https://thetrove.is/
A great resource for the acquisition of tabletop RPG rulebooks. They're completely searchable with an outline of bookmarks.
My only real complaint is that the PDFs don't have clickable links but that's nitpicking at that point.

2019 CONTEST OPEN

Press release - https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/literary-awards/ct-algren-contest-announcement-2019-20181121-story.html
Official Rules - https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/literary-awards/ct-2019-algren-rules-story.html
SUBMIT HERE when it opens --> https://algren.submittable.com/submit

Key InfoZ:
- Deadline - January 31st, 2019 at 11:59 PM Central Time (Feb 1, 12:59 AM EST)
- No entry fee
- $3500 grand prize, $750 for 5 finalists
- < 8000 words
- Up to 2 entries allowed

https://www.slashgear.com/acer-predator-thronos-gaming-chair-hands-on-gloriously-excessive-11561348/

For the mere sum of 10 thousand dollars you can be ensconced in the most I M M E R S I V E vidya gaem experience available for the pleb consumer.

[Description to come later]

https://www.dualshockers.com/planetside-arena-announced/
A "new" team-based sci-fi FPS on a massive scale, coming on near the end of January 2019. Probably lobby based with modes including but not limited to Team Deathmatch, Battle Royale, Massive Clash(250v250), and CTF.

Essentially it's the infantry combat of PS2 distilled to its core, with the most annoying classes (MAX, Infiltrator, Heavy) cut out. I can't really condone a departure from combined arms warfare but it looks like there are still vehicles to some extent.

This may not be the best time as it's the holiday season and y'all are going about with presents and family, but if I shelve it now I don't know how long it'll be til I remember again.

Let's start discussing options for the next community jam! This time around, there's only one hard rule:

• Optimized Performance - Runs smoothly, or at all on a lower end PC.
  

• Economic Accessibility - We're all big kids now, we can pay for games. Just not that new thing that came out last week that's still at full retail price of $60.
  
• Flexible Player Count - It's actually more likely that we'll have less people than the required number so we won't have to deal with overflow, and we managed to do Reactive Drop with underpop just fine.
  
• Skill Accessibility - Low skill floor is preferred if its a game none of us have ever tried before. Otherwise, just make sure the veterans among us can explain enough to first time players before jumping in.
  

one

One day I decided to compile a list of every tabletop RPG character I've played over the years, at least as far back as 2011. Not including characters I've made as a GM, or ones that were never played in a session/thread. Backstories and other details to come later. If there's no [Live] tag or anything in square brackets, the campaign that character was in ended from extended hiatus or being cancelled, which is sadly most of them.

Feel free to comment, post your own, or if you've been in a gayme with me, remind me if I missed anything.

It's ordered by system, not chronologically.

~Pathfinder~
Daizaract d'Cannith - Human Gunslinger/Magus
Melkor Endaris - Half-Elf Monk
Quorish Kostgrad - Duergar Vitalist (Mythic Marshal)
Aldrax Borstal - Ophiduan Gunslinger [TPK in the first session]
Alistar Smashmouth - Ifrit Summoner (Mythic Guardian) [Retired]

~Pathfinder 2nd Edition~
Faris Meriwether - Whisper Elf Alchemist (Ranger dedication, dual classed into Fighter with variant rules) [Campaign concluded]

~Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition~
Geordio Beratel - Half-Orc Bard:

Show Content

SpoilerStats:
Appearance: Geordio is a well dressed male half orc possessed of an otherworldly attractiveness that does not seem to stem from any of his racial lineages. While in public he is usually wearing a crimson cape over a striped doublet.
BackStory: Geordio is the second-born of human scholar Thomas Stroud and orcish heiress Lorka Beratel of Tusktaker's Fief, near the city-state of Leyson. He is somewhat short for a half-orc, a shortcoming he attributes to the pollution and poor air quality of his hometown. As the orcs of Leyson were at the forefront of the empire's rapid technological advance, Geordio was fostered among ironclad steamships and billowing smokestacks. Growing restless with the cloistered lifestyle advocated by his bookworm parents he cavorted with the exotic in music and magic alike, soon discovering the ways of influencing people through performance. He himself fell under the influence of the anarcho-communist demagogue Menard W. Nagini, becoming part of an underground movement that incited violent acts in the name of ending industrial exploitation of human and natural resources. Geordio used many methods of questionable legality to coerce others to join the cause and swindle funds out of those who would not.

However, Nagini was eventually caught and imprisoned from a traitor's confession, and the city authority then began a manhunt for his accomplices. Geordio was able to use his connections and family friends to avoid being incriminated, but after a lengthy discussion it was decided that it would be best for him to leave the Leyson region and engage in more lawful pursuits until the statute of limitations period had passed.

These pursuits probably won't be lawful though.

Spells:
Cantrips: Message, Friends, Vicious Mockery

Level One: 4 slots
Cure Wounds
Feather Fall
Faerie Fire
Tasha's Hideous laughter

Level Two: 3 slots
Heat Metal
Silence
Suggestion
Invisibility

Level Three: 3 slots
Fear

Show Content

SpoilerStats:
Backstory: Vortesh was hatched in a reclusive Brass commune sequestered somewhere in the Five Kings Mountains, quite far from the climate his kind prefers. While still a child asleep in his bed, a terrible calamity befall the clan causing the deaths of his parents and many others.

Fearing the extinction of their kind had come to pass, the clan's dying shaman grasped Vortesh's head with both hands and imparted a massive respository of accumulated dragonlore unto the hatchling's mind, along with a compulsion to flee as far as he could.

It was a heavy burden that the young dragonborn was neither willing nor able to shoulder, but he found that he could not turn around, or even look back to see what had become of his home. For three days and nights Vortesh trudged onward, hating every step of the way until at last the compulsion faded and he collapsed weeping in the middle of undeveloped wilderness.

Blessed with a strong body and a toughening soul Vortesh learned to live off the land, hunting prey with tooth and claw and finding shelter where he could. Time passed in a blur as the repository began to fade into subconsciousness. Slowly, Vortesh regained coherent thought and rose to walk upright again. One memory lingered though, continually haunting his dreams - a meteor hurtling earthward, wreathed in eerie flame.

Eventually he came upon a city, where he encountered Ridge Stalwis, dwarven master of the burgeoning Warbreaker Band. The mercenary captain took a liking to him and decided to take Vortesh under wing. Always the vanguard, Vortesh's fighting style was feral, ferocious, and entirely unlike the company's rank and file. Men would shake their heads as he charged into men and monstrous foes alike and somehow emerge alive, chalking it up to his draconic heritage or dumb luck.

Vortesh himself attributes his success to divine intervention, a boon granted for his fervent devotion to the goddess Sarenrae. Upon his return to civilization he had apparently already known her name and gave daily prayer despite never being formally educated, a fact that along with his incendiary breath has Her priesthood quite enamoured with him.

Over the years Vortesh grew distasteful of the cowardice and pointless greed displayed by the soldiers he fought beside- or in front of, as was more often the case. He struck off on his own in search of greater prospects.

Background: Outlander
Barbarian Primal Path: Zealot

heavy breathing
Cap shaved, Widow... didn't change her hairstyle for once(I think). Thanos getting even more swole out on his farm.
Couple things I'm wondering; how did Ant-Man get back from the Quantum Realm? And did Nebula just ding dong ditch Tony after the Titan battle?

Thread for general FOSS culture/news. There may be a side benefit of offloading fluff from Haxx Chat and Privacy.