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What should I include in a written ref?

Furry Reddit - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 17:41

I finally decided to do something about not having an actual reference and I want to make a written one, basically what do I need to put in it?

submitted by SirJiggart
[link] [10 comments]
Categories: News

Lackadaisy

Fursday - Links - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 15:06
Screen Shot 2014-03-16 at 12.08.56 AM.jpg

The story of a speakeasy during the Prohibition, run by motley crew of cats. The artwork gorgeous and detailed.

In their words

It's about a gang of tenacious (if not shady) characters running a St. Louis speakeasy in the era of Prohibition. I suppose it falls somewhere in the realm of historical fiction, parody, dark comedy, and abject nonsense.

Rating

This site contains slightly offensive material.  Chance of mild swearing and mildly disturbing imagery.

Additional links

Store

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Lackadaisy Wiki

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WikiFur entry

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A Wild Badger Appears! Battle Badges

FurStarter - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 12:59

A semi-collectable card game of battling beasts and con-badge combat…

battlebadge

Battle Badges

Kickstarter ending 4/11/14

[Edit: The game creator responded to this message with some clarifications and upcoming news, so make sure you scroll to the end if you're interested in this project!]

It seems like there’s a three-year cycle of a particular meme, it’s a bit of a hula hoop. I blame Pokémon. It’s the “let’s make game cards of our characters” meme.

After about 25 years of playing Dungeons and Dragons, I really can’t possibly say anything negative about this. Who DOESN’T want to stat out their little avatar and send it into glorious battle? Maybe your fennataur can finally pull out that magic wand she’s been hiding all these years and lob a decent “Flaming Hand of Fiery Doom” at someone. It’s a side of a fursona that doesn’t get to play often, and it’s a compelling little meme.

battlebadge1

Artist Skulldog and gamer/game store owner Bazil Remblai have collaborated on a logical, and marketable, hybrid of the “stat my fox!” meme, collectible fighting card game, and ubiquitous con badge, to make “Battle Badges,” potentially a perfect microgame to play in the registration line at cons.

Here’s how it works. Some of this is guesswork, but it’s informed guesswork.

From a modest stable of critters–six at first in the starter kit, we see a badger, dragon, and a couple of canines, but the selection should expand over time–pick your critter, printed out on a glossy smoked acrylic and magnetic badge. Find a place to wear it. A shirt would be a good choice. Your boxers would not be a good choice, unless you’re playing “strip battle badges” and are going for a special bonus round. I don’t know, that may be in the advanced rules.

battlebadge2Each critter has some baseline stats–all of them have a score for brawling, ranged combat, and magic. Those numbers are concealed with magnet buttons. Blaster badger here is pretty good with his fists, GREAT with his gun, not so hot with the magic missiles. In a fundamentally “rock paper scissors” type contest, you pick one of these three stats, rochambeau it out (ranged beats brawling, brawling beats magic, magic beats ranged), and the winner gets a +3 boost to that particular stat score–compare stat scores for the winner. Three rounds is a match (I think–there’s a hit point system of heart tokens that might shuffle that up a bit.)

Simple enough! But for customizability, there’s a handful of special tokens (at least 16) that shake things up–special kinds of attacks, defenses, and effects that modify stat levels and game play, keeping things interesting and rounds unique. Not every character is equally effective with the various types of special tokens, so that’s another place where your choice of characters impacts play and strategy.

For a quick five-minute game, that seems pretty sound! An easy mechanic, easy game play, and just enough pieces to fill up an oversized badge, and not a lot more. No dice, none needed. It’d be good to see how the special tokens affect game play, that doesn’t seem fleshed out yet, but knowing how CCGs work, one can imagine the basic idea pretty clearly.

So, big thumbs up: an idea with an obvious and unexploited niche (short interactions in conspace), high visibility (badges are about as easy to spot as could possibly be), and super-plus-one, an invitation to interact with strangers in a game-time way. Neat! It’s a social tool as well as a game!

Conceptually, I like this product a lot, but there’s a few big obstacles.

First, saturation. For a social game like this to take off, it’s going to take some market penetration. This is the classic “video phone” problem (an obsolete example now, I guess, but it used to be valid). You could only use video phones if other people had them, so under a certain threshold, there was no point to owning them–a doomed technology, until Ipad broke it open again. If I never met any other players, there’d be no point in having a badge, and it doesn’t seem like a game that you could just buy and play with your friends at home. It’s reliant on conspace and not knowing your opponents.

Secondly, the starter pack seems to be a problem, and in part it’s tied to the customizability of the game. At $40, it’s a price point that I’d associate with a full set, not a starter pack–and nobody’s buying it yet. Of course, with stretch goals enabled in the Kickstarter that $40 could be more attractive, but still, it’s not the everything pack (and the team hasn’t mentioned the stretch goal levels yet, so I’m not sure how meaningful this is…play the system, guys, you’re missing an opportunity here!) Badges are representations of self, so you’d hope for something that was…well, kind of like you, right? 

battlebadge3Maybe I’m overstating this. If the point of “Battle Badges” is the “Battle,” it doesn’t matter, just pick one that’s fun and fits your playstyle and personality. If the point is “badges,” having only a small harem of options is a problem. I suspect there’s an “in between” place that most participants would want.

At about 80% of goal after only three days or so, the campaign looks like a success, but in this case, I wonder if it truly is. Most of the funds have come from the top tier reward, dinner with the artist and–here’s the important thing–a custom, “your face here,” badge. The success of this kickstarter seems, at this time, to be tied to personal time with the artist and a unique representation of your character–prioritizing “badge” over “battle.” In a game needs a certain level of saturation to be playable, and assumes a certain level of genericization to keep play affordable, and indeed meaningful, to the players, this campaign may be able to succeed without actually being a success.

Time will tell.

Note: Images used above are included to promote the work of crowdfunding artists, and are owned by the original creator.

Categories: News

She's a Dandy Gal...in Space...

Furry Reddit - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 10:26
Categories: News

FWA furs?

Furry Reddit - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 09:33

So I was just curious as to how many awesome reddit furs would be going to FWA this week. It's going to be my first con and I'm super excited! Look for me out there Curse Fulf is the name. :D

submitted by ookamiguy
[link] [32 comments]
Categories: News

Video: ‘Muppets Most Wanted’ trailer

Furry News Network - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 08:39
Author: crossaffliction Looks like we have an addendum to the addendum; but since this movie comes out next week, (and our own beloved editor is apparently clueless about its existence) now is a good time to share the trailer for Muppets Most Wanted. Muppets Most Wanted stars (besides the Muppets, obviously) Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais […]
Categories: News

Furry Is Ashamed He Didn’t Step in to Help Bully Victim

Furry News Network - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 07:57
Author: Hello, Papa Bear, it’s me again and I wanted to ask you another question.  Today I was in my class and one of my friends got attacked by a student (he put him in a choke hold) and one of my other friends tried to help him. As this was going on I just […]
Categories: News

I'm Blue

Furry Reddit - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 07:15
Categories: News

Furry Dating

Furry Reddit - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 00:55

So I'm kind of new to the furry community, and I was wondering if anyone here has experience with FurryMate or FurFling. I've been on a lot of online dating sites before (like OKC or POF), but for some reason I seem to get a large amount of messages from these two sites. I'm a straight male and so I'm not used to receiving messages from girls I think are incredibly attractive.

How do I know the messages are from actual people and not just fake accounts created by these domains? I've had conversations with several girls on these sites, but I still am not sure if it's all sincere. I would expect a lot of people to also have Pounced accounts but they don't. I've reverse image searched profile pictures and have yet to see a match.

Has anyone had actual luck with these websites? Are they legitimate or are they just scams? I know there is some debate on this, and I'd like to get some newer opinions.

submitted by diamondmage
[link] [24 comments]
Categories: News

Like what cha see stud? NSFW

Furry Reddit - Sun 16 Mar 2014 - 00:36
Categories: News

Voting begins as 2013 Ursa Major Awards ballot released

Furry News Network - Sat 15 Mar 2014 - 23:38
Author: Fred Here is the final ballot for the 2013 Ursa Major Awards. The voting is among the five titles in each category getting the most nominations. In several categories, there are six finalists because of ties for fifth place. In the Best Short Fiction category, only four finalists are listed because of too many […]
Categories: News

KnotCast: Episode 245 – Chua are Magic

Furry News Network - Sat 15 Mar 2014 - 23:38
Author: KnotCast@foxstuffers.com Savrin talks vidya, Shiva is L shaped, and Fuzz tries to not die from boredom while this occurs. Kyo shares some of his purpleness with us. We also answer emails.Use our coupon code “knot” at AdamEve.com for a great deal! Episode 245 – Chua are Magic (23.9MB; AAC)Episode 245 – Chua are Magic […] KnotCast: Episode 245 – Chua are Magic
Categories: News