#revisiting history

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hi :) Perhaps an odd one, but I was wondering if you had any recommendations of games to play out events that have already happened? The end game has been predetermined, but the events that lead to it are more mutable? I'm running a dnd game with a group that has been very open to trying out different systems and I was thinking it could be very fun to put the player characters back in time into the shoes of other characters during the campaign's inciting event. Thanks!

Theme: Recalling Events

Hello friend, so there are definitely games that allow you to do something similar to what you’re looking for. There are games that go back in time, games that flashback to previous events, and games that take place at moments in our real-world history that have already happened. I don’t know if any of those games exactly work for what you’re looking for, but they might be interesting to look at in order to ask yourself how you want to run something in a timeline that you’ve established for a specific setting.

Ten Candles, by Calvary Games.

Ten Candles is a zero-prep tabletop storytelling game designed for one-shot 2-4 hour sessions of tragic horror. It is best played with one GM and 3-5 players, by the light of ten tea light candles which provide atmosphere, act as a countdown timer for the game, and allow you to literally burn your character sheet away as you play. 

Ten Candles is described as a "tragic horror" game rather than survival horror for one main reason: in Ten Candles there are no survivors. In the final scene of the game, when only one candle remains, all of the characters will die. In this, Ten Candles is not a game about "winning" or beating the monsters. Instead, it is a game about what happens in the dark, and about those who try to survive within it. It is a game about being pushed to the brink of madness and despair, searching for hope in a hopeless world, and trying to do something meaningful with your final few hours left.  

There is only a few facts pre-determined at the beginning of this game, but those facts are important: all of your characters will die. Over the course of the game, you will slowly blow out ten candles as your characters grow closer and closer too their doom.

However, the nature of that doom can be altered. I’ve seen it done for the Locked Tomb, for example, and you can set it in a modern world, a futuristic world, or a fantasy world if you like. If you want to hack this game for your group, I’d recommend playing out a scenario that involves characters that you don’t mind saying goodbye too - perhaps a catastrophe your party heard about, and you can role-play the last moments of some people they failed to save.

Firebrands Games

Mobile Zero Firebrands is a game about mech pilots getting into fights and falling in love, but more importantly, it’s a game that guides the group through mini-game-like scenes that are common tropes in various stories. The beginning scene and the end scene are usually pre-determined, but all of the other scenes happen in whatever order you prefer.

The original system has been hacked a number of times, so you might find a game or genre that works for you - perhaps you’d like to play pirates in One Particular Harbour, or gods and heroes in Divine || Mundane. You could play members of a religious order looking for a new leader in Hierophants, or look into the complicated lives of mages in Hearts of Magic. If you don’t find anything that works for your specific tastes that already exists, you could also hack the system to make it fit for your specific group.

Eat the Reich, by Rowan, Rook & Decard.

Eat the Reich is a tabletop roleplaying game in which you, a vampire commando, are coffin-dropped into occupied Paris and must cut a bloody swathe through nazi forces en route to your ultimate goal: drinking all of Adolf Hitler’s blood.

This over-the-top, ultra-violent game is designed to be played from beginning to end in one to three sessions of carnage, blood magic, meaningful flashbacks and hundreds upon hundreds of extremely dead fascists. It tells one story, it tells it loud, and it tells it brilliantly. Think Wolfenstein crossed with Danger 5 and you’re not far off the mark.

Eat the Reich both happens at a very specific point in time - WWII - and also has a mechanic that allows characters to flash-back to various points in their shared backstories in order to play through a high-action sequence while still getting to know the characters. Your vampires have been working together for a long time, and while Eat the Reich is meant to be rather fast, these flashbacks allow you to speed up that relationship-building by letting you fill the details in backwards.

Eat the Reich started out as a hack of Havoc Brigade, if I remember correctly, so the system is definitely hack-able: perhaps you can think of a big event that happened in your party’s past or even in another part of the world, and then design characters that represent folks who were behind the big event. I think this kind of game would work best for heists or high-stakes assassination - anything that expects your players to put their lives on the line for a big, sweet payoff.

Retrocausality, by Weird Age Games.

Retrocausality is a tabletop RPG about time travel adventures, in the vein of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure or Back to the Future.

It uses a rules-light, card-based system that lets you decide how time travel works. Whether you have a specific movie you want to emulate, you have Opinions on the Novikov self-consistency principle, or you prefer not to ask too many questions, Retrocausality can make it happen. Even better, the rules are so light you can use Retrocausality to run a time travel adventure in a different game. That's twice as much game.

Many of the examples shown in Retrocausality indicate that the time travellers you play will be messing with a timeline, and since the rules can be ported into a different game, that tells me that you could use this for any genre you like. This of course, means that you’re not just telling a story about your characters’ pasts - your characters are actually going back in time to a specific part of history.

I suppose you could use this to either bring your characters back to a time period before they were born, or maybe instead you’re interested in taking new heroes back to a point in time when your characters were doing something significant off-camera.

Houses of the Sun By Night, by Emily Zhu.

These are 13 houses of the underworld that the sun passes through at night.

These are 13 minigames you can play in specific situations, during your other games or on their own.

This is how the dead come back to life.

This series of games is explicitly designed to be hackable, with a setting that can be ripped apart if you like. The original setting is a nod to the underworld of Egyptian mythology, but the moments themselves can be zoomed in on a small moment or used to navigate a special event that may have big effects on the larger story. I think you can use some of the games in here to re-visit moments of your characters’ pasts, or reference events that may have happened to NPCs that the characters were not necessarily witness to.

If you want to learn more about this set of games, you can watch Aaron Voight’s review of the game on Youtube!

Other Games To Check Out

Feng Shui 2, by Atlas Games.

Time Travel Recommendation Post

[my-darling-boy]

Been swamped with other course work but I finally cleaned up that rough animatic for my final exhibition!

We Have Always Been Here is based on the heartfelt love letter of American WWII veteran Brian Keith, this poignant moving storyboard imaginatively brings to life his relationship with a comrade known only as “Dave”. The animatic sheds light on the relevance and impact of forgotten LGBTQ+ history during this current wave of political hostility.

Watch my full short film on Vimeo!

[ophthalmotropy]

Heartbreaking: Amount of pasta made too large to be one serving, too small to be two servings.

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

The Early Gay Best Sellers, 1930s–1940s

Created in 1931 as a short and somewhat irregular ranking, The New York Times Best Seller list has become the leading report on what American readers are currently consuming. If a book makes the list, that basically means it managed to break into the literary mainstream sphere, with all the glory that such a thing can bring.

The list is also a simple way to identify the rise of certain trends and genres. And since there doesn’t seem to be a comprehensive examination of this when it comes to gay literature, I decided to take it upon myself to produce something like that.

This is the first part of a series of posts that attempt to track the slow rise of gay fiction in the American imaginary. My criteria for selecting the works was the presence of a gay/non-straight male protagonist, since that's the niche I specialize in. This means that negative characterizations can also be found here — although I would say that the vast majority of the books featured in these posts at least try to be sympathetic to homosexuals.

Only two pre-World War II novels managed to meet the criteria, which shows how any assertive textual instance of homosexuality could be highly controversial at that time. The publication of the first Kinsey report (Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, in 1948) and the advent of war clearly brought a loosening of norms and some new perspectives on the matter, as shown by the sudden boom of titles — some of which would eventually become classics. War creates many homosocial spaces, after all.

Serenade (1938) by James M. Cain

A formerly gay opera singer falls in love with a female Mexican prostitute, which leads to all sorts of shenanigans: that's the basic premise of the wacky and controversial Serenade. The way Cain develops many of the novel's themes can certainly be considered dated by our modern standards: for example, he bases his characterization of the protagonist on a pseudoscientific theory of the time, which claimed that homosexual singers were artistically deficient (!).

Cain's debut novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), was instantly hailed as an American classic, which probably explains why he was able to get away with such a risqué plot in his follow-up work. Although Serenade sold moderately well, it fell short of the author's and his publisher's expectations. A film adaptation loosely based on the novel was released in 1956, without any trace of the original story's homosexual themes.

The Lost Weekend (1944) by Charles Jackson

Largely inspired by the author's own experiences, The Lost Weekend is a sorrowful tale about five days in the life of an alcoholic writer named Don Birnam. Birnam is described as a "crypto-homosexual": flashbacks show his lifelong struggle with same-sex attraction, one of the main factors that led him to addiction. The novel became a big success, selling over half a million copies in the first five years after its release.

Much like what happened with Serenade, The Lost Weekend’s classic film adaptation — which won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Picture — eliminates any mention of homosexuality.

Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh

This overview of the rapidly declining world of the British aristocracy proved so popular with American readers that it even surprised Waugh himself. The description of the relationship between Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte comes very close to being explicitly homosexual, but even then, there’s Anthony Blanche’s open flamboyance to make the whole thing clear.

The newly expanded best seller list made it easier for Brideshead Revisited to make a very solid 25-week run. MGM toyed with the idea of ​​a film adaptation in the late 1940s, but ultimately Waugh decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

The Fall of Valor (1946) by Charles Jackson

After the success of The Lost Weekend, Jackson decided to go even further with his sad homosexual narratives: The Fall of Valor is a story about a closeted middle-class man in a loveless marriage and his infatuation with a handsome Marine.

It is surprising how little is said about this title, considering it's probably the earliest example of an actual "gay novel" to appear on the best seller list. Its success is truly remarkable and probably made it easier for other explicitly gay-themed books to be published.

Knock on Any Door (1947) by Willard Motley

Knock on Any Door follows the life of young Italian hoodlum Nick Romano as he struggles to survive on the streets of Chicago. By 1950, the novel had already sold 350,000 copies.

To make money, Nick allows himself to be picked up by “phonies” (i.e., homosexual men) and even befriends one of them. As usual, its 1949 film adaptation removed these kinds of details.

The Sling and the Arrow (1947) by Stuart Engstrand

Perhaps the clearest example of negative characterization found in this entire research, The Sling and the Arrow serves more as a cautionary tale than a plea for tolerance: It is as if Engstrand tried to instill every fatalistic stereotype — not just gay ones, but also some about transgender people — into the protagonist, another closeted middle-class man. The novel’s sensationalist approach gave it enough visibility to achieve best seller status.

The Gallery (1947) by John Horne Burns

The Gallery is the debut novel by Burns, a World War II army officer. It consists of 17 interconnected stories about life in Allied-occupied North Africa and Naples, featuring multiple characters. Three of these stories — "Momma," "The Leaf," and "Queen Penicillin" — feature gay soldiers.

Although the novel wasn’t a phenomenal success with the general public, it was lauded by critics and ended up being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, which gave it some longevity. By September 1953, its paperback edition had sold nearly half a million copies.

The City and the Pillar (1948) by Gore Vidal

The City and the Pillar wasn't only a literary breakthrough but also the explosive entrance of one of the most prominent and controversial mid-century intellectuals of the United States. While the mere presence of a sexually active homosexual protagonist was shocking in itself, what is truly remarkable here is the introduction of a comprehensive depiction of the gay subculture to a broad audience — perhaps for the first time ever. The novel sold nearly 30,000 copies in a three-year period.

Vidal took some flak over the title — while The City and the Pillar made its best seller list, The New York Times refused to advertise the novel — but, as had become his wont, he simply brushed it off and moved on. His high-profile presence meant that the American media simply could no longer ignore the existence of homosexuality.

Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) by Truman Capote

Just a week after The City and the Pillar debuted, another breakthrough hit the best seller list: a coming-of-age story about a lonely, effeminate Southern boy inspired by Capote’s own life, Other Voices, Other Rooms had a very similar run to Pillar. And like Vidal, Capote also became a public figure and is now considered one of the founders of the New Journalism style.

The first edition of Other Voices, Other Rooms reportedly sold 26,000 copies. 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the novel before it even hit the shelves, but a film adaptation was never made.

[p-sunghoonies]

"I feel like I had nothing to hide. I didn't feel like I had to show you my good side. I feel like I can be myself around you."

[oldschoolfrp]

Ernie Gygax (Ernest Gary Gygax Jr), oldest son of Gary Gygax, has died. A highly polarizing figure in later life, he contributed to D&D's very early history by playing the character Tenser in home games and receiving credit as a playtester or occasionally coauthor when his father incorporated his ideas into publications. He also ran TSR's Dungeon Hobby Shop in Lake Geneva, WI, introducing many new customers to the game with demo sessions exploring his Hobby Shop Dungeon.

In 2012 he co-founded a new "TSR" with younger brother Luke and a diverse group of contributors including many familiar names from the AD&D days. Their Gygax Magazine produced 6 issues, ending after Gary's widow Gail sued the group for infringing copyrights and using the family name.

A 2015 Kickstarter for a published version of Ernie's Hobby Shop Dungeon titled Marmoreal Tomb went unfulfilled for many years before being turned over to Troll Lord Games for completion.

For many his legacy will be the convoluted, nasty history of "NuTSR" which directly led to a more sharply divided gaming community. These events were documented in detail by those who watched it unfold, including this thorough summary of events on EN World.

According to numerous accounts, Ernie was prominently involved in forming a third "TSR" in 2021 which claimed to be a continuation of the original company and attempted to license the TSR name to others and publish a new version of Star Frontiers. This venture split apart under legal pressure from other former members of the 2nd TSR and from WOTC which claimed IP infringement on the original Star Frontiers game which was still for sale as PDFs. The group also generated a storm of self-inflicted bad publicity through a series of bigoted anti "woke" social media posts and leaked product documents with overtly racist content. In interviews Ernie stood by the group's public positions, claiming their "playing style" was under attack by politically motivated persons. Major conventions quickly rejected the group, and Luke Gygax and many other TSR2 and OSR creators publicly repudiated TSR3's statements and spurious legal claims.

[shinysamurott9]

Y'know, in all the hype for Xenoblade X DE, one thing I've been thinking about is how amazing this must feel for the people at monolith, specifically the ones who worked on the original game.

The Wii U version was fantastic but was heavily trimmed down from what was initailly planned. The thing about that is a lot of the new stuff we saw in that trailer is cut content that was either shown in the original game but not delved into or stuff we know about because of the artbook. The new skell Hresvelg, the Ghosts, the new floating area, Neilnail and her twin skells, Elma's partner and the original ares, all of it.

I can't imagine how it must feel for the people at monolithsoft who were there working on the original game, knowing how much it had to be trimmed down, now getting the chance to not only revisit the game and add back in that cut content bringing the game far closer to the original vision, but also having a decade worth of player feedback to look at to, hopefully at least, make the game even better than it's original vision.

I imagine some stuff like the improved font and UI and the built in Overdrive guide were at least partially out of necessity to make the game work better from a design standpoint on Switch, but you cannot tell me they aren't at least aware of common fan criticisms when they specifically chose to draw attention to something as otherwise mundane as a Flight Module Skell jumping. Like come on they know.

[hey-its-sybarite]

Symbolism & Foreshadowing: Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944) by Francis Bacon

Bacon had painted for years before he painted the very work displayed here in the show. After painting this work, he then insisted that none of his other previous works counted, and that this triptych should be considered his origin story. He tried to rewrite his own history. Art critics mostly let him get away with it too.

Very interesting that they have this work, the first “true” work in the artist’s own revisionist history of his own life. This artist is famous for paintings in series but the choice of a triptych (3) than any other number is suggestive. It’s a triptych of living figures, too.

The figures are inspired in part by the Furies, who would (either as a function of revenge or justice) brutally kill transgressive murderers for crimes such as matricide and patricide.

Other fun facts about Bacon:

- gay, and went from being the younger, dominated partner to being the older and more dominant partner

- Irish

- history of substance abuse

- obsessed with painting mouths

- people would call his work horror, but he couldn’t understand why

- once got such a bad crush (his word) on a painting that he couldn’t bring himself to visit it in person

- canonically attracted to his own father

[absolutebl]

Because of a post I saw yesterday, about older bls and by older I mean, not old at all, just before 2020. Are there some you still go back to regularly? even if it's just to watch certain scenes? And are there any older bls you would like to see remade like what they did with Love Sick?

Oooo, 2 very fun questions!

Older BLs I Revisit Regularly (pre 2020)

Seven Days (2015) - I would say I rewatch this at least once a year. Sometimes just part 2.

Addicted (2016) - usually from the kidnapping (confession) sequence onwards, maybe once every couple of years

Long Time No See (2017) - I actually haven't rewatched this ins a while, but I feel like I might soon. When I do a rewatch on this one it's usually the whole show.

HIStory 2: Crossing the Line (2019) - another one I likely rewatch every year, just the main couple's story.

I used to rewatch bits of both Love By Chance (AePete only) and Until We Meet Again but I haven't revisited either in a couple years.

I did a rewatch of Lovesick recently (to go along with the reboot). I used to rewatch Make it Right pretty regularly but since 2020 (and BLs exponential growth) I haven't revisited it.

Older BLs I Would Like Remade

What a question. Specifically like Lovesick - a remake from the same country as opposed to a reboot or a reinterpretation? Ooof. I could only come up with one:

Same Difference AKA Docchi Mo Docchi - Japan, such a great manga, such a disappointing attempt. Try again.

Older BLs I Would Like Rebooted by a Different Country

Advance Bravely (China) - sings a little song, "give it to Thailand," specifically... Joss (now that he's lowered himself to BL) and... hum, who for our pretty rich boy? Not sure. Not Gawin.... let me ponder. (Man, MeenPing could have had fun with this one.)

SOTUS (Thailand) - give it to Korea. I want my gay Heirs some way or another. Yeah I said it, this is me, nothing is sacred.

Seven Days (Japan) - I know. My precious baby! But honestly the premise of this one is so fun and so tidy I'd love to see anyone take it on. Specifically, since it's so neat, Korea. But I think Thailand's GMMTV could also do well with this IP.

Method (Korea) - a touchy one, but I think a remake from Japan might be fun. Different ending tho.

Forbidden Love (Japan) - change the ending and hand if off to Taiwan. I would pay bank for this version. Seriously.

Same Difference (Japan) - what the heck, give this one to Taiwan as well.

Love By Chance (Thailand) - just AePete, lift it and hand it off to Korea. That'd be so much fun.

It's a cheat because it's not really BL but I would love to see Thailand tackle something like Wait For Me at Udagawachou.

Beloved Enemy (China) - has to go to Taiwan.

The Fairy Fox (China) - Thailand. That would be such a blast!

Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him (China) - such a great possibility as they implied everything - so just, give it to Taiwan and have it all actually happen on screen for us, please.

Speaking of!

SCI Mysteries (China) - who has the money and the skill for this? Husbands + police procedural. Hummmmmm. How about a Thailand OG pair: TayNew maybe? (I mean obviously it's a MaxTul vehicle... ah if wishes were BLs.) No, never mind. Give it to Korea! Full 16 eps, please. Thank you. Now Guardian, I'm not sure about.

What a fun time, thanks for this!

(source)

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Decided to read Brideshead Revisited for the first time and

1. This is the gayest book I have ever read. This is not subtext common to the time period, this is Evelyn Waugh slamming us against a window going LOOK AT HOW FUCKING GAY THESE DUDES ARE, LOOK, LOOK AT THE GAYS

2. Anthony Blanche is amazing. I can hear exactly how he speaks in my head perfectly. One of my best friends was very much the American Anthony Blanche and reading him telling Charles a story about pretending to be a girl friend of his on the phone with an older man made me go text my friend.

3. I suddenly have a burning need to know when exactly the term "invert" or "inverted" as a casual way of referencing homosexuality fell out of favor

4. Sebastian having a wildly religious family that he avoids whenever possible despite having a connection to and love for them he cannot shake off is such a deeply relatable feeling

5. Seriously. I was led to believe this book had "queer subtext" but I have yet to find any text that isn't the time period equivalent of shouting GAY from a rooftop.

[noirve]

there are many things that bother me about how people engage with the secret history online but one of my most trivial gripes is that every aesthetic moodboard or gifset features oxford-like buildings and libraries. it literally don't look like that

[roboyomo]

1/5 reference sheet remasters done o7 o7 late story design yaku :]

[her-imperius-condessy]

NEED TO ESCAPE INAUGERATION STRESS

So, obviously, let's get into The Implications of President Chester Thomas.

What? Did y'all think this girl was done? SPOILERS! For the minisode and US HISTORY!

The year, 1852. With Chester Thomas winning, that means he has replaced Franklin Pierce.

Never heard of Pierce? Don't worry. He was...Not a big deal, especially as he was preceded and succeeded by men of more. Oomph.

He did some good work with expanding territory, but that was about it. He had a sort of sad life. He was an alcoholic, which was worsened by the death of several children, the last on a train right after he became President. His wife suffered from severe depression, and understandably so. So...Maybe Thomas replacing him saved a son, and Jane Pierce may have lived a slightly happier life.

Pierce put the 'Lame' in Lame Duck Presidency. He didn't get the party nomination, after he pissed off the North by shit talking Lincoln.

Now, I'm guessing Thomas wouldn't have done that. So, if that's case, he'd get the nomination and run for a second term, which would replace James Buchanan.

James Buchanan is another mostly unimpressive President, except for how he lay every stone down to ready the US for the Civil War. And, that he's the namesake for a certain saucy Winter Soldier.

This where I get a little sad. Chester Thomas, and his two term Presidency still ended with the Civil War right about to start. I would hope that he tried to end slavery, but politicians back then had to pick and choose their battles.

Quite literally.

The War may not have happened the same as our history, but it still happened. Thomas ran two terms, then stood aside, as was tradition back then, not the law. That would Lincoln the 15th President. And we know President Grant followed, because of Grant House on Lincoln Island.

Perhaps that's why Thomas is well remembered, even as far away as Guyana. He opened the door for Lincoln, stepped aside. Maybe they made sure the Sun and other papers promoted Lincoln.

It's also possible Thomas had one term, especially if he promoted anti-slavery. Buchanan was 15th, Lincoln 16th. Thomas and Benjamin maybe went back to New York, seeing what might come next, and worked to get Lincoln elected, running good stories.

IDK. What I DO know...No matter what. Chester Thomas made a better President that what just got sworn in.

[agentc0rn]

"Get the key back. It should not be used. Everything will vanish again. Do you want to know unending pain…like I have?"

[camilla-denniston]

Academia Romance Book Recommendations

A Room With a View, by E. M. Forster: Romantic Academia; Music; Spring; Italy and England

Green Dolphin Street, by Elizabeth Goudge: Dark Academia; Navigation; Summer; the Channel Islands and New Zealand

Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh: Light Academia; Painting; Autumn; England

The Blue Castle, by L. M. Montgomery: Chaotic Academia; Natural History; Winter; Canada