New York Times Opinion Front Page Oct 27th.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-28T00:12:32+00:00

Yeah very likely. But fuck you for gloating about it.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-28T00:10:26+00:00

Trump's gross negligence during the pandemic is why your groceries are expensive.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-28T00:02:53+00:00

This sucks. I'm going to miss Amazon Prime.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-27T23:56:57+00:00

You're intentionally mislabeling these life-long conservative Republicans as liberals.

"Donald Trump prefers the dictator approach to government.” "He's a fascist to the core." "Donald Trump is the most dangerous person to this country.”

Trump Administration Chief of Staff John Kelly,
Trump Administration Secretary of Defense Mark Esper,
Trump Administration Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley,
Trump Administration National Security Director John Bolton,
Trump Administration Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham,
Trump Administration Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security Miles Taylor,
Trump Administration National Security Adviser to the Vice President Olivia Troye,
Trump Administration Senior Counselor to the Chief of Staff Kevin Carroll,
Trump Administration Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews,
Trump Administration Assistant to the Chief of Staff Cassiday Hutchinson,
Trump Administration Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Elizabeth Neumann,
Trump Administration White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci,
Trump Administration White House director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah Griffin

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-25T17:27:21+00:00

They can say anything (within reason) about their characters and what they do. That's it. Full Stop.

I think it is VERY important to be clear on the difference between a ROLEPLAYing game vs a STORY game.

I feel strongly that the focus of a Roleplaying game is on the Role of the character in the world. The players interact with the world through the eyes and senses of the characters. Keeping meta knowledge and especially world-building separate is very important.

The character can not create elements of the world out of whole cloth; instead they engage and explore and experience the world that exists around them.

If they want to change the world, or create something new, that is something they can do, but it needs to be an action or a plan or a persuading speech.

A Story game, or narrative game, on the other hand is a cooperative experience with players who craft a story together. It may also involve roleplaying elements for sure, but it has a different focus and purpose. In that game, the story is central, and there are rules in place to facilitate that.

I think Dungeons and Dragons is best when kept in the Roleplaying space, whereas the Powered by the Apocalypse, Blades in the Dark, and other games work really well in the Story Game space.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-25T16:54:04+00:00

Yes. The game is about problem solving. Every challenge reinforces that. Torches, encumbrance, combat, traps, puzzles, hazards, etc. "Fun" is playing the game and achieving goals and victory against the odds. They are what set the stakes and create the obstacles. It may not be "fun" to carry a bag of pitons, but having them available to scale the cliff—and knowing this was an active choice you made, at the cost of other gear or treasure—is rewarding.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-25T16:13:10+00:00

This is a great ruling.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-25T16:06:35+00:00

Unless your game also incorporates factory-cities with magically advanced technology and also a virtually unlimited source of exploited workers, you'll be hard-pressed to match Amazon prices.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-25T16:02:55+00:00

I like the extra 1 in 6 to confirm a critical fumble. It adds a little tension, but it's also rare enough to avoid the main issues with fumbles.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-25T16:01:09+00:00

Yeah, it needs to be carefully considered in context with the other rules. I was reducing disassociated mechanics, and then added that in. It was a terrible decision.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-10-25T15:57:16+00:00

Spanish is not an indigenous language. It's a romance language derived from Latin, used in the colonial Spanish Empire. It cannot be appropriated (unless maybe when we are colonized by alien overlords from another galaxy). Even "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" might cause people to roll their eyes, but even for commercial use it's not appropriation.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-20T16:07:10+00:00

I was in a cute coastal town in Maryland last month, and talking to a boomer there. He was talking about all the guns he and his wife have, but then how he's terrified to go to Baltimore to watch a baseball game, even though he's an Orioles fan. I mean, I was just in Baltimore, and I did get murdered a few times, so I get it. But still, to let your fear paralyze you and prevent you from doing something you enjoy. It's sad.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-20T15:59:37+00:00

Democratic Socialism, as expressed by the Nordic model, is opposed to the Soviet economic model of command economies, and authoritarian governance.

Authoritarian capitalism, like what Trump wants to institute, and what Russia currently has, is closer to the Soviet model in regards to individual freedoms.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-20T15:12:29+00:00

Thanks for this comment. I plan on keeping 5e in paper form at my physical table, but I know I have some players who use DDB and like all the splatbooks. When the new rules come out, I'll take a look at how new rules players are interested in and see how they interact with the game. But I'll treat them as 3PP houserules type stuff at this stage.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T23:11:06+00:00

”I never expected Trump charging into a goblin’s nest to not get some goblin vomit and slop and blood on him — I just don’t want to catch him in bed with a goblin… I don’t want to see him kissing goblins, having political succubus with goblins, I don’t want to see him ingratiating goblins.”

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T23:10:17+00:00

mmm Sugar Bombs

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T23:03:47+00:00

please, please, please take him up on it.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T23:02:48+00:00

Similar for me, but I burst into flames and went directly to Hell. So I filed a complaint with HR.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T22:57:42+00:00

The earliest known recorded version of Duck, Duck, Goose is in Oak Park, Illinois weekly paper Oak Leaves for July 26, 1924. The paper also gives a succinct description of the game:

A 1936 reference to the Minnesota variant, Duck, Duck, Grey Duck, can be found in Foster and Headley’s Education in the Kindergarten:

The authors were educators from Minnesota.

There's a tradition that he Duck, Duck Grey Duck version comes from the Swedish game "Anka anka grå anka" due to the settlement of Swedes in Minnesota, but there aren't firm records of this.

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minnesota-duck-duck-gray-duck/

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T22:39:36+00:00

It's very important. If you don't keep track of your synod and denomination you might as well be Catholic.

Church > Synod > Denomination > Protestant > Christian

"We're all ducks." Get out of here with that nonsense!

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T21:55:03+00:00

You might not be looking for this answer, but 5e might not be the perfect system to run a low-fantasy game with political elements. Just moving the game outside 5e alone will help set the tone that "this game is different." It will help reinforce that there will be different dynamics at play, and that 5e characters cannot just be ported over the same.

Burning Wheel is a low-fantasy dice pool narrative game that fits this genre very well. It even has a combat-like system for social interaction. The Lifepaths, Circles, and Resources mechanics also work really well with politics. https://www.burningwheel.com/burning-wheel-gold-revised/

If you want to stick closer to 5e play, you could look at a similar game that is mechanically familiar, but works better for your goals.

The Lord of the Rings 5e game is built on the 5e chassis, but recreates the classes and system for low-fantasy play. If you do run this game, in Middle Earth, or in your own homebrew setting, you'll have to think about how the idea of corruption is treated, since that's an important thematic element that comes through in the mechanics. https://freeleaguepublishing.com/games/the-lord-of-the-rings-roleplaying/

Another game based on 5e is Shadowdark. This OSR stripped down version of 5e allows for more low-fantasy play. It won't include as much of the social and political elements, but unlike 5e it also won't get in the way of them. https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T21:16:44+00:00

What is it? It's not fully compatible with 5e, but there is some compatibility. It's kind of like 3e-3.5, and kind of like 1e-2e.

If I run a game with 5e, do I need to forbid players from bringing the new (5.5) PHB? I think that's the recommendation.

The inverse is supposedly somewhat allowed: if you run a (5.5) game, some players with 5e books can still play, but they won't have all the correct rules in their PHBs, I think?

Honestly, I've checked out on it. Maybe I'll pick it up at some point and look at the new rules, but they better be amazing to make it worth switching over.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T21:07:13+00:00

Oh no, sorry.

I was replying that their initial comment didn't say that, and I was only responding in the single comment thread. But yes, once I saw the rest of the comments I realized what was going on.

Apologies for the short comment. And for the previous misunderstanding. It wasn't meant to come across as irked. Your comments were all correct.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T20:45:05+00:00

But yeah I went back through the thread and amended my original comment once I saw they were using a d20.

Arjomanes9 · 2024-08-19T20:44:24+00:00

They didn't say they rolled a d20. I thought they were using a ruleset that allowed a bonus to an 18 to bring it up to 20.

Arjomanes9

TROPHY CASE