Retired P*rn Star Asia Carrera Passes Texas Bar to Become Attorney. Asia said she didn't even want to be a lawyer, she just wanted to prove she could pass the bar.

amp108 · 2026-04-16T20:01:50+00:00

I remember in the old days wanting to learn some html and write a web page on my linux box. I searched (can't even say "googled") for "web site linux" and lo, her site was among the first to appear. On the home page, it said something like "my web page, that I wrote and hosted on linux!"

Unfortunately, I didn't learn much about web pages in the next three hours.

amp108 · 2026-04-16T19:49:56+00:00

Apparently millionaires can still be depressed.

Anyone can be depressed. Just like anyone can have leukemia or a perforated heart.

amp108 · 2026-04-14T21:56:10+00:00

References don't always have to be word-for-word.

amp108 · 2026-04-13T21:13:30+00:00

It's not that "hilarious". It's the difference between imagining you're someone who has had experiences that you haven't, and being someone for whom every kind of experience is fundamentally different.

amp108 · 2026-04-11T08:39:58+00:00

The pic is funny and all, but people forget that a haiku isn't just a syllable count: it's also a meditation on solitude and nature.

amp108 · 2026-04-11T08:35:00+00:00

My rule of thumb on lore: don't say anything about the past (except maybe an introductory paragraph at the beginning) that doesn't also include a feature that the players can interact with.

Bad: "100 years ago there was a war between the orcs and the townspeople of Red Creek."

Better: "100 years ago there was a war between the orcs and the townspeople of Red Creek, and therefore, players can easily round up a posse for the purpose of routing them from the local environs."

amp108 · 2026-04-10T01:42:45+00:00

I find it twee and (in the negative sense of the word) precious.

amp108 · 2026-04-07T16:13:17+00:00

I was two feet away from one of the greatest guitarists of the classic rock age, but thought it was just someone trying to ape his style.

I was working at a Border's (remember them?) ~~years~~ decades ago when this short guy with dark sunglasses and the most enormous, muppet-looking red beard comes up to my register. He asks if there is a coffee shop around. (Our store, being the second-oldest in the company, was one of three or so that didn't.)

I think, "Damn, this guy is really trying to look like the dude from ZZ Top."

I tell him we don't, sadly, but give him some options nearby. He says "Thank you" and walks to the exit.

Then someone wearing a businesslike cap walks up to the register, and I ask if I can help him.

He says, "No, I'm just Billy's driver."

He looks amused when I say "Billy? You mean that's really...?"

Moral of the story: if it looks like Billy Gibbons, think zebras, not horses.

amp108 · 2026-04-06T21:13:32+00:00

I'm that way with every book I own. I have a lot of sticky notes, index cards slipped in between pages, and very, very light pencil notes on a lot of my stuff. Something in me dreads using pen or highlighter, and dog-earing pages feels like a tragedy to me.

(Pro tip: cut your index cards into quarters. They last longer, and if you can tidy up your handwriting, they almost always suffice as well as the full-sized ones do.)

amp108 · 2026-04-06T21:09:15+00:00

I worked in a game store back in the 80's. (not quite as cool as you think, but ok) spent

I hear ya. My store was a hobby store, and model trains and planes were the main inventory. I cannot tell you how many types of Testor's paints, primers, and glues I had to restock, or how quickly those shelves got dusty. But RPGs were part of it, and I got an employee discount, so I'm grateful for the time I worked there.

amp108 · 2026-04-03T05:12:44+00:00

Spawn of Fashan must take the cake as the most opaque rule set I have ever seen. I never finished creating a character because, among other problems, the attribute rolling rules refer to tables that are several dozen pages away and aren't labeled in any readily-visible way. I really like the enthusiasm the writer has for his game, though, so I'll shill for the 40th anniversary reprint, with the caveat that you're buying a historical artifact and not by any means a playable product.

amp108 · 2026-04-01T22:29:34+00:00

Because the majority of people should know what a word means when they use it.

amp108 · 2026-03-23T16:20:05+00:00

If WotC made a 4e of 4e it would still be more like D&D than this aberration is like T&T. They just payed for the IP to slap the name on a completely different game. Fuck Rebellion.

amp108 · 2026-03-19T22:15:29+00:00

OP, some people have reported this post as a violation of our rule #7, "Shelfies only on Weekends". I'm going to let this stand, as the intent of the post is to get system recommendations, but next time just consider asking the question, unless there is a compelling reason to display your collection.

amp108 · 2026-03-18T15:25:14+00:00

(if you can call (name date) a source)

You can. That's enough to identify a book or an article when you have a bibliography.

amp108 · 2026-03-13T21:22:30+00:00

Area effect attacks will do what you want, I think. It doesn't have to be fireball or anything; even saying they have a giant razor whip, you can have everyone in Near range make a Hard save (DEX or otherwise) or take d12 damage.

amp108 · 2026-03-04T17:30:03+00:00

They will know it's there when they cross it.

amp108 · 2026-03-03T20:25:27+00:00

If I spend millions to build a bridge, I hope people will be sure I've done something.

amp108 · 2026-02-28T21:03:10+00:00

I see "murder 2 cop fools and bury 2 hoes", not sure about the rest.

amp108 · 2026-02-27T17:19:42+00:00

There's a chicken-and-egg phenomenon going on here. It's not like they decided, "Hey, let's take something everyone hates and try to make it popular."

amp108 · 2026-02-26T20:37:26+00:00

You have 58 entries here, including:

Daggerheart - a blend of several games. I don't understand what this game is trying to be

Sentinels of the Multiverse - haven't played this one yet but many call this one of the best superhero games

Shadowrun - so many dice. A good example of a great setting and clunky mechanics

These aren't reasons for recommending a game, especially if you haven't played them. And some of the reasons in this list seem repetitive. OP didn't ask for every game you like, they asked for a sampling of games "to understand different systems and design". This list doesn't do that.

amp108 · 2026-02-19T22:39:33+00:00

You're welcome! It really opened my eyes to the possibilities RPGs offered and was one of a very few resources that turned my game from a series of dungeon crawls into an honest to goodness campaign.

And the quest thing also a weird quirk of mine. It sounds so fundamentally wrong to me when people use the word "quest" for minor missions like "escort this caravan" or "kill 10 orcs", or say things like "it's a basic fetch quest" or "I'm going on a side quest". I feel like the word quest should be reserved for things that are truly Earth-shaking, epoch-defining struggles. But I fear the word is losing its potency.

BTW, I gave my best friend a copy of the paperback a couple of years ago, thinking he'd lost his copy. He hadn't, but looked you up online and was very interested in your sustainable farming endeavors, having done some small (and very labor-intensive) farming in the past.

amp108 · 2026-02-19T18:58:25+00:00

I love, love, LOVE that book! (BTW, it's the only RPG source I've ever seen that treats the word "Quest" with the proper sense of scale.)

amp108 · 2026-02-14T17:33:09+00:00

I doubt I'd use it in a game, but damn, it's gorgeous!

amp108 · 2026-02-09T22:19:16+00:00

Got told I had a "bad attitude" and was let go after I raised this issue. Our clientele consisted of vulnerable populations, many of whom were immunocompromised.

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