nivenus

[nivenus]

The PCs came with a rather ingenious solution to their problem at the beginning of this session: they decided to try fueling their reactor with water and build up a charge very, very, very gradually (over a week) to charge their FTL drive, banking it in the power stations they were towing.

After this, they resumed course to Delta Eridani but had the misfortune to run afowl of a distortion in spacetime known to navigators as an "Aramaki's Cloak,"* a seemingly artificial (and alien) structure of warped spacetime.

*Fans of Revelation Space will recognize this as a "Shroud"

The PCs survived, though their ship took quite a beating. As they oriented themselves (literally, since gravity is offline) they discovered another ship trapped even deeper in the Cloak's gravity well and heroically decide to try and assist... to be continued next session.

The pre-game social for the next session of "On A Pale Horse," an ALIEN RPG campaign starts in a little under 35 minutes, followed by the game itself half an hour later.

Currently, the PCs are en route to Delta Eridani to deliver a cargo of power stations to the mining colony there run by the Chigusa Corporation.

The PCs have dropped out of FTL a few parsecs from their destination due to a navigational era and don't have enough fuel left to reignite the fusion reactor, stranding them.

#sci-fi #horror #alien #sci-fi horror #alien rpg #alien roleplaying game #alien universe #tabletop rpg #discord #rpg #live play #year zero engine

[nivenus]

Pre-game social is now live!

The pre-game social for the next session of "On A Pale Horse," an ALIEN RPG campaign starts in a little under 35 minutes, followed by the game itself half an hour later.

Currently, the PCs are en route to Delta Eridani to deliver a cargo of power stations to the mining colony there run by the Chigusa Corporation.

The PCs have dropped out of FTL a few parsecs from their destination due to a navigational era and don't have enough fuel left to reignite the fusion reactor, stranding them.

#sci-fi #horror #alien #sci-fi horror #alien rpg #alien roleplaying game #alien universe #tabletop rpg #rpg #discord #live play #year zero engine

[nivenus]

The pre-game social for the next session of "On A Pale Horse," an ALIEN RPG campaign starts in a little under 35 minutes, followed by the game itself half an hour later.

Currently, the PCs are en route to Delta Eridani to deliver a cargo of power stations to the mining colony there run by the Chigusa Corporation.

The PCs have dropped out of FTL a few parsecs from their destination due to a navigational era and don't have enough fuel left to reignite the fusion reactor, stranding them.

[nivenus]

The pre-game social for the next session of "On A Pale Horse," an ALIEN RPG campaign starts in a little under 35 minutes, followed by the game itself half an hour later.

Currently, the PCs are en route to Delta Eridani to deliver a cargo of power stations to the mining colony there run by the Chigusa Corporation.

The PCs have dropped out of FTL a few parsecs from their destination due to a navigational era and don't have enough fuel left to reignite the fusion reactor, stranding them.

#sci-fi #horror #alien #sci-fi horror #alien rpg #alien universe #alien roleplaying game #tabletop rpg #rpg #discord #live play #year zero engine

[nivenus]

Game session went well! This time the PCs picked up a new job, loaded some power stations on to a tractor, and hauled out to a remote world on the Frontier. On the way @howardtheduck95.bsky.social spent 38 weeks keeping the ship in working order, repairing this or that.

The crew have run into an unexpected complication though… their navcomputer put them off course by 5 parsecs and they're out of gas, requiring them to either call for help or try and synthesize some fuel of their own.

The next session in "On a Pale Horse," an ALIEN RPG campaign begins in about 45 minutes! Join us as the PCs prepare to leave behind the Core Systems and head back into the dangerous Frontier. Pre-game social is also open in about 10 minutes and is welcome to spectators and friends as well as players

#alien rpg #alien roleplaying game #year zero engine #yze #sci-fi horror #sci-fi #horror #alien universe #alien #roleplaying games #rpg #ttrpg #discord

[nivenus]

The next session in "On a Pale Horse," an ALIEN RPG campaign begins in about 45 minutes! Join us as the PCs prepare to leave behind the Core Systems and head back into the dangerous Frontier. Pre-game social is also open in about 10 minutes and is welcome to spectators and friends as well as players

#alien rpg #alien roleplaying game #year zero engine #yze #sci-fi horror #sci-fi #horror #alien universe #alien #roleplaying games #rpg #ttrpg #discord

[nivenus]

Pre-game social is now live!

The continuing adventures of the crew of the CSCSS Ribiera will begin in about an hour! Pre-game social in 30 min.

#alien #alien rpg #alien universe #sci-fi horror #sci-fi #cyberpunk #horror #tabletop rpg #ttrpg #year zero engine #rpg #discord

[nivenus]

The continuing adventures of the crew of the CSCSS Ribiera will begin in about an hour! Pre-game social in 30 min.

#alien #alien rpg #alien universe #sci-fi horror #sci-fi #horror #cyberpunk #tabletop rpg #ttrpg #year zero engine #rpg #discord

[nivenus]

We're starting!

One hour before pre-game social for On A Pale Horse, an ALIEN RPG Campaign. PCs are currently in the midst of getting back on their feet, buying supplies, spending XP, and picking up new jobs.

#alien #alien rpg #alien roleplaying game #rpg #alien universe #sci-fi #sci-fi horror #horror #tabletop roleplaying games #ttrpg

[nivenus]

Pre-game social is live! Game starts in a little under 25 min.

One hour before pre-game social for On A Pale Horse, an ALIEN RPG Campaign. PCs are currently in the midst of getting back on their feet, buying supplies, spending XP, and picking up new jobs.

#alien #alien rpg #alien roleplaying game #rpg #alien universe #sci-fi #sci-fi horror #horror #tabletop roleplaying games #ttrpg

[nivenus]

Pre-game social starts in about 20 min!

One hour before pre-game social for On A Pale Horse, an ALIEN RPG Campaign. PCs are currently in the midst of getting back on their feet, buying supplies, spending XP, and picking up new jobs.

#alien #alien rpg #alien roleplaying game #rpg #alien universe #sci-fi #sci-fi horror #horror #tabletop roleplaying games #ttrpg

[nivenus]

One hour before pre-game social for On A Pale Horse, an ALIEN RPG Campaign. PCs are currently in the midst of getting back on their feet, buying supplies, spending XP, and picking up new jobs.

#alien #alien rpg #alien roleplaying game #rpg #alien universe #sci-fi #sci-fi horror #horror #tabletop roleplaying games #ttrpg

[nivenus]

In today's session, the PCs negotiated with their new corporate sponsor for a better contract and picked up 2 new crewmates: an antisocial truck driver and a space archeologist.

Link to the next game on February 25th at 3:00 PM (Pacific) here!

Pre-game social is live!

Today's session will probably be lower key than some of the last couple, since the PCs have finished their current job and are looking to get paid, lick their wounds, pick up some new skills, and replace fallen crewmates. And maybe find a new job in Alexandria Colony.

#alien #alien roleplaying game #alien rpg #discord #tabletop roleplaying games #trpg #year zero engine #sci-fi #horror #sci-fi horror #alien universe #cyberpunk

[nivenus]

We're now going live to the game!

Pre-game social is live!

Today's session will probably be lower key than some of the last couple, since the PCs have finished their current job and are looking to get paid, lick their wounds, pick up some new skills, and replace fallen crewmates. And maybe find a new job in Alexandria Colony.

#alien #alien roleplaying game #alien rpg #discord #tabletop roleplaying games #trpg #year zero engine #sci-fi #horror #sci-fi horror #alien universe #cyberpunk

[nivenus]

Pre-game social is live!

Today's session will probably be lower key than some of the last couple, since the PCs have finished their current job and are looking to get paid, lick their wounds, pick up some new skills, and replace fallen crewmates. And maybe find a new job in Alexandria Colony.

#alien #alien roleplaying game #alien rpg #discord #tabletop roleplaying games #trpg #year zero engine #sci-fi #horror #sci-fi horror #alien universe #cyberpunk

[nivenus]

Nations, States, and People

Hey all!

So, since November, I've been a member of the Libertarian Socialists of Portland, an affiliated group of the Democratic Socialists of America, Portland. I've been in charge of writing newsletters, but when I wrote this last one, I was unable to reach consensus on the subject matter I chose to talk about, Israel and Palestine.

Nonetheless, I felt it was important to share so while i've removed the editorial from this month's newsletter for the group, I'm sharing it here. Please note all opinions expressed below are my own:

It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to talk about for this editorial, but my mind kept coming back to one topic, over and over: the current disaster in Gaza. I think I avoided the subject on first impulse because of how fraught it is. But I also think it’s an important one to discuss.

With that in mind, let me make me clear that I speak only for myself on this subject, not for anyone else in the Libertarian Socialists of Portland or Democratic Socialists of America. I also would like to make it clear, first and foremost, that Israel is an apartheid state and that the occupation of West Bank and Gaza is immoral, illegal, and inhuman.

Nonetheless, whenever I think about Israel and Palestine, I’m reminded of how it is a good example of how few conflicts are cut and dry, especially when states are involved. The dishonest, skewed framing of left-wing protesters as pro-Hamas by centrist and right-wing media is a perfect case of this, as is the German government’s severe crackdown on pro-Palestinian groups. But this tendency towards binary thinking can also be seen among many of us on the left, where some have either disregarded the suffering of Israeli victims on October 6 or the wave of anti-Semitism many Jews in the West have experienced during the ongoing war.

This is not to say that Israelis or Jews have suffered more than Palestinians or Muslims. Over 1,000 Israelis died on October 6, but since then almost 20 times as many Palestinians have been killed. In both cases, the majority have been civilians. The truth is both Muslims and Jews, Arabs and Israelis, have suffered enormously and peace would be beneficial to both sides. Which brings me to what I really want to talk about: the distinction between nation-states and people.

Part of the issue, I feel, with many narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to talk about Israel and Palestine each as if they are uniform entities. When commentators talk about Israel, they often mean all Israelis (or worse than that, all Jews). When people talk about Palestine, they often mean all Palestinians (or worse, all Arabs or Muslims). This results not just in a skewed view of reality but unconscionable acts of violence and hate speech toward people who have nothing to do with the war aside from faith they practice or the language they speak, something that has happened repeatedly since this war began in multiple countries.

Israel and Palestine are not uniform. Israel is composed not only of people like Benjamin Netanyahu or Itamar Ben-Gvir, but also of people like Arik Ascherman, who has defended Palestinians in the West Bank against Israeli settlers, or Vivian Silver, who was tragically killed during the October 6 attacks. Palestine is not Hamas, but also Ali Abu Awwad, a nonviolent activist committed to peace between Jews and Arabs, and Hanan Ashrawi, a woman awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2003 for her work toward resolving the conflict. Although many Israelis support the occupation of the West Bank, many others do not. Although many Palestinians support Hamas, many others do not. Nations are not monolithic.

This doesn’t mean that both sides in the conflict are “equally wrong.” As I noted before, Palestinians have suffered far, far more in this conflict than Israelis have. Nor does it mean that the virtues of some can wash out the crimes of others. But it does mean that we should remember the essential humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians. There is no such thing as a victimless killing. There is no such thing as a war that does not engender cruelty and wickedness. And there is no such thing as a people who are all good or all bad.

This binary way of thinking, where we think one group is all the same, is not worthy of socialism. And it is certainly not what libertarian socialism should be. I think of Abdullah Ocalan’s words in his manifesto of democratic confederalism, the ideology of Rojava: “Diversity and plurality [have] to be fought, an approach that [leads] into assimilation and genocide… [the state] aims at creating a single national culture, a single national identity, and a single unified religious community. Thus it also enforces a homogeneous citizenship. The notion of citizen has been created as a result of the quest for such a homogeneity.” If the libertarian socialist fighters of Syria recognize that ethnonationalism is a trap, how can we, who do not face the same challenges and moral dilemmas as them, not be equally clear minded?

The state and the people it governs are not identical. Are all Americans guilty of the Bush administration’s crimes? Did the citizens of Japan deserve to have the atomic bomb dropped on them as punishment for the Rape of Nanking? Do all Russians in all countries deserve to be treated with contempt because of Vladimir Putin’s criminal invasion of Ukraine?

Such narratives can even be counterproductive towards the ones they mean to protect. Consider the case of modern Germany, where Germany’s historic (and in many ways commemorable) institutional memory of the Holocaust has led the state to declare Israel the German state’s “reason to exist.” This in turn has led Germany not only to persecute Palestinian activists but Jewish ones who criticize Israel’s policies! As Deborah Feldman, a German Jewish activist for Palestine said, the German government must now decide between Israel and Jews. Because they are not the same thing.

When we advocate for peace (and advocate for peace we must), I ask us all to do just one thing, which is to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, to think about the Gaza War not as an ideological cause celebre or a metric by which we measure our own righteousness, but as what it is: a calamitous conflict that has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people and continues to bring suffering to millions.

Arthur Niven

#israel #palestine #libertarian socialism #anarchism #democratic socialism #democratic confederalism #socialism #leftism #apartheid #genocide #gaza war #human rights #rojava #germany #deborah feldman #israelis #jews #palestinians #humanism #politics #arabs

[nivenus]

Nations, States, and People

Hey all!

So, since November, I've been a member of the Libertarian Socialists of Portland, an affiliated group of the Democratic Socialists of America, Portland. I've been in charge of writing newsletters, but when I wrote this last one, I was unable to reach consensus on the subject matter I chose to talk about, Israel and Palestine.

Nonetheless, I felt it was important to share so while i've removed the editorial from this month's newsletter for the group, I'm sharing it here. Please note all opinions expressed below are my own:

It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to talk about for this editorial, but my mind kept coming back to one topic, over and over: the current disaster in Gaza. I think I avoided the subject on first impulse because of how fraught it is. But I also think it’s an important one to discuss.

With that in mind, let me make me clear that I speak only for myself on this subject, not for anyone else in the Libertarian Socialists of Portland or Democratic Socialists of America. I also would like to make it clear, first and foremost, that Israel is an apartheid state and that the occupation of West Bank and Gaza is immoral, illegal, and inhuman.

Nonetheless, whenever I think about Israel and Palestine, I’m reminded of how it is a good example of how few conflicts are cut and dry, especially when states are involved. The dishonest, skewed framing of left-wing protesters as pro-Hamas by centrist and right-wing media is a perfect case of this, as is the German government’s severe crackdown on pro-Palestinian groups. But this tendency towards binary thinking can also be seen among many of us on the left, where some have either disregarded the suffering of Israeli victims on October 6 or the wave of anti-Semitism many Jews in the West have experienced during the ongoing war.

This is not to say that Israelis or Jews have suffered more than Palestinians or Muslims. Over 1,000 Israelis died on October 6, but since then almost 20 times as many Palestinians have been killed. In both cases, the majority have been civilians. The truth is both Muslims and Jews, Arabs and Israelis, have suffered enormously and peace would be beneficial to both sides. Which brings me to what I really want to talk about: the distinction between nation-states and people.

Part of the issue, I feel, with many narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to talk about Israel and Palestine each as if they are uniform entities. When commentators talk about Israel, they often mean all Israelis (or worse than that, all Jews). When people talk about Palestine, they often mean all Palestinians (or worse, all Arabs or Muslims). This results not just in a skewed view of reality but unconscionable acts of violence and hate speech toward people who have nothing to do with the war aside from faith they practice or the language they speak, something that has happened repeatedly since this war began in multiple countries.

Israel and Palestine are not uniform. Israel is composed not only of people like Benjamin Netanyahu or Itamar Ben-Gvir, but also of people like Arik Ascherman, who has defended Palestinians in the West Bank against Israeli settlers, or Vivian Silver, who was tragically killed during the October 6 attacks. Palestine is not Hamas, but also Ali Abu Awwad, a nonviolent activist committed to peace between Jews and Arabs, and Hanan Ashrawi, a woman awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2003 for her work toward resolving the conflict. Although many Israelis support the occupation of the West Bank, many others do not. Although many Palestinians support Hamas, many others do not. Nations are not monolithic.

This doesn’t mean that both sides in the conflict are “equally wrong.” As I noted before, Palestinians have suffered far, far more in this conflict than Israelis have. Nor does it mean that the virtues of some can wash out the crimes of others. But it does mean that we should remember the essential humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians. There is no such thing as a victimless killing. There is no such thing as a war that does not engender cruelty and wickedness. And there is no such thing as a people who are all good or all bad.

This binary way of thinking, where we think one group is all the same, is not worthy of socialism. And it is certainly not what libertarian socialism should be. I think of Abdullah Ocalan’s words in his manifesto of democratic confederalism, the ideology of Rojava: “Diversity and plurality [have] to be fought, an approach that [leads] into assimilation and genocide… [the state] aims at creating a single national culture, a single national identity, and a single unified religious community. Thus it also enforces a homogeneous citizenship. The notion of citizen has been created as a result of the quest for such a homogeneity.” If the libertarian socialist fighters of Syria recognize that ethnonationalism is a trap, how can we, who do not face the same challenges and moral dilemmas as them, not be equally clear minded?

The state and the people it governs are not identical. Are all Americans guilty of the Bush administration’s crimes? Did the citizens of Japan deserve to have the atomic bomb dropped on them as punishment for the Rape of Nanking? Do all Russians in all countries deserve to be treated with contempt because of Vladimir Putin’s criminal invasion of Ukraine?

Such narratives can even be counterproductive towards the ones they mean to protect. Consider the case of modern Germany, where Germany’s historic (and in many ways commemorable) institutional memory of the Holocaust has led the state to declare Israel the German state’s “reason to exist.” This in turn has led Germany not only to persecute Palestinian activists but Jewish ones who criticize Israel’s policies! As Deborah Feldman, a German Jewish activist for Palestine said, the German government must now decide between Israel and Jews. Because they are not the same thing.

When we advocate for peace (and advocate for peace we must), I ask us all to do just one thing, which is to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, to think about the Gaza War not as an ideological cause celebre or a metric by which we measure our own righteousness, but as what it is: a calamitous conflict that has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people and continues to bring suffering to millions.

Arthur Niven

#israel #palestine #libertarian socialism #anarchism #democratic socialism #democratic confederalism #socialism #leftism #apartheid #genocide #gaza war #human rights #rojava #germany #deborah feldman #jews #israelis #palestinians #arabs #humanism #politics