Twig

And, yea, the Lord looked upon his work and said, "I have skeeved."

Become one with the skeeve. If you are skeeve, all is skeeve, and nothing is skeeve. Skeeve yourself and you shall be skeeved.

Seconded!

Nixon's career was also ruined. I'm fairly certain!

can i put in a formal request that you add the subtitle "Misbehaving Roombas" to this podcast title so that someone will make a wizjam game with that concept in the future??

Oh well then nevermind!

Heh I had that game on my wishlist for, well, I think since its release, but I removed it yesterday because it just didn't look appealing to me anymore. Now i'm second-guessing that. Probably still won't buy it tho!!!

dang

i don't play overwatch i don't watch bob's burgers nonetheless i like this tumblr http://thaddeuscrunch.tumblr.com/

I haven't watched the latest season at all yet but I've heard vague/good things re: gratuitous tits for tits' sake and rape as a plot device (in that there's less of it). Curious how people feel about that. I generally have a pretty high tolerance for stuff like that, as long as I otherwise like the show, but even I was getting tired of being grossed out by Game of Thrones. also i guess the first question would be - is it true

i work out

I finished season three of Person of Interest last night. Man I cannot recommend this show enough if you're at all interested in the basic idea of an omniscient AI and the people who want to use and/or abuse said AI for various goals. Some good, some... not. The first... half (!) of the first season is unfortunately deceptive in that it appears to be nothing but a procedural with a surveillance state twist. Fun, but nothing to write home about. However, it seeds the show with some good concepts that bloom into some truly crazy shit later on. It's really good! The end of season three basically culminated in dis gon be gud

i didn't really realize how small your eyes look in that picture and now i can't unsee it it's the best!!

lol nevermind then (I actually would argue that you're focusing too much on the aesthetics and not enough on the thematic elements. If steampunk is (as I believe) about dystopia/hopelessness resulting from the industrial revolution and/or war, then Dishonored fits it to a T. If steampunk is (as you seem to be implying) about, well, steam, then 99.99999999999999% of that which is categorized as steampunk is... not.)

I suppose so, but then what about all the "steam" punk that's just clockwork bullshit that doesn't involve steam at all. I think focusing too much on the word "steam" (which I know is hard to do because it is the name) is the wrong way to go about it.

I'm not really trying to disagree with you, just expressing my continued bafflement. I'll also drop the tangential bomb that I think "industrial fantasy" could just as easily be "steampunk fantasy" in many, many cases. Depends on the context, obviously. Dishonored is one where I'd definitely call it "steampunk fantasy" by instinct. Steampunk inherently involves industry, and Dishonored also has that whole hopelessness that, in my (possibly incorrect) opinion, is intrinsic to (both cyberpunk and) steampunk. also i think you hit submit before finishing the post but maybe you're editing to fix it now edit: and there it is It's probably just one of those cases I mentioned earlier where the aesthetics are driving the genre classification more than the themes. I'm willing to believe you. For now.

I mean the beginning of this conversation was me describing what I believe steampunk to be without addressing aesthetics, so I'm not part of that general you! I'm just saying that this is literally the first time ever I've seen Perdito Street Station be denied the genre classification of steampunk. I've heard it mentioned a lot, both positively and negatively, but never without the steampunk descriptor. Dieselpunk is defo a mistake, though. *nods*

I'm baffled that you're all saying it's not steampunk despite it being classified as steampunk, like, everywhere else.

Yup!!!

Yesssssssss I had no idea it was coming out so soon. So much is coming out in the next couple months. I'm going to be swamped and then I'll forget about everything. D:

That's a fair argument, although I dunno I'd probably put them in the same bucket. He also mentioned Perdito Street Station which is 100% steampunk... or so I'm told. I never read it!!! Rules for planning flashbacks is fucking awesome. I knew nothing about the system but now I'm even more excited haha.

That's the announcement I was referring to geeeeeez!!! But yes it's a good thing to listen to if you're interested. Also I legit teared up on last weekend's Beastcast. The last episode featuring Austin (as a permanent host - I can only assume/hope he'll still guest sometimes!!! please!)

I literally just edited it in, I think probably as you were posting, so, you know, that's my fault. I should've just made a new post hehe. Anyway I think my edit neatly addresses your question, although you might end up disagreeing with me in the end. EDIT TO YOUR EDIT RE MY EDIT: Yeah I definitely am all about including H.G. Wells in a list of steampunk ancestors. I also like the idea of seeing steampunk as the equivalent of cyperpunk from an older point of view. Cyberpunk was, after all, a reaction to growing fears of technology and corporations taking over the world. Fears that... arguably are already coming true, or just plain true. Steampunk is just "what if history took a different path and we didn't recover... but sometimes with dumb magic or clockwork zombies I dunno, leave me alone, I'm a hypothetical quote".

Steampunk is just as much about ideas and themes, but much like cyberpunk, the aesthetics are the most immediately graspable elements. And unlike cyberpunk, steampunk is much easier to make it look ugly. Gears everywhere! EDIT: Saying this made me think a bit and I'm all the more convinced it's (mostly) true! Steampunk probably/definitely did have a more aesthetically-grounded origin than cyberpunk, but boil it down to the basics and they're not too dissimilar. Cyberpunk is about dystopia through technology and corporations, and steampunk is about dystopia through industry and war. Cyberpunk's dystopia is more subtle, but maybe also more terrifying, than steampunk's. Cybperunk trends toward, well, science, and steampunk, especially lately, trends toward magic. The latter is kind of a bummer, but not always so. Of course, then again, more and more entries in either genre sidestep or even completely ignore the idea of a dystopia, so it's hard to say if that's even relevant in this day and age. I think that's the most interesting thing about these genres, however, so I'll continue to believe, until I'm dead and rotting in the ground, that it's an integral piece of the puzzle!

Austin announced they're gonna do a steampunky style short adventure for 12 (iirc) or so episodes, so they have a shorter campaign to show off as an example of what the podcast is all about. I know the internet at large ain't a big fan of steampunk, but I like it when it's done well (Dishonored!), and I have all the faith in the world in Austin's GM'ing and all the players'... playing. It's gonna be goooood.