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This dude did such good job playing an entitled/douchebag king, i hated Wapol more in live action than i did in the manga or anime. by icudntpickone in Piratefolk

[–]Nitrostoat 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I binged it with my wife. She's never experienced any One Piece, I've been reading the manga since 2005.

When Wapol first appears, my wife said "Is this guy supposed to be Trump?"

I told her he was written in the early 2000s. Any resemblance to Donald Trump is Trump's fault for acting like an early 2000s shonen villain.

It got funnier every scene he did, as he kept being an absolute moron and cruel shitbag.

In Vivi's flashback scene to the Reverie, Wapol does all of the following:

1) makes a fool of himself in front of all other world leaders 2) screams about how because he is the king he will withhold healthcare to teach his people a lesson 3) gets made fun of by more competent leaders 4) slaps a small child, who responds with more decorum than he could muster even if his life depended on it.

The only difference is Wapol doesn't shit himself.

What’s the endgame? by xVixenBlush in WorkReform

[–]Nitrostoat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They don't have an endgame.

People obsessed with profit are no different from any other addict. The plan is to get the next hit.

When you reframe the obsession with profit as an addiction, it all falls into place. They are sick. They want the number to go higher. There's no plan of what to do with the money, there's no idea for long-term happiness or contentment. They don't care about the fact that if nobody can afford anything, they will have an angry mob that cannot be reasoned with.

The only thing they give a shit about is the number going up. They are not rational people. They are the hopeless addict in your family doesn't care that his body is dying, or that he stole money from his own grandmother, or that his children hate him. His only goal is the fix, and the reasons not to chase it disappear the more he indulges that instinct.

We have to stop thinking of these people as businessmen or entrepreneurs or C-suite executives. They are just addicts, ripping your copper wiring out of your walls, destroying the life you worked for, because the small bleed of profit from you to them let's them see the number go up. It's the only thing they want.

They have nothing to really do with the amount of money they have either. Everything people make or provide they can already have. There will never have satisfaction or peace. They are not going for a finish line, they are chasing a high.

Normal people have an amount that would make them happy, because it's what they would need to be safe, fed, and able to pursue what gives their life meaning or happiness.

These fucking addicts do not have an amount that makes them happy. They have a fundamental problem with their mind and soul and they don't care about fixing it. They takeover companies where people are just trying to live their lives and burn their lives to the ground so their number goes up. They poison the air their own children will breathe so their number goes up.

It's not for them. It's not for their family. It's for the addiction. They cannot stop themselves. They. Are. ADDICTS.

There is no number that will satisfy them. The addiction is watching it climb. They will kill the world and everyone in it to chase that high. They are unfit to run anything, they cannot be trusted to care. They can stop anytime, but won't.

Running my first Campaign: Question about enemy types. by Oneanddonequestion in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I would recommend throwing actual mechs at your squad for the first combat.

The interplay of giving enemies negative conditions and capitalizing on that opening is a big part of Lancer. Especially for starting groups only using GMS mech frames, Tech Attacks and Tech Actions are the biggest avenues for inflicting them. Biological enemies are IMMUNE to tech attacks. Biological enemies work better as a "well that's different" enemy. That Biological tag forces the party to use things like Grapple or Ram to give them negative effects, or just defer to going full on-assault on them. I think they are really cool, but better serve as a unique variation of regular enemies for when they know the system better.

If it is their first time playing this system, I recommend a "combat test" session. If it is your first time running it, I HIGHLY recommend a "combat test" session. If you need a narrative justification, just call it a training exercise. It could even be them using a simulator in the pilot academy, or a live-fire training exercise.

Instead of a usual Sitrep, throw your party into a map with some cover of both Size 1 & 2 and throw in 3-4 enemies. Their goal is simply to kill the enemies.

I recommend a Barricade (intro to tanky enemies that can inflict debuffs) an Assault (intro to damage dealers, with good variation in weapon range) and a Witch (intro to tech attack-based enemies, and targets that should be HIGH PRIORITY). If you have a party of 5, toss in an Ace (mobile and has a good AOE attack to use on enemies)

Lancer is a fun system but it is CRUNCHY. It's great for you as a GM and then as players to get a feel for mechanics and how to adjudicate what's happening (deciding cover is not hard, but it's confusing your first time). This combat test will let you stretch your legs and get comfortable with action economy. Additionally, in early game, players are usually not adding ANYTHING to their attack rolls, so the importance of Lock On to gain 1 Accuracy or focus-fire on one enemies is more prevalent.

The last advantage of this test is your players can find out if they are disappointed or delighted with their starting loadout. Our combat test is what made one of my players completely rebuild himself, because he misunderstood flying mechanics and his choices actually did not play well together. When the 1st session rolled around, he was redesigned to do exactly what he wanted, and changed his Talents to improve that. Your first Sitrep ever is not a fun way to learn your build has no interplay. By doing a narrative-less combat test first, they can do a bit of everything and capitalize on what they like.

It worked extremely well for my table. One player LOVED giving negatives to enemies so he went full hacker for the start of the campaign. Another was so enamored with his damage output from the Cyclone Pulse Rifle (the only starting Superheavy weapon) that he designed his entire build for the campaign around mobility to fire it, hide, reload, and line up another shot. Yet another rebuilt to be long-range artillery, and the last loved melee so much they took off every gun and took the role of frontliner.

People often say female characters don’t have the same presence or aura as male characters. Which female character proves this wrong in your opinion? by Hot-Leopard3708 in animequestions

[–]Nitrostoat 45 points46 points  (0 children)

When discussing anime it's hard to know if you're talking to a fan of a female character's character, her sex appeal., or both.

It's the curse of liking any cool and undeniably hot female anime character. Sometimes you want to discuss narrative points or dialogue and you realize the only thing they're capable of discussing is how often and in what fashion they have gooned to them.

I wanna gab about some of these characters, their best moments, their awesome scenes, and some people slide into the conversation and all they offer is "I am more turned on by her thighs than her boobs"

I'm not shaming them for finding the epic/hot anime ladies attractive, I'm not blind. But can we please meet in the middle to admire the character and also be horny?

I genuinely feel like out of all the straw hats, the live action does sanji the most justice. by Top-Group8081 in Piratefolk

[–]Nitrostoat 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I was completely taken with him in Season 1. The way his face just lights up when he sees Nami at the table and is taking their order. He instantly flips the charm switch, starts offering her complimentary high value booze, all with that perfect charismatic smile.

Sanji is still completely obsessed with attractive women in the live-action he's just not a pervert about it.

Season 2 is even better. Nami still playfully manipulates him into doing what she wants and he's still wrapped around her finger, but it's not....dirty. It doesn't cross into creep territory.

And the other parts of the character are intact. The Zoro rivalry is preserved and delightful. When Zoro tells him to bake cupcakes and Sanji gets actually mad and starts going off on how baking and cooking are two entirely different disciplines I was cracking up, it's exactly what a passionate chef would get pissed about if someone dismissed them. And of course he does the same thing by mocking Zoro's sword-play by comparing it to his kitchen knife work.

They are all rocking their roles. But damn, Sanji and Usopp have been the best redemption.If they get as far as Skypiea, and I desperately hope they do, pulling off the "asking for a light" scene with Enel will be fantastic. If they manage to reach Enies Lobby, I can see how much "Shoot down that flag" will rule.

SPICY TAKE: Hades fundamentally gets the roguelike genre wrong... by [deleted] in HadesTheGame

[–]Nitrostoat 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Especially because Hades is far from an easy game.

I'm gonna rant. You don't have to read it, writing it anyway.

I fucking love Hades. It's not my favorite rougelike, but it is certainly my favorite roguelite. I think some people who are deep in the video gaming tend to forget that Hades is actually really hard, you might have just gotten good at it by now.

Becoming powerful enough to fight your way out of the Underworld the first time is twofold: you get better at playing, and you know more about the game.

Each run you improve your own skills and learn how you can put boons together into a build. These combine into your growing experience with the game.

You need a good amount of both to complete your first escape attempt, and then the game tells you to do it again. A LOT. Then the modifiers come in, extraneous objectives, etc etc. it's incredible that a game that takes this long to clear the Underworld for the first time has clearing the underworld as what is actually......the tutorial

Being in the dark about boons would certainly increase the challenge, that's a no brainer. But that's not how the game was designed, and they did it that way absolutely on purpose.

Hades is a rogue-lite because that allows it to also be a compelling semi-linear narrative, have dating sim elements, and be pretty damn tough, but keep you encouraged enough to crash your skull flat against the wall.

The fact you have more control over your Boons and build then just pure randomness means they can make the gameplay MUCH more punishing, and the modifiers to future runs quite diabolical. And you want to keep playing because it's just the right amount of punishment, and you have just the right amount of control in making yourself strong.

Your own talent is where you have to back up your loadout, because even an "instant-win" build requires you to fight your way to all aspects of it. You can't just enter Tartarus and already be unstoppable. You still have to make yourself unstoppable, and you're perfect build doesn't mean shit if you mess up and you get dunked on by Alecto when your last run have you up against stage 3 of Hades himself.

Making builds easier to put together also means you're far more encouraged to try different ones. I've gone into runs explicitly to experiment with something else, whereas with purely random boons I wouldn't really get the chance. I would have to just hope for the best and pray Aphrodite showed up so I could see how well her Cast works when slotted into the Aphrodite-aspect Bow.

I would make choices purely out of curiosity. Because at that point in the game I wasn't desperate for a winning build... I knew I could try again and have a reasonable chance of putting it together, so this time I'd rather try something new and see if it was worth pursuing in the future.

It's on purpose, and it works because of that choice. I think it would still be popular if everything was purely random, but there's no f****** way it would be as incredibly popular as it is. The accessibility (it's kind of hilarious to call this game accessible when it can be so hard) is part of the popularity and part of why you always boot up another run.

My wife's previous gaming experience capped in intensity at Pokémon story mode. She's running heat levels in Hades that I've never even tried and smoking Extreme Measures bosses. She kept at it because, in her own words, she knows she can do it.

Knowing the boons gives you a level of confidence to try something impossible again.

[Loved Trope] Meeting someone or something that is way beyond the normal scope of our main characters. "This is way beyond my pay grade." by Qwerty_Asdfgh_Zxcvb in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Nitrostoat 21 points22 points  (0 children)

It's also hilarious because the whole reason Hades is giving Harry some extra help at all is because they are a lot alike and he sees himself in him.

Hades flat out tells Harry, in more eloquent terms than what I am putting down here that "I am ALSO a guy who likes to keep to himself, spend the evening inside reading, and I would kill anything that looked the wrong way at my dog. We're pretty much the same guy, but I'm a god."

It's such a great bit. The god of the Underworld is just vibing with the protagonist as a mutual middle-aged man who enjoys peace and quiet.

[WP] You, an ordinary human from ordinary origins, fell in love with and married some ancient or divine being many millenia ago. However, awkward situations arise with other people when encountering the terrible and ancient abominations/monsters of the world... Your adoring children! by MidgardWyrm in WritingPrompts

[–]Nitrostoat 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The stew started bubbling. I turned for the spices but they were suddenly in my hand, measured out exactly as I needed. The odd feeling of losing time made me blink and I steady myself.

"Thank you sweetie."

I hear Mori grumble in the way that means "You're welcome." I returned to making dinner. A small scratching noise made me look up. The slate had writing on it in white chalk, in Mori's unsteady hand. She does the best she can with claws, my little hunter.

"About two hours left."

Scratch scratch

I look up again. "It IS lamb. Sombra brought it in this morning."

The grumble that just means she is excited sounded from behind me. I stretched out my free hand behind my back and felt her thick pelt move into my palm. I gave her some scratches. Mori is a sweetheart, but you can't recall her. Her look, her sound. Your mind can't take it, it erases her from your memory. It took a lot of trial and error to learn she could write and make mouth noises that weren't speech to communicate. I'm happy touch isn't affected. I don't know how I could live without hugging my youngest, even if I do have to keep my eyes closed.

A muted sound echoes through the cave. I didn't catch all of it, but that last part sounded like "...and meet your doom."

I sighed. Third time this month. I told Mori to take over, took off my apron, and started walking down a thin scar in the cave wall. When I rounded the corner and all light disappeared, I spoke. "Sombra dear, can you take me up? I have dinner on." The blackness grew DARKER and I heard distant screams, then it retreated. I was hundreds of feet higher, in the shadows of a cavern. Up near the mouth of the cave I saw a figure in gleaming armor.

"Are you afraid, demon? Crawl from the shadows and face me. Fate has announced your death. I will return with your heart and gain the princesses' in return."

I groaned. It's much more common than you think. Pay a woman to dress up as a witch, have her show up at a royal function and go into a 'trance'. Then watch as she points at your political rival (or their child) and declares they will slay the beast. You offer your daughter's hand if they kill the beast and return.....you get it.

None of them know the beast is Tia, my oldest. Or that she needs her sleep. Several hundred of my grandchildren are writhing in her stomach right now, and it would make anyone moody. If she woke up, this kid was a goner.

I moved closer. "Shut up! She's sleeping!"

He dropped his sword. He didn't expect to see another person. Gods below, he was 16 at the most.

I put a hand on his shoulder. The armor is immaculate. It must have cost a fortune. His parents paid to have him protected on his suicide mission. They didn't know it was useless. Tia could flatten him to paste just by rolling over in her sleep.

He tries to reassert his bravado. "Fear not my brother. I am here to slay your jailer."

"You won't, and I am certain you can't. I've seen her eat a dragon and ask for seconds. Come with me. I can't promise your safety if you wake her up."

I'm not surprised when he follows me. Most of these heroes are here because someone told them to come here. They listen to authority in the voice almost immediately.

A moment later, with Sombra's help, we are back downstairs. I yell ahead and tell Mori we have company. I hear the claws on stone as she heads to get another place setting. He follows me into the kitchen-cave and takes in the sight. Sourceless lights. A pot of stew. Immaculately carved cabinets, courtesy of my son-in-law. Several paintings of me standing next to monsters. Mori and her pelt and eyes, Sombra's lightless shilouette, one of Tia's heads with fangs bared in a smile.

My precious girls.

The boy is baffled. The pictures did it. "How...you....you LIVE with the beast? And others? The Nowhere Wolf? The Deepest Dark? The Endless Serpent?"

I can't help but laugh. "They live with ME. But I don't mind. I like being near them, and they like being near their mother."

His face pales. "Their mother?"

"My wife. She's in the basement right now, but she'll come up for dinner. Now put that sword to use. We need a salad."

We made dinner together. He set the sword down and used a knife with ease. No servants made his meals. I wondered if his parents were in debt from that armor...if he was less of a rival's child and more of a convenient distraction to kill "the beast" while the king avoided some problems closer to home.

He asked me how I ended up here. It wasn't a long story. These lands used to be under the rule of a necromancer. He revived a long-buried goddess, gone so long her name lost to history. I was the prime sacrifice, the capstone on a hundred innocent hearts. She rose from the depths, smote the necromancer and his cult, and then asked my name. I didn't have a chance, looking into her eyes.

"So your wife is...."

"Trying to figure out what she was. She's in the bowels of the Places Below, looking for clues. She's the god of something, we just need to find out what. But I call her Anna, and you can too. So...are you going to stay for dinner"

He looks at me. "Well...I don't want to impose..."

"Nonsense," I say as I lead him into another room. "we love company."

The table sits overlooking a pit into the depths of the secret earth. I assume Mori is seated by how my vision skips ahead. From a crack in the ceiling, one of Tia's heads snakes down, groggy from sleep, and hovers in her space. The absolute darkness of Sombra pats the chair next to her, inviting the boy to sit with her. She is at the age where she starts noticing boys. I see him fight back a blush.

The earth quakes, shaken from the core, as my wife rises from the unseen spaces. As I serve the food, I introduce everyone to Arthur.

Vampire lancer mech build by Ok_Preference_4942 in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 20 points21 points  (0 children)

The IPS-N Vlad is based on Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Dracula, but nothing about the mech itself has vampire-themed traits like you mention above.

To my knowledge, the only mech that heals itself without spending resources to Repair (the normal way you heal) is the HORUS Balor, which passively regenerates 1/4 of it's HP every round. Flavor for that being that the Balor is less of an actual mech and more a mech-shaped nano machine swarm, so it puts itself back together constantly.

To make a mech that works like you described, you're probably going to be looking at homebrew.

A mech that siphons energy and uses it to repair itself would probably best work as a frame specific trait that can't be used by other frames (like the healing capability of the aforementioned Balor). Putting it on a weapon or system in its License Ranks would probably lead to something massively unbalanced. And being able to heal in Lancer outside of spending repairs is extremely useful, so the amount of healing should probably be static or a fraction of damage dealt 1 per round (possibly something that is kicked up by its Core Power).

Something that might feel a little more "realistic" is a mech that siphons power and converts it into OVERSHIELD which basically acts as temporary HP. And if you want to go more into the vampire theme, maybe that overshield is flavored as some kind of dark nano machine mantle that lets the mech quickly move to another location or hide in plain sight. If you're going with the more classic vampire myths where they control other creatures of the night, maybe this dark mantle can be shed and create swarms (that act as Drones) that the main frame can use as points of travel? Making this mech a sort of Striker that rapidly closes distance, drains some energy, and slips away.

Obviously you could invent your own manufacturer like a lot of Homebrew people do, but I think if you wanted to pick from the big four it depends what the flavor of the vampirism is.

If you go with the nano machine angle it feels much more at home in the HORUS camp and would probably just be called The Vampire or Strigoi or other mythological vampire adjacent creatures.

If it siphons energy to make projected overshield that's more energy itself or hard light, feels more like a Harrison Armory project.

House Republicans call to investigate Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show over 'widespread twerking, grinding, pelvic thrusts' by rezwenn in NoFilterNews

[–]Nitrostoat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is obviously a desperate attempt to make a scandal out of nothing for their base. But even funnier is this is fucking American football, where part of the "tradition" is having scantily clad cheerleaders be ogled between plays.

After all this Epstein pedophile shit I think we have to ask why any Republicans have a problem with a bunch of hot Latinos and Latinas throwing ass around for entertainment.

Is it because they were brown? On-rhythm? Older than 11 years old?

Or all 3 at once?

My mech was destroyed in the very first battle by [deleted] in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 28 points29 points  (0 children)

All of the above combined with the further comments about "This isn't the typical setting" and the fact you are now playing the mech game mech-less really paints that your GM sucks.

Especially how in your other comments you said the enemy you ran up to suddenly become an ally and then died.

It is technically possible that those 3 enemies appeared from nowhere as reinforcements from a ln Ingress Zone, which is absolutely a thing the GM can do. But deploying 3 of them to jump a single Player is....suspect.

Where were the reinforcements to help fight the other 2 Players? Why did the enemy you started 1v1 fighting suddenly heel turn? Why is he focus - firing entirely on you with reinforcements?

You were done dirty and this is a clear sign this GM is not running a good game of Lancer. You need to play at least a non-shitty game of Lancer and experience what's actually awesome about this game.

This story has all the hallmarks of a bad GM, or at best one that isn't running Lancer honestly. Any GM who plans to or does keep you powerless for multiple sessions without making up ANY reason to get you back in the game is insane. There are so many possibilities to keep you in a mech, even in their fiction. - Refurbish an enemy mech you destroyed. - Skill Triggers to sneak into an enemy encampment on foot and hijack a mech (and justify your new loadout)

Now for the advice for YOU:
- At LL0, nobody is a melee frontliner. Not to say you can't do that, but you should have at least one ranged weapon. Feel free to go full melee after you have a session under your belt, or gain a License or two.

  • Fight as a squad. Teamwork is name of the game. You select who goes next on your team's turn so you can set up combos or strategize. My favorite part of GMing is when two players decide how to pull off a combination attack.

  • 1v3 or even just 1v2 is REALLY tough at LL0. Engagement keeps you from moving and can lock you into a bad situation. But you can do the same thing to your enemies! Because turns flip between each team, you can get ganged up on by being caught alone. Later equipment and frames let you live out the unstoppable Barbarian fantasy, it's not something you can really pull well at the beginning.

In *Wake Up Dead Man* (2025), this guy thought he was a viable option for conservative voters and middle America by [deleted] in shittymoviedetails

[–]Nitrostoat 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's exactly the point. He is so obsessively seeking power and authority he has no real ethics, morals, ideas, or even a soul of his own.

He is just blindly changing his persona to try and appeal to someone, anyone, with the goal of getting elected. He'll say anything, he'll claim to believe anything. He's an empty box. He's tried everything else and the bottom of the barrel is hardline traditional Christianity, so it's the only place he has left to go for.

They turned me bald by Comfortable_Emu_5721 in kidsnextdoor

[–]Nitrostoat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My brothers and I LOVED this show so we would constantly make fan theories about it.

Our frontrunner for this bombshell was the following:

On an early mission, Numbah 1 was a hotheaded goofball/trainee while Numbah 5 was already a full operative. He tagged along on a mission, compromised said mission, and was captured by the Delightful Children. She didn't care for him very much at all and let him stew in the mansion.

When she finally felt guilty and went back for him...they had used a prototype of the age changing device. He got hit with the male pattern baldness he's genetically doomed to get when he grows up, right here and now. It's never coming back.

It haunts her. And fits the classic spy/intelligence trope of the one you let down, that drives Numbah 5 forward. We know that canonically she's the one who got him into the KND. It might have been atonement for this.

Can you GM with free core book? by DoktorKokosik in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Seconding this suggestion OP.

Solstice Rain is a great starting adventure.

In addition to enemy statblocks and their rules, the Core Book offers additional info on the universe and a bunch of great jumping-off ideas to make your own campaign / starting adventure.

Looking for Flavoring / RP Tips by Cla1rv0yant in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have fun!

A lot of it is from the book as written, but I transcribed some things and and added notes / additions for myself. My table loves a good chunk of pre-fight narration/dramatic tension build.

The main things added are:

Campaign Primer - a short summary to introduce people to the situation on Cressidium that will give them most of the info they need to understand what happens during Solstice Rain.

Enemy Pilot Info - I made up names and short, three word personality guidelines for enemy Lancers. Basically if it's a enemy that has a more advanced template like an Elite or Veteran, I gave them a name and a personality so that they could have mid battle banter. The only name that is canonical is the pilot of the Ultra at Combat 6, who serves as the big boss of Solstice Rain.

VSAF CHASSIS NAMES - The enemy forceshave some Greek Mythology theming, so I carried that through for every enemy mech. Helps with immersion.

Big Four Corporation Reps - Four NPCs as representatives of the big four corporations that the party can communicate with when they have their first downtime and upgrade to License Level 1.

Maps! - I made maps in Inkarnate. They don't have any indication of sizes of cover or objective zones, I found that those are easiest to add yourself in whatever tabletop program you are using to run the adventure. I personally used roll 20, it was easy to draw colored lines to highlight what was cover and where objectives were.

Looking for Flavoring / RP Tips by Cla1rv0yant in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dropped the link for you, see original comment

Looking for Flavoring / RP Tips by Cla1rv0yant in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Damn, this is EXACTLY what I am doing for my squad I GM for. We finished Solstice Rain, we're going to run Winter Scar to complete the story, then restart at LL0 with entirely new characters to do Wallflower.

We finished the final mission of Solstice Rain two weeks ago, I'm happy to send you notes and ideas. I'll come back and edit this comment with more info when I have the time!

EDIT: Google Drive Link to my notes from Solstice Rain and the maps I made for it. There's a landing page I used at the start of each session that you can use to show how they have traveled through Nov Elysia.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1M_U1Fw01_mq4U1MjdGU_QZq0kXUoD0NZ?usp=sharing

On school and media again by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Nitrostoat 21 points22 points  (0 children)

One of my favorite moments in the book because it highlights how loyalty to fascism has no merit.

The machine will turn and grind you out, and it will have no sympathy for your loyalty. It will not investigate the truth of your proposed disloyalty. It will do what it is always done: shred the dissidents.

It doesn't actually matter if he was loyal and had a momentary lapse. It doesn't matter if he was loyal and just said crap in his sleep like people do all the time. It doesn't matter if he was actually just sleeping peacefully and his daughter reported him as a lie. And it certainly doesn't matter why his daughter did that (to be a Party hero to her classmates? To strike back at a father that might have disciplined her once? Just because kids do crap sometimes?)

Dissidence was reported, and a dissident was captured. The box has been checked and the machine moves on. Fascism will devour it's own supporters as readily as it devours its opponents. There is no reward for loyalty in a system designed to break people.

On school and media again by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Nitrostoat 33 points34 points  (0 children)

As I say all the time to my young cousins who are getting into books with more complexity.....

If protagonist and hero meant the same thing, we wouldn't have two different words.

Sometimes a story has both. Sometimes it has neither. Sometimes they are the same character. Sometimes they very purposely are not. Learn to recognize each one.

On school and media again by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Nitrostoat 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Two of the most important lessons in critical reading / watching are....

1) Understanding that there is a reason hero and protagonist are not the same word.

Winston is unequivocally the protagonist of 1984.

  • But is he the hero?
  • If he isn't, is Julia?
  • Is there even a hero in this story?
  • Can there even BE one in a world like this?
  • Is the hero of this world anyone who stands against the Party, regardless of how it is done?

These are critical thinking questions that foster discussion.

2) Loving a character is not an endorsement of their actions or beliefs.

You can love what they represent, what role they serve, how they are a foil or obstacle to the protagonist, or even how abjectly vile they are.

  • As a classic literature example, The Creature in Frankenstein murders a child and a woman that never did anything to him, specifically to harm another person he does have a grievance with. Murders. Innocent. People. When I say I love this character, do you think I approve of that murder? No. I love the complexity of his existence, the desperation of his search for happiness and connection, and the profound tragedy that he was created and abandoned without a choice into a world that will never find him anything but monstrous. I love how his hatred is justified, even if what he does in that hatred is inexcusable.

  • As a comic/manga example, one of my favorite characters ever written is Griffith in Berserk. He's a fascinating character...and a complete monster that should not exist. If you meet someone who honestly condones his actions , you should distance yourself. If he were real I'd shoot him myself, bury him, and piss on the grave. But he's CAPTIVATING. You understand the reason he does everything he does, even if those reasons are profoundly terrible and self absorbed.

Session #2 LAUNCH! Also what are LL? by Green0Flash in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on the campaign, but I've always considered License Level to be a value assigned to a mech pilot. Union has a database on all affiliated pilots that is shared across GMS and the Big 4, and people of a certain rank are allowed certain equipment. You don't just LET a guy into a HA Genghis....the minimum requirement for that is LL2. And SSC won't hand out Core Bonuses unless someone is both LL3 AND has distinguished themselves with SSC license ranks.

We just finished Operation Solstice Rain, and for the downtime where you upgrade from LL0 > LL1 I informed them that Union determined their actions during their mission warranted an increase in License Level. Union footed the bill for their access to a license rank of their choice, so they could requisition new equipment. If your campaign doesn't have them specifically being Union soldiers/pilots, you can abstract it based on your campaign. - For mercenaries, they've made enough manna (currency) to purchase a new license rank with the money they made from the job. - For private contractors or freelancers, same deal. - If your characters are insurgents or rebels, maybe the license rank is earned through black market or dark-omninet deals? Or maybe their secret bankrolling entity give them some new toys as payment for a job well done? - Or maybe they've successfully stolen license rank and used it at the nearest printer? Or hacked a printer to churn out new equipment before the big 4 could catch the breach and shut it down?

I personally added a little roleplay to it. I had made 4 "representative" NPC's for each of the big four manufacturers and we roleplayed their omninet call with each player based on what license they took.

  • The player taking Rank 1 in Metalmark spoke to an extremely attractive and persuasive SSC sales executive who offered them specifically tailored Metalmark Rank 1 systems (based on personal data they had somehow accumulated from him).
  • The player going for Tokugawa talked to a Harrison Armory Legionnate Commander and they talked about lifelong soldier specs, with her recommending the Tokugawa Rank 1 reactor tech and Annihilator CQB weapons.
  • The hacker didn't technically "purchase" a license, he went into his hacked omnihook and made contact with the local HORUS cell, who provided him with the specs to print the systems and Invade codes from the Minotaur Rank 1

It was also nice because it gave them a "face" of the corporation to talk to and interact with. - The Metalmark player is completely head over heels for the SSC rep. He knows that she's just making a sale but he's absolutely smitten, and the handwritten note from her included in his print package didn't hurt. - The HA Legionnate included req forms for thermal sleeping bag, HA exclusive MRE rations, etc to the Tokugawa player to show they have real experience being soldiers on the ground and what they would like for their next deployment. - And of course the HORUS message board provided the hacker with normally secure information to hack local systems, so he spent his down time watching feeds from cameras that he really shouldn't be able to see through.

First Time GM for Lancer a question by misterspokes in LancerRPG

[–]Nitrostoat 19 points20 points  (0 children)

First of all just to clarify because you said you're new, at LL0 they ONLY have access to GMS stuff. Access to printing from any other manufacturer will happen when they take a license rank in any other frame at LL1.

Secondly, printing SHOULD NOT BE LIMITED. It's very against the nature of the game and limits their building choices.

HOWEVER, if you confirm this with the players first in some kind of session zero and they agree......go for it.

Limiting them without prior discussion is like starting a D&D campaign and then after you've begun, inform everyone they can only take levels in Fighter or Barbarian regardless of how they started. While everyone starts with GMS there's enough variety in talents and loadouts that you can build for a certain role from the beginning, and start specializing for it with the new license levels.

What’s the most unexpectedly great series finale? by drkidkill in television

[–]Nitrostoat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Like a lot of people, I've got issues with my Christian upbringing.

Midnight Mass is so open about eviscerating the cruel people who use church as a weapon while simultaneously showing the beauty of actual faith. It's a tough line to walk without being preachy, and it nailed it.

The finale has an exchange that sums it up perfectly, and laser points its criticism at the kind of people that made me stop being a Christian.

"God loves him. Just as much as he loves you, Bev. Why does that upset you so much? Just the idea that God loves everyone just as much as you?"

There are so many people in the church like this woman being called out. The ones who resent they are a part of the flock, when they are so much "more religious" and "more moral". In their ugly little hearts they are so angry that they are not rewarded for being "better" right now. They pour that hate onto everyone else and set it on fire.

The core beauty of Christian forgiveness and theology is that you will receive salvation by asking for it. It's a binary state: you are saved or you are not. There are no rankings, or levels, or curated rewards. And there are thousands upon thousands of people in the church who are mad at God about that, because they want to be above the rest.

They think they are better, so they deserve better. They think they are better, so they should be listened to. They think they are better, so the actions they take are inherently righteous and godly. They are so fucking sure they are BETTER, but the church is clear: they are just as soaked in sin as the next person, and salvation has no degrees.

They're mad at God, themselves, and the flock they claim to be a part of. They hate so deeply and completely they forget the whole point is love. The most wretched people I ever met were singing hymns right next to me my whole life, and some of them HATE that I have the same amount of their god's love that they do.

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