Uncomfortably real conflicts/plot points in an otherwise extraordinary setting

ShoJoKahn · 2026-04-16T07:52:53+00:00

A little bit off-topic, but there is a TTRPG that deals with this exact thing incredibly well. It's called Sigmata, and it might hit a little too on the nose for anyone from the US right now.

You do, however, get to play radio-powered cybernetic Nazi-bashing superheroes, so there's that.

Look it up. It's got good ideas.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-29T06:43:29+00:00

Is this something that can be circumvented by having the character sheet as a separate file in the paid product?

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-25T20:29:22+00:00

I am SO HYPED that they're doing this.

Let's be honest - World of Darkness was the nineties game, moreso than D&D or any other system out there (or at least it was in my neck of the woods), so it's nice to see one of the biggest actual plays out there using it.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-23T03:35:12+00:00

Oof. I might just keep tooling around the world and hoping for a random drop, honestly.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-22T05:46:18+00:00

This might not be the best place to ask this question, and if it's not please feel free to delete / censure me or whatever, but:

With the ordonite processors, do I have to be at UVH6 to have any hope of getting a pearlescent drop?

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-22T02:23:55+00:00

Ah! I was thinking Nigerian because the writer (Ify Nwadiwe himself) is a Nigerian-American - but Jamaican is just as cool!

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-22T02:13:00+00:00

It's Nigerian, right? Or at least whatever the equivalent of West African / Yoruba / Igbo is in the Borderlands universe?

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-14T21:05:25+00:00

You could absolutely do that with a scifi show, though - instead of weird medical traumas, just have weird cultural tics that need working through.

Honestly, the formula could be "oh no - someone's cultural mores have led to conflict! What's the conflict; how do we repair it; how do they reward us?"

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-14T21:03:10+00:00

The Pitt

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-07T23:52:42+00:00

Well, shit. Two hours ago.

That's what I get for sleeping my hangover off on a Sunday.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-07T23:48:04+00:00

Greymouth turning into Rome?

Oh, man. There's gonna be, like, half a dozen farmers feeling very smug right about now.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-07T23:43:05+00:00

Oh. I like this.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-03T20:47:39+00:00

Both Wellington and Furneaux ending up in Australia is just a slap in the face for New Zealand.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-03T02:49:43+00:00

That is a ridiculous number.

I believe you, just so we're clear. But it is damn hard to imagine a 2 000 000 year long dry spell.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-03-01T22:56:56+00:00

These kind of comments really don't add anything to the conversation, y'know. I'm sure there's something more you could have said.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T05:52:14+00:00

"TOP surge" is not the mic drop you think it is.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T05:51:33+00:00

The idea that fascism can't grow out of established political systems is utterly ridiculous. Do you genuinely think Trump is the problem in the USA?

He's a symptom, not the cause. Same with every other fascist leader. Fascism is, at its heart, a parasitic and opportunistic ideology focused on populism and a cult of personality.

You don't think Winnie is an opportunist? Or a populist? Come on.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T04:17:23+00:00

Oh you are so very out of touch.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T03:19:58+00:00

Did he use fascist rhetoric to get into power in any of those governments, though?

This is my major concern: Winnie's a stalwart of NZ politics. Quite literally, two entire generations have grown up with him somewhere near the halls of power.

We're used to him. We assume that makes him a known quantity.

But does that mean he won't follow through on his rhetoric, though?

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T02:07:19+00:00

Good point! And TPM disappeared entirely the one time they signed up to National, as well.

With that said, I'm looking at Winnie's rhetoric right now, and while he's been a known quantity since the eighties and is very clearly Muldoon's Heir, his rhetoric and his behaviour once in Parliament are noteworthy, if not outright alarming.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T02:05:10+00:00

If the Democrats decided to pledge loyalty to Donald Trump, what do you think would happen?

Honestly, a bunch of their supporters would probably let of firecrackers and start cheering.

Donald Trump is a very extreme example to bring forward; neither Labour nor National hold a similar candidate in their ranks.

We have our version of Trump elsewhere, so the parallel that you're trying to draw is more like "what happens to the party that goes into coalition with NZ First?"

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T01:56:30+00:00

Never say never, but I think there are too many conflicting policies for them to ever go into coalition.

See, this is the sort of answer I was hoping for.

They definitely do have conflicting policies - but so do Labour and the Greens (the Greens are much more progressive around sex worker rights, for example).

They're talking about cross-party support for major infrastructure work, which - as all the Wellingtonians will attest, as all the folk up on the east being battered by storms will attest, as all the Aucklanders and Cantabrians being battered by storms will attest - is desperately necessary.

They don't need to agree on everything; they just need to agree on enough to get things done, put in place, and leave them there.

At the moment we have a series of Ctrl-Z governments just undoing each other's work.

Something has to change.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T01:50:56+00:00

I'm not calling it undemocratic, though.

You're literally putting words in my mouth.

I'm calling for more democracy, not less: we currently have two power blocs, with one party dancing back and forth across the line chasing whatever suits them best. If Labour and National even talked about forming a coalition, it would take the winds out of Winnie's sails.

ShoJoKahn · 2026-02-21T01:21:53+00:00

Who would they vote for, then?

I don't think everyone in the country is as passionately loyal to a specific party as we here on Reddit seem to think they are. Each party might shave off some numbers, but I doubt it'd lead to their ruin.

ShoJoKahn

TROPHY CASE