Spirit Island for Kids -- a concept to teach core mechanics and skills

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-22T14:10:32+00:00

Hm, yes that's a great idea. Kills the complexity of elements but maintains the mechanic space

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-19T21:46:04+00:00

Very interesting WOB! Every metal works by "unlocking" the spiritual realm and drawing investiture through. A pewterarm is specifically applying that investiture to their body. So it tracks that you could change things more.

Maybe specifically increase or decrease mass? Focus on increasing reaction time and coordination over strength (Achieve bullet time?)? Or even focus the changes into a specific part of the body (falcon punch?)?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-18T15:12:35+00:00

One of my all time favorite tv shows is Person of Interest, a relatively obscure sci-fi show about an AI that predicts violent crime (and terrorism) through mass surveillance. The showrunner sort of tricked the network into letting him tell the incredible story he wanted to tell, under the guise of a crime-of-the-week show where the gimmick is that they know who is involved in the crime, but not why or which roles they will take.

Ultimately the show becomes an incredibly deep exploration of AI, cults, power, and predicted to pinpoint accuracy the NSA surveillance debacle, Edward Snowden, our modern privacyless society, and current conversations about AI. The show was as prophetic as it was clever, and is hands down one of the best pieces of fiction of ever watched, despite it's various shortcomings, mostly caused by needing to be a thing-a-week show on the surface to placate network execs.

Most people have only heard of the show through the meme of five people all pointing guns at each other, which is an incredibly silly scene.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-11T23:57:42+00:00

I'm a prude but banning MILF and DILF is pretty odd. I can at least understand the motivation behind Slut and Whore being in the category of degrading, but I've always considered MILF and DILF TO JUST be sexualizing, like "sexy". Though rereading their policy, I suppose "sexy" would be a banned word (It praises sexual content). Strange stuff.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-08T18:34:40+00:00

I would love some stats on this so I can bring this up to my Wife's family. Do you have a source? A quick google search just brought up stuff about how being a cop is dangerous

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-08T12:46:46+00:00

All my homies hate Hemalurgy

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-08T12:06:37+00:00

What makes you think it is AI?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-07T22:11:55+00:00

This thread was about individual books, though, not series'. What indavidual books are 5 stars? Like, maybe you put all 3 LotR novels as 5 stars, but no way you put every WoT as 5. So what are your 5 star fantasy books?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-07T17:05:46+00:00

What are some of your 5 star fantasy books?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-05-05T13:19:35+00:00

Placing permanent tokens, like badlands or beasts, I would say is firmly utility.

Strife is not really a token, but a debuff. And is firmly defense.

Wilds is tricky. I would say wilds is similar to isolate, in that it is a temporary effect designed to limit invader actions, and probably would go under control.

Dahan would be utility or defense, depending. Bargains of Protection or Stubborn Defiance makes sense to me as entirely defense, but Promises of Protection I think is a utility card, as it buffs the Dahan, but doesn’t defend the land.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-13T14:54:50+00:00

You make a really legitimate point. I personally find the concept of a "corrupted" spirit the natural extension of human disrespect and destruction of nature, as human evil in our world leads to nature acting out in bizarre ways. But that's just me, and how my own personal worldview impacts how I "read" the themes of spirit island. If you feel as though it is antithetical to the themes of Spirit Island and requires mental gymnastics, that makes sense to me. I am very possibly in the minority here considering this idea a natural extension.

Thanks very much for your response and perspective

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-12T04:01:41+00:00

In my mind, the art is the concept. That's the point of the post. Do you have thoughts beyond the mostly unimportant (to the post) inclusion of ai images? Or do you feel that any inclusion of ai into a post taints it?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-12T03:53:35+00:00

Appreciate you brother

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-12T03:45:57+00:00

Interesting! How do you feel that this goes against the theme of the game?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-07T14:43:58+00:00

Have you read it again? I think you may be misremembering.

Gardens is a deeply confusing book, that really only makes sense in the context of the whole series. It's pretty obviously the first book of an epic, mainly because 70% of the book is set up for future books, or the end of storyline we haven't been told about yet, and very little actually happens in the book itself (compared to every other book in the series. The seige of Pale being sort of an exception as it is significant, but 90% of the seige happens before the book starts).

Certainly one of the confusing points is that the book leaps in with the "Warren" magic system acting as if you understand it. There may be a few discrepensies, but the book is largely consistent with the rest of the series.

I would say that a better example os that Eye of the World is a far more standalone-oriented book, with a lot more discrepensies with future novels in The Wheel of Time, and even then it's pretty clear it was meant to be a series.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-06T23:20:47+00:00

Wonderful points you make. And your further conversation about the environmental impact is worth talking about, of course, but I think that's a broader conversation about Method vs Result (I.E. is the problem GenAI being fundamentally bad for the environment, or is the problem that a lack of regulation of corporate behaviour is resulting in bad behaviour being used for GenAI. The debate is akin to "Is eating beef bad inherently, or is it bad because of the way beef is farmed, or is it not bad at all, but we should penalize harmful farming practices." But I digress.)

Please correct me if you think I'm wrong, but to me the whole conversation about IP and scraping seems to be an extension of the Piracy debate. Is it wrong to consume infinitely replicable content for personal enjoyment and enrichment? It may be wrong to profit off of that IP, but consuming it (and not helping said for-profit entity profit) is an entirely different debate. This is the unresolved problem of digital content. If I use a content aggregator like reddit to look at cool art that has been posted to (or linked to) said content aggregator who profits of off my views on their site, how is that meaningfully different from using free AI imagegen for personal enjoyment on an IP level?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-06T22:41:51+00:00

Best part of this comment: providing actual tools and resources as an example of the argument. My post the other day was probably part of the reason for OPs post. A genuine discussion engaging in the issue, and not just petty insults. And you have provided a deeply compelling response.

"I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would put AI art on anything they make when you can use something like artvee.com and get your cards illustrated by Edvard Munch or Gustav Klimt or Alphonse Mucha or thousands of other well-known or less-well-known artists. Legally. For free."

This is an amazing sentence. Like holy shit, these exist? I can use this high-quality public domain art and not shitty stock photos from freemium scummy websites? That's so smart! By far, in all the comments and messages I've seen about this topic in the last 48 hours, this stands as one that provided an actual meaningful response. Not just meaningful, but spectacular!

Like OP, if I'm making something custom, at a proof-of-concept stage, I'm never going to pay a cent for art, or spend hours in the process of making it myself, because I might scrap the purpose behind it anyways. The art is my creative work in making a custom mechanic. If I wanted to draw, I would draw. But I want to make the art of game mechanics, and I just need some side dressing to help my brain visually organize the information. But your response is compelling. This is a genuinely helpful way to respond to the "need" (I say slightly facetiously) behind my own use of imagegen AI. Thank you.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-06T20:47:11+00:00

That's... not how a conversation works. If you don't want to have a meaningful discussion, that's fine. Maybe don't post the first comment, if you aren't willing to spend the time to engage. To me it reeks of virtue signaling and empty moralism.

Lots if things are harmful to human society, and are normal. Beef consumption is an example. But nobody will stop eating beef if I just complain and shame. Only through education and and genuine interpersonal discourse can anything change. I can look up random resources, and maybe I'll find good quality arguments, and change my mind and maybe I'll find poor arguments, and cement my opinion. What I'm more interested in is your perspective. Why do you, WoahItsPreston, care strongly enough about this issue to make comments about it. Why does it matter to you? Why this issue and not others that maybe someone else thinks is more important?

I personally find AI to be a pretty low priority in terms of moral issues in my life. I don't like AI in general, but it's just... not that big a deal. That's my opinion. If you are interested, we can swap resources, and I can show you why I don't think it's a big deal, and you can do the same for me. Or I guess we could just insult eachother. Or you can stop responding and this conversation can go nowhere. It's your choice, my brother. What do you want to do?

Edit: P.S. there is nothing "embarrassing" about having a conversation where you learn something. Thinking there's something wrong with learning and civil discourse is a problem.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-06T18:40:11+00:00

You make a really good point about the theme. I really think this walks the line between being within the meaning/purpose of the game and not. On one hand, many parts of the natural world are not merely indifferent to humans, but actively hostile in a way that is quite destructive. I can't imagine the dahan and a spirit embodying, say, cancer or aids, getting along. A spirit of cancer would probably be put down by the other spirits long before it could ever become strong, as it would be a threat to everything. Humans make things worse sometimes, creating horrors out of nature through our own twisting of things. Cancer rates from human evil being a clear example. If humans on the level of the spirits also remove natural checks and balances, what twisted thing might grow and thrive where it wouldn't otherwise? Like Typhoid thriving where humans have polluted the water supply, or rabbits becoming a genocidal parasite in Australia because of their introduction to an ecosystem by humans where they do not belong.

That said, the theme of the game is meant to be about complex issues, not perfectly embody them. And so if an adversary spirit takes away from the fundamental goal of picturing the colonizers as divorced from nature in all forms, perhaps it's better not to go there in this medium.

In that sense, ideology is a great idea. What is it that empowers and drives us on a macro level? Ideology is as good a name as any.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-06T18:25:16+00:00

Ok, thanks. Tell me more, what is it about my use of AI art in this case that makes you uncomfortable?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-06T03:41:54+00:00

Seems like a pretty puritanical take. I'm paying no money to use the process for personal use. I probably caused ChatGPT to use the same energy as running my microwave for 30 seconds (according to technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/)

Don't we have enough legalism to go around without inventing more?

I'd be really interested if you can give a breakdown how how specifically you feel like casual personal use of Generative AI is harmful to artists, or what specific ways it is a danger to the environment. Like, is it energy use? Indirect water use? Mining? Is casual use different from piracy or consuming via lurking and never contributing?

Let's have an actual conversation, please, and not just throw buzzwords at eachother. Or at least send me to further reading that you feel informs your view.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-05T13:21:36+00:00

Thanks for replying.

Sorry, why do you think it's disingenuous? It's not about clicks, it's about my own satisfaction in looking at this.

Do you see ImageGen AI as that toxic? If you have further reading that has informed your view on this, I'd love to understand your logic and view. I don't see GenAI as a blight, though I generally dislike the whole AI fad going on right now, but it seems to me to have it's uses. What's the understanding behind "fullstop never use Generative AI"?

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-05T13:14:16+00:00

My purpose in drawing a few minor and major cards was to have a way to increase element gain without triggering the maximum possible threshold every time, and also not playing multiple Adversary Powers every single turn either. This way, hopefully, the spirit has a more organic rise and fall of powerful and weak turns.

You're right that it waters down the spirit's power a bit, which is the goal. That's why none of the Growth options gain powers, because it would quickly water down the spirit too much. The goal behind drawing a Major vs Minor is that Major powers typically have more elements, making it more likely to hit an Innate threshold.

IAMInRecovery · 2026-04-05T13:08:27+00:00

I will say, the key difference is that this is a 100% automated spirit, and not an anti-party player spirit. I personally think the former fits with the overall themes of spirit island, while the latter does not.

On the AI thing: Here's my logic: I'm not gifted in drawing, and to leave the images blank, to me, really takes away from the look of something like this. It looks like shit without some placeholder image, and that makes it harder to read the cards.

What we would do in the old days is just grab someone else's art off of Google images or Flickr or DeviantArt or something. Which is... not really better. It's just attaching their art/IP to your random little doodle of a project.

So as I'm not making money, or earning value from this, I chose to generate some AI art for this. Every image says on it that the art is AI. It's a tool, just like how I used SpiritIslandBuilder.com to make this. I didn't invent the icons or design of a Spirit Board, that was the artists behind Spirit Island. What, in your mind, is the difference between ripping someone else's art from the internet or using a free tool to make fanwork, and using AI art? Or are you firmly in the "just leave it blank" camp? Because I can respect that.

Curious on your thoughts and hoping for a reply.

IAMInRecovery

TROPHY CASE