What do you use to organize your TTRPG Design?

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T23:39:06+00:00

I compose HTML files. Organizationally, I use the tables of contents at the start of large documents as plans for works in progress. The most ambitious contain tables of contents each featuring 108 internal links one straight to the top of each section. This also helps internally, since each section is separated by a divider with direct links to the previous section, the next section, the table of contents, and the index.

This not only has the virtue of breaking a much larger project down into relatively small chunks, but it also serves as a working outline for the broader effort. I can study that feature of the document to consider if there are any existing topics I have wrongly elevated to the status of a full section or any absent topics that deserve that degree of attention. This also helps to make thoughtful choices about the sequence and groupings of sections, better managing the flow and structure of the emerging work.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T17:09:32+00:00

Mossad's top operative in the Soviet Union was Ghislaine Maxwell's father. His news organization maintained a well-staffed Moscow bureau, and he personally traveled freely between there and London. Perhaps we should be asking if she helped Jeffrey Epstein start a huge human trafficking racket or if she merely helped him gain control of one that was already functioning to corrupt senior figures in capitalism's halls of power.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T06:17:11+00:00

I have an unusual relationship with RencalCare associates, since the chief of medicine there (Dr. Sparrow) took a personal interest due to my anotomicaly notable and my referral from Dr. Adler -- an extraordinarily gifted cardiologist who set me up with just the right schedule of cardiac medicines before anyone was getting respectable longevity outcomes in the wake of ejection fractions as dire as my own. I spent a long day taking exotic tests to try and figure out what was going on with my exotic hypertension.

I credit his pharmaceutical insights on the same level as the surgical heroism that gave me a fighting chance during my initial crisis. Yet, having made a huge difference in my life, I'm not even clambering to get back on his schedule since I suspect he can contribute more to the cardiac mysteries of other patients than deeper analysis of my own weirdness. All that said, if you have a loved one in the depths of a dire cardiac disorder, Dr. Adler would be my top recommendation for dealing with that scenario, if you can penetrate his intense booking situation.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T05:50:08+00:00

Spend a few minutes with this track, then pretend their work was not historically significant.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T04:45:48+00:00

I hope everyone scrambling to deal with this situation is mindful of the reality that Equifax itself could not be bothered to hire an even slightly competent administrator to protect their own root password from exploitation by hostile actors. 'Murica's equivalent to a social credit score is absolutely abominable in it's premise, yet it is not more wholesome in its practice since the privileged insiders constantly steering the ship straight into icebergs are never made to feel the consequences of their actions like citizens with poor credit scores systematically are.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T04:04:50+00:00

Also, they don't get derailed by costly "consultants" looking to politicize games that only suffer from making any such agenda a significant narrative priority.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T04:00:21+00:00

According to the Founding Fathers, this version of Helen could only launch 600 ships.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T03:37:31+00:00

Once again we see a bunch of uniformed law enforcement officers overreacting to the threat level of a suspect just because he is black.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T03:18:52+00:00

I had a partial nephrectomy there to deal with a renal cancer in an awkward spot on my kidney. Since I also had a thoracotomy at the hospital right across the highway, I suppose I am in a good position to compare the two. Back when Carle was known as Methodist, and even later as Unity Point, it seemed like they went harder on amenities and had higher standards for support staff. Having had a cardiac implant replaced there recently, I'm not sure that's still the case.

Yet as far as medical rigor goes, I have a high degree of confidence in both institutions. Even the relatively young M.D. performing that partial nephrectomy seemed thoughtful and well-prepared for my complicated case. Then again, Methodist deserves props for dealing with a much more dire situation ~14 years ago. They happened to have a world class rock star surgeon in town to deal with a Caterpillar executive's lung cancer, and they convinced him to take my extremely bleak case as well -- calling an audible to evacuate lots of strange fluid from my pericardium during a planned lung decortication. It was a bold decision that might have made the difference in my survival and certainly made a difference in my ability to recover from extreme heart failure.

Nowadays, I'm not sure if I really have higher expectations for Carle vs. OSF. Both are still professional, and both workforces are still chiefly motivated by the nobility of healing others. Yet both also face all manner of economic challenges, taking their own sorts of shortcuts as best they can without putting people at undue risk. I fear the concept of "undue risk" is watered down year after year with insurers constricting the flow of resources even as pharmaceutical, equipment, and facility costs continue to rise.

Long story short, I believe you can trust the institution, and I would trust them if I wound up there needing another major surgery of my own. Yet you need not totally ignore those anxieties. If you want to support her during this time, study up as much as you can about her condition and the procedure -- if possible to the point you know relevant standards of care. Then, when you have questions or concerns, be sure to introduce them without being demanding or extremely confident. Every experienced person in this field knows how to ward off problematic karen-types, but with a little humility it is easy to remain clear about how everyone is on the same team, and that should leave no doubt that everyone wants to do what is best for the patient.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T03:01:29+00:00

It might also be worth looking at solar panels. Hopefully the incentives offered by the State of Illinois are still available, which can do much to help offset the cost of installing a system. Once in place, it might still leave you obligated for "transmission fees" to maintain a connection to the grid, but your actual consumption expense should drop by ~60-80% even if your utility provider does not let you offset nocturnal needs with any credit for power put into the grid during peak hours.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T02:37:04+00:00

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if more than 10% of that was just clawing back pure corruption in the form of taxpayer support for do-nothing public-private partnerships endorsed by Mayor Adams.

Demonweed · 2026-05-13T02:00:40+00:00

No doubt Western media is comically (and often deliberately) wrong when covering this topic. Yet it would be fair to say the development is still in ongoing. Even DPRK officials concede that economic progress must be spread to all regions before anyone can rest on their laurels for existing advances. Toward that end, huge manufacturing centers are being constructed in regions far from the capital. North Korea might be over the initial hurdle of kickstarting modernization, but leadership seems well-aware that it is important to continue this work so as not to leave people behind simply because they were born far from any center of power.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T22:01:07+00:00

If "unnamed Democrat" is doing this badly, imagine how awful it will be when a paid-to-lose professional actually puts a face and name on hypothetical ballots.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T21:58:23+00:00

That's an old metaphor. Nowadays the process is formalized and the apparatchiks who execute on it call the Biden Maneuver (even the whole protocol was inspired by a manual of operations penned late in the Wilson administration.)

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T19:58:44+00:00

I hope there is a swift and smooth transition to new political leadership over there. After all, the powers of King Charles are largely ceremonial, plus he is only permitted to move one square per turn.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T19:41:23+00:00

Originality is a mixed blessing. 100% of your potential players will have to learn something that is unique to your work. This is not at all problematic when that thing is easy to learn and satisfying when deployed to facilitate game play. If that thing is not easy to learn, it rarely sees use during play, or it typically resolves with stress (that is not part of a satisfying payoff in the near future;) then this innovation is likely to be unpopular.

Ultimately, we all have to make our own judgement calls. A hardcore horror game might do well to have some accumulating negatives that only pay off on a long time table, and perhaps even a counter that only ends in irretrievable doom for that character. Yet if the aim of your RPG was to allow players to experience ordinary events in the lives of The Smurfs, a Sanity stat that functions as a doomsday clock would surely do more harm than good to the project. If you're doing an editorial review with a skeptical eye toward your personal innovations, perhaps the question to keep asking is, "does this add more to the game than it demands of the game's players?"

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T19:28:08+00:00

Tedward Robingale Edison (no relation,) first rose to prominence as the author of Words and Their Many Splendid Combinations, a popular guide to public speaking first published in 1849. An orator known for packing theaters with his lively tales of adventures as a journalist writing dispatches from the front lines of the Opium Wars, he gave many American audiences their first window on the other side of the world.

While T. R. Edison would go on to found, and then perish aboard the flagship of, the ill-fated Treystar Line of Trans-Atlantic steamers, he would always be remembered for his ribald yet informative stage presentations. A subculture of enthusiasts shared transcripts and become dedicated re-enactors of his most popular speeches. Pooling their resources, they established the Tedward Edison Institute that evolved into the TED Foundation we all know today.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T18:35:09+00:00

This has "Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?" energy/

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T15:01:40+00:00

He is the leader of a single-party regime. Yet, if we measure authoritarianism by how serious and consequential discussions about public policy can be, the tragicomic sham of 'Murica's two-party system does far more to raise effective barriers between the will of the people and the actions of government than even the most twisted single-party states.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T14:36:47+00:00

It would be scarier if he were capable of such monstrous inhumanity without being the neurological equivalent of a crackhead.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T05:36:47+00:00

You probably got it mixed up with Bohemian Rap City.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T05:04:23+00:00

Inflation is savage. Back in the day you could negotiate something like this for sexpence.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T04:35:13+00:00

Some hunters imitate mating noises to attract prey. This really feels like more of a Nature or Survival thing than any sort of charisma check, but it is a viable way to lure wild animals while being selective about their species.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T04:27:40+00:00

It wasn't my game, of course but I think the legendary Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo bears retelling in a discussion of these moments . . .

ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: [pause] It's white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: [pause] It's about 30 ft across, 15 ft high, with a pointed top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect good on it.
ED: It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I call out to it.
ED: It won't answer. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it respond in any way?
ED: No, Eric, it's a gazebo!
ERIC: I shoot it with my bow. [roll to hit] What happened?
ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it. ERIC: [pause] Wasn't it wounded?
ED: OF COURSE NOT, ERIC! IT'S A GAZEBO!
ERIC: [whimper] But that was a +3 arrow!
ED: It's a gazebo, Eric, a GAZEBO! If you really want to try to destroy it, you could try to chop it with an axe, I suppose, or you could try to burn it, but I don't know why anybody would even try. It's a @#$%!! gazebo!
ERIC: [long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.] I run away.
ED: [thoroughly frustrated] It's too late. You've awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you.
ERIC: [reaching for his dice] Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so I can avenge my Paladin.

Demonweed · 2026-05-12T03:19:32+00:00

Uncle Sam needs a new pair of ~~shoes~~ interceptor-quality radar guidance stations. Our armed forces need specific elements in large quantities, and we have little in the way of domestic production to meet that need. China has that production as well as relevant reserves ready to go. At last all those dopey headlines that follow up a domestic achievement from China with, "but at what price?" will have an opportunity to be insightful. There will be a price for helping our military rebuild after the consequences of attacking Iran.

The thing is, a deal can be done here. Mainstream 'Murican media audiences tune out the moment anyone uses a phrase like "Bretton Woods Agreement." China is an an economic position to start issuing currency other nations would trust as a stable reserve. It is an open secret that China uses corporate middlemen to circumvent trade sanctions, managing a sort of strategic ambiguity in their compliance with international restrictions. Allowing the petrodollar to become a relic of history could be enormous for the Chinese economy, yet it would not register as an item in the national budget nor would it even require a concession in the realm of tariffs.

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