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Thomas Parrott

@parrotttom.bsky.social

340 followers 44 following 2.1K posts

Former tie-in author, cat enthusiast, and all around lover of storytelling and games of many kinds. Always a work in progress, always trying to be better than yesterday. Living with MDD. He/him

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 2h

Anyway, RFK and his longed-for involuntary "detox" camps can eat an entire dick and choke on it.

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 2h

Had an emotional crash out yesterday towards the end of my shift, just... Complete spiral. Quietly sobbing in my office. Halfway through, I was like .. this is familiar. Huh. "A presence I have not felt since..."

I forgot to take my meds. 🤦

I feel much better today with my meds in my bloodstream.

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 2h

I looked it up before I saw it in theaters. I can handle a lot but cats getting hurt is a no thank you. 😅

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 3h

The kitty makes it through the whole movie okay

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 3h

Would you like a cat related spoiler or is the anxiety enjoyable

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 13h

Well, you see, she fits. Therefore...

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 17h

I miss my Alley girl all the time. 10 years of Alley Cat was not enough. She was the sweetest, goofiest girly, and 13 pounds healthy. It still makes my heart hurt that the kindest thing I could do for her by the end was make the pain stop.

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 20h

I do like churros, these vacations sound nice

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 21h

no but seriously what's a vacation

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 21h

How dare you

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 23h

Unfriended

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

a stuffed white cat is sitting on top of a box and asking why ?

ALT: a stuffed white cat is sitting on top of a box and asking why ?

media.tenor.com

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

a man in a tuxedo and bow tie is standing in front of a flower arrangement .

ALT: a man in a tuxedo and bow tie is standing in front of a flower arrangement .

media.tenor.com

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

Wait, are we talking about a physical cover for the item, or a digital cover for a book?

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

@juanochoa.bsky.social does good work, he's done two covers for me.

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

I think you could do something fun with a far future planetary romance setting, with the deserts of Mars and the floating glass cities of Venus, and the quiet non-explanation that they are living in the ruins of a more advanced age that *made* the cities and terraformed Mars.

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

Just something on my mind as I drill ever downward on the WY6 universe (as the joke goes on my discord, the 10 page rule pamphlet with a 300 page universe enchiridion.

Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

And when you try, you end up speaking a kind of pigdin. Or, funny enough, going to that reliable fantasy well! (Hence explanations of Vulcans as 'space elves' and Klingons as 'space orks', hence too 40ks wholesale lifting of fantasy tropes for its nominally sci-fi universe)

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

Anyway, my original point being there is no such straightforward influence to draw on for a lingua franca in science fiction. Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, and Dune are (if you'll pardon the pun) worlds apart, and none of them have the same cachet.

You have to start from first principles each time.

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

Visible with the death of "gold for XP", which was dismissed as weird and pointless by people wanting to play "bring down the Dark Lord" when it was in fact a keystone mechanic for the original style of play.

Gold->XP giving way to "milestone XP" tells a fascinating story in shifting expectations.

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

So much so, in fact, that the pull of the fiction derailed the game. The transition from Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser to Aragorn and Legolas took time, but those heroic expectations definitely carved a new bed for the river.

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

Which I think weighs in when people go "oh well DnD is easy to learn", because from a purely system level it sure as fuck ain't. DnD, every DnD, is some Rube Goldberg bullshit held together by chewing gum and staples.

But the fiction is deeply derivative, and therefore deeply transparent.

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

My conjecture is that one of the issues with science fiction RPGs and traction is, in fact, the lack of a shared language.

People, myself include, bewail the shadow Tolkien casts on fantasy, but it means even DnD novices can show up to your table and hear "he's an elf" and be like ah, gotcha.

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Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

Huh, well, I'm behind the times on my confusion then.

Thomas Parrott @parrotttom.bsky.social · 1d

I just saw a video on YouTube and was confused, that's all. Thanks for confirming I'm not crazy.