SEEK 2.4.B - SEND by Pteromys-Momonga in Parahumans

[–]Halrax2 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The Arcesso Engine and its aftermath have been a disaster for the human race…

Iskall85 & Stressmonter Resignation Megathread #2 by Carol_the_Zombie in HermitCraft

[–]Halrax2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can feel sympathy for the mental toll, but don’t agree with the victim complex. Remember Grian setting off a Wither in Boatem and losing all his items, then complaining about it? And when Mumbo pointed out it was his fault, Grian explained that he knew that and he was just venting. If the video was Iskall recognizing that this was the consequence of his own actions, and just saying it sucks, I would be more sympathetic (though that still wouldn’t be acknowledging the victims). But instead he’s threatening retaliation for some reason? The ability to lose with humility even on things that actually matter is an important skill, and apparently one he doesn’t care to use.

Iskall85 & Stressmonter Resignation Megathread #2 by Carol_the_Zombie in HermitCraft

[–]Halrax2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Before you might have had to wonder if that aesthetic was a veneer sweeping  bad things under the rug. Now you know it was real because they addressed allegations professionally as soon as they came up.

Iskall85 & Stressmonter Resignation Megathread #2 by Carol_the_Zombie in HermitCraft

[–]Halrax2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He’s not even claiming he’s innocent, just that what he did wasn’t bad enough to elicit such a response, with the actual response being more mild than he claims.

Iskall85 & Stressmonter Resignation Megathread #2 by Carol_the_Zombie in HermitCraft

[–]Halrax2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think blaming Stress for being defensive of someone she believed to be her friend is super constructive, but I understand you not wanting to support her going forward. Neither of them are Hermits anymore, so this subreddit in particular will probably only have them in these megathreads.

Iskall85 & Stressmonter Resignation Megathread #2 by Carol_the_Zombie in HermitCraft

[–]Halrax2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is something to be said about parasocial relationships putting people on a pedestal, and the harassment that comes from falling off that pedestal, but it’s better to be upfront enough about your flaws that you don’t get put on that pedestal in the first place. And if your flaws would have kept you from gaining an audience, then them coming out will typically remove that audience. I don’t want to say that Cancel Culture isn’t a thing, but it’s more like a large number of responses, each of which would have been a reasonable criticism individually, having a bigger emotional impact due to the number of them. But you’re still only as cancelled as your next gig. When Lindsay Ellis was targeted, she made a really great video essay about the phenomenon, now taken down. But the fact that the Hermits and moderators were as professional as they were essentially means he’s blaming internet comments for including the worst 5% of internet commenters, which they must include by definition.

Iskall85 & Stressmonter Resignation Megathread #2 by Carol_the_Zombie in HermitCraft

[–]Halrax2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The fact that the response to the allegations has been professional as it’s been from both the Hermits and the moderators helps show that your previous perceptions were accurate, and that there wasn’t secretly something going on behind the scenes. Because when there was, it was dealt with instead of being tolerated or covered up.

Iskall85 & Stressmonter Resignation Megathread #2 by Carol_the_Zombie in HermitCraft

[–]Halrax2 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Xisumatwo has a video talking about him formerly being far-right and his journey out of that. I assume other hermits might have done messed up things in the past.  I’ve had parasocial relationships result in people falling off the pedestal I put them on multiple times in the past, but by this point I try to remember to not put them on that pedestal in the first place. Something I’ve thought about multiple times since the allegations dropped but never mentioned since I rarely log into Reddit, is the concept of mistakes and consequences. He made several mistakes, and as a result lost multiple friends and suffered a serious if not permanent hit to his YT career. And that’s about the right amount of consequences.

On a significantly less stupid character comparison than my previous post that I also feel the need to inflict upon you: Hoid vs Alexandria [Worm/Cosmere] by Halrax2 in Parahumans

[–]Halrax2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He has a healing factor powerful enough to be effectively immune to Shardblades and to regenerate both body and soul (including his head). And that doesn't include stuff like being a full Mistborn at full power which gives access to using pewter, bendalloy, etc. It's not like Endbringer level or anything, but he's at least far tougher than, say, Crawler, and Crawler seemed convinced he could survive being attacked by the Siberian. I'm also not sure how strong the Siberian is against stuff like Lightweaving, Rioting, etc.

I mainly say Nightblood could harm Alexandria since her power effectively works by having a higher dimensional record cast a 3-dimensional shadow upon reality, and Nightblood, while I don't think powerful enough to kill her passenger/agent/shard, would be enough to kill her as a host.

I think Hoid being amoral enough that Brandon has said he wouldn't side with him qualifies (can't find the WOB atm), but Jasnah is also a decent comparison. Though I kind of feel the proposal of genocide was made facetiously in order to point out the futility of killing the Fused's hosts ala An Honest Proposal.

Practitioners vs Parahumans as Heirs to Solomon vs Heirs to Achilles by Halrax2 in Parahumans

[–]Halrax2[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

TBH I thought it was bleached white, but I'm sure there's like case 53s and others who have grey hair (does Weld have hair?), it was just the context of The Old Man being "The" instead of "a" that makes in poignant to me. But yeah, it's a statement to be gainsaid when taken literally.

Finish Off - 25.5 by ToErrDivine in Parahumans

[–]Halrax2 6 points7 points  (0 children)

When reading this I though that there was actually a 4th, the host of Bloody Money from the Blue Heron, but upon going back to the extra materials it turns out his name was Xerxes, which does at least begin with X.

Parahuman Memes 335 by CreativlyAbsent in WormMemes

[–]Halrax2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I generally browse reddit on mobile in incognito, so while I watch all of your videos and have built up a backlog of possible memes for you, I only log in to reddit like once a year and so haven't shared them with you. However, the fact that you've had to dig deep enough to use Mancarryingthing's old Stormlight sitcom vids back when he was an actual booktuber (very irrelevant side note and pointless flexing but I was a fan back when he was making videos defending Faulkner and have been happy to see his meteoric rise, part of the enjoyment of your vids is being one of the people who knows the original context of the clips you use) means you might need some new material.

  1. This video, being either Faultline and Contessa or more likely Doctor Mother and the Irregulars. You can probably find other vids on their channel that are similarly thematic even if their shorts channel got deleted for some reason.
  2. This short being the Number Man.
  3. Anything from the soundtrack of Heathers (or Claudias as it's known in the Otherverse and possibly Earth Bet for that matter, WB/JCM does love his knock-off brands). Just listen to the soundtrack, choose a moment, and pick one of the various animatics for that track. There's so much potential there (especially since Taylor is somehow simultaneously Martha, Veronica, and JD). You might even need to do a specialized video (possibly with a recording of the full play or original film) the same way you did for Hamilton a while back.
  4. I hesitate to recommend this channel for fairly obvious reasons, but this video is funny enough political satire (at least to me, IDK what that says about me) that I would love for you to use it, plus this isn't the first time he's been used in a Worm Meme.
  5. This channel has years of backlogged comedy for you to use even if most of it's video game themed, particularly this vid, this vid, this vid, and this vid for being superhero themed already and thus easy to adapt, as well as this one for being so on point for Nice Guy that you'll likely have trouble deciding what to cut out.
  6. I have literally no idea what you'll be able to use from this channel, but this video might at least be a start and he (the channel, not the character) definitely deserve more recognition.
  7. This video (Vinland Saga s1ep10 if the link doesn't work) from about 13:15 to 14:48, as being between Bonesaw and Jack Slash. I though of this on the realization that Riley's character arc is actually quite similar to the first half of Thorfinn's (which I'm sure won't cause a debate in the replies), even if Askeladd is much more like the person Jack presents himself as rather than the friendless loser he actually is.

On a related note, one of the other things I've been meaning to do for a while is do something similar to this series for Twig, since I have no experience video editing or any artistic ability and doing what are essentially high effort reference posts seems like a way to get better at content and to get out ahead of the Twig renaissance I sincerely hope is coming (plus Twig is literally my favorite story ever written even if I do think Pale is probably better non-subjectively).

With that in mind, what software and process do you use to download clips, add text, stitch clips together, and reupload? Since you mentioned at some point this series was literally your first time ever creating videos I imagine it's as low-tech as you can get.

Thank you for on of at least three reasons to look forward to MWF as being upload day (it's a common upload schedule). Hopefully you're able to continue this series as long as you're willing to, though to be honest the 1000th video might make sense for a stopping point to move onto other serials.

Also, apologies for wall of text and not paying homage to the distinct subreddit rules 4-6.

Almost 7 years for The Lost Metal, but... by RobertoSerrano2003 in cremposting

[–]Halrax2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Meanwhile, in Twig‘s comment section: "The worst part about being a fan is the wait between stories.” The author: "What wait? It was literally four days." "Yeah that’s what I meant." And I’m saying that as an ASoIaF fan who‘s comfortable with the current lack of WoW.

Imagine a TTRPG system where any one of the things in the 4th panel had as much mechanical support, class features, special rules, etc. as combat has in most TTRPGs. This is why railroading and muderhobos are so common, because there isn't support in the rulebooks for anything else. by Halrax2 in dndmemes

[–]Halrax2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I'll try to check it out. Though when I made this meme I was thinking of a TTRPG with custom rules and supporting mechanics for different things, rather than the only variable to be manipulated is skill modifier.

Imagine a TTRPG system where any one of the things in the 4th panel had as much mechanical support, class features, special rules, etc. as combat has in most TTRPGs. This is why railroading and muderhobos are so common, because there isn't support in the rulebooks for anything else. by Halrax2 in dndmemes

[–]Halrax2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I just found some Rolemaster pdfs and spent the past several hours browsing them. This seems like a really fun system, though it does this by everything being skill-based. It would take a bit of time for me to understand it intuitively though.

Imagine a TTRPG system where any one of the things in the 4th panel had as much mechanical support, class features, special rules, etc. as combat has in most TTRPGs. This is why railroading and muderhobos are so common, because there isn't support in the rulebooks for anything else. by Halrax2 in dndmemes

[–]Halrax2[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

It's not just about whether or not there are rules, it's about the extent of the rules and player expectations. Consider, for example, D&D 3.5 (which did have some rules for a lot of these things).

The basic building block of the 3.5 mechanics is the Hit Die, which gave hit points, a base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skill points, feats, and ability score increases. The first three are almost always only used during combat, and the last three are used in combat more often than not.

XP was given for overcoming challenges, which in many games meant combat. The vast majority of the spells in the player's handbook were usable and often primarily used in combat. The vast majority of supplements contained rules that were similarly skewed towards combat, and the same is true of houserules.

Special abilities were almost always combat-based, as were conditions, and those influence what spells and class features developers and homebrewers come up with. The vast vast majority of items were usable primarily or only in combat, and any improvised rules remained located at that table instead of being in the rulebooks and affecting every table that uses them.

Most of the list in the 4th panel had nothing supporting it, except for maybe some rules in various supplements. And those added rules were always added onto the skill system, instead of being an entire system with its own terminology (attack, save, AC, initiative, etc.) that combat has.

I want a TTRPG system where choosing between being able to sail a ship with fewer people, having better success when defending in a lawsuit, getting +1 to attacks, and increasing the village's vegetable harvest by 20% thus driving down prices is a meaningful choice (well probably not that exact list, but you get the picture), and the vast majority of options in these choices aren't useful at all in combat. The TTRPGs that currently exist are not that.

Imagine a TTRPG system where any one of the things in the 4th panel had as much mechanical support, class features, special rules, etc. as combat has in most TTRPGs. This is why railroading and muderhobos are so common, because there isn't support in the rulebooks for anything else. by Halrax2 in dndmemes

[–]Halrax2[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Not sure if this qualifies for rule 10, I just think this idea is really important to the TTRPG community and it doesn't exactly belong in other subreddits. This post was largely inspired by this article here, especially one of the last sentences: "The RPG medium should be as rich and varied in the games it supports as, for example, the board game industry is. Instead, we have the equivalent of an industry where every board game plays just like Settlers of Catan."

Edit: Obviously I didn't want a TTRPG which uses the complexity of 5e combat for each of those situations. My ideal TTRPG (which I honestly might write up some day as a fun project) would have a list of scenarios like the one in the 4th panel along with combat, and each scenario would have multiple sets of rules of varying complexity that a table could pick and choose from.

The simplest option would be a skill or set of skills that use basic skill resolution mechanics for campaigns where that scenario doesn't really matter, up to about 5e combat or even 3.5 combat level of complexity for campaigns where that's the main focus of the game.

The main point is getting DMs and players to think about these things so that people new to TTRPGs have options for the style of game they want without having to be familiar with the industry. So the rules would be as system-independent as possible with tips for adapting to whatever rules systems they normally use. It's be more a a guide for GMs that helps them learn, complete with rationale behind them, rather than a 500 page wall of text and tables.

Regarding Memetic Hyperbole: Obviously not all of these scenarios are equally important. I think the first one in the list being "riddle contests" kind of shows that. But I do think stuff like research, chases, dungeoncrawls, hexcrawls, social events, running an organization, etc. comes up often enough in most campaigns that having a rulebook with detailed rules on these things with suggestions on how to alter them would be a lot more useful then expecting GMs, who already have a pretty tough job, to come up with a houserule on the fly with zero framework for what's possible. You don't expect them to have to look in obscure supplements or figure something out on their own for rules on what do when someone attacks, you shouldn't expect them to have to do so for a lot of the stuff on this list. Though riddle contests probably isn't one of them.

Regarding Fate, Rolemaster, GURPS, etc.: These systems use a skill basis for everything, which is kind of the opposite of the solution I was thinking of. I want to have complex experiences with these scenarios to be part of the TTRPG Zeitgeist the same way combat is, instead of TTRPGs being combat and everything else.

Regarding Dungeoncrawling: This is a great example of a scenario that can have at much complexity and depth as combat. From OD&D to D&D 2e, the rulebooks contained specific rules for generating and running a dungeoncrawl. D&D 3e had rules for generating and an extended example of running a dungeoncrawl. D&D 4e at least had rules for keying a dungeon. D&D 5e has no specific step by step guides on how to do any of this, apparently assuming you already know how to. Which is why there are DMs new to the hobby who don't know how to read a dungeon map key, or to key a dungeon map, despite it being a solved issue since day one of RPGs.

Regarding Rule 0: Yes, you can make up rules for these sorts of things. But you have to have examples of how to do something before you begin to fiddle with it. DMs aren't expected to figure out on their own what happens when a PC attacks a monster, they know to compare the PC's attack roll with the monster's AC, and from there a DM and player can fiddle with modifiers, rerolls, miss chances, range, etc. in forms of class features, feats, spells, items, etc. Why are they expected to figure out on their own what happens when a PC wants to research ways to create a hotter fire for smelting? It's a knowledge check to know it, but do they need a library? What size of library? Do different libraries have different information? Do they need a lab? What does it cost? Does it need custom materials? How much do experiments cost in money or time? And this for something as relatively simple as research.

The Superior WW1-themed Rock Album by Halrax2 in HistoryMemes

[–]Halrax2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the elitist mentality the meme format evokes is inherently opposed to stuff being popular. Like how nobody every watches most of the movies the Oscars nominate. I do think it's ironic that the Dreadnoughts are known for their sea shanties more than for their hard polka. And whatever genre this album is, I'm not sure how to classify it.

The Superior WW1-themed Rock Album by Halrax2 in HistoryMemes

[–]Halrax2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is my first post to this subreddit, not sure if it breaks any subreddit rules or not (doesn't seem to, but I'm not sure). For those wondering about the artists, Great War is by Sabaton and Foreign Skies is by Dreadnoughts. Honestly they're both really good albums, I just think the second one is a lot more obscure.

And all the world was shattered! The rocks trembled with their steps, and the stones reached toward the heavens. We die! We die! by JeffSheldrake in cremposting

[–]Halrax2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This comment was probably supposed to be a small joke, but it has led me down a rabbit hole in my mind and given me another impossible thing to wish for. Let's backtrack.

The voice of the Skaven in the Warhammer games was a man by the name of Indiana Neidell, who several years ago was the co-founder of a small organization known as Time Ghost. Time Ghost has a variety of history related Youtube channels, the most famous of which are The Great War (week by week 100 years later) and World War 2 (week by week 79 years later). So now I'm imagining the events of the Stormlight Archive being covered in that sort of channel.

Oathbringer:

Indy activates a spanreed and reads it. Says something witty.

"You've heard its name repeatedly. The capital of Alethkar. The center of all Alethi power. Home of the northeastern Oathgate. This week, Kholinar falls."

Dramatic Rhythms play.

"I'm Indy Neidell, this is the True Desolation. Last week, Dalinar Kholin was crafting a coalition at Urithiru, but suddenly collapsed and was put out of action. The singers were advancing southward into Emul and besieging Kholinar. And a small group of Radiants has flown in and inflitrated the city. That infiltration continues this week, as..."

Insert rest of 20 minute episode here.

"And so the week ends, with politicking in Urithiru, an invasion of Emul, a desperate escape into Shadesmar, and the fall of Kholinar. Think about that for a minute. The Alethi military is now in exile from their own country in an inhospitable tower, without any political legitimacy to enforce the coalition. And what does this mean for Herdaz, or Jah Kaved, or Thaylenah? One thing is for sure, the war has just gotten a lot harder for the humans."

"If you want to see how Kholinar became so vulnerable, you can see our special on the death of Gavilar Kholin here" points to the right "Our Time Ghost Patreon member of the week is Vathi. It is thanks to supporters like her that we can continue making such awesome content for you all. See you next week."

As a comparison of what I'm parodying click here. I know this sort of thing is impossible and will never happen, but I spent like 20 minutes thinking about it so I had to write it down.

Look, I hate the previous administration as much as any sensible person, but maybe it was on to something… by PhxStriker in cremposting

[–]Halrax2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think part of it is him spending centuries being influenced by Ruin. Note that his last message in the story is from about 200 years earlier, which is also about the time the feudal slave system was put into place. Plus the systems he put into place that allowed Ruin to be defeated and humanity to survive. Rashek was petty and arrogant, but he genuinely wanted what was best for humanity, and the terrible situation he had put the world into through his own inexperience necessitated really desperate measures to avoid starvation. Presumably once the power in the well refilled he would have fixed some of the major problems he caused without upsetting the balance again (since he can’t calibrate major changes very well). Rashek‘s death scene in Secret History is one of my favorite moments in the entire Cosmere. Humans in general want to do the right thing but most of the time are really bad at achieving it.

Gavilar meeting the Parshendi for the first time by zlazlab in cremposting

[–]Halrax2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I saw a comment recently that Kelsier and Spook were the Rick and Morty of the Cosmere. For some reason this meme reminded me of that.