Open Mic Aid (external)

Hello, my tiny audience. I’ve been teleworking for… three weeks now? I think? I don’t know, I’m not trying to keep track. The reality is that we are all cooped up, likely for months, for good reason. Maybe some of us will find time to do things, maybe some of us will lose time. It’s… new. And hard. Really, really hard.

For the time being, I’m financially secure. But a lot of people aren’t. Like… a lot. a lotttttt. a lotttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt. This thing has really been exposing the cracks in our bullshit economic system, but… at the expense of a lot of vulnerable folks. My pals at Sandy Pug Games are doing a thing to… maybe make some small difference when it comes to that. Open Mic Aid, link right there, or in the title, is a 44pp. zine featuring 20 different artists, all in support of the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation. The Foundation’s COVID-19 fundraiser is shooting 50% of proceeds to direct relief, 25% to NPOs supporting restaurants, and 25% to loans for restaurants to reboot themselves. This shit matters. Personally, I’m… terrified to know how many of my local restaurants I’ll lose. Part of that is selfish, but part of it is… that’s a lot of people separated from their jobs, and from what is potentially a comfort zone for them. Companies claiming they’re family is bullshit, but among workers? Yeah, bonds form. And there’s going to be a lot of weird diaspora action going on. I don’t know. It sucks. But you know that.

Anyway this is a link post, so I’ll keep it short. That’s the important reason to go check it out. Here’s a less-important reason: I contributed a thing to it! It’s a slow-paced non-game where you roll 1d10 every week as a growing plant, and… maybe do a thing. Here’s an example:

you are a sprout. you see thin roots near you in the dark soil, and you feel confident in your future as you begin to develop a sense of self. you understand that growth takes time. roll. on a 1, 2, or 3, look at the boxes under ‘b’. if all are filled in, move to c, otherwise fill in that many boxes. on any other roll, move to b(2).

I might write a little lua script to see how long an average play will last, but a nice thing about working with d10s is… some of that is already done! So I have a rough idea, and I like what’s happening. I also like what’s happening with the other submissions! A dear friend of mine is doing a paint-by-numbers spread where the numbers correspond to sort of… emotions or abstract concepts in your mind. It’s a very cool idea and the preliminary artwork I saw was incredible, as expected. I’ve also seen some nice photo work that’s going in, and I know the rest of the submissions run the gamut from poetry to diarism to… games where you aren’t a plant!

Anyway, everything sucks right now. It sucks in varying amounts for all of us. I have my own concerns about groceries and the like, but at least I have an income. It’s not a contest. But certain laborers are going to be or are already being hit hard. This project aims to alleviate at least some of that, and there’s a lot of creative energy going into it. Check it.


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