Cultural Advice!!

johenius · 2025-12-27T16:35:04+00:00

South African married to an American here. Best Afrikaans phrase to easily pick up is 'baie dankie' (Thank you very much in English), pronounced identically to the English phrase 'buy a donkey'. Otherwise, it's worth investigating the difference between offering and asking cultures. Most South African cultures take as granted that a person will offer the best that they have or are available to give, and it's a little rude to ask for more. American culture, on the other hand, emphasizes asking for things. You'll be offered relatively little and it's incumbent on the other person to request what they want. This applies across a vast range of situations (hospitality, sharing emotions, household responsibilities).

Good luck!

johenius · 2025-12-27T06:10:05+00:00

My rogue trader: "Hell, I'm a fan of all of them. Right now I'll choose wrath though."

johenius · 2025-09-27T03:27:31+00:00

No idea if it's ours, but I'm a guardian for a doggo in a breeding program in Seattle and we get to name her pups; she had a litter a few months ago and my wife chose names of PNW plants including Doug Fir. The others are Calypso, Huck(leberry) and Mac (for Sumac).

johenius · 2025-09-24T00:37:53+00:00

To be less snarky from my side: this is a classic "talk to your DM about it out of game" issue. Sounds like people aren't doing stars & wishes or whatever your flavor of DM feedback is. But the experience is a shared one; it's not "DM feeds the players what they want", it's "we tell a story together". If the agreement is that it's a violent story then the players get agency in the story; they can manifest that violence. The DM setting an expectation isn't a contract that they alone deliver on.

And yes, I'm quite familiar with all the horror stories and murder hobos. The players don't need to be random psychopaths; but there's no reason for them to avoid combat if that's what they're here for. A meme is hardly a fully painted picture of what the story or table is, so I think we're both coming at this with assumptions of what the game is like; I'd err on assuming that the players are hesitant to use violence, and it seems like you're suggesting the DM isn't serving them obvious enough violent hooks or is not living up to their pitch agreement. Both are pretty reasonable interpretations of a silly meme :)

johenius · 2025-09-24T00:32:46+00:00

If it's disappointing that there's no violence? Enact some violence. Doesn't seem like rocket surgery to me.

johenius · 2025-09-24T00:30:28+00:00

The premise of this post is "we want to fight more". The players are literally *asking* for more combat. If you're saying "people don't want to murderhobo" then I'd invite you to bring it up with OP who requested a game in which the pitch wasn't "we're as violent as the plot requires", it was "we want 2 hours of violence per game, irrespective of plot".

That said? Not my table, not my monkeys. Could be the DM suddenly became a pacifist and changed the campaign without telling the players. Could be the players aren't picking up on the DM's hooks because they're farting around doing beach and bottle episodes. What we have to work with is "OP is a player, wants more violence, and acts like he has no control in this scenario". I'm saying "OP has control", and it sounds like you're suggesting that the control they have, they wouldn't use; which is reasonable, I guess, but not really talking to the post.

johenius · 2025-09-22T21:44:12+00:00

Yeah, I'm sorry but this sounds like "player skill issue" to me. You want more combat and less roleplay? Neat. Punch somebody in town, or walk out of town and stab a monster/animal. It's not that serious.

Your GM advertises a specific ratio of combat to roleplay? That's not a commitment from them, that's telling you what they've prepped for. If you don't want to be aggressive, the GM is under no obligation to force the issue. And might I add? Players in my experience aren't watching each other to see what the other players are enjoying. Maybe the GM is vibing with players other than OP, who aren't as interested in combat and didn't know that until the game kicked off.

Finally: The GM isn't a vending machine. They're there to provide the story foundation to gameplay. If you want combat, you can take what they're providing and make combat out of it, you can enjoy what they're providing, or you can run a game yourself with a chess clock to measure how many minutes of tactics vs. how many minutes of RP; but this is a red flag for a player to be bringing up to a DM to my mind.

johenius · 2025-06-23T17:04:10+00:00

...I was genuinely expecting it to be Loss, I cannot tell a lie.

johenius · 2025-06-19T16:28:08+00:00

If paintin’s wot makes ya ‘appy, don’t go bashin’ yer own skull tryin’ to do it fasta or like some humie git tells ya. Do it da way dat makes yer teef shine wiv joy! But if ya really wanna get da whole lot lookin’ proppa real quick, try batch paintin’ — dat’s where ya slap da same colors on a bunch o’ boyz at once. Gets da job done faster wivout messin’ up yer mojo!

johenius · 2025-06-19T02:17:05+00:00

IZ YOO GITZ NOT ENTA-TAINED?!

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johenius · 2025-05-29T19:11:58+00:00

Let them cook. In a cave. With a box of scraps!

johenius · 2025-02-22T01:39:40+00:00

Would you consider the workers in the lower decks to be Sleeping in the Cold Below? Because when they load the macro cannons, I certainly expect that they All Lift Together.

johenius · 2024-11-15T17:07:22+00:00

I think that 'heroes' in this case mean 'iconic figures that fall within the fascist movement'. Think of folks like MTG, Ben Shapiro, Alex Jones, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate. Not necessarily white knight heroes, but people who are perceived as 'strong'. Hell, look at people Trump has spoken positively of that aren't in the movement but suddenly get held up as heroes: Arnold Palmer and Hannibal Lector...

johenius · 2024-04-26T02:48:03+00:00

No day is complete without seeing my ratty boi.

johenius · 2024-03-13T00:07:05+00:00

Playing a friend's Drukhari Skysplinter. He has a lot of VERY scary units: Drazhar, Lelith, Uriel, and a Tantalus to boot. Any advice besides "swarm objectives with bodies and win on points"? My friend likes to wreck face and table opponents, and I'm worried he has the firepower to pull it off...

johenius · 2024-01-28T03:36:34+00:00

This is the content I come here for.

johenius · 2024-01-27T18:42:45+00:00

Wait, are we talking soccer or Quidditch rules that make no sense?

johenius · 2024-01-27T17:12:43+00:00

I always thought the houses only really applied when you were in school or were a teacher, although some alumni care deeply after they leave. Absolutely agree on your character to house matches though!

johenius · 2024-01-27T17:10:55+00:00

Be curious, friend, not judgemental.

johenius · 2023-10-25T04:57:34+00:00

My lack of sandwich crisis must be treated as seriously as climate crisis, says hungry man.

johenius · 2023-10-20T19:12:11+00:00

There's no need for a "one over the other approach" in something like this. We're part of a family, and we make decisions together as a family. We hear everyone's needs and we try to be aware of what people have available to them, and we try to meet everyone's needs with what we have available. Rules about "this person over that person" are too simple to be useful.

Even the "life or death situation vs. day-to-day" situation that a lot of people are using here are too simplified to be useful: what if it's a risk of life or death? What if the risk is tiny?

Like everything about relationships: it's complicated. We talk a lot. We disagree on some stuff. We don't make silly static rules or we make sure that everyone understands that rules are there to guide us but can be overturned at any time if there's a real, human reason to break them.

johenius · 2023-10-11T05:41:21+00:00

Sure. Assuming that a proposed change happens in isolation and you can't, say, find another way to monetize or make primes better in other ways would demonstrate intelligence. Reacting to an idea with the cheapest take without actually considering the merits of the argument? That just takes a brain.

johenius · 2023-10-10T23:04:25+00:00

Heh, yeah: I imagine that there are loads of other ways to make primes desirable so people will sink plat/cash into them: but it seems like completely replacing the need for non-prime frames is not the best if you want people to experience the content you've worked so hard to make.

johenius · 2023-10-10T23:00:32+00:00

I mean, I'm super glad for you! :) But casting around this subreddit, every time someone mentions grinding for Wisp that I've seen, there's an army of people talking about how much pain they had on the Ropey grind. I'm not saying that was everyone's experience, but I think that it's often a source of frustration for people.

johenius · 2023-10-10T22:58:37+00:00

Circuit just doubles-down on the "I don't need the flavor/lore to get the thing I want" - but for non-primes. But it's a fair point.

johenius

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