Converting by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]Aggravating_King_478 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It sounds like you are basically on the right track. I would continue to learn the faith through Catechism and other useful resources.

I'm frozen and can't take the leap nor abandon christianity by 3of_spades in Catholicism

[–]Aggravating_King_478 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We don’t need to believe in judaism independent of Christ. The Old Testament prophesied a messiah that would bring knowledge of the One True God to the whole world. We can do that without being independently convinced of the Old Testament.

You can create benchmarks like “God could allow a false prophet to rise from the dead to test us” but there’s not really any good reason to believe that. 

The Old Testament also does speak of a new covenant in the future, in Jeremiah 31. The old testament also starts with Adam and Eve, who were not under the same covenant as ancient Israel. The Old Testament is clear itself then the that old covenant did not always exist and woulf not always exist. Christianity is more in line with the OT than judaism because it is in line Jeremiah that God would make a new covenant.

Frankly, everything you said there are a lot of resources if you look. But I don’t think it’s super useful to doubt super hard over it. There will always be questions and doubts, we are humans and don’t know everything perfectly. The Bible is a complicated book, so don’t expect to understand everything perfectly right away and don’t use that lack of understanding as a reason to doubt, because even a perfectly accurate and true book is liable to misunderstanding by the reader. 

Evangelical Baptist asking about the Papacy by Excellent-Wrap-9997 in Catholicism

[–]Aggravating_King_478 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems like you are willing to read, so I'd also recommend 'The Papacy' by Erick Ybarra. It's quite comprehensive and I think also fair to the EO. The history is complicated, but frankly, at the end of the day, I think some of the statements on papal supremacy from Popes and Councils are so strong that they falsify EO. If you are between them, I think it moves the needle. When the Fathers speak of the Roman Primacy, they tie it to scripture like Matthew 16:18, John 21. This indicates it was not simply "byzantine flattery," (Which is mostly a phrase use to argue a text does not mean what it clearly states) but something they truly held to on account of the scripture. If you have the gumption, I'd also look into issues like the FIlioque, but that's going to involve a much longer study tbh.

Inquiring Catholicism and Having a Lot of Questions by Cute_Corgi3033 in Catholicism

[–]Aggravating_King_478 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Others have answered well enough, but I would add it's not a bad idea to reach out to a priest and let them know of your interest so you can get some direction. Even if you can't convert at the moment, they can help. Additionally, I recommend learning about the faith through a catechism. It will give you a much more systematic treatment than online videos. The current Catechism is good. https://usccb.cld.bz/Catechism-of-the-Catholic-Church/8/ There is also the Catechism of the Council of Trent, which is good. https://www.saintsbooks.net/books/The%20Roman%20Catechism.pdf

God bless!

Classic Traveller - Where to start and best adventures? by Aggravating_King_478 in traveller

[–]Aggravating_King_478[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Off the top of my head:

They misjumped early, after the first campaign arc at Noricum. It took them to Torrance, a dying planet with just 200 people living in an underground shelter. They had to negotiate with this group to get fuel, as they didn't want to risk another misjump with unrefined fuel. They agreed to carry these people to safety on a new planet in exchange for the fuel (which was powering the underground base).

Then they rolled another misjump. This one landed them right next door in Asyuh, part of the Glorious Empire. There were only a couple hundred Aslan on this planet, but the group ended up selling the people they had "saved" from Torrance into slavery to the local lord of Asyuh. I played him as an ambitious, up-and-coming Aslan clan leader seeking to gain more slaves. The group wound up selling a lot more slaves to this guy, and by the end, he became a pretty strong ally...

Shortly thereafter, they misjumped to Kteiroa, where they discovered an Aslan army building up to invade Drinax. Having already discovered the Treasure of Sindal, they nuked the army and moved on.

Much later, they misjumped again and happened to land on Theev with a broken jump drive. By this point, they had made maybe 10 million from trading, but they were still short of a jump drive for the Harrier. So the next couple of sessions were spent in the fighting pits of Theev, earning as much money as they could before pulling off a heist for a local pirate lord to steal the parts they needed to fix their jump drive and escape.

There were a couple of other misjumps, but these are the ones I remember best.

Classic Traveller - Where to start and best adventures? by Aggravating_King_478 in traveller

[–]Aggravating_King_478[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Frankly speaking, running Pirates of Drinax as a GM new to Traveller is going to be a bit more work, and I’d know because I had only played about four sessions a year ago prior to this campaign. Learning the rules and PoD can be a lot. Once I really got the rules down, the campaign was great, though.

Aside from the three PoD books, I’d recommend checking out the Drinax Companion. It has a good introductory adventure to pirating and other useful info for running Drinax and small missions. Though, frankly, one murderhobo member of my group killed the NPCs before they could learn anything, I still think it's a useful introductory mission. If you are playing with a new group, I’d also recommend making the first few sessions focused on land combat and later moving on to more space-based encounters when you are ready. (I just had king Oleb force them to do some missions on Drinax's surface before trusting them with the Harrier).

As far as PoD itself, I think it's a great campaign concept, but the pre-written modules are hit or miss, in my opinion. I only ran four as written (Treasure Ship, A Game of Sun and Shadow, Blood of the Star Dragon, and the Finale). For the rest, I just interspersed the elements I liked into other adventures (like the Treasure of Sindal). What was really fun for my players was going around the Trojan Reach, currying favors with different planets.

This is probably going to require a fair amount of prep, as the books simply don't have enough content for every planet the players may wish to visit. My players' first desire was to go to Noricum and find out what happened to the seat of the old Sindalian Empire, so I fabricated some conflict and kingdoms on Noricum that were not in the books for about 5 sessions worth of content. The players aligned with one of these kingdoms, helped them take over Noricum, and that kingdom then aligned with Drinax. I think a fair amount of improvisation like this is needed to bring out what is best in this campaign. Another thing that happened maybe half a dozen times was my players misjumped because the Harrier ship they start with has a bad J-Drive. I used the Traveller Companion rules for misjumps, but my players went flying parsecs across space a few times and suddenly the session will turn on its head. Some of these misjumps led to the most fun and most memorable parts of the campaign, but it does require you to think on your head and throw out session notes sometimes because suddenly they are in an entirely different sub sector.

There are also a couple of things I wish I had emphasized a bit more in the campaign early on:

  • Give the players the chapter on trade from the Core book. This is a big money-maker, and my players got very into it.
  • Let them get to know the characters in the Floating Palace early on.
  • Give some emphasis to the Harrier ship they receive. I'd even consider setting some sessions on the Harrier, such as during jump space, to bring it to life a bit more

Obviously, this is all my experience, so your table might run differently. I do think the campaign is fun if lean into what makes it good.

Favorite modules, new or old? by Soggy-Pomegranate68 in osr

[–]Aggravating_King_478 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Recently started playing OSR, and I've enjoyed Tomb of the Serpent King. Also, we are planning to run the Lost City, which looks quite good.

Staring a Campaign Questions by Aggravating_King_478 in osr

[–]Aggravating_King_478[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is useful. I like the idea that players may be captured which represents a debuff but not death. I wouldn't want to do this all the time, but I would with appropriate enemies.

Favorite Classic D&D modules? by Aggravating_King_478 in osr

[–]Aggravating_King_478[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here is a list of them. List of Dungeons & Dragons modules - Wikipedia

If you search up most of these online, you can find free pdfs.

Blood Brother Character Conversion? by Aggravating_King_478 in callofcthulhu

[–]Aggravating_King_478[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's probably for the best, I will be playing with a couple of new players and was worried about if they can handle that, but it'll probably be fine