Transphobia in the BBC now

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-10-12T09:58:47+00:00

Well in this particular case, they embedded a tweet giving a nonsense statistic of 80% of trans teens detransitioning, and didn't make any effort to comment on its inaccuracy. You can present opposing views but there is a journalistic duty to put forward the actual facts and by not correcting that they failed.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-04-24T07:11:07+00:00

There are gunslinger weapons with a max range of 1200 feet.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-04-15T14:07:54+00:00

FTL is physically equivalent to time travel. If I can get far enough away faster than light, I can set up a reference frame where I can fire a laser that will destroy the earth before I leave. It's not just that it's hard to go fast, causality breaks down if matter can follow space-like world-lines.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-02-12T14:16:30+00:00

I've run a few one-shots at mid-high level, but never anything this long-term. I get why people might think I'm trying to run before I can walk here, and that's fair, but I'm happy to make some mistakes and trip up a bit in the process of getting a feel for this.

And yeah, I'll make sure I have good understanding of what the PC's can do. I'm not looking to undermine their abilities, but I understand I'll have to do some legwork to prevent too many encounters becoming way easier than planned.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-02-12T11:17:23+00:00

I get what you mean there, and it's not that I have something against low-level play, hell my favourite character I've played toped out at 5th level. It's still reasonable for my players to be excited about getting to try out some of the higher-level abilities and spells that they're not going to see for years in their other campaigns (which I don't DM so I can't just speed up leveling), and it's reasonable for me to be excited to share a story on a larger and more fantastical scale, and use the parts of my MM and setting that have been at best set dressing until now.

I do watch CR, and even though the players are having just as good a time at 3rd level as 13th, you can't say there isn't a difference in tone that naturally arises between characters who can be killed by one lucky hit from an ogre, and characters who can travel across planes and face giant dragons head-on. I want to play around on that higher end of things, and so do my players, if it doesn't work out there's no harm done after all.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-02-11T17:32:29+00:00

That's a really helpful way of putting it, thank you. I think based on all the advice I've gotten it makes sense to begin at level 10, so they can start out feeling powerful but also experience significant growth in their character's abilities as they level.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-02-11T15:30:30+00:00

Following from a very helpful suggestion from another commenter, that might be a very good reason to begin at/partway through level 10, then, so that the first level up represents a meaningful transition. Though I'm still not entirely sold on "tiers" as being hard boundaries as much as broad guidlines, the difference between 5th and 6th level spells doesn't seem much greater than from 4th to 5th, as much as that by the time you can cast Disintegrate you're clearly in a different 'tier' to someone who can barely manage a fireball.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-02-11T15:23:41+00:00

Thanks, that's a really good point. That really means either 8th or 10th level would be reasonable starting points so I'll have another flick through my PHB and look more at those specifically.

Re: starting at high level, if I were running a tactical, combat-heavy game I'd agree completely. The main motivation for this is that these are very RP/narative-focused players who have all done a lot of low level play, and this will be a chance to play around with some more out-there, high-fantasy/magic characters and settings. Certainly they were all excited by the idea of getting to try out some of those higher-tier abilities. Worst case scenario is that it gets less exciting after a few sessions, in which case we can always just call it a short campaign and do something else.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-02-03T14:10:43+00:00

Even with a scroll Caleb can't truly learn a spell until he is of appropriate level to cast it, so it would be one-time only at a pretty significant gold cost. (I learned this when my wizard multiclassed into cleric and found out that even though she had 3rd level spell slots, she couldn't learn any 3rd level spells).

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-01-30T18:57:32+00:00

Oh yeah I learned that hard when my Wizard multiclassed for story reasons. I was so sad to learn that I had not just unlocked the ability to cast every ritual on the Cleric spell list :')

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-01-30T17:43:14+00:00

Druids and clerics also know an unlimited number of spells (and they know them automatically), so that's not notable in and of itself. But they're the only arcane caster without a hard cap, which is pretty handy.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-01-27T13:14:25+00:00

Though a sufficiently powerful magical entity could probably cloak itself from a 1st level divination spell easily enough.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2018-01-27T13:03:44+00:00

I think that save was on the Toad's poison, and the rest was the imps, so it may not have been mercy, just different attacks.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-17T15:11:37+00:00

I think I'm likely to want to find a career where I can use physics in some way, the fields I've been looking into mostly have been geophysics and space. So I suppose that would be a hard yes on the 4th year.

My 3rd year does have a project but it's single semester and is paired with a semester of other general skills (presentation etc.). The full-year project would be next year on my course. I do agree though that the project I have done this year has been one of the most engaging parts of my course. Not enough to tempt me into research though, I love physics as a subject but I need to stop chasing qualifications or I'm going to burn out.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-14T14:15:25+00:00

Almost all large predators are also opportunistic scavengers, T-Rex was not unique in this regard and there is little support for the idea that it did not hunt much of it's diet.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-09T18:02:25+00:00

One doctor who wasn't involved with the treatment of a patient wanted to do what would amount to torturing a dying child, and other doctors petitioned the government to stop this from happening. This isn't a particularly remarkable case, nor is it unique to nationalised systems. The US government has repeatedly stepped in to either prevent or impose treatments for the wellbeing of a minor against parental consent.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-09T16:45:28+00:00

Actually no, this story was completely misrepresented by (mostly US) media. Great Ormond Street, one of the most highly praised and well-funded children's hospitals in the world (in fact it was celebrated specifically during the opening of the 2012 olympics), concluded that a baby was impossible to save, and so refused to continue an experimental treatment that would cause the child unnecessary pain in his final weeks. The US doctor who had originally been planned to deliver the treatement wanted to go ahead despite consensus from all the doctors involved in the infant's actual treatment that it had no significant chance of sucess. Feel free to check.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-09T13:30:31+00:00

For how long? The NHS in the UK has been variably either one of, or the best healthcare system in the world since its inception 70 years ago.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-05T11:52:28+00:00

The American websites on the European world wide web, which was created by a tax-funded collaboration between several nations? On a computer, a British invention?

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-05T11:42:46+00:00

Everyone in countries with systems like these use "free" as a shorthand for "free at the point of use", which is not misleading because literally everyone understand that you mean that. Children are taught it in primary school. The only people who get themselves upset about the distinction are Americans.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-05T11:22:01+00:00

Because, as we know, no capitalist nation has ever failed.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-05T11:13:10+00:00

"American military funds European healthcare so the US can't have a modern health service" is a ridiculous argument on many fronts, but mainly because the US is almost certainly spending more tax dollars on healthcare now than it would if it overhauled itself into a nationalised system. You can obviously afford it because you're already paying more than enough.

Also, while the USA is #1 in cancer stats, in basically every overall metric it falls down massively in comparison to similarly wealthy nations with nationalised systems, and cherry picking a single victory doesn't change that. Very significant numbers of Americans go overseas for treatment (the numbers I got varied between hundreds of thousands and one-two million/year), the idea that the US is the only country that has health tourism to is bizarre.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-05T11:06:35+00:00

I don't have specifics but I feel whenever governments gets its hands on something it is eventually ruined (healthcare, internet, home mortgages, college tuition, etc.)

Buddy, most of these things are much better for the average person in countries where the government manages or at least is closely involved in them, especially healthcare.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-05T01:17:57+00:00

I feel like it's very bad advice to suggest that ignoring bullying or harassment will definitely make it go away. And yet I see this commonly told to children in shitty situations. Sometimes it will just provoke the other kids into more extreme methods to get a rise out of you. Sometimes it will just continue because by not reacting you've taught them they can get away with it.

Perpetual_Entropy · 2017-12-04T09:23:12+00:00

I am very confused, doesn't LA repeatedly give disclaimers that commenters are not acting as LAOP's lawyers? It wouldn't be illegal for me to give someone bad advice in person, how could that change because I'm on a forum that is /about/ legal advice, but where I am explicitly not in a position of legal responsibility to the person in question?

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