Genre and Moves

One thing I was thinking about, playing Chuubo's, was how XP actions play a similar role to Apocalypse World moves in setting genre.

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Everything is cover art

Inspired by an inadvertently deep alt tag in an email advertising this album.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but how can we not? Everything we see covers some underlying reality. This world is defined by false conceptions. There’s no veil to pierce: it’s onions all the way down. Enlightenment is fundamentally to escape.

So you might as well say not to judge at all. Which is fine enough advice, in its way. But nevertheless, you’re buying tomatoes. You’re building a house. You’re accepting someone into your family. To live, you must take stock of the cloaks and skins you’ve seen and make a decision.

But the idea of false conceptions is, itself, a false dichotomy. The entropy of illusion is not absolute. Your tomato may not be itself exactly, and you may not be able to see into its true heart, but you see something. You have data. You can project. It is from where within you that projection comes that makes the difference.

There are windows to substance. There are windows to circumstance. Are you judging based on assumptions from selfishness, from the false comfort of familiarity? Are you judging based on chance, or on choice? Accidents of birth or adversity, or intention and accomplishment?

Everything is cover art. It is up to your interpretation.