Right, right - she mentions teasing and gender stereotypes, both things mentioned in (the first couple paragraphs of) the introduction, and literally nothing else.

That changes my sense of this pretty dramatically. I'd say now we're haggling over the 1st 5 points, not the last 5.

Well, now - she definitely read down as far as the bit about gender stereotypes, so that's, what - 3? maybe 4 paragraphs?

Yeah ... I had imagined this was something more akin to an essay or article she was responding to; I didn't realize it was an actual study write-up.

If you have a link to the article in question, tho, I'd love to read it.

Can you tell she's read the paper? If so, that's 10 points right there. If what she's presented is a reaction to it rather than a summary, that's another 10. Pissing about the quality of her engagement, etc is just haggling about the last 5 points.

Imagine, when he runs he names Ted Cruz has his VP pick.

It's hard to imagine a more off-putting ticket than Vance/Cruz, tbh.

It's wild that they go full toupee fallacy toward the end, there.

I assumed folks did it to save characters.

Pretty much any in-game shopping trip can be an opportunity to throw it at them. Players tend to fall for these things because they seem interesting, and if there's magic or weird science in your world they sure might be legit, right?

Anyway, it's one of my favorite tricks.

- in one case, b/c the PCs became set on revenge and decided to pursue the NPC, and in the other b/c it lead to the discovery of a shady secret organization.

Both times, of course, I didn't have anything *planned* when I introduced the scam. It was just a hook, but it's easy to set up.

They also inspired this bit of Americana:

I read them all twice. Those were the covers, for sure.

This was the 1st fantasy franchise that I found for myself. These were mine and no one else's. I don't think I met another person who was familiar w/ them till after I left home.

This one warrants some consideration.

ksandra.itch.io/wise-women

Will Jobst's Black Mass might be of some interest to you.

willjobst.itch.io/black-mass

@thefireorg.bsky.social and @aricohn.com are **much** more concerned about the freedom to misgender transgender folk than they are with the freedom to use one's preferred pronouns and to communicate that preference. I don't think they actually support Alejandra's cause.

bsky.app/profile/mcwy...