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Anoia posted:Okay that's probably the sign of some sort of serious mental disorder if the dude asked for the Prince in the face of the cops. https://youtu.be/5gs2VYL-3RI
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# ? Dec 16, 2015 17:46 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:14 |
Haha, I didn't know Reno 911 was a comedy show and totally believed part 1 where she maced him.
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# ? Dec 16, 2015 18:01 |
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Camrath posted:Is archery unusual in a US LARP context? Every single game I've played at over here that involved combat had bows and crossbows as weapon options, even if frankly they felt inappropriate for the setting. When you don't require any safety gear at all, fight 24/7 in whatever conditions, and your players are used to boffers, so don't really fight in a controlled manner, real archery even with padded arrows becomes a hard sell to your insurance provider. I have no idea what it costs to insure a LARP these days, but paintball was always really expensive, and had significant requirements regarding gear, lighting, obstacles, and times of play. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Dec 17, 2015 |
# ? Dec 17, 2015 12:49 |
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Liquid Communism posted:When you don't require any safety gear at all, fight 24/7 in whatever conditions, and your players are used to boffers, so don't really fight in a controlled manner, real archery even with padded arrows becomes a hard sell to your insurance provider. I have no idea what it costs to insure a LARP these days, but paintball was always really expensive, and had significant requirements regarding gear, lighting, obstacles, and times of play. Doesn't seem to be a problem over here- nobody wears 'safety gear' unless LARP armour counts. Bows are limited in draw weight (28lbs for a 30lb limit is the standard build) and every game I've played has had rules about no plunging shots/indirect fire and no shooting at night/close range. Really, I've never seen anyone get injured from a bow or crossbow under those guidelines. The odd pod-shot that has someone doubled over for a bit, sure (took three in the space a minute at the gathering this year, which I'll admit loving sucked) but I've never seen any damage not cured by a quick sit down and some loud cursing.
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# ? Dec 17, 2015 18:08 |
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Sadly, it's the US. It's not about how often someone gets hurt, it's about how hosed the guys running the game are if someone does get hurt and sues.
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# ? Dec 18, 2015 02:51 |
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Sion posted:I think he only had dots in Auspex. And he didn't aura read the cops?
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# ? Dec 18, 2015 08:23 |
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Xenocides posted:And he didn't aura read the cops? I dunno, I think their emotional state was pretty loving clear.
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# ? Dec 18, 2015 12:42 |
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Sion posted:I dunno, I think their emotional state was pretty loving clear. Has anyone played in a LARP that actually has poo poo like alignments and detect Good/Evil? Because that sounds like the loving worst
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# ? Dec 18, 2015 17:04 |
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MikeCrotch posted:Has anyone played in a LARP that actually has poo poo like alignments and detect Good/Evil? Because that sounds like the loving worst If so, how do those rules work? When I run tabletop, I let people know that spells like detect evil won't just pick out people who are "Evil". It'll work on evil-aligned creatures, evil outsiders, evil magic, undead, and clerics who get power from an evil deity, sure. Normal folks aren't so black-and-white, and it also just ruins the game to have a character who can cast "find the bad guy" at will.
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# ? Dec 18, 2015 18:11 |
Naw but there are traits and plenty of expose trait stuff. Like, undead, then someone does an AOE expose undead, half the PCs yell out, and then the playerbase explodes into a melee.
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# ? Dec 18, 2015 18:13 |
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MikeCrotch posted:Has anyone played in a LARP that actually has poo poo like alignments and detect Good/Evil? Because that sounds like the loving worst WoD tends to do 'are you supernatural and what is your emotional state.' All sorts of aura reading colors. You have to answer honestly unless you have some sort of counteraction trait.
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# ? Dec 18, 2015 19:29 |
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People trying to weasel out of being forced to answer honestly in a game about pretending to be a vampire is the funniest yet saddest thing about WOD.
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# ? Dec 19, 2015 21:55 |
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Skunkrocker posted:People trying to weasel out of being forced to answer honestly in a game about pretending to be a vampire is the funniest yet saddest thing about WOD. fun fact - when someone did this in a game I was part of the ST came over and was like 'bullshit, he's feeling like this' and then when the player complained the ST was like 'sorry your character is now feeling an overwhelming urge to feel this emotion, enjoy.'
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# ? Dec 19, 2015 22:47 |
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Anoia posted:Okay that's probably the sign of some sort of serious mental disorder if the dude asked for the Prince in the face of the cops. When I was stationed in Monterey there was a huge LARP scene down in the town (VtM or similar) and they'd occasionally have weird run-ins with the military crowd. My main memory of the larpers (other than just walking through public plazas at night and seeing dozens of kids in black clustered in intent little huddles) was the time two Marines came back from a night of boozing with a story of getting in a shouting match with some goth kids who insisted that they'd disrespected the Dread Baron Lord So-and-so and would suffer for their iniquities. Or, I should say, main memory other than the time a ton of Marines got hauled down to the police station because two of our guys, some of the only Marine-larper crossover guys at the time, tried to slash a girl to death with Swiss Army knives at 2am in Pacific Grove back in 2000.
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# ? Dec 20, 2015 15:14 |
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:When I was stationed in Monterey there was a huge LARP scene down in the town (VtM or similar) and they'd occasionally have weird run-ins with the military crowd. My main memory of the larpers (other than just walking through public plazas at night and seeing dozens of kids in black clustered in intent little huddles) was the time two Marines came back from a night of boozing with a story of getting in a shouting match with some goth kids who insisted that they'd disrespected the Dread Baron Lord So-and-so and would suffer for their iniquities. I wish I could say I was surprised, but that's exactly what I'd expect from marines who also LARP.
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# ? Dec 20, 2015 19:19 |
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Anoia posted:I wish I could say I was surprised, but that's exactly what I'd expect from marines who also LARP. The only forces guys I have met while LARPing just had the advantage of actually, you know, being in shape
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 17:50 |
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MikeCrotch posted:The only forces guys I have met while LARPing just had the advantage of actually, you know, being in shape
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 17:59 |
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British marines =/= American marines. (Though I'll admit, I don't know any RMs who LARP, doesn't mean they don't exist!) In fact I've generally found that people with military experience /really/ shine in fest LARPs. My first group leader was former RAF aircrew, and one of the most amazing people I've ever met. There's nothing like seeing a slight 5'6" woman leading a unit of 60+ huge, heavily armed and armoured thumpmonkeys with such skill that she was almost deified.. Now of course she plays a retarded lesbian pixie nun with an unhealthy interest in dead things, who's nearly destroyed the world several times by accident. Because naturally.
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 18:25 |
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Camrath posted:British marines =/= American marines. (Though I'll admit, I don't know any RMs who LARP, doesn't mean they don't exist!) I'm not going to point any fingers, but it looks like someone understands how to LARP.
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 18:43 |
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HEY GAL posted:were they marines though Nah, RAF or Army guys. They would still gently caress anything though because *squaddies* The real motherfuckers are riot policemen though, like 2 generals (of ~30) are riot police. Turns out beating the gently caress out of unruly mobs in formation with batons and shields is somehow applicable to mass LARP fights, who knew
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 18:50 |
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MikeCrotch posted:Nah, RAF or Army guys. They would still gently caress anything though because *squaddies*
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 19:04 |
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So basically larping is a place where a bunch of ugly fat people can have orgies.
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 19:08 |
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Jst0rm posted:So basically larping is a place where a bunch of ugly fat people can have orgies. I thought those were furries?
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 19:26 |
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JiimyPopAli posted:I thought those were furries? Unsurprisingly, there's some overlap.
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 19:48 |
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Jst0rm posted:So basically larping is a place where a bunch of ugly fat people can have orgies. OH GOOD LORD YES Thankfully I managed to miss all of it, but I have heard Stories. Such as one of our group in a cabin loving his girlfriend who wasn't in the game (but was there for... some reason), and people commenting in-character that his character was banging a knothole. (As the girl was not really there, you see.) You're really not supposed to actually Do A Sex at game, but it's a bunch of geeks getting together with their own and sleeping in coed cabins, and a lot of these geeks have rather permissive and open attitudes about sex, so... yeah, banging happens.
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# ? Dec 21, 2015 22:32 |
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HEY GAL posted:like i said, a bunch of the guys i knew in reenactment used to be antifa street brawlers That's the difference between LARPers and reenacters, reenacters use their powers for good Except for the guys who keep getting their dongs out clearly
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# ? Dec 22, 2015 11:04 |
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MikeCrotch posted:That's the difference between LARPers and reenacters, reenacters use their powers for good maybe the truth is somewhere in the middled
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# ? Dec 22, 2015 12:51 |
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Puppy Time posted:OH GOOD LORD YES Honestly I would be more surprised if there wasn't any sex at all at these things.
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# ? Dec 22, 2015 13:02 |
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This thread is really entertaining. It's hard to believe people like that exist until you meet them in person. I was briefly introduced to the vampire King and Queen of Austin at a KMFDM show a few years ago. I ended up working with a girl that hung out in their group-- she was SO loving WEIRD and would always talk in a low monotone so other people would have to be quiet and listen to her. I got the impression that she was always playing her vampire character-- she would just instantly suck the life out of any conversation or room that she was in. I used to play Amtgard when I was in high school (foam swords, LIGHTNING BOLT). The game itself was pretty fun and I enjoyed trolling people in real life but all the rules-lawyering and cheap shots and cheating and general bitchiness ruined it. The whole group fell apart when an underage girl got molested by the leader in the woods. She and I are really good friends now, if I ever see that fat gently caress again he will have more problems than weak stats and cankles.
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# ? Dec 23, 2015 19:23 |
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On second thought, after reading this thread for a while, the LARPers I knew were tame by comparison. You guys know some real nuts.
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# ? Dec 23, 2015 21:39 |
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Skunkrocker posted:On second thought, after reading this thread for a while, the LARPers I knew were tame by comparison. You guys know some real nuts. You know what they say...
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# ? Dec 24, 2015 00:23 |
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LARP is poo poo. (I don’t have experience with boffer, but gently caress it, too) A big pile of stupid, toxic, desperate poo poo. I was into that cesspool for a good 8 years, and I truly wish I could have those years back. Not just because it introduced me to so many broken and unhappy people and led me to do a bunch of things I’m not proud of, but because I didn’t even want to do it in the first place. I didn’t really enjoy any of the time I spent in the loving scene. Starting with the shitfuck Camarilla(Mind’s Eye Society, now, I guess), then with two separate troupes. The entire scene is like a crack to a junkie. Nothing good can come of it. Yeah, I know that there are exceptions, and though I’d always advise someone leave LARPing, I’m sure that a number of folks can get through it unscathed. But, really, my experience was Ghogargi’s. A big loving pit of despair and shame and misery and fat smelly motherfuckers and skinny smelly motherfuckers. And, yes, I am bitter and angry and so sad that I wasted so much time. Full disclosure: I spent my last decade being a hosed up piece of poo poo, and not all of it was due to LARP. And this will probably be disjointed, because I’ll write about the things as they come to me, and I’m going to taking breaks, because this poo poo brings up so much negativity in me. It all started when I moved from a lovely situation in a city that nearly killed me to a place where I had no friends. I knew what LARP was from my friends back home, from our tabletop days(actually don’t hate tabletop, even now), and always thought it was dumb. I met a chick in the new place and she convinced me to join her in an officially sanctioned global game. She was hooked. And for the next 8 years, I tagged along. Never truly enjoying it, but going for her. For a long time, I just didn’t give a gently caress. I’d rather spend my Friday and Saturday nights doing something fun with the new friends I was slowly making, than go pretend to be a fairy or a vampire or whatever the gently caress with a bunch of shitheads. But I did it anyway because I was a pathetic idiot. And the fucks that I met would turn your dick gray. It was weird. The usual stereotypes of 450 pound titmonsters, skinny chicks with no self-esteem, and overconfident nerds who fancied themselves William Riker. And, because the games were all 18+, more pathetic nerd sex than you can shake a wizard’s staff at. Even though I hated it all, I’d still allow the drama to touch me and get me angry. Thing about LARP, though, where it gets dangerous, is that it’s a power fantasy, and a first-person experience at the same time. You build your character well enough, you have all the power you want. And because you are acting the character at all times, it’s YOU experiencing the power. And, then when it’s reversed, it’s YOU who feels the sting of being worked over. So the stakes get raised so high. No one likes to lose in LARP, because it’s not a character you can just read about, it’s YOU who loses. Which leads to all kinds of badness. The well-adjusted folks rarely stick around, because there’s very little for them in LARP. It’s the ones who are desperate and sad and feel powerless in their lives that become the lifers. And these people base their entire lives around it. poo poo, that’s all they fucken talk about. They bring their kids up in this world, so the poor bastards start to normalize that kind of behavior. gently caress. This is getting long already and I don’t know if it’s coherent at all, so I’ll try to end it. I don’t know what I want to say anymore, so I’ll just say gently caress LARP. If you’re curious, find another outlet. Join a writer’s group instead.
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# ? Jan 30, 2016 20:32 |
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If you're interested in the idea of wearing stupid clothing and hitting nerds with things, my recommendation is to crew. Profound Decisions (who run the huge Empire LRP in the UK) are always after people to play Generic Orc #3 or whatever is needed at any given time. You get free entry, meal vouchers, and no fake drama - the crew just play what they're told, and that changes every hour. No-one has their own special snowflake character that they're desperately trying to make King poo poo Of gently caress Mountain.
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# ? Feb 2, 2016 23:39 |
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:If you're interested in the idea of wearing stupid clothing and hitting nerds with things, my recommendation is to crew. Profound Decisions (who run the huge Empire LRP in the UK) are always after people to play Generic Orc #3 or whatever is needed at any given time. You get free entry, meal vouchers, and no fake drama - the crew just play what they're told, and that changes every hour. No-one has their own special snowflake character that they're desperately trying to make King poo poo Of gently caress Mountain. I totally would do this, bar two reasons- one, can't stand full-face masks (though makeup I'm fine with) and two, the empire players on my social media feeds have managed to completely and totally sour me on the system so much that I don't even want to turn up just to beat on them with a sword. Seriously, Empire does so much right from an immersion perspective, but certain vocal sections of its playerbase are its own worst enemy.
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# ? Feb 3, 2016 08:30 |
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This thread is fascinating. I'm currently on page 6, so sorry if this has been asked between then and now, but has anyone ever thought of character expiration? Like every couple years, each player is forced to create a new character and the old ones are no longer valid. I feel this would make it more newbie-friendly. Or would the megalomania of the higher ups prevent this from ever happening?
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# ? Feb 5, 2016 02:58 |
The Endbringer posted:This thread is fascinating. I'm currently on page 6, so sorry if this has been asked between then and now, but has anyone ever thought of character expiration? Uhhh it's called campaigns that actually end.
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# ? Feb 5, 2016 04:52 |
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LARPs in general are not a very profitable enterprise, and I expect it'd be even harder to get enough cash to keep it up if you don't have the draw of "I can play my superpowerful character with tons of backstory and importance to make up for the really mediocre life I lead" to keep big fish coming.
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# ? Feb 5, 2016 05:05 |
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The Endbringer posted:This thread is fascinating. I'm currently on page 6, so sorry if this has been asked between then and now, but has anyone ever thought of character expiration? It depends on the game, but for a lot of the fest games there's the issue that it can take years to pull things off- be it politicking, chasing high tier skills or getting any particular project running properly. For example, the brothel I run in the Lorien Trust was first mooted as an idea around the middle of 2013. We launched in the 2014 season and it's only now, two years on, that we've really reached a level of fame and operating practice that I'm happy with. On another note, off to Tommy Guns and Temperance later today for a weekend of high-immersion gangstering and getting to be a psychotic retard with a lead pipe. Just what the doctor ordered after a stressful few weeks!
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# ? Feb 5, 2016 10:20 |
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The Endbringer posted:This thread is fascinating. I'm currently on page 6, so sorry if this has been asked between then and now, but has anyone ever thought of character expiration? In a local University system i've helped run, we force people to play new characters every year for exactly this reason. As its a lot of people's first time LARPing the last thing we want is a clique of overpowered people who all already know each other in-character blocking any new people out of the interesting stuff. A lot of LARPs are relatively short run affairs that only last a few years tops, but for the long running festival LARPs this is a bone of contention. A lot of comes down to how powerful new characters are compared to old ones. Some systems have diminishing returns on character advancement, so you effectively have to spend more XP than a starting character to get better at stuff. This means its effectively impossible to be really good at everything since you don't have enough points, but you will still likely have an edge on 'younger' characters. Other LARPs take their notes more from pen & paper RPGs, where the more XP you have the more options open up. This can lead to situations where older characters are basically untouchable to new players and can effectively render other characters obsolete. There is also the fact you allude to that some systems end up with a 'lunatics running the asylum' situation, where powerful, old characters are the ones making key decisions for everyone, and unfortunately are pretty unlikely to take a hit to their own power for the good of the new guys.
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# ? Feb 5, 2016 11:40 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:14 |
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The Endbringer posted:This thread is fascinating. I'm currently on page 6, so sorry if this has been asked between then and now, but has anyone ever thought of character expiration? I play another UK fest system called Curious Pastimes, which has given me 15 drama-free years of good friends, good times and fond memories (seriously, this thread has been like staring into some hideous negaverse where everything I love has been horribly corrupted), and it does an excellent job of stamping on special snowflakes and egomaniacs. I'll see if I can write up an effort post about its mechanics later on.
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# ? Feb 5, 2016 12:14 |