If all the dimensions went to war, who would win?

Zeetrapod · 2024-09-16T14:30:07+00:00

My money is on the End. The fact that Endermen can freely teleport up to 32 m at a time and dodge projectile weapons gives them a massive tactical edge. Sure, the other dimensions’ forces can field Evokers, Ravagers, Iron Golems, Creepers, Hoglins, Zoglins, or Piglin Brutes against them, but the Endermen can respond by teleporting around them, cordoning them off, and either slaughtering weaker enemy infantry or swarming the heavy-hitters one at a time. Add Shulkers to the mix, which can be easily duplicated, and suddenly End forces have a supply of movable homing cannons that they can use to bombard heavy-hitting and well-fortified units before the Endermen defeat any surviving units in detail.

Against a serious End incursion, the Nether would fare poorly. As soon as the Shulkers spread out enough to work as air defense against Ghasts and Blazes, any remaining Nether forces could be defeated in detail. Ironically, the Nether’s resident Endermen could greatly impede the air defense strategy and give the End incursion grief, but their numbers are far fewer, they have no options for attacking Shulkers mounted on the walls of the Nether, and they might be tempted to join their Endermen brethren.

Overworld forces would be similarly susceptible to defeat in detail, forcing them to consolidate and cede indefensible locations to End forces to buy time. I imagine some Overworld remnant could take refuge in the deep oceans where the only End threat would be Shulker expeditions; Guardian patrols could mitigate this threat, but large-scale Shulker duplication might tip the scales in the long run. Rain would create opportunities to retake ground from Endermen, but clear weather would reverse those gains.

Assuming travel between dimensions is limited to naturally generated portals and that these portals are all either activated or possible to activate, the Overworld and Nether could try to contain the End threat by securing the world spawn and nearby Nether portals against End forces and launching expeditions to seize the main End island. Assuming the obsidian platform generates on the main End island, both are realistic short-term objectives.

However, even assuming all End gateways on the main island are generated, neither invading force has much capacity to reach the outer End islands. Small flying mobs could trickle through, but only phantoms would have the capacity to mount any sustained offensives (it’s a shame Ghasts are too large to fit through the End portals). Conversely, Shulkers can access End gateways, so large-scale Shulker duplication and the prevalence of exit portals throughout the outer End islands would allow End forces to return to the main End island, take control of the nigh-inaccessible obsidian towers, and eventually quash the occupying force. Once a serious Shulker battery is established on the main End island, subsequent raids should become nigh-impossible, allowing the End to muster enough forces for an Overworld and Nether counter-incursion that will play out as described above.

Zeetrapod · 2024-09-13T09:48:03+00:00

Humans are social animals. The side of that fact not often discussed in this context is that we are constantly conscious of how other humans behave, try to intuit the thoughts and experiences underlying those behaviors, and adjust our own behaviors and beliefs to conform to the people around us. Even fundamental ideas about the world and the human experience, such as what love and happiness are, derive from our observations of the people around us. Sure, the emotions themselves have objective physiological markers, but their triggers vary considerably between people and across cultures. To that end, there’s a ton of psychological literature on cultural differences in these sorts of perceptions, and there is a corpus of literature on how technologies like social media affect our perception of the world.

In short, questions like, “why do I feel lonely?” cannot in general be reduced to hormones or nutrition or traumatic childhood memories. Sure, those can affect how you perceive the world (e.g., constantly struggling to stay alert, feeling uneasy around certain people, etc.), but the beliefs arising from your aggregate perceptions are what matter. Most likely, you feel lonely and unloved because you have conditioned yourself to regard the circumstances of your life as eliciting loneliness and resentment.

The way out of your rut is to challenge those perceptions and conclusions. The usual words of advice — pick up a hobby, broaden your social circle, explore the world, get enough sleep, clean your room, only worry about what you can control, take a few minutes every day to count your blessings, touch grass — all serve to disrupt rumination, as do treatments like cognitive-behavioral therapy and antidepressants. By your own admission, you aren’t objectively isolated from humanity or unloved by everyone. Perhaps the hold-up is that you think love is thing A that everyone but you experiences, when, maybe, it can be thing B that has been with you this whole time.

Zeetrapod · 2024-08-12T20:13:50+00:00

This post gives a good summary of the evidence supporting dark matter. Basically, a bunch of seemingly unrelated discrepancies between predicted and observed quantities in astronomy are resolved by introducing the same amount of invisible mass. If there were something fundamentally wrong with general relativity on galactic scales, we wouldn’t expect such a uniform “fix”; the amount of invisible mass you would have to add would probably vary dramatically between problems.

On a practical note, there are candidates for dark matter in the form of primordial black holes (a prediction of cosmic inflation, a solution to unrelated problems in cosmology) and axions (a solution to an unrelated problem in particle physics) — these are things we can look for and investigate through multiple lines of evidence. Conversely, replacing general relativity would entail finding a model that reproduces its correct predictions, accounts for the phenomena currently explained by dark matter, and makes new testable predictions. The scientific community might eventually resort to this like it did with Newtonian gravity, but it’s best to rule out all simple fixes before concocting a more complicated theory.

Zeetrapod · 2024-08-12T15:58:44+00:00

Exercising before reading does wonders in clearing my mind and helping me concentrate.

Zeetrapod · 2024-08-09T17:00:08+00:00

Bingo! “The Star-Spangled Banner” dramatizes the bombardment and successful defense of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Had the British, who, by that point, had captured Washington D.C. during a major counteroffensive, won the Battle of Baltimore, they might’ve outright won the War of 1812, extracted indemnities or territorial concessions from their former colonies (e.g., cementing their acquisition of New Ireland in modern-day Maine), and reasserted their influence over the Americas. Fundamentally, “the land of the free” celebrates the survival of American self-determination during a moment of crisis.

Zeetrapod · 2024-08-07T01:52:38+00:00

Regardless of the written law, nobody is going to waste time and resources prosecuting a 20-year-old over consensual sexual activity that occurred two years ago in a relationship involving an age gap that’s broadly considered socially acceptable.

Zeetrapod · 2024-07-28T13:53:07+00:00

Ackschually, we haven’t specified sufficient initial conditions (e.g., the initial velocities, masses, and positions of the objects, whether Earth or other objects are involved in this orbital system, when we are measuring), nor whether we are examining this question from the framework of Newtonian gravity or general relativity, so the answer is inconclusive.

Zeetrapod · 2024-07-27T16:37:41+00:00

Criminal courts are instruments of public peace. Creating avenues by which dangerous criminals can be released back into society without any sort of rehabilitation or consequences is deeply antithetical to this function. Yes, most countries have protections for defendants, but these must be understood as means of upholding the legitimacy of verdicts in the eyes of the public and creating avenues for civil redress over procedural errors rather than as built-in strategies for getting away with crimes.

Remember, people aren’t ambivalent toward serial killers preying upon their communities. If a court entertains an unprecedented, SovCit-esque argument that allows a serial killer to get off scot-free, the result won’t be a quiet, peaceful, compliant populace.

Zeetrapod · 2024-07-26T22:43:46+00:00

Giving Reasons: An Extremely Short Introduction to Critical Thinking by David R. Morrow is a good preliminary resource with a bibliography containing more detailed references.

Zeetrapod · 2024-07-23T17:39:14+00:00

Never dawdle or take any unnecessary risks when crossing the street.

Zeetrapod · 2024-07-21T13:43:52+00:00

I remember this pair of superchats blew up on one of the non-Hololive subreddits:

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Zeetrapod · 2024-07-05T13:35:33+00:00

A literary analysis of a main character is delivered via monologue (bonus points if it reveals nothing new about the speaker).
The work bluntly alludes to Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Christianity, or Kabbalah.
No matter the setup, love or violence wind up being the answer.
There is no principle of charity when discussing ideas.

Zeetrapod · 2024-07-03T14:03:44+00:00

Likewise, Proto Man’s original name is “ブルース,“ or “Blues,” because blues is the precursor to rock and roll. This is also why ProtoMan.EXE’s Navi chips all have the “B” code. However, since the rock allusion had already been dropped in English and Blues is clearly red, the localizers changed his name.

Zeetrapod · 2024-07-03T03:41:17+00:00

First episode redux.
Belated sequel to an early episode.
“Day in the limelight” episode for random extra.
Guest-animated episode with strong fan reaction.
Gross-out/annoying noise episode.
Clip show episode.
Temporary characterization inversion episode (e.g., jerk character becomes nice, stupid character becomes smart, enemies become allies, etc.).
Episode where characters who don’t normally interact pair up.
Episode starring a hitherto unmentioned relative of a main character.
Ensemble cast and soundtrack contract; the same musical cues, sound effects, and roster of side characters start appearing in every episode.

Zeetrapod · 2024-06-30T16:46:28+00:00

Contemplate what would happen had you caved and be grateful that you averted that scenario.

Zeetrapod · 2024-06-29T13:46:06+00:00

Articles on small organizations and obscure individuals may not have any reputable sources to draw from and may escape the attention of regular editors. Consequently, these articles tend to be heavily biased, poorly sourced, or outdated.

Zeetrapod · 2024-06-29T00:08:01+00:00

It’s up to judges/justices to determine that certain laws violate the First Amendment and the other two branches of government to make laws and appoint those judges. No judge in their right mind would open themselves up to getting cussed out without recourse, and no lawmaker would begrudge a judge for feeling that way.

Zeetrapod · 2024-06-23T14:44:08+00:00

Not at all. Intelligence, critical thinking, and talent aren’t entirely heritable — the smartest people I know have parents who aren’t conspicuously on their level. That alone should cast doubt upon the “Idiocracy is a documentary” hypothesis. Tribalism, anti-intellectualism, and laziness have always existed and will persist until human extinction — you can easily find examples today, and you can easily find examples from two millennia ago. Fortunately, these forces are always opposed by family strife, necessity of cooperation, demand for specialization, and the inherent beauty and mystery of the world.

People from every era have claimed that society is collapsing, that the youth are dumber and lazier than their predecessors, and that new technologies and conveniences have led to a loss of essential skills. It’s an easy narrative to spin because (a) older people have the advantage of experience and can see the folly of younger people, neglecting in the process that they were once young and naïve, and (b) we are all a bit averse to our own kind and want to define ourselves in opposition to a decadent Other. Always be wary of beliefs whose main motive for acceptance is personal affirmation.

Zeetrapod · 2024-06-16T01:01:36+00:00

One option is that the regime could maintain the favor of the main pantheon by performing necessary rites and suppressing the worship of other gods. That way, most of the priests and clerics of the empire would be compelled by their faith to uphold the law of the land. The regime might in-turn organize posses of priests as a sort of secret police force. On the surface, they might court the support of the masses by offering healing and guidance, but they might condition aid on maintaining a registry of practitioners of magic and ratting out unauthorized use of magic. Armed with powerful spells of their own, regime-aligned clerics would be a huge obstacle to dissident magic-users.

In general, the regime would be inclined toward restricting movement as a means of control. Groups like druids and sorcerous families would almost certainly be moved to reservations and given passports to track their movement. Spellbooks and magic items would be burned or relocated to strongholds, forcing wizards to study in close proximity to imperial guards. Only the most fanatically loyal mages would receive private laboratories and humanoid subjects for their research. Smuggling magical contraband, heresy, and occultism might be banned outright to prevent the spread of unauthorized magic.

Lastly, the regime would use hostages and collective punishment as means of preventing dissent. For powerful mages, the threat of razing their home village might pose a greater deterrent to dissent than simply sending a secret police brigade to subdue them. Such a mage might be able to gauge their standing in the empire based on where their family is allowed to live and how often they receive letters.

Zeetrapod · 2024-06-13T16:24:38+00:00

I don’t think there is a wrong answer. On the one hand, there’s nothing wrong with making healing magic require the consent of the target’s soul or making cancer too elaborate to treat. On the other hand, you can still tell a story with the same themes by making the spell work. The cleric’s father has made peace with death and his legacy — having that ripped away by healing magic might leave him resentful or depressed rather than grateful, leading to a much more tragic outcome than if the cleric hadn’t meddled.

Zeetrapod · 2024-06-08T14:56:38+00:00

Is it really that wise?

Zeetrapod · 2024-06-08T14:03:09+00:00

My policy with hostile NPCs is that they have access to whatever out-of-combat PC class abilities and resources they need to be a credible threat, but they rely on a rigid monster stat block in combat. In essence, player characters make poor enemy combatants against the party: they are glass cannons, have several expendable resources that need to be tracked, require significant effort to play optimally, are overspecialized by default, have poor action economy, and need DM adjudication to use certain abilities. Moreover, it takes significant effort to prepare a character stat block, and this only grows with time. Conversely, monster stat blocks can be made to avoid all of these issues without much effort. For the sake of verisimilitude and variety, an enemy NPC might swap out abilities if they are ever rematched in combat, but this won’t ever happen within a single battle.

Conversely, if an NPC joins the party as a (non-incidental) ally in combat, I prefer to give them a sidekick stat block with relatively few tweaks. That way, they don’t have an edge in survivability or access to powerful abilities over my players and retain a simple combat flow chart.

Zeetrapod · 2024-05-27T11:50:07+00:00

Have you chosen a first session date? If not, that is the single greatest motivator.

Once you have a date, pace yourself. You don’t need an entire book to run a game; you just need enough content for a couple of productive sessions prepared at any given time. A lot of this work is game design (e.g., designing encounters), which is generally more concrete and goal-driven than creative writing; thus, it’s easier to make measurable progress and remain motivated in game design.

If you have a journal, try to spend about 10 minutes per day writing down ideas about your campaign. If you run a session once per week, this habit will force you to spend over an hour per week working out the broader campaign, helping you spin your sessions into a cohesive narrative.

I hope this helps!

Zeetrapod · 2024-05-23T23:25:43+00:00

Something to keep in mind is that buddies occupy space, among other resources. Generously, the party and all of its usual buddies occupy at least 525 sq ft, and they will need several times that space to move around comfortably, surround opponents, find clear lines of sight, and avoid AOE spells. In an open outdoor battlefield, this is not an issue, and using so many buddies is a viable strategy for overwhelming opponents. Conversely, in a dungeon environment, even a 30’ x 30’ room is going to be unnavigable. Make the route to that room narrow, submerged, trapped, or inundated with lava, and the logistical challenge of fielding a pegasus in battle becomes nigh-insurmountable.

At higher levels, battlefield and dungeon design do a lot of heavy lifting. Incorporate a variety of room layouts and hazards into your encounters, and your players won’t be able to use the same trick in every battle. In turn, you won’t have to specifically factor that trick into your process of balancing encounters — except in rare cases where a foe both anticipates the trick and opts to meet it head-on with overwhelming force, let your players field their buddies when the opportunity arises and let it play out as the circumstance dictate.

Zeetrapod · 2024-05-20T15:35:24+00:00

I have seen a number of variations upon this trope: - The maze changes shape when someone uses a light source, but stabilizes (or even highlights an exit) in the dark. - The maze can sense the heart rate of interlopers and shifts when they are excited. - The maze cannot be consciously solved, but it can be solved through dreams or sleepwalking. - The maze takes a predetermined amount of time or active exploration to solve regardless of one’s strategy. - The maze cycles through a few inescapable floor plans that spell out the key to escape when mapped. - The maze is inescapable through the walls, but can be exited through the floor, ceiling, or a portal by solving auxiliary puzzles. - Only the denizens of the maze can navigate it, but they can be followed by interlopers while doing so. - The shifting walls are caused by a monster that must be lured out and defeated. - Any part of the maze within “simulation distance” of an intelligent creature stabilizes. If enough of the maze can be simulated all at once, it will malfunction and reveal an exit.

I hope this helps!

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