TL;DR version – Hentacle has been taken down from OBS sites after what appears to be a malicious report. I plan to give it away, soliciting donations, some of which will go to the Darkzel scholarship fund.
Also, we need a new, alternative sales platform.
The Triggering is a social media event (#TheTriggering) proposed by libertarian commenter and reporter Lauren Southern as a sort of ‘online demonstration’ in favour of free speech and free expression and to raise awareness of Social Justice Warrior interference and threats to those fundamental human rights and to a free internet. Lauren knows better than many the kind of problems that face free speech advocates having both been thrown out of a protest for staging a counter-protest and, more recently, being assaulted (with a bottle of urine no less) for having a different opinion.
The ‘public square’ is increasingly in private hands and under private control, but is also being used by proxy to censor and control opinion. Whether it’s Twitter’s dubiously Orwellian ‘Trust and Safety’ council or Zuckerberg cooperating with the German government to suppress negative stories about immigration, we have to admit that there is an issue and it’s an issue that has been thrown into sharp relief by the conflicts on college and university campuses and the febrile atmosphere surrounding almost any piece of entertainment that intersects – however fractionally – with PC hotbutton issues.
You don’t have to agree with people to agree that they have a right to speak. I’m a left-anarchist and a pragmatic socialist, yet I support Lauren Southern’s right to espouse her Libertarian ideals. I worry about the demonisation of immigrants, but I believe people have a right to express their concerns about that (and genuinely worrying stories are being suppressed there too). There’s suggestions recently that media companies, including social media companies, are going to collude to exclude and undermine Trump now. I would gladly gnaw my own leg off if it would prevent Trump being president, but he has a right to express whatever opinions are most popular at the time and will win him votes. That’s democracy, that’s freedom, that’s the principle of free speech.
I’ve made games and presented ideas that people find objectionable and I’ve been censored, pilloried, boycotted and banned for it (or, more often, for ideas that people have assigned to me) so I’m presenting some of those ideas (games) under discount to participate in #TheTriggering because not only have these games ‘triggered’ people, but shilling a product on a hashtag will ‘trigger’ a whole other set of people.
Exercise your free speech and free expression today. Say something controversial. Air an opinion that might upset someone. Buy some porn, read 1984 or Huckleberry Finn, post a ‘problematic’ joke. Flex those rights and shake the tree, see who actually believes in free speech and who doesn’t.
And for those SJWs blocking the tag, or anyone that posts on it… you’re proving that we don’t need censorship and that you’re capable of maintaining your challenge-free bubble all by yourselves. You’re also proving the need for this event – which I hope becomes as annually celebrated as Draw Mohammed Day.
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Discounts are available for 48 hours ONLY, ending on the 11th of March.
The Little Grey Book [Pay What You Want]: A simple party game that plays off the hypercritical panopticon of social media.
Hentacle [Marked down to $2.50]: A comedy print-and-play card game of tentacle rape, which is such an absurd concept it’s just inherently laughable. Apparently some people fear for the welfare of drawings and genuinely fear being molested by cephalopods. #TeachOctopiNotToRape
Cthentacle [Marked down to $2.50]: A slightly different and simpler/faster version of Hentacle, but with a Cthulhu theme and many, many horrendous Lovecraftian puns. Of note is that poor, dead racist HP Lovecraft’s head used to be used as the World Fantasy Award prize, but this was changed due to conerns about his racism. Short of a visit by Herbert West I don’t really see how Lovecraft’s racism could really be a problem for anyone any more. He’s dead. Then again #RhodesMustFall so apparently we have to erase history and ignore influential figures for wrongthink. Down the memory hole…
Privilege Check [Marked down to $2.00]: The less privileged you are… the more privileged you are. This was the basic hypocrisy behind ‘the progressive stack’ which came to prominence during the Occupy movement. Equality, apparently, is not a good way to treat people and the best way to cure *ism is to be *ist. Irony is missing from a lot of dictionaries it seems. This game triggered the hell out of a lot of people when it came out and it’s a bluffing/tactical card game that mocks the progressive stack.
Gamergate Card Game [No discount, sorry!]: This was SO triggering that it, unlike the material above, was censored off my usual sales site. This despite it containing no graphic depictions of tentacle sex, nor any off colour jokes about racial/gender/etc politics the way Privilege Check does. Just invoking the name of the consumer revolt was sufficient to bring down a gang of crybabies to get it taken down.
If you’re interested in our other products, though none are really as controversial, you can grab our catalogues, which make it easier to find stuff than using the site navigation.
ADULT PRODUCT!
I’M NOT MESSING WITH YOU, I MEAN IT
Every gloriously horrible illustration from the entire Cthentacle game line present and correct for ogling and examining without any of that irritating game information getting in the way.
Roll 1d20 for San Loss.
Buy it HERE
Or in full colour hardcopy HERE
THIS IS AN EXPANSION FOR CALL OF CTHENTACLE
Spankham Asylum, a study-ground for those grappling with understanding strange fetishes and psychosexual condition. Doctor Karr investigates a spate of strange, new, tentacular fantasies with the aid of The Patient.
Expand your Cthentacle games into the realm of psychiatry with straitjackets, therapy, tranquilisers and dangerous readings from The Book of Eiboner.
Buy it HERE
Buy ALL of Cthentacle at a discount price HERE
So, I’m sure you’ve heard by now that a bunch of concern trolls have managed to get a previously approved and rather innocent ‘Tentacle Rape’ card game Kickstarter pulled.
This is censorious bullshit and I intend to talk a lot more on this subject. There’s a critical mass of puritan bullshit and self-hating flagellation going on and I’ve had enough of it.
Still, I find the best way to say ‘Fuck you’ to censorship is to vote positively, rather than negatively, with your wallet.
Soda Pop have worked out another way to fund their product drive on their own site and as for myself, I’ve doubled what I had pledged before.
I suggest you do the same.
For my part, solidarity Soda Pop, you’re going through an (oddly) more vociferous version of the beasting I got over Hentacle and Cthentacle.
If you want to show that there are more open-minded, libertine, anti-censorship people out there who can tell the difference between reality and fantasy, you can pledge HERE
In fact, you know what? I’m going to pledge more money to them based on Hentacle and Cthentacle sales for the rest of the month too. Think of it as monetarily flipping the bird with BOTH hands.
So… THIS popped up on my stream today.
I was, shall we say, nonplussed.
I was also nonplussed, but not surprised, to see the RAAAAAGE going on HERE and HERE about it.
From what I can see this game is really, tame as anything. There’s no graphic depictions here, it’s pretty much suggestive and there’s certainly no ‘Carrots’ cards amongst this lot, and yet RAGE.
Personally? Well, I suppose I’m a little upset that someone else is taking my idea commercial. Over it’s lifespan the rights to Hentacle have been negotiated with three separate companies, all of whom chickened out at one hurdle or another. Now, not only have Soda Pop made tens of thousands of dollars from a crowdsourcing, but they’re going to make a shitpile more money from a much tamer execution of a game idea that’s so damn close to mine it’s painful.
Do I begrudge ’em? No. Not really. I’m just annoyed at seeing another success story go past with ideas stemming from or similar to mine. It’s happened before (Munchkin) and I’m sure it’ll happen again. I’m just one unlucky motherfucker apparently.
I’ve backed ’em and best of luck to ’em.
They’re still idea-stealing bastards though.
Give a washed up old game designer a break and BUY Hentacle or Cthentacle while you’re at it, eh?
Only the clean stuff, obviously… here’s some inks of the characters, clicking should show you the bigger version:
I need some money in fairly quick order to help fund expansion and pay to get some more product out quickly as well as to store up some funds for some more appearances and to up-tempo my convention schedule.
The best way for me to do that seems to be to offload some of my stock of professionally printed Cthentacle and its first supplement, The Dunbitch Horror.
For a limited time I’m willing to offload both together for a total of £12.50 (including shipping). If you want multiple copies it’ll be £10 for each set, plus £2.50 on top for shipping, no matter how many copies.
Please pass this info along and let people know.
Ordering can only be done direct, to me for this offer. If you’re interested contact me at GRIM at POSTMORT dot DEMON dot CO dot UK or on Twitter via @Grimachu
Postmortem Studios 