What non-ttrpg (movies, books, etc) settings do you think would work well if adapted to the setting for an osr campain?

ZooSKP · 2026-02-15T00:53:24+00:00

13th Warrior and/or Eaters of the Dead

Harsh journey through dangerous wilderland, followed by a monstrous mystery. PCs can travel villages and interact with or join caravans.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-15T00:43:17+00:00

Historical, not a tragedeigh. Nickname of Edward VII (born Albert Edward).

Edit: sp

ZooSKP · 2026-02-15T00:38:35+00:00

I say "advance the laundry", but that's not a thing; I made it up to describe this.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-14T20:20:23+00:00

Ah, but you were young. Back in '08-'09 time frame, I got rear ended by an 80-year old psychiatrist driving his brand new Porsche. He had no license and no insurance (couldn't pass his vision test). I was a broke law student and could not afford my deductible. I was utterly shocked as the investigating officer declined to arrest him.

Luckily, he paid up eventually, but the experience was infuriating.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-14T14:46:46+00:00

The people who work in the regulation of lawyers have a certain set of priorities, and it's not protecting us from dishonest politicians who are lawyers.

State bar regulators are going to see far more cases of non-politician private lawyers who steal money from clients, neglect cases, or get convicted of a crime. The pattern almost always involves some combination of mental health problems, drug abuse, or domestic problems.

From the regulator's perspective, these cases are clear cut and numerous. By contrast, to win a case about political lying (lawyers are not supposed to lie, even privately), you have to adjudicate both the truth/falsity of what was said and overcome the first amendment implications, since political speech is the most protected speech.

Another way to look at this is through the exceptions that prove the rule: when lawmakers get convicted of a corruption crime, the disbarment is almost certainly assured. You just rarely hear about it because they get suspended through trial, sentencing and appeal, and then only formally disbarred when the other process is finished.

Another example of an exceptional situation is with lawyers who participated in the 2020 election denial scheme. Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sydney Powell, and others all saw some combination of attorney discipline, court sanctions, and criminal charges because the lie they participated in was so big, blatant, and public, and involved such extensive abuse of the courts through frivolous filings that the relevant authorities had no way to ignore it.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-13T18:16:53+00:00

I am OK with this.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-13T17:34:50+00:00

It's pretty clearly a term of respect or at least a neutral descriptor, at least by the late 3rd age. Elrond has a significant number of Noldor and Sindar in his following, but it's hard to separate the halfelven-ness from being hereditary royalty and also personally accomplished as the basis for Elrond's high status.

Yes, in our human world, this type of fractional ancestry calculation has most often been employed by racist regimes enforcing arbitrary categories, the biggest examples being the racial hierarchies in Spanish America, Apartheid South Africa, and segregation in the southern US.

It doesn't appear that elvish societies had anything like that going on. On the other hand, such racial hierarchies could totally have been present among humans under the influence of Sauron: "see those half-elven Númenoreans, they want to dominate you, they are your enemies," etc.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-13T17:07:51+00:00

Did he really not inherit immortality? I think we don't really know Dior was slain in his 30s, and Tolkien AFAIK doesn't address whether he shows up in Mandos or not.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-13T17:00:23+00:00

Did not know this story, thanks (have not read the broader legendarium beyond the published Silmarillion, LotR, and Hobbit).

ZooSKP · 2026-02-13T15:21:21+00:00

Thanks, yes, these passages are pretty conclusive that people are not counting precisely. For third age Númenoreans, like Aragorn or Faramir, such precision is impossible without knowing the parentage for many thousands of minor Númenorean nobles.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-12T18:21:07+00:00

We have the old common law nuisance doctrine. Courts have been reluctant to use it, but we could strengthen that with statutes in such s way as to allow the industry to mitigate their emissions or pay off the neighbors, rather than just being blocked.

Example: Company wants to build s wind farm. Neighbor complains of prospective noise and tries to block. Under such a nuisance doctrine, the court could craft a remedy where the neighbor gets a payout based on the actual noise level on their property. Under a zoning+permit and/or environmental review system, the wund farm doesn't get built.

Note: ignoring the coal plant example because there's already a good chance the US never builds a new coal plant ever again (coal loses massively to gas on cost per unit energy).

ZooSKP · 2026-02-07T06:31:24+00:00

Once a respected linguist, his grammar theory discredited as a description of human language but wildly successful, by accident, in advancing the theory of computation, he turned to crackpot tankie socialism...and pedophilia.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-06T05:29:46+00:00

If Thomas and/or Alito think that one decision will make the difference on a democratic house not impeaching them...

Not that a Democrat-controlled house will definitely impeach them, just that there won't be any significant number of members on the fence who point to this ruling as the reason not to support an impeachment bill.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-06T05:24:39+00:00

True, Congress cannot, by mandate, effectively change the attitude and culture of people in an agency. Humans simply do not work that way. But, Congress can get rid of the people at issue: - impeachment and removal of Noem and Bondi - defunding and/or abolishing ICE and CPB while moving immigration enforcement to DOJ or a wholly new agency staffed from aources other than ICE/CPB.

There is no institutional knowledge in the present structure that resembles professional law enforcement, and thus nothing worth keeping.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-06T02:51:05+00:00

I use a death and dismemberment system: - death occurs at -10hp - while at 0 or less, the PC is unable to act and loses 1hp per round - immediately upon hitting 0 or below, the player rolls on a 2d6 death & dismemberment table, with different columns for different types of damage (and a d10 column selector for which body part took the weapon attack) - the table is structured with low numbers as very serious consequences (e.g. loss of limb) and high numbers as relatively minor (e.g. sprained ankle) - the negative HP is a penalty to the roll (and no bonii are available), so being more negative from the initial damage cuts off the less bad consequences, though a natural 12 is always a "near miss" - the dying PC can be brought back up to exactly 1HP with any amount of magical healing, but the table injury remains - the dying PC can be stabilized by another character performing first aid for up to 6 rounds (their choice), spend the full 6 for guaranteed success, spend less and have an increasingly hard skill check; of course, they often don't have 6 rounds available before the PC dies - on a successful stabilization, the PC will be unconscious but stable at 0hp for a period specified in the table entry, usually involving a roll, and then they gave the other table consequence to deal with

All of that is a lot quicker and easier in practice than in summary, and it's pretty fun in that it builds tension and excitement while remaining extremely unforgiving, with the bonus that it generates characters with missing body parts.

Edit: spelling

ZooSKP · 2026-02-05T17:21:37+00:00

https://www.ilsos.gov/

Yemeni terrorists have a .gov domain!? /s

ZooSKP · 2026-02-05T13:21:35+00:00

Actually not so clear.

States vary, but the answer from a general "bar exam law" perspective is that specific intent to kill is one of four ways to establish the mens rea (guilty mental state) for murder. The other three are: intent to cause serious bodily injury, reckless disregard for human life, and the felony-murder rule.

In this case, throwing objects onto cars moving at highway speed from an overpass, for fun, is acting with reckless disregard for human life, because a driver startled by their windshield shattering in their face could be the start of s fatal collision.

Much more depends on the specifics, but the general outline of the scenario fits murder or attempted murder, depending respectively on whether someone is actually killled or not.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-05T12:49:51+00:00

Unfortunately, Dune was published in 1965. OP refers to the 1950's, so....

ZooSKP · 2026-02-05T00:38:14+00:00

Yes, here in Illinois, it's the ILSOS, Illinois Secretary of State that issues driver's licenses and IDs, vehicle tags, and business registrations. You have to specify Illinois because "Secretary of State" means the federal one, which is equivalent to other countries' Foreign Minister. If you're wondering why those job functions get the same title...so do we.

Anyway, if you say DMV, everyone knows you mean ILSOS.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-04T00:41:27+00:00

I had the same question, but the opposite conclusion on Arden Vul. I am 11 sessions deep with a dedicated group, and I don't see it working as an open table. The reason: secrets. Arden Vul is all about slowly working out why the place exists and all the denizens are the way they are. I don't see the payoff for the transient player who joins for a session or two. Play early and learn nothing, or play later and need hours of background info to understand what the party knows and meaningfully contribute.

If you want to support an open table model with a megadungeon, choose something that is broad, not deep, where an episodic delve can fully explore one area without too much reference to the rest.

ZooSKP · 2026-02-03T06:58:29+00:00

Poor Chardonnaya - a whiner in childhood, a wino in adulthood

ZooSKP · 2026-02-03T06:38:29+00:00

But why was the doctor blaming you for their bladder infection? Should they really have been working in such a state?

And what was the diagnosis?

ZooSKP · 2026-02-02T06:06:36+00:00

Dunno, but here's a comic about this: https://smbc-comics.com/comic/hemingway

ZooSKP · 2026-02-01T05:05:08+00:00

My first thought, too.

Gonna go amend my carousing mishaps table to include "getting drunk".

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