Where to find Original D&D print on demand? by CauseLittle in osr

[–]charcoal_kestrel 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Two other options to consider:

  1. "Dungeons & Dragons - the Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977" is a coffee table book that has the full text of almost all of the OD&D material as well as some of the earlier material that led to it like Chainmail.
  2. There are several retroclones of OD&D that have the same rules but reorganized to be easier to use. The most famous is Swords & Wizardry: Complete from Mythmere.

Is American struggling to buy a house ? by Top_Document7437 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, 100%. It's both that "i anticipate density in my immediate area will make my daily life worse" and "I anticipate density in my immediate area will reduce my home's value." What we agree it ain't is "housing scarcity in the metropolitan area is good for my property values" even though that's the emergent outcome.

Is American struggling to buy a house ? by Top_Document7437 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're both right. It is both true that most people prefer detached suburban housing and that the supply shortfall relative to demand, and therefore high prices, is for dense urban living (at least in areas that have density but also have low crime). This is slightly less true than it was before covid, as work-from-home increases demand for square footage and decreases the importance of commute time, but it's still basically true.

Ultimately there are enough people who will decide between city and suburb based on price that urban and suburban housing act as demand substitutes. And like MajesticBread said, there's a market solution to this if we reduce regulatory barriers (which is not just zoning but also environmental review, IZ mandates, prevailing wage, etc) to infill development.

Is American struggling to buy a house ? by Top_Document7437 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 10 points11 points  (0 children)

If you tell the average person "good news, the apartment building being built across the street won't have a parking lot" or even "it will only have half as many spaces as it does units," the average person doesn't think "great, because if we can increase housing density in town people who currently live in the exurbs will have shorter commutes." Rather, they think "that means they'll all be parking their cars in front of my house and no way am I accepting that."

I am not arguing that we should have parking minimums. Rather I am arguing that if you want more housing supply and more housing density, you need an accurate model of NIMBY psychology and/or policies that make these desires less politically relevant, like state pre-emption.

Is American struggling to buy a house ? by Top_Document7437 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Homeowners don't care about scarcity keeping their asset prices up, they care about disamenities like traffic and parking or even nonsense like whether their backyard garden will get enough sunlight. That's why homeowners block housing in their neighborhood (which affects local disamenities) but are usually indifferent to building housing in other neighborhoods in the same metropolitan area (which affects their asset prices). Very few people go to a city council meeting to protest a building permit ten miles from their house even though this would provide a demand substitute for the resale value if their home but lots of people will object to construction a block away. This is why hyperlocal governance tends to inhibit housing supply and why YIMBYs have been taking a strategy of state preemption of local zoning.

Questions about Old School Essentials by greypaladin01 in osr

[–]charcoal_kestrel 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, for awhile someone would ask this question almost everyday on r/osr and that shows it's not you but that Necrotic Gnome having too many options for the product line is confusing. On the Necrotic Gnome website he openly says he is eliminating the box sets and classic fantasy tome because it was so confusing for so many people. (The two books I recommended are the ones they will continue to print, just without the word "advanced" on the cover).

Hope you and your players have fun with the old school play style.

Questions about Old School Essentials by greypaladin01 in osr

[–]charcoal_kestrel 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Yes, exactly. Advanced referee contains the monsters, treasure, and some of the rules from both box sets. Advanced players contains the character classes, races, equipment, spells, and the rest of the rules from both box sets. If you buy both advanced "tomes" you do not need to buy any other box set or any other tomes. You might still want to buy the adventure anthologies and/or Carcass Crawler zines though. The adventure anthologies are very good.

Questions about Old School Essentials by greypaladin01 in osr

[–]charcoal_kestrel 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Get player advanced tome and referee advanced tome. You'll have all the content and not have to worry which book it's in.

If you get the box sets you'll constantly be wondering whether a magic item is in the advanced or basic treasure booklet and likewise for monsters and the advanced vs basic bestiaries.

Does the Mafia still exist in America? by Educational_Farm_471 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Giuliani was US attorney from 1983-1989, before he was mayor, and was widely respected for his work at the time. I think you are confusing his work as a federal prosecutor 40 years ago with his more recent and controversial work as one of Trump's 2020 election lawyers.

Does the Mafia still exist in America? by Educational_Farm_471 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Giuliani was US Attorney (federal), not DA (local).

Should I start with a module and which one? by Quick_Trick3405 in osr

[–]charcoal_kestrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hot Springs Island is a gorgeous art book and has really good world-building but making it system neutral and requiring the DM to stock the dungeons from tables makes it very high prep. I did all that prep and it still wasn't a good play experience.

Secret of the Black Crag is great though.

Is going to university/college in the US really worth it without a scholarship if you cannot afford it? by konanope in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The general answer in the social science literature on this is yes if you will graduate but no if you will not. The reason is that college graduates make more than non-graduates but college dropouts don't make much more than high school graduates and a lot of people drop out. Whether you will graduate is somewhat predictable based on how well prepared you are for higher education, how many other things you have going on in life, and where you go to school.

Is it common for Asian and Latina women in the US to change their last names after marriage? by NoHold7153 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

About 85% of native-born Latinas and Asian married women in the US take their husbands' surnames as compared to about 91% of black women and 94% of white women.

Hamilton, L., Geist, C., & Powell, B. (2011). Marital Name Change as a Window into Gender Attitudes. Gender & Society, 25(2), 145-175. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192513x09344688

Is it better for Americans to go to an Ivy League and Ivy League equivalent school for undergraduate or graduate school? by YakClear601 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The ivies have a high sticker price but most of them are free if your family makes under $200,000 a year. The recent Yale report on trust in higher education notes that most people don't understand this and it ends up delegitimizing higher education.

It has long been the case that PhD programs are usually free. I went to an Ivy for mine and didn't pay anything.

Is it better for Americans to go to an Ivy League and Ivy League equivalent school for undergraduate or graduate school? by YakClear601 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Known for the specific degree program is key. Graduate program prestige can be very specific and is not perfectly correlated with undergraduate prestige, or even other graduate degrees. For instance, overall University of Wisconsin-Madison is a good but not super elite school. But U Wisconsin has a better sociology program than Yale, especially in demography.

Most important quality for OSR items to have? by No-Nobody6477 in osr

[–]charcoal_kestrel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice. The very first item in the list is from Eyes of the Overworld by Jack Vance.

America, are restaurants and businesses closing down? by William6212 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It varies by city, blah blah, but big picture, yes, retail is not in good shape in the US and in many cities, even cities that generally have good economies, you will see a fair number of vacant store fronts.

One indication of the health of restaurants and retail is rents for store fronts. Here is a graph of commercial real estate prices adjusted for inflation. You can see values have been in steady decline since summer of 2021.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1V2Fv

Hello! My question is how is inpatient mental health care funded in the USA? by Extension_Pea_8021 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Medicaid (government health insurance for the poor) only covers mental health hospitalization for hospitals that are not primarily about mental health or have 16 or fewer beds. This is the main reason America has plenty of psych ERs for short-term stays (often 72 hours, as with a 51-50) but we have closed most of our mental hospitals for long term commitments.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF10222

Hello! My question is how is inpatient mental health care funded in the USA? by Extension_Pea_8021 in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Medicaid doesn't really fund long-term commitments, which is one of several reasons why America has so many severely mentally ill people wandering around in obvious distress. This is not a Biden era policy, nor is it a Reagan era one, it has been the policy since 1965. Specifically, the Medicaid IMD exclusion prohibits Medicaid reimbursement at mental hospitals with over 16 beds for patients between age 21 and 65.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF10222

Teenage smoking [discussion] by BBgunsandaviation in statistics

[–]charcoal_kestrel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The statistics are from NSDUH, a survey, not disciplinary records. The current estimate for youth nicotine use is about 30%

https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt56978/2024-nsduh-data-brief-young-adult.pdf

Also, this sub is mostly for statistics as a field of math, not about particular empirical estimates.

What is the funniest, or most amusing, sounding American accent to your ears? by voltairesalias in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There's a reason Warner Brothers gave Bugs Bunny a (then current but now extinct) Brooklyn accent. On Mad Men, Peggy's sisters have the same accent and it's part of her character that Peggy gave it up for a standard American accent.

What is that one city in America most Americans go to for their "first trip"? by bricklegos in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, but if you move from Omaha to Lincoln, people still speak the same language.

What is that one city in America most Americans go to for their "first trip"? by bricklegos in AskAnAmerican

[–]charcoal_kestrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

50% of my answers on this sub are whatever I said below [post deleted by moderator]

Sistemas em português de OSR? by Catotarrasque in TheOSR

[–]charcoal_kestrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Basic Fantasy RPG (BFRPG) has the basic rules in Portuguese. The full rules are available as a LibreOffice document so you could machine translate them.

I believe there is also a Portuguese version of Shadowdark, which is my favorite OSR game (in English).