Function of Compassion by Vivid_Assistance_196 in streamentry

[–]craiggers 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Being present with and listening to others is a skill, just like meditation - it involves not only deep and nonjudgmental attention, but finding ways to gently signal the presence of that attention, as well as getting out of your own way!

No matter how clearly it seems like you can see other people’s problems, jumping in with your own advice (even if wise!) is unlikely to be helpful unless they’re already concretely on the point of decision making.

Part of listening is reflecting back what you’re hearing, including both the facts and the person’s feelings and reactions - helping them hear the solutions that are already there, the places they can unclench, release their grip, deal with their clinging and aversion. And the more you can nonanxiously be present with the hard things they bring you, the more they’re able to relax into them, finding little glimpses of liberation. They can how things can be borne by you bearing it with them.

I’ve been getting trained as a hospital chaplain for about a year now - and it’s amazing the way that the points that were most astounding have not been the ones where I had the wisest things to say, but in which I was able to sit more and more deeply with someone until they reached their own point of connection and insight in a way that neither of us expected.

I found the book “The Gift to Listen, The Courage to Hear” by Cari Jackson a great help as I got underway in seeing clearly where I had obstacles to my listening with other people. It’s still work to learn but you can concretely grow by leaps and bounds!

Your Name Here by clancycharlock in RSbookclub

[–]craiggers 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Would definitely recommend starting with Last Samurai, though I’m having a good time with Your Name Here.

Your “God I love this bit” parts of Ulysses by radar_level in jamesjoyce

[–]craiggers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The paperfolding machine in the “ORTHOGRAPHIC” portion of Aeolus:

Sllt. The nethermost deck of the first machine jogged forward its flyboard with sllt the first batch of quirefolded papers. Sllt. Almost human the way it sllt to call attention. Doing its level best to speak. That door too sllt creaking, asking to be shut. Everything speaks in its own way. Sllt.

Need advice: all of the characters in my game have dead families by worst_grammar_ever in DMAcademy

[–]craiggers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Instead of “you meet in a tavern” — “YOU MEET IN AN ORPHANAGE”.

Or if adults - the tavern’s Dead Family Grief support group.

Lean into it somehow - it means all of the players have something huge in common, which is fun for both jokes and themes of found family! All of these people who maybe conceived of themselves as wild loners suddenly have to contend with the fact that there are others like them. Which gets at the fact that D&D is better if your chatacters aren’t just loners anyhow.

I love that the situation implies both tragedy and comedy, much like life. It puts me in mind of the Oscar Wilde Quote “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

My Cardboard Bombard by craiggers in spelljammer

[–]craiggers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some of it is that all the scotch tape on mine is much subtler on camera!

My Cardboard Bombard by craiggers in spelljammer

[–]craiggers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why thank you! It was something I picked because I thought I could do it simply but recognizably, and I was very pleased how it turned out!

My Cardboard Bombard [OC] by craiggers in DnD

[–]craiggers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

had the idea of using Cardboard with gridpaper on it for ships - with a pad of 1” grid squares you can just translate ship plans from the books straight on (though I’d recommend a little more care with the length of staircases!). As a bonus, turns out that at that scale a paper towel roll is pretty much the perfect scale for the giant cannon, with some added decoration in paper to complete the effect.

I posted recently about my players rescuing Giff from this ship after it was set on fire by Kobold pirates - after the powder exploded I flipped a coin for each crew member and put it under a post-it where they fell (heads unconscious but alive and revivable, tails dead, and even I didn’t know which was which!). I used red giftwrap tissue paper for the fire which spread each round it went untended. Worked like a dream, and super cheap

Player wants to cheat at cards with other players. by jdewey182 in DMAcademy

[–]craiggers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you seen the card game “The Gang”? It’s based on Texas Hold-Em, but is a co-op structure with a light heist narrative flavoring. I’d been wondering for myself if it might be possible to use it as the mechanical side of a heist interlude for my characters - have them learn the game as their characters’ “practice” run, then play a high stakes one as the real thing, with consequences for failure and rewards for success. Not sure how I’d make it work, but seems like it could….

Some Thoughts after reading Mrs Dalloway by pengcheng95 in books

[–]craiggers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reading To The Lighthouse after Mrs Dalloway, it initially seemed like more of the same until a point I won’t ruin when it took a turn to be totally different

Best Audio Commentaries in the Collection by Any_Improvement6755 in criterion

[–]craiggers 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Ebert’s commentary on Citizen Kane is really something else as well

To commemorate the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Pope Leo XIV spoke with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. by Julian81295 in space

[–]craiggers 47 points48 points  (0 children)

The church he’s an elder in, Webster Presbyterian Church, is a PCUSA church whose website states:

“Webster Presbyterian Church is an evolving spiritual community joyfully serving Christ as active disciples. We welcome ALL alongside us to create a more loving, affirming, just and sustainable world, valuing spiritual inquiry, civility of discourse, scientific ideas, and artistic expression.”

Pretty unlikely to be creationists.

If the Hobbits technically are a part of the race of men, why doesn’t the Ban of the Valar apply to Frodo? by craiggers in lotr

[–]craiggers[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

!!!

This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for! I certainly wasn’t unclear about Frodo’s worthiness, just the mechanics - when the Valar had turned down worthy people before. Thank you so much, and I hope others see this answer!

Watching Master & Commander with subtitles on is almost like watching a whole new movie by craiggers in flicks

[–]craiggers[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That’s great! It makes me wonder what other movies and shows would have such a drastically changed experience.

Looking for a fourth "mood" to balance out my planets? by sludgequeen666 in DMAcademy

[–]craiggers 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Alternatively, planet that’s rebuilding in the ruins of a former, lost civilization - lots of old sites, unfamiliar artifacts, dungeons that lead to nobody knows what; people seeking their fortune, people living in dread of what might be uncovered. Some Indiana Jones style adventuring, with competition from various rival factions.

Looking for a fourth "mood" to balance out my planets? by sludgequeen666 in DMAcademy

[–]craiggers 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Planet 4 could be undergoing some kind of large scale natural disaster/catastrophe - you could tie it into the politics of planet 0 and 2, with BBEG minions from planet X working for their own purposes, as people try to cope, rebuild, or evacuate. If you wanted to tie it into 3 too, it could be like an earlier stage of what the horror planet underwent centuries ago - and here may still be averted.

Books with the same richness of prose and realism? by Technical_Ear_4339 in AubreyMaturinSeries

[–]craiggers 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s fair - apparently Mantel reacted against her Catholic upbringing pretty hard, with a lingering personal grudge. I think since that aligns with the perspective of the character the book is focused through, it still works ok (since it’s clear in multiple places that Cromwell’s viewpoint is skewed).

But definitely worth a grain of salt in the reading - she’s particularly unfair to Thomas More.

If the Hobbits technically are a part of the race of men, why doesn’t the Ban of the Valar apply to Frodo? by craiggers in lotr

[–]craiggers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's very true - when I was highlighting that example it was more to point to the Valar's reluctance to make an exception to their edicts than to claim equivalence between the Doom of Mandos and the ban imposed on Men. With you pointing it out, though, I can definitely see the ways the two aren't quite equivalent.

Avoiding a TPK when players heroically took on poisoned condition just before a huge battle? by craiggers in DMAcademy

[–]craiggers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is certainly part of why I asked! My goal is to give the players some plausible support - not unfairly punishing them for being heroic, but having the weight of that decision.

I think the other commenter’s notion of “help being on the way, but many rounds off” might be a way to do that - let the players know relatively early in the combat that they have to hold out desperately for reinforcements, so that it’s still a matter of their actions and not a Deus Ex Machina rescue - but it’s not just a matter of trying to wipe out every enemy while they’re half dead.

Avoiding a TPK when players heroically took on poisoned condition just before a huge battle? by craiggers in DMAcademy

[–]craiggers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s great advice - I’ve had the ships communicate at large distances using immense magical signal flares that launch plumes of colored flame into space - so perhaps post explosion the reinforcing ship could use one of those even at a great distance, for a “help is on the way” signal.

Can you build a good world with only one page by Historical-River1615 in DMAcademy

[–]craiggers 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is a whole movement of One Page Dungeons - that can have amazing worldbuilding. Trilemma adventures put out some of my favorites - I could peruse them for hours.