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Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Fascinating things written by Mr. Kevin Siembieda #398: The Autistic Psychic Savant.

Autistic
Psychic Savant P.C.C.
The psychic stared out the window for a minute, turned, and
without looking directly at the reporter said, "I nuh ... know
people think I'm a retard, Muh, Mister Sheridan. Buh but, um,
that's where they're wrong. Yep, wrong. I'm not stu ... stupid.
Buh but I'm different. I'm different. I know . . . different. It's
okay. I am what I am ... um ... like Popeye. " he added with a
childish giggle.
"And what are you, Simon?" asked the reporter.
"Um, a hero - like Popeye. I help people. "
"Help people how?"
Simon squirmed in his seat, and looked side to side. "You
know, Mister. You know. Yep. Yu know."
"Yeah, I know, but can you tell me?"
"Protect them. "
"From what?"
"Evil."
"What kind of evil? "
"The buh ... bad kind. The kind people duh, don't, urn be-
lieve in. I know where the evil, um, hides. And I duh ... don 't let
it hurt people. "
"How, Simon? How do you stop the evil?"
"I don't like bad things. Nuh ... no. Don 't like it. Um, did I
show you muh ... my butterfly collection? It's pretty. "

Special P.C.C. Abilities
The Autistic Psychic Savant gets all of the following special
abilities. There is no I.S.P. cost unless indicated otherwise.
1. Autistic Defensive Trance. An Autistic Psychic Savant can
appear to "check out" of reality by entering into what appears
to be a catatonic state. The Savant usually stops and sits
down or curls up into a tight ball (fetal position) and zones
out. Hands will be folded or balled together as if in prayer or
wringing of the hands. The character rocks back and forward
or side to side while humming, moaning, counting numbers,
performing simple mathematics ("one plus one is two," per-
haps repeating the same one over and over again), or mutter-
ing or repeating the same phrase over and over again ("Don't
be afraid. Don't be afraid." or "It's okay, it's okay." or "Stop
it. Stop it. Stop it." and so on.). Threats, physica,lly shaking
the character, picking him up and moving him, none of it will
break the character out of his trance.

5. Psychic Bloodhound. The Autistic character may need help
to dress properly, need to be led around by the hand ("stand
here," "sit there," "wait here until I come back to get you"),
speak in single words ("yes," "no," "okay") and short phrases
("change the channel," "I'm looking for something," "very
bad thing did this." "We need to stop it." "No more suffer-
ing." etc.), and seems oblivious to ordinary things and events
happening around him most of the time. May sit or stand in
one place for hours at a time, and what he's looking at or
thinking about is anyone's guess, because he can't say ("Just
waiting, thank you." "Pretty sky." "Thinking about mystery."
etc.).

This is a lot more difficult to play than you might believe. In
play tests, there were many times when the player, who clearly
understood what was transpiring around him, wanted to do and
say things the Autistic Psychic Savant character just couldn't or
wouldn't do, and had to stop himself or be reminded by the
Game Master that, "Urn, your character has no idea what the
group is talking about, but he sees the Poltergeist and is fasci-
nated, watching it like a child or a cat might watch a firefly as it
flutters about." Or, "Hey, Steve, you have it all figured out to a
T, but your Autistic Savant character has no idea how to articu-
late his thoughts to express them to the group, at least not in a
way the group can clearly understand. All he can do is rock back
and forth in his seat on the couch repeating the same two words.
Maybe one of the other characters will recognize the clue, and
maybe not."
Surprisingly, most people have no trouble playing the physi-
cal role of the Autistic Savant character. They manage to have
the brain-scrambled character walk into danger, get lost, create
confusion and wander around mumbling with relative ease. The
tough part is the mental part of the game. Biting your tongue
when you, the player, have figured out a clue or recognize a
danger, but the addled character is oblivious to it or can't ex-
press himself even when he does recognize it. I think garners,
especially seasoned ones, forget how ·cerebral role-playing re-
ally is and get frustrated when they play an impaired character
like this. They forget how difficult it is to hold back and "play in
character" when the solution or salvation is on the tip of their
own tongue.

November 29, 2025 at 6:34 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Good sign of quality is that the developer of this made a Game of Thrones game that looks like this.

November 28, 2025 at 11:25 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Finally, they turned a webtoon about a boring video game into a real boring video game

November 28, 2025 at 11:21 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

From Reddit:

So, like the rest of the world, I've been super addicted to K-Pop Demon Hunters. I wanted to write an AU where Harry Potter characters are them instead. KPDH was my first experience with any sort of Korean media, and I have been really worried about it being 'white washed' or something. As fans and fic consumers, does this seem like that?

November 28, 2025 at 10:51 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

As an aside, the Harpocrates Dossier expanded on the Bonding system. Good news is that, for the most part, the charts cap around 35-40. Wouldn't you know it, 40 is how many ticks a fully filled track in Ironsworn holds.

November 28, 2025 at 9:20 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

So, simple. Bond levels have ten levels. Completing levels 1, 3, 6, and 10 earn the 0, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bond level respectively. The track/talisman for each level is based somewhere on this table. Level 3 for Fortitude? Dangerous probably!

November 28, 2025 at 9:15 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Last thing, I swear, in this rambling thread: Bonds. Game for Freaks 1 introduced a Virtue Bond system. Now, I wonder if the Bond Abilities follows a very useful format-

November 28, 2025 at 9:15 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Survivor you can freely take but to switch out of it, you have to spend 3 XP. What does it do? When you Face Death, gain +2 momentum on hit and treat matched failures as strong hits.

November 28, 2025 at 8:55 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

So, you're a CAT 1 Exorcist. You're mixing it up with a CAT 1 Sin: Formidable. When you *use your psychic abilities* to progress, you mark 1 Box. However, if you use your squishy CAT 0 human capabilities, two ticks. It'd make stuff like Bare Teeth easier to adapt

November 28, 2025 at 8:49 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Alternatively, could replace the Discovery Track with an Agenda Track. This one would be even simpler: tick it every time you fulfill your an agenda item. The formatting of Agendas lends themself well to asset formatting anyway

November 28, 2025 at 8:25 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

I imagine that the Undertake an Expedition move would be sidelined/supplemented by an Investigation move. Something a bit like the Ironsworn Investigation Hack stuff I found on Awesome Ironsworn but with something for matched successes and failures added.

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

November 28, 2025 at 8:23 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Been thinking a bit more about CAINforged and have concluded that not only is it possible, but shockingly easy. Legacy tracks are Missions (instead of Quests), Bonds, and Discovery. Ancient Wonders has a system of nested expeditions that, I think, can map onto high CAT palaces well.

November 28, 2025 at 8:23 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

We gotta return to beta art like this, man.

November 28, 2025 at 5:20 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Yes...YES...YE-no, no no!!!

November 28, 2025 at 5:18 PM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

November 28, 2025 at 5:08 AM

Ishmael, The Transition Will Not Be Televised

@comradeishmael.bsky.social

Very minor observation, but the Starforged Settlement Authority Oracle mirrors Traveller's Law Levels going from None (0) to Oppressive (9+) while Sundered Isles' seems to be an accordion, which is nice.