Tasha Robinson

Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 17:34 UTC

Every climate scientist I know reacted to this bill like it was Christmas and Mardi Gras rolled into one, and hardly anybody has any idea it happened at all.

20 replies 472 reposts 946 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 17:37 UTC

To be fair, you really should make all the payments on your baby on time.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 17:36 UTC

"This show has real jumped-the-shark vibes," says person who just learned about the phrase "jumped the shark."

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 17:35 UTC

"¡Ay, Dios no me ama!"

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 17:35 UTC

Under the black underwear, he's wearing black body paint. Just in case.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 17:35 UTC

Oof, yeah, that's one with a really dubious history of misuse.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 14:04 UTC

Apologies for the mistake. Now that I look at this image closely, I realize Batman is actually GOIHH.

2 replies 1 reposts 11 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 22:03 UTC

Looking back at this, I thought "Huh, that feels like the title of a kid's book," and… well…

0 replies 1 reposts 8 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 17:55 UTC

Turns out on a Google that some have actually used "Cowled Crusader" as an alternative. Mostly these terms roll off the tongue because of the alliteration and brevity — that's why "Crusader Who Lost His Family And Became A Weird Bat-Themed Obsessive" didn't take off.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 17:53 UTC

Talking to a friend last night about fandom, I realized I'd be okay with a system that automatically yeets people into the sun if they label others as "fake fans." Is there a phrase or term you have a similar zero-tolerance policy for? I'm seeking catapult funding, maybe we can combine forces.

8 replies 1 reposts 22 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 17:42 UTC

Batman does occasionally got Gene Ha.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 16:37 UTC

Agreed on all counts. I actually like the fact that it's pretty often not my scene — it's an interesting window into some very different sexualities from mine, much like Savage Love was back in its heyday.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 16:36 UTC

It's true, Batman is so goth, he's GOTHH.

2 replies 3 reposts 44 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 14:40 UTC

I love Hien's body-positive comics so much, but they've been mighty steamy lately, and I'd blush to point people at them. His latest is adorably wholesome, and a bit of a change of pace for the excellent Oh Joy Sex Toy column in general. www.ohjoysextoy.com/cuddle-posit...

2 replies 0 reposts 7 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 23, 2024 at 18:50 UTC

Wrapped up Origins with When Prophecy Fails, Nick Wedig's Descended From the Queen game about a fringe doomsday cult preparing for the end of the world... which doesn't come. Great questions led us to create a fairly fascinating small religion full of very dedicated, then disappointed crackpots.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 23, 2024 at 18:44 UTC

Broken Tales... I'll need to read the book to really understand what it's trying to do, but this dark, bloody fantasy about fixing broken fairy tales from the inside is very much geared to my tastes. Has a pretty punishing "roll a single 1, you fail your action" mechanic that tripped us up a lot.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 23, 2024 at 14:55 UTC

Mazes was described to us as "a love letter to Dungeons & Dragons," and it fit that bill: a mechanically simple and fairly broad high fantasy quest game that we played for very straight-faced ironic goofiness. The kind of game you could pick up and start playing in five minutes.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 22, 2024 at 23:14 UTC

Funniest/nerdiest T-shirt I've seen at Origins so far: "Sorry I'm late. Fast travel is not available when enemies are nearby."

0 replies 2 reposts 28 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 22, 2024 at 15:42 UTC

This was a fun one: Defy The Gods is a PbtA fantasy game you can beta right now, themed around exploring the forbidden and resisting divine oppression. I'm pretty sour on PbtA, but this game has wrinkles I haven't seen before, and such good characters. hecticelectron.itch.io/defy-the-gods

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 22, 2024 at 01:22 UTC

Under the Autumn Strangely is a GMless collaborative storytelling game unquestionably modeled on OVER THE GARDEN WALL. Had a weird too-many-cooks experience with this one -- seems like it's meant to be a three-person experience, but we had six, and it got chaotic. Seems like it has potential?

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 16:55 UTC

At one point, our party encountered giant bees. Our GM said, "Here are the combat rules for Trophy Dark: If you fight a creature, you die." Now that's some stakes-setting. (We did not fight the bees. Also relevant: one of the character skills in this game is "surrender." One of our party had it.)

1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 16:47 UTC

Friday's 8am RPG at Origins: Trophy Dark, a play-to-lose horror game of doomed treasure hunters falling into supernatural corruption. In the spirit of ANNIHILATION or STALKER, but far more folklore-themed. All PTL games require the right group and mindset, but I dug the fecund, oppressive vibe.

1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 03:13 UTC

Third game today: Band of Blades, a Forged in the Dark grimdark military fantasy about escaping the battlefield after humanity fails to push back the undead. A bit too mechanical for my tastes and seems like an amazing, huge setting for a relatively narrow story. But I enjoyed my fellow players.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 02:36 UTC

Prairie restores savaged dinosaur? Aw, that's sweet of it!

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 02:35 UTC

Oooh, this sounds fun. The premise also reminded me a lot of DIE, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans' comic and RPG about people sucked into a roleplaying game to battle for the realm, twice.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 01:01 UTC

Second game of the day: Vale of the Failed and the Fallen. Kickstarting in 6-8 months. Mundane children get drawn into a magical realm as Chosen Ones to fight a great evil, and fail. Twenty years later, they're summoned back to the now fallen land. A ton of story potential, great for a campaign.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 00:46 UTC

Kicked off today with Supervillain Heist, a GMless storytelling game from Nick Wedig, one of my favorite indie designers. The game generates a disastrous heist, told non-chronologically via a mechanic that generates secrets, then forces them into the open. Dark and calculating but lots of fun.

1 replies 0 reposts 11 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 00:32 UTC

Nerding thread incoming! At Origins Game Fair, mostly hanging out at Indie Games on Demand, playing indie RPGs, often run by the designers. It's my favorite place at gaming cons: the players are almost universally narratively generous and creative, and the games are fascinating and wide-ranging.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 19, 2024 at 22:09 UTC

This would be SO much more interesting if it was the other way around.

1 replies 1 reposts 22 likes

Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 19, 2024 at 16:53 UTC

Rusty white panel van on the highway. Tinted windows. Perfect license plate for this vehicle.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 17:39 UTC

I mean, boxed murder mysteries are pretty common and seemingly popular among normies, but it does seem like this was sort of an awkward experimental hybrid that wasn't quite for mainstream vacationers and wasn't quite for all-in Star Wars LARP nerds.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 17:27 UTC

Maybe the most appealing thing in all of it is how much she does want it to work and how many thoughtful ideas she has about making it work. I thought her suggestion for how the Starcruiser should integrate Batuu was a lot of fun and they should hire her as a story consultant.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 17:25 UTC

And effusive with the praise where she did like things. I've been careful in talking to people about it not to call it a "takedown" or various other terms I've seen used to imply it's just a giant attack on the whole thing.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 17:24 UTC

Regardless, it doesn't seem like Galactic Cruiser was set up like a video game where clicking this thing gets you this result every time and you can use a walkthrough — and I think that's a good thing, though I would have expected more attention paid to whether participants were getting shut out.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 17:23 UTC

I'd say it's more like a LARP than an interactive piece like, say, Twenty Sided Tavern, where the audience mostly stays in their seats and votes on things, and only a very few people get to interact. At the same time, in a normal LARP, you don't have 20 people all getting the same story beat.

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Tasha Robinson @tasharobinson.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 17:22 UTC

Maybe it rides the line a bit, given that participants aren't assigned characters to play or specific roles throughout. (Though I know people who went multiple times, and they wrote themselves elaborate characters and submitted them, and the staff interacted with them as those characters.)

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes