✹✷✶🕷️ Erm.... stuff 🪐✶✷✹
Tuesday, 25 July 2023 10:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
comet_scoutJust some blogging!
I've been reading Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, I still have The Thief's Gamble and V'ALEN to finish (I have never been good at finishing books), but I stumbled by a video of someone watching the movie Ant Bully, and in the comments someone mentioned that they don't care about the movie but the idea of exploring the advanced ant species was cool and someone mentioned the book. I'm a sucker for Spider behavior, and I love watching Dave's Little Beasties, in particular, the pairing videos because it's so fascinating to watch spiders interact with one another.
I do like how the book approaches this, both as an exploration of a "what if" for an, sort of, alien species and as a mirror to our own misogyny and discrimination in general. Males seem to be treated worse after the first (second?) time skip around them, while also having hints of some progress being made. (With the very first Portia still seeing the male as a partner, then the second that got the crystal, they still have a hole in society, while the third they are either second class or trinkets for the females but now it's frowned upon to just hunt them.["But girls will be girls"])
Normally gender dynamics in fantasy/alien species aren't my main interest (I tend to really like extreme equality/equity in these scenarios), but it's a fascinating world build. I'm not sure if we'll have another time skip, but I kind of hope we get to see a chapter from the POV of one of the male spiders, it's very obvious that we are not supposed to accept everything Portia has to say about males, and that it's supposed to be sexism from her part. ("They can't keep their mouths shut" being an example of mirroring our sexism.)
Anyway, talking about Alien worlds, I've got a few TTRPGs to try to solo this Pocket Quest, most of them are short rules-lite adventures, like Abducted by Franco Lopez and Delivered! by Rage Kage, I wanted to try Delivered! since I haven't tried a journaling game yet, and they are very popular in solo spaces. I also got Expedition to Darakon Island by Diane Ramic, which is an illustration game, not particularly made for solo but I doubt it'll be that hard too. (I did also get some stuff on my wish list I'll keep my eye out to)
I also² took the opportunity to pick up Pocket Space RPG. I really wanted to find something for a solo idea I had, of an Isekai situation, with a human character ending up in an alien world, but I wanted it to be very alien and odd, I looked a few places for TTRPGs that may have something of what I'm looking for but no luck. I've thought about maybe Mechanical Dreams, which seems to have some odd aliens and the world I was sort of thinking about, but maybe I'll just find a way to use Pocked Space RPG for this with an Alien Generator.
Obviously my Doronai Nui game and Transformers game is on hold, I mean, I still playing through Troubled Waters with three characters, but only until I find a system that would fit my idea or go back to Doronai Nui. I really really liked Renegade's TF system, I'm enjoying the flow of it and the rules, buuut... I have no idea where to get my characters to. I was thinking of maybe I could get my "main" character to level 3 and have her solo through an adventure around Cybertron or another alien world, or create another group to play in a G1 TF in Brazil setting. But nothing is really getting to me.
I've been reading Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, I still have The Thief's Gamble and V'ALEN to finish (I have never been good at finishing books), but I stumbled by a video of someone watching the movie Ant Bully, and in the comments someone mentioned that they don't care about the movie but the idea of exploring the advanced ant species was cool and someone mentioned the book. I'm a sucker for Spider behavior, and I love watching Dave's Little Beasties, in particular, the pairing videos because it's so fascinating to watch spiders interact with one another.
I do like how the book approaches this, both as an exploration of a "what if" for an, sort of, alien species and as a mirror to our own misogyny and discrimination in general. Males seem to be treated worse after the first (second?) time skip around them, while also having hints of some progress being made. (With the very first Portia still seeing the male as a partner, then the second that got the crystal, they still have a hole in society, while the third they are either second class or trinkets for the females but now it's frowned upon to just hunt them.["But girls will be girls"])
Normally gender dynamics in fantasy/alien species aren't my main interest (I tend to really like extreme equality/equity in these scenarios), but it's a fascinating world build. I'm not sure if we'll have another time skip, but I kind of hope we get to see a chapter from the POV of one of the male spiders, it's very obvious that we are not supposed to accept everything Portia has to say about males, and that it's supposed to be sexism from her part. ("They can't keep their mouths shut" being an example of mirroring our sexism.)
I also² took the opportunity to pick up Pocket Space RPG. I really wanted to find something for a solo idea I had, of an Isekai situation, with a human character ending up in an alien world, but I wanted it to be very alien and odd, I looked a few places for TTRPGs that may have something of what I'm looking for but no luck. I've thought about maybe Mechanical Dreams, which seems to have some odd aliens and the world I was sort of thinking about, but maybe I'll just find a way to use Pocked Space RPG for this with an Alien Generator.
Obviously my Doronai Nui game and Transformers game is on hold, I mean, I still playing through Troubled Waters with three characters, but only until I find a system that would fit my idea or go back to Doronai Nui. I really really liked Renegade's TF system, I'm enjoying the flow of it and the rules, buuut... I have no idea where to get my characters to. I was thinking of maybe I could get my "main" character to level 3 and have her solo through an adventure around Cybertron or another alien world, or create another group to play in a G1 TF in Brazil setting. But nothing is really getting to me.
no subject
Date: Tuesday, 25 July 2023 17:21 (UTC)I wonder if there is something similar somewhere, of insects as intelligent species. We do get mentions of how other species were doing. Tarantulas are bigger but still practically animals, and another spider species that from Portia's view are salvages (I wonder if it's supposed to be a biased pov or not), and also Ants and Stomatopods, the Stomatopods are of more equal footing the jumping spiders, having an alliance with them, but the Ants fall into a group conscious intelligence, but as individuals, they don't think much.
no subject
Date: Thursday, 23 October 2025 16:54 (UTC)