alyssa @alyssa@cat.family

gonna pick up #DecRecs again with some fun little web self-publishing and similar recs.

today I suggest Zonelets!

Zonelets is a cute little (very little) #blogging engine, intended to let people easily make their own little zone, and make their little zone theirs. You can use it anywhere you can upload HTML and javascript files (for example, you can freely host your little zonelet on neocities, which the quickstart suggests as a good way to begin). It's HTML-based, but try not to let that scare you, you don't need to know much at all to post to your zonelet, really that's more a matter of allowing you to tinker with and customize it.

I linked the quick start guide, but do check out the home page and home page (and maybe the FAQ if you're actually gonna use it hehe), too!

Zonelets was made by Marina Kittaka, whom you may know from the indie adventure games Anodyne, Anodyne 2: Return to Dust, Even the Ocean, and Sephonie that she and Melos Han-Tani made. Also from some stuff she did on her own but I'm not as familiar with it ^;

se parece queles da palabras diferentes hoy a personas diferentes (o plataformas diferentes) ... yo usaba desktop web cuando yo lo dije

me molesta la palabra del día de hoy

es un nombre propio!! también no me interesan los deportes

not that lots of extremely ubiquitous social phenomena aren't very bad. just, like, if it's bad it's not because it's phrased in the terminology of fandom.

when people recast extremely ubiquitous social phenomena in fandom terminology to try to present it as bad because some peeps really hate fanfic... :/

what can i make with blueberries to take advantage of the good flavor of blueberry without the unpleasant texture of blueberry

i got a bunch of blueberries at the grocery store but i think maybe i don't like blueberries oops

there is more that i could have said and strongly believe about what Wisher Theurgist Fatalist is about, but that would be reaching too far into what is properly a question for you and the people around you to decide, perhaps with a Harmony roll. If you do give it a try absolutely do hit me up with your thoughts and I’ll share my own more personal thoughts and experiences with it.

#DecRecs if you're at all into weird roleplaying games, I highly recommend Jenna Moran's Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist & Weaver of their Fates. Some have described it as a self-aware joke about her games' reputation for esotericism. There's perhaps an element of truth to this: it is certainly true the game is named WTF&WTF, and I don’t know if there’s another designer out there who could write a game at all WTF not as a joke.

But, in addition to being a great read qua surrealist art project (or qua phenomenological analysis of role playing, for that matter), there’s actually I think a very approachable and interesting game in there. For that part, you mostly only need to read the beginning and end of each role’s book. As a games system, WTF is concerned primarily with how to resolve disagreements between players: especially about the setting, the rules, and how to play WTF, although it considers also such questions as “what if we disagree about who is playing” or “what if we disagree about whether I can [invoke the rules for resolving disputes about how to play WTF]?” (https://geostatonary.tumblr.com/post/162541011403 is a direct quote from the rules). It is an intrinsically incomplete rules system; this is true of every game, but WTF foregrounds and emphasizes and beautifully handles this fundamental tension of roleplaying games. It also does so in an easy to pick up and engaging to use way.

As a game WTF cares about what is, about what might be, about what we desire, and, above all, about who we can trust to know what it, to recognize what might be, and to wish for what should be. It cares about the moral implications of your journey as much as about the events therein. It is a game about finding the Jewel of All Desiring and remake the illusion of reality into something genuinely true, into something that has always been true, and, maybe, something that should be true.

http://hitherby-dragons.wikidot.com/a-small-gift-to-my-readers for downloading WTF&WTF.

tonight for #DecRecs I will recommend the freely-available Press Start tutorial scenario for Fabula Ultima.

Fabula Ultima is an Italian #TTRPG inspired by JRPGs (as the name may suggest); it's based on the core rules of Ryuutama with the addition of a neat turn-based JRPG-style combat system, plus a variety of neat little bits.

Press Start is an excellent introduction to the system and the vibe of Fabula Ultima. Unlike a lot of starter scenarios, it makes a considered effort to introduce the rules of the game piece-by-piece. The characters (pregenerated PCs, villains, and other NPCs alike) are interesting and the fights and other scenes were quite fun when I played it.

It's also pretty suitable to just picking it up and playing it right off. The friend who ran it when we played had I think not looked at it at all before we started and it still went great. Give it a try if you'd like!

forgot to actually post my #DecRecs last night so here it is!

Did you know that you can download the entirety of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary for free online? I mean, okay, probably like me you don't have a lot of really good reasons to look up the meanings of Akkadian words. Most of us are not out here trying to read cuneiform tablets in their original language.

But if you want, say, character names for a fantasy setting (it might also be useful for historical stuff set in ancient Mesopotamia but for names there you should probably look into sources specifically about names then), then consider Akkadian! The language is likely unfamiliar to your players/readers/whatever regardless of their cultural background, so it will help to make your setting feel unfamiliar; names like "Nablu" or "Paharu" probably won't have prior connotations, which isn't always an advantage but can be useful; as with any use of a consistent naming language, the use of it will allow you to hint at connections and relations even to an audience which is unaware of the meanings of the elements.

Also it's just neat to randomly page through and read about a long-dead language.

https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/assyrian-dictionary-oriental-institute-university-chicago-cad