BougieBirdie

+1 for Dread, it’s so easy to play

Instead of dice, you play with a jenga tower. It’s a physical manifestation of narrative tension, and that goes a long way in getting the players into the vibe

For me, I spent thirty years in the closet waffling back and forth between “am I a boy or am I girl” before I finally decided that I must be a secret third thing

For me, “non-binary” is a pretty cool label because it’s a non-label. And at the end of the day, I’m kind of about defying expectations so a non-label is perfect for me. It doesn’t serve me to have my life experience put in some little box to make other people more comfortable

If labels are helpful to you, then sure, it’s worth exploring. But labels can hold you back too. At the end of the day, a person is far more complex and interesting than any label they might have assigned to them

Although I do understand that it’s not actually correct, “everyone is a little bisexual,” does seem to line up with my experiences and biases. However, “everyone is a little non-binary” does not, so if you feel a little bit that way then congratulations! You’re one of the special humans and that’s worth celebrating

Back in my day, the anti-snitch law was “Snitches get stitches”

My comment sounds flippant, but I actually think this law is a good thing. Teachers shouldn’t be forced to disclose shit to parents: particularly not in this political climate and especially not regarding something that could make the child a victim of reprisal over something as benign their identity

It sure is nice of those cishet white dudes to make history for us

They’re displaying the AIDS memorial quilt on the white house lawn

The administration approves $5M grant for queer kids with eating disorders

I’m not unhappy to see these things, but they’re not his stories and he doesn’t really have that much involvement with them.

Zombii looks like my void. Then again, I suppose most voids look like my void

Can you tell me more about gall fruit? I’ve never heard of it, but I guess it must be good for cats if you put it in their toys

How do you think the policies of the incoming administration will impact the LGBTQ+ community?

Hard to say. You know, he was the only president to take office supporting gay marriage, which is kind of hard to believe, but, you know, he was, when he came in in 2017, a supporter. [Ed. note: Trump has never said he supported marriage equality but he has said he opposed it multiple times.]

🤔

Karger’s position is that queer activism organizations are too partisan. Although when one of the parties’ platforms is “we’re gonna eat your gay babies,” I don’t think it’s outrageous that activists aren’t going to work with that party.

The article links to a story regarding Karger’s work against Prop 8 and you know what, I agree with his tactics. He wanted to direct criticism and protest towards the financial backers of the movement, and it seems like it might have been successful. The proposition was overturned, it’s only a shame it had passed in the first place.

But that was fifteen years ago. I’m not sure Karger’s still on our side when he says things like above quote.

Honestly I haven’t been watching HBO because it was too expensive. Now the boycott has a deeper meaning beyond my wallet.

I’m no longer a cheapskate, now I’m a person with principles. Hell yeah

The golden pupper still seems pleased with the arrangement

“Oh boy! If they got such a big bed for the cat, I CAN’T WAIT to see what mine’s going to look like!”

I can confirm that it’s not, I haven’t tried WoD yet.

I do recall there being a similar mechanic in at least one version of Call of Cthulhu. Among all your character stats you also had a Credit Rating. I think it was left a little bit vague about how to implement it, but a successful check basically meant that you convinced the target you were good for your debt.

I got the impression that it was supposed to be more about your social credit and your ability to convince people of your honourable reputation, but I definitely used it to buy a car once.

I’m afraid I don’t remember the name of the system or else I’d link the rules, but I do remember playing a game where I really liked what they did with inventory and currency.

Basically, the game divorced the rules from the settings’ currency entirely. So if you’re into homebrew, that means it works equally well with gold, credit chips, reputation, bottle caps, and seashells

When you defeated a monster, finished a quest, or found hidden treasure, you would acquire LOOT. Get ten LOOT and you level up at the end of the adventure.

Instead of writing down and purchasing all of your basic equipment, you would have a certain number of GEAR points. If you found you were in a situation where you needed some item, you could mark off one of your GEAR to retroactively have brought that item with you.

I liked it because it sped up play and was super newbie friendly. You no longer run into a situation where a career adventurer plum forgot to buy torches before spelunking. It also meant you didn’t have to roll a check for each item in the dragon’s hoard to see if you could afford to feed your hirelings.

If that system sounds familiar to anyone, please let me know. I wouldn’t mind taking it for a spin again

When my cat does this, I sit on her (gently).

I figure she does the same to me, so it’s fair play.

Pssh, I’m from Canada, I say let the gays come on up. Gays, make sure to check out where you’re moving to though. We’re always importing american politics, and you couldn’t pay me to visit Alberta right now.

Why don’t you want to support your fellow humans when they’re being repressed? We’re in a comment thread about an article where the newly elected administration is telling people that they want to criminalize and punish people because of their orientation and expression.

Project 2025 says that being in drag is a sex crime against children, and that pedophiles should be punished by death. Read: trans people should be put to death.

If your heart isn’t open to asylum seekers, then who is it open for?

I have a friend with one of those automatic food dispensers that releases food at set times

The cats hate the time change (and I mean, fair). They’re probably screaming right now

Hey gays, do any of you think of yourself as “normal?” I sure as heck don’t

And that still wasn’t gay enough

They should have got a photo of the moment he started blasting rope to Waluigi r34, that would have cinched it

See, that’s exactly what I liked about the ability.

It’s an attack that even if you walk away from it, you have a story to tell about it

Swallow Whole used to be my favorite mechanic with large creatures like dragons, hydras, or what have you.

I mean, it’s both narratively and mechanically a powerful ability. Usually the creature gets a bite attack with Improved Grab, so they get a free grapple if they hit. Then the next turn if they have a grappled creature in their mouth, they swallow them. From there it’s usually continuous acid / bludgeoning damage, but the swallowed creature gets a chance to fight their way out or get rescued.

Being grappled was already somewhat debilitating, but you could usually ignore it. But when you get swallowed it immediately raises the stakes. It also means you can’t ignore getting grappled because it can become so much worse so quickly.

Then one day one of my players noticed I was using the ability a lot and accused me of having a vore fetish. Now I don’t really use Swallow Whole at all

Found the power-gamer

Personally, I’m a big fan of the ‘useless magic item’ and try to get one to each of my players. Lots of them are cosmetic: helmets with glowing eyes, cloak of billowing, squeaky shoes. Sometimes they’re just weird, like the wand of create wand which is a one-charge wand that crumbles to dust after being used to make a wand of create wand

You can get an approximate DC without metagaming based on how the creature is described.

If the creature is slow, big, or tough, it probably has a higher Fortitude than Reflex.

If the creature is small, fast, or wily, it probably has a higher Reflex than Fortitude.

I don’t know if they carried it over to 2e, but in 1e a creature that has more than two legs is more resistant to being tripped. Creatures with no legs or who are flying/swimming/burrowing are probably immune to being tripped.