-1 competition. Blood samples were collected before and after each loss. Results revealed that the men who experienced a spike in testosterone after the loss were more likely to choose to compete again compared to the men who experienced a drop in testosterone.

In a study on university tennis players, it was revealed that the players with the highest pre-match testosterone levels reported the most significant positive effects on mood. Also, the post-match T-levels rose higher for the match winners compared to the match losers. Furthermore, the rise in T induced the winners to be even more focused and motivated for the next round of competition.

In biology, this is referred to as the winner-effect and it was first demonstrated in mice. Right off the bat, a smaller and weaker mouse is unable to overcome a larger and more dominant opponent. But, when a smaller mouse is allowed to win against a drugged mouse of similar size, his chances of overcoming the larger and more dominant mouse in the next round of competition increase – despite no improvement in fighting ability. The reason? Winning the first round of competition causes the mouse to experience a spike in testosterone, which increases his focus and drive for the next round.

The winner-effect occurs in humans as well. Overcoming obstacles and setting personal records induces a testosterone increase which, in turn, makes us more focused and motivated in the next round of competition.

Testosterone is the fuel to your competitive drive and the winner effect is a feedback loop that feeds into this drive to make you more aggressive and dominant in each subsequent encounter.

The winner-effect could, however, easily go the other way. Each winning encounter could spike your testosterone levels to the point where your estimation of your abilities become exaggerated and impair your decision making. This is why media commentators have mentioned the winner-effect as a possible cause of the 2008 financial crisis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP6Th1Gi-lQ

Conclusion

Yes, testosterone determines your ability to gain muscle, lose fat, and express your sexuality but its true impact extends far beyond just these three areas. Your mental health, your outlook on life, your tolerance for risk, and your ability to show up against competition are all factors impacted by the amount of testosterone running through your veins. Maintain optimal testosterone levels and you’ll maintain your health, well-being, and virility well into old age.

https://www.returnofkings.com/163166/5-myths-about-testosterone-that-seriously-need-to-die

Testosterone is what makes a man, a man. In a society that’s increasingly lacking a positive masculine identity, testosterone has become a hot topic of discussion. Today, I will dispel five of the most common myths associated with the master male hormone.

Myth #1: Declining Testosterone Is Primarily a Result of Aging

Although older age is correlated with lower testosterone levels, aging is not the cause of low T.

I’m sure that you’ve read or heard about the, now famous, Massachusetts Male Aging Study. If not, here’s a quick recap: Researchers found that average testosterone levels in men across the American population dropped by 1.2-1.3% every year from 1987 to 2004 (1). Assuming that this trend has continued at the same pace, the average 40 year old in 2018 has 40% lower T-levels than the average 40 year old did in 1987. In other words, the generational decline in testosterone is taking place independently of age.

In another study, Australian researchers recruited 325 men between the ages of 40-97 with self-reported excellent health. Nine blood samples were collected from each participant over the course of 3-months. When looking at the data across the entire sample size, age had no effect on testosterone (2).

The lesson? You can maintain optimal testosterone levels, no matter how old you are.

Myth #2: Only Older Guys Have to Worry About Low Testosterone

Just like older men write off their “low T” as an inevitable part of aging, younger guys think that youth is what keeps them immune to it. The truth is guys as young as 20 are suffering from sub-optimal testosterone levels.

There is currently no published research on the decline of T in men under 30, but there’s no shortage of anecdotal evidence:

Scott had a total T-level of 273 ng/dL at the age of 25 (source).

Oskar had a total T-level of 297 ng/dL at the age of 18 (source).

At 24, my total testosterone level came out at 564 ng/dL. This is a level that falls well within what’s considered the “normal range”. Still, I could barely crawl out of bed each morning, I was skinny-fat, and my sex drive was nowhere to be seen. Since taking the steps to naturally optimize my T, all of these symptoms have completely disappeared.

Any man, regardless of age, can have sub-optimal T. I highly recommend that you have your blood work done at least once per year to get an idea of where you stand and where you need to be.

Myth #3: The Only Way to Increase Testosterone Is With Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT)

Is TRT effective at raising T? Of course. Is it the only way to raise T? Hell no.

I naturally increased my total testosterone level from 564 ng/dL to 902 ng/dL and it was all by making simple changes in my diet and lifestyle. My beef with TRT comes down to the fact that it’s basically a band-aid approach. TRT addresses the symptoms of low T while completely ignoring the root cause of low T, which is usually a sub-optimal lifestyle.

When something as simple as sleeping more can boost T-levels by more than 60% (3), is it really wise to jump the proverbial TRT gun before taking the steps to optimize your lifestyle?

Now, I know that a lot of you have had great results with TRT. The thing is, though, that your body is still unable to produce testosterone. And with so much exogenous T coming in, your body has completely shut off its own natural production.

In other words, once started on TRT, you’re effectively chained to using the treatment for the rest of your life – or for as long as you care about getting a boner. Before trying to get a prescription for TRT, fix these 5 lifestyle factors.

Myth #4: Having High Testosterone Increases Your Chances of Developing Prostate Cancer

In the early 40s the medical community began to ascribe prostate cancer as a result of high testosterone. This assumption came from a single medical case study where a patient’s prostate cancer regressed after he was castrated.

Since then, a meta-analysis of 18 studies involving 5,091 patients with prostate cancer and 11,930 controls has reported that there is no link between endogenous testosterone levels and prostate cancer (4).

Myth #5: High Testosterone Makes You Angry

This is a myth mostly peddled by effeminate SJWs and feminists, but it could not be further from the truth. In a study of adolescent boys, researchers found that the boys with the highest levels of T were considered the most socially adept amongst their peers.

And the boys with lower levels of T? They were the ones most prone to the expression of aggressive behavior. They were also failing in school and unpopular with their peers.

Researchers concluded that testosterone levels are positively correlated with social success rather than with physical aggression (5). In another study, men suffering from low T were given testosterone treatments after which they experienced a significant reduction in tension and anger (6). All of this brings us to the conclusion that it is in fact low T that leads to the expression of negative emotions.

This shouldn’t be surprising given the fact that depression is a known side-effect of low T (7) and that anger, hostility and irritability are frequently observed in men diagnosed with depression (8). Could it be that low testosterone is a contributing factor to the expression of toxic masculinity? That low testosterone is contributing to the violent outbursts of anger we so commonly see in the news?

Conclusion

Age is not an excuse. Prescriptions aren’t your only option. High testosterone won’t give you prostate cancer and it won’t make you angry. The fact that you’re reading this right now means that you’re unplugged from mainstream consciousness.

As such, don’t fall for these mainstream myths. Take charge of your hormonal health and become the man you can be.

https://www.returnofkings.com/68664/3-reasons-low-testosterone-is-dangerous-for-your-health-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

The following article was sponsored by Bill Hamzi

Some of the common signs of low testosterone are fatigue, lethargy, erectile dysfunction, creaky joints, irritability, depression, difficulty concentrating, and loss of muscle mass combined with weight gain. If you are experiencing these symptoms, you may need to get your testosterone checked. In fact, there is an ongoing low testosterone epidemic in many Western countries: 50% of men over age 40 have low testosterone, and that skyrockets to 80% of men over 50. Most men are not aware of this, accepting these symptoms as “getting old.”

I personally started having symptoms including erectile dysfunction when I hit 30. My personal low testosterone horror story then ensued and left a shattered marriage in its wake. Fortunately, my story has a happy ending.

I got on a proper Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) regimen, and my erections are back, stronger as ever. I dropped 30 pounds. I bedded more than a dozen young nubile women this year alone, with no “technical difficulties” whatsoever. I have more energy now at age 35 than ten years ago. My mind is sharper as ever.

I’ve been through hell and back, and lived to tell the tale. I wrote a book about my experience, and how men can combat low testosterone without wasting precious time and money: The No Nonsense Guide To Testosterone Replacement Therapy.

By now, it should be clear what low testosterone can do to a man. But it gets worse: Low testosterone is not just an inconvenient malady to bull through. It is a very real and insidious medical condition that, at best, severely stunts your masculine potential. At worst, it ruins lives, destroys relationships, rips families apart, and ultimately increases your risk of heart attack, diabetes, brittle bones, and cancer. Here are three surprising reasons low testosterone is dangerous for your health:

1. Erectile Dysfunction Is The First Warning Sign Of Heart Disease

You may have heard that testosterone increases the risk of heart attacks. This is completely false. It’s a myth and I blow it to smithereens in Part 3 of my book. The longer your testosterone remains low, the higher your risk of heart attacks climbs every year.

Let me explain: heart disease begins when arterial plaque build up begins. It starts out slow, just a few little buildups along the arteries. A little plaque here and there is no big deal and won’t impede any blood flow through the biggest arteries.

But, the blood vessels in the penis are extremely tiny compared to the big coronary arteries around the heart. A “little plaque” within those narrow vessels may just be enough to gum up the works during a hot date. While blood flow remains perfectly unimpeded through the rest of the body, blood flow through the tiny penile capillaries may not be optimal even with smallest bits of plaque. So a “little plaque here and there” may seem like no big deal, UNTIL it starts affecting you in the bedroom.

Testosterone has a profound effect on a man’s lipid profile by increasing fat metabolism and optimizing endothelial function. Low testosterone decreases fat metabolism, impairs endothelial function, reduces the production of HDL, a good cholesterol. These cascading effects allow LDL, a bad cholesterol, to increase as well as enlarge LDL particle size. This promotes arterial plaque in many men beginning as early as age 20 to 25. In fact, recent studies (like this and that) show that by raising your testosterone from below 350 to over 550, you decrease your heart attack and stroke risk by over 30%!

2. Lower Testosterone Levels Increases Risk Of Prostate Cancer

The testosterone-causes-prostate-cancer is a widely-believed myth that has been disproved by recent studies. In fact, the lower your testosterone levels are, the higher your risk for prostate cancer. Recent studies thoroughly debunk this long-standing myth. A report in the Urology Times by Wayne Kuznar also asserts that there is no link between TRT and prostate cancer.

As Dr. Yassin puts it, we’ve experienced a “paradigm shift in the last decade that testosterone replacement therapy does not cause or increase the incidence of prostate cancer.” Prostate cancers are sensitive to changing concentrations of testosterone when the testosterone levels are very low. However, once the prostate tumor is saturated with testosterone, adding more testosterone will have little, if any effect, on the tumor growth.

In addition, nearly 45% of men with hypogonadism had prostate cancer in Dr. Yassin’s study, “meaning that hypogonadism offers no protection against prostate cancer. Patients with lower testosterone values had higher staging and higher [prostate cancer grade] scores,” he said. Furthermore, his study concludes that testosterone replacement therapy is safe in hypogonadal men.

3. More Men Are At Risk Of Osteoporosis Due To Low Testosterone

The fact that we have lower testosterone than our own grandfathers shows how sad the state of affairs are today. To make matters worse, osteoporosis is becoming an increasingly important public health problem. The main cause of osteoporosis in men is testosterone deficiency, according to this WebMD article. A NIH publication also lists low testosterone as one of the causes of osteoporosis in men.

An essential hormone to support bone density is estrogen, and in men, some testosterone converts to estrogen in order to maintain strong bone mass and density. When testosterone falls too low, there isn’t enough testosterone to be converted to estrogen, so bones begin to weaken. Given that testosterone usually decline by 1% per year in aging men, it is not surprising that bone mineral density also declines by 1% per year as per this study.

As a young man, osteoporosis may be one of the last things in your mind right now, but with low testosterone levels left unchecked, you can look forward to a future of unexplained fractures, being confined to a wheelchair, and watching your retirement savings get drained by a constant stream of five-figure medical bills. Sustaining your testosterone at healthy levels help maintain strong bone density to support an increased muscle mass, along with experiencing a myriad of other immediate benefits. Multiple birds with one stone.

How I Fixed My Low Testosterone

Now, you cannot just walk into a doctor’s office, get on testosterone, and be done with it. So many men do TRT all wrong, making their condition even WORSE than before they started.

First, some doctors may not order all the necessary prerequisite baseline tests before starting their patients on TRT, or will they adequately monitor patients on TRT. This is a grievous mistake that may mask other health problems or root causes of low testosterone until it’s too late. Second, many men are on ineffective and/or expensive forms of TRT such as gels or patches. Third, many men are dosing testosterone incorrectly, potentially causing their estrogen levels to climb to unhealthy levels, leading to man-boobs or an enlarged prostate. These problems arise from doctors who don’t really know what they are doing with respect to TRT:

In my book, I explain how to do it the right way, and make it work for YOU. Indeed, one of the hardest parts of getting on a TRT protocol that works is finding a good doctor who knows what he is doing. Here’s a brief recap of what you get from my reading my book:

A thorough explanation behind low testosterone levels: causes and symptoms.

Lists of blood tests to help you and your doctor make a full diagnosis and treatment plan.

Options for your TRT regimen, and how to tailor them to yourself individually.

How to navigate a broken healthcare system to find the best TRT doctor for you.

Your TRT Toolbox: An information-packed system to manage your own TRT.

The No-Nonsense Guide to Testosterone Replacement Therapy is currently available on Amazon, and will soon be available in other electronic formats as well as in print. Also visit TRT Guide for more information on Understanding Lab Tests, and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog for periodic updates on the book’s availability, new studies on testosterone, and how TRT has been working for many men around the world.

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theonyxpath · 6 years

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Of course, Mid-Winter is a lot colder, but inside where the convention is, it’s nice.

Above, is an illustration from They Came From Beneath the Sea! of the sorts of terrors, horrors, and monsters, you face while playing our new game. Right now, its Kickstarter is doing really well for a totally new game, yet we’d love more backers getting a chance to playtest via the Early Access version available to every backer.

And, we’d also love folks to download the backer previews of the actual text and let us know what you think. Feedback now would be super helpful.

Even though it is Storypath-powered game, we’ve added enough extra materials that allow for not only a straight-forward style of playing, but also some pretty hilariously meta sessions as well, and we’d love to hear how those new elements like Quips and Props work around your table.

Although, as Matthew lets us know in the Media-focused part of the Blurbs below, at least one group is mixing They Came From! with their World of Darkness gaming! We had expected a bit of Trinity Continuum or Scion mixing since They Came From! is also a Storypath system game, but it’s cool that folks are diving in with other mash-ups as well.

CtL2e Jumpstart art by Tilen Javornik

In mentioning Mid-Winter, I was, of course, mentioning the convention that all of us from Onyx Path will be attending at the end of the week. We’ll have all of our game lines being played, sometimes with the very folks who wrote and created them, so it’s a rare chance to play with our whole crew.

We’ll also have our Q&A event late Thursday afternoon in the opulent Founder’s Room. You have to sign up, but once you enter that sanctum, we have a bunch of announcements of upcoming projects, some alcohol, and we pretty much do an AMA right there in a far more intimate space than your usual panel/seminar meeting room.

Previous years have been hilarious, and lots of stories were shared. It’s the right sort of way to meet up at a con where we’re already mixing it up with the attendees in games, in the restaurants and bars, and even the hotel lobbies.

Lest you think it’s us that are being all spontaneously open and stuff all by our lonesome, that’s not the case. Mid-Winter has a deliberate openness and friendliness that’s fostered by the whole crew that runs it – so you get a lot of attendees that go every year. I’m personally looking forward to seeing our Mid-Winter friends again this year!

Changeling20th Players Guide art by Drew Tucker

Now, the other part of Mid-Winter is that almost our entire Onyx Path Monday Meeting team will be there in order to have our annual Onyx Path Summit.

The Summit is where we’ll look at what went down in 2018 and look towards how we want 2019 to go. We’ll do some team-building exercises, and we’ll laugh a bit, and probably cry a bit too. It’s a rare chance to get us all together, and it sets the tone and direction for our decisions throughout the year.

Since that’s happening, and we’ll also be announcing new projects at the con, it makes sense that I talk about our plans for 2019 more next week, and so this week I’m going to give you our thoughts about what were the highlights of 2018 – the year that was.

Usually, it’s just our crew doing this, but this year Matthew asked for thoughts from our YouTube viewers, so I’ll be including some of the ones that talk directly about Onyx Path highlights – even though it’s awesome that folks had a great D&D campaign last year or that sort of thing.

Here’s the link for that vid and the comments: https://youtu.be/hgs2PdZyR-s

Here Then, the 2018 Highlights:

From Mighty Matt McElroy: A highlight for me was seeing the community content programs for Pugmire and Scarred Lands expand with new titles and fresh ideas from the fans of those games. I can’t wait to see what people come up with for 2019.

From Dynamic Dixie Cochran: My highlight was coming on full time and immediately doing the (pretty successful) Dragon-Blooded Kickstarter! I’m also excited we started the Pathcast and shipped Changeling: The Lost Second Edition. (I can’t pick one thing!)

From Erlan P on YouTube: Happy holidays The best gaming experience was playing Scion, the Wolfsheim story. The players decided to fight the werewolf to stop the Kindernacht. They fought all the main werewolf character and the Fenrir. The battle was so brutal that at the end of it one character died, two were incapacitated (one even losing a whole arm!) and the only one standing was at -4, just barely moving. It was supposed to be an impossible battle, they should had realized it eventually and ran, but no one gave up, and at the end they were victorious.

From Mirthful Mike Chaney: Dragon-Blooded pdfs going out a little earlier than promised and Lost 2e shipping early.

From David F on YouTube: Favorite moment tied to gaming in 2018 was watching my wife light up when I told her that her likeness would be used in Geist 2.0 (close tie with Scion for her favorite game).

From Monica Valentinelli: A highlight for me was seeing the D&D community geek out about Scarred Lands, Mau, and Pugmire at GameHole Con. It was fun to nerd out.

From Fast Eddy Webb: Getting Monarchies of Mau into backer hands, and early to boot!

From Drew1749 on YouTube: My favorite gaming experience this year was the Changeling 20th Anniversary game one of my friends ran for us. The premise of the game was fairly simple but was so much fun, we were the guardians of a freehold that existed within a middle school in Ohio. As such the heroes were all given jobs as members of the school’s faculty regardless of qualifications. There were several groups of changelings in the freehold, each with different assignments and responsibilities. Some students were also Changelings and we had to protect the students and freehold in general from outsiders and fae intrusions.

There a lot more to Drew’s comment, and it’s all good stuff so check it out if you can, but I had to keep these to a paragraph. Sorry, Drew.

From Impish Ian Watson: Not to beat a dead horse, but it was great having the Kickstarter for the Trinity Continuum, getting the backer PDFs out, and hearing from so many excited fans about the new books.

From Stray Reaper on YouTube: Best Gaming Experience for 2018 definitely has to be returning to my friend’s kitchen sink Chronicles of Darkness game. I got to finally play around as an Acanthus.

From Brandon S on YouTube: The highlight for me this year has been my World War II Werewolf the Apocalypse 20th game (which I take far too much joy in stylizing as WWIIWW) set behind enemy lines in Arnsberg, Germany mere days before the British dambusters flooded the area.

From Matthew “The Gentleman Gamer” Dawkins: My highlight was Vampire-themed, and could be one of two things. It was either the release (to wide acclaim) of Beckett’s Jyhad Diary, or the excellent writing and successful Kickstarter funding of Chicago by Night for V5. We turned that book around in an efficient manner, and I feel due to the diversity and mixed experience of the writing team, we put together one of the best Vampire sourcebooks ever made.

And finally, from Thiago H: I always like Scion, but got the same problems everyone knows. Crunked system, complicated character creation, the combat system was hard do explain (but I thought it amazing anyway). And then, 2nd edition came. And man, I got really surprised. The system is amazing, character creation is awesome, we have heroism, the players can contribute actively in the narrative, they really weave LEGENDS as the group progresses. I fell deeply in love with everything.

Thiago also has a lot more to say that I couldn’t fit, but well worth reading. Thanks!

Dystopia Rising: Evolution art by Michele Giorgi

Finally here’s a bit of a wrap-up that could count as my highlight of last year, Ian’s year-end review of all the many projects we released last year, as well as a list of all of our Kickstarters. Phew! http://theonyxpath.com/release-retrospective-2018/

Just look at them all, with so much more to come in 2019! Do I have to say it? It’s almost like we proving that Onyx Path has:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!) funded on Kickstarter in less than 48 hours and we’ve passed through the first couple of Stretch Goals including getting Larry Blamire to illustrate a horizontal scene usable on a screen, two entries for a book of additional soggy Threats, a T-Shirt, an added Adventure Scenario, and we are rising up on the next goal!

TCFBtS! has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS that take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11! You can see the actual play here:

Check out the teaser:https://youtu.be/kxLydk4t76s

Hope to see you there back in the 50’s, fighting watery menaces and cracking wise!

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Illustration by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast is coming direct from the Mid Winter Convention, where our three troubadours of terror have a rare opportunity to actually all be in the same room while recording! Plus an equally rare chance to talk with almost everybody from Onyx Path and a huge number of our creators, fans, and random Milwaukeans trying to get in from the cold!

https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

On our channel Matthew Dawkins is recapping his campaign of Scion that he’s named “Tokyo Noir”. It sounds like a lot of grisly fun and mixes the children of Bishamon, Kissh?ten, and Loki in a murder mystery. Matthew is involving viewers in deciding the direction of the game, so get in early with your suggestions! https://youtu.be/cKpHy3W4Z-E

YouTuber Stuart Armstrong has put together an interesting video on crossing over They Came from Beneath the Sea! with the World of Darkness! Check it out and give his channel a subscription: https://youtu.be/2wBFny9mSng

One of our forumites, Cinder, has started a written recap of their campaign of They Came from Beneath the Sea! It’s in its early stages right now, but you can subscribe to the thread for updates: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/cavaliers-of-mars-and-pugmire/1278691-explorers-of-the-fathoms-tcfbts-actual-play

The Story Told RPG Podcast interviewed Matthew Dawkins regarding They Came from Beneath the Sea! and his fun, informative interview can be found here for all interested listeners: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/bonus-episode-4-they-came-from-beneath-the-sea-with-matthew-dawkins

The Twin Cities by Night Crew have a Scion 2nd Edition three part series that will be released this week.

The murder of a Scion of Ra halts the progress of the sun across the sky. In response a group of strangers are unknowingly brought together by their divine heritage to investigate the crime.

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now 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 both rolling and rocking!

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 you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire 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! http://bit.ly/2w0aaEW

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

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

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

This week, we’re offering PDF and PoD versions of the Changeling: The Dreaming Map of Concordia on DTRPG and in a variety of materials on our RedBubble store!

CONVENTIONS

Start getting ready for our appearance at MidWinter THIS WEEK in January in Milwaukee! So many demos, playtests, secret playtests, and Onyx Path Q&As you could plotz!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST 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)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

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

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Let The Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

C20 Novel: Cup of Dreams (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Development

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

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

Manuscript Approval:

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Editing:

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Indexing:

Scion Origin (Scion Second Edition)

Scion Hero (Scion Second Edition)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Bunch of art out for approvals.

The Realm – Contracted.

Ex3 Monthly Stuff –

Chicago By Night – Contracting next bits.

C20 Player’s Guide – More art coming in and going to WW for approval.

Aeon Aexpansion – Going over the notes.

They Came From Beneath the Sea! – KS rolling.

EX3 Lunars – Most KS finals are in.

Signs of Sorcery – One more piece and then over to layout.

In Media Res – Contracted.

Hunter: The Vigil 2 – KS art in progress.

Shunned By the Moon – Got the notes, contacting artists.

Book of Oblivion

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Geist 2e

Proofing

Scion Hero – Indexing.

Scion Origin – Indexing.

M20: Gods and Monsters

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats

Trinity Core – Gathering errata.

Trinity Aeon – Gathering errata.

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Sending errata to devs.

CtL2e Condition Cards

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg)

At Press

Wraith 20th – New cover proof approved. Everything else is printing.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printed.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Lost 2e Screen – At Studio2, shipping with books to KS backers.

Scion Screen – At Studio2.

Changeling: The Lost 2e – PoD proof coming.

CtL2 Jumpstart – PoD processing.

Fetch Quest – Manufacturing finishing.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE:

After much brouhaha, my granddaughter Natalia came into this world yelling loudly on Jan. 2nd. Yelling loudly being a pretty typical method for dealing with the world in our family.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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autoirishlitdiscourses · 3 years

Text

Discourse of Monday, 28 June 2021

Twentyeight I was able to avoid treating your time off. 34: A cultural meta-narrative and is entirely understandable, but it is so very lucid and engaging. —I think that you make the switch function in GOLD you should do now, you email the professor and see whether you hit a snag that students should have emailed me to print and scan and email a new signature form?

Duchamp's interest in the context of the passage in question before lecture starts that day already. Let me know if you have more or less entirely for the quarter a very good job digging in to a specific claim about the way that doesn't mean that you inform people who grow up to 1. Again, I'm certainly sympathetic to how other people to talk about, and gave what was overall an excellent job! Perhaps most importantly, though, you currently have a wonderful human being. Doing this effectively if the maximum possible number of important concepts for the Self. She wrote a very good textual accuracy; impassioned sense of disappointment and ambiguity and of putting them next to each individual Irish person is is measured, the attraction of the recording and allow the group. You had a good set of ideas here, though. Me in his collection Illuminations. Feel better soon. Instead, make sure neither of you is the deal I will give you a good job digging in to the department requesting a room, were everywhere but operated independently and no one else at all by any means, essentially, is generally quite engaging. But you're a bright student and good luck in every single one of the text. My first, and that some of them into a set of close readings would help you to take whatever is appropriate for the midterm; is there. —Please discuss your paper topic is potentially a good quarter. Picking a selection from closing dialogue with Old Mahon 6 p. He is also doing a strong second. 2:30 you're likely to score better on assignments and exams than students who often come in. This document is an A paper is straining to say about what you should spend at least at the end. That is, knowing what your primary payoff is—and then map those letter grades is as follows: Up to/two percent/for/excellent delivery, and you related your discussion on Wednesday evenings and bring them for you.

Grade Is Calculated in Excruciating Detail: Prof. There are no cries of unfair! These are actually doing the assignment requirements, specialization requirements, specialization requirements, minor requirements, and your structure for the term. Mr Power's mild face and said so on the section meetings part of the novel. I say that, too, but it does good things to say and got a lot of ground to cover here would be to enhance your presentation. And Fishes; Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a literary topic; you have any questions about how you want the rest of the other students were engaged, and what this means and how is the only student who missed the professor's English 150 Fall 2013 UCSB One-Acts Festival lots of good ideas mentioned in your reading more than you might take here would help you to open people up for discussion: Midterm review. I almost certainly build on existing scholarship, you must email me at least a short description of your project, to put everything you know, that particular speech out of that first draft and worked out for you, too, that it would help to have let it motivate other people have expressed interest in food-related parts of the poem he is to talk. You've written a better job with something happier.

What is my 11th quarter as a whole. You picked a wonderful book that will result in a substantially improper manner, and prejudicial or hate speech will not hurt your grade provided that everyone in section tomorrow night. It's OK to e-mail me and make sure that I have made any concessions to the 5 p. Let me know if you want to do is produce an audio or video recording of your paper topic that probably has plenty of room for crashers, and if you want a recording of your argument from lecture or section in advance when they want to talk about papers, too. I think that you've got a good job of getting people to speak, though, that there are any number of impressive ways, and religion, and it's certainly appropriate. I think that your thoughts is then used to be. Overview: Recall from my other section's turn to get through emails as quickly as possible. You Are Old discussion of the 19th century, particularly in such an exaggerated form as, say, Italian Futurism Giacomo Balla, for that week short version is that one way to help you to place at the top eight or so describing what you'll want to take an emergency phone call during section this week tomorrow! I did better. Actually, I feel that the quality of Molly's thoughts to come to my preferences and how they affect your grade they're just suggestions that might work as expected/, you should definitely be there on time or the student who answered eight in the How Your Grade Is Calculated document to 0. Could never like it passes differently when you're going to structure your weekend! Alternately, if your thoughts would pay off, not Patrick Kavanagh, I can see that, then this change to concepts of nationalist identities to have let it sit for a selection from the section, probably due to proofread effectively in the right to cut it off between 2: Last day to change as you can engage in a research paper, and making yourself do it, but not which presentation you'd done. If you give a more fluid, impassioned delivery of the concept and/or, perhaps, provided that you should talk more would be perfect, most of it. Hi! For next week. So, what do you see the world. Of course. You mention Beckett there is in this regard I promise. Pre-1971 British and Irish Currency Prior to 15 February 1971 Decimal Day in the traditional southern English May Day celebrations, and your presence in front of the poem's meaning for me to respond to alternate viewpoints will help to focus your paper; I think that you need to be able to get back to the satisfaction of natural desires but as it is probably unnecessary, because this is already an impressive move, because I realized that their behavior was not proofread quite as clear as I'd like to recite. Grading Rubric for Analytical Papers I expect or want you to punch through to an A-range paper. I think that there is at least, that's fine. What if that works better for those who want to make sure that you talk in detail than we can actually discuss during the night before your performance tomorrow! The short version for this, and I cannot die. 415 435 B 400 415 B-, and I think it's fair to the growing poet, as well as in life.

I'm so sorry to say I don't know how well you do well in this task are defining your key terms in your selection; changed hell to heaven to heaven to hell; changed or to post it to be over. I'll see you tomorrow night! This may be that sitting down and sketching out a printed copy of The Butcher Boy and your paper graded by the wall of the text that they want to say to each other think about the question will ultimately be: ultimately, I'd like you. Have a good performance even though she almost certainly won't hurt your grade, but leaves it as representative, and how does this in terms of the work you're reciting if I recall them in episodes 2 and 7, I can give an impassioned and fluid, and you touched on some important ways. I am not fishing, but societies themselves differ about what happens to Gertie around 8 p. There are a lot of ways; one is simply to wait until I'd spent the day on which Ulysses is quite a good job of thinking about identity in the How Your Grade Is Calculated in Excruciating Detail the John Synge Vocabulary Quiz from October 17, Pokornowski's midterm review session. 133.

You have a lot. Just let me know if you just ran out of an existentialist trope—which is an unlucky month for marriages may be just a little bit happier: if we're going to be making sure that I didn't anticipate at the beginning of the recording of the entire weekend as one of the nationalist debate 5 p. We will have to pick for you, we know what the textual selections won't be genuinely random. Just as impressively, your readings of The Stare's Nest; and c get at least one fundamental problem that keeps her alive up to you earlier but the most important would be most helpful at this point, having hung them on these issues, and you met them at you unless you have any questions: I think, are there not other ways to the connections between the selection. /Discussion grade? Let me know if you describe what needs to slow down and start writing in a way into a more analytically incisive paper. I will also negatively impact your paper most needs to be helpful to think about the relationship between the selection you made the largest contributions to the overall logical and narrative themes in a more natural-appearing and impassioned performance that was helpful rather than the paper to support that particular idea. 3:30 work for a long selection and have a chance to jump in, but I completely appreciate that. 4% a little hard to get at this point would be to examine Irish, what are our responsibilities to each other. One aspect of the text that will either open up topics by asking the other, he just shrugged instead of seven, IDs out of that first draft, letting it sit and then ask yourself what they wanted to say for sure. You are perfectly capable of tipping the scales in this paper. But I do not check my email during the quarter. The other students in the assignment into a Fish. Have a good way to do a good job this week! You managed time well and that your paper graded by Friday. I will be holding openings for you if you have unusual, and in terms of discussion in a close visual reading of Irish literature that you think about how to do as soon as you can point people to benefit from making your teaching practices visible I post every slideshow I develop, so although there's no overlap in your paper's structure. Overall, how effective is a list of the Western World?

Jolly old woman. However, you should definitely both be very different things by it. I disagree with you to reschedule—they will be none. Does that help? Don't lose heart while reading through, because the opportunity for Ulysses none of these are of equal or even any real need for me to boil down to thanking the previous group and you touched on some important material in here. All in all, I think that O'Casey's portrayal of home that resonates with you, and there are no meaningful contributions in a close-read. Because the textual juxtaposition that you've done a lot of things well here, and it's not you, plus a third of a bar with an urgent question the night before will incur a penalty to the professor offered to the major ones for the quarter, this is that it is necessary to call on you before the paper's overall point here is some meaningful reason why you're picking that particular speech out of the subject in section three was a wonderful break, too, that connecting Lucky's speech and demeanor is expected from everyone in class this quarter. You're welcome to disagree in whole or part with the class, but you still have a basically solid, overall, people who never ask naive questions never stop being naive. Hi! Section meetings part of the poem I was too harsh on some relatively minor points of analysis. Let me know if you want to talk in detail than we actually getting Gerty's thoughts which would be to have to get back to you. Many students who propose personal topics sometimes have a hard selection. Let me know if you have selected after your memorized part had ended was also helpful in any reasonable way, OK? Thanks for letting me know if you want to go, which words and ideas of others, please let me know if you have any questions arise sufficiently far in advance will help you here, but neither is that your situational and historical texts might support that negative value-judgments about sex before sleep, or that you would have liked generally lost points for discussion you're opening up and talking, fall 2013 at UC Santa Barbara. You did an excellent lecture/discussion as a whole you'd have is to start writing.

I have posted a copy of Ulysses that's sitting in a way consistent with the play has your selection on pp. 40: A traditional form of communication, electronic or otherwise just want the paper. Even if someone else, but I think, is already an impressive move. Again, very articulate and have so many ways basically fair to Yeats's text, so overall they haven't started the reading. All in all, though, you had a low C in the assignment. That all sounds good to me/. However, it was more lecture-oriented than it would help to change margin sizes: Everyone has received at least the first place; something similar could be. /Her ideas, and it's OK to e-mail off to be a tricky business, and what exactly is at stake. You picked a good job here in a close-read. I think is one way to focus on that performance, you should shoot for it to yourself while you're making both up is a minor inconvenience. Section Guidelines handout, there is no ceiling in my cubicle, doesn't have to score less than half a second-generation descent of emigrants who left Nigeria but who lives in Ireland and other visual arts as texts, how effective is he concerned with Irish nationalism, the course-related tasks in this regard are.

I myself am less than 18 points on the other; time and wind up wanting to present itself in some sort of productive ways to get this to be any thematic overlap in your selection specifically enough that they haven't started the old Tiddly Show to started these stories; changed answered to said on 1. Anyway, my response to divergent views and responded in a way that is minimally acceptable will result in automatic course failure because you are the specific feedback in response to the city, and will incur a heavy task: Judge Woolsey's decision that/Ulysses/11—it's just that I'm familiar with immediately suggests itself to me, and how it supports your main payoff—then restructure your paper reads more like an overview or a test is scheduled to perform these calculations! /Verb agreement errors when speaking, because that will make what I think personally that the conversation. Throwing the candy was a much cleaner text than the syllabus says they should have a really, any your grade, but want to talk about in section, as it often does not necessarily the order I will still be calculating your grade back, but this is what you have an A-would be a substantial deviation from the analytical depth and with sensitivity; written gracefully and in a strong job here, I think. You really have done some solid work here. That's very good job in this passage: If you are quite open-ended questions productively this is what your overall argument will be able to download the document How Your Grade Is Calculated in Excruciating Detail the John Synge Vocabulary Quiz from October 17, Pokornowski's midterm review session, Pre-1971 British and Irish Currency Prior to the first person to advise you on whether or not this lifts you to ten pages. I can just bring it to you. Is rather complex in the hope that they understand and appreciate any aspect of the country, though, that looking at large-scale themes to specific textual evidence, and has no effect one way to do evil. C 350 365 C-range grades, which has been fun to have seen in the maximum possible number of very open-ended rather than that, I think that there was a much longer paper. The Butcher Boy here. I think that there's a web page I can attest from personal experience it can be traced through your questions touches on. 5% on the specific feedback and a grade estimate, but you are responsible to the poem is very engaging, and that you should email me and I'm sorry for your section to advance an original line of your material, and your writing is so strong that it would have helped to remedy that problem. You picked a longer paper. 277 in the context of that is closely tied to the original.

9 and Godot that might have been underrepresented in the paper the clock and think about specific questions general questions by bridging toward them with short, but because excellent papers avoid presuppositions, specify exactly what you're doing, you should be on campus never quarter. Raw grade: You may also be a constant problem throughout the novel close-reading exercise of your suggestions are potentially productive ways to do is to provide the largest overall benefit to the decimalization of 1971.

In a lot of good things to say that I can reasonably fault you in section tonight. I guess what I'm expecting it's a microcosm of some aspects of the room, were engaged and engaging although I will not necessarily the order I will not grant extensions beyond the length limitation work productively will just mean that Yeats was talking about the stare, but you complement it with a good student and good choice. You've both been very successful paper. Keep an eye on a timekeeping device so you can reschedule you for a specific question: can you send me at least 84% on the web? Your third option is to talk about why these are very impressive moves. Here is what is off limits from those poets: Eavan Boland reading White Hawthorn in the literal sense of rhyme, too, about whether you hit a snag that students have jobs and sports and family emergencies and about nine billion other things differently. Section hits its average level of familiarity with the second, larger claim would distract you from the plan; remember you said it was more lecture-oriented than it already does. I agree with opinions that have been thinking about, say, I feel that you discovered that I have one of these as a whole, I will take this long to get back to you; I still crossed out the issues that you're all scheduled for the quarter by as much as it opens up an analytical lens, and Ocean's Bad Religion was a pretty good at picking up cues that tell me when large numbers of people who were born and raised and have marked it as a whole, and wanted additional feedback, I think, not writing a report that's an overview on a second time; missed four sections this quarter, and how you can make absolutely sure that there was a productive way to meet with you, provided that each absence is a mid-century American painter Willem de Kooning's Woman series is full of rather depictions that are informed by a group. Hi! Just let me know if you have a nuanced argument, including no substantial gaps while you were on track throughout your time and managed to respond to any particular essay format has to be more help.

Here, though: Some of Synge's play, that's perfectly fine: remember that this is partly a cultural difference in how people reacted to a secret resignation. For that reason, you can absolutely supplement it with a GPA of 3. Don't want to deal with the earliest part of being perfectly clear, despite the odd misstep here and there, too. Unless you manage to produce a paper less effective than it could be said about Gino Severini, another Italian futurist who frequently painted dancers, especially, of Godot, and I will not hurt you, then go ahead and changed I'd say that you explicitly look for cues that this may be that you have an idea of romance has or has not always an easy thing to remember to send your message as a thesis while you write eight full pages/, please let me know. Hi! Everything looks good to me as soon as possible you'll get that to give a strong knowledge of Irish/femininity/in vocally reproducing the/optional section Thanksgiving week. 5% which would have needed to—but being flexible may be that the other Godot groups for several reasons, I have to take. What your primary focus should be helpful in any way that mothers and motherhood are used as props tonight and will not hurt your grade, and it may not be on campus on Monday. This quarter, which has Calc, a Batman, a very strong delivery. Discussion notes for section attendance and participation. Really nice arrangement. Welcome to ask the College themselves, not a suggestion, not a full schedule this week. Your message got buried under a bunch of meetings early in your selection specifically enough that I was happier then. That Show Just How Bad Things Are For Young People via HuffPostBiz Welcome to the group as a rejection of traditional romantic norms rather than race, and try to force yourself to do with the Easter Rising, and modeling this for everyone. I had better news for you.

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

0 notes

bartsugsy · 7 years

Note

can i add my voice to the people wanting to know what the bartsugsy theory is... I have my own theory which involves vic volunteering to raise the baby so it'll be interesting to hear what other people are thinking

Ok. Ok. I’m gonna write this bc Lena @stolemyhheart keeps taking the piss out of me for having written more Rebecca meta since Thursday than Robron meta lmao.

It’s not so much a theory as it is an observation (gotta love the Drought). This really was all constructed entirely with @itwasjustmisplaced and so is at least 50% hers too.

(Although it does delve into theorising too bc why not, at this point)

This also ties very closely into the idea that all of the stories that started with SSW are starting to come to a close - because that’s where this started.

“This” being - for this entire robron storyline - both Robert planning to propose and Rebecca’s interference.

But beyond that, and where this theory comes into play - Adam and Victoria have been consistently involved in the story, on the fringes of the action, even in the ways that don’t make sense, whilst at the exact same time ultimately having a very similar story of their own play out.

Which, to me, is suspicious.

And it started with SSW.

A pre-warning: this is so Extra that I feel like I should be embarrassed about it but whatever, I’m gonna live up to my URL and my love of reading too deeply into things so just… humour me, I guess.

Here we go:

The Bartsugsy Theory

The general gist of the Bartsugsy Theory is that Adam and Vic have been not just involved in Robert and Aaron’s storylines, while also having their own very similar storyline running parallel and will soon be on the sideline of a storyline that directly parallels a past Vadam storyline (the Johnny/Vanessa baby daddy swap). The ultimate purpose is to say that there are too many similarities in play for this not to be purposeful on some level and as such, potentially leading somewhere in-plot.

There’s a lot of different threads to this, so let’s take it one at a time.

1. Vadam currently have a storyline that directly mirrors Robron’s storyline

Now, we know that robron often have storylines that are basically vadam storylines amped up to 12 (like the wedding and impending trial, for instance), but never have we seen them run simultaneously.

Upon examination, it’s like looking at the robron storyline through a funhouse mirror - it involves babies, break ups, drunk cheating with an ex, miscommunication from the start.

Victoria wants a baby and Adam gets slowly, sort of reluctantly on board. Adam finds out he can’t have kids and flips out. He and Vic try to work through it and really struggle with the idea. Adam and Vic sort of break up, get back together again and then break up again, and then Adam gets drunk and kisses an also drunk Vanessa, who he has cheated on Vic before with. She looks horrified and he immediately backs off and apologises. Adam literally sort of just loses the plot a bit, Vic finds out despite Adam’s efforts to keep it secret and she breaks up with him.

Aaron is in jail and Robert is finding it hard (and doesn’t realise that Aaron is finding it harder). Aaron develops a two week spice addiction, Robert is unable to see him for 24 hours and then when he finally does, sees a person who is not Aaron his husband. Robert flips out, gets drunk, tries to destroy their future home by trashing the mill and then tries to destroy their future by sleeping with Rebecca, who may or may not also be drunk we just don’t know. Rebecca gets pregnant and Robert tries to keep it quiet, and then when he eventually succeeds, tells Aaron anyway because he feels guilty, because character development (for another post this is gonna be long enough as it is) and they stay together.

There are a lot of similarities, and that has helped the robron plot move along in numerous ways.

Which brings us to:

2. Adam and Victoria have been on the fringes of this Robron plot since it started with SSW.

Because it’s not just that we have these two storylines running concurrently, which in and of itself is weird but not cause for actual suspicion, it’s that they’re also so entertwined - and only in one direction.

So, we start at the beginning. This story started with Rebecca -

(Well, no, technically it started with Andy, but we don’t have all day and he’s largely irrelevant to the story at this point - the biggest catalyst for most of the things that have happened in this storyline, outside of the proposal and wedding, is Rebecca)

Robert wanted revenge on Chrissie, so he called in secret weapon Rebecca White. A super solid Robert Sugden plan, I think we can all agree. He’s so great at plans. What a Star Planner.

Rebecca arrives at the village in her plotcopter on 11th October and her arrival starts the set up of a number of things - mainly, the fact that she and Robert used to be in a relationship and clearly still wants to be, the fact that she is easily manipulated by Robert, the Lachlan/SSW stuff and the fact that Robert is being… somewhat open with Aaron about why Rebecca is in town, but isn’t disclosing the fact that he got her there and is keeping her around by flirting heavily with her and playing with her apparently still present feelings for him.

Two days later, on the 13th, its Holly’s funeral. A few notable things happen here - Aaron and Rebecca meet for the first time and Rebecca sees Aaron and Robert together for the first time. Robert becomes markedly less kind to Rebecca where Aaron is involved.

This also happens to be the episode with the first ever Bartsugsy scene - a scene that literally sets up SSW and Robert’s plan to propose to Aaron.

Skipping ahead just a few days (although Vic is still very much involved as Robert’s one confidante as he plans to propose) - during SSW we have Vic and Adam coming to the aid of Robert and Aaron (because Vic had wanted to help Doug look for Ashley). It’s immense, it’s the most epic bartsugsy stuff in existence (not that there’s much competition smh) and it continues into the hospital scenes throughout the week and then in the Monday aftermath episode.

So… all this to say, Victoria and Adam were embroiled in Robert and Aaron’s storyline at the same time as Rebecca came along. Quite literally at the start of the storyline.

Rebecca’s function in the storyline? A catalyst for Lachlan to try to take his revenge on Robert, leading to the kidnapping plot, and tying in the continuing plot of the Sugdens vs The Whites.

Let’s flash forward some time, to the past few months, where this storyline obviously took a turn into what it’s become now. During this time, through November and December, as things are being set up, Robert and Aaron are having difficulties with Rebecca and jealousy and Robert’s manipulations of her and Adam and Victoria decide that they want to start trying for a baby.

I’ve said this before, but I’ve been sort of looking at this current leg of the story as being pillared by two arguments - the January argument just before they were about to get married and the reveal argument, with the midway turning point being the Incident.

Here are some ways in which Adam and Vic continue to be present throughout the story:

In the january argument, Victoria is the one who interupts, who tries to talk both Aaron and Robert down and who ultimately sees Aaron beating up Kasim.

We have more bartsugsy scenes during the wedding and as Aaron goes off to prison and then, in our first instance of one of Vadam being a part of Robron’s story even when it doesn’t make sense, Adam gets roped into doing up the Mill. Adam, who is running the Scrapyard by himself (yes ok with the help of Robert, but he also has Liv and his own business and an impending breakdown to deal with) while Aaron is away, still finds time to help Ronnie refurb a whole house.

And why? What does it do, beyond put Adam in Robert’s orbit? It allows Adam and Ronnie to bond but they could have done that anyway. It makes no sense, why Adam would be given this particular role.

What it does mean is that, on the night of the incident, Adam is there to witness Robert have his meltdown and report back to Victoria, in hearing range of Rebecca (presumably as a way to make her ditch Ross as soon as she can, to go take care of him, because she’s still in love with him.)

In the second instance of Vadam being where they don’t belong, we have Victoria’s sudden friendship with Rebecca, which is only just now coming to a head, now that she knows about the baby being Robert’s. She has acted as Rebecca’s emotional mouthpiece, the one person who was championing Rebecca keeping the baby - likely coming from a place of suddenly not about to have her own. Given how supportive Chrissie has been, she could have played that role and it would have made far more sense - but instead, we have Victoira. Suddenly Rebecca’s best friend.

And agian, for what purpose? Because character-wise, it makes no sense? I think we really have yet to see how Vic might be used in this plot, but she’s very much present.

Even in the reveal ep, we get Vic and Adam helping Robert and Aaron move in, entirely seperately now that they’ve split. We have Aaron using Vic’s current situation to make an unknowing slight at Robert and make things harder for Robert. Then later we have Robert relying on both Adam and Victoria to look out for Aaron.

Vic and Adam see first hand the toll that Aaron being in prison takes on Robert, we have them playing a much more active role in keeping him calm than Chas does, for instance, or Diane (who is absent almost entirely). Since Aaron’s been out, we’ve had numerous sweet scenes of Aaron and Victoria talking - the two wronged spouses, in a way (although both contributed to the problems in their marraige as well, I’d argue)

They are everywhere, all over this story. On the flip side, Robert and Aaron have barely even dipped their toes into Vadam’s story, despite there being opportunity and reason.

Now, again, none of this is particularly unusual - Vic and Adam are typically individually Robert and Aaron’s go-to confidantes. It doesn’t tend to happen all that regularly though - and Vic and Adam are linked to the story through the Whites (or Ronnie, in Adam’s case) as much as they are Aaron and Robert.

Taking into consideration the big similarities between this story and Vic and Adam’s current story and just how closely everything is entertwined and has been since the start makes me think it was absolutely deliberate, though.

Which brings us to the final point:

3. Robert and Aaron are reliving Victoria and Adam’s past and no one has said anything

So, I’ve saidbefore that Aaron and Robert tend to live through stories that Vic and Adamhave already dealt with (and usually in ways that carry more narrativeweight).

This though? Thissort of takes the cake.

A refresher on theJohnny storyline, for those who may not remember:

Adam and Vic argue(about their engagement, I believe), they sort of break up don’t break up but vic does break off their engagement (ah fact checking), Adam bangs Vanessa,VIctoria and Adam get back together immediately afterwards and Vanessa fallspregnant. Vanessa also happened to be sleeping with Kirin at the same time andso did not know who the father of her baby was. Victoria finds out about theone night stand during hers and Adam’s housewarming party, which takes place onthe day they move in together. It seems as though it’s Adam’s and Victoriaultimately decides to support Adam in becoming a father to baby Johnny untilultimately, they discover that the baby was in fact Kirin’s all along.

This storyline?

Robert and Aaronargued, they sort of but defintiely don’t break up, Robert bangs Rebecca,Robert and Aaron make up immediately afterwards and Rebecca falls pregnant.Rebecca also happens to be sleeping with Ross at the same time but apparentlyknows exactly who the father is. Aaron finds out when Robert tells him, Roberthaving cancelled their housewarming party, on the day they move in together.Aaron is, according to spoilers, going to try and support the idea of Robertbecoming a father to this baby.

Now…. if nothingelse, even if you don’t think the level of involvement Adam and Victoriacurrently have in this storyline is unusual, or the fact that Vadam’s fertilityissues have almost provided the backdrop to it - this, it’s pretty damn clear,is intentional.

The thing that really gives this credence, for me, is the housewarmingparty. For Aaron and Robert, that plot point is entirely unnecessary. Theydecide to plan a party a few days after they come home from a 5 week trip, onthe day they’re due to move into their house, when they don’t seem to evenstart either packing their things or planning their party until the day before.The party is cancelled so that Robert can come clean – and it feels like adirect shout out to what Adam should have done and the fact that these twostorylines are incredibly similar.

Saying this, the one difference – the thing that I’ve convenientlyskipped over so far?

The Johnny story revolves around a DNA test. Adam thinks he’s Johnny’sdad because Kirin’s dad Rakesh changes the DNA test results to make it so (ashe doesn’t want his teenage son to have to take responsibility of an infant).

In this story? One of the biggest complaints is that the show made adirect and very clear point to say that Rebecca and Ross slept together on the dayseither side of the Incident

(and probably more than that? They’re two young adults with no ties, whyshouldn’t they be spending their time boning – but canon very clearly statesthey banged at least those two times)

But that Rebecca seemed to just know that the baby was Robert’s – and everysingle person has believed her so far.

But of course, you know Vic and Adam have been going through their ownfertility story – as a consequence, both of them have brought up Johnny andAdam’s feelings towards him on multiple occasions. That story relates closelyto their current story, as we now know that Adam couldn’t have fathered Johnnyat all.

Adam and Vic, who are very much engrained in Robert and Aaron’s story,one of whom are always there during the big moments.

Adam and Vic, who are now going to know about the situation.

You see, my instinct is that all that needs to happen to get Robert toask for a DNA test is for either Adam or Vic to talk about it – and why wouldn’tthey? Why wouldn’t this be their first concern??? It literally only happened tothem last year.

Victoria, who is now about to have pointed issues with Rebecca for lying.

And Adam, who we know is going to be sharing scenes with Robert andAaron going forward, who, it’s hinted, might crash at the Mill for a bit whilehe has nowhere else to go.

I’m not saying that it’s not true,that Robert isn’t the Dad. I’m just saying that it’s suspicious that this isthe one big detail from Adam’s storyline that is absent and glaringly,incredibly so. I mean, I just can’t understand why we’ve never seen any medicalprofessionals in this story, why every piece of information we know about thepregnancy is straight from Rebecca’s mouth. It doesn’t make sense and it makesit feel unreliable.

And I don’t know how they could have this storyline continue and not haveeither Victoria or Adam talk about their experiences with Johnny – where theycouldn’t trust the DNA test but ultimately it came through.

It’s suspicious to me, as many things in this storyline are.

I feel like Vadam going through a similar situation, having the abilityto very closely emphasise with Robron in a number of ways, gives me hope thatthe four of them will help fix one another, that they can play sounding boardin ways that make sense, that they can bond over the similarities of thesituations they find themselves in.

And that ultimately, Victoria and Adam can use their experiences toshape the future of this storyline. Because honestly, why else would they be socontinually involved?

#this is almost 3000 words long and i've actively restrained myself #this isn't even all of it #anyway enjoy my slow descent into literal madness #bartsugsy #emmerdale meta #ed #answering anons

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sunnydaleherald · 7 years

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Monday July 23 - Sunday July 24

TARA: of course you want to bring your mother back, and I wish we could, but it's not possible.

DAWN: Why? You guys do magic for all kinds of things.

WILLOW: We do, but...

TARA: This is different. Magic can't be used to alter the natural order of things.

DAWN: But all you do is mess with the natural order of things. You make things float & dissappear and...

TARA: But we don't mess with life and death. Dawn.. I know how bad you hurt...

DAWN: You don't. They put her in the ground!

~~Forever~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Old icon set: Under the Influence (for Seasonal Spuffy) by

Chapter Thirty-four of Sunshine and Shadows (Buffy/Spike, M) by slaymesoftly

The Assassin (Giles, Angel, G, Marvel xover) by madimpossibledreamer

Promises (Giles, G) by will_conqueror1

Pulchritudinous (Buffy/Spike, E) by

Fred at the Mall (Fred, Cordelia, T) by Chesirecat53

In the Lioness's Mouth (Wesley/Lilah, T) by azaleaknight

Give Me a Break (Xander, Spike, Buffy, G) by mearcats

[Chaptered Fiction]

Sanctuary IV: Labyrinth Ch. 3 and 4 (Buffy/Giles, E) by DHW

In a Corner of My Soul Ch. 136 () by DragonyPhoenixEnsemble, T

The Watcher's Diary Ch. 113 (Giles, Buffy, T) by endlessmuse

Permission Ch. 6 (Buffy/Spike, T) by EllieRose101

Rewind Ch. 1 (Ensemble, T) by Braelyn Tash

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: Giles/Ethan Artwork by caztaliah

Artwork: Buffy by Adam Hughes

Artwork: BtVS Cartoon by heroofthreefaces

Artwork: A reboot cover for Fray: Future Slayer by unicornado

Artwork: The Watcher by Kuwlshadow

Video: Willow and Tara - You make my dreams come true by lezberanza

[Reviews & Recaps]

BTVS rewatch S3 E2 “Dead Man’s Party” by wishiwasmorticia Et Al.

BTVS rewatch S3 E3 “Faith, Hope, and Trick” by wishiwasmorticia

[Community Announcements]

challenge 557 - thunder at femslash100

Underheard: a Rec Comm for Underappreciated Fanfiction at underheard

Weekly Round Up by summer-of-giles

Monday, July 24, 2017 - Song titles by fic-promptly

Bangel Week August 20-26 Between the 13th and 19th of August we’re having a Buffy/Angel appreciation week! Contribute in any way you can, whether that means making gifs, writing meta, or anything you can think of. Use the tag #bangelweek as one of the first 5 tags to ensure we see your post in the tag and reblog it!by giffingbuffy

Are you in the UK and interested in meeting fandom people? If you’re wary of a big convention but want to connect with likeminded fandom people in the UK then writerconuk might be the place for you.

[Fandom Discussions]

Five Favorite Buffy/Angel Scenes from a Non-Shipper's Perspective by itsnotmymind

Scoobies' Favorite Superheroes Here and Here and Here by Multiple Authors

Do you believe that there are demons who have a soul? by dreamsofghostsandstars

Fic Rec: Nightjar, by sparrow2000 by baudown

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer Characters’ Zodiac by hakmangaanime

Xander deserved to lose his eye by maybe-this-time

Willow for the meme!! by scienceofficer-winifredburkle

Character Meme by toomanyshipstoolittlelife

BtVS Meme by poorlymadesockpuppet

What's Andrew's favorite Star Trek shows in order? by kiranwearsscienceblues

If Fred Burkle hesitated by https://pousseywashingtondeservesbetter

Middle School Scooby Headcanons and More Middle School Scooby Headcanons by womanaction and a-mi-zivi

Angel (TV Series) Episode "Calvary" AU Questions by womanaction

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

PUBLICATION: Bleeding Cool ‘Slayers & Vampires’ Stakes A Claim On Buffy’s 20th Anniversary

PUBLICATION: Whedonesque Excerpt from 2009 NPR interview with Joss

PUBLICATION: Gay Geeks of New York GGNY: 6th Annual Buffy Sing Along Fundraiser

PUBLICATION: Huffington Post On Buffy, Supergirl, and the Burden of Queer Representation

PUBLICATION: TV Shows On DVD Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Confirmation, New Box image for 'The Complete Series: 20th Anniversary Edition'

#btvs #ats #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series #fan fiction #fan art #meta

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castleseason9 · 7 years

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Meet the Authors: Episode 12

Hi, and welcome to another edition of our periodic Meet the Authors series! Remember, you can always find all of our posts on this topic by going to our Meet the Authors tag.

Episode 12 Authors: Cris and Meg

Today we're introducing you to the authors of episode 12, Cris and Meg.

Read Episode 12: "Deadlier than Fiction" here!

Cris, AKA @seriestherapy, is a 25-year-old Spanish geek, who sometimes does some real life stuff in the time between an episode and another (or a book, or a movie...). Being an only child living in a small town in the middle of the mountains, she always had a lot of free time to dedicate to her hobbies, which include reading, writing, and skiing.

One night, she came across a fanfiction story about Castle, and hasn’t been able to stop reading them since then. At first, her mediocre level of English made it difficult to enjoy these stories, but as the years passed and she persevered, she was able to understand them better. Eventually, she started to translate some fics into Spanish, so that fans who had the same problem had access to them. Now, years later, she’s convinced that Castle fanfiction, and everything she’s learned from it, are a huge part of the reason why she’s an English teacher.

That’s how she got the idea for her episode, coauthored with Meg, which can be understood as a tribute to the awesome fanfiction writers in the Castle fandom. Cris realized that Castle had a lot of meta episodes over the years, like “Nikki Heat,” “One Life to Lose,” and “Dead from New York,” and they were hilarious. She thought it would be a good idea to have a meta episode of our own, to be enjoyed by all the fandom, and thus, “Deadlier than Fiction” was born. However, having the idea is not enough, so she’s immensely grateful to Meg for all her help in the writing process.

Meg (known as @castleincalifornia on tumblr, Castle_in_CA on Twitter, and Meg Moore on FFnet) is a San Francisco Bay Area native who has dabbled in living elsewhere (San Diego, Michigan, Mexico) for a decade before returning and settling in the Bay Area once more. She’s mom to a 16-year-old son who takes the responsibility of keeping her on her toes very seriously. By day, she works as a family nurse practitioner, and if you ask her, she’ll tell you it’s the best job in the world. There’s never a dull moment.

Meg started watching Castle in the middle of season 2. She was in grad school at the time, and when the show first aired in March 2009 as a midseason replacement, she thought, “I’m too busy in school to waste my time on a show that will probably end up canceled.” Of course, she ended up being completely (and happily) wrong about the show’s fate, and after watching “A Rose for Everafter” and “Sucker Punch” (and getting hooked instantly), she quickly got caught up on the season 1 and 2 episodes that she had missed. She never missed a Monday after that, and when “Always” aired, her inner fangirl went completely bonkers and had no real life people to commiserate with. That was when she sought out online fandom and fanfic, and the rest is history. Most people on Tumblr/Twitter know her for her tag rants and the use of a certain hashtag about an actor’s face.

When Meg was asked to collaborate with Cris on her episode, "Deadlier than Fiction," she jumped at the opportunity. An episode about fandom and fanfic? Yes, please! Cris was the creative genius behind much of the episode, and deserves credit for the case and how it progressed, but Meg was happy to contribute.

As for the episode she wrote, Meg drew from her own experiences as a single parent to write "Ladykiller" [coming next week!]. As mother to a very protective son, she wanted to explore what that kind of protectiveness would look like between Martha and Castle. Also, she got to write 39-week pregnant Beckett. That was a treat!

Read Cris's other fanfic on ffnet, here. Read Meg's other fanfic on ffnet, here.

Thanks for reading! We'll be back again with another installment in a few days, so stay tuned.

#Meet The Authors #castle season 9 #virtual castle season 9 #seriestherapy #meg moore #episode 12

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newstfionline · 8 years

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What happened when one school banned homework, and asked kids to read and play instead

By Valerie Strauss, Washington Post, February 26, 2017

Mark Trifilio, principal of the public pre-K-5th grade Orchard School in Vermont, sat down with the school’s 40 educators last summer to discuss the soon-to-start new school year and homework--how much kids were getting and whether it was helping them learn.

Trifilio had been pondering the issue for some time, he said, concerned that there seemed to be an uneven homework load for students in different classrooms within the same grade and that the differences from grade to grade didn’t make sense. He had looked up research on homework effectiveness and learned that, generally, homework in elementary school isn’t linked to better academic performance--except for after-school reading.

So at that meeting with teachers, he proposed an experiment: stopping all homework in every grade and asking students to read on their own at school--or, if they were not ready to read on their own, to do it with a parent or guardian. He said he was surprised when every one of them--classroom teachers as well as those who work with special-education students and English-language learners--signed on to the idea.

“All 40 voted yes,” he said, “and not just yes, but a passionate yes. When do you get 40 people to agree on something?”

So they instituted the policy, as this page on the school website shows:

No Homework Policy Orchard School Homework Information Student’s Daily Home Assignment 1. Read just-right books every night--(and have your parents read to you too). 2. Get outside and play--that does not mean more screen time. 3. Eat dinner with your family--and help out with setting and cleaning up. 4. Get a good night’s sleep.

What’s the result?

Six months into the experiment, Trifilio says it has been a big success: Students have not fallen back academically and may be doing better, and now they have “time to be creative thinkers at home and follow their passions.”

Students are asked to read every night. Families are provided book recommendations, but kids are not required to fill out logs (because, he said, “we know that we all make up logs”).

Trifilio said he conducted a family survey asking about the policy, and most parents at the nearly 400-student school responded. The vast majority supported it, saying their kids now have time to pursue things other than math work sheets, and many report that students are reading more on their own than they used to. He said a small minority of parents are concerned that students are missing learning opportunities from doing homework and won’t be prepared for middle school.

The Burlington Free Press recently quoted parent James Conway as saying this about his son Sean, who is in kindergarten: “My son declared on Monday that he can read now and that he doesn’t need any help. So, something is working.”

What does the research say about the value of homework? While academics continue to study the subject, a meta-analysis of research on the subject, published in 2006 by researcher Harris Cooper and colleagues, is often cited. It found that homework in elementary school does not contribute to academic achievement and has only a modest effect on older students in terms of improving academic performance.

#Mark Trifilio #homework #elementary school homework

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gossipdepartement · 4 years

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Derek Hough Reveals If He’ll Contribute to Coronavirus Baby Boom

Thick as thieves! Derek Hough revealed that he and girlfriend Hayley Erbert are enjoying their “quality time” together amid the coronavirus quarantine.

Stars Who Are Adopting or Fostering Pets During Their Coronavirus Quarantines

“Being cooped up with my girlfriend, it’s been great,” Hough, 34, told Us Weekly exclusively on Monday, March 30, while promoting the upcoming World of Dancetour and his…

View On WordPress

#contribute #coronavirus #derek #hough #reveals

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theonyxpath · 6 years

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Yes, I’d say the creation of the 2nd Edition of Scion has taken the most thought (and Thoth) of any of our projects to date.

From the years spent iterating the Storypath System that powers Scion, to the years and years we and the Scion community dissected and recombined the first edition rules and setting, to the extensive amount of care the writers and developer Neall Raemonn Price have put into improving first edition in every way they could.

Like the Netjer (Egyptian) pantheon pictured above, all the pantheons have been researched and re-researched and run past experts in the myths and cultures they represent. You don’t in any way need a doctorate to use and enjoy them in your game, but now they more accurately reflect our current understanding of the gods and their cohorts.

Neall goes into this in his interview with Eddy and Dixie on last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast, and it is well worth your time to check it out if you’re a Scion fan. He goes into his thinking on Scion, as well as some of the often torturous steps we have had to take to get the first two game books created. If you’re not a Scion fan, he also reveals how Beckett’s Jyhad Diary was developed and written, and so basically, it’s a great overview of how RPG books are created.

You can check it out on your favorite podcast venue or directly on PodBean here: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

This Friday on the Onyx Pathcast, the Wraith Curse rears its ugly head, and the gang have to recreate an entire episode where they only mention Wraith in discussing TTRPGs and how they affect our non-game lives. Listen in to find out how the Wraith Curse manifests this time!

Dragon-Blooded art by Yiyoung Li

Now for myself, I too have thought a lot about Scion. From green-lighting the first edition and realizing that without something wahoo going on, the sales distribution system was going to under-order Scion: Hero, (“We need new games to sell!” “Here’s a new one we made.” “Wah? It’s new and has no sales history, how can we order that?”), to getting a copy of the book put into every retailer bag at that year’s GAMA trade show. Retailers who then ordered the game in such amounts that we had to do a second print pretty much before the book hit stores!

I’ve thought a lot about the dedication of the Scion community during the (very) lean years when almost nothing new came out, yet WW‘s old Scion forums were still getting more posts than entire other gaming websites. I read your posts you magnificent bastards, and incorporated that thinking into what we needed to do to elevate Scion for second edition.

I’ve ground my teeth in frustration during the time Storypath was iterating and while Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero have been incubating, and thought long and hard about the iterations and improvements that slowed things down. Were they worth it?

Well, the answer is yes, as far as I can see. Storypath is the simple base 10-sided pool system that can be expanded depending on your table’s interest in more shared storytelling that I hoped for. It is so flexible that we can add tweaks to it to emulate a post-apocalyptic scarcity game with zombies in Dystopia Rising: Evolution, and reflexive and meta humor mechanics in They Came From Beneath the Sea!.

And it enables play from man on the street to god levels of power for Scion and the Trinity Continuum.

VtR2 Guide to the Night art by Sam Araya

Scion has a built-in setting now, with the World, yet it is so designed that you can pull back on that and keep the god stuff hidden, or dial it to 11 and make the presence of the gods even more impactful on our normal world. I thought about whether adding the World was the right way to go – and had probably far more discussions with Neall than he wanted to have about it – but in the end, I think the default setting combined with the very easy options to alter that if you so choose hits the right spot.

It’s there and it’s rich and deep with history, but still open enough that your characters matter. Which is a big part of Scion, as I see it.

And one more thing that I’ve thought about A LOT, and have mentioned before, is that to me Scion is just getting started. The 4 book core of Origin, Hero, Demigod, and God is really the central spine of the possible ways Scion can be played. There’s the “Children of the Gods in Modern Times” that defines that spine, and we can provide a lot more projects that help build on that. We already have the Companion, Jumpstart, Ready Made Characters, and Bestiary being worked on.

But let’s change that to “Children of ____ in Modern Times”, or “Children of the Gods in _____ Times”, and we open up a huge range of possibilities if we start filling in those blanks!

Whew! I get pretty fired up thinking about all that.

Now, on to the Notes from our Monday Meeting today! We talked about:

1- We are all over the place online right now! It’s great! On this Tuesday night at 6pm Pacific US time, Pugmire: Homeward Bound begins on the Saving Throw Show Twitch channel. Here’s the intro video (it is amazing and beautiful!): youtu.be/qMpNHXjbZK8

And the link to their Twitch channel: twitch.tv/savingthrowshow

2- I did a wee little interview that surprisingly covered all sorts of Onyx Path and classic White Wolf stories and yet did not go into my love of pudding. Why is that surprising? Because the podcast interview was for Everybody Loves Pudding, and I was lured into this because I thought I’d be able to expound on the virtues and wonders of pudding. But, even without the pudding, it’s a pretty good chat – the guys were very on target with the questions. Not sure if you can say the same about my answers, but judge for yourself: http://www.everybodylovespudding.com/podcast/season-1-episode-22/

3- Eddy Webb is flying up to my neck of the woods and we’ll be going together to Save Against Fear, the convention that benefits the Bodhana Group, whose mission is to use tabletop gaming in their therapeutic efforts. Links are below in the Convention News section of The Blurbs, but we recently added that I’ll be there on Saturday signing Magic Cards and working on some artist proof sketches. So if you are near there and want your cards signed and to help a great group – come on by and meet me and Eddy!

4- On a related topic, Monica Valentinelli is working with Extra Life on a fundraiser where she’s playing D&D5e to help sick kids. Onyx Path has donated Scarred Lands PDF rewards at various levels of contribution, so here’s your chance to help a super cause and dig into Scarred Lands! https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=326323

M20 Gods and Monsters art by Claudio Pozas

5- If you missed the Prince’s Gambit casual Vampire card game by Justin Achilli Kickstarter campaign, we have copies of the card set available to buy from Studio2 and your local retailer, see below, and the basic set and booster pack will go on sale on Wednesday from DriveThru. The retail card set is all the cards from the Kickstarter in one box, and the DriveThru cards take all the cards and divide them into a basic set, and then the added cards from the KS in a booster pack. And, because we are asked this, Prince’s Gambit is a different type of game than VTES, it is not VTES, was not intended to replace VTES, and lots of us here are VTES fans and glad that new VTES cards are being made.

6- Finally, we have a fantastic sale going on at IPR for our Deluxe and Prestige books from our Kickstarter print-run overruns! Half off until the end of October, it’s our HalfoWeen Sale! The Mummy: The Curse Prestige Editions have sold out as of this writing, which means there are no more of them available for sale anywhere in the world! (Except EBAY, I’m sure. But other than that…)

I’m not finding a clever way to lead in to out tag-line this time, no wait, I just did. Damn:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Lo the darkness that lies like a pall over Chicago. The V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter arises in October!

We’re also working on the Kickstarter for They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!), which has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS. They take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

And our latest, the dice for Werewolf: The Forsaken 2e:

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).

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

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

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

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

The Prince’s Gambit basic card set and the added cards from the PG Kickstarter booster pack will both be available on DriveThru this Wednesday!

CONVENTIONS!

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will also be a featured guest (and RichT will be there at some point, too) at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City October 12-14, running a Women in Game Design panel, Eddy’s RPG Developer Bootcamp, and possibly making a surprise appearance at another event!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST 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)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

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

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Development

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

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Manuscript Approval:

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Editing:

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Indexing:

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution

M20: Gods and Monsters – AD’d and Contracted.

Geist 2e

The Realm

Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core) – Tracking down Core finals and going over Aeon Sketches.

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Chicago By Night – KS art finals in.

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats

C20 Player’s Guide

Aeon Aexpansion

They Came From Beneath the Sea! – Got KS artnotes out.

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Trinity Core – Working on symbols this week.

Trinity Aeon – Fancying up my Opnet images.

Ex3 Dragon Blooded

Proofing

Scion Hero – Inputting Neal’s 2nd proof changes.

PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented – KT has Steffie’s corrections in.

Scion Origin – Doing Neall’s errata changes, and swapping out the font.

VtR: Guide to the Night – Danielle is getting me her p.xx stuff on Monday and I’ll be wrapping this one up for approval by WW shortly thereafter.

Fetch Quest – Package design done

At Press

Monarchies of Mau and Screen – At Studio2. Dice and buttons getting ready to ship to Studio2.

Cavaliers of Mars – Backer copies all shipped out.

Wraith 20th – Printing the Deluxe interior, proofing cover.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Cav Talent cards – PoD proof coming.

Lost 2e Screen – Prepping files.

Scion Screen – Prepping files.

Prince’s Gambit core deck and booster PoD – On sale at DriveThru on Wednesday!

Changeling: The Lost 2e – Prepping files for printer.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: OK, celebrate this one or don’t as you see fit. I know a lot of my South Philly buddies do and will. All I know is today I didn’t get my new fancy brush recommended by Jeff Miracola today because no mail on the Monday holiday. And the last kid has off from school, so I get to hear him shouting at his friends as they multi-play a shooter. Some holiday.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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toptecharena · 6 years

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Annie Idibia is exhausted with people asking for financial assistance on her social media page.

Annie Idibia is sending a warning to those fans and followers who keep begging her for money on social media as it is beginning to piss her off.

The actress made this known on her Instagram stories on Thursday, August 16, 2018. According to her, in a series of post on her Instagram stories, she said she also has her own issues and struggles and is fed up with followers sending her messages asking for financial assistance.

“Please, I beg you stop asking me for money! It is beginning to really piss me off…n, worse are the people who constantly insult me if I don’t respond or say I don’t have.

“This is to every single person sending me account numbers, begging for money every sec of the day!!! Me sef I be human being oooo!!! I have my own issues and struggles!!! We are all fighting the same battle ooo I have my own issues and problems,” she said.

Over the recent months, some celebrities have come out to speak about fans and followers who send them messages on their social media begging for money. A few weeks ago, Stella Damasus had raised an alarm over these guys who keep begging for financial assistance without plans to work.

Stella Damasus says people would rather beg online than actually work

Stella Damasus has come for online beggars who would rather beg than even make an effort to work. The actress made this known on her Instagram page on Monday, July 2, 2018. According to Stella, a lot of people would rather beg online than actually work and when questioned, they get angry and end up calling out the celebrity.

“Like many others, I receive direct messages from young people asking me to help them out with their problems. They need money to pay for one thing or the other. 90% of the time it’s nothing medical or life-threatening, just money to pay rent or one course in school. I take time to read through their stories and help as many as I can but trust and believe that my contribution may not solve the problem totally. I try to follow up with these people and I find that they always end up in the same place (broke).

So I started asking them to learn a trade, use their talent, get mentors, learn from YouTube. If these people have enough data to come and ask for money on social media then they would definitely have enough to learn something from YouTube or other free webinars. The moment I start to ask them to learn something I become an enemy. Then I get messages like “if you don’t want to help me just say it. We, your fans have made you into a star but you can’t help us with your money”. It used to upset me but then I had to understand that the heart of a hungry person can lead to verbal diarrhea,” she said.

Uti says Instagram wasn’t created for begging

Uti Nwachukwu who was a former winner of Big Brother Africa has a message for those who use Instagram as a platform to beg, saying it wasn’t created for that purpose.

The actor and model took his frustrations to his Instagram page on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, where he blasted those who take every single opportunity to beg and request for things

Go to Source Author: Odion E. Okonofua Annie Idibia: “Stop begging me for money, it is beginning to piss me” – actress warns Annie Idibia is exhausted with people asking for financial assistance on her social media page. Annie Idibia is sending a warning to those fans and followers who keep begging her for money on social media as it is beginning to piss her off.

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apostleshop · 6 years

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Daily Reading & Meditation

Great News has been shared on https://apostleshop.com/daily-reading-meditation/

Daily Reading & Meditation

Daily Reading & Meditation Monday (June 11): “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven”

Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12aÂ Â

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven

Â Meditation: What is the good life which God intends for us? And how is it related with the ultimate end or purpose of life? Is it not our desire and longing for true happiness, which is none other than the complete good, the sum of all goods, leaving nothing more to be desired? Jesus addresses this question in his sermon on the mount. The heart of Jesus’ message is that we can live a very happy life. The call to holiness, to be saints who joyfully pursue God’s will for their lives, can be found in these eight beatitudes. Jesus’ beatitudes sum up our calling or vocation – to live a life of the beatitudes. The word beatitude literally

means “happiness” or “blessedness”.

God gives us everything that leads to true happiness What is the significance of Jesus’ beatitudes, and why are they so central to his teaching? The beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness that God has placed in every heart. They teach us the final end to which God calls us, namely the coming of God’s kingdom (Matthew 4:17), the vision of God (Matthew 5:8; 1 John 2;1), entering into the joy of the Lord (Matthew 25:21-23) and into his rest (Hebrews 4:7-11).Â Jesus’ beatitudes also confront us with decisive choices concerning the life we pursue here on earth and the use we make of the goods he puts at our disposal.

Jesus’ tells us that God alone can satisfy the deepest need and longing of our heart. Teresa of Avila’s (1515-1582) prayer book contained a bookmark on which she wrote: Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things pass – God never changes. Patience achieves all it strives for. Whoever has God lacks nothing -God alone suffices.

Is God enough for you? God offers us the greatest good possible - abundant life in Jesus Christ (John 10:10) and the promise of unending joy and happiness with God forever. Do you seek the highest

good, the total good, which is above all else?

The beatitudes are a sign of contradiction to the world’s way of happiness The beatitudes which Jesus offers us are a sign of contradiction to the world’s understanding of happiness and joy. How can one possibly find happiness in poverty, hunger, mourning, and persecution? Poverty of spirit finds ample room and joy in possessing God as the greatest treasure possible. Hunger of the spirit seeks nourishment and strength in God’s word and Spirit. Sorrow and mourning over wasted life and sin leads to joyful freedom from the burden of guilt and spiritual oppression.

God reveals to the humble of heart the true source of abundant life and happiness. Jesus promises his disciples that the joys of heaven will more than compensate for the troubles and hardships they can expect in this world. Thomas Aquinas said: “No one can live without joy. That is why a person deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures.” Do you know the happiness of hungering and thirsting for God alone?

“Lord Jesus, increase my hunger for you and show me the way that leads to everlasting peace and happiness. May I desire you above all else and find perfect joy in doing your will.”

Psalm 34:2-9

2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and be glad. 3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! 4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 8 O taste and see that the LORD is good! Happy is the man who takes refuge in him!

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Perfect blessedness is humility of spirit, by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367 AD)

“‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ The Lord taught by way of example that the glory of human ambition must be left behind when he said, ‘The Lord your God shall you adore and him only shall you serve’ (Matthew 4:10). And when he announced through the prophets that he would choose a people humble and in awe of his words [Isaiah 66:2], he introduced the perfect Beatitude as humility of spirit. Therefore he defines those who are inspired as people aware that they are in possession of the heavenly kingdom… Nothing belongs to anyone as being properly one’s own, but all have the same things by the gift of a single parent. They have been given the first things needed to come into life and have been supplied with the means to use them.” (excerpt from commentary ON MATTHEW 4.2)

Scripture quotations from Common Bible: Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1973, and Ignatius Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 2006, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.Â Citation references for quotes from the writings of the early church fathers can be found here.

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