A Pause For Breath (Patreon)

Dear heroes,

This week I got less art and writing done than planned (though I still wrote about 6,000 words of Skeleton, so there's that ...). The last couple of days, I spent quite a few hours figuring out how to handle online communications and, particularly, online harassment.

I had a very minor encounter with a troll on Twitter. The kind of encounter Twitter recommends to report, block, and shrug off.

Things Trolls Imply

I decided not to do that because it was the first case of direct, personal harassment I ever  experienced because of a piece of game-related work I did. I wrote a personal piece about my negative experience with the 'fantasy heartbreaker' essay. TL;DR: that essay was one of the key things that made a far less confident and younger me give up writing about D&D and drawing about D&D. It was part and parcel of a series of ideas about rpgs that made me give up doing precisely the kind of things all of you are following me for. I basically said, "this essay made me feel worthless and was one of the reasons I stopped writing and drawing for a few years."

Of course, confronting the troll (and their inbound bully pals), didn't make them explain their attack or apologize. They're politely blocked now and that's a pretty boring avenue to explore (I don't recommend it).

However, that troll attack did lead me to think deeply about online communications and today I wrote another piece about that: how we talk online, and how respectful communication and acting like we're meeting face-to-face in a public space is the thing thing that makes our interactions work better.

It's why I try to greet everybody who joins the patreon personally, like a host welcoming you to a party. It's why I usually pause before posting an article online, and think to myself, is this something I would say in public? To a person I know? To a stranger? It's why I sometimes get enraged by something I read, get ready to respond, and then pause ... and think to myself, am I reading this charitably enough?

I like the community we have. I enjoy sharing my work with you. I enjoy talking about art and ideas and more. It is truly wonderful and inspiring.

On our discord (you know, the one for patrons like yourself: https://discord.gg/UGHdNrz) I love seeing a community forming place. One of my favorite things is when I log on in the morning to find a long, arcane, and friendly discussion took place about magic systems in games I have never heard of.

I want things to stay that way as much as possible, even as we grow.

A corollary of that troll attack was also me writing down some basic WTF community standards, within our patreon and discord, but also in the wider online and offline public spheres we interact with. A similar document was pinned in the discord landing. If you would like to discuss them, I open open to that conversation.

It pretty much loops back to what I said above. I'm very happy that we have a community where we behave like human beings having a ball in the park. It's good.

The Joesky Tax

Nine years ago Joeskythedungeonbrawler formulated an interesting rule for rpg blogs and communities. Any time someone posted a long piece that was not about games (or in my case art, I guess), they should also pay a "joesky tax," by adding an interesting piece of content or art to thank the reader for slogging through the long, dull ... uh ... rant.

Now I don't think I quite ranted (more patted everybody on the backs and saying, "thanks for being awesome," like some two-bit Maui). But still, we should get some gamable information out of this.

So, first things: preorders are opening soon for the Witchburner paperbacks. Matt said Monday. I'll make sure to get you guys all patron coupons before then.

Second thing: metaheroes, when the paperbacks arrive, you're getting the limited edition .pdfs per tier.

Third thing: We're going to have Witchburner t-shirts. Would you prefer "Witchburner" and witch art ... or would you prefer the "Rightmaker" on the t-shirts? Let me know in the comments. That's a vote for everyone.

Fourth thing: I've pinned a rough draft of the Skeleton: Silver Skull "rules commentaries for referees" that go with the game over in the Discord. If you like stuff reading about why things are the way they are and stuff like this: "I love the d20. The d20 is my favorite die, and few things beat the satisfaction of rolling a solid 20 and critting the cranberry cake out of a clay golem crocodile," you might enjoy it.

Fifth thing: the first minimal list of pet abilities and attributes for Skeleton is complete. And right here!

Sixth thing: I've actually completed the fifth neighborhood of Red Sky Dead City, the Tombs of the Eleven Respected Professions. They're not actually respected, they are the clans and guilds of the professions that were rendered obsolete by the Living Flesh God (who is now dead). Here they are:

THE ELEVEN PROFESSIONS

• Administrators, replaced by the infallible memory of the Living God.
• Barbers, made irrelevant after the Living God brought hair under the voluntary control of the Ebéteen.
• Brewers, replaced by the opium priests, who administered the Living God’s dream essence to the faithful.
• Engineers, replaced by the biomancers, with mechanical labor relegated to slave Izvoreni.
• Tailors, replaced by the skin weavers, who would grow clothing from the delicate organic gifts of the Living God.
• Cooks, replaced by the Giving Eunuchs, who used the flesh of the Living God to feed the faithful.
• Soldiers, replaced by hormone-enhanced shackleminds and their neuromantic minders.
• Lawyers, replaced by the eternal all-truth of the Living God.
• Doctors, made irrelevant by the perfect blood magic of the Living God.
• Journalists, replaced by the immanent and immediate insight of the Living God.
• Innkeepers, made pointless by the rest-temples.

Okay! That's It

Thank you for your patience as I got around to writing all this up. I know it's not exactly what you signed up, but I'm grateful to you for your patience. Sometimes talking about how a community works, and what makes us a community, is worthwhile. And sometimes, events make it necessary.

Our rpg community is not perfect, but it is certainly a very good one. And this patreon, this little corner of it, well - it is very important to me and very meaningful.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being the cool folks that you are.

Kudos everyone!

-Luka, Fri 11 Jan, the Year of Apostrophis 5.