I'll add more later, these are two commissions I did for a friend of his D&D charas:

As Pride month begins to wind down, I want to take a moment to talk about LGBTQIA+ in role-playing spaces.

Role-play for many queer and trans people can be an incredible resource for us to find safe communities where we can express ourselves and meet others like us. It's sometimes even the first step on a long road of self-discovery and identity. It can be a safe space to live out lives inaccessible to us in reality due to safety issues or fear of discrimination and ostracization within our real-life communities. Many of my first experiences with queer identity were done in play-by-post role-play threads on forums.

With games like Thirsty Sword Lesbians (Evil Hat Productions), Women Are Werewolves (9th Level Games), and Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast (Possum Creek Games), it is clear there are now more narratives written with people like us in mind. Queer-centered game publishers like Possum Creek Games and Balsamic Moon Games are designing games for people like us to create spaces for ourselves. This is not restricted to private game spaces. Many queer ttrpg communities are popping up on Discord and Reddit, and various public actual plays feature partial or full casts of LGBTQ+ players, like The Unexplored Places and Witches of Midnight (an actual play of a game created by BMG). Even Dimension 20, one of the most currently popular actual plays, has been working hard to include queer storylines and characters.

The self-expression, inclusivity, and discovery that role-play allows is something that is very important to us at Unplay, and something we look forward to nurturing within LiveTale as it
grows. We hope that we can be a community and resource for many people, including those who are marginalized, and those who are looking for a safe space to play, discover, and grow.

-K.O. (she/they, pan/demi)

https://linktr.ee/livetale (Links to the above mentioned)

Hey everybody, we're planning some fun stuff on Discord for this month, including a couple of art streams where you can interact with some of our artists and ask questions, as well as hosting ttrpg one-shots led by some our crew that we'd love for you to join!

We also do a weekly game on Fridays called Rumble! It's super easy to participate in and always results in high levels of chaos.

Do you have any ideas for events or games that could be fun or interesting for the community either on here or in the Discord? Let me know below!

Is anyone else going to be there this weekend? A few of us are going, myself included! I haven't been before, so I'm pretty excited.

Click the link to join! Feel free to hang out and chat, we'll also be posting news and updates about LiveTale there, as well as adding some fun emoji and other Discord-only goodies!

Rogues archetypes are my favorite, for sure. I also love space pirates, bounty hunters, really any sort of scoundrel. My second favorite archetype is probably some sort of forest warden, like a ranger or druid.

My current main in a ttrpg is an elf courtesan who is an undercover spy for a rebellion to overthrow her corrupt government. She relies mostly on stealth and deception to make her way in the world. She also has Glamour magic, so she can disguise herself or use her powers to intimidate or shock in order to get away from dangerous situations.

Come ask questions about what we're working on, and get to know some of the team here at LiveTale! Here's a link to our registration form, where you can ask any questions you might have, and here's a link to join our Discord!

We look forward to hearing from you!

-K.O. (Your friendly neighborhood Community Manager)

This is a really interesting take; we've had discussions amongst our crew about how fast AI has been developed over the past few years. I would love to see NPCs that can respond almost as well as an actual PC, the immersion within a game would be incredible. I could see this becoming a very popular type of gaming, and as you said, engines/platforms, rather than specific games, may become the dominant force within gaming in the future.

Youtube Video

Okay, I'll start! The next person answers my prompt and then makes their own, which the following person will answer, and then ask their prompt, etc etc and so on and so forth.

Now, this is a VERY important question I have asked the LiveTale crew and also the Discord, and now I need to know what you all think:

Would you rather...

Fight 1 human-sized worm or 1000 worm-sized humans? 🪱

Thank you for letting us know! @FlamingUnicron should be able to get it sorted out, this sent a notif to our support channel on Discord, so he'll see it in the morning. I've been testing it on desktop for bugs, but hadn't played with it on mobile yet. It's appreciated Zim!

Join us tomorrow, August 28th, at 6:30p ET/3:30p PT in The Tavern! We'll be announcing the winners and celebrating all of the talented finalists from our contest!

@AGreaterMonster Yes, they are booked in advance! I did check them out before deciding maybe I should just wander (@Faye and @Hanzilla were much more organized than I was and did this much earlier), and most were already full by the time I had checked (in May or so). It's really exciting to see SO many enthusiastic people into a similar hobby as you are, all in one place. I am trying to remember in the AMA if you mentioned where you live now; I know you said you lived in Chicago at one time. If you're close enough, you should come to Gen Con next year, it was totally worth it, and with your DMing and acting/writing/art expertise, I bet you would be a hit!

@AGreaterMonster It's huge! I knew it was big, but I didn't realize it was 70k people big. So, this is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I didn't get to play much at all because I was so overwhelmed at the sheer AMOUNT of things there were to see and do. I decided just to wander around and get my bearings/not schedule anything, so that I wouldn't get too overloaded. I really need to schedule myself out some sessions next year. I spent a lot of time in the dealer's hall, marveling over games, art, dice, and cosplays.

@Faye was also there, and she got to join some LARPs, including a World of Darkness one, as well as some other ttrpging sessions. I'll ask her to pop in here and regale us with some of them!

We made sure to check out the White Wolf area, as well as the FATE table, and we went to the Mörk Borg table and got some goodies for our friend and co-worker @FlamingUnicron, because he loves Mörk Borg and couldn't come to the con (he lives much further away than we do).

There were a few new games I learned about that I was really interested in: Old Gods of Appalachia, Vast Grimm, The House of the Hollow, and Sapphic Space Pirates, as well as a Blade Runner role-playing game.

(apologies for a couple of blurry pics, I had to screenshot a video I took to get them )

@Ezra You will have to come next year! It was really cool, I can't believe how big the dealer's hall was and how many people attended. I think over 70k? I definitely want to go to it again, Indianapolis was a really cool city too.

I wanted a little chibi Clamp-style wing on my right shoulder when I was younger, a little homage to my love of anime and also the one-winged angel himself, Sephiroth. I'm not sure I'll ever end up getting it now, and like with most things, now that I'm trying to think of something else I would get, my brain has gone blank

What do you all do for Halloween?

It's my favorite holiday, so I try to spend as much of October as possible doing spooky things. I love decorating, dressing up, going to/throwing parties, going to apple orchards and picking pumpkins, doing events like Witches Night Out, etc.

I even went on a 'haunted' road trip with one of my besties a few years ago; we visited Stephen King's house in Bangor, Maine, saw where the Headless Horseman rode in Sleepy Hollow (Tarrytown), and then for the finale, we stayed in Salem for Halloween (which was amazing, but I do not recommend, it's hectic).

https://discord.gg/livetale

We're going to be having some AMAs on Discord. Tune in and learn more about the Tales and their authors!!

(If you are a finalist and you want to schedule an AMA, please get in touch with me on Discord at k.o.yote)

Is anyone else going to be there this weekend? A few of us are going, myself included! I haven't been before, so I'm pretty excited.