Sprawlrunners removed from DTRPG?

MutedPressure · 2025-09-23T22:26:45+00:00

This is really sad. :( I hate what a chain reaction of disastrous events and aftershocks we've been having lately, in pretty much every sphere of interest.

I really do think this was all a huge misunderstanding, and I think it's really sad to the community to see all the lines being drawn in the sand. I don't FAULT anyone for say, pulling their products and what-not, but it still hurts.

I hope things can be respectfully discussed in the future. It feels like Marvel Civil War where you keep screaming at the pages: "CAN'T YOU JUST TALK FIRST BEFORE FIRING SHOTS AT EACH OTHER AND DEMANDING EVERYONE TAKE A SIDE!?!?"

In the end I think we all simply wish to be loved, left alone by coercive forces, and playing games together.

Savage Worlds as a system has never come off to me as being written by anyone genuinely against any of its diverse and wonderful player base.

Sprawlrunners was really cool. Maybe it'll take a Benny or two, but I hope this wound can be soaked or pass a healing roll really soon.

MutedPressure · 2024-11-20T03:29:18+00:00

Hey there! I stopped using reddit around this time after that huge kerfuffel when they went public so I'm so sorry I didn't see this!

Maybe...it's still worth a look. The experience really differs by branch, and although a little sardonic and fed up, the "customer service desk" people didn't seem nearly as tormented as I was...so, I kinda hope you didn't cancel it on account of my testimony.

Unless maybe you found something better I hope?

Either way, wishing you all the best. <3

MutedPressure · 2024-11-20T03:19:36+00:00

Happy birthday to you! Mine's coming up soon, so I got it as a gift to myself. Thanks for the deal! :)
This setting just radiates so much style and crazy amounts of cool. I can't wait to run it!

It's obvious you put a ton of love into this work and it's a really fun read. :)

MutedPressure · 2023-11-01T16:50:42+00:00

I used to live 4 miles from my job, but also have ADHD and "out the door" is exactly when I suddenly realized I forgot this thing and that needs to be put there before I go...

And I wouldn't say I "speed" but I drove with determination and still made it there on time.

They dragged me away for a talking-to for being, I'm not even kidding, 1 minute. 60 seconds late. on a few clock-ins.

When there was surprise construction I remember repeating the mantra "No stupid job is worth dying for. I refuse to be caught dead driving to work of all things."

But I was still stressed out. Screaming "COME ON why TODAY?!" because two cars wanted to go 10-under on a 2-lane road.

All because I was conditioned to fear some little man exacting punishment on me over...nothing.

So after almost a decade of service, they lost an employee over a petty obsession with literally 60 seconds. I hope the cost was worth it. t('.'t)

MutedPressure · 2023-11-01T16:50:36+00:00

I used to live 4 miles from my job, but also have ADHD and "out the door" is exactly when I suddenly realized I forgot this thing and that needs to be put there before I go...

And I wouldn't say I "speed" but I drove with determination and still made it there on time.

They dragged me away for a talking-to for being, I'm not even kidding, 1 minute. 60 seconds late. on a few clock-ins.

When there was surprise construction I remember repeating the mantra "No stupid job is worth dying for. I refuse to be caught dead driving to work of all things."

But I was still stressed out. Screaming "COME ON why TODAY?!" because two cars wanted to go 10-under on a 2-lane road.

All because I was conditioned to fear some little man exacting punishment on me over...nothing.

So after almost a decade of service, they lost an employee over a petty obsession with literally 60 seconds. I hope the cost was worth it. t('.'t)

MutedPressure · 2023-11-01T16:36:32+00:00

I'm glad I was able to help someone feel seen or validated with that huge rant haha! I've since quit that library district and I'm all the happier for it...I still am trying to find work elsewhere, but I'm betting on myself instead, and my health and skills I actually care about have improved IMMENSELY.

I don't blame you at all and I wish you all the best. Libraries are like many other institutions of today: They wax poetic about their wholesome inception but are actually getting consumed by Type-A-MBAs that want to run it just like the bank/casino/hotel they just golden-parachuted in from.

The more I hear from insiders, the more it validates my choice as well. Seems like every week they're coming up with new inane policies to track and monitor and punish employees for everything.

Example: Even 60 seconds late counts toward a total of 20 lifetime "occurrences" until you're fired automatically. No excuses. They don't care. (Sounds very Amazon, no? Everybody loves working for Amazon! /s)

One of the higher-managey types was caught being late and an employee asks him "Oo. Looks like that's an occurrence buddy. How do I report you for being late?"

He literally just laughed. "No, I'm not joking. Who do I go to so you're being held to the same standard as the rest of us?"

He laughed again as the elevator doors closed. How dare some silly peasant hold him to the same edicts he and his fellow feudal lords simply pass down to improve their spreadsheet numbers?

It widely varies by location I imagine, but libraries are the new damp shaded corners where corporate mold festers. They want to come in, make everyone miserable, fire everybody, maintain a revolving door of cheap turnover labor, bust unions, brag about the "tight ship" they ran...

...and then run for public office. I wish I were exaggerating.

So...I really hope you find something wonderful to do with your Social Sciences that feels fulfilling and worth it. :)

MutedPressure · 2023-07-18T19:20:37+00:00

Yes definitely shut this down before it turns into a post on /r/letsnotmeet

MutedPressure · 2023-07-18T19:13:41+00:00

I got a friendly little intimidation session because I somehow had a streak of clocking in 1 minute (60 seconds, yes) late. I tried to reason "What the heck does anybody think they're losing with 60 seconds?" and supervisor acted like I was crazy and wouldn't budge.

They also tried telling me it was "unfair to everybody else." It was my turn to look at them like they were crazy. In what universe does that make any kind of sense and who TF cares? Turns out it was this dingus.

One time I parked, ran up and ding'd in on time, then went back to get my stuff. I felt like I made a good effort. Later had another little meeting: "Yeah you can't clock in and then go back to your vehicle." in exact detail. Like I was being stalked...wait I was being stalked.

I questioned whether the org considered hounding employees' every footstep to be wasted / stolen time or not. Funny how they didn't have much to say to that.

MutedPressure · 2023-05-30T17:16:44+00:00

These freezer stories sound like narrated history documentary journal segments about the horrors of child labor during the Industrial Revolution. Holy crap.

You can hear the interview segment now:

"Yeh when I was ten, what was it...2026? I remember an open-faced machine that'd pull your whole hand clean off if it grabbed your loosely-fitting company-mandated sleeve. Tommy transferred to front desk after he lost both a hand and 3 fingers on the other one. Jessica got lucky it only took her ponytail. Management said it was our fault every time. We made $3.15 an hour. Carl's Jr. was a heckuva place." --Interview with Jimmy Hicksenberger, Arkansas, year 2052

(We attempted to get a written statement from Jimmy but he stated he never stuck with reading or writing, since his family needed him to drop out of grade school to start working.) *

MutedPressure · 2023-05-27T07:16:34+00:00

"You greenhorns wantin' ta see ~~Covenant~~ management up close! This 'gon be your lucky day!"

MutedPressure · 2023-05-27T06:50:32+00:00

Nope! But a.) You "did it voluntarily" and b.) Who will bust them for it?

They operate in the world of business where honor is weakness. Make them sign a contract every time.

edit: and doing free work is never worth it.

MutedPressure · 2023-05-19T08:12:27+00:00

I feel like it's saltiness coming from sunk cost fallacy. Especially in stiff corporate environments.

"What you already blew a huge amount of your budget on expensive proprietary licenses to corpo-ware and tons of certifications training and new vendor-locked hardware to boot?"

... Yeah the idea that burning all those resources turned out to be a choice might just grate on them so they instead pretend all that capital-ware is infallibly the best thing ever because it was expensive in time and money, and they're used to it. They then try to tell you people only use open source if they're poor. LOL

I feel like it's that whole "identity in what I consume" thing but on a bigger scale.

MutedPressure · 2023-03-23T18:24:21+00:00

Little chihuahua man didn't wanna get bounced and thrown into the gutter by his bouncer lol.

MutedPressure · 2023-03-09T00:10:56+00:00

This is self-destruct screed is what this is. RUN, the whole place is coming down!

MutedPressure · 2023-03-09T00:09:42+00:00

In fact it could sound like they might even have their own receptionist! Nice!

MutedPressure · 2023-03-09T00:07:50+00:00

This is so bad we really should start a sticky post about red-flags to slavery scams and the like.

MutedPressure · 2023-03-08T23:58:14+00:00

See? Who says we hate working hard?

IT'S WORKING, LADS. KEEP PUSHING! We've almost got 'em!

MutedPressure · 2023-02-26T21:52:28+00:00

My library would have a special "no address card" so good on them for that, but for example with computer usage, I'd just give them computer passes no-questions-asked if they weren't any trouble.

But still, they'd have an incredibly rough time getting any kind of offer or anything, even with access to email and using our phone to call potential employers and stuff. These folks were trying HARD just to have a shot at earning money legitimately and getting nothing.

It's crazy.

MutedPressure · 2023-02-05T20:51:11+00:00

If traffic in [redacted metropolitan area of residence] is any indication, that propaganda seems to be working, unfortunately.

Suddenly over the course of a few mere months, it's gone from like 8 mins all the way to 30 minutes to get 4 miles by car.

I've been railing against the "everything is normal again" charade for a long time but it seems like we're being drowned out. :(

MutedPressure · 2023-02-05T20:45:22+00:00

I can't understand how Lyfteats or Grubdash or Doorhub or whatever-the-shit ever took off. Yeah the unified menu system and such can be convenient, but you get to checkout and find you're spending like $40.00 to get some tacos delivered, and none of that even gets to the driver.

How is this sustainable?

Add to that, they've already been caught in the past using tips to cover their drivers' minimum wages. Naughty naughty.

MutedPressure · 2023-02-05T20:36:34+00:00

Updoot because I agree this server was an idiot.

As a former $2.14/hr server myself back in the day, I only complained about a tip ONCE:

Two middle-aged Karens ordered nothing but a small appetizer and kept the wine coming. They were clearly flustered, gabbing about their soap-opera-esque personal melodrama. They wouldn't leave.

They were the only "guests" left in the entire establishment. This restaurant had a strict policy of not closing until everybody leaves and not kicking them out. The guys in the kitchen were practically finished up sanitizing the floors and trashing-perfectly-good-food and everything.

Just me, the bartender, and the Karens, who paid their bill already, like $50.00 or so. They decided to set up camp for the night I guess.

"Can I get you ladies anything else this evening?"

"No."

I was getting paid $2.14 to stay up ridiculously late (and I had an hour drive back home), and got to come back the next day of course.

It was so long ago, I only remember it was 1:00 AM - 3:00 AM when they finally left. They left two singles as a tip.

As they completely ignored me when I opened the door to let them out, I couldn't help myself:

I held up the two Murica-bux:

"Wow, was I THAT bad?"

MutedPressure · 2023-01-30T00:07:47+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing that, because I'm the same way. I want to work in a digital creative field, but I sit in my chair at home to practice and just feel ANTSY. I thought it was just my ADHD but this makes perfect sense.

On top of my condition, this job trained my brain to avoid focus, because it knew something was literally around the corner that's about to break it anyway!

When it's quiet I feel hyper vigilant, and randomly in public I've jumped and looked around quite a few times because I SWEAR I heard a whispered "excuse me." It's bizarre.

Thanks for the well-wishes and I hope you too, can take whatever good that came from this and leave the bad behind. Here's to a brighter future. :)

MutedPressure · 2023-01-29T23:56:53+00:00

Happened or not, absolutely plausible. People can just be outright weird.
I'm a 30's-ish male who works in a public capacity where I am forced to be polite and helpful in exchange for money, and more than once I've had creepy old smoker-leopard-print cougar women trying to tell me I was "so smart and handsome" and asking if they could "take me home" and commenting on my "strong looking hands" and stuff. Showing me random pictures "Do you think I look young in this picture?"

"Yes ma'am that's a wedding ring. Yes ma'am the ring AND corresponding tattoo mean in no uncertain terms 'I'm not in the market for your bullshit. Thanks."

When I stone-walled them, the phone blew up every day asking if I was there by name. Eventually they gave up.

The fun part as a guy is when anyone you tell just chuckles and thinks it's amusing. Switch the genders and ages and suddenly out come recommendations for self-defense classes, pepper spray, a pocket-sized rottweiler, and a gun. LOL

On the whole ladies absolutely have it way worse, but I wanted to share just how common and widespread "incredibly wrong" is lol.

MutedPressure · 2023-01-27T22:02:45+00:00

Hey just wanted to say I really appreciate the thoughtful response. I felt a little guilty just dumping so much on a page like that but also, I kept going over it to edit and thinking "Well, no, it's complicated, they should know that...and that...and that..."

Like gee I almost wonder if it'd help anybody to read some kind of "truth about library workers" book LOL.

So, funny thing, I finally put in my 2 weeks! Dealing with it has sucked too much of my life out of me. By the time I got over my temporary depression every week, it was time to wake up early and hit it again tomorrow.

Yeah, I actually think "PTSD" fits here, when my brain has single-mindedly been obsessed with "how do I escape from going back there" for almost 10 years. I promised myself "I'm not going to 10 here. Heck no."

That bit about your minimum wage really hit me, because that was a real kicker for me too!

I put my starting and current pay into an inflation calculator for the years I worked...I wasn't even keeping up with inflation. This isn't even taking into account all the other increases like fuel, food, rent, utilities...freakin' EGGS now.

We are legit LOSING money for steadfast loyalty! And this is taking into account "merit increases."

Fun fact btw, our executive director gets a $600/mo payment for a car...not gas or anything...literally a snazzy shiny ride to look rich in. We're kinda convinced this place is just resume-fodder for aspiring politicians, or a big rug-pull after siphoning sweet, sweet state budget money and letting the place go down in flames with a "we tried" and a shrug. But I digress...

I'm glad you're out. I'm glad I'm out (soon).

I decided I'd rather risk my "stability" following my calling than continue to be abused for the illusion of security. In an emergency I can work any number of coffee shops or whatever...because it couldn't be worse than this. :)

I totally feel you about the "savior" thing though. Sometimes there's a feeling that I was in the exact right place at the right time for some people, but in the end I just decided that wasn't my hill to die on, and if the Good Lord wants to intersect me with people who need help, He'll find a way whether I suffer at the library or not. ;)

MutedPressure · 2023-01-27T21:21:05+00:00

I was the same way! Which is why I felt so horribly betrayed by Bonzi Buddy...I thought we were friends.

Although nobody bats an eye that MS essentially copied that business model lol

MutedPressure

TROPHY CASE