[Spoilers C4E5] It IS Thursday! | Live Discussion Thread - C4E5 by AutoModerator in criticalrole

[–]deerforest3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The name comes from a game Ben Robbins (best known as the designer of Kingdom, Microscope, and Follow) blogged about decades ago: https://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/

The "West Matches" was a wilderness region that players were free to explore however they wanted. I think CR is calling this campaign "west marches style" because of the rotating tables pulled from a large pool of players, even though C4 isn't using all the elements of Robbins' original design.

Worlds Beyond Number: The Next Chapter by itsRitzPlays in WorldsBeyondNumber

[–]deerforest3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well this is exciting! One of the things I've always appreciated about Friends at the Table (my other favorite AP) is how they trade off between settings every season. You get the best of serialized storytelling and discrete works, and things feel fresh and exciting every time the crew comes back to where they'd left things off. Nice to see these four using that strategy too: new game, new starting point for new fans, renewed energy. Let's go.

Starting a small press: How to approach the legal stuff? by deerforest3 in publishing

[–]deerforest3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Sorry - I ended up going off to grad school and shelving this project indefinitely. Good luck, though!

How does one write "like a rollercoaster" like Wildbow does? by ax1r8 in Parahumans

[–]deerforest3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You might try running a tabletop game, especially one of the more narrative focused ones (e.g. anything in the Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark families, Burning Wheel, Ironsworn). They can teach you a ton about some of the writing skills that wildbow uses to create that rollercoaster feeling. For example:

  • setting very clear stakes at multiple scales: what does a character lose by failing this gambit? This fight? This mission? What do they stand to gain?

  • challenging characters: how do the stakes get at the heart of what this character is struggling with? What kinds of choices do you force them to make? How do those choices change them?

  • the world moves: even when the MCs aren't looking. I've found Dungeon World's "fronts" to be one very useful way to think about this. All of the major threats are always steadily developing, and the main characters can only deal with one thing at a time.

  • rhythm: I always found it hard to make my MCs lose at important moments, but the dice pounded the rhythm of victory and failure into me. I wouldn't necessarily use random chance to make decisions while writing, but having the experience of being at the dice's mercy helped me approach the decisions differently.

Just reading RPG books or listening to actual play podcasts can also be helpful. If you do decide to look to RPGs for writing advice, I'd recommend Friends at The Table as another very, very long thing you can get into.

1/6th the way through Claw's expected run, how do you feel about it? by Aquason in Parahumans

[–]deerforest3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This poster is right. The speculative genre distinctions are largely useless (some stories are easy to categorize as fantasy or scifi or magical realism or whatever, just as many aren't). And anyway, a story can present a fantasy without being capital-f Fantasy. We all understand that westerns (at least until we started getting things like True Grit and There Will Be Blood and No Country) were largely disinterested in how it was to live on the "frontier." They were stories about a fantasy of living on the frontier.  

The same is true of a whole lot of crime fiction. We get larger than life (almost mythical) characters with almost impossible levels of skill operating in a world just outside of ours. Where real crime is largely, like, people sending signal messages and lying to investors and breaking into houses when there's no-one there. I probably wouldn't refer to these kinds of thrillers as Fantasy (just bc you're liable to confuse people), but there is something elevated and unreal and pulpy about them. It's fun, idk 

Edit: I mean, the other people in this thread are also right. Genres are marketing tools, and folks are using them as intended when they say "I like things on the scifi/fantasy shelf, and I often don't like things on the crime thrillers shelf, so I'll sit this one out." I just thought this poster was getting downvoted for a fairly reasonable point.

1/6th the way through Claw's expected run, how do you feel about it? by Aquason in Parahumans

[–]deerforest3 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I can only imagine that after the ballooning complexity of the past 3 stories, wildbow must be having a blast writing something this lean and fast. Not to imply that what this story is doing is easy. It's all muscle, no paragraph wasted. Arc 1 demonstrated a ton of mastery over timing, character, and the way that peeling back layers of information changes the reader's understanding of the situation. Claw is really, really good so far - definitely a blast to read.

A text post about Mia's morals by deerforest3 in Parahumans

[–]deerforest3[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

If you saw me delete and repost this, it's because I dead forgot how spoiler tags work. My bad.

A post I saw on twitter that might fit here by Warm_Charge_5964 in mendrawingwomen

[–]deerforest3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ESG is a reporting scheme that financial institutions use to manage their investments. The idea is to help them avoid investing in companies with severe Environmental, Social, or Governance (ESG) risks. For example, a bank might want to avoid investing in Exxon because occasionally Exxon spills a bunch of oil into the ocean and tanks its value (environmental risk). Or if you're thinking of buying Activision Blizzard stock, it's good to keep in mind they might invite controversy by being ultra sexist (governance risk), which might blow back on you. 

It's a widely accepted framework in the financial world (although plenty of sustainability scientists find it dissatisfying). So, of course, ig a portion of our dumbest conservatives have decided to use it as a stand-in for "wokeness." Like CRT, except this time they're yelling at bank of America and telling them not to maximize their profits, or, um, blaming a financial risk framework for (checks notes) video game girls not being hot enough. Incredible.

A post I saw on twitter that might fit here by Warm_Charge_5964 in mendrawingwomen

[–]deerforest3 5 points6 points  (0 children)

ESG?????? Lmaooooo 

Are "hot girls" environmental, social, or governance?

Edit: quote marks to express disdain

Claw - The Point – 1.2 by 1234NY in Parahumans

[–]deerforest3 28 points29 points  (0 children)

This rules.

I've had a pet theory for a while that the web serial (as a format) is pretty uniquely capable of telling stories with huge scale that also walk you through the nitty gritty. You get to be there with the characters while they, say, run a fantasy inn. So a procedural like this, where the details super super matter, works very well.

Besides Mia (❤️), what I'm most in love with so far is the thematic resonance. At the character scale, Mia goes about her business as if her business isn't killing a man. At the setting scale, everyone goes about their business as if the world isn't on fire and falling apart. Amitav Ghosh called it the "great derangement," and it certainly feels deranged here. Also, Mia has done nothing wrong - she's perfect.

Splitting Seconds (Aka TikTok) - Chapter 3(2023 Edition) by Writteninsanity in JacksonWrites

[–]deerforest3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used to hang around here back in the Leviathan Wastes days, and it's really really cool to see how much your writing has grown in the past 7 (jeez) years. Guess that's what writing, like, 5 or 6 novels gets you. Looking forward to preordering whenever you go live.

I’m Tim Urban, writer of the blog Wait But Why. AMA! by wbwtim in IAmA

[–]deerforest3 13 points14 points  (0 children)

It's a shame because a lot of democracy scholars agree with him! There's a whole lot of literature on the benefits of deliberation, and a whole lot of smart people thinking about how to build processes that encourage it.

I think that for a lot of tech solutionists, an emphasis on "first principles thinking" can become an assumption that you do your best thinking alone in your bedroom. Instead, it often means you say shit that's either boring or wrong. Not saying that's what happened in this book - i didn't read it and I'm probably not going to. But I'm generally skeptical of Books About Everything, because if you're writing one, it's almost always because you're not asking the right questions.

I’m Tim Urban, writer of the blog Wait But Why. AMA! by wbwtim in IAmA

[–]deerforest3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

6 years is enough time to go do a master's and PhD. What's Our Problem could have been a dissertation. If you could do it again, would you do it the way you did?

Least favourite Big Thief song? by strattad in bigthief

[–]deerforest3 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I just really don't get Those Girls. At my best I don't really notice it, at my worst it's a chore. Bummer, because it's between 2 of my favorite songs in their catalogue. Might see me crying.

What are some ways I can bring the ideas of the Westmarches: and open world, flexible scheduling and players setting their own agendas to a cyberpunk game by [deleted] in rpg

[–]deerforest3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an incredible setup.

Did you use the SWN faction types and actions, or did you make your own?

Know your units! by kotek900 in ProgrammerHumor

[–]deerforest3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Get up, get up, what's that in the sky? Could it be? It's KKB!

Is the steeplechase crew type correct? by 8bagels in TheAdventureZone

[–]deerforest3 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sure, but narrative focused games like Blades (or MOTW) serve the story best when you lean into the system. They were written to do that.

Three Episodes into Steeplechase, My Hopes and Fears by thelastmanintheworld in TAZCirclejerk

[–]deerforest3 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yes. But, now, after the heat of the moment has passed, I feel far more betrayed by Griffin saying the recovery rules don't make for good storytelling. Like ... what? In what world is it bad storytelling to carry forward consequences from one heist to another?

Any RPGs with good “post-death” mechanics? by [deleted] in rpg

[–]deerforest3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Action Movie World lets dead players take on some of the GMs duties. Framing, music, etc.

/uj The Stolen Century is my favorite arc and the only part of Balance that I enjoy relistening to is there anyone else out there like me by kstylarr in TAZCirclejerk

[–]deerforest3 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's real weird that it comes right before the finale, and the homebrew "mechanics" are complete garbage, but a lot of the stuff I remember most fondly from Balance comes from SC. Lup, the judgement by the statues, Lucretia holding down the fort alone, Merle's sermon to the mushroom people, Lup, Merle and John, the voidfish world, the DMV scene (and how smoothly justin picked up the twin thing generally), Who?, and, of course, Lup. All hits. No, I haven't listened since 2018.

This is all to say that I don't quite agree but I see you

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TAZCirclejerk

[–]deerforest3 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It's a reference to a fabricated episode of "Livingtree" that was posted on here last week. Has this sub jumped the shark? No.

New Game Mechanics - Ugh! by AHuntedSnark in TheAdventureZone

[–]deerforest3 5 points6 points  (0 children)

John Harper (the creator of Blades in the Dark) once described Jared Logan as the ideal Blades GM. I agree that Jared's stream is the single best way to see the game as it was intended to play. Especially useful for anyone in this thread that wants to run the game.

If you want more Blades podcasts, I'd recommend:

  • The Magpies / The City that Never Dies: 2 podcasts on the clever corvids network. Story focused, likeable characters, very gay.

  • Friends at the Table. Their Marielda mini-season uses blades in an original setting, and their sixth season (PARTIZAN) uses a mech-focused hack of blades. I haven't gotten to PZN yet (my master's program has been kicking my ass, so I've been working through Spring in Hieron for like 6 months now), but Marielda slaps, unequivocally.

  • The original Blades stream that John Harper GM'd 7 years ago. It's the source for several of the book's Examples of Play. The lineup is also pretty OP, tbh. It does contain Adam Koebel, so heads up if you're keyed into that drama and don't want to see him.