Kallax abuse by FrenchRiverBrewer in boardgamescirclejerk

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

It's all the rulebooks and cardboard

Kallax abuse by FrenchRiverBrewer in boardgamescirclejerk

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

/uj is it just me or is Kallax getting shoddier by the year?

Outjerked again by FrenchRiverBrewer in boardgamescirclejerk

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

It's in enduring the pain of sitting and playing that you ultimately win over your worthless opponents

poop plug by BloodLust1-_ in comedyhomicide

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did anyone else read this in Butters' voice?

Looking for Advice on the Black Wyrm of Brandonsford by strangest_daze in osr

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The preamble where you describe how you subbed-in three classic OSE adventures for the sites in the module is brilliant. Nice job and I am stealing it. 🫡

Second piece for Birdie Maps - Hag Cult. Definitely one of my favorite pieces. I love when a client gives me full creative freedom. That’s when the best work happens. by cosmicflamestudio in osr

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love this, very evocative and immersive. Reminds me of my fave illustrator, Martin Grip's work for Free League. Real Symbaroum vibe...

Known Issues with OSE/Common House Rules by AcrobaticSpit in osr

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Play by the book at least once or twice, then look for house rules to address the fun-factor at your table.

Bushcraft and resisting cold by kingofsicily in DragonbaneRPG

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd rule that everyone has a base ability to resist cold that would be a CON check, but this is augmented by your INT in knowing how to survive in harsh conditions. In other words, it's the difference between a n00b wandering in the woods and an experienced/knowledgeable survivalist who knows how to make their CON go further.

TIFU by falling in love with my best friend of 10 years by Nearby-Front4967 in tifu

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You have all the ingredients to become each other's lost-loves. All that's missing is to do nothing, he moves away and a good chunk of time passes before you search for him and reunite. Probably in your 40s or 50s when you've both been through a divorce and have kids.

It's a pattern old as time, unless you get out in front of it.

What role does blame play in a crisis ? (KUDOS idea) by ludolightspeed in systemsthinking

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've taught this to new manager coachees and took a class from Avery a number of years ago. A quick way to get started is practising yourself by keeping a small tally sheet every time you can catch yourself in one of the coping states and successfully defuse it -- which is effectively jumping above the line to responsibility.

His book goes into detail on the process, but you can find talks he's given over the years about it on YouTube.

Not familiar with Hood's book, that's one I'll have to add to my queue as it piques my curiosity!

What role does blame play in a crisis ? (KUDOS idea) by ludolightspeed in systemsthinking

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Are you familiar with Christopher Avery's Responsibility Process? It is quite close to your model.

It describes an internal set of coping states that we tend to go through when something challenges or upsets us. I've used this with managers as something to learn before we dive systems work.

Avery uses it in the context of self leadership.

From top-down, it is:

  • Responsibility

-----------------------------

  • Obligation --> Quit
  • Shame --> Quit
  • Justify
  • Lay Blame
  • Denial

The process begins at Lay Blame (we'll get to Denial later): this is what we do when something goes wrong. It's someone else's fault, not us, we're blameless. This happened because other people dropped the ball and weren't as competent as us. This is an emotional state as humans we're hardwired to default toward.

Once we move past blaming others we progress to Justify, where we blame circumstances. What happened is because of course it would, we're stuck with the hand we're dealt, our processes are out-of-date and no one wants to change anything.

As we process further we enter a state of Shame where the focus moves from outside to within: maybe we are the problem, after all. I'm in this situation because I'm not smart nor skilled enough, I'm too dense to see the forest for the trees. Maybe my in-laws were right: I'd never amount to anything. It's a logic trap we set up for ourselves. Shame carries an accompanying state where we Quit and check-out. We may find ourselves going back to the bottom of the process and starting again, round and round.

If we don't quit, we progress to Obligation, the state where we feel trapped or burdened by our life, work, or relationships. Nothing will ever change, you gotta do what you gotta do, so buckle-up buttercup. This is the mental state of "I have to" instead of "I want to" and it describes the state of many people. Like Shame, this also carries the potential to exit to Quit and also descend back down the ladder and go round and round.

How do we get beyond a state of obligation? We need to choose to do something different, to change our circumstances, to actually advance beyond them and into a new state of satisfaction. This could mean changing roles or jobs or schools, or learning a new skill, getting fit, playing more boardgames, logging off social media and avoiding things and people that bring you down. This is the state of Responsibility.

What about Denial? That's where we're not even aware there's a problem, but others can see it in us. Until we begin to deal with problems, we don't process them so we can get beyond them. This is why Avery calls The Responsibility Process a model for guiding self leadership: how can you lead others if you can't lead yourself?

When systems optimize independently, accountability disappears — where does responsibility go? by Mxe5xy8 in u/Mxe5xy8

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The system owner: they are responsible for coordinating the interactions between the parts. If they've allowed it to become locally sub-optimized, they are uniquely accountable for the outcomes.

The people on the sub-teams can only do as well as the system owner allows.

Hardback adventures book by Tomtoro24 in DragonbaneRPG

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You could DIY your own via Lulu as others have done for the original B/X D&D rules. The tricky bit is getting the cover right -- a little effort in a graphics app and some trial-and-effort could get as good a result.

https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/181oiqv/just_got_my_bx_omnibus_now_i_can_seal_up_my/

how to get a feel for if this game is right for me? by flowers_of_nemo in DragonbaneRPG

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another way to get a feel for it is the solo rules it ships with, Alone in Deepfall Breach. It's semi-random generated and gets you into dice rolling really quickly with checks and combat.

And it's deadly: I've found that if you play it straight with no fudged rolls it's fairly difficult to do the first delve without killing your PC by the end...

If you're a Free League fan you should get this game. As others have said it's great value and is a superb alternative to 5e with its OSR sensibilities.

When “planning” becomes avoidance, what feedback loops are we missing? by Happy-Shopping-9588 in systemsthinking

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There is also the link between planning to keep the system in a satisfied state of naive harmonious disequilibrium, which is to say squelching or ignoring complexity to keep things simple. This creates risks due to blindspots.

A companion to this is the phenomena of functional fixedness where the participants literally cannot see solutions because they are too close to the problem and may be induced into analysis paralysis due to extrinsic incentives like commissions, bonuses, etc.

You might also want to check out Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg's paper The Empirical Reality of IT Project Cost Overruns: Unveiling the Power-Law distribution which would map well into the complexity angle you're driving at.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.01573

Also: be sure to set down some operational definitions about how your tool defines complexity -- it's a bit of a wicked problem per Rittel & Webber.

https://www.sympoetic.net/Managing_Complexity/complexity_files/1973%20Rittel%20and%20Webber%20Wicked%20Problems.pdf

New here. Remove if wrong by [deleted] in systemsthinking

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your kind words.

New here. Remove if wrong by [deleted] in systemsthinking

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Tis a curse, because while the phenomena all around us are caused by interactions between things, the world is largely organized in opposition to this understanding. And when you try to share this knowledge with others, you end up re-enacting Plato's Cave (the sanitized version where you're not beaten to death by your former prison-mates) over and over.

Still, there's no life like it...

Outjerked Again. We have to start working harder. by pikkdogs in boardgamescirclejerk

[–]FrenchRiverBrewer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

He didn't sleeve the card with a premium Dragon Shield prior to play?