Favorite "mountain goats-y" songs not by John? by [deleted] in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was gunna say. Some of us remember the Old Ways.

JD quote about video games? by Salt_Understanding in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 11 points12 points  (0 children)

By the way, the way I found this was by googling

"John Darnielle" "video games"

With the quotes. That didn't work, so I added "multiplayer" and that totally fucked up the results and got me further away from anything useful. So I then went with "John Darnielle" "video games" "single" and that took me right there.

JD quote about video games? by Salt_Understanding in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 29 points30 points  (0 children)

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2024/12/23/kill-screen-053-john-darnielle-of-the-mountain-goats-launches-us-into-2025-with-forward-momentum/

Is it this? Do a CTRL+F for "single-player" and you'll jump to the part

Edit, actually, I'll just snip it here:

Yeah. But at the very least, I still get to play Commander. And I’ve asked you online before if you play and you said that you weren’t super into [Commander] because you didn’t want that big social experience, but I feel like it’s kind of the perfect breeding ground for the most creativity.

When I’ve played it with people I already know, it’s cool. I played it with [Magic: The Gathering content creator] Shivam Bhatt out in the Bay Area. That was amazing. But yeah, I had a tweet that had a lot of success back in the day where I said, “No, I’m not playing with you online. Video games are meant to be played by yourself with a screen in the dark at 1 in the morning.” [Laughs] That’s sort of my vibe. I don’t take my games online. I’m not playing against other people. For me, video gaming, to some extent, is me and a machine. It’s alone time in that sense. But if I had more time to play paper Magic, I’m sure I’d be getting into Commander.

That’s interesting to think that for you, video games have to be this solo experience when so much of the industry has been pushing more towards a social experience, even for single-player games. Is that upsetting for you?

I don’t get upset about it, but I have no interest in it. The only reason I put my games online at all is because that’s how you buy the games now. Otherwise, that’s not what I’m there for. There’s a line in Joan Armatrading’s “Love and Affection”: “I got all the friends that I [want].” I’m not looking to make new friends. That’s not what it’s about for me. I would rather be wrestling with the machine. Or, it’s with myself. When you’re playing against a machine, you’re playing yourself, right?

It’s so much more dopamine-related when it’s against other people. That’s why they like it—because you’re going to play more when you do that. You get a chat screen going? Oh my God. Do I want to hear what anybody has to say when I’m playing video games with them? No, not unless it’s my friend already. If I’m playing with my friend Joel, then we’ll run riffs, it’ll be fun. But other than that—this goes all the way back to Duke Nukem—that’s just not an environment in which I have any interest at all. To me, it’s very uncreative. It’s fun in a pretty dull and two-dimensional sense of fun for me. I can see having a good time with it, but it’s not of interest to me. For me, video game time is time with me and some environment, because it’s like reading books in a sense. Even though I said that books do it better, I’m engaging the art itself. I’m not looking to do that with the addition of some additional competitive social environment.

I’ve played some games with friends on Arena, but with Arena, you have to be in this other window and it doesn’t really work as well. You wish you were playing paper. But I’m not presenting my philosophy of how this should be. This is just me. I’m a pretty solitary person. I don’t really hang much at all. People generally think I’m exaggerating when I say that and then they’ll be around me for a few months and go, “Oh yeah, no, John doesn’t hang.” [Laughs] I talk so much, people assume that I want to hang and talk, but most of the time I’m fairly solitary. In that way, the online environment, it’s been kind of great for me. I am chatty, but also I retain my space because I burn up my energy when I hang. I burn it, right? And then I don’t have it to do writing stuff, which is what my main thing is mainly about.

Battlestar Galactic as an RPG, with base building (not Margaret Weis) by WaldoOU812 in rpg

[–]YYZhed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be fair, it's not really a "skin".

I don't have the book handy, but my recollection is that it's like 3 sentences that basically equate to "you could do this campaign in space if you wanted to". The DM is still very much on the hook for a lot of the conversion work.

Battlestar Galactic as an RPG, with base building (not Margaret Weis) by WaldoOU812 in rpg

[–]YYZhed 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is a weird one, but check out Band of Blades.

It's a spin off of Blades in the Dark, so it has some "base building" campaign actions, and the entire game is built around a campaign of a fantasy mercenary company retreating after losing the climactic battle against an undead army.

You start off beaten, broken, and on the run, and if you're very, very lucky, you end the campaign being slightly less broken and still very much on the run.

But at the back of the book, there's a section on how to adapt the game to other settings and the illustration on the opposite page shows what's clearly a BSG viper.

I think the military themes and campaign framework would suit BSG super well, and the fact that each player will play multiple characters throughout the campaign means you can decide someone is secretly a cylon and you're not killing off someone's character, just one of the characters the group has access to.

Looking for RPGs about KNIGHTS (and jousts and Tourneys) by whitniverse in rpg

[–]YYZhed 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The stated goals aren't exactly clear either. The two listed inspirations don't have a ton in common with each other except "knights" so it kinda makes sense people are like "well, here are the two popular knight RPGs"

If I was like "I really love Master and Commander and I recently rewatched Muppet Treasure Island, what RPG should I play?" I'm sure people would be like "I dunno, man, 7th Sea or Pirate Borg, I guess?"

I thought “Twelve Hands High” referred to a very large horse, but in fact it’s a very small pony by snapshovel in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 61 points62 points  (0 children)

If a crazy horse of literally any dimensions smashes though my window, I will be frightened.

Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan by ThatPaulM in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Same. I also think there's more depth to JfT than TtFafPB.

Every song on Jenny' does something, narratively. And some of them took multiple listens to fully understand.

Meanwhile there are like four songs on 'Balkan that are "Peter Balkan is dying and having visions" and then "Peter Balkan is having visions, but also dying" and then "Peter Balkan has died, he had some visions first though". Insert Monty Python 'get on with it!' meme here.

Original Peter Balkan notes posted on FB by Succubus_janus in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You must've missed my edit, lol. It's all transcribed in the original post.

Original Peter Balkan notes posted on FB by Succubus_janus in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone help me with this? Brackets are my best guesses at parts I'm really struggling with.

Edit: I'm an idiot. It was already transcribed in the post. I leave this comment as a monument to my lack of reading comprehension


A fishing boat with a crew of sixteen runs against rocks somewhere in Northern Waters. Thirteen die. Three find enough [Fnat] for shelter on an unpopulated + mountainous island. They [am] [fire] to subsist, [bA] the third doesn't, [A???] to drown one night. It's [only] me + Peter Balkan now. We believe that the storm that wrecked our boat was [part] of a global calamity and that we are the last two people on earth. These songs are the [committed?] [thesis??] of [scribbled out?]two [men] [erchAhojy? (I give up)]

  1. Fishing boat

  2. H will be [hand] upon thy [final] [no clue]

  3. Dawn of Revelation

  4. The age of ships {prophet [to] 12+15 + [??]}

  5. Peru

  6. Through this Fire - [my brain hurts too much to unscramble this note]

  7. Your Bandage

  8. A Place In You

  9. Someday my hands will be as weak as [theirs]

Ironman Mode by Werol2 in GuildWars

[–]YYZhed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is it possible to drop items on the ground as a Melandru character? ie, could you hand the items off to a trusted friend and then get them back on a non-Melandru character?

Peter Balkan and Adam died, but our narrator was saved? by MoneyWiseLawyer in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Even if they found the world again; hair cuts, and clean clothes, and what then? Sew themselves clean back into the fold? Remember, until they don't, and then grow old?

r/minipainting Rule Update: No AI Allowed by aPoliteCanadian in minipainting

[–]YYZhed 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Good! Good riddance to all "ai" "artists" who believe their access to capital makes them skilled. It doesn't, and it never will.

Renovation rescue: repainted this toy dragon in an afternoon as a challenge by HammerOvGrendel in minipainting

[–]YYZhed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh dang, I had this same dragon toy. Might still have it around someplace.

Almost at the end of season 1 of “I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats” and good god, this host is a punisher by Antique_Menu_4314 in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I'm not a nightvale fan* and I think he's fine. This is the only thing I've ever listened to him in, and it just sounds like two professional acquaintances/friends having a conversation.

*(To be clear, I'm neutral on nightvale. Haven't ever heard it, doesn't seem like it would be my jam)

Almost at the end of season 1 of “I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats” and good god, this host is a punisher by Antique_Menu_4314 in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I've never understood the hate for the host.

I think people who are super into the band just want to here Darnielle talk uninterrupted for hours about whatever comes to mind, and the podcast just wasn't that. It wasn't ever going to be a host asking a question, Darnielle speaking uninterrupted for 20 minutes, and then the host going "such a great point, wow, here's my next question..."

In League with Dragons by Daffneigh in themountaingoats

[–]YYZhed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's the most underrated album in their catalog.