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Lambo Trillrissian posted:I'm halfway through The Night-Bird's Feather and it's incredibly good. I bought my epub off itch.io to get it right away, has anyone received the Barnes & Noble physical book yet? Mine should arrive tomorrow.
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Sep 27, 2022 22:44
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fez_machine posted:Some commentary from Jenna on Night-bird, including only the second reference to her transness that I've ever seen: What leaves me curious is the reference to "ECT" as something she knows a lot about. Electroconvulsive therapy?
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Sep 27, 2022 23:37
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Ragnar34 posted:What leaves me curious is the reference to "ECT" as something she knows a lot about. Electroconvulsive therapy? Suffice to say she has a really bad history with that.
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Sep 27, 2022 23:49
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Oh. Jesus. I've been wondering, is Old Molder canonically still in Chuubo? I can't tell.
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Sep 28, 2022 00:25
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It's still there, although in most of the periods spanned by TNBF, it's just part of Night London.
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Sep 28, 2022 00:34
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It would be a crime to take away De Montreal's Tragic Lurkzone
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Sep 28, 2022 00:48
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After an unexpected delay, I've been into The Night-Bird's Feather, and man is it good. It's not what I expected, and the Amazon description is... technically accurate to the plot, but not at all representative of the reading experience. I'm about halfway through, and so far it's a series of linked short stories with a shared character who is sometimes the PoV and sometimes not, all of which have a delightful vibe that reminds me of Lud-in-the-Mist more than anything else: something like a fairytale, but with a bit more of a wink and a nod, a sense of humor and a warmth you wouldn't necessarily find in the Slavic legends that apparently inspired it. At this point I'd give the short pitch as, "Studio Ghibli doing a story about the life and times of a girl from a family of 1300s AD Eastern European refugees to a sunless land outside the world, whose sacred duties involve defending the community from dream-devouring witches." It's much more allegorical than I expected, which I'm not generally fond of, but can tolerate here because it's done well. I'm one of those philistines who isn't looking for higher meaning in fiction, I just want beautiful (or at least above-average) prose about interesting people, places, and situations, and yeah the core of the narrative is A Story About The Trans Experience wearing a mask of the fantastic - but the mask is beautifully wrought, so I'm here for it. If that sounds appealing to you, then it's absolutely worth checking out: she mentioned on her twitter that Night-Bird is a book that some people might need, and I'm starting to see what she means. If you share my allergy to allegory, it's probably still worth checking out if you can appreciate the cool story about heron-witches, dream magic, and Eastern European cooking. I vaguely recall something from years ago about Moran being synaesthetic, and if that's true it absolutely shows up here: I'm thinking particularly of her descriptions of Outside, the seething chaos beyond the world. I might be wrong on this - Rand Brittain will correct me if so, I imagine? - but if that's accurate, then Night-Bird has a really fascinating depiction of the synaesthetic experience, albeit briefly and couched in metaphor: The Night-Bird's Feather posted:In time the deep Outside lost its regularity. The exacting geometry that characterized the world gave way to psychedelia. Sensations were no longer measured in neat, clean lines and primary colors. Instead they took the form of starbursts, wavering lines of light, and pulsations that came and went against the dark. Experience became not merely scanty but inherently confusing. Also seeing a lot of connection between the Outside and the Wyld from Exalted, which Jenna did a lot of work on. In short: book good so far, can recommend, and would be interested in hearing what other folks have to say about it, since I know there's some people in here who said they were picking it up. Also, I really wonder what folks who have no familiarity with Moran's work will think of it: I know exactly who the Headmaster of Bleak Academy is and why he has falling stars in the blackness of his eyes, and what it is that someone sees outside the bounds of reality and why it might be so alluring, but I'm curious what someone else might think of it.
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Oct 4, 2022 03:53
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I've only made it through the first major chapter. I enjoy the writing but since it's pretty unlike most of the stuff I read I'm not sure I have any great basis for comparison in terms of similar works in this kind of fairytale-like genre. I feel the same way about wondering how someone not aware of the greater setting might take some items. Also, Lord Entropy confirmed as former/turncoat Excrucian? (he's always had World-breaker's Hand, normally Excrucian-exclusive, in his purview, but I didn't think he had star-eyes)
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Oct 4, 2022 04:16
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Kestral posted:I vaguely recall something from years ago about Moran being synaesthetic, and if that's true it absolutely shows up here: I'm thinking particularly of her descriptions of Outside, the seething chaos beyond the world. I might be wrong on this - Rand Brittain will correct me if so, I imagine? - but if that's accurate, then Night-Bird has a really fascinating depiction of the synaesthetic experience, albeit briefly and couched in metaphor: I think Jenna has mentioned synesthesia once or twice (she could probably tell you more about that herself), but the main inspiration for the Outside that I remember during the art direction process for Chuubo, and which unfortunately didn't really get into the final, was the idea of walking through different schools of art that grew increasingly abstract as you pass through the layers. Oh, here it is: Level 1: Impressionism Level 2: "As you go further out it becomes more abstract and symbolic." Level 3: "The third level is verging on lyrical orphism, cubism, it’s all about the color, the sensation, the experience." Level 4: "By the fourth level of the Outside things are becoming Mondrian." Level 5: "The fifth level is a darker, more fragmented take." Level 6-7: "The sixth level of the Outside reverses. Forms begin to re-emerge, though roughly, and colors are strange." Level 8: The Bleak Academy.
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Oct 4, 2022 05:27
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So I finished Night Bird's Feather and I'm terribly tempted to become That Guy who orders a dozen copies of the same book to gift to everyone he knows.
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Oct 16, 2022 04:17
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I mean, please do; the book didn't really break out of Jenna's fan group the way she was hoping it would, so anything you can do to convince people who might enjoy it to read it wouldn't be time wasted. (Glad you liked it, though! My favorite part of the book, structurally, is the way that Valentina and the Vampire uses the fact that being bitten by a vampire is just incredibly and viscerally unpleasant to distract you from the fact that Valentina has already used the ridiculous hax of looking into the future to discover how she won, and then doing that.)
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Oct 16, 2022 04:33
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Finished it last night and it really is beautiful - I can see why she felt it can help people. The allegory ramps up hard in the last third, to the point where it feels primarily allegorical rather than a narrative about people and places, and allegory is really not my cup of tea, but it was lovely enough to finish and enjoy regardless, top 3 books of 2022 for me. I'd recommend it to others, but I find that my recommending a piece of media seems to prevent my friends from getting it  I'm tempted to dig into more of her bibliography. What's Fable of the Swan like?
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Oct 16, 2022 08:19
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And now, an odd request: can we dig up some of what wikipedia terms Reliable Sources for Jenna Moran's work? Some random editor took umbrage at her (pretty outdated, not well-sourced) wikipedia page and is asking for more citations for notability. The discussion page is overwhelmingly in favor of notability because they're people who actually know the RPG industry, but they're running in to some issues documenting it because, well, it's the indie RPG industry and everything is word of mouth. Her Diana Jones award has been noted, but other things that meet their reliable sources criteria which support her notability in the industry would be great.
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Oct 17, 2022 02:59
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Kestral posted:And now, an odd request: can we dig up some of what wikipedia terms Reliable Sources for Jenna Moran's work? Some random editor took umbrage at her (pretty outdated, not well-sourced) wikipedia page and is asking for more citations for notability. The discussion page is overwhelmingly in favor of notability because they're people who actually know the RPG industry, but they're running in to some issues documenting it because, well, it's the indie RPG industry and everything is word of mouth. Her Diana Jones award has been noted, but other things that meet their reliable sources criteria which support her notability in the industry would be great. I don't know or particularly care to familiarize myself with the necessary standards for Wikipedia, but Designers & Dragons 90's and 00's books both make reference to Nobilis quite a bit.
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Oct 17, 2022 03:42
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Nobilis 2e was published by Hogshead and Guardians Of Order, both mainstream RPG publishers. She did a full book for White Wolf, who were incredibly influential at the time. She also has her PhD thesis and a bunch of academic papers, but they’re under her deadname.
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Oct 17, 2022 03:56
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hyphz posted:Nobilis 2e was published by Hogshead and Guardians Of Order, both mainstream RPG publishers. She did a full book for White Wolf, who were incredibly influential at the time. Which full book was that? She's got a number of shared credits on WW books, but a full book's not coming to mind. She also wrote for Steve Jackson Games as well.
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Oct 22, 2022 06:59
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narm00 posted:Which full book was that? She's got a number of shared credits on WW books, but a full book's not coming to mind. The Fae book for Exalted, I think.
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Oct 22, 2022 09:56
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Megazver posted:The Fae book for Exalted, I think. No, that's a multi-author one. She did a patch-job on it with Geoffrey Grabowski, but she didn't write the whole thing.
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Oct 22, 2022 12:43
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I don't think anybody has ever written an entire book for Exalted solo. Anyway, I added as many sources as I could, and the deletion question wound up settling on Keep since there was nobody actually voting for the alternative, but it just goes to show that hardly anything in RPGs really has a lot of outside sources these days. I tried to find some Exalted sources to prove notability, and realized that by a strict standard of notability Exalted doesn't qualify, either, since nearly all of its forty cites are to Exalted itself.
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Oct 22, 2022 16:31
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Jenna Moran has posted an initial preview of Knight quests for Nobilis 4e to her tumblr, which is also downloadable as a PDF at the end of the post. https://jennamoran.tumblr.com/post/699243715456352256/nobilis-4-quest-set-1 While it is interesting I will have to be honest and say: while I thought quests and arcs as they are in Chuubo's is cool, it is not actually what I want in a Nobilis game, which is basically a mishmash of the 2e and 3e rules + solid examples and GM guidance. I really don't want 'mortal actions' rules, like... at all. They make sense in Glitch where "my character can barely make it out of bed some days" is a core theme of the game. For Nobilis where the point is "you are a demigod and more than human" I just don't need them at all. There's already an existing rules element for "mortals are contesting your Noble action" and that's the GM saying "you'd need at least Aspect 4 in this particular talent to overcome this mortal(s)." There's already a rules element for having low Aspect but actually being quite good at some mundane abilities, and that's called "Limited Gift of Aspect".
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Oct 27, 2022 13:34
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bewilderment posted:Jenna Moran has posted an initial preview of Knight quests for Nobilis 4e to her tumblr, which is also downloadable as a PDF at the end of the post. https://jennamoran.tumblr.com/post/699243715456352256/nobilis-4-quest-set-1 I kind of disagree entirely! Mortal actions come up a lot, at my table at least. If your games are different that's fine but... Well. Your games aren't everyone's games! And I'm honestly pumped for the way the Quests system will help guide Nobilis play goals, when I saw how they integrated with Glitch everything really clicked and it felt like a piece that had always been missing in the gameplay of 2e/3e Nobilis had been found. It was like someone lost a rules index card at the bottom of the board game box and one day you find it and suddenly everything just works better, my group had already been kludging quests into our Nobilis play for a while now. Glitch quests had a different feel from Chuubo's quests and I'm pretty confident Nobilis 4e quests will also feel appropriate to the gameflow.
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Oct 31, 2022 18:02
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The mortal rules in Nobilis 3E kind of sucked because they were an unnecessarily complex subsystem that your Noble character was built on top of, so you were kind of obligated to learn them but then you'd basically never use them because they overlapped with Aspect 99% of the time. Glitch mortal rules elegantly slotted into the same buy-up-to-X-action system as your miraculous / bleak powers, just with a tragi-comically lesser scope, and were perfectly fine.
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Oct 31, 2022 21:15
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I can't exactly speak for how it feels in play, but I am a complete sucker for the ways mortal and miraculous actions are different. Just the basic "mortal skills guarantee that you'll get an emotionally satisfying result from your efforts but not that you'll actually do it, miraculous actions guarantee that you can do something but not that doing it gets what you want" idea is what sold me on Nobilis' mechanics working for things that aren't very abstract divinities in the first place. There's a lot of overlap in practice, but I like that it's a game where it feels like that distinction matters.
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Oct 31, 2022 22:22
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hyphz posted:The thing I find oddest about GMD is that there's a lot of talk about how amazing the characters are, but nowhere near as much about how many of them are gutted by their standard Arcs. Chuubo basically gets put through the wringer and loses his wish-granting ability. Dragging this ancient post up to say, you know, this made sense to me before I started playing Glass Maker's Dragon, but I'm pretty sure a better interpretation of this is that he loses his ability to be a normal kid. The shard he has to give up isn't what's giving him the power to be magic and grant wishes, it's what's giving him the power to not have to be a 108 mile long snake and god of dreams. Which, to be honest, I think is a considerably more unpleasant process for the poor guy.
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Feb 6, 2023 19:41
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Thinking about buying Glitch for my small crew of online friends. How many players is it?
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Feb 6, 2023 20:29
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tuyop posted:Thinking about buying Glitch for my small crew of online friends. How many players is it? It can probably handle anywhere from 2-8, though in my opinion most Jennagames shine in smaller groups.
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Feb 6, 2023 21:41
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willing to settle posted:Dragging this ancient post up to say, you know, this made sense to me before I started playing Glass Maker's Dragon, but I'm pretty sure a better interpretation of this is that he loses his ability to be a normal kid. The shard he has to give up isn't what's giving him the power to be magic and grant wishes, it's what's giving him the power to not have to be a 108 mile long snake and god of dreams. Which, to be honest, I think is a considerably more unpleasant process for the poor guy. And as we all know, turning into a giant snake never helps...
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Feb 8, 2023 01:48
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hyphz posted:Nobilis 2e was published by Hogshead and Guardians Of Order, both mainstream RPG publishers. She did a full book for White Wolf, who were incredibly influential at the time. Is there a standard way to cite someone's dead name, like you'd reference a married woman as Jane Newname nee Singlename? PerniciousKnid fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Feb 8, 2023 |
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Feb 8, 2023 03:57
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"ND Stevenson, who you might know as the creator of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, ..."
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Feb 8, 2023 04:01
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PerniciousKnid posted:Is there a standard way to someone's dead name, like you'd reference a married woman as Jane Newname nee Singlename? That's common but considered extremely rude. Iron Heart's suggestion is basically considered the better version.
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Feb 8, 2023 04:13
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Has anyone actually played Chuubo in play-by-post format? I'm thinking of trying it out with a couple of friends of mine if they are interested, and it seems like a game with very little internet presence outside of people talking about its reputation. I'm just kind of curious what a pbp format for the game would actually look like in practice, and I haven't found any examples yet. There are a couple of official transcripts of tabletop sessions, but the quick tit-for-tat exchanges seem like they would not work at all in a text-based medium. I played some forum rpgs when I was a wee cephas, so I can kind of imagine it in my mind. Just curious if anyone had any perspective on the actual process of playing a Chuubo.
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Mar 9, 2023 05:58
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PerniciousKnid posted:Is there a standard way to cite someone's dead name, like you'd reference a married woman as Jane Newname nee Singlename?
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Mar 9, 2023 06:52
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Are there any good play aids that summarize the game's rules for players for Chuubo's?
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Mar 25, 2023 19:49
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Covok posted:Are there any good play aids that summarize the game's rules for players for Chuubo's? The examples of play from Finding Home might be useful, although they aren't really a summary.
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Mar 25, 2023 20:06
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I think I accidentally deadnamed her because I thought the old name was just her intentionally obscuring her gender for business reasons in the male-dominated RPG industry 
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Mar 25, 2023 20:51
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Xand_Man posted:I think I accidentally deadnamed her because I thought the old name was just her intentionally obscuring her gender for business reasons in the male-dominated RPG industry That’s not quite clear. Before Jenna Moran, she was Rebecca Borgstrom but published under R. Sean Borgstrom. Her deadname has the same initial, so “R. Sean Borgstrom” is actually ambiguous. But stuff like her PhD thesis has her full deadname. So I’m cautious about citing that compared to, say, Nobilis 2e.
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Mar 25, 2023 21:05
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Weapons of the Gods was definitely formative in the way I view collaborative fiction at the table. The Loresheet system was ambitious and inspired many attempts and experimentations with it. Being able to "vote with your experience points" into what you wanted to be relevant that was also explicitly tied to the fiction presented in the book to encourage player engagement in addition to true milestone / achievement based leveling up pretty much is great. I could never quite fully wrap my head around Jenna Moran's other stuff, but perhaps that's also related to playing with groups that similarly could not quite their heads around the more out there concepts. Most people point and laugh or worry about Daoist Sex Lore (which was omitted from the rework of Weapons of the Gods that dropped the IP). I would absolutely be willing to give any of her games a try these days.
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Mar 27, 2023 13:15
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Covok posted:Are there any good play aids that summarize the game's rules for players for Chuubo's? I've given players this one: https://samhaine.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/cmwge-rules-summary.pdf It's... pretty decent! I'm not certain it's 100% accurate in some places, but it gives the gist and introducing a group to Chuubo's is going to be an ongoing process anyway.
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Mar 27, 2023 16:35
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I finally got around to reading Glitch, and I'm blown away by the quest system. It almost makes me want to create quests for my actual life, so I can assign myself XP whenever something cool happens. I am going to start on Chuboo's now, which I understand develops the quest system even further. Another thing I appreciated is how the example of play has both the GM and players constantly loving up and forgetting the rules, previously established facts, etc. I don't think I have seen that before in an official play example. It ties into what Jenna is saying in this interview about rule zero. Most rpg's have a rule that you can change the rules if you want, but in Glitch the rule is that you will change the rules, whether you want to or not. You are never actually playing Glitch as intended and loving it up is the intended playstyle. I find that to be a refreshing perspective.
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Jan 8, 2024 12:50
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SimonChris posted:I finally got around to reading Glitch, and I'm blown away by the quest system. It almost makes me want to create quests for my actual life, so I can assign myself XP whenever something cool happens. I am going to start on Chuboo's now, which I understand develops the quest system even further. Chuubo’s was before Glitch. The quest system is similar but the presentation isn’t as tidy. quote:in Glitch the rule is that you will change the rules, whether you want to or not. You are never actually playing Glitch as intended and loving it up is the intended playstyle. I find that to be a refreshing perspective. The first rule of WTF: You are not playing WTF.
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Jan 8, 2024 21:04
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