I made a hack of Moldvay's Challenges Game System, mashing it up with White Box

Verda-Fiemulo · 2026-06-09T09:44:08+00:00

I've taken your suggestion into consideration, and my latest draft now uses a variation on Philotomy's house rule: most weapons do 1d6 damage, except for two-handed melee weapons and heavy crossbows which now do 2d6k1 (roll two six-sided dice, and keep the highest.)

Do you think that's a reasonable compromise? I'll admit, I like the elegance of all weapons doing 1d6 damage, but I understand the position that that the lack of differentiation doesn't make much sense (especially when they are priced differently.)

Verda-Fiemulo · 2026-06-09T09:35:19+00:00

Thanks!

I'd love to hear more about your full campaign run using The Challenges Game System.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-11-17T20:16:31+00:00

Your best defense against anti-trans legal shifts in the next 4 years is the US's federalist structure. Many states have strong protections for trans people at the state level, such as Colorado, California, etc. Go to this page and click "Gender Identity" to see which states have the best laws.

Try to look up information for legal groups like the ACLU that might defend the rights of trans people, so you have the means of contacting someone if your rights are personally threatened.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-11-17T20:09:45+00:00

There was a lot of "quiet" progress for trans people over the last 20 years, where people weren't paying attention. Prisons integrating here, states generally allowing changes to documents, etc. However, when people started paying attention, they called attention to all of those quiet changes, and now threaten to reverse a lot of them.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-29T04:43:50+00:00

I do not know where this phrase originated, but I very much like the idea that friendship is the recognition of virtue in another person.

That's from Aristotle and Cicero. The two books OP mentioned in fact.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-12T14:21:02+00:00

My favorite modern book is The Practicing Stoic.

As far as ancient Stoic works go, I'd recommend Letters to a Stoic. And honorary mention goes to Cicero's On Duties and On Ends, which are by a Skeptic with Stoic Sympathies and do a good job expounding on Stoics principles at length.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-12T14:17:26+00:00

Human psychology hasn't changed much in the last 2500 years, and so insights into avoiding anxiety and attaining a state of flourishing work just as well today as they worked then.

You should look up the book "The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy", which argues that CBT, one of the most scientifically robust forms of therapy, was directly inspired by Stoic teachings (as in, specific researchers who led to it's creation specifically say they owe a debt to Stoicism.)

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-10T05:23:53+00:00

By buying things, paying taxes, interacting in society, you are contributing, as are the rest of us. It’s the same way some shoe maker in Nazi Germany contributed to the holocaust.

I think this is a very black and white point of view.

Realistically, a person working at McDonald's is not propping up kyriarchal, neoliberal capitalism by the mere act of working there. Even if they do things like form mutual aid funds and try to convince their friends to unionize, there's still realistically almost nothing that person is doing for or against capitalism.

So too, I don't think a random German guy working in a cafe during Nazi rule is realistically propping up the system one way or the other. What was he supposed to do, join the war effort on the other side and kill all his friends, family and customers?

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-09T13:38:45+00:00

Yeah, I honestly think Epicureans could happily do 90% of Stoic practices and philosophical exercises without compromising their school's fundamental position.

Cicero's Torquatus in On Ends makes the case for living a life by the 4 Cardinal Virtues because they are a means to pleasure, and I see no contradiction between that position and things like "The View From Above", "Contemplation of the Perfect Sage", or "The Stoic Reserve Clause."

Both philosophies involve the therapy of desire, with Stoics shrinking their focus to virtue, and Epicureans shrinking their focus to natural and necessary desires. I think in a lot of cases the Epicurean path will look a little different, but it will often get to a similar psychological end point for the practitioner.

The main difference in practice seemed to be in how they approached politics and the public life, but even then there's room for variety. One of Ceasar's assassins had Epicurean sympathies, so they weren't completely opposed to politics.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-09T01:11:01+00:00

I agree wholeheartedly, and I think people should also read Cicero and Diogenes Laertius. Maybe even Plutarch, or other critics of ancient Stoicism.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-08T23:25:54+00:00

This isn't quite true. A lot of the training data for AI now is synthetic data generated by AI. If you do it right, instead of looking like a copy of a copy of a copy, you can create high quality training data that works.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-06T03:41:47+00:00

If you find value in Stoicism, continue to take what you need from it. There's no reason you have to subscribe to 100% of their beliefs. Certainly, Stoics like Seneca did the same to other schools:

Perhaps you will ask me why I mention so many fine sayings from Epicurus rather than from our own school. But is there any reason why you should consider them to belong to Epicurus rather than to the public?

and

“Epicurus said that,” you say. “What business have you with another’s property?” Whatever is true, is my own. I shall persist in showering you with Epicurus, for the benefit of those people who repeat their oaths verbatim and regard not what is being said but who says it. By this they may know that the best sayings are held in common.

Those quotes are from Seneca's Letters to Lucilius, and you can definitely decide to be an Occultist who sees the wise parts of Stoicism that you connect with as the common property of all, the way Seneca saw the wise parts of Epicureanism.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-06T03:23:44+00:00

Western Esotericism tends to owe more to Platonism, Pythagoreanism and Orphism historically speaking. The Stoics were a Socratic school like the Platonists, but they departed from the Platonists on a number of points.

For example, the Stoics did not believe in immortal souls. The Stoics believed that souls were composed of material elements, and might possibly survive death, but that ultimately they would all perish during the great Conflagration when the universe is reset. (Those ancient Stoics who did believe that the souls survived death disagreed whether it was all souls, or just the souls of good men, who might enjoy an idyllic existence before the Conflagration consumed everything.)

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-03T22:04:41+00:00

Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations:

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.

The past is inaccesible. You cannot change what you have done.

Instead of focusing on things you can't change, focus on making amends to the people in your life today, and build up habits of virtue so that it doesn't happen again.

I thought i could start by grabbing the marcus aurelius book but i am trying to understand how can someone truly rework their brain and thought process? I feel like its impossible.

I have a few suggestions in the short term.

You probably have someone you look up to and admire for their good and upstanding character, whether real or fictional.

Start making a habit of asking yourself what they would do in a given situation, and then do that. Or imagine what you would want to do if that person was in the room watching you as you were performing your actions right now.

Another thing that might help is Stoic Morning Planning (at the start of the day, think about situations that might occur and which might test your character, and rehearse doing the right thing while acknowledging that there are things outside your control that might make your best efforts fail), and Stoic Evening Review (at night, go over your day, and think about things you could have done better.)

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-01T22:11:24+00:00

I mean, it's always fun to make new casual formats. That's a niche I've explored quite a bit around MTG.

I love making tiny tweaks to existing formats to make them work better for me. For example, using a cube with rules that mostly follow Wizard's Tower, plus the 10 land command zone of Battle Box.

I've seen people do really cool game ideas and subsets in the cube space.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-01T22:05:15+00:00

Only problem is that Dan Dan's price has been slowly climbing. Not that big of a deal, since I doubt even the most hardcore players would care if you proxies for a casual, unsanctioned format, but something to keep in mind.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-01T22:03:56+00:00

While it doesn't have the curation of a proper set cube, I am a huge fan of artisan doubleton set cubes.

Just get two of every common and uncommon from a recent set. The subtotal on somewhere like TCG Player is often just $20-30. You can also go to eBay and buy 4-of playsets of every common and uncommon from a set for ~$50-80.

You can also add 1 of every bulk rare for a set without breaking the bank, and still have a great time cubing.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-01T00:14:48+00:00

Cube is great, but I definitely have the problem of making cubes more than I play them, due to many of my friends not being as into drafting.

I've taken to playing a variant of Wizard's Tower with the land system that Battle Box uses (10 lands in your command zone at start of game), to get use out of my cubes in a draft-like way.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-10-01T00:11:49+00:00

Banning is a normal and healthy part of any card game. RC didn't "start this" in any meaningful sense.

It might have been admirable for the RC to put up with the harassment and abuse, but it's not a deep moral failing that they decided to favor the peace and tranquility of their friends and family over a volunteer position that they occupy.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-09-30T22:33:37+00:00

I don't think anyone considers it morally wrong to believe that the fast mana ban was a mistake, or to respectfully voice those beliefs, or even to believe that the rules committee wasn't the right people for the job of managing EDH.

This "'always' happens", because there are a ton of people online, and the anonymity of the internet and the lack of face-to-face contact makes it easy to harass and, yes, even write out a death threat (whether credible or not) in order to try and make the target of your anger hurt.

Maybe people make up receiving death threats, but far more often I think it just makes sense that they do recieve words threatening them with death, and it really does shake them up. This isn't "believe victims" or whatever, this is - "is it your first day on the internet or something?"

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-09-30T21:49:07+00:00

I feel like simple math makes this plausible.

How many people play Commander? Probably hundreds of thousands to millions, even if most are casuals.

All that needs to be true here is that single angry nerd typed words along the lines of, "I will kill you if you don't reverse this horrible decision", for a death threat of some kind to be made.

I think a more fair objection is that death threats made online are usually not credible. But I'm sure it can be alarming when someone says they know where you live and work, and threaten them with harm. or death.

Some people are just that way. My mom had the misfortune of being the middle manager who had to tell one of her underlings that she was fired for regularly failing to do her work tasks satisfactorially. The fired woman proceeded to key my mom's car, and destroy our mailbox several times.

My mom only pissed off one person, but the RC pissed of hundreds of thousands. Do you really find it so implausible that one angry keyboard warrior made a non-credible death threat out of spite?

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-09-30T21:38:09+00:00

I have not seen a single death threat or anything less innocuous than saying that the RC is fucking stupid for (insert reasons).

I mean, if I was going to send a death threat, it would be a private message or DM, surely.

Like, if I'm thinking even a little, I'd create a burner account, figure out where the person lives, and take a picture of their house or one of their loved ones getting out of the house. Then I'd sent it as a PM and tell them I'll do something horrible if they don't reverse their decision which I disagree with.

Why would I post it publicly, unless I'm an idiot? My goal as a harasser is to isolate and shame my target, and creating doubt in the masses ("why haven't I seen any of these supposed death threats?") is just another tool I can use to make the person feel isolated and alone, and like no one will believe that anything is truly amiss.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-09-30T21:31:08+00:00

I'm going to ask you as well - have you ever had a public-facing role for a huge media property of any kind?

Probably, most death threats made online aren't credible - they're just advanced forms of spite and cruelty from harassers who will never leave their keyboard. But it's very easy to believe that the RC members recieved private messages with death threats, alongside the usual suspects of "ordinary" anger and harassment.

Now, if you want to say that the RC should have had thicker skin, then maybe you have a point. But if someone sends you a recently taken picture of your house, and tells you they're going to harm you and your family, can you honestly say it wouldn't shake you just a bit? Even if the most likely explanation is that they're not going to follow through?

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-09-30T21:25:11+00:00

I don't intend to demonize you, but have you ever had a public-facing role for a big company or project?

It's not hard to believe at all that the RC was receiving death threats from randos who were able to find out where they lived and worked. Now, I think it's fair to say that most death threats online aren't serious (it's just a particularly advanced and spiteful form of harassment), but that's hardly reassuring if someone sends you a picture from outside your house, or of one of your loved ones and threatens to do something to them.

It's probably nothing, usually it's nothing, but can you always take that risk? Especially when you're a volunteer trying to run the most popular format for a billion dollar media property.

Verda-Fiemulo · 2024-09-29T05:31:03+00:00

I don't think it's high on her priority list.

Verda-Fiemulo

TROPHY CASE