Amaranth M 🏳️⚧️
@JazzElves
Followers
1,921
Following
1,823
Media
2,890
Statuses
50,921
Musician, game designer, RPG writer, sometime streamer. | RPG Patreon | She/Her | Pfp art by @fatpinktiger
Chicago Suburbs, IL
Joined March 2018
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
México
• 425541 Tweets
#BETAwards
• 409392 Tweets
#HouseOfTheDragon
• 210651 Tweets
Ecuador
• 182331 Tweets
Usher
• 112091 Tweets
Rhaenyra
• 110407 Tweets
#ForbiddenDoor
• 98092 Tweets
EMMANUEL
• 90391 Tweets
Alicent
• 80850 Tweets
CHANGO MAS FURIOSO
• 73126 Tweets
Coco
• 73024 Tweets
Delgado
• 72501 Tweets
Vinotinto
• 71371 Tweets
Clippers
• 65635 Tweets
Bautista
• 57473 Tweets
Aegon
• 46068 Tweets
Chris Paul
• 44524 Tweets
Taraji
• 41473 Tweets
#HOTD
• 41204 Tweets
Tyla
• 35298 Tweets
Chloe
• 32520 Tweets
Chris Brown
• 31628 Tweets
Aemond
• 25970 Tweets
Teyana
• 25221 Tweets
Teyana
• 25221 Tweets
Will Smith
• 23637 Tweets
Keke
• 21421 Tweets
幻想シアター
• 17669 Tweets
Concacaf
• 17383 Tweets
Wemby
• 17279 Tweets
Viserys
• 17097 Tweets
Mechico
• 15731 Tweets
Childish Gambino
• 13759 Tweets
だいち4号
• 13298 Tweets
Jimmy Lozano
• 13078 Tweets
桃の天然水
• 12111 Tweets
Lauryn Hill
• 11604 Tweets
打ち上げ成功
• 11082 Tweets
Naji
• 10668 Tweets
Marsha
• 10517 Tweets
Antuna
• 10472 Tweets
Tinashe
• 10087 Tweets
Ethics lesson time! Here is your question, class: if you claim to support and stand by a group which is consistently, historically, and currently increasingly a target of violence, yet back down when a portion of that violence is waved at you, what are you actually doing?
Target is removing certain LGBTQ and Pride month merchandise from its stores nationwide after an intense backlash from some customers, including violent confrontations with its workers.
1K
577
2K
54
3K
17K
The Dungeons and Dragons 4E Dungeon Master's Guide (ain't that a mouthful to get out) is one of the best resources for "how to actually run this game with the tools we provide" out there.
It is also only just 101-level foundational basics. Let's talk.
39
474
6K
“We won!” is the chorus I’m seeing all over D&D-adjacent Twitter today. We did it! The evil money is defeated! We made ourselves heard!
In a week, the energy to even take a step as far away as Pathfinder will be dissipated. In a month, this will be a funny “haha remember when”.
Over the past few weeks you, the community, have made your voices heard. And we’ve listened. OGL 1.0a will remain untouched AND the entire SRD 5.1 is now available under a Creative Commons license.🧵
2K
6K
26K
54
782
3K
Something I deeply appreciate about Witch From Mercury which doesn't get brought up enough:
The teenagers are teenagers.
Miorine is brilliant, incisive, raised and prepped to step straight into a powerful corporate leadership - and is effortlessly manipulated by her elders.
9
458
2K
@Sahoni_Stuff
Or the related "Haha, well I never liked [creator] anyway, sucks to be a liker of bad people" attitude that I see a lot of, like there's some personal moral high ground and/or failing associated with it. Same story, different angle, same bad taste in my mouth.
6
132
2K
@justinpie
Those poor people. I'd do a "blink if you're being held hostage" joke but I already know the answer.
0
7
1K
I am using Target as an illustration, but well aware that it’s not the sole instance here. Amusingly, this kind of question can be applied to “all sides” as there are plenty of profit-driven organizations who are happy to make money off others until the threat of being punched.
1
51
1K
God, whenever discourse about "magic in RPGs" and "magic systems in fantasy" and "tabletop powerscaling" come up my mind casts wistfully to my beloved The Lady, who forever reshaped the idea of what magic COULD BE, if only writers weren't cowards, for me
39
105
1K
So yeah, leaving aside the proposition that there is no ethical way to become and remain a billionaire, the thing about being Rich, let alone Hyper-Rich, is that *the money stops moving* when it hits you, and that is a Big Societal Problem.
3
229
1K
The answer to the question posed, BTW:
If you say “I support LGBTQ+ (or any other marginalization) people and rights” but back down when people get noisy at you, or make menacing gestures at you, what you are doing is (social or monetary) profit, not support.
2
106
1K
I’m also aware that target (and Budweiser and other organizations) are under no obligations to (specific action) except those they take on themselves. I’m not talking about “Target should…” but rather saying “through these signals, what can we infer about their ethics?”
2
54
1K
@tha_rami
"There hasn't been a lot of user-generated content..."
well YES, a giant part of that is that your terms of service clearly states that there's a zero-tolerance policy on any modifications of your code, which is the primary outlet for user-generated content, so uh...
3
23
981
Short and simple thing tonight, folks.
If you're on team "moving away from D&D" or even on team "taking a break from D&D right now" because you're upset about Corporate Moves, for whatever reason, I urge you to do one thing when looking for a new game:
Examine what you want.
11
199
956
Late Christmas present arrived today, got me some evil lesbian-coded dice
21
89
911
I am not saying “oh you’re not allowed to defend or protect yourself”. I’m also not saying “I can’t understand why”. I very much can understand both the reason and the desire for protection.
After all, if they’re willing to bully the loosest supporters, what must they do to us?
1
36
807
She is simultaneously ridiculously intelligent, terrifyingly competent, a skilled manipulator herself... and utterly naïve and foolish, because of the lack of perspective and experience that comes with youth. And because she's a piece on the faction gameboard, she hurts for it.
1
36
737
Tonight's hot take:
Tabletop party balance doesn't stem from any kind of mechanical parity, action-economy, damage-output or what have you. It is instead ultimately based wholly on the principle of "is everyone fulfilled by their place in this game and in the spotlight".
9
102
725
Ok, I’ll bite, but I’m going to bite at the part that interests me.
This discussion has been going on for 25 years that I’ve been aware of, and probably longer; I first encountered it in 1998, when a gaming group came to blows over adventure prep styles. It has not progressed.
44
112
703
This isn't actually about dungeons and dragons, BTW. If your takeaway is "she needs to play other games" or "she's defending 4E" or "you should try Pathfinder" I urge a re-read: D&D is the relevant vehicle here, not the point.
1
2
688
"No one's telling you that you shouldn't play the game..."
no. I'm tired of placation. I'm tired of being saccharine and calming and soothing. I'm tired of swallowing acid for the sake of your feelings. I'm sick to death of being nice.
Don't play the fucking wizard cop game.
1
242
619
@pangalactic
It also hits when you have a carefully plotted task list, I’m gonna do A, B, and C, and if someone calls you during A and disrupts that by asking you to do W (which requires shifting gears), even if you’re planning to do it later, you’re no longer doing A, you’re down to E.
4
16
604
Fuck it:
You like action and tactics? Megalos, Gubat Banwa.
Weird Fantasy? Esoteric Enterprises.
Connecting with community and exploring magic? Cantrip, Brave Zenith
Introspection and discovery? Nibiru
Symphogear style magical girls? (Upcoming) Infinite Revolution
Probably more
Get Out Of D&D Top 10 RPG List but actually it's all lesser known indie games whereby if your post gets semi viral a bunch of trans girls get to pay rent instead of, you know, Pathfinder and 9 Free League games
6
51
221
18
163
597
There's a lot to unpack here, and some of it I'm not touching with some sort of long implement specifically for not touching things, but you know what?
Let's talk about the FishBlade Phenomenon, because it's real, and bears mentioning. Short thread (by my standards.
now that wizards of the coast has lost all its good will theres a bunch of people being like "FINALLY now youre group that has been playing D&D for 14 years can switch to FishBlade, the diceless storytelling game where the party controls one fish with a knife"
182
2K
19K
12
151
591
@Ranting_Trans
"Great lord under heaven: you know how you hate when muddy water gets in your boots? If you make your enemy wade through a swamp to get to you, they will ALSO be dealing with muddy boots when they fight you."
"My lord: perhaps consider lying to your enemy?"
1
15
598
TTRPG guideline # (error: undefined)
Sometimes you gotta break the kayfabe.
Drop the mask. Stop the conversation. Pull back the curtain and talk to your fellow players directly. Drop all pretense of immersion; explain what’s going on, check if folks are on the same page.
13
97
585
@snowttrpg
there is ONE good piece of practice here and even that is injured by the tone of the whole thing, good lord
("hey, this game runs on declare action -> THEN roll, not the other way around, no rolls before declaration will count" is something tables of mine have needed to hear)
6
0
584
We see this with ALL of the teenagers. A large portion of the show tries to hide it; during the primarily school-and-GUND-ARM arc, we're seeing the kids in their element, the duels are dueling, the youthful goals are happening, everyone feels competent because they're safe.
1
26
567
Even the antagonists - the witches from earth? El4n and El5n? Shaddiq? They're teenagers, no matter how skilled or cold or competent they are. They fuck up because they just don't have the experience to roll with the punches of life, to see angles outside their heads.
1
28
534
Some of my abusers were repellent people from the jump, who I only associated with because they had power over me.
The majority of them? “Good, nice people” who “were essential to the community” or “did nice work” or “volunteered and were beacons to emulate”.
The whole "oh I never liked this person of course they were an abuser" thing is genuinely really dangerous because one day it's going to be someone you know and love and if you've trained yourself to think of abusers only as people you find
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
26
450
3K
3
73
529
Guel fucks up so bad he leaves the game! Straight-up jets outta here for a while! Bye! See you in season 2, he says! And it's not because of any lack of SKILL, it's all because he's a teen being shoved around on a battlefield of old men who refuse to die!
1
26
516
Mara's RPG advice for today:
A frequent piece of advice for GM's is "be a fan of your players". This is important advice. Honestly, vital in leaving behind the classic "grr, those pesky pest players" attitude of adversarial stance. Crucial to learn.
But that's not the end.
5
67
506
The reason this came up for me: I've seen a couple of twitterfights erupt over different peoples' reaction to "the watcher" and what should we do with them at our tables. Some people are vehemently anti-watcher. Some people are blandly pro-LetPeopleEnjoyThings. It's frustrating.
1
2
507
Someone in an argument tried telling me a billion dollars wasn’t a lot of money. So I did a little math.
If I had 1 billion dollars and no income at all for the rest of my life, and I spent 20,000 dollars a day every day, I would hit zero in 135 years.
12
71
504
To anyone who has never experienced it, there is a tangible difference between someone saying “I guess I could run D&D”, “I’d like to run a game for folks, I guess D&D is okay”, and “[excited exclamation], you mean I get to run D&D?” genuinely. It’s immediately obvious.
10
34
495
Is this offer open? Are you actually going to give the unhoused $1K to camp on my lawn? Is this per day? Per week? One time? Are you covering transit? Because even if it’s one time yeah absolutely let’s fucking go
(It’s bait, I know, it’s not legit, it never is)
10
42
483
Anyhow, this whole thing stands out to me largely because the mecha genre-selection as an umbrella, and Gundam as a franchise, has a very real trend of Hypercompetent Infallible Special Teen Pilots (And Child Soldiers) and it's just... really refreshing to see this.
14
29
479
@Elamimaxima
I’m impressed by the amount of splash damage he does just by virtue of “having solid ethics”
2
1
462
But this is not winning. This is a company orders of magnitudes larger than their nearest competitor, who can stand to lose numbers that would destroy any other player in the game, turning a knob back and forth while waiting to hear what the crowd responds to.
2
39
441
@Faerynnistired
“But Mara you live in one of the bluest states why are you afraid to wear even a kilt outside”
Now I have a new horror to point to
2
1
435
I am happy for the third party creators who, at least for the moment, do not have that particular legal sword of Damocles hanging from an ever fraying thread, though I fear a lot of damage has been done (I lost several potential projects, and heard similar from many other peers).
1
19
436
@AdamBlumenau
“You cannot malice-proof a machine; you have to assume that whoever is using it wants to use it correctly and train appropriately”. Most of what I took away from a factory job was trauma, but THAT part sticks with me.
1
19
438
Bottom line: based take, artificial cardboard scarcity is pure profit seeking and also bad for game design regardless of my fond feelings toward drafting.
8
50
414
In 2024, they’ll launch a new game, they’ll be roundly applauded for their progressivism, and all of this energy will be a thing of the long-distant past.
This is not “we won”. This is not even “we BOTH won”, as their press release said.
This is capital doing as capital does.
3
29
412
It's not frustrating because people disagree: it's frustrating because the quoted reference is very good at introducing a concept which may never have been encountered before, but does not actually go very far in exploring that concept. A lot like the tweet format!
1
1
419
The core problem is not attention spans. The core problem is not phones. The core problem is neither with the players nor with the DM, entirely. The core problem is, and almost always has been, badly managed communications and mismatched expectations from the jump.
3
35
412
Keeping this brief because I don’t have the energy for an essay yet (that would be posted elsewhere if it happens).
One of the reasons I like Dim20 as entertainment is that historically, its DMs are not shy, coy or playful about the amount of work they put in.
3
23
395
The bread has been sweetened, the circuses are back on all the street corners, and everything is comfortable once more, in the shadow of the giant which benevolently did not casually crush us THIS time, and assures us that we’ll be fine now.
5
34
377
OK, fine, I'm choosing violence about this take.
What we NEED is an economic reality where independent creators aren't reliant on the pathetic scraps of income they can squeeze from Big Publishers, and can thrive on creating the stuff they are passionate about on their schedule.
16
42
382
While there is a lot to unpack in the compressed overview, something that has been ignored in the arguments I've seen is the crucial text: "(the watcher) wants to participate".
They are not, in fact, here to NOT play the game. They're here with a different interaction hierarchy.
3
9
384
Hey we’re over 2K interactions and I can’t keep up with alerts; sorry to cool people I’ll miss but I’m muting the thread for the sake of my notification anxiety.
If what I’ve said resonates, look for ways you can be a direct and material help for vulnerable people in your life.
0
8
368
@TierZoo
Former judge here.
It is never appropriate to demand that one's opponent concede. If a player finds themselves stuck where they're concerned about "time-wasting (on purpose)" or similar manipulations being in play, we have a tool for that: "call the judge".
1
0
369
Choosing violence tonight:
I don't hate "rules lawyers" for trying their best to optimize their character or for trying to get their preferred outcome out of a game situation even if maybe it requires an edge ruling, come on, please? That's like. That's just life. That's fine.
13
30
360
The thing at the end, "be sure a Watcher doesn't..." isn't there to say "oh, haha, don't worry, your Watcher friends will..." but rather to indicate "if this happens with any regularity, perhaps your Watcher friend DOESN'T want to be there, and you should discuss that privately."
2
5
366
@dungeonminister
Between “calling the Pinkertons to clean up the mess we made” and “Nintendo brags about indentured servitude” this has been one hell of a late April.
2
14
349
Is the gesture on Wizards’ part big? Yeah, it’s pretty darn big. That’s a lot of words which they’ve said “legally, we are now hands-off” about. But I find it hard to be excited about that when it’s obvious how many people were so quick to skip and jump back now that its “safe”.
2
23
344
This thought is too big for me right now but I need to exorcise it so I can take pain meds and try to sleep, it's getting in the way of that, so here goes.
When writing, describing, or recommending your RPG, be aware you won't be able to do what the source material says you do.
6
47
342
A more detailed examination of "the Watcher" would probably include "subtypes": there's the people-watcher, who is here to enjoy character interactions. There's the story-watcher/supporting character, who is here to follow along with the game's unfolding story.
4
4
347
But they're THERE, and they're present TO PARTICIPATE, just at a significantly lower intensity and investment than server members pushing for progression. They're helping, even! And they're having fun while doing it, and if it stops being fun, they'll stop doing it.
1
1
339
The quoted blurb at the top throws a big umbrella over a wide, interrelated selection of motivators, all of which may or may not have links to any other component of the category, any one of which might make a player "a watcher", none of which imply the others must follow suit.
1
2
337
And the thing is, we get one paragraph-block on one page in one of the vanishingly few books interested in actually teaching new game-facilitators HOW TO FACILITATE A GAME to convey and communicate any of this.
This is 101-level textbook information. It's hardly exhaustive.
1
3
308
Some people have argued "but this is like someone grudgingly joining the pickup basketball match because they feel like they have to" or "they just keep going AFK for no reason in the middle of a team video game" and I don't think that's actually a Watcher archetype thing!
3
3
308
A strike which causes no disruption and makes no one uncomfortable can be safely ignored by the powers that be. That’s part of why strikes aren’t the first move in organization. They’re dangerous, that’s the point!
Garak is entirely right, here.
2
91
304
@scattermoon
@benjanun_s
At least Facebook lets people memorialize accounts (a term which sometimes sends me into techno-dystopia feelings depending on the day). Like I'm not gonna hand it to Big Data, but the option is nice.
1
1
301
A more apt comparison, to me, is the player who joins their friend's V Rising server and spends most of their time wandering around chopping trees and gathering rocks. Maybe they burn up in the sunlight 3 days out of 7. They've got little interest in boss hunting.
1
3
302
This is accelerating a bit outside of my usual audience so I’m back to say one thing, because this is Twitter: I picked the word “trend” instead of “problem” because I’m not being negative about the trend and trope. It’s a part of the genre, and I respect that!
1
8
294
The D&D 4E DMG is, very surprisingly (given its source and the track record of games both before and after it) a very good beginners' resource, one of the few DMGs that actually starts teaching new players how to play the game as presented.
It's a shame that we STOP there.
3
14
295
Me: I’m really weirded out by “but if the author dies/stops who will complete the series”, back in the day that just meant the series WAS DONE, deal with it.
Me: take Dune for example, aside from…
Me: (googles)
Me: Christ the Buddha do not take Dune for an example, fuck me
8
25
280
Hot take time: because I encountered this recently, a stance.
No, fanfiction isn't "worse" or "lesser" than "literature". There's a different set of expectations, mostly. I see how people still think it is: you're still more likely to ENCOUNTER "bad fanfic" than "bad novel".
4
31
284
At the same time, I believe that if you love something (and oh, do I love mech shows and toku) it’s important to be critical about it, to analyze, and to understand what you really like about it. Hence, this specific appreciation.
Thank you for reading!
4
9
277
But because this is all we have, and because it's authoritative (being one of the even fewer first-party books in the field by a major publisher) AND because the hobby is historically abysmal at teaching this and treats Good DMs as Magical Unicorns, it's overweighted in response.
2
1
277
“They can easily afford this but there’s no money for schools and libraries?” isn’t a question asked to those in power. It is a message intended for those still, somehow, comfortably on the fence.
2
93
265
Please do not confuse “long tail” income with “passive” income: there are situations where your labor will provide returns without obvious input (especially with the rise of digital distribution for books, games, etc). This isn’t passive: you did the work, you do the maintenance.
3
55
260
@Faerynnistired
i_am_very_wise.jpg
he's so close to 101 level understanding on a lot of these things but treats it like he's defnding his 18'th PhD and dispensing expertise
5
4
251
It is important to realize that there are three kinds of Gundam Names:
1: oh, that sounds like it used to be an Earth name but it's kind of linguistically drifted, that's neat
2: wtf how did you get away with FULL FRONTAL or RICOCHET YEEHAW as a name
3: Bob
8
66
258
Just like it’s bad form for a DM to turn the players into dialog-generating plot pawns in their scripted epic fantasy yarn, it’s also bad form for the players to turn the DM into a dispenser for personal cool and heroic moments and story and plot cues. It goes both ways.
1
30
249
"It's just a friend group game, man, it's not that deep, guy..." yeah no it doesn't have to be. Sure. If your group and your table is stable and you have fun and all disagree with each other in the same ways, you may never feel a need to do any examination of the subject.
1
2
253
But if you want to grow as a social group, if you want to develop healthy relationship structures (and dare I say it, actual community), and even grow as a person, this is worth looking into. And that's not even going into "taking this seriously as an art", which I do.
1
2
248
Many times, when people talk about “I felt like I didn’t have agency” in a game, they really mean “I didn’t get what I wanted, that didn’t go the way I wanted”. They may not realize it consciously, but that’s what they’re ultimately arguing. To an extent this makes sense!
2
8
241
See I adore this; stuff like this is how you turn an equipment guide from soulless database into “let’s make the world breathe”. Shadowrun used to do the same thing a different way, with gear being presented as a catalog, and forum members shitposting about it.
I love the world of D&D 3rd edition’s “Arms & Equipment Guide,” where a hardscrabble little mercenary band will go “skeletons again, eh boss? All in a day’s work”
3
7
125
15
22
242
(Also for the record: I want to be explicit that this is not a subtweet and I do not intend to call anyone out or blast anyone or anything of that nature. I feel awkward writing that, but I also do realize the nature of social media, and so etc etc etc.)
3
0
238
Before jumping into another game, ANY other game, step back. Take a look at your preferences, introspect a little. Interrogate yourself as to what you REALLY want out of playing. What is the important part to you? What floats your goat? What gets you going?
4
6
233
Well when you put it that way, I DO have too many bones
You trade your bones for my shiny trinkets? This is good trade yes?
92
229
5K
2
3
237
For your analysis purposes, I give you Amaranth M's Game Focus Razor:
If I cannot build a character for this game which does not engage with specific activity-focus language, I am going to believe that this game is about that focus.
Do with it what you will.
6
25
233
It's also vital to be a fan of YOURSELF. To indulge your strengths, sure, but also just to indulge the things that make you happy about the game you're running. Commission art of those favorite NPCs of yours. Set up encounters with elements that you go sickos.jpg over. Relish it.
4
12
233
OK! So, I get to talk about something really cool which I never get to discuss: Variant Greek Mythology! "Everyone" knows the classic stories: Zeus, Hera, Apollo, the Titans, Pluto and Hades, Mount Olympus and Hades.
We're not gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk Orphism.
8
100
228
“You should” “you shouldn’t” “always do…” “never do…”
There’s good information in so many different directions here, there’s value to be gleaned, but there are very few principles I’ve found axiomatic to ALL games. What works for one does not for others.
1
5
218
Did you know? My first disabling event and ALSO the first time I died* were both from a neighborhood sidewalk bike mishap without protective gear because my parents didn't think it would help that much? I still have the scar on the back of my head!
10
24
225
I find that not only is this a misinterpretation of “agency”, it’s even more insidious: in claiming to champion “player agency”, this argument actually advocates unpersoning the DM.
Let’s take a brief look.
2
4
219
“Um no, you can’t write that the bandits will attack regardless, you have to let the players decide that by their actions”.
Maybe that’s true in some games and dynamics. But I believe that the DM is a player as well, and that means they get a slice of the agency pie too.
5
8
219
It's honestly really important that it NOT be "all work and no play" or even "the GM labors for the sake of elevating the Players' Enjoyment and showcasing their characters".
The GM is a player with different verbs. You deserve to be a fan of your own stuff too.
1
8
218
I said all those words so that I could say these ones:
And don’t forget, the DM ought to be afforded agency as well.
1
7
209
Funny story from my time running a GW store that might be helpful to some game writers in my general sphere:
In light of recent nontroversy, I am reminded time and again that lore doesn't sell. Lore has never sold. Lore does not move the needle.
Excitement sells.
5
17
211
In the wake of the ongoing conversations fluttering and circling around the potentially pending D&D license update, I've seen a handful of people express that they are hesitant to change systems because "nothing else is as well-supported", and I wanna talk about that.
8
53
205
"What, you mean you're breaking contact with them because they're playing a game?"
I've been quiet about a lot lately because I'm incredibly tired and in a lot of pain, and not equipped to handle the emotions surrounding current discourse, but here's something I need to discuss.
1
24
201
When does the DM get to have their agency respected? They’re told “if the player turns your climactic encounter into a mockery, it’s your duty to respect their agency and let them interrupt with Greb’s Flatulent Fartsplosion, suck it up”. “Don’t tell them no, always say yes”.
2
6
201