Shrine of the Nephilim

Magic can do a lot in fantasy gaming. Not everything, but a lot. And where it's lacking, is where technology comes in. We were talking about this with a friend when dealing with world-building, and he was discussing making it low-tech. We asked, 'why?' "Well, there's magic, so tech isn't needed." If this were true, then you're talking about a stone age culture, right? "Well, no. They have swords and armour, and stuff." That's technology. So, where do you draw the line, then? Our thought is... you don't. And we explained it to him. First and foremost, magic isn't omnipresent. It doesn't permeate every aspect of society. Farmers don't wave a hand to seed their fields or harvest. Masons and architects don't cast spells to build temples and palaces. Swordsmiths don't chant to mould a bar of steel into a sword. Scribes don't use spells to copy books. Are there spells that do any of that? Just maybe. Is it common ? M...

So, we've seen a lot of push back against the 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. Whether it's the art, or the inclusion of a 'consent' form, or certain text, there's a huge cry against "woke culture" and "politics in gaming". Yeah. There has been a change in gaming. And yeah, it falls under "woke" and "politics". There's another way to look at it, though. It's accepting that there's people beyond what's normally seen in fantasy, and that there's a diversity of cultures, beliefs, and people. It's stepping outside of the old stereotype of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and accepting that the world is large and complicated, and that people are also complicated. And it's always been political. But we'll get to that in a minute. So. You're seeing orcs that aren't thuggish barbarians and shamans. That's good. Because societies can change, and it's a very tired stereot...

 Getting sick and tired of being called a 'groomer' or worse by the right, because we're pro-LGBT. Listen. It isn't about sex. Conservatives are the ones dragging sex into this. It was never about sex. It's about identity . A kid who's five years old decides they like girls. Is that about sex? No. It's about the idea that they like girls . That is all it is. When we were six? We had a crush on the Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. We saw her in a Spider-Man comic, and she seemed nice, and nurturing. She was shown to be a good and caring mother, and we decided at that point we "liked" her. We didn't have a fucking clue what sex was. Sex wasn't even in the picture. (By the by, before you start guessing our gender -- the answer is "yes". Our gender is "yes".) Being a lesbian doesn't have anything to do with sex when you're a kid. That isn't on the radar. It just means you "like" girls more than you "lik...

How would I do a Shinto-based fantasy campaign? Urban fantasy, high fantasy, whatever. Well a few ground rules would need to be put into play: The gods (kami) are everywhere. You have the celestial gods (amatsugami) , the terrestrial gods (kunitsugami), you have the little gods (mikogami). See a tree? It's god a kami in it.  A rock?  A sword?  A song?  All have their own spirit. Just in most cases, these spirits are quiescent unless you do something to get them going. None of these are Good or Evil. The universe and all it holds has a vested disinterest in you and what you're doing. Go about your life. The only thing that matters is that you're being spiritually pure (pure in thought, pure in word, pure in deed). If not, you annoy the kami. If you are, cool.  Good and Evil are mortal constructs, indicating what is good for harmony and society, and what is harmful, causing strife in society. All kami have two aspects: benevolent and wrathful. A kami in its benevo...

  Many There’s something wrong. Where are we? It’s dark. His eyes opened.  We looked out, and we saw a simple clay and thatch room. We were laying on simple quilts over a pile of straw. We could feel the panic welling up in the person we were with, as he heard our voices echo in his mind. “Who are you?” No need to worry. We won’t hurt you. This was an accident. We shouldn’t be here. The cacophony of voices did little to alleviate his fears, and he bolted upright, looking about the room. He had enough mind to grab clothes to put on, even as he stumbled about. “What do you want with me?” Nothing. Be not afraid. We are sorry. The man tripped over himself leaving his home and rushed out into the street outside. It was a simple village with only perhaps a few scores of people living there. A place where everyone knew everyone else. He’s going to hurt himself. We should stop him. He flailed. Too many of us, unable to guide his actions.  One of his hands lashed out and struck on...

As usual, when we get into a topic we have keen interest in, we tend to fall down the rabbit hole and go on at length. A side-effect of our autism. In this case, we're going to tweak our comments in a Twitter thread about Judaism and Christianity. Are the 66 chapters of the Bible "God-breathed" inerrant? Of course not. Preamble:  "Here's the thing.  We, ourselves, don't see much wrong with the Bible, flaws and all.  It's a good book.  It teaches lessons. It provides a history. None of which is bad.  It's what people do with it, treating it as the ultimate authority, we disagree with."   And yes, this is what annoys us the most, and makes us respond. Because there's people that consider the Bible the ultimate authority, and then turn off any critical thinking. They ignore anything like why the Bible says what it does, what the cultural context for any given text was, the history associated with those parts of the Bible, even the theology surr...