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honedperfection

December 17th - a rescue plan

Some good news, I’ve been talking to two developers now and got them working together, we just had a meeting with the guys behind an existing large (millions of users) site similar to Tumblr, with a vibrant and open-minded community, and more importantly, it has open-minded owners who believe in free speech. They think we can get something done here to rescue the whole community.

I’m not allowed to reveal the site name yet. I can tell you it’s mainstream, open to everyone, open-minded and welcoming. (It’s not WordPress or any site owned by Facebook or Twitter. It’s not Pillowfort, that’s in closed beta. It’s not Ello, that’s mainly for artists. It’s not kinkspace or fetlife, those are too specialist. It’s not jux, that seems to be closed. It’s not Soup, that seems still in development and too small.)

One of the reasons for delaying the announcement for next few days is they don’t want a “land grab” where people take the names of current popular Tumblr users over there (cyber squatting). So they are looking at ways for existing Tumblr users to keep the same names on the new site.

More info over the days to come.

The plan is, broadly:

1. By December 9th, announcement of the new site and how to secure your username there

2. By December 10th, an online tool for bloggers to copy their existing content to the new site automatically, with the same tags and captions.

3. Bloggers will need to copy their content across between December 10th and December 17th if they want to use the automatic tool.

4. My understanding is that after December 17th there will be no public access to any “flagged” posts on Tumblr, but the original poster will still be able to see the flagged post (for a short time at least). Therefore, the original poster may still be able to manually download a post to their own PC or phone, after December 17th, and manually upload it to the other site. But if you have lots of posts that will take a long time, it will be better to use the automatic tool before December 17th.

Please understand that these dates are approximate and may change for technical or other reasons.

There may be a few rough edges or not so perfect looking site design on the transfer tool. Everyone is doing their best. The main goal here is to help as many people as possible preserve access to their content, in the short space of time Tumblr has allowed us, and preserve as much as possible of the Tumblr community spirit somewhere new.

The new site will cater for photo, GIF, text and html posts. It will not offer video and audio posts, due to cost reasons - maybe in future, but for now you will need to preserve video and audio content yourself in some other place.

If your Tumblr blog has a mixture of original content and reblogs, or all reblogs, all of that can be copied over to the new site. Reblogs will become “your” original content if nobody else posted them yet, otherwise they will be shown as reblogs. The devs are looking at ways to preserve attribution of reblogs back to the original Tumblr poster, if that person also moves to the new site.

Important: your Likes cannot be copied from Tumblr to the new site. You will have to go find the same posts again on the new site, and like them afresh.

(Similarly, existing reblog comments, asks, messages and other user interaction on Tumblr cannot be copied to the new site - that’s just too much to do, in the short time available.)

If you want to preserve any of your existing Liked posts on Tumblr, you will need to either: (1) download the post to your own PC, or: (2A) reblog it now to your own Tumblr blog, and then (2B) use the automatic tool, before December 17th, to move your whole Tumblr blog across to the new site.

If you have Liked a lot of posts here on Tumblr, the gridllr.com webapp should be able to help you do steps 1 and 2A quickly, I mean download or reblog.

(Someone complained to me today about the appearance of Gridllr on a phone. It’s best to use Gridllr on a PC, Mac or Tablet with a large screen.)

If you have liked a post here on Tumblr and the original poster decides to delete it, or even to delete their entire blog, some time before December 17th, then that post will be permanently lost. So if you want to be sure to preserve any of your Liked posts, you should best download or reblog as soon as possible. If it’s reblogged to your own blog it is safe from deletion, at least for next few days.

Obviously, you will lose access, after December 17th, to all past posts you have liked, if Tumblr has flagged them as NSFW. Again, the steps (1), or (2A) and (2B) covered above will be the only way to hold on to these posts.

Source: honedperfection
rpgsandbox

You’re Stuck in an Average

tabletopresources

A little background here: Like is so often true, I spent a few hours today browsing the internet’s many treasures (and dire swamps), not exactly looking for something but letting my attention drift and flow wherever it may. It ended up taking me on a whitewater rafting escapade through youtube videos of various Dungeon Masters leading their own respective groups through whatever adventure they’d planned for that session.

As I was watching, and getting a little something I could learn from or use in (honestly) every video, I found my mind drawn to one item in particular. Let me give you a few DM quotes that will quickly reveal my train of thought:

  • You’re stuck in an average dungeon…
  • You’re sitting in an average tavern…
  • Your room in the inn looks about what you’d expect: average furnishings, the usual wash basin and straw bed…
  • The man behind the counter is your average innkeeper…
  • You’re on your way through the forest again…

I think a lot of you already see where this is going. Those DMs, and their players, are “stuck in an average”. What does that mean?

  • There are no readily apparent surprises here
  • Nothing draws/captures attention
  • The setting is immediately populated by the unvaried marks of repetitive things that are “always there”

What does that do to the players (including the DM)?

  • Player energy begins to fall as their attention lacks an immediate anchor
  • Creativity flounders as players fill the area with the mundane, populate a space with what’s expected, copy-paste “the usual” surroundings onto the current setting
  • Those “always there” or “average” surroundings, in terms of gameplay,  pretty much may as well be nothing for the effect it has on player imagination and their drive to explore and ask questions

Now there will be inevitably be someone who speaks up for the usefulness of the “average” - and that’s because they’re right: there are benefits to this approach. Some of them are:

  • DMs put on the spot have a turn-to that they can deliver quickly and easily and yet players will be able to populate that space with “the usuals” without the DM having to set the same again, repeatedly over and over
  • In low (rest) periods, the players feel as though they’ve entered a place of refuge; a safe “average” place where their minds can rest and they can let the stress of impending character death slip away and take care of the nitty gritty (for example, splitting treasures in relative safety)
  • Like the above, except the “average” place is just an illusion/deception. Something horrible is really going to happen and it’s easier to do that if the players aren’t expecting it.

But that only works best if it’s the exception and not the norm. The DM should usually want to give their environments more “life” - flavored surroundings that invoke awe and draw your players in with excitement and a need to learn more. Those low times can still be interesting, and a rich description can still be unique and captivate your audience without putting them on edge. And tricking your players with deceptively safe areas too often will simply lead to players never feeling safe: they’ll check every wall and floor for traps, they’ll have servants testing their food, they’ll stab their own bedrolls before laying down for the night just to be safe it’s not going to eat them as they nod off.

But I hear you, can we bring this discussion back to recognizing that potential for weak description and talk about possible solutions? Yes we can. But I mean to START the discussion, drop a few ideas, some resources that could help, and then see what others contribute. 

Characters


Environments


Items


Adventures/Encounters


Miscellaneous Quick Ready-to-Use References


What if you don’t have time to do any of that?

Use what you know:

  • Think of an area you’ve been to and describe it in a way befitting your campaign setting. A pub in your area becomes a tavern easily enough if you focus only on what translates well
  • Call on a character, item, creature or location you’ve watched in a movie, read about in a book, or seen in art, and describe it to others. Sometimes you can even say “His mannerisms remind you of Jack Sparrow as he crosses the boat to get to you, but he’s definitely more orc than human, and closer in size to an overfed cow than a spindly Johnny Depp.” That’s especially useful if combined with the below…

Involve your players. Just imagine these scenarios, told from the point of view of a DM that was caught off guard:

  • “The smarmy bard lazily drags a hand over the lute’s string as he eyes you, and though he wears a common tabard and his voice is nothing spectacular, something about him stands out above all else. *Points to a player* You, tell me what it is. *Player offers their own quirk, which may well become a permanent part of that character*
  • “You open the door to the richly decorated guildhall and a smell hits you. It takes awhile for you to recognize it, but when you do, you seem certain that the smell is… *Points to a player*… You, tell me what the smell is… *Player does, DM rolls with it*… That’s definitely it. It’s thick in the air, filling your nostrils until it hangs on every breath you take. But that barely registers when you’re face to face with something that lays claim to your attention… *Points at a different player*… What is it that claims your attention?… *Player provides it, game moves on*… And so maybe you find yourself staring at it. But that’s fine. Because at least it takes your attention away from something far less enjoyable, letting you almost ignore it’s there entirely… *Points at another player*… And that is, what?
  • These are just examples to demonstrate the exercise. The second example especially is just to showcase the different “gaps” that players can fill in. You may not want to leave quite that many gaps… or… maybe you do. Depends on your players and how often you do it, and to each their own. 


So that’s a start. When I began writing I thought this would be much longer, have an introduction, a body (where I’d even list games that use some of what I’ve written to good effect), and a conclusion to bring it to a close. But I  always prefer dialogue over monologue.

So what do you think? Reblog with your thoughts, comment with your suggestions, provide feedback and I’ll keep an eye on this to see what develops.

And check Tabletop Gaming Resources for more art, tips and tools for your game!

Source: tabletopresources
definitelybeholderrpgideas
probablydumbrpgideas

Weapons that whisper to you

probablyninjarpgideas probablyninjarpgideas

Knife that whispers when you should strike

probablygoodrpgideas

Knife that whispers where you should strike

probablyoprpgideas

A knife that whispers spells.

probablyromanticrpgideas

A knife that whispers sweet nothings to you and compliments how you just killed that person

probablynecromancerrpgideas probablynecromancerrpgideas

a knife that whispers to your fallen enemies and persuades them to rise and fight for you

probablytheworstrpgideas

A knife that whispers facts about your enemy

probablymemerpgideas probablymemerpgideas

a knife that sings “mmm watcha say” every time you kill someone

probablycephalopodrpgideas

A knife very good at killing and deshelling crustateans

probablyillthoughtoutrpgideas

A knife with a sharpened handle

definitelybeholderrpgideas

A Beholder who shoots knifes from their eyes.

Source: probablydumbrpgideas
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