Justina Revolution

(This piece is a write up of a wonderful game of When The End Comes run by the inimitable Tenzin they did a fabulous job running the game. If you can sit at a table with them, do it. This is all fictional and none of these events actually occurred.) Texas Cheerleader Warehouse Massacre By Pamela Myers Manson, Gacy, Bundy, The Splinter Siblings. Infamous names in the annals of depraved crimes. Alice and Arthur Splinter committed over 50 murders during their killing spree in Kalgary in the late 1990’s. Now, on Halloween in 2022, a grim copy of their work was perpetrated at the local Mallwart Warehouse in the seemingly quiet Cedar Hill district on the outskirts of our beloved city. A total of 10 dead in a grisly killing spree mimicking the crimes of the Splinters almost perfectly. Perfect except that two victims survived. Their names have been kept out of the public eye to protect their privacy as they heal from the horrific trauma inflicted upon them. Police believe that 20 year...

     My name is Lisa Cole. I grew up in Asheville, North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Everyone always looks at that place and talks about how beautiful it is. But it’s not beautiful. It’s ugly. It’s a shiny piece of candy pumped full of poison. For most of my life it was a goddamn pit that I was born in and I thought that I would never get out of there while I was alive.      I was thirty two years old. I worked as a CNA, a certified nursing assistant. My mom was a CNA before me. She used to say that she was a certified shit wiper. Because that is what it is. If you work in a place like Carolina Cove, where wealthy retirees end up spending the remainder of their lives, you end up wiping the asses of people who have had more opportunity and money than you can ever dream of as they endure the indignities of old age and impending death. My mom worked at one of the less posh nursing homes in the county and eventually just clutched her chest a...

  You have abided twelve years among the ancestors. I have missed you all the while. In Summer heat I long for you. In Winter's cold I search for you In Autumn's harvest I listen for your laugh. In Spring's blooming I yearn to hear your voice. But you are gone from me to the place only my heart may visit Betwixt dreams and waking. Favor me still my boy and speak well of me among the dead. You were bold and bright and wondrous. A head of curls and a ready smile. Sly of tongue and sharp of wit. My bright and beautiful wondrous boy. Impish and horrid and altogether charming. You abide among the ancestors now and I am lessened for the want of you. Someday I will see you again when I pay the debt that all born things owe. Until then this year finds me sore broken and pained Some days I feel there is little left of me but a ghost waiting on a reunion. But I must remain a while longer. Sing songs of me my beloved son... and let them know that I endure.

      It seems to be a truism of the internet TTRPG space that there are always complaints that most people won't play anything except D&D 5e. You can look at any online platform and see this complaint echo across the interwebs with varying levels of consternation and vitriol.      One afternoon I was staring at the blank pages of this blog and I remembered watching old episodes of No Reservations with the late, great Anthony Bourdain and it occurred to me. Commitment to one cuisine is admirable if you are a cook who wants to be great at their craft. However as an eater it's pretty closed minded and parochial. It's good to try new things. Being something of a grognard type who still loves running BX D&D and all kinds of weird indie RPG systems, especially horror themed stuff, I have been pretty closed minded about other games and crunchy systems.      Recently, I threw myself in the deep end and agreed to do a pair of ...

  Children of Gevaudan A Fudge Adventure by Justina Revolution The mountains of South Central France ring out with the anguished wails of bereaved mothers. A terrible beast stalks the people and kills with impunity. Some say it is a wolf. Others say it is a devil from the pits of hell. Neither prayer nor weapons have thus far brought the beast down. It is the summer of 1767 and many have died to the fangs and talons of this monster. The creature fears cattle for some reason. It does not eat animals. It beheads and partially devours humans. It plays games and torments the families of those it has slaughtered. Homes stand empty. Farms fallow. Louis the 15th has issued repeated rewards for the beast’s death but nothing seems to come of it. A sort of nihilism has settled into the village of Benoit. Father Pierre is praying daily for God to deliver the people of Gevaudan from the Devil. Goal: Survive until Dawn as the beast stalks your village and kills everyone in an or...

      A lot of really bleak stuff is happening in the United States right now and I am scared. So I decided to take some action to relieve my anxiety. I don't know if it is just a me thing but taking action no matter what reduces my anxiety level. Maybe it is some sort of ingrained idea that if death, horror, and whatnot find me doing something it won't be so bad. I have no clue how that would work but it seems like something that my subconscious mind might believe. I have not posted a blog in weeks so it seems like a good time to abandon my lofty goals of writing about self defense or the general feelings I have in the wake of Roe v Wade being overturned and just do something to stave off the mad restlessness I feel fluttering in my chest.     I think that is what is keeping the world going right now. In spite of the darkness we have this absurd need to do something. Anything. Whether it will actually help or not. I don't know what is going to happen....

      Today is a good day. I woke up. Took care of some auto repair issues and then I practiced my Tai Chi. This summer is all about focusing on my Tai Chi form and skills. Getting better at stand up grappling and closing the distance. Each summer I try to focus on one specific art or aspect of martial arts to play with and improve upon. It's fun because I set a goal and pursue it. Sometimes I even make it. My goal for this summer is to keep my purple belt Brazilian Jiu Jitsu friend from taking me down in five three minute rounds. It's nothing competitive, just good fun and a challenge to myself.     It is really interesting. I will do things like this and dig in my heels quite hard about learning even basic HTML. I am not interested in the marketable skills. I just want to do the stuff I think is cool. I am quite unreasonable on this point too. I model my life on the idea of the Five Excellences: Meditation, Martial Arts, Healing, Composition, and Pre...

      It is morning here and I sit before my computer typing this entry. It is a strange day. I practiced some qigong and Tai Chi this morning and feel pretty good right now. I am mostly avoiding social media and news today. I feel apprehensive about today. Like I need to be a bit more aware and alert. Like my heart and mind need to be still and listen. It is like that moment when you are walking through the forest and all the birds go silent.     The song "The Wolf In Your Darkest Room" has popped up on my playlist and it feels like that. Something is out there stalking us all and we can only wait for it. Then I get a flash of insight. The world, my subconscious, the universe, the Dao, God, whatever you call it is presenting a horror film for me. And that thought brings some comfort. I like horror movies quite a bit. The suspense and relief of suspense is a lot of fun. And that is I think the only sane response to a situation like we are living throug...

      I have been out of the writing habit since COVID hit me a few weeks back. Tonight is my attempt at getting back to it. I am still pretty tired from it. The feeling of congestion, fever, soreness, and tiredness was pretty awful and I am thrice vaccinated. I cannot imagine what wild COVID without vaccinations would have been like. It is a strange and tiring time to be alive. Plagues and hatred seem to fill up the internet and yet life outside continues pretty well unabated. The looming shadow of inflation, rising costs, and wage stagnation stand over everything like a pall. And yet the sun still shines hot and bloody in the Texas sun.      I have never felt particularly safe in my life. Growing up in rural Appalachia isn't exactly the most queer friendly environment for a child. I spent most of my life cultivating some sense of safety. I ended up getting black belts in several martial arts and developing a sort of grim outlook that I would lik...

      Today on the blog we will be looking at a place whose existence I proposed on Twitter.     Appleboro is a quaint little halfling settlement nestled in a small valley. It is a quiet place where the smells of wood smoke, baking, and gardening mingle with honey suckle and apple blossoms. It is a good place where the folk have made a prosperous living from the land.      There is a nice inn here called the Willow Bend Inn and Tavern, it is run by a human family who has lived around these parts for a few generations. Halfling burrows are the predominant structures hereabouts and the innkeepers are good enough folk.      Sheriff Amelia Lightfoot runs the town. She was elected by her fellow halflings and seems to be a fair upstanding woman with sandy blonde hair, an infectious smile, and a will made of iron as strong as the well worn short sword she carries at her hip.       The Willow Bend is ...

     Fate is one of my favorite Tabletop Role-Playing Games. It is fun, versatile, and exciting. It is also hard as hell to get into and the explanations in the book are pretty lackluster. The way the text talks it sounds like this is a game so far removed from your average RPG that you have entered a world that must be experienced properly to be understood. This is not the case.     Fate is a universal system. It lets you play anything you like at any power level you like with minimal rules. In the book it says characters are: "Competent, proactive people who lead dramatic lives." This turned me off immediately because I don't like assuming that every character is this way. However, in retrospect, this is true of every character in every RPG I have ever played. Even in games where one plays as children, amateurs, or beginners in their craft the players can expect a reasonable chance of success of they attempt something. The situations in RPG's are often d...

      My Twitter friend, Lex ( @titanomachy ), was asking about what kind of liquor would make for a good TTRPG. I responded with this: "Kentucky Bourbon. Families of Appalachian conjure folk warring and scheming over ancient hollers filled with magical secrets. Making deals with the fairy folk and dodging the coal companies that want to take away their homes." Thanks to their encouragement, here we are with me sharing my brainstorming process publicly because it might be interesting.     I will be creating this game using Fate Core rules and a few of the Fate Tool Kits. I want this to be a game that isn't too far removed from the Appalachia where I grew up. I was intimidated by the concept of doing this because Old Gods of Appalachia is already a thing both in podcast and TTRPG format and I was like: "Well hell, what can I do that hasn't been done?" Then I realized that was just a cop out. Any project that scares me is something I need to be doing. Th...

        Good morning all, today I am working on an idea for a Fudge game I would like to run. So let's look at what parts of the Fudge RPG system that I intend to use. I am skipping attributes because honestly, they don't do much unless you focus on them. Instead we are going to zero in on Skills, Gifts, and Faults. I use the Subjective Character Creation method because counting points bores me silly. Here is an example character: Zealia Bishop, vampire socialite.      Zealia is a beautiful blond lady with sad eyes and a gloomy demeanor, in life she was the promising wife of an up and coming businessman but after she killed him for his infidelity she met her sire who made her into a vampire in order to get access to the fortune she would inherit.  Let's Start with Zealia's Gifts Striking Looks- She is pretty and this gives her +1 to social rolls Charismatic- Another +1 to Social rolls Wealthy- She is still filthy rich thanks to her husband Daniel ...

           Allie from Spurlock's Corporate had arrived for the promotion evaluation. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and no one was in the place save for two baristas behind the counter and the store manager. Allie was dressed in comfortable black slacks and a dark red polo shirt with the tiny little smiling harpy logo on the left breast. She was a slim woman of medium height with bright eyes and a just perfectly messy mane of hair. Smiling came easily to her and she had a sort of folksy American charm. It was hard to tell exactly where she came from. The smell of coffee permeated the shop. Spurlock's was the world's leading supplier of coffee.      Sara, a tall birdlike lady with green eyes and little wire rim spectacles chirped at her. “You must be Allie from corporate! It's just an absolute pleasure to meet you!” Allie smiled warmly and shook the taller woman's hand. Regulation cheerfulness. Just the way corporate liked em. I bet she ...

     I love folk music. I love true crime. Combine the two together and you get the murder ballad. This is an awesome subset of folk music that tells the story of a murder or other gruesome death. Is it grisly? Yes. Is it fun? Also yes.      I have always been a little ghoul who enjoyed dark and strange poetry. When I was a little kid I memorized and recited Poe's The Raven between times when I was resting in my little cardboard coffin. This is likely why mom sent me to Catholic school, but that is another story.      Murder ballads are how we try to make sense of horrible crimes by telling the story. When you can encapsulate the event into a story it creates some distance. Helps us to deal with an event that boggles the imagination. In many cases it commemorates the victim or centers on the perpetrator in order to warn us of the evil that can lurk in our daily lives. Stories are powerful because they allow us to assign meaning and cont...

      Media does not exist to inform us. It exists to excite us. It is there to stimulate our fears and terrors and distract us from relevant things that we might actually effect. Today's big news has been Elon Musk purchasing Twitter. A few weeks ago it was the horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are always oddball culture war things going on and no end of horrific news to keep us agitated.      Anxious, agitated people do two things. They fight with those who are different to themselves and they buy things to alleviate anxiety. The more agitated we are the more likely we are to fight to maintain the status quo even if the status quo is hurting us. We all want change. We want things to be better and more equitable and we want to feel safe. And there is no shortage of folks willing to sell you plans to achieve all of these things. Make a donation, buy my course, subscribe to this channel/blog/service and watch as your life magically i...

    Remember growing up? All the poor choices, embarrassments, fears, and mistakes? Odds are you do. Sometimes as we lie awake at night we think of our younger selves and cringe. The mind conjures up things that embarrassed us decades ago and wonders why we were ever so stupid, silly, or whatever criticism you care to level at this younger version of you.      What if we stopped doing that? What if we looked at our younger versions with kindness, love, and forgiveness? Would you degrade another human being like this? So why do we do it to ourselves? There is a sort of idea that occurs to me from time to time. That perhaps the past isn't gone away so much as it strings out behind us like a string of moments going back forever into infinity. If such a thing were true then our present selves might be able to help our past selves by giving them all the things we wished we have in our minds.      I tried this today and it made me feel mu...

       Springtime in North Texas brings with it its share of storms. Big thunderheads can roil across the sky promising hail, tornadoes, high winds, lightning, and a general feeling of unease. If you live here long enough you get kinda used to it and begin to actually see the beauty in the vast and awesome power of nature. This very afternoon we are supposed to have some storms that will last long into the night until around 2 AM CST. I feel that odd feeling in the pit of my stomach that comes with thinking about the storms and what they might portend for me and mine.      A tornado is terrible but those don't bother me nearly so much as the massive hail that may come with a storm destroying vehicles and smashing property to pieces. Usually thank goodness the hail is small. Pea sized. Sometimes it can be the size of golf balls or softballs or even larger. Constant reminders that everyone in this world is subject to the whims of nature and you cann...

      Early in the mornings I like to wake up before everyone else in my house does. I will make some coffee. Maybe have a small breakfast and then I will do my morning qigong. Qigong is a Chinese art. The name means: Energy Work, and it is one of my favorite things to do in the entire world. In many ways it is a lot like yoga and it builds strength, flexibility, peace of mind, and good health.      I got into qigong by way of martial arts. I practice Shaolin Kung Fu, Yang Style Tai Chi, and Baguazhang. These arts all contain qigong training for building strength, flexibility, and nei jin or internal power. I think I liked qigong better than yoga simply because it had a purpose that made sense to me. Getting stronger and more flexible? Yes please! It is a fun thing to do because it has helped me to be healthy and strong and recover from many injuries and illnesses over the years. It doesn't cure me so much as it stimulates healing which is a great...

       I love minimalist RPG systems. They are my favorite way to do tabletop role playing. This one is the White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game and it is based upon the TSR White Box Dungeons & Dragons rules first published in 1974 and presented through the lens of Swords and Wizardry, an excellent retroclone in its own right. Charlie Mason presents a well written and edited rule book that shows off the early approach to tabletop gaming in a fun and accessible way.     If you enjoy Dungeons & Dragons and have only played 5e then this is a fun, low cost way to try out Old School games and see if you enjoy them or not. The book clocks in at 150 pages and is a fast read. The rules are very light and depend on the GM to make rulings that are sensible and fair. It is also a great base for building your own RPG material because it is easily hacked. You won't need to worry about breaking the game because the game itself is just a skeleton you ...