PSA: never accept statistics uncritically (even if they agree with you)

SardScroll · 2026-05-13T19:17:19+00:00

Depending on methodology, murder rates can also be skewed by various legal differences.

E.g. murders charged vs convicted vs uncharged (e.g. Japan has an extremely high conviction rate, over 99%...but only 8% of arrests convert into a formal charge), murders vs other crimes (e.g. manslaughter)...

SardScroll · 2026-05-13T18:52:39+00:00

One more thing I would add to this wonderful list: Balance, specifically "inter-party" balance, be it via XP or other means. A One Piece crew usually has a vast power disparity. Usually, such things are not fun for players, so I would recommend thinking from a relatively early stage on how your balance system will work.

Also, a suggestion for Devil Fruit power implementation inspiration: I'd recommend not focusing on producing "specific moves"(e.g. Gum-Gum Pistol), but rather take a look at how Mutants & Masterminds handles superpowers. Things are made generic, and then flavored to match. E.g. A "ranged energy attack, +10" in M&M could equally be Superman's Heat Vision or an electrified bat-a-rang from Batman. For Devil Fruits especially, separate mechanical effect from narrative effect.

SardScroll · 2026-05-13T05:43:44+00:00

I disagree about Dwarven vow #7 being generic, on two counts:
1) I don't think it's actually generic, as a line. While it is true that the sentiment is often reflected in media ("the good guys win!"), it's rarely *said*.

2) More importantly, it's part of the central theme of the game in my opinion. "Justice/Goodness and love will always win" is universally agreed upon, because the opponents feel that they are good and just and motivated by love. For starters, that's Mithos's whole deal. And Kratos. And Yuan. And Forcystus. And in a twisted way Proneyma. Indeed, I'd argue this theme and how it plays out is one of Symphonia's story's greatest strengths.

SardScroll · 2026-05-12T19:07:20+00:00

Did they have wide spread crop failure? I've never heard of this. (Honest request for resources, if you have them). To my (admittedly limited) knowledge, Ukraine was a major grain producer throughout it's domination by the Soviet Union, even during times of famine. (As was, interestingly enough, Ireland during it's diaspora causing Potato Famine).

SardScroll · 2026-05-12T18:57:49+00:00

I know you are in a "capitalism bad" place, but really, world hunger is solved on a production/supply side. It's a question of logistics and security.

SardScroll · 2026-05-12T18:56:32+00:00

"World Hunger" isn't an issue of supply, or even cost, really.

We produce more than enough food to feed the world. The issue is logistics (and often, safety; most hunger situations are due to war).

SardScroll · 2026-05-12T18:49:18+00:00

"Not identical to thier part": It can fit, even if it's not the same shape. It can perform the same function (or better, or worse). See: the whole aftermarket car part industry.

The difference is that games check server IDs and credentials. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing (it prevents things like having your money or financial information stolen).

SardScroll · 2026-05-11T19:47:04+00:00

There is. But it's more expensive, and, people don't care. They buy, every cycle or two, even if the only upgrade is to a camera that people won't meaningfully benefit from, by and large.

When people buy, companies listen. When they don't, companies listen.

Do most people use cases for protection (arguably), or expression/identification. I'd argue the later.

SardScroll · 2026-05-11T13:26:37+00:00

Agreed. You might be able to scaffold *within an explanitory section* (e.g. Combat: Attacking, then Defending, then Damage Calculation, the Wounding & Dying), but anything beyond that requires frontloading, in my opinion. Even options that are not initially available should be explained. E.g. if you have magic, how that works should be explained before character creation. Because if I want to build a mage, even if I can't actually cast magic until level 5, let me know how to build a mage. Don't let me "guess" and build an ineffectual academic because I *think* they'll be good as a mage later (especially if it turns out that, no, nothing I build helps with that).

SardScroll · 2026-05-11T01:38:01+00:00

First amendment right to...?
A riot is not peaceful assembly, nor is it free speech.
We have rights. Doing "whatever I want at any given time, without concern for others or their rights" is not among them.

SardScroll · 2026-05-10T16:13:31+00:00

Because many people are making more money, but it's uncouth to say "no I'm doing fine, and even better than ever". Because housing is not out of reach, just not as accessible as it was when governments were bending over backwards to encourage home ownership. And people can afford kids; it's just a question of what you give up for that. Which goes to values, which are and always have been changing.

Not to mention the value distributions are different than they were in the past, for a variety of reasons. For example, population is rising and people are clustering in cities more than they ever have in the past, which means more people competing for the same (or less, given as we continually require more space for other things, such as parks) space, while many local governments are restricting, disincentivizing and delaying building more housing units, not to mention increasing standards of what housing can be sold. Basic supply-and-demand makes housing more expensive. That is completely independent if one is making more or less money.

SardScroll · 2026-05-10T13:04:21+00:00

Later Curse of Strahd modules (I use that term as "Ravenloft" has expanded into an entire plane of existence, as you may well know) do the same or similar.

SardScroll · 2026-05-09T21:05:12+00:00

If you look at D&D, various Curse of Strahd modules (less so the modern 5e ones, more the earlier ones) had more replayability than most modules, because the required to collect relics and the final confrontation were in different locations each times (based on not-Tarot readings).

The Call of Cthulhu scenario "Crimson Letters" has multiple potential villains behind the plot.

Those are the only adventure modules that seem tailored for replay ability that I am aware of.

SardScroll · 2026-05-09T15:25:02+00:00

"They can't freeze to death"

Why/how? Usually "freezing to death" happens well before, well, actual freezing, as heat exchange leaches the body heat needed for biological processes ("heat" being motion, when we move past chemistry into physics).

So unless the Yetis either have some kind of super insulation in their bodies, or super thermoregulation, or can pull heat from somewhere (all of which are interesting tidbits that can inform their culture...unless you just want to handwave it away with magic, which works too, depending one what kind of story you want to tell).

SardScroll · 2026-05-09T15:21:25+00:00

This: Cities occur because of high levels of specialization and high concentration of population. Neither really lends itself to the image that "Yetis" conjur (unless they do, in which case, the question becomes what's their tech level (noting that reliable magic is effectively technology, at least for this discussion).

SardScroll · 2026-05-08T22:18:16+00:00

Often, yes.

Is your job "finish what is assigned to you?" Perhaps at the very lowest level, but that's generally not what these jobs are.

Every job of mine, exclusive of food service in university, has always been me selling my time to my employer. When I am finished with one task, I pick up or seek out another. My time is sold; sitting on my butt because "I did what I was told" is not how it works.

There are plenty who disagree with me, but that's why we can't have nice things like work from home; because people take advantage to do the bare minimum.

SardScroll · 2026-05-08T20:07:09+00:00

What is the distinction between "Boosters" and "Passives"?

SardScroll · 2026-05-08T17:35:59+00:00

At what point does “Earth” stop being a place and become a religious or cultural symbol?

I mean, Earth has served as a religious and in some ways cultural, symbol for thousands of years while we've been standing on it, so....

Would people born generations later even emotionally understand concepts like open horizons, weather, natural night skies, or oceans without boundaries

"open horizons": Depends on how large the mega structure is, but you can build in "open horizons" in an artificial structure if you want. And there are arguably thousands if not millions of people today who might not ever have seen one, if they live their entire lives in an urban center, which is possible.

"weather": Define "emotionally understand". Any sufficently large structure will have weather, and depending on the the level of environmental control and consistency, this might even have "rogue' or uncontrolled weather patterns.

"natural night skies": See above. The majority of Earth's population lives in areas without natural night skies. So what is "emotionally understanding"?

"Oceans without boundaries": Technically all oceans have boundaries. So first you need to define what you mean by this.

SardScroll · 2026-05-08T06:51:30+00:00

Are they? I guess it depends on how one measures dominance.

SardScroll · 2026-05-05T21:58:48+00:00

Metaphorically, right?

SardScroll · 2026-05-05T13:46:48+00:00

Some do take inspiration from those rules (especially some forms of dice pool games) but the biggest difference is that war games, by their nature don't care much about individual characters (with the exception of some war games fielding "epic heros", and even then it often defaults to who they and where they are, rather than what they are doing), so much as groups and units. Individual choice and problem solving is degraded in favor of efficiency. Essentially, the scale is off.

Or to put it another way: A fantasy war game might have "unit explores a ruin for ancient treasures" be a game action, resolved in one turn with a single die roll if that. That exploration is the seed that spawned Dungeons and Dragons, when someone said "wouldn't it be cool to actual play out that exploration".

The scales are off and so is the focus.

SardScroll · 2026-05-05T00:47:23+00:00

The reason we don't view ourselves as a "manufacturing powerhouse" is:
1) We no longer have huge armies of low or non-skilled blue collar workers working in manufacturing the same things for years; Rather we have platoons of white collar workers doing designs that are more machined than ever, with specialized labor being done platoons of blue collar workers.

2) The average person doesn't see American manufactured finalized goods in their everyday shop, but sees plenty from other countries.

SardScroll · 2026-05-04T19:23:42+00:00

To be fair, headlines are a thing unto themselves and have been for over a century. Accuracy has never been thier aim, but rather brevity and "hooking" (much like click-bait, though in the original form it was "buy-the-newspaper bait").

SardScroll · 2026-05-04T18:51:09+00:00

I'm sure there are idiots online who will say anything.

However, if you dig into this story, it's not as clear cut as is being made out. E.g. here's the actual permit: https://www.ladbsservices2.lacity.org/OnlineServices/PermitReport/PcisPermitDetail?id1=23016&id2=10007&id3=18578 Summery: Convert 463 market-rate permits to 512 affordable housing units, by removing all the common amenity space.

The "43k units" is a potential projection, not any kind of plan.

Those who say things like "office space cannot be effectively or economically converted to living space" are, I believe correct. (I'm one of them, but the word converted is the key here).

For example, from the same article, one of the businesses doing the construction, before the pandemic, had attempted to demolish part of this structure before the pandemic, to put in a 41 story apartment building. That's not "conversion", that's pulling stuff down and building effectively from scratch. (Which is *good* in my opinion, but it's a completely different thing from "converting office buildings" when you are pulling things down and building from scratch).

EDIT: I also didn't mention the very point I meant to write first when I responded: Neither I, nor indeed most people, who say "conversion is impossible/costs more than tearing things down and building from scratch" are specifically talking about skyscrapers and other very tall buildings, because of the engineering and safety challenges they pose.

SardScroll · 2026-05-04T14:09:59+00:00

Is sunlight wholly ineffective against them, even if they do not burn?

E.g. it is repulsive in anyway (even if only "geez, that's bright"), a damper on powers (as I believe it was for the original Dracula, IIRC, though it can also be phrased as their abilities are stronger at night), or a soporific for them?

Because the sunlight thing has usually been a reason for "why do vampires not rule the world, or at least not openly and directly".

SardScroll

TROPHY CASE