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aldantefax posted:How does one get "insanely" less racist? LatwPIAT posted:This letter from 1937 has Lovecraft rip into his younger self (though exactly on what is unclear, other than being a smug, classist rear end in a top hat) at the end of a rather long argument against fascism, classism, and capitalism (with a few barbs thrown at Marxism) and a comment or two about how populism motivated by xenophobia against the Irish, Catholics, Jews, and other outsiders are “primitive emotional appeals” of ripe for fascism.
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Jan 29, 2021 19:42
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Arivia posted:they is cool goon otspIII!
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Jan 29, 2021 19:59
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clicked the link and walked into an elephant absolutely destroying a phase spider like not even close
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Jan 29, 2021 21:22
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aldantefax posted:How does one get "insanely" less racist? Stayed too long in the tide pools and turned into half-fish while listening to the siren song from out of time and space? Well, keep in mind Lovecraft's racism was seen as quite kooky, even by the standards of his day. Not that he was more or less racist than the standard of the time, just that his contemporaries thought the way he expressed it was notably weird
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Jan 29, 2021 21:26
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Found an interesting minimal RPG with a focus on GMing shared by a number of attendants, coupled to a wager and betting system. It is called The Gambler's Court and it is a short Storygame. One player creates a character (the Wanderer, a person who has become lost in the woods) with a number of freeform talents and items. The others play as a group of supernatural Gamblers (fae, spirits, or lesser gods) who take turns narrating challenging scenarios for the Wanderer (Riddles), and bet gold among themselves along the way. If the Wanderer makes it through a number of riddles, they win. If they lose the same number of riddles, they become lost forever, and the Gambler with the most gold wins instead. I thought it was a cool premise. It is free, very thematically illustrated and on itch.io here: https://monchop.itch.io/the-gamblers-court 
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Jan 29, 2021 22:47
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KingKalamari posted:Well, keep in mind Lovecraft's racism was seen as quite kooky, even by the standards of his day. Not that he was more or less racist than the standard of the time, just that his contemporaries thought the way he expressed it was notably weird I mean, he was also exceptionally racist for the time too, not that many people in the history of the world felt compelled to write a crappy poem that's just "Look, I'm REALLY racist." REH was also racist enough that his friends called him on it in personal correspondence, and REH's racism isn't that weird it was just very strong. Helical Nightmares posted:Found an interesting minimal RPG with a focus on GMing shared by a number of attendants, coupled to a wager and betting system.
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Jan 29, 2021 23:14
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Helical Nightmares posted:Found an interesting minimal RPG with a focus on GMing shared by a number of attendants, coupled to a wager and betting system. Not really related but a cool song that popped into my head with a cool video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yywGI1H_oyM I wonder if there are going to be more Wild West cinematic games coming out in the future? I only really know Deadlands, Boot Hill, Aces & Eights.
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Jan 29, 2021 23:18
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Lovecraft's racism is interesting because it shows that he really felt like the only thing going for him was the circumstances of his birth. I wonder if most people of his time that were in a position to get written work published felt like they had more value as a person and thus didn't go all-in like he did, even if they probably were pretty racist themselves. It makes me think of some analysis I've seen of white supremacists today and why they always seem to be massive losers - the only thing they can cling to that they feel has any value is their whiteness. This is probably a common theme that goes back a lot further than now, but in the pre-internet age they didn't get their thoughts recorded and broadcast worldwide.
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Jan 29, 2021 23:31
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It does sorta feel like Lovecraft's work is a slightly different (though still unambiguously harmful) strain of racism from, like, modern chuds, in that it seems to be a sort of existential dread that the mysterious "other" might actually have it more figured out than him and his WASP-y heritage is utterly unequipped to deal with the real world and meaningless in comparison. In his books it's always the inbred rednecks and island savages and Louisiana voodoo cultists that have a true understanding of the "real" Gods and Forces that govern the universe that the white guy author surrogate can't comprehend or withstand, because his higher position in society is a fragile illusion that ultimately doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It's like a racial inferiority complex.
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Jan 30, 2021 00:50
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hyphz posted:Also don't forget that "put up and shut up" is more of a cultural value in the UK, whether it is appropriate or not.
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Jan 30, 2021 01:00
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aldantefax posted:I wonder if there are going to be more Wild West cinematic games coming out in the future? I only really know Deadlands, Boot Hill, Aces & Eights. Well I could let you know, but https://www.isfarwestoutyet.com doesn't seem to exist anymore.
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Jan 30, 2021 01:02
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Nessus posted:Put up AND shut up? Can you explain this one? Over here it's "put up or shut up," and it's usually in the context of "back up your talk or stop with the talk," i.e. if you can actually flip your truck and come out of it fine like you've said a hundred times, fuckin do it where we can see or stop bragging about it. "Put up with [whatever the problem is] and stop talking about it". At least if my UK friends are anything to go by for interpreting that.
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Jan 30, 2021 01:17
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Something just occurred to me; despite everyone being in isolation for almost a loving year now, have we ever had a thread dedicated to solo rpgs/board games?
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Jan 30, 2021 02:07
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Jimbozig posted:Well I could let you know, but https://www.isfarwestoutyet.com doesn't seem to exist anymore. I think I basically want this but turned into a fully featured game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tk80iXCspM
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Jan 30, 2021 02:10
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Jimbozig posted:Well I could let you know, but https://www.isfarwestoutyet.com doesn't seem to exist anymore. I assure you that it is not out yet.
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Jan 30, 2021 02:11
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Tulip posted:I mean, he was also exceptionally racist for the time too, not that many people in the history of the world felt compelled to write a crappy poem that's just "Look, I'm REALLY racist." REH was also racist enough that his friends called him on it in personal correspondence, and REH's racism isn't that weird it was just very strong. Huh. I have no horse in this fight and just my own half-assed memory, but I thought Robert E. Howard was supposed to be relatively not-racist considering his time and up-bringing (which, you know 1920's Texas so still racist as balls), but that's mostly just from the vaguest of vague recollections and him being one of the few pulp authors I read that wrote non-white male characters as actually people adjacent. And I think something about a letter to Lovecraft he wrote that was basically, "Hey, dude, dial it back a bit ; you don't need to have a meltdown cause you got reminded Greek people exist." But it's been like 15 years so I totally could've made that up.
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Jan 30, 2021 02:17
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Evil Mastermind posted:Something just occurred to me; despite everyone being in isolation for almost a loving year now, have we ever had a thread dedicated to solo rpgs/board games? Not to my knowledge, and I know I'd read one.
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Jan 30, 2021 03:00
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Seconding that I'd read one, if only to understand how to actually make them work.
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Jan 30, 2021 03:39
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BattleMaster posted:Lovecraft's racism is interesting because it shows that he really felt like the only thing going for him was the circumstances of his birth. I wonder if most people of his time that were in a position to get written work published felt like they had more value as a person and thus didn't go all-in like he did, even if they probably were pretty racist themselves. The thing with Lovecraft and his racism is it doesn't really feel like it comes from him just being a shithead like most racists, it's more just the most glaring symptom of the mental illnesses he most definitely had that were only exacerbated by the fact that the aunts who helped raised him were from all accounts just plain horrid awful people who had no business being involved in a person's upbringing
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Jan 30, 2021 07:08
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Evil Mastermind posted:Something just occurred to me; despite everyone being in isolation for almost a loving year now, have we ever had a thread dedicated to solo rpgs/board games? I can write about them and explain and so on, but I don't want to write an effort post; I failed miserably at making one for the Free League games despite the thread having been my idea 
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Jan 30, 2021 08:14
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aldantefax posted:I think I basically want this but turned into a fully featured game: I would describe this trailer as "cowboy romancing the stone kung fu hustle" and, yes, that seems good. Xiahou Dun posted:Huh. I have no horse in this fight and just my own half-assed memory, but I thought Robert E. Howard was supposed to be relatively not-racist considering his time and up-bringing (which, you know 1920's Texas so still racist as balls), but that's mostly just from the vaguest of vague recollections and him being one of the few pulp authors I read that wrote non-white male characters as actually people adjacent. Howard was racist, no doubt. He lived in booming texan oil towns and was writing in the 1930s and he was submitting content to pulp magazines with a particular audience. His influences were guys like Burroughs, you know, loving tarzan. But he evolved; if you read all the conan stories, they range from "white man naturally the leader of ignorant black savages" all the way to "conan's good buddy is a black dude who is pretty much just as competent and he pals around with the guy." Lovecraft, on the other hand, was so racist that other people in his racist times thought he was really fuckin' racist. Like, shockingly. I won't pretend to understand the hows and whys of it all. Their differing viewpoints come out in their philosophies of writing, too. Howard seems to have believed that civilization was a temporary and inherently corrupt edifice, teetering over a yawning chasm of natural savagery that was probably mankind's future as well as his past. If you have a viewpoint like that, it's hard to believe in an inherent superiority of white people. Lovecraft, on the other hand, felt that immigrants and miscegenation were the greatest threats to superior white humanity, and the metaphors he used to express that were of nightmarish outsider creatures and pagan blasphemy being inherently corruptive, forces that had to be held back because any attempt to engage with them brought inevitable ruin. Later in life Lovecraft did call himself a fool for some of what he'd believed and written when he was younger: but my read of it is that he is definitely not chagrined by his racism, but rather by a foolish certainty he recognized in his younger self. I don't see much evidence that he actually changed his mind at all about white superiority. My own relationship to both of these authors is complex. I think they both produced, at times, work that rises to the level of literature. I find enjoyment and value in their respective capacities for evocative phrasing and description, weird fantastical journeys and mind-expanding vistas. Of the two, I greatly prefer Howard, but I still have a couple Lovecraft stories on my shelf, such as The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. I do not believe that owning or reading these works makes me racist, particularly if I'm acutely aware of the racism in the work. It's also far too late for me to be financially rewarding either man for their efforts, both of them being long-dead. I do believe that the authors of modern works, such as RPGs, which draw upon or are based directly on these long-dead racist men's writings, have a responsibility to explicitly recognize and discuss the racism in the source material, and create safe games that do not encourage or expose players and readers to offensive material and harmful situations. I'm putting together a Modiphius 2d20 Conan game right now, reading some of the setting material for Not-Africa regions of the game world, and kind of watching the authors make their efforts to do exactly that, imperfectly but at least satisfactorily in my view. Outside of establish that sort of requirement, I think it can be interesting and productive to compare and contrast these two contemporaries (and their racism), but I hope nobody feels upset by those discussions and of course differing opinions about exactly how racist either men were, and to what degree if any either or both of them softened on their views, are worthwhile and valid. We cannot, ultimately, know what was in their hearts, so it's all just piecing together scant evidence, reading between lines, and educated guesswork.
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Jan 30, 2021 08:48
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Evil Mastermind posted:Something just occurred to me; despite everyone being in isolation for almost a loving year now, have we ever had a thread dedicated to solo rpgs/board games? Kestral posted:Not to my knowledge, and I know I'd read one. I mean a thread dedicated to the premise seems odd but... Gloomhaven has a whole set of solo scenarios besides being mostly playable solo and it pretty much just works like the multiplayer version. You just need a decent system to pull it off in a way that is both equitable but also lets players who learn more about how it works to take advantage of it
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Jan 30, 2021 11:15
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If you're interested in what's going on with SEA RPGs, Session Zero Online is currently running and free to attend. You have to register first, but I'm pretty certain you can register today. http://sessionzerocon.com/
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Jan 30, 2021 11:40
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Evil Mastermind posted:Something just occurred to me; despite everyone being in isolation for almost a loving year now, have we ever had a thread dedicated to solo rpgs/board games?  And then post in the new threads thread, I have a few board games with explicit 1 player modes
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Jan 30, 2021 13:52
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I'm surprised we don't have a thread for discussing Lovecraft and Howard's relationship at length.
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Jan 30, 2021 18:41
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sounds like an idea for the thread for threads, to which I had my customary read-through of the first few pages but did not see more content shameless plug if you see threads you want to promote or you wanna help out with indexing threads go post in the thread for threads!!! and thread ideas
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Jan 30, 2021 18:45
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Does anyone know of a decent online multiplayer card game platform that my brother and I could use to play cribbage and other traditional card games with our 80+ year old dad? Does Tabletop Simulator have a decent card game mode?
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Jan 30, 2021 19:12
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Can anyone give some tips about finding a good paid DM? My existing group has been together for 6 years or so and we've taken turns DMing and running different campaigns etc. Now we're all looking to play together and are willing to pay like $20-25 a session etc. Platform is DnD 5E and we currently use a lot of Fantasy Grounds stuff. Where have you had good luck finding a DM and how have you identified the good ones? Any tips? Expanding our group in the past has proven problematic (we are pretty serious and arrange schedules to make sure we are able to play - work, wedding attendance, moves etc) so I'm worried that finding a DM will be difficult as well. Thanks!
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Jan 30, 2021 19:14
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El Grillo posted:Does anyone know of a decent online multiplayer card game platform that my brother and I could use to play cribbage and other traditional card games with our 80+ year old dad? Does Tabletop Simulator have a decent card game mode?
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Jan 30, 2021 19:19
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Leperflesh posted:I would describe this trailer as "cowboy romancing the stone kung fu hustle" and, yes, that seems good. Howard saw first hand how the oil boom wrecked the local ranching economy and was thoughtful enough to realize that the ranchers had done the same when they displaced the native population. This formed his suspicion of civilization's promises of progress and made him sympathetic towards Native Americans and other non-whites. Conan is an interesting expression of Howard's ideas about race. He's ostensibly a white character, but aside from blue eyes, his physical appearance is closer to that of a Native American than a European.
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Jan 30, 2021 21:25
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Ceros_X posted:Can anyone give some tips about finding a good paid DM?
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Jan 30, 2021 21:28
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give me a dollar I will DM for you
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Jan 30, 2021 21:30
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The math just works out poorly for GMs for hire in most places, I think. A few years ago there was a news article about a guy that did it in Toronto and his price was like $100 a session, which just isn’t enough after paying taxes for most people to live off of if they do 5 sessions a week. It’s above minimum wage in the US, but that’s not exactly a high bar. If you wanted to do that kinda thing you’d be better off setting up shop near rich techies and calling it an experience with discounts for repeat customers
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Jan 30, 2021 22:15
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Chakan posted:The math just works out poorly for GMs for hire in most places, I think. A few years ago there was a news article about a guy that did it in Toronto and his price was like $100 a session, which just isn’t enough after paying taxes for most people to live off of if they do 5 sessions a week. It’s above minimum wage in the US, but that’s not exactly a high bar. Yeah I think the Storm Crow in Toronto makes it work by making the GMs their employees, then charging the players a cover and actually making money off of food and beverages
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Jan 30, 2021 22:22
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Chakan posted:If you wanted to do that kinda thing you’d be better off setting up shop near rich techies and calling it an experience with discounts for repeat customers
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Jan 30, 2021 22:55
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I do not and I would love to hear about Monte Cook.
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Jan 31, 2021 01:28
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni_mSNO77Y8 This reminds me that we've never quite had a successor to Riddle of Steel
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Jan 31, 2021 02:32
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Yawgmoth posted:I don't think this actually exists, to be perfectly honest. I don't have a huge number of experiences with either side of that kind of transaction, but of those that I have had, the DMs looking to get paid to run a game were either "absolutely every single interaction in my life must be monetized" or "mom told me I have to get a job to keep living in the basement so this is it" types. I don't think either is really conducive to a good game.
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Jan 31, 2021 03:45
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Chakan posted:The math just works out poorly for GMs for hire in most places, I think. A few years ago there was a news article about a guy that did it in Toronto and his price was like $100 a session, which just isn’t enough after paying taxes for most people to live off of if they do 5 sessions a week. It’s above minimum wage in the US, but that’s not exactly a high bar. Yeah, I'd say you're right. I do put a lot of effort in my sessions as a hobby time, and the same most likely applies to most GM's. I feel to warrant asking for a price I'd have to put in even more time into preparing the game and by that point it would definitely not be worth the return for work hours involved at any reasonable price for the players.
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Jan 31, 2021 03:56
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ZearothK posted:Yeah, I'd say you're right. I do put a lot of effort in my sessions as a hobby time, and the same most likely applies to most GM's. I feel to warrant asking for a price I'd have to put in even more time into preparing the game and by that point it would definitely not be worth the return for work hours involved at any reasonable price for the players. The alternative (and I think what folks usually find) is "I'm running you through keep on the shadowfell with some precons" so a dramatic downgrade in quality and outside prep from the GM
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Jan 31, 2021 04:11
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