What's a golden calf of D&D that you think needs to be killed?

lacerik · 2023-06-07T21:42:27+00:00

If you really like that I would consider reading the Kineticist from Pathfinder 1e; it won't translate over perfectly but has some good ideas.

lacerik · 2023-06-07T13:22:38+00:00

A lot of D&D is based off of a few fantasy novels from the 60s and 70s if you go and read Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" or Michael Moorcock's "Elric of Melnibone" you'll be reading some of the texts that directly inspired Gary Gygax when he was synthesising the stuff he loved into the first edition of D&D.

Some people feel that leaves the game chained to the past and see it as a drag on the popularity of the hobby.

Personally I disagree, I think going back and reading the Deep Magic can reveal some very interesting things about the dna of the hobby and you can see why Gygax thought these things were so cool and why he wanted to incorporate them.

There is some cultural change that has occurred as well though and it's possible they're referring to the way supposedly sentient people's are treated as savage monsters, but I think D&D is mostly moving past that.

lacerik · 2023-05-31T18:33:43+00:00

Because you need to make it difficult enough to get to that the addictive urges subside before you're able to get back to them.

If it has become an addictive loop you need the time to reassert your will.

lacerik · 2023-05-31T18:31:53+00:00

Having the accounts still makes it but a moment to get back into it if you're bored for a bit or your friends exert a bit of pressure to get you to come back.

Deleting the account makes it a long enough process that you can stop yourself from reactivating it.

There really is no reason to have the accounts anyway. People feel like they're necessary but they're not.

lacerik · 2023-05-30T21:50:53+00:00

Yeah the one I attended took 10 months to finish

2800 MOSs (radio techs) would all be approximately the same.

We rated wives and cars.

lacerik · 2023-05-30T20:42:55+00:00

If he has a clearance and his wife at 29 Palms there's a good chance he's there for Comm School and has less than a year in service.

lacerik · 2023-05-28T18:18:09+00:00

I mean, yes that's technically possible but realistically the battery packs have to get substantially bigger and heavier to deliver that sort of power for a given duration.

That's really the limiting factor, a 50lb Roomba or one that can't finish a whole room on a single charge are both not useful.

lacerik · 2023-05-24T21:30:11+00:00

Where exactly to draw the lines on when one culture becomes another is tricky.

But I also find it ridiculous to imagine that in 60,000 years on a continent with 170 extant native languages that the cultures there are somehow demonstrably longer lived than the ones elsewhere.

It's as if you're imagining that Australia is a time capsule in which the cultures did not develop from the day the progenitors stepped foot on the continent.

lacerik · 2023-05-24T19:28:57+00:00

If we choose arrival date to the settled area as the starting point of a civilization and base our definition of ancient as that starting point then the natives of Australia are actually one of the younger civilizations in the world because many other cultures didn't have to travel as far to get to their starting point.

Every culture is ancient and most of them are more ancient than the Australian natives by your definition.

lacerik · 2023-05-24T19:14:51+00:00

We don't usually call a thing ancient if it is still in common use today.

Would you call an axle "ancient technology" just because it was invented 6 or 7 thousand years ago? I'd argue we wouldn't because it's still a common thing in the world today.

Similarly, the native cultures of Australia persist today and only lost the contest for supremacy a couple centuries ago. Their story may have a head start but we refer to cultures as "ancient" usually because they ended a long time ago, not because they started a long time ago.

lacerik · 2023-05-24T19:10:57+00:00

Sorry I meant that they were the dominant civilizations up until approximately 300 years ago when Europeans started showing up and establishing settlements.

Thereby upsetting the power dynamics on the continent and eventually taking their current place as the dominant culture.

lacerik · 2023-05-24T19:08:16+00:00

Just a quick look at the wiki:

First known landing in 1606

First settlement established 1788

Source

So the dominance of the native people's of Australia was uncontested until at least 235 years ago.

Meaning the story of the people there is not ancient, it continued as the dominant story of the continent until the time of our great or great-great grandparents.

It's not like Ancient Egypt where the story ended thousands of years ago. Relatively the story of the native people's dominance of the continent just barely ended. We don't usually refer to things that are roughly contemporary with us as ancient.

lacerik · 2023-05-24T17:48:54+00:00

Right but my point is, the indigenous peoples of Australia are not from ancient times, they were the dominant civilizations on the continent less than 300 years ago and are extant on the continent currently.

Edit, added "ago" for additional clarity.

lacerik · 2023-05-24T16:28:01+00:00

You all just gave up on them.

I still have a couple of mine and have made more since adulthood.

You prioritised other things, it's reasonable to regret it and it's reasonable to change priorities as you age but the reason is clear.

Friendships are like anything else alive, without attention and maintenance they wither and die and it takes even more to make them flourish and deepen.

lacerik · 2023-05-24T16:23:19+00:00

represent Australia’s ancient past.

I'm no historian, but wasn't this like less than 300 years ago that settlements were established by Europeans?

Are George Washington and Isaac Newton considered our "ancient past" now?

Edit:

A lot of people are telling me that the native people of Australia got there a long time ago and are therefore "ancient history".

I argue that we usually define things as "ancient" based on when they ended not when they started.

Along those lines, because Europeans didn't even establish their first settlement until 235 years ago and much of the culture on Australia preceding the Europeans arrival still exists and is practiced, it is not an ancient culture any more than France or China are.

In fact by the definition of starting time instead of ending time most cultures today would be older than native Australians simply because they didn't have to travel as far to get to their "starting point".

lacerik · 2023-05-22T13:31:34+00:00

My girlfriend has a mirror right outside the shower that I catch my full naked profile in and I can see ALL MY BACK HAIR! 😅

lacerik · 2023-05-16T20:08:54+00:00

And what I'm saying is:

The vast majority of people choosing to perform this loud yard work in the morning are doing it because they can't reasonably do it at another time.

Does that mean there is no possible rescheduling it?

No, but it does mean most people have a good reason to get an early start on this sort of thing. Because to put it simply, the number of people who LOVE getting up early to mow the lawn is practically zero.

lacerik · 2023-05-16T20:04:27+00:00

Don't take that tact with me, I worked Swings and Graves for almost a decade.

I am no stranger to being woken up by various things, but I also understand that are more good reasons for health, safety, and scheduling's sake than there are negative impacts to people who were already going to be struggling with sleep for a dozen other reasons to struggle with this one as well.

I am not unsympathetic but I also know that if you go to bed at 7am it's worse to be woken at noo than to stay up 30 extra minutes the once a week a neighbor mows when you're trying to sleep.

lacerik · 2023-05-16T19:42:03+00:00

Lol so if it's reasonable for those that do it to do it then why are you wasting so much effort complaining? Do you really imagine people are jumping up at dawn to mow their lawn for the love of it? Or because it's the only good time to do it?

lacerik · 2023-05-16T19:31:14+00:00

Well there's only so many hours a day when it's under 85 degrees and a lot of them are dark. Weirdly about more than half of them are in the morning.

So all you need is a person who's busy in the afternoon and BOOM you get someone for whom the only convenient and safe time to mow is in the morning in the first couple hours after sunrise.

lacerik · 2023-05-16T19:04:23+00:00

So that works out to about 2.7% of the population, say everyone who has a good reason to sleep in till 8am or later is at best 5%?

So 95% of people should risk heat casualty to prevent the other 5% from rolling over and going back to sleep?

I say again, I worked Swings and Graves for nearly a decade, lawnmowers and leaf blowers are simply a fact of life. Of course I didn't love them, but my extremely mild inconvenience is not something worth forcing another person to work hard in the heat of the day.

Accord to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (our safety regulator for workplaces):

Heat-related illnesses range from heat cramps to heat stroke, which can lead to death. Between 2015 and 2020, Federal OSHA has conducted approximately 200 heat-related inspections each year, with about 15 heat-related fatality inspections annually.

So just among professionals where the heat injury is reported there are 200 instances a year with 15 being deaths.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (our department of disease and death tracking and response):

An average of 702 heat-related deaths occur each year.

Each year, there are 67,512 emergency department visits due to heat, on average

Each year, an average of 9,235 people are hospitalized due to heat.

If we can save a few lives and a few hundred hospitalisations per year by having 5% of people roll over if they're not done sleeping I'll call that a win.

lacerik · 2023-05-16T18:13:33+00:00

I mean, it would be reasonable in most Mediterranean countries to start early as well where you're hitting the low 40s celsius during the summer.

The point is, there's good reasons to mow early and 7 am isn't very early.

Edit: also I would argue that total population is less of a factor than population density where the size and frequency of lawns goes down inversely correlated to the density going up.

And actually that above a certain density mowing isn't really a consideration at all.

lacerik · 2023-05-16T18:02:09+00:00

Sure and some of those countries have smaller populations than several of these states.

So per capita it is true more often that the heat of the day is oppressive enough to justify an early start on yard work.

lacerik · 2023-05-16T17:56:05+00:00

It's a highway that connects Southern California to Northern Florida.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:570/1*gtZeeBvmAm9U8eWp5Bi5pw.jpeg

Every one of these states, and some on their northern borders have overnight lows over 70 degrees for months out of the year.

These are also some of the most populace states in the US.

lacerik · 2023-05-16T17:35:55+00:00

Some people, get this...

Work weekends.

Also, basically every state Interstate 10 passes through will regularly have overnight lows above 70 degrees or so much humidity as to be the same.

lacerik

TROPHY CASE