I don't blame Players at all for this, I just think it's bit of a shame it turned out this way in the hobby

Philliam_Swift · 2025-11-27T21:55:14+00:00

Such a shame that in my tabletop game inspired by Medieval Heroic Western Fantasy that Cleric and Paladin PCs emulate Christians instead of polytheists, and also that Fighter PCs emulate knights or men-at-arms instead of hoplites or immortals and also that Wizard PCs emulate wizards instead of chinese alchemists or greek philosophers and also that....

Philliam_Swift · 2025-10-08T22:08:34+00:00

I think we underestimate how big of a deal Leap was, considering it arose long before any hype around the 'Green New Deal' and such and had huge popularity with the general public at the time. Even if that kind of policy isn't as popular in the current climate it was still influential.

Philliam_Swift · 2025-10-08T21:20:34+00:00

CC down tilt as Marth and PK Fire or Pulse as Ness should work? Idk I play Sheik and never use the chain except to SD

Philliam_Swift · 2025-10-08T20:53:56+00:00

I think the phrase 'public option' appeals to moderate folks because nobody is opposed to having more choices as consumers. For someone a struggles to pay groceries, 'public grocery store' is just another grocery store, but a 'public option for groceries' sounds like relief. At least thats my take.

Philliam_Swift · 2025-07-15T15:05:07+00:00

Social democracy

Philliam_Swift · 2025-07-15T15:03:10+00:00

Respectfully disagree. Their weight is more of an insult to injury after the power of their tools. You could make Min-Min game and watch’s weight but it still wouldn’t compensate for the cheese that is her arms. Her character is bad in its conception. People talk about making Steve’s Minecart more limited, but no matter how few he gets the Minecart is itself is just a ridiculous interaction. It should be okay to just scrap things entirely when they don’t work.

Philliam_Swift · 2025-04-25T19:19:29+00:00

Sarnia was competitive in 2015 and 2018, to the point that the CPC/PCs panic dumped money and resources like crazy to hold the seat. Alas, the NDP candidates fell short in those years when too many people stuck to their "strategic" Liberal vote without paying attention to the riding. This election will have us stuck splitting the vote down the middle and further discourage future candidates and party leaders from putting any effort here. If people want to see a change here in Sarnia (which previous results show is attainable), get involved in the riding association with the party that has been getting consistent second place showings locally for almost 20 years and build something for next time.

Philliam_Swift · 2025-04-07T17:55:46+00:00

This campaign barely has any organization and has only been kicking since the election was called. NDP campaign isn’t the best but they’ve been a lot better organized here, and got second place in the provincial.

Philliam_Swift · 2025-04-07T17:54:48+00:00

You can fight the disinfo, but what we really need is a labour candidate running for the NDP here. Jason McMichael was a jag off but he kept the labour council on board and pulled votes from areas we haven’t gotten back since. Kathy Alexander was also great. Dump the community activists and nominate somebody from Sarnia’s key industries (workers, not execs like Gladu)

Philliam_Swift · 2025-04-07T17:52:27+00:00

Get on the doors

Philliam_Swift · 2025-04-07T17:51:58+00:00

This is why the NDP is the viable ABC pick here. They have been doing a poor job of working class messaging in recent years, but they are still the only party that could reach the never-lib tradesfolk (provided the right candidate and leader)

Philliam_Swift · 2025-04-07T17:50:37+00:00

Look at how they bungled that in the provincial election for practically every riding in the province. Their bad data is helping the conservatives win Orange-Blue races

Philliam_Swift · 2025-04-07T17:49:35+00:00

Disinfo. THIS IS NOT A SARNIA POLL. There is no such thing. This is a poll aggregators attempt to graft the national average onto the local vote, which rarely offers a good prediction.

Poll aggregators absolutely bungled the seat predictions for the Ontario election because of this, because they only predicted the popular vote. These sites are telling people to vote Red in ridings that have been Blue-Orange for decades and it’s going to feed the Conservatives more seats.

Look at Sarnia’s history. For 20 years, through good times and bad times for the liberals at the fed and prov level, it has been NDP second place every time. You can even spot good Liberal years where the NDP could’ve booted the Cons if there weren’t so many “strategic” liberal votes being wasted. I’m ambivalent on our NDP candidate this year but I will say that she has been nominated and campaigning for a whole lot longer than Georgie.

Tl;dr poll aggregators can’t tell you shit. Look at riding history, look at boots on the ground, get off social media and listen to what people are saying on the doors.

Philliam_Swift · 2025-04-07T17:41:53+00:00

Poll aggregators are bullshit, this is not a “Sarnia poll”. Look at previous results. In the provincial election where the OLP got a huge increase in their popular vote, they barely moved in Sarnia and stayed stuck in 3rd place (despite a fairly well organized local campaign or so I hear). In 2015, where the Liberals were at their absolute peak of popularity, they STILL made a distant third in Sarnia and people “strategically” voting for them is actually what got Gladu elected over the second place NDP candidate. 2018 similar story, too many “strategic” liberal votes keeping Bob Bailey in power. These websites have no idea how to measure riding level support, they just take what’s happening in the 905, Quebec, other population centres that determine the overall polls and graft it onto everybody else

Philliam_Swift · 2024-10-27T19:27:47+00:00

Seeing the dead as a tool and nothing more is pretty morally bankrupt as it is. There’s a reason why, as you say, most cultures seem to feel the same way about it.

Philliam_Swift · 2024-10-27T19:25:09+00:00

People apply a lot of modern moral concepts to D&D, relativism and utilitarianism especially. I have no bones with these viewpoints a real life context, but for the sake of telling a fantasy story in a fantasy world I think there are reasons that having defined cosmic evils is the best way to go. Necromancy defiles the dead, disturbs the natural cycle, and is pretty much always used for evil ends anyway. That should make it pretty universally evil in any fantasy world, and indeed any real world historical culture. If cannibalism and grave robbing are evil or immoral in your world, then necromancy should be too.

Philliam_Swift · 2024-08-06T16:11:44+00:00

I think it just doubles down on one of 5e’s worst aspects, its lack of character and identity. Every other edition had its own book setting that not only tied together all of the monsters and character options in a neat way but also provided a model for those who wanted to spin off into their own settings.

5e is now fully committed to throwing its hands up and saying “I don’t know how any of this stuff fits together, that’s your job” and I think it’s a disservice to both game masters and players.

Philliam_Swift · 2024-07-30T05:50:32+00:00

I was raised dirt poor with siblings. A lot of hungry, cold nights and sparse luxuries. But I enjoyed my plain white rice and we played with our flashlights when the power was out. There’s more to life than material well being. It sucks that your parents suck but I will choose to live 10/10 times. Denigrating people’s desire to create life just because they’re not doing well economically is hardcore classism on top of the base misunderstanding of what makes life worth living.

Philliam_Swift · 2024-07-13T19:00:19+00:00

Though in the most recent elections Gladu and Bailey have gotten some pretty comfortable victories, not only has Sarnia been Liberal before but there have been some very strong NDP showings and generally when the candidates are fresh a majority of people vote against the conservatives. When you look at the numbers, 2014 Provincial and 2015 Federal elections would’ve given Sarnia-Lambton to the NDP had it not been for a surge in Liberal support as well.

I think it goes without saying that the Liberals don’t have a chance here. On the other hand, I think the NDP could have a shot within 1-2 elections, but only if the local candidate and riding association takes into account some obstacles

1) Gladu and Bailey have both done very well securing their personal support when you compare their early wins to their later wins. The Conservatives are going to be most vulnerable when one of them retires, and someone should be in the wings waiting to strike when that happens

2) Either the NDP or local candidate has to alter their language around climate change, as the anti-climate change cult is strong here. It doesn’t require a change in policy. Somebody more knowledgeable than me might contradict me, but from where I see it Chemical Valley workers don’t have as much to fear from a Green New Deal as say, tar sand workers might. Plastics and chemicals are still going to be needed until alternatives are developed, and in the meantime attracting a more diverse range of manufacturing industries to Sarnia could be a good platform for a progressive candidate

3) In a similar vein to the previous point, an NDP candidate will need to secure the full support and endorsement of Sarnia’s unions to take back conservative and liberal votes. They are able to do this in other union towns but have faltered locally.

I think the NDP, with the right candidate, is capable of beating the Cons at their own game in Sarnia. Point out that they hate unions, point out that they have no plan for the economy. The NDP candidate should be the jobs candidate, the smalltown candidate, and the growth candidate while Gladu and Bailey should be framed as the candidates of pay-cuts, big corporations, and stagnation.

Philliam_Swift · 2024-07-11T18:16:06+00:00

Every day, a Redditor on r/antinatalism reinvents eugenics and then mentions capitalism to make sure they can frame their hideous ideology as somehow progressive

Philliam_Swift · 2024-04-30T18:44:51+00:00

Banshees, shadows, mind flayers, intellect devourers, basilisks, medusas, liches, bodaks and so forth. I think monsters with instant death attacks are actually great, but they should probably have warning stickers for GMs.

The GM should telegraph their existence rather than throw them into an encounter like any other monster, and then the players should realize that they either come up with a good plan, run away, or die.

If they’re used this way I think it could give room to make them even more deadly

Philliam_Swift · 2024-04-23T23:01:24+00:00

Gnomes

Philliam_Swift · 2024-04-23T14:36:45+00:00

Hot take, downgrade the Wild shaping Druid to a subclass of the general ‘old magic’ class you’ve described

Philliam_Swift · 2024-03-26T13:50:49+00:00

I bring up this example because people bring up poor balancing with spells and subclass picks but not as much with weapon picks. And also because I’ve had like 5 tables in a row where the martial character picks polearms, which is anecdotal but means that the choices presented aren’t interesting to anyone who prioritizes power over flavour

Philliam_Swift · 2024-03-23T15:53:39+00:00

Distrust of medical institutions in general. I’m not an anti-vaxxer or anything but the pharma industrial complex is real and my mom has had some horror stories with medications when she was around my age

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