"As you wish" ...

It works *just* enough for me to be able to defend it loudly at a new years eve party, much to the annoyance of absolutely everyone in my orbit.

I have such sights to explain to them, at length.

agreed! i wish we got a couple more records out of them but on the otherhand their discography is basically flawless so i wouldn't want to risk that streak!

I suppose it's a question that is too vague in scope as well, on reflection. It depends on the intent of the system & its role reflecting/enabling a setting

I think where I struggle is drawing the line between the math & how that feels. The space between feeling mean & too generous feels too fine

How are you finding balancing a feeling with progress vs not busting open your player power scaling?

I feel like I'm often caught out at some unforeseen point of no return through countless iterations of so-called "balancing".

Thanks!

Utterly horrid, and on the verge of falling apart, but wearing a fetching (but worn) suit with a cute (but tarnished) badge or brooch.

"I tell you what: with prices this low, you'd be forgiven for thinking this apocalypse was a rapture"

It was bonkers. A jolly, oily time was had by all. Cheers!

I've caught them 3 times, once touring this record & twice for decompositions

1st w/cutting pink with knives, trencher and the murder of rosa luxemburg

2nd w/kylesa, KEN mode, deafheaven

3rd fluff fest w/full of hell, old soul, and tons of other amazing bands

each time was basically perfect. soz

An absolutely essential record, an under-sung cornerstone of so many scenes.

They're brilliant live, too.

Also trims planning bloat that's introduced with a new aspect of DMing/GMing. Find songs you like & reuse them.

I used a song from the Annihilation soundtrack to great effect across 3 years of sleep paralysis encounters. The dread became near enough Pavlovian with the first identifying notes.

I much prefer it, particularly for IRL games - generalised background music & preselected music for specific scenes or narrative motifs that I want to highlight

Repeating musical motifs e.g. all temples of a particular deity having the same soundtrack can be a great immersive tool & roleplay prompt

Not checked out Oriska yet, but I'll change that ASAP.

My overall favourite of the year is probably the Fashion Tips LP, outside this sphere of conversation a bit, very dancey no-wave influenced stuff a la Skin Graft records or Three1G but with a dancier twist on that kind of noise

I'm all over it. A single screen grab is all it has taken to sell me on this one. I'm ready to dream oily dreams. Thanks!

The Respire record was a little bit of a slow burner for me, I love Black Line so, so much so it was hard to make room in my heart for the new one, but it wormed its way in and blossomed as it ought to.

A late entry, but the new @hiddenmothers.bsky.social record is a very very strong effort.