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Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern on Backerkit now!

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern is a GMless one-to-three shot TTRPG based on games like MF0: Firebrands and The Sundered Land. It's a collection of 20 mini-games where former adventurers open a tavern together and reintegrate into society after a life on the road.

What happens after the adventure? What does daily life in a fantasy world look like? Stewpot draws inspiration from stories like Dungeon Meshi, Redwall, Frieren, and Bartender, as well as various aspects of D&D. It's a great way to wrap up a long-running fantasy TTRPG campaign.

Start a garden, cook monsters, run a festival booth, reforge old weapons, flirt with mysterious strangers, and more in a new version of the game with tons of art and new storybook-style layout!

(more info and full description of the mini-games in the read more!)

The structure of the game is based on characters having an Adventurer Job, with Adventurer Experiences that represent their abilities and powers, and a Town Job with Town Experiences. You can make new characters just for the game, or bring in old characters and recreate them with the existing Experiences or write your own.

As you play the game, you'll cross off Adventurer Experiences as you let go of them or let them fade into the background, and gain new Town Experiences that take their place. Along the way you'll upgrade your Tavern and give each other Keepsakes!

Games from the old Itch.io PDF version (0.41):

The First Step: Before you decided to put down roots here, before you found this group of friends, what were you doing? What was the first thing you learned about how to live in town?

NPC Sidequest: Your adventuring days may be over, but there are plenty of people in town that could use your help.

Wear and Tear: There’s always something to fix, or clean, or pay off.

Market Day: You never would have guessed how many things you need just to keep a tavern running. 

Homegrown: There’s something special about using ingredients grown nearby. Why not give growing your own a try?

Sliced: Sometimes supply routes get disrupted. Or maybe you just want to stand out from the rest of the taverns. Whatever the reason, you’re playing this game because you want or need to do one thing: cook with monster parts.

Romancing a Stranger: Someone in the tavern makes eye contact with you, and their gaze lingers a little longer than you’d expect. Your co-workers urge you on, and make every excuse they can to send you over to talk to the lovely Stranger.

Off the Clock: Where do you go after the tables are wiped down? Who’s heard every story you have about the worst people who have walked in?

A Friendly Tavern Brawl: Every tavern has its rowdy patrons. You know they’re good at heart, but sometimes when the ale is flowing and spirits are high, things get a little out of hand. How do you handle the situation?

Festival Day: Your town has a few festival days a year, and they’re some of your busiest. How do you prepare? How do you handle the influx of people?

A Bard's Tale: During your time as an adventurer, you accomplished many daring deeds. In fact, some of those deeds are retold to this day by travelling bards.

A Glass of the Gods: Sometimes a troubled adventurer will come in, looking for answers, and letting them drink themselves into oblivion is the wrong answer. It's up to you  to  mix the perfect drink, something perfect for the situation that can push the adventurer to look inside and find the answer on their own.

A Distinguished Guest: Someone important is in town, and they’re already almost here. The tavern has to be at its best for this guest. After all, they might leave a generous tip.

In the Rhythm of Things: Time passes. Rough edges are sanded down. Before you know it, life in town has become like breathing. You gather in your favorite part of the tavern and wonder where the time has gone.

New games for this crowdfunding campaign:

Shields and Skillets: Enchantments are volatile things, especially when they sit unused for long periods of time. You have to let go of your old equipment before it’s too late.

Shelter from the Storm: Early one morning, you feel it. A familiar ache in your bones. Something is coming.

A Funeral: As an adventurer, you said farewell many times. Sometimes it was only temporary. Most of the time, it wasn't. 

Retracing: You've left town for something: an errand, a vacation, an old favor. Suddenly, you recognize the route you're traveling. You've been this way before, during your adventuring days.

A Fleeting Memory: Something about the way the fire flickers lingers in your mind. The smell of hay and clover brings a tear to your eye. A fading memory resurfaces.

A Familiar Face: An old friend you haven't seen in a while has stopped by. Why not show them around the town and the tavern?

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ANNIE HSIAO-CHING WANG

ARTIST

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celebs only sharing evac funds and other charity framed initiatives after taking no meaningful stance is so predictable. anyone who thinks about evacuations even a little but knows how fucked up everything about them is. and how this giving framework requires nuance and vigilance to not fall into the traps of western saviourism. we have to ensure that those who are forcibly displaced can return to their land in their lifetimes. this is forced displacement.

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Urgent Appeal for HelpGazaChildren: Help refugees flee to Khan Younis!

Because of the looming invasion and brutal bombing throughout the most densely populated area in Gaza, Rafah, many refugees are looking to evacuate to Khan Younis!

The bombing is random and even the areas not included in the evacuation notices are bombarded. Many refugees are asking Hussam for funds to help them evacuate to Khan Younis to help keep their families safe.

The above is a screenshot of a facebook post from someone in Rafah. A tent can be as much as $700 and the transportation costs anywhere between $250-$400 per family. This cost is primarily for gas alone!!

Please donate so that people may be able to evacuate while also being able to afford basic necessities.

Even if you're unable to donate, please share this post and the fundraiser even outside of tumblr and on other platforms! This is incredibly urgent!!

Donate to our GoFundMe which goes directly to Hussam, who manages camps in Rafah, with NO middleman in between!

HelpGazaChildren Notion Site || #helpgazachildren tag

GoFundMe Link

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List of Palestinian Evacuation Fundraisers

Last Update: 05/06/2024

All fundraisers have been looked into by me or vetted by others. If anyone notices issues in validity with any of the fundraisers listed please let me know. Funding updates daily!

Fadi Al-Sharif and family ($10,439/$62,500 goal)

Hayam Taha and family (€8,718/€30,000 goal)

Deyaa and family (€7,764/€20,000 goal)

Fatima Alshanti (kr5,085 SEK/kr150,000 goal)

Shahed Ghazi and family ($6,776 CAD/$94,838 goal)

Little Yusuf and family (€5,960/€85,000 goal)

Sara & Huda Hajjaj and family ($240/$15,000 goal)

Mohammed JH Shamia's family (kr20,168 SEK/kr250,000 goal)

Maram Ahmed and family (€1,032/€30,000 goal)

Hamza Almofty and family ($3,772/$35,000 goal)

Mahmoud Jomaa (€400/€10,000 goal)

Dr. Mohammed Shara ($445/$20,000 goal)

Abdulrahman Alshanti and family (kr137,402 SEK/kr350,000 goal)

Besan Almabhouh's family (€5,767/€25,000 goal)

Said Tanani and brothers (€30,935/€50,000 goal)

Donia Tanani and family (€67,538/€100,000 goal)

Hussein Shamiya, his pregnant wife, and son ($8,042/$40,000 goal)

Mohammed Shamia and family ($15,020/$35,000 goal)

Amro Bakr & kids Bakir and Tala (€1,772/€15,000 goal)

Almadhoun family ($18,365/$80,000 goal)

Child Mohammed (€6,420/€10,000 goal)

Sana'a and family (£19,668/£50,000 goal)

Noha Ayyad and family ($23,050/$95,160 goal)

Nazmi Mwafi and family ($5,151/65,000 goal)

Ibrahim Almofty and family ($535/$40,000)

Hamdi Hejazi and family ($10,236/$25,000)

Mohammed and family ($7,620/$25,000)

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Three days ago, the Israeli military dropped flyers ordering displaced people and residents of Rafah to leave. In the orders where people were told to move out of Rafah, the military said it was “about to operate with force against the terror organisations in the area”. A UN estimate says there are 1.2 million people sheltering in dire conditions in Rafah, Gaza's southern city. The "full-blown famine" that has taken hold in the north of Gaza has spread to the south, Cindy McCain, the head of the World Food Programme, confirmed over the weekend. There are roughly 200 Palestinians that are being forcibly displaced from Rafah every hour, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) said on Wednesday. During an online press briefing, medical doctors and humanitarian aid workers reporting from the ground in Gaza spoke about the impossible feat of moving people from Rafah, as people are ridden by famine plus a collapsed transportation and healthcare system. "There are children and elderly that are so starved that they can barely walk. These people cannot just relocate to another area, to so-called 'safe zones'. It is not possible," Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy from Save the Children, said. Several aid workers have expressed that there is no "safe" area in the Gaza Strip for people to relocate to. "The concept of safe zones is a lie," Helena Marchal, from Medecins du Monde, said. Aid workers also reiterated the difficulty of getting aid both into Gaza and then distributing it. Both the Rafah and the Kerem Shalom crossings, through which most aid reached the besieged Strip, have closed since Sunday evening. Roads across Gaza are largely destroyed or blocked by people sheltering, contributing to the difficulty of movement of both goods and people. Only a very limited number of routes, especially between the north and south, are available for humanitarian use, Jeremy Konyndyk, from Refugees International, explained. Another issue is overcrowding. "In Deir al-Balah and the Mawasi area on the outskirts of the Rafah and Khan Younis governorates, there is barely any space. There are tents everywhere, on the beach, on the sidewalks, the streets, the graveyards, the courtyards of the hospitals, in the courtyards of the schools," Ghada Alhaddad, from Oxfam International, said. Saieh explained that it took her team six weeks and four failed attempts to move a couple of hundred food parcels from Rafah to the north of Gaza. "One litre of fuel cost $40 yesterday," according to Ranchal. Fuel enters through the Rafah crossing. If the fuel is cut off, the aid operation collapses," Konyndyk said.

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The absolute upper limit of what can be considered affordable for a home is 4x your income. Ideally it should be 3x, but 4x is the limit for reasonably stretching your budget.

Using Sacramento as an example, median home price is about $510k, and median household income is about $85,000

That number for Sacramento is 6x, and that's for a middling city with middling employment prospects. So the entire city for almost everyone living there is by definition unaffordable. And that's not as bad as it gets

Let's look at Toronto. Median income is around $91,000, median home price is just over $1,100,000. That's a ratio of 12:1. You would need to be making a quarter of a million dollars just to be able to qualify for a mortgage.

For a home to be affordable, one of two things need to happen: 1) incomes need to rise astronomically overnight or 2) home prices need to crash astronomically overnight

In Sacramento, that means the median income needs to double (to $170k per year), or home prices need to crash by 50%

In Toronto, that means incomes need to quadruple (to $370k per year) or home prices need to crash about 75%

This is how bad the housing crisis is. I don't think people truly understand the gravity of how bad it is. Home prices should not be this high. Incomes should not be this low. Look back 100 years and you won't find a time when affordability was this bad for everyone everywhere. Things must change

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There are an estimated 50 000 pregnant women in Gaza, with more than 180 giving birth every day. Without hospitals the chances of survival for mother and child drop drastically

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Pour one out for a real one.

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"Most of Sudan is only one step away from a full blown famine. In a lot of areas the only thing stopping people starving is the presence of community kitchens. This is why we setup 3 kitchens in Khartoum State and are in the process of setting up a 4th. But there has been a massive drop off in donations after Ramadan. Please help with what you can.

#Sudan"

link to the GFM below:

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My friends' stories from the past couple of days, and links to help them.

Nael Helles: One of the first people to be affected by the invasion of Rafah. Nearly as soon as it began, the house next to his family's camp was bombed, and they were buried under the rubble. They dug themselves out to the surface, but they are all injured. Words cannot describe the anguish I felt at this news. Please support them in their journey to recovery and safety.

Mahmoud Qassas: During the invasion of Rafah, he described to me the horrific sounds in the early hours of the morning. The quadcopters were firing and the zionist terrorists' gunshots were audible from their tent. I worried that any message he sent me may be his last. He is now left with no choice but to move again and use some of the gathered funds to do so. Please support his move to a safer place in Ghazzah.

Mohammed El Shaer: After the zionist terrorists had retreated, he went into the street looking to help people. What he found was body parts strewn around, and the headless body of a young man. Words do not suffice to describe the images forever etched into his mind. Despite the horrors that surround him and his family, they have nowhere to go, they are stranded. Please help them while they figure out what to do.

Mona Abu Hamda: My lovely dear friend Mona, the one who's helped countless families survive this horrific genocide and the starvation campaigns. The one whose efforts I posted, and the one whom you all donated to and sent wonderful messages to. I haven't heard from her since the invasion began. Whatever has happened to her, she and her family will need the funds to survive.

I hope that you can read their stories and understand the urgency of this situation.

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Tango were so confident in Hi-Fi Rush that they released it on the same day they announced it; hotdropped it out of nowhere with nothing but a single trailer saying "THIS IS OUR COOL NEW RHYTHM-ACTION GAME IT'S OUT NOW!" and it actually worked. People loved it, it was popular, it wasn't an AAA game but it looked gorgeous and was a complete and polished experience, just an all-around triumph for the devs at Tango Gameworks.

I cannot overemphasize how crazy that is. If you're an indie game launching on Steam (meaning you're operating on a lower budget than most games) one of your first goals is to hit 20,000 wishlists before you launch, since that's the magic number that makes the Steam algo start showing your game to people who don't know you exist. You need months of hard work and good luck to make it, and even then you're still praying that the 20k wishlists actually convert to sales (I've worked on projects that hit 20k wishlists, but with a really low conversion rate so the games still 'failed')

An AA game with a hefty budget would need way more than that to make back its money spent. They would have to compete with AAA games hogging all the attention (and the audience's budget), while not having that scrappy indie culture behind them. If they don't sell enough to make their money back + enough for a new game, that studio is toast.

Hi-Fi Rush's team really went for a hotdrop stunt that would instantly kill 90% of other studios outright, somehow pulled it off spectacularly with a completely new IP that couldn't even fall back on brand recognition, and Microsoft STILL closed them down. They had a miracle team and just fired them all.

There's really nothing you can do to survive in this industry anymore

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yknow i never noticed the sheer rareness of images having ids or alt text on this website until i started adding alt text to my art (and trying to remember to add it to any images i post in general, especially text screenshots) and that makes me kinda sad

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Israeli tanks enter Rafah, push close to border crossing with Egypt: Report

May 7th 2024, 03:00 GMT

A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official have told the Associated Press (AP) news agency that Israeli tanks have entered Rafah, reaching to within 200 meters (almost 220 yards) from Rafah’s border crossing with neighbouring Egypt.

The Egyptian official told AP that the operation appeared to be limited in scope. The official, as well as Al-Aqsa TV, said Israeli officials had informed the Egyptians that its forces would withdraw after completing the operation.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the reported tank incursion.

AP said the Egyptian official, located on the Egyptian side of Rafah, and the Palestinian security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the press.

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As a rule of thumb, don't reblog donation posts or people asking for donations unless they've been vetted and reblogged by Palestinian bloggers. We usually go to lengths to verify this shit because we know scammers have been faking to get people to send them money, using the urgency of our genocide as bait.

It's disgusting this is what we're dealing with, but people are losing money because of some truly evil people out there.

Accounts don't just randomly spring up on tumblr without gofundmes while asking for someone to help them create a campaign. Fuck out of here with that shit.

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Here's a website where Palestine GoFundMes are vetted and shared that you can send out to people. The url is gazafunds.com

Easy to use and simple. Just share the site whenever someone asks for GFMs for Palestine.