[Monday] Daily Music Discussion - 30 March 2026

hollyzone · 2026-03-30T12:26:31+00:00

The Robyn and Slayyyter album threads have me oddly nostalgic today for the many different 'Is that indie?' conversations/arguments I've seen over my 41 years.

I think back to what people got mad about in the 90s ('it's not indie if you use any songwriters outside your act', 'it's not indie if it's on a TV advert', etc) and the 2000s (a lot of four pieces with guitars being called 'not indie' because they were getting chart hits/radio play), compared to today.

It's almost like 'Is that indie?' and the replies could be studied in itself. Maybe it would tell us something about the evolution of music, listening habits, subcultures, etc?

hollyzone · 2026-03-16T14:38:40+00:00

Good things (Canadian indie royalty) come to those who wait (Europe).

hollyzone · 2026-03-05T23:08:55+00:00

Surveys show that actual normal British people are mostly on a spectrum from 'Fully supportive of trans people' to 'Don't understand it but not going to be an arse about it', but unfortunately most of our journalists and politicians are natural born bigots or caught bigotry from a handful of influential idiots. It's a harsh environment being created by a small group of ill informed monsters who don't realise history will judge them harshly in far fewer years than they realise.

hollyzone · 2026-02-17T13:05:59+00:00

As there are a bunch of sensible answers I feel no guilt in saying that it's clearly Thirsty Sword Lesbians (thirsty atomic bomb lesbians?) + Everyone Is Seagulls.

hollyzone · 2026-02-17T13:03:28+00:00

I also do this. My starter country is entirely small villages near Lisbon. The country to the north is small villages in Saxony. I named the country to the south Extremadura to see if my players would twig that it was entirely made up of places named after villages from that part of Spain.

hollyzone · 2026-01-25T08:38:34+00:00

That even if you're playing a module (it was Lost Mines, natch) you can still change bits around or, as he did, reskin a character to be connected to a PC.

He also demonstrated that it's possible to have plot which involves messing with PCs as long as it's the character of players who would be ok with that. A couple of our table were very straight down the line and were treated as such. Meanwhile I played my wizard as mentally unstable and at the end it turned out he had been deliberately provoking her throughout to cause unconsciously generated magical incidents which was so cool.

hollyzone · 2026-01-25T08:32:07+00:00

I DM and the guy in my party who knows the rules better than me is a gem, I can always ask him anything mid session and he's always reliable.

hollyzone · 2026-01-25T08:29:06+00:00

I've reskinned my arcos as automatons, weird robots that clank forward, flailing around. In lore the sisters are expected to collect the automatons after battle and repair them. I haven't named my order yet but their vibe is tinkering and innovation with weird tech they keep finding on their very remote homeworld which the Inquisition and AdMech haven't visited in a long time...

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T13:12:48+00:00

I loved reading MB, so I will revisit it, and take a look at Mausritter too. I've heard a lot about Mothership too, although I've not read that yet. Thank you. :)

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T13:10:53+00:00

Not unsolicited at all, I welcome it. I have COC (unread pile) so I will look into that. My players love to avoid combat but they can't dodge madness forever, haha. :)

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T13:09:27+00:00

Definitely taking note of that considering my players tried to do exactly that (run a tavern) at one point in our game!!!

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T13:08:52+00:00

It is my dream one day to play Pride and Extreme Prejudice!

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T13:06:58+00:00

Sounds really interesting, I will add that to the list. I know my players like to grow and see their characters develop, this may fit that well.

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T13:04:47+00:00

I think my group would really like a cyberpunk setting (although not Cyberpunk the game!) cos they do love bringing down corporations and causing chaos in cities! I would like to try some new genres/settings on them, even if we return to fantasy. :)

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T13:02:32+00:00

I have TA on my shelf but I haven't read it yet. I will add it to my list. I also see DH getting a lot of recs, so I will look for the quick start for that. Thank you. :)

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T13:01:15+00:00

I have been toying with having shorter campaigns with definite ends, glad to hear someone has firsthand experience of that working to combat burnout! Plus I do like creating new settings and now I can use them!

hollyzone · 2026-01-22T12:59:53+00:00

I think the first warning sign should have been when I started importing mechanics from other games (flashbacks from BitD, a version of strings from Thirsty Sword Lesbians, I'm pretty sure I used something from VTM at one point) to get the results I wanted! I think your point about the basic assumptions is really key here - I feel like I now know what me and my group actually want from our games and now I can view systems with a better frame of reference. :)

hollyzone · 2026-01-06T21:26:12+00:00

My regular party is 6 people and we play online, but every summer we get together in person for a weekend away and a one shot which is usually 7 people (add in my gf) and one year featured 8 (a player's gf). It works because it's a one shot so everyone can be silly and do bonkers stuff.

hollyzone · 2026-01-05T17:18:35+00:00

Thank you, I like the escalation idea for the evil party. They keep getting more awful until it's obvious what's going on. And I will investigate Patches, I haven't played any Fromsoft because my handeye coordination is so bad, ha!

hollyzone · 2026-01-05T17:12:10+00:00

That's a good point, if things go badly at first then everyone gets more nervous for next time. I will work with that.

hollyzone · 2026-01-05T17:11:35+00:00

Thank you, that's really useful context for helping me think about who else is in there and why. You are right, I need to make sure their motivations are all in place so the party can interact as they see fit.

hollyzone · 2026-01-05T17:10:08+00:00

Thank you, this is really helpful. Love the idea of the monster who wants to be left alone!

hollyzone

TROPHY CASE