Power fantasies aren’t just for players and customers. They affect storytellers as well. Be it authors, writers, or a tabletop DM (Dungeon Master but we’ll be using the more neutral version, Game Master, for this article). It seems like over the decades the realm of tabletop games has always had one consistent problem.
Gross GM’s.
GM’s that take the table into unpleasant themes for the sake of the Plot Twist. They don’t just direct the world or their NPC’s (non-player characters) but force actions on the player that they didn’t ask for. This is taking away the Agency, Player Agency…
We all want to support our favorite content creators, but we don’t always have the money. So how can you support indie creators on the web for free? Well, there’s a number of ways to do that, so let’s get into it!
Follow Them On Social Media
The simplest step and yet sometimes one of the most difficult for content creators. At this point, just about everyone is on a social platform of some sort. They may not live on it or be super active, but they have an account somewhere. Be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. …
“Ummm…What’s Afropunk?” It’s a question I hear often. Sometimes in seriousness, sometimes in jest. Let’s talk about it, and Swordsfall.
What Does it Mean?
Let’s immediately be clear about one thing first and foremost, there is no standard definition for Afropunk. And there (gladly) never will be. It’s a recent term for an old feeling. A timeless line of thought that has gone through Black folks in the West for centuries.
The feeling of not belonging in the Status Quo.
Wikipedia will give credit to the documentary that gave it the proper genre name, Afropunk directed by James Spooner. It was a movement and…
Growing up as a comic book nerd, I, like so many others, eventually came across Batman. I’m in my mid 30’s so I came in during that “Golden” time of Batman comics. The Dark Knight books, Killing Joke, and so many others had already come out and made waves.
I was drawn to this dark, brooding character. Who was Batman? As a kid, of course, the first thing you think is “Well he looks cool as hell.”. I’m sure it’s a reaction that drives most readers at first. But as I started to read through issues I was struck at…
One of the questions I get occasionally is about the classes, or as I call them in Swordsfall, Professions. It’s something that many games live and die by or eschew completely. For Swordsfall I’ve taken not quite the middle road of having them, but not making life or death. Instead, professions focus on what you DO. Your purpose. What you contribute to in life.
The first thing to establish is what is a Profession and why is different from a class? I look at a class as mechanical, its something you talk about outside the confines of the tangible world…
Brandon Dixon
The creator and writer of Swordsfall. An Afropunk Sci-Fantasy Setting. www.swordsfall.com
