Dr. Emily Friedman
@friede
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English AssocProf, Direct @18thConnect Multiclass: 18C/Book History/DH/Performance/Archives/Games. Next book: HOW STORIES ARE PLAYED. Trying to do good. she/her
Joined January 2008
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Just a note that aside from checking DMs, I am more to be found Over There as momentum builds, as well as all the other places.
And honestly, while in Book Mode I'm *mostly* available by email (for queries around my work) or text (for those I know personally).
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Sam Reich of Dropout has confirmed that most of their shows ARE SAG, & are currently shut down. There’s possibility of an exemption from SAG-AFTRA.
Dropout records well in advance of air & has material in the can (D20 through end of year) moving through post-production.
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The two most visible studios tied to TTRPG actual play — Critical Role & Dropout, home of Dimension 20 — have officially put forward shows for Emmy consideration. (The Legend of Vox Machina & Game Changer respectively)
Another way 2023 is a turning point.
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Emily Axford (well, "EMILY AXFORD") is trending.
For those unfamiliar with Axford, she is core cast on
@NADDPod
&
@dimension20show
.
@brennanlm
famously noted, she's "one of the greatest D&D players in the world... And she was sent from hell to destroy me."
#CriticalRoleSpoilers
Legend of Zelda one-shot coming, the latest in a line of one-shots sponsored to support the releases of new (often AAA) video games.
Liam & Marisha will play,
@robbiedaymond
will return, and new-to-CR (but not to actual play)
@eaxford
and
@OmarNajam
guest.
#CriticalRoleSpoilers
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Just so my non-academic friends are clear: no one, absolutely no one, wants to be the chair of an academic department. ESPECIALLY an English department.
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@awhasen
@librarycongress
@lizzo
The LOC does have a concert series, including concerts where archival instruments are played!
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I talk a lot about the careful way CR (as entity & as collective of individuals) negotiates boundaries & privacy — it’s an extraordinarily delicate balance.
This is … astonishing, & leads with an important call to action worth amplifying: get the HPV vaccine.
Welcome back to our fearless leader, bard extraordinaire, and a true inspiration
@samriegel
! ✨
Thank you one and all for your patience, kindness, and respect for Sam's privacy as he's been on the mend - join him below for an important message about his journey and recovery. 💕
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I damn near got whiplash every time I turned around to see
@quiddie
reactions.
#CriticalRoleSpoilers
#CriticalRole
Sam: *describes his new hot minotaur character*
Aabria Iyengar, the realest bitch alive:
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@neilhimself
Book historian who tells students constantly that if they listen to the audiobook, they are literally reading 18th century novels the way the large chunk of the original audience experienced the book. Silent, solitary reading by eye alone is so, so recent!
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Oh that’s hilarious and infuriating.
It's a common mistake, but Frankenstein was actually the author
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D&D's polytheistic worldbuilding created by folks most familiar with monothesism as the dominant frame means stuff gets weird if you look at it closely -- which Mercer is now doing on both CR & D20, as Mulligan has from the jump, & Chang is doing in a big way in both system & AP.
idk why a lot of critters are annoyed that C3 is focused on questioning the Gods placement and importance in Exandria bc it's an interesting perspective to have after 2 campaigns that basically worshipped them. It really opens up a lot of though-provoking conversations
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Dropout remains struck (remember, it’s still early days in a strike with a LOT of moving parts!), but in a Discord Q&A today Sam Reich answered a fan query to say that Dimension 20 has seasons in the can through next April. D20 is 1 of very few Actual Plays to be SAG contracted.
Sam Reich of Dropout has confirmed that most of their shows ARE SAG, & are currently shut down. There’s possibility of an exemption from SAG-AFTRA.
Dropout records well in advance of air & has material in the can (D20 through end of year) moving through post-production.
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After 12 hours, 320K views on YT — or about 4% of their total followers on the platform. A multicamera in-studio Actual Play with a group of mostly-inexperienced players, referred to it as a “passion project” done due to audience demand. The vibe is very 2017.
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Small Nephew has drawn his 1st
#dnd
dungeon & we’re exploring it.
SN: “you are in a room with a lot of stuff.”
Me: “what kind of stuff? Loot? Magic items? Skeleton bones? Trash?”
SN: “Trash! lots of glass bottles…”
Me: “…are we in the dungeon’s recycling center?”
(We are)
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As expected, CR has now made inaccessible all content featuring BWF, including all of Talks Machina, the CR talkback show that ran until 2021. Talks often (alongside Twitter) provided clarification of in-game events. Some fan transcripts remain for research purposes — for now.
Things now gone from YT:
Honey Heists 1 & 2
Bar Room Blitz
Club of Misfits
All of Undeadwood
All of Talks Machina
All of Between the Sheets
All of Game Ranch and Off the Ranch
His episodes of Narrative Telephone.
#CriticalRole
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My students, as mentioned, have already asked about BG3 in the TTRPG class. If I was going to include it, I’d start with this thoughtful review.
“The Dungeon Master that lives in this game can’t bend to meet you in the middle.”
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Why subscribe to
@WorldsBeyondPod
?
This was the first Fireside:
Erika Ishii: Okay? So here's the thing, is we had the cyberpunk Watership Down idea.
Aabria Iyengar: Hey, Erika, shut up. That's going to pop up somewhere else sooner than you think.
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For those keeping track: Critical Role has now sold out their 1st-ever UK live show.
While a few sections were not included in the sale due to sightlines, by any count it’s the largest TTRPG Actual Play live show, & is nearly triple the size of their last live show (2020).
Aaaaaand that's a wrap! Tickets for our LIVE show at
@OVOArena
, The Mighty Nein Reunion: Echoes of the Solstice, have sold out! 🎫
From all of us, thank you for the overwhelming support in helping bring Exandria to the UK. We'll see you soon in London, Critters! 🇬🇧 💖
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Long ago I was advised “never agree to a meeting without a purpose & an agenda.”
I have some additional qualifiers to that (excellent) advice after today.
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I’ve been rewatching Fantasy High & it’s interesting to compare the end of the first campaign to Dungeons & Drag Queens, & in turn to the reputation Mulligan now has as a punishing DM, rather than one who calibrates to the table in front of him.
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To put in perspective: it’s entirely possible that AAA video game companies have spent more on
#ttrpg
actual play in recent years than TTRPG companies have.
Tonight's episode of Critical Role is sponsored by The Legend of Zelda:
#TearsOfTheKingdom
from
@NintendoAmerica
, out now!
Rediscover a transformed Hyrule with creative new abilities and glimpse ancient events that led to the Upheaval! ⚔️
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I don't know how to tell you that when someone is found to have done immense harm, the answer is not to make lists of "the good ones" -- it's to have structures in place that ensure that bad behavior -- of any severity -- can be called out early & often before it metastasizes.
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Lots of flailing after class (I got to tell D20’s Biggest Fan about the D&Drag Queens 2 news) but class was actually derailed when a student burst out “can you ask
@matthewmercer
to zoom to class?” and I had to yelp “that is NOT what I meant by a reasonable request!”
I have an early check-in meeting with my research student and they sat in shock for a full minute.
@dimension20show
may have derailed my class today.
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Almost 30K Dropout members are in the livestream discussion on Discord.
Apparently the load nearly shook Dropout’s site.
Fantasy High Junior Year begins NOW - only on
@dropout
!
Watch the premiere episode here:
#Dimension20
#FantasyHigh
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D&D Live is often an interesting barometer, especially since WOTC sponsors very little performed play. No big surprises here: the biggest freelance DM in the biz, the 2 most visible & award-winning BG3 actors playing the fan-fave characters they voiced, & 2 beloved AP vets.
D&D Live cast is Anjali Bhimani, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Samantha Beart, and Neil Newbon. Beart is playing Karlach and Neil is playing Astarion.
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Consider this: between Candela Obscura, Ravening War, & the Zelda one-shot, we are in a moment of watching experienced DM
@matthewmercer
, best known for running D&D games that span hundreds of hours, use a variety of systems to run VERY shortform actual plays.
(in this essay...)
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To clarify: Reich & others confirmed to Dropout subscribers on Discord. I have no fun insider knowledge on this topic that a bunch of other nerds don’t have access to.
DropOut Owner Sam Reich confirmed to
@friede
that Dimension 20 is being SHUT DOWN during the SAG-AFTRA strike...so what does this mean for future seasons of Dimension 20...Find out now!
#dimension20
#dropout
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I can't believe
@quiddie
pulled off the most romantic plotline in all of CR and that she did it with Sam "added dick jokes to his death scene" Riegel. That's black belt shit.
#ExUCalamity
#exuspoilers
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Everyone who says that
#ttrpg
Actual Play turns an active hobby into a passive one can hush up, because I have never seen more commitment to unhinged collective improvisational storytelling than in social media’s reaction to the teaser for the next season of Dimension 20.
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I can’t tell you how profoundly uninterested I am in discussions of “scripting” but what I AM fascinated by is how prerecording (among other affordances) allows for “appendices” like this:
#CriticalRoleSpoilers
Given recent changes regarding Ruidus, the Cobalt Soul wants to set the record straight with a deep lore dive into the history of the moon and the Gods.
Starring
@ItsDaniCarr
herself, we hope it serves as a helpful resource as the solstice unravels! 🔴🌙
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Fun fact: historians (including cultural/literary historians like me) not only don’t get paid for our research, we have to subsidize the cost of our journal articles & books, especially if we want them to be available to the public. Which is why we care so much about citation.
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Robbie Daymond making the most uncanny character ever: an academic that’s caught up with all his work.
Seminars planned, essays graded, grants written; he sits now waiting for Candela to call… a brilliant mind, yet so distracted he can’t recall the date. Does anyone know what day of the week it is?! 🕯️
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The next campaign will not be Intrepid Heroes, & scheduling means the IH won’t be together until likely end of 2023/early 2024.
That said, there will be less “downtime” between seasons of D20 up ahead.
A reminder that actual play is literally no one’s sole full time job.
The finale of The Ravening War is this Wednesday! But don't worry - there's still two more behind-the-scenes featurettes AND a behind-the-scenes crew Adventuring Party!
Also, you read that right: new trailer coming this Thursday... 🤐
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Here’s what’s splendid about
@quiddie
(and
@navarroc0821
): while there have been many talented & lovely humans at the CR table, very few (if ANY) can rival the ability to pull deep lore cuts on the fly to enrich performance.
this is actually the best thing that's ever happened to me
#CriticalRole
#CriticalRoleSpoilers
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Fascinatingly, this AP notes that D20 was recording more singles (one episode in a day rather than 2 with a break between), which the table agrees may lead to MORE punchiness/chaos, since there isn’t as much demand to pace oneself/keep an energy reserve.
An all-new, fully unhinged Adventuring Party talkback is out now on
@dropout
!
Prepare for gender cascades, NASCAR taco cat, dialing 9-1-1, and everyone collectively losing their minds...
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If you told me a decade ago that my scholarly life would lead to me teaching
#DnD
to future teachers, scientists, & artists, I would have laughed. But here we are:
#TTRPG
course Week 4, “obligatory
@Wizards_DnD
week.” Today’s “reading”:
@matthewmercer
&
@StephenAtHome
one shot.
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As usual, I will note that we cannot extrapolate ANY OTHER PRODUCTION’s situation from this info. In new media & especially in actual play, conditions & contracts of production vary WIDELY, even among shows of the same perceived “tier.”
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This Session 0 is reminding me of the one email interview I conducted for Polygon, where Laura Bailey noted the difference between the freedom of designing a character that only had to be sustainable for a limited series versus a main campaign.
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"oh you don't trust SYSTEMS, Brennan?"
This is at once:
- a "no shit" moment
-
@quiddie
in some serious pot-meet-kettle situation
In the newest Contested Roll,
@quiddie
defends the brutal fairness of digital dice over
@BrennanLM
's clickety-clack doodads
🎲
#AdventuringAcademy
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This is the apotheosis of what I mean when I argue that talking about “fan art” often elides over the fact that so much of it is made by professionals — especially in CR fandom, where the show & artists have had a… symbiotic relationship.
How it started vs How it’s going
Thanks to
@samriegel
for being the master of chaos. The Major Buzzkill saga continues.
#CriticalRole
#criticalrolefanart
@CriticalRole
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Splendid news clarifying that Dropout (in consultation with SAG & legal counsel) is NOT a signatory of a currently-struck contract. (These things are complicated, y’all, & it takes time to parse in abundance of caution)
This has also been the case for other SAG actual plays.
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You can tell CR has an ever-renewing viewership if only because at any given time you can see a new group of people discovering that having narrative expectations (especially around pacing) based on precedent is doomed to frustration.
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Say hi Questing Queens!
Four episodes, new Underdark setting.
Received blessing from existing D&Drag Queens for the name. Usual Adventuring Party setup.
Looks like the usual fabulous battle maps, more minimal Dome-wise.
👠DIMENSION 20: DUNGEONS AND DRAG QUEENS TRAILER💄
Premieres June 28th on
@dropout
Featuring GM
@BrennanLM
, and your Questing Queens:
🏹
@monetxchange
as Troyánn
🪓
@Alaska5000
as Princess
🔮
@thatonequeen
as Gertrude
🦋
@jujuboston
as Twyla
FAQ here:
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It finally happened: a
@Polygon
piece by me that doesn't mention
@quiddie
. But you know, sometimes other DMs do cool fuckery, like this kid
@matthewmercer
.
(OH MY GOD
#CriticalRole
Spoilers I cannot stress this enough, though I'm not tagging it as such)
Critical Role reaches a grim new milestone in the latest episode of Campaign 3
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Lots to sit up & take notice of with this latest announcement: a series that takes advantage of the end of month dark week, a longer post-stream embargo, & the 1st performance of Candela Obscura, a game built on Darrington’s forthcoming Illuminated Worlds base system.
We're thrilled to announce Candela Obscura, a brand new game, in a brand new world, using a brand new system!
The Lightkeeper of this tale is ready for you now, the invitation need only be accepted... 🕯️
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@WorldsBeyondPod
Children’s Adventure Trigger Warning for anyone who was called “gifted” or whose parents “didn’t have to worry” —
@quiddie
is coming for your throat again.
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I repeat: until there’s a vaccine or other definitive solution, we’re in an emergency that lands very differently on different people. If you *choose* to do a conference, CFP, job search during the next 2 years, you’d better be keeping a sharp eye on your pool’s demographics.
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The thing I keep talking about recently is how scale is relative — how Dropout (& CR, etc) understand themselves in the entertainment ecosystem they work in is VERY different than how they’re perceived in the TTRPG field.
Dunno what the answer is aside from holding that tension.
Our statement on the ticket sale situation for the Madison Square Garden show 👇
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It’s going to be a hell of a summer from
@sweeetanj
, as she collects an impressive trifecta of plum (mango?) Actual Play seats, starting tomorrow with D20’s Ravening War, then CR’s Candela Obscura, & of course, the highly-anticipated DesiQuest later this summer.
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One note on A Crown of Candy for folks jumping in w/Ravening War: official line: it’s NOT parody, though borrows from GOT low fantasy, high stakes, high lethality, political intrigue.
More emphasis on church than GOT — which will be interesting to see in Mercer’s hands.
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Including, but not limited to:
- what is the precise goal?
- what is my specific contribution?
- why have you chosen this format?
- who all gonna be there?
- is Teams involved?
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Consider this: much has been spoken of
#SummerOfAabria
in 2021, or that this week is Mercerpalooza, but in the 3 days around her bday this week,
@quiddie
could be found in new releases on:
- her own show Worlds Beyond Number
- Dimension 20
- The Adventure Zone
- Critical Role
Being an Aabria Iyengar fan is hard because it is physically impossible to watch every single show, but she's going to make you want to do it.
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It’s Tuesday! And none of my students asked
@matthewmercer
what time it was or whether it was Thursday — indeed, they asked smart questions from across his wide experience, as they have for all our splendid guests. A good day.
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Fun fact: CR is documented as one of the most self-policing fandoms (in respect to responding to calls to action or perceived calls to silence).
For more info on the stream check out this article:
We kindly ask that since everyone will be seeing the show at different times, please use the
#CriticalRoleSpoilers
tag and mute this hashtag if need be. We can't wait to go on this adventure with you ✨
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D20: BURROW’S END
"dark, twisted, heartfelt story of sacrifice and love" inspired by Secret of NIMH & Watership Down
Starts 10/3
10 Episodes, D&D
DM
@quiddie
@BrennanLM
@vornietom
join returning players
@erikaishii
@rosabelland
& new to the Dome
@rashawnscott
&
@JW_Cartwright
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And the last livetweeted episode by CritRoleStats.
With it, a key part of the fan information architecture of CR comes to a close.
The last Critical Role of 2023 begins in 15 minutes. We hope you join us!
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Those interested in
@brennanlm
’s discussion of mechanics cited by Charlie Hall in Polygon recently can hear the complete exchange (including important nuance from
@quiddie
&
@erikaishii
) on the public Fireside Chat for Chapter 2 (about 50 minute mark)
brennan lee mulligan i owe u an apology i wasnt rlly familiar with ur game
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Many Actual Plays work carefully in new seasons to signpost notable callbacks so that new audiences don’t feel alienated.
D20 chose instead to get everyone on the same “who?!” foot by throwing in a shit-ton of new NPCs that the players treat as callbacks.
#dimension20spoilers
@friede
"No, you aren't supposed to know these characters" is probably the most posted message from the mods today.
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@Amanda_Vickery
And why on earth (aside from the prequel) is anyone wearing a corset on Bridgerton in the first place?
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Dimension 20’s next announcement comes the day after the 5th anniversary of its initial airdate.
Want to know what's next for Dimension 20?
Tune in Wednesday at 1:30pm ET / 10:30am PT
#dimension20
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Let's be clear: the influencers in the room, in solidarity with the virtual attendees, have seized the agenda and ripped it to confetti.
The team is now hosting an impromptu Q&A in response to the tough questions we're asking. This is what I wanted from the summit.
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I continue to be baffled at the absence of press about CR’s backstage labor, which is doing interesting work, even for details that barely pick up on screen.
I’m so disgustingly proud of the collaboration that this game has spawned. I have to give it up to the entire
@CriticalRole
team, they enable me to build some insane sets and miniature worlds for
#CandelaObscura
And…yes…that spiral staircase was a real monster to install.
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Hope you enjoyed the last fan service of the season, y’all.
BUCKLE UP.
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Dimension 20 has now reached its 50th player, and soon its fifth anniversary and 20th season.
@dimension20show
A twofer this time. A quartet of questing queens, and a trio of newcomers from what has turned into one of my absolute favourite seasons. Every single person has been killing it in
#Mentopolis
and I can't wait to watch everyone stick the landing tonight.
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@rosannecash
Please stop. I’m a literary historian who specialized for a time in scented objects (used during plague). Dudes who got a ton done got stuff done ALL THE TIME, because they had massive amounts of domestic staff (up to but not always including a wife).
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Beacon Discord is at 6600 members this morning, & survived its first live watch in one piece.
Noticeable (& unexpected) is the presence of (some) cast in ways that have not been possible on social media for years.
The effect is somewhat like if the elves came back from Valinor.
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Other
#ExUSpoilers
thing that doesn’t fit in this essay so I’ll riff here: you can’t get to
@BrennanLM
’s Asmodeus without
@quiddie
shaking power & alignment like a snowglobe, possible bc
@matthewmercer
’s hell-bent (pun intended) on showing history as it ACTUALLY is: interpretive.
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Hi folks. Thrilled to report that last night I got a 1st listen to
@WorldsBeyondPod
. No spoilers, but a very strong start — get the good headphones ready.
What’s in the sketchbook? The
#ttrpg
fanart I was compelled to doodle alongside my notes.
@quiddie
, goddamnit.
More soon.
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Critical Role’s family-friendly D&D podcast “Re-Slayer’s Take” dropped its 1st episode on a public feed, & 3 on Beacon. Each episode is 40+ minutes — comparable or slightly shorter than other all-ages APs.
A few notes in thread.
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For those keeping track: “new narrative-play, audio fiction multiverse created by and starring titans of tabletop
@BrennanLM
,
@erikaishii
,
@quiddie
, and Lou Wilson, designed by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse”
More info coming, Patreon opens 2/1, 1st episodes in March.
I just stumbled across this - kinda weird but I like it I think?!
I wonder what it is…
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I just wrote
@quiddie
as "DM to the ForeverDMs" which is very close to "Apostle to the Apostles" (the honorific given to Mary Magdalene) and I think I may have either gone entirely off the rails or stumbled upon the perfect analogy or possibly a bit of both.
Drafts, amirite?
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It’s probably because it’s
@WorldsBeyondPod
day & dark week for both CR & D20, but I’m thinking about how the compare/contrast isn’t as much about Calamity as listening to Mulligan perform longform pacing in WBN v. Mercer constrained to 24 hours of played (~15ish aired) time.
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I made the mistake of clicking on an Actual Play trending topic & saw someone lamenting at length about how a guest was wasting a "career making" chance for an "actual" TTRPG player and...
Y'all. I do not have the time to unpack all the erroneous assumptions underpinning that.
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To be fair, its a debate in the talkback. While D&D is not ONLY combat,
@quiddie
has noted many times that 5e is a system inherently about power & OFTEN about violence — which is part of what she &
@brennanlm
have spent a year+ exploring across multiple projects.
I am immensely grateful for the
@WorldsBeyondPod
crew for pushing back against the idea that D&D is only combat.
Pointing out that often it’s a cultural trend instead of something from the game itself.
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#NeverafterSpoilers
galore, but if you want to know what
@BrennanLM
was planning, I chatted with the DM himself to talk about genre & new
#dnd
mechanics in this
@dimension20show
season.
Deep thanks to
@quiddie
@BDaveWalters
&
@matthewmercer
for also sharing some insights.
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22
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Holy mother of God, this.
Here’s your raw, dirty data of the day:
Out of 630
#ttrpg
Actual Play creators:
- 11 (<%1) report being paid union rate
- 40 (6%) do AP as part of their FT job.
- 119 (19%) report being paid a flat fee
- 161 (25%) report receiving a earnings share
How much money do people think actually exists in ttrpgs? Because we are treating APs like they make Hollywood money, and I'm pretty sure only like two fall under that $.
21
44
780
27
70
573
Jasper found out he was going to be a dad around the start of shooting Burrow’s End. Biographical readings are insufficient to understand works of art, but it’s hard to deny the season thinks acutely about parenthood & family ties in ways that aren’t abstract but heartbeat-close.
In that moment you know I was saying it to your character *and* to you, Jasper. Welcome, little River! ♥️
7
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2K
1
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584
Legend of Zelda one-shot coming, the latest in a line of one-shots sponsored to support the releases of new (often AAA) video games.
Liam & Marisha will play,
@robbiedaymond
will return, and new-to-CR (but not to actual play)
@eaxford
and
@OmarNajam
guest.
#CriticalRoleSpoilers
2
44
579
I don’t know exactly when it clicked for me, but this year it has become very clear that Travis is both the most visible audience surrogate at the CR table (along with being the most visible audience to
#tlovm
reaction videos). He is a deeply rewarding target.
4
21
564
And of course, the irony is that when Divorce Play Energy got into
#ttrpg
Actual Play I ate it up with a spoon AND SO DID YOU. (
#ExUCalamity
)
Arguably because
@quiddie
&
@samriegel
zigged over into full retro 1940s screwball remarriage plot in the middle of a goddamn tragedy.
I will say this for Actual Play: I don’t go a whole fortnight screaming “my GOD why is EVERY company putting on a Divorce Play right now?!”
1
0
29
4
12
560
Jess Levine has the best lines in this piece, noting that what's lost is not "community" (which is to say, coteries, which will likely find each other in other ways, though less-accessible to newbies) but PUBLICS -- the ability to be discoverable beyond your coterie.
Tabletop creators struggle to plot their future amidst Twitter’s still-burning ashes
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5
174
542
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is this the first time a
@dimension20show
season has had a behind the scenes prior to airing?
This week on Dropout:
⚔️Monday: Episode 3 of
@GameChangerSam
Battle Royale (w/
@howiemandel
)
🍹Tuesday:
@DirtyLaundryDO
bonus content
🎬Wednesday:
@dimension20show
The Ravening War behind-the-scenes
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747
3
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536
Travis Willingham followed up the most stupendous demonstration of Exandrian Lore Knowledge with a fascinating in-character redirection of a party convo to a line of thought deeply tied to story structures that re-center the PCs.
#CriticalRoleSpoilers
5
14
536
Folks are debating what education is for, as I craft my core lit syllabus for non-humanities majors.
One thing I keep in mind from my undergrad: “The purpose of a liberal arts education is to make your head a more interesting place to live in for the rest of your life.”
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67
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There’s a key difference between
“this is a game that’s easy to learn” &
“this is a game that is frequently taught”
D&D in its earliest form was an oral tradition.
Consider this too:
English is FAR from the easiest language to learn. Its dominance has everything to do w/ power.
Something I don’t think indie TTRPG Twitter is prepared to hear.
When people say D&D 5e is the easiest TTRPG to learn, they’re right.
This has little to do with its design and everything to do with the amount of resources, reference material, and cultural touchstones it has.
40
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762
12
59
516
OK, countdown to
@WorldsBeyondPod
Reasons to Be Hype (that I’m allowed to share because they aren’t spoilers).
One a day until Wednesday.
Tonight: if you appreciate
@BrennanLM
’s talent for deconstructing the unspoken assumptions of systems (of all kinds) that’s on display here.
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7
518
Can confirm: my university moved to an “eat what you kill” budget model that paid colleges based on student credit hours & *immediately* started reformulating the budget model when Liberal Arts was taking in cash hand over fist.
7
85
498
Good morning, folks. Before the
#ttrpg
world went boom,
@Charlie_L_Hall
asked me to write up the new developments coming in Actual Play. This is verymuch a snapshot of a particular moment in time.
6
43
502
A salient reminder that new folks are joining the TTRPG space all the time — & because of the nature of the space, even very, very public debacles (to put it mildly) can be forgotten with astonishing rapidity.
The Far Verona incident was only 3 years ago.
Unprepared Casters has a new arc coming out using the Dungeon World system, and based on information about the creators we did not know at time of recording, we do not recommend you support them or play their game. 🧵
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501
This is an extraordinarily difficult situation, & the choice of how to handle material with a now-known bad actor is one that haunts both creative collectives & those that study them.
13
2
498
This comes in a fraught year (Dropout’s Sam Reich has already announced they’ll be donating their FYC budget towards the WGA strike in solidarity), where born-digital creators of all sizes have to navigate platform fuckery, & major reckonings across the entertainment industry.
2
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500
When I was untenured, some folks used to send my (benign AF, often *private*) social media stuff to one of my senior colleagues, who would then try to rope my dissertation director in to “get me in line.” So I have absolutely NO patience for that particular rhetorical move.
20
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496
Those who aspire to be one of "the good ones" must be open to the idea that they (like all of us) have the capacity to do harm -- sometimes even great harm -- and be open to being called in when that happens. It's not warm & fuzzy or fun.
1
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494
Since this is doing numbers: subscribe to
@dropout
& if you can join a union or support one, please do.
2
24
489
I think what’s saddest to me about the current *waves hands around* is that it was always already impossible to recreate the success of Critical Role — but if OGL 1.1 happens, more of the OTHER pathways to a creating a sustainable creator-owned
#ttrpg
actual play would dry up.
6
32
476
No one needs my speculation (I'm too tired to even start, honestly) but I will say that
@dimension20show
has been such an interesting laboratory during these years I've been teaching
#TTRPG
, & I'm very curious to see what
@matthewmercer
does alongside this stellar backstage team.
4
14
480
And the MOST important inoculation is to see people eye to eye, not on pedestals. Admire the work, but recall it is made by human beings of flesh and blood and frailties, hopefully in community with one another.
2
37
480
Fans paid over $500 to have Matthew Mercer say literally anything in the voice of an NPC that went from midlevel evil adversary to party ally & romantic partner.
In case you wonder about an uptick in
#CriticalRole
fan art of a purple guy knitting or eating jam.
Listen if Matt had a charity stream where he just talked like Essek for an hour they could raise so much money. so much LOL
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3
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474