The place where my narratives originate.
This is Aram Zucker-Scharff's Tumblr. Aram is a web developer, journalist, and fan of many things. Find him elsewhere below.
I had no idea that chickens could?? float?? or swim??? I don’t know why I’ve never thought of chickens as buoyant. I never picture chickens anywhere near water. what else have I been missing
Why did “be critical of your media” turn into “find all its flaws and hate it” why did people become allergic to FUN
Because people confuse “critical as in critical thinking” with “critical as in criticizing something,” so they think that “look for something bad, no matter how far-fetched” is what “being critical” means.
They also don’t realize that “literary criticism” means…
Okay. What literary criticism IS, is like taking a mechanical clock apart to see all the gears and learn how it fits together and approach your next clock with more knowledge of what makes it tick.
What they THINK literary criticism means is, you take the clock apart and beat all the pieces with a hammer, then scream at it because it doesn’t tick for you the way it used to.
OMG SOMEBODY PUT IT IN WORDS
Yep, there it is: the scourge of workshopping all over the place. :/
Will never forget the first writers’ workshop I attended where a story was being “round-robined” (i.e., passed around a circle for critique) and the first person picked up the typed sheaf of paper and said, “Well, this was shit,” and just passed it on to the next person.
Speaking of shit, I kinda lost mine. “Excuse me, what?” I said. “You don’t get to do that!”
The person was astounded, as if I’d somehow just disallowed the law of gravity. “What?” they said, incredulous. And then, “Why not?”
“Because this is critique, not abuse.” (The person in question was fortunately familiar with the Monty Python skit in which this theme comes up. See below.) “You have to say why you think it was shit—meaning, why and how it didn’t work for you. And then you have to say how you would fix that.”
The person’s mouth was literally hanging open at the very idea. It had honestly never occurred to them that a workshop wasn’t just someplace to vent about their own preferences. They started to try to argue with me, and I just took the manuscript away from them and began a critique the way we do it in workshops I’m running. (The simplest form of this is the famous feedback sandwich, though there are many other potential ways to go.)
No work gets out of responsible workshopping/critiquing without having the hood carefully opened to see why the “engine”’s making whatever weird noises it’s making, having them and the machinery examined and diagnosed, and then politely closed up again. For irresponsible criticism—which we refer to around here as the “Rite of Spring” approach, in which abuse is somehow felt to make the writer or the work stronger—I have no damn time at all. Seriously, who made that shit up? Except somebody who doesn’t really care about either the writer or the work, and enjoys others’ suffering.
(mutter) (sigh) …Anyway, check this out. The abuse happens at 0:43. :)
Newsmax is a far-right conservative network. These are supposed to be bad things. I feel like I’m watching a Simpsons episode. This season of America was written by The Onion.
It’s absolutely bonkers that the average right wing voter, who will benefit tremendously from every single one of these policies, whose quality of life will go up literally overnight, will fight to the death to prevent them from happening.
And you know why? Because these same policies will also improve life for all Americans, including … Those People. (insert scary music)
Something that gave H.P. Lovecraft nightmares is the work of my favorite artist. In “At the Mountains of Madness” he specifically mentions “the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Roerich.”
Have you ever seen a prettier insect? With a wingspan of up to 2 in (5 cm), the rosy maple moth (Dryocampa rubicunda) can be found throughout North America; its range spans much of the United States’ East Coast and parts of southern Canada. Nocturnal and solitary, its vibrant color provides camouflage among the fruits of red maple trees. This species can live for up to nine months in the wild.
As of late I’ve been enjoying @cavegirlpoems’s Gardens of Ynn and Stygian Libraries! The former recently had a Kickstarter for a new print edition and I recently got my hands on the PDFs for both, and I really enjoy them! They are both depthcrawls, a type of randomized pointcrawl with an almost procedural generation approach to them, so each sojourn into the two will feel completely different each time! I posted about Ynn here briefly:
I also like Necrotic Gnomes’ two first-level modules for Old School Essentials, The Incandescent Grottoes and The Hole in the Oak, which (my players don’t read this) ||actually combine into an interconnected dungeon with a whole lot of cool stuff to explore!|| Me and my group aren’t that deep into them yet, but there have been some really fun instances of actually getting to experience the underworld as a space inhabited by weird lil guys who don’t always want to fight (my party ended up making friends with the kobolds foraging moss on the first level of the dungeon and everyone agreed that the kobolds are sweet lil guys).
What else. Oh yeah, Barkeep on the Borderlands looks like a fun bar crawl adventure, sadly I’m not quite sure if I can safely plug it into my open table campaign given its event-based nature.
I also recently checked out The Bloom for Liminal Horror, a cool OSRish modern fantasy module inspired by, among other things, Last of Us, Alan Wake, and Twin Peaks! It’s been nominated for an Ennie and I think it has a shot! :)
Heyooo I’m looking for some people who would be willing to help me play test my ttrpg tales from the aether!
Tales from the Aether is a rules heavy sword and sorcery ttrpg heavily inspired by a number of open world video games. It focuses on role play and story telling while integrating both into the combat and social mechanics. Its roughly on par with pathfinder for crunchiness but takes a completely different approach to resource management in combat.
We’ll be creating characters and playing in a tournament esk arena to test out both the character creation and player combat system and to help me figure out the monster balancing.
Your commitments will be pretty low with reading the rules/character creation being the biggest time commitment and after that its all combat baby! I estimate - based on my own health and availability - that well be playing once every two ish weeks when everyone is available.
If this would interest you, please leave a comment or send me a message! If ur not interested for what ever reason then pls reblog and share so this post has more reach <3
(Edit: the server is temporarily closed due to so many volunteers XD if you are interested in joining, stick around for when I open the server again)
Heyo everyone! Im gonna be opening the server again this weekend!! The character creation manual is basically completed with 250 pages of purely character customization options.
I’m going to start running one shots of varying levels that tackle the combat, social, and survival mechanics in addition to mini games like fishing and stealth. If that interests you, please send me a message!!
Now at IPR - Detritus: A Solo Narrative Journaling Adventure
Detritus is a post-apocalyptic solo narrative journaling adventure. Set in a wasteland still grappling with the destruction of an atomic bomb that fell a decade ago, you leave your encampment in search of a better life. On the road, you quickly discover that change won’t come easy.
The central story beats are pre-determined, but your character’s discoveries, thoughts, and reactions are yours to decide. As you encounter new scenes and dilemmas, you will be asked to reflect on your emotional reactions, as well as those of your character. Your responses determine how events unfold and what items you discover along your journey.
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