Do not talk about the real shit you want to do online

Please

Homeless LGBT Couple needs support!

Hey everyone.

My partner and I are still homeless and we've been struggling for some time to meet our basic needs. We've been going hungry much more often and we keep losing shelter when we need it most. It's been raining a lot lately and my bronchitis has progressed to pneumonia with no sign of recovery yet so having a place to rest is super important right now. Any help we can get covering food, supplies, bills, and shelter in a motel room is greatly appreciated.

On a brighter note, our 20th anniversary is this month and, on April 12th, we will be getting married. It's a simple courthouse marriage for now, but that doesn't make it any less special to us. Please join us in hoping for the best going forward!

Venmo: @garbageconnoisseur

CashApp: $garbageconnoisseur

PayPal: @garbageconnoisseur

(Please no hate and no unsolicited advice. I can't deal with it right now and you will be blocked. Well wishes are welcome.)

Things have been very stressful, and I'm still sick. We lost shelter twice this week, and I'm still feeling the effects of the heat and lack of rest/ food. Any support is greatly appreciated.

We have 28 hours to cover another room payment, or we lose shelter in the morning. My pneumonia is a struggle, and I'm also wracked with stomach pain and nausea, so I need to be closer to a restroom these next few days. We need help.

Less than 24 hours left. Nothing in yet. Yesterday, either. I really can't do another long stretch out tomorrow.

I think a lot of folks in indie RPG spaces misunderstand what's going on when people who've only ever played Dungeons & Dragons claim that indie RPGs are categorically "too complicated". Yes, it's sometimes the case that they're making the unjustified assumption that all games are as complicated as Dungeons & Dragons and shying away from the possibility of having to brave a steep learning cure a second time, but that's not the whole picture.

A big part of it is that there's a substantial chunk of the D&D fandom – not a majority by any means, but certainly a very significant minority – who are into D&D because they like its vibes or they enjoy its default setting or whatever, but they have no interest in actually playing the kind of game that D&D is... so they don't.

Oh, they'll show up at your table, and if you're very lucky they might even provide their own character sheet (though whether it adheres to the character creation guidelines is anyone's guess!), but their actual engagement with the process of play consists of dicking around until the GM tells them to roll some dice, then reporting what number they rolled and letting the GM figure out what that means.

Basically, they're putting the GM in the position of acting as their personal assistant, onto whom they can offload any parts of the process of play that they're not interested in – and for some players, that's essentially everything except the physical act of rolling the dice, made possible by the fact most of D&D's mechanics are either GM-facing or amenable to being treated as such.*

Now, let's take this player and present them with a game whose design is informed by a culture of play where mechanics are strongly player facing, often to the extent that the GM doesn't need to familiarise themselves with the players' character sheets and never rolls any dice, and... well, you can see where the wires get crossed, right?

And the worst part is that it's not these players' fault – not really. Heck, it's not even a problem with D&D as a system. The problem is D&D's marketing-decreed position as a universal entry-level game means that neither the text nor the culture of play are ever allowed to admit that it might be a bad fit for any player, so total disengagement from the processes of play has to be framed as a personal preference and not a sign of basic incompatibility between the kind of game a player wants to be playing and the kind of game they're actually playing.

(Of course, from the GM's perspective, having even one player who expects you to do all the work represents a huge increase to the GM's workload, let alone a whole group full of them – but we can't admit that, either, so we're left with a culture of play whose received wisdom holds that it's just normal for GMs to be constantly riding the ragged edge of creative burnout. Fun!)

* Which, to be clear, is not a flaw in itself; a rules-heavy game ideally needs a mechanism for introducing its processes of play gradually.

The point is, as a game designer, you are never going to win over the all-indie-games-are-too-complicated crowd by explaining how simple your player-facing rules are and how seamlessly they support the narrative, because their experience of playing Dungeons & Dragons is that they can simply opt out of engaging with any player-facing part of the game they don't care for, up to and including opting out of everything and making the GM do all the work, and they're coming from a culture of play which has a vested interest in treating this as a valid preference. It doesn't matter how light your rules are, you're not going to beat an expected level of engagement of zero!

big beefy leopard seal fisherwoman

it sucks a lot of emotional responses to distress are also emotional responses people associate with being dishonest. "ummm if you weren't lying why did you get so defensive" BECAUSE YOU ACCUSED ME OF LYING WHEN I DIDN'T..?

idk what you call this sort of "logic" but I blame the body language reader pop psychology people

platforming palestinian joy is just as important as sharing the suffering they're enduring during this genocide. despite continued displacement and bombardment, you cannot steal their joy and spirit. happy birthday to this sweet baby 🖤🇵🇸 may they grow up to see a free palestine

this beautiful baby is the son of ibrahim abu raida, the 25 y/o executive director of the al nasser charity in gaza, an organization working to distribute food to the displaced. they have many different ways to donate linked on their instagram (linked above) and also have a personal gfm to help with their own rebuilding efforts that is over 80% of the way to its goal.

count dooku after indulging in his daily milano cookie

𓂃 ࣪˖ ཐིཋྀ

communion wafers are not cruelty free. they fucked that boy upppp

yeah

I have one of those robot vacuums but there's a mirror in the house low enough to the ground that the lidar scanner can see a nonexistent room in the reflection so on the navigation map it's generated I have a room that doesn't exist that I have to forbid the vacuum from entering.

Maybe the vacuum knows something you don't

we absolutely did not appreciate Ursula Le Guin enough while she was around, y'all

For those who don't know, Rafah Crossing is closed. Meaning Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are technically not allowed to go into Egypt through Rafah Crossing (with exceptions, like holding a foreign passport) so in order to evacuate, Palestinians need to bribe Egyptian border security officials. The standard price used to be about $5000 - 7000 per person but some Palestinians have been told to pay $10,000 per person just to cross the border, forget other expenses like food and boarding.

For a group of people who are enduring genocide and the complete destruction of their homes that money is impossible to raise without the help of fundraising. That and the collapse of the UNRWA is the reason you're seeing so many Gofundmes nowadays. The entire aid system is gone with the exception of local aid organisations that have limited reach.

So if you see a credible fundraiser, please at the very least share it so it can reach more people. This list by @el-shab-hussein is a good place to start.

painting plan that never worked out !! but its okay :-) i like the sketch too