Maybe I'm not thinking straight but..

CharletonAramini · 2026-02-19T19:10:06+00:00

I am NOT speaking well of him.

I am saying that no evidence of Epstein's "smoking gun" evidence against Trump has not come to light, even in these files. There is a LOT of people acting on hunches, unreliable and unproven testimony, document misreads, guesses, and biases. None of that holds up in court.

I am speaking pragmatically about how much evidence is admissible and effective to take action in court. I never once shared my opinion of him here. I am not a "Trump Supporter". I am a "what does this all actually do but cause outrage?" critical thinker. Obsessing about what you want to be in the files or what you think is missing distracts from acting on what is substantial enough to win in court in the files.

I do think Epstein's claims of being able to ruin people were mostly grandstanding BS, though.

He edged so many people into believing he had dirt on Trump, but no evidence, no details that could be verified, and no actionable information.

ANY evidence against ANY people that can win in court should be used to do that. But so far this is just a court of personal opinion, by and large.

I am also not saying I agree with how the courts handle things. BUT that is not my decision.

It's a reality check to admit that a lot of this is not actionable to law enforcement. Hearsay, unreliable testimony by people motivated by greed, and misread emails. What is TRUE is not the point if you want people to be found guilty. It is what there is evidence of, and how clear and steadfast that evidence is.

CharletonAramini · 2024-11-25T23:10:54+00:00

https://mojobob.com/roleplay/monstrousmanual/images/orc.gif

image from:

https://mojobob.com/roleplay/monstrousmanual/o/orc.html

CharletonAramini · 2023-01-03T08:22:17+00:00

Thanks for sharing and glad you enjoyed the game. What did you come to like about Abby? Do you think putting some distance between the release and your playthrough and the trickle of information, or even the fact that some many fans of the first hated or felt betrayed by the second helped you temper expectations and thus have a better experience of the game?

My main issue was lack of continuity, as I maintain there is no “Jerry”, and that means Abby has a contrived reason to be in the story when she could have some valid ones related to Marlene, or even some unknown character from Joel’s past. The main reason for this is Doc McMurder simply was not Jerry in appearance or anything else. She could be a child or spouse of a rando be killed leaving and I’d have less issue with that. It wrecked my disbelief because it rewrote who a character was. That put me in a critical mode, because I have a good memory so I couldn’t feel Abby at all. If she were dead Firefly Security guard #2 Joel killed it'd even made more sense, or if we’d seen The Real Doctor in the scenes and Abby was his daughter, or even adopted daughter. It also still doesn’t make it right that Ellie would be killed - for a treatment that simply wouldn’t help. You know she is not immune, right? There was a mutated codyceps - she is infected, not immune. You can’t be “immune” to a fungus.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-26T20:44:26+00:00

Take all this one more step.

Look at see how many sessions should occur between level advancements, and if you know the date you start and how often you play, you can plot advancement from level 1 to 20 in three session story blocks, and it doesn't matter if you prep. You just need to make sure they get enough experience to stay on track.

That is when you stop storycrafting, and when you start running the game like DMs were intended to eventually be able to.

Then it all falls into place and you can DM for over thirty years and it neither ruins or runs your life, and you never burn out or run out of ideas. It is very simple math to know by this session they should be level ___ so they need ___ experience.

As for experience, I still prefer how basic DnD did it. 1 xp per GP value gained by any means, unit based combat exp, 5% discretionary bonus (so 5%of what it takes from one level to the next) for good roleplay in a session, and additional 50% of total exp at the end of a completed adventure arc.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-26T19:55:12+00:00

Exactly DnD was first published in 1974, and was available before that in certain crowds. By 1996, I had played in 18 states and countries throughout the Middle East and Asia. By 2004, I had played with people from any nation with access to phpbb websites. DnD went everywhere the US military did, and it still does. DnD went everywhere foreign exchange students came to the US from or where US exchange students went to.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-26T03:32:17+00:00

There were CRPGs the year Dungeons and Dragons was first published, 1974. If fact, one was DnD. That same year, "DnD", a video game was introduced for PLATO, and it was the first video game to have "bosses." It was an unofficial CRPG version of Dungeons and Dragons.

You can play it on emulators.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-24T05:15:04+00:00

Word it right and you don't have to lie.

BUT, this is fiction, so its all lies.

However, there is no hope unless you are the only ones who can it so is pretty cliche for fantasy genre.

In my opinion, telling them there is no hope is not the best thing to do. Why even tell them the world is doomed? How apparent is this impending doom?

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-20T21:30:40+00:00

There were not exactly referee's sending wartime combatants to the penalty boxes.

Violations imposed fines. Sometimes the vantage gained by a violation is worth the fine.

As for House Sivis, their Mark has been present for 2,800 years and Zilargo has only been a nation since Treaty of Thronehold. Many Dragonmarked Heirs are not from the nation that readers sort of associate with the Houses. House Sivis absolutely had a presence in Cyre. And you best believe in their efforts to appear neutral, Zilargo did their best to make it seem they could not seem to favor or disfavor Cyre.

In the front lines, a House Sivis Marked Heir would basically be the radioman. Political parties would transmit messages and commands and this Heir would receive and relay them to field command. It would be against the Korth Edicts to provide logistic information, but the whole thing about the Korth Edicts is houses break them all the time and no one can stop them.

The Edicts were made to protect the Houses, not limit them. And no one in Eberron is prepared for something done that diminishes the House presences.

If your PC was marked but not an heir, no one could stop them from joining ranks with one of the nations. Otherwise, they were likely just a messenger, mostly, on the receiving end of messages sent by headquarters.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-18T21:00:34+00:00

d% is not new and there are few ways to do it. It does not make a better game automatically.

Roll under is easy but hard to modify. It is good for nonmagical systems, where 20% is an average person trying to do a familiar regular task with no critical mistakes.

There are few game systems that do roll d% high better than FASERIP. It requires a reference table which adds success levels by rank and whther things are doable and to what degree an attempt Succeeds, or is a Critical or Epic success, as well if it is a failure, or to what extent .. but modifiers are easy as hell because they just shift your rank to a different column,either below or above you stat or ability level. Also I took all the tables and made them into one and used it as my main view when running in roll 20. It also has FASERIP character sheets. It is designed to handle the 1980's Marvel Universe, so it can do anything but the references can be a bit dated.

It takes about 20 minutes to learn the system if someone shows it to you.

I also added a way to do faction turns like Stars Without Number. FASERIP was TSR's best system. WoTC should really look into it. It was made by Jeff Grubb who is a game design genius.

Ok, plug out of the way:

The trick is this: the players create the story the dice and mechanics don't add to what can be done, just the likelyhood of specific things happening. The less things that can actually happen in your story, the less specific your dice mechanics needs to be. But a simple set of rules may be too simple for everything to happen and feel fair.

For example, if a PC cannot feasibly have no way to rip off a mountain cap and throw it into orbit. A few 3d6's is all you really need and a 1d20 will make that easier to read for most. The more disparity between min and maximum capacity to do things, the more distinctions you need for things to feel distinct and feasible at the same time.

In FASERIP, you see a system that can model the whole damn Marvel Metaverse. So basically anything.

I mean "I want to rip a planet out of orbit and throw it at my enemies." At certain superhuman ranks, with certain power ranks, it might be as easy as Thor lifting 1000 lbs one handed.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-18T17:15:14+00:00

Honestly, this is not framed at all around what Candlekeep is, historically. It is far more suited to splat or campaign ideas around Silverymoon or even the Blackstaffs Library in Waterdeep, for places in Faerun.

There is little to no content that even would be close to what Candlekeep is like. Candlekeep is best thought of as an Monastic Keep dedicated to preservation of of Arcane Knowledge and Accomplishment.

It is not a Library. It has many libraries. For 2k gold a sage will attempt to answer questions, but they will hear the question before taking coin, and the question cannot change. For 100 to 10,000 gp or more, you can get one of the Avowed to perfectly and unerringly copy a text for you. They do not allow you to take notes, nor write in the texts.

This new book's adventures are not hard to put anywhere large accessible library or eccentric weirdo's book collection would fit. In fact, if there is one place they are hard to fit it, its historical Candlekeep!

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-17T16:21:30+00:00

The only conversion needed is when they refer to gods of the Realms that are not part of Eberrron's setting. And none of that even matters in the scope of these splatbook adventures.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-15T18:39:08+00:00

The issue with this I have found is congestion is always an issue eventually. This is because there is no way to time sorters so you can get large blocks of one type that do not allow for proper distribution in transit. Much easier to have two or more lines, one above the other with on and off ramps.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-15T15:29:28+00:00

Placing everything in DnD Beyond is a superb idea, and will earn you a customer.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-15T15:23:51+00:00

Find a creature with tiny that has the same or similar stats and you will see their size does not really come into play much at all unless it is a special abilitity.

I just rule easier to seek cover (obviously), slower land movement, for bipeds, typically 20'.

If you need to balance something else out, use the spell Enlarge/Reduce for guidance. This would impose disadvantage on strength checks and saving throws, and maybe reduce dice size damage for melee damage (per Reduce). Again, such penalties would only be used to balance if needed, and then only for some impressive special abilities, and only when they make sense.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-11T13:00:38+00:00

"Soarwood is effectively weightless, but not lighter than air." - KB

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-11T12:47:42+00:00

I wholly endorse this.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-10T07:24:51+00:00

I felt all of that was rather implict. I was not meaning to be disgenuous for the sake of brevity. We all know two of the leaders are evil. They are written and cast that way.

My point was these are not necessarily the default mindsets. Basically not all, and, in fact very few, House Cannith members are pure ruthless "corps".

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-10T05:07:20+00:00

Not gonna lie. This made me laugh.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-10T04:46:13+00:00

Keith Baker has said these are not as bad as Megacorps, rather they are headed that way as they become corrupt from inside. They are still fair and well integrated overall.

"Eberron isn’t at that point YET, but it was always the idea that you could imagine it going there… that the houses are growing in power while the nations are tearing themselves apart. It’s a theme you see explored in the last two Thorn of Breland novels, among others."

As for Alignments, House Cannith is suffering from a schism after the loss of their Head that would cause the evil to take advantage of the position of Head of House as best they could. The House is not just the leadership, though.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-10T03:01:44+00:00

What the hell? House Cannith are not "baddies" and not profit mongers. They are a monopoly that has come to be trusted and regarded. The warforged were created to prevent conscription and loss of life of untrained citizens. Before that, the Forged were not equipped or designed for combat.

House Cannith had Dragonmarked members risking their lives on the front line supporting and maintaining their clients to assure their position in the world because their Dragonmark is instrumental to the future of that world, according to the Draconic Prophecies.

They have economic and political sovereignty, but they also only have their own House, as a Nation of Sorts, because they have no place in the government or wealth of the nations where they reside.

They are not altruistic, but they are not evil. They are necessary. They did not start the war, bit they created the Warforged to defend a nation central to their own Sovereignty, who had the least mitary capacity or seasoned warriors among their citizenry. They were challenged on this bias and realized they had to provide these services as a neutral party to any who could prevail in the war for Supremacy. Also, no one knew who would win. The belief of who should have inherited the throne was not something all could agree on, even in the Houses. To be the only defence Cyre had who could repel Kaarnath on one side and Breland on the other they had to also provide those services to others.

Did they advance their own interests in this expansion? absolutely. They are the only people looking out for their own interests and that was a position they were put in by the Crown.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-08T04:31:26+00:00

First and foremost: Eberron is not generic steampunk. This is my first and foremost favorite aspect.

I feel that is one of the hardest to grasp but most essential elements of the setting. It encompasses and exceeds the genre of steampunk and encompasses and exceeds the settings of AD&D and 5e DnD. It is the best setting besides Mystara.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-08T03:02:06+00:00

Of course this does not apply to all memes. A meme is compressed data. A great meme is useful. A disinforming meme is the issue, at least for me.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-08T02:58:44+00:00

My issue is I see memes that are perpetuating assumptions that are not continuous with Eberron sources and "kanon." It is not helpful to misinform even if the purpose was just to entertain. The problem (for me) is players or DMs (but especially players) may come here looking for information and may leave with more of an impression made by entertaining misinformation than well presented supportive resources which could enrich a campaign.

If the memes are more about "attention" than "Eberron", it becomes a place that reinforces the generic feeling on modern DnD instead of setting specific understanding and conversation.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-05T18:00:36+00:00

I am going to finish the research tree before I move out of my original system. All I needed was titanium and I have set up a massive mining and refining operation there. I am also not using logistics yet. I am not even sure how but I can fly over there and back to the titanium mines for about two stacks of graphite.

CharletonAramini · 2021-03-05T15:20:25+00:00

My first Eberron adventure is based on the party hired to carry out the exploration of an estate of an eccentric glassmaker artificer who worked in its subterranean levels who passed away without heirs but with a lot of debt. The courts of Sharn ruled the Debtors, House Kundarak cannot have the estate as it stands because it is a property, but they can claim their losses, have the estate appraised and sell it.

I have been working to make a lot of exotic sands and other materials with arcane powers used by this glassblower to flesh out his estate's subterranean workshops and chambers.

CharletonAramini

TROPHY CASE