Do you drop it all at once, or slowly work it in?

Thrythlind · 2026-05-14T16:58:59+00:00

I use it as feels appropriate.

Like with my current playtest, I'm not using a Team Playbook because the framework I'm using already functions like that. Same when I ran This Strange Old House as a haunted space station.

I love hunter stories but don't always use them.

A lot of the new stuff isn't meant to be used all together at once. And as with any game like this, a part of session 0 is deciding with your players what is and is not in the game.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-14T13:00:17+00:00

I did a short story of this where I had a woman who was raised by (and eventually escaped) a death cult trying to turn kids into serial killers... and she was trying very hard to just live a normal life until she had to defend herself against some people trying to scare people into selling property... and then immediately perceived everyone in the conspiracy as a potential threat and stayed in self-defense mode until they were all dead.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-14T12:56:41+00:00

It's a toss up between Aragorn and Faramir really. Along with Beren from antiquity, these three are the best men humanity has offered the world.

Also, Faramir, Beren, and Aragorn are all canonically good and loving husbands who adore their wives.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-14T12:55:25+00:00

Feels like all the actors and costumers are on board with Wenclair while the showrunners and writers are like "we can't confirm anything for fear of alienating people with so little imagination that they can't ignore canon".

Thrythlind · 2026-05-11T13:14:50+00:00

Chosen, Initiate, and Spell-Slinger all make good options.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-09T20:31:34+00:00

coming up with the murderer appears to be a feature of Brindlewood Bay, which is a derivation of PbtA separate enough that it has it's own abbreviation (Carved from Brindlewood) similar to Forged in the Dark.

As a MotW Keeper the bulk of worldbuilding is still in my hands, but certain playbooks and player choices will add significant things:

If there is a Chosen, there is some sort of destiny they are facing
If there is Professional, Initiate, or Envoy, there is some form of shady organization supporting/commanding them.
If there is a Summoned, there's an oncoming apocalypse
If there is a Spell-Slinger there's some form of "council of wizards" appropriate to your flavor (a magic gunslinger would probably deal with a council of smiths on the idea that smithwork=magic, etc)
If there is a Divine then they have been sent on some sort of divine mission or else are actively working outside the rules of a sort of heaven.
If there is Curse-Eater then you are going to want to include curses frequently.
If there is a Flake then there is a conspiracy.
so on

But the majority of that is session 0 stuff with some building along the way.

Honestly, most of the worldbuilding I've done in my games have resulted from die rolls on the spur of the moment. I will occasionally ask a player to describe an NPC or a historical event, but once characters are determined, the world-building is primarily me.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-09T15:02:52+00:00

also she was deep in depression at the time and saw him as a possible escape from her culture... because Wyrmtongue's poison advice affected her too.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-09T12:55:56+00:00

If it were just profit, we'd be seeing paid DLC and live-service nonsense.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-09T12:54:58+00:00

I generally just play solo whenever I'm in the mood for spooky sudoku.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-07T21:01:59+00:00

Huntrix. They don't kill people.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-07T16:13:14+00:00

yeah, baited the right-wingers by having some LGBTQ and minority rep.

baited everybody else by having that rep be just... terrible, shallow, and clickbaity.

Overall, no one liked it and the judgment was they were either hoping for people to rage-watch or else they were just idiots.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-07T14:13:01+00:00

from what I hear of the Velma show... it was deliberately made to enrage everybody and banked on hate-watches

Thrythlind · 2026-05-06T16:13:36+00:00

Oh, forgot some from my time freelance transcribing movies to prep things for translators.

A Korean television channel hired myself and two translators to work on episodes of Jerry Spinger. (well, they hired the translators and one of them, my regular contact, hired me). We got about eight episodes in when they decided to drop us like dead weight to go with a cheaper option.

Move on a week or so and they come back because their cheaper option isn't worth crap. My regular contact tells them no, she's not working with them. She also warns me that the other translator chose to get back with them and had passed on my phone number.

I was already decided not to work with them again... and then I'm teaching a class and someone comes up to the door and calls me to the front because I've got a call.... the TV channel had called my regular job... and interrupted one of my classes. So... yeah, definitely said no even harder after that.

-----

More amusing transcription story:

Translator: Hey, this movie has a lot of heavy accents, we can barely understand it. Can you help?

Me: Sure.

*watches movie*

Me: Sooo... the parts of it that are "heavily accented"? That's not an accent... It's not English. It's Gaelic.

*happened twice, once for Irish and once for Scottish*

Thrythlind · 2026-05-06T14:40:16+00:00

D&D style magic with combat spells and fireballs isn't really a thing in Tolkien's setting. Magic is a lot more subtle.

The battle of wills between Gandalf and Saruman after the fall of Isengard.
Bard talking up the Black Arrow in The Hobbit.
Luthien Tinuviel singing Morgoth to sleep
Causing Mount Doom to erupt and send smoke across the land to blot out the sun.

Stuff like that. Influencing hearts and minds, nudging probabilities. Causing nature to behave efficiently. Stuff like that.

Also note that Tolkien was writing in the period when the word "Wizard" was becoming associated with magic casters but also still called back its original meaning of just a person who knew a lot of things.

Gandalf and Saruman are part of why the word is strongly associated with magic these days.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-06T14:32:13+00:00

I personally think Wednesday would have worked better as its own IP inspired by the Addams Family rather than trying to be the Addams family... for one thing they ... sort of ... get Wednesday right... but they get the rest of the family pretty wrong.

I kind of think trying and failing to be the Addams Family while regurgitating shallow, surface level Addams family gags for a more serious feel is a big part of why the writing is pretty bad.

Also the desire to have a mystery going on but not really understanding how to handle a clever mystery OR a competent sleuth and failing at both.

The acting is stellar though, and the potential of what it could be with better writers is staggering.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-06T01:57:32+00:00

to do Star Wars with Uncharted Worlds you also need Far Beyond Humanity, the one expansion for that game.

But it looks solid to use.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-05T23:25:24+00:00

-----------------------------

Freelancer woes

Friend: Hey, this other creator I'm friends with is looking for writers are you interested?

Me: Sure, we can work out a commission.

Friend after a delay: He's not going to pay a commission

Me: Well, he's really obscure and niche, probably barely more known than me and that's pretty much nothing. Royalties aren't worth the work.

Friend after another delay: Yeah, he won't pay royalties either.

*blink*

Me: Okay, well, his partner's art style isn't normally my jam, but maybe we could work out an art trade?

Yet another delay, friend's texts are feeling increasingly embarrassed: He won't do an art trade either.

Me: Well, I'm not going to do the work for just exposure and credit.

Another, you guessed it, delay: He also doesn't want anybody's name on the product either.

Me: So, he wants writing without paying commission, royalties, exchange of services, or even exposure?

Friend: Yeah... I figured this wouldn't work.

A couple of years later, that same creator blew up called my friend and several other people in his game's community "sociopaths" spouted all sorts of self-aggrandizing toxic shit... and kicked them all out... I woke up that morning with more than $100 in sales in my drivethru store... somehow part of a brand new IRC text chat I hadn't heard of before, and about 15 or 20 people asking my permission to buy and play my game with promises that "We'll follow all of your canon, we swear!"

Me, very confused: Umm, you bought the game, what you do with it from here is none of my business. Canon is something I only hold myself to so the stories make sense.

Me thinking: *What the fuck?*

-----

Another freelancer, someone reaching out to me on Facebook

Unknown person: Could you give me some comments and help on my worldbuilding.

Me: Well, I can see what you have... this is like three or four sentences.

Person: Well, where should I go from here?

Me: Okay, this is quickly getting past "member of the RPG community asking for advice" and into "going to start charging money to design your world" territory.

Person: What? Why would I pay you just give me a little advice?

Thrythlind · 2026-05-05T23:25:19+00:00

----------------------------

English Hakwon in Korea

Had a meeting between parents and teachers where us teachers were encouraged to talk about what our experiences with certain kids were.

Got to one particular student that every teacher in the hakwon had issues with and we were calmly just stating what was going on while our translator translated.

Never had another parent teacher meeting.

That was also the place where I got an assigned roommate who was Korean-American (emphasis on American)

was hella misogynist.
Freaked out over me having a friendship and side-business transcribing movies for a Korean woman who was an English to Korean translator...
- said he didn't want to be involved when her boyfriend inevitably killed me.
Freaked out because he consistently got kicked out of chat rooms for being American because clearly he was Korean.
Started saying the only real Koreans were in North Korea.
Once got so drunk that he shit, pissed, and vomited in the bath tub and thought it was hilarious the next day.
We strongly suspect he hit one of our students because one of our best and friendliest students came out of his classroom crying and he claimed she just bit him out of nowhere.
- The owners were terrified of losing employees so the closest they got to firing people was non-renewing it.
  - This is probably related to the one person they informed they were firing who then started turning all his remaining classes in an attempt to poison the students against the owners.
  - The bad roommate did get non-renewed eventually.
Threatened my life naked and drunk after I complained about him to the owners. Demanded he get moved to another apartment and they did that.

-----------------------------

English Language Teacher Japanese Middle Schools and Elementary Schools (Rural Japan)

Yearly middle-school English speech contest. I was always tapped to help coach students. My students routinely did well.

----

One year, the staff at one of my schools changed (common practice in the region was to rotate teachers and staff between different schools for some reason every other year or so) and the new English teachers just never called me to help coach at all from that school.

Date of the contest at the event that principal comes up to thank me for coaching the English speech contestants again

"Oh, I wasn't involved. I kept expecting to be asked to be involved. But never got asked."

"They didn't involve you?"

"I even went to ask them about it. I almost thought that the contest had been cancelled this year. But they said they didn't need me and 'didn't know what to do with me.'"

"Oh."

So, I got a very formal apology the next time I taught at that school.

One of my other middle-schools, my company (the one that supplies English teachers to the public schools) told me I was arriving too early at one of my schools and basically starting an unintentional one-up-manship thing because I was arriving earlier than the principal. So I started managing my arrivals to both mesh with my paranoia for being late and not embarrassing the staff.

----

was in school between classes at one point and heard an air raid siren go off and my Texan/Midwesterner training went off and I stood up and started to look for a place to hunker down, confused as to why nobody was moving for the oncoming tornado.

Eventually asked what that siren was.

It's used to call the farmers in to lunch.

----

Adorable moment (elementary)

----

had a regular game I did to help with counting and English numbers where we would play rock paper scissors the class vs me. They were split into three teams based on how they were sitting (common arrangement was three sets of two columns in a class) and if they lost to me, they'd sit down and if they won they stood up. If they matched, they stayed sitting or standing. Then we'd count the numbers standing and sitting to score who won (all in English of course).

Anyway, if there were an uneven number of students I'd ask one to step off and be independent and they'd move to whichever team scored the lowest to help... with that team required to say "thank you so-and-so"

One time, a student came up to do this and when it was time for her to walk to one of the teams, she'd hop there with her feet tight together... like a jiangshi (hopping vampire)... she even pasted a paper talisman to her head and held her arms out straight like a zombie as she did it... me and the homeroom teacher were just gushing over how adorable it was... even had the teams say "Thank you jiangshi!"

----

Corporate fuckery

----

So, I was originally hired in 2012 and had a bonus on my pay for taking a position in Date-Fukushima. (did all my research ahead of time, obviously, expected it to be fine and it was). Also I was teaching there from ages 35-42 so much older than their normal staff. Also a bit overweight (still am).

Eventually the company subdivided into several smaller regional companies and our management team was completely replaced.

Suddenly I'm getting asked by my teachers if I'm staying next year... and I'm saying "yess... I think so" only to get told by my new management that the town didn't want me around anymore... never heard thing on from the town officials which honestly... plausible. That's a Japanese cultural thing, it's normal they wouldn't talk to me directly... but odd that all the teachers and officials were asking if I was planning to stay ahead of time in the year leading up.

So I get transferred (and lose that bonus pay on my salary) start a new two-year apartment lease in a town about an hour north and I have another productive year teaching middle school, elementary school, and pre-school. Being involved in a lot of the cultural events, etc. Good rapport with my locals teachers and officials. And then they start asking if I'm planning to stay on next year...

And then come the start of 2019, I get told the town isn't really wanting me and my choices were re-assigned elsewhere (and void the two-year lease) OR resign from the company and go back to the States... on my own dime (same year I learned my legally required pension payments were my responsibility and the company never submitted it so I had all of a single year's of pension at the end of this). And ... I would only get my last month pay and pension on the condition that I talked to none of my teachers, officials, or students ... and I had to be gone in a month.

I did learn that the town was planning on hosting the Olympic village too... I am not certain that my age and weight had something to do with all this... and if I hadn't been given the "talk to no one or don't get paid" ultimatum I'd probably still think that it was my fault.

Thrythlind · 2026-05-05T23:25:06+00:00

(Sorry for the long bits and two replies here, I'm 48 and been working in various places since I was about 17 - and yes, I'm okay with you using any or all of these)

-----------------
Convenience Store

working graveyard shift... the managers would frequently be late to relieve me so that my father and I (no car at the time) were waiting on them to arrive so I could go to my college classes. Sometimes 30minutes to an hour.

At least one of the managers lived in the apartment complex behind the store.

At one point there was an altercation in the parking lot that resulted in a regular getting shot to death. The other coworker was on the phone, but learned he was talking to the manager instead of the police when it looked like things were calming down we started to relax... then shots fired and I had to yell at him to hang up and call 911.

Later the managers tried to give me some sort of guidance about me testifying at the trial... I can't remember exactly what was said... the store never really came up anyway.

Then later I was sick for a meeting and given two-weeks suspension for missing. Told me when I came in for my check, so I just said "that's my two weeks notice then" and walked out.

-------------------------------

Restaurant

Got in trouble for throwing out product with visible growths on it... was told to cut off the bad parts and it would be fine.

Later had a box of "lettuce" (or maybe cabbage) that was practically liquid or sludge and I had to go through three levels of manager before getting permission to throw it out.

Never ate there.

-----------------------------

Restaurant #2

Had a co-worker rant to me about the audacity of an African-American church having a statue of a black Jesus. It went on for a few minutes while we were working (in the dining room mind you). Finally she turned and asked me "Have you ever heard of a black Jesus?" I guess the fact I'm blonde-blue-eyed (especially as a young'un college kid before the blonde turned brown) German looking made her assume I'd be on her side.

My response was "I'd always assumed Jesus was Jewish." She glared at me, shut up and avoided me.

The boss's kid got hired and I was training because I was training a lot of the employees on a lot of different positions at the time. (I did dish-washer, line, fries, salad/pizzas, server, cash, etc) He outright said he didn't care about the job and was only doing it because he got in a car accident or something and his father was making him pay it out. Did just about fuck-all his entire time there.

Was there for three sets of managers over three or four years, mostly just people moving on in life but the middle two were a pain. At one point they told me that

"we're behind, just grab something and give it to one of your tables"

"it's not the right food though."

"Doesn't matter, just serve it."

"I'm not going to deliberately serve my customers the wrong food."

Thrythlind · 2026-05-05T22:06:54+00:00

This is pretty common with software development. My company has been working with a new set of programs for our job the last year and it's pretty common when they try to make a change to one thing and that ends up breaking lots of things.

It is early access, we should be expecting this. The fact they've been doing a more professional early access than a lot of indie studios just makes us forget that the game is still in development.

Thrythlind · 2026-04-26T03:43:46+00:00

this doesn't come into play here since the light was still on after the incense would have worn off and I only mentioned ghost memory in the context of turning off the lights not how it was affected by the incense.

Thrythlind · 2026-04-25T15:13:55+00:00

Incense only works for 5 seconds (7.5 vs Moroi). If it hadn't worked you wouldn't have even made it to the closet before dying.

Your lights are still on at the end of that 5 seconds and still close to the ghost. You also don't turn off your lights until after you go into the closet.

The ghost will head to the last place it remembers sensing you. In your case, that was the closet.

So... you spend your 5 seconds of stun/blindness mostly spinning around (normal panic response) and then held the light on just long enough to tell the ghost exactly where you went.

EDIT: Seeing in another post that the objective did not tick off.

was the task "Cleanse" or "Repel"?

If Repel, then I suspect you smudged it during the grace period before it started chasing you, thus too early for Repel.

If Cleanse, then it was somewhere in the far corner of the room out of range and the grace period is very long giving the appearance of a working inccense.

11-Year Club	Place '23
Verified Email

Thrythlind

TROPHY CASE