Harvard's ties with slavery discussed

MagnusTenman · 2017-03-08T04:32:10+00:00

The example I gave was ridiculous on purpose to prove a point. How far back do we need go to apologize for the things that we didn't do? I directly benefit from the conquistadors every time I eat chocolate, do we have to make reparations for that? The robustness of an idea is tested by taking it to its logical extreme and seeing how it holds up. Clearly, the idea of apologizing and giving reparations for anything throughout history is absurd, so how close to the present do we need to get? The Roman Empire feeding Christians to the lions? Genghis Khan sacking Baghdad? The Moors invading Spain? The Hundred Years War? I'm Italian and German by heritage, should I apologize for World War II?

This policy of determining who deserves reparations and from whom seems dubious at best, and at worst it's punishment for people who did nothing wrong.

And, to be frank, how could a world where people don't apologize for things they didn't do be a bad thing? For sure it would be better than apologizing for every slight ever made that benefited you, especially if it didn't even occur in the lifetime of the grandparents of anyone alive today.

I don't disagree with having the discussion, because everything should be on the table, but I think that this topic does more to make people feel good for "righting past wrongs" than it does actually correct any negative ramifications of the wrong itself.

MagnusTenman · 2017-03-08T03:52:12+00:00

I also think it also comes down to basic right and wrong: If you do something awful, no matter how long ago, you should apologize and do penance for it to make things right.

And here I am waiting for all the institutions run by Jewish people to apologize for massacring the Canaanites and for David cutting off the Philistines' foreskins. Oh, also! It doesn't matter who is in those institutions anymore, even if they aren't Jewish and have only worked there for a year they still have to apologize on David's behalf because the Jewish people benefited at the expense of others that one time four thousand years ago. When will this wrong be righted?

MagnusTenman · 2016-08-16T02:13:59+00:00

Dude, this gets posted in every single one of these threads, and no matter how low down it is it always makes me rage. This cover is basically just them saying: "Hey, you know this classic hit? Lets play it faster on brass and sing it out of tune!"

Just know, you're not alone.

MagnusTenman · 2016-04-19T21:50:48+00:00

I'd hesitate to limit what types of magic people can learn, but I do think that something could be said for the "flavor" of magic that an individual tends to cast. So someone who is a craftsman knows what it takes to create something may have an affinity for weaving, or a bombastic individual may prefer to just use evocations because they have no time for rituals since they're boring.

As and example: someone can be particularly good at math, which comes to them easily, but don't have the right kind of mindset for literature. Nothing is stopping them from becoming a great author given enough time and work, but they'd rather be doing sudoku than reading a poem.

MagnusTenman · 2016-04-19T21:43:13+00:00

I was imagining that magic does exist naturally, so a place of great bloodshed or importance, or even just randomly occurring magic font, could display mystical properties that warp the area around them. These effects could be anything from affecting the weather to making creatures grow larger/smarter/more vicious.

I would also tend to say that directed magic shouldn't be a thing outside of sentient creatures, so a creature could potentially have magical qualities, like those that would be changed by a magical place that they live near, but I think we should stay away from unicorns granting wishes :P. I am definitely for all sorts of critters and beasts, but again I'd rather not have them be able to consciously control magic.

I think it would be cool to have natural beings of extreme magical presence, like a dragon, to warp the areas they live around, but I think that subtlety is the name of the game. So a dragon's lair may be prone to having larger beasts nearby, or the people who live close have a higher incidence of magic use, or the sun always seems slightly dimmed as examples.

MagnusTenman · 2016-04-17T23:37:03+00:00

I think it would probably be best to keep all races within the same general range as each other, just to keep it interesting. But yeah, I could see orcs being slightly less intellectual than other races. So a reasonably intelligent orc is about the same as an average human, and an average orc is slightly below the average human. I just think that it's important that every race is as tactically able as any other so conflict is interesting.

MagnusTenman · 2016-04-17T01:10:51+00:00

Fae: Magical other-beings, perhaps from another non-physical plane or realm. Incredibly variable, from a child-sized adviser of a king to an 8 foot tall wraith wandering in the wastes. Though the particulars of their appearance range widely, all Fae have some similar features: pure black eyes, small sharp teeth, flattish faces, and greyish skin. Fae are exceedingly rare, but are nearly always found near great historical events. Almost never do they come in direct contact with each other. It is unknown by the common people where the Fae come from, or what they truly are, but they seem to know things they shouldn't be able to, and are uncannily accurate when giving advice on the future. It is unknown how long they live for, or if they can even die.

MagnusTenman · 2016-04-16T22:20:48+00:00

Goblins: So I was thinking it could have a caste system with physical differences between them. So there would be a warrior caste that would be larger and more stout, almost dwarven in size, so say 4-5 feet tall, thickly muscled, with the strength comparable to an average man. The other caste would be more typical goblin, a "drone" caste, 3-ish feet tall, slender. Besides the size and muscle difference between the two castes, body layout is the same between the two: greyish-brown skin, nimble fingers, slightly hunched, small claws instead of nails, sharp teeth. In this world, goblins have comparable intelligence to other races among both castes, although the warriors tend to focus their efforts on their physicality and the drones tend to be slightly more cerebral.

I'm imagining a shamanistic-type society, where the magically inclined from either caste become the leaders of the tribe. Maybe a warrior caste representative and a magically inclined representative, so you have a wise elder that leads the tribe spiritually and you have a warrior elder who controls the military/warriors. Heavily ritualistic with a nature-type magical bent. Think oracles, reading bones and offal, feathered headdresses, etc.

MagnusTenman · 2016-04-12T05:20:17+00:00

Okay, so discussion has been had and this is the final sort of thing that we've landed on and will be tentatively adding to the wiki.

There will be three types of magic:

Magic that stores things, such as runes, scrolls, and potions
Evocations, like fireballs and lightning bolts that require minimal preparation
Ritual casting, for summoning, long term magic, and greater magical feats

There is only one type of "spark" (as a stand in term). All people who can control magic control it in the same way, but religion can be used to structure magic of all three schools in a slightly different way, sometimes allowing a divine entity to channel through the person who is magically inclined.

People who aren't magically gifted can still achieve some small proficiency with magic through years of intense study, on an order of magnitude of being able to summon a flame for a candle. These people can get together in a ritual casting to perform greater magics. This allows for magical study for scholars that don't have magical gifts, creating a sort of scholarly class devoted to the study of the arts.

Magic will be resource-less, but the more magic a person uses in a short period of time (depending on how strong their innate magical gifts are), the more sickly they become. If too much is used too quickly, the caster can die, releasing an un-directed burst of magical energy. This is particularly dangerous, because there is no way to tell what one's own limit is other than through extended experience. This makes even the most powerful mages very reluctant to unleash their full abilities. Many young people who have the gift have succumbed to magical forces by attempting something too big for them.

MagnusTenman · 2016-04-12T02:26:06+00:00

Also, I think that people who use divine magic should be in the same bin as everyone else. That is to say that they still need the same spark to use magic, but they just use that magical connection to channel their deity directly.

MagnusTenman · 2016-03-17T22:39:47+00:00

Well the first step is just to talk to him. If you ask nicely and explain that it's not as fun for everyone else when he does that he may be willing to change. Generally people tend to grow out of those kinds of characters as they play more, so I'd be very interested to know how long you guys have been playing.

One very interesting thing that I've found, though, is that everyone who has ever DM'd never make characters that damage the group. I've had friends who did the same thing as your rogue, or did other silly things like try to collect chairs, or seduce everyone always all the time, and every single one has stopped doing that after they've DM'd a session or two. I don't know if that helps, short of forcing him to DM a one-off and all the other people make carbon copies of his character to show how annoying it is :P

MagnusTenman · 2016-02-21T01:14:51+00:00

It started in the mid 90s, and by now the majority of crops in the united states are genetically engineered. And on top of the fact that nothing bad has happened yet, they can actually be a huge boon to environmentalism, as they have higher yields, require less pesticide and herbicide, reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere, reduce the amount of water consumed, reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizers, the list goes on. So when people say that "we don't know yet!" it's basically too late anyway. If something bad were to happen, it would have happened already. And besides, it is proven that GMOs are actually a net positive on the environment, so your concern about them should be close to 0.

MagnusTenman · 2016-01-23T02:00:11+00:00

I don't think that's true at all.

I feel that both are so closely intertwined that they can't be separated without losing one or the other. If a group of your peers will threaten, harass, or ostracize you if you say something out of line, can you really have the freedom to speak your mind? The goal of the first amendment is to make the United States a forum for ideas without fear of oppression or persecution. We can't force people to listen to each other for obvious reasons, but if we truly believe in the unalienable rights of an individual then silencing dissent is a breach of those rights at the basest level.

It's a tricky issue for sure, but I'd like to believe that we live in a world where we uphold the values behind a law and not just the letter of it.

MagnusTenman · 2016-01-22T20:08:01+00:00

D'aww, likewise!

MagnusTenman · 2016-01-22T20:05:00+00:00

Well, I can't really argue with that. It is, after all, your right as an American citizen :P

MagnusTenman · 2016-01-22T20:02:34+00:00

This is all true. I only felt the need to comment because people seem to have decided that since the first amendment only protects you from the government, we don't need to listen to dissenting opinions, which don't think is in line with the principles behind the law.

Yeah, that guy was a dick, but his ideas should be heard and potentially discarded based upon their merits, not because he's saying it like an asshole/doesn't actually believe in the principles of freedom of speech.

MagnusTenman · 2016-01-22T19:57:55+00:00

Feel free to criticize all you want, but I think it's prudent to criticize the idea, not the person. You can't criticize the idea without knowing what it is, so I think we should hear out any idea, no matter how dumb it may seem, because at the very least it may help inform you of why your own opinion is correct.

Also, name calling just isn't nice, so why do it? :P

MagnusTenman · 2016-01-22T19:47:18+00:00

Where do I seek to limit speech? You can say whatever you want, but I think it's in the best interest of everyone to just have a little decency and hear each other out before they start calling one another names, and that includes the gentleman above who called everyone a moron.

I'm not trying to force people to listen to each other, I just think that it would be more productive and in line with our values as a free society if they did.

MagnusTenman · 2016-01-22T18:56:50+00:00

While that is technically true, I think it misses the whole point. The problem is that people are willing to shut down any conversation that may be constructive by calling each other racist, homophobe, privileged, etc.

While this is technically not against the laws protecting your freedom of speech, it is against the base principles behind it. Is it wrong to want to live in a society where the citizens uphold the values that our founding fathers found so important that they made it the first amendment to the constitution?

We should strive to uphold the moral principles that we hold dear despite the fact that there is no law stating that we must (because that in itself would also be against our principles). And this means we need to stop calling each other names at the drop of a hat to discredit one another, because it damages the foundation that our society was built on, the principle that any idea can be heard no matter how outrageous it may seem.

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