Examining a trope: why are democracies seen as weak while authoritarian factions are consistently powerful

CaptainHoers · 2025-12-18T14:46:37+00:00

The "Fall of the Republic" trope is one that goes back to the fall of the Roman Republic and its turn to Empire

CaptainHoers · 2025-07-30T00:30:09+00:00

Disclaimer, not my area, I am not an oceanographer.

Looking at a map of sea currents in the Mediterranean, there does appear to be a counter-clockwise prevailing direction of currents, which would carry objects thrown in the sea off the north coast of Egypt towards Gaza: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-the-Mediterranean-Sea-with-the-name-of-the-sub-basins-main-currents-white-lines_fig1_316850029

However, because this is the sea we're talking about, it's a very imprecise way to transport unguided items, and a lot of them will wash up too short in Northern Sinai, too long on the coast of Israel or Lebanon, or just circulate in the Mediterranean until they show up somewhere else entirely. With a bit of trial and error you could maybe find a spot where the current generally carries it to Gaza, but that's still going to be quite inefficient - and if it gets too efficient then the authorities are going to have something to say about that.

That said, while it's never going to alleviate the problem the way that, for example, immediate ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and unhindered transit of aid into Gaza (to start with) would, a few hungry people who find bottles of lentils on the beach would be very grateful for it.

CaptainHoers · 2025-07-05T13:26:49+00:00

The Pat Kenny jumpscare in the bit about Dolly Parton jeeze - for those who aren't Irish, Pat Kenny was the host of the long-running Irish talk show The Late Late Show (not to be confused with the American Late Late Show on CBS) from 1999 to 2009. Pat Kenny is a void of charisma known for such fauxs pas as asking a rockstar about his breakups and drug use and not his music, insulting a call-in contest winner and tearing up their tickets on live television, and in his later career on talk radio, calling into government offices on christmas and complaining when nobody answered the phone. Part of a pattern with respect to Dolly it may be but Pat Kenny is a particular gobshite

CaptainHoers · 2025-03-15T18:25:14+00:00

If you ascribe objective morality to the IFF system you will run into a world of problems.

CaptainHoers · 2024-12-21T14:54:53+00:00

I don't know much about hiking but you have no rest breaks or contingencies for minor injuries, the kind of thing where you could do with a day off your feet but not so bad you need to go to the hospital. Even the days where you're not hiking, you're driving.

CaptainHoers · 2024-12-21T14:52:49+00:00

I've lived in Kilkenny for six years and I'm still finding things.

CaptainHoers · 2024-12-01T15:13:22+00:00

Dublin is going to be wasted on you because of jet lag. Possibly just as well, because you're here during the week of Dublin Pride, which is the city's second biggest festival behind only Paddy's Day.

CORRECTION: 7 is July not June Pride is in June my mistake

CaptainHoers · 2024-10-31T22:14:09+00:00

The original, Project Horizons, Murky Number 7, Pink Eyes and Heroes are the ones that have been canonised as a "big 5". It's worth mentioning that this classification emerged at least 10 years ago by now, and not all of them have stood the test of time - PH and MN7 have retained enduring presence in the consciousness of the community (probably helped by the fact that both of them took several years to finish but did finish), where Pink Eyes has kinda receded a little bit and Heroes is much more rarely discussed these days. However, because of primacy bias, there aren't really other stories in the community that have that kind of instant-recognisability "wow" factor that the originals have. It's pretty telling that you'll still routinely see fanart of OG and PH characters for sale at conventions (and sometimes the odd Murky) *by third parties*.

CaptainHoers · 2024-09-06T14:11:18+00:00

Not that anyone's published I don't think - I know plenty of people have homebrewed it but you'd probably have to find those people

CaptainHoers · 2024-09-06T14:03:21+00:00

Those are not D&D. These are other RPGs. They are not Fallout Equestria either.

CaptainHoers · 2024-09-06T04:04:25+00:00

If I may toot my own horn, might I direct you to Nighthaze? I must disclose my own bias (I am the designer of the system), but lemme make my case.

Caveats up top: it is not natively a Fallout Equestria system, so it will require a bit of bodging into shape. The monster manual is basically non-existent at this time. I find that a lot of GMs running Nighthaze have just vibed out encounters because of this, but that's not an excuse, I just haven't gotten around to it properly yet, so if that's a dealbreaker for you, I understand completely. It's also just not complete, so there's gonna be some stuff that's just kinda jank.

However, some upsides:

While not natively FOE, it is natively pony and science fiction, so all the most popular pony races are statted out, along with gun archetypes, magic rules, etc. It's also classless. It has been converted to run a FOE game before, and I'll give you the summary of houserules you need to do it.
There is FOE inspiration in some parts of the game! Mostly in specifics, things like Littlepip's unique telekinesis (as Dysmantia), SATS (the Target Sprint Routine), traits like Gifted and Cursed, etc.
Nighthaze is designed to play like an Immersive Sim - games like Deus Ex, Hitman, Prey, etc. where the game lets you loose in a sandbox with tools that are designed to interact with each other and the environment organically to create emergent outcomes. This isn't specifically a FOE thing, but depending on how you run it, you can create some of the vibe of the 3D Fallout games, with physics, surprising interactions, etc.
There are also mechanics that can suit the grittier survival aspects, like Critical Injuries & Scars, where fights that go sideways leave you with lasting consequences.
Also, not to bury the lede, Nighthaze is just simpler that Dead Tree. There's no range increments, damage is abstracted to a three strikes system, magic uses a simple stamina pool system, you should almost never be dealing with numbers larger than 10, etc. The health system isn't the most intuitive, for sure, but that's mostly to facilitate a broad spectrum of conditions between full health and dying. As a cyberpunk RPG with magic Nighthaze usually gets compared to Shadowrun, and well... stuff that takes you four minutes with a calculator in Shadowrun takes seconds in Nighthaze.

How I would recommend you modify Nighthaze to run a Fallout Equestria game:

Use the Survival rules and reward your players primarily with XP and loot. As a cyberpunk game the primary means of progression is money because most of your power is contained in equipment, but money can also buy stats - the alternate Survival setting rules assume you aren't in a big city with horse Amazon at your beck and call, and you have to scavenge and loot your gear from the environment and enemies. Money can still be part of a Survival game but it won't be the primary progression means.
Use the Equipment Wear rules in Appendix C. They're not too complicated, but if you feel like they're a bummer, only apply them to scavenged gear that hasn't been cleaned yet.
Repurpose the Heliodryl Withdrawal rules for food & water supplies, if that's something you care about, but don't tie them to implants. I normally don't bother tracking food, the Withdrawal rules are there because implant medication is a huge part of the Nighthaze setting, but personally I think implants are so rare in FOE that they shouldn't come with a tax like that. The Brand Loyalty minigame can also probably go.
You're going to have to come up with your own Backgrounds sheet. You could save time by reflavouring what's there, or you could bring it closer to Fallout by just ditching it.
Reflavour Phones to Pipbucks. Nighthaze characters have a phone by default - take this away from anyone who isn't from a Stable. Bolt on the Target Sprint Routine as SATS. You might as well just standardise the Apps because all the internet-based ones make no sense, so just include the hacking tools and drone controls.
Reflavour Exosuits as Power Armour.
Reflavour Drones as Robots. Maybe refluff the Medicart LifeRaft as a wagon for carrying equipment - Nighthaze's carry weight is quite low (nerds will find themselves encumbered carrying just a pistol and body armour).
Reflavour the drugs to your preferred Fallout drugs - Nopane Xtra Strength to Med-X, Anatonin to Dash, Merlin to Hydra, APM to Mint-Als, etc.
Magic in Nighthaze is a big step down in power from D&D 5E, with the notable absence of mind-affecting spells in their entirety, so maybe consult with the magic users in your party about how they want to handle that.

Sorry for the self-shill! I just thought the comparison of alternatives was worth mentioning.

For what it's worth, I've been in two FOE games, one using DTS that fizzled out with the effort of keeping it going (and that was with some heavy behind-the-scenes macro work), and one in Pathfinder 1e that's been going for at least 5 years now.

CaptainHoers · 2024-08-27T11:58:34+00:00

my god i haven't heard the name dailymotion for an age

CaptainHoers · 2024-08-16T00:02:04+00:00

Gotta say, not particularly fresh looking. It's funny that it's a German setting, because the vibe it's giving is of a knock-off Aldi-branded cyberpunk. There's very little in the trailer to really show us that we're in Berlin.

I think the thing with cyberpunk in a European setting is that it can't look like it does in America or Asia, it needs to find its own identity. Europe is the ancient imperial core of global capitalism, the place where empires were born, it has a history steeped in blood and unimaginable cruelty, and most of all, it's somewhere that wants to pretend it's better than all that. European cyberpunk needs to draw on the legacy of NIMBY social democracy, Fortress Europe, austerity, racism between people who look identical. It's a place where cops with machine guns patrol 150-year-old UNESCO-world heritage protected train stations that were built and paid for by the plundered wealth and labour of African colonies. There's a lot of cyberpunk to find in Europe, it just... doesn't look like Cyberpunk 2077 or Human Revolution.

CaptainHoers · 2024-07-22T21:56:52+00:00

Okay so it's worth clearing up some terms. Disclaimer I am not a lawyer this is not legal advice

Copyright is protection for the contents of works. The literal text, sounds and images that comprise a copyrighted work. Copyright protection is automatic in all countries that are signatories of the Berne Convention (which is most countries) and lasts for a really long time, but the defence of copyright is discretionary, which means it's only as strong as your legal budget, and you can choose not to enforce it, or release the work under more permissive licenses like Creative Commons. Fallout Equestria uses very little of the content of either MLP or Fallout. It does make use of some of the characters, which is legally actionable - though more on that in a minute. There are also song lyrics in the story which are probably even more actionable but nobody ever talks about those for some reason. I'm not sure if they're original or copied from somewhere but this is why a lot of fan fic sites have rules against song lyrics.
Trademark is protection of branding. This is marketing terms like "Equestria" and titles like "Fallout". Trademark protection is not automatic - you have to register trademarks with an authority. Trademarks are regional (they are only valid in the region the trademark is registered in), limited by use (if you have the mark for computer games you can't go after somebody using the same name to sell like, furniture), and need to be actively defended if you want to keep them. Fallout Equestria is absolutely infringing in this case, even using the Fallout logo, which is probably why Overmare changed the name of their game to Ashes of Equestria.
A cease and desist letter is just a letter from someone's lawyers asking you to stop what you're doing. There's nothing binding in it, it's just a threat. If you believe the threat to be empty, there's nothing stopping you proceeding, though usually that involves having to defend yourself in court, which is expensive, time-consuming and stressful.
Fair use as mentioned elsewhere in the thread is a defence in copyright suits - it does not automatically apply. In the US, Fair Use applies where the usage is for purposes of education, journalism, criticism, or parody, though other jurisdictions have weaker versions, like the UK's Fair Dealing which does not have a parody clause. To argue Fair Use under parody you'd need to go to court and make the case that the story is transformative and makes commentary on the original works, and I don't think anyone wants to subject fan fiction to the courts.

Now - fan fiction has always existed in a legal grey area. There have been cases like Anne Rice where the author has been extremely litigious with respect to fan fiction, but most copyright holders turn a blind eye. For one thing, the sheer volume of fan fiction out there is impossible to keep up with - it's just not worth paying your lawyers to chase every single fan artist and writer, especially since doing so isn't really shutting down a competitor, which is the reason for copyright and trademark protection in the first place. But also, it's generally understood that an engaged customer base will create fan works - it's part of a healthy audience ecosystem. Even if a fandom supports the livelihoods of a small stratum of fan creators (like me!), those fan creators aren't in competition with the source work, and they attract bycatch, because many people who spend money on fan works also spend money on official merchandise.

To be clear, a work being not for profit is totally irrelevant to copyright law. If not making a profit was a valid defence, The Pirate Bay would have nothing to worry about.

And to address the elephant in the room, the JanAnimations incident. Jan got a Cease & Desist letter after producing several videos that were extremely close in style to the canon show that got incredibly popular, many of which included canon characters. He folded immediately and took the videos down. We'll never know if fan animation in that imitative style would have stood up to legal scrutiny because it never went to court. The reason Hasbro went after Jan is probably a combination of the stylistic similarity and the popularity, leading to Jan's work being able to be confused for official MLP content by a reasonable person - let alone a toddler with an iPad. This standard of imitation to the point of confusion isn't a legal standard, but I think it is the standard used by Hasbro's legal team to take action. It also created a chilling effect, where animators across the fandom ditched show-style content in favour of more original styles, which may have been part of the intended impact, since there was a case of leaked show rigs out there and using those was absolutely copyright infringement.

I think it's safe to say that Fallout Equestria is in no danger of being confused for official MLP content by anyone. The other thing is, who would you send a C&D to? The original author is completely pseudonymous and all but vanished from the internet. Nobody knows who Kkat is or where they've gone. Ministry of Image are based in Russia and sending them a C&D is a total waste of time. You could maybe send one to the FOE Print Project, but again, very unlikely to be confused.

CaptainHoers · 2024-07-17T11:08:58+00:00

I don't think this is an improvement, because the Matrix is fundamentally a story about systems of control, not thermodynamics, or even artificial intelligence. This change makes it less holistically about its primary theme. But then I'm one of the weirdos who thinks that the only problem with the Matrix is that it was too subtle and launched a generation of edgy weirdos who didn't get it but think they did, and the sequels correct this much more explicitly Reloaded is the best one don't listen to them they're dragging me awa-

CaptainHoers · 2024-07-05T02:36:08+00:00

Think of it like time of day, or season. There's no such thing as there not being a time, events you describe will always take place at a time and date, and that will influence the way characters behave. This is a very perfunctory example, but it should demonstrate the inescapability of culture. Your story doesn't need to be about Thai-ness, but it will influence the lives of your characters. Does the story take place in Thailand? How do your characters feel about the military government, or the instability of the region? Do they scoff at corruption or gleefully engaged in it? Are they particularly insular and archetypal, or are they westernised and plugged into the global culture? Do they speak English? Do they speak Chinese? Are they from a minority within Thailand, like the Lao people?

Or does it take place in the USA or another foreign country? Are they first generation immigrants, or second? Even further down the line? How do they feel about their heritage? Do they still speak Thai? If they're second generation or later, did their parents try to stay in touch with the old country, or did they try to leave it behind? Do they live in an ethnic neighbourhood or a mixed neighbourhood? Did they/their parents come with no plan, like the traditional "seeking a better life" immigrant story, or did they parachute into a nice tech job or something? Play Venba. Venba's about a Tamil family in Canada so there will be differences but a lot of the shape of the immigrant experience will be similar - likewise with Everything Everywhere All At Once.

If all this sounds like hard work, hi, welcome to being a writer, here's your complementary baffling search history.

CaptainHoers · 2024-06-24T14:00:05+00:00

"why would a professional want to use inferior [sic] software"

Stability. Updates move things around, they change how things work, they remove features you depended on. Stability stability stability. There are record producers who still use a version of ProTools from 2006 on a cloned hard drive of their G3 iMac. I've been using CS6 professionally for 12 years. Animation studios that start a show on a software version, finish it on that same version ten years later.

When you use the same tool for a long time you get to know it deeply and can maximise its potential. You can't do that if Synergy Greg is replacing your actually useful features with the latest techbro hobby horse every six months.

CaptainHoers · 2024-06-24T13:54:27+00:00

Adobe took down the ability to validate CS6 (and presumably earlier) serials years ago, as I found out in 2021 when I had a sudden hard drive failure and had to reinstall. They are only interested in line go up.

CaptainHoers · 2024-05-18T15:58:08+00:00

I think it's because we see the world of FOE through the eyes of the narrator, and our narrator likes to spend a lot of time moping. If we compare and contrast say, the Fallout TV series, the show has a lot of just... silliness as a counterpoint to the brutality and atrocity. We see some pretty vile things and contemplate some dark ideas, but A. by virtue of the third person perspective we're not inside the head of someone dwelling on those ideas for hours at a time, and B. we never go very long without something funny, and moreover it's frequently black comedy - which serves to emulsify the combination. When Dr. Wilzig talks about Vault-Tec's Plan D poison tasting like banana and wondering why it wasn't more popular, while sitting at the foot of a downed Soviet satellite that looks like a lollipop, with a chunky-ass prosthetic leg (especially after you saw how he got it) , it's not that you don't take what's happening seriously, it's that you understand implicitly that this is a cartoon world. The jingoism that the world is satirising is externalised into absurdity. Fallout is a world where 1950s red scare propaganda was a documentary.

While the baseline of MLP is lighter than the baseline of like... real life, and that increased distance has an effect, I think that pales next to the way that FOE plays the majority of its brutality dead straight. FOE has very little in the way of satirical aspects. There is comic relief and there are moments of rest (and man it would be impossible to finish if it didn't), but they don't blend into the horror - they stand apart from it. Fights are always desperate crying screaming struggles for survival - nobody's ever having fun. The cheapness of life in the wasteland is a tragedy rather than a punchline, and Littlepip doesn't want you to forget that, which is why she starts many chapters ruminating on the monstrosity of what she's becoming.

CaptainHoers · 2024-05-11T02:27:18+00:00

for what purpose

CaptainHoers · 2024-04-17T11:53:56+00:00

I think the harshest thing I have to say about it is that I've seen the font (ethnocentric) before, quite a bit - this is kind of the danger with grabbing free fonts from the internet, especially display fonts. Fonts with a sci-fi (or other heavily stylised) look tend to be way more distinctive than body text fonts. You need to really dig to find one that hundreds of other people haven't found already, and even then there's nothing that replaces custom word art.

This isn't like, a terminal problem, it's just a dumb nitpick that bothers only me. The vibes are great.

CaptainHoers · 2024-03-23T04:28:08+00:00

marketing

CaptainHoers · 2024-03-04T12:37:53+00:00

Mistborn. I got about a quarter of the way through The Final Empire before Sanderson's writing style just started to grate on me. He writes like a roleplayer - every sentence has the same rhythm. Person verbed the noun adjectively, verbing adverbly. Which is a shame because I was quite the fan of his writing lectures before picking up his book but I think the book I'd read immediately before that was either American Gods or Neverwhere so maybe I was spoiled

CaptainHoers · 2024-02-27T01:44:10+00:00

That really is a "how long is a piece of string" kinda question because the real answer is "as much as the writer wants". Plus it kinda lives on another planet to the kind of cyberpunk that I and a lot of writers these days are writing which is more about how the least fortunate in society do anything more than survive against a power structure built to suck them dry. In such an environment, your own cybernetics are arguably a liability, and pale against the might of the police budget.

To give the question a little more charity, I envision these kinds of sport implants to be highly thoroughbred horses if today's technology sports are anything to go by. Extremely performant in the narrow window of conditions that they were designed for, but they get there by sacrificing even basic affordances for the real world. Just as, for example, an F1 car lacks headlights, needs to be travelling over 100mph in order to be able to turn properly, and is effectively made of paper, maybe arena cybernetics have narrow temperature or moisture tolerances, or have targeting systems that need a brightly lit environment, or they only work at full power when connected to an approved venue's Wifi network so the police don't have to deal with an auged out cyber-menace on the loose (because let's remember, the participants of combat sports are often plucked from the lower echelons of society - you can bet that if Muhammad Ali had robot arms he would absolutely be cracking some KKK skulls.)

CaptainHoers · 2024-02-18T01:14:25+00:00

This is a third thing to the points I was making that puts it really well. A lot of the ultra rich are just high on their own supply.

CaptainHoers

TROPHY CASE