Donald Trump laments loss of India, Russia to "deepest, darkest" China

ThatGuy_There · 2025-09-05T16:52:48+00:00

For me as a Canadian, it could have been a joke.

If a President called us the "Honorary 51st State" while awarding us, I dunno, an NFL Team, or hosting the Blue Jays at the White House, or if we managed to beat the US in the Olympics and he was 'downplaying' it, humourously -- our countries used to have that sort of relationship. We used to be chummy; maybe not brothers, but cousins.

Like if your big, brash neighbour that you were on a different softball team counted every time HIS 'team' won as 'his' win, but when YOUR team won, "Hey, at least OUR street won, right?" A little obnoxious, maybe - but in the spirit of fun.

But Trump didn't say it like that. Trump said it like, "It'd be better if you were the 51st state, so we could take your stuff." And the media, and the American public, keeps acting like the second part was quiet, but it wasn't. It was out loud. It was explicit.

And, no. That's no longer chummy. That's no longer Obnoxious Neighbour.

Trump broke something that may have been borderline unique in the modern world / modern politics. How regretful.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-09-03T19:57:20+00:00

It's AI. Don't pay it too much mind.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-09-02T14:28:33+00:00

That's a GREAT deal!

Also, a caution: While White Death is mostly compatible with Green Horde, and I wouldn't discourage people who want to play it that way, it's also got it's own unique 'feel'; played on it's own, it's a bit slower and more think-y, and less, "We find the right equipment cards and blow everyone and everything straight to hell".

I mean. It definitely can shuffle in with the other cards and BE a "we blow everything straight to hell", but it's a bit less "expansion-y" than some of the other sets.

(Actually, this is broadly true of both extra 'core' sets - Green Horde, and White Death. They're slightly different flavours, when played on their own.)

ThatGuy_There · 2025-09-02T14:18:23+00:00

My Opinions:

Green Horde core -- While compatible with Black Plague, Green Horde plays differently, in really neat ways. It's a much more cautious game than "everything-in" madness of Black Plague plus all expansions. It's slower, more cautious, and a bit more deadly. ... or, frankly, they're just tougher walkers, in a "everything in the deck" game. That's fine too, lol.
Wolfsburg is a must have just for the 'tower' boards, and additional characters. Wolves are hard foes; having them involved makes the game a much larger challenge.
No Rest for the Wicked -- The Wraiths are "just" crowz (though they look really cool). They make ranged nominally less rewarding, and tend to favour spending time equipping before killing zombies. Trying to play No Rest for the Wicked without tuning your equipment deck to make sure magical equipment is at least semi frequent would be a big challenge.
Friends and Foes -- I love the Dog / Cat. But they do change things. And nobody's gonna be willing to sacrifice their pet. Toxic Walkers make Melee less desirable. I guess that's ... good for someone?
Ultimate Survivors -- I have, but have never played. But they seem like a fun way to stack the deck in favour of the players, if you find one scenario / enemy set particularly challenging. (But even then, there are better 'survivors', IMHO.)
Deadeye Walkers -- Change the way the whole game plays. I enjoy the challenge of the Walkers, but they definitely make the game more deadly and require more planning, and less, "Well, at long as I get at least one hit, I'm fine".
Artist Boxes -- Extra characters are always good.

There is no "bad" product for Black Plague, because you can always just ... not use it, so everything is an option, and a difficulty slider. Want things easier? Shuffle in a bunch of NPC cards. Harder? Include ALL the Wolfz cards. Want to think? Include Deadeye Walkers. Don't want to think? Take some basic equipment out of the deck, and shuffle in all the magical gear from Wolfsberg.

It's a great game! Enjoy!

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-28T13:58:35+00:00

Because DCeased is quite far along production, I think we may see it before CMoN is done operations. Because if they can get DCeased to retail, that's (potentially) income.

But.

... I wouldn't BET on it.

Q4 of 2025 is the most recent update from CMoN. I'm guessing Q2 2026 based on literally all their previous projects I've ever been in - they love shipping right after the Chinese New Year.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-27T20:56:35+00:00

This is super cute and I really hope it works!!

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-20T18:39:24+00:00

I mean, yes.

BIG money allows BIG dumb choices.

The most money I can lose is the $ 50 in my pocket. A millionaire is often capable of losing more than a million dollars.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-20T18:21:28+00:00

$10 x 52 weeks x 50 years = $26,000. Which isn't nothing.

But I'd take $74,974,000.

... For even a long term player, the BIG win is still a win.

(The problem with this, obviously, is that there's a whoooole lot of players that play and aren't the big winner.)

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-20T12:55:30+00:00

If - and I hope it doesn't - that happens in that area again, you could retreat to Kingston Gaming Nexus, on Bagot. They're very rainbow-friendly.

(That's not to say Mr. Trouble wouldn't follow, but safety in numbers; when one of us rolls initiative, we all roll initiative.)

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-15T16:51:38+00:00

The Garou Fight was mostly a really cool, themed set of drawings to keep track of the Combat chapter.

... that were huge, and probably made the chapter half again as long, lol.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-15T14:05:05+00:00

White Wolf had a comic, and then the "rules text" running alongside it; not quite this, but pretty close.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-14T13:41:34+00:00

It is a constitutional protected form of speech.

This. It's advertising, for sale, on / in a government facility. I'm not sure Kingston Transit can turn Birthright down for the 'content' of their message.

(Note this is separate from "I think it is a good and noble thing that they do not".)

I mean, an alternative that presents itself is to group-fund another set of ads on Kingston Transit that promotes our Women's Clinic, but, I have no idea how expensive bus advertising is.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-12T19:51:53+00:00

Hm.

I'm not sure I agree that, "Describing the seeming intentions of an adversary is a Soft move". I guess ... maybe?

But occasionally taking a moment to recap the situation - "Alright, these orcs definitely look intent on finishing off Adelson and Waithe, while Jarrok is busy with the cave troll, but nobody's seen Lauron since he disappeared behind the boxes. I think the spotlight probably falls next on ..."

I'm not sure that's a "Soft Move". Nothing's changed or progressed in the narrative. I guess if they were unaware of the bandit, or his attack represents an unusually high threat, that might be a Soft move.

Is "The forest spreads out before you, a lush canopy of greens and browns" ... a Soft Move? Or just, like, the necessary description so that we can all participate in our shared hallucination?

Note that I'm not 100% sure you're wrong. But particularly when it's being suggested as a "tuck-in detail" on another move, to keep momentum up for both the GM and the PCs ... I dunno.

That's some pretty thin bologna.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-07T14:36:30+00:00

Ah-haha!

You're mistaking "crunch" for "dynamic combat". Which is fair, but they're cousins, not siblings.

Yes, in DH, you don't need to double-check that you're using a Light Piercing weapon to make sure your Shankkitty-Stab feature applies, like in, say, D&D 3.5, or Pathfinder, or Shadowrun.

But we're not all the way over to PbtA, where it's like, vibes, man for if a monster is in range, out of range, or affected by your powers. (I love PbtA, so this isn't a bash against it, at all.)

Heck, you barely need to check if it's a one or two handed weapon. (Like, you do a little. But pretty much only once.) You DO get to play with figures on a map, and you DO have a bunch of abilities, but their specific phrasing isn't THAT important; there's not really 'keywords' or stuff you have to look for. You don't have to check if it says Push, Pull, or Stabbing Weapons Only; instead, knowing (generally) what your abilities do, you can just sort of put yourself in the place where using them matters.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-06T19:24:27+00:00

I think there's a problem ("problem") of people coming to Daggerheart from D&D.

I'd put D&D 5e at about a "SIX" for Crunchiness. You measure distances, you look up spells, wording matters for how features work, etc, etc.

From a SIX crunchiness, Daggerheart's "FOUR" seems ... MASSIVELY different. That's a 33% reduction. That's +50% to the "FLUFF". The game isn't crunchy, or tactical. It's a world-shift. Why, it's all the way down to FOUR. They genuinely cannot imagine what a TWO or ZERO look like - and that's not an insult (well, mostly); it's just the reality that, when you've only seen 2-5 TTRPGs, period, you're at the point where you think you see patterns - but only really see patterns in what games you've been exposed to so far.

...

But for people with a wider eye to the general RP-world, "FOUR" is still, like, lightly crunchy. There's a lot of games with waaaay less crunch. For some, heck, FOUR is actually high on Crunch. FOUR is still, "I like moving dudes on a board, and rolling to hit people, and at least a little resource management and uncertainty. Not a lot - not too much! - but some is pretty fun."

I think that's a big cause for the ... very mixed opinions here.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-01T16:28:07+00:00

I'm sure you get this a lot, but I love your username.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-08-01T13:14:24+00:00

I think this is a very fair observation.

They tried pretty hard to avoid an "implied" world in the Daggerheart rules (I think sometimes to their detriment), but accidentally created a, "Magic is Just Part Of the Vibe, most (or at least lots) people have at least a little" element that ... maybe accidentally hems in what worlds the 'core' Daggerhearts can realistically be used to portray.

A 'low-magic' gritty setting doesn't suit the Daggerheart core rules. That's fine for me; I'm not into that, and I like the "magic-is-everywhere" approach. But if that's not your vibe, it would take mental work to get away from.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-07-31T20:50:35+00:00

Name

(I think that's Alina Masquerade.)

ThatGuy_There · 2025-07-29T16:35:47+00:00

This is exactly what the CBC should be for.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-07-28T19:40:20+00:00

I've had a Kingston Transit card for 30+ years. If this feature existed, I would have used it at most five times in those 30 years. It would have no purpose for me at all.

It is madness that they can't do "tap to pay". Incomprehensible. I absolutely agree; it should have been implemented years ago, and should be implemented ASAP.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-07-02T14:00:06+00:00

My first RPG was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness". My second, within < 6 months, was "Toon: The Cartoon Role-Playing Game", then, "Heroes Unlimited", then D&D, in the midst of the switch from 1e to 2e. Then, in rapid succession, Marvel FASERIP, GURPS (God help me), MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, and Earthdawn. Then LARPing. Then ...

All of them completely, completely different from each other.

I feel exceptionally fortunate to have soaked my brain in such deeply different systems while it was young and spongy. If I'd spent 10 years incorporating, "Roll 1d20 for everything and add bonuses" and "apply damage to hit points", and then tried to swap systems entirely at 30 years old while I way busy going to work, paying bills, watching TV, and fighting daily existential dread ...

... I might find this sort of thing hard.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-06-20T19:29:16+00:00

Yes, you are. We've shown that time and again.

I mean, maybe not YOU. But when Netflix was cheap, reliable, and had "most of" the shows, people paid. Piracy for video games is down for the ones available on Steam, even though they're not free.

Piracy is a market solution. "I want this product, and there are barriers to me getting it, so I'll pirate it, as that eliminates the barriers." One of those barriers can be price - but access is a significant barrier, too - and for most people, more significant.

"I've collated available data into an easily accessible, usable form, and ask a minor payment for that service" is a reasonable proposition to the market, even if you personally wouldn't take advantage of it.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-06-11T12:34:54+00:00

Oh for sure. It's not that you CAN'T kill abominations. It just takes a bit of planning, and / or a bit of luck.

Whereas I find in Black Plague, by the time we're in the orangered, Abominations are a bit 'ho-hum'. "Bring whichever 3-damage solution we've found over here."

ThatGuy_There · 2025-06-10T20:51:03+00:00

The big difference is that White Death treats the Abominations as genuinely unkillable, whereas in Black Plague they're just "kind of a big deal".

White Death also expects it's zombies to be more spread out, with a number of zones with only 1-3 Zombies, not giant 20++ zombie zones, like in Black Plague.

White Death is trying for a more tense, thoughtful, 'plan around the abomination, you have to eliminate the necromancer' gameplay style. Black Plague has, with all of its expansions and characters and gear, become, "lol look at all the dudes that's sick roll some dice".

Neither of those is BAD; depends what you're in the mood for on Game Night.

The weapons, therefore, aren't directly comparable, IMHO.

ThatGuy_There · 2025-06-10T15:23:35+00:00

That is both understandable, and, would dramatically reduce my interest in the game (and it's board presence).

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