theartsshelf.com/2024/12/16/s... My favorite movie is getting a new 4k release. If you haven’t seen it, the film is a master class in dialogue and shows that words are sharper than swords.

It's getting weirdly difficult to discuss gay male-themed media without offending straight women, I've noticed. It's long been a sensitive topic with some of them. Example: Goodreads and Reddit groups for gay novels don't allow one to discuss whether a given woman author can write gay men well.

Our small town fantasy ttrpg’s high school prologue has rapidly become a John Hughes movie, with our characters focused on revenge on the tennis team and getting my nerdy slayer pc a boyfriend.

I absolutely adore America Chavez's costume in the Ultimates. I am a sucker for a jacket and tights combo. That look works for everybody from Mr. Terrific to Dazzler. Also, enjoying the mythic tone of the book.

It looks like our group's new game is going to start off with a prologue of several sessions set in our character's high school days. The idea is to get us seriously invested into the 'small town' feel, good and bad, and bond the PCs and NPCs with common experiences. This is going to be fun!

After much negotiation, the all-queer gaming group I'm a part of has decided what our next campaign is going to be: Small town modern fantasy set in rural California. We're also switching systems from a Storyteller kludge to Savage Worlds. I feel like I am the fringiest of fringe gamers now. :D

I love this. The DLC to Fights in Tight Spaces adds a fem-presenting agent to go with the masc one and the butch/non-conforming agent. I LOVE this. Everybody should get a chance to kick some action movie ass.

There are times I love being a nerd. I was having a conversation with a friend about an old DC series called The Warlord and used Elizabethan politics to explain something. He got it. I laughed, he laughed, Walsingham laughed. (And took notes.) (Also, in retrospect, that series was queer AF.)

I like making settings. The current one is 'pulp New York pulled into a pocket void and not bigoted.' Not as a 'side hustle' or home campaign. I do it because it makes me happy. Making for joy of making. I respect/admire professional authors. But creating for fun is fundamentally human for me.

Playing a lot of Fights in Tight Spaces this week, which is a delightful action movie-themed deck building computer game. The strategy is deep and addictive. This exchange cracked me up: "I never thought I'd have to say this but Berlin has a ninja problem." "Don't we all?" Perfect action dialog.

Ah, a nice relaxing weekend, with just me, books, a fun video game and various beverages. I am renewed and ready to face the world! Let me just log ... oh. Oh dear. Are there grants you can sign up for at any reputable hermitage? (No garden follies, please.)

I find myself reading and playing a lot of solar punk themed things lately. I think we need to coin a phrase for ‘the world ended but stuff mostly worked out’. I am calling that ‘Most Apocalyptic’. The element of hope for better day amongst the ruins of the old world is key.

I am getting why Outgunned is talked about so highly. It is remarkably good at being what it is. The game reminds me very favorably of the Feng Shiu and Wushu RPGs. And the little adjustments for various genres of action movie are perfect. Also, as a layout/writing/art snob? Chef's kiss.

Let me tell you about my favorite badass moment in urban fantasy: Faith Hunter's Jane Yellow rock series: when Jane tangos with a kinda bad guy. And the two of them ramp up the dance to superhuman levels. Sexy. Cool. Smart. NEW. It got the point across without violence. What's yours?

Does anyone know of any cool 'Occult Detective' style RPGs floating around? Games that model Lord Darcy and John Thunstone, for example. I suspect that with the right group, the semi-cozy parlor mystery of manners and monsters would be a very fun thing to play.

I hate that we're back to this. I hate that another generation of queer kids is going to grow up with the fear of being murdered for even appearing to support queer and/or trans people. But they'll find strength in defiance and community, like we did. Fuck the toxic fantasy of mainstreaming.

The unholy amalgam of Cook's WoD and Ars Magica actually works in play. It is NOT friendly to improvised spells, but for rotes/scholarly spells that one must research (aka build via points), it works. And the fussy complexity goes thematically with our 'invisible college' campaign. I am amused.

I just saw a web comic with the phrase: 'Side quests are my love language' and I have emotions. First - I've been seen. (Which is a mixed blessing. I was going for the stealth bonus.) Second - How very dare you! Third - I want a t-shirt with that line.

This may be offensive to straight comics nerds. I know everybody reading this is the exception. 'Why Does Bobby/Tim/Jon Have To Be Gay?' or 'Why Are You People Making Superhero Comics Political?!' - A thread. Let's start off with the sentient gorilla in the room. (In lieu of an elephant.)

My newest design. I call this one "Ronald Reagan's Legacy." You can buy prints, shirts, buttons, stickers, et cetera. You should. I'm trying to do more "for me" art and I could use the encouragement.

I have been at held at gunpoint, got stuck halfway up a cliff and caught in a Wyoming blizzard on foot. But I have never known fear like facing playing my GMs new homebrew magic system that combines Monte Cook's WoD and Ars Magica. Thoughts and prayers, people. Thoughts and prayers. And vodka.

The wonder and terror of living with a small child is not that strange things happen. It's that you'll never know HOW it happened. In thirty years, you will occasionally ask yourself, 'But how the hell did he DO that?!' but right now, the important question is 'Oh god, did he eat those tiny screws?'

Something I don't see a lot of TTRPG folks talking about: Community is everything. Pre-pandemic, I was done with gaming. I had no joy or passion for the experience. I bought games, talked about them, but never played them. Then I joined an all-queer gaming group and fell in love again.

So Bluesky etiquette question: Forgive my ignorance, please. I never actually used the formerly tweety site. Is replying to your own posts/micro-essaying welcomed, acceptable or tacky? I have a hard time keeping my world count down on stuff that is interesting to me.

@beckyannison.bsky.social This has some great lists. I found the whole site useful, though I am having to prune a little for one of the non-ttrpg lists I imported. Turns out people like putting spicy pictures online! Who knew? :D https://goodfeeds.co/search?q=TTRPG

Since joining yesterday, I have become inexplicably popular with cat picture accounts. This is despite the fact that on the net, nobody has definitive proof that I may allegedly be several house cats in a trench coat. I will refute this implied slander by knocking things off their tables.

"It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion." -The Programmer's Mantra (by way of David Lynch's version of Dune)

Foundation season 2 has been delightful so far. Amazing what adding characters who are genuinely likable can do to help an audience invest in your work. Hari is still a bastard, though. But the interesting thing is that unlike Asimov, the people adapting Foundation know that.

Here is something I'm grooving on at the moment: Ergi is a visual novel/story game hybrid that finds its roots in Norse mythology and culture as interpreted by a post-apocalyptic society that defaults to poly and bi family units. Link has CG rendered male nudity. https://kkchar.itch.io/ergi

if you’re in the ttrpg space can you repost this so I can follow you

Wow. One of the first things I found for Bluesky was a list of feeds for tabletop RPGs, so now I'm looking for similar resources for my other nerderies. That really is a handy solution to 'new kid' syndrome.