alyssa @alyssa@cat.family

#DecRecs

The Partial Historians is a podcast i've been enjoying about ancient roman history, from two female historians of ancient Rome. I've mostly been listening to their "From the founding of the city" series of episodes, which is essentially going thru (mostly) year-by-year and discussing that year in roman history. It's probably on track to finish sometime this century, maybe. I've enjoyed it, the tone is fun, the historians are not hesitant to have very reasonable opinions about things such as that patricians are terrible and roman conceptions of virtue were bad. Also there are major players with names like Spurius Furius. Plus sometimes there are episodes on things like Aram Khachaturian's ballet about Spartacus (not part of the "From the founding of the city" series).

belated #DecRecs for yesterday:

Tale of Maj'Eyal is a roguelike game that more heavily emphasizes the combat side of things and has pretty adjustable difficulty (allowing you to both make things directly harder/easier and/or just play with 1/some/infinite lives). The randomization is a bit low (individual zone layouts, the locations of a few zones, most enemies and loot, but not much on the larger scale), but it's got a variety of classes that play pretty differently (and extensive customization within each class in terms of which abilities you choose to spend your points on) and are p fun (among the initially-unlocked classes, alchemist is a really fun one imo). I might suggest checking out the wiki and/or forums for some spoilers (particularly on things like which zones to do when) after possibly a few deaths.

It's free, although there are paid expansions that add some neat stuff (new classes, new zones, an entire campaign from the perspective of an antagonist faction from the original campaign).

@Satsuma oooo have you watched the new sequel series?

a feature film #DecRecs

Strange Magic is a computer-animated jukebox musical fantasy romance film starring among others Alan Cumming as some kind of insect creature and Evan Rachel Wood as a rather fighty fairy princess with great fashion. It was a flop with critics and witch audiences, who all have bad taste apparently.

there is a charming little imp, very fun songs, a swordflirtation, and an amusingly ineffective fungus-based surveillance network. A very tall chef is into shark storage.

and for my actually-for-today #DecRecs , I offer... another TV anime.

Shōjo☆Kageki Revue Starlight is a TV anime (and an anime film) set in an all-girls musical theatre training school, directed by Tomohiro Furukawa, who came up under and has collaborated extensively with Kunihiko Ikuhara. Like Ikuni's work, it makes extensive use of surreal, highly stylized elements, although it's more transparent than Ikuni's stuff. Also like much of Ikuni's stuff it's very lesbian.

It is very good although I really need to get around to actually finishing it. For a bit more background on Ikuhara, Furukawa, and the Takarazuka Revue (which the show is in part a critique of), I additionally recommend the (spoiler-free) post tumblr person canmom wrote up in advance of showing some people the TV anime.

also there's a giraffe that understands things.

Having forgotten to post any #DecRecs yesterday I will endeavor to post two today. My first is a TV anime:

Mawaru Penguindrum is a 24-episode anime created by Ikuni (Kunihiko Ikuhara, also known for Revolutionary Girl Utena, Yuri Kuma Arashi, and Sarazanmai, as well as his work as series director on half of Sailor Moon). I cannot offer a cogent analysis of its thematic and symbolic content, as it frankly went over my head. It tells a surreal and compelling story centering around two brothers and their terminally ill sister, and a penguin hat of mysterious origin and mysterious powers. It concerns fate and family and familial guilt and other things I did not pick up on or do not remember.

very rude of this word game to incorrectly tell me that seax is not a word

@Satsuma i might call it a general store because i think the one that used to exist in my home town had that in the name. i feel like convenience stores in the US do not usually carry grocery items. i am not familiar with either bodegas or corner stores. i think basically i have never actually referred to this type of thing generically. just, like, calling the local one(s) (which other than the one in my home town i feel like i've only encountered in the US on college campuses) by its name/a nickname

A novel #DecRecs for today:

Fable of the Swan, by Jenna Katerin Moran (whom you may know from her RPGs Nobilis, Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, Glitch, among others), is a novel told by a girl who has lost herself and seen the True Thing. It is the story of her loss and her glimpses and her few moments redeemed in the radiance of the swan. It is an explanation of why and how she must unfold herself into a leviathan of burnished brass and gleaming chrome, why she must swim out into the void and fight with he Death—the lord of Death's Dominion, the first of the Riders, the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy is he named. It is perhaps my very favorite work of fiction.

I must offer the content warning that reading it reliably induces minor dissociative episodes in me and leaves me temporarily unable to believe in the reality of the world. I have intentionally reread it more than once knowing this.

I don’t normally recommend things but I’ll give #DecRecs a try. to start: I’ll recommend the tabletop role-playing game Strike!

It’s a very charming setting-neutral (but action-focused) game that was perhaps the first of the games that decided to combine a D&D-4e-inspired but streamlined tactical combat mini game and combine it with a rules-light core system for situations where that doesn’t apply (or isn’t warranted). Its core rules are centered around simple d6 rolls and learning new skills by trying unskilled rolls. Its combat system has some very delightful class designs, such as the class that’s about playing two different characters and a very cool take on three variations of the classic “Vancian” magician. Its bipartite class/role system also means you can satisfy almost any sort of role in the team with any class.

It is available at https://www.strikerpg.com/ or https://jimbozig.itch.io/strike

addendum: thanks piggo

thanks glitch-soc for the doodling feature. i forget who did that but thank you.